Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	faith_n	good_a	work_n	21,552	5	6.5180	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95855	The way to true happinesse, or, the way to heaven open'd. In a sermon before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, Jan. 28. 1654/5 / By Ralph Venning.	Venning, Ralph, 1621?-1674.	1655 (1655)	Wing V232; Thomason E830_8; ESTC R207438	31,836	56

29. and said unto them This is the work that is the Will of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Accordingly in the 40. verse This is the Will of him that sent me that every one that believeth on the Son should have everlasting life Now if this be his Will that believing on him we have everlasting life then 't is his Will that we believe on him in relation thereunto so that as well believing on him for everlasting life as everlasting life to believing on him is the Will of God Yea you have it in expresse termes 1 John 3.23 This is his Commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ so that you see 't is not barely that which we call good works that is to be understood by the doing of the Will of God but believing in or on the Lord Jesus Christ also this is the Work this is the Will this is the Command of God And beloved I ground it further on this rule which is an undeniable one and for not attending whereunto we have had so many needless groundlesse and unprofitable disputes in the world The rule is this that the Scripture doth often yea very usually put particular duties for all Religion and therefore annexeth salvation to distinct graces Sometime 't is He that believeth shall be saved Elsewhere He that calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved Here 't is He that doth the Will of God Now all these and the like are complex comprehensive Propositions and contain more in them then they make shew of for God spcaks much in a little acts and duties of Religion being as Moralists speak of their vertues inter se connexae linked together in a golden chaine Religion is not this or that piece but the whole which is usually expressed in a word or sometime two * The Apostle comprehends the whole counsel of God under repentance and faith Acts 20.20 21 27. versescompared as in that of Solomon Fear God and keap his Commandments for this is the whole of man Eccl. 12.13 So that if you could suppose a man to be a believer and to be a believer alone it would not save him as the Apostle James saith ch 2.14 What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not works Can faith save him No no more then saying Be ye warmed will warme any or Be ye filled will fill any for faith without works is dead And what is said of this may be said of the rest so that when the Scripture speaks of salvation as annexed to any one thing it supposeth that to contain the rest The reason is evident for the graces of God as saving are not parted There is no believing to salvation without repentance nor no repentance to salvation without believing there is no calling upon the Name of the Lord will save without departing from iniquity nor can they savingly depart from iniquity that call not on the Name of the Lord. 'T is not any one thing but things that pertain to the Kingdome of God Acts 1.3 'T is not thing but things that accompany or as it may be better read containe salvation Heb. 6.9 and he that takes one for all without all will finde it nothing at all A part is no portion The great fallacy with which Satan deludes many men is that which Logicians call à bene compositis ad malè divisa when he gets them to take Religion into pieces and then takes one piece for Religion One cries up God another cries up Christ another faith another love another good works but what is God without Christ or Christ without faith or faith without love or love without works but now take God in Christ by faith which worketh by love to the keeping of the Commandments of God and this is pure Religion 'T is the whole that is the whole of man Yet again though I have spoken thus much to it let me make it clearer then a demonstration that one is put for all and as containing all by comparing these places of Scripture in 1 Cor. 7.19 you reade that Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but keeping the Commandments of God What 's that why that is all in all in Gal. 5.6 'T is neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love that 's that which availeth or is all in all Yet in Gal. 6.15 he saith Neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature that 's all in all and yet for all this as if all this were nothing he tells us in Col. 3.11 that Christ is all and in all cashiering both Circumcision and uncircumcision as formerly Now my beloved if you should take any one of these though each be said to be availing I say if you should take any one and lay the stresse of your salvation upon it you were undone 'T is not keeping the Commandments of God nor faith working by love nor the new creature no nor Christ himself considered alone and apart that availeth any thing but these in conjunction He names one only because whereever one is it is not only one there is more then one whereever one is savingly there are all in their respective places as far as they are to be in relation to salvation Thus you see that faith as well as works and works as well as faith every one in their own order are to be taken in or we shall not be taken into the Kingdome of Heaven And this may suffice for the quid sit as ye call it or the opening of the Point As to the quod sit or proof of the Point that it is so that they and none but they who do the Will of God in the sense explained shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven though I might say Ipse dixit Christ himself hath said it what need we any further witnesse seeing we know and are assured that his witnesse is true yet we shall give you a whole cloud of witnesses the harmony and consent of Scriptures to clear up this point to evince and evidence the truth thereof to be past a contradiction and without controversie To say nothing of the connexion between the two petitions in the Lords Prayer Matth. 6.10 Thy Kingdom come and thy Will be done Nor of that in Heb. 10.36 For ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the Will of God ye might receive the Promise viz. of the Kingdom of Heaven or eternal life for this is the Promise which he hath made 1 John 2.25 and but to mention that in 1 John 2.17 He that doth the Will of God abideth for ever I say not to insist on these I shall proceed to prove the Point 1. From the testimony that God hath given of the persons already gone to Heaven viz. that they were such I shall instance only in two The first is Enoch

the Apostle James saith James 1.27 is pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father 2. A second demonstration is this None can enter the Kingdome of Heaven but they who are prepared for it and none are such but they that do the Will of God in the sense explain'd Heaven is not only prepared for them but they also are prepared for Heaven and the truth of it is This world is but a Purgatory for men that they may here be purified and refined and thereby put into a capacity as Hester was in another case to enter into the Kingdom of God for no unclean thing can enter there And that we must be made meet to be Partakers before we partake is clear from Col. 1.12 where the Apostle exhorts them having pray'd that they might give thanks to the Father who had made them meet to be Partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light who had fitted them for the Kingdome of Heaven for that 's the inheritance of the Saints in light and how that was done he tells us in v. 13. by delivering us from the power of darknesse into the Kingdom of his dear Son a man must be in the Kingdome of the Son which is the Kingdome of Heaven on Earth and be thereby fitted for before he can be admitted into the Kingdome of God and this translation is no other but the fitting us by enabling us to do the Will of God for being in the Kingdome of Christ is opposed to being under the power of Satan and therefore must carry in it a sense contrary to it Now when we were under that power we wereled by him at his Will as Eph. 2.2 3. We were at his beck and bidding his Will was our Law therefore to be translated from thence into the Kingdom of Christ can denote no lesse then our obedience to him or our doing his Will whereby we are made meet to be Partakers c. 3. A third demonstration is this None can enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but they to whom its promised They that have no promise can expect no performance Now it is promised to none but such as do the Will of God Hath not saith the Apostle James 25. God chosen the poor of the world rich in faith and heires of the or as the margin hath it of that Kingdome which he hath promised to them that love him * Love is the fulfilling of the Law and who they are we were told before such as keep his Commandments and to whom the keeping of his Commandments or the doing of his Will is not grievous 4. A fourth demonstration is this None but the friends of God shall inherit the Kingdome of God as for his enemies that would not that be should * Their enmity is seen in a non-subjection to the Law of God Rom 8 7. reign over them they shall never reign with him No saith he bring them forth and slay them before my face Christ will see execution done upon his enemies but his friends they and none but they shall inherit the Kingdome Abraham was Gods friend and Paradise it self is called Abrahams bosome and the state of our glory in one part of it is this we shall sit down with Abraham the friend of God with Isaac and Jacob and the rest of the friends of God in his Kingdome But who are his friends then that Christ will tell us Matth. 12.50 Whosoever shall do the Will of my Father which is in Heaven or as Mark rendens it the Will of God or as Luke hath it who hear the Word of God and do it which are all parallel expressions the same is my brother and sister and mother my nearest and dearest friends Yet a more if a more pregnant place may be produced John 15.14 where Christ saith to his disciples Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you So then none but friends can enter and none are friends but such as do his Will 5. A fifth demonstration is this None shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but them that are * If a man be not new-born it had been good for him he had not been born borne again and none are borne again but such as the text mentions the Scripture is expresse in both these The Proposition is laid down by Christ himself John 3.3 with a double Verily Verily verily of most certain and undoubted truth I say unto thee except a man be born again or from above or as elsewhere of God he cannot see which is expounded v. 5. unlesse he be borne of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Now there are none borne of God but this is their character 1 John 2.29 Ye know that every one that 's borne of him doth righteousnesse and again 1 John 3. Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sin because he is borne of God that is he doth not live in sin is not under the dominion or command of sin sin doth not reigne in him that he should obey it in the lusts or wills thereof 6. The sixth and last demonstration is this None can enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but holy ones for saith the text Hebr. 12.14 Without holinesse no man shall see God now what is holinesse but doing the Will of God This is the Will of God even our sanctification and He that hath this hope viz. of glory or the Kingdome of Heaven purifies himself as God is pure Thus I think I have fully proved and demonstrated this to be the truth of God according to the Scriptures that they and none but they shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven who do the Will of God That is that do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and bring forth the obedience of faith But happily there may be this question moved if it be thus Who then can be saved when Christ had said that it was hard and it is no lesse hard to this day for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God They have so much bag and baggage as the camel hath his buneh on his back they said Who then can be saved the Answer was given and is now That which is impossible with men is possible yea very feasible with God But to this let me more distinctly lay down these few Positions 1. That all satisfying and all meriting work is done 't is all already done to our hands by the Lord Jesus Christ who offered up himself once for all and needeth not again to be offered up In burnt-offering and sacrifices for sin which are offered by the Law thou hadst no pleasure no content nor satisfaction therefore thou wouldest not have them any longer saith Christ to the Father but a body hast thou prepared me then said I Lo I come to do thy Will by which Will viz. done and accomplish't by him we are * Freed from sin and consecrated to the service of God sanctified by the