Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A44674
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A discourse of an unconverted man's enmity, against God Preached to a country congregation, by J.H. And publish'd by one who wrote it from his mouth.
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Howe, John, 1630-1705.
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1700
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Wing H3022; ESTC R215391
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18,256
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57
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innocent thing But this he remonstrates against takes notice of with dislike and displeasure and is counterworking this spirit of enmity not only by his word but by his spirit of love and power Though he doth not testify his displeasure by flames and thunderbolts yet he observes and approves not the course and current of their thoughts and affections though he permit them sometimes without sensible rebuke to run on long in their contempt of him yet he declares it to be wickedness The wicked have not God in all their thoughts Psal. 10. 4. He expostulates about it Wherefore do the wicked contemn God vers 13. threatens them with Hell for their forgetting him Psal. 9. 17. yet Sinners are apt to conclude that God doth not see or disallow any thing of that kind Psal. 94. 7. How unapt are they to admit any conviction of Heart-wickedness Tho' 't is more than intimated to be destructive Jer. 4. 14. Wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved q. d. thou art lost if thy Heart be not purged Yea when it is so plain in it self that enmity against God which hath its seat in the Heart makes a mans Soul a very Hell yet they seem to think themselves very innocent Creatures when they are as much devilliz'd as a mind dwelling in Flesh can be This is the common practical error and mistake men lie under that they think God takes notice of no evil in them but what other men can observe and reproach them for But he knows the inward bent and inclination of their minds and Spirits Why else is he called the heart-searching God And knows that this is the principal and most horrid wickedness that is to be found among the children of men an alienated mind from God and the root of all the rest The fountain of wickedness is within a man Simon Magus's wickedness lay in his thought 'T is said to him Repent of this thy wickedness and pray the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee Act. 8. 22. And when the Prophet exhorts as before Jer. 4. 14. to wash the heart from wickedness he adds how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee And our Saviour tells us Out of the heart first proceed evil thoughts and then all the other wickednesses after mentioned murthers adulteries c. Matth. 15. 19. And that enmity and alienation of mind that turns off the whole current of a man's thoughts from God is the original evil and by consequence lets them loose to every thing else that offends him and ruins themselves Yet when their very Hearts are such an Hell of wickedness as what is more hellish than enmity against God they are notwithstanding wont to say they have good Hearts 2. Hence see the absolute necessity of Regeneration A Doctrine at which most men do wonder which our Saviour intimates when he says Joh. 3. 7. Marvel not at it viz. that I said you must be born again But who may not now apprehend a necessity of being regenerate What will become of thee if thou diest with such a disaffected mind Godward Do but suppose your Soul going out of the Body in this temper full of disaffection towards the ever-blessed God before whose bright Glory and flaming Majesty to thee a consuming fire thou must now appear tho' most unwilling and as full of horrour and amazing dread How will thine heart then meditate terrour and say within thee This is the God I could never love whom I would never know To whom I was always a willing stranger whose admirable Grace never allur'd or won my Heart who in a day of Grace that is now over with me offered me free pardon and reconciliation but I was never at leisure to regard it The love of this world which I might have known to be enmity against God had otherwise engag'd me It hath been the constant language of my Heart to him Depart from me I desire not the knowledge of thy ways I must now hear from him that just and terrible voice even by the mouth of the only Redeemer and Saviour of Sinners Depart from me I knew thee not And into how hOrrid Society must I now go The things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard more glorious things than ever enter'd into the heart are all prepared for lovers of God And for whom can everlasting Fire be prepared but for the Devil and his Angels and such other accursed God-haters as I have been Matt. 25. 41. Recollect your selves consider the present posture and temper of your Souls and what your way and course is You care not to come nigh to God now but love to live at a distance from him through enmity against him from whence proceeds your departing from him and saying to him depart from us But another day you will have enough of departing from God A wicked man's life is nothing else but a continual forsaking of God or departing from him I appeal to your own hearts concerning the justice of that mentioned Repartee They say now to God depart from us Job 21. 14. And God will then say to them depart from me Matth. 25. 41. That man's Soul must thus perish that lives and dies at enmity with God Regeneration slays this enmity and implants in the Soul Divine Love Therefore we must be regenerate or we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 3 5. A man must have a new Heart and a new Spirit created in him in which Heart and Spirit the Love of God is the reigning principle And therefore I repeat to you the things which eye hath not seen and a crown of life are prepared and promised to them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. Jam. 1. 12. You may your selves collect the rest 3. Hence take notice of the Seat and Subject of this Regeneration and Change It is the mind of man For you were enemies in your minds by wicked works We are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds Ephes. 4. 23. To be transformed by the renewing of our minds c. Rom. 12. 2. You that have not considered what Regeneration is I tell you 't is to have your minds altered and changed That whereas you did not mind God or Christ your minds being changed you savour and delight in the things of God Rom. 8. 5 7. They that are after the flesh savour the things of the flesh The carnal mind is enmity against God It is the mind therefore not as speculative meerly but as practical and active that must be renewed Enquire therefore what change do you find in your minds Are you in mind and spirit more holy spiritual and serious And are your minds more delightfully taken up with the things of God than formerly Till your minds are thus changed they cannot be towards God but will be perpetually full of enmity against God You will only mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19 20. with the neglect of God and Heaven and heavenly things If ever the Gospel doth us good it must be by the change of our minds 4. And in the last place Hence understand the absolute necessity of Reconciliation with God because you have been alienated and enemies against him by wicked works Regeneration cures in part your enmity but makes no atonement for your guilt in having been enemies For this you need a Reconciler that could satisfy for you What will become of the man that is not reconciled to God If you be God's Enemy can he be your Friend And if God be your Enemy he is the most terrible Enemy How can we lie down in peace in an unreconciled state or without knowing whether we are reconciled or not Let not the Sun go down this day and leave you at enmity with God If you have fallen out with a man the Sun is not to go down on your wrath And is your enmity against God a juster or more tolerable thing O let not the Sun go down before you have made your peace And for your encouragement consider that it is the Office of the Son of God to reconcile you to him He is the Reconciler the Peace-maker the maker up of Breaches between God and Man He is if you resist not ready by his Spirit to remove the enmity that lies in your minds against God and by his bloud he causes Divine Justice to be at Peace with you If you find the former effect that assures you of the latter Bless God that he hath provided and given you notice of such a Reconciler 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself Bless God that he hath sent and settled one among you on this errand to beseech you to be reconciled to God vers 20. Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and blessed is the man who can say I was once an enemy but now am I reconciled formerly I saw no need of Christ but now I cannot live without him How fearfull a thing will it be to die unreconciled to God under a Gospel of Reconciliation While the voice of the Gospel of Grace is calling upon you Return and live Turn ye turn ye why will ye die beware of dying unreconcil'd under such a Gospel When you return hence retire into a corner and consider what a wicked enmity of mind you have had against God and Christ and pray that you may be renewed in the spirit of your mind Ephes. 4. 23. Let an holy Resolution be taken up at last after many neglects as was by the poor distressed Prodigal after he had long liv'd a wandring life Luk. 15. 18. and onward I will arise and go to my Father c. and you will find God a mercifull Father ready to receive you and with joy Oh the joyfull meeting between a returning Soul and a sin-pardoning God! When once your strangeness and your enmity are overcome and you are come into a state of amity and friendship with God then will the rest of your time be pleasantly spent in an holy humble walking with God under the conduct of Grace till you come eternally to enjoy him in Glory FINIS
us as little Why not as well on God as upon any of those vanities about which they are commonly employ'd 'T is a wonderful thing to consider how man is capable of forming a thought how a thought arises in our minds And how sad is it to a consider that tho' God hath given to man a thinking power yet they will not think of him God hath given to man a mind that can think and think on him as well as on any thing else My body cannot think if my mind and spirit is gone Though God gave man the power of thought yet men will not use or employ their thoughts otherwise than about vain or forbidden things God forms the Spirit of man within him hath put an immortal Spirit into him whence a spring of thoughts might ascend Heaven-wards When we have thousands of Objects to choose of we think of any thing rather than God! And not only turn this way or that besides him but tend continually downwards in opposition to him Yea men cannot endure to be put in mind of God The serious mention of his Name is distastful Whence can this proceed that a thought of God cast in is thrown out as Fire from one's Bosom whence is it but from the enmity of mind that is in man against God 4. It further appears hence That men are so little concern'd about the Favour of God Whomsoever we love we naturally value their love But whether God be a Friend or an Enemy it is all one to the unrenewed Soul if there be no sensible effects of his displeasure The men of this World only value its Favours The Favour of God they value not Whereas in his Favour is Life in the account of holy and good men Psal. 30. 5. yea they judge his loving-kindness is better than life without it Psal. 63. 3. When men shall go from day to day without considering whether God hath a Favour for them or not whether they are accepted or not whether they have found grace in his eyes or not c. What doth this declare but an enmity of mind and alienation from God If men had true love for God it could not be but they would greatly value his love 5 That men do so little converse and walk with God doth speak a fixed alienation of mind and enmity against God Walking with God includes knowing and minding him but it adds all other motions of Soul towards him together with continuance and approving our selves to him therein Now agreement is required to walking with God Amos 3. 3. Can two walk together unless they be agreed Hos. 3. 3. Men walk not with God because they are not come to an agreement with him God's agreement with us and ours with him is that we may walk together If we walk not with God it is because there is no agreement and what doth that import but an alienation of mind from God Says God I would not have you live in the World at so great a distance from me I would walk with you and have you walk with me and for this end I would come to an agreement with you But Sinners will not come to any agreement with God and thence it comes to pass that they walk not with God they begin the day without God walk all the day long without God lye down at night without God and the reason is because there is no agreement and that denotes enmity Especially considering 6. That daily converse with God would cost us nothing To have any man's thoughts full of Heaven and full of holy fear and reverence of God c. which is included in walking with God what inconvenience is in this what business will this hinder when a man goes about his ordinary affairs will it do any hurt to take God with him No business will go on the worse for it it will not detract from the success of our affairs 1 Cor. 7. 24. Let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God Let your state be what it will there can be no business in this World but what you may do with God as well as without God and much better 7. Which makes the matter yet plainer How uncomfortably do men live in this World by reason of their distance from God and unacquaintedness with him Job 35. 10. But no one saith where is God my maker who giveth Songs in the night They choose rather to groan under their Burdens alone than cry to God their maker as at the 9th Verse of that Chapter When men will endure the greatest extremity rather than apply themselves to God what doth this resolve into but enmity against God 8. That men do so universally disobey God bespeaks alienation and enmity of mind As Obedienc proceeds from Love so Disobedience proceeds from Enmity And for this I shall only instance in two great Precepts wherein the Mind and Will of God is exprest which I mention and insist upon tho' briefly as things that concern the constant and daily practice of every Christian. 1. A course of Prayer to God in secret 2. And having our Conversation in Heaven How express are both these Precepts in the same Chapter the former Matth. 6. 6. the latter vers 19 20 21. Now consider whether our disobedience to these two Precepts do not discover great enmity in our Hearts against God What to refuse to pray and pour out our Souls to him in secret To refuse placing our Treasure and our Hearts in Heaven what doth this signify but aversion and a disaffected Heart Let us consider each of them severally and apart by it self We are a Christian Assembly How should it startle us to be any of us convicted of enmity against God under the Christian Name in two so plain cases 1. For Prayer 't is a charge laid upon all persons consider'd in their single and personal capacity Matth. 6. 6. But thou when thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret I fear that most of them who bear the Christian Name carry the matter so as if there were no such place in the Bible When the mind and will of God is made known to us by his Son who came out of his Bosom that he will be sought unto and that not only publickly but secretly and daily that as we are taught by our Lord himself to pray for our daily Bread and the forgiveness of our daily trespasses we are also to pray in secret to him that sees in secret Can such commands be constantly neglected and disobey'd and not signify the contrary bent of our will especially when we consider that it is enjoyned us for our own good It would be profane to say what profit is it to us to call upon the Almighty But it is most justly to be said what profit is it to the Almighty that we call upon him It is honourable to him but very profitable to our selves