Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A47436
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A discourse concerning the inventions of men in the worship of God by William Lord Bishop of Derry ...
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King, William, 1650-1729.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing K528; ESTC R9667
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85,542
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194
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in thine Heart that God hath raised Him from the Dead thou shalt be saved For with the Heart Man believes unto Righteousness and with the Mouth Confession is made unto salvation To profess solemnly that we expect no Happiness but from the good pleasure of God and that we freely acquiesce in his Provisions for us is no small Evidence of the submission of our Minds to God and upon that account may be reckoned an Instance of External Worship and accordingly many of the Psalms contain such Confessions 3. You sit generally at your Publick Prayers 4. At the holy Sacrament you sit not only whilst you Receive but likewise at the Thanksgiving and Blessing before and your Directory imposes this posture on Communicants tho' contrary to Holy Scripture in respect of that part that concerns the Prayer and Thanksgiving and without any Command or so much as Example from Scripture in respect of the sitting at the time of Receiving 5. Too many of your perswasion condemn us who conform to God's Word in these particulars as guilty of Superstition and endeavour to render our Conformity ridiculous not being content to lay aside the Commands of God themselves but endeavouring likewise to condemn and scoff at the Observation of them in Vs. In short I entreat you to consider That you have not any one Visible Act of Adoration amongst you in your Assemblies except we reckon in this Number That your Men Vncover their Heads at Prayer and yet even this is not required by your Directory III. And now let me a while Examine calmly with you the Pretences I have met with for laying aside this part of God's Worship for it is not probable that any would banish Adoration out of their Assemblies and alledge no Reason for their doing so 1. First therefore I find that place of Scripture produced to this purpose John iv 24 God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth Some think that all Bodily Worship is here forbidden and that only the Worship of the Spirit or Mind is required of us under the Gospel Upon this some have declared against all Churches or separate places for Worship Others are against all Bodily VVorship Others against all Sacraments Others against all Vocal Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings And even in the Apostle's time some were against all Visible Assemblies And indeed if we understand this place as some do that all Bodily Worship is excluded by it and that it is sufficient to Worship God in our Spirits or Minds only I do not see but all these are in the right and those who pretend to be above Ordinances and worship God no-where are most conformable to this Rule and next to them the silent Meetings of the Quakers without Sacraments without Vocal Prayers or Praises are the most spiritual service For if other Dissenters think Bodily Worship such as Bowing Kneeling c. Unlawful or Unnecessary because they are Acts of the Body and unfit on that account to be offered to God who is a Spirit why may not the Quakers omit the Sacraments and the Words of the Mouth which are Outward Things as well as the other Nay why should not outward Teaching or Preaching cease Since the Spirit is a sufficient Teacher and has promised us Heb. viii 10 I will put my Laws into their Minds and write them in their Hearts Vers. 11. And they shall not teach every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother c. The Principle and Reasoning is the same in all these and will justifie the Silent Meetings of the Quakers nay the Extravagance of Those that pretend to be above all Ordinances as well as the Irreverence of other Dissenters But we ought to interpret Scripture so as one place may not contradict another and since the Holy Scriptures shew us that God requires our Vocal Prayers and Praises our Visible Sacraments and Adoration we ought not to interpret worshiping in the Spirit so as to exclude these but rather conclude that they may be offered up to God in such a manner as to become proper for spiritual VVorship or God would never have required them When therefore our Saviour represents the Worship He taught the World as a Worship in Spirit and Truth his meaning doubtless is not to exempt us from worshiping his Father with our Bodies whereof He Himself has given us an Example but to teach us That the Outward Acts of Worship that we pay to God are only Acceptable to Him when they proceed from and are accompanied with a hearty submission of our Souls and that every Act is more or less Acceptable as it has more or less of our Hearts and Affections in it But that Circumstances of place and the like give us no Advantage and are of no value towards making our Worship Acceptable This meaning of the words directly answers our Saviour's design which was to shew the Samaritan Woman that the time was coming that the Worship offered to God under the Gospel would be nothing more acceptable for being offered at Jerusalem or Mount-Gerezim or any other place But the Heart being right all places were alike Which was directly contrary to the Jewish Law that allowed no Sacrifice or Oblation to be acceptable to God that was not offered at the Temple and consequently their Worship derived its acceptance from the place and not from the Heart alone of him that offered it We affirm therefore as our Saviour has here taught us that it is only from the Heart or Spirit that our Worship becomes acceptable to God and that the time or place where it is offered contributes nothing to our acceptance But that in whatever place at whatever time in whatsoever posture we offer up our Spirits and Hearts to God we are accepted by him But then we say likewise a Man who neglects the Assemblies of Christians cannot have a good Heart towards God because he breaks his Command that such as do not take care to provide a convenient and decent place and set it apart for Christians to meet and to perform God's Worship in cannot have a value for it that such as neglect the Holy Sacraments want Faith in His promises as well as Obedience to His Commands and that those who neglect to Worship him with their Body and to pay outward Reverence and Adoration when they come into his presence must want inward submission of their minds because they do not approach as he requires If a Man truly Worship God in his Spirit it will oblige him if able to perform these outward Acts and if he be not able God doth not require them It is in this as in Faith Jam. ii 18 A Man may say Thou hast Faith and I have Works Shew me thy Faith without thy Works and I will shew thee my Faith by my Works After the same manner a Man may say Thou Worshipest God inwardly in Heart and Spirit and I Worship him outwardly and in
you it is often omitted for several years together and in some places for ten or more I fear I may say Your people generally have too little sence of the Obligation of Receiving it at all and your Ministers indulge them so far in this corruption that a Man may live comfortably amongst you and with the Reputation of a Professor to Thirty or Fourty Years of Age and never Receive at all And by the best Enquiry I cou'd make I cou'd not compute that One in Ten that goe to your Meetings ever Receive through the whole course of their Lives notwithstanding Christ's positive Command to do it in remembrance of Him So unhappily are Men over-seen in laying aside the Commands of God for their own Inventions I should be glad to find that I were mistaken in this Computation In the mean time you must give me leave to tell you plainly That this practice of Rare or No Communion is so peculiarly your own that I think you are altogether singular in it and are so far from having any Precedent for it in Scripture that I doubt whether any Precedent can be found for you even amongst the most degenerated or Barbarous People that ever called themselves Christians And therefore if you have either any true regard for Scripture or Reverence for the Constant and Vniversal Practice of the Church of God You ought to reflect upon your practice herein and consider how You can answer it to God or your Consciences I will not Examine the Reasons commonly given for your Omissions in this weighty Affair since it is manifest no Reason of Man's Invention ought to be admitted for direct disobedience to Christ's Command If You are Christians in earnest you ought as often as you have Opportunity to remember the great Love of Our Lord and Master as he has Commanded And your Ministers ought to take care to afford you frequently such Opportunities If you or they neglect this I do not see how you can with Reason insist so much on the Purity and Observation of Christ's Institution CONCLUSION I Have gone through the Five Principal Parts of the Publick Worship of God and I hope in all of them have made good what I first undertook and shewed that there needs no more to justify the Publick Service of our Church than to compare it with the Rules and Examples of Scripture I have only a few words to add by way of Conclusion First to my Brethren of the Clergy and then to the Laity who are under my Charge To the Conforming CLERGY of DERRY 1. AND first as to you My Brethren that are of Our Communion and owning My Authority let Me as a Brother and a Fellow-Labourer exhort you to be thankful to God that has Entrusted you with such an Excellent Ministry and Service which being built on so sure a Foundation as the Word of God can never be shaken or put you to any great Difficulty to defend it since you need no more than the plain words of your Bibles without gloss or Commentators to assert and justify it 2. Let me recommend to you Reverence Devotion and Diligence in the Use of this Service I have already observed that there is a Language of Gestures rather more significant and affecting than that of Words It becomes us therefore not only to Love and Use our Service but likewise to recommend it to the people by a distinct and affectionate manner of pronouncing and reading it and by a devout and grave behaviour at it This can never be pressed too much on you or on others by you since 't is absolutely necessary to give Life and Efficacy to it as the contrary will expose the best and most sacred thing to contempt and bring a greater disparagement on our Service then all Our Adversaries endeavours can ever do Tho' Our Service be appointed by God and Warranted by Scripture yet even God's Appointments are Abominations to him when separated from the heart and are only acceptable to him as they contribute to Inward Devotion Let me therefore intreat you to labour so to perform the Service of Our Church that it may attain the End for which God has design'd His Worship 3. Since the Service of Our Church is such as God has required in his Word let nothing discourage us in the use of it Let us Remember that we perform it in Obedience to God And tho' some hate some revile and some despise it yet that the Author of it is able to vindicate it This is no New Thing 'T is the Entertainment the World has generally given God's Service and his Truths And therefore neither Obstinacy Perverseness or Negligence of the People whom you are to persuade ought to discourage you Be Diligent be Constant be Resolute and be assured that God will always give you success so far as is necessary to support his Truth All means are therefore to be attempted and when one faileth another is to be applied And the more averse people seem to the way of Worship prescribed by God and the more eager they are for any Corruption the more Industry is to be used to bring them off from it And when all other means fail earnest Prayers and Intercessions with God still remain We are never to dispair whilst we have God's Truth on our side tho' whole Provinces should fall off from the Church As all they in Asia did from St. Paul 2. Tim. i. 15 Tho' few or none should believe our Report as it happened to Our Saviour himself Yet God will have a Reward for the Faithful Endeavours of his Ministers And therefore me must not desist tho' people seem obstinate but in season and out of season by Exhortation and writing by all means of Importunity and Industry we must press them to their Duty and endeavour to bring them back to the purity of God's Worship as he has Instituted it 4. Let me put you in mind That the Motives you have to do your Duty are the most Noble and Generous that can be And you have this Advantage that you cannot be supposed to be zealous in your Office out of any private Interest or prospect of particular profit Your Maintenance and Preferments are ascertained to you by Law and do not depend on the Voluntary Contribution of the People And as you are under no Temptation to please them by complying with their vices or humours so neither can you be suspected to be diligent and industrious in your Office out of any such mean Considerations Since therefore what pains you take may well be supposed to proceed only from sense of Duty and the love of God let me entreat you to labour in it It is certain That neither Popularity Faction nor Worldly Interest can influence you to this so as they may some that have no other way to attain to Honour or Support but by making or gaining a Party But God forbid that true Piety and Zeal for Souls should work less