Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A57226
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Providence and precept, or, The case of doing evil that good may come of it stated and resolved according to Scripture, reason, and the (primitive) practice of the Church of England : with a more particular respect to a late case of allegiance &c. and its vindication in a letter to the author.
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Richardson, Mr.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing R1377; ESTC R24095
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23,343
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36
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belong especially when they are strong enough to Crush them into Obedience For that is it seems one Rule you go by to know when a Government is thoroughly settled Pag 6. But thanks be to God he hath given us a better for if Power to Crush be a sufficient one then no body can deny but Marssinello's was a thorough Settlement in Naples And though his Reign was but short yet his Power was great and he did Crush all that opposed him and had he not met with a Stroke from a Providential Hand which possibly thought Killing no Murther he might have lived to have given Laws like a Conqueror to that great and populous City And by your and Mr. Jenkin's Hypothesis a Divine Right for so doing Which brings me to the second Thing I promised viz. The examining those Texts of Scripture which you quote to prove your new Doctrines by And though those are several yet the main stress of the point lies on Romans 13.1 2. Pag. 19. Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers For their is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Now I must confess since you have taken leave of your own Judgment of the Apostle's meaning in that Place it will be the more difficult to convince you by reason it will not perhaps sute so well with the present Case that you have in your Eye However from a knowledge of your humble Christian temper of not thinking your self too old to learn I will presume to attempt it Pres though I know at the same time my self uncapable and therefore am inclinable to believe you had far more perswasive Reasons for Recanting your former Tenets than what you are pleased to give us in Print But to the point 'T is true the Apostle requires a Subjection to the Higher Powers c. but can it be imagined that the Apostle means by the Higher Power any that shall attain or get possessed of it by Force or Violence which your Case according to your present understanding of the Apostle seems to imply Or by Subjection a transferring an Allegiance which becomes due only to a Rightful and Lawful Prince to another which has no other Right to be so but Power to Crush c. then it is rational to conclude There never was any such Thing as an Usurpation in the World and though some have waded to the Throne in Blood and their Crimes have been of a Crimson dye yet their being but once fixt there they become Innocent and as White as Snow And being invested with your Authority must not only be submitted to but owned as a True and Rightful Liege Lord and Sovereign And all for this Reason viz. They that Resist shall receive to themselves Damnation And yet with your good leave I suppose this word Resistance is not to be understood in such a Latitude as you would have us understand that of Power For then the Refusal of our Prince's Command let it be what it will would entitle a Man to Damnation For he that refuseth the Commands of his Prince doth resist Dan. 3 21. as Shadrach Meshach and Abednego for which they were all cast into a fiery Furnace which was indeed the heighth of Passive Obedience yet I believe no Body supposed them to be in that miserable state for disobeying the King's Command From which I observe as I have heard divers of your Function say we are not in many places of Scripture to take our blessed Saviour or the Apostles words in a strict literal Sense but according to the best Exposition that agrees with the general Scope and Design of the Gospel and then I am sure it is both natural and rational to understand that place of St. Paul viz. There is no Power but of God c. must be all legal and rightful Power which must certainly be imply'd as your self once thought you had sufficiently proved That there is no Power but of God is true indeed for God being Omnipotent there cannot be any Power but by his permissive or approbative Will which was always allowed of as a Divine Distinction of God's Will and without it how harsh and untunable would several Texts of the Bible sound in the Ears of a good Christian as for Instance Amos 3.16 Shall there be Evil in the City and I the Lord hath not done it And now to take this place in the Sense that you do the Apostle of Power is certainly to make God the first and prime Cause of all Evil that shall be done in a City or indeed any where else which Notion may serve well enough for an Atheist but how well it becomes any Body that pretends to Religion do you judge I pray how many Rapes and Robberies and cruel Murders I pray God they be not owing to such horrid Notions of Power giving a Right have been barbarously committed lately in our City and Liberties of London which Almighty God has been pleased to suffer and permit to be done by the powers of Hell and wicked Men which the but taking the foregoing Text in your sense of Power c. and it frees them all by charging the Crimes upon God himself which to me appears little less than Blasphemy and it would make an honest Christian's heart tremble with the thought of such a Notion And then again in the Cases of Pharaoh where it is said God hardned Pharaoh 's heart Now I know not what you may think but it is the Opinion of great Divines that those Words ought not to be taken in a literal Sense but that God knowing the baseness and falseness of his heart did permit the Sorcerers and Magicians of Egypt to imitate Moses and Aaron with their Enchantments which deluded Pharaoh to that degree that he thought it was nothing but the pure effects of Magick only he thought Moses and Aaron to be better Conjurers than the rest and so his heart became hardned through the belief it was all but a Trick And in like manner it may be said God hardens all our hearts when he through our high Provocations withdraws his Divine Spirit which no doubt was Pharaoh's Case from us and delivers us up to strong Delusions insomuch that we believe a Lye though in truth it proceeds from our own wilful stubbornness in not being governed by the truth of his Word which is the everlasting Rule we ought to be ruled by And if we once forsake that 't is but just that God should forsake us and then 't is no wonder if with Pharaoh we cry Who is the Lord that we should obey his voice We know not the Lord neither will we c. Ex. 5.2 From all which as one Text explains another 't is reasonable to conclude that St. Paul's requiring Subjection to all Powers his meaning is all lawful Powers