Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	abraham_n	faith_n	scripture_n	1,490	5	6.7170	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76707	The copy of the covenant of grace With a true discovery of several false pretenders to that eternal inheritance, and of the right heir thereunto. Together with such safe instructions as will inable him to clear his title, and to make it unquestionable. Exactly evidenced by many perspicuous and unconstrained testimonies of scripture. Penned, and published upon mature deliberation, and good advise. / By Robert Bidwel, a servant, and minister of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.	Bidwell, Robert.	1657 (1657)	Wing B2886; Thomason E2117_1; ESTC R212678	175,027	429

David as a King and thus do thou according to thy power or do not say that thou hast any hatred against sin And as that hatred which is warrantable is both impartial and impetuous So in the third place 't is implacable never to be appeased or reconciled This is not hatred to fall out with sin or quarrel with it at some special time or for some extraordinary cause For thus the most ungracious Reprobate may sometimes hate his best-beloved sin And yet return with the Dogge to his vomit and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire If thus the unclean spirit goeth out of a man it is but onely to recruit his forces he will return and take unto himself seven other spirits more wicked then himself and they will enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse then the first According to that saying of our Saviour Luke 11. 26. But when a man in expectation of Gods eternal Love by Jesus Christ doth dedicate his love to God in Christ the violence and perpetuity of his impartial hatred will be such against all sin and every transgression That he will chuse to suffer the afflictions of Joseph Psal 105. 17 18. Much rather then he will be reconciled to any sin or become serviceable unto the Prince of darknesse though with Ioseph he be solicited thereto day by day as Gen. 39. 10. And thus the Soul that is in love with Christ declares it by her Christian profession especially In loving righteousnesse because he loves it and hating wickednesse because he hates it And having thus throughly endeer'd herself by manifesting her affections and fixing them upon their proper objects In the next place she doth prepare herself to seek and entertain her princely lover For as the Tree that is planted in a fruitfull soyl doth not onely increase her sap in her self and send it forth in flourishing green leaves but likewise by the vertue of that sap she putteth forth her beautifull fair blossoms whereby we are induced to conceive that she will bring forth fruit accordingly Even so the Soul that by a lively faith is planted into Christ doth not onely improve her love by Contemplation and manifest it by Profession But likewise she most earnestly endeavoureth to fit and confirm it by Preparation ANd this her hopefull preparation sets forth it self in seeking her beloved It is a principal part of Iehoshaphats commendations That he prepared his heart to seek God 2 Chron. 19. 3. And Hezekiah one of his successours both in his Kingdom and his piety having proclaimed a solemne Passeover He besought the Lord saying The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God the Lord God of his fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary 2 Chr. 30. 19. And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah and healed the people verse 20. And in this search the loving Soul considereth when where and how she may so seek her Lord that she may soon safely and surely finde him And to that purpose she doth call to minde that the holy Ghost sets forth a threefold prescription in order to the time when she 's to seek him First early Prov. 8. 17. Secondly continually Chron. 16. 11. And thirdly evermore Psal 105. 4. Early in regard of opportunity Continually in reference to constancie And evermore in relation to perpetuity First early without delaying In the morning of her youth Remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth saith that kingly Preacher Eccles 12. 1. And thus good Obadiah to Elijah I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth 1 Tim. 18. 12. Secondly continually without wavering For he that wavereth is like a wave of the Sea driven with the winde and tossed Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord James 1. 6 7. And thirdly evermore without revolting or apostatizing He that endureth to the end shall be saved saith the Son of God Mat. 10. 22. It is registred of Asa That he did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God 2 Chron. 14. 2. Neverthelesse it is a notable blemish to his integrity that towards his latter end In his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the Physicians 2 Chr. 16. 12. And thus the love-sick Soul will seek her Lord early least having withdrawn himself she seek him but cannot finde him and call him but he gives her no answer as Cant. 5. 6. She will seek him continually least he cometh in a day when she looketh not for him and in an hour that she is not ware of Mat. 24. 50. And she will seek him evermore least she be unprovided at his last coming and the door be shut against her as it fared with the foolish Virgins Mat. 25. 10. And in the second place she doth consider where she may safely seek for her beloved And is resolved that this must be in his Ordinances and especially in his word which is sometimes called the Scriptures according as he himself hath taught her saying Search the Scriptures for they are they which testifie of me John 5. 39. And therefore the Prophet David professeth unto the Lord That he rejoyceth at his word as one that findeth great spoiles Psal 119. 162. And the faithfull spouse in the Canticles desireth to hear the voice of her dear Lord saying Thou that dwellest in the gardens the companions hearken unto thy voice cause me to hear it Cant. 8. 13. But I conceive it may be Objected That we may hear severall voices speaking in the holy Scriptures and therefore how shall we know the voice of Christ from other voices I answer it is true indeed the Scripture do discover unto us severall voices especially the voice of God in his law and the voice Christ or of God in Christ in his Gospel And they are so frequently and so diversly mixed or intermingled the one with the other according to the wonderfull wisdom of the Spirit and that both in the old and new Testaments that it requireth a good and a willing understanding to distinguish rightly between them For all that is contained in the new Testament although we do generally call that the Gospell is not to be understood as the voice of the Gospel or the voice of Christ according to his Gospel Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement There is the voice of the law in the midst of the Gospel Mat. 12. 36. Neither may we think that whatsoever is found in the old Testament which is commonly called the law is to be referred to the voice of the law For the Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen by faith preached the Gospell before unto Abraham Gal. 3. 8. Saying In thee shall all nations be blessed Gen. 12. 3. And the like we finde many very many times both in the old

that Apostles testimony Gal. 1. 29. Now if we shall apply our selves to the examination of this his evidence It will be necessary for us to propound and answer these five questions First what is this justifying and saving faith Secondly where or in what place hath this faith its residence or being Thirdly upon what foundation must it be built Fourthly how is it to be obtained And fifthly how shall a man know whether he hath this justifying and saving faith or not FIrst therefore if you ask what this justifying and saving faith is I answer It is that gift of God whereby we are inabled to believe the promises of God in Christ according to his Gospel to repose and rest our selves confidently thereupon and willingly and cheerfully to receive the same God in Christ for our Saviour and our Soveraign Lord. I conceive it may be worth our pains to consider this definition according to six particulars therein contained First this Faith is the gift of God It is not in the power of any man to believe effectually or savingly except it be given him of God To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit To another Faith by the same Spirit saith our Apostle 1 Cor. 12. 8 9. And in another place I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think more highly of himself then he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith Rom. 12. 3. And thus the Son of God himself There are some of you saith he that believe not For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him And he said therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father John 6. 64 65. Secondly by Faith we are inabled to believe the promises of God This is proved by the Apostle Paul in the example of Abraham Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations according to that which was spoken So shall thy seed be And being not weak in Faith he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old neither yet the deadnesse of Saras womb He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God Rom. 4. 18 19 20. And in the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews we see how the Patriarchs and other Saints of God did believe and adhere unto the promises of God by Faith throughout that whole Chapter Thirdly faith inableth us to believe the promises of God in Christ or As God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself as 2 Cor. 5. 10. If we look upon God out of Christ upon God essentially without a Mediatour As he is a great God a mighty and a terrible which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward as Deuter. 10. 17. As he is a consuming fire even a jelous God as Deut. 4. 24. who shall bring every work into judgement as Eccles 12. 14. And will by no means clear the gui●ty Ex. 34. 7. I say If we shall think upon God according to these truths we shall never dare to believe any promise that he hath made unto us for good we shall rather believe that he holdeth us for his enemies that he writeth bitter things against us Like patient Job in the extremity of his passions Job 13. 24 26. But if we shall consider God as he was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses Now we dare be bold to believe him For we can assure our selves by Faith that we are upon terms of peace and that he hath received us into favour Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have accesse by faith into the grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 1 2. But haply you will say How is it to be understood That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself Truely this is a question well worth the asking and answering For it is the great mystery of the Gospel and that which but few do rightly understand God was in Christ That is God did take unto himself the nature of man and so became God in Christ personally that so he might reconcile the world unto himself being still the same God essentially When we would meditate upon God according to his acting or working we must conceive of him as one God in three persons distinctly when we would consider him according to his essence or being we must conceive of him as of three persons in one God substantially and individually So then as God was reconciling the world he was Deus cum Deo God with God personally But as he was reconciling the world unto Himself So he was Deus in Deo God in God essentially And thus God was in Christ divers wayes or rather according to divers forms or kinds of administration For whatsoever was concluded or done either intentionally virtually or actually by the Son of God as Mediatour for mankind The same he did as he was God in Christ And therefore to passe by that infinite essence or being of the three Persons in the Godhead according to their incomprehensible co-existency as a secret too deep and intricate for the creature And therefore not revealed unto us by the Creatour either in his word or works We find that God was in Christ In the Covenant of Grace personally In the Creation apparantly In the Promise representatively In the ceremonial Law typically or figuratively In his Incarnation perfectly and compleatly In his Life obediently In his death passively and patiently In his Resurrection victoriously In his Ascension triumphantly And In his Kingdom gloriously First I say God was in Christ in the Covenant of Grace personally that is to say in the second person of the Trinity preparing a remedy against that ruine which he foresaw mankind would run into by Satans malice and their own rebellion And therefore Peter intimateth That Christ was fore-ordained for our redemption before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. And Paul That we are saved and called by God according to his grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9. This Covenant of Grace was the first originall record that ever directed us to this personal distinction Secondly God was in Christ in the creation apparantly For so St. John In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God The same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made John 1. 1 2 3. If you ask what this Word was I answer The same Word that was afterward made flesh