Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A35172
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KelaŹ» le-dor a compend of the covenant of grace as the most solid support under the most terrible conflicts of death, though arm'd with desertion, decay of grace, and sense of guilt / by Walter Cross.
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Cross, Walter, M.A.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing C7258; ESTC R27629
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28,536
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34
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it is the Spirits Influences that keeps the Temper of Man in any better Condition than that of Devils There is a vast difference between what Man actually is and what he is De jure by Nature We are Children of Wrath by Nature our Understanding is meer Darkness and our Wills a meer Enmity We would sin designedly against God and designedly Dishonour him We would intend Rebellion in every act and this seems to be the Apostles Intention 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no Temptation taken you but such as is common to Man to sin at this rate is not common to Man Man's Design is not higher than his own Profit or his Pleasure the Prosecution of which though he knows it is a Sin yet he wishes it were not Thirdly The Divinity of this Covenant appears in God himself his Attributes Personalities and Providential Operations being all the Promised Blessings of the Covenant for the Covenant is a Marriage Covenant wherein not as in other Covenants of Peace or War Trade or Commerce the Obligation is limited to some particular thing here the Party and all he hath comes under Obligation Hence is that Argument good Because he lives we shall live also and Christ's Proof for the Resurrection of the Body and Immortality of the Soul that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are alive because God is the God of the Living Nothing can utterly dye that is in this Covenant because God's Life is engaged to keep them alive Indeed this exceeds Marriage Contracts because the Husband hath not a Life to communicate nor a Power to preserve his own God's Omnipotency is ours I am the Almighty walk before me and be thou perfect We need not fear the Power of Enemies his Immutabillity I Change not therefore ye shall not be be consumed And all his Creatures 1 Cor. 3.22 The World Life Death things present or things to come all are yours Providential Operations Rom. 8.28 For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God Psal 25.10 All his ways are mercy and truth to such as keep his Covenant 2. There is the Personality of the Covenant Thou hast made with me Though God entered into Covenant with Abraham for himself and his Seed yet as soon as his Seed did exist in the World he did personally enter into Covenant with them first with Isaac and then with Jacob and the more Pious we find any Persons in Scripture the more frequent we find them in this Exercise David's first Michtam or Golden Psalm begins thus O my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord Thou art my Lord with his Expectation of the like Answer from God Psalm 35.3 Say unto my Soul I am thy Salvation God's Language is Providential so that it 's to the same purpose when he says Preserve me O God for in thee do I put my trust Our Faith is our Personal Covenanting and God's preserving is his Virtual Saying He will be Our Saviour this is Prophecyed to be more frequent and more formal under the New Testament State than it was under the Old Isaiah 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the Name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord Isaiah 45.24 Surely shall men say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength The Apostle doth most pathetically press this Personal Dedication Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And the Practice of the Primitive Church answer'd their Apostolical Advice 1 Cor. 8.5 They first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the Will of the Lord The different Constitution of the Visible Church under the New Testament from that under the Old and the different Administration of the Covenant have a considerable Influence to make the formal performance of this more our Duty for it is in part upon this Account that the Church is called Mat. 16. a Church de futuro I will build my Church as Camero observes It was a Building to be begun whereof the Foundations were not yet laid and the Covenant a new Covenant First For the Constitution of the Church we have a fair Account of it in the 18th of Matthew in Christ's Answer to the Disciples Question about the Kingdom of Heaven First There is the Qualifications of the Members Verse 3. Converted ones become as little Children Secondly Their formal Entrance into the Kingdom of Christ and their Reception in the Name of Christ by them that are in it Verse 5. Thirdly There is an account of the great Evil that doth any ways hinder or hurt this Constitution or these little Ones now received into it and therefore becomes the only Object of Church-Discipline that is Offence Sin is only against God's immediate Government Psal 51. Against thee thee only have I sinned He only can Forgive it he only can Punish it It is a Breach of his Law only Offence is against the Church as being that which occasions any Member thereof to sin or by which its Members may offend others but scarce any can Offend but them that are in the Church Injuries which hurt a Man's Body or Estate are the Objects of the Civil Government One Act may have all the three Evils in it and may be Punished by all the three Governments Fourthly There are the remedying Rules or Methods of Discipline about this Evil set down Verse 15 16 17. Fifthly There is the supream Court where the last Appeal lyes in Tryal of this Affair with the last and most severe Punishment this Court can Inflict The former is the Church the latter is an Exclusion from that Society for then he can Offend no more as a Dead Man in the State can injure no more The last thing is the way of the Constitution of this Court and the Reason why we ought to acquiesce in its Judgment about such Affairs The former is the stated and agreed Meeting of such Converts in the Name of Christ the latter is from Christ's being among them his Promise to hear them his Institution of them and Conserring Authority to the Ordinance now this Agreement to continue stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine in mutual Fellowship in breaking of Bread and in Prayer Acts 2.42 doth formally Constitute a Covenant it is a Fulfillment of that Prophecy Jer. 50.5 Come and let us join our selves unto the Lord and it doth suppose their Personal Covenanting with God for they who come into it are to be received as little Children and as Converted ones and tho' Persons cannot give account when they were first Converted more than when they were first Conceived or Born without their Parents Information yet they may give Account of their Personal Covenanting with God and when it was tho' with great difference in Explicitness or Implicitness in the bare Exercise of Faith and Prayer and the secret Thoughts of
are nor are the same things requir'd of Infants and adult Persons Pagans and Christians 2. Precepts about our Life precede them about our Work Faith that is the Appetite we live by is first Commanded Christ is the true Bread of Life and Faith the fix'd and determin'd Desire on him Parents have as much Care about feeding their Children as afterwards when Men about their Calling and Trade The subject of Faith is Man's Appetite and Desire that is the faculty it resides in the Gift of Faith is the Presentation of Objects or forming Idea's of God in Christ that determines this desire alone upon him Psal 4. Who will shew us any good there 's the Faculty the Soul of Man as passive and recipient Lord lift on me the Light of thy Countenance there it 's determin'd by Faith that is the Exercise of Faith Heb. 11.1 Faith is the evidence of things not seen there the Object determining it the Gift of Faith the way it is wrought is by presenting the Objects immediately to the Mind the kindly entertaining these Objects is our Duty and our first Duty and the Duty of Self-preservation or Maintenance We quench the Spirit who works them we provoke him if we do not 3. Precepts about External Ordinances precede Internal and Spiritual Exercise Phil. Work in and about your own Salvation as Camero well translates it to which Ability of Spiritual Performance is annexed I will work in you to will and to do 1. Ordinances keep the mind from Distraction with worldly business then our minds are retir'd to contemplate spiritual Objects only they are helps to keep us from quenching the Spirit 2. Hence Ordinances are the Means of working Faith Before they call I will answer while they are yet speaking I will hear The Spirit presents the Idea's of which the Words are signs to the Mind Faith comes by hearing therefore People ought to be Careful of their Choice of a Ministry Understanding Sound and whom the Lord has sent to whom he has given a Commission thus the Word becomes the Seed of Regeneration for beholding in this Glass the Glory of the Lord we are chang'd into the same Image 2 Cor. 3. It 's Satans Conclusion for deserted Souls to forsake Ordinances or to abstain for want of Grace and yet to continue in them without obtaining Grace is to lose their end 4. Precepts about forbearing sin Mortification are before Practice of Godliness Cease to do evil learn to do well 3. An harmonious Order is seen in the Relation of these two to one another 1. In the strictness of the Relation The relation between God and the Creature is as soon broken and dissolved as this they are inseparably perpetually and universally united no man has a right to the Promises that is not under Obligation to the Precepts If a Man lives holily never question his right to the Promises if a Man has a Right to one Promise he has a Right to all 2. In the Sweetness and Comliness of the Relation 1. There are more Promises than Commands the Duty is but an Acknowledgment a Quit-rent there are Promises for Ability Exercise Perseverance Rewards to every Command 2. There is a Priority in the Promises a Stock some Talents before we Trade 3. An Usefulness We have Ability to Obey from the Promise we have Knowledge what to do from the Precept We have the Motive of Reward from the Promise we have the Light and Conduct about the way from the Precept We are kept from Despair by the Promise and preserv'd from Presumption by the Command We were undone if the Covenant wanted its Precepts 3. The Third thing the Order of the Covenant is discernable in is about its Ends. 1. God's Glory 2. Christ's Honour 3. Sinners Salvation For the first God has his Sovereignty Exalted in the Obedience of his Son for he and we his Obedience and ours are both enjoyned in this Covenant it 's more Glory to have such a Subject than ten Thousands of Angels his Wisdom in its Contrivâ—nce how to save his own Justice and Truth and yet save the Rebel to be Just and Justifier of the Ungodly is a Wonder of Wisdom His Justice in his Son's Sufferings his Mercy in Sinners Salvation 2. Christ's Honour is highly Exalted It 's a Question among Divines whether any Creature should ever have been so nighly United to God as that Humane Nature is if Man had not fallen if not what an Honour to all the Humane Nature especially the Man Jesus suppose there should have been what an Honour for a Man to be in such an Office the King of Kings and Lord of Lords one Mediator the Angels Sovereign and Sinners Saviour to have a Fulness not only for himself but all Creatures How wonderful is his Condescending Love who by Union and Birth thus high and yet became as a Worm and no Man and his Exalted Glory who was as a Root out of a dry ground the Scorn and Contempt of the People and became higher than the Heavens and Holyer than the Angels the Visible Image of the Invisible God in his Incommunicable Attributes to have Life in himself an Independent Life when once given the Wisdom of God and the Power of God all the Works of God being managed by him 3. Sinners Salvation It is wonderfully ordered to render their Salvation 1. Possible 2. Easie 3. Certain 4. Suitable The apparent Repugnancies were either from the Law Law-giver Surety or Sinner 1. The Law threatned present Death but not Eternal In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye He did Dye the Eternity was founded on the Perpetuity of sinning and Heinousness of the Crime not on the Letter of the Law it spoke nothing against an Intervening Surety after the Sinner was once dead to relieve him from that Death It is appointed for all Men once to dye but the Law spoke nothing against a Resurrection 2. The Law-giver was satisfi'd since his Truth in the Law was sav'd since the Obedience and Sufferings of the Mediator did sufficiently evince the Holiness and Justice of the the Governour 3. As to the Surety having his Life wholly in his own Power it was lawful for him to dye and since it was in his Power to Redeem his Brethren to re-establish the Order of Divine Government to glorifie his Maker more than any thing done by Creatures yet could there was a becomingness that he should Decency makes a thing in some respect a Duty It was in the Power of his Hand to relieve his Brethren We cannot thoroughly Love our Brethren without doing what we can for Relief to their Misery His Incarnation was an act of Choice but once Man and made under the Law the Love of his Brethren was a Duty 4. As to the Sinner it 's not only made possible but easie for tho Justification and Sanctification were both impossible to Man the satisfying for past Guilt or the ceasing from sin yet Christ having done both