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	son_n	time_n	5,482	5	3.8470	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43623	The horrid sin of man-catching, explained in a sermon upon Jer. 5, 25, 26 preach'd at Colchester, July 10, 1681 / by Edmond Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1681 (1681)	Wing H1811; ESTC R32965	25,824	42

To whom with the Father and Son be Glory for ever Amen FINIS THE POSTSCRIPT TO THE READERS ANd now Gentle Readers if ever I had need to beg your Candour or to make an Apology for publishing a crude Sermon now is the time For as it is true that I had not so much as short Notes when I preach'd it nor time to make them so as near as my Memory serves me I have set down verbatim at least the Substance of what I preach'd writing immediately what I preach'd whilst fresh in my Memory and so sent it the next day by a special Messenger to the Press You 'll say perhaps why What haste If this had never been Printed or Printed seven years hence it is soon enough And all may be For neither in the Preaching nor Publishing had I the least Reflection to hit any particular Man alive But I know the Sin of setting Snares to catch Men is so common too too common God knows in these Days such Shamming and Trepanning that scarce an honest Man in England of any Eminency but has or may have cause to say with Holy David Every day they wrest my Words all their Thoughts are against me for Evil. If this Discourse then be but conimoda ut accommoda as profitable as seasonable I have my end and only aim purposely waving in this Sermon all vain Rhetorical Flourishes idle or elaborate Quotations much more that scenical gaping or endeavour at Wit Pun or Quibble so much admir'd by the Humming-Tribe In which little Arts I have no Skill and less Will as thinking no Rhetorick nor Quotations comparable to that and those in Holy Writ leaving to Pulpit-Stagers the little Hitts Hintings and Glances at Wit unbecoming the Gravity and Grandeur of a Divine and better befitting the levity of a Stage or a Barber's Shop than the sacred Pulpit And as I have no Malice against any Man alive so I do not know nor believe that I have an Enemy in the World but such as are so upon the same Score and for the same Reason with which St. Paul upbraids the bewitched and foolish Galatians Am I therefore become your Enemy because I tell you the Truth Some think our Divisions and Distractions are so great that they will not find a shorter Period than the Wars and Miseries of Greece of the end whereof the Oracle of Apollo being consulted replyed They should surcease when they should double the Altar at Delos which was Cubique-form Whereupon all Hands went to work in haste to add another Altar to the old one of a like Cubique-Form to it but to little Purpose for the Miserie 's abated not a whit But Plato better expounded the riddling God telling them the Oracle meant They should never have end for the doubling a Cube in Solids is as the Quadrature of a Circle in Plano amongst Geometricians or as the Philosophers Stonc amongst the vain-promising and vain-boasting Chymists never alas never to be found out Yet I have other Thoughts more Faith and better Hope that our Distractions will find a happy Conclusion and the Death of the Plots and Sham-Plots in good time be fathom'd sounded to the bottom and discovered yet truly I think as is said of the Altar at Delos a period and end of our Distractions is impossible 'till all Popish Altars Popish Hopes and Popish Claim by the Pope and his Emissaries to these three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and the propagation of his Superstition amongst us be extirpate and rooted out nay Root and Branch for there always were Plots Popish Plots in the Reigns of all our Kings ever since the Pope's Supremacy and Usurpations have been rejected and whilst there is a fair prospect and hopes of Redemption of this Golden-Fleece though they be but Glimpses Popish Plots and Conspiracies cannot possibly cease nor the English Scotish and Irish-Papists cease their Assistance and Conspiracies except they apostatize from the Principles of Popery Do they not all follow the Fathers of the Council of Trent into which not a Man was admitted to Vote 'till he had taken this Oath Ego N. c. Papatum Romanae Ecclesiae regulas Sanctorum Patrum adjutor ero ad defendendum retinendum salvo ordine meo contra omnes Homines In English thus I. N. c. will be an Assistant to defend and maintain the Papacy of the Church of Rome and the Commands of the Holy-Fathers the Popes of Rome against all Men Living How inconsistent is this Oath with the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy How impossible to reconcile these two Oaths How impossible for a Man to be a right and true Papist and at the same time a right and true Subject to a Protestant Prince For which cause no doubt it was made Treason by the Statutes 23 Eliz. cap. 1. and 3 Jacob. 4. In the Reigns of those two wise Princes not only to persuade the King's Subjects bred and educated in the Protestant Religion to apostatize and turn Papists but the very Apostates themselves are Traitors declared in these very Words And if any Person shall after the end of this Session of Parliament by any means be willingly absolved or withdrawn as aforesaid or willingly be reconciled to the Romish Religion before recited or shall promise any Obedience to any such pretended Authority Prince State or Potentate as is aforesaid that then every such Person their Procurors and Counsellors thereunto being thereof lawfully Convicted shall be taken tryed and adjudged and shall suffer and forfeit as in Cases of High Creason Then the said Statute which see at large makes it misprision of Treason wittingly to aid or maintain such an Apostate or conceal his Offence twenty days together without discovering it to a Justice of Peace or other High Officer nay he shall pay an hundred Marks and be imprisoned a Year that shall willingly hear Mass As it follows in the said Statute And by the said Statute tertio Jacobi The Apostate to the Romish Religion shall be indicted tryed and proceeded against as a Traitor either at the Assizes and Goal Delivery of the County for the time being or before the Justices of the Court of Kings-Bench So careful have our Kings and Parliaments been to brand that Julian that being educated in an honest and true Religion built upon Holy Wait should be such a Fool or Knave or Atheist for one of the three or all of the three such an Apostate must be to change such a Religion for a Superstition forged and invented by Prelatical Pride and Rapacity For the maintenance whereof all their pious Frauds and Cheats all their lying Miracles Indulgencies Purgatories Limbus's Crosses Images Agnus Dei's Holy Water Masses Canonizations Prayers to Saints baptizing of Bells Excommunications Fulminations Inquisitions burning of Hereticks Massacres Fopperies Plots and Sham-Plots are calculated design'd and contriv'd I do not think that every silly Papist knows these things for they poor Puppets dance

us for we have made Lies our Refuge and under falsehood have we hid our selves But your Covenant with Death shall be disanulled and your agreement with Hell shall not stand when the overflowing Scourge shall pass through then ye shall be troden down by it One would think that no Man should be so Purblind and Beetle-brow'd as to be an Atheist who can chuse but they must visibly see God's Almighty hand stretched out in Judgments in Mercies in overthrowing a mighty Oppressor and perhaps by a Jehu as very an Oppressor as he that he overthrew and treading in the same arbitrary and tyrannical Oppression and in the very steps of his Predecessor down tumbles he too and this divine Justice is visible to any Man of Observance or common-Understanding the Heathen's called this Divine Vengeance Nemesis and the Heathen Poet could not but observe it when he said Rarò antecedentem Scelestum deseruit poena pede claudo The Gouty Judg comes limping makes no haste But he 'll strike home and heavy at the last Lord saith the Prophet when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their Envy towards thy People the Fire of thine Enemies shall devour them But Words are lost and much more Holy Scripture Words are lost on these stout Hectors Atheists false Witnesses Men-Catchers Catch-Poles and Sham-Evidence God bless us all from them and grant we may never come into their Clutches or within the reach and probability of their Oaths their Oaths the Snares wherewith they catch Men many honest Men useful Men nay therefore these Men-catchers lay their Snares and their Oathing-Gins to catch them because they are honest and useful and stand just in the way to hinder their villanous Plots and Designs Well go on and swear and damn your selves to the Pit of Hell and let Men persuade you there 's no such thing as Hell at worst but a kind of Purgatory a certain refining Crucible only to take away your Dross and for a little Money or killing two or three Hereticks and that warm Hot-House too may be avoided Make these Lyes your Refuge and under these falshoods hide your selves there 's little hopes to convert a Judas they 'll be hang'd first or hang themselves first as he did and damn themselves first it is to be feared Oh! but they 'll say It is a difficult thing to prove a Rogue perjur'd and an Affidavit-Man and an Evidence shall find Favour and Friends 't is hopeful and if we swear say they to catch and trap a Man out of his Life and Estate we are upon our Oaths so are they every hour of the day but when they sleep but no sooner awake but the first is a Prayer to God Damn me none can contradict us the Jury is bound to believe us whether they will or no and in spight of their Heart and Conscience they must go according to their Evidence Yes yes the Juries well know their Duty well know you and your Evidence too none know to the contrary is not an Oath an Oath Yes Yes an Oath is an Oath and an honest Man's Oath is intended for the decision of all Strife an Oath is not to make Strife nor to draw Blood nor to drill Men out of their Estates and Honours And though none know to the contrary but God Almighty yet they go on and say Before Death and the day of Judgment we 'll repent and get a Pardon from our Ghostly Father nay perhaps they have one before hand in their Pockets sub Sigillo Prscatoris vel Sacerdotis But your Ghostly Father nor their Father Pa-Pa-Pater Patrum cannot deliver the false-Swearers and Men-catchers from the just Judgment and Discovery of the Father of Spirits who protests he will be both Judg and Jury and Witness too against the false Swearers Adulterers and Oppressors Mal. 3.5 I will come near to you to Judgment and I will be a swift Witness against the Sorcerers and against the Adulterers and against false Swearers and against those that oppress the Hireling in his Wages the Widow and Fatherless and that turn aside the Stranger from his right and fear not me saith the Lord of Hosts What is Man or Men without the comfort of Society what commerce or Felicity in the World without Society be secur'd Away ye Pests to all Society away ye that are the Plague of Mankind and all commerce who can be safe if a severe course be not taken with ye Judas-ses that betray innocent Blood Repent repent as your Brother Judas did and say with him I have sinned in betraying innocent Blood and restore the thirty pieces of Silver the price of Blood but make not the Kingdom an Akeldama or Field of Blood I do not say that all Sins are crying Sins and bring Judgments on a Kingdom and Nation but this Sin of Injustice and Oppression under colour of Law and Justice by false Swearing and Sham-Evidence catching and trapping Men is certainly a crying Sin and brought God's Judgments his dreadful Judgments upon Sodom the cry of whose Sins was so loud as to reach up to Heaven Gen. 18.20 21. And what were the Sins of Sodom mark them well as the Prophet Ezekiel numbers them to the Men of Israel to make them beware As I live saith the Lord God Sodom thy Sister hath not done she nor her Daughters as thou hast done thou and thy Daughters Behold this was the Iniquity of thy Sister Sodom Pride fullness of Bread and abundance of Idleness was in her and in her Daughters neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy So that even withdrawing of Justice or oppressing the needy is a crying Sin and destroyed Sodom and Israel too Therefore this Sin of false-Swearing and Oppression or catching-Men by the Oaths of Catch-Poles and Sham-Evidence has been an old Sin that ruin'd King Ahab and Queen Jezebel almost ruin'd their Kingdom by a great Drought it rained not for the space of three years so that there was a Famine and Mortality they had scarce any Grass or Wator to keep the rest of the Beasts alive 1 Kings 18.5 Indeed this Sin though a common too too common Sin is seldom touch'd upon in Pulpits though none more declaim'd against in Holy Writ some Ministers will not and some cannot and some dare not give these Devils their due by a just and sharp Reproof I mean these false-Swearers Catch-Poles and Sham-Plotters and Sham-Evidence that lay their Snares privily to catch Men. Let Papists call this a Venial Sin we know 't is Mortal 't is Fatal 't is a crying Sin How conscientious was good Samuel to assoil himself of this Sin before all the People before he left his Office of chief Magistrate though not in the least Guilty 1 Sam. 12.3 Behold here I am witness against me before the Lord and before his Anointed Whose Ox have I taken or whose Ass have I taken or whom have

I defranded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any Bribe to blind mine Eyes therewith And I will restore it you And they said Thou hast not defrauded us nor oppressed us neither hast thou taken ought of any Man's Hand And he said unto them The Lord is Witness against you and his Anointed is Witness this day that ye have not found ought in my hands And they answered he is Witness What care was here to get a publick and general Acquittance that he had not exercised Arbitrary Government Injustice Fraud or Oppression before he left his place Is not this better than to be turned out for these Crimes and become the common odium and object of the People's Hatred and just Indignation besides the stings and stigmatizings of a gauled and wounded Conscience And therefore you that are Magistrates have a fair Example here as well as fair warning against all Injustice Fraud Oppression and Wrong or countenancing and abetting all unjust or Sham-Prosecutions plotted by wicked Men that make no Conscience of a thousand Oaths and yet can ensnare and catch Men by virtue of one Oath to the ruine of Life Liberty Estate and Posterity Seek Judgment relieve the Oppressed judg the Fatherless plead for the Widow What though these Catch-Poles or Catch-Men say as their Brethren did Psal 12.4 With our Tongue will we prevail our Lips are our own Who is Lord over us And yet this lawless Wretch is described two Psalms before to be one whose Mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud under his Tongue is Mischief and Vanity Heb. Iniquity He sitteth in the lurking places of the Villages in the secret places doth he murther the Innocent his Eyes are privily set against the Poor He lyeth in wait secretly as a Lion in his Den he lyeth in wait to catch the Poor when he draweth him into his Net He croucheth and humbleth himself that the Poor may fall by his strong ones He hath said in his Heart God hath forgotten he hideth his Face he will never see it Arise O Lord O God lift up thine hand forget not the Humble Heb. humbled or afflicted And God heard this Prayer for Psal 12 5. we read For the oppression of the Poor for the sighing of the Needy now will I arise faith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Heb. Him that would ensnare him Though I had not read it to you this Morning in the second Lesson so fresh in your Memories yet there are few of you but know that there was a Plot a horrid Plot and Conspiracy by the Chief Priests and Scribes against our blessed Redeemer's Life and willing enough they were to kill him but they feared the People Wherefore they resolved he should suffer by the Law of the Land for Treason in perverting the Nation and forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar c. But how shall they prove the Indictment Why that 's the easiest thing in the World it is but looking out and they are always at Hand some Knights of the Post some false Affidavit-Men Catch-Poles and false Evidence and the Sham-Plot is perfected the Indictment prov'd and the business done Therefore all heads to work especially the Chief-Priests they must be in at a dead lift and Elders and all the Counsel sought false Witness against Jesus to put him to Death But found none yea though many false Witnesses came yet found they none That was hard but at the last came two false Witnesses And these did the Business for which they came for which they were hired and they were Caesar's Evidence and swore for Caesar and swore the Matter home And these Catchers carried the Cause against the greatest Innocence Mighty glad no doubt were the Chief Priests and Elders and Counsel and mightily caressed and much made of were these two Sham-Evidences and false Witnesses that swore home especially after the former false Witnesses miscarried in the attempt as not having got their Lesson sufficiently by Heart They had need be Men of Cunning and Ability that can swear thorow-stitch and cleaverly mixing some Truth and probable Circumstances amongst many and amongst the main-Lie There is art in daubing From a Lion a Tyger a Wolf or a Serpent we may make some Defence and Provision but this kind of Snake is Anguis in Herbâ no Fore-sight no Caution no Prudence no Innocency can defend from the sting of this forked venemous and murdering Tongue except a Man abandon all Society with Mankind 'T is true Men may keep these Snakes and but perhaps neither out of their Bed-Chambers scarcely out of their Houses however not out of Publick Houses Churches Courts of Judicature Exchanges and Publick Assemblies so that if they can but bring good proof for the Circumstances as that they were at such a time in such a Church Assembly Exchange Publick Meeting in Court City or Country let them alone to witness what they heard there These I say are the great Plague the none-such Pests of all Society the common-Nusance no former Age that I read of can parallel ours for improvement of Vice and Mischief What Block-heads were the French-Men's Ancestors in the Art of Poysoning in comparison of the present Skill and Dexterity What Block-heads were the Irish the native Irish in all Arts and Mysteries imaginable in former Ages But now how ingenious though some of them are but Bunglers still and enough to destroy a neat well laid and well contriv'd Plot in the Management for want of Skill in a subtile Intrigue But time and good Tutors may improve them if there be first a willing mind Tell not me of Conscience and Religion when Men make it a matter of Conscience and Religion to catch Men by false Oaths and so cut their Throats Will you call this Religion and an acceptable day to the Lord Is not this the Religion that I have chosen to loose the bands of Wickedness to undo the heavy Burden and to let the Oppressed go free and that ye break every Yoak Thus have I entertained you an Hour with my Meditations not without some reluctancy I profess for I design'd not 'till this Morning to preach upon my former Text having the last Lords Day left it abruptly for want of time but I could not fix my Meditations nor Heart upon any other Text than this I am no Enthusiast to fancy that every conceit of mine or warmth of Thought is an impulse of the Holy Ghost nor yet such a Libertine as to neglect all observation of the secret and vehement Impulses of God's Spirit and his holy Communion with our Spirits And I have often experimentally found at other times upon the like short previous Premeditation the good success thereof upon the Auditory hoping and praying that what in this Sermon wants of mine or Man's Abilities may be supplyed by that Holy Spirit that best teacheth us to profit