Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	people_n	read_v	word_n	2,947	5	4.1038	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17586	The re-examination of two of the articles abridged: to wit, of the communicants gesture in the act of receaving, eating, and drinking: and The observation of festivall dayes	Calderwood, David, 1575-1650.; Cowper, William, 1568-1619. Passage of Master William Cowper pretended bishop of Gallway, his sermon delivered before the estates, anno 1606. at which time hee was minister at Perth.	1636 (1636)	STC 4363.5; ESTC S118315	29,491	64

them for then sayeth Vasquez they should have adored them which hee in his popish judgement thinketh they should have done So if the elements be used only as obiectum à quo significativè to stirre up their reverence why kneele they before them Nay why are not the elements lifted up as among the papists after they have said This is my bodie for say they it is made then a sacrament that the people being stirred up at the elevation with the sight of the signifying object may kneel in whatsoever part of the kirk it bee If our formalists used the Sacramentall elements only as an active object to stir them up they would not kneele before them in the meane time more then when they are stirred up by the word or works of God by a toad an asse or a flie But say they there is a great difference betwixt images which are the inventions of men and the work of God or the Sacrament But wee say In the case of adoration there is no difference If the historicall use of images bee lawfull as some of them do now maintain what doth the presence of the image hinder to fall down and worship if their reason be good And if the use of images to this end bee forbidden so are also the creatures Wee esteeme indeed more of the works of God then of the work-man-ship of man Wee owe more reverence at the hearing of the word decent and comely usage in the participation of the Sacrament which wee owe not to images Gods word and works are ordained by God for our instruction and so are not images But God never ordained them to this end that in them by them or before them wee should adore him or any other thing wee are put in remembrance of by them The brazen serpent was set up upon a pole that these who were stigned with the firie serpents looking upon it might bee cured Yet sayeth the Iesuit Vasquez God commanded them to look upon it standing upright without any adoration or signe of submission The people of God of old kneeled not before their sacraments nor heard the word read or exponed kneeling God works are the book of nature to teach us many things concerning God But we must not therefore fall down before the Sun or Moone before every greene tree an asse a toad when they work at the sight of them upon our mindes and move us to consider Gods goodnesse wisdome and power When I am beholding a tree an asse a toad and considering in them the goodnesse power and wisdome of God I am reading upon the book of nature contemplating and gathering profitable instructions I can not still bee contemplating and in the meane time adore kneeling in prayer or praise for that were a confusion of holy exercises Nor yet after my contemplation and preparatorie work to worship is ended must I tye or set my self before that asse toad or tree to kneel for then I should kneel for a greater respect to that creature then to any other beside for the time before which I might have kneeled casually without respect and so the moving object shall participate of the externall adoration my kneeling being convoyed by it to God to whom it is directed by my spirit or affection as Vasquez hath descrived the manner of adoration of images Where it is objected that men bow before the chaire of estate or the Princes seale which are dead and senselesse creatures I answere Civill worship is conveyed ●●mediatly to the person of the Prince by bowing before such senselesse creatures because men think it expedient to uphold the infirmitie of Princely majestie by such meanes But God needeth none such nor will have none Next There is civill ordinances of the estate for the one but their wanteth divine ordinance for the other Francis Whit in his reply to Fisher pag. 228. sayeth Civill and religious worship are of diverse beginnings and formes and every thing that is possible lawfull and commendable in the one is not so in the other Augustine de civitate Dei lib. 10. cap. 4. sayeth That great humilitie or pestiferous flatterie may bee the originall of many honours given to Princes borrowed from the formes used in GODS worship Our next reason Considering the action in it selfe without respect to the act of Perth to prove it idolatrous is this To adore upon our knees when wee are performing an outward action which is not directed to GOD immediatly and in that action are occupied about an externall object is idolatrie unlesse that whereabout the action is imployed bee worthie of divine honour Our taking eating and drinking the bread and wine at the Lords table is not an action directed to God immediatly as prayer and thanksgiving is not yet as Vasquez the Iesuit sayeth is it an outward signe of adoration Wee blesse and sanctifie the meat upon the table for our commoun use but then it is object passive not of adoration but of blessing and sanctification for our use Next Wee blesse sitting or standing but are not tied to kneeling Yea we read not in Scripture that any blessed the meat upon the table kneeling Christ himselfe blessed sitting But to come nearer to the purpose It were strange to see after the meat is blessed every one who is present to sit down upon his knees with his countenance fixed upon the bread upon the table or in the hand of the Master of the familie or feast and to take eat and drink Nature and custome teacheth us it were rather a mocking of God then a reverent adoration of him But you will say The sacramentall elements are holie bread and wine the other commoun and extraordinarie There yee betray your selfe yee kneele then in taking and eating the sacramentall bread because it is holie Now to kneele in respect of the holinesse of bread and wyne is idolatrie And the true cause of your religious respect and bowing before it is the holinesse of it Wee are prone to conceat too highly of things set a part to holy uses as if they were of greater worth then our selves for whose use they were instituted The papist thinketh hee taketh and eateth the body of CHRIST which by reason of the concomitance of the God-head hee adoreth Neither would any reasonable man bee so absurd as to take eat and drink adoring unlesse he beleeved that which hee were taking eating and drinking were worthie of divine honour It were absurd to kneel before an earthly king and still to bee eating and drinking But it may bee our kneelers bee grosse enough in the opinion of the reall presence and wee heare too much of it They say Wee may pray mentally in the act of receaving eating therefore wee may kneel or adore in the act of receiving c. I answere first Wee may not pray when wee are bound to another exercise In the act of receaving eating and drinking wee should attend upon the audible words the visible signes and rites meditate

how dangerous it is The kirks in the Low-countries in their synods ordained that the communion be not celebrated kneeling for the danger of bread-worship The Polonian synods holden anno 1573. and 1583. were grosely mistaken in alleadging that none but Arrians or Anabaptists did sit when as it is well known that this gesture of sitting was in use in sundrie kirks in Europe of which wee have made mention before yea and Alasco before these times wrote more earnestly for sitting then any man else But these Polonian synods were mixed and consisted partly of Lutherians partly of such as adhered to the Bohemian partly of such as adhered to the Helvetian confess on Yet they confesse anno 1578. that it is neither the will of God nor the custome of the purer kirk to smite men with Ecclesiasticall discipline for externall rites Our opposits pretend the remedie of preaching and information of the people to direct their adoration aright But it is better to fill up the pit in the way then to set one beside to warn the passengers that they fall not in Watchmen are sometime negligent sometime blinde and ignorant or corrupt and perverse time should bee better spent then in leading poore soules through dangerous wayes which may bee forsaken All are not alike capable of information appearance of evill worketh more powerfully oft-times then the doctrine They alleadge that the command of the Magistrate in things indifferent taketh away the scandall I answere Can the supreme magistrate take away that aptnesse and fitnesse that any thing hath to intise and provoke men to sin The magistrates countenance maketh the scandall the greater and hee strengthneth it by authoritie Court-clawbacks tell us we should rather offend the people then the supreme magistrate but better offend that is displease him nor offend that is give occasion to the poorest soul let be many thousands to fall into any sin let bee so hainous a sin as is the sin of idolatrie The magistrate is not in danger of stumbling or spirituall falling into any sin for yee put the case hee esteemeth the matter indifferent The Apostle had rather never eat flesh nor offend a weak brother for eating flesh offered to the idole and sold in the mereat And yet hee had greater authoritie in such matters then any prince or generall assemblie The Belgick synods would not take so much upon them but forbade kneeling for fear of idolatrie If the kirk to whom the rule for directing the use of things indifferent in matters of religion are laid down to wit that all things be done decently in order to edification without offence may not presume so far far lesse the magistrate Wee maintain that kneeling in the act of receaving the sacramentall elements was not in use or at the least authorized till the great antichrist dominited There can not be an authentick testimonie alleadged before the opinion of real presence transubstantiation began to spread or to come to a more certain date for the space of a thousand years after Christ. There are some testimonies bearing the word adore but the testimonies are either counterfeit or to bee understood of inward adoration or of adoration in time of prayer before they communicate Or adoration is taken only for veneration but of kneeling in the act of receiving we hear of no authentick testimony as yet alleadged Doctour Burges is verie confident that the communicants kneeled in Tertullians time that is about 200. year after Christ for sayeth he the people shunned to come to the communion table on the station dayes because they might not kneel in the act of receiving but it behooved them to stand on these dayes and therefore sayeth he Tertullian inviteth them to come to 〈◊〉 the bread standing at the table publictly to reserve it and carrie it home and there receave it kneeling and so both dueties should bee performed the receiving of the Eucharist and the tradition on these dayes observed Tertullians testimonie is cited out of his book de oratione cap. 14. But the Doctour translated these words Quod statio solvenda sit accepto corpore Domini Because station or standing is then to be performed in receaving the bodie of the Lord whereas hee should translate thus because the station or fast is then to bee broken after the receaving of the bodie of the Lord. For the word statio in Tertullians language is taken for fasting or rather for some kinde of fasting dayes Wednesday and Friday were called station dayes on which they fasted untill the third houre after-noone and was distinguished from the other fasting dayes whereon they fasted of their own accord as Pamelius observeth out of Rabanus Maurus or rather as a late popish writer Albaspinaeus bishop of Orleance in his observations observeth were distinguished from other fast dayes which indured till the evening The meaning of Tertullian is this they were in an errour who thought that if they had receaved the Sacrament their feast should bee broken which should have continued to the set houre Nay saith Tertullian Nonne solemnior erit statio tua si ad aram Dei steteris Shall not thy fust or station bee the more solemne if thou stand also at the altar of God that is tho comu●●on table for so both are safe both the participation of the sacrifice and performance of thy service that is of the fast sayeth Plessie in his answere to the Theologues of Bourdeaux and in his answere to the bishop of Evereux pag. 225. hee sayeth that Tertullian would remove that scruple that as soone as ever they had communicated they thought their fast was broken Albaspinaeus seemeth to come yet nearer to the sence and sayeth Tertullian would reprove these that would break the station or fast as soone as ever they had receaved the Eucharist ' and not stay any longer in the kirk howbeit the time was short and some few prayers were outored after the deliverie of the Eucharist for they communicated about the ninth houre of the day which was the third houre after noone about the end of the fast on these station dayes for on other fasting dayes which indured to the evening they receaved not the Eucharist As for standing at the communion table upon these station dayes it was not because they stood only upon these dayes when they receaved the Eucharist Nam accepta Eucharistia non licebat ex corum institutis ex veteri disciplina de geniculis orare sayeth Albaspinaeus that is It was not leasome by the ordinances and old discipline of these times to pray upon their knees when they receaved the Eucharist Further he proveth that upon these station dayes they stood not alwayes but kneeled at their prayers for the whole time was a time of mourning afflicting of their bodies but in these times it was a signe of joy not to adore upon their knees Erat apud antiquos nascentis Ecelesiae Christianos quaedum inum unitas quoddam genus goudiide