Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	body_n	spirit_n	worship_v	2,550	5	9.5500	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51817	A sermon concerning publick worship preached before the Queen on Wednesday the 23d of March, 1691/2 / by Thomas Manningham ...	Manningham, Thomas, 1651?-1722.	1692 (1692)	Wing M499; ESTC R3514	10,669	35

a mean Sacrifice and will make us capable of Adoring him hereafter in a more Perfect way He has several Orders of Pure and Spiritual Beings to glorifie him with the immediate Adoration of their Minds but we are confin'd to Bodies and must give him glory as he has made us capable of giving it we must declare his Greatness and his Goodness to one another and give outward Testimonies of the inward sense we have of his Perfections of his Majesty of his Power and of his Mercy Now to do this in the most Publick manner is the way of giving the greatest Honour to God and is a Veneration most suitable to the Majesty of him we Adore When a Multitude of People meet together to Worship the Almighty and to set forth his Praises it makes some little Figure of Heaven it raises our Minds to more magnificent Conceptions of God and more fully represents him to us as the Governour of the World Whereas if we look upon him as only intending our private Interest as busied only to serve our present wants we may be thought to conceive of him rather as an Idol than as that Infinite Being whose Care and Providence are extended to the concerns of the whole Creation To Worship God truly is to make him known to be the Lord of the Universe the Common Parent Preserver and Benefactor of all Mankind and therefore Publick Assemblies are the best signification of his glorious Perfections and vast Dominion for They are a Visible expression of the greatness of God they enlarge our Idea of him and make us more sensible of his Majesty than words and language can do They who cannot use their Minds to any abstracted ways of Thinking may be wonderfully confirm'd and heighten'd in their Acknowledgments and Thoughts of a Deity when they see how the Learned and the Rich and the Honourable and the greatest Persons upon the Earth do bow and kneel before their Maker and humble themselves in the Dust of the Sanctuary to witness their profound Veneration of an Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness What becoming Thoughts and Affections towards God must this needs inspire into the Multitude when they shall observe those whose Knowledge and Judgment whose Vertues and Excellencies they exceedingly admire to behave themselves most Reverently and Devoutly in the Presence of God What Excuse can they have to neglect that Religion which they plainly perceive to be in such high esteem with those of the greatest Place and Dignity and of the clearest repute for Wisdom and Piety What Desire what holy Ambition must it raise in the Common People to appear often in the Place of Divine Worship and to make up the great Congregation that they may mingle themselves with the Noble and Wise and be equal Worshippors with them of the same God and the same Mediator II. The Nature of Religion is such that it especially requires a Publick Exercise That which makes all our Actions religious is the performing them in Obedience to God and with an Intention of his Glory whatever the particular Duties are in which we are engag'd whether they immediately respect our Neighbours or our selves if the chief Motive of doing them be derived from the Will and Pleasure of God they are a Religious Service But what we more properly call Religion is that which has an immediate Respect to God and is directly intended for the promoting of his Glory and the most eminent part of this Religion is the Publick Service of the Church which is still more eminently so as it is more Publick and Solemn because more becoming the Honour and Greatness of him we Worship This Religious Service is a Natural Debt which we owe to God as we are his Creatures and had we continued Innocent would have principally consisted in Praises and Thanksgivings and high Admirations of God's Power and Wisdom and Bounty But since we are in a Fal'n Condition and a State obnoxious to the displeasure of God there is a Necessity of glorifying him by an humble Confession of our Sins and an earnest Importunity for Pardon and Forgiveness And this can never be so Acceptable as when it is Publick for by that means we take more shame to our selves by making a more Solemn Acknowledgment of our guilt and we give more glory to God by our open Confessions and Humiliations Most of the Psalms of David were design'd to a Publick end and to make up the Service of the Congregation and he himself reckons it as one of the more bitter Afflictions of his Life that the Troubles of his Kingdom sometimes banish'd him from the Publick Service of God For thô we have no reason to doubt but so Religious a Person maintain'd a continual intercourse with God by way of private Prayer yet the Solemn Service of the Sunctuary was that in which the Honour of God was so signally acknowledg'd and display'd and his Name so eminently glorify'd that nothing else could properly carry the Title of Divine Worship among the Jews and therefore in their Captivity whenever they made their private Addresses to God they directed themselves towards Jerusalem where the Temple of the Lord was founded Our blessed Saviour in the Reformation he made of Religion was most tender of the Honour of his Father and took nothing from the Publick Worship that did any way conduce to his Glory He put an end to the repeated Sacrifices of Beasts by fulfilling what they signify'd in offering up his own Body once for all upon the Cross and leaving to the Church that Alsufficient Sacrifice of himself for their perpetual Commemoration He taught that God was to be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth St. John iv 24. not in the least to derogate from the Publick Worship of God but to shew that the Typical Service was within a while to cease and that the Heart and Inward Affections were always to accompany the External Worship He gave an especial Command for Secret Prayer St. Matth. vi 6. because there was no need at that time of Exhorting to the Publick Worship which was then sufficiently frequented and in which the Hypocrisy of that Age did so much Reign And besides by that Precept of his he tacitly reprov'd the Ostentation of the Pharisees which was so notorious in all their Publick Devetions Our Saviour was so far from Discountenancing the Publick Service of Religion that he came to remove the Jewish Confinement and to make way for all the Nations of the Earth to come in and glorifie God with one Heart and with one Voice Wherefore our Christianity does consist in serving God as Parts of the Body of Christ and in a Joynt and Festival Commemorating of the exceeding great Blessing of our Common Redemption Had an Inward Faith and a Private Devotion been sufficient to have carried Christians to Heaven they would never have Assembled together in the hottest Times of Persecution when their Meetings expos'd them so much to the Observation