Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	love_n	love_v	world_n	20,088	5	6.2970	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09984	Mount Ebal, or A heavenly treatise of divine love Shewing the equity and necessity of his being accursed that loves not the Lord Iesus Christ. Together with the motives meanes markes of our love towards him. By that late faithfull and worthy divine, John Preston, Doctor in Divinitie, chaplaine in ordinary to his Majestie, master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.	1638 (1638)	STC 20238; ESTC S115085	27,130	53

and that God hath accepted the attonement for thee in him thou canst never love him as a brother or friend but rather feare him as an enemy or Judge pray therefore with the Desciples Lord encrease our faith and therefore ply the ministery of the word one* else I say againe thou canst never truely love him but as thou dost another man which thou knowest not whether hee love thee againe or no and so thou mayst hate him againe at some time or other for all that but labour for faith and that will breede love and then if thou love him he will surely love thee yea indeede thou couldst neither love nor beleeve in him were it not but hee loves thee first But thou wilt say how shall I know that I answer It is the Apostle Saint Iohns owne words or rather his words by that his Apostle wee love him because hee loved us first And besides his word though that were enough thou hast his seale he hath given thee his Sonne who hath given his life for thee and shed his most precious blood for thy salvation and would he have done this for thee thinkest thou if he had not loved thee no but herein is love not that wee loved God but that God loved us and sent his Sonne to die for us us* and even yet by his spirit hee still sues unto us for our love as a further testimony thereof Oh but thou wilt say I am not worthy of so great love for I am a sinner disobedient and rebellious But I answer what dost thou tell him of that what if thou wert the chiefe of sinners he knew that before he gave thee his Sonne and he gave him unto thee the rather because he knew thou wast so for he justifies the ungodly that is those that condemne and judge themselves to be so so that if thou wilt but beleeve in him and imbrace him it is as much as he desires of thee But thou wilt say it may be he is affected to this or that person and not to me to which I answer againe That his commission is generall Goe preach unto all nations baptizing them c. And so is his invitation too Come unto mee all you that labour c. so that if thou wilt but beleeve and come in unto him thou shalt be saved for he casts out none that come in unto him as you heard before Ioh. 6. 37. And when thou hast considered this then begin to argue and reason thus with thy selfe sith the promise is made to all I know I am one of that number and then thou wilt begin to love him for all thou art a sinner yea thou wilt love him so much the more for that to consider that for all that he loved thee Oh but thou wilt say I see I sinne dayly and hourely and that againe and againe against many vowes and promises against many mercies and meanes of better obedience But I answer what though thou dost remember that as there 's a spring of sinne and corruption in thee so there 's a spring of mercy and compassion in God and that spring is set open for sinne and for uncleanesse to wash and purge thee from the same so that still I say if thou wilt but love and beleeve in him he will love thee for notwithstanding all this hee still woes and sues unto thee for thy love and therefore stand no longer out with him but come in with all the speede thou canst make which that thou mayst the better doe thou must remove these two hinderances out of the way Strangenesse Worldly mindednesse First Strangenesse for strangenesse begets coldnesse of love whereas familiarity as I told you procures boldnesse in the day of judgment But thou wilt say how shall I come to be acquainted with God How why be much in his praise in hearing of the word and receiving of the Sacrament there is a communion of Saints you know and so there 's a communion of God with the Saints let us therefore be carefull to maintaine this communion betwixt us by having recourse unto him in his ordinances and seeking unto him for comfort in all our troubles and adversities Secondly Worldly mindednesse that also begets coldnesse of affection and want of love to the Lord Christ and therefore hee circumcises the heart that is he puts off all carnall and worldly affections from it that so thou mayst not love the world nor the things of the world but may love him with all the heart and with all c. for the love of the world is enmity with God so that if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him for you cannot serve God and Mammon and therefore our Saviour saith That we must not onely forsake but hate father and mother and wife and children and house and lands for his sake and the Gospells or else we cannot be his Disciples so did the Apostles we have forsaken all and followed thee Wherefore let us not set these things too neere our hearts but considering what it is that keepes us asunder as vaine hopes worldly feares fantasticke pride pleasures profits and the like let us cashiere them and cast them from us for what are all these and all such as these are but vaine things that cannot profit in the evill day And therefore as Samuel exhorts the people of Israel Turne not aside from the Lord unto them either to the right hand or to the left for they cannot profit because they are vaine But thou wilt say will God then be content with any love I answer no truely that he will not neither what then Answer First thou must love him withall thy strength and with all thy power with all the parts and faculties of soule and body Now it may be thou art a Magistrate a master of a family a Minister a Tutor or any other governour and then thou must doe God more service then another private and inferiour person thou mayst compell them that are under thee to love the Lord by thy authority and example God lookes for this I say at thy hands for to whom much is given of them much shall be required thou art but as a servant sent to market which must give an account for what hee hath received and the more money hee hath given him to bestow and lay out the more commodities his master lookes he should bring home with him for it so the more wit or understanding or learning or knowledge or authority and power thou hast the more love must thou beare unto Christ and shew it by thy bringing forth more fruits thereof unto him then others that have none of all these oportunities or not in so great a measure as thou hast this is the first thing Secondly thou must love him above all things in the world besides whether it be pleasure or honour

debt for thee when thou wast ready to goe to prison for it so that now the Lord begins to grow angry with thee if thou wilt not yet love him for all this and yet this is not all and therefore Thirdly consider also that he loves thee now as fire begets fire so doth love beget love therefore saith Saint Iohn we love him because he loved us first that is his love to us should make us love him againe but especially we cannot but love him if we consider in the last place Fourthly what his love is for its unspeakeable and passing knowledge we can never conceive the height and length c. All which what should it teach us but these two things First that if we will not love the Lord he will shew his wrath and make his power knowne upon us that we are but vessells of wrath fitted for destruction as it is said Againe Secondly it should exhort us to love the Lord Iesus Christ and therefore to provoke us thereunto we should often consider and thinke in these things what right and title he hath to us how much he hath done for us and how greatly he loves yea and more then all this wee shall thereby also have these and these things wee shall by this meanes reape these and these benefits First we shall have his spirit the spirit of truth the Comforter which shall leade us into all truth and enable us to fullfill his Commandements and with facility and ease whereas else they would be grievous unto us as for example Saint Paul would soone have beene weary of preaching and suffering so much as he did if he had not had this love in him and why doe parents thinke nothing too much for their children but because they love them therefore it is that though they bee froward and untoward yet still they beare with them if then we cannot finde in our hearts to be quiet untill they looke to the Lord like as the needle of a compasse which is toucht with a Loadstone will never stand still till it comes to the North-pole then may this be a testimony unto us that may distinguish us from Hypocrites and witnesse to our soules that we love the Lord Iesus Christ for they keepe the Commandements of God in some sort and abstaine from some one kinde of sinne but not out of love to him nor in any obedience and conscience of his word but in love to themselves Secondly this is a marke of thy Resurrection from the death of sinne to the life of righteousnesse hereby shall yee knew that yee are translated from death to life because yee love the brethren now yee cannot love them but you must love the Father that begot them Thirdly thou shalt get by this thy love to him for when thou givest him thy heart he will give it thee againe he will onely alter the object but let thee keepe the affection still onely it shall be better then it was before he will purifie it from all its corruptions and cleanse it from all its sins Nor shall this be any thing out of thy way it shall be as much for thy profit as ever it was before for when thy heart is set to keepe his Commandements when it inclines to his statutes as so hee will incline it then whatsoever thou dost it shall prosper so that as it s said of the Sabbath that it was made for man that is for mans good so may we say the same of all the rest of the Commandements that it is made for man that is for his good and benefit and therefore the promise of life and happinesse is made to all alike And here by the way take this difference along with thee to distinguish thy love from selfe love for that is all for it selfe but this is all for him whom thou lovest if then thou love the Lord for thine owne good it is selfe love but if thou love him for himselfe simply without any respect to the recompence of reward then is it true love indeede Fourthly wee shall receive much comfort by loving the Lord now what is that keepes us from loving of him but our pleasures we are loath to part with them and yet alas we shall receive much more and they farre more substantiall sollider and sounder comfort by loving of him then ever we should by loving of the world or the things of the world Now doe but thinke how good a thing it is to love one that is but like thee much rather shouldst thou love one that died for thee wherefore if thou wouldst have thy heart filled with joy and comfort love him for so thou shalt have joy unspeakeable and glorious And last of all if thou wouldst indeede unfainedly love the Lord Iesus Christ consider Fiftly that it makes thee a more excellent man then thou wast before for every man is better or worse according to his love as it is set on things better or worse now Christ is the Summum bonum the chiefest good and if thou love him thou art united unto him and to his God-head for love is of a uniting nature Thou wilt say these are indeede good motives to make us to love him but how shall I come by this love or by what meanes shall I get this love into my heart For answer whereunto I tell thee first of all that if thou canst but unfeinedly desire to love him thou hast halfe done this worke already and that thou mayst have such a desire meditate often upon those motives before This is the answer Christ himselfe gave to his Disciples when they asked him how they should get faith why saith he if you have faith but as a graine of mustard feed you should say to this mountaine be thou removed and be thou throwne into the midst of the Sea c. thereby shewing them the excellency of it that so he might the more enamour them with the love of it and make them desire it above all that they could imagine and thinke of besides in comparison thereof but if thou wouldst as thou sayst thou desirest to love the Lord Iesus Christ indeede with all thy heart with all thy soule and with c. I answer and add againe thou canst not use a better meanes to attaine thereunto and get the love of him into thy heart then these First pray unto God for it for all graces are his gifts they are meere Donatives and hee hath promised to heare them that aske in his Sonnes name and to give the spirit to them that aske it that is to give the gifts and graces thereof unto them nor is he any niggard for he giveth liberally and obraideth not But thou wilt say how doth prayer beget love I answer it begets it two wayes First by prevailing with God Secondly by familiarity with him First I say by prevailing with God so did Iaacob and the woman of Canaan for considering that