Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	commandment_n	lord_n	love_v	6,171	5	6.6762	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59766	The practical Christian divided into four parts. I. The practice of self-examination, and a form of confession fitted thereunto; the Lord's Praier and penitential Psalms paraphrased; with meditations, and praiers to be made partakers of Christ's merits. II. Directions, meditations and praiers, in order to the worthy receiving of the Holy Communion of the body and bloud of Christ. III. Meditations with Psalms for the hours of praier, the ordinary actions of day and night, with other religious considerations and concerns. IV. Meditations with Psalms--- upon the four last things; 1. Death, 2. Judgment, 3. Hell, 4. Heav[en.] The third and fourth parts make the second volume, formerly called the second part. By R. Sherlock D.D. Rector of Winwick.	Sherlock, R. (Richard), 1612-1689.	1677 (1677)	Wing S3243; ESTC R221137	111,932	313

merciful as he is merciful d 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Luke 6.36 For you hope in vain to see God in Heaven and enjoy him except you be God-like * Matt. 5.8 9. 3. Have you so hoped to enjoy the promises of God as to obey his precepts and be fruitful in all good works Hope in the Lord and be doing good f Psal 37.3 your hope is otherwise but a sinful presumption or the hope of the hypocrite that perisheth g Job 8.13 4. Hath not your hope in the mercies of God through the merits of Christ emboldned you to go on in any known sin unrepented of and banished grace out of thy heart IV. To fear God 1. Hath thy fear of God's Judgments equally balanced thy hope in his Mercies revering his justice and the direful threats and examples thereof in his Holy Word so as not to dare to sin against him Fear the Lord and depart from evil h Psal 4.5 Prov. 3.7 Phil 2.12 2. Have you not more feared to sin in the sight of men then in the presence of God more feared to displease man then to incur the displeasure of the Almighty more feared to lose thy credit amongst thy neighbours and companions then to hazard the loss of God's favour nor yet more feared the penalty of humane Laws then the threatnings of the Divine i Prov. 29.25 Isa 51.12 Luk. 12.4 5. 3. Hath thy Fear of God been rather filial viz. a fear to offend so gracious a Father then servile for fear of punishment But because we are commanded to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling k Phil. 2.12 examine whether the filial fear of God prevail in your heart and gather strength over the servile fear till at last it be quite cast out by perfect love l 1 Joh. 4.18 which is the next Duty in this Commandment injoyned V. To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all c. This Divine Love includes all these graces Matt. 22.37 38 1 Cor. 13.1 2 c. and all the particulars of the duties we owe unto God And because every man pretends to love God how falsely and deceitfully soever he think or say it therefore this Divine affection is to be strictly examined by these following Rules And 1. as thy Hope so thy Love of God is not sincere except thou be in some good measure conformed to his nature pure as he is pure just good gracious as God is so Eph. 5.1 2. Be ye followers of God as dear children and walk in love 2. If the will of God be the rule of thy will and moderatour of all thy affections Ps 97.10 Matt. 5.44 Luk. 14.26 loving what he loves hating what he hates even to the love of thine enemies and hatred of thy friends if in competition with the love of God 3. If the chief end of all your actions be to please God 1 Thess 2.4 Matt. 18.8 Matt. 10.37 more then to please your self or to pleasure any person how great and high how near or dear soever 4. Ps 122.1 Isa 2.3 Ps 27.4 Ps 42.1 2. Ps 71.20 c. Matt. 5.16 1 Pet. 2.12 If it be the joy of your heart to come into the House of the Lord to converse with him in holy prayers publick and private to contemplate his perfections and felicities so as to be inflamed with longing desires and affectionate breathings after him to glorifie him both with heart and voice both with your lips and in your life 5. If you be quick ready active Joh. 14.15 regular and constant in your Obedience to all his Commandments 6. If you long to have a more full enjoyment of God in the world to come Ps 63.1 2. 2 Cor. 4.18 and 5.1 2 3. and do not rather prefer a troublesome temporary abode in this life before the pleasures of God's right hand in the other By these Rules you may examine your self whether you love God in deed and in truth and not in conceit and verbally onely VI. To call upon God and give him Thanks In the habitual practice of the former Graces of the Spirit consists the worship of God in Spirit Joh 4.23 24. and they are all put in practice chiefly by holy Prayers unto God and Praises of him which is therefore the principal part of God's outward worship And Psal 50.23 1. Here examine how frequently you have slighted and omitted to call upon God being hereunto obliged Ps 134 2● Matt. 6.6 Ps 55.17 Eccl 11.6 both publickly in the congregation and privately in your closet morning and evening at least signified by the morning and evening sacrifice 2. How often hath any slight occasion and pretence made you neglect this indispensable duty of Prayer especially the publick prayers of the Church and have you not been secretly glad when any such occasion hath happened 3. Being come into the House of God have you not neglected to joyn in the prayers and service of God there celebrated and through ignorance and dulness or a sinful shame omitted to lift up your voice in the congregation Eph. 5.19 Ps 106.48 to praise the Lord in hymns and psalms and spiritual songs and audibly to say Amen to the prayers of the Church For 't is not the Minister's duty onely to pray and preach in the Church but in the Temple of the Lord doth every man speak of his honour Psal 29.9 4. Eccles. 5.2 Have you not been too rash with your mouth to utter any thing before God that is either unfit impertinent or unlawful to be asked but have first weighed all your words in the balance of the Sanctuary Hos 14.2 Matt. 6.9 and have framed all your prayers according to the pattern which our Lord hath given us both by his own prayer and the prayers of his Church 5. Have you prayed for others viz. all Superiours and relations of every 1 Tim. 2.1 kind and not onely for such as are your friends Matt. 5.44 but for your very enemies also 6. Have you first endeavoured to purifie your heart from all hypocrisie Jam. 4.8 and to cleanse your hands from all your actual sins by true repentance before you make your approaches to the most Holy God by prayer 7. Do you practise as you pray in the careful use of those means which God hath appointed James 1.6 7 8. to obtain your petitions 8. Do you daily praise God for his great glories in himself and give him thanks for his manifold graces Eph. 5.20 both general to all men special to his Church and people and particular to your self ●xpressed And do you shew forth the praises of God Matt. 5.16 not onely with your lips but in the good works of your life that others may be thereby excited to glorifie God also The Second Commandment Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image nor the likeness of any

with the Minister and the Congregation in publick Praiers and Praises of God in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs in Confessions Thanksgivings and Benedictions as wherein chiefly the service of God consists Behold now praise the Lord all ye servants of the Lord ye that by night stand in the house of the Lord even in the Courts of the house of our God Lift up your hands in the Sanctuary and praise the Lord b Psal 134.1 2. As for me I will worship towards thy holy Temple and praise thy name c Psal 138.2 Thirdly as to your Carriage and Demeanour in the House of God you are commanded Keep thy foot when thou goest unto the house of God d Eccles. 5.1 enjoyning thee 1. to beware of all light unseemly indecent and irreverent carriage and to shew Humility and Devotion in all the Gestures of thy Outward man bowing down thy self and kneeling before the Lord thy Maker * Psal 95.6 before him who made both thy Body and Soul and joyned them together that they might be joyned in his Service So worshipped the people of God the whole congregation bowed themselves with their faces to the ground f 2 Chron. 7.3 And so all good people resolve to doe We will goe into his tabernacle and fall low on our knees before his footstool g Psal 132.7 2. The foot of the Inward man must also and chiefly be kept upright in the House of God Thy Affections are the feet or motions of thy Soul these must be kept free from all secular Cares pure from all sensuall Lusts clean from all wanton wicked Inclinations yea from all Thoughts of any worldly concerns For ye cannot serve God and Mammon h Matt. 6.24 In the High-priest's forehead was engraven in a plate of gold Holiness to the Lord i Exod. 28.36 and every ordinary Priest was commanded to wash before he entred into the Sanctuary k Exod. 30.19 20. intimating that exact Purity and Holiness which is required of all both Priests and people when we approach the presence of the Lord in his holy Temple So saith the holy man of God Holiness becometh thy house O Lord for ever l Psal 93.5 and he resolves accordingly I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I goe to thine Altar m Psal 26.6 Be not slothfull and negligent averse and careless backward and tardy in coming to the Church for many and mischievous are the Consequents of coming late For 1. you rob your self of the opportunity of your private Praiers for a Blessing upon the publick 2. You lose the benefit of the publick Confession and Absolution which are of high esteem and value to all who are wisely Religious And 3. to deprive your self wittingly and willingly of any part of God's publick Worship is both a sin and a loss of so great an account as cannot easily be exprest or will be ordinarily believed Against such sinfull sloth and neglect endeavour to have imprinted in your heart the love of God's House and of his Service there performed Say with the man after God's own heart Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth o Psal 26.8 I was glad when they said unto me We will goe unto the house of the Lord p Psal 122.1 Our feet stand in thy gates O Jerusalem q Verse 2. 1. When you come to the Church-door Consider that you are now upon entrance into the Presence-chamber of the Great King of the world whose Throne of glory is in Heaven above but his Throne of grace in his Temple here below Say then within your self Surely the Lord is in this place How dreadful is this place this is none other but the House of God this is the Gate of heaven r Gen. ● 16 17. O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of hosts My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh rejoyce in the living God Yea the sparrow hath found her an house and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young even thine Altars O Lord of hosts my King and my God Blessed are they who dwell in thy House they will be always praising thee † Psal 84.1 2 3 4. And most happy were I could I both esteem it and make it my greatest joy and constant labour of love to praise the Lord in his Temple 2. When you are entred and View the Baptisterion or Font Give hearty thanks unto God for your Christendom that by holy Baptism he hath called you to the state of Grace and Salvation through Jesus Christ and humbly beseech God to give you his grace to continue in the same to your life's end by the religious observance of that Vow which was so solemnly taken in your name the which you must now perform that you forfeit not the great privileges rewards and honours of being a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Heir of the Kingdom of Heaven 3. When you view the Pulpit Remember how many good Lessons you have received thence the which not being carefully practised will rise up in judgment against you in the great Day of your Triall Resolve therefore for the future to be a Doer of the Word and not a Hearer onely deceiving your own self 4. When you look up towards the Altar say What reward shall I give unto the Lord for all the benefits he hath done unto me I will receive the Cup of salvation offer the sacrifice of Thanksgiving for my Redemption and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord in the sight of all his people in the courts of the Lord's house even in the midst of thee O Jerusalem Praise the Lord t Psal 116.12 13 14 18 19. Glory be to the Father As it was in the beginning 5. When you come to your Seat kneeling down pray I. Praier Let thy merciful ears O Lord be open to the praiers of thy humble servants and grant that what we ask faithfully we may obtain effectually through Jesus Christ II. Prayer O God forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts and more especially be assistent to us in all the holy actions of this day through Jesus Christ III. Prayer And since by reason of our Sins we are unworthy to offer up any Sacrifice to so pure a Majesty grant mercifull Lord both to me and to all thy faithfull people pardon and peace that being cleansed from all our Sins we may serve thee with a quiet mind through Jesus Christ Directions relating to some parts of the publick Worship AS soon as the Minister begins with the publick Worship all your private Meditations and Praiers must be waved and your mind applied to attend diligently and to joyn devoutly in

wills for the Will of God their own Fancies for Divine Illumination the love of themselves for the Love of God and the revelations of flesh and bloud for the Dictates of God's holy Spirit The mind of man saith S. Gregory doth often bely it self and conceits both in a good work to love what truly it loves not and also in an evill work to hate what throughly it hates not nor can such secret collusions of the deceitfull heart of man be throughly sifted and found out until the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed in that great day of a generall examination and triall 1 Cor. 4.5 2. As the end of every Religious action is to be examined whereby the equity or iniquity sincerity or hypocrisy is discerned so the care and caution fervour and devotion of the heart in its performance is to be considered Jer. 48.10 for Cursed is he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently When the heathen Priests offered Sacrifices to their false gods in the midst of their idolatrous Ceremonies an Herald cried unto them Age quod agis Be intent upon what you are about And 't is surely unreasonable to imagine that the all-seeing spiritual God or the God of the spirits of all flesh should be pleased with any worship or act of Religion where the heart is not wholly intent thereupon and devoted thereunto 3. After any holy action performed in publick examine your own thoughts whether they reflect not upon your own dextrous wit wisedom elocution zeal or holiness for any of which you may expect to be praised and extolled by men And though your heart be so upright as not to seek and hunt after popular applause yet if you be affected and delighted with the praise of men 't is not without some tincture of vain-glory 4. Have you not been so secure and conceited of your Religious performances as to lay your self the more open to after-temptations For the more fervent and frequent you be in holy actions the more earnest and forcible will be your temptations And these also shall the more easily prevail against you the more secure you think your self of the Divine grace and favour upon such or such Religious Duties conscienciously performed CHAP. VI. The Examination of Repentance HAving by all these particulars examined your self to find out your sins it will be necessary to try your Repentance also that the great Antidote against the poison of sin be not defective nor counterfeit And the first particular herein to be examined is the duty of Examination it self 1. Psal 26.2 Have you daily considered your daily offences duly weighed them and emptied them out of your heart by a full and particular Confession of them in the presence of God 2. Have you so deeply considered your sins in the stain and danger thereof as to beget in your heart true compunction 2 Cor. 7.10 and that godly sorrow for sin which worketh repentance unto Salvation not to be repented of 3. Luk. 11.24 Joh. 5.14 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. Hath not your Repentance been too often an hypocritical mocking of God by returning again to your sins repented breaking your promises of amendment in time of sickness danger and the like 4. Matt. 3.8 Hos 14.1 2. Dan. 4.27 Have you brought forth fruits meet for Repentance Such are 1. more frequent and hearty Devotions for your sins of ungodliness 2. Alms-givings for your sins of unrighteousness 3. Joel 2.12 Matt. 3.10 7.16 17. Fasting for your sins of Intemperance If the tree of Repentance bring not forth such fruits 't is neither lively nor likely to be accepted CHAP. VII Considerations with Directions in the Confession of Sin 1. HAving discovered the black stains and pollutions of Sin your Soul hath contracted in the strict Examination of your heart and life by the foregoing particulars with what other your own judgment and conscience may suggest unto you your next work must be to empty them all out of your Soul to cast them out with an abhorrence which is to be done by a particular and punctuall Confession of them all unto Almighty God in prayer Num. 5.6 7. Without such a sincere and through Confession of Sin Lev. 16.21 26.40 Prov. 28.13 1 Joh. 1.9 the Pardon thereof is not promised and therefore not likely to be obtained by a bare and naked Faith in Christ who very probably wil not pardon and forgive men their trespasses but upon his terms prescribed 2. 'T is not to be imagined that God therefore commands the Confession of Sins as if he were ignorant or unmindfull of any of our evill doings Psal 90.8 for he hath set even our most secret sins in the light of his countenance But hereby first in all humility we acknowledge our undeservings of the least of God's mercies which secondly Jos 7.19 Quando homo detegit Deus tegit cùm homo celat Deus nudat cùm homo agnoscit Deus ignoscit Aug. in Psal does magnify the glory of his grace and the greatness of his glory thirdly we discover our soars to our Physician and our wants of mercy to the Father of mercies our great needs of pardon to the fountain of goodness fourthly we declare our great obligations for pardon granted and mercy obtained fifthly our hearts are excited and our affections inflamed with the greater love of our dear Lord who died to merit so great a mercy sixthly the Confession of sin doth imprint in our hearts the deeper sense with an abhorrence of them and lastly being cordially done 't is an evident sign that we have abjur'd and forsaken them 3. But the outward confession of the mouth without the inward compunction of the heart is but the shell of Repentance without the kernell a carkass without a Soul to quicken it King David 1 King 15.5 Isal 6.6 for his onely Sin in the matter of Vriah every night washed his bed and in the day-time also he watered his couch with his tears Mary Magdalen also with her penitent tears washed the blessed feet of our Lord Luk. 7.38 and such must be a floud of tears and not a few drops onely S. Peter for one single sin Luk. 22.62 wept bitterly and 't is recorded of him that he never heard the cock crow through the course of his life but by a showr of tears he declared the sorrow of his heart for his offence And some of the Fathers have styled Repentance the Baptism of tears Clem. Alex apud Euseb as not to be exactly performed with dry eyes in an outward verbal Confession of Sin 'T is confessed that for sins of daily infirmity small peccadillo's and frequent failings through ignorance inadvertency the daily confession of sins saying devoutly as S. Augustine Forgive us our trespasses as we will be sufficient Quàm magnè deliquimus tam granditer defleamus Poenitentia crimine minor non sit Cypr. Serm. de Laps through

service of thy great Name And though thus and more ways then thus in more respects then I can possibly conceive or remember I have profaned thy Holy Name yet is thy Name called upon me and I do daily call upon thy Name I do therefore humbly beg For thy Name 's sake O Lord be merciful unto my sin for it is great Many of those Days and hours Sins against the Fourth Commandment times and seasons dedicated to thy Divine Worship publick and private have I profan'd and unhallowed making no difference either by my words or works betwixt Daies separate to the sacred Service of God and such as are left in common for the service of our selves I have too often absented my self from thy solemn publick Worship without sufficient cause and have too carelesly irreverently and indevoutly demeaned my self therein I have mis-spent much of the time assigned for holy Exercises in following my own private business satisfying my sensful lusts pursuing the pleasures and interests of this present world spending upon such daies in luxury riot and excess what might better have been laid out in Alms and Charitable uses The whole course of my life which thou grantedst me to be spent in thy service here that I might advance my hopes of Heaven hereafter I have foolishly thrown away upon my lusts and vanities continually grieving thy good Spirit quenching those sacred flames he hath enkindled in my breast never ceasing from the works of sin but daily labouring to destroy my hopes to keep a perpetual Sabbath in Heaven O God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my eyes to Heaven for mine iniquities are increased over mine head and my trespass is gone up unto the Heavens Sins against the Second Table of the Law O Most just and dear God Sins against the Fifth Commandment I humbly confess my self not onely to have broken the bonds of that love fear and service I owe unto thee but I have also transgrest my duty in all my Relations unto others I have been disobedient to my Parents Against Parents stubborn and disrespective in my carriage towards them I have sometimes secretly despised them in my heart and openly reviled them I have slighted their admonitions thinking my self too good to own them too wise to obey their commands I have not to the best of my power comforted and relieved them in their wants and weaknesses sorrows and sicknesses and I have too often wished for their death that I might enjoy their estate and follow the sway of my own corrupt humour and inclinations God be merciful to me a sinner I have not been careful Against Children either my self to instruct my Children or to see they were by others instructed in the Principles of holy and true Religion I have been more careful for their temporal then spiritual estate for the health of their Bodies then for the Salvation of their Souls not wisely admonishing discreetly correcting and seasonably reproving them and by my good example teaching them the ways of Truth and Holiness God be merciful unto me a miserable sinner Against the King I have been too disobedient to my Prince too censorious and malapert in traducing his Person and Conversation his Government and the Governours under his Majesty I have murmured to pay him Toll and Tribute and refused to obey many of his Laws and lawful Commands I had too deep a hand in the Rebellion against the late King of blessed memory by my many personal sins provoking the wrath of God by entertaining false opinions by believing and spreading lies and infamous stories God be merciful unto me a miserable sinner I have not made conscience to obey the Laws and Orders of thy Church Against the Church whether universal or particular not acknowledging or not submitting to the authority of either and am justly to be therefore rankt amongst Publicans and Sinners My Ghostly Fathers and the Ministers thereof in the several Orders of Bishop Priest and Deacon I have disbelieved disrespected disobeyed despised them in their Persons in their Callings in their Admonitions for my Soul's health And I have also detained diminished defrauded and grudingly paid the Dues of the Church God be merciful unto me a miserable sinner Amongst the Ministers of the Gospel I have had respect of persons being better pleased with a stranger then with my own lawful Pastour better pleased with the Factious and Schismatical then with the Orthodox and Regular Clergy better pleased with Preachers that tickle the itching ear then with such as feed the Soul with sound and wholsom Doctrine I have hated him that reproveth in the gate I have hardened my heart and refused when admonished to return from the Errours of my ways God be merciful unto me a miserable sinner Towards all my Superiours I have been too haughty and disrespectful Against all men in their relations and conditions both in my carriage towards them and speeches of them I have not honoured the aged and admonished the younger and less experienc'd Towards all men my deportment has been too churlish and ungentle not so meek and lowly not so courteous and affable as becomes the spirit of a true Christian I have been proud and vain-glorious stubborn and disobedient slighting contemning deriding others giving rash judgment but have been impatient my self of scorn or of a just reproof not enduring to be slighted and yet extremely deserving it God be merciful unto me a miserable sinner I have not ordered aright the members of my Family or my Servant Sins of Masters of Fandlies or Servants been too remiss in my care for their instruction and for their daily attendance upon the publick Worship of God preferring their attendance upon me and their service in my worldly concerns before the great concernment and interest of their own Souls Salvation in the service of thy Sacred Majesty I have detained or curtail'd their wages murmuring to give them their due provoked their spirits exacted too hard duty from them and too superciliously lorded it over them God be merciful unto me a miserable sinner I have oftentimes disobeyed And of Servants and murmured to obey my Master's commands I have not been so lowly and submissive in my demeanour towards him so just and honest in the management of his affairs as becomes a good and faithful Servant Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodness and according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences through Jesus Christ I have been hainously and frequently guilty of immoderate Anger Sins against the Sixth Commandment Immoderate Anger in the heart in word and deed been peevish and disquieted at trifles at slight miscarriages of others and inconsiderable accidents about me My Anger hath often swelled into wrath and fury broken out into bitter railing and cursing opprobrious speeches to such and such mindful of wrongs forgetful of benefits going to law with such and such