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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	abraham_n	faith_n	perfect_a	4,924	5	9.0614	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42551	The love-sick spouse, or, The substance of four sermons preached on Canticles 2.5. by William Gearing ...	Gearing, William.	1665 (1665)	Wing G436; ESTC R42046	36,957	51

the yearnings of Josephs bowells over Benjamin his Mothers Son and of the true Mother over her child incaluerunt viscera they felt an agitation of their bowels Love the more vehement it is doth work the more sudden and sensible decay and languishing of Spirits as Amnon is said out of wanton love to wax lean from day to day and to grow sick for Tamar King 2 13. So here in Spiritual love you have the like expression O give me Wine to exhilarate Reynolds Treat de Passionibus and Apples to refresh those spirits that were as it were wasted and melted away by an extream out-let of love Hence I note Observ That true love carrieth out the soul after Christ with such vehemency that it is even sick for the want of Christ affections when they are strong will work disquiet when they obtain not what they are earnestly set upon when love is hindered it causeth a soul-sickness In handling of this point I will first shew what Love to Christ is Love to Christ is a supernatural grace wrought in the soul of a Christian by the spirit of God Descript through the knowledge of God in Christ and faith whereby we delight in Christ desire Union and Communion with him wish well unto him and rest upon him as the chiefest good where you have 1. The nature of it It is a supernatural vertue I call it a supernatural and heavenly love to distinguish it from other kinds of love there is a natural love Ista quam tu describis negotiatio est non amicitia quae ad commodum accedit Senec. Epist 9. which is naturally imprinted in us fastening us to those objects that are delightful to us this love is between Father and Child Husband and Wife c. There is a sensible love seated in the lower part of the soul and hath so much commerce with the senses from whence it borroweth its name as it alwayes makes impression upon the body and this it is which is properly termed passion There is a sensual and carnal love which may rather be called a fury then love there is worldly love when men are lovers of riches honours pleasures more then of Christ there is an immoderate self-love when men love their ease credit profit life more then Christ Yea many that pretend they love their friends they love them not so much for any vertue they observe in them as for the good they hope to reap by them Observe a man transfixed with any violent love you shall find a man whose mind is bewitched whose wit and reason is Ecclipsed all he beholds thinks and talks of is the object of his love but love to Christ is of a supernatural excellency it is a ray of Christs own love therefore he calls it his love Continue ye in my love John 15. 2. The efficient or worker of it is the Spirit of God we have it not from Nature but from the Spirit love is one of fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 Neither have we it from custome as Philosophers speak neither is it gotten by art or industry It is shed abroad upon our hearts by the Holy Ghost in us Rom. 5.5 Love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God 1 John 4.7 Now it is above the power of corrupt nature to love Christ 3. The object of this love is Jesus Christ the Spouse calls Christ him whom her soul loved Cant. 3. Christ is the object who is the Author of this love The objects of other loves are many times faulty and vitious Loves fancy may err in chusing an evil object but here it is not so for God and Christ are the only objects of this love 4. The grounds of this love that is through the knowledge of God in Christ and faith 1. Through the knowledge of God in Christ there must be a knowledge of Gods love to us before we can love him for as a stone that lies in the bowels of the earth is not hot till it be out of the earth and the Sun first shine upon it so we cannot love God till we first know his love toward us for our love is rather an effect then a cause of his love We love him because he loved us first 1 John 4.19 and we love not him till he hath first loved us If a man will love God in Christ he must first know God in Christ for our love to him is grounded upon our knowledge of God in Christ 2. A second ground of this love is faith there must be faith to believe the remission of our sins and that Christ loveth us in particular before we can truly love him The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 So that true love to Christ must spring from faith Object But it may be said that the woman in the Gospel had many sins forgiven her because she loved much Luke 7.47 Here was her love first then follows the remission of her sins Sol. The word Because doth not note out the cause of pardon but only a sign that her sins were pardoned You are to understand it thus it appeared that many sins were forgiven her because she loved much such a man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of God because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved of God he loveth much because much is forgiven This crosseth the opinion of the Papists they say Love is the form of faith for they make a double love one without faith and such a wicked man may have another with faith and such a wicked man cannot have Object But they object That which gives the operation to faith is the form of faith but love gives the operation to faith In Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith working by love Gal. 5.6 where love say they gives the operation to saith Ergo love is form of faith Resp Love gives the operation of faith not quà causa sed quà instrumentum not as the cause but as the instrument Love is not the cause of faiths operation but love is the instrument in its operation Object But S. James saith As the body without life is dead so faith without works is dead James 2.26 therefore love which makes faith to work gives life to it and is the form of it Sol. The works of faith as love c. do shew there is faith as the Spirit shews there is a soul if works were not there would appear to be no true faith Object That which doth perfect faith is the form of faith but works as love and other vertues do perfect faith James 2.22 By works was Abrahams faith made perfect Resp Works do perfect faith not in actu primo sed in actis secundo not in regard of the first act but in regard of the second as a tree is said to be perfected by the fruit not that the fruit gives

the essence to the Tree but the fruit sheweth that it is a perfect Tree 5. The effects of this love follow 1. Hereby we do delight in God this sheweth wherein true love consisteth There is alwayes a delight and complacency in the thing beloved we read in this book of the Canticles of the bed of love the soul of a believer reposeth it self in Christ as in a bed of Roses therefore his love is grounded upon Experience he loveth God exceedingly as best deserving love above all other Magnes amoris amor Love we say is the Loadstone of love they easily delight most in him of whom they find themselves most beloved A carnal man saith he loves Christ but doth not delight in him he pretends to love him but doth not like him Christ is not an object suitable to his crooked heart therefore he often picks a quarrel with Gods dealings as if God were engaged to him for his love he excepts against Gods Providence as if it were too partial for giving too much to others too little to himself He takes Exceptions against the Law of God as if it were too strict for tying him up from seeking his own pleasures on the Lords day and at no time suffering him to make provision for the flesh Can any man love Christ truly unless he delight in him Who can love his Prince and dislike his Laws his Government Who can love his Image that delighteth not in his person nay where there is dislike upon distimilitude there can be no true love affection cannot subsist nor be constant without judgement nor love without conformity now where there is true love there is a delight in Christ and a constant affection toward him 2. Amor est unio amantis ad antatum It makes a man desire to be united to Christ to enjoy the comfortable presence of Christ to have fellowship and communion with him Love is a desire of Union to the person beloved Upon the affection and liking that we take of Christ it will beget a desire in us to possess and enjoy him Fruition is that which love seeks it is never at rest till it can joyn it self to the object that it loveth till it gets to enjoy and possess it some have therefore resembled love unto fire whatsoever you cast into the fire it is the property of fire to assimilate it to transform it into its own nature and likeness such is the operation of love it transforms a man into the nature of that which he loveth if it be a fleshly object that he loveth it makes him carnal if earthly it makes him earthly if heavenly it makes him heavenly 3. It makes a man wish well to Christ the honour of Christ is more dear to him then all the world than his own life Coeffet Tabul human passion yea then his own salvation as Moses could have been even contented to have been blotted out of the Book of life then that Christ should be dishonoured One defineth Love thus Love is a well-wishing which we testifie with all our power to those to whom we are enclined procuring them for their own sakes all the good we think may give them content The son of Antigonus being sick and none knowing what he ailed the Physitian discovered the cause of it to be his love to his Mother-in-law for still as she came into his presence his pulses fell to beat extraordinarily Thus in our love of Christ when we see any thing done which makes for the honour of Christ it will make our spirits to exult and our hearts to leap within us On the other side when we see his holy name prophaned and dishonoured his Sabbaths defiled his Ordinances contemned this will fill a man that loveth Christ with an holy indignation burst his heart with grief and force his tongue to speak for the honour of him whom his soul loveth You have heard of the son of King Craesus that was born dumb and never spake word in all his life yet in the Battel when he saw the life of his Father in danger the string of his tongue suddenly burst asunder then he cryed to the Enemy to save him it was the King that he fought withall As it was with him when he saw the life of his Father endangered so it is with him that truly loves Christ when he sees the holy Name of God to be dishonoured it goes to his heart to see it and makes him break through all resistances of nature and speak then for the honour of Christ though he never speak more 4. The soul resteth upon Christ as the chiefest good rest is the utmost end that love seeks after and having gotten it it rejoyceth in it without end It is so in Gods own love where he loveth he doth after a sort acquiescere he doth rest pleased and satisfied with it Matth. 3. ult where speaking from heaven and testifying of his beloved son he saith Hic est filius meus dilectus and what he meant by it the following words do declare in quo mihi complaceo or inquo acquiesco in whom I am well pleased or do rest satisfied that is the sweet effect that love hath where it obtains fruition it receiveth full satisfaction Other objects do not satisfie us and no wonder they be flying and transitory What certain aim can a man take when he shoots at a flying Fowl Such be all terrestrial objects when we aim at them and hope to catch them as Solomon speaks of riches they take the wings of an Eagle and fly away from us Jesus Christ is an object more continuing and therefore gives more contentment In setting our loves upon him we find rest and peace it is not so when we set our hearts upon other things our hearts are then full of restless agitations and motion The inferiour part of the elementary Region that is toward the earth is the seat of Winds and Tempests but the upper part that is toward Heaven that is ever said to be calm and peaceable in like sort are our hearts and souls when the love of them doth propend toward these inferiour and earthly things they be full of unquiet agitations tempestuous and troublesome but when they be higher raised viz. to Christ and Heaven-ward then they be calm and quiet there is rest peace solace satisfaction and abundance of tranquility CHAP. XI IN the second place I shall shew what this Love-sickness is and whence it ariseth Love-sickness is a strong impulsion of love in the soul after Christ and a most vehement thirsting after him upon the sense of the want of him It is observable that in this Book of Solomons Song the Spouse is said twice to be sick of love once in the absence of Christ once in his presence In his absence when the Watchmen that went about the City smote her and wounded her and the Keepers of the walls took away her vail from her then she chargeth the