Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	faith_n	unity_n	2,197	5	9.0779	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95721	Church reformation, a discourse pointing at some vanities in divine service. Delivered in two sermons at Bridgnorth: Sept. 30. 1660. Being the Lords Day; and the time of the assizes held there for the county of Salop. By Mich: Thomas, rector of Stockton in the same county.	Thomas, Michael, rector of Stockton.	1661 (1661)	Wing T968; Thomason E1055_17; ESTC R203930	25,323	52

is something more in them Hippomanus and some other Expositor have objected The Second Sermon That that Ceremony of Discalceation among the Jews was used to signifie a mans departure from his Right in passing his Inheritance to another as we read Ruth 4. 7. And it is not improbable that Solomon in this Instruction might have respect unto that Ceremony When St. Paul called upon the Corinthians to glorifie God both with their bodies and their spirits he presses them to it by this Argument Ye are not your own ye are bought with a price as if he had spoken to them in the phrase of the Text Put off your Shoes from your feet Yeild up that right which ye have to the members of your bodies and the faculties of your souls unto Christ who hath redeemed them And from this Notion of the phrase which is genuine enough and analogous to the rule of divine Worship I may raise some other Notions which may serve to advance and promote the Duty which we have in hand I shall easily admit that account which Lorinus gives us that by foot here is meant the feet that is the affections of the soul but may I not put the question Of the soul only Had Solomons instruction no design upon the members of the body Doth Divine Reverence consist only in the pious frame and composure of the soul Certainly it requires the whole man the inward man and the outward man too and the ensuing Discourse will be managed accordingly in some short Directions for the decent behaviour of the outward man First I advise according to the letter of the Text. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the House of God When thou art going thither keep on thy way suffer no temptation either to stay thee at home or to turn thee aside from it It is one of the choicest arts of Satan in hindering men from going to the House of God he knows that there is not any thing that debauches the spirit of a man nor hardens his hea●t more then his frequent absence from divine worship that 's the sin which keeps men in ignorance of themselves and of the ways of God and discomposes them for that great account which they must render to the Lord at the last day 1 Chron. 21. 30. We read That David could not go up to Gibeon to inquire of the Lord because of the sword of the Angel of the Lord that is because he was to pass through infected places thither but when the way to the House of God is clear and safe thy absence from it will not be defended by either of those too common excuses some worldly business or the entertainment of a friend that came to visit th●e Again Keep thy foot when thou art come into the House of God Tertullian tells us that the primitive Christians had their Dies stationum days of standing wherein they thought it Nefas as he expresses it an unlawful thing to kneel though at Prayer and those days continued from the Passover to the Pentecost in memory as it is thought of our Saviours Resurrection St. Cyprian tells us that the Confessors and Martyrs who persevered in the faith were called Stantes The Standers The ancient Church took up another custom at the reading of some portions of the Gospel and at the repetition of the Articles of our Faith that the Congregation should stand up not only to acknowledge their unity and consent in faith but to testifie their resolution to persevere in that faith and to maintain the truth of that Gospel against all opposers And since that custom of standing at those times at the repetition of the Creed and the reading of the Gospel hath been derived down to us by the piety of our fore-Fathers I advise you to look to your feet then do not kneel at the Creed as the manner of ignorant persons is as if it were a prayer Do not sit as if ye doubted of the truth or were not concerned in that publick profession of your Faith and as if your constancy to it would be conditional that is so long as it stands in favour and is in fashion with the world But in the Name of God stand up at it and stand up for it that the Lord may stand with you as He did by St. Paul and strengthen you in the day of your tribulation I pursue my design of putting our outward Man into a reverend posture for divine worship and therefore the discourse riseth from the Foot to the Knee Look to that that it be not too stiffe in the House of God God standeth in the Congregation saith David doth God stand and do his holy Angels stand and look upon thee and wilt thou sit Wilt thou sit and never kneel St. Jerom's rule is not only frequenter orandum to be often in the duty of prayer but flexo corpore orandum to declare an inward humiliation by an outward Our coming to Church is a Testification a profession of our Religion and to testifie our fall in Adam the Church appoints us at certain times to fall upon our knees and to testifie our faith in the Resurrection both of Christs and our own the Church hath appointed certain times to stand but no man is so left to his liberty as never to kneel Genu-flexio est Peccatorum Kneeling is the sinners posture If thou come hither in the quality of a sinner and if thou do not what dost thou here put thy self into the sinners posture Kneel sometimes Habe reverentiam Deo ut quod pluris est ei tribuas is devout Bernard's counsel And let me improve it thus Do but remember with what reverence thou hast come into thy Masters presence when thou wast a Servant Do but remember with what reverence thou hast come into thy Landlords presence when thou wert a Tenant Do but remember with what reverence thou hast come into a Court of Justice when thou wert either a Client or a Pleader or a Witness or but a stander by Do but remember with what reverence ye have come into the Kings presence or the Council Table or which was much lower to a Committee-Table Collect I say but the reverence which thou hast shewed to these Persons and in these places and though I could wish the Lord had but as much such bowing of the knee such bending of the body such uncovering of the head even in the coldest weather such mannerliness in all points yet Quod pluris est says Bernard God must have thus much reverence and more for all these expressions of reverence may be counterfeit these honourable Persons may have the body but not the heart but the Lord must have all Remember that call of David in the 95. Psalm O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker From the reverence of the knee we may pass to the reverence of the hands I will says St. Paul that men pray every where lifting up