Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A63939
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An essay upon the works of creation and providence being an introductory discourse to the history of remarkable providences now preparing for the press : to which is added a further specimen of the said work : as also Meditations upon the beauty of holiness / by William Turner ...
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Turner, W. (William), fl. 1687-1701.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing T3346; ESTC R8093
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77,474
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214
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a good beginning to my Conversion to find my Conscience touch'd for my sins yet it went off again Nay all my Life long I had a secret value and reverence for an honest man and lov'd morality in others But I had form'd an odd Scheme of Religion to my self which would solve all that God or Conscience might force upon me yet I was not over-well reconcil'd to the business of Christianity nor had that Reverence for the Gospel of Christ as I ought to have which estate of Mind continu'd till the 53d Chapter of Isaiah was read to him and some other portions of Scripture by the Power and Efficacy of which Word assisted by his Holy Spirit God so wrought upon his heart that he declar'd that the mysteries of the Passion appear'd so clear and plain to him as ever any thing did that was represented in a Glass so that that joy and admiration which possessed his Soul upon the reading God's Word to him was remarkable to all about him and he had so much delight in his Testimonies that in my absence he begg'd his Mother and Lady to read the same to him frequently and was unsatisfied notwithstanding his great pains and weakness till he had learn'd the 53d of Isaiah without Book At the same time discoursing of his Manner of Life from his Youth up which all men knew was too much devoted to the service of Sin and that the Lusts of the Flesh the Eye and the Pride of Life had captivated him he was very large and particular in his acknowledgments about it more ready to accuse himself than any one else could be publickly crying out O blessed God! Can such an horrit Creature as I am be accepted by thee who has denied thy Being and contemn'd thy Power asking often Can there be mercy and Pardon for me Will God own such a Wretch as I and in the middle of his Sickness said Shall the unspeakable joys of Heaven be conferr'd on me O mighty Saviour never but through thine Infinite Love and Satisfaction O never but by the purchase of thy Blood adding that with all abhorrency he did reflect upon his former Life that sincerely and from his heart he did repent of all that folly and madness which he had committed He had a true and lively sence of God's great Mency to him in striking his hard heart saying If that God who died for great as well as lesser Sinners did not speedily apply his infinite Merits to his poor Soul his wound was such as no man could conceive or bear crying out That he was the vilest Wretch and Dog that the Sun shined upon or the Earth bore That now he saw his Error in not living up to that Reason which God endued him with and which he unworthily vilified and contemned wish'd he had been a starving Leper crawling in a Ditch that he had been a Link-Boy or a Beggar or for his whole life time confin'd to a Dungeon rather than thus to have sinned against God How remarkable was his Faith in a hearty embracing and devout Confession of all the Articles of the Christian Religion and all the Divine Mysteries of the Gospel saying that that absurd and foolish Philosophy which the World so much admir'd propagated by the late Mr. Hobs and others had undone him and many more of the best Parts of the Nation He cast himself entirely upon the mercies of Jesus Christ and the Free-Grace of God declared to repenting Sinners through him with a thankful Remembrance of his Life Death and Resurrection begging God to strengthen his Faith and often crying out Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief His mighty love and esteem of the Holy Scriptures his resolutions to read them frequently and meditate upon them if God should spare him having already tasted the good Word for having spoken to his heart he acknowledged all the seeming absurdities and contradictions thereof fancied by men of corrupt and reprobate Judgments were vanished and the Excellency and Beauty appeared being come to receive the Truth in the love of it How terribly did the Tempter assault him by casting upon him wicked and lewd imaginations But I thank God said he I abhor them all and by the power of his grace which I am sure is sufficient for me I have overcome them 't is the malice of the Devil because I am rescued from him and the goodness of God that frees me from all my spiritual enemies He was greatly rejoiced at his Ladies Conversion from Popery which he called a Faction supported only by Fraud and Cruelty He was heartily concerned for the pious education of his Children wishing that his Son might never be a Wit that is as he explain'd it One of those wretched creatures who pride themselves in abusing God and Religion denying his Being or his Providence but that he might become an honest and a religious Man which could only be the support and blessing of his Family He gave a strict charge to those persons in whose custody his Papers were to burn all his prophane and lewd Writings as being only sit to promote Vice and Immorality by which he had so highly offended God and shamed and blasphemed that holy Religion into which he had been baptized and all his obscene and filthy Pictures which were so notoriously scandalous I must not pass by his pious and most passionate exclamation to a Gentleman of some Character who came to visit him upon his Death-Bed O remember that you contemn God no more he is on avenging God and will visit you for your sins will in mercy I hope touch your Conscience sooner or later as he has done mine You and I have been Friends and Sinners together a great while therefore I am the more free with you We have been all mistaken in our Conceits and Opinions Our Persuasions have been false and groundless therefore God grant you repentance And seeing him again next day said to him Perhaps you were disobliged by my plainness to you yesterday I spake the words of truth and soberness to you and striking his hand upon his Breast said I hope God will touch your heart He commanded me continues our Author to Preach abroad and let all men know if they knew it not already how severely God had Disciplin'd him for his sins by his afflicting hand that his Sufferings were most just tho' he had laid ten thousand times more upon him how he had laid one stripe upon another because of his grievous provocations till he had brought him home to himself that in his former Visitations he had not that blessed Effect he was now sensible of He had formerly some loose thoughts and slight resolutions of reforming and designed to be better because even the present consequences of sin were still pestering him and were so troublesome and inconvenient to him but now he had other sentiments of things and acted upon other Principles He was willing to die if it pleased God resigning himself
join in a serious and solemn Commemoration of the Death Passion Love and Merits of our dying Lord when like Brethren of the same Society and of the same Family they symbolize together in Celebration of the Holy Eucharist eating at the same Table of the same Bread drinking of the same Wine in memory of that blessed Body and Blood which were both given for the Nourishment of us to Eternal Life when we commemorate his Cross with a Croud of Passions and crucisie our Lusts with a warm Devotion and look upon our Saviour's immense Love with weeping Eyes and wondering Hearts Faith Gladness and great Delight and with one Consent enter our selves afresh under his Banner to engage all the sinful Powers of the World and promise faithfully to be all for the time to come better Servants and more faithful in the precedure of our Lives When we solemnize the Memory of our dearest Saviour and his Love like loving Disciples with an ingenuous return of hearty Love to him agen and with a mutual Love to one another When Humility Faith Obedience and Charity all meet at the Passover together and we are in quarrel with nothing but what God himself quarrels at Sin and Hell Psal 96.6 8. The Glory for which we worship is exceeding beautiful If we consider 1. The Description given of it in Sacred Scripture under the Mosaic Oeconomy it was represented by Types and Emblems and figurative Expressions for in truth the Intellectuals of Mankind were then so gross and cloudy that they had need of Pictures and sensible Ideas to make things spiritual invisible and future intelligible and 't is not much better with Mankind now tho' the World be grown older yet not much wiser We have still need of Material Instruments and Opticks to help us forward in Quest of the World to come The Land of Canaan the Milk Oyl Honey and exceeding fruitfulness of the place were a lively Figure of the promised Inheritance They stuck then so deep in the Mud and adhered so close to the present World that it was hard to draw them over to abstracted and lofty speculations and therefore God Almighty indulged their Infancy of Reason and Judgment so far as to give them a Prospect of Heaven in a fine spot of ground here on Earth A sight of Life everlasting and the World to come in a piece of clear Landskip in this World But a Brighter discovery was reserved to these last times of the World when Men were come to some maturity of Age and Judgment and able to lay aside their Fescues and throw away their Pictures and ruder Elements they had been accustomed to and exercised in so that now we have as full a Discovery and Description of the future Glory revealed to us as we are capable at present of receiving And here I must confess the Beauty is so dazling the Apprehension so amazing that a deep Meditation upon it would go near to strike our Thoughts into a perfect stupor and incuriousness about the things of this World Life and Immortality are brought to light thro' the Gospel but such a light as we are able to receive and no more 2. The Nature of it collected from the chief Topicks of Consideration 1. God himself the Object and Author 2. The Design and Intention 1. God himself the Object and Author Of which I shall say but little for when we stare long upon such Transcendent Objects our Senses fail us and we commonly find our selves at our Wits end We may indeed discourse modestly about them and think at present so far as to make our Thoughts quick and Devotion lively but whatsoever is more than this is more than meet Can we think that that God who made the World and made us with so much Wisdom and exercised a continual Providence over us for so many thousands of Years did not mean some excellent admirable End at the last for the Reward of that Creature which was made the top of all the visible Creation For my part I expect to see and I think upon excellent Reason too the God of Mercy admit me in favour to that Enjoyment the most ravishing sight that ever was or will be in the Vniverse There and then I hope to see what will be the product and effect of that Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness that first made and now maintains this World Then the Glory of all his Attributes will be made known and exposed to open view and Oh! the Beauty of that Prospect and therefore 2. The Design and Intention of it being to set forth the Divine Glory and Man's Happiness it must needs be full of Beauty As the Case stands with us now a little a lighter kind of Happiness would serve our turns Our Bodies are very frail our Intellectuals very infirm our Natures so bemired with sin and vicious Inclinations that a Mahomet's Paradise or an Elysian Field or a good Constitution of Body and a pleasant Soul and some cheerful Company and a full Purse or Barn would go a great way with us But when the Body is raised incorruptible and all the Man's Faculties renewed and repaired we shall not be content with that Draff we feed on now but call for Manna Angels food more glorious Objects and refined Notions and a clearer Medium for the Conveyance of Idea's and Communion with Spirits and then every thing will be and appear in its due place and order God Angels Men every sense and faculty suited and filled with its meet Object All things full of beauty and Glory without any intermixture of Deformity Defect or Disorder The supream Being in his Throne of Majesty and all his Creatures in their proper places of Subjection and Glory reciprocating the Acts of a Holy Sweet and blessed Communion one with another To which Blessed Estate the Lord grant that both he that writes and he that reads these Lines may be admitted for the sake of our dear Redeemer the Holy Jesus We shall now in the next place come to consider First The Deformity of an unholy life opposita juxta se c. 1. Sin is full of Deformity of its own nature 'T is all of it an Ireegularity a divaricating from the Rule a trangression of the Holy Law of God a disobedience to the Divine Precept a going aside into By-paths and Errors 2. It renders us uncomely and deformed in the sight of God Good Angels and Good Men They look not upon us with that loving eye that liking and approbation that pleasure and delight as upon the righteous and him that fears God As for the former 't is called by God in Scripture Abomination and that which his soul abhors so is all injustice diverse weights and measures proud looks and hypocritical prayers and in a word all the kinds of sin nay the Prophet tells us His Eyes cannot endure to look upon iniquity and besides he hates them so that he will never suffer these qualities to come into his