Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	blood_n	conscience_n	purge_v	4,361	5	9.5333	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09970	The golden scepter held forth to the humble VVith the Churches dignitie by her marriage. And the Churches dutie in her carriage. In three treatises. The former delivered in sundry sermons in Cambridge, for the weekely fasts, 1625. The two latter in Lincolnes Inne. By the late learned and reverend divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to His Maiesty, Mr. of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and somtime preacher at Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.; Glover, George, b. ca. 1618, engraver.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Ball, Thomas, 1589 or 90-1659.	1638 (1638)	STC 20227; ESTC S112474	187,142	312

is to put in a graft of another nature which wil change it and by little and little sweeten the constitution of it But you will say what is to be put in I answer goe not about it as a morall man but as a Christian get Iustification and Sanctification It is true it is profitable to bee much humbled for thy sinne and you ought to bee so yet this is not the onely way to heale it but the heart must be strengthened with the assurance of the forgivenesse of it There is a double way to get the heart turned away from sinne the one to see the loathsomnesse of that which we turne from the other the beauty of the contrary object wee turne to Spend not all your paines about the first but do something in the later the more contrition the better But it is not got all at once it is more increased by assurance and hope of pardon when a man begins to have hope he purifies himselfe So it is in all other exercises it is hope quickens our endeavours One that is not neare a kingdome goes not about it but when he comes to have hopes he begins to bestirre himself tolle spem tolle conatum therefore get and encrease the hope of the pardon of your sinnes Hence the Apostle Rom. 15. 13. prayes Now the God of hope fill you with al joy and peace through believing c. By the words following it appeares to bee to strengthen and set them right concerning al their infirmities and he points to this as one meanes to be fild with joy and peace in believing as if he had said if your hearts were full of spirituall joy through faith and assurance your hearts would be purified and therefore faith also is said to purifie the heart and besides when the bloud of Christ is applyed by faith there goes a vertue with it Heb. 9. 14. How much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered up himselfe to God purge your consciences from dead workes And adde to this sanctification set upon that work Ioh. 17. Christ hath prayed that they might be preserved from the evill of the world But how shal that be done Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth that is when they shall passe through this world full of evill and corruption the way to preserve them spotlesse and untainted is to have the heart sanctified When the heart is well oyled with grace the dirt of the world falls off This is an antidote against corruption Though in your passage you meete with much bad aire and infection this will preserve you But then how should wee bee sanctified By truth The more truth you get into your hearts the more grace Grace and Truth goes together 1 Iohn and came by CHRIST who is full of both Therefore 2 Pet. 3. ult these two are joyned grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. By truth but what truth thy word is truth Every truth is not fit to sanctifie as all water will not take sope to scowre the word is that truth that doth it Morall truths may doe many things in the soule they may adorne it but they cannot heale or purifie it Wash in Iordan saith the Prophet to leaprous Naaman There is a speciall vertue in this Iordan to heale thee of thy seprofie that is not in the waters of Damascus You came not to the word as to a lecture of Philosophy but as to that which workes wonders the power of God goes with it For withall marke this that it is not the word of it self that doth it it doth not work as Physicke that hath a vertue in it of its owne but the LORD doth it by the word and therefore CHRIST prayes to his father to sanctifie them by the word As a man writes a letter by a pen so the Lord sanctifies by the word To consecrate the heart to GOD is to sanctifie it and divine truths alone doe consecrate the heart to God and no other Let us therefore get much grace and truth into our hearts assurance of justification and joy in the Holy Ghost that by tasting of better the heart may be taken off from the pleasures of sinfull wayes sound joy will swallow up all other joyes the joyes of sin Stirre up those graces that are in thee for when wee exhort you to goe to God to helpe you our meaning is not that you should leave all the worke some labour is required of thee I speake to those who have some beginnings of grace you must stir up those graces GOD hath given you Hence Saint Paul sayes 1 Tim. 4. 15. neglect not the gift that was given thee as if hee had said Timothy thou maiest doe much if thou consider what ability thou hast received so much spirit so much liberty so much regeneration so much free will to good So he sayes to the Church of Philadelphia Thou hast a little strength it is a Talent therefore use it Therfore also he sayes in Iude 20. build up your selves and cleanse your selves and many the like But you will say how can wee doe this seeing it is the LORD that workes in us the will and the deed and wee can doe nothing without the Spirit Though the Spirit doth it yet we in this worke are to bee agents also Rom. 8. 13. If you through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the flesh as if hee had said though you do it by the Spirit yet do you go about it We may do something to draw the Spirit nigher us as we may doe something to grieve the Spirit and to smoke him out of the house so to please the Spirit as wee intend the flame of the Spiritby pure thoughts so we put him out by foggy thoughts But you will aske what it is to stirre up our graces Stirre up thy light examine thy selfe of thy evill wayes endeavour to see them clearely and confesse them for that is the way to forsake them Prov. 28. 13. and despise none of them with that light thou hast examine every thing what ever thou hast the least doubt search it out to the full This idle speech this jollity and vanity of conversation how little soever it seemes as dalliance in thy thoughts and eyes overly performance of duties Vse that light further to get reason against thy sinne This is to consider a mans wayes as David did to ponder the reasons Let a man take paines with his heart from day to day and consider what reasons there are by which a mans heart may be taken off from his sin as against unlawfull gain to thinke it but as stealing custome whereby a man forfeits all the rest that what is unlawfully gotten is as the coale that was carried in by the Eagle into her nest with a peece of broyled flesh which consumed her nest young and her selfe and all treaties of infirmities that

their iniquity and why because hee remembred they were but flesh And indeed one would wonder how the LORD could forgive so obstinate a people that had such experience of his power and mercy by those great workes which he wrought afore them in bringing them out of Egypt yet he did because he remmebred and wisely considered what ingredients went to make up their natures hee remembred they were but flesh So Psalme 103. 13 14. the former part of that Psalme is nothing else but an expression of promises of forgivenesse and in the 14. verse he gives this as the reason of all for hee knowes our frame hee remembereth that wee are dust hee knowes whereof we are made and therefore is exceeding mercifull 4 Whereas there is one Attribute from which you object against the pardon of their sinnes that the Lord notwithstanding is just and this terrifies you and puts you off even from this we may fetch an argument to strengthen our faith herein for know that the Lord is therefore ready and willing to forgive because hee is just 1 Iohn 1. 9. If wee confesse our sinnes hee is faithfull and just to forgive us This is the ground of all our comfort that he eis just and faithfull for is he not engaged by promise and is hee not faithfull to keepe his promise Againe hath hee not beene satisfied and paid for our sinnes by CHRIST and his justice will not suffer him to require a second payment It is just now with him to forgive faithfulnesse hath reference to his promises justice to that bloud of CHRIST the ransome received which cleanseth us from all our sinnes 5 If all these will not serve to perswade our hearts to believe the Lord descends a little lower and helpes us out with an argument of his readinesse to pardon from the consideration of what is in our selves consider how you would deale with your children Psal. 103. 13. Like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord them that feare him If a child that is yours offend you an hundred times yet if he come in and humble himselfe you will pardon him And will not God when his people humble themselves Wee use but such arguments as God himselfe doth and doe but set him and your consciences together to reason the case But you will object againe and say it is possible for a child so to offend as that a father will not nor cannot forgive him True but the Psalmists meaning is not as if GOD would pardon no more then an earthly father but on the contrary if you that are earthly fathers can doe so much I that am an infinite Lord God and not man can doe much more who is Omnipotent and can doe whatsoever he will and shews his omnipotency in pardoning I compare with this Esay 55. 9. My thoughts are not as your thoughts What though your sinnes bee great and in their owne thoughts unpardonable and you thinke them greater then can bee forgiven but my thoughts sayes GOD are not as your thoughts he speakes this of pardoning but as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my thoughts above your thoughts and my waies above yours in multiplying to pardon Though you could not forgive nay though you cannot think or imagine how such transgressions should be forgiven yet I can forgive them A second sort of arguments is taken from the meanes and instrument by which forgivenesse is conveyed Wee are come to IESUS the Mediator of the new covenant and to the bloud of sprinkling which speakes better things then the bloud of Abel Hebrewes 12. 24. Hee speakes this as an encouragement to their faith and it is as if hee had said consider how the bloud of Abel though but the bloud of a poore man cryed so loud that it came up to heaven that it brought down vengeance upon Cain how loud then shall CHRISTS bloud speake What is it able to procure for us which speakes better things that is for mercy which God is more ready to heare the cry for then for vengeance and this cry is not of the bloud of an ordinary man as Abel was but of the bloud of his owne Sonne to which purpose compare with this that place Heb. 9. 14. How much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offered up himselfe without spot to God purge your conscience from dead workes As in the other place hee compares it with Abels bloud so here with the blood of Buls and Goates which in the old law served by Gods appointment for the outward purification of the flesh how much more how infinitely transcendently more above our thoughts or imaginations shall the bloud of the Sonne of God bee able to purge your consciences wee not able to conceive nor he to expresse hee onely sayes how much more c. and hee backeth it with two Reasons which put together shew the transcendency of that sufficiency in Christs bloud to cleanse us the first from the eternall Spirit whereby hee offered up himselfe it was not the bloud or sacrifice of a meere man but of God which sacrifice was in it selfe without spot There are three objections wee usually make against our selves by reason of our sins 1. That they are so many 2. So great 3. That they are reiterated and often fallen into Now the sprinkling of the bloud of Christ thus offered is sufficient to cleanse your consciences from and to take away all these Ezek. 36. 25. then will I sprinkle cleane water upon you and yee shall bee cleane from all your filthinesse and from all your idols will I cleanse you The bloud of Christ is the water there meant which cleanseth from sinne and filthinesse and from all though never so many and from filthinesse and idols from such sinnes though never so great Ah! but I have also fallen often into them Zach. 13. 1. His bloud is therefore compared to a fountaine set open for sinne and for uncleannesse not a cisterne but a fountaine a continuall spring perpetually running to cleanse us so that as there is a spring of sinne in us so as wee are defiled againe and againe so there is a spring of vertue in his bloud to cleanse us never to be dried up The last reason is taken from the freenesse of the covenant which God hath made with mankind if any man bee a thirst yea if any man will come let him come and drinke of the waters of life freely See the manner how it is set downe Iohn 7. 37. In the last day a great day of the feast Iesus stood and cryed saying if any man thirst let him come to me and drinke hee makes a proclamation for all to come as also Rev. 21. 6. and 22. 17. where he makes the like generall invitation and adds that they shall have it freely so the tenour of the covenant runnes that if any thirst those indeed