Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	faith_n	love_v	work_v	9,252	5	7.8701	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48438	A funeral sermon after the interment of Mrs. Sarah Lye. The late wife of Mr. Thomas Lye of Clapham. By Phil. Lamb, minister of the Word. Together with the scriptual evidence and experiences of the grace of God towards, and in her, left under her own hand	Lamb, Philip, d. 1689.; Lye, Sarah, d. 1678.	1679 (1679)	Wing L206; ESTC R213605	35,653	142

living comfort That God loves you and that you have had an heart truly to love God and you know that he loves you by your love to him and your love to God being as it were the transcript of Gods Love to you in your souls And indeed which may raise your admirings where God loves and whom he loves he never leave he never ceases to love Rom. 8. 38 39 For I am perswaded saith the Apostle there that neither death nor life nor Angels good or bad Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come Nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 2. Use of exhortation to them that truly love the Lord Jesus Dear Saints you that have indeed a true love to God and do by that see his love to your souls Oh keep your selves in the love of God To that end Direct 1. Set a high price on this grace that is wrought in you and as the Apostle says let it be your great care to preserve and to keep life in this love of yours to Jesus Christ. Jude vers 21 Keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life And for this purpose 1. First of all consider the worth of this love to Christ what an excellent and wonderful grace this is to have a heart truly to love the Lord Jesus Christ. 1. It is that which is the clearest evidence of the Love of God it gives you all your life and comfort in a time of darkness in a dark day to know by your love to Jesus Christ that he loves you and that the Father loves you there is no such clear evidence as this in all the World If a man had all the treasures of gold and silver in the world he could not read the love of God in them but in your true love to Jesus Christ you may When you walk in darkness and can see no light this is that spark of light that will give you light when you are at a loss When it is dark round about us when we can see little or no faith little or no hope little or no strength that we have let us then inquire and see whether we have any love and if we have any true love to Christ this will give us light and life Rom. 8. 28 We know that all things says the Apostle work together for good To whom to them that love God If one should ask me this question Why is the promise made to those that love God I answer because the Saints do want somewhat to comfort to support and relieve them in a dark day and when all other light fails and we can see no faith find no holiness this will never fail them If there be once true love to Christ there will be some spark remaining that will administer comfort to them in the darkest day 2. Consider with your selves that if you preserve and keep up this love this love to Jesus Christ in your hearts it will work in you a likeness to Christ And can you desire to be like any person that you love better or that is more exactly and perfectly pure and holy that is more lovely than Christ This true love is a fire that makes all things like it self true love to God is of an assimilating vertue it will make us like to God and like to Christ whom we love Love is like a Looking-glass if you turn the Glass downward there will appear nothing but the representation of earth and terrestrial creatures all earth but if you turn it upward then there will appear Heaven and celestial and the urseen glory of another world unseen as to our bodily eyes but visible to the eye of faith If we give forth our love to Christ why then all Christ all Heaven and all holiness is on the soul. Direction 2. Be diligent and exact on your watch if you do prize and set any value upon this love to Jesus Christ endeavour to keep it as you would keep your lives keep it as you would keep the best Jewel in the world nay the world cannot give cannot afford you such another Jewel This Christ hath bought for you with his own most precious blood by his death his shameful and accursed death and therefore you have reason great reason to keep it safe for its own worth and because it is of so great use as hath been before mentioned because it will be a light to you in a dark in the darkest day and because it will make you like God and like Christ take heed therefore lest it be stoln from you or abated in you As persons that have a Jewel of great price and value will be often looking into the place where they laid it up to see whether it be safe so this spark of Divine fire which is put into and laid up in our Souls is a Jewel of matchless and inestimable price How therefore should we inquire concerning it how it is with us as to our love to God and Christ We should be trying and examining our selves whether Wives or Children or any earthly Relations or worldly concernments or enjoyments have not stoln away our hearts or abated our love We should say to our own hearts in this case as Christ to Peter on another account Lovest thou me more than those Joh. 21. 15 16 17. So we should say to our hearts Dost thou love Jesus Christ dost thou love him indeed and in earnest dost thou love him better than these than these Children these pretty little Idols that are set up before our eyes dost love him better than all creature-comforts and relations dost love him better than all earthly treasures better than thy estate better than all the world better than all these Yea better than Heaven it self without Christ Thus I say we should still be examining our hearts and see how it is with us as to our love to Christ for to tell you the truth our hearts are very treacherous I know not how it is with yours but I find it so with mine and that it is a very hard matter to keep up that height of love to Jesus Christ as there should be The Prophet Jeremiah tells us Jer. 17. 9 That the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it And as it is so in general so especially with God the heart is more inclined to be treacherous with God and in things relating to God than in any other things and therefore we have great need to look well to them to be diligent and exact upon our watch in reference to this love to Christ. Direct 3. If God hath vouchsafed this grace to you as he hath made you partakers of his love and given you the transcript or reflection thereof be you sure that you love him again and be you

saying to you I love them that love me And it may serve especially for these four great ends 1. For the support and comfort of poor doubting souls that now lye very low in a dark day in a time of sickness under great afflictions perhaps God hath come and snatcht away a dear Wife out of an Husbands bosom or hath taken away the Child of his delight it may be many and long continued afflictions lye on him and he looks upon these bitter and severe providences and begins to question now whether God doth love him Time was when all things went well with me and I had peace within and comfort without a House full of enjoyments but now 't is a dark day God hath smitten me with the strokes of an enemy the chastisements of a cruel one are upon me so that I doubt whether God loves me Thus the poor doubting soul is apt to reason But says God look not at my providences on thine own losses crosses troubles and on these outward dispensations look rather into thy own heart and if thou canst read there but one line of love to my name if thou canst read there any true love to Jesus Christ then thou maist conclude with thy self that whatever Providences thou hast met or maist yet meet with shall be for thy good I love them that love me And these Providences are not the fruits of wrath but rather the effects of pure love Rom. 8. 28 And we know says the Apostle that all things work together for good to them that love God I can chastise correct smite but cannot hate my Sons and Daughters says God Whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Heb. 12. 6. I love them that love me 2. For the Relief of despairing souls that are affected deeply affected with their sinning against God and their utter unworthiness by reason thereof of any smile from Heaven but are ready to reason against their own souls and to say that surely God can never love such a treacherous Apostate and backsliding sinner as I have been and am it 's in vain for me to expect any love from Heaven but rather in fury to be turned into Hell and to be for ever rejected my case and condition is worse than that of Cain But for the relief of such God reasons thus Didst ever love me Didst ever love Jesus Christ and the Children of God If so take comfort to thy soul for certainly I love them that love me Though it be so low as it is though thou canst see nothing but wrath and vengeance and hell yet if thou hast any love to me to Jesus Christ and the Saints thou maist be assured that I love thee I love them that love me 3. For the help wonderful help and encouragement of poor sinners to duty How is this glorious proclamation of Love and Grace accommodated for the help of poor souls through their whole lives Have you any true love for God You say you have no strength no might so that you are not able to do any thing to please God Why what is the matter You cannot see that you have any share of the Love of God Look into the transcript look into the Copy in your hearts and if you can see any true love to God there go and pray and hear and suffer what 's alotted for you and you shall find all sweet and easie to you 4. And Lastly and that undoubtedly this great truth from the mouth of Wisdom I love them that love me is intended for a general proclamation of sovereign grace and mercy to all the Sons and Daughters of men and a sweet invitation to all persons to perform the duty contain'd in the next words namely to seek early after God Here is wonderful freeness and fulness of Divine Grace large enough for all men and 't is enough to encourage those persons that are naturally haters of God in their minds to return and enquire after him because God is ready to meet them and requite them with reciprocal love Do your duty and if you love me and seek me be sure I have a love for you But I will detain you no longer among the terms and words of the Text though to keep my usual ●ont and method I must always endeavour to make the way plain before you The Text I told you had two branches and ' it s my purpose if the Lord enable me to gather some fruit from each of them From the first part I love them that love me I would offer this to you Doct. 1. That there is a mutual and reciprocal love between Christ and his Saints I told you that it was a Proclamation of the love of Christ and where he loves he begets love so that whensover a Saint truly loves Christ he may be sure that Christ doth intirely love him I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine The believing soul says so And who can but live and dye on such a word as this is especially when Christ says as in the Text I love them that love me I love this Saint and he loves me That is the first Observation The second is much like it and that is Doct. 2. That they that seek the Lord early shall certainly find him shall certainly enjoy eternally enjoy him shall find him a God of Grace and Mercy and shall enjoy him for ever But first of the first of these That there is a mutual and a reciprocal love between Christ and his Saints To dispatch this and yet not ●o make more haste than good speed that you may understand it shall endeavour to shew you here 1. That Christ loves his Saints 2. How he discovers and manifests his love to them 3. That the Saints of God do love the Lord Jesus 4. How they do express and manifest their love to him That by all this put together you may easily conclude that there is a mutual and reciprocal love between Christ and the Saints 1. First of all That Jesus Christ hath a peculiar a special dea● love to his Saints Jer. 31. 3 ● have loved thee with an everlasting love Ephes. 5. 25 26 27 Wh● loved his Church and gave himself for it that is evidence enough 〈◊〉 that he might sanctifie and clean 〈◊〉 it with the washing of water 〈◊〉 the word That he might prese●● it to himself a glorious Church 〈◊〉 having spot or wrinkle or any su●● thing but that it should be 〈◊〉 and without blemish And this Text I mention the rather because it is one of the last Scriptures that our Deceased Friend insisted on when she took her last farwel of me Who loved his Church said she and gave himself for it c. 2. For the manner how the Lord Jesus Christ doth express and discover his love to his Saints Though I might instance in many methods and ways of his discovering his love to them yet I shall confine my self to these three