Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	apostle_n	faith_n	grace_n	3,447	5	5.5645	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29090	The doctrine of free-grace, no doctrine of licenciousnesse, or, That Gods free unconditionall pardoning of sinne is the best way to mortifie the power of sinne in believers asserted and cleared by Edward Bagshawe ...	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1662 (1662)	Wing B410; ESTC R5497	30,451	48

Liberality of the Invitation There is no condition so sad but there is some word of Invitation or other which particularly concerns that condition Prov. 9.4 5. Isa 55.1 Mat. 11.29 Rev. 22.17 The Foolish and simple in Proverbs The Hungry and Thirsty in Isay The Weary and Heavy-laden in Matthew and which is beyond all Whoever will in the Revelations Whoever will let him come and drink of the Water of Life freely There cannot be any thing more free and more inviting than this that whoever will may be sure of Well-come I doe not say that any Man hath this will of or from himself but this I say that he who hath a Will hath a Warrant and may boldly come to Christ and claim the benefit of his Promise Especially since Justification dependeth not at all upon our Working but upon our Willing as the Apostle hath it to him that worketh not that is that bringeth no meritorious works along with him but believeth on him that justifies the Ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness Lastly Consider the Tender and the Compassionate Nature of Christ how he never refused any that came unto him And therefore Lepers the Blind and Lame Publicans and Sinners had on earth most both of his Presence and Power The same Promises which brought them he hath left to encourage us when he sayes Every one that my Father giveth me will come unto me and He that cometh to me Joh. 6.37 I will in no wise cast out He that saith of himself He came not onely to save but likewise to seek that which was lost will not be harsh to any who are now upon the point of returning to him Hence we read that Peter who denied Paul who persecuted the three thousand in the Acts who crucified him were all upon their Repentance received by him Our Saviour hath the same Bowels still and though he hath changed his Place yet he hath not changed his Nature Heb. 4.15 16. Wherefore in the Apostles words since we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with our infirmities Let us come with boldness unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in a time of Need. And so much for the first Point Doct. 2 The second Point to be handled was this That Nothing is more effectuall to mortifie the power of In-dwelling Sinne than to consider how Free and Absolute Gods Grace is in pardoning it By Free here that I may repeat what I mentioned a little before I doe not mean Free as excluding Christ in consideration of whom God is thus Free to Pardon as the expressions run 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself And Rom. 3.24 We are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus And In whom i. e. in Christ we have redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of Sinnes according to the Riches of his Grace But I mean Free as excluding our selves or any thing we can doe either as a Cause procuring or as a Condition qualifying us for receiving this Grace In this sense that the Freeness of Gods Grace is the best way to mortifie the Power of In-dwelling Sinne will appear 1. From Instances 2. From Reason 1. For Instances here is one occurres in the Text How shall we i. e. Believers who are dead to Sinne live any longer therein i. e. In us this Doctrine being rightly understood hath wrought to the killing of Sinne since we now learn how much we are indebted to Christ and therefore something must be done to express our Thankfullness which he prosecutes throughout the following Chapter and uses an Argument to draw them off from sinning which at first sight may seem Harsh and Inconsequent but indeed is most demonstrably efficacious Ye shall not sinne or sinne shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law which like Pharaohs Task-masters requires the whole tale of Brick and allows no straw but ye are under Grace ye now stand in those termes with God that he gives strength and accepts of what you doe in proportion to that Ability which he bestows and for this Reason Sinne shall not have dominion over you So again the Apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians handling the same subject he layes down this Position Gal. 2.16 That a man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ Against which he brings an Objection But if saith he while we seek to be justified by Jesus Christ we our selves also are found sinners is therefore Christ the Minister of sinne i. e. If we who profess to be justified by Christ alone doe notwithstanding sinne daily will it not thence follow that this Doctrine makes men careless as if thereby they might take occasion to sinne more freely To this the Apostle answers as he doth here first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farre be it and then he urgeth to the contrary his own example I am crucified together with Christ Gal. 6.14 and in another place Farre be it that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ by which the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World And what he affirms of himself we find him in another place ascribing unto all Believers of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who are Christs Gal. 5.24 i. e. who by Faith have received and are united to him have crucified the Flesh i. e. their corrupt and sinfull Nature with the Affections and Lusts i. e. have rooted up as it were the very Fibres and lesser particles by which sinne was fastned and incorporated into them And the Reason of this is clear Reason Because He who is once truly in Christ i. e. who hath rightly apprehended him forthwith becomes a New creature as the Apostle argues Christ saith he 2 Cor. 5.15 17 died for All i. e. Believers that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them From whence he inferres Therefore if any man be in Christ be is a New Creature i. e. he is altogether another kind of person than he was before What the meaning of those words New Creature are will best appear by comparing two places of Scripture together In one place it is Gal. 6.15 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but a New Creature which in another place runs In Jesus Christ Gal. 5.6 neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love From whence it appears that in the Apostles sense to be a New Creature is nothing else but to have a Faith working by Love which our old Nature is no more capable of than Darkness is of Light but as soon as ever the Spirit of God begets Faith in the Heart of any that Faith presently produceth Love as Fire begets Heat and then Love enflames and

quickens to Obedience As the Apostle Paul found it in himself when he sayes The Love of Christ constrains us 2 Cor. 5.14 since none can apprehend such an Excess and Overflow of Undeserved Love but must needs think himself obliged to return all Acts of Love whereby he may express his complacency in and desire of a streighter Union As the Apostle John argues we love him i. e. God because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4 19. Since then our Lord Christ is pleased with nothing more then with the Crucifying of those Lusts and Mortifying of those Sinnes for which he died it must needs follow from hence that every Believer and therein a Lover of Christ will find himself sensibly stirred with the Hatred of Sinne as often as he reflects upon the death of Christ as men use to detest and abhorre the sight of those Weapons by which their Friends were Murdered For since every Believer must needs know that he hath no otherwise any Title to Pardon than as he is purified by the Blood of Christ Heb. 9. without the shedding of which there would have been no Remission hence he dares not nay he cannot goe on to live in Sinne because by so doing he shall adde New Wounds New Sorrowes New Marks of Dishonour to Christ by whose Stripes alone he must expect to be healed Adde to this that the Spirit of God which by quickning the Immortall Seed of the Word Psal 51. begets Faith is a clean Spirit and will not suffer Sinne to cohabit with it self but Mortifies Subdues and Quels it according to that of the Apostle Rom. 8.9 Ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit i. e. Ye walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit if so be the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you and again If Christ vers 10. i. e. his Spirit be in you the Body is dead by reason of Sinne vers 13. i. e. it dies to sinne And if by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the Flesh ye shall live All which places imply that it is the Spirits proper business to Mortifie Sinne there is no True Life without it So that put all this together Since 1. Gods pardoning Sinne for the sake of Christ is the highest expression of Love imaginable 1. Joh. 4.10 as the Apostle John cries out Herein is Love i. e. Love to an Hyperbole Love beyond any degree of comparison not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Sonne to be the Propitiation of our Sinnes 2. Since this expression of Love on Gods part cannot be embraced by Faith on ours but it must needs beget Love again as the Sun beams cannot fix themselves directly upon the Earth but they will conveigh Warmth and Heat together with themselves 3. Since whereever Love is engendred it is always Active carrying out the Soul with unquiet longings after Union with and till that can be compassed of Likeness to the Object it loves As the Earth no sooner conceives Heat by the Action of the Sunne but presently returns and reflects it back again Lastly Since the Spirit of God which dwells in a Believer is alwayes actuating and blowing up this Love and improving the strength of it especially in the subduing of Sinne upon this consideration because Sinne is contrary to the Nature of God and to the Merit of Christ from hence it demonstrably follows that the best way to Mortifie Sinne is rightly to conceive of the Freeness of Gods Grace in pardoning it Vse This may serve to show us the True Nature of Justifying Faith To think as perhaps some careless men doe that Faith is nothing else but a Confident Perswasion that our Sinnes are pardoned for the sake of Christ without any other notable Effect upon us this is at the best an Ungrounded Fancy which will in the end deceive us From what I have said it may appear that True Justifyfying Faith carries along with it these two Inseperable Effects 1. It pacifies the Conscience it begets a Calm within When a Sinner first begins to be troubled for Sinne there must needs be a kind of Earthquake and Tempest in the Soul as God saith of the wicked that he hath no Peace but he is like a troubled Sea which cannot rest Isa 57.19 A wicked man is not more Eager and Impatient to commit Sinne than he is troubled and disquieted after it for whenever he cools and can be at leasure to consider what he hath done he can propose nothing to himself but matter of Anguish and Vexation without there is the Law complaining and God sentencing within Conscience accusing and Sinne condemning In this Tumult and Hurry of Thoughts if there be but dropped into any so much strength of Faith as to lay fast hold upon Gods generall Pardon like Easther catching at the Golden Scepter when it was stretched out to her presently the storm is laid and a marvellous calm ensues As the Apostle hath it Rom. 5.1 Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I doe not speak this as if I thought that Faith did exclude all manner of Doubting but that it doth expell Distraction For to doubt is so much consistent with Faith that I take it for granted there never was nor ordinarily can be any True Faith without it As at the Creation Night did precede Day so in Conversion Darkness and Ignorance did precede the Enlightnings of Faith and Doubting like a Mist doth still attend it because our Faith like our Knowledge in this life neither is nor can be perfect for then it would no longer be Faith but Fruition Yet this Doubting which like an Allay God suffers to be mixed with the strong Wine of Faith need not at all disturb our Peace of Conscience but rather is left as the Canaanites were to teach Israel to warre Jude 2. to quicken our endeavour and to make us diligent in the use of those means whereby we may be yet more confirmed and setled 2. True Faith as it Pacifies the Conscience so it Purifies the Heart Acts 15.9 as the Apostle Peter speaks that God did put no difference between the Jews and Gentiles because he purified their Hearts by Faith Which is so inseparable an Effect of True Faith that though Justification be not Sanctification yet it is never without it and therefore they are sometimes put one for the other as he that is just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be justified still i. e. let him goe on to be more Holy Rev. 22.11 And to the Corinthians Ye are washed ye are Sanctified 1 Cor. 6.11 ye are Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God So By his mercy he saved us Tit. 3 5 7. by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs Where Holiness which is an Effect