Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	law_n	moral_a	precept_n	2,880	5	9.5945	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90879	A voice from heaven: or, A testimony against the remainders of Antichrist yet in England: and in particular, the court of tryers for approbation of ministers. / Born by Gualter Postlethwait, pastor to a Church of Christ in Lewes in Sussex.	Postlethwaite, Walter, d. 1671.	1655 (1655)	Wing P3022; Thomason E1498_3; ESTC R208640	39,391	112

13. that is a shrewd hint to their Jewishness for they have reference to and so imply a Temple Priest Sacrifices which have been revived by the Papists with this maintenance But yet farther either Tythes are paid by the light of Nature or Moral command or else by a Ceremonial precept For as for the Judicial Law it contains but appendices explications and functions of the Moral and Ceremonial Law and so I need not mention that in this dis-junction And also I know none that flie to another mean to prove that Tythes were not Ceremonial that may hurt this my Argument besides this of Natural light or Moral command I assume therefore Tythes are not paid by Natural light or Moral command Those instances of Abraham and Jacob paying Tythes before the Law of Moses are not sufficient to evidence so much Circumcision was not of Moses but of the fathers Joh. 7. 22. yet was it so incorporated into Moses Law that it did oblige a man to keep the whole Law Gal. 5. 3. Sacrifices also are as old as Cain and Abel Gen. 4. yet part of the Ceremonial Law and abolished by Christ Heb. 10. 8 9. 10. But the Assumption is manifest because no Law appointed in the Gospel is inconsistent with any Natural or Moral Law of God But the institution of our Saviour Luke 10. 7. urged by the Apostle 1 Cor. 9. 14. and explained Gal. 6. 6. will not stand with Tythes These are out of the seed of the land the fruit of the trees or of the herd of the flock Lev. 27. 30 31 32. Deut. 14. 22 23. The Gospel-maintenance is raised out of all good things that the person taught hath Tythes were paid the first Tenth to the Levites and they paid the tenth of the tenth to the Priest Neh. 10. 38. And those Levites that taught in the particular Synagogues paid to the Priests who administred in Jerusalem the Gospel-maintenance is to be paid by all that are taught I conclude therefore that Vide Hook Survey part 2. ch ● Tythes belong to the Ceremonial Law which to practise is to dig Christ out of his grave and a character of Antichrist 1 Joh. 4. 3. Neither will it avail for any to say that they take them not as Tythes for the Corinthians could not be so excused as to their eating things sacrificed unto Idols neither in the Idols temple nor otherwhere having taken it from the shambles if they eat with the offence of their brother And if they eat in the Idols temple it was not onely evil for the offence its sake but for it self as in which they committed idolatry and had fellowship with devils 1 Cor. 10. 14 c. notwithstanding they made no conscience of the Idol or the things offered to Idols but went to eat as to the civil feast of their friend vers 19. compared with chap. 8. 1 2 3. 4 5 6 7. When we joyn in the same action with others our different opinion will not save us from the guilt of it as the Apostle hints vers 20. These Tythes were sacrificed to Idols either directly whilst in honour of the Saint the Patron with them endowed the Temple that was consecrated unto him or her or interpretatively by worshipping God with other worship and setting up other things yea contrary things then what he hath appointed in his Church worshipping God in a Messiah to come and exchanging institution Gal. 6. 6. for Tythes And these are still fixed to the Temples of the Saints to whom Temples were built in every Parish and though they be not now looked upon so much as Temples of the Saints yet as Temples of God they are looked upon generally and the Service thought to be the better because performed there and this comes to the same pass since to worship God in a false maner is to worship a false Observant Saints see it to their grief and talk to one another of it god for God hath now no material Temple Neither hath there been any thing done by way of publike Act of the Nation against this Superstition received by tradition from our Fathers Upon which I could not meet with the Parish were it not that I come as a Prophet from Judah to Bethel to them to cry out against the altar there or upon the account of the Churches meeting not theirs primarily There is a thing like that eating things sacrificed to idols that the Church of Thyatira stands as Rev. 2. a bush in a my●y hole to warn us lest we fall into it And they that oppose it shall it may be fare the worse for it with the Nations but Christ will give them power over the Nations at last Let us not deceive our selves God will not be mocked All the Churches shall know that he searches the reins and the heart and will give to every one not according to his pretences but his workes Let us esteem our knowledge by humiliation and the love of God 1 Cor. 8. 1 2 3. whereby we submit unto him and are zealous of his glory and afraid of offending him not by the enticing words of mans wisdome God will acknowledge him that loves him and submits unto him though his brethren may hate him and cast him out for trembling at Isa 66. 5. his word through which he becomes in their eyes more nice then wise but he shall appear to his joy and they shall be ashamed Away I say with all appurtenances of a Parish-Church Let us not desire the Silver and Gold of the Idol lest we besnared and become an abomination like it and accursed like it Deut. 7. 25 26. Let us not be confident of our own strength how easie is it for us or at least our Children to be reduced to the former Popish Church-way when we have Cathedral and Parish-Churches Parsons Vicars Curates Church-wardens c. still continued people are apt upon such occasions to be taken with such things and to ask kow their Fathers or the Nation hath worshipped and this is a step to idolatry and forbidden of God Deut. 12. 30. that therefore would not have any of the reliques of the Canaanites idolatry survive them Oh that God would turn England into a Bochim weepers as 't is in the margin that we might become weepers for this That we have not yet abolished the memory of our Fathers superstition lest the Lord leave us to our enemies to be thorns in our sides and to their gods to be snares to our souls See that sad story Judg. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. meditate on it sadly we have been parallel to Israel in deliverances answerable to them in neglect of duties why should not we expect to be like them in the judgments that came on them If to this I should say Take away Episcopal Churches you would say it were needless but what then means the Cathedral Temples other things may be found 't is like if you search as God will viz. with candles

thrown down 'T is to our shame that we have no more knowledge of God then to suffer such plain monuments of Idolatry I confess were it not to cry out against the Altar of Bethel and gain an advantage of speaking to them that otherwise I cannot have after the example of the Churches meeting in Solomons Porch after the temple was abolished Act. 5. 12. I would never more preach or perform any holy duty in them A way with Patrons or lay-founders those most abominable usurpers They usurpe the prerogative of Christ they will found Churches not onely build a Synagogue but appoint the Church and the minister and herein they usurpe over the Church too Is it not wisdomes priviledge to build the house and hew out the 7 Pillars thereof Pro. 9. 1. is not Christ Jesus the builder of the house and is not this his prerogative founded in his Godhead Heb. 3. 3 4. Durst Paul and Barnabas exercise such tyranny as to impose a minister on the people as these do with the helpe of the Bishop formerly of the Commissioners for tryal of ministers now See Act. 14. 23. Mr. Calvin on the place having rendred the text thus When by suffrages they had made them Elders in every Church He comments thus The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to decree somthing by up-lifted hands by which form of speech is best of all expressed the right way of making Pastours Paul and Barnabas are said to to Chuse Elders Did they do this alone by their own office but rather they put it to the suffrages of all c. Away therefore I say with these abominable usurpers And although this usurpation appeare not so clearely in the continuance as in the beginning of patrons and though it lie under more restraint now then formerly this will not salve the matter For the Patrons now a dayes hold their right to present by vertue of the first usurpations of their Ancestours which yet they also imitate and uphold and so now all the wickedness of them and withall Scripture will not beare a mincing reformation Lopping and plashing of bad plants Neither will the blood of Christ beare it and the power of his Spirit When the fountain is opened for sin and uncleanness the names of the Idols shall be cut off and be no more remembered Zach. 12. 1 3. 'T was evil to sacrifice and burne incense on the high places though it were unto the Lord onely God will be served onely in his own way and wisdome will send forth her maidens Pro. 9. 3. which she cannot be said to do when men will minister to her in a strange way in the doing of it And mark these maidens are such as go abroad to them that are without that are simple without understanding and walke with the foolish vers 4. 6. let the world as well as the Church be supplied with ministers according to Christs institution That which is stuck at much is the rights and properties of Patrons the taking away these is looked on as a piece of injustice Remember Pharaoh King of Aegypt and Sihon King of Heshbon how their hearts were hardered by abuse of righteous principles urging them against Gods commands and his Churches good Do you ever finde when Images are broken and burnt groves cut down and burnt and high places destroyed that there is any regard had unto the right that any had to the materials The great Proprietarie of all the world calls in these rights who shall with-hold them I am sorry for men in these dayes See the Narrative of the Parlaments dissolution on Dec. 12. 1653. with the Ordin for impowering the Commissioners for trial of publik preachers p. 1. that make it a ground to breake up Parliaments and make Ordinances to preserve the rights and properties of Patrons God calls for them and they may yeeld them without any dammage except that they shall want a way to oblige Ministers to daube them with untempered mortar and sow pillowes under their elbows that they may lie easily in their sins and go in ease to their everlasting paines A way with Tythes that old-Testament-maintenance that seemes to me plainly distinguished from the new-Testament-maintenance in that argument of the Apostle for the maintenance of the ministers of the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 13 14. 't is plain he argues a simili from the like and like is not the same And to this suffrages judicious Mr. Hooker in his Survey of Church-discipline Part 2. ch 1 pag. 31. This way of raising maintenance saies he appointed in the Gospel is far differing from that way of the tything in the Law c. Mr. Mede hath this passage touching difference of the Lawmaintenance of ministers and the Gospel maintenance That which was onely required for acknowledgment of the divine dominion under the bondage of the Law is now turned into the nature of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or gift for good tidings but this does not fully teach the difference betwixt law and Gospel-maintenance of ministers which differs not onely in the motive and end but in the very kind For one is a legal Ceremony and the other is a Gospel-institution the one is Jewish the other is Christian the one reformed the other popish according to the epithers I find put on the way of tything by Mr. Hooker calling it the popish Jewish way of Tything Survey part 1. chap. 1. p. 29. Concerning the popery of it I shall onely adde what Mr. Cotton speakes opening the number of the beast The foundation sayes he is six that he opens by the six books of Decretals now says he if you would know why this six comes to be multiplied by ten If you observe it all the Government and maintenance of the Roman State is by tenths by tythes all the people must give the tenth to the Priest and the Priest to the Bishop for the maintenance of the Catholique Church and so the whole Government comes to be multiplied maintained and established All the Roman Catholiques are built upon popish Laws and decrees all which require subjection to the popish Church and submission to that Church and to the Pope as the head of that Church receiving doctrine and worship and discipline from that Church and that was founded in six in the six books of their decrees and it is multiplied viz. by tenths according to the same bookes to maintaine all the Clergy from the Pope to the lowest Parish-priest But my argument that I would follow is that Tythes are Jewish that is much to be suspected because they are Popish the Papists being so much addicted to be the Jews Apes and the rather because they have seemed to make much of the Jewish Church-Government in composing theirs and so their Maintenance was most sutable to uphold it But which is more the maintenance by Tythes had reference to the Temple They that minister in holy things do live of the things of the Temple 1 Cor. 9.