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
A70321	A view of the nevv directorie and a vindication of the ancient liturgie of the Church of England in answer to the reasons pretended in the ordinance and preface, for the abolishing the one, and establishing the other.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.; Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649.; England and Wales. Sovereign (1625-1649 : Charles I). Proclamation commanding the use of the Booke of common prayer.	1646 (1646)	Wing H614B; ESTC R2266	98,033	122

restraines us from inserting a large Catalogue and the no manner of advantage above that which set Formes may also afford but only of satisfaction to the itching eare exercise and pleasure to the licentious tongue and the vanity of the reputation of being able to performe that office so fluently which yet is no more then the Rabbins allow Achitophel that he had every day three new Formes of Prayer or of having a plentifull measure of the Spirit which is beleeved to infuse such eloquence I shall now conclude it impossible that any humane eye should discern a Necessity in respect of Ecclesiasticall policy or edifying the Church why all Liturgy should be destroyed not wash't not purg'd with Sope such any Reformation would be but torne and consumed with nitre for such is abolition why it should suffer this Ostracisme unlesse as Aristides did for being too vertuous be thus vehemently first declamed and then banish'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 seates or places when we enter the Assembly directly contrary to that of Isidor si quis veniat cum lectio celebratur adoret tantùm Deum if any come in when the Lesson is a reading let him only performe adoration to God and hearken to what is read and never so much as recommended at any time nor one would think permitted in 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 that to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposing the Gods would be content with the soules which in the blood were powred out and sacrificed to their honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they said that the Gods wanted and desired the soules for a sacrifice but not any thing else of which People Herodotus l. 1. hath observed that they had neither Temples nor Altar and laugh'd at them which built either but went to the top of some hill or other and there sacrificed preferring such naturall Altars before any other The former of these is the avowed Divinity of these men and might perhaps have been attended with the latter too were it not that there be so many Churches already built conveniently to their hands Instead of which our Liturgy hath thought fit not only to recommend but prescribe bodily worship first by directing in the Rubrick what part of service shall be performed kneeling then by reading the Venite where all encourage and call upon the others to worship and fall down and kneele c. to worship i. e. adore which 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. Atranscribing of Christs Copy who kneeled and even prostrated himselfe 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 a far 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 vessell at the foot of a hill will say the Artists receive and contain more water then the same or a 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 fervent ejaculation at his entrance into Gods house will sure have Christs approbation of the Publicans behaviour to justify 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 duty of Prayer and consequently that it may be charg'd with blasphemy as well and as properly as with supersition 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 duely performed to God being the payment of a debt to God and no doubt acceptable when 't 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 deale in the outside but kept the greater treasure within in the invisible part And on the other side the stiffenesse of the knee an argument of some eminent defect if not of true piety yet of somewhat else and Christs prediction Joh. 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 briefe intimations I shall need adde no more when the conclusion that I am to inferre is so moderate being only 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 alwaies be within the compasse of salvo contenemento which this will not be if there be no competency of bodily worship left behind and that the Liturgy doth better to prescribe it at fit times then the Directory to omit all mention of it at all times unlesse by way of dislike and prohibition Which conclusion will be the more easily evinced against them by asking them whether in their Family-Parlour-Prayers or in their private Closet Prayers they do not approve and practice that gesture which as I believe in charity they do so I must from thence inferre that by them the House of God is the only place thought fit to be despised And if it be replyed that the Directory

gift as under our Liturgy is pretended and so here under pretence of supplying the ships all such idle Mariners in the ship of the Church are supplyed also which it seems was foreseen at the writing that preface to the Directory where they say the Minister may if need be have from ●hem some helpe and furniture 5. That the Preface to this new Work entitled A reason of this work containeth many other things which tend as much to the retracting their former work as Judas's throwing back the mony did to his repentance Sect 2 As 1. That there are thousands of Ships belonging to this Kingdome which have not Ministers with them to guide them in Prayer and therefore either use the Common Prayer or no Prayer at all This shewes the nature of that fact of those which without any objection mentioned against any Prayer in that book which was the only help for the devotion of many thousands left them for some Months to perfect irreligion and Atheisme and not Praying at all And besides these ships which they here confesse how many Land-companies be there in the same condition how many thousand families which have no Minister in them of which number the House of Commons was alwaies wont to be one and the House of Lords since the Bishops were removed from thence and to deale plainly how many Ministers will there alwaies be in England and Wales for sure your care for the Vniversities is not so great as to be likely to worke Miracles which will not have skill or power or gift which you please of conceiving Prayers as they ought to do and therefore let me impart to you the thoughts of many prudent men since the newes of your Directory and abolition of our Liturgy that it would prove a most expedite way to bring in Atheisme and this it seems you do already discern and confesse in the next words that the no prayer at all which succeeded the abolishing of the Liturgy is likely to make them rather Heathens then Christians and hath left the Lords day without any marke of piety or devotion a sad and most considerable truth which some persons ought to lament with a wounded bleeding conscience the longest day of their life and therefore we are apt to beleeve your charity to be more extensive then the title of that book enlarges it and that it hath designed this supply not only to those ships but to all other in the like want of our Liturgy Your only blame in this particular hath been that you would not be so ingenuous as Judas and some others that have soon retracted their precipicous action and confest they did so and made restitution presently while you rather then you will to rescue men from heathenisme caused by your abolition restore the Book again and confesse you have sinned in condemning an innocent Liturgy will appoint some Assembler to compile a poor sorry piteous forme of his own of which I will appeale to your greatest flatterer if it be not so low that it cannot come into any tearmes of comparison or competition with those formes already prescribed in our book and so still you justify your errour even while you confesse it Sect 3 2. That 't is now hoped that 't will be no griefe of heart to full Christians if the thirsty drink out of cisterns when themselves drink out of fountaines c. which is the speciall part of that ground on which we have first formed now labour'd to preserve our Liturgy on purpose that weaker Christians may have this constant supply for their infirmities that weake Ministers may not be forced to betray their weaknesse that they that have not the gift of Prayer as even in the Apostles times there were divers gifts and all Ministers had not promise to succeed in all but one in one another in another gift by the same spirit may have the helpe of these common gifts and standing treasures of Prayer in the Church and because there be so many of these kinds to be lookt for in a Church that those which are able to pray as they ought without a forme may yet in publick submit to be thus restrain'd to the use of so excellent a forme thus set before them rather then others should be thus adventur'd to their own temerity or incurre the reproach of being thought not able and then this providing for the weak both Minister and People will not now I hope be charged on the Liturgy by those who hope their supply of Prayer will be no griefe to others Sect 4 3. That these Prayers being enlivened and sent up by the spirit in him that prayeth may be lively prayers and acceptable to him who is a spirit and accepts of service in spirit and truth Where 1. It appears by that confession that as the place that speaks of worshipping in spirit and truth is not of any force against set prayers so neither is that either of the Spirits helping our infirmities belonging as it is here confest most truly to the zeale and fervor and intensenesse of devotion infused by the Spirit and not to the words wherein the addresse is made which if the Spirit may not infuse also in the use of our Liturgy and assist a Minister and Cnngregation in the Church as well and as effectually as a company of Mariners in a ship I shall then confesse that the Directory first and then this Supply may be allow'd to turne it out of the Church Sect 5 Lastly That in truth though Prayers come never so new even from the Spirit in one that is a guide in Prayer if the Spirit do not quicken and enliven that prayer in the hearer that followes him it is to him but a dead forme and a very carcase of Prayer which words being really what they say a truth a perfect truth and more soberly spoken then all or any period in the Preface to the Directory I shall oppose against that whole Act of abolition as a ground of confutation of the principall part of it and shall only adde my desire that it be considered what Prayers are most likely to be thus quickned and enlivened by the spirit in the hearer those that he is master of and understands and knowes he may joyn in or those which depend wholy on the will of the Speaker which perhaps he understandeth not and never knowes what they are till they are delivered nor whether they be fit for him to joyne in or in plainer words whether a man be likely to pray and aske most fervently he knowes not what or that which he knowes and comes on purpose to pray For sure the quicking and enlivening of the Spirit is not so perfectly miracle as to exclude all use of reason or understanding to prepare for a capacity of it for then there had been no need to have turn'd the Latine Service out of the Church the spirit would have quickned those Prayers also CHAP. III. HAving thus