Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	covenant_n	grace_n	mediator_n	4,478	5	11.2745	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58038	A sermon preach'd to the Society for Reformation of Manners in Nottingham, February 16, 1698/9. Publish'd at their request. By John Ryther, minsiter of the gospel.	Ryther, John, 1634?-1681.; Societies for the Reformation of Manners. aut	1699 (1699)	Wing R2444; ESTC R218580	33,810	68

that we can be in unto others can rise higher no nor so high it 's not possible for all the Force all the Efficacy that is or can be in any Obligations we are in unto others they have all these from those Obligations that first of all we and all Creatures are under to the glorious God Our Ingagements are the greatest if we consider 1. Who it is that calls us hereunto 2. What we are called unto 3. What we are called from 1. Who it is that calls us Not a Man not an Angel not a Creature tho of the highest Rank altho in that case it would be our Wisdom as well as our Duty to hearken to whatsoever this should call us unto according to the Mind of God and to give it its utmost Consideration But it is God the great and blessed God who has all Perfection in him who is all Perfection The great Lord of Lords and King of Kings the supreme Universal Ruler of the World Who 1. Made us and all Creatures Who made us what we are Creatures yea when it was in his Power not to have made us at all yea when it was in his Power if he would make us and put us into being to have made us any other Creatures than what we are yet their he made us reasonable Creatures so that all we are we are from him and all we have we have from him Is it not the most reasonable thing in the World that the God that made us should be own'd of us served by us Does it not shine in its own Light and carry Conviction in it to the Consideration of all Men that we should be for that God on the side of that God that we derive all from Should we not be against his Enemies and use our Reason Parts Abilities Endowments and Gifts of whatsoever kind which we have all from his Bounty and Goodness against his Enemies and for his Glory and Honour Certainly it is the most equitable thing in the World they should be used for him and a most dreadful Wickedness to use them against him Dan. 5. 23. 2. Preserve us He calls us who hath preserved us all our days who hath wrought for us innumerable seen and unseen Deliverances though he could have destroyed us when he would and we by our continually sinning against him have provoked him so to do Who hath provided for us all along and does so still so that as we have lived upon his Bounty we do so still we have been all our days and are still maintain'd at his Expence our Lives and Breath and all things are in his hands he hath lengthened them out hitherto when the Lives of many others have been cut short It is this God that calls us and are not these Ingagements to be on his side Dare we act against this God Dare we herd our selves amongst his Enemies 3. Are we his Covenant ones Then he hath redeemed us then he sent his Son Jesus Christ to assume our Nature on purpose to save us by redeeming us Soul and Body to himself by shedding his precious attoning meritorious Blood for us and in pursuance of this redeeming Love has laid hold of us by his blessed Spirit and called us into a Covenant-Relation unto himself and given us not only Pardon and Salvation upon our Faith and Repentance but Christ and Faith and Repentance themselves that we might be pardoned and saved and be brought into a Covenant-Nearness unto and Oneness with himself and so be on his side Should not a Sense of his amazing Love and astonishing Grace in these things constantly ingage us to himself against Sin against what is offensive and dishonourable to him Should not this Love constrain us sweetly delightfully to act for him against all Evil 4. It is God that calls us who is our rightful Owner Lord and Judge who has the highest Authority over us and the most unquestionable Titles to us all manner of ways and he hath interposed his Authority and hath commanded us this thing made it our Duty by his holy Law and he is the great Judge of the Living and Dead and he will call us to an account one day and enter into Judgment with us and if we be found then among his Enemies Woe thousands and eternal Woes unto us 5. The God we have given up our selves unto have devoted our selves unto we were devoted unto him in our Baptism and since we have devoted our selves unto him at our Conversion when we laid hold on the Covenant and entred into Covenant with him at first and we have renewed our Engagements unto him so often as we have been at the Table of the Lord Which Ordinance is a solemn Faedoral Rite and Transaction of God's own Appointment wherein he seals his Promises and Engagements thereby through Christ the Mediator to be our God the God of our Salvation and wherein we seal our Engagements unto God and accepting afresh God to be our God we make a Surrender and Deed of Gift of our selves Soul and Body to be the Lord's And are not the Vows of God upon us and are not these most solemn and awful things and do we not engage thereby to be on God's side to have the same Interest with God that his Honour should be only that we aim at that his Friends should be ours his Enemies ours his Law our Rule to walk by in and through a Mediator 2. Our Engagements will appear to be the greatest if we consider what it is we are called unto as well as who calls It is to be on God's side it is that which our Hearts with the greatest Readiness and Alacrity should engage in and comply with A Duty the highest greatest Duty and what a blessed thing is Duty to be found sincere and hearty in it I am sure it is a very blessed thing to them whose Hearts are right with God and stedfast in his Covenant I am sure such would be found in the Duties of the Covenant and they would improve the Grace the Mediator and the Promises of the Covenant for this very end that their Hearts may be more stedfast and unmoveable and abundant in the Work of the Lord in the Duties of the Covenant I say it 's a Duty that is as much yea more a Privilege than a Duty in which our Interest all our Interests are as much concerned as the Honour of God a great Duty that contains all Duties in it without which we can perform no Duty and which if we are faithful in we perform all i. e. so as graciously to be owned of God This will appear if we go over the things that have been mentioned i. e. Covenanting with God owning of God as God and our God being touched yea filled with a deep Sense of the Dishonour of God by the Prophaness and Sins of the day and keeping our selves faithful to our Covenant-Engagements to God by keeping our selves pure from the Sins of the day

our selves and others The greatest Service we can do God unto whom we are under innumerable of the vastest and infinite Engagements It is the greatest Service we can do our selves for it secures and fixes all our true valuable Interest all our Interests in time all our vaster spiritual and everlasting Interests it neglects none takes care of all of them for Godliness i. e. being on God's side is profitable for all things having the Promise of this Life and that which is to come It is the greatest Service we can do others and this we should be extreamly solicitous for for others for our King and dear Native Country Bad Men especially the worst of them such as niether regard God nor Man such as break God's Laws and the King 's without any Modesty are a publick Pest and Plague Should we not in opposition to them be publick Blessings and Benefits and how can we be so better or worse than by this nay how can we be so at all but by being on God's side nay we must be the contrary if not on God's side and the more active we are on God's side the greater publick Benefits we shall be 4. Application Information 1. Learn hence who are on God's side and who not It is but going over the Particulars under the first General and you may know this but you may do this I must not stay to do it 2. How dreadful an Evil it is not to be on God's side 1. How sinful how unmeasurably unconceivably sinful 2. How desperately hazardous and dangerous 3. How easy it is to judge and determine what side every Man should be on in this case Examination I might apply it this way too if I had time but I beseech you do it for I must do but very little this way All the Men and Women in the World all the Individuals of Mankind are on the one side or other in this matter on God's side or the Devil 's on Christ's the great Saviour of Souls or on Satan's the great Apollyon the Destroyer of Souls These two divide the whole World all fight under the Banner and are in the Service of the great Captain of our Salvation or else under the Banner and in the Service of the Prince of the Power of the Air. There are no Neuters at all in this War May be thou never considered it yet Soul what side thou art on only hast perhaps taken it for granted thou art on God's side although thou never made thy Peace with God nor turned from Sin to God if so thou may'st reckon on it thou art for all thy Confidence on the wrong side You may examine what side you are on by the Particulars under the first General in the Doctrinal part Did you ever see the Evil of Sin see your Enmity and Contriety against God and your dreadful sinful miserable lost undone Condition thereby seeing your selves guilty of and condemned by the holy Law of God the Covenant of Works If thou never did thou art certainly yet in thy Sins and on Satan's side Well if you have seen and felt and been affected with Sin and Wrath what have you done what way what course have you taken Have you gone to the Law to your own Righteousness Repentance Duties expecting Pardon and Salvation for these Why then thou art still in thy Sins under the Curse Gal. 3. 10. or have you from a sight a spiritual Conviction of the Evil of Sin Dreadfulness of Wrath Insufficiency of thy own Righteousness and Impossibility of the Laws saving thee seen thy Help all thy help in the Grace of God in the Mercies tender Mercies Multitudes of the tender Mercies of God in the Christ of God in his Righteousness his Sacrifice his purchased procured Salvation Hast thou seen these held forth in the Covenant so as thou hast fled for Refuge here So as thou hast found Peace Safety Strength against Sin and all in these so as thou hatest Sin and lovest God and makest it thy business to adore Free Grace live upon and improve a full Christ so as thou ownest God this God this gracious reconciled God in Christ to be thy God and worshippest him accordingly and so of the rest of the six things mentioned If thou hast experienced these things and dost endeavour in the Strength of Christ to approve thy self to God in all these things I dare say thou art on God's side But you must put things close and home to your Consciences and have a care of deceiving your selves in Matters of such vast Importance But I must proceed to 3d and last Use Exhortation 1. To those that are not on God's side 2. To those that are on God's side 1. To those that are not on God's side 1st To those openly profane 2dly To those that are not on God's side though not openly profane 3dly To all not on God's side 1st To those openly profane and wicked such as live continually in the open Violation of God's Laws and the Laws of the Land that fear neither God nor Man but in spite of and opposition to both profane God's holy Name by dreadful hellish Oaths and Curses that belch forth their Enmity against their great Maker and their fellow Creatures too by these whose Hearts are full of a cursed Contrariety to God and Man as appears by these dreadful fruits of both whose Mouths are full of Cursing and Bitterness because there is no Fear of God before their Eyes who profanely neglect God's holy Worship attending the publick Service of God no where at all on God's Holy Day neither in the Assemblies of one sort or another that call upon God's Name but make God's Blessed Day a Day of Rest indeed but not of holy Rest but of sinful sensual slothful Rest or rather a Day in which more especially they devote themselves to the Service of Ceres Bacchus Venus and the Devil doing the Drudgery that he through their own Lust imploys them in that instead of assembling themselves with the People of God to worship him in pouring out their Hearts unto him in Prayers in praising him with raised Hearts as well as Voices in hearing his Word assemble themselves on this Day with the Workers of Iniquity and the Congregation of Evil-doers that are openly the Enemies of God and Goodness such as walk in the Counsel of the Vngodly stand in the way of Sinners and sit in the Scorners Seat revelling it on God's Day and abusing themselves more horribly on that day than any other by excessive Drinking Such as drink away their Senses their Reason their Estate their Labour of all the past Week on this Day their Bread the Bread of their Families of their Wives and Children their Time their Health drinking their Bodies first into Distempers and then before half their days be run out into the Grave and which is worse still that drink away Heaven and drink their Souls into Hell Such as assemble themselves by troops in Harlots