Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	adultery_n	commit_v	sin_n	1,903	5	5.1470	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B20551	A discourse concerning excommunication. By THomas Comber DD. Precentor of York.	Comber, Thomas, 1645-1699.	1684 (1684)	Wing C5459	99,055	127

these miraculous Cures on Mens Bodies evidently proved to the Jews who were all of this Opinion that he had power to forgive Sins and consequently was the Messiah Now if the Original of this Opinion of theirs be enquired into we may conclude it came first from God's threatning Diseases to those who transgressed his Law Deuter. xxviii 27 28 35 c. and secondly from the frequent Examples they had seen of the miraculous smiting of evil Men with sudden and sad Distempers in the very act of their Sin Now while this extraordinary way of punishing and disgracing Sinners suitable to the hardness of this Peoples hearts was made use of by God there was not so much need nor occasion for the Priests to excommunicate Men for Immoralities since God took the matter into his own hands and no doubt these apparent Judgments were so terrible that such as had done any grievous Sin durst not come to God's House till he was attoned And it may be noted That in the infancy of the Christian Church the Lord proceeded the same way with the Corinthians who profaned the Holy Communion striking many of them with sickness and weakness and some with death 1 Cor. xi 30. to warn the rest and to provide for the keeping his Sacred Ordinances from prophanation in a Church where as S. Chrysostom notes by reason of the Schism there was no exercise of Discipline at that time Now these Methods sufficiently shewed it was the will of God that notorious Sinners should be excluded they did the work and served to the ends of Excommunication they bound up the Parties so that they wanted if not commerce with men yet however converse with God for they could not go to the Temple till both the Sin was pardoned and the Sickness removed together And that restauration was their Absolution (q) Isa xxxviii ver 22. and also a warning not to offend again (r) John v. 14. These Methods therefore of miraculous smiting Sinners might well occasion the seldom use of any Excommunication for Immoralities which is the first Answer to that Query Why there are so few Instances of that Discipline under the Law of Moses exercised by the Priests upon scandalous Offenders A second Reason may be taken from the Jewish form of Government which was a Theocracy God himself was their Supream Ruler and Law-giver and they had not two Laws one Sacred and the other Civil nor two Tribunals as there are in other Nations The Priests there had the chief Authority in the Sanhedrim and in all other Councils and the power of Temporal Punishments 2 Chron. xix 8. The High-Priest was the first Person in the Sanhedrim ibid. ver 11. And the determining of all Controversies and punishing all Offences was principally in them (s) Deut. xvii 9 12. so that the King himself was to advise with the Priest in all matters (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph in App. lib. 2. Vide Phil. de vita Mosis Joseph Antiq. lib. 4. cap. 8. and it was Capital to any of the People to disobey their order Now while the Priests had this power and the Nation was governed by God's Law and its own Magistrates of Divine appointment all Moral Evils and Impieties were if small expiated by chargeable Sacrifices and so the Offender was reconciled by the Priest to God and the Congregation But if the Crimes were great or done presumptuously Deut. xvii 12. they were to be punished with death as in the case of Murther Exod. xxi 14. abusing their Parents and Men-stealing ver 15 16 17. Witchcraft and unlawful Lust Exod. xxii 18 19. Idolatry ver 20. The sin of Fornication in a Woman before Marriage and of Adultery in both Men and Women and the sin of a Rape committed on a betroathed Woman Deut. xxii 21 22 23 c. These and many other Crimes were in that Law punished with death by the Sentence of the Priest and so there was no need of any solemn Excommunication as Mr. Selden himself confesseth even there where he is magnifying this Objection of the want of Instances in the Old Testament for the exercise of Excommunication (u) Neque necessarium eis visum est ut adhiberetur excommunicatio quamdiu sui erant juris Seld. de Synedriis lib. 1. c. 7. p. 77. This stiff-necked and rebellious People were not to be reformed by so gentle a Method as Separation from the Assemblies or the disgrace of Ecclesiastical Censure Duro nodo durus cuneus Almighty God therefore was forced to use a harder wedge to so knotty a piece and to invest his Priests with a power to cut them off with the material Sword which under the Spiritual Oeconomy and Paternal Regiment of the Gospel is now as S. Augustine observes changed into Reproofs and Excommunication (w) Hoc nunc agit in Ecclesiâ excommunicatio quod agebat tunc interfectio Aug. Quaest in Deut. lib. 5. c. 38. Phinees Sacerdos adulteros simul inventos ferre ultore transfixit quod utique degradationibus excommunicationibus significatum est esse faciendum hoc tempore Idem de Fid. Oper. cap. 6. as more suitable to the Gospel Spirit Luke ix 55. and to the gracious design of making Men virtuous out of love to God and not as under the Law meerly for fear of bodily punishment which was inflicted without mercy on those who by two or three Witnesses were proved to have despised Moses's Law Hebr. x. 28. Yet as the Apostle there notes those who despise this gentle Method shall have a sorer punishment even a dreadful Judgment executed on them by God at last ver 27 29 30 c. Wherefore there being so apparent difference between the state of things under the Law and under the Gospel it is not to be wondred at if those Priests who had so much Secular Authority did not so often exercise this power of Excommunication as the Gospel Priests do who have nothing to do with Corporal Punishments And yet still it is clear there was a Method then to separate the notorious Criminals from the Congregation and that by God's own appointment yea there was somthing like Excommunication in these Legal capital Punishments For it seems the Cherem or Curse of God was supposed to be upon that Man who thus suffered as Moses shews saying He that is hanged is accursed of God Deut. xxi 22. and thus Christ is said to be made a Curse for us Gal. iii. 13. And the impious Canaanites who were destroyed by Joshua were thus accursed yea the very Phrase for killing those who had deserved Death for their Treachery in the Book of Maccabees is Anathematizing or Cursing them (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Maccab v. 5. So Jezabel being executed is called A cursed Woman (y) 2 Kings ix 34. And when Saul had pronounced this Cherem upon all that eat that day Jonathan falling under that Curse must have dyed if the People had not rescued