Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	great_a	holy_a	see_v	3,964	5	3.2444	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80608	The bloudy tenent, washed, and made white in the bloud of the Lambe: being discussed and discharged of bloud-guiltinesse by just defence. Wherein the great questions of this present time are handled, viz. how farre liberty of conscience ought to be given to those that truly feare God? And how farre restrained to turbulent and pestilent persons, that not onely raze the foundation of godlinesse, but disturb the civill peace where they live? Also how farre the magistrate may proceed in the duties of the first table? And that all magistrates ought to study the word and will of God, that they may frame their government according to it. Discussed. As they are alledged from divers Scriptures, out of the Old and New Testament. Wherein also the practise of princes is debated, together with the judgement of ancient and late writers of most precious esteeme. Whereunto is added a reply to Mr. Williams answer, to Mr. Cottons letter. / By John Cotton Batchelor in Divinity, and teacher of the church of Christ at Boston in New England.	Cotton, John, 1584-1652.	1647 (1647)	Wing C6409; Thomason E387_7; ESTC R836	257,083	342

of it For may it not justly be conceived That the Lord therefore hid the place of his buriall least the Children of Israel knowing it might goe a whoring after his Sepulchre and it may be offer sweet incense upon it and so such false worship against the law of Moses might come to be Tolerated for honor to the body of Moses But Christ hath abolished a Nationall State or Church which Moses set up in Canaan Though Christ abolished a Nationall Church-State and instead thereof set up a Congregationall Church yet Christ never abolished a Nationall Civill State nor the Judiciall Lawes of Moses which were of Morall equity but established them rather in their place and order He that shed his own bloud to plant his Church did never abolish that Law which enacted that his bloud should be upon him who should supplant his Church If Christs bloud goe to plant it let the false Christs bloud goe for supplanting it Discusser In the King of Bohemias speech the Answerer passeth by that Foundation in grace and Nature that Conscienee ought not to be violated and forced it is a spirituall Rape Defender This was not passed by but prevented in stating the Question where it was said it is not lawfull to censure any no not for error in Fundamentall points of Doctrine or Worship till the Conscience of the offendor be first convinced out of the word of God of the dangerous error of his way and then if he still persist It is not out of Conscience but against his Conscience as the Apostle saith Tit. 3.11 so he is not persecuted for cause of Conscience but punished for sinning against his Conscience Discusser The King observeth that most lamentably true experience of all ages That persecution for cause of Conscience hath ever proved pernicious c. Defender No experience in any age did ever prove it pernicious to punish seducing Apostates after due conviction of the error of their way Wherein did the burning of Servetus prove pernicious to Geneva or the just execution of many popish Preists to Queene Elizabeth or to the english State But the Kings speech may passe if it be meant of persecution properly so called to wit Oppression of the faithfull for the Truths sake yea if it be the punishment of any for error If not Fundamentally pernicious either to Religion or Church-order and that after conviction of Conscience persisted in with obstinacy Discusser Lastly the Kings observation of his owne time that Persecution for cause of Conscience was practised most in England and such places where Popery reigned Implying as I conceive such practises commonly proceed from the great Whore whose Daughters are like their Mother all of a bloudy nature as commonly all wolves be Defender It is no marvell if I passed by this observation in the Kings speech For there is no such observation there to be found If the Discusser had well observed it himselfe he would have found it was not the speech of the King but of the Prisoner And the persecution he speaketh of was not of Antichristians or Hereticks or Idolaters but onely of such as the world nick-named Puritans or the like and of them too without conviction of the error of their way But in that the Discusser maketh England a Daughter of the great Whore and of a bloudy nature like her Mother he speaketh as some other of the rigid Seperation have done before him But I could never yet see awarrant from the rule either of Truth or Love for such a speech Did ever the holy Scripture call any Church an whore that worshipped the true God onely in the Name of Jesus and depended on him alone for righteousnesse and salvation Is it not the part of a base childe or at least a base pare of a childe to call his Mother whore who bred him and bred him to know no other Father but her lawfull Husband the Lord Jesus Christ CHAP. 60. A Reply to his 63. Chap. Discusser NOw Thirdly In that the Answerer observeth that amongst the Romane Emperors they that did not persecute were Julian the Apostate and Valens the Arian Whereas the good Emperors Constantine Gratian Valentian and Theodosius they did persecute the Arians and Donatists Let it be for an Answer It is no new thing for godly and eminently godly men to performe ungodly actions nor for ungodly persons for wicked ends to act what in it selfe is good and righteous c. Defender This may goe for a truth but not for an Answer The Letter would Justifie Toleration of Religion from the judgement and speeches of three Kings I Answered that was no Argument for I could bring him Kings more in number and greater in the sight of God and man who judged it meet not to tolerate Hereticks nor turbulent Schismaticks To this the Discusser Answereth sometimes the Godly doe that which is evill and the wicked that which is good This I say is a Truth but doth not take away my Answer but by a Petitio Principij a begging of the Question That Kings alledged by him did that which was good but the Kings alledged by me though better persons did that which was evill CHAP. 61. A Reply to his Chap. 64. Discusser THe unknowing zeale of Constantine and other Emperors did more hurt to Christ Jesus his Church and Kingdome then the raging fury of the most bloudy Neroes In the persecution of those wicked Emperors Christians were sweet and fragrant like spice pounded in Morters But those good Emperors persecuting some erroneous persons and advancing the Professors of some truthes and maintaining their Religion by the materiall Sword by this meanes Christianity was eclipsed The Professors of it fell asleepe Cant. 5. Babel was usher'd in and by degrees the Churches of the Saints were turned into the Wildernesse of whole Nations Rev. 12.13 untill the whole world became Christian or Christendome Those good Emperors intending to exalt Christ but not attending to the command of Christ Jesus to permit the Tares to grow in the Field of the world they made the Garden of the Church and Field of the world all one c. Defender If the unknowing zeale of Constantine other Christian Emperors did more hur● to the Church then the raging fury of bloudy Neroes It was not because the raging fury of those Persecutors was more accepted of God then this unknowing zeale of the good Emperors For though the unknowing zeale of the one was finfull yet it was the friut of humane frialty Error Amoris But the rage of the others was divelish fury Amor Erroris Besides the unknowing zeale of the good Emperors lay not in punishing notorious Hereticall Seducers nor will the Discusser be ever able to shew that the Church of Christ suffered any hurt at all by that meanes The contrary is evident Constantius and Valens by Tolerating and favoring the Arians the whole world became Arian Ingemuit orbis Christianus et miratus est factum se esse Arianum

knew it was out of Question all persecution was unlawfull whether by the Church or the Magistrate an unjust excommunication is as true persecution as an unjust Banishment But if persecution be taken more largely and loosely as it is by the Author of the Letter and by the Discusser for any affliction or persecution for cause of Conscience whether good Conscience or evill whether rightly informed or erroneous If that be the intent of the Letter as it seemed to me to beare witnesse against that then any testimony of Scripture that justifieth a lawfull censure of false and erroneous Teachers doth evince the scope of the Letter to be erroneous which is against all persecution for cause of Conscience Let therefore the Discusser admire at his owne admiration and be astonished at his owne astonishment that wondereth to see an universall negative argued against by a particular affirmative The Letter denyeth the lawfulnesse of all persecution in cause of Conscience that is in matter of Religion I seek to evince the falshood of it by an instance of lawfull Church-prosecution in case of false Teachers Discusser But if the Churches and Angels thereof had sufficient power to suppresse Balaam and Jezabel then all power of Magistrates and Governours in Pergamus and Thyatira though they had been Christian must needs fall to the ground as none of Christs appointment Defender The power of the Churches and Angels of Pergamus and Thyatyra were sufficient for those ends for which Christ ordained Church-power to wit for the healing of the soules of such seducers if they belonged to Christ as also for keeping those Churches pure from the fellowship of the guilt of their Act in teaching false Doctrines whom they had duly censured But the power of those Churches and Angels was not sufficient to prevent the further spreading of the Leaven of their false Doctrines both in such as were out of the Church and in private amongst the members of the Church who might adhere to them Much lesse was the putting forth of the Church-power against them sufficient to cleare the Magistrates of a Christian State from the guilt of Apostasie in suffering such Apostates amongst them who would be ready to solicite many simple soules either to with-hold and with-draw themselves from the Fellowship of the Churches or in the Churches to withdraw from the Lord Jesus Discusser Lastly from this perverse wresting of what is writ to the Church and the Officers thereof as if it were writ to the Civill Officers and State thereof all may see how since the Apostacie of Antichrist the Christian world so called hath swallowed up Christianity how the Church and Civill State that is the Church and the world are now become one flock of Jesus Christ c. Defender Here is no wresting much lesse perverse wresting of any Scripture at all from the Church to the Civill State I intended to apply the Scripture written to the Churches and to the Officers thereof no further then to other Churches and their Officers The Scriptures upon which we call in the Magistrate to the punishment of Seducers are such as are directed to civill States and Magstrates of which divers have been mentioned and applyed before CHAP. 56. A Reply to his Chap. 58 and 59. Discussing the Testimony of some Princes Discusser I Proceed to the second Head of Reasons against persecution for cause of Conscience taken from the profession of famous Princes King James Stephen of Poland King of Bonemia Vnto whom the Answerer returneth a treble Answer 1. Wee willingly acknowledge saith he that none is to be persecuted at all no more then any may be oppressed for righteousnesse sake Again we acknowledge that none is to be punished for his Conscience though misinformed unlesse his errour be fundamentall or seditiously and turbulently promoted and that after due conviction of his Conscience that it may appeare he is not punished for his Conscience but for sinning against his Conscience Furthermore we acknowledge none is to be constrained to believe or professe the true Religion till he be convinced in Judgement of the truth of it but yet restrayned he may be from blaspheming the Truth and from seducing any into pernicious errours This first Answer I believe I have sufficiently cleared the weaknesse of the Foundations thereof in the former discourse Defender And I doubt not but by the help of Christ I have formerly declared and convinced the feeblenesse of the opposition made against them and what firme foundations those Answers are built upon from the Scriptures of Truth Discusser His second Answer is this what Princes professe and practise is not a Rule of Conscience They many times tolerate that in State Policy which cannot justly be tolerated in point of true Christianity Againe Princes many times tolerate Offendors out of very necessity when the Offenders are too many or too mighty for them to punish In which respect David tolerated Joab and his murder but against his will It may be here observed how the Answerer dealeth with Princes one while they are nursing Fathers to the Church not onely to feed but also to correct and therefore consequently bound to judge what is true feeding and correcting and consequently all men are bound to submit to their feeding and correcting Defender The Discusser doth partly falsly and partly fraudulently fasten upon me this dealing with Princes That I make them nursing Fathers of the Church I therein follow the footsteps of the Holy Ghost before me teaching what Princes should be and foretelling what they shall be in the latter dayes Isaiah 49.23 In which place It was not the intent of the Holy Ghost nor mine to threaten the Church with a red of Correction But to comfort the Church with a double blessing First of the Fatherly provision and protection of Princes for the Church Secondly of their subjection to the Church in respect of their spirituall Estate What Princes may doe in case the Church should Apostate and become no Church or in case they should breake forth into Sedition and Rebellion against the Civill State It is another Question which I have not medled with in all this Discourse Neither have I spoken of Princes as bound to Judge what is true feeding or correcting least of all have I said that all men are bound especially in Conscience to their feeding and correcting These are calumnies devised by the Discusser All I have said to my remembrance this way is that Princes are bound to be wise and Learned with holy knowledge that they may kisse the Sonne and be subject to him Psal 2.10.11 And therefore able to discerne of such corrupt feeding as destroyeth the Foundation of Religion and the soules of Gods people that they may be able to restraine such and to preserve the Church from such ravenous Wolves and I deny not that their Subjects are to submit to them herein when they judge according to the Word or howsoever patiently to suffer for well-doing without resistance

for this cause because we doe not separate these English hearers from us he separated himselfe and withdre others from hearing the word in our Churches with us which I accounted as great and as unsufferable an injury to the soules of Gods people as it would be to their bodies to withhold the Corne from them or them from the Corne and for that end I produced this Scripture That I produced this Scripture alone to justifie the Sentence of the Court it was not for want of others if that had been the Question but because the scope of my Letter was not to confirme the equitie of his Banishment but to convince the iniquitie of his Separation The mention of the cause of his civill Banishment fell in onely upon the by to remove an objection out of the way that because I denied the act of the Court to be done by my counsell or consent therefore it might seeme I disallowed the sentence To prevent that mistake I acknowledged the righteousnesse of the Sentence and for that end produced that Scripture as that which might give both some just reason before God of his Civill Banishment and also make way for the discovery of his sinne of groundlesse Separation Let no man be so farre mistaken as to thinke that his Separation from the Churches was either the chiefe difference between the Court and him though it was the chiefe between him and me in my Letter or that it was the chiefest offence for which he suffered though he so pretended What though neither corporall nor spirituall food may lawfully be sold or bought but with the good will and consent and authoritie of the owner c. Let him make it appeare that Christ hath not committed the Ministery of the Gospel to us and wee shall give place to others whom Christ shall send Meane while if the budding and blossoming and fruit-bearing of Aarons rod was a witnesse from Heaven that the Lord approved his Ministery against all the murmurings of the Children of Israel Num. 17.5 to 8. We must leave him and others to their murmurings against us and quiet our conscices in an humble blessing of the Lord for his gracious blessing upon our weake labours in that holy Ministery wee have received from him What though the Apostles were to turne away and to shake off the dust of their feete against scorners contradictors despisers persecutors It was not till they had sinned against the Holy Ghost and scorned and persecuted the convincing light of the Gospel Acts 13.45 to 51. Otherwise the Jewes were scorners and persecutors of Christ himselfe and of all that confessed his Name Joh. 9.22 yet still the Apostles ceased not to Preach to them and pray with them Acts 3.1 c. to wit whilest their Persecutors sinned of ignorance ver 17. What though the Apostles were forbidden to Preach to some places He wisely quoteth no Text for it lest the quoting might be the confuting of himselfe He knoweth it was but for a time that others according to the good pleasure of Christs will might be served before them What if Mr. Cotton saw just cause to refuse to sell spirituall Corne in a mis-hallowed Surplice Is it safe therefore for Mr. Williams to shut up his sacks mouth and to refuse to sell corne in his ordinary apparrell What if Mr. Cotton forbeare to administer the Lords Supper to all beleevers or Baptisme unto their children untill the beleevers professe their Faith and Repentance before the Church Is it safe therefore for Mr. Williams to refuse to Breake the Bread of Life unto the Church of Salem whereunto their Election and Ordination of him and his own voluntary acceptance thereof had engaged him unto stuwardly office What though in all Civill Transactions and in all the present disturbances of England principall respect is had unto a right Commission and right Order Let him shew wherein our Commission or Order is defective and reason would we should hearken to him But see the warinesse and slinesse of the Examiner I judge it not saith he seasonable here to entertaine the Dispute of the true Power and call of Christs Ministery An handsome evasion Now when the grounds of his Separation are questioned now when he standeth upon his open justification now in Print before the eyes of all men now he thinketh it not seasonable to entertaine any dispute of such things at all Thus Foelix would heare Paul when he had a more convenient time and yet that was the very time and houre of his visitation Acts 24.25 His evasion of this Text in Prov. 11.26 by comparing it with Deut. 17.12 doth but adde a delusion to an evasion Deut. 17. I suppose he meaneth though his printed copie say Deut. 15. For it is a delusion to make the capitall punishment prescribed against the presumptuous rejection of the Sentence of the chiefest Court in Israel a figure of Excommunication in the Church of Christ For first no Scripture of old or new Testament giveth any intimation of any such figure in this Law And to make a judiciall Law a figure without some light from some Scripture is to make a mans selfe wise above that which is written 2. That law is of morall equitie that is of universall and perpetuall equitie in all Nations in all Ages He that shall presumptuously appeale from or rise up against the sentence of the chiefest and highest Court in a free State is guilty Laesae majestatis publicae and therfore as a capitall offender to be censured in any free Common-wealth 3. This Law in Deut. 17. provided an effectuall punishment against such presumptuous offenders and an effectuall remedy against all such like presumption in others that all Israel might heare and feare and doe no more presumptuously ver 13. But so doth not Excommunication For what if an Excommunicate person presume against the sentence of Christ in his Church as Mr. Williams doth against the Sentence of the Church of Salem doth the power of the Church provide that all the Israel of God may heare and feare and doe no more presumptuously Is the figure become more powerfull and effectuall then the substance the shadow then the body the type then the Antitype From this mistaken Figure the Examiner would inferre The withholding of the Corne presumptuously to be death in Israel but not so in every State of the world much lesse the pleading against a false Ministery to be a capitall crime for as for Banishment never such a course was heard of in Israel Answ That law in Deut. hath nothing to doe with the withholding of Corne presumptuously unlesse there had first passed some sentence of the Soveraigne Court against the withholding of Corne. But otherwise ordinary sinnes of presumption doe fall under the Judicature of another Law Num. 15.30 31. Neither hath this Text in Solomons Proverbs any thing to doe with that Law in Deut. 17. nor with capitall punishment Solomon doth not say that every man that withholdeth his corne

the Spouse of Christ The End also for which this Government now for many yeares hath been administred hath not onely been contrary to the ends of Church-Government which is to order the people in holinesse and love but even contrary to the end of Civill Government which is the punishment of evill doers and the praise of them that doe well Rom. 9.4 But here the very edge of Government hath been bent and sharpened chiefly against holinesse and puritie No malefactors so hainous drunkards whoremongers prophane persons but might expect the approach of Courts with lesse terror and passe from under their hands with more favourable Censure then the sheepe of Christ and the faithfull Shepheards of them This Government therefore being administred with false Hands on false Thrones by false Rules for falle Ends I blame not the Examiner though he style it as justly he may a false Government But to conclude therefore this 14th Chapter the Examiner telleth us He beleeveth it is absolutely necessary to see and bewaile so much as may amount to cut off the soule from a false Church whether Nationall or Parishionall or any other falsly constituted Church together with the Ministery Worship and Government of it Now in that which hath been spoken wee have given account how farre we have seene any of these things to be false in the Churches which his charge hath respect unto And so farre as we have seene the Lord knoweth how farre we have bewailed and cut off our selves from the Fellowship thereof Yea not onely from the fellowship of that which we discerne to be false but also from what we have discerned to be unsound and corrupt If we doe not discerne all those things to be false which he accounteth to be false we have given the grounds thereof from the Scriptures of Truth If we doe not follow him in all his imaginations it is no marvell The sheepe of Christ know the voyce of their Shepheard a stranger they will not follow His charges of Falshood upon Churches have been vehement and peremptory and in a manner sorbonicall without any touch of Scripture-grounds as if he had learned not onely from them but from the Conclave of Antichrist to obtrude upon the Churches of Christ his unwritten imaginations and censorious Decrees as the very Oracles of God Proceed we now therefore to his next Chapter wherein there is some mention of some Texts of Scripture and let us see whether they will speake more to his purpose in that which remaineth To CHAP. XV. THe Texts of Scripture which Mr. Williams alledged not to prove the Churches of England to be false in their Constitution Ministery Worship Government for to that end he alledgeth no Scriptures at all but to urge upon us a separation from them even from hearing in their Assemblies were three Isai 52.11 2 Cor. 6.17 Rev. 18.4 Whereof I certified him in my Letter That two of them to wit the first and last made nothing to his purpose For that of Isaiah and the other of the Revelation speake of locall separation which he knew we had made and which neither he nor indeed our selves apprehended to be sufficient though sufficient to answer in part the literall sence of those Places To which he answereth That he could not well have beleeved that Mr. Cotton or any other would have made that coming forth of Babel in the Antitype Rev. 18.4 to be locall and materiall also For what Civill State or Nation or Countrey in the world in the Antitype could now be called Babel If any then surely Babel it selfe properly so called but there we finde a true Church of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 5. Secondly If Babel be locall now whence Gods People are called then must there be a locall Judea a Land of Canaan also into which they are called c. Reply If the Examiner had been pleased to have read Mr. Brightman on Rev. 18.4 He might finde I was not the first that Interpreted either that place in Isaiah or this in Revelation of a locall separation For as there was in old Babel sundry of Gods Israel Inhabitants then when the Medes and Persians were about to take it and destroy it so will there be in new Babel sundry of Gods chosen people still inhabiting amongst them even then when the ten Kings will be ready to take the Citie and to burne it with fire Unto whom as the Lord sent his Angels to hasten Lot out of Sodome when he was about to destroy it so he hath sent and will send the voyce of his Messengers to hasten his people as well out of new Babel as he did out of old before that sodaine destruction fall upon the City and upon them in it He need not make it so strange What Civill State or Nation or Countrey in the world shall be called Babel now As if the very exp●esse letter of the Text had not clearely enough deciphered the City of Rome the great City which in Johns time reigned over the Kings of the Earth to be the Babylon the Antitype of Babel in Chaldea whom the Lord would destroy and out of whom he calleth his people to depart Why doth he tell us of Babel in Peter Babel in Chaldea as if the Type and the Antitype were literally the same place Or as if he were altogether a stranger in the Booke of the Revelation and never understood Rome to be called Babylon But secondly saith he If Babel be locall now then there must be a locall Judea a Land of Canaan also into which the Saints are called Reply 1. It followeth not for the Angel that calleth them out of Babel doth not call them into Judea or Canaan There is no mention of such places in that call at all 2. There be and will be when Rome is destroyed and before it be destroyed visible Churches of Christ as was Judea and Canaan of old into which these Saints who are called to depart out of Rome have a just calling to come and to joyne themselves For it is out of the Temple and out of the Temple open in Heaven out of which those Angels come who powre out the vialls of Gods wrath both upon the Antichristian State and upon the Citie of Babylon it selfe Rev. 15.5 6. with Chap. 16.19 The Examiner need not here aske Whether Mr. Cotton can satisfie his own soule or the soules of other men in making a locall departure from old England to New as if therein we had obeyed that voyce of the Angel Come out of Babylon my People partake not of her sinnes c. For 1. I doe not count England literally to be Babel nor mystically neither I beleeve a man may live and dye in England and yet obey that Commandement of the Angel in all the parts of it Some other godly men might finde more favour and exemption from Babylonish corruptions in the midst of England then I was suffered to doe without locall departure 2. Though I thinke that in