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	invisible_a	visible_a	2,874	5	9.2871	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B09956	Several sermons: some preached in England, and some in the island of Barbadoes in America upon several occasions. / By Robert Scamler ...	Scamler, Robert, b. 1653 or 4.	1685 (1685)	Wing S807C; ESTC R223226	52,095	91

Beauty but indeed God hath commanded me to declare that Prayer must have the most eminent nay only place My House is the House of Prayer This was the Apostles judgement when there was the highest necessity for Preaching for then the Gospel was to be planted in all the World nevertheless though it was then most useful yet Prayer was preferred before it for say the Apostles But we will give our selves continually unto Prayer and to the Ministry of the Word Acts 6.4 First Prayer then the Ministry of the Word now if it was so in their days the Argument is more forcible in ours because the Gospel is propagated and Christianity fully settled among us God forbid that I should in the least derogate from that Honourable Imployment of Preaching the Word yet I am more then convinced we must more strictly account for the neglect of Prayer than of Preaching Yet alas we think we may be remiss in our Duty of coming to Church if our Ears be not first alarm'd with the loud noises of a Sermon Bell as if Religion consisted in this only and went no higher than aurium Tenus To what end serves Preaching and all Learned Discourses but as Instruments and means to instruct us to Pray Thus you may hear St. Paul How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher So that Preaching is the means to direct us to call upon him And I pray tell me if the means ought to be magnified beyond the end The Fathers 't is true were very frequent in such Pious Orations but this did not make Prayer more compendious for in the days of Chrysostom when Preaching was most used there was no part of the Liturgy omitted but now Prayer is slenderly respected we seem desirous of nothing but Preaching Many mens dislike to that incomparable Common Prayer practiced in the Church Pardon me Gentlemen if I impute it to those of our Function for how can we presume the Laity to have Reverence for it when we our selves seem to disown it by cutting it into little shreds and parts either to oblige a Faction or ease our selves But did we all unanimously agree to be obedient to our Rubrick as our Oath requires us men would soon have a greater respect for It and Us for what can create greater Distractions in the minds of men whilst they observe me exactly conformable to the Rules of the Church and another little or nothing regarding it for the same Obligation commands it from him which enjoyns it as my Duty The Roman Devotionals 't is true retain a great part of our Liturgy and do they not also the same Bible Sacraments and other Holy Duties and shall I deny that which is good because it hath sometimes been mixed with Evil The Vessels of the Temple were carried to Babylon and Prophaned by Belshazzar yet were they not restored and Consecrated by Ezra to the Service of God The Common Prayer-Book in like manner was most collected from the Roman Mass Book but what of this There were Liturgies extant in the Church before the Mass had Name or Being and Rome Christian was much Elder than that of Papal When therefore the Mistery of Iniquity began to play its Cards the Old or First Common Prayer was not Abolished only mixed with Errors and Corruptions which blemishes being taken away is it not as Beautiful as ever This then was the Pious Care of our first Reformers to refine it from its Dross and bring it to its Primitive Purity retaining nothing but what is pure Scripture or deducted there-from by the Judegment of our Holy Mother the Church But alas we so much degenerate from their Worthyness that we will not follow the form prescribed by them we are for new Lights and Inventions to guide us to Heaven we deny Common Prayer and magnifie the sudden Raptures of men as the Illuminations of the Spirit when really what are they better than an heap of Non-sense in Crampt words only glazed with the Saint-like Varnishes of a cast up Eye and Canting Tone Their chief Objections against the Liturgy are because it is a Form and enforced by Authority which are so ridiculous they are not worthy Confutation For what Prayers I pray best adorn the Beauty of Holiness those which are shuffled together by Chance or such as be Refined and Polished who Pray most Believingly he who digesteth what he Prays for or he who utters his first Sense and Thoughts Who Prays with fullest assurance to have his Prayers heard and Crown'd with Success He who weighs and ponders his Petitions Or he who either by implicite Devotion gives assent to all that proceed from the mouth of a Gifted Brother or else suspend his Amen when he hears things inconsistent with his reason or rule of Faith So that it cannot be because it is a Form but because commanded by Authority yet that very command layes the highest Obligation for our Obedience thereto Obedience says Samuel is better than Sacrifice The Levitical Law Commanded That the Firstlings of an Ass should be redeemed with a Lamb Now shall we in contempt of this Law break the Lambs neck and think an Ass a more proper Offering for the Temple Return then O Shunamite return return into the Embraces of thy Holy Mother the Church for she is all Fair there is no Spot in her she looked forth as the Morning Fair as the Moon Cleer as the Sun and Terrible as an Army with Banners The Prophanation of the Church Ye have made it c. That which was before phraised the Perfection of Beauty the Joy of the whole Earth whether the Tribes ascended as to the Patern of Heaven When Christ came to visit it it was neither like Heaven nor an House the very Sacrifices therein had need of an Expiation the Sanctuary it self could not be safe from Sacrilegious Cruelty God and Prayer were both driven out by Theeves The Temple was not barely Prophaned but Prophaned in the most hainous nature the greatness of the Offence may be measured by the harshness of the Term in that he calls not an House but a Den Ye have made c. Where I shall consider When the Church is made a Den And then secondly Who are the Theeves First An House receive the first peeping forth of Light all little Rayes and Glimmering will peirce themselves in But as for a Den it is a place of Horrour and Darkness and the Church may well be compared to it if there be wanting in it the Light of Ceremonies the Light of Doctrine and the Light of Life and Conversation in the Priest For First If the Light of Ceremonies be taken out of the Church we blow out the Light that is shining therein Rom. 1.20 is not Sense the guide to the Understanding Do not Visible things direct us to those that are Invisible Can