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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	work_n	worship_n	worship_v	75	3	8.1527	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61847	A discourse of the two covenants wherein the nature, differences, and effects of the covenant of works and of grace are distinctly, rationally, spiritually and practically discussed : together with a considerable quantity of practical cases dependent thereon / by William Strong.	Strong, William, d. 1654.; Gale, Theophilus, 1628-1678.	1678 (1678)	Wing S6002; ESTC R10428	996,223	490

is Thou shalt have Jehovah for thy God and thou shalt have none else so the great promise on Gods part is that I will be thy God that though the earth be mine and the fulness thereof all souls are mine yet I will be thy God and thy portion as if there were no other men in the world besides thee There is a double change wrought in the Saints 1 a change of a mans state 2 a change of a mans life The first is the great and the universal change that God works in men at their first conversion and that the School-men do well say is mutatio circa finem ultimum a change of a mans utmost end Now finis ultimus summum bonum inter se convertuntur the last end and chiefest good are convertible therefore he that doth change his utmost end does also change his chiefest good and he that doth so doth change his God 1. Here we are to consider that all mankind that are out of covenant with God have no interest in God they have all of them another God Eph. 2.12 they are all of them Atheists or men without God Before Abraham was taken into covenant with God he did serve other Gods beyond the river with Terah his father Josh 24.2 but when he was taken into covenant the main intendment of the Covenant was this he shall change his God Now I will make a covenant with thee to be a God to thee and thy seed and thou shalt worship the Nations god no more It 's true that there are no men but they have some impressions of a Deity upon them every man worships some God a Numen he doth acknowledge and there is a God that every one doth chuse unto himself as it is said in Judges they chose new Gods but they are called Stercorarii they are dunghil-gods they are not the God of Abraham they are not the God that makes over himself in covenant unto his people but they are new Gods newly come up It 's true he that is without the true God will be ready to fancy any thing to himself as a God therefore one man doth adore himself and another this or that creature and another serves his belly as his God and the other he chuses Mammon for his God every man as his fancy leads him for all these Gods are nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 7.43 but the truth is it is the Devil that is worshipped under all these forms as a God Deut. 32.17 They sacrificed to devils and not unto God or Demons or new-made Gods newly come up whom their Fathers knew not and so did the Gentiles in all their ways of worship they sacrificed unto Devils 1 Cor. 10.20 and not unto God And so it is in the worshipping of Saints and Angels under Popery it 's but worshipping of Devils or Demons Rev. 9.20 they repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Devils c. And for this cause the Doctrine of worshipping Saints is called the Doctrine of Devils or Demons And it 's true in both senses either the worshipping of Saints or the worshipping of Devils in them And this is indeed the Idolatry of all unregenerate men in the world 2 Cor. 4.4 they do worship Satan who is the God of this world and therefore all unregenerate men being of this world they have no God but the God of the world and therefore it 's said of the world 1 Joh. 5.19 In aliquo positum esse in ejus potestate esse Camer The world lies in wickedness it notes the highest subjection to the Devil that can be to be subject to him as God And this is the great sin of all unregenerate men who are out of covenant with the Lord and therefore it 's well called by Tertullian Principale crimen humani generis summus seculi reatus The principal crime of mankind and chief guilt of the age So that every man that has not the Lord for his God in covenant he worships the Devil for his God instead of the true God 2. When men are in covenant with God they do change their God and Jehovah becomes their God And that will appear in two things 1 The Lord styles himself their God and therefore when he had taken Abraham into covenant with himself Exod. 3.6 then he calls himself the God of Abraham and it 's said Heb. 11.16 of all the Saints He is not ashamed to be called their God And that 's the great promise of the Covenant Jer. 31.33 2 Cor. 6.16 Rev. 21.7 I will be their God and they shall be my people He that overcomes shall inherit all things I will be his God 2 Upon this ground they do claim an interest in him as their God so doth Moses Exod. 15.2 Thou art my God and thou art my father's God So doth David Psal 63.1 Thou art my God early will I seek thee and so doth Esa 7.13 Will you weary my God also so doth the Church God even our own God shall bless us this God is our God for ever and ever Psal 67.6 Psal 48. v. ult And therefore all they that are in covenant with God they have the Lord for their God Now what is there that doth make the Lord to become our God that a man may say he has changed his God There are three things in the new Covenant that give a man a propriety in God 1. The Lord doth graciously and freely make over himself it 's an ordinary thing amongst men to make over a propriety either in things or persons by covenant as you have heard the wife by covenant has a propriety in the husband and the husband in the wife and so the Prince has a propriety in the Subject and the Subject in the Prince Now the Lord doth thus freely make over himself unto his people by covenant with them to be a God to them 2. There is a Union with Jesus Christ that the Saints have they are one body with him and the Covenant of grace being made primarily with Christ the Lord becomes his God in covenant and so he saith I ascend unto my Father and your Father Joh. 20.17 Psal 22.1 unto my God and your God My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Therefore the great intention of this Covenant was that the Lord might become the God of Christ as he is the Mediator and being his God and we being one with him he becomes our God also 3. There is a free and a voluntary acceptation and consent on the creatures part to embrace this God for his and to give up himself to him to perform all those acts of soul towards him as becomes a God the Lord will not receive a man for his that has another God he must cast off all the dunghil-gods that before he served He saith What have I to do any more with Idols He doth cast his

a seal of the Covenant which he had broken and in flying unto the seal of this Covenant he might still seek righteousness and life thereby if not in a natural way as a Creature yet in a spiritual way as a Sacrament And he might think the same Covenant remained of which he did still enjoy the seal therefore to shew that there was no way to attain life by that Covenant broken God shuts him out from the seal of it also because he had appointed a way to life for man by Christ a far more glorious tree of life who is therefore said to be in the middle of the Paradise of God And this is a more glorious way for God because in it his justice shall be seen and satisfaction given and a safer way for man also wherefore seeing that to the first tree of life he had still access and the Lord perceiving in man this disposition to depend on it he not only forbids it but placeth an Angel with a sword drawn to keep him from it that he might have no hopes of life in this way either by it as a Creature or by it as a Sacrament Afterwards Cain was a son begotten in the image of his father he offered Sacrifices but it was not in faith or with an expectation to be accepted in the promised seed Heb. 11.4 and yet he expected to be accepted and when he saw he was not his pride was turned into rage and great discontent Gen. 4.5 and his countenance fell But upon what ground did Cain expect acceptance it was for the work done only and therefore all unregenerate men that come to God in a legal way Luther calls Cainistas Deo offerentes non personam sed opus personae Cainists offering to God not the person but the work of the person Which shewed plainly that he expected to have been accepted and rewarded for his work done alone according to the tenure of the first Covenant without a Mediator and therefore God speaks to him according to the rules of his own Covenant as Divines commonly observe If thou dost well thou shalt be accepted This being the great difference between the two Covenants in the first Covenant the person is accepted for the works but in the second the works are accepted for the persons sake And when the Lord took the people of Israel unto himself as a peculiar people of all the Nations of the Earth and entered into a Covenant with them though God did not intend to set up this Law alone as a rule by which any man since the fall should attain righteousness and life but as a Covenant of Grace with Evangelical offers of Grace to bring them to Christ and therefore gave it in the hand of a Mediator yet the Lord kept it in the form of a Covenant of Works that it might be the more effectual to drive men to Christ and so serve Gods ends But they stuck to the Law as a Covenant of Works even the generality of that people and did seek righteousness and life by the obedience of it and it grew even the common sense of the Nation as we see it in the young man Mat. 19.16 What shall I do to inherit Eternal life Eternal life he thought must be got in a way of doing and it was the error which prevailed amongst the Pharisees the most learned amongst the Jews Phil. 3.6 7. Paul counted his former legal righteousness gain to him pro merito that which should bring him in a great revenue of glory at last And it is recorded by the Apostle as the great sin of their Nation Rom. 10.4 to go about to establish their own righteousness and not submit to the righteousness of God not to look upon Christ as the end of the Law for righteousness unto every one that believes And when the partition-wall was broken down and God had lifted up Christ as an Ensign to the Nations the Law went forth of Zion and the waters issued out of the Sanctuary these were the first tares which the envious man did sow to put men upon setting up the Law as a Covenant and to seek life upon impossible conditions as by their perfect fulfilling of it and therefore they must do as the Pharisees did when they could not come up to the Law they must by their own interpretations as well as their traditions bring the Law down to them and enervate the Law And therefore the Apostle takes much pains to confute it and to perswade us against seeking righteousness and life by the works of the Law Rom. 3.4 Gal. 2.3 4. and Satan being beaten out of this then his next design is to seek to join both Covenants together and perswade men to seek righteousness and life by fulfilling the Law and believing in Christ also And so partly by our own obedience we shall be justified and accepted and wherein we come short Christs righteousness comes in to make it up We read in Act. 15.5 that there were some of the sect of the Pharisees that did believe and had received Christ as Mediator and acknowledged him that yet said It was needful and they ought in duty to be circumcised and to keep the Law of Moses Which Doctrine afterward the Apostles and the Church of Jerusalem disavow as a thing they had no warrant for to preach So in Act. 21.20 there were many thousands that believed and yet were leavened with this error they were all jealous of the Law which made the Apostle speak so exclusively as he does Rom. 3.28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law And since the Primitive times we see what Doctrine has been found out by the Papists that good works do justifie a man in the sight of God and Christ has merited this that opera renatorum good works after conversion shall be the matter of their righteousness and Christ will supply what is wanting And hence it 's taught That they may fulfill the Law nay do more than the Law requires in works of Supererogation c. And others turn Faith into a work and say That it's faith that 's accepted of God as the matter of our righteousness instead of the righteousness of the Moral law and not the righteousness of Christ made ours by imputation And he that shall observe what confidence men do place in their works how they labour for life and rest in the duty done and expect acceptance for it and how they boast themselves of their own performances and how far most men are after a duty from a humble looking up to Christ for acceptance of it as if they had done nothing for a man should indeed work as if he expected to be accepted for his works and yet rest as perfectly in Christ for acceptation as if he had done nothing he shall see that it is a disposition that is deeply rooted in men to expect justification by their works § 2.

unto their Parents use they are so counted by God and are to be so reputed by men Now what is this holiness I answer first Negatively what it is not 1. It 's not spoken of a Holiness of Conversion and Regeneration for 1 The Sin of Adam came alike upon all Mankind and by Nature all are alike polluted and therefore the Apostle speaking of Jews and Gentiles he says in this respect there is no difference but even the Elect of God are the children of wrath as well as others Rom. 3.22 Ephes 2.3 5. and if the Election of God have not that power upon a man to sanctifie him much less any relation else in the world can have in reference unto Regeneration till the Spirit of God put forth upon him a work of his Almighty power 2 This is not spoken of Regeneration for it is a holiness that comes upon the Child through the Faith of the Parent whether he be a Believer in verity or in visibility only but the holiness of Regeneration doth not come upon the child any such way if neither of the Parents do believe the child is unholy but if either of them be a Believer there is from the faith of the believing Parent a holiness comes upon the Child but that is not of Regeneration 3 It 's a Holiness that may be lost Joh. 1.13 Rom. 11.20 for these branches may be broken off that is either cast out with their Parents as the Church of the Jews were when the Lord was pleased to unchurch them and call them Loammi he did with their Parents cast out their Children and they were holy unto God no more or else they may be cast out and justly deprived of their own priviledges by their own personal offences and so be cast off from this estate of holiness but this cannot be said of the holiness of Regeneration and Conversion for there a mans holiness is everlasting because a man receives a seed of holiness and sanctification which shall never dye which can never be broken off for he receives a spirit of sanctification within him and has not onely an outward respect to holiness put upon him c. but there is many a man in Christ as he is a Vine that spreads himself into a visible Church on Earth that may be cut off from him and may be cast out as a branch and wither and yet if we look upon Christ as he is a head in Heaven so he has no dead members but as a Vine upon Earth so he has many a withered branch that may be cut off and be cast out and men gather them and they may be cast into the fire and burn that is they burn hotter because they prove more wicked than other men and their priviledges do but adde to their sins and quicken their destruction 2. It 's not meant of Legitimation that is a civil holiness as some will call it as if the meaning were else were your children bastards but now they are holy that is lawfully begotten 1 Because the Legitimation of the child does not depend upon the faith of the Parent either one or both for we know that there were lawfull marriages among the Heathen and where the marriage is lawfull by the consent of one man and one woman there the seed is legitimate though neither of them be a Believer as on the other side a child may be a Bastard and illegitimate though both Parents be believers if not begotten in lawful marriage by the mutual consent of both parties giving up themselves each to other in such a relation as we see it in the child of David begotten in Adultery which was illegitimate though both the Parents were Saints for so we have good ground to conceive of Bathsheba Prov. 31.2 Solomon the Son of my Vowes now the holiness here spoken of is such as depends upon and flows from the faith of the Parents one or both and which onely faith can give and nothing else 2 The Holiness that is here spoken of is such as may be lost Rom. 11.20 there is a holiness that is derived from the root unto the branches and the branches may be broken off and others may be grafted in now a man that is legitimate cannot be made illegitimate and a man that is illegitimate cannot be made legitimate there is no way in the thing it self to make him so whatever may be done in the account and repute of men to civil ends 3 It has been well observed by some of our Divines that this doth wholly take away the strength of the Apostles answer and make it to be nothing to the purpose for when once the Corinthians were converted they did scruple in point of Conscience whether they might lawfully live with their Pagan yoak-fellows for fear of being corrupted by them Now the Apostle answers this case thus You may lawfully live with them for ye are lawfully Man and Wife your marriage is lawfull if your Marriage were not lawfull your children were bastards but your Marriage is lawfull and therefore your children are legitimate which makes the Apostle speak that which is nothing in it self for who did not well know that the legitimation of the Child did flow from the lawfulness of the Marriage and that if the Marriage be not lawful the Child cannot be legitimate This makes the Apostle speak nothing to the purpose or to the case that is propounded to him 3. There is yet another interpretation given of it by Estius which also I find Jerome in one of his Epistles to Paulinus to give as the sence that Tertullian did put upon these words asking Fidelium filii dicuntur sancti quia sunt quasi fidei candidati How the Children of believing Parents are holy He answers Because they are as it were in a way unto Faith and to Conversion and brought under the power and blessing of a Christian Education and have the example of the Saints before their eyes which may be powerful to Conversion and so say they Sanctification is such a preparation one deputed and prepared for such an end Isa 13.3 the Medes and Persians are called Gods sanctified ones that is such as he has set apart and prepared for such a work and so do these seem to be set apart by holy Education and as it were prepared unto holiness and conversion and this is a sence also that some do catch after to avoid the true sence of the holiness that is here spoken of by the Apostle But this cannot be the meaning here 1 Because the Apostle does not here speak as Chamier hath well observed de re incerta futura of a thing uncertain and future but of something which was already actually in being not only they were in a way or preparation to holiness but they are holy and the wife is sanctified as that which all the Believers in the Church of Corinth that were thus unequally yoak'd might build

it 's a strange expression that of the Apostle Hebr. 6.13 because he could swear by no greater he sware by himself to show how willing the Lord is to give an assurance unto the Heirs of Promise that if there had been a greater or any thing that could have given them more assurance they should have been sure of it but because there was none greater therefore he did swear by Himself Nos miseros qui nec juranti Deo credimus 2. The Covenant made with Christ was confirmed by an Oath and upon that the assurance of it is mainly put for upon him the Promises do mainly depend all the Promises are in him Yea and Amen and upon that it 's put Tit. 1.2 the promise of Eternal Life 2 Cor. 1.20 which God that cannot lie has promised before the world began To whom was this Promise made before the world began a purpose might be in his own breast but a promise must be to another and God cannot lye unto Christ he will not surely deceive him the Son has been faithful to him in all the parts of the Covenant and therefore surely the Lord will be faithful unto Christ The Covenanr is confirmed by a double Oath one to us Hebr. 6.17 Psal 110.4 and the other to Christ the Lord has sworn and he will not repent He was not made a Priest without an Oath therefore the New Covenant is call'd the Word of the Oath Heb. 7.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Promises are primarily made to Christ and are his inheritance and secondarily ours only by vertue of our Union with him 3. The Intercession of Christ Christ in Heaven stands besides the Golden Altar Revel 8.3 4. he is gone to Heaven to make intercession and what is the subject of the intercession of Christ in Glory it's only the promises of the Covenant that yet remain unfulfilled and it 's these that he doth plead before the Throne of Grace and the Lord Christ has a promise to be heard Psal 2.8 Ask of me and I 'le give thee the Heathen for an inheritance and he prays with assurance of audience John 11.42 I know that thou hearest me always When Christ was upon Earth before our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was paid the Lord did trust Christ upon his bare word yet then he did accomplish many promises unto him at his request for Christs intercession begun from the Beginning ever since the Fall when his Priest-hood did first begin for he was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Revel 13.8 how much more shall we be saved by his life how much more will the Lord accomplish it on his part now all that is due on Christs part is fulfilled now he is gone to Heaven and sits down at the right hand of God and does only expect the accomplishment of those things which are the price of his own blood we know that blood has a crying nature and if it did cry so loud when it was but in the promise much more will it do now it is blood shed and set as a seal to the promise 4. The experiences of all the Saints and thy own experiments the Saints all of them have known the Lord by his name Jehovah they all of them have by faith and patience inherited the promises but in a special manner a mans own experience from which he may argue God that delivered me from out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Bear will also deliver me from this Goliah 2. Tim. 4.17 c. and God has delivered me and he will deliver me from every evil work A man should treasure up every experiment as an assurance of the same faithfulness in the same extremity and thereby set to his seal that God is true A great part of the Communion of Saints should be in this in imparting their experiments one to another and thereby honour the faithfulness of God and as it is our duty here on earth and our comfort so it shall be a great part of a mans happiness in Heaven when a man shall tell stories of Gods mercies and faithfulness unto all Eternity But says the Soul I may stay long for this promise to be accomplished for God has set no time in his Word when it shall be and therefore the Saints have waited till their eyes have failed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.37 till the promise have come to the birth the Apostle says it 's not long 't is but a little while Oh therefore set faith on work and that looks as God looks to whom a thousand years are as but one day that which seems long to sense is but short unto faith consider much the waiting and all the long-suffering of God for thee before thou didst take hold of his grace in Christ Jesus and shall not we wait upon a great God that could have been and was happy without us and needed none of our services we that are but as a worm and unprofitable to him in whatever we can do But there are three things that a Soul may know by that the accomplishment of the promise is at hand 1. When the extremity increases for the time of the promise is near when the tasks are doubled for his name will always be known to be a God seen in the Mount when all is desperate and you know not what to do then look for God to come in to your help 2. When God does raise up in the soul an earnest expectation of the mercy and a man begins to set himself to seek the Lord with more earnestness for it then it 's a sign it is near at hand When Christ was to come in the flesh there were those that waited for the consolation of Israel and had special expectations raised up in them for his coming And so it was with Daniel Dan. 9.1 when he understood by books the time of Jerusalems Captivity drew to an end then he sets himself to prayer for those expectations and enlargements of the heart are from God and shall be answered 3. When in the middle of all a mans seeking his heart is brought into a quiet and an humble frame and he is contented to submit to the will of God when a mans heart is brought to a holy indifference to be contented with God alone as David was never nearer the Kingdom Bernard than when his heart was as a weaned child Vis me constituere ovium pastorem aut regem populorum ecce paratum est cor meum When the soul is in such a frame he may expect the promise shall not be long delayed to him SECT II. The personal Promises of the Covenant and of the three Persons in the Trinity Doctrine § 1. THE great promises of the Covenant on Gods part are personal promises I will be thy God There is objectum fidei duplex a twofold object of faith Persons and Things and answerable to these the promises are