Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A62084
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The book of nature translated and epitomiz'd. By George Sikes.
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Sikes, George.
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1667
(1667)
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Wing S6322B; ESTC R220778
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50,008
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113
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his service rightly performed unto God exceed the service which other creatures perform to him Now the more excellent the service is the greater is the profit thereby redounding unto man He therefore must needs have incomparably more profit from his service of love freely performed unto God then from any service that inferiour creatur's do by a natural necessity and impulse perform unto him And the more perfectly any man serv's God the more profit he receiv's unto himself 'T is the true interest then and highest concern of man to be incessantly performing his service of love to God with all his heart soul mind and strength seing all redounds singly and intirely to his own advantage The service other creatures perform to man is not remunerable or capable of reward because not freely performed but by natural necessity The service perform'd by man to God being free is remunerable Man then receiving all the advantage by both services let us distinctly consider what profit he receiv's by the first and what by the second By the first perform'd by other creatures unto him his being is for a while continued in this mortal state By the second performable by him in Christ unto God is his everlasting wel-being atteinable So much then as the eternal wel-being of man excell's his bare temporal being in a mortal body does the second service exceed the first in dignity and profit A bare being is not profitable unto man unless he may have a wel-being Other creatures then by serving him with all they have unless he serv God with all he has will but aggravate his sin and adde to his misery Being was given unto man in order to his wel-being So is the service of other creatures performed unto man for his temporary being in this world in order to that service he ought to perform unto God with reference to his eternal wel-being in the world to come If the second service be not performed by man to God the first to wit of other creatures unto him is render'd void and to no purpose as much as in man lies Yea it is perverted to the service of the devil in enmity to God All the service perform'd by other creatures to a man that serv's not God is lost or worse The main end and chief design of God in creating the world is frustrated and rendred of no effect by the man that serv's not God We do plainly experience that man can't continue his being in this world unless maintein'd and upheld by other creatur's nor can other creatur's continue or subsist unless upheld by the same hand that made them If they could they would be greater in this point of self-preservation then man Man can't maintein them in being but is maintein'd by them Some other hand then above both mainteins them and him by them But man alone stands indebted unto God as for his own being and theirs so for the continuance of both By the first service perform'd by inferiour creatures unto man they are brought into union with him By the second performed by man unto God he is brought into union with God So in and by man the world comes to be united with God All things that came out of the love of God to man by the love of man to God are brought into union with him that made them He then that does not love and serve the lord does what in him lies towards the disjoyning and seperating of the world from God and the bringing of all things into disorder and confusion Man alone in whose nature and constitution all sorts of created nature life and being are put together is the means in and by whom all inferiour creatures come to be united with God SECTION III. FRom the first obligation on man or debt of love which he owes unto God does naturally arise a second like unto it and that is the love of all creatures as the works of his hands and as bearing any thing of his image or superscription upon them on which account himself pass'd that universal approbation that every thing that he had made was very good Gen. 1. 31. But forasmuch as amongst all things there mention'd men for whom the rest were made do beare the most compleat and lively image of God upō them they are on God's account to be loved by us more then any inferiour creatures All men as of one and the same nature ought to look upon themselvs as one man not many There ought by the very law of nature to be the strictest union the greatest peace and agreement amongst them that 's possible As their love of God in the first place so is the love of one another in the second as bearing his image founded in the law of nature Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart soul strength and mind say's Christ. This is the first and great commandment And the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself On these two commādments hang all the law and the prophets Mat. 22. 37 40. All men are bound by the law of their own nature to live in perfect union with God and with one another by love The greatest unity amongst men arises from their first being united with God and the firmer their union the greater their strength Self-love divides us from God and consequently from one another So come we to lose that strength which depend's on union and to lie naked and exposed in our own single persons to all the wiles and darts of the devil c. Inferiour creatures are to be loved by mā only on God's account as the works of his hands bearing some characters and shadowy resemblāces of his infinitly persect being and life We are not to look on ourselvs as obliged to them for any benefit use or service we receive from them or have of them but unto God only who causes them to perform such beneficiall service The loving of inferiour creatures as gratifying our sensual desires is so far from being a natural consequent of our loving God that 't is direct enmity to him Such love of this world and the things thereof is enmity to God If any man thus love the world the love of the father is not in him Jam. 4. 4. 1 Jo. 2. 15. To ask of God creature-contentments to consume upon our lusts Jam. 4. 3. is to desire him that he would maintein us in our enmity against himself The multiplicity of heathen Gods and the various idolatries in the world have arisen from man's unlawful prohibited love of inferiour creatures Many heathens concluded that any thing that did them good was a God On this account were they induced to worship the sun moon stars fire air earth water sheep oxen c. Such unlawfull idolatrous love of inferiour creatures has its rise as a natural consequent from self-love When we love our own wills in distinction from and opposition to God's we love the creatures appointed for
of recovery from the power of Satan unto God Secondly the evil angels are subject to their leader and head as his incorporated members resigned up to his will They do all most unanimously and harmoniously agree and center in one will so that no discord or contention can possibly arise amongst them They are the most free and willing subjects of the devil As for men they are cozen'd into slavery they are unawares by fraud captivated to the will of the devil They agree with the devil in enmity to God They quit all union with the will of God but with design to live in the soveraign and uncontrolled exercise of their own wills as the devil does in his unsubjected either to God or him But when they de part from God they fall into the devil's hands and are taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. Man intend's a distinct Kingdom within himself separate from God's and the devil 's too as a new third Monarch distinct from both But it fall's in by way of coalition and becomes one Kingdom of darkness with Satan's in opposition to the Kingdom of God The will of the devil separated from God of itself The will of man separated from God by the instigation of the devil on which the devil gain'd entrance into and dominion over his will beyond and contrary to his intention The devil caught man at first with guile did with craft surprize him and does by violence and fraud usurp a tyrannical domination over him The fallen angels are the devil's natural subjects and members being of the same angelical nature with him But men as of a different nature from him are by fraud and force captivated and subjected to his will Every wicked man retein's his own private will in himself which alway's agree's with the will of the devil in enmity and contrariety to the will of God The devil is a gainer by men's living and walking in their own wills as not willingly or knowingly subjected unto his For by this means he can in combination with the will of man do many exploits in the world which by himself alone or by his angels who are freely united in and with his will he could not do Wicked men in this world do not center by way of resignation in any one will but have every one their proper and private will distinct from all others They cannot therefore agree amongst themselvs as evil angels do because they have distinct private wills and lusts whence contentions warrs brawlings and fightings do arise Jam. 4. 1. every one raking and tearing from another to get what he can for himself Satan know's too well how to manage the private lusts and passions of men to his advantage He does thereby stir up man against man nation against nation Kingdom against Kingdom putting the world into an uproar and filling it with all manner of tumults and confusions This he does by his hidden artifices and unperceived influencinâ— and riding of the wills of men as hiâ—â—easts into a career of opposition to each other He is ready also on all sides to suggest innumerable wayes and arts of doing mischief as the grand master of al mis-rule in the whole world He uses his angels as his own members for the doing of mischief But he and his angels use men as their beasts to ride on Men's minds and wills are secretly bestridden and spurr'd by these principalities and powers of darkness and they no more know or consider who is on their backs then horses know what men are that ride them Into this deplorable condition is man brought by self-love and living in his own will separate from god's He is made a servant a slave a captive a beast for the devil and his angels to triumph over and ride on who are themselvs most miserable captives in everlasting chains of darkness Jude v. 6. The will of the devil is a bottomless pit wherein the wills of wicked men are imprison'd and their own private wills are so many distinct spiritual prisons subordinate to the will of the devil wherein they are deteined Man 's own will is both the prison and the chain that bind's and hold's him fast in the will of the devil Here 's that man gets by living in his own will When he hath once separated himself from God and set his heart wholly upon vanities in case he sometimes get what he desires if he rejoyces in it he add's iniquity unto iniquity by rejoycing in the accomplishing of the fleshly desires of his carnal mind that is enmity against God All the desires of our wills in separation from God's are evil If we have not what we desire we are sad looking on our disappointment as a punishment If we have what we desire we rejoyce and so adde to the iniquity of our unlawfull lust a rebellious exulting and rejoycing against God Turn which way we will then while we live in our own wills we are sure to find sin or sorrow to meet either with the evil of sin or evil of punishment continually To center unite live and dwell in the will of God is true blessednes and glorious liberty unto man in direct opposition to all the above-mention'd captivities and inconveniences SECT II. THe whole angelical nature fell not The whole humane nature fell Angels descend not from one another by generation as men do but were all created together Those angels that fell fell irrecoverably at first No men were rendred unchangably and irrecoverably evil by their first fall nor were they thereby exposed to remediless misery Had mankind by being made totally sinful bin totally lost in vain had all men bin made as to the principal design of God in the creation of the world which was to bring the world summ'd up in man into union with and enjoyment of himself Had no course bin taken for the recovery and salvation of men after their first fall we might be apt to think it far better that God had forthwith destroy'd Adam and Eve on their first sin and put a period to humane nature in their persons without any farther multiplication That which Christ say's of Judas it had bin good for him if he had not bin born Mat. 26. 24. may seem to countenance this general assertion that it had bin far better and more eligible for all those who will eternally perish uever to have bin at all SECTION III. Redemption AS to the recovery redemption and salvation of man this we may take notice of in generall that none but God himself could make satisfaction to his own infinite justice for the sins of men And none is obliged to give satisfaction but man He then that perform's it must needs be both God and man united in one person The natural and most intimate marriage-union of humane nature with the divine in Christ's person did render it so valuable in the vertue and dignity of its husband that the laying down of the life