Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	body_n	raise_v	sow_v	6,220	5	12.4203	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45325	Qvakers principles quaking, or, Pretended light proved darkness, and perfections found to be greatest imperfections in an answer to a written paper, subscribed with the name of Thomas Holme, and scattered through the country about Liverpool and Lancashire / modestly propounded by Ralph Hall ...	Hall, Ralph.	1656 (1656)	Wing H423; ESTC R39227	32,660	37

Conscience doth at large resolve the great Controversie about Tythes And shall proceed to the other great Query mentioned in your Paper and so take leave with you and all of your Opinions till you return again to the owning of the Truth of God laid down in the Scriptures and submit to order and break your selves off from disorder and confusion which tends to every evil work Jam. 5.16 And now to your Second great Question concerning Perfection I must first lay down your own words and then answer them for I desire to be faithful and not to wrong you in a syllable your words are these And thou Priest Fogge of Liverpool who said they that hold forth the way of perfection holdeth not the way of God but from under this thou canst not get but under the Condemnation must come and your reason is annexed viz. for the way of God is perfect which way is Jesus Christ for saith he I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me but before I come to the Answer of this from under the just censure of false accusation you cannot get I use your own Language for Mr. Fogge was farre from denying the way of God to be perfect or from denying Christ to be the way the truth and the life But his Argument was that neither you nor any man nor woman upon earth had attained to perfection so as to be absolutely perfect in this life And for all he brought in many pertinent Scriptures to make good what he said yet you stick not so far to abuse him that you bury them all in silence not mentioning one of them I cannot conceive why you should do so unless it be your aim to hold him forth to the world to be so sottish that he could not make good his Argument against yours but blessed be God there were many ear witnesses that day but had there been none but your selves and that you should make your boast thereof yet I am confident no man indowed with reason would give credit to you in such a thing his abilities being better known than your own I shall pass by that disorder that you truly acknowledge was that day which was the occasion that many received not satisfaction For in truth I know not how such a thing as Order could be expected from a people that have cast off both order and decensie 1 Cor. 14.40 I shall now proceed to the direct Answer of your Question viz. Whether perfection be attainable in this life yea or no you say it is I say it is not except we take along with us these following limitations or as I may call them these steps to or degrees of perfection I shall for your and my own better understanding acknowledge four degrees of pefection and acknowledge three of them attainable in this life and the fourth unattainable all which I shall by the assistance of God make clear by Scripture and that very briefly First There is an imputative perfection that is when the perfection of Christ is imputed to a man and this was doubtless Jobs case hee was a perfect man in Gods account Job 1.8 because God had in the eternal Decree of his unchangeable love imputed the perfection of Christ to him he laying hold thereon by faith as it is written Abraham beleeved God and it was imputed to him for righteousness Gen. 15.6 and Rom. 4.3 which is all one with perfection for that man that is perfectly righteous is a perfect man but there is none in himself and from himself righteous no not one Rom. 3.10 There is none that doth good no not one vers. 12. And therefore whoever thou art that boastest of standing upon the feet of thy own perfection I say unto thee in the name of the Lord if thou standest at all thou standest by faith be not high minded but fear Rom. 11.20 Secondly There is perfection in part This is it the Apostle Paul owneth 2 Cor. 13 9 10. For we know in part and prophesie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away And if any ask when this shall bee the same Apostle makes answer 1 Cor. 15.54 When this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortal hath put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that was written Death is swallowed up in victory Hos. 13.4 For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality And the same Apostle speaking of our bodies saith It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it ●s raised in power it is sown a natural but is raised a spiritual body Now tell me where is the spiritual body till it be raised from the dead But I beleeve and am fully perswaded that though my body be sown in death a vile body it shall in the resurrection be made like unto Christs glorious body Philip 3.21 Thirdly There is a comparative perfection a man may be said to be a perfect man in comparison of others that have not received the earnest of their inheritance and of such we read Prov. 12.26 The righteous man is more excellent than his neighbour Ephes. 1.14 And indeed it is true every godly man is more righteous more excellent and more perfect than his neighbour for none but the truly godly walketh before God in uprightness of heart And that man that hath an upright and sincere heart is in Gods account a perfect man So Noah and Abraham are said to be perfect men Gen. 6.9 and 17.1 Fourthly and lastly There is an absolute perfection as I said before when we the members shal be made like Christ our head Col. 1.18 when we shall be glorified together with him Rom. 8.17 when these vile bodies shal be made like unto his glorious body When all the remainders of corrupt nature shall be consumed in Gods furnace I mean the grave but whilst we continue in the body wee are said to be absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 This absolute perfection then is not attainable here in this life which is the thing I am now to prove and by Gods assistance shall do it First By Scripture Secondly By undeniable Argument and so draw to a conclusion And first for the first I might fill up much room with places that would speak fully to this point but as our Saviour saith In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established I shall bring in two or three which I hope may suffice And first Job that was a perfect man in the sense I before mentioned viz. in Gods account yet in your sense he utterly disclaims it Job 9.20 If I justifie my self my own mouth shall condemn me And after Job had been as it were expostulating with God and pleading his own inno●●ncy and integrity and as it were Gods hard dealing with him and had in the bitterness

methinks upon very good ground in regard a way more agreeable to Gods Word could not be found Besides which way could a more equall way be imagined for doth not the Minister as well as the people in this thing depend upon Gods blessing or cursing the earth whether his allowance shall bee more or less plentiful or scarce so as both Minister and people shall be in one capacity either to bless God for plenty or to wrastle with God in times of famine and scarsity for the removal of the Judgement Now seeing it is thus agreeable to the Law of God and Nations and so full of equity who art thou O man that dare so desperately set thy self against both the Law of God and man sure I am in my own experience since I knew the right hand from the left I never observed any that made a scruple of pretended conscience of paying Tythes but they fell by little and little not only to the denial of all maintenance to the Ministers but even to the despising of them though they cannot but know that he that despiseth them despiseth their Lord and Master the Lord Christ I profess I cannot conceive any reason why you should with such vehemency set your selves against the maintenance of the Ministry unless it bee either First to bring them into reproach and ignominy and so make them contemptible that God commands us to account worthy of double honour and so on set purpose contradict God 1 Tim. 5.17 or Secondly which indeed I rather judge to be the ground of it viz. The cunning policy of Sathan that knows well enough that this Doctrin will bee readily received of all that out of meer covetousness are loath to part with that which God requires and it may be your deluded fancy to make use of this Doctrin to increase the number of your Proselites for there is not a covetous worldling but he will be ready to joyn with you in this Doctrin seeing so fair a pretence made for it viz. a case of Conscience though he shall one day know that this very Conscience shall rise up in Judgement and condemn him as a meer covetous wretch I remember towards the close of your great Argument against Tythes you draw towards what you chiefly aim at and by your own rate of Argument go about to argue the Dispensors of Gods Word and Ordinances to bee neither Ministers of Law nor Gospel and usurp to your selves that power that was proper and peculiar to the Apostles of Christ and indeed is now to the Ministers of the Gospel 1 Tim. 1.20 viz. That great power of Excommunication for say you from the Law and Gospel do we shut them which is indeed the highest degree of Excommunication but you have utterly disenabled your selves from having any thing to do in this matter by breaking your selves off and renting your selves from the mystical Body of Christ which is his Church in whose hand this power lyes 1 Tim. 1.20 with 1 Cor. 5.4 5. and whereas you adde That the Ministers had excluded themselves if you mean those of them that gave you the meeting I utterly deny it for they have not rent themselves from the Church neither hath the Church cast them off you afterwards enjoyn them Confession and Repentance and indeed I do and they will acknowledge it a necessary duty for the best of Gods people have sin enough to make confession of and to bee humbled for except those like your selves who say they are whole and need not the Phisitian but let me tell you if I hear a man crying out Keep at a distance come not near for I am holier than thou Isa. 65.5 I would get as farre from that man in judgement and practise as I could though I would be as near to him in affection as I durst for fear of displeasing God I cannot but before I leave this point answer you in one of your reproachful expressions that you make use of in your Paper I call it reproachful because you would from it cast reproach upon Gods Ministers otherwise I acknowledge the words you bring in are the words of a Prophecy and are these Put into their mouthes and they cry peace peace but put not into their mouthes and they prepare warre Micha 3.5 and this you say is fulfilled in many of the Priests of England who as you say Sues many at the Law and casts many into Prison because they put not into their mouthes I confess I know not one president of this nature but if any be I hope there is not a godly Minister in England that would steer this course towards any that were not well able to pay their dues and indeed for those that are well able to pay but out of a refractory gain-saying and contradicting minde will not pay I think the Minister should sin if he did not Sue such at Law and my reasons are those two F●●st s●e should sin in tollerating an evil example that all covetous wretches would be ready to follow Secondly He would hereby frustrate that great end for which the Law was made and ordained The Law was not made for the good and gentle and obedient but for the stubborn refractory disobedient and lawless that can and will not answer to their duty so as to perform it It is true it is desired that Christian Brethren would dwell so together in love and unity each one striving who should go before another in ready performance of every just and equal thing that there needed no going to Law according to that we read 1 Cor. 6.1 c. most of which Chapter is laid out on this very thing But whilst we live in this world there will bee Tares among the Wheat there will be such men as Christians could not live amongst were it not for the Law for all you so much disclaim the necessity of it and not only so but the very use of it But further I have thus much to say in vindication of godly Ministers they both preach against and often times deny themselves in point of their own right to avoyd this unchristian work of going to Law and utterly set themselves against any that shall go about to fleece the Flock of Christ and neglect the performance of their duty and in their Sermons upon occasion preach against careless Shepheards blinde Watch-men and dumb Doggs as you can yet for all this if there be any that are not faithful in discharge of their Office as Moses was faithful in all his house Numb. 12.7 shall we for such a ones sake condemn all the Lords Embassadors God forbid we might as well condemn all the twelve Disciples and Apostles of Christ because one of them was a Devil which none that fears God dare assert And now if any be not yet satisfied in this point I refer him to the Labours of a learned Divine in his time viz. Bishop Hall who in a little Treatise of his called Practical Cases of