Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	contrite_a	humble_a	revive_v	5,567	5	11.6295	5	false

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49258	A treatise of effectual calling and election In XVI. sermons, on 2 Peter 1.10. Wherein a Christian may discern, whether yet he be effectually called and elected. And what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof. Preached by that faithfull servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Laurence Jury, London.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1655 (1655)	Wing L3179; ESTC R217684	182,116	237

your Meditations work upon those Promises that hold forth most comfort to a dejected and deserted soule And here I shall name five or six most comforatble Promises in the Word As Isa 57.15 The Lord that dwels in the high and holy places he doth revive the spirit of the humble and of the contrite one So Isa 66.2 The Lord dwels in the Heavens and yet with him also that is of an humble and contrite spirit that trembles at his Word with him will God dwell So Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh to them that are â—f a broken heart even them that are contrite in spirit So Luke 4.18 Jesus Christ was anointed that is appointed by God the Father to preach the Gospel to the poor to binde up the broken in heart and to comfort them that mourn So Isa 66.10 The Lord will restore comfort to thee and to thy Mourners And Heb. 12.12 The Lord will streâ—gthen the weak hands and feeble knees And with that remarkable and most glorious Gospel-promise I shal end Isa 353 4 5 6. Strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees This saith God to weaken Christians whose legs can hardly carry their bodies and their hands hardly reach to their mouths Say unto the weak Christian in grace comfort and confirm and strengthen them And say unto them that are of a fearful heart Be strong Poor fearfull doubting soules that feare every temptation and feare every corruption and feare they shall lose the recompence of their reward Say unto that fearful heart Be strong and fear not For your God will come with vengeance even God will come with recompence and save you And then the eyes of the blinde shall be open and the eares of the deaf shall be unstopped it is not meant of the bodily eye but those that were blinde and could not see the mysteâ—ies of Christ and could not read their own comforts then their eyes shall be open And the deaf that as Isaiah saith refused to be comforted that would not hearken to comfort but would stop their eares against all comfortable doctrines and onely give way to sorrow their eares shall be unstopped And the lame men shall leap like a Hart the poor halting Christian that halts in his comforts that is now believing anon staggering now rejoycing anon despairing the poor lame man shall leap like a Hart And the tongue of the dumb shall sing the poor man that could not speak one word of his own graces and of his own comforts and touching his own evidence The tongue of the dumb shal sing O Beloved here is your work in case you would be Christians to restore your comforts again set upon the work of Meditation to think upon these precious Promises of the Gospel that hold forth most comfort to a drooping and dejected sinner SERMON XII 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure THE Doctrine I am yet upon is this That Christians ought to put forth a great deal of diligence to make this sure to their souls that they are effectually called by Jesus Christ to grace and glory In the prosecution of which I have gone over many particulars There remains now onely one Use more to dispatch about this subject and then I passe to the third point drawn from these words And the Use shall be of Consolation from all that hath been said touching the assurance of our effectual calling I shall only direct my discourse to lay down six or seven Consolatory Conclusions to those Christians who are effectually called yet happily have not a sensible assurance of their own calling First take this for a truth that Assurance is necessary not for the being but for the wel-being of a Christian It is not necessary to his estate but to his comfort It is not necessary as food is to the life but only as Physick is to the body A man cannot live without food a man may live without Physick Assurance is but as a comfortable cordial to the soul Grace is as food to keep the soul alive though you doe want assurance this Cordial to bear you up Secondly that many of Gods dear children they may lie a very long time in the want of this assurance touching their effectual calling Psal 88. It is said of Heman 14 15 16. verses Lord why hast thou casâ—â—ff my soule and why hast thou hid thy face from me Mark his complaint I am ready to die And was this only a fit of desertion or was it a continued act yes Vers 16. From my youth up I suffer thy terrours I am distracted and thy fierce wrath goes over me Heman lay under the state of desertion from his childhood for here he tels you his estate that he was not troubled for a day or two or three and then his troubles were over but from his youth up he lay under this perplexity that he thought God had cast off his soule and the terrours of God lay upon him And yet this man none questions his goodnesse For he was the man as Ainsworth thinks that made this Psalm and sure God would never honour a wicked man to be a Pen-man of the Scripture The Psalm is called a golden Psalm and it is so called because hereby he would teach afflicted consciences that they may from their youth up lie under great horrour and lie under sad suspence concerning their everlasting estate and yet they may have grace at the root for all this And Heman doth not only expresse it as if he had an ordinary trouble of minde but he expresseth it that he lay under an extraordinary weight of Gods wrath Vers 7. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit of darkness and in the deep and thy wrath it lies heavy upon me He did even lie and sink in his own thoughts under the sense af Gods wrath upon him This therefor is another comfortable conclusion That godly men may not onely by fits and starts but for a long time for many years together lie under a state of spiritual desertion For some men think of Heman that he was above threescore yeares of age when he wrote this Psalm yet from his youth up till that age he lay under this horror and perplexity Thirdly That many of Gods dear children may be so long plunged under desertion and under the want of Assurance that they may refuse and withstand comforts when God offers it to them in the Gospel and yet may have grace still As a man in a feaver or distracted by some violent disease though you bring him a Cordial that may abate his disease the man in a fit will through the glasse against the wall though it be the only meanes of his remedy It is so with godly men many times they are so accustomed to sadnesse in the want of assurance that they may refuse comforts when God offers them Psal 77.2 It is the speech of Asaph my soule refuseth to be

grace to be the multiplying of peace The more you multiply and grow in grace the more you will increase peace inward peace of conscience they are both joyned together You have a passage 2 Pet. 1.5 11. compared together Adde to your faith vertue c. The Apostle there urgeth our diligence to adde grace to grace that is to live in the improvement of grace And what wil follow ver 11. If you doe these things you shall never fall for so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord Iesus Christ You shall not onely goe to heaven but you shall have an abundant entrance ministred before you come there you shall have abundance of assurance and inward peace before you come there And here to give you a more particular direction there are these foure graces chiefly you are to improve First Improve the grace of humility Isa 57.15 The Lord doth promise there to revive the spirit of the humble It is a particular promise to that grace that God will revive you and give you a new life if you have it And reviving there is not meant of the first life of grace but of a life of comfort They had grace before but God would give them a life of comfort he will restore your consolation to you in case you are an humble people Hence it is Iam. 4.6 The Lord gives grace to the humble Yea he gives more grace The Lord gives more grace to the humble person then to any man in the world Now the more grace you have the more comfort you must needs have Humility is a foundation of more grace therefore needs must be a foundation of more comfort That building whose foundation is laid lowest is of all the most beautiful and comely Fabrick above ground So those Christians that lay a foundation low in humility they are likely to reare up a most beautiful Building in way of comfort Secondly Improve the grace of faith in beleeving and that is the way to increase comfort 1 Peter 1.8 Whom though you have not seen yet believing you rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Though they did never see Christ yet believing in Christ and improving their faith they had not onely an ordinary measure of comfort but they had more comfort in their hearts then they could utter with their Tongue They rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory So Rom. 15.13 The God of peace fill you with all joy and peace in Believing that you may abound in hope through the Holy Ghost Believing makes you full of all joy and makes you abound in it The more you are in Believing the more you will be in assurance Thirdly Improve the grace of love to Jesus Christ John 14.23 If any man love me my Father shall love him and we will come in unto him and make our abode with him If you improve in your love to Jesus Christ God the Father and God the Son will make their dwelling in your hearts Now he must needs be a comfortable Christian that hath so good a guest as God the Father and Jesus Christ to come in and make their abode with him As you know to your bosome-friend whom you love and you know loves you you will communicate all your secrets Thus will God the Father if he knowes you are his bosome-friends and seeth you love him he will communicate all his comforts to you you shall never want comforts if you increase in love to Jesus Christ Fourthly Improve the grace of godly sorrow you will never finde sweeter musick in comfort then when you are laid down in teares As the sound of the Trumpet is never more pleasant then when they are upon the water so when God seeth you flow with the water of repentance and godly sorrow then you are likely to hear the most melodious harmony in the apprehension of Gods love Psal 126. They that sow in teares shall reap in joy You shall not onely have a dram but a handful of joy as Reapers they cut down handfuls of corn at once And as you know in seed though you sowe but one grain of corn there may a dozen eares come from that one seed so if you sowe but a little godly sorrow a grain of godly sorrow may be a root to a great deal of spiritual joy Secondly If you would improve your assurance preserve a clear conscience both towards God and man A good conscience is a continual Feast Prov. 15.15 Assurance I may say of it as the Father speaks of the Holy Ghost and the comforts thereof The Spirit of God is a very nice thing every thing will give the comforts of Gods Spirit a check and distaste now if you harbour sin upon conscience you will never thrive in comfort every thing will give comfortable motions a check And as Philosophers say when the Aire is foggy it ariseth from vapours that are exhaled from the earth which makes the Aire so cloudy as it is So it is filth drawn from our earthly hearts that makes such foggy mists to arise between our comforts and us and between God and us You must keep conscience clear else you will never keep heaven clear Heaven will be clouded if the heart be filthy Job 11.14 15. If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away If sin be upon the conscience harbour it not for then thou shalt lift up thy face before God thou shalt be stedfast and not fear You shall not onely not fear but you shall have a degree of assurance You shall be stedfast if you put sin far away from you A sullied and a polluted conscience shall never be in a Christian strong in assurance You will not grow in assurance if your conscience harbour guilt Thirdly If you would improve your assurance keep close in communion with God Nothing that feeds comforts so much as a Christians holy walking Esa 32.17 The work of righteousnesse shall be peace and the effect thereof quietnesse and assurance for ever If you walk in works of righteousnesse and in a way of keeping lose communion with God this shall be peace and this shall be quietnesse and great assurance Mark how the Holy Ghost makes a gâ—adation not onely peace and quietnesse but assurance also you shall have the highest degree of peace and the highest step of comfort if you walk diligently in a way of holinesse with your God And thus much be spoken to the first sort of men those that live in the enjoyment of the assurance of their effectual calling I have now a word to those men that live in the want of this assurance who happily have in times past had some glimmering and some dimme sight of comfort touching their everlasting estate and yet are now much clouded and eclipsed in their comforts or have lost the comforts they once hâ—d what they should do to recover it And to these I â—hall by way of direction speak

there is guilt Are not there pardoning mercies where condemnation is deserved you should reason up your comforts rather then reason them down and spend more time in strengthening then in questioning of them You would count him a very unwise man that hath a Leafe of much land and he himselfe shall create scruples and doubts and shall use no meanes to make his Title good And truly many Christians are as unwise for heaven they have as I may say good bond and seal that God will bring them to heaven and yet they will question and cavil themselves into unbeliefe Beloved this should not be but you ought rather to strengthen your comforts then question them Seventhly Be diligent in the earnest study of the Covenant of grace Beloved all a Christians doubts arise from ignorance of the Covenant of grace And here that I may speak a little to it I beseech you follow me study the Covenant of grace which if you do you shall discern five particular props in it to bear up your hearts against discomforts and to strengthen you in a way of assurance touching your effectuall call First the Covenant of works it commands perfect obedience upon pain of damnation but the Covenant of grace doth command and accept of imperfect obedience if it be sincere there 's your first prop. Secondly the Covenant of works is not contented with good desires unlesse there be good works the Covenant of grace Ã¡ccepts the good will and good desâ—res when the deed is wanting and is content with the will for the deed Thirdly the Covenant of works doth require that you should obey the will of God perfectly in your own person the Covenant of grace requires onely that you obey in the person of Christ so Christ obeys for you it is accepted though you do not Fourthly the Covenant of works requires you to obey the whole will of God by your own strength the Covenant of grace accepts of it though not our own strength but the strength of Christ be put forth in doing any spiritual action Fifthly the Covenant of works requires the performance of the condition before it gives the Promise As Do this and live you cannot live saith the covenant of works without you doe this but the covenant of grace it first tenders the Promise and then requires the condition Bids you first take Christ and first believe and then shew forth the effects of faith First lay hold upon the promise and then hold forth and practice the condition of that Promise First believe and then take Christ though thou art unworthy and a wretched creature if after taking of him thou wilt be consciencious to practice those obligations that lies upon thee and I will accept thee Now would you lay these to your heart to study that vast difference between the Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace doubtlesse these would be great props for your inward comforts SERMON IX 2. Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure THE point of Doctrine I am yet upon in the prosecution of these words is this That Christians ought to put forth a great deal of diligence to make this sure to thâ—ir soules that they are effectually called by Jesus Christ In the handling of which I have gone over many particulars and resolved several cases of conscience I have yet two cases more to resolve and then shall winde up all in a general use Therefore Fourthly When or at what time doth God fill the souls of his people most with the assurance of their effectual calling And then Fifthly Wherein lies the difference between that assurance a godly man hath of his effectual calling and those presumptuous perswasions that wicked men have that theâ— are called effectually when they are not First when or at what time doth God give to his people most and strongest assurance of their effectuall calling And here in answer to this I shall comprize all I have to say under four heads that in four cases or times God doth usually give to his people most strong assurance First After the Lord hath greatly humbled the hearts of his people aâ—d broken them for sin then doth he usualy give in most assurance of a mans effectual calling and of the happinesse of his future condition When you can say as David did Psal â—8 3 There is no rest in my bones by reason of my sinne When you can say as the Psalmist doth Psal 51.8 Let the bones which thou hast broken rejoyce Then is the time for God to make you break forth with joy when he hath broken your hearts with sorrow God had broken Davids heart under the sense of that uncleannesse he had committed O saith David Thou hast broken my heart now let my broken spirit rejoyce and God gave him comfort and did restore the joy of his salvation to him You have a phrase Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart to save them that are of a contrite spirit The Lord is nigh to them Nigh what to do not onely to give them deliverance from outward trouble but from inward sorrows to give them inward joy and inward comforts that the bones which he hath broken might rejoyce The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken spirit to give them comfort Luke 4.18 It 's said there that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Christ what to do It was to binde up the broken in heart and to comfort those that mourn So Esa 61.1 2 3. To those that mourn he should preach comfort and binde up the broken-hearted When the Lord hath broken you under sin and humbled you under the sight of your evils then is the time when God will break in upon you with great joy Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest Rest there hath not onely reference to our rest in heaven that we shall rest there from sin and rest there from sorrow and rest there from temptation but I will give you rest it hath reference also to a promise in this life that if you are heavy laden that you count your iniquities a burden too heavy for you to bear Christ hath promised you peace inward peace in your own consciences in the assurance of your everlasting estate in assurance that you are called to a state of grace and shall come to a state of glory You know when the ground is plowed the clods are broken and the breaking of the clods makes way for the deeper rooting of the corn and that it may spring up with greater increase It is so when ye plow up in the Prophets language Jer. 4. the fallow ground of your hearts when you break the clods of your hearts by humiliations this makes way for the corn and grain that precious grain of assurance to spring and grow up to a fuller measure so that you are out of

nothing should be irksom to you that God would have you perform in case he would give you your wonted comforts If you finde this temper of spirit in you this is a very ready way to bring on your comforts and restore the joyes of your salvation to you Secondly Set upon humbling work the onely way to gain what you have lost is to mourn over your losses Jer. 31.18 19 20. See how Ephraim comes to have his comforts restored when he wept over his own discomforts I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe saith God and I said Is Ephraim my dear sonne I saw him smitting upon his thigh humbling his soul for his sins and since I saw him I do earnestly remember him and I will shew mercy to him Here you see lamenting Ephraim God in the very time of his bemoaning himselfe restored his comforts to him we hear many lament for their outward losses but who laments for the losse of inward comforts And David after he had lost his comforts by that great sin of adultery makes seven penitential Psalmes Psalmes of lamentation or repentance and he calls one of them A Psalm to call to remembrance And as an Author well notes when David came to renew his comforts he makes a Psalm to call to remembrance those sins that might provoke God to take away his comforts from him So Beloved let it be your work to make such Psalmes in your Closets and make it your practice to call to remembrance those evils that provoke God to eclipse your comforts to you and let that humble you If you cannot finde out the Particular sin labour to humble your soules for every sin and then to be sure you cannot misse that Thirdly Would you restore your wonted comforts then set upon praying work This course you sinde David took Psal 51.8 Make me O Lord to hear the voice of joy and gladnesse that the bones which thou hast broken might rejoyce Create in me a new heart and establish me with thy free Spirit verse 12. Here you read of Davids praying work how he poured forth his soul in prayer that God would restore to him the joyes of his salvation And here in your praying work I would onely cast in three directions First pray for a distinct sight of those evils that provoked God to take your comforts from you Secondly After you have got a sight bend the strength of your prayers most against those evils that did so provoke God to cloud your comforts Pray against them as against the deadliest enemy you have in the world Thirdly Pray for attaining those graces that may be inlets to spiritual comfort as the graces before named the grace of godly sorrow the grace of humiliation the grace of faith and of love to Jesus Christ Thus if you set upon searching upon humbling and upon praying work you are in a likely way to have your comforts restored Fourthly Set upon the work of Meditation and in this work I shall commend four meditations you are to take into your thoughts which may be very helpful and useful to you in restoring your comforts As First Let your meditations run upon this that sometimes you are not so competent Judges of your own spiritual estate as others may be As First In a time of desertion when God hath left you and frownes upon you Secondly In times of temptation when the devils temptations are violent against you Thirdly In times of Relapse when you are fallen into some great sin at this time you are not so competent Judges of your own estate but standers by may see more of your own good and your own sincerity then your selves may do as the Proverb is Many timâ—s Lookers on see more then he that playes the game it is true in this A Looker on may see sincerity sparkle in thy practice and thy graces shine in thy conversatioâ— when thou canst not do it thy selfe A childe when it blubbers and cries can see nothing of his book So when Christians are sad and sullen and lumpish they can hardly read any thing of their evidence Mr. Throgmorten got his assurance this way by the Testimony of a company of godly Mâ—nisters that they could lay their soules in his souls stead Let this therefore run in your Meditations that many times standers by and Christians that behold your walkings and see your Actions they may see more ground of comfort in you then your selves can do Secondly Meditate and think upon the comforts God gave you in wonted time and call them to minde Do as David did Psal 77. I called to minde the dayes of old and the years of many generations Call to minde ancient dayes did not God shew thee his face did not God bear thee in the palmes of his hands did not God give thee many a smile of his countenance and many a pledge of his love even by affliction it selfe did not God set many a seal upon thy heart that thy comforts were true thy evidence clear and thy ends sincere towards God Beloved call to minde the former frame of thy spirit how thou waft in wonted times and this Meditation being backed by Gods Spirit may be a great meanes to restore thy comforts to thee past goodnesse should be present encouragement Thirdly Meditate what way it was that you got your former comforts and assurance and the same way God will sanctifie to restore you your comforts again What Physicians say of the body We are nourished of those things of which we are begotten and generated So I say of comforts The very same thing that begot comforts the same will restore your comforts again Now think upon this in your practice and consider What way did I gain my comforts in yeares past did I gain my comforts by godly sorrow and by lamenting after God and by mourning over those abominable failings in my practice now take the same course to restore thy evidences Goe and mourn in thy closet over thy uneven walking before God Goe lament for thy sins mourn after thy Father and tell him thou art grieved at the heart that he is so great a stranger to thy soul Didst thou gain thy assurance in dayes past by humbling thy soul often before God Set upon humbling work again Didst thou gain thy comforts in dayes past by walking closely with thy God Amend thy paths and direct thy waies unto thy Maker for daies to come there is the very same way to restore your comforts that was at first to gain your comforts Fourthly Let your Meditations work upon those comforting Promises in the Gospel that hold forth most comfort to a dejected soule And truly I am perswaded Christians Meditations running more upon their own failings and their own jealousies and upon their own mistakes then upon Gospel-promises hath been the great occasion they have layn so long under a spirit of bondage and under a dark eclipse in the want of the comforts of Gods Spirit Therefore now let

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