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
A93878	The spirits conviction of sinne. Opened in a sermon before the Honorable House of Commons, assembled in Parliament upon the solemne day of their monethly fast, Novemb. 26, 1645. / By Peter Sterry, sometimes fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge. And now preacher of the Gospel in London. Published by order of the House of Commons.	Sterry, Peter, 1613-1672.	1645 (1645)	Wing S5485; Thomason E310_4; ESTC R200442	20,427	47

man afflicted and oppress'd laments after this manner I have blasted my reputation wasted my estate brought my body into diseases by my lusts and now I hang over a pit of flames by the thin worn thread of this life in the same moment that this thread is cut I drop in and am lost for ever Wo is me Thus he cryes then he runs to prayers Sermons Fasts in these he hopes for ease Another as he lies restlesse all the night hath these thoughts working like a storm in his breast I have exposed my life to the Censure of the Lawes by Treacheries against my Countrey and my God If the Preacher's words prove true and there be a hell at last there remaines nothing for me but a fearfull expectation of my share there In these anguishes this man breathes forth a groan and cries to God to have mercy on him So Pharaoh so Ahab were convinc'd This is like weeping with an Onion the eyes shed teares because they smart 2. Sparklings of Naturall Worth A generous heart if it be no more when it hath done any thing soulely dishonest or dishonorable will call aloud for Seas of Feares a Laver of Blood to wash it clean The Jewes in the Wildernesse when once they had refus'd to sight at God's command would purge that blot with their blood fighting though forbidden when they were sure to fall This is not beyond that Elephant which reproach'd with the offer of another Elephant to draw his burthen for him drew till he broke his heart and fell down dead 3. Naturall Religion heightned by temper education custome formalities of Nation age in which wee live The Heathen Romanes wounded deeply with the losse of an Army or the pestilence sought reliese in reforming their Religion The Sibyl's books were search'd Ludi instaurati solemne showes and pomps for devotion renew'd Temples set open Cushions laid Holy tables seats beds made ready the Matrons flock't in Troops fill'd the Churches fell on their faces with their haire spred and torne moystening the Marble pavement with their plentifull teares at the feet of every Idoll In after-times the Heathens among whom the Christians lived on every sad accident exclaimed The Christians are the cause of this which joyn not with us in the worship of our gods Appease the gods by the suppression or slaughter of these Christians Happy are our times if some amongst us doe not upon no higher Conviction then these of Naturall Devotion call for dayes of Humiliation Reformation in Religion But do I condemne these Convictions No. God commands and commends them from the example of Brute Creatures The Oxe knowes his owner and the Assebis Masters Crib But this I say These are no better things then the Best of Beasts the worst of Men have attain'd unto These indeed if they be but Single may procure Temporall Temporary blessings But if they be not Subordinate to the Convictions of the Spirit they can doe your souls no good You may save the Kingdome by such teares but alas what shall be done for Your souls Perswa Spir. Spirituall Perswasives follow First Sense of Divine Love Zach. 12.10 First a Spirit of Grace or Love is shed upon the Heart Then teares are shed What an eye was that which Christ cast upon Peter when he went out and wept bitterly Was it not an Eye of love a Melting look You have seen how a Sugar-loase dissolves and weeps it selfe away when it is dipt in wine So hearts dissolve so they melt dip't in the sweet sense of Divine Love Who knowes not what a wound abused love a wronged Friend makes upon a tender breast How then doth the dearest love the sweetest friendship of the great God wound a soule with the sense of Love and Sin Have you not sometimes read that place and drop't teares upon it some have told me that they have done it often The place is Es 43.22 I have not wearied thee with sacrisices thou hast wearied me with thy sins O Israel I blot out thy transgressions like a Cloud remember them no more Give me the worst the hardest Heart in this great Assembly how soft would it grow on a sudden if the Spirit of Christ should whisper to it such words as these are Many years hast thou lived profanely many a secret wickednesse hast thou practis'd which mine eye hath seen Often I have set my selfe before thee in the blood of my Manhood in the glory of my Godhead in the love of both my Natures Thou hast wearied me with thy scornings But thou sha't be mine I freely forgive all thy sins as if they never had been committed Come and see how much I love thee how I have ever loved thee What temper would thy heart be in when thou shouldst hear these words Would it not be like unto that when Ioseph revealed himselfe to his brethren Whiles thy Saviour falls on thy neck to kisse thee thou would'st sall at his feet unable to speak any word for weeping I appeale to you that feel the love of your God how it works in the soules of men doe you not often in sweet pangs cry out Ah! my God the sweeter thou art to me the more sinfull still doe I appear to my selfe This is a Spirituall Convicton a Conviction by Love 2. Sight of Jesus Christ They shall see him whom they have pierced and mourne over him As the looking forth of the Sun melts the Snow so doe the shinings out of Jesus Christ melt the Soule 'T is sweet when a Saint sayes Mine eyes have seen my Saviour and now they powre forth teares A Rainbow the Covenant of peace is then form'd when the Sun shines upon a watry cloud When Christ puts forth himselfe and scatters his beams upon a mourning cloudy soule then followes faire weather there is peace This is a spirituall Conviction a Conviction by the Beames of Beauty 3. The greatest sin the not-beleeving in Jesus Christ In spirituall Perswasives the Person of our Saviour is the Argument and Conclusion of all Convictions A sight of Christ is that by which Men are powerfully convinc'd Not-beleeving on Christ is the grand sin of which they are convinc'd They shall mourn over him whom they have pierced Not to beleeve on Christ is to pierce him To beleeve Christ is to see him So in those Chronicles of Faith Hebr. 11. c. 27. v. Moses's faith is exprest by his sight He saw him who was invisible But this sight is Inward Spirituall Divine a sight by no ordinary Light St Peter describes the state of beleeving the sight of faith 1 Pet. 2.9 Hee hath brought us into his his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 marvellous Light Hee that sees Christ sees him in a strange wonderfull in a divine Light in God's own Light To believe is thus to see Christ and to live continually by this sight of Christ The life I live is by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. chap. ver ult Paul was convinc'd by

soules Thus much to Private Christians Secondly As Publick Persons Christ tells the Jewes If any one sin against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him But if any one sin against the holy Ghost it never shall bee forgiven him You will allow it if I shall make a little change in these words and so return them to you If a State sin against the Sonne of Man it shall be forgiven But if a State sin against the holy Ghost it shall never be forgiven Remember Hierusalem Christ came in the flesh and was crucified yet Hierusalem stood The Spirit of Christ came in the persons of the Disciples in the power of the Gospel and was cast out then Hierusalem fell Divided into three Factions within beleaguer'd with a fourth enemy without Hierusalem miserably fell O England London Remember Hierusalem You have had the first day of your Peace and passed it Christ hath been preach'd among you but as in the Flesh clouded with carnall rites and ceremonies Christ hath been pierc'd among us that is not beleeved on yet we live though we bleed You have had the first day of your Peace and pass'd it Be carefull Be carefull to know the last day of your Peace the comming of the Spirit among you You have set me on your Watch-Tower and made me your Watchman for the few sands of these glasses If you ask mee now Watchman what of the Night My humble answer is The Night is almost past the Day is at hand if you will receive the Spirit when he comes If you shall refuse to heare you will look for day but I feare I feare it will be Blacknesse of Darknesse and Desolation But I hend my Knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus who hath hither to made you tender in a very great measure that he would send the Spirit of his Son into your hearts that you may know him that he may be in you that all this people may honour the Spirit as they honour Jesus Christ Vse 3 A Vindication of the Spirit from those Who 1. Pretend it to Profanenesse Who 2. Profane it under Pretences 1. From those who Pretend the Spirit to Profanenesse Can any think they have the Spirit of Grace in them and yet sin and yet not mourn for sin Can any man make that Spirit whose work is to Convince of fin a Colour for sin Can any man paint his foule lusts with the specious name of this holy Spirit whose property it is to paint out lusts in their True deformities their Hellish shapes I read in Ecclesiastick Writers that in the Primitive times there were those that deserv'd the name of Borboristae or Coenosi The Dirty Sect and yet a Branch of the Gnostiques But I might perhaps feare this to be the Malice or Mistake of some in those ages if I did not read in the holy Scriptures of a Jude 8. Filthy Dreamers Spirituall Discoveries are either Waking Sights or Dreames Dreames are False Visions of sleeping men without connexion full of absurdities inconsistencies It is not strange for a filthy vile Person to have fair Glorious Dreames It is monstrous that Glorious Discourses Notions and Apprehensions should be set upon vile Affections Actions and conversations as the Head of an Angel upon the body of a Beast But All is a Dream If any man indeed have the Spirit he hath a Trde Dove in his Breast The Dove's eyes are the Emblem of Chastity The Dove's song is in Grones Who so mourn for sin who so moane day and night after their God as those who live with this Spirit This is the first Part of the Vindication Secondly from those that Profane the Spirit under Pretences of Fancy Profanenesse 1. Under Pretences of Fancy Why should Joseph be despised as a Dreamer among his brethren Paul as a Babler among the Athenians The Spirit as a Fancy by men onely Rationall That scurrilous Comoedian in his Greek play call'd the Frogs reproach'd Socrates as a Worshipper of Clouds and the Aire because he neglected their Idols and convers'd with the Invisible God So the workings and Discoveries of the Spirit often seem to Men of Mighty Reason Cloudy Airy Yet the Spirit is Truth the onely Solid and Weighty Truth carrying the power of God for a demonstration along with it 1 Cor. 2.4 Some learned men beare such a modest respect to Nature that they affirm it Probable Some Beasts may have a Sense more then we have which wee can neither judge of or guesse at because we have it not O! that the most Rationall Men were so modest towards their Maker as to suspect that there may be in him a Divine Sense a Spirit of Light above the Compasse and Conjectures of their Reason which he may communicate to whom he pleaseth 2. Under Pretences of Profanenesse The Heathens mingled with Christians of old charg'd their secret Meetings with the Beds of Oedipus unnaturall Incests the Feasts of Thyestes monstrous cruelties The Late Protestants at large cloath'd the best men with the name of Puritan as with a Cap of Paper then they painted that Cap with Devils they loaded that name with all the foule things of all Sects or Persons as before them the Papist did the Protestant God grant that the Father of lies may not still live between the Lips of Men by the same Art of Names representing the most spirituall men like Christ on the Crosse under the most carnall Titles of Ambition Lust Falshood The Spirit is Holy so are they that are His. This Spirit cannot encourage to sin comfort in sin for his work is to convince sin Beleeve it 'T is true as Gospel No man that is led by the law of the Spirit of Life can walk contrary to any Law of Nature Common Honesty Civill Policy or whatsoever is of good Report Praise-worthy If any man walk by any other rule an evill Spirit hath deceived him only let not the reproach of such fall upon them who with humble and panting hearts call upon the Name of this Holy Spirit Use 4 A Consolation This Spirit which convinceth of sin is the Comforter If you have this day receiv'd his conviction you shall now go away full of his comforts with bosomes full of All comforts of peace and joy in your selves of peace and love one towards another Where the Spirit convinceth of sin he communicates all contents in these two bundles of comforts Righteousnesse and Peace 1. Righteousnesse Have you seen your sins by the light of the Spirit by the same light you shall see your righteousnesse Humble your selves before this Spirit let him cover your faces with shame and he shall cloath your persons with glory He shall make you precious in the eyes of your God honourable in all the world Nations round about shall say This is a wise and righteous people for the Spirit of the Eternall God is come down among them 2. Peace Naturalists say A wound is a separation of parts in the whole How full are all of wounds Alas do we not begin to have wounds upon our breasts neer our hearts And still we strive to make that good in Civilitie which is true only in Nature that the best Balsome for a wound is its own blood Ne would make up our divisions by making them more Who now shall restore Peace to our mourners This Spirit will restore peace to his mourners This Dove though he come groaning yet he brings an Olive branch in his mouth O ye every one of you in particular give this Spirit your single hearts to breake in pieces and he will make them all one heart How happy should we live if God would do this If the Lord would powre forth his Spirit upon our souls and melt them how sweetly would they run all into one piece like gold Then should Righteousnesse and Peace kisse each other in these Lands and these three kingdomes should mutually kisse and imbrace in this union The Lambs England and Scotland Presbyterians and Independents shall feed together in fat pastures The Lambs and the Lion shall live lovingly and converse one with another Then shall your Cattell go forth again in Herds and Flocks Your children in dances Your Saints in their assemblies and the Lord Jesus shall be known for a God in the midst of them Then shall after-ages call this Age this Parliament The blessed of the Lord and make it your Motto for ever Blessed are the Peace-makers in divided Common-wealths Blessed are the Peace-makers in divided Consciences Thus if the Holy Spirit set a crown of thorns by conviction on your hearts he shall crown you with Righteousnesse and Peace For a Rom. 14.17 The Kingdome of God is Righteousnesse Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost FINIS