Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	father_n	holy_a	son_n	15,395	5	5.8830	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37035	A commentarie upon the book of the Revelation Wherein the text is explained, the series of the several prophecies contained in that book, deduced according to their order and dependance on each other; the periods and succession of times, at, or about which, these prophecies, that are already fulfilled, began to be, and were more fully accomplished, fixed and applied according to history; and those that are yet to be fulfilled, modestly, and so far as is warrantable, enquired into. Together with some practical observations, and several digressions, necessary for vindicating, clearing, and confirming many weighty and important truths. Delivered in several lectures, by that learned, laborious, and faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, James Durham, late Minister of the Gospel in Glasgow. To which is affixed a brief summary of the whole book, with a twofold index, one of the several digressions, another of the chief and principall purposes and words contained in this treatise.	Durham, James, 1622-1658.	1658 (1658)	Wing D2805; ESTC R216058	1,353,392	814

thereof without descending to particular conceptions or notions concerning the Persons of the blessed Godhead this particularness is often that which both confuses the mind and disquiets the conscience and cannot but do so in those who would be at the looking upon God immediately here without making use of the expressions Titles Names c. whereby He hath manifested Himself to us and wherein we conceive it 's safest to rest and to bound all our curiositie within those for they must be the most solid notions of God which Himself hath caught Thus Exod. 33 and 34. The Lord did answer Moses his desire of seeing His Glory by shewing him His goodness in the proclaming of His Attributes to him that are manifested in His Word thereby teaching men to conceive of God according as He hath revealed Himself in His Word in the plain and comprehensive Attributes that describe His Nature wherein Gods goodnesse is sufficiently holden forth to sinners which ought to be a sufficient manifestation of God to them here without diving immediatly into His Essence which could no otherways be manifested to Moses than by that proclamation 2. We would beware of forming Idea's representations or shapes of that One God and Three Persons in the heart or in the head these cannot but be derogatorie to Him being a liknesse to Him of our own up-setting in our hearts and cannot but diminish that Authority which the true God should have in our hearts We would remember therefore that He is purely Spirituall whom no eye hath seen nor can see and therefore all such imaginations are to be abandoned and abhorred 3. We would beware of dividing the Object of Worship or separating the Three blessed Persons in our worshipping of them even in our imagination as if when One is named we were not praying unto and worshipping both the other and as if the Son were an other God than the Father or Spirit c. But still this would be remembered that what ever Person be named He is God and that same One God with the other Two and therefore the Object of Worship is ever the same One God Father Son and Spirit that are but One God We Worship the Father the Son and the Spirit but we do not Worship the Father or the Son or the Spirit as if He who is not named were lesse worshipped than He who is named and seing the Son and holy Ghost are the same God with the Father the former ground being laid it 's all one thing what ever Person be named though in Scripture sometimes respect is had to their order of subsisting and operating and so the Father is only named sometimes to be the ground upon and by which we have accesse to God and so the Son only is named Now by what is said it doth also appear that the holy Ghost may be expresly prayed unto as the Father and the Son although it be not so usuall in Scripture because of the reasons formerly hinted at for this will follow He that is God may be invocated c. and where petitions do especially respect the increase of Grace which is the Work of the Spirit we will find Him expresly mentioned with the Father and Son as here ver 4. and 5. Grace be unto you c. And 2 Cor. 13.14 The communion of the holy Ghost is subjoyned as a distinct petition to the Love of the Father and Grace of the Son and these first two petitions being directed to the Father and the Son this third must be to the holy Ghost in like manner and therefore to plead against the Godhead of the holy Ghost upon this ground that he is not expresly prayed unto in Scripture is both inconsequent and false and the Apostl's taking the holy Ghost to be his witnesse Rom. 9. cannot be done without invocating of Him and the generall commands of glorifying God must infer so much supposing the Spirit to be God There is no weight therefore to be laid on that argument If it be objected against the necessity of believing this Doctrine of the Trinity or against the sinfulnesse of tolerating what opposeth the same That the light of nature doth not discover it and that the Godhead of the holy Ghost hath sometimes not so much as been heard of by Disciples as in Act. 19. Therefore c. To the first we answer That now nature being corrupted it can be no good rule to try what is truth concerning God by it it can hardly be denied if nature be considered as in Adam at the beginning but to him there was clearness in this mysterie there being express mention of the blessed Trinity in his creation as the word Let Vs make man according to Our Image doth import which is not for nought mentioned then more than formerly especially considering that excellent knowledge that Adam was furnished with which was a part of the Image of that One God who is Father Son and Spirit But not to insist in this we say secondly That if by nature as it is now corrupted what is tolerable or intolerable in the matters of Religion were to be tried then were the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and Redemption through the Mediator to be accounted no fundamental thing and consequently no Error destroying it were to be restrained because nature hath not discovered that That therefore must be an unsafe rule to walk by And indeed if a master of a family and father who yet as such is to say so a servant of nature is not by that exempted from the obligation of bringing up his children and servants in the knowledge of God according to the Gospel but is notwithstanding to exercise his authority in the restraining of every thing contrary thereunto according to his station Can it be thought that a Magistrate who must count for his Authority over a people as a master must do for his over a family is lesse obliged thereunto For Christians are to be Christians in their stations as in their personal carriage and so to seek the pr●moving of the Gospel and the restraining of what may ma●● it according to their station Thirdly we answer That even this may be drawn from the Morall Law of God wherein not only the true God is alone to be worshipped as in the first Command but also accordingly as he hath prescribed and revealed in His Word which is the sum of the second Command Now this being true that the Lord hath thus revealed Himself to be worshipped according to the Gospel it becomes no lesse necessary to Worship God in that manner than to Worship Him who is the true God and so i● by the first Command and according to the light of nature Magistrates should restrain and not suffer what is inconsistent with the worshipping of the One true and living God so is he by the second Command and that same light of nature obliged to restrain all manner of Doctrine and Worship that is inconsistent with what he

staying of us in approaching to God for the Godhead considered in it self is an infinit inconceivable thing and as there is no proportion betwixt Him and us so not betwixt Him and our capacities of reaching Him so considered but by this union of the Godhead with our nature in the Person of the Son so that He who is Man is also God Having the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelling in Him bodily Coloss. 2.9 There is a condescendencie upon the Almighties side shewing Himself accessible to sinners and as appointing this to say so for a trysting place with them to wit that He is in Christ reconciling the World to Himself 2 Cor. 5.19 whereupon the heart fixeth there to meet God and find Him there and is thereby imboldened and helped to tryst with the great and dreadful God This was typified by the Lords placing of the Mercy-seat above the Ark by the giving of His answers from thence and appointing the people with respect thereto to make their addresses to him whence we see looking toward the Temple Jonah 2.4 toward the holy Hill and holy Oracle c. frequently mentioned in the Saints straits which were typical of this true Tabernacle which God pitched and not man and also held out there in their fixing Worship where God had by His Ordinance trysted them though it was but in Type And seing they made so much of it what wonder is it that the Saints since Christs incarnation and suffering make so great account of the Substance and Antitype it self Secondly A second reason is Because in Christ Jesus the glory and riches of the Grace of God in the work of Redemption doth most eminently and palpably appear which is both sweetest to the Saints to insist on and also tendeth to the advancement of the glory of God dwelling in Him and so furnishing Him for them And therefore these commendations that are given expresly to Christ the Mediator and whereby Faith is strengthened in Him do also set forth and commend exceedingly the Majesty of God and His Grace condescending thus to men and in the same act do serve to strengthen Faith in Him for honouring of God and the Mediator and also the speaking to the praise of God and to the commendation of the Mediator cannot be separated and what strengthens Faith in the one doth it also in the other Thirdly A third is Because there is most sensible footing and to speak so gripping to be gotten by looking to the Mediator and mentioning of Him for He being God and also Man there is more accesse to conceive what the affections and bowels that He as Man hath and for this end hath taken up to Glory with Him that sinners thereby might have confidence in approaching to and by an experienced high Priest Heb. 2.18 and 4.16 than can be had to consider God abstractly in Himself of whose divine Attributes there can be no such apprehension And this is not to give a new Object of our Faith as if thereby it were surer for nothing can be added to the fulnesse of God But is to make that Object to say so more discernable conceivable suitable and accessible unto us and to give us a new ground to strengthen our Faith and a new way of having our necessities made sensible to say so to Him that is when not only by His Omnisciense He knows them fully as God but also being acquainted thereby with the same In respect of His humane affections He is in an inconceivable manner by sympathie affected therewith which though it adde not to the hight or degree of His love and pity yet doth it bring it to such a channel to say so that hearts are more able to conceive thereof and are more delighted and comforted therein And therefore it is no marvel that the same be most frequently mentioned Fourthly He is as is frequently said the ground upon which we have accesse for sin made a gulf betwixt God and man man could not step over the same to God but God stepped over and hath come to mans side by being manifested in our nature in the Person of the Son that so He might give men accesse again to Him Hence Christ is in going to God the Door and Way and as it were the bridge by which they passe and that safely unto their former communion with God and therefore Christ being God so that they cannot have Him but they must have God and being also the Way by which accesse is given them to God it is no marvel that the mentioning of Him be sweet Fifthly The great effects of the love of God have kythed and have been brought about in the Person of the Son the Mediator and though there be no greater love as to its extent degree or freenesse in the Son than in the Father and Spirit as is said nor can be yet that maketh the Mediator more obviously lovely to the sinner although indeed in the same things the love of the other two Persons doth appear also And seing this maketh the Object of our love more sensible to us and helpeth us to understand Gods love the better which otherwise is inconceivable therefore God by proposing this as the pattern and evidence of His love and as the Object of ours doth even allow sinners to feed their love and strengthen their faith on this Object and on the immediate and explicite thoughts thereof which yet is the delighting and feeding on the love of God so manifested which cannot be so well read and understood as by direct looking upon it as it is manifested in the Mediator who being God became Man suffered died and is now though glorified yet a true Man touched in a humane manner with our infirmities as a mother or friend are touched with the difficulties of a child or one intirely beloved though still in a manner becoming His sinlesse glorified and most perfect state This is a main attractive to make souls look to God by this open Door and also by expressing this which is nearest to their own comfort and conception to expresse their Faith in God or their love to Him For encouraging and clearing of us in the improving of these grounds these things would be remembered 1. That our blessed Lord is true Man having these affections and properties that are natural and not sinful truly and really and that therefore there is a greater nearnesse conceivable in our approaching to Him than to God simply considered in Himself 2. That as He is Man having such properties so He is affected suitably thereunto that is He hath a humane affection to and sympathie with these He loveth and hath the experimental ramembrance of His by-past sufferings which also hath its own affecting influence on His soul for awakning of such pity as is consistent with His inconceivable glorified state 3. That He who is Man and thus affected is also God and so by His Omniscience acquainted with every need and strait of His people and

men in grace to become servants to God Rom. 6. in respect of their design in the same acts 3. Dead men as they have no end before them so have they no reasonable motive as a living man is supposed to have in his actings so naturall men have no spirituall motive supposing it be in loving of God it is some carnal selfish-thing that swayeth them for having no spirituall principle within as matter to work upon No spirituall motive can have influence upon them more than fire can be kindled by any blowing where no kindling or combustible matter is a renewed man as such hath a spirituall motive concurring with and having influence on his actings and so not only loveth God because of some externall benefit but he loveth Him as being provoked from that inward principle of the Divine nature that is in him and respect to Gods Commands and Goodnesse whereby as such he cannot but love Him and these who bear His Image and what is spiritually good even as a naturall Parent or Son cannot but love his own Child or Father and that from another speciall principle than they love any other Child or Parent so also he hath a pure spirituall motive warming this principle and kindling the sympathy and thus he is swayed to love God because of some spirituall good as the subduing of sin the conforming of him to Gods Image the manifesting of Himself to him and such like and he loves Gods People because he taketh them to be beloved of God or to love Him or be like Him as suppose a Woman did carry affection to a Man it may be from some carnal principle as his furnishing of her in her vanity and his being subservient to the lust of vanity pride c. in her yet afterward being matched with him might love him because he were her Husband and had condescended to marry her although he should not serve her vain humour as formerly in this respect her love doth differ from what it was as having a conjugall motive added to it which it had not formerly 4. A living man in his actings is swayed to them as good and as good to him and it is impossible for him to will any thing even though it be good but as it is considered as such by him yea even things that are hurtfull are in his desiring of them considered under this notion as good to him but there is no such thing in the motion of a dead man so a renewed man not only acteth on that which is spiritually good suppose in the loving of God or His People but also he is swayed therein and acteth therein upon this formall consideration as it is such that is he loveth God as He is good in Himself and to Him in what is spiritually good and others as they are such as have title to Him that is Mat. 10. To love them in the name of righteous men that is upon that formall consideration as such to love them And this is that wherein mainly Godly sincerity and singlenesse doth kythe when we are not only moved to do what is good and that from a spirituall motive upon the matter good but are swayed to that thing by this motive as they are such and so considered by us and thus this as doth not only respect the object as it is conceived by the understanding to be such but it doth respect the act as it is inclined to undertaken and performed by the will to wit it willeth it as such although the act it self be not in respect of its degree every way adequate to such an object that is though God get not so much of the heart as it becometh Him to have yet the heart considering Him as such a God who deserveth the heart and ought to have no competitor with Him and as sufficiently able of Himself to make it happy doth so will Him and upon that account doth love Him and delight in Him although it be exceedingly defective in the degree of both and they be but conceived as such to have a being Now as a man is to try the truth of his life not only because he moveth and speaketh but because he moveth and speaketh so in respect of the kind formerly mentioned So a renewed man is not simply to try his new life from his acts but as they are so qualified as is said If it be objected That hither to this seemeth to admit no motive that concerneth our selves as suppose one loved God for being good to him or heaven because they expected to be happy in it and that as if no motive could be admitted in loving God but for himself or how may this motive be differenced in the love of a natural man from one that is renewed Answ. There is no such thing as the first intended it will only say this that as the natural man is swayed in the persuing of moral good as it is so considered by him so a renewed man doth that which is spiritually good and that as it 's considered as such by him Hence there is this difference that a natural man in his considering any act which in it self is spiritually good and materially agreeable to the Law yet in his yeelding to perform it he doth still consider it as a natural good or moral at the best as suppose in loving of God he is considered by such as good to them on a natural or as to them a sinful account as he loveth God because He hath gotten temporal peace deliverance from bodily hazards an easie or honourable life it may be because in providence He hath prospered him in some sinful course this the learned forementioned Author pag. 203. doth justly call one of the greatest of all sins when the holy God is made a pander and servant to our flesh and no question many do love God upon such an account or if they love God for the hope they have of being brought to heaven by Him which is one of their highest motives it is because they hope to get heaven from Him and accesse to their sinful lusts here also thereby supposing because of His goodnesse and mercy that they may sin and serve their lusts and expect even heaven also afterward or they love Him under the hope of heaven not because there they do expect or desire spiritual or heavenly satisfaction in Himself in being satisfied with His likenesse which they never delight in here But because they have a supposed opinion of a greater degree of that same happinesse which now they hunt for and so heaven is never considered by them as a spiritual good or they may love God as supposing Him to love and esteem of them because of some lovelinesse and excellencie that is in themselves and upon that ground expect even heaven from Him and love Him because He so esteemeth of them and this is to think God like themselves and not to love Him upon any spirituall account as is said Again

for no other more than it will follow from Paul's word Gal. 2.20 He loved me and gave Himself for me Therefore He did love and gave Himself for no other It is sad that Learned men should so please themselves to shift Arguments for certainly a clear difference may be observed between Pual's saying Christ gave His life for me and between Christs saying I laid down My life for My sheep this doth expresly hold forth Christs differencing of these for whom He was to die and His contradistinguishing of them from others who were not of His Sheep nor given to Him and therefore for them He was not to lay down His life whereas that word of Pauls is not spoken to contradistinguish him from any other Believer but to comfort himself in the application of that truth to himself that Christ who died for His Sheep did also lay down His life for him as one of them Again when Christ speaketh of His People of His Sheep and of His Own in this case He doth particularly to say so consider them as a species or kind of people by themselves and differenced in the respect mentioned from others as the scope cleareth but when Paul speaketh of himself in the application forsaid will any think that he speaketh of himself as differenced from all and not rather as one individuall of the species foresaid Therefore although we may conclude thus God hath made man a reasonable creature according to His own Image Therefore no other creature is such because by this qualification man or that species to say so is differenced from all other creatures on earth yet it will not follow Peter is a reasonable creature according to Gods Image Therefore no other man is so because Peter is but an individual● person under the same species with others Just so is it here Christs Sheep Own People c. denote a species as it were differenced by such relations from others whereas Paul is but an individuall Believer comprehended under the same A second Objection is That many other Scriptures do assert Christ to be given and to have laid down His life for the World Therefore it cannot be absurd to say that in some sense Christ hath redeemed all and particularly that place Ioh. 3.16 is urged for our scope suffereth us not to digresse to more to wit God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life In reference to which place we say 1. That the scope is not to shew that Christ was given for all the World taken distributively that is for every person that should be in the World because it is only brought-in here to confirm this generall sum of the Gospel which is laid down vers 15. That whosoever believeth in Christ should not perish but have eternal life Now vers 16. is brought-in as a confirmation of this for saith He God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for this very end That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternall life Where Gods end in giving of His Son is mentioned to be a ground of quietnesse to all that should believe and will bear that Universal well whosoever believeth are redeemed and may expect the benefits of Christs Redemption because the justifying and saving of such was the end for which God sent His Son and to extend the place any further will not be consistent with the scope thereof If it be said that Gods respect and love to the world indefinitly is mentioned here Be it so yet that will not infer that because He had respect to the world That therefore He intended that Christ should die for all and every individuall person in the world but it will only infer this much at most as if we said in common speach such a Christian King or potent man had such a respect to Christians or to men of such a Nation as to send such a great sum to redeem so many of them as he particularly condescended upon from the bondage of the Turks it may well be said that such a great man had respect to Christians or to such a Nation because he purposed to redeem many of them when he took no thought of others yet it cannot be said that he intended the redeeming of all either absolutely or conditionally seing he did appoint the price given to be paid for such and such as himself thought meet to redeem and not for others Just so is it here in this case at the most and so Gods respect to the world may be opposite to His passing-by of all the fallen Angels Again secondly we say that if World in this place be to be understood of particular persons and an universality of them It must be understood of the Elect World as in the Verse following is clear where Gods purpose of sending His Son is expressed to be that the world through Him might be saved Now there can no other universality be thought to be intended to be saved by God as was formerly cleared but the universality to speak so or the World of the Elect. Neither will the reading be absurd to understand it thus That God so loved the Elect World that He gave His only begotten Son to death for them that by their believing on Him they should not perish but have eternal life And so this place will be interpreted by the parallel thereof 1 Ioh. 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him for us and we in the one place are equipollent to world and whosoever will believe in the other That thus it is to be understood appeareth in this that even according to the grounds of this opinion there can none be expected to believe but the Elect and in the Text there are none profited by this fruit of Christs love to the world but the Believers Therefore this love which giveth this gift must be said to respect the Elect only especially considering that it is in a matter which is the evidence of Gods most special love as was formerly said Only it is expressed in this generall whosoever shall believe c. because the extending of it in this indefinit expression doth sure best with the proposed mould of the offer of the Gospel which is not to invite men to believe because they are particularly elected or redeemed but to invite men to believe because God hath promised to save such as believe and because He doth by the outward Ministrie call hearers thereunto And this is the more to be observed because Christ here as a good Minister of the Gospel is preaching to Nicodemus and laying before him the sum of the Gospel and that which must be the object of his faith and therefore it was necessary that He should take that way of preaching these truths to him so