Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	day_n	heart_n	know_v	2,574	5	3.3365	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66791	A triple paradox affixed to a counter-mure raised against the furious batteries of restraint, slander and poverty, the three grand engines of the world, the flesh, and the devil / by major George Wither ...	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1661 (1661)	Wing W3202; ESTC R12397	41,069	82

Word by meditation To exercise my self may set apart The time they dedicate and both my heart And my best Faculties employ that day In preaching somewhat to the world my way Which will advance GOD's glory and improve My Brethren in good life hope faith and love Or that prepare which thereunto may tend When Daies and Times with me will have an end And GOD I know confines not Saving Graces To ordinary Means Forms Times or Places Nor is displeased when his services Endeavour'd are without contentiousness As we are able and with upright heart Though of our duties we may fail in part Some other Notions which in this estate Are apprehended I might now relate Which further may illustrate those mis-haps That man by an Imprisonment escapes But they are Trifles to what I possess In my constrained Solitariness For though it be not what I might have chose Had I been left unto mine own dispose It proves much better and for that respect What I most naturally do affect I dare not absolutely to request Much less make choice of but to him that best Knows what 's best for me wholly have resign'd Both mine own self and things of ev'ry kind 'T is he who hath assign'd this lot and all What ere it be which thereby doth befall And this Restraint not only makes him dearer To me but also to him draws me nearer So that the more my troubles do increase The nearer unto him is my access He fortifies my confidence in him And heartens me the World thus to contemn As boldly as if doubtless cause there were For her to fear me more than I fear her I have my fears but they are nothing else Save what Perdues and Scouts and Centinels Are to an Army they do not dis-heart A valiant Souldier though they make him start At first Alarm but cause him to prepare For those assaults which nigh approaching are When I am judged in an undone-case Because confin'd in wants and in distress When all my outward Comforters are gone And I lie musing on my bed alone Of what I knew before or heard that day Of what my Friends fear and my Foes do say What men they are who seem with me offended What is already done and what intended Sometimes a little shuddring doth begin As if a panick-fear were breaking in Which he marks ere to me it doth appear Forthwith steps down betwixt me and that fear Supplies defects expelleth doubts and sadness Replenisheth my heart with sober gladness About me sets his Angels watch to keep And as to his beloved gives me sleep These things considered Prisons and Restraints Which have been long the portion of the Saints Are not alone things little to be fear'd But also many times to be preferr'd Before those Liberties and all those things That can be found in Palaces of Kings What ere their flatterers are pleas'd to say By fruitless hopes to drive their fears away For more are there endanger'd more destroy'd There many times is less content enjoy'd Less outward safety and a great deal less Of what conduceth to true happiness Than in a Prison And who ere well heeds What there is done and what thereon succeeds Will finde cause their condition to bewail Sometimes much more than his that 's in a Gaol For errors flowing from Prosperity Indanger more because unseen they lie Men may by their Afflictions be prepar'd For whatsoere can follow afterward And are oft fitted by a lingring grief For future happiness in death or life But while corrupted by excessive Treasures Befool'd with honours and bewitch'd with pleasures The cause of self-destruction still they nourish They grow as brutish as the beasts that perish And daily so besotted by degrees That sense of their humanity they leese So long dream they are GOD's or somewhat greater Till they are Devils or but little better And suddenly when they think all goes well Sink from supposed Happiness to HELL Most men yea very many of the best Their Talents till they Palm-like down are prest Improve not nor their Duties truly do Till by Afflictions they are whipt thereto A Prison was long time the School wherein Chast Ioseph those progressions did begin Which him forth from obscurity did bring To be the second person to a King Ionas was not obedient to GOD'S Call Till he both by a Storm and by a Whale Was disciplin'd And if I had a thought My duties were performed as they ought In any thing affirmed it should be That thereto my Afflictions fitted me For such like Simples as I am require To make them yield forth Oyl the Press or Fire My Flinty-nature gives not out one spark To light my self or others in the dark Till knockt with Steel This knowledge I have gain'd Of mine own temper and it is unfain'd To be imprison'd slander'd or made poor Shall therefore henceforth frighten me no more Nor make me whilst I live asham'd of either Of those three Lots nor of them altogether Priests Prophets Kings and Saints yea whilst abode He made on earth the glorious Son of GOD Was pleased to submit to all of them But to the latter two in an extream And with such Company I le undergo My share and think I 'm thereby honour'd too To this effect much more might here be said But this will be sufficient if well weigh'd Which I suspect for very few men heed Or mind long what they hear or what they read SLANDER is more Beneficiall than PRAISE WHo can express the pain of being stung With such a fiery Serpent as the TONGUE Or what can cure it but his being ey'd Whom once the Brazen Serpent typifi'd 'T is far more sharp than Arrows Darts or Spears Down to the heart it pierces through the ears Not only wounds but frighteth also more Than murthring Canons when they loudest roar Afflicteth us whilst here we draw our breath And Gangreeve-like so spreadeth after death Ev'n to posterity upon our Names That it destroys the life of honest Fames This sury SLANDER hath been quarter'd long In Rotten-Row and Hart-street at the Tongue Her Magazeens and Forges are all there The Shop at which she vents them is the Ear In ev'ry Town and City and no places Or persons her aspersions and disgraces Can long avoid For ev'ry where she scatters That shot wherewith the Forts of Fame she batters So venemous it is that every touch Proves mortal or indangers very much And nothing shooteth more impoysoned pellets Except it be the flatteries of Prelates I must confess that many years ago I therewith have been often wounded so That very well content I could have been To lye down where I might no more be seen And my stupidity is not yet such As not to feel indignities as much As any man But I have learned how To change my Sicknesses to Physick now And when the world intendeth me a shame By retroversion to convert the same To that which from be spattrings purifies And

I have been distrest As I now am and three times at the least Have had repair vouchsafed mee by GOD In such an extraordinary mode That many did admire at my supply As very well they might for so did I. And when it seasonably may be shown The manner of it will perhaps be known At this time that which many did suppose Would mee ere now have ruin'd on my foes Hath cast a bridle and will keep mee from What they intend until my hour is come And peradventure then restrain them too From acting all that they intend to do That which both my Estate and Reputation Should have destroyed is my preservation Another away and an advantage brings In better and more profitable things For Slanders gain mee credit that doth glad mee Which was intended to deject and sad mee That which pursued is to make mee poor Makes my wants less and my contentments more And as if GOD had purpos'd to bestow A sign upon mee plainly to fore-show That those Afflictions and abhorred places Which add to others torments and disgraces Should comfort mee when common comforts fail NEW GATE suppos'd an ignomineous Jaile To mee hath as it were a Patroness Contributed releef in my distress Perhaps from some of them whose pressures were Either as great or greater than mine are Which as I am obliged to GOD's praise I do and shall acknowledge all my daies To be an action which doth signifie A greater Mercy than that bare supply For it informs and well assureth mee A Prison shall no dammage bring to mee And that those places which make many poor Will make mee richer than I was before These things I thus express that others may Perswaded be I do not write or say What I have read or heard or whereof I Have no more in mee save the Theory And knowing this which into words I spin Flows forth from what is really within And by experience learn'd it might effect That operation which I do expect Most men suppose them signs they are beloved Of GOD and all their waies by him approved How negligent soe're of his commands When outward things do prosper in their hands They count them marks of his especial Grace If their Cows casts not Calf if he doth bless Their Oxen if their flocks of Sheep increase If none doth in their persons them oppress If their new-purchas'd Titles be made good If by their Trades and Rents they to their Brood May leave great Portions if they may at Court Finde favour and if blessings of this sort Be multiply'd upon them they suppose God is their Friend and foe unto their foes Indeed these blessings are But signs to mee Of GOD's especial Grace these rather be That when of Land and Goods I am bereft And no external comfort seemeth left I can depend on him and be more glad In his love than in all that e're I had That I am freely justifi'd by him In that for which the world doth mee condemn That I perceive he deigneth mee releef By that which usually augmenteth grief And that when most inrag'd oppressors are Of their displeasure I am least in fear That things which threaten troubles to prolong Till they are helpless make my faith more strong My fear as little whilst the Fight doth last As at the Triumph when all danger 's past And that their waies who do most malice mee Neither the waies of GOD or good men be These things are of GOD's love a truer sign Than an increase of Corn of Oyl and Wine And I do smile to think how like poor slaves They will e're long sneak down into their graves Who make false boast of GOD when they with shame Shall know that by their spight I better'd am And when my Country hears the next Age tell How mee they us'd who alwaies lov'd it well What better men have suffer'd what in vain Was said what done undone and done again How Truth 's bely'd how Lies upheld for Truth How much the heart dissented from the mouth Their Deeds from what they seem to think and say And how at fast and loose we now do play It will be thought perhaps this Generation Had lost Faith Reason Iustice and Compassion And they who shall by strict examination Search out the cause of this prevarication Will finde an hypocritical Devotion Sprung from the love of Riches and Promotion Dis-robing Piety of her plain Dresse To be dis-figur'd with that pompousness Which is affected by the Man of Sin Of all that is amiss chief cause hath been I must not scribble all that might be pend Upon this Subject lest I more offend Than profit or lest for want of speed Be hindred in my purpose to proceed But one more Argument I 'le therefore add Whereby it out of question may be made That to be very Rich indangers more A real Happiness than to be poor And prov'd it shall be by a Demonstration That will admit no future confutation Because it shews that Wealth hath not alone More hurt to many single persons done Than Poverty but also to the Race Of all mankind and unto GOD's Free-Grace Injurious been dishonour brought to CHRIST And set up his opposers Interest Observe it for I nothing will alledge But that whereof the meanest wit may judge I need not tell you wee more easily May drive a Camel through a needles eye Or thread it with a Cable than to heaven Rich men ascend or thither may be driven For most have heard he spake to that effect Whose judgement none have reason to suspect Yet I will shew to you what way he went And how by his example to prevent That difficulty For he did not say One thing to us and walk another way As many do and did who would be thought To follow him and teach us what he taught In plain expression I will let you see Who those Impostors and Apostates be Who speak sometimes his words and do profess His Truth yet are in practice nothing less CHRIST knowing well that Avarice Ambition Wealth and Preferments ripen to perdition And that they so insensibly deprave The best and wisest men if way they give To their Allurements that although he were The Son of GOD and needed not to fear The frailties of his flesh he to the Law Conformed and preserved it in awe By true obedience mortifi'd that nature Which he assumed from the Humane-creature Both by an unconstrain'd Humility And by a voluntary Poverty And did for our example and our sake Forbear of things indifferent to partake Lest we who know not how aright to use Our Liberty things lawful might abuse By taking that for food which was provided For Physick rather when a Cure we needed When first from Heav'n he came though Lord of all In Heav'n and Earth he was within a stall He took up his first Lodging passed on Throughout his Childe-hood as he had begun And to the world no better did appear Than Son to Joseph