Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	john_n	spirit_n	worshipper_n	1,614	5	12.0333	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45474	A vindication of the ancient liturgie of the Church of England wherein the several pretended reasons for altering or abolishing the same, are answered and confuted / by Henry Hammond ... ; written by himself before his death.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1660 (1660)	Wing H617; ESTC R21403	95,962	97

lay any heavier charge upon it Sect. 22 From all which considered and a great deal more which might be added from the usefulnesse of known Forms to those whose understandings are not quick enough to go along with unknown and if they have no other are faine ofttimes to return without performing any part of that so necessary duty of prayer in the Church from the experience of the effects of the contrary doctrine the many scandalous passages which have fallen from Ministers in their extemporary Prayers of which meer pity and humanity civility and mercy to Enemies restrains us from inserting a large Catalogue and the no manner of advantage above that which set Forms may also afford but onely of satisfaction to the itching eare exercise and pleasure to the licentio●● tongue and the vanity of the reputation of being able to perform that office so fluently which yet is no more then the Rabbins allow Achitophel that he had every day three new Forms of prayer or having a plentifull measure of the Spirit which is believed to infuse such eloquence I shall now conclude it impossible that any humane eye should discern 〈◊〉 Necessitie in respect of Ecclesiasticall policy edifying the Church why all Liturgie should be destroyed not wash't nor purg'd with Sope suc● any Reformation would be but torn and consumed with nitre for suc● is abolition why it should suffer this Ostracisme unlesse as Aristides di● for being too vertuous be thus vehemently first declaimed and then b● nish'd out of the Church Sect. 23 Secondly for outward bodily worship 't is particularly prohibited by the Directory at one time at the taking of our seats or places when we enter th● Assembly directly contrary to that of I●idor si quis veniat cùm lectio celebratur adoret tantùm Deum If any come in when the Lesson is a reading let him onely perform adoration to God hearken to what is read neve so much as recommended at any time nor one would think permitted i● any part of their publick service like the Persians in Strabo l. 15. that never offer'd any part of the flesh to the Gods in their sacrifices kept all th● to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposing the Gods would b● content with the souls which in the blood were powred out and sacrificed to their honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they said that the Gods wanted and desired the souls for a sacrifice b● not any thing else of which people Herodotus l. 1. hath observed that they had neither Templars nor Altar and laugh'd at them which built either but went to the top of some hill or other and there sacrificed prefe●ring such naturall Altars before any other The former of these is th● avowed Divinity of these men and might perhaps have been attende● with the latter too were it not that there be so many Churches alread● built conveniently to their hands in stead of which our Liturgie hat● thought fit not onely to recommend but prescribe bodily worship fi●● by directing in the Rubrick what part of service shall be performed kneeling then by reading the Venite where all encourage and call up one th● others to worship and fall down and kneel c. to worship i. e. adore whic● peculiarly notes bodily worship and so surely the falling down and kneeling before the Lord. And of this I shall say that it is 1. an act of obedience to that precept of glorifying God in our bodies as well as souls 2. A transcribing of Christs copy who kneeled and even prostrated himself in prayer of many holy men in Scripture who are affirmed to have done so and that affirmation written for our example and even of the Publican who though standing yet by standing afar off by not looking up by striking his breast did clearly joyn bodily worship to his prayer of Lord be mercifull to me a sinner used at his coming into the Temple and in that posture thrived better then the Pharisee in his loftier garbe went away more justified saith our Saviour as a vessel at the foot of a hill will say the Artists receive and contain more water then the same or the like vessell on the top of it would be able to do and he that shall do the like that shall joyn adoration of God and nothing but God to the use of that or the like servent ejaculation at his entrance into Gods house will sure have Christs approbation of the Publicans behaviour to justifie him from any charge of superstition in so doing and besides 3. the most agreeable humble gesture and so best becoming and evidencing and helping the inward performance of that most lowly dutie of Prayer and consequently that it may be charged with blasphemy as well and as properly as with superstition and probably would be so if the latter were not the more odious of the two and indeed why kneeling or bowing should be more lyable to that censure then either mentall or orall prayer there is no reason imaginable it being as possible that one may be directed to a false object and so become Idolatrous or superstitious in the true notion of those words as they denote the worship of Idols or dead men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or superstites as the other and for the improper notion of Superstition the one again as much capable of being an excesse in Religion the mind or tongue being as likely to enlarge and exceed as the body or of using a piece of false Religion as the other the bodily worship duly performed to God being the payment of a debt to God and no doubt acceptable when it is paid with a true heart and no way an argument of want but a probable evidence of the presence and cooperation of inward devotion as I remember Nazianzen saith of his Father Or. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shewed a great deal in the outside but kept the greater treasure within in the invisible part And on the other side the stiffnesse of the knee an argument of some eminent defect if not of true piety yet of somewhat else and Christs prediction John 4. that the time should come that the worshippers should worship God in spirit and truth being not set in opposition to bodily worship but to the appropriating it to some singular places Jerusalem or that Mountain not producible as any apology or excuse for such omission To these brief intimations I shall need adde no more when the conclusion that I am to inferre is so moderate being onely this that it is not necessary to turn all bowing or kneeling or bodily worship out of the Church were there any superstition in any one or more gestures this were too great a severity to mulct the Church of all above the proportion of the most unlimited arbitrary Court whose amercements must alwayes be within the compasse of salvo contenemente which this will not be if there be no competency of bodily worship left behind