Selected quad for the lemma: king_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
king_n	aaron_n	abuse_v	priest_n	55	3	6.5359	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89672	A conference with a theist. Part II. Shewing the defects of natural religion; the necessity of divine inspiration; the rationale of the mosaical laws, and defence of his miracles : together with an account of the deluge, the origin of sacrifices, and the reasonableness of Christ's mediatorship. / By William Nicholls ...	Nicholls, William, 1664-1712.	1699 (1699)	Wing N1094A; ESTC R181001	142,863	328

a Heathen should come at a sight of that Book or at least a Relation out of it For Trogus Pompeius who wrot the History which Justin Epitomized was a Retainer in the Family of the Great Pompey who Conquered Judea and therefore in the Expedition of his Master there without doubt he picked up this imperfect Relation of the Jews either by reading their Books and afterwards forgetting or mistaking them or by mixing the True History with the Fabulous reports of some Neighbouring Gentiles So that in short the Scripture-History must regulate his report And then see how finely This does agree with it He makes the Jewish Original to be from Damascus and that Abraham was King of that place where Arathes the Wife of Syrus one of their ancient Kings was worshipped That after Damascus who gave name to the City succeeded Azelus and then Adores and then Abraham and Israel which Israel divided his Kingdom among his Ten Sons but made them all to be called Jews from his Son Judah That Joseph was Israel's Youngest So● and that Moses was Son to him That the Jews were drove out of Aegypt for being Scabby that they were followed after by the Aegyptians because they had stolen some of their Sacra and that the Aegyptians were forced to return home by a Tempest That they were forced to fast seven days in the deserts of Arabia which occasioned the Institution of the Sabbath That the Memory of their being drove out of Aegypt for their scabbiness made it a part of their Religion not to converse with strangers lest the Knowledge of their Infirmity should render them contemptible That Moses his Son's name was Arvas i. e. Aaron who was an Aegyptian Priest who afterwards succeeded Moses in the Kingdom and from hence came the custom that the Jewish Kings were always Priests Now what a foolish and contradictious account of the Jewish History is this Report of Justin Who ever heard of the names of Azelus and Adores in the Jewish story When was such a Goddess as Arathes worshipped generally by the Jews who were always fam'd for the worship of one God where by the way this is only a simple mistake of the Author to say Arathe for the Astarte or Astaroth of the Sidonians Here is again Abraham mistaken for the Father who was the Grand-Father of Israel Here are Israel's Ten Sons set down for his Twelve his little Estate mistaken for an Empire and the Twelve Tribes for Ten Kingdoms Here is Joseph taken for Jacob's Youngest Son who was his eldest by another Venter and Moses passes for Joseph's Son who lived Three or Four Hundred Years after him Here is the name of Jews said to be imposed by Jacob which was not known till the time of the Captivity a Thousand Years afterwards Here are the Plagues which Moses inflicted upon Aegypt altered for the scabbiness of the Jews as if those heavy judgments came only by infection and the spoiling of the Aegyptians of their Bracelets Ear-rings c. turned into the running away with their Sacra Here is the History of the Manna and Quails confounded with the Institution of the Sabbath and their Injunction of not communicating with the Nations attributed to the foolish Fable about their Itch or Leprosy And besides here is again Aaron Moses his Brother mistaken into his Son and turned from a Jewish into an Aegyptian Priest here is the same Aaron made King of the Jews who was never otherways than Priest and that said to be the original of the Custom of the Jews having their Kings their Priests when never any such Custom obtained amongst them but only the Author has blundered the History of the Maccabees Government into this Fable So that Philologus I would have your Gentlemen for shame leave of to abuse the Jewish Nation with false stories out of Heathen Historians that knew so very little of their Country and are guilty of so many mistakes about it For in this short account of Justin you see there are almost as many mistakes as words whether they are willful and malicious or no I shall not determine but I am sure the account we find in Scripture to all reasonable Men must be ten times less liable to exception Phil. These are but small things Credentius for us to make many words about but I am afraid you Inspiration Men are guilty of a very great fundamental Errour in taking that for some supernatural Revelation of God which is only Natural Reason For I cannot be brought to think that the Prophets or other Writers of the Bible which are said to be inspired had the Mind of God revealed to them any other way than by the common natural way of reasoning and Knowledge For Natural Knowledge is but the Revelation of God wherein God reveals to our minds the natures of things which were unknown to us before so that God may he as well said to speak to us by our reason as by the Scriptures and Natural Knowledge may be allowed to be divine as proceeding from God as well as they And I doubt not but that it was the Hebrew way of using the word God that has betrayed both Jews and Christians into the fancy of Inspiration and Revelation in the modern sense when formerly nothing but pure natural Knowledge was meant by it For the Hebrews had always a very Religious and Devout way of talking and attributed almost all Natural Actions to God if they had gotten Money by their industry they would say it was given them by God if they had a good thought they would say God put it into their Hearts and the like So a great many other things were said to be divine or to come from God which were only natural but wonderful or extraordinary Thus the mountains of God is only another name for great mountains they Sleep of God for a deep sleep and the Sons of God Gen. 6. are but great Sons or Giants Now it would be a mad way of Interpretation to say all these things were inspired because they have God's name added to them Therefore why should we suppose that those Men who are called Prophets in Scripture had any divine and supernatural Revelation only because they are called the Men of God or are said to have the Spirit of God For this is only an usual Hyperbole to denote that they were extraordinary Men Men of sound Reasoning and notable parts and exquisitely gifted to move and perswade the People And this is no more than what the Greeks and Latins mean by Divine or Godlike i. e. extraordinary only because the Hebrews made use of Genitives instead of Adjectives they called him the Man of God which the Heathens would have called a divine or extraordinary Man So when the Prophets are said to have the Spirit of God what needs I pray of coyning an Inspiration or Revelation of divine Truth to explain this by For the Spirit of God has so many senses and those so very

incurr the danger of being hanged or losing their reputation Adultery indeed may be a little against the Pact we enter'd into when we retired from a State of Nature but moderate Whoring is as innocent as Eating Drinking or Sleeping And now what a noble Idea of natural Religion is this for Men thus to Philosophize themselves into Beasts and to call that pure Nature which is the worst sort of Brutality It cannot be denied but that we have some disorderly affections within which are apt to prompt us to such Actions but we have before shewn that these Appetites have received an original depravation which has been the Opinion of all wise Men and besides in the midst of this Tumult of unruly Passions we still find a right reason within us disallowing of these irregular Tendencies and a Conscience checking us for the submiting to them And now let any one judge which has the justest claim to the Title of natural Religion and the unblameable practice of Mankind those wise dictates of reason which restrain these desires or the mad Passions themselves And yet when all comes to all your Infidel Sparks after all their cry for natural Religion and pure uncorrupted nature mean no more by it than uncontrouled sensuality Which is so vile an end for a Man to propose to himself that it reflects a disgrace upon our common Reason and at last let him gain as much of it as he can he will never arrive that way to the happiness of an ordinary Beast For a Boar or a Monkey can enjoy more of this sort of satisfaction than e'er a Libertine of 'em all Epicuri de grege Porci Phil. I beseech you Credentius not so severe All we Infidels are not such Hogs as you would make us for some of us are better principled than this comes to Such Men as you describe are our Hereticks as I may call them though they pretend to natural Religion they have highly corrupted it and almost destroy'd it But we Orthodox Unbelievers have our Tenets fixed upon a sounder Bottom and take nothing up for natural Religion which is not the Result of right reasoning and grounded upon the clear principles of natural Light For this is the sole Rule which God has given us to walk by not that Men like these Libertines should mistake the cravings of their Irregular Appetites for the Law of nature but to govern them by it For I suppose God to have given us these Appetites not to be Law to our actions but as a subject to exercise our obedience to this Law of God or Nature upon so that then we are said to act according to the Law of Nature when we follow those dictates which every ones unbyassed reason affords him even in opposition to these irregular Tendencies of our vitiated Appetites This is that noble Rule which alone if followed will make a Man Wise and Vertuous and Happy Under the influence of this Law alone till the Priests began their Reign Primitive Mankind liv'd golden Ages and went to Heaven at last without Sacrifices and Revelations Hâc arte Pollux hâc vagus Hercules Innixus arces attigit igneas Cred. I find you are continually harping upon the Priests being the Authors of all the ceremonious parts of Religion and particularly Sacrifice and that the World was a considerable time without either Priests or Sacrifice under the conduct of pure natural Religion and that the Priesthood was but of late date and crept into the World by imposing upon the People pompous Ceremonies Now to set you right in this mistake will you please to attend to these following particulars 1. There was always in the World a Rank of Men who had the Office of the Priesthood annexed to them Priests in all places of the World and all Ages whose office it was to put up Prayers to the Deity for the People to offer Sacrifices and the like That this office was entailed upon Primogeniture as some maintain from Numb 18.16 Vid. Grot in Luk. 2. I think is not so certain but that it belonged and was constantly practised by the Heads of Families and Princes of Nations in the earliest times is unquestionable So Noah after the Deluge Sacrified for himself and Family Gen. 8.20 The like is recorded of Abraham and Jacob and Job And so among the Gentiles in the highest Ages the Crown and Priesthood went together of which the History of Melchizedek King of Salem is a remarkable Instance in Scripture And amongst Prophane Authors Virgil tells us the like of Anius King of Delus Rex Anius Rex idem hominum Phoebique sacerdos Virg. Aen. 3. Upon which Verse Servius has this note Sane majorum haec erat consuetudo ut Rex esset etiam sacerdos vel Pontifex Vnde hodieque Imperatores Pontifices dicimus This was the custom of the Ancients that the King must be also Priest or Pontifex And from thence at this day we stile the Emperours Pontifices And so likewise in his notes on the 10. of the Aeneads he says Aeneas was likewise sacrorum Rex or Pontifex And before him Priamus the Trojan King offers the Sacrifice which is described by Homer Iliad 3. And so not only Iulus Aeneas his Son succeeded his Father in the Priesthood but the Priesthood continued for many Ages afterwards at Rome in the Gens Julia which descended from him Numa instituted those sacra called Regia which were to be performed by the Kings only ordaining likewise some subordinate Priests who should supply their places when they were engaged in the Wars So Julius Caesar in right of his Family was High-Priest and after him Augustus and at last the Emperours were Pontifices Max. on course So that you see the Priesthood Philologus is not such a modern Incroachment as you Deists would pretend Phil. Let the Invention be early or late it matters not much for 't is so very and useless one that Mankind would not be a farthing the worse for if it was quite laide aside for it cost us I am sure a great deal of Money and no body that I know is the better for it For People may live honestly and say their Prayers as often as they think fit without the help of Parsons or if they must have Guides such an honest old Author as Tully or Seneca or the good Advice of some sober wise Gentlemen will conduct them in the Rules of Morality without taking Tithes for it Cred. The World is very bad as it is The Advantage of a Ministry but I believe it would be ten times worse if there was not an order of Men that did continually put People in mind of their duty and though they be very negligent of Instruction yet by hearing their Duty so continually inculcated something sticks at last even in the worst Minds and keeps them from being so profligately wicked as they would otherways be 'T is true indeed 't is possible some Men may live good lives without a

Fotoques and Games as the Mexicans for the rites paid to their Virachoca Nor does my conjecture stand singly alone but I have your own sacred Writings to back me in it For there are many Texts of Scripture which seem plainly to affirm that God-Almighty has revealed his Will by a Positive Institution to the Gentile World whom you look down with so much contempt upon under pretence of your superabundant privileges For Gen. 14.18 c. it is said that Melchisedeck was King of Jerusalem and Priest of the most high God and that he blessed Abraham which was a principal Office of the Mosaical Priesthood Numb 6.23 and that Abraham pay'd Tithes to him of his Spoils From whence it is plain That God had a revealed Institution before the Jews or their Forefather Abraham's time and that when Abraham is commended for keeping God's commandments and statutes and Laws Gen. 26.5 it is only these positive injunctions in the Land of Canaan which Melchisedeck was the Priest or Prophet or Dispenser of So Malachi 1.10 Who is there among you that would shut the doors of my Temple that fire should not be kindled upon mine Altar For from the rising of the Sun unto the going down thereof my name shall be great among the gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen saith the Lord of Hosts By which words it is plain That at that time the Prophet did not think the Jews dearer to God than other People and that the Heathens worship was as acceptable to him as theirs So Psal 145.18 The Lord is nigh to all them that call upon him to all that call upon him in Truth And in the same Psalm v. 9. it is said God is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works So God himself gives a Testimony of Job a Gentile that there was none like him in the Earth a perfect and an upright Man Job 1.8 So Jonas said he determined to flee to Tarsus because he knew God to be a gracious and merciful God Jon. 4.2 and who would therefore pardon even the Gentile Ninevites Besides we read in Scripture that several uncircumcised Gentiles had the gift even of Prophecy as Enoch Noah Abimelech and Balaam Nay several of the Jewish Prophets prophesy for the use of the Gentiles Ezechiel prophesies to all the Nations then known Obadiah prophesies only for the Children of Edom and Jonas principally for the Ninevites Isaias foretells the calamities and deliverance of the Aegyptians Is 19.19 and the Prophet Jeremy is call'd expresly a Prophet of the Nations or Gentiles Before thou camest out of the Womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations Jer. 1.5 and Chap. 48.31 he says he will howl for Moab he will cry out for Moab and v. 36. My heart shall sound for Moab like Pipes c. which pathetick expressions shew that he was sent by God a Prophet as well for the Gentile Moabites as the Jews But as for the Prophecy of Balaam that is so express that all the major and minor Prophets cannot pretend more to the Spirit of Prophecy than this one Gentile Seer So that Credentius you may make what brags you please of the Jewish and Christian Revelations but if you do not own old Balaam as much a Heathen as he was to be a very good Prophet you will want one of the most considerable proofs of Christianity Nay the Scripture gives this Man all the Characters of a Prophetick spirit He hath said who heard the words of God who saw the Vision of the Almighty falling into a Trance but having his Eyes open Numb 24.4 Now methinks it is a little unfair for you to make such an outcry about God's particular Favour to you by Revelation when those very revealed Scriptures themselves which you make such brags of allow it to the Heathen as well as you Cred. One can hardly think you Theists are in earnest when you object against the Scriptures and our Religion that God has revealed himself to other Nations as well as us No Revelation to the Gentiles for their Religions I always take you to have a mind only to be pleasant and to put a banter upon us Christians rather than to defend your own Tenents which do not seem much to be furthered by it And when Spinosa contends so mightily for it I fancy it must be only an humorsom Paradox of that odd Man and not his setled Opinion or at least the effect of a Pique he had conceived against the Jews and so was resolved to set them upon the same foot with other Mortals But that the rest of the World have no Revelation for the diverse Religions they profess will appear by considering Because Idolatrous 1. That most of the Religions in the World are Idolatrous Now it is impossible to suppose that God by a Revelation should command Men to do that which all wise Men would be ashamed to do to fall down before Stocks and stones to worship the Sun and the Moon senseless inanimate Creatures and to adore dead Men and Tyrannical Princes or even Herbs or Beasts Now though we should suppose that God was in no ways jealous of his honour and that it was indifferent to him whatsoever Thing we worshipped yet as he is the God of Truth 't is impossible he should command a false worship or instruct People in paying devotion to things as Gods which are only mean and perhaps wicked Creatures Now the far greatest part of the Unchristian World are and have been such Idolaters and therefore to make God to have revealed to them their superstitions is to make God to represent himself such as it is impossible for him to be to be delighted in a worship which is false and wicked and to be himself the Chief Author of the Imposture which is so horrid as no body will contend for 2. Other Unchristian Nations that are not Idolaters as chiefly the Mahometans profess a Religion which allows Immorality Immoral the Founder whereof was rather possessed by the Devil than inspired by God A Lewd debauched Fanatical Wretch that lived by Rapine and Murder and spent his days in Whoredom Adulteries and Sodomies Now his Religion allows its followers to propagate it by the blood of the opposers and by all manner of cruelty and barbarity against Men of other perswasions It allows Concubinacy and Whoredom and even Sodomy it self and the very rewards it proposes in another World are such infamous Lust as a good Man would be ashamed to think of in this 3. As for your Instances out of Scripture Melchisedeck because you should not too much insult over us as having wounded us with our own Weapons will you be pleased to accept this answer to the first That Melchisedeck is no proof of a Revelation among the Gentiles more than of that Universal