Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	creation_n	day_n	sabbath_n	2,519	5	9.8015	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

the Father of Abraham and the Father of Nachor and they serv'd strange Gods. But when Abraham came into Canaan I find no Records that the Customs of his Country had pass'd the River but on the contrary evident Instances of their Knowledge of the true God as Creator of Heaven and Earth What can be more plain than the Story of Melchisedeck Priest of the most High God a Term appropriate in Scripture to the Supreme Deity in his blessing Abraham Blessed be Abraham of the most High God Creator of Heaven and Earth And when God consumed Sodom and Gomorrah with Fire from Heaven Idolatry is no where reckoned among the Causes and Provocations of that severe and unusual Judgment and had it been one of their crying Sins it would have been the loudest and so never have been omitted by the Sacred Historian And when Isaac was forced by Famine into the Country of the Philistines Abimelech their King entred into a Solemn and Religious Covenant with him of mutual Defence and Offence upon this Inducement that he was the Blessed of the Lord or the peculiar Favourite of Iehovah so that as long as himself and Isaac were of a side the Supreme Gods immediate mediate Providence would be engaged in his Protection The first plain Intimation we find of it in Palestine is in the History of Iacob after his Conversation with the Shechemites where upon his departure from that City by God's especial Command he builds an Altar at Bethel to God and commands his Family to put away their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Strange Gods. And from this time we read of nothing of this Nature till the Deliverance of the Children of Israel out of Egypt after they had been deteined there Four Hundred and Thirty Years according to the Hebrew or Two Hundred and Fifteen according to the Seventy the greatest part of which time was spent in Slavery and Bondage But at and after their Deliverance we hear of nothing else but Cautions against Idolatry or Worship of Strange Gods as if in that long Tract of Time and Misery they had lost the Tradition of the God of their Ancestors and by long conversation with the Egyptians had taken up their Masters Religion together with their Burdens and it was scarce possible to be otherwise for men in their poor condition after so long a Tract of Time than to take up the Religion in publick Practice Long custom and conversation naturally inures Men to the Manners of the Country but Slavery breaks Men to them And what could be expected from miserable People who spent all their days in carrying of Clay gathering Straw making Bricks and all Offices of Servility than that they should serve their Masters Gods as well as their Masters themselves And that this was their case is evident from the whole Series of the Story The first Discovery that the Almighty made of himself was to Moses in the Burning Bush where he tells us I am the God of thy Fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob But this seems to be a New Language to Moses For he replys When I come unto the Children of Israel and shall say unto them the God of your Fathers hath sent me unto you and they shall say to me what is his Name or what God is he what shall I say unto them To this he is commanded to answer I am that I am hath sent you that is the only self existent Being that is the only Supreme Deity and God of your Fathers And for the truth and demonstration of this he refers both him and them to the following Miracles And when Moses was discouraged by the complaints of the People because of their severe Usage the Almighty gives him encouragement upon this powerful Motive I am Jehovah or I am the Lord who will deliver you with a strong Hand or stretched out Arm i.e. I am that Omnipotent self-existent Being and that shall be the proof of it the great Miracles that I will work for your Delivery And at the time of their Deliveranee he immediately institutes the Passover not only as a Memorial of the Thing but as I shall prove afterwards the strongest Bar against Idolatry But as soon as they sat down at the Foot of Mount Sinah which was their first place of Rest God's first Care was to make further provision against Idolatry where after a fearful and glorious Representation of his Presence he gives the Ten Commandments whereof the Four First are directly levell'd against Idolatry First He enjoyns the worship of Himself who by his Almighty Power had delivered them from their Egyptian Bondage In the next place He forbids them the Worship of all Idols i. e. as himself describes them The likeness or similitude of any thing that is in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath or in the Water under the Earth A plain and indeed logical Definition this that Idolatry is giving the Worship of the Supreme God to any created corporeal or visible Deity or any thing that can be represented by an Image which nothing but coporeal Beings can and to suppose such a Being the Supreme Deity is the only true and proper Idolatry And tho there may seem to be two sorts of it First either to Worship a material and created Being as the Supreme Deity Or Secondly to ascribe any corporeal Form or Shape to the Divine Nature yet in the Result both are but one for to ascribe unto the Supreme God any corporeal Form is the same thing as to Worship a created Being for so is every corporeal Substance This is I say the true and only Notion of Idolatry And all the Strange Gods mentioned in the Scripture are only some most glorious Pieces of the visible Creation as I shall prove at large from undeniable Testimonies And for this reason it was that the very Angels by whom this Affair was immediately transacted never made any appearance in any visible Shape but only in a Cloud or in a Glory to prevent the very Peril of Idolatry and therefore Moses in his dying and farewel Speech reminds them over and over that at Horeb they heard the Voice of God but saw no Similitude with this Application to them lest you corrupt your selves i. e. by believing that there can be any Similitude of the Supreme Godhead And as this is the literal and plain Sense of the two first Commandments so it seems to be the only Design of the Third and Fourth For the English of the Third if it were rightly translated runs thus Thou shalt not give the Name of the Lord thy God to a Vanity or Idol and so the Septuagint render it For the Word Vanity and Idol are Synonomous in Scripture because an Idol is a vain and empty Thing that represents nothing for when it is set up as the Symbol and Image of a Deity that is no Deity it is the Image of nothing as St. Paul