Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A53376
|
An epistle of information, exhortation, and consolation to all such as are distinguished by names of reproach and ignominy ... : containing also, a sober rebuke for former sloathfulness / by John Onley ...
|
Onley, John.
|
1661
(1661)
|
Wing O346; ESTC R10781
|
10,212
|
15
|
their Cruelty upon us who would have devoured us quick whom yet the Lord would not suffer but was a brazen Wall round about us that we might have gone freely about the work of our God without molestation to have enlightned the eyes of the poor blind World enlivened warmed and strengthened the weak Saints confirmed the Feeble and rejoyced in and with the Strong in laying in all strength together with one heart and one shoulder to bear up increase and strengthen the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus rejoycing with the Strong and Honourable and weeping with the Poor and Miserable c. beating with the Weak and Feeble and as Members of one Body joyned together and compacted by that which every Joynt supplyeth according to the Effectual working in the measure of every part making increase in the Body unto the Edifying of it self in Love Oh! how negligent have we been in these necessary heavenly Duties bearing the name of Churches Saints and Christians when to the Life of Christ we have been almost strangers 8. How little have our hearts been rent our souls grieved and we sighed and cryed pouring out our souls before the Lord for the Abominations committed in these Nations not being inferiour if not exceeding the Wickedness of Sodom for and on which God rained down from Heaven Fire and Brimstone and made an utter desolation thereof How is the Name of our God every day blasphemed his Laws and gracious Precepts derided and his People shamefully entreated and as Mr. Baxter said of the Times some late years past That it was as much as a Mans Estate at least was worth to hear Saints Rest pag. 251. Part 2. a Sermon abroad when he had none or worse at home to meet for Prayer or any godly Exercise and that it was a matter of Credit and way to Preferment to revile at and be enemies to those that are most Consciencious and every where safer to be a Drunkard or an Adulterer than a painful Christian and that multitude of humane Ceremonies took place when the Worship of Christs Institutions was cast out So by reason of the abuse of the King's Indulgence of about Thirty Persons whom in that we had no compliance with nor knowledge of together with the over-violent activity of his Majesties subordinate Ministers in executing of his Proclamation against us though we believe they know in their own Consciences we are free from the first and consequently not concerned in the last with their negligence in not executing his Proclamation against Debauchery and Prophaneness such into many places having free liberty to act Villany It 's come to that passe that if a few sincere Christians meet together in the fear of God to build up one another in their most holy Faith to exhort comfort confirm and strengthen each other in the Wayes of God according to the Command of Christ and the Example of the Primitive Saints to which Work the Lord having promised and God's People sweetly experiencing his Presence We must be presently apprehended and carried to a Justice and so to the Jayl yea some of us threatned for reading the Scriptures in our Families when if we would swear game be drunk and lie at an Alehouse Twenty together day after day or stand in a Market an hour or two together to hear the Apostles of the Devil and Factors of Hell about and on the Market-Cross with their Ungodly Songs and Speeches and idle shameful Deeds and Gestures to provoke to vanity both Hearers Speakers and Singers shall have free Liberty when if in the same place as some with grief of heart can witness one doth but say Repent of this Folly and turn to the Lord His Day is at hand he shall have company about him presently to lag him forth of Town as not sufferable therein Which had it been amongst Pagans and gross Heathens we might have the less marvelled but to see it amongst those that profess in words to be Christians Oh! what Lamentations bitter Cryes Sighes and Tears and heart-rendings doth this call for what Humiliations Watchings Fastings Prayings Speakings often one to another and to the Lord to forgive to strengthen uphold and comfort his People in this day and to Inform counsel and direct the King with the Magistrates of this Nation in the performance of that which may bring down a Blessing therewith and a Settlement of Peace with Truth thereby and that they may see in what the Strength and Safety of a Nation stands in In the performance of Righteousness Justice and Equity breaking every heavy Yoak and letting the Oppressed go free in setting free the Gospel and the VVord of the Lord the Profession and Professors thereof that hath so long been confined within the narrow limits of some mens particular Apprehensions that it may run and be glorified and prevail and prosper in its own single Evidence and that the Lord would cause them to see the Hamon-like Designs that some purpose against all the Sons of Sion that refuse to bow to the Pride of their Hearts and that the Innocency and Righteousness of the Lords People may be brought to light in despight of those wicked Ones who seek to impeach and darken it that so their Covering may not prove like that of Judah's In looking to their Armour and making up the Breaches and fortifying of the Walls staying on Horses and trusting in Chariots because they are many and in Horsemen because they are very strong and then joy and be glad slay Oxen and kill Sheep eat Flesh and drink Wine thinking all secure when they should rather call to Mourning to Weeping to Baldness and to girding with Sackcloath if the Glory of the Lord and the saving strength of himself be not the Foundation thereof Isa 22.8 14.31.1 Oh! how little have we been sensible of affected with and imployed about these things though the Lord hath neither been a Wilderness nor a Land of Darkness to us but planting us a Noble Vine a holy a right Seed walling us about suffering no man to do us harm yet have we degenerated into a strange Plant our Silver become Dross our Wine mixt with Water c. Therefore the Day of Visitation is come it is come we shall know it We have dealt treacherously with the Lord we have begotten strange Children now shall a Moth devour them with their Portions for the Lord is arisen in the fury of his Jealousie being provoked through the abuse of his Mercy to lash us to himself and correct us for our out-goings from his Grace and hath prepared his Furnace in Jerusalem and his Refining Pot in Sion in which two parts may be consumed and a third brought through the fire being thereby made meet for our Masters praise we may serve him with one consent Wherefore dearly beloved Brethren you who Fellow-Citizens and of the Houshold of God Members one of another One Body of which Christ is the Head Children and Heirs Heirs of God yea
in making provision for the Flesh merchandizing with the Commodities of this Life or else either exercising them in such a cold frozen heartless lifeless customary manner that we have neither felt tasted nor experienced that Strength Life Health and Nourishment we might have done nor by Example Doctrine and Conversation c. have we set others so much as we might have done in the way thereto or which is worse than if we had been born dumb We have by our time Light Knowledge c. but for the most part got such an opinionative Profession centring in certain external Institutions being by Christ appointed not for Rest but Motion which although some of which was perspicuous enough in the word yet others being of doubtful Interpretation have in the way that some have practised them found strong opposition We have so studyed and imployed our Abilities thereabouts that our participation of the Knowledge of Christ hath got from our hearts into our heads that instead of sweetning our Souls therewith and refreshing enlivening and uniting our Souls to every one in whom the Image of the Lord Jesus doth appear thereby upholding that admirable and ever blessed Communion of the Saints in the Unity of the Spirit and the Bond of Peace we have as naturally consequent thereof so rent the seamless Coat of Christ so broken and divided the Saints in pieces so wounded and tortured the Consciences of the Tender so obstructed the Gospels Propagation so rejoyced the World making the Wicked to triumph erected such Trophies to the Devil's praise that many have been even Factors for Satan Fewellers for Hell labouring to bring in more matter for the Everlasting Burning under pretence of beating down Babylon c. Christ's Life hath been stifled and Sion crucified Oh what a potent deadly Engine of the Devil have we managed insensibly and by unobserved degrees promoted to many-headed Babel by such as would ascend into Heaven alone the language of whose Workmen the Lord is now confounding reducing them into one Common Calamity in order to their Re-unity The Lord give all his people a Sight a Sorrow a Repentance to Amendment with Pardon for this thing 4. How have we took up our aboad in the Wilderness saying in our hearts It 's good for us to be here Or upon the distrust of this Security removed but to the Suburbs of Sion from whence we might either with ease Retire at pleasure to the old Residence or enjoy them in Common together resting in those things as the End that by Institution was appointed but as a Mean thereto How violent hath been our motion after Air and Emptiness whilst the Eternal Pearl hath stood as a thing not worth the laying out our time strength and industry for the obtaining of How comfortable hath the Intelligence of our likelihood of enjoying the Worlds Felicity been unto our Souls whilst those Eternal Enrichments of the Kingdom of Glory have in their most powerful and lively Delineations made upon us such faint Impressions esteeming and rather choosing to abide in these dirty houses of Clay enslaved to the World our Souls imprisoned from God and in our earthly dark mind which is too much predominant pore up and down with the poor blind World after Rest and Felicity in those uncertain things that have it not in themselves Rather than with Noble Saint-like Resolutions contemn those childish Gew gaws that please but the sensitive and most ignoble part and raise up our Souls into the apprehension of and pursuit after and restless motion till we are possessed with those heavenly Treasures those durable Riches that give full comfortable and perpetual Satisfaction which till the Soul light upon and center in as its End of Motion Oh how sad and lamentable by accident how deceitful and damnable is every sublunary thing that we give our minds to that we might gain Rest and Comfort from 5. How little did we hearken after or take delight in the Appearance of the Harbingers and fore-runners of our Lord's Presence how little have we been affected with the approach of the Year and Day of our Deliverance with the Apprehensions and fore-thoughts of our purchased Possession and Eternal Unity and Communion with Christ and all Saints in Light yea when the Lord hath by the mighty Power of his Spirit in the Mouthes of some of his Servants brought these Things sweetly to our Ears with the danger of Negligence Key-coldness Formality and the love of this present World that so interposeth eclipseth and hindreth the Influences of these things from our Souls that they can take neither Life Strength nor Refreshment therefrom How formally sleepily and forgetfully have we given them Entertainment as things we were not concerned in or had no need as yet to trouble our selves about yea even in that very Institution by which Christ in what he hath done is a doing and will speedily do for his Saints is exhibited and represented How little have we been refreshed strengthened and made watchful to the Day of his Appearance many rather eating and drinking Condemnation to themselves first obstructing and shutting out its Operation from their Souls by their own Unpreparedness and then go away and report that God was not there to be found c. 6. How seldom have we come with hungry and thirsty Souls to and after the Bread of Life whereby we might have experienced the Word of the Lord to have been more reviving and delightful to our taste than Honey and the Honey-comb or any temporal Food to the outward man and more satisfactory enriching and desirable than Gold yea than much fine Gold Oh how oftner rather have we so filled and glutted our Appetites and Affections with Fleshly Provisions being rich full and satisfied before-hand with the World that the Word of the Lord hath been but as an empty sound which we have only lent our Ears to going away poor empty miserable blind and naked though we see and knew it not 7. How common hath it been with us to spend much of our time in discourse of the World our Imployments therein and trading therewith our Gains and Losse thereby which after News from Heaven our Title thereto and Interest therein our thriving or losing in and about those Means of Grace that are Assistants thereabout in breathing forth our Experience of God's Love in praising the Lord for his admirable Love to us-ward when we were in our Blood in the estate of Wrath Death and Condemnation shut out from the Presence of God into Prison Captivity c. that then by the precious Blood of the Son of his Love He should not only ransom and redeem us therefrom but by the Power of his Word and Spirit call us into the insight thereof and Everlasting Rest Peace and Comfort thereby being brought into the Arms and Bosom of himself and made Heirs of Eternal Glory also in magnifying his Mercy to us-ward in restraining the Power of Unreasonable men from exercising