Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	command_v	day_n	sabbath_n	5,401	5	10.0465	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50771	Religio stoici	Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691.	1663 (1663)	Wing M195; ESTC R22472	60,332	192

if God had intended that one and the same day of the week should have been appropriated to have been a Sabbath He had designed each day by a special terme and had commanded that a day of such a designation should have been sequestrated for a Sabbath and that by designing only the seventh day He did leave a liberty to employ any day of the seven for that use Yet it is remarkable that Mosos nor the jewish Church durst not attempt the change of their new-years day but that the Almighty was pleased to bestow a peculiar sanction upon that alteration For Exod. 12. 2. He commands that the moneth wherein the Israelites came from Egypt should be by them reputed the first moneth of their year Wherefore seing each Nation chalks out a divers Sabbath it would appear that there is something of humour in it as well as of Religion The Venerious Mahumetan chooseth Friday or dies Veneris The dull Iew dull Saturn's day The warlick Parthians Tuesday or Mars-day The cheery Europeans Sunday And albeit the Christians are influenc'd only by inspiration yet I am confident that the heathens did follow that for Religion which suited best with their natural temper But this is a meditation which should travel no where beyond a mans private breast lest it meet with enmity and beget scandal It would puzle a heathen much to hear that he who breaks one of these Laws is guilty of the breach of all But it troubles not me seing all these Laws are made to shew our obedience and the breach of any one of them shewes our contempt of Him who is the author of all And it may be this was typified in Moses's breaking both Tables with one passionat fling after he came down from the Mount For if this breaking of them had not been pre-design'd for some hid end doubtless he had been reproved for his negligence However we may from this learn the desperate nature of passion which made Moses who was the meekest man upon earth break all the Laws of God in one act It might be also argued that seing all the Laws of the second Table were enacted for and respect ultimatly the advantage of man that where man is not wronged there the Law cannot be broke And thus if a married man should have liberty from his wife to take another woman this could be no more reputed adultery then it could be reputed theft to take what belongs to our neighbour himself consenting and that for this cause Iacob's begetting children with his wifes maids is not in Scripture reproved as adultery because they were given to him by her self for that effect but seing the practice of all the world condemns this conclusion far be it from me to press it further Albeit the judicial Law which may be justly called the judicious Law is commonly reputed to be but the municipal Law of the Jews yet seing it was thundered from mount Sinai with so much pomp and is ingrost in the Books of holy Truth and seems nearlier related to reason then any other Law I admire why it should not be religiously observed by all Nations especially seing as it is the exactest picture of Justice that ever was drawn so it hath this of a picture in it that it seems to look directly upon all who behold it albeit they be placed amongst themselves in directly opposite situations and stances Thus this Law suits even with contrary tempers and the unequal complexions of all Nations I know that the ceremonial Law is likewayes insert amongst the other holy Canons and yet binds not us who live under the jurisdiction of the Gospel But the reason of this seems to be because these did immediatly concern the jewish Church and were conversant about these holy things And so seing the old Testament is a description of their Hierarchy and of God's way of working in these times I wonder not to see these ceremonies amidst other sacred truths and yet not observed seing they are expresly abrogat But if the judicial Law which respected not the Hierarchy of that Church was obligatour only whilst the jewish State was in being I admire why the Spirit of God took so much pains first to penn it and then to deliver it so Canon-like to posterity And since it is a principle in Law and reason that Laws must still stand in vigor till they be expresly abrogat and must not be derogated from by consequences or presumptions I admire why this Law which God hath enervat by no express Text should be now look'd upon as Statutes nowise a-la-mode It is true that our Saviour when the woman convicted of adultery was brought to Him did not according to that Law pronounce the sentence of death against her whence some think that Church-men following their Masters example should not give their suffrage in criminal cases and have only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bloodless Jurisdiction for they are appointed to be Nurses not Chyrurgions But it is as true that our Saviour professed in all the tract of His life that He came not to be a Judge in things temporal and His design in that place was only to convince them of their own sinnes and not to absolve her not to abrogat the Law and therefore He desired him who was freest from sin to cast the first stone at her And whereas it is conjectured that these words which our Saviour stoop'd down to write in the clay immediatly thereafter was an abrogation of that Law this is a Geomancy more wilde then any lesson which is alledged to have been read in the mysterious face of Heaven and should never be taught but in a Rabbies cabalastick Gown And whereas it is alledged that there are many precepts in that corpus Iuris which respects only the humor of the Jews I admire why that can be urged for certainly theft murder and these other crimes punished there are the same crimes which reigns amongst us and so why not punishable after that same manner Neither are the humors of these Jews more different from ours then was the genius of the Romans and yet few or no Nations refuse to cast their modern Laws in that antique mould And it is very probable that as God did in the moral Law teach man how to be just in his own actions so He would likewayes instruct him by a judicial Law how to administrate Justice to others What can perpetuate a Law more then that the Authority whereby it is enacted should be obligatory in all ages and the reason whereon it is founded should be eternal and in what Laws do these two qualities appear more or so much as in the judicial Laws of the Jews where the eternal Law-giver was Legislator and the occasion productive of them seemed rational and necessar to His infallible omniscience and if in any of these statutes our purblind judgments cannot see a present conveniency we should rather impute that to our own simplicity then

not discovered the mystery to us By which things another thing is meant For these two mothers are the two Testaments the one which is Agar of mount Sinai which gendereth into bondage c. I might here relate many excellent allusions to prove this but I shall satisfie my self with one which I did read in one Doctor Ever●t who preaching upon Ioshua 15. 16. Then Caleb said he who smiteth Kirjath-sepher and taketh it even to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife And Othniel took it c. saith that Caleb signifies a good heart Kirjath-sepher the city of the Letter Achsah the Vision Othniel God's opportunity And so the mystical sense runs a good heart saith that whoever will take in and smite as Moses did the rock the Letter of the word shall have the vision which lurks under it discovered and given to him And God's own time is the only mean for accomplishing this As also it is most remarkable that that City which was called Cirjath-sepher before it was taken in or the city of the Letter was after it was conquered called Debi● which signifies an oracle so that the Word or Letter is no oracle till it be once as it were taken in and overcome Since the reading of which Sermon I believe that one may profit more by an hebrew Lexicon then by a thousand English Lectures These who detract from Scripture by attributing the production of miracles to natural causes do not much disparage the power of God but though against their depraved intention cry rather up his omnipotency For certainly if these miracles were produced by secondary causes then doubtless that productive faculty was bestowed upon them by the Almighty and if he can make the creatures produce such strange effects much more is he able to effectuate them himself as it is more difficult for a great Master to form curious and admirable Characters when he leads a schollars hand then when he writes them with his own for such help may be called resisting assistance I cannot likewise but blame many of our Preachers who rather break then open holy Texts and rather make new meanings suiting with their private designes then tell the meaning of the Spirit Who would not have laugh'd to hear a Presbyterian observe from the first chapter of Genesis first verse that whilst Moses relates what God made he speaks nothing of Bishops by which it was evident said Don Quixot's Chaplain that Bishops were not of divine Institution a conceit as ridiculous as that of a Priest who hearing Maria spoken of for to signifie Seas did brag that he had found the Virgine Mary named in the old Testament Albeit I think preaching no part of divine Worship hearing being no adoration yet love I to go to Church were it but to see a multitude met together to confess that there is a God But when I go to hear I care not whom knowing that Christ elected Fisher-men to preach down infidelity when it was in the ●uff of it's pride and that Paul the most signal Trophe of our christian Faith was sent for confirmation not to Peter or Iames at Ierusalem but to Ananias one of the meanest amongst the Disciples And seing our Salvation by preaching is a miracle it is still so much the greater by how much weaker the instruments are When the Pulpit was a mount Sinai from which the Law was thundered or a mount of O lives whereon our Saviour's glorious transformation was to be seen then were Sermons to be honoured but since it is become a mount Calvar whereon our blessed Saviour suffers daily by scandalous railings Sermons are now become unfavoury for the most part I hate to see that divine place made either a Bar whereat secular quarrels are with passion pleaded or a Stage whereon revenge is by Satyres satisfied or a School-chair from which un-intelligible questions are mysteriously debated but amongst all these innovations introduced by our infant Divines I hate none more then that of giving reasons for proving the Doctrine which being Scripture it self can be proven by nothing that is more certain As for instance when the Doctrine is that God loved us freely how can this be proven more convincingly then thus my Text sayes it and that is idem p●r idem a most unlogical kind of probation When I then go to Church I should love to spend my time in praises and prayers which as they are the only parts of adoration so are they the natural imployments of the Church either Militant or Triumphant Yet it displeases me to hear our young Pulpitires skrich and cry like Baal's Priests as if God were no nearer them then the visible Heavens It honours much our imployment that God Almighty was the first and great Law-giver and that our blessed Saviour stiles himself our Advocat And it is an amazing wonder that we are tyed only by ten Laws whereof seven were enacted doubtless for our advantage and respect more immediatly the security of the creature then the honour of the Creator and are such restraints as men behoved to have laid upon one another and which nature layes upon us all And albeit I laugh at the jewish Cabala which sayes that the moral Law was written two thousand years before Moses in black letters at the back of a clear burning fire Yet can I not approve Tertullian's wit who endeavours to find all these ten in the prohibition made to Adam There are indeed some sins which scarce a consequence can bring within the verge of these Commandments As for instance Drunkenness Yet these are such as are so destructive to our nature that there needs no Law be made against them So that the Priest hit wittily to whom that sin being confess'd enjoyned as an Pennance their being drunk a second time which makes me conclude that if Drunkenness were to be ranged under any of these Laws it would fal most naturally under that Thou shalt not kill Albeit the fourth Commandment seems to respect only the honour of God and that the creature seems to be no wayes bettered by it Yet our more serious observation will discover that all be-labouring creatures as it were expect an ease the seventh day more then any other Whether it be that nature is by custom framed to that expectation I cannot tell But we see that God choic'd that number to be the year of jubile amongst his own people and that it is the period of all the several consistencies in our life infancie pubertie c. And for this reason Physicians observe that the child born in the seventh moneth is stronger then that which is born in the eight because in the seventh it is come to a knot by passing whereof in the eight it is in a state of imperfection But what the mystery of this holy Climaterick is I refer till we come to that Sabbath of rest whereat we ordinarly arrive after seven times nine years hath snowed upon us We may think that