Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	christian_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	71	3	9.0806	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56215	The sword of Christian magistracy supported, or, A vindication of the Christian magistrates authority under the Gospell, to punish idolatry, apostacy, heresie, blasphemy, and obstinate schism, with corporall, and in some cases with capitall punishments ... by William Prinne of Lincolns Inne, Esquire.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1653 (1653)	Wing P4099; ESTC R15969	222,705	186

and capital punishments such as adored not those Idol-gods which they worshipped and reputed for the true and such as they deemed Idolaters Apostates Hereticks Schismaticks Blasphemers and open Rebels against God Therefore Christian Kings Magistrates Nations under the Gospel ought much more to do it The Major is evident by its own light and ratified by ROM 2. 14 15. The Minor I shal make good by Scripture testimonies I shall begin with King Artaxerxes his Commission to Ezra c 7. 15 26. And thou Ezra after the wisdom of thy God that is in thine hand set Magistrates and Judges which may judge all the people which are beyond the river all such as know the Law of thy God And whosoever WIL NOT DO THE LAW OF THY GOD and the law of the King let judgement be executed speedily upon him WHETHER IT BE TO DEATH OR TO BANISHMENT OR TO CONFISCATION OF GOODS OR TO IMPRISONMENT Shal a meer Heathen King be so zealous as to enjoyn the Judges and Magistrates under him to inflict these corporal and capital censures upon such as wil not do the Law of God in which number all Idolaters Apostates Hereticks Blasphemers c. are included and shal not Christian Princes Magistrates Judges much more exceed him in their zeal and justice against such transgressors of Gods Law But that Decree of Nebuchadnezzer against blasphemers of God is more emphatical and pathetical DAN 3. 28 29. Then Nebuchadnezzer spake and said blessed be the Lord God of Shadrach Mesach and Abednego who hath sent his Angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him c. Therefore I make a Decree that every people nation and language WHICH SPEAK ANY ERROR or any thing amisse AGAINST THE GOD of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego SHAL BE CUT IN PEECES and THEIR HOUSES SHAL BEE MADE A DUNGHIL because there is no God that can deliver after this sort If this Pagan King out of his transcendent zeal upon the sight but of one miracle was stirred up without any debates or delay to make such a severe decree as this against all those of every people nation and language that did speak any Error or Blasphemy against the true God whom these three worthies then and we now worship shal not this decree of his rise up in Judgement against all those Christian Princes Parliaments Magistrates Judges under the Gospel who professe themselves the worshippers servants children of this true God and yet shal refuse or neglect to make such strickt and severe Decrees against such Hereticks and Blasphemers who maliciously belch out most execrable blasphemies and Errors against God himself and openly maintain them in discourse and writing but especially against those who pretend and stile themselves the ONLY SAINTS and SERVANTS OF GOD how truly let this one act alone declare who professedly plead preach and write against the Corporal and Capital Punishment of such damnable Hereticks Blasphemers and the enacting of any severe Laws against them by the Parliament and civil Magistrates when as this Pagan King by his Decree commanded such to be instantly cut in peeces and their houses to be made a dunghill without any pity or pardon Were Pagan Nebuchadnezzer now alive amongst us he would new heat his Fiery Furnace to warm the kay-cold frozen zeal of such heatlesse New-Lights and zeal-lesse Saints as these or shame them into an emulation of his zeal against such Hereticks and Blasphemers I shal close up this with that saying of Augustine recorded by Gratian Quando vult Deus concitate potestatem adversus Haereticos adversus Schismaticos adversus dissipatores Ecclesiae adversus exsufflatores Christi adversus Blasphematores Christi blasphemi non mirentur quia Deus concitat ut a Sara verbaretur Agar cognoscat se Agar supponat cervicem c. Ad hoc ergo affligitur ut revertatur Nebuchadnezzer Rex decrevit dicens Quicunque dixerint blasphemiam in Deum Sidrac Misac Abednago in interitu erunt domus eorum in dispersione Ecce quomodo Rex alienigena sevit ne blasphemetur Deus Israel qui potuit tres pueros de igne liberare nolunt ut seviant Reges Christiani quia Christus exsufflatur a quo non tres pueri sed totus orbis terrarum cum ipsis regibus a gehennarum igne liberantur Quomodo ergo istireges non moveantur qui non tantum tres pueros attendunt liberatos de flamma sed seipsos de flamma Gehennae quando vident Christum a quo liberati sunt exsufflari a Christianis quando audiunt dici Christiano dic te non esse Christianum Talia facere volunt sed talia pati nolunt Nam videte qualia faciunt qualia patiuntur occidunt animas affliguntur in corpore sempiternas mortes faciunt et temporales se perpeti conqueruntur So in the 1 ESDRAS c. 6. 23. to 34. It is recorded that King Cyrus and Darius by their Royal Decrees commanded the Temple of Jerusalem to be built unto the Lord and offrings and prayers to bee there made to the most high GOD for the King and his children and commanded that whosoever should transgresse yea or make light of any thing afore written out of his own house should a tree be taken and HE THERE ON TO BE HANGED and ALL HIS GOODS TO BE SEISED FOR THE KING O the transcendent zeal of these Heathen Princes against the obstructers or oppugners of Gods true worship and shal not Christian Kings and Magistrates be as zealous against Hereticks Blasphemers Schismaticks Seducers Idolaters who oppugn corrupt his truth and withdraw men from his worship I proceed to Presidents of another Nature We read JUDG 6. 28. to 32. That when Gideon in the night time had thrown down the Altar of Baal and cut down the Grove that was by it in Ophrata the men of the City who worshipped Baal said one to another who hath done this thing and when they had enquired and asked they said Gideon the son of Joash hath done this Then the men of the City said unto Ioash bring out thy son THAT HE MAY DYE BECAUSE HE HATH CAST DOWN THE ALTAR OF BAAL because he hath cut down the Grove that was by it Whence it is evident that these very Idolaters deemed this afront to their Idol-god whom they beleeved adored as the true to be no lesse then a capital offence deserving death So in the 1 KING 18. 13. c. 19. 2. 10. 14. and ROM 11. 3. 4. we find that Idolatrous Queen Iezabel who worshipped Baal as the true God and drew Ahab her husband and his subjects to her Idolatry did slay the Prophets of the Lord with the sword and threw down his Altar and seek the Prophet Elijahs life who was enforced to flie to save it because shee deemed him and the Prophets she slew to be Hereticks False Prophets Blasphemers Opposers of her Idol-Baal and his Idolatrous worship then generally received as the true So DAN 3. 1.

Anabaptists do deny Secondly because Christian Kings and Magistrates under the Gospel have the self-same authority as godly Kings and Magistrates had under the Law even as Parents Masters Husbands naturall Magistrates have the self-same authority over their Children Servants Wives under the Gospel as they had under the Law ROM 13. 1. to 6. TIT. 3. 1. 1 PET. 2. 13 14 15. c. 4. 15. compared with EPH. 6. 1. to 8. c. 5. 21 22. COL 3. 18. to 25. 1 TIM 6. 1 2. 1 PET. 3. 11. 12. 13. c. 2. 18. there being no one text in the New Testament which restrains either Kings or Magistrates power given them by God in the Old Thirdly because the ends and uses for which Magistrates were instituted are the same under the New Testament and Old ROM 13. 1. to 6. 1 TIM 2. 1 2 3. 1 PET. 2. 13. 14. c. 4. 15. ISA 1. 49. 23. therefore their power and rule the same Fourthly because the precepts given to Magistrates under the Law for punishing Idolaters Apostates False Prophets Hereticks and Blasphemers are not Ceremonial or Judicial but moral and perpetual and so of equal obligation under the Law and Gospel as wel as the Decalogue and Moral Law of God Fifthly because godly Kings and Christian Magistrates ought to be as zealous for God and his truth if not more zealous under the Gospel as they were under the Law REV. 3. 19. c. 2. 14 15 16. 20. 23. compared with NUM ● 15. 11 13. 2 KING 10. 16. c. The Minor I shal ratifie by this particular Induction First for Idolatry Idolaters Apostates False Prophets and Seducers of men from the true God and Religion to Idols and Idolatry we have these expresse precepts warranting if not commanding the civil Magistrate to inflict corporal and capital punishments on them ● Levit. 20. 2. to 6. Whosoever of the children of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel that giveth any of his seed to Molech that is sacrificeth any of his children or maketh them passe through the fire to that Idol LEVIT 18. 21. 2 KING 21. 10. He shal SVRELY BE PVT TO DEATH the people of the Land shal stone him with stones and I wil set my face against that man and wil cut him off from among his people because he hath given of his seed to Molech to defile my sanctuary and to prophane my holy Name And if the people of the Land do any way hide their eyes when he giveth his seed unto Molech and kil him not then I wil set my face against that man and against his family and wil cut him off and all that go a whoring after him to commit wh●rd●me with Molech from among their people From which text we may observe these particulars First that not only such stranger Idolaters who constantly worshipped Idols and never adored the true God were to be put to death by the Israelites but even such of the Israelites themselves and of the sojourners among them who turned Idolaters and sacrificed unto Molech to whom they offered their children were to be surely put to death and stoned with stones by the people without m r y being first convicted and condemned by the Magistrate Secondly that the Magistrates and peoples hiding of their eyes and sparing such as these contrary to this precept was a grievous sin Thirdly that where the Magistrates and people winked at such an Idolater and hid their eyes from him God himself in their default would set his face against him and cut him off from among his people and not only so but would set his face against his family and cut off all them that went a whoring after him from among his people whereas if the Magistrate had punished him his family had not been thus cut of by God Fourthly that it is not sufficient to leave Idolaters Hereticks and Blasphemers to Gods own vengeance and execution who wil certainly cut them and their families off if they repent not but themselves must likewise cut them off as God commands before God proceeds to do it they being his Ministers and Executioners appointed for this end who must not put off the Execution of such to God the supream Judge no more then the Hang●● man amongst us may transfer the Execution of a Felon or Traytor to the Judge who condemns them which answers and refutes one main objection of our opposites that we must leave Idolaters Hereticks and False Teachers unto Gods Judgement and Execution if we cannot convert them by the Word and let such tares to grow til the harvest amongst the Corn. Secondly Deut. 13. 1. If there arise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a signor a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying let us go after other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet or that Dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul yee shal walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his Commandments and obey his voyce and you shal serve him and cleave unto him And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shal be put to death because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God which brought you out of the Land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee If thy brother the son of thy mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soul entice thee secretly saying let us go and serve other gods which thou hast not known thou nor thy fathers namely of the gods of the people which are round about you or nigh unto thee or far off from thee from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth Thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him neither shal thine eye pity him neither shalt thou spare neither shalt thou conceal him But thou shalt surely kil him thine hand shal be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hands of all the people And thou shalt stone him with stones that he dye because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage And all Israel shal hear and fear and shal do no more any such wickednesse as this is among you If thou shalt hear say in one of thy Cities which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwel there saying Certain men the children of Belial are gone out from among you and have withdrawn the Inhabitants

Vicegerents punish all high Treasons or Offences not the King alone in person committed directly against the King himselfe and that with greater care then any offences against other persons and Councels of Warre punish offences against the General himself more exemplarily then against inferiour Officers which if this hold good they could not intermeddle with We read John 19. 12. 13. That when Pontius Pilate would have released our Saviour Christ the Jewes cryed out saying if thou let this man goe thou art not Cesars friend whosoever maketh himselfe a King speaketh against Caesar When Pilate therefore heard that saying he brought Jesus forth and sate downe on the Judgment-seat and delivered him ever to the chiefe Priests to be crucified who said we have no King but Caesar Certainly I may much more truly say that those Princes Judges Magistrates who are Gods Deputies and sit upon his Throne of judgment are no friends at all to God and lesse zealous for him then Pilate was for Caesar if they doe not with all care and zeale punish such Atheists Blasphemers Hereticks most severely who sinne immediately against that God whose very Vicegerents and Avengers they are and it shall be more intolerable for them at the day of judgment then for any Judge or Viceroy who wilfully refuseth to punish high Treason against his earthly Soveraigne which is no lesse then high Treason in himselfe I shall say no more to this Objection but that it is fitter for Beasts then rationall men for incarnate Devils Atheists then spirituall Saints for God-dammee Cavaliers then Parliament-Troopers who deserve to be boared through the Tongue or rather to have their Tongues cut out for such blasphemous arguments in favour of blasphemy The thirteenth Objection is this Repentance to the acknowledgment of the Truth being a special gift of God and man not capable of it nor of any divine supernaturall truth not revealed by the very light of nature it is very unreasonable that the want of it being a judgment upon a man from God and which withall no way proves hurtfull unto others at lest not necessarily or unavoydably hurtfull that it should expose him to further misery and punishment from among men a reasonable man will think it very hard and unreasonable to punish a man for not doing that which is onely proper and in the power of God alone to doe I answer that this is one of John Goodwins Atheisticall reasons against the Magistrates jurisdiction to punish Hereticks Schismaticks Antitrinitarians or Denyers of the Deity of Christ and the holy Ghost with corporall and capitall punishments borrowed from Petilian the Donatist warranted by no Text at all and directly contrary to the whole current of Scripture as I shall prove by these instances First if this argument holds good then no man can in any reason be punished or damned either for originall sinne or unbeliefe or want of repentance faith or any other saving grace because it it not in mans owne power industry or seeking to avoyd these sinnes or procure these saving graces but onely in the power of God to work them yet God punisheth these unavoydable sins and want of these spiritual graces with eternal death Secondly the want of the grace of God hardens mens hearts the defect of his fear before their eyes which is not in their power but Gods is one principall cause why men commit or fall into any capitall sins as Treason Murder and the like as well as cōmit and fall into Heresie Schism Blasphemy Atheism Idolatry But the want of Gods grace or feare to prevent Treason or Murder will not excuse Traytors Murderers or other Malefactors from the Gallowes nor Children nor Servants from their Parents and Masters due correction therefore not Hereticks Idolaters Blasphemers Atheists Schismaticks from due punishments Thirdly admit it would be hard and very unreasonable for a Christian Magistrate to punish any Heathen who never enjoyed the meanes of Christianity nor professed the Christian Religion for not beleeving in Christ or the holy Ghost or for contradicting any truths revealed onely by the light of Scripture not nature since as many as have sinned without the written Law shall be judged without the written Law onely for breach of the Law of nature as Divines determine from Rom. 2. 12 to 17. Yet since Christians who professe Christianity have the light of the Scripture to direct them which by diligent reading hearing prayer meditating conference to which they are obliged and which lyes in their owne power they may fully understand so farre as to discerne between Heresie Error Blasphemy and the Truth it selfe it is as great reason justice that the Christian Magistrate should punish them with corporall and in some cases with capitall punishments as God with eternall for broaching damnable Heresies Errors Blasphemies and Schismaticall opinions against the written Word or as to punish Heathens or Christians for any offence committed by them meerly against the Law of nature which is nothing so cleere and perspicuous to Heathens as the Scripture is or may be unto Christians Fourthly admit the Objection solid yet it is nothing to purpose since the Magistrate never punisheth any man for his meer ignorance or unbeliefe as is pretended though Ecclesiasticall Officers doe by suspention from the Sacrament and I think Master Goodwin too against this very argument which holds as well in Ecclesiasticall as Secular punishments but onely for actuall maintaining or venting damnable Hetesies Errors Blasphemies and Schismaticall practises after admonitions and other meanes used to reclaime them Therefore the Objector might well have kept this rover in his quiver which comes not ●eer the mark Fiftly Heresies Blasphemies Errors Schismes are exceeding prejudiciall to others and Gods eternall punishing of them hereafter is no supersedeas to the Magistrates censures of them here as I have formerly evidenced Therefore this Argument is both false and idle The fourteenth Objection is this That power is very dangerous for a Magistrate to owne in the exercise whereof he may very easily and commonly doth run a hazard at lest of fighting against God or of plucking up that which he hath planted or of pulling downe that which God hath built up But such is that power of punishing Heresies Scismes Blasphemies c. which A. S. cum multis aliis are ready to fasten upon him Ergo. The proposition is too much every mans sense and consent to be A. S. his dissent The Assumption he proves because those practises in Religion which the Magistrate is borne in hand by those whose eyes be sees with in such cases to be schismaticall erronious and contrary unto God may very possibly be the wayes and truths of God because Synods Parliaments and Magistrates formerly have mistaken in this kind and may still mistake I answer first that the proposition is not onely without but against Scripture and might have been made against the Magistrates and

whom the offence commeth Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee cut them off and cast them from thee it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed rather then having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire c. If then the necessity of offences and impossibility but that they will come doth not excuse those by whom they come either from Woe Punishment or Hel-fire it selfe by Christs owne resolution and therefore we must cut off a right hand a right foot and pull out a right eye in case they offend us to preserve the whole body from hell and destruction then by the same reason the necessity of Heresies and Schisms will neither excuse nor exempt Hereticks nor Schismaticks from temporal or eternall Woes punishments or from being cut off and rooted out when incurable or incorrigible to preserve the whole body of a Church from infection and ruine IV. If this be no good Argument or consequent as all will grant There is a necessity that the earth by reason of Gods curse upon it should bring forth Bryars Thornes and Weeds which will and doe alwayes spring up in our Gardens Grounds and among our Corne Gen. 3. 17 18. Mat. 13. 25 26 c. Heb. 6. 7 8. Ergo we must not weed nor pull up such Thistles Bryars and Weeds out of our Gardens Grounds Corne but suffer them to grow without controll Nor this Foxes Wolves Beares and other Beasts of prey doe by a naturall instinct and necessity devour and pray upon Lambs Sheep and other Cattle therefore it is unlawfull to chase them away from the Sheep Heard Poultery or kill them for devouring them or to kill or drive away Rats Mice or Vermine from our Corne on which nature teacheth them to feed to preserve their lives Then certainly the Objection by like reason must be as absurd incoherent as these Arguments though there were a necessity of Heresies and Schismes V. Admit there were a necessity of Heresies and Schismes in generall yet there is no necessity that such or such a particular Heresie should spring up or that such a particular person should either be an Heretick or Schismatick and if any be such it is from their owne free choyce or love of Error and through their owne default not any inevitable necessity imposed on them by God therefore they may be justly punished for it both temporally and eternally as well as those who crucified Christ in pursuance of Gods owne Councell and Decree which neither mitigated nor extenuated their voluntary sin Act. 2. 22 23 58 ch 4. 26 27 28. 1 Thes 2. 15 16. VI. The necessity of Heresies and Schismes did not prohibit nor restraine Paul himselfe from smiting Elymas the Sorcerer with blindnesse Acts 13. 6 to 13. nor from delivering Hymeneus and Philetus who denying the Resurrection and subverted the faith of some to Satan ● Tim. 1. 19 20. 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. nor from casting out the incestuous Corinthian 1 Cor. 5. 5. nor from wishing those that troubled the Galathians to be cut off Gal. 5. 21. nor from opposing Schisme and Schi●maticks 1 Cor. 1. 8 to 17. Rom. 16. 17 18. 1 Tim. 4. 1 2 ● 2 Tim. 3. 1 to 7. Tit. 3. 10 11. Therefore it can no more exempt them from temporall punishments by the civill Magistrate then Ecclesiasticall by Church-Officers and the Apostle Paul himselfe Finally the contingent good which Hereticks and Schismaticks sometimes doe to those that are approved doth no wayes plead for their toleration or impunity because it is contingent Al Heresies and Schismes are in their owne natures evill dangerous destructive pernicious If Gods over-ruling providence turnes them to good to some yet they are dangerous and pernicious to most and therefore deserve both suppression and punishment by Gods own expresse precept Jude 3 4 c. Rev. 2. 13 4 115 20 21. 2 John 9 ●0 11. Rom. 16. 17 18. 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. The Devill himselfe and his malice is sometimes an accidentall occasion of good to the Saints yet they must resist him stedfastly else he would devour them James 4. 7. 1 Pet. 5. 8 9. Eph. 6. 12 13. So ill humours diseases casually doe the body good sometimes but it is by purging of them out with Physick and Phlebotomy else they will become mortall so it is with Heresies and Schisms they will prove damnable and pernicious if not purged out of the Churches body All which considered the Argument from this objected Text will prove a meer inconsequent and absurdity As for the other Objection which the Independents and Sectaries of late cry up That no man now is guided with an infallible Spirit so as insallibly and certainly to define what is Heresie and Blasphemy what not Therefore men are not to be capitally punished for Heresie or Blasphemie They might adde by the like reason not for any other crime I answer briefly because answered at large by Master Beza heretofore and by Master Edwards now in his Treatise against Toleration and elswhere touched upon here but fully refuted in my Truth triumphing over Falshood pag. 152 to 156. First that this Objection proves our Sectaries and Independents who object it meere Nullifidians who beleeve not the very Principles of Religion with an infallible certainty of falth as indubitable Truths but onely as probable Tenets which may be false as well as true in which they are worse then Papists who though they plead for doubting of their owne salvation yet they doubt not at all of their Religion though erronious Yea worse then the veriest Turks and Pagans who beleeve their Idolatrous Religions to be infallibly true Secondly I wonder how these Objectors dare professe or embrace any thing in Religion which they beleeve not certainly to be an infallible truth since whatsoever is not of faith is sinne and he that doubteth is damned Rom. 14. 23. or how they can with comfort suffer for it Thirdly we have the true reason of our Sectaries and Independents ficklenesse and daily changes from one opinion to another till they become flat Schismaticks or Atheists because they beleeve nothing with certainty Fourthly we have here an infallible evidence that they are neither good Saints nor Christians much lesse the onely Saints and anointed ones as they stile themselves since the Saints are all rooted grounded in the true Christian Faith and led infallibly into all divine Truths necessary to salvation which they both beleeve and have been taught Col. 2. 7. 2 Pet. 1. 12 19. Ephes 3. 17. 18. chap. 4. 14 15 1 Cor. 15. 58. Luke 1. 1 2 4. James 1. 6 7 8. 1 Cor. 16 13. Phil. 1. 27. chap. 4. 1. John 15. 13. ch 8. 32. ● Tim. 4. 3. Fiftly there are some Principles in Divinity which all true Saints and Christians infallibly beleeve and know both concerning God the Father Christ the holy Ghost the divine Attributes the sacred Scriptures and