Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	body_n	member_n	mystical_a	10,421	5	11.0632	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49244	Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funerall sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682, engraver.	1652 (1652)	Wing L3156; ESTC R214001	127,409	242

full of grace and truth but this fulnesse is in order to the filling of his members As in the natural body there are some special parts that do stand as officers unto all the rest the stomack receives much meat not for it self but that it might communicate it to all the members the head hath the senses seated in it not for it self but for the whole body So it is in the mystical body whereof Christ is the head the abundance of grace which is treasured up in Christ is in order to supply every member with grace For their sakes saith Christ himself of his elect I sanctifie my selfe that they also might be sanctified through the truth Some do refer this to Christ being set apart to the office of Mediatour that it was not for his own sake but for the sake of his members and though there be grace enough in Christ to qualifie his person yet also there is grace enough in him to justifie our persons too and sanctifie our natures 2. This also reproves the errour pride and folly of the Pelagians Papists and Arminians who derogate from God and arrogate to themselves These people like Sampson have lost their spiritual strength but do not will not know that it is departed from them They are poor and yet are proud and while they are setting up the praeise of nature they do prove themselves the enemies of grace Alas while they boast of a liberum arbitrium they have cause to bewail a servum arbitrium a● Luther calls it It is true man by the fall did not lose the faculty it self but he hath lost the rectitude of it And yet proud man will be like the spider spinning out a thread of his own and thinking to climbe up to heaven by threads spun out of his own bowels but let such who rejoyce in this Mihi soli debeo take heed at last that his hope be not cut off and that his trust become like a spiders web Alas poor proud wretch who made thee to differ Grevincovius the Arminian makes this proud answer to the Apostles question I my self made my self to differ This is Divinity much like that of the Heathens Seneca said That we live this is of God but that we live well that 's of our selves And Cicero hath also this saying and he tells us it is the judgment of all men That prosperity and sccesse is from God and must be sought of God but wisdom that is gotten by our selves which gave Augustine occasion to passe this censure upon him ●icero in endeavouring to make men free he made them sacrilegious But let us take heed of this proud leaven of Arminianisme and learn from hence to be convinced of the emptinesse and insufficiency of our nature to any supernaturall good For alas We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God We have no grace but what we receive from Christ And grace is no way grace unlesse it be every way free We have little reason to boast of the freedome of our will to any thing that is spiritually good because our wil is not free til it be by grace made free We have no power to become the sons of God till it be given us to believe on his name and such are born not of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God XV. Sermon At Lawrence Jury London April 27. 1651. This was the last Sermon that ever Mr. Love preached 2 TIM 2. 1. My son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus FRom the last clause in this text viz. Grace that is in Christ Jesus we have gathered this observation that All those measures of grace whereof beli●vers are partakers they doe receive them in and from Jesus Christ That this is so we have proved not onely by the types of the Old Testament but also by the expresse testimony of the New Testament and have also given the grounds and reasons of this point with some Application by way of reproofe and confutation of the Arminian and Socinian errours It remains we make some further Application of this point and so conclude the whole discourse 2. Vse is by way of exhortation unto these duties following 1. Dost thou receive all thy grace from Jesus Christ then labour to be humble in the acknowledgement of this Let the consideration and conscientious application of this doctrine quell all boasting in us of any excellency received Our wisdom righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption are all from Christ and therefore he that gloryeth let him glory in the Lord. Consider who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive now if thou didst receive it why didst thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Who but a proud foole would magnifie himselfe in that which either another giveth him or another hath done for him We count it an odious pride and folly in a man to boast himselfe of that which another hath done And therefore the Apostle professeth that he did not carry himselfe as those false teachers had done who were crept into the Church of Corinth saith the Apostle We doe not boast of things beyond our measure that is of other mens labours nor boast in another mans line of things made ready to our hand Now all grace is made ready to our hands and is onely the worke of Jesus Christ in us who worketh all our works for us Ammianus Marcellinus tels us of one Lampadius a great person in Rome who in all parts of the City where other men had bestowed cost in building he would set up his own name not as a Repairer of the work but as the chiefe Builder Such folly are they guilty of who wil set their owne names before Gods over the work of grace in their own souls Oh remember that boasting is excluded by the law of faith Faith is that grace which emptieth the creature of all its conceited excellencies and faith is that grace which wil give God the praise of the glory of all his grace Shall the groom of the stable boast of his masters horses and the Stage-player of his borrowed robes shall the mud wall be proud that the Sun-shines upon it We must say of all the good that is in us as the young man said to the Prophet of his hatchet Alas Master it was borrowed The Church of God is compared to the Moon Now all the light which the Moon giveth to the world she doth but distribute what is lent her all our graces and the shining of them whereby our light is seen before men is but a borrowed light from the Sun of righteousnesse David sets us an excellent pattern when he makes that humble acknowledgement Blessed be the Lord God of Israel our Father for ever and ever Thin● Oh Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory

wealth and land and yet wilt thou take up with poore measures of grace for Religion The ordinary answer of ignorant people is What must we be wiser then our forefathers and yet those people would be richer then their forefathers were and those that have great wealth left them by their forefathers yet are not satisfied with it unlesse they increase their estate let this shame that slothfulnesse and supine negligence of many who content themselves with measures of grace 5. And lastly consider that those who were eminent for grace in what esteem were they in the Church of God and with what honourable mention are they recorded in the Word of God such are remembred to be of note in the Church of God See what an Eulogium the Holy Ghost gives Job that there was none like him in the earth God loves those that are singularly and excellently good and ordinary pitch doth not so please him What do ye more then others Solomon was so renowned for wisdome that it is said That amongst many Nations there was no King like him that is for wisdom So Hezekiah was eminent for trusting in God Who feared not to break in pieces the broken serpent but trusted in God none like him of all the Kings ●f Judah And so eminent was the zeale of good Josiah after a thorough reformation that he is also crowned with this commendation And like him was there no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soule and with all his might By all which instances it is cleare of what honourable esteem have the eminent particular graces of Gods servants been in the sight of the Lord. XIII Sermon at Lawrence Jury London April 20. 1651. 2 TIM 2. 1. My son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus HAving in the last foregoing Sermons treated of grace in its strength and growth I am come to speak to this additional clause in the text viz That is in Christ Jesus which passage is here inserted by the Apostle that he might let Timothy know to whom he was beholding for all the grace he had received even unto Jesus Christ In the tenth verse he speaks of salvation that is in Christ Jesus and here of grace that is in Christ Jesus so note 1. That Jesus Christ is the fountaine and foundation both of grace and glory Jesus Christ gives grace and Jesus Christ gives also salvation with eternall glory Ver. 10. 2. That those who receive grace from Christ Jesus shall also receive salvation by him for there is an inseparable union between grace and glory The grace of God that is in Christ Jesus Grace may be said to be in Christ 1. As a subject recipient and so Christ is said to be full of grace and truth he had the Spirit without measure it pleased the Father that in him all fulnesse should dwel 2. In Christ Jesus as a fountain redundant over-flowing ever-flowing to his people for of his fulnesse we receive grace for grace Again when it is said that grace is in Christ Jesus we must consider Christ 1. As God co-essential with the Father and he is the Author and giver of grace and of every good and perfect gift 2. Consider him as Mediatour God-man and so he is the purchaser and procurer of grace and of all the blessings of the New Convenant for the blessing of Abraham commeth upon the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through Christ Jesus So that by this phrase In Christ Jesus there are three things implied 1. That Jesus Christ is the Author and Giver of grace he onely is the Author and Finisher of faith and every grace in his people 2. That Christ is the purchase of grace so that all the grace that is bestowed upon us by God it is through Christ and for his sake Grace is from Christ as a fountain and by Christ as a Conduit 3. That Christ is the preserver of grace all the grace that is in us is in Christ Jesus he keeps all our graces for us As the beams of the Sun may be said to be the Sun because they are preserved by their union with the Sun Our life is bid with Christ in God hid as the life of a tree is hid in the root and the being of a stream is hid in the fountain And herein is the comfort of believers that their condition is more stable and immutable and safe then ever Adam was in innocency for he had all perfections of a creature but they were in their own keeping but now all the grace that is in a believer is in Christ Jesus by whom and in whom grace is safely preserved so as it shall never perish The point of doctrine I observe from these words is this That all those measures of grace whereof believers are partakers they receive them in and from Jesus Christ In the handling of which point I will thus proceed 1. Shew you the truth of it 2. Give you the reasons and grounds of it Now to prove that all grace is received in and through Christ 1. I will shew the truth of this by many resemblances to which Christ is compared in the Scripture 2. By many types of Christ in the Old Testament 3. By many expresse testimonies in the New Testament concerning this turth ● There are many resemblances in Scripture which do illustrate this that all grace is from Christ Jesus 1. He is compared to a root He is called the root of Jesse not only because he came of the stock of David but that he gives grace to Jew and Gentile that do believe for to him shall the Gentiles seek as it followes in the next words Now that the Prophet there speaks of Christ is plain by the Apostles expresse application of that prophesie unto Christ calling him the root of Jesse in whom the Gentiles should trust And Christ speaks of himselfe I am the Vine As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me the life sap nourishment growth and fruitfulnesse of a branch is altogether from the root with which the branches have union and communion 2. Christ is called the Head of his people He is the Head of the body of the Church Now as sense and motion is derived from the head to the members of the body so also is grace derived from Jesus Christ to every true believer every living member of his body 3. Christ is called the Sun of Righteousnesse because as heat and light are communicated by the Sun to things here below so there is a sweet influence of grace from Christ upon believers As by vertue of the Sunnes influence the vegetable and sensible creatures live move and grow so also the life and growth of grace in the soul is from that divine influence