Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	good_a	jesus_n	lord_n	6,127	5	3.5800	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89583	A sermon preached to the Honorable House of Commons assembled in Parliament: at their late solemne fast, Januar. 26. 1647. at Margarets Westminster. / By Steven Marshall, B.D.	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1648 (1648)	Wing M780; Thomason E423_27; ESTC R204300	29,725	48

to have peace with God and peace with our conscience and peace with the creatures and joy in the holy Ghost to have all things in this world turn'd to their good and in the end to be delivered from death and hell and to reigne with God and our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven for evermore such things as these the Kingdome of Heaven doth bring with it now would you wonder that any man should be sick of love as the Church said shee was that doth but see this face wee use to say that for the summum bonum for the chief good excesse of affection can have no excesse the highest affection that any living man can expresse cannot bee supposed to have an excesse in it when it is for that is the superlative good of all others I have but one Question or two briefly to cleare and then my way is plaine to the Application It may be demanded First What use is there of a violent spirit in the pursuit of the Kingdome of Heaven Can wee by searching finde out the Almighty is this Race to the swift or this Battle to the strong doth any mans eagernesse and violence of spirit purchase this at Gods hand is it in our power by our labour to carry it is not all in this work of Gods free Grace who shewes mercy to whom hee will shew mercy and to what purpose then is that violence of the spirit To that I answer it is certainly true that no wisedome of man can search the Kingdome of heaven out the Vultures eye never saw it it is a path that the Lion never walked in and the wayes of it are hid from all flesh it is as high as heaven wee can doe nothing the search of it is deeper then the Center of the earth wee cannot know it Man knoweth not the price of it neither is it found in the land of the living the depth saith It is not in me and the Sea saith It is not in me it cannot be gotten for gold neither shall silver be weighed for the price of it it is hid from the eyes of all living God onely understandeth the wayes thereof and giveth it to whom hee pleaseth and if any man should thinke that his eagernesse or violence of spirit could purchase it he and his labours must perish together this is certaine but though this bee true yet the Lord who is the free giver of it hath order'd that it shall bee sought after this manner partly as a signe and token that wee esteeme it in its due place and partly as the meanes that he pleaseth to blesse and his promise is that they who seeke it as silver and search for it as for hid treasure shall find understanding and the fear of the Lord and besides all this there is that reason in nature for it that whatever the heart doth once place the greatest felicitie in it can doe no other but it must follow it with all its might But it may be once again demanded Doth not the Scripture say it is easie and if it bee so quors●m haec to what purpose should violence be ufed to take a Fort that will be taken without violence Christ saith my yoke is easie and my burthen light a slight labour may serve for an easie yoak a weak shoulder is enough for a light burthen To which I answer Never did yet any man read in Gods book that the obtaining of the Kingdome of Heaven was an easie matter Christ-saith it is hard to be saved that straight is the way and narrow is the gate and wee must labour at it and many will cry Lord Lord that shall not finde it many shall seek but not enter because they strive not to enter but neverisaith it is easie Indeed when once the soule hath learned to conforme to Christ when they have learned of him to bee humble and meek then Christs yoak is easie and so it is in other things if a man have given his heart to doe the Devills drudgery it is an easie thing for him to sweare and whore and drinke and drab and dice and commit villanies this abominable drudgery is easie to a mans spirit that delights in it and to travell from countrey to countrey to fight and be wounded and all these things are easie to spirits that suit them it was easie for Iacob 14. yeers together to watch and toyle when it was for his beloved Rachel In all things finis dat is amabilitatem facilitatem the pleasing end propounded and aimed at makes the meanes sweet and easie though difficult and hard in themselves So when the love of heaven is got into the heart of man then it is easie with him it is pleasing to his nature suitable to his spirit to spend and be spent to be any thing to doe any thing that he might get it but otherwise the things themselves are hard to be got I have nothing behind but the Application of it and that shall bee in these two Uses First This Lesson doth afford us very much matter of humiliation and mourning upon this day of our soule affliction and secondly it is a Lesson that affords us excellent direction for discharge of our necessary dutie for time to come First for mourning Doe all that are rightly affected with the Kingdome of Heaven offer violence to it in this way that I have discover'd to you how sad then is the condition of most in England this day wee all professe our selves to bee the children of the Kingdome wee are by a certaine generall profession of Christianitie numbred among them that call our selves the servants and followers of this Kingdome but are wee true borne or are wee Bastards This lesson will determine it First How many are there to bee found in England who in stead of offering violence to get the Kingdome of heaven doe offer violence against the Kingdome of heaven and doe all they can to rush upon the kingdom of heaven to destroy it and beat it down who do not only with the Gadarens intreat Christ to be gone from them but with those disobedient subjects send him word he shall not paign over them with them of Nazareth seek to tumble him downe the brow of the hill upon which their Citie was built willing to use all labours and travell yea all violence that the Gospel and Ordinances wherein this Kingdome is administred might bee disgraced crushed banished beaten downe Of these men I can say no more but this their damnation sleepeth not they may in words professe Christ but certainly in their workes they absolutely deny him and ruine will be their end Secondly How sadly doth this speak against the generality of people yea I fear against the greatest part of our selves who are here before the Lord this day God in mercy open al our eyes to see it and powre so much grace into our hearts that wee may aright

What by the Kingdome of Heavens suffering violence By the Kingdome of Heaven in one word both here and at least in 100. other places of the New Testament is meant the administration of the Covenant of grace after Jesus Christ was exhibited in the flesh the last best administration of the covenant of Grace The Kingdome of Heaven is come to you The Kingdome of Heaven is like a Merchant man The Kingdome of Heaven shall be taken from you c. all these expressions are nothing but the administration of the Covenant of Grace under Messiah and this is called the Kingdome of Heaven not onely in opposition to the kingdomes of the world other politique Commonwealths but principally I thinke in opposition to the spirituall kingdome of the Devill which is the kingdome of darknesse and leads people to destruction and this administration is called the Kingdome of Heaven partly because the Prince and Soveraigne Lord of it is the Lord from Heaven and hath his throne in Heaven and partly because all the subjects of it are made Heavenly in their conversations partly because all the good things communicated to them doe come from Heaven and principally because the Kingdome of glory that is to be injoyed in Heaven and the administration of the Covenant of Grace here upon earth are all but one and the same thing onely that is the upper Region this the inferior there is the Metropoliticall Citie and these are as it were the Suburbs and the Countrey Villages but all is one Kingdome there is nothing there but what is enjoy'd here only with these two differences that here the Kingdome of Heaven is mix'd and imperfect mix'd with corruption mix'd with affliction and the graces of it not perfectly communicated and there it is simple and pure and entire without any defect or mixture and here it is administred in ordinances and received by faith there it is administred immediatly and enjoyed by sight but otherwise I know no difference Heaven there and Heaven here to the Saints is all but one Kingdome therefore it is called the Kingdome of Heaven Secondly and what is meant by the Kingdome of heaven suffering violence I confesse some Interpreters say that Heaven suffers violence that is suffers persecution adversaries doe rush upon it but so it cannot be said that the violent take it for these violent men doe not take but lose the Kingdome of Heaven who persecute it but my Text speakes of such violent men as take and enjoy it The Arminans say that by the suffering violence is meant the persecuting of it to the taking of it away not the taking of it to themselves but the taking of it away from others and will not let people lay hold upon it nor enter into it but our Lord himself interprets the meaning in the 16. of Luke 16. where that of this story is related There Christ saith and from the dayes of Iohn the Kingdome of God is preached and every one presseth into it So that the suffering of violence here is that the Kingdome of Heaven is assaulted by violence of those that will have it what ever it cost them all who are rightly informed and instructed in the Kingdome of Heaven doe with contention and earnestnesse of spirit break through all difficulties use all diligence that they may enjoy the Kingdome of Heaven as their portion what ever it cost them In a word what Paul saith of his own practice Philip 3. is a cleere interpretation of this Text I do count all drosse and dung that I might gaine Christ I make shipwrack of all I looke at nothing that I have already got but I still looke for that which is before me I presse forward if by any meanes I may attaine to the resurrection of the dead Now you have the meaning since Iohn hath cleerly discover'd the Kingdome of Heaven the spirits of men are so fired that there is no taking of them off but with all the violence possible they all labour and endeavour to advance it and to get into it and from this there are two excellent lessons to be handled I 'le onely name one of them and handle the other The first is That the administration of the Covenant of grace in the Gospel of Christ is no other thing then the very Kingdome of Heaven nothing lesse then the very Kingdome of Heaven let the men of the world slight it esteeme it a bondage a drudgery yet it 's no lesse then a Kingdome yea a Kingdome of Heaven which doth transcend all the Kingdomes of this world as far as Heaven is above the earth that is one I dare say nothing of that lest I bee prevented the other is That all who are rightly affected to the Kingdome of Heaven offer violence to it Violence it is a motion above the meane beyond mediocrity it is a motion with greatest intention and indeavour this is the lesson I would Preach to you that whoever are rightly affected to the Kingdome of Heaven doe use their utmost endeavour and offer violence to it let mee first make it cleer to you that it is so and then I 'le hasten to the Application That it is so if you please but to weigh these three or foure things it will bee beyond all question That every where in the Booke of God where the endeavours of men are described who look after Heaven these endeavours I say are expressed by all the indefatigable paines that are laid out about any thing in the world the most laborious trade of a Husbandman of a Traveller of a Warfaring man of a Merchant are usually brought to expresse the labours of men that look after heaven yea such exercises which are too violent for any to make a trade or ordinary practise of are used to set out the violence of their labour who strive for the Kingdome of heaven as running a race striving for masteries or victories in the Olympick games 1 Cor. 9. 24. c. Know yee not that they who run in a race ran all but one receiveth the Garland so run that yee may obtain c. The affections with which they are carried to it are ordinarily so expressed that all the love they beare to any thing else is hatred if compar'd with the love they beare to this Christ saith in the 14. of Luke If any man will bee my disciple and hate not father and mother and wife and children and life and all that he hath and himselfe also hee cannot be my Disciple Now certainly the Lord doth not meane positively the Gospel doth not teach any man to hate his father or his mother or his wife or children it is against nature and against the Gospel but the Lord meanes comparatively that take all the love that they bear to their own lives or to what ever is deare to them as Iacobs love to Leah was hatred when compar'd with his affection to Rachel so all