Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	commandment_n	law_n	love_v	7,725	5	6.9269	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47289	Christianity, a doctrine of the cross, or, Passive obedience, under any pretended invasion of legal rights and liberties	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1691 (1691)	Wing K358; ESTC R10389	73,706	109

in an Arm of Flesh. And speeds and prospers this other method of spiritual Wisdom by surprizes of Success and invisible interpositions and turns and ways never thought of till brought to pass to call us all to rely on Providence whilst by confining our selves to his ways we place our Faith and Trust in himself as they who please may find more largely discoursed in a Treatise of Christian Prudence Ch. 8. Thus is Religion to be preserved by Faith and Patience and Spiritual Methods and not by Force it cannot be taken by Force and so needs not be kept by it Nay instead of being preserved by Force it is impaired thereby when it is used in its behalf They are much deceived that fansie War will do good to Religion Instead of that the force and fighting of Religious Men are the greatest violence to Religion Tho it gets by the Force it suffers it lofes mightily by the Force it uses When Force gets within it and mixes with it whilst it seeks to preserve the Shell it consumes the Kernel and pretending to Guard the Body it eats out the very Heart of it For Religion it self lies mightily in Love and Beneficence He that loves another hath fulfilled the law Rom. xiii 10 A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another Joh. xiii 34 And by this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another vers 35. But instead of Love and Benificence Wars and Fightings lye all in angry passions and doing mischief It is shown in forgiving that in avenging Injuries It in doing good for ill that in doing all the ill men can It in mourning with those that mourn and rejoycing with those that rejoyce that in mourning for the Mirth and rejoycing over the Cries and Grief of others It in loving our Neighbour as our selves yea our Enemies that hate us tho without a cause or our Persecutors that hate us for the best things but that in hating and persecuting all as Enemies having no regard to good or ill Relations or Strangers Friends or Foes That is tender of all the Things and Rights both of God and Men this of neither sparing neither things sacred nor profane and counting all it can take its own and Spoil and Rapine Waste and Devastation no wrong That is for saving of Lives in regard to community of Natures and reverence to Gods Image this for destroying them By these and many more that might be added it appears how Religion is calculated for a state of Peace so that whensoever War bursts out and is put in practice the greater part of its Duties are under suspension and suffer Violence I do not say it forbids all Wars in compliance with the state and necessities of this World on just and great Causes it connives and gives way to them But this it doth by no means as a way to promote it self or advance the observance of its Rules which are in so great measure no Rules at all whilst War reigns And therefore what it doth in this case is only to tolerate it it allows but it doth not encourage or persuade to it Besides as the Liberties of War run counter to so great a body of its Rules so in time of War there is also the usual restraint taken off and impunity added to all Wickedness They are too often then most in power who are better Soldiers than Christians and have the least sense of Religion and Conscience Then a shole of irreligious Tempers as Pride Insolence Hatred Uncompassionateness Anger Revenge Covetousness Ambition Neglect of the things of God and Religion or open profanation of them in a word all vicious and corrupt Passions are superinduced upon the minds of men which are a revival of the old man and most opposite to the very life and design of true Religion So that Religion it self is not like to have any good more than the civil State is by Wars Its Professors will in the end be worse by it in their Religion as well as in their Fortunes They will come out more opposite to God and the Temper of Saints and so be worse Christians Yea not only as to its moral Practice but even as to Orthodoxy of Profession and Purity of Worship Religion instead of being reform'd and amended by the just Judgment of God and the natural course of humane Passions is too oft made a great deal worse by warring against our Governors A spiritual defection many times accompanies a civil one as the Israelites with Jeroboam fell off from God to the Calves when they had revolted from the house of Solomon And in our late long civil Wars when they rebell'd for Religion by Rebellion against the King was a strange defection introduced from Christianity some throwing out the Articles of Faith some all the ten Commandments some the holy Scriptures some the calling and office of Ministers some their Tythes and Maintenance some the Lords Supper others Baptism and all Ordinances In a word among one or other of the Sects Religion instead of thriving and increasing most lamentably suffering in its most important Articles in the very essential and constituent marks and the visible face and external appearance of Christs holy Church Such in reality is the difference between our suffering others Force in Persecutions and our using Force our selves by listing Armies for Religion against our persecuting Rulers We may practise all the parts of Religion whilst they are forcing us several that have no place in external peace and quietness and all with more perfection and honor than at other times so that in suffering the force of Persecutors Religion it self gets whatever else loses and its Rules have more true and tryed more perfect and triumphant Observance than they could have otherwise But when we come to use force our selves to defend Religion against our persecuting Governors in this time of force we lay aside the greater part of its Rules and give a loose to all degenerate and vicious Tempers utterly opposite to its habits so that whatever else gets it loses And therefore in spiritual Wisdom which wisely seeks the growth of religious tempers on the minds of men and the advancement of Faith and good Practice Religion is not to be defended or preserved by our taking Arms against its and our Persecutors It would live and thrive be preserved and prosper'd by our suffering but when to preserve those mundane Privileges which are tack'd to it we go to War it is sure to be worsted by our fighting Jesus Christ who prescrib'd it is stiled not the Lord of Hosts or God of Battels but the Prince of Peace and the Gospel which contains it is the Gospel of Peace So 't is our keeping Quiet not running to Arms that best suits it and must do it good Of the Unlawfulness of taking Arms against the Supreme Power in defence of the Laws and Legal Rights and Liberties CHAP. II. That the