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
A95721	Church reformation, a discourse pointing at some vanities in divine service. Delivered in two sermons at Bridgnorth: Sept. 30. 1660. Being the Lords Day; and the time of the assizes held there for the county of Salop. By Mich: Thomas, rector of Stockton in the same county.	Thomas, Michael, rector of Stockton.	1661 (1661)	Wing T968; Thomason E1055_17; ESTC R203930	25,323	52

to the evidence of the Word of God to acknowledge that to be sin which the Word of God condemns for sin and to yield that to be a Duty which by the light of Scripture appears to be so When we come to the House of God we should be ready to say as the Prophet Samuel did Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth That is as Mendoza glosses that place Speak Lord what thou pleasest and I am ready not only to hear but to obey it Such a readiness appeared in St. Augustine Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis O Lord give me grace to obey and command what thou wilt And now shall I be so bold as to inquire whether the Feet of your Souls be in that obediential posture as the Lord expects you should be Solomon speaks in general terms in the Text but it may be expedient for your better edification that I instance in some few particulars Lay the two Tables of the Law of God before you and examine your selves whether ye are henceforth resolved to conform your lives according to those sacred Rules First art thou resolved to have no other God but the God of Heaven Wilt thou no longer serve the God of this World Mammon for the wages of unrighteousness Secondly art thou resolved never more to dishonour God by worshipping him in or before some graven Image Wilt thou never hereafter disguise and palliate thy Idolatry by a nice distinction Thirdly Art thou resolved that henceforth thou wilt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain Wilt thou not swear rashly and customarily Wilt thou not make a false Oath in the Courts of Justice to take the righteousness of the Righteous from him Fourthly Wilt thou hereafter remember to Keep holy the Sabbath day never mo●e to profane it by idleness or drunkness or feasting or luxury or worldliness Fiftly Art thou resolved henceforth to Honour thy Parents To Honour the King as the common Parent of the Country To Honour the Ministers of God who have begotten thee in Christ To Honour thy natural Parents who have brought thee into this world and bred thee up in it in care and sorrow Sixtly Art thou resolved that henceforth thou wilt do no Murther That thou wilt not take up Arms against thy King and destroy thy fellow subjects upon the mistaken quarrel of Religion and Liberty Seventhly Art thou resolved henceforth never to commit Adultery never more to pollute thy body which is the Temple of the Holy Ghost by unclean thoughts or actions Eightly A●t thou resolved henceforth never to wrong thy neighbour in his goods neither violently nor fraudulently Wilt thou not hereafter use false Dice nor false Weights nor false Measures nor false words nor over-reach thy neighbour in any matter Ninethly Art thou resolved henceforth never to bear false witness against thy neighbor Wilt thou not for fear or favour nor for a bribe give a false testimony to blind the eyes of the Judge and to pervert the course of Judgement Lastly Art thou resolved never hereafter to covet any thing that is thy neighbours Wilt thou hereafter restrain thy self from all covetous practices and labour to be content with such things as the Lord in a gracious providence shall please to allow and assign to thee In this Glass in this perfect Mirror you may see whether the feet of your souls stand right whether they be wash'd and cleansed from all purposes and resolutions to sin For let me tell you Unless ye can say with David and say truly Oh Lord my heart is ready my heart is ready I will have respect unto all thy Commandments I am purposed that I will not offend Unless I say ye are in this ready posture for holy Obedience all your prayers and all your Fasts and all your days of humiliation are but the sacrifice of Fools they will avail nothing either to remove the guilt of sin or to appease the wrath of God Let me give you but one Note more in this Point This resolution which I have been speaking of will be best discovered by your constancy and fervency in prayer both in private and in publick for Mercy in regard ye have transgressed the Laws of God and for Grace that the Lord would incline your hearts to keep them And therefore it was a pious provision in our Church Liturgy that after the Minister hath repeated the several Commandments as from the mouth of God the whole Congregation are enjoyned to say Lord have mercy upon us in that we have broken those Commandments And incline our hearts to keep them that is give us grace to do so no more Bucolcerus tells us of Henricus Auceps one of the Emperours of Germany that when his City of Mersburg was assaulted by a vast Army of the Hungarians he slew and put them to flight his Souldiers crying out with a loud voice Lord have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us And truly I do not know a better defence against temptation to sin then to pray with David Oh Lord incline my heart to thy Testimonies nor a better remedy against the guilt of sin then to pray with the poor Publican in the Gospel Lord be merciful to me a sinner The Feet of our Souls are well kept when we have taken up a firm resolution of obeying the Commandements of God but yet we must take one step further We must keep the Kings Commandment also this is certainly a Duty however some men endeavour to distingu●sh themselves out of it I counsel thee says Solomon and surely the counsel of so wise a man is worthy to be heard and regarded as if he had said I Solomon who require obedience from mine own Subjects do counsel all Subjects to yield obedience to their Kings And St. Paul delivers the same Doctrine Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers not onely for wrath but for conscience sake But wherein are the Commands of Kings to be obeyed Must we yield up our selves in a blind obedience to observe and do whatsoever the Higher Powers shall impose upon us This is a busie question and there is a short answer to it We must either Obey or Suffer If the Commands of Kings are consistent with the Laws of God our Obedience is indisputable yea I may say that in that case we do not so much obey the King as God So that the Tryal of our obedience to Kings lyes for the most part in such matters which we call indifferent which are neither positively commanded nor forbidden by the Law of God Such as are matters of Decency and Order in Divine Worship and such as are of absolute necessity namely the payment of Tribute and Custome for the preservation of his Person and his Honour and his People and his Kingdome to boggle at such Commands as these is as I am informed from very learned and pious men a rejection of this counsel of Solomon and that exhortation of St.

had collected do with one voyce interpret it of the feet of the Soul of the tempe● and disposition and resolution which the soul ought to be in both when we are coming to and when we are come into the house of God But some may say where is that and urge against Solomon's counsel in the text Solomon's confession in another text That God dwelleth not on earth the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him much less that House which he had built 1 King 8. 27. I shall answer briefly for the present That by the house of God here is meant such a place as is peculiarly designed and consecrated to and for divine Service Here is yet a farther enquiry Suppose the soul of a man to be rightly prepared to come and being come to be so well affected as really and reverentially to conceive himself to be in the house and presence of God What must he do then Most Translations of the Text tell us Be ready to hear But sure there is more in it Learned men observe that the original word signifies also to obey and so the vulgar hath it Melior est Obedientia quam Victimae stultorum It is not auricular but practical hearing which is intended in this place Obedience to God's Commandments conformity in our lives to such sound doctrine as is delivered to us in the house of God There lies not any difficulty upon any other term in the text and therefore for a full explication be pleased to receive the Chaldee Paraphrase upon it which I have faithfully translated As if Solomon had said thus Thou son of man Keep thy feet at what time thou The Paraphrase on the Text. shalt go into the house of the Sanctuary of the Lord to pray Do not come thither full of sins before thou be converted and while thou art there incline thine ear to receive the doctrine of the Law from the Priests and Wise men Be not as the fools who offer a gift for their sins yet are not converted from their evil works which they have wrought with their hands and so God is not well pleased with them neither do they know what to do between good and evil And now that we do in some measure understand The Division the sense and meaning of the words be pleased to receive the division of them into these two general parts Here is an Instruction and a Caution The Instruction consists of two branches and both full of fruit The first branch is Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God The second branch is Be more ready to hear or obey then to offer the sacrifice of fools The Caution is conteined in the latter clause which is presented in the term of a reason For they consider not that they do evil So now the parts of the Text are laid open and the work lies before us and I hope we have all been so careful of our feet in coming to this house of the Lord this day as that our pretended Divine Service may not prove a sacrifice of fools I must declare again that my designe lies against the irreverend and wilful sinne though he be a frequenter of the House of God and my procedure shall be with all meekness and gentleness as becomes a Minister of Christ and with all reverence and respect as becomes so great a presence as this is The first general part the Instruction I am to invite your religious attention to gather the fruits of the first branch of it In which we shall stop and stay upon these three things First That God hath an House here on earth Secondly That there is a reverence due to that House Thirdly We shall enquire wherein that reverence doth consist From whence we may pass to the view of the second branch wherein we shall find what is the main constituent part of divine reverence namely Obedience to Divine Commands For the first of these That God hath an House here on earth I am to make good the proof thus First That God hath owned such places as were peculiarly designed and consecrated to his Worship for his houses for his dwelling places here on earth Secondly That the people of God in all ages have owned and acknowledged such places as the houses of God I cannot conceive more cogent arguments in this point then the Word of God and the practise of the people of God Such as will not be convinced by these must be reckoned in the number of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St Paul speaks of unreasonable men whom no Topick nor rational argument can win over to the decency and uniformity of Divine Worship First I say God doth own such places for his Houses Is there no weight in that command of God Ye shall sanctifie my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary I am the Lord. Lev. 19. 30. Where observe Doth not the Lord own the Sanctuary as well as the Sabbath Doth he not say Ye shall reverence my Sanctuary as well as ye shall keep my Sabbath Such as would evade this evidence by saying that the Tabernacle and the Sanctuary and the Temple were Jewish things they were types and shadows and are vanished and abolished We Christians are free to serve God in any place and at any time True we are so but by such an argument as this we may wipe out the Commandments of both Tables for they were Jewish things as being first given to them and truly it is easie to observe that such as have been the revilers and despisers and destroyers of the houses of God amongst us have been rejecters and contemners of all the other Commandments of God a very sleight care of godly or neighbourly duties hath appeared among them But I confess it is improper to answer an argument by an invective and therefore I say in the second place Where the fundamental reason of somthing in the first constitution of it abides still the same there the thing it self must abide in the like esteem I have heard it is a Rule in the Law Eâdem vel simili ratione manente idem statuendum est Like reasons produce like determinations in all cases There was a fundamental reason in the Institution of the Sabbath the day allotted for divine Worship and therefore the holy Apostles did not abrogate but change it Now the fundamental reason of the Jewish Tabernacle and Temple was that God should have a set place as well as a set time for his Worship it being improbable that Divine Service should ever be solemnly performed except there be both time and place appointed for it And this was the reason why holy David was so careful in providing materials and Solomon was so industrious in building the Temple of Jerusalem that there might be a fixed place where the Name of the Lord might be placed and called on and where the Lord might meet his people and bless them Hence was that command of God That while the Jews were

vanity and quicken thou me in thy waey Be pleased to receive the reverend Dr. Hammonds Paraphrase upon those words as if David had said Lord grant me a strict guard over mine eyes those inlets of so many sins Withdraw me from all delight and complacency in the wealth and grandeur of the world on which the lust of the eye is wont to be placed turn away my eyes from false frail and deceitful beauty which is too apt to kindle impure flames in my breast And on the contraray inspire into me and enliven in me all pious and virtuous designs Such a Prayer as this may well become us as we are going to the House of God and when we are entred into it It were a sad miscarriage if we should turn these Oratoria into Lupanaria the house of Prayer into an house of sin to come hither with a greater desire to meet a vitious friend then the holy God and when we return to be able to give a better account of the faces and the fashions of the Congregation then the parts or points of the Sermon But I forbea● because I hope better things of you And for the full preparation of the outward Man there remains only a few words concerning his Head But here I dare prescribe nothing age or sickness may make a strong plea against a bare-headed presence in a Church especially when the God of mercy is to hear it But supposing health and strength I make some question whether a covered head will not be too pregnant an evidence of an irreverent heart Mr Cartwright who was no good friend to the discipline of this Church of England yet in his Homilie on our Text presses for reverence in the House of God by that argumentum ad hominem which his followers have so much decryed since The Houses of God may challenge as much reverence as the Courts of Princes Who presumes to enter into the Kings presence with his head covered and if not there why here Busbequius tells us that the Great Turk when he enters into his Mosques lays aside his Robes and continues in an humble posture till their manner of Service be finished I am afraid the reverence which the Jews and the Heathens the Eastern Christians and the Turks also declare in their Temples and holy places will rise up in judgment against some amongst us who can hear that Sacred Name of Jesus pronounced and yet neither move Hat nor Knee Who can sit at the Lords Table as familiarly as at their own Who can uncover their heads when a Psalm is singing but cover them whiles the Psalmes and Chapters are reading Who can allow their servants to sit covered before them in a Church but not in a Shop It is the wonder and the greif of all sober persons that the Christian Religion should produce such cross leg'd Monsters such anomalous and unequal practices which are so far from being evidences of the true fear of God that they are not consistent with the rules of common civility And now I have delivered my sence concerning the reverential deportment of our outward Man in the House of God which I humbly submit to better judgements and shall chearfully and willingly retract if any thing hath passed from me in any respect diss●nant from prudence or piety These are the Vanities which I have observed in our Divine Service and I shall heartily both wish and pray for a Reformation of them That in our publick Meetings we appear to God and the Angels and to all such who are not yet effectually called as a Congregation of Christians and they may say of us Surely the Lord is among you Hitherto I have entertain'd your Christian Attention with the fruits of the first Branch of the Text and if any one doubt I have been too lavish of my time in regard of the Parts that remain I hope I shall deceive him Rouze up your selves I beseech you but a few minutes more and I shall dismiss you The Second Branch I suppose you remember that I told you that on this Second Branch we should find the main constituent part of Divine Reverence and that is Obedience to divine Commands This Obedience hath a double Object The Commands of God and the Commands of the King for that is another Note in this excellent Sermon of Solomon We have it Chap. 8. 2. I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God Now these are to be considered apart And first our obedience to Gods Commands Hearing is a Preparatory duty to obeying we must hear that we may learn how to obey It is impossible we should conform our lives to the will of God unless we know it And that was the reason I suppose that St. Jerom translated his clause thus Appropinqua ut audias Draw nigh that thou mayst hear Sanctifie the Lords holy day in that holy manner in waiting in holy Ordinances hanging as it were upon the lips of such Messengers of God as preserve Knowledge But this is not all Hearing without a proportionable Obedience will but inflame our reckoning against the last day And therefore St. Hierom notes upon the Text thus Non ingredi in domum Dei sed sine offensione ingredi laudis est The bare duty of entring into the House of God is not praise-worthy or acceptable to him but when we enter so as that our consciences are void of all purpose of offence towards God and also towards man It is conceived by Expositors that Solomon in this Branch of his Instruction had observed a corrupt humour that was in his subjects the people of Israel that they rested and contented themselves with the outward formalities of divine Worship If they came to the Temple of the Lord and brought their Sacrifices as they were commanded in the Law they thought themselves religious enough though they took no care of their lives When they had sin'd and brought their Sacrifice they conceiv'd this was as much as God did or could expect from them and this was the Sacrifice of Fools which is spoken of in the Text and the Prophet Samuel had so determin'd it in that famous case The Lord layes a strict command upon Saul to make an utter destruction of the Amalekites but he prevaricates and spares some of the fattest of the Cattel for Sacrifice But what says Samuel to him Obedience is better then Sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of Rams and that covetous project undid him within a short time he lost both his life and Kingdom Now let us learn to be wise by his Example Let us take heed we do not delude our poor Souls as the Jews did by the outward Formalities of Religion Come to the House of God as often as ye can but keep your Feet when ye come thither That is according to Lorinus Keep the Feet of your Soul in a due temper When ye come hither be disposed and resolved to yield