N29528:53
A present from a far country, to the people of New England. I. A…A present from a farr countrey, to the people of New England. I. A…
A present from a far country, to the people of New England. I. A great voice from heaven, to these parts of the earth: in an excellent letter full of divine rarities, lately written from a terrible prison in France; / by a pious confessor of the reformed religion, once an inhabitant of this country. ; (With some late remarkables, of the persecution, upon the reformed in that kingdom.) II. The golden bells of the great high priest, heard from heaven, through the land. Or, Meditations, upon the methods of grace, wherein a few faithful persons may be the happy instruments of delivering a land, from all its iniquities & calamities.A present from a farr countrey, to the people of New England. I. A great voice from heaven, to these parts of the earth: in an excellent letter full of divine rarities, lately written from a terrible prison in France; / by a pious confessor of the reformed religion, once an inhabitant of this countrey. ; (With some late remarkables, of the persecution, upon the reformed in that kingdom.) II. The golden bells of the great high priest, heard from heaven, through the land. Or, Meditations, upon the methods of grace, wherein a few faithful persons may be the happy instruments of delivering a land, from all its iniquities & calamities.
Boston: printed by B. Green for Michael Perry, 1698
Title page typeset from the transcription.
A Brief DISCOURSE, Made unto the Great and General Assembly of the… › Conclusion 2: Conclusion. II.
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.
Conclusion. II.
There were many Sacrifices Appointed and Accepted by the Great God, before the coming of the Messiah; but they were of no Account any further, than as they respected the Great Sacrifice of the Messiah to come.
Sacrifices were made unto God by the Saints of the Old Testament; but still they were Sacrifices that God Himself had Instituted. The Custom of Sacrificing was practised, by the First Men that ever were; and thence Derived unto all Nations of men. Our First Parents had their First Garments of Skins; and there is no doubt, that the Beasts from whom the Skins were taken, had been Slain for Sacrifices. Now, as tis said, in Gen. 3. 21. The Lord God made Coats of Skins, and Clothed them: So tis plain, that the Lord God Approved, and therefore He Appointed, the Sacrificing of the Things thus despoiled of their Skins. And among all the Sons of these our First Parents, the Rite of Sacrificing hath been maintained every where, but where the Preaching of the Gospel hath Abolished it. Had it been a Dictate of the Law of Nature, the Gospel would not have Abolished it, but Continued it, but Confirmed it, but […] it. No, It was God Himself, who Appointed the Sacrifices, which Repenting Sinners then brought unto Him. Tis said of Abel, in Heb. 11. 4. By Faith be offered unto God, a more Excellent Sacrifice. Had Sacrifices been only Humane ⟨p. 27⟩Inventions, they could not have been offered in Faith, nor would God have called 'em Excellent. It may seem an Harsh Doctrine, which the Churches of New England have hitherto owned, and the Lord Jesus Christ will Spue them out of His Mouth, when they shall cease to own it! But it was the Doctrine of the Blessed Martyrs, in the Days of the Marian Persecution, and of the First and Best Reformers of the Church of England: They are the very words of the Reverend Hooper, in his Confession of the Christian Faith; They are not only Idolaters, which Worship and Serve Idols and Strange Gods, but also all those which Worship and Serve the True God of Heaven, after their own Fantasy, or after the Traditions of men, without Faith, without the Word of God, and otherwise than God hath commanded them. On this Principle [And it is a sound one!] I say, That Sacrifices must need be no Humane Inventions; no, they were Divine Institutions. How unsafely so ever many of the Fathers have Expressed themselves on this point, Eusebius of Caesarea, seems to have better determined it, That the ancient Sacrifices were not Humanely Invented, but KATA THEIAN EPINOIAN.