Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	john_n	love_v	true_a	4,911	5	5.7716	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03347	The splendour of the spouse A sermon preached in the parish church of Ware, Anno Domini, 1638. By Augustine Hill, rector of Dengey, in the county of Essex.	Hill, Augustine, d. 1660.	1640 (1640)	STC 13468; ESTC S116585	15,346	25

THE SPLENDOVR OF THE SPOUSE A SERMON Preached in the Parish Church of WARE Anno Domini 1638. BY AUGUSTINE HILL Rector of Dengey in the County of ESSEX BERN. Pascimur patimur AUG Vsque ad hujus seculi sinem inter persecutiones mundi consolationes Dei procurrit Ecclesia LONDON Printed by E. P. for Nicholas Bourne and are to be sold at his Shop at the South Entrance of the Royall Exchange 1640. TO THE HONORABLE SIR THOMAS FANSHAW Knight of the Bath his Majesties Remembrancer in the Court of Exchequer SIR IT was the greatest happinesse that ever did befall me that I was assumed into your noble Family where I was furnished once and a second time likewise with Ecclesiasticall promotions without any deserts yea little or none attendance A true Friend is decyphered to be an Angell clothed with flesh and blood such have you beene to me the most carefull and faithfull friend that ever poore Scholler had Comming to pay my annuall tribute of thankefulnesse a Sermon it pleased you to accept of it and to cast a respective eye more then ordinary towards me for it though there be nothing in it to be affected and in my selfe no affectation at all of it but rather an indignation against mine owne imbecillity and endowments that I was not able to speake of those heavenly things in that manner as might raise my hearers to divine cogitations What weight there is in it comes from your ballance and favourable construction for it was handled in plaine familiar words rather to expresse clearely the matter then to hunt for polished phrases and my desire is more to speake fortia quam diserta as Saint Hierome saith things of strength then eloquence and rather vivere then loqui as Minutius Felix observes to live then speake them But I am a man compassed with infirmity 't is truly said of me my bodily presence is weake and my speech contemptible 2 Corin. 10.10 But such was your sweet disposition that you still cast a mantle upon mine infirme carriage which hath engaged my heart in a more thankefull observance towards your worthy selfe In testimony whereof I present to you this poore Sermon as a publique Record that to your Noble Family I owe myselfe and from thence have received all the livelyhood and meanes of subsistence which I now enjoy my loynes and bowels blesse you continually The Lord encrease upon you the blessings of heaven above the blessings of the deepe that lyeth under the blessings of the breasts and of the wombe Gen. 49.25 and the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush dwell with you for ever are the prayers of Yours most thankefully and humbly devoted AUG HILL THE SPLENDOUR OF THE SPOVSE CANT 2.2 As the Lily among Thornes so is my Love among the Daughters I Have gleaned at this time in Solomons Field and that parcell of his called the Canticles a Song of Songs by way of eminency for though there be many other sacred Songs as that of Moses of Deborah and Barak Exod. 15. Iudges 5. and of the sweet Singer of Israel and Solomons owne Songs were a thousand and five 1 Kings 4.32 yet this not onely exceeds all them but all other mentioned in holy writ Doctor Hall Let me use the words of a truly Divine man Who can read this Booke with understanding and not be transported from the world from himselfe and be any where save in heaven before his time there is nothing in it but savours of spirituall extasie and soule ravishment If I say no more of it it is sufficient that it is Solomons a man above a man above himselfe who being ravished in spirit and taken up as it were into the third heavens warbled out that sweet affinity and nearenesse that is and shall be betwixt Christ and his Church Ephes 5.32 that great mysterie as Saint Paul calls it Interpreters are at oddes about the former verse but agree in this that it is the voyce of Christ concerning his Church either describing her present condition amongst others or preferring her before them or perswading her how shee ought to demeane her selfe amongst them to retaine her native beauty and sweetnesse though shee be beset with never so many thornes There is in the Text something positive something comparative the positive part is that the Church is Christ his Love the other are Daughters the comparative part takes up the rest of the words The positive part shewes the sweet stile and title which Christ gives to his Church He calls Her Love and with a happy appropriation my Love which is a terme both of propriety and possession Others which are not the Church are called by the name of Daughters by which are meant either Forraine Congregations or such as live within the pale of the visible Church yet belong not to him therefore he forbeares to challenge his interest in them and leaves them to a common appellation the Daughters not my Daughters The comparative part hath these things obvious to every eye First the subjects of this resemblance the Church is like the Lilly the others are like Thornes Secondly the scituation of the resembled parties The Church is like the Lilly among the Thornes The stile which Christ gives his Church is Love It comes nearest his owne nature for God is love it best resembleth his benefits done for her 1 Iohn 4.16 Ephes 5.25 husbands love your wives as Christ loved his Church and how he loved it he expresseth in a way beyond humane expression he gave himselfe for it he loved it better then he loved himselfe Dilexistime magis quam te quando mori voluisti pro me August And it best sets forth the reference she hath to him as being his Spouse his Bride The servant must honour his master the Disciple must attend for instruction the wife must love her husband Bernard amor ab amando non honorando saith Saint Bernard and he gives these reasons for it una utriusque haereditas una domus una mensa unus etiam thorus and there is no fitter a union of these then love The originall then of the Churches blisse is Christ his love towards her The first spring of election is love Rom. 9. Iohn 3.16 Hoseah 11.4 Jacob have I loved the maine Conduit or Cisterne of Redemption is love God so loved the world the streams of vocation and sanctification I drew thee with the cords of a man with the bands of love and the maine Ocean of eternall glory In amore haec insunt omnia all is from love There neither is nor can be any in her to move him to love her much lesse to deserve his love not her beauty she acknowledgeth her selfe black no Miriam more leprous Can. 1. no polluted Thamar more hated in the eyes of an Amnon then she in his eyes when he first tooke liking to her not her parentage for her father was an Amorite her mother a

Hittite nor her portion for what was hers naturally Ezekiel 16. but sinne and everlasting death the wages of it nor her parts for the best child of grace acknowledgeth In me there dwelleth no manner of thing that is good all then was in him free and pure love Now we say magnes amoris amor Rom. 7 love hath an attractive power to draw love therefore let every Spouse of Christ remember to returne love to him againe that every heart may plead for it selfe as Peter did Lord thou knowest that I love thee O then let us pitch and settle our affections upon him who is as Saint Bernard saith verè amans amabilis one most truly loving us and most worthy to be beloved of us the Apostle pronounceth an extreame Anathema to him that failes in the retribution of it If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 16.22 let him be Anathema Maranatha and it should be a double engagement of our obedience and thanke and let us not onely with the inward man love him but with the outward also honour and confesse him who pleads for us before his Father in heaven 't is but a dead heart that hath a dumbe voyce when Christ his cause is in question Canes latrare possunt pro Dominis non vis me latrare pro Christo Hier. Tract 3. op 40. saith Saint Jerome to Ruffinus the Dogges will barke for their masters and wilt thou not have me speake for Christ and he goes on si ista causadi scordiae est mori possum tacere non possum if that be the cause of our jarres I may dye before hold my peace yea let us so farre as in us lyeth not suffer him to be blasphemed by others it was the zealous resolution of that holy Father Ego si patrem si matrem si uxorem si filios si germanos adversum Christum meum audivissem ista dicentes quasi rabidus canis blasphemantia ora lacerassem fuisset in primis manus mea super eos Id op 20. And lastly it should be a double engagement of our obedience and thankefulnesse of our obedience to live unto him who hath so dearely loved us as to dye for us and our thankefulnesse may have that heavenly burden of the Saints Rev. 1.5 6. To him that hath loved us and washed us from our sinnes in his owne blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen The word is rendred Vicina my neighbour adjoyning Inhabitant Themistocles having a house to sell commended it that it had bonum vicinum a good neighbour the Churches blisse is that Christ is pleased to dwell with them yea in them and make a resolution as in the Psalme Psalm 32. Here will I dwell for I have a delight therein and not onely vicina but proxima my nearest one both for counsell and comfort he revealeth his secrets to them and is ready at all assayes to helpe them yea amica my friend as Abraham was called the friend of God Jac. 2.23 He need feare no enemy who hath God to his friend yet the originall word goes further for it is taken from feeding or conversing together and expresseth that inward familiarity and union that is betwixt them It must teach us all by no meanes to estrange our selves from Christ but to keepe a correspondence with him to cherish our familiarity friendship to preserve our union that we professing him to be ours he may confesse us to be his as he doth his Church here My love which is a terme both of propriety and of possession Of propriety he claimes a speciall interest in his Church and he hath a true right in us all both by making us his at the first and by buying us againe when we had made away our selves his deare purchase we are therefore let us not alienate our selves from him either in our affection for he is the proper and adaequate object of our love minus east è te amat Aug. qui aliquid praeter te amat quod non propter te amat he loves thee amisse who loves any thing besides thee which he loves not in and for thee nor in our obedience but wholly devote our selves to him and him alone that none may have the honour of our service but he that abased himselfe to save us Of possession he hath a speciall care and custody of his Church he keepes them as choycely as his jewels as the apple of his owne eye he keepes their head as with a shield that not a haire of it shall perish yea their very feet that they dash them not against a stone By the Daughters are meant either forraigne Congregations as the Daughter of Babylon Psalme 137. or else as I conceive such as live within the Pale of the visible Church enjoy the same holy Word and Sacraments which the elect Spouse of Christ doth yet are they Thornes to his Lily Spinae propter malignitatem morum filiae propter Sacramentorum communionem Aug. Vincentio Epist 48. Id in Ps 36. eadem professio sed non idem cor saith the same Father they have the same profession but not the same heart therefore the more dangerous Mali Christianitantò nocentiores quanto interiores mimici saith Saint August Tom. 4. De side rerum invisibilium if that worke be his the more inward enemies the more hurtfull Saint Bernard descanting of the Churches complaint of her bitternesse saith she was amara prius in nece martyrum amarior postea in conflictu haereticorum amarissima in moribus domesticorum bitter first in the death of her Martyrs more bitter in succeeding ages in her concertation with Heretikes most bitter in these last times in the corrupt manners of them of her owne houshold 2 Cor. 11.26 1 Iohn 2.19 Saint Paul speaks of perils among false brethren and Saint John of some they went out from us Rom. 2. but they were not of us they are not all Israel which are of Israel Rom. 9 6. And he is a Jew which is one inwardly Our Saviour mentions some that come in sheeps clothing Tertul. Quae nam sunt ist ae pelles ovium nisi nominis Christiani extrinsecus superficies they have the name but not the nature of Christians their habit shewes them to be Daughters of Jerusalem but in heart they are but Daughters of Babylon therefore Christ leaves them to a common appellation not gracing them with his appropriating terme my Th●se whom Christ ownes not here he will deny hereafter and though they be never so nigh him and enjoy all the outward priviledges of the Church yet non novi vos is their doome depart from me Mat. 7. I know you not So I returne from the Goats to the Sheepe the Church of Christ here compared to a Lily for as the Lily doth open her selfe to receive