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	worship_v	worshipper_n	5,566	5	12.1877	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40807	Libertas ecclesiastica, or, A discourse vindicating the lawfulness of those things which are chiefly excepted against in the Church of England, especially in its liturgy and worship and manifesting their agreeableness with the doctrine and practice both of ancient and modern churches / by William Falkner.	Falkner, William, d. 1682.	1674 (1674)	Wing F331; ESTC R25390	247,632	577

allowable their Synagogue w●●●●● which was thereby guided and d●●●cted must necessarily have been altogether impracticable or at least utterly confesed Tr. 2. Ch. 6. div 1. And it is not amiss observed by B●●hop Whitgist that that command D●ui 12. did as well concern the Judicial part of the Mosaical Law as the Ceremoni●l and therefore it may with as much plausibleness be urged to prove that no se●●●●ar laws may be made under Christianity as that no Ecclesiastical Constitutions should be therein established unless it can be shewed that under the Gospel the Divine Law hath particular 〈◊〉 joined all circumstances of worship and Rules of Order in all Ecclesiastical Cases where it is presumed he hath not prescribed a Platform of civil polity And yet even in matters judicial also the Jewish Doctors as is manifest from their Bava Kama Sanbedrin Maccoth and other Talmudical Treatises did give divers resclutions of various particular Cases and circumstances not expressed in the Law of Moses and both these decisions and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or their Constitutions to be a bedge of the Law Macc. c. 1. Sect. 1 3. as when the Law did not allow above forty stripes to him who was to be adjudged to be scourged their Doctors required them never to exceed thirty nine not thereby altering Gods Law but taking care lest it should by mistake be violated are well allowed of by Christian Writers However Grot. in Deut. 25.3 2. Cor. 11.24 Coccei in Mac. c. 3. n. 12. Since the Gospel requireth a care of order and decency in the Christian Church to deny this liberty would be a diminishing from its commands but to grant it is no addition to them Wherefore though superstitious placing Religion where we ought not and irreverent neglect or making no Conscience of any Divine Institution are sinful prudential Constitutions remain lawful SECT VII Other Objections from the New Testament cleared 1. From the New Testament it hath been objected 1. That our Saviour defended his Disciples for not obeying the tradition of the ●lders which required them to wash before meat Mat. 15.2 Ans As this tradition did not refer to the order of the publick worship of God in Religious Assemblies so the true reason why our Saviour defended his Disciples in their practising against this tradition was because washing before meat was enjoined by them as a proper rule of Religion and of Purity In Loc. For as to general it hath been observed by Drusius and Dr. Lightfoot that many of the Jews esteemed not the written Law but that given by tradition to be their foundation and chief Rule of Doctrine and declared that he who transgressed the words of the written Law was not guilty but he who transgressed the words of the Scribes was guilty so in this particular discourse our Saviour chargeth them with teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men v. 9. and declareth against their errour and falt● Doctrine v. 20. that to eat with unwashen hands defileth not the man So that the question between our Saviour and the Scrib●s and Parisees was this Whether it was to be admitted as a Doctrine that eating with unwashen hands defileth the man and our Saviours justifying his Disciples in this Case doth declare that wheresoever salse Doctrines are obtruded as parts of the Law of God it can be no mans duty to receive them and practise upon them which is that our Church also professeth 2. But our Saviour was so far from opposing prudential Rules and Observations for the orderly performance of Religious services that himself frequently practised such things according to the Custom and Constitutions of the Jews Thus as the Jewish Doctors sat in their Synagogues when they taught the people our blessed Lord ordinarily used the same gesture in teaching He also ordinarily joined in their Synagogue worship which was ordered by the Rules of Ecclesiastical Prudence and observed the gesture and other Rites of the Jewish Passover which the Authority of their Elders had established for order and decency And whereas in the Jewish Synagogues and Schools their Doctors used to sit about in a Semicircle and their Scholars before them upon lower Seats to whom the asking of Questions was allowed our Saviour also n the Temple which in the holy Scriptures oft encludeth the whole Court and building of the Temple among which were Religious Schools and Synagogues sate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the middle of the Doctors hearing them and asking them Questions Luk. 2.46 3. Some have also against the use of external Rites in the worship of God urged those words of our Saviour Joh. 4.23 The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth collecting thence that the Gospel worship is so wholly spiritual that it doth not admit outward Rites and signs Ans 1. This must needs be a false construction of these words which would tend to disclaim the two New Testament Sacraments the open and visible profession of Faith the publick meeting in Church Assemblies the praising of God and praying with the voice the reading and hearing Gods word reverent gesiures in Religious service and such like necessary parts of Religious duty in all which there is use of bodily actions and external signs 2. Our blessed Lord by these words of worshipping the Father in spirit and truth expresseth that worship which the Gospel directeth this is often called the truth and the worshipping of God in the Spirit Gal. 3.3 Phil. 3.3 and is opposite to the false worship of the Samaritans and different from the serving of God in Jewish Figures yet it both admitteth and requireth external expressions of reverence And in this place our Saviour declareth that under the Gospel the worship of God should be so properly suitable to God who is a Spirit that it should not be confined to any one particular place and therefore neither the Jewish Temple nor Mount Gerizim about which places of worship Christ then discoursed with the Samaritan Woman should be the peculiar place for divine adoration Because God who is a Spirit would under the Gospel be so spiritually known and honoured that he would not in any singular and peculiar place six any special outward Symbol of his divine presence as in the Jewish dispensation he had done in the Temple over the mercy Seat nor would he endure to be worshipped under the representation of a corporeal image as the Samaritans in Mount Gerizim did worship God in the form or image of a Dove as hath been observed by Mr. Mede Mede Disc en Jo. 3.23 and is declared concerning them in the Talmud in Cholin and by the Jewish Chronicler in Tzemach David whose testimonies and words are produced by Bochartus Bochart Hieroz Part. pester l. 1. c. 1. Vossius de Idololatr l. 1. c. 23. Indeed the Learned Eochartus as did also Vossius accounteth this charge upon the Samaritans to be a Fable

every occasion but because in great Assemblies attentio auditorum per usitatas formulas non parum juvatur the attentiveness of the hearers is not a little helped forward by usual forms Consid Contr. Ang. c. 7. q. 2. The Walachrian Classis of Zealand do in like manner declare publick forms to be lawful and profitable for the helping and directing the attention of the auditors and the preserving Uniformity and that in good forms of Prayer Christians may pray with a humble sense of their wants with holy affection desire zeal faith and a Religious acting of the heart to God suitable to their own cases nobis expertis certissimum est is a thing say they most certain to us who have experienced it 12. But the surest way of tryal whereby forms of Prayer may be manifested to bring no disadvantage to the Church of themselves is from considering several arguments to that purpose as 1. because as I have shewed God himself prescribed a constant form of Prayer for the Jewish Offrings and a form of Priestly blessing and our Saviour directed the Lords Prayer as a form and presented a form of words for the administring Baptism but it must be at the least a great misapprehension and sin to think that the holy God and our blessed Saviour should command and enjoin what is of its own nature a hindrance to godliness Piety and true Religion and a disadvantage to the Church De Orat. Dom. S. Cyprian said well what Prayer can be more spiritual than that which was given to us by Christ by whom the holy Spirit himself was sent 2. Because it is generally acknowledged that the singing Psalms of Prayer or praise may be advantageously performed in a set form of words and the holy Scriptures are not the less edifying nor the less applicable to our selves because they are contained in a set form of words both in reading the Scriptures and in Prayer our hearts ought to be religiously moved towards God though in somewhat a different manner 3. Because all the ages of the Christian Church from the first Centuries have used them as an advantage to Religion and it is not at all probable that such excellently devout and judicious men as the fourth and fifth Centuries abounded with should be so stupid and dull spirited as not any of them to discern between the helps and hindrances of religious devotion in matters of most ordinary practice Wherefore though many mens minds may be most pleased and delighted with variety of expression there is no prejudice to piety from a set form further than this is caused by prejudice against such a form or by want of a Religious temper to join in it Here I shall note what Mr. Baxter observeth though he yield not so much use of forms as I plead for He saith Disp of Liturgy Prop. 10. the constant disuse of forms is apt to breed a giddiness in Religion and it may make men Hypocrites who shall delude themselves with conceits that they delight in God when it is but in these novelties and varieties of expression that they are delighted and therefore he adviseth forms to fix Christians and make them sound And the arguments in the foregoing Section do evidence the benefits of their constant use SECT III. Of the manner of composing the Prayers in our Liturgie chiefly of Responsals and short Prayers 1. Coming now to a particular consideration of that form of Prayer enjoined in this Church I shall wave such things where the force and matter of the objections is cut of by the alterations authoritatively made in the new establishment of our Liturgy and beginning with the Prayers themselves in the daily service there are two things especially to be treated of concerning their general frame and contexture The first is that the people are required to bear a part in this service not only in that they are by voice to join in the Confession and Doxology but that several Petitions are required to be expressed by the united voice of all the Assembly This is condemned by the Non-Conformists Except of Presbyter p. 4. who say that the Minister is appointed for the people in all publick services appertaining to God and that the people hereby seem to invade that sacred office the Scriptures making the Minister the mouth of the people to God in Prayer and intimating the peoples part to be only to say Amen 2. But since our Saviour condemneth the teaching or receiving for doctrines the commandments of men we may not embrace that as a Scripture doctrine where the Scripture delivereth no such thing Indeed under the law there was a special command of God that whatever legal Sacrifices were offered to him some few extraordinary cases only excepted that service was to be performed by the hand of the Priest but there is no constitution under the Gospel that spiritual Sacrifices of Prayer thanksgiving or the expression of a contrite broken heart may be offered up to God in no other way than by the mouth of a Minister though it be in a publick Assembly And what they assert is sufficiently to other mens understandings contradicted by themselves who allow the people liberty by their voices to join in singing those Psalms which contain both Prayers praises and Confessions 3. The truth is all such Prayers as have particular reference to the Consecration and Administration of the Sacraments and to the Ministerial absolution and benediction ought to be performed by the Minister alone though it be in a private place and upon a particular occasion because these things enclude the power of the Keys But as for others the rules of order and edification will direct that Prayers and Confessions which are considerably long should be expressed by one that the rest may the better understand and join in them and the authority of the Ecclesiastical office and its order and degree in the Church will require this to be performed by some in the Ministry For this we have the examples of the Scripture times to which agreeth the practice of the following ages De Eccles Dogm c. 30. and the author under S. Aug. name saith that those who are of authority in the Church tota fere Ecclesia secum congemiscente postulant precantur do put up their requests and Prayers almost all the Church joining with their sighs and groans Yet this practice doth no way disallow the peoples vocal joining in short Ejaculations or in other generally known Petitions since this may be of good use to unite their affections more firmly to quicken their minds into a greater fervency and to fix their spirits in a more diligent attending to the service they are about and more particularly to express their joining therein whereby they may both incite others and use their tongues as instruments of Gods glory 4. Indeed S. Paul speaketh of him who occupieth the room of the unlearned saying Amen at their blessing or giving of thanks