Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	lord_n	possess_v	quicken_a	20	3	17.2533	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92857	The riches of grace displayed in the offer and tender of salvation to poor sinners. Wherein is set out, the gracious behaviour of Christ, standing at the door and knocking for entrance. The dutiful behaviour of sinners in hearing Christs voice and opening to him. And the comfortable event upon them both. / By Obadiah Sedgwick. B.D. and late minister of the Gospel in Covent-Garden.	Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.	1657 (1657)	Wing S2379; Thomason E1683_2; ESTC R209163	87,999	316

will surely come to remove us and judgement the judgement of God will come to condemne us and if Christ be not come in to save us what will become of our Christlesse souls Therefore try and examine your selves prove your selves whether Christ be in you 2 Cor. 13. 5. He hath called upon you by his Word but is he come in He hath offered himself to you by his Ministers but is he come in He hath knockt at your doors by the strivings of his Spirit but is he come in ye have been almost perswaded to open but is he come in you think that you have opened unto him but is he come in you think that he is come in and hath taken possession but is he so indeed O friends the soul may be lost by fancy as well as by obstinacy by self delusion as soon as by self rebellion what a bitter thing will this prove I thought my self to be Christs possession but was deceived and now am hells portion Quest But you will say how may one know that Christ is come and hath taken possession of the soul indeed Sol. It may be evidenced 1. By his affecting excellency 2. By his virtual efficacy 3. By his exciting authority 4. By our importuning insatiability First by his affecting excellency O sirs before Christ comes in much of the excellency of Christ appeared to the soul by way of invitation but when he is come to the soul more of his excellency now appears by way of fruition Apprehension may much affect us but fruition and experience doth much more affect us Now the soul sees indeed a wonderful Redeemer a wonderful love a wonderful satisfaction a wonderful happiness As the Queen of Sheba when she saw Solomon in his glory her spirit failed or as Simeon when he got Christ in his armes Now let me depart mine eyes have seen thy salvation or as Jacob when he saw Joseph now let me die or as David return to thy rest O my soul for c. Psal 116. The soul which is possessed of Christ adores admires cries out I am satisfied I have enough the pearl is found the chiefest of ten thousand is mine As the Sun darkens all the Stars all is as nothing to Christ Now I have love joy friends lands and al in Christ This is the Christ that I looked for that I longed for I see and finde in him the great love of God the exact beauty of holinesse a ●ull redemption God reconciled a spring of life worth to satisfie judgement worthiness to fatisfie my will sweetnesse to satisfie my affections happiness to satisfie my whole soul now I am abundantly payed for all my prayers pains c. Secondly by his virtual efficacy Christ is not an empty notion but a quick agent and when he comes into a soul vertue from him comes into the soul too Christ and his Spirit come together and dwell together If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his In Mal. 3. 1. you Rom. 8. 9. read a promise of his coming into a prepared soul Ver. 3. And then of the work which he doth when he is come He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver A refiner or purifier useth the fire to melt the mettal and to separate the drosse and rust from it and so makes it pure and beautiful and useful The soul of a man is a corrupt vessel and when Christ comes in to it he doth by his Spirit which is compared to fire cleanse and purifie it make it holy delightful and serviceable stamps his own image upon it Now you shall be able to love your God to hate your sinne to overcome the world to pray to mourn to trust to wait to be meek lowly contemned c. 3. By his exceeding authority when Christ takes possession he doth immediately set up his Throne and rule in the heart He rules all and rules alone and the soul is willingly obediential He pulls down all authority contrary to himself as that last Monarchy in Daniel crushed all the rest He hath possession who hath an acknowledged and consented dominion over your souls His servants ye are whom ye obey Rom. 6. O how doth this discover multitudes to be none of Christs possession Some they will not have him to rule at all Others like the Mother about the childe let it be neither mine nor thine but divide it a sinful lust must rule and a worldly lust shall rule and Christ if he please shall then rule too but would you be half saved surely where Christ indeed takes possession Christ alone is set up and the whole soule comes freely under subjection None but Christ none but Christ said the Martyr I will know none but Christ love none but Christ serve none but Christ the will of a beleever comes up to the will of its Saviour 4. By our importunate insatiability If Christ hath taken possession of the soul that soul would have more possession of Christ O I have not yet attained I have not yet enough of Christ O saith Paul that I may apprehend as I am apprehended Phil. 3. Such a soul would have all to fall into the hands of Christ and to be more and more possessed by Christ Lord here 's yet much ignorance O possesse my minde more with thy light Lord here are many doubts and f●ars O possess my judgement more with thy evidencing and comforting grace Lord here is much backwardnesse and dulness O possess my will more with thy quickning grace Lord here is much weaknesse and failings O possess my heart more with thy strengthening grace Vse 2. If upon search any of you do discerne Christs possessing presence rise up and blesse God go home and rejoyce in your portion It was a great matter for Christ to come into a mans house It is more for him to come into a mans heart When Zacheus opened his doors to Christ This day said Christ is salvation come into thy house O Christian if Christ be come into thy soul the King of glory the Prince of peace the Lord of life is come into thy soul it is more then for a King to come to a poor mans house I know not where to begin or where to end or in what phrase to set forth thy blessed condition 1. All that makes for heaven is thine the person of a Saviour that 's thine the price of Redemption that 's thine the peace of Reconciliation that 's thine the release in Justification that 's thine the priviledge of Adoption that 's thine the spring of Sanctification that 's thine the promise of Consolation that 's thine the hope of Salvation that also is th●ne 1 Cor. 3. 21. All things are yours Ver. 22. Whether Paul or Apollo or C●phas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours Ver. 23. And ye are Christs 2. All that may make thee up in all conditions Christ will be

light breaks in upon the minde yet the judgement of the sinner likes not Christs conditions what saith he and must I Hazard all my estate now be willing on a sudden to let all that I and mine have taken pains for go Nay must I hazard mine own life too the deerest of all outward comforts yea and in the mean time submit to such truths as will crush down all my profits and to such wayes as will cashire all my sinnes must I become a foole to be wise deny my self and trust in another Nay verily if Christ thinks that I want Reason and know not what is good for one or sees not when I am well if he will not come in and take part with the world and with an infirmity too and with a little liberty I must be pardoned if I keep house alone O Christians there are three chaines which hold the sinner that he will not open the doore to Christ 1. The chain of sinful pleasures this held the young man Eccles 11. 9. 2. The chaine of sinful profits this held the young man in the Gospel 3. The chain of self ease These will hold thee till thou art bound up in chains of everlasting darknesse unless God be the more merciful to thee These are the things which make men either totally to stand out or onely Hypocritically in a fit to pretend that they will open unto Christ the love of a sinne makes them shut the door again and so doth the love of the world and the love of their ease and liberty and respects c. 3. The proud and irrational perversnesse of the will this is many times a special cause why Christ is made to stand long and knock Either men will not after all be perswaded Though their judgements be disarmed of all carnal cavils and objections though they be convinced of that infinite happinesse in Jesus Christ yet they cannot abide the holinesse of Christ they will not hearken As they answered in the Parable we will not come Mat. 22. ye will not come to me ye would not c. Or they will capitulate with Christ to enter in their way and manner unto which Christ will never yeild For instance they will open and receive Christ If they may finde some holy change in their hearts first or If they might finde some worthinesse in themselves or If they they might have some Assurance that their sinnes were pardoned and they stood in favour with God and were in Covenant or If they might have him come in just at that time as they please in the desires of mercy or If they might have such measures of his grace and love O Christian what doest thou meane to make and impose articles on thy Christ who alone is to propose articles unto thee why doest thou require that of and in thy self which Christ when he comes at first to enter the soule never required of it These are after works and not previous conditions thy work is only to open the doore and it is then Christs work to furnish the house let him but in and let him alone to bring with him mercy to thee grace to sanctifie assurance to comfort and ease thee 3. The humbling aggravations from all this 1. The incomparable absurdity and indignity why doest thou make Christ thus to stand and wait at thy door wouldst thou deal so With thy friend what man amongst Luk. 11. 5 6 7 8. you if his friend came to the door and was importunate would he not arise and open the door as Christ spake Or with a beggar who knocks and is importunate would ye not rise and open and give him an almes will you open the doors to a beggar and not to a Saviour to one who may receive an almes of bounty from you and not to a Christ from whom your selves may receive the almes of everlasting mercy Or with thy dog that stands without and cries to come in Ah Lord will you open your doors to a dogge and not to Christ Or with the devil who no sooner calls but you heare he is opened unto before he knocks will you open the doore to let in hell and will you not open the doore to let in heaven will you open the door to sinne and death and not to Christ and life Can you shew a more base disesteeme of Jesus Christ Why what is Christ and what is the Sonne of God and what would you have that you deal thus unworthily with him and shut him out of your doors Whether you hold out Christ by 1. Ignorance 2. Or by incompliance 3. Or by diffidence 4. Or by impenitence yet you and Christ are still asunder you are Christlesse and evangelical offers though excellent yet are transient Rara hora Brevis mora 2. The desparate hazard you run in the midst of all evangelical knocking 's what if death should knock at your doors before you have opened to Christ where are you then your doores have been shut against Christ and heaven doors will be shut against your souls Or what if Christ will go away from thy door and never stand there or knock there any longer It was one of the greatest mercies that ever God shewd to thee that Jesus Christ would condescend to come and stand and knock at thy doores and it will prove the heaviest judgement that ever befel sinners if he utterly departs from thee because thou wilt not open thy doors unto him 3. Your holding out Christ thus long will cost you dear though at length you do open to him as it will cost you hell if you never open to him You that keep Christ thus long out of his own purchase and out of his own possession for thy soul by right is Christs perhaps thou shalt have Christ but thou shalt set at a great fine for it it will cost thee dear for thy sins and this sin of all the rest will set hard and close on thy conscience that thou hast stood out so long with thy Christ Vse 3. Doth Christ wait long and knock often at our doors before we give him entrance then let not us think it strange if we wait long and knock often at the doors of heaven either for our selves or for the land before God opens to us Beloved the Lord is righteous in all his wayes and wise too in the proportionate retributions of sinners we may see our sinnes in the very judgements and dealings of God The time was that we would not hear the voice of Christ and now he will not hear the voice of our prayers We have shut out his Son and he shuts out our suits we have made Christ to wait long and we now are made to expect long We did not arise to the knocking 's of Christ and he will not now arise to the knocking 's and calls of our distresses We think it much that God comes not down all this while to deliver us from the blood of warre

It is an exception to meriting but not to receiving Though the poore man must not challenge yet he must open his hand 3. Jesus Christ comes to the soul as an al-sufficiency and therefore he looks not to finde any thing in us and needs nothing from us but will bring all with himself to us He comes to a sinner as an agent to give not as a patient to receive as the Sun to the world to enlighten not to be enlightened As a founder to lay a building not as a buyer to survey and finde out a building as a fountain to supply us with good not as a cistern to take any good from us When he comes to the soul he comes to create a new work in it therefore are we said to be created in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. 10. and in him to be new creatures 2 Cor. 5. 17. now in Creation the thing created was nothing before it was created The first creature was the meer effect of Gods power and the new creature is the meere effect of Gods mercy When he comes to any sinner he comes as a Physician to a sick man In the sick man there are nothing but corrupt humours but aches and faintings and groanings and impotencies It is the Physician who brings all the healing salves and medicines and recoveries In a word when Christ comes to us he comes as life to a dead man as pardon to a condemned man as finding to a lost man as riches to a poor man as pity to a miserable man as help to a diseased man To give to give all to give himself to give his blood to give his Spirit to give his righteousnesse to give his peace To give us heaven to give us all which must fit us for heaven now any sinner being in these conditions may come 4. Christ will keep a proportion 'twixt the Application of Redemption and the Work of our Redemption When Christ was to perform the work of mans Redemption he stood alone in his own excellencies and in his own perfections and in his own worthinesse He did not stand before God then with any mans great birth or with any mans great parts nor with any mans graces Indeed he took upon him our sinnes but there was no holinesse of ours which he could or did bear All our sins were charged on and he alone went through the work of satisfaction for them and without any concurrent dignity of ours did he accomplish our redemption and reconciliation And thus doth he carry himselfe towards us in the Application of that Redemption he will stand alone in this also He beholds nothing but sins but wants but miseries he sees nothing in one sinner more then in another and therefore stands upon nothing with any of them but let any one open the doore and I will come in unto him 5. Lastly He thus indefinitely tenders himself insisting on nothing but letting of him in that no sinner might despaire nor yet glory in any thing but in Christ If his offers were restreigned to some kinde of sinners then the rest must perish without hope Hast thou but one blessing O my Father And if any thing besides the opening of the door did conduce as invitation of him then the poore sinner would soon be a proud sinner He would blesse his own worthinesse as much if not more then Christs goodnesse Vse 1. The first Use shall be of encouragement to every broken-hearted and trembling soul who feares he is the person against whom Christ onely takes exception Many are apt to plead thus against themselves Obj. Others may be received to mercy but not I others may be clasped by Christ but he will have none of me he will enter in at the door of any one else into my soul O I fear he will never enter Sol. To these I would address a few words much like those of God to his people in Isa 40. 27. Why sayest thou oh Jacob and speakest O Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God So say I to you why have you such hard thoughts of a good Christ what is he what hath he said what hath he done unto you what occasion have you to be so jealous in questioning of his intentions and respects unto you why will you dispute his willingnesse to save you when you must confess his readinesse to suffer and die for you Why do you cavil at his intention to enter when your hearts have felt so many of his knocking 's to open did he die for thy soul in earnest and thinkest thou that now he knocks in jest Are not his commands serious and all his promises faithful why will you distinguish your selves from Christ when Christ hath not distinguished you from himself if Christ doth not except against you why will you except against him or your selves Saint Austine in his troubles of spirit thought he heard a voice saying Tolle Lege Tolle Lege Take up and read take up and read He thereupon took up his Bible and read and the place he lighted on was Rom. 13. 11 12 13 14. verses on which he seriously mused and was converted I would say the like to you Take up the Bible and read reade this one passage of the Text read it againe and consider seriously of it If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in unto him There is enough in them if God will breath his blessing to answer all thy fears to remove all thy doubts to take off all thy exceptions to encline thy heart to open to assure thy heart of Christs present intention to come in to thee Obj. Will you say that Christ will not at all have to do with a sinner Sol. Read the Text He stands and knocks at their doors and for this end to come in Obj. Will you say he intends that for other sinners but not for you Sol. Read the Text again If any man open I will come in to him If you be not out of the number of sinners you are not out of the reach of the duty nor out of the compasse of his promise Obj. Will you say if we had opened when he knockt then indeed he would have entred Sol. Read the text again Beh●ld I stand at the door and knock if any man will open c The hope of entring is not over while the door is opening and the time of opening is not past whilest the season of knocking doth continue Obj. Will you say what will you say If I had any goodnesse in my self any worthinesse in my self Sol. What then then you would open nay then you would not open to Christ Had you any thing of your own to live upon you would never live upon Christ nay then you could not open to Christ for he will come in onely to the empty soul But peruse the text If any man will open I will come in He looks for