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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	line_n	point_n	require_v	1,303	5	9.1027	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44688	The Redeemer's tears wept over lost souls a treatise on Luke XIX, 41, 42 : with an appendix wherein somewhat is occasionally discoursed concerning the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and how God is said to will the salvation of them that perish / by J.H.	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1684 (1684)	Wing H3037; ESTC R27434	75,821	201

own conscience Hast thou never felt any thing of conviction by the word of God hadst thou never any thought injected of turning to God of reforming thy life of making thy peace have no desires ever been raised in thee no fears hast thou never had any tasts and relishes of pleasure in the things of God whence have these come what from thy self who art not sufficient to think any thing as of thy self i. e. not any good or right thought All must be from that good Spirit that hath been striving with thee and might still have been so unto a blessed issue for thy soul if thou hadst not neglected and disobeyed it And do not go about to excuse thy self by saying that so all others have done too 't is like at one time or other and if that therefore be the rule and measure that they that contend against the strivings and motions of Gods Spirit must be finally deserted and given up to perish who then can be saved Think not of pleading so for thy neglecting and despising the grace and Spirit of God 'T is true that herein the great God shews his sovereignty when all tha● enjoy the same advantages for salvation deserve by their slighting them to be forsaken alike he gives instances and makes examples of just severity and of the victorious power of grace as seems him good which there will be further occasion to speak more of hereafter In the mean time the present design is not to justifie thy condemnation but procure thy salvation and therefore to admonish and instruct thee that thô thou art not sure because some others that have slighted and despised the grace and Spirit of God are notwithstanding conquered and saved thereby it shall therefore fare as well with thee yet thou hast reason to be confident it will be well and happy for thee if now thou despise and slight them not And whether thou do or do not it is however plain that by thy being under the Gospel thou hast had a day wherein to mind the things of thy peace thô it is not told thee it would last alwaies but the contrary is presently to be told thee And thou may'st now see 't is not only a day in respect of light but influence also that thou mightst not only know notionally what belong'd thereto but efficaciously and practically which you have heard is the knowledge here meant And the concurrence of such light and influence have made thee a season wherein thou wast to have been at work for thy soul. The day is the proper season for work when the night comes working ceases both because that then light fails and because drowsines and sloth are more apt to possesse men And the night will come For which is the next thing we are to speak to III. This day hath its bounds and limits so that when it is over and lost with such the things of their peace are for ever hid from their eyes And that this day is not infinite and endles we see in the present instance Jerusalem had her day but that day had its period we see it comes to this at last that now the things of her peace are hid from her eyes We generally see the same thing in that sinners are so earnestly prest to make use of the present time To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Psal. 95. quoted and urged Heb. 3.7 8. They are admonish't to seek the Lord while he may be found to call upon him while he is nigh It seems some time he will not be found and will be afar off They are told this is the accepted time this is the day of salvation This day with any place or people supposes a precedent night when the day-spring from on high had not visited their horison and all within it sate in darknes and in the region and shadow of death Yea and there was a time we know of very general darknes when the Gospel day the day of Visitation had not yet dawn'd upon the world times of ignorance wherein God as it were winkt upon the nations of earth the beams of his eye did in a sort overshoot them as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports But when the eye-lids of the morning open upon any people and light shines to them with direct beams they are now commanded to repent Act. 17.30 limited to the present point of time with such peremptorines as that noble Roman used towards a proud Prince asking time to deliberate upon the proposal made to him of withdrawing his forces that molested some of the allies of that state he draws a line about him with the end of his rod and requires him now out of hand before he stir'd out of that Circle to make his choice whether he would be a friend or enemy to the people of Rome So are sinners to understand the state of their own case The God of thy life sinner in whose hands thy times are doth with much higher right limit thee to the present time and expects thy present answer to his just and merciful offers and demands He circumscribes thy day of grace it is inclosed on both parts and hath an evening as well as a morning as it had a foregoing so it hath a subsequent night and the latter if not more dark yet usually much more stormy than the former For God shuts up this day in much displeasure which hath terrible effects If it be not expresly told you what the condition of that night is that follows your Gospel-day If the Watchman being asked what of the night do only answer it cometh as well as the morning came black events are signify'd by that more awful silence Or 't is all one if you call it a day there is enough to distinguish it from the day of grace The Scriptures call such a calamitous season indifferently either by the name of night or day but the latter name is used with some or other adjunct to signifie day is not meant in the pleasant or more grateful sense a day of wrath an evil day a day of gloomines and thick darknes not differing from the most dismal night and to be told the morning of such a day is coming is all one as that the evening is coming of a bright and a serene day And here perhaps Reader thou wilt expect to be told what are the limits of this day of grace It is indeed much more difficult punctually to assign those limits than to ascertain thee there are such but it is also less necessary The wise and merciful God doth in matters of this nature little mind to gratifie our curiosity much less is it to be expected from him that he should make known to us such things whereof it were better we were ignorant or the knowledge whereof would be much more a prejudice to us than an advantage And it were as bold and rash an undertaking in this case as

that amidst all my disappointments and sorrows it never came into my mind to say Where is God my Maker I could never savour any thing spiritual or divine and was ever ready in distress to turn my self any way than that which I ought towards thee I now see and bemoan my folly and with a convinced self-judging heart betake my self to thee The desires of my Soul are now unto thy Name and to the remembrance of thee Whom have I in Heaven but thee or on earth that I can desire besides thee This is Repentance towards God and is one thing belonging and most simply necessary to our Peace But thô it be most necessary it is not enough It answers to something of our wretched case but not to every thing We were in our state of Apostacy averse and disaffected to God To this evil Repentance towards him is the opposite and only proper Remedy But besides our being without inclination towards him we were also without Interest in him We not only had unjustly cast off him but were also most justly cast off by him Our Injustice had set us against him and his Justice had set him against us we need in order to our Peace with him to be relieved as well against his Justice as our own Injustice What if now we would return to him he will not receive us And he will not receive us for our own sakes He must have a recompence for the wrong we had done him by our rebellion against his Government and our contempt of his goodnes Our repentance is no expiation Nor had we of our own or were capable of obliging him to give us the power and grace to repent Our high violation of the sacred rights and honour of the Godhead made it necessary in order to our peace and reconciliation there should be a sacrifice and a Mediatour between him and us He hath judg'd it not honourable to him not becoming him to treat with us or vouchsafe us favours upon other terms And since he thought it necessary to insist upon having a sacrifice he judg'd it necessary too to have one proportionable to the wrong done lest he should make the Majesty of Heaven cheap or occasion men to think it a light matter to have fundamentally overturn'd the common order which was setled between himself and men The whole earth could not have afforded such a sacrifice it must be supply'd from Heaven His coeternal Son made man and so uniting Heaven and Earth in his own person undertakes to be that sacrifice and in the vertue of it to be a standing continual Mediatour between God and us Through him and for his sake all acts and influences of grace are to proceed towards us No sin is to be forgiven no grace to be confer'd but upon his account 'T is reckon'd most God-like most suitable to the divine Greatnes once offended to do nothing that shall import favour towards sinners but upon his constant interposition Him hath he set over us and directed that all our applications to himself and all our expectations from him should be thorough him Him hath he exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give us repentance and remission of Sins Now to one so high in power over us he expects we should pay a suitable homage That homage the Holy Scripture calls by the name of Faith believing on him God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnes for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare his righteousnes that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Rom. 3.25 26. So that when by repentance we turn to God as our end we must also apply our selves by faith to our Lord Jesus Christ as our way to that end Which till we do we are in rebellion still and know not what belongs to our peace He insists that his Son into whose hands he hath committed our affairs should be honoured by us as he himself requires to be John 5.23 Now these two things summe up our part of the Covenant between God and us By repentance we again take God for our God Repenting we return to him as our God By Faith we take his Son for our Prince and Saviour These things by the tenour of the Evangelical Covenant are required of us Peace is setled between God and us as it is usually with men towards one another after mutual hostilities by striking a Covenant And in our case it is a Covenant by sacrifice as you have seen Nor are harder terms than these impos'd upon us Dost thou now sinner apprehend thy self gone off from God And find a war is commenced and on foot between God and thee He can easily conquer and crush thee to nothing but he offers thee termes of peace upon which he is willing to enter into Covenant with thee Dost thou like his termes Art thou willing to return to him and take him again for thy God To resign and commit thy self with unfeigned trust and subjection into the hands of his Son thy Redeemer These are the things which belong to thy Peace See that thou now know them 2. But what knowledge of them is it that is here meant The thing speaks it self It is not a meer contemplative knowledge We must so know them as to do them otherwise the increase of knowledge is the increase of sorrow Thy guilt and misery will be the greater To know any thing that concerns our practice is to no purpose if we do not practise it It was an Hebrew form of speech and is a common form by words of knowledge to imply practice It being taken for granted that in matters so very reasonable and important if what we are to do once be rightly known it will be done Thus elsewhere the same great requisites to eternal life and blessednes are expressed by our Lord. This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent It being supposed and taken for granted that a true vivid knowledge of God and Christ will immediately form the soul to all sutable dispositions and deportments towards the one and the other and consequently to all men also as Christian precepts do direct to all the acts of sobriety justice and charity unto which the law of Christ obliges An habitual course of Sin in any kind is inconsistent with this knowledge of the things of our peace and therefore with our peace it self All Sin is in a true sense reducible to ignorance and customary sinning into total destitution of divine knowledge According to the usual style of the sacred writings 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to righteousnes and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God 3 John 11. He that sinneth i. e. that is a doer of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a worker of iniquity hath not seen God II. Such as live under the