Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A48584
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A treatise of election and reprobation in vindication of the universal grace and love of God to mankind by B.L.
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Lindley, Benjamin, d. 1723.
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1700
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Wing L2312; ESTC R28788
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51,533
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66
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Relation who careth for the Life of his Children nourisheth and provides all things necessary for them and if they be wicked and go from him Luke 15. and abuse his kindness and spend their substance upon Harlots as the Prodigal Son if they do but consider and return he seeing them afar off hath Compassion and runs to meet them and kisseth them and brings forth the best Robe and kills the fatted Calf and feeds and clothes them and rejoyceth over them c. Now if our natural Fathers know how to give good Gifts unto their Children how much more shall our Father which is in Heaven give good Gifts to them that ask him Mat. 7. A natural Father declining from this Rule comes under the Reproach of being Unnatural Careless Senceless c. But should he not only omit the Fatherly Love Care and Provision becoming him but also inhumanely Slay the most of his Children how odious a thing would this be amongst Men He would incur the Infliction of Death And yet the Tenents I 'm opposing lay even harder things than these at the door of the Almighty and most Merciful Father the Slaying his Children not only with Temporal but Eternal Death for the Praise of the Power of his Wrath. § 3. Jesus Christ is our High Priest and as such it is his Office to Bless us to offer up our Sacrifices to Attone and Intercede for and in our Behalf Heb. 5.1 2. Every High Priest taken from among Men is ordained for Men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both Gifts and Sacrifices for Sins who can have compassion on the igrant and on them that are out of the way c. And if Men had such great Benefit and Blessing by the High Priests after the order of Aaron how great Blessing and Benefit then have we by our High Priest after the order of Melchizedec who was before Aaron and is greater than Aaron c. Great was the Love of God unto us in giving his Son to be our High Priest to have the oversight and cure of our Souls and ineffable the Benefits Mankind receive by him who being exalted by the right Hand of God and having received from the Father the Promise of the Holy Ghost hath shed forth this in some measure upon all O how wonderfully did he when he took our Nature upon him shew how great was his Goodness to the Sons of Men So if under the Cure of such an High Priest we come to any miscarriage it must be through our selves But what for a Priest do the Priests of these times make him with their Reprobate Doctrine which renders him shutting the Gates of Heaven against the greatest part of the Flock committed to his Cure and instead of interceding to God for them delivering them over to Satan and to Eternal Ruine and this not because of their Wickedness and that they will not be Reclaimed but for the Pleasure of his Father's Will even because God hath Will'd and Decreed it as they say See here how injurious is this Doctrine of Reprobation unto God and Christ in those general Relations of King Father and Priest c. CHAP. III. Reassuming the Substance of those Scriptures and Inferences mention'd in the Introduction most usually Vrged in pleading for Personal Reprobation with particular Answers and Explications to each according to their true and genuine Sense in which is clearly Refuted those false Senses and Meanings which the Predestinarians commonly impose upon them The whole comprised in Ten Objections and their respective Answers HAving thus far gone upon General Reasons I shall now come to a Particular Examen of sundry Scriptures most used in pleading for Personal Reprobation which I shall put as Objections not that they are really so to the Argument I 'm Advancing but the Misunderstanding or that false Sense put upon them So what I put down under the Head of Answer is the Explication of their true genuine Sense and Refutation of those false and foreign Senses and Meanings impos'd on them Which having for avoiding of Cavils premised I proceed Object 1. Though God be Love Good Gracious Merciful c. yet is he Excellent in Power and in Judgment and in plenty of Justice and the Scripture tells us of the Fierceness of his Anger and of his Indignation and of his Wrath and Vengeance c. Deut. 9.7 22. and 13.17 Josh 7.26 Job 37.23 Jer. 50.7 Mic. 7.9 Rom. 12.19 Answ All such places in which God's Anger and Wrath c. are spoken of have respect to Provocation and Offence given and not otherwise for all his Attributes are resolvable into Goodness and Love Mercy and Truth meet together or are united in him and Justice and Peace kiss each other or agree in one in him so speaking of God simply as what he is in himself or what is Primary and Spontaneous in him and he is all Goodness and Love Deus est primario bonus atque ex indole Naturae secundario ex accidente severus idem est ex populi peccato God is primarily good out of the inclination of his Nature but secondarily and accidentally he is severe by reason of People's sins So Anger Wrath Fury and Vengeance the executive part of Justice are consequential from God and not primarily in his Being but stirred up by the Devil and wicked Men proceeding according to his Lusts and the Inclination of their depraved Nature it is the Fruit of their Doings but the Fruit of the Spirit is Love Gal. 5.22 and God is Love God is slow to Anger it is not kindled in him nor repays he Vengeance or Wrath without great Provocation and cause given on our part take away this and Justice is our Friend and Advocate and is as sweet as Mercy It 's Transgression puts the Rod into the Hand of Justice or she Chastizeth not She never smites the Innocent or wounds the Mind that is Guiltless if so it would cease to be it would be no more Justice but it 's the Wicked that are slain at her feet and Transgressors are wounded by her And as Anger Wrath c. are not primary or voluntary in God but as effects of Provocation and Offence so neither is he inclin'd or prone thereto which is an ill Character in a Man and denominates him crabbed peevish angry implacable c. which by no means may be spoken of God Thus the Race of Mankind could not offend their Maker before they were made neither could it be consistent with him to make such a number of Living Souls so Good so Honourable and Resembling Himself to an End so Miserable as the Torments of Hell Object 2. The Scripture mentions Vessels of Wrath fitted for Destruction and also Vessels of Mercy and it is plain some Men are intended by Vessels of Wrath and some Men by Vessels of Mercy Now there is a vast difference betwixt Wrath and Mercy and the Scripture speaking of Mankind under the terms