Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	true_a	truth_n	word_n	7,456	5	4.2077	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49444	A sermon preached before His Majesty at Whitehal, April 5, 1663 by ... B. Lord Bishop of Lincoln, Elect.	Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.	1663 (1663)	Wing L346; ESTC R6273	14,637	36

behinde us I know where the blame must lie But you will say you do not accuse Set Forms for want of life in themselves but that by the continual repetition of the same things they be-dead affection in those that should have it And how I pray should that be If the sense of real wants and blessings which are always the same cannot keep up our affections how should a new set of words do it Can we imagine that God should be taken with variety and shift of phrases or that the affection that takes heat from them will render the service more acceptable to God And therefore when they complain that their devotion is tired with nothing but Almighty and most merciful Father in the Morning and Almighty and most merciful Father in the Evening and the same over and over again every day That complaint did never lie against the Jews daily Sacrifice which was a type of ours that there was a Lamb in the morning and a Lamb again at evening and the same over again every day in the year When our Saviour at his last agony in the Garden three times retired himself from his Disciples to pray he used still the same form of words without any change St. Matth. 26.44 And who dares say he wanted ability to vary his prayer or can say he wanted affection though he did not For as St. Luke relates it He prayed so earnestly St. Luk. 22.44 that his swet was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground and then sure there was no want of affection for when our zeal is at the hottest we do not use to swet at our prayers I go on to a third charge That Set Forms instead of helping us hinder the Spirit by which we should pray The truth is Such as the Spirit may be and too often useth to be it ought rather to be bound with chains then left at liberty under a Form of Praying to Libel their Governors or whom or what they please to bring into hatred with the people But for the true Spirit of Prayer that cannot be tyed with words For they are utterly mistaken that think the Spirit of Prayer supplies any defect of words or phrases for that very Text of St. Paul whereon they ground it confutes them Rom. 8.26 The spirit helpeth our infirmities But in what not in words for what the Spirit supplies are there said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not spoken at all or as we translate it which cannot be uttered What then doth it supply It maketh intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered The true Spirit of Prayer consists in groans in zeal and fervency and that where it is will animate and put life into any Form of Prayer They who call Forms of their own making or borrowing con'd without Book Praying by the Spirit do both cheat the people and blaspheme the Holy Ghost A fourth Objection is That it is but a Book-Sacrifice a Reading-Service which any childe may do They complain it seems of ease If God should require a harder thing of us as no doubt there are many harder things to be done do them we must The easiness lays the greater obligation upon us How ridiculous would this exception appear against the Legal Sacrifices A Butcher could kill and dress a Lamb as well as a Priest This is a false deceitful weight Gods service is not to be weighed by the labor of doing but by the relation to him for whom it is done And therefore King Solomon when by the advice of his Father upon his death-bed he call'd to account the chief Leaders in the rebellion of Adoniah as Joab that commanded in chief and Abiathar the High Priest made no question of putting Adoniah and Joab to death but for Abiathar though he deprived him of his office yet he spared his life And why he gives no other reason but this Because he bore the Ark before his Father David But was that a work of such merit and difficulty Could not any Porter do as much it was but carrying of a Chest Solomon did not take his measure by that That Sacred Chest the Ark was a Symbol of Gods presence it had relation to his Service and that he preferred before his own for Adoniah was his Brother of the half-blood and Joab his cosin-german You that are the Kings servants here in Court do not weigh the merit and honor of your places which you justly have by the pains and difficulty of your service which we know in many is little enough but by the greatness of the Master for whom you do it Children may be able to read the Book but not therefore fit to offer the Sacrifice They are troubled with the rude confused noise that is made by the people in answering to the Confessions and Psalms It seems their ears are as tender as their consciences and both alike out of tune For this is a Publick Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text i. e. a Confessing together Now there can be no communication of men together but by speech and therefore of necessity it must be the Fruit of our Lips But while we in obedience to that pray God to open our Lips they teach the people to shut them They take it very ill that they are silenced though they deserve it and yet stick not to silence the whole Congregation without any offence or fault of theirs They say it is an improper and impertinent Service We use such Hymns and Psalms for our Praises and Thanksgivings as are not proper and appliable to us For how can any one that is a Man say in the Magnificat Thou hast regarded the lowliness of thy handmaid Or how can it be seasonable for all especially young men to say in the Nunc dimittas Lord now let thy servant depart in peace For answer to this and the rest of that kinde It is but turning to the Doctrine of the Text as we have done in all the rest The Liturgy is the Churches Publick Sacrifice of Praise and in that we are not onely to give thanks for blessings immediately conferred upon our persons but upon us with the whole Church by the intervention of others For in the Blessed Virgin we do all partake of the grace done to her being taken to be the Mother of our Lord. And in old Simeon we rejoyce at the sight of that salvation which was a Light to us Gentiles as well as a glory to the people of Israel They are offended with the length of the Service which makes it not onely tedious in it self but injurious also by hindring the Sermon To measure the length first If we lay our line to it you will not finde it so It takes up but a very short part of the whole time which God has bestowed upon us of which enough we have and too much we take many times for our rest and sleep enough for our own necessary business