Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	offer_v	sacrifice_n	sin_n	8,215	5	5.1703	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61247	A sermon preached March 6, 1675, in the Cathedral Church of S. Peter in York, before the Right Honourable Sir Timothy Littleton, Kt., and Vere Bertie, Esquire, His Majesties judges of assize for the Northern Circuit by William Stainforth ...	Stainforth, William, d. 1713.	1676 (1676)	Wing S5172; ESTC R13542	11,886	38

conveyed unto them by the Light of natural Reason reckoned Justice amongst the fundamental Properties of the Divine Nature and Plato affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That cannot be said in any kind or respect whatsoever to be unjust but so far as is possible to be most just And that this was the general belief amongst them may appear by that universal Custom of Attesting God by solemn Oaths whereby amongst other of his Attributes they particularly own'd that of his Justice and that he would certainly avenge all fraud and unrighteousness And what was thus dictated by the Light of Nature is fully confirmed unto us by Gods Revelations in his own Word wherein he has made such ample discoveries of his own Nature and of his Dealings with men that we must needs conclude that Justice is one of the moral perfections of the Divine Nature and that God may as soon cease to be as fail to be just Shall not the Judge of all the world Gen. 16. ●5 do right sayes Abraham Which Question is an emphatical Affirmation that he will do so And the Apostle St. Paul rejecteth all suspicions to the contrary with an Absit What shall we say then Is there unrighteousness Rom. 9. 14. with God God forbid And for this Reason Princes and Governours Magistrates and Judges who are Gods Vicegerents and Representatives and to whom he has intrusted the care and government of the People committed to their charge are said to Psal 82. 6. be Gods And Gods they are not so much in respect of the sacredness of their Character and greatness of their Power as in the due exercise of their Authority and regular Administration of Justice For when conscience is their Councellor and the Law their Rule and the publick Good their End when they defend the Innocent and punish the Criminal and distribute Justice without the mixtures of Passion and the corruptions of Partiality then do they shine with Divinity indeed and they resemble God not only in the participations of his Greatness but also in the likeness of his Integrity which adorns their Office and justifies their Titles more than all their Furrs and Robes and Ensigns of Honour Zeale for Justice and orderly execution of it is that which Deifie Magistrates exalts their Stations raiseth them above the common level of Mankind sets a glory and a lustre upon their persons makes them sit Objects of our Homage and Reverence and we may justly affirm of such that Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men But then on the other side when Magistrates imploy their Power to ends contrary to those for which it was given them and make use of Gods Authority in a way repugnant to his Will i. e. when they neglect the Works of Mercy and Justice they are no more Gods but Idols nay the worst sort of Idols which being made to represent do yet foully reproach the divine Power Idols did I say perhaps you 'll think them worse when I tell you that the Devil is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to invert the Order of things to change their natural respects and Relations to disgrace Vertue and countenance Vice to put shame upon Integrity and security upon Sin to punish the Innocent and favour the Guilty And then whom such Magistrates are like that are seduc'd by his Temptations and corrupted by his Example you 'll find no great difficulty in making a conjecture for it is impossible they should any way resemble God because Justice is essential to his Nature and can no more be separated from him than he can be divided from himself And must it not hence follow that Justice which is so essential to Gods Nature must be more acceptable to him than Sacrifice which depended meerly upon his Will Is not God best pleas'd with himself having all possible and conceivable Perfections and Excellencies within himself And must not he then in an especial manner be delighted with those Duties that are most like and agreeable to himself that bear the Impress of his own Nature the Character and Signature of his own Being and is not Justice of this sort does it not make us like God and partakers of the Divine Nature and doe not Magistrates who rule by his Authority acquire by it a more exalted kind of Divinity become Gods to the Publick Weale and subordinate Saviours to the whole Kingdom And this is sufficient to prove that to do Justice and Judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice III. To do Justice and Judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice is evident from the different ends of these two Duties For Sacrifice was not enjoyn'd for its own sake but Justice always was and is and ever will be First Sacrifice was not enjoyn'd for its own sake For 1. Sacrifices were ordained to be Types of the Sacrifice of Christ who was to be offered up in the Fulness of Time upon the Cross they were instituted to be Figures and Shadows silent Prophesies of the death of the Messiah and the vertue they had of expiating legal Guilt was a suitable Type of the infinite efficacy and meritoriousness of the Blood of the Son of God which was a sufficient Expiation of the Moral and Eternal Guilt of the Sins of all Mankind This is clear from several places of the New Testament and more especially from St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews 2. Sacrifices were enjoyned to be as a Guard and Security for other Duties to be as a Hedge and a Fence for the Moral Precepts and especially to defend the Jewes against Idolatry for the Jewes were an extreamly vain and carnal people and very prone to be in love with and to follow the superstitions and idolatrous practices of the Gentiles and therefore rather than God would suffer them to be enticed and drawn away with the Vanities of the Heathens he gratifies their childish humour by instituting a pompous way of Worship that was agreeable to their Infant-State and present weakness and commands them to offer Sacrifice to himself the true God lest otherwise through the example of the Gentiles they should have been tempted to have done it to Idols And accordingly Justin Martyr saith particularly of the Sacrifices That the end of them was to keep the Jewes from Idolatry and this also Trypho acknowledgeth though he was a Jew and one that vigorously asserted the Law and mightily gloried in it And Tertullian is of the same opinion concerning the end of their Institution for he saith Populum pronum Idololatriae Adv. Marcion l. 2. ejusmodi officiis Religioni suae voluit astringere And this shews that Sacrifices were not commanded for themselves and that the goodness of this Duty was not Natural and Intrinsecal but Relative and External and depended meerly upon the success that it had in promoting Duties of a higher Nature and especially in securing the Jewes against Idolatry But now Justice always was and is and