Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	wood_n	world_n	wrath_n	23	3	6.7225	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61604	A sermon preached before the King, January 30, 1668/9, being the day of the execrable murther of King Charles I by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1669 (1669)	Wing S5642; ESTC R8100	19,336	46

liberty to do what they list for the Laws by which they Govern do fence in the rights and properties of men and Princes do find so great conveniency ease and security in their Government by Law that the sense of that will keep them far better within the compass of Laws than the Peoples holding a Rod over them which the best Princes are like to suffer the most by and bad will but grow desperate by it Good Princes will never need such a curb because their oaths and promises their love and tenderness towards their people the sense they have of a Power infinitely greater than theirs to which they must give an account of all their actions will make them govern as the Fathers of their Countrey and bad Princes will never value it but will endeavour by all possible means to secure themselves against it So that no inconveniency can be possibly so great on the supposition of this unaccountable Power in Soveraign Princes taking it in the general and meerly on the account of reason as the unavoidable mischiefs of that Hypothesis which places all power originally in the people and notwithstanding all oaths and bonds whatsoever to obedience gives them the liberty to resume it when they please which will alwaies be when that Spirit of Faction and Sedition shall prevail among them which ruled here in Corah and his company 2. Another pretence for this Rebellion of Corah was the freeing themselves from the encroachments upon their spiritual priviledges which were made by the usurpations of Aaron and the Priesthood This served for a very popular pretence for they knew no reason that one Tribe should engross so much of the wealth of the Nation to themselves and have nothing to do but to attend the service of God for it What say they are not all the Lords people holy Why may not then all they offer up incense to the Lord as well as the Sons of Aaron How many publick uses might those Revenues serve for which are now to maintain Aaron and all the sons of Levi But if there must be some to attend the service of God why may not the meanest of the people serve for that purpose those who can be serviceable for nothing else Why must there be an order of Priesthood distinct from that of Levites why a High-Priest above all the Priests what is there in all their office which one of the common people may not do as well as they cannot they slay the sacrifices and offer incense and do all other parts of the Priestly office So that at last they make all this to be a Politick design of Moses only to advance his own Family by making his Brother High-Priest and to have all the Priests and Levites at his devotion to keep the people the better in awe This hath alwaies been the quarrel at Religion by those who seldom pretend to it but with a design to destroy it For who would ever have minded the constant attendance at the Temple if no encouragements had been given to those who were imployed in it Or is not Religion apt enough to be despised of it self by men of prophane minds unless it be rendred more mean and contemptible by the Poverty of those who are devoted to it Shall not God be allowed the priviledge of every Master of a Family to appoint the ranks and orders of his own servants and to take care they be provided for as becomes those who wait upon him What a dishonour had this been to the true God when those who worshipped false Gods thought nothing too great for those who were imployed in the service of them But never any yet cryed but he that had a mind to betray his Master to what purpose is all this waste Let God be honoured as he ought to be let Religion come in for its share among all the things which deserve encouragement and those who are imployed in the offices of it enjoy but what God and Reason and the Laws of their Countrey give them and then we shall see it was nothing but the discontent and saction of Corah and his company which made any encroachment of Aaron and the Priesthood any pretence for Rebellion But all these pretences would not serve to make them escape the severe hand of divine justice for in an extraordinary and remarkable manner he made them suffer the just desert of their sin for they perished in their contradiction which is the next thing to be considered viz. 2. The Judgement which was inflicted upon them for it They had provoked Heaven by their sin and disturbed the earth by their Faction and the earth as if it were moved with indignation against them trembled and shook as Josephus saith like waves that are tossed with a mighty wind and then with a horrid noise it rends asunder and opens its mouth to swallow those in its bowels who were unfit to live upon the face of it They had been dividing the people and the earth to their amazement and ruine divides it self under their feet as though it had been designed on purpose that in their punishment themselves might feel and others see the mischief of their sin Their seditious principles seemed to have infected the ground they stood upon the earth of a sudden proves as unquiet and troublesome as they but to rebuke their madness it was only in obedience to him who made it the executioner of his wrath against them and when it had done its office it is said that the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the Congregation Thus the earth haveing revenged it self against the disturbers of its peace Heaven presently appears with a flaming fire taking vengeance upon the 250 men who in opposition to Aaron had usurped the Priestly office in offering incense before the Lord. Such a Fire if we believe the same Historian which far outwent the most dreadful eruptions of AEtna or Vesuvins which neither the art of man nor the power of the wind could raise which neither the burning of Woods nor Cities could parallel but such a Fire which the wrath of God alone could kindle whose light could be outdone by nothing but the heat of it Thus Heaven and Earth agree in the punishment of such disturbers of Government and God by this remarkable judgement upon them hath left it upon record to all ages that all the world may be convinced how displeasing to him the sin of saction and sedition is For God takes all this that was done against Moses and Aaron as done against himself For they are said to be gathered together against the Lord v. 11. to provoke the Lord v. 30. And the fire is said to come out from the Lord v. 35. And afterwards it is said of them This is that Dathan and Abiram who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Corah when they strove against the Lord. By which we see God interprets striving against the