Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	love_n	love_v	5,814	5	7.1381	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86601	Preces & Lachrymæ. A sermon on Act. chap. XX. vers. 36, 37, 38. Vers. 36. And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. 37. And they all wept sore, and fell on Pauls neck, and kissed him. 38. Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, thay they should see his face no more, and they accompanied him to the ship. / By William Houghton, preacher at Bicknor in Kent.	Houghton, William, preacher at Bicknor in Kent.	1650 (1650)	Wing H2938; Thomason E602_3; ESTC R206405	33,827	37

quaetis artem ubivides dominari affectum and when passion is up sorrow stirring method is then commonly laid aside As one saith of Jeremy's book of Lamentations Do you seek for art or method amongst sighs and lamentations So art might well be excused here where affection is so strong yet because method is the mother of memory you may if you please help your memories with this division There are presented to us out of this Text two things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e The love of Paul to the Ephesians and the love of the Ephesians to Paul his to them theirs to him 1. His love to them is set forth in two acts 1. Preaching Having so said 2. Praying He kneeled down and prayed 2. Their love to him you have it exprest in three acts 1. Kissing They kissed him 2. Weeping They all wept sore 3. Conducting him They accompanied him to the ship Other particulars there are which I shall handle in their place these propounded are the chief of which in their order so as may be most pertinent to the occasion drew me hither at this time to wit the decease of my worthy friend your good Pastour who having set his face to Jerusalem I mean that which is above hath now finished his course Scaligeriqu od reliquum est Scal. Epitaph his soul is at rest with God The remains of him his Corpse having wept over it and sprinkled it with your tears you have accompanied to the grave Considering this accident I knew not what I should discourse of more seasonably at this time then of these two generall Points my Text presents you withall under the persons of Paul and the Ephesians namely the love of a faithfull Pastour to the people and of their love to him I begin with the first which as was said hath two acts Preaching and Praying First Preaching in these words When he had thus spoken that is when he had preached this Sermon unto them Doct. Preaching is an act of love in Gods Ministers it was you see the first act of Pauls love to the Ephesians 1 Thes 2.8 Rom. 1.11 We were willing to impart the Gospel unto you because ye were dear to us And I long to see you that I may impart to you some spirituall gift What makes men give gifts send tokens to their friends is it not their love So it was his love that made Paul so free of his spirituall gifts Tom. 5. pag. 110. because they were dear to him Thus Chysostome to the people of Antioch I am your Father saith he and must needs instruct my children and give them good counsel If the nature of the flesh or naturall love move earthly parents how much more shall the grace of the Spirit move us to do this Preaching then is an act of love a testimony of that affection and good will Ministers bear to the souls of Gods people Simon Jona lovest thou me John 21.26 feed my sheep We herein shew our love to Christ our love to his sheep when we feed them with the word of Life It is an act of love to feed mens bodies an act of love to cloathe their bodies how much more to feed their souls with this heavenly Manna of Gods Word As workers together with him 2 Cor. 6.2 to cloathe their souls with the rich robe of Christs righteousnesse We help to do these things therefore the acts we perform are acts of the highest love Inference 1 This shews then first what depraved judgements men have in this matter if the Minister will eat and drink hawk and hunt with them they account him a kind companion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 9.18 especially the most loving a cheap Gospel if he be moderate in requiring the dues belonging to him or let them go upon easie terms Oh then they cry him up for a wonderfull quiet loving man though Preaching be a thing he seldome useth they see no such love in that whith is the highest of all When Ministers labour hard in the Word and Doctrine and when Christs stewards endeavour to break the bread of Life to his houshold herein they show their greatest love and if they minister to you in spirituall things 1 Cor. 9 11. is it a great matter if they reap your carnall things But secondly what shall we say to those that account Preaching a sign of enmity and Preachers enemies as Ahab did Eliah 1 Kings 21.20 Hast thou found me 1 Kings 21.8 O my enemy And Micaiah I hate the man said he he never prophecied good to me he is an enemy Many are ready to say of us Wisd 2.13 14. as they in Wisdome These Preachers were made to reprove our thoughts they upbraid us with our offending the Law they object to our infamy the transgression of our education they are enemies So we are we professe our selves enemies to your lusts but friends to your souls 1 Pet. 2.11 your lusts they fight against your souls therefore they are your best friends that are ever at war with and ever fighting against your lusts he is his own enemy that thinks otherwise Thirdly if this be an act of love it shews then the little love that many bear to Christs sheep in that they have so little care to minister to them this spirituall food to see them wandering in by-paths and not to endeavour to leade them out of those wayes that leade to destruction to be dumb when they see them living in ignorance and profanesse and not to warn them of the danger hereof this certainly is not love but cruelty and that in the highest degree O yee Corinthians saith Paul our mouth is opened to you 2 Cor. 6.11 our heart is enlarged these two will go together an enlarged heart and an open mouth Pauls heart was enlarged and that opened his mouth If love as a heavenly fire hath given us a dilatation or enlargement of heart it will be as a key also opening our mouths to declare Gods truth unto men Preaching then is an act of love Paul out of his love came and preached this Sermon to the Ephesians and it was an excellent Se●mon Oratio praeclara eximia singularis Camerar in vita Pauli we have not time now to look into the contents or matter of it but if you cast your eyes back and take onely a generall survey of it you shall observe four remarkable particulars touching the manner of Pauls preaching His 1. Painfulnesse 2. Faithfulnesse 3. Prudence 4. Affectionatenesse All which set forth the excellency of this sermon First his Painfulnesse 1. Painfulnesse two or three dayes before he preached this Sermon travelling to Miletus he sent away his company before and went himself afoot it may be Paul was then studying this elaborate piece however it smells as we say of the lamp we see a great deal of pains in it The Apostles though Divinely inspired yet we may think they

how this should come to passe unlesse as it fares with us that our eyes do oft water when we look upon watry eyes so its likely here that one mans tears drew on anothers Humanitatis refugit affectum qui dolorem non sequitur alienum Cassiodor p. 374. Rom. 12.15 Humane affection makes us follow other men in their sorrow and to weep with them that weep But what ever the cause was certain it is that tears stood in every mans eyes the Text reports it for a generall weeping And we cannot but think that some of them were naturally men of harder constitutions dryer bodies then the rest but grace is stronger then nature for the hardest heart now relents the driest bodie now yields tears All wept Secondly Consider the excesse of it or depth of their sorrow 2. Wept sore They wept sore It had been much if every one had wept though never so little had he onely watered his eyes or let fall one tear it had been much here was more they all wept yea and they wept sore their sorrow therefore must needs be great Some say Lachryma quasi lacerrima à lacerando Camerar Cent. 102. because tears are bred of a laceration of the spirit and why may not the English word tears have the like Etymology from tearing of the heart certainly these were tearing tears renting as it were and tearing the very hearts of the Ephesians but the originall word signifies more then tears 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tears and throbs such as use to be the pain of a woman in her travell Paul had been in travell with them they are now in travell with him they cry and weep and take on without measure Great was that love that drew out such abundance of tears Inference Away then with that Stoicall Apathy which would make men like stocks or stones taking from us those affections which are reveted and ingrafted into our very natures so that to take them away were all one as to go about to take away meeknesse from the Lamb Evangelium non tollit sed vere regit naturales affectus Beza in loc Vid. Lactant p. 478.481 fiercenesse from the Lion fear from the Hare sooner may ye kill these creatures then take away these affections from them even so it is with man But the Peripateticks allow affections to be in us but modicè ac temperatè they are Lactantius his words We must rejoyce say they but not much grieve but not much which is as if they had said That a man must alwayes go fair and softly but never run whereas we know that he that goes foot-pace may go wrong and a man that runs as fast as his leggs will carry him may keep the right way So affections if set right though violent are not to be condemned I can tell you of a sorrow the least measure whereof is sinfull I can instance again in a sorrow which being excessive deserves no blame Such was this of the Ephesians They wept sore The third Circumstance is the place and manner of their weeping I put them both under one it was upon Pauls neck On Pauls neck It is said of Joash that he wept over the face of Elisha as he say a dying 2 King 13.14 Gen. 45.14 so Joseph and Benjamin wept one upon another when they met together in Egypt Joseph wept on Benjamins neck and Benjamin wept upon Josephs neck so here they wept on Pauls neck But had they no where else to weep I answer this was the fittest place they could chuse and that for these reasons First Reason 1. A more nihil velocius nihil acutius nihil subtilius ideo quiescere nequit donec in intimum dilecti pectus descendat Comp. spirit doct 182. it is the desire of lovers to expresse their affections in presence of those they love for it is the nature of love to go forth and embrace the object wherewith it is delighted therefore called an affection of union because it unites and knits two together and so makes them as it were one Therefore one saith thus There 's nothing so acute so quick so peircing as love is which cannot rest till it be got into the very heart of its beloved Again Reason 2. Psal 119.159 Tears are testimonies of our love now friends desire nothing more then to have their love taken notice of Consider saith David how I love thy law So a man is not content to love his friend but he must have his friend consider it and know he loves him he comes to him with a Testentur hae lachrymae let these tears be testimonials of my love to you for we may not think all that 's done openly to be done hypocritically The saying is He grieves with a witnesse that grieves without a witnesse yet our grief may be true Ille dolet vere qui sine teste dolet though it have a witnesse Indeed Hypocrisie may and doth oft mingle it self yet you see a man may weep openly in the presence of his friend yet those tears be without out hypocrisie When Saul purposed to kill David 1 Sam. 22 41. Jonathan went out to meet him in the fields and they kist one another and wept one with another surely it was to testifie that unfeigned love they had one to another therefore they vent their grief into one anothers bosome and lay their tears as nigh one anothers heart as they can So the Ephesians they might have wept at home and not here in Pauls presence but then they had lost a testimony of their love but that may not be they love him and he must see they love him therefore come they up to him as close as they can and weep upon his very neck That 's a second reason Reason 3 Thirdly It s a great ease to a mans heart to weep in the presence of his friend in the presence of one whom he loves those tears give him a great deal of refreshment Let a mother receive news of the death of her child what is the usuall complaint in this case Oh had I been with my poor child to have kist it to have wept upon it before God took it away it would have eased my heart neither her kisses nor her tears could do her child good but they would have done her good would have been as good as meat and drink to her Therefore saith Seneca Excidunt retinentibus lachrymae animum profusae levant Sen. Epist 445. Sedatur lachrymis egeriturque dolor Ovid. de trist Tears will out somtimes whether we will or no and when they are gone the oppressed heart finds ease Our Saviour Christ loved Lazarus and he wept for Lazarus being dead but where think you was it at his grave when they shewed him where he lay Jesus wept and he took a journey to come and weep there Mary she also wept and it was thought by the Jews Joh. 11.35 36. to