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A43824 The strength of the saints to make Jesvs Christ their strength which heavenly skill was briefly commended and prescribed in a morning exercise in Westminster Abbey, the 19th of April, 1648 / by Thomas Hill ... Hill, Thomas, d. 1653. 1648 (1648) Wing H2030; ESTC R25713 22,258 28

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and act in some conformity to that word that was delivered to you and this is the blessed advantage of this mornings exercise if people have hearts to make use of them that before the Divel hath taken possession of your soules the spirit of God shall prevent him and here you shall have the Gospell come warme next your hearts and that you may have something there that may leave such a tincture that may fortify you against the incursions of temptations the ordinary invasions of the devil here is strengthening grace conveyed by these impressions as when a man throwes a stone out of his hands Philosophers have very great disputes how it is possible that a stone should move they tell you there is an impression of something upon it vis impressa I am sure here is an impression when Jesus Christ comes into the soule and drawes nigh to it and puts somewhat into it and by a sweet and a loving violence carryes on the soule in duty Thirdly As by a union with him as by an impression made upon us by him so by a continued influence from him It is not enough to have uniō with him it is not enough to have an impression made upon our spirits from him bulit is his continued influence that doth it when there is an obstruction in the passages either betwixt the Liver and Heart and the Vitals and other parts or betwixt the head and the parts whence sense and motion should be conveighed in any of those passages when there is any obstruction at what a losse are we presently because the continuall influence is hindred when there is no such thing that doth obstruct and hinder the sweet intercourse betwixt the soule and Christ and illapses from the spirit of Christ into our spirits O it is that that doth indeed strengthen and animate them and so you see the possibility Here is some seasonable use in the first place I hope therefore if it be so you that are standers by as I doubt there may be some here are still unacquainted with Jesus Christ and at an unhappy distance from him all this while the Lord if it be his will discover so much of his goodnesse to you that you may long after intimacy with him no such friend on this side heaven unto you I say if there be such strength in him and it be such a high point of wisedome for Christians to make him their strength for all supplies O think the better of him I beseech you do not entertaine any hard thoughts of Jesus Christ let not either the weaknesses or impotencies of Gods people nor their failings nor any prejudicate opinions that carnall men would scatter amongst you any of your fellow drunkards or Atheists or Formalists or what ever they are concerning Jesus Christ let not them nourish in you a low opinion it is the way to undo you for all your strength lies in Him you will never be able to overcome the least sin or passion nor the least temptation without the powerfull grace of Jesus him and then indeed you are everlastingly undone if you cannot overcome the least evill Alas what will become of poor souls it would grieve one to think of it that it may be are under the greatest snares as of bad company for 20 years together so hedg'd in with carnal freinds and acquaintance poore children with carnall fathers and mothers and it may be a very carnall wife sometimes a most carnall husband and here shee is intangled tyrannized over c. Brethren I beseeh you consider it well and you that have got any acquaintance with Jesus Christ already O pity poor souls that do not know where their strength lies nor have learned how to make use of him use all the Art you can how to breed such opinions in them of Jesus Christ and his grace that they may fall in love with him It may be when they come to die then they will send for their Minister and then they would hear something of Christ O but there is a sad story of a mean person that made love to one that had some kind of height of Condition who would not when he was grown great then she would have had him then he would not he returned her this answer you were wise I am wise you woul not before now I will not what if Jesus Christ should return you this answer when you are upon your fick beds and you send for your Ministers and nothing will satisfie you but the Communion then though you cared not for Communion with Christ in your health neither can you make out upon any cleer grounds of Scripture why you should then so much desire it and you would then it may be be absolved though you have no evidence at al in scripture for it but what if Jesus Christ should return you this answer I will lock up my Ministers Spirit that it may be he shall not be able to pray for you or at least lock up Heaven gates against his prayers that he will not hear and so upon this ground you are for ever undone if millions of Angels if all the glorified Saints and Angels in Heaven should joyn their prayers together to beseige the Throne of grace for you they could not prevail and therefore let that be your care I beseech you to labor to gain good opinions of Jesus Christ in them that they may heartily imbrace him If this be so that it is the only strength of Christians to make Jesus Christ their strength give me leave to commend a friendly a brotherly caution to you at this time Take heed of resting upon any thing below Jesus Christ for so far as you fall short of Him so far you fall short of strength when you would attempt any thing you think to catch hold of such a rope or lay hold of such a pole if you be to go over a bridge and you come short of it down you may fall off the bridge and break your neck and truly so it is with many thousand souls they have wishings and wouldings and some dull vellieties some lazy purposes and promises sick-bed-vows they have but alas all this fals short of Christ and so far they shall fall short of heaven roar eternally in hellish torments in a remediless estate bewailing themselves that they have no better improved Jesus Christ in the day of their Visitation when He did with so much loving importunity and with so much unwearied patience stand and knock at the door Oh then it will be too late it may be then you 'l weep over your selves as Jesus Christ did over Jerusalem Oh that I had known the day of my Visitation but now I see these things are hid from my eyes and now eternal desolation in the depth of hellish torments will be my remediless portion Oh! how sad will this be therefore accept of this
become a gracious preaching Paul Hee felt the happy influence of this grace in the Text It s observed that you have Christ mentioned in Pauls Epistles 223 times and Iesus at least 233 times To make up this number Paul contributes very much in his Epistles His spirit was so brimfull of Christ that his Pen overflowes with his Name whom severall times he mentions Christ in 10 verses in the beginning of the first Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians Upon very good reason might Paul thank Christ that enabled him and counted him faithfull putting him into the Ministry Fidelity and ability two great mercies when bestowed on a Minister Upon this stock of grace in Christ did the Martyrs spend when so victorious Heb. 11. 33 34 35. Who through faith subdued Kingdomes wrought righteousnesse obtained promises stopped the mouths of Lyons qnencheà the violence of fire cscaped the edge of the sword a out of weaknesse were made strong waxed valiant in fight turned to slight the Armies of aliens women received their dead raised to life againe and others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtaine a better resurrection What a full and rich expression is this Out of weaknesse were made strong nothing previously preparatory in them towards this strength out of weaknesse made strong they were first receptive of strength from Christ before they could be active for Christ This leads me to the second observation the former having been handled in the foregoing Sermon which was this 1. There is a spring of strengthning Grace in Christ Jesus for the advantage of Saints The second observation which is this followeth naturally arising out of the words It is the strength of Christians their onely strength to learne how to make the Lord Iesus their strength You have an excellent place to confirm it in Eph. 6. 10. Finally my Brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of hus might Be strong good reason for it but where lies the strength in the Lord that is the former point and in the power of his might Go not out in any strength of your owne any confidence of it for all is but impotency but in the power of his might This is very significantly in the Text by the Apostle Paul Possibly there may be such an Emphasis in the composition some intention he doth not say there is a strength within thee But where shall I have it from Christ it is the strength of Christ Jesus in him is all thy strength I shall branch this befor I come to the Application to three heads First I will endeavor as God shall please to enable to demonstrate the wisedome of this course the wisedome of it for a Christian to learn this heavenly skill how to make the Lord Jesus his strength 2. To shew you the effectuall purposes of it what good ends it serves to 3. The possibility of it 1. The wisedome of it and that will appeare upon these four considerations 1. If you do but thinke upon your owne impotency reflect upon your selves when you have been at the best when you have thought your mountaine hath been immoveable and you have stood most sure have not you sometimes soone after driven very heavily in duties as if your chariot wheeles had been knocked off when you have thought to have done best you come off most dryly yea I am confident that divers Ministers understand this and it may be others in part too they have been preparing a sermon and thought O certainly this passage will take and it may be win soules and when they in preaching or in praying have had some proud reflections upon such expressions enlargements or hints from heaven a little weed of pride hath begun to spring up and men love to much to looke upon their own seeming beauty and their own flashes hath provoked God suddenly to withdraw his spirit presently thy strength hath failed and thou art at a losse what doth this argue there is an impotency in thy selfe As there is an impotency in thy selfe and therefore it is thy wisedome to make Jesus Christ thy strength so there is an insufficiency in all the best of Ordinances they are but created meanes at the most and further then the Creator continues to be a Preserver and a Governor and an Actor of his own workmanship it can do nothing many that lived under the most pure and pretious Ordinances where Paul was a Preacher yea where Jesus Christ preached so many powerfull sermons upon earth yet you know there were Scribes and Pharisees still that did imprison those pretious Gospel truths that not onely for the excellency but for the novelty of them should have been entertained Men use to bid welcome new things yet all would not do not as to the Ordinances themselves for then all would have been converted only as Jesus Christ came in and seized upon such a soule so many and no more werewon upon to embrace him but self and Ordinances as is spoken as I remember in that of Job the latter end concerning wisedome c. 28. v. 12 14. c. depth saith it is not in me and earth and sea and all disclame wisedome it is not in me we have heard of the fame thereof but it is not in us and so indeed may all the Ordinances say strength is not in me and Ordinances indeed will speake great things of the strength of grace in Christ Jesus but they will tell you though it be set forth it is not to be had in us it is to be had only in Jesus Christ himself 3. You may please to consider this that Jesus Christ hath strength confin'd to him hath an office to that purpose a commission under the broad seal of Heaven all things are put into his hand the Spirit of strength and all God the Father loved him and hath put all things into his hand He being Immanuel God man and the onely mediator to bring sinfull man into a capacity to receive grace and glory from God 2 Pet. 1. 3. And thus all this strength is concenterd in Jesus Christ and so confined to him that there is not the least drop or dram of spirituall strength but what comes derivatively and redundantly from him Trust in the Lord Jehovah for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength he was Abrahams Rocke to anchor upon and though many waves may have beate upon it since yet it is not wasted the same Rocke in Davids time the same Rocke in Pauls time the same Rocke for his poore Saints in this time blessed be his name he is the Rocke of Ages and therefore everlasting strength alwayes to overflow to his people Fourthly and lastly It is a high point of wisedome because a Christian will have so much need of this strengthning grace from Christ there is an hint to this purpose in the 6. Ephes.