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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	good_a	grace_n	merit_v	5,172	5	10.7916	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87607	Lux & lex, or The light and the lavv of Jacobs house: held forth in a sermon before the Honourable House of Commons at St Margarets Westminster March 31. 1647. being the day of publike humiliation. / By Robert Johnson, Eboraicus, one of the Assembly of Divines.	Johnson, Robert, d. 1670.	1647 (1647)	Wing J818; Thomason E383_6; ESTC R201430	43,460	44

received from Christ the Sonne of God and light of the world of such the Prophet here speaketh He perswadeth not the Jews to speculation painted profession vain-glorious empty ostentation reality and active walking in Gods waies is that to which they are invited Reall holinesse consists in action not profession only The Apostle prescribing rules to servants how they should as Christians behave themselves to their Masters saith it must not be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} service to the eye If men will not accept a perfunctory performance much lesse can we expect that God take such feigned holinesse well at our hands it being simulata sanctitas and so duplex iniquitas which occasioned Cyprian to crie out Quid prodest verbis proferre veritatem factis destruere virtutem To hold out this truth more fully it is that the holy Ghost makes use of such phrases as require a most industrious and solicitous behaviour to Godward strive to enter in at the strait gate sometime work out your own salvation with fear and trembling sometime so run that you may obtain all which do shew the earnestnesse of endeavour after that godlinesse which should be in all Christians It s not enough that we be as those St John mentioneth who have a name to live and in truth are dead Nor as such St Hierom remembreth Qui sub Christiano nomine under the vizard of Christians in all their deportments towards Church and state walk as Gentiles Nor as that Indian figtree in Pliny having leaves as large as Targets the fruit ●o bigger then a bean O Honourable and beloved consider there must be reality in our godlinesse verball shews are not sufficient My request to you is that with more certainty and comfort you may walk in this way of the Lord the ordinary tract the terminus a quo and terminus ad quem being passed by frequent in our Divines treating on this subject you would give me leave to propound to you some objects on which in this walk all Gods people must fix their eyes within which limits I shall bound my discourse Take them in these succinct following considerations 1. Let your aim be in every undertaking to honour your heavenly father whose will is that we should in these Scripture revelations of duty glorifie him And whilst I say so take notice that we must honour God for himself We may not seek him for base ends We should see an excellencie in him above all persons and things else so as we can rest satisfied with God alone yea with outward crosses and troubles In a word honour him not as those who sought after and followed Jesus induced thereto by mercinary base and by respects of loaves and fishes and perishing things as the Glosse saith Quaereb●nt Jesum sed non propter Jesum 2. In our walk we must propound to our selves this likewise to help forward the salvation of our brethren by exhortation example or what way providence offereth after the Apostle Pauls president It 's a vain imagination of those who conceive that we must walk only to our own ends and interests to our own honour vain pleasure observance of carnall friends with neglect of the Saints and their common cause Woe be to such a man when his Master cometh and shall finde him so walking It 's one of the saddest spectacles our times presents us with and which doth threaten and may draw down a greater judgement then we are aware of that men will not walk nor stirre one foot be the affair of never so great importance to the publike unlesse the golden ball run before them I have read of a bloud-stone which having an excellent quality to stanch bloud the Jewellers say it seldome or never exerts its force if not set in or covered over with silver We have too many who have good parts but if not silvered you shall be poorly helped perhaps rather mischieved by them Another object in our walk we are to look on is Gods likenesse that we may come as fully up to it as possible We are children of a holy and heavenly father and endeavour to bear his image that as when the question was whose is this image and superscription they answer Caesari so when one shall say whose is such a states-man such a Divine such a Magistrate such a Councellor it may be answered he hath Gods image in all his deportments he walks up to God he breaths out piety in all his enterprises and imploiments But alas that evil which a father complain'd of in his time is too rife among us Omnes ad Deum pauci post Deum ir● volunt All men would go to God that they may receive glory few would go after him in a holy and divine imitation Let us that have given our names to Christ ●●minate on this As we are called to a state of grace let us walk answerably The Philosopers used to say if thou beest a Philosopher thou must live as such an one So I if thou beest a Saint walk up to Gods image and likenesse shew what thou art There is another mark on which we must set our eies in this walk viz to ascertain our selves that we are in Christ and so shall with him partake of future glory which is that very lesson the Apostle Peter so plainly teacheth the Saints Although as the learned Zanchius observes holinesse and good works are not requisite ad promerendam that we can by them merit everlasting happinesse yet ad possidendem vitam aeternam they are necessary 5. The increase of grace received in this walk we now treat of is also carefully to be looked unto and is one end that in our heavenly course we must aim at You know diverse after sicknesse by moderate walking do get strength use hands we say and have hands it s a very usefull lesson that of imploying graces philosophicall habits are augmented by putting them forth into exercise and the spirituall endowments God vouchsafeth us if we suffer not what we have received to impair by disuse will receive much advantage if we would learn with Henock to walk with God I doubt not but we should gain much strength by that divine exercise of spirituall walking 6. Briefly this must be our scope and desire to please God in which as we are to imitate the Lord Jesus so ●…s our parts to draw power from Christ strengthening us to walk acceptably before him that of us it may be said truly in some sort as he of himself Joh 8. 20. I doe all things that please him and indeed otherwise to what purpose is our walk God hath coupled walk and pleasing him together 1 Thes. 4 1 how you ought to walk and please God It 's possible to walk and not to please him many walk and are enemies to Christ but then we are not in Christ or walk not with God

him as Hilary notes for his familiarity with God talking with him face to face Gen. 32. 30. That he was to God a consilijs and long before the incarnation of Christ revealed to him that mistery Nor do we come short in this favour we have by Christ accesse to the throne of grace we have power with Christ and by our faith conquer the world and are of Gods counsell knowing the minde of Christ 2. God did separate Jacobs family as a peculiar people to himself from all the nations of the earth on whom he would chuse to set his love and do them good Deut. 7. 6. they were a peculiar treasure of Jewels in which God took pleasure In this happinesse are we also sharers as children of the spirituall family who knows not that we were a wilde and barbarous people who painted and flashed our flesh God vouchsafed at that time to send his word amongst us to reclaim us of that barbarous paganisme after that we fell to popery and superstition the Lord was pleased by a further manifestation of his son Christ Jesus to call us to himself that we should be a peculiar people to him zealous of good works 3. Of Jacobs family Christ came as the Apostle witnesseth Rom 9. 5. It was no small honour to that house from which the Lord Jesus as man descended Is not Christ our kinsman our elder brother is he not flesh of our flesh bone of our bone did he take the nature of Angels on him No he is made like to us in all things finne onely excepted I cannot but with divine Austin admire the incomprehensible love of God to us in this of clothing his divine nature with the rags of our humane flesh when he came to make himself a sacrifice for sinne ● It was a great priviledge of this family that God committed to them only the keeping of his Oracles as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 3. 2. if it were an honour to Theophilus though a Sena●our as a learned Divine doth stile him that Luke the authour of the holy story containing the birth preaching-life and death of Christ in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of Apostles after Christs departure to heaven was dedicated to him that he should faithfully preserve it for the Church of Gods use and benefit how great a favour was it to the Jews Jacobs house to have the sacred story mysterious books of the Prophets in their keeping Nor are Christians behinde in this mercy and we of this Land being a part of the family have experienced this bounty in a very great measure Time was when our condition resembled theirs in Samuels daies that the word of God was exceeding precious Time was when we had small vision and the blinde lead the blinde and through lack of it people were in a perishing condition Time was when to have an English bible or any part of old or new Testament in our own language without licence was capitall But God of his infinite mercy hath for many years shewed us in this particular the light of his countenance We have the sacred Oracles notwithstanding the projects and plots of all Atheisticall and popish men in a large and plentifull measure We have Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles holding out the doctrine of the covenant in the Lord Jesus for the foundation of our faith direction of our manners if by our unworthinesse we provoke him not to deprive us of them 5. This family had the Lord his speciall protection against forreign and domestick enemies he did bear them on Eagles wings he covered and defended them under the feathers of his providence he suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved Kings for their sakes though as it seems they were in a low condition having seven mighty states to deal withall Beloved we are equally partakers as members of the family in this favour God hath been a Sunne to us inlightning our understandings with the knowledge of himself a shield a protection to us against the most nefarious and bloudy assaults of homebred and forreign enemies How hath he turned the counsells of crafty Ahitophels into foolishnesse How hath he shattered the forces of bloudy Esaus How hath he discomfited yea routed the Annies of proud Philistines and confounded swelling Pharaohs in the red sea He hath broken their bow and knapt their spear in sunder and burnt their chariots in the fire He hath raised up the Heroick spirits of those worthies not as the heathen fain by transmigration of souls but by redoubling the same spirit on them more powerfull then a drum of dead Ziscaes skin on one he hath put Sampsons spirit on another Davids spirit on another Samuels spirit He hath for us men and our safety subdued Kingdoms wrought righteousnesse performed promises stopped the mouths of Lions quenched the violence of fire made us escape the edge of the sword of weaknesse made us strong we have waxed valiant in fight hath turned to flight the Armies of the Alions both in this and in other Kingdoms I pray God our private differences after the influence of so great mercies which hath in severall ages of Saxons Danes Normans been fatall to this Nation prove not a sad omen to us who live no better if not worse then formerly in blasphemies in contempt of ordinances and abominable idolatries as if with Theramines in the story we judge our selves reserved to some further evil of misery by our trading in that of sin 6. God seated Jacobs family on a most fertile soil The ground sometimes is of much advantage to that people which doth inhabit such a peece of earth 'T is observed by our learned historian Mr Camden that the Religious houses so called built by our predecessours in the founders intentions nurseries of learning and piety were placed in the most fruitfull parts of the countrey And may not Christians and more particularly we of this Nation say as the Psalmist Psal. 16. 6. The lines are fallen to us in a pleasant place or as the Greek {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in optimis seu praestantissimis We have a goodly heritage or as is fair for me or unto me it pleaseth me well such an heritage as is a little paradise on earth to the admiration of our friends and emulation of our enemies Worthy patriots you have heard the beneficium and priviledge of Jacobs familie having been somewhat large in it I shall now briefly shew the officium or duty on our part correspondent to so high a favour In opening whereof I tremble to tell you I may 〈◊〉 indeed vox faucibus haeret I shall rather such is our ingratefull behaviour point at the unworthy carriage of this generation to our heavenly father as Polycarpus said that ever hath followed vs with good never did us evil May I not take up Isaiahs complaint he hath nourished up children and they

the Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Cohen signifieth a Prince and so take it of the chief officers about the King but the word signifies both Priest and Prince and because in one person it sets forth both haply by one word and the circumstances shew a distinction betwixt them and the rest of the land which occasions the Learned generally to read it as our Translatours have done So the Chaldee the Septuagint Tostatus Pererius Cornelius a Lapide Mercerus Calvin Musculus And all our English Translatours I have met with Noble Senatours let it be your honour as he said to leave the Church in a richer condition then you found it yea though in most places it complains of poverty it being torn and beggerly endeavour to restore it it will be your comfort when you lye on your last pillow if in this case you can sincerely say to God as Augustus of Rome repaired by him inveni lateritiam reliqui marmoream Remember that this light the word held forth to the people is not maintained since that extraordinary apostolicall gifts are ceased without vast expence those who are in this imploiment that their office may be more acceptable gracefull and profitable have severall lights none of them to be suffered to die which they must maintain at great expence 1. A light of knowledge in the study by books of all kindes of learning that so they may be able Ministers rightly dividing the word in truth this blessed be God is one cause why the Divines of this land have been so famous to the admiration of forreigners whereas if this light be extinct there will be a want of the other light in knowledge and doctrine also as one a great Schollar long since observed poor beggerly maintenance will have but a poor contemptible Ministry Scandalous maintenance scandalous Ministry 2. A light in the family he must maintain those whose subsistance is from him which sometimes are exceeding many if he should be deficient in providing for them you would condemn him worse then an infidel It is a pretty observation that one hath The Table of shew bread saith he was set in the midst of the Temple to signifie thus much Quod Sacerdotes in Templo servientes de Templo victum habere debent Is it not much to be lamented think you that the oyl in the first institution of it appointed to preserve light to Gods people is powred out to other purposes * as former times have complained lusts of men yea the worst lusts of the worst men that are enemies to God and the Church In the mean time those and their posterity who attend on his light whilst others have food enough and to spare are in hazard to perish with hunger 3. A light in the town and countrey where they live it s a light of good works in shewing mercy to the poor being helpfull to the needy as Job saith of himself he was eyes to the blinde feeet to the lame this would have covered them to the credit of Religion inciting others to the like he did not put his light under a bushell So praised be God in this nation where the revenues of the Church were great though some did spend much in vanity and excessive courses as the profuse vulgar all did not so much hath been given by Divines to Colledges Hospitalls Libraries and other pious works And indeed Schollars best knowing to set a price on learning have been most beneficiall this way The Apostles exhortation to Ministers is that they be given to hospitality Surely then they must have ability else they should stand in need of other mens hospitality be fitter to receive then give as God knows it is the case of many a learned godly and painfull Divine at this day as sometimes it was the condition of learned men beware the fears where Church revenues are devoured who have great charges of children and nothing wherewith to bring them up or place them out while the ancient Church-revenue is in the hands of many that worse deserve it This made the mighty godly Divine of Scotland as I am informed lying on his death bed and the words of dying men should make a deeper impression so earnest in his exhortatory letter writ from St Andrews to the Assembly at Sterling There are two branches of his exhortation one to keep out of the Church scandalous Ministers the other to prevent a scandalous maintenance Noble Patriots as it belonged to Eliazer to provide oyl for the lights of the Temple so to you it appertains as nurserers of the Church to see that these lights of the Church have oyl to feed them as Hezekiah did 2 Chron. 31 4. I can present you with no arguments more constringent then those in the text before you 1. You have many priviledges God expects this as a testimony of thankfulnesse Those who gain by sea-trade are not unwilling to be at the charge of land-light The children of light should be as wise as the men of the world 2. You are reformers in Israel this is one speciall point of your work to see that Gods house be not as a dark room the light removed 3. You know that Religion is not in shew but in deed it 's not sufficient to say as those St James mentioneth goe and be warmed unlesse also you make provision for them 4. It 's the Lords light that affords direction to your souls for the obtaining eternall light which by how much the more excellent it is then that under the law so much the more liberall we should be in providing for it as that famous servant of God long since taught us with whose words I shall crave leave to close this imploiment Had the Priests of the law the tenth part and shall not the Ministers of a better testament have any part Such maintenance will have such Ministers in time out of question to the utter decay of learning piety and Religion and to the bringing of all barbarisme and errour as Satan wisheth Worthy is the vertue of Nehemiah touching this matter everlasting remembrance and imitation of them that have like authority and fear God he finding that the Priest Eliashib who had the oversight of what belonged to the maintenance of the Priests being joyned in affinity with Tobiah the Ammonite an enemy of the Jews the portions of the Levites were not given them but every man was fled to shift for himself amongst his friends most zealously reformed it as you may see threw out Tobias vessels thrust out Eliashib and placed them that were accounted faithfull and brought the tithes of corn and wine and oyl into the house of the Lord again mark the state of our times and see if such Tobias be not yet amongst us and such Eliashibs who dealing in all unrighteousnesse convey the portions of the Levites by little and little from