Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	creation_n	day_n	sabbath_n	3,921	5	9.7014	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61638	Shecinah, or, A demonstration of the divine presence in the places of religious worship being an essay, tending to promote piety, prevent apostacy, and to reduce grosly deluded souls, first to their right wits, then to the right waies, of Gods publick instituted worship / by John Stillingfleete ...	Stillingfleet, John, 1630 or 1-1687.	1663 (1663)	Wing S5680; ESTC R9466	109,230	256

hath pleased our Soveraign and Creator to set apart some portion of our time for his Worship and to indulge the rest to us to be employed according to the necessity of our natures § 8. Thus God taking a pattern from his own Creation employing six daies in the production of the world and resting the seventh Hee hath freely indulged six daies for common and ordinary work and a seventh hee set apart for his more solemn Worship and Service And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.3 because that in it hee had rested from all his work which God created and made Gods sanctifying of the day was setting of it apart for an holy use that is designing it to his Publick Worship and Service It is true the word Sanctifie is variously used in Scriptures but here it must be one of these two waies taken Either 1. By infusion of Holiness and Sanctity into it as holy men are said to be sanctified or else 2. By separation of it from common use and dedication of it to holy use as the Temple and the Altar are said to be sanctified The first cannot be meant here because the circumstance of a seventh part of time is not capable of being made holy by the infusion of Habitual Holiness whereof onely intelligent creatures men and Angels are it must therefore be said to be sanctified in regard of its separation from common use and dedication to holy use as the Temple was which had no inherent holiness Being thus dedicated for an holy use it must be either for Gods use or mans that is that either God should keep this holy day or that man might observe it as an holy day unto God The dishonour that the observation of such an holy day would bring upon God must needs by asse us to beleeve that it was dedicated and consecrated for mans use for him to observe it as holy unto God This day is therefore said to be sanctified of God that man might sanctifie it and dedicate it unto God And hence it follows that as man could never have lawfully dedicated it unto God without a fore-going institution from God so the institution of God implies a known command given by God unto man So that if any desire to know where God commanded the observation of the Sabbath before Moses his time they may see it here necessarily implied in Gods sanctifying of it And that God doth here declare his mind by Moses by way of Prolepsis and Anticipation concerning the sanctification of the Sabbath because his intention was to sanctifie it two thousand five hundred years after Is but a meer shifting evasion of prejudiced minds the vanity of which hath been sufficiently discovered by many worthy and learned Divines Onely this may suffice to evidence that God himself hath interposed in the determination of a portion of time for his Service in that hee hath set apart a seventh part of mans time for his Worship And herein we may observe Gods infinite goodness and condiscention of love If God had asked man how much time hee would willingly allow for the worship of his Maker who had given him his Being and furnished the world with necessaries for the use of man Hee could not for shame have denyed God the one half of his time considering his frame and making that hee is half Spirit when as the holy Angels which are wholly spiritual in their Beings are continually employed in Gods Worship and Service and yet wee see God requires but a seventh part of our time They then must needs act very dis-ingenuously not to say highly dishonourably against God who would rob God of this too Shepheard Pref. to the Moral of Sab. Especially if that hold good which one hath observed That it is easie to demonstrate by Scripture and Argument as well as by experience That Religion is just as the Sabbath is and decaies and grows as the Sabbath is esteemed The immediate Honour and Worship of God which is brought forth and swadled in the three first Commands is nursed up and suckled in the bosome of the Sabbath If Popery will have grosse ignorance and blind devotion continued among its miserable captives let it then be made like the other Festivals a merry and a sporting Sabbath If any State would reduce the people under it to Romish Faith and blinde obedience again let them erect again for lawful sports and pastimes a dancing Sabbath If the God of this world would have all Professors enjoy a total immunity from the Law of God and all manner of licentiousness allowed without check of conscience let him then make an every day Sabbath § 9. 2. That some place also is necessary for man to worship God in is evident by the very light of Nature For every Body such as man hath must by the natural necessity of its Being be contained in some real place in the world and indeed to be in a place is so proper to a Body that wee may as well suppose it not to have a Being as not to admit of a local circumscription If a Body cannot be or exist then neither can it operate or perform any action unless it be in some place now therefore the Worship of God being an external action when publickly performed with others it not onely requires a place but necessarily requires a place capacious of many that must joyn in the same Worship Because Publick Worship speaks a joynt concurrence of several Worshippers for the performance of the same action of Religious Worship So that the very light of Nature gives its clear suffrage for the necessity of convenient places of meeting for the performance of the Publick Worship and Service of God Is it not a shame now not to live closely up to such clear dictates of the Light within must the convenient places of Publick meeting for Gods Worship be forsaken because the necessity of them is thus evident and apparent by Natural Light is not this to cry up inward Light and yet plainly to live in Darknesse voluntarily closing their eyes against the sparkling beams of it And if popular consent and the Christian Magistrates Civil Sanction have interposed in the designation of such places separating them from common and dedicating them to a Religious use and if prevailing Custome hath stiled the meeting places CHURCHES probably according to the languag of Saint Paul himself 1 Cor. 11.18.20 22. 34. verses compared See Mr. Modes Treatise of Churches Is it not meerly sottishness and ignorance to withdraw from these because they are so called and so set apart for Religious Worship How much better did the very Heathens improve their natural dictates than these pretended Patrons of the Light within who from the sight of a necessity of some Publick place for Worship invented their Groves Oratories and Temples for the service of their Idol Gods But I proceed § 10. Propos 5. God by his instituted Law did particularize

the hearing of the Word and pious use of the Sacraments And against those on whom hee turns this present place of David is my design mainly intended viz. contra cos qui quoniam sibi sapientes videntur conciones sacras Sacramenta negligunt Against those who because they are wise in their own conceit do neglect all Publick Sermons and Sacraments CHAP. II. The World made for God himself preserved for the Churches good God respects the Church as his Presence Chamber His singular Favour for it His gracious Presence in it The Original of that The nearer the Church the further off from God The Saints panting after Gods presence in Publick Psal 42.2 cleared why the wicked slight it and desire it not § 1. God having curiously and wonderfully framed the stately Fabrick of the World left it not as the ablest and exactest Artificers are wont to leave the chiefest Peeces of their Workmanship The skilful Carpenter when hee hath taken much care and pains in building of an house looks no more after it because hee makes it not for himself But when wee look upon the Visible World whose builder and maker is God wee finde that it was made for himself Pro. 16.4 hee having made all things for himself and therefore it co●●●● him to uphold it and preserve it as we as create it Though Gods Right and Sovereign Dominion over the creatures doth not arise from the highest benefits hee hath bestowed on them even that of their very Being by Creation but from that supereminent Excellency of his own Being and Essence yet having bestowed a Being on them by his Power hee counts himself obliged in point of honour to give them a necessary support in their Being by Preservation and Providence The whole World was made as a Mansion-house for himself and would not this be ready to sink under its own ruines and presently creep again into the bosome of non-entity if God should withdraw his manutenency and leave it to it self as it is created And why God should not suffer the Creation to dwindle into nothing and return to its first principles especially since that it groans under the heavy burden of mans sin and degeneracy from God There can I think no more pertinent reason be given for it than this that God hath made all things in it but some things more peculiarly for himself It cannot but seem very rational that that which hath been throughout all ages the chiefest object of Gods Providence in the world should be looked on as the chiefest intendment of his Preservation of the world its self in its Being and that is next to Gods Glory the Good of his Church Is not this lively represented to us in that temporal Salvation which was freely promised to Sodom and Gomorrah a little world of sin and iniquity if that ten righteous persons could have been found therein Gen. 18.32 And wee have God himself inquiring in Jerusalem but for one man Jer. 5.1 that executeth Judgement that seeketh Truth and he will pardon it if but a man can be found What reason then have wee but to conclude that the world had presently fallen about mans ears after his degeneracy had there not been a Peculiar People a Royal Seed even the Church of God to be raised out of the ruines of fallen man by the interposing of Christ first proffered and propounded for the worlds reparation in that Fundamental Promise Gen. 3.15 The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head § 2. God having made the whole world as his Royal Mansion yet hee hath reserved that part of it which he owns as his Church to be as it were his Presence Chamber Look to the place of bliss and happiness where the spirits of Just Men are made perfect there God doth in an eminent manner discover the tokens of his Glorious Presence it the midst of the Church Triumphant Look to the place of our Pilgrimage where the best of Gods Children are but sojourner and strangers as all their Fathers were Here God displayes his banners of love and discovers the Signal Tokens of his singular Favour and presence amongst those who are sighting the good fight of Faith under Christ their Captain in the midst of the Church Militant And that Gods care hath alwaies been very great towards his chosen and peculiar people and his favourable aspect upon those that tremble at his word may hence appear in that the visible parts of Gods Creation have been in all ages by an Omnipotent Arm made extraordinarily subservient to their safety and preservation As might be shewn in the Seas division for the Israelites deliverance Exod. 14. In the rebating of the natural effect of the fire Dan. 3. for the preservation of the Three Children in the fiery Furnace and in the Suns standing still in Gibeon and the Moon in the Valley of Ajalon till Gods people were avenged of their enemies and the reason is given For the Lord fought for Israel Josh 30. And indeed this might be made evidently apparent in a multitude of other instances of the like nature of each of which may be truly said what Calvin expressed of the last mentioned passage in Joshua Hic autem refulget singularis Dei favor erga Ecclesiam calvin in locum They were all visible tokens of Gods singular favour towards his Church But amongst all the manifestations of Gods presence and favour there are none more remarkably signal for constant reviving and comforting the hearts of his people than those that have been truly experienced in his Ordinances enjoyed by his servants in those places which either by divine appointment or at least by divine Approbation have been separated and set apart for Religious Worship and the Service of God § 3. Considering now that great experenced reality of Gods gracious Presence in his Ordinances and in those places and Assemblies where they are conscientiously attended upon may it not seem very strange that amongst us who generally own the Publick instituted Worship of God That should be owned as a currant expression which is so much derogatory to it and carries much more of prophaneness than of truth in it viz. The n●erer the Church the further off from God I confess in our English Nation Custome hath made it very common and some mens carelesness hath made it too true But take it in its latitude and it better suits the Irreligious Italians from whom it had its original than sincere Professors of Christianity on whom after-ages have cast it For the Italians do abhor Religion because they see the Pope make a politick Robe of it taking the liberty of putting it on and off as best suits his occasions So that hee may be said to imitate Peter onely in this in denying of his Lord and Master And at their door let us leave this Babylonish Brat which indeed seems to degenerate by speaking so plainly the English Tongue the

is not in every man by Nature but conveyed onely to some by the Spirit of God who is called the Spirit of Wisdome and Revelation Ephes 1.17 Gospel Light in the soul that leads to salvation is the benefit of Christs Redemption and not of our Creation Therefore when Christ is spoken of to come into the world as Mediator to him is attributed this light of salvation The people that walked in darknesse have seen a great light Isa 9. Avenari Lex Hebr. Mal. 4 2. they that dwell in the Land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined Some observe that the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shine hath great affinity with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to heal It holds true here the light of the Gospel is an healing light where ever it comes All men lye sick in sin and ignorance till this light recover them No soundnesse in the Faith without a clear discovery of this light And it is worth our observation Luk. 4.18 that healing of the broken hearted and recovering sight to the blind are both joyned together and both as the effect of Christs undertaking his mediatory work If Christs as God enlightens every man that comes into the world with the light of reason yet we must not therefore beleeve that Christ enlightens every one by saving Grace as he is Mediator 'T is true all that are savingly enlightened are enlightened by Christ and his Spirit yet there are many that are never enlightened Yea and of all those that are thus savingly enlightned time was that wee might say of them Yee were sometimes darkenesse § 9. What hath been said may sufficiently serve to answer any that would bee satisfied about that inward Light so much spoken of now adayes of which I shall only propound these four things First Every man in the world hath an inward light of nature or light of reason call'd in Scripture Prov. 20.27 the candle of the Lord. According to which every man hath some seeds of the knowledge of good and evil This is the light of mans natural Conscience Rom. 2.14 15. This light serves to many good uses but not to bring Souls to Heaven Secondly Every true Saint one that is regenerated truly by the Word and Spirit hath an inward light of the Spirit the light of Grace This is light in the Lord. According to this Ephes 4.8 a Saint hath his Conscience savingly enlightned This light is not onely useful but necessary to all true Christians in their life here as Christians and will bring them to Heaven at the last Thirdly There is a middle light betwixt the light of Nature and the saving light of Grace that is the common work of the Spirit called illumination too which many in the visible Church do enjoy and yet are reprobates According to this Heb. 4.6 men may have an awakened conscience This light may bee useful to others but it will not advantage a wicked man at all if hee go no further than this common work Fourthly No man that receives inward saving light of the Spirit but was first in great spiritual darkenesse Thus S. Paul saith of the Ephesians Ye were sometimes darkenesse but now are yee light in the Lord. Ephes 5.8 So that it must needs bee a very grosse mistake to think that any a far greater to assert that all are born with this inward saving light And our Saviour was much overseen in sending Paul to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkenesse to light Acts 26.18 by preaching of the Gospel if so be they had this Light by Nature Wee grant you see and if need were would sufficiently prove with undeniable Arguments a Light within yet not such as many ignorantly enough plead for Vide Fr. Junium de Theol. vera c. 16. expl ss 32. T. 1. p. 1414. Let others therefore sit down and embrace that so much admired Darling of an Inward Natural yet saving Light in all wee know 't is but a Changeling and not the genuine off-spring of the Spirit of God Much like that Strumpet-Goddesse of the men of Ephesus Great is Diana of the Ephesians But in St. Pauls Language it proved a great cry about nothing For saies hee Wee know that an Idoll is nothing § 10. IV. The Spirit of God teaches Corroborando by strengthening the mind and understanding The mind of man is full of weakness as well as darkness The Spirit of God in his teaching brings not only light but also strength to the souls of Gods Children Paul prayes that they may be strengthened Eph. 3.16 with might by his Spirit in the inward man The inward man the soul of a Saint is the chief object of the Spirits care For the outward man that is many times weak and vile but the Spirit comes by his teaching to renew and streng-then the inward man that though the outward man decay yet the inward man may be renewed strengthened and confirmed day by day And if any shall enquire how God by his Spirit doth strengthen the minds of his Children Fr. Junius de Th. vera c. 12. p. 1403. T. 1. A learned and judicious Divine gives this solid satisfaction to his inquiry Whatsoever power is implanted in man by nature to apprehend that God by the power of his Spirit doth so possess that to those gifts of nature hee conjoyns the gifts of his grace that are answerable to them For to the Principles that are naturally placed in the understanding hee super-adds the Principles of Grace To Reason that arises out of those Principles hee conjoyns the increase of his Divine Light To the Conclusions and Determinations which reason hath attained to by the most imperfect light of nature hee super-adds supernatural and most perfect Demonstrations out of which heavenly Knowledge may be raised in the minds of godly men To conclude hee propounds heavenly objects to be apprehended by the mind and will after an heavenly manner and also raises the will to the apprehension of those objects that are propounded § 11. V. And lastly Recolligendo The Spirit teaches by raising and recollecting fallen Truths Mans memory is very slippery especially as to Divine Truths very apt to let them slip and leak thorow Therefore wee ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that wee have heard lest at any time wee should let them slip Heb. 2.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest wee let them run out as leaking Vessels are wont to do Or the Metaphor may be taken from Paper that lets letters sink in and the Ink run abroad that they cannot be distinctly read Thus Divine Truths either leak out or run abroad that they prove useless to souls at the greatest need Now the Spirit recollects and brings in Divine Truths upon several occasions as may be most for the souls advantage Hee shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance what-ever I