Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	authority_n	believe_v	church_n	3,588	5	5.7037	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07385	The reverence of Gods house· A sermon preached at St. Maries in Cambridge, before the Universitie on St. Matthies day, anno 1635/6. By Joseph Mede B.D. and late fellow of Christs Colledge in Cambridge.	Mede, Joseph, 1586-1638.	1638 (1638)	STC 17769; ESTC S122057	26,859	74

the market place but the place of Angels the place of Archangels the palace of God heaven it selfe And in his 4. Hom. de incomprehensibili Dei natura towards the end Cogita apud quem proximè stas quibuscum invoces Deum scil cum Cherubim cum Seraphim cum omnibus coeli Virtutibus animadverte quos habeas socios satis hoc tibi sit ad sobrietatem cum recorder is te corpore constantem carne coagmentatum admitti cum Virtutibus incorporeis celebrare omnium Dominum Think neare whom thou standest with whom thou invocatest God namely with Cherubims and Seraphims and all the Power of heaven consider but what companions thou hast let it bee sufficient to perswade thee to sobriety when thou remembrest that thou who art compounded of flesh and bloud art admitted with the incorpore all Powers to celebrate the common Lord of all But all this you will say the Angels may doe in Heaven well let it be so yet is it not altogether out of our way but the next places I shall bring will not be so eluded Namely that in his 15. Homily upon the Epistle to the Hebrewes against those that laughed in the Church Regiam quidem ingrediens habitu aspectu incessu omnibus aliis te ornas componis Hîc autem verè est Regia planè hîc talia qualia coelestia rides Atque scio quidem quod tu non vides Audi autem quod ubique adsunt Angeli maxime in Domo Dei adsistunt Regi omnia sunt impleta incorporeis illis Potestatibus When thou goest into a Kings Palace thou composest thy selfe to a comelinesse in thy habit in thy look in thy gate and in all thy whole guise But here is indeed the Palace of a King and the like attendance to that in heaven and doest thou laugh I know well enough thou seest it not But heare thou me and know that Angels are every where and that chiefly in the house of God they attend upon their King where all is filled with incorporeall Powers The like unto this you shall find in his 24. Homily upon the Acts of the Apostles Knowest thou not that thou standest here with Angels that with them thou singest with them thou laudest God with hymnes and dost thou laugh See the rest I will alledge but one passage more of his lest I should grow tedious and that is out of his 6. Book de Sacerdotio not very far from the beginning where speaking of the time when the holy Eucharist is celebrated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he Then the Angels stand by the Priest and the whole Quire resounds with celestiall Powers and the place about the Altar is filled with them in honour of him who is laid thereon that is of his Memoriall Compare with it a like passage in his 3. Hom de incompreben sibili Det natura Item Hom. 1. de verbis Isaiae St. Ambrose acknowledgeth the same in c. 1. Luc. Non dubites assistere Angelum quando Christus assistit Christus immolatur Yea Tertullian in whose time which was within 200. yeares after Christ some will scarcely beleeve that Christians had any such places as Churches at all if I understand him intimates as much in his lib. de Oratione c. 12. where reprehending the irreverent gesture of some in sitting at the time of prayer in the Church Siquidem saith he irreverens est assidere sub conspectu contraque conspectum ejus quem cum maximè reverearis ac venereris quanto magis sub conspectu Dei vivi ANGELO adhuc ORATIONIS adstante factum illud irreligiosissimum est nisi exprobramus Deo quod nos oratio fatigaverit If it bee an irreverent thing to sit in the sight and before him whom thou in a speciall manner honourest and reverencest how much more is it an act most irreligious to doe it in the presence of the living God the ANGEL OF PRAYER yet standing by unlesse we upbraid God that wee have wearied our selves with praying Marke In the presence of the living God the Angel of prayer standing by that is in the presence of the living God specified by his Angel the latter being an explanation of the former It is like unto that in this chapter of my Text Say not thou before the Angell It was an errour yet I beleeve not borrowed thence forasmuch as the Lxx whose translation Tertullian was onely acquainted with and every where followes have no mention of Angel in that place but of God rendring it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Say not before the presence of God Which shewes how they understood it I cite the passages of these Fathers thus at large lest I might to some seeme to broach a novelty And though some of those of St. Chrysostome be hyperbolically expressed yet for the maine and substance of what he intended I beleeve it to bee true and ground my beleefe upon the authority of St. Paul before alledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because of the Angels If any shall say whatsoever were then they will not beleeve there is any such kinde of presence in our Churches now I must tell them If it be so it is because of our irreverent and unseemly behaviour in them which makes those blessed spirits loath our companie For though they be invisible and incorporeall creatures yet can they not look into our hearts that is God their Masters prerogative but are witnesses of our outward behaviour and actions onely and it was a case of externall decorum wherein the Apostle mentions this presence of theirs for a motive or reason For this cause ought the woman to have a covering on her head because of the Angels For they love not to behold any thing that is uncomely and unbeseeming but flye from it and if we lose their company the best members of our congregation are wanting Thus you have heard what is the dignity and prerogative of Gods House Who now that considers and beleeves this and there was a time when it was beleeved will not say with the Patriarch Iacob when he saw the Angels ascending and descending at Bethel Quam reverenda sunt haec loca How reverend are these places For every Place where the Name of God is recorded is Bethel where the Angels of God are ascending and descending that is God in a special manner present and meeting with men How seemly therefore orderly and awfully should we compose our selves in them how reverent should our manner be at our coming into them which is the second thing I propounded to speake of Thus much therefore of Gods House I come now to the Duty of those who come thither Looke to thy feet when thou comest to the House of God SECTION 3. LOOK TO THY FEET 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the Cethib or textuall reading hath it the Masorites in the margine note another reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the singular number But which way soever of

primariò or chiefly and for it selfe but secundarily onely as a testimony of contrition and a ready desire and purpose in the offerer to continue in his favour by obedience This is Solomons the Preachers meaning Wherein behold as in a glasse the condition of all externall service of God in generall as that which he accepteth no otherwise than secundarily namely as issuing from a heart respectively affected with that devotion it importeth For God as hee is a living God so he requires a living worship But as the body without the soule is but a carcasse so is all externall and bodily worship wherein the pulse of the hearts devotion beats not But if this bee so you will say it were better to use no externall worship at all of course as we doe the worship of the bodie in the gestures of bowing kneeling standing and the like than to incurre this danger of serving God with a dead and hypocriticall service because it is not like the heart will be alwayes duely affected when the outward worship shall bee required I answer Where there is a true and reall intent to honour God with outward and bodily worship there the act is not hypocrisie though accompanied with many defects and imperfections Here therefore that rule of our Saviour touching the greater and lesser things of the law must have place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things .i. the greater things of the Law we ought to doe and not to leave the other though the lesser undone For otherwise if this reasoning were admitted a man might upon the same ground absent himselfe from comming to Church upon the dayes and times appointed or come thither but now and then alledging the indisposition of his heart to joyne with the Church in her publicke worship at other times Or if he came thither act a mute and when others sing and praise God to be altogether silent and not open his mouth nor to say Amen when others doe For all these are externall services and the service of the voice and gesture are in this respect all one there is no difference But who would not thinke this to be very absurd We should rather upon every such occasion rouze and stirre up our affections with fit and seasonable meditations that what the order and decency of a Church-assembly requires to be done of every member outwardly we may likewise doe devoutly and acceptably These things we ought to doe and not leave the other undone But you will say What if I cannot bring my heart unto that religious feare and devotion which the outward worship I should performe requireth I could say that some of the outward worship which a man performes in a Church-assembly he does not as a singular man but as a member of the Congregation But howsoever I answer Let the worship of thy body in such a case be at least a confession and acknowledgement before God of that love feare and esteeme of his Divine Majesty thou oughtest to have but hast not For though to come before God without that inward devotion requisite bee a sinne yet to confesse and acknowledge by what our outward gesture importeth the duty we owe unto him but are defective in I hope is not no more than the confession of any other sinne For our worship in such a case if we will so intend it is an act of repentance and as the moderne Greekes are wont to call their Adorations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repentances so may we in this case make ours to be namely as if wee said Lord I ought to come before thee with that religious feare humble reverence and lifting up of heart which the gesture the posture I here present importeth but Lord be mercifull to me a sinner If any mans heart be so prophane and irreligious as not to acknowledge thus much I yeeld that such a one might better spare his labour and not come into the presence of God at all Otherwise I conclude still with our blessed Saviours determination in the like case Those greater things we ought to doe and not to leave the other undone * ⁎ * FINIS * Note that our Copies of the Lxx here corruptly read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 9 4. Ad Evegrium Matth. 5. 17 18 Philip. 4. 3. Hermes Trism in Asclepio Athenag Legat. pro Christ Origen contra Cels lib. 7. 3. Euseb Praepar Ev. lib. 5. c. 15. * Vers 25. Gen. 28. * That is came unto them resting upon Sinai Compare Psal 68. vers 17. or 18. * De Bello Iud. lib. 2. cap. 16. * To whom some think that voice may be referred before the destruction of the Temple Migremus hinc * As tree for trees leafe for leaves Gen. 3. 2 7 c. * In Morali Accordingly the vulgar Latin hath ingrediens Domum Dei Apud I amblich Protrept 21. Edit Paris p. 95. * Eadem planè Iudaeorum magistri prohibent a suis in Synagogis fieri apud Maimoniem Misnae Part. 1. lib. 2. Tract 7. De benedictionibus conse●r per preces quae in Templo olim observari solita Et Greg. Nazian i● orat fun pro patre laudat matrem suam Nonnam quòd in Templo D●ine vocem quadem emitteret nisi de rebus mysticis divinis neq●e unquam tergum altari obverteret aut sacrum pa●i nentum conspueret De quibus L●ctor pro pr●dentia sua statuat an q 〈…〉 ●sque nobis 〈◊〉 conducat Epist 93. * Seneca 2 lib. 7. nat qq c. 30. Intramus Templa compositi ad sacrificium accessuri vultum submittimus togam adducimus in omne argumentum modestiae fingimur 1 Sam. 15. Exod. 3. 18. 5. 1 3 8. Exod. 8. 27. Matth. 23. 23. Luke 11. 42.