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
A54483	Sermons and devotions old and new revived and publisht as an oblation of gratitude to all such of the nobility, gentry and clergy as retain the noble conscience of having ministred to the weak condition of the author, now aged 73 : the sermons at Court were before the war brake forth betwixt King and Parliament : also a discourse of duels, being a collection and translation of other mens opinions, with some addition of his own : and this in special dedicated for their use ... / by Thomas Pestel ...	Pestell, Thomas, 1584?-1659?	1659 (1659)	Wing P1675; ESTC R39086	197,074	355

God going along with his people in the Light of his countenance and blessing in the midst of their Camp Tents Tabernacles And in the New Testament it is called a following of God of him who is the Light a walking worthy of the Lord worthy their vocation circumspectly wisely honestly orderly in Truth in Love in Knowledge in good works in newness of life in the fear of the Lord and in comfort of the holy Ghost And in this Church Christ walks amidst the seven golden Candelsticks and this Church shall walk with him in Albis in white stoles when all believing Nations shall walk in the light of the new Jerusalem Behold I have set before you light and darkness the good and the evil way but chuse the good eschew the evil and walk as Children of Light For first We may do so for the words are an exhortation and the Wisdom of God exhorts to nothing impossible No imposing upon his creature without a previous disposing He enforms us of no Duty but he gives means of performance We shall have a portion the danger is our running away from our heavenly Father and wasting our whole stock We shall not want Grace to help us in time of need if we receive it not in vain if we abuse it not if we turn not his Grace into wantonness He invites us to a race who assists us also in the running and cals to us to cast off all that may hinder us And if he lay any thing upon us first he promises it shall be no more then he enables us to bear and then bids us cast our care upon him for he cares for us and he carries for us hath carried the most insupportable burden bore all our sins in his body on the tree that we might be at perfect liberty both in body and soul And if the Son so make us free then are we free indeed and being thus at this liberty by Christ we may well go on our way prescribed having our hearts enlarged as David saith I may go nay I can walk thy ways O Lord yea then I will run the wayes of thy Commandments And surely till then till the ripe season God doth not call upon men for mark the exhortation here and you shall see it leans back and listens to the words before and is like a pair of Compasses of which though one foot stand stifly here on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the verb of Command and of present activity yet the other is as far removed as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the adverb of time Draw them up together and we shall inclose the whole Will of God Put the adverb to the verb and it is together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now walk as the palsie-bed rid man now and not till now not till healed in case to walk When you were darkness you could not see to walk as Children of Light then you saw not you regarded not God and that time of your ignorance God oversaw too He regarded it not but now under the Gospel Dispensations he will have all men to come to Repentance and knowledge of the Truth In corrupt nature mankind lay as in fetters and manicles on hands and feet like St. Peter bound with two chains but if an Angel of Grace come down with a Light into the prison then Peter will up and follow the direction of that Light then he will when his Irons are knockt off and then shall nothing hinder him then the Iron gate flies openof its own accord strong prevalent lusts to which he hath been lockt and wedlockt and that Iron sinew in his soul that rock of Adamant shall dissolve and break into a bitter-sweet flood of Repentant tears Such advantage may we make of this little Particle Now now we have got it into the heart of the exhortation It is Gods Will ever now walk now or never to day while it is called to day lest hereafter you have no more dayes And now while it is this instant Now lest we never have another Now Now while we are called upon labor and pluck up our feeble knees and give all diligence to make our calling begin there and so our Election sure 2 Pet. 1. and so is St. Paul here and elsewhere to be understood While you have time and light and free Grace offered in the Word of Grace Now when called to labor in the Vineyard O delay not have a care of your precious souls and work out your salvation with sear and trembling Phil. 2.12 2. As we may let us do this work nay we must for the words are Imperative mood as well as present tense and none exempted they are in the plural number too And though the verb be of the active voice yet it implies our whole duty what we justiy own to Christ our Saviour which is both an active and passive obedience Active first And in that is first to be considered action immanent within the heart devotion there upon that Altar that 's most acceptable to God who is the Father of spirits John 4. seeks such to worship him I will marry her and speak unto her heart saith Christ by the Prophet to his Church his Spouse and betwixt spoused Pairs the offices are mutual God sanctifies your hearts by his Spirit and his holy Spirit calls upon you in his Word Sanctifie you the Lord God in your hearts 1 Pet. 3.15 We are renewed and purified and drest by him habitually But in use of his Graces in acts of Faith and Repentance and Obedience we must be dayly renewing and purifying like the spunging of a Statue or trimming of an Armor it is the Armor of Light Rom. 13. though done yesterday yet must be done to day again and in this sense we must be carefull for to morrow too Secondly In Actions transient for we are his workmanship Eph. 2.10 What then we to do nothing for our selves Yes that follows in due place and time His work-manship created in Christ Jesus To what unto good works which he hath ordained that we we should walk in them For whether that of Cajetan be exactly true or no that infused habits are of the same nature with acquisite Thus far it is true that both are preserved and maintained by works and action Hast thou Faith shew it Let your Light so shine and God is glorified when his Children of Light are seen walking in Love All vain pretences then Et utinam hoc esset bene latuit fallentis semita vita and so the monkish solitude with their Mors pretiosae are here all together shaken out of this walk and likewise the proud and painted Pharisee the swelling seeming Justiciary which sect repuliulates and comes up thick in every successive Generation Solomon saw a brood of them pure in their own eyes yet most impure of a strange alloy and medley religious and wicked And those of St. Paul's order he confesses to be Zealots very strict in appearance fast twice

to himself And when I hear his servants Job and David put that Query What is man they both put it to God himself to answer and in those very answers which they make by Gods own inspirations we find and know still that man cannot be found and known and that there are corners and Incognita's in this Microcosm that are not laid out fully in any Chart but left only to the discovery of him that is the searcher of hearts But yet for our present purpose and suddain apprehension of man I will turn you but to two books if I do that for there is much reason I 'le be brief if for nothing else yet a little to quit and recompence my former being too long And the first book shall be this of the Creation this very book of Genesis and but one place in the book Chapter 2. verse 7. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into him into his Nostrils the breath of life and man became a living foul Soire we say is per causas and here they are at least here we may ground our selves upon the ground-work of all that is in our bodies All that gentle noble royal blood in mens veins and all the matter of the Merchants of the Divines of the Councellors or Courtiers or States-mens very brains all our pride and honor if we be proud of any materials in blood or brain or face or hand or foot we may soon find all our pride and honor in the dust with a double mention and Inculcatiou of Dust and dust upon all mankind God at first beats down all Supremacies still amongst men in compare with God all right or wrong Honorable and so all right or wrong Reverend too Here we have ventured at this instant to make an Assembly of our selves in the presence of God and in the Courts of his own house male and female with differing faces differing out-sides too or cloathed in Purple and fine linnen with hanging on of Gold or costly Array or clad in skins of beasts over our own hides and with girdles of skins as John the Baptist but yet with far more differing insides full of youthfull or wanton fires some and some with fierce and cruel or treacherous and bloody thoughts some perchance willing Hearers and some glad only to be here at this time if for nothing else yet out of an hope to catch something from the Preacher if he should be so silly as to flow into distempered and partial Invectives and anon sad to find their malice deluded Nay we may well suppose that some Papist may drop in upon us now or Separatist at other times afford his company and sneak into the Church to hear what News and then hit his very heart against this supposition But I will enlarge my self in a comprehensive Note for all this Audience whatsoere we are what use soever ye mean to make of the Preacher and the Sermon being both plain homely stuff and will serve perchance at dinner to fill out discourse and help to hold comparisons However God deprehend us now or apply himself to us here or we to him and his Vicegerent in our affections or intentions good or bad Once however we differ yet one primordial and finall sentence is past upon us all one Law gone out and over all mankind that arrests and enwraps takes in all Prince and people and layes up all together Dust thou art be sure and as sure to dust thou shalt return Every son of man like the first from the earth earthy A good touch this is by the way to humble us even in our most exalted imaginations 16. And though we hearken to the rest of mans Description with more alacrity which tells us so man became a living soul yet if thou do not become that soul but spoil'd it in the wearing nay if that soul serve thee only for salt to keep thy flesh from putrefaction if that soul become not a new soul though man be a living soul yet better he had had neither soul nor life unless the new man the second Adam the Lord from heaven heavenly become the life of thy soul and thou lead a new life by the power of the Son of God if the quickening Grace of his mighty Spirit if the same hand of the Lord God here that formed do not reform thee We talk of Reformation and Reformation in State and Church I am not able to look to those things of my self but I am able by Gods gracious assistance to look to this reformation of my self And certainly as families make towns and they make Common-wealths and Churches so private and particular persons are the roots and springs of all and their several Reformations are the roots and springs of all Reformation too But yet as in Reforming States I doubt not but Statesmen and the most stately of them had need to be instant in prayer to God or else without his blessing all may prove but a shock and conflict of wits nay worse for Bella horrida Bella may ensue except he bless unless the Lord God keep us Builders and Watchmen shall do all in vain So is it manifest in the reforming of our souls for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works Eph. 2.10 And this discerning the work of God in his own brest is that other book to which I would refer man for discovery of himself The book of conscience it is which lies open and layes man open to himself if he read there and find digitum Dei the Hand-writing of God both of Law and Gospel in his heart ingrav'd in that Table then it is another a second book of Genesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new beginning of new Light struck up and a new Birth of a new world of Beauty and harmony struck from his old chaos of corrupt Nature and a new Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The book of his Regeneration Gods spirit bearing witness with his spirit that he is the child of God and a Volume a tome a piece of Gods works nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2 10. A Poem a masterpiece of Gods own workmanship in Christ Jesus Reformed review'd view'd and corrected by the Author and purged from infinite errors is in Lucem editus Reprinted and comes forth into the Light multò auctior locupletior that is Emendatior in this new and second Edition But how shall I know this Indeed that Question is turned into a tormenting scruple by some evil Informers but the knowledge is easie to them that will observe the alteration Even as we know an A B C from a Testament by the contents and augmentation And even as certainly and as sensibly as I find my self past Genesis when I am in Exodus For this Genesis doth ever resolve into an Exodus that is a going out of Aegypt in a Deliverance evidenced to his soul from the thraldom of sin and tyranny

fountain and such a physical and real Influence it hath on all mans habits and actions And if the estate of the best and purest be no better what shall we boast our selves who as they say of Northern Jewels that they are of a vicious softness and will not endure the file so certainly in respect of the primitive Christians when the Church was a true heaven upon earth we are as far from the brightness and miracles of their works as from their firm and miraculous faith It remains that we encourage our selves and stir up the Grace of God that is in us and though we cannot approve our selves in a perfection to a perfect God in whose eyes the moon shines not saith Job and the stars are impure yet if we be but vigilant to dress the paradise of our souls and keep out the Tempter preserving our breast at a garden enclosed and a fountain sealed up if we but earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints and labor to shake off the sin that cleaves so fast unto our nature if we run and press to the mark and strive to purifie our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to grow up into full holiness such is then the manifold Grace and Goodness and tender mercy of our gracious God that he not only assists but accepts of our weak endeavors and approaches so far as to impute the very Act of cleansing and obtaining pardon too to such a frail condition and contention We do not we dare not say with Bellarmine de purg lib. 2. cap. 10. it pleases Christ to joyn our satisfactions with his own but by our complying under the hand of God and intention and love to work according to the influx of divine Grace we do by his indulgence impetrate for those sins for which we can never make compensation And as the Scripture enforms us of a cleansing by Redemption and Remission through the blood of our blessed Saviour and a second by application of that blood and a third by infused Regeneration so there is a fourth of mortifying and repressing of Concupiscence subjecting to the Regiment of Grace and also in renouncing and expelling sin by the contrary Acts of vertue and obedience of faith and works of Light expelling Darkness wherefore the Apostle saith All that have this hope in them have purged themselves even as he is pure And again You have purified your souls by obedience to the Truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 2.22 Here then for a close fals in fitly that exhortation of Zophar in Jab 11.14 If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in thy Tabernacles for then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot yea thou shalt be stedfast and not fear thine age shall be clearer then the noon-day thou shalt shine forth and be as the morning But all this is still upon that condition in verse 13. which is If thou prepare thy heart and stretch forth thy hands towards him which puts us in mind of Invocation and the use of Prayer for Gods assistance For as it is with Pearls according to the dew which it receives from Heaven in quantity and quality so doth the shel-fish breed her Pearl and after the Measure and Showr and Proportion and Instilment of divine Grace which our souls drink in we increase and grow in Purity and Sanctification and therefore we should put this into our hourly Letany as the woman in the Gospel John 4. Lord evermore give us of this water We know Lord in our selves there is no more goodness then in the mass of mankind in the rest of our fellow dust and pebbles but that thou by thy powerfull Grace and holy Spirit are pleased to drop and pierce and work upon us and purge away our dross and make us thy blessed work-manship created in Christ Jesus unto good works we have nothing can have nothing from our mixture or specifique forms or power of those materials whereof we consist and therefore to that end we may work Do thou first work thy Will on us instruct inform inlighten us cause thy face to shine upon us and so quicken our dull and earth-affecting souls that they may conceive an heavenly fire and ardent affection and intention by working together with thy Grace and so causing us in the end to work out our own salvation through Jesus Christ to whom c. S. D. G. THE THIRD SERMON At Oatlands MALAC. 3.17 And they shall be mine sayes the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels THis Text at first and second opening afforded us a double priviledge of Gods people in reference to their owner stiled here by his high and stately Title of Dominus Exercituum First They are his own his peculiar and then they are his Jewels In handling the first Priviledge I endeavoured to discover a Mine of Consolation even in this and drew certain Materials from this Mine namely the radiant mingle of Light and joy discernable in a Christians Profession Disposition Conversation Secondly the Connexion and Combination of Graces and Mercies from God observable in this Text pitcht like a Tabernacle with Curtains and Coverings with Loops and taches of comfort coupled one to another in Conjunctions And thirdly the Expansion and Dilatation thereof over all Adversity then the conserve Complication of all our comfort in our great Protector who is Dominus Exercituum And lastly I set on the Crown and consummation of all Consolation in Christ Jesus In our Discourse upon the second priviledge of Gods servants in being his Jewels was shewn in what respects especially this Metaphor is maintained and in what qualities the resemblance chiefly is most clear and useful to us All which being done that which is left us now to do is a Retrospect and a Prospect to look back first to the very Ground-work and Foundation whereon God layes this whole pile of Comfort which will be found to be nothing but his holy fear and then we are the more chearfully to look and go forward with the end of our Text and the end of our Faith and Hope and Pravers that in the work of God upon our bodies and souls in those several dayes wherein he promises and will perform this making up of his Iewels which dayes are four First the Day of punishing the ungodly Secondly the Day of powerful preaching the Word then the Day of Death and last the Day of the last Judgement Our first business and it is indeed the main business is to look to our Foundation Other foundation can no man lay but what is laid saith St. Paul that is Christ Jesus That 's most sure but so is this also that every one which calls on the Name of the Lord must depart from iniquity and this again as sure as the reft that without instruction and divine wisdom no man is able to do that and then the only way to that