A32723:788
Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God
Several discourses upon the existence and attributes of God by that late eminent minister in Christ, Mr. Stephen Charnocke ...
London: printed for D. Newman, 1682
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
4. All Creatures serve Man, by the providential order of God, with the best they have. As we by Gods appointment receive from Creatures the best they can give, ought we not with a free will render to God the best we can offer? The Beasts give us their best Fat; the Trees their best Fruit; the Sun its best Light; the Fountains their best Streams: Shall God order us the best from Creatures, and we put him off with the worst from our selves?
5. God hath given us the choicest thing he had. A Redeemer that was the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God: The best he had in Heaven, his own Son, and in himself, a Sacrifice for us, that we might be enabled to present our selves a Sacrifice to Him. And Christ offered himself for us, the best he had, and that with the strength of the Deity through the Eternal Spirit; and shall we grudge God the best part of our selves? As God would have a worship from his Creature, so it must be with the best part of his Creature. If we have given our selves to the Lord*, we can worship with no less than our selves. What is the Man without his Spirit? If we are to worship God with all that we have received from him, we must worship him with the best part we have received from him: 'Tis but a small glory we can give him with the best, and shall we deprive him of his right by giving him the worst? As what we are, is from God; so what we are, ought to be for God. Creation is the foundation of worship, Psal. 100.2, 3. Serve the Lord with gladness: Know ye that the Lord he is God; 'tis he that hath made us: He hath ennobled us with spiritual affections; where is it fittest for us to employ them, but upon him? and at what time, but when we come solemnly to converse with him? Is it Justice to deny him the honour of his best gift to us? Our Souls are more his gift to us, than any thing in the World: Other things are so given that they are often taken from us, but our Spirits are the most durable gift. Rational faculties cannot be removed without a dissolution of nature.