Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	call_v	love_v	son_n	3,837	5	5.5941	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56700	A sermon preached in the chappel of St. James's before His Highness the Prince of Orange, the 20th of January, 1688 by Symon Patrick ...	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1689 (1689)	Wing P846; ESTC R23233	16,187	39

a bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax i. e. dishearten or utterly deject those of whom there was any hope tho for the present they were his Enemies and sought to destroy him But he persuaded all in the most gracious manner to become new Creatures and sent his Apostles abroad also upon this errand with peace in their mouths unto every House into which they entred And if you would know what kind of Creatures he intended to make them you may learn that even from the names he commonly bestows upon his Disciples whom he calls his Sheep and his Lambs and little Children the very terms wherein the Prophet here speaks unto whom he gave this new Commandment That they should love one another even as he had loved them that is with the most ardent love and sincerest affection Which his beloved Apostle repeats so often and in the very same language calling those to whom he writes My little Cheldren as if he thought this was the whole business of Christianity That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment 1 John III. 23. But I 'll spend no more time in this nor stay to give an account of one place in the Gospel which seems to contradict it Mat. X. 34. 35. because whatsoever the Event was by accident in the attempt of so great a Change as our Saviour came to make the Nature and Genius of the Religion which he taught is such that as he could have no other design so it is apt in it self to make Men the most peaceable Creatures though never so disagreeing in their Natural Tempers and Dispositions That 's the next thing to be considered in this matter II. Which will be evident to every ones Satisfaction who will seriously weigh these three Things First The Principles of his Religion or the Doctrines he taught Men to believe together with the way and means whereby these Principles were established in Mens Minds Secondly The Precepts of his Religion or the Things he taught them to practise Thirdly The Obligations he laid upon Men to receive these Principles and observe these Precepts All of which are very powerful to make Men of a loving gracious Disposition and perfectly to reconcile them one to another First As to the Principles of his Religion and the Means he used to settle them in Mens Minds He 1. Taught them first of all that there is but one God. The Disbelief of which as it had set the World at such enmities one with another as they confessed was among their Deities so the planting this Faith in Mens Hearts any one may discern at the first sight must needs be an apt means to breed such Love among Men as is between the Children of one and the same common Parent of them all 2. And that 's very considerable as he declared one God to Men so he revealed him as his and their Father full of Kindness and Goodwill to all his Children having a tender and affectionate Care of their Immortal Happiness Which St. Paul thought a Bond so strong and a Motive so very efficacious that it concludes the great heap of Arguments whereby he perswades Christians to Unity of Spirit and Peace Ephes iv 6. There is one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all that is is the Supream Lord of us all diffusing his careful and paternal Providence through the whole Body of this vast Empire and more particularly resides among Christian People 3. Who are taught which is the next thing to worship this one God by one Mediator alone which is both another Bond of Union as the Apostle there teaches when he saith there is one Lord V. 4. and likewise gives very great assurance of God's tender Love to all Mankind as he discourses in another Epistle 1 Tim. ii 4 5. where he proves that God would have all Men to be saved and to come to the knowledg of the Truth from this Principle for there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all 4. Which appears by this further care he hath taken of us all that he sent his Apostles to baptize all Nations into one simple Faith for next to one Lord the Apostle mentions one Faith and one Baptism which is this That there is one God the Creator of all who is to be worshipped and served by one Mediator his only begotten Son Jesus Christ who offered one Sacrifice that is himself for the Sins of the whole World rose again from the Dead ascended into Heaven and from thence sent the Holy Ghost to testify that he is Lord of all and will come again in Glory to judg the Quick and the Dead This was easily and quickly learn'd and this they taught every where that Christians might be perfectly joyned together in the same Mind and in the same Judgment 1 Cor. 1. 10. 5. In order to which they further declared the whole World should be govern'd and judged by one common Law and that not the Law of Moses but the plain Rules of Righteousness Sobriety and Godliness For our Blessed Saviour being made Lord of all abolished by his Authority the Ordinances of Moses and thereby took away the Distinction which had continued for a great many Ages between the Gentiles and the Jews whose Law was in the very Intention of it a Law of Division and Separation whereby God design'd to sever them from the familiar Society and Conversation of the rest of the Nations in the World Who while that Law remained in force were kept at a distance from the Jews but by the removal of it were no longer Strangers and Foreigners but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God Ephes ii 19. Upon which account the Apostle tells the Ephesians a little before v. 14. that Christ was their Peace who had made both one by breaking down the middle Wall of Partition which was between them and the Jews that is as he explains himself in the next Verse The Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances i. e. the Ritual Constitutions of Moses which he calls the Enmity because they had been the cause of Enmity and Hatred between Jews and Gentiles and were therefore abolished by the Death of Christ for to make in himself of twain one new Man so making Peace That they he means who had stood divided by vastly different nay opposite Rites of Worship and other Customs might meet and joyn together in his Religion and so becoming one new Body or Society under the Government of his Laws there might be an happy Accord and Agreement between them as Members of one and the same holy Catholick Church the Jews no longer looking upon the Gentiles as prophane nor the Gentiles looking upon the Jews as an unsociable People 6. Now for the settling this Belief in Mens Minds that they were all

only put you in mind which is the last thing under this Head that this Faith and these Duties our Lord hath bound upon us by such strong Obligations of his exceeding great and precious Promises and of his most dreadful Threatnings which were confirm'd also after a wonderful manner that if we laid them to heart they could not fail to draw us as irresistibly to the Belief of his Doctrine and to the observation of his Precepts as our Obedience to them it is certain would make us all more happy than either these words of the Prophet or any other can express Herein chiefly his Doctrine excels that of the best Philosophers who taught many excellent Lessons but could not inforce them with such an assured hope of Immortal Life or fear of Eternal Death as our Saviour and his Apostles have done who thunder this in our Ears Follow Peace with all men and Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Hebr. XII 14. To be where our Lord is and behold his Glory is the great Hope of Christians John XVII 24. It is the very Joy that is set before them But they are out of the way to that high and holy place where our Lord is and shall never come thither who do not study to be pure and undefiled and whose Purity doth not make them peaceable nay Followers of Peace and that with all men This is as sure as that Christ is in Heaven and we have as good security of that as can be given us by the coming of the Holy Ghost from thence in wonderful plenty of miraculous Gifts which declared him to have all Power in Heaven and in Earth and puts it out of all doubt that he is able to give to all them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality eternal Life But to them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey Unrighteousness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doth evil Rom. II. 7 8. And now I hope no man will question the Application of this Prophecy to our Saviour meerly because he doth not behold such happy days as are here described since things are so ordered I have demonstrated that we may see them if we will. It is senseless to think that God intended to force Mankind to agree together and to be quiet as if they were indeed a company of such Beasts as the Prophet here mentions and not meerly induced with such qualities The Prophet explains his own meaning when in the Conclusion of this Description of the peaceable Reign of Christ he assigns this cause of it v. 9. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea. This Felicity was to be the effect of abundance of Divine Knowledge which in its own Nature is apt to produce it But as no Knowledge can be acquired without diligent Studies so when we have it it can do us no service unless we will be governed by it And therefore if men either will not entertain this heavenly Wisdom or having entertain'd it do imprison and smother it they deprive themselves of the Blessing of Peace But they cannot make this Word of God of none effect because he never intended to bestow this Happiness upon the Ignorant and the Negligent but upon those who receive and improve the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ So much the sober Jews themselves confess particularly Maimonides * More Nevoch Par. III. c. XI in these remarkable words The Evils which men create one to another flow from their different Opinions Perswasions Affections Wills and Studies and all these spring from Ignorance and want of Wisdom As a blind man not only stumbles himself but runs upon others because he sees not his way so in every Sect of men they who are wedded to it do one another a world of Mischiefs by reason of their blind Ignorance All which would be remedied if they had Wisdom which is to a man's Soul what the faculty of Seeing is to his Body When the Truth is known then Hatred Envy Contention whereby men tear one another in pieces is at an end which God himself teaches us by his Prophet who after he had first said The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb c. then subjoyns the cause which should take awaythis Enmity and that is the Knowledge of God the Creator wherein men ought to be instructed They shall not hurt nor destroy c. for the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord c. But the time calls me to hasten to the third and last General Head which is this III. That the knowledge of our Lord was so fitted and so sufficient to make men thus happy that there was actually to be seen such brotherly Love and Peace as is here foretold among the first Converts to his Religion who embrac'd each other with such an hearty and servent Affection that what one shall rarely find an instance of between two single persons might have been beheld in some thousands of Men and Women who had but one Heart and one Soul in so many several Bodies Act. IV. 37. that is were perfect Friends who had their Possessions so common that no man called ought of the things he had his own And if we list by these wild Creatures in my Text to understand the Gentiles it is evident they were in a little time brought to live in such Unity Love and Peace with the Jews that they maintain'd the Communion of the Saints in the most proper sense thereof For they communicated their Goods to them most freely and liberally when they were reduced to great straits in Judea contributing to the Relief of their Necessities not only to their Power but in some places beyond their Power praying St. Paul with much intreaty that he would receive their Gift and take upon him the Fellowship of ministring to the Saints 2 Cor. VIII 3 4. Many Instances might be given of their frankness in their Hospitality to Strangers whom they readily entertain'd though they had never seen them before meerly because they belonged to the same Body of Christ with themselves and they look'd upon them as their Brethren But I should transgress my bounds if I should pursue such like things any further which deserve a Discourse by themselves And I have said enough to my present Purpose which was to shew how compleatly this Prophecy was fulfilled in the actual effecting of that which our Saviour designed and for the producing of which he employed the most proper means From all which it would not be hard to find had I time to make the Enquiry Why those happy days in the beginning of our Religion WHen the multitude of them that believed were of one Heart and of one Soul were of so short continuance and the days are long ago become