Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	act_n	faith_n	work_n	2,998	5	6.1099	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66772	A proclamation in the name of the King of kings, to all inhabitants of the isles of Great Brittain and especially to those who have hypocritically pretended to justice, mercy, honesty, and religion (as also to them who have lived in open prophaness and impiety) summoning them to repentance, by denouncing God's judgements, and declaring his mercy, offered in the everlasting gospel / warrantably proclaimed and preached by Geo. Wither ... ; whereto are added, some fragments of the same authors, omitted in the first imprinting of the book, intituled Scraps and crums, and a few which were collected since that impression, and during his imprisonment.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1662 (1662)	Wing W3181; ESTC R12240	34,610	74

shalt be opprest In doing well for such are blest Trust not in Wealth for it hath wings And flies away like other things Nor Honour for it often spends Its stock and in dishonour ends Rely not upon Prodigies For they are partly Truths and Lyes And Signs and Wonders can afford No such assurance as GOD's Word Place not your trust in Kings for when They speak like Gods they act like men No nor your best Works trust you in For all mans Righteousness is sin Your Faith Fear Hope and Love on none Ground therefore but on GOD alone And when thus you hare learn'd to do Perswade all other men thereto Not terminating Meditations In meer unactive speculations For they but like those flashes are VVhich we mis-call a shooting-Star Here whilst my Flesh is in restraint Lest else my Soul grow dull and faint Her with such thoughts I entertain And find them not to be in vain Though more I needed I confess These Musings when I suffered less I might be safely rich agen Could I be still imployed then As I am now But who is able To thread a Needle with a Cable They who in Winter keep at home In Summer-time abroad will come And though a Prison seems a curse Our Liberty oft makes us worse We pray when Winds and Seas do roar When calm do as we did before Ev'n GOD's choice Worthies when releast From Suffrings fouly have transgrest If in this or some other kind They were not often disciplin'd He that with troubles hem'd about The Battels of the LORD had fought Unfoil'd assoon as he had ease Neglecting such like means as these Did grosly fall and so shall we When idle and secure we be Had he been musing on GOD's Law When in her Bath he naked saw Vriahs Wife or at that time Composing of a Psalm or Hymn It had secur'd him from that sin Which let a lustful Devil in LORD that I be not so surpriz'd Though these my Musings are despis'd Preserve me whether weal or wo Befalls me still imployed so Or in what else thou please that 's tending To keep me alwayes from offending And to thy Glory and to my Salvation Vouchsafe to sanctifie this Meditation III. To those who enquire why this Author is now imprisoned in Newgate INto this Jayl you ask me why I 'm thrown But to my self that is not fully known Unless it may be charged as a Crime For putting Truth and Reason into Rime Or giving unto some for doing wrong Such Epithites as unto them belong Which is by very few thought criminal And by most men to be no fault at all Yet since you are my Friends I bold will make To give you Counsel which I could not take Touch not a gald Jades back although it be To cure him if you will be rul'd by me And if your Conscience force you not thereto No notice take when other men misdo For they who most ungodly courses run And boast of what they wickedly have done So rage at him who dares to reprehend Their Actions howsoever they offend That oft-times by their pow'r they bring on him Those Penalties which were deserv'd by them A Whore profest though she would have men know She is a Whore will not be called so Yea though she could not live were it not known She lived by abusing of her own But be so wroth with him who so shall say That she will scratch his eyes out if she may At least if she can do no more will rayl Or had she pow'r commit him to the Jayl And for a Sland'rer prosecute him there As justly as they do who keep me here IV. A Hymn of Thanksgiving for deliverance from a dangerous and sharp Sickness during his Imprisonment LORD they who thy Affection measure By what thou givest into their possessings Of Riches Honours or of Pleasure Or of such other temporary Blessings And mark how here thou deal'st with me May think I am despis'd of thee For when I seem'd opprest before With losse of Liberty and Wealth So that I could well bear no more Thou thereto addedst loss of health Imbitter'd and made sharp with as much pain As Flesh and Blood were able to sustain 2. Yet neither was thy Love impaired Whilst in that manner I afflicted was Nor doubted I nor ought despaired Of thy continuing and assisting Grace But as the violence and length Of pain deprived me of strength My Spirit thereby stronger grew Yea so thou didst my Faith encrease So Fortitude and hope renew That Suffrings were not pleasureless Because I knew I underwent thy Rod Who art as Well my Father as my GOD 3. I know thee not alone by hearing But also by thy being in my heart And by thy thereunto declaring How just wise good and merciful thou art Thou tak'st no pleasure in our pain Nor dost nor ever didst coustrain The soul of any to a path Which leads him from a happy conrse To Sin Shame Sorrow or to Death Or renders his condition worse For that thou more delighted art to save Than to destroy I good assurance have 4. For ever let thy Name be blessed For when my patience did begin to fail And pain a cold-sweat forth had pressed As if in me fire had been mixt with hail Thou in my first Fit easedst me By means lest means despis'd might be And when I was shut up alone Of all external helps depriv'd Where means of Cure or Ease was none Then by thy Self I was reliev'd That I might alwayes confident be made Of thy help when no other can be had 5. When so extreamly I was pained That I could hardly for one minutes space Endure the torment I sustained In any posture or in any place Thou hug'dst me fast asleep and then Gav'st Ease I know not how nor when Which so amazed me when I awak't That I at first could hardly tell Whether I for a Dream might tak 't Or whether I were sick or well For in the fire I thought assoon I might Have slept erewhile as in my bed that night 6. Therefore to thee for this Compassion I do now consecrate a Hymn of Praise Be pleas'd O GOD of my Salvation To be thus my Physician all my dayes Let this preserve me from the fear Of what I may yet suffer here And when this Mercy shall be known Thereby assur'd let others be That such Compassion shall be shown To them as was vouchsaf'd to me If in thy Truth and Fear they shall abide And without wavering in thee conside V. To them who say or suppose that a vain desire of Fame was this Authors principal motive to the Composure of what he hath written and published I Hear some think and for their sakes am sorry They think so that Ambition of vain glory Is that which principally moves my Pen To dare more than the Quills of wiser men And that an irch for popular Applause Was of my bold Reproofs the chiefest cause If this be

mercy without excepting any who returns unto him by hearty repentance yea he takes all opportunities whereby he may shew Compassion with preservation of his Justice and is so inclinable to Mercy that he oft withholds his Judgments from wicked persons and places for the sakes of a few Righteous men among them though they persecute and seek to destroy them for whose sakes they are preserved and vouchsafes temporal Blessings as he did to Ahab for outside Humiliations He is not as his Enemies do scandalously report of him a hard Master who looks to reap where he sowed not and to gather where he strewed not but so just that he will require no more at any mans hands but according to what he hath given nor punish any one for the sin of another There is no better means for us who are Subjects to live safely in Holiness and Righteousness without fear than to adhere constantly to GOD's Commands without dread of men and to obey our Superiours in obedience to the LORD Nor any surer way for Kings to possess the Thrones of their Kingdoms upon Earth in honour and safety without jealousies than to provide as much as in then lieth that GOD may possess his Throne in the Hearts and Consciences of Men without Rivals and to endeavour to be just as he is just and to be merciful as he is merciful acording to their measure For whatsoever the Parasitical Flatterers of Kings would make them believe they may be more secure from dangers at home abroad by those poor consciencious men who are despised than with twenty times so many Ruffians and God-damn-me's though assisted also by the formal devotions and fained sanctity of superstitious worshippers who seem glorious and powerful in outward appearances I have observed by what Histories testifie that those great Kings and Conquerors of the world to whom GOD heretofore translated the Kingdoms of men from their former possessors when he changed Governors and Governments enjoyed them in peace and honour so long and so far forth as they tolerated the Servants of GOD to worship Him according to their Consciences though they themselves were Heathens and false worshippers The Mercy of GOD leadeth to Repentance and extendeth to and over all his Works This I am warranted to proclaim by vertue of his grand Charter and by his Commissions heretofore issued-out for the comfort and encouragement of every true penitent Believer in the days of his fiercest Indignation These are the glad Tydings of the Universal Gospel which caused the Angels to rejoyce and sing at the birth of Jesus Christ this song Glory be to GOD on High On Earth peace good will towards men Let us joyn with that celestial Quire in magnifying of this great Mercy which so much concerns us for it is our noblest Interest and that which most advanceth GoD's Glory Let our Burthen to that Song be Amen Hallelujah Praise the LORD Let us be zealous in defending this Universal Charter and not be seduced by those who seek to abridg itto such a narrowness and to such an uncertainty that if they should be believed we had more cause to howl and lament than to sing This Gospel is the sum and scope of that Testimony which was and is given by those two Witnesses the two Olive Branches and two Candlesticks which stand before the God of the Earth bearing witness against the Beast rising out of the bottomless-Pit who was to war upon them and slay them and leave their Bodies as a dead Letter unburied three dayes and an half in the Streets of the great City until the Spirit of Life from GOD should enter into them and make them ascend up into Heaven in the sight and to the amazement and vexation of their Enemies Therefore they whosoever they be though pretending to be of GOD's Counsel and to be acquainted with his Eternal Decrees shall preach contraty hereto and think they honour GOD by bounding His universal and infinit Mercy deal with Mankind concerning His Charter of General Redemption as many among us now do concerning the Kings late Act of Indempnity and general Pardon pretending thereby to do him honour where●● intends both to his dishonour and disservice It is this mis-understanding and limiting the infinit Love of GOD which hath been the chief occasion of the narrowness of mens love to each other and of much of that discord and bloodshed which hath been in the world For such as men make their Gods to be such will they themselves be in regard as David saith They who make them are like unto them This I adde not impertinently nor by the suggestion of a contentious spirit in opposition to the judgment of others or with an uncharitable censure of those who do yet think otherwise But I have thus in my mode preached it in zeal to GOD's Truth and Glory who sees my heart and will punish me for it if it proceed from any other cause He is perfectly merciful so merciful in his Justice and so just in his Mercy that neither of them infringes the other and hath left us upon record two unquestionable exemplary Evidences which manifest that his Mercy is sincerely intended to every true penitent to be his Consolation when Judgements are epidemical and universal For though he spared not the old world but brought a general flood upon all the ungodly yet he even then spared Noah and his family and when he made the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah an example to wilfull transgressors he then also spared Lot who lived among them and whose righteous soul they had vexed with their filthy and wicked conversation Thus will he likewise deal with all those in all times who have an upright and contrite heart though they have been grievous offenders so far forth as it shall be for his Glory and their eternal happiness Hear and heed this Proclamation for it is of GOD who is pleased in these dayes to preach Mercy by his most contemned Servants and cause them otherwhile to act in such Modes and by such Dispensations as to the world seem ridiculous and as probably he did in most mens eyes when his beloved Son rode meekly through Jerusalem on the foal of an Ass at the time wherein he first came to take a visible possession of his Kingdom upon Earth which humble deportment his now pretended General Vicar and the proud Kings of the Earth would have scorned upon the dayes of their Inauguration Which the Prelats though raised out of the lowest of the people as Jeroboams priests were and though pretending to be the successors of Christs humble Apostles would have disdained to be carried in that meek manner to their Instalments But many other things appearing contemptible to flesh and blood will be permitted ere long to make preparation for the coming of King JESUS whom they scoff at who sit in the Chair of the Scornfull It hath pleased GOD in this unusual manner to make me though unworthy to be his