Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A51494
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Motives to Godly mourning and rejoycing; or, Christ Jesus his kind invitation to sinners to repent
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W. H.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing M2942A; ESTC R221922
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19,087
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36
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thy self to Dangers and Robbers who lie in wait for thee saying God hath forsaken him for his Sins persecute and take him because there is none to deliver him Who shall defend thee from the many Calves and the sat Bulls that have beset thee round if thou art not in my keeping All the Beasts of the Wood will hasten to thy Destruction unless they perceive that I am thy Keeper Without the Sword shall bereave thee and Terror within thou shall be a Vagabond and a Fugitive upon the Earth Hast thou not considered how Malefactors are afraid who have offended Earthly Kings Verily they rest no where but are afrighted at every noise as at the Shadow of Death considering lest the Officers of the King being offended should suddenly fall upon them Therefore how much more will the fear of Death terrifie thee if thou be without my Protection and be delivered as the Servant of Sin unto thy Persecutors It is a wonder how mad Sinners are who have delivered their Souls into the hands of their Enemies not considering that they want my Strength Return therefore dearly beloved Son unto me thy Keeper and I who have broken the Heads of the Dragons will defend thee I will lead thee through a Desert Land through the waste-houling Wilderness if thou continuest in my fear I will trouble the Princes of Edom and Trembling shall take hold on the mighty Men of Moab whilst thou passest through the way of Life under my Protection Return with all thy Heart unto me thy Keeper and Guide not seeking the weak Helps of the World and its Followers And I only will be thy Guide and I will be unto thee as the Eagle teaching her young ones to fly and fluttering over them and thou shalt know by experience that one day in my Courts and Protection is better than a thousand elsewhere And in the time of distress I will deliver thee because thou hast set thy Heart on me guarding it with a most firm Perswasion of my Goodness and Mercy CHAP. VII Concerning the Loss of Divine Grace which the Sinner falls into ALL the Treasures of the World compared with my Divine Grace are Dust and Ashes and are accounted as things of no value For so great is the Height the Dignity and the Beauty of my Grace that it stirs up great Admiration in the Minds of them that rightly conceive thereof Whereby it comes to pass that my Servants having their Eyes enlightned are moved with inward Grief and Compassion for their Neighbours when they fall into any dangerous Sin Which if thou my Son shouldest well consider of thou woulded suddenly return unto me being moved with the Greatness of the Calamity which thou hast faln into by Sinning Thy Soul was my most pleasant Bride in Cloathing of Gold and in Raiment of divers Colours whose Beauty the Sun and Moon did admire So great was its Grace whilst it remained faithful to the Covenant of its Espousals that it wonderfully delighted my Eyes The Daughter of Jerusalem was adorned with Jewels beautiful as a Dove shining very brightly and endued with a very lovely Comeliness She was conform to her Pattern in comparison of whom the Morning Stars do not shine She was greatly enriched with the true Riches of my Vertues which neither Rust nor Moth can corrupt But from the Daughter of Sion all her Beauty was departed when she had sinned and she fell from so great Felicity into so extream Calamity that the Heavens were astonished at this Change For my Son so great is the Filthiness and Shamesulness of Sin which thou hast committed that thou art become a Leper searful to look upon because of thy intolerable Rottenness and Meat for Worms that are crawling out upon thee What is this How is the Pleasantness of my Paradice vanished and the fruitful Land turned into Barrenness for the Wickedness of them that dwell therein How hath thy Soul departed from me contrary to the Covenant of thine Espousals and hath been defiled with many Lovers who have corrupted her Return therefore my Son unto my Grace and Friendship and unto the Light of my Countenance neither be so foolish as to desire to live any longer in so great Misery and Want Put on the precious and white Wedding-Garment that thou mayest be acceptable to me and sit down at the Great Supper with my dearly beloved Elect. I counsel thee to buy of me without Silver the Royal Apparel that thou mayest walk through the Street of the Holy City cloathed in Purple amongst the famous Sons of Sion who are cloathed with the fine Gold of my Love CHAP. VIII Concerning the Communion of Saints which a Man loseth by Sinning WO to him that is alone for if he fall he hath none to help him up But blessed is the Man who enjoys the Communion of all that fear and love Me and keep my most pleasant Commandments Verily he that is united unto me by Grace continues also united unto all my Members who live the Heavenly Life of my Grace than which nothing more lovely is found in the Land of the Living My Angels and Holy Men joyned to me by Grace are most faithful Friends of all Men that love me And then my Son when thou didst the things that please me thou hadst these Consolations and Priviledges of the Righteous which are more precious than all Gold Thou wast joyned to my Saints whose Names are written in the Book of Life and all their Goods belonged unto thee being my living Member And I the Head of the Church my Spouse did influence thee with lively Motions of my Love wherewith I move the Hearts of them that love me and seek my Face For my Spirit pressed thee forward and stirred thee up and inslamed thee with ardent Desire of the eternal Enjoyments wherewith my wearied Souldiers coming from the Earth are satisfied But now thy Visage through Sin is become black as a Coal and thou lyest down in Destruction which thou hast procured to thy self being deprived of the Society of the Saints which is the utmost Calamity What friends wilt thou find my Son if my Friends favour thee not What Society will profit thee whilst thou wantest the Society of Angels and Saints Who will comfort thee in Distress if thou dwellest with Scorpions and art not at Agreement with Heaven Return my Son return unto the Fellowship of the Citizens of Jerusalem my City and to the Feasts that are celebrated with the Communion of most pleasant Love that thou mayest live happily the remainder of thy mortal Life and afterwards mayest pass unto the Communion of the Church triumphant where there will be most sweet Peace and a full and perfect Union Depart from the Tabernacles of the Wicked who love not thee nor themselves for he that loves Iniquity hates his own Soul It will be much more profitable and delightful to thee my Son to associate thy self with my living Members and chosen Vessels that thou mayest
made to him in those great Afflictions yet since that time I have had clear Evidences that I did not call upon God in vain After my Father had upon his Cost maintained me two or three Years I travelled into England where I suffered Poverty several Years and did often eat Bread of Affliction and drank Water of Affliction Yet in that time I had some sweet Intervals of Divine Consolation when I had Opportunities occasionally to preach in the days of King Charles the Second For it was a great Joy to me at that time that I had Opportunities to serve Christ Jesus though I suffered sometimes Persecution But one of the things that greatly allayed my Sorrows and Discontents was the Comfort and Divine Consolation I received by having heard sometimes occasionally that great Minister of Christ Thomas Cole who died a while since For in hearing him preach at sometimes such Beams of Divine Light did shine forth upon my Soul such glorious Manifestations of the Love of God did over-shadow me that it made many Miseries that I then and since have endured to become light and easie For in the strength of those Discoveries of the Love of God in Christ Jesus I have walked many days in the Light of God's Countenance But because I have been guilty of some Infirmities through violent Temptations wherewith God hath suffered Satan to assault me some if they are not of a charitable Spirit may think these things are Hypocritical Dreams und Chimerical Imaginations but I know him whom I have believed But these things I have publickly declared that none of those that fear God may be ashamed for my sake If you ask the cause why I have given this Book the title of Motives to Godly Mourning and Rejoycing This is one Cause thereof because Godly Sorrow is the Seed of Godly Joy and Rejoycing as the Saints have often found by their Experience to whose Experience I may appeal Another Cause is this Because I desire that wicked Wretches who have lived without God in the World be convinced that if they will heartily apply themselves to Godliness they will find that Joy and Pleasure in the Ways of God not only in the World to come but also in this World which will greatly surpass all the Joys and Pleasures that they have found in the Ways of Sin and in their Estrangement from God Verily I wonder wretched Sinner that has lived in Enmity to God how thou canst eat or drink or sleep in Peace when the Sword of Vengeance hangs over thy Head and there is but a step between thee and Hell and everlasting fire But after thou hast returned to God by repentance and shelter'd thy self by Faith under the Wings of Christ Jesus then thou mayest have just cause of Rejoycing I have therefore published this Book to awaken thee and stir thee up to Repentance and to fly to Christ the Refuge of Sinners that thou mayest have much Joy and Peace in believing in this World and enter into everlasting Joys and Felicity in the perfect Enjoyment of God and Christ in the World to come MOTIVES to Godly Mourning and Rejoycing or CHRIST JESUS his Kind Invitation to Sinners to Repent CHAP. I. Concerning the Grief of Jesus Christ lamenting the Stubbornness of a Sinner I THE Only begotten Son of God the Power and Wisdom of God do cry in the Streets and lift up my Voice in the midst of the People for I have nourished and brought up the Sons of Men but they have despised me O Man I have written the sweet Law of my New Testament in thy inward parts and have planted it in the midst of thy Heart And yet thou hast had no desire to my immaculate Law which converts the Souls of Sinners neither hast thou regarded the saithful Testimony of my Eternal Love Thou hast went far away from me with the Transgressour Adam thy Father and thou hast hid thy self from Me thy most gracious God and Saviour when I walked in the Garden in the cool of the Day What meaneth this thou estranged Son Whither flyest thou from the Face of thy most merciful God and Redeemer Am I a cruel Lord because thou flyest speedily away from me and seekest to find a better Master Consider what thou dost and how far thou goest from thy own Salvation for without cause thou hatest thy most precious Remedy and Liberty Thy unhappy Soul is become as a Widow which if thou wouldest close with Divine Grace might remain faithful to the Covenant of her Espousals and enjoy the Priviledges of my most Sweet Love And yet she hath abhorred me her most faithful Lover and her Enemies have been enriched with her Spoils How is the Gold of my ancient Love become dim the bright-shining Colour of a good Conversation is changed the Stones of my Temple and Sanctuary are scattered upon the top of every Street Thou didst not delight in the Habitation of my City Jerusalem which I have loved and thou hast been reckoned among the Citizens which my Soul hates Wo to the Soul that departeth from me for the Terrors of Death will set themselves in aray against it and the Pains of Hell will take hold of it The Lion's Whelps will rage against it and roar after it that they may snatch it and take it for Meat thrown to them by God For since thou didst set up the Darkness of Sin instead of the Light of my Grace and there came upon thee a most dismal night of my Anger all the Beasts of the Insernal Wood pass by and make haste with open Mouth to devour thy Apostate Soul Therefore at least from this time call unto me and say Thou art my God and my Guide and now I will no more fly from thee O most gracious God! I have wandered being a Vagabond like Cain out of thy sight and I have served other Gods in whom I have no Salvation nor Deliverance Behold I return unto thee from a grievous Bondage I seek for thy most lovely Light from the Darkness and Shadow of Death which hath terrified me I know of a truth being convinced by Experience that there is no good thing out of thee the Son of the most amiable and most high God to whom I consecrate my inward Parts CHAP. II. Concerning the Sweetness of Jesus Christ calling a Sinner to Repentance I Wish my Son that thou wouldest prize my Friendship which is better than Gold and that thou wouldest hearken with the Ears of a contrite and humble Heart unto my still Voice whereunto the Rocks are moved O Ephraim I as a nursing Father take care of thee and my great and most faithful Mercy strives with the Hardness of thy stony Heart Thou according to thy Hardness and impenitent Heart resistest my Spirit which is sweeter than the Honey and I according to the Riches of infinite Goodness endeavour to mollify thy inward parts with my secret and innumerable Inspirations Thou flyest from me who am pursuing