Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A43053
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King David's sanctuary, or, A sermon preached before His Majesty the fourth of Febr. 1643 at Christ-Church in Oxford by Richard Harwood ...
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Harwood, Richard, d. 1669.
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1644
(1644)
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Wing H1106; ESTC R18253
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18,335
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31
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patronage of it Heaven you see layes clay me to your first thoughts and at this time 't were the highest sacriledge to bestow them on your private interests What we intend is first not what we pretend but if we make it a pious glosse for our worldly designes wee seeke not heaven but our selves God hath placed it in nature beyond all things that we might place nothing beyond it in our affections Make it we the prologue of our actions and God will make it the Epilogue of our lives the end of this life is life without end here we have it only in expectation but in heaven the full fruition Which presents unto you the next particular the Different sense of the Verbes Habeo and Desideravi Have in heaven only Desire on earth This life is a Christians minority 2. The sense of theverbes He is truely possessed of nothing himselfe but is a ward to the Almighty he never enters upon his Inheritance till he comes to heaven there he hath livery and seisin given him from the hand of God himselfe Come ye blessed of my father Mat. 25. v. 34 Alex. in Strom. receive the Kingdome c. Clemens Alexandrinus calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that lives in the confines of heaven whilst he is in this world he wants but the courteous hand of Death to put him into possession Here the law flatters us with firme conveihances and perpesuities but there is no freehold of any thing here below our surest tenure is in Heaven We contend for the Property of the Subject when nothing on earth can be the Subject of true Property For the Lawyer is mistaken that saith the Clergy man onely is borne to no inheritance when the noblest birth brings forth but a great heire of nothing For how can I truly call him possessour of that which in it selfe hath not the truth of a possession or if it hath the longest here is but the short lease of a mans life when death comes he cuts off the entayle of the fairest hopes your Crownes and Soveraignes you must lay down at the pits brinke your Lordships and manours must be contracted within the narrow compasse of a Grave that 's all the Land you can carry with you As we reade of Abraham All the Heritage he purchased for his posterity was but the Cave of Machpelah a burying place Never let the Dreame of any lasting possession here enter into your breasts If you would be freeholders indeed you must lay up your treasure in heaven there an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fades not away is reserved for us 1. Pet. 1 v. 4. An inheritance so large that foure pradicaments can scarce hold it For Substance Incorruptible for Quality Undefiled Immarciscible for Duration and Coelestiall for Site yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is All reserved for us in surer hands then Orphans estates here on earth which are too often a prey to anothers avarice this is safe in Gods owne keeping till we shall lay downe our non age and lives together And what doe we meane to spend our precious soules on these perishing treasures A Kingdome prepared for Us and we not yet prepared for the Kingdome doe you not heare the world call upon you upbraiding as it were your mistaken confidence in it For what are all these Warres and Tumults but the worlds out-cry to us what are those Defects and Imperfections in the creature but their Broken Language whereby they doe beseech us to depart from them and seeke after our Aeternall patrimony in the Creator For we love not God at all if he hath not All our love Neither Cum nor Praeter must devide it that 's the particular the Diversity of the Praepositions Nothing with nothing besides thee that I desire The originall admits of no variety 3. The Diversity of the praepositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but once in the verse but the accent Revia as Chimki observes distinguishing both parts makes it tuneable in both Yet behold the modesty of Scripture which rather understands the same word then suffers a Tautology much unlike some audacious devotion that hath many petitions in it but not diverse Not to stay though at the grammar of the text To love the creature for the creature is Epicurisme To love the Creator for the creature is Mercenary To love the Creator with the creature is spitituall adultery but to love the Creator for the creator is true charity Uno oculorum said Christ of his Church Thou hast wounded my heart with One of thine eyes True love hath but a single eye Cant. 4.9 or if more the Naturalist sayes there is such a motion of consent betweene them that one will not suffer the other to be disloyall but are both fixed upon one object Cypr. A lascivious glaunce upon the creature had made the Spouse Adulter a Christo In the Schooles Aquinas Daven in ◠col Principale obiectum God is the principall object of humane charity the creatures deserve not our love but in ordine ad illum as we espy some darke lineaments of the Diety in them Indeed we may use the creatures as so many rounds in Iacobs ladder whereby we climbe up to God himselfe and therefore Richardus Victorinus Integer amator Dei L. De gradibus charit quocunque se vertit a perfect lover of God cannot turne about his eye but he sees every creature ready to catechize his love in the meanest created object he calls to minde that increated charity so farre we love the creatures that we may love the Creator the more Fruimur Deo utimur aliis we doe but make use of them to enjoy God Qui diligunt Deum propter aliud Simoniacè diligunt sayes Gerson wittily he that loves God for any thing but himselfe commits Simony in his love Gerson centilogio dec 4. 'T is not the Clergy mans sinne onely though our Country Patrons force us too often to aske the price of our owne patrimony but there is a Lay Simony too when you love God no longer then you can get by him like those people that worshipped Nilus only so long as his rich inundations filled their barnes with corne 'T was Saint Austines argument to such men and may it prevaile with us Ser. 46. de tempore Si dulcis est mundus dulcior est Christus If there be such sweetnesse in the creature which is but a drop as to allure thy desires shall not the transcendent delight in the Creator who is the fountaine command thy affection Could I present the King in the Text with all the delights and treasures in the world nay could I fetch you backe that Beloved peace that is fled from us Nibil dulcescit nisi hoc uno condiatur We should finde no sweetnesse in it unlesse it were seasoned with the Deity Had we kept our God with our former peace we had not beene to seeke it now Were every souldier in our armies multiplyed into a thousand Chrys in Psal 7. v. 3 every Garrison environed with a wall of brasse and Castle of Diamond Nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the whole world on the march for us against the enemy it were an inconsiderable force unlesse God himselfe lead up the Van◠And why should we neglect him any longer without whom are conquered even when we are conquerours Whilest we thinke of recruiting our Armies let us not forget to reruite our affiance in God The Eclipses we have suffered are but the Interpositions of our own carnall confidence The losses we have undergone are but the corrections of our mistrust Take it from the mouth of a King though in a more desperate condition then We God be blessed have ever yet seene yet Jehosaphat in as great a streight as ever Prince was stood up and said O Judah and ye inhabitants of Hierusalem beleeve in the Lord your God so shall ye be established beleeve his Prophets 2. Chron. 20. v. 20. so shall ye yet prosper O our God though we know not what to doe yet our eyes looke up unto thee Let not this Kingdome we beseech thee be made an Aceldama We have beene thy Eden O make us not now a desolate wildernesse but be favourable to Sion build up the walls of Hierusalem For whom have we in Heaven but thee O Lord and there is none upon earth that we desire but thee To whom be ascribed of Us Men on earth and Angells above All glory honour power and thanksgiving world without end Amen FINIS