Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	work_n	work_v	year_n	322	3	4.4740	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91367	The vvay to heaven discovered: and, the stumbling-blocks (cast therein by the world, flesh, and devill) removed. Or, The ready way to true happines: leading to the gate of full assurance. With a word of reproof to the scattered, discontented Members of the late Parliament. And a word of advise to the present supreme authority of England. / By Robert Purnell.	Purnell, Robert, d. 1666.	1653 (1653)	Wing P4243; Thomason E1489_2	94,272	222

required as absolutely necessary to salvation Joh. 17. 3. Joh. 3. 36. 8. 24. Psal 2. 12. Luk. 19. 27. So that election and reprobation are not in any sense causes of salvation and damnation but Christ is the proper and meritorious cause of salvation and sin the proper and meritorious cause of damnation so that election and reprobation they are but precedent acts or decrees and the causes of salvation and damnation they come in between the decrees and the execution thereof So then if we consider men in themselves and without Christ they are dead in their sins without any spirituall strength and having neither will nor spirituall power neither in themselves nor of themselves either to beleeve or to doe any good work from any true principle or for any good end therefore Gods grace prepareth us before we can be able and worketh in us that we may be able nay the Lord doth work all our works in or for us as well after beleeving as before beleeving Take a man that is quickned inlightned converted and impowered by the Spirit of God in the inward man this man hath need of a continuall supply Phil. 1. 19. of the Spirit of God of renewed strength for we read of Peter that he rested upon some old received strength and so fals before a new temptation So again Paul I can doe all things through Christ enabling me he knew he must not rest upon what he was inabled to doe but expect a continuall enabling by the same Spirit that at first enabled him Eph. 6. 10. Be strong in the Lord that is be ye strengthned daily more and more by the power of the Lord that is be ye encouraged to doe the thing required of the Lord by that union ye have with him by faith drawing from him all the strength ye stand in need of 1. Consider thou hast a power already given thee by which thou art able to doe the thing required 2. Or else with the command the Lord conveyes a power to inable thee to do the thing commanded Thirdly when thou lookest upon the command on thy left hand then look upon the promises on thy right hand wherein the Lord God hath promised to inable thee and not not not faile thee nor nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. It is observed that there are five Negatives in these words although our Translation doth expresse but one but for more carefull practising doing and observing all the commands of our God consider these few things as incouragements 1. He requires no more of us then he hath inabled us to doe or at least promised to inable us to doe 2. For our encouragement he hath promised to reward us for doing our duty so that to every precept there are two Promises the one to reward us the other to inable us and both to encourage us And in case of slothfulnesse and negligence in leaving undone what we ought and might have done First he complains on us Secondly he exhorts us Thirdly he threatens us Fourthly he tells us that he did put a prize into our hands but we like fools had no heart to it and so our cloudings eclipsings mis-givings and doubtings are but the effects of our negligence See Isa 59. 2. Isa 1. 15. Jer. 5. 25. Psal 107. 17. 34. The Lord doth protest we are not straitned in him he is not wanting to us what could I saith the Lord have done more for my Vineyard Isa 5. 4. And when I looked for Grapes it brought forth wilde Grapes wherefore judge are not my wayes equall and yours unequall Heare O Heavens and give eare O Earth be astonished I have furnished a people with strength to obey me and they have rebelled against me What will no man believe me did I ever say seeke mee in vaine did not your Fathers trust in me and were saved are not my wayes equall and yours unequall do I reap where I have not sown do I require much where I have given little is not my promise before you and my presence with you is not my blessing upon you and my Angels guarding you dost thou want strength ask of me dost thou want wisdome ask of me Have not I said in my Word that I do give liberally and upbraide not have I not said I will withhold no good thing from thee and have I not promised to work faith in thee and protested I will never faile nor forsake thee Why dost thou not take hold of my Covenant and assure thy self I will never faile thee The soul having all its stumbling-blocks removed it begins to clear up and solace it self in the apprehension of Christ and application of his promises and so breaks forth into these or the like words Ever blessed be the name of God that hath removed these terrible stumbling-blocks that lay in my way now I see that I never saw now I know that I never knew he hath anoynted mine eyes he hath scattered all my doubts he is my God and I will prepare him a habitation in my soule and the chiefest roome in my heart God told Moses he could not see his face and live If I cannot see his face and live then let me dye that I may behold him as he is and have full injoyment of him O I am sick for the love of him that dyed for the love of me I was ignorant as a beast before him but now I know him and have experience of him he hath avouched himselfe to be mine and I have avouched my selfe to be his Jacobs life was bound up in Benjamins but my soule is bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord my God so that for me to live is Christ and to dye is gaine he hath overcome me with his love he hath made knowne his minde to me in removing these stumbling-blocks from me I am overcome with admiration and replenished with exceeding consolation 21. The last stumbling-block that I shall name is this And saith many a poor soul with-within it self I know not with what Society or Assembly to joyne with there are so many opinions viz. Presbytery Independency Anabaptist Arminians Antinomians Ranters Quakers Seekers I know not with whom to sit downe O tell me O thou whom my soule loveth where thou feedest thy flock that so I may be able to discerne betweene him that serveth God in pretence or in truth Ans My advise is That thou wouldst own all men and women let them go under what name soever if thou seest any thing of the appearance of Christ in them and know no man after the flesh 2 Cor. 5. 16. that is do not so much take notice of mens outward appearances viz. kindred quality honour wisdome or eloquency but meerly know them after the spirit that is according to the spirituall power vertue and grace that is in them the true Church then are a people created in Christ Jesus or begotten and born to God in the faith and knowledge of his Son by the

rich and miserable with Dives Oh! I see I see that one storm at Sea one coale of Fire one false Friend one unadvised word one false Witness may make a rich man a Beggar and a Prisoner altogether Surely if this had been considered some things had been reformed that were not Did you never read Psal 12. 5. Now for the oppression of the needy and for the sighs of the poore I will up saith the Lord and will set at liberty c. And in Psalm 146. 9. The Lord keepeth the Stranger he relieveth the Fatherlesse and Widow c. Did you not know that the oppression of the poor which was so great in the midst of us would pull down the judgement of God upon the heads of those that had power to relieve them and would not May not many of you hereafter say as Philip the third of Spain whose life was free from gross evils being in the Agony of death fear struck into him and these words burst from him Oh would to God I had never reigned Oh that I had lived a solitary life with God and not opprest the people What doth all my honour profit me but that I have so much the more torment in my death My day of account is very neere and all men shall know and feel that the sleeping of vengeance causeth the overflowing of sin and the overflowing of oppression causeth the overflowing of vengeance Abused oportunity will most certainly turn into fury for Gods long forbearance is no acquittance the day is at hand when he will pay negligent men and women for mispending precious time and for the abuse of new and old mercies in the day of account Mens actions are all in print and they shall be read aloud in the eares of all the world that all the righteous Nation that shall enter in may say Amen to that righteous Sentence that Christ shall pass upon all those that had a prize put into their hands to mind his glory and to unload his people of their heavy burthens that the oppressed might go free but they had no heart to it as in the Proverbs But instead thereof sought great things for themselves as in Jer. 45. 5. Nay though Moses and Aaron two choice Christians and Champions did lead and govern Israel for a long time notwithstanding many dangers and difficulties yet they were at last shut out of Canaan because they did not sanctifie the Lord God at the water of Meribah Deut. 32. 15. and Numb 27. 14 15. For ye were disobedient unto my Word in the strife of the Assembly c. A word of Advice to the present Supream Authority of ENGLAND c. Most noble and honoured Sirs WHom God even the God of the spirits of all flesh hath at present intrusted with the highest places not only in the Field but also in the seat of Justice My prayers to God for you are that the Lord would make you rather gracious and inwardly holy then outwardly happy and give you a spirit of divine wisdome and valour suitable to the work that lyeth before you that ye may improve the present oportunity that is put into your hands for the glory of God that gave it you Consider the presence of the Lord is in the midst of you the prayers of his Saints and Servants are continually poured out for you the eyes of the people are upon you all expecting some great things to be done by you yea and the other parts of the world look upon you if ye go on in a way of righteousness they will follow you It will be a glory for the English Nation to give a blessed example to all the people of the earth to free themselves from tyranny and slavery If a worm might be thought worthy to advise you then give me leave to tell you there is but one thing in the main that God and his people doe expect from you viz. That ye would eye the Lord Jesus in all your actings and advance his Kingdome as much as in you lyeth and if this be uppermost in your hearts first in your thoughts and most constant in your purposes so that ye do in your judgements prefer and in your wills deliberately mind the glory of God the advancement of the Kingdome of his dear Son by the assistance of his holy Spirit then shall the work of the Lord prosper in your hands and the day shall be light before you and his footsteps that are not yet known shall be discovered to you and ye shall see your work before you Christ was once humbled that we might be exalted let him now be exalted that we might willingly be humbled by him although he be willing to give you grace yet his glory he will not give to any other Let it be a comfort for you that he hath exalted you in the hearts of his people although you are a table-talk and a by-word and a scorn in the hearts and by the tongues of his enemies Well would you stand your selves now others are fallen and not only keep but also add to the honour which God hath given you Then make it your business to exalt the Kingdome of Christ not only in your selves but also in this and the neighbouring Nations and remember that the rock of ages pulleth down some to the end that others might not exalt themselves when they are in power for the Lord hath decreed to stain the pride of all earthly honour and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth that so all flesh might be humbled and the Lord alone exalted therefore seek not ye great things for your selves as many of those that went before you lest ye be laid aside and no eye pitty you Provide nothing more for your selves then ye have I beseech you but to seek for the honour of Christ and the freedome of the Saints and these Nations wherein your owne freedomes and safeties are involved Consider that the Lord hath hitherto made some of you friends to his people and a terrour to their and his enemies and our prayer to the Lord is that he would teach you as once he did good Nehemiah to do many years hard service freely because the payments were heavy upon their fellow creatures as you may see in Neh. 5. 14. 18. That ye may say as that servant of Christ did to the glory of God and the shame of the former self-seeking powers ver 15. But the former Governours that had been before me were chargable unto the people and had taken of them their Bread and Wine besides fourty shekels of Silver but so did not I said this good man because of the feare of the Lord. I have but a few things more to begg of you as upon my bended knees and with weeping eyes which if ye will but hear and grant it may make much for the glory of God the honour of the three Nations and the Comfort of your owne Souls The first thing is that

understand his errours Then again for sins of omission thy barrennesse and unfruitfulnesse thy omitting of time that is so precious and omitting of occasions of doing good see Mat. 25. 45. Again let us consider the aggravations of sin first every sin is against the great Majesty of God the greater the person offended is the greater the sin committed is Again we sin against knowledge it was the great sin of the Gentiles that when they knew God they glorified him not as God to sin against knowledge is a resisting the holy Ghost tribulation therefore is first to the Jew that knew the will of God and then to the Gentile Now the Gentiles had but the light of nature see Rom. 2. 9. Again another aggravation of sin is this we have sinned against vowes and covenants made with God now sin after covenant is greater then it was before though in act it be but the same Again we sin against means yea against those means that God hath put as weapons in our hands to resist it as mercies or corrections of God or his word whereby we profit not Now all this that hath been spoken hitherto of our sinfull condition by nature and practise is but a taste of one drop to the Ocean to that bulk and body of corruption that lyeth covered in our hearts as fire under ashes see Psal 19. 12. Who can understand the errors of his life saith David I will set thy sins in order before thee saith the Lord Psal 50. The next thing to be considered is the judgements threatned against those sins Psal 50. 22. Now consider this saith the Lord lest I come and tear you in pieces Cursed is he that continueth not in every thing that is written Gal. 3. 10. and he that keepeth the whole Law and offends but in one point is guilty of all Jam. 2. 10. so that sin and punishment are linked together See the forementioned places Rom. 6 32. Rev. 14. 10. Psal 9. 17. Rom. 2. 9. Deut. 28. 16 17 18. Now when the soul seeth his sin and the judgements due to him for sin then the soul doth begin to make a stop and to consider where it is and whither it is going and as it looks up it seeth an angry Judge ready to pronounce his condemnation and as it looks down it sees hell mouth open ready to receive it If thou look before thee all the world seems in a flame of fire and behinde thee a hideous noise of an innumerable number of thy fellow sinners at their wits ends crying out with the Jaylor What shall I do to be saved or else with the four leapers 2 King 7. 3 4. If we should enter into the city the famine is there and we shall dye and if we sit still here we die also Now therefore let us fall into the hands of the Assyrians if they save us alive we live if not we shall but die Even thus is it with every soul a little convinced of his sinfull life lost and undone condition First if we should look back and enter into the City of all the good that we have done the famine is there and we shall die and if we sit still here in this state of nature not improving the opportunity nor ability that is in our hands we die also now therefore let us fall into the hands of the Assyrians if they save us alive we shall live if not we shall but die This third and last resolution of the Lepers doth shew and fully discover to all men that have their eyes in their heads that a man or woman once convinced of sin both originall and actuall of omission and commission both in flesh and spirit with all its aggravations and denominations this party seeks for healing but it goes to the Assyrians an enemy that could not help themselves so we even we the most of men awakened out of a secure estate of sin the soul seeks and comes to the Assyrian of his own righteousnesse and when he comes to the camp he findes that fled away then he returns to all his friends and relations and finds them unable to help themselves much leste to help him Then the soul comes to the Assyrian of his own duties and ordinances and so rests upon a form without the power and so we wil never come to Christ the true and only physician of the soul untill with the woman in Mar. 5. 25 26 27 28. we have spent all our money time and pains and left no stone unturned no means unattempted to get cu●e and healing in something beside the Lord Jesus Christ but when with this woman we have spent all and yet grow worse and worse then the soul begins to make a halt or stop again and so begins to reason with it self If I sit still here in the state of nature I shall die or if I should go into the City of my own works the Lord hath written death upon that no flesh shall be justified by that I will even fall into the hands of God the great Creator of the Assyrians Who can tell but that he may be gracious unto me that I perish not Jonah 3. 9. Joel 2. 14. Nay the Lord may be gracious to me and save me Amos 5. 15. Oh let me and all those my fellow sinners fall into his hands it may be we shall be hid in the day of the Lords wrath It is true we being wicked he may say to us as in Psal 50. 16. What hast thou to do to take my Covenant into thy mouth But for all this I am resolved saith one I am resolved saith another to go to him and cast my self upon him although it doth seem to be contrary to his law which is our Debt-book yet there doth seem to be a way opened in the Gospell which is the Pay-book where if I mistake not are Receipts for most of my debts if not for all Wherefore as Esther 4. 16. she resolved to go to the King though it was contrary to the Law So am I saith the convinced sinner resolved to go in to the King of Kings and if I perish I perish Now sometimes before the soul comes to this strong resolution even when once it begins to be throughly convinced of sin it makes a stop or halt like a traveller meeting with two waies and knows not which to take he stands still and takes neither of them for the present but continues inquiring of all that passe by and at last having silenced his own thoughts he hears a voice behinde him saying as in Isa 30. 21. This is the way walk in it and so the Lords gives a mighty turn to the soul by that secret voice but before the soul comes thus farre there is wrought in the soul the assenting act of faith but not the applying act now the assenting act is that whereby a man assents to the truth of the Scripture that he is such a miserable wretch as

ye would set some time and persons apart to heare and receive the private petitions and grievances of the poor Widows and Fatherless so much neglected by the former power for they have poured out their complaints in the midst of their wants and their cry came up before the Lord before the dissolving of the late Parliament Consider I request you That the earth and all thereen is the Lords not our Store-house and ye are at present his Stewards wherefore as in Prov. 3. 7. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to doe it So in the end ye shall be able to say with Job That ye have not withheld the poore from their desire nor caused the eyes of the Widow and Fatherless to faile nor seen any perish for want of cloathing nor seen any poore in the streets without covering I could almost say to you as once Abraham did to the Lord Gen. 18. 27. Behold now I have taken upon me to speak which am but dust and ashes I would begg leave to present a few things more to your serious consideration The next thing is That when ye make inquisition for ravening wolves prophesied of by Christ and his Apostles Mat. 7. 15. compared with Acts 20. 29. that come to us in Sheeps cloathing that ye would not do as the late Parliament did stop the Wolf's mouth in one Town and let him go and devour or at least deceive the Sheep in another if he be adjudged unfit to bite or devour in one place let him be held as unfit in another lest ye should do as if in effect they did put out the fire in Canne and send it to Marlborough or endeavour to stop the plague in Bristoll by sending the infected persons to London The next thing that I would begg of you for this poor nation is That whereas the last Power did promise much and perform little be ye more like God I both humbly and earnestly request you by promising less then ye intend to perform that ye may appeare to us in very deed to be like him He promised the Children of Israel only the Land of Canaan but besides that he gave them two other Kingdomes which he never did promise to give them And to Zacharias Luke 1. 20. He promised to give him his Speech again at the Birth of the Child but beside that he gave him the gift of prophesie so that as Paul saith He can give and do abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think And yet that say ye abide in him ought so to walk as ye have him for an example See Eph. 3. 20. 1 Joh. 2. 6. The next thing I would beseech of you most noble and honoured Senators is this That ye would endeavour to unite all the Saints sound in the Faith to an union in the spirit of Love Though England be but as a garden to the whole world all the people in it but a handfull and scarce one of twenty of this handfull godly men yet were these few Saints united by the blessed Spirit so as their hearts might agree together as touching any thing they ought to ask and were so well affected to lift up one voice and one heart according to the will of God they would have the things they ask so as nothing should be too hard for them to do all the world could not stand before them nor undermine them for they would be wise in the Lords wisdome and strong in him and in the power of his might Shall Herod and Pilate agree Turks and Pagans agree Beares and Lyons agree Tygers and Wolves agree and shall not Saints agree If the Saints were but once united Antichrist would soone be destroyed Oh let not our Supream Power under God be angry and I will speak but this once Oh let me then say to you as once Mordecai did to Hester Hest 4. 14. If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall their enlargement come and deliverance arise from another place or power but thou and thy Fathers house shall be destroyed and who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdome for such a time as this And under correction let me tell you the work is the Lords and if ye will not carry it on he will lay you aside with shame and raise up those that he will own and bless And whereas most of the Godly people in England are crying mightily to God for you to purge out self-seeking and to plant a spirit of Government in you and to furnish you with naturall and spirituall abilities suitable to the work that lyeth before you but if ye begin to flag as the former power did and so let the work stick in the Birth and every one minding his owne things not the things of Jesus Christ then let me tell you that all the Lords people in England and the other Nations will be praying to him and wrestling with him and give him no rest night nor day till the Lord turne you also out of doores and bring in those that he will own and bless FINIS A Table shewing the principall things in this TREATISE OF the state of Nature 1 Of the state of Grace ibid. The severall degrees in each of these states ibid. How a soul yet in the state of Nature may be brought to Christ 2 Which is first in the soul Faith or Repentance fully discovered 12 A great question answered why doth the righteous God promise life to him that doth believe and threaten eternall death to them that do not believe seeing that it is not in the power of the Creature to believe And there are five reasons for it 17 Conviction goeth alwayes with Conversion 18 Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins go together ibid. Many sweet promises made to a soul convinced of sinne 19 20 One and twenty stumbling-blocks cast in a Christians way to Heaven by the World Flesh and Devil 21 What those blocks are and how to remove them 22 The first stumbling-block cast in the way is to cause a soule to question whether the Scriptures be the Word of God 23 Proved by five Arguments that they are the Word of God 24 The second stumbling-block is that the Scriptures are corrupted by a spirit of ignorance and self-ends in the Translators 25 Proved that the generality of Scriptures are truly clearely faithfully translated ibid. The third stumbling-block cast in the way is that the promises were made to the Jews and Gentiles heretofore in being What hath any man to do to apply them now 26 Proved by severall Testimonies in holy writ that the people now in being may and ought to apply the promises as well as they 27 The fourth stumbling-block cast in the way is that I know not what the Scriptures mean they are to be understood in a spiritual sence the Book is sealed 28 Proved that the same God that hath commanded us to read