Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	justice_n	law_n	1,616	5	4.3920	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62735	Primordia, or, The rise and growth of the first church of God described by Tho. Tanner ... ; to which are added two letters of Mr. Rvdyerd's, in answer to two questions propounded by the author, one about the multiplying of mankind until the flood ; the other concerning the multiplying of the children of Israel in Egypt.	Tanner, Thomas, 1630-1682.; Rudyerd, James, b. 1575 or 6.	1683 (1683)	Wing T145; ESTC R14957	173,444	408

of them should hap to be afterwards converted to prophane uses Which doth not amount to so much as the Heathen did imagine who thought their Sacrifices to be sanctified by that Celestial Element of fire Or the Iewish Rabbins enemies unto Christ or any mystery relating unto him for they held That Burnt-offerings were to expiate for matters whereupon there was a penalty and that the Body of the Beast that was sacrificed did serve to expiate even for the thoughts of the heart From which we may collect That they also thought their Offerings to have been purified by the ●ir● of the Altar Now I can hardly forbear at the first entrance to declare my opinion That whoever doubteth ●o deny that Sacrifices came in ure by the use of natural reason e●cogitating any acceptable service unto God or to determine and affirm with us that they came in by institution only according to the illumination of the very first Patriarchs and were not essential to salvation before Moses they can hardly come so clearly off from Pelagianism or Socinianism as to oppose them ab imis fundamentis but must needs yield Goliah's Sword to gratifie them Neither yet that they can heartily acknowledge this fundamental Principle Vn●m esse omnium fidem that there was but one faith and way of salvation from the beginning I mean since the Fall which I am shortly about more clearly to demonstrate till the end I shall therefore immediately betake my self to compare opinions that contraria juxta se pos●ta magis illucescant contraries being set one against another the truth may arise the brighter out of all obscurity the one setting off the other When we meet with any Divine Notions among the Heathen Writers which are not a few we may take all the rest that they had not from the Phoenicians by which name they seem to have known in general the Hebrew people to have been clearly from the light of Nature or from some old Traditions traduced by their Poets which were their ancientest Philosophers When there are any Passages quoted out of the Iewish Rabbins in favour of any Gloss or Tenent we are to consider whether that Author lived before our Saviours birth or after If before how far suspicious of the leven of the Pharisees if after how much tainted with the reprobate imaginations of the unbelieving Iews which yet some do swallow as a Loche or in fine how far free from contradiction those blinded people out of hatred to Christianity having many ways belied one another in delivering of their pretended Rites and Traditions In Christian Controversies where the Authority of Fathers and Councils is quoted the times circumstances occasions interests and powers are either to be added or substracted as Grains are in the weight of Gold But the present scope and design of Parties may seem to give us the best light if we can discover it into modern opinions what to judge of them I will therefore here endeavour to detect that of the Socinians as far as I am able because it stands in my way now and is like to stand in my light hereafter as I proceed if I do not utterly remove it The design of Socinianism is not to destroy all Religion without which they could not make a Sect nor yet to deny the Gospel in express terms lest they be questioned of Iudaism or Mahumetism which would work nothing else to their purpose besides a prejudice but by consequence only Yet because they draw as near to the Borders of Atheism as those of Poland do to the Grand Seignior's they have a mighty ●orce as it were of Cossacks that pretend indeed as if they were of that Sect but really hang betwixt that and utter Atheism Their main foundation is That men might and may be saved by the light of Nature in things Divine and moral To second which Hypothesis amongst others these are some of the chief First That men argue so from Scripture a●●f they did in effect but adhere to their own opinions according to their light of reason or capacity of reasoning taking only the Subject of it to furnish their apprehensions with some more probable matter of believing and generally seem to adhere unto that common reason whereof they accuse Socinians only Secondly That there is not naturally a sense of the Being and Providence of God in men but that it is a matter of Faith only to believe that God is Thirdly That natural Religion is only moral and that he which is just shall be saved though he believe not whether there be a God or no and to believe more they are only bound to whom more hath been revealed Fourthly That there was no such thing as original righteousness in Adam but only innocency before the Fall nor as original sin ensuing thereupon or any imputation of his sin at all to his Posterity For he holds that Adam was mortal in Paradise though he might have been continued in life or have been translated if he had not si●ned that sin though he did others in inordinate affections at the least before and that his Posterity was little the worse for it although somewhat Fifthly That Christ though a more Divine Person than any other neither justly could nor did satisfie for sin so that his righteousness can be any way said to be imputed but th●t men are justified by simple condonation only Sixthly That he was given to us chiefly as an example to shew us that way to Heaven which else it would have been hard for us to find Seventhly That as Adam had free-will before he fell so all his Posterity hath still since there is no cause why he should be deprived of it by his Fall nor the nature of the thing it self nor of Divine Justice so admitting Eighthly That by the right use of this a man may obey the Divine Law Ninthly That Predestination unto life is of such as shall do so according to the foreknowledge of God Tenthly That such foreknowledge relieth on no Decree but is like to the foresight only of a prudent man including no contingences Now according unto these Principles if Christ himself was not made a S●crifice for sin nor needed but only suffered martyrdom as the Prophets before to instruct us in the way of patience meekness or the like as Socinus teacheth more expresly afterwards what should they do but talk contemptuously of Sacrifices from the first to the last as indeed they do For what say others of his Followers When we urge them thus Would such a righteous man as Abel imbrue his hands in the bloud of a Beast and burn it as an Offering acceptable unto God if it had been no way revealed to him that with such Sacrifices God was well pleased Nobis inquiunt quibus alii mores aliae Religiones inveter●runt non est temere judicandum tanto temporis intervallo quid alteri in mentem venire posset praesertim eorum quae

confirm it In answering of their former reasoning from a particular Negative to a general Affirmative we proceeded by the way that is as strong as theirs was sleight I mean by demonstration from the effects to the cause the same way that we prove a God for where there was example encouragement and penalty demonstrated there the Law it self the cause of these was also demonstrated by a necessary consequence And so in handling this their other Topick A possibili ad necessarium I shall go near to requite them by arguing quite contrary A necessario ad impossibile But first What kind of arguing is this There is no Command revealed about a matter of such moment as sacrificing and therefore there was none nor any reason to be given why such a thing should be omitted And yet to say that it is possible and likely of as great moment as it is that men should find it out by the use of right reason whereas this is less revealed than the other And less reason to be given why or how it should be first devised We say still it was absolutely necessary that after the Fall there should be sacrificing but that it was utterly impossible that man should invent it of himself And if Socinus doth not ground his own Hypothesis upon Scripture wherefore doth he call for Scripture Scripture And when we shew him Scripture what avails it in the case of Sacrifices when he shall set the same reason that invented them above the Scriptures giving it authority to expound them not so as right reason but as the reason of Socinus shall allow Is not this to appeal always to himself And what hath he deserved of the truth that we that revere the Scripture indeed should defer so much authority to him Do we not see that he alledgeth Scripture only to baulk us and admitteth it not to inform himself But let us appeal however unto such as will hearken what the Scripture saith and believe it Was not Abraham expresly commanded to offer up his Son Isaac and did not God provide him of a Ram in the stead of his Son And said not God unto Iacob Go up to Bethel and dwell there and make there an Altar unto God The Question is Whether God commanded these things because Cain suppose being a very wise man had invented them before or because God himself had commanded the like before what do you think Is it more reasonable that men should prescribe a modus of his own worship unto God or he to men Or do you think it proper that God himself should second a project of the wicked Cain or the decayed Adam And what though the first Law be not recorded as many Laws of England depending on the ancientest Customs of all are not and yet are held to be such as out of which Magna Charta was composed and which without so much as mention in any Statute are accounted to be prime Law amongst us does it therefore follow that there was none What think you of Murder before Noah of burning for Adultery afterwards or of the Law of Leviration obliging the Brother surviving to raise up Seed unto his Brother for the breach of which God Almighty being provoked besides the other aggravation cut off Onan in his prime Shew me the Laws if you are able and yet they were of such moment that their breach you see was Capital I instance in Laws which is ad idem to the Question since it nothing moves them when we shew That divers things are recorded in the New Testament as delivered by Moses who was directed unto brevity which we cannot find at all in him as Enoch's Prophecy Lot's perturbations for the wicked Sodomites Noah 's preaching to the old World c. In a word the fourth Chapter of Genesis was not the place wherein Moses was to set down the Law of Sacrifices which he was after to reform So that these two Points remain in the whole to discover the fallacies of our Adversary and to vindicate the truth viz. first That after the Fall Sacrifices were absolutely necessary towards the reparation Secondly That it is utterly improbable and morally impossible that any man should invent them so that from the very first they should have been acceptable unto God on that account CHAP. VII What maketh the Socinians talk so sleightly of Sacrifices The inconcinnity and implications of their opinion in part detected IN this it is that the Socinians trifle much when they talk prophanely concerning Sacrifices as if they had been but complemental or superstitious things nay but fond in their imaginations and such as they should have never liked if they had lived then which will represent their opinion to the more prejudice if it shall at last appear that God himself was the Director of them only as a merciful remedy for man But what though Will they be any more ashamed in this than in their sleighting of both the Sacraments of the New Testament of which they acknowledge Christ himself to have been the Author while they drive them to another scope and question the necessity of their continuance For what is there in water now more than in fire before or in Bread and Wine now more than in the Cakes and Libaments with the flesh and bloud of Sheep before They say as it were by a scomma or a sarcasm Nobis quibus alii mores c. To us that are inured unto other manners and religious Rites for a long time it is in vain to judge after so long a time before what might come into the mind of another concerning Sacrifices as if Adam and the Patriarchs were no other in their account but as old exotick Heathens that had invented some way of worship acknowledging however lest they should be free in any part from contradiction Haec hujusmodi instituta quae ratio naturalis excogitavit tanquam ad conspicuum Dei cultum satis apta suisse idonea That these Sacrifices and what pertained to them were apt and proper enough though invented by men to render a certain kind of conspicuous service unto God And so when they say It is no wonder that they should consume these consecrated things by fire for how else could they prevent their reservation possibly unto prophane uses after once they had been dedicated They themselves that pretend to take their refuges in reason do but raise us unto admiration of their considence when they tell us that there is no wonder in such a thing whereof they can give no other but an illusory or ridiculous reason while they say There is no wonder For if this be strange to us how it should come into the Patriarchs heads to think to please God by slaying of a Beast without such revelation how should it seem less strange that burning it when they had done should enter into the same heads for any one reason more than another