Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A42780
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The comforts of divine love Preach'd upon the occasion of the much lamented death of the reverend Mr. Timothy Manlove. With his character, done by another hand.
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Gilpin, Richard, 1625-1700.
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1700
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Wing G776; ESTC R216432
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17,903
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that thou shouldest magnifie him That thou shouldest set thy Heart upon him That thou shouldest visit him every Morning But if we should place Man in an higher Degree and consider him as a Servant yet still Gods Love looseth not its Lustre because at best we are but unprofitable Servants Luke 17.10 If we should do all that we are commanded we do but that which was our Duty to do and which we owe to God upon the Right of Creation yet we merit nothing God hath no Advantage or Profit by our Service Job 22.2 3. Can a Man be profitable unto God What gain is it to him that thou makest thy ways perfect If Man at best be so far below the Desert of God's Love How great will this Love appear if we consider Man as sinful Thus we are become Enemies not only breakers of his Law but opposite thereto and withal were helpless and could do nothing for our selves Both these the Apostle takes Notice of Rom. 5.6 as a transcendant Manifestation of God's Love and ver 8. God commendeth his Love to us 2. The Scriptures set forth the greatness of Gods Love by the great and wonderful Benefits bestowed on us We usually measure Love by the Fruits of it The Fruits of Gods Love cannot be numbred particularly the Promises are so loaden with them that they are justly called exceeding Great and Precious Promises In the gross They are things that pertain unto Life and Godliness 2 Pet. 1.3 All spiritual Blessings in heavenly Places Eph. 1.3 The Blessings of this Life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 All that is within the Circumference of Grace and Glory Psalm 84.11 3. But above all Gods Love is magnified by the Method which his Infinite Wisdom pitched upon for the bringing about his Purpose of Love this was the sending Christ to Die for Sinners This was such an adorable Mystery of Wisdom and Love that the Angels desire to look into it Christ himself speaks of it as transcendant beyond Comparison God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son c. John 3.16 and in 1 John 4.9 10. The Apostle represents it as the most glorious Publick Manifestation of Love In this was manifested the Love of God towards us because that God sent his only Son into the World Herein is Love c. II. The second thing that I am to explain and prove is That this Love of God is Vnchangeable It is frequently called an Everlasting Love Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an Everlasting Love His Mercy endureth for ever Having loved his own he loved them unto the end John 13.1 And it must needs be so if it be considered 1. That Gods Nature is Unchangeable God asserts it Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not Psalm 102.25 26. The Heavens and the Earth shall perish but thou shalt endure Thou art the same and thy Years shall have no end James 1.17 With God is no variableness neither shadow of Turning The Unchangeableness of Gods Nature is evident by the very Light of Reason All that believe the Existence of God will yield that Deus est ens necessarium Independens God is a necessary and Independant Being That God is Self-existent is an Original and Fundamental Idea which we are to have of God This Monsieur Abbadie proves in his Vindication of the Christian Religion Sect. 2. Cap. 2. And from this necessity of his Being he deduceth his Immutability For if God depend not upon any other Being nor receive any thing from any other Being his Essence cannot then be varied And if his Nature is Unchangeable his Will is also Unchangeable It is true God doth sometime change his Promises and Threatnings but his Purposes he changeth not Mutat Sententiam sed non Decretum Men usually change their declared Purposes because all Men are Liers and so break their Promises or they Promise without due Consideration and when any thing happens which they foresaw not they repent But it cannot be thus with God My Counsel shall stand I have purposed it I will also do it Isa 49.10 11. The Reason of this we have in Numb 23.19 God is not a Man that he should lie neither the Son of Man that he should repent 2. That Gods Love is Unchangeable will further appear if we consider that his Love is bottomed upon a certain Foundation His own free Purpose and Christs Purchase This Reason the Apostle doth not obscurely suggest in the Text None can separate us from Gods Love because it is a Love to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Had it been built upon the sandy Foundation of our Merit we might have feared the failure of it upon every miscarriage or failure of Duty III. The Third Thing to be explained is That the Consideration of Gods Infinite and Unchangeable Love is a sweet Cordial in all Distresses and a Guard against all Affrightments of Fear to all those that are in Christ For 1. Those that are in Christ being reconciled and pardoned may be assured that however God may change his Countenance toward them yet he will not change his Heart He may be angry but Anger and Love are consistent All Men may be convinced of this Parents may be angry with their Children and yet love them It is true that Parental Corrections will be grievous to ingenuous Children they will mourn under them and thus God's Anger will be an heavy Burden to his Children as their Complaints and Sorrows do abundantly Witness Yet God would have us to consider his Love in his Rod Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth To be without Chastisement is an Evidence that we are Bastards and not Sons God may be angry but he never changeth his Love into hatred 2. The greatest outward Afflictions are so managed by God that if we could duely observe his dealings with us we might perceive his Love intermixed with the Lashes of his Rod. All the while he manifests a fatherly Pity and Compassion Fury is not in him He hath a gentle Hand to the weak He remembers their Mold and Fashion They have also secret Supports and seasonable Deliverances 3. All these Distresses are so far from separating his Children from his Love that as he orders them they Work together for their good Their Graces are hereby exercised encreased and made bright as your Vessels are by scouring So that their Distresses yield the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness to those that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 They are hereby brought into nearer Communion with God and at last he lifts up the Light of his Countenance upon them like clear shining after Rain 4. It is further evident that all outward Troubles cannot separate them from the Love of God because he doth evidently strengthen their Hearts under them so that they prevail not to draw them off from God This Argument the Apostle fixeth on a Demonstration of what he had asserted In all these things we are