Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	aaron_n	father_n	ointment_n	25	3	9.7003	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B03494	Great and precious promises; or, Some sermons concerning the promises, and the right application thereof whereunto are added some other concerning the usefulness of faith in advancing sanctification. As also, three more concerning the faith of assurance. / By Mr. Andrew Gray, late minister of the Gospel in Glasgow. All being revised since his death by some friends.	Gray, Andrew, 1633-1656.; Traill, Robert, 1642-1716.; Stirling, John, b. 1621?	1663 (1663)	Wing G1608A; ESTC R177624	115,304	218

his way that will come and shall come and shall not tarry we desire to give praise SERMON V. 2 Pet. 1.4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust THere are three cardinal and excellent Graces that are exercised and taken up with the precious promises there is the excellent grace of Faith that believeth the truth and the goodnesse of the promise there is the precious grace of Hope that with patience waiteth for the accomplishment of the promise and doth stay untill the vision speak and that noble grace of Love that loveth the thing that is promised and taketh exceeding much delight in the Promiser If we may be allowed to speak so we think these strange revolutions and times we live in are another Eclesiastes which doth fully preach forth the vanity and emptinesse of all things that are below God And we do indeed conceive that it is the great design of God in the dark●ing of our pleasant things and in making every gourd to wither under the shaddow 〈◊〉 which we use to repose our self and in fa●●●●ifling all the gods of the earth to bring hi●● own to delight themselves in this visible Treasure the pomises of the everlasting Covenant and in him who is the substance of them and that since all things else are declared to be vanity we might choise these as our own portion for ever At the last occasion that we spake upon these words we were speaking unto the properties of the promises and we told you that there were four of them holden forth 1. The freedom of the promises 2. The unchangeablenesse of the promises of which two we have spoken unto you and now there remains other two to be spoken to to wit that the promises are exceeding great and that they are exceeding precious a sweet and excellent though a rare conjunction greatnesse and goodnesse here kissing one another preciousnesse and highnesse linked together by the bond of Union And we shall speak unto these two properties to ●●ther and shall clear a little this thing 〈…〉 what respects the promises of the Cove●●●● may be called exceeding great and precious And we conceive in short they may be called so in these eight respects First They are exceeding great in respect of the great price that was laid down to purchase them there not being a promise of the everlasting Covenant above the head of which this may not be engraven in great letters Here is the price and purchase of bloud And no doubt this ought highly to commend the promis●● that they are bought at so infinite a race Must they not be great and precious things that so wise a Merchant did lay down so infinit a treasure for the purchasing of them 2. They may be called exceeding great and precious in respect of those great and precious things that are promised in them Is not godlinesse a great thing and this is within the bosome of a promise Is not heaven and eternal enjoyment of God a great and precious thing and yet this lyeth within the bosome of a promise Is not the knowing of God as he is our perfect conformity with God our victory over Idols great and excellent things and yet all these are treasured up in the promises 3. They may be called exceeding great and precious in respect of the great advantage that redounds to a Christian through the enjoyment of them the promises of the everlasting Covenant if so we may speak are the Pensils that draws the draughts and lineaments of the Image of Christ upon the soul it is the promises of the everlasting Covenant by which we are changed from glory to glory as it were by the Spirit of the Lord and as Peter doth here speak the promises are such things whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature 4. They may be called exceeding precious in respect of that neat relation that they have unto Jesus Christ What are all the promises of the Covenant of Grace Are they not streams and rivolets that flow from Jesus Christ Christ is the fountain out of which all these promises do spring and can this fountain that is sweet in it self send forth any bitter waters must they not ●e precious things that have such a noble descent as to be streams of love flowing out from the Father to the Son and from Him unto us as the pouring out of the oyntment upon the head of Aaron which ran down the beard unto the skirts of his garments 5. They may be called exceeding precious promises in respect they or rather Christ in them are the object of precious faith What is the meat upon which faith doth feed is it not upon the promises of the Covenant and Christ the kernill of them What are these things that faith taketh so much delight in and is supported by Is it not the promises of the Covenant 6. They may be called exceeding precious in that they are the things that guideth and leadeth us to precious Christ There is not a promise within the Book of the Covenant but as it were it cryeth forth with a loud voice O come to Christ The promises are indeed the star that leadeth us unto the house where Christ doth ly and there is no accesse unto Jesus Christ but by a promise Christ is to be found there for he dwells within the bounds of the everlasting Covenant and there he will tryst with his people and be found of them And 7. They may be called exceeding precious in respect that the Saints have found such sweetnesse and such unspeakable delight in these promises Did not David find a great sweetnesse in the promises when he cryed forth The word of thy mouth are better unto me then thousands of gold and silver Did he not find much sweetnesse in the promises when he was constrained to cry out Thy Law is sweeter 〈◊〉 to me then the honey and the honey comb D●vid in a manner was put to a nonplus to fin● out any suitable similitude and significant resemblance to point out the sweetnesse of th● promises though we may see the Christians of this time in a spiritual fever they have lost their spiritual taste so that they may say if we may allude unto that word 2 Sam. 19.25 I am this day fourscore years old and cannot discern between good and evil can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink They know not what it is to be overcome with the sweetnesse that is to be found in these excellent streams of divine consolation Lastly The promises may be called exceeding precious in that the Saints have a high and matchlesse account of them Hence that word here rendered Precious may likewise be rendered Honourable which speaketh forth that there is nothing that hath so much of the esteem of a Christian as the promises Would ye put wisdom