Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	truth_n	worship_v	worshipper_n	8,590	5	12.6710	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26753	A sermon at the Warwick-shire meeting, November 25, 1679, at S. Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, London by William Basset ...	Basset, William, 1644-1695.	1679 (1679)	Wing B1053; ESTC R13214	18,472	35

him not in Heaven nor in Hell not in the utmost parts of the Sea nor in the darkest night therefore verse 7. Whither shall I flee from thy presence Which being proposed by way of question implies the stronger Negation Therefore if we will make sense of those places we must understand the Psal as reaching after a more than ordinary presence which is the presence of God in places of publick worship which all sincere worshipers do enjoy By which kind of speeches he seems so to value the presence of God in his publick worship that he looks upon all things without this to be worth nothing And certainly where there is a spiritual life wrought in us it will discover it self by reaching after the utmost participations of divine things And the Gospel however a furtherer of private devotions yet doth in an especial manner command and incourage a publick Service as by the example of the Apostles which as a tacite precept requires the like of us To which end we find sometimes the place of their assembling recorded Act. 1.13 14. In an upper room they continued with one accord in prayer and supplication And otherwiles the time is mentioned Joh. 20.26 After eight days the disciples again were within which number includes two Sundays according to a computation then in use which was to take in the day from which they began their account thereby putting two Sundays into one week And when Christians began to grow cool and negligent in the publick presenting their Bodies the Author to the Heb. 10.25 both reproves this growing evil and charges others to avoid it not forsaking the assembling your selves together as the manner of some is And no wonder the Scripture is so round in this matter since the neglect of publick most certainly draws after it the neglect of all private duties therefore those that excuse their not frequenting publick Ordinances by a pretence of serving God at home are like those that will have every day a Sabbath till at last they keep none at all And good reason private devotions should give way to publick services because these are the most ordinary and beaten road to Heaven and a more usual conveyance of Grace than other Performances For Faith is said to come by hearing and this hearing such as is from Preaching How shall they hear without a Preacher Rom. Christ appeared to the first Christians when assembled together Joh. 20.26 The Holy Ghost descended upon them when met together with one accord in one place Act. 2. And our Saviour promises Matth. 18.20 that when two or three are met together in his name he will be in the midst of them Which must be understood in a more peculiar and especial manner than by his essential presence in regard of which he is at all times present with all his Creatures And no wonder this hath the greater blessing since we do in this more than any other way make a visible profession and thereby give more praise and glory to God than in private and unseen services Therefore as God hath so entwisted his Honour and our happiness together that it is impossible to separate them for the same Acts do both so those acts that most advance his Glory usually tend most to the advantage of him that doth them Whence the Apostle seeing these two ends best attainable by a publick worship doth press us to present our bodies a living sacrifice and therefore to present them in that way that Sacrifices were offered which was in the most solemn and publick manner 4. The Text fixes this Worship on the Body That ye present your Bodies Which by a Synechdoche partis pro toto is put for the whole man That ye present your selves Where observe That the Body is engaged in this work Though indeed there is no Text that doth expresly exclude it yet because there is one that doth not in terminis include the Body as John 4.23 The true worshipers shall worship in spirit and in truth Therefore some will have the Soul alone concerned and not the Body at all in Divine Worship But as out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaks so bodily worship is in and flows from that of the spirit nothing being more natural than outwardly to express our inward sentiments and especially the awfulness we have of the Deity In most ordinary cases it is judged Hypocrisie to do otherwise and in this it cannot be without some violence offered to our selves for it is certainly contrary to the reasons and experience of all observing men that when we come to the place and Offices of a publick Worship men should have any due and suitable thoughts of the presence they come before and not express the same in outward gestures and behaviour I am sure none will believe that man hath any internal or mental reverence for his Superiours who when in their presence doth not outwardly express the same For we measure the thoughts by the actions and guess at the Soul by the Body Much more must we think thus in the case before us for God being the greatest and most excellent of all beings if we have worthy thoughts of him the mind is so struck and the soul receives such deep impressions that we much more necessarily in outward gestures discover the awful and reverend thoughts we have of the Deity than we do our respects to Superiors who being but fellow-creatures differ from us not in infinite as God doth but in some few and little distances and doubtless our Saviour requiring a spiritual worship doth as much intend that of the Body too as those Scriptures mean so many persons that speak only of so many souls Gen. 12.5 And Abraham took Sarai his wife c. and all the Souls they had gotten c. And it seems very observable that when men once exclude the reverence of the Body they quickly lose that of the Soul too as appears from such mens expressions who make their prayers familiar discourses with God Almighty which must proceed from want of due thoughts of God whereupon they make themselves too much like him or him too much like themselves Neither is it any wonder that our Saviour expresly requires a spiritual worship rather than a bodily Because 1. This is the greater and carries the other along with it whereas that is the less and may be because it sometimes is without this 2. Christ was here nulling the Mosaick Dispensation which was called a Carnal Command Heb. 7.16 the reason of which we find Ch. 9 10. because it stood in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed upon them Therefore being now to bring in a worship which rested not so much in bodily Exercises it was most proper and subservient to this present design to call it a spiritual worship not only because the denomination is now taken from the major part but also that men might hereby be prepared by taking off their minds