Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	affection_n	good_a	know_v	2,539	5	3.6358	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30925	The faithful and wise servant discovered in a sermon preached to the Parliament of the commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, at their late private fast in the Parliament House, Jan. 9, 1656 / by Matthew Barker ...	Barker, Matthew, 1619-1698.	1657 (1657)	Wing B773; ESTC R20191	33,385	52

the World may offer yet God doth infinitely out-bid them what they offer is but a piece of light and fading vanity but what God offers is a weight an eternal weight of glory The Reward must needs be great because God rewards not only according to mans work but according to the riches of his own grace and bounty A great King accounts it his shame to give a mean reward he must do all things like himself It is said Heb. 11. 16. of those believing Patriarchs God was not ashamed to be called their God why for saith the Text he hath prepared for them a City that is if God had not well provided for them if he had not prepared a glorious habitation for them somewhat like himself he might have been ashamed to be called their God so This Reward excels in the sureness of it It will certainly come Though we may fail of success in our work yet we shall not misse the reward of it as the Prophet Isaiah speaks Isai 49. 4. I have laboured in vain there he mist his success yet my judgment is with the Lord and my works with my God there he finds the reward And it is the Apostles argument 1 Cor. 15. ult let us abound in the work of the Lord and the Argument is not only because there is a reward but the reward is sure as knowing that our labour is never in vain in the Lord. It is true God doth defer it at least the greatest part of it but why is it that he might learn us to live upon Trust He having given us such a sure promise he may presume that we have enough to support and encourage us though the reward be for a season deferred Therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 10. 35 Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward Oh but we do not see the recompence we possess it not therefore he adds yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry and the just shall live by faith 2. The second work of the spirit is a work of mortification Mans selfish nature must be mortified else he will be serving himself and not the Lord. That life in a believer that serves the Lord springs out of the death of his carnal life as man ceaseth to be his own so doth he come to serve the Lord and live to him The message that Moses carried to Pharaoh from the Lord was this Let my people go that they may serve me they must go out of the Land of Egypt and from under the power of Pharaoh that they might serve the Lord. So must man go out of that selfish nature that keeps him in bondage and out of the power of the infernal Pharaoh before he can be capable of serving God And this is done in us by the Spirit that smites those enemies that held us in bondage that we might go forth into the liberty of serving God pride must be smitten and self-love must be smitten and unbelief must be smitten c. before any man doth indeed enter into the Lords service No man saith Christ can serve two Masters especially two Masters whose commands are contradictory now every lust is a Master which man is serving and till the Spirit crucifie them man cannot be serving Jesus Christ 3. The third work is a work of renovation The faculties of the soul must pass under a spiritual renovation before they can be fit to serve the Lord. For I am not of their opinion who think that if lust be mortified the soul would of it self return into its primitive course as a river that is stopt if you remove the dam it runs of it self or a stone that hangs in the ayr by a string if you cut the string of it self it falls to the centre but there must be aliquid divinitus infusum a principle infused from above to act it towards the Lord and in his service Lust it is a confining thing it makes man dwell at home and serve himself but grace is enlarging it lets man out of himself and brings him home to the Lord and to the service of the Lord. He that is a fit servant for a Prince must have many accomplishments to fit him for it And so would I dwell here I might shew you how many things are necessary to accomplish a man for the Lords service as Faith Love Hope Humility Self denyal c. are all necessary that he may be a vessel of honour prepared for his Masters 2 Tim. 2. 21. use For natural accomplishments may fit a man for the service of man but man must be accomplisht from Heaven to fit him for the Lords service But I passe Use 2 That which I infer next from the Doctrine as more suitable to the day is matter of Lamentation Ah may we not mourn over our selves mourn over the City mourn over the Nation yea mourn over the world that that which is mans great work is laid aside as if it was none of his work at least other work hath the praeeminence Oh that the Devil that hath no true right to us for he neither made us nor bought us and that payes no wages but death and misery and that the lusts of the flesh to which as the Apostle saith we are no debtors yet these should have more real more free more chearful service then God then Christ to whom we are indebted by so manifold ingagements and obligations This is true but ah is it not sad Hath not Christ think you better deserved of the World Hath he not Might not Jesus Christ promise himself that after he had manifested such stupendious love as to lay down his life for an undone world that they should be so amazed so ravisht with this love as to be ambitious who should love him most and honour him most and serve him most that the very naming the name of Christ should be argument enough to provoke them to ingage in any service for him Yea and after he had laid down the price of his blood the greatest price that Heaven or Earth could give to purchase us might he not promise himself that the Sons of men would no longer be their own but his wholly his But alasse we see nothing lesse then this in the world Men after all this are their own live to themselves serve themselves and Christ and his service both are despised and rejected of men may not Heaven and Earth even tremble and be astonisht at this Or when men are serving Christ do they serve him with the best do they serve him with such life and vigour as they serve themselves and the world do not they bring him the lame the blind the torn the maymed as if any thing was good enough for Christ as Jeroboam made Priests of the lowest of the People so do men think the lowest of their affections the very dreg of their time and strength good enough for God Was there ever

such love as that which Christ shew'd to the world and was there ever any carriage so unworthy and so unsufferable as that which Christ receives from the World We have the Type of this in the Nation of the Jews You know God did wonderfully for that people brought them out of Egypt by an out stretched arm and carried them through the wilderness by a continual miracle and then setled them in a pleasant land such a land as could not for all things be matched by any upon earth might not now God expect think you eminent love and service from such a people but when they come into the good land they presently defile it with their Idolatries they forget the workes of God and as the Prophet Jeremy expresseth it They say not where is the Lord that brought us out of the Land of Egypt that led us through the wilderness c. So after all the wonderfull works of power and love that Christ hath wrought for the redemption of man and for the setling him in an heavenly inheritance Oh how much is this Christ forgotten How few are there that say where is this Jesus that hath done these things Oh where is he that we may adorn him that we may embrace him that we may devote our selves and all that we are and have to him Ah must not this be for a Lamentation this day may we not lament upon Christs account that he should be so much despised and his service neglected and upon the worlds account that they should no better understand their own Interest then to be serving other Masters and cast him off But to come a little nearer home May not we particularly mourn over our selves and the Nation this day Oh the mercies that England hath received But have we not too soon too soon forgotten them Hath God been served under his mercy and served with his mercy as he should have been Do we ask after the God of our mercies and say Where is the God of all these mercies Where is that God that delivered us from the Bondage of Popery and Superstition in Queen Marys days and from those ensnaring Ceremonies and superstitious Innovations in the late Prelats days Where is that God that appeared for us at Keint●n Newberry Naseby Dunbar Worcester c Might not God promise himself that when he had delivered us out of the hands of our enemies we would serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life But do we so And that when he had delivered us from those innovations that were intruded into his Worship he should have a pure worship and pure Ordinances set up amongst us and a joyful and holy walking in them But is it thus And that when once the danger of Saints meeting together called Conventicling was removed they would fall into a sweet and blessed communion and fellowship among themselves But alas is it thus As also might not God expect that those which suffered together and were delivered together should joyn heart and hand together to promote the common Interest of Christ against the Common Enemy But is this found amongst us God told the Jews Zach. 8. 19. that he would deliver them and turn the Fasts of the fourth fifth and seventh moneth into joy and gladness and cheerful Feasts and that therefore they should love the Truth and Peace God hath done much toward our deliverance we must not we dare not deny it we inherit the fruit of the Prayers and blood of many of his precious Saints But after all Do we love the Truth and Peace Is Truth embraced Is Peace preserved Nay Is not the light of Truth darkned by pernicious Errors and the beauty of Peace sadly defaced by unhappy divisions And must not these things be for a Lamentation this day I remember when the Book of Sports came out in the late Kings days there was a general lamentation among the good people of the Land and a holy zeal for the spiritual observation of the Christian Sabbath But now How many have set their Consciences free from any such duty and others are running back to the Jewish Sabbath and that more then every one is aware of And the first step to fall to the latter must be the casting off the former Vse 3 That which I shall next infer from the Truth in hand is with all seriousness to exhort and beseech that that which is our greatest work may be most minded And seeing that Honoured in the Lord you have appointed us to be this day your SPEAKERS to speak to God for you and to speak from God to you give me leave to enjoy that which is the Priviledge of this House to speak freely And I shall be bold to speak to you as standing before the Lord this day in a threefold capacity 1. As Men. 2. As Christians 3. As Magistrates and the TRVSTEES of the three Nations First I shall speak to you as men and as men you are engaged to serve the Lord For First Have you not received your Beings from him Hath not he made you and not you your selves Doth not then the Law of Creation engage you to serve him by whom you are or else you had never been There are certain Duties which Divines call Natural Worship which the light of Nature doth dictate to men and are due to him by the very Law of Creation as to love God fear him trust him so also to serve him and refer our actions to him which God never did nor never will dispense with to the sons of men So that he that lives in the world and is not truly serving God in the world this man sins against the very Dictates of natural light and against the Original and Fundamental right which God claims to us as being his creatures and the work of his hands Shal● the thing that is formed say to him that formed it What hast thou to do with me And wherein am I indebted to thee Shall not God enjoy his own Creature And doth he enjoy it if it is not serving him Secondly As man was made by the Lord so he was made peculiarly for the Lord He made the rest of the Creation to serve man but he made man to serve himself He furnish'd him with such Faculties of mind that rendred him capable of knowing praising and serving his Creator and is there but this one creature in this lower world that God made peculiarly to serve him and shall he be disappointed in that one Nay shall the rest of the Creatures keep their station and serve their end and man not serve his When God would Arraigne a people that was rebellious against him he calls Heaven and Earth to hearken Isa 1. 2. Hear O Heavens and hearken O Earth Why What strange thing hath God to bring forth Why this I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me As if he had said Is there such a thing to be

what fear is this they are to serve with and of what Answ For the former question the Apostle resolves it in that parallel Scripture Heb. 12. 28. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God with Reverence and Godly Fear There is a base slavish fear that makes a man run from God and have hard thoughts of him and binds him up from serving him As the unprofitable servant if he speak his heart was bound up from employing his Talent by this base fear Matth. 25. 24 25. Lord saith he I knew thee that thou art an hard man reaping where thou hast not sown c. and I was afraid But the fear wherewith we are to serve God is an ingenuous Son-like fear Such a fear as 1. Springs from Love and that Honourable esteem we have of God which in Hebr. 12. is called Reverence which Moralists tell us is an affection compounded of love and fear and is wrought in the heart by a due sense of that greatness and goodness which is in God 2. Which quickens a man in service For this true Fear is a strong Incentive to action The Apostle to quicken those dull Hebrews in their travel to the true Rest doth endeavour to possess them with this holy Fear Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should seem to come short of it Security rocks the soul asleep but Fear awakens it and sets it a work Quest 2. But what are they to be in fear of Answ The verse after this Text doth in general tell us and that is the Lords displeasure lest he be angry and you perish saith the Text and that if his wrath be kindled but a little what then if he should stir up all his wrath as the Psalmist speakes This fear is to possesse every mans heart and is to run through all the Acti●ns of his life 1. For natural actions as eating drinking c. we are to manage these with an holy fear of displeasing the Lord. 2. For Civil and Political actions as buying selling trading and commerce in the world him we are also to fear least we displease him 3. As for Religious actions praying or hearing c. we are to mannage these with this holy fear least we displease the Lord by formality distraction of thoughts hypocrisy carelesness or the like But especially Magistrates for they are the persons particularly spoken to in the Text. They are to mannage the whole course of their Government with this fear of displeasing the Lord. They are all subordinated to him and are to give up their accounts to him and therefore are to be exceeding careful that nothing in the constitution or course of their Government be displeasing unto him And they do displease Christ 1. When they oppose his interest in the world when Christ hath a work upon the wheeles for the advance of his Kingdom the establishing of Jerusalem c. then when they oppose their power to this interest then they displease him As when Maximilian the Emperour and some other Princes opposed Luther in that great work he was upon 2. Secondly when they neglect his interest when they do not come forth to serve it with what ever ability or opportunity is in their hand but are wholly swallowed up into a more private interest of their own As Meroz was cursed not coming forth to help the Lord Judg. 5. 2. 3. 3. When they subordinate his interest to their own when they are carrying on an interest of Christ but it is that they may serve some private end of their own upon it when they ingraft a selfish design upon Christs stock that it may the better thrive And thus did Jehu in taking vengeanoe upon the false Prophets of Baal and Ahabs house which was but to confirm the Kingdom to himself 2 Kings 10. 4. When they deal injuriously with his Saints then they do highly displease him Though they are a poor despised people in the world yet their Redeemer is mighty and when they cry he will hear them I find two principal places in the prophesie of Isaiah wherein the Lord is presented in a strange heat of wrath the one is 34. Isaiah the beginning of it The indignation of the Lord is upon all Nations and his fury upon all their Armies verse 2. Their mountains shall be melted with blood vers 3. And the Host of Heaven shall be dissolved vers 4. And my sword shall be bathed in Heaven vers 5. And the sword of the Lord is filled with blood vers 6. Now if you ask me What means the heat of this great wrath he tels you vers 8. It is the day of the Lords vengeance and the yeer of recompence for the controversie of Sion The other place is 63. Isaiah beginning Where the Lord is set forth in his red Apparel and his garment died in blood and treading the Wine-presse of wrath And the reason of all this you read in the 4. vers For the day of Vengeance is in mine heart and the yeer of my redeemed is come We cannot touch God in a tenderer part then in his people for they are the Apple of his eye Justin Martyr in his Apology for the Christians tells the Roman Emperours that whiles they persecuted the Saints the Empire was afflicted with Floods Earth-quakes Pestilence c. It was not their tolerating but their persecuting them that brought those calamities upon them Nothing will sooner bring down wrath upon a people then this And on the other hand to protect and Cherish the Saints is that which God takes kindly at the hands of Magistrates and which is likely eminently to conduce to the prosperity of their affaires according to the promise in the 122. Psal 6. They shall prosper that love thee Only I would be understood as speaking of true Saints and they walking as Saints But I hasten to a Conclusion And therefore I come now to the last part of the Text as I divided it at the beginning and that is the Argument whereby this Counsel is enforced for so I shall make use of it upon the Kings and Judges of the Earth This will be their Wisdom and their understanding Be wise now therefore or And now be wise O ye Kings be instructed ye that Judg the Earth God having before shewd them that their opposition against his Son would be their undoing and break them to pieces he therefore doth advise them as they would appear to be wise men and men well instructed to serve him whereby they should save themselves from that destruction that else would unavoidably fall upon them Every man will be pretending to wisdom and it is a thing so desirable that even fools that have no wisdom yet they will be wise in their own conceit O Sapientia as he said sed ubi es but where is wisdom to be found The Graecians they pretended to it 1 Cor. 1. 22. The Greeks seek after