Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	appear_v	love_v	son_n	2,609	5	5.7862	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49230	Vindiciæ Evangelii, or, A vindication of the Gospel, with the establishment of the law being a reply to Mr. Steven Geree's treatise entituled, The doctrine of the Antinomians confuted : wherein he pretends to charge divers dangerous doctrines on Dr. Crisp's sermons, as anti-evangelical and antinomical / by Robert Lancaster ...	Lancaster, Robert, b. 1603 or 4.	1694 (1694)	Wing L313; ESTC R5714	69,011	72

sincere and upright walking towards all men The Apostle comprehendeth both when he saith that he endeavoured always to have a good Conscience towards God and towards men Towards God in the Righteousness of his Son towards men in the Righteousness of a Christian Conversation which is matter of rejoycing amongst men But Mr. G. goes on And hence saith he is St. John's Phrase By this we know that we know him if we keep his Commandements 1 Joh. 2.3 v. 29. Ye know that every one that doth Righteousness is born of God 1. Concerning our estate towards God and consequently our peace with God We believe the fundamental Evidence to be the Testimony of the spirit of God The things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 You have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things 1 Joh. 2.20 And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us The Evidence whereof we conceive not to a Doctrinal Evidence or Revelation besides the Word but the manifestation of that unto us which is contained in the Word It is as I may say Revelatio revelans distinct from the Word but not properly Revelatio revelata as some I think have misconceived of which revealed Evidence we are not now a speaking but onely of that revealing Evidence whereby our hearts are effectually inclined to close with the Word in which kind we believe the spirit of God not onely to be the principal but irresistible and only effectual in his own Power And what light soever the other Evidences besides this have they have it together with their being from this spirit as by the forecited Scriptures is apparent 2. The next Evidence We believe to be Faith laying hold upon the free Promise of God's Grace towards us in Christ This the Apostle desires to be the Evidence or Conviction of things not seen i. e. that whereby we are convinced of our interest in the invisible Treasures of the Gospel which otherwise eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have they entred into the heart of man to conceive And as the spirit of Christ is by Analogy the soul of a Christian namely That whereby all the Members are knit together into one Body for he that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit so Faith is as it were the eye of this soul whereby it is able to discern things not seen And as the eye onely is that which sees bodily and earthly things so faith onely is that which is held forth in the Word as the means to see spiritual things This is held forth not onely in Heb. 11.1 but also in all those Examples which are there mentioned by way of Induction to prove the same And it is also a great part of the meaning of those places in Romans and elsewhere in which we are said to be justified by faith onely or by Faith without Works So the Reverend Prolocutor of the present Assembly affirmeth when he saith That the Righteousness of Christ is said to be imputed to us by Faith because it is not discerned to be imputed to us of God put by Faith contra Armin. lib. 1. part 2. sect 25. 3. Works of sanctification may be conceived to evidence 1. To others 2. To our selves First to others So are ordinarily to be conceived of when they are spoken of in the nature of Evidences Shew me thy Faith by thy Works Jam. 2.18 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another Joh. 13.35 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Mat. 5.16 In this way they are onely Evidences unto the judgment of Charity which judgment is sufficient for one man to have towards another reserving the judgment of certainty to an higher or more concerned Tribunal Secondly to our selves So they may be considered two ways 1. Barely as they are Works squared out according to such a rule and to be judged of accordingly So the Law of God being the Rule and thereby the Evidence of the goodness of Works no Work in the Moral Nature of a Work can be judged good which is not every way consonant thereunto for it curseth and thereby utterly disalloweth the Action and thereby the Actor wherein there is the least dissonancy or aberration therefrom No Action therefore of Man having any other goodness but its consonancy to this Rule and no other Evidence thereof but the approbation of this Rule can be judged to be truly good so as to give evidence to the Conscience that things are well with it For the curse which hangs over the imperfection of the doing is of far more efficacy to scare the heart out of all its peace than any pretended goodness can be to pacifie it For as Calvin saith A man must not deceive himself gathering that therefore his work is not altogether evil because it is imperfect and that therefore that good which is in it is nevertheless accepted of God Instit lib. 3. c. 2. sect 4. Whosoever therefore judgeth of himself by that inherent goodness of his work either he hath no peace or deceives himself as Calvin here saith and that which he hath is false and groundless For the law or the testimony thereof unto our works barely considered it is impossible it should speak peace unless it can first speak or evidence Righteousness For peace is the fruit of Righteousness not simply and abstracted considered but as it is evidenced Now the Apostle saith That the Righteousness of God wherein we are accepted is manifested without the Law Rom. 3.21 And therefore as the Papists and others destroy all peace with God and assurance of his favour Doctrinally and in downright terms so they which have all their peace this way destroy all peace and assurance of Gods favour by consequence and in effect 2. As they are the effects of Faith and in which it is evidenced so we confess that not only in the pure and prime act of Faith there is an evidence but also in all the acts of Christian Love even to our selves But how Not by discovering an inherent legal goodness in them for that we rejected in the last but only as true Christian faith is active and evidenced in them For otherwise my Prayers though they be never so zealous my Love if it be never so vehement if Faith be not evidenced in them can appear to be no more than the prayers and love of an Unbeliever But if Faith to wit the assurance of Gods favour be manifested in them then there is not only in them an evidence of Goodness unto them but also of Peace unto them by this Faith which is manifested in them As for Example I Love my Neighbour Why What is it that sets me about this work which kindles this Love in me It is because I know God in Christ hath loved me

express himself what he meant by For and From sin if Mr. G. had not been willing to mistake that I may say no more Yea but saith Mr. G. for sin is nothing else but from sin Herein your Medicine for the Plague deceived you otherwise you might have observed that for sin notes sin to be the impulsive cause of the Affliction whereas from sin notes sin to be avoided to be the final cause of the Affliction And these are not all one The Learned Grotius De satisfactione Christi cap. 1. hath observed That as often as this phrase for sins is joyned to words of suffering it alwayes signifieth the impulsive cause Which is most true if only the difference of the Type and the Anti-type be observed and the impulsive cause accordingly distinguished For if you grant Socinus but that which Mr. G. here affirmeth That for sin is all one with from sin he will easily frustrate the satisfaction and expiation of Christ For if his dying for sin note nothing else but the final cause viz. That he might thereby teach us to avoid sin then Christ in regard of any Expiation of Sin hath utterly dyed in Vain Now concerning punishments and chastisements for sin whether they be incident to Believers or not Although Mr. G. by his slight and perfunctory passing it over hath not given occasion of any full and large discourse but have taken up the most trivial Arguments whereunto he cannot be ignorant That satisfactory Answers have been given unto which he hath said nothing at all for the satisfaction of the Reader I shall say a few things briefly 1. These words of Punishing and Chastizing for Sin can denote nothing else but the Meritorious and Impulsive cause namely That sin is the meriting cause and chastisements and punishments are the merited effects This Grotius whom I cited before hath fully evinced against Socinus whose words are these It cannot be shewn that these words ob peccata or propter peccata that is for sin especially where they are joyned to sufferings are ever taken otherwise in the Holy Scripture than in this signification of merit Where also he gives satisfaction to those Scriptures which were by Socinus cited to the contrary Now if any part of the just merit or desert of the sins of believers be notwithstanding the satisfactory sufferings of Christ laid upon believers to bear them in their own persons then it is most evidently apparent that Christ did not or did not sufficiently bear the full merit and desert of sin And that these sufferings being inflicted in a way and course of justice Christ hath not by his death fully satisfied the demands of Justice then which nothing can be said more dangerous and destructive to the very foundation of Christian faith Yet 2. I believe that sin as the impulsive cause and punishment or chastisement as the effect of sin may be considered two Wayes 1. In a Typical consideration 2. In a Moral I do not say that he did bear the whole Typical charge of sin pardon the expression I cannot meet with one more fit at this present for that were to make him the Type of himself That charge of sin was born wholly by the people of the old and typical Covenant both in their persons and administrations even until the very death of Christ wherein was exhibited the full Anti-type who only bore the sins of his people in the full merit and desert of them Morally or Really as Real is opposed to the Type For in the Death of Christ the Old Covenant with all its Types had an end and the New Testament or Covenant became in force Heb. 9.16 17. A Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no force at all whilst the Testator liveth But the Old Covenant did thereby decay wax old and vanish away Heb. 8.13 Yet as I said before several times and say it again that if it be possible the truth of what we hold might appear unto all men breaking through those many clouds of slander wherewith we have been and are encompassed I say that by the promise of the Messias or by the promised Messias they were all freely and perfectly before God justified they as we and we as they Act. 15.11 Christ bore the full Moral or Real charge of their sins in the same measure as he did ours Only I say with all approved Protestants that the Typical and Subservient Administration or Covenant did exceedingly darken this upon their spirits not to hinder the benefits of Christ that they should not so spiritually come upon them But only that the enjoyment should not be with that Lustre and Glory as they are set forth to be enjoyed in the New Testament whereunto therefore in some measure the Gospel is restrained and it is by way of glorious eminence styled the Kingdom of Heaven Even that administration of the Gospel of the grace of God here on earth Mat. 3.2 and 26.29 So then we say that as all Types ceased at the death of Christ so likewise did all Typical charging of sin therewith all cease 3. Albeit we acknowledg the same or rather more hard things to flesh and blood do usually befall the children of the New Testament then did those of the Old in regard of the sharpness whereof and the event also that they have in their conversation they are somtimes called chastisements or corrections or Rebukes Yet their great consolation is that it is not the good pleasure of God their well pleased and fully reconciled Father that they should in any way bear the desert and merit of there own sin charged upon them either typically as though the true Lamb of God which was to bear the sins of the world and take them away were not yet come or Really as though there were no Lamb of God at all for them that either had or ever would suffer for their sins So that their present sufferings be they never so smart yet are but trials and exercises of faith and therein pure testimonies of love not of Anger or of Punitive Justice to the spiritual eye which discerneth all things even as they are the dispensations not only of a Father but also of a well-pleased Father in and through his beloved Son Matt. 3.17 For although here below and to the eyes of flesh all things seem to be black cloudy and tempestuous yet the eye of faith mounts up above the clouds and there discerns the full serenity of Heaven notwithstanding the contrary appearances here below And if in the wayes of God herein towards us there seems to be some reference unto sin yet is it not to sin in its own nature as it is the transgression of Gods Law calling for justice from God in some way or other for so it was utterly purged and done away by the Death of Christ Heb 1.3 1 Joh. 3.5 But as they are grievances unto Gods people as they are a continual trouble and vexation unto

freely and hath given his Son to me and for me And this known primarily only in the free promise of his Grace laid hold upon by Faith Notwithstanding it is also exercised and hath an influx into this act of Love to my neighbour For We Love him because he Loved us first That is because we know he loved us first For unknown Love hath no efficacy to produce a reflection of Love in him upon whom it is terminated And as we love Him so we love others for his sake who hath so loved us So then so far as our Love is truly Christian so far is the Love of God to us manifested by Faith in it And so in all the acts of true Christian Love there an is evidence of peace as in it Faith is acted and the Grace of God to us therein taken notice of and manifested Now although some of those places in John may well be interpreted of the evidence of Works in reference to others As the latter of these here cited by Mr. G. if not the former yet I believe there are others that speak of that evidence to our selves which I last explained In all or most of which places I believe it is not altogether unobservable that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 herein not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hereby which as I conceive is more proper to the sense expressed Now to the former place 1 John 2.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 herein or hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandements To let pass that which some have observed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is and may sometimes be translated Agnovimus we have acknowledged him so that the words should then be translated thus Herein we know that we have acknowledged him if we keep his Commandements To let pass this I say or to leave it to the consideration of the judicious Reader I Answer that John in chap. 3. v. 23. hath explained himself what he means by his Commandements This saith he is his Commandement That we should believe in the Name of his Son JESVS CHRIST and love one another as he gave us Commandement These are his Commandements not in a legal way but as written in the hearts of the Faithful by the finger of his Spirit and as we are called forth to the exercise of them in the strength of the same Spirit by the glorious manifestation of his grace in Jesus Christ unto us expressed by those and infinite such Exhortations contained in the Word By the exercise of these two Faith and Love there is then we acknowledge an evidence of our good estate and thereby peace First In Faith primarily by its own proper act going out of a mans self and laying hold on JESUS CHRIST for our sufficient Attonement and Peace-maker And Secondly In Love as I said not by consideration of the inherent goodness of it but in its ground and as the influence of Faith is in it and upon it for so only it is evidenced unto us and conceived by us to be a truly Christian Act. Mr. G. addeth We do not saith he look for peace of Conscience from the subduing of our lusts as the primary cause but as a sure signe and concomitant of the same To this I Answer as before that subduing of Lusts of it self without the light of Faith shining and giving evidence that they are expiated before God in the death of Christ is no evidence at all and therefore no sure sign or concomitant no more than that subduing of Lusts which we read of in Heathens in Jews in Turks and Papists in their Monasteries at this day theirs is without true Faith and so is this But if you grant the assurance and evidence of faith in your subduing of lusts then I grant there is an evidence of peace in it as that Faith shines forth in it which giveth the light of the knowledge of the appeased countenance of God towards us in the face of Jesus Christ and no otherwise Sect. 11. In this Section Mr. G. as he hath done divers times before instead of dis●roving what he had before him makes an inference of his own or some others slandrous coin and that he layes to our charge but he must either own it himself or else he must name the Author of it It is that we slight Godly Sorrow which the Apostle so much commends 2 Cor. 7.9,10,11 I profess that I am a stranger to any person or Author I mean of those that profess the Gospel that slight Godly Sorrow It is an ungodly and unbelieving Sorrow which we speak against That Sorrow which is stirred up upon the apprehension of Gods faithfull and constant love towards us and our weak and unanswerable walking towards him this Sorrow so far as it doth not intrench upon true faith nor any way darken or question the ground of it we have always approved and we say where true faith is it will always be as occasion is offered But when this is degenerated into a Sorrow of unbelief or into a Popish and dead contrition as Luther calls it then we cannot allow of it of which degeneration this is a sure sign when by it the appeased face of God our Father is covered and kept out of sight by it All this sorrow and sadness saith Luther is of the Devil and it is a sacrifice very acceptable unto him Whereas the Dr. had asked whether we could chuse but fall foul upon our own Spirits when we see the filthiness and infirmity of our wrestling with sins I Answer saith Mr. Goree we cannot chuse indeed but fall foul upon our selves and say with the Apostle O wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death Rom. 7.24 And also with the publican Lord be merciful unto us Sinners Luke 18.13 But now saith he let us ask them whether upon the sight of their defects they fall thus foul upon themselves or no I am afraid saith he they follow the Pharisee rather than the Publican boasting rather than praying for pardon of Sin Surely if we should do as Mr. Geree doth here in effect say we are humbler than you we should indeed play the Pharisees and boasters But yet we may very well say that Mr. G. had no ground for this sentence upon us We acknowledged the evil of all our actions and that as he ought to have judged in christian charity in true humiliation and self-denial to be so great that they deserve the displeasure of God even unto eternal death acknowledging nothing in our selves as of our selves but matter of shame and everlasting confusion which you were so far from consenting unto that you call it a disgracing of righteousness and holiness Sect. 9. whereas in the same Sect. you affirmed of your duties that you seek Salvation by them Whether this be nearer the Publican or the Pharisee let the godly reader judge Yet if we add to the acknowledgement of what we are in