Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	cause_n	love_v	son_n	2,939	5	5.7161	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77243	A practicall discourse concerning Gods decrees. In two parts. The first concerning mans unfitnesse to dispute against the decrees of God: out of Rom. 9.20. The second tending to assert and cleare Gods absolute election of a limited and certaine number unto eternall life: out of Acts 13:48. By Edvvard Bagshavve st. of Ch. Ch.	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1659 (1659)	Wing B420; Thomason E965_3; ESTC R18103	27,770	46

chose him And the Apostle John 1 Ep. 4.10 sayes this is love not that we loved God first but that he loved us and for that reason sent his Son not as foreseeing our Affection but as pursuing the Intent and procuring in us the Effects of his own And the Apostle Paul doth every where assert Faith to be a Fruit and not a Cause of Election that we are chosen unto Good Works not for them i. e that they who are Predestined shall certainly Believe not they who Believe were therefore Predestined which is the summe of his Discourse Eph. 1. So that in the Act of Election men are to be considered as meerly Passive i. e as Creatures not as Believers as such who were liable to be disposed by God how he pleased but had no Possibility of meriting any thing from him This is affirmed of the Israelites in Generall Deut. 7. that God chose them not because they were better or more Righteous then other People but because he set his Heart upon them And lest they should perhaps pride themselves with a Conceit that for their own worth and Excellence this Priviledge was given them they are expressely told there was no such matter for they were a stiffenecked and Rebellious People Deut. 9.6 Able rather to thwart and if possible to undoe Gods Election then to procure it Thus we find Math. 11. that Christ preached the Gospell to Bethsaida and to them of Capernaum who were so far from meriting that our Saviour affirmes of them Sodom and Gomorrah had they enjoyed the like Favour would have been much more repentantant then they And to conclude in Particulars the Apostle Paul handling this very Argument and intending for ever so far as Scripture evidence will reach to silence the Disputer of this World that God alone may have the Glory of his Grace he instances in Jacob who was by Virtue of this Absolute Election preferred before Esau the Temporall Condition serving to shadow out the Eternall for lest any Imagination should arise as if Jacob in himselfe were the more deserving of the Two he saies it was done before any of them had done either Good or Evill Rom. 9.11 And if it should be Asked how it came to passe that one was taken and the other left what did induce God to put such a Difference between Two who were Morally Equall and Naturally Esau was to have the Advantage the Apostle addes that it was done to this End that the Purpose of God according to Election might stand not of Workes but of him that calleth Wherein the Apostle pleading the Cause of Gods Honour and being Jealous of his Prerogative resolveth all things into Gods Purpose and referres us thither to seek the Ultimate Difference of men's either Temporall or Eternall Condition And he that will not acquiesce when he thus finds it written but will bring his Wit to strive and Wrestle against the Will of God he cannot alter that but onely does unhappily evince to himselfe that while he continues that Humor he is not of the Number of Gods Elect for all that are a Willing Humble and Obedient People Against this which hath been urged there is that I know of but one Considerable Objection and that is if the Number of those which shall be saved be limited and Certaine so that there is no Possibility for more how comes it to passe that the Prophets and Apostles are so Importunate with all indifferently to Come in and Repent that they might be saved and God himselfe is often brought in in Scripture chiding and Expostulating with Sinners for destroying themselves and for refusing Salvation which seems to be a Vain and Ludicrous thing if the Number be so Set already that there is no Roome for more This Objection is yet made more Tragicall by the many Heavy charges and Enditements which are drawn up against this as some stile it Partiall and Cruell dealing from the Common Places of Gods Justice and Mercy which men who love themselves are very willing to Enlarge and therefore easily hearken to those who dare declaime upon such Subjects But these Vaine and Empty Flourishes however insoluble they may seeme to some who are guided by the first Impression and sound of Words are of no Importance if we fix Election onely upon Gods Will for this will presently cut off all Witty Cavills if we can prove that God will indeed have it so and therefore I look upon the former Objection as their maine strength because it immediately tends to Practise and seemes to beget this Opinion that Gods Secret and Revealed will do Thwart Contradict each other Therefore I answer 1. That though few shall be saved and those Few determined yet because they are unknown to us we are to look upon all as in a saveable Condition Thus the Prophets and Apostles did in their so frequent and Repeated Instances with those to whom they preached and their Example we are to follow For peremptorily to conclude against any and to deny them the meanes of Salvation because they are not Elected is an Uncharitable Presumption in us which we shall more heavily account for then they will do for their Disobedience and Unbeliefe 2. There is no other way for those who are Elected to come to the Knowledge of the Truth but by a Generall Proposall of it Indifferently to all which is our Saviours meaning in those many Parables which intimate a Promiscuous Call from whence he concludes that though many are Called yet few are Chosen and we may invert the Proposition thus though Few are Chosen yet many must be called In this World the Tares and the Wheat must be equally Tended and though they grow together with some discernable Difference yet it is not the Ministers businesse to make a Finall Sepatation Lastly There is a Twofold end in Preaching the Gospell the first and principall is to bring in Gods Elect but Secondarily it serves to condemne the Reprobate and to make their Damnation Just .. For what can they pleade at the last day to Justifie their Unbeliefe since when they were Called as it were by name yet they did willingly exclude themselves and thereby as the Apostle sayes of the Jewes here judged themselves Vnworthy of Eternall Life Thus the Apostle saies that Gods Divinity and Spirituall Being was discovered in the Creation and if it was asked to what Purpose since so few did either Believe or Worship him as they ought he answers that it was for this End 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.20 That they might have nothing to Pleade no quirke nor Apology left to Excuse their Atheisme and Idolatry And if our Gospell be hid saith he it is Hid to those which are lost 2 Cor. 4.3 discovered to them but hid in them because they do not take paines as they should to search out its inward and Spirituall meaning So we are saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet smelling Sacrifice to God 2 Cor.

to that alone I would resigne and give up my Faith and not willingly suffer my selfe to partake either of their Fate or of their Folly who cannot endure to be Taught but in Spirituall and therefore Inconceivable Things would faine be wise above what is written For that there is a Set and Limited Number appointed to Salvation appeares from Scripture in that God is said to Know who are his 2 Tim. 2 19. i.e. Not their Natures onely but their Names also for therefore our Saviour Luc. 10.20 bids his Apostles rejoyce in that their Names were written in Heaven put into Gods Muster-roll and Catalogue of Eternity from whence they could never be blotted out Known unto the Lord saith the Apostle are all his works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Ever Act. 15.18 i. e. so known as to be disposed and ordered by him nay therefore known because ordered for so to distinguish between Gods Knowledge and his Power as in his Actions ad extrà to separate one from the other is to speake neither Sense nor Scripture for whom God for knew them all them onely them not in their Qualifications but in their Respective persons did he predestine to be conformable to the Image of his Son Rom. 8.29 Math. 10.30 And if of an Elect person all the Haires are Numbred how much more of Christs Mysticall Body are all the Members numbred which Body is already compleat as to Gods Purpose concerning it and to Imagine that any shall fill a place there whom God doth not already know as particularly as if they were Actually Existing is to measure Eternity by time and to make God like our selves Fraile and Fallible The Reason of this is because every Act of God is Absolute as his Nature is so are the Actions which flow from it Unconditionall and Irrespective For the clearing of which Reason it will be necessary to explaine in the Act of Election 1. How God who Elects 2. How man who is elected are to be Considered For the First Many there be that think God in the Act of Election is to be Considered as a Judge and hence argue against this Absolute and Irrespective Election from those Known and Obvious places of Scriptures Gen. 18.25 Rom. 3.5 Act. 10.30 Shall not the Judge os all the Earth do right shall God accept persons or preferre one before another when all are Equall how is this Reconcileable to his Justice I answer that in the Act of Election God is not to be considered as a Judge because 1. A Judge as a Judge is tied to a Rule which he may not Transgresse but what Rule can be Imagined to Tye God except what he hath set himselfe which in the Act of Election that being Eternall and flowing onely from the Will of God cannot rationally be supposed 2. The Businesse of a Judge as a Judge is to Bestow Rewards and Punishments according to Merit but in Election the Motive onely on Gods part is Grace and the End is Glory 3. God is not at all Obliged to Man he that made man may freely appoint him to what Ends he pleases without doing him any Injury for hath not the Potter power over his Clay though for a man to plead with God in this Case is somewhat a worse Solecisme then for Clay to quarrell with the Potter Since there Matter strives only with its Fashioner but here Nothing contends with its Maker There the Clay though it be not a vessell of Honour yet remaines Clay still but here not the Quality only but the Substance likewise is subject to the Pleasure of its Framer Lastly The Apostle being to give a Reason of this Difference between one man and another ascribes it altogether to Gods good pleasure and for a Proofe of that Assertion he alledges a Saying of God himselfe Rom. 9.15 I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy So that the Act of God in chusing some to Everlasting Life and refusing others is not an Act of Justice for they neither did nor could deserve it nor is it properly an Act of Mercy for that any should be saved at all was meerly from Mercy but that these rather then others was not properly from Mercy ' because Mercy is Equall to all that Equally deserve it or Equally stand in need of it but here between Equalls a distinction is made Election therefore is an Act of Soveraigne Will the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 1.5 The good pleasure of Gods will which as none can resist so none ought to Question for neither is Man stronger than God nor ought he to think himselfe Wiser Thus God in the Act of Election is not to be Considered ut Judex sed ut Dominus as a Judge but as a Soveraigne For the second viz. how the Persons who are Elected are to be Considered Some affirme they are to be looked upon as Believers viz. That God foreseeing some would embrace Faith and Salvation when it was offered them he did therefore chuse some unto Everlasting Life And this Conceit is not onely maintained by our Moderne Arminians but that I may not seeme to mince the matter was in generall the opinion of almost all the Greeke and Latine Fathers except only Austine of the Primitive and Purer Times They who have read them will affirme as much and they who doubt may read their Sayings to this Purpose faithfully Collected by Vossius in his Historia Pelagiana But this Supposition however Plausible as indeed what is not that gives man a Power and though backed with so much Authority yet seems to me to be directly contrary both to Reason and Scripture First to Reason because 1. This puts something as a Cause to move Gods will for if Faith foreseen in man were the Cause why God chose him then something without God shall have an Influence upon him which certainly is very Absurd if not Blasphemus for if God shall be supposed to take a Reason of his Actings from something without himselfe that thing must needs alter him and consequently be greater than he Secondly because this very Faith thus foreseen is the Gift of God as the Apostle affirmes Eph. 2.8 and none that I know deny it so that if Faith foreseen were the Cause of chusing any the Decree of God must thus be ordered I foresee that I will give such a one Faith therefore I decree that I will save him i.e. I decree to give the meanes before I have yet appointed the End which is a Method of Marshalling Gods Decrees that a knowing Heathen would be ashamed to think of More might be urged but I hasten to Scripture Confutation we find our Saviour sayes of his Disciples which who sees not how Applicable it is to all the Elect that he chose them they had not chosen him Joh. 15.16 but if Faith foreseen were a Cause he must have said the cleane contrary for then he would have chosen them because they had first