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truth_n spirit_n worship_v worshipper_n 8,943 5 13.1108 5 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A61386 An antidote against distractions, or, An indeavour to serve the church, in the daily case of wandrings in the worship of God by Richard Steele M.A. and minister of the Gospel. Steele, Richard, 1629-1692. 1667 (1667) Wing S5382; ESTC R8661 121,210 256

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Creatures Isa. 45.11 Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his Maker If a servant must not be frivolous before his Master when he is receiving his commands who dares be so before his Maker who can as easily reward or ruine us as I can turn over a leaf in this Bible This Himself gives for the reason of that dreadful curse Mal. 1.14 upon the Deceiver that having a Male in his flock offers to God a corrupt thing For I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts and my name is dreadfull among the Heathen Which of you will be thinking of your wives or children or ground when you are offering a Petition to a great King or run after Feathers when he is saying his mind to you Thou takest God to be such a one as thy self or else thou wouldest never do it Remember a great God must be worshipped with profound veneration and the most serious affections A man must worship God as if he were in Heaven Oh if thou wert there among those myriads of Saints and Angels with what care and humility and instance wouldest thou pour out thy heart to him or hear his words to thee 2. The Holiness of God is another Reason who is so sacred that an unholy Thought is abomination to him most especially in his holy Service Who can by an eye of Faith behold the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and his train filling the Temple And the Seraphinis crying one to another and saying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts Isa. 6.1 2. and suffer his heart to be ravisht away with transitory toyes in such a Sacred presence Are the Seraphims amazed at his holiness and we untransported Their thoughts are continually terminated upon him And should ours be allwayes flinching from him The Holy Lord of Hosts will not brook it If you will not sanctifie him he will sanctifie himself If you that worship him will not bear witness by your serious attendance to his Holiness He must bear witness to it by his Judgements on You which indeed are not allwayes visible but ever certain not a man in the Congregation but the Holy God is Sanctified by him or upon him Little do we know what invisible dreadfull effects there are of this daily in our Congregations And if our dear Redeemer did not stand as a skreen between us and his wrath the best of us would quickly feel the effects of his Displeasure 3. The Omniscience of God is a valid reason against Distractions Heb. 4.13 All things are naked and opened to him with whom we have to deal not only naked on the outside of us but cut up and anatomised in the inside That sharp and piercing eye looks through and through us and neither doth or can look beside us Whither can I goe from thy spirit and whither can I flee from thy presence shall the Husband fix his eye on his Wife and she that while dart her glances on her Paramour Is this reasonable or tolerable Get out of his sight and trifle on Steal into some corner where he sees you not and be truants and spare not Be but an Eye-servant to God and wee 'l ask no more Be serious while He sees you dally not while he holds you the candle A curious Eye requires a carefull servant Object But this is spoken gratis I see no body but the Minister and People seeing is believing I know no body that seeth me Answ. 1. No more doest thou see that faculty by which thou seest Is there therefore no such faculty Is there no spirits because thou never sawest them when did you see the wind and yet you doubt not of it Nay hath not he declared to thee what is thy thought Amos 4.13 in many a Sermon 2. There is another eye by which Gods Ordinary-Presence is seen which thou hast not That is an eye of Faith which if fixed in thy heart would quickly make thee cry How dreadfull is this place This is no other than the house of God and the Gate of Heaven If an hundred credible persons affirm they saw a Great man in the Congregation you would believe them though not seen by you and would conclude it your own inadvertency Hundreds there daily are that do avouch they saw felt heard imbraced the gracious presence of God and therefore conclude it your Blindness not his Distance that you saw him not SECT II. THE second Reason is taken from the Nature of his Worship 1. It is Reasonable Worship not only consonant to the Rules of Reason and backed by the most Rational Principles but must be managed as a Rational Act. Now it is a most irrational thing to converse with God without an Heart This is a silly thing as Hos. 7.11 Ephraim is called a silly Dove without Heart A Dove without spirit and a silly Dove without reason or judgement God had rather hear the roaring of a Lyon than an heartless prayer He delights more in the chirping of birds than in singing of Psalms without understanding for these do what they can and so are accepted but bruitish service from a reasonable Creature is intolerable Is it reason you should cry out for the spirit and think on the flesh be hearkning about another world and ruminating on this your eyes directed to Heaven and your Heart in the ends of the Earth the tongue busie and the soul idle the knee devout and the thoughts loose there is no coherence no reason in this When ye work work and when ye pray pray and do it with understanding 1 Cor. 14.15 What it is then I will pray with the spirit and will pray with the understanding also I will sing with the spirit and will sing with the understanding also Consider that else thou art as a mad man before God and God hath no need of mad men if one should come to thee about business of life and death and after a word or two therein should run from one impertinent thing to another would you not think him mad If thy thoughts were put into words and mingled with thy prayers what strange mad prayers would they be 2. It is spiritual-worship and therefore you may not be distracted in it Joh. 4.23 24. The true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him Others may seek to worship the Father but the Father seeketh such to worship him to wit that worship in Spirit and in Truth In Spirit and so not like the formal Jews In Truth and so not like the ignorant Gentiles And then vers 24. God is a Spirit and must be worshipped Here 's Must and Shall and Reason for it As a spirit can do nothing at eating so a carkass can do nothing at praying The elegantest tongues on earth cannot take one stroak at prayer no the soul must be in it and the soul must