Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	according_a	speak_v	word_n	5,582	5	4.1899	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60294	Sions groans for her distressed, or Sober endeavours to prevent innocent blood, and to stablish the nation in the best of settlements Grounded upon scripture, reason, and authority. Proving it the undoubted right of Christian liberty under different perswasions, in matters spiritual, to have equal protection as to their civil peace. Unto which is added the testimony of fifteen antients. Humbly offered to the Kings Majesty, Parliament and people, and left unto their serious view. By Tho. Monck, Joseph Wright, Fran. Stanley, &c.; Sions groans for her distressed.	Monck, Thomas. aut; Wright, Joseph, 1623-1703. aut; Stanley, Fr. (Francis), d. 1696. aut; Hanson, Geo. aut; Reynolds, William, 1625-1698. aut; Jeffery, William, 1616-1693. aut	1661 (1661)	Wing S3870; ESTC R220545	19,156	24

not receive him Christ turned and rebuked them saying Ye know not what spirit ye are of for the Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them and most remarkable doth it appear that it is not the intent of the Lord Jesus that judgement should be executed on those that reject his words to the punishing them in their bodies and estates in this life as under the Law from his own sayings written Iohn 12.47 48. which speak thus If any man hear my words and beleeve not I judge him not for I came not to judge the world but to save the world and he that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him at the last day And the Apostles also were so far from propagating the Gospel by outward violence and force that all their proceedings were by intreaty and perswasion and in case of resistance to shake the dust from their feet as a witness against their opposers nor will it avail to say because the Magistrate exercises authority on civil and temporal things which the Lord Christ would not that therefore in spiritual things they may do the same unless it may be supposed the Magistrates right to have supremacy over the world to come in all heavenly and eternal things because God hath given him power over the world that now is in earthly and temporal things which may be conjectured upon as good ground from what is written as that a Magistrate under the Gospel-dispensation hath more power in spiritual causes than the Lord Christ or his Apostles would exercise especially seeing there is not the least warrant for any such power from Christ or the Apostles from any thing that is written in the Scriptures of the New Testament And to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them 2 If any men as Christians under heaven have had any such power in the dayes of the Gospel the Apostles and Elders in the Primitive times must needs have had it but this they utterly disclaimed as Paul in the 2 Cor. 1.24 Not for that we have Dominion over your faith but are helpers of your joy for by faith yee stand Yea the Lord Jesus when they strove for Domination forbids it saying Yee know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great do exercise Authority upon them but it shall not bee so amongst you even so saith Peter speaking to the Elders Feed the flock of God which is amongst you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready minde neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being Examples to the flocke Why therefore the Christian Religion should bee built and supported by Violence and Cruelty when the Foundation was laid and the work carried on all the Apostles dayes and some hundreds of years after by a quite contrary meanes is a question would bee resolved by those whose strongest Arguments for the support of their Religion is take HIM IAYLOR For such is the difference between the way which the Apostles and Primitive Saints took in carrying on the worke of the Gospel and approving themselves to bee the Ministers of God and the way now used by the National Clergy that nothing is more unlike they being Ambassadours for the Prince of Peace did in his stead beseech and pray the disobedient to bee reconciled to God never stirring up the Nations to ruine and destroy by external Violence those that opposed them in their Ministry but as the Apostle Paul saith Being reviled we bless being persecuted wee suffer it being defamed wee intreat giving no offence in any thing that the Ministery bee not blamed but in all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much Patience in Afflictions in Necessities in Distresses in Stripes in Imprisonments in Tumults in Labours in Watchings in Fastings by Pureness by Knowledge by Long-suffering by Kindness by the Holy Ghost by Love unfeigned c. O yee Rulers of the World and Inhabitants of the Earth this was the way the Lord of all things with his Disciples and followers took to plant and establish the Doctrine of the Gospel in the hearts and affections of the Sons of men Be yee not therefore unlike those whom you say you follow by imposing your Doctrines and Traditions by the Violence of Penal Laws and Edicts to the Imprisoning Banishing and Spoyling the Goods of the Conscientious causing them as the Saints of old to bee Destitute Afflicted and Tormented although for their innocency and uprightness the world is not worthy of them 3 It is very plaine that the Lord Jesus himselfe in his Parable of the Tares and Wheat forbids any outward force or violence to bee exercised upon false Worshippers and Hereticks as such for by the Tares which he forbids the pulling up cannot be intended the Transgressors of the Second Table such as Theeves Murderers or any that should doe that Civil injury or wrong unto another which hee would not have done unto himselfe for all confesse with one consent that the Magistrates Authority reaches such neither can it bee intended that the children of the wicked one in any sense that visibly appear to be so should bee tolerated in the Church for that destroyes the power of Excommunication That which unavoidably then follows is That although men are Tares or the Chi●dren of the wicked one by erring in the worship of God yet should they not bee plucked up but tolerated in the Field of the World untill the Harvest shall come at the end of this World when the Angels who are to bee the Reapers and infallibly can distinguish between the Tares and the Wheat which no Magistrate now can shall gather the Tares in bundles and cast them into a Furnace of fire there shall bee wayling and gnashing of teeth Which Scripture so eminently concludes for a Toleration that the greatest Enemies to true Liberty have been at a great losse when they have endeavoured to make it speak some other thing as that Expositor is who sayes It seems to him not to note the duty of the Civil Magistrate but the event of Gods Providence that God would permit the co-habitation of the wicked in the World with the just not that Magistrates or Ministers should permit them and not by Civill punishment or Ecclesiastical remove them out of the Church or the World But if men did not fight against Truth they would not so eminently contradict their own sayings for who can beleeve that it should bee the minde of God to permit the co-habitation of the wicked in the World with the just as aforesaid and yet the Magistrate should not permit them but remove them by Civill punishment out of the World Hath the

Sions Groans for her Distressed OR Sober Endeavours to prevent Innocent Blood and to stablish the Nation in the best of SETTLEMENTS Grounded upon Scripture Reason and Authority Proving it the undoubted right of Christian Liberty under different perswasions in matters Spiritual to have equal Protection as to their Civil Peace Unto which is added the Testimony of fifteen ANTIENTS Humbly offered to the Kings Majesty Parliament and People And left unto their Serious View By Tho. Monck Ioseph Wright Fran. Stanley c. Matth. 7.12 Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you do you even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Mat. 13.28 29 30. The servants said unto him wilt thou then that we go and gather them up but he said nay lest while ye gather up the Tares ye root up also the Wheat with them let both grow together in the field the world until the Harvest which is the end of the world Act. 5.38 And now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this Counsel or Work be of man it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found to fight against God London Printed for the Authors and are to bee sold in London and at Westminster 1661. TO THE READER Courteous Reader WIth burthened hearts as once the two Disciples travelling unto Emaus spoke to Christ a supposed stranger so speak we unto thee Art thou a stranger in our Island and hast not known the things that have come to pass in these daies while the father hath been divided against the son and the son against the father three against two and two against three Even a mans foes they of his own houshold so great have been our Divisions like Reuben that no sooner light hath been by Gods grace manifested to the begetting Children of the Free-woman but presently they are persecuted by the Children of the Bond-woman and how unpleasing this is to Iesus Christ and how unlike his golden Rule that saith And all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets We say how unpleasing this is to him judge upon thy serious perusal of this following Treatise which we commend to thy perusal in thy most retired consideration when thou canst read with thy thoughts least cumbred with other business our design in what we beg may be perused is general good in setting at liberty that which God made free even the Conscience Thou canst not bee ignorant of the great Contriversie that now is on foot as to uniformity in Worship to impose by violence where they cannot perswade under seeming pretence of Scripture warrant and antiquity the contrary to which is asserted in the words of truth and soberness by Scripture reason and practice of the Primitive times And lest violence and oppressing of conscience should run up to that height till it terminate in the blood of some who are dear and their blood precious in the eyes of the God of all the Earth therefore have we committed this unto the view of all men as part of the work of our Generation in singleness of heart and remain lovers and prayers for all men that we might live a peaceable and a quiet life in all godliness and honesty Farewel Tho. Monck Ioseph Wright Geo. Hamon Fran. Stanley Will. Reynolds Will. Ieffery The eight day of the 3 Month 1661. Sions Groans for her Distressed OR Sober Endeavours to prevent Innocent Blood and stablish the Nation in the best of Settlements AS all the holy Scriptures have been written afore-time for our learning and admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come So that particular Book of the Revelation is of such excellent worth That blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophesie and keep those things that are written therein for the time is at hand In which Book in no less than three several Texts it is testified that the Nations of the world and inhabiters of the Earth with their Kings would drink the wine of the fornication of that abominable Harlot that sitteth upon Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues and by her sorceries deceiveth all Nations until they become drunk and altogether uncapable in that condition to receive the pure waters of life tendred to them in the plain way of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus This with grief of heart we see too visible for the Doctrine and Traditions of Rome who is mystery Babylon and since her Apostacy the Mother of Harlots For the woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the earth have so corrupted the earth and clouded the understandings of the sons of men that the great and most important truths of God cannot bee received or beleeved The reason why the Nations are so generally beguiled in the concernments of their souls is because the greatest part being carnal and unregenerate persons they are naturally inclined to such wayes of worship as are accompanied with external pomp and glory and therefore the Spirit of the Lord testifies that the great Harlot filleth her abominations and filthy fornications in a golden cup like the Physitian that guilds his bitter Pill that his Patient may the better swallow it Thus doth the Romish Church and her followers who to make their carnal Ordinances finde the better reception deliver them to the inhabitants of the earth by such as are honourable amongst men in worldly Sanctuaries most magnificently built and adorned endowed with Lordly Revenues accompanied with Musick and Voyces and Pontificial Vestments yea many Superstitions and Customes meerly earthly and sensual if not worse which we say so pleaseth the earthly and unregenerate man that he is ready to say This is the best Religion which is of most esteem in the Nations and accompanied with all earthly glory and delights altogether forgetting that strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that finde it And that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God And if it had been the minde of the Lord Jesus that the Gospel should have been recommended unto the world and accompanied with these Ceremonies and Formalities that are practised in the worship of the Nations or were used amongst the Iews it is very strange we should not have one word for it in all the Scriptures of the New Testament when Christ was as faithful over his house as Moses was over his and is to be heard in all things as Moses himself commanded and there will be little encouragement to touch with the Gentile Nations in their superstitious Ceremonies when it shall be considered that the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaical law being once the appointments of God did far exceed in glory what