Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
act_n church_n member_n visible_a 3,063 5 9.7114 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A45368 A cordial for Christians traveling heavenward being the substance of some sermons upon the eight chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans / preached in the city of Edinburgh by a minister of the Gospel there. Hamilton, Alexander, d. 1696. 1696 (1696) Wing H475; ESTC R35978 131,544 244

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

your Interest in this priviledge by your being Married to Christ that is by forsaking your own personal Righteousness which is by the Law and betaking your selves to Christ's Rom. 7.4 3ly Try your Interest by your Union with Christ If you would know that Union with Christ ye must try it by this whether ye be new Creatures or no 2 Cor. 5.17 4ly ye must try it by the mark in the Text which is that such as are in Christ They walk not after the flesh that is they have not an walk that evidences the dominion of Lust over them Pride Covetousness Malice and Self-love do not Influence their Conversation And 2ly They do not regulate their Life by the Laws of Corruption which are directly opposite to the Laws of God whereof some of them may be repeated As 1st The Natural Man thinks it fit to depend upon himself and not upon God and to please himself and not God 2ly The Natural Man denys the Being of God and mistakes the perfection of God and his walk evidences his Atheism Psal 14.1 and his denyal of God's perfection Psal 36.1 3ly It is a Principle of the Natural Man that he Exerciseth himself in Superstitious Worship In being formal in appointed Worship as meritorious with God see Luke 18. about the Pharisee 4ly It is his principle that we may warrantably use unlawful means to obtain our end That false policy is better then tenderness of Conscience 5ly It is a Principle of his that Folk should rather Sin then suffer Affliction 6ly It is a Principle of the Carnal Man that we should not love our Neighbour with a pure and single Love but with a Selfish Love not designing singly his good but aiming still at our own Advantage in what kindness we do to him 7ly It s the walker after the flesh his Principle that we should not live in Subjection to Superiours from Conscience but because of fear of force and because of Expectation of Advantage 8ly It 's his Principle that his Felicity stands in sensual good 9ly He is not content with what satisfies Nature but with what satisfies Lust and Lust being unsatiaable he cannot but always be discontented Now this Walk after the Flesh does not only import a Walk that evidences reigning Lusts in the Heart and a Walk that is the practical improvement of those pernicious Principles formerly mentioned and such like but it is a Walk tending to corrupt Ends a Walk wherein a Mans Imaginations Desires and Purposes are all levelled at the gratifying of some one predominant Lust or other And 5ly we would try our interest in this priviledge by our walking after the Spirit Which is a walk first which stands in obedience to the motions of the Spirit Rom. 8 13. Gal. 5.18 2ly It stands in giving God spiritual Worship Phi●ip 3.3 and Jo. 4 24. 3ly It stands in having a Walk flowing from Spiritual Principles viz. Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Love Eph. 5.2 4ly It stands in eying an spiritual Rule in our Walk viz. The Law in its spiritual meaning in having a spiritual frame in conforming our selves to that Law that we may do what we do in the strength of Christ's Spirit And 5ly It stands in designing spiritual Ends viz. The Glory of God the Edification of our Neighbour and our own Salvation From the Restriction of this priviledge to such as Walk after the Spirit We may infer an Use of Reproof to many who walk after the flesh and yet will apply this priviledge to themselves The causes of their security may be 1st They lean to their Superstitious Services Mica 6 7. Isa 1 11. And to their External Acts of Worship Isai 58 3. Jer. 7 10. 2ly They Lean to their present impunity Psal 50 21. And 3ly They lean to their own Gifts Matth. 7.22 Observe that the Apostle divides all the Members of the Visible Church in these Two sorts of Men viz. Who walk after the Flesh and Who walk after the Spirit Importing to us that all those that Walk not after the Spirit they certainly walk after the Flesh From this one may infer That all Moralists and Civilians Whatever pretences they have for Innocency in Walking since they are unacquainted with a walking after the Spirit they are certainly to be reckoned as Walkers after the Flesh Observe next from the words That when the Apostle would give a discovery to persons of their spiritual state and of their Interest in the priviledge of Non-condemnation he brings this Discovery not from a particular Act of their Walk whether good or bad but from the Tract of their Walk for a Godly Man may be overcome with an Temptation at a time and do an evil Act which may be called an Act of the Flesh and an godless Man may do an Act materially good but a Godly Man cannot Walk after the Flesh neither can a godless man walk after the Spirit Verse 2. For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death SOme take the meaning of those words to be That the Gospel doth free the Apostle Paul from the Law and Covenant of Works and its Threatning And therefore since the Gospel frees him from the Laws Threatning It cannnot but secure all that are in Christ from Condemnation seing he has no priviledge by the Gospel but what all that are in Christ actually have for the Gospel confers priviledges of this sort and nature equally on all Believers And if the words be taken in this sense they are a proof of the first part of the first verse to this purpose as if the Apostle had said Ye may be very sure that there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Because I who am a Believer by the promulgate Gospel am delivered from the Threatning of the Covenant of Works And so these that ascribe this sense to the words they say that by the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is meaned the Gospel called the Law of Faith 3d. Rom. And it gets that Name because as a Law hath Authority in it to oblidge to Obedience so the Gospel has the stampt of Divine Authority on it obliging to Obedience Likeways It is called a Law of the spirit of life because the Gospel and not the Law which is as to this a Dead Letter is the Ministration of the Spirit see Gal. 3.5.2 Cor. 3.8 and we are receivers of the spirit by the hearing of Faith Gal 3.2 and it is said the Gospel is the Law in Christ Jesus because Christ Jesus is the principal Subject about which it Treats Or these words in Christ Jesus may be added not to denote that the principal Subject of the Gospel is Christ Jesus but to denote that the Spirit of Life which is conveyed by the Gospel is to be had from Christ Jesus 2ly Those that ascribe this sence to the words they say that by the Law of sin and death is meant the