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	true_a	2,515	5	5.1740	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26938	How far holinesse is the design of Christianity where the nature of holiness and morality is opened, and the doctrine of justification, imputation of sin and righteousness, &c. partly cleared, and vindicated from abuse : in certain propositions, returned to an unknown person, referring to Mr. Fowlers treatise on this subject / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1671 (1671)	Wing B1282; ESTC R6861	14,037	25

in all that have the thing Though it is to be no more wondred at than that Men who have Intellects and Wills and Vital Power are so much perplexed with difficulties and disputes about the nature of them as the greatest Philosophers are 19. The secondary Objects of our Holiness Active and dispositive being Gods Image and Appearance in all his works it is this that is often called His Glory that is as his Glory is made mans object and his end even the glorious communication and reflections and appearance of God in his perfections on our selves and on all his works and not only the praise that we give him for them by our thoughts or words 20. As more or less of God is found in any thing or person so we are more or less to Love and Honour them because we do it for God appearing in them 21. There are not only different degrees therefore but also different sorts of Love and Honour due to different Things and Persons as God hath communicated different gifts to them As Virtue Office Magistracy Ministry Parentage c. 22. When any of these is Loved and Honoured truly for Gods Image or Glory appearing in them it is ultimately GOD himself that is Loved and Honoured in and through them And so even this Love of God appearing in his Creatures animate or inanimate intellectual or his Word and Ordinances is a Holy Love when as the Love of all the same things on another account and not as God is glorious and beloved in them is but a common and unholy Love 23. Accordingly it is a real secondary part of our Holiness to Love our neighbour as our selves for that of God which equally appeareth in him and to do justly unto all and to Love our selves on the same account and to keep our selves in temperance chastity sobriety c. And so the duties of the second Table are a secondary Holiness as they are chained to the first by the relation that the Creature hath to God and as God is the Beginning and End in all that is 1. As all things are of Him And as he is the Maker and Owner of us and them 2. As all things are Through Him and as he is the Ruler of Man and commandeth him this duty 3. As all things are To Him and as he is the End of us and all things and thus all things are said to be sanctified to Believers 24. So also when Parents Magistrates and Pastors are Loved Honoured and Obeyed in their pure subordination to God viz. 1. As they have their Power and Office from God 2. And as this is commanded us by God 3. And as they Honour God and as our duty honoureth or glorifieth Him and as he is pleased in it this also is a secondary Part of our Holiness But when they are honoured and obeyed meerly for fear or for our own ends or on any humane account not subordinate and referred as a means to the glory and pleasing of God it is a common and unholy Honour and Obedience 25. As all mankind are falln by him from God to themselves and other Creatures so Holiness is their contrary adherence to God upon their return And so when we say all the world is distinguished into two sorts the Unholy and the Holy or the Ungodly and the Godly we mean that one part adhere to carnal self and creatures as serviceable to carnal self and the other part are converted from self to God and use the Creatures as a means to God as he is their End 26. The word Morality is made ambiguous by the loose and various use of men not used to any accurateness of speech But the first famous and most notable acception of the word is to signifie all Virtue and Vice or conformity and disconformity to the ruling Will or Law of God as Ethicks or Morals as distinct from Physicks and other Sciences And in this usual sense All things commanded by God are directly and all things forbidden reductively the parts of Morality That is all Moral Good and Evil and so faith in Christ is a great part of our true Morality And they that will needs take the word in any narrower private sense prepare for quarrels and are obliged to explain themselves before they censure others or dispute about an ambiguous word 27. The sum of Holiness and Morality which is all one is the Love of God as God including absolute Resignation and Subjection and the Love of man and all things for God appearing in them and served by them 28. If either Heathens or wicked nominal Christians do take Holiness or Morality to be only the Love of our selves and our neighbours and a disposition of mind and course of life in which we live orderly justly and charitably to all and soberly to our own minds and bodies and all this only for the maintaining of the temporal prosperity of our selves and others or for the meriting of a prosperity in the life to come not at all referring all this to GOD as the Beginning the Guide and the ultimate End of all It is but Analogically called either Holiness or Morality and not in a proper or univocal sense because the End is left out which must give being to all true Holiness and Morality Of which see my Agreement with Dr. Barlow in my small Tractate of saving Faith 29. The meaning of those Divines of my acquaintance that speak against preaching meer morality is indeed against these that preach no morality but the Ethicks or analogical Morality of Atheists who leave out the End or else a Piece of Morality which we call the Natural part leaving out Christianity as if that were no part of Holiness or Morality or treat lightly and loosly of it as if it were a ceremony or thing indifferent as needless if not troublesome to the world as their things called Indifferent are And what Christian can excuse that sort of preaching 30. As elsewhere I have often said we must carefully distinguish between the Primitive or Primary and Natural part of Holiness which is GODLINESSE or our LOVE to God as such and the mediate remedying subservient Part which is Faith in Christ or Christianity as such The first is as our Health the second as our Medicine 31. This distinction is it which is intended by the Apostles when they so often tell us that we are sanctified or receive the spirit of holiness by believing in Christ Faith kindling Love and Love kindled by Faith being the two parts and whole of our Religion 32. Gods only End in this and all his works so far as he may be said to intend an end is ultimately Himself for he can have no other ultimate end 33. When we say GOD is his own End we mean not that his Essence or Existence is his End for of that there cannot be a means But formally it is the fulfilling and complacency of his Will For his Will is the Beginning and End

HOW FAR HOLINESSE IS THE DESIGN OF CHRISTIANITY Where the Nature of Holiness and Morality is opened and the Doctrine of Justification Imputation of Sin and Righteousness c. partly cleared and Vindicated from Abuse In certain Propositions returned to an unknown Person referring to Mr. Fowlers TREATISE on this SUBJECT By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for NEVILL SIMONS at the three Crowns at Holborn Conduit 1671. Qu. Whether Holinesse be the only Design of Christianity SIR THe Sum of your Letter is That Mr. Fowler and many others of late by crying up Holiness as the Only Design of Christianity do 1. give us a description of such a Holiness as is but the meer morality of a Heathen A sound complexion of soul c. 2. And that they greatly obscure or drown the whole Doctrine of our Justification and Adoption and of Christs Satisfaction and imputed Righteousness and make the Glory of this to be none of the Design of Christianity 3. That by this they tempt men that can but imagine that Seneca Antonine Epictetus Plutarck or Cicero do give as wise and wholsome Precepts of Virtue and good living as Christ to think as highly of them as of Christ 4. That hence they secretly reproach both the Imposers of Conformity and the Non-conformists and magnifie the stretching conscience of the Passive Latitudinarian Conformist as the only wise man that careth for none of these little things And that they secretly undermine all Instituted Ordinances 5. That because my Aphorisms and other Writings have had some hand in breeding such opinions I am doubly guilty in being silent now they spread and prosper This being the sum of your Complaint I shall answer to all this in that manner as the nature of the thing requireth In General I must tell you that I am responsible for no mans Writings but my own Neither shall you hereby tempt me to become an Aristarchus and arrogant Censurer of other mens This is all that I need to say of the Book you mention that it is of very much worth and use to call men more seriously to consider of the Design of mans Redemption and of the nature of true Religion and Felicity And though I will not defend every word in my own writings much less in other mens when I am not concerned yet I may say that I had rather perswade the Licencious of this age to the careful reading of that Book than turn it into matter of strife But it is only my own judgment about the things in question which you can reasonably expect which I think the brevity requisite in a Letter directeth me to give you in certain self-evidencing coherent Propositions Prop. 1. GOD is the Beginning the Ruler and the End of all Of him and through him and to him are all things 2. The word Design doth signifie sometime the act of Intention sometime the End intended In the Question it must needs signifie the later Therefore instead of it I shall henceforth use that common word 3. By the End of Christianity I doubt not is meant 1. The End of God and our Redeemer in the framing and imposing Christianity on mankind 2. The end which man is bound to intend in receiving and using Christianity These two are called Finis operantis 3. And the end to which the frame of the Christian Religion is adapted which is called Finis operis 4. Holiness in Creatures is their separation from common uses unto God Omne sanctum Deo sanctum est 5. Holiness in Rational free-agents is such a separation to God as is agreeable to their Natures 6. Holiness is to be described with distinct respects 1. To the subject 2. To the object And 1. s to the whole subject 2. as to the distinct faculties 7. Holiness in the whole subject is 1. Active 2. Dispositive or Habitual 3. Relative or is In our Acts Habits Relations 8. Active Holiness is our Active Dedication devotion or adherence unto God begun in our Conversion to him and Christian Covenant with him and exercised after in the practice of our lives 9. Habitual Holiness is that fixed Inclination or Disposition of the soul by which it is fitted to perform the aforesaid Active adherence and devotion with strength facility and constancy 10. Relative Holiness is the Relation of Man or Angel thus actively and dispositively devoted to God which is particularly to be considered with the Object 11. Besides the commoner Holiness of all Saints there is also an Office-Holiness of Magistrates though some deny it and of Christs Ministers which containeth their Active Dedication to their proper work their Dispositive Aptitude for it and their Relation to God in it And accordingly the anointing to such office and the giving of the Holy Ghost for its performance signifie somewhat else than the common sanctification of all Saints As the work to which they are anointed is more 12. Holiness in respect of the distinct faculties is 1. In the vital and executive Power for such a distinct faculty there is and then it is called Spiritual Quickning Life and Strength 2. In the Understanding where it is called Spiritual Illumination or Light Knowledge and faith 3. In the will where it is called Spiritual Love and Holiness in an eminent narrower sense 13. Holiness is not to be described or understood without its proper Object which doth essentially Constitute it It s no true description which omitteth it 14. The Object of Holiness Primary Immediate and proper is GOD himself The secondary and remoter Object is the Impressions Image or Glory of God in his works 15. GOD is the object and terminus of our Holiness as in his Divine Per●ections so in his three grand Relations as he is our Efficient Dirigen● and Finial Cause And in his three great Relations to his Intellectual Creatures as he is our Owner our Ruler and our Lover or Benefactor All comprized in the word Father And this on the Fundamental Relation and work of his being our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier 16. Our Holiness therefore is our answerable threefold Relation to God that we be sui subditi amatores his Own his Subjects and his Lovers All comprehended in the word Children that we be peculiarly the children of God 17. From all this the true description of Holiness is obvious and sure viz. that it is the Active Habitual and consequently relative Separation Dedication Devotion of Intellectual free-agents by Life Light and Love to God our Father as his Children or to God our Absolute Owner Ruler and Benefactor our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier as his own peculiars his Subjects and his Lovers 18. Though every one that is Holy hath not this distinct and orderly conception of the nature of Holiness yet every one that is Holy hath really all this in himself And its pity that so useful a part of knowledge as is that of the pourtraicture of the new Creature or the Image of God on man should not be found