Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	know_v	love_v	true_a	9,910	5	5.1266	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49492	Six sermons preached before His Majesty at White-Hall Published by command. Tending all to give satisfaction in certain points to such who have thereupon endeavoured to unsettle the state, and government of the church. By the Right Reverend Father in God, Benjamin Laney, Late Lord Bishop of Ely.	Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.	1675 (1675)	Wing L351A; ESTC R216387	93,670	230

for that may be either by laying the Foundation the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ as the Apostle calls them Heb. 6.1 which we call Catechizing If this be not Preaching if laying the Foundation be not edifying we shall make but a sorry Building If this Foundation of Faith be not well laid every new wind of Doctrine that rises blows it straight down again In these several ways besides the Sermon is God's Word effectual Now if we put all these under the bushel and set up the Sermon only we had need take heed how we hear that for if that wherein all our hope and confidence lies should go under the bushel too we are in a sad case It will therefore neerly concern us to take heed That God's Word be not lost in the Sermon i. e. that the power of it which consists in the evident conviction of truth be not lost in formalities and impertinences commonly us'd in Sermons As when little regard is given by some to God's Word unless the Sermon presents it self dress'd up with all the curiosities of Art Language and Phansie too which sometimes so disguises it as it can hardly be known from a Poem But for the true use of Ornaments of Art and Speech if they make us love our duties the more as they make us more in love with hearing I should think it well bestow'd But if painted Sermons be like painted Glass that makes ' a Room beautiful but intercepts too much the light it may well go in the rank too of those things which put God's Word under the bushel The same is done too with a courser sort of Forms which have no title to be divine but that they want humane Learning And yet if God's Word be not in that jejune formal dress it will not be so kindly received by those who out of a seeming tenderness of the liberty of God's Word are afraid that the Churches Form should bind it and spare not to fetter it in cold formalities of their own in which it languisheth to nothing Again God's Word must needs be put under a bushel when it is put into the bushel I mean when it is heard by Measure I do not mean the measure of Faith here in the Text the measure of the Sanctuary but the common Market-measure as when we must have an Hour-glass full at least and somwhat running over to make a just Sermon though the particulars be as incoherent both with the Text and themselves as the sand that measures them yet if it runs on smoothly and fills up the time all is well There is as little good from Sermons when they are heard by Tale if we have not our full number as well as our full measure two at the least a day the poor people are starv'd They would pity my simplicity if I should take upon me to confute it out of vain Philosophy and tell them out of it That quantitatis nulla est efficacia I shall with their good leaves 1. Tim. 3.1 from St. Paul out of the place I named before to Timothy shew them That there is no efficacy in quantity What a bedroll of sins doth he lay at their doors that heap to themselves Teachers There was a heap of sins under a heap of Sermons And no wonder for being after their own lust the more commonly the worse There be many other things to be taken heed of in hearing which intercept and obstruct the light of God's Word But because the time wears away I will add but one more That out of ignorance or ill will we do not misconstrue what we hear as St. Peter observ'd some to do with St. Paul's Epistles which they wrested to their own destruction And this I rather add in my own defence lest that which is spoken in favour of hearing should be interpreted a discouragement to it because people generally are not so well affected as they should be to so good a duty who had more need of fire to heat them than Water to cool them It had been to better purpose you will say if I had taken my Text out of St. James Be swift to hear But I beseech you not to be mistaken That which hath been said doth not take us off our speed We may be still as swift to hear as our Zeal can carry us It puts us only in our right way that we do not run in vain It is only to take God's Word from under the bushel where it doth no good that we may set it on the candlestick from whence we may receive the light of it and in that the benefit of our Saviour's advice to take heed how we hear which is the second part of our care in the affirmative by setting Gods VVord on the candlestick TO set God's VVord on the Candlestick is to set it where we may receive the light of it and that is first By a particular use and application of it to our selves that hear for though Preachers have commonly these words in their Sermons Uses and Application and they know best why they use them I do not for sure I am they are more proper to the Hearers The Preacher gives the Doctrine but the Hearers must make the Use and Application No Preacher can say as Nathan to David Thou art the Man unless he have a special Commission as he had from God No Preacher hath access to our Consciences at that Bar every man must be his own Judge and VVitness and as there shall be cause pronounce Sentence against himself Thou art the Man If we sit at the Sermon as men unconcern'd for any thing but the hearing of it to us it is all one as if it had been still under the Bushel and not upon the Candlestick If we hear and make no use of it we leave out the best part of the Sermon for the Hearers make bad Sermons as well as Preachers But when a fault or error is reprehended must every Hearer pronounce himself guilty Certainly No for that were injustice to condemn the innocent Though the Sermon condemns not every man that hears it yet it puts every man upon his trial to let the light into his own bosom to see whether he be guilty or not If guilty let him do as guilty men do sue for mercy and pardon and amendment If not guilty let him enjoy the comfort of that If our heart condemns us not then have we confidence towards God 1 Joh. 3.21 And happy is he that condemneth not himself Rom. 14.22 Guilty or not guilty we have benefit by the light that actually shines upon us for so it doth in the Candlestick A light in a Candlestick inlightens every one alike that comes into the room If a light be brought to us which none can see but he that brings it it may very well be suspected to be none of God's Lights because it will not stand in a Candlestick so as to be seen by others And many such there