Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	word_n	work_v	worship_n	82	3	6.9661	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43663	The moral schechinah, or, A discourse of Gods glory in a sermon preached at the last Yorkshire-feast in Bow-church, London, June 11, 1682 / by George Hickes.	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1682 (1682)	Wing H1857; ESTC R10895	13,920	39

Christian Religion because it is his Religion and to the First Day of the Week because it is the Lords Day All these things challenge a particular respect from us different from all other things of the same name and kind upon the account of their relation unto God and when we treat them with reverence for his sake the honour of it redounds to him because every action of that Nature is a solemn Ackowledgement and Declaration that he is the Great and Holy God These are all genuine duties and effects of Godliness or Religiousness as it is distinguished from other parts of Christian Piety But alas how little of it is practised in this Prophane Age How little Religious and how much Profane and Atheistical discourse is now to be heard in all Companies Nay how is the Worship of God which above all other things is ordained for his Glory dishonoured and profaned and almost perverted to the contrary End by the irreverent and unworthy carriage of man To see how many men behave themselves in the Service of God would tempt an indifferent man to believe that they designed not to acknowledge Wisdom Power and Goodness and their trust in and dependance upon his infinite Majesty but rather to deny him in the Action and declare to all the World that Religion is nothing but Superstition and that it is very uncertain whether there is a God or no or if there be whether or no he concerns himself in the Government of the World To this if we add the general practice of Rash and Vain Swearing on one hand and Solemn Perjuries on the other together with that utter disrespect which is now accounted brave and generous to cast upon all Things and Persons which belong unto God we must needs acknowledge that there are great numbers of men among us who tho' they may profess God yet in their Works deny him being so far from doing whatsoever they do to his Glory that there Actions tend and it is to be feared many of them are designed to extirpate the Notions of him out of mens Minds his Fear out of their Consciences and his Name and Religion out of the World II. So much for the first kind of Human Actions which immediately regard God from whence I proceed to the second which are such as regard our Neighbours and are practised in our Dealing and Conversation with them and in these Actions this is the Rule That they tend to Gods Glory when they tend to the Good of Men and are declarative of that excellent and comprehensive Virtue in us which the Greeks call Philanthrophy the Latines Humanity and the Christian Religion Love This is the general Supream Law which God hath commanded men that they should love one another according to that repeated Precept of our Saviour This is my Commandment and these things I command you that you love one another and that you love one another as I have loved you This reiterated Precept of our blessed Saviour made the Apostle say unto the Thessalonians Now as touching brotherly Love ye need not that I write unto you for ye your selves are taught of God to love one another and this saith St. John in his Epist Gener. is the Message that ye have heard from the beginning that ye love one another St. Paul in several places gives us the reason why our Lord so carefully enjoyn'd this duty upon us because it is the fulfilling of the Second Table of the Law By love saith he Gal. 5. serve one another for all the Law is fulfilled in one word thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thy self And love faith the Rom. 13. Worketh no ill to his Neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law This Character of Love which the Apostle gives us is indeed Negative but as all other Negatives are it is founded in positive sense so that his meaning is at large this love worketh no ill but worketh all manner of good to his Neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law In these two prime effects of love to do no ill and to do all manner of good are founded the Laws of Justice and Charity and in these two are comprehended all the duties which every man owes to other men For Justice powerfully restrains us from doing any harm or injury to our Neighbour and Charity pushes us on to do him all good Offices and Kindness and therefore all just and Charitable Actions which spring from the Divine Root of Humanity or Love must needs tend to the Glory of God and the manifestation of his Divine Nature who as St. John saith is love and who in the Saxon Tongue from which the Dialect of our Country is but one remove is called God because he is good as in our Saviours answer to the Ruler who called him good Master 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or man man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is one good save only God According to this Derivation of his Name the Apostle saith That Love is of God and that every one that loveth is born of God and he that loveth not or hath not the grace of Love in him knoweth not God for God is Love or made up of Love and kindness to men No man hath seen God at any time if we Love one another God dwelleth in us and his Love is perfected in us and hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit of Love In these words dwelleth and dwell the Apostle emphatically alludes to the Schechinah or Glory by which God manifested his Presence in the Jewish Tabernacle or Temple and the meaning of them is that we cannot give better Evidence of Gods abiding in us and dwelling in our Souls than by the Spirit and temper of Love if we would make it appear to the World that he is in us or that we are of him and conformed unto his Image and Example nay if we would maike it appear that we are acquainted with his divine Nature or declare that we believe he hath Loved us Nay would we shew our Obedience to his strictest and dearest Command which he hath exemplified in his Son or give a right proof to others that we love him as he hath loved us it must be by conforming all our dealings with men to the Rules of Justice and Charity which are the the genuine and immediate effects of Love Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him and this Commandment we have from him that be who loveth God loveth his Brother also Nay furthermore the best proof that we can give to our selves and others that we are Regenerate persons and have passed from a state of death unto life is our love to our Fellow-Christians for saith the Apostle We know that we have

in you of a truth To this purpose saith the Apostle Phil. i. 10. Approve the things that are Excellent that you may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ being filled with the Fruits of Righteousness which are by Christ Jesus unto the glory and praise of God And so true and exact is this Analogy between the Physical and Moral Glory of God that every righteous person who lives in obedience and subjection to his Laws and walks as a Child of Light doth as effectually declare and set forth God and his Special Presence in himself unto the World as if the Cloud of Glory which filled the House of the Lord constantly surrounded his Temples unto him Face to Face as he did unto Moses as a man speaketh unto his Friend What the Psalmist said of the Heavens may be truly said of Divine and Heavenly men they declare the Glory of God they set forth his Power and Wisdom and Goodness and all his other Adorable Perfections they visibly bear his Image in being conformed unto the likeness of his Son their Holy lives are a Comment upon his blessed Nature they Preach him continually by their Example In a word as the Apostle said of the Stars they are the visible Epistle of Christ to the World written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the Living God they are the Light of the World burning and shining Lights and so shine before men that they may see their good Works and be brought in like manner by the benefit of their example to glorifie their Father which is in Heaven Having now explained the true and genuine Notion of Gods Glory which the Christian Philosophy proposes for the Supream end of Human Actions I proceed in the second place to make a general division of Human Actions into their several kinds that I may the better shew under each kind how we may make God and the sense we have of his infinite Majesty and of our duty to him appear in all our Actions or how we may direct all our Actions to his Glory as unto their supream end For as Cicero saith Nulla vitae pars neque publicis neque privatis neque forensibus neque domestieis in rebus neque si tecum agas quid neque si cum altero contrabans vacare officio potest There is no part of our lives whether we be imployed in Publick or Private Matters in business belonging to the Law or in our Domestical Affairs whether we have to deal with ourselves alone or whether we have to deal with others but it is attended with certain duties in the constance performance of which we make it appear to all the World that there is an Eternal and Immutable distinction between Good and Evil and that there is a God infinitely Wise and Just and Powerful that will judge every man according to his Works Nay in observing these duties which attend us in all our Actions we shew unto all the World the power of the divine assistance within us by which we are enabled so to act and that principle of holy love and fear in our hearts which makes us so constant and regular in conforming our Actions unto the Laws of God But this division of humane actions by Cicero is defective in this that it only concerns our secular actions omitting one considerable part of our lives which ought to be spent in the Temple and in divine worship and therefore laying it aside I shall prefer the Scriptural division of human actions as the most perfect and comprehensive with respect to their objects God our Neighbour and our selves This distinction is founded on Tit. ii 12. where the Apostle tells That the Gospel teaches all men that we should live righteously soberly and godly in this present world looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ I shall begin with the first branch of this distinction which concerns those actions of ours which have God for their object and are immediately conversant about him as when we speak of him from him or to him be it in Prayers Praises or Vows or in Swearing by his Holy Name In all these cases we immediately direct our selves unto God and when we so behave our selves in them as to let others see the mighty sense we have of his Infinite Majesty and how much we love fear admire and adore him then and only then he appears in those actions which indeed tend no otherwise to his Glory then as they are declarative of his existence and absolute perfections as of his Sovereignty Providence Power Truth Wisdom and Goodness and he that treats him in this Religious manner when he hath occasion to be any of those ways conversant about him doth manifest his Eternal Power and Godhead as effectually as if God stood by him as he did by Moses in a flame of fire in the Bush Wherefore whensoever we have occasion to mention God or speak to others in his Name or whensoever we offer up Prayer or Praises or make Vows unto him or call upon him in Solemn Oaths to attest the Truth of what we Swear let us do it in a manner suitable to his infinite Majesty in such a manner as will serve to express and declare to others what awful and serious apprehensions we have of his most Excellent Nature and if we do so we need not doubt but our Religious Behaviour will make very sensible impressions upon them and contribute more or less like the Sight of his Glory to strike into them the Fear and Reverence of his Holy Name When St. Paul discoursed with Felix concerning the Faith in Christ he did it in such a manner that as he reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgement to come Felix Trembled and had the Glory of God rested all the while upon the Apostle What could the Governour have done more Thus the Presence of God appeared so eminently in the Words and Actions of St. Ambrose when he forbid the Emperor Theodosius in God's name to enter into the Church that his Majesty could not have been more humbled and penitent for the innocent blood shed at Thessalonica altho' he had seen the Cloud of Glory hang over the Temple or encircle the Head of the Divine Prelate while he spoke unto him The Historian tell us that he returned unto his Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sighing Theodor. l. 5. c. 18. and weeping and from these without multiplying other examples we may learn how much God may be glorified and made appear in those actions of men which are immediately conversant about him Hither we must also reduce the Glory that accrues unto God by the Respect and Observance which we ought to shew towards all Things Times Persons and Places which belong unto him as to the Scriptures because they are his Word to the Clergy because they are his Ministers to the Church because it is his House to the