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virtue_n brazen_a look_v serpent_n 839 5 9.9901 5 false
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A59692 Subjection to Christ in all his ordinances and appointments the best means to preserve our liberty : together with a treatise of ineffectual hearing the word ... : with some remarkable passages of His life / by Thomas Shepard ... Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649. 1657 (1657) Wing S3143; ESTC R34250 104,538 128

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say Oh Brethren let the Saints let it be the care of all the faithfull and people of God the first thing that ye do before ye come to hear a Sermon or receive a Sacrament or to any Christian communion or other Ordinance of God Before thou do'st come indeavour it at least to bring thy soul to a God to Christ above all Ordinances and break through the difficulties heart is dead and minde is blind and God is gone but yet break through difficulties and wrestle with the Lord in Prayer and then ye wil find the blessing of the Lord. The great reason why we enjoy not that mighty presence of the Lord in his Ordinances it is this Men come to Ordinances and would enjoy Ordinances but they never broke through difficulties to come to a God When men shall come to Ordinances only blessed be God we have the temple of the Lord truly this wil do you no good in the world The 5th Degree of casting off the supreme power of Christ in his Ordinances many times when the soul cannot come to Christ the Lord comes to it Now then the supreme power of Christ is cast off when the soul is unwilling or carelesse to receive the stroke of the Eternall power of the life of Jesus into his heart but contents himself with some beginnings some sips and tastes and doth not lye under the stroke of the eternall Spirit of the life of Christ. Look as it is with a company of Subjects they are in some great Town that stands it out against a Prince If the Prince send to them and they parlie with him and they are thankfull for his gifts and glad of his parly but yet notwithstanding they are unwilling to receive the Prince with all his power to come into the Town if they be unwilling to do that and are loath to joyn sides against the other party they cast him off from being King So it is here when men come to the Lord in Ordinances the Lord he parlies with them the Lord he sends promises and they are marvellous precious things and they have some taste of what the Lord do's send and it is sweet to them But now because they have lusts in their hearts the Lord saith make warre against thy lust and open the gates that I may come in If so be a man now out of secret love to his sin he content himself with the promises of Christ but the life of Christ he cares not for that he uses not all means that he may find that the supreme power of the Lord Jesus is now cast off and I know no difference between such a people and Capernaum they did enjoy the Gospell of God but now to entertain the Lord Jesus in his spirituall power this they were loath to come to therefore saith the Lord W● to thee Capernaum the mighty work of Jesus Christ in their hearts this they never cared for Saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 10. 5. The weapons of our warfare they are mighty through God As poor things as you think the Ordinances of the Lord to be they are mighty through the Lord When Christians shall not be willing to receive this mighty power of the Lord Jesus Christ truly now the Kingdome of Christ is cast off Iohn 6. 49. Your fathers ate Manna in the Wildernesse and are dead that was outward Manna but he that eateth me shall live for ever In one word thus this is certain a man never gets good by any Ordinance nor the Lord Jesus doth never attain his end in any Ordinance till there be an everlasting power and life of Christ Jesus communicated by the Ordinance There saith he God commandeth his blessing life for evermore mercy for ever comforting and light for ever teaching and humbling for ever continuing and a man will never think he doth receive any good till he doth it For if a man be healed of his blindnesse and be blind presently again what is he the better So if a man hath some flash of light in the Ordinance blesse the Lord for it The Lord quickens up the heart to walk with the Lord Blessed be the Lord for it Ay but when the heart now shall lose that life and strength which it had not but that a Christian do's lose to his feeling but it will return again When he is a hearing some affection but he goes away dead as hee came no but when the Lord comes by his everlasting power and mercy and life in any Ordinance now Christ comes in his power and now ye receive the King in his power and Christ attains his end in the Ordinance This is all that I would say I do beseech you brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ Oh seek for this blessed life everlasting life Lord everlasting power Lord beg for that and seek for that and pray for that and weep for that do not content thy self with sippings and tastings look for everlasting life and power to come with the Ordinance though means be weak in themselves do not therefore vilifie them Look upon the brazen serpent what a poor thing was that to heal the people that were stung yet the institution of Christ did put vertue into it So do thou attend on the Ordinances and never be content till thou dost find the Lord and feel the Lord and say as some have said though I feel not the Lord now as I have done yet I think I shall for ever blesse the Lord. Never be content till ye find the Lord bringing your heart to this passe and then the King of glory the Prince of peace is come though ye find not the same power at all times yet if ye finde that power which do's inure your heart for ever to blesse the Lord here is everlasting power Jesus is now come to thy soul Ay but when ye content your selves with some movings and beginnings and sin and Satan as strong again as ever and ye find not your sin wasting and consuming in truth the Lord Jesus is cast off and ye have not the end for which ye come to the Ordinances of the Lord. But then ye are blessed for ever when ye find this 2. There is a derivative power of Christ to the Church joyntly considered together Mat. 18. 17. Go and tell the Church is the highest tribunal Christ hath on earth in the Kingdome of Saints 'T is Christs high Court of Parliament beyond which there is no appeal to any higher power than the Church and it cannot be meant of the Officers of the Church which is the fairest interpretation For the case may be that there is but one Officer and is he the Church as also that he may sin and not hear of his sin and must they leave him to himself at least to judge of his sin They power of Keys was given to Peter quia fidelis and the power to bind and loose to two or three gathered together in Christs name Mat. 18. but these