Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	david_n	king_n	samuel_n	1,895	5	9.9973	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63003	An explication of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, with reference to the catechism of the Church of England to which are premised by way of introduction several general discourses concerning God's both natural and positive laws / by Gabriel Towerson ...	Towerson, Gabriel, 1635?-1697.; Towerson, Gabriel, 1635?-1697. Introduction to the explication of the following commandments.	1676 (1676)	Wing T1970; ESTC R21684	636,461	560

which place we do not onely find God threatning but actually visiting David's Adultery upon that Child which was the Off-spring of it and that too notwithstanding the Father's deep Humiliation and earnest Supplication for his Life For well may we conclude that God will not ordinarily be wanting in visiting the Iniquity of a Parent upon a Child when so pious a Man as David could not avert it though he sought it carefully with tears But so that it is also with a Father of a Country no less than with a Natural one the same David how eminent soever for his Piety otherwise will afford us a no less convincing Proof the Scripture giving us to understand that for his numbring of the people God slew in one day no less than seventy thousand of them 2 Sam. 24.15 For though there be appearance enough that the Subjects of King David contributed not a little to the procuring of this their Destruction the same Book of Samuel informing us in the first Verse of that Chapter That because the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel he permitted Satan to move David to do that Act which procur'd it though it be also probable because there is no mention of their doing it that the People of Israel when numbred omitted to give each of them half a shekel for the ransom of his soul the neglect whereof God had long before told them he would punish with a Plague Exod. 30.1 and so on by which means the Destruction of that People will appear yet more particularly to have been drawn upon them by themselves Yet inasmuch as David taketh the guilt of it upon himself and desires of God that he would rather turn his hand against him and his fathers house than against those sheep of his as he calleth them who had no hand in the procuring the numbring of themselves inasmuch as the Book of Chronicles gives us to understand that the numbring of the People which was David's own Act was the thing which displeased God and for which he smote Israel for the Text tells us in express terms that God was displeased with this thing even with the Word and Command of David for the numbring of the People and therefore he smote Israel 1 Chron. 21.7 it is plain that though the Israelites were not without their guilt and such as might provoke God to the sending of that Pestilence among them yet the chief occasion of their Calamity was the Sin of David and though they were punish'd for their own Sins onely yet it was by his means that they came to be so who might otherwise have been respited at least from it Add hereunto God's involving the innocent Children of the Sodomites in the same Calamity with their Parents and in fine all National Calamities wherein Experience sheweth good Men have no less suffered than those who were the Procurers of them But because it is not onely affirm'd that God will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children but that he will also visit it to the third and fourth generation therefore inquire we in the next place what appearance there is of God's extending it either to the one or the other Now though this be not so easie to be made appear nor indeed absolutely necessary to be partly because God never so threatens to visit but he leaveth himself a liberty to suspend the execution of it as the Repentance of the Children or some other Purpose of his Divine Providence shall require and partly because in this Commandment he doth rather insinuate his own likelihood of taking that Revenge than absolutely assure them that he will yet that it was not without example especially as to the Children of Idolatrous Parents the many Evils which God laid upon the Jews and their being carried Captive into Babylon may serve for an abundant evidence For as there is nothing more evident from the Sacred Writers than that Idolatry was the chief cause of that and other their Calamities so that the Idolatry of their Forefathers had not a little hand in the procuring of their Captivity is evident in part from that Lamentation of Jeremy which was written after and upon occasion of it he expresly affirming there That their fathers had sinned and were not and they had born their iniquities Lam. 5.7 If there be any thing of defect as to that particular proof it is that there is mention onely of the Sins of their Fathers without specifying whether he meant their immediate Fathers or other their preceding Ancestors But beside that it is not easie to confine this Speech of his to the Sins of their immediate Predecessors when it is apparent those that went before them yielded not to them in Idolatry it is evident enough from other places that God look'd farther back than the immediately foregoing Generation yea that this very Prophet did so the Author of the Books of Kings * 2 Kings 24.3 assuring us that God had a respect to the Sins of Manasseh who was four removes from those of the Captivity as the Prophet Jeremy ‖ Jer. 25.4 reproaching them with his sending and their refusing to hear all his Prophets which must consequently because all his Prophets liv'd not within that or a few foregoing Ages shew him to have intended the Sins of more ancient Times and of those their Forefathers that lived in them And indeed well may we reckon the Fathers of more than four Generations backward as the occasioners of their Captivity when the present Jews impute much of their present Distress to Aaron's Calf it being a Proverbial Saying among them That there is no bitter * Fagius in Exod. 32.2 ex Mose Gerundensi Non accidit ribi ô Israel ultio aliqua in quâ non sit vel uncia de iniquitate vituli Cup they drink which hath not some of the Ashes of that Calf mixed with it If God doth not at all times proceed to the execution of so severe a Threat that is imputable to his alone Will and Pleasure which is uncertain as to us and therefore not to be depended upon by us especially as to the Iniquities of our immediate Forefathers There being not a few Instances of the Miseries of those Children who have had the ill fortune to be descended of Irreligious Parents Having thus given an Account of that part of the Sanction which concerneth the Violators of this Commandment it remains that we descend to that which respects the Observers of it Concerning which because it contains nothing of difficulty in it it shall suffice me to observe That as God is not wanting to encourage our Obedience to as well as to discountenance the Transgression of this Commandment so that those gracious Expresses by which he endeavours it transcend those of his Justice and particularly of his Vindictive one For whereas God threatens to visit the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth generation onely he promiseth to

to have for Enemies was restrained to those of their own Nation or Religion so there were some whole Nations whom they were obliged to hate nor have any commiseration of For thus saith God concerning the Amorite and the Canaanite the Hittite and the Perizzite the Hivite and the Jebusite Take heed to thy self lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest Exod. 34.12 As in like manner of the same Nations and the Girgashites that when the Lord their God should deliver them before Israel that he should smite them and utterly destroy them that he should make no covenant with them nor shew mercy unto them Deut. 7.1 and so on Which what is it less than to hate those Nations to account of them and deal with them as enemies Indeed as in both those places is insinuated the reason of Gods commanding them so to do was for fear the people of Israel should be ensnated by them and enticed to the worship of their Gods For we are not to think there is any imperfection in Gods commands or that hatred and enmity is acceptable of it self But in the mean time here is an enemy which the Israelites were obliged to hate and such a command for it as the new Testament affords not any Add hereunto the aversation which the Jews generally did think themselves obliged to have for the Samaritans and the Heathen a thing taken notice of both by sacred and prophane Authours For the Scriptures first they observe to us that the Jews had no dealing with the Samaritans Joh. 4.9 That thereupon a woman of Samaria wondred extremely at our Saviours asking water of her that S. Peter himself had taken up so hard an opinion concerning the Heathen that even after our Saviours Ascension he looked upon them as unclean persons and such as it was not lawful for him to converse with that our Saviour when he would represent to the Jews the aversation they ought to have for those who would not hear the Church bad them to account of them as Heathens and Publicans lastly that the same Holy Jesus when a woman of Canaan came and sued to him in the behalf of her sick daughter would not at first vouchsafe her an answer and when her importunity and the Disciples together had extorted one from him called her and all her Nation by the name of Dogs For it is not meet saith he Mat. 15.26 to take the childrens bread and cast it unto dogs And yet as that wittily believing Canaanite replied upon him it was but some crums she begged of him and such a mercy as the meanest are allowed to partake of If you consult the Heathen you will find them to have had the same opinion of the Jews to have experimented the same averseness in them For thus Juvenal concerning them Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti Quaesitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos That is to say that a Jew would not tell a Heathen the way to any place he should ask after nor lead any but such as were circumcised to what fountain he should enquire for As in like manner Tacitus * Apud ipsos sides of stinata misericordia in promptu adversus omnes alios hostile odium that among themselves they were strict in keeping of their faith and extremely inclinable to pity but had a perfect hatred for all others For though it may be those Authours might something over-lash or which is as probable the Jews go farther in this particular than they were either obliged or allowed yet manifest enough it is from their general practice and our Saviours severe language to the Canaanitish woman that they were not permitted to have any great commerce with them and much less commanded to shew any great kindness to them Lastly they were allowed even by God himself to take usury of a stranger though he did most severely forbid it among those of their own Nation If therefore the Law of Moses restrained the title of Neighbour to those of the Jewish Nation or Religion if that Love which they were required to shew to an enemy were even in the sense of Moses to be understood of such an enemy as was also a Brother If they were commanded to shew no mercy at all to some whole Nations and to avoid the converse of all in general but themselves Lastly if they might lend upon usury to a stranger when God had so severely forbidden it among themselves then certainly that better Law-giver Christ Jesus hath added to their Law because requiring us to hold all men whatsoever as Neighbours yea though they are as far removed from us in the profession of Religion as many of them are in their habitation 3. Having thus shewn that our Saviour hath not only added new instances to the Law but exacted the old vertues in a greater latitude I come in the third place to shew that he hath required them in a higher degree which I shall evidence first of all in the forementioned instance and then in the whole Encyclopedie of Christian vertues For to begin with the forementioned instance What more frequent even with Gods Servants than the breathing out of curses against their own enemies or those of God nay what more frequent with David in the book of Psalms it self which is of all others the most perfect rule of Life and Manners The whole 109. Psalm is upon the matter nothing else and hardly shall you meet with any mention of his enemies without very severe prayers against them Thus Psal 59.11 where he speaks of seeing his desire upon his enemies his words are Slay them not lest my people forget scatter them by thy power and bring them down O Lord our shield for the sin of their mouth and for the words of their lips let them be taken in their pride Consume them in wrath consume them that they may not be and at evening let them return and let them make a noise like a dog and run about thorough the City As in like manner Psal 35.4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt Let them be as chaff before the wind and let the Angel of the Lord chase them Let their way be dark and slippery and let the Angel of the Lord persecute them Again saith the same Psalmist after he had mentioned the reproaches and injuries he sustained by them Let their table become a snare before them and that which should have been for their welfare let it become a trap Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loyns continually to shake Psal 69.22 23. And a little after Let their habitation be desolate and none to dwell in their tents for they persecute him whom thou hast smitten and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded Neither will it suffice to say as