Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A26800
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A sermon preached upon the much lamented death of our late gracious sovereign Queen Mary to which is added The address of condolence to His Majesty by the dissenting ministers / by William Bates ...
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Bates, William, 1625-1699.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing B1118; ESTC R2534
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14,062
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32
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Charity would be illustrious Her wise Redemption of Time from unconcerning Vanities for Domestick Affairs was the Effect and Indication of her tender and vigilant Conscience She consider'd her Glass was continually running and all the Sands were to be accounted for How should this great Example correct those who are lavish of nothing so much as of Time which being lost is irrecoverable The Sun returns every Day but Time never returns In her Sickness Patience had its perfect Work Her Disease was uncomfortable yet with resigned Submission she bore it When the Danger of it was signified to her she had no fearful Thoughts about her future State 'T is a cruel Respect to sick Persons especially to Princes to conceal from them their Danger till Death steals insensibly upon them Indeed considering their past Lives and their present Anxieties the Advice of approaching Death is an Anticipation of it But the Spirit of this excellent Saint was not afraid of Evil-tidings but fixed trusting in the Lord. Her Care had been to secure the Love of God in the best time of her Life this mixed Cordial Drops in the Bitterness of Death In short to finish my Discourse all the blessed Vertues were eminently seen in her that might render her Government an entire Happiness to the Kingdom This erected her a Throne in the Hearts of her Subjects and the Honour the wise Poet attributes to the Emperor Augustus Victorque volentes Per populos dat jura That he rul'd a willing People may more truly be said of this excellent Princess She was Queen of the Affections of the People and governed them without Constraint Her Praise-worthy Actions will eternize her Memory when other Princes devested of their secular Pomp shall either be buried in dark Oblivion or condemned in History The Earthen Vessel wherein all these Treasures were deposited is broke and the instructive Providence should perswade us to look to our living Strength the blessed God fixing our Trust in him He bestowed this rare Instrument of his Goodness He can preserve his Servant our Sovereign Lord who by the Divine Assistance has the Honour of establishing our Religion and Liberties at home and gives hope of restoring it abroad from whence it has been so cruelly and perfidiously expell'd FINIS THE Address of Condoleance TO His MAJESTY BY THE Dissenting Ministers May it please your Majesty THO we come in the Rear of the Train of Mourners to pay our Tributary Tears for the unvaluable Loss in the Death of your Royal Consort and our most Gracious Queen yet our Resentments of it are with as tender a Sympathy as are in the Breasts of any of your Subjects This gives the sharpest Accent to our Passions that the Considerations which are most proper and powerful to allay our Sorrows exasperate them for while we remember what She was how general and diffusive a Blessing to three Kingdoms the severe stroke of Providence in taking Her from us is most afflicting Such a Concurrence of high Perfection shin'd in Her Person and Actions that would have made Her Illustrious in a low Condition and in Her exalted Station they were attractive of the Eyes and Admiration of all Her Mind was above the Temptations that attend the Throne Majesty was mix'd with that condescending Humility that tender and beneficent Goodness that She was easily accessable to all for their Relief and Support Her Piety and Purity were so conspicuous Her Affections were so composed and temperate that the Court that is usually the Centre of Vanity and Voluptuousness became vertuous by the Impression of Her Example Her Conversation was so regular that Her Enemies if Goodness in such a bright Eminency had any could not fasten a Taint upon Her Her Royal Endowments for Government Wisdom Magnanimity Vigilance and Care in managing Affairs of State without which the highest Princes are but civil Idols useless and unprofitable to the World these were in such a degree of Excellency that in your Majesty's constrained Absence while you were defending the Interest of Christendom against a potent Enemy abroad with the Sword of War She sweetly ordered all things at home with the Scepter of Peace She is gone and must return no more O astonishing Grief But it becomes us with humble Submission to acquiesce in the Divine Disposal The Will of God is always directed by Infinite Wisdom and is the Rule of Goodness We must refresh our Sorrows with the hope that She is entered into her Saviour's Joy whom She imitated and honoured and that She is made happy in the Love of God and the Light of his Countenance for ever We humbly beseech your Majesty to accept the renewed Assurances of our inviolable and constant Fidelity to your Person and Government and that we shall influence all that are within our Compass to persevere in their Duty We shall earnestly pray to the blessed God to keep you in the best Protection his encompassing Favour to support your Spirit with Divine Comforts and to continue long your precious Life so necessary for preserving the pure Religion and the Civil Rights of this Kingdom FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THE four last Things viz. Death Judgment Heaven Hell practically considered and applied In several Discourses By William Bates D. D. Printed for Brab Aylmer Rev. 1. 4. Isa. 44. 6. Exod. 3. Mal. 3. 6. 1 Tim. 6. Psal. 21. Esay Heb. 11. * Adhuc usque in finem seculi multiplicandi justificandi sunt Tamen verba praeteriti temporis posuit de rebus etiam futuris tanquam jam fecerit Deus quae jam ut fierent ex aeternitate disposuit 2 Pet. 1. 1 Sam. 15. 29. Deut. 7. Psal. 102. Eph. 3. 10. Luke 15. Psal. 39. Lam. â— 19 20. Psal. 82. 6 7.
to abjure the Truth whose infamous Ambition has turned Europe into a Stage of bloody Confusion Our Serenity and Tranquillity the flourishing of Peace and Truth are from the benevolent Aspect and favourable Influence of these two bright Stars in Conjunction I shall in speaking of this excellent Queen not insist on the Privileges in the Order of Nature that eminently distinguish'd her from others Her Descent was Royal but this is only an external Circumstance and derives no Moral Value to a Person The Splendor of Extraction like Varnish in a Picture that gives more Life and Lustre to the Colours makes the Vertues or the Vices of a Person more conspicuous Her Body was the beautiful Temple of a fairer Soul Her graceful Presence inspired Reverence and Love in those who saw her and appeared worthy of Empire But visible Beauty is often join'd with foul Deformity in the same Person I shall begin with her Piety towards God This is the first Duty of Man in Order and Dignity and the most considerable in its Consequences 't is the Foundation of all Royal Vertues In the Publick Worship of God she was a bright Example of solemn and unaffected Devotion She prayed with humble Reverence heard the Word with respectful Silence and with serious Application of Spirit as duly considering the infinite Interval between the Supremacy of Heaven and Princes on Earth That their Greatness in its Lustre is but a faint and vanishing Reflection of the Divine Majesty One Instance I shall specify in this kind When her Residence was at the Hague a Lady of Noble Quality coming to the Court to wait on her on a Saturday in the Afternoon was told she was retired from all Company and kept a Fast in preparation for the receiving the Sacrament the next day The Lady staying till five a clock the Princess came out and contented her self with a very slender Supper it being incongruous to conclude a Fast with Feast Thus solemnly she prepared her self for spiritual Communion with her Saviour When Moses was surpriz'd at the sight of the flaming Bush and intended to come near to it he was warn'd by a Voice from Heaven Draw not nigh hither Put off thy Shoes from thy Feet for the Place wherein thou standest is holy Ground By the familiar figure of putting off the Shoes is signified the purifying our selves from all Defilements And certainly the Presence of the Son of God is more peculiar in that sacred mysterious Ordinance than it was in the burning Bush accordingly we should sanctify our selves and approach with holy Fear Her Religion was not confin'd to the Chappel but every Day she had chosen Hours for Communion with God of which he is the only Discerner and Rewarder Some that are High in the World think it sufficient to pay a Complemental Visit to God once a Week and content themselves with the external Service tho destitute of Holy Affections which are the Life of Religion or at best are satisfied with a few expiring Acts of Devotion But the good Queen's Conversation was in Heaven she was constant in those Duties wherein the Soul ascends to God by solemn Thoughts and ardent Desires and God descends into the Soul by the Excitations and Influences of his Spirit Her Religion was not only exercised in Divine Worship but was influential into her Practice The Law of God was written in her Heart and transcribed in her Life in the fairest Characters She had a sincere Zeal for the healing our unhappy Divisions in Religious Things and declared her Resolution upon the first Address of some Ministers that she would use all Means for that Blessed End She was so wise as to understand the Difference between Matters Doctrinal and Rituals and so good as to allow a just Liberty for Dissenters in Things of small Moment She was not fetter'd with Superstitious Scruples but her clear and free Spirit was for the Union of Christians in Things essential to Christianity This revives in me the sorrowful Remembrance of the late Excellent Arch-bishop tho in Place incomparably inferiour to the Queen their Principles and Temper their Designs and Endeavours were for Peace And the hopes of obtaining it are weakened by the fatal Conjuncture of their Funerals The Holiness of her Life was Universal She was Born and Lived in the Court that shines in Pomp and flows in Pleasures and presents charming Temptations to all the Diseased Appetites Pride that destroyed both Worlds and cleaves so close to Human Nature reigns there The Love of Pleasure is a soft Seducer that easily insinuates through the Senses and captivates the Soul 'T is an Observation of St. Chrysostom that the three Hebrew Martyrs that were preserved unpolluted in the Court of Babylon was a greater Miracle than the preserving them unsinged in the Fiery Furnace In the absence of Temptations the Corrupt Nature is sometimes so conceal'd that 't is hardly known to it self but when tempting Objects arm'd with Allurements offer themselves the corrupt Nature is presently discover'd Especially if a Person comes to the Licence of the Scepter that swells Pride and authorizes the exorbitant Desires To be humble in such a high Elevation to be temperate in the midst of the freest Fruitions is the Effect of powerful Grace Who ever saw in the Queen an Appearance of Pride and Disdain How graceful was the Condescendence of her Greatness Who saw any Disorder in her Countenance the Chrystal wherein the Affections are visible Her Breast was like the Pacifick Sea that seldom suffers and is disturbed by a Storm She was so exempt from the Tyranny of the angry Passions that we may have some conjecture of the Felicity of the State of unstained Innocence of which one Ray is so amiable And was so abhorring from the sensual Passions that nothing impure durst approach her Presence In her Relation to the King she was the best Pattern of Conjugal Love and Obsequiousness How happy was her Society redoubling his Comforts and dividing his Cares Her Deportment was becoming the Dignity and Dearness of the Relation Of this we have the most convincing Proof from the Testimony and Tears of the King since her Death Solomon adds to many Commendations of a vertuous Woman as a Coronis that her Husband praises her The King 's declaring that in all her Conversation he discovered no Fault and his unfeigned and deep Sorrow for his Loss are the Queen 's entire Elogy She had an excellent Understanding that qualified her for Government Of this her presiding in Council in times of Danger and preserving the Tranquillity of the Kingdom were real Proofs Her Charity that Celestial Grace was like the Sun nothing within her Circuit was hid from its refreshing Heat Love is the clearest Notion we have of the Deity God is Love A Prince in no Perfection resembles God more than in his communicative Goodness If it were known what this good Queen did and what she designed to do among all her relucent Vertues