Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	death_n	life_n	lord_n	7,059	5	3.5024	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52433	Reflections upon the conduct of human life with reference to the study of learning and knowledge : in a letter to the excellent lady, the Lady Masham / by John Norris ... ; to which is annex'd a visitation sermon, by the same author.	Norris, John, 1657-1711.; Masham, Damaris, Lady, 1658-1708.; Norris, John, 1657-1711. Sermon preach'd in the Abby Church of Bath ... July 30, 1689.	1690 (1690)	Wing N1267; Wing N1270_PARTIAL; ESTC R15880	61,350	204

and Heighth if there be any Love that passes Knowledge if there be any love that is stronger than Death and dearer than Life if there be any lastly that is truly wonderful and that passes love not only of Women but of the whole Creation 't is this Love of our Lord to his Church We have no line long enough to fathom so vast a Depth nor can Mortality furnish us with Ideas to conceive or with words to utter so deep a Mystery If there be any words that can reach it they must be such as St. Paul heard in his Rapture strange words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words that cannot be pronounced by an Human Tongue and that would be meer Barbarism to a Mortal capacity But however that we may take some Measure of that which really has none and be able to frame some Notion of this Love of Christ which as the Apostle tells us passes knowledge we will exhibit a Prospect of it in a Double Light First in those verbal Representations which the Scripture gives of it and Secondly in those real and actual Proofs whereby Christ himself has exprest this his most excellent and otherwise Incredible Love As to the First the Scripture we know is full of great things and those set forth with as great and magnificent Expressions The Rhetoric and Stile of Scripture runs incomparably high beyond that of any other writings in whatever it treats of But there are three things more especially in the description of which the Holy Spirit seems to Labour and be at a Stand for Expression And these are the Glories of Heaven the Miseries of Hell and the Love of Christ to his Church These the Scripture represents under all the variety of Symbols Figures and Images that can be supplied either from the Intellectual or Material World that so what is wanting in each single Representation might be made up from the Multitude and Combination of them that if one should miss another might strike us to make if possible some impression of so strange and so concerning Truths upon the minds of Men. But the last of these as 't is most wonderful and Mysterious it being a greater wonder that God should Love Man than that either there should be so much Happiness in the Enjoyment of God or so much misery in the Loss of him so is it more frequently inculcated and more strongly represented So frequently inculcated is it that were it not for the Mystery of the thing and that there is no Tautology in Love the Scripture would seem Chargeable with vain Repetitions Every Page almost in Holy writ breathes forth this Mystery of Divine Love and besides that there is one whole Book particularly imploy'd in the representation of it by all the Flowers and Delicacies of the most exalted Poetry it may be said of the whole Sacred Volumn that 't is but one continued Expression of Love from Christ to his Church one Larger Canticles And as 't is thus frequently inculcated so is it no less strongly represented 'T is represented by that which is the most proper Effect and the last End and Accomplishment of all Love by Vnion For there are three most admirable Unions proposed to our Faith in the Christian Religion The Unity of Essence in the Trinity the Unity of Person in Jesus Christ and the Union that is between Christ and his Church The First of these is an Example and Prefiguration as it were to the Second and the Second to the Third For we cannot better represent the Union of Christ with his Church than by the Hypostatic Vnion or the Union of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Human Nature For First as in this Mystery the Plurality of Nature is consistent with the Unity of Person so does Love effect the same Miracle in the Union between Christ and his Church For here also we meet with a new Theanthropy a strange Composition of God and Man two vastly different Substances which without Confusion of either Natures or Properties make up one and the same Body For if Christ be Head of the Church he is also one Body with it And so St. Austin Totus Christus secundam Ecclesiam Caput Corpus est Again as in the Mystery of the Hypostatic union there is a Communication of Idioms or Properties whereby what primarily and abstractly belongs to one may secondarily and concretely be attributed to the other as that God is man and man is God so has Love introduced the like Communication between Christ and his Church which may be said to be happy and glorified in Christ as he is said to suffer in his Church Again as in the Mystery of the Hypostatic union the Word uniting it self to Human Nature adorn'd and exalted it not only by the Priviledge of so sacred a Confederacy but also with many distinct Graces and Excellencies whereby it was necessarily tho not forcibly determin'd to love the Divinity and highly fitted to be loved by it so is it also in this Union between Christ and his Church He has not only innobled her by so sacred an Alliance but is ever conferring upon her his Gifts and Graces and will never cease to do so till at length he present her to himself a Glorious Church without spot or blemish and make her in some measure worthy of so great a Love and so intimate an Vnion For 't is observable that in Scripture Jesus Christ is set out as the Author and Dispencer of all Grace to him is ascribed the Work of the Second as well as of the First Creation from his fulness we all receive and the Apostle says expresly that to every one of us is given grace according to the Measure of the gift of Christ. But not to pursue this Metaphysical Parallel any further let us return to consider this Union as 't is represented in Holy Scripture Now there are but two sorts of Union in the World Natural and Moral And the Holy Spirit has made Choice of the Closest of each whereby to Figure out to us the Union between Christ and his Church The closest of Natural Unions is that between the Head and the Body and the closest of all Moral Unions is that between the Husband and the Wife And both these are by the Holy Spirit applied to this Mystery Thus is Christ oftentimes call'd the Head of the Church and the Church the Body of Christ. Thus again is he stiled the Bridegroom and the Church honour'd with the Name of his Spouse And because this Latter Figure carries in it more of sensible endearment therefore is it of more frequent use and withal of more Antient Date For besides that Adam first open'd this Mystery and by his Miraculous Marriage typified to us that of Christ with his Church which came out of the Wounded Side of our Lord as Eve was taken out of Adam's the Prophets have also given our Lord the title of Bridegroom in the Old Testament The

45th Psalm is a plain Spiritual Epithalamium and so is the whole Book of Canticles and the Holy Baptist in whom both Types and Prophesie expire calls him expresly by the Name of Bridegroom Strange Miracle of Humility and Love That ever God should come down to seek a Spouse upon Earth was it not enough O Blessed Jesu that thou wast one with the Father and Holy Spirit in the Eternal Trinity was it not enough that thou hadst made thy self one with our Mortal Flesh by assuming our Nature but that thou must yet heap Mystery upon Mystery and as if thou wert not yet near enough allied to us must also make thy self one with thy Church But such is thy Love to man as not to be contented with one single union with him And so great thy Condescention as if thou need'st a Partner to compleat thy Happiness and as if it were no more good for the second than 't was for the first Adam to be alone These are the two Principal Figures under which the Scripture Pictures out to us the Love of Christ to his Church and his union with it Not that they rise up to the heighth of the Mystery but because they come the nearest of any to it For indeed they fall vastly short and give but a faint shadowy resemblance of what they are intended to represent And therefore as we have hitherto represented the dearness between Christ and his Church by that between the Head and the Members and the Husband and Wife so we may and with better reason invert the Order and propose the Former as an Example and Measure for both the Latter And 't is observable that St. Paul does so For says he Husbands love your Wives even as Christ loved the Church And again No Man ever yet hated his own Flesh but Nourishes and Cherishes it even as the Lord the Church Where you see the Love of Christ to his Church is not as before set out by that of Married Persons and that of a Man to his own Flesh but these are set out and illustrated by the other So great and transcending all Love yea even all Knowledge is this Love of Christ to his Church But 't will appear yet greater if we take a Prospect of it in the Second Light namely in those Real and Actual Proofs whereby Christ himself has exprest this his most excellent and otherwise incredible Love And certainly they are such as never were will or can be given by any other Lover For to make the Prospect as short as maybe was it not an amazing instance of Love for the great and ever Blessed God who could neither be advantaged by our Happiness nor damaged by our Misery to come down and assume our Nature in its meanest Circumstances to live a needy and contemptible Life and dye a painful aud execrable Death and all this to reconcile a Rebel to restore an Apostate Indeed the work of Man's Redemption if we deeply consider the whole Method and Contrivance of it is such an Heroic instance of Love and so much exceeding that of his Creation that 't is well Man was Created and Redeem'd by the same good being since otherwise his obligations to his Redeemer being so much greater than those to his Creator he would be very much divided and distracted in his returns of Love and Gratitude But let us reflect a little upon the Life before we further consider the Death of our Redeemer It was one constant Argument one continued Miracle of Love He lived as one purely Devoted to the good of Mankind All his Thoughts all his Words all his Actions were Love His whole business was to Glorify his Father and which was his greatest Glory to express his Love to Man which tho at all times exceeding wonderful yet toward the Evening of his Life it thicken'd and grew stronger like Motion within the Neighbourhood of the Center and as then he Prayed so he Loved yet more earnestly For 't was then that he wept over Condemn'd Ierusalem and bedew'd with Tears the Grave of Lazarus 'T was then that with desire he desired to Eat the Passover with his Disciples instituted a perpetual Monument of Love his Holy Supper and left another of Humility by condescending to wash their Feet 'T was then that he comforted his Disciples with the variety of the Heavenly Mansions with a Declaration that he himself was the way the Truth and the Life with an assurance that their Prayers in his Name should be effectual with a Promise of the Holy Spirit and with a Legacy of his own Peace to compensate for the Tribulation they should meet with in the World 'T was then lastly that he recommended the state of his Apostles together with his own Glorification in one and the same Solemn Prayer to his Father that he would preserve them in Unity and Truth and at length Glorify them with the whole Body of true Believers with himself in Heaven And all this at a time when one would have thought his own concern should have been his only Meditation and Fear his only Passion for now was he within view of his amazing sufferings and the shade was just ready to point at the dreadful hour and yet even now his Love was truly stronger than Death and the Care of his Disciples prevailed over the Horrors of his approaching Agony Which he further shewed by giving up himself to a cruel and shameful Death for the Life and Salvation of the World A Death to say no more of it of such strange Sorrow and Anguish that the very Prospect of it put him into a Sweat of Blood and the induring it made him complain of being deserted of his Father And then that his Redemption might prove effectual after his Resurrection he gives Commission to his Disciples to go and publish it with its conditions throughout the world and orders them all as he does here St. Peter to feed his Sheep And lest the the Benefit of his Death should be again frustrated for want of Power to perform the conditions presently after his Ascension he sent down the Spirit of consolation upon his Apostles and does continually confer Grace upon and make Intercession for his Church So tenderly affected was he toward this his Spouse that even the felicities of Heaven could not make him forget her as he further shew'd by complaining in behalf of his Church when from the midst of his Glory he said Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Which words shew him as much concern'd for the wounds given to his Mystical as for those he felt in his Natural Body And now since the Love of our Lord to his Church is so exceeding great it certainly concerns all Christians especially those whom he has intrusted with the Care of his Church to be alike minded Which leads me in the Second place to consider the command here given and to shew the great Obligation that lies upon all spiritual Pastors

Knowledge without Love But he that Loves altho he wants Sciences humanely acquired yet he will know more than Human Wisdom can teach him because he has that Master within who teaches Man Knowledge Purity of Heart and Life being one of the Methods of Consulting the Ideal World as was shewn in the Second Part. And now Madam I cannot well presage how your Ladyship will relish this Renunciation of all studies Meerly Curious from one whom you apprehended perhaps upon too just grounds to have been so naturally disposed to them and so deeply ingaged in them Perhaps you 'll say I am already Countrify'd since I left the Vniversity How far that Metamorphosis may seize upon me I can't yet tell if Solitude and Retirement be enough to bring it I am I confess in great Danger being now got into a little Corner of the World where I must be more Company to my self than I have been ever yet But the best on 't is I have not been so great a stranger to my own Company all along as to fear any great alteration by it now Nor do I think the Management of the Present undertaking a sign of any such change Whether I should have had the same Thoughts in the Vniversity or no I can't say I rather believe they are owing to my Country-Retirement as I hinted in the Beginning but however that be sure I am they were entertain'd upon the deepest and severest Consideration and I believe are so well grounded that the more your Ladyship considers the more you will be convinc'd both of the Truth of what I have Discours'd and of the Reasonableness of what I design which is to devote my self wholly to the accomplishment of my Moral part and of my Intellectual only so far as is Subservient to the other And now Madam having bid farewel to all unconcerning Studies all the dry and unsavoury parts of Learning 't is high time to take my leave of your Ladyship too which I do with this Hope that one great ground of your Trouble for the Misfortune of your Eyes is by the foregoing Considerations removed And with this Assurance that if these Discourses be too Weak to bring you over to my present Opinion they will however prove Strong enough to work you into a Better which is to believe that I still continue in all Reality Your Ladyships Most Faithful Friend and Servant Iohn Norris Newton St. Loe Sept. 2. 1689. A SERMON Preach'd in the ABBY CHURCH OF BATH Before the Right Reverend Father in GOD THOMAS Lord Bishop of BATH and WELLS At his VISITATION held there Iuly 30. 1689. By Iohn Norris M. A. Rector of Newton St. Loe near Bath and late Fellow of All-Souls College in Oxford London Printed in the Year 1690. John 21. v. 15. So when they had Dined Iesus saith to Simon Peter Simon Son of Ionas Lovest thou me more than these He saith unto him yea Lord Thou knowest that I Love thee He saith unto him Feed my Lambs THE Words consist of Three considerable parts First of a Question put by our Lord to St. Peter Secondly of St. Peter's Answer Thirdly of a Command by way of inference from it The Question was whether St. Peter Loved him beyond the rest of his Disciples then present This Demand of our Lord was not so high as were St. Peter's former Professions and Pretensions This warm and Zealous Apostle had always profess'd a more than ordinary Adhesion to his Lord and Master and pretended to as great a Supremacy of Love as his Successours do of Knowledge and Iurisdiction He seem'd to be among the Apostles what the Seraphim are among the Angels to out-shine and out-burn not this or that vulgar Disciple only but the whole Apostolical Order in Zeal Courage and Flames of Divine Love For no less can that Eminent Profession of his import Tho all Men should be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended But not having made good his high Pretensions our Lord now puts the Question to him in terms more moderate than those wherein he had before voluntarily boasted of his own Fidelity and whereas he had before made shew of a Superlative Love beyond All the Disciples our Lord only asks him this Modest Question Lovest thou me more than these The good Apostle having now partly from the late experiment of his own frailty and partly from the manner of our Lords Question learnt more Humility and Modesty returns such an Answer as was short not only of his former Professions but even of the Question too He does not reply Lord thou knowest that I love thee more than these No he dares not venture any more so much as to determine any thing concerning the Measure of his Love but is contented barely to aver the Truth and Sincerity of it And for this he fears not to appeal at last to the Divine Omniscience Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Our Lord takes the Answer and does not at all question the Truth and Sincerity of it only he gives him a Test whereby it might be tried and justified both before God himself and the World by subjoining this Illative Command feed my Lambs as it is in the Text or as in the two following verses feed my sheep This whole intercourse between our Lord and St. Peter may I conceive as to the full stress and scope of it fitly be reduced to this short Hypothetical sceme of speech If thou lovest me feed my sheep Like that of our Saviour upon another occasion to his Disciples in common If ye love me keep my Commandments This under a shorter view takes in the full force of the words and I shall accordingly discourse upon them as if they had stood in this Posture Hence then I shall take occasion to consider these three things as naturally arising from the words and as no less pertinent to our present Concern First the great Love of our Lord Christ to his Church which he here calls his Lambs and his Sheep which he here commands St. Peter as he loved him to feed and which lastly he would not absolutely and finally commit to his Charge till after three distinct Inquiries whether he truly loved him Secondly I shall consider the Command here given and shew the great obligation that lies upon all spiritual Pastors and Guides of Souls to feed this flock of Christ which is so dearly beloved by him Thirdly I shall consider the Connexion and Dependence that is between the Practice of this command and the Love of Christ. If thou Lovst me feed my sheep Lastly I shall close all with an earnest exhortation to the Conscientious Practice of the Duty enjoyned The first thing I shall consider is the great Love of Christ to his Church And certainly if there be any Secret in Religion fit for Angels to Contemplate and too high for them to comprehend if there be any Love that has Breadth and Length and Depth

to feed this flock of Christ which is so nearly beloved by him Feed my sheep says our Lord to St. Peter and in him to all the Pastors of the Christian Church who are equally concerned both in the Command and in the Duty And that they are so is already sufficiently concluded from what has been discoursed concerning the great Love of Christ to his Church To make you therefore more sensible of this Duty I need only propose to your Meditation how affectionately our Lord loves his Church and how dear her Interests are to him that out of this his abundant Love he has set apart a distinct Order of men on this very purpose to promote and further her in the way of Salvation that he has intrusted the care of her in their hands and has made them his Vicegerents and Trustees that 't is a Charge worthy their greatest care for which there needs no other Argument than that 't is committed to them by him who knows the worth of Souls that he strictly commands them as they have any Love or Regard for him to feed his Sheep that 't was the very last Command that he gave them when he was just leaving the world and upon the very confines of Glorification and that lastly as this is the greatest Trust that was ever by God reposed in Men so there will be the severest account taken of it at the last day at the Great Visitation of the Bishop of Souls This is enough if duely weighed to shew the Obligation of this command and to conclude this part were it not necessary to add something concerning the manner of discharging it Feed my Sheep is the Command given by Christ to the Pastors of his Church and we have seen the obligation of it But how are they to Feed them I answer First by Prayer for their respective charges both in Public and in Private This is the First thing belonging to the Pastoral Office and accordingly with this St. Paul begins his Admonition to his Son Timothy I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving Thanks be made for all Men. Secondly by Preaching with Private Instruction and Admonition as occasion shall serve and require And here their first care should be to Preach nothing but what is True Secondly to confine their Discourses to Vseful Truths such as tend to the promotion of good Life that which the Apostle calls the Truth which is after Godliness Thirdly to deliver only Plain Truths For there are many Truths which are highly useful and have a very Practical aspect when they are once understood which are not so easie and obvious to be so These therefore ought as much to be waved as those which are not useful because tho useful simply speaking yet respectively they are not And upon these two latter accounts we should not trouble our Unlearned Auditories either with Thorny Questions and Knotty Controversies which in themselves have no Practical use or with more refined Theories and School Niceties which to them are as useless and unpractical as the other To Feed them with the Former would be to give them Stones instead of Bread And to Feed them with the Latter would be like placing a Man in the Region of pure Ether why he can't breath in it and will starve by reason of the over-fineness of his Diet. Nor is it enough that the Truths we Preach be Vseful and Plain unless in the Fourth place they be deliver'd in a Plain and Intelligible Manner For what signifies it that the things are in themselves Plain if we make them obscure in our expressing them we are all ready enough to laugh at the Poor Frier for going about to Preach the Gospel to Beasts and Trees and are not they alike ridiculous that order Discourses so as not to be understood by those that hear them Don't these also Preach to Beasts and Trees We ought therefore to consult the Capacity of our Hearers and consider to whom as well as what we speak And to this Plainness of Expression we would do well to join some degrees of Warmth and Concernedness And this I rather recommend because there are some that affect a Cold Dead careless and heartless way of Delivery But certainly this has as little Decorum in it as it has of Devotion For since the things we speak are supposed not only to be Truths but Concerning and Important Truths what can be more absurd than to see a Man deliver a Sermon as drily and indifferently as one would Read a Mathematical Lecture 'T is said of Iohn the Baptist that he was a Burning as well as a Shining Light And truly we have need of such in this Cold Frozen Age. Plain Sermons Preach'd with Warmth and Affection do more than the Best Coldly deliver'd You know the Story in Eusebius of the Heathen Philosopher coming into the Council of Nice who was baffled into Christianity by the meer Warmth and Heartiness wherewith the good Old Man address'd him He could have resisted his Arguments but not the Spirit and Zeal wherewith he spake And this is all I shall think proper to remark to you upon the Preaching part The next way whereby the Pastors of the Church are to Feed the Sheep of Christ is by duely Administring to them the Holy Sacrament which is their true Spiritual Food the Manna that must sustain them in this Wilderness This is the most proper way of Feeding them for the Body of Christ is Meat indeed and his Blood is Drink indeed There remains yet one way more of Feeding the Flock of Christ without which the rest will signifie but little and that is by a good Example Among the other Properties of a good Shepherd our Saviour reckons this as one that he goes before his Sheep and leads them by his Steps as well as with his Voice There ought to be a Connexion between Hear and Do but much more between Preach and Do. And he that is not careful of this as he cannot expect to do much good to others so he will certainly Condemn himself To be short for I hope I need not inlarge speaking to Wise Men a good Preacher who is an ill Liver is such a Monster as cannot be Match'd in all Affrica And for his State hereafter I may leave it to be consider'd how great a Condemnation awaits him whom not only the Book of God and of Conscience but even his own Sermons shall Judge at the last Day These are the several ways of discharging this Precept Feed my Sheep to which however I think it necessary to add one thing more and that is that we Feed them our selves and not by Proxy or Deputation For out Lord does not say to St. Peter do thou get some body to Feed my Sheep but do thou Feed them thy self For however St. Peter's Shadow might do Cures upon the Body it must be his Person that must do good upon the Souls of