Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	david_n	king_n	saul_n	2,575	5	9.7545	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61565	A letter to a deist, in answer to several objections against the truth and authority of the scriptures	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1677 (1677)	Wing S5600; ESTC R21879	39,694	152

City v. 11. And he confesses he was her near kinsman only he saith there was one nearer v. 12. By which it seems if there had not Boaz had made no Scruple of the matter And the Jews say in such Marriages very little Ceremony was required if the next of kin did not renounce his right because the Law had determined the Marriage before hand If you had but considered this one thing you would have spared the many Observations you make on this story 3. You Object against 2 Sam. 12. 8. as too much countenancing either Incest or Adultery because it is said that God gave to David his Masters Wives into his Bosom But 1. It is very strange to bring this place as a countenance to Adultery which was purposely designed to upbraid David with the sin of Adultery and you will find it no easie matter by the constitution of the Mosaical Law to prove Polygamy to be Adultery 2. The Jews give a fair Interpretation of this place for they say that the Wife of a King could never Marry after her Husbands decease as the Gemara on the Title Sanhedrim expresly saith although some among them follow the opinion of R. Jehuda that she might Marry the succeeding King but that is built chiefly on this place of which the rest give a better account viz. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not imply Sauls Wives but the Maids of Honour or Attendants on the Court of Saul which all fell into Davids power and out of whom he might choose Wives without danger of Incest and even some of those who assert it lawful for one King to Marry his predecessors Wife yet say in this case of David that the Word only implies that they were of Saul's Family as Merab and Michal were but not Saul's Wives So that all the difficulty here arises only from the Interpretation of an unusual word in which we have much more reason to trust the Jews than other Writers 4. You are much offended at Hosea's Marrying an Adulteress But all the formidable difficulties of that place will presently vanish if you allow the Prophetical Schemes wherein those things are said to be done which are intended only to represent in a more lively manner the things signified by them And so you may see the Chaldee Paraphrase fully explains this place of Hosea and Maimonides purposely discourseth on the Prophetick parables and brings this as one of the instances of them and with him the rest of the Jewish Interpreters agree But you Object against such a way of Teaching as tending to the encouragement of Vice which it is very far from being designed to represent the odiousness of it For the whole Scope of the Prophet is to let the People understand that their Idolatry was as hateful to God as the sin of Adultery and that the consequence of it would be their Misery and Ruine And yet that God expressed as much tenderness to them as a Man that was very fond of a Woman would do in being unwilling to put her away although he knew she were false to his Bed the former is intended in the first Chapter and the latter in the third And what is there tending to Immorality in all this May not God make use of one Vice whose evil is more notorious to represent another by whose evil they are more hardly convinced of May not he set forth a Degenerate People by the Sons of an Adulteress And by the Names given to them express his detestation of their wickedness Especially when the Parabolical Terms are so clearly explained as they are in the second Chapter But you will say these things are related as plain matters of Fact with the several circumstances belonging to them It is true they are so but so Parables use to be so was Nathan's to David so is that of the Rich Man and Lazarus in the New Testament so is Jeremies going to Euphrates to hide his Girdle for it is not very likely the Prophet should be sent 18 or 20 days Journey into an Enemies Country for no other end So is Ezekiels lying on one side for 390 days and having his Head and Beard contrary to the Law as Maimonides observes And his digging in the Walls of the Temple at Hierusalem while he was in Babylon And many other things of a like nature which are set forth with as punctual a Narration of circumstances as this of Hosea and yet they were only figurative expressions We that are accustomed to another way of Learning think these things strange but this was a very common way in the elder times and it is to this day much used in the Eastern Countries to represent Duties to some under the Parables of things as really done by others As may be seen in Locman and Perzoes besides what Clemens Alexandrinus and others have said concerning the Antiquity and common use of this Parabolical way of Teaching I now come to your Objections against the New Testament but I find them so few and those so slight and inconsiderable as to the end for which you produce them that I may easily pass them over To that about the continuance of Miracles I have already Answer'd And I find not one word in the places mentioned by you which implies the necessity of the continuance of them in all Ages of the Christian Church That place Mark 10. 29 30. speaks of no more but such a recompence in this life as is consistent with persecution and therefore must chiefly lie in inward contentment which all wise Men have valued above external accommodations although withall by the account St. Paul gives of himself and his Brethren God did abundantly provide for them one way or other As having nothing and yet enjoying all things Which amounts to a Hundred-fold in this life But certainly you are the first Man Who have Objected the obscurity of the Book of Revelations againgst the Authority of the Scriptures Which is just as if one should Object the quadrature of the Circle against Mathematical certainty If we grant that there are some things in that Mystical Book we do not yet well understand what then Must neither that Book nor any other of the Bible be of Divine Revelation I will not pursue the unreasonableness of this way of arguing so far as I might but I leave your self to consider of it and of all that I have Written in order to your satisfaction If you think fit to return an Answer I pray do it clearly and shortly and with that freedom from Passion which becomes so weighty a Matter And I beseech God to give you a right understanding in all things I am Sir Your Faithful Servant June 11. 1675. FINIS Books sold by Moses Pitt at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-Yard Folio THeses Theologicae variis Temporibus in Academia Sedanensi editae ad disputandum propositae Authore Ludovico le Blanc verbi Divini Ministro Theologiae