Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	john_n	love_v	world_n	13,642	5	5.6658	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28344	Vindiciæ foederis, or, A treatise of the covenant of God enterd with man-kinde in the several kindes and degrees of it, in which the agreement and respective differences of the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, of the old and new covenant are discust ... / [by] Thomas Blake ... ; whereunto is annexed a sermon preached at his funeral by Mr. Anthony Burgesse, and a funeral oration made at his death by Mr. Samuel Shaw.	Blake, Thomas, 1597?-1657.; Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.; Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.	1658 (1658)	Wing B3150; ESTC R31595	453,190	558

be greater cannot be determined but when man fell mankinde wholly was lost and unlesse grace save must everlastingly perish As some with the lost Angels must be objects on whom God will glorifie his justice Matth. 25. 41. So others must be vessels of mercy on whom his free grace shall be seen to make them as the Angels of heaven Therefore love is assigned as the alone impulsory motive God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten sonne John 3. 16. God who is rich in mercy according to the great love wherewith he loved us when we were dead in sinne Eph. 2. 5. Of this all that expect to be saved by grace must be tender that it be not obscured Gods designe being to advance it our care must be that it be not lessened In this exercise of free grace God yet keeps up authority and rule power and dominion still is his Man was made of God subject to a Law and under dominion having the law written in his heart from the Creation and he was not divested of it by Adams fall nor yet delivered from it by Christs Redemption Corvinus indeed in his Reply to Moulin cap. 8. sect 7. saith That men under an obligation to punishment are not under any obligation to obedience God will not be served by that man that hath violated his Covenant giving his reason of this assertion To be admitted to serve is a to token of favour which is not vouchsafed as he sayes to menunder guilt and wrath But this is a manifest errour Mans guilt can never rob God of his Sovereignty nor yet disingage man from his duty Standing right with God he is bound to homage Under guilt he is bound both to homage and punishment and to be admitted to serve is not meerly of favour but of dominion and power It was no great favour that Israel in Egypt found in the service of Pharaoh to serve with acceptance is indeed a favour but necessity and duty ties all that are under Sovereignty As man fallen in right is a subject though in his demeanour a rebel So in his regenerate estate still he ows subjection When God became a Saviour to the Elect of mankind he did not cease to be a Sovereigne The children of a King and Emperour know their father to be their Sovereign as by one is well observed The child of God knows God in Christ to be his Lord We are redeemed not to licentiousnesse not to a state of manumission from the command of God but to serve in righteousnesse and true holinesse all the dayes of our life Luke 1. 74. It can be no part of our Christian freedome to be from under the Sovereignty of heaven This Sovereignty of God is two wayes held forth unto us First in keeping up his commandments the power and vigour of his precepts Secondly in his exercise of discipline in chastisement and correction Here I shall assert three things First God in the days of the Gospel keeps up the power and authority of his Law the Obligation of it is still in force to binde the consciences of beleevers Secondly That this Law which God thus keeps up in force is a perfect and compleat rule to those to whom it is given Thirdly That this Law binds as given by the hand of Moses As to the first when I speak thus of the Obligation of the Law I hope I scarce need to tell in what sense I do take the Law Not in the largest sense for any doctrine instruction or Ordinance of any kinde whatsoever Men have their Laws and Directories but I have to deal with the Law of God Neither do I take it for the whole of the Word of God all his will revealed in his Word as it is taken Isa 2. 3. The Law shall go forth of Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Nor yet as it is taken for all the Scripture of the Old Testament as in that Text of the Apostle In the Law it is written by men of other tongues and by other languages I will speak to this people 1 Cor. 14. 21. Nor yet for the five books of Moses as it is taken in the words of Christ All must be fulfilled that was written in the Law of Moses Luke 24. 44. Neither do I here understand the Ceremonial Law which stood up as a partition between Jew and Gentile Ephes 2. 14. All that did binde the Jews and was not of force from God with the Gentiles is taken off from Christians There was a confession of guilt a beast needed not to have been slain if they had been innocent this held them under hopes that there was sacrifice to take away sinne imposed on the Jewes till the time of reformation Heb. 9. 10. as an Appendix to the first Table fitted to the Jewes state and condition as a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10. 1. Nor yet the judicial Law given to order the Common-wealth or State of that people farther then so much of it as was of nature and then did bind the Gentiles It is the Moral-Law that I meane that Law which was obligatory not only to the Jews but Gentiles for breach of which they suffered Levit. 18. 27 28. Neither do I understand the Moral Law as a covenant upon observation of which life was expected and might be claimed This is utterly inconsistent with the Gospel If there had been a Law that could have given life verily righteousnesse had been by the Law Gal. 3. 21. And this righteousnesse giving life utterly overthrows the Gospel If righteousnesse come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2. 21. In which sense I deny that the Jewes were ever under the Law The Law was not given as such a covenant as shall God willing be shewn So the Moral Law and Ceremonial Law should militate one against another The Moral Law holding them in themselves looking for a righteousnesse of works and the Ceremonial Law leading them out of themselves unto a sacrifice for remission of sinne Abraham was under no such covenant he had the Gospel preached to him Gal. 3. 8. and so had the seed of Abraham But it still hath the nature of a Law binding to obedience it is for ever a rule for the guide of our wayes That it was once of force is without question and above all contradiction and therefore I need not to multiply Old Testament● Scriptures for it There is no repeale of it it was never antiquated and abolished therefore it is of force Though a Law be urged yet if a repeal may be pleaded there is a discharge That it is not repealed I shall shew and further that it is not capable of any repeal If it be repealed then either by Christ at his coming in the flesh or else by his Apostles by commission from him after the Spirit was given But neither Christ in person nor the Apostles by any commission

hath lost its commanding power then it can give sinne no more being yea it hath lost its own being power of command being of the essence of it If the Law Thou shalt not kill have no power of command then I sin not if I kill If that Law Sweare not at all have no power of commanding then our RANTERS high oaths are no more sinnes then our eating of swines flesh or 〈◊〉 not observing the Feast of the Passeover Where there is 〈◊〉 there is no transgression and a Law antiquated and repealed that the power of command is gone as in the Laws before mentioned is no Law If he still pr●sse that similitude of the Apostle that a dead husband hath now power of command But the Law to a beleever is a dead husband First I say if he will be pleased to informe me how a dead husband rips up his wives faults how he curbs and keeps her in which he confesses is the Laws office to a beleever then I shall speedily give an account how this dead husband retaines power of command The Argument is as well of force The dead husband hath no power to discover his wives faults to restraine curb or keep her in But the Law is a dead husband to beleevers Therefore the Law hath no such power It lies upon him to answer this argument to free himself from self-contradiction And I would faine see this answered and the other maintained Secondly for more full satisfaction I say that some learned Expositors make the husband in that similitude not to be the Law but sinne which hath its power from the Law So Diodati in his Notes upon the place Man signifieth sinne which hath power from the Law the woman is our humane nature and of these two are begotten the depraved errours of sinne So also Doctor Reynolds in his Treatise of Divorce page 37. setting out the scope of this similitude thus expresseth it As a wife her husband being dead doth lawfully take another and is not an adulteresse in having his company to bring forth fruit of her body to him so regenerate persons their natural corruption provoked by the Law to sin and flesh being mortified and joyned to Christ as to a second husband Master Burges Vindiciae Degis page 218. saith Sinne which by the Law doth irritate and provoke our corruption that is the former husband the soul had and lusts they are the children thereof and this the rather is to be received because the Apostle in his reddition doth not say the Law is dead but we are dead But if he will still contend that the Law is the husband in that place which by reason of corruption hath so much power for irritation and condemnation over an unregenerate man I shall onely give him that advice which Doctor Reynolds in the place quoted gives Bellarmine upon occasion of his interpretation of this similitude Let Bellarmine acknowledge that similitudes must 〈◊〉 be set on the rack nor the drift thereof be streched in such sort 〈◊〉 ●f they ought just in length breadth and depth to match and sit that whereunto they are ●●●●mbled And when he confesseth power in the Law notwithstanding this death to performe diverse offices in the souls of beleever● 〈◊〉 cannot affirme that the law is wholly dead nor deny but that it may have this office of command likewise The power which the Law loseth is that which corruption gave it which is irritation and condemnation Corruption never gave command to the Law and the death of corruption through the Spirit can never exempt the soul from obedience or take the power of command from it Let it be granted that the Law is the husband here mentioned the similitude is this That as the Law through our corruption was fruitful in mans nature to the bringing forth of sinne and condemnation So Christ by the Spirit is to be fruitful in our nature to bring forth works of grace to salvation and so the death of the Law is meerly in respect of irritation or inflaming to sinne and binding over to condemnation not in respect of command That this is the full and clear scope of this similitude beyond which it must not be stretched plainly appeares verse 5. For when we were in the flesh the motions of sinnes which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death So that here is nothing against the commanding power of the Law God still keeps up his Sovereignty and by this Law he rules the regenerate I wish our Authour would sadly reflect upon that reason of his The Law is not authorized by Christ to reigne and rule in the consciences of his people For his Fathers peace his own righteousnesse and his Spirits joy There is none that speaks of the reigne of the Law in the consciences of the people of God but God in Christ reigns and by his Moral Law rules for all these reasons So farre are these from excluding his rule by his Law in his peoples hearts If this rule of the Law be destructive to Christs righteousnesse then Christs coming for righteousnesse must needs be to destroy the Law which Christ disclaimes And the rule of the peace of God in our hearts is so farre from excluding his rule by his Law that without it it can never be attained Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psalme 119. 165. This is the confidence that we have in God that whatsoever we ask according to his will we shall receive because we keep his commandments 1 John 3. 22. A Commandment hath a command●●● power and only they that keep them have this peace ruling in their hearts The Spirits joy and the power of the Law to command are so farre from opposing one the other that the Spirit gives testimony of Gods abode in no other but such as confesse and yeeld to this power He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that be abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3. 24. And of like nature is that which he further hath Though the Law the former husband be dead to a beleever yet a beleever is no widow much lesse an harlot for he is married to Christ and is under the Law of Christ which is love If the moral Law respective to the power of command be dead then love is dead with it Jesus Christ reduces the ten Commandments into two Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self If then the Law be dead this love from the heart is dead and so a beleever is either a widow or an harlot Master Burges Vindiciae Legis page 12. shews at large that to do a thing out of obedience to the Law and yet by love and delight do not oppose one another which if the Reader consult with his enlargement of it he

of of God who go up into the Pulpit in the name of Christ to preach his Word ought to have such firmness of Faith in them that they are assured that their Doctrine can no more be overthrowne then God himself now truely this faith is much to be commended to us we may have much learning much reading but little Faith be very scepticall and deale in Divinitie as we use to do in Philosophy videtur quod sic videtur quod non Great Schollars are not alwayes great beleevers The want of this maketh a man of a Socinian faith an Arminian faith a Popish faith as often as any plausible Argument or carnal Interest interposeth 2. With this knowledge labour much after Casuisticall Divinity whereby you may be able to direct the tempted in cases of Conscience To guide the afflicted in soul what they are to doe Indeed the Papists have a deale of Casuisticall divinitie in large voluminous discourses but it is for the most part calculated according to their meridians of superstitious usages and Customes but it is pitty that among us Protestants our controversall Bookes are farre more then our casuisticall yet remember the Scripture calleth it the tongue of the Learned Isa 50. 4. To know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary The wounds of Conscience are the most tender and therefore require a Spirituall skilfull Physitian The Consciences of men are the subject matter of your Office and therefore look after that Ars Cordis which is indeed a liberall art that will set us free 3. He that will faithfully discharge the Office of his Ministery must regard the end of it the finis operis and finis operantis the finis ministerii and ministri must be all one The end of the Ministry is to exalt God Christ to dethrone Satan to bring many out of their sins unto the obedience of the Gospel Now if a man aim at other things in his Ministry then this he can never comfortably discharge it To be a Minister for earthly profits for ambition and vain glory these will be like the gravel that will presently stop the Ship in its passage and truly herein we may much lament our entrance in to this work how many set upon it as a profession to live upon by that they hope to satisfie their needs but if this end and motive do still reign in thee it will be like a milstone about thy neck outward maintenance may be a secondary end but not the principal still then a we thy soul with the end of thy office that all other knowledge is exercised about the body or mens Estates or the nature of things but thine is Theology De Deo à Deo in Deum its concerning God objectively it s from God effectively it s to God finally 4. He that will faithfully discharge this Office of the Ministry must as Paul professeth 2 Cor. 1. 12. have his conversation with all godly simplicity and sincerity He is to carry on his work in Scripture-ways avoiding those two Rocks Media violentiae and Media fraudulentiae A man of a crafty multiplicity of Spirit will turn into any shape dispute for any thing a lawful This the Jesuit said to one for so I understand it who doubted about something he was to do whether lawful or no Aude saith he nos efficiemus probabile Jansen St. August lib. proaem pag. 9. Be daring to do it and we will make it probable now this simplicity of Spirit in Ministerial imployment is greatly seen in an obediential dependance upon the word of God whether in matter of Duty or of Faith What is it that maketh so many learned Men embrace Errors after Errors but because they leave Faith and attend to reason They think we come to be Christians by Disputations and scientifical Demonstrations as we come to be Philosophers not by a single and plain captivating of our understandings to the scripture whereas it is Christian Faith not Christian reason It is said to be Nazianzens Emblem Theologia nostra est Pythagorica by this simplicity of Spirit a man shall overcome those Temptations which are usually in Scholars to bring inaudita invisa strange and unheard things unto our People especially let the Ministers of the Gospel be so guided by simplicity of Spirit that they may avoid these three Rocks First that while they avoid a Popish blinde obedience to men examining things by Scripture they therefore do not make all things uncertain That of Durand is true whosoever forsaketh reason because of humane Authority incidit in insipientiam bestialem maketh himself like a Beast yet let not this liberty be abused to licentiousness to believe nothing to despise all those Ministerial helps which God hath vouchsafed to the Church because he is to try all things though he must try yet he must not be always trying but hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5. 21. This liberty and particular Judgement of discerning which God alloweth every man is not to be opposed to that decisive Ministerial Judgement which God hath appointed in his Church Secondly under pretence of a more moderate and impartial handling of things as not being addicted unto parties take heed thou do not make a party of thy self as the Sect of Philosophers called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diogen Laert. in Proent pretending they would be of no Sect but choose the best Art of all thus they made a Sect while they condemned all Lastly Take heed of being deceived under the pretence that thou doest not bring in any new matter but new words or thou dost digest things into a better method for by this means men leaving that simplicity and Scripture-dependance they once had have corrupted their Ministerial Office instead of a faithful discharge of it Fifthly To a faithful discharge of this dreadful Office there is required an excellent compound of many choice Graces insomuch that a Ministers qualification is like that Ointment that was to be made for the Priest onely There must be love and compassion to Peoples Souls which was abundantly discovered in our Savior himself Paul compareth himself sometimes to a Father sometimes to a Mother sometimes to a Nurse because of this affectionate desire in him There must be Zeal Fortitude and Courage the spirit of love and of power also he is not a Minister that is not ad mille mortes paratus said Chrysostome as a good Souldier endure hardship saith Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. 2. 3. There must be Prudence and Wisdom else Love and Power will make us like Sampson without eyes there must be salt in the Sacrifice as well as fire Oportet Pastor sit totus oculus a Pastor must be an Argus full of eyes Again there must be an Heavemly heart contemning the world and all earthly advantages The eye that is to see for others must not have dust falling into it Austin maketh an Heretick to have some carnal profit or