Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	create_v	good_a	workmanship_n	4,350	5	11.8942	5	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

meditation but for the most part it ought to be so And if souls were accustomed to meditation on God it would become their very nature altera natura pleasant and delightsome However if there be not alwayes an express intention of Gods glory yet there ought to be kept alwayes such a disposition and temper of spirit as it may be construed to proceed from the intention of Gods glory and then it remains in the seed and fruit if not in it self Now when we are speaking of the great end and purpose of our Creation we call to mind our lamentabel and tragicall Fall from that blessed station we were constitute into All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 23. His being in the world was for that glory and he is come short of that glory O strange short-comming short of all that he was ordained for What is he now meet for For what purpose is that chief of the works of God now The salt if it lose its saltness is meet for nothing for wherewithall shal it be seasoned Mark 9. 50. Even so when man is rendered unfit for his proper end he is meet for nothing but to be cast out and trod upon he is like a withered branch that must be cast into the fire Ioh. 15. 6. Some things if they fail in one use they are good for another but the best things are not so Corruptio optimi pessima As the Lord speaks to the house of Israel shal wood be taken off the vine tree for my work even so the inhabitants of Ierusalem Ezech. 15. 2 3 4 5. If it yeeld not Wine it 's good for nothing so if man do not glorifie God if he fall from that he is meet for nothing but to be cast into the fire of hell and burnt for ever he is for no use in the Creation but to the fuell to the fire of the Lords indignation But behold the goodnesse of the Lord and his kindnesse and love hath appeared towards men not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us through Iesus Christ Tit. 3. 4 5. Our Lord Jesus by whom all thing were created and for whom would not let this excellent workmanship perish so therefore he goes about the work of Redemption a second Creation more laborious and also more glorious than the first that so he might glorifie his Father and our Father Thus the breach is made up thus the unsavory salt is seasoned thus the withered branch is quickned again for that same fruit of praises and glorifying of God This is the end of his second Creation as it was of the first we are his workmanship created to good works in Christ Iesus Eph. 2. 10. This is the work of God to believe in him to set to our seal and to give our testimony to all his Attributes Ioh. 6. 29. and 3. 33. We are bought with a price and therefore we ought to glorifie him with our souls and bodies he made us with a word and that bound us but now he has made us again and paid a price for us and so we are twice bound not to be our own but his 1 Cor. 6. ult And so to glorifie him in our bodies and spirits I beseech you gather your spirits call them home about the businesse We once came short of our end Gods glory and our happinesse but know that it is attainable again we lost both but both are found in Christ Awake then and stir up your spirits else it shal be double condemnation when we have the offer of being restored to our former blessed condition to love our present misery better Once establish this point within your souls and therefore ask why came I hither To what purpose am I come into the world If you do not ask it what will you answer when he asks you at your appearance before his Tribunall I beseech you what will many of you say in that day when the Master returns and takes an account of your dispensation You are sent into the world only for this businesse to serve the Lord Now what will many of you answer If you speak the truth as then you must do it you cannot lie then you must say Lord I spent my time in serving my own lusts I was taken up with other businesses and had no leisure I was occupyed in my calling c. even as if an Embassadour of a King should return him his account of his negotiation I was busie at Cards and Dice I spent my mony and did wear my cloaths Though you think your plowing and borrowing and trafficking and reaping very necessary yet certainly these are but as trifles and toyes to the main businesse O what dreadfull account will souls make they come here for no purpose but to serve their bodies and senses to be slaves to all the creatures which were once put under mans feet Now man is under the feet of all and he has put himself so If you were of these creatures then you might be for them you seek them as if you were created for them and not they for you and you seek your selves as if you were of your selves and had not your descent of God Know my beloved that you were not made for that purpose nor yet redeemed either to serve your selves or other creatures but that other creatures might serve you and ye serve God Luk. 1. 74 75. And this is really the best way to serve our selves and to save our selves to serve God Self-seeking is self-destroying self-denying is soul-saving He that seeketh to save his life shal lose it and he that loseth his life shal find it and he that denies himself and follows me is my disciple Will ye once sit down in good earnest about this businesse It is lamentable to be yet to begin to learn to live when ye must die ye will be out of the world almost ere you bethink your self Why came I into the world Quidam tunc vivere incipiunt cum definendum est imò quidam ante vivere defiêrunt quam inciperent this is of all most lamentable many souls end their life before they begin to live For what is our life but a living death while we do not live to God and while we live not in relation to the great end of our life and being the glory of God It were better saith Christ that such had never been born You who are created again in Jesus Christ it most of all concerns you to ask Why am I made and why am I redeemed And to what purpose It is certainly that you may glorifie your heavenly Father Mat. 5. 16. Psal. 58. 13. And you shal glorifie him if you bring forth much fruit continue in his love Ioh. 15. 8. And this you are chosen and ordained unto ver 16. And therefore abide in him that you may bring forth fruit ver 4. And if you abide in him

which he chiefly aims at Shal we not then conceive that the Lord who instructs every man to this discretion teaches him Isa. 28. 26. Is himself wise in his Counsel and hath some grand project before him in all this Fabrick of the World and the upholding of it since it was made Certainly he hath and if you ask what it is the wise man will teach you in the general He made all things for himself even the wicked for the evil day Pro. 16. 4. Here then is his great design and purpose to glorifie himself to manifest his own Name to men Angels Now his Name comprehends Wisdome Goodnesse Power Mercy and justice the first three he declares in all the works of his hands all are well done wisely done the excellency of the work shews the wonderfull Counsellour the wise Contriver the goodnesse of any creature in its kind declares the inexhausted spring of a selfe-being from whom it proceeds the bringing all these out of nothing and upholding them is a glorious declaration of his power But yet in all the works of his hands there is nothing found to manifest his glorious mercy and justice upon which are the flower and garland of his Attributes and unto which wisedom and power seems to be subservient Therefore his Majesty in that one entire purpose of his own glory resolves to manifest his wrath and his mercy upon men and Angels subjects capable of it which two Attributes are as the Poles about which all the Wheels of Election and Reprobation turns as you see in that place Rom. 9. 22. 23. Let this then be established as the end of all his works as it is designed in his Counsell and nothing else It is not the Creature nor any thing in the Creature which is first in his mind but himself and therefore of him and for him are all things Here they have their rise thither they return even to the Ocean of Gods eternall glory from whence all did spring The right establishing of this will help us to conceive aright of his Counsell of Predestination It is a common cavil of carnall reason How can the Lord reject so many persons foreordain them to destruction It seems most contrary to his goodnesse and wisedom to have such an end of eternall Predestination before him in the creating so many thousands to make men for nothing but to damn them Here carnall reason which enmity to God triumphs But consider I say that this is not the Lord's end and chief design to destroy men even as it is not his Majesties first look or furthest reach to give unto others eternal life so it is not his prime intent to sink them in eternal death as if that were his pleasure delight no indeed neither is the creatures happinesse nor its misery that which first moves him or is most desired of him but himself only and he cannot move out of himself to any businesse but he must return it unto himself therefore the wise Preacher expresses it well He made all for himself even the wicked for the day of evil It was not his great end of creating wicked men to damn them or creating righteous men to save them but both are for a further and higher end for himself and his own Glory All seem to agree about this That the great end of all the Lords Counsels and decrees is his own glory to be manifested on Men Angels and that this must be first in his mind not that there is first or last with him but to speak after the manner of men if he had many thoughts as we have this would be his first thought and in this one purpose this end is chiefly aimed at and all other things are by the Lords counsel subordinate to this as means to compasse that But as concerning the order of these means and consequently of his Majesties purpose about them men by examining his Majesty according to the creatures Rules or according to sense bring him down far below his own infinite greatnesse Some conceive that that was first as it were in his mind which is first done looking upon the execution of his purpose in the works of his power they imagine that as he first created man righteous so this was his first thought concerning man to creat man for the glory of his goodnesse power without any particular determination as yet of his end and I conceive this is the thoght of the multitude of people they think God was disapointed in his work when they hear he created such a glorious creature that is now become so miserable they cannot believe that his Majesty had all this sin and misery determinated with him when he purposed to create him but look upon the emergement of mans Fall into sin and misery as a surprisal of his Majesty as if he had meant another thing in creating him so was upon this occasion of man's sinne driven to a new consultation about the helping of the businesse making the best out of it that might be Thus through wisdome the world knows not God They think God altogether like themselves and so liken him to the builder of an house who let nothing before him in doing so but to build it after that manner for his own ends but thē being surprised with the fall and ruine of it takes a new advisement and builds it up again upon another surer foundation but because they cannot say that God takes any new advisements in time but must confesse that all his Counsels are everlasting concerning all the works of his hands therefore they bring in fore-knowledge to smooth their irreligious conceit of God as if the Lord upon his purpose of creating man had foreseen what should befall him and so purposed to permit it to be so that out of it he might erect some glorious Fabrick of mercy and justice upon the ruines of man And that little or nothing may be left to the absolute Soveraign will of God to which the Scripture ascribes all things they must again imagine that upō his purpose of sending Christ to save sinners he is yet undetermined about the particular end of particular men but watches on the tower of fore-knowledge to espie what they will do whether men will believe in his Son or not whether they will persevere in faith or not and according to his observation of their doings so he applies his own will to carve out their reward or portion of life or death These are even the thoughts which are imbred in your breasts by nature that which the learned call Arminianism is nothing else but the carnal reason of mens hearts which is enmity to God it is that very Disputation which Paul in this Chapter exclaims against Who art thou O man that disputes But certainly all this contrivance is nothing beseeming the wisdome of Soveraignity of God but reflects upon both upon his wisdome that he should have