Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
work_n commandment_n day_n sabbath_n 6,700 5 9.9732 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A61092 The larger treatise concerning tithes long since written and promised by Sir Hen. Spelman, Knight ; together with some other tracts of the same authour and a fragment of Sir Francis Bigot, Knight, all touching the same subject ; whereto is annexed an answer to a question ... concerning the settlement or abolition of tithes by the Parliament ... ; wherein also are comprised some animadversions upon a late little pamphlet called The countries plea against tithes ... ; published by Jer. Stephens, B.D. according to the appointment and trust of the author.; Tithes too hot to be touched Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Stephens, Jeremiah, 1591-1665.; Bigod, Francis, Sir, 1508-1537. 1647 (1647) Wing S4928; Wing S4917_PARTIAL; ESTC R21992 176,285 297

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

to the naturall condition of those times as sacrifice and first-fruits which though they rose out of the law of Nature as touching the common end of being offered by way of thanksgiving unto God yet in that they were also types and figures full of ceremony they became temporall and thereby transitory For the children of Adam finding themselves in the wrath of God and their flesh bloud body and life to be altogether corrupted and accursed by the transgression of their father they sought by all invention possible to help it as far as nature could and therefore both to expresse the present estate of their miserable condition and the mark also they aimed at for redemption in time to come they held it as a necessary correspondency that flesh should be redeemed with flesh bloud with bloud life with life the guilty body with a guiltlesse body and to be short the trespasse and corruption of man by the innocency of some sanctified creature offered unto God for remission of sin And because nothing under the sun could be offered up but it also was full of corruption and that nothing could be acceptable unto God that was impure therefore though they chose the cleanest and perfectest beasts and things for these offerings and sacrifices and purged and sanctified them by all manner of means they could yet they devised further to sever the purer and aeriall part thereof from the grosse and earthly consuming the one that is to say the flesh and the bones as the body of sin and corruption with the deserved torment of fire and sending the other that is the fume and vapour as the purer part to carry their prayers and invocations up into heaven before the Throne of God First how corruptible they were that is even like the great body of a bullock suddainly consumed Secondly the punishment in justice due unto them even the torment of fire Thirdly the place and person from whence they hoped for redemption Heaven and Almighty God And lastly the means whereby they were to attain it taken from two of the proprieties of fire light and heat that is first the light of faith whereby they long foresaw the promised seed and secondly the heat of zeal and hearty prayer breathed and sent forth from the altar of a fervent heart whereby they hoped to obtain remission of their sins After all this they yet considering further that the corruption and wrath fallen upon them was perpetuall and that these oblations and sacrifices were but temporall and momentary they thought in reason being onely under the law of Reason that the one could not countervail the other and that therefore it was necessary by continuall reiteration and multiplying of sacrifices to sollicite and importune God from day to day untill the time came that a perpetuall sacrifice might be offered up to make finalem concordiam in the high Court of heaven a full atonement betweene God and man which being once accomplished by our Saviour Christ both the institution and the end of sacrificing were wholly accomplished and so no cause for ever after to use that ceremony any more For with one offering saith the Apostle to the Hebrews hath he consecrated for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. Touching Circumcision though it were before the Leviticall Law yet it rise not out of the Law of Nature or Morall Law but was instituted by a positive constitution made by God himself and not as a part of his worship but as a seal of his Covenant with Abraham which by this ceremony of cutting away the impurer part of the flesh did put the children of Israel ever in mind to cast away carnall affections and to hope for the promised Messias that should cleanse them from the impurity of sin and restore them again to the favour of God which being performed by our Saviour the Covenant was fulfilled and the seal of Circumcision presently thereby defaced § 2. Of the Sabbath day Easter and Pentecost The Institution of the Sabbath day had in it much more Levitical ceremony then the matter of tithing for no man ought to kindle a fire on that day nor dresse the meat he should eat nor carry any burden take a journey or stir out of the place he was in Tarry every man in his place let no man goe out of his place the seventh day Exod. 16. 29. It was besides a day appointed for divers particular ceremonies sacrifices and offerings as yee may read Num. 28. 9 10. and amongst other significations to be a memoriall of the great deliverance out of Aegypt a thing peculiar to the Jews Neither have we any commandement but only a precedent for the keeping of it from the Apostles Acts 20. 9. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Rev. 1. 10. Yet durst never any man say that the Sabbath was therefore to be abolished but the temporall and ceremoniall parts thereof being taken away the morall use of the commandement which is that the seventh part of our time must be dedicate to the generall service of God remaineth for ever to the worlds end for otherwise our Sabbath is so remote from the Sabbath commanded in the Decalogue that the one holdeth almost no affinity with the other as appeareth in the points aforesaid and for that their Sabbath was the last day of the week ours is the first their 's was in celebration of the end of his workes ours in celebration of the beginning thereof for in the first day were the Elements the Angels c. made August Tom. 10. fol. 250. Theirs in memory of the Creation of the world ours of the Redemption that Christ rise from the dead the first day of the week And though the Apostles taught us by example to exchange the Jewish Sabbath for this of ours as touching the publique meeting on the first day of the week for setting forth the glory of God yet they gave us no commandement to abstain from work on that day but the Church decreed saith S. Augustine that all the honour of the Jewish Sabbath should be transferred to the Christian loco dicto and is done upon the Morall reason of the commandement not the Leviticall So likewise in tithing cut off those parts that were temporall and ceremoniall which as I have shewed were neither in the payment nor in the receiving of them but in the manner of sanctifying and employment of part of them after the Levites were possessed of them and then that which remaineth namely the payment and receiving of them for maintenance of the service of God remaineth for ever as a part of the Morall Law and common equity So touching Easter Christ our Passeover was sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. and thereby the end of Institution accomplished how come we then to continue it especially having neither commandement nor precedent thereof from the Apostles The Ceremoniall part of the Paschall feast viz. the Leviticall Lamb the Purification precedent c. are abolished with the Law
is the number of spirituall sanctification ten the number of legall justification Therefore to pay all the nine parts was nothing if we failed in the tenth for the tenth is the number of perfection and therefore required above all other as the type of legall justification And as our faith is nothing without works so neither is the Sabbath without tithes for they that minister to us the spirituall blessings of the Sabbath must receive from us the temporall gratuities of Tithing CAP. XXVI That they are due by the Law of Nations THe Law of Nations is that which groundeth it self upon such manifest rules of reason as all the Nations of the world perceive them to be just and do therefore admit them as effectually by the instinct of nature as if they had been concluded of by an universall Parliament Therefore in truth this is no other but that which the Philosophers call the law of Nature Oratours the law of Reason Divines the Morall law and Civilians the Law of Nations As far then as Tithe is due by one of these so far likewise it is due by all the rest and consequently the reasons that prove it in the one doe in like manner prove it in all the other I will not therefore insist here upon arguments but remit you to that hath been formerly said touching the law of Nature and demonstrate unto you by the practice of all Nations what the resolution of the world hath been herein through all ages So ancient it is among the Heathens that good Divines are of opinion that Abraham took example thereof from the Heathen but others with more reason conceive it to be practised even by the children of Adam as well as sacrificing and the offering of first-fruits as by the opinion of Hugo Cardinalis I have shewed in another place Besides I find not any mention of Tithe paid by the Gentiles before the time of Dionysius commonly called Bacchus who having conquered the Indians sent a Present of the spoil Magno Jovi as Ovid witnesseth and this was about 600. after that Abraham tithed to Melchisedek Cyrus having collected a great sum of mony amongst his captives caused it to be divided delivered the tithe thereof to the Praetors to be consecrated to Apollo and Diana of Ephesus as he had vowed Xenophon in Cyro l. 5. Alexander the great having conquered the Countries of sweet odours and frankincense sent a whole ship-loading thereof to Leonides in Greece that he might burn it bountifully unto the Gods Plin. li. 12. c. 24. Posthumius having overthrown the Latines paid the tithes of the spoil as before he had vowed Dionys. Halicar li. 6. Livius Nebuchodonosor did the like too bountifully as Josephus reporteth it to the Temple of Belus Ant. l. 10. C. 13. Rhodopis a Thracian woman before the time of Cyrus gave the tenth part of all her goods unto Delphos Herodot Euterpe pag. 139. The Crotoniati warring upon the Locrenses vowed the tenth part of the spoil to Apollo but the Locrians to exceed them in their vow vowed the ninth part Alex. ab Alex. 165. Agis King of Lacedaemon went to Delphos and there offered his Tithe unto God Xenophon de rebus gestis Grae. li. 3. Agesilaus conquered so much of his enemies Country that in two years he dedicated above an hundred talents to God for the Tithe Xenoph. de Agesil laud. The Liparians having overcome the Hetruscians in many sea battails sent the Tithe of the spoil to Delphos Diodor. 292. l. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The custome of the ancient Gauls and so likewise no doubt of our Brittish Ancestors was to give all in effect that they got by the wars unto their gods as Caesar witnesseth and to sacrifice the cattell so taken De Bell. Gal. lib. 6. 132. And this use of Tithing the spoile obtained in war was every where so ordinary that Croesus the King of Lydia being overcome by Cyrus and taken into mercy told him as advising him for his good that he must of necessity render the Tithe of the spoil unto Jove and that he should therefore set a guard at every gate of the City to prevent the soldiers from embezling of it Herodot in Clio. li. 1. p. 36. I reckon up these particulars the more willingly to beget shame and remorse if it were possible in the soldiers of our time that having been exceedingly enriched in this kind have not I fear remembred God with so much as Croesus did when he sent no more but his iron shackles to Delphos Herodot ib. fo 37. Yet God had 7000. servants that Elias knew not of and therefore I will not judge them As Military men abounded thus with devotion so those of peaceable professions came not behinde them for Festus witnesseth lib. 4. p. 213. l. 67. That they of the old world offered every tenth thing unto God and Varro in his Book De re Rustica adviseth every man to pay his Tithes diligently of the fruits of his ground Therefore because the Sicilians were more happy in corn then other Nations they exceeded all other in thankfulnesse to Ceres as appeareth by Diodor. Sic. 288. in pede c. And for that the Athenians were next in that felicity they did the like and instituted further in her honour initia Eleusina i. the feast of the first-fruits which for the great antiquity and holinesse thereof were as Diodorus reporteth celebrated of all the people of the world Pliny saith the Arabians tithed their frank incense to their god Sabin not by weight as sparingly but by measure as a more bountifull manner Lib. 12. ca. 24. pag. 184. L. 57. The Aethiopians cut not their cinnamon but with prayers made first to their gods and a sacrifice of 44. Goats Rams and then the Priest dividing the cinnamon took that part belonging to their god and left them the rest to make merchandise of Plin. l. 12. ca. 19. fol. 286. in pede The Siphnians sent at one time so great a Tithe out of their silver and gold mines to Delphos as the richest man of that age was not more worth Herodot Thalia lib. 3. fol. 180. The Romans and generally all Nations paid the Tithe of their fruits to Hercules and they held it the happyest thing to vow the payment of them faithfully and they thought that the cause that Lucullus abounded so much above other in wealth was that he paid his Tithe so faithfully Alex. ab Alex. lib. 3. 165. As they paid their Tithes out of the fruits of the earth so did they likewise out of their privy gains and industry Herodotus writeth that the Samians a small people yeelded at one time six talents for the Tithe of their grain gotten by merchanchise Melpom. li. 4. 267. And that nothing might goe untithed the Ancients paid a Tithe of the very beasts killed in hunting namely the skins thereof to Diana Et penet in Trivia Dives praedae tamen accipit omni Exuvias Diana