Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	beget_v	love_v	only_a	2,697	5	6.4558	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34165	A Compleat collection of farewel sermons preached by Mr. Calamy, Dr. Manton, Mr. Caryl ... [et al.] ; together with Mr. Ash his funeral sermon, Mr. Nalton's funeral sermon, Mr. Lye's rehearsal ... with their several prayers.	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.; Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677.; Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.; Nalton, James, 1600-1662.; Lye, Thomas, 1621-1684.; Ashe, Simeon, d. 1662.	1663 (1663)	Wing C5638; ESTC R8646	623,694	660

to stand work and suffer alone Though in duty they should not be alone when they can have society and though the rest are most humble therefore are sensible they have need of others and will not throw away any of their helps yet if all forsake them they will stand to it still they go not to Heaven meerly for company sake they be not Christians meerly because such and such are Christians If all the world forsake Christ they will stick to him unless Christ leave them to their own weakness But the weak Christian hath a great deal more need of comfort and support and lives a more dependent life they cannot stand work suffer alone if their Minister fall they fall if their Relations change they change if there be not some body at hand to confute an Adversary they yield if there be not some body to keep life and warmth they grow cold in every duty in affliction they can step on no longer then led by the hand c. Have Christians to support and to quiet and to moderate their passions and to teach them the Doctrine of patience they can hold up no longer then they are refreshed with Cordials what would become of you should God let you stand by your selves c. 8. The strong Christian is one that can best live without creatures upon God alone a weak Christian is one that hath most need of the creature and can least live upon God alone under the censures of the godly frowns of the wicked without riches honours pleasures can have the quietness and contentment in God whether he have any thing or nothing where ever he is c. The more necessity thou art in of having something besides God for thy consolation the more weak thou art there must be supply I know not how to be poor disgraced c. this impatient soul is the feeble soul Impatience is nothing but the fruit of weakness The strong Christian can live upon God alone therefore if men make as if they were undone if lost in their estates 't is a certain sign of a lamentable weakness of a sick soul 9. That is the best and strongest Christian and most confirmed in grace who is most employed and abides in the love of God in love to God That hath the fear of God but goes beyond fear and loves most and abides most in the love of God That makes it his great business to feed upon and study the love of God to him and to return love to him again The more Gods love is on thy heart and the more thou lovest in the fruit of that love the stronger Christian But he that lives most by a kind of constraining fear though he may be sincere he is but weak where there is nothing but fear and no love there is no sincerity but where there is some little measure of love fear is such a tyrant that it will many times cloud it so that almost all his life seems to be moved and managed by fear and in this there is much loathness and unwillingness and they had rather do otherwise then they do according to the measure of love is the strength of grace 10. He is the strongest Christian that hath most pure and most universal love to others that can love all men even an enemy with true unfeined love even with such love as belongs to a Christian that can love every Christian and not a party only with the pure and fervent love which belongs to Believers that can love every child of God and not those only that are of his opinion or have done him good but all because they are children of God with a sincere and special hearty love That is the weak Christian that picks and chuses that is staggering when he comes to loving an enemy that takes in those that agree with him in judgment and makes those almost only the object of his love that would confine his affections to some narrow society some little sect party or parcel of Believers and cannot love Christians as Christians And hence it is division is the effect of enmity or of weakness in Grace for want of the universality of love I would make no question to prognostick the healing of all divisions within this Nation could I but advance all that are concerned in it to the right temper of Christian love 'T is the weak children in Christs Family that falls out when we have not enough love to reach to all and to love a Christian as a Christian c. Q. What must be done by those that are converted to keep them where they are to help them unto growth to make them better to further their confirmation to secure their salvation that they may after all attain the Crown A. I shall leave with you twenty directions and as many as there are there are not more than you must practise and take them as if they were the last directions I shall give you and take them as practicals not as notionals that you must live upon as long as you live 1. See that the foundation be surely laid in your head and heart in matters of your Religion In your head that is that you well understand what Religion is what the Christian Religion is what God is what it is for God to be yours in his Attributes and Relations unto you what he is and will be unto you what you are and must be unto him what sin is how odious wherein its evil consists what is sin and what not what sin hath done in the world and what estate it hath brought transgressors into what Christ is what he hath done for mans recovery and redemption what he hath wrought gives and offers to the world The end and design of God in the work of mans Redemption The tender of the Gospel Covenant of Grace freeness largeness excellency of the grace of this Covenant The end of our Religion the everlasting glory that is revealed in the Gospel what it is how sure and how great When you understand these things get a sound and redicated belief concerning the Truths of the holy Scripture revealing all these things And think it not enough that the Scripture is true or that you are resolved so to believe but get the best grounds for your belief be well established on those grounds Read the Scripture much till you are acquainted with and relish the matter and language and feel the power and till all be delightful to your souls in reading And be not ashamed to understand the Fundamentals look to your Catechism The Fundamentals of Religion you must understand and receive And when you have got them into your head be sure you get them into your heart and never think any truth received as it ought till it hath done some special work on your heart till you believe that God is Almighty Just Holy c. and all the Attributes of God have made their holy impression on your

City c. i.e. I will betake my self to all publick Ordinances and shew more zeal and life in my duties and in these I will make enquiry Thirdly I asked the Watchmen the Ministers of the Gospel which are or should be as faithful watchmen that watch for our Souls and be able to speak a word in season c. So nothing will satisfie the Soul that truly loves Christ without him and no means shall be negected till she enjoy him Secondly Why must he be thus beloved First Because he is lovely altogether lovely First Lovely in his Life observing all the will of God there was a wonderful beauty upon him if we behold and can understand that hidden glory of an untainted Holiness and exact conformity to the will of God Secondly Lovely in his Death never more lovely and amiable to the believing sinner than when he was most despicable in the eyes of rebellious sinners O then he appears most beautiful and desirable when he hangs on the Cross there making our Peace procuring our pardon obtaning life and glory for us by that shameful death Thirdly Lovely in all his Graces each Grace a matchless Jewel Rocks of Diamonds Mountains of Pearl not worthy to be mentioned with the least of his excellencies If he put a little of this Grace upon any Soul though he be never so vile cloathed with corruption as in Ezek. 16. from the 9 to the 16 Verse Yet he may be made beautiful by his comeliness Fourthly Lovely in all his Ordinances in which the more immediate sight the Soul hath of him the more he is taken with his Beauty No wonder he is called in Hag. 2.7 The desire of all Nations Secondly Because of his deserving love We love him because he first loved us Consider in his love these four particulars First He laid down his life for us such a love will deserve love and life too John 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends Secondly He lives now in Heaven for us Heb. 7.25 He ever liveth to make intercession for us He is there minding our necessities agitating our affairs by his sitting there we have Liberty of coming thither his sitting there in glory we have our standing here in grace Thirdly he accounts that as done to himself that is done to them that are his Zach. 2.8 He that toucheth you toucheth the Apple of his eye and Mat. 10.40 41 42. c. He that receiveth you receiveth me and so he said to Saul Acts 9.4 Why persecutest thou me when he was with commission from the High Priest dragging the poor Professors of Jesus Christ to the prison Fourthly He longs to have us with him John 17.24 Father I will that where I am there they may be also to behold my glory He is not satisfied with out their Company and is always imparting his most secret counsels to them John 15.16 Henceforth I call you not Servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Thirdly Because otherwise we shall not regard his words which is intimated in the Text If we love him we shall keep his words but if we love him not we will not keep his words It is want of Love to Christ that is the cause of the abounding of every sin for if we did love him we should keep his commands which is the second particular Secondly What it is to keep the words of Christ First There is a Natural and Mental keeping of the words of Christ and so we must keep them that is Remember his Words his Promises Counsels and Appointments The Memory is man's storehouse or cabinet that should be kept Sacred for the truths of Christ so the Disciples kept the word of Christ when they remembred his sayings and David Ps 119.93 I will never forget thy precepts for by them thou hast quickened me i.e. I will keep thy precepts for what we forget we lose and what we remember we keep And thus as Friends take pleasure to look sometimes on the love-tokens of their absent friends So may we have singular comfort and refreshment to see the heart of Christ in the counsels promises and appointments left with us Secondly There is an Evangilical and Practical keeping of the words of Christ When we do believe promises and obey commands Promises not believed and precepts not obeyed are as water spilt on the earth besides the Vessel that should receive it Heb. 4.2 but when they are believed they be as liquor put into the Vessel for its proper use Hence saith Christ Luke 11.28 Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Then we keep the words of Christ when we believe his promises observe his precepts in all our conversation and walk by his appointments and institutions in all our duties Thirdly Why it is their Property and Duty that love Jesus Christ to keep his words First Because true love is comprehensive He that loves Christ truly loves also all that is his He that loves him that begat loves him also that is begotten The nearer any thing is to Christ the better it is beloved and then we love the Word when we keep it as a special pledge of his love To have his Word and a heart to keep it is a double blessing and indeed such a gift is the Word of Christ as wordly to be loved for it self and kept for the Givers sake Secondly Because true love is Operative It is the principle of Gospel-obedience 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us Where there is the disposition of a Son there will be obedience to the Fathers commands so where there is spiritual love to Christ it will set the Soul on work and quicken it to keep the words of Christ As is said of Faith Shew me thy Faith by thy Works So shew thy love to Christ by thy works as Faith without works is dead so is love without obedience Thirdly Because keeping the words of Christ gives the clearest and surest testimony of the truth of our love to Jesus Christ Probatio dilectionis est exhibitio operis Obedience is the most lively testification of love as Christ said to Peter Lovest thou me c. shew it in this in doing thy duty Feed my sheep So Christ tells us in the Text Where the fire of love is in the breast there the flames of duty and service is in the hand Joh. 15.14 Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you In the 1 Joh. 5.3 In this is the love of God that we keep his Commandements Vse 1. For Exhortation First To a mental keeping of the words of Christ according to that word Heb. 2.1 We ought therefore to give the more diligent heed to the things which we have received lest at any time we let them slip And that we

mark how the point in hand doth charge this upon us in the thirteenth Verse of this Chapter These things have I writ to you that believe on the Name of the Son of God That you may know that you have eternall life Here is your duty according to what the Text it self doth charge upon you if you be such as by grace are brought over to a Gospel-believing the Apostle John that did write this Epistle and I from it preach unto you in the Name of the Lord and by authority from him that this is your duty to know that you are persons that have eternal life that you are such as Christ by his Bloud hath made a purchase of eternal life for that he hath by his Bloud once for all entred into the holy place that is not made with hands that he may prepare for you and that you might have the possession of those blessed Mansions that he hath made preparation of Eternal life it is yours and you may be bold to claim it and you are bound to hope and rejoyce in the expectation of the full enjoyment of it and not to be always upon the question and disputing point but to go on with a holy confidence towards God according to what the Apostle expresses 1 Cor. 2. We know that when this earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved we shall have a House not made with hands c. But then a second thing that I have to charge upon you is this that you would acknowledge with all thankfulnesse and enlargednesse of heart to God the riches of his mercy and grace to you that hath been pleased to call you out of an unbelieving world and b●ing ●ou over to the Gospel and to the participations that are by Christ ●●cording to the Gospel Oh! this you should set your hearts upon ●●y admiring the riches of his grace and say Lord why shouldst thou manifest thy self to us and not to the World That many thousands should live and die in the total ignorance of Christ and the Gospel-mysteries or else live and dye in an empty profession and yet that God should be pleased to pitch upon me This is that the Text doth hint unto us in the nineteenth verse of this Chapter Oh! saith he in a triumphing manner We know that we are of God and that the whole world lyes in wickedness Oh! our mercies and the riches of Grace that hath appeared to us while the whole world that lies in wickedness is put into the Malignant one lies in the Devil for he is the Malignant evil one while the whole world lies in the Devil in malignity Oh! It is a sad condition infinitely more sad than for a man to lie in the most noysomest stinking Ditch or in the loathsomest kennel why this is that that heightens the mercy to poor souls that are called by grace according to the purpose of God that while the whole world lies in wickedness and so are like to lie yea and to lie in Hell to all eternity that God should please to lay you in the bosom of his Son and to take you into the arms of his mercy this is that that should heighten our thankfulness I may make use of that expression which we find in Acts the fourth when Paul and Barnabas came unto a company of heathens and they saw what great things were done by them and took notice of the gracious spirit that they discovered sure say they The Gods are come among us in the likeness of men Considering the state of times and what a height of wickedness many at this day are grown up unto the dreadful swearing blaspheming of God and his ways truly judge of it your selves whether we may not say the Devils are come among us in the likeness of men Why now Oh! how should we heighten our love and thankfulness to God that should please in free grace to bring us over to close with Jesus Christ But then 4 as many as are brought over to Gospel-believing this is your duty to study and endeavour what you can your advantages in faith and so the Apostle gives it in charge here in the Chapter in v. 13. These things have I writ to you that believe on the Name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the Son of God This is that you should set about if God hath brought you over to a closing with Christ and an embracing of the Testimonies concerning him believe more and more labor for your advancement and let it be your prayer Good Lord encrease our faith labor that you may be clear in your apprehensions of gospel-mysteries and that you may be more strong in your adherence to Christ of whom those Gospel-testimonies are given and that you may not only come to have an adhering faith but to an assuring faith that you may not be like waves tossed and tumbled up and down but that you may come to be rooted and established and grounded in your faith that you may not come to be unsettled by Heresie corrupt Doctrines or the Apostacy of others but that you may be stedfast and unmoveable Yet further fifthly This is to be given in charge to such as do believe according to the Gospel that they carry it suitably to a believing state as in those particulars that I have insisted upon so in a deportment congruous and sutable to the privileges which belong to believing You are born of God carry it as men and women that are so indeed what I born of God the sons and daughters of God What and not live according to God and not study conformity to God I remember what he speaks there concerning Amnon How is it that thou bring the Kings son art lean from day to day How is it that we that profess to be the sons and daughters of God are lean and lank not more improved that we do not shew forth God and express Christ This lies in the beginning of the Chapter If you be born of God remember that you be born of him that is the God of Love And therefore you are to manifest this birth and your believing and your being born of God by loving God and by loving them that are born of God He that believeth is born of God and be that loveth him that begat loveth him that is begotten of him The God of love doth beget a people of love a loving God a loving people and this is that you should express your believing by and your adoption by by the love you bear to God and the children of God A hateful spiteful spirit where it doth discover it self speaks those persons not to be born of God but of the Devil carry it as Believers as persons of God by studying a conformity to God and by keeping his Commandments subjecting your selves to his authority not living according to your lusts but according to the laws and rules which God

if he gives you the upper spring of Grace he will give you the neather spring of Peace for they go both together If he gives you the Dew of Heaven you need not question the fatness of the Earth if his right hand be full of mercy his left hand shall not be empty Therefore grace and peace be with you from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ Grace hath a double sense either for the grace of God to us that justifies us or the grace of God in us that sanctifies us Now there is a different flowing from each of these but still it is grace and peace First justifying grace hath a peace attending that Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God So far as we have confidence in justifying grace there remains no conscience of condemning sin As there can be no bitterer War than between conscience and the ear so there can be no sweeter Peace than when Mercy and Peace meet together and when Conscience and Peace kiss each other The former is the taste of Heaven the latter is the perambulation of Heaven both which the Believer shares in upon his Justification by faith If Christ had peace who was made our sin needs must the Believer have peace who is made the Righteousness of God in him Seconly Sanctifying grace hath a peace attending it and this peace differs from the former as the Root from the Fruit. The peace of Justification is a radical Peace the root of Peace but the Peace of Sanctification is the bud the blossom of the Tree the former flows from the bloud of Christ sprinkled on the Conscience the latter from the conformity that is between the Word and the Will between the Commands and the Conscience As many as walk according to this Rule grace be unto them and peace Gal. 6.16 So that Peace is the fruit of sanctifying Grace Now as the bloud of the Pascal-Lamb which was a token of peace was not to be struck on the posts of the Egyptians but upon the posts of the Israelites so neither is the bloud of sprinkling which brings perfect peace to be struck on the Posts of the carnal Sinner but on the Posts of the true Believer an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile no Grace no Peace that is Gods Law How can a sinner have peace in a state of sin when God and conscience when Word and conscience when Law and conscience and all the Attributes of God are against a sinner No Peace saith my God to the wicked Pray mark that chapter it begins with the peace and ends in no peace In ver 2. it is said He shall enter into peace that is the Righteous in the last verse There is no peace to the wicked It is the state of Grace that is the only state of peace And thus I pass from the double Grace desired Grace and Peace to the double Fountain discovered God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ But here 's a question to be answered If Grace and Peace be from God the Father then how is it said to be from Christ and if from Christ how then from God the Father Answ It 's a known Rule that the transial external works of God are attributed to all the three Persons in the Trinity the same works that are attributed to the Father are also attributed to the Son and the same works are attributed to the Son the same also to the Father so Grace and Peace are here ascribed both to God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ that is they are both from Mercy and from Merit From Mercy on Gods part to us from Merit on Christs part for us they are from God the Father because he wills them to us from God the Son because he works them in us they are from God to Christ from Christ to us they are from God the Father originally and from Christ derivatively and to us actually God the Father is the fountain of all Grace and Peace Christ as Mediator is the Conduit of all Grace and Peace Man in union to Christ is the cistern into which these streams of Grace and Peace runs God wils Grace and Peace to us Christ works them in us God gives Grace Peace to be applied to the Creature this is from the love of the Father but the Application of this peace to the soul is from the Merit of Christ the Redeemer Thus you see there 's a double spring of this double blessing Time will not serve me further The only Observation is That all the Grace and Peace which Believers share in is derived from God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ these three things opened will clear this 1. That Grace and Peace are the Believers priviledge 2. That the Fountain of this grace and Peace is from God the Father 3. That it is not given out from God the Father but through Christ First That Grace and Peace are the Saints priviled●e if Grace is then Peace is But Grace is the priviledge of every Believer and that whether you look upon it as taken from the love and favour of God to us this is the Believers priviledge God can as well forget Christ at his right hand as cease his love and favour to the soul of a Believer the Believers title to all their blessings arises out of this never-failing love of God or if you aske grace for the fruit of Gods love to the soul still it falls to the Believers priviledge Vocation Justification Adoption pardon of Sin purging from Sin strength against sin Holiness Faith Love Obedience Perseverance all these are the priviledges of every Believer nay a man cannot be a Believer without any one of them they are as essential to the Being of a Christian as reason to the Being of a man Secondly As Grace so Peace is the Believers priviledge There is peace external peace supernal peace internal and peace eternal There is peace external this peace with men there is peace supernal that is peace with God there is peace internal that is peace with Conscience all these three are to be had here upon earth and then there is peace eternal and that is only to be had in Heaven The Apostle here doth not exclude the former but chiefly intends the latter peace with man is a good thing to be desired but peace with God and Conscience is much more to be desired Peace with God is the spring of all things both within and without both below and above both in time and eternity so saith Job if he gives peace who then can make tro●ble Now this peace is the Saints priviledge it is a Legacy left to every Believer by the last Will and Testament of a dying Redeemer Will you see a copy of his Will then look in Job 14.27 Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you There is it seems a

is darkest There may be an hour of darkness that may be upon the Gospel as to its liberty purity and glory and yet there may be a Sun-shining day ready to tread on the heels of it And so much for the resolution of these Queries I shall proceed as I said and leave some Legacies with you which may by the finger of the Spirit be made advantagious to you when we are not advantaged to speak unto you Leg. 1. The first Legacy I would leave with you shall be this Secure your interest in Christ make it your great business your work your heaven to secure your interest in Christ This is not an Age an Hour for a man to be between fears and hopes between doubting and believing Take not up in a name to live when you are dead God-ward and Christ-ward Take not up in an outward form and outward priviledges They cryed The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord that had no interest in or love to the Lord of the Temple Follow God leave no means un-attempted whereby your blessed interest may be cleared up Leg. 2. Make Christ and Scripture the only foundation for your souls and faith to build on as the Apostle said 1 Cor. 3.11 Other foundations can no man lay than that which is laid even Jesus Christ Isa 28.16 Behold I lay in Sion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a corner stone a precious stone a sure foundation Eph. 2.10 Since it is a very dangerous thing as much as your soul and eternity is worth for you to build on this authority and that on this saying and that take heed Leg. 3. In all places and company be sure to carry your soul-preservatives with you go into no place nor company except you carry your soul-preservatives with you that is holy care and wisdom You know in infectious times men will carry outward preservatives with them you have need to carry your preservatives about you else you would be in danger of being infected with the ill customs and vanities of the time wherein you live and that is a third Leg. 4. I would leave with you is this Look that all within you rise higher and higher by oppositions threatnings and sufferings that is that your faith your love your courage your zeal your resolutions and magnanimity rise higher by opposition and the spirit of Prayer thus it did Acts 4.18 19 20 21 29 30 31. compared All their sufferings did but raise up a more noble spirit in them they did but raise up their faith and courage So Acts 5.40 41 42. they looked on it as a grace to be disgraced for Christ and as an honor to be dishonored for him They say as David If this be to be vile I will be more vile If to be found in the way of my God to act for my God be vile I will be more vile Leg. 5. Take more pains and make more conscience of keeping your selves from sin than suffering from the pollutions and defilements of the day than from the sufferings of the day this Legacy I would beg that you would consider take more pains and make more conscience of keeping your selves from the evil of sin than the evil of punishment from the pollutions and corruptions of the times Acts 2.40 Save your selves from this outward generation Phil. 2.15 The children of God must be harmless and blameless without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation Heb. 11. speaks full to the point in hand Rev. 3.4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis that have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy White was the habit of the Nobles which imports the honour that God will put on those that keep their garments pure in a defiling day Rev. 8.4 And I heard another voyce from Heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues If you will be tasting and sipping at Babylons cup you must resolve to receive more or less of Babylons plagues Leg. 6. I would leave with you is this Be always doing or receiving good Our Lord and Master went up and down in this world doing good be was still doing good to body and soul he was acted by an untired power he still doing or receiving good this will make your lives comfortable your deaths happy and your accompt glorious in the great day of the Lord. Oh how useless are many men in their generation Oh that our lips might be as so many Honey-combs what we might scatter knowledge Leg. 7. I would leave with you is this Set the highest examples and patterns before your face of grace and godliness for your imitation in the business of Faith set an Abraham before your eyes in the business of Courage set a Joshua in the business of Uprightness set a Job of Meekness a Moses c. There is a disadvantage that redounds to Christians by looking more backwards than forwards Men look on whom they excel not on those they fall short of Of all examples set them before you that are most eminent for grace and holiness for communion with God and acting for God next to Christ set the pattern of the choicest Saints before you Leg. 8. Hold fast your integrity and rather let all go than let that go A man had better let liberty estate relations and life go than let his integrity go yea let all Ordinances themselves go when they cannot be held with the hand of integrity Job 27.5 6. God forbid that I should justifie you till I die I will not remove my integrity from me my righteousness I will hold fast and I will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live look as the drowning man holds fast that which is cast forth for to save him as the Soldier holds fast his Sword and Buckler on which his life depends So saith Job I will hold fast my integrity my heart shall not reproach me I had rather all the world should reproach me and my heart justifie me than that my heart should reproach me and all the world justifie me That man will make but a sad exchange that shall exchange his integrity for any worldly concernment Integrity maintained in the soul will be a feast of fat things in the worst of days but let a man lose his integrity and it is not in the power of all the world to make a feast of sat things in that soul Leg. 9. That I would leave with you is this Let not a day pass over your head without calling the whole man to an exact accompt Well where have you been acting to day Hands what have you done for God to day Tongue what have you spoke for God to day This will be an advantage many ways unto you but I can onely touch on these Legacies Leg. 10. Labour mightily for a

2. There must be light to actuate this Object if it were dark we could never see it There must be light both to actuate the eye and object Now this light that actuates the eye and object 't is either the natural light the light of Nature the light of Conscience the light of common Illumination the light of the Word or the light of the Spirit of God By all these Lights we come to look into the Looking-glass our Hearts 3. There must be an Irradiation from the Object i. e. a beaming forth from that Object some Species or Idea's that carries the object to the eye and clearly makes out to the sense what that Object is this beaming is by action from the heart mark it for it may be as necessary truth as was preached among you that look what the Stream is to the Fountain what the Beam to the Sun that the action is to the heart whether the act be manent or transient whether Internal in thought purpose election assection in joy in love in fear Or External in the life in the practice and in the conversation So that look as a puddle Stream always declares a corrupt Fountain so all your humble holy faithful thoughts speak a clear spiritual heart within a holy conversation speaks a holy Affection and a holy Affection declares a heavenly Constitution a new Nature Now for the Vse of this is the heart of a man a Looking-glass 1. See from hence of what concernment the Actions of men are whether internal or external The actions of men are like the streams you may certainly finde the Fountain by them they speak the heart as the Root bears the fruit 'T is of infinite concernment 't is the Fountain of what principles within and conversation without descend but into thy own heart c. 2. This shews the sad condition of all natural poor souls your Hearts are Looking-glasses but they are Looking-glasses in a dungeon of Darkness there be Toads Vipers and Devils there but thou canst not see them that hast no spiritual Light 3. Here is consolation to Gods people Is the Heart of a man a Looking-glass What reason have they to rejoyce in their hearts that are the best Looking-glasses in the world not like our Gallants Looking-glasses that must not bewray their wrinkles spots c. But theirs will represent their Heart Complexion Condition and Nature to them Nay in that Glass may be seen the face of a God Nay further because thy Heart doth answer to another Heart and his to his whatever Grace is in any Believers it is there in thy Heart in semine there 's the seed 4. By way of exhortation Is the Heart a Looking-glass Then keep the Looking-glass very chary make much of it above all keepings keep thy heart and that with all diligence in all places at all times and in all things If any thing under Heaven will keep thee holy it is the keeping of thy Heart There thou mayest see all thy spots defects desperate Hypocrisies Infernal Atheism all the deliques of thy soul How prone to commit as vile ●ins as ever was committed by the vilest of the sons of men Once more keep it clean and keep it close Look into the heart and thou shalt finde it to be a Copy of the Role of Eternity where thou shalt see thy very name written in Letters of Gold or Bloud for we looking into our Hearts may and do know that we are passed from death to life and that upon this ground because we love the brethren And thus I advance to The Fifth Sermon 1 John 3.14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren IN these words five things 1. A supposed Estate in which we are all by nature and that is an Estate of spiritual death 2. A peaceable Recovery or mention of another state and estate of life 3. A real Transition from this state of death to life We are passed c. 4. An inseparable property of all the Regenerate Souls in the World they do not hate but love the brethren 5. A comfortable Conclusion that a Christian may make from that property he may know he may be assured by this that he is passed from death to life because he loves the brethren The Observation this A Christian may know his real Conversion and Transition to Eternal life by this Character among the rest because he loves the brethren This Proposition wa● slit into these two particulars 1. That every Believer may have an assurance of his Transition from death to life 2. The love of the brethren is one of the great eminent Symptoms of mans Regeneration 1. A Christian may know his real Conversion and Translation to eternal life Such a great and real change is there wrought in every Believer at his Conversion and this wrought by such a great Efficient and Infinite cause the Spirit of God and this cause working by such real and powerful means and instruments the great Word of God and this done notwithstanding the great opposition that is made by a poor sinner against the Word and when wrought it hath such a real and grand effect upon a Believer that 't is impossible but a Believer must needs know this his Transition from death to life Secondly Love to the brethren is the great Symptom of mens Regeneration Love to the brethren not taken solely singly as if this was the onely Character but concomitantly taken with others but beyond and above all others this is the Privie Soul of God on the Soul if he have inflamed it with love he may know he is passed from death to life The Vse is of Confutation of the Papists those grand enemies to Gospel-Truths and Believers peace They abhor this Doctrine of Assurance by it their Purgatory would fall down their Popes Kitchin would grow cold They tell us Believers cannot have assurance in this World No 1. Why hath God commanded us to make our Calling and Election sure and will God command Impossibilities such as cannot be wrought by our or his own power 2. Other Saints have attained this Assurance this New Name and White Stone within them Object That 's by extraordinary Revelation Ans This is not upon proof Was not the assurance of Gods people in Scripture grounded upon general promises Had they many of them either extrinsecal signs or marks to assure them of it did it not spring from Principles common to all Believers Object But suppose they have assurance to day they may lose it to morrow Man is a mutable Creature he may be a childe of God in the morning and a brat of Hell in the evening Answ 'T is true man is a mutable Creature yet is he preserved by an immutable God Man is a weak Creature but yet is preserved by the power of God unto salvation Man as a Creature is no less mutable in Heaven than upon Earth there preserved by God therefore why not