Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	true_a	worship_v	8,171	5	9.5442	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12324	The vanitie & downe-fall of superstitious Popish ceremonies, or, A sermon preached in the cathedrall church of Durham by one Mr. Peter Smart, a præbend there, July 27. 1628 : containing not onely an historicall relation of all those severall Popish ceremonies and practises which Mr. Iohn Cosens hath lately brought into the said cathedrall church: but likewise a punctuall confutation of them; especially of erecting altars, and cringing to them, (a practise much in vse of late) and of praying towards the east.	Smart, Peter, 1569-1652?	1628 (1628)	STC 22640.3; ESTC S2885	22,911	48

be an Altar as Masse-priests and out priests vse to call it and the body and blood of Christ a sacrifice to God offered thereon then is the Altar better and more holy then the body of Christ for it sanctifieth it Marke this if the table whether wood or stone be an Altar it is better then the body of Christ and holier which to say or think is horrible blasphemy it is holier I say because it sanctifieth Christs body and blood if it be an Altar For without contradiction saith the Apostle Heb. 7. 7. v. the lesse is blessed of the better proving thereby that Melchisedecke was a better man then Abraham and we know that to blesse is to consecrate or sanctifie So saith our Saviour in the 23. of Matth. 3. v. reprooving the Pharisees who taught whosoever shall sweare by the Altar it is nothing but whosoever shall sweare by the gift that is the sacrifice vpon the Altar he is guilty Ye fooles and blinde whether is greater the gift or the Altar that sanctifieth the gift So say I to such fond and ignorant teachers who call themselues priests and the table an Altar Ye blinde popish priests vnderstand ye not that by erecting an Altar ye advance it aboue the body of Christ ye make it better then Christs body by making it a sacrifice sanctified by the Altar And I am verily persuaded that some there are who esteeme more of it then they doe of Christs body For I haue seene I haue seene I say the priest so will he needs be called take vp the body and blood after consecration and holding them in his hands make a low legg to the Altar and before he set them downe againe bow himselfe devoutly and worship the Altar He yeelded no reverence at all to Christs body neither when he held it in his owne nor when he had delivered it into the receivers hands What is it to preferre a stone or a peece of wood before the body of Christ if this be not to bow to his altar and not to his body to make many leggs to the Kings chaire and none to the King himself And this is evident by their daily practise for the altar is every day worshipped with ducking to it though there be no Communion nor any man there Christs body is not worshipped with ducking no not at the Communion Is it not worse then popery But the Fathers many times call it an Altar It is true for the mystery of iniquity began betime to worke by small beginnings lurking in words Sacerdotes Altaria Priests and Altars and reiecting them which Gods Spirit had taught and the Apostles ever vsed Ministros Mensas Ministers and Tables that way might be made for Antichrist and his abominable sacrifice of the Masse Yet the Fathers worshipped not their altars Tertullian saith Bellarmine was the first that mentioneth geniculation that is ducking to altars which he learned of his Master Montanus the first founder of crossings and duckings and many other Ceremoniall fooleries to which he annexed the gift of the holy Ghost For Tortullian saith Chemnitius was the authour omnium fere Ceremoniarum Papisticarum in a manner of all Popish Ceremonies Whereupon arose an opinion that Montanus the heretick was the holy Ghost that he claimed the name vertue and dignity of the holy Ghost which is not credible so learned a Doctour as Tertullian could belieue But hee ascribed as the papists doe such power and holinesse to the Ceremonies which Montanus had devised that without them none could bee partakers of the holy Ghost As if the holy Ghost were annexed to Ceremonies included in Ceremonies collated by Ceremonies Whereupon saith Bugenhagius a learned German The Church of Rome condemned Montanus for an heretick and yet neverthelesse retained his heresies Which saith he hereby is manifest in that the books which defend his heresies are preserved but the workes of those Fathers which confuted them are lost Montanus therefore was the first Altar worshipper and they that now imitate him in ducking to Altars are little better then hereticall Montanists But giue me leaue I pray you to aske this question why bow you not the knee to the font also it being Lavacrum regenerationis the laver of regeneration as honourable and a more necessary Sacrament For without Baptisme none can bee saved as some teach but many that are baptised dye before they come to the yeares of discretion and probation that they may be fit to receiue the Communion yet we see none make leggs to the Font. Why doe they not Christ is as much present there and as really and the Font is an Altar as well as the Table and so it was termed in the primitiue Church by Prudentius who lived 1300. yeares agoe Who speaking of a combate betweene Chastity and Lust after Chastity had killed Lust Abolens Baptismate labem Catholico●●n Templ● divini Fontis ad Aram Consecrat gladium saith he Having washed away her spotts in Baptisme she consecrates her sword wherewith she slew her enemie to the Catholick Church and hangs it vp Fontis ad Aram at the Altar of the Font. Loe here the Font also is called an A●tar Therefore honour ye the Font as well as the Table with one and the same worship of bowing the knee to it or else you are hereticks affording more holinesse and more dignity to one Altar and to one Sacrament then to the other For either your worship is religious or civill if it bee civill yee are absurd ideots in honouring stocks and stones more then any poore man who is the image of God for who will low● too low to a begger as to sweep the ground with his beard if it be not very short If ●t be religious you are more absurd in preferring the memory of Christs body and blood before the whole Trinity Seeing you are baptised in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost and not in the name of Christ alone The Lords Table therefore and the Font they are Altars both alike as an apple and an egg are onions both alike that is neither of them properly and truly though they haue a kind of resemblance and being both alike and of equall worthinesse why are they so farr put asunder the whole length of the Church one at the head the other at the foote Why are they not set in the body of the Church or quire being the fittest place to receiue the greatest assemblies and most Communicants Why is the Altar lifted vp to the top of the Sanctuary or Chancell and the Font not admitted so much as to the bottome It is not suffered to stand in the wonted place behinde the quire dore why is one preferred as holier then the other being Sacraments of equall dignity In St. Peters Church at Zuricke the Lords Table and the Font or Baptistory stood both in one place as witnesseth Hospinian and so they stood here all the time of our former Bishops