The Breastplate of Faith and Love

You must think the Lord will take this exceeding evil at your hands, that you should bestow this affection elsewhere than on him whom you are engaged unto, to whom you are bound so much, who hath done so much for you.

You must thinke the Lord will take this exceeding evill at your hands, that you should bestow this affection elsewhere than on him whom you are engaged unto, to whom you are bound so much, who hath done so much for you.

But that which moves us most is particulars,¹ if a man consider what the Lord hath done for him in particular, remember what passage hath been between the Lord and you from the beginning of your youth. Jer. 2.² Neither said they where is the Lord that brought you out of the land of Egypt through the wilderness: I remember thee from the land of Egypt, &c. That is, let a man consider Gods particular dealing with him, for when the Lord would stir up David, and melt his heart, and bring it to a kindly sorrow for his sins, he takes that course: 2 Sam. 12.7.³ it is Nathans speech to him, saith he, Did not the Lord do thus and thus? Did he not make thee King of Judah and ⟨p. 48⟩Israel? Did not he give thy Masters wives and thy Masters houses into thy bosom? And if that had not been enough, he would have done thus and thus. So let every man recount the particular kindnesses and mercies he hath received from the Lord; and when we consider that it is he that doth all, that it is he that feeds us, that it is he that clothes us, we have not a nights sleep but he gives it to us, we have not a blessing but it is from his hand, there is not a judgement that we escape but it is through his providence: I say the consideration of these particulars should be as so many sparks, to breed in us a flame of love towards the Lord, to think with your selves when you have done all, how unreasonable a thing it is, how unequal a thing that you should forget this God, that you should never think on him, that you should not love him, he that hath done thus much for you.