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
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