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	see_v	think_v	5,028	5	3.7942	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44433	Discourses, or, Sermons on several Scriptures by ... Ezekiel late Lord Bishop of London-Derry.	Hopkins, Ezekiel, 1634-1690.	1691 (1691)	Wing H2729; ESTC R31535	75,889	298

Justice of God arrayed in all the terrible Circumstances of it that if Mercy cannot allure us Justice at least might affright us from our Sins And as those who are to travel thorow Wildernesses and Deserts carry Fire with them to terrify wild and ravenous Beasts and to secure themselves from their Assaults So doth the great God who hath to deal with brutish Men Men more savage than wild Beasts he kindles a Fire about him and appears to them all in Flames and Fury that so he might fright them from their bold Attempts who otherwise would be ready to run upon his Neck and upon the thick Bosses of his Buckler Job 15.26 And therefore in the four precedent Verses we find the Apostle threatning most tremendous Judgments against all that should wilfully trangress after they had received the knowledg of the Truth He tells us Verse 26. That there remains no more sacrifice for their Sins Nothing to expiate their Guilt but that they themselves must fall a Burnt-Sacrifice to the offended Justice of God consumed with that fiery Indignation that shall certainly seize and prey upon them for ever And in v. Heb. 10.28 29. 28 29. he sets forth the exceeding Dreadfulness of their Judgment by a comparison between those that violated the Law of Moses and those that renounce and annul the Law of Christ He that despised Moses 's Law who himself was but a Servant and his Laws consisted of inferiour and less spiritual Ordinances yet a Despiser and Transgressor of these was to die without Mercy certainly much sorer Judgments await those who reject the Laws of Christ and trample him who is the Son and Lord of the House under foot accounting his Blood unholy and prophane renouncing his Merits and blaspheming the Holy Spirit by which our Saviour acted Such as these says the Apostle shall eternally perish with less Mercy than those that died without Mercy Where by the way observe the strange Emphasis that the Apostle lays upon this dreadful Commination he tells us they shall be sorer punish'd than those that are punished without Mercy to let us know that as there are transcendent Glories such as Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive reserved in the highest Heavens for those that love God so also are there Woes and Torments such as Eye hath not seen Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive how great and insupportable they are prepared in Hell for those that hate him They shall die with less Mercy than those that die without Mercy Now that we might not wonder at such a Paradox as this the Apostle gives the Reason of it in my Text For we know him that hath said Vengeance belongeth unto me it is the Vengeance of God and a falling into the Hands of God and therefore it is no wonder if their Punishments shall be beyond all extremity They fall under the Power and Wrath of an infinite God which when we have heaped Superlatives upon Superlatives yet still we must express defectively and all that we can conceive of it falls vastly short of reaching but a faint and languishing resemblance thereof It is a State so full of perfect Misery that Misery it self is too easy a Name to give it yea whatsoever we can speak most appositly of it is but diminishing it for because it is the Wrath and Vengeance of an infinite God it can no more be known by us than God himself Plunge your Thoughts as deep into it as you can yet still there remains an infinite Abysse which you can never fathom And O that the consideration of this Wrath might cause us all to tremble before this great and terrible God that we might so fear it as never to feel it and be perswaded to fall down at his Feet that we may never fall into his Hands And that we may be thus affected I have chosen this Text to set forth the Greatness and Dreadfulness of that Wrath and Vengeance which the righteous God will execute upon all stubborn and disobedient Wretches A Text that speaks to us as God did to the Israelites from Mount Sinai out of the midst of the Fire and Blackness Darkness and Tempest in the Voice of a Trumpet And truly we have all need to have such rousing Truths frequently inculcated upon us for the best of us are Lethargical and though sometimes when our Consciences are pincht hard by a severe and searching Truth we start up and look abroad yet as soon as the present Impression is over we suddenly close our Eyes and fall asleep again in Sin and Security There is a strange Dullness and Stupor hath seiz'd us that we can no longer keep waking than we are shook And therefore as we use to apply Fire and burning Coals to Lethargick Persons to awaken them so we have need to heap Coals of Fire upon Mens Heads to speak with fiery Tongues and thunder Woe and Wrath and Judgments against them that we may rouze the secure stupid World and so at least scorch them into Life and Sense In the Words we have these two Parts observable First An Appropriation of Vengeance unto God Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord. Secondly The Dreadfulness of that Vengeance inferred from the consideration of the Author and Inflicter of it It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God I begin with the first of these God's appropriating and challenging Vengeance unto himself Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord. Which Passage the Apostle cites out of Deuteronomy ch Deut. 32.35 32.35 36. To me belongeth Vengeance and Recompence and the Lord shall judge his People It is his great and royal Prerogative that he doth sometimes make use of in inflicting Judgments upon the Wicked in this World but most especially in the World to come And to this future Vengeance the Words ought particularly to be applyed Now from this consideration That Vengeance in a peculiar Manner belongs unto the great God hence we may observe That God himself will be the immediate Inflicter of the Punishments of the Damned It is therefore here likewise called a falling into the Hands of the living God which denotes his immediate Efficiency in their Torments It is true God doth use several Instruments of Torture in Hell There is the Worm that never dies and the Fire that never goes out which I suppose to be not only a Metaphorical but possibly a Material Fire elevated to such a degree of Subtilty as that it shall at once torture the Soul and not consume the Body And this Fire the Devils who are their Executioners will be still very officiously raking about them using all their malicious Art to increase their eternal Misery But yet these things are but small Appendages and only the slighter Circumstances of their Torments the most exact and intolerable part of

Secondly This speaks abundance of comfort to all those whose Sins are pardon'd and they delivered from the Wrath to come Look what Spring-tides of Joy would rise in the Heart of a poor condemned Malefactor who every moment expects the stroke of Justice to cut him off to have a Pardon interpose and rescue him from Death Such yea far greater should be thy Joy who art freed meerly by a gracious Pardon from a Condemnation infinitely greater and worse than Death it self When we look into Hell and consider the Wrath that the Damned there lye under O to behold them there restlesly rolling to and fro in Chains and Flames to hear them exclaim against their own Folly and Madness and to curse Themselves and their Associates as the causes of their heavy and doleful Torments how should we rejoice that though we have been guilty of many great and heinous Sins and have ten thousand times deserved Hell and everlasting Burnings yet our good and gracious God hath freely pardon'd us our Debts and freed us from the same merited Punishments Vse 3 Thirdly This also should excite us to magnify the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ towards us who though he knew what the dreadful Wrath of God was how sore and heavy it would lye upon his Soul yet such was his infinite Compassion towards us that he willingly submitted himself to be in our stead took upon him our Nature that he might take upon him our Guilt and first made himself wretched that he might be made accursed He drank off the whole bitter Cup of his Father's Wrath at one bitter draught received the whole sting of Death into his Body at once falls and dies under the Revenges of Divine Justice only that we might be delivered from the Wrath that we had deserved but could not bear O Christian let thy Heart be inlarged with great Love and Thankfulness to thy blessed Redeemer and as he thought nothing too much to suffer for thee return him this Expression of thy Thankfulness to think nothing too much nor too hard to do or to suffer for him Vse 4 Fourthly You that go on in Sin consider what a God you have to deal withal You have not to do with Creatures but with God himself And do you not fear that increated Fire that will wrap you up in Flames of his essential Wrath and burn you for ever Consider that dreadful Expostulation that God makes Ezek. Ezek. 22.14 22.14 Can thy Heart indure or can thy Hands be strong in the Day that I shall deal with thee saith the Lord The very weakness of God is stronger than Man God can breath he can look a Man to Death Job 4.9 Job 4.9 By the Blast of God they perish and by the Breath of his Nostrils are they consumed They perish at the Rebuke of thy Countenance Psalm 80.16 Psal 80.16 O then tremble to think what a load of Wrath his heavy Hand can lay upon thee Isa 10.12 That Hand which spans the Heavens and in the Hollow of which he holds the Sea What Punishment will this great Hand of God in which his great Strength lies inflict when it shall fall upon thee in the full Power of its Might And tell me now O Sinner wouldst thou willingly fall into the Hands of this God who is thus able to crush thee to pieces yea to nothing O how shall any of us then dare who are but poor weak Potsherds of the Earth dash our selves against this Rock of Ages Indeed we can neither resist his Power nor escape his Hand and therefore since we must necessarily sooner or later fall into the Hands of God let us by true Repentance and an humble Acknowledgment of our Sins and Vileness throw our selves into his merciful Hands and then to our unspeakable Comfort we shall find that he will extend his Arm of Mercy to support us and not his Hand of Justice to crush and break us FINIS