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	nature_n	spirit_n	16,404	5	5.4081	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85986	The libertine school'd, or A vindication of the magistrates power in religious matters. In ansvver to some fallacious quæries scattered about the city of Limrick, by a nameless author, about the 15th of December, 1656. And for detection of those mysterious designs so vigorously fomented, if not begun among us, by romish engineers, and Jesuitick emissaries, under notionall disguises ... (politicæ uti & ecclesiasticæ. axiom. Arabic.) Published, by Claudus Gilbert, B.D. and minister of the Gospel at Limrick in Ireland.	Gilbert, Claudius, d. 1696?	1657 (1657)	Wing G702; Thomason E923_4; ESTC R202210	61,982	75

THE Libertine School'd OR A VINDICATION OF THE Magistrates Power in Religious matters IN ANSWER TO SOME FALLACIOUS QUAERIES Scattered about the City of Limrick by a Nameless AUTHOR about the 15th of December 1656. And for Detection of those Mysterious Designs so vigorously fomented if not begun among us by Romish Engineers and Jesuitick Emissaries under Notionall Disguises Published By Claudius Gilbert B. D. and Minister of the Gospel at Limrick in IRELAND Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Let every soul be subject c. Zech. 13. 2 3 4 5 6. And I will cause the Prophets and unclean spirits to pass out of the Land c. Isa. 49. 23. And Kings shall be thy uursing Fathers c. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Magistratus in terra Coarctionis haeres quodvis improbum pudefaciens Judic. 18. 7. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Dei timor Principium Sapientiae Politicae uti Ecclesiasticae Axiom Arabic London Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1657. TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE Lord HENRY CROMWELL Commander in Chief of the Forces in IRELAND And to the Right Honourable HIS Highnesses Councel FOR THE Affairs of IRELAND Right Honourable THe Glory of the latter daies consists very much in their godly Magistrates and the Glory of those Magistrates in their promoting of Christs Glory When the Lords Spirit would give an abstract of heaven on earth he promises Kings and Queens for nursing Fathers and Mothers to his Church Thus Portion and Protection are assured to his people on the most honourable and happy tearms The Lord himself is pleased to put his own Name upon those persons to whom he gives a providentiall Commission to act in his Name with civil Authority in the managing of his interest on earth He hath said Ye are Gods by a providentiall voice that ye might act like God and for God in subordination to his providence Such Shields of the earth belong unto him in a peculiar way which are made by him and must act for him in a peculiar manner He needs no instruments about any work yet is he pleased to honour instruments about his greatest work It s Your Honour to be employed by him he makes it Your Happiness to be faithfull to him That he will employ Ministers of his Word to instruct his Church it 's from his Grace that he doth intrust Magistrates with his Sword for the protection of his Church it 's for his Glory Both Jewell and Case mans Soul and Body were framed by him as God of Nature both Soul and Body were by his Sonne redeemed as the God of all Grace Both the internall and externall man do need his Spirit for the good of both Magistrates and Ministers are called to Office and blessed therein by the same Spirit Moses and Aaron were joined of old in ordering Christs Law Zerubabell and Joshua were not severed in the restoring thereof Though Primitive Churches wanted for a season the Magistrates help yet in due season were they made partakers of that Royall favour They wanted them first that Gods glory might not on mistake be given to man they had them again that the same Glory might not be still abused by man No sooner did Antichrist make incroachments on Christs Ministry but he usurped as fast on his Magistracy he swallowed up that as the two horned Beast Ecclesiastically and he subdued this as the ten horned Beast Politically Christ recovered both from Antichristian Yoke in his great Reformation as both had been usurped from him by Antichristian defection When he took care to purifie his Church in its Ministry he shewed no less care about the Magistracy As some of both sorts have witnessed for him in a sackcloth condition so some of both sorts shall witness of him in a seasonable ascension When he gives his people Pastors after his own heart he gives them Rulers to govern in his waies Thus he acts by men after the manner of men because he deals with men in the things of God The world is his great house that must be well taught but it 's through sinne a discomposed house that needs a good Rule Gods interest is such in faithfull Rulers that Satan will be still attempting all means to blast their faithfulness if he cannot keep them from doing Gods work he will use instruments to marre that very work Much of it appeared in former experiences and we see it too sadly in these latter daies Good men shall be seduced to betray Gods work yea and perswaded that it 's Satans work That which the Lord doth tender with most zeal Error will perswade to slight with most neglect If God put much stress on the first Table of his Law Error will take it off from the Magistrates care What many other parts have sadly bewailed we finde now much cause to bemoan afresh That spirit that once disturbed Germany is gotten too deeply into our bowels Christs Ministers were first struck at by that hand which reached the next blow to the Magistrates Those Foxes and Wolves that would worry Christs Flock cannot bear good will to faithfull Shepherds They would first debauch the spirits of men and then their bodies will be surely theirs The Ministers first shall be Antichristian and the Magistrates shall bear that title next Munster had once many fair warnings but the things of their peace were hid from their eyes If we gain wisdom by our neighbours harm it 's a mercy of the choicest kinde That good hand of heaven that brought Your Honours into this wilderness hath much to do here for you and by you Israels condition in their wilderness is a most lively parallell of this Land They had Christ present in his Ordinances but wanted a heart to improve the same Signall redemptions the Lord wrought for them but his wondrous works they had soon forgotten Magistrates and Ministers he provided them but they slighted and scorned the one and the others Holy profession God called them to they soon abused it to self-exalting Moses and Aaron were easily despised when Corah and his crue had once got their hearts When Divine Ordinances were counted humane humane presumptions were counted Divine Their Levelling spirits that would equalize all soon met with a check from their Superior They sank alive into the earths bowels that bid defiance to the God of heaven The Lords jealousie maintained his servants who had zealously maintained his Name They were soon consumed by fire from Gods house who made it their work to fire Gods house They regarded not his daily provisions and they paid dear for foolish desires When the Lords servants were doing them most good they were then plotting to do them most evil Thus are they our glass and our pourtraiture that we may the better learn to mend our faults Moses had to do with a

devils sometimes wicked men the devils instruments sometimes wicked mens lusts serving the devils purpose All societies are too often pestered therewith and their ejection is chiefly to be minded The principall efficient of that cure is indeed the mighty Spirit of God His powerfull Word is the principal Instrument Yet are men and means appointed and blessed of God in subserviency thereto Christ himself told his Disciples that their unbelief hindered such a cure from being perfected upon that famous patient some of them being so tenacious that they go not out but with prayer and fasting It 's dreadfull to see mens bodies possessed with such guests but their souls possession more frequent and terrible is not so much dreaded because less sensible The sad symptoms of such a Possession are so wofully manifested in the Quaking crue that it infests all parts among us It concerns all sorts among us if ever to observe Christs method for their ejection They fume and foam they range and rage tossed they are from one extream to another sometimes cast into the fire then into the water first ranting then quaking The filthy excrements of these unclean spirits boil so excessively within them that they do enormously work out at every part of their bodies Their feet ramble their tongues rail all the faculties of their souls testifie the strangeness of their inmate He that but observed within these few years what horrid things have appeared before multitudes of people from that miserable generation cannot but wonder at Gods patience the devils malice and those wretches wofull state The poison hath seized on their brains and spirits as the pestilence is wont to do and casts many into Phrensies others into Lethargies The Ranters were merrily the Quakers are melancholically mad those had more of the fire The Legions that possess them shew varieties of tricks and are shifting daily that they may best sute the various complexions of men and seasons Ranting Paracelsus and fanatick Behmen are out stripped in their horrid jugglings by these up-start disciples of theirs David George and the rest of those German Impostors came short of these The great Patrons of Quakers Mahomet with his Dervis in the East the Romish Dominick and Francis Benedict and Ignatius Katharine of Siena and Bridget in the West can hardly parallell them Yea the Brachmans of the Eastern and the Pawawes of the Western India's can hardly out-match them When so many spirits are abroad to represent the Tragedy of hell let loose doth it not concern all Superiors in civils and spirituals to look narrowly to themselves and to their respective charges Should not that warning be cautiously improved which Christ himself gives in such a juncture They are indeed spirits nimble and supple shifting and active crafty and restless hardly discern'd but wofully felt easily piercing hardly removed soon infecting difficult to cure But they are unclean spirits bearing their fathers image lying spirits in every word and act As the devil of old by his Pythons and Oracles so do these still speak ambiguities Slippersy spirits that easily shift off the strength of Scripture and reason by equivocations and roving about Scarce a Scripture word do they understand in a Scripture sense but use that language only to deceive the simple Their Christ their light their heaven and hell their perfection and righteousness when brought to the touch prove but Chimaera's and fanatick conceits That pure convincement of the Ranters as the Quakers call it of God being all things and all things God appears to be their grand Principle but trimm'd anew to please the better They finde no fault with the Ranters principles though they blame something of their practise witness their books complaining that they had a pure convincement but they sank in the flesh and grew too loose Atheism in a word the bottom of all evil is the spawn and substance of these unclean spirits Their venom like that of the * Tarantula kils suddenly in the midst of pleasing dreams making their disciples dance about the brims of eternall wo What think you of these things ye sober Christians do not these Nations need good Physicians and utmost care to prevent the subversion of all Do not our State-Physicians finde work enough among such a variety of Bedlams Is not this Calenture to be looked after with all diligence Are not we all bound to sollicit heaven day and night that such unclean spirits may be cast out Could you but conceive what direfull spectacles the stage of Germany felt and saw at the breaking loose of such a hell among them for near twenty years space you would fast and pray to better purpose than you have hitherto done These unclean spirits do most storm at those spirituall Physicians that would gladly be helpfull to them What hope then of a cure that way They will not they cannot hear them with sense patience or manners What hopes of help below but in a Bedlam or Bridewell for such Who can tame these but the Magistrates power under God In bodily phrensies we finde still hard usage to be the best means of cure to the patient and safety to the rest The like hath been found often in this very case witness that blasphemous villain of Andover who stiled himself the Bridegroom and his Trull enticed by him away from her friends Mary the Lambs Wife The Justice of the Bench and the executionlash reclaimed them out of their madness by the sense of shame and pain to bewail their folly and publickly curse their seducers To be sure if the Magistraticall Rod appointed for the fools back do not convince their folly and teach them it will teach others wisdom and prevent that horrid confusion which otherwise is like to overflow all our banks If these Bears cannot be tamed they had need be chained except we love to see them do mischief Qu. 4. Whether if no Civil Law be broken the Civil Peace be hurt or no Ans. 1. Where there is no Law there is no transgression For sin is opposition to the Law both privative and adversative habitual and actual The Law of God is the revelation of the Divine will touching mans duty The Civil Law then must be the rule set among men by authority in conformity That is understood in its large signification comprising all sorts of humane Orders for in a strict sense the Civil Laws signifie the imperial Law called Civil in distinction from our Municipal Law which is either Common or Statute Law the standard of good manners in this Commonwealth This Law of ours being the quintessence and extract of the best Laws known among the Brittains and Romans Saxons and Normans refined for English use by the Saxon Wittagen-Mots or General Assemblies and English Parliaments is indeed the choice Rule and Fountain the Mother and Nurse of our Civil Peace when execution answers their Institution and Constitution Peace in general

for the manner yet in effect he did shew what should be done in the like case by the Magistrate in his place as also by the Church in their place as in the case of Phinehas Numb. 14. of Elijah 1 King 18. 40. of Samuel 1 Sam. 15. 33 c. those malefactours were extraordinarily executed by the Lords servants for breach of the first and second Table because the Magistrates duty was neglected therein 2. That Law of Christ which authorizeth the Magistrate to act for him under him and like him in punishing the breaches of every command whether of the first or second Table doth also regulate him in that execution 1. Declaring his power to be Civil not Ecclesiasticall by civil orders proceedings and censures not by such means as he appoints to his Church Indeed the Magistrate may also be a Church-member but in this he acts not as such but as a civil Officer yet under Christ 2. His power reaches to things that concern the outward man whether verball or actuall not mentall and secret 3. In those externals he must have a clear rule of Gods Word either expresly or by sure consequence not his own conceit or any mans will 4. Therein he must proportion the punishment to the nature of the transgression whether lighter or heavier for matter or manner to avoid foolish pity and rigorous cruelty 5. His end must be a godly peace 1 Tim. 2. 2. that thereby all may be quickned to a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Thus the Magistrate is given as an Ordinance of God Rom. 13. 12. being a power ordained of God for a terrour to all evil works v. 3. yea the Ministry of God for mans good v. 4. and that for conscience sake v. 5. to be done and obeyed Thus acted pious Job ch. 29. declaring corruption of worship in covetous idolaters to be punishable by the Judge Job 31. 24 28 c. Thus Moses the Magistrate by Gods command punished the breaches of the Sabbath abuse of Gods Name Idolatry c. Thus Joshua that noble conquering Protector of Israel resolved himself and advised others Josh. 22. 23. 24. chap. Thus Abraham that faithfull Prince ordered his charge and was so favoured of God for it Gen. 18. 18 19. Thus victorious David wise Solomon valiant Asa zealous Jehoshaphat heroicall Josias noble Nehemiah acted Gods part in ordering the affairs of Gods house directing his people punishing the abuses of his worship c. which the Lord records for a monument and Crown of glory to them Thus for the New Testament God himself promiseth Isa. 49. 23. to give such nursing fathers and mothers of a Royall bloud and spirit who shall instrumentally build up Zion in mercy and pull down Babylon in justice Rev. 12. compared with Rev. 17. ch. 18. ch. 19. When Christ is Generall of the field his followers Jews and Gentiles the two Armies portraied out Cant. 6. 13. Zach. 12. 6 7 8. shall be more zealous for his house than for their own But our Querist pekes Qu. 2. Whether persecution for conscience doth not harden men in their way and make them cry out of oppression and tyranny Ans. Persecution of good is evil but persecution of evil is good 2. A good conscience must be preserved an evil conscience must be renewed 3. A godly conscience will abhorre every evil but a pretended conscience will plead for evil 4. A true conscience will thank the Physician that cures it though with smart a false conscience will cry out against the Physician and smart to retain its evil 5. A wise conscience will cry up the judicious care of Gods servants for good against evil but a foolish conscience will cry down both for evil against good 6. God gives not over his care of mens souls for causless out-cries neither will his servants neglect their duty for groundless calumnies Qu. 3. Whether to convert an heretick and to cast out unclean spirits be done any other way than by the finger of God by the mighty power of Gods Spirit in the Word Ans. 1. Heresie is described Tit. 3. 10. to be a self condemning errour perverting Gods truth and mens souls What course is to be taken by the Church with a member pertinaciously offending is there also declared It 's a work of the flesh and what course is to be taken with a member of the State by the Magistrate for such an evil work we reade also Hereticks in all ages have troubled the Church and very few were ever reclaimed For 300 years after Christ Satan employed many such Engineers to undermine Religion and disparage the profession of Christ Thus Simon and Cerinthus Menander and Ebion disturbed the Apostolicall daies Sabellius and Marcion Priscillian and Samosatenus Arrius and Macedonius Nestorius and Eutyches with many more succeeded them in opposing the Person and Office the Nature and Grace the Spirit and Truth the Sabbath and Ordinances of Christ The Roman Antichrist contracted the substance of all them and no sooner did Reformation dawn but all parts of Europe were infested anew with that poisonous vermine Mans dunghill heart yielded still matter and help to such a hellish brood What the Gnosticks did of old and the ranting crue of Germany in the last age we finde sadly revived among us now The conversion of such is very rare and difficult witness the Apostle such being given up to the raign and vigour of delusion Those spirituall judgements that give up mens consciences to that efficacious power of hell are the most dreadfull judgements bringing most of them to that sin unto death which puts them into an impossibility of repentance and salvation It 's indeed the finger of God by the mighty power of his Spirit in his Word that must do the work when ever it s done There is the more need therefore that all means should be used with diligence in subordination to that powerfull Spirit and Word of his Thereby some German and Brittish Jesuites have been converted and Indian * Pawawes reduced to Christian faith The Magistrates help hath often been found very effectuall thereto if not to convert the seducers yet to prevent their infection from spreading and plucked many as brands out of the fire Their mouth is to be stopped from biting and their hands to be kept from abuse whilst their phrensie rages and ranges like a gangrene A Bedlam may cure many such mad pranks or at least tame them The prudent zeal of one Magistrate doth often in such a case more good than the labours of many Ministers To be plucked out of the devils snares is a mercy that God affords by blessing the endeavours of his servants as by his Word Ecclesiastically so by his Sword Magistratically Such seducers being reclaimed by those censures sanctified to them will bless God and man for these healing wounds received in the house of friends 2. Unclean spirits denote in Scripture sometimes

All his Titles of honour mind him of duty and trouble But his great comfort is that God himself takes the best share thereof in whose stead he acts To act for God and with God like God and through God is his honour and happiness Christ himself suffered much more than all that comes to But what if his conscience should afterwards check him for mistakes therein The sure way to prevent horrors of conscience is to be diligent in the Lords work that our respective Callings do challenge from us Sin is the great disturber of conscience especially that darling sin which hinders from Gods work by taking from our heart what is due to him Every trouble proceeds from the want of Gods grace given or manifested He meets them that rejoyce in working righteousness those that remember him in his waies Retort the Query you may thus then What horrors of conscience shall that Magistrate feel that hath minded himself in neglecting God that hath been zealous for Civil affairs but frozen to the Lords interest that hath done much for the world but little for heaven that hath been carefull of the subjects bodies but careless of their souls that thought no cost too dear for their earthly priviledge but every little too much for spiritual help Qu. 12. Whether imprisonment or other corporal punishment would not make thousands in England Scotland and Ireland face about to any Religion yea to Popery as it did in Queen Maries daies Ans. What of all this because many have their Religion to chuse shall not the Magistrate discharge his duty for their good Is there not so much the more need he should be so much the more watchfull against jugling Mountebanks because so many are so easily fitted to their baits The corruption of mans heart that disposes him to evil and indisposes him still to good should be the more carefully looked after for restraining of that which cannot be renewed External Reformation is better than none at all though the chief part of Gods sacrifice is still the heart of man yet is it not much better that God should be publickly owned than disowned The greatest number will be the worst still till the great restawration come Yet when the leaders do bring their people to solemn owning of God he takes it kindly and rewards it Was it not so in Josias and Edward 6th time a form of godliness is good though formality be naught If the generality be brought to the means of grace they are in the road of Christs blessing Had not the poor man waited long at the pool of Bethesda he had not been cured It 's good being in the Lords way when he passes by to give out his doles How many thousands were the better for crouding after Christ and his Apostles though most for the loaves or novelty sake But let 's hear what the Querist Objects to himself Obj. 1. We would willingly suffer the Truth to be preached but those that we persecute do teach erroneous doctrines which hazard the souls of men Ans. He answers The guilt thereof lies upon the Teachers conscience not on the Magistrate or any other as Matth. 5. 19. Whosoever shall teach men so he shall be least in the Kingdom of heaven Reply Is not he also guilty that prevents not evil when he may What else means that of Paul Be not partaker of other mens sins Are there not sins of omission when we reprove and discountenance not evil The very light of nature taught the Heathens to say Qui non vetat peccare dum potest jubet Had not Austin just cause to complain so much of his other mens sins Is the Physician guiltless that willingly suffers his patient to be poysoned by Mountebanks Is the Watch-man blameless that warns not and keeps not the thief off Is the Gardiner faultless that suffers carelesly the weeds to choak the good plants Is that Officer faithfull that lets an enemy wittingly to debauch and ruine his souldiers Is that Magistrate faultless that suffers his people to be seduced by pernicious Praters without check Will Christ excuse the rest when he condemns the false Teacher Doth he absolve the accessory that punishes the Principal What shall he be in the Kingdom of hell that teaches men to break the greatest commands if he shall be least in the Kingdom of heaven that teaches men to break the least of them Is not he a breaker of Gods command that gives free licence to the notorious transgressors thereof He that is not with me is against me saith the Lord himself Obj. He Objects to himself again The Kings and Governours of Judah compelled men to serve the Lord therefore Kings and Governours may now compell Ans. 1. He answers They that lived under the Jewish worship were compelled only strangers were not Reply We reply As the Jewish worshippers so now the Christians are then obliged to the Law of that worship they profess Indeed for Jews Turks and Pagans the case may differ somewhat Yet though strangers were not compelled to the worship they were to be restrained from abusing it any way witness the fourth Command that injoyns all superiors to see that the Sabbath be not profaned by the stranger within their gates Nehemiah that zealous and truly Noble Governour threatned the Merchant-strangers with imprisonment if they came again to profane the Sabbath though but without the gates But what means this kind of answer Speak plain Do you disown the Name and Worship of Christ as too many of your comrades do in effect deny his Person and Office If you think much of being Christians tell us plainly what you are whether Jews or Turks Heathens or Atheists that we may know what to say to you Ans. 2. He answers secondly They were not compelled to any thing but what they knew and confessed to be their duty 2 Chron. 6. 12 13 14 15. Reply We reply Salomon indeed and their faithfull Rulers knew and confessed their own and their peoples duty in the great matters of Gods worship A good patern for all Christian Rulers to study it and profess it solemnly that they may as effectually engage their people to God and God to them He requires not a blind and lame sacrifice of implicite faith and obedience yet were still too many of that people ignorant in too many things though in the gross they owned Gods appointed worship They needed still teaching and quickning means as our people do still now Therefore godly Jehoshaphat made it a chief part of his Reformation to send abroad Teachers into all vacant places and with them his Princes to countenance them and to cause them with vigor and comfort to teach as the Hebrew elegance imports the good knowledge of the Lord When they had been orderly instructed then did he send Judges in their circuits to proceed further in that great Work as

that juncture of affairs required It will be the joy of all Gods friends to see more of the like among us Their success mentioned so remarkably in the context will not be far from us whilst we keep close to God in their way But how farre are our Querists friends from following that good example Do they labour still to disgrace and discourage faithfull Magistrates and Ministers from promoting it Is it not their business day and night every where to obstruct and disturb it what they can If they seem of late to be grown more mild and reserved we may thank the care of such Magistrates who have given them cause to fear the deserved lash Their poyson is but refined by this change and made more taking Ans. 3. He answers again The Kings of Israel had extraordinary Prophets to direct them infallibly Our Kings and Governours have none such to direct them Reply We reply Though many of them had such yet even then the Standard of all Doctrine and Worship was the Law and the Testimony thereby all spirits and pretended Prophets were to be tried The like have we now in Gospel-daies even a more sure word of Prophesie a word surer than the greatest Revelations mentioned in that context of Peter a word sufficient every way to compleat the man of God in the knowledge and doing of his will This is our Doctrinal foundation our infallible Judge whereby all spirits and Doctrines are to be tried If any teach otherwise though he should be an Angel from heaven he is accursed We need then no infallible Prophets or Apostles seeing we have that sure word of theirs which the Spirit of Truth spoke and writ by them confirmed by their miracles and hath infallibly made the perfect rule of our faith and life all differing interpretations thereof may and must be reconciled by the light of that unerring spirit which is inseparable from his Word Though fallible men mistake often yet the sense of Christs Spirit in his Word is clear and sure still Though blind eyes see not at all and sore eyes see but dimly though blood-shot eyes will see amiss the light of that Sun is alwaies clear and sure Though some expressions may seem obscure yet the rest duly compared will sufficiently clear them Though the self-conceited and proud will wrest and mistake it yet the humble will God teach Though a corrupt mind will extract poyson as a spider out of flowers errour out of truth by poysoning it yet Christs Spirit will lead his people thereby into all Truth needfull for them to know Though the carnal heart will still be ignorant yet the teachable heart by that anointing from above will be taught all things gradually proportionably and seasonably so that he shall not need to be taught by any Sect master or Pharisaical Teacher or infallible Pope as too many have been and are still Though this Gospel be hid to them that perish whose eyes are blinded by sin and Satan yet is it plain to him that understands and is tractable in the School of Christ Though it may prove a savour of death to reprobate consciences yet is it still the sweet savour of Christ to his Disciples Though worldly spirits will slight and abuse the simplicity thereof yet spiritual hearts will admire and improve still the Majesty of it Though the perverse minde will account it a self-contradicting word yet the rational Christian will find it still most harmonious in its whole composure Though a vain soul will finde it to be a killing letter yet the wise heart will finde it experimentally to have a most quickning Spirit Though the superficial Reader will finde its shell and bark to be hard and knotty yet the studious Christian will tast the sweetness and tenderness of its kernell and marrow Though deluded Impostors will pervert it still to the taking off the Magistrate from his duty about the first Table yet the Lords servants shall finde every part thereof to be an eminent motive to quicken direct and enable all Superiours to the faithfull preserving and vindicating of it Ans. 4. He answers fourthly The Kings and Rulers of Israel did not imprison Schismaticks Pharisees Herodians Reply 1. The Law of God directed his servants then to dispense all censures in a way proportionable to the nature of the offence and condition of the offender which faithfull Magistrates observed as hundred instances might demonstrate The King to that end was commanded to have a Copy of the Law by him to direct him still daily Reply 2. As there were divers sorts of Hereticks which the Lords Word bound over to just penalties so was there variety of Schismaticks raised up by Satan to rend the Church as the Hereticks work was to poyson it for a just execution on the spirits of such as had not received the Truth in the love thereof that they might be saved God gave them up to strong delusions to beleeve lies as he doth daily Because they voluntarily separated from God and his Truth to give up themselves to the service of sinne and Satan he justly gave them up to a perverse spirit to break them into fractions and factions both in Church and State even as he doth now by sad experience Because they would not be separated from the evil of men he permitted them to follow those seducers that drove on their own interest by separating from good men Doth he not so still Because they wilfully chose heaps of Teachers self-called to serve their fansies and lusts God also chose their delusions to give them up to the efficaciousness of deceit Is it not so still Because they refused and abused the lights of his own setting up was it not just with him to leave them in darkness to abuse themselves and others even as it 's now Thus Gods refusals are still the devils choice and they that forsake his waies cannot escape the devils crooked paths Whilst Authority kept all in their places close to the Word and Waies of God Jerusalem the Metropolis of Church and State was a glorious and harmonious City But as fast as they declined in their zeal of Gods house towards worldly Politicks they ushered in as fast all sorts of discords and discontents Civil and Ecclesiastical Josephus their Historian and many others compared with Scripture Records will fully demonstrate this to the judicious Reader As before their Babylonian Captivity so after it they gradually lost Purity then Peace inclining still towards Errour and Discord Thence the direfull separations of Pharez and Sadock the Ringleaders of so many Myriads into Pharisaism and Sadducism followed close by the Monkish Essens and the Politick Herodians those State separatists The like befell the Christian Churches in the very Apostles daies and successively more and more The sinfull separations of the Novatians Acesians Donatists c. with