Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n
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A54342
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Helps to the assurance of God's love whereby a true believer may with the help of Gods good spirit know that he had a being in the love of God before he had a being in the world : to which is added a spiritual touch-stone for the tryal of the sincerity of our love to God / by Samuel Pack.
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Pack, Samuel.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing P150; ESTC R26175
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21,542
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70
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Helps to the ASSURANCE OF GOD'S LOVE Whereby a true Believer may with the help of Gods good Spirit know that he had a Being in the Love of God before he had a Being in the World To which is Added A spiritual Touch-stone for the tryal of the Sincerity of our Love to God By Samuel Pack Preacher of the Gospel London Printed by T. M. for the Author 1673. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Christian Reader THe sense of Gods love is that which is a Saints Heaven here in its inchoation and shall be their Heaven hereafter in its Consummation The more thou hast of the clear discoveries of Gods love in thy heart The more wilt thou be from thy heart discovering thy love to the God of Love The brighter the love of God doth shine in thy Soul notwithstanding thy sins committed against this loveing God the more will thy heart burn against thy Sins which thou hast committed against this God of love the deeper draught thou hast of the assurance of Gods everlasting love to thee the more will the waters of Marah even the bitter waters of affliction be sweetned unto thee the more thy heart is lifted up in contemplation of that fulness of comfort and joy which the God of love in the riches of his love hath laid up for thee in another world the more wilt thou be lifted up above and weaned from an inordinate love unto or delight and complacency in the inticeing vanities of this world and foramuch as this love of God in Christ is that sea and sun that mine and fountain from whence through Christ we are Partakers of those Glorious Priviledges of Election by God peace with God together with adoption perseverance and an interest in the new Covenant which contains in the Bowells thereof Effectual calling and Pardon of Sin and a participation of the Spirit in all his saveing influential operations I have therefore I say in the first place laid down 12 characters of Gods love to believers And now Reader I have given thee a hint of that which is contained in the sequel of this discourse I think it not amisse to discover to thee the occasion of the Publishing these few sheets which is first from some fears and Jealousies that are upon my Spirit that God is comeing in some cloudy dispensation Rev. 10.1 And when God shall be pleased thus to wrap himself up in a cloud Then nothing will comfort a child of God like the shining face of of Gods love in Christ and an interest in that Rainbow of his Covenant in which Covenant he hath made over himself in all his Attributes for 〈◊〉 Protection Consolation in a day of Trial Another cause of my Publishing these lines is the mistakes that are both in the wicked and the Godly about their interest in the love of God wicked men they ground their hopes of an interest in Gods-love upon their outward injoyments because they Prosper in the world and all things go well with them as to their outward concerns which outward Prosperity is so far from being an evidence of Gods Everlasting love that it is rather being unsanctified a signe of his hatred and displeasure and as for Gods people they are under a great mistake on the other hand apprehending their outward afflictions to be signes of Gods hatred and displeasure whereas those outward afflictions being Sanctified are signs of Gods everlasting love now for the sakes of such afflicted Jobs who under bitter trials are ready to cry out he counteth me for his enemy I have undertook this work that they may drink those waters of Marah with more comfort when they know that these afflictions are laid on them by one that hath an everlasting love towards them The last reason of my Publishing those evidences of Gods love and Election and Adoption is not I hope because I would be in Print neither because I look upon these Sermons to be more worth than other Sermons that are never like to come to the presse but because several Precious Souls that heard me when I did Preach upon those words in the 1 Ephesians the latter part of the 3 verse Who hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ c. did earnestly desire me to write them out those uses of trial or examination whereby they might be assured that they had an interest in those spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ c. which we then reduced to these 12 heads 1. the Love of God 2. Election 3. Adoption 4. an Interest in the New Covenant 5. Spiritual wisdom 6. Perseverance in grace 7. Pardon of Sin 8. Sanctification of our Nature 9. Justification of our Persons 10. the Acceptation of our Duties 11. Supportation under and Consolation in our Sufferings 12. Glorification And as I handled these Particulars before mentioned I laid down some trials where we might know whether those Spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ were ours and seeing God is so ready to fulfill the desires of them that fear him I think it is our duties in our Places to lay out our selves to the utmost of our abilities to fulfill the desires of Gods People especially when they desire that which may conduce to the honour of God and the good of their precious Souls what is it that brings more honour unto the God of Heaven then 〈◊〉 holy the humble and chearful walking of his people while they are here on earth and what is it that will cause a believer to be more holy humble and cheereful than to know that he hath an interest in those spiritual blessings which are more worth than 10000 worlds Now that Gods people may know that they are interested in those spiritual blessings I have laid down many trials to evidence our interests in each of them that so if a believer cannot experience one trial he may experience another and if those poor labours of mine do find as good acceptance with thee now they are in thine eyes as they did with the people of God when they had them in their ears I shall be the more Incouraged to Publish the evidences of our interest in those other spiritual blessings which we have before mentioned And if thou gainest any Comfort by my Poor endeavours let God have the glory from whom Proceeds every good and perfect gift and let the Poor Penman be a sharer in thy prayers who is thy servant for Jesus sake Samuel Pack Twelve Discriminating Characters Whereby A poor Mourner in Sion for want of the Evidences of Gods Love may know that he had a being in the love of God before he had a being in the World 1. IF thou art one that canst assure thy self that thou hast an Interest in the Love of God thou art one that hast in experimental Knowledge of this God of Love If thou art one that hast a Practical obediential Knowâ—edge of God then thou mayest â—omfortably and upon good
us more earnestly to labour after the enjoyment of them when Gods beloved ones have too much delight in and too much love to the world so as to undervalue the heavenly manna of Gods love then the God of love will manifest his delight in and love to his people in leaveing them as to his comforting presence with the prodigal to seed upon the husks of outward injoyments till they are brought to see the incongruity that is between the empty inticeing transitory vanity of this World and their sublime and immortal Souls which can receive no real comfort from or any satisfactory delight or complacency in any thing but what is of its own nature For 〈◊〉 the soul of a believer meerly as it is a Creature is an immortal substance and the very breath of God and therefore no wonder though the creature find such an insufficiency of comfort in all outward injoyments they being so much below and unsuitable to its nature And that I take to be the reason why Solomon saith Prov. 14.13 that in the midst of laughter the heart may be sad the fading earthy mortal body may laugh in the injoyment of fading earthly momentany things and yet the heart and soul may be sad for want of something of its own nature for to take delight and complacency in Now let us draw to Conclusion in a word there must be an assimulation between the Object of delight and the Subject delighting it self in that object As for example a fish of a cold and moyst nature delights in the passive element of water being of its own nature But the Salamander being of a fiery nature delights in the active element of fire So a true believer being a new creature born of God by regeneration cannot but mourn in the bitterness of his soul when it does consider how the fleshy part has prevailed against his Spiritual part being off from his watch as with Michal to send away his blessed King David as to his comforting presence and have left nothing but an Image of outward Injoyments in the room thereof And if Gods beloved Sampsons will be solaceing of themselves in the laps of the deceitful Dalilahs you can expect nothing but that those sweet Syrene-like songs should end in the shipwrack of their spiritual Joys Having provoked God to deliver them up with Sampson to the Philistins to cut off the seven locks of their spiritual strength and leave them in the hands of their spiritual enemies that will by filling of their Souls with horror and vexation of Spirit do their utmost to keep those from heaven whilst they live which they see they cannot keep from heaven when they dye And now I come to the North wind of affliction which does often make Gods Davids cry out I have cleansed my heart in vain and with Gods Jobs to look upon outward afflictions to be signs of Gods anger and displeasure whereas indeed as well the North Wind of sanctified afflictions as the South Wind of sanctified prosperity blowing upon our gardens will make our spices flow forth will make us to be much in exercising the gifts and graces of the spirit of God in us Now soul see which of these winds it is that has blown up this dreadful storm in thy soul if it be the East Wind of sinful security or the South Wind of unsanctified prosperity or the North Wind of adversity And indeed as sin is the meritorious cause of affliction so affliction makes a soul apprehend it self to be a greater sinner than others when it is more afflicted than others And the Devil has a great hand in this for as he perswades the◠that their prosperitis is a sign of Gods love so he perswades Gods people that afflictions are signs of Gods hatred If the people of God did but know the gracious end God has in afflicting them they would never look upon them to be signs of his displeasure For Gods ends in afflicting his people are to glorify his wisdom in their Direction and his holiness in their Sanctification and his power in their Supportation and Preservation and that they might be more conformable to Christ their head and that they may hate sin the more and contemn the world the more and long after heaven the more and that they may be in the better capacities to sympathize with Gods people in their suffering when they are under the like afflictions and to make heaven the sweeter to them by makeing the world bitter Now soul thou that art under these clouds and tossed with these tempests and not comforted be sure to look often into the waters of the sanctuary upon the bended knees of thy soul and there thou shall see the Comet that has made the interposition between the shineing rayes of Gods love and thy poor soul and when thou hast found out this Achan that troubles the camp that made thee flee before the men of Aie and after thou hast conquered Jericho and by Gods ministers sounding of the Gospel-Trumpet beat down the walls of the cursed Jericho of the Kingdom of darkness in thy soul when thou hast found out the Achan that would preserve any of the cursed thing be unpotant with thy blessed Joshuah which brings his true Israel into the land of promise that he would pass the sentence of death on this thee vish Achan that first stole thy heart from the God of comfort and consolation and then stole from thee the sweet consolations of thy God Oh soul let not the Silver or Gold of worldly-mindedness which lies hid in the midst of Achans tent let not any external profit that thy sin may bring thee in make Achan faire ever the better but seek diligently for it for it lyes hid in the midst of the tent where it might be the least suspected see if Achan has not been a troubler to thee by stealing something else besides the wedg of Gold see if he has not got a cloak of Shinar or a Babylonish garment of self-righteousness My meaning is this look diligently into thy heart see if thou art not ready to be prideing of thy self in thy dutys and having had great Inlargements in prayer art thou not ready to think that that duty as it comes from thee is more likely to find acceptance with God than those poor broken expressions of thy friend whom it may be thou contemnest as not having such abilities as thou hast Now soul if thou canst find this in thy heart then thou mayst say there is the Babylonish garment which the old man the unregenerate part the cursed Achan has stole and by which God was provoked against thee but if thou canst say of a truth upon serious self-examination that it is otherwise with thee and that thy heart doeth not condemn thee of stealing these wedges of gold that thou hast not an inordinate love to the world that thou hast not stole the Babylonish garment of spiritual pride in duty and