Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	act_n	faith_n	grace_n	4,322	5	5.9067	4	true

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04128	Seven questions of the sabbath briefly disputed, after the manner of the schooles Wherein such cases, and scruples, as are incident to this subject, are cleared, and resolved, by Gilbert Ironside B.D.	Ironside, Gilbert, 1588-1671.	1637 (1637)	STC 14268; ESTC S107435	185,984	324

Mor. l. 1. c. 10. Gregory setting before their eyes our Saviours mildnesse we men saith he for for the most part labouring to preserue judgement justice utterly abandon mildnesse and mercy and on the contrary when we would be milde we cease to be just But our Saviour cloathed with our flesh was never so milde but that withall he was just neither was he so severely just as to forget to be mercifull and he giues instance in the womaÌ„ taken in adultery in which he excellently observed both For when he said Cast the first stone at her he satisfied the rule of justice even in the rigour of the letter of the Law but when he added Let him that is without sinne amongst you cast this first stone he so qualified it with equity and moderation that the woman escaped Let us be zealous in Gods name against all prophaners of the Lords day but let us not be so intemperate in our zeale as to usurpe Gods throne pronounce our pleasures upon our brethren take them out of their graues and brand them to posterity as men plagued and smitten of God for prophanation I will conclude with the words of the same c Postulatus â—udicare dominus de peccatrice non station dedit judicium sed priÃ¹s incâ—inans se deorsÃ¹m digito scribebat in â—errÃ¢ nos typicÃ¨ instituens ut cÃ¹m proximorum peâ—â—ata conspicimus non haec antÃ¨ reprehendenda iudicemus quÃ m digito discretionis soâ—ertÃ¨r exculp amus Greg. S. Gregory upon the same story in another place Our Lord saith he being required to judge the Adulteresse did not presently pronounce her doome but first stooped downe and wrote with his finger upon the ground he intended hereby to instruct us saith the Father that when we seethe apparent errors of our brethren before we proceed to our peremptory sentences we first wisely consider of the thing and with the finger of discretion note what was pleasing or displeasing unto God therein What our Saviours intention was in this action of his I cannot say I am sure S. Gregories observation is graue and substantiall according unto which if we reflect upon the clamorous determinations of our Sabbatharians the point being yet in controversie and defin'd against them by the most and the learned'st in the Church it will appeare that they neither weigh things in the ballance of moderation nor distinguish of things with the finger of discretion To the ninth the authorities alleaged speak for the most part as forced witnesses quite contrary to that for which they are produced as the Edicts of Constantine the Synodicall decrees The rest shall receiue answer in the next Question to which they more properly belong Those who haue writen to this purpose in the Church of England of late yeares are parties and therefore cannot be competent judges in this controversie CAP. XXVI Wherein is inquired after those duties of holinesse unto which the Conscience is bound on the Lords day THere remaines only the last scruple which is or can be incident to this subject viz. What duties of holinesse are proper and essentiall to the Lords day whether only the acts of publike worship with the congregation or the private exercises also of those head-head-graces faith hope loue unto which whatsoever is in Christian Religion may be reduced And this is indeed a point of chiefest consideration because it is practicall and practice being the life and spirit of knowledge the conscience can never be throughly setled untill this be discovered Our literall Sabbatharians affirme in this question and so affirme that they make the observation of the Lords day the very abridgment of Godlinesse in respect of the first Table and of righteousnesse in respect of the second Table And from hence proceed these wide outcries against any that shall contradict them that Religion is laid upon the back and prophanenesse set up in the roome thereof Nay they so affirme in this point as that their doctrine is made an open and professed snare such a manner of holinesse being exacted as that it is impossible for any man living in the state of corruption to sanctifie a Sabbath in that manner as is required of him either in thought word or deed I confesse were it true that upon the Lords day a man forsaking the naturall rest of his bed sooner then vpon other daies must begin early in the morning with the acts of repentance then proceed to the acts of faith and after the duties of loue conclude with repentance and this with that manner of solemnity and formality which some require it must needs be even to the best an utter impossibility whether we looke at parts or degrees But that the observation of the Lords day in that manner as the Lord himselfe expects whatsoever men please to impose is not such a Chimaera as they fancy will appeare I hope in its due place In the meane while we will set downe these arguments which seeme to support this opinion CHAP. XXVII The Arguments which seeme to conclude for all duties of holinesse in generall are set downe FIrst from the letter of the Commandement Remember to keepe holy the Sabbath day we many reason thus where no one kind of holy-daâ—â—s are spoken of there all duties of holinesse are to be understood it is generally so in other places of Scripture as in that of the Apostle * Peter 1.16 be yee holy for I am holy and elswhere * Heb. 12.14 follow holinesse without which no man shall see God But in the words of the Commandement holinesse in generall is required of us Therefore c. Secondly that which is and ought to be a common duty of all daies is much more a particular duty on the Lords day The reason hereof is both because the Lords day is in many respects to be preferred before all other daies and because it is set apart from all others unto holinesse But the private exercises of all gracious habits with our selues and our families are and ought to be common performances upon all daies For as they binde alwayes so are they indefinitely commanded without restraint to any set dayes they are therefore much more required upon the Lords day being the common duties of all dayes Thirdly any duty is more required upon that time on which if rightly performed it is more acceptable to God then at any other time For by this appeares that God hath regard as well to the time as to the duty But all the duties of holinesse even the private and personall and oeconomicall are more acceptable unto God if performed on the day of his Sabbath this appeares first by the words of the * Isay 58.13 Prophet saying if thou turne away thy foote from the Sabbath from doeing thy pleasure upon my Holy-day and call my Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine owne wayes c. In which words plaine it is that the

man though otherwise simple doth understand oftentimes more in the mysteries of Godlinesse then the great profound studied Doctors of the world This he confirmes by the words of our Saviour I thank thee o Father c. and by the example of the sheepheards to whom the Angels appeared preached Christ when the wise men of the East Herod the King the high Priests and Elders knew not where to find him Besides it is the nature of the word to be plaine and facill to such as are of a semblable disposition thereunto but hard and difficult to those that are Rebellious It giveth light to the simple saith n Psal 19. the Prophet where there is humility of spirit simplicity of mind syncerity of heart a conscionable walking with God the light of the word shineth even to the perfect day For as in naturall things there must be a proportion between the eye and the object so in things spirituall he must have a strong vigorous eye that must look upon the Sunne The eye of a child because it is tender and weak is dazeled as soon as it feeles the aire a blear eye smarts at every looking up The naturall unregenerate man hath the eyes of the Nycticorax or night crow compared with divine truths as Aristotle himself acknowledgeth Lastly there be many impediments in the unregenerate which serve as strong barres to keep out the light of truth as pride vanity deceit hypocrisy sensuality A vessell so full of filth and rottennesse cannot be capable of the syncere milk of the word or if any thereof happen to enter it receives a taint from the vessell that receives it the liquor smels of the Cask and the spider converts all things into poison Nay certain it is that every carnall affection once grown habituall doth harbour at least in the spawn and seed some heresy or other so that men of vitious and lewd lives doe believe nothing which may prejudice their corrupt affections Vnlesse therefore saith n Nisi mactaverimus cupiditates carnis nostrae non possumus esse idonei ut in actionibus nostris intelligamus quae sit voluntas Dei sed quod nostro sensui vehementÃ¨r arridet interpretamur esse voluntatem Dei Saâ—b in Rom. 12. Sasbot we sacrifice subdue and mortify the lusts of the flesh we can be no way fit to understand the will of God but will ever interpret that to be Gods will which is most agreeable to our own humours Therefore o Non haec dixit Dominus ut osâ—endat omnes viros honos per se intelligere posse omnia loca scripturarum sed ut doceat viros probos carere quibusdam impedimentis propter quae alij nec perse nec per alios fidei veritatem intelligere possunt Bell. de interp verb. Bellarmine himselfe doth confesse that pious and good men have not so many lets and hindrances to keep them from truth as others have in whom their judgements being corrupted by their affections neither doe nor can by themselves or others understand the doctrine of faith preached unto them This being that which is thus speciously said in the defence of this Paradox we will briefly discover the falshood and vanity thereof for the satisfaction of the judicious and indifferent reader by distinguishing those things which are thus confusedly heaped together For he that hath truth to himselfe in grosse may well vent to others errour by retaile We must therefore distinguish First of the persons of men unregenerate Secondly of the spirituall estate or being spirituall Thirdly of the things of God Fourthly of the knowledge of those things Vnregenerate men are of divers kinds either such as are apparently known may be averred for such both by the judgement of faith and the judgement of charity as Heathens Infidels Apostates Hereticks Or they are such as are in the bosome of the visible Church known unto us only in generall by the judgment of faith which saith there are such but unknown unto us by the judgement of charity when we come to look upon particulars Besides the unregenerate within the Pale of the Church are either private and ordinary people or publique persons guifted and qualified to the service of the Church To be spirituall is also of doubtfull signification for as the spirit of God dwelleth and worketh in men diversly so are they in different kinds spirituall Now the spirit worketh by his graces and these are either such as well call saving graces as faith hope love feare obedience given to men for their own profit by the help whereof they work out their own salvation or such as we call common graces as miracles tongues healings c. which God bestows upon men for the good of the Church and the promoting the salvation of other men The things of God are also of two sorts some are only in fide Circumstantiall things in and concerning faith and religion without the knowledge of which we may well be saved Others are de fide substantiall truths such as Athanasius hath in his Creed of which he saith he that believeth them not cannot possibly be saved Lastly the knowledg of holy things is two fold speculative and experimentall by the one we know what the things are in themselves by the other we have a lively sense and feeling of them in our own soules These distinctions being applyed to our present purpose the truth opens it self in these propositions First the unregenerate and unsanctified without the Church discern no kind of heavenly truths of what sort soever unlesse they be also naturall to be found out by discourse of reason or morall written upon their hearts Of such as these the words of the Apostle are to be understood The naturall man perceiveth not the things of God and that of our Saviour my sheep hear my voice And in this condition S. Augustine speaks of himself in that passage of his confessions There is indeed no proportion between the light of their darkned minds and the light of supernaturall saving truths Secondly the unregenerate within the Church if publique persons if sufficiently qualified by nature education and common graces being diligent in their places with the ordinary concurrence and assistance of the spirit may as infallibly deliver the doctrine of religion as any other not superiour unto them in the fore named indowments especially if they be accompanied in them with common modesty and civility p Qui expoâ—unt scripturas sint ingenio praediti studio exercitati in judicio humiles aâ— affectato vitio immunes Ger. de Com. Gerson therefore expressing how the Expositors of Scripture should be qualified requires first that they have naturall parts secondly that they be well grounded studied thirdly that they be of humble judgements fourthly that they be free all from grosse and affected vices And q Sub utrÃ¢que comparandi sunt igitur doctores doctoribus illi quos constat habere conditiones positas in regulâ—

c Lex nova in exterioribus illa solum praecipere debuit vel prohibere per quae in gratiam intrâ—ducimur vel quae pertinenâ— ad rectum usum gratiae ex necessitate Aquin 1.2 q. 108. art 2. Gospell commands only such observations which are either meanes of Grace as the word and Sacraments or wherein the use and excercise of grace doth consist as the duties of love towards God and man But that the first day of the weeke should be observed Sabbath nothing concernes the kingdome of God within us because it s neither a meanes of grace nor exercise of grace Ob. If any man say the keeping of the Lords day Sabbath is both these first a meanes of grace by reason of the word and Sacraments then administred and an exercise of grace for then we returne prayses and send vp our prayers to the throne of grace and manifest our loue both to Christ and our brethren Sol. I answere that he wholy mistakes for the question is not whether the duties done upon the day be either meanes or exercises of grace for this is of it selfe manifest but whether the keeping of this day Sabbath more then an other be such The day is one thing the duties are an other these belong to the kingdome of God preserving and encreasing them in us that is but a circumstance of time and of it selfe nothing in this respect All things of this nature as time place manner are not precisely and of themselues considered of the essence or necessity of grace and therefore are not commanded in the Gospell but left to the wisdome and descretion of the Church Fiftly that day which cannot be kept universally through the whole world was never commanded the whole Church of Christ by an Evangelicall Law for the law of the Gospell is given to all nations But the first day of the weeke which is the Lords day observed in memory of the Lords resurrection cannot be thus universally kept considering the diversity of Meridians and the unequall rising and setting of the Sunne in diverse Climates in the world Some of our adversaries foresaw this objection but could never avoyd it only they tell us that it was so with the Iewes in regard of their Sabbath and therefore d Practice of piety affirme that they were not bound to keepe their Sabbath upon that precise and just distinction of time called the seventh day from the Creation For the Sunne stood still in Iosuah's time it went back ten degrees fiue houres in Hezekia's time besides the variation of the Climates throughout the world Vpon this they inferre two things 1. that God by his prerogatiue might dispence with men in these cases 2. that the Commandement meaneth not the determinate seventh from the Creation but indefinitely a seventh But what absurdities doe hence follow First they seem to affirme that the standing still and the going back of the Sunne made an alteration in the day as it was the seventh from the creation Indeed they made it longer and to consist of a greater number of houres for the present but what is this to the number of seven One and the selfe same day may be longer in Summer shorter in Winter yet keeps its ranke amongst the other daies of the week for place and number Secondly they affirme that the Iewes were not bound to any determinate day not to this seventh but a seventh Expresly contrary to the words of Moses * Exod. 20.10 the seventh is the Sabbath Thirdly there is the same reason in all the forenamed particulars between the Iewes Sabbath and the Christians If therefore their day were indefinitely a seventh ours must also be indefinitely a first and by this meanes they say and unsay with one and the same breath the first day is our Sabbath by divine institution and yet not the first but a first which is to yeeld the question Sixtly there is the same reason of keeping a determinate set Sabbath under the Gospell that there is of preaching praying and administring the Sacraments Ordaining of Ministers doing works of mercy at set-times For I think no man is so farre infatuated with this paradox as either to preferre the Sabbath before these or to sever the day from the duties which are the main end of the daies observation But all these are commanded in generall not prescribed in particular when or where or how so all things be done decently and in order We no where read how often in a year we must receive the Sacrament of the Lords supper how often we should hear a Sermon or when to give or how much either publikely or privatly If therefore there be no set times appointed for the maine duties of religion under the Gospell there is no set time appointed to be kept Sabbath Therefore c. Seventhly That which is expresly against Christian liberty was never commanded by Christ or his Apostles but to have the conscience burthened with any outward observations putting Religion in them as being parts and branches of Gods worship is directly against Christian liberty for how is he free that is thus bound to times and daies We have then only exchanged not shaken off the Iewish bondage If any man say that this was both the argument and error of the Patrobrusians of old and Anabaptists of late he is much mistaken for they pretend not to Christian liberty when the conscience is not burthened immediatly from God but to unchristian licence and confusion to be exempted from the lawes of men and decent order of the Church Eightly There is no duty I think essentiall in religion ordained by Christ or his Apostles of which we find not either exhortations in respect of performance or reprehensions in regard of their neglect either in the Gospell the Acts or the Epistles But the keeping of the first day of the week Sabbath is no where pressed or exhorted unto the neglect thereof no where reproved or forbidden in all the new Testament Ergo. Ob. If any man say it is frequently mentioned with approbation Resp I answer that so are divers things besides which are no divine institutions binding the Church of Christ as extream unction the Presbytery womens vayles widdowes these are mentioned with honour but so is not the manner of observing the Lords day which is now cried up nor any divine institution thereof Whereupon these things will necessarily follow That either the Apostles never held this observation to be a divine precept or that having given it for such to the primitive Christians in the Churches planted by them they never failed in the observation thereof which is not imaginable considering what grosse abuses and prophanations were found amongst them or lastly that the Apostles knowing the Lords day which they had injoyned theÌ„ as a divine precept to haue been neglected winked connived thereat though so ready even with the rod to reforme all other disorders which also cannot be well conceived Ninthly Had the

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