Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
state_n christian_a church_n communion_n 1,593 5 9.3126 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A59788 An answer to a late scandalous pamphlet entituled A friendly debate between Satan and Sherlock, written by Thomas Danson by William Sherlock ... Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. 1677 (1677) Wing S3262; ESTC R31818 41,442 72

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

and Forgiveness for his past sins and the proper use of Gods love in sending Christ into the World is to conquer our obstinacy and to encourage our Hopes Thus the greatness of Christs Person gives great Reverence and Authority to his Gospel and an inviolable Sanction to his Laws as the Apostle argues If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of Reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord 2 Heb. 1 2 3. And this gives great Authority to his Example and lays forcible obligations on us to imitate him who was not only our Saviour but God incarnate And this assures us of the infinite value of his Sacrifice and of the power of his Intercession God cannot but be pleased when his own Son undertakes to be a Ransom and to make Atonement for Sinners which is so great a vindication of Gods Dominion and Soveraignty of the authority of his Laws and the wisdom and justice of his Providence that he may securely pardon humble and penitent sinners without reproaching any of his Attributes and we can desire no greater security for the performance of this Gospel-Covenant than that it was sealed with the blood of the Son of God And this is a great encouragement to return to God when we have such a powerful Advocate and Mediator to intercede for us But then we must expect no more from Christ upon account of his personal Excellencies and Perfections than what he hath promised in his Gospel Christ is the object of our Faith and Hope only as he is our Saviour and he is our Saviour in no other sense than as he is our Mediator and he mediates for us as our Priest that is in vertue of that Covenant which he hath sealed with his blood and therefore we have no reason to expect any thing from the Person of Christ which is not contained in his Covenant much less which contradicts it for that would be in effect to renounce his Mediation and to trust to the goodness of his Nature Christ will in his own Person accomplish all those Promises he hath made whether they concern the present assistances of his Grace or his Providence and Protection in this World or the future rewards of the next but we must learn what Christ will do for us and upon what terms not from the boundless Perfections and Excellencies of his Person but from the Declarations of the Gospel though the consideration of his Person who he is and how he lived and what he taught may convince any man that he will be a Saviour to none but those who live in the practise of that Righteousness of which he was a Preacher and Example Now to silence the clamors of some men who upbraided those Preachers who spent their greatest zeal in expounding the Laws of Christ and in pressing men by all the Motives and Arguments of the Gospel the Sacrifice and Mediation of Christ the necessity of a good Life to make men happy hereafter and the many great advantages of Holiness here c. to the practice of an universal Righteousness I say to silence the clamors of those who upbraided such Preachers with not preaching Christ I considered in the next place what it is to know Christ and so consequently what it is to preach Him and the sum of it was this That to know Christ is to be acquainted with that Revelation which Christ hath made of Gods will to the World For as in former Ages God made himself known by the light of Nature and the works of Creation and Providence and those partial and occasional Revelations of his Will which he made to good men now in these last days he hath sent his Son into the World to declare his Will to us And therefore the only useful knowledge is to understand those Revelations which Christ hath made of Gods Will the necessary consequence of which is that he who expounds the Laws and Doctrine of the Gospel does in the most proper sense preach Christ as Philip is said to preach Christ to the Samaritans Act. 8. 5. which in ver 12. is called Preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ that is the whole Doctrine of the Gospel The whole Christian Religion is the Knowledge of Christ and the Laws of Righteousness and the Motives to Obedience as principal a part as any because this was the ultimate design of Christs coming into the World to reform mens lives and to prepare them for the happiness of the next World by transforming them into a Divine Nature All that Christ did and suffered was only in order to this end and then we understand all those Mysteries of the Incarnation and Death and Intercession of Christ as much as is necessary to the purposes of Religion when we understand what obligations they lay on us to a holy Life and feel their power and virtue in renewing and sanctifying our minds In the next place I observed that the foundation of the greatest and most dangerous mistakes was laid in a wrong notion of our Union to Christ of which some men discourse in such uncouth and Cabbalistical terms as no body can understand and therefore I endeavoured to state the true notion of our Union to Christ and Communion with him And the sum of it is this that those Metaphors which describe our union to Christ do primarily refer to the Christian Church not to every individual Christian as Christ is the Head and the Church or whole Society of Christians his Body a Husband and the Church his Spouse a Shepherd and the Church his Flock a Rock whereon his Church is built the chief corner Stone and the Church a holy Temple But as for particular Christians their Union to Christ is by means of their Union to the Christian Church that is no man can be united to Christ till he be a Christian and no man is in the Scripture account a Christian till he make a publick profession of his Faith and be solemnly admitted into the Christian Church which is the Body of Christ for which he died and to which all the Promises of the Gospel are made A secret and private Faith in Christ is not ordinarily enough to make any man a Christian but Faith in the Heart and the Confession of the Mouth are both necessary Rom. 10. 9 10. Christ himself hath appointed the publick Sacrament of our Initiation and our Church teaches her Children that in their Baptism which is their solemn admission into the Christian Church They are made Members of Christ the Children of God and the Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven But I have abundantly confirmed this Notion in my former Discourse and those who would be more fully satisfied in it may have recourse thither The next thing to be considered is what is the true nature of