Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	like_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	41	3	8.9983	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79995	The civil magistrates povver in matters of religion modestly debated, impartially stated according to the bounds and grounds of scripture, and answer returned to those objections against the same which seem to have any weight in them. Together with A brief answer to a certain slanderous pamphlet called Ill news from New-England; or, a narrative of New-Englands persecution. By John Clark of Road-Island, physician. By Thomas Cobbet teacher of the church at Lynne in New-England. This treatise concerning the christian magistrates power, and the exerting thereof, in, and about matters of religion, written with much zeal and judgement by Mr. Cobbet of New-England, I doe allow to be printed; as being very profitable for these times. Feb. 7th. 1652. Obadiah Sedgwick.	Cobbet, Thomas, 1608-1685.	1653 (1653)	Wing C4776; Wing B4541; Thomason E687_2; Thomason E687_3; ESTC R206875	97,858	126

abuse their power contrary to the mind of God That abuse of their power must not invalidate and take away the due use of their power Churches are ecclesiastically to cut off such as trouble the Churches but they may abuse their power to cast out their best members for the truths sake yet this their sinne dischargeth not Churches from the dutie It is alike here abuse of civil power taketh not away this due use of it 2. Just persecution of men sinning against Gods Rules and the Dictates of a right guided conscience which require persons to obey Superiours in all their lawful commands is not to persecute men for attendance unto Gods Rules or to the Dictates of a good conscience and it were absurd to reason thus Men may not be persecuted for a good cause and conscience therefore they may not be punished for maintaining a bad cause and that which is interpretatively against their conscience The exercise of any such power by godly Rulers is cross to Object 9 the meek Spirit of Christ and to that merciful and peaceable Spirit which he requireth of his Saints Rom. 15. 1. Gal. 6. 1 2. Eph. 4. 32. 2 Tim 2. 25. James 3. 15. 17. 1. All that is required of Church Officers and Members Answ such to them so considered are those speeches in special wise directed as the contexts shew yet are Church Officers and Members as those of Ephesus commended also for their zeal when through zeal they could by no means bear with corrupt Tenents and Doctrines of the highest strain and held forth with the highest pretences of Divine Truth and no lesse then Apostolical Revel 2 2. Thou canst not bear them that are evil and hast tried them that say they are Apostles and are not and hast found them liars and they are required to avoid and reject and cut off such as vent corrupt doctrines and the l●ke Rom. 16. 17. Gal. 5. 10. Tit. 3. 10 11. 2. Zeal of God in sharp punishing of such like corruptions stood very well with Christs Dove like Spirit none so meek as he yet none so zealous this way The zeal of Gods House even consumed him and made him lay on so hard with his scourge upon those who polluted the Temple Iohn 2. 16. with 14. 15. 16. 30. so Moses that King in Iesurun the meekest of mere men in his own cause Numb 12. 3. yet how Lion-like in that cause of pollution of Gods worship Exodus 32. 26 27 28 29. So in Hezekiah who was such a shadow to the Saints Esay 32. 2. yet a very fierie flying Serpent against the enemies of God and the Church Esay 14. 29 30. This is contrarie to what was Prophesies of us Gentiles Object 10 That our swords should be beat into plowshares Esay 2. 4 and that none should hurt or destroy in all Gods Mountain 1. Although all sinful and rash quarrelsomness all self avengings Answ or means thereof and all injurious and unwarrantable slaughters should be excluded Gods Mountain yet this hinders not but that gentile Rulers as ordained of God must bear his sword not in their scabbards and at their girdles suffering it to rust for want of use for that were to bear the sword in vain contrary to Gods own order Rom. 13. 4 but to be used against all evil works coming under their Cognizance whether respecting God and Religion more specially or man and righteousnes whether in way of the vengeance of God against domestick offenders or in way of just war against other enemies of God his Cause or Saints If any reply hereto that this place in the Romans intendeth not any matters of Religion at all but onely matters of civil righteousness 1. Evident it is that as good and evil doing whereof the civil Magistrate taketh cognizance are opposed Rom. 13. 3 4. so are incouraging rewards to weldoers as by that of prayses and vindicative rewards to evil doing and to evil doers opposed now none will deny that the civil Magistrate is bound to incourage the Preaching Profession and practice of the Truth worship and wayes of God and therefore by paritie of reason is he to be an avenger of what cometh under his cognizance contrary thereunto 2. The persons more specially spoken to upon that ground to doe well because then they have praise of the same or in case they do evil then they are to fear the vengeance of the Lord to be executed by his Minister the Magistrate they are Professours Officers and Members of Churches such as they were at Rome Rom. 1. 7. and 12. 4 5 6 7 8. compared with chap. 13. 3 4. If thou do that which is evil fear c. which all will confess to be liable to evil doing against the first as well as the second Table 3. He is by Gods Ordinances to be a terrour to evil works indefinitely For rulers are not a terrour to good works but to evil vers 3. v. 4. He is the Minister of God the avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil be he who he will be coming under his power or be the evil what it will be coming under his view Now the Scripture reckons especially the doing of persons of corrupt judgements as persons so corrupt to be evil deeds Hence if a Christian bid God speed to persons who bring not the Doctrine of Truth he is partaker with him in his evil deeds 2 Joh. 10. 11. Hence Paul calleth those corrupt circumcision teachers evil works Phil. 3. 2. Beware of dogs beware of evil workers beware of the concision And the opposition Rom. 13. 3. evinceth this Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to evil whence the argument is strong Those good works and acts which ciuil Rulers are not to be a terrour unto unto the contrary evil works they are to be a terrour to good works and acts civilly such respecting the Truth worship and wayes of God civil rulers are not to be a terrour therefore to evil works contrary to the truth waies and worship of God are they to be a terrour If any yet reply that this in Rom. 13. is spoken with reference to the present power that then bare chief sway at Rome or at least with sole reference to such like civil powers that were christian and looketh not to civil powers becoming christian and so is no rule for christian rulers The Answer is ready albeit those who were in highest power when Paul writ this Epistle were Pagan and not Christian yet the context carrieth the words spoken about higher Civil Powers to be extendible yea especially appliable to Christian civil Rulers 1. When the Apostle saith Wilt thou not be afraid of the power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same Who knoweth not that Nero then ruling was so far from giving encouragement to any Christian Romans either in a way of piety or honesty that he was a very Lyon rather cruelly to devour them 2 Tim 4.

corrupt Practises in matters of Religion mentioned in those severall worthy Laws Nor hath either State or Souldiery any cause to condemn their own renowned acts of Zeal for the Lord in some exemplary punishments which accordingly they have already inflicted upon some persons for such like offences but they shall assuredly find it good to be alwayes zealous in a good thing And as they have begun to shew themselves to be indeed with Christ and not against him so to continue and go on in despite of all false or malignant spirits or tongues And as for you most Noble Sir who in your Military way have had so many Military disputes for the Causes of the Lord if it be vile to be for Jesus Christ be you yet more vile only still keeping as through Grace you have done hitherto low in your own eyes so shall you at length after you have stood and in your way also have fought for Christ and his Cause com to receive that incorruptible Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give you at that day and not to you onely but to all those which love his appearing Which shall be ever his prayer who is Sir Lynne in New-Engl this 4th of the 8th 52. Your Excellencies humbly devoted Servant THOMAS COBBET To the Reader CHristian and Courteous Reader thou canst not but see if thou wisely observest the designs now on foot in these last and perillous days that Satan being disturbed and in a maner dethroned from his so large Dominions possessed under him by his eldest son the Great Antichrist he is now stirring up many petty Antichrists who being in pretence for Christ do some way or other oppose and undermine Christ in his Person Titles Offices or Truths And surely It is none of the least amongst those renowned Titles of his that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords he under and for whom higher Civil powers do and must rule That Great Antichrists master-piece was in the first place to ham-string Civil powers from having any thing to do in matters of Religion or of the Church further than as servants and indeed vassals unto the Pope as visible Head of the Church or to the Mother Church of Rome or at least to Church Councils and Synods to execute onely their Decrees and Laws But since that Civil powers have broken those cursed bonds of Antichrist and shook off that tyrannical yoke of that man of sin and have through grace seen it their approved dignity from the Lord and duty to him to improve their Civil Authority to the utmost against that man of sin and all his usurpations and inventions Satan stirreth up others to prosecute the same design insubstance albeit under more specious pretences even to despoil Civil powers of that which is their glory and crown even as Civil powers to serve the Lord Jesus their Lord and to improve their Authority to establish his Laws and Government onely within their jurisdictions and to root out whatsoever opposeth and undermineth the same The Devils name is Belial one without yoke at least in his desire and indeavor and he breatheth that masterless licentious spirit in such as he effectually worketh They were children of Belial that sayd of Saul 1 Sam. 10. 27. How shall this man save us and they despised him and brought him no presents thence that Spirit and Speech of theirs of old Psal 12. Our tongues are our own who is Lord over us we will maintain hold and say what we please without controul from any this Spirit was in Corah and his Company who at once contemned and condemned those two main Ordinances of God Magistracy and Ministry they were Levellers they would have none in office above others in the Common-wealth or in the Church Num. 16. 3. They gather against Moses and Aaron saying unto them ye take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord the self same spirit Jude saith shall be in some licentious Preachers and professours who shall turn the grace of God into wantonness Jude 4. Walk after their own lusts ver 16. and ver 8. Despise dominion and speak evill of dignities namely not so much of persons in Office in Church or Common-wealth as of their very Offices and ver 11. They perish in the gain-saying of ●ore these have Corahs speeches up in substance what are not all the Lords people Saints and must one Saint be so much above another are they not all one in Christ Jesus is not the Lord among them as their onely Lord Judge King and Law-giver and must they have any other of these also Peter another witness testifieth 2 Pet. 2. 1. There were false Prophets among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who shall privily bring in pernicious Heresies and ver 10. some of their black marks are that they despise Government Civill or Ecclesiasticall Presumptuous are they self-willed they are not afraid to speak evill of Dignities and ver 19. they promise their fellows Liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption Seducers and erring spirits they know well enough that under Christ there is no ordinary means left to restrain and punish their extravagancies but Government in Church and Common-wealth therefore it is wont to be a constant concomitant of Errour and Heresie to become a back friend to Magistracy and Ministry to civill Jurisdiction and to Church Discipline common experience in these dayes witnesseth this when Magistracy and Ministry both are either wholly cryed down by too many erring spirits or so enervated and dispoiled of their proper worth and power by others that they have little left but the bare title and name of such if the Magistrate be allowed by some his power in matters of the second Table yet the other half of his politicall power in matters of the first Table he may not assume Religious States may not they think in wisdom tolerate State errours and the ventings of them but if dangerous errours in Religion are scattered and spread they must let them alone As if civill maxims were more near and dear to Christ under whom Magistrates rule than the matters of his own sacred truth or that matters in politiques were more blisfull or fatall to their Christian subjects than those in Religion or that Christian regulated Magistrates should leave that at a loose end even matter of sound doctrine which is the very bond of Christian societies under their power bodily murtherers they will yield must be capitally punished but if the Wine of Intoxicating and Infatuating doctrine of errour vented and broached by corrupt members of Deut 32. 33. the Church be the Poison of Dragons and venom of Aspes if whosoever eateth of those Cockatrice Eggs which they hatch dyeth spiritually if they commit a thousand soul murthers yet Isa 59. 5.

to his Soveraignty to purge out Church corruptions he now doth by his Vicegerents hands mediately Secondly It is answered he that was God and man who acted did act thus in a mixt way not onely as God but partly also as Man as man he gathered up the small cords as man he twisted them and made a scourge of them as man he laid on with his bodily hand in such sort as thereby to drive the beast-sellers out of the Temple herein therefore imitable in such mere humane acts by men of place Like acts for substance were put forth by David a man of place before Christs coming in the flesh and if typical in David yet verified partly in Christ as the son of David and so as man Yea the reason here suggested by the Holy Ghost to the Disciples as justifying Christs act namely the zeal of Gods house Joh. 2. 17. it must needs be yeelded to be an apt and just reason suitable to the act as the reason therefore is appliable to Christ as man the Antitype even as it was to David the type so is the Act grounded upon that reason and justified by it in the same way appliable to the Antitype Christ as to the type David Christ could have cast out these out of the Temple by a word of his mouth as he did cast Devils out of living temples of his peoples bodies or as he cast down those who came to take him Joh. 18. or he could by a Judicial cord have punished them spiritually as when he bid them fillup the measure of their fathers sins Matth. 23. 32. but he chose to act in such a humane way imitable by others thereunto called Secondly If any object that it was extraordinary in Christ as Object 2 man then to restrain or punish abuses in Religion in any forcible and corporal way I answer Admit it were so 1. Yet at least the act it self of such Answ outward restraint and punishment of abuses in Religion must needs be in it self that whereon the Image of Christs zeal is enstamped that which is in it self good and allowed of God in special wise for else Christ could not at all have acted thus without sin and if in it self it be of that nature why not imitable by such as are thereto called of God to do that in an ordinary way which he did in an extraordinary Secondly Be it that it were extraordinary in Christ as man to act thus so was Phinehas his act of killing Zimri and Cosbi Numb 25. 7 8. and Samuels in hewing Agag in pieces 1 Sam. 15. 33. and Elijahs slaughter which he made among Baals Priests 1 King 18. 40. yet it must be yeelded that there must be some who by office might and should in an ordinary way have punished such filthinesse murthers or Idolatries the Lord not using to stirre up any to an extraordinary way to do any such like acts but in the defect of acts of ordinary power and so here the same Spirit which stirred up them to supply that defect of the acting of ordinary power by extraordinary motions and acts did also stir up Jesus Christ in an extraordinary way to restrain and punish these corruptions in Religion which the present Civil power in duty unto the Lord as his Ministers ought to have restrained and punished and so to have revenged the Indignity therein done to the Lord whose house was so profaned According to that Rom. 13. 4. but they failing in their duty this way the same Spirit of zeal that stirred up David his type in the corrupter times of Saul to be vindicating such indignities against the Lord stirred up Christ his Antitype to do like work for substance in those corrupter times upon which he was cast Nor was this an extraordinary supply of the defect of ordinary Ministerial and Priestly power considered as Priestly and Ministerial for what had they to do as such with external and corporal restraint and punishment in any ordinary way in that way if Peter use the sword he must perish by it Matth. 26. 52. but it must needs be a supply of the defect of Magistratical power which in an ordinary way maketh use of the sword or whip or like instruments of corporeal punishment and vengeance Rom. 13. 4. rather then such like abuses in Religion shall not be in an external coercive way curbed and punished Jesus Christ himself will do something extraordinary to supply that defect So far is that from being Mosaical Jewish and much lesse tyrannical work outwardly to restrain and punish such abuses in Religion for which yet conscience to the Word might be pretended as that Law Deut. 14. 24. 25 26. might be for these that Jesus Christ thought it fit to become himself to put forth his hand to so good and blessed a Work when those whose duty it was to do it would not discharge their trust And now having thus far waded to find out some part of Gods Counsel in this famous History of Christs purging the Temple I shall leave the same to the Judgment of the godly wise The Thesis and Position which I shall propound to be cleared and confirmed from the Scriptures shall be that which before I hinted namely That Corruptions in Religion outwardly breaking forth and expressed may yea and must be restrained and punished by such as are called thereunto Now for the better Handling and the more full discovery of the truth of this point we shall first propound some distinctions 2. Lay down some conclusions about it 3. Confirm the point from Scripture 4. Draw three or four Corrolaries thence Touching the first 1. Corruptions in Religion are either Dogmatical or Practical And these again are either such as are more grosse and strike at the very fundamentals or vitals of Religion whether directly or collaterally or such as are of a more circumstantial and lighter nature Again Corruptions in Religion are either such as are secretly taken up and imbraced and so kept close in the minds and hearts of persons or such as come under mans kenne and view being outwardly expressed in word writing Action or the like And these again which come thus into open view are either such as are held forth with meeknesse peaceablenesse and real expressions of cordial readinesse to lay them aside and reform them upon better information or such as are carried on in any insolent and turbulent way or with expressions of contempt of Civil or Church order 2. Restraint and punishment of these is either that which is merely and immediately divine or that which is mixt partly divine partly humane in respect either of the agent or manner of Acting or that which is properly in the nature of the act person and manner of Acting Humane And this is either Political which is carried on in a civil way and by political means or Ecclesiastical which is carried on in a Church way and by Ecclesiastical meanes 3. A Call of God to restrain and punish