Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	child_n	spirit_n	witness_v	1,106	5	9.8469	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42553	Philadelphia, or, a treatise of brotherly-love Shewing, that we must love all men: love the wicked in general: love our enemies: that the godly must especially love another: and the reasons of each particular love. The manner of our mutual love; the dignity, necessity, excellenc, and usefulness of brotherly-love. That the want of love, where love is due, is hatred, shewed in divers particulars. The greatness of the sin of malice and hatred; with the reasons why wicked men hate the saints: together with cautions against those sins that break the bond of love. Many weighty questions discussed, and divers cases cleared. By William Gearing, minister of the word.	Gearing, William.	1670 (1670)	Wing G436C; ESTC R223669	92,727	215

Israel twelve thousand of each Tribe which made up an hundred forty and fourthousand These ye see were numbred and sealed and these followed the Lamb and stood with him upon mount Sion Now there were abundance of the people of Israel besides these but there was no reckoning made of them they were not numbred and so not sealed they came not into the Lords account they were nothing they wanted the grace of Love and the spirit of Life they wanted the Being and Essence of Saints and Children of God So beloved a man may be something in the visible Church he may have a place and a name among the people of God yea he may be of special use in the Church and do some special service yet if he have not the Spirit of Love which is the Spirit of Life he is nothing in Gods account he standeth for a Cyphar he is none of the Lords number How necessary then is this Grace of Christian Love It is far more necessary to love than to be beloved Though a man should be as friendless as Job and David in their afflictions and find as little Love as they did yet if he himself in the mean-time be possessed with the Spirit of Love he is a living man an happy man a child of God one born of God who is Love This grace of Love whereof his Heart and Conscience beareth him witness shall yeeld him more sweet and sound Comfort than all the worlds affection towards him On the other side if a man were the worlds Minion and Darling and had the Love of a whole Countrey in an high degree yet if he himself have not this grace of true Christian Love he were nothing let the world make as much as she can of him God will make nothing of him he will not number him nor write him among the living his name is not written in Heaven Thus ye see how necessary this grace of Love is In that place of St. James fore-cited it is said Faith without works is dead Now how doth Faith work but by Love An Handy-crafts-man may as well work at his Trade without a hand as a man may do the works of Faith works that are witnesses of a lively saving Faith without true Christian Love A man may do many things which for the outside may look like the works and fruits of Faith without Love but they want the heart and soul of works acceptable unto God they are but the outward cases of good works Therefore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 16.14 Let all your things be done with Love if they be done without Love they be done without Life and they cannot be done with Love unless with hearts possessed with the Spirit of Love How miserable then should we think our selves without Love Men often complain for w●nt of necessaries when as many times those th●ngs that they complain of the want of may well be spared and are rather superfluities than necessaries But alas what is so necessary as true Christian Love many think they have enough of it who yet have not one spark of this heavenly fire in their hearts they think they have love enough to others but not love enough from others whereas it is a thing much more to be looked after that we have fervent and sincere love towards others than that we may tast plentifully of the fruits of Love from others And in desiring an encrease of Love in others we should rather desire it for the glory of God and as a seal of their effectual calling and a means to further their account whose Love we desire than to enjoy the fruits of their Love for our own outward benefit or contentment As St. Paul speaking of some Christians bounty and commending it saith Not that I desire a gift but I desire fruit that may abound to your account That is I desire your benefit in giving rather than my own benefit in receiving and so in others fruit of Love 3. Consider the excellency of this grace of Christian Love It is a most noble and excellent grace it sheweth who are of the seed Royal who are the Children of the King of Kings it discovereth who be the Heirs of glory and belonging to the Kingdom of God It is as it were the heart of the new Creature This new Creature hath its several parts and faculties as well as the natural man and Faith is as it were the brain of the new man yet so that it hath an influence upon the heart and active powers of the new Creature That bringeth in Light and apprehendeth the Lord Jesus Christ shining graciously in the Gospel who is the brightness of the Fathers glory But Love is the heart of the new Creature that which warmeth the new man and is the first mover in the actions of obedience whether of Love and Holiness toward God or of Love and Righteousness towards man Now ye know that the heart is a principal part in any Creature that hath that part and the more excellent the Creature is the more excellent is that part of it Now no Creature under Heaven is comparable for excellency with the new Creature which is the immediate frame and work of the sanctifying Spirit an effect of one of his most divine Operations I mean the whole frame of Regeneration and Sanctification in one born of God now Love is the heart of this new Creature the heart in a man is said to be primum vivens et ultimum moriens the first part that liveth the last that dieth But Love which is the heart of the new Creature never dyeth Faith and Hope have their periods Love out-liveth them and is everlasting for Faith is of things not seen 1 Cor. 13.8 c. But when all the glorious things promised and beleeved lye open to the sight of the Saints at a full view Faith as it is the evidence of things not seen shall cease Hope is of things to come but when all shall be in present possession and the Soul can neither expect nor receive any more Hope shall cease But Love is for ever and ever and this shall be in full perfection when this Life shall end when there shall be nothing in them that love nor in them that are to be loved which may hinder Love when they shall wholly dwell in God who is Love and be filled with the fulness of God and so with fulness of Love And if he could say of his earthly kind of wisdom that if it were visible and to be seen with the eyes of men it would make men strangely enamoured with it how much more may it be said of this Christian Love which is from above that if it were in a visible shape and had an outward beauty answerable to the excellency of its Nature it would enflame the affections of men and women towards it 4. Love makes men useful and helpful to others Plato saith of those men that are malicious and contentious that they