Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	able_a	strong_a	zion_n	29	3	8.8781	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49252	The naturall mans case stated, or, An exact map of the little world man considered in both his capacities, either in the state of nature or grace / as is laid down in XVII sermons by that late truely orthodox divine, Mr. Christopher Love ... ; whereunto is annexed The saints triumph over death, being his funeral sermon, by that painful labourer in the Lords vineyard, Mr. Tho. Manton ...	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677. Saints triumph over death.	1652 (1652)	Wing L3169; ESTC R35003	150,068	340

While the meat was yet intheir months the wrath of the Lord came upon them Thus then you see the positive part of mans misery out of Christ what he undergoes We come now to shew you the privative part of his misery what hee wants and here very much might be spoken in declaring the misery of a Christlesse man in the privative part of it in those things which he wants in being without an interest in Christ but I shall run over this briefly and comprise all that I have to say to you under these six heads and then come to the application first then are you without Christ why then you are without strength as in Joh. 25. 5. Without me you can de nothing saies Christ nay Paul goes further in 2 Cor. 3. 5. We are of our selves as of our selves sayes he not able to think a good thought but all our sufficiency is from God herein lies the misery of a man out of Christ he is able to do nothing he is like Sampson without his hair he that before could break Iron bands like so many straws now his strength was no more then another mans Beloved you are very weak indeed if you want Christ in Esai 45. 54. it is said there that Christ is made unto a beleever righteousnesse and strength now if you want Christ you want righteousnesse by way of acceptance and you want strength by way of assistance But here to branch out this more particularly I shall shew you in five particulars wherein a man without Jesus Christ wants strength 1. Every man out of Christ wants strength to perform any duty as in Rom. 8. 26. We know not what to pray for as wee ought we are able to doe nothing that is spiritually good of our selves all our duties and services without the righteousnesse of Christ added to them are but like so many ciphers now you know put 1000. ciphers together and they make no sum but if one figure be prefixt to them they make an innumerable number why so all our duties of themselves are worth nothing but then Christ being added to them that puts an estimate upon them and makes them of a considerable value and worth 2. You are without strength to exercise any grace a dead man is as well able to stir as a man without Christ is able to step one step heaven-ward if God should say I will save thy soul and give thee heaven couldst thou but perform one duty or exercise one Grace thou couldst not do it and therefore Christ tels us in Joh. 15. Unlesse you be in me you can bring forth no fruit 3. Without Christ thou art without strength to subdue any lust Oh how unable art thou to keep under a predominant and a turbulent lust every sin will prevail and domineer in thy soul in Gal. 2. 20. sayes Paul I have crucified sin yet not I but Christ that liveth in me the messenger of Satan that was sent to buffet Paul had prevailed over him if Christ had not helped him you are not able to subdue any lust without Christ 4. You are without strength to resist any temptation in Ephes 6. 10. Paul exhorts them there to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might not in the power of their own might for they were not able to stand of themselves by their own strength but be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might so David when he came to fight against great Goliah had he gone out to meet him in his own strength he had been overcome and devoured but he went against him in the name and in the strength of the Lord of hosts 5. A man without Christ is without strength to bear or undergoe any afflictions every affliction that is but like a feather to one that is in Christ will be like a lump of lead upon thee a godly man if he hath any way withdrawn himself from Christs aid and assistance a little affliction will sinck him for it is given us of God not only to do but to suffer for his sake Phil. 2. 21. Intimating that unlesse God doth enable us to suffer we are not able to bear up our spirits under any affliction Thus then you see that if you want an interest in Christ you want strength in these five particulars to perform any duty to exercise any grace to subdue any lust to resist any temptation or to bear any affliction but 2. If you are without Christ you are not onely without strength but without growth likewise Jesus Christ is to the souls of men what the warm beams of the Sun are to the earth take away the influence of the warm beams of the Sun from the earth and then all the grasse of the field and every hearb and green thing will die and wither away presently so Christ he is our Sun of righteousnesse take away Christ from a man and there wil no blossomes of grace bud forth in that mans heart Adams stock is a barren root upon which no branch of grace will spring forth you can never bring forth any fruit unto God unlesse you be graffed not upon Adams Stock but upon the Stock of the root of Jesse a man during his unconverted estate he is the Devils slave and he never brings forth fruit till he come to be in Christ only in and through Christ we are enabled to bring forth acceptable fruit unto God 3. Without Christ thou are likewise without worth though thou art the son of a Noble and of the off-spring of Princes that canst lay claim to thousands and ten thousands per annum yet without Christ thou art poor and wretched and miserable and blinde and naked Rev. 3. 17. For it is Christ alone that is the repository and storehouse of all wisdom and knowledge and all the treasures of it are bound up in him 4. Without Christ you are without comfort this is a deplorable misery a man without Christ is without comfort As that would be an uncomfortable dwelling where the Sun should not shine by day nor the Moon by night even so would thy soul be very disconsolate if Christ did not shine in upon thy heart the comforts of a child of God does either ebbe or flow as Christ either comes to him or goes from him 5. Without Christ thou art without liberty If the son make you free then are you free indeed Joh. 8. 36. And unlesse the Son make you free you are slaves indeed slaves to sin slaves to your lusts slaves to the creatures and slaves to the devill by whom you are taken captive at his will you are never free men and women till the Son make you free 6. If thou art without Jesus Christ thou art without beauty thou art only like a carkasse without life or a body without a head it is Christ only that gives us beauty and comelinesse Ezek. 16. 14. And thy renown went forth

yet yours shall be accepted when theirs shall be rejected Thus I have done with the use of terrour in laying down to you this sixfold misery of those men that are strangers to the covenant of grace and here because I would not have any poor soul that is under the covenant of grace and partaker of all the great priviledges of it to goe away with a sad heart I shall onely leave with you two or three words of comfort to them You children of the covenant that are under the covenant of grace let not your hearts be troubled at what hath been said this day concerning the misery of those men that are strangers to this covenant and to bear up and support your spirits I shall give you two or three comfortable considerations 1. That all the outward blessings that you enjoy comes to you in a covenant way God hath given you these blessings as an appendix to the covenant and by vertue of an entail to his covenant the Lord never gives you a common blessing but you see the love of a Father and of a husband and of a friend and the love of God in that blessing and therefore as I told you before in that very chapter where God promiseth the blessings of the covenant of grace he promiseth the blessings of this life too as an intail to the covenant wicked men may have blessings but not by vertue of a promise not by vertue of the covenant of grace But now if you ask mee how you may know whether the blessings you enjoy come unto you by vertue of the Covenant of Grace I answer you may know it by these two things 1. In case you doe use and imploy all the blessing you receive from God to the honour of God thus Abraham did as you may see in Gen. 17. 1 2 8 12. his using the blessings of God to promote the service of God did demonstrate that those blessings came to him from God in a covenant way but those that are strangers to this Covenant the mercies they enjoy are given them for their hurt 2. When blessings are as cords to draw you nearer to God and as bands to tye you fast to God then they come to you in a Covenant way as in Jer. 31. 11 12. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that is stronger then he therefore they shall come and rejoice in the height of Sion and shall run to the bountifulnesse of the Lord even for the wheat and for the wine and for the oyle and for the increase of sheep and bullocks c. That is all the mercies of God shall make them to come nearer and nearer and cleave closer to God you then that do enjoy your share of the blessings of God and they do not endeer you and draw you nearer to God you cannot look upon them as flowing in upon you in a Covenant way 2. You that are in covenant with God know this for your comfort that the Lord does accept of a little that you do in his service better then a great deal that a wicked man performs to him God will accept of a few turtle doves of you when he will not accept of 1000 Rams or 10000 rivers of oyle of the wicked he will accept of a cup of cold water given to a righteous man in the name of a righteous man when he will not accept of the costliest sacrifice from the wicked Oh what a happy condition art thou in that art under the covenant of grace wicked men may heare more Sermons and performe more duties and say more prayers to God then you and yet in all their duties be rejected when thou art accepted 3. Take this for your comfort that when ever you offend God and provoke him to anger you have a Mediator to stand between God and you though you are guilty yet you have an Advocate to plead your cause for you you that are under the covenant of grace you may say to Christ your Mediator as the Israelites said to Moses when they had offended God goe thou and speak unto God for us so may you say when you have nothing but thundring and lightning and tempests in your souls and the flashings of hell fire in your consciences then you may say to Christ go now to God and speak for me mediate with thy Father for the pardon of all my sins I have offended God o● intercede with him in my behalf I have committed a great offence oh plead with thy Father and beg a pardon for me thus thou maist say to Christ being under the covenant of grace But here lest any one should lye under a spirituall delusion and think himself under the covenant of grace when he is a stranger to it lest the Dogs should snatch at the Childrens meat I shall lay down to you some distinguishing Characters whereby you may know whether you are under the covenant of grace or no and before I make entrance upon this I will only premise four sad and dismall conclusions which will make way the better for what I have to handle in the examination 1. Take in this conclusion that a man may be within the outward and common priviledges of the covenant of grace and yet be without the saving and spirituall priviledges of it as pardon of sin having God to be your God and Christ to be your Saviour c. as in Deut. 29. 10 11 12. sayes Moses there You stand this day all of you before the Lord your God your Captains of Tribes your Elders and your Officers with all the men of Israel your little ones your wives and the stranger that is in thy camp from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water that thou shouldst enter into covenant with the Lord thy God Now here you see were all from the rich to the poor to enter into covevenant with God and yet it is not imaginable that all these did partake of the inward priviledges of the Covenant of grace they did all partake of circumcision which was the seal of the covenant of the outward priviledges of it but not all did partake of the inward and speciall mercies of the covenant of grace as pardon of sin peace of conscience joy in beleeving God to be their God and Christ to be their Saviour and so in Rom. 9. 4 5. sayes the Apostle They are the Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises of whom are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came these were very great priviledges and yet saies the text in vers 8. These are not all the children of God though they had the externall blessings of the Covenant yet they were not all the children of God so that you see you may be within the Church of God and partake of the outward blessings