Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	king_n	year_n	zeal_n	44	3	7.2936	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44395	Golden remains of the ever memorable Mr Iohn Hales of Eton College &c.	Hales, John, 1584-1656.; Hollar, Wenceslaus, 1607-1677, engraver.; Pearson, John, 1613-1686.; Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.; Balcanquhall, Walter, 1586?-1645.	1659 (1659)	Wing H269; ESTC R202306	285,104	329

grievousness greatness of this sin of bloodshed and partly to give the best counsel I can for the restraint of those conceits and errors which give way unto it I have made choice of these few words out of the Old Testament which but now I read In the New Testament there is no precept given concerning bloodshed The Apostles seem not to have thought that Christians ever should have had need of such a prohibition For what needed to forbid those to seek each others blood who are not permitted to speak over hastily one to another when therefore I had resolved with my self to speak something concerning the sin of bloodshed I was in a manner constrain'd to reflect upon the Old Testament and make choice of those words And the Land cannot be purged of blood that is shed in it but by the blood of him that shed it In which words for my more orderly proceeding I will observe these two general parts First the greatness of the sin Secondly the means to cleanse and satisfie for the guilt of it The first that is the greatness of the sin is expressed by two circumstances First by the generality extent and largness of the guilt of it and secondly by the difficulty of cleansing it The largness and compass of the guilt of this sin is noted out unto us in the word Land and the Land cannot be purged It is true in some sense of all sins Nemo sibi uni errat no man sins in private and to himself alone For as the Scripture notes of that action of Jepthte when he vowed his daughter unto God That it became a Custome in Israel so is it in all sins The error is only in one person but the example spreads far wide and thus every man that sins sins against the whole Land yea against the whole world For who can tell how far the example and infection of an evil action doth spread In other sins the infection is no larger then the disease but this sin like a plague one brings the infection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but thousands die for it yet this sin of bloud diffuses and spreads it self above all other sins For in other sins noxa sequitur caput The guilt of them is confined to the person that committed them God himself hath pronounced of them The Son shalt not bear the sins of the Father the soul that sinneth shall die the death But the sin of blood seems to claim an exception from this Law If by time i●● be not purged like the frogs of Egypt the whole land stank of them It leaves a guilt upon the whole land in which it is committed Other sins come in like rivers and break their banks to the prejudice and wrong of private persons but this comes in like a Sea raging and threatning to overwhelm whole countreys If blood in any land do lie unrevenged every particular soul hath cause to fear least part of the penalty fall on him We read in the books of Kings that long after Sauls death God plagued the Land of Jewry with three years famine because Saul in his life time had without any just cause shed the blood of some of the Gibeonites neither the famine ceased till seaven of Sauls Nephews had died for it In this story there are many things rare and worth our observation First the Generality and extent of the guilt of Blood-shed which is the cause for which I urged it it drew a general famine on the whole Land Secondly the continuance and length of the punishment It lasted full three years and better Thirdly the time of the plague it fell long after the person offending was dead Fourthly whereas it is said in my Text. That blood is cleansed by the blood of him that shed it here the blood of him that did this sin sufficed not to purge the Land from it That desperate and woful end that besel both Saul and his Sons in that last and fatal battel upon Mount Gilboah a man might think had freed the Land from danger of blood yet we see that the blood of the Gibeonites had left so deep a stain that it could not be sponged out without the blood of seven more of Sauls off-spring So that in some cases it seems we must alter the words of my Text The Land cannot be purged of blood but by the blood of him and his posterity that shed it Saint Peter tells us that some mens sins go before them unto judgement and some mens sins follow after Beloved here is a sin that exceedes the members of this division for howsoever it goes before or after us unto Judgement Yet it hath a kinde of Ubiquity and so runs afore so follows us at the heels that it stays behinde us too and calls for vengeance long after that we are gone Blood unrevenged passes from Father to Son like an Heirlome or legacy and he that dies with blood hanging on his fingers leaves his Off-spring and his Family as pledges to answer it in his stead As an Engineer that works in a Mine lays a train or kindles a Match and leaves it behinde him which shall take hold of the powder long after he is gone so he that sheds blood if it be not be times purged as it were kindles a Match able to blow up not only a Parliament but even a whole Land where blood lies unrevenged Secondly another circumstance serving to express unto us the greatness of this sin I told you was the difficulty of cleansing it intimated in those words cannot be cleansed but by the blood of him that shed it Most of other sins have sundry ways to wash the guilt away As in the Levitical Law the woman that was unclean by reason of Childe-bearing might offer a pair of Turtle-doves or two young Pigeons so he that travels with other sins hath either a Turtle or a Pigeon he hath more ways then one to purifie him prayer unto God or true repentance or satisfaction to the party wronged or bodily affliction or temporary mulct But he that travels with the sin of Blood for him there remains no sacrifice for sin but a fearful expectation of vengeance he hath but one way of cleansing onely his blood the blood of him that shed it The second general part which we considered in these words was that one mean which is left to cleanse blood exprest in the last words the blood of him that shed it The Apostle to the Hebrews speaking of the sacrifices of the Old Testament notes that without blood there was no cleansing no forgiveness He spake it only of the blood of beasts of Bulls and Goats who therefore have their blood that they might shed it in mans service and for mans use But among all the Levitical Sacrifices there was not one to cleanse the man-slayer For the blood of the cattle upon a thousand Hills was not sufficient for this yet was that sin to be purged with blood too and

more state and honour served and therefore more properly is his Kingdome said to be there And this is called his Kingdome of glory The rules and laws and admirable orders of which Kingdome could we come to see and discover it would be with us as it was with the Queen of Saba when she came to visit Solomon of whom the Scripture notes that when she heard his wisdome and had seen the order of his servants the attendance that was given him and the manner of his table There was no more Spirit left in her Beloved Dum Spiritus hos regit artus Whilest this Spirit is in us we cannot possibly come to discern the laws and orders of this Kingdome and therefore I am constrained to be silent Thirdly our Saviour is a King in a sense yet more impropriated For as he took our nature upon him as he came into the world to redeem mankinde and to conquer Hell and death so is there a Kingdome annext unto him A Kingdome the purchase whereof cost him much sweat and blood of which neither Angels nor any other creature are a part only that remnant of mankinde that Ereptus titio That number of blessed Souls which like a brand out of the fire by his death and passion he hath recovered out of the power of sin and all these alone are the subjects of that Kingdome And this is that which is called his Kingdome of Grace and which himself in Scripture every where calls his Church his Spouse his Body his Flock and this is that Kingdome which in this place is spoken of and of which our Saviour tells Pilate That it is not of this world My Kingdome is not of this world Which words at the first reading may seem to savour of a little imperfection for they are nothing else but a Negation or denial Now our Books teach us that a Negative makes nothing known for we know things by discovering not what they are not but what they are yet when we have well examin'd them we shall finde that there could not have been a speech delivered more effectual for the opening the nature of the Church and the discovery of mens errors in that respect For I know no error so common so frequent so hardly to be rooted out so much hindering the knowledg of the true nature of the Church as this that men do take the Church to be like unto the world Tully tells us of a Musician that being asked what the Soul was answered that it was Harmonie et is saith he à principiis artis suae non recescit He knew not how to leave the principles of his own art Again Plato's Schollers had been altogether bred up in Arithmetick and the knowledge of numbers and hence it came that when afterward they diverted their studies to the knowledge of Nature or Moral Philosophy wheresoever they walked they still feined to themselves some what like unto Numbers the world they supposed was fram'd out of numbers Cities and Kingdomes and Common-wealths they thought stood by numbers Number with them was sole principle and creator of every thing Beloved when we come to learn the quality and state of Christs Kingdome it fares much with us as it does with Tullies Musician or Plato's Schollers difficulter à principiis artis nostrae recedimus Hardly can we forsake those principles in which we have been brought up In the world we are born in it we are bred the world is the greatest part of our studie to the true knowledge of God and of Christ still we fancy unto us something of the world It may seem but a light thing that I shall say yet because it seems fitly to open my meaning I will not refrain to speak it Lucian when Priams young son was taken up into heaven brings him in calling for milk and cheese and such countrey cates as he was wont to eat on earth Beloved when we first come to the Table of God to heavenly Manna and Angels food it is much with us as it was with Priams young son when he came first into Heaven we cannot forget the milk and cheese and the gross diet of the world Our Saviour and his blessed Apostles had great and often experience of this error in men when our Saviour preach't to Nicodemus the doctrine of regeneration and new birth how doth he still harp upon a gross conceit of a re-entry to be made into his mothers womb When he preacht unto the Samaritane women concerning the water of life how hardly is she driven from thinking of a material Elementary water such as was in Jacobs well When Simon Magus in the Acts saw that by laying on of hands the Apostles gave the Holy Ghost he offers them money to purchase himself the like power He had been trafficking and merchandizing in the world and saw what authority what a Kingdome money had amongst men he therefore presently conceited coelum venale Deumque that God and Heaven and all would be had for money To teach therefore the young Courtier in the Court of Heaven that he commit no such Solecisms that hereafter he speak the true Language and dialect of God our Saviour sets down this as a principal rule in our Spiritual Grammar That his Court is not of this world Nay beloved not only the young Courtier but many of the old servants in the Court of Christ are stain'd with this error It is storied of Leonides which was School-master to Alexander the great that he infected his non-age with some vices quae robustum quoque jam maximum regem ab illa institutione puerili sunt prosecuta which followed him then when he was at mans estate Beloved the world hath been a long time a School-master unto us and hath stain'd our nonage with some of these spots which appear in us even then when we are strong men in Christ. When our Saviour in the Acts after his Resurrection was discoursing to his Disciples concerning the kingdom of God they presently brake forth into this question Wilt thou now restore the kingdom unto Israel Certainly this question betrays their ignorance their thoughts still ran upon a kingdom like unto the kingdoms of the world notwithstanding they had so long and so often heard our Saviour to the contrary Our Saviour therefore shortly takes them up Non est vestrum your question is nothing to the purpose the kingdom that I have spoken of is another manner of kingdom then you conceive Sixteen hundred years Et quod Excurrit hath the Gospel been preached unto the world is this stain spunged out yet I doubt it whence arise those novel late disputes de notis Ecclesiae of the notes visibility of the Church Is it not from hence that they of Rome take the world the Church to be like Mercury and Sosia in Plautus his comaedies so like one another that one of them must wear a toy in his cap that so the spectators may distinguish them

and suspicious of your thoughts and to be quick-sented easily to trace the footing of sin to be easily sensible of it when we think our selves to have done amiss a lesson naturally arising as I take it out of Davids example commended unto us in this place Now how absolutely behoofefull it is for us to hold a perpetuall Watch over our hearts and be jealous of such thoughts as spring out of them it will appear by these Reasons First because that sin is of such a ●●ly insinuating nature that it will privily creep in and closely cleave to our thoughts and intents though we perceive it not For as waters though of themselves most pure will relish and ●●avour of the Earth and soyl through which they passe So thoughts in themselves good passing through the corrupt and evill ground of our hearts cannot but receive some tincture some dye some relish from them When David had an intent to build God an house he doubtless conceived no otherwise of this his intent then of a religious and honourable purpose and in outward appearance there was no cause why he should doubt of Gods acceptance yet we see this purpose of his misliked by God and rejected and the reason given quia vir sanguinum es tu because thou art a man of blood How sh●●ll we then secure our selves of any thought if such an intent as this so ●●avouring of Zeal of Sanctification of love unto the glory of God have such a flaw in it as makes it unprofitable and how necessary is it that we bring all our immaginations and intents to the fire and to the refining pot so throughly to try them bring them to their highest point of purity perfection Be it peradventure that the action be in it self good if it be lyable to any suspicion of evill it is enough to blast it It is the Holy Ghosts rule given by the blessed Apostle that we abstain from all shew and appearance of evill that we refrain as much as possible from all such actions as are capable of misconstruction What is more lawfull then for the labourer to ●●ave his hire then for those that labour in the Gospell to live by the Gospell Yet we see St. Paul refused this Liberty and chose rather to work with his own hands only for this reason because he would not give occasion to any that would misinterpret his Action to live at others cost feed on the sweat of others brows What befalls Princes many times and great Persons that have abused their Authority the people rise and suppress them deface their statues forbid their coyn put away all things that bear any memory of them So seems our blessed Apostle to deal here●●look what actions they be which bear any inscription any image title any shew or spot of sin these hath he thought good even to banish qui●●e prohibit Our prophane stories tell us that when Julius Caesar had divorc'd his wife being asked why he did so since nothing was brought against her to prove her dishonest his answer was that she that will be Wife of Caesar must not only be free from dishonesty but from all suspicion of it Beloved St. Paul tells the Corinthians that he had espoused them unto one Husband that he might deliver them as a chast Virgin unto Christ. And God every where in Scripture compairs his Church unto an espoused wife himself unto an Husband a Husband far more jealous then ever Caesar was How carefull then must that Soul be that intends to Marry it self to such a jealous Husband to abstain not only from all pollution of sin but from all suspicion of it Last of all it is Tertullians speech Quanto facilius illicita timebit qui etiam licita verebitur It is wisdom sometimes to suspect and shun things that are lawfull For there are many actions in themselves good which yet to many men become occasions of sin and scandall For it is with our Actions as it is with our meats drinks As divers meats fi●● not divers constitutions of Body so all Actions accord not well with all Tempers of mind As therfore what Dish it is we easily Surfeit of though it be otherwise good it is wisdome totally to abstain from so look what actions they be in which we ●●ind our selves prone to sin it is good spirituall Physick to use abstinence quite to leave them For if our Savior command us to pluck out our eyes and pare off our hands if once they become unto us cause of sin how much more then must we prune away all inward thoughts all outward circumstances which become occasion of offence unto us A 2d reason why I would perswade you to entertain a jealousie of all your thoughts and actions is a naturall overcharitable affection which I see to be in most men unto their own wayes and which is st●●ange the worse they are the more are we naturally enclined to favour them The Reason is because the worse they are the more they are our own When question was sometime made Why good hearbs grow so sparingly and with great labour and pains where as weeds grow apace without any culture and tilling it is was answered that the earth was a naturall Mother to the one to the other she was a Step-Mother the one she brought forth of her self to the other she was constrain'd Beloved it is with our hearts as it is with the Earth the naturall fruit of them is weeds and evill thoughts unto them our hearts are as mothers injusta virescunt they spring up in us of themselves without any care or manuring but as for good thoughts if they be found in our hearts they are not naturall they are set there by a high hand they are there by a kind of spirituall inoculation and grafting as men graffe Apples and kind fruits upon Thornes and Crabs No mervail then if like choice herbs and fruits they grow so tenderly and need so much care and cherishing As therefore Parents though their own children be very deformed yet love them more then others though more beautifull so corrupt and evill thoughts are naturally dearer unto us then good because we are as Mothers unto them to the rest we are but Stepdames Two notable Fruits there are of this overcharitableness to our own actions First a willingness that we have to flatter to deceive and abuse our own selves by pretences and excuses There is a plain a downright and as it were a Countrey reprobate one that sees his sin and cares not much to excuse it and is content to go on and as it were in simplicity to cast himself away There is a more witty more refined and as it were a Gentlemanlike reprobate one that strives to smooth and guild over his sin to deceive others and himself with excuses and apologies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil speaks to take great pains and with the expense of a great deal of wit