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	love_v	sin_n	9,337	5	4.8347	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79474	The man of honour, described in a sermon, preached before the Lords of Parliament, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, March 26. 1645. The solemn day of the publique monethly-fast. / By Francis Cheynell, minister of Gods Word. Die Jovis, 27. Martii, 1645. It is this day ordered by the Lords in Parliament, that this House doth hereby give thanks to Master Cheynell for his great pains, taken in the sermon, he preached on the 26. of this instant March, in the Abbey Church Westminster, before the Lords of Parliament, it being the day of the publique fast. John Brown, Cler. Parliament.	Cheynell, Francis, 1608-1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing C3812; Thomason E279_3; ESTC R200026	64,263	74

heart even before the man hath any cleer bright evidence of his own election that there are better things laid up for the elect in Christ then any the world can bestow upon them better honour better riches better glory Christ is a pretious Christ to all true beleevers to you who beleeve he is an Honour 1 Pet. 2. 7. The originall will bear it for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is the word Would ye then my Lords and you dear Christians gain an immortall glorious Honour you see the ready way beleeve beleeve and Jesus Christ will be an Honour to you But remember that your Faith must be the Faith of Christians not the faith of Divels it must be such a pretious faith as purifies the heart purges the conscience assents and consents to Christ such a faith as overcomes the world and quenches the fiery darts of the divell by resting upon Christ and drawing vertue from him But I must not forget in the next place that your faith must work by love and therefore as you must have a victorious faith so you must have a transcendent an heroicall Love to the Lords Jesus you must love him better then your friends better then your estates better then your honour for you must lay down all your Coronets all your Honour at the feet of Christ nay you must love Christ better then your lives Christ turned to the great multitudes and said to them If any man come to me and hates not his own life in comparison of me for my sake and the Gospels he cannot be my Disciple Luke 14. 25 26. And again Verse 33. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all he hath he cannot be my Disciple Our Saviour doth not mean such a Disciple as Peter and the rest but by Disciple he means Scholar Subject Member Servant Friend Heir for he speaks to the multitude and therefore the meaning is That one of the poorest and meanest men in the throng could not have any interest in Christ or benefit by him unlesse he love the Lord Jesus better then his estate and life better then all the world and can men in Honour think to go to Heaven upon cheaper and easier terms then one of the multitude No sure where God gives more he requires more Come then my Brethren Let this day of sorrow be a day of Love or else it will not be a day of godly sorrow for godly sorrow arises from the love of God from Faith working by love from Faith in Christ and love to him The bitterest tears flow from the sweetest Love Come you that have any tender hearts or rowling bowels let me this day speak to your hearts and bowels and cast you into the melting pangs of a divine and Christian love Consider your want of Christ and the worth of Christ Oh consider the benefits of Christs death the sweetnesse of Christs promises the pleasantnesse of his commands the pretiousnesse of his graces and above all the infinitenesse of his love And you cannot but love him your hearts must needs be ravished into an extasie if you consider that soul-ravishing Text Revel. 1. 5 6. And you cannot but cry out with the ardency of affection with the strength the zeal of love Oh to him to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion love and subjection for ever and ever Amen Come you that never studied the Art of spirituall love Consider that Jesus Christ saw your distressed souls weltring in blood and filthinesse and his bowels were turned his compassions were kindled within him and he said unto you even then when you were polluted in your own blood live yea when you were polluted in your own blood and filthinesse he said Live and Live eternally Was not that a time of love with him Why now turn your eyes inward and look upon your own souls sprinkled with the blood the heart-blood of Jesus Christ that they may be purged and you may be saved and tell me is it not a time of love now with your beloved souls Do you not feel your hearts begin to burn within you Are you not transported beyond your selves are you not even mounting up to Heaven and flying into the Arms and Bosome of your beloved Lord Come give up your hearts to Christ for I must prevail I am sure you are convinced that Jesus Christ is the best husband in the world for your pretious souls for he is the onely All-sufficient Saviour there is no choice you must have him or none Come be not thus dull of understanding or affection be not carelesse and peevish in a businesse which concerns the happy welfare of your eternall souls Away with all prejudicate opinions and vain conceits Come let us be setled men and spend some sad thoughts about the saving excellencies of Jesus Christ Be not so impudently presumptuous as to imagine That you love Christ well enough already if you have not as yet sufficiently known or judiciously considered what reason and equitie there i● that you should love Christ better then all the World Come let me close with you a little and speak home to every one of your souls in particular Friend be not such a sott as to doate upon trifles I le shew thee wonders The wonder of our redemption the most admirable and most astonishing Plot of the blessed Trinitie sitting in counsell about the Salvation of thy beloved soul A mystery which the Angels stoop down to pry into an Orient Pearl that will out-shine all the sparkling Jewels of the whole Creation if they should be digged out of Natures Cabinet and hung up with such advantage that they might all unite their beams upon some day of triumph Hear what a worthy Divine of ours saith Our slighting the offers of Grace and not laying to heart what God hath done for us is a sin next to wilfull apostasie and malicious blasphemy For he who doth not see such glorious miracles of love and inestimable treasures of grace in Christ as to take of his minde and heart from the glittering vanities of the world that he may fix his thoughts and setle his affections upon God in Christ as an all-sufficient Portion and Inheritance That man doth offer an affront to the majestie of Heaven he befools the Wisdom and scorns the love of the blessed Trinity for he slights the most excellent wonder that ever the Wisdom of God contrived or his power compassed or his goodnesse bestowed upon the sons of men And what reason hath such a soft to expect favour from God mercy from Christ or comfort from the Holy Ghost Do ye beleeve the Scriptures Why then tell me Whether the favour of God will not comfort the heart better then corn and wine Psal. 4 6 7. Then sheep and oxen strong sons and polished daughters full barns and

take him Jaylour clap some bolts upon his conscience and let the iron enter into his soul let him taste a cup of brimstone and see how he likes it before hand let the Law thunder curses upon him and the spirit of bondage flash some lightning into his soul Oh base unworthy wretch doest thou capitulate with thy Judge and scorn thy Saviour is thy minde preposessed with prejudice against Christ and are thy affections preingaged to the flesh the world the divell dost love thy sin better then thy Saviour Why then thou art mad upon thy pleasure thou art drunk with honour and bewitched with gain enjoy thy sin and hug thy damnation the Lord Jesus will not bestow himself on such a sot Yet once more I le ask the question for ought thou knowest it may be the last time of asking Wilt thou have Jesus Christ for thy antiquitie for thy nobilitie for thy husband thy King thy Prophet thy Priest thy Saviour thy All Jesus Christ will binde Kings in chains and Nobles in setters of Iron he will powre contempt upon Princes if they contemn him What say you then my Lords and what say you Brethren will you submit your necks to the yoak and your shoulders to the burthen of Jesus Christ Will you deny your selves take up your crosse daily and follow him Will you beleeve him trust him love him obey him Give me leave to insist a little upon those two speciall duties of Faith and Love and I pitch upon them the rather because Faith and Love are Radicall Graces and you can never prove your selves to be new creatures in Christ but by Faith and Love Be pleased to compare two Scriptures together for the cleering of this truth the Scriptures are not far asunder one is in the sixth Chapter of the Epistle to the Galathians the fifteenth verse In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Would you know what this new creature is Read the fifth Chapter of the same Epistle and the sixth verse In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith working by Love Mark I beseech you it is worth your observation Nothing avails but a new creature in one place Nothing avails but Faith working by love in the other No man then is a new creature but he whose Faith worketh by Love There is the sum of the Gospel the substance marrow power spirit quintessence of Christianitie First Then examine whether you have any knowledge of Christ or Faith in him any heart and well grounded assent to the Gospel of Christ with the heart man being convinced beleeves Have you any pretious Faith If you have no true Faith you cannot understand the Mystery of Godlinesse after a spirituall and saving manner Now man that is in honour and understandeth not saith my Text you know what follow● Faith is the eye of the soul Reason is blinde without Faith Except a man be born from above except his reason be raised elevated by Faith inlightned by the Spirit he cannot see the Kingdom of God as our Saviour told that Ruler of the Jews when he catechised him John 3. 3. Every true beleever hath so much understanding as to assent to the truth and so much ingenuity as to consent to the goodnesse of all the promises Secondly The pretious Faith of Gods elect is an holy Faith nay Saint Jude exhorts Christians to build up themselves on their most holy Faith Jude vers. 20. True Faith ayms at the highest degree of holinesse it is ever labouring to build up the soul one story higher in holinesse that we may be every day nearer Heaven He that thinks he is holy enough already hath neither true Faith nor Holinesse of Truth They are unbel●eving men that are afraid they shall be come too strict in dutie and too precise in abhorting and declining sin they say they have holinesse enough to carry them to Heaven though there are many that were as holy as themselves gone to H●ll already Remember that though Jesus Christ be King of all the world in a providentiall way yet he is King of Saints onely in a spirituall and saving way Christ will save none but Saints such honour immortall honour have all his Saints and none but Saints none but his Saints whose consciences Christ hath purged from the guilt and allowance of sin and whose hearts he hath purified from the Love and their whole man from the power and dominion of sin by a lively Faith that they may serve the living God Thirdly True Faith is a resting and relying grace Faith doth support the feeble soul the sinking soul by leaning upon Gods arm and Christs bosome because thou didst relie on the Lord saith the Se●● to Asa Help us O Lord saith Asa to God for we rest upon thee Doth thy soul rest upon Christ not onely for pardon of sin but power against sin Dost thou relie upon the free grace of God the all-sufficient satisfaction compleat righteousnesse and perfect merits of Christ for justification Then it is well but a beleever must likewise live in a constant dependance upon God for perseverance in grace and then he is right Fourthly Faith is a radicall grace and therefore as the root of a tree sucks nourishing moisture from the earth fo a ●●leever sucks and draws nourishing vertue fresh vertue and new supplies every day from Jesus Christ Faith doth not onely depend upon Christ and adhere to him but suck from him it hangs upon the Ordinances of Christ the Breasts of Christ as the Infant hangs upon the Mothers breast Fifthly Faith is a mortifying and quickning grace Because it draws vertue from Christ to mortifie our lusts and quicken us to a lively performance of all duties in their due place and season Upon dayes of Humiliation the beleever draws much power from the death of Christ to mortifie his lust and sets upon all tasks of mortification in the strength of Christ Sixthly Faith is a victorious grace it overcomes the world and the Divel and it doth both by purifying our hearts and mortifying our lusts For if our hearts be purified and our lusts mortified the world and divell are not able to prevail against us We shall come of with honour in the main battle at the latter end of the day though we may be foiled now and then in a skirmish and give ground a little when we are too hotly charged and over-borne by violence The divel cannot throw a fiery dart at us but faith will quench it If our lusts do not fire us the dart cannot wound us Take the shield of Faith saith the Apostle That ye may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the divel Above all other pieces of Christian armour take the shield of Faith Ephes. 6. 16. The least degree of true Faith doth in some measure overcome the world because it doth perswade the

strict as to prohibite Stage-playes which made the people laugh the Lacedaemonian did not give him the reason of the State That they were afraid their youth would be corrupted and their Laws derided by Stage-playes but returned this answer Sir I presume That we Greeks are better when we are weeping with our sages then the Romans when they are laughing at their fo●ls My Lords It is my humble desire to be humbled before God and to weep with the Sages of England upon this happy day of solemn Humiliation Do ye love God do ye hate sin do ye beleeve my Text come then let us mingle tears my Text will supply you with store of weeping matter and penitent tears which flow from the hatred of sin from the love of God and faith in him are NOBLE TEARS Nobles use to be proud of their Birth they are too often puffed up with the glory of their Progenitours But ye have not so learned Christ if ye have been taught by Christ as the truth is in Christ My Lords we were all conceived in sin and born in sin Nobles are by nature the children of wrath even as other common men and can you be proud of your foul conception and foul birth My father Adam was he not your father Oh my father Adam your father Adam was once a man in honour because a man in innocency but his blood was tainted by sin nay your blood and mine were tainted by that first sin in the Garden it was my sin and yours for in him we all sinned it was the sin of his person but it was the sin of our nature do ye not feel the poyson of that sin burning and boyling in your nature still do ye not feel the weight of that sin upon your conscience Oh it was a sinning sin the cause of all the sin and mischief that ever was or ever will be do ye not feel the dregs of that sin oppressing your nature and even choaking all those generous and noble Principles which are written in your Hearts by Nature And are you still proud of your birth and blood when you are thus polluted in your own blood with your birth sin Can you still be proud of your originall when your originall your blood your very nature is stained and tainted with originall corruption and all corruption is ignoble Oh base ignoble birth we are born slaves of sin born like the heirs apparant of Hell with the seeds of damnation in us Can you still be proud of your Progenitours when they derived a sin upon your high-born soul which will sink it as low as Hell unlesse ye are born again by the Spirit of Jesus Come turn a side for I must weep Come if you will we●p I will weep with you if you will not weep I le weep for you I could even finde in my heart to sit down and weep out the rest But your attention doth encourage me to go on and therefore I hope you will be humbled to day if not my soul shall weep in secret for your pride But you cannot be proud if you consider and beleeve my Text my Text is Versus amaebaeus and answers to the twelfth verse of this 49 Psalm and there it is Man being in Honour abideth not Arias Montanus renders it non Pernoctabie shall not lodge one night in Honour some conclude from hence that Adam fell the very first day that he was created he did not stay all night in his Honour and the word indeed doth properly signifie to tarry all night as is clear Gen. 28. 11. And ●ertain it is our first father stayed not long in his Honour but was turned forth of the Garden like a Beast Oh the fall of our first father from his honour from his innocency is to be bewailed even with tears of blood My Lords ye are men in Honour but Civil Honour is not long-lived and therefore usually entailed Are ye sure that any one of you in your own persons shall lodge this night in your Civil Honour ye may be taken into another world ere morning and if ye have made no better preparation for another world and a better life then if your souls were to perish after death as the soul of a Beast perishes Be pleased to understand my Text and your danger Sigh out my Text and weep it over Weep for your grosse neglect and carnall security and let every soul that is guiltie cry out Oh what a wretch what a Beast am I to suffer my minde and heart to be taken up with the perishing delights and fading honour of this vain world And now I am summoned to appear in another world to answer for all the evil I have done and all the good I have neglected in this world My body sinks under naturall distempers my soul sweats under morall distempers the sin of my birth and the sins of my life torment my wounded conscience Oh I faint I fall I die I perish like a Beast in this world and the Lord knows what will become of me in the next it is a wo●ld that I am no better acquainted with then the very Beasts that perish My Lords This is the sad condition of many a great man and I am resolved to deal faithfully with you for your honour is dear unto me and your souls are pretious Consider oh consider it every hour that you have more reason to fast then feast upon your birth-dayes that ye may bewail your birth-sin and mortifie your beastly lust For some worthy Divines have observed That none for ought we finde in Scripture ever celebrated their birth-dayes but Pharaoh Jeroboam and Herod 2. Consider That great men are mortall Abner who was Captain of the Guard a kinde of Generall to three Princes Saul Is bosheth and David fell suddenly unexpectedly Some die in the strength of their perfection with their breasts full of milk and bones full of marrow Job 21. 23 24. Death doth not flatter Nobles it will not stay their leasure it will strike home even then when they are in their cups or at their plots in the middest of their wanton embraces and beastly compliances Remember the two Zimri's Prince Zimri struck dead in the wanton Arms of the Lady Co●bi and Zimri who smote King Elah whilest he was drinking himself drunk 3. Consider That beastly men are unnaturall Beasts It is no fault for a beast to be a beast for it is naturally a beast and it can be no fault to obey the Law of nature but for a creature to degrade it self below that Form and Species in which nature hath placed it is unnaturall This is a most unnaturall and accursed self-deniall for a man to depose himself below the dignitie of the humane nature This is as if a beast should loose its sence take root in the earth and sprout out into a Plant Animall a Plant that hath the shape but not the sense of an Animall or as if a Tree should cease

to live and harden it self into a stone Unnaturall sins are punished with unheard of plagues with miraculous judgements Those Heathens Rom. 1. 27. who left the naturall use of the woman and did burn with unnaturall lusts were given over to reprobate mindes and seared consciences Nay to speak higher yet These unnaturall Beasts are as perfect in their beastlinesse and brutishnesse as if they were naturall brute Beasts 2 Pet. 2. 10 12. And they who are thus perfect in sin will be perfectly thorowly tormented for these unnaturall perfections 4. Consider That beastly men are wilfull beasts They are not Beasts by nature but Beasts by choice and therefore they have as it were faln from reason to phantasie by a kinde of phantasticall choice their rationall will is changed into a sensuall appetite And it is all the reason in the world That they who have renounced their reason and chosen to be beasts rather then men should be deposed from their honour and made like the Beasts that perish 5. Consider That great men have great advantages and opportunities to serve God and his Church They are even lifted up to Heaven by priviledges Oh what a misery were it for such men to be cast down to Hell for the abuse of their priviledges Consider how hard it is for a rich man to be saved how few noble men are effectually savingly called Consider That the best estate of a wicked noble-man is worse then the worst estate of a poor godly man because the poor godly man in his worst estate is travelling towards Heaven But the best estate of a wicked noble-man leads him to his worst estate it ripens his sin and hastens his damnation Sure I am great men cannot plead any exemption at the day of judgement if Christ give them leave to be tried by their Peers those nobles which sit crowned in glorious Robes will condemn all impenitent and unbeleeving Peers My Lords I had rather turn your hearts then overturn your brains I had rather drive you out of your sins then out of your wits Yet these terrible considerations are enough to terrifie any man out of his little wits who doth ponder them enough to be convinced if God do not give him the grace to be converted My Lords you are not told often enough of Hell and damnation and therefore I do so often thunder out damnation that I might keep you from being damned Tell me ye sons of Nobles Whether your delicate sences can endure the touch of fire or smell of brimstone can your souls dwell with everlasting burnings can you wade thorow a River of brimstone kindled with the wrath of God Oh the diversitie and eternitie of Hellish torments is unutterable unconceiveable In Hell death ever lives the damned cannot die but do eternally suffer a kinde of living death and the consideration of the eternitie of their torment is to them the greatest torment and therefore they are ready to complain that there is a thousand Hels and ten thousand Devils in this word eternitie In Hell there are no degrees of honour but there are degrees of torment there 's a black Prince of flames and Nobles of darknesse there 's weeping and houling and gnashing of teeth out of desperate indignation The tongue is parched in the mouth the marrow fried in the bones the darknesse of the fire affright them the heat of the fire torments them and yet they are more tormented with the curse and wrath of God then the fire of Hell Hell were no Hell if it were not for the wrath of God But oh the losse of Honour the losse of Heaven the losse of Glory the losse of the Favour of an infinite God to a soul capable of Grace and Glory that 's an unspeakable losse because an infinite losse an infinite dishonour to be thus dishonoured to all eternitie Who can sound the depth of this bottomlesse Pit Sure the worst hell is in the conscience and the schorching of the fire is more tolerable then the gnawing of the worm And yet I have not done Hell is not onely the Center of torment but the Sink of sin and this consideration is most terrible to a religious soul To say I would not be in Hell because I would not be tormented that is the voice of self-self-love but to say I would not be in Hell because I would not hear my God blasphemed nor blaspheme him my self that is the voice of Noble love Let that consideration sweeten all the rest and work upon your Noble spirits to hate sin more then Hell and damnation Come then and take an holy revenge upon your selves to day be grieved in your hearts and pierced in your reins for all your ignoble practises against the God of Heaven repent with a kinde of indignation as David did and cry out Oh what a fool was I what a beast was I to dishonour him who is the fountain of Honour Look upon your patern Psal. 73 21 22. Thus my hears was grieved and I was pricked in my reins So foolish was I and ignorant I was a beast before thee My greatest task by far is yet behinde and therefore I passe on to an Use of Direction My Lords Honour is a tender fickle thing it is hard to get it and harder to keep it It may break a mans brains to get it his back to bear it and his heart to loose it We live in an age full of uncertainties and sick of jealousies I shall therefore adventure and I may well call it an adventure in this jealous age to give you faithfull counsell in some ticklish points If your Honour be any whit empaired I le shew you how to recover it if you enjoy your Honour I le shew you how to preserve nay increase it but if by an over-ruling providence you must part with your worldly honour and there is no resisting of providence I le shew you how you may gain a better honour an immortall glorious Honour in the highest Heavens Truely My Lords I am of no faction at all and therefore I may speak more freely and impartially in these weighty points First If your Honour be empaired I le do my best to shew you how to recover your Honour I know I touch upon a jarring string but consider that wise men and valiant men men that have done great service to their Countrey may quickly empair their honour in a jealous age Scipio Africanus had done very great service for his Countrey and yet he was called into * question more then once Moreover in times of civil war * there are so many perplexed cases propounded on the sudden that even the wariest man may over-shoot himself he may be sometimes circumvented and sometimes surprized and by either means dishonoured And in times of civil war most men are too censorious some out of a sober providence and cautelous circumspection not looking upon miscarriages as matters of course and casualtie but as a train laid to some

full b●gs Read and consider the four last verses of the 144. Psalm Is not the loving kindnesse of God better then life Psal. 63. 3. Can a man gain any thing though he gain the whole world if he loose his own soul Or is there any thing to be given in exchange for the soul Canst thou set thy heart upon that which thou beleevest to be drosse and dung Phil. 3. 8. And art thou not ashamed to prefer the ●asest trash and dung before Jesus Christ It is impossible that our affections should for any long time together stand in aequilibrio even-ballanced between Christ and the World Because every little trifle would turn the scales there being so many cases in which a man must either renounce Christ or the World and if there were but one thing in all the world which a man loves better then Christ if that come to stand in competition with Christ he will as basely deny and betray Christ for that one thing be it profit honour pleasure be it what it will as if he preferred many other things before him Beloved I propound these considerations to you That you may ponder them well in your cool blood and morning thoughts and so come on to firm purposes and stedfast resolutions to settle your affection upon Jesus Christ for beleeve it such thoughts as these must go before purposes and consultation before resolution or else all your good purposes without counsell will be vain they will be frustrated and disappointed as the Wise-man for●-warns you Prov. 15. 22. Go home then and read nay peruse the love-letters of Christ in his glorious Gospel and review all the love-tokens which he hath sent to thy dear soul and then fall in love with him nay before thou goest home let me gain a promise from thee That thou wilt have no other Saviour or Husband for thy soul but Jesus Christ that thou wilt receive him for thy Lord with the thankfull affections of Love and Reverence that thou wilt take an unmixed delight and compleat content in him as thy Treasure thy Happinesse thy All Suffer me now then even now whilest thy judgement is convinced and thy heart warmed to cast thee into a lovetrance into the Seraphicall flames of conjugall affections Come art thou ready is thy spirit raised thy heart enlarged thy minde fixed thy soul in tune to say after me O my blessed Lord I have been too proud and pervish heretofore but thy free-grace and undeserved love hath beaten me out of all my pride and naturall enmitie I fall down at thy foot-stool and lay my self flat before thee At first I wondered to hear Preachers talk so much of Christ and I was bold to ask thy friends What their beloved was more then another beloved But now I wonder that I could endure to be so long without thee my fervent desires of thee were at first grounded on a thorough sence of the extreme misery of all my happinesse without thee But now I have renounced all my self-love and abhor all self-ends as base and mercenary being fully convinced that thou hast bought me out of my selfe and all that I called mine and therefore out of a well-advised dislike and disesteem of all worldly profit honour pleasure or any other admired vanitie I make a full and absolute Resignation of my self and make over all that is dear and pretious to me in the world to thee my Lord and Saviour For truely Lord I am thine onely thine ever thine all that I am is at thy command and all I have is at thy disposing be pleased to command both it and me With all humilitie and thankfulnesse I accept thy pretious offers of grace and mercy and do confesse them to be offers worthy of all acceptation because I know that whatsoever I adventure or loose for thy sake I shall receive with infinite advantage in thy blessed Self I dare trust my dear Lord with the best thing that ever he gave me my pretious soul Oh my bleeding heart and broken spirit doth languish in a thirsty love panting and gasping after thee my beloved Saviour Oh let me taste how gracious thou art by some reall experiments in mine own heart smile upon me from Heaven answer me with some assuring whispers of the Spirit of Adoption Kisse me with the kisses of thy mouth for thy love is sweeter then the taste of wine or the love of women Oh let me bathe my soul in the delicious intimacies of a spirituall communion with thee my God and Saviour that I may for ever adhere unto thee with a sincere constancy and rest in thee with a love of complacencie for I feel I finde my soul cast into a longing sweat for thee and nothing can satisfie the importunate longing of my perplexed soul but thine onely Self for thou art my Lord my love my life and thou art altogether lovely And now Lord I have found thee whom my soul loves I will let go any thing in the world to take better hold of thee Now I have embraced thee I will not let thee go untill thou blesse me nay I will not let thee go then but hold thee fast for ever that thou maist for ever blesse me If thou killest me I will trust in thee nay I will love thee for thy love is better then life therefore my lips shall praise thee If I live I will live serving thee if I die I will die praising thee Whether I live or die let me be ever thine and then I know thou wilt be an advantage to me both in life and death To this effect the soul that is in love with Christ doth usually expresse it self for such souls are commonly cast into an agony into pangs of love and therefore the Scripture hath describ'd the out-goings of such a soul by severall similitudes By the gasping of the parched ground the panting of a chased Hart the longings of a teening woman by the fainting and swowning of one that is in good earnest sick of Love What say you then beloved Christians are you willing to live to him who died for you Will you indeed live to him and if he calls you to it die for him Beleeve it He dies the noblest death who dies a Martyr And if you talk of Honour you cannot be preferred to an higher degree of Honour then to be esteemed the Friends of Christ here and made Coheirs with Christ in glory Beloved Such as our affections are such are we It our affections be right set on things above we are Saints if they be set on the things below we are Beasts or Devils Come then ye men of Honour come set your affections upon the noblest and most honourable object the highest chiefest good God in Christ If you do not set your affections upon Christ you will have no place with Christ in glory and in Hell men loose the sweetest and comfortablest part of their affections or at least the use and exercise of them

there is nothing amiable or lovely in Hell therefore there is no use of love there is no joy or delight no good to be hoped for there onely the tormenting affections of grief shame despair and the rest of that black crue remain to vex and torture the soul though they cannot devour or consume it Let us then so place our affections here as that we may enjoy the comfort of them in another world let our love and confidence be placed on Christ let us delight and rejoyce in him and his service that our souls may be for ever satisfied with his goodnesse and even ravished with his love Remember that Faith and Love are both Active it is Faith working by Love you have heard of the obedience of Faith Rom. 16. 26. And if ye Love me keep my Commandments Joh. 14. 15. Consider that Jesus Christ is the Authour of eternall Salvation to all them and none but them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. Beloved in the Lord Jesus If you will learn to perform all your duties in faith and out of love trusting onely upon free grace and aiming onely at Gods glory My soul for yours you will be of the Christian circumcision you will worship God in the spirit rejoyce in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh You will be justified by free-grace acted and lead by effectuall Grace into all necessary Trueths and Holinesse of Trueth Faith and love will finde out their way to Heaven Faith and love will establish your hearts and mindes These graces will make you not onely patient and constant but zealous also For zeal can never boil high enough unlesse it be raised by Faith and enflamed by Love Zeal is the strength of affection and heighth of grace it is the heighth of knowledge the heighth of prudence and therefore not to be ordered by discretion as they talk who mistake policie for wi●dom and subject matters of Religion to reasons of State nay zeal is the heighth of Faith also When we read that something was imputed to Phinehas for righteousnesse Some say it was Justice others say Zeal but I say Faith for I know nothing else imputed for righteousnesse in any Scripture notion And Faith is said to be imputed for righteousnesse because the object of Faith the Lord Christ is Jehovah our righteousnesse Come then let your Faith and Love and Zeal kindle burn rise flame higher and higher Beleeve it you 'l be but uselesse men without zeal for your parts and gifts will be uselesse As a knife without an edge a ship without sails sails without winde a bird without wings wheels without oyl an horse without mettall such is a man any man a man in Honour without Zeal But a word or two more my Lords and I have done You must shew your selves noble Christians in your places relations correspondencies and improve all your Interests for the Honour of Jesus Christ and if you Honour God he will Honour you and your house 1 Sam. 2. 30. Honour God not onely with outward but inward worship honour him with your soul and body and substance Perform Honourable actions do not disdain to anoint the feet of our Saviour the lower you do stoop to serve Christ the higher you will be preferred for your humble service You may smell the perfume of that womans ointment that anointed the feet of Christ even to this very day wheresoever the Gospel is Preached Salvator noster faeminae monnumentum curr● triumphali vel Statuâ Imperatoris illustrius erexit Study Honorabilia legis The great and honourable things of the Law and Gospel Consider that vile affections base lusts will dishonour your bodies and damn your souls Rom. 1. 24 26. O possesse your vessels in sanctification and honour 1 Thes. 4. 4. It will not be for your honour to be guiltie of those sins which ye ought to punish Jehu was a murtherer in the sight of God for slaying of Idolatours because he was an Idolatour himself Mordecai was next to the King great among the Jews and accepted of the people by doing what was right in the sight of the people Hester 10. 3. You shall be near to Jesus Christ and accepted of God if ye do what is right in the sight of God Glory and Honour and Peace shall rest upon you for to them who by Patient continuance in wel-doing seek for glory and honour and immortalitie God will give immortall honour eternall life Rom. 2. 7 10. You know that they are good men who are good in their places and they are men of Honour who keep a good conscience in places of honour My Lords I do not desire to deal with you in a full Body as you make an House of Peers but I consider you as you will be considered and dealt with at the day of judgement then Christ will take you out every Lord single by himself one by one and say Sir you had the honour to sit in the House of Peers why did you hold correspondence with my utter enemies the Antichristian faction and commonly give your Vote against me when the welfare of three Kingdoms the building up of my Church and the making of a new heaven upon earth did much depend upon your Vote When it was put to the Vote in the Senate at Rome Whether Christ should be worshipped as God in the Romane Territories It was carried against him by a major part of Votes But my Lords I hope nay I know better things of your House then of the Romane Senate for the House of Peers hath passed a Vote lately much conducing to the Honour of Jesus Christ and the Reformation of particular Congregations Be pleased to proceed and perfect the Work let the ignorant be better instructed and the scandalous better disciplined the Liberties and Priviledges of Gods people restored Heretikes Blasphemers Seducers severely punished Oh that you could form and new mould our Armies into Churches also Is it not possible that there should be a spirituall Militia a powerfull Ministery and some Ecclesiasticall as well as Military Discipline set up and countenanced amongst them I must acknowledge That when I had the honour to serve the Sate and attend the Army I received all encouragement from His Excellency the Noble Generall in the work of my Ministery But I beleeve the want of Ministers was one defective cause or at least occasion of many disorders in that Army and how highly God was provoked by those disorders we have all cause to acknowledge yet give me leave to say That your sins had an influence into that sad defeat as well as ours and notwithstanding all the faults of that Army Surely my Lords That Army which had borne the heat and burthen nay carried away the glory of the day in so many set-battles and solemn victories should not have been so much neglected but timely relieved You see my Lords I know not how to flatter you but I beseech you I beseech you That