Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	day_n	observe_v	sabbath_n	2,003	5	9.5525	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56658	The epitome of man's duty being a discourse upon Mic. 6.8, where hypocritical people are briefly directed how to please God.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1660 (1660)	Wing P795; ESTC R203168	52,419	134

humble acknowledgements that he was their great Landlord of whom they held the land of Canaan and from whom they received whatsoever they did enjoy 2. And so Secondly their Sacrifices taught them to consider that they should consecrate and offer themselves unto him seeing that they were his no less then their sheep or calves which they brought to his Altar These sacrifices being their tribute which they paid to their supream Lord did express that they were tyed to him in any services that he would require of them They could not think that he would be pleased with an Ox more then with a man and that he would hold them excused if they rebelled against him to whom they made these constant acknowledgments They did not hereby pay their debts but confess that they were indebted They were not discharged by these from all obligations but testified a sense that they and all theirs were engaged to him 3. And Thirdly they promoted true holiness as they shewed the hatefulness of sin and the guilt which it brought upon those that did commit it For what need was there that these poor creatures should suffer for their faults if God was not much offended by their disobedience The cries and struglings of the beasts might put them in mind what necessity sin brought upon them of suffering and how cruelly it would use those who continued in it And it would be easie to shew that there was no punishment threatned for the breach of any of the ten commandments whether stoning or strangulation or cutting of the throat or burning for there were but these four but it was represented in the death of these beasts which were thrown on the pavement tyed about the throat slain and burned either in whole or in part upon the Altar 4. And fourthly these Sacrifices and all other outward ceremonies might well teach them how far they ought to keep from all inward difilements who were to be so remote from all fleshly pollutions They that were under such a constant discipline of God and taught by such holy men could not whithout a strange neglect be so sottishly stupid as to imagine that God took no care of the soul who would have the body so clean and pure If a beast must not have any blemish in it nor the man that offered it any legal uncleaness upon him he might easily think that God expected his mind should be holy and not in a worse condition then his beast or his body If they were to wash themselves and their sacrifices then the soul sure was not to be dirty and impure If they were to be seperated from all unclean persons then much more from bad company And if they might not so much as eat with a Gentile then much less might they partake with them in their sins and impieties Apud Photium in Biblioth pag. 887. I know not what truth there is in the observation of Eulogius but he wonders why there being so many clean creatures allowed by God to be eaten in the Law there were only five viz. a Goat a Sheep an Ox a Turtle and a Pigeon which were used in sacrifices unless it had an aenigmatical and figurative meaning to denote our five senses which we are to purifie and cleanse that we may adhere to God and be fit to draw near unto him 5. And therefore fifthly we may look upon the law of ceremonies as an hedge to the Law of moral precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the ten commandments Some things as Aristo●le well observes are good in themselves and to be beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their own sakes L. 1 Ethic. and others are good and lovely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the sake of the former as they are either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 effective and operative of them or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in some sort a preservative and guard to them or as they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hindrances of their contraries and forbid that which would destroy them Now though the things that we are speaking of were not good in themselves nor had any proper worth in them as justice mercy and humility have yet they were of this latter sort of goods and served to maintain these greater things in their sacredness and to prohibit them from infringing any of the rights belonging unto them God kept the Israelites at a great distance from violating these commands by making them observant of lesser injunctions Their fear of these meaner offences was intended as a guard and security to the greater sanctions and commands As a man that dare not leap over an hedge into our pasture will not venture one would think to climb over the wall into our garden so he that durst not break through and transgress the bounds of these outward precepts it was to be presumed would never be so bold as to tread under feet and contemn the more divine Laws God intended mainly to preserve the holiness of the moral laws and spiritual precepts and so he set the ceremonial as a thornie fence about them to keep them from being broken Their not eating of blood must needs make them to have a natural abhorrence of murder Gen. 9.4 5. and their not marrying within such degrees of consanguinity was an exercise of their chastity and a great security against adultery and such like wickedness Their taking no use of their poor Brethren and leaving them the corners of the fields when they reaped c. was a means to make them not to covet nor be greedy of the world Their observing of so many daies in memory of Gods mercies must needs teach them to have the Sabbath in great reverence which was in memory of the creation of the world and their deliverance out of Aegypt Seeing they must break down so many mounds and banks as were cast up about the eternal Law it might reasonably be supposed that they would never attempt to destroy it at least not as long as they kept these entire 6. And in particular these things kept them from Idolatry which was the highest contempt of God that could be Orat. 42. They were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen saith of the whole Law a wall set up between God and Idols to keep them from running unto strange worship A partition which they must break down before they and the Gods of the heathens could meet together And this Maimon doth conceive to be the reason of those precepts which carry not their reason in themselves that God might make them abhor to participate in the Religion of the nations that were about them For he well observes that God commands them such things as were quite contrary to their practice so that what the heathens loved that they were to abominate and what they reverenced the Jews were to have for daily use and they were not so much as to worship toward the same quarter of heaven but whereas the world generally had their

there are wherein mercy calls for that which is named kindness and favour But secondly We must give to others what they need as we must not alwayes require what is our own in other mens hands so we must alwayes give to the poor what is in our own hands We must relieve the distressed defend the fatherless plead the cause of the widdow visit and help the sick deliver the prisoner and captive and be so far from requiring in some cases what others owe us that we must give them more to support their feeble estate withall Many actions of mercy there are to mens souls which I shall not mention but in general tell you that under this word are included all actions of Charity pitty and compassion toward our neighbour And we must charge our selves with them as we do with actions of Justice And be as careful not to with-hold supplies from the poor as we are not to steal and not to say them nay when we are able no more then we must lye to our Brother and we must make provision for them and do them good as diligently as we watch over our selves that we take not away from them nor do them evil The covetous is abhorred of God as well as the thief the unmerciful as well as the murderer And therefore a man must not content himself that none can charge him with doing wrong but his light must shine before men and he must give Alms of such things as he hath And likewise he must deal fairly with all men and not with a griping hand and an over-reaching head and he must be ready to forgive all them that have trespassed against him and not hold them to over-strict satisfaction There are many blind worldlings Too many think it sufficient to be just but it is hard so to be if we be not merciful many moles and earth-grubbers that pudder and scrape in the earth all their dayes and they do not invade any of their neighbours possessions nor encroach upon their ground but content themselves in their holes and yet they do no good at all nor bring any benefit to the world They seem not so bad as rats that eat our meat and cloathes and books but yet none is the better for them and at last many are much the worse As the mole though she take nothing away from our ground but seems to raise it higher yet in time she destroyes it all by her hills which she casts up So these men though they do not plainly pick mens pockets and rob them though they raise fair houses and seem to make Towns more splendid where they live yet they secretly work out all the old inhabitants and make it all their own dwelling They are as the spleen in the body and draw all they can from others to fill their own bags and the hard conditions which they hold men unto with their obstinate refusal to relieve a decaying person undoes many round about them But that it is meet we should do otherwayes appears not only from that great rule of our Actions God justly requires mercy of us to do to others as we would they should do to us were their condition ours and ours theirs but also from the great mercifulness of our God to us We stand in need every day of Gods mercy both in giving and forgiving and why should it be thought hard that he bids us relieve the needy when we our selves are in so much need and he thinks not much to relieve us But besides if it be hard for us to part with a little out of abundance how hard is it to them to want not only the abundance but that little And again since God gives all to us he may entail it upon us and our heirs on what conditions he pleases and what great matter is it if this be one that we give some of it away to others And truly this is one of the things that makes it good Mercy is for our good for there is no such way of saving and preserving as by giving and no such way of losing as by unmerciful saving This cuts off the intail from many a fair estate that the last Lord of it was a covetous miserable wretch And besides God bids us here love mercy which we could not do if it were not Good Neither will God tye us as you heard to such hard conditions as to delight in our own mischief And therefore all ingenuous heathens have counted it a piece of singular contentment to do good and som looked upon it as a becoming little gods in the world This if any thing likewise will draw the love and affection of others to us not to say their perty adorations A great light and splendor such actions cast abroad when they are not done out of popularity and vain-glory but out of love to mercy and to God the father of mercies and they get a man honour without desiring of it or taking any other pains to seek it And there is not only pleasure and credit in this noble vertue but as much profit as heart can desire It must needs be good because it is called in Scripture doing of good and though the phrase properly imports the good of others yet let me tell you we hereby bestow no small boons upon our selves God so loves it that he loves those that love it and hath promised great rewards to them and theirs in this world and in the world to come With the merciful he will shew himself merciful Psalm 18.25 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Mat. 5.7 There is that scattereth and yet increaseth The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself Prov. 11.25 26. His righteousness endureth for ever his born shall be exalted with honour Psalm 112.9 This is an argument upon which I might dilate till night For there are no less treasures for the merciful man then the rich man hath of wealth in his house yea infinitely more for he layes up his treasure in heaven where God hath bound himself to pay him with usury and increase AND now for the third thing 3 What it is to walk humbly What it is to walk humbly with God it is not fit that I should give you much more then the heads of discourse unless I intended of a Sermon to make a treatise First therefore To think meanly of our selves think lowly of thy self which is a great part of this duty So the word humbly is often taken especially in compare with God from whom we and all we have do come and on whom they continually depend As thou givest to others their own yea thine own so assume to thy self no more then is thine own yea call nothing that is good thine own but acknowledge God in all be it riches or beauty or learning or health or grace it self When thou exercisest justice and mercy do not take