Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	ordinance_n	power_n	resist_v	4,907	5	10.4011	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61099	Certain considerations upon the duties both of prince and people written by a gentleman of quality ...	Spelman, John, Sir, 1594-1643.	1642 (1642)	Wing S4937; ESTC R28174	19,781	30

doe any such act but with the guilt of Sedition and Treason in the sight of God For it will lye against every particular man betweene God and his conscience to answer who hath called thee to this who hath separated thee who hath made thee a Iudge or an Executor of these matters And though it be pretended and perhaps intended too that the worke so to be done shall make for the glory of God and good of his Church yet that will but little helpe the matter for for men to doe God a good office against his declared will is to be Gods good maisters not his good servants He does expresly command that Every soule be subject to the higher powers and declares plainly that the powers that are are ordained of God and that they that resist the power resist the ordinance of God and receive to themselves damnation and our Saviour himselfe forbids us that we doe not evill that good may come thereon The Scripture tells us the reason for God hath no need of a wicked man he is best glorified when his voyce is obeyed We have also the examples of Scripture to the same purpose It did not only turne to sinne to Saul that he to satisfie the people in their devotion spared the best of the Amalekites spoile to offer in sacrifice unto the Lord when God had commanded that all should be destroyed but it became a finall sinne even unto his rejection And Vzza was strucke with suddaine death for nothing but putting his hand to the Arke of Gods Covenant which no man but the sonnes of Aaron might doe yet Vzza did not doe it but with a good and a pious mind to save the Arke of Gods Covenant from falling Therefore it is not enough for men to be assured that the worke which they doe in their consciences tends to a good and a religious effect but they must every man have a sufficient warrant for his conscience and for his calling to the worke that is either the expresse word of God or else such manifest inference and deduction from it as by the concurrent judgement of the Church universally in all ages is agreed for truth not such judgment as some particular ministers take upon them to make for the spirit of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets that is the spirits of the particular to the spirit of the universall For God is not the author of confusion which else would necessarily follow Men therefore must looke to the ground first beginning of their actions for if the root be evill so will also the branches be though it promises never so good fruit and be countenanced by all the people of a Kingdome If further we looke into Scripture The story of Moses is not without some doctrine to this point Moses having an ardent zeale to the reliefe of his brethren the people of God and finding himselfe above others inabled to be the instrument of their deliverance both by his extraordinary abilities also through the great power he had with Pharaohs daughter perswades himselfe and as appeares by St Stephens relation would have the people understand that he was even then called to be their deliverer Hereupon he makes his addresse to the people and by the slaughter of one of their oppressors takes say of their affection toward an attempt of liberty as if there needed no more in the case but that the people should resolve and joyne with him to breake from the subjection of the King they lived under who was an enemy to Gods Church In this now though we make no question but that Moses had a zeale acceptable to God yet may we see by that which followeth that he had not yet a particular calling thereunto neither was the way wherein he thought to have executed his zeale agreeable to the will of God therefore the people themselves whom Moses only sought unto they reject him his attempt is frustrate and himselfe is driven to repent it with forty yeares exile in the wildernesse After that long space of expiating the errour of his selfe-led zeale God calls him then indeed to the worke to which he came of himselfe before Come now saith God and I will send thee and God sends him then indeed but sends him not to the people that we may know he sent him not before but though he could have made the people able to make their owne way by the sword and could by his command have made it lawfull so to have done yet to teach us the observance of ●ustice and duty in our proceedings he sends him to the King of him to demand the dismission of his people that so the peoples obedience to his messengers and to the word delivered in his name might be without any reluctance of conscience in regard of their allegiance to the King When Moses did this way set upon the worke all went the right way and the unspeakable obstinacy of King Pharaoh being aggravated by the fairenes of proceedings toward him did to his condemnation before men and Angells and to the magnifying of Gods justice redound the more unto his praise and glory It is not inconsiderable that God by a Starre declared our Saviour in his birth to be the borne King of the Iewes and in that stile brought the wise men to worship him And likewise that when our Saviour to fulfill the prophesyes concerning him did solemnly present himselfe to Ierusalem he suffered his Disciples publiquely to congratulate his comming by the name of King and told those that were offended at it that their gratulation was so necessary as that if they should omit it the stones in their default would have performed it also That he himselfe before Pilate maintained that he was a King and at his death had his Crosse notwithstanding the Iewes opposed adorned with the Title King of the Iewes but when the people would have made him King he refused their officiousnes and would by no meanes accept of that dignity from them he would rather be without his right then receive it either in a wrong way or from a wrong hand no he would not at any of their instances so much as acknowledge himselfe to be authorized for a judge or divider amongst them So little did he acknowledge any power in them to conferr crownes or to have superintendence over them But it is true that when God had determined to make a division of the Kingdome of his people the first King of the ten Tribes was of the peoples making and was made in the way of reformation but that you may know it was only permitted by God that so he might give that stiff-necked people of the fruit of their owne hands and make them an example unto others he designed Ieroboam King which neither annointing nor blessing nor other ceremony then a rent the Prophet rent the new coate into twelve pieces and when he had done he gave him