Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	drink_v	flesh_n	life_n	35,906	5	6.1737	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66386	The certainty of divine revelation A sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Feb. 4. 1694/5. Being the second of the lecture for the ensuing year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire. By John Williams, D.D. chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty.	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2695A; ESTC R220000	17,645	44

as well as them because he rested and for a reason existent from the first as well as in the time when it was instituted at Sinai 'T is highly unreasonable to add one Prolepsis to another and to heap Figure upon Figure when there is no necessity for it contrary to all the Rules of a Just Interpretation Now if this be an Original and Primaeval Institution we have one Instance of a Divine Revelation so far as the Scripture is of Authority and surely we may demand in its behalf to have as much regard paid to it as we give to Prophane Histories But however we are not without a concurrent Testimony from them also in this particular For it is manifest that there hath been of great Antiquity such a Distribution of Time as we call a Week of Seven Days and which is more to our purpose That the Seventh Day was a Festival and Religious Day This Lucian doth more than intimate and long before him Solon who calls it Most Holy Day in his Elegies quoted by Eusebius and one earlier than he Homer who calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Day But Calimachus Homer and Linus are still more particular for they say it was because all the Works of Creation were then finished So Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't is therefore called by Linus The Birth-day of the World Now there is nothing in Nature to point to this for there is no more to be observed from the Motion of the Heavens for such a Septenary distribution of Time or Division into Weeks than there is for the dividing of a Day into Hours And consequently it must proceed from some Institution and from a very early Institution because of what I have observed from the fore-cited Authors who are of great Antiquity especially Homer and Linus For Homer is supposed to have lived in or about the time of Saul in the Year of the World 2940 and Linus in the time of the Judges about the Year 2570. The consideration of which doth make it probable that these Ancient Poets owed their Information to the general Tradition of the World rather than to the Jews Indeed Aristobulus the Jew from whom Eusebius drew the abovesaid Testimonies saith these Poets had borrowed them from the Jewish Books But if it be consider'd how little the Jewish Books the Scriptures were known to the World before the Translation of them by the Seventy into Greek which was about 300 Years before the Birth of our Saviour or how little the Opinions of the Jews themselves before the Captivity were known abroad it will hardly be conceived that these things should be known so early and spoke of so positively by the Greek Poets Homer and Linus within so short a time after the Institution of the Sabbath at Sinai as these two lived for Linus must have lived within less than half an hundred Years after the time of Moses and Homer in less than 400. Where if we take the lowest term that of Homer the Jews were hardly in a setled State and no more in a Condition than they were disposed in their Temper or permitted by their Religion to inform other Nations in the Articles or Mysteries of their Religion So that it seems very evident that the Observation of the Seventh day for the Service of God was an ancient and general Opinion and especially of those who may be best presumed to understand what had been the sense of Mankind in the Ages before or those in which they lived And if this was the Opinion of those early Times conformable to the History of Scripture we have sufficient reason to offer this as an Instance of a Revelation 2. Another instance of Revelation is Sacrifices and especially those of Expiation Amongst all the Rites and Usages relating to Divine Worship there are none that exceed these in their Antiquity except the Sabbath or Extent For we no sooner read of God's Reconciliation to Mankind but that they offer'd Sacrifice no sooner of Noah's Deliverance and Escape out of the Deluge but he offer'd Sacrifice And without doubt as it begun so it continued and was as much dispersed and observed among Mankind before the Flood as after it But how probable soever it is that this Rite was thus universally observed before yet That we are not so certain of as we are of the Observation of it after the Flood when there was no Age nor Nation where it was not to be found how dispersed soever they were of which no tolerable Account is to be given unless it be allowed to have been in use before the Dispersion at Babel and that it was of Divine Institution It must have been I say in use before that Dispersion for how could all Nations fall into one and the same Practice and have the same Opinion of Sacrifices when there is nothing in the Nature of the thing to lead them to it if it had not been that they had all descended from one Blood from one Family from one Body by which means it was conveyed into all the several Branches issuing from it and went along with them where ever they went Now the question is Whence this should arise and what gave it this universal Acceptance and Authority whether the Invention of some Eminent Persons suppose in those early Times or whether it was by Revelation from God and of his special Institution There seems no great reason to think this Service should proceed merely from the Invention of Men even of those pious and well-disposed Persons since as I have said there is nothing in the nature of the thing to lead to it For how could it be supposed that this should be acceptable to Almighty God which in it self holds no Conformity nor is at all suitable to his Nature Will I eat the flesh of bulls and drink the blood of goats is a true representation of it It might become a sanguinary sort of Daemons or false Gods and wicked Spirits to be pleased with the Fumes and Reakings of the Bleeding Sacrifice as the Heathens generally thought But men of any understanding would rather chuse a reasonable Service for the God that made them reasonable Creatures and might presume another sort of Sacrifice would be more acceptable to him than this and acceptable without it viz. a Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer of a pure Mind and a good Life which the wiser Heathens did in their Opinion exceedingly prefer But as for the Sacrifices and Blood of Beasts such Philosophers as Pythagoras and Plato spoke of them often with regret and displeasure and others wonder'd how they first came into the World as Porphyry that wrote expresly against them What Expression could thereby be given suppose of mens gratitude to God for their Being and their Preservation Who of all Mankind is fo stupidly credulous so foolish that can think the Gods delighted with such a present of Bows Gall and Blood which a hungry Dog would

scarcely touch and that they should repay the favour to those that offer it said an ancient Heathen Poet cited by Porphyry But if we descend to Expiatory Sacrifices who could think that the Blood of Bulls and of Goats could take away sin and that God would accept of that as a fit Compensation for their Crimes the Blood of a Brute for that of a Man the Life of one that is not in its own power instead of him that was And if men were so weak as of their own accord to offer it can we think the Almighty Creator would accept of what was for it self only unbecoming his Majesty and be so highly delighted with it as to testify his Acceptance of Abel's by the descent of a Miraculous Fire to consume it and to smell a sweet savour upon Noah's Oblation to appoint it as a sign of his Covenant with Abraham and lastly to embody it into the Mosaical Institution It was enough one would think that the Majesty of Heaven and Earth hath accepted of the good will of the first Inventors how poor and low soever the Invention was but it was too great a Condescension to do by these as the Heathens by their Heroes to translate them into the number of their Deities too much to have such a Mark of the Favour of Heaven as none of the Divine Institutions could have more But why should we think so meanly of those Antediluvian Patriarchs of Adam and Abel Enoch and Noah c. the first Inventors or Encouragers of this way of Worship At this rate happier far were the Inventions of Adah Jubal and Tubal-Cain that taught others how to order Cattel to handle the Harp and the Organ to work in Brass and Iron for these did serve either the Necessities or Pleasures of Mankind and were suitable to their nature and condition But to offer Bestial Sacrifices to an Infinite Spirit was as if we should present Mankind with the Entertainments and Pleasures of the Brutes and so it cannot be thought that Men how low soever their Understandings were would think the Blood of Beasts a decent Present to their Creator which indeed would not be so to their Superiors here But we have another sort of Character of those Holy Men who were Persons of great Knowledge and vast Experience who both received their Religion from the Almighty were the great Props and Stays of it in their Generation and to whom the care of transmitting it to Posterity was committed and for which reason as well as others God seemed to have protracted their Lives to so vast an Extent They were such as were eminent for their Piety as Abel's Faith is one of the renowned Instances Heb. 11. and Enoch is said to walk with God and was in an extraordinary way rewarded for it Such again were they as were endued with the Spirit of Prophecy as Adam Abel Enoch Noah And therefore it cannot in reason be supposed that ever they should think the offering the Blood and burning the Flesh of a Beast to be a fit expression of their Gratitude to Almighty God or a means to obtain his Favour by way of Expiation for their Sins without his Institution It is then as far as I conceive evident that Sacrifices of what kind soever were not invented by men But if they were not invented by men How came they to be admitted and at last so much to obtain in the world I answer They were of God's own Institution and therefore were received by the Patriarchs and accepted by himself But then it may reasonably be demanded Why they should be thus honoured by a Divine Legislation and Authority when it is allowed that they are in themselves not suitable to his Nature I answer They were instituted as those Sacrifices were Typical and had respect to a greater Sacrifice that of Christ. And therefore 't is observable That as Almighty God for the Comfort of Adam and preventing his Despair as has been before shewed did immediately after his Expostulation with him and Sentence pass'd upon him reveal his intention to pardon him and the Means by which it was to be procured and ratified The Seed of the Woman so in consequence of this and to shew their Faith in that Promise we read in the next Chapter of their Sacrifices and Offerings which they brought unto the Lord as a Representation of what they for their Apostacy had deserved and should have suffered had not the Divine Mercy interposed Now if we have represented this aright we have a fair account of an Expiatory Sacrifice and how it came to take such place among men and to be so universally received We have a reason again how and why it came to be framed into the Law of Moses and why those Sacrifices and the Rites belonging to them were made a principal part of it and have thereby a Key to unlock many Mysteries in that Law and to answer many Difficulties about it when it is a shadow of good things to come By this means again we come to understand the special Providence of God that this was so much preserved and so universally dispersed and received among mankind By this means again we have a fair account how the Doctrine of the Cross and the Notion of our Saviour's Death as an Expiatory Sacrifice came to be soon entertained among the Gentiles for being of God's Institution as he preserved it so being thus preserved it became an excellent introduction and prepared Mankind for the belief and reception of our Redemption by Christ. To the same Original may the First Fruits Priesthood and Tenths be referr'd the first of which was observed from the time of Abel Gen. 4. and the two last long before the time of the Mosaical Law and therefore are to be derived from an ancient Institution But because it may be thought these Instances may be liable to exception forasmuch as they are sometimes disputed among those themselves that do contend for a Revelation I shall proceed to IV. Sort of evidence which is Supernatural and that is either it self a Revelation or the Proof of it of the former is Prophecy of the latter Miracles 1. Prophecy or the foretelling of things to come whatever time they are to exist in near or remote I add this latter Clause to it to prevent all Exception and to distinguish Prophecy truly so called from Sagacity or Human Providence which from Precedent Observations and proximate Causes may be often fortunate in its Conjectures or Predictions But now as to Infinite Power all things are alike possible and easy and there is nothing great or little more or less with respect to it so to Infinite Knowledge to which one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day all things the remotest as well as nearest are alike present and there is nothing distant or near with respect to it And therefore whereever the true Spirit of Prophecy