Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	heart_n	heaven_n	love_v	5,566	5	5.9099	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95864	A sermon preached to the Honorable House of Commons; at their late solemne fast, December, 28. Wherein is described 1. The church her patience: 2. Her hope. In the exercise of both which graces, she is enabled to waite upon God in the way of his judgements: in which divers cases are propounded and resolved. That the soul sick of love, doth with more difficulty endure the absence of Christ, then the present evils of this world. By Thomas Valentine, Rector of Chalfont in Buckinghamshire. Published by order of that House.	Valentine, Thomas, 1585 or 6-1665?	1643 (1643)	Wing V26; Thomason E86_32; ESTC R12382	44,658	51

think not the meane space too long but consider that there will be time enough for our embracings in another world eternitie will give thee thy full content And till then if enemies defame thee I will clear thy innocencie if they do thee wrong I will right thee if thou loose any thing for my sake I will abundantly recompence thee I will be better unto thee then friends children pleasures preferments I will stay thee with flagons of wine and com●ort thee with apples I will refresh thee with the best dainties that heaven can afford I will not estrange my love from thee and though thou canst not enjoy me fully yet we will see one another and daily speak one to another thou shalt be as neer me as is possible I will set thee as a seal upon my heart We may with Cynicke light a candle at noon day search for a man that is sick of love and impatient for want of heaven and a signet upon my hand I will look upon thee and love thee all the promises contained in the Bible I make over to thee and because they are thy portion I have given thee a heart to studie them and peruse them and all the good contained in them at my coming I will bestow on thee and whereas malefactors never long for the coming of the Judge but the innocent who hope to be absolved therefore I have put it into thy heart to cry Come Lord Jesus come quickly Vse And now to wind up all in a brief application He that waits upon God must stand before him upon these two feet his patience and his hope and such as want these graces cannot attend him and if there were no other motive then the doing of this service it might be sufficient to perswade us to labour for them But leaving the particulars I urge the main dutie of waiting upon God 1. It is a service wherein all the servants of God in all ages are put together they must all draw in this yoke the Jews waited long for the promised Land and longer for their Messiah Old Jacob upon his deathbed uttered this sentence Luk. 2.25 O Lord I have waited for thy salvation Simeon and many others waited for the consolation in Israel Some have waited long for health for employment for preferment others have waited for knowledge for pardon and assurance of Gods love all wait for heaven and the fruition of God therefore let none object against it seeing it is a dutie in which all are engaged 2. It is a dutie highly commended and shall be liberally rewarded God is the bestower of blessings and his wisdom can find the fittest time to give them in and he that quietly waits honours God and shall not loose by it Isa 31.18 Blessed is the man that waits on God Every man that prayes and seeks cannot wait We must learn self-deniall else the want of blessings will make us impatient the longer we wait the greater will be our reward Isa 64.4 5. It hath not been perceived by the eye or eare what things God will give to them that wait for him and then it follows Thou meetest him that rejoyceth God will do great things for such as wait for him and he will meet them in the mid way when they think God is not mindfull of them he is coming upon the way with a blessing in his hand He that waits is best prepared for deliverance when he mentions it not A hastie suitor moves the King for a reward of his service but he sped nere the better for Euripides standing by and saying nothing for himself did by his silence obtain that which the other moved for Tu dignus es ad accipiendum etiam non po●ens and when the King gave it he gave this testimonie of him Thou art worthy to receive it even because thou dost not ask it Such as are afflicted should pray to be bettered before they be delivered every one now would be glad of quiet times because of trading and their temporall estates pray to receive good from God by these troubles and wait for thy deliverance 3. If we wait not patiently we run upon our own danger the husbandman after he hath sowne his ground yet waits till his corn be come up Lun 5.7 8. till it be full ripe and will not reap before the harvest A woman with child desires to go her full time though she came her burthen and treads many a wearie step yet she would not come before her time for she knows it would be dangerous to her self and her child The Church of England is now great and we hope ere long will be delivered of the goodliest and fairest Child that ever she brought forth and we have need to be put into a positure of patience to wait Gods leasure Isa 37.3 till he gives strength to bring forth the Child of Reformation which lies strugling in the wombe Errata Pag. 5. lin 6. for mists are belowe read mists blowe p. 11. for is this r. this is impatience FINIS

bring him meate he cannot have patience or Secondly from Love as a loving wife whose husband is gone into a far Countrey she longs for his coming home and takes little joy of any thing till she see him returned if she did not love him so much she would not be so troubled And so is the Church impatient till Christ come to her which ariseth from that exceeding love she beares to him and because love admits of no long delay therefore it you aske why the soule cannot be more patient I answer because she is sicke of Love and so the Church is not ashamed to professe Cant. 2.5 And as Christ spake in another case so I may speake in this This sicknesse is not unto death nay it is the beginning and a good measure of eternall life Oh! if I knew it were no worse it would abate my griefe For thy satisfaction I will breifly describe what it is to be sicke of Love that thereby thou may judge of that impatience that comes from Love The soul that hath a more full apprehension and a clearer light to see the admirable excellencies of Jesus Christ is rapt and ravished with love towards him and love being the commanding affection of the soule is carried towards him in an unresistable manner for Love is strong as death and will not endure any thing to come betweene it and the object Love carries the soul out of a mans self Amor pont● amantem extra se Aqui● and placeth it upon the partie loved it makes it to be in two bodies It is pleased and delighted in the object it feeds it self with present contentment Amor est sui pabulum and hope of future enjoyment it thinks often of the divine perfections that are in Christ it beholds him in all his works with admiration especially in that which was his Master-peice our Redemption It viewes his rare properties of goodnesse holinesse puritie meeknesse humilitie c. And all set in the sweetest and most amiable disopsition that ever was it observes with what a Heavenly disposition he conversed among men how willingly he instructed them in the mysteries of salvation how readily he condescended to the ignorant and weake how gracious he was to great offenders when once he saw them penitent how wisely he answered the questions of his cavilling adversaries and put them all to silence Matth. 22.46 Whereupon it concludes not onely in point of affection but Judgement that he is the cheifest among ten thousand Cant. 5.10 And if God should shew us his glory and make all his good to passe before us as once he did to Moses Exod. 33.19 yet we could not thinke well enough of him for our thoughts could not comprehend his excellency nor could we love him according to his worth and therefore we cannot erre in our Love It is no blind doting affection as for the most part is among friends The Church may give full scope to her affections and she is so farre from longing too much she can never love enough but her love being well grounded she is constant and firmly setled and if she think any thing should separate it would be as death and delayes is very irksome she longs for her Saviour and knows reason for her longing which women men with child do not and yet if they be not satisfied they will miscarrie so the Church in her longing agrees in the perill but differs in the cause And the Church is sick partly because the object of her desires is so glorious that it overcomes the spirit as the very smell of strong water will overcome the brain and the glorious beams of the sunne will dazle the eye So Christ the King of glorie offering himself to his Church doth amaze and overwhelme the soul more then Saul did David by offering him his daughter to wife and to make him son in law to a King And also the want of Christ works in the soul as a disease in the bodie The fears and cares in the Church which are in every beleeving heart lest she should not enjoy Christ are as the cold fits in an Ague and by such faintings such pantings and short breathing you may easily conclude there is sicknesse and every soul in such a case discovers love for it cannot long lie hid and such as are sick of love are sick for Christ and long after him and languish for him and will never be cured till they enjoy him and it is no wonder if they be impatient nay it were not well if it were not so If any that have enjoyed God in his ordinances and found the sweetnesse of them should be debarred for a yeer or more from the Word and Sacraments love would make the soul impatient of that time and account it very long and cry out with David Psal 42.1 2. When shall I come and appear before God in Sion And if in the lesse then it holds in the greater that the time seems long till we enjoy Christ And as the former so this comes from love and they are sick of love that find it in themselves And it will further appear 1. In the ordinarie times of meeting love will not suffer us to stay away unlesse in case of urgent necessitie for as the persons that are in love cannot but go to meet each other so the beleever cannot stay at home when occasions of meeting are offered where Christ is there she would be and therefore according to his own direction she goes to the Shepheards tents Cant. 1.7 where she is not satisfied with the place nor the dutie nor the ordinance but she must injoy Christ himself she must see him and hear his voice and her heart is therewith contented and burns within her if either he be silent and will not speak or if he hide himself and will not be seen or do appear frowning then she is down in her spirit and much dejected she mourns secretly and is sick at heart she presently apprehends his anger and would do any thing to appease him she would humble her soul as lowe as may be and kisse the dust if there be hope that he will look kindly again upon her Lam. 3.29 and till she see the light of his countenance and behold his power and glory in the sanctuarie as in former times Psal 63.2 and till she find the joyfull sence and feeling of his loving kindnesse in her heart she mourns as a woman forsaken or divorced takes joy in nothing is very impatient of his absence but never blames her Saviour but imputes the cause of her sorrow to her own ill carriage and misdemeanour and thereupon she takes up new lamentations over her old corruptions and gives not over her confessions and prayers till he again return to her in mercie which when he pleaseth to do she is the more joyfull by the driving away of her former fears and griefs and as friends meet more lovingly and greet more heartily after

a time of absence so do Christ and his Church the Father and his prodigall sonne make not more merrie the Bridegroome and the Bride rejoyce not more then Christ and his Spouse do upon their renewed amitie and agreement 2. In times and occasions extraordinarie if she sees her Saviour in any mercie in any joyes of the spirit or in any deliverance or in the granting of her requests especially in such things as respects her soul and salvation she is moved her blood stirs within her and all the powers of her soul are quickned and revived if she hear him speak not onely in the sound of words Cant. 2.14 but the efficacie of his spirit she cannot sit still but riseth and cries it is the voice of my well-beloved Cant. 2.8 And if these two sences which let in and let out love were not exercised in seeing and hearing Christ she could not with any patience wait for him Cap 5.16 Let me see thy countenance and hear thy voice for it is sweet and comely But these stay her heart and therefore we from hence conclude what she is sick of A Physitian knows the disease and by the operation of his medicines he still is confirmed in his knowledge for if hot things do good then he knows the disease comes of cold causes so if we would know whether we be sick of love observe what allayes thy grief and what encreaseth it if nothing but the fruition of Christ himself will cure thee and secondly nothing but that which is next to fruition namely seeing and hearing of Christ will asswage thy distressed heart then know thou art sick of love Ob. But then it may be thou wilt reply and say this is poore comfort to tell me that I am sick I knew that before and my griefs plainly shew it Ans I answer that to know thy particular disease is more then to know in generall thou art sick and it is a skilfull Physitian that can discover the disease and if before or now thou knowest this thou may for ever rejoyce for wheras many are sick for the satisfaction of their lusts as Ammon for Tamar thou art sick for Christ and shalt undoubtedly be cured This disease shews not weaknesse but the excellencie of the temper of the soul and being so noble a disposition of an heavenly heart is not properly a disease but onely by way of resemblance as sick persons longing for somewhat so is the soul for Christ But as the fruition of the Bridegroome can cure the love sick Bride so Christ onely must do it the Preachers of the Word are but the friends of the Bridegroome and cannot do it but let me do a friendly office I will bring thee before him whom thou lovest and put a few words into thy mouth which thou must utter I will frame thee a short Petition which thou must thy self deliver O my Saviour my Joy my Crown The love sick soul breaths out some such ejaculations the top and height of all my hopes thou hast ravished my soul with thy divine perfections and raised my poore lowe spirit to an higher pitch then ever by the power of nature it could have attained unto I did affect such things as pleased my eye and eare and should have doted to this day upon sencible objects but now I see that all things under the Sun are meer vanities fading flowers and perishing delights thou hast revealed better things unto me and I see by a new light the things that concern my happines thou hast set before me the joyes of heaven and hast shewed me the excellency of that estate wherein the soul enjoyes communion with thee and now I do condemne all my former sinfull delights and being grown to yeers of understanding I admire how simple I was when I was a child but much more do I wonder at the foolish delights of my unregeneracie I find all things that then did possesse my mind to be in comparison of thee no better then childish toyes I now relinquish and renounce them but my heart is stirred with restlesse desires after thee and oh how am I pained till I come unto thee and how am I more unquiet in my thoughts then when I slept securely in my sins how is my spirit reaching after that which I cannot compasse nothing but thy self O my Saviour will satisfie and while I am absent in the bodie how shall I do to live without thee especially seeing I am in the midst of so many adversaries that daily grieve my soul sometimes I hear men blaspheming thy blessed name others are breaking out into odious and disgracefull speeches against thy truth and the wayes of Religion other fall upon thy people and offer them all the hardship and ill usage that wit and malice can devise and thy poore Church is as a ship upon the Sea in a storme as a traveller in the wildernesse in a mistie dark day as all creatures in Winter that are half dead for want of the heat of the Sunne thy turtle Dove is frighted by every ravening bird thy flock is exposed to the rage of each devouring woolfe and what with fears that do fall upon my trembling heart and the want of good that my spirit is set upon I am restlesse and know not what to do tell me O thou whom my soul loves how I can be patient and wait till thou come unto me though thou should be as a young Hart and a Roe upon the mountains Cant. 2.17 Christ by his Spirit will return some such answer O my Spouse my welbeloved how am I troubled for thee how do I grieve with thee how willingly would I ease thee of thy fears and griefs if I had not other works in hand that must not be hindred I would soon deliver thee out of thine enemies hands but that I purpose by thine afflictions to raise thee to greater honour and to bring them to greater shame I will in due time come and wipe away all thy tears and remove all thy fears and put thee in possession of glory And for the quieting of thy longing desires and setling of thy impatient heart remember it was honour enough unto thee that I espoused thee unto me that I entred into covenant with thee and am become thine and thou art mine I loved thee when thou wast naked deformed and in thy blood I found thee poore and have enriched thee a miserable captive and have ransomed thee I laid down my life for thee and let out my own blood to cure thee thou art dear unto me and precious in mine eye thou shalt be unto me as the loving Hinde and pleasant Roe and I will delight in thy love continually and that our joy may be full I will a while defer our marriage that thou may be made more beautifull and more pleasing to me I will remove every spot and wrinkle all thy sins and the fruits of them both from soul and bodie and

Cap. 27.46 I am weari● of my life because of them Others in our dayes say these are pitifull times trading is decayed the treasure of the Kingdom is exhausted all things are out of frame In these and the like expressions where corruption appears I am now to speak to it by way of reproof The causes of Impatience are 1. The crosse lies in somewhat that is too dear unto us Foure causes of impatience and self-self-love may be the cause of this impatience Rachel mourns and will not be comforted for her children Jacob is impatient of Benjamins going out of his sight and the reason is he loved him more then was meet An when once we are lost in our affections to any thing the crosse proves heavie and we pull it upon our selves It is just with God to punish us in that thing we idolize And if we cannot moderate our affections we pull a double evill upon our selves 1. To be bereaved of that which is dear unto us 2. We shall not be able to bear the losse of it If we joy too much in any thing when we loose it we shall mourn too much and then in stead of pitie from friends we should have a reproof Impatience discovers men for you shall find that in some things they can bear it better then in others and if they be most tachie and peevish when crossed in matter of profit or pleasure or name and reputation a Heathen concluded that then they are covetous or ambitious or luxurious An impatient man is guiltie of a double fault one past in his irregular affections an other present in his ill carriage to God or man in the losse of that which is taken from him 2. Anoth●r cause of Impatience is ignorance of God when we see God in a crosse we submit but if not we are perverse We see a great deal of difference in David towards Shimei and Nabal both of them give him ill language and Shimei was worse then the other yet he is more patient towards him then Nabal and the reason is he saw God more in his reproachfull termes then the other God hath bidden him curse saith he and therefore he will bear it If a man meet the King and know him not he will not give him due reverence And if we acknowledge not God in our crosses no wonder if we be impatient It is in this case as with the owners of the Asses colt if you say the Lord hath need of him they will let him go saith our Saviour so when we part with our estates if the Lord have need of them let them go Let us offer as Araunah did our barnes and all that is on the barn-floore our oxen or any thing we have but unlesse we know it is the Lord that requires them we shall hardly submit and scarce then unlesse nature be subdued by a higher and more powerfull principle 3. A third cause of impatience is the distemper of the constitution of the bodie for it comes from passion and that is from the passive principle in man where choller abounds there the soul works distemperedly for all actions taste and have a ta●g of the humour that is predominant and though passions and passionate expressions are to be ascribed to the mind yet all actions elicited and acted by the bodie partake of the naturall temper It is inbred and setled and hardly overcome and so it is both a sin and a great affliction to them that are sensible of it Passions are the feet of the soul they are in the sensitive appetite and when they grow inordinate they are the diseases of the mind the depravers of reason the disturbers of the understanding whereby wise men speak nothing do nothing like themselves It is a weaknesse to have passions a greater weaknesse to be conquered by them Therefore when the people gave too much to the Apostles to take down that opinion Act. 14.15 they alledge they were men subiect to like passions as themselves intimating that it is a weaknesse and belowe a wise man to have passions in him And for conclusion consider that when we are commanded Luk. 21.19 to possesse our souls in patience it appears that by passion and impatience we are dispossessed of our souls of our understanding of our joy and comfort and peace for that time that passion bears sway A patient man doth quietly injoy himself his comforts his friends but if passion possesse thy impatient soul it will play the tyrant and turn thee out of all Mark 5.2 3. thou art like him that was possessed by an evill spirit and we find t●at he did tear himself so impatient persons wound and cut and vex themselves and it is said that none could bind him ver 3.4 rage will break out and will not be restrained I would kill a man in mine anger saith Lamech Gen. 42.28 I will go mourning to my grave if ought but good befall Benjamin by the way saith Jacob. When men give way and let the rains go their passions runne like wilde horses in which case men are burthensome to themselves and others he that was possessed of the evill spirit was among the tombes but these are among the living and molest and grieve most those that are nearest to them 4. A fourth cause of Impatience is the crosse comes suddenly and takes us unawares We break out before we consider of it passion surprizeth a man as a thief that robs him before he could make any resistance It were good we did think beforehand of the evils of the day of the crosse occurrents that may fall out in our callings and families and occasions Collect thy spirits and consider there may be and it is like there will be some untowardnesse in servants some undutifulnesse in children some unkindnesse in husband wife or friends arme thy self against all and be prepared Think with thy self God could have matched all good husbands and good wives together and could have given to all good parents good children and faithfull servants to the masters that fear him he could have put all sweet dispositions to have laid together and injoyed a happie neighbourhood but divine providence hath disposed otherwise to try our patience Having gone through the first part of the dutie of waiting upon God I now come to the second The Church her hope which is a cheerfull expectation of good If we were never so patient in bearing evill and yet did not keep up our desires and affections we failed in our waiting for there ought to be a certain and a cheerfull expectation of such future good things as God hath promised 1. It must be a future good we hope for not present which we do enjoy alreadie and it must be promised else we build without a foundation Presumption roves abroad at large but hope looks for a promise Objectum spei 1 Proximum 2 Principale There is a double object for our hope one is principall and

with in this kind but you shall find the want of things desired cause fainting of the spirits Prov. 13.12 It must not be understood 1. Of naturall men 2. Not of good men under humiliation 3. Not of such as have not strong affections The deferring of the hope makes the heart sick In every sicknesse and pain the heart is not sick for it comes to the heart but a little before death and then it is more dangerous for then men faint and go away and this being worse then the other it is more grievous to bear it But when we speak of heavenly things you must not apply it to naturall men for they have but weak desires that way nor must we understand it of men under the burthen of their sins in the time of humiliation for a wounded spirit who can bear but if you speak of men that have strong desires to some good and have some pressures by reason of some evill or if you understand it of religious men having passed through the work of humiliation it is more easie to bear evill then to wait till the promised good be injoyed but yet you must suppose affections to abound in them or else their desires are not so strong And the Apostle in that text you have need of patience Hebr. 10.36 that after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise seems plainly to determine the point in hand that it is more to wait till we receive the promise Vers 34 for when he spake of spoyling of goods and those afflictions he said nothing but when he comes to this then he tels them they had need of patience no doubt the other did require patience but this more then ordinarie 2. Evils that fall upon us or are coming towards us we flee from them there is fuga mali and after good things we make haste there is prosecutio boni now from the manner of flying from evill and following after good we may determine the question if a man flee from a Bear or any dangerous beast he makes haste till he be gotten a good distance from him and then he goes softly In pursuit of good things we grow more eager and earnest for at first we do not fully understand and perceive the excellencie of them till we are well acquainted with the wayes of God we know not the sweetnesse and worth of his love Therefore distinguish of the time at first evils coming on us with their full power do much affect us and require all the patience we have but afterwards some troubles become more easie as the prison to him that suffers in a good cause becomes as his own house and doth not so much perplexe Good things upon more full knowledge are more earnestly longed for and the desires encrease and therefore such as are bent upon heaven and the assurance of Gods love and pardon of sins by Christ they are compared to hungrie and thirstie persons which must have somewhat to satisfie them and that presently or else they die therefore as at first some evils do much try our patience so good things at last do more put us to it and it is harder to wait 3. Heaven hath more force by an attractive power to draw our desires then Hell hath operation by way of terrour for faith and love and other habits of grace are effectuall in their kind and have objects to elicite their power as well as any naturall affections Heaven upon a heavenly mind hath such an influence that it draws up desires more strongly then the Sun the moisture of the earth and when desires are strongly set and are in their motion it is a painfull thing to have them stayed A traveller that minds home and is drawing homeward in his journey and is detained against his will counts it an uncomfortable condition and wisheth often that he were in his house Psal 42.1 2. and so did David My soul panteth after thee O God when shall I come and appear before God The hatred of Saul was a great calamitie but the desire of Gods presence in the Sanctuarie and having the Kingdom did work more upon him The fear of hell troubles not neer so much as the want of heaven 4. For the bearing of evill there are more grounds of patience then for the enduring of the want of good desired for the evill that is upon us Si injuriam de posueris ultor est si damnum restitutor est si dolorem medious si mortem resuscitator est Tertul. may be made up in somewhat else as good if a man be sick or impoverished or imprisoned for Religion there is sufficient cause to rest contented and bear it patiently both because he honours God and therein he is to rejoyce and also he may have somewhat that may be as good as health or libertie or wealth and he may be in better state but when the soul desires heaven or the assurance of it and desires the sence of Gods love in Christ if he attain not to it there is nothing can be had equall or near as good and offer what you will in stead of it it is despised If Jacob desiring Rachel cannot be satisfied with Leah much lesse can the heart be satisfied till it have the graces it desires and all the good things that are contained in the promises and at last the glorious presence of God in heaven And it is no sence to say to a man be patient though God love thee not and although thy sins be not forgiven yet thou may do well enough this would be odious even to every man because reason and naturall conscience will tell him that the want of these will make him miserable All that could be said is that though he have not these blessings as yet he may in time obtain them if he wait on God in the use of his ordinances And from the forenamed particulars the heart that is set on heavenly things is ready to breake out and say I am not able to wait and be patient till I receive the promise my heart is ready to breake and many times I thinke it belongs not unto me what shall I do Ans For answer Let us first qualifie the matter The Church sicke of Love asswage the griefe and then if we can heale the wound To asswage the paine of this impatient heart that cannot waite till it receive the promise consider this Impatience is not sinfull nor dangerous but it ariseth from the most heavenly temper of the soule strongly bent to have as soone as may be a large portion of the favour of God in Christ and it is the ardencie of love that makes the soule restlesse and if there were not much love there could not be these desires All Impatience comes either from necessitie as a hungry man cannot stay any time but must have meate presently if you tell him you will a weeke or some few dayes hence