Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	active_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	16	3	8.1110	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63641	Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Great exemplar of sanctity and holy life according to the christian institution.; Cave, William, 1637-1713. Antiquitates apostolicae, or, The lives , acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour.; Cave, William, 1637-1713. Lives, acts and martydoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour.	1675 (1675)	Wing T287; ESTC R19304	1,245,097	752

all measures and under the patronage of his name began to set up for a party he severely rebuked them told them that it was Christ not he that was crucified for them that they had not been baptized into his name which he was so far from that he did not remember that he had baptized 〈◊〉 three or four of them and was heartily glad he had baptized no more 〈◊〉 a foundation might have been laid for that suspicion that this Paul whom they so much extolled was no more than a minister of Christ whom our Lord had appointed to plant and build up his Church 4. GREAT was his temperance and sobriety so far from going beyond the bounds of regularity that he abridged himself of the conveniencies of lawful and necessary accommodations frequent his hungrings and thirstings not constrained only but voluntary it 's probably thought that he very rarely drank any Wine certain that by abstinence and mortification he kept under and subdued his body reducing the extravagancy of the sensual appetites to a perfect subjection to the laws of Reason By this means he easily got above the World and its charms and frowns had his mind continually conversant in Heaven his thoughts were fixed there his desires always ascending thither what he taught others he practised himself his conversation was in Heaven and his desires were to depart and to be with Christ this World did neither arrest his affections nor disturb his fears he was not taken with its applause nor frighted with its threatnings he studied not to please men nor valued the censures and judgments which they passed upon him he was not greedy of a great estate or titles of honour or rich presents from men not seeking theirs but them food and raiment was his bill of fare and more than this he never cared for accounting that the less he was clogged with these things the lighter he should march to Heaven especially travelling through a World over-run with troubles and persecutions Upon this account it 's probable he kept himself always within a single life though there want not some of the Ancients who expresly reckon him in the number of the married Apostles as Clemens Alexandrinus Ignatius and some others 'T is true that passage is not to be found in the genuine Epistle of Ignatius but yet is extant in all those that are owned and published by the Church of Rome though they have not been wanting to banish it out of the World having expunged S. Paul's name out of some ancient Manuscripts as the learned Bishop Usher has to their shame sufficiently discovered to the World But for the main of the question we can readily grant it the Scripture seeming most to favour it that though he asserted his power and liberty to marry as well as the rest yet that he lived always a single life 5. HIS kindness and charity was truly admirable he had a compassionate tenderness for the poor and a quick sense of the wants of others To what Church soever he came it was one of his first cares to make provision for the poor and to stir up the bounty of the rich and the wealthy nay himself worked often with his own hands not only to maintain himself but to help and relieve them But infinitely greater was his charity to the Souls of men fearing no dangers refusing no labours going through good and evil report that he might gain men over to the knowledge of the truth reduce them out of the crooked paths of vice and idolatry and set them in the right way to eternal life Nay so insatiable his thirst after the good of Souls that he affirms that rather than his Country-men the Jews should miscarry by not believing and entertaining the Gospel he could be content nay wished that himself might be accursed from Christ for their sake i. e. that he might be anathematized and cut off from the Church of Christ and not only lose the honour of the Apostolate but be reckoned in the number of the abject and execrable persons such as those are who are separated from the communion of the Church An instance of so large and passionate a charity that lest it might not find room in mens belief he ushered it in with this solemn appeal and attestation that he said the truth in Christ and lied not his conscience bearing him witness in the Holy Ghost And as he was infinitely solicitous to gain men over to the best Religion in the World so was he not less careful to keep them from being seduced from it ready to suspect every thing that might corrupt their minds from the simplicity that is in Christ. I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie as he told the Church of Corinth An affection of all others the most active and vigilant and which is wont to inspire men with the most passionate care and concernment for the good of those for whom we have the highest measures of love and kindness Nor was his charity to men greater than his zeal for God endeavouring with all his might to promote the honour of his Master Indeed zeal seems to have had a deep foundation in the natural forwardness of his temper How exceedingly zealous was he while in the Jews Religion of the Traditions of his Fathers how earnest to vindicate and assert the Divinity of the Mosaick dispensation and to persecute all of a contrary way even to rage and madness And when afterwards turned into a right 〈◊〉 it ran with as swift a current carrying him out against all opposition to ruine the kingdom and the powers of darkness to beat down idolatry and to plant the World with right apprehensions of God and the true notions of Religion When at Athens he saw them so much overgrown with the grossest superstition and idolatry giving the honour that was alone due to God to Statues and Images his zeal began to ferment and to boil up into 〈◊〉 of indignation and he could not but let them know the resentments of his mind and how much herein they dishonoured God the great Parent and Maker of the World 6. THIS zeal must needs put him upon a mighty diligence and industry in the execution of his office warning reproving intreating perswading preaching in season and out of season by night and by day by Sea and Land no pains too much to be taken no dangers too great to be overcome For five and thirty years after his Conversion he 〈◊〉 staid long in one place from Jerusalem through Arabia 〈◊〉 Greece round about to Illyricum to Rome and even to the utmost bounds of the Western-world fully preaching the Gospel of Christ Running says S. Hierom from Ocean to Ocean like the Sun in the Heavens of which 't is said His going forth is from the end of the Heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it sooner wanting ground to tread on than a desire to propagate the Faith of Christ.

his Disciples to verifie his Promise to make demonstration of his Divinity to lay some superstructures of his Church upon the foundation of his former Sermons to instruct them in the mysteries of his Kingdom to prepare them for the reception of the Holy Ghost and as he had in his state of Separation triumphed over Hell so in his Resurrection he set his foot upon Death and brought it under his dominion so that although it was not yet destroyed yet it is made his subject it hath as yet the condition of the Gibeonites who were not banished out of the land but they were made drawers of water and bewers of wood so is Death made instrumental to Christ's Kingdom but it abides still and shall till the day of Judgment but shall serve the ends of our Lord and promote the interests of Eternity and do benefit to the Church 8. And it is considerable that our Blessed Lord having told them that after three days he would rise again yet he shortened the time as much as was possible that he might verifie his own prediction and yet make his absence the less troublesome he rises early in the morning the first day of the week for so our dearest Lord abbreviates the days of our sorrow and lengthens the years of our consolation for he knows that a day of sorrow seems a year and a year of joy passes like a day and therefore God lessens the one and 〈◊〉 the other to make this perceived and that supportable Now the Temple which the Jews destroyed God raised up in six and thirty hours but this second Temple was more glorious than the first for now it was clothed with robes of glory with clarity agility and immortality and though like Moses descending from the mount he wore a veil that the greatness of his splendor might not render him unapt for conversation with his servants yet the holy Scripture affirms that he was now no more to see corruption meaning that now he was separate from the passibility and affections of humane bodies and could suffer S. Thomas to thrust his hand into the wound of his side and his singer into the holes of his hands without any grief or smart 9. But although the graciousness and care of the Lord had prevented all diligence and satisfied all desires returning to life before the most forward faith could expect him yet there were three Maries went to the grave so early that they prevented the rising of the Sun and though with great obedience they stayed till the end of the Sabbath yet as soon as that was done they had other parts of duty and affection which called with greatest importunity to be speedily satisfied And if Obedience had not bound the feet of Love they had gone the day before but they became to us admirable patterns of Obedience to the Divine Commandments For though Love were stronger than death yet Obedience was stronger than Love and made a rare dispute in the spirits of those holy Women in which the flesh and the spirit were not the litigants but the spirit and the spirit and they resisted each other as the Angel-guardian of the Jews resisted the tutelar Angel of Persia each striving who should with most love and zeal perform their charge and God determined And so he did here too For the Law of the Sabbath was then a Divine Commandment and although piety to the dead and to such a dead was ready to force their choice to do violence to their will bearing them up on wings of desire to the grave of the LORD yet at last they reconciled Love with Obedience For they had been taught that Love is best expressed in keeping of the Divine Commandments But now they were at liberty and sure enough they made use of its first minute and going so early to seek Christ they were sure they should find him 10. The Angels descended Guardians of the Sepulchre for God sent his guards too and they affrighted the Watch appointed by Pilate and the Priests but when the women came they spake like comforters full of sweetness and consolation laying aside their affrighting glories as knowing it is the will of their Lord that they should minister good to them that love him But a conversation with Angels could not satisfie them who came to look for the Lord of the Angels and found him not and when the Lord was pleased to appear to Mary Magdalen she was so swallowed up with love and sorrow that she entred into her joy and perceived it not she saw the Lord and knew him not For so from the closets of darkness they that immediately stare upon the Sun perceive not the beauties of the light and feel nothing but amazement But the voice of the Lord opened her eyes and she knew him and worshipped him but was denied to touch him and commanded to tell the Apostles for therefore God ministers to us comforts and revelations not that we may dwell in the sensible fruition of them our selves alone but that we communicate the grace to others But when the other women were returned and saw the Lord then they were all together admitted to the embracement and to kiss the feet of Jesus For God hath his opportunities and periods which at another time he denies and we must then rejoyce in it when he vouchsafes it and submit to his Divine will when he denies it 11. These good women had the first fruits of the apparition for their forward love and the passion of their Religion made greater haste to entertain a Grace and was a greater endearment of their persons to our Lord than a more sober reserved and less active spirit This is more safe but that is religious this goes to God by the way of understanding that by the will this is supported by discourse that by passions this is the sobriety of the Apostles the other was the zeal of the holy women and because a strong fancy and an earnest passion sixed upon holy objects are the most active and forward instruments of Devotion as Devotion is of Love therefore we find God hath made great expressions of his acceptance of such dispositions And women and less knowing persons and tender dispositions and pliant natures will make up a greater number in Heaven than the severe and wary and enquiring people who sometimes love because they believe and believe because they can demonstrate but never believe because they love When a great Understanding and a great Affection meet together it makes a Saint great like an Apostle but they do not well who make abatement of their religious passions by the severity of their Understanding It is no matter by which we are brought to Christ so we love him and obey him but if the production admit of 〈◊〉 that instrument is the most excellent which produces the greatest love and 〈◊〉 discourse and a sober spirit be in it self the best yet we do not always suffer that to be a

but make it the more prudent and wary lest it intangle us in a vanity of spirit God having ordered that our spirits should be affected with dispositions in some degrees contrary to exteriour events that we be fearful in the affluence of prosperous things and joyful in adversity as knowing that this may produce benefit and advantage and the changes that are consequent to the other are sometimes full of mischiefs but always of danger But her Silence and Fear were her Guardians that to prevent excrescencies of Joy this of vainer complacency 9. And it is not altogether inconsiderable to observe that the holy Virgin came to a great perfection and state of Piety by a few and those modest and even exercises and external actions S. Paul travelled over the World preached to the Gentiles disputed against the Jews confounded Hereticks writ excellently-learned Letters suffered dangers injuries affronts and persecutions to the height of wonder and by these violences of life action and patience obtained the Crown of an excellent Religion and Devotion But the holy Virgin although she was ingaged sometimes in an active life and in the exercise of an ordinary and small oeconomy and government or ministeries of a Family yet she arrived to her Perfections by the means of a quiet and silent Piety the internal actions of Love Devotion and Contemplation and instructs us that not only those who have opportunity and powers of a magnificent Religion or a pompous Charity or miraculous Conversion of Souls or assiduous and effectual Preachings or exteriour demonstrations of corporal Mercy shall have the greatest crowns and the addition of degrees and accidental rewards but the silent affections the splendors of an internal Devotion the unions of Love Humility and Obedience the daily offices of Prayer and Praises sung to God the acts of Faith and Fear of Patience and Meekness of Hope and Reverence Repentance and Charity and those Graces which walk in a veil and silence make great ascents to God and as sure progress to favour and a Crown as the more ostentous and laborious exercises of a more solemn Religion No 〈◊〉 needs to complain of want of power or opportunities for Religious perfections a devout woman in her Closet praying with much zeal and affections for the conversion of Souls is in the same order to a shining like the stars in glory as he who by excellent discourses puts it into a more forward disposition to be actually performed And possibly her Prayers obtained energy and force to my Sermon and made the ground fruitful and the seed spring up to life eternal Many times God is present in the still voice and private retirements of a quiet Religion and the constant spiritualities of an ordinary life when the loud and impetuous winds and the shining fires of more laborious and expensive actions are profitable to others only like a tree of Balsam distilling precious liquor for others not for its own use The PRAYER O Eternal and Almighty God who didst send thy holy Angel in embassy to the Blessed Virgin-Mother of our Lord to manifest the actuating 〈◊〉 eternal Purpose of the 〈◊〉 of Mankind by the Incarnation of thine eternal Son put me by the 〈◊〉 of thy Divine Grace into such holy dispositions that I may never impede the event and effect of those mercies which in the counsels of thy Predestination thou didst design for me Give me a promptness to obey thee to the degree and semblance of Angelical alacrity give me holy Purity and Piety Prudence and Modesty like those Excellencies which thou didst create in the ever-blessed Virgin the Mother of God grant that my imployment be always holy unmixt with worldly affections and as much as my condition of life will bear retired from secular interests and disturbances that I may converse with Angels entertain the Holy JESUS conceive him in my Soul nourish him with the expresses of most innocent and holy affections and bring him forth and publish him in a life of Piety and Obedience that he may dwell in me for ever and I may for ever dwell with him in the house of eternal pleasures and glories world without end Amen SECT II. The Bearing of JESUS in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin MARY visiting ELIZABETH S. LUKE 1. 43. And whence is this to me that y e Mother of my LORD should come to me Josephs Dreame S MAT 1. 20. Joseph thou son of David Feare not to 〈◊〉 unto thee Mar●● thy wife for that 〈◊〉 is conceived in her is of the Holy 〈◊〉 1. ALthough the Blessed Virgin had a faith as prompt and ready as her Body was chast and her Soul pure yet God who uses to give full measure shaken together and running over did by way of confirmation and fixing the confidence of her assent give an instance of his Omnipotency in the very particular of an extraordinary Conception For the Angel said Behold thy Cousin Elizabeth hath also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her that was called barren For with God nothing shall be impossible A less argument would have satisfied the necessity of a Faith which had no scruple and a greater would not have done it in the incredulity of an ungentle and pertinacious spirit But the Holy Maid had complacency enough in the Message and holy desires about her to carry her understanding as far as her affections even to the fruition of the Angel's Message which is such a sublimity of Faith that it is its utmost consummation and shall be its Crown when our Faith is turned into Vision our Hopes into actual Possessions and our Grace into Glory 2. And she who was now full of God bearing God in her Virgin-Womb and the Holy Spirit in her Heart who had also over-shadowed her enabling her to a supernatural and miraculous Conception arose with haste and gladness to communicate that joy which was designed for all the World and she found no breast to pour forth the first emanations of her over-joyed heart so fit as her Cousin Elizabeth's who had received testimony from God to have been righteous walking in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless who also had a special portion in this great honour for she was designed to be the Mother of the Baptist who was sent as a fore-runner to prepare the ways of the Lord and to make his paths straight And Mary arose in those days and went into the Hill-countrey with haste into a City of Judah 3. Her Haste was in proportion to her Joy and desires but yet went no greater pace than her Religion for as in her journey she came near to Jerusalem she turned in that she might visit His Temple whose Temple she her self was now and there not only to remember the pleasures of Religion which she had felt in continual descents and showers falling on her pious heart for the space of eleven years attendance there in her Childhood but also to pay the

too apt to dash upon this rock of offence But the evil that I would note is that there are some conditions of men to whom a Vice is so accustomed that he that 〈◊〉 with them must handle the crime and touch the venome There are some Vices which are National there are some that are points of Honour some are Civilities of entertainment and they are therefore accounted unavoidable because the understandings of men are degenerous as their manners and it is accounted sottish and 〈◊〉 not to 〈◊〉 in their accustomed loosenesses Amongst some men all their first addresses are 〈◊〉 their entertainments intemperate beyond the permissions of Christian austerity their drink is humorous and their humours quarrellous and it is dishonourable not to engage in Duel and venture your Soul to 〈◊〉 an empty Reputation These inconveniences 〈◊〉 upon false opinions and vain fancies having no greater foundation than the sottish discourses of ignorant and 〈◊〉 persons and they have no peculiar and appropriate remedy but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of manners and a consideration what is required of us as Christians to 〈◊〉 against 〈◊〉 fonder customs and expectations from us as we engage in the puddles of the world and are blended in society 17. To which purposes we must be careful not to engage too freely in looser company never without business or unavoidable accidents and when we mingle in affairs it will concern our safety to watch lest multitude of talk 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of nature the delight of company and the freedom and ill 〈◊〉 civilities do by degrees draw us away from our guards and 〈◊〉 of spirit For in these cases every degree of dissolution disarms us of our strengths and if we give way 〈◊〉 far as we think it tolerable we instantly and undiscernibly pass into unlawful and criminal But our best defences are deposited in a severe and prudent understanding and discerning the sottishness of such principles which represent Vice in civil 〈◊〉 and propound a crime to you under the cover of kindness which is just so much recompence as it is satisfaction to a condemned person that he was accused by a witty Oratour and sentenced by an eloquent Judge Remember always that the friendships of the world are enmity with God and that those Societies which are combined by relations of drink and wantonness and impertinency and crimes are either inconsiderable in civility or reason or reputation no wise man is moved by their testimony or discourses and they are so impotent rude and undiscerning a theatre that most commonly he is the best man who from thence is the worst reported and represented 18. But in all the instances of this great evil the very stating the question right is above half the victory For it is a question between mistaken Civility and certain Duty Piety on one side and the disguises of Humanity on the other God and Man are the parties interested and to counterpoise the influence of the sight and face of Man which being in a visible communication it is not in some natures to neglect or contradict there are all the Excellencies of God the effects of his Power his certain Presence and Omniscience the severities of his Judgment and the sweetness and invitation of his Mercies besides the prudence wisdom and satisfaction to the spirit when we wisely neglect such sottish and low abuses and temptations to conform to the rules of Reason and Duty in compliance with the purposes of God and our own 〈◊〉 19. Thirdly These ill-managed Principles are dangers as universal as an infected air yet there are some diseases more proper to the particular state of Religion First To young beginners in Religion he represents the Difficulties of Religion and propounds the greater Examples of holy persons and affrights them with those mountains of Piety observing where and upon what instance of Severity his fancy will be most apprehensive and 〈◊〉 and this he fails not often to represent with a purpose that by believing no Piety less than the greatest can be good he may despair of those heights and retire into the securities and indifferencies of a careless life But this is to be cured by all those instruments of Piety which in special are incentives of the love of God and endearments of spiritual and religious affections and particularly by consideration of the Divine goodness who knows whereof we are made and remembers that we are but dust and will require no more of us than according to our powers and present capacities But the subject matter of this Temptation is considered and refuted in the Discourse of the Love of God 20. But most commonly young beginners are zealous and high and not so easily tempted to a recession till after a long time by a revolution of affections they are abated by a defervescency in holy actions The Devil uses to prompt them on not that he loves the Piety and the progress but that he would engage the person in imprudences and such forwardness of expresses which either are in their own nature indiscretions or from which by reason of the incapacity of the person it is necessary for him to retire A new Convert is like a Bird newly entred into a Net through which possibly she might pass without danger if her fears and unreasonable strivings did not intangle her but when by busie and disturbed slutterings she discomposes the order of it she is intangled and unpenned and made a prey to her treacherous enemy Such are the undiscreet strivings and too 〈◊〉 enterprises of new Penitents whom we shall observe too often undertaking great Austerities making Vows and casting bands upon their liberty and snares upon their persons thinking nothing great enough to expiate their sin or to present to God or to endear their services or secure their perseverance and therefore they lay a load of fetters upon themselves or rather cut off their legs that they may never go back therefore laying an obligation of Vows and intolerable burthens on themselves that by these they may by a compendium of Piety redeem the time and by those make it impossible to prevaricate But the observation of the sad events and 〈◊〉 accidents of these men hath given probation of the indiscretion of such furious addresses and beginnings And it was prudently done of Mcletius of Antioch when he visited the Dioceses of Syria and the several Religious persons famous for severe undertakings espying that Simeon Stylites dwelt upon a Pillar and had bound his leg with a strong chain of iron he sent for a Smith causing it to be knocked off and said To 〈◊〉 man that loves God his Mind is a sufficient chain For the loads of voluntary Austerities rashly undertaken make Religion a burthen when their first heats expire and their Vows which are intended to secure the practice and perpetuate the Piety are but the occasions of an aggravate crime and the Vow does not secure the Piety but the weariness and satiety of the

hand is heavy and his sword is sharp and pierces to the dividing the marrow and the bones and he that considers the infinite distance between God and us must tremble when he remembers that he is to feel the issues of that anger which he is not certain whether or no it will destroy him infinitely and eternally 4. But if the whip be given into our hands that we become executioners of the Divine wrath it is sometimes worse for we seldom strike our selves for emendation but add sin to sin till we perish miserably and inevitably God scourges us often into Repentance but when a Sin is the whip of another sin the rod is put into our hands who like blind men strike with a rude and undiscerning hand and because we love the punishment do it without intermission or choice and have no end but ruine 5. When the Holy Jesus had whipt the Merchants in the Temple they took away all the instruments of their sin For a Judgment is usually the commencement of Repentance Love is the last of Graces and 〈◊〉 at the beginning of a new life but is reserved to the perfections and ripeness of a Christian. We begin in Pear The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom 〈◊〉 hen he smote them then they turned and enquired early after God And afterwards the impresses of Fear continue like a hedge of thorns about us to restrain our dissolutions within the awfulness of the Divine Majesty that it may preserve what was from the same principle begun This principle of their emendation was from God and therefore innocent and holy and the very purpose of Divine Threatnings is that upon them as upon one of the great hindges the Piety of the greatest part of men should turn and the effect was answerable but so are not the actions of all those who follow this precedent in the tract of the letter For indeed there have been some reformations which have been so like this that the greatest alteration which hath been made was that they carried all things out of the Temple the Money and the Tables and the Sacrifice and the Temple it self went at last But these mens scourge is to follow after and Christ the Prince of the Catholick Church will provide one of his own contexture moresevere than the stripes which 〈◊〉 felt from the infliction of the exterminating Angel But the Holy Spirit of God by making provision against such a Reformation hath prophetically declared the aptnesses which are in pretences of religious alterations to degenerate into sacrilegious desires Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit sacriledge In this case there is no amendment only one sin resigns to another and the person still remains under its power and the same dominion The PRAYER OEternal Jesu thou bright Image of thy Father's glories whose light did shine to all the world when thy heart was inflamed with zeal and love of God and of Religion let a coal from thine Altar fanned with the wings of the Holy Dove kindle in my Soul such holy flames that I may be zealous of thy honour and glory forward in Religious duties earnest in their pursuit prudent in their managing ingenuous in my purposes making my Religion to serve no end but of thy glories and the obtaining of thy promises and so sanctific my Soul and my Body that I may be a holy Temple fit and prepared for the inhabitation of thy ever-blessed Spirit whom grant that I may never grieve by admitting any impure thing to desecrate the place and unhallow the Courts of his abode but give me a pure Soul in a chaste and healthful 〈◊〉 a spirit full of holy simplicity and designs of great ingenuity and perfect Religion that I may intend what thou commandest and may with proper instruments 〈◊〉 what I so intend and by thy aids may obtain the end of my labours the rewards of obedience and holy living even the society and inheritance of Jesus in the participation of the joys of thy Temple where thou dwellest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost O Eternal Jesus Amen DISCOURSE VIII Of the Religion of Holy Places 1. THE Holy Jesus brought a Divine warrant for his Zeal The selling Sacrifices and the exchange of Money and every Lay-employment did violence and dishonour to the Temple which was hallowed to Ecclesiastical ministeries and set apart for Offices of Religion for the use of holy things for it was God's House and so is every house by publick designation separate for Prayer or other uses of Religion it is God's House My house God had a propriety in it and had set his mark on it even his own Name And therefore it was in the Jews Idiome of speech called the Mountain of the Lord's House and the House of the Lord by David frequently God had put his Name into all places appointed for solemn Worship In all places where I record my Name I will come unto thee and bless thee For God who was never visible to mortal eye was pleased to make himself presential by substitution of his Name that is in certain places he hath appointed that his Name shall be called upon and by promising and imparting such Blessings which he hath made consequent to the invocation of his Name hath made such places to be a certain determination of some special manner of his Presence For God's Name is not a distinct thing from himself not an Idea and it cannot be put into a place in literal signification the expression is to be resolved into some other sence God's Name is that whereby he is known by which he is invocated that which is the most immediate publication of his Essence nearer than which we cannot go unto him and because God is essentially present in all places when he makes himself present in one place more than another it cannot be understood to any other purpose but that in such places he gives special Blessings and Graces or that in those places he appoints his Name that is himself specially to be invocated 2. So that when God puts his Name in any place by a special manner it signifies that there himself is in that manner But in separate and hallowed places God hath expressed that he puts his Name with a purpose it should be called upon therefore in plain signification it is thus In Consecrate places God himself is present to be invok'd that is there he is most delighted to hear the Prayers we make unto him For all the expressions of Scripture of God's 〈◊〉 the Tabernacle of God God's Dwellings putting his Name there his Sanctuary are resolved into that saying of God to Solomon who prayed that he would hear the Prayers of necessitous people in that place God granting the request expressed it thus I have sanctified the House which thou hast built that is the House which thou hast designed for my Worship I have designed for your Blessing what you have

the flames of Hell that men may serve God without the incentives of hope and fear and purely for the love of God Whether the Woman were onely imaginative and sad or also zealous I know not But God knows he would have few Disciples if the arguments of invitation were not of greater promise than the labours of Vertue are of trouble And therefore the Spirit of God knowing to what we are inflexible and by what we are made most ductile and malleable hath propounded Vertue clothed and dressed with such advantages as may entertain even our Sensitive part and first desires that those also may be invited to Vertue who understand not what is just and reasonable but what is profitable who are more moved with advantage than justice And because emolument is more felt than innocence and a man may be poor for all his gift of 〈◊〉 the Holy Jesus to endear the practices of Religion hath represented Godliness unto us under the notion of gain and sin as unfruitful and yet besides all the natural and reasonable advantages every Vertue hath a supernatural reward a gracious promise attending and every Vice is not only naturally deformed but is made more ugly by a threatning and horrid by an appendent curse Henceforth therefore let no man complain that the Commandments of God are impossible for they are not onely possible but easie and they that say otherwise and do accordingly take more pains to carry the instruments of their own death than would serve to ascertain them of life And if we would do as much for Christ as we have done for Sin we should find the pains less and the pleasure more And therefore such complainers are without excuse for certain it is they that can go in foul ways must not say they cannot walk in fair they that march over rocks in despight of so many impediments can travel the even ways of Religion and Peace when the Holy Jesus is their Guide and the Spirit is their Guardian and infinite felicities are at their journey's end and all the reason of the world political oeconomical and personal do entertain and support them in the travel of the passage The PRAYER O Eternal Jesus who gavest Laws unto the world that man-kind being united to thee by the bands of Obedience might partake of all thy glories and felicities open our understanding give us the spirit of discerning and just apprehension of all the beauties with which thou hast enamelled Vertue to represent it beauteous and amiable in our eyes that by the allurements of exteriour decencies and appendent blessings our present desires may be entertained our hopes promoted our affections satisfied and Love entring in by these doors may dwell in the interiour regions of the Will O make us to love thee for thy self and Religion for thee and all the instruments of Religion in order to thy glory and our own felicities Pull off the visors of Sin and discover its deformities by the lantern of thy Word and the light of the Spirit that I may never be bewitched with sottish appetites Be pleased to build up all the contents I expect in this world upon the interests of a vertuous life and the support of Religion that I may be rich in Good works content in the issues of thy Providence my Health may be the result of Temperance and severity my Mirth in spiritual emanations my Rest in Hope my Peace in a good Conscience my Satisfaction and acquiescence in thee that from Content I may pass to an eternal Fulness from Health to Immortality from Grace to Glory walking in the paths of Righteousness by the waters of Comfort to the land of everlasting Rest to feast in the glorious communications of Eternity eternally adoring loving and enjoying the infinity of the ever-Blessed and mysterious Trinity to whom be glory and 〈◊〉 and dominion now and for ever Amen DISCOURSE XVI Of Certainty of Salvation 1. WHen the Holy Jesus took an account of the first Legation and voyage of his Apostles he found them rejoycing in priviledges and exteriour powers in their authority over unclean spirits but weighing it in his balance he found the cause too light and therefore diverted it upon the right object Rejoyce that your names are written in Heaven The revelation was confirmed and more personally applied in answer to S. Peter's Question We have for saken all and followed thee what shall we have therefore Their LORD answered Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Amongst these persons to whom Christ spake Judas was he was one of the Twelve and he had a throne allotted for him his name was described in the book of life and a Scepter and a Crown was deposited for him too For we must not judge of Christ's meaning by the event since he spake these words to produce in them Faith comfort and joy in the best objects it was a Sermon of duty as well as a Homily of comfort and therefore was equally intended to all the Colledge and since the number of Thrones is proportioned to the number of men it is certain there was no exception of any man there included and yet it is as certain Judas never came to sit upon the throne and his name was blotted out of the book of life Now if we put these ends together that in Scripture it was not revealed to any man concerning his final condition but to the dying penitent Thief and to the twelve Apostles that twelve thrones were designed for them and a promise made of their inthronization and yet that no man's final estate is so clearly declared miserable and lost as that of Judas one of the Twelve to whom a throne was promised the result will be that the election of holy persons is a condition allied to duty absolute and infallible in the general and supposing all the dispositions and requisites concurring but fallible in the particular if we fall off from the mercies of the Covenant and prevaricate the conditions But the thing which is most observable is that if in persons so eminent and priviledged and to whom a revelation of their Election was made as a particular grace their condition had one weak leg upon which because it did rely for one half of the interest it could be no stronger than its supporters the condition of lower persons to whom no revelation is made no priviledges are indulged no greatness of spiritual eminency is appendent as they have no greater certainty in the thing so they have less in person and are therefore to work out their salvation with great fears and tremblings of spirit 2. The purpose of this consideration is that we do not judge of our final condition by any discourses of our own relying upon God's secret Counsels and Predestination of Eternity This is a mountain upon which whosoever climbs like Moses to behold the land of Canaan at great distances may please his eyes or