Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	true_a	worship_v	worshipper_n	3,990	5	12.1152	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55226	A commentary on the prophecy of Malachi, by Edward Pocock D.D. Canon of Christ-Church, and Regius Professor of the Hebrew tongue, in the University of Oxford	Pococke, Edward, 1604-1691.	1677 (1677)	Wing P2661A; ESTC R216989	236,012	119

other or would choose any other place for his worship then Jerusalem he will certainly effect and therefore for the better assurance thereof repeats it for my Name shall be great that which by you a handfull of men is now despised shall be great among the Heathen by all acknowledged as such These words were when spoken spoken of what should after be but by Christs coming into the World were made good so appears it by what he saith in his discourse with the Samaritan Woman who thought of no other p●a●e where men ought ●o worship God but either the Mountain of the Samaritans mount Garizim or Jerusalem Joh. IV. 21 c. Woman beleive me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father And the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth The consideration of which words will give us the true import of these and compared together they illustrate one the other for his saying that God did no longer confine his worship i. e. the outward performance thereof by such rites and ceremonies as were ordained to Jerusalem or any other single place what is that but the verifying of what is here said that his Name should be great among the Nations from the rising of the Sun even to the going down of the same and what he ●a●th that the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth not only there but every where sheweth that as his Name should be great and magnified among them by their acknowledging him as Father so what is to be meant by that incense and pure offering which they should offer unto his Name viz. not such as are literally signified by those words and were then to be ordered according to the prescription of the Law but such worship as though expressed by the names of those carnal things under the Law then in continual use and known to all yet is indeed spiritual joining the Soul with the external performances agreeable to the nature of God who is a spirit of which those ordinances of worship under the Law were types and shadows And indeed the change of the place necessarily imports a change of the worship or things offered for expression of it for the incense and other offerings by the Law prescribed were not to be offered any where else but in the Temple at Jerusalem after that was there settled for the place of his worship Deut. XII 13 14 26. Those therefore that he will have in every place to be offered to him are manifestly of another nature though called by those names which then included generally all the external worship of God under the Old Testament while the Jews were Gods peculiar People they now figuratively understood denote the whole spiritual worship of God under the New Testament since the calling of the Gentiles and People of all Nations unto Gods Church the Kingdom of Christ. The incense therefore of the Gentiles converted to Christ and by the Gospell instructed in the true knowledge of God and taught to celebrate his great name and their pure offering are devout prayers Rev. V. 8 holy praises thanksgivings and alms-deeds and works of charity Heb. XIII 15 16. their whole selves Rom. XII 1 Divers of the ancient Christian Fathers look on the words as an express and undoubted Prophecy of the Christians solemn worship of God in the Eucharist or Sacrament of the Lords Supper called the Christian Sacrifice to which how they are appliable is shewed at large by the learned M r Mede in his discourse on these words where he gives to note that under the name of the Christian Sacrifice by the ancient Church was understood not the mere Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ but the whole sacred action or solemn Service of the Church assembled whereof this sacred mystery was a prime and principal part and therefore defines it to be An oblation of thanksgiving and praier to God the Father through Jesus Christ and his Sacrifice commemorated in the creatures of bread and wine wherewith God had been first agnized viz. by them sanctified by being offered and set before him as a present to acknowledge him the Lord and giver of all This whole Service duly performed is as at large he there shews deservedly stiled incense and a pure offering both in respect that it is purely or spiritually offered and in respect of the purity of the conscience and affection of the offerers throughly perswaded of the greatness of God and in respect of Christ whom it signifies and represents who is a Sacrifice without all spot and blemish and by this being offered to his Name in every place he saith the time should come when it should be great magnified and acknowledged as great among and by all Nations though the Jews did now profane it as he makes the connexion by rendring that though which our Translation renders but. But the sense will be much alike in reading but viz. to this purpose the time shall come when from the rising of the Sun c. my Name shall be great among the Gentiles who yet have not true knowledge of me but will when I shall see due time to reveal it to them readily embrace it Mean while it ought to have been so among you and duly magnified by you to whom I have from of old revealed it and given you ordinances and waies of worship by observing of which you should have magnified it but you on the contrary have by despising those ordinances and perverting those waies of worship profaned it When these words were spoken and thence forward as all along before since the giving of the Law till the time of this diffusing the knowledge of God and his Name and this alteration and reformation of his worship here spoken of the Jews had for their direction the Law of Moses and ought duly to have attended to it as they are warned Chap. IV. 4 but they did in all things go so contrary to it as that neither they nor any service they did were acceptable to God So notoriously so obstinately peccant were they both Priest and People that he sees it not sufficient to have once reproved them by reckoning up to them their faults but again repeats them that so they may be sensible how greatly they have offended him how displeasing it is to him that they should continue to do such things having been warned of them and that it is worse then what the Gentiles when he shall call them will do 12 ¶ But ye have profaned it in that ye say The table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible But ye have profaned it viz. my Name so verse 6. they are said to despise

been dedicated to the only true God Here therefore it being called Christs Temple it shews that he is true God one with the Father This argument though pious and conclusive to Christians yet a learned man would not have to be much insisted on as to the signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heicul inasmuch as it doth not only signify a Temple or House of worship but also a Palace and so he thinks the Jews may put it off by saying it signifies only the Messiah shall come to his Palace But I suppose they would not fly to that I do not find any of them that do The ordinary Expositors that we have of them as R. Salomo Jarchi Aben Ezra David Kimchi as likewise R. Tanchum do not at all meddle with interpreting this word only Abarbinel who as we said interprets the Lord not of the Messiah but of the Shecinah or glorious Presence of God or God himself explains it to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heical which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bebeith mikdasho in his Sanctuary by which he will have to be meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Habbeith haatid that house or Temple which is to come or shall hereafter be built or as in his Commentary on Haggai he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beith shelishi the third house By it then here I doubt not but they all understand it a Temple properly so called But however they may otherwise seek to evade the force of this argument and this I mean of them who confess by the Lord here to be meant the Messias whether by saying it may be called his because by him built according to Maimonides or because he should frequent it or otherwise certainly the other argument for proof of his being come because the Temple to which he was to come is so long since destroyed is unanswerable and their talking of a third Temple without any ground in Scripture so long and still in vain expected by them under which this Prophecy is to be made good as if it were not long since fulfilled while that second Temple was standing as we are assured that it was is a mere dream of men choosing to themselves strong delusions Which lest any of theirs by enquiring into it should discover they weary it appears or ashamed of the length of the time of their vain expectation or not knowing how they should satisfy such as should enquire into it have long since by a severe way interdicted all such enquiries by saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tippach rucham or Atsman shel Mechashebe hakketsim Let them burst or breathe out their souls that enquire after the ends or periods and terms of time viz. concerning the coming of the Messiah And that perhaps may be the cause why their Expositors in this place say so little of it viz. how or when the Lord should come to his Temple Certainly without acknowledging Christ the true Messiah and him to be come in the flesh and both God and man there cannot any thing be said that can give the true meaning or shew what was requisit for the fulfilling of this Prophecy here and that cited out of Haggai of such affinity with it And no wonder to see them who willingly and obstinately decline the one only way of manifest truth to run on in such different tracts of error It follows in the Text Even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in Where our Translators rendring the copulative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which ordinarily signifies and by even give us to look on these words as a farther description of the same person who was called the Lord and that is as hath been said Christ Jesus who though he be one with his Father God eternal yet humbled himself for mens sakes to be as a Messenger from his Father to them to declare unto them his will and to be unto him obedient in all things that he gave him to do This proves not that he is not one God with the Father though as a Son he yielded obedience to him and performed his work Here is nothing in this that takes away either unity of essence or equality of power So that we need not to depart from this notion of Messenger or Angel to render it Prince as a learned man by the use of the word in another language thinks it may be proved in the Hebrew and here also to signify It will come but to one pass he is Prince of the Covenant for the same reason that he is called Messenger or Angell of it which is because in him God founded the new Covenant of Grace and by him as Mediator of it administred it he not only declaring it but ratifying it with his own Blood and receiving into it as many as lay hold on him even that new Covenant of which he is Mediator Heb. XII 24 better then the old and established on better promises Heb. VIII 6 8 c. spoken of Jer. XXXI 31 no more comprehending Jews alone but Gentiles also In which regard God saith of him I will give thee for a Covenant of the People for a light of the Gentiles c. Isa. XLII 6 in whom he was reconciling the World unto himself 2 Cor. V. 19 In this that we say that it is b●t the same person who is called both Lord and Messenger we have most of the Jewish Expositors consenting So R. Salomo and Aben Ezra and Kimchi and R. Tanchum and Abarbinel in a secondary Exposition but yet in this divided among themselves that some of them say by both is meant God himself i. e. God the Father by others the Messiah Against the former is hence an evident proof that of God the Father it cannot be meant because a Messenger is necessarily a distinct person from him that sends him The Lord therefore and Messenger here spoken of must as we affirm of Christ needs be so As for those who interpret both as we do of the Messiah though much differing from us as concerning the nature of his person yet there is no occasion to dispute with them concerning that here in that they agree that the person by both titles described is the Messiah As for others who take by the Lord to be meant one by the Messenger of the Covenant another so vain and absurd are their fancies that to name them will be sufficient confutation of them as not only that uncouth as well as novel opinion of Abarbinel making it to be the King of Persia who had sent them home from their Babylonish Captivity but also that of some more ancient who would have to be meant Eliah whom they would have to be called by that title because he alwaies presides at the Rite of Circumcision the sign of Gods Covenant with them which they thus make out God seeing his zeal for Circumcision when those of the ten Tribes were negligent of it gave him this priviledge as

Jews have a proverbial speech which may serve something to illustrate this expression The Sun ariseth the infirmity decreaseth that is As the Sun riseth so infirmities decrease Much more of this Sun might it be said that he did at his arising to those that feared the Lord bring healing with him in his wings to them in that day of distress worse then the darkest night the shadow of death it self which without his arising to them would necessarily have swallowed up them too in destruction and could not but by the apprehension of it make them as even sick at heart according to what he said c. III. 2 who may abide the day of his coming So terrible should it be that all mens hearts should fail for fear in contemplation of those things that should come on them yet even then in regard of his solitary effects that his coming should have toward them that feared his Name he bid them when these things these terrible things should begin to come to pass to look up and lift up their heads for that their redemption then drew nigh their deliverance from the persecutions by the unbeleiving Jews which they had endured and from the dangers which threatned them as except by his extraordinary Providence inevitable and his making that which was for the destruction of his enemies occasion of comfort and prosperity to them may well be termed healing But we may not confine it only to the rescue of their persons and preservation of their bodies nor the outward joy that they should find from that but look on the inward spiritual comfort and the healing of their broken hearts and fainting spirits in preserving them from failing by fear and despair as a greater part of it and therefore not unfitly doth Grotius interpret this arising of the Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings of the Collation of the holy Spirit which Christ should send to his to shine in their hearts and bring perfect health to their minds that spirit of comfort the only true comforter In regard of both these viz. both his rescuing and delivering those that feared his Name and protecting and delivering them from their outward fears and dangers and persecutions and his inward illumination and comforting of them by his good Spirit shewing himself in all waies a Sun and shield to them was this Prophecy that he should arise to them with healing in his wings evidently and abundantly made good to them in that day And certainly in all respects doth that title of the Sun of righteousness agree to Christ the fountain of true heavenly light who enlightneth every man coming into the World Joh. I. 9 and whom God hath set forth to declare his righteousness Rom. III. 25 26. and the Author of all true comfort who giveth to his such joy as shall swallow up all worldly sorrow Joh. XVI 20 such joy as no man can take from them v. 22. and never leaveth his comfortless Joh. XIV 18 but sendeth to them from the Father the comforter the Spirit of truth Joh. XV. 26 to abide with them for ever and to dwell in them and to be in them Joh. XIV 16 17. and in the same regard likewise may he be said to arise or come with healing in his wings to them as in all other waies also diffusing health in all kinds When he was here on Earth great multitudes from all parts flocked to him to be healed of their diseases and they that were vexed with unclean spirits and they were healed And the whole multitude sought to touch him for ●here went vertue out of him and healed them all Luke VI. 17 18 19. And the woman w ch had been twelve years diseased with an issue of blood did not doubt but to find the effects of that vertue who therefore coming behind him touched the hemme of his garment for she said within her self If I may but touch his garment I shall be whole Mat. IX 20 21. and she did accordingly find it for straight-way she was healed of that plague And Jesus perceived though he saw not the woman that vertue had gone out of him and she before all acknowledged it Mar. V. 28 29 30. c. and Luk. VIII 44 c. on which passage in Mat. IX Grotius notes that it may well be looked on as having reference to at least good correspondence with this place The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bicnapheiha rendred in his wings being capable of being rendred in fimbriis in the hemmes or borders of his garment as he observes it to be elsewhere rendred and it may be not unworthy of consideration But withall that healing vertue in him shewed it self not more in the healing bodily distempers then the worse maladies of the Soul as appears in his words when he cured some bodily diseases in saying not Be well or healed arise and walk but thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. IX 2 5. that they might know that he had power to forgive sins v. 6. and was no less a Physitian of sick distressed souls then of diseased bodies In all regards then as we said doth the title of the Sun of righteousness arising with healing in his wings well agree to Christ our Saviour and all things that those words can give us to expect from him that is so described have been and are by him abundantly made good ●o have those that faithfully believe in him and rely on him alwaies found and shall find But as to this present place the words seem limited to those benefits of outward preservation and inward comfort which those that feared the Lord were in that day of discrimination which the Lord saith he would make to expect according to his promise here made and did accordingly find with what more he adds in the following words for expressing his goodness to them But before we proceed to them we may here take notice of a strange conceit of the Jews which they here bring for explication of what is here said concerning that day that shall burn as an oven and devour the wicked and that Sun of righteousness which shall arise to them that fear the Name of the Lord and how the discrimination shall be made between them The Sun they tell us is now inclosed in a case or sheath besides that God out of a Pool before him deads his force with water that so he may not burn up the World but at the day of Judgement he shall be unsheathed and so coming forth in his full strength shall as he now doth in melting some things and hardning others shew contrary effects according to the difference of the subjects that he hath to work on and so burn up the wicked as stubble but heal the godly of all those bodily defects and imperfections with which they shall then arise This is the 〈◊〉 of what they say as improved to its best meaning by Abarbinel But what tolerable meaning it may have