Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	john_n	love_v	son_n	10,662	5	6.1615	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52862	The necessity of receiving the Holy Sacrament (that great test both of the Christian and Protestant religion) declared in a sermon, at a conference of the several ministers of the Deanery of Braughin, in the county of Hertford, appointed by the Right Reverend Father in God, Henry Lord Bishop of London, to be held at Ware, August 28, 1678 / by Robert Neville ...	Neville, Robert, 1640 or 1-1694.	1679 (1679)	Wing N523; ESTC R12405	14,625	32

Faith in the virtue and merits of it For the Sacraments as one saith well are nothing else but Protestationes Fidei the publick Protestations of our Faith They who come to the Lord's Table by their very coming do publickly profess that they believe not only every Article of their Faith but also every part of this Divine Promise and Institution by which Christ will renew strengthen and establish his Covenant to every worthy Receiver Nor is our coming to the Sacrament our Protestation only of our Faith but also of our Repentance which 3. Is hugely advantaged and promoted by the Sacrament for we cannot certainly but repent with all speed of our Sins when we consider that they were the Spears that pierced our Saviour's side the Nails that fastned him to the Cross and that they laid such loads of Wrath upon the shoulders of Omnipotency it self as made him complain and sweat groan and die it being impossible for any Man ever to have such a sense of and sorrow for Sin as when he is awakened by the signs and images of Christ's Sufferings and when he sees it writ and decypher'd in Characters of Blood so that our receiving the Sacrament which commemorates Christ's Death and Sufferings is a Protestation of our repenting of those Sins of ours which most Jewishly crucifi'd the Lord of Glory The Canonist will tell us Sacramentum mortis Articulus aequiparantur that we are considered at the Sacrament as on our Death-bed Now on our Death-bed we repent of our Sins then we lay down our Malice then we nauseat our Lust then we go out of and renounce the World then we quarrel with Mammon then we are meek humble and tractable then we are commonly what we should be in Health Now if we consider our selves at the Holy Table as on our Death-bed we shall undoubtedly repent of our Sins and drown them in the Blood and nail them to the Cross of our Saviour and if so then this Sacrament may very well notwithstanding what some extravagant Fancies may suggest to the contrary deserve the name of a Converting Ordinance that is such an Ordinance as God makes use of to turn Men from Sin to Holiness towards which nothing can contribute more than that solemn Obligation which all Worthy Communicants lay upon themselves at the Lord's Table to forsake their Sins and lead holy Lives there being nothing imaginable that can seen a more probable and proper Instrument to convert Men from a wicked to an holy Life than the sacred Remembrance that Christ's Death was designed to be the Death of Sin and the Life of Holiness 4. A fourth Benefit or Advantage of the Sacrament is That it enlarges and enflames our Love our Charity whether it be First Divine Love or the Love of God Or Secondly The Love of our Neighbour First It enlarges and enflames our Love of God For by the commemoration of Christs Death in the Sacrament we imprint in our Memories that Heroic Act that never yet did enoble the story of any Person namely Christ's laying down his Life for his Enemies the Lamb of God his dying for Wolves for those that would have devoured him So that if the Poet's Fancy of Deucalion and Pyrrha were verified in us and we like the Men and Women in their days were made or Stone yet these Marbles could not but weep these cold stones could not but be warm'd with the Fire of Divine Love struck out of them by the consideration of Christs great Love to us exprest by that Gift he gave to obtain our Pardon namely his Life This was such a transcendent Act of Love as no Romance of Friendship did ever yet fancy or suppose We may have heard of two Companions that would die for each other and that never quarrel'd in their Lives but for this who should suffer first to save the other and strove only for Death and Execution But for a Person in the Trinity to leave his Heaven to come down to us to dwell with Agonies that he might free us from Torments This was an Act of Love fit for Ecstasies of Apprehension there were never such wounds of Love as those that tore his Heart never such meltings of Affection and Goodness as dissolved Christ into sweats of Blood Let us look on our Saviour in the Garden and on Mount Calvari and we shall find him there in as great Agonies of Affection as of Torment and hanging down his head upon the Cross with Languishments of Kindness more than Weakness Now such Meditations of Christ's Love to us as these does receiving the Sacrament suggest to us and if as undoubtedly it is Love is the best Loadstone to attract Love the doing this Holy Action cannot but kindle in us that Holy Passion of Divine Love Nor will it stop here but proceed Secondly To nourish and encrease the Love of our Neighbour For it being the Commemoration of his Passion who was the perfect Mirror of Love it cannot but kindle and enflame our Loves to one another which is an expression of our Love to God For 1 John 4.12 If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his Love is perfected in us Christ died for his Enemies and shall not the Commemoration thereof teach us to love ours When the King of Moab was pressed hard by the Israelites and Edomites he took his own Son and offered him as an Holocaust upon the Wall whereupon they presently raised the Siege So God hath offered up his Son as an Holocaust as a Sacrifice for us and can we choose then when we commemorate that his Oblation in the Sacrament but raise the Siege and cease from quarrelling and fighting with our Enemies and do them all the good Offices of Love and Kindness Epictetus hath ingeniously observed That * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing in the World hath two handles one turned towards us which we may easily take the other turned from us harder to be laid hold of the first makes all things easy the second does not The instance he brings fits my present purpose Be it says he that thy Brother hath offended thee there are two handles one of the offence the other of thy Brother if thou take hold of that of the Offence it will be too hot for thee but if of that of thy Brother it will make all his behaviour towards thee so tolerable as to continue him still the Object of thy Love There is no part of out Brother's carriage towards us but if we examin it we shall find some handle some circumstance that may reconcile our Love to it if we can find no other that of our Saviour's dying for his most virulent bitter and malicious Enemies will accomplish and effect it For says St. Chrysostom didst thou know that thy Brother intended particular Mischief against thee that he would even embrue his hand in thy Blood * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kiss that very hand for the Lord Christ did