Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A58177
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A persuasive to a holy life, from the happiness that attends it both in this world and in the world to come by John Ray ...
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Ray, John, 1627-1705.
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1700
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Wing R401; ESTC R13690
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51,693
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laying its Mouth as St. Augustin teaches me to speak to the Spring of all Happiness do more than taste the sweetness of it We may expect to have it fill'd with those delicious Pleasures which we know attend on Love and which in that State will be proportionable to the greatness of the good that is embraced and to the strength and ardency of the embracement And whereas here in this World Men are apt to love beyond all reason whereby their Love becomes adulterate and is mix'd with so many discontents thâ—t it proves but a bitter sweet there our Understanding will be in its full growth and highest pitch so that as nothing which is reasonable shall be omitted to be done nothing likewise shall be done that is unreasonable This Love will be grounded upon the clearest Judgment this Flame kindled by the purest Light so that there shall be no trouble or disquiet in it but perfect rest and peace And whereas in this World Mens Affections flow to things that are not near so big as themselves i. e. as their own Desires and so they languish and faint and fall sick even in the enjoyment of the best good it affords because they find it is not a supply proportionable to their want or to their expectation There will be no such emptiness or want of satisfaction in those Coelestial Enjoyments because we shall embrace not only our proper good but that which is commensurate to our desires and beyond our hopes Our Affections will not fall then upon that which cannot sustain the whole weight of them but feeling themselves born up to the greatest height of Love by a good so full that it will leave no room for complaint or uneasiness they will enjoy the most solid rest and satisfaction Do but conceive them in your Minds what a pleasure it is here in this Life to love and to be beloved and you will have some notion whereby to take a measure of the Life we are speaking of which will consist in such mutual Love and delightful correspondencies And they who have neither Father nor Mother Wife nor Children near Kindred nor Relations whereon to place their Affection let them consider if they have but a singular Friend what the pleasure is that two persons who sincerely and purely love take in the sweet Company and Conversation of each other Or if I must suppose any Man to be so unkind and so unhappy as to have no love for any body but his own self let him think what contentment he hath and how he is pleased if he can arrive any thing near to a quiet enjoyment of his dear self And such a delightful state may be a small Image of Heaven where holy Souls will love God with a far greater flame than ever they did or shall then love themselves because he will appear infinitely more lovely and to bear also a far greater love to them than it is possible for them to do to themselves Now none can tell how transporting it will be to a good Soul when it fâ—els it self the beloved of God as well as full of love to him because we cannot think how great the Love of the Almighty is unlesâ— we could know how great he is himself This is a thing that cannot fail to have a strange power over our affections and to master them so that we shall be quite taken out of our selves for we all extremely love to be beloved If any Neighbour shews us an unexpected and undeserved Kindness we are apt to think he is the best person in the World And the poorest Wretch in the World if we see in him the undoubted signs of an hearty love to us we cannot chuse but requite it with some expressions of kindness back again nay if a Dog or such a dumb Creature do but fawn upon us or delight in our Company and with a great deal of observance follow us wheresoever we go we cannot but be so far pleased with this inclination towards us as to make much of it and to be troubled to see any harm befall it and to love to see it play and be well pleased Judge then what a pleasure it will be to pious Souls to find themselves beloved of him who hath put these kind Resentments into our Natures To what an height will the sweet breathings of his Love blow up the Flames of theirs Into what Extasies will they fall when they feel by the happy fruits what an exceeding great affection their heavenly Father bears to them It is above our present thoughts to apprehend the Joy that will then overflow them But we may conceive a little of it if we remember that God is love and that by our Love he will be in us and by his Love we shall be in him He proceeds to speak of the love of Saints and Angels The pleasure joy and delectation that naturally and necessarily flows from this knowledge and love of God the Happiness which the Body shall be exalted to and the eternal duration of all these This Eternal Life our Blessed Saviour hath brought to light through the Gospel and hath promised it to all those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality Rom. 2.7 1 John 2.25 And this is the promise that he hath promised even eternal life Some perchance may say The great disproportion that is between the Services and Rewards makes this Promise of Eternal Life difficult to be believed For who can think that God should recompence our poor and imperfect Duties and Services performed for a very short time with such an immense and eternal weight of Glory and Happiness To this I answer That though indeed it cannot consist with God's Justice to punish any Creature without or beyond its demerit yet nothing hinders but that he may be as bountiful as he pleases and in his Rewards exceed all the deserts and even expectations of his Creatures an hundred or a thousand fold Let us then admire the transcendent and unmerited goodness and love of God in doing such great things for us as sending his Son into the World to take our nature upon him to suffer Death for our Sins and to give us the great Promise of Eternal Life and let us endeavour in some measure to answer this Love by sutable Affections of the most ardent Love and Gratitude Let us also love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity which we have all the reason in the World to do considering the greatness of his Love to us manifested by the great things he hath done and suffered for us John 15.9 As the Father hath loved me saith our Saviour to his Disciples so have I loved you And v. 13. he proceeds to say Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for hiâ— fâ—iends Ye are my Friends c. By which Words he intimates that he was about to make the greatest demonstration of his Love to his
the Scriptures Thus far Dr. Hammond Love is by some Divines distinguished into Appreciative and Sensible or rather Passionate Appreciative Love is such an affection whereby we prize or value any one Object above another Sensible or Passionate Love is that which hath a greater influence upon the Body and doth more strongly move and affect it Our Love to God in this state is of the first kind such an affection or disposition of Soul whereby we prize him above all things so that neither Father nor Mother nor Wife nor Child though they may more sensibly and passionately affect us are so much esteemed by us we can be content to part with them when God pleases and quietly to submit to his Will No Worldly advantage much less the gratifying any Lust can prevail with us to break any one of his Commandments CHAP. IV. Of the Division of Happiness THough the supreme and chief Happiness of Man consists in the knowledge and love of God yet there are other things which contribute to the completion of it especially in this World viz. Those which tend to the making our present condition easy and comfortable to us such as Health Wealth Friends Reputation the contrary whereto as Sickness Bodily-pain Hunger and Thirst Disgrace c. would render it grievous and unpleasant The former of these are eagerly pursu'd by a great part of Mankind as their chief good and happiness Could we therefore demonstrate and I think it not difficult to do that Holiness or obedience to God's Commands is the most effectual means to procure and secure these outward Enjoyments to us so far as there is any good in them I think we should need no other consideration to recommend a Holy Life and Conversation to all sorts and conditions of Men. Which that we may do the more clearly and satisfactorily it will be convenient to make a division of Happiness according to the several states of Man and his several parts and the particular ingredients which make up the happiness of each part in each state And because I cannot think of a better I shall make use of that of Dr. Wilkins late Lord Bishop of Chester in his Treatise of Natural Religion The Happiness then of Man is either that of this present Estate which determines at Death or that of a future Estate which commences at Death and continues to all Eternity The Happiness of this present Estate may be divided into 1. External Or that of the Outward Man Or 2. Internal Or that of the Inner Man External Happiness consists principally in 1. Health 2. Safety Liberty and Quiet 3. Riches 4. Pleasures 5. Honour and Reputation 6. Friends Under which Name I comprehend also Natural Relations As Wife and Children and Parents who are usually called so in common Speech as when we say Such a Man hath good Friends or his Friends are well to live Internal Happiness consists in the knowledge and love of God manifested by our obedience to his Commands the improvement of all our Faculties inward peace of Conscience Joy and Tranquility of Mind The Happiness of the future Estate is the clear Vision of God likeness to him and union with him by perfect love 1 John 3.2 We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is This differs chiefly in degree from the precedent Before I run over these Heads in particular I shall premise two things in general First That keeping of God's Commandments is every way for the good benefit and advantage of the whole world and Mankind in general Sin which is the breach of God's Law is the only procuring and productive cause of all the Evils and Miseries Troubles and Distresses that are in the world Did Men generally obey God's Laws the whole Earth which is now for the most part an Akeldama or Field of Blood would be turn'd into a very Paradise into a Heaven Men would then beat their Swords into Plowshares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks Men who now are Wolves and Tygers one to another who bite and devouâ— one another would then be a protection and defence and mutual help one to another Whence come wars and fightings among you saith the Apostle James come they not hence even of your lusts which war in your members Running over all the Commandments of God I might easily deduce and demonstrate in particular that each of them conduces to the publick good and benefit Secondly The Commandments of God are not grievous or uneasy his Law is holy and just and good his Precepts equal and reasonable nay so sutable and agreeable to the Nature and Reason of Man that I will be bold to say They ought upon their own account to be observed and obeyed by us were there no Heaven to reward our Obedience no Hell to punish our Disobedience This is the foundation of that Stoical Doctrine That Vertue is its own Reward and that Happiness consists in the very doing of Vertuous Actions And therefore a wise Man is satisfied with the Conscience of well-doing and will not do any dishonest or wicked thing to avoid any Suffering or Torment whatsoever The reason is because God hath imprinted in our Nature an aversation from Vice and dislike of it so that we cannot but condemn our selves for doing any thing that is dishonest or unjust Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur No â—â—nocent person is absolved himself being Judge Nor can any terrour or torment acquit us from blame if to avoid it we do any vile or dishonest action But on the contrary if we resolutely stick to that which is good whatever we suffer for it we satisfie our own Consciences and rejoice in having done so and gain the approbation and applause of all Men. The Evil of Sin is greater and more to be avoided than the Evil of Pain or Suffering tho that be a great Evil too and that man be far from being happy who labours under extreme Bodily Pain especially if without hope of deliverance Such a Man's very Being would be a Burthen to him it being a true saying Praestat non esse quà m miserum esse Better not to be than to be miserable But our gracious God hath not put us off with such a Reward as this which notwithstanding the Apostle saith of the Christians of his time That if in this life only they had hope they would be of all men the most miserable but hath promised to recompence our Obedience with Eternal Life and Happiness and particularly our Sufferings for his Cause and for Righteousness sake with a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And for our encouragement hath permitted us to have a respect to this recompence of reward as Moses that Man of God and others of his Servants mentioned Heb. 11. had CHAP. V. Of Health HEalth is a Blessing so necessary to our Well-being in this World that without it we cannot enjoy any thing else no not our own selves And therefore the common salutation