Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	day_n	rest_n	sabbath_n	16,566	5	10.2403	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44697	A treatise of delighting in God from Psal. xxxvij. 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. In two parts. By John Howe, M.A. sometime fellow of Magdalen College, Oxon.	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1674 (1674)	Wing H3043; ESTC R215977	202,908	389

to speak it as the undisguised sense of our hearts because thy law is holy therefore thy servant loveth it To reckon it a royal law of liberty so as to account our selves so much the more free by how much we are the more thus bound When we affect to be prescrib'd to and are become patient of Government not apt to chafe at the bridle or spurn and kick at the boundaries that hem us in This is a temper that hath not more of duty in it than it hath of delight There is such a thing as delighting in the law of God according to the inward man when there is yet a difficulty in suppressing and keeping under inordinate rebellious workings of corrupt nature unto which there is no desire an indulgence should be given by having the law attempered to them but severity rather used to reduce them to a conformity to the law So will it be if the law become an heart impression when it can once be truly said Thy law is in my heart It will be also with the same sincerity said I delight to do thy will O God The continual exercise of good conscience towards God hath great pleasure in it Hereby our way and course is continually reviewed and we pass censures upon our selves and upon that account survey our own works And by how much the more carefully and often this is done so much the more delectable it will be that is the more approvable we shall find them upon review For we shall order our course the more warily as we reckon upon undergoing an inquisition and search wherein an apprehensive serious heart well understands it is not it self to be the supreme Judg. How blessed an imitation might there here be of the blessed God himself who we find beheld his six days works and lo they were all very good whereupon follows his delightful day of rest So we shall in some degree of conformity to him finding our works to be in that sort good as that he will by gracious indulgence accept them as such have our own Sabbath a sweet and peaceful rest in our own spirits Though we can pretend no higher than sincerity only yet how sweet are the reflections of a well-instructed conscience upon that when our hearts reproach us not and we resolve they shall not as long as we live we are conscious to our selves of no base designs we propose nothing to our selves wherein we apprehend cause to decline Gods eye we walk in the light and are seeking no darkness or shadow of death where as workers of iniquity we may hide our selves from him Can implore him as an assistant and appeal to him as a Judg in reference to our daily affairs and wonted course Is this without pleasure This is our rejoicing saith the Apostle the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation c. And thus to converse with God a him whom we daily design to glorifie and serve and whom we expect daily in some measure and fully and finally ere it be long to enjoy Is certainly throughout a way of pleasantness and peace How delectable then is this Soul-rectifying communication from God whereby being before so disaffected it becomes now so well inclin'd towards him in all these respects But because the exigency of the case did require by reason of sin that had cut off the intercourse that there should be a Mediator to open the way and renew the former out-worn friendship Therefore it was also necessary that so the Soul might duly move towards God it should be rightly framed and disposed also towards him We are therefore to consider too how delectable this communication must be as it aright disposes the heart towards Christ our way to God For towards him we must understand it to have been most obstinately and inflexibly averse and that therefore a mighty communication of power was necessary to set it right here Unto that part of Religion which is natural there was so much of an advantage before-hand as that there was an old foundation to build upon There are some notions of God left not only concerning his Existence but his Nature and Attributes many of them And from the Apprehension what he was it was in some measure discernible what he should have been and ought yet to be towards him And from thence many checks and rebukes of conscience wherein it was found to be otherwise So that here was somewhat in Nature to be wrought upon as to this part of Religion But as to that part which respects the Mediator this was a frame wholly to be rais'd up from the ground There were no principles immediately and directly inclining to take part with the Gospel But all to be implanted anew The way that God would take to bring back Souls to him being so infinitely above all human thought And therefore though to a considering Pagan it would not sound strangely that God ought to be trusted feared loved c. yet even to such the Gospel of Christ was foolishness Besides that this way of dealing with men was not only unknown and unimaginable to them not so much as once thought of or to be guest at But the tendency and aspect of it when it should come to be made known was such as that it could not but find the temper of mens spirits most strongly opposite not meerly ignorant but prejudic't and highly disaffected For this course most directly tended to take men quite off from their old bottom To stoop and humble and even bring them to nothing To stain the pride of their Glory and lay them down in the dust as abject wretches in themselves fit for nothing but to be trampled on and crusht by the foot of divine revenge Suppose a man to have admitted a conviction from the light of his own mind and conscience that he was a sinner and had offended his Maker incur'd his just displeasure and made himself liable to his punishing justice It would yet have been a hard matter to make him believe it altogether impossible to him to do any thing to remedy the matter and restore himself to divine favour and acceptance He would naturally be inclin'd to think why admit the case be so he should easily find out a way to make God amends He would recount with himself all his own natural excellencies and think himself very capable of doing some great thing that should more than expiate his offence and make recompence abundantly for any wrong that he had done But when the Gospel shall come and tell him he hath deserved eternal wrath that his sin is inexpiable but by everlasting sufferings or what is of equal value That here is one the eternal Son of God who became a man like himself and thereupon a voluntary Sacrifice to make atonement for the transgression of men That God will never accept