An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

Fifthly, To magnify the work of God, is to answer the end of it. Every work is magnified when it receiveth its end; if a work be done; yet if it have not its effect, if it bring not that about to which it was designed, the worker receives no honour from it, nor is the work honoured. To work in vain, is a debasing, a lessening of any work, not a magnifying of it. The Apostle was afraid to bestow his labour in preaching the Gospel in vain. When people still continue in their blindness and unbelief, &c. this layeth the preaChing of the Gospel low; but when souls are convinced and converted, and come flocking in, then the Gospel is magnified, and the word of the Lord glorified, as the Apostle prayed it might (2 Thes. 3.1.) Now as the word of God is magnified when it attains its end, so the work of God is magnified when we give him, or come up to those ends for which he wrought it: But if we let God lose the end of his work, we do what we can to debase his work, as if he had done it in vain. We say, he works like a fool that hath not proposed an end to every wo•k he dot•; and he appears not very wise, at least not very powerful, who a• taineth not the end or ends for which he began his work. The most wise God hath his end and aim in all his works in this world; and this is the honour we do his work, when we labour, first, to know, and secondly, to give him his end in every work.

Fifthly, To magnifie the work of God, is to answer the end of it. Every work is magnified when it receiveth its end; if a work be done; yet if it have not its effect, if it bring not that about to which it was designed, the worker receives no honour from it, nor is the work honoured. To work in vain, is a debasing, a lessening of any work, not a magnifying of it. The Apostle was afraid to bestow his labour in preaching the Gospel in vain. When people still continue in their blindness and unbelief, &c. this layeth the preaChing of the Gospel low; but when souls are convinced and converted, and come flocking in, then the Gospel is magnified, and the word of the Lord glorified, as the Apostle prayed it might (2 Thes. 3.1.) Now as the word of God is magnified when it attains its end, so the work of God is magnified when we give him, or come up to those ends for which he wrought it: But if we let God lose the end of his work, we do what we can to debase his work, as if he had done it in vain. We say, he works like a fool that hath not proposed an end to every wok he dot; and he appears not very wise, at least not very powerful, who a taineth not the end or ends for which he began his work. The most wise God hath his end and aim in all his works in this world; and this is the honour we do his work, when we labour, first, to know, and secondly, to give him his end in every work.