Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	church_n	glory_n	great_a	1,992	5	2.9695	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60455	A sermon preached in St. Saviour's Church in Dartmouth, July 24th. anno Dom. 1698 Together with some refections on the opinion of those, who affirm, that the only difference between the Church and the meeting-house, is that of a few ceremonies. In a letter to a friend. By Humfry Smith, M.A.	Smith, Humphry, b. 1654 or 5.	1698 (1698)	Wing S4086; ESTC R224030	30,983	72

Piety of our first Reformers in retaining those ancient Forms in our Publick Service The late growth of Heresy amongst us makes us too sensible of what Consequence it is to keep up the fences against it In an Age so fruitful of Monstrous Opinions if the People know nothing before-hand of the Prayers and Praises they are to joyn in they cannot be certain whether they shall offer up a Service leven'd with Arrianism or Socinianism or some other Abomination destructive of the Common Principles of Christianity But as they appear in God's presence to speak unto him in the voice of his Church as they are sure to keep to the same Forms of sound Words which have been made use of to express the true Faith by the most Glorious Defenders of it in ancient time they are secure from the fear of offering an unholy thing before the Lord or blaspheming that Name which they pretend to glorify Another Difference between the Church and the Meeting-house is that one requires External Worship and the other hath but little regard for it And this I take to be as great a difference as that between Obedience to a Divine Precept and the neglect of it O come let us Psal 95. 6. worship and ●ow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker Thus in the Jewish Church they encouraged one another to their Duty in that divine Song compos'd as a learned Father Theodorer thinks on purpose for the Reformation of Josiah And that this outward Reverence is a Branch of natural Religion to which we are equally obliged under the Gospel appears from St. Paul's Exhortation not only to glorify God in 1 Cor. 6. ●0 our Spirit but our Body too In Conformity to these and several other places of Scripture our Church having provided excellent Forms of Devotion directs and requires in the Use of them such external Acts as do properly express our inward Adoration But that the Dissenters have very little respect for these agreeable yea these necessary things is not to be denied I think by such as frequent their Assemblies Certainly when they are occasionally present with us as we serve the Lord they for the most part seem not at all concern'd to fall down on their Knees to Pray to him or to stand up to Praise him The Excuse perhaps is that if we Worship God in Spirit and in Truth there is no need of such inconsiderable things as the Gestures of the Body But so to assert is to seem wiser than the Church of God in all Ages yea then Christ himself the Head of it When the Devil offer'd him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them for a single act of external Adoration as that cunning Spirit did not certainly set so great a price upon a trifle so our blessed Saviour puts him in mind of the Value telling him it was a Holy thing somewhat which the Great King of Kings had claim'd as his Right and therefore was incommunicable to any Creature It is written Mat. 4. 10. thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Were not bodily Adoration as well as spiritual intended by God where he commands us to worship him then this answer of our Saviour would have been nothing at all to the purpose The Devil we find was willing at any rate to purchase that external Veneration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is paid by falling down to the Ground and would the words of our blessed Lord have stopp'd his Mouth and made him fly if he had said no more than this It is written the heart is the Lord's and with that we are to worship him Indeed Sir I have often thought that the Notion which some People have entertain'd about such external Acts of religious Worship would go a great way towards the justifying most of the Idolaters that have been in the World those I mean who have still preserv'd an awful sense of the supreme Being whilst they have bow'd down to Images If Bowing and Kneeling or the like external Expressions of our inward Devotion be not due to the Almighty How do People rob him of his Honour in bestowing them upon other things Such an Opinion as this could it have been depended on might have been of admirable Use to the Primitive Christians under the Rage of the Heathen For then according to the Temptations of some of their Persecutors when they appear'd in a good humour the Champions of the Faith might have escaped the Axes and the Gibbets the Gridirons and the Saws by doing a very small matter even the giving but a little of that sort of Honour to an Idol which God neither claims nor has any regard for I might give some other Instances of a greater disagreement than that of a few indifferent Ceremonies between Us and the Dissenters But as you Sir may justly think that a very few words would have been enough in so plain a Ca●e so some others will conclude that if the thing I have been attempting were even some new discovery I should deserve but little thanks for making it The distance it will be said is indeed too great and they are engaged in an ill Employment who instead of closing the wounds are for keeping them still open And now to this Objection I think it would be a sufficient answer to say that searching Wounds can certainly be no hinderance to their cure and that a different Method is so far from promising Success that it is likely in the Issue to expose them that shall be employed about it to such Correction as that in the Prophet They have healed the hurt Jer. 6. 14. of the Daughter of my People Slightly Saying peace peace when there is no peace Certainly a Solid and lasting Union can never be hoped for till People will be willing seriously and impartially to consider wherein the difference lies and who made it Notwithstanding the hard Censures which some have so liberally passed on the Stiffness of our Church It has not been backward to encourage any real advances 〈◊〉 towards a good agreement But it is doubtless able to distinguish between true Moderation or Peaceableness and such artifices as are made use of on purpose to betray it For my part as you know Sir that I was always very far from envying any favour which Our Governours think fit to shew to those Dissenters who approve themselves to be truly Conscientious so if ever they shall begin to shake off their Scruples and make approaches towards us I could heartily wish they might be received with all possible Expressions of Kindness and Condescention But then I must own that the Men of design and intrigue they that sometimes blow cold and sometimes hot that sometimes consider us as if we were Anti-Christ and Babylon and at other times are ready to say to us Be not affraid of us we are your near Friends yea Churchmen as well as you