Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A67146
|
An abandoning of the Scottish Covenant by Matthew the Lord Bishop of Ely.
|
Wren, Matthew, 1585-1667.
|
1662
(1662)
|
Wing W3674; ESTC R11962
|
26,795
|
60
|
It is not for nothing therefore that the Scripture so often makes that word Plural We are told of leaving God and serving Baalim Judg 2. 11. that is Any thing else that 's in Divine esteem with men but God Any thing by them set up with God To them that 's their Baal a privy Idol in their budget So that d'off will no way help them Of all the rest not in this matter of Covenanting For howsoever they have gone to work too now to make a wretched People willing to be cheated by them let me give them this gift The first Idolatry that the People of God ever committed with any Baal was in reference to a Covenant And how say you then Does this suit right Take another The first Covenant that ever Gods People made of their own heads without Gods Deputy to lead them was a Covenant with Baal And now I hope they will thank me for I am come close home to them But I will not fail to make it good For the Word of God is express in it When Gideon was dead they went a whoring after Baalim and made Baal Berith their God Judg. 8. 33. Baal Berith a God Now a' Gods name what 's that Why in plain English 't is the Idol of a Covenant so Berith signifies So that for all brave Covenanters here you see Baal is their Chief The very first that e're twang'd that way to be entertain'd by the People and to Covenant with them And yet for the while then who but He Lord such a Racket In all hast there must be an House made for Him a Temple forsooth for a God by the wise Lords of Sichem Judg. 9. 4. And there he must have his Exchequer to receive what came in upon the Publick Faith And then presently upon that score brave and jolly men they make themselves no less then King-makers and out of their Treasury they assign him an Allowance of Seventy pieces of Silver for the States service What to do A Holy Work you may be sure To hire vagring Villains to go and murther seventy of his Fathers Sons that He onely may be their King ver 5. And for a few years this held on bravely Till at last God in Vengeance upon them all sent an Evil Spirit between Him and his Makers His great Masters And what was the Issue First He destroyed Them and their City ver 45. and at once burnt the House of their God Berith as great a God as he was He and his Covenant went to the Fire who but their new General against it more then any and a Thousand of the chief Covenanters roasted together with it vers 49. And within a while after this King of theirs had his own brains beaten out vers 53. and yet as short a time as he had to make it more remarkable he murthered himself also by making his own Man to be his Murtherer vers 54 This is the Account which the Spirit of God gives you of that Solemn League and Covenant the first of the kind The Result whereof is this That in point of Law the word it self works just nothing To talk therefore now of a Covenant and to look that alone should do it alas 't is but a poor piece of Sophistry none but S. Pauls Galatians will be bewitch't by the bare Name of it For sacred it may be and it may be abominable Do you not see how the Holy Spirit used it even when the Name of God is joyned to it mentioning the Covenant of God He meant the true God But yet naming it so The God of their Covenant He meant a Filthy Idol Will you any more Is not I pray the same term of Covenanting given in Scripture to the vilest of all Gods Enemies The Edomites and Ismaelites the Moabites and Hagarens Gebal and Ammon and Amalek the Philistins with them that dwell at Tyre Assur also is joyned unto them A desperate Crew Rake all the world and not find a worse And now what of them As we read it it is They have cast their Heads together and are confederate against Thee Psal. 83. 5. Confederate A word very unadvisedly by their good leaves here used Else why was it then at the Reformation turn'd out of Latin Confederate is meerly Latine But this very Berith is the word in the Psalm They have all entered into a Covenant against Thee You see therefore what a goodly race of Covenanters then there was and of what Date they originally be And this above all Baal Berithans they were all The Servants of Baalim of Idols and Devils All in a solemn Covenant against the true God And therefore the Spirit of God would not omit there to set down their proper Motto also The Sum of their Resolution what it was Let us take to our selves the Houses of God in possession vers 12 Well then The Law proving to be this That Covenant there is none justifiable and good with no Person no People no Nations that is ever warrantable unless we can truly tell God the Covenant is His that it is Pactum Tuum such as is in a fair Order to Him for the true Drift of it and for the chief right in it and such as He will surely own it Therefore to put upon Him that that 's none of His Or under pretence of His better Worship and purer Service to combine for ought that 's quite contrary to His Will But onely because they say it is His they will force it upon others so to be taken and so to be done That this is Sheker in every degree of it very Froward Lying and false dealing with God a perverse and wicked course in all of them opposite less or more to the true Covenant of God and that the Vengeance of God will at last seize on all that have any hand in it The Tryal will now be no long labour to find for Matter of Fact Whether their Plea here in the Psalm be true or no Whither they for any froward carriage toward the Covenant of their God will be found to stand Not Guilty But it will be a longer business though then we can hope to end it before the usual limitation of our Hour be ended For be the Evidence that will be brought never so clear yet they must have Time to hear it all and liberty to except what they can against it They must also be heard at large What they have to say for themselves God forbid else For any man to be accused and he cannot tell by whom To be impeached and he knows not of what Condemned and he never heard Why nor ever was heard what he could say If there be any Law to warrant such proceedings it must be fetcht out of Scythia If any Religion can suit with it 't is onely that of the Sichemites God ycleped Baal Berith The Lord of the New Covenant By your good leaves therefore we will not huddle it nor shall our Defendants in