Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	lord_n	soul_n	10,053	5	4.7640	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94081	An essay in defence of the good old cause, or A discourse concerning the rise and extent of the power of the civil magistrate in reference to spiritual affairs. With a præface concerning [brace] the name of the good old cause. An equal common-wealth. A co-ordinate synod. The holy common-wealth published lately by Mr. Richard Baxter. And a vindication of the honourable Sir Henry Vane from the false aspersions of Mr. Baxter. / By Henry Stubbe of Ch. Ch. in Oxon.	Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676.; Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676. Vindication of that prudent and honourable knight, Sir Henry Vane, from the lyes and calumnies of Mr. Richard Baxter, minister of Kidderminster.	1659 (1659)	Wing S6045; Thomason E1841_1; ESTC R209626	97,955	192

other right tha● Ahabs posterity might have pretended for Naboths Vineyard their Ancestours got i● unjustly and they had possession thereof Where a Total Conquest is made by a general subduing of the land to the will of the Victor the claim arising thence is no better than that of an High-way man to the purse of him whom he hath robbed and whatever subjection is paid upon that account if it be due out of a Religious and not Civil conscience on the part of the vanquished yet it cannot be received by the Vsurper if a Christian he being rather to make a manifold compensation for injuries offer'd than to continue them If the Conquest be but partial and an entrance only made by the sword But the people either because of the Right claimed by the Invader or their unwillingness to suffer the miseries of War or their apparent inability to stand out in a way of Besitance or some other consideration submit to a composition and contract of subjection to the Invader in this latter it is evident the Magistrates power is from the peoples consent and the Government is such as the contract and fundamental agreement makes it to be if it be the first Agreement and the Pretender hath no former Title which remains in force for then this latter is invalid if it include not and amount to a relinquishing and disanulling of the old Being vindicated to our Natural Liberty and acquitted from all Moral subjection that might be due upon such contracts as the violation whereof on the other side had nullified on ours It is the acknowledgment which one of the greatest Patrons of Monarchy doth make that he who takes an oath unto another as our Kings did unto the people is thereby confessed to be the inferiour Jusiurandum ceriè reverent●am cul●um bonorem prae se sert ejus cui praestatur Quo fit ut non Clienti Dominus sed Domino Cliens quanquam inter uirumque officiorum mutua quaedam obligatio est sac amenti religi●ne fid●m obsequ●um a ●stringat Quod si rex populo jurat in leges majorum instituta populum cer●e s●periorem i●o dominnm agnoscit cui non sacienda fugien aeque praes●●bat sed a quo sure legem accipiat Jusiurandum enim auetoramentum est obsequii quod ab homine tenuioris fortunae superiori de●etur Blackvod●us Apolog. pro reg C. 25. it being already shewed that power all just power is derived from the assent of the people that their safety is the end aimed at in the institution of Magistracy and that the Magistrate hath no other nor farther power than the people do conferre upon him I shall as briefly as I can discuss that Question Whether any Magistrate erected and constituted by such as have asserted themselves into freedom or such as may be constituted by them can now or hereafter be supposed to have power in spiritual Affairs and Concerns For the decision hereof it is necessary you remember that the case is not now concerning an outside Religion as the form of Gods Worship nor concerning such a Religion as the speculative part whereof extends no farther than the acknowledgement of an Eternal power and God-head the latter of which was clearly manifested unto all so that they are without excuse Rom. 1. v. 20. And the former being not to be deduced from common Principles nor having been declared by express Revelation might vary according to the different reasons or fancies of sundry Nations and there being no infallible rule for to determine of the right no worship could be censured as wrong That which we are to seek after is a Religion consisting in a multitude of Propositions especially as it is now managed by some that make the greatest noise in our age not to be proved by natural reason and common principles but pure Revelation which is delivered in the Scripture in Tongues disused and a phrase peculiar thereunto and for the explanation whereof Tradition is no way conducible but only the Spirit guiding those that are not reprobate unto all knowledge And as to the manner of the worship which we are to use towards God the regulation thereof only depends upon universal rules such as are Neither in this mount nor in Jerusalem but in Spirit and in Truth Let all things be done with order and decency to the glory of God to edification c. That our Magistrate should entermeddle authoritatively in such spiritual affairs by vertue of any power derived from his creators the People is to me morally impossible as well as unlawful Consider the quality of persons interested in the New Government they are not all under one dispensation nor do they walk all in one light But with variety of gifts sundry divisions of the Spirit and several Talent-distributions Christ in the Gospel-Parable Matth. 25. v. 14 saith The kingdom of heaven is as a man travailing into a far countrey who called his own servants and delivered them his goods and unto one he gave five talents to another two and to several ability and straightway took his journey Then he that had received five talents went and traded with them and made them other five talents and likewise he that had received two he also gained other two But he that received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lords money This Parable is not to be understood of the Spiritual Kingdom of Heaven in which though there be diversity of gifts yet is there none idle none that bury their talent in the earth for ever until the coming of their Lord and Master But it is understood of that Oeconomy whereby God rules the World in general and it is that Method of Government by which the pillars of the earth are upheld So that however a Parable may be but an evil ground for a rational discourse in it self yet since the experience of all ages under the Gospel doth attest thereunto I shall take it for an unquestionable Truth That there is not onely a great variety amongst the sons of men as to naturall abilities but also spirituall endowments and that in such discr pancy as is the proportion betwixt one two and five talents That according to these Talents gifts and endowments men do act that is Men deport themselves according to the understanding upon which necssarily doth depend the will which they have and not according to what they have not That it is not possible for them of lower gifts and abilities to attain unto the measure of those perfections which are resplendant in men of greater gifts It is with those soul-embellishments as with the eye in seeing the short-sighted cannot discerne those things which are conspicuous enough to quicker eyes The naturall or animall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither CAN he know them because they are SPIRITV ALLY discerned But he that is spirituall judgeth all things 1. Cor.

that which we finde to be best if after our most serious and deliberate Election we shall be affrightned out of our consciences by penalties Ad vana inutilia nec lex dei nec hominis prudentis cogit To what purpose is there so much liberty permitted as may beget our torture and not permit us to rest where we finde satisfaction Either prohibit to search at all or let us be sensible of some benefit by searching To believe what appears untrue seems to me impossible To professe what we believe untrue I am sure is damnable Are there not now as many occasions for us to try the Spirits as formerly Are there not now as many errors broached as then And is the true Doctrine delivered infallibly by the Apostles and attested unto by miracles and wonders as of old Nay is it not foretold that the last times shall be more perillous for seduction and that the faith of the very elect if possible should be indangered That many false Christs should come and though any the Magistrate not excepted should say lo here or lo there is Christ are we not forbid to believe them was that a temporal injunction That every man should be perswaded in his own minde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 14.5 Must we under the Reformation only vary the Object of our implicit Faith not renounce the thing it self Surely Moses who left an High Priest with Vrim and Thummim light and perfection to resolve doubts and to preserve knowledge together with perspicuous Laws for Government Spiritual Surely I say he was more faithful than Christ and his Apostles since they left the world no infallible Judge to expound Scripture so as men might adhere unto their decisions because they were theirs The Spirit of God in each Saint is the sole Authentique Expositor of Scripture unto him that hath it the publike Spirit of the Church imaginary or Catholique hath been sufficiently exploded nor do I doubt but a Believer may safely acquiesce in his Explications upon whose Authority alone he receives the Text and in whom we all place the sure hopes of our Eternal welfare The Spirit bearing witnesse with our spirits that we are the sons of God Rom. 8.16 Yet this testimony of the private Spirit in the breast of a Saint however it be so clear and convincing that his Faith becomes the very substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. v. 1. yet is it like unto the white stone and the new name which no man knows but he that hath it Revel 2.17 it obligeth not others purely to a belief who have not received the like satisfaction What is Revelation to one is but Tradition to another and he who will believe every man that saith he is sent of Heaven may himself unless chance be as prevalent as choice in soul concerns go himself to Hell Thus Pilates wife was obliged to believe God speaking to her He was not bound to believe a woman speaking to him Have thou nothing to do with that just man for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him He might think she might be willing to deceive out of a natural compassion strong in that Sex or might be deceived her self calling that inspiration which was fancie This unsupplyable defect of common evidence in the delivery of Spirituall matters is of that nature as it alone would suffice to the enforceing a Toleration For though it be a confessed principle that whatsoever the prime verity doth say is an uncontroulable truth yet the course whereby he discovers himself in divers wayes and after divers manners unto the sons of men is followed with so much ambiguity waving that Soul-satisfying testimony of the Spirit as inquisitive men and sober if destitute of the highest gifts may upon a rationall ground if that way of arguing unto which we are bred up be true and sound suspect the sincerity the Revelation in the word and if he assent thereunto strongly and firmely he is rather to be accounted resolved then certaine And it is judiciously said All voluntary opinion that is grounded not in the understanding but will onely is vitious A sentence famous amongst the old phylosophers and confirmed by Austin that to give a direct assent to what you know to be uneertain is Turpe that is in our ordinary locution Sin in all propositions where we see no more then probability it is our part to withhold our assent till evidence or certainty deserve it The reason is cleare for if a man do strain his stomack with meat or drink his armes with pulling or walks himself off on his feet we blame him because he uses his body otherwise then is fitting or out of proportion to his dispositions and therefore wrongs it disappointing the end and use to which nature designed it Since then our understanding is our principall and most noble part farre lesse ought it to be strained against it's nature and which encreases the unworthiness of the Act this cannot be done to the understanding but by an inferiour whose end is good not truth and so no fit motive for faith and to obey or be ruled by its dictates Nor is this any derogation to God's word but a charge upon the weakness of man not being able to comprehend things certain in themselves and evident to some upon other accompts I shall not debate this matter any further it having been learnedly and unanswerably handled by Dr. Taylor in his Liberty of Prophesying I now come to shew that where there is wanting an infallible Expositor of the minde of God which being to be accepted upon Revelation is not to be discussed by Reason there is not onely cause for a Toleration for why should any be forced from what he holds to be true It is not ma●criall but formal certainty that obliges to belief unto that which another can not evidence but it may be false but sufficient ground from former practices and usages to reestablish the like forbearance Under the Jewish Kings before the captivity though they had an infallible direction by Vrim and Thummim for cases emergent and positive orders to recurre unto the High-Priest for resolution yet such was the power given or arrogated by their Kings these so intermedled with religion which then mostly consisted in outward ceremonies and types with a very slender explicite faith that all the forementioned circumstances were not a sufficient barre to keepe the people from idolatry who seemed so complyant as if they were absolute vassalls to their Soveraignes and onely rebellious towards God so dismall is that power when entrusted with the Magistrate and can we think a select Clergy founded upon Tithes that have no other right then what the Hands may take away which gave them not endowed with any substitute for the Vrim and Thummim but dictionary-learned Pasorians not assisted with extraordinary prophets as of old should bear up against a corrupt