Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	name_n	son_n	14,571	5	5.9519	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67322	God's revenge against the enemies of the church written by T.W.	Wall, Thomas.	1658 (1658)	Wing W483; ESTC R40679	15,909	54

the divel stirred up the people to force Aaron to make them a golden god While the true God was writing them a Law they made a Law to set up a false God The divel did hope God would hold them unworthy of his holy Law that had not the patience to stay the writing of it Nor seeks he more to deprive us of the helps of piety then to hinder the encrease It is the sad complaint of many a poor soul that they never meet with more occasions to call them aside then on those days which precedent intentions had devoted more solemnly with fasting and prayer to humble their souls before their God Holy purposes if deferred are likely lost But it s a false necessity that crosses that unum necessarium of Mary which is the only true one what ever occasion it is or outward necessity that diverts us from our holy purposes it is but an Amalekite that lies in wait by the way as thou goest from Egypt to thy heavenly Canaan thou must subdue it thou must destroy it in this spiritual warfare as here Saul was in this temporal Go and smite Amaleck and all that they have which is the last thing The Commission granted from the Lord of Hosts Wherein see First the matter of it Destroy Amaleck Secondly The extent of it 1. Generally All that they have 2. Particularly Man and Woman i. e. of all states degrees and conditions Infants and Sucklings Beasts and all The Observation hence is this Divine vengeance knows no difference of persons spares neither the high for their state nor the weaker for their Sex nor the young for their nonage nor the very beasts for their want of reason which makes them in themselves uncapble of finning 1. Not the high for their state No outward dignity can be priviledged from impunity nay the dignity of the person adds to the indignity of the crime and makes him obnoxious to the greater judgement The reason given is Because the sins of the great are exemplary Great men if sinners are like to the divel who with his tail drew down the third part of the stars with him Rev. 12. 4. Who ever knew an holy Court and a wicked Prince Or to speak neerer to our selves who ever knew a vertuous family and a profane master His plenty corrupts him and he the rest They are afraid to appear good if he upon whom they depend hates to be so They think he will hate them too if they be not like unto him A bad example is sooner followed then a good one It is this in Governours whether publique or private that maintains sin in the world which it at once both secures and feeds Men think they may safely do that which they see those practise who ought to punish it It is the just retribution of God that if they who ought do not punish sin should be more severely punished for it they attract the guilt of many by whom many are made guilty All shall suffer for their own sins but he shall suffer as much as many whose example made many sinners How justly did Dives fear the augmentation of his own by his brothers coming into the same torments whose example might bring them to it With what bitterness did he entertain the thoughts of their coming to encrease his flames which he already found so intolerable How much better had it been for him to have begg'd his bread with Lazarus on earth then to beg water of him in hell VVhat a corrasive must it needs be to the penitent soul of David to hear Nathan say Thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme O holy David I have heard thee somtimes say Thou wouldst destroy all the wicked of the Land Shall those wicked now learn by thee to be more vile That thou which hast so often sang praises to the name of God shouldest cause others to blaspheme that name For what will they say Is this the servant of the God of Israel Can that Law of God be an holy Law whose chief Professors commit such unholy acts Such needs must be the Law as the lives of them that do embrace it do declare Men sure are such as they are taught to be If their God were holy his people would be holy too he cannot well be good that hath such wicked servants If great men therefore be greater examples of impiety a greater measure of punishment must be their due which divine justice will surely pay Indeed it is no less requisite that the Divine nature should be uucapable of sinning then impossible for it to be subject to it for if it be necessary that sin should be punished it is as necessary that it should be punished by him who cannot sin VVhere there is subjection to a capacity of sinning there can be no certainty of immunity from falling into it where there is no necessity of immunity from it there can be no necessity of punishing it for how shall any especially eternally punish that whereof himself may possibly be guilty if he should be subject to it Hence it is that neither men nor Angels can punish sin a derivative power they have but not a primitive they may have it from God but not from themselves they may be executioners of punishment but not imposers The Elect Angels indeed and beatified Saints cannot sin but they have this happiness by their confirmation in Christ and not by the soundness of their own nature The one have sinned while they were here the other might have done even there To God then only it belongs to punish sin not only as it is committed against him but as it is he that could not possibly have sinned And now to bring it home as he is God and cannot sin and therefore only may so as he is God he cannot but punish sin and therefore will in whomsoever he finds it He spared not the Angels saith S. Jude If sin seizeth upon the nature of Angels the nature of Angels shall be subjected even to actual torments for that sin As it is written Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels And as a worthy light of our Church saith In vain were that light prepared for the Divel if the Divel's nature could not be tormented in it But as for us men God did more to redeem us then he did to make us If then God spared not the Angels which sinned only against their creation how much less will he not spare man that sinneth against so great redemption treading under foot the Son of God as if the blood of the Covenant wherewith we were sanctified were an unholy thing Heb. 10. 29. Again If he spared not the Angels for their heavenly excellency much less will he spare man for his earthly dignity whom their impiety of life doth condemn their eminency of place shall not absolve 'T is the works of men that God accepts and not their persons He that would not accept of a crown for himself will never accept of another for it For Tophet is prepared of old even for the King is it prepared Isa 30. ult And so hateful was Saul's partiality in this respect that for sparing the King of Amaleck he lost the Kingdom of Israel if not of heaven to himself Thus you see first he spares not the high for their state Secondly Not the weaker for their Sex Slay man and woman too Women The original matter of woman whereof she was composed was more pure then that of man yet was the woman first in the transgression and not the man Before their fall she was an help meet for him not subject to him but after her fall lest she should abuse that equality which she had before to the like seducement she must submit to the dominion of her husband Gen. 3. 16. That as in her equality she first induced him to sin whereby he merited eternal death so in her subjection she should be obnoxious to the penalty of his sin even to a temporal death and therefore slay man yea and woman too Thirdly He spares not the young for their nonage Such as are the Parents such usually are the children not that the very sins of the Parents are by nature transfused into the children but do insensibly steal upon them by being daylie inured to them which at length by custome turns to another nature It is therefore just with God to root the whole race of them whom he foresees will be inheritors of their fathers enmity against his Church So Noah about to curse his Son Cham pronounced not the curse in the name of Cham but Canaan his sons son Noah by a prophetique spirit foresaw Canaan would be heir of his Fathers sin and therefore subjected him to his fathers curse Nay righteous Jonathan must be dispossessed for his fathers disobedience God's judgements are always deep and secret but ever just He takes away the righteous young for their greater good he takes away the wicked young for their lesser torment and therefore s●ay man woman yea infant and suckling too Oxen and Sheep c. It is the endowment of reason that gives a capacity of sinning The creature is void of reason and therefore free from sin yet must be slain The unreasonable creature though in it self void of sin yet in detestation of the sinner whom it serves is made obnoxious to temporal punishment If the divel in the serpent induce Eve to sin the instrument is cursed in hatred of the sin occasioned by it In the destruction of the old world by the universal deluge why should the beasts creeping things and fowls of the Ayr perish by the waters but because they received their food from that earth wherein man had corrupted their ways Gen. 6. 7. As therefore Beasts in general cannot sin yet subjected to the curse of man's sin so neither in particular had these Amalekitish cattel any hand in the offence done to the Israel yet must be destroyed for their owners sakes who had So severe is God's vengeance against the enemies of his Church even total destruction both of them and theirs In God's due time Amalecks portion shall be theirs Even so O Lord let all thy enemies perish that thy Church may have rest Amen FINIS