A94156:276
The Christian-man's calling: or, A treatise of making religion ones business. Wherein the nature…
The Christian-man's calling: or, A treatise of making religion ones business. Wherein the nature and necessity of it is discovered. : As also the Christian directed how he may perform it in [brace] religious duties, natural actions, his particular vocation, his family directions, and his own recreations. / By George Swinnock ...
London: printed for T.P., 1662
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
When the Church was in her infancy, she was dressed in the swaddling clothes of Ceremonies, but since she is grown up, God hath provided her other attire. To the Jews, the Sun of righteousness was behind, and therefore the shadow of those Ceremonies was before. They were in force and power, but to us Gentiles the Sun of righteousness is before, and therefore the shadow of ceremonies is behind. When Christ came, those shadows seemed to say as the Angels to Jacob, Let us go, for the day breaketh, Gen. 32.26. at the ⟨p. 98⟩death of Christ the Veil of the Temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom, to acquaint us that the Jewish Ceremonies must then vanish, Mat. 27.51.
When the Church was in her infancy, she was drest in the swadling clothes of Ceremonies, but since she is grown up, God hath provided her other attire. To the Jews, the Sun of righteousness was behind, and therefore the shadow of those Ceremonies was before. They were in force and power, but to us Gentiles the Sun of righteousness is before, and therefore the shadow of ceremonies is behind. When Christ came, those shadows seemed to say as the Angels to Jacob, Let us go, for the day breaketh, Gen. 32.26. at the ⟨p. 98⟩death of Christ the Vail of the Temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom, to acquaint us that the Jewish Ceremonies must then vanish, Mat. 27.51.
Reader, I would not be mistaken, I do not advise thee against that order and decency, which is commanded in the Worship of God, nor against active obedience to authority in things that are circumstantial, or not directly, nor consequentially forbidden in Scripture, but I would counsel thee to beware, least (like the Dog in the Fable) whilst thou art snapping at any shadow thou dost not lose the substance; and withal I must tell thee that as when the shadows grow long, its a sign the Sun is declining; so when those shadows, those even indifferent things increase, usually the substance, the light of holiness decreaseth.