Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	abel_n	accept_v	acceptation_n	42	3	11.5652	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53678	A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews viz, on the sixth, seventh, eight, ninth, and tenth chapters : wherein together with the explication of the text and context, the priesthood of Christ ... are declared, explained and confirmed : as also, the pleas of the Jews for the continuance and perpetuity of their legal worship, with the doctrine of the principal writers of the Socinians about these things, are examined and disproved / by J. Owen ...	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1680 (1680)	Wing O729; ESTC R21737	1,235,588	797

what the Work is God hath in hand thereby In brief he is by it watering manuring cultivating the Souls of men that they may bring forth Fruit unto his Praise and Glory His business by it is to make men holy humble self-denying righteous useful upright pure in heart and life to abound in good works or to be like himself in all things To effect these Ends is this holy means suited and therefore God is justly said to expect these Fruits where he grants this Means And if these be not found in us all the Ends of Gods Husbandry are lost towards us which what a doleful issue it will have the next Verse declares This therefore ought to be always in our minds whilst God is treating with us by the Dispensation of the Gospel It is Fruit he aims at it is Fruit he looks for and if we fail herein the Advantage of the whole both as unto our Good and his Glory is utterly lost which we must unavoidably account for For this Fruit God both expecteth and will require This is the work and effect of the Gospel Col. 1. 6. And the Fruit of it is threefold 1 Of Persons in their Conversion unto God Rom. 15. 16. 2 Of Real internal Holiness in them or the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22 23. 3 The outward Fruits of Rigteousness and Charity 2 Cor. 9. 10. Phil. 1. 11. These God looketh to Isa. 5. 4. Luke 13. 7. And he will not always bear with a frustration A good Husbandman will suffer Thorns and other barren Trees to grow in the Field But if a Vine or Figg-tree be barren in his Garden he will cut it down and cast it into the Fire However God will not always continue this Husbandry Isa. 28. Amos 6. 12. Duties of Gospel Obedience are Fruits meet for God things that have a proper and especial tendency unto his Glory As the precious Fruits of the Earth which the Husbandman waiteth for are meet for his use that is such as supply his wants satisfie his occasions answer his labour and charge nourish and enrich him So do these Duties of Gospel Obedience answer all the Ends of Gods Glory which he hath designed unto it in the world Hereby saith our Saviour is my Father glorified if ye bring forth much Fruit. And we must enquire how these Fruits are meet for God For 1 they are not so as though he stood in any need of them unto his Glory Our Goodness extends not unto him Psal. 16. 2. It doth not so as though he had need of it or put any value on it for its own sake Hence he rejecteth all those multiplied outward Services which men trusted unto as if they obliged him by them because without them or their Services he is the Soveraign Possessor of all created Beings and their Effects Psal. 50. 7 8 9 10 11 12. All thoughts hereof are to be rejected see Job 22. 2 3. chap. 35. 7 8. 2 They are not meet for God as if they perfectly answered his Law For with respect thereunto all our Righteousnesses are as filtby Raggs most unmeet to be presented unto him Isa. 64. 6. And if he should mark what is amiss in us or them who should stand Psal. 130. 3. Much less 3 are they so meet for him as that by them we should merit any thing at his hand This foolish Presumption is contrary to the very nature of God and Man with that Relation between them which necessarily ensues on their very Beings For what can a poor worm of the Earth who is nothing who hath nothing who doth nothing that is good but what it receives wholly from Divine Grace Favour and Bounty merit of him who from his Being and Nature can be under no Obligation thereunto but what is meerly from his own Soveraign pleasure and goodness They are therefore no otherwise meet for God but in and through Christ according to the infinite condescension which he is pleased to exercise in the Covenant of Grace Therein doth the Lord Christ 1 Make our persons accepted as was that of Abel through Faith in him which was the foundation of the Acceptation of his Offering Gen. 4. 4. Heb. 11. 4. And this is of Grace also It is to the praise of his glorious Grace wherein he makes us accepted in the Beloved Ephes. 1. 6. And 2 He bears and takes away the iniquity that cleaves unto them as they proceed from us which renders them unmeet for God This was typed out by the plate of God wherein was inscribed Holiness to the Lord that was on the forehead of the High Priest It was that he might bear the Iniquity of the Holy things of the people Exod. 28. 36 37 38. He bare it in the Expiation he made of all sin and takes it away in the sight of God And 3 He adds of the Incense of his own Mediation unto them that they may have a sweet savour in their Offering to God Rev. 8. 3. On this foundation it is that God hath graciously designed them unto sundry Ends of his Glory and accepts them accordingly For 1 The Will of his Command is fulfilled thereby and this tends to the Glory of his Rule and Government Matth. 7. 21. We are to pray that the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven The Glory that God hath in Heaven from the Ministry of all his holy Angels consists in this that they always with all readiness and chearfulness do observe his Commands and do his Will esteeming their doing so to be their Honour and Blessedness For hereby is the Rule and Authority of God owned avouched exalted a neglect whereof was the Sin and Ruine of the Apostate Angels In like manner our Fruits of Obedience are the only Acknowledgements that we do or can make to the supream Authority and Rule of God over us as the one Law-giver who hath power to kill and keep alive The Glory of an Earthly King consists principally in the willing Obedience which his Subjects give unto his Laws For hereby they expresly acknowledge that they esteem his Laws wise just equal useful to mankind and also reverence his Authority And it is the Glory of God when the Subjects of his Kingdom do testifie unto all their willing chearful Subjection unto all his Laws as holy righteous and good by the Fruits of their Obedience as also that it is their principal Honour and Happiness to be ingaged in his Service Joh. 15. 14. Hereby is our Heavenly Father glorified as he is our great King and Law-giver 2 There is in the Fruits of Obedience an Expression of the nature power and efficacy of the Grace of God whereby also he is glorified for he doth all things to the praise of the Glory of his Grace Ephes. 1. 6. In all the actings of Lust and Sin in the drouth and dust of Barrenness we represent an Enmity against him and contrariety unto him acting over the principle of

Melchisedec unto his Office was extraordinary and consisted in an extraordinary Unction of the Spirit And this had two things attending of it 1. That it gave unto himself sufficient Security and Warranty to undertake and execute the Office whereunto he was Called So did every extraordinary Call accompanied with a Divine Afflatus and Inspiration Amos 7. 14 15. 2. That it evidenced it self unto all that feared God who thereon willingly submitted unto his Administrations in the discharge of his Office And this is all that we can know as to the way and manner of his becoming a Priest That he was not so by Succession unto any other by the Right of Primogeniture nor made so by men are certain from the Apostle's Discourse The Time Place Season and Occasion of his Call are all hidden from us but he was made a Priest by God himself For 1. Every one is that in the Church and nothing else which God is pleased to make him so to be Wherefore for us to rest in Gods Vocation is our Honour and our Safety as well as our Duty For 2. Where God Calleth any one unto a singular Honour and Office in his Church it is in him a meer Act of his Sovereign Grace So he took this Melchisedec who had nothing of Stock Race Descent or Succession to recommend him but as one as it were newly sprang out of the Earth and raised him to the highest Dignity that any Man in those Days was capable of Let us not therefore repine or murmure at any of Gods Dealings with others nor envy because of his Gifts bestowed on them may he not do what he will with his own seeing he is greater than Man and giveth no account of his matters 3. A Divine Call is a sufficient Warranty for the acting of them according unto it who are so Called and the Obedience of others unto them in their Work or Office By Virtue hereof this Melchisedec arose in the midst of the Nations of the World took on him a new Office and Power being owned and submitted unto therein by Abraham and all that Believed 4. The first Personal Instituted Type of Christ was a Priest This was Melchisedec There were before real Instituted Types of his Work as Sacrifices And there were Moral Types of his Person as Adam Abel and Noah which Represented him in sundry things But the first Person who was Solemnly designed to teach and represent him by what he was and did was a Priest And that which God taught herein was That the Foundation of all that the Lord Christ had to do in and for the Church was laid in his Priestly Office whereby he made Attonement and Reconciliation for Sin Every thing else that he doth is Built on the supposition hereof And we must begin in the Application where God begins in the Exhibition An Interest in the Effects of the Priestly Office of Christ is that which in the first place we ought to look after This being attained we shall be willing to be Taught and Ruled by him and not else Secondly The Apostle adds the Limitation of this his Office of Priesthood as to its Author and especial Object and that is the most High God For so by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth he render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Moses 1. He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priest to God This determines the sence of the word Cohen to the Office of the Priesthood contrary to the Pretensions of some Modern Jews and the Targum on Psal. 110. For whereas they cannot understand how the Messiah should be a Priest and perceive well enough the inconsistency of the Legal Priesthood with such a supposition they would have the word Cohen in the Psalms to signifie a Prince or a Ruler But although the word used absolutely may be applyed sometimes to such a Purpose yet where God is proposed as its object a Priest of God or unto God none can be signified but one in the Priestly Office 2. He was a Priest unto the most High God This is the first time that this Title is ascribed unto God in the Scripture which afterwards is frequently repeated and so also are others of the same Importance as God above God over all the God of Heaven and absolutely the most High And it is either Descriptive or Distinctive as all such Attributes and Epithets are 1. As it is Descriptive the Majesty Power and Authority of God over all are intended therein The most High God is the Glorious God with whom is terrible Majesty To Represent them it is said That his Throne is High and lifted up Isa. 6. 1. And he is called the High and Lofty one that Inhabiteth Eternity Isa. 57. 17. Thus is he styled to fill our Hearts with a Reverence of him as one infinitely above us and whose Glorious Majesty is absolutely unconceivable So when the Holy Ghost would express the Glory of Christ as exalted he says he is made Higher than the Heavens and he is sate down at the Right hand of the Majesty on High The most High God therefore is first God as inconceiveably exalted in Glory and Majesty Again his Power and Authority are also intended herein The most High Ruleth over all Dan. 4. 17. God over all in Power and Authority disposing of all things is the most High God So Abraham explains this Name Gen. 14. 18. 2. As it is Distinctive it respects other gods not in Truth and Reality but in Reputation For so there were then Lords many and Gods many in the World So they were esteemed by them that made them and Worshipped them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Apostle speaks such as were called gods 1 Cor. 8. 5. but by Nature were not gods Gal. 4. 8. They were all Earthly and though some of them had their Being above as the Sun Moon and Host of Heaven yet they had all their Deity from beneath nor ever had it any Existence but in the deluded Imaginations of the Sons of Men. In Opposition unto them with Distinction from them God is called the most High God The World was at that time fallen into all manner of Idolatry Every Countrey every City every Family almost had made new gods unto themselves The most general Veneration as I have elsewhere shewed was then given unto the Sun and that because he appeared to them on High or the Highest Being they could apprehend Hence had he the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the High one In Opposition unto all these gods and Renunciation of them Melchisedec professed himself the Priest of the most High God as Paul Preached at Athens the unknown God in Opposition unto all their known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Idols whom they supposed themselves acquainted withall And whereas God had not yet Revealed himself by any especial Name as he did afterwards on sundry occasions the first he made of that kind being El