Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	bear_v	love_v	see_v	4,195	5	3.3866	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95864	A sermon preached to the Honorable House of Commons; at their late solemne fast, December, 28. Wherein is described 1. The church her patience: 2. Her hope. In the exercise of both which graces, she is enabled to waite upon God in the way of his judgements: in which divers cases are propounded and resolved. That the soul sick of love, doth with more difficulty endure the absence of Christ, then the present evils of this world. By Thomas Valentine, Rector of Chalfont in Buckinghamshire. Published by order of that House.	Valentine, Thomas, 1585 or 6-1665?	1643 (1643)	Wing V26; Thomason E86_32; ESTC R12382	44,658	51

bring him meate he cannot have patience or Secondly from Love as a loving wife whose husband is gone into a far Countrey she longs for his coming home and takes little joy of any thing till she see him returned if she did not love him so much she would not be so troubled And so is the Church impatient till Christ come to her which ariseth from that exceeding love she beares to him and because love admits of no long delay therefore it you aske why the soule cannot be more patient I answer because she is sicke of Love and so the Church is not ashamed to professe Cant. 2.5 And as Christ spake in another case so I may speake in this This sicknesse is not unto death nay it is the beginning and a good measure of eternall life Oh! if I knew it were no worse it would abate my griefe For thy satisfaction I will breifly describe what it is to be sicke of Love that thereby thou may judge of that impatience that comes from Love The soul that hath a more full apprehension and a clearer light to see the admirable excellencies of Jesus Christ is rapt and ravished with love towards him and love being the commanding affection of the soule is carried towards him in an unresistable manner for Love is strong as death and will not endure any thing to come betweene it and the object Love carries the soul out of a mans self Amor pont● amantem extra se Aqui● and placeth it upon the partie loved it makes it to be in two bodies It is pleased and delighted in the object it feeds it self with present contentment Amor est sui pabulum and hope of future enjoyment it thinks often of the divine perfections that are in Christ it beholds him in all his works with admiration especially in that which was his Master-peice our Redemption It viewes his rare properties of goodnesse holinesse puritie meeknesse humilitie c. And all set in the sweetest and most amiable disopsition that ever was it observes with what a Heavenly disposition he conversed among men how willingly he instructed them in the mysteries of salvation how readily he condescended to the ignorant and weake how gracious he was to great offenders when once he saw them penitent how wisely he answered the questions of his cavilling adversaries and put them all to silence Matth. 22.46 Whereupon it concludes not onely in point of affection but Judgement that he is the cheifest among ten thousand Cant. 5.10 And if God should shew us his glory and make all his good to passe before us as once he did to Moses Exod. 33.19 yet we could not thinke well enough of him for our thoughts could not comprehend his excellency nor could we love him according to his worth and therefore we cannot erre in our Love It is no blind doting affection as for the most part is among friends The Church may give full scope to her affections and she is so farre from longing too much she can never love enough but her love being well grounded she is constant and firmly setled and if she think any thing should separate it would be as death and delayes is very irksome she longs for her Saviour and knows reason for her longing which women men with child do not and yet if they be not satisfied they will miscarrie so the Church in her longing agrees in the perill but differs in the cause And the Church is sick partly because the object of her desires is so glorious that it overcomes the spirit as the very smell of strong water will overcome the brain and the glorious beams of the sunne will dazle the eye So Christ the King of glorie offering himself to his Church doth amaze and overwhelme the soul more then Saul did David by offering him his daughter to wife and to make him son in law to a King And also the want of Christ works in the soul as a disease in the bodie The fears and cares in the Church which are in every beleeving heart lest she should not enjoy Christ are as the cold fits in an Ague and by such faintings such pantings and short breathing you may easily conclude there is sicknesse and every soul in such a case discovers love for it cannot long lie hid and such as are sick of love are sick for Christ and long after him and languish for him and will never be cured till they enjoy him and it is no wonder if they be impatient nay it were not well if it were not so If any that have enjoyed God in his ordinances and found the sweetnesse of them should be debarred for a yeer or more from the Word and Sacraments love would make the soul impatient of that time and account it very long and cry out with David Psal 42.1 2. When shall I come and appear before God in Sion And if in the lesse then it holds in the greater that the time seems long till we enjoy Christ And as the former so this comes from love and they are sick of love that find it in themselves And it will further appear 1. In the ordinarie times of meeting love will not suffer us to stay away unlesse in case of urgent necessitie for as the persons that are in love cannot but go to meet each other so the beleever cannot stay at home when occasions of meeting are offered where Christ is there she would be and therefore according to his own direction she goes to the Shepheards tents Cant. 1.7 where she is not satisfied with the place nor the dutie nor the ordinance but she must injoy Christ himself she must see him and hear his voice and her heart is therewith contented and burns within her if either he be silent and will not speak or if he hide himself and will not be seen or do appear frowning then she is down in her spirit and much dejected she mourns secretly and is sick at heart she presently apprehends his anger and would do any thing to appease him she would humble her soul as lowe as may be and kisse the dust if there be hope that he will look kindly again upon her Lam. 3.29 and till she see the light of his countenance and behold his power and glory in the sanctuarie as in former times Psal 63.2 and till she find the joyfull sence and feeling of his loving kindnesse in her heart she mourns as a woman forsaken or divorced takes joy in nothing is very impatient of his absence but never blames her Saviour but imputes the cause of her sorrow to her own ill carriage and misdemeanour and thereupon she takes up new lamentations over her old corruptions and gives not over her confessions and prayers till he again return to her in mercie which when he pleaseth to do she is the more joyfull by the driving away of her former fears and griefs and as friends meet more lovingly and greet more heartily after

a time of absence so do Christ and his Church the Father and his prodigall sonne make not more merrie the Bridegroome and the Bride rejoyce not more then Christ and his Spouse do upon their renewed amitie and agreement 2. In times and occasions extraordinarie if she sees her Saviour in any mercie in any joyes of the spirit or in any deliverance or in the granting of her requests especially in such things as respects her soul and salvation she is moved her blood stirs within her and all the powers of her soul are quickned and revived if she hear him speak not onely in the sound of words Cant. 2.14 but the efficacie of his spirit she cannot sit still but riseth and cries it is the voice of my well-beloved Cant. 2.8 And if these two sences which let in and let out love were not exercised in seeing and hearing Christ she could not with any patience wait for him Cap 5.16 Let me see thy countenance and hear thy voice for it is sweet and comely But these stay her heart and therefore we from hence conclude what she is sick of A Physitian knows the disease and by the operation of his medicines he still is confirmed in his knowledge for if hot things do good then he knows the disease comes of cold causes so if we would know whether we be sick of love observe what allayes thy grief and what encreaseth it if nothing but the fruition of Christ himself will cure thee and secondly nothing but that which is next to fruition namely seeing and hearing of Christ will asswage thy distressed heart then know thou art sick of love Ob. But then it may be thou wilt reply and say this is poore comfort to tell me that I am sick I knew that before and my griefs plainly shew it Ans I answer that to know thy particular disease is more then to know in generall thou art sick and it is a skilfull Physitian that can discover the disease and if before or now thou knowest this thou may for ever rejoyce for wheras many are sick for the satisfaction of their lusts as Ammon for Tamar thou art sick for Christ and shalt undoubtedly be cured This disease shews not weaknesse but the excellencie of the temper of the soul and being so noble a disposition of an heavenly heart is not properly a disease but onely by way of resemblance as sick persons longing for somewhat so is the soul for Christ But as the fruition of the Bridegroome can cure the love sick Bride so Christ onely must do it the Preachers of the Word are but the friends of the Bridegroome and cannot do it but let me do a friendly office I will bring thee before him whom thou lovest and put a few words into thy mouth which thou must utter I will frame thee a short Petition which thou must thy self deliver O my Saviour my Joy my Crown The love sick soul breaths out some such ejaculations the top and height of all my hopes thou hast ravished my soul with thy divine perfections and raised my poore lowe spirit to an higher pitch then ever by the power of nature it could have attained unto I did affect such things as pleased my eye and eare and should have doted to this day upon sencible objects but now I see that all things under the Sun are meer vanities fading flowers and perishing delights thou hast revealed better things unto me and I see by a new light the things that concern my happines thou hast set before me the joyes of heaven and hast shewed me the excellency of that estate wherein the soul enjoyes communion with thee and now I do condemne all my former sinfull delights and being grown to yeers of understanding I admire how simple I was when I was a child but much more do I wonder at the foolish delights of my unregeneracie I find all things that then did possesse my mind to be in comparison of thee no better then childish toyes I now relinquish and renounce them but my heart is stirred with restlesse desires after thee and oh how am I pained till I come unto thee and how am I more unquiet in my thoughts then when I slept securely in my sins how is my spirit reaching after that which I cannot compasse nothing but thy self O my Saviour will satisfie and while I am absent in the bodie how shall I do to live without thee especially seeing I am in the midst of so many adversaries that daily grieve my soul sometimes I hear men blaspheming thy blessed name others are breaking out into odious and disgracefull speeches against thy truth and the wayes of Religion other fall upon thy people and offer them all the hardship and ill usage that wit and malice can devise and thy poore Church is as a ship upon the Sea in a storme as a traveller in the wildernesse in a mistie dark day as all creatures in Winter that are half dead for want of the heat of the Sunne thy turtle Dove is frighted by every ravening bird thy flock is exposed to the rage of each devouring woolfe and what with fears that do fall upon my trembling heart and the want of good that my spirit is set upon I am restlesse and know not what to do tell me O thou whom my soul loves how I can be patient and wait till thou come unto me though thou should be as a young Hart and a Roe upon the mountains Cant. 2.17 Christ by his Spirit will return some such answer O my Spouse my welbeloved how am I troubled for thee how do I grieve with thee how willingly would I ease thee of thy fears and griefs if I had not other works in hand that must not be hindred I would soon deliver thee out of thine enemies hands but that I purpose by thine afflictions to raise thee to greater honour and to bring them to greater shame I will in due time come and wipe away all thy tears and remove all thy fears and put thee in possession of glory And for the quieting of thy longing desires and setling of thy impatient heart remember it was honour enough unto thee that I espoused thee unto me that I entred into covenant with thee and am become thine and thou art mine I loved thee when thou wast naked deformed and in thy blood I found thee poore and have enriched thee a miserable captive and have ransomed thee I laid down my life for thee and let out my own blood to cure thee thou art dear unto me and precious in mine eye thou shalt be unto me as the loving Hinde and pleasant Roe and I will delight in thy love continually and that our joy may be full I will a while defer our marriage that thou may be made more beautifull and more pleasing to me I will remove every spot and wrinkle all thy sins and the fruits of them both from soul and bodie and

think not the meane space too long but consider that there will be time enough for our embracings in another world eternitie will give thee thy full content And till then if enemies defame thee I will clear thy innocencie if they do thee wrong I will right thee if thou loose any thing for my sake I will abundantly recompence thee I will be better unto thee then friends children pleasures preferments I will stay thee with flagons of wine and com●ort thee with apples I will refresh thee with the best dainties that heaven can afford I will not estrange my love from thee and though thou canst not enjoy me fully yet we will see one another and daily speak one to another thou shalt be as neer me as is possible I will set thee as a seal upon my heart We may with Cynicke light a candle at noon day search for a man that is sick of love and impatient for want of heaven and a signet upon my hand I will look upon thee and love thee all the promises contained in the Bible I make over to thee and because they are thy portion I have given thee a heart to studie them and peruse them and all the good contained in them at my coming I will bestow on thee and whereas malefactors never long for the coming of the Judge but the innocent who hope to be absolved therefore I have put it into thy heart to cry Come Lord Jesus come quickly Vse And now to wind up all in a brief application He that waits upon God must stand before him upon these two feet his patience and his hope and such as want these graces cannot attend him and if there were no other motive then the doing of this service it might be sufficient to perswade us to labour for them But leaving the particulars I urge the main dutie of waiting upon God 1. It is a service wherein all the servants of God in all ages are put together they must all draw in this yoke the Jews waited long for the promised Land and longer for their Messiah Old Jacob upon his deathbed uttered this sentence Luk. 2.25 O Lord I have waited for thy salvation Simeon and many others waited for the consolation in Israel Some have waited long for health for employment for preferment others have waited for knowledge for pardon and assurance of Gods love all wait for heaven and the fruition of God therefore let none object against it seeing it is a dutie in which all are engaged 2. It is a dutie highly commended and shall be liberally rewarded God is the bestower of blessings and his wisdom can find the fittest time to give them in and he that quietly waits honours God and shall not loose by it Isa 31.18 Blessed is the man that waits on God Every man that prayes and seeks cannot wait We must learn self-deniall else the want of blessings will make us impatient the longer we wait the greater will be our reward Isa 64.4 5. It hath not been perceived by the eye or eare what things God will give to them that wait for him and then it follows Thou meetest him that rejoyceth God will do great things for such as wait for him and he will meet them in the mid way when they think God is not mindfull of them he is coming upon the way with a blessing in his hand He that waits is best prepared for deliverance when he mentions it not A hastie suitor moves the King for a reward of his service but he sped nere the better for Euripides standing by and saying nothing for himself did by his silence obtain that which the other moved for Tu dignus es ad accipiendum etiam non po●ens and when the King gave it he gave this testimonie of him Thou art worthy to receive it even because thou dost not ask it Such as are afflicted should pray to be bettered before they be delivered every one now would be glad of quiet times because of trading and their temporall estates pray to receive good from God by these troubles and wait for thy deliverance 3. If we wait not patiently we run upon our own danger the husbandman after he hath sowne his ground yet waits till his corn be come up Lun 5.7 8. till it be full ripe and will not reap before the harvest A woman with child desires to go her full time though she came her burthen and treads many a wearie step yet she would not come before her time for she knows it would be dangerous to her self and her child The Church of England is now great and we hope ere long will be delivered of the goodliest and fairest Child that ever she brought forth and we have need to be put into a positure of patience to wait Gods leasure Isa 37.3 till he gives strength to bring forth the Child of Reformation which lies strugling in the wombe Errata Pag. 5. lin 6. for mists are belowe read mists blowe p. 11. for is this r. this is impatience FINIS