Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	command_v	day_n	sabbath_n	10,415	5	9.9260	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56393	Reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of Parliament, anno 1678, Octob. 30 in these words, I A.B. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testifie, and declare, that I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, at, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous : first written for the author's own satisfaction, and now published for the benefit of all others whom it may concern.	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.	1688 (1688)	Wing P467; ESTC R5001	62,716	138

to their Duty to himself among these the chiefest are Circumcision and the Sabbath which he instituted as it were the two Sacraments of the Jewish Religion or the Worship of the Creator of Heaven and Earth to distinguish them from their Neighbour Nations who Worship only his Creatures With Circumcision God sign'd his Covenant with Abraham which was the first Revelation of himself against Idolatry and the Foundation of the whole Mosaick Law which was seal'd to by this sacred Rite of Circumcision so that without it they were esteemed no better than Idolaters and an uncircumcised Man signifies no less than an Heathen This Reason is expresly given by God himself at the first Institution of it in his Covenant with Abraham I will establish my Covenant between thee and me and thy Seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto Thee and to thy seed after thee This is my Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee every Male Child among you shall be Circumcised And you shall circumcise the Flesh of your Fore-skin and it shall be a Token of the Covenant betwixt you and me and therefore the uncircumcised shall be cut off from his People as having broken my Covenant i.e. renounced the true Religion which is as Grotius observes not reasonably to be understood of Infants but of Men grown to Years of Understanding whose Parents had neglected that Office in their Infancy and therefore if they did not supply that Defect when they came to Age it was looked upon as renouncing the Worship of the true God of which this was the first Sacrament or Ceremony of Admission into the Jewish Church which alone profess'd it and that is the Reason of St. Paul's Assertion Every Man that is circumcised is a Debtor to do the whole Law i.e. he that willingly and knowingly undergoes this initiating Ceremony by Vertue of that he obliges himself to the Observation of the whole Mosaick Law and all things commanded in it And for this Reason no Proselyte was admitted to the Paschal Festival the most sacred Solemnity of the Jewish Religion without Circumcision When a stranger shall sojourn with thee and will keep the Passover to the Lord let all his Males be circumcised and then let him come near and keep it and he shall be as one that is born in the Land for no uncircumcised Person shall eat thereof This seems to be the meaning of that Passage Ioshua 5. 9. when God commanded Ioshua to circumcise all the People that were born in the Wilderness and that indeed is all then living for those that came out of Egypt were dead and when Ioshua had done it God tells him This day have I rolled away the Reproach of Egypt from off you the Reproach of Egypt was their Idolatry which they had now renounced by the Sacrament of Circumcision And accordingly in the Persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes to abolish the Jewish Religion and establish Idolatry the Jews are commanded to leave their Children uncircumcis'd and the Apostates endeavoured to blot out the Marks of their Circumcisioni and certain Women that had taken care to circumcise their Children were put to Death and the Infants hanged about their Necks That was the distinctive Mark through all Ages between a Worshiper of the true God and an Idolater So that it was the same thing not to be circumcised and to apostatise to Idolatry The second and indeed the greatest Bar of all against Idolatry was the Institution of the Sabbath in memory of Gods Creation of the whole visible World and for that reason this Doctrine of the Sabbath was reputed as fundamental an Article in the Jewish Church as the Doctrine of the Cross in the Christian because all other Articles of their Religion depended upon the belief of their God's Creation of the World. And therefore when God had given Moses a compleat Body of Laws for his own Worship he ratifies and as it were comprises them all in a vehement and reiterated pressing that one Law of the Sabbath Exod. 31. v. 12. to the end of the Chapter And after the Children of Israel had committed Idolatry in worshiping the Golden Calf for which God had for some time cast them off he is at last prevailed upon by Moses to renew his Covenant with them upon a new Contract First That they worship none of the Gods of the Heathen Nations nor ever use any of their Rites and Ceremonies And then that they be more careful to observe the Passover and the Sabbath Exod. 34. 12. And the Observation of the Sabbath is again enforced in the very beginning of the next Chapter as the Bond and Epitome of the whole Law And Moses gathered all the Congregation of the Children of Israel together and said unto them these are the words which the Lord hath commanded that ye should do them Six days shall work be done but on the Seventh day there shall be to you a Holy day a Sabbath of rest to the Lord whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death As if the Sabbath alone were the whole Law according to that Saying of the Talmud Whosoever denies the Sabbath denies the whole Law. Because that 's an Acknowledgment of the Creator of the World as the Author of the Mosaick Law. And for that reason the Almighty upon all occasions styles himself in Scripture Creator of Heaven and Earth which we improperly enough translate Possessor of Heaven and Earth and indeed the History of the Creation it self and the whole Pentateuch seem to have been written on purpose to prevent Idolatry or the Worship of Created Beings and therefore Moses doth not set down the Creation of the Universe in gross but of every part by it self particularly of the Sun Moon and Stars And that is in it self a sufficient Security against giving them that were meer Creatures the Worship that is only due to the Creator And this seems to be the reason of the particular form of words in the Fourth Commandment Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy for in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day As if he had said be sure that you be particularly mindful of this Commandment of the Sabbath above all others for it is a Day dedicated to the Eternal Memory of the Creation and therefore enjoyn'd to be observ'd every Seventh Day that it may continually bring to mind that great work and never suffer it to decay out of thy Memory And from hence it is that the Precepts of not worshiping Idols and observing the Sabbath are so frequently coupled together in the Scriptures as if they were inseparable Exod. 23. 12 13. Six days thou shalt do thy work and on the seventh day thou shalt rest and make no mention of the Names of other Gods neither let them be heard out of thy mouth Levit. 19. 34. Ye shall keep my

Sabbaths I am Iehovah your God turn ye not unto Idols nor make to your selves molten Gods I am the Lord your God. Levit. 26. 1 2. Ye shall make ye no Idols ye shall keep my Sabbaths Ezek. 20. 18 20. Walk ye not in the statutes of your Fathers nor defile your selves with your Idols and hollow my Sabbaths that are for a sign between you and me that you may know that I am Iehovah your God for their hearts went after their Idols so v. 24. they polluted my Sabbaths And as these Commands are so frequently joyned together so is the violation of them as if they could not be parted Ezek. 20. 16. They polluted my Sabbaths and their eyes were after their Fathers Idols And King Ahaz when he set up Idolatry he in Contempt turn'd the Covert for the Sabbath out of the House of the Lord. 1 Mac. 1. 44. And many of the People consented to the command of the King and sacrificed to Idols and prophaned the Sabbath So necessary was it for the observation of the Sabbath and the Worship of the true God to run the same Fate or stand and fall together because the Sabbath was instituted in memory of the Creation of the World by the true God and therefore the belief and observation of it was an open Defyance to all Idolatry as the Psalmist joyns them together All the Gods of the Heathens are Idols But the Lord made the Heavens And this is the distinctive Character that God hath given between himself the only true God and the Heathen Idols or Vanities The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth shall perish from the Earth and from under the Heavens The Lord hath made the Earth by his Power he hath framed the Universe by his Wisdom and hath stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion Now the Observation of the Sabbath as instituted in honour of the invisible Creator of the visible or material World being the fundamental Article of Faith in the Jewish Church in opposition to Idolatry or giving the Worship of the supreme Deity to created Beings it is for that reason more frequently recited than any other Law and its Breach as severely punished as Idolatry it self the recital of this Command is almost half of the Law and the Prophets and the violation of it certain Death as a Crime of the same Nature with Idolatry it self So evident is it through the whole Series of sacred History that the Sabbath was instituted in opposition to Idolatry and that the Idolatry it was opposed to was the Worship of created Beings as the supreme uncreated Deity To conclude this Argument tho I designed to confine my self to the Testimony of Holy Scripture that is the only competent Witness in the case yet I find such a pregnant Passage cited out of St. Cyril of Alexandria to the same purpose with the Premises from his own Observation of the Train of Scripture History that it were great pity to rob the Reader of so fair an Authority After the Israelites says he left their own Country to sojourn in Egypt in process of time they lost all memory of their Ancestors and descent from the Line of Abraham so that their antient Customs being worn out by degrees and the Religion of their Forefathers disus'd they were at length debauched by conversation with the Egyptians to Idolatry and gave the worship of the supreme God to the Sun and under him to the Heavens Earth Moon Stars And therefore when God delivered them out of their Egyptian Bondage to bring them to the promised Land he peremptorily commands them to discard all their Egyptian Errors but because there was need of an evident sign by which they should as it were be forced to confess that Heaven was made by his Almighty Power and that the Sun Moon and Stars and all other Beings were the works of his hands he commands the Festival of the Sabbath as a Memorial and Imitation of himself and his work and therefore they that devote themselves to rest as their Creator rested by that acknowledge that all other things were the product of his Power and that is the natural design of the Sabbath Rest to affect them with a sense of the supreme Deity or Creator of all things In the second place a very great and considerable part of the Mosaick Law was enacted purely in opposition to the Old Heathen Rites and Customs Here I omit the Idolatry of the Zabii so much of late insisted upon by learned Men because I find no antient Footsteps of any such People in the World. The Mahometan Arabic Writers are the first that make any mention of them and their Divinity as the Arabians describe it is a meer Fanatick Rhapsody of Chaldaism or Astrologick Idolatry Iudaism or the History of the Patriarchs turned into Fables Gnosticism or the Worship of Demons and Angels Pythagorism or turning all things into Allegories and therefore must be of a much younger Date than Christianity The first time we read of them is in the Alchoran and Mahomet gives them that name of Zabii because they lay Eastward from Arabia for so the Word signifies Easterlings Or more probably from a Fanatick Imitation of the Old Testament that frequently and commonly styles the Heathen Idolaters by the Title of the men of the East i.e. the Chaldeans who were situated Eastward of Iudea After him we have no account of any such Nation as the Zabii till about Eight Hundred Years since For the Prophet and his barbarous Followers as they conquered destroyed all Monuments of Learning till being setled in Peace and Empire as is the manner of all Barbarians they betook themselves to the humour of Learning and translated Books out of other Languages not only Greek and Latin but of their Neighbour Nations into their own Tongue This is the most antient Account after all the noise that has been made of their extreme Antiquity that we have of any Zabian Writers so that setting that Modern Nation aside the Mosaick Rites were instituted in opposition to the more antient Idolatry of their Neighbour Nations particularly the Egyptians and the Canaanites of whom there was most danger by reason of their late conversation with the one and their new conversation with the other And therefore against these God arms them with a special Caution After the doings of the Land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do and after the doings of the Land of Canaan whether I bring you shall ye not do neither shall ye walk in their Ordinances This contrariety of the Jews to the Laws and Customs of all other Nations is made use of by Haman to King Ahasuerus to procure their Destruction Esther 3. 8. And Haman said unto King Ahasuerus there is a certain People scattered abroad and dispersed among the People in all the Provinces of thy Kingdom and their Laws are divers from all People neither keep they the Kings Laws

I cannot omit to recite not for its Authors sake but it s own The Egyptians began the computation of their Months from the time that the Sun entred Aries and this whole Month was celebrated with extraordinary Festival Solemnity and was more sacred than all the Months of the year beside God therefore designing to set his People at as great a distance as could be from the Customs of the Heathens commanded them to begin the year not from the Full Moon as the Egyptians did but from the first day of the Month and whereas the Egyptians spared their Cattle and durst not so much as eat Rams Flesh therefore they are commanded to kill roast and eat it so that whereas they offer Incense to it and perform their Solemn Devotions before it these are commanded in contempt to sprinkle the Blood of this most Holy Animal upon the very Threshold of their Houses So far the Doctor So again they are commanded not to eat the Paschal Ram raw in opposition to the Customs of the antient and barbarous Heathen Nations who eat all their Sacrifices raw especially at their signing of Covenants and Treaties of Peace and that is the original Reason of the Command to abstain from Blood. Then it is to be eaten in one House not to be eaten abroad in solemn Pomp and Procession as the Heathen Priests did their raw Sacrifices Nor a Bone of it to be broken because the Heathen Priests in their pretended holy Rage were wont to tear their Sacrifices in pieces with their Teeth The Head with the Legs and Purtenance to be eaten because the Heathens only eat the Viscera or Inwards nothing of it to remain till the morning lest it should be abus'd to superstitious uses as the Heathens did the Relicks of their Sacrifices who sold them to the People as a Charm against Diseases and ill Luck All which circumstances are most particularly remarkable in the Bacchanalia or great Festival of Bacchus that the Greeks stole out of Egypt as well as all their other Superstitions as the most learned of them confess And concerning the Bacchanalia in particular Herodotus tells us by whom they were first brought out of Egypt into Greece viz. the famous Physitian Melampus Lastly the Passover was not to be sodden in Water becaue the Egyptians and Syrians always boil their Sacrifices especially to Horus or the Sun and for that reason it is that this little circumstance is so often urged and so strictly observ'd And this is particularly objected by Manetho the Egyptian against the Jews that they were not content only to destroy their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Consecrated Animals but consumed them by Fire as it were burning their Gods in Effigie These are the great Reasons why the Divine Law-giver laid so much stress upon this Solemnity and all the circumstances belonging to it when it was the grand Diagnostick or distinguishing Character between the Worshipers of the true God and of created Deities And therefore upon all Apostasies of the People from their Religion it was the Custom of their pious Princes to recall them by reviewing and renewing the Laws of the Paschal Festival So Iosiah when he set himself to abolish all Relicks of Idolatry and establish the Worship of the true God for ever He commanded all the People saying Keep the Passover unto the Lord your God as it is written in the Book of the Covenant Surely there was not holden such a Passover from the days of the Iudges that Iudged Israel nor of the Kings of Iudea That was an undenyable Proof of their complete Reformation The second Law enjoyn'd in opposition to Egyptian Idolatry is that against sacrificing upon High Places which were Egyptian Altars built in the form of High Towers that they might make nearer approaches to the Sun in their Devotions And therefore God on the contrary commands the Israelites to sacrifice to himself upon a low Altar of Earth Exod. 20. 24 26. without steps or stairs which Laws were given either with or immediately after the Ten Commandments as it seems of equal weight with them So that to offer Sacrifices upon High Places is always represented in Scripture as a very high Act of Idolatry and to destroy the High Places in Scripture as an eminent Act of Reformation which must be understood of Towers not of Mountains that are not so easily demolished So Levit. 26. 30. I will destroy your High Places and cut down your Images or Chamanim and cast your Carcases upon the Carcases of your Idols and my Soul shall abhor you So Numbers 22. 41. Balack took Balaam and brought him up into the High Places or Pillars as the Septuagint always render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Baal that thence he might see the utmost part of the People So Numb 33. 52. Ye shall drive out all the Inhabitants of the Land before you destroy all their Pictures and Molten Images and pluck down all their High Places In the Historical and Prophetick Writings Idolatry is almost every where exprest by Sacrificing or Worshiping in High Places The Idol Priests are styled Priests of the High Places This says Herodotus was the received Custom of the antient Nations and of this Nature were the Egyptian Pyramids and that which is still standing is built in the form of an Altar i.e. a four square Plane ten Cubits broad on every side not as it is vulgarly suppos'd a Point or Spire to which the Priest advanced by 250 Ascents which Herodotus that viewed them above 2000 years ago says were so many lesser Altars But that the Pyramids were supposed in the more polite Times to have been antient Altars is evident from that known Verse of Luca● Votaque Pyramidum celsas solvuntur ad Aras. There are Monuments of this antient Custom still remaining in the West Indies Gage in his Survey describes such a Tower in the middle of the great Temple at Mexico of an 180 Ascents where their Priests offered all their Sacrifices In short the People of Israel were so fond of these High Altars that some Princes who would have demolisht them as pieces of Idolatry were forced to persist for fear of popular Tumults and Seditions So Asa in his Reformation when he burnt their Idols could not remove their High Places So Iehoash could do every thing but remove the High Places So Amaziah was forced to leave them behind him so his Son Azariah and when they were demolished by Hezekiah and some of the more pious Princes they were ever first restored at the Peoples return to Idolatry And agreeable to what is here represented is the Reason annexed to the Divine Law lest ye discover your nakedness which words tho they may be literally taken yet according to the Language of Scripture in this matter they have a much higher meaning i.e. lest you commit Idolatry or Adultery with other Gods and expose your shame and nakedness by playing the Harlot upon your