Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	work_n	world_n	worship_n	36	3	6.5222	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49801	Theo-politica, or, A body of divinity containing the rules of the special government of God, according to which, he orders the immortal and intellectual creatures, angels, and men, to their final and eternal estate : being a method of those saving truths, which are contained in the Canon of the Holy Scripture, and abridged in those words of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which were the ground and foundation of those apostolical creeds and forms of confessions, related by the ancients, and, in particular, by Irenæus, and Tertullian / by George Lawson ...	Lawson, George, d. 1678.	1659 (1659)	Wing L712; ESTC R17886	441,775	362

preparation of the whole man with a desire and resolution to observe it 3. An actual application of that time to a performance of Religious Duties and whatsoever Works tend most to the glory of God those do most sanctifie the Day This is the reason why Christ's miraculous Cures did not prophane this day and that Works of Mercy are so suitable to this time Though publick and Congregational Duties are principally intended yet Family and Closet-Duties are required and though other days may be sanctified and observed as times of Humiliation or Thanksgiving yet this is done upon a more general ground and not by vertue of this Commandement which is confined to the Seventh Day What the particular services of the Sabbath be I need not mention For they are such as God hath instituted and the principal are Word and Prayer as you heard in the Explication of the second Precept The sins here forbidden are 1. All prophane and sinful thoughts § XIV words and deeds which unhallow all times and especially this These are sins in the six days but more heynous sins on the seventh 2. All secular thoughts words deeds which are contrary unto and non-consistent with the Rest and sanctification of this time and with Diviner Employments These are lawful at other times unlawful in this 3. The neglect of Holy Duties in this time of Rest. For though we should rest this day not onely from all secular labours and works but also from worldly thoughts and motions of the mind if it were possible and not apply our selves to Religious Worship yet the Day remains to us unsanctified 4. All prophane Sports yea and all Recreations which hinder and distract us in the service of our God 5. All Hypocritical all irreverent yea all imperfect performance of Holy Duties Men may be strict zealous devout in the outward parts of Religion and yet stand at a great distance from their God For God requires not any kind of Sanctification of this day but that which is hearty and sincere And because our best service is imperfect therefore we can keep no perfect Sabbath on Earth that is reserved for Heaven Let us therefore endeavour the best aim at perfection desire pardon of defects and long after the estate of glory wherein we shall perfectly hallow an Eternal Sabbath before the Eternal King There he many causes of the prophanation § XV and impediments of the Sanctification of this holy time and we should take notice of them 1. Some are Atheists who are devoid of Faith and the fear of God These believe not that there is a God who will judge the World and render to every one according to their Works They fear not His Divine Power and Majesty They have no care to worship Him They perswade themselves that all Religious Service is vain and that the Worship of a Deity hath no better reason and ground then the fancy and conceit of some precise superstitious Fools They think that the Rest and Sanctification of every 7th day is a needless expence and loss of time to the hinderance and neglect of many considerable businesses 2. Some though not so prophane do not consider how much the Preservation and continuance of Religion depends upon the observation of Holy Sabbaths Take these away you shall by Experience find that Religion will decay and that in a short time We by the Light of Nature may easily understand that there is a time necessarily required for the dispatch of all business and if so then the Religious Service of our God and the Salvation of our Souls are the greatest and most weighty businesse we have to do in this World and therefore do of necessity require and may justly challenge not onely some time but a competent and due proportion of time Yet we find that men of great understanding and very prudent in these Earthly things are very inconsiderate and imprudent in this particular 3. Some take no notice of those Characters God hath imprinted upon some days and by some glorious work done on them honoured them and made them more excellent then other days They do not consider that the Jews being the people of God from whom Salvation was observed and that according to God's Command and Example one day in seven and that Christians from the Apostles days have consecrated the 7th part of their time unto God and that by sufficient Warrant from Heaven And this forgetfulness and want of consideration is one cause of their neglect and dis-esteem of the Sabbath 4. Some do know believe and profess these things yet are Worldly-minded neg●igent in matters of Religion and at all times and so on the Sabbath are indisposed to Heavenly Duties so that they hallow no time and unhallow this sacred time which God doth arrogate to himself And such as being Earthly minded are most active in secular business are most careless and negligent in the observation of God's Sabbath 5. The want of preparation before we enter upon the Sabbath and Divine Service our careless carriage in the performance of Holy Duties and our intermixing of secular business prophane though●s and discourses must needs abate and that very much of the sanctification of the Day 6. Some are perswaded that all days since the abolition of the Jewish Polity are alike and therefore it is Jewish or Superstitious to observe any determinate time and to prefer one day above another 7. Some out of a Spiritual Pride and high conceit of themselves as above all Ordinances neglect Sacraments and Sabbaths as far below their high attainments The Reasons to perswade us to sanctifie the Sabbath are many § XVI and in general the same with those which bound the Jews and therefore must be sought in the Old Testament in Moses and the Prophets 1. God commands us to sanctifie His Sabbath and repeats this Command many times And though their Weekly Sabbath was not the same with ours for the particular Day yet the end and many particular Duties of Sanctification are the same 2. As the Jewish Religion so the Christian depends much upon the Sabbath and as theirs was necessary for the continuance of their Religion so ours is for the continuance of ours 3. God did severely and many times prohibit the Prophanation of this sacred time 4. When and where it 's neglected and prophaned wholly or in part there Religion decays accordingly and that in a short time 5. He hath promised to such as shall observe his Sabbath many and great Blessings both Temporal and Spiritual publick and private to particular Persons Nations and Common-wealths And in these Promises he did not so much regard this or that 7th day as the continuance of Religion by the Sactification of such Times as he himself should determine 6. He hath threatned most fearful Judgments to be inflicted upon them who shall by neglect of Holy Duties or by Worldly and Bodily Labours and Employments or any other way prophane the same 7. According to these

Power of God that he put the fear of man upon them and such was the Majesty of Man continuing in his Integrity that his Countenance and Presence did strike an awe into the greatest stronget and most comely Creatures Some make this Dominion a part of God's Image and it 's true that man in this resembled God as Lord and King and as God's Vice-gerent was a Petty God and Lord of the Lower-World The Second thing common to man with the Sensitive and generative Creature which propagate and perpetuate their kind by a successive generation is God's blessing of them whereby he gave them a generative power to multiply and replenish the Earth and the Waters This power of Generation is a wonderful and strange Vertue which God alone can give and take away at pleasure and if he take it away or deny it then it 's above the power of Nature to generate The Third thing is That general quality of all Creatures as they came from God For God saw every thing that he had made and it was very good Genes 1. 31. 1. Every thing was good beautiful and perfect in it's kind there was no defect or blemish in the Being and Constitution of it 2. Every thing was good and perfect for the end and use he had created them 3. Every thing was good in it's order by which all things were united and one subordinate to another and did compleat the Beauty of the whole and made up the great and glorious Frame which we call the World The reason of this goodness was because they were made by a perfect Rule and every thing severally and all things jointly did fully answer and were exactly conformable to that most excellent Model and Idea contrived by his Wisdom So that there was no need that God should continue this Work of Creation any longer but might rest and keep his Sabbath and take content in his Works If God § XVII in the Beginning thus created Heaven and Earth then it follows 1. That the World had a Beginning it was not from Everlasting For there was a moment a first point and period when it began and before which it did not exist and before which God onely had his Being from Everlasting fully perfect and happy in himself and could have no need of the World for it could add nothing to his happiness 2. That the World in this respect was a Work and an effect which must needs have a cause and depend upon it for its very first Being without which it had never been 3. The efficient cause and Work-man which did contrive and make this curious and excellent piece was God For nothing but God had any Being or Existence before this Work of Creation Neither could there be any Power of Wisdom but his sufficient to produce the least thing from nothing into Being 4. This great Work once made must needs manifest the glorious Power Wisdom and Perfections of th● Maker For The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work Psal. 19. 1. 5. By this Work God is sufficiently differenced from all other Things as of far more excellent and of a far more admirable power So that by this it 's evident there can be no other God but He For whatsoever cannot make a World is not God as he is 6. Therefore He and He alone must needs be God there neither is nor can be any other For He is great and doth wondrous things and is God alone Psal. 86. 10. And before Among the gods there is none like to thee O Lord neither are there any Works like unto thy Works 7. It 's the duty of Men and Angels to behold these glorious Works and seriously therein to observe his wonderful Power and Wisdom that so they may admire his glorious Excellency and with all Humility adore his Eternal Majesty who alone is worthy of all honour glory and power for evermore even for this Work of Creation 6. If he created all things and that first of nothing then all things are wholly his He hath an absolute Propriety in them and full power to order them and dispose of them at Will and Pleasure And by this we understand how he did acquire his Supream and Vniversal Power Hitherto Creation hath been considered § XVIII briefly in it self and as it is a Work and the first Work of God and now Order requires that we return unto the principal and intended consideration thereof according to t●e Method of my Discourse as it is the Foundation and first ground of that Regal Power whereby the World is governed This Consideration is expressed in the last conclusion concerning the Power acquired by Creation For the World was made that it might be governed and none was fit to govern it but he that made it and none can govern without Power acquired one way or other This Power was acquired by Creation because by it God obtained an absolute and perfect Propriety in the whole World and every part thereof Amongst men whosoever makes any thing by his own proper Art and Labour and that of his own stuff he must needs have a full right unto it and a full power to dispose of it yet no Workman ever made any Work without some matter yet God made all things without any matter Pre-existent And in this is far above all other Work-men who never made their stust or matter In this respect He is the sole and total cause of the whole world and every thing receiveth its whole Entity and every Particle of it from the Creatour From hence it follows that seeing the whole Entity is Gods therefore his Propriety is entire and absolute And if it be such he must needs have an absolute Power to dispose of all things and to order them as he thought good And because of this absolute Propriety it is that they wholly depend upon him for Being and all things else and are wholly subject unto him Therefore he may give them what Rules he pleaseth order them to what ends he thinks good and he hath made them capable of and also by these regulate all their inclinations and motions and bind them to observe his Order upon what terms he will This Power acquired by these means and grounded upon this Propriety is original absolute supream universal Monarchical everlasting It 's originally and primarily in him as in the Fountain it 's not in the least measure derived from any other It 's absolute and no ways limited It 's supream and no ways subordinate or dependent upon any higher and above it It 's univeral and extended to the whole World as his Territory It 's Monarchical because the Power wholly resides in one It's everlasting and after it 's once begun it continues and shall for ever abide In these respects it 's not only different from but most excellent and far above all other Power And as it 's acquired by Creation so it 's continued by Preservation which

for the worship of the true and living God as it was a fit proportion of man's time and excellent means for the preservation and continuance of Religion had some connexion with the supream end and did conduce to the attaining of it The Divine Determination of that time for that end signified by a Command added did plainly make it moral For the alteration of the day it 's certain 1. That if God had in the beginning determined one and the same 7th Day to be of perpetual and universal obligation § XX then it could not be justly and by any sufficient Authority altered 2. It 's certain that the day prescribed to the Jew in time of the servitude and bondage of the Law was altered and another substituted and observed in the place thereof 3. This was altered after Christ's Incarnation and Glorification sending down of the Holy Ghost the Revelation of the Gospel preached to Jew and Gentile and in the Apostles days according to an Order given by them to the Churches planted by them 1 Cor. 16. 1 2 4. The day substituted was the first day of the week ibid. and the Lords Day and was so called and observed universally by Christians from that time to our days 4. In that one day in 7 as also this or that 7th day were positive and not moral therefore the 7th formerly observed by the Jew was alterable considered in it self 5. The 4th Commandement given to the Jew did not say that that 7th day determined then by Him should never be altered but be the Sabbath to Jew and Gentile to the end of the World 6. There were as you heard before great and weighty Reasons why the Apostles not onely might but should a●ter it For if the Character set upon it by the Work of Creation and the deliverance of Israel out of Aegypt the separation of them from all Nations till the exhibition of the Messias was a reason and ground to God for to institute and for them to observe them much more was the Character set upon the first day of the week by Christ's Resurrection the general manifestations and apparitions of him rise uon that day and the coming of the Holy Ghost as far greater blessings to sinful man then Creation and deliverance out of Aegypt was a sufficient ground and reason to lay aside the former day as joyned with the Ceremonial Law the Covenant with their Fathers in the Wilderness and the separation of the Jews from all other Nations and to institute and observe the first day unto God-Redeemer by Christ exhibited as the former was observed to God-Creatour and Deliverer of one Nation out of Aegypt Neither was there any need of a new express Precept seeing to the Apostles the Reasons for the alteration were so weighty clear and evincing For the former Sabbath being joyned with the Ceremonial Law given to the Jew did presuppose the Church confined to a Nation the Gentiles excluded the people of God in minority and servitude under a Tutor and Christ fo come therefore for the positive part it was to cease with the legal dispensation And as there followed a new manner of Worship and a new Administration so there must be a new day The Commandement it self requires one day in seven and if so then no day could be so fit as the day of Resurrection and the coming down of the Holy Ghost from Heaven By the observation of this we acknowledge the Levitical Priesthood and Service to be abolished Christ exhibited the Work of Redemption finished and that Jesus of Nazareth who was born at Bethlem brought up at Nazareth crucified at Jerusalem rose again the third day ascended into Heaven hath sent down the Holy Ghost is the Son of God and Saviour of the World CHAP. XI The Fifth Commandement BEfore I enter upon the words of this Commandement § I Something must be said in general 1. Concerning the difference 2. The order of these two parts of the Law For our Saviour reduceth the whole Law to two heads 1. Of the Love of God 2. Of our Neighbour And as God and our Neighbour differ and that very much so the dutyes of this latter part differ from those of the former for as the former have God for their object so these have Man The former respect our communion with God the latter our communion with our Neighbour The former presents the dutyes of men as subjects to be performed to their Soveraign the Great and everlasting the latter commands dutyes to be performed to man who is the fellow-Subject The former give morality to the latter The latter receive morality from the former and depend upon them and are so far good as they agree with the former The former have more connexion with as they conduced more immediately unto the last end Gods glory and Mans happinesse So that the difference between them is very great According to this difference there is an inequality It 's true that they are equall as they are commands and also commands of God and bind unto obedience unto God and the matter of both is just Yet their inequality is great because the dutyes of the former according to the object are far more excellent and if they come in competition with these of the second Table they must be preferred Yet we must make a distinction For in both parts of the Law there be some dutyes morall some positive and one and the same duty is in some respect moral in another positive This therefore is the certain rule that moralls of the first part or Table as some call it are to be performed be●ore the morals of the second Table and positives of the first before positives of the second Upon this account if the love of Father and Mother a moral duty of the latter part come in competition with the love of God required in the first part then its true our Saviour ●aith He that loveth Father or Mother more then God or hateth not Father and Mother for Christs sake is not worthy of Christ. In this respect obedience to our lawfull superiours inconsistent with our obedience to God is unlawfull for we must obey God rather then man the supreme Lord before the subordinate But if we compare positives of the first Table with morals of the second the morals of the second must be prefer'd before the positives of the first Therefore we may intermit the outward solemne worship of God upon the Sabbath day to save the life of a Beast or much more of a man though the work should take up the whole time of one Sabbath or more This lesson our Saviour taught us when he proved that it was lawfull to heale on the Sabbath This inequality is implyed in the words of our Saviour to the Scribes and Pharisees when he not onely reproves them but denounceth a judgement against them in that they pay'd tith of Mint and Annise and Cummin and omitted the weightyer matters of the Law