Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	holy_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	65	3	9.6727	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49244	Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funerall sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682, engraver.	1652 (1652)	Wing L3156; ESTC R214001	127,409	242

Gods people have appealed unto God concerning the uprightnesse of their hearts meerly by their desires so saith the Church The d●sire of our soul is to thy name and the remembrance of thee and with my soul have I desired thee in the night 2. God hath made many gracious promises not only to the acting and exercising of grace but to the desires after grace Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after Righteousnesse for they shal be filled If any man thirst saith Christ let him come unto me and drink nay there is a general and universal invitation to every one that thirsteth to come to the waters and God hath promised to give to him that is at hirst of the fountain of the water of life freely The Lord hath promised to fulfil the desire of those that fear him and wil heare the desire of the humble So that by these promises it doth appear that hungring and thirsting desires after grace are graces in Gods account and acceptation Now lest men should rest in lazy and sluggish desires and thereby neglect the exercise of grace I shall give you an account in what sense the Scripture reckons upon desires after grace to be grace 1. They are supernatural desires 'T is true there are natural desires in the soul after that which is good it is the language of nature Who wil show us any good now these desires may and do arise from the motion of the natural and unsanctified will of man and these desires are after happinesse and not after holinesse such were the desires of Balaam who said Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his This was but a natural desire But true desires in the soul are after heaven for holinesse sake Bernard notably sets out these desires of natural men That they have a desire of the End and not of the Means 2. Desires after grace are joyned with holy indeavours and therefore the Apostle joyns desire and zeal together to intimate that true desires are alwayes joyned with zealous indeavours Thus the Apostle also joyneth a readinesse of will and performance together God will never accept the will for the deed unlesse there be an indeavour to performe what we say we are willing to do And therefore Solomon rightly describes how pernicious desires are without indeavours The desires of the flothfull saith he kil him because his hands refuse to labour Bernard describes the lazinesse to the life Carnal men love to obtain but love not to follow Christ they will not indeavour to seek him whom they desire so finde 3. Desires which are true and gratious are unsatisfiable thus David speaks of his desires My soul saith he breaketh for the longing it hath to thy judgments at all times yea he further describ es the ardency and unsatisfiablenesse of his desires by the Harts panting after the water-brooks The Hart is naturally the most thirsty of all creatures but this thirst is much increased when the poor beast is chased with dogs even so the true desires of the soul after grace are earnest ardent and vehement desires 4. You may know true desires after grace by their Object Desires they are not gracious if they be more after outward things then after God So David My soul thirsteth after God after the living God My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth after thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is Thus his soul longed and did break with longing after Gods judgements Now therefore wouldest thou know whether thou hast any begining of grace in thy soul examine what thy desires are perhaps thou canst not pray but thou desirest to pray perhaps thou canst not mourn for sin but dost thou mourn that thou canst not mourn Perhaps thou dost not believe as thou fearest but dost thou desire to believe Perhaps thou canst not repent but dost thou desire to repent and dost thou labour to repent Then thou mayest conclude that thou hast some beginnings of true grace in thy soul 5. We may know the truth of grace though it be little by the earnest desire after the Word and the means of grace Thus Peter sets forth our desires As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby There is in a child a natural instinct as soon as ever it is born to desire after the mothers breast the Apostle makes it a resemblance of a spiritual man a man spiritually new born wil desire after the Word the means of grace that he may grow in grace 6. An indeared love to those that have grace By this you know you are past from death to life because you love the brethren Casuists upon this text say that love to Gods children is the first grace and first appears in young converts The natives in New England it is observed upon their conversion for God hath begun there to bring some of those poor creatures from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to himself the first appearance of grace in them is in their love and respect to those that are truly gracious Thus I have shewed you an answer to the question what are the least measures of grace without which or some of them a man cannot be said to have grace and wheresoever any of these are that mans condition is safe and these little measures of grace will bring a man to heaven I shall here lay down some cautions to prevent mis-application Though these small measures of grace are saving yet you must not content your selves with them Take heed lest what I have said for the support of the weaknesse of some Christians become not a pillow for the idleness of others But let us striue to go on unto perfection We must not sit down with any measure of grace And to perswade you hereunto 1. Consider that things meerly necessary and sufficient to maintain a natural life wil not content a man what man is content though he hath clothes enough to hide his nakedness and food enough to keep life and soul together But he desires not onely clothes for nakedness but ornament not only food for hunger and necessity but delight Now shall men be unbounden after their desires for outward things and shall they sit down and say they have enough for heavenly things 2. Consider if thou contentest thy self with a small measure of grace though thou shalt have the fruit of thy grace when thou diest yet thou wilt want the comfort of thy grace whilest thou livest It is strength of grace that gives assurance Weak grace will bring thy soule to heaven but it is the strength of grace will bring heaven into thy soul The work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the effect of Righteousness shall be quietness and assurance for ever A childe of

may be a trouble to thy conscience and an aking to thy heart when thou lyest on thy death bed And though God do not remēber the sins of your youth to damne your souls yet he may make you remember them so as to be a trouble to your consciences These things which are the joyes of youth may be the bitter burdens of old age Take heed of laying a loade on thy conscience when thou art young lest God write bitter things against thee when old and make thee to possesse the sins of thy youth and fill thy bones with the sins of thy youth A second use of reproofe of two sorts of people First Of those who instead of being good when young are wicked when they are young such as fill their youth with manifold evils Usually youth is subject to these evils 1. Pride is the sin of youth a Preacher must not be a young novice lest he be lifted up with pride 2 Rashnesse and indiscretion is usually the sin of a young head Exhort young men saith Paul to Titus to be sober●minded to be discreet or wise how rash and heady was the counsell of the young men to Rehoboam which made him lose his Kingdom yeeres teach experience 3. Lustfulnesse which was the ground of Paul's caution to young Timothy It Timothy who was so abstemious a man that Paul gave him advice to drink some wine with his water had need of this caution how much more have they that are not so exercised in duties of mortification Which gave Solomon ground to give that counsel Put away the euils of thy flesh for childhood and youth are vanity He was a young man that followed the harlot to her house 4. Ficklenesse and unsetlednesse of judgement and therefore in times of errour the younger sort are most subject to be seduced Children are tossed to and fro with every winde of doctrine the hebrew calls a young man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies to tosse to and fro intimating that they are unsetled and unstaied in their judgements and resolutions How soon was the minde of that rich and forward young man changed mentioned in the Gospel 5. To scoffe and condemn the aged they were children who did mock the aged Prophet the young men derided Job 6 Sensual pleasures and pastimes they do rejoyce and chear their hearts in the days of their youth Sampson made a feast for so used the young men to do Secondly Reproof lights heavily on those who seem to be good in their youth but in their old age cast off goodness how many are like Joash who seemed to be a good young man whilst he seemed to be under the tuition of Jehojada but when he was dead how did he break out How many are there in the world who have lost their affection and desires after God which they had in their youth It was a brand set upon Solomon who though when young was well taught by his mother yet when he grew old his wives turned away his heart from God So David had his first days which were better then his last Even so amongst us we have too many who when they were young did love Religion and delight in Ordinances and when they became old have abated exceedingly which may make them to fear the sincerity of their goodness for he that is truly good in youth will be so in his old age A second remarkable circumstance is this that this young Abijah was good in the house of Jeroboam Whence observe That it is a great commendation for men to retein their goodness whilest they live in bad places and families That this is so we may see by that commendable mention the Scriptures make of such as were good in evill places Thus God commends the Church of Pergamus I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satans seat is and thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith even in those days wherein Antipas my faithful Martyr who was slain amongst you where Satan dwelleth Pergamus was a City more given to Idolatry then all the Cities of Asia and yet there were some that held fast the name of Christ and did not deny his faith to be a Saint in Nero 's family is very commendable And the reason thereof is 1. Because many of Gods children have failed and abated much of their goodnesse in bad places How did Peter fall in the High Priests Hall though when in good company he was zealous yet there he denied Christ So Abraham when he was in Gerar and Isaac also denied their wives so Joseph in Pharaoh's Court and learn't the Court Oath to swear by the life of Pharaoh Hence God commands the children of Israel not to mixe themselves with the Heathens lest they learn their manners and customs Bad places are like bad aire for zeale to breath in as sheep amongst brairs lose part of their fleece so good men in bad company lose part of their goodnesse As one scabbed sheep may infect a whole flock so one root of bitterness may spring up and defile many 2. Reas Because it is a cleer evidence of the sincerity of a mans goodness to be good in a bad place This shews thy grace to be grace indeed when thou hast discouragements to be good and then art holy this is a demonstration that thou art sincerely good and that thy goodness is not counterfeit and taken up upon any sinister and hypocritical end It is good to be good with the good but it is most excellent to be good amongst the bad and to be best amongst the worst From hence learn the power and unlooseableness of saving grace grace makes a man good in the worst times let a man be cast into prison or bad company which is the worst temptation yet he shall not lose his grace true grace is compared to oyle now cast oyl into a vessel of water and the oyl will not mix with the water but will lie on the top grace will swim upon the water of temptation As all the water in the salt sea cannot make the fish salt so all the wicked in the world cannot change the nature of grace a good man like the fish retains his goodness in bad places thus Joseph retained his goodnesse in the Court of wicked Pharaoh Nehemiah in the Court of Artaxerxes Obadiah in Ahab's Court Daniel in Nebuchadnezzars the Saints in Nero's houshold and Abijah in wicked and idolatrous Ieroboam's house Though it be a commendable thing to be good in bad places yet you ought to bewail your living in bad places it is your misery though not your sin thus did Isaiah Wo is me I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips so David Wo is me that I dwell in