Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	john_n	love_v	son_n	10,662	5	6.1615	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52856	The absolute and peremptory decree of election to eternal glory reprobated in a sermon preached before the university in Great St. Maries Church in Cambridge / by Robert Neville ...	Neville, Robert, 1640 or 1-1694.	1682 (1682)	Wing N518; ESTC R7829	14,617	38

died even for Infidels and Unbelievers as such because the price of Christ's blood if considered in it self in its own worth and value is sufficient even for the Redemption of these when yet according to Gods revealed will in Scripture though Christ obtained Reconciliation for all the benefit thereof accrues onely to those that Repent of their sins and apply that Reconciliation to themselves in particular by Faith and Obedience and this brings me to the Fifth reason Why no such Absolute Decree of Election to Eternal Glory can ever be supposed to be made by God And that is Fifthly Because Christ who died for All shed forth his Blood upon terms befitting Mercy and Justice which could never have been if there were any such Decree and this invites me to take in the Second General Part in the Text where we have the Author and Procurer of this Decree of Election namely Christ He hath chosen us in him in Christ Matthew 26.28 this saith Christ is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins and this effusion was upon terms befitting Mercy and Justice For though God was mercifully affected towards man yet out of respect to his Truth and Veracity he would not allow his Mercy to save any till his Justice was satisfied and therefore he made Christ who shed his blood for us the Foundation of our Election and that not in the sense of the Contra-Remonstrants who tell us that God first decreed the Salvation of some few Select persons and then the giving of Christ as a means to bring this Decree to pass so that with them God the Father is the Author of Our Election Christ but the instrument or executor whereas if we will not derogate from the power of Christ he is to be so held the Foundation of our Election as to be the Author and Procurer thereof Christ paid the large score of our sins by his precedent satisfaction before God would choose any person to Life Eternal not that God could not have acted otherwise but that he might have some regard to his abused Justice before he opened a door of Mercy 'T is true indeed that his Will and desire to save Sinners went before either the Actual giving or his Decree to give them a Saviour for John 3.16 God is said to have loved the World and out of his love to have given his Son but That his Will or Desire was no peremptory Decree to save sinners for then the whole satisfaction of Christ would have been vain and unprofitable because there would have been no need of His being reconciled who did before love peremptorily and with so great a Love as to confer eternal Life upon those who were the Objects of it so that Christ may be styled the Foundation of Gods Decree of Election upon a double account First Because unless Gods Decree of giving a Mediator had gone before there had been no place for his Decree of saving them who believe in this Mediator Secondly Because this Mediator satisfied the Divine Justice which before obstructed God's being simply Reconciled to sinners so that That satisfaction to Gods Justice being first made God resolved afterwards to carry on the whole business of our Salvation by that very Mediator by whom his Mercy and Justice were reconciled by that Mediator who Titus 2.14 Gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Now to what end did Christ bleed a whole Life for sinners if God had before determined that onely some few select persons tyed fast to him by an Absolute Decree should tast the benefits of his Death Hear therefore what Clemens Romanus says in this case let us consider how pretious his blood is to God which being shed for our Salvation (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought to the whole World the grace of Repentance You see then that whoever espouses the Doctrine of an ABSOLUTE DECREE seems to contract the beams of Gods Love and Philanthropy which are universally diffused upon all who do not as that sullen Tree in India does it leaves against the beams of the Sun willfully close their eyes against them There is no person now under Heaven for whom Christ did not dye Christ's Death is no enclosure no Monopoly for some few it is common to All His blood is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an universal remedy for the sins of the whole World I now come to the Uses that may be made of this whole Discourse is it so that no Absolute Decree of Election can be inferr'd either from this or any other Text of Scripture this then may serve USE I. First To comfort those who are under the dismal Apprehensions that they are by some secret Decree of Gods made Reprobates to all Eternity thereby they are sunk into the very gulph of Despair which makes them phansie the terrors of the Divine vengeange set in Battle Array against them and the Curses of the Law thundring out their sentence of condemnation and the mouth of Hell gaping wide to swallow them up and devour them these frightful apprehensions do continually haunt them like so many ghosts and Apparitions and follow them like their own shadows To whom let me return this answer that this their fear is groundless and unreasonable and that it is onely either some sudden storm raised within them by the power and subtilty of the Devil or else it is the result of their Melancholly which is of a very impressive temper and Poetic Nature and is apt like a dark room to receive in the Images of Objects without in very strange and monstrous Shapes and Representations let them therefore be couragious and rouze up their fainting and desponding Souls for there is help at hand there is an immoveable Rock for them to Anchor upon in the midst of these waves of despair which will not suffer them to be quite overwhelmed by them they have a Merciful and Loving Saviour who by the sacrifice of himself hath purged away their sins and delivered them from the curse of the Law and the Wrath to come and satisfied the Divine Justice and obtained Reconciliation and pardon for them O then if there be any consolation in Christ let them raise up their drooping and dying Spirits Let them not Dye onely out of a fear and Apprehension that they must Dye Let them not determine and devote themselves to Death by a fatal Necessity God hath passed no Absolute Decree of Reprobation against them and why then should they Enact one against themselves If they will be saved they may God affords them the helps of his Grace and Spirit Let them not therefore shut the mouth of the bottomless pit upon themselves nor like contented Vassals kiss their chains and hug their fetters being their own Jailors The door is open they may come out there is Light enough to guide them out and all the darkness they were in shall vanish at the brightness of