Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	know_v	let_v	love_v	11,229	5	6.1289	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57063	A sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall, August 21, 1692 by Nathanael Resbury ...	Resbury, Nathanael, 1643-1711.	1692 (1692)	Wing R1133; ESTC R35361	10,306	32

an allay to so great a Calamity if we have the advantage of a Messenger an Interpreter c. that may be helpfull to us in any of the difficulties of that Season Some by this passage in my Text would understand the Ministry of an Angel express'd by these Titles Messenger Interpreter One among a thousand And indeed in the Times when there was nothing of a standing reveal'd Rule and Law of Faith and Practice it is not improbable but the Ministry of Angels was more frequently and more visibly indulg'd toward good Men. And questionless it was a pure mark of Divine Favour where the Sick person at any time met with such Condescentions of Grace that such an One of all those thousands that attend the Throne of God should stand at his Bed-side to ennoble his Mind with wiser and clearer Notions of God more comfortable prospects of another World or a pleasing assurance of a longer date and term of years here But this we need not either stretch or confine this passage to Elihu seems to hint to Job the present mixtures and allays of Divine Goodness in that while God had brought Job into so deplorable a condition by sickness and pains of the worst kind yet he had condescended to furnish him with religious usefull and excellent Friends that might interpret to him the Will and Meaning of God in this present Dispensation and might pray for the removal of so sad an affliction from him So that in Analogy to this we have reason to account it an admirable Privilege that we may have the attendance of God's Messengers at our Sick-beds to assist us with their Exhortations their Reproofs their Directions their Comforts their Prayers and all the usefull Applications of their Office and Ministry as they may be any way serviceable to relieve us at present or further us in the great Concernments of Eternity The Privilege may appear chiefly upon these accounts 1. The great indisposedness that probably our own Minds may be in at such a time as that to do any thing to good purpose our selves the disorder of the whole Man when bodily pains want of rest an hurry of the spirits sickness and nauseousness of stomach affection of the brain and the like must in all likelihood greatly interrupt all compos'd Thought or Reasoning and may easily take the Mind off from its greatest Concernments by a vehement desire of present ease and refreshment then to have a faithfull Messenger of God by us that may put us in mind of higher things that may help us in our Meditations may supply us with Materials of Thought and Reflection that may lead us into a sense of our selves and put us upon looking back upon past follies and so help us forward in those acts of Repentance which are requir'd of us in the Gospel thereby either preparing us for Heaven or making us more fit to live in this World if restor'd and recover'd Surely this is of great advantage which a good Mind would be apt to esteem as some way Compensating for all the uneasiness and other troublesome Appendages of a Sick-bed 2. The great Mistakes we may be apt to fall under at such a time makes it of great advantage to us to be under the direction and steerage of such an one Our own Organs of Thinking may then be so much out of order that we may not have the same Idea's of Things which in our Health and Vigor of Reasoning we have once had But besides that there is a most busie Adversary that neglects no such opportunities of attacking the weak and disabled Powers of Mind at that time He will then be casting all the Blinds and representing all the false Scenes imaginable Sometimes he will flatter the Man into a better opinion of himself than he ought to have by which he would prevent his necessary Repentance Here the faithful Messenger and due Interpreter of things is infinitely usefull To let a Man see himself and his lamentable Condition through Sin the need he has of the great Expiation the necessity of Repentance and earnest importunity with God for Pardon and Forgiveness Sometimes again he will encrease and aggravate the Sinner's guilt beyond all just measures as if his Sins both for the number and the nature of them were beyond the compass of Divine Grace Here again the Messenger the Interpreter the One among a thousand comes in seasonably explains the Nature of the New Covenant recites and insists upon the Promises which are as large and boundless as our Sins have been and have no feebler a Confirmation than the Blood of Jesus and the Oath of God He informs him of the Nature of true Repentance and by the just Notes of it shows him that what he now acts is true and real Nay he can lay open those very Wiles of the Devil by which he would at that time be perplexing his Faith and Hopes in God In a word sometimes the Devil will be aggrandizing the affliction it self as if it were out of the ordinary way of Providence and an evident token of God's Wrath or that it is not what he has deserv'd but what he may justly murmure and repine at Here this excellent Interpreter can by a skilfull reading upon Providence let the Man see that no temptation has befallen him but what is common to Man that no Man knows love or hatred by these things that affliction is so far from being the mark of God's wrath or of a reprobate state that it is rather a token of his tender and fatherly compassion who therefore chastiseth because he loveth them and would do them good in the latter end that it is far less than his iniquities deserve and that therefore there is all the reason in the World for his entire submission and resignation In these and other cases where the Clinick is so prone to mistakes concerning either himself or God how usefull may such an excellent Person be to interpret to him the Word and Providences of God to keep him right in all just Idea's and Apprehensions of things 3. Lastly He is of further advantage to implore God in the behalf of such either for the removal of his hand or for a good issue and conclusion in the end It is no ordinary Privilege that when our own Minds perhaps are sharing in the disorders of our Bodies we should then have the Prayers of some good Men who in a fellow-feeling of our infirmities can heartily and in earnest recommend us to God The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous Man availeth much Jam. 5.16 Hence his direction to the faithfull that if any be sick among them they should call for the Elders of the Church and they shall pray over them and the prayer of Faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up ver 14 15. We don't indeed with those of the Church of Rome pretend to keep up the Ceremony of anointing with Oyl which is also directed in this place because the Power it self that is the gift of Healing of which this Unction was the Symbol is so long ceas'd and therefore it is highly proper that the Symbol it self should cease too But Prayer is a standing Duty and hath its abiding Effects if not in the actual recovery of the Man which yet not improbably has been frequently obtain'd by Prayer however may not prove ineffectual as to his Eternal Salvation both which seem to be comprehended in this last passage of my Text Then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down into the pit I have found a ransom This might lead me into a large field of discourse but I will shut up the whole with an usefull Inference or two 1. We may hence learn to live under a daily wise expectation of such a Calamity as this Our sins and follies of Life may easily provoke God Our frail and obnoxious Nature daily exposes us and Old Age which is one continu'd and unavoidable Sickness will ere long creep upon the strongest of us which therefore may put the wisest of us into a just expectation of such an hour But then 2. If it should be our lot to be thus dealt with let us not despise this indulgence of Providence the Helps and Ministries of him whom God hath appointed his Messenger his Interpreter that he may minister to us in all those usefull assistances of which we may then stand in so much need and for which the Church has accordingly provided such tender and comprehensive Offices Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory and Praise now and for ever Amen THE END