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	heaven_n	life_n	3,792	5	4.2044	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77618	The silent soul, with soveraign antidotes against the most miserable exigents: or, A Christian with an olive-leaf in his mouth, when he is under the greatest afflictions, the sharpest and sorest trials and troubles, the saddest and darkest providences and changes, with answers to divers questions and objections that are of greatest importance, all tending to win and work souls to bee still, quiet, calm and silent under all changes that have, or may pass upon them in this world, &c. / By Thomas Brooks preacher of the Word at Margarets New Fish-street London, and pastor of the Church of Christ meeting there.	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1660 (1660)	Wing B4962A; Thomason E1876_1; ESTC R209789	146,060	409

said another it were a sad condition indeed i● they were carried to a place where they should not finde their God but let them bee of good chear God goes along with them and will exhibit the comforts of his presence whithersoever they go the presence of God with the spirits of his people is a breast of comfort that can never bee drawn drye it is an everlasting spring that will Heb. 13. 5 6 Isa 40. 29 30 31 never fail Well Christian thou art under many great troubles many sore trials but tell mee doth God give into thy soul such cordials such supports such comforts and such refreshments that the world knows not of O then certainly thy affliction is in love Fourthly If by your affliction you are made more conformable Witness Judas Demas and those in the 6th of John and many Q●akers and other deluded people among us this day to Christ in his virtues then certainly your afflictions are in love many are conformable to Christ in their sufferings that are not made conformable to Christ in his virtues by their sufferings many are in poverty neglect shame contempt reproach c. like to Christ who yet by these are not made more like to Christ in his meekness humbleness heavenliness holiness righteousness faithfulness fruitfulness goodness contentedness patience submission subjection Oh but if in these things you are made more like to Christ without all peradventure your afflictions are in love If by afflictions the soul bee led to shew forth or to preach forth the virtues of Christ as that word imports in that 1 Pet. 2. 9. then certainly Exaggeilete publickly to set forth those afflictions are in love for they never have such an operation but where they are set on by a hand of love when God strikes as an enemy there all those stroaks do but make a man more an enemy to God as you see in Pharaoh and others but when the stroaks Isa 26. 8 9 10 Jer. 5. 3. Amos 6. 1 ult of God are the stroaks of love Oh then they do but bring the soul nearer Christ and transform the soul more and more into the likeness of Christ if by thy afflictions thou art made more holy humble heavenly c. they are in love Every afflicted Christian should strive to bee honoured with that Elogie of Salvian singularis domini praeclarus imitator An excellent Disciple of a singular Master But Fifthly If by outward afflictions thy soul bee brought more under Job 34. 31 32 the inward teachings of God doubtless thy afflictions are in love Psal 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law All the chastening in the world without divine teaching will never make a man blessed that man that findes correction attended with instruction and lashing with lessoning is a happy man If God by the affliction that is upon thee shall teach thee how to loathe sin more and how to trample upon the world more and how to walk with God more thy afflictions are in love if God shall teach thee by afflictions how to dye to sin more and how to dye to thy relations more and how to dye to self-interest more thy afflictions are in love if God shall teach thee by afflictions how to live to Christ more how to lift up Christ more and how to long for Christ more thy afflictions are in love If God shall teach thee by afflictions to get assurance of a better life and to bee still in a gracious readiness and preparedness for the day of thy death thy afflictions are in love if God shall teach thee by afflictions how to minde Heaven more how to live in Heaven more and how to fit for Heaven more thy afflictions are in love if God by afflictions shall teach thy proud heart how to lye more low and thy hard heart how to grow more humble and thy censorious heart how to grow more charitable and thy carnal heart how to grow more spiritual and thy froward heart how to grow more quiet c. thy afflictions are in love When God teaches thy reins as well as thy brains thy heart as well as thy head these lessons or any of these lessons thy afflictions are in love Socrat. lib. 4. cap. 18. Pambo an illiterate dunce as the Historian terms him was a learning that one lesson I said I will take heed to my waies that I sin not with my tongue nineteen years and yet had not learned it Ah! it is to bee feared that there are many who have been in the school of affliction above this nineteen years and yet have not learned any saving lesson all this while surely their afflictions are not in love but in wrath where God loves hee afflicts in love and where-ever God afflicts in love there hee will first or last teach such souls such lessons as shall do them good to all eternity But Sixthly If God suit your burdens to your backs your trials to Isa 27. 8 Jer. 30. 11. ch 46. 28 your strength according to that golden promise 1 Cor. 10. 13. Your afflictions are in love There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to bee tempted above that yee are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that yee may bee able to bear it When Gods stroaks and a Christians strength are suited one to another all is in love let the load bee never so heavy Gen. 49. 23 24. that God laies on if hee put under his everlasting arms all is in love As Egypt had many venemous creatures so it had many antidotes against them when God shall lay antidotes into the soul against all the afflictions that befall a Christian then they are all in love it is no matter how heavy the burden is if God gives a shoulder to bear it all is in love it is no matter how bitter the cup is if God give courage to drink it off it is no matter how hot the furnace is if God gives power to walk in the midst of it all is in love Seventhly I● thou art willing to lye in the furnace till thy dross bee consumed if thou art willing Job 23. 10 Mic. 7. 9 that the plaister should lye on though it smart till the cure bee wrought if thou art willing that the physick should work though it makes thee sick till the humors bee expelled all is in love Cain and Saul and Pharaoh were all for the removing away of the stroak the affliction they cry not out our sins are greater than wee are able to bear but they cry out our punishment is greater Gen. 4. 13 Isa 28. 1 6. ch 59. 9 17 Exod. 7 8 9 10. chapters than wee are able to bear they cry not out Lord take away our sins but Lord remove the stroak of thy hand Oh! but when an

quiet for that God that hath taken away one childe might have took away every childe and hee that hath taken away one friend might have taken away every friend and hee that hath taken away a part of thy estate might have taken away thy whole estate therefore hold thy peace let who will murmure yet bee thou mute Sixthly It may bee thy sins have been much about thy near and dear injoyments it may bee thou hast over-loved them and over-prized them and over-much delighted thy self in them it may bee they have often had thy heart when they should have had but thy hand it may bee that care that fear that confidence that joy that should have been expended upon more noble objects hath been expended upon them thy heart Oh Christian is Christs bed of spices and it may bee thou hast beded thy mercies with thee when Christ hath been put to lye in an Luk. 2. 7 out-house thou hast had room for them when thou hast had none for him they have had the best when the worst have been counted good enough for Christ It is said of Gen. 49. 4. Ruben that hee went up to his Fathers bed Ah! how often hath one creature-comfort and sometimes another put in between Christ and your sou●s how often have your dear injoyments gone up to Christs bed It is said of the babylonians that they came in to Aholah Ezek. 23. 17. and Aholibahs bed of love may it not hee said of your near and dear mercies that they have come into Christs bed of lov● your hearts they being that bed wherein Christ Cant. 3. 7 delights to rest and repose himself Now if a husband a childe a friend shall take up that room in thy soul that is proper and peculiar to God God will either imbitter it remove it or bee the death ●f it if once the love of a wife runs out more to a servant than to her husband the Master will turn him out of doors though otherwise hee were a servant worth gold The sweetest comforts of this life they are but like treasures of Snow now do but take a handful of Snow and crush it in your hands and it will melt away presently but if you let it lye upon the ground it will continue for some time and so it is with the contentments of this world if you grasp them in your hands and lay them too near your hearts they will quickly melt and vanish away but if you will not hold them too fast in your hands nor lay them too close to your hearts they will abide the longer with you There are those that love their mercies into their graves that hug their mercies to death that kiss them till they kill them Many a man hath slain his mercies by setting too great a value upon them many a man hath ●unk his ship of mercie by taking up in it over-loved mercies are seldome long-liv'd Ezek. 24. 21. when I take from them the joy of their glory the desire of their eyes and that whereupon they set their minds their sons and their daughters the way to lose your mercies is to indulge them the way to destroy them is to fix your minds and hearts upon them thou mayest write bitterness and death upon that mercie first that hath first taken away thy heart from God Now if God hath stript thee of that very mercy with which thou hast often committed spiritual Adultery and Idolatry hast thou any cause to murmure hast thou not rather cause to hold thy peace and to be mute before the Lord Christians your hearts are Christs royal Throne and in this Throne Christ will bee chief as Pharaoh said to Joseph Gen. 41. 40. hee will endure no competitor if you shall attempt to throne the creature bee it never so near and dear unto you Christ will dethrone it hee will destroy it hee will quickly lay them in a bed of dust who shall aspire to his royal Throne But Seventhly Thou hast no cause to murmure because of the loss of such near and dear enjoyments considering those more noble and spiritual mercies and favours that thou still enjoyest grant that Joseph is not and Benjamin is not yet Gen. 42. 36 Heb. 13. 8 Jesus is hee is yesterday and to day and the same for ever thy union and communion with Christ remains 1 Joh. 3. 9. still the immortal seed abides in thee still the Sun of Righteousness shines upon thee still thou art in favour with God still and thou art under the anointings of the Spirit still and under the influences of Heaven still c. and why then shouldest thou mutter and not rather hold thy peace I have read Jerom. of one Dydimus a godly Preacher who was blind Alexander a godly man once ask'd him whether hee was not sore troubled and afflicted for want of his sight Oh yes I said Dydimus it is a great affliction and grief unto mee then Alexander chid him saying hath God given you the excellency of an Angel of an Apostle and are you troubled for that which Rats and Mice and brute beasts have So say I Ah Ephes 1. 3 4 Christians hath God blessed you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places hath the Lord given you himself for a portion hath hee given you his Son for your redemption and his Spirit for your instruction and will you murmure hath hee given his grac● to adorn you his promises to comfor● you his ordinances to better you and the hopes of Heaven to encourage you and will you mutter Paulinus Nolanus when his City was taken from him prayed thus Lord said hee let mee not bee troubled at the loss of my gold silver honour c. for thou art all and much more than all these unto mee in the want of all your sweetest enjoyments Christ will bee all in all unto you my Jewels are my husband said Phocion's wife Col. 3. 11 Plutar●h in vita Phocion my ornaments are my two sons said the Mother of the Gracchi my treasures are my friends said Constantius and so may a Christian under his greatest losses say Christ is my richest Jewels my chiefest treasures my best ornaments my sweetest delights look what all these things are to a carnal heart a worldly heart that and more is Christ to mee Eighthly If God by smiting thee in thy nearest and dearest inj●yments shall put thee upon a more thorow smiting and mortifying of thy dearest sins thou hast no cause to murmure God cures David of adultery by killing his endeared childe There is some Dalilah some darling some beloved sin or Psa 18. 23 Heb. 12. 1 other that a Christians calling condition constitution or temptations leads him to play withall and to hug in his own bosome rather than some other As in a ground that lieth untilled amongst the great variety of weeds there is usually some master-weed that is rifer and ranker than all the rest And as it

affliction comes in love upon a soul the language of that soul is this Lord remove the cause rather than the effect the sin rather than the punishment my corruption rather than my affliction Lord what will it avail mee to have the sore skinned over if the corrupt matter still remains in there is no evil Lord to the evil of sin and therefore deliver mee rather from the evil of s●n than the evil of sufferings I know Lord that affliction cannot bee so displeasing to mee as sin is dishonourable and displeasing to thee and therefore Lord let mee see an end of my sin though in this world I should never see an end of my sorrows Oh! let mee see an end of my corruptions though I should never see an end of my corrections Lord I had rather have a cure for my heart than a cure for my head I had rather bee made whole and sound within than without I had rather have a healthy soul than a healthy body a pure inside than a beautiful outside if this bee the setled frame and temper of thy spirit certainly thy afflictions are in love There was one who being under marvelous great pains and torments in his body occasioned by many sore diseases that were upon him cryed out had I all the world I would give it for ease and yet for all the world I would not have ease till the cure bee wrought sure his afflictions were in love the first request the great request and the last request of a soul afflicted in love is a cure Lord a cure Lord a cure Lord of this wretched heart and this sinful life and all will bee well all will bee well Eighthly and lastly If you live a life of Faith in your afflictions then your afflictions are in love Now what is it to live by Faith in affliction but to live in the exercising These following promises have been choice cordials to many Christians under sore distresses Isa 57. 15 ch 41. 10 1 Tim. 1. 15 Joh. 10. 27 28 29 Isa 26. 3 Mat. 11. 28 1 Joh. 3. 14 of Faith upon those precious promises that are made over to an afflicted condition God hath promised to bee with his people in their afflictions Isa 43. 2 3. hee hath promised to support them under their afflictions Isa 41. 10. hee hath promised to deliver his people out of their afflictions Psal 50. 15. hee hath promised to purge away his peoples sins by affliction Isa 1. 25. hee hath promised to make his people more partakers of his holiness by affliction Heb. 12. 10. hee hath promised to make afflictions an inlet to a more full and sweet enjoyment of himself Hosea 2. 14. hee hath promised that hee will never leave nor forsake his people in their afflictions Heb. 13. 5 6. hee hath promised that all their afflictions shall work for their good Zech. 13. 9. Rom. 8. 28. Now if thy Faith bee drawn forth to feed upon these promises if these bee heavenly Manna to thy Faith and thy soul lives upon them and sucks stre 〈…〉 〈◊〉 sweetness from them und 〈…〉 〈◊〉 trials and troubles that 〈◊〉 〈…〉 on thee thy afflictions are in love A Bee can suck honey out of a flower which a Flie cannot if thy Faith can extract comfort and sweetness in thy saddest distresses out of the breasts of precious promises and gather one contrary out of another Honey out of the Deut. 32. 13. Rock thy afflictions are in love The Promises are full breasts and God delights that Faith should As the mother delights that the childe should draw hers draw them they are pabulum fidei anima fidei the food of Faith and the very soul of Faith They are an everlasting spring that can never bee drawn dry they are an inexhaustible treasure that can never bee exhausted they are the garden of Paradise and full of such choice flowers that will never fade but bee alwaies fresh sweet green and flourishing and if in the day of affliction they prove thus to thy soul thy afflictions are in love Sertorius paid Plutarch what hee promised with fair words but so doth not God men many times eat their words but God will never eat his all his promises in Christ are Yea and in 2 Cor. 1. 20. him Amen hath hee spoken it and shall it not come to pass if in all thy troubles thy heart bee drawn forth to act Faith upon the promises thy troubles are from love and thus much by way of answer to the first Objection Object 2 Oh but Sir The Lord hath smitten mee in my nearest and dearest comforts and contentments and how then can I hold my peace God hath taken away a husband a wife a childe an onely childe a bosome friend and how then can I bee silent c. Answ To this I Answer First If God did not strike thee in that mercy which was near and dear unto thee it would not amount to an affliction that is not worthy the name of an affliction that doth not strike at some bosome mercy that trouble is no trouble that doth not touch some choice contentment that storm is no storm that onely blows off the leaves but never hurts the fruit that thrust is no thrust that onely touches the cloaths but never reaches the skin that cut is no cut that onely cuts the hatt but never touches the head neither is that affliction any affliction that onely reaches some remote enjoyment but never reaches a Joseph a Benjamin c. Secondly The best mercy is not too good for the best God the best of the best is not good enough for him who is goodness it self the best childe the best yoak-fellow the best friend the best Jewel in all thy Crown must bee readily resigned to thy best God Isa 43. 22 25. Mal. 1. 13 14. there is no mercy no enjoyment no contentment worthy of God but the best the milk of mercy is for others the cream of mercy is due to God the choicest the fairest and the sweetest flowers are fittest for the bosome of God if hee will take the best flower in all thy garden and plant it in a better soil hast thou any cause to murmure wilt thou not hold thy peace Thirdly Your near and dear mercies were first the Lords before they were yours and alwaies the Lords more than they were yours when God gives a mercy hee doth not relinquish his own right in that mercy 1 Chron. 29. 14. All things come of thee and of thine own have wee given thee The sweet of mercy is yours but the sovereign right to dispose of your mercies is the Lords Quicquid es debes creanti quicquid potes debes redimenti Bern. Whatsoever thou art thou owest to him that made thee and whatsoever thou hast thou owest to him that redeemed thee You say it is but just and reasonable that men should do with their own as they please and is it not just and

now at what a rare doth a deserted sou● v●●ue these precious promises well saith hee these Psal 119. 103. 72. v. ●sa 19. 10 Pro. 8. 11 Jo● 23. 12 promises are sweeter than the hony or the hony-comb they are more precious than gold than fine gold than much gold than all the gold in the world I prefer them before my food before my deligh●ul food yea before my necessary food before my appointed portion As Alexander laid up Homers Iliads in a Cabinet embroidered with gold and pearls so deserted souls will lay up these precious promises in the Cabinet of their hearts as the choicest treasure the world affords Dol 〈…〉 ns they say love musick so do ●eserted souls the musick of the promises That promise 1 Tim. 1. 15. was musick to Bilny the Martyr and that promise John 10. 29. was musick to Vrsine and that promise Isa 57. 15. was musick to another and that promise Isa 26. 3. was musick to another and that to another Mat. 11. 28 c. promises that are suited to a deserted mans condition make the sweetest musick in his car and are the most soveraign cordials to bear up his spirits that God can give or Heaven afford or the soul desire Deut. 32. 13. Hee made him to ride on the high places of the earth that hee might e●● the fruits of the field and hee made him to suck hony out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock Ah the hony the oil that deserted souls suck out of such promises that speak home and close to their conditions Fourthly By Gods hiding his face and withdrawing himself from thee thou wil● bee inabled more feelingly and more experimentally to sympathize with others Heb. 5. 2 and to have compassion on others that are or may bee in the dark and forsaken of God as now thou art Heb. 13. 2. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as being your selves also in the body It is observed of the Bees that Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 11. cap. 17 when one is sick they all mourn and of the Sheep that if one of them bee faint the rest of the flock will stand between it and the Sun until it bee revived in the natural body if one member grieve and is in pain all suffer with it when a thorn is got into the foot how doth the back bow and the eyes pry and the hands go to pluck the thorn out none so compassionate towards deserted souls as those who have been deserted and forsaken of God themselves Oh! they know what an evil a bitter thing it is to bee left and forsaken of God and therefore their bowels their compassions run out much to such yea most to such they know that there is no affliction no misery no hell to that of being forsaken of God Anaxagoras seeing himself old Plutarch and forsaken of the world laid himself down and covered his head close determining to starve himself to death with hunger but alass what is it to bee forsaken of the world to a mans being forsaken of God were there as many worlds as there bee men in the world a man were better bee forsaken by them all than to bee forsaken of God There is a great truth in that saying of Chrysostome Chrysost ad Pop. Antioch Hom. 47. in Mat. Hom. 24. viz. That the torments of a thousand hells if there were so many come far short of this one to wit to bee turned out of Gods presence with a non novi vos I know you not Mat. 7. 23. The schools have long since concluded that paena sensus the pain of loss is far greater than paena damni the pain of sense what a grief was it to Absolon to see the Kings face clouded and how sadly was Eli and his daughter affected with the loss of the Ark which was but a testimony of Gods presence but Oh how much more is a Christian affected and afflicted with the loss of the face and favour of God the remembrance of which makes his heart to melt and his bowels to yearn towards those whose Sun is set in a cloud Fifthly Hereby the Lord will teach his people to set a higher price upon his face and favour when they come to enjoy it Cant. Austin saith Lord I am content to suffer any pains and torments in this world if I might see thy face one day at such a rate did he prize the face of God 3. 4. It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and I would not let him go c. No man sets so high a price upon Christ as hee that hath lost him and found him again Jesus in the China tongue signifies the rising Sun and so hee is Mal. 4. 2. especially to souls that have been long clouded The poor Northern Nations in Strabo who want the light of the Sun for some months together when the tearm of his return approaches they climb up into the highest mountains to spie it and hee that spies it first was accounted the best and most beloved of God and usually they did chuse him King at such a rate did they prize the return of the Sun Ah! so it is with a poor soul that for some months years hath been deserted Oh how highly doth hee prize and value the Sun of Righteousness his returning to him and shining upon him Psa 63. 3. Thy loving kindness is better than life or better than lives as the Hebrew hath it divine favour Chaimi is better than life it is better than life with all its revenues with all its appurtenances as honours riches pleasures applause c. yea it is better than many lives put together Now you know at what a high rate men value their lives they will bleed sweat vomit purge part with an estate yea with a limb yea limbs to preserve their lives As hee cried out give mee any deformity any torment any misery so you spare my life Now though life bee so dear and precious to a man yet a deserted soul prizes the returnings of divine favour upon him above life yea above many lives many men have been weary of their lives as is evident in Scripture and History but no man was ever yet found that was weary of the love and favour of God no man sets so high a price upon the Sun as hee that hath lain long in a dark dungeon c. But Sixthly Hereby the Lord will train up his servants in that precious life of faith which is the most honourable and the most happy life in all the world 2 Cor. 5. 7. For wee walk by faith and not by sight The life of sense the life of reason is a low life a mean life the life of faith is a noble life a blessed life when Elisha demanded of the Shunamite 2 King 4. 15 16 what hee