Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	church_n	father_n	scripture_n	5,446	5	6.1736	4	true

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

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

take delight in bearing a part with your brethren in making the Responses singing Psalms and in all other parts of Divine service And this you will certainly do when once you have got your heart sincerely affected with a sense of Gods infinite love and mercy toward you For so we find King David speaking of himself and telling us that the great experience which he had of Gods love to him influenced him so much that he could not refrain from singing praises to him Ps 63. because thy loving kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee again v. 5. my Soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness when my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips Nor did that pious King desire to be singular in this matter for in Ps 95. v. 1. he encourages all others to the like practice saying O come let us sing unto the Lord let us heartily rejoyce in the strength of our Salvation In the next place as you are to reverence God by opening your lips that your mouth may shew forth his praise so you are to reverence him by your actions and gestures as by lifting up your hands and eyes in prayer to God standing up at the recital of the Creed Hymns and Gospel by kneeling or at least standing up in time of Prayer and keeping your head uncovered all the time of divine service and while the Minister is preaching I say that you are to kneel or at least to stand up in time of prayer because both are allowed to be agreeable to the word of God and the practice of good men but I must needs say that kneeling is much more commendable and a better way of expressing your humility than standing up is when you pray to God In some cases it 's true standing up in time of prayer is not to be blamed as in the case of some natural infirmity when a man cannot kneel without very great pain and uneasiness or when a Congregation is so much crowded that it would be very inconvenient or impossible to do it or when the rules of the Church require it as it does of the Minister for very good reasons in some parts of divine service even when the people are required to kneel In these I say and perhaps there may be some other the like cases to pray standing is not reproveable But then in such cases you should take care to give some other demonstrations of your humility faith and reverence as by lifting up your hands and eyes to Heaven by smitting your breast and the like For to stand up all the time of prayer when you are required to kneel down and may do it without any inconvenience to your self to others and never so much as open your lips or move your hands and eyes in honour to God is a shrewd sign that there 's but very little true devotion in your heart But for sitting still all the time of Prayer as too many do this my Son I must needs tell you is not only the greatest irreverence but a most rude and unmannerly behaviour in the more especial presence of God and his holy Angels And how much soever those people who won't be disswaded from it may pretend to honour God in their hearts yet 't is certain they dishonour him before men which I am sure is a very great provocation for the Lord hath said them that honour me I will honour but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed I will not pretend to judge the secrets of such mens hearts but let them ask their own consciences what the reason is that they kneel down to prayer in their own houses and yet fit down all the time of Prayer in the House of God and then tell me whether the true reason of their irreverence in the Church dos not proceed from their want of a true love and respect for the publick service and if so where 's their sincerity For as it may reasonably be suspected that that pretended invisible piety which is not attended with visible purity is a false or rather no piety at all and that those persons who make no conscience of serving God publickly take little or no care to serve him privately so it may without breach of charity be supposed that those persons who refuse to give unto God the outward reverence of their Bodies in the publick congregation where he is more especially to be honoured have but very little reverence toward him in the heart For if they kneel down to prayer in their own Houses out of a hearty reverence to God they are certainly much more obliged to do it in the house of prayer because in so doing they give a more publick Testimony of that honour and reverence which is due to the Almighty It is very observable that in the Prophet Malachy's days as we read Ch. 1. 7. the People were come to that degree of Profaneness that they thought any thing was good enough to be offered up in sacrifice to the Lord and yet still they would be thought to have a mighty reverence for him and his worship but see how God resented their irreverent behaviour toward him a Son says he honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If I then be a Father where is my honour and if I be a Master where is my fear And yet notwithstanding the contempt of the Lord and his Ordinances they would be still ready to vindicate themselves and say wherein have we despised thy name and wherein have we polluted thee And therefore the Lord tells them plainly that they had dishonoured him in thinking that it was no great matter what it was that they offer'd in Sacrifice any thing as they thought was good enough to be killed So that the Lord would have them consider whether an earthly Prince would be pleased with a Subject that should behave himself toward him in such a manner if ye offer the blind for Sacrifice is it not evil and if ye offer the lame and the sick is it not evil offer it now unto thy Governor will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person Here you see that however some people may pretend to an inward reverence of God while they give no outward Testimony of it in their words and actions yet the Lord is not satisfied with it he does not think himself to be honoured by those ways which our superiours take to be a dishonour to them For should these persons behave themselves in the presence of an earthly King or of an inferiour Magistrate as they do in the presence of the King of Heaven and Earth they would be lookt upon to be very rude and unmannerly and it cannot reasonably be supposed but that the Almighty God will in like manner resent the behaviour of those who act directly contrary to that rule prescribed in his holy words of doing all things in his worship decently and in order most certain it is that all the holy men