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cause_n ghost_n holy_a spirit_n 3,926 5 5.5026 4 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A54342 Helps to the assurance of God's love whereby a true believer may with the help of Gods good spirit know that he had a being in the love of God before he had a being in the world : to which is added a spiritual touch-stone for the tryal of the sincerity of our love to God / by Samuel Pack. Pack, Samuel. 1673 (1673) Wing P150; ESTC R26175 21,542 70

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hatred of sin now my friends see if it be so with you doth your love to God thus manifest it self But if it be otherwise with thee instead of hateing sin you love it instead of making communion with God your end in duty you make self pride and vain glory your end If instead of letting your thoughts dwell upon God you are dwelling upon the world and vanity you can have but little well-grounded hopes that you love God and consequently that God loves you for saith the Apostle we love him because he first loved us in which words we have first an effect Secondly a cause the effect is our love to God we love him Secondly the cause God loves us and saith Jesus Christ the Wisedome of the father I love them that love me we must not think the meaning of the holy Ghost in that Scripture is to make our love to God the cause of Gods love to us but the evidence of it Now my friends I beseech you gather up all again and see whether you can experience in your own souls that you have a true knowledge of God and the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God and whether this love of God doth constrain thee to duty And whether thou art a fruit-baring Christian and doest in the place in which God hath put thee endeavour to bring others to God and examine thine unsatiable desires after more of this love of God and examine whither God doth sanctify afflictions unto thee and give thee communion with himself in duty and art thou made willing to suffer for God and art thou made to hate sin and hath God destroy'd thy enemies which are thy sins and see if thou hast received spiritual life from God and hast a Sincere love to God Now to conclude if thou findest none of these markes in thy soul of Gods love thy case is sad I would not be in thy Condition for ten thousand worlds yet though I would discourage thee from going on in thy Sin because a constant persisting in a course of Sin is a dreadful Sign of Gods hatred yet I dare not discourage thee in thy attendance on the means of grace because those are Gods lattices through which he does flourish himself Can. 2.9 Or as we have it translated shew himself unto poor souls therefore thou that canst experience nothing of the love of God I beseech thee as thou tendrest the good of thy precious and immortal soul be constant in attending on the means of grace thou knowest not how soon God may dart in such beams of his love to thy soul through the thick glass of Gospel ordinances as may make thee cry out with the spouse stay me with Flagons strew me a bed with Apples for I am sick of Love And for you that can say you have had experience of the love of God and can say of a truth that Christ hath kissed you with the kisses of his Lips and that his left Arm hath been under your neck and his right Arm hath imbraced you you that can say that the time was when You did sit under the banner of my beloved with great delight and his fruit was sweet to your tast you that can say that the time was when God did flourish himself unto your Souls through the Lattice and the Sun of Righteousness did shine upon your Tabernacle That God did so manifest himself unto your Souls in all or most of his Ordinances that it may be you did not know whether you were in the body or out of the body as Paul saith your hearts have been forewarned and affected with the presence of God by the influence of his Spirit Now it may be you walk in darkness and have no light instead of that sweet communion you had with God in duty it may be there may be nothing but deadness and dulness of heart and indisposition of Soul to duty It may be instead of that shining in of Gods love unto your Souls you may with Job apprehend God to be your Enemy and be ready to say that God doth set a print on your Heels and on your Feet and sew up your iniquities in a bag and seal up your sins Job 13.24 26 27. you that could formerly say with David come and see what God hath done for my Soul it may be are now ready to say with Job have pity upon as oh our friends for the hand of the Lord is upon us Job 19 21. and with the Church in the Lamentations Is it nothing to you all you that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow Lam. 1.12 which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce Wrath. Oh wo is 〈◊〉 us for the Day of Comfort and Consolation is passing away and the shadows of the evening and morning are stretched out Now poor souls you that are thu● in Hell upon Earth for want o● comfort and consolation from Heaven give me leave to speak two or three words to you in order to the reducing you to you former comfortable estate yo● that are thus afflicted and to●sed with Tempest and not comforted it will be your prudenc● and it doth highly concern you to take notice what wind hat● brought this Tempest which ha● filled your Souls with such clouds of despondencies for either the East Wind of sinful Security or the North Wind of pinching Adversity or the South Wind of unsanctified Prosperity has undoubtedly raised these storms in your Souls which for some time and in some measure make an interposition between the comfortable rayes of the Light of Gods Countenance and thy poor soul For the first see if the east wind of sinful security hath not raised this Tempest of dejection and despondency though God doeth greatly delight to secure his people from the God of this world yet his people will find but small comfort in their sinful security before God whilst they be in this World though God doeth so watch over a believer that he shall never be overcome by temptations yet for want of watchfulness in a believer God may suffer him to be exposed to Temptation though a true believer cannot lose the God of comfort and consolation yet he may for a time lose the comfort and consolation of his God if the blasting East wind of carnal security make the ears thin and empty no wonder if thou art not filled with the south wind of comfort and consolation if David and Peter think their mountain so strong that they shall not be moved to deny the Fountain of their Comfort and Consolation God will most certainly deny them for a time the Comforts from the Fountain Again in the next place see if the south wind of unsanctified prosperity have not blown up these storms of sanctifiing Adversity for Gods end in imbittering our beloved outward enjoyments by denying us his comforting presence is to make his consolations more sweet unto us and