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
A88580	The combate between the flesh and spirit. As also the wofull with-drawing of the Spirit of God, with the causes thereof: and walking in, and after the Spirit, together with the blessednesse thereof. Being the summe and substance of XXVII. sermons: preached a little before his death, by that faithfull servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of the Gospel at Lawrence Jury London. To which is added the Christians directory tending to direct him in the various conditions that God may cast him into. In XV. sermons.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.	1654 (1654)	Wing L3149; Wing L3145; Thomason E742_2; ESTC R202772	325,954	459

but Judaisme and what is it to be of a tender conscience but to have a needlesse scrupulosity By this meanes men allowing their corrupt hearts to argue thus carnally they are hindred from much good and therefore if thou wouldest be taken off from this deceit thou must labour to see the native lustre and beauty that is in holinesse and the filthinesse of sin 5. Another way whereby the heart of man deceives him is by pretence to do some lesser good and thereby neglect the doing of a greater and thus the devil and a mans own heart diverts him many a time It is an observation of Mr. Greenham that in many families every trisling businesse shall hinder prayer and this is the nature of a mans heart to make every slight businesse to divert him from duty and the exercises of religion Thus it was with the Pharisees Matth. 23. They would tithe Mint Annise and Cummin and so neglect righteousnesse and the more serious and weighty things of the Law Many men will content themselves to read a Chapter at home and neglect the Ministery of the Word and prayer in publick this is meerly the sly deceit of a mans own heart even as the ancient hereticks called Euchitae they were so intent on prayer as that they neglected all other service of God To this I would only say that those who make one duty to justle out another let such remember that duties are not contrary but subordinate and subservient one to another I may say of the duties of religion as the Scripture speaks of the Lamps of the Sanctuary they were so seated that one lamp should kindle another so duties they are so ordered by God that one duty shall help another and fit for another prayer fits for hearing hearing fits a man for meditation and meditation fits for prayer and so of all other duties and therefore they which make one duty to hinder another they make those things contrariant which the Lord hath made concordant 6. Another stratagem which the flesh useth is this that if it cannot perswade men wholly to neglect duty yet it will endeavour to make them abate in duty It may be thy corrupt heart cannot prevaile with thee to cast off prayer and hearing the Word so as never to perform these duties yet will it labour to gain thus much upon thee that thou shalt pray more seldome then thou hast done and hear not so often as formerly thou hast done As it is a deceit of the heart to bring us from small sins to great sins so also is it the policy of the flesh from the doing of duty seldom at last to bring us not to do it at all And to antidote you against this infection of nature I shall lay down these following considerations 1. It is the policy of thy heart not to make thee cast off duty wholly and at once but to make thee abate gradually Revel 2.4 The Church at Ephesus did gradually decay first left off her first love and afterwards her first works and the reason is because hereby thy heart and the devil knowes that abatements when they are gradual they are lesse sensible but neglects when they are total they fall under the cognizance of a natural conscience You must pray sometimes and hear sometimes else conscience will check a man but gradual decayes they are not so sensibly perceived and therefore the devill and thy own heart will let thee pray and will let thee hear but not so much as formerly thou hast done this is a snar which many of Gods people have been taken in 2. Consider that the soule is in as much danger by gradual decayes and abatements as by total omissions A leake in a ship though but small will at last as certainly and more dangerously because more insensibly and unperceivingly cause the ship to miscarry as a violent storme Lingring consumptions do kill men as surely as violent burning fevers it is true a fever or the plague may kill a man in three dayes but a consumption will as certainly bring a man to his end and to his grave 7. Corrupt nature will suggest to thee that thou shouldest leave off duty because of the unalterable decree of God Corrupt nature will tell thee that if thou art ordained to damnation all thy praying and all thy hearing will never save thee and if thou art ordained to salvation though thou doest not hear so much and pray so much it shall not procure thy eternal damnation this deceit is rooted in the hearts of all the sonnes of men and in answer thereto I have onely these three things to lay before you 1. As to duty you are not to consult with Gods secret decrees but with his revealed Word Secret things belong to the Lord our God but revealed things to us and our children for ever that we may do all the words of this law Deut. 29.29 We are not to look to the decrees of God and upon them either do or not do our duty but we are to look to his revealed will which bids us be conversant in holy duties of religion and godlinesse we are not to search the secret records of heaven but the Scriptures It was a good saying of holy Mr. Bradford A man should not go to the University of Predestination untill he be well grounded in the Grammar-School of obedience and repentance 2. Consider that the same decree which determines the end of a man Qui destinat ad finem destinat ad media determines also the means to bring about that end If thou art decreed to be damned the same God decrees that thou shalt be left to walk in such wayes which lead to damnation and if thou art decreed to be saved God hath also decreed that thou shouldest walke in those wayes which lead to everlasting life and this the Apostle tells you Ephes 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them not onely our happinesse but our holinesse is decreed by God 3. You which yield to this plea of nature you will not yield to this plea in other things you will not reason thus in matters of the world should a man reason thus God hath decreed from all eternity how long I shall live in the world and therefore because the decree is irrevocable I will neither eat meat nor wear clothes you would accompt this man rather a mad man then one in his wits He that refuseth meat Gods Ordinance to continue life is a self-murderer and he that omitteth duties of Religion out of any pretence of Gods decree is a soul-murderer as it is thus in nature so also is it in grace as God hath decreed the end so also hath he decreed the means conducing thereunto 8. You will say through the suggestion of a selfe-deceiving heart you are unable to perform any good this is the plea of many they will say

the Ministery of the Word for the good of your souls This is the first use to to those who have found the Ministery of the Word accompanied with the efficacy of the Spirit Vse 2 To those who have the efficacy and operation of the Spirit withheld from the Ministery they attend upon there are seven things I would have such to take notice of 1. That Gods Spirit is a free agent and is not to be tied to an outward Ministery but to be left at liberty to work how when and in what manner he pleases The winde bloweth where it listeth even so is every man which is born of the Spirit John 3.8 By the wind is meant the Spirit There is a Sovereignty and free agency in the Spirit of God to work when he pleases or to withhold working from whom he pleases And therefore the Spirit of God is called a free Spirit Psal 51.12 Vphold me with thy free Spirit and James 1.18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth 2. Consider that God doth not withhold his Spirit from the outward Ministery meerly as an act of his Sovereignty but as an act of his Justice because of your sins whereby you have provoked him You provoke him to withhold the efficacy of his Spirit from his Ordinances by your sins and therefore are you hardened and receive not benefit by them you do some of those injuries to the Spirit as quenching grieving resisting vexing tempting and despising the Spirit which I mentioned before therefore do not think hardly of God but judge your selves Sinne was the cause which made the Lord withdraw his Spirit that it should not strive with the men of the old world it was their disobedience as you finde the Apostle Peter speaking Christ by his Spirit went and preached unto the spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah 1 Pet 3.19.20 their disobedience made God withdraw the efficacy of his Spirit if therefore the Spirit do not work on you think not hardly on God but thank your selves he is provoked unto it Thus God departed from the Israelites because of their sinfull provocations Psalm 81.11,12 But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own wayes The Spirit in Scripture is compared to a Dove now a Dove will alwayes keep in the house where it is bred unlesse the Dove-house be nastily kept The Spirit of God in this may fitly be resembled by a Dove keep your hearts clean and the Spirit will abide with you keep them nasty and the Spirit will soone leave you sin is the cause why the Spirit withdraws it self from the Ordinances and why men are left unto themselves and God doth it as an act of his justice punishing of sin 3. If God do withhold his Spirit from the Ministery of the Word the fault is rather to be imputed to thy self then unto the Word Many like the woman in Seneca complaine the roome is dark when they themselves are blinde and the place wants no light but they want eyes Or to him that preaches the Word usually if men do not profit by the hearing of the word the blame is cast upon the Minister and truly we Ministers have our faults as well as others if we preach not plainly methodically and duly there is a fault in us but yet I say you are rather to blame your selves then either the Word or the Minister thereof If the seed grow not the fault is neither in the hand of the husbandman nor in the influence of the heavens but in the badnesse of the soile That you may know where the fault lies consider 1. If a Minister preaches plainly and impartially and yet thou gettest no good by him the fault is thy own not his It was the Herodians fault not Christs that those persons profited not by Christs preaching for they themselves give this testimony of Christ Matth. 22.16 Master we know that thou art true and teachest the way of God in truth 2. If other men get good by his Ministery and not thou the fault is thine not his If at a feast others are fed thou famisht the fault is in thy stomach not meat 3. In case you have formerly got good by a Minister but now you get none formerly your affections were stirred up your desires were increased your love inflamed but now no such effect the fault is thine own It was the fault of the hearers of John Baptist the fault was not in John's Doctrine that they rejoyced onely for a season this also was the fault of the Galatians that they profited not by Pauls Ministery as before Gal. 4.16 Gal. 4.16 This cometh not from the seed it self but from the badnesse of the ground into which it is cast If thou profitest not by the Word thou hearest thou art to blame thine own naughty heart not the Word or the dispenser thereof 4. Though there is much dignity and excellency to be ascribed to the Word of God nakedly considered yet there is no efficacy in it to convert a soul without the Spirits ' concurrence As it was in the Pool of Bethesda not the water nor stepping into it healed but the Angels moving therein John 5.4 So also not the Word alone nor hearing of it 2 Cor. 3.6 but the Spirit healeth The letter kills but the Spirit gives life saies the Apostle that is the Word without the Spirit it is only the Spirit which can give life The Spirit without the Word will not ordinarily convert and the Word without the Spirit cannot I create the fruit of the lips peace peace Isa 57.19 by the fruit of the lips the Prophet understands a Gospel-Ministery but sayes God I must not create peace by the fruit of the lips it is the working of the Spirit with the Word which makes the Word to become effectual and therefore the Gospel is called the Ministery of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8,9 5. It is a worse judgement to have the Spirit withheld from the Word then to be without the Word and the reason is this because the Spirit can convert a man without the Word but the Word can never convert a man without the Spirit and therefore it is a worse judgement for thee to hear Sermons every day and to have the Spirits concurrent efficacy withheld from those Sermons then if thou shouldest never learn a Sermon in all thy life-time therefore pray unto God that his own Spirit may accompany his own Word and Ordinances to make them effectuall for the good of thy soul 6. The Spirit of God may be for a time withheld from Gods own people that it shall not attend an outward Ministery and this is a very sad judgement it may be withheld from Gods elect in a converting way As the man lay 38. yeers at