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	john_n	love_v	3,408	5	6.7355	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81254	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at Westminster, August 22. 1645. Being the day appointed for their solemn thanksgiving unto God for his several mercies to the forces of the Parliament in divers parts of the kingdome, in the gaining of the towns of Bath and Bridgewater, and of Scarborough-Castle, and Sherborn-Castle, and for the dispersing of the Clubmen, and the good successe in Pembroke-shire. By Thomas Case, preacher at Milkstreet, and one of the Assembly of Divines.	Case, Thomas, 1598-1682.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1645 (1645)	Wing C842; Thomason E297_15; ESTC R200227	27,937	38

Darling his Beloved in whom his soul delights and God looks upon his redeemed through Christ and his soul is delighted in them also Ephes 1.6 He hath made us accepted in the Beloved After he hath bestowed a Christ upon them he thinks nothing too good or too much for their sake He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things After he hath redeemed them from eternall death with the Blood of his Son he will not stick to redeem them from temporall Destruction with the blood of his and their enemies I will give men for thee and people for thy life For his Name His Name is called upon his people Isa 43.6 Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth Isa 43.7 7. Every one that is called by my Name for I have created him for my glory c. Their name is called upon God and Gods Name is called upon them If they perish his Name suffers his Glory suffers they bear his Name which is his Glory and therefore Joshua took the advantage of this argument when he pleaded for Israel Josh 7.9 What wilt thou do to thy great Name q. d. Though Israel deserves to suffer thy Name doth not deserve to suffer in saving Israel thou shalt preserve thine own Name and upon these terms God is resolved to save them Isa 48. 9. For my Names sake I will defer mine anger and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off 10. Behold I have refined thee but not with silver c. 11. For mine own sake even for mine own sake I will do it for how should my Name be polluted and I will not give my glory to another God destroys the enemie for his peoples sake because he hath loved and chosen them for his own sake his Names sake And thus I have shewed you the sense and meaning of this expression For your sake and the spring and fountain of that sense And this shall suffice for the Doctrinall part of my Text I come now to the Vse and Application Vses And there are but two Uses I will speak to 1. Information 2. Exhortation Vse It may serve first to inform us and that in divers particulars 1. Branch of Information First To discover to us the difference of mercies Some mercies you see there be which God bestows on his people for their sake Deliverances from and victories over their enemies God subdues and destroyes Armies and Countreys and Nations before them and all this he doth for his peoples sake he hath respect to them in such works as these be But some works there be which God doth onely for his own sake such as are Predestination Ephes 1.5 Having predestinated us to the Adoption of Children to himself according to the good pleasure of his will To himself and the good pleasure of his will The good pleasure of his will the ground and to himself the end Justification Tit. 3.7 Justified by his grace no other ingredient goes into Justification by way of Motive but onely Free-grace Isai 43.25 So Pardon of sin which is a part of Justification I even even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and so their everlasting salvation Ephes 2.5 By grace ye are saved In these mercies the people of God come not in so much as by way of motive much lesse by way of merit But God doth these meerly and immediately for his own sake The reason of this difference is because these temporall mercies and deliverances finde them the people of God but election justification c. make them the people of God those finde them qualified persons these bestow these qualifications upon them And therefore learn to distinguish of mercies and to prize and put in for your share in those mercies which purely and unmixtly are in and from and for and to himself Isai 55.3 The sure mercies of David Second branch of Information See and admire the love of God to his Church and people They were taken out of the same pit and hewn out of the same rock with the rest of the world they had all one Father and Mother and yet see what a difference God makes between them Surely as much as he makes between men and the beasts of the earth he gives them as bread to his people to feed upon he makes them as sacrifices for the expiation of his wrath towards his people when his wrath goes forth armed as it were against his people he commands it to turn aside and satisfie it self with the blood of mighty Nations and great ones of the world that rise up against the Church He makes them but as the Rams to be sacrificed to divine Justice in the room of his Isaacs And if this be such an honour What is it then that he gave his own onely Son not the Creature but the Creator Heb. 1.3 Isai 53.6 Rom. 8.32 John 6.55 The brightnesse of his glory and the expresse form of his person to be a Sacrifice of Expiation a Propitiation to be as it were a devotum Caput upon which he layes the iniquities of all his Elect to deliver him up to death for them and then to give his Body and Blood to be their spirituall meat and drink to life eternall Here is love indeed Love above all expression above all admiration John 3.26 So God loved the world c. Oh labour to get interest in this Love and you are made for ever Thirdly Take notice how vainly and ignorantly the Philosophers and other wisemen of the world have discoursed of the Rise and Ruine of the Nations and Kingdoms of the world They have dreamt of the periods of Monarchies and States Vid. Victor Strigel Aphoris Polit. Johan a Cokier Aphorism Polit. The 〈◊〉 whereof some make 50 some 100 some 300 the 〈◊〉 500 yeers the great Astrologers have consulted the Stars and the Influences and Houses of the Heavens But they have not consulted the God of the Stars the Maker and Upholder of Heaven and Earth They have not consulted Gods Oracles where this great Mystery is revealed and the Reasons and Causes of all these alterations and confusions that befall the great and mighty Empires and Dominions of the World discovered to the sons of men namely the deliverance and enlargement of the Church and therein the propagation and exaltation of the Kingdom of his dear Son the Lord Jesus Christ the great end of ends they have been ignorant of The wayes of God they have known And as blinde and ignorant are the Kings and Nations of the world who while they make war one with another pull down and destroy each other as here the Medes and Persians come to conquer and subdue the Babylonian Empire little know or consider who sets them on work as God speaks to

as it were a propitiatory Sacrifice for their Countrey and Nation Such was M. Curtius among the Romans who in the time of a great casm or opening of the Earth in Rome cast himself into the Gulf to appease the angry deity However this was a blinde and unwarrantable superstition among the Heathen yet the Text may allude to it I gave Egypt for thy ransome Ethiopia and Saba for thee That is when Sennacherib made his Expedition against Judah and Jerusalem to destroy and lay it waste Cyril ego effeci ut pro Judaea Sennacheribo objiceretur Ethiopia Egyptus Saba quasi victima piacularis loco Judeae ab eo mactanda I caused him to return from Judah and Jerusalem and I diverted his Expedition upon Ethiopia and Egypt and gave them as piacular Sacrifices to be offered up to divine Justice instead of Jerusalem I gave Egypt for thy ransom And thus God did once and again as I might shew you had I time out of Isai 37.9,37 prophesied of Isa 20.4 According to that of the Proverbs 11.8 The righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead Gods people are the Isaac spared and rescued when even the knife is at their throat and the wicked the enemies of the Church as the Ram caught by the horns and sacrificed in their stead So here Israel delivered out of Captivity and the Babylonians sacrificed in their room to Divine Justice and God reconciled to Israel Feci commutationem tuam Egyptum Isa 43.4 And to this purpose the Septuagint read it I have given Egypt c. by way of exchange for thee And so the Text reads on I will give men for thee and people for thy life This may be the first sense For thee or for thy sake 2. For thee In commodum tuum In liberationem tuam I have sent Cyrus to Babylon for thee that is for thy good for thy enlargement and deliverance out of Captivity to serve thee as Isai 45.13 He shall let go my captives c. 3. But yet further for thee may imply respect had by God in sending Cyrus to Babylon to his people though not by way of merit yet by way of motive and that in a fourfold respect 1. The love he bears to their persons God hath an high esteem of his people So he tells them in the fourth verse of this Chapter Isa 43.4 Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life So God loves his people that rather then they shall miscarry Nations and people shall go to confusion Psal 116.15 Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his Saints Yea so precious that God accounts the world no better then the first Chaos unlesse he have a people of his own to dwell in it Isa 45.18 For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens God himself that formed the earth and made it he established it he created it not in vain he formed it to be inhabited It is an argument whereby God comforts his people That he will save his Israel vers 17. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord c. What security Heaven and Earth both were lost if Israel be not saved He created it not in vain It is in vain such is Gods love if he have not an Israel to inhabite it 2. The love the Lord bears to their prayers Look in what language the Church prays Isa 63.17 Isa 63.17 Return for thy servants sake the tribes of thine inheritance in the same God answers them here For your sake have I sent to Babylon So runs the promise Isa 65.24 Before they call I will answer and while they are yet speaking I will hear Hezekiahs prayers are an hook in the nostrils and a bridle in the lips of the Babylonish Plunderer Isa 37.25 c. compared with vers 29. I tell The Saints of the Most High God can pray down Empires and Kingdoms and the Towers and Castles and Walls of the proudest enemies It is safer standing before the mouth of a Canon then before the prayers of the Saints The Queen of the Scots You know who feared the prayers of Knox more then all the Forces of England Indeed the prayers of the Saints are the plagues of the world It is observable Revel 8.3,4,5 that Censer which received the prayers of the Saints emptied forth fire and voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes c. that which went up Prayer comes down plagues No wonder since Christ is so taken with the prayers of his Church that by his good will he would never have the sound of that Musick out of his ears Oh my Dove that art art in the clefts of the rock in the secret places of the stairs let me see thy countenance and hear thy voice For sweet is thy voice c. 3. The Relation wherein the Saints stand towards God takes much upon his heart Servants Sons Daughters Friends the Spouse of Christ Why what will not a man do for these Relations sake And will not the great God much more engage himself for his people which stand in this Relation to him since he is the Fountain of all that love and fidelity which fills these Relations among men 4. The Image of God is stampt upon them and therefore he doth such great things for their sake Heb. 1.3 cum Ephes 4.24 Coloss 3.10 As Christ is the Image of God so the Saints are the Image of Christ insomuch that you may hear God saying unto them Zech. 2.8 He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye In these respects God may be said to do all these things for his peoples sake sc For the love he bears to their Persons Prayers Relation Image And yet all these may be resolved into an higher fountain out of which all these do flow and it is fourfold also I will but name them 1. For free graces sake as in that Proclamation Exod. 33.19 I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy 2. For his Covenants sake Psal 105.8 He hath remembred his Covenant for ever the word which he commanded to a thousand generations Psal 106.45 Psal 111.5 And he remembred for them his Covenant He hath given meat to them that fear him he will ever be mindfull of his Covenant God looks upon his Covenant and then accounts it but his engagement to do great things for his people 3. For his Christs sake So Daniel prayed when he wrestled with God for this very mercy which here God promiseth Dan. 9.17 Deliverance out of Captivitie O our God hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary which is desolate for the Lords sake Isa 49.8,9 42.1 Matth. 3.17 Christ is his Fathers

therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do and utter evill O draw out your sword to execute judgement against such enemies of Jesus Christ That others may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly Fifthly For the Lords sake Look to his poor Members that suffer O hear the complaints of your poor Brethren that are opprest by inferiour Committees in any part of the Kingdom that none that sit under your shadow may have just cause to say You have pull'd down one Star-Chamber and set up hundreds Look to your wounded Souldiers to the poor women that have been made widows and children that have been made fatherlesse in the Parliaments Service Their cry is gone up to Heaven O let their cry enter into your ears Look to these Families many whereof have been of good estates that by this unnaturall War and for owning you and your work have been driven from their habitations destitute and naked and have fled to this City of Refuge so God hath made London to seek for shelter and relief Or O that you would give us leave to look to them and provide for them by making some other provisions for your wounded Souldiers that the Collections in the City might be imployed for the relief of such as are ready to give up the ghost at our doors or lie languishing at home chusing rather almost to die then to discover their wants and necessities Know ye not that thousands are ready to perish for want of bread among us and we have not wherewith to relieve their souls This is a work that much concerns Jesus Christ for he hath said it Matth. 25.45 In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these ye have done it unto me Sixthly For the Lords sake Stand by your friends and the friends of Christ and his Cause Herein you stand by Jesus Christ himself The enemy have gained much but the God would not suffer them to keep it by their fidelity or policy rather to their friends O come not short of them in point of fidelity nor let the children of this world be alwayes wiser in their generations then the children of light Let none have just cause to say We suffer for our good will to the Parliament if you can help it You have the better Cause stand by it and it will stand by you I come now to speak a word in the last place to all that stand before God this day and the whole people of this Kingdom God hath done great things for your sakes also as you have heard And now what will you do for the Lords sake There be but two or three things that in this strait of time I shall commend to you as proper returns for these great deliverances and victories First Since God hath brought down your enemies abroad do you labour to bring down his enemies at home God hath avenged you in the blood of base and wicked men do you avenge God in the blood of your base and sinfull lusts God hath pulled down the strong holds of your enemies and made them fall before you do you down with these strong holds within every one of you 2 Cor. 10.5,6 whereby Jesus Christ hath been kept out of your hearts Brethren better it is to perish by the lusts of our enemies then by our own lusts and better the enemy had prevailed and blasphemed God with their tongues then we delivered to reproach and blaspheme God by our lives Hear what an angry question God asks Jer. 7.9,10 Will ye steal murder and commit adultery and swear falsely and burn Incense unto Baal and walk after other gods whom we know not and come and stand before me in this house which called by my Name and say We are delivered to do all these abominations O let us not be the reproach of victories let us not sin against much lesse sin upon sin because of our deliverances It is pity fair weather should do any harm Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise O let us put these lusts to flight to death whose cry hath been in Gods ears calling for vengeance so long on us and on the Nation God hath given us the heads of our enemies let us give God the heads of our corruptions Secondly God hath made our enemies a Sacrifice for us and we are as the Scape-Goat as Isaac Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God wichh is your reasonable service This is indeed a reasonable service that he that hath redemeed us should have us 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God with your bodies and souls which are Gods Thirdly Let us still own the Cause which we see God still owns and serve it with our Estates our Counsells our Prayers our persons and if need be our lives and blood Christ hath not deserted us let not us desert Christ And to this purpose Let us all both Parliament and people Remember our Covenant Let us often read over our Covenant and live up with our Covenant and act up with our Covenant and reform up with our Covenant It is a fearfull thing to let a Covenant lie by the walls as worm-eaten Paper it is a fearfull thing to take a Covenant as it were for no other end then to aggravate our sins that as the Light turns sin into rebellion so the Covenant might aggravate rebellion into perjury How may we expect for this That God should strengthen the hand and sharpen the sword of the enemy which for a while he hath in mercy weakned and blunted and let it in upon us with Commission Levit. 26.25 To avenge the quarrell of the Covenant O let us be wise to Salvation and say with David Psal 116.12,14 What shall I render to the Lord for all his mercies I will pay my vows unto the Lord And again Psal 56.12 Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praise unto thee Now therefore holy Bretheren Partakers of the Heavenly Calling let us every one in our stations and callings stir up our selves to be active for God who hath been mighty for us And for your encouragement take this precious and I hope prevailing motive it is the hint and evidence I promised you even now and with which I will conclude Hereby we shall know that we are of the number of those for whose sake God hath done these great things and will do yet greater when we finde our hearts raised and enlarged to do great things for him By this we may know God doth all for us when we do all for him He hears us when we have an heart to hear him If we finde such a frame of heart here is comfort indeed Deliverances and deliverances for our sake Victories and victories not onely by divine leave but with divine love love to our persons and love to our prayers c. These be deliverances indeed Victories worth the having victories of Gods Israel Gen. 32.28 such as of Jacobs wrestlers have become Israels Princes to prevail with God and men O let us study this It is the spirituall and the best part of our mercies a divine impression and argument of the love of God upon our spirits Surely There is not a more glorious sight on this side Heaven then to see a God doing great things for a people and a people doing great things for their God The Lord be such a God to us and make us such a people to him and we are happy for ever Amen FINIS