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
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
A44142 The expediency of a publick liturgy, to preserve the reverence of publick worship a sermon preach'd at Bridgewater, for the satisfaction of an eminent dissenter / by Matthew Hole ... Hole, Matthew, 1639 or 40-1730. 1697 (1697) Wing H2409; ESTC R13394 21,400 32

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

two Eminent and Learned Divines of our Church hath been made fully to appear Whereas in extempore conceiv'd Prayers Confusion and Disorder cannot well be avoided there not being sufficient time to weigh the Connexion and Dependance of one thing upon another and so they must be dealt out to the People not as they are in order to each other but as they come first to hand In a word it must be utterly impossible that the Matter and Method of publick Prayers should be so well digested by sudden and unpremeditated speech as they may be upon serious and mature deliberation Sixthly That Way of Worship which prescribes the Use of the most decent gestures and behaviour of the Body in the Service of God does best preserve the Reverence and Solemnity of publick Worship But this is best done by an establish'd Liturgy and therefore that must best preserve the Reverence of publick Worship That God Almighty expects the Service of the Body as well as that of the Soul and that the inward reverence of the Mind must be accompanied with the humble and decent demeanour of the outward Man hath been observed and proved already Now that herein likewise a publick Liturgy hath vastly the Advantage of conceiv'd and extempore Effusions will be obvious to any considering person For the one directs to and prescribes all the decent Postures of Devotion The other leaves men loose to all manner of rudeness and irreverence in Religious Exercises Indeed Publick Worship being that open and solemn Acknowledgment we jointly make to our great Creator ought in reason to be perform'd with all outward as well as inward signs and tokens of Honour For what Humility of Body what Decency of Words and Behaviour can be great enough to be shew'd to the Majesty of Heaven Especially when we come to make our solemn appearance together before him For this reason we find in our excellent Liturgy such pious Rules and Orders of external decency that in the use of them we may be enabled to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For in our Confession of Sin we are directed to be upon our Knees in token of the low abasement of our selves in the sence of them in our Confession of Faith we stand in token of our owning and steady adhering to it At the Name of Jesus which is above every Name and at which all things in Heaven and Earth are commanded to bow we reverently bow our Bodies in the Hymns and Praising of God we lift up our Selves and our Hearts unto God which is the proper posture of Joy In our Prayers we cast our selves down again on our Knees which is the humble posture of Supplicants calling for Mercy and begging Grace to help in time of need And thus in all the parts and offices of Religion we are directed to those becoming gestures which are most Consonant to Antiquity and most expressive of the Reverence that is to be shew'd in Divine Worship Whereas in those Assemblies where extempore Prayers guide the Devotion of the People little or no regard is had to bodily Reverence for Sitting at Prayers when they are Speaking to God Covering their head at Sermons when God is Speaking to them with other such Indecencies which would not be allowed in Addresses to our Superiours are commonly seen among them Ever since the Cry against innocent Ceremonies was begun and carried on by cunning and designing Men they have lost all the Reverence and Decency of Divine Worship and have brought in great Disorder and Confusion in the room of it But if these Men would more seriously consider that God is to be glorified by our Bodies as well as Souls and that 't is not the bare attendance but the humble and good behaviour of our Bodies that is expected from us they might soon learn better manners in the presence of their Maker which nothing can better teach them than a publick and well-composed Liturgy Lastly That which best prevents Tautologies vain Repetitions and all other Indecencies in the Service of God doth best preserve the Reverence of publick Worship But this is better done by a publick Form than sudden Effusions and therefore that must best preserve the Reverence of publick Worship That these things are very offensive unto God in our approaches to him plainly appears by the sharp Rebukes our Saviour gave the Pharisees for their much speaking and vain repetitions in Prayer And that these and the like impertinences are incident to sudden and unpremeditated Speech hath been before observ'd and the Experience of such as use it can abundantly testifie For how frequent and fulsom are their Invocations of Lord Lord when they are at a loss what to say and how usual is it to supply the defects and failures of their Invention with taking God's Name in vain And indeed few can be ignorant with what nauseous and vain Repetitions such Prayers do generally abound Insomuch that after a long extempore Prayer there is many times great need of a short form to beg Pardon for the rudeness and irreverence of such an Address Now what better Expedient can there be to prevent these Evils than an establish'd Liturgy where the Tongue is bound up from such loose Excursions and kept to a more serious and solemn Method of Devotion And therefore we have been told of one who having an extempore Prayer taken after him in Short-Hand was after presented with a View of what he had offer'd up to God and how he had entertain'd the People the sight whereof fill'd him with that blushing and confusion at the Impertinences and Tautologies of that exercise that he resolved never more to make so bold with God Almighty and ever after betook him to a composed Devotion But before I dismiss this Argument I shall take notice of two or three great Inconveniences which are known to attend conceived Prayers which can only be cured by prescribed Forms As 1. If he that officiates be a Person of Mean parts that is of a slow Invention a bad Memory and an unready Tongue the Religious Exercise must necessarily partake of his weaknesses and so must be very lamely and imperfectly perform'd which cannot but disturb the Devotion both of the Minister and People For if he happen to hesitate or express himself in flat or phantastick Terms the Hearers instead of minding the matter will be observing the Oddness and Emptiness of his Expressions And this will cause some to pity his Weakness others to condemn his Impertinence both which must marr the Gravity and Solemnity of the Exercise Yea sometimes as one hath observ'd the wretched dullness of the Performance occasions laughter in the Hearers And if it be help'd out with mimical Tones and Gestures becomes rather a Scene of Mirth than Devotion This is a piece of Irreverence too well known in some parts of the Kingdom Which plainly shews how unsafe it is to leave the publick Offices of Religion to the Weaknesses and Imperfections
him Thus if we Consider 1. The infinite Power of God who made the World and all things in it by the Word of his Mouth who as he spake them all into Being so can he speak them back again into Nothing when he pleases And then think with our selves that 't is this great and glorious Being that in our Publick Assemblies we are speaking to and attending upon This will strike our Minds with a holy Awe and Dread of him and make us afraid to dally with such an immense and powerful Being Again 2. If we Ponder upon the infinite Knowledge of God who searches the heart and understandeth our thoughts long before hand that his Eyes behold and his Eye lids try the Children of Men that all things are open and naked before him and nothing can be hid from his Presence And then consider That 't is this All-knowing and Heart-searching Being that in our Publick Assemblies we address to This will farther imprint this Sacred Awe and Dread upon our Souls and keep us from all Irreverence in so great a Presence Moreover 3. If we take into our Consideration the manifold Mercies and transcendent Goodness of God who giveth us life and breath and all things upon whose Bounty we entirely depend If we call to Mind that he is daily heaping his Mercies and Blessings upon us that we live wholly upon him and cannot subsist one moment without him And then Consider That 't is this gracious and bountiful Being that in our Publick Assemblies we are directing our Worship to This will make us fear the Lord for his goodness Hos 3.5 and so fix our Minds in the Love and Contemplation of him that we shall be both ashamed and afraid to offend so great and good a Benefactor Lastly If we Consider how infinitely Jealous and tender God Almighty is of his honour and that he whom we Address to will not be mock'd with Vain and Hypocritical Pretences of Serving of him That he is to be lov'd with all our Heart and all our Mind and all our Strength and will not be Rival'd by the World the Flesh or the Devil in the acts of Worship And then call to mind that in our Publick Assemblies we are Serving this Jealous God who watches all the Wandrings of our Heart from him This will make us in the Psalmist's Phrase to serve the Lord with fear and even to rejoice before him with trembling In a word if we seriously meditate on the boundless and adorable Perfections of the Divine Nature and bethink with our selves who and what that God is in whose Presence we are when we enter his House and offer up our Prayers and Praises to him 'T will make us bow our Souls before him and create those devout and awful Apprehensions of him in which this Inward reverence and Godly fear doth mainly consist And this is one Reason why the Publick Liturgy of our Church was cast into so many short Prayers or Collects each of which beginning with some Attribute or Perfection of God proper to usher in the Petition that follows it is thereby fitted both to keep up the Reverence and Attention of the Mind in asking it and to quicken our Faith and Hopes of obtaining it And so much briefly of that Inward fear and reverence that is to attend all our Addresses to the Divine Majesty held forth in those words God is greatly to be feared in the Assemblies of his Saints Now these Internal awful Apprehensions of the Mind concerning God are to be express'd 2. By the Outward Reverence of the Body which consists in the well-ordering of our words and gestures in our Applications to him And this is held forth to us in the last words of the Text And to be had in Reverence of all that are round about him That Reverence relates to the Outward Man and implies becoming gestures and behaviour of the Body is evident not only from the Nature of the thing but from the universal Consent and Practice of Mankind who have always shewed their Respect this way to those that are above them Mephibosheth the Son of Jonathan fell on his Face and did Reverence to David 2 Sam. 9.6 1 King 1.31 Bathsheha bowed her Face to the Earth and did Reverence to the King All the King's Servants bowed and did Reverence to Haman Hest 3.2 By which it appears that humble and decent Postures of the Body have been ever reckon'd to be Tokens of Respect and Reverence That this External Reverence is to be us'd likewise in the Worship of God is evident too from many Precepts and Examples in Holy Scripture Rom. 12 1● St. Paul beseeches the Romans to present their bodies as a living holy and acceptable Sacrifice unto God which is our reasonable Service Where the Apostle calls the presenting our bodies a living Sacrifice in Opposition to the dead bodies that were offer'd to him under the law And because brute beasts and irrational Creatures were then offer'd up He stiles the presenting our bodies a reasonable Service which as it is more holy so it is a more fitting and acceptable Present to our Maker The same Apostle exhorts the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.19 20. to glorifie God with their bodies as well as Souls which is to be done by reverent and becoming Gestures in his Service And to engage them thereunto tells them that they are both his and must be both dedicated to him He that breath'd into us a Living and immortal Soul did likewise frame the Body to be a fit Mansion and Companion for it and united them together for his Service And therefore justly expects the Homage and Service of both Yea he further adds that Christ redeemed the Body as well as the Soul from the bondage of Corruption And God hath promised to glorifie both hereafter And therefore both are requir'd to glorifie him here The Truth is an inward Reverence for God will always draw after it the Reverence of the outward Man And where the Mind is possess'd with awful Apprehensions of the divine Majesty it will discover it self in the External Decency both of Words and Actions And accordingly we find that good Men in all Ages have taken Care not only to keep up a Religious Awe and Dread of God in their Souls but have been as careful likewise to express it by the External Acts and Postures of the Body Now what outward Gestures are most expressive of Honour and Reverence the Practice of the Church and the Custom of the Country where we live will be the best Guides to direct us Vncovering of the Head Bowing the Body putting off the Shooes Kneeling Prostration lifting up the Eyes and Hands unto Heaven Lamen 3.41 have been Ancient Signs and Tokens of Honour Exod. 3.5 The Lord commanded Moses to put off his Shooes because the place whereon he stood was Holy Ground And to this Solomon alludes when he directs Men to look to their Feet Eccl.