Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	love_n	son_n	spirit_n	15,059	5	5.7830	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48861	The glory of free grace display'd: or, The transcendant excellency of the love of God in Christ, unto believing, repenting sinners, in some measure describ'd Wherein, 1. The doctrine about election, and the covenant of reconciliation is explained. 2. The error of the antinomians, who assert, that the filth of sin was laid on Christ, and that the holiness as well as the righteousness of Christ is made the elects while in the womb, &c. With their abuse of free-grace particularly detected and confuted. 3. In what sense our sins were laid on Christ, and Christ's righteousness made the believers, according to the sacred scriptures, evinced. 4. The glory of irresistible-grace, as exerted in the conversion of a sinner in opposition to the Arminian, cleared. 5. A modest defence of the sober dominican, about physical predetermination.	Lobb, Stephen, d. 1699.	1680 (1680)	Wing L2724B; ESTC R218819	67,996	163

decree of Grace 't was absolutely necessary that Infinite Wisdom be in exercise for the work was stupendious too great for finite capacities to engage in a work no way beneath God himself A Holy Good and just Law unto which was annexed a severe threatning is transgressed mankind is become unholy and unclean altogether filthy and polluted liable to to the greatest miseries the Lord still Just and Righteous True and faithful a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity or delight in sin or in the unreconciled sinner Sin must be punished justice must be satisfied Holiness and Truth Glorified but Man in the circumstances he then was unable to do either He cannot appease Gods Wrath nor satisfy Justice nor purifie or cleanse his own heart to perfection how then can he become the object of everlasting love or how is it possible that the Gracious decree be executed I answer Whoever considers these things seriously cannot but cry out and say if this work be accomplished it must be the Lords own doing and marvelous in our eyes The contrivance must be the effort of infinite wisdome and the Glory of that Grace for which such a work must be carried on is Unspeakable and verily the Lord hath shewn himself to be God even in that he hath found out a way for the doing this Wisdom dwelt with Prudence and found out the knowledge of this witty invention Prov. 8.12,30 3. God the Father consulted with God the Son and it rejoyced their soul that Grace might be magnified that Justice and Mercy might greet each other That the Love of God might be made known unto man without the impeachment of the honour of his other Attributes But what was the contrivance 't was this God the Father entred into a Covenant with God the Son in which Covenant there is observable 1. What the Father required from the Son 2. What the Father Promised the Son 1. What the Father required the Son to do which more generally was the exalting Free-Grace in the actual Salvation of some even in a way agreable with the other glorious perfections of God But more particularly several things in order to the obtaining this end must be done 1. A body must be prepared for the Son he must assume humane nature it being necessary that he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified should be of one of one common Parent Adam and therefore God the Son took on him the flesh and blood viz. The nature of the Brethren the humane but not corrupt nature Heb. 2.11,14,16 And therefore a body was prepared for the Son Heb. 10.5 c. 2. In this nature God the Son must come into the World Prov. 8.30,31 And suffer f●… mans sin Isa 53.5 He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities Gal. 3.13 John 10.18 3. He must render a sinless a full compleat and perfect obedience to Gods Law being made under the Law Gal. 4.4 It became him to fulfil all Righteousness Math. 3.15 He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it Math. 5.17 In doing which the end of the Law was answered the honour of Gods Justice and governing wisdom conserved and the door of grace opened to believing repenting returning sinners who were givens to the Lord Jesus 4. The Lord Christ was obliged to keep and preserve these given him This is the Fathers Will that of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing but shall raise it up at the last day John 6.39 2. God the Father moreover doth make rich promises unto the Son on the Sons performing the required conditions The Son shall be greatly rewarded he shall be exalted and made very high Isa 52.13 Yea God highly exalted him giving him a name above every name Philip. 2.9 c. Again God gives him a select number who shall in process of time be actually with him in the eternal glory He shall see his seed and the travel of his soul and be satisfied Isa 53.10.11 yea a select number among the Heathen Psal 2.8 Nations shall run unto him Isa 5.5 Who are called Children given unto Christ Heb. 2.13 So John 10.29 The Lord Jesus Christ speaking of his sheep that is of those that were ordained to eternal life doth say my Father which gave them me Thus you see the terms of the Covenant all ordered for the exaltation of infinitely free Grace The USES 'T is wonderful that the thoughts of God should from all eternity be concerned for faln man's salvation 3. That the Lord Christ God-man must engage in this great work that he who was eternally in the bosom of the Father should empty himself of the Glory of God and take upon him the form of a servant is mightily surprizing That God should humble himself so infinitely as to undergo the wrath of the Father Oh what manner of love what manner of Grace is this Read believingly and considerately the account given in the Scriptures of our Lord Jesus his fulfilling his part of the Covenant in the particulars thereof and you cannot but see free-grace highly exalted 1. God assumes humane nature What a wonder is this and how many miracles were wrought for the effecting it considering humane nature was by sin Corrupted and yet it must be assumed and united unto the divine without Corruption 2. God in this nature suffers not that the divine nature as such is capable of the least sufferings and therefore 't is the humane nature that is the immediate subject of sufferings but passions as well as actions being of persons we may safely say That he who is God suffered for our iniquities were laid on Christ Isay 53. Christ was made sin as 't is 2 Cor. 5.21 yea and a curse that such as do believe might be delivered from an eternal curse Gal. 3.13 But how was Christ made sin or in what sense were the iniquities of any laid on him was the filth of sin laid on Christ CHAP. IV. The difficulty proposed in the last Chapter spoken unto Sin with reference unto its FILTH GUILT and PUNISHMENT distinctly considered and Explained The punishment and Guilt of Sin laid on Christ asserted Concerning the Filth of Sin The sense of some Antonomians reduced to three particulars proposed Their first Error in saying the Filth of Sin was laid on Christ detected and confuted That the Filth of Sin be laid on Christ impossible The consequences of this Error dreadful and unscriptural The Purity and Holiness of Christ asserted and vindicated The Antinomians abuse of the Grace of God hinted IN giving a truely Scriptural a full and satisfying answer unto this difficulty we shall have a fair occasion of shewing How and after what manner Free-Grace is in its Excellencies displayed But that we may entertain right conceptions concerning this thing we must carefully distinguish between the Filth the Guilt and Punishment of sin 1. There is the Sin it self formally considered which is a transgression of a holy good and

esteemed by the Father of our blessed Jesus as clean pure and holy or as if God could not set forth the Excellency of his Grace any other way than by lying under many a mistake These notwithstanding their pretence of exulting Free-Grace denying the Omniscience or Infinite knowledge of him who is All-wise and representing the Infallible God as liable to error do sadly abuse Free-Grace 3. To suggest that Free-Grace is glorified in the actual imputing Christs righteousness unto any while in unbelief as if the swearer or Sabbath breaker the drunkard or unclean person that delights in fornication and adultery might while so be an actual partaker of the special blessings of God or as if the Sanctification of the Spirit had been no way necessary to our Salvation is a sad abuse of Grace tending to the great dishonour of the infinite Holiness and purity of God But since God is not only Gracious but also is most holy Grace is not it cannot be revealed but in a way consistent with the glory of Divine Purity and Holiness But 4. Some there are who magnifie the Free-Grace of God by concealing that glorious discovery God hath made thereof in our Lord Jesus these are they who contend for the actual justification of all the Elect from Eternity as if Jesus Christ died to procure that for the Elect which they had before the Worlds were made or as if the decree of God his electing Will an Immanent act had been transient in the actual creating justifying and saving all the Elect from eternity that is as if they had been created millions of years before there was any creature Thus men on pretence of lifting up the Free-Grace of God do not only trouble the Churches with their confusion and variety of contradictions but morcover do lightly esteem the greatest Instance of Free-Grace the Elect ●…re capable of receiving viz. the Love of God in Christ For hereby God commendeth his Love to us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 Again God SO loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son Joh. 3.16 and without blood no Remission 5. There are others who in their abuse of Free-Grace do greatly reproach the Spirit of Christ and of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by asserting that the Elect are actually Justified in the womb even before they do believe yea while they are in a state of darkness and strang●… to the powerful working of Gods holy Spirit These are they who insist on Faith as necessary only for the procuring the knowledge of that justification which they actually had before 〈◊〉 But how do these men sin against the Spirit of God by reproaching its works as if the gr●…s of the Spirit had been of no esteem as if our Faith and Repentance our Love to God and 〈◊〉 ●…lking according to the Gospel of our 〈◊〉 Redeemer had been our sin T is true the 〈…〉 doth consider the Righteousness of the 〈…〉 and the Apostle concluded that his righteousness which was not done in Faith to be as dung in comparison of the righteousness of Christ And surely because of the many imperfections that attend our best performances we have cause to be humbled daily before the Lord and to apply our selves to the blood and righteousness of Christ for pardoning mercy But yet it must be still asserted that there is a difference between those graces that are the work of God's spirit in us and the imperfections which proceed from the remains of our old corruption for that which is the work of God's Spirit as such is not dung nor dross nor filth nor stinking rags much less filthy sins The Spirit of God is the Author of Faith and Love and other graces but the Spirit of God is not the Author of sin and filth The giving grace to the soul is the renewing the Image of God on the soul but the image of God doth not consist in sin and filth and stinking rags The believer in being a partaker of the graces of God's spirit is a partaker of the divine nature but the divine nature is not composed of sin or any filthy thing 'T is our duty to believe in Christ to love God c. but 't is not our duty to sin or wallow in any spiritual uncleanness Whence then such as do deny the necessity of saith in order to our being actually justified or such as do reproach the working of Gods holy spirit calling what is holy unholy what is pure impure reviling the divine nature reproaching Gods image on pretence of exalting free grace do greatly sin in abusing a great instance of free grace viz. The holy Spirit 's work unto which we are infinitely obliged For 't is the Spirit that doth begin carry on and finish the work of Sanctification on the soul whence although while we are in this life our Sanctification is but imperfect yet there is not one soul in Heaven one instant without perfect holiness But it may be you 'l quaery how it can be that the soul which while on earth is but imperfectly sanc●…fied should 〈◊〉 perfectly purged from the filth of sin when in Heaven I Answer There are several sorts of men who talk as if they had been fully acquainted with the whole counsel of God and as if they could give a particular account of the methods of divine operations hence some are confident enough to assert that the perfect purgati-on of the filth of sin must be either by the Spirit in this life or by a purgatory fire in the other The one asserts perfection not only of parts but of degrees attainable here and consequently denies the necessity of Ordinances c. The other viz. the Papists conclude that as some arrive to perfection here others do not e're they arrive unto the purgatery sire but the Antinomian presumes to say that our perfect Sanctification must be by Christ's Holiness even as our compleat Justification is by Christs Righteousness But I have already shewn That our perfect Sanctification which consists in the removal of the filth of every sin is not done by the Holiness of Christ Neither is it possible that any material flames should be adjusted for the cleansing the soul which is a Being spiritual and Immaterial Materiale non agit in immateriale It is done then by the Spirit when not in this life for until the body of Sin be put off there will be the remainders of old lusts * Note 1 King 8.46 Prov. 20.9 Eccl. 7.20 1 Joh. 1.8 No meer man since the Fall ever arriv'd unto a state of sinless perfection in this life which are inconsistent with a Sanctification that is perfect with a perfection of degrees Doth it you it may be will say enter into Heaven with its imperfections i.e. Spots and Filth Ans No surely for no Spot can have an admittance into that holy place Doth the departed soul make its stay after it passeth from the body e're

every man from the evil of his way Jer. 36.2,3,6 7. And is a may be a peradventure powerful enough to raise the hearts of men to great undertakings as to the things of this life and yet not sufficient to oblige us to act for God and glory or doth this may be prove a motive sufficient to engage the Ministers of Christ to endeavour the salvation of precious and immortal souls and yet insufficient for the moving you to the doing any thing for your selves surely this may be doth not argue only a Possibility but moreover a great Probability Thou art therefore O man inexcusable if thou neglectest thy duty and wilt not strive to enter in at the strait gate since by striving thou mayst have an entrance into the heavenly glory given thee 't is possible 't is probable but if thou wilt not strive for Heaven nothing more sure than that Hell will be thy portion Oh consider these things and remember * Si ergo à Justitia pietate quis desicit suo in praeceps fertur arbitrio suâ concupiscentià trahitur sua persuasione decipitur Aug. Resp ad Art sibi impos ad Art 13. That if you die in your sins your destruction will be of your selves you will be found self-condemned sinners to whom the Lord may say How often would I have gathered you together but you would not Man's sin and consequently his ruine is from himself and not from the Lord so Quae mala cum homines admittunt suis concupiscentiis cupiditatibus serviunt quas ab illa prima voluntariae praevaricationis labe traxerunt 4. Such is the corruption of humane nature since the fall as engageth all mankind to slight neglect scorn contemn and obstinately to despise all the common helps offered us It must be acknowledged that man after the fall remains a man whence whatever is essential unto the humane nature as such is to be found in him i.e. man is still a living rational creature his soul is still ennobled with the powers or faculties of understanding and will he is capable of knowing and willing These faculties are not totally eradicated or rooted out of the soul for that would be to destroy it Man is still man but a corrupt man that is though the natural powers and faculties remain yet they are sadly vitiated in that they are become the seat of vicious propensions dispositions and habits For the Understanding hath not only lost its primogeneal directive light and become darkness but the will is also strangely corrupted not in the Arminian sense alone as the Remonstrants express it * Act. Scrip. Synod min. Remonst in Explic. 3. et 4. art de Grat. c. who say Quare libertatem volendi indifferenter tam bonum salutare quam malum in statu lapsûs voluntati adesse negamus quin potius liberum Arbitrium ad bona istiusmodi non modo vulneratum sauciatum infirmatum inclinatum attenuatum est sed Captivatum perditum amissum viresque ejus non modo debilitatae cassae nisi restaurentur à gratia sed nul Free-will to what is savingly good say they is not only wounded and weakned but without a gracious restauration altogether lost i.e. the Understanding having lost its directive light and the will being a blind power cannot embrace what is savingly good not because of any weakness in the faculty of the will but for want of a a Guide to direct it In lapsu boni salutaris et salvifici cognitione destituta mens nequaquam illud ut volendum voluntati monstrare potuit nec voluntas illud velle But this is unsound for the weakness of the will is not meerly because of the blindness of the understanding but because 't is so subjected unto vitious propensions dispositions and habits The heart of man naturally runneth out after sin 't is bent to commit evil 't is obstinately resolved against what is savingly good and therefore morally impotent men sin because they will sin as appears both from Scripture and experience You will not come unto me that ye may have life you will have none of my counsel you will not return you are a stiff-neck'd people obstinate and rebellious whence the common assistances of Gods Spirit proves ineffectual and if God did not Glorify Free-Grace any further none not the Elect would return unto God for although Common Grace given unto all is sufficient to leave all men without excuse their non-improvement being their sin yet none are thereby effectually engaged to turn unto God in Faith no not the Elect who while unregenerate are as sinfully obstinate as any their souls being as much polluted with Ignorance sinfull defections inclinations and habits as others who are by nature Children of Wrath as others and for the same reason who are by nature as sinful and rebellious as others Who more vile than Manasseh in unregeneracy and who made more havock of the Church of Christ than Paul did in the days of his Ignorance Should the Lord leave all the Sons of men to themselves they would notwithstanding the Common Grace afforded them run on in sin to their eternal ruine Wherefore 5. As God did from Eternity in himself determine and by Covenant engage to give unto our Lord Jesus a Select number even so in time God glorifieth the freeness of his grace and shews himself faithful in giving some unto Christ Whoever duly observes what hath been already said concerning Election and the Covenant of Reconciliation made between the Father and the Son cannot believe the Lord to be a God of truth the faithful one and not consent unto this 6. That those who are given to the Lord Jesus Christ are by SPECIAL grace most powerfully yet sweetly drawn unto him by the Father For none cometh unto Christ but whom the Father draweth 7. God the Father giving this Select Number unto Christ they are by Faith through the Spirit united unto Christ For God in drawing and giving them unto Christ gives Christ the Spirit and Faith unto them They by being given unto Christ are taken into Covenant with Christ they are Christs and Christ is theirs the Union between them and Christ being a Covenant Union that is real but mystical That Lord Christ that is offered unto all upon their believving is actually given unto these and as all may have Christ if they believe these believe that they may have Christ God of his infinitely Free-Grace makes these a willing People in the day of his power Whence all that do turn from the evil of their ways they must ascribe the whole glory to God even to the praise of his Grace * P●…inde quoniam Demino in te misericorditer ope●… jam cidicisti in abundantia divitiarum tuarum non Gloriari hoc superest ut non confidas in virtute tua i.e. ne dep●…tes v●ripus tuis quod seculi facultates divitiasque contemans quod viam mandatorum Dei