Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	action_n	good_a	let_v	1,371	5	4.7652	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53095	Ultimum vale, or, The last farewell of a minister of the Gospel to a beloved people by Matthevv Nevvcomen ...	Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.	1663 (1663)	Wing N914; ESTC R8564	50,710	82

never have gone on in our sins and impenitencie we would certainly have laid hold upon the offers of Grace and wayes of Life The Devil and his angels will be able to say Lord thou didst never provide nor propound for us a way of reconciliation and recovery since we first sinned against thee as thou didst for man after his transgression if thy Son had taken our nature as he did the nature of man and had provided for us such a Covenant of Peace and Reconciliation as he did for man and the glad Tidings thereof had been published to us by the Gospel as it was to man possibly we had not persisted so obstinately in our rebellion against thee These and the like pleas may even the Devils have for themselves in the day of Judgment wither true or no that is not our question But now thou who hast lived all thy dayes under the Word of Grace and never got any saving good by it but livest and diest an ignorant prophane impenitent unbelieving creature as the Lord knows too many do When thou shalt appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ thou wilt not have this nor any thing else to plead for thy self If Christ should say to thee as Judges here upon the Bench to Malefactors What canst thou say for thy self why sentence of condemnation should not pass upon thee Poor creature thou wilt not have one word to say but must be as that man in the parable Mat. 22. Altogether speechless When the Judge shall say to you How is it that you appear here in the guilt of all your sins were you never told of these sins of yours were you never exhorted to repentance were you never directed the way to get your sins pardoned were you never invited perswaded intreated that you would be saved did I not send my Ministers and did not they in my Name and in my Stead beseech you that you would be reconciled to God and did not they tell you what you must do that you might be reconciled did you not live under the dispensations of that Word of Grace that was able to work Grace in you that did work Grace in others and was as able to work it in you why then are ye found in a graceless condition this day O when Jesus Christ shall in the presence of all his Saints and Angels thus expostulate with the souls of such as live and dye without any saving good how inexcusable how intolerable will their condemnation be O think of it and as you desire to escape the confusion of that day and the condemnation of Hell O labour yet to get Grace wrought in your hearts by the power of this Word of Grace In the fourth place Is it so that the Word of God is the Word of Grace O then study this Word of Grace Secondly Love this Word of Grace Thirdly Cleave close to this Word of Grace make that the Man of your counsels Psal 119.24 make it the Rule of your lives Gal. 6.16 But these and the like Duties I have heretofore spoken largely of both in my Sermons upon James 1.25 as also when I shewed you how the Word of God is the only true and adequate Rule of Godliness And lastly in my Catechistical Sermons wherein I handled largely the Divine Original Authority and Perfection of the holy Scriptures I pass by these things therefore now And go on to the Eulogie or Praise which the Apostle here gives The Word of Grace which is able to build you up A Metaphor taken from Builders where you know first men lay the Foundation and then by degrees set up the whole Frame of the Building one piece after another to this Paul alludes here as if he should say as to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3.10 According to the Grace given unto me I as a wise Master-builder have laid the Foundation I have by my Ministry setled you upon the rock Christ Jesus Indeed the work is not yet finished and yet I must leave you but I resolve to leave you in a sure hand who is able to carry on what I have begun I commend you to God and the VVord of his Grace which is able to build you up Three things we may observe from these words for our instruction The first is this That true Believers those that are in the state of Grace have need to be further edified and built up Secondly That true Believers have need of the Word of God for their building up and edification Thirdly That the Word of God is able to build up true Believers First That true Believers those that are in the state of Grace have need to be further edified and built up And this I prove to you First By those places of Scripture that do enjoyn the edification or building up of the Saints as a Duty so 1 Thess 5.11 Wherefore comfort your selves together and edifie one another Secondly By those places that suppose it the practice of the Saints as in 1 Thess 5.11 Edifie one another as also you do so Jude 20. But you Brethren building up your selves in your most holy Faith Praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves Col. 2.6 7. As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him Thirdly This is proved by those places that propound the edification or building up of the Saints as the end and scope of Gospel-Ordinances and Church-Administrations Ephes 4.11 12. All the Officers that Christ hath given to his Church and all Ministerial gifts bestowed upon those Officers what is the end and scope of them The perfecting of the Saints the edifying of the Body of Christ So the power of Censures in the Church what is the end and scope of them see 2 Cor. 13.10 According to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification this ought to be the end and scope of all Church-Administrations 1 Cor. 14.26 Let all things be done to edifying Fourthly This is that that ought to be the end and scope not only of all Publick Administrations but of all a Christians private actions Rom. 14.19 Let us therefore follow the things that make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another So again Rom. 15.2 Let every man please his neighbour for his good to Edification Where First We have the Duty enjoyned pleasing our neighbour Secondly We have the universality of this Duty Let every man please his neighbour Thirdly You have the restriction and rule of this Duty for his good to edification Let every man please his neighbour for his good to Edification It is not simply said Let every man please his neighbour it would please the Drunkard well to have other men go to the Ale-house with him the Heretick and Superstitious person would like it well to have every one speak and do as they do but we must not please others in these things but only so far as may be for their real and true good and for

their Edification so far we are bound to please them and no further So that Edification you see here is the rule and scope and boundary of all our compliance with and complacency to in other men And so it is of all the actions of our lives 2 Cor. 12.19 We do all things for your edifying Yea this ought to be the scope and end of all our words as well as actions Eph. 4.29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying Not a word should come out of a Christians mouth but what is good for Edification Now would God think you thus enjoyn upon Christians the care of edifying one another would the Lord Jesus Christ make Edification the end and scope of all Church-Ordinances and Administrations would the Holy Ghost teach us to propound it and make it the scope and end of all our sayings and doings next to God's Glory would these things be if God who is infinitely wise did not know that the Saints while they are in this life have need of building up more and more Now the Reasons why true Believers those that are in a state of Grace have yet further need to be built up and edified are First Because God hath appointed a certain measure and proportion and heighth of Grace which all his Elect shall arrive at before they be taken up into Glory As a wise Builder who when he is about to build a house he resolves beforehand how many foot high he will raise it to such a measure to such a heighth and then he will cease So God from all eternity hath decreed concerning every particular Believer to such or such a degree of Grace he shall attain and be built up before he come to Heaven this the Apostle calls a Perfect man and the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 Secondly God doth ordinarily promove and carry on his People to this measure and degree whereunto he hath appointed them gradatim by little and little He doth not in the first instant and moment of their Conversion and Regeneration make them perfect in their measure and fit for Heaven Indeed here and there one God to shew his Power is pleased to convert and fit for Heaven in one and the same moment of time as the Thief upon the Cross but ordinarily it is not so I have read of some Children that have been born with hair upon their head and beard as if they had arrived at their virilis aetas as soon as born but these are inter rariora anomala Naturae Here Nature steps out of her ordinary course ordinarily it is not so So it is here Sometimes it falls out that a man is converted upon his Death-bed or upon the Gallows as the Thief was upon the Cross here now Grace is wrought and perfected all at once but this is inter rariora Graciae I will not say it is anomalous for Grace is free and bound to no rules but this rarely comes to pass except in elect Infants dying in their infancy but ordinarily God doth carry on the work of his Grace in his People to its appointed measure by degrees Hence it is compared to Leaven that diffuseth it self through the Lump by degrees Matth. 13.33 to Light that diffuseth it self through the Air by degrees Prov. 4.18 to Corn that is first the green blade then the ear then the ripe Corn Mark 4.28 to a Building here to which a man is every day adding something and carrying on more and more to Perfection The Use of this shall be First To reprove those that dream of a Perfection they have attained already that boast themselves they are perfect and free from sin and consumate in Grace and Holiness as perfect as ever they shall be as perfect as the Saints in glory yea as perfect as Christ as God himself Would these men content themselves to say they are as perfect as ever they shall be that were bold and bad enough though possibly it might prove too sadly true of some of them but to say they are as perfect as the Saints in glory as perfect as Christ as God himself this is to open their mouth against the Heavens and to blaspheme not only the Saints of the most High but the most High himself How far was the wisdom and humility of Paul from this Philip. 3.12 13. Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things that are before I press towards the Mark for the price of the high Calling in Christ Jesus Blessed Paul that had been wrapt up into the third Heavens and had heard things unutterable yet he doth not count himself perfect nor reckons that he had attained all that Grace which he must attain before he comes to make his eternal abode in Heaven therefore he forgets overlooks what he hath and considers what he wants forgetting that which is behind and reaching forth to that which is before he presseth forward Had some of those self-conceited self-deluded poor souls that dream so much of their own perfection and talk of it as some men do in their dreams had they I say been wrapt up with Paul into the third Heavens they might have had some shadow of Reason to boast of their own perfection but alas poor creatures they carry their own confutation about with them in their crazie bodies and distempred spirits O Brethren take heed of this delusion take heed of saying you have enough you are perfect I never read nor heard of any that said I am rich and increased in goods and lack nothing but Christ answered them on the contrary Thou art poor and blind and naked and miserable He that saith he hath Grace enough before he come in Heaven it is to be feared he hath none at all nor will never come there In the Second Place therefore be exhorted Seeing that true Beleivers have need of further building up O be exhorted to make it the great business of your lives to build up your selves and one another towards perfection more and more You have heard this is that the Holy-Ghost enjoyns Edifie your selves and edifie one another And let this I beseech you as you love your souls be the main business of your lives do not make it a business of the By as many do whose main design and business they drive is for the world and the things of the world as for edifying themselves and one another that is laid by for spare hours when they have nothing else to do but O my Brethren make the edifying of your selves and one another the main design and intendment of your lives make it your daily task and work