Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	church_n	true_a	visible_a	8,362	5	9.3033	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65373	David's testament opened up in fourty sermons upon Samuel 23, 5 wherein the nature, properties, and effects of the covenant of grace are clearly held forth / by Alexander Wedderburn.	Wedderburn, Alexander, d. 1678.	1698 (1698)	Wing W1239; ESTC R26311	330,515	376

many to enter in this Covenant personally they are exceedingly afraid that their guilt be greater if they break I consfess it 's justly to be feared but that same Argument should hinder thee from being Baptized and from going to the Sacrament of the Supper wherein thou renews a Covenant with him the same Argument that hinders thee from covenanting with God hinders thee from these two but would ye think it a good arguing if a man were like to drown in a Well and one let down a Rope to him and bid him take hold of the Rope and it will bring him up if he should argue I dare not take hold of the Rope for fear when I near up the Rope break and my fall be the greater But I say unless thou enter in a personal Covenant with God and accept of the Covenant of Grace and apply it to thy case thou art arguing as the man in the Well that will not take hold of the Rope for fear when I am near up 〈◊〉 get the worse fall 3. It hinders some from covenanting with God they would have some Arles in their hand before they trust him saith one I would Covenant with him personally if he would give me a fill of Sense and would take me to the Banqueting-house and cast his Banner over me and give me that soul-delight that he gives to some but they do not remember it 's a reflection on him not to trust him without something in hand Take heed to this Covenant and hang upon his promise and if thou should never be able to sing the Lord hath filled my hand with sende all my life thou has a nobler song to sing The Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant 4. It hinders some from making a personal Covenant they are afraid to lay bonds and tyes on them and take away their mirth O! it were a mercy if some of our profane young ones that are filling the Town with profanity and their Parents taking no notice of them the most part of them begging the one half of the day and profaning the Name of God the other if they could be brought thus to Covenant with God But many think that a great tye and a burden that they should be more in speaking of Christ when they were in company and may be thou can be in many companies and never a word of him or thou can mock at Prayer and Godlienss and may be it not challenge thee but thou art afraid that personal covenanting bring a burden on thee I will Answer all these when I go thorow the point I will say this of it thou must either accept personally of the Covenant on the terms that it 's offered and engage personally to the terms on which it 's made or then thou shalt never have any benefit by it O? what a mercy were it if when we come under some strait some sickness or when we get any loosing of heart at a Communion nay when we come under desertion the renewing of a Covenant may be the way to an out-gate It 's remarkable when Christ was hanging on the Cross and the great cloud of his Fathers wrath hanging over his head in a manner he renews the Covenant with him My God my God why hast thou forsaken me If thou fall in any gross sin go and renew the Covenant if he command some signal stroke to attend thee renew the Covenant The great Objection is it 's a sore matter to be ay binding and ay breaking and this is thy case readily I confess it 's a dreadful case to be ay binding and ay breaking yet notwithstanding of all thy breaches if thou wilt yet go and say and subscribe with thy hand to be the Lords and to be more to his praise if thou be a neglecter of Christian fellowship that thou shall speir it out speir where thou shall get some to pray with and put in that in the personal Covenant if thou be negligent in Prayer to lift up thy hand to be so no more all former breaks will be all past if thou can say with full purpose of heart the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant SERMON XI 2 Samuel 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow HAving spoken of the nature of David's security I came the last Sabbath to speak of the Parties transacting in this Covenant The Lord and me I proposed four things to be noticed First The Author of the Covenant Secondly the Parties with whom the Covenant is made and told you that that the word Jehovah is to be taken essentially as including all the Persons of the Trinity who are all Partiesin the Covenant and each of them has their particular work in the accomplishing of the Covenant But passing what was spoken I come to that which I proposed to dwell on this day the particular Application of the Covenant individually and personally to David It 's no the Lord hath made with Abraham nor with the Elect but The Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant That which I shall dwell on this day shall be this Proposition which natively arises from this Scripture Doctrine That however the Covenant externally and visibly be made with the whole visible Church and really with the Mediator and through him with all the Elect yet every Believer ought personally and particularly to Indenture in this Covenant and apply it It is true the Covenant is offered to be Transacted with all the Members of the visible Church and really with all the Elect yet every Believer who would secure his interest in the contents and clauses of the Covenant is to indenture personally and particularly apply the Covenant to himself as if it were made with them This Truth hath a great deal of opposition in the world Arminians and Antinomians who though they unite not in many things they unite in opposition of this Truth they deny personal and particular Covenanting with God the generality of Atheists and profane mockers look on it as a fancy personally to Covenant with God and the most part of hypocrites in the visible Church satisfie themselves with their Transactions in Baptism and some external kind of Transacting at the Sacrament of the Supper but personally and really to indenture with God on the Terms of the Covenant they utterly neglect therefore to follow this Truth since it comes so directly in my way I will insist on these three things in following this head 1. I shall labour to prove by some reasons that it is not only a warrantable but a most necessary Duty for Christians to make personal and particular Covenants with God 2. I shall open wherein this personal and particular Covenanting with him doeth consist And 3. shall apply it First That it is not only warrantable but necessary

am I thus says she under such terrors and afflictions there lyes the great exception ye have against the Promise and the Providence that he makes it not to grow Learn to guard against this I will offer you three or four remarkable things that may contribute to guard against it 1. Consider Christian the chiefest Believer may have no considerable providence when the providence is made an argument against the Promise what 〈◊〉 tryals had Abra●●● ●●●ith the 〈…〉 ●he should bear a Son but she hath a dead womb another time he is told by the Angel that he must take his Son Isaac and offer him up in Sacrifice even though the promise ran in Isaac shall all the nations of the earth be blessed might he not well argue will all the nations of the earth be blessed in a burnt-sacrifice He must take off his Head and offer him upon an Altar but he considered not the deadness of Sarahs womb and staggered not at the Promise but gave glory to God and believed that out of the Ashes of Isaac he could accomplish his Promise So that God's choisest friends have not had considerable Providences when they were made use of as Arguments against the Promise 2. Take notice of this That all Providences work together in their ultimat end for accomplishing the Promises it 's true He whose way is in the Sea and whose paths are in the deep waters His motion is like the wheels of a Clock any that would look on them and see them move cross one to another would wonder whereto they tended but all these motions tend to make the Clock strike when the hour comes all the Providences of God do tend to the accomplishing of the Promise it 's true we see not their tendency but they all tend and in end they all resolve in the accomplishment of the Promise 3. Ye would notice this that Providences are not a Believers Rule I confess there is a sweet use of Providences he that observes them will understand much of the loving kindness of the Lord there are some godly men of this Church now in glory there was nothing could befall them but they were constantly put to turn it over even the smallest of things that they might read out some message from God under it and yet never took them them to Providences for their Rule they took them to the Word and to to the Promises for their Rule Providences are not our Rule it 's the Word of God and the Promise that we are to walk by so that be the Providence what it will a Believer hath a Key to open it with and interpret it by therefore be the providence what it will they need not stagger at the promise 4. I will add this that seldom is a Christian trysted with such Providences but in one thing or another they have the accomplishment of the promise there is either one promise or another accomplished if God deny one he is making out another and the accomplishment of one promise may be a seal of the whole Covenant I will say no more of this Truth only guard against it that Providences put not you to stagger at the Promise Doctrine There is another word lying in this Although he make it not to grow and it 's this That however God delay in his providence to accomplish promises yet a Believer hath the promise in the seed or in the bud The word signifies to spring though he make it not to spring a metaphor taken from a Plant that is not yet above the ground though Believers find not the Promises springing and growing yet they have them in the Seed There is a three-fold Seed that accomplishes consolation to Believers in their greatest difficulties 1. The Seed they are looking for is in the decree and purpose of God I know what thoughts I have to you ward thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end The Lord is sending them to Babylon and to encourage them he says I know what thoughts I have to you ward my hand is carrying you to Babylon but my heart is to give you an expected end the mercy that they look for though it grow not yet they have it in the Decree and Thought of God 2. Things hoped for though they grow not yet they are often in the Seed of Secondary Causes and the Tendency of them may bea Seed out of which they may grow the Lord sometimes may remove his enemies and put divisions among them and put them under Challenges and yet they may be the See● of an out-gate to the Church readily he will tryst them with such providences as in the beginning none will see whereto they tend and yet in the end he will bring out of them the accomplishment of the Promise 3. He will bring out the Seed out of the Providences themselves the days will come when holiness shall be written on Horses Bells and the Wolf and the Lamb shall ly down together and none of them shall hurt other and possibly the Child is unborn that shall see these days of the mercies made over by the Covenant and though they appear not yet a Believer hath them in the Seed they are like Seed sown in the Ground and a Spring shall come and here is a special encouragement a Believer may have doubting and trembling thoughts about the case of the Church and astonishment whiles about thy own case even for what appears above ground but the Seed of Deliverance to the Church and other mercies to thee are in the Promise wait till the Spring come and the Winter be over and gone and thou shalt see them sprouting as ever thou saw a Plant spring and sprout ●n the Spring time Doctrine 3. Thirdly Observe That even when Providences make against the Promise yet a Believer should rely on the promise and on the Covenant though he make it to grow yet it 's sure it 's ordered it 's all thy salvation and all thy desire it 's everlasting So this point falls in natively here and there are three things I will speak a little to her 1. In what cases a Believer should rely on the Promise when providences make against it 2. On what grounds they should rely on the Promises And 3. I shall apply it First In what cases a Believer should rely on the Promise when the Providence makes against it And here I will instance four or five Cases 1 When we pray and God delays to answer we ought then to take our answer out of the Promise ordinarily we pray in the day time and in the night time we are not heard our throat may be hoarse with crying and our eyes fail with looking up and get no answer in that case a Christian is to take his answer out of the Promise the Promise ought to supply and make up the room of the Providence the more patiently one wait for answers in prayer and ly still until the Promise come