Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	heart_n	let_v	lord_n	10,321	5	3.9650	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62898	A position concerning persecution That religion that persecutes a righteous people for their conscience towards God, is not worthy to be joyned to, but to be had in abomination by all sober people, as a religion abhorred of God, and of all that truly know him. This is manifest by that which follows.	Tomlinson, William.	1660 (1660)	Wing T1849; ESTC R219740	7,415	11

them He was a wise Counsellor and he gave this counsel in his time Let these men alone if their way be of men it will come to nought But if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it and besides this lest perhaps ye be found fighters against God Mark here 's a fruitless work and a dangerous work fruitless in that they cannot overthrow it and dangerous in that they run a hazzard of fighting against God while they seek to overthrow So much Gamaliel could warn them of But mark what was said to Saul and you will see further that Persecution of the Innocent is beyond all Perhaps and is possitively a fighting against God and no less than the persecuting of Christ himself Saul Saul why persecutest thou me You see Saul was fighting against God and wist it not Therefore be warned all ye that persecute the Innocent for their Conscience toward God 6. Persecutors and Rooters out even of the Tares stand in direct opposition and defiance to the Command of Christ for he hath said Let alone This very Question of Rooting out is plainly and punctually propounded and resolved by him under the Parable of the Tares Mat. 13.28 29. Shall we gather out the Tares say the Servants No saith Christ Let alone And he hath given the Reason also sufficient to satisfie any rational man Lest ye pluck up therewith Wheat Rather than any Wheat be pluckt up he will have the Tares to grow with it until the Harvest And he hath told us whose office that shall be to gather out the Tares and when vers 40 41. What can be more punctual Therefore none can attempt that work without open presumption and defiance to his Command The Son of Man who is the sower of the good Seed knew that the Tares could not be gathered out without danger to the good Seed therefore he hath not permitted it to be done for the good Seeds sake Now this is the best pretence that Persecutors can have for themselves namely To purge the Church from the Tares that would infest the Wheat But Christ himself hath stript them of this shelter and hath put a bar to this work for the good Seeds sake and indeed it is the good Seed commonly that Persecutors fall upon Tares are but a pretence and that a rotten one too seeing Christ hath forbidden that Now if they fall upon that which the Son of Man the Seeds-man hath such care of consider how acceptable will this be to Him that hath so expressed his care of the Wheat will not his Anger be kindled Yes surely for if his Anger may be expected for not kissing the Son Psal 2. much more for going about to kill the Son and to destroy Him The former Powers were told the danger of these things but they not regarding but falling upon this Stone have dashed themselves to pieces and so must all that follow the same steps for the Scriptures shall be fulfilled 7. He that hates his Brother is a Murtherer and no Murtherer hath eternal Life abiding in him 1 John 3.15 Here is the heighth of wickedness that which God will not suffer to go unrevenged namely Murther He that hates his Brother stands in it he stands a Murtherer before the Lord and is so pronounced here by his Servant for the root of Murther is alive in him in hating his Brother If the Persecutor of the Righteous say he loves his Brother whom he persecutes he is also a Lyar as well as a Murtherer For Love doth no ill to his Neighbour but teaches to do to him as we would it should be done to us And therefore our Lord and Master Christ Jesus the innocent Lamb of God and our Leader charged home these two things upon the Pharisees his Persecutors who sought his destruction and told them Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father ye are willing to do He was a Murtherer from the beginning and stood not in the Truth because there is no truth in him When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a Lyar and the Father thereof Consider therefore all ye that persecute the Innocent and would cover it with a lye as the Pharisees would have done who went before you in that nature I say let it enter into your hearts to take notice how you stand before the Lord that you are already pronounced Murtherers in hating your Brother and fear the powerful hand of the Lord and repent of the thoughts of your hearts against the Innocent For he that toucheth an innocent person toucheth the Apple of God's Eye Let your hatred be turned into Love and imbrace the Son in his Servants that fear Him lest his Anger be kindled against you and ye perish out of his way as others have done 8. This is the great Character of the great Whore namely to destroy and drink the Blood of the Servants of the Lord In her is found Blood c. And therefore the nearer that any come to this the more they partake with the great Whore in her Sins and the more they shall partake with her in her Plagues 9. Persecutors of the Innocent for Conscience sake are usurpers of God's Throne and Prerogative for God requireth that the Conscience be subjected unto Him and he hath not given that Prerogative to any man or men upon Earth to have the Consciences of men subjected to them singly but only wherein his Authority binds them and in matter of Worship it 's plain that his Authority hath set free all men from the Traditions of men In vain therefore is that worship that hath no better a foundation than man's commanding of it In vain saith Christ using the words of the Prophet do ye worship me teaching for Doctrines the Precepts of men Therefore in this point our Liberty by Christ is proclaimed and we ought to stand fast in it and he that requires the contrary stands opposite to Christ and his Work forceth men to that which Christ hath proclaimed to be vain worship and also is an usurper of God's Prerogative in seeking to have the Consciences of men subjected unto him And let all such usurpers of God's Throne and Prerogative consider that God will not give his Glory to another but he will assuredly throw them out of his Throne as a stone out of a sling and He will redeem the Consciences of his People out of the hands of all such for these are redeeming times and the time draws on that the holy Apostles of the Lamb long ago had an eye after groaning in themselves and waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body And there is something of this secretly stamped upon the hearts of men even to look after better things a better Kingdom better times though they put this far off from themselves in the particular for that noble spark of God in man though it be imbondaged it self in man yet hath in it a groaning after

liberty yea after the liberty of the Sons of God There hath been a time and that a long time granted to the Man of Sin the Son of Perdition to sit in the Temple of God over the Throne of God for the punishing of all them that love unrighteousness and strong delusions have been sent upon them to enslave their Consciences their most noble part unto men because they loved not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness and so Antichrists kingdom is full of slaves but that time is wearing out and passing over and God will turn his hand against that proud Spirit that durst usurp his Throne and Prerogative over mens Consciences in imposing the matters of his Worship upon them without his command after their own inventions and traditions for the fulfilling of their own lusts and earthly ends and advantages When the King of Assyria had done God's scourging work upon Israel then the Lord takes notice of the proud heart of the King of Assyria in that work and calls him to an account for helping forward the affliction though upon a people that had transgressed how much more will he do it for a people that subject their Consciences in his Worship and Service singly to him and walk inoffensively and harmlesly among men in their generation The Apostles of Christ Jesus they durst not challenge power over mens Faith and Conscience in imposing upon them what the Spirit commanded not which thing of right had belonged to them if to any the Conscience and Faith being that which their work was exercised about Therefore for them to look for it whose work is to regulate the civil life of men and to bear the Sword for Transgressors to keep them in peace that they may not destroy one another nor the Righteous this is an usurpation which the Apostles durst not challenge to themselves 10. Again Persecution argues a want of Truth on that part that persecutes For wherefore do they fly to carnal weapons such as the Apostles never used to subdue errour with and lay aside spiritual Weapons such as the Apostles did use and appointed to be used for the stopping of the mouths of gainsayers Is it not because they distrust their own weapons or find themselves foiled and not sufficiently defended by them and therefore fly to Clubs and Stocks and Prisons and Fines and Traps and Snares and such like carnal weapons for help and so instead of laying their spiritual weapon to the Conscience they use carnal weapons against the body and life and outward being of people and disturb and disquiet their outward life 11. Therefore lastly consider the end of Persecutors They put the Innocent to trouble therefore it is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them again God is pleased now and then to give manifest examples of his Justice upon persons that wrong and harm others to let the Earth see that there is a Revenger of Wrongs that takes notice and this he doth often for one wicked man against another how much more then will he avenge the Cause of the Innocent whom the World hath nothing against because their lives are honest and unblameable but onely create Accusations and Traps against them in the matters of their God as Nebuchadnezzars Princes and Counsellors did against Daniel I tell you he will avenge them speedily saith Christ Jesus Shall they subject their Consciences to God alone to be guided and directed by him and shall they be ensnared and trapped by men for so doing and will not God avenge them Yes surely Their Judgment slumbers not who shall so abuse the Heritage of God and usurp his Throne to sit upon the Consciences of his Servants For consider if it shall be imputed as so great a crime against men I was naked and ye cloathed me not I was hungry and ye fed me not a stranger and ye took me not in sick and in Prison and ye visited me not If that will be accounted so great a crime what will be said then to them that rob them of their Apparrel meat drink health liberty of whom it may be said I had meat for my self and Family but you took it out of their mouthes I had apparrel but you robbed me of it I had a habitation but you cast me out of it I had health and liberty but you cast me into Prisons and holes and robbed me of both for in as much as ye did it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye did it unto me If the other shall be taken notice of that did not help in time of need what shall be said to these who did such injuries and wrongs to the least of the Servants of the Lord It is worthy of your most serious thoughts to ponder it all ye that would be rooting out who have not minded the Premonition of our Lord Jesus Christ to the contrary These things are written in love to the Righteous who suffer Persecution and in love to the Unrighteous who do persecute that if the Lord please to give you an ear you may be kept from that great and desolating wickedness which often immediately foreruns a Peoples destruction It was the topping up of Israels sins when they were led captive into Babylon It was the topping up of the sins of the Jews also when their Nation was left unto them desolate after the dayes of Christ It almost ruined the Papists in England even their Persecution in the dayes of Queen Mary And whether it was not the ground of the late long Wars in England let wise men consider As also whether it was not the desolating of that People that had been made successful in the Wars by the immediate hand and strength of God beyond their own prudence and visible power many times as most parties have acknowledged And now if it be kept on foot still whether it may not presage Ruine and Desolation to them that continue therein And it is to be minded by all That No Law of man or other pretence will excuse any man in this matter He that partakes in Babylons sins whereof this is none of the least may expect to partake of Babylons plagues And all are guilty as partakers from the most violent actor in Persecution to him that stands by and consents thereto in his heart Paul charged that against himself that he stood by and consented to the death of Stephen To be angry with our Brother without a cause Christ brings within the Law of Murder how much more to persecute him without a cause will make one guilty Let these things be weighed in all you that have any regard of God or man in your hearts and let all bitterness and wrath and hatred be repented of and be cast out and let the Love of God arise in your hearts towards one another to preserve the outward life of one another as God doth yours lest the measure ye mete to others be measured to you again W. T. THE END