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	work_n	3,971	5	6.0202	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44671	The carnality of religious contention in two sermons preach'd at the merchant's lecture in Broadstreet / by John Howe ...	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1693 (1693)	Wing H3019; ESTC R1703	46,035	129

among the Paganish Idolaters of drinking the warm Blood of their Sacrifices and of eating things strangled with the Blood in them upon the Imagination that in their so doing they did partake of the very Spirit of their Gods whom they worshipped and 't is not altogether unsupposable that rhe Devil might in some unusual manner enter into them at those times more violently agitating their Blood and other Humours in the higher Ferments whereof if by the directer Influence of the great Enemy of Mankind Quarrels and Murders as was not unlikely should also sometimes ensue it could not but heighten the Sport and Triumphs of Hell And that the Decree of the Apostles and Elders Acts 15. might have such a Reference prohibiting these things conjunctly Idolatry and Fornication and things strangled and Blood that they should by no means mingle with the Pagans in these Horrid Rites a learned Modern Writer of our own hath rendred very probable And hereto those vehement Dehortations of the Apostle must answerably be understood to refer 1 Cor. 10. 11. remonstrating to them that they could not have fellowship with the Lord's Table and the Table of Devils And I would not says he that you should have fellowship with Devils For tho' he did not judge it unlawful to eat of the Idolytha i. e. things offered to Idols being sold in the Shambles he yet most earnestly protests against their presuming to mingle and partake in the horrid Diabolical Rites and impure Practices that were wont to be used at their Festivals in the Idols Temples All thoughts of being by their Christianity obliged and enabled unto strict Purity and Holiness of Heart and Life were out of Doors with these Seducers and endeavoured to be extinguished in such as they could work to a compliance with them Whereof the Apostle seemed deeply apprehensive when he so earnestly inculcates that in Christ Jesus or in the Christian state neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision were of any avail but a new Creature and Faith working by love But it must seem of all things the most unaccountable and incongruous that Men of so profligate Sentiments and Practices should be for introducing a Justification by the works of the Law in opposition to that by the Faith of Christ. 'T is manifest they hated the holy Design of Christian Religion which they profess'd and profess'd it that they might have better opportunity to undermine it Hereupon not opening at once all the Arcana of their way they carry answerably to persons and oc●●sions as they occurr'd and as the Apostle was all things to all that he might save some so were they that they might pervert and destroy To the Christian Jews one thing to the Christian Gentiles another In this their Doctrine they did most plausibly Judaize in their impure Practices they verged more to Paganism Pretending to Christian Converts from among them that Christ never intended to tie them to strict Severities or hold them under an uneasie Bondage whereto the Apostle seems to refer Chap. 5. 13. Ye have been called he grants to liberty but use not saith he your liberty for an occasion to the flesh Thus we must suppose that they differently apply'd themselves to such as they design'd to make their Proselytes endeavouring to accommodate themselves in the one of these to one sort of Men and to another sort in the other In dealing with the Jewish Christians they not only deny'd the Doctrine of Justification by Faith opposing thereto that of Justification by the works of the Law but calumniated it too as if it tended to infer a liberty to sin and make Christianity subservient to wickedness whereof they knew their own to be more guilty A piece of monstrous Impudence but usual with Men of such Foreheads to endeavour the averting that Charge from themselves to which they were most manifestly liable by first charging it on the Innocent Hereto the Apostle hath manifest reference when having first asserted against them Justification by Faith only Gal. 2. 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law for by the works of the Law shall no fl●sh be justified He then vindicates the Assertion against their Imputation that it made Christ a Patron to Men's Sins If saith he while we seek to be justified by Christ we our selves also are found sinners Is Christ therefore the minister of sin God forbid For if I build again the things that I destroyed I make my self a Transgressor For I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God I am crucified with Christ and am in and with him dead unto all Sin so as not to be under the Dominion of any and Death never more had Dominion over him when he had once died And whereas they thus objecting against the Doctrine of Justification by Faith in Christ that it ministred unto sin or made Christ a Minister thereunto were liable to have the Objection retorted upon them being a sort of Men themselves so very infamously wicked for this they had a double Salvo both of which the Apostle doth industriously resute That is from the two parts of the Law given by Moses and the two sorts of the Works of the Law enjoyned thereby that is the Moral and the Ritual or Ceremonial part In reference to the former they fall in with those Jewish Conceits of the Merit of their good Works done from the Principle of Free-will And that in order to their Justification this Merit was to be measured by the Preponderation of their good works to their bad and that it was possible that one good Work in some cases might turn the Scale That is if they were equal before Now this the Apostle occurs to by shewing that they that were under the Law were under a Curse For that if they continued not in all things written in the Law to do them All they did was nothing as you may see Chap. 3. of this Epistle ver 10. And then as to the Ritual or Ceremonial part because their Sacrifices were in great part expiatory of Sin and divers of their other Performances carried a great shew of Sanctity and Piety in them Which their Expiatory Sacrifices could only be as they were representative of the One Propitiation and their other Observances were nothing to their Sanctity if the thing they were designed to signifie did not accompany the Sign They imagin'd they were not to signify it's Presence but to supply it's Absence This Notion did obtain even with the stricter sort of them the Pharisees themselves who thereupon made very light of the weightier matters of the Law reckoning that tho' they were guilty of many Immoralilies in Practice their exact observance of the Rites and Ceremonies enjoyned by Moses would go far to make

that in 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. Such as are mentioned there were before the grossest and vilest of Sinners Fornicators Adulterers Idolaters c. And such saith the Apostle were some of you● But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God You cannot but be in all these agreed We are agreed that whoever does sincerely Evangelically believe in God through Christ receive Christ is united with him or is in him who doth by serious Repentance turn to God whose Heart is won to love him in Truth as his highest and best Good who is conformed to the Image of his Son and who having been made willing in the day of his Power doth now render a sincere Obedience to him every such one is in a safe state accepted with God has found Grace in his Eyes For no Words of Scripture can be plainer than that they that believe on Christ shall not perish but have everlasting Life John 3. 16. Yea that they have it ver 36. That Life is begun with them which is never to end or which is in the sure way to be continued till it become everlasting That they that repent and turn from all their transgressions their Iniquities shall not be their ruine Ezek. 18. 30. That God hath prepared the things which Eye hath not seen for them that love him and will give them the Crown of Life according to his own Promise 1 Cor. 2. 9. Jam. 1. 12. That Christ doth become the Author of eternal Salvation to them that obey them Heb. 5. 9. That there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. That it must turn wholly to the praise of the glory of his Grace that God makes them accepted in the beloved Eph. 1. 6. We do all agree That they that do never believe they that never repent they that never love God they that are never brought to obey him that live in Enmity and Rebellion against him to the last breath must needs be in a lost state are never justified never accepted with God are liable unto coming and abiding Wrath and remain under Condemnation John 3. 16 36. Luke 13. 3. Col. 3. 6. We agree That such Faith such Repentance such Love to God such Obedience even in the most entire Sincerity are not to be considered at all as any cause of such a Persons Acceptance with God They do characterize the accepted person but they cause it not they deserve nothing nay they could not if they were perfect No internal Work of the Holy Ghost tho' in this our present state it were most absolutely perfect so as to exclude every thing of sin could be any part of that righteousness that must justifie us before God To suppose that it could would be manifestly to confound the Offices of the Redeemer and of the Holy Ghost It was Christ that was to merit for us the Holy Ghost was never to merit for us It was not the Holy Ghost that died for us nor can his Operations or Productions in us have any causative Influence to the meriting the justified and accepted state of any Person before God They were never meant for that purpose nor have any aptitude or accommodateness thereunto They cannot make us never to have sinn'd nor can at one for our having done so We cannot but be agreed in this for 't is plain and carries it 's own Evidence in it self i. e. Suppose we a Person as soon as he is converted made perfectly free from Sin that very moment by some extraordinary powerful Work of the Holy Ghost on his Soul how shall that expiate for his having been a Sinner Now where there are so great things wherein we agree and we make little of them things that should raise up our Souls and awaken all our Powers unto highest Acts of Love Gratitude and Praise to God and our Redeemer and fill us with wonder and pleasure as oft as we think of them an Indisposition of Mind to take notice of and consider such things so as to improve and use them to the great purposes of the Christian Life as Incentives to the love of God an entire devoting of our selves to him vigorous and diligent serving of him and walking holily and comfortably with him in our daily course through a greater Disposition to contend about we well know not what besides too plainly shews much of that carnal Disaffection which the Apostle doth here animadvert upon There are other things belonging to this same purpose that I find I cannot reach to at this time SERMON II. Gal. V. xvi This I say then Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh I Have begun to shew you by what Indications much Carnality may appear and show it self in and about Spiritual matters As for instance in the controverting yea even in the defending the Truths of the Gospel and intend now to proceed You have heard It does so 1. When Christians who are very far agreed in the most important things make little of the things wherein they are agreed tho' never so great in comparison of the much less things wherein they differ As all serious Christians must be understood to agree in far greater things than it is possible for them to differ in I lately mentioned to you sundry great Agreements that I cannot doubt to be very common with serious and intelligent Christians which I shall not now stay to repeat but add 2. Such Carnality shows it's self when there is too much aptness to lay greater stress than is needful upon some unscriptural Words in delivering Scripture-doctrine Here we may take Carnality as the Apostle doth 1 Cor. 3. 3. While there are divisions among you are you not carnal and walk or act as Men There is more of the Man in it than of the Christian. When we can make a shift to divide about a Word and that in the present Use of it devised only by Man When Words that are meerly of Humane Stamp and used in no such Sence or to no such purpose in Scripture however they may be significant yet too great a stress and weight is laid upon them either by too stiffly adhering to them on the one hand or too vehemently decrying them on the other hand while perhaps and it is a certain and a known case the meaning may be the same on both sides and would be so or would appear to be so if such and such Words were waved and others more understood were chosen and used in the room of them It 's true we are not to think and no Man of Sense can that we are obliged never to use other Words in such matters but such as the Translators of the Bible have hit on in their Version of it as if that must consecrate those Words and leave all other under a Profane