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A30345 A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errours of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightnesse, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash. Ball, John, 1585-1640.; Ashe, Simeon, d. 1662. 1645 (1645) Wing B579; ESTC R6525 360,186 382

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grace and love of God is the sole cause of what the Lord hath promised in this new Covenant and doth give according to promise And though the old and new Covenant be of the same nature and from the same fountaine yet the new Covenant is preferred above the old as farre as Sunne-light before Torch light in this that God who makes the Covenant hath more fully manifested the riches of his grace and superaboundant love in Jesus Christ the brightnesse of his glory and engraven forme of his person to the federates of the new Testament In the old Covenant the Lord had made it knowne that he was mercifull and gracious slow to anger aboundant in goodnesse But in the new Covenant he doth most familiarly reveale himself to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus and in him the Father of the faithfull which most sweet and pleasant name doth breathe out unspeakable love and tendernesse Again though the ancient federates had some knowledge of Gods Attributes as an introduction to the Covenant of Grace yet they never knew that transcendency of Gods love which is brought to light in the new mentioned in these and such like passages of Scripture Behold what manner of love the Father hath 1 Joh. ● 1. bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sonnes of God God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Sonne that whosoever Joh. 3. 16. beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life He spared Rom. 8. 3● not his own Sonne but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth For there is one God 1 Tim. ● 4 5. and one Mediatour betweene God and man the man Christ Jesus They that seek to stretch this speech of the Apostle to the furthest doe yet confesse it is spoken of the times of the Gospell and that appeareth evidently by the reason of the Apostle confirming that saying that God will that all men be saved from this that God is the God of all men by Covenant and Christ the Mediatour of all men in Covenant and by the Gospell the Word of truth the saving truth of God was brought unto all in Covenant Besides in the old Testament the Doctrine of the Trinity of persons in the unity of the God head was more obscurely taught but in the new Testament we are clearely and most comfortably assured that the Father Son and holy Ghost do sweetly conspire to perfect the Salvation of the Faithfull and confirme unto them the promises of the Covenant There be three that beare record in 1 Joh. 5. 7. Heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one Goe ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them into the Matth. ●8 19. Name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost If in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word must stand why should a Christian question or doubt of the promises of mercy made in the Covenant assured unto him by the Father Sonne and holy Ghost God the Father promiseth that in his only begotten Sonne he will be a mercifull Father to all Believers that he will give him to them for a Redeemer accept his satisfaction for them give them his Spirit and bestow upon them righteousnesse and salvation The Sonne doth promise that he will be Redeemer of the faithfull by doctrine merit and efficacy that he will deliver them from the power of Satan bring them into perpetuall favour with God wash them from all the filthinesse of their sins and be unto them as he is made of the Father Wisedome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption The holy Ghost doth promise that being redeemed by the bloud of Christ by the presence of his grace he will cleanse them from all inherent sinne and repaire the Image of God in them leade them into all truth and holinesse inable them to cry Abba Father seale them for the Lords and abide with them by his grace and comfort as an earnest of the inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession This Covenant was stricken with all Nations or the world in opposition to the Jewish Nation for now the promise made Gal. 3. 8. to Abraham was fulfilled In thee shall all Nations of the earth be blessed now the prophecies touching the calling of the Gentiles Isai 44. 6 and bringing them to the Sheep-fold of Christ were accomplished now the Apostles were sent forth to preach the Gospell to Matth. 28. 19. Mar. 16. 13. Rom. 1. 16. Col. 1. 6 23. Act 10. 45. every creature and God gave such a blessing unto the Word that by their preaching a great part of the habitable world was converted unto the faith Now upon the Gentiles was powred out also the gift of the holy Ghost Christ having broken down the partition wall betwixt Jew and Gentile and abolished in his flesh the enmity even the Eph. 2. 14 15. law of Commandements contained in Ordinances for to make in himselfe of twaine one new man so making peace The Covenant of promise was first made with Adam and his posterity not with him as the common parent of all mankind and so with every man that should come of his loines howsoever in all generations but with Adam as a beleever and his posterity untill by wilfull departure from the faith they should discovenant themselves and those that did proceed from them In like manner it was made with the Patriarchs with Noah and his posterity then with Abraham and his family afterwards with one selected Nation but under the Gospell all Nations are brought into the bond of the Covenant All nations I say but not every one in every nation nor every nation in all periods of that time For many nations have lived we know for a long time in infidelity without the Gospell without God in the world aliens from the Common-wealth of Is●ael and strangers from the Covenant of Grace And we find the Apostles to make a manifest 2 Cor. 6. 14 17. difference betwixt the people of God and unbelievers so that all in their dayes were not admitted into Covenant though the Gospell was preached unto them For they that be in Covenant are in phrase of Scripture the people of God that is such with whom God hath contracted Covenant and who in like manner have sworne unto the words of the Covenant God stipulating and they accepting the condition God as an absolute Soveraigne hath right and authority over all men but in a certaine and peculiar reason they are called his people who receive his Commandement and acknowledge him to be their Lord and Saviour And these be of two sorts for God doth make his Covenant with some externally calling them by his Word and sealing them by his Sacraments and they by profession of faith
2. 6. reason from those words to disprove the former limitation I see not For this word man designes the nature of man in generall but with relation to the person of Christ and is spoken of the nature of man as to be united to the person of Christ and alleadged by the Apostle to prove that the world to come is put in subjection unto him as man And if it be extended further then to Christ as man it must be restrained unto the faithfull to whom that which followeth may be applied by communication and fellowship with Christ Againe it is objected that Christs dominion over all is grounded on his death but if that be granted it is not necessary his death should be simply for all men For the Apostle speaks of Heb. 2. 6 7. Phil. 2. 9. Joh. 3. 35. Mat. 11. 27. Christs dominion not only over all men but over all things the Angels themselves not excepted but it was not requisite Christ should die for all things even for the Angels as they themselves confesse His power extendeth it selfe unto all creatures to whom he can command obedience at his pleasure and unlesse they performe it inflict punishment For he is made Lord of the world and all power is given unto him in heaven and earth Christ hath Soveraignty over all things and doth rule over all men the faithfull to life the unfaithfull to death Corvin in Molin cap. 12. § 26. This dominion of Christ stands well with reason is consonant to the Scripture but was not purchased by his death simply for them Lastly It will be said the Apostle threatneth punishment for not receiving or retaining Christ and exhorteth to care of it which argueth generall purchase or else such exhortations and threatnings would be without force Touching the thing it selfe it is freely acknowledged that the sufficiencie of Christs death and greatnesse of the price was such that God might salva justitia not only invite all man-kind to come unto Christ but also bring them unto faith and salvation by him if it had seemed good unto him in his infinite wisdome and the efficiencie of it so great that God doth seriously invite many that live in the visible Church to come unto Christ and bestow many spirituall gifts and graces upon them by their own fault unavaleable to whom he doth not give grace to repent and believe unfainedly But exhortations and threatnings argue not that generall purchase in question For the obstinate and rebellious they whose eyes are closed and hearts hardened least seeing they should see or hearing they should heare and be converted even they are exhorted to repent and threatned for their impenitencie but I have not found that the purchase was made absolutely for all such as such For some rebellious I can beleeve that Christ hath purchased not salvabilitie alone but faith regeneration pardon and salvation because it is written of Christ That he is ascended on high and hath led Psal 68. 18. Atque etiam rebelles captiv●● duxisti ut habitent eum I●h Deo captivity captive and hath received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them or as Piscator renders it thou hast led captive the rebellious that they might dwell with the Lord God But the maintainers of universall redemption have not undertaken as yet to proove generall purchase for all and every obstinate rebellious and treacherous revolter from the Lord. In this place the objection is more vaine for the Apostle might well speake of the application and possession of the fruits of Christs death when he exhorteth them that had heard and received the word of truth to retaine and keepe that which they had heard Exhortations and threatnings both are usefull to them who have not received the truth for God is pleased by such means to worke what he doth exhort men unto and to them who have received the truth and doe possesse the benefits of Christs death that they might continue and persevere And may we not argue more probably that seeing they are exhorted to take heed to the things they had heard therefore salvation had been preached unto them and in some sort received by them God so Joh. 3. 16 17. loved the world as we reade in the Evangelist that he gave his only begotten sonne that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Sonne into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him Joh. 1 ● 47. might be saved And I came not to judge the world but to save the world Here the motive from which the gift of Christ is derived is The particle Who is not ever distributive of the subject to which it is attributed See Rev●l 2. 25 26. 2 Cor. 5. 15. common love The word World cannot be taken for the elect only for then it will be as if it had bin said God so loved the elect that he gave his only Sonne that whosoever of them believed in him should not perish The world that Christ came to save was that world into which he came and that comprehended both beleevers and unbelievers and in the same place it is divided into them that shall be saved and them that shall be damned and there should be no force of reasoning in the latter place if the world did not comprehend unbelievers under it Thus these passages are urged for universall redemption But the principall texts speake plainly Isa 54. 5. De●● totius terrae vocabitur Vt 1 Joh. 2. 2. Joh. 4. 42 Rupert Tuit in Joh. Mundum ●anè quem dilexit Deus humanum genus accipim●● id est vivos mortuos mortuos scil qui venturum in fide expect averint vivos qui in illum sive ex Iudaeis five ex Gentibus credituri erant of the daies of grace when God sent his Sonne into the world and when according to the prophesies and promises made before the Gentiles were to be called to the faith added to the Church and received into Covenant And the world is taken communiter indefinitè for the world as it is opposed to the Jewish Nation alone not universaliter pro singulis for every man in the world of what time or age soever or of this time in speciall The sence then is In the fulnesse of time God manifested so great love unto the world of Jew and Gentile not of the Jew alone That he gave his only begotten Sonne and in the Ministery of the Gospel seriously invited them to beleeve and entered into Covenant to bestow life and happinesse upon condition of their unfained faith on Jesus Christ As God loved Israel whom he chose to be his peculiar people under the old Testament so in the times of grace he extended his love to the world of Jew and Gentile And as amongst the Jews God manifested so much love to the body of that Nation as to enter
from the quality of the blessings there promised which could not be accomplished in any other but in Christ alone And this is evidently holden out to be the literall sense in other places Acts 3. 24 25. But where shall we find mention of the passion of Christ in this expressure of the Covenant unto Abraham which in the first manifestation was clouded in the phrase of bruising his heele and is essentiall to the Covenant of Grace in any overture of it as containing the price and ransome by which all hinderances are removed as the Apostle saith Christ was made a curse for us that the blessing of Gal. 3. 13 ●4 Abraham might come on the Gentiles Some answer that this is thrice put on in the passage of this Covenant with Abraham first in the federall confirmation by the figments with the smoaking fornace and burning lamps which passed between those pieces Gen. 15. 8 9 17. which howsoever it typified the dividing of Abrahams seed in Egypt with their fiery labours and sorrowes yet primarily the type expresseth the torment and rending of Christ Abraham his prime seed and by the fornace and fiery lampe the wrath of God that runneth betwixt and yet did not consume the rent and torne nature Secondly they conceive this perpession of Christ was expressed in the bloud of the Circumcision Gen. 17. 10 11. For they be of opinion that where God commands shedding of bloud in any his ancient Ordinances it doth fully reach unto the bloud of Christ and his everlasting Testament The bloud which was shed in the signes ordained to seale the Covenant of Promise what did it signifie but the bloud of Christ whereby the Covenant was to be sealed Lastly we may find a full expression of his passion in the resolved sacrifice of Isaac which was typicall the death of Christ and the Ramme in his stead wherein is set forth an Embleme of Gods love unto the world in that he hath truly sacrificed his only Sonne Christ to take away sinne Joh. 3. 16. And if some of these be not lively expressions it may seeme to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in typo vertit Tremelius ex Syri interpretis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae vox Hebra●●è 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est apud Evang. Matth. 13. 35. Propheta Psal 78. ● redditur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod. in Epist ad Hebr. 11. Gen. 17. 4. be implyed in the very Promise for how should the blessing promised come upon the posterity of Abraham if the promised seed had not borne the curse of the Law and by suffering removed it that mercy might be glorious in conferring righteousnesse and life eternall In the former Covenant a secret honour was put upon Eve as she was made if we may so speake the first pipe whereby God conveyed the grace of his Covenant unto her posterity who did not degenerate into the seed of the Serpent But here the Covenant is made with Abraham who received it not as an example only nor as a type but as an Ordinance leading unto the conveyance of the same Covenant to all the confederates In which sense it is plainly spoken to in the Epistles to the Rom. and Gal. and he called the Father of the faithfull Rom. 4. 11 12 16. and they which are of the faith the children of Abraham Gal. 3. 7. the seed of Abraham Gal. 3. 29. Abraham is not the Father of the faithfull effectively as if he should be the worker of faith in all or that men should be borne faithfull of him For so God only by the holy Ghost is the Father of the faithfull But analogically for the grace of the Covenant given unto him on that condition and priviledge that as Fathers transferre and passe over their rights and inheritance to their children so he as a Father should propagate the righteousnesse of faith and free blessednesse to all the faithfull by Doctrine Example and Covenant So that all who receive this Covenant from God in Christ doe likewise by faith draw it through Abraham to whom the promise was made Gal. 3. 16. The Subfederates are described and by that differenced from all the world to be Abrahams seed I will establish my Covenant between Ge● 17. 7. me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee Where these specialties are holden out That God will be as good a God to Abrahams seed as he is to Abraham himselfe and that whatsoever right by the Covenant was invested upon Abraham should descend as from a Parent under this Covenant to all his seed by vertue of this Covenant made with him But we must distinguish Abrahams seed For sometime by the seed of Abraham Gen. 18. 22. Gal. 3. ●6 is meant Christ who is the prime and principall seed who first entred the Cōvenant as Purchaser Maker Confirmer and upon whose person it was setled for us all by Abraham Againe by Abrahams seed are meant all that receive this Covenant from him whether by outward administration only or internall force and vertue also In the eye of God and Scripture all beleeving Gentiles are the seed of Abraham which may be called the Christian seed In thee shall all Nations of the earth be blessed which Gen. ●2 3. and 18. 18. and ●● 18. Rom 4. ●6 17. ver 11. must needs be understood of the Gentiles which should beleeve and is plainly so interpreted by the Apostle Therefore it is by faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the Law but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who is the Father of us all As it is written I have made thee a Father of many Nations That he might be the Father of them that beleeve though they be not circumcised that righteousnesse might be imputed to them also And if ye be Christs then are Gal. 3. 14 29. ye Abrahams seed and heires by Promise All beleeving Jewes and Proselytes are comprehended under the seed of Abraham and may be called the spirituall seed in opposition to the carnall or naturall seed only This distinction of Abrahams seed spirituall and naturall the Apostle plainly specifieth Neither because they are the Rom 9. 7 8. and 2. 28 29. seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called that is they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed Besides all that descend from the loynes of Abraham and all that were borne in his house and bought with his money are counted Gen. 17. 11 12 13. for the seed though indeed many of them were wicked and profane Therefore Abraham is commanded to circumcise every man-child both him that is borne in his house or bought