Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A43821
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The spring of strengthning grace in the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ demonstrated in a plain and short sermon / preached at Twickenham in Middlesex, near Hampton-Court, April 16, 1648, by Thomas Hill ...
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Hill, Thomas, d. 1653.
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1648
(1648)
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Wing H2029; ESTC R25713
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49,510
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59
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sunk him had he not had more then the strength of a man Therefore that he might be a perfect Mediator between God and man he was God-Man taking Humane nature into the fellowship of the Deity and communicating Divine nature unto those which he did intend to save Hence Paul saith Rom. 3.24 25. We are justified freely by Gods grace through the Redemption which is in Christ Iesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Hence he further saith Acts 20.28 that God did purchase the Church with his own blood So that in this part of the Priestly Office of Jesus Christ there was the power of God himself put forth Neither is there less strengthning grace manifested when he comes to appear for his people in heaven in the presence of God as Heb. 7.24 This man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood which passeth not from one to another certainly here was wonderful strength that Christ being once offered should bear the sins of many and unto them that looked for him he should appear the second time without sin unto salvation as in Heb. 9.28 That his having done away all their sins should advance them to Salvation which still shews the strength of his grace Therefore well might Paul annex that Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them This is the ground of Pauls triumph not onely for himself but in the name of all the Saints in that admirable place Rom. 8. from the 34 to the 39. ver Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Here is strengthning grace of Almighty and everlasting efficacy As Jesus Christ is the Churches King he hath a proportionable inexhaust stock of strengthning grace without such a power he could never suppress the numerous and potent adversaries of the Church which was the the solemn agreement betwixt him and his Father Psal. 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord God the Father said unto God the Son Davids Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool He will bring them to the lowest and most abject condition though for the present they look never so high and big upon the poor members of Christ. And accordingly he is still acting in heaven whereas he doth appear for his people so doubtless against his enemies as is most clear in Heb. 10.12 13. But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever so much strength of grace in that it need be but one sate down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool We may with much encouragement wrestle with God and wait upon him both for the discovering and confounding of the great Impostors Mahomet and the Pope and the removing all the Crutches of Babylon in any of the Kings Dominions or elswhere for this work is carried on with so much power that in Gods time all the Kingdoms of the earth will become the Lords and his Christs To the same purpose you shall finde an Angel come down from heaven having great power and the earth was lightned with his glory and he cryed mightily with a strong voyce Babylon is fallen all suitable to the powerful design of Christ Rev. 18.2 And she shall be utterly burned with fire in whom was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints of all that were slain upon the earth some way reducible to her or her adherents for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her ver 8. Neither could Jesus Christ be a Resurrection to any sinners nor quicken with Spiritual life whom he would as Ioh. 5.20 unless that were true ver 26. As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to have life in himself and that to be able to raise his own unto eternal life ver 29. All which argues abundance of strengthning grace in him This was the foundation of Pauls Prayer for his Ephesians chap. 1. ver 18. That the eyes of their understanding being inlightened here is powerful grace still they might know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power Here is a great heap of Emphatical expressions to shew the accumulative power of the grace that is in Jesus Christ Were he not so strong that he were able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that worketh in us Eph. 3.20 Paul would never have used such an expression That ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height there must it seems be a power in us to inable us to fathom and comprehend the vast dimensions of that strengthning grace that is in our Head here is the breadth of this grace covering all the sins of every one of his eleâ—t even from Adam to the end of the world Here is the length of this grace it extends from everlasting to everlasting Here is the depth of it it lifts up poor creatures from the very pit of hell And the height of it it advances them to sit by him in his own throne in Heaven After the intrinsecal fulness of the grace of Christ follows the Redundancy thereof for there is in him not onely plenitudo vasis but also plenitudo fontis there is the original fulness of a living fountain in him which he delights to communicate for the supplies of his people This discovers it self in four particulars There is a Redundancy into all the faculties of our souls he fills the Minde with gracious principles the Conscience with a holy tenderness the Will with flexibleness and compliance with his Will and sways the Affections to act regularly upon their objects Doubtless Christ Jesus the second Adam will do as much for all those that have Vnion with him as the first Adam did against those that were in him And therefore whereas by his fall there was not onely a total deprivation of original righteousness but a universal depravation of all the faculties a general
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 get something within that may strengthen and enable thee to do thy work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be strong be strengthned passively expect it from another Strength is that which men glory in and therefore very desireable But what strength In the grace He doth not onely say Be thou strong in the Lord and in the power of his might as Ephes. 6.10 But in grace indeed he ultimately intends a participation of strength but withal intimates the original of that strength to be Grace as if he should say Thou standest in need of strengthning vertue in thee all that strength must be derived from Grace expect it from no external motive without God himself we have no arguments to move him to bestow strength upon us it is his Prerogative Royal peculiar to himself to act independently to have mercy on whom he will have mercy and Because he will have mercy Rom. 9.15 Ephes. 1.4 6 9. All derived from grace and resolved into grace And where lies this strengthning grace In the grace that is in Christ Jesus very significantly in the Original by the Article indigitating Christ to be the Spring of thy strengthning grace God will not trust thee with grace in thy own keeping lest thou prove a Bankrupt as Adam did and thou wouldst soon grow intolerable proud if thou wast able to act by thy own strength independently upon God very hard to keep down that weed even now in thy most depending condition therefore thy strength shall lie in Christs hands and thou be at his disposal for the communication of it so that thou shalt always have occasion to say Lord I cannot mortifie pride by the strength of my own humility that often fails me Lord I cannot confute my unbelief by the strongest arguments my Faith can produce I shall never be able to trample upon Satan or keep up under his Temptations from sinking without the strength and sufficiency of that grace which is in my Head Christ Iesus Lord make me strong by that Almighty grace which is in him That there is such a Spring of quickning grace in our Rock Christ Jesus is evident Isa. 9.6 The Government is upon his shoulders for the perfection of his Church and many other good purposes which require strength which is hinted in the expression On his shoulders Paul had a Commission to Preach the unsearchable riches of Christ Ephes. 3.8 to display his grace which is like a Sea you can finde no bounds like a Spring you cannot reach the bottom The Sea of Christs grace as in nature flows from the Spring and the Spring from the Sea so there is no reason of grace but grace it self This is to be acknowledged by all to be the deep mystery of God and of the Father and of the Son in whom are hid all the tresures of wisdom and knowledge The same blessed Apostle Col. 2.2 3. treasures therefore 1. Abundance 2. of things of price of wisdom and knowledge which being directive as well as operative impart strength Hid sometimes we hide things for secrecy and so the life of a Saint may be hid from carnal from godly spectators yea from himself and they droop under doubts So other things we hide for safety so chiefly though secrecy not excluded Col. 3.2 3. the life is hid with Christ in God and here is security of the Saints when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Shall let Beelzebub and all his Angels do their worst appear with him in glory Upon the same account doth this man of God so intimately acquainted with Christ Iesus in his Epistle to Philemon ver 6. pray for him That the communication of his Faith might become effectual there is his Faith with the strength and the efficacy of it by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Iesus there 's grace in Christ and therefore derivatively in you because originally in him I might hence gather several Observations the first whereof might be this 1. Doct. The Spring of a Christians strength is in the Rock Iesus Christ. Expâ—ic Here you have three particulars conducing to Explication of this Gospel-Truth 1. The nature and proportion of this strengthning grace in Christ Jesus 2. His title to it and possession of it 3. The sweet variety and various sweetness of this strengthning grace in Christ. First for the nature and proportion of it two things will clear it 1. There is in Jesus Christ the fulness of grace 2. The redundancy of this fulness of grace He is a full fountain and likewise an overflowing fountain The more you contemplate Christ in the glorious glass of the Gospel the sooner you will discover in him a Prophetical fulness of strengthning grace and that both in regard of the strength of his Word and in regard of the power of his Spirit both which are of great strength If you cast your eye upon the second Epistle of Paul to Timothy Chap. 3. ver 15 17. you shall finde that the holy Scripture is able to make a man wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus there must be still an improvement of that strengthning grace which is in him and likewise it is profitable that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works There is that in the word of Jesus Christ which is able to compleat men as Saints and as Ministers and therefore doubtless full of glorious strength And so likewise in regard of the Spirit hear what the Prophet Micah saith Chap. 3. ver 8. But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgement and of might to declare unto Iacob his transgression and to Israel his sin And when Jesus Christ did appear to Paul Acts 26.13 to make him a Minister and a Witness both of these things which he had seen and in those things in the which he would appear to him ver 16. doubtless there was a powerful presence of the Spirit of Jesus Christ abundance of strengthning grace to be conveyed by him otherwise how could he possibly open their eyes to whom he was sent ver 18. to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me still they are led to the Spring of grace in Christ now all these speak no less then an Almighty power You may perceive a fulness of strengthning grace in Christ as he is the Churches Priest otherwise he could never make full satisfaction to his Fathers Justice He could never so prevailingly intercede for the Saints in Heaven which are the two Branches of his Priestly Office when all the sins of his people met upon him so it is in the Original Isa. â—3 6 they would have