Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	worship_v	worshipper_n	zeal_n	16	3	7.8483	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27009	The right method for a settled peace of conscience, and spiritual comfort in 32 directions : written for the use of a troubled friend / and now published by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1653 (1653)	Wing B1373A; ESTC R17485	252,137	602

I would have all such remember 1. That God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and such Worshippers doth he seek 2. That God will have mercy and not sacrifice and that the Vitals of Religion are in a Consumption when the heat of Zeal is drawn too much to the out-side And that placing most in externals is the great character of Hypocrisie and is that Pharisaical Religion to which the doctrine and practice of the Lord Jesus was most opposite as any that will read the Gospel may soon see 3. That God hath made our bodies to be his Servants and Instruments of Righteousness Rom. 6. 13. and helpful and serviceable to our souls in Well-doing And therefore it is Disobedience it is Injustice it is Cruelty to disable them and causlesly to vex and torment them much more to destroy them You may see by sick men by Melancholy men by Mad men and Children how unfit that soul is to know or Love or serve God that hath not a fit body to work in by The Serpent knows this well enough If he can but get you by excessive fastings watchings labours studies or other austerities especially sadness and perplexities of mind to have a sick body a crazed brain or a short life you will be able to do him but little hurt and God but little service besides the pleasure that he takes in your own Vexation Nay he will hope to make a further advantage of your weakness and to keep many a soul in the snares of sensuality by telling them of your miseries and saying to them Dost thou not see in such a man or woman what it is to be so holy and precise They will all run mad at last If once thou grow so strict and deny thy self thy Pleasures and take this precise course thou wilt but make thy life a misery and never have a merry day again Such examples as yours the Devil will make use of that he may terrifie poor souls from Godliness and represent the word and ways of Christ to them in an odious and unpleasing and discouraging shape Doubtless that God who himself is so Merciful to your Body as well as to your Soul would have you to be so too He that provideth so plentifully for its refreshment would not have you refuse his provision He that saith the Righteous man is merciful to his beast no doubt would not have him to be unmerciful to his own body You are commanded to Love your Neighbour but as your self And therefore by cruelty and unmerciful dealing with your Own body you will go about to Justifie the like dealing with others You durst not deny to feed to cloath to comfort and refresh the poor lest Christ should say You did it not to me And how should you dare to deny the same to your self How will you answer God for the neglect of all that service which you should have done him and might if you had not disabled your bodies and minds He requireth that you Delight your self in him And how can you do that when you habituate both mind and body to a sad dejected mournful garb The service that God requires is To serve him with chearfulness in the abundance that we possess Deut. 28.47 If you think that I here contradict what I said in the former Directions for pinching the flesh and denying its desires you are mistaken I onely shew you the danger of the contrary extreme Gods way lieth between both The truth is if you would be resolved how far you may please or displease the flesh The flesh being ordained to be our servant and Gods servant must be used as a servant You will give your servant food and raiment and wholsom lodging and good usage or else you are unjust and he will be unfit to do your work But so far as he would Master you or disobey you you will correct him or keep him under You will feed your horse or else he will not carry you But if he grow unruly you must tame him It is a delusory formality of Papists to tye all the Countries to one time and measure of fasting as Lent Fridays c. when mens states are so various that many though not quite sick have more need of a restoring diet and those that need fasting need it not all at once nor in one measure but at the time and in the measure as the taming of their flesh requireth it As 〈◊〉 Physician should proclaim that all his Patients should take Physick such 40 days every year whether their disease be plethorick or consuming from fulness or from abstinence and whether the disease take him at that time of the year or another And remember that you must not under pretences of saving the body disable it to serve God You will not lay any such correction on your Child or Servant as shall disable them from their work but such as shall excite them to it And understand that all your Afflicting your body must be but either Preventive as keeping the fire from the thatch or Medicinal and Corrective and not strictly Vindictive for that belongs to your Judge Though in a subordination to the other ends the smart or suffering for its fault is one end and so it is truly Penal or Vindictive as all Chastisement is And so Paul saith Behold what Revenge c. 2 Cor. 7.11 But not as meer Judicial Revenge is Remember therefore though you must so far tame your Body as to bring it into subjection that you perish not by pampering it yet not so far as to bring it to weakness and sickness and unfitness for its duty Nor yet must you dare to conceit that you please God or satisfie him for your sin by such a wronging and hurting your own body Such Popish Religiousness shews that men have very low and carnal conceits of God Was it not a base wickedness in them that offered their Children in sacrifice to think that God would be pleased with such cruelty Yea were it not to have directed us to Christ he would not have accepted of the blood of buls and goats It is not sacrifice that he desires He never was blood-thirsty nor took any pleasure in the Creatures suffering How can you think then that he will take pleasure in your consuming and destroying your own bodies It is as unreasonable as to imagine that he delights to have men cut their own throats or hang themselves for pining and consuming ones self is self-murther as well as that Yet I know no man should draw back from a painful or hazardous work when God cals him to it for fear of destroying the flesh But do not make work or suffering for your selves God will lay as much Affliction on you as you need and be thankful if he will enable you to bear that but you have no need to adde more If your selves make the suffering how can you with any encouragement beg strength of God to