Selected quad for the lemma: father_n
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A53736
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A vindication of some passages in a discourse concerning communion with God from the exceptions of William Sherlock, rector of St. George Buttolph-Lane / by the author of the said discourse, John Owen.
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Owen, John, 1616-1683.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing O821; ESTC R7728
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91,516
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238
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Love of the Holy Ghost his whole work upon us in us for us consists in preparing of us for Obedience enabling of us thereunto and bringing forth the fruits of it in us and this he doth in opposition to a Righteousness of our own either before it or to be made up by it Tit. 3.5 I need not insist on this The fruits of the Spirit in us are known Gal. 5.22 And thus have we a twofold bottom of the Necessity of our Obedience and personal Holiness God hath appointed it He requires it And it is an eminent immediate End of the distinct Dispensation of Father Son and Holy Ghost in the Work of our Salvation If God's Soveraignty over us is to be owned if his Love towards us be to be regarded if the whole Work of the ever-blessed Trinity for us in us be of any Moment our Obedience is necessary 3. It is Necessary in respect of the End thereof and that whether you consider God our Selves or the World 1. The End of our obedience in respect of God is his Glory and Honour Mal. 1.6 This is God's Honour all that we give him It is true he will take his Honour from the Stoutest and Proudest Rebel in the World but all we give him is in our Obedience The Glorifying of God by our Obedience is all that we are or can be Particularly 1. It is the Glory of the Father Mat. 5.16 Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven By our walking in the Light of Faith doth Glory arise to the Father The Fruits of his Love of his Grace of his Kindness are seen upon us and God is Glorified in our Behalf And 2. The Son is Glorified thereby It is the Will of God that as all Men Honour the Father so should they Honour the Son John 5.23 and how is this done by believing in him John 14.1 obeying of him Hence John 17.10 He says he is Glorified in Believers and prays for an increase of Grace and Union for them that he may yet be more Glorified and all might know that as Mediator he was sent of God 3. The Spirit is Glorified also by it He is grieved by our Disobedience Eph. 4.30 And therefore his Glory is in our bringing forth Fruit. He dwells in us as in his Temple which is not to be defiled Holiness becometh his Habitation for ever Now if this that hath been said be not sufficient to evince a necessity of our Obedience we must suppose our selves to speak with a sort of Men who regard neither the Soveraignty nor Love nor Glory of God Father Son or Holy Ghost Let Men say what they please though our Obedience should be all lost and never regarded which is impossible for God is not unjust to forget our Labour of Love yet here is a sufficient bottom ground and Reason of yielding more Obedience unto God than ever we shall do whilst we live in this World I speak also only of Gospel-Grounds of Obedience and not of those that are Natural and Legal which are indispensible to all Mankind 2. The End in respect of our selves immediately is threefold 1. Honour 2. Peace 3. Usefulness 1. Honour It is by Holiness that we are made like unto God and his Image is renewed again in us This was our Honour at our Creation this exalted us above all our Fellow-Creatures here below we were made in the Image of God This we lost by Sin and became like the Beasts that perish To this Honour of Conformity to God of bearing his Image are we exalted again by Holiness alone Be ye Holy says God because I am Holy 1 Pet. 1.16 And be you perfect that is in doing good as your Heavenly Father is Perfect Math. 5.48 in a Likeness and Conformity to him And herein is the Image of God renewed Ephes. 4.23 24. Therein we put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth This was that which originally was attended with Power and Dominion is still all that is Beautiful or Comely in the World How it makes Men Honourable and Precious in the sight of God of Angels of Men how alone it is that which is not despised which is of Price before the Lord what contempt and Scorn He hath of them in whom it is not in what Abomination he hath them and all their ways might easily be evinced 2. Peace by it we have Communion with God wherein Peace alone is to be enjoyed The wicked are like a troubled Sea that cannot rest and there is no Peace to them saith my God Isa. 48.21 There is no Peace Rest or Quietness in a Distance Separation or Alienation from God He is the Rest of our Souls In the Light of his Countenance is Life and Peace Now if we walk in the Light as he is Light we have Fellowship one with another 1 Joh. 1.7 and verily our Fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ v. 3. He that walks in the Light of new Obedience he hath Communion with God and in his Presence is fulness of Joy for ever without is there nothing but darkness and wandring and Confusion 3. Usefulness a man without Holiness is good for nothing Ephraim says the Propbet is an empty Vine that brings forth Fruit to it self And what is such a Vine good for Nothing saith another Prophet a man cannot make a pin of it so much as to hang a Vessel on A barren tree is good for nothing but to be cut down for the Fire Notwithstanding the seeming Usefulness of men who serve the Providence of God in their Generations I could easily manifest that the World and the Church might want them and that indeed in themselves they are Good for nothing only the Holy man is commune bonum 3. The End of it in respect of others in the world is manifold 1. It serves to the Conviction and stopping the mouths of some of the Enemies of God both here and hereafter Here 1. Pet. 3.16 Keeping a good Conscience that wherein they speak against you as Evil Doers they may be ashamed beholding your good Conversation in Christ. By our keeping of a good Conscience Men will be made ashamed of their false Accusations That whereas their Malice and Hatred of the ways of God hath provoked them to speak all manner of evil of the Profession of them by the Holiness and Righteousness of the Saints they are convinced and made ashamed as a Thief is when he is taken and driven to acknowledge that God is amongst them and that they are wicked themselves Joh. 17.23.2 Hereafter it is said that the Saints shall judg the World It is on this as well as upon other Considerations Their Good Works their Righteousness their Holiness shall be brought forth and manifested to all the World and the Righteousness of God's Judgments against Wicked Men be thence evinced See says
already that I will not come to him nor any of his Companions to learn to Express my self in these things and moreover that I despise their Censures The Discourses he is carping at in particular in this place are neither Doctrinal nor Argumentative but consist in the Application of Truths before proved unto the Minds and Affections of men And as I said I will not come to him nor his Fraternity to learn how to manage such a subject much less a Logical and Argumentative way of Reasoning nor have any inducement thereunto from any thing that as yet I have seen in their Writings It also troubles him pag. 208. That whereas I know how unsuited the best and most accurate of our Expressions are unto the true Nature and Being of Divine things as they are in themselves and what need we have to make use of Allusions and sometimes less proper Expressions to convey a sence of them unto the Minds and Affections of men I had once or twice used that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I may so say which yet if he had not known used in other good Authors treating of things of the same Nature he knew I could take protection against his severity under the Example of the Apostle using words to the same Purpose upon an alike Occasion Heb. 7. But at length he intends to be serious and from those words of mine Here is Mercy enough for the greatest the oldest the stubbornest Transgressor he addes Enough in all Reason this what a Comfort is it to Sinners to have such a God for their Saviour whose Grace is boundless and bottomless and exceeds the largest Dimensions of their Sins though there be a world of sin in them But what now if the Divine Nature it self have not such an endless boundless bottomless Grace and Compassion as the Doctor now talks of For at other times when it serves his turn better we can hear nothing from him but the Naturalness of Gods Vindictive Justice Though God be rich in Mercy he never told us that his Mercy was so boundless and bottomless he had given a great many Demonstrations of the severity of his Anger against sinners who could not be much worse than the Greatest the Oldest and stubbornest Transgressors Let the Reader take notice that I propose no Grace in Christ unto or for such Sinners but only that which may invite all sorts of them though under the most discouraging Qualifications to come unto him for Grace and Mercy by Faith and Repentance And on supposition that this was my sence as he cannot deny it to be I adde only in Answer that this his prophane scoffing at it is that which reflects on Christ and his Gospel and God himself and his Word which must be accounted for See Isa. 55.7 2 dly For the Opposition which he childishly frames between Gods Vindictive Justice and his Mercy and Grace it is answered already 3 dly It is false that God hath not told us that his Grace is boundless and bottomless in the sence wherein I use those words sufficient to pardon the greatest the oldest the stubbornest of sinners namely that turn unto him by Faith and Repentance And he who knowes not how this consists with Severity and Anger against impenitent sinners is yet to Learn his Catechism But yet he addes further pag. 208 209. Supposing the Divine Nature were such a bottomless Fountain of Grace how comes this to be a Personal Grace of the Mediator For a Mediator as Mediator ought not to be considered as the Fountain but as the Minister of Grace God the Father certainly ought to come in for a share at least in being the Fountain of Grace though the Doctor is pleased to take no notice of him But how excellent is the Grace of Christs Person above the Grace of the Gospel for that is a bounded and limited thing a straight Gate and narrow Way that leadeth unto Life There is no such Boundless Mercy as all the sins in the World cannot equal its Dimensions as will save the Greatest the Oldest and the stubbornest Transgressors I begg the Reader to believe that I am now so utterly weary with the Repetition of these impertinencies that I can hardly prevail with my self to fill my Pen once more with Ink about them And I see no reason now to goe on but only that I have begun And on all accounts I shall be as brief as possible I say then First I did not consider this boundless Grace in Christ as Mediator but considered it as in him who is Mediator and so the Divine Nature with all its Properties are greatly to be considered in him if the Gospel be true But 2 dly It is untrue that Christ as Mediator is only the Minister of Grace and not the Fountain of it for he is Mediator as God and Man in one Person 3 dly To suppose an exemption of the Person of the Father from being the Fountain of Grace absolutely in the Order of the Divine Subsistence of the Persons in the Trinity and of their Operations suited thereunto upon the Ascription of it unto the Son is a fond Imagination which could befall no man who understands any thing of things of this Nature It doth as well follow that if the Son created the World the Father did not if the Son uphold all things by the Word of his Power the Father doth not that is that the Son is not in the Father nor the Father in the Son The Acts indeed of Christs Mediation respect the Ministration of Grace being the procuring and communicating Causes thereof but the Person of Christ the Mediator is the Fountain of Grace So they thought who beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth But the especial Relation of Grace unto the Father as sending the Son unto the Son as sent by him and incarnate and unto the Holy Spirit as proceeding from and sent by them both I have elsewhere fully declared and shall not in this place which indeed will scarce give Admittance unto any thing of so serious a nature again insist thereon 4 thly The Opposition which he would again set between Christ and the Gospel is impious in it self and if he thinks to charge it on me openly false I challenge him and all his Complices to produce any one word out of any Writing of mine that from a Plea or pretence of Grace in Christ should give Countenance unto any in the neglect of the least Precept given or Duty required in the Gospel And notwithstanding all that I have said or taught concerning the Boundless Bottomless Grace and Mercy of Christ towards believing humble penitent Sinners I doe believe the Way of Gospel Obedience indispensibly required to be walked in by all that will come to the Enjoyment of God to be so narrow that no Revilers nor false Accusers nor Scoffers nor Despisers of Gospel Mysteries continuing so to be can walk