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	heart_n	know_v	3,560	5	3.6423	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25248	Redeeming the time a sermon preached at Preston in Lancashire, January 4th, 1657 at the funeral of the honourable lady, the Lady Margaret Houghton / by Isaac Ambrose.	Ambrose, Isaac, 1604-1664.; Houghton, Margaret, Lady, d. 1657.	1674 (1674)	Wing A2969; ESTC R29590	26,695	20

on him in the night-watches And Paul's charge to Timothy was to meditate upon spiritual things and to give himself wholly to them Or if you 'l have another proof for the evening-season not only was it Isaac's time but David's time Mine eyes prevent the night-watches that I might meditate in thy word Psal 119.148 3. The evening is a season for self-examination This is another glorious ordinance which many Christians use occasionally and against some good time but to set some time apart for this every evening and that in conscience as they do for reading the word and Prayer where is the Christian almost to be found I am sure it was David's charge Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still And agreeable to this was his practice Psal 4.4 I call to remembrance my song in the night I commune with my own heart and my spirit made diligent search Chrysostom on these words of David Psal 77.6 What means this saith he commune with your own hearts upon your bed Post doenam Chrysost Expos in Psa 4.4 thus answers himself after supper-time when ye are going to sleep and are ready to ly down on bed and have great quiet and silence without the presence or disturbance of any then erect a tribunal for the conscience And when neither friend disturbs you Docuerant nos saepe patres nostri c. Dovoth tom 1. nor servants provoke you nor multitudes of business do press upon you then take an account of your life what you have done in the day-time before And Dorotheus layes it down as a rule which the Christians of his time had learned of their fore-fathers that in the evening they should question themselves how they had passed the day Biblioth Pot● p. 14. Oh that Christians now would Sum up their accounts at the foot of every page I mean that they would call themselves to scrutiny every evening when they are ready to compose themselves to sleep as to the little Images of Death 4. The evening is a season to consider my Priviledges in Christ Psal 48. When David was ready for his Bed I will lay me down in peace and sleep saith he for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety See how he speaks of peace and rest and sleep and safety all these were Priviledges Me thinks it is a sweet conclusion of a good dayes work and a blessed farewel to the World if this evening were my last and that immediately I must go to God to consider of some of those glorious Priviledges in God and Christ I might instance in my peace and rest and sleep and safety by vertue of a promise or covenant of Grace or I might instance in my Election Redemption Reconciliation Adoption Sanctification Glorification But because these are commonly handled and our communion with God and Christ and the spirit of Christ is the most ravishing Priviledge in this World my soul carries me out for the present to pitch on this * Dr. Owens communion God the Father Son and Holy Ghost One of our Worthies hath writ eminenly on it and for a taste of his excellent work the sweeting of my last thoughts with such an excellent subject I shall contract it thus 1. I would consider my communion with God the Father in love This the Father peculiarly fixes upon the Saints and this they are immediately to eye him in God is love Christians walk of times with exceeding troubled hearts concerning the thoughts of the Father towards them they are well perswaded of the Lord Christ and his good will the difficulty lies in what is their acceptance with the Father what is his heart towards them Now here is the work of the Gospel to discover the love of the Father this is the will of God that he may alwayes be eyed as being kind tender loving yea as the Fountain and Spring of all gracious Communications and fruits of love and when Christians apprehend this that God is love and so rest upon him and delight in him as such then have they communion with the Father in love Now for the exercise of my soul in this blessed communion the directions are such as these 1. I must eye the Father as Love I must not look on him as one that is alwayes angry but as one most kind and tender in himself and as one that hath had thoughts of kindness towards his Saints from everlasting 2. I must so eye the love of the Father as to receive it by faith I must believe this love of God as for my self Certainly his love is not mine nor will it be mine in the sweetness of it untill it be so received Either I must know it assent to it embrace it and have all my affections filled with it or it will be in vain as to my Communion with God the Father 3. This love must have its proper fruit and efficacy upon my heart in a return of love to him again To this purpose God loves that he may be beloved this is the return that he demands Pro. 23.26 My son give me thy heart thy affections thy love O the Priviledge of Saints they have meat to eat that the World knows not of they have close communion and fellowship with the Father they deal with him in the interchange of love so that every one of them may say If I have hatred in the World I will goe where I am sure of love though all others are hard to me yet my Father is tender and full of compassion I will goe to him and satisfie my self in him 4. I would consider of my communion with God the Son in grace So the Apostle speaking of our communion with him as Mediator concludes his Epistles 1 Cor. 6.23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Not to mention any other grace Gal 6.18 but his perchased grace of justification or acceptation with God the directions for this Communion are such as these Ephes 6.24 I must eye Christ's doings and sufferings not as for himself but for his Saints Phil. 4.23 and for their Righteousness He was made under the Law Gal. 4.4 5. that we might receive the adoption of Sons And he bare our sins in his body on the Tree 1 Thess 5.28 This was the end of Christ's life and death to work out a compleat Righteousness for believers 2 Thess 3.18 Gal. 4.2 as to a perfect acceptation before God 1 Pet. 2 24. I must approve of this Righteousness of Christ as that alone which is absolutely compleat and able to make me acceptable before God Of this I am convinced that if I die this night there is a necessity of a Righteousness wherewith I must appear before God and if I have nothing to commend me unto God but my own Righteousness oh how should I appear before his glory there is no other name but Christ

God is now a communicating many blessed truths In respect of us our fathers before and since the Reformation were in great darkness the candle of God now shines upon this Nation with extraordinary light And what then Why therefore it concernes us to redeem the time This is the Apostles argument Act. 17.30 The time of this ignorance God winks at but now he commandeth every man every where to repent This is another reason 3. In respect of time to come I shall instance onely in time of death and time of judgment 1. Death is at hand and then we cannot redeem the time So the Preacher Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to doe doe it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisedom in the grave whither thou goest q. d. If there be any thing to be done if there be any duty God requires doe it in life for when death shall come there shall be no more preaching praying hearing Isa 38.18.19 The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth the living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day 2. Our doom for eternity of joyes or woes drawes on apace and is even at the door Then I am sure account must be given for time as well as for all other things Come will Christ say give an account of thy stewardship of all things done in the flesh and of every moment of time how didst thou spend such a day such a Sabbath was not such a day spent sinfully or very unprofitably and was it ever redeemed Here 's a reason indeed to force on us this duty But of this and other reasons I shall speak more in the motives when I exhort you to it Well then Vse 1. is it so that time must be redeemed this may reprove several sorts of persons as 1. The idle that are so far from redeeming time that they are perpetually losing time This was the sin of Sodom pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her Ezek. 16. Give me leave a little to lay open this sin Surely this sin is the fountain of all sins by doing nothing we shall be sure to learn how to doe ill It is said of Rome that during the time of their Wars with Carthage and other enemies in Africa they knew not what vice meant but no sooner had they got the conquest than through idleness they came to ruin Rust you know will fret into the hardest Iron if it be not used so vice will infect the best heart if given to idleness Standing Water is sooner frozen than the running stream and he that fitteth is more subject to sleep than he that walketh so the idle man is far more subject to temptation than he that is profitably exercised Idleness is the Devils special opportunity and we have an instance in David's idleness who at that time was set on by the Devil to commit other sins of Adultery and Murder But this is a sin that very boyes in Schools can declame against and if it were not that I see many amongst us spend their time so very unprofitably I had not once named it Oh think of it If a Master should set a light upon a Candlestick and give his servant food and time and all things convenient wherewith to work yet when he comes to see if his task be finished he finds that the meat is wasted the time is ended the Candle to the very socket burned and little or nothing of the work is furthered how would such a servant excuse himself unto his Master And is it not so with many of you God hath given you meat drink and time he hath given you Candle Fire and matter but what have you done Is not the lamp of your life almost consumed and yet you have not finished the work that was given you to doe Marth 20.6 Oh why stand ye here all the day idle 2. The voluptuous these mispend their time as ill as the former They take the timbrel and harp and Job 21.12 13. rejoyce at the sound of the organ they spend their dayes in mirth They waste the fat and marrow as it were of precious time even the flower of their age in froth and folly Lord that men should live upon earth as Liviathan in the Sea onely to take their sport and pastime therein We have seen the sad Catastrophe of some who have led such lives and I believe still there is a generation of men that except they be continually exercised in variety of pleasures they are sore troubled with time what else is the meaning of all those passe-times as they call them but onely a concatenation of such delights as please the flesh that time may not be ro tedious wearisome unto them Little doe these men consider that saying of Chrysostome Presens tempus non effundendi gaudu sed tribulationum c. The present time is not for melting into mirth but for lamentation and mourning the Devil omits no time to hurt you for he knowes his time is short still is he laying his snares to intrap mens souls he goes about like a roaring Lion to devour he roars and fumes and flashes out fire against your Salvation Chrys in cap. 5. ad Ephes Ser. 17. and doe you sit still and jovially jest it out Hark in your ears the present time is not for mrith saith Chrysostome no no the present time is for vertuous actions to do the great business for which you were born to mourn and sorrow and sue out your pardon and not to spend it in jollity and fleshly delights If a condemned man had two or three dayes granted him to sue out his pardon were that a time for pleasure and sports Gen. 2.17 Surely the sentence of death is upon all flesh In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die onely a little uncertain time is granted to sue out our pardon in the name of Christ why then doe you slip away your time sinfully and will not redeem it 3. The godly themselves Alas the best are short in this duty of redeeming the time Did not the Lord complain against his own people Jer. 8.7 the Stork in the Heaven knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. Certainly God's own people doe not so improve as they ought those many gracious seasons of love which the Lord affords them O the omissions of Duties and commissions of evils whereof we all stand guilty of how many good hours have we been ill Husbands I shall not need to reckon up our times of infancy when we knew nothing nor of childhood when we knew very little nor of youth when we knew not much of that we ought to know but since our riper