Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n body_n great_a part_n 3,256 5 4.2928 3 true
View all documents for the selected quad

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

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

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