Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	faith_n	good_a	love_n	5,320	5	5.8414	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42551	The love-sick spouse, or, The substance of four sermons preached on Canticles 2.5. by William Gearing ...	Gearing, William.	1665 (1665)	Wing G436; ESTC R42046	36,957	51

the yearnings of Josephs bowells over Benjamin his Mothers Son and of the true Mother over her child incaluerunt viscera they felt an agitation of their bowels Love the more vehement it is doth work the more sudden and sensible decay and languishing of Spirits as Amnon is said out of wanton love to wax lean from day to day and to grow sick for Tamar King 2 13. So here in Spiritual love you have the like expression O give me Wine to exhilarate Reynolds Treat de Passionibus and Apples to refresh those spirits that were as it were wasted and melted away by an extream out-let of love Hence I note Observ That true love carrieth out the soul after Christ with such vehemency that it is even sick for the want of Christ affections when they are strong will work disquiet when they obtain not what they are earnestly set upon when love is hindered it causeth a soul-sickness In handling of this point I will first shew what Love to Christ is Love to Christ is a supernatural grace wrought in the soul of a Christian by the spirit of God Descript through the knowledge of God in Christ and faith whereby we delight in Christ desire Union and Communion with him wish well unto him and rest upon him as the chiefest good where you have 1. The nature of it It is a supernatural vertue I call it a supernatural and heavenly love to distinguish it from other kinds of love there is a natural love Ista quam tu describis negotiatio est non amicitia quae ad commodum accedit Senec. Epist 9. which is naturally imprinted in us fastening us to those objects that are delightful to us this love is between Father and Child Husband and Wife c. There is a sensible love seated in the lower part of the soul and hath so much commerce with the senses from whence it borroweth its name as it alwayes makes impression upon the body and this it is which is properly termed passion There is a sensual and carnal love which may rather be called a fury then love there is worldly love when men are lovers of riches honours pleasures more then of Christ there is an immoderate self-love when men love their ease credit profit life more then Christ Yea many that pretend they love their friends they love them not so much for any vertue they observe in them as for the good they hope to reap by them Observe a man transfixed with any violent love you shall find a man whose mind is bewitched whose wit and reason is Ecclipsed all he beholds thinks and talks of is the object of his love but love to Christ is of a supernatural excellency it is a ray of Christs own love therefore he calls it his love Continue ye in my love John 15. 2. The efficient or worker of it is the Spirit of God we have it not from Nature but from the Spirit love is one of fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 Neither have we it from custome as Philosophers speak neither is it gotten by art or industry It is shed abroad upon our hearts by the Holy Ghost in us Rom. 5.5 Love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God 1 John 4.7 Now it is above the power of corrupt nature to love Christ 3. The object of this love is Jesus Christ the Spouse calls Christ him whom her soul loved Cant. 3. Christ is the object who is the Author of this love The objects of other loves are many times faulty and vitious Loves fancy may err in chusing an evil object but here it is not so for God and Christ are the only objects of this love 4. The grounds of this love that is through the knowledge of God in Christ and faith 1. Through the knowledge of God in Christ there must be a knowledge of Gods love to us before we can love him for as a stone that lies in the bowels of the earth is not hot till it be out of the earth and the Sun first shine upon it so we cannot love God till we first know his love toward us for our love is rather an effect then a cause of his love We love him because he loved us first 1 John 4.19 and we love not him till he hath first loved us If a man will love God in Christ he must first know God in Christ for our love to him is grounded upon our knowledge of God in Christ 2. A second ground of this love is faith there must be faith to believe the remission of our sins and that Christ loveth us in particular before we can truly love him The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 So that true love to Christ must spring from faith Object But it may be said that the woman in the Gospel had many sins forgiven her because she loved much Luke 7.47 Here was her love first then follows the remission of her sins Sol. The word Because doth not note out the cause of pardon but only a sign that her sins were pardoned You are to understand it thus it appeared that many sins were forgiven her because she loved much such a man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of God because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved of God he loveth much because much is forgiven This crosseth the opinion of the Papists they say Love is the form of faith for they make a double love one without faith and such a wicked man may have another with faith and such a wicked man cannot have Object But they object That which gives the operation to faith is the form of faith but love gives the operation to faith In Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith working by love Gal. 5.6 where love say they gives the operation to saith Ergo love is form of faith Resp Love gives the operation of faith not quà causa sed quà instrumentum not as the cause but as the instrument Love is not the cause of faiths operation but love is the instrument in its operation Object But S. James saith As the body without life is dead so faith without works is dead James 2.26 therefore love which makes faith to work gives life to it and is the form of it Sol. The works of faith as love c. do shew there is faith as the Spirit shews there is a soul if works were not there would appear to be no true faith Object That which doth perfect faith is the form of faith but works as love and other vertues do perfect faith James 2.22 By works was Abrahams faith made perfect Resp Works do perfect faith not in actu primo sed in actis secundo not in regard of the first act but in regard of the second as a tree is said to be perfected by the fruit not that the fruit gives

this question to you What evil didst thou find in me that thou desiredst me not How often have I gone about to melt thee with my love and did but look for thy desires of me and could not so much as obtain one desire from thee What will the sad consequence hereof be but this Christ will say to such you have often drawn neer to me in my Ordinances but me you affect not the Devil your own sins and the curse of God have oppressed you I came to fave you and have given you the means of grace and made a tender of my willingness to save you in the Gospel I came to save you out of the hands of your enemies but you have forsaken me the fountain of life and blessedness And therefore now what have you to do to take my Word within your mouths to draw neer to me when your hearts are far from me Do not such perish justly who desire not to be saved Is any pity to be shewn to such that come to Gods Ordinances and may have Manna and will not If they will but desire after after it they may have it If such be starved to death who will pitty them They might have Living-waters if they would ask after them but they will not Do not such persons justly perish in their sins This then may justly check us for the deadness of our desires and affections when we come to converse with Christ in his Ordidances Oh did we delight our selves in holy exercises and holy Ordinances how would they raise our hearts our desires and affections toward them This is one end why God hath ordained Ordinances namely to be as so many steps by which our affections may climb up to heaven hereby our hearts may have a strong intercourse with God though our persons be yet so far asunder Therefore whensoever thou drawest neer to God in any publick or secret duty let it be in hope to get neerer to God ere thou dost desist and when you go to read and hear the Word let it be with this desire and prayer that thou maist there meet with something that may raise thy affections neerer to God and give thee a fuller taste of his love in Christ CHAP. VI. STay me The Word in the Original is in the plural number She speaks to her friends and companions the faithful Ministers of Christ and other experienced Christians Stay me with some comfortable Doctrines and promises and with them comfort and refresh my languishing spirit the address is not directly to Christ himself Hence I note That the comforts of Christ to fainting Christians are often conveyed by the Ministery of man Observ he sends forth his Messengers to whom he gives the tongue of the Learned that know how to speak a word in season to a wearied soul This is one end why God hath set up the Ministery viz. that they may comfort those that are in spiritual distress Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith the Lord Isaiah 40.1 God will have his people to go to Ministers for comfort that are men like themselves and this is one reason why many people go heavy and sad all their dayes because out of the pride and stoutness of their Stomach they neglect and scorn to go to others for comfort they hide their wounds and bleed inwardly because they are unwilling to lay open their sores to faithful and learned Ministers and experienced Christians though the Lord he the God of all comfort yet for the most part he conveyes it to us by the Ministery of man True it is God sometimes doth immediately comfort them that are cast down he can comfort without means but he doth not but when means are wanting when we are debar'd of comforts then he comforts us in an immediate way but when means is to be had when we may have the benefit of the Ministery of the Word and of the Communion of Saints then God conveyeth comfort by means God will not comfort those immediately that neglect and despise the ordinary means of comfort hereby God endeareth the affections of people to Ministers and of one Christian to another when others can apply comfort to them from their particular case and experience in the like kind how welcome are the words and how sweet is the presence of a faithfull Minister and experienced Christian to them Let Ministers and Christians make it their business to comfort fainting souls Vse 1 It is the office of Ministers to strengthen the diseased sheep of Christ to heal that which is sick to bind up that which is broken c. Ezek. 34 4. It is to be presumed that God that hath called them to this work hath fitted them for it Hoord Serm. in Eph. 4.30 Ministers are better Read then private men for the most part are their Calling leads them to be continually searching the Scriptures and acquainting themselves with the methods of Satan and the means how to resist him and other holy matters which may enable them to be good Soul-Physicians Therefore let Ministers exercise themselves in cases of conscience that they may have experience in matters that concern the soul and be able to apply seasonable comfort to a languishing soul Every private Christian if he hath the Spirit of God he will in some measure be enabled to comfort others Two Irons if they be hot do close together immediately So when two godly Christians do meet in love and fervency of affection how do they heat and warm each other He that speaks experimentally to another he speaks so feelingly so spiritually so powerfully with so much evidence and demonstration and with so much authority to his Brother that it makes a deep impression upon him A faithful Minister and an experimental Christian will go about the work with love and tenderness of affection They that know what brokenness of heart for sin is will be ready to drop in oyle into a wounded Conscience and to apply comfort to them from their own particular case I was under the same tentations wherewith you are assaulted and thus I resisted and overcame them thus I was delivered from my doubts and fears such a promise such a Scripture satisfied me this or that gave me ease quickened and comforted me It is a Spiritual Divine and Angelical work to be able to comfort distressed consciences it is Gods own work it is he that putteth joy into the heart Psalm 4.7 He comforteth them that are cast down he comforteth us in all our tribulation he affects their hearts with some ravishing sense of his love and favour in Christ Christ hath undertaken to comfort them that mourn it is part of his office and work to which he is annointed Isaiah 61.1 2 3. It is the work of the Holy Ghost to comfort he is stiled the Comforter it is his work to make them cry Abba Father whom he brings into bondage to fear Angels likewise do comfort when Christ was in an agony an Angel