A61386:105
An antidote against distractions, or, An endeavour to serve the church, in the daily…An antidote against distractions, or, An indeavour to serve the church, in the daily…
An antidote against distractions, or, An endeavour to serve the church, in the daily case of wanderings in the worship of God by Richard Steele M.A. and minister of the Gospel.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.
London: printed for Elizabeth Calvert, 1667
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
SECT. II.
1THE second Reason is taken from the Nature of his Worship,
- 1§. 2. 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 brutish service from a reasonable Creature is intolerable. Is it **reason you should cry out for the spirit, and think on the flesh? be hearkening about another world, and ruminating on this? your eyes directed to Heaven, and your Heart in the ends of the Earth? the tongue busy, and the soul idle? the knee devout, and the thoughts loose? there is no coherence, no ⟨p. 41⟩reason in this. When ye work, work, and when ye pray, pray, and do it with understanding,