Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	godly_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	51	3	8.7572	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59963	A hind let loose, or, An historical representation of the testimonies of the Church of Scotland for the interest of Christ with the true state thereof in all its periods : together with a vindication of the present testimonie, against the Popish, prelatical, & malignant enemies of that church ... : wherein several controversies of greatest consequence are enquired into, and in some measure cleared, concerning hearing of the curats, owning of the present tyrannie, taking of ensnaring oaths & bonds, frequenting of field meetings, defensive resistence of tyrannical violence ... / by a lover of true liberty.	Shields, Alexander, 1660?-1700.	1687 (1687)	Wing S3431; ESTC R24531	567,672	774

Plague was stayed And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Phinehas hath turned my wrath away from the Children of Israel while he was zealous for my sake among them I give unto him my Covenant of Peace because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the Children of Israel Numb 25. 3 13. This Action is here much commended and recorded to his commendation Psal. 106. 30 31. Then stood up Phinehas executed Iudgement and so the Plague was stayed and that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations that is in justitiam facti coram hominibus qui alios potuissent hoc factum pessime interpretari tanquam temerarium intempesti●um a privato contra Magistratum patratum crudele nimis ab negatum poenitentiae spatium Deus tamen aestimavit tanquam insigniter justum Pool Synops. Critic in Locum It is certain this Action was some way extraordinary because Phinehas was not a Magistrate nor one of the Judges whom Moses commanded to slay every one his men vers 5. Otherwise if this had been only an ordinary execution of Judgement by the Authority of Moses Phinehas his Action would not have been so much taken notice of nor so signally rewarded but here it is noted as a singular act of zeal which it could not have been if it was only an ordinary execution of the Magistrats command yet thô this action was signally Heroical proceeding from a Principle of pure zeal for God and prompted by a powerful motion of the Spirit of God to that extraordinary execution of Judgement It is notwithstanding imitable in the like Circumstances For the matter is ordinary being neither preternatural nor supernatural but just necessary The end was ordinary to turn away the wrath of God which all were obliged to endeavour The principle was ordinary thô at the time he had an extraordinary measure of it being zealous for the Lord as all were obliged to be The rule was ordinary to wit the Command of slaying every man that was joined to Baal-Peor vers 5. only this was extraordinary that the zeal of God called him to this Heroical Action thô he was not a magistrate in this extraordinary exigent to avert the wrath of God which was neither by Moses his command no● by the Judges their obedience turned away onely by Phinehas's act of another nature and his zeal appearing therein prompting him thereto the Lord was appease● the plague stayed In which fervour of zeal transporting him to the omission off the ordinary solemnities of Judgement the Spirit of the Lord places the righteousness praise of the Action Yet the same Call Motion of zeal might have impowered others to do the like the Text speaks of no other Call he had but that of zeal vers 11 12 13. ye● another was obliged to do the same upon the ground of that Moral Command Deut. 13. 6 9. having the ground of Gods ordinary Judgement which commandeth the Idolater to die the death and therefore to be imitate of all that prefer the true honour Glory of God to the affection of flesh wicked Princes as Mr Knox affirmeth in his conference with Lithingtoun rehearsed before Per. 3. Further let it be inquired what makes it unimitable Certainly it was not so because he had the motion direction of Gods Spirit for men have that to all duties It was not because he was raised stired up of God to do it for God may raise up Spirits to imitable actions It was not because he had an extraordinary Call for men have an extraordinary Call to imitable actions as the Apostles had to Preach We grant these Actions are extraordinary unimitable which first do deviate from the rule of com mon virtue and transcend all rules of common reason Divine Word but this was not such but an heroick Act of zeal fortitude Next these Actions which are contrary to a Moral ordinary Command are unimitable as the Israelites robbing the Egyptians borrowing not paying again Abrahams offering his son Isaac but this was not such Next those Actions which are done upon some special Mandate of God and are not within the compass of ordinary obedience to the ordinary rule are unimitable but this is not such As also Miraculous Actions and such as are done by the extraordinary inspiration of the Spirit of God as Elias his killing the Captains with their fifties by fire from Heaven but none can reckon this among these See Ius populi at length discussing this point and pleading for the imitableness of this Action cap. 20. If therefore the Lord did not only raise up this Phinehas to that particular act of Justice but also warrant accept him therein reward him therefore upon the account of his zeal when there was a Godly zealous Magistrate able and whom we cannot without breach of charity presume but also willing to execute Justice how much more may it be pleaded that the Lord who is the same yesterday to day for ever will not only pour out of that same Spirit upon others but also when He gives it both allow them thô they be but private persons also call them being otherwise in a Physical Probable Capacity to do these things in an extreamely necessi●ous and otherwise irrecoverable state of the Church to which in a more intire condition He doth not call them And particularly when there is not only the like or worse provocations the like necessity of execution of Justice of Reformation for the turning away of wrath removing of Judgments that was in Phinehas's case but also when the Supreme Civil Magistrate the Primores regni other inferiour Rulers are not only unwilling to do their duty but so far corrupted perverted that they are become the Authors Patronizers of these abominations Naph Prior Edit Pag. 23. 3. When the Children of Israel served Eglon the King of Moab and they cried unto the Lord He raised them up a Deliverer Ehud the son of Gera who made a dagger brought a present unto Eglon and put forth his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly Iudg. 3. 21. That this Action was approven will not be doubted since the Lord raised him up as a Deliverer who by this Heroical Action commented it and since it was a Message from God. And that it was extraordinary were ridiculous to deny for sure this was not the judicial Action of a Magistrate Neither was Ehud a Magistrate at this time but only the Messenger of the people sent with a present Yet it is imitable in the like case as from hence many grave Authors concluded the Lawfulness of killing a Tyrant without a Title 4. When the Lord discomfi●ed the host of Iabin and Sisera his Captain fled into the house of Heber the Kenite Iael Hebers wife took a nail of the tent and went softly ●nto him and smote

Serpent Dragon Isai. 27. 1. and have great affinity in name Nature with the Apocalyptick Dragon So also Isai. 51. 9. the Egyptian Tyrant is called Dragon And Nebuchadnezzar swallowed up the Church like a Dragon Ier. 51 34. See also Ezek. 29. 3. 6. They are wolves ravening the prey Ezek. 22. 27. evening wolves that gnaw not the bones till the morrow Zeph. 3. 3. 7. They are Leopards So the Grecian Tyrants is called Dan. 7. 6. and Antichrist Revel 13. 2. 8. They are foxes So Christ calls Herod Luk. 13. 32. 9. They are Devils who cast the Lords people into Prison Revel 2. 10 13. Now can we oune all these abommable Creatures to be Magistrates Can these be the fathers we are bound to honour in the fifth Commandment They must be esteemed sons of dogs Devils that belive so and oune themselves sones of such fathers If we further take notice how the Spirit of God describes Tyranny as altogether Contradistinct opposite unto the Magistracy He will have ouned we may infer hence Tyrants Usurpers are not to be ouned What the Government instituted by God among His people was the Scripture doth both relate in matter of ●act and describes what it ought to be de jure viz. That according to the Institution of God magistrates should be established by the Constitution of the people who were to make them Iudges Officers in all their gates that they might Iudge the people with just Iudgment Deut. 16. 18. But foreseeing that people would affect a change of that first forme of Government and in imitation of their neighbouring Nations would desire a King and say I will set a King over me like all the Nations that are about me Deut. 17. 14. The Lord intending high holy ends by it chiefly the procreation of the Messias from a Kingly race did permit the change and gave directions how he should be moulded bounded that was to be ouned as the Magistrate under a Monarchial forme To wit that he should be chosen of God and set up by their suffrages that he should be a brother and not a stranger that he should not multiply horses nor wives nor money which are Cautions all calculated for the peoples good and the security of their Religion Liberty and for precluding preventing his degeneration into Tyranny and that he should write a Copy of the Law in a book according to which he should Govern vers 15. ad ●in cap. yet the Lord did not approve the change of the form which that luxuriant people was long affecting and at length obtained For long before Saul was made King they profered an Hereditary Monarchy to Gideon without the boundaries Gods Law required Which that brave Captain knowing how derogatory it was to the Authority of Gods Institution not to be altered in form or frame without His order generously refused faying I will not rule over yow neither shall my son rule over yow the Lord shall rule over yow Iud. 8. 23. But his bastard the first Monarch Tyrant of Israel Abimelech by sinstrous means being advanced to be King by the traiterous Schechemites Iotham and other of the Godly disouned him which by the Spirit of God Iotham describes Parabolically significantly ho●ding out the Nature of that Tyrannical usurpation under the Apologue of the trees itching after a King and the offer being repudiate by the more generous sort embraced by the bramble Signifying that men of worth virtue would never have taken upon them such an arrogant Domination and that such a Tyrannicall Government in its Nature tendency was nothing but an useless worthless sapless aspiring scratching vexing shadow of a Government under subjection to which there could be no peace nor safety But this was rather a Tumultuary interruption than a Change of the Government not being universally either desired or ouned therefore after that the Lord restored the pristine form Which continued until being much perverted by Samuels sons the people unanimously peremptorly desired the change thereof and whether it were reason or not would have a King as we were fondly set upon one after we had been delivered from his fathers yoke And the Lord gave them a King with a Curse and tooke him away with a vengeance Hos. 13. 11. as He did our Charles the Second Yet He permited it but with a Protestation against and conviction of the sin that thereby they had rejected the Lord 1 Sam. 8. 7. and with a demonstration from Heaven which extorted their oun confession that they bad added unto all their sins this evil to ask a King 1 Sam. 12. 17 18 19. And to deter disswad from such a Conclusion He appoints the Prophet to shew them the manner of the King that should reign over them 1 Sam. 8. 9. to declare before hand what sort of a Ruler he woud prove when they got him to wit a meer Tyrant who would take their sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots and for horsemen and to run before his Chariots and make them his sowldiers and labourers of the ground and Instrument-makers and houshold servants and he would take their fields vineyards the best of them and give unto his servants in a word to make all slaves and that in the end when this should come to pass they should cry out because of their King but the Lord would not hear them vers 11-18 All which as it is palpable in it self so we have sensibly felt in our experience to be the Natural description of Tyranny but more tollerable than an account of ours would amount to It is both foolishly falsely alledged by Royalists or Tyrannists that here is a grant of incontroulable absoluteness to Kings to Tyrannise over the people without resistence And that this manner of the King is in the Original Mishphat which signifies right or Law So that here was a permissive Law given to Kings to Tyrannise and to oblige people to passive obedience without any remedy but tears And therefore it was registered laid up before the Lord in a book 1 Sam 10. 25. But I answer 1. If any thing be here granted to Kings it is either by Gods Approbation directing instructing how they should govern or it is only by permission providential Commission to them to be a plague to the people for their sin of choosing them to make them drink as they have brewed as sometimes He gave a Charge to the Assyrian rod to trample them doun as the mire of the streets If the first be said Then a King that does not govern after that manner and so does not make people cry out for their oppression would came short of his duty and all behoved to Tyrannize and make the people cry out then a King may take what He will from his subjects and be approved of God this were blasphemously absurd for God cannot approve of the sin of oppression If the Second

7. 2 6. I shew before that there is reason to fear that the sins of a few especially of Magistrats Ministers will bring wrath upon the whole body of the people as is plain from these Scriptures Levit. 10. 6. Isai. 43. 27 28. Lam. 4 13. Mic. 3. 11 21. shewing the sins of Ministers may procure universal Destruction And 2 Sam. 24. 25. 2 King. 21. 11. Ier. 15 4. proving the sins of Magistrats may procure it And Num. 3. 14 15. Iosh. 22. 17 18. Demonstrating that the sins of a party of the people may draw wrath upon the whole Now the only way the Scripture points out to evite avert such publick judgments is to make our resentment of these indignities done to our God our Mourning over them and our witness against them as publick as the sins are at least as publick as we can get them by a publick pleading for Truth Isai. 59. 4. for the defect whereof He hides His face and wonders that there is no man no Intercessor vers 16. that is none to plead with God in behalf of His born doun Truths There must be in order to this a publick seeking of Truth which if there be any found making conscience of the Lord makes a gracious overture to pardon the City Ier. 5. 1. we cannot think there were no mourners in secret there but there was no publick Meeting for it and publick ouning the duty of that day There must be valour for the Truth upon the earth Ier. 9. 3. a publick resolute ouning of Truth There must be a making up the hedge standing in the Gap for the Land that the Lord should not destroy it Ezek. 22. 30. a publick Testimony in opposition to defection There must be a pleading with our Mother Hos. 2. 2. which is spoken to private persons in the plural number Commanding all that would consult their oun safety publickly to condemn the sins of the whole Nation that they may escape the publick punishment thereof as it is expounded in Pool Synops. Critic in locum By this means we must endeavour to avert the wrath anger of God which must certainly be expected to go out against the Land which hath all the procuring causes all the Symptoms Prognosticks Evidences of a Land devoted to destruction that ever a Land had If then there must be such Publick Mourning and such Solemn Gathering for it such public pleading for Truth Seeking of Truth valour for Truth making up the hedge and pleading with our Mother there must of Necessity be publick Meetings for it for these things cannot be done in private but must be done by way of Testimony Which I make a 2. Reason The Nature End of Meeting for Gospel Ordinances is for a publick Testimony for Christ and His Truths Interest against Sin and all dishonours done to the Son of God. So that the only end is not only to bring to Christ build up Souls in Christ but it is to Testify also for the Glory of Christ whether Souls be brought in built up or not The Preached Gospel is not only the Testimony of Christ 1 Cor 1. 6. but a Testimony for Christ in which sense The Testimony of Iesus is said to be the Spirit of Prophesie Revel 19. 10. so called Durham expounds it for its bearing Witness to Christ in which respect Ministers are often called Witnesses It is also the Testimony of Israel not only given to Israel but given by Israel unto which the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord Ps. 122. 4. Whensoever therefore or howsoever the Testimony of the Church is contradicted that 's not a Lawful Meeting of the tribes of the Lord. It is also the Testimony of the Preachers for Christ against them that will not receive them Mark. 6. 11. And a Witness unto all Nations to whom they preach Math. 24. 14. And of all the Witnesses that hold it suffer for it Rev. 6. 9. And the same which is the Word of Christs Testimony is the Word of theirs Rev 12. 11. by which they overcome for which they love not their lives Wherever then the Gospel is preached it must be a Testimony But it cannot be a Testimony except it be Publick at least as publick as it can be as we find all Christs Witnesses were in the Old New Testaments 3. The Motive or principle prompting the Lords people to a frequenting of Gospel Ordinances is a publick Spirit stirring up to a publick Generation Work whereof this is the Scope to promote the Kingdom of Christ and not only to obey the Lords Command enjoining the duty to enjoy the Lord the end thereof or to edify their oun Souls But to partake in promote this Great Work of the Day for the Glory of God and the Churches good For the Gospel is not only a Banner of Love over His Friends but Christs Standart of war against His Enemies Isai. 59. 19. under which all that countenance it are called to list themselves as His Souldiers called chosen faithful And it is required of His Souldiers that they be valiant for the Truth upon the earth Discovering a Gallant greatness generosity of a Publick Spirit having their designs desires not limited to their oun interests even Spiritual but aiming at no less than Christs Publick Glory the Churches publick good the Saints publick Comfort having a publick Concern for all Christs Interests Publik Sympathie for all Christs Friends and a publick declared Opposition to all Christs Enemies This is a Publick Spirit the true Spirit of all Christs zealous Lovers Votaries Which when He is a missing will prompt them to go about the City in the streets and in the broad wayes to seek Him whom their Soul loveth Cant. 3. 2. and not only in their beds or secret corners but they must go to the streets and to the fields and avow their seeking of Christ even though the Watchmen should smite them the keepers of the walls take their vails from them Cant. 5. Which obliges them not only to take Him in to their oun Cottages and intertain Him in their hearts and give Him a Throne there but also to endeavour to enlarge His dwelling and propagate His Courtly residence through the World that the Kingdoms of the earth may becom the Kingdoms of the Lord and if they cannot get that done yet that He may have the Throne in ●her Mothers house and take up His abode in the Church or Nation they belong to that there His Ordinances be established in purity peace plenty power according to His oun Order And if that cannot be but that their Mother play the harlot and He be provoked to give up house with her and by her Childrens treacherie the Usurping Enemy be invited in to His place Habitation and take violent possession of it and enact His extrusion expulsion by Law yet they will endeavour to secure a place for Him among

Lord will cause the Proph●ts and the unclean Spirits to pass out of the Land And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet Prophesie then his father his mother that begat him shall say unto him thow shalt not live and shall thrust him through when he Prophesieth Zech. 13. 3. Which cannot be meant of a Spiritual penetration of the heart for it is said he shall not live and the wounds of such as might escape by resistence or flight are visible in his hands vers 6. It is therefore to be understood of Corporal killing Intycers to Idolatrie according to the Law Deut. 13. 9. either by delivering them up to the Judges as Piscator on the place sayes Or as Grotius saith transfodient ut Phineas Zimri Numb 25. hoc intellige de Pseudo-propheta populum volente abducere ad cultum falsorum deorum nam in tales quemvis Iudaeum Lex armabat Deut. 13. quae Lex expresse addit in tali crimine nec filio parcendum From all which I conclude If people are to bring to condign punishment Idolatrous Apostates seeking to intyce them Then may oppressed people dayly in hazard of the death of their Souls by Complyance or of their bodys by their Constancy in Duty put forth their hand to execute Judgement in case of necessity upon Idolatrous Apostates Incendiaries and the principal Murdering Emissaries of Tyrants that seek to destroy people or enforce them to the same Apostasie But the former is true Therefore c. 4. The same may be inferred from that Command of Rescuing Delivering our Brother when in hazard of his life for omitting which duty no pretence even of ignorance will excuse us Prov. 24. 11 12. If thow forbear to deliver them that are drawen unto death and those that are ready to be slain if thow sayest behold we knew it not doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it and He that keepeth thy Soul doth not He know it and shall not He render to every man according to his works eripe h. e. ex manu invasoris latronis injusti Magistratus c. idque vel manu vel lingua defendente vel quovis alio modo licito Solent homines multas excusationes nectere se nescire illius vel periculum vel innocentiam non tanta authoritate valere ut eum liberent rerum suarum satagere alienis nolle se ingerere c. hic unam excusationem reliquas omnes complectentem exempli causâ proponit refellit as Commentators say Pool Synops. Critic in locum This precept is indefinitely given to all Principally indeed belonging to righteous Magistrates But in case of their omission And if instead of detending them they be the persons that draw or send out their destroying Emissaries to draw them to death then the precept is no more to be restricted to them than that vers 2. not to be envious against evil men or that vers 10. If thow faint in the day of Adversity thy strength is small can be said to be spoken only to Magistrates Hence If it be a Duty to Rescue our Brethren from any prevailing power that would take their lives unjustly and no pretence even of ignorance will excuse the forbearance of it Then it must be Lawful in some extraordinary cases to prevent the Murdering violence of publick Incendiaries by killing them rather than to suffer our selves or our Brethren to be killed when there is no other way in probability either of saving our selves or Rescuing them But here the former is Commanded as a duty Therefore the Later also must be justified when the duty cannot otherwise be discharged Now having thus at some length endeavoured to discuss this some way odd esteemed odious Head to which Task I have been as unwillingly drawn as the Actors here pleaded for were driven to the occasion thereof whom only the necessity of danger did force to such Atchievements to preserve their oun and Brethrens lives in prosecuting the Cause and nothing but the necessity of duty did force me to this Undertaking to defend their Name from Reproach and the Cause from Calumnies I shall Conclude with a humble Protestation that what I have said be not stretched further than my obvious declared Design doth aim at which is not to press a practice from these precedents but to vindicate a Scripture Truth from invidious or ignorant Obloquies and not to specify what may or must be done in such Cases hereafter but to justify what hath been done in such Circumstances before Wherein I acknowledge that thô the Truth be certain such things may be done yet the duty is most difficult to be done with Approbation Such is the fury of corrupt passion far more fierce in all than the pure zeal of God is to be found fervent in any that too much Caution Tenderness Fear can scarce be adhibite in a Subject wherein even the most warrantable provocation of holy zeal is ordinarly attended with such a concurrence of Self-interest and other carnal Tentations as it is impossible without the signal Assistance of special Grace to have its exercise in any notable Measure or Manner without the Mixture of sinful allay as the True Non-conformist doth truly observe ubi supra Pag. 391. Yet this Doctrine thô in its defined and uncautioned Latitude be obnoxious to accidental abuses as all Doctrines may be abused by mens corruption or ignorance misapplying the same is nevertheless built upon such Foundations that Religion will oune to be firme and Reason will ratify their force And I hope it is here so circumscribed with Scripture-boundaries and restricted in the narrow Circumstantiation of the Case that as the Ungodly cannot captate advantage from it to encourage themselves in their Murdering villanies seeing they never were never can be so Circumstantiate as the Exigence here defined requires So as for the Godly I may presume upon their tenderness and the Conduct of that Spirit that is promised to lead them and the zeal they have for the honour of Holiness with which all real Cruelty is inconsistent to promise in their Name that if their Enemies will repent of their wickedness and so far at least Reforme themselves as to surcease from their cruel Murdering violence in persecuting them to the death and devouring them as a prey then they shall not need to fear from them the danger of this Doctrine but as saith the proverb of the Ancients Wickedness proceedeth from the Wicked but their hand shall not be upon them But if they shall still proceed to Murder the Innocent they must understand they that hold this Truth in Theorie will also reduce it to practice And bloody Papists must know that Christians now are more Men than either stupidly to surrender their throats to their Murdering swords or supinely to suffer their villanie to pass unpunished and thô their favours have flattered many and their sury hath forced others into a faint succumbing superceding from