Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	heart_n	spirit_n	worship_v	4,411	5	8.9748	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64289	A sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Canice Kilkenny, Feb. 27. 1669. By Joseph Teate, dean of St. Can. Kilkenny	Teate, Joseph.	1670 (1670)	Wing T620; ESTC R219172	20,777	55

Godliness the Form of Godliness the Power the Denying the power under the Form of it Godliness if we consult the Etymon the Hellenists will tell us is derived from a verb that signifies to worship and imports that solemn Reverence a Creature oweth his Maker and that in the dayes of Moses he was called a Godly person that was a Proselyte of the Gate acknowledged and ador'd a Deity observed the seven precepts of the sons of Noah with Cornelius and the Ethiopian Eunuch But the Essence of it consists in the Latitude of Holiness the Rectitude and Conformity of the heart and life to the first and second Tables of the Law Godliness is profitable to all things that is obedience to that Law that is holy in its Precept just in its Penalties and good in its Rewards Yet in other places of these Epistles to Timothy it is to be understood in a more limited sense sometimes for the Systeme of fundamental truths call'd the Doctrine according to Godliness the Symbol of which the Apostle gives us when he saith Great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh c. Sometimes for the Duties of Religion distinct from the Moralities of honest men so we are exhorted to live peaceable and quiet lives in Godliness and honesty but here being opposed to a Form an External Pomp and Pageantry it is the inward Purity and Devotion of the heart whereby God is worshipped in Spirit without Carnality and in Truth without Hypocrisie The form of Godliness is its Scheme and external Similitude a Fashion and resemblance or appearance of that which is not real and intrinsical As Jupiter among the Poets was metamorphosed into the shape of a Beast though he pretended to be a Deity so these men would pretend to be Deities when they are but Beasts the word beings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Essential Form cannot be here intended which is so far from the denial of Godliness that it gives it Difference and Operation as the Reasonable Soul is the form of a man whereby he discourseth and is distinguished from all other Ranks of Beings so the Image of God is the Form of Godliness that gives it Power and Distinction from all things that are not homogenial to it But that form which consists in a Cumulation of accidents and is the more Vain and and void as the Text is excellent on which it is a Gloss and Paraphrase so Esau who was under the Curse of the Creation to bring forth Briars and Thorns being an hairy and rough man in the form and apparel of Jacob seem'd a Paradise and smelled like a Field which the Lord had blessed so a common person in a Comedy may represent the Majesty of a Monarch But then these Forms are like the Idea's of Plato wholy abstracted from matter and destitute of the power of Godliness This power of Godliness is when the Habits of Grace send forth the vigorous and vital Actings of holyness as the Fountain doth Streams and the Sun Rayes and Emanations of light as will appeare in the sequel of this discourse Men deny the power under the form of Godliness when they seem to be Pious because they are Politick and profess themselves Christians because Subjects to a King that is the Defender of the Faith yet think that the exquisite Holiness of the Law is but the Severity of Melancholick Men who have represented Christ to be an hard Master and therefore although they invocate his Name are disloyal to his Commands profess they know God but in works Deny him ingeminate an oral Loyalty crying Lord Lord but do not his will and so think to palliat the Atheism of their lives by the Religion of their Language Thus the Emphasis and Important Terms of the Proposition are explained We might justly expect when an Apostle is giving us the Kalander and Ephimerides of the Times of the Messias that the first Prospect in the Firmament of the Church would be an Horizon of hope the dispensation of the Gospel being so bright and blessed When the Sun of righteousness did appear with healing in his wings yet he presageth nothing but Clouds and Darkness Eclipses of that light that should shine before many glaring and portentous Phainomena's and the Signes of Heaven without Celestial Influences in the last dayes perillous times shall come Last dayes they are in regard of the administration that doth succeed and exceed that which was Levitical Christ being a better Prince then Moses in his Sanctions a better Priest then Aaron in his Sacrifice he was not onely an High Priest but an Apostle that was sent out of the Bosome of the Father to bring glad tydings yet when the Plenty of Grace was most of all dispersed the Power of Godliness was most despised so that men were efferated by clemency enraged by meekness impatient by forbearance wax wanton in the most goodly Heritage and live as if Christ were an hard Master in the Largess of his Bounty For in the last dayes men shall be Lovers of themselves having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof So that first the Form and then the Power are the Arguments of my present Discourse A Form may be considered as a Virgin or a Prostitute as abstracted from or concomitant upon the powers of Religion as Diana was in Heaven a star but in Hell a firebrand and Consort of Pluto so a form flowing from the power of Godliness is Angelical but divested from it Diabolical For when our Works of Darkness appear as Angels of Light we mock God by honouring him with our Lips and dethroning him from our Hearts we crucifie the Lord of Glory and as the Souldiers put a Crown on his Head and Robes on his body and salute him with an Irony Hail King of the Jews we worship the true God as if he were an Idol that had eyes and saw not not considering his great Attribute of searching the heart we make God abhor his own Institutions and reverse his Laws bring no more vain Oblations incense is an abomination to me as if he would receive no Honour from the Services of Hypocrites but what he distrains for by his publick Judgements Thus a form is a desperate Incentive to and a plausible Engine of the greatest Villanies Cain first Sacrificed to his God and then slaughtered his Brother Jezabel institutes a Fast and then thirsts for the Blood of Naboth The strange Woman paid her vowes with Peace-offerings in her hands and then managed the Artifices of an Adulteress and entred into Obscene Dialogues of defiling her husbands Bed The Jews consecrated Gifts to the Treasury of the Temple and then cryed the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are we but the Corban turned Bethel the House of God into Bethaven an House of Affliction to their indigent and unrelieved Parents Thus a Formalist makes the Rites of Religion a Gloss for sin sollicits wickedness