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	world_n	3,422	5	4.8684	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10876	The Christian mans guide Wherein are contayned two treatises. The one shewing vs the perfection of our ordinary workes. The other the purity of intention we ought to haue in all our actions. Both composed in Spanish by the R.F. Alfonsus Rodriguez of the Society of Iesus. Translated into English.; Ejercicio de perfección y virtudes cristianas. Part 1. Treatise 2-3. English	Rodríguez, Alfonso, 1526-1616.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655.	1630 (1630)	STC 21142; ESTC S112045	75,603	296

compare those who serue God out of hope of recompence to Simon Cyreneeus who was hyred at a set price to beare the Crosse of Christ for so do those who would not follow our Sauiour nor beare his crosse vnles there were the reward of heauen proposed they adde that we are not to be solicitous for our recompence nor alwayes thinking vpon what we gaine Like vnto vngratefull seruants who exact their wages keep a strict account which is more the part of a hyrling then a gratefull seruant we ought not to serue God in such vnworthy manner but as childrē purely out of loue there is great difference say they betwixt the seruices of a slaue a houshold and a child the slaue serues his Lord for feare of stripes and punishment the seruant for his wages and if his diligence be mor● then ordinary it is but to comend hi● seruices vnto his Lord out of greater hope of profit and aduancement but the child serues his father only for loue and tendernes and is most careful of offending him not so much for feare of chastisement for he is lyable vnto none supposing he is past his infancy neither for hope of his inheritance but only out of loue and deare affection And so a wise good and vertuous child doth serue respect and honour his parent out of that only motiue that he is his Father although otherwise he be poore and able to leaue him nothing so say these holy Saintes we ought to serue God neither for feare of chastisement like slaues neither as seruants with our eyes and affection fastned vpon our gaine and interest but like true children since God hath been so good and gra●●●s to vs to make vs such Ioan. c. 3. Behold sayth S. Iohn the Euangelist what loue the Father hath bestowed vpon vs for to be styled really to be the sonnes of God We are not only called the sonnes of God but are such truly and really and withall right cal God our Father and the sonne of God our Brother If we be therefore sonnes of God let vs loue and serue him like true children let vs honour him as a Father and as so great a father with truly louing him as wel because he is delighted with it as that he is worthy of it in being what he is and for his infinit goodnes which merits an infinity of hearts and bodyes continually to be imployed in louing and seruing him S. Chrysostome sayth admirably wel If by the grace of God you should be made worthy to please his diuine Maiesty should desire any other reward beyond this of being mad worthy for to please him Chrsost l. 2. de compunct you were certainly ignorant how great a good it were for to please God and if you could once but apprehend it you would neuer desire other extrin secall reward or benefit And truly what greater good can we pretend or wish for then to content please Almighty God Eph. 5.1.2 Be imitators of God fayth S. Paul like to his dearest children walke in loue and dilection as Christ hath loued vs. Bonau to 2. opusc in fascic c. 8. And S. Bonauenture sayes Consider that God your benefactour hath so bestowed his benefits vpon you as to aske none of them backe againe who hath ●o need of you or any other creature Yea he doth not only receaue no profit from vs nor commodity for al those fauours he bestowes vpon vs but he affoardes them vs at so great expence and charges of his owne as is his owne deare life and bloud which he layd downe shed for our redemption In this manner purely and without all mixture of proper interest are we to serue and loue almighty God neither which is more are we so much as to desire any vertus and supernaturall guifts for our owne pleasure and comodity but only for God and for his greater glory and to the end to store our selues with somewhat that may be pleasing to his diuine Maiesty yea and in this manner we are to desire glory in so much as when we set before the eyes of our soule to giue it heart and courage to performe its actions well the greatnes of the reward which is annext to euery good it doth it ought in no ways to haue this its ayme end in vndertaking any thing but only the pure desire of further pleasing and glorifying God in that the more glory we shall haue the more shall God be honoured and glorifyed This is the true loue of charity the true and perfect loue of God and this is purely to seeke God and his greater glory and all besides is but to seeke loue our selues which will the better appeare if we consider the difference which Philosophers and Diuines doe make betwixt that perfect loue which they call the loue of amity the loue of concupiscence The first loues his friend for his friends good and out of vertue without regarding his owne interest or gaine but the loue of concupiscence is when one loues another not so much for himselfe as for the profit and comodity which he hopes for from him as when one serues loues a rich man because he hopes for aduācement and assistance from him We see apparently that this is no perfect loue but wholy compounded of selfe loue and interest since you loue not your friend so much as your own selfe and proper comodity So we say that we loue bread and wine with the loue of concupiscence because we loue neither the one nor the other for its selfe but only for our selues and particuler endes And in this manner doe they loue God who serue him out of feare of punishmēt or hope of recompence it being no other then to loue God with a loue compounded and wholy consisting of selfe loue priuate ends not seeking of him purely nor with a liberall mind which our Sauiour hath giuen vs to vnderstand by S. Iohn who after he had wrought that great miraracle of feeding fiue thousand men besides woemen and children with fiue loaues and two fishes being followed sayth the Euangelist by a world of people Ioan. 6.26.27 sayd vnto them You seeke me not because you haue seene wonders but because you haue eaten of the loaues and are satiated Not because you belieue me to be God but because you seeke your owne comodities VVorke and seeke not that food which perisheth but which remayneth in eternall life which is Christ and to do purely the wil of God That holy seruant of God Almighty shewed a right M. Gerso pure intention in his answere who liuing a wondrous and austere life and giuing himselfe wholy vnto prayer the Diuell enuying so great a vertue and seeking to withdraw him from his vertuous course of life by bringing him into doubt of his predestination tould him that he laboured and wearyed out himselfe in vaine for he should neuer be saued nor come to inioy

the beatitude of heauen to whome the holy man answered I serue not God Almighty for his glory but ōly because he is that which he is wherupon the Diuell departed confounded and ashamed S. Bernard requires yet more of vs Bern. ser sup Cant. 63. and would that we should be so farre from seeking our owne comodityes ends in those good workes we doe as he is not content that we should serue God only with a filial loue but would bring vs yet to higher perfectiō Children sayth he loue but they do thinke on their inheritance withall which whilest they stand in a kind of feare for to loose or hope to haue improued they reuerence him more and loue him lesse from whom they expect it I hould that loue suspected which seemes to haue dependance vpon any hope of gayne it is but weake since if its hope do fayle it is eyther wholy extinguisht or made lesse it is no pure one since it hath a secondary end pure loue is not mercenary pure loue borrowes no forces from any hope neyther is it diminished with distrust that is whosoeuer purly loues indeed needs no incitment of any rich hope to make him serue labour suffer for God Almighty yea should he know for certaine that for al his paynes he should haue no reward yet it would not make him to diminish in the least thing the greatest labour he had vndertaken as hauing not begun it out of any hope of his comodity but for pure loue of God But what loue may this be so high and perfect as may exceed the loue of children Spōsae hic Amor est sayes the holy Saint It is the loue of a Spouse vnto her Bridgrome for true and perfect loue hath its content within its selfe hath its reward and proemium which is no other then that which it doth loue to loue the beloued heer is al his recompence the Brides loue is such that it hath noe other pretention then to loue such is the Bridgroms as he desires nothing but to be beloued Nec is aliud quaerit nec illa aliud habet He seekes nothing els and she hath nothing els And in this manner sayth S. Bernard ought we to loue God the Bridgrome of our soules this is the loue to which we should arriue louing him because he is what he is and placing all our felicity therein This loue is of it selfe sufficient in its selfe delightfull and for its selfe is to its selfe both merit and reward it seeks no other cause besides its selfe no other fruit the fruit is the act of louing I loue because I loue I loue to be beloued On this occasion S. Chrysostome adds that we are not to conceaue Chrys hom 5. super epist ad Rom. circae finem that our reward shall be the lesse because we looke for none but that the lesse we do expect the more we do obtaine as being most certaine that the lesse the worke shall haue of proper intrest the more it shall haue of purity and perfection it being free from all mixture of selfe loue and consequently shal be more meritorious Atque tibi maior merces est si modo citra mercedis spem feceris Your reward for your works sayth this Saint shall be greater if now you do them without hope of any the further you are frō the spirit condition of a hyrling the greater shall be your recompence Since then God will not pay you as a hired seruant but reward you as a sonne with the inheritance of his Fathers riches If we be sonnes and heyres we are heyres of God Rom. 8.17 and coheyres with Christ We shall enter with him into possession of our heritage succeeding and inioying the treasures of our heauenly Father Exod. 28.9 Pharaos daughter hired Moyses mother for to nourish bring vp her owne child but she did not nurse him for the hyre but only out of loue and tendernes Three degrees of perfection by which we may ascend and arriue vnto great purity of intention and to a high and perfect loue of God CHAP. XIIII OVT of the doctrine of the holy Fathers and of the glorious S. Bernard in particuler we may gather three degree of perfection by which we may ascend vnto a high degree of purity of intention and to a great and excellent loue of God The first is to seeke only the glory of God in such manner as in the performance of euery thing we may haue no contentment but in God and in the fulfilling of his holy will casting into forgetfulnes all other wordly businesses Bern. trac de interiori demo c. 69 S. Bernard sais if you would know whether your loue of God be great and you go perfecting of it or no consider with your selfe whether there be any thing besides God which might comfort and delight you and from thence you shal come to know how much you are profited and aduanced in the loue of God For truly saith he as long as I can receaue any pleasure and consolation from any thing besides I dare not say that our beloued doth possesse the inwardest boss●me of my most ardent loue which expresses that other sētence of S. Augustine Aug. l. 10 Confess c. 29. He loues thee imperfectly who loues any thing together with thee which he loue not for thy sake such a loue would come far short of the loue of that holy Queene who in the midst of al the pomps vanities of the court could say O Lord thou knowest that thy Handmayd hath neuer reioyced in any thing since shee hath bin transferred hither Esth. 14.18 vntill this very day but only in thee Lord God of Abraham You know O Lord said shee that I take no pleasure in the Royall crowne nor in the Maiesty nor glittering shew of things I am not delighted with the luxurius bāquets of King Assuerus neither in any fading thing besid but only in you my God Lord behould heer a loue perfect and excellents Greg. l. 4. moral cap. 28. S. Gregory vpon this passage of holy Io● VVho build solitudes vnto themselues sais that he builds himself a solitude Hermitage who so wholy casts of as it were strips himselfe of all creatures and the loue and affection of all earthly things as to remaine in a māner solitary although he were in the midest of all the sports and pleasures of the world by taking no pleasure nor contentment in them Such an one builds a solitude vnto himselfe by hauing placed all his felicity in God whence it proceeds that no company is grateful no pleasure delightful vnto him out of his holy loue Wihch we see by experience of one who hath some friend in whome he hath placed al his affection who although he be in the company of many other persons worthy of esteeme yet seems to be in a solitary desert as long as that friend he loues so dearly is not