Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A55615
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A practical consideration of the saints sonship In a discourse upon the fourth chapter of the Galatians, vers. 6.
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1656
(1656)
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Wing P3149; ESTC R221794
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9,366
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16
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bondage unto them or to become drudges to dirty unsatiable lusts We are bought with a price the blood of out dearest Lord unto Sonship and unto spiritual freedome le ts not bee like prophane Esau le ts not part with it upon any terms there is nothing under the Sun can bee a price for it Fourthly If wee are sons Le ts go to God always as to our Father le ts treat with him more intimately and freely than a man would do with his friend And acquaint him with all our wants and griefes as knowing him properly concerned therein and bury all our cares in his bosome How sweet will our communion bee with him if whensoever wee come to call upon him wee bring this setled apprehension with us that hee is our father the reason why wee often miscarry in the comfort of our prayers it is because wee think but randomly of him according to what our present temper is wee frame out imaginations of God of what wee finde in our selves the prodigal hee recovered himself with this saith hee I le go to my Father if hee bee my Father there is my hope though I have never so much misbehaved my self t is hard to find a case that a Fathers heart on earth will not bee stirred towards his son but if that should bee t will never bee so with our Father which is in heaven wee can no sooner make towards him but hee 'le meet us whilst wee are a farre off and embrace us and take us home let our Lord herein bee a pattern to us who whilst hee conversed in this lower world would ever keep up this claim to God to bee his Father the meannesse of his condition nor the Jews threats to stone him for it never made him let go the owning of this relation O take heed of nourishing up hard thoughts of God! t is the ground of all Apostasy if you pray not to God as your Father you will not pray to him long at all you will take the first opportunity to quit his service you will do nothing but to stop the mouth of a hungry gnawing conscience the more you think of him the more you will bee troubled All approaches to God under any other apprehension but this will but awaken terrour and multiply guilt before your face O remember therefore our Lord hath taught us to begin all our approaches unto God with calling him Our Father This term will make all our guilt to vanish and bury it out of our sight and drive away our sins as a thick cloud and make all those considerations of his greatness and his majesty sweet unto us Fifthly if God be our Father why doubt we of being provided for can those that have such a father want why take wee so much care why do wee seek an inheritance in the world doth not our Father know what wee want of these things Le ts not choose for our selves but let him provide for us hee takes care of the Lilies and hee feeds the Ravens and shall his children want Shall Christs seed bee unprovided for Paul tells us t is the Fathers work to provide for the children How unbecomming a thing is it for a man that cals God his Father to seek help any where else remember that good man who was ashamed to ask a troop of horse of the King because hee had named the name of the Lord Never apply but to the Lord if you ask him bread he will not give you a stone and if you ask him a fish hee will not give you a Scorpion in our Fathers house there is bread enough And le ts be content with the portion our Father gives us hee loves us much more then wee love our selves and hee infinitely knows what will best fit us Hee lets us know as much of his love as wee are able to bear and fit to bee Masters off in this present state Hee that hath of has meer Grace appointed us to glory should wee not trust him as knowing best how to carry us through this world unto it And hee lets us want nothing of this world that would not hurt us when hee denyes us herein but to keeps us out of deadly snares and fence us from being peirced through with many sorrows whatever our condition bee in this world let this consideration sanctify the best and sweeten the worst to us t is our Fathers portion Sixthly If wee are sons le ts love our brethren le ts not bee unnatural to the Saints enquire for them as David did after the house of Saul that hee might shew kindnesse to them and use them as he did Mephibosheth though hee were lame of his feet take them into your bosome though they are deformed before the world perhaps they want their right hands and their right eyes nay though they have many infirmities and are some of them poor peevish froward children yet love them for their fathers sake our Lord expects this at our hands that we should love the Brethren and hath left a solemn charge with us in his absence to do it we have these always with us to shew our love to but we have not him always Where should love be perfected if not amongst those who have him that is love it self for their Father wee shall have nothing but hatred from the world should not that make us love the more Le ts not therefore bee unkind to the poor Saints say of them wheresoever and in what soever condition you find them as Adam said of Eve when shee was brought to him this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh wee came all out of that pierced side of our Lord and bee not unkind to your own flesh but love it and cherish it hereby shall wee appear to bee sons in loving the Saints as brethren Seventhly and Lastly If God bee our father be not afraid nor troubled to go to him remember how our Lord comforted himself and his Disciples at his departure I go saith hee to my father and your father O bee not troubled to dye you shall bee with your father that loves you bee not discouraged to come before him because of your unkind untoward dealings with him hee is your father that hath freely passed by all you shall read in Gen. 50.16 17. when Josephs brethren after their Fathers death spake to him of their former unkindnesse to him and discovered their fears that he would punish it upon them Joseph wept the Text saith when they spake unto him they much mistook his heart they took a wrong measure of his spirit by the narrownesse of their own t is so with us in this case wee shall when wee dye bee at home wee are here in a strange Countrey ill used not known there wee shall be in honour wee shall see our father whom wee have so much longed to know and who hath kept us all our life long and we shall be used like sons and sit down at
A Practical Consideration OF THE SAINTS SONSHIP In a Discourse upon the fourth Chapter of the Galatians vers 6. London Printed by Robert Ibbitson 1656. A Practical Consideration of the Saints Son-ship GAL. 4.6 And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son in your hearts crying Abba Father THe Apostle having shewed the poor and mean condition the Law rendered us in holds out the glory of our condition under the Gospel in the consideration of our Son-ship wee being by our Lords comming freed from that pupillage and bondage wee were before held under that wee might receive the adoption of Sonnes and being redeemed thereunto receive the spirit and all good things as a consequent of such a state These words do acquaint us in the general scope of them with this great truth that it is not any Grace in us or works done by us That first brings us into that state of the Gospel wherein wee have favour and acceptance with God but God first appoints us unto such a state and thereupon gives us Grace sutable unto it Because yee are Sonnes Because God hath in Christ appointed you to such a glorious estate therefore is the spirit of his Sonne and all good things given unto you although I might speak much of this yet I intend to confine my self to the observing only this one truth Doct That the state of a Christian under the Gospel is a state of Son-ship Wee finde in our natural state wee are absolute enemies unto God under the Law wee come but to be servants but under the Gospel we become sons Wee bear herein a proportion with the Lord Christ our head who is not as Moses was a servant in Gods house but hee is a Son he is the Son in his own house and therefore his brethren are Sons that Son-ship that hee hath from the Father it carries their Son-ship in it As hee in his humanity became like them in all things sin only excepted so are they in their conformity made like him in all things save wherein hee is their Saviour and their head and as they have one common image to both so have they one principle and root for the Apostle tells us that our life is hid with Christ in God that is the Saints life and is hid together with Christs life in God hee is the fountain of both their lives This comprehends in a word the excellent Grace and glory of the Gospel that such poor remote wretches from God such strangers and enemies as wee are should become Sons should hee born of God in Christ and inherit freely all his grace and glory the Apostle seems to make a stop and admire at this Behold saith hee what manner of love the father hath shewed unto us that we should be called the Sonnes of God! T is not only a thing of admirable advantage but of astonishing honour could David think it a great matter to bee a Kings Sonne in Law and shall not wee value this high calling of God in Christ Jesus To bee his sons the Apostle speaks of this as the highest thing wee can attain to in this life now saith hee wee are the sons of God we finde in Scripture the Lord pleasing to afford this title three ways first and principally to Christ hee is always called the Son and somewhat more the only begotten Son of the father none ever begotten as hee was first in respect of his eternal essence wherein hee is the eternal Son and secondly in respect of his humanity and manhood and his headship therein to both creations hee being so begotten the spring of all natural life and being and the head of his body the Church wee finde also the Angells called the Sons of God and in Job 38.7 when the morning Stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy speaking of the Angels and in Luke 3.38 Adam is called the son of God This is in reference unto their first creation and lastly in this Gospel sense this honour have all the Saints to be called Sons and this their son ship through and in Christ the only son is farre more excellent than that of the Angels or of Adams the root of Adams state and glory lay in himself and so being mutable hee of a Son created became a fallen depraved bitter enemy this is unchangeably fixed and growing daily to perfection t is more excellent than that of the Angels in as much as it is wrought and ariseth to the exceeding glory of free grace out of enmity darknesse and a fallen state which they were never in and secondly as t is in Christ the head of this Son-ship exalted above the Angels in the excellency and glory of it There be two questions may be fitly resolved in this place 1 How come we to this estate and then wherein doth it consist 2 How stood the Saints under the Law in the old Testament in reference to it For the first question we come to this state by Christs purchase alone wee receive it from God through him and it hath its root in him hee dispenseth it to us him hath God the father sealed for this purpose this wee see in Joh. 1.12 But to as many as received him to them hee gave power or dignity to become the Sons of God It consists in this that our Lord Christ by what hee hath in his own person done hath taken from us the yoak of the first covenant and of the Law under which wee were as strangers and so dealt withall and hath obtained a right for us to this state of Son-ship and neerness to God wherein wee freely inherit life and salvation hee hath broken down the partition wall of sin and gilt that was between God and man by reason of his inability to fulfil the righteousnesse of the Law and having satisfied that and nailed the condemning power thereof upon his crosse hee brings man that was so farre off thus neer unto God and makes him look upon God no more as an infinite being who is a law giver only and a judge but now in him become a most affectionate tender father and brings God who was thus in Christ reconciling himself to the world to bee no more as at a distance but neer and one with the Creature as a Father and in the deerest and neerest relations God is become in Christ a Father and wee his children our maker our husband and we his Spouse and so wee are brought into this blessed state wherein God deals with us as Sonnes with all love sweetness and familiarity And lastly That which makes this right of Son-ship which Christ hath so purchased and obtained effectuall and gives us the possession of it is God gives us the spirit of his Son Christs Son-ship is as it were communicated unto us and so wee have not only a right of Son-ship in Christ but through him the spirit of sons to apply to God as a Father and wee