Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A67146
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An abandoning of the Scottish Covenant by Matthew the Lord Bishop of Ely.
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Wren, Matthew, 1585-1667.
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1662
(1662)
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Wing W3674; ESTC R11962
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26,795
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60
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the Text. And now of these That I may be able to speak and you to hear to the Discharge of our Duties and to the Instruction of our Souls and all to the Glory of Almighty God I am to beseech and require you all to joyn with me in Humble prayer to Him to the Glorious and Blessed Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Ghost for the Assistance of the Holy Spirit unto us and for the gift of all Divine Graces upon us And that not upon us alone but upon his Holy Catholick Church c. We have not behaved our selves frowardly in thy Covenant THe Persons are now the first Branch of our Discourse We and Thee say they We have not and Not in Thy Covenant In the Name of God then Who are these who are They that speak this And who is He to whom they speak it We. FOr the Speakers whosoever they prove to be this you shall find of them They are the same all the Psalm through They very first word is We have heard vers 1. And so it goes on We overthrow our Enemies vers 6. and Thou savest Us vers 8. and We make our boast vers 9. And there ends the first part of the Psalm And that 's all Eucharistical an oblation of thanks and praise for all Blessings Old and New Then begins the second part of the Psalm and that 's a Solemn Lamentation Humbling themselves lowly under the rod. And still it holds on in the same Persons Thou makest Us to be a by-word ver 15. and Yet We do not forget Thee ver 18. and Thou hast covered Us with the shaow of Death ver 20. and We are counted as sheep to be slain ver 22. And there comes in the last part of the Psalm A holy Letany or Supplication that all of them make for favour and mercy Be not absent from Us for ever ver 23. and Why forgettest Thou Our misery ver 24. and Our soul is brought low ver 25. and Arise and help Us ver 26. But all the way you see singing their Praises or making their Submission or sending up their Petitions still it is We and Us and Our They are all the same still Very well then But yet How shall we find it Who they are Surely the Psalm it self though they be no where named there yet has enough in it unless I be deceived to tell us the name of them For will you be pleased but to mark it that howe're the Persons be still the same yet now and then the Number is changed for a touch or two and then they fall in again as before T is Thou art My King O God ver 5. Not Our King but My King as if it were of One in the Singular And t is I will not trust in My Bow it is not My Sword that shall save Me ver 7. These are in the Thanksgiving part And so 't is again in the Humiliation part We and We and Our and Us a great while and then on a sudden My confusion is daily before Me and the shame of My Face hath covered Me ver 16. Perceive you nothing then Oh t is plain by this that the Church of God is the Speaker in all this Psalm and so it comes to be We and I First We in the name of all particular Persons as so many Saints and Servants of God and yet I in the name of the whole Corporation the Holy Church As One and All one Catholick Body by the band of the Holy Spirit comprehending them all And wondrous wisely dealt they in it They knew they should be the welcomer to God for this In such a multitude and yet in such an Unity Ecce quam bonum Psal. 133. to be sure God would never fail them No says David For there the Lord had promised his Blessing ver 4. But what talk we of promise Though that be enough for us yet God counts it too little for Him the word therefore indeed is Ibi praecepit Dominus God hath commanded his Blessings all the Blessings of Life and Goodness to attend i th' end upon such sacred Assemblies This for the Speakers Thy Covenant THere 's no stop at all then to be made neither about the t'other Person In pacto Tuo who it is that is spoken to For the whole address we see is unto God He is named at the very first We have heard with our Ears O God ver 1. and afterward He is spoken to as God ver 5. and as our God ver 21. and as Lord ver 23. And had He not been named at all yet it could be no other For to whom the Church makes her Prayers to whom she sends up praises to whom she ascribes the guidance of the world under whose Hand she humbles her self upon whose mercy she relies for help and deliverance It can be none but God God all in all So now 't is the Church of God that sayes this And 't is God to whom she saith it And t is the Covenant of God of which she saith it Neither have we behaved our selves frowardly in Thy Covenant If there be any thing then to be stood upon here it must be but to find which of Gods Covenants they mean For God we shall find had more Covenants then one In several Respects several Covenants Pactum Providentiae IN respect of his Providence and the Government of the whole world This very natural course of Day and Night God himself calls it His Covenant of the day and His Covenant of the night Jerem. 33. 20 We may remember also he calls it His Covenant the saving of Noah in the Ark Gen. 6. 18. and That the Earth should never be destroyed with a Floud any more Gen. 9. 9. From these Generals come we down to these in the Text To the seed of Abraham And very that we shall find is the Covenant of God First That Abraham should have such a seed Five several times God terms it His Covenant Gen. 17. 2 4. His everlasting Covenant ver 7. 19 21. Secondly That this seed should inherit the Land of Canaan that 's His Covenant too Gen. 15. 18. And not to stay there These are the Covenants which He renewed with Isaac Lev. 26. 45. and appointed the same to Jacob for a Law and to Israel for an everlasting Covenant Psal. 105. 10. But now if we weigh it well none of all these could be the Covenant of our Text for they were not liable to the Lies and distortions of Perverse men 'T was not in them in no mans power to run counter therein were they never so froward no body could set themselves against those Covenants Leaving therefore His Covenants of this sort which concerned God's Power alone and His free conveyance of secular Blessings upon Men we must look at that sort of these Covenants that concerned God's Worship also and so had a respect to the Duties which God required His Church should perform to Him It was
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