Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	bow_v	earth_n	knee_n	3,628	5	9.5783	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36933	Holy rules and helps to devotion both in prayer and practice In two parts. The fourth edition. Written by the right reverend father in God, Bryan Duppa, late Lord Bishop of Winton, in the time of his sequestration.	Duppa, Brian, 1588-1662.	1683 (1683)	Wing D2660E; ESTC R220202	41,746	221

to sinners conditionally that they use it with that reverence as the converted Prodigal did who though he had the confidence to call him Father yet he had the humility withal to confess that he was not worthy to be called his Son and therefore his Petition reached no higher than to be made one of his hired Servants O Most Great God what shall I say in Thy presence when I come to pray to Thee By what Title shall I call thee or how shall I sufficiently adore Thee If I stile Thee a Iudge I adore thy Iustice If a Master I know my Obedience if I call Thee my Saviour I acknowledge Thy Mercy Whatsoever name I use I find cause enough of Reverence And since therefore I now appear before Thee to pay the Tribute of Adoration by a Thousand Titles due to the Thee let thy Truth direct me and Thy Spirit guide me that I may so adore Thee in Spirit and Truth as Thou requirest And that all the inward Faculties of my Soul may be as so many fiery Tongues to set forth thy praise for evermore Amen BUT as in a Watch though there must be Wheels within yet there must be a hand without too or else the inward Motion of the Wheels is useless so though the principal of all spiritual Motion is within yet the Virtue of it must have a time to work outward too or else our Adoration is not compleat For as the Nature of Man is not comprised singly either in Soul or Body but in both conjoyned so the Adoration due to God who made both is to flow from both And if the Soul be God's inward Chancel the Body must be the Temple that includes it For know you not saith St. Paul that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost that is in you Your own it is not For you are brought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body as well as Spirit for both are his We are not therefore to think the Reverence of the Body to be an useless or an unprofitable Ceremony For besides this Argument of St. Pauls for the necessity of it St. Austin observes that this outward Adoration of the Body is a notable help to the more inward acts of the Spirit and adds much to the earnestness and fervour of it For the stretching forth of the hands the bowing of the knees the beating of the breasts the prostrating and casting down the Body with the like Gestures of Humiliation are not therefore used to discover to God what is within the heart or to move him the more but to move thy self and by these exterior acts as by a vigorous blowing to continue and increase that invisible fire of Devotion that burns within But then as these outward acts are not always absolutely necessary for you may many times be inwardly moved to pray when outward gesture cannot either easily or conveniently be used as Manasses praying in his Fetters Ezekiel in his Bed Susanna in a Throng of People so neither can I say that any one particular gesture of the Body in Prayer is so prescribed in Scripture either by way of Precept or Example as to oblige to that gesture only For in the exercise of Prayer we find several postures of Holy Men. Before the Law Abraham is said to have fallen on his face under the Law Moses did the like Among the Prophets Elias fell on the earth bowing his face between his knees Solomon stood before the Altar with his hands spread forth toward Heaven Saint Stephen kneel'd when he pray'd for his Enemies Saint Peter when he raised Doroas our Saviour himself in his Agony in the Garden not only kneel'd but prostrated himself as hath already been mentioned The acts of outward Adoration being of this diversity St. Austin's Rule is that in private Prayer for in publick we are to conform our selves to the Commands and Customs of the Church wherein we live rather than to the bent and inclination of our own Wills we are so to compose and order the outward man as may be of most advantage to the raising and continuing of the inward Devotion of the mind Of all these outward Gestures Prostration is the lowest act of bodily Reverence that can be used when the Supplicant casting himself upon the earth acknowledges by that act that he doth but cast dust to dust that he is more vile than the least grain of that earth he lies upon and this posture best becomes us in times of great Affliction and ever to be then lowest when our necessities are at the highest But though this casting of the body upon the ground hath been the practice of many Devout Men especially of those in the first Ages of Christianity who after a more strict way worshipping God in Desarts and solitary places yet because they found by experience as Cassian tells us that the continuance of their posture long might incline to ease and provoke to drousiness they us'd it rather upon some short Ejaculatory Prayers than in their larger and more continued Devotions casting themselves often down with some short and vehement breathings of the Soul but rising again so suddenly that some of them have been observed to have prostrated themselves in this manner an hundred times in the day and as often in the night But this we must leave to be imitated by those whose Devotion is of an higher strain than ordinary and which these latter times are hardly capable of But the more ordinary and more convenient for all persons is Genuflection Though we may have some excuse not to cast our whole body down shall we not cast our knees down at least Hath God said That every knee shall bow to him and shall any of us think to be dispenc'd with Our Saviour kneeled who knew no sin and is the posture too low for us that are nothing else but sin Whether Elephants have no joints in their knees and therefore cannot bend them I will not enquire But sure the Christian that hath not this excuse is a stranger Creature to be wondered at if he become once so sparing of his trouble or so over-familiar with his God as not to bend his knees in solemn Prayer unto him But then you will say Where is there Command for this No Gesture of the body can be other than a Ceremony which being in its own Nature a thing indifferent may either be used or laid aside But first Though it be a Ceremony every Ceremony is not of that indifferency especially such which the very Law of Nature dictates to all Nations in all Ages to fall down and kneel in the Veneration of their God whether true or false But then lest this inward Principle should apply and cast it self upon a wrong Object God hath expresly given his Precept too For every knee saith he shall bow to me And what terms can there be of higher command than these But yet because

thy heart foments and cherisheth the least spark of the love of God which it finds there and makes it flame out into a servent prayer David found this by experience where he saith of himself while I was thus musing my heart kindled within me and I spake with my Tongue The Devotion of the heart saith St. Bernard is the Tongue of the Soul without this it is silent and shut up but actuated and heated with Love it poures it self forth in Supplications and Prayers and Discourses with God sometimes Praising him for the Infinite Blessings received from him sometimes Praying to him for those which we yet want This is that conversing of the Soul with God which Gregory Nyssen speaks of as a Son Conversing with his Father or a Friend with a Friend into whose bosom he may pour forth with confidence all the Secrets of his Soul as a Favourite with his Prince or a betrothed Virgin with her Lover What the result of these discourses is what words are spoken what secrets discovered what delights enjoyed may easier be felt than spoken of When the Soul being lifted up by the wings of Prayer and rarified into a flame by Love reacheth the very Bosom of God But though every devout Soul mounts not to this pitch this top of the Ladder let none be dismaied at it For God knows whereof you are made he sees the body of flesh which you bear about you and the Plummets which it hangs upon your Soul and therefore when you cannot rise high enough to him he comes down to you for so you find in this Vision there were descending as well as ascending Angels We do not read that St. Paul was often rapt into the third Heaven Notwithstanding his Raptures the Angel of Satan that buffeted him made him remember that he was still upon the Earth For one foot of the Compass will unavoidably be fixed there when the other moves in the circumference of divine contemplation Iacob himself was but at the bottom at the foot of the ladder when his Soul was at the highest and saw God at the top of it O Most wise God the Unction of whose Spirit can teach me all things teach me the Rules I am to observe in this Heavenly Exercise of Prayer Stir up my Memory to remember that thou art present fix my intention upon Thee upon Thee alone Awake my Understanding to consider what I am about and who I am to speak to But above all inflame my Affections that my heart being set on fire with Thy Love my Prayers may participate of that Fervency and be accepted of Thee for his sake who came to send this Fire upon the Earth even Iesus Christ my Saviour Amen Of the Excellencies and Fruits of Prayer as they may be drawn out of the Lords Prayer THere is no clearer glass to see the excellencies of Prayer in than that very Prayer which our Saviour thought fit to teach his Disciples Where the first entrance presents you with that unvaluable Priviledge to call God your Father that therefore you come not to treat with him as a Slave with his Master or a Vassal with his Prince but as a Son with your Father God infusing into you by Prayer that Spirit of Adoption by which you cry to him Abba Father This being saith St. Chrysostome the highest excellency of the Creature to treat familiarly as a Son with his Creator A Dignity that raiseth us poor Worms of the Earth to a kind of equality with the Angels themselves for though in Nature they are above us yet this duty makes us equal For Quid potest inveniri sanctius iis qui cum Deo commercium habent Saith the same Father What can be more holy than he who is admitted to treat familiarly with God Moses by talking with God had such a brightness shed upon his face that they who looked upon him were dazled with it For if they who have the ear of Princes as Favourites having freedom of access and opportunity at all times of presenting their Petitions cannot want the splendor of Worldly things which consequently will follow them much less can the beams of an higher glory be wanting unto them who live as if they were always in the presence of God talking with God by Prayer and God with them by holy Inspirations What can they want who are admitted to this Privacy And it is your fault if you are not For there are neither doors nor locks nor any greater Favourite to keep you out He that gives you leave to call him Father cannot exclude his Son that cries Father I have sinned O Gracious Father what thanks what praise can we offer to Thee for raising us to that honour of entring into thy presence as Sons and conversing with Thee on the Earth with the same Freedom as the Angels do in Heaven O grant us the Grace so to make advantages of so Divine a Priviledge that our sins may never make us forfeit it but rather by a devout and humble use of it acquire to our selves daily new degrees of Thy Favour till Thou hast brought us Thy unworthy Sons to that incorruptible Inheritance which can neither have encrease nor end Amen THe second Excellency of Prayer is That it is a means by which the name of God is hallowed both by us and in us We pray that his Name may be Sanctified and we Sanctifie his Name by praying so Our Tongues but much more our Lives being made Instruments to glorifie him God is glorified by our believing in him by our knowing him by our adoring him and in Prayer we do all this By Prayer we bring to light those graces and gifts of God which he hath hid for us in his eternal Predestination as we may see in that Prayer of Christ to his Eternal Father And now O Father glorifie thou me with thy own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was From whence the School infers That Prayer is the principal means ordered by providence for the execution of what God hath decreed on our behalf God had decreed the Incarnation of his Son for the saving of the World he had promised and could not vary from it Yet this kept not Moses from his Petition Send him whom thou wilt send nor the Prophet from praying O that thou wouldest bow the Heavens and come down The Father had decreed to give his Son being Incarnate the Nations for his inheritance but the execution of this Decree was to be by Prayer the Son of God himself was to pay for it for Postula Dabo Ask of me and I will give them thee If therefore the Decree of your Predestination be yet dark to you and you would willingly know whether your name be written in the Book of Life there is no way of obtaining this but humble Prayer Do but pray fervently that God would glorifie himself in thee by making thee a Vessel for his Honour and