Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	conscience_n	dead_a	purge_v	5,027	5	9.3264	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26753	A sermon at the Warwick-shire meeting, November 25, 1679, at S. Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, London by William Basset ...	Basset, William, 1644-1695.	1679 (1679)	Wing B1053; ESTC R13214	18,472	35

Gospel must be pure which he expresses by that word holy and because our Sacrifices now must be our persons and not our beasts he adds a living sacrifice in opposition to the dead ones under the Law therefore it is plain that he that comes unto God must come with a Conscience purged from dead works and refined as far as is possible from all the dross and imperfections of corrupted nature The necessity of which we are sometimes taught by more proper expressions 2 Cor 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting Holiness Thus we must imitate that first good and reach after some participations of the Divine Nature becoming holy as the Lord our God is holy and perfect even as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect That so there may be some congruity and suitableness between God and those that worship him and indeed this is the great condition of finding acceptance for as God would not accept of a blemished Sacrifice so the Text expresly declares that we must present our selves a Sacrifice holy if ever we mean to be acceptable to him That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God 2. These Sacrifices were made and offered to God which was part of the Divine Worship And this viz. Worship is a standing and perpetual Duty Though the Modus be changed yet the thing still remains Therefore in that very place where our Saviour rejects the Temple and the Service peculiar to it he yet retains Worship still and thereby makes it a Gospel-duty Joh. 4.23 The true Worshipers shall worship And the Father seeks such to worship him So S. Paul Tit. 2.12 comprises all Religion under these three Heads viz. 1. Sobriety which includes the Duties we owe to our selves and forbids all intemperance and excess 2. Righteousness which contains all the Offices we owe to others and is a doing to all men as we would all men should do to us And 3. Godliness which comprises the several Duties we owe immediately to God whereof Adoration or Worship is one in the judgment of the Gentile World who ever paid these Tributes of Honour to the Deity Therefore when Epicurus by denying Divine Providence took the ready course to rob God of his Worship he was charged by others and the better of the Philosophers tollere Deos in effect to deny his very existence and run the world into right down Atheism And that Command that prohibits the worship of Graven Images doth yet retain this worship as proper and peculiar to the true God For as God is the most excellent of all beings so he will have something reserved for himself which no creature shall share with him in and this is especially Worship which is forbid to the creature for this very reason that it is due to God only and that both by virtue of Precept and Eminency Which thing is here expressed by presenting that ye present your bodies viz. in a way of Adoration and Worship That Religion then must needs be lame and imperfect which rests in some moral Virtues but is deficient in this great point that is willing to appear blameless to the world but matters not by Divine Worship to give Praise and Glory to the Deity For as it was not sufficient to the Jews to prepare their Sacrifices but not to offer them so neither is it sufficient for us to make our bodies a living Sacrifice and never present them as such before God The Metaphor must hold in these two points else it would have been improperly used and would reach but one part of that which other Texts in the New Testament make our duty and the word Present must be of no use and signification Nay a thing is not properly and strictly a Sacrifice till it be offered or at least in offering before when it is prepared it is but for a Sacrifice it is the offering that makes it such Therefore by presenting our bodies a sacrifice we are most certainly and clearly put upon the offering them to God in a way of worship for so Sacrifices were And indeed one great end of Religion is to give Praise and Glory to God which is done very much and perhaps in nothing better than by worship for in these very acts we own him the greatest and best of all Beings and our selves but poor and dependent creatures God is never more magnified by men than when they fall down and worship him Therefore as the worshiping the Creature is said to be a giving God's glory to another and his praise to graven Images Isa 42.8 So the not worshiping must needs be a with-holding from or a denying him the same Praise and Glory Therefore of what civil behaviour what sober conversation or how just soever men may be in their Societies and Commerce yet if they do not present their bodies a living Sacrifice to God they are no Worshipers and therefore wanting in one of the best parts and main ends of all Religion 3. Sacrifices were not only offered but in a publick place and manner Deut. 16.5 6. Thou mayst not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee But at the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse to place his name in Levit. 13.3 4. Whatsoever man c. that kills an ox or lamb or goat c. and brings it not to the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation to offer an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord blood shall be imputed to that man And Deut. 12.17 18. The tithe of corn wine oil the firstlings of the herd and of the flock vows free-will-offerings and heave-offerings were to be eaten before the Lord in the place which the Lord should chuse And though private Worship was required of the Jew as well as of the Christian yet the Old Testament especially the Psalms do so far prefer the publick before private worship that a man would be almost apt to think all worship confined to this For though David when driven to and fro by Saul and whilst among the Philistines had opportunity of private Adoration and secret Devotions yet speaks of himself as driven from the presence of God when driven from his House and publick Worship Psal 84.1 2. How amiable are thy tabernacles O Lord of Hosts My soul longs yea even faints for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God Verse 3 he speaks the Swallow more happy than himself in that while he is absent she is suffered to visit and build her nest about the altars Psal 42.1 2. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so pants my soul after thee O God When shall I come and appear before God! Now the Psalmist very well knew he was always in the Divine Presence and therefore Psal 139.8 to Verse 13. proves by an induction of particulars that there is no place of concealment from