Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A84360
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Mr. John Eliot, called, doctor of medicine, his last speech and advice to the world, at his suffering, March 9. 1694
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Eliot, John, d. 1694.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing E525; ESTC R231484
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9,004
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16
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with I do from my Heart and Soul acknowledge the Goodness and Mercy of God who notwithstanding of my many heinous and aggravating Sins never drew the Sword of Justice against me else I had not only been punished with all temporal Punishments but I had long before this time been thrown into Eternal Ruine from which there is no Redemption So that I hope the Great GOD will make me a Monument of His Mercy and not of His Justice I earnestly desire that all persons may take narrow inspection of my Sins which have brought me to be made a publick Spectacle and that they may be earnest with God that He may give them His Restraining Grace to preserve them from falling into the like For tho' it pleased God to deal with me in Mercy that I am brought to this publick place to be an Example and a Warning to all Men for it is justly to be feared that after this so signal a Caveat if any shall commit such like Sins that God will draw His Sword of Justice against them and cut them off in the midst of their Sins and throw them into utter Darkness From which Good Lord deliver us You are to observe that in the Description of my Life I do particularly mention my being singularly guilty of Two Sins The First is Disobedience to my Parents which is a Breach of the First Command in the Second Table of the Law All of you should know that there is a Blessing that attends the keeping of this Command but as I have broken it so I have deprived my self of the Blessing that attends it But besides I desire that all of you may take notice that when I threw off that Fear and Obedience I owed to my earthly Father I likeways threw off that Fear and Regard I owed to the Great God And therefore I earnestly intreat all you young People and that for the Love of God I desire you may seriously consider what dangerous Consequences attend the breach of this Command The Next is That I intertained Company with a number of Men who denied the Existency of God mocked at the Trinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Lord and Saviour and told that the Scriptures were composed by a number of aspiring Brains who designed to subject the World to their captious Humors and in summ that Religion was but a Foppery and religious Persons Hypocrites and Sycophants The frequent Converse I had with those debaucht Company had almost extinguished the true Conception I had of a God but the only thing that interrupted this dangerous Opinion was That from my younger Years I had always private Converse with God though imperfectly it not being with that Sincerity as was requisite yet I still payed a certain kind of Homage to that Supreme Beeing and even at that time when I most haunted that Company And if at any time I had omitted that Homage I gave to God I could have no peace of Mind until I had discharged my self of that Duty which was the Onely and Great Motive which hindred me from intertaining the dangerous Principles of these Men. Yet notwithstanding their daring and blasphemous Discourses there was one of them who told me That he had occasion sometimes to be alone but was afraid to continue so for any time For he said That he felt something in himself this is his own Expression that did strick him with such terror and horror and threw him into such Melancholy Fits that he was afraid to be by himself and therefore sought all occasions of Company This Gentleman was as roaring a Gallant as any the Age produced but otherways as well accomplisht as most Men What may be the Ends of such Men is greatly to be feared nay even the worst For I my self am too evident an Example of the same I do therefore desire that all here present and to whose knowledge this may come may be earnest with God that He may direct them in such a Holy Course of Life as that they may not fall into the Company of such Men whose Principles are attended with such dangerous fatal Consequences There is one Thing that doth not a litle trouble me and that is The neglecting the taking of the Sacrament which I was never Partaker of notwithstanding the false and malicious Stories and Reproaches that pass on me on that occasion And I shall assure you that the omission of that Holy Duty has been no small Mean in bringing me to a Scaffold So that as you regard the Eternal Wel-being of your Souls and desire to shun the Dangers that are before your Eyes do not slight the Opportunity of taking the Holy Sacrament There are some here present and some absent who have spoke most falsly and contemptibly of me for which I forgive them and all Men as I desire to be forgiven yet I must tell you you have not done like Christians For whatever my Sins have been you ought in Christianity to have spoke of me with Commiseration and Regrate for my Failings and you should have considered That it is the restraining Grace of God and nothing in your selves that hath preserved you from falling into worse This I speak for your good do not think I have any Resentments of what has been spoken of this nature There are likeways many come here to day rather to Gaze than to take Example But I Charge you and every one of you in the Name of the Great GOD before Whom ere many Moments I must make my Appearance that you seriously consider what ye have heard this Day and if you do otherways remember I tell you in the Name of the Most High that it will stand in Judgment against you For I am perswaded that God has not only brought me here for a Punishment of my Sins but likeways that you and all others may take Warning and Example by me and may be Edified by what ye have heard this day so as that it may be a Mean of your Conversion and drawing nearer to God That this may be the effect of what ye have heard is my earnest desire to God So that He may be as much Glorified in my Death as He has been Dishonoured in my Life Thus wishing the Lord to give you a true Repentance and saving Fath in Christ Jesus I shall conclude with the Publican in the Gospel God have Mercy upon me a poor Sinner John Eliot Post-script IN Regard of the wicked Practices of my Life and that I have had frequent Converse with debauched Company I think my self obliged lest there might be Mistakes to give you a brief Account of my Fath which is this I Believe God is and that in Commiseration of fallen Man Hesent the Son of his Love Christ Jesus in to the World who took upon him Humane Nature I do believe that he subjected himself to Death and by that Sacrifice made Attonement for all those that should sincerely believe in him I do also believe that