Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	israel_n	lord_n	pharaoh_n	1,941	5	10.2752	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44334	The works of Mr. Richard Hooker (that learned and judicious divine), in eight books of ecclesiastical polity compleated out of his own manuscripts, never before published : with an account of his life and death ...; Ecclesiastical polity	Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4-1600.; Gauden, John, 1605-1662.; Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.; Travers, Walter, 1547 or 8-1635. Supplication made to the councel.	1666 (1666)	Wing H2631; ESTC R11910	1,163,865	672

and ever shall have some Church Visible upon Earth When the People of God whorshipped the Calf in the Wilderness when they adored the Brazen Serpent when they served the gods of Nations when they bowed their knees to Baal when they burnt Incense and offered Sacrifice unto Idols True it is the wrath of God was most fiercely inflamed against them their Prophets justly condemned them as an adulterous seed and a wicked generation of Miscreants which had forsaken the living God and of him were likewise forsaken in respect of that singular Mercy wherewith he kindly and lovingly embraceth his faithful Children Howbeit retaining the Law of God and the holy Seal of his Covenant the Sheep of his Visible Flock they continued even in the depth of their Disobedience and Rebellion Wherefore not onely amongst them God always had his Church because he had thousands which never bowed their knees to Baal but whose knees were bowed unto Baal even they were also of the Visible Church of God Nor did the Prophet so complain as if that Church had been quite and clean extinguished but he took it as though there had not been remaining in the World any besides himself that carcied a true and an upright heart towards God with care to serve him according unto his holy Will For lack of diligent observing the difference first between the Church of God Mystical and Visible then between the Visible sound and corrupted sometimes more sometimes less the oversights are neither few nor light that have been committed This deceiveth them and nothing else who think that in the time of the first World the Family of Noah did contain all that were of the Visible Church of God From hence it grew and from no other cause in the World that the Affrican Bishops in the Council of Carthage knowing how the Administration of Baptism belongeth onely to the Church of Christ and supposing that Hereticks which were apparently severed from the sound believing Church could not possibly be of the Church of Jesus Christ thought it utterly against Reason That Baptism administred by men of co●●upt belief should be accounted as a Sacrament And therefore in maintenance of Rebaptization their Arguments are built upon the sore-alledged ground That Hereticks are not at all any part of the Church of Christ. Our Saviour founded his Church on a Rock and not upon Heresie Power of Baptizing he gave to his Apostles unto Hereticks he gave it not Wherefore they that are without the Church and oppose themselves against Christ do but scatter his Sheep and Flock Without the Church Baptize they cannot Again Are Hereticks Christians or are they not If they be Christians wherefore remain they not in Gods Church If they be no Christians how make they Christians Or to what purpose shall those words of the Lord serve He which is not with me is against me And He which gathereth not with me scaltereth Wherefore evident it is that upon misbegotten Children and the brood of Antichrist without Rebaptization the Holy Ghost cannot descend But none in this case so earnest as Cyprian I know no Baptism but one and that in Church onely none without the Church where he that doth cast out the Devil hath the Devil He doth examine about Belief whose lips and words do breathe forth a Canker The faithless doth offer the Articles of Faith a wicked Creature forgiveth wickedness in the Name of Christ Antichrist signeth he which is cursed of God blesseth a dead carrion promiseth life a man unpeaceable giveth peace a blasphemer calleth upon the Name of God a prophane person doth exercise Priesthood a Sacrilegious wretch doth prepare the Altar and in the neck of all these that evil also cometh the Eucharist a very Bishop of the Devil doth presume to consecrate All this was true but not sufficient to prove that Hereticks were in no sort any part of the Visible Church of Christ and consequently their Baptism no Baptism This opinion therefore was afterwards both condemned by a better advised Council and also revoked by the chiefest of the Authors thereof themselves What is it but onely the self-same error and misconceit wherewith others being at this day likewise possest they ask us where our Church did lurk in what Cave of the Earth it slept for so many hundreds of years together before the bath of Martin Luther As if we were of opinion that Luther did erect a new Church of Christ. No the Church of Christ which was from the beginning is and continueth unto the end Of which Church all parts have not been always equally sincere and sound In the days of Abia it plainly appeareth that Iudah was by many degrees more free from pollution then Israel as that solemn Oration sheweth wherein he pleadeth for the one against the other in this wise O Ieroboam and all Israel hear you me Have ye not driven away the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron and the Levites and have made you Priests like the people of Nations Whosoever cometh to consecrate with a young bullock and seven Rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no gods But we belong unto the Lord our God and have not forsaken him and the Priests the sons of Aaron minister unto the Lord every morning and every evening Burnt-offerings and sweet Incense and the Bread is set in order upon the pure Table and the Candlestick of Gold with the Lamps thereof to burn every evening for we keep the watch of the Lord o●r God but ye have for saken him In St. Pauls time the integrity of Rome was famous Corinth many ways reproved they of Galatia much more out of square In St. Iohns time Ephesus and Smyrna in far better state then Thyatira and Pergamus were We hope therefore that to reform our selves if at any time we have done amiss is not to sever our selves from the Church we were of before In the Church we were and we are so still Other diffcrence between our estate before and now we know none but onely such as we see in Iudah which having sometime been Idolatrous became afterwards more soundly religious by renouncing Idolatry and Superstition If Ephraim be joyned to Idols the counsel of the Prophet is Let him alone If Israel play the Harlot let not Judah sin If it seem evil unto you saith Ioshua to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve whether the gods whom your Fathers served beyond the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell But I and mine house will serve the Lord. The indisposition therefore of the Church of Rome to reform her self must be no stay unto us from performing our duty to God even as desire of retaining Conformity with them could be no excuse if we did not perform that duty Notwithstanding so far as lawfully we may we have held and do hold Fellowship with them For even as

the Church of Rome even at this very hour Is conformity with Rome in such things a blemish unto the Church of England and unto Churches abroad an ornament Let them if not for the reverence they owe unto this Church in the bowels whereof they have received I trust that precious and blessed vigor which shall quicken them ●● eternal life yet at the least wise for the singular affection which they do bear towards others take heed how they strike lest they wound whom they would not For undoubtedly it cutteth deeper then they are aware of when they plead that even such Ceremonies of the Church of Rome as contain in them nothing which is not of it self agreeable to the Word of God ought nevertheless to be abolished and that neither the Word of God nor reason nor the examples of the eldest Churches do permit the Church of Rome to be therein followed Hereticks they are and they are our Neighbours By us and amongst us they lead their lives But what then therefore is no ceremony of theirs lawful for us to use We must yield and will that none are lawful if God himself be a Precedent against the use of any But how appeareth it that God is so Hereby they say it doth appear in that God severed his people from the Heathens but specially from the Egyptians and such Nations as were neerest Neighbours unto them by forbidding them to do those things which were in themselves very lawful to be done yea very profitable some and incommodious to be sorburn such things it pleased God to forbid them only because those Heathens did them with whom conformity in the same thing might have bred infection Thus in shaving cutting apparel-wearing yea in sundry kinds of meats also Swines-flesh Conies and such like they were forbidden to do so and so because the Gentiles did so And the end why God forbade them such things wa● to sever them for fear of infection by a great and an high wall from other Nations as S. Paul teacheth The cause of more careful separation from the nearest Nations was the greatness of danger to be especially by them infected Now Papists are to us as those Nations were unto Israel Therefore if the wisdom of God be our Guide we cannot allow conformity with them no not in any such indifferent Ceremonies Our direct answer hereunto is that for any thing here alleadged we may still doubt whether the Lord in such indifferent Ceremonies as those whereof we dispute did frame his People of set purpose unto any utter dissimilitude either with Egyptians or with any other Nation else And if God did not forbid them all such indifferent Ceremonies then our conformity with the Church of Rome in some such is not hitherto as yet disproved although Papists were unto us as those Heathens were unto Israel After the doings of the Land of Egypt wherein you dwelt ye shall not do saith the Lord and after the manner of the land of Canaan whither I will bring you shall ye not do neither walk in their Ordinances Do after my judgements and keep my Ordinances to walk therein I am the Lord your God The Speech is indefinite ye shall not be like them It is not general ye shall not be like them in anything or like unto them in any thing indifferent or like unto them in any indifferent ceremony of theirs Seeing therefore it is not set down how far the bounds of his speech concerning dissimilitude should reach how can any man assure us that it extendeth farther than to those things only wherein the Nations there mentioned were Idolatrous or did against that which the Law of God commandeth Nay doth it not seem a thing very probable that God doth purposely add Do after my judgement as giving thereby to understand that his meaning in the former sentence was but to bar similitude in such things as were repugnant unto the Ordinances Laws and Statutes which he had given Egyptians and Canaanites are for example sake named unto them because the Customs of the one they had been and of the other they should be best acquainted with But that wherein they might not be like unto either of them was such peradventure as had been no whit less unlawfull although those Nations had never been So that there is no necessity to think that God for fear of infection by reason of nearness forbad them to be like unto the Canaanites or the Egyptians in those things which otherwise had been lawful enough For I would know what one thing was in those Nations and is here forbidden being indifferent in it self yet forbidden only because they used it In the Laws of Israel we find it written Ye shall not cut round the corners of your Heads neither shalt thou tear the tafis of thy Board These things were usual amongst those Nations and in themselves they are indifferent But are they indifferent being used as signs of immoderate and hopeless lamentation for the dead In this sense it is that the Law forbiddeth them For which cause the very next words following are Ye shall not cut your Flesh for the dead nor make any print of a mark upon you I am the Lord. The like in Leviticus where speech is of mourning for the dead They shall not make bald parts upon their Head nor shave off the locks of their Beard nor make any cutting in their Flesh. Again in Deut. Ye are the Children of the Lord your God ye shall not cut your selves nor make you Baldness between your eyes for the Dead What is this but in effect the same which the Apostle doth more plainly express saying Sorrow not as they do who have no hope The very light of Nature it self was able to see herein a fault that which those Nations did use having been also in use with others the ancient Roman laws do forbid That shaving therefore and cutting which the Law doth mention was not a matter in it self indifferent and forbidden only because it was in use amongst such Idolaters as were Neighbours to the people of God but to use it had a been crime though no other people or Nation under Heaven should have done it saving only themselves As for those Laws concerning attires There shall no garment of Linnen and VVollen come upon thee as also those touching food and diet wherein Swines-flesh together with sundry other meats are forbidden the use of these things had been indeed of it self harmless and indifferent so that hereby it doth appear how the Law of God forbad in some special consideration such things as were lawful enough in themselves But yet even here they likewise fail of that they intend For it doth not appear that the consideration in regard whereof the Law forbiddeth these things was because those Nations did use them Likely enough it is that the Canaanites used to feed as well on Sheep as on Swines-flesh and therefore if

with joy and reverence Now there is no Controversie but as God in that special Case did authorize Nathan so Christ more generally his Apostles and the Ministers of his Word in his Name to absolve Sinners Their power being equal all the difference between them can be but only in this that whereas the one had prophetical evidence the other have the certainty partly of Faith and partly of Human experience whereupon to ground their Sentence Faith to assure them of God's most graous Pardon in Heaven unto all Penitents and touching the sincerity of each particular Parties repentance as much as outward sensible tokens or signes can warrant It is not to be marvelled that so great a difference appeareth between the Doctrine of Rome and Ours when we teach Repentance They imply in the Name of Repentance much more than we do We stand chiefly upon the due inward Conversion of the Heart They more upon Works of external shew We teach above all things that Repentance which is one and the same from the beginning to the World's end They a Sacramental Penance of their own devising and shaping We labour to instruct men in such sort that every Soul which is wounded with sin may learn the way how to cure it self They clean contrary would make all Soars seem incurable unless the Priests have a hand in them Touching the force of whose Absolution they strangely hold that whatsoever the Penitent doth his Contrition Confession and Satisfaction have no place of right to stand as material parts in this Sacrament nor consequently any such force as to make them available for the taking away of Sin in that they proceed from the Penitent himself without the privity of the Minister but only as they are enjoyned by the Minister's Authority and Power So that no contrition or grief of heart till the Priest exact it no acknowledgement of Sins but that which he doth demand no Praying no Fasting no Alms no Recompence or Restitution for whatsoever we have done can help except by him it be first imposed It is the Chain of their own Doctrine No remedy for mortal sin committed after Baptism but the Sacrament of Penance only No Sacrament of Penance if either matter or form be wanting No wayes to make those Duties a material part of the Sacrament unless we consider them as required and exacted by the Priest Our Lord and Saviour they say hath ordained his Priests Judges in such sort that no man which sinneth after Baptisme can be reconciled unto God but by their Sentence For why If there were any other way of Reconciliation the very promise of Christ should be false in saying Whatsoever ye binde on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whose sins soever ye retain are retained Except therefore the Priest be willing God hath by promise hampred himself so that it is not now in his own power to pardon any man Let him which is offended crave as the Publican did Lord he thou merciful unto me a sinner Let him as David make a thousand times his supplication Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy compassions put away mine iniquities All this doth not help till such time as the pleasure of the Priest be known till he have signed us a pardon and given us our quietus est God himself hath no Answer to make but such as that of his Angel unto Lot I can do nothing It is true that our Saviour by these words Whose Sins ye remit they are remitted did ordain Judges over our sinful Souls gave them Authority to absolve from sin and promise to ratifie in Heaven whatsoever they should do on Earth in execution of this their Offices to the end that hereby as well his Ministers might take encouragement to do their Duty with all Faithfulness as also his People admonition gladly with all reverence to be ordered by them both parts knowing that the Functions of the one towards the other have his perpetual assistance and approbation Howbeit all this with two Restraints which every Jurisdiction in the World hath the one that the practice thereof proceed in due order the other that it do not extend it self beyond due bounds which bounds or limits have so confined penitential Jurisdiction that although there be given unto it power of remitting sinne yet not such Soveraignty of Power that no sin should be pardonable in man without it Thus to enforce our Saviour's words is as though we should gather that because Whatsoever Ioseph did command in the Land of Pharaoh's grant is it should be done therefore he granteth that nothing should be done in the Land of Egypt but what Ioseph did command and so consequently by enabling his Servant Ioseph to command under him disableth himself to command any thing without Ioseph But by this we see how the Papacy maketh all Sin unpardonable which hath not the Priests Absolution except peradventure in some extraordinary case where albeit Absolution be not had yet it must be desired What is then the force of Absolution What is it which the act of Absolution worketh in a sinful man doth it by any operation derived from it self alter the state of the Soul Doth it really take away sin or but ascertain us of God's most gracious and merciful pardon The latter of which two is our assertion the former theirs At the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ saying unto the sick of the Palsie Son thy sins are forgiven thee the Pharisees which knew him not to be Son of the living God took secret exception and fell to reasoning with themselves against him Is any able to forgive Sin but God only The Sins saith St. Cyprian that are committed against him he alone hath power to forgive which took upon him our sins he which sorrowed and suffered for us he whom the Father delivered unto death for our offences Whereunto may be added that which Clemens Alexandrinus hath Our Lord is profitable every way every way beneficial whether we respect him as Man or as God as God forgiving as Man instructing and learning how to avoid Sin For it is I even I that putteth away thine Iniquities for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins saith the Lord. Now albeit we willingly confess with Saint Cyprian The Sinnes which are committed against him he only hath power to forgive who hath taken upon him our Sinnes he which hath sorrowed and suffered for us he whom God hath given for our Offences Yet neither did Saint Cyprian intend to deny the power of the Minister otherwise then if he presume beyond his Commission to remit Sinne where God's own will is it should be retained For against such Ablutions he speaketh which being granted to whom they ought to have been denyed are of no validity and if rightly it be considered how higher causes in operation use to concur with inferiour means his Grace

the Christian Clergy likewise Priests for their maintenance had those first-fruits of Cattel Coin Wine Oyl and other Commodities of the Earth which the Jews were accustomed yearly to present God with They had the price which was appointed for men to pay in lieu of the first-born of their Children and the price of the first born also amongst Cattel which were unclean They had the vowed Gifts of the People or the prices if they were redeemable by the Donors after vow as some things were They had the free and un-vowed Oblations of men They had the remainder of things sacrificed With Tythes the Levites were maintained and with the tythe of their Tythes the High-Priest In a word if the quality of that which God did assign to his Clergy be considered and their manner of receiving it without labour expence or charge it will appear that the Tribe of Levi being but the twelfth part of Israel had in effect as good as four twelfth parts of all such Goods as the holy Land did yield So that their Worldly Estate was four times as good as any other Tribes in Israel besides But the High-Priest's condition how ample to whom belonged the Tenth of all the Tythe of this Land especially the Law provicing also that as the people did bring the best of all things unto the Priests and Levites so the Levite should deliver the choice and flower of all their Commodities to the High-Priest and so his Tenth-part by that mean be made the very best part amongst ten by which proportion if the Levites were ordinarily in all not above thirty thousand men whereas when David numbred them he found almost thirty eight thousand above the age of thirty years the High-Priest after this very reckoning had as much as three or four thousand others of the Clergy to live upon Over and besides all this lest the Priests of Egypt holding Lands should seem in that respect better provided for than the Priests of the true God it pleased him further to appoint unto them forty and eight whole Cities with Territories of Land adjoyning to hold as their own free Inheritance for ever For to the end they might have all kinde of encouragement not onely to do what they ought but to take pleasure in that they did albeit they were expresly forbidden to have any part of the Land of Canaan laid out whole to themselves by themselves in such sort as the rest of the Tribes had forasmuch as the will of God was rather that they should throughout all Tribes be dispersed for the easier access of the People unto knowledge Yet were they not barred altogether to hold Land nor yet otherwise the worse provided for in respect of that former restraint for God by way of special preheminence undertook to feed them at his own Table and out of his own proper Treasury to maintain them that want and penury they might never feel except God himself did first receive injury A thing most worthy our consideration is the wisdom of God herein for the Common sort being prone unto envy and murmur little considereth of what necessity use and importance the sacred duties of the Clergy are and for that Cause hardly yieldeth them any such honor without repining and grudging thereat they cannot brook it that when they have laboured and come to reap there should so great a portion go out of the fruit of their Labours and he yielded up unto such as sweat nor for it But when the Lord doth challenge this as his own due and require it to be done by way of homage unto him whose mere liberality and goodness had raised them from a poor and servile estate to place them where they had all those ample and rich possessions they must be worse than Brute beasts if they would storm at any thing which He did receive at their hands And for him to bestow his own on his own Servants which liberty is not denied unto the meanest of men what man liveth that can think it other than most reasonable Wherefore no cause there was why that which the Clergy had should in any man's eye seem too much unless God himself were thought to be of an over-having disposition This is the mark whereat all those speeches drive Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his Brethren the Lord is his inheritance again To the Tribe of Levi he gave no inheritance the Sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel an inheritance of Levi again The tyths of the which they shall offer as an offering unto the Lord I have given the Levites for an inheritance and again All the heave-offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel shall offer unto the Lord I have given thee and thy sons and thy daughters with thee to be a duty for ever it is a perpetual Covenant of salt before the Lord. Now that if such provision be possible to be made the Christian Clergy ought not herein to be inferior unto the Jewish What sounder proof than the Apostles own kinde of Argument Do ye not know that they which minister about the holy things eat of the things of the Temple and they which partake of the Altar are partakers with the Altar So even So hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel Upon which words I thus conclude that if the People of God do abound and abounding can so farr forth finde in their hearts to shew themselves towards Christ their Saviour thankful as to honor him with their riches which no Law of God or Nature forbiddeth no less than the antient Jewish people did honor God the plain Ordinance of Christ appointeth as large and as ample proportion out of his own treasure unto them that serve him in the Gospel as ever the Priests of the Law did enjoy What further proof can we desire It is the blessed Apostles testimony That even so the Lord hath ordained Yea I know not whether it be sound to interpret the Apostle otherwise than that whereas he judgeth the Presbyters which rule well in the Church of Christ to be worthy of double honor he means double unto that which the Priests of the Law received For if that Ministry which was of the Letter were so glorious how shall not the Ministry of the Spirit be more glorious If the Teachers of the Law of Moses which God delivered written with Letters in Tables of Stone were thought worthy of so great honor how shall not the Teachers of the Gospel of Christ be in his sight most worthy the Holy Ghost being sent from Heaven to ingrave the Gospel on their Hearts who first taught it and whose Successors they that teach it at this day are So that according to the Ordinance of God himself their Estate for worldly maintenance ought to be no worse than is granted unto other sorts of men each according to