Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	day_n	time_n	year_n	3,093	5	4.9048	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41789	The seventh day-Sabbath ceased as ceremonial and yet the morality of the fourth command remaineth, or, Seven reasons tending to prove that the fourth command in the Decalogue is of a different nature from the other nine ... also certain answers to some of the said reasons proved insufficient : whereunto is added a postscript, shewing the judgement of the Jews and antient Christians, touching the Sabbath-day / by Tho. Grantham.	Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692.	1667 (1667)	Wing G1547; ESTC R18492	18,115	24

set apart to serve and worship the Lord his Creatour and for the repose of his Servants and Cattle The Answer will be according to the Letter of the fourth Precept only the Seventh day of every week but in the Moral consideration it will be so much time as is sufficient to answer these ends which as things may often do fall out may require more than seven daies time toge●her notwithstanding the Letter of the fourth Precept which saith six daies shalt thou labour or six daies may work be done And this is the sense wherein I take the fourth Command in the Decalogue to be Moral and under this consideration I say it obligeth universally I mean it bindeth all men in all times and places to set sufficient time apart to worship their Creatour and to give their Servants and Cattle convenient rest and this the light of Reason or Law of Nature doth clearly teach and hence our Apostle might well say the Gentiles having not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law sith all Nations so far as I ever yet Rom. 2. heard do reserve a competent time for his Worship whom they acknowledge for their God But whereas the fourth Command doth precisely limit a certain point of time viz. the seventh day of every week not requiring more or less In this respect I say the fourth Command in the Decalogue is Ceremonial and done away by Christ Done away I say as it was part of the yoke of bondage as also other things of like nature were for example the place of worship which in many respects was only the Temple at Jerusalem neither of which are so done away as to destroy either time or place for serving the Lord but rather so as that all times and all places are so far sanctified unto us by Christ as that we may in every place and at all times serve him with as great acceptation as if we were in the Temple of Jerusalem on the SABBATH DAY Be it farther considered that the relief of the poor and the maintenance of such as are Ministers of Gods Word do appertain to Moral duty being grounded upon the Law of right reason Do to others as you would be done to Thou shalt not muzzle Mat. 7. 12. 1 Cor. 9. 9 10 the mouth of the Oxe which treadeth out the Corn c. Now saith Paul for our sakes no doubt this is written that is for the sake or in the behalf of the Ministers of Christ But now if the Question be What is the portion of the poor and such as Minister the Word The Answer will be according to Moses's Law The tenth part of the increase of thy Land must be set apart for that purpose yea before Moses it is evident that Tythes were paid but before Moses no man can be assigned that ever kept the Sabbath But in Moral consideration the Answer to the Question will be this So much as is necessary ought to be set apart for the poor and for such as Minister the Word So then it is clear that some part of our time some part of our substance and some place must be set apart for the Worship of God c. And what part that must be either Christ and right reason or the Law of Moses must inform us If Moses's Law then the Seventh day of every week the Temple at Jerusalem and Tythes must be assigned But if Christ and right reason then the time is whensoever you can the place is wheresoever you can and for substance what you can or what is necessary The two last I suppose will not be denyed and for the first it m●y thus appear The Lords Supper is ordained as a standing Ordinance in the Church of Christ as the Passeover was in the Church under Moses but yet there is no set time assigned by Christ for its Celebration as we know there was for the Celebration of the Passeover Again the Church under Moses were commanded to offer many Sacrifices to the Lord and had their their respective times limited wherein to do it Christians are bound to offer to the Lord spiritual Sacrifices even the fruits of Heb. their lips giving thanks to his name but this without the limitation of time having rather this general rule in that case namely to do it continually that is as often as we can Furthermore the work of exhortation is a standing Ordinance in Christs Church but not limited to any set time but rather to be performed daily that it to say as frequently as we can And hence we may perceive a very great difference as to the liberty of time He● in things pertaining to God between the Law of bondage and the Gospel of Christ for certainly the work of Christian exhortation praising the Lord and the celebration of his divine Supper doth as it were comprize the whole body of Christian Worship as it consists in Practicals and answers to that which comprized the body of Legal worship but with this remarkable difference the one is left free as to the circumstance of time while the other was tyed to their strict points of time under which consideration we have cause to say as the Apostle said of some who went from Christ to Moses yee observe dayes and moneths and times and yeares I am afraid of you c. Among which days I have no doubt the Jews Sabbath-day was included and that because it was of a ceremonial consideration and so done away by Christ and that it was of such a consideration I shall endeavour to demonstrate by the grounds which here ensueth The first Reason Because nothing which is really moral is impossible but upon due consideration it will be found impossible for the whole Universe i e. all mankind with their Cattel to observe one certain point of time to rest from labour c. because the bounds of their habitations hath made the time so far various as the time of mid-night is the time of mid-day in their respective Regions where they live so that unavoidably one part of the world will be found in the dead of the night asleep on their beds when the other in the heat of the day are in devotion to the Lord. But that which makes this matter the more considerable is the great diversity of time which happens to those who live in the * I speak not here of the utmost South and North but the most remote habitable parts of the World far Southern and Northern parts of the world a day in these places being as long as many of ours so that to enjoin a Sabbath-so emnity in those places would prove a strange undert●king and would not answer the Morality of the fourth Comm●nd which undoubredly requires a sufficient time of rest for man and beast and that his Name may be sanctisied by all men in the celebration of his Ordinances The substance of S. J. his Answer to this Reason is this If

the continuance of the Paschal Sabbath see Exod. 12. 14. For the continuance of Penticost Sabbath see Lev. 23. 21. For the continuance of the Expiation Sabbath see Lev. 23. 31 For the continuance of the Feast of Tabernacles Sabbath see Lev. 23. 41. The third parallel is in the Service of these Sabbaths and that I have shewed already wherein it appears that the Services of the annual Sabbaths was not onely greater than those of the weekly but to be done as exactly yea though they fell upon the seventh day Numb 28 29. chap. The fourth Parallel is of forbearing Labour which was as strictly to be observed on the yearly as on the weekly Sabbaths Exod. 31. 14. compared with Lev. 23. 30. The fifth Parallel of the time to begin to keep the Sabbath ' which is supposed to be the evening before but in this the annual Sabbaths are not onely equal to the weekly but indeed the pattern for of one of them onely it is said from Even to Even shall you sanctifie your Sabbath Lev. 23. 32. The sixth Parallel is of the Penalties which was death and was as well the penalty for breach of the yearly Sabbaths as for breach of the seventh-day-Sabbath Lev. 23. 30. * Note that these words in the Texts that soul shall be cut off from his people is meant of the Magistrates executing the Law for breach of the Seventh-day-Sabbath and then why not in the other cases also And although it be not exprest that the Magistrate must execute the penalty for breach of the yearly Sabbath yet it may be gathered that hee must do it See and compare these Scriptures Exod. 30. 28. * Note that these words in the Texts that soul shall be cut off from his people is meant of the Magistrates executing the Law for breach of the Seventh-day-Sabbath and then why not in the other cases also and Exod. 31. 14. * Note that these words in the Texts that soul shall be cut off from his people is meant of the Magistrates executing the Law for breach of the Seventh-day-Sabbath and then why not in the other cases also And this may serve as an answer to some when they did us shew that the penalty of death was ever to be inflicted upon the breakers of any Law but the moral Law Nor is this the onely instance for the holy Persume might not be imitated under pain of Death Exod. 30. 28. Neither might man or beast so much as touch the holy Mount but be punished by stoning or by being thrust through with a Dart Exod. 19. 23. compared with 12 and 13. verses of the same chapter The seventh and last Parallel shall be of the Sabbath of years in which we may observe that at the giving thereof to Israel the Lord gave them the bread of three years the year before the Sabbathical year as he gave them the bread of two daies before the Sabbath-day Now let it be considered what sollid Reason there remains for the continuation of the seventh-day-Sabbath more than for the yearly Sabbaths and Sabbath of years sith there is no more express prohibition of the one than the other in the Scriptures except in Col. 2. 16. Where in truth the seventh-day-Sabbath is rather more expressly prohibited than the rest and seeing we do as constantly enjoy the time of first fruits in-gathering c. as the Jews did wherein they held holy Sabbathisms to rejoyce before the Lord for all the good things wherewith he blessed them it might very justly be enquired of some why they observe not these solemnities together with the seventh-day The seventh Reason The Observation of the seventh-day-Sabbath according to the Law of Moses cannot stand without the Execution of the Penalty of death upon such as break it Were it not so it should not be the religious Observation of the day which is in it self a thing tollerable and about which Christians need not judge one another I say were it onely this it should not offend me But now these which stand for the observation of the seventh-day according to the Law of Moses do also stand for the penalty of death to be inflicted upon such as they judge wilful breakers thereof confessing even in their printed Books that the reason why they do not execute that penalty is Because they are no Magistrates Stennet against Russel So then it seems such men want but opportunity and doubtless by how much men are the more zealous by so much they would drive the more furiously and indeed S. J. doth peremptorily conclude that such their proceedings if Magistrates would be no more an act of Persecution than killing a Murtherer in our daies by the hand of a Magistrate can be termed Persecution We see then there is cause to fay as sometimes we have said that this present Sabbath-Doctrine doth bring in with it a state of Persecution In which we have deliverd no Fable of our own for beside the light of reason by which we are in some measure able to judge of the consequence of mens tenents mine ears are mine evidence that putting the case those men were Magistrates we must either submit to their government concerning the Sabbath c. or else seek a place where we might enjoy our liberty to which as formerly even so now I answer that is much what the same liberty which is granted us now It is a maxime to be wel heeded that Truth hath no bad consequences but admit once this Sabbath Principle in the penal part and then we must admit of all the penalties once due for breach of the three precedent Commands and then must all Blasphemers and Idolaters be destroyed their Cities and substance consumed by fire Deut. 13. and then the lives of the greatest part of men must be ascribed to the sin of the Magistrates But would this proceeding be like a Gospel dispensation wherein God is suffering the contradiction of sinners against himself and waits if peradventure his long-suffering may lead them to repentance as it did Saul who was once a Blasphemer c. In whom God shewed forth a pattern of his patience to those who should live after Wherefore fith the Execution of the said penalties are inconsistent with Gods clemency in Christ in this day of his Gospel patience we therefore dare not subscribe to the Doctrine of the present Sabbath-keepers concerning their Sabbath-observation The substance of S. J. his Answer to this Reason is this That we are like those that run into the fire to keep from burning into the water to keep from drowning to kill because we must be killed for our pains to approve of Man-stealing because death is the due punishment for that sin and here he laies us under non-sense foolishness c. together with these absurdities To which I reply that the dis-ingenuity of these retortings will appear if it be considered First that we distinguish of commands according to the time or dispensation