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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	church_n	head_n	mystical_a	8,581	5	10.6663	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66098	Covenant-keeping the way to blessedness, or, A brief discourse wherein is shewn the connexion which there is between the promise, on God's part; and duty, on our part, in the covenant of grace as it was delivered in several sermons, preached in order to solemn renewing of covenant. By Samuel Willard teacher of a church in Boston in New-England.	Willard, Samuel, 1640-1707.; Mather, Increase, 1639-1723.	1682 (1682)	Wing W2272; ESTC W37635	100,188	164

a Surety Promise for us that we shall do thus or so and that withall Promise to us that He will do the same thing in and for us if we will rely on Him for it this doth not change the Nature of it from being a debt on our Parts for though Christ hath promised us that He will do it in us yet God still look sthat it shall be done by us 2. We are to distinguish between that which we stand positively engaged to and that which God affords us to be our encouragement in standing to our engagement We stand engaged actually to serve God to obey all His Commands But of our selves we cannot do it Josh 24. 19. Now to relieve our impotency and animate our Obedience Christ engageth to us that if we will believe in Him we shall serve God viz. That He will put His fear in our hearts that we shall not depart away from Him He will give Grace This is the excellency of the Covenant of Grace that it requires nothing of us but withall discovers to and sets before us what and where our help is for the performance of it which Grace is then highly abused when we think our selves thereby acquitted from our duties Paul was of another mind and therefore frames an argument to excite us to greater diligence from this very consideration Phil. 2. 12 13. 3. It is to be observed that Christ's suretiship engageth Him to two sorts of Works There are some which He is to do Personally and alone such are all those things which He did for us in performing all that was required in the Covenant of Redemption He alone made satisfaction to Divine Justice and pai'd the Price of our Ransome fulfilling all Righteousness But there are other Works which He becomes engaged to worke in us as the efficient which yet are to be done by us by the strength of His Grace That we are to do something if we would inherit Eternall Life is the Language of all Gospel-precepts Hence we stand engaged in the Gospell-Covenant to the performance of them But God had no reason to trust us being all lyars and having proved false in one Covenant already it was therefore needfull that Christ should engage for us Now these Works He doth not alone but as He is the Head of the Church and all influences into it which flow from Him into the Body these Works He performes by His Members These Works being required in the Covenant of Reconciliation where Christ Mysticall i. e. Christ and His Church are the Party engaging hence they fail not to be of the Condition though required at His Hands as the Head of it 4. It is to be considered that in the Act of Believing the Soul doth not only give it self up to Christ as the high Priest of his Reconciliation but also as his Prophet and his King to be taught and to be ruled by Him as one that knows he hath not skill or power to order and direct his own wayes And this is properly that Obedience of Faith which Jesus Christ when He receives the Beleever into this Relation undertakes to maintain and carry on in him The Soul by Believing makes it sure that Christ shall be his Helper to supply him with all that Grace whereby he may do all that which the Covenant requires of him Hence though we have Security from Christ to help us yet this engagement of His takes not away the quality of a Condition from our duty Only shewes us whither we must go and where our dependance must be if ever we hope to live as God's Covenant-People who of our selves can do nothing If any shall this notwithstanding think it more fit and proper to call this Obedience rather a Covenant-Command than a Condition I shall not be eager to dispute of terms provided this one thing be granted which cannot without opposing the truth be denyed viz. That it is a part of the Gospell-way necessary to Salvation i. e. Necessitate Praecepti medii beside or beyond which interpretation I do not understand or urge the notion of a Condition in the Gospell-Covenant And now having discovered the Conditions propounded and required in this Covenant the question under consideration viz. VVhat it is to keep Covenant is easily hence answered To keep Covenant is in generall to perform that Obligation we stand in to it for Man to keep Covenant with God is for him to performe the conditions of his Covenant In particular let us observe that our present discourse referrs to the visible dispensation of the Covenant and our so being related to it as it stands propounded on God's Part and at least outwardly acknowledged and submitted to on our Part The conditions then are all those things which the Gospel calls for at our hands or prescribes to us as necessary to Salvation and then to keep Covenant is 1. To believe in Jesus Christ for Life i. e. for Grace and Glory to go out of our selves to Him for all and rely on or place our hope and trust in Him alone This every Member and Child of the Visible Church doth stand bound or engaged unto and that upon no lesse or lower considerations than Salvation and Damnation Mark 16. 16. In which believing they chuse God alone for their Portion Jesus Christ for their only Redeeming-Mediator the Spirit for their only sanctifying Leader They renounce all other vain trust and confidence They say Ashur shall not save us they cast their Idols to Moles and to the Bats They rest not upon the Works of their own hands nor hope to receive any thing at the Hands of God for their own sakes They seek the Glory of God and give to Him the Honour and Praise due to His Name they go to Him for all they want they acknowledge His Mercy and Grace in all they receive c. The truth is it is a large and vast condition to believe and it is a certain and undeniable truth that every one in the Visible Church is a Covenant-breaker till he believes i. e. he falls short of his engagement 2 x x x In foedere gratiae Deus promittit homini se fore ipsi patrem in Christo si filialem praestiterit obedientiam Alsted Theol. P. 375. To perform Gospel-Obedience which is the fruit and exercise of Faith and is therefore in Scripture called the Obedience of Faith because it is nothing else bnt Faith in Exercise animating quickning and improving all the Graces of Sanctification to their proper actions This Obedience is vastly differing from that which is required in the Covenant of Works For although it be the same Morall-Law which is the Rule of Obedience required or prescribed in both the Covenants yet it is presented under divers considerations In the first Covenant it was considered as the Antecedent-condition and Meritorious cause of Man's Blessedness and this Blessedness was therein propounded under the notion of a reward of that Obedience But here it is

Would you not count him but an ill husband who can give a better account of his neighbours trading than of his own Such are these who can make a better description of others lives and wayes than their own If the wise Man commends it as a point of prudence to know the state of our Flocks and Herds how far greater then is it to acquaint our selves with the state of our Souls which are to be kept above all keeping David gives us this advice Psal 4. 4. Commune with your hearts If Men would do thus as it would prevent a great deal of Repentance so it would produce more kindly Repentance God indeed propounds this as one way to the removal of His greatest judgements Hag. 1. 7. Now therefore consider your wayes The exactest Christian if he would thus retire into the Closet of meditation and reflect upon his own heart and life world find abundant matter to humble and abase him to fill him with mourning and bitterness and drive him to Christ for pardon there are so many straglings of a wandring and sinfully by assed heart so many aberrations of a misguided life 3. Let all your Sins and breaches of Covenant drive you to Christ mourning and yet believing for pardon and washing He is the Surety of the Covenant get Him engaged He is the Fountain set open for Sin and for uncleanness Go wash your filthy garment here and they that are often defiled should be often washing Mourn after a Godly sort that is an Index of true Repentance But think not that your tears will wash off the filth Believe therefore on Christ that He may do it Repent and believe Faith distinguisheth Repentance Evangelical from that which is Legal it is mixed with Faith Make Christ your Righteousness and Sanctification and make Him your Intercessour Bring your Sins every day to His Cross as those that are wearied and burdened with them and He will plead the Covenant for you Your follies shall not be laid to your charge your iniquities shall be blotted out of His book of remembrance sunk down as a Mill-stone in the depths of the Sea buried in a Grave of everlasting oblivion and God will confirm to you His everlasting Mercies 2. I now come to some more particular directions for our right keeping Covenant with God And here let me premise that it is not my purpose to descend to the most particular Rules for we must know that Covenant-keeping is of equal extent with Gospel-obedience and that is exceeding broad I shall only propound some comprehensive particulars and such as do most nearly concern us considered as a Covenanted reforming People Such we are by profession God grant we may be so in reality Here I shall first propound a few Rules to the whole body of the Church considered as one and then single out the Children of the Covenant and add some special Words of counsel unto them apart by themselves 1. Let me prescribe some Scripture-Rules to the body of the Church or Society of God's People Would you be found and acknowledged to be a Society that keeps Covenant with God Observe then these Directions 1. Keep pure and intire all the Ordinances of God from corruption either by Depravation or Innovation The Oracles and Ordinances of God are committed to His Church as a great depositum worthy of our utmost care and watchfulness They are great things they are the means of eternal Life the Glory as well as the Love of God is abundantly manifested in them to the Children of Men They are the fat things of his house Psal 36. 8. 63. 5. They are things by which not only poor Man but also as sound Divines interpret that Eph. 3. 10. Angels themselves are instructed in the precious mystery of Man's Salvation by Christ And there is great reason why the People of God should keep them up in their purity because the Visible Covenant-transactions between God and His People are therein upheld and continued They are the means both of our keeping Covenant with God and by which also He conveyes down to us the spiritual blessings thereof Furthermore if the Ordinances be corrupted the streams by which we receive the Waters of Life are defiled or obstructed which cannot but be very dangerous to the Church of Christ and will certainly expose many Souls to great hazards And the more need have Men to look to it inasmuch as the present times greatly labour of this disease and thereby there are occasioned many and great temptations for the People of God to lose much ground and give way to their own damage in compliance with the lusts of Men. Now there are two wayes by which the Ordinances of Christ may be corrupted and either of them is exceeding dangerous and cannot be admitted without our being guilty of breaking Covenant viz. 1. By Depravation I mean a contemptuous rejection and casting off the Ordinances either in Whole or in Part Some there be that do wholly reject Visible-Ordinances as things Carnal and not suted to the spiritual dispensations of Grace in the Dayes of the Gospel Men who under pretence of holiness and an extraordinary pitch of perfection do throw off and trample upon the very means of holiness Men that have gained too much charity in the World but are indeed dangerous enemies to the People of God and subverters of Covenant-duties Others there be that call some Ordinances in question either throwing them wholly aside or at the least turning them out of the right order and course Anabaptisme is a dangerous underminer of Gospel-Order and Ordinances And many there be that account it but a light matter to neglect this or that of Christ's Institutions Many plead this is not necessary and that may be omitted without any danger A Man may get to Heaven though he be not baptized or though he never comes to the Lord's Table But to what end are all these Cavellings and Argumentations used but to throw an imputation of folly upon the infinite wisdome of Jesus Christ Neither are we to lay out the way to Man's Salvation by the Rule of God's absolute Power but according to his revealed Will and God that hath annexed to His Covenant the means of the Gospel as the way of our Duty will not excuse us from the guilt of the contempt of His Covenant because we therefore neglected and slighted His Ordinances because we had a confidence in His Power and Mercy hoping that He would save us without them If God were so exact with Moses that He strictly engaged him to follow the pattern given him in the mount in all things belonging to his house not ommitting to prescribe the number and places of every Pin in the Tabernacle surely then He will charge breach of Covenant upon all such as dare to mutilate or curtaile any of His Gospel-appointments 2. By Innovation i. e. by introducing or bringing into the worship of God the appendices or additions of Mens own inventions