Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	body_n	glorious_a	resurrection_n	2,384	5	9.2419	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51817	A sermon concerning publick worship preached before the Queen on Wednesday the 23d of March, 1691/2 / by Thomas Manningham ...	Manningham, Thomas, 1651?-1722.	1692 (1692)	Wing M499; ESTC R3514	10,669	35

attending upon God in the Publick Service of the Church than to affect new Ways and new Liberties and such singularities of Holiness as will make People more Fanciful but less Humble and Devout What can a Christian want towards the real Edification of his Soul in Faith and Knowledge in Vertue and Godliness who makes a Conscience of Attending the Publick Assemblies as often as he reasonably can For there he shall meet with the pure Word of God and feel the mighty Efficacy of it on his Heart his Mind shall be many times more enlightned by attentively hearing a Chapter read in the Church than if he had industriously consulted the best Commentators The Majesty of the Place the Authority of him who Officiates and the Sense we have that God is speaking to us are apt to put our Thoughts into such a Religious Frame that we have as it were a New-understanding created in us And besides the Holy Spirit loves to go along with his own Ordinance in some peculiar Vouchsafements The devout * Psal 73. Prophet could not well understand some of the Dissibulties about Providence 'till he went into the Sanctuary of the Lord but that soon gave him a sufficient knowledge of them and what is more a Contentment under them too True Christian Knowledge does not come in so sound and so useful by hand Study as by having a Temper fit to receiver it and we have many times a Divine Truth more strongly imprinted on our Minds or more fully confirm'd unto us when our Hearts are Tender and Devout then when our Heads are exercis'd in the deepest Thinking It is further observable That Men are generally much more subject of Impressions and Affections when they are Assembled then when they are Alone and this holds good in relation to Sacred as well as to Civil Affairs Thus in the Church or in our Publick Devotions besides the direct Influence which we singly feel we then receive a Collateral enforcement from that Union of Consent which we observe in others and which may be easily and quickly known because the very Gestures of the Body the Tone and Accents of the Voice and the different Appearances of the Countenance are a sort of Vniversal Character which naturally express the more prevailing Passions and inward Sentiments of the Soul and therefore we are encourag'd more freely to indulge those Religious Affections which we find are no Singularities of our own particular Complexion but such as are common to all People whenever they are truly sensible of the Majesty of God and of the power of Religion But further The Publick Offices of the Church are such an equal Nourishment so well-prepar'd and so kindly fitted for all the wants of a Devout Worshipper that if they be constantly made use of they will not fail of bringing us to a strong habit of Piety There may be other ways of Devotion more gratifying to the Fancy but not so productive of sincere Godliness They who are content with the wise Methods of the Church shall be gradually rais'd into a Divine Life as their other Graces increase their Humility shall be equally enlarg'd and their Zeal shall never out-run their meek Obedience Though they feel no Extraordinary Transports for the very Custom of doing Good things will go near to lessen those yet they shall not fail of a lasting and an abiding Comfort and though they do not rise into Holiness with any Luxuriant Growth yet they shall have a sound Proficiency for they shall encrease with the Encrease of God The true Improvement in Christianity does not lye in any singular and affected Austerity of Life scrupulousness of Mind Unquietness of Zeal separated Sanctity or in reaching after such Spiritual Heights as are beyond the proportion of Humanity but it lyes in a temperate humble serious and wise deportment of our selves in a Constancy of Duty a Regular Piety a Condescending Brotherly Mildness of Soul in an Extensive Charity and a Sincere Concern for the welfare of all Mankind And this is the very Improvement towards which all the Publick Offices of the Church seem to conspire for they are apt to fill our Minds with the most Aweful Sense of the exceeding Majesty of God and with the most Humbling Thoughts of our own Unworthiness They are fitted to work in us the Obedience of Creatures and the Humiliation of Sinners to raise and enlarge our Affections with proper Forms of Praises and Thanksgivings and to extend our Hearts in Supplications and Intercessions for others Add to all this That our Publick Worship is a True Spiritual Sacrifice to God which no Private Prayers or Praises can be though otherwise of Excellent use for 't is the Nature of all Sacrifice to be an Open Bishop Laney on Hebr. xiii vers 15. External and Publick Acknowledgment and therefore the solemn performance of This is a distinct Vertue from all other Acts of Obedience and of a different Obligation from all other Duties Those of the most Improved Minds can never be excused from Offering up this peculiar Sacrifice and those of the meanest Attainments may comfort themselves in discharging this Necessary Homage to God for certainly it must needs be a wonderful satisfaction to any good Man when he reflects that he has done something that is acceptable and well-pleasing to him who is able to reward him with endless Glory To conclude Private Prayer is the best Argument of our own Sincerity but Publick Prayer of our open Confession of God The first may be perform'd by the Heart alone and the inward Motions of the Soul but the other requires the Reverend Deportment of the Body and the Attestation of the Voice to glorifie our Maker By the one we best declare the Omniscience and Spiritual Nature of God and by the other his Greatness his Majesty and his Power Let this therefore be our constant Rule in all our Publick Devotions to have ever an especial regard to the Life and Soul to the Spirit and Truth of God's Worship to enliven all our outward Actions and Demeanour with the holy Intentions of the Mind and the devout Affections of the Heart and to make all those Ceremonies and Decencies which our Church has either innocently Retain'd or prudently Instituted to be as Instrumental to our Spiritual Worship as we can possibly make them and not to run into such vain Fancies as if the Gospel were an Enemy to Bodily Worship or that were too gross a way of Honouring God Alas all our most Inward and Refined Worship of Soul and Spirit can never reach the Dignity the Majesty and the Spirituality of That God we Adore but in its highest Exaltation is Unequal and Imperfect and can find no Acceptance with God but thorough the Infinite Merits of his Son What are all the sublimest Acts of the Soul when imploy'd in the Worship of God but Ignorance Blindness and meer Disparagements of his Glory when we consider the Transcendency of the Divine Nature though as it proceeds from us it be an honest and a well-meant Service And now since God has given us Bodies as well as Souls we have no reason to conceive otherwise but that he requires to be Honour'd by Both according to that State and Condition of Nature in which we are Constituted and that Order of the Creation in which we are plac'd for what can we do more than Glorifie the Almighty in those Capacities he has given us Let the Seraphim and Cherubim and the Angels that are round his Throne bless him and praise him in their more Exalted way and with the pure Emanations of the Mind but let us Magnify God with that with which they cannot viz. with the lowest Prostration of our Bodies too Accept most mighty God that Tribute of Worship which thou hast enabled us to perform and when thou givest us New Powers they also shall be employ'd to magnify thy great and wonderful Name All the Glory which we can give thee is but the Reflection of that Light which thou doest first dart on us and when thou takest us nearer thy Presence we shall then more perfectly Reflect thy Image Since thou hast design'd a most Glorious Resurrection for our Bodies we may conclude that they also shall bear a part in that most spiritual Worship which shall be paid thee in the highest Heavens to all Eternity and since thou hast consecrated even these Corruptible Bodies of ours into the Temples of the Holy Ghost thou wilt not disdain that Present Worship which they now can pay We will therefore Glorify thee with our Souls and with our Bodies because thou hast Created and Redeemed them both we will constantly pay thee an External Bodily Homage but such as shall be Animated with the Mind and the Spirit without which we cannot truly Worship Thee who art an Infinite Mind an Infinite Spirit Let us always remember what a zealous Concern the Humble and Meek Jesus shew'd against the Prophaners of the Temple and when we enter into the House of Prayer let us lay aside all our Worldly Cares least we make it a House of Merchandise let us not come with any Covetous Vnjust or Malicious Designs least we make it a Den of Thieves But let the Sacredness of the Place and the Weightiness of the Business we come about which is no less than the Glorifying of God and the Saving of our Souls Let these Considerations fill us with Holy Thoughts and Affections and compose us to such a Reverent Behaviour as may best express the Humility and Seriousness the Love the Joy and all the Inward Piety of our Souls FINIS

a mean Sacrifice and will make us capable of Adoring him hereafter in a more Perfect way He has several Orders of Pure and Spiritual Beings to glorifie him with the immediate Adoration of their Minds but we are confin'd to Bodies and must give him glory as he has made us capable of giving it we must declare his Greatness and his Goodness to one another and give outward Testimonies of the inward sense we have of his Perfections of his Majesty of his Power and of his Mercy Now to do this in the most Publick manner is the way of giving the greatest Honour to God and is a Veneration most suitable to the Majesty of him we Adore When a Multitude of People meet together to Worship the Almighty and to set forth his Praises it makes some little Figure of Heaven it raises our Minds to more magnificent Conceptions of God and more fully represents him to us as the Governour of the World Whereas if we look upon him as only intending our private Interest as busied only to serve our present wants we may be thought to conceive of him rather as an Idol than as that Infinite Being whose Care and Providence are extended to the concerns of the whole Creation To Worship God truly is to make him known to be the Lord of the Universe the Common Parent Preserver and Benefactor of all Mankind and therefore Publick Assemblies are the best signification of his glorious Perfections and vast Dominion for They are a Visible expression of the greatness of God they enlarge our Idea of him and make us more sensible of his Majesty than words and language can do They who cannot use their Minds to any abstracted ways of Thinking may be wonderfully confirm'd and heighten'd in their Acknowledgments and Thoughts of a Deity when they see how the Learned and the Rich and the Honourable and the greatest Persons upon the Earth do bow and kneel before their Maker and humble themselves in the Dust of the Sanctuary to witness their profound Veneration of an Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness What becoming Thoughts and Affections towards God must this needs inspire into the Multitude when they shall observe those whose Knowledge and Judgment whose Vertues and Excellencies they exceedingly admire to behave themselves most Reverently and Devoutly in the Presence of God What Excuse can they have to neglect that Religion which they plainly perceive to be in such high esteem with those of the greatest Place and Dignity and of the clearest repute for Wisdom and Piety What Desire what holy Ambition must it raise in the Common People to appear often in the Place of Divine Worship and to make up the great Congregation that they may mingle themselves with the Noble and Wise and be equal Worshippors with them of the same God and the same Mediator II. The Nature of Religion is such that it especially requires a Publick Exercise That which makes all our Actions religious is the performing them in Obedience to God and with an Intention of his Glory whatever the particular Duties are in which we are engag'd whether they immediately respect our Neighbours or our selves if the chief Motive of doing them be derived from the Will and Pleasure of God they are a Religious Service But what we more properly call Religion is that which has an immediate Respect to God and is directly intended for the promoting of his Glory and the most eminent part of this Religion is the Publick Service of the Church which is still more eminently so as it is more Publick and Solemn because more becoming the Honour and Greatness of him we Worship This Religious Service is a Natural Debt which we owe to God as we are his Creatures and had we continued Innocent would have principally consisted in Praises and Thanksgivings and high Admirations of God's Power and Wisdom and Bounty But since we are in a Fal'n Condition and a State obnoxious to the displeasure of God there is a Necessity of glorifying him by an humble Confession of our Sins and an earnest Importunity for Pardon and Forgiveness And this can never be so Acceptable as when it is Publick for by that means we take more shame to our selves by making a more Solemn Acknowledgment of our guilt and we give more glory to God by our open Confessions and Humiliations Most of the Psalms of David were design'd to a Publick end and to make up the Service of the Congregation and he himself reckons it as one of the more bitter Afflictions of his Life that the Troubles of his Kingdom sometimes banish'd him from the Publick Service of God For thô we have no reason to doubt but so Religious a Person maintain'd a continual intercourse with God by way of private Prayer yet the Solemn Service of the Sunctuary was that in which the Honour of God was so signally acknowledg'd and display'd and his Name so eminently glorify'd that nothing else could properly carry the Title of Divine Worship among the Jews and therefore in their Captivity whenever they made their private Addresses to God they directed themselves towards Jerusalem where the Temple of the Lord was founded Our blessed Saviour in the Reformation he made of Religion was most tender of the Honour of his Father and took nothing from the Publick Worship that did any way conduce to his Glory He put an end to the repeated Sacrifices of Beasts by fulfilling what they signify'd in offering up his own Body once for all upon the Cross and leaving to the Church that Alsufficient Sacrifice of himself for their perpetual Commemoration He taught that God was to be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth St. John iv 24. not in the least to derogate from the Publick Worship of God but to shew that the Typical Service was within a while to cease and that the Heart and Inward Affections were always to accompany the External Worship He gave an especial Command for Secret Prayer St. Matth. vi 6. because there was no need at that time of Exhorting to the Publick Worship which was then sufficiently frequented and in which the Hypocrisy of that Age did so much Reign And besides by that Precept of his he tacitly reprov'd the Ostentation of the Pharisees which was so notorious in all their Publick Devetions Our Saviour was so far from Discountenancing the Publick Service of Religion that he came to remove the Jewish Confinement and to make way for all the Nations of the Earth to come in and glorifie God with one Heart and with one Voice Wherefore our Christianity does consist in serving God as Parts of the Body of Christ and in a Joynt and Festival Commemorating of the exceeding great Blessing of our Common Redemption Had an Inward Faith and a Private Devotion been sufficient to have carried Christians to Heaven they would never have Assembled together in the hottest Times of Persecution when their Meetings expos'd them so much to the Observation