Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	circumcision_n	righteousness_n	seal_n	13,716	5	9.8320	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51000	Misericordiam volo, or, The pharisees lesson shewing the impiety and vnreasonableness of contending for outward formes and ceremonies, to the violation of obedience, charity, and the publick peace.	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.; Long, Thomas, 1621-1707. Character of a separatist, or, Sensuality the ground of separation.	1677 (1677)	Wing M2245; ESTC R33489	37,726	84

Propitiation by which their sins were covered Secondly Sacrifices were of greater esteem for their Institution than their Antiquity God himself having commanded the several sorts of them and the particular circumstances concerning them As first the Peace-offering for the fruits of the earth Secondly the Sin-offering for Atonement and pardon of Transgressions Thirdly the Burnt-offering as an acknowledgment of Homage to God the Soveraign Lord of all The book of Leviticus is but a Directory for these Thirdly They were very considerable for their usefulness First as they were to be Signa innocentiae testimonies and declarations of Innocency For as the creatures offered unto God ought to be only such as were clean for their kind so particularly they ought to be without spot or blemish and no beasts or birds of prey but the Ox and the Lamb the Turtle and the Dove harmless and useful creatures only must be brought to the Altar and the offerer was to lay his hands on the beast either to profess his innocence that he was not guilty of bribes or of bloud of fraud or violence or if he were then to confess his sins and deprecate the wrath of God by virtue of that Covenant whereof the Sacrifice was a testimony and so it was propitiatory They were Secondly Eucharistical pledges and earnests of their gratitude expressing their readiness to forgce all or to return it to him from whom they received it Thirdly they were Admonitions to the guilty persons to repent of their sins or else that they must perish as those beasts did Fourthly By external Sacrifices they were minded of their internal duties as mactare propriam voluntatem to mortifie all beastly lusts and affections Fifthly They were fences and boundaries to the Religion God commanding the Jews to Sacrifice those very beasts which their Idolatrous neighbours did worship as the Ox the Sheep and Dove which were worshipped as Gods among the Egyptians and Zabii to maintain a greater detestation of Idolatry in their hearts Sixthly They were as so many penalties and forfeitures taken on that people upon every trespass which also served not only as a present punishment but a future terror minding them that they had forfeited their own lives and Souls which God was pleased to spare expecting better obedience even a living Sacrifice And yet all this notwithstanding though Sacrifices were venerable for their Antiquity more for their usefulness as well to the Religion in general as to the Reformation of particular persons but most of all for its divine Institution the Levitical Law being but a Rubrick or directory for the Sacrifices Misericordiam volo c. I will have mercy For if hypocritical Jews should have amassed all these Sacrifices in one as the Prophet Jer. 7.21 speaks Put your burnt-offerings to your Sacrifices and eat flesh If they should go with their Flocks and heards to seek the Lord Hos 5.6 If they should have presented a Sacrifice as magnificent as that of Solomon 22000 Oxen and 120000 Sheep 1 Kings 8.63 If they should have invented more costly ones thousands of Rams and ten thousand rivers of Oil their first-born for their transgression the fruit of their bodies for the sin of their Souls yet to do justice and to love mercy is preferred to them all Mic. 6.8 For though Sacrifices were commanded yet not for any intrinsical goodness in them but with respect to some greater good Eze. 20.25 I gave them Statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live they were not originally good as the duties of the Moral Law these were commanded because they were good the other good only because they were commanded they did not make the Offerer but he made them acceptable as in the case of Cain and Abel Thus God speaks to wicked men ver 19 20. Psal 50. that gave their mouths to evil and did sit and speak against their Brother and slander their own mothers son I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or burnt-offerings Offer to God Thanksgiving c. And Psal 51.16 Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thee The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Solomon tells us after that he had presented that costly Sacrifice To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice Prov. 21.3 for it is true of the house of God what he says of ours Better is a dry morsel with quietness than a house full of Sacrifices with strife Prov. 17.1 In this therefore the young Scribe was better instructed than these Pharisees for he consented with our Saviour Mark 12.33 That to love the Lord with all our heart c. and our neighbours as our selves is more than all whole burnt-offerings and Sacrifice In a word our Saviour hath told us that whatever our gift be that we bring to the Altar if we remember that our Brother hath ought against us i. if we are conscious of any injury or unkindness wherewith he may charge us it is our duty to go first and be reconciled to our Brother before we presume to offer our gift though it be of prayer or praise God will never accept of a peace-offering from them that live in enmity with their Brethren And now if I should put into this scale the whole Oeconomy of the Jewish discipline their Oblations and Incense their New Moons and Sabbaths their calling of Assemblies for Feasts or Fasts and their Prayers too as Isai 1.11 they would for want of mercy be found too light To what purpose are they saith God v. 11. Who hath required this at your hands v. 12. Bring no more vain Oblations incense is an abomination to me I cannot away with it it is iniquity even your solemn-meetings ver 13. they were esteemed but mock services by God for want of mercy to their Brethren Two other instances I shall add because they seem of great weight First That of Circumcision which is called Gods Covenant with Abraham by which he promised to be his God and the God of his seed Gen. 17.10 and the Apostle-calls it a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11 And as God instituted it so he commanded the observation of it by a severe Sanction The Vncircumcised was to be cut off Gen. 17.14 And the Rabbies tell us that as God appointed destroying Angels to that end so he assigned guardian-Angels to every one that was Circumcised Certain it is that they bearing the marks and tokens of Gods Covenant in their flesh did boast themselves to be Gods peculiar people And as our Apostle intimates they preferred it to the Cross of Christ which the Apostle though he himself was Circumcised abhors with an absit Gal. 6. ver 14. But it was a saying among the Jews that Circumcision was equal to the keeping of the whole Law and that Heaven Earth could not stand if Circumcision were omitted therefore they made the

eight days before Circumcision to be a preparation for that solemnity at which they invited their friends as witnesses and Sponsors for the child that he should observe the Statutes of the God of Israel and in the later times had always an empty Chair set for Elias expecting that he should descend from Heaven to be a witness of the Circumcision and yet in truth it was as the Apostle saith a a burthen which neither they nor their Fathers could bear and therefore God himself dispensed with the use of it to this people forty years together in the wilderness Acts 15.10 and though St. Paul was Circumcised and to make his own and Timothy's ministry the more acceptable to that people Acts 16.1 took Timothy and Circumcised him yet he teacheth them that if they were Circumcised i. e. with an intention to obtain Salvation by the works of the Law Christ should profit them nothing And Galatians 6.15 to them that were in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availed any thing neither uncircumcision but a new creature by which he understands Gal. 5.6 faith which worketh by love And in the 1 Cor. 7.19 a keeping the Commandments of God so that circumcision was not to be contended for when the propagation of the Gospel or Charity came into competition with it A second instance shall be that of the Jewish Sabbath of the profanation whereof the Pharisees complained to Christ of his Disciples Matth. 12.2 and for whose vindication our Saviour urgeth again the right understanding of this Text v. 7. If ye had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice ye would not have condemned the guiltless Many of Christ's Disciples as well as himself were circumcised and so obliged to sanctifie the Sabbath according to the Commandment and great were the punishments which God threatned and inflicted on the transgressors such as struck a terror to them which made them run into superstition insomuch that they would not go out of their places nor dress their meat nor carry a stick nor defend themselves against their enemies on that day And the crime for which the Disciples were complained of was rather for transgressing their tradition than any precept of God for if the fault was their walking through the Corn-fields it doth not appear that they exceeded 2000. Cubits which was allowed by them for a Sabbath-days Journey if plucking the ears of Corn that was approved by the Law Deut. 23.25 If for eating which seemeth most probable because our Saviour answered the objection by the instance of David's eating the shew-bread yet being hungry their necessity might excuse them nor was this forbidden though perhaps contrary to a superstitious practice of theirs for which the Heathen upbraided them i. e. their Sabbath-days Fasts therefore Christ vindicates them as guiltless upon the Plea in the Text I will have mercy c. As if he had said You Pharisees do not understand the substantial and spiritual part of your own Law for as long as there is not contumacy or contempt in the neglect of Ceremonial Precepts but the excuse of a just necessity or the rational consideration of a greater good to out-weigh that neglect God will not impute it as a sin Of this our Saviour convinceth them by the instance of David v. 4. and of the Priests in the Temple profaning the Sabbath by dressing the Sacrifices for they were wont to say In the Temple there is no Sabbath If then the service of the Temple excused the Priests for profaning the Sabbath the service of Christ who tells them of himself that he was greater than the Temple v. 6. might excuse his Disciples who being Prophets and Preachers of the Kingdom of Heaven were greater than the Priests of the Law as our Saviour said of John the Baptist Matth. 11.11 Now a Prophet even under the Law was above the Law of the Temple and might sacrifice in any place as Elias did and therefore it could not be unlawful for Christ's Disciples so earnestly attending his work that they became hungry having no other provision to eat a few grains of Corn for their present relief Again our Saviour tells them v. 8. that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath which that he speaks of himself as the Messias who had power to abrogate and alter the Sabbath is the opinion of some though not so clear because Matth. 16.20 he would not have it yet known that he was the Messias and if our Saviour had made this his argument he needed not to have used any other Others therefore think that by the Son of Man is meant every Son of Man for Christ himself was not blamed but his Disciples whom he pronounceth guiltless for this reason The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath which S. Mark expresseth more plainly to this purpose Mark 2.27 The Sabbath was made for man and so the argument stands thus That which was made for another thing is to give place to that for which it was made but the Sabbath was made for man ergo c. Now though the Jews were so superstitious that even in the time of the Maccabees they would not defend themselves against their enemies on the Sabbath-day yet shortly after they began to grow wiser and would not only desend their own Lives but assault their enemies and do any necessary work for they had dearly been taught this Maxime Periculum vitae dissolvit Sabbatum that the danger of losing Life did dissolve the Sabbath And as Selden de Jure Gentium l. 2. c. 10. they held that in case of sickness a Jew might not only eat forbidden Meats but for recovery of health or avoidance of any great danger he might break any commandment except these three viz. I dolatry Murther and Incest and I have heard from the mouth of a modern Jew an odd interpretation of that Text Pro. 4.4 which he interpreting the copulative by a discretive reads Keep the commandments but live i. e. so keep the commandments as to be careful of preserving thy life in keeping of them But to return in our Saviour's time it was practised by them as a thing lawful on the Sabbath-day Luk. 13.15 to pluck an Oxe or an Ass out of a Ditch or to lead them to Water and to permit Merchants and Carriers to travel about their necessary affairs on that Day So that the sum of all is this that when two Laws seemed to interfere so as both could not be kept the lesser must yield to the greater the ritual and ceremonial to the moral or evangelical which is the sense of the Text I will have mercy and not sacrifice But it may be objected What is this of the contention of the Jews for Ceremonies to the contending of Christians against them when they are imposed contrary to their Christian liberty Answ These Objectors do no more understand their Christian liberty than the Pharisees did the right meaning of the Text which