Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A64977
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The best gift, or God's call upon young men for their hearts Delivered in a sermon to young men. By Thomas Vincent, minister sometime of Maudlins Milkstreet, London.
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Vincent, Thomas, 1634-1678.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing V427; ESTC R222561
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16,894
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33
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is beyond all and God can do beyond what we can ask in spiritual riches the riches of glory are exceedingly abundantly beyond the riches of grace we may conceive and think more than we can have confidence or find words to ask but God can do for us beyond our either desires or thoughts yea there is more in himself than we can imagine God is a fountain of goodness which is alwayes running overflowing and ever-flowing He is a treasury of all good things which can never be exhausted and emptied Surely then God is the most sutable good for the Heart and most deserveth the Heart 3. If Love do deserve the Heart and call for return of Love surely God hath infinitely more of this than any else none can match him in loveliness and none can match him in Love See Iob. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son c. God so loved the world How did he love the world There is no comparison to set it forth by nothing great enough to express it it is too big to be put into the scales with any creature-creature-love except you would weigh vast mountains in one balance and a light feather in the other yea I may safely say that the smallest dust on the ground or the least more that flyeth in the air may better be compared with the whole globe of the Earth for weight than the love of any creature can be compared with the love of God to Mankind and therefore if you ask how God loved Mankind the answer must not be by a comparison for it passeth comparison and it passeth comprehension but it is set forth by the expression of it in giving his onely begotten Son for men that believing in him they might not perish but have everlasting life here is love not in word so much as in deed love in a love-token in a gift and such a gift as is unvaluable a gift so necessary as without which eternal ruine could not be avoided so beneficial that by it and with it eternal life and happiness is obtained Gods love is so great in giving his Son that when the Apostle Iohn doth speak of it he telleth us not onely that God hath Love but that God is Love 1 Ioh. 4.8 9 10. God is love In this was manifested the love of God towards us because God sent his onely begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins Creatures have love it is a quality in them and hath degrees the highest capacity which we have for love is but as it is a quality and even in that which we are capable of we are deficient whilst in this world but Love in God is not a quality for a quality is an accident and there are no accidénts in God and therefore it is his essence He is Love there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a depth in the expression which we cannot fathom If the Apostle cryeth out Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his wayes past finding out We may also cry out in an extasie of admiration O the depth of the riches of the goodness and love of God! how unsearchable are his mercies and the wayes of his grace past finding out Apprehend we may something of Gods love but comprehend it we cannot Who ever did or could look into the depth of Gods heart The heart of man is deep but the heart of God is far deeper and indeed in comparison with God the streams of our Love are but small brooks and shallow rivulets unto the dep current and bottomless ocean of Love in the heart of God to sinners through Jesus Christ. Gods Love is First Free Tender Unchangeable from everlasting to everlasting But I must not lanch too deep into this subject of Gods Love which in many discourses of those that have the most raised apprehensions and sweetest tasts of it cannot be set forth with any sutableness unto its greatness Now such love of God surely doth deserve the Heart and the return of the choicest and chiefest affections which the children of men can possibly present him withall Love doth usually draw forth particular and endeared Love more than Loveliness but when such infinite Loveliness Sutableness and withall such infinite incomparable Love do meet in one God surely we must say that he is the most deserving object for the Love R. 5. Lastly All especially young men ought to give God their Hearts because he will best use their Hearts their Hearts will be abused by any thing they give them unto except it be God alone If they give their Hearts to the world it will debase and degrade them but if they give their Hearts unto God He will advance and ennoble them if the creatures have their hearts they will impoverish them but if God have their Hearts He will enrich them if Sin get their Hearts it will deform them but if God get their Hearts He will beautifie them if Lust be received into their Hearts it will defile them but if God be received into their Hearts He will cleanse them If God have not the Heart the Devil and the World and Lust will possess it and be sure they will abuse it Better it is a thousand fold to entertain God into the Heart than any other inhabitant He having promised to dwell where he is entertained 2 Cor. 6.16 For ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in you and walk in you and be sure He will use the Hearts well where he dwells The Devil and Lust make the Heart a Dungeon but Gods presence maketh the Heart a Palace God hath two Palaces the one is the highest Heavens the other is the lowest Hearts and where God dwelleth he will bring his own Furniture He will throw out of doors the rotten furniture of Sin which he findeth and bring in the furniture of Grace he will as it were hang the Heart with the rich Tapistry and curious Embroidery of the Spirit that He may take delight in his Habitation adorned with his own Ornaments And He will bring in his own Provisions too and feast them with his Love and the most kind expressions thereof which shall yield such peace and satisfaction such comfort and sweetness and sometimes such ravishing joyes as have not entred into the hearts of the carnal and worldly to conceive Moreover He will watch over the Heart and defend it from many mischiefs and dangers from many snares and temptations from many sins and those ruines which sin doth lead the ungodly unto To conclude By the Grace which He giveth the Heart here He will qualifie and prepare it for glory hereafter and at length when the Soul now given to him shall be separated from the
THE Best Gift OR GOD'S CALL UPON YOUNG MEN for their HEARTS Delivered in a Sermon to YOUNG MEN. By THOMAS VINCENT Minister sometime of Maudlins Milkstreet London LONDON Printed for George Calvert and Samuel Sprint and are to be sold at the Golden Ball in Duck Lane 1672. THE BEST GIFT c. Prov. 23. part of the 26th verse My Son Give me thine Heart SOlomon was not only a King but a Prophet not only a Prince but a Preacher and in the name of God he calleth upon all the children of men especially young men by the name of his Son for their Heart that they would present the Lord with the gift of the Heart As in the later clause of the verse he directeth the eye of their mind unto the observation of Gods way which he calleth his way Let thine eyes observe my Wayes so in this first clause he directeth their hearts unto God in himself whom he doth represent My Son give me thine heart Hence observe Doct. That all men especially young men ought to give their Heart unto God In handling of this point I shall shew 1. What is meant by the Heart 2. What it is to give God the Heart 3. Why all men especially young men ought to give God their Hearts 4 Make some application 1. What is meant by the Heart The Heart in Scripture is frequently taken for the whole Soul as including all its powers and faculties thus Mat 15.8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips there was the worship of their outward man but their heart is far from me the worship of the Soul and inward man was wanting So Rom. 2.28 29. He is not a Iew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Iew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit c. And we shall find in the Scripture that every faculty is sometimes called by the name of the Heart The Understanding Eph. 4.18 Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts The Conscience 1 Iob. 3.20 For if our heart condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things The Memory Luk. 2.19 Mary kept al these things in her heart But chiefly and most properly the Heart is taken in Scripture for the Will and Affections which are seated in the Heart as the Understanding Memory Fancy and Imagination are seated in the Head and thus we may understand the acceptation of the word Heart in this place namely for the Will and Affections yet not excluding the other faculties 2. What is it to give God the Heart Persons give God their Hearts when their Wills make choice of him as their chief Good and they place their liking affections chiefly upon him when their love is chiefly towards him their desires chiefly after him their hopes and delights chiefly in him Persons give God their Hearts when theâ— open the door of these secret chambers and let God in and lodge him the dearest embracements of their affections when they give him full possession of their hearts and set him up in the highest room when they give God the chief rule and command in their hearts placing him upon the the throne when they engage their hearts to the Lord in a solemn covenant to be his and only his 3. Why all men especially young men ought to give their hearts unto God R. 1. Because God hath right to their hearts The Devil and Sin have got the possession but they have no right to the heart they are usurpers and therefore should be turned out God only hath right to the heart and that to the heart of young ones as well as others young ones have not right to possess their inheritance left to them by their Fathers whilst they are under age until they arrive at one and twenty years but God hath right to possess the hearts of young ones in the years of their minority He hath a right to their hearts so soon as they are born so soon as they have them themselves and that because he hath made them and he hath bought them they belong to him by right of Creation and by right of Purchase The Body was form'd by God but the Soul is infus'd and cometh more immediately out of his hand and it is but equal to return that to God which he hath made to present God with the gift of that which is his own the work of his own hands especially when besides his natural right to the heart he hath made a purchase of it he hath laid â—own a great price for it even the price of his Sons bloud as the bloud of Christ hath purchased an everlasting inheritance for men so it hath purchased the hearts of men for God to be his everlasting habitation See this Argument urged by the Apostle upon the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.19 20 Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods God hath a double right both to to the body and to the Spirit too and as the heart is his by way of right so all ought to make it his by way of tender and gift R. 2. All especially young men ought to give God their hearts because God doth require them some tacitly give away their right by their not demanding of it and some things which are the right of such a man yet are not his without a lawful demand but God hath not only right to the heart but he requireth it he maketh a demand of it he commandeth us to give it See Matth. 22.37 38. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind this is the first and great commandment It is not the eye or the ear or the tongue or the knee that God careth for but the heart the sincere and supreme love of the heart is the chiefest and most comprehensive commandment Some debts are forfeited by Law if though they be demanded they be not timely demanded but God doth timely demand this debt of the Heart He doth not stay till men are grown into elder years but he demandeth their hearts when they are young He calleth upon young men to give him their hearts as in the Text My son give me thine heart R. 3. All especially young men ought to give God their Hearts because God will accept of their Hearts If a man will not accept of his right he loseth his right and there is no obligation upon a man to tender a gift that is despised but God will accept of the Heart and nothing is more acceptable than the Heart nothing is acceptable like the Heart and nothing is acceptable without the Heart all the good language of the lips the devotion of the knees and all bodily