Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	let_v	lord_n	sin_n	4,896	5	4.6771	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59891	A sermon preach'd on the second of September being the fast for the fire of London, at the cathedral church of St. Paul's, before the right honourable the Lord-Mayor, aldermen, and citizens of London / by W. Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1699 (1699)	Wing S3362; ESTC R33837	12,679	29

lukewarm All these our Saviour summons to Repentance and threatens to punish or destroy them if they did not Chap. 2 and 3. of the Revelations The Application of all this to our selves is so obvious that I need not multiply words about it We are that very Nation wherein all these Evils meet it is hard to name any Vice which is not openly committed amongst us without Fear or Shame Nay things are come to that pass that to be a modest Sinner to boggle at any Wickedness or to blush at it is as great a Reproach as to be Virtuous And though some men are ashamed to own themselves Atheists yet to believe in Christ and to own any Reveal'd Religion or to talk seriously of Providence of God's governing the World and punishing Cities and Nations for their Wickedness is thought a Jest and I wish it were a Jest only among vile and mean People of no Fortune or Education whereas we often see that their Condition makes them modest and untaught Nature teaches them better till they are corrupted by the Examples of Men of Wit and Figure in the World And as for those who pretend to Religion it is a very melancholy Prospect to observe how little of the true Life and Spirit of Christianity there is among them There is indeed Noise and Zeal and Faction enough among some People and that makes others as cold and indifferent The Tempers of the Church of Sardis and Laodicea the one that had a Name to live but was dead the other that was lukewarm make much the greatest Parties among us and the very best men I fear are too much inclined to the state of Ephesus which had left her first Love those great Passions and Ardors of Devotion which ought to inspire the Minds of Christians Let us then hear the Rod and tremble See how God dealt with the Iewish Church for these Sins see what our Lord hath done to the Churches of Asia and though we cannot say what God will do to us because we know not what wonderful Designs are in the Womb of Providence yet we know what we do and how God hath dealt with those who have done as we do which is too just reason to fear that he will deal so by us too unless we repent and reform which they did not For 2dly When the Judgments of God are upon us the Reformation must be universal too It concerns every man to reform himself for a Nation can never be reformed but by the Reformation of particular men who make up the Nation and therefore when we are summoned to Repentance as the Judgments of God summon us all every man must examine himself what he has to repent of and reform himself But yet there is great difference between a National and Personal Repentance and Reformation and they serve very different Ends. A Nation may be said to be reformed and God may in great Mercy remove his Judgments tho what is never to be expected every particular man do not repent and reform himself But then such a National Reformation requires the Execution of Publick Justice against Publick Wickedness to make Sin publickly infamous and to teach the greatest and most powerful Sinners Modesty To banish if not Sinners yet Sin out of our Courts and out of our Streets and to make it once more seek for Night and Darkness for a Covering that Virtue may no longer blush in Company or need Apologies nor Vice dare to brave it at Noon-day There has indeed of late been some Care taken by Publick Laws and Royal Proclamations to punish the Prophanation of God's Name by accursed Oaths but yet in most cases men may be as vile as they please and as publickly so as they please and little or no notice taken of them nay they may talk and write what they please against God and Religion ridicule the History of Moses and the Gospel of our Saviour and the Mysteries of the Christian Faith and gain Credit and Reputation by it I hope there are not many Christian Nations in the World which in so publick a manner permit these things We have talk'd of Liberty of Conscience and Reformation to good purpose if the only effect of it be a liberty of ridiculing the Christian Faith which might make one suspect that all the Zeal some men have express'd against Popery was at the bottom of it a Zeal for Atheism and Irreligion which the Discipline of Popery as bad a Religion as it is would not endure it is indeed well fitted to make Atheists and Infidels but will make men have a care how they profess it And it is to be feared that this Scepticism and Infidelity and Contempt of Religion will prove a Back-door to let in Popery again upon us But to leave these Thoughts with those whose proper Care and Business it is whether a Nation will be reformed or not it concerns every particular man to hear the Rod The Judgments of God warn us of his Anger and Displeasure against Sin that we may fly from the Wrath to come and we do not hear the Voice of the Rod nor improve Judgments to their true end if we do not so repent and reform as to save our Souls and this to be sure must be a Personal and an Universal Reformation And yet even with respect to present Judgments a Personal Repentance and Reformation is of great use for when the Judgment is Publick and National God many times makes a remarkable distinction between persons Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with them for they shall reap the fruit of their doings Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given to him Which is spoke with respect to Publick Judgments 3. Isa. 10 11. Which is a sufficient Encouragement for particular men to repent and reform their Lives whatever others do But it is time to apply what I have now discoursed to the Particular Occasion of this Day 's Solemnity though possibly some may think that this Application comes too late it might have been very seasonable One or Two and thirty Years ago while the Marks of this Terrible Vengeance were fresh and visible when the Ruins of our Houses and Churches could only tell us where London stood and shew us its Funeral Pile where its Glory lay in the Dust When so many Thousand Families felt the smart of their Ruined Fortunes and were either forc'd to begin the World again or sunk irrecoverably under it This Fiery Vengeance had a Voice then and a very Terrible Voice enough to awaken the most stupid and Lethargick Sinners But when we see our City rebuilt more beautiful than ever as the little poor Remains of the Old one witness When our Riches and Glory are increased beyond the Example of most former Ages it seems too late to lament over the Ashes and Rubbish of our Fired City when there are no visible Remains of these

Ruins to move our Pity or Sorrow And indeed were this the only design of this Annual Fast it were high time to put an end to it or to turn it into a Thanksgiving Festival For it is in vain to expect that after Three and thirty Years the return of this Day should revive and renew our Sorrows and Lamentations when our Ruins are removed our Losses repaired and those frightful Impressions which the sight of that devouring Fire made on us forgot and little left to put us in mind that our City was burnt but the Inscription upon the Monument and the sight of a New City with the several Dates of its Resurrection which must needs qualify all melancholy and sorrowful Reflections on what is so long past But though the Design of this Solemnity is not to represent and act over again a new doleful Scene of Horror Confusion and Amazement which neither Nature nor Art can imitate as we saw it once on this day without such another amazing Sight which God grant we may never see again till the General Conflagration yet it is of great use to keep up a lively sense of such Judgments upon our Minds which become the subject of Reason of cool Thoughts and wise Consideration when the Terror and Frightfulness of them is over Judgments could never make a lasting Reformation in the World were we concerned to remember them no longer than we feel their smart but they are intended both for Punishment and Instruction the Punishment ends with the smart and that puts an end to all whining and tragical Complaints but this alone is the discipline of Fools or Bruits The Instruction is for Men and this is to last as long as Memory and Thought and Reason last What could the Fire of London teach us Thirty three Years ago which it does not teach a wise man still And what Thoughts and devout Passions became us then which are not still on this Day the proper Exercise of our Devotion When we saw our Churches and Houses in Flames when we saw those furious Torrents of Fire rowling down our Streets and despising all the Opposition that Human Art or Strength could make as if they had known by what a Divine and Irresistible Commission they acted there were few men to be found who did not express a great Fear and Reverence of the Power and Justice and terrible Majesty of God who did not see and own the Hand of God and the visible Tokens of his Displeasure and begin in good earnest to think of reforming their Lives and making their Peace with God who had now taken the Rod into his own hand When we saw our Riches make to themselves Wings and fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven when we saw all our Pride and Glory the Toil and Labour of our whole Lives the Food and the Instruments of our Lusts vanish into Smoke and Dust this effectually taught us the Uncertainty of all present things and made us seriously consider what an ill state those were in who had nothing to trust to but such vanishing Treasures and how reasonable our Saviour's Command is Not to lay up for our selves treasures on earth where moth and rust do corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but to lay up for our selves treasures in heaven which are not subject to such Casualties which will make us bear such Losses better when they come and secure our eternal Interest When men saw their Riches and Treasures vanish in a Cloud it naturally made them consider how much of this they owed to the Poor how much they had spent upon their Lusts and how much they had unjustly got that is how much of what God had taken from them was not their own and how much they had abused the Gifts of God Very Wise and Pious Thoughts had they lasted and yet too plain to be missed by those who thought at all when they saw these Lessons written in bright Characters of Fire Now was all this do you think calculated only for Sixty six Is not God the same still A Just and Righteous Judge who is angry with the wicked every day though he do not every day bend his bow and let fly his Arrows though he do not every day make the earth tremble and quake and the very foundations of the hills to shake because he is angry though we do not every day see a smoke go out of his presence and a consuming fire out of his mouth though he do not upon every Provocation appear in his Terrible Majesty riding upon the Cherubins and flying upon the wings of the wind Methinks one such Example might serve us for some Ages without expecting or desiring to be summoned again to Repentance by new Terrors God is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness He delights more to display his Glory in acts of Goodness and Bounty to his Creatures but Judgments are his strange work which makes the signal Execution of them so very rare and the way to have them rare is not to forget them to learn Righteousness by the things which we have suffer'd to fear and tremble before that God who is so terrible in his doings towards the children of men But if the Fire of London was too long since to work upon our Fears at this distance though I confess I wonder how any man who saw that Sight should ever forget it or remember it without a just Awe and Reverence of God but I say if these Impressions of Fear and Terror are lost let the Beauty and Glory of our New City our Increasing Riches our Flourishing Trade our Ease and Plenty teach us to Love and Reverence and Worship and Praise that God who in the midst of judgment hath remembred mercy who hath pluck'd us as a firebrand out of the fire and hath not suffered our Enemies to triumph over us who said Down with it down with it even to the ground This is the way to perpetuate our Prosperity and Glory if the Remembrance of past Judgments teaches us to Fear God the sense of his present Mercies to Love him and both to Obey him Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant through our Lord Iesus Christ To Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Honour Glory and Power now and ever Amen FINIS Books Published by the Reverend Dr. Sherlock Dean of St. Paul's Master of the Temple and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty AN Answer to a Discourse entituled Papists protesting against Protestant Popery 2d Edit Quarto An Answer to the Amicable Accommodation of the Differences between the Representer and the Answerer Quarto Eleven Sermons preach'd on several Occasions Quarto A Vindication of some Protestant Principles of Church-Unity and Catholick Communion from the Charge of Agreement with the Church of Rome Quarto A Preservative against Popery in Two Parts with the Vindication in Answer to the Cavils of Lewis Sabran Jesuit 4to A Discourse of the Nature Unity and Communion of the Catholick Church First Part. Quarto Case of Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers Stated and Resolved according to Scripture and Reason and the Principles of the Church of England Quarto A Vindication of the Case of Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers Quarto A Discourse concerning the Divine Providence Quarto Second Edition Price 5 s. A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity 3d Edit 4to Apology for Writing against Socinians Quarto A Vindication of the Sermon of the Danger of corrupting the Faith by Philosophy in Answer to some Socinian Remarks 4to A Defence of Dr. Sherlock's Notion of the Trinity Quarto The Distinction between the Real and Nominal Trinitarians examined in Answer to a Socinian Pamphlet Quarto A Practical Discourse concerning Death In Octavo Tenth Edition Price 3 s. A Practical Discourse concerning a Future Judgment The Fifth Edition Octavo Price 3 s. 6 d. The Present State of the Socinian Controversy and the Doctrine of the Catholick Fathers concerning a Trinity in Unity 4to Price 5 s. An Answer to the Animadversions on the Dean of St. Paul's Vindication of the Trinity By I. B. A. M. Quarto A Defence of the Dean of St. Paul's Apology for Writing against Socinians Quarto