Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	call_v	spirit_n	13,631	5	5.4279	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

upon it under all the disobliging circumstances possible If a man were short-sighted and another of more piercing eyes should assure him he did at a distance which the other could not discover perceive men should the other averre positively that they were men which seemed to him like Trees Nay ought he to venture his soule and eternity upon the uncertain and Fallible experiences of another It is then evident that the men of one or two talents cannot consent to the collation of such a power to their Magistrate or if they did it were null and to be recalled as being sinfull in the first grant It is no lesse clear that Men of greater illuminations cannot impower any Magistrate unto such an end For to commit such a Trust unto a man whose breath is in his nostrills whose Election is not in their vote they being the little flock and a minority and whose heart is deceitfull above all things and not to be known by them whither he either be really what he pretends or whether he will continue so is to put either their life and fortunes or their religion to such an hazard as is inconsistent with prudence and common reason It is to put all to man's day which ought to be remitted to the tribunall of God The frequent changes in Judah before the captivity and the vicissitude of Darius and Nabuchodonosor's actings of old besides the changes of religion in the times of Christianity from Heathenisme to the Gospell and from the Gospell to Heathenisme from Arrianisme to what is now Orthodox and back again These are such presidents and so apt to recurre through the condition of humane frailty as may justly deterre them from running into such snares who are taught to pray that they be not lead into temptation Themistius an Heathen in his Oration to the Emperour Jovianus who succeeded Julian the Apostate tells him that there had through the example and compulsion of Emperours been such variableness in point of religion that man-kinde was become ridiculous and seemed to worship the imperiall robe and diadem rather then any deity Alterations in religion had been more frequent then the Ebbing and flowing of Euripus the fickleness of one Theramenes formerly occasion'd the proverb but in his time changeableness was not the weakness of one but the practise of all the same persons one while assisted at the sacrifices of the Heathens at their Altars and another while participated of the table of the Lord Jesus However if they could better rely upon the understanding and stability of another in reference to those truths wherewith they experiment themselves to be no lesse acquainted then their elect Magistrate pretends to be and if that power were to be derived solely from them which is the contribution of all in generall yet could not they lawfully impower him so in order to the captivating of others unto the profession of such religion as they themselves are possessed with in the spirituall part thereof and in as high a manner as themselves Mr. Baxter pretends to physique if he deal with his patients in this sort that he make not the rule of health he intends to be the naturall constitution of their bodyes but an ideated exquisite temperament it is not to be doubted but such as are in their originall temper phlegmatique cholerique c. will be destroyed by him and one indisposition cured by the introduction of another It is so in the case of the soul the Master called not his servant to an accompt for five talents where he gave but two no he was good and faithfull who had improved onely them as well as he that had traded with five As for those as pretend no higher then a bare steward-ship not accompanied with omnisciency I think it very great rashness in them to call to this or that person for the improvement of two talents of whom they are not certain that they have received more then one so farre ought they to be from punishing all for the non-improvement of five Moreover it is not lawfull for Christians to commit that power to their Magistrate which they cannot exercise themselves But force and compulsion towards them that are without are actions so unsutable to the propagation of Christianity so disagreable unto the precepts thereof as nothing can be more It is the way that Mahomet established his fables and not Christ his truths the former having no force raised armies to subdue the souls as well as bodies of his enemies but Christ though he could have called down fire from Heaven reproved those designes in his Apostles telling them they knew not of what spirit they were which shews they were not of his and being able to entreat Legions of Angells from his Father Matth. 25.53 he chose all the day long to stretch out his hands to a gain-saying generation rather then employ such means Means which God made use of to destroy the Sodomites or host of Sennacherib and with which he will destroy at last the World and for ever torment the wicked not convert the Nations to righteousness Means that may reduce men under the Spirit of bondage to feare but not endowe them with the spirit of Adoption whereby they may cry Abba Father Means that neither being Glory to God in the highest nor on earth peace nor good-will towards men and consequently as unsuitable to the forming of Christ within us as they are dissonant from the song of the Angells at the incarnation of Christ at Bethlehem Luc. 2. v. 14. Means that gain Proselytes with no better success then of old the Pharisees had who compassed sea and Land to make a proselyte and after all rendred him seven times more the childe of wrath then he was before Matth. 23.15 Force and Terrour may bring men to an outward complyance but not alter their judgements it doth not abate their wickedness but heighter it with the aggravation of hypocrisy a sin so odious as nothing is more detested in Scripture nothing more abominable unto the Lord and for which he will spue them out who are by those indeavours brought in The new-Christians in Spain confirm this truth had armes and discouragements been fit instruments to bring souls to Christ that land had not groaned now under an inquisition erected there for the discovery of such as dissembled their conversion The like issue attended Emanuell King of Portugall when he enforced the Jews either to become Slaves or professe Christianity and at this day the generall opinion is that half that Kingdome consists of dissembling Jews I cannot omit the censure which Osorius a Popish Bishop in that countrey passed upon that Action This indeed was done but neither according to the laws of God nor Men What will you undertake to force the stubborne and rebelliously-minded to beleive those things which they hate and reject will you take upon you to rule in the heart and affections of man to infringe the will in it's liberty and

God himself when he gave a King to Israel he did but propose the People did set him over them Magistracy is not a paternall right nor consequent thereof either in Scripture or Nature But suppose Adam Monarch of the whole Earth and that Monarchy was instituted when yet there were but two in the world Gen. 3.16 where God tells the woman that her Husband should rule over her I would faine know whither Adam had this Dominion as Father which is not proved from the text or as being the first man created in a world devoyd of Landlords and so falling to the first that should possess it If the latter to wave that question so much debated whither in New found Lands more accrue to the first comer and discoverer then he takes Seisin of Then we ought to employ Sr. Tho. Vrchard to search out one universall Monarch Successour to Adam or it must be proved that our present division of Lands and Kingdomes under Magistrates is of his approbation But both Adams Successour and his will are impossible to be found out and so that rearch is at an end If he had that Dominion as Father then all Fathers have the like power so Adams Monarchy determines with his life and all Magistracy will be at least resolved into the People when many Families and Fatherless Persons unite into one estate If he had that Dominion as the first Father from whose Loynes all mankind issued I would faine know to whom he did bequeath that power Whither it did Naturally descend to his Eldest Son or might be conferred or communicated to other his Children arbitrarily But the right of primogeniture cannot be evinced out of Scripture whilst the stories of Esau Reuben Manasseth David Succeeding to the prejudice of Sauls Sons Adonijahs being displaced by Solomon Je●oahas the son Josiah his preceeding his Elder Brother Jehoiakin in the succession as the Jewes note and out of them Mr. Selden are preserved nor can it be deduced from the customes of Nations the only interpretor of Nature which vary in that point and if the claim of the first-born doth not conclude necessarily as it doth not neither in ancient or moderne Practise the pretenses of other Children are less valid Aristotle saith that succession in Kings by way of primogeniture was the custome of Barbarians that in the time of the Heroes men did rule otherwise Polit. l. 3. If all might be conferred or imparted arbitrarily let such Grantees produce their title from Seths pillars or elsewhere and we shall consider their plea. In the mean while since neither the descendants of Cain nor any other appear to challenge any such rights as mercenary divines and Lawyers have ascribed to Kings for no King or Magistrate I ever read of avowed such his right nor was it thought on either at the founding of the Common-wealth of Israel or the Election of Saul c. I cannot find any Magistracy in the world but what is derived from the People more or less consenting and impowering thereunto And thus if one Apostle call Magistracy the ordinance of God for of that he speaks abstractively Rom. 13. v. 2. Yet Magistrates or Magistracy in the concrete are of humane constitution and the creatures of men 1 Pet. 2. v. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Be thou subject unto every humane creature or creature of man for so the word signifyes and not Ordinance no more then Marc. 16.15 preach to every creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Lords sake whether it be to the King c. To the making a Creature it is necessary that it's production be out of nothing or at least out of no matter predisposed for such a forme thus Adam was created and this is the Physicall sense of the word In a Morall sense then to the Creation of a Magistrate it is to be supposed that he neither is already vested with such a power nor in such a capacity as without the accessional of mans creation to grow up thereunto And indeed if all men are equall before they embody by cohabitation the voisinage gives no man superiority over another There are some which phancy that Power is indeed from the People only as Electing to it not as conferring it that they have only the presentation to that authority which God immediately gives This opinion seems to enterfere with that Text which represents the Magistrate as a creature of man but because in Scripture propriety of speech is not too rigorously to be insisted on and makes the case only probable not certain I further say that this is but the resuery of men whose imagination rather then judgement is extraordinary who must place the strength of their cause in Assertions that are only so farr disproveable in that they cannot be proved The People never owned such their suffrage in the most solemn elections of Saul David c. nor did God declare his power to be such though both parties did there severally interpose It cannot be evidenced out of Gods word Nature and Reason teach us no such thing the Relations of our King no less then those of other Nations hold forth the contrary and it were absolute folly for us upon slender probabilities and no greater evidence then a quick wit may give to the most despicable untruths to renounce the professions and practise of all Nations in all Ages which render our Opinion more then probable In fine it layes us open to all the whimseys imaginable that any bold assertour can impose upon the Almighty in hopes of not being refuted till doomesday The Papists will thus defend their Transubstantiation and prove that to be really the Body and Blood of Christ which we see to be Bread The same persons say that in Ordination a Character is imprinted upon the soul of the Priest ordained The English Bishops breathed upon their Creatures saying receive the Holy Ghost A thousand such cheats may be imposed upon the unwary if we admit of these suppositions and quit our sense for that which is non-sense I would faine know what is the Nature of the power thus invisibly collated what is the Tenour of this celestiall charter Is it arbitrary or Limited If Limited how farr These things are necessary for the people to know that they may not transgresse what they are as yet invincibly ignorant of This is a course which renders all Kings Absolute yea and all inferiour Magistrates too for the text distinguishes not of the ones being more from God then the other and it makes the Peoples misfortunes infinite and irrelievable since they are subjected to one upon they know not what termes by one to whom they can make no appeal but by Prayers and Tears This plea doth unsettle all the Governments in the civilized world making all Concessions null or at least in their origine unlawfull that were extorted from tyrants or granted by such Magistrates as are not satisfied with that plenitude of power which God