Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	spirit_n	worship_v	worshipper_n	8,943	5	13.1108	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26753	A sermon at the Warwick-shire meeting, November 25, 1679, at S. Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, London by William Basset ...	Basset, William, 1644-1695.	1679 (1679)	Wing B1053; ESTC R13214	18,472	35

him not in Heaven nor in Hell not in the utmost parts of the Sea nor in the darkest night therefore verse 7. Whither shall I flee from thy presence Which being proposed by way of question implies the stronger Negation Therefore if we will make sense of those places we must understand the Psal as reaching after a more than ordinary presence which is the presence of God in places of publick worship which all sincere worshipers do enjoy By which kind of speeches he seems so to value the presence of God in his publick worship that he looks upon all things without this to be worth nothing And certainly where there is a spiritual life wrought in us it will discover it self by reaching after the utmost participations of divine things And the Gospel however a furtherer of private devotions yet doth in an especial manner command and incourage a publick Service as by the example of the Apostles which as a tacite precept requires the like of us To which end we find sometimes the place of their assembling recorded Act. 1.13 14. In an upper room they continued with one accord in prayer and supplication And otherwiles the time is mentioned Joh. 20.26 After eight days the disciples again were within which number includes two Sundays according to a computation then in use which was to take in the day from which they began their account thereby putting two Sundays into one week And when Christians began to grow cool and negligent in the publick presenting their Bodies the Author to the Heb. 10.25 both reproves this growing evil and charges others to avoid it not forsaking the assembling your selves together as the manner of some is And no wonder the Scripture is so round in this matter since the neglect of publick most certainly draws after it the neglect of all private duties therefore those that excuse their not frequenting publick Ordinances by a pretence of serving God at home are like those that will have every day a Sabbath till at last they keep none at all And good reason private devotions should give way to publick services because these are the most ordinary and beaten road to Heaven and a more usual conveyance of Grace than other Performances For Faith is said to come by hearing and this hearing such as is from Preaching How shall they hear without a Preacher Rom. Christ appeared to the first Christians when assembled together Joh. 20.26 The Holy Ghost descended upon them when met together with one accord in one place Act. 2. And our Saviour promises Matth. 18.20 that when two or three are met together in his name he will be in the midst of them Which must be understood in a more peculiar and especial manner than by his essential presence in regard of which he is at all times present with all his Creatures And no wonder this hath the greater blessing since we do in this more than any other way make a visible profession and thereby give more praise and glory to God than in private and unseen services Therefore as God hath so entwisted his Honour and our happiness together that it is impossible to separate them for the same Acts do both so those acts that most advance his Glory usually tend most to the advantage of him that doth them Whence the Apostle seeing these two ends best attainable by a publick worship doth press us to present our bodies a living sacrifice and therefore to present them in that way that Sacrifices were offered which was in the most solemn and publick manner 4. The Text fixes this Worship on the Body That ye present your Bodies Which by a Synechdoche partis pro toto is put for the whole man That ye present your selves Where observe That the Body is engaged in this work Though indeed there is no Text that doth expresly exclude it yet because there is one that doth not in terminis include the Body as John 4.23 The true worshipers shall worship in spirit and in truth Therefore some will have the Soul alone concerned and not the Body at all in Divine Worship But as out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaks so bodily worship is in and flows from that of the spirit nothing being more natural than outwardly to express our inward sentiments and especially the awfulness we have of the Deity In most ordinary cases it is judged Hypocrisie to do otherwise and in this it cannot be without some violence offered to our selves for it is certainly contrary to the reasons and experience of all observing men that when we come to the place and Offices of a publick Worship men should have any due and suitable thoughts of the presence they come before and not express the same in outward gestures and behaviour I am sure none will believe that man hath any internal or mental reverence for his Superiours who when in their presence doth not outwardly express the same For we measure the thoughts by the actions and guess at the Soul by the Body Much more must we think thus in the case before us for God being the greatest and most excellent of all beings if we have worthy thoughts of him the mind is so struck and the soul receives such deep impressions that we much more necessarily in outward gestures discover the awful and reverend thoughts we have of the Deity than we do our respects to Superiors who being but fellow-creatures differ from us not in infinite as God doth but in some few and little distances and doubtless our Saviour requiring a spiritual worship doth as much intend that of the Body too as those Scriptures mean so many persons that speak only of so many souls Gen. 12.5 And Abraham took Sarai his wife c. and all the Souls they had gotten c. And it seems very observable that when men once exclude the reverence of the Body they quickly lose that of the Soul too as appears from such mens expressions who make their prayers familiar discourses with God Almighty which must proceed from want of due thoughts of God whereupon they make themselves too much like him or him too much like themselves Neither is it any wonder that our Saviour expresly requires a spiritual worship rather than a bodily Because 1. This is the greater and carries the other along with it whereas that is the less and may be because it sometimes is without this 2. Christ was here nulling the Mosaick Dispensation which was called a Carnal Command Heb. 7.16 the reason of which we find Ch. 9 10. because it stood in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed upon them Therefore being now to bring in a worship which rested not so much in bodily Exercises it was most proper and subservient to this present design to call it a spiritual worship not only because the denomination is now taken from the major part but also that men might hereby be prepared by taking off their minds

which he speaks expresly of the Gentiles Who being without law viz. that of Revelation do by nature the things contained in the law having the law written on their hearts For the presenting our selves a sacrifice holy and acceptable to God is the whole substance of all the practick part of natural Religion which being taken away we know not where to place such Religion unless in mere notions or speculations and such can be neither a Religion nor a Law which doth not direct and oblige us in matters of good and evil Therefore the subject of and duty pressed by the Text being natural and consequently a reasonable service we have this advantage and incouragement to it viz. When the Gospel proposes and presses this duty upon us Reason steps in and speaks it good and eligible and conducive to our present and future safety This is the main thing that makes his commands as S. John speaks 1 Ep. 5.3 That they are not grievous For when reason can discover no good and necessity in the thing injoyned as it is in pure positives such as be Circumcision Abstinencies from some sorts of Meat and in divers other Mosaick Rights and Customs nature draws back and rejects these Precepts as matters of toil and self-denyal but of no advantage which perhaps is the reason why the breach of some Positives under the Law was more severely threatened than sin in some points that were intrinsecally good and evil Whereas when the matter of a Precept is agreeable to our Reasons we have an argument within even the same reason which presses us to close with the external Precept And that it is so in this case I leave even your selves to judge For what is more just and reasonable than this that we should present our selves a living sacrifice to that God from whom we have received our Bodies our Beings together with all the comforts and blessings of them What more fitting than that we should live to his Glory in whom we live and move What more equitable than that we should obey him to whom we do belong by all the sacred ties of Creation Redemption Dedication and voluntary Resignation of our selves This is so clear and undeniable a thing that all men that have and will use their reason must subscribe to it as our Reasonable Service Therefore if men will not do so the disadvantage lies here that they sin not only against Revelation but nature too And therefore shall be self-condemn'd as well as by that Judge of quick and dead And thence go with shame and silence into those miseries that wait them who know God but will not call upon his name Therefore if there be any Virtue any Praise any Pity and Compassion for your selves let the importunity of so great an Apostle prevail with us in a thing so just and reasonable Ibeseech you brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies which is your reasonable service In fine One great reason why many live no better and do no more good in their generations is this that they worship no more Therefore S. Paul doth press us to the duties of the former Table that is to own and present our selves a sacrifice to God and in case men are sincere in this one point it will most certainly put them upon Sobriety and Righteousness Brotherly-kindness and Charity injoyned by the latter Table that by this means men may be not only a Sacrifice but also holy and acceptable to God For this part of our Religion doth sweetly influence our whole lives For this weakens corruptions restores us more to our selves and inables us to live up to the Rules and Dictates of right reason and therefore disposed to all good Offices And where men are not so much wanting in the thing as mistaken in the ends and motives of it this rectifies all these errours too Therefore it is chiefly from hence that men become truly kind and affable which is not only agreeable to our natures as we are sociable creatures but doth also capacitate us to become the greater Benefactors to our selves and others For by society and converse we come to understand the world and thereby become more capable of advancing our own and other mens interest and therefore by the same means mutually inable and incourage to do good to others as God hath done good to us Which is the great design of this days Assembly as appears not only from the practises of former Stewards of this Company who have yearly set out to Trades as many poor Children of our County of Warwick as there be Stewards of the said Company which be in number eight But also from the generous inclinations of you the present Stewards who seem resolved not to fall short of any that have went before you And indeed as this is one of the first of all the Counties of England that hath met in this nature so you have from year to year in such measures out done them all that you are looked upon as Ensamples to the rest So true is it of your works as S. Paul speaks of the Romans Faith they are famous in the world And since we may say you have run well though I do not fear it this present year it is pity it should ever be said Who hath hindered you For to do good and to communicate in any way is worthy of Men and Christians But this is certainly one of the most generous and best methods of Charity we can think of For to relieve sinking persons and Families is a very good Office and in no wise shall miss its reward but is not likely to prove so advantageous to a Society as this for by such means we keep those persons so relieved from some measures of Distress but they are never likely hereby unless in some rare instance so to rise in the world as to become serviceable to their Generations Whereas this puts poor Children who else might have lay as Vassals unable to help themselves or others into a capacity of becoming men and of making others so Therefore you know not how extensive your Liberalities may prove and what publick Blessings time and industry may make them for who can say what great Traders what large Estates and what considerable Families may spring from these beginnings Therefore as the main end of all Societies is the preservation of the whole which is best done by preserving and advancing particulars you do in this way admirably answer her main intendments And if we look back to former Ages we shall find such publick spirits even in the Gentile World that the Roman Orator lays it down as a common Truth Non nobis nati we are born for the good of others as well as our own Which principle carried some of them so far that they deemed it a happiness when need required Pro patriâ mori To give their lives for the Honour and Safety of that place where they first received them