Certain disputations of right to sacraments, and the true nature of visible Christianity defending…

Mr Meade on Eccl. 5.1. pag, 130, 131. Offer not the Sacrifice of Fools; for they know not that they do evil.

MY third Proposition was this: That when Sacrifice was to be offered in case of sin; yet even then, God accepted not thereof primariò, primarily and for it self; as though any refreshment or emolument accrued to him thereby (as the Gentiles fondly supposed of their Gods); but secondarily, only as a testimony of the Conscience of the Offerer, desiring with humble Repentance to glorify him with a present, & by that rite to renew a Covenant with him. For Sacrifice was Oblatio foederalis ▪ Now Almighty God renews a Covenant with, or receiveth again into his favour, none but the Repentant sinner, and therefore accepts of Sacrifice in no other regard, but as a token and effect of this. Otherwise its is an abomination to him, as whereby ⟨image 21⟩men professed a desire of being reconciled unto God when they had offended him, and yet had no such meaning. Hence God rejects all Sacrifices, wherein there is no contrition, nor purpose to forsake sin, and keep his Commandments, which are the parts of Repentance: so is to be taken that Isa. 1. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices? — Bring no more vain Oblations: Incense is an abomination to me. And Isa. 62.2, 3. — And surely he that blesseth an Idol is so far from renewing a Covenant with the Lord his God, that he breaks it: so did they who without conscience of Repentance, presumed to come before him with a Sacrifice; not procure atonement, but aggravate their breach.