Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	divine_a	humane_a	personal_a	3,580	5	9.3191	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28583	Christ's importunity with sinners to accept of him by S. Bold.	Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737.	1687 (1687)	Wing B3478; ESTC R26454	53,458	159

Impediment to his admission than if he had a multitude of Rivals If we cherish any one Lust in our Bosom and suffer it to rule there it will as certainly keep Christ out of our Hearts as if we did allow our selves in a greater number of Sins If we were only haunted by Sin beleaguer'd and set upon courted and sollicited though by hundreds of Lusts the case would not be desperate we might it may be sooner listen to Christ than to any of them but when we close with any Lust submit our selves to its Power take it into our Heart and enthrone and crown it there chusing and preferring it before Christ then is our case dangerous indeed though we seem to reject and offer some indignity to those other Lusts and Vices that were suing for entertainment but did not suit so well with our Humor and Fancy as that did which we have surrendred our selves unto Too many do pretend to receive Christ and yet exclude him this way They are described Zeph. 1.5 That swear by the Lord and that swear by Malcham that is they profess friendship and subjection and obedience unto God and bind themselves hereunto by the strongest ties that can be devised swearing to be true and faithful to him alone and yet under-hand they swear to Malcham i.e. they swear in the same manner and devote themselves by Oath to be true to Moloch Take heed you do not entertain indulge or set up any Lust in your Hearts though never so privately for if you do this will keep Christ out and you will be as guilty before him as those who did swear by Malcham IV. We are now in the fourth place to enquire why Jesus Christ doth use so much importunity with Sinners to accept of him 1. Christ doth not use this earnestness with us as though he stood in any need of us It is not to acquire any advantage or benefit to himself from us but for our sakes and for our good that we may reap those Satisfactions which spring from Peoples enjoying of him He is absolutely perfect and doth not need any thing from us As he is God he was eternally blessed before we were in being And if we consider him as Man the humane Nature is unconceivably blessed in that personal Union it is admitted unto with the Divine Those glorious Discoveries which are made to him those blessed Communications which are imparted to the humane Nature and that unintelligible intimacy there is betwixt the two Natures do enrich him as Man with incomprehensible satisfactions and felicities Indeed if we consider Christ with reference to the Relation he bears to Believers and the number of God's Elect and how his Mystical Body is not compleat till the whole number be effectually called and brought together unto him we may perceive something there which may somewhat illustrate his earnestness in importuning Sinners to comply with his gracious Offers for herein we take notice of him in the execution of his Office And for this very end it is amongst others that he hath appointed several Offices in his Church Ephes 4.11 12 13. But what we are chiefly to refer his earnestness and importunity unto what we may impute it to with greatest safety and assurance is divine free and undeserved Love 2. He doth not use this earnestness with Sinners as though he could not procure himself admittance without their concurrence God ordinarily requireth our concurrence even as to those Instances wherein he doth most wonderfully display and magnify the Riches of his Grace towards us not as if we our selves were to have the greatest hand in the Work or that it could not be effected unless we did exert our strength for that purpose But because he will deal with us as with rational Creatures He will not force and drive Men into Heaven and Happiness aginst their wills He proceeds in such a way as is most proper to work upon our reasonable Faculties and he makes use of them for the perfecting of what he designs He doth ordinarily make use of rational Expedients with Men and if these prove unsuccesful those Persons are for their inexcusable obstinacy and stubbornness justly rejected 2 Thess 2.11 12. The Lord Jesus Christ hath the Koy of David he openeth and no Man shutteth Rev. 3.7 He hath power over all Hearts and can command admittance when he pleaseth but he thinks fit to use importunity and to proceed in such a way as is most suitable unto our Natures And he doth thus 1. To testify with the greater force and evidence his wonderful great Love to Sinners how ready and willing he is to save them He might say to Sinners at the first repulse they give him Let the filthy be filthy still and let the unclean be unclean still But when he puts up many denials and affronts and still renews his earnest Sollicitations and still condescends to argue and plead with Sinners his Love must be acknowledged on all hands by all sorts of Persons to be extraordinary great and fit to win and constrain our Hearts to submit to and close with his Tenders O what refractory helpless and even unpitiable Wretches are they who will hurry themselves to Hell in despite of all his Love Miserable and wilful Wretch what canst thou propose to thy self in rejecting and flying from the tenders of thy Saviour's Love Canst thou think to sweeten and indear Damnation to thee by preferring it before Life The whole Work of Redemption and Salvation is founded on and springs from Love every Passage belonging to it is a most great and pregnant demonstration of Love And in a very particular even sensible manner doth our Blessed Saviour discover manifest and approve the exceeding Riches and Greatness of his Love in being so earnest and importunate with Sinners for admittance 2. That all obstinate and impenitent rejecters of Christ and Grace may be at last without any excuse He that stubbornly stands out against all the Divine Courtings and loves his Lusts so immoderately that he will not be prevailed with by Christ nor all his intreaties to renounce and forsake them must needs be in a very forlorn and dreadful state When the Lord Jesus shall come to Judgment what will that miserable Wretch do Sinner thou wilt not have one word to say in thy own defence Thou must stand astonished full of shame and confusion silent and dumb without any Apology and Excuse Nay how loudly wilt thou then complain against and upbraid and reproach thy self for thy past contempt and mad refusing of offered Grace and Mercy How unmercifully and cruelly to thy own unspeakable vexation wilt thou then roar forth thy sense of thy approaching just Damnation Some may think to make Apologies for themselves and pretend they were ignorant they had not the Means the Helps the Opportunities others had otherwise they would not have done as they did But thou stubborn refuser of Christ whosoever thou art know thou for a certainty