Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	believe_v	jesus_n	love_v	2,543	5	6.2190	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00643	The souls looking-glasse lively representing its estate before God: with a treatise of conscience; wherein the definitions and distinctions thereof are unfolded, and severall cases resolved: by that reverend and faithfull minister of the Word, William Fenner, B.D. sometimes fellow of Pembroke-hall in Cambridge, and late parson of Rochford in Essex.	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.; Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1640 (1640)	STC 10779; ESTC S101939	116,565	318

Ahab ●d a quiet conscience but onely when ●icaiah did preach Felix had a qui●conscience no doubt yet he trem●d to heare Paul preach of death and 〈◊〉 judgement Acts 24.25 One would we thought that Paul a prisoner ●ould rather have been afraid but ●ul had true peace of conscience and ●erefore he could think and speak of ●ath with great comfort and of judge●ent with joy So could not Felix Beloved this is a strong signe of a sa● peace when some points of Gods wo● lay us flat and bereave us of our hol● Ye shall have many say O they ha● such peace and they have such a good co●science as quiet as can be and as hea● whole as can be By and by a sou● searching point cometh and ransacke● them to the quick and they are go● I confesse they go and get some unte●pered morter or other and dawb 〈◊〉 their consciences again but they 〈◊〉 gone for the time This is a stro●● signe of a rotten peace But a child ● God can heare any point heare ● death of judgement of any thing co●teined in the word with delight a● comfort It is true he may be a●zed thereat but he is glad at heart t●● he heareth it and will make use of● be it mercy or judgement Sweet 〈◊〉 bitter points all are welcome to hi● even the bitterest points are sweet 〈◊〉 him because God and he are at peace● and therefore he knoweth there is 〈◊〉 news from God but it is good IV. If our peace of conscience 〈◊〉 good it will heal that base fearfulnesse ●hich is in many who dare not be in ●e dark dare not go through a ●urch-yard in the night Some will ●ake at the very shaking of a leaf as ●e wicked in Job Job 15.21 which is nothing ●t a guiltie conscience I grant this ●rfulnesse is naturall to some yet I 〈◊〉 the true peace of conscience will ●re it I do not say this is a recipro●ll signe of true peace of conscience ●r many wicked men may be bold ●ough but I say true peace of con●ence will cure this immoderate fear●nesse in the godly But here two questions are to be ask● I. Whether every true child of ●od that hath true peace of conscience ●n think of death with comfort and 〈◊〉 desirous to die Answ 1. Peace of conscience doth ●t take away naturall fear It is the ●ture of every living creature to be ve● fearfull of death The Philosopher ●lleth death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fear●llest thing of all fearfull things Bildad ●lleth it the king of terrours Job 18.14 Nature loveth its own preservation and therefor● feareth the destruction of it Peace o● conscience doth not take away all th● fear 2. Besides peace of conscien●● doth not take away alwayes all degre● of slavish fear of death The reason i● because peace of conscience may 〈◊〉 weak mixed with much troubles 〈◊〉 conscience For as faith may be ve● imperfect so peace of conscience m● be in some very imperfect Good o● Hilarion was very fearfull to die H● cried out to his soul when he lay on h● death-bed O my soul hast thou serv● Christ these fourescore years and art th● now afraid to die Again a mans lo● may be very imperfect 1. John 4.18 Perfect love i●deed casteth out fear but imperfe●● love doth not Hezekiah had pea● of conscience Remember Lord saith 〈◊〉 I have walked before thee in truth 2. Kings 20.3 〈◊〉 with a perfect heart Mark He had t● peace of a good conscience his co●science told him he had a sincere hea● and that his wayes pleased God y● he was afraid to die I do not think● was onely because he had no issu● though that might be some reason of it ● When a child of God is afraid to ●ie it is not so much for love of this ●ife as out of a desire to be better prepa●ed This made David cry out O ●pare me that I may recover strength Psal 39.13 be●ore I go hence and be no more And so ●ob Let me alone Job 10.20 21. that I may take com●ort a little before I go whence I shall not ●eturn These good men were then ●omething unwilling to die They ●ight have many reasons most likely ●is was one That they might be bet●er prepared and more fit and ready for ●eir departure 4. Some of Gods ●eople as these Job and David at ●ther times I say some of Gods peo●●e have such marvellous peace with ●od as that if it were Gods will they ●ad much rather die then live Phil. 1.23 I desire 〈◊〉 be dissolved saith Paul and to be with ●hrist which is farre better It may be ● regard of the church or the care of ●eir children and charge God hath laid ●n them they could be content to re●ain still in the body neverthelesse ●hey account their state after death much better and were it put to them whether to die or to live longer here they would choose death rather of the twain 1. Kings 19.4 Nay Elias requested for himsel● that he might die It is enough Lord● take away my life Not that they lov● death it self for death is evil in its ow● nature contrary to nature a badge o● sinne but for the love they have to an● the assurance they have of eternall lif● after death 5. Nay there is no chil● of God but may truly be said to lov● death and to love the day of judgement and the appearing of Christ Jesus Divines use to put this as a signe of God● children Nay the Apostle maketh thi● as a propertie of Gods children to lov● Christs appearing I have fought a goo● fight saith Paul I have finished m● course There he telleth us of his ow● peace and then he telleth us of his reward 2. Tim. 4.8 From henceforth is laid up for 〈◊〉 a crown of righteousnesse which the Lor● the righteous Judge shall give me in th●● day and not to me onely but to them also that love his appearing that is to al● his children For all the children o● God love the appearing of Jesus Christ to judgement Though all do not desire it with the same strength of faith ●et all desire it with faith They be●ieve that Christ hath destroyed him that ●ath the power of death Heb. 2.14 which is the de●il they believe Christ hath taken ●way deaths sting which is sinne 1. Cor. 15.56 57. and 〈◊〉 allowed death up in victory and may ●l say Thanks be unto God who hath gi●en us victory through our Lord Jesus ●hrist Neither do they so much que●on this as their faith to believe it ●ying Lord help our unbelief 6. Gods ●ildren have good reason to do so ●d to check their own hearts when●er they do otherwise Whenever any ●strust cometh they should check it ●wn again whenever any fear ari●h they should say What I fear ●●th which is a thing so precious Psal 116.15 Pre●us in the sight of the

How miserable is their case who want the peace of conscience in the time of distresse When troubles and afflictions are without then how grievous is it to want peace and comfort within When Gods mortall arrows are in your bodies then to have the arrow of his wrath sticking in your souls this will adde sorrow to sorrow and make your estate much more uncomfortable and unsupportable Beloved peace of conscience is good at all times but it is most precious when calamities fall on us Then to have the peace of a good conscience that may bring us good news from heaven that all is well within all peace there this is such peace as all the world cannot give nor sell nor buy Never more need of the peace of conscience then now M. M. As one said of the books of faith There be abundance of books written of faith buy them all up saith he ye will need every one of them ere long So may I say of whatever may forward the peace of conscience Buy it purchase it get it as much peace as you can possible ye will have need of it all ere long Take heed of troubling your consciences or clogging them with guilt lest the Lord cast you off and lest ye be hardned and so ye perish from the right way Do not think thus O we are believers and have no need of such threatnings He who is certain of his salvation knoweth assuredly he should be damned if he should go on in sinne without repentance This If is true enough Ezek. 18.26 If the righteous forsake his righteousnesse all his former righteousnesse shall be forgotten And Wo is me saith Paul 1. Cor. 9.16 if I preach not the gospel In the state of innocencie there was use of threatnings so is there now in the state of grace The Lord threatned Adam in innocencie If thou eat thereof thou shalt die the death Job was awed by threatnings not to lift up his hand against the fatherlesse for saith he Job 31.23 destruction from God was a terrour to me My flesh saith David trembleth for fear of thee Psal 119.120 and I am afraid of thy judgements Let us have grace saith the Apostle Heb. 12.28 whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Why for our God is a consuming fire For be it that Gods children that is all believers shall never fall finally away yet this threatning is one of Christs instruments whereby he keepeth them from falling and they also may tast of much bitternesse if they grow indulgent to their corruptions O therefore take heed of this curse that your consciences may not dog you with the guilt of sinne and the apprehension of Gods wrath You will never be able to bear it much lesse in the time of affliction O it is good being in a drie house when a great tempest is up and it is safe being in a good harbour when a storm beateth hard A good conscience is good at all times but O how sweet then When Jonah fell into affliction the want of peace in his conscience made him look upon his affliction as upon hell as though he had been in the belly of hell They who follow lying vanities forsake their own mercies saith he Mark his conscience dogged him with his fleeing from God and forsaking his own mercies Ye see he was miserably distressed by it till the Lord did deliver him Be charie then of conscience and get it purged that it may speak peace to you in trouble 4 Questions NOw I have declared unto you What a troubled conscience is What is the cause of it and wherein it consisteth How many degrees there be of it How the troubled conscience of the godly differeth from the troubled conscience of the wicked the miserie of a troubled conscience and What a deal of mischief it doth one especially in affliction now I should leave this point but that there be sundrie questions to be answered about it I. Suppose a man be rid of this trouble and have peace of conscience how shall he maintein it and keep out troubles from it II. Whether and how the peace of our conscience dependeth upon our care and obedience III. What manner of obedience it is that peace of conscience doth depend on IV. If a man have no peace but onely a burdened conscience what must such a man do to be freed from it and to attein true peace I. Question How a man may keep peace of conscience I begin with the first Suppose a man have peace of conscience what must he do to keep and maintein it I answer First We must labour to prevent troubles of conscience by taking heed that we do nothing contrarie to conscience We must not be drawn by friendship or credit or the love of any lust to do that which conscience forbiddeth Nothing should be so dear unto us as the peace of conscience nothing for the love of it should make us do ought against our conscience How miserable are those comforts delights satisfactions which we get to our selves in such courses as our own hearts do condemn However they seem comforts for a while and contentments for a while and delights for a while yet at last it will appear that miserable comforts are they all Nothing that we get in any evil way will chear and comfort us in a time of need What said Francis Spira at the time of his death when seeing his wife and children about him and thinking on the goods and estate which he had got for them by denying the truth which he had before mainteined against the Romish errours he cried out in the horrour of his conscience How terrible is the sight of these unto me However before they had been comforts to him yet now he could not endure the sight of them O thought he I recanted for your sake I yielded to superstition and it was long of you Therefore he abhorred now the sight of them Wretched is he that alloweth himself in any course which his conscience findeth fault with It is a good rule the Apostle giveth Rom. 14.22 Blessed is he that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth that is Blessed is he that hath not a condemning conscience that alloweth not himself in any course wherein his conscience doth condemne him So that if we have peace of conscience and desire to maintein it let us never allow our selves in any course that our conscience may condemne us in That is the first answer Answ 2 Secondly If we will maintein our peace we must labour to have our hearts grounded in the assurance of the love of God alas it will fail us else and leave us in trouble and perplexitie in time of greatest need Observe how the Apostle joyneth love and peace together 2. Cor. 13.11 The God of love and peace be with you If he be the God of love to us it is sure enough he will be the God of

peace also If we know once that God loveth us then we may set our hearts at rest As long as we doubt of his love our conscience can never have true peace And therefore if we would maintein true peace of conscience let us labour to be assured of Gods love Answ 3 Thirdly We must use the exercise of faith in applying the bloud of Christ we must labour to purge and cleanse our consciences with it If we find that we have sinned we must runne presently to the bloud of Christ to wash away our sinne We must not let the wound fester or exulcerate but presently get it healed As there is a fountain of sinne ●n us so there is a fountain of mercie ●n Christ Zech. 13.1 set open for Judah and Jerusalem and for every poore soul to wash ●n As we sinne dayly so he justifieth dayly and we must dayly go to him for ●t As every day we runne into new debts so the Lords prayer teacheth us every day to beg forgivenesse We must every day eye the brazen serpent Justification is an ever-running fountain and therefore we cannot look to have all the water at once A fountain ever runneth anew so justification ever floweth anew and we must go to it Christ is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec O let us sue out every day a dayly pardon of course Let us not sleep one night without a new pardon Better sleep in a house full of adders and venemous beasts then sleep in one sin O then be sure with the day to clear the sinnes of the day Then shall our conscience have true peace Object But how if I have relapsed what shall I do then Sol. I answer Every man that falleth doth not fall on all foure as we use to say he doth not fall quite There be degrees of falling As in a sick man though he be ill yet he is not by and by dead some life remaineth still which will look out towards health again so there is so much life in justification as to recover thee again Be constant therefore in this course Ever go to Christ ever wash in this fountain ever bring thy soul hither to be cleansed and then thy conscience ever shall have peace Answ 4 Fourthly If we would maintein our peace then let us labour to be constant in obedience to Jesus Christ Whosoever keepeth his word in him verily is the word of God perfected and hereby know we that we are in him 1. John 2.5 Mark Hereby our conscience may tell us that we are right and speak peace to us if we keep his word II. Question How the peace of our conscience doth depend upon our care and our obedience The reason why I raise this question is this Because as our justification is onely in Christ so our peace is onely in him how then doth the peace of our conscience depend on obedience The place of scripture that occasioneth the doubt is 1. Pet. 3.21 The answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ It is by Christ how dependeth it then on our obedience Answ 1. A good conscience doth not depend upon our obedience as the principall cause of it but upon justification which we have by Christ if we be in him Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Ye see then that our peace is grounded upon our justification as the principall cause of it If we should seek for peace from our works and obedience alas they are sinfull and defective there is no peace to be found in them Our conscience would be troubled at our best duties at our weaknesse in prayer our frailties in hearing our slips in every holy service There is nothing we do but our conscience might find fault with it and pick a hole in it and therefore we had need to flie unto Christ for true peace No wonder then that Papists have not true peace but professedly say that every man must doubt and no man can be sure of his salvation They must needs doubt indeed who trust to their own works which can never bring true peace The conscience must ever be quarrelling and finding of fault and be without peace if we trust to the best works So that this is the first answer All true peace dependeth upon justification by faith in Christ as the principall cause Secondly We answer That our peace dependeth upon our obedience in this sort that we can have no peace except we be given to obedience Those men that can sinne and yet be at peace were never justified in their lives A child of God when he sinneth as for example if he should be tempted to lie or to omit a good dutie which he knoweth he is bound to perform yet this would much trouble his conscience his soul would be ashamed his heart perplexed he would not know how to look the Lord in the face I have sinned what shall I do unto hee O thou preserver of men When David had sinned against God Psal 38.6 I am troubled saith he and I go mourning all the day long And therefore peace of conscience doth depend thus farre on obedience as that a man cannot have peace ●nlesse he be obedient and take heed of sinne and labour in all things to be up●ight before God Now if you ask me But how doth our peace depend upon our obedience I answer Dub. Sol. It dependeth upon obedience as the removing cause It removeth that which would hinder our peace Sinne would interrupt our peace now obedience removeth sinne To this purpose the Apostle speaketh 1. John 3.18 19. My little children let us not love in word and in tongue but in deed and in truth For hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before God Hereby we shall assure our consciences that we are in him if we take heed of hypocrisie If we love in truth and be obedient in truth we shall thereby remove all our doubts and our fears our troubles and perplexities of conscience So that peace doth depend on obedience as the removing cause It removeth that which otherwise would hinder peace This is the first Again our peace of conscience dependeth upon our obedience as the witnessing cause of it Obedience is one of the witnesses of true peace it witnesseth that we have peace with God 2. Cor. 1.12 This is our rejoycing even the testimonie of our conscience that in simplicitie and godly sinceritie we have had our conversation in the world See here it is the witnessing cause of it Paul had peace of conscience his conscience was able to make him rejoyce How Because it gave testimony that his conversation was godly and simple and gracious Though we be in Christ yet we can have no peace unlesse holy obedience doth witnesse the same Obedience is not the cause of the peace of our consciences before God