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
A57960	Two discourses; viz. A discourse of truth. By the late Reverend Dr. Rust, Lord Bishop of Dromore in the Kingdom of Ireland. The way of happiness and salvation. By Joseph Glanvil, chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty	Rust, George, d. 1670.; Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680. Way of happiness and salvation rescued from vulgar errours.	1677 (1677)	Wing R2368; Wing Q836; ESTC R218562	58,324	199

things pleasant to them and put on sackcloth and sowre looks and mourned bitterly and hung down the head and sate in ashes so that one might have taken these for very holy penitent mortified people that had a great antipathy against their sins and abhorrence of themselves for them And yet God complains of these strict severe Fasters Zach. 7. 5. That they did not Fast unto him but fasted for strife and debate Isa. 58. 4. Their Fasts were not such as he had chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burden and to let the oppressed free vers 6. But they continued notwithstanding their Fasts and God's admonitions by his Prophets to oppress the Widow and Fatherless and Poor Zach. 7. 10. Thus meer natural and evil men sometimes put on the garb of Mortification and exercise rigors upon their Bodies and external persons in exchange for the indulgences they allow their beloved appetites and while the strict Discipline reacheth no further though we keep days and Fast often yet this will not put us beyond the condition of the Pharisee who fasted twice in the week as himself boasted Luke 18. 12. And 3. An imperfect striver may be very much given to pious and religious discourses He may love to be talking of Divine things especially of the love of Christ to sinners which he may frequently speak of with much earnestness and affection and have that dear name always at his tongues end to begin and close all his sayings and to fill up the void places when he wants what to say next and yet this may be a bad man who never felt those Divine things he talks of and never loved Christ heartily as he ought 'T was observed before that there are some who have a sort of Devoutness and Religion in their particular Complexion and if such are talkative as many times they are they will easily run into such discourses as agree with their temper and take pleasure in them for that reason As also for this because they are apt to gain us reverence and the good opinion of those with whom we converse And such as are by nature disposed for this faculty may easily get it by imitation and remembrance of the devout forms they hear and read so that there may be nothing Divine in all this nothing but what may consist with unmortified lusts and affections And though such talk earnestly of the love of Christ and express a mighty love to his name yet this may be without any real conformity unto him in his Life and Laws The Jews spoke much of Moses in him they believed and in him they trusted John 5. 45. His name was a sweet sound to their ears and 't was very pleasant upon their Tongues and yet they hated the Spirit of Moses and had no love to those Laws of his which condemned their wicked actions And we may see how many of those love Christ that speak often and affectionately of him by observing how they keep his Commandments John 14. 15. especially those of Meekness Mercy and universal Love Thus imperfect Strivers may imploy themselves in the external offices of Religion I have instanced only in Three the lik may be said of the rest And to this I add IV. That they may not only exercise themselves in the outward matters of duty but may arrive to some things that are accounted greater heights and are really more spiritual and refined To instance I. They may have some love to God Goodness and good Men. The Soul naturally loves Beauty and Perfection and all mankind apprehend God to be of all Beings the most beautiful and perfect and therefore must needs have an intellectual love for him The reason that that love takes no hold of the passions in wicked men is partly because they are diverted from the thoughts of Him by the objects of Sense but chiefly because they consider him as their enemy and therefore can have no complacency or delight in him who they think hath nothing but thoughts of enmity and displeasure against them But if once they come to be perswaded as many times by such false marks as I have recited they are that God is their Father and peculiar Friend that they are his chosen and his darlings whom he loved from Eternity and to whom he hath given his Son and his Spirit and will give Himself in a way of the fullest enjoyment Then the Love that before was only an esteem in the understanding doth kindle in the affections by the help of the conceit of Gods loving them so dearly and the passion thus heated runs out even into seraphick and rapturous Devotions while yet all this is but meer animal love excited chiefly by the love of our selves not of the Divine Perfections And it commonly goes no further then to earnest expressions of extraordinary love to God in our Prayers and Discourses while it appears not in any singular obedience to his Laws or generous and universal love to mankind which are the ways whereby the true Divine Love is exprest for This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments saith the Apostle 1 John 5. 3. And as to the other thus If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us 1 John 4. 12. And on the contrary If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar John 4. 20. Charity then and universal obedience are the true arguments and expressions of our love to God and these suppose a victory over corrupt inclinations and self-will But the other love which ariseth from the conceit of our special dearness to God upon insufficient grounds that goes no further then to some suavities and pleasant fancies within our selves and some passionate complements of the Image we have set up in our imaginations This Love will consist with Hatred and contempt of all that are not like our selves yea and it will produce it those poysonous fruits and vile affections may be incouraged and cherish'd under it So that there may be some love to God in evil men But while self-self-love is the only motive and the more prevalent passion it signifieth nothing to their advantage And as the imperfect striver may have some love to God so he may to piety and vertue every man loves these in Idea The vilest sinner takes part in his affections with the vertuous and religious when he seeth them described in History or Romance and hath a detestation for those who are character'd as impious and immoral Vertue is a great Beauty and the mind is taken with it while 't is consider'd at a distance and our corrupt interests and sensual affections are not concern'd 'T is these that recommend sin to our love and choice while the mind ftands on the side of vertue with that we serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sin Rom 7. 25. So that most wicked men that are not degenerated

we can of our Neighbour The outward actions of Vertue are in our power and 't is somewhat to come so far as this What is more viz. The inward love and delight in goodness will succeed in time if we persevere 'T is not safe for us to propose to our selves the greatest heights at first if we do we are discouraged and fall back God accepts even of that little if it be in order to more He despiseth not the day of small things Zech. 4. 10. If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted Christ loved the young man who had kept the external part of the Commandments Mark 10. 12. If he had had the courage to have proceeded what he had done would have steaded him much The inward love of Vertue and Holiness is promoted by the outward exercises of them and hereby the contrary evils are both pined and thrust out Thus of the First thing that Endeavour implies upon this must follow 2. An attempt upon evil habits viz. Those that have been super-induced on us by Carelesness and Temptation bad Customs and evil Company Every victory is a means to another we grow stronger and the enemy weaker by it To have overcome the outward acts of sin is a beginning in our spiritual warfare but our chief enemies are the habits these must be attempted also but with Prudence wild Beasts are not to be dealt with by main strength Art and Stratagem must be used in this War and 't is good policy I think here to fight the least powerful foes first the contracted habits before we fall on the inbred natural Inclinations While our forces are weak 't is dangerous setting upon the strongest holds viz. the vices of Complexion which are woven into our very Natures If a man apply all his force where he hath not resolution enough to go through with what he undertakes he receives a foyl and 't is odds but he sits down and faints Prudence therefore is to be used where we distrust our strength Fall upon Sin where 't is weakest where it hath least of Nature and least of Temptation and where we have arguments from Reputation and worldly Interests wherewith to war against it If we prevail we are heartned by the success Our Faith and Resolution will grow stronger by this experience when we have triumph't over the sins of evil Custom Example and sensual Indulgence And when that is done we must remember that 't is not enough that those habits are thrust out others must be planted in their room when the soyl is prepared the seed must be sown and the seeds of vertuous habits are the actions of vertue These I recommended under the last head and shall say more of the introducing of habits under one that follows on purpose 3. The next advance in our endeavours is In the Strength of God and in the Name of his Son to assault the greater Devils and to strive to cast out them I mean the Sins of Complexion and particular Nature This is a great work and will require strong Faith and many Prayers and much Time and great Watchfulness and invincible Resolution Imploy these heartily and though thou now and then mayst receive a foyl yet give not off so but rise again in the strength of God implore new aid and fortifie thy self with more considerations and deeper resolves and then renew the Combat upon the encouragement of Divine Assistance and Christ's Merits and Intercession and the promise that sin shall not have Dominion over us Rom. 6. 14. Remember that this is the great work and the biggest difficulty if this be not overcome all our other labour hath been in vain and will be lost If this root remain it will still bear poysonous fruit which will be matter for Temptation and occasion of continual falling and we shall be in danger of being reconciled again to our old sins and to undo all and so our latter end will be worse than our beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. Or at least though we stand at a stay and satisfie our selves with that yet though we are contented our condition is not safe If we will endeavour to any purpose of duty or security we must proceed still after our lesser conquests till the sins of Complexion are laid dead at our feet He that is born of God sinneth not and he cannot sin 1. Joh. 3. 9. Till we come to this we are but strugling in the Birth Such a perfection as is mortifying of vitious temper is I hope attainable and 't is no doubt that which Religion aims at and though it be a difficult height yet we must not sit down this side At least we must be always pressing on to this Mark if Providence cut off our days before we have arrived to it we may expect acceptance of the sincerity of our endeavours upon the account of the merits of our Saviour For he hath procured favour for those sincere Believers and Endeavoureres whose Day is done before their work is compleated this I mean of subduing the darling sins of their particular Natures But then if we rest and please our selves with the little Victories and Attainments and let these our great Enemies quietly alone 't is an argument our endeavours are not sincere but much short of that striving which will procure an entrance into the straight Gate The next thing and 't is the last I shall mention which is implyed in striving is 4. To furnish our selves through Divine Grace with the Habits and Inclinations of Holiness and Vertue For Goodness to become a kind of Nature to the Soul is height indeed but such a one as may be reacht the new Nature and new Creature Gal. 6. 15. are not meer names We have observ'd that some men are of a Natural Generosity Veracity and Sweetness and they cannot act contrary to these Native Vertues without a mighty Violence why now should not the New Nature be as powerful as the Old And why may not the Spirit of God working by an active Faith and Endeavour fix Habits and Inclinations on the Soul as prevalent as those No doubt it may and doth upon the Diviner Souls For whom to do a wicked or unworthy Action 't would be as violent and unnatural as for the meek and compassionate temper to butcher the innocent or for him that is naturally just to oppress and make a prey of the Fatherless and the Widow I say such a degree of perfection as this should be aim'd at Heb. 6. 1. and we should not slacken or intermit our endeavours till it be attain'd In order to it we are to use frequent meditation on the excellency and pleasure of Vertue and Religion and earnest Prayer for the Grace of God and diligent attendance upon the publick worship and pious Company and Converses For this great design these helps are requisite and if we exercise our selves in them as we ought they will fire our Souls with the love of God and Goodness and so

into meer Brutes have this mental and intellectual love to goodness That is they approve and like it in their minds and would practise it also were it not for the prevalent biass of flesh and sense And hence it will follow likewise That the same may approve and respect good men They may reverence and love them for their Charity Humility Justice and Temperance though themselves are persons of the contrary Character yea they may have a great and ardent affection for those that are eminently pious and devout though they are very irreligious themselves The conscience of vertue and of the excellency of Religion may produce this in the meer natural man who is under the dominion of vile inclinations and affections and therefore neither is this a good mark of godliness Our love to God goodness will not stead us except it be prevalent And as the love described may be natural and a meer animal man may arrive unto it So 2. He may to an extraordinary zeal for the same things that are the objects of his love Hot tempers are eager where they take either kindness or displeasure The natural man that hath an animal love to Religion may be violent in speaking and acting for things appertaining to it If his temper be devotional and passionate he becomes a mighty zealot and fills all places with the fame of his godliness His natural fire moves this way aud makes a mighty blaze Ahab was very zealous 't is like 't was not only his own interest that made him so 2 Kings 10. 16. The Pharirisees were zealous people and certainly their zeal was not always personated and put on but real though they were Hypocrites yet they were such as in many things deceived themselves as well as others They were zealous for their Traditions and they believ'd 't was their duty to be so St. Paul while a persecutor was zealous against the Disciples and he thought he ought to do many things against that name And our Saviour foretells that those zealous murderers that should kill his Saints should think They did God good service in it John 16. 2. So that all the zeal of the natural man is not feigning and acting of a part nor hath it always evil objects The Pharisees were zealous against the wickedness of the Publicans and Sinners Zeal and that in earnest and for Religion may be in bad men But then this is to be noted that 't is commonly about opinions or external rites and usages and such matters as appertain to first Table Duties while usually the same men are very cold in reference to the Duties of the Second And when Zeal is partial and spent about the little things that tend not to the overcoming the difficulties of our way or the perfecting of humane nature 't is a meer animal fervour and no Divine Fire And the natural man the Seeker that shall not enter may grow up to another height that looks gleriously and seems to speak mighty things As 3. He may have great comforts in religious meditations and that even to rapturous excesses He may take these for sweet Communion with God and the joys of the Holy Ghost and the earnest of Glory and be lifted up on high by them and enabled to speak in wonderful ravishing strains and yet notwithstanding be an evil man and in the state of such as shall be shut out For this we may observe That those whose complexion inclines them to devotion are commonly much under the power of melancholy and they that are so are mostly very varius in their tempers fometimes merry and pleasant to excess and then plung'd as deep into the other extream of sadness and dejection one while the sweet humours enliven the imagination and present it with all things that are pleasant and agreeable And then the black blood succeeds which begets clouds and darkness and fills the fancy with things frightful and uncomfortable And there are very few but feel such varieties in a degree in themselves Now while the sweet Blood and Humours prevail the person whose complexion inclines him to Religion and who hath arrived to the degrees newly discours'd of though a meer natural man is full of inward delight and satisfaction● and fancies at this turn that he is much in the favour of God and a sure Heir of the Kingdom of Glory which must needs excite in him many luscious and pleasant thoughts and these further warm his imagination which by new and taking suggestions still raiseth the affections more and so the man is as it were transported beyond himself and speaks like one dropt from the Clouds His tongue flows with Light and Glories and Communion and Revelations and Incomes and then believes that the Holy Ghost is the Author of all this and that God is in him of a truth in a special way of Manifestation and Vouchsafement But when melancholick vapours prevail again the Imagination is overcast and the Fancy possest by dismal and uncomfortable thoughts and the man whose head was but just before among the Clouds is now groveling in the Dust He thinks all is lost and his condition miserable He is a cast-away and undone when in the mean while as to Divine favour he is just where he was before or rather in a better state since 't is better to be humbled with reason then to be lifted up without it Such effects as these do meer naturalpassions and imaginations produce when they are tinctured and heightned by religious melancholly To deny ones self and to overcome ones passions and to live in a course of a sober Vertue is much more Divine than all this 'T is true indeed and I am far from denying it that holy men feel those joys and communications of the Divine Spirit which are no fancies and the Scripture calls them great peace Psal. 119. 165. and joy in believing Rom. 15. 13. and the peace of God that passeth all understanding Phil. 4. 7. But then these Divine Vouchsafements are not rapturous or ecstatical They are no sudden flashes that are gone in a moment leaving the Soul in the regions of sorrow and despair but sober lasting comforts that are the reward 's and results of vertue the rejoycings of a good conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. and the manifestations of God to those rare souls who have overcome the evils of their natures and the difficulties of the way or are vigorously pressing on towards the mark Phil. 3. 14. But for such as have only the forms of godliness I have mentioned while the evil inclinations and habits are indulged whatever they may pretend all the sweets they talk of are but the imagery of dreams and the pleasant delusions of their fancies THus I have shewn how far the meer animal Religion may go in imperfect striving And now I must expect to hear 1. That this is very severe uncomfortable Doctrine and if one that shall eventually be shut out may do all this what shall become