Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A56802
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The best match, or, The souls espousal to Christ opened and improved by Edward Pearse.
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Pearse, Edward, 1633?-1674?
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1673
(1673)
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Wing P971; ESTC R33034
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147,229
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280
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THE Best Match OR THE Souls Espousal to Christ opened and improved By Edward Pearse Joh. 3.29 30. He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom but the Friend of the Bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoyceth greatly because of the Bridegrooms voice This my joy therefore is fulfilled He must increase but I must decrease LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Pauls Church-Yard and Brabazon Aylmer at the 3 Pigeons in Cornhil 1673. READER NExt to the full and immediate Vision and Fruition of the God of Glory above the greatest happiness of Souls lies in Union and Communion with Christ here Nor indeed can we ever attain unto the one without an acquaintance with the other Now to bring thee into and build thee up in this Union and Communion with Christ and thereby to fit and dispose thee for that glorious Vision and Fruition Above is the principal design of the ensuing Discourse If thou requirest a reason of the publication hereof I desire thee to satisfie thy self with this God in his all-wise and holy Providence hath seen good now for seyeral months to call the unworthy Author out of his Vinyard and lodge him in a sick Chamber and he also seems to be speedily calling him out of this World and to bring that Night upon him wherein no man can work wherein nothing is to be done either for God or a Man's Soul John 9.4 And being never like to do more for Christ on Earth he was willing in hopes of advancing his dear Lords Kingdom in the drawing of Sinners to him and building up of Saints in him communion with him to make these poor Contemplations publick God was pleased some few years since to make a more than ordinary use of the preaching of them many Souls being through his Grace espoused to Christ and more brought nearer to him thereby and had I not some hopes that he would also through that same Grace of his make some use of the reading of them for thy good and the good of others I think they had never seen the light Thy good then and Christ's Glory in the enlargement of his Kingdom is the thing aimed at herein which the good Lord by his Grace accomplish I am lying daily by the brink of the Grave waiting upon the Will and for the Call of my Sovereign Lord the only reason swaying with me to desire life next to the more through working out of my own Salvation is to reveal and make known Christ to Souls and to publish the glad Tydings of Peace and Salvation to a lost and sinful World But if God will make no further use of me that way his Will be done I comfort my self with what an holy Man speaks Sinless glorifying of God saith he is better than sinful glorifying of God His meaning I suppose is that 't is better to glorifie God in a sinless than in a sinful state Truly bere we sin in our best Actions and if we bring a little glory to God yet woe and alas how much dishonour do we also bring him and what iniquities do there cleave to our most holy things But above we shall glorifie him without sinning we shall love him praise him admire him adore him delight in him and ascribe glory to him without the least taint or tincture of sin cleaving thereunto having not only all tears wiped off our eyes but which is infinitly infinitly infinitly better all sin purged from our hearts and actions Farewel I leave thee and this poor Treatise to the Blessing of Heaven E. P. To the Reader THere are two main ends for which the Gospel-Ministry is ordained the one is the winning of Souls and bringing them into Christ the other is the edification and building up of such as are already brought in It hath pleased Christ the Head of the Church who distributeth Gifts in order to the salvation of men unto whom and in what measure he pleaseth to furnish the Author of this Discourse with good abilities as to both these Works As to the first the Lord had given him a peculiar Gift to qualifie him above many to Preach the Gospel for the winning of Souls and the Grace of God in him did inflame his heart with ardent desires and did excite great longings in him after the conversion of Souls and he was pleased to crown his own Gifts and Grace in him with great success many a Soul having been turned unto God by his Labours And it having pleased God to cast the Author into a languishing Distemper for some months whereby he was wholly taken off from his Work in Preaching so great did the desire of doing good to Souls remain in him and such were the yearnings of his Bowels towards them that being not able to speak to them any longer out of the Pulpit he could not satisfie himself but he must needs speak to them in this small Tract wherein his great Scope and principal Design is to allure and draw Souls unto Christ As to the Matter of the Treatise I need say little it will sufficiently speak for it self onely thus much I may say Union with Christ is the foundation of our Happiness The Apostle telleth us Col. 1 27. that Christ in us is the hope of Glory We cannot have any sure or sound title to eternal Life and Glory but by Vnion with Christ whoever are saved are saved by being brought under Christ as their Head Ephes 1.10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnia ad unum caput adducers adjungere seu colligere omnia sub uno capite that he might bring them under one Head so Zanchy and others interpret the Greek word there used The Son of God incarnate is the true Vine into which the Elect are implanted There are but two Roots of Mankind the First and the Second Adam the first Adam is the Root of Sin and Death unto all that abide in him the second Adam is the Root of Righteousness and Life unto all who are implanted into him The scope of this Discourse is to perswade men not to be content to abide in the Root upon which they naturally grow viz. the Root of the first Adam but to seek after a new Relation unto Christ the second Adam The Arguments by which the Author presseth Souls to come to Christ are most pathetical and strong and as there is a Vein of Heavenly Affection which runneth through the whole body of the Discourse to allure such who are yet strangers to the Lord Jesus to fall in love with him so there is much solid Matter interwoven whereby those who are already called and have attained to some dequaintance with spiritual things may receive farther advantage It pleaseth the Al-wise God to leave the Author at a great uncertainty as to Life the Lord hath kept him in the Furnace long but he
their tribulations 2 Cor. 1.4 5. The truth is their sharpest Afflictions are but to prepare them for his sweetest Consolations and indeed he therefore oftentimes afflicts them that he may manifest his Love and minister Consolations to them according to that of Hosea 2.14 I will allure her into the Wilderness and there will I speak comfortably to her and indeed as strong Consolations often times prepare for great Afflictions so great Afflictions usually make way for strong Consolations Afflictions sayes a worthy Divine is the Air in which Christs love especially breaths and Christ and the Cross sayes he are sweet company This viz. Christs love and presence with his People in their Afflictions is what turns their night into day their darkness into light their pains into ease their sorrows into joys their losses into gains yea and Death it self into Life Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death yet will I fear no evil because thou art with me Psal 23.4 It turns a Prison into a pleasant Pallace yea it turns a fiery Furnace into a delightful Walk as in the case of the three Children and this experienced Souls find O how sweet are Afflictions when Christ and his love come with them 2. By sanctifying their Afflictions to them and working good to their Souls out of all Sanctifyed Afflictions are sweet Afflictions they meet with Afflictions but Christ gives them the sweet Fruit and a blessed issue of them makes them all work together for good to them according to that great Oracle Rom. 8.23 All things shall work together for good to them that love God By these he proves their Graces and improves their Experiences he makes them all to be as the Gibeonites sometimes were to the Congregation of God as so many hewers of Wood and drawers of Water to their Faith to their Comforts to their Holiness on Earth and Happiness in Heaven The Faith of this sweetned all Jobs great and heavy Afflictions to him When I am tryed sayes he I shall come forth as Gold Job 23.10 Hereby he tryes their Faith which is better than Gold 1 Pet. 1.7 Hereby he refines them and purges away their dross from them Behold I have refined thee but not with Silver I have chosen thee in the Furnace of Affliction Or as you may read it I have made a choice one of thee in the Furnace of Affliction Isa 48.10 Hereby he makes them partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 By this he purgeth away their iniquity and taketh away their sin Isa 27.9 In short hereby he humbles them and seals instruction to them hereby he weans them from the World draws them nearer to himself quickens their hearts in his good wayes and raises them up to higher strains of Grace and pitches in Holiness then they were got up to before Yea hereby he increases their Revenue of Glory and adds to their Crown in Eternity Our light Afflictions which are but for a moment sayes the Apostle work out for us a far more exceeding and an eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Thus he sanctisies all and O how doth this sweeten all Here is a Cross 't is true may the Soul say but by this Cross Christ does crucifie me to Sin and the World he weans me from the Creature sets me a longing after Heaven and so long welcome Cross how heavy soever Here is an Affliction 't is true and 't is an heavy one but by it Christ proves and brightens my Graces and that sweetens all O what owe I sayes Rutherford to the File and Hammer of my sweet Lord Jesus He hath taught me more sayes he by my six months imprisonment then ever I learnt in my nine years past Ministry Luther was wont to say three things made a good Minister Temptation Affliction Supplication The same also conduce much to the making of a good Christian And indeed 't is seldom that ever a Soul comes to any eminency in Grace until he has been exercised with sanctified Afflictions and Temptations And doubtless there is many a Soul who may and must say That next to Christ his Afflictions have through his Grace and Blessing been his best Mercies O how should this draw Souls to Christ and allure them into a Marriage-Covenant with him Poor Soul it may be that which keeps thee from Christ is the fear of what Afflictions thou mayest meet with in his wayes But know 1. thou mayest meet with Affliction yea first or last thou wilt assuredly meet with Affliction though thou never closest with Christ Alas wicked men and unbelievers meet with Troubles and Afflictions and that even in this World oft-times However to be sure at last they will have a full Cup yea the very dregs of God's Wrath ponred out unto them They will meet with and fall under soret and more dreadful Afflictions then any thou canst meet withal in the way and for the sake of Christ for pray consider is there any Trouble any Affliction thou canst meet withal for Christ like to this for a man to die in his sins to be separated from God for ever to have infiniteness and eternity combined against thee Is there any Trouble or Affliction like to the torments of the Infernal Pit and being the object of infinite Wrath for ever and yet this will be the lot at last of all that close not with Christ in a Marriage-relation 2. What ever Afflictions thou mayest meet withal in the way of Christ closing with him he sweetens all for thee and that so as that thou wouldest not have been without them for a World Oh scare not at the Cross but close in with Christ VI. He subdues all their enemies for them True the poor Saints and Spouses of Christ are beset with Enemies on all hands they have many Enemies and mighty Enemies Enemies within and Enemies without and all in a confederacy against them to destroy them to destroy their Lives to destroy their Graces to destroy their Peace and Comforts to destroy their Souls and Happiness for ever all like so many roaring Lyons seeking to devour them Well but Christ who is their Captain as well as their Husband subdues and conquers all for them and first or last makes them to set their feet upon their necks and triumph over them He makes them Conquerors yea more than Conquerors over all Rom. 8.37 He makes them so to conquer them as sooner or later to gain by all their conflicts and oppositions Indeed Christ has already conquered all his Peoples Enemies for them The Saints have five great Enemies Sin Self the World the Devil and Death and Christ has long since conquered them all for them and by degrees brings them into the joyful triumph of that conquest 1. He has conquered Sin for them He by being made Sin hath obtained an eternal victory over Sin for all his People Sin is the Saints great Enemy 't is that which wars against their Souls Rom. 7.23 1 Pet. 2.11 And