Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A31952
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Evidence for heaven containing infallible signs and reall demonstrations of our union with Christ and assurance of salvation : with an appendix of laying down certain rules to be observed for preserving our assurance once obtained / published by Ed. Calamy ...
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Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing C240; ESTC R3864
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140,854
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252
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believeth all things loveth all things endureth all things 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6 7. It is a heart-softening affection a heart-mollifying love This is intimated by the language of the Apostle Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfullness of sinne Hence it is evident That if our love one towards another were such as it should be and did operate as it should do it would soften and mollifie our hearts Congruous love is mollifying Here note two or three things Christians frequently complain of hardness of heart in these dayes and not without cause but few I believe take notice that want in love is the cause of it Strangeness weakens cools and abates love nothing more this it doth in man towards God and in man towards man and as love abates and strangeness grows the heart contracts hardness more and more Probatum est Whilest the Galatians love towards Paul continued they were pliable within and without they would have parted with any thing to have done him good but when once their love abated their hearts were hardned towards him and his message too Love and intimate converse melts the heart nothing more strangeness hardens it nothing the like intimate converse with God encreaseth love to God and melteth the heart intimate converse with the godly-wise doth the like Our great hardness of heart and unprofitableness under the great meanes of grace in publick I may truly say hath in great part sprung from the gross neglect of the duties of Christian love and the great strangeness that is grown amongst Christians in these times where we meet but in complement usually But when God shall give his people one heart and one way to serve him with one consent when their love shall abound one towards another and operate without these obstructions of division in judgement and affection they shall then have hearts of flesh and not of stone as appears by Ier. 32.39 and Zeph. 3.9 compared with Ezek. 36.26 which places have reference to one and the same time It is said of Leviathan Job 41. That the flakes of his flesh are joyned together they are firme in themselves they cannot be moved His scales are one so neer another that no Air can come between them They are joyned one to another they stick together that they cannot be sunderâ—d The Lord Jesus Christ is the great Leviathan of Heaven and Earth and his people are his scales and the flakes of his flesh and were they so joyned together in Christian love and society that no Air of temptation could come between them they would be firm in themselves and so stick together that they could not be sundered yea in their neck would strength remaine and sorrow would be turned into joy before them I wish all the Saints to whose view this may come may take these things into consideration Great is the latitude of Christian love of love congruous to the rule of God for they whose love is congruous to the rule of God Grudge not a one against â—â—e other Speak not evil one of another Do not bite and devour one another Deviâ—e â—ot evill one against another Do not oppress over-reach or defraud one another iâ— any matter Render not evill for evill unto any man Say not I will do so to him as he hath done to me I will â—ender unto the man according to his deeds They bear not false witness against their Neighbour nor bear witness without cause against their Neighbour nor deceive with their lips Lay not wait against the dwelling of the righteous Spoil not his resting place Adde not affliction to the afflicted Rejoyce not in their enemies fell much less in their brothers Hate not their brother in heart Stand not against the blood of their Neighbours out of desire of revenge nor upon a politicall account Are not as Cain who slew his Brother They judge not their Brother nor set at nought their Brother Give no offence willingly to any but endeavour as much as lawfully they may to live peaceably with all men They put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and â—lamour and evill speaking with all malice Love one another as God gave us Commandement Love one another as Christ hath loved us Love as Brethren Love without dissimulation cordially unfeignedly out of a pure heart fervently Love not in word and in tongue only but in deed and in truth They walk in love abound in Love grow in Love speak the truth in Love serve one another in Love continue in Love are kindly affectionated one towards another with brotherly Love Rejoice with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep In honour preferre one another have compassion one of another are pitifull are courteous one towards another tender hearted if rich they are rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate shew mercy with cheerfullness they beare one anothers burdens If strong beare the infirmities of the weak support the weak beare one with another aâ—d forbeare one another Forsake not the assembling of themselves together but exhort one another daily edify one another and comfort one another with the Word of the Lord Teach and admonish one another consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good works confess their faults one to another This I think is meant at least chiefly of faults committed one against another and pray one for another Pray for all men even enemies Do good unto all but especially unto the houshold of Faiâ—h they are not overcome of evill but labour to overcome evill with goodness they do as they would be done by in all things they esteem very highly in Love for their works sake their lawfull and faithfull Ministers especially those in whom they have propriety They receive one another as Christ received us to the glory of God and be at peace among themselves Then again He whose Love to his brother is congruous to the Rule of God goes not up and down as a tale-bearer He seeks not his own but his brothers good labours to avoid whatsoever may offend or weaken his brother or be a stumbling block unto him labours to please his brother for his good to Edification He loves his Neighbour as himself doth good freely looking for nothing again He saies not as Cain Am I my brothers keeper but watches over his brother for his good and reproves his brother in Love according to Christ's Rule privately and publiquely if need be informs against his brother in such place and case as Christ commands him and with-draws from his brother in case of
which it kindleth within This is evident by the zeal of those which have sincerely loved God in all agâ—s we may take all the Saints for an example of this but I will instance only in Moses and Pâ—ul Moses who was the meekest man upon the earth had his spirit so warmed with the love of God in his heart thaâ— the fire of zeal brake forth in an unquenchable flame in him when he saw God dishonoured and an Idol magnified by the people of God And Paul's spirit was hereby so stirred within â—im when he saw the people given to Idolaâ—ry that he could not forbear to reprove it whatever he underwent for it All these had their hearts so warmed with the love of Gâ—d that neither water nor bloud could quench the flame that love had kindled which evidently demonstrates this love to be a heart-warming Affection Though sincere Love to God do warm the hearts of all in whom it is with a zeal of God yet doth it not warm the hearts of all alike according to the measure and degree of love in the heart such is the zeal that issueth out of it Sincere Love to God is a soul-humbling affection it thinks it can never do nor suffer enough for God and thence it is that it doth not glory in any doing or suffering it comes stil short of what it should do and what it would do and therefore is not puffed up with what it doth but rather humbled by its failings Knowledge puffeth up but love casteth down the soul. Sincere Love to God is a heart-softening affection as is evident by the carriage of Nathan towards David when the Lord sent Nathan to awaken David and call him to repentance What did Nathan but labour to set an edge on David's love by setting the loving kindness of the Lord before him as one knowing that if any thing melted his heart this would do it and this we see did it which plainly shews That love is a heart-softening affection This is yet farther evident in other of the Saints Iosiah loved his God and hence it was that his heart melted when he considered how he and his people had offended God by walking contrary to his statutes Mary Magdalen sincerely loved Christ and hence it was that her heart was so mollified and melted for the sinne she had committed Love softeneth the heart in which it is nothing more nothing so mollifying as love love delated and love apprehended mollifyeth the heart as oyl doth the hand The way to encrease sorrow for sinne is to encrease love to God grief is but an effect of love love is the leading affection to grief anger hatred and desire grief springs not so naturally from any thing as it doth from love there is no grief so kindly none so pierâ—ing none so lasting and wasting as that the 〈◊〉 springs from pure love Object But this property of love makes me to question the truth of my love for I find my heart is hard I cannot grieve for sinne as I should or as I would Answ. Softness of heart hath other appearances besides grief it shews it self in yeelding to walk in the statutes of the Lord and keep his ordinances and do them inflexibility and readiness to obey the known will of the Lord without standing out against any part of it and to these a child of God should have recourse in such case Sincere Love to God is a sinne-abating affection This I gather from the propheticall prediction of Jesus Christ concerning these times Because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold hence it is evident That the abounding of iniquity springs from the totall want or decay of love if love did abound iniquity could not abound it would abate the force of it love is therefore called a breast-plate The abating of iniquity is according to the abounding of love in what measure love aboundeth in that measure sinne abateth but as love decayes abates and cools iniquity abounds While the Church of Ephesus continued in her first and fervent love we read of no complaints of her but when her love abated her inâ—quity abounded Sincere Love to God will abate sinne in a Person Church or Nation if it be in the Person Church or Nation Sincere Love to God is an establâ—shing affection This I gaâ—her from the language of the Apostle 2 Thes. 2.10 11. Because they received not the love of the truth tâ—at they might be saved for this cause God shall send them strong delusions to believe lies c. Hence it is evident That had these of whom the Apostle speakes received the love of the truth had they sincerely loved the God of truth they had continued in the truth in the knowledge of it in the belief of it in the obedience of it and neither totally nor finally apostatized from the truth which strongly argues love is an establishing affection The knowledge of the truth without love of the truth to wit sincere love is utterly unavaileable unto salvation The knowledge of the truth without love of the truth is unvaled to uphold in the profession and obedience of the truth He whose judgement is unsound is in danger to be corrupt by flatteries as the Prophet Daniel speakes but he whose love is unsound is in more danger to be corrupt by flatteries He whose love is sound may through frailty fall and through fear of some corporall evil become guilty of partiall apostacy but he shall never fall away totally nor finally from the God of truth nor from the truth of God By all which it appears that love is an establishing affection Sincere Love to God is not lessened by encrease of knowledge but encreased with it He that loves God sincerely his knowledge doth not lessen his love to God or the Ordinances of God or the Ministers of God but encreaseth it his love doth abound more and more as his knowledge doth abound more and more This is sufficiently intimated by the language of the Apostle Phil. 1.9 He whose light doth not encrease but rather decrease his love hath cause to question his love and his light too Finally Sincere Love to God alwayes produceth sincere love to man for Gods sake This is evident by the language of the Apostle If any man say I love God and hate his brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen As if the Apostle had said It is impossible for that man to love God sincerely which loveth not his brother if a man love God this love will constrain him to love his brother it will produce love to man for Gods sake This is farther intimated ver 21. By these few Properâ—ies Effects and Appearances of a sincere love to God I conceive a Christian may judge aright of his love to God and so consequently of his