Selected quad for the lemma: act_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A30959
|
Three ministers communicating their collections and notions. The first year touching several texts of Scripture ... wherein the Law and Gospel ... in short, the substance of Christianity is set forth ...
|
Barksdale, Clement, 1609-1687.
|
1675
(1675)
|
Wing B809; ESTC R35315
|
78,431
|
223
|
as strict observers as they are of one Law they being disobedient to another II. Rom. 9. 16. So then it is not of him that willeth c. i. e. From thence it is evident that this mercy and favour of God is not the desert and prerogative of those that with great Zeal aspire to it but in a wrong way i. e. by the Mosaical performances as the Jews do See v. 31. 32. but to be had from the Free-Grace and mercy of God by Jesus Christ III. Rom. 9. 17 For this same purpose have I raised thee up Heb. I have made thee stand Vulg. sustentavite Pharoah having hardn'd his own heart God at length saith concerning him that he would harden his heart in his just judgment i. e. doth at which he would be further hardn'd by and addes that he would presently cut him off but that he preserved him and raised him out of great dangers for no other end but to make him an example of his just indignation against obdurate rebells in the more signal and illustrious manner C. 1. ROm. 9. 18. Whom he will â—e hardneth We are not to understand any action of his whereby he putteth wickedness into men or intends and increaseth that which is already in them for then would he be the Author of sin which to assert is the highest blasphemy Neither Gods withdrawing all manner of necessary helps whereby sinners may be mollified but no more than his doing such things to wicked men which are not in their own nature but accidentally through their Wickedness the occasion of further hardning And so and no otherwise he did harden the Jews nay chiefly were they hardn'd by the divine forbearance II. V. 20. Who art thou that repliest against God As for his dealing in such a manner with you as that you become by that means more hardned and averse to obey his Gospel you may thank your selves for it and therefore have no cause to object against Gods justice 'T is long of your own wickedness that you become more hardened by any of his providences III. Rom. 9. 22. The Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction They are such as the Apostle saith God endured with much long suffering and therefore they were not made so by any absolute decree of his but made themselves so by their wilful and free-sinning For what long-suffering can it be to bear with the sins of those that could never have possibly been avoided The Apostle here asserts not any other reprobation of the Jews then that which wilful reprobation of the Messias was the cause of Gods purpose to cast them off so far as that they should be no more a distinct nation or body politick was unchangeable not that none of them should come to eternal salvation The sixteenth Meeting A. I. JEr 10. 23. The way of man is not in himself Our purposes sink and fail almost as soon as they are up In matters of indifferency and sometimes in those of the greatest Concernment we think we resolve when we do but think And what strength hath such a thought against a friend and importunity II. Jam. 1. 16. Err not Men are prone to error Hence it is that God is made more cruel then man and yet more merciful than he is That men are Saints and yet the Law impossible That imputed righteousness is all when we have none of our own That our Election may be sure tho we do not make it so That Christian liberty is let loose against Christ himself That God is brought in to do himself what he doth command That Grace is miraculous and irresistible c. III. Act. 4. 12. Tolle Augustinum de causa Take away the names of Augustin of Luther of Calvin and Arminius for they are but names not arguments There is but one name by which we must be saved and his name alone must have authority and prevail with us who is the Author and finisher of our Faith We may honour others and give unto them that which is theirs but we must not deifie them nor pull Christ out of his throne to place them in his room B. I. MAtth. 5 9. Blessed are the peace-makers It was as wise counsel as could have been given to those who sate to solve knotty doubts and to determine controversies in Religion in the Council at Dort and it was given by a King and it would have made good his motto stiled him a peace-maker tho there had been nothing else to contribute to that title Paucissima defimienda quia paucissima necessaria That they should not be too busie and earnest in defining and determining many things because so few were necessary Questions in Divinity are like meats in this The more delicate and subtil they are the sooner they putrifie II. 1 Cor. 15. 43. I do not enquire how the body that shall rise can be the same numerical body with that which did walk upon the earth it is enough for me to know that it is sown in dishonour and shall be raised in Glory And my business is to rise with Christ here and make good my part in this first resurrection for then I am secure and need not to extend my thoughts to the end of the world to survey and comprehend the second III. Jude 3. It were to be wisht that men would in Scripture-phrase speak of the acts of God as in Justification and not seek out divers inventions which do not edifie but many times shake and rend the Church in pieces and lay the truth it self open to reproach which had triumphed Gloriously over error had men contended not for their own inferences and deductions for that Common Faith which was once delivered to the Saints C. I. GAl. 5. 6. What profit is it busily to enquire whether the nature of Faith by which we are justified consisteth in an obsequious assent or in a more fiducial apprehension of the merits of Christ whether it be an instrument or condition when I may seek and rest upon this which every eye must needs see That it must not be a dead but a Faith working by Charity Which is the language of Faith and demonstrateth her to be alive My sheep hear my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil They hear and Obey and never dispute or ask questions they taste and not trouble and mud that clear water of life Men talk of Faith and the power of it and are worse than infidels of Justification and please themselves in unrighteousness of Christs active Obedience and are to every good work reprobate of his passive Obedience and deny him when they should suffer for him of the inconsistency of Faith and good works in their Justification and set them at as great a distance in their lives and conversations II. Gal. 5. 24. Certainly it would be more safe for us and more worthy our calling to be diligent and sincere in that which is plainly revealed to believe and in the strength and
omnibus moriatur qui pro omnibus mortuus est Amb. Infidelity and impenitence are the worst restrictives that contract and sink all into a few III. Heb. 1. 3. Christ is the brightness of his glory And if we do not still Love darkness and make it a pavilion round about us he will look upon us through this light and look lovingly upon us with favour and affection The Twentieth Meeting A. I. 1 COr 3. 21. All things are yours when you are Christs There is a civil dominion and right to these things and this we have jure Creationis by right of Creation For the earth is the Lords and he hath given it to the Sons of men And there is an evangelical dominion not the power of having them but the power of using of them to Gods Glory that they may be a gift and this we have jure adoptionis by right of adoption as the Sons of God begotten in Christ II. 2 Cor. 4. 4. St. Paul calls the Devil the God of this World and Worldings in effect make him so For as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the cross for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in his shape they conceive him giving gifts not spiritual but temporal not the graces of the Spirit humility meekness and Contentedness but Silver and gold making not Saints but Kings upon the earth III. 1 Cor. 3. 21. With Christ we have all things which work to that end for which he was deliver'd We have his commands which are the pledges of his Love We have his promises of immortality and eternal life He hath given Faith to apprehend and receive the promises and hope to lift us up unto them He hath given us his Pastors to teach us He hath given us his Angels to minister unto us He hath given us his Spirit and filled us with his Grace if we will recieve it which will make his commands which are now grievious easie which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience all those things we have with Christ B. I. GAl. 6. I am crucified with Christ Let us recieve Christ in his shame in his Sorrow in his Agony take him hanging on the cross take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our tears with his blood drag sin to the bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its face at the fairest presentment it can make and then nail it to the cross that it may languish and faint by degrees till it give up the Ghost and dye in us II. Heb. 7. 26. Such a High Priest became us who is not onely merciful but just not onely meek but powerful not onely fair but terrible not onely clothed with the darkness of humility but with the shining robes of majesty who can dye and can live again Revel 1. 18 and live for evermore who suffered himself to be judged and condemned and shall judge and condemn the world it self III. Luk. 24. 26. Tota Ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Christ and his Church are in computation but one person He ought to suffer and they ought to suffer they suffer in him and he in them to the end of the World Nor is any other method answerable either to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indelible Characters or to our mortal and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed and be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up That which is convenient for Christ is profitable for us That which becometh him we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head There is an oportet set upon both He ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to dye first that we may rise again C. I. HEb 4. 15. and â— 17. There is life in Christ's death and comfort in his sufferings For we have not such an High Priest who will not help us but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death Who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is merciful and faithful hath not onely power for that he may have and not shew it but will and propension also desire and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall to bring them back who were even brought to the gates of death He hath Learnt compassion by his sufferings and death For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feel it ourselves II. Joh 20. 29. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed Why should the Resurrection of Chist be made manifest to the eye this is not to seek to confirm and establish but to destroy our Faith For if these truths were as evident as it is that the Sun doth shine when it is day the apprehension of them were not an act of our faith but of our knowledge Therefore Christ shew'd not himself openly to all the people at his resurrection ut fides non mediocri proemio destinata non nisi difficultate constaret Tertul. That Faith by which we are destin'd to a Crown might not consist without some difficulty but commend it self by our Obedience the perfection and beauty whereof is best seen in making its way through difficulties III. Joh. 7. 48. Did any of the Pharisees believe in him And the reason of this is plain For tho Faith be an act of the understanding yet it dependeth upon the Will and men are incredulous not for want of those means which may raise a Faith but for want of Will to follow that light which leadeth to it they do not believe because they will not and so bear themselves strongly upon opinion preconceived beyond the strength of all evidence whatsoever When affections and lusts are high and stand out against it the evidence is put by and forgot and the Object which calls for our eye and Faith begins to disappear and vanish and at last is nothing The one and twentieth Meeting A. I. COl 3. 3. Our life saith the Apostle as hid with Christ in God And whilst we leave it there by a continual meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practical application of his glorious Resurrection we hide it in the bosom of Majesty and no dart of Satan can reach it II. 1 Tim. 3. 5. and 5. 17. The pastors are set a part in Christs stead to minister to his Church yea to rule and govern his Chuch And they carry about with them his commission a power delegated from him to sever the Goats from the Sheep even in this life that they may become Sheep to segregate them to abstain or withhold them to exanctorate them to throw them out to strike then with the pastoral rod to anathematize hem c. This was the language of the first