Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	call_v	heart_n	lord_n	3,290	5	3.5363	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59621	Antapologia, or, A discourse of excuses setting forth the variety and vanity of them, the sin and misery brought in by them, as being the greatest bar in the way to heaven, and the ready high way to hell : being the common snare wherein most of the children of men are intangled and ruined / by Jo. Sheffield ...	Sheffeild, John, d. 1680.	1672 (1672)	Wing S3061; ESTC R11053	145,253	322

Eccles 11. 8. His Silence Psal 50. 21. His Mercifulnes Deut. 29 19. Riches of Goodness Rom. 2. 5. His Grace Rom. 6. 1. His Preservations Jer. 7. 10. We are delivered to do all these abominations His Denyals or dipleasure 1 Sam. 28. 15. The Lord doth not answer me I hold my self disobliged from seeking farther after him The Lord doth not remove this Plague I am therefore disobliged from further waiting on him 2 Kings 6. ult May we not therefore seeing it is of such a poysonous nature that it sucks poyson out of every thing say that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of measure sinful And I may add one thing more Nothing doth more harden men in sin keeping them from Repentance keeping them that have once sallen from arising and causing them that once turn back to slide back by perpetual back-slidings to hold fast Deceit and Jerem 8. 4 5. 8. refuse to return no man once saying what have I done but spurred on by these Excuses rushing into Sin as the Horse into the Battel 3. Some Uses of Information 3. Uses for info●mation 1. This may inform us what a shifting Creature Man is full of Shifts and Excuses you know not Proteus like where to have and how to hold him It is so hard a matter to fasten a Conviction upon him harder to take him off from his false bottoms so many Mazes Muses and Meanders windings and turnings that it is hard driving them out of them all See it in Pharaoh when God first sent to let Israel go his answer was I know not that it is the Lord then requires a Miracle to Ex. 5. 2. prove it Exod. 7. 9. Aaron throws down his Rod it becomes a Serpent then is he half perswaded But when he saw the Magicians do the like he is off again v. 13. So was he coming and going again about the Waters turned into Bloud v. 22. But when the Frogs were in his Chamber and croaking in his Bed you would have thought you had him fast Intreat the Lord to take away the Frogs and ye shall go Exod. 8. 8. The Frogs are no sooner gone but he is gone too When the Plague of Flyes came then Israel should go again Verse 25. When they were gone Israel must not stir Verse 32. Thus he dealt fast and loose with God Sometimes you hear him relenting after repenting of his Repentance sometimes praying anon saying his Prayers backwards One while he sends for Moses and intreats his Prayers and seems stricken Exod. 9. 27. At another time sends for him in all haste and prayes and promiseth fair and asks God and them forgiveness Exod. 10. 16. 17. Yet though this great Fool was ten times in the Mortar of Affliction his Folly departed not from him At first he would not yield at all Exod. 5. 3. After a little Chap. 8. 28. they should go but not so far Chap. 10. 11. They might go now as far as they would so their Wives Children and Cattle staid At last when he could no longer will nor chuse then go serve the Lord as ye have said and take all with you Herds and Families and b●ess me also Exod. 12. 32. How many shifts had Saul ere he would come to say I have sinned 1 Sam. 15. The world is more full of shifts than any thing else So that to those three things which posed the wise Man that he said he could not find them out The way of a Ship in the Sea of an Eagle in the Ayr of a Serpent on a Rock Prov. 30. 19. We may add a fourth hardest of all to be found out The way of a Man with his Excuses From hence it is that the work of Conversion is so difficult hence that the work of the Minister is never at an end This made the wise Man say He Prov. 11. 30. that winneth Souls is wise is the man of a thousand and hath learned the Art of Arts. Man is so sly and subtle a Creature and so full of shifts and put-offs that as it is an endless Task to reason Children out of their Will when they are ill of Worms perswade them to take any thing to do them good they had as lieve dye almost as take it shew him the Aloes oh it is bitter now his Worms gnaw not he is well now or give him any thing else then if ill again he will but not yet to morrow or anon but not yet then not so much half that quantity then he looks many a sad look upon it and takes a little when he sees there is no remedy and when he hath it down is ready to cast it up again So is it with many men as to their Souls to take any thing that may do them good to purge out Sin by Repentance how many Put-offs How many Pleas How many Delayes How many four Faces which shews they had as lieve dye almost as repent and live Or they will only take a little as one saith upon a Knives point or at the point of Bp. Andrews Death 2. This gives us an account why there is so little true Grace and so few real Converts in the world so little Repentance Faith Obedience and Sincerity the Reason is there are so many Excuses As he said once To will is present to perform is another thing out of my power so may most say To Excuse is present but to perform is out of my Endeavour and Desire they never go about it Hence the misery of man is great upon him And Issachar-like for Laziness and present Ease he chuseth rather to lye under the two heaviest burthens of Sin and Wrath then to be eased of both by using a strenuous endeavour in right use of Means An Excuse costs little but any course of Piety asketh Cost E. g. Repentance requireth Confession Contrition Humiliation Mortification Reformation Prayer calleth for Watchfulness Sobriety Faith Reverence Fervency Frequency Holiness Obedience Charity uprightness of Conversation Obedience that again calls for the Heart Spirit Faith Fear Love Diligence Care Conscience Patience Constancy Proficiency Perseverance As for Faith that is to be grounded on the Promises and maintained by studying them eying Precepts Conditions Threats frequent Prayers and by a constant course of obedience and sincerity of Heart Sincerity likewise calls for much Inspection of our Hearts Examination of our Wayes and State much eying of God searching the Scriptures observing our selves avoiding of sins and occasions of Sin performing Duties close and strict walking with God and according to his word Now all these require cost and pains which the lazie person thinks may be well spared by this commodious and easie way of Excuses 3. See the folly and falshood of that common Proverb A bad Excuse is better than none at all We may invert it and say Better no Excuse than the best of them all which make men double guilty by adding sin to sin and sinful Evasions and Excuses to

Courtship Swaggering Gallantry Q●arrelling Manhood Ribaldry Urbanity Fallit enim vitium sptcie virtutis umbra Juven Drunkenness Good-fellowship c. That as Physicians gild over their Pills to cover the bitterness of the Ingredients so do these gild over their Sins and so they are more easily swallowed down But though the Physician hath put upon many Diseases specious Names and calls a Plague-Sore a Carbuncle and the white filme which taketh away the sight of the Eye a Pearle Yet who can be brought saith a late learned Doctor by such slender Dr. Spurflow in his Meditations Artifices into Opinion That a Carbuncle is less loathsome or mortal then another swelling which hath not so gay a name or that that blindness which is caused by the Pearle in the Eye is more comfortable then the loss of sight by any other accident There is a sad Woe pronounced to both of these Woe to them that call Evil Good and Good Evil that put Esay 5. 20. Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness Sweet for Bitter and Bitter for Sweet CHAP. VI. Excuses taken from certain Doctrines and Scriptures misunderstood and Observations ill applyed THere are others yet behind and too Doctrines misapplyed many that think themselves safe and excusable by many Doctrines and Scriptures misunderstood and misapplying sundry Observations they have made As first That great and mysterious 1. That of Election Doctrine of Election and Reprobation which is indeed of that altitude and depth that as those waters in the Sanctuary there is no wading through or passing over them without that Reason-silencing and abrupt admiration of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh the amazing Depth and riches of the Rom. 11. 33. Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out yet how do many argue from this Doctrine If I am elected I am safe though I do nothing Election will take his effect and I shall obtain On the other side if reprobated all endeavours are of no effect for God's Decrees cannot be frustrated I shall unavoidably perish But I Answer Who taught thus to reason Thy business is not to pry into God's secret will but attend his revealed and thy own duty Secret things belong to God things revealed to us Deut. 29. 29. And first For Election know there is no such absolute Election as to be exclusive of the means but doth include and imply all the Cum predestinatio ad finem includit media non potest hunc sperare qui negligit ista Prideaux wayes and means preparing for glory as effectual Calling Faith Repentance holy Obedience See Ephes 1. 4. God hath chosen us before the Foundation of the World that we should be holy and without blame before him in Love So 2 Thess 2. 13. God hath chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth As there is no such absolute Promise of Harvest and Fruitfulness exclusive of man's industry and endeavours in ploughing and sowing but the means are included in subordination to the end 2. And as for Reprobation not to wade Deus ordinans ad paenas propter peccata non est magis injustus quam cum paenas infligit propter peccata Paraeus into the Controversie It will be acknowledged to be as just in God to decree to punish men for Sin as to inflict the punishment when the Sin is committed As it is the same justice in the Magistrate to Enact such a Penalty for such an Offence as to execute it after the Offence committed God punisheth none but for Sin nor doth decree to punish any but such in whom he findeth Sin unrepented of 2. As for thy Reprobation look not into this Abyss neither cast thy self from this Pinacle But study thy duty which is to work out thy Salvation with fear and trembling 3. Be assured no man can know himself or any other to be a Reprobate though some may have assurance of their Election Because 1. God can call and change the heart of the most wicked man at the last hour 2. All God's Elect were sometimes Children of wrath as well as others Ephes 2. 3. 3. And some of God's own Children have fallen sometimes into most foul sins and sometimes layen long in sin 1 Cor. 6. 10 11. Tit. 3. 3. 4. Therefore it is not God's secret Decree thou shouldst so much fear and startle at as thy own Sin and Disobedience which is that which prepares the Vessels of wrath to their destruction As Rehoboam had no reason 1 Kings 12. 13. to say There is a fatall Decree that my Kingdom shall be rent from me therefore all is one what course I take or whose counsel I follow but he should have hearkened to the Counsel of those ancient men and trusted God with his Crown Nor could Zedekiah say There is a fatall Doom on Jerusalem that it shall be sacked and burnt to ashes But he should have hearkened to Jeremy who besought him to Jer. 38. 20 23. yield to the Caldean assuring him then all should be safe Otherwise saith he not God's Decree or Sentence denounced but thou will set Jerusalem on fire A second Doctrine abused is That all Doct. 2. That all are Sinners are Sinners and there is none Righteous no not one Both branches are true the first is affirmed 1 John 1. 8. The other Rom. 3. 10. But what then therefore sayst thou I may do well enough though a vile Sinner and be saved though not so righteous and religious as some seem to be But mark there is a great difference between Sin and Sin All indeed are guilty of Original Sin and all of years of Actual But all are not Sinners alike some are obstinate wilful presumptuous desperate Sinners that make a mock of Sin a trade of Sin Prov. 14. 9. Prov. 4. 17. It is their Meat and Drink Others are humbled trembling penitent mourning reforming believing self-abhorring Sinners who watch pray resist Sin shun the occasions of it What is this to thee who goest on in sin Their's are Gnats thine Camels Their 's Moats thine Beams There are certain Sins one may call them the spots of God's people and have not excluded them Salvation As first 1. It is not sin remaining in the Regenerate but sin reigning in the Unregenerate that damns else what had become of Paul Rom. 7. 18. 2. Not sin loathed but loved what else had become of the Publican Luke 18. 3. Not sin bewailed but cherished what had else become of Peter 4. Not sin faln into but continued in what had else become of David 5. Not sin resisted as Joseph but pursued and persisted in as Ahab and Jeroboam 6. Not of Ignorance but Presumption else what had become of Noah 7. Not against Resolution as Peters but resolved on as Judas's 8. Not out of infirmity and fear as Abrahams but of design and premeditated

for us to say with David if we respect our own desert but when the Lord makes his Promise we may embrace it and desire he should make it good saying Though this is not the manner of men yet is alwayes the manner of God Thou art worthy is only a Note fit for the Song of the Lamb Merit is a Rev. 5. 9. strange word in Heaven never heard there of any Saints only Christ's Merits When the Proclamation was made Who is worthy to open the Book in the Angels hand and to unloose the Seals there was not any stood up nor one found worthy but the Son of God Nor is there Man or Angel now in Heaven worthy of that Celestial Glory they there injoy The Angel holds his station there of free Grace Men by Mercy neither by Merit The Angel by Donation Man by Condonation 4. Some again do sometimes in a sad 4. Sad and fixt misgiving of mind manner lie down under their Burden and say with the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 10. 19. It is my burden my hard lot and I must bear it and thereupon give up the Forts of Faith and Hope and give all for lost and themselves too by intertaining immovable invincible and pertinacious misgivings of mind with which they are possest having sad apprehensions of themselves and dreadful misapprehensions of God being at the same time possibly overwhelmed with Distress over-gone with Melancholy over-come with Impatience tyred out with a short wayting fiercely and furiously assaulted by Satan and deserted of God and then as men swallowed up of sorrow are ready to cry out Vicisti Satana Thou hast over-come Satan This is thy hour and power of darkness and there is no perswading them to the contrary A sad and doleful case yet in some such like seemed the Psalmist to be in that dark night of his desertion when in a disconsolate manner he sighed out That his Sore his anguish of Spirit ran all night and Psal 77. 2. ceased not and his Soul refused to be comforted And then did he reason as if he had no Faith at all That God had cast him off forgotten him yea almost forgotten himself forgotten to be gracious which is all one and both alike impossible and impious to conceive And then there is no speaking to such at all but they will reply to all that seek to satisfie and perswade them Esay 22. 4. Look away from me labour not to comfort me And no other reason is to be expected they will not believe because they will not In this temper or distemper rather was Thomas who when all the Apostles said They had seen the Lord positively Replyed I will believe none of you all I must see a sign and put my hands in his side or I will not believe wilful Thomas holy Bradford might well call him In the like plight was that distressed Mrs. Honywood Mrs. Bretergh and Mr. Glover of whom I spake before We have a saying Dolores leves loquuntur Ingentes stupent Lesser Griefs have Tongues and vent themselves but the great amazing Griefs convert men into stocks and stones they have neither Eyes nor Ears nor Sense nor Reason nor any thing But as in the first Chaos darkness covers the face of the deep and all darkness is hid in their secret places as it is Job 20. 26. till God speak Peace and say Let there be light Thus it was with Israel when stunned with Grief and Oppression they would not receive any Message from Moses no nor from God He spake to them but they would not hearken unto him for anguish of Spirit and for cruel Bondage Exod. 6. 9. 5. Carnal reason makes many Exceptions 5. Unlikely means against Divine Precepts and Promises from the improbability and incongruity of the means Thus Naaman excepts against 2 Kings 5. 10 11 12. washing in Jordan for Cure of his Leprosie why not in Abana and Pharpar He expected some more extraordinary matter the Prophets Touch or Prayers and goes his way dissatisfied till upon better consideration This the most common and universal bar to the Faith of the World Both Jews and Gentiles have stumbled at this stumbling stone The one required a Sign the other call for Wisdom To both a Christ crucified and Faith in a God 1 Cor. 1. 22. made Man and more humbled and abased then ever mortal was seems an absurd and irrational Article of Faith And to this day the Jew can't get this Beam out of his Eye nor this Vail off his Face nor the wiser World to whom the Wisdom of God goes for foolishness get over this stumbling-block Now we may take notice that God all along delights to make use of contemptible means to atchieve the greatest ends The weak things of the World to confound the mighty the foolish to confound the wise That all glory may redound to the Supreme Author and no part of it stick to the Instrument Quid Philosophiae Theologiae Quid Hierosolymis Athenis Tertull. The Worlds Wisdom is this greatest Enemy to Divine and the whole business of Faith and that upon the account of the unlikeliness of the means What makes the Papist stand up so much for Merits and stick so fast to a Righteousness of Works but his mean Opinion he hath of Faith What makes so many among us have so little esteem of the Preachers and preaching of God's Word but the mean esteem they have for the calling of the one and of the efficacy of the other 6. Present Providences being cross to 6. Present Providences unlike former Presidents former Presidents is a great Remora and rub in the way to the Faith of many for relying upon God in time of distress This we may see in Gideons Reply to the Angel who came and said to him The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of Valour He demurs and replies If the Lord be with Judges 6. 12 13. us why then is all this befaln us And where be all his Miracles which our Fathers told us of saying Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt But now the Lord hath forsaken us and sold us into the Hands of the Midianites q. d. Israel of old was wont to have God's presence manifested to them by his marching before them with a victorious Hand and stretched out Arm But now we see not our Signs There is no more a Prophet Moses how can we think other then that God hath forsaken us Thus would weak-sighted and short-spirited man prescribe and tye up God to o●e constant method not being able to reconcile God's chastening his people to his owning of them or to read his Love in any other thing then outward Prosperity or speedy deliverance nor doth Distress signifie any other to them then Rejection But as sometimes the Lord creates a new thing in way of Judgment Numb 16. 30. So again sometimes in way of Mercy he leads his people by unknown Paths Esay 42. 16.