Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	faith_n	word_n	write_a	3,171	5	10.6412	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61638	Shecinah, or, A demonstration of the divine presence in the places of religious worship being an essay, tending to promote piety, prevent apostacy, and to reduce grosly deluded souls, first to their right wits, then to the right waies, of Gods publick instituted worship / by John Stillingfleete ...	Stillingfleet, John, 1630 or 1-1687.	1663 (1663)	Wing S5680; ESTC R9466	109,230	256

was no less possible for God to have continued in his Essential Perfections without Adoration than for him to have been without Actual Creation which was an Action as arbitrary unto God and as far short from absolute necessity in its production as any creature is from an absolute necessity and independency in its being Nor to the creature to give it There being many intelligent creatures as Apostate Angels damned spirits and the like which do not exhibit this Actual Worship unto God and yet remain in their being still But an Actual Obligation to give God this Worship is Essential to all both Angels and Men. The creatures moral degeneracy not at all lessening or diminishing their natural obligation to duty And that this obligation lyes upon all intelligent creatures will appear 1. Because they are Gods Creatures A Creature as such must needs own his Being Dependence and Preservation as the Product of his Creators goodness And is any thing more just and equitable than for such a depending Being as a Creature is to worship and adore the fountain of his Being and the foundation of his present and all future welfare And is there any higher peece of unreasonable injustice than for the Creatures to slight him from whom they drew life and breath and all 2. Because they are Rational Creatures God hath endowed Angels and Men with minds and understandings that they might know honour and adore him As God made all things so more especially intelligent Creatures for himself to do homage to him and herein lyes their Natural Obligation to serve and worship God § 6. Propos 3. Pure Spiritual Beings such as Angels are need not be circumstantiated to time Thes Salmar par 3. p. 412. § 4 5. and place in rendring Actual Worship unto God The Holy Angels being not properly the parts of the Church for which Christ died for the directing and perfecting of which the revelation of the mind of God was given to us in the Scriptures because the foundation of the union of the Members of the Church and Christ lyes in the Communion in the humane nature of which the Angels are not capable naturally And hence it was that our Saviour bore the sins of men and not of Angels upon his body on the Tree For that Christ redeemed not the Angels it was not onely because they stood not in need of redemption I speak of the holy Angels that never left their first state but because Christ took not upon him that nature in which hee might undergo the punishment due to Angels in case of sin I say for these and other reasons mentioned by Amyraldus Loco supra citato the Angels being not genuine parts of the Church for which Christ dyed and to which the Scriptures were given 'T is no wonder at all why the Scriptures have so deep a silence of the manner and circumstances of the Angels worshipping and adoring of God And 't is but a learned Ignorance for us to sit down satisfied and contented without the knowledge of that which God thought unnecessary to be revealed in Scripture How the Angels then do worship God wee need not much trouble our selves to inquire after since wee have not evident manifestations of it in the Written Word But this seems to be clear they are not tyed to any time strictly so called because their very nature is measured by aviternity and not by time And being of a pure Spiritual Nature they have neither those avocations by any particular calling nor necessary diversions from Gods Immediate Worship as Man if hee had continued innocent must have had for the very sustaining of his life and being which would have been by seasonable food The fruits in the Garden of Paradise being a sufficient evidence that God intended innocent immortality to have been supported by ordinary means It is probable therefore they have no set times but continue constant in the Immediate Worship of God unless when God imploys them as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his Ministring Spirits for the service of his Church And perhaps even then their imployment speaks them onely distant from the other Angels their fellow-worshippers and not absent from the real worship and service of God And thus it appears they are not tyed to any place neither as they are not to any limited time of Worship For they being Spirits are uncapable of any local circumscription And to enquire any further may run us upon the Rocks of bold and unsafe and unwarrantable conjectures in those matters the knowledge of which wee may very well spare without the least prejudice of our present comfort or future salvation § 7. Propos 4. The Sons of Men which are of a mixt nature partly Spirit and partly Body are by their very Beings determined both to time and place in their rendring Actual Worship unto God For man to worship God is immediately consequent upon his Being as a rational creature and for man to worship God in some time and place is necessarily involved in the very Worship it self that man is obliged to give unto God And the very same reasons that do evince a necessity of Worship to be given unto God by Creatures that are partly Body and partly Spirit will infer a necessity of making time and place the inseparable adjuncts of that Worship So that these two time and place in the general as appertaining to Divine Worship are not to be esteemed therefore good because God hath appointed them but God hath therefore appointed them and commanded them because they are in themselves good that is necessary to Divine Worship that man must yeeld unto God 1. That some time is necessary for man to worship God in is the clear dictate of natural light For man being partly Body as well as Spirit and being naturally obliged to worship God with both external as well as internal Worship is necessarily required of him Now all Actions of man especially those which are external must of natural necessity lay claim to some time for the performance of them Neither can man conveniently attend upon the Worship of God unless some time be set apart in the which hee may be freely disintangled from his ordinary work and employment Thus far time and the Worship of God seem to fall under one and the same command For as God in creating of the world did concreate and make time together with the world So also when God commands and appoints any Religious Worship to be performed by any actions of men hee doth withall command and appoint that necessary circumstance of some time wherein they should be dispatched And that man might not be left wholly undetermined as to the time of Worship in regard some time in general was necessary and it being highly rational that the disposal of the time for Worship should be at the pleasure of God the Supream Soveraign and Creator of man who made him an intelligent creature capable of worshipping God It

Service of God What greater argument of carelesse and carnal minds than mens sleepy drowsinesse under Gods Word Must it not needs be a great offence to these Holy Spirits to see some as solemnly compose themselves to sleep as if it were one great part of that Homage and Worship that is due unto God Or as if they did verily expect that God would deal with them as with some of his servants of old that he would speak to them in a dream It is a most lamentable temper when mens laziness and sleepiness in the Congregation declare to all that are present that they have no mind to be taken with Divine Truths unless God take them napping 'T is dangerous to sleep after taking of Physick it may not onely hinder its working but destroy the Patient Thus it is like to be damnable to be frequently sleeping when wee should not onely receive Physick but food for our souls from the Word of God Naturalists tell us that sleep is caused by the vapours that ascend out of the stomach into the head And must not those hearts needs be very full of vapours the cursed vapours of sin and carnality that produce the spiritual drowsiness of the mind and very often a down-right laziness and sleepiness of the body too under the Preaching of the Word However wee may conclude as Philosophers do that fleep hath a good end in nature saelus animalium the health of the body but sleeping under the means of grace hath as ill an end as wee can well imagine ruina animae the destruction of the soul and so must needs be very offensive to the good Angels who do rejoyce at the good of our Immortal Spirits § 3. 3. It may be a matter of caution to us That though Angels are present as our Guardians and Assisters of us in the Publick Assemblies yet neither there nor elsewhere are they to be made the object of our Worship and Adoration Though they help the Saints of God to worship him yet they must not have that Worship themselves because 't is due onely unto God Non minus veneratione offenduntur quam turpitudine They are no less offended with Worship given unto them than they are with our indecency and irreverence in the Worship of God Wee do not so assert the Angels Presence as to deny the Presence of God And therefore 't is little else than down-right sottishness and ignorance that cryes up Angel-Worship as a great Diana and that makes any to own them as Mediators and Intercessors and Messengers to offer up and carry our prayers unto Christ which is to rob Christ of that Glory that is due to him and incommunicable to any meer creature For 't is Christ alone that is the Angel Rev. 8.3 that offers up our prayers unto God A full place to evidence the unlawfulness of Angel-Worship Rev. 19.10 And I fell at his feet to worship him Rev. 22.9 and hee said unto mee see thou do it not I am thy fellow-servant and of thy Brethren that have the testimony of Jesus worship God Angels are at best but our fellow-servants and God alone must be worshipped with a Religious Worship Mat. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely thou shalt serve CHAP. VII Gods Presence in Publick Worship by his Word The Word of God an Instrument of Conversion Rom. 10 17.1 Cor. 1.21 opened Why Preaching of the Word is deemed foolishness The Word reaches to the heart It discovers secret thoughts secret sins answers doubts yeelds suitable comforts Two peculiarities of Gods Word Revealing Mysterious Truths Pressing Practical Duties The life of Faith Heavenly-mindedness Mortification of sin Inward Humility § 1. II. Arg A Second Argument to demonstrate Gods Presence is taken from the Word of God Reading and Preaching the Word are owned as two standing parts of Gods Publick Worship and Gods Presence is discovered in both A Kings presence that is but finite in his person is vertually there where his commands and proclamations are made known much more is God who is infinite in his Essence and Immense in his Being specially present there where his Word is made known according to his command As there is but one true Happiness Eternal Life one giver of it God One Mediator Jesus Christ So there is but one certain and infallible means of imparting of it the revealed Will and Word of God In the which God shews his special Presence and as both an Author and Finisher of every good thing for us doth both begin and perfect all in the soul for its salvation This and the following Argument I shall endeavour to prosecute in a more plain familiar and practical manner and that God is present in and by his Word will appear 1. In that the Word of God is the Instrument of converting souls When men of unbeleevers come to beleeve by the Word 't is an evident sign of Gods Presence with it Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 10.17 This is such a word as is uttered by the tongue flowing from the party speaking and yet the Word of God because such as hee hath revealed in the Scriptures For 't is the Word of God and not the word of man that is the foundation for our Faith and an instrument to produce it This Word of God Preached declared and discovered so as to be conveyed by the ears the instruments 〈◊〉 hearing unto the mind and understanding of man is that vital Seed from whence springs the glorious Fruit of Faith Faith 't is true is the gift of God and the work of God yet 't is attributed to the Word as the next producing cause of it not the principal efficient but onely the instrumental cause 1 Cor. 1.21 It pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save those that beleeve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Preaching is here called Foolishness not that it is so in its self but that it is commonly esteemed so How many now adayes condemn it and have cast it off as solly to hear and look on it as foolishness to Preach and there is a double reason hinted at in the very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Because 't is unsavoury to carnal hearts it hath no relish in it so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies unsavoury and the Latines use fatuus in the same sense as fatuae maluae unsavoury mallows Thus the Preaching of the Word of God is a thing of no savour at all to very many they want scientiam sapidam that savoury tasting relishing knowledge that Beleevers have and so look upon Gods Ordinance of Publick Preaching of the Word as meer emptynesse and folly because many have no relish or spiritual taste of the word of God they think it is but folly to Preach it and foolishnesse to hear it They do not profit by it they will not therefore hear it 2.

The Word of Christ is the Instrument the Spirit maketh use of to beget life in the soul by working Faith Christs very Sermon could do no good in order to the producing of life in the soul were it not accompanied with the Spirit of Christ § 6. I shall onely hint at one place more It 's very observable that St. Paul calls the Gospel The Ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 because of the Spirits Presence with the Word and because it hath the efficacy of the Spirit joyned with it For the understanding of this observe a twofold opposition betwixt the Law and the Gospel First The Law is called the Ministration of the Letter the Gospel the Ministration of the Spirit The Law is called the Ministry of the Letter because whilst it commands or forbids us any thing it affords no inward strength at all whereby the heart may have an inward obedience wrought in it but onely propounds the external command written in Tables of Stone and therefore called the Letter But the Gospel whilst it declares remission of sins and life eternal through Christ it administers also the help assistance and presence of the Spirit by which Faith is stirred up in our hearts whereby wee apply Christ himself and all his benefits unto our souls and therefore 't is called the Ministration of the Spirit Secondly The Law is called the Ministry of Death the Gospel the Ministry of Righteousness and Life The one the Ministry of Death because of the Letter for the Letter killeth whilst it giveth no inward strength or assistance to yeeld obedience to those commands it layes upon us and so the flesh and corrupt nature is more and more provoked and becomes more obnoxious to death and sin than before This is clear from Rom. 7.11 The Law gives occasion to sin to slay the man The Gospel is the Ministry of Life because it affordeth power and the help of the Spirit which produces Faith by which Christ is applied to the soul for life and salvation so that by the Spirit the Gospel affordeth life to the beleeving soul This made Paul say Gal. 2.20 the life which I now live is by Faith in the Son of God Take a Christian without Faith and you do unchristian him hee is left as an ordinary man So take the Gospel without the Presence of the Spirit and it is but a dead Letter That there is such a Presence of the Spirit I have shewed by Scripture The next thing is to shew it from reasons grounded upon undeniable experiences For the better apprehending of them I have moulded them into so many practical Queries § 7. Qu. 1. What makes Gods Children that have excellent Teachers yet pray for the opening of their eyes and spiritual illumination It is from their sense and sight of the want of the Spirits teaching to be superadded to the preaching of men Though David had Nathan and Gad excellent Teachers yet hee begged of God that hee would open his eyes that hee might see the wonderful things of his Law All the light in the world cannot make a man see if hee want a seeing faculty The most raised Preaching can do as little good to the souls of men if they have not spiritual eye-salve bestowed upon them to open the eyes of their dark understandings Barrenness in Prayer is seldome without unfruitfulness in hearing because they seldome get much good in hearing of the Word that are not often begging the Spirits Presence in the Word § 8. Qu. 2. What made so many that heard our Saviour Christ in the flesh yet remain in their unbeleef Was it not because they onely heard the Word of Christ but had not the Spirit of Christ going along with it How blinde were the Jews even after Christ brought light into the world They loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil When the good Word of God comes to had hearts unless the Spirit sets it home effectually to make them better they ordinarily become worse For wicked men are much like Swine turn their eyes up to the light and they fall a crying and bring the light of the Word to wicked hearts and they fall a railing and reviling Thus the Jews dealt with our Saviour You would think it were an admirable way for conversion to have heard Christ preaching to men and truly so it was yet wee see many beleeved not You may be ready to think the Ministers preaching foolishness as many do yet many have been converted by their teaching Is it not strange that ever any that heard Christ should go away unconverted that was God as well as Man and that any should be converted unto God that hear sinful men preach Truly not at all because the Word of Christ went to some men and was not set home by the Spirit And the same Word and Gospel-Truths though preached by sinful men is accompanied with the Spirit and that makes it effectual § 9. Qu. 3. What made Peter so successful in his Ministry that at one Sermon hee converted three thousand souls Act. 2.41 And yet wee never read of such a plentiful harvest gathered in at once by our Saviour Christ That chapter tells us God had just then poured out the Spirit which was the fruit of Christs Ascension Vers 33. There were the same Truths before and one would have thought a better Preacher when Christ himself was in the Pulpit And see how Christs Sermon takes with the people From vers 16. to vers 31. ●uke 4. Is not this Josephs Son Instead of looking well at the Doctrine they fall a cavilling at the Person a poor mean inconsiderable fellow a Carpenters Son Hee was then upon as precious matter as any in all the Book of God Hee told them what hee came into the world for it was to do good and to save souls vers 18 19. Enough to have melted the hardest hearts and humbled the proudest sinners if meer words would have done it and 't is said they all wondred at his gracious words vers 22. Well! but see the issue of all Vers 28. They were filled with wrath Vers 29. They thrust him out of the City and indeavoured to tumble him down the Hill You see here their good will to Christ notwithstanding all his pains and preaching Hee came to break their hearts and they in recompence would have broke his neck Hee preached to save their Souls and they would have taken away his life Certainly if Christ had so bad successe then Peter who denyed his Master would have had far worse if worse could be had No such matter There was the Spirit powred out and did powerfully set home the Word by Peter's ministry which Christ was not pleased to let work powerfully upon the hearts of his hearers for reasons best known to himself And that is the reason of that kind welcome the Word received Now when they heard this Acts. 2.37 they were pricked in