Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	rule_n	scripture_n	1,767	5	5.9499	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23818	The reform'd samaritan, or, The worship of God by the measures of spirit and truth preached for a visitation-sermon at the convention of the clergy, by the reverend Arch-Deacon of Coventry, in Coventry, April the sixth, 1676 : to which is annexed, a review of a short discourse printed in 1649, about the necessity and expediency of worshipping God by set forms / by John Allington ...	Allington, John, d. 1682.	1678 (1678)	Wing A1213; ESTC R2327	57,253	87

we are to take no notice by a Worship in Spirit and Truth and by worshipping the Father understood worshipping in a Form for Father implies a Form and by publick Liturgies let us a little survey their Piety and their Prayers First Our blessed Lord and Master who gave this rule he himself exemplified what he gave for the exact Pattern and the very Basis of all Gospel-worship is Pater Noster Our Father The Apostolical Symbol the Canon and Square of all the Professions of our Faith it begins Credo in Deum Patrem I believe in God the Father Confession of sins as the words were by our Saviour put into the mouth of the penitent Prodigal it is an address unto the Father I will go to my Father c. And Father I have sinned against heaven and against thee The Sacrament of Initiation or first admittance into the mystical Communion it is confined to this rule In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Yea when the Church in humble thankfulness returneth Praise and Glory unto God for all his benefits it is done as becomes true Worshippers by worshipping the Father and by saying Glory be to the Father and to the Son c. And as for the Church of England is not every Collect a most exact Gospel-worship Almighty and most merciful Father begins our Confession Almighty God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ begins our Absolution Then the Prayer of the Son unto his Father And the Close of every Collect is through Jesus Christ which is still an implication of the Father So that according to this rule the true Worshippers shall worship the Father Who can be truer Worshippers than that Church all whose publick Prayers are Addresses and Acts of worship to the Father And as for Spirit and Truth had it been inconsistent with publick and outward Worship or with Form then St. Paul would never have writ to Timothy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Prayers should be not onely said but made for Kings and all that are in Authority St. James the Brother of our Lord he had scornfully and ignominiously been termed Jacobus Liturgus James the Liturgist had set Forms been inconsistent with Spirit and truth Justine Martyr he would never have spoken of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Common-prayers nor Ignatius before him of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one Prayer had it been a stinting of the good Spirit to have a Liturgy or a Common-prayer Yea there would have been no Churches to have worshipped God in no publick Assemblies to have worshipped there nor indeed no use at all of our Bodies in order to God's glory if Spirit and Truth concluded against outward worship Whatsoever then the antient Churches understood by Spirit and Truth they did not understand an opposition either to bodily or to outward worship For that which is held the best Interpreter of Scripture to wit Praxis Ecclesiae the Church-Practice you see it doth evince the contrary for they had Churches they had known and set Forms for publick worship Yea Beza himself in his smaller Notes thus Quae ad Ordinent spectant ut precum formulae disposuit Apostolus Those Decencies which appertain to Order as Forms of Prayer the Apostle himself prepared and disposed By Spirit and Truth then we may very well here understand a worshipping of the Father according to those measures which the Spirit Light and Grace of the Gospel prescribeth and alloweth to us By Truth we may understand such outward expressions and manifestations as are proportionable to such a Spirit to such Light to such Grace for so by their unanimous and constant practice the primitive and best Churches understood it Lastly therefore give me leave in a word to shew how much it concerns us to give all due regard and respect to the outward and publick Worship of God under the state of the Gospel The Servants of God under the Gospel they are stiled by our Saviour Veri Adoratores the true Worshippers not the unsatiable Hearers Now it seems strange to me that Christians should emphatically be called the true Worshippers and yet many make no account at all of Evangelical Worship as if God did not as much regard the honour done unto his Person as he doth the bare hearing and listening to his Word Or as if Pray continually and Continue in prayer sounded not as much duty as doth Be instant in season and out of season By Evangelical Worship I understand Prayers Supplications and giving of Thanks confession of Sin profession of Faith making and performing of Vows oblation of Praise singing of Hymns and Psalms reception of Sacraments Adoration either with or without these So that the Father is then worshipped in Spirit and in Truth when there is a reverential address or a religious performance of all or any of these before him so that we cannot come under the honourable Appellative in the Text Veri Adoratores true Worshippers unless we outwardly and publickly even thus assemble for to worship Esay 66. 23. the Evangelical Prophet speaking of Gospel-days thus writes All flesh shall come to worship before me saith the Lord. To worship is not to clap on our Hats and sit on our Seats to hear a Sermon but to perform some act of honour some humble office some such religious Duty the reverence whereof may shew forth our distance and the Father's glory the performance whereof may move all who see it say These men are in the presence and before their God These men know what they worship These men have the Fear and Apprehension of a glorious Majesty before their eyes For being the great designe of God in all his works is the setting forth of his own Glory Worship it is the very immediate tendency to that great end For they that worship it is their actual employment to set forth his praise and to magnifie him under some glorious Attribute or other So that indeed between Hearing and Worshipping there is as much difference as between Hearing and Doing For Hearing being but a disposition to Doing Worship is the very practice Doing and actual Advance of God's honour and therefore a Duty not to be laid aside nor so coolly frequented and performed as by too too many He who in the second Commandment said Thou shalt not bow down to them or worship them He who forbids Sacrisice and Prayers and Praises yea the very bowing of the Body to false Gods doth not in so doing imply less than a reservation of this Worship to himself And therefore to him who is the everliving God and the everlasting Father to him we must ascribe and give the Glory the Honour and the Worship that evangelically is due unto him for the true Worshippers are in all duty bound to worship the Father and to worship him in Spirit and Truth Hos 6. 6. I desired mercy and not sacrisice and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings

rational is bound to suffer Now if it be so that honour and honesty hath so strong an influence upon a reasonable soul that Reason will pérswade even the natural man to prefer honour and honesty before life if property liberty and the Laws of the Land are so dear to Subjects that even for them thousands have laid down their lives my great and grand scruple is whether bonum religiosum whether a religious good whether that which I verily believe tends to the good of Religion ought not to me a Christian and a Minister to be full as dear as any bonum honestum as any honest or mere secular good to me or any subject in the world And I profess to you upon the faith of a Christian be it sound or be it weak this is the principal ground and motive of all my losses and to support me I have these Reasons 1 Cor. 9. If we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things Between spiritual and carnal things the Apostle seems to make so despicable a difference that the one is not to be compared with the other carnal things secular and worldly interests they are not considerable if compared with things spiritual A clear argument to me that no spiritual or religious performance ought to give way to any carnal end And such I conceive are all the muniments of Christian Religion such in particular a blameless Liturgy According to this rule the Royal Master and glorious Triumpher over savage cruelties imputes all his sufferings to the score of Christ saying I shall be more than Conquerour through Christ enabling me for whom I have hitherto suffered as he is the Author of Truth Order and Peace for all which I have been forced to contend against Errour Faction and Confusion A plain evidence that Christ may be suffered for in the preservation of Order as well as in the vindication of Truth Secondly It is a rule amongst Casuists That man that suffers either for doing this or forbearing that in relation unto Christ and his glory that person is a sufferer in the cause of Christ as he that will not lie upon this ground because dishonourable to the Christian Profession if he should be persecuted because he will not lie such an one though not in materia fidei yet because his restraint is for Christ and his glory he were persecuted for Christ his sake Whereas then in my poor judgement I am convinced there is no means generally more expedient for the advance of the glory of Christ and the preservation of the Faith than a well-composed and set Form of Liturgy whatever I shall suffer for not rejecting this I shall confidently lay upon the score of my Saviour forasmuch as I therefore onely by suffering endeavour the defence of this because I do verily believe Liturgy is the advance of his glory So that if a temporal good whose reward and encouragement cannot be but temporal can move a man to suffer much more a spiritual whose reward through the mercy of a gracious accepter may prove eternal For he who will not see a Cup of cold Water given for his sake lost neither will he forget the least of sufferings which relate to his glory Thirdly In suffering for spiritual muniments and for that onely which relates to Christ only and his glory there is no interest but God Almighty's considered or concerned But in suffering for temporal though publick good we have private ends and personal advantages of our own so that it must be much more acceptable to God Almighty to suffer for spiritual that is his interest than for secular that is our own Fourthly If that Citizen be held an unworthy member who will not spend his Purse and pains for the priviledge of his Corporation And if that Country-clown be held no good Townsman who will not stiffly maintain the Modus Decimandi the Custom of his Town certainly then that Minister hath a very low and poor estimate of that Liturgy which he subscribed unto a very unworthy esteem of the Catholick custom of the reformed Church of Christ that will without suffering betray his trust making less account of what Martyrs sealed with their Blood than will a Citizen or a Countryman of a trifling Priviledge or Custom Fifthly Considering and enquiring after the elder times when such was the purity of intention that nothing but Christ's glory was attended I cannot finde that any thing in Religion was moulded unto State-ends Si Ecclesiasticum negotium sit nullam Communionem habento civiles Magistratus cum eâ disceptatione sed Religiosissimi Episcopi secundum sacros Canones negotio fine imponentem in Authentica Can. 123. Not to the civil Magistrate but to the religious Bishops Justinian no less than an Emperour attributes and decrees the decision and determination of Ecclesiastical affairs And certainly if there be any Ecclesiastical Government as the Law speaks Cui jurisdictio data est ea quoque concessa esse intelliguntur sine quibus jurisdictio expleri non poluit To whom jurisdiction is committed all that must be granted without which he cannot exercise jurisdiction and that must needs be a directive and a coactive power Now impossible it seems to me that those who have be they Prelates be they Presbyters or be they of what name or title soever our next new light shall call them I say it seems to me impossible that those who have this spiritual power should ever discharge their trust unless they resolve to suffer and to suffer precisely for the muniments and defence of the Church of Christ and the power of him committed to them for the impartial and thorough executing of this charge cannot but displease great ones and Flesh and Bloud is a bitter adversary so that indeed it will evidently appear the decay of Discipline Liturgie and all the Muniments of the Church they have therefore suffered because those who should have suffered for them would not And I beseech God this sin be not laid to our charge for my own particular I beseech God give me grace to say heartily as did some of the Martyrs Though I cannot dispute I can suffer for him Sixthly For me to omit any act gesture or form of Worship which I believe or feel to be an advance to Piety merely from secular or private Interest this in my judgement is to prefer a carnal thing before a spiritual and to endeavour rather to please man than my God And indeed I could here with a great deal of truth and sadness relate unto you the serious and sharp complaints of such Ministers who profess their Souls long after the Liturgy grieved at Heart and as they pretend troubled at Soul because they dare not use what they conceive much the better way A lamentable condition is the Church in when Ministers worship God with reluctancy and onely to save their stakes comply and do as the State would have