Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	let_v	love_v	soul_n	10,315	5	5.5040	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77362	Christs coming opened in a sermon before the honourable house of commons in Margaret's Westminster, May 17, 1648 being the day appointed for Thanksgiving for the great Victory in Wales / by William Bridge ...	Bridge, William, 1600?-1670.	1648 (1648)	Wing B4451; Thomason E471_3	19,393	30

but who would have expected it at such a time as that was And if we look into that last Chapter of Zachary we shall find that the great deliverance of the Churches promised is to be in one day which shall be known to the Lord not day nor night but it shall come to passe that at evening time it shall be light verse 7. Who would expect light at evening we all expect darknesse at evening time but at evening when we looke most for darknesse God hath promised this great light And for Christs coming at the last ye know what he sayes I will come in an houre when ye looke not for me And for this great deliverance and victory which the Lord hath now given unto you was it not at midnight consider with your selves a little remember the dayes of your former troubles and were you ever in a more darke condition were ye not all benighted when were your enemies more high and lofty when were your friends more down and dejected A night a night the Lord knowes a darke night was come upon us Well but now Christ comes with a seasonable almost miraculous victory and deliverance And this is Christs way and manner He never comes to his people as a Bridegroome but still he doth come at midnight in all his comings still he doth come at midnight Christ loves that his people should sit up for him Reas 1 watch and waite for him He waiteth to shew mercy on them that waite on his mercy The more a man is respected and beloved in an house the more if he be abroad those in the house will sit up and watch for him he that loves him not sayes I will go to bed I 'le stay no longer let him come when he pleases but he that loves him saith I 'le watch I 'le stay I 'le sit up for him yea though he don't come till midnight And does it argue love for one man to sit up and waite for another and not love in our soules to sit up and watch and waite for Christ Christ loves to see our love exercised and therefore sayes he though I intend to save and helpe such a person yet I 'le stay and stay long I will not helpe him presently I 'le suffer a night a darke night to come upon him so shall I see his love in waiting for me Secondly Reas 2 Christ loves to shew mercy to his people in such a way as he may hide pride from men he would not have his people to be proud of mercies And upon this account sayes the text in the 33. of Job He seales on instruction in the night that he may hide pride from man When a man is awake he tryes things by reason and if reason like them then they do passe for currant if reason don't approve them then they will be rejected but in a dreame in a deep sleep the mind receives things not examining them by reason Now in the great things of God the lesse hand reason hath and the more Faith Rationes p●aecedentes minuunt Fidem subsequentes augent the better Reasons going before Faith do diminish it but Reasons following Faith strengthen it say the Schooles Faith ennobles a worke The more a man ushers in a businesse with his owne reason the more apt to be proud thereon but in a dream in a deep sleep there is little of reason to be used and therefore in a deep sleep he comes upon us that he may hide pride from us Thirdly Reas 3 Christ loves to come so as he may be most welcome to his people and the lesse expected the more welcome many times and when is he lesse expected then at midnight If a man be in extremity of misery and a friend comes to visit him then he doth not onely bid him welcome but admires his love Oh! Sir could you find in your heart to come to me now what now at midnight this is love indeed Christ comes to be admired of all that beleeve sayes the Scripture and therefore when his people are in the darke in a darke night then he chooses to come and then especially and then a mans heart doth melt with love to Christ Oh! what a gracious Saviour have I that could find in his heart to find me out with his mercy in this darke condition in this unexpected time His time is not as our time as his thoughts are not as ours Christ is the good Samaritan he will poure wine and oyle into the bleeding wounds of his servants but he will first let the Priest passe by and the Levite passe by and such meanes and helpes passe by which we ordinarily expect comfort from and when we have none from them then sayes he now is a time for me but by that time all other helpes are passed by it will be midnight but though it be midnight sayes Christ it is all one to me for I create light and my thoughts and my times are not as mans are And though man come with help and succour in the day time yet I will come at midnight Oh! Applic. what glorious dispensations of love and mercy is here What is the issue of this doctrine Quest what if Christ do come at midnight This Doctrine lookes wishly upon two sorts of people Answ such as he doth come against and such as he doth come for Some foolish virgins there are whom Christ comes against and these he will come upon at midnight take them in their beds when they are fast asleepe in their sin and are most secure Ye have heard of the lamentation of Norwich there was a generation of men that rose up and threatned to destroy the godly Party there but the Lord so ordered things in his providence that those whom they threatned to destroy were preserved and the destroyers perished nigh two or three hundred if relations be right blown up with powder or spoiled and three godly families consisting of about twenty persons in severall roomes of the house that was blowne up were all preserved and not a bone of them broken whilst the other flew up into the aire as spectacles of divine anger as if God should speak from Heaven these are the people whom I would have preserved and those are the people that I would have punished But ah poore destroyed soules who perished in the thunder of Gods anger did they ever thinke that Christ would have come upon them at such a midnight Here is a great deliverance and victory that is now before ye If relations speak true two thousand and five hundred putting to flight eight thousand of the enemy fifteene hundred slaine three thousand taken prisoners and the rest scattered But ah poor deceived people who made this insurrection did they ever thinke that Christ would have come so suddenly in such a time at midnight upon them Consider all your warres and hath not Christ come at midnight all along Christ is in the way to his Kingdome and every