Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	able_a	know_v	lord_n	344	4	3.4241	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74655	Three treatises, being the substance of sundry discourses: viz. I. The fixed eye, or the mindful heart, on Psal. 25.15. II. The principal interest, or the propriety of the saints in God, on Micah 7.7. III. Gods interest in man natural and acquired, on Psal. 119.4. By that judicious and pious preacher of the gospel, Mr Joseph Symonds, M.A. late vice-provost of Eaton Colledg.	Symonds, Joseph.	1653 (1653)	Wing S6360; Thomason E1440_1; ESTC R209605	170,353	369

more open to him then to any creature One may wish good-will to another and may want skill to make his mind known but you cannot have an ingenuous and hearty wish in your Souls O that God were my God! but he hears it and knows it He hears spirits and reads spirits as we do words In Psal 138.9 My groanings are not hid from Thee If thou lovest God and thine heart be towards him he needs no Interpreter or Spokes-man to tell him what thine heart is The Apostle saith He knows the meaning of the spirit When it can but sob and sigh within it self O that God were my God! he knows the meaning of that language Rom. 8.22 When Christ asked Peter Lovest thou me Lord saith he thou knowest that I love thee Add to this That there cannot be that assurance of speeding upon the manifestation of our spirits to any as there is with God I may make my mind known to another for the enjoyment of his friendship yet I may fail and come short of it but now if I come to God with an ingenuous and sincere desire to have God to be my God I shall not fail in that You seek many things in vain but God never frustrates his poor people in their desires after him He crosseth them in many of their other desires but never in that If he be so good that he satisfies the desire of all things of every living creature as in Psal 146. much more will he satisfie desires after himself for these are from his best love they spring from his own bosom and he 'l be sure to bless them they shall attain their end Other desires may be satisfied with other things if you cannot have one thing another thing may serve you in its stead if a man cannot have this friend he may have another But we must either have Gods love and his friendship or we dye for ever He hath engaged himself that those that thirst after him shall never go without him the word stands upon record the Lord Jesus Christ spake it from his Father Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied in Mat. 5. And let him that thirsteth come in Revel 22. Indeed these desires are given not only to be as a byass or principle of motion in our Souls after God but are planted in our Souls as indubitable pledges of his love and of his habitation there Other things are first desired and then obtained but God is first ours before he be desired Divine love works downward it begins in Heaven and that Communion that is wrought between God and us begins in himself and from himself He loves first and speaks first and our love is but the answer of his love If we can say to God Lord I am thine this is but the eccho of what he hath said first I am thine So in Zech. 13. latter end I will say saith God Thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my Father Oh this assurance of obtaining mercy with God for poor thirsty Creatures it is the honey and milk of our Souls our greatest joy and the satisfaction of our spirits in this life They that seek God shall glorifie him If they seek once the next thing is praise their hearts shall live for ever The manifestation of this grace mercy and goodness that is in God is the life of such as seek him In Isai 38.15 16. What shall I say he hath spoken to me and himself hath done it I shall walk softly all my years in the bitterness of my Soul O Lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit so wilt Thou recover me and make me to live He speaks of Gods goodness appearing to him in that act which was not a single but a compound act and it was not a meer natural good but a spiritual and inward communication of himself it took him much What shall I say I shall be at rest as one quieted and satisfied in spirit after my bitterness I have had sorrow but now I have seen the love of God towards me I rejoyce I was tumultuous before and unquiet and unsatisfied but now I shall be satisfied Hitherto you have been looking upon the feasibleness of this Interest that no Interest is so attainable as Interest in God And if you will look once more consider how many bars there are to our Interests with men and you shall see how these things that are such impediments with us are of no force with God Many times a poor man a begger one in rags knows it would be his happiness to have an Interest in such a Prince but how shall he come at it In Prov. 14.20 Solomon tells us The poor man is hated of his neighbor he is afraid if he should ask something of him he should burden him Nay he is hated of his Brother and though he speak with intreaties yet he is answered roughly What thou a Begger and come so boldly to ask of me And yet we that are but poor beggers and in our rags may have free access to God In Prov. 19.7 it is said All the brethren of the poor do hate him how much more will his friends depart far from him But God turns not back our prayers though we be poor and miserable yet our Lord Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us Brethren Heb. 11.6 Strangers have a bar in their way Come to a great one I know you not saith he I never saw you before what have you to do to come to me Therefore Ruth was much taken with the kindness of Boaz because she was a stranger to him What are we but strangers and aliens afar off and yet he rejects us not when we come near him God will not say to men I know you not though they have been strangers except when they come too late In Luke 13.25 saith Christ Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter and shall not be able that is they seek too late When once the Master of the house is risen up and hath shut the door if then you come and say Lord Lord open to us he will say I know you not But seek him while the door is open while he may be found and he will be ready to receive you Impotent persons that are fit for nothing how shall they get an Interest in great ones What can he do say they though it be but for a servants place What would become of us if God should put that question to us He receives us when we are good for nothing fit for us Nay when we were Enemies then he was reconciled to us Rom. 5. Now then you see that God hath received such persons indeed be never receives any other So that upon all accompts an Interest in God is more attainable then any other Interest That 's a second Argument I

be sure you mind it and have this in your hearts to be ready to it Revel 12. They loved not their lives to the death Animarum suarum pro. digi Beza they did with their lives as with things they hate not at all regard them So when it 's said they liked not to retain the knowledg of God in their thoughts the meaning is they hated that God should have any room in them or that there should be any knowledg of God in their hearts Though the worst of men cannot but sometimes have God in their eyes yet because they like it not God counts it is not done and takes it as if they gave him no attendance or never lookt after him The Apostle Rom. 7.17 upon this account reckons It 's no more I but sin that dwelleth in me because the propention of my spirit my better part is all towards God it is no more I In this sence when a wicked man thinks of God it 's not the man that doth it but his conscience or the power of God upon him he doth what he would not do As in another case Quae quia non potuit non facit illa facit when a man would do a thing though he cannot do it it goes for done with God as it 's said of Abraham concerning his son and David concerning the temple So that whether it be good or evil it 's not reckoned if the will be not in it Let no man deceive himself though he cast his eyes toward Heaven all the day long if he love not this work he doth nothing 3. That which is not done according to the Rule God reckons it as not done If a Master set his servant about a work if he do it not according to the pattern and rule which is set him nothing is done it may be worse then nothing This is not to eat the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 Yet they did eat it but because it was not done after its due manner he saith this is not to eat it And mark it what God faith in this case Isai 43.22 Thou hast not called on me O Jacob but hast been weary of me O Israel Thou hast not brought me the small cattel of thy burnt-offerings neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices I have not caused thee to serve with an offering nor wearied thee with incense Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices c. Yet they did these things and God acknowledgeth it Jer. 6.20 To what purpose cometh there to me Incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far Country Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable nor your sacrifices sweet to me He looks on the thing as not done because 't is not done as it should be Men think of God but their thoughts are not holy awful and subjecting the spirit they think of God but their thoughts are no way proportionable to the Majesty of God they look loosly carelesly and carnally upon God they peep upon that glory with an unholy and undaunted spirit and so it s against the Rule and God reckons it not done nay it will be worse to them God will recompence upon their heads even their thoughts of him this he will punish severely People think they do well when they have good thoughts and think well they are deceived for if their thoughts be not as they should be though they be for number as motes in the Sun they do no good but bring many sufferings and punishments upon them 4. That which is a mans course and trade denominates a man and not any particular action A man may come to a Carpenters house and take up his tools and do something at his work but this makes him not a Carpenter it doth not denominate him because that is not his trade The best Saints sin yet because it 's not their trade and course they are said not to sin and are called blameless and holy c. And David is said to be a man after Gods own heart notwithstanding his many failings because the habit of his spirit was so Now the course of the world is a course of habitual and voluntary forgetfulness of God endeavoring to shut God out of their thoughts and if their thoughts do run towards him it 's but as water out of its proper channel not in its place their way is altogether out of God that we may say of God in reference to these as Job of places not frequented They are forgotten of the foot Job 28.4 So the minds and spirits of these men converse not with God but he is forgotten of the foot of their Souls This is a dangerous state when they are not with God where are they In the night tares are sown and when is night but when God appears not as the non-appearance of the Sun makes darkness and then the night takes place and now all evil is to be found in that man Judg. 3.7 They did evil and forgot God Those two are joyned together as the cause and the effect they forgot God and therefore did evil Forgetfulness and unmindfulness of Gods is the womb of all sin where every unclean spirit nests A man that lives in forgetfulness of God is free to righteousness as the Apostle speaks Rom. 6.20 He is in no bonds to God he feels no obliging power in any thing upon his spirit toward God Non entis non appa●entis eadem est ratio As things that are not so things that are unknown and not minded are worth nothing It 's all one to me whether things be not or be forgotten The spirits of those men are in a woful case that live without God they are as Sheep without a Shepherd and like a Ship among Rocks nothing but a divine hand can rescue them from everlasting Shipwrack All affections of love joy fear and hope flow from sight of God therefore where there is no sight and knowledg of God men are free to all evil If thou forgettest God thou clearly pronouncest and the express language of thy course is that there is no God this very thing strips him of all loveliness and beauty one not worthy to be minded What is more contemptible then that which no man will look on Forgetfulness is the state of death Psal 31.12 That I be not as one forgotten among the dead When God is not remembered by thee he is to thee a dead thing And what is thy mind but as a grave a place of darkness and forgetfulness where is nothing but pollution and corruption and whatsoever is loathsom in it self and destructive to thee It 's the speech of Bildad in Job 8.11 12 13 14. Can the rush grow without mire or the flag without water Whilest it is yet in his greenness and not cut down it withereth before any other herb So are the paths of all that forget God and the hypocrites hope shall

sight So men love not God therefore they bury him out of their sight and God buries such out of his sight Jer. 15.1 I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out your brethren the whole seed of David c. Man as he is in his depraved state hates his being and wishes himself rather to be nothing then to behold such an one as God that is everlasting burnings and hath an unchangeable Will eternally and severely to punish sinners 3. A strong cause of mans unmindfulness of God is that distance into which the nature of man is sunk from all good especially from the greatest good and as any thing lies near that and hath most tendency to it so the heart of man draws back most from it As a man that is renewed loves that best that is best and then that which is next to it so an unregenerate man loves that best which is worse and hence they give themselves up to all vanity setting open their Souls and prostituting themselves to every thing that is evil and become a common habitation and resting place for every thing that is not good and the more unlike any thing is to God the better entertainment the heart of man gives it By this voluntary tradition of himself he is so captivated to those things that he had once a power over and his back so bowed down and he so held under that he cannot come out of this state except God bring him out That in Mark 6. doth something resemble the state of these men They were in the desart where were many comers and goers and they had no leasure to eat It 's so with worldly men they have many thoughts coming and going that they have no leasure to do that which is best for them 4. The last Cause is this God doth sometimes give men up and leave them to be at the will of Satan to raign and order their motion as he pleaseth so that he is master of their affections and lord of their imaginations and he calls back and sends them out hither and thither as he pleaseth He is called the strong man and as he is strong so he works strongly He is said Eph. 2.2 to work effectually in the children of disobedience Where he hath possession of the mind he picks up the seed sown that it may take no root nor spring up he prepossesseth the mind and holds it in perpetual employment like Sampson that was made to serve in a mill so Satan makes the Soul to run a round which way pleaseth him that it hath no time nor leasure to look towards God which is a very sad thing Joh. 13.2 It 's said of Judas The Devil having put into his heart to betray Christ c. When once the Devil hath got the regiment of a poor creature in that kind he puts in and puts out at pleasure and the truth is when he put this thought into Judas Satan himself entered into him vers 27. he came in with those thoughts he entered when they entered and then the man was perpetually and mightily employed by him The mind of man is naturally fruitful in thoughts tending from God Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts Mat. 15.19 It is with the nature of man as 't is with some ground that brings forth some things of it self but if it be drest by a skilful man it abounds much more When Satan becomes the Gardiner of the Soul every plant there multiplies and fructifies exceedingly and there will be a mighty encrease Hence it is that man lives in a course of forgetfulness of God because by a voluntary diverting of himself from God at length God is provoked to divert from him and then Satan takes possession of the heart and thoughts he enters and commands the man at his pleasure This may suffice to set before you the Causes of that unnatural and that hateful forgetfulness of God wherein most in the world live I beseech you mind it it 's a business of exceeding great weight My next work is to perswade you to practise the Duty held forth That you would always have your eyes toward God CHAP. VIII Perswasions to frequent Emanations and contentful abode of Soul with God Minding of God a work possible to Christians A work of the most excellent power Spiritual actions easier then bodily Contemplative life everlasting Natural propensity of Soul to God renewed in Saints A blessing of love in true mindfulness of God LIve in a more close attendance upon God You never live rightly till you live in the world as in a place consecrated to God It 's an extream wrong to the end of our Being when we let our minds loose unto vanity To be extravagant and open to vanity is worse then that the Temple should have been opened to all abominations This work is little regarded in the world little of it is done The Children of the night are altogether in the dark and shut out from God the Children of the light very much found in forgetfulness of him And truly these days in special manner abound with this fault men stand more remote from God now then ever Forgetfulness of him from whom all our Being is and upon whom we all depend reigns yea much of it is there where men think themselves to be raised most unto God and brought into more conformity to him and communion with him My counsel to you is to look to your eyes My eye saith David is ever towards the Lord And oh that all our eyes were so fixed The work that I now call for is the willing holy and frequent emanation and outgoing of your minds towards God and contentful and effectual abode with him I shall give you a few Arguments to press this Duty and indeed we had need have Arguments urg'd with all force and it 's well if a hundred Arguments draw one man the most argumentative discourse in the world is not strong enough alone to prevail with men 1. The first Argument is from the nature of the work it 's that which you may do it 's a work possible it 's a work that you have power to do When God calls for your eyes it supposeth your eyes are not so set and fastened in your heads not so fixt and immovable but you may look up to him you may eye him and mind him God never gave a Command impossible But here is this threefold fault which I 'le but touch That men having understandings to mind God their minds stand still like standing water or like a clock whose wheels move not at all which fault however sometimes it may be from a meer distemper yet oftentimes it is from a sinful principle There is no list in mens hearts to look to God nay there is a withdrawing from God and rather then the understanding shall be employ'd upon God it shall run at waste like water or stand still and not move Men sometimes do look

to resolve to give you over This sin was that which bred in David such discouragement to come to God that he had rather stay till his bones waxed old through roaring then go to God this is that guile of heart which he speaks of in Psal 32.2 3. Against this it was that Samuel reasoned with the people in 1 Sam. 12. That after all their former evils they should not depart from God Take heed therefore of such a state lest you fall into those evils that the Conscience of unholy walking will bring you into CHAP. V. Saints Interest is through great Condescension Conjunction of God and his people very intimate A Priviledg restored and how by Jesus Christ 3. A Third Consideration is the Nature of your Interest in God I 'le set it before you in a few Expressions First He is one that is above you greater and higher then you are Now the Law in unequal relations is this That he which is of the strongest side be a relief that he that is of the weaker side be subject if therefore you walk not in obedience you do what in you lies to destroy your Interest to make God not to be yours for in Mal. 1.6 saith God If I be a Father where my fear If I be a Master where is my honor As if he should say I cannot reckon my self a Father to you that do not fear me nor a Lord to you that do not honor me therefore if I be a Father and if I be a Lord to you where is my fear and where is my honor And upon this reason he speaks to them in the first of Hosea Lo-ammi you are no more my people This is the utmost misery the Creature is capable of to be in a state of separation from God Wo to them saith God in the day when I depart from them in Hos 9. Indeed all woes lie in that woe as all evils lie in that evil of departing from God Of other relations some are natural but that relation between God and us is of will from grace we are his now we were not but he hath chosen us called us renewed us and adopted us In relations the better side hath often need of the weaker Kings need their Subjects and cannot be without them But God had no need of us he is so far above us that he doth not stand in need of us or any thing in the whole Creation My goodness extends not to thee O God saith David in Psal 16. It 's an happiness to have an Interest in one greater then our selves an Interest in a Begger is of no worth because he is of no power but Interest in a Prince all men seek Therefore in Psal 33. it 's said Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord and blessed are the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance And as our Relation is thus to one above us so our Interest is the best and nearest that can be in God God was free to let out his love to every thing as he pleased all Creatures have an Interest in him except such who have been expelled and exterminated In a Kingdom every Subject hath an Interest in the Prince but those of his family especially those of his blood his children have the best Interest in him The Interest that the people of God have in him is the highest and the nearest the noblest Interest that such Creatures are capable of In Psal 148. ult They are a people near unto him Near not only in respect of employment but in respect of affection they are in God They are called a peculiar people Tit. 2.14 So in Exod. 19.15 Though all the Earth be mine yet you are my Treasure We might have had the Interest of servants and truly that had been much for us we had reason to say as the Prodigal We are not worthy to be called thy Sons make us as thine Hired Servants But now he hath set us so near to himself as we could not be nearer this should much oblige us to him Again It is a renewed Interest The Propriety we had in God was lost but as he said in mercy concerning Jerusalem Zech. 2.12 I have chosen Jerusalem again so he hath said concerning us I have chosen them again and taken them in the second time We were afar off as the Apostle speaks Ephes 2.12 but now we are made nigh That may be said of us which the father spoke of his prodigal child Luke 15.24 This my son was dead but he is alive he was lost but is found Our state of righteousness is by regeneration by renovation and reception we were cut off but we are planted again into the Tree of Life Therefore now to neglect God is the greater sin In Judg. 4. it is said That after God delivered them from the yoke of the Ammonites and the Moabites they sinned again and that is set down as an aggravation of their sin And for us after pardon and after reconciliation after reception into grace and favor not to please God is a sin of an higher nature then the sin of the world Further Concerning the nature of our Relation to God look upon the Cause of it it is by Jesus Christ We are made near in him saith the Apostle Ephes 2.13 and that by a strange way 1. God contrives an Attonement to be made by Christ for us 2. Then God contrives a Match between Christ and us that we might become one with him and so become one with the Father And upon this Reason Christ spake those words in John 20.17 Now I ascend to my Father and to your Father to my God and your God Not to take care to please is a token of one afar off It 's a mark of those wretched ones mentioned in 1 Thes 2.15 that they please not God Take but this in too viz. the Effects of this Interest All your former sins are done away and all good is become yours All things are yours saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. ult Whatsoever you ask is yours In Joh. 14.13 Whatsoever you ask the Father in my Name I 'le do it CHAP. VI. God content to be ours though we had disowned him and depraved our selves Gods Interest in us chargeable to him God owns not all but some Peculiar frowns upon those which walk unworthy of God 4. A Fourth Consideration is this The Nature of Gods Interest in us 1. It 's an Interest that hath suffered violence There was a great violation made and much dishonor cast upon it for God was rejected and cast off by us In the primitive Apostacy the whole nature of Man cast him off quickly and upon a small temptation and since that every one of us in our own persons have often cast him off and denyed him when he hath pleaded his own right and have said he should not bear rule over us This might have set him against us and the rather because our offence was not acknowledged