Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	incline_v	keep_v	law_n	16,141	5	7.9682	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28214	The god-father's advice to his son shewing the necessity of performing the baptismal vow and the danger of neglecting it : with general instructions to young persons to lead a religious life and prepare them for their confirmation and worthy receiving of the blessed sacrament : very necessary for parents, &c. to give their children or others committed to their care / by John Birket ...	Birket, John.	1700 (1700)	Wing B2975; ESTC R16106	33,239	50

of old I mean the religious Kings and Priests and Prophets before Christ were of this opinion and therefore we read often of their kneeling down and sometime of their standing up but never of their sitting down when they went to Prayer Thus we read 2 Chr. 6. 13. Of King Solomon's kneeling down upon his knees D●n 6. 10. of Daniel 's kneeling down 3 times a day and praying Ez. 9. 5. of Ezrah 's falling upon his knees and spreading out his hands to the Lord. Nor was this outward reverence peculiar to the Church of God before Christ for under the New Testament we find it also practis'd as well by our Saviour himself as his Disciples For Luke 22. 41. It 's said Jesus kneeled down and prayed Acts 7. 60. Stephen kneeled down and pray'd for his murtherers Peter in like manner Act 9. 40. kneeled down and pray'd for Dorcas Paul also as it 's said Acts 20. 36. kneeled down and prayed for the Disciples at Miletus and not only Paul himself but the Congregation of the Disciples that were with him at Tyre upon the taking leave of one another kneeled down on the shore and pray'd Act 21. 5. Now can it be supposed that our Saviour and his disciples did not understand the will of the Lord in this matter as well as any of us do now adays or shall we pretend to a more pure and spiritual way of worshipping God than they did since therefore they thought fit to practice outward reverence in prayer let us walk by the same rule and follow their example And then as to keeping off your Hat all the time that the Minister is preaching and expounding unto you the word of God this also you must be careful to observe and do For still you should suppose your self to be in God's more especial presence as well while his Ambassador is expounding unto you the Scripture as while he is offering up his prayers to God in your behalf If therefore you are not able through some natural infirmity to be bare-headed all the time of Divine Service and Sermon you may then make use of a decent Cap for tho the Head be partly cover'd with that yet it being not such a common covering as your Hat but such a one as is accounted to be consistent with reverence among men therefore it is no dishonour to God for he expects to be reverenc'd by us in those ways by which we reverence one another As therefore we would not presume to go and sit down in the presence of an earthly King when we petition his Majesty for some favour to be granted us nor confidently put on our Hats while he speaks unto us but would behave our selves with that humility and reverence which is usual in those cases so neither should we presume to behave our selves irreverently and proudly in Gods presence But besides such irreverence is to be avoided because of the great scandal which is thereby given to those of the Congregation who are truly devout for so St. Paul teaches us 1 Cor. 10. 32. that we should give no offence neither to the Jew nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God And lastly it is to be consider'd that such irreverence is a very great piece of injustice a robbing God of that honour which is due unto him for as he made and doth preserve not only the Heart but the outward members as the Hands Eyes Tongue and the whole man so all of them should concur in rendring their tribute of reverence and service to him And thus having shewed you the necessity of reverencing God both outwardly in your Body and inwardly in your Soul you may from hence learn to avoid the two dangerous extreams of profaneness and superstition and neither be discouraged from the practice of outward reverence by those who shall censure you for being formal nor incouraged to the neglect of inward reverence by those who place the whole of their religion in an outward shew And therefore as I said at first be perswaded at all times when you go to the House of God to consider with your self before hand what you are going about and compose your thoughts in such a manner as that you may behave your self all the time of prayer and other parts of Religious Worship with all seriousness and gravity as in the presence of an All-seeing infinitely pure and glorious God And now because I am sensible that there are many who are guilty of some mistakes in expressing their reverence in publick Worship according to the rules of the Church of England through want of a right information in the matter to prevent your being also guilty of the like I shall here take occasion to let you know wherein one or two of their mistakes do lye In the first place therefore it is very usual with many who kneel at the Confession to stand up or sit down at the Absolution And perhaps the reason of their standing up is because they observe the Minister does so Whereas you must know that there is not the same reason for the one which there is for the other for as to the Ministers standing up at the Absolution this is done to signify that Authority by which he pronounces to those who are truly penitent the pardon and remission of their sins it being more proper that all Ministerial acts of Authority should be done standing but at the same time it is fit that the whole Congregation should continue kneeling as at their Confession and behave themselves in the humble posture of Penitents while with the most submissive attention they hear Gods Gracious Declaration of pardon pronounc'd unto them by the mouth of his Minister In the next place it is also usual with many to stand up at the Communion Service or at least so soon as the Minister begins to read the ten Commandments and this it 's probable they use to do because they observe the Minister then standing up but as I said before so here again it is to be consider'd that there is not the same reason for both the Minister stands up because it is the most proper gesture for him while he declare the Law of God unto the people but at the same time it is most proper for the Congregation to kneel because at the conclusion of every Commandment they are to pray to God for the pardon of their former transgressinos and for Grace not to transgress again saying Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this law That you may not therefore follow the example of others who are either ignorant or careless in this matter you may do well to ask your own conscience whether there be any of the ten Commandments which you have not broken either in thought word or deed and whether you are not still in danger of transgressing the same and then say whether you have not need with all humility both of Soul and Body to pray unto the

become Priests unto God as to be admitted the honour of bearing a part together with the Priest in his publick worship And to this great priviledge the works of St. Peter as I suppose may have relation 1 Ep. 2. 5. Where speaking of the whole Congregation of Christians he tells us that we are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up Spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ And therefore you should be sure to accompany the Minister with a pure heart and humble voice unto the Throne of the Heavenly Grace as in repeating the Confession and the Lord's Prayer after him so in making all such answers as you are directed by the Rubrick throughout the whole service never omitting to say Amen but thus in a fervent zeal shutting up all your Prayers And because I find that the generality of Christians are negligent in this to the end that you may not follow the ill examples of others and be so too I shall now take occasion to inform you rightly in this matter by shewing you 1. Of all the meaning of the word Amen 2. That the people of God in all ages of the Church have made use of this word in their publick devotion 3. How great a necessity there is that this practice should bestill continued among us In the first place as to this word Amen It is the same in all Languages and the people of all Nations upon Earth make use of it at the conclusion of their Prayers And as to the meaning of it it 's cheifly twofold oft it signifies either so be it or so it is Sometime we 〈◊〉 Amen and thereby express our hearty desire that the thing which we have prayed for may be granted and in this sense we use it at the end of all our prayers sometime also we use this word to testifie our confidence and the declaration of our faith assuring our selves thereby that the things which we profess to believe are certainly true and in this sense we use it after the Doxology or Glory be to the Father c. and the Creed And in both these senses we find it us'd in Scripture as I shall shew you by observing in the 2d place that the people of God in all ages of the Church have made use of it in their publick devotion First of all as to the Church of God under the legal dispensation we read Nehemiah 8. 6. that when Ezra blessed the Lord the great God all the people answered Amen lifting up their hands and no doubt but their hearts were also lifted up with the greatest fervency as appeared by their doubling the expression saying Amen Amen Yea we find Deut. 27. 14. that even when the Levites did use to perform divine service and declare the curse of God to be due to such and such sinners the whole Congregation were to answer and say Amen i. e. be it so or cursed be the man who does those things Thus they were to declare their abhorrence of those things which were so eminently liable to the curse of God And here by the way I cannot but observe that if all of us were duly sensible of the great indignation of God against those sins against which the curse of God is denounc'd in his holy word we should have a care of falling into or however of persevering impenitently in any of those sins mention'd in the Commination which is appointed to be read on Ash-Wednesday and then we should not scruple to say Amen at the end of every sentence as many do fearing thereby to call for a curse upon themselves For tho in saying Amen we affirm with our own mouths the curse of God to be due to such sins which is no more than what David has declared P. 119. 21. saying cursed are all they that do err from thy Commandments yet 't is certain we shall not be found liable to the curse if we be not guilty of the sin and if we be guilty and persevere therein impenitently whether we say Amen or no we shall certainly be accursed at the last day for as we read Mat. 25. 41. then shall the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth say unto them on the left hand depart from me ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But to return to the practice of the Jewish Church in saying Amen we find that they did not only use this word at the end of their Prayers but in the conclusion also of their Psalms and Hymns as we read 1 Chr. 16. 36. for at the end of that Psalm which Da●id had compos'd for the use of the Temple all the people were required to say Amen Nor was it used by the Jews only under the Law but from the beginning of the Gospel dispensation it has been practis'd also by he Christian Church That it was us'd in the Apostles times is evident 1 Cor. 14. 16. For there St Paul reproving those who prayed at any time in a Language which the people did not understand he uses this as an argument to p●ove the unreasonableness of that practice because t●e People who understood not the Language could not say Amen to such prayers they could tnot give their consent to what they did not understand Nor did the Apostles only think sit to conclude all prayers with this word but our Saviour was pleased also to teach us so to do for Mat. 6. 13. we find the Lords Prayer concluding with it And as this was the practice of Gods people both under the Law and in the beginning of the Gospel dispensation so it has been continued in the Church of Christ ever since tho of late years through the great want of Zeal and true Devotion it has been much neglected by us in this nation But how great a necessity there is that this ancient practice of all the peoples saying Amen to the prayyers of the Church ought to be continued among us I shall now proceed in the 3d place to show you For whereas there are two things among several others necessarily required in prayer to make it acceptable unto God viz. a fervent desire and lively Faith we give a testimony of both these in saying Amen but in neglecting this we seem to be as by-standers and no way concerned in the things that are prayed for nor in the service which is performed And in truth how good soever the prayers be you have no reason to expect the benefit of them unless you heartily joyn in them If another man writes a Letter in your name you ought to set your hand to it ot make your mark to testify your consent unto that which is written and thus if the Minister prays for you you ought to set your Hand and Seal to his prayer supposing the matter of it to be good by saying Amen to it nor should you think it enough to say Amen to all the prayers of the Church but you should also