Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	church_n	time_n	2,817	5	3.2368	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10795	Gods holy house and service according to the primitive and most Christian forme thereof, described by Foulke Robarts, Batchelor of Divinity, and prebendary of Norvvich.	Robartes, Foulke, 1580?-1650.	1639 (1639)	STC 21068; ESTC S121261	55,029	143

as St. Paul adviseth to 1 Cor. 10. 31. Gods glory Wee read in Rev. 4. v. 10. of foure and twenty Elders who fell downe on their faces worshipped him who liveth for ever Shall wee say that they woshiped not in Spirit and truth because they used a gesture of humilitie and reverence in falling downe upon their faces It is lamentable to behold men pretending sincerity and love of trueth thus perversly wringing Gods holy word and willfully shutting their eyes against so cleare light of so manifest a truth When the knee is bent the body bowed or the hand lifted up devoutly unto God these are indeede bodily exercises or actes done by the members of the body as outward expressions of inward devotion but no acts of Superstition CHAP. X. The severall gestures used by Gods Servants in his worship are all free from Superstition WEE have hitherto made scearch in and about the house of God or place of Christian assembly wee have carefully pryed into every nooke and corner thereof and observed the Servants of God performing worship unto God so as their inward devotions are declared and expressed by their outward gestures and demeanures God being so worshipped by their whole man body and Soule But in all this wee have found no Superstition But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things decently and in good order Come we now and examin those outward demeanures gestures and expressions severally and perticularly And all that wee do in our Churches in their distinct formes and postures least yet under any of them some peece of superstition be paradventure concealed and here I must confesse some evill Surmisers have unjustly caused much suspition For our justification therefore and the manifesting of truth to Gods glory Come and see all that is done in our Churches Wee confesse our sinnes unto God Wee begge pardon at the hands of God Wee give God thanks for what wee have received Wee crave from God what wee stand in need of Wee remember the afflictions of all distressed people with our prayers for them all and our almes to the poorer sort We reade and heare read the holy Bible and godly expositions homilyes and sermons whereby the ignorant are instructed the unruly admonished the backward exhorted the hard-hearted terrefied the feeble encouraged the aflicted conscience comforted We administer the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords supper Is any of these any superstitious act Our scrupulous brethren allow all this But then thus they take exception In your very entrance into the Church you Object put off your hats and kneele downe and pray as if either God were not in other places or that wee might not pray but in the Church If we taught men that they ought not to pray Ans anywhere else but in a Church or place consecrated or that we did not use to pray in any other place then there were some cause to object thus against us But we are in our Churches from time to time called upon to pray continually and in all things to give thankes Is it not thus extant in our booke of common prayer It is very meete right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thankes to thee O holy father Lord of heaven and earth Is there not in that booke speciall service to be used in privat houses at the bed side of sick people Is not the booke it selfe free and vendible by every Stationer not only for the publick worship in Churches but also for the use of every private man in his own house Be there not also plenty of other bookes in print of formes of prayers to be made unto God upon severall occasions at any time in any place by any man whose soule is possessed with so good devotion And therfore it is plaine that our devotion and discipline doth not therfore encline us to pray when we come within a Church as if we held that the only place where a man may pray but for that the Church is an house of prayer as we have already shewed this very place putteth a man in mind and calleth upon him there specially to pray in somuch that it is a place purposely set apart for that very end and purpose that whatsoever a man doth elsewhere yet here he should pray because this is the house of prayer We uncover our heads in the Church as in the presence Chamber on earth of the King of heaven and earth And when we pray we kneele because kneeling is the gesture of humility becomming a man who preferreth his petition to the God of heaven In the fourth Century a time abounding with prodigious haeresies arose one Eustachius who among others of his prophane opinions wherwith many became infected maintained that Churches Concil Gangr and meetings therein are to be despised Damascus and Saint Augustin mention this to have been the haeresie of the Messalini otherwise called Euchites and Enthusiastes who also had so meane an opinion of Baptisme and the Lords supper as that they held Dan. de haeres 8 Aug. Serm. contra Arrianos l. 4. C. 11. de ecliis c. 37. them altogether uneffectuall and unprofitable as Theodoret reporteth Turrecremata telleth us that the fratricellian haeritiques a most impure sect maintained among other things Eccelsiam non plus valere ad orandum quam porcorum stabulum i. That the Church avayleth a man for prayer no more then a swine-sty O my brethren conforme not yourselves to the abominable fancies of these filthie dreamers odious to God and in the judgment of the Church damned haeretiques To pray is no superstitius act To pray kneeling is no superstition To pray in a Church as we shewed cap. 4. is no superstition To use reverend gestures and behaviour of humility in the presence of God is no superstition To repute the Church to be Gods house is no superstition Therefore for a man entring into a Church to put off his hat and being come in to kneele downe and to pray to God are no superstition but pious acts of christian devotion You have so many severall gestures and postures Ob. sometimes sitting sometimes kneeling sometimes standing sometimes bowing Why may not men use what gestures they please so that the heart be right I have already shewed that a reverend heart can Ans not but produce reverend demeanure in Gods worship And yet further to answer this cavill I say It is not inough that our gestures be reverend and sober in the generall except also they be suteable and fit to expresse the present act whereto they are applyed And first for sitting If humane frailty specially in aged people could endure it sitting would not at all be used in the house of God specially during the holy businesse of Gods service But in consideration of the infirmity of flesh and blood Rest is sometimes requisite least too much weakenesse either diminish or disturb devotion Therefore the indulgence of the Church permitteth