Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	law_n	sin_n	transgression_n	2,243	5	10.5323	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07385	The reverence of Gods house· A sermon preached at St. Maries in Cambridge, before the Universitie on St. Matthies day, anno 1635/6. By Joseph Mede B.D. and late fellow of Christs Colledge in Cambridge.	Mede, Joseph, 1586-1638.	1638 (1638)	STC 17769; ESTC S122057	26,859	74

consequenter consequently onely For the understanding whereof we must know That Sacrifice was a rite whereby men renewed a covenant with God by making attonement for their sinne Therefore it presupposed a breach and transgression of the Law But the will of God was not that men should transgresse his Law and violate the covenant he had made with them but that they should observe and keep it which if they did sacrifice would have no place This is that I meane when I say That God required not nor commanded sacrifice antecedently but that men should keep his Commandments But in case sinne were committed and the Articles of his covenant violated then and in such a state God ordained and admitted of Sacrifice for a rite of attonement and redintegration of his covenant with men that is he commanded Sacrifice onely consequenter as a remedy if sinne were committed And if those Ancients could bee thus understood who say that sacrifice was not ordained when the Law was first given but after it was transgressed namely if their meaning were onely that the ordinance of sacrifice presupposed a transgression of the Law then their assertion were true but otherwise historically taken it cannot be defended Now according to this proposition is that of Ieremy chap. 7. to be understood or if there bee any other like it I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Aegypt concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices But this thing commanded I them Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walke yee in all the wayes that I have commanded you that it may bee well with you My third proposition is this That when sacrifice was to be offered in case of sinne yet even then God accepted not thereof primariò primarily and for it selfe as though any refreshment or emolument accrued to him thereby as the Gentiles fondly supposed of their gods but secundarily onely as a testimony of the conscience of the offerer desiring with humble repentance to glorifie him with a present and by that rite to renew a covenant with him For Sacrifice as I have said was oblatio foederalis Now Almighty God renewes a covenant with or receiveth againe into his favour none but the repentant sinner and therefore accepts of sacrifice in no other regard but as a token and effect of this Otherwise it is an abomination unto him as whereby men professed a desire of being reconciled unto God when they had offended him and yet had no such meaning Hence God rejects all sacrifices wherein there is no contrition nor purpose to forsake sinne and keep his commandments which are the parts of repentance So is to bee taken that in the first of Isay To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices Bring no more vaine oblations incense is an abomination unto me Wash ye make you cleane put away the evill of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evill then if you offer sacrifice unto me though your sinnes be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow c. And that Isay the last To this man I look to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit Hee that killeth an oxe namely otherwise is as if he slew a man be that sacrificeth a lamb unlesse he comes with this disposition as if he cut off a dogs neck he that offereth an oblation as if he offered bloud he that burneth incense as if he blessed an Idoll And surely he that blesseth an Idoll is so farre from renewing a covenant with the Lord his God that he breakes it So did they who without conscience of repentance presumed to come before him with a sacrifice not procure attonement but aggravate their breach According to one of these three senses are all passages in the Old Testament disparaging and rejecting sacrifices literally to be understood Namely when men preferred them before the greater things of the law valued them out of their degree as an antecedent duty or placed their efficacy in the naked rite as if ought accrued to God thereby God would no longer owne them for any ordinance of his nor indeed in that disguise put upon them were they I will except onely one passage out of the number which I suppose to have a singular meaning to wit that of David in the 51. Psalme which the ancient translations thus expresse Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium dedissem utique sed holocaustis non oblectaberis vel holocaustum non acceptabis Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus c. If thou wouldest have had a sacrifice I would have offered it but thou wilt accept no burnt-offering c. For this seemes to be meant of that speciall case of adulterie and murder which David here deploreth for which sinnes the Lord had provided no sacrifice in his law Wherefore David in this his poenitentiall confession tells him That if hee had appointed any sacrifice for expiation of this kinde of sinne hee would have given it him but he had ordained none save onely a broken spirit and a contrite heart which thou O God saith he wilt not despise but accept that alone for a sacrifice in this case without which sacrifice in no case is accepted Now out of this discourse we are sufficiently furnished for the understanding of this caution of Solomon in my Text Bee more readie to obey than to offer the sacrifice of fooles or as the words in the Originall import Be more approaching God with a purpose and resolution of obedience to his commandments than with the sacrifice of fooles that is Have a care rather to approach the Divine Majesty with an offering of an obedientiall disposition than with the bare and naked rite but the sense is still the same namely the House of God at Jerusalem was an House of sacrifice which they who came thither to worship offered unto the Divine Majesty to make way for their prayers and supplications unto him or to finde favour in his sight Solomon therefore gives them here a caveat not to place their religion either onely or chiefly in the externall rite but in their readinesse to heare and keepe the Commandements of GOD without which that rite alone would availe them nothing but bee no better than the sacrifice of fooles who when they doe evill thinke they doe well For without this readinesse to obey this purpose of heart to live according to his Commandements God accepts of no sacrifice from those who approach him nor will pardon their transgressions when they come before him Hee therefore that makes no conscience of sinning against God and yet thinks to bee expiate by sacrifice is an ignorant foole how wise and religious soever he may thinke himselfe to be or appeare unto men by the multitude or greatnesse of his sacrifices The reason because the Lord requires obedience antecedently and absolutely but sacrifice consequently onely and then too not

life with the bodie as wel as the soule if we looke that God should one day glorifie both 2. That as the outward worship without the inward is dead so the inward without the outward is not complete even as the glorification of the soule separate from the bodie is not nor shall not be consummate till the bodie be againe united unto it 3. That those who derogate so much from bodily worship in the service of the true GOD as kneeling bowing and the like make by consequent Idolatrie a sin farre lesse hainous in degree than it is For is not Idolatrie to communicate that honour with a creature which is due unto the Creator alone By how much therefore the worship of gesture and posture is lesse due unto God whē we do our homage unto him by so much is the sin the lesse hainous and grievous when the same is given unto an Idol For I beleeve they vvill not deny but part of the sin of Idolatrie consists even in the outward worship given unto an Idol as kneeling bowing and falling down before it and the like 4. Lastly that although bodily worship being considered in it self be one of the minor a legis of the lesser things of the law and the honour done unto God therby of no great value though not of none in his fight yet may a voluntary and presumptuous neglect even of so small a duty be a great and hainous sin because such a neglect proceeds from a prophane disposition and election of the heart For a sin is not alwayes to be esteemed according to the value of the duty omitted but from the hearts election in omitting it Non est bonum per se saith Seneca munda vestis sed mundae vestis electio quia non in re bonum est sed in electione that is A cleane garment hath no goodnesse of it selfe but it is the election of a cleane garment which commendeth because the goodnesse consists not in the thing but in the election thereof So say I here it is not the value of merit of the work which aggravates the sin in omitting the doing therof but the election not to doe it Now therefore to returne to my hypothesis By that which hath beene delivered it appeares That it is not onely lawfull to use some reverentiall gesture when wee come into Gods House which yet some think they are very liberall if they grant but that it is a duty commanded by God himselfe and so no will-worship As namely in that divine admonition given first to Moses and afterwards to Iosua Put thy shooes from off thy feet c. in that Law Reverence my Sanctuary in this instruction by Solomon Look to thy feet when thou comest to the House of God That the Saints and people of God in the old Testament and Christians in the New have used such reverence That the neglect thereof is condemned of prophanenesse by the practice of Jews Gentiles Pagans Mahumetans all Religions whatsoever If any be to bee excepted proh pudor dolor it is our selves But without doubt in this we are not in the right nor was it so from the beginning Whatsoever is dedicated unto God in generall or to speake in the phrase of Scripture whatsoever is called by his Name that is is His by peculiar relation ought to be used with a different respect from things common and Gods House as you have heard hath something singular from the rest Should wee then come into it as into a Barne or Stable It was not once good manners so to come into a mans house For our blessed Saviour when he sent forth his Disciples to preach the Gospel Mat. 10. said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when ye enter into an house salute it Why should we not thinke it a part of religious manners to doe something answerable when we come into the House of God that is to blesse the Master thereof you know how farre that word extendeth and if not to say God be here which hath beene the forme and is somewhere still when we enter into a mans House yet to say with Jacob at Bethel God is here and to testifie in some manner or other as the Saints of God were wont to doe that we acknowledge it and that both at our first coming thither and while we continue there for the one followes from the other And because I paralleled before that Orientall rite of Discalceation whereunto I supposed the words of my Text to have reference vvith ours of uncovering the head by the name of a leading ceremonie if any shall therefore ask me what other gesture I implyed thereby as fitting to accompany this in the case we speak of I answer That belongs to the discretion of our Superiours and the authority of the Church to appoint not to me to determine For here as in other ceremonies the Church is not tyed but hath liberty to ordaine having respect to the analogy of the old Testament what she shall judge most sutable and agreeable to the time place and manners of the people where she lives But if I may without offence or presumption speak what I think then I say That adoration or bowing of the body with some short ejaculation which the Church of Israel used in their Temple together with discalceation and which the Christians of the Orient use at this day and time out of minde have done at their ingresse into their Churches is of all other the most seemly ready and fitting to our maners which yet I submit namely according to that of the 132. Psal ver 7. Introibimus in Tabernacula ejus incurvabimus nos scabello pedum ejus We will goe into his Tabernacle and worship before or toward his Footstoole that is the Ark of the Covenant of Mercy seat which you shall finde thus styled 1 Chron. 28. 2. And according to that Psal 5. 8. I will enter into thine House in the multitude of thy mercies in thy feare will I worship toward thy holy Temple .i. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they stood in the Courts when they worshipped which is the forme the Jewes use at this day when they come first into their places of worship and so might we too for any thing I know The ordinary forme among the Greekes is that of the publican God be mercifull to me a sinner yet sometimes they premise this of the Psalme before it SECTION 4. ANd thus I have done with the first part of my text which for distinction sake I called the Admonition I come now to the second which I termed a Caution Be more ready to obey than to offer the sacrifice of fooles as much as to say Preferre not the secundary service of God before the first and principall Our translation hath Be more ready to heare than c. whereby some have taken occasion childishly to apply this Scripture against that custome of a short and private prayer at our first coming into the