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_v	world_n	worthy_a	84	3	6.2536	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28171	The common principiles of Christian religion clearly proved and singularly improved, or, A practical catechism wherein some of the most concerning-foundations of our faith are solidely laid down, and that doctrine, which is according to godliness, sweetly, yet pungently pressed home and most satisfyingly handled / by that worthy and faithful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Hew Binning ...	Binning, Hugh, 1627-1653.; Gillespie, Patrick, 1617-1675.	1667 (1667)	Wing B2927; ESTC R33213	197,041	290

of them all to which they must be reduced as their spring and fountain All of you may understand that there are many things possible which yet actually will never be The Lords power and Omnipotency is of a further extent then his Decree and Purpose His Power is Naturall and Essential to his Beeing His Decree is of choise and Voluntarie The Father could have sent a Legion of Angels to have delivered his Son the Son could have asked them but neither of them would do it Mat. 26. 53. The Lord could have raised up Children to Abraham out of stones but he would not Matth. 3 His power then comprehends within its reach all possible things which do not in their own nature proper conception imply a contradiction so that infinite worlds of creatures more perfect than this numbers of Angels and men above these creatures in glory surpassing them again are within the compasse of the boundlesse power omnipotency of God But yet for all this it might have fallen out that nothing should actually and really have been unlesse his Majesty had of his own freē will decreed what is or hath been or is to be His will determines his power and as it were puts it in the nearest capacity to act exercise it self Here then we must look for the beginning of all things that are they are conceived in the womb of the Lords everlasting purpose As he speaks Zeph. 2. 2. The Decree is as it were with child of beings Isa. 44. 7. It s God Royal Prerogative to appoint things to come and none can share with him in it From whence is it I pray you that of so many worlds which his power could have framed this one is brought to light Is it not because this one was formed as it were in the belly of his eternall counsel and will From whence is it that so many men are and no more That the Lord Jesus was slain when the power of God might have kept him alive That those men Iudas c. were the doers of it when others might have done it from whence are all those actions good or evill under the Sun which he might have prevented But from his good will and pleasure from his determinate counsell Acts 4. 28. Can you find the Originall of these in the Creature why it is thus and why not otherwise Can you conceive why of all the infinite numbers of possible beings these are and no other And what hath translated that number of creatures which is from the state of pure possibility to futurition or actuall being but the decisive vote of Gods everlasting purpose and counsell Therefore we should alwayes conceive that the creatures and all their actions which have or will have any being in the VVorld have first had a beeing in the womb of Gods eternall Counsel and that his will and pleasure hath past upon all things that are and are not His Counsel has concluded of things that have been or will be that thus they shall be and his Counsell has determined of all other things which are also impossible that they shall never come forth into the light of the world but remain in the dark bowels of Omnipotency that so we may give him the glory of all things that are not and that are at all Then 4. We should consider the extent of his decree Counsell it 's past upon all things it 's Universal reaching every being or action of the Universe This is the strain of the whole Scripture He did not as some dream once create the creatures in a good state put them in capacity henceforth to preserve themselves or exercise their own vertue and power without dependence on him as an Artificer makes an Horologe and orders it in all things that it may do its business without him he is not only a generall originall of action motion as if we would command a River to flow by his appointed channels as if he did only work rule the world by Atturneys Embassadors that is the weaknesse infirmity of earthly Kings that they must substitute Deputies for themselves But this King appoints all immediatly and disposes upon all the particular actions of his Creatures good or evil and so is the Universal absolute Lord of his Creature of its being and doing it were a long work to rehearse what the Scriptures speaks of this kind But O that ye would read them oftner and ponder them better How there is nothing in this World which may seem to fall out by chance to you that you know not how it is come to passe can see no cause nor reason of it but it falls out by the holy will of our blessed Father Be it of greater or lesse moment or be it a hair of thy head fallen or thy head cut off the most casual contingent thing thought it surprised the whole world of men and Angels that they should wonder from whence it did proceed it is no surprisall to him for he not only knew it but appointed it the most certain and necessary thing according to the course of nature it hath no certainty but from his appointment who hath established such a course in the creatures which he can suspend when he pleaseth Be it the sin of men and devils which seems most opposite to his holinesse yet even that cannot appear in the World of beings if it were not in a holy righteous and permissive way first conceived in the womb of his Eternall Counsell and if it were not determined by him for holy and just end Acts 4. 28. The second thing propounded is that his mind counsell is one one and the same yesterday and to day and for ever therefore the Apostles speakes of God That there is no shaddow of change or turning in him James 1. 17. He is not a man that he should lie or the son of man that he should repent Will he say and not do it Numb 23. 19. and shal he decree not execute it Shal he purpose and not perform it I am God and changes not that is his Name Mal. 3. 6. The Counsell of the Lord shal stand the thoughts of his heart to all generations Psal. 33. 11. Men changes their mind oftner then their garments poor vain man even in their best estate is changeablenesse and vicissitude it self altogether vanity And this ariseth partly from the imperfection of his understanding his ignorance because he doth not understand what may fall out there are many things secret hidden which if he discovered he would not be of that judgement and many things fall out which may give ground of another resolution and partly from the weaknesse and perversnesse of his will that cannot be constant in any good thing is not so closely united to it as that no fear nor terrour can separate from it But there is no such imperfection in him neither ignorance nor weaknesse all things

degrees of perfection and excellency while we are only comparing them among themselves but let once the glorious brightnesse of God shine upon the soul and in that light all these lights shal be obscured all their differences unobserved an Angel a Man a Man and a Worm differ much in glory and perfection of beeing But O in his presence there is no such reckoning upon this account all things are alike God infinitly distant from all and so not more or lesse Infinitnesse is not capable of such terms of comparison This is the reason why Christ sayes There is none good but one even God Why because in respect of his goodness nothing deserves that name lesser light in view of the greater is a darkness as less good in comparison of a greater appears evil How much more then shal created light and created goodnesse lose that name and notion in the presence of that uncreated light self-sufficient goodnesse And therefore it is that the Lord calls himself after this manner I am as if nothing else were I will not say saith he that I am the highest the best and most glorious that is that supposeth other things to have some being and some glory that is worthy the accounting of But I am there is none else I am alone I lift up my hand to Heaven swear I live for ever There is nothing else can say I am I live there is none else for there is nothing hath it of it self Can any boast of that which they have borrowed and is not their own As if the bird that had stolen from other birds its fair feathers should come forth and contend with them about beauty would not they presently every one pluck out their own leave her naked to be an object of mockery to all Even so since our breath and being is in our nostrils and that depends upon his Majesties breathing upon us if he should but keep in his breath as it were we should vanish into nothing he looketh upon man as he is not Iob 7. 8. That is a strange look that looks man not only out of countenance but out of life and being he looks him into the first nothing and then can he say I live I am no he must alwayes say of himself in respect of God as Paul of himself in respect of Christ I live yet not I but Christ in me I am yet not I but God in me I live I am yet not I but in God in whom I live and have my being So that there is no other thing beside God can say I am because all things are borrowed drops of this self-sufficient fountain sparkles of this primitive light Let any thing interveen between the stream and the fountain and it is cut off and dried up let any thing be interposed between the Sun and the Beam and it evanishes Therefore this fountain being this original light this self being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato calleth him deserves only the name of being other things that we call after that name are nearer nothing than God and so in regard of his Majesty may more fitly be called nothing than something you see then how profound a mystery of Gods absolute self-sufficient perfection is infolded in these three Letters I am or in these four Iehovah If you ask what is God there is nothing occures better then this I am or he that is if I should say he is the Almighty the only wise the most perfect the most glorious it is all contained in that word I am that I am nempe hoc est ci esse haec omnia esse For that is to be indeed to be all those perfections simply absolutly and as it were solely If I say all that and should reckon out all the Scripture-Epithets I add nothing If I say no more I deminish nothing As this holds out Gods absolute perfection so we told you that it imports his eternity and unchangeablenesse you know Pilats speech what I have written I have written wherein he meant that he would not change it it should stand so So this properly belongs to Gods eternity before the mountains were brought forth from everlasting to everlasting he is God Psalm 90. 2. Now this is properly to be this only deserves the name of being which never was nothing never shal be nothing which may alwayes say I am you know it is so with nothing else but God The Heavens and Earth with the things therein could not say 6000. years ago I am Adam could once have said I am but now he cannot say it for that self being fountain-being hath said to him Return to dust so it is with all the generations past where are they now They were but they are not And we then were not now are for we are come in their place but within a little time who of us can say I am No we flee away are like a dream as when one awaketh we are like a tale that is told that makes a present noise and it is past within few years this generation will passe none will make mention of us our place will not know us no more than we do now remember those who have been before Christ said of Iohn He was a burning and shining light he was saith he but now he is not but Christ may alwayes say I am the light and life of men Man is but look a little backward and he was not you shal find his original and step a little foreward and he shal not be you shal find his end but God is Alpha and Omega the beginning the end but oh who can retire so far backward as to apprehend a beginning or go such a start forward as to conceive an end in such a being as is the beginning end of all things but without all beginning and end Whose understanding would it not confound There is no way here but to flee into Pauls Sanctuary O the heighth and breadth and depth We cannot imagine a being but we must first conceive it nothing in some instant receiving its being and therefore canst thou by searching find out God Therefore what his being is hath not entered into the heart of man to consider If a man would live out the space but of two generations he would be a worlds wonder but if any had their dayes prolonged as the Patriarchs before the flood they would be called ancient indeed but then the heavens and earth are far more ancient we may go backward the space of near 6000. years in our own minds and yet be as far from his beginning as we were when we are come to the beginning of all things a mans imagination may yet extend to self-further suppose to it self as many thousands of years before the beginning of time as all the Angels and men of all nations generations from the beginning if they had been imployed in no

undoing then vvhen indignation and vvrath is pursuing it O that you vvould ponder vvhat you lose by it both the sweetnesse and advantage of godlinesse beside the dishonour of God You take a formall neglegent and secure vvay as the most easie vvay and the most pleasing to your flesh and I am perswaded you find it the most difficult vvay because you vvant all the pleasant sweet refreshment soul-delights you might have in God by a serious and diligent minding of Religion The pleasure and sweetnesse of God tasted and found vvill make diligence and pains more easie then slothfulnes can be to the slothfull this oyls the wheels and makes them run swiftly formality makes them drive heavily thus you live alwayes in a complaining humor fighing and going backward because you have some stirring principles or conscience vvithin vvhich bears vvitnesse against you and your formall sluggish disposition on the other hand refuseth to awake and work you are perplexed and tormented between the two when thy spirit and affections goes one way thy body another then thy conscience drives on the Spirit and thy affections draw back it must needs be an unpleasant businesse Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. 1 Joh. 5. 7. There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one GReat is the mystery of Godlinesse 1 Tim. 3. 16. Religion and true Godlinesse is a bundle of excellent mysteries of things hid from the world yea from the wise men of the world 1 Cor. 2. and not only so but secrets in their own nature the distinct know ledge whereof is not given to Saints in this estate of distance and absence from the Lord There is almost nothing in Divinity but it is a mystery in it self how common soever it be in the apprehensions of men for it is mens overly and common and slander apprehensions of thē which makes them look so commonly upon them there is a depth in them but you will not know it till you search it sound it the more you sound you shal find it the more profound But there are some mysteries smal and some great there is a difference amongst them all are not of one statu●…e of one measure The mystery of Christs Incarnation and D●…ath and Resurrection is one of the great mysteries of Religion God manifested in the flesh yet I conceive there is a greater mystery than it and of all mysteries in nature or divinity I know none to this the Holy Trinity and it must needs be greatest of all and without controversie greatest because it is the beginning and end of all fons finis omnium all mysteries have their rise here and all of them return hither This is furthest removed from the understandings of men what God himself is for himself is infinitly above any manifestation of himself God is greater than God manifested in the flesh though in that respect he be too great for us to conceive There is a naturall desire in all men to know and if any thing be secret and wonderfull the desire is more inflamed after the knowledge of it the very difficulty or impossibility of attaining it in stead of restraining the curiosity of mans spirit doth rather incense it Nitimur in vetitum is the fruit the sad fruit we plucked and eat from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil If the Lord reveal any thing plainly in his Word to men that it despised and set at naught because it is plain whereas the most plain truths which are beyond all controversie are the most necessary and most profitable for our eternal salvation but if there be any secret mystery in the Scriptures which the Lord hath only pointed out more obscurely to us reserving the distinct and clear understanding of it to himself Deut. 29. 26. that is the Apple which our cursed natures will long for and catch after though there be never so much choice of excellent saving fruit in the Paradise of the Scriptures besides If the Ark be covered to keep men from looking into it that doth rather provoke the curious spirit of man to prye into it 1 Sam. 6. 19. If the Lord shew his wonderfull glory in the Mount charge his people not to come near left the glorious presence of God kill them he must put rayles about it to keep them back or else they will be medling such is the unbridled licence of our minds and the perverse dispositions of our natures that where God familiarly invites us to come what he earnestly presseth us to search and know that we despise as trivial and common and what he compasseth about with a divine darkness of inaccessible light and hath removed far from the apprehensions of all living that we will needs search into and wander into those forbidden compasses with daring boldnesse I conceive this holy and profound mysterie is one of those secrets which belongs to God to know for who knowes the Father but the Son or the Son but the Father or who knoweth the mind of God but the Spirit Yet the foolish minds of men will not be satisfied with the believing ignorance of such a mysterie but will needs enquire into those depths that they may find satisfaction for their reason but as it hapeneth with men who will boldly stare upon the Sun their eyes are dazled and darkned with its brightnesse or those that enter into a Labyrinth which they can find no way to come out but they further go into it the more perplexed it is and the more intricate even so it befalls many unsober and presumptuous spirits who not being satisfied with the simple truth of God clearly asserting that this is endeavour to examine it according to reason and to solve all the objections of carnal wit and reason which is often enmity to God not by the silence of the Scriptures but by answers framed according to the severall capacities of men I say all this is but daring to behold the infinite glorie of God with eies of flesh which makes them darkned in mind and vanishing in their Expressions while they seek to behold the inaccessible light while they enter into an endlesse Labyrinth of difficulties out of which the threed of reason and disputation can never extricat them or lead them forth But the Lord has shewed us a more excellent way though it be more despicable to men man did fal from his blessednes by this curious and wretched aime at some higher happinesse and more wisdom The Lord hath chosen another way to raise him up again by faith rather thā knowledge by believing rather than disputing therefore the great command of the Gospell is this to receive with a ready and willing mind whatsoever the Lord saith to us whatsoever it may appear to sense reason to dispute no more to search no more into the secret of Divine mysteries as if by

will not wait on their concurrence You see now strange things done you wonder at them how we are brought down from our excellency how our land is laid desolat by strangers how many instrumēts of the Lords work are laid aside how he lifts up a rod of indignation against us and is like to overturn even the foundations of our land All these were not in our mind before but they were in his mind from eternity and therefore he is now working it Believe then that there is not a circumstance of all business not one joynt or jot of it but is even as it was framed and carved out of old his present works are according to an ancient pattern vvhich he carries in his mind all the measures and degrees of your affliction all the ounces and grain-weights of your cup vvere all weighed in the scales of his Eternall Counsell the instruments the time the manner all that is in it If he change instruments that was in his mind if he change dispensations that was in his mind also And seeing you know by the Scriptures that a blessed end is appointed for the godly that all things work for their good that all is subservient to the Churches welfare seeing I say you know his purpose is such as the Scriptures speaks then believe his performance shal be exact accordingly nothing dificient no joynt no sinew in all his vvork of providence no line in all his book volume of the creature but it was written in that ancient book of his eternal counsel first fashioned in that Ps. 39. 16. Then lastly his will is irresistible his Counsell shal stand who can turn him from his purpose and who can hinder him from performance therefore he attains his end in the highest and most superlative degree of certainty and infallibility Himself will not change his own purpose for why should he do it if he change to the better then it reflects on his wisdom if he change to the worse it reflects both on his wisdom and godlinesse certainly he can see no cause why he should change it But as himself cannot change so none can hinder his performance for what power think you shal it be that may attempt that Is it the power of men of strong men of high men of any men No sure for their breath is in their nostrils they have no power but as he breaths in them if he keep in his breath as it were they perish all nations are as nothing before him and what power hath nothing Is it Devils may do it No for they cannot though they would he chains them he limits them Is it good Angels They are powerfull indeed but they neither can nor will resist his will Let 〈◊〉 be the whole University of the Creation suppose all their scattered force and vertue conjoyned in one yet it is all but finite it amounts to no more if you would eternally adde unto it But all victory resistance of this kind must be by a superior power or at least by an equal therefore we may conclude that there i●… no impediment or let that can be put in his way nothing can obstruct his purpose if all the world shoul●… conspire as one man to obstruct the performance o●… any of his promises and purposes they do but rage i●… vain like dogs barking at the Moon they shal be s●… far from attaining their purpose that his Majesty sha●… disabuse them so to speak to his own purpose h●… shal apply them quite contrary to their own mind t●… work out the counsel of his mind Here is the absolute King only worth the name of a King Lord whom all things in Heaven and Earth obeyes at the first nodd and beckning to them Hills Seas Mountains Rivers Sun Moon Clouds Men Beasts Angels and Devils all of them are acted moved and inclined according to his pleasure all of them are about his work indeed as the result of all in the end shal make it appear are servants at his command going where he bids go and comming where he bids come led by an invisible hand though in the mean time they knew it not but thinks they are about their own businesse applauds themselves for a time in it ducunt volentem fata notentem trahunt Godly men who knows his Will and loves it are led by it willingly for they yeeld themselves up to his disposall but wicked men who have contrary Wills of their own they can gain no more by resisting but to be drawn along with it Now to what purpose is all this spoken of Gods Decrees and purposes which he hath called a secret belonging to himself If his works judgements be a great depth and unsearchable sure his decrees are far more unsearchable For it is the secret and hidden purpose of God which is the very depth of his way judgement But to what purpose is it all I say Not to enquire curiously into the particulars of them but to profit by them The Scripture holds out to us the unchangeablenesse freedom extent holinesse and wisdom of them for our advantage and if this advantage be not reaped we know them in vain Not to burden your memory with many particulars we should labour to draw forth both instruction and consolation out of them Instruction I say in two things especially to submit with reverence respect to his Majesty in all his works and wayes to trust in him who knows all his workss will not change his mind There is nothing wherein I know Christians more deficent than in this point of submission which I take to be one of the chiefest sweetest though hardest duties of a Christian. It is hardly to be found among men a through complyance of the soul to what his soul desires a real subjection of our spirits to his good will and pleasure There is nothing so much blessed in Scripture as waiting on him as yeelding to him to be disposed upon Blessed are all they that wait on him Pride is the greatest opposite and he opposes himself most to that for it is in it self most derogatory to the highnesse and Majesty of God which is his very glory Therefore submission is most acceptable to him when the soul yeelds it self and its will to him he condescends far more to it he cannot be an enemy to such a soul submission to his Majesties pleasure is the very bowing down of the soul willingly to any thing he doth or commands what ever yoke he puts on of duty or suffering to take it on willingly without answering again which is the great sin condemned in servants to put the mouth in the dust to keep silence because he doth it I was dumb with silence I opened not my mouth because thou didst it their is submission indeed silence of mind mouth a restraint put upon the spirit to think nothing grudgingly of him for any thing he doth It is