Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	reason_n	sabbath_n	12,233	5	10.0568	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94081	An essay in defence of the good old cause, or A discourse concerning the rise and extent of the power of the civil magistrate in reference to spiritual affairs. With a præface concerning [brace] the name of the good old cause. An equal common-wealth. A co-ordinate synod. The holy common-wealth published lately by Mr. Richard Baxter. And a vindication of the honourable Sir Henry Vane from the false aspersions of Mr. Baxter. / By Henry Stubbe of Ch. Ch. in Oxon.	Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676.; Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676. Vindication of that prudent and honourable knight, Sir Henry Vane, from the lyes and calumnies of Mr. Richard Baxter, minister of Kidderminster.	1659 (1659)	Wing S6045; Thomason E1841_1; ESTC R209626	97,955	192

punished with excision or cutting off or the Law of Nature may lead us to condemn what it doth not enjoyn us to punish at least not this or that particular way This is evident as to the case in hand from the practise of sundry Nations and even that commandment which taught the Iew to keep the Sabbath and to condemn its breakers did not teach them what punishment they should inflict upon them Thus he that had gathered sticks upon that day was put in ward because it was not declared what should be done unto him Philo Judaeus de vita Mosis lib. 3. And the Lord said unto Moses The man shall surely be put to death all the Congregation shall stone him Numb 15.34 35. So the Blasphemer son of Shelomith though he had sinned against the Law delivered in the Mount Exod. 20.7 yet was he put in ward that the minde of the Lord might be shewed them and God commanded he should be stoned Levit. 24.12.16 Nor doth the example of God so punishing inferre that we ought to do in the like manner God by Moses punished Theft which is a breach of the Moral Law with a four-fold restitution amongst the Iews Exod. 22. v. 1. Luc. 19.8 Yet Mr. Selden shews how the strangers in Israel were punished for thievery with death as also amongst us they are Nor do I finde the usage to be condemned though every pettit transgression of the Sabbath we do not punish with death This then being a Political Law it cannot oblige us but upon the account of common equity and not as a part of the Iewish Polity for then all the judicial Law would be introduced into Christianity and since common equity nor the example of God doth not determine necessarily of the greatness and manner of the punishment I conceive a moderation requisite lest for the uncertain satisfying of one Law we run the certain hazard of breaking another which is that of committing no murther This will much more appear if we consider that the prohibition Exod. 22. v. 20. Is directly against Sacrificing which he that shall expound to be any sort of worship which is commanded not to be appayed to other Gods but Jehovah It is very hard measure and a Zeal not according to knowledge that because the law may without retre●ching upon impossibility be expounded so therefore the man must dye speaks more then is in the Text or can be necessarily deduced from any other places of Scripture wherein if it be sometimes used for worship in generall it doth not follow that it is alwayes so used and consequently that it must but that it may be so here The whole is a fallacious arguing from the punishment of one determinate species or kind of transgression with death to the punishment of all that agree therewith in a more large and genericall relation Adultery may be and is by our lawes punished more severely then fornication yet are both forbidden by the same commandement As for the place in Deut. c. 13. it is directed against prophets and dreamers things not to be heard of in our dayes in which those delusions as well as gifts are ceased and that of Deut 17. v. 2. c. is a punishment of corporall adorations and service paid to the Sun Moon and host of Heaven of which I know not nor do I hear of any among us However since this text thus urged maketh against Paganisme and its toleration I desire that not onely the practise of the Jewes but of the primitive Christian Emperours be considered and it will be evident how they did not think themselves concluded thereby It is no good argument which doth not weigh all circumstances the opponent must prove that all Common-wealths must be as to this point like unto that of Israel that their Magistrates have the same duty incumbent upon them though by the way to destroy Idolaters and seducers thereunto Hebraeorum meribus Hebraeus a Deo Dei lege deficiens aut ducem se ad f●lsos cultus praeb●ns Deut 13. ● illico a quovis homine poterat interfici Judicium Z●l● id vocabant Hebraei quod a Phinea primo exercitum aiunt Num. 25. inde ablisse in morem Sic Jud●um quendam Graecis se polluentem ritibus occidit Matthias 2 Maccab. 24. Sic trecen●i alii Judaei a p●pularibus suis occisi reseruntur libro qui vulgo dicitur Maccabaeorum tertius Nec alio obtentu instituta lapidatio in Stephanum Act. 7.57 conjuratio in Paulum Act. 23.13 multaque alia exempla eiusmo●i ex●ant apud Philonem apud I osephum Grotius de iur bell l. 2. c. 20. §. 8. was no Magistraticall act and what wonder is it if Jehu Josiah and Elijah do that which any member of that politicall constitution might doe And that the same power not only ought to be but is actually enstated in them And when they shall have proved this we shall grant them liberty of extirpating their Idolatrous subjects In the mean while I desire it may be observed that though it be argued out of the Text Deut. 13. v. 10 11. that the precept is urged with a perpetuall reason therefore its force is everlasting Cur ob eum finem perlata lex dicitur que perpetuò valere debet Sic enim scribitur in extrema lege Vt omnes Israelitae audiant timeant nè deinceps rem adeò nefandam designent Beza de pun haeret Thou shalt stone him with stones that he dye because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God And all Israell shall hear and fear and shall do no more any such wickednesse as this is among you The latter part of which words however Beza would make them to be a reason for the Action yet from the words I can gather no more then that God to whom nothing is hid saith that by way of event it shall happen that such exemplary punishments shall be attended with the consequent of Israel's obedience nor will collation of texts help us to any more full and also necessary deduction And as for the former part because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God though I should grant the reason to be perpetuall yet doth not it therefore in Scripture ratiocination follow that the law is to be perpetual Such is the case of abstaining from blood Levit 17. v. 10 11 13 14. not to instance in other laws is not that of the Sabbath enforced with a perpetuall reason as to the determinat day and yet do not Divines absolve us from the obligation thereof Is it not now as true as ever that in Six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day wherefore he blessed the Seventh day and hallowed it As for Mysticall or Figurative Idolatry I understand not how this text can with any pretense be urged against it unlesse they will find out some Analogicall punishment

was not nor is now changed The Petition of right and other laws in being had already deposed Monarchy and we were onely to improve not create a Republick They who manage these objections had reduced us to that posture as a very little alteration in an invidious name and some other circumstances might secure the people in those Privile●ges and immunities from which they would not recede Whereas it is said further That the Soveraignty being mixed or distributed into the Hands of King Lords and Commons no part had Authority to change the Constitution I shall not aske these men How the Commons came to be admitted to share in that mixture of Government But to me it is indubitable that since the end of the establishing a King and Lords was the welfare of the people and Commons whatever distribution of Government may have been enacted yet it is the end that regulates the meanes and renders them useless and rejectaneous upon occasion and hereof either the Commons must be Judges who feele the Pressing inconveniences of the meanes controverted or else they who reape advantages by such deviations and grievances and who are too much interessed to determine aright If Pharaoah may judge he will say the Israelites are idle rather then oppressed with burdens If there be any yet so obstinately perverse as to explode the Title upon this account yet cannot any deny but that it is an Old as well as Good cause in opposition to the Instrument and that most non-sensicall paper called the petition and advise of such a juncto as must never be reputed of hereafter but with the infamy of Parlamentum indoctorum or a Parliament that lacked learning and wit or Honesty and it is so farre from impossibility that it is not abfur'd for the same thing in a different respect to be New and Old I shall illustrate this by something which if it be in it 's own nature lesse convincing yet it is not to be rejected by our most implacable Adversaries How often have our Parliaments declared this or that to be a fundamentall right and the birth-right of the subject which yet is not to be found established or bottomed upon any thing but that claim antecedent to our constituted laws whereunto Nature doth imbolden us That which the Parliament under the first acknowledged cause did avowe as the fundamentall constitution of this Kingdom that the Soveraignety thereof was mixed in a King and two Houses of Lords and Commons with severall other things of the like nature cannot be justifyed but by such a defence since the Monarchy is supposed to be founded at the Conquest or if we will rise higher yet will no enquiry direct us to a mixture of Soveraignety such as the Commons fundamentally share in there being no such order of Estates if I may so call it untill Henry the first and for their power it may be better disputed then proved by any other way then what will evince Our Cause to be Old as well as their priviledges c. Fundamentall I cannot informe my self of any other manner whereby to justify that Protestation of the Commons which is recorded by Dr. H●ylin in his Ad●e●t sement on the History of the Reigne of K. James And Rushworth in his collections The protestation of the Commons Jac. 19. 1621. THe Commons now assembled in Parliament being justly occasioned thereunto concerning sundry Liberties Franchises and Priviledges of Parliament among others here mentioned do make this Protestation following That the Liberties Franchises Priviledges and Jurisdiction of Parliament are the ancient and undoubted Birth-right and inheritance of the Subjects of England and that the arduous and urgent affaires concerning the King state and defense of the Realme and of the Church of England and the maintenance and making of Laws and redresse of mischief and grievances which daily happen within this Realme are proper subjects and matter of Counsell and debate in Parliament And that in the handling and proceeding of those businesses every member of Parliament hath and of right ought to have Freedom of Speech to propound treat reason and bring to conclusion the same And that the Commons in Parliament have likewise Liberty and Freedom to treat of the matters in such order as in their judgment shall seem fittest and that every member of the said house hath like Freedom from all impeachment imprisonment and molestation other then by censure of the House it self for or concerning any speaking reasoning or declaring any matter or matters touching the Parliament or Parliament businesse And that if any of the said Members be complained of and questioned for any thing done or said in Parliament the same is to be shewed to the King by the Advise and assent of all the Commons assembled in Parliament before the King give credence to any priv●te Information This and many other Parliamentary expressions though True In the Civil Law he wh● was mode compleatly fere and one of the ingenui though his Mother had been and were a Servant or bond-woman and his birth Servile yet upon such his enfranchisement he was said natalibus restitui to be restored to his BIRTH-RIGHT that is not to such as he was borne to by his immediate parentage but such as appertained to him by descendence from Adam L. 2. D. de natalib restituend as it is cited by Selden de jur natur l. 2. c. 4. p. 163. just and equitable in former and later days can in my judgment be no better verifyed then the Old cause when most disadvantageously looked upon as being no otherwise Laws Priviledges and undoubted Birth-rights then that they should and ought to be so But to proceed I often communing with my own soul in private use to parallell our bondage under the Norman yoak and our deliverance there from to the continuance of the children of Israell in Egypt and their escape at last from that sla●ish condition and as the severall providences attending them in their journey into the land of promise have created in me thoughts of resembling mercies and distractions that have befallen us in our progresse to Freedom so particularly the late dispute about the Good Old cause did cause in me some reflexions upon the course which Moses tooke to disengage the people of the Lord in those days from their servitude God tells Moses that he would bring the Israelites out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Can●anites to dwell there Exod. 3. v. 10 16 17 18. And this Message he was to impart unto the Elders of Israel Yet withall as Philo Judeus saith and the circumstances of the text render it certain he is commanded he and the Elders of Israel to say unto the King of Egypt the Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us and now let us go we beseech thee three days journey into the wildernesse that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God Exod. 4. v. 29. So Moses gathered together all the Elders of

the children of Israel and acquainted them with this Message and intendment but it scarce seemes probable that he told the generality of the people his main designe for the Israelitish women manying promiscuously with Egyptians and all of them being under such taske-masters as by love or terrour might gain an intelligence of the finall departure intended by that Nation it is unimaginable how things should have been for so long a time as their deliverance was effecting concealed from Pharaoh and his intelligencers And Moses with Aaron went in and prayed Pharaoh that he would let the people go three days journey into the desart and sacrifice unto the Lord Exod. 5. v. 3. And this is not onely the pretense of Moses but he is commanded ch 7. v. 16. to say The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee saying Let my people go that they may serve me in the wildernesse In fine All the declaration of their intents which they made to Pharaoh was that they might go and sacrifice in the wildernesse Exod. 8. v. 27. and ch 10. v. 24 25 26. Yea it seemes by the contest betwixt Pharaoah and Moses and Aaron ch 10 v 10 11. that at first they desired liberty onely for the Men to go and not that they might go with their young and with their old with their sonnes and with their daughters with their flockes and with their herds It is expresly said by the King Go now yee that are Men and serve the Lord for that you did desire It is observed by Philo that the land of Canaan in the direct roade was three days journey from Egypt so that if their desire to serve the Lord in the wildernesse and to sacrifice unto him was an Expression of their intendments to fix in the promised land if all those occasions for a further explanation of their thoughts when Phara●ah said he would let them go and sacrifice in the wi●derness onely they should not go very farre away ch 8 v. 28. and when they desire to carry all their relations and goods with them for to hold a feast unto the lord at which time Pharaoh suspected their contrivances to free themselves and said Let the Lord be so with you as I will let you go and your little ones Looke to it for evill is before you ch 10. v. 10. And when Pharaoh desired onely that their flocks and herds might stay it is then that they answer Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God Our cattell also shall go with us there shall not an hoofe be left behind for thereof must we take for to serve the Lord our God and we know not with what we mast serve the Lord untill we come thither ch 10. v. 24 25 26. if all those occasions could draw from them no clearer manifestation of their purposes and perhaps the Egyptians upon a perswasion of no further intent did lend them jewells of silver and jewells of gold and rayment wherein to appear at the feast Exod. 12. v. 35. and ch 3. v. 22. but that even at the last Pharaoh says to them Rise up and get you forth from amongst my people both you and the children of Israel and go serve the Lord as ye have said c. 12. v. 31. Truely methinks upon these circumstances If Pharaoh did arme to pursue them of whom he did not nor we hear that they went three dayes journey to sacrifice or that they performed any such solemnity or held on that journey which they made a semblance at first to take but turned and encamped before Pi-hariroth between Migdol and the sea ch 14. v. 2 5. and fled without a thought of returning to Egypt nay if he had overtaken them so as to expostulate with them why and for what cause they did so deal with him could he have made use of other words then we are now upbrayded with Is this the Old cause that you pretended for your departure Is this the Old cause which your God proposed unto you at first or was that onely a pretense for other designes did you bring your children and cattell with you for this or some other professed end Is this your sacrificing Call you this a going to keepe a feast unto your God Or a freeing your selves from that subjection you were under Did we cloath you with our choice rayment Did we adorn you with jewells that you might carry them quite away Is this to serve the Lord or your selves To sacrifice unto God or to your own net To borrow or to robbe Nor might Pharaoh onely have upbrayded them thus The murmuring Israelites having been at first unacquainted with Mose's design either did or might have clamoured in the like manner when they were compassed about with Pharaoh's army on the one side and the redsea on the other and said unto Moses Because there were no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away to dy in the wildernesse Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth of Egypt Exod. 14. v. 11. In this posture of affaires wherein as also in the first attempts of Luther I find the like proceduce to what ours are said to have I observe that Moses is satisfyed in his obeying the call of the Lord and having freed the Israelites from an unjust bondage he trusts in the Lord for a good issue saying onely to the people Fear ye not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. ch 14. v. 13. The Lord grant that we may follow his example and be strengthned to follow God in his mercifull dealings with us and not murmure and distrust that arme which hath brought us to that Freedom we now are in we have travailed thorough a desart and our God hath guided us prosperously and his Assisting providence ought to be looked upon by humble and discerning soules as a cloude going before us daily to instruct us who have any apprehensions thereof but as removing also behind and blinding those who oppose and would destroy that Common-wealth of Israel which the Lord will erect whose salvation let them stand still and see who are not so resolute as to quit their feares for a more active temper There is one considerable Objection which may and will be made against what I have discoursed concerning the rise of Government that it tends to the establishing of an Unequall Common-wealth which is so much decryed and petitioned against by men of great repute honesty and faithfulness to the Good old cause Hereunto it will not suffice that I professe my self ready to acquiesce in what shall be the determinate resolutions of the Good people of this Nation and that whatsoever my sentiments are I shall never esloign my self from the common interest nor shall I say that it is a very unequall common-wealth which doth regard equally men of different qualifications neither will I blame that supererogating tendernesse which they expresse for the

to the nullifying of Government and therefore it is said four times over in the Judges chap. 17. v. 6. chap. 18. v. 1. chap. 19. v. 1. chap. 21. v. 25. That in those dayes there was no King in Israel and twice it is added but every man did what is right in his own eyes as if there had been no Government at all There is no such insinuation in the Text at all nor is the Defect of a King in Israel more true where it is expressed then where it is not throughout the Book of Judges What if it had been said in the dayes of Joshuah there was no King in Israel Or in the dayes of Gideon when the people desired him to be King over them Judg. 8.22 23. The men of Israel said unto Gideon rule thou over us both thou and thy sonne and thy sons son also for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian And Gideon said unto them I will not rule over you neither shall my son rule over you the Lord shall rule over you Those dull Israelites were not sensible of the confusion which they did live in nor did Gideon perceive it They did offer him the Kingdom because he had delivered them out of the hands of the Midianites the inducement is Gratitude and none of Mr. Baxters difficulties He refuseth the Kingdom because that in those dayes when there should be no King in Israel and every man should do what was right in his own eyes then the Lord should rule over them This very passage together with that of God to Samuel in the like circumstances 1 Sam. 8.7 They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them These places are a sufficient confutation of what Master Baxter addes to the Text. But let any judge if it be more for the dispraise of a Republike that without any further addition it is said in those dayes there was no King in Israel then to Monarchy after that in those dayes reigned King David or in those dayes there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes and afterwards there ruled Jeroboam who made Israel to sin Another of Master Baxters arguments is p. 90. Thes 82. Nothing more incident to corrupted nature than self-love to blinde men and every man to be partiall in his own cause now it is the people that are to be governed judged punished c. and therefore how likely are they by partiality to themselves to make the Government next to none I answer that Mr. Baxter p. 102. Thes 99. objecteth against a Democracy that it is the worst because it will exercise the greatest cruelties which though it be false yet is a charge inconsistent with that of partiality Secondly this objection is either ill framed or it is destructive to all Government for in all Governments some must be Judges in their own Case and this Exception is non-sense The Question is whether seeing Arbitrary power or a power to judge in ones own case must reside somewhere where then is it best fixed I suppose in the people and that it is as impossible for a Democracy to be partial as for one upon a hundred Dice to cast as many or fifty one aces which is a security infinitely greater than what Mr. Baxters one Die will afford us And this is security enough against what Mr. Baxter urges p. 93. That the Laws cannot hold a Democracy from abrogating Christianity I answer no not if they will but if it be once prevalent you have a pretty good security a moral Impossibility that it should ever be exterminated What may happen under a Monarchy the narrations of Japan besides the actings of Jeroboam Nebuchadnezzar and others will testifie but it is evident that no Common-wealth permits the Inquisition and Christianity was much more easily planted in Common-wealths for the Jewes after the Captivity however they had the name of Kings sometimes among them were a kinde of one or an Aristocracy as Josephus tells us and when but a few made up all Christendome with how much difficulty was our Saviour put to death Whereas Mr Baxter saith further p. 93 94. that he is a Fungus and not a man that knoweth not by experience how easily bad men can make good Laws to be a nose of Waxe This saying doth not become a Divine who disavowe it in the Scripture which being a law without an Authenticall publick interpreter is avowed to lye under no such inconveniences In a Republick where there is an appeal to the people it is Morally impossible it should be so we ought not to think it so easy to delude a multitude as a few nor ought we to vouch the experience of corrupt Officers under a Monarchy for other experience no man in England of his own knowledg can alledge to the like issues under a Republick where these and all other difficulties are prevented neither can the maleconstitution of Rome whence proceeded all it's defaults prejudice Mr. Harrington's Oceana where all are remedied and this is a sufficient reply to all those arguments from inconveniencies which Mr. Baxter brings they being all Ignoratio elenchi But who would not laugh at the following Sophisms in the Kederminster disputant such as I have scarce heard from fresh-men here p. 95. Thes 88. Democracy is furthest from Unity and therefore furthest from perfection and therefore the most imperfect sort of Government O Malvezzi how hast thou exploded this argument in thy discourses upon Tacitus as if it were an unity of persons and not unanimity which made a Government perfect That unity is the companion of perfection and division departeth from it as it doth from unity is commonly acknowledged which caused the Pythagoreans to curse the number of Two because it was the first that presumed to depart from unity Is not this a fine argument for a Theologue Doth not it overthrow the Trinity as well as a Common-wealth Was it not a simplicity in the Pythagoreans if they were so absurd as Mr. Baxter makes them which they were not but he understands neither them nor Greek to attribute Presumption to things destitute of understanding and to curse Arithmetick because a man might mis-tell his Money or the like This is a sallacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who cursed two would not have admitted three to bear witness in Heaven and if two were such an execrable division how is it that God having made one man did not think it meet he should be alone Thes 8.9 ' That is the most imperfect Government which departeth farthest from the divine universal Form but so doth popular Government For the universal kingdom hath but one King This is a pretty Topick and such as Bellarmine and the Papists make use of to prove that there ought to be one Pope head of the Church Let the world judge whose cause Mr. Baxter pleads and what contumelies might be fastned on him It