Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	death_n	great_a	son_n	3,271	5	4.9791	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09970	The golden scepter held forth to the humble VVith the Churches dignitie by her marriage. And the Churches dutie in her carriage. In three treatises. The former delivered in sundry sermons in Cambridge, for the weekely fasts, 1625. The two latter in Lincolnes Inne. By the late learned and reverend divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to His Maiesty, Mr. of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and somtime preacher at Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.; Glover, George, b. ca. 1618, engraver.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Ball, Thomas, 1589 or 90-1659.	1638 (1638)	STC 20227; ESTC S112474	187,142	312

mee doe said hee then and hee was as good as his word Therefore take knowledge you that doe fall away what the defect hath beene and wherein for that will bee a meanes to set you right and recover you againe 3 Property of Humiliation is to have all the affections moderate all delights in worldly things faint and remisse and all his affections taken chiefly up about grace and sinne True affection in him wil eate up the false He esteemeth spirituall things at a high rate and all other things as little Aske such an one what of all things else he would desire and he will tell you Christ and the favour of God and the graces of the Spirit and to have his lusts mortified and his sinnes pardoned and that hee passeth not for the things of this life hee cares not in comparison whether he bee poore or rich bond or free notwithstanding if hee may have a better con dition hee will use it rather as a man that is condemned to die little regards hee his estate or the things of this life his apprehensions are taken up with greater things give him his pardon and take al else So here one truly humbled counts the favour of God so great as he esteemes all things else light in comparison When therefore men are violent in their affections towards worldly things and in their desires and delights in them and endeavours after them it is a signe they are not humbled 4 Property is to love God and Christ much Mary loved much because much was forgiven her that is not simply that much was forgiven her but because withal she had a sence of it apprehended it as much and her sin great by a worke of humiliation and so apprehended it a great matter to be pardoned And so a man having once apprehended death and hell and the wrath of GOD as belonging to him and God comes on a suddaine and tells him thou shalt live when his necke was on the blocke and hee expected nothing but death this causeth a man to love GOD much and to prize CHRIST and this made Saint Paul also to love CHRIST so much that the love of Christ constrained him because I was a persecuter and a blasphemer and he died for me forgave me a great debt Hee that is truly humbled will bee content with any condition as the Prodigall sonne I am content to be as an hired servant sayes hee and am unworthy to bee called a sonne any more hee was content to doe the worke of a servant to live in the condition of a servant to have the lowest place in all the familie And so Saint Paul look'd on himselfe as the least of all the Saints thought hee could never lay himselfe low enough Now this contentednesse is exercised about two things In a contentednesse in the want of these outward good things when a man is content with the meanest services and the least wages to want wealth and credit and gifts as Iacob being truly humbled I am lesse than the least of thy mercies whereas an other man that is not humbled when hee lookes upon himselfe and GODS mercies hee enjoyes he thinking highly of himself thinkes himselfe too big for them and that the disproportion is rather on his side whereas Iacob though he then had many mercies yet said take the least mercie and lay it in one scale and my selfe in an other and I am too light for it lesse than it and it too much for me It is exercised in bearing crosses One that is truly humbled still blesseth GOD as Iob and beares and accepts the punishment of his iniquity willingly and cherefully as we see it made a condition Lev. 26. 41. If their uncircumcised heart be humbled and they beare or accept the punishment of their iniquity if the Lord lay upon him a sharpe disease say the plague disreputation poverty yet hee beareth it willingly and chearefully for when a man thinkes in earnest that which is said Ezech. 36. that hee is worthy to be destroyed whatsoever befalls him from God which is lesse than destruction hee blesseth God for it and rejoyceth that he escapeth so The humble man therefore is in all conditions contented alwayes chearefull and blessing God if he hath good things they are more then he is worthy of if evill though never so sharpe yet they are lesse than destruction and then he deserves when as an unbroken heart is alwayes turbulent and thinkes in the secret murmurings of his heart that he is not well dealt with I should come now to the application of this Doctrine but before I must resolve a case and scruple which doth use to trouble the hearts of many The Case in question is whether to right and true humiliation it be necessary that such a solemne humiliation and such a measure of sorrow and violent Legall contrition goe before it There is a double kind of sorrow wrought in the hearts of men the one is a violent tumultuous sorrow which ariseth from the apprehension of hell and punishment the ground whereof is self-love and is commonly in those who are suddainely enlightened and so amazed therewith being taken on the suddaine as wee see in Saint Paul who was taken suddainely as hee was going to Damascus and it was discovered to him that hee was guilty of so great a sinne as he could never have imagined a voyce from heaven to strike his eares on the suddaine why persecutest thou me And this wee find by experience to have beene in many who never have true humiliation as wee see in Iudas God indeed sometimes useth it to bring men to humiliation as he did in Saint Paul But again we find in experience in some a cleaving to God and holinesse of life and a constant care to please him in all things without this violent vexing sorrow and many that have had their hearts deeply wounded amazed affrighted and have therupon taken up great purposes which have come to nothing the ground whereof having beene a violent passion as that the roote withered so the fruit withered also but a true apprehension and conviction of sin as in it selfe the greatest misery is more reall and drawes the heart nearer to Christ so that in this case we may say of these two sorts as Christ said of those who were bidden to goe into the vineyard They that said they would goe did not and others that said they would not goe yet went and therefore wee answer that it is not alwayes necessary to have such a violent sorrow or that a man should lie any long time in such an evident sence of wrath though alwayes there is a right apprehension of sin which doth humble a man which will appeare by these considerations 1 That is not alwayes the greatest sorrow that is thus violent though it seeme to bee so it is not alwayes the greatest sorrow which melteth into teares as that is

goe and humble my selfe I will goe home to God and change my course and give up my selfe to him and serve him and this we shall finde in these examples mentioned before especially of the Prodigall Luk. 15. he came to this conclusion If I stay here I dye for hunger but in my fathers house there is bread enough here was hope that bred this resolution I will goe home and say to my father I have sinned against heaven and against thee c. here was that true humiliation we speake of So Manasses hee humbled himselfe greatly out of an hope of mercy for a man comes not to this active humiliation wherein he kindly humbleth himselfe unlesse hee hath hope of mercy and the beginning of faith is with a hope of mercy which sets a man a worke to goe to God and say Lord I have committed such and such sinnes but I will returne to them no more I am worthy of nothing Now there are foure severall compositions or foure paires of ingredients that have influence into this second kind of humiliation to cause us to humble our selves 1 Payr an hope of mercy as wel as a sence of misery that whereas before wee did looke upon God as a severe Judge we looke now on him as one willing to receive us both are requisite Sence of misery onely brings a man but to himselfe as the Prodigall first is said to come to himselfe but hope of mercy joyned with it drives a man home to God as it did also him without which sence of misery drives us from the LORD but hope of mercy being added to it causeth this active humiliation wee speake of whereby wee say I will goe and humble my selfe 2 Payre of ingredients are the sence of our own emptinesse together with an apprehension of that Alsufficiency that is in God which we also may see in the Prodigall when he said I shall starve and die if I stay here but in my fathers house is bread enough he lookt to that alsufficient fulnesse that was in God to supply his wants The creature whilst it findeth any thing in it selfe it will stand upon its owne bottome and not bee humbled but when it finds nothing in its selfe but emptinesse then it beginneth to seeke out for a bottome which it seeing to be in God alone it goes out to him for men will not be drawne off from their owne bottome till they see another bottome to stand upon 3 There must bee a sence of a mans owne sinfulnesse and the LORD JESUS his righteousnesse and so a light comes in that discovereth both thus when S. Paul was humbled there was a light shone about him which was an outward symbole of that new light which shone within him of Christ and his owne sinfulnesse A sence of the love of God and Christ joyned with the sence of a mans unkindnesse unto God whereby wee looke upon sinnes as injuries done to God and an unkindnesse shewne therein And now let us see the difference betwixt these two works or parts of humiliation that wee may further understand what it is to humble our selves And first they differ in the matter they are conversant about in that first a man is humbled properly but for the punishment a man indeed is humbled for sinne yet principally as it hath relation to punishment it is guilt works on him he is not humbled for sin as it is contrary to God and his holinesse but as contrary to himself and his own good and thus we are not humbled till we come to love God and to have a light discovering the holines and purity of his nature which one that is savingly humbled hath wrought in him They differ in their grounds and principles whence they arise The first ariseth but from selfe-love and is but a worke of nature though thus farre a worke of God to stirre up self-love by the sence of misery and to awaken it but so as any unreasonable creature if in danger useth to be sensible of it and what wonder then is it for a man when hee begins to have some sence of hel and death let into his conscience to be wounded and apprehensive of it but the other ariseth from the love of God kindled in the heart by hope of grace and mercy They differ in the instrumental causes that work them the one is wrought by the spirit of bondage by an enlightning meerly to see his bondage and the soule is as one that is in bondage fearing God as a master and he hath no further light than thus to see God as a Judge but this other is wrought by the spirit of adoption making the Gospell also effectuall discovering God as a father They differ in their effects as The one driveth a man from GOD but this latter causeth a man to goe to GOD and to seeke Christ it workes that affection to Christ that the Church in the Canticles had to him who would not give over seeking him till she had found him whom her soule did love Though there bee twenty obstacles in the way yet the soule hath no rest as a stone hath no rest till it bee in its owne center so nor this soule thus humbled but in God and therfore gives not over seeking him though it hath never so many denyalls The first breeds death an acedia a deadnesse and listlesnesse it makes a man as a log that moves not to God in prayer So it wrought in Nabal and Achitophel it breeds such discouragement as often ends in death Of worldly sorrow and such is all sorrow whereof God is not the end commeth death but when it is right and true and kindly sorrow for sinne it doth that which an affection should doe it quickneth him to doe that which he ought to do so feare when it is right worketh and so all other affections which were put into the soule for that end that it might bee stirred up by them to that which it should doe for GOD and its owne good and therefore this affection of sorrow for sinne quickens a man to seeke out to God when it is right The first breeds a fiercenesse and turbulency in a mans spirit as we see often in men whose consciences are awakned to see their sinnes they are fiercer then they were before for guilt of sin vexeth their spirits and where there is no sence of mercy from God there is none to men but hee that is broken for sinne spends his anger upon himselfe frets chiefly for his owne vilenesse and unworthinesse and the Peace of God which his heart hath a sence of makes his spirit gentle and peaceable and easie to be entreated and perswaded bring him Scripture and a child may lead him and perswade him The rough wayes are made smooth the rough and froward dispositions of the heart and every Mountaine-like affection cast downe as it is said they were by Saint

watch to watch that is from one ordinance to another to finde him and never leave seeking till we have found him as shee did not because shee had had a sight of him As Moses could no have this knowledge of God till it should please God to reveale himselfe to him so he would not give over he would not stirre a foote till he did reveale himselfe to him Exod. 33. 13. If I have found favour in thy sight shew me thy glory that I may know thee And so should we pray as earnestly as he and when he hath made himselfe so knowne to us that will draw us and that is the drawing meant Cant. 1. 3. Draw me and we will runne after thee that is shew thy selfe and we will follow thee even as straw followes the jett or iron the load-stone and if the Lord will but put the Adamant to the iron we cannot choose but follow and seeke him And God doth thus by leaving an impression of himselfe upon the heart of the amiablenesse and excellencies that are in him as when two men are linckt together so as no consideration can part them it is by an impression on their hearts of some excellency in each other till which be removed they will not leave off to love and cleave to each other And so when this impression of Gods excellency is once stampt upon the heart then nothing can take it off no accident what ever is able to sever God and the heart having once seene him but till this bee wrought the separation is easie men will depart from God upon any occasion when we are taught of God him selfe we so know him as it is Ier. 31. that we seeke him earnestly and not till then Besides after Gods speaking and revealing himselfe there is something to be done likewise on your parts grow into further acquaintance with him which is done partly by speaking much to him and partly by much observing him in all his wayes Looke upon him in all his actions and carriages and thereby you will see how worthy he is to be beloved Consider the first action that ever he did making of the World he could have enjoyed happin●sse within himselfe for ever as much as now yet he was willing out of his goodnesse to make Men and Angells and to provide abundantly for them and afterwards when all mankind were at one throw lost and he might have left us as he left the Angells that fell without any possibility of salvation out of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his love to mankind his love to the nation he gave his Sonne to redeeme us and if it were but for this love to our nation he is worthy of all love and respect from us as he was of the Iewes that out of his love to their Nation built them but one Synagogue but hee hath not loved the nation only hath he not given him manifested revealed him unto thee when he hath passed by thousands and whereas thou if left to thy selfe wouldest have lost the advantage of the possibility of being saved as the most of mankind do wouldest have been hard hearted as millions of men are he hath broken thy heart and given thee Christ and that when thou wert utterly unable so much as to beleeve in him and since he brought thee home to his Sonne how often hast thou been going quite away from him and hath he not still been as a Shepheard to thee and fetched thee in againe thou hast plaid many a slippery tricke with him but he hath kept thee and embraced thee and established the sure mercies of David to thee thinke also of his wonderfull patience that when the eyes of his glory have beene so often and so highly provoked as they have beene day by day yet he passeth by all and spares thee Thinke if any one would ever have borne so much as he hath done And add to this the consideration of his bounty added to this his patience by him his constancy in doing thee good though thou art uneven in thy carriages towards him yet a continuall current of his mercy flowes in upon thee and consider further that if it had beene but a meere act of his will to do thus it had beene wonderfull but it hath cost him deare to have the opportunity to doe it it cost him his Sonne and then consider the great love of his Sonne that hee would give himselfe and when hee was equall to his Father in glory would yet leave all to come under the same roofe with thee and what he hath done if it had not beene done thou haddest been undone for ever and consider how often he hath stood with thee in a strait pleaded thy case and pacified his father for thee and labour to bee led by all these rivers and streames of his goodnesse to that sea of his personall excellencies that are in him and gather an Idea of him into your mindes out of all you have heard or seene of him the end of all these acts of his providence is that men might know him by all these As when you would have a man knowne to another you goe about to comm●●d him to him to describe him it is good to do so of the Lord to be often expressing his excellencies to others and meditating of them our selves it may perhaps winne others to him however it will quicken thy selfe and exercise thy love towards him There is a double way of knowing things as I told you one by report another by sight Doe thou labour to know him by experience so as to be able to say I know him to be thus and thus and therefore I will cleave to him And with all this consider his greatnesse who it is hath done all these things for thee the great God of heaven and earth this sets an high price upon all he hath done for us If a great King doth but cast his countenance upon thee how is it prized but that the great God should looke after such a wretch as thou art not having any thing in thee why he should respect thee so how should it affect thee and from hence also consider what he is able to doe for thee Men know not God in his greatnesse and therefore it is he is not sought unto Why doe we trouble our selves so much about the creatures feare this man and that man and thinke a little credit or preferment a great matter if we saw but God in his greatnesse all these would vanish See how the Prophet describes him Isay 40. 15. when hee sayes all the nations are but a small thing to him like the few drops of the bucket and the dust of the ballance put the case all the Nations of the world were for thee or against thee who would not thinke this a great matter as what would wee thinke if we had but one Nation against us yet let them

as you are should not bee saved Hereby the bloud of Christ is improved that it is sprinkled on many for great sinnes Thinke not therefore that God is backward to pardon Psal. 130. 3 4. There are two arguments more to helpe us in this If hee should marke what is done amisse who should stand none should be saved Now it is not his will that all flesh should perish and therefore hee will not take the advantage to cast men cleane off for their sinnes againe none else would worship him There is mercy with thee that thou mayest bee feared It is his full purpose to have some servants to feare and worship him Yea shall I goe further God is not onely ready to forgive but desirous of it yea hee is glad at the heart when a great sinner doth come in which is noted to us in the Parable of the lost sheepe and the lost groat how did the woman rejoyce for the finding of her groat and the Shepheard for his sheepe And likewise in the Parable of the lost Sonne how glad was hee when he heard that his Sonne was comming home that yet had lived riotously and spent his goods it was to shew that GOD was so affected when a great sinner returnes to him Besides he doth not onely say if you will come I keepe open house I will not shut you out but inviteth them calleth them yea more sends his ministers to fetch them in yea more entreateth beseecheth commandeth threatneth But you will say is it possible that I should bee forgiven that have committed so many sinnes so great so hainous and continued so long in them Yes it is possible for you Marke that place 1 Cor. 6. 9. Hee reckons up as great sinnes as can bee named And such were some of you but now you are washed You see what kind of people there were forgiven whence wee may gather that those that are guilty of those sinnes now may bee forgiven as well as then such were some of you Whosoever thou art it is no matter what thou hast beene all the matter is what thou wilt bee Put case any of the old Prophets should come to thee or any man in particular and say wilt thou bee content now to turne to GOD if thou wilt all thy sinnes shall bee washt away and thou shalt bee made an heire of Heaven it would cause him that hath any ingenuity to relent and say LORD canst thou now bee so mercifull to mee as to forgive mee after all this loe LORD I will come in and turne unto thee I aske thee this question whether art thou content to quit all thy sinnes presently upon assurance of being received if thou dost if thou answerest no art thou not worthy to bee destroyed if yes is not this great comfort But some may say if heaven gate stand thus wide open I may come and bee welcome at any time Thou vile wretch that darest to have such a thought Dost thou not know that every such refusall of such an offer is so dangerous as it may put thee into hazard of never having the like againe If the gate of heaven stood thus alwayes open why then did God sweare in his wrath of some Israelites that they should never enter into his rest and what is the reason that God said of those that were invited to the feast but refused to come that they should never taste of it The reason is there given it is said the master of the feast was full of wrath at the refusall of his offer both because his love and kindnesse was despised that filleth a man with indignation and so the Lord and also because the thing offered was of so much price it being the kingdome of heaven and the precious bloud of Christ. Therefore whensoever such an offer is made and refused God is exceeding angry There goes an axe and a sword with this offer to cut downe every tree that will not bring forth good fruit Say not when you heare of this offer I am glad there is such a thing I will accept of it another time but it comes too soone for mee now Consider this that the end of the comming of the Lord Iesus was not onely to save the soules of men if onely so then indeed this might have beene done at any time even at the last but his end also was Titus 2. 14. That he mtght purifie to himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes ' which is a greater end than that which went before in the verse to redeeme us from all iniquity to purchase to himselfe a people that should serve him in their life time and canst thou thinke that thou that hast served thy lusts all thy life time shalt yet bee accepted at death It is a common saying with you that if a man bee called at the eleventh houre hee shall be received 't is true if thou beest called then first and not before as the thiefe who was not call'd afore was then accepted but what if thou hast beene call'd afore and hast not accepted but put off till death thy case then will bee exceeding dangerous Againe I aske thee what is it makes thee resolve to come in at death If love to Christ then it would sooner if to thy selfe how shall such conversion be accepted Come we now to the last words And I will heale their land WE have these three points may be observed out of them 1. That all calamities and troubles proceede from sinne this I note from the order of the words hee first forgives their sinnes then heales their land 2. That if calamities bee removed and sinnes be not forgiven they are removed in judgement not in mercy 3. That if sinne bee once forgiven the calamity will soone be taken away For the first all calamity is from sinne troubles from transgression In the chaine of evills sinne is the first linke that drawes on all the rest as grace is in the chaine of blessings and comforts Consider this in all kinds of judgements which wee may reduce to three heads 1. Temporall calamities about the things of this life they are all from sinne both publike and private What was the reason of Salomons troubles The Lord stirred up an adversary against him because hee departed from the Lord and had set up idolatry so the sword departed not from Davids house because of his sinne with Bathsheba and the murther of Vriah So Asa 2 Chron. 16. the Prophet tels him Hence forth thou shalt have warre because thou hast not rested on the Lord. I could give a hundred instances for this 2. Sort of judgements are spirituall which are much more grievous than the former when a man is given up to his lusts and to hardnesse of heart and this proceedeth from some other sinnes that went before and it is a sure rule that you never see a man given up to worke uncleannesse with greedinesse or to such open