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	law_n	mercy_n	16,188	5	9.8317	5	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

Lord for mercy and for grace in that pious Ejaculation which the Church has directed saying Lord have mercy c. But now after all tho it highly concern you as I have shewed so to behave your self in the publick worship of God that you may offer up to him such a reasonable service as he will be pleased to accept of through the merits and meditation of his beloved Son yet I must withal tell you that you must have a care of limiting your devotion to the Temple you must not think it enough to seem very serious there if at other times you be vain and wicked If you desire that both your person and your performances should be accepted of God you must be truly religious at all times and the zeal which you pretend to have for Gods glory must be visible through the whole course of your life and conversation Be perswaded therefore to remember your Creator in the days of your youth have a care of thinking as too many do that you have still time enough to prepare your self for another world for there 's no man knows how soon the great Judge of Heaven and Earth may call him hence It is certainly the greatest piece of ill husbandry that you can be guilty of to think that you can easily redeem that time when you please which you shall mortgage for a few vain and insatisfactory delights There are too many I doubt in the world that flatter themselves and think that they go upon good grounds while they defer to give up themselves to Gods service in the vigour of their youth hoping that they may repent when they see their own time But my Son I beseech you to consider that altho God has promised pardon to all the true penitents yet he has not particularly promised to w●it on any mans leisure He does indeed bear with some a long time waiting for their conversion and such is his infinite goodness that he does sometime grant repentance and pardon after men have for many years put off that necessary duty but he never does this upon any precontract with them nor does any thing more provoke him to deny his favours than mens presuming thus to dispose of them To this purpose I shall offer unto your consideratition a remarkable passage 2 Chr. 33. where we find that the Lord forbore King Manasses forty years and at length upon his repentance pardon'd him After his death Amon his Son reigned in his stead and having observed it 's like how merciful God had dealt with his Father he presumed upon the like forbearance and mercy thinking that as his Father had done before so he might redeem the offences of his youth by a late repentance in old age but we find that God was not pleased to accept of Amon's assignment and therefore tho he had spared Manasses the Father forty years yet he cut off his Son at the end of the second year of his wicked Reign Know therefore and consider this that it is good for you to bear the yoke of Religion in your youth if you habituate your self to the practice of holiness in the prime of your years you will afterwards find all even the severest Duties of Christianity to sit wonderful easie upon your mind if you should live to be old You 'll then have nothing of that regret and anxiety to discompose your thoughts which others will feel who have neglected the service of God in their youth and enslaved themselves to the World the Flesh and the Devil It is observable that John the Evangelist is called the disciple whom Jesus loved it is not said indeed for what reason this Title was given him above all the rest of the Twelve Apostles but it being supposed that he was ●he youngest of them all for that reason possibly Jesus might have the greater love for him because even then in the days of his youth he had learned to despise all the bewitching vanities of the world to deny himself and heartily to embrace the Doctrine of the Gospel If therefore my Son this advice which I have here given you may through the Grace of God prove beneficial to you and answer the end for which it is designed in furthering the Salvation of your Soul I shall be heartily glad and hope that both you and I shall ascribe the whole Praise and Glory to God An Appendix touching Baptismal Sureties BEing very sensible that there is seldom any thing which occasions greater disputes and differences between many Ministers and their Parishioners than the business of Baptismal Sureties and that nothing is more commonly pretended by some for the reason of their departing from our Church than their being dissatisfied about this matter I have here thought fit to add something in reference hereunto hoping thereby to remove the scruples at least of those who are unprejudic'd and well meaning persons In order to this end I shall show you 1st What is meant by God-fathers and God-mothers 2d What reason our Church has to justifie the use of them 3d. How advantageous the due execution of this Office may be both to Sureties and Children First as to the meaning of God-fathers and God-mothers our Church hereby understands those persons who are engaged as Sureties to the Church by solemn promise at the Baptism of Children to see them virtuously brought up to lead a Godly and a Christian Life So that altho the Christian Church for th●t reason has thought fit to call them Sureties yet to let them know how they ought to be affected toward their Children in whose names they covenant with God viz. that they ought to be as Fathers and Mothers in God i e. spiritual parents And affectionately concerned in the furtherance of their Childrens Salvation therefore they are called God-fathers c. And this way of expressing themselves in this matter we may suppose the ancient Christians at first received from some expressions in Scripture of the like nature as when all true believers are said to be brethren in Christ and therefore are called Christians as also from St. Paul's way of speaking concerning those persons in whose education and in the furtherance of whose Salvation he had been concerned For as he signifies to the Corinthians 1 Ep. 4. 15. that he was their spiritual Father having begotten them in Christ Jesus through the Gospel so 1 Tim. 1. 2. he calls Timothy his own Son in the Faith In this sense also he calls Onesimus his Son Ep to Philem. v. 10. I beseech thee for my Son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bounds Now as St Paul was father to the Corinthians and as Timothy and Onesimus were his Sons in a Spiritual sense so why may not those persons who undertake the office of Sureties for Children when they bring them to Baptism which is their new and spiritual Birth be called spiritual Parents or God-fathers and God-mothers especially when they are as they ought to be and as they may