Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
truth_n saviour_n spirit_n worship_v 2,314 5 9.2452 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A44513 The crucified Jesus, or, A full account of the nature, end, design and benefits of the sacrament of the Lords Supper with necessary directions, prayers, praises and meditations to be used by persons who come to the Holy Communion / by Anthony Horneck ... Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697. 1695 (1695) Wing H2823; ESTC R35435 411,793 617

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

nothing of there my belief and actions go hand in hand together and if I hate to profess one thing and to do another then my service is truly reasonable and I have not receiv'd the Sacrament in vain 2. In subjecting our Flesh and Bodies to our reason This is to make our Members or Bodies instruments of Righteousness as it is said Rom. 6. 13. And what can be more reasonable than that the Slave should be subject to his Lord the servant to his Master the base and ignoble part to the more excellent the flesh to the Spirit and the Law of the Members to the Law of the Mind I have seen saith Salomon Servants upon Horses and Princes walk as Servants upon the Earth Eccl. 10. 7. The Moral of it is that it is unnatural unreasonable horridly monstrous to make our Reason a slave to our Interest and to suffer the Brute to ride the Man when Reason is only made use of to cater and provide for the ease and satisfaction of the Flesh it is as dismal a sight as to see a King brought to the Block and an excellent Prince Murther'd by his Subjects And therefore where Reason enlighten'd by the day-spring from on high and by the Lanthorn of the Word of God points at the Will of God and the Eye will not look upon vanity and dangerous shews and lustful objects because Reason saith that gazing upon them is unlawful and the Ears will not hearken to corrupt Communications nor to filthy jests and talk because Reason says that this becomes not the gravity of Saints and the Tongue will not speak any thing but what may Edifie and administer Grace unto the Hearer because Reason says that this is the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and the hands will touch nothing that may raise unclean Thoughts or disorderly Desires because Reason says that this is to shun the occasions of evil and the Body will eat and drink moderately and will not pamper it self because Reason says that Moderation is the Christians Motto and the want of it grieves the Spirit of God there the Service is reasonable and an argument that we have not receiv'd the Sacrament in vain 3. In worshiping God with the understanding and inward Man If a Man talks with his Neighbour his Understanding ordinarily is fixt upon the subject he discourses of and what is Praying and Praising but speaking to God And surely no rational Creature will think that God deserves less attention than Man If with my Lips I pray and my Mind is at Rome or Constantinople if my Mouth Sings and my Thoughts are in my Shop if I read or hear the Word of God and my Thoughts are upon my Trade or Worldly business it is a brutish not reasonable service This the very Heathens have taken notice of as were an easie thing to prove Cato Epictetus Plato and Antoninus if there were occasion The Understanding must bear a principal part in the Devotion and I must not only understand the thing I pray for but my Understanding and Thoughts must keep pace with my Prayer and fix upon the tremendous Majesty I address too and though there are very few Men so happy as to fix their Understanding upon a Spiritual object in Devotion without the least variation or wandring of the Thoughts yet he that means to offer God his reasonable service must hold his Understanding to it as much as lies in him and if at any time it declines from that point reduce it and bring it back again to the Center from which it hath swerv'd and though the service be thereby somewhat interrupted yet as long as the interruption is not wilful God will still accept of it as of a reasonable service II. Nor need we wonder why this should be necessary For 1. The service must ever resemble God to whom it is offer'd and God being the highest reason and the Fountain of it the service must be answerable To worship the most reasonable Being with unreasonable offerings is a thing so absurd that the very sound of it is enough to fright us from it To worship God with our Bodies while our Souls do adore and admire something else is to make God a sensual Being and therefore our Saviour from the notion of God's being a Spirit enforces the Duty of Worshiping him in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4. 24. 2. It is necessary for our own sakes If it be not reasonable we can take no comfort in it and besides cannot avoid running into Hypocrisie Hypocrisie is to seem to be good and not to be so as a false Pearl seems to be Oriental but is not It 's this reasonable service which must give our Devotion its just weight and goodness where this is wanting a Man seems to please God but doth not and from hence must necessarily arise great delusions and deceptions and the Soul that hath long flatter'd her self with external services when before the great Tribunal it shall find how wofully and wilfully it has mistaken the nature and design of the Gospel must fall into everlasting Grief and Torment The Preceding Considerations reduced to farther Practice I. TO be in an unconverted estate and to live below ones reason are one and the same thing Look upon a poor sensual Wretch that is yet a stranger to the life of God He rejoyces in those Sins which will make him infallibly miserable He stands upon the brink of Destruction and Laughs God is angry with him and he is pleased with it He prefers a Stone before Bread a Serpent before a Fish He glories in his Shame Triumphs in his Fetters breaks the Laws of the great Thunderer and justifies his actions and what is this but madness and distraction And O Sinner Is this a condition to sleep another Night in Is this a State to continue in one Moment longer Awake awake thou sluggard lest the Revenger of Blood overtake thee II. What pity is it to see Men so rational in their Temporal Concerns and so unreasonable in the things which belong to their everlasting Peace They would not make a false step nor do an imprudent action in the management of their Estates and Fortunes yet manage the greatest concerns of their Salvation so sillily so foolishly so irrationally that one would think they were intended for no higher life than that of Bees and Butter-flies O Christians Is there such a thing as a life to come and an immortal Life purchased by the Blood of the Son of God and is it not reasonable to look after it with the greatest application of your minds and understandings What will all your Wisdom in getting provision for the Flesh profit you while you are Fools in the things of God of Heaven and Eternity O Sirs Think of this reasonable service without which it had been better that you had never been born The PRAYER O God Great and Glorious I have too long measur'd thy service by mine own ease more