Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A10232
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The communicants duty set forth in eight sermons / preached at Kings-Lynne in Norfolke by Thomas Purchas ...
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Purchas, Thomas.
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1639
(1639)
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STC 20509.3; ESTC S1282
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68,428
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342
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of the same promise Partakers of the same hope Now it is a shamefull thing and full of infamy and reproach to see the Branches of the same Vine Sheepe of the same Shepheard Children of the same Father to contend and strive one against another Beloved there is but little love where are those noble paire of lovers David and Ionathan who had but one soule Eusebius and Pamphilus Martyrs who had but one name Pilades and Orestes who had but one life the one being dead the other died also Ruth and Naomi who had but one grave Saint Basil and Saint Nazienzen of whom it is said anima una erat inclusa in duobus corporibus one soule was included in two bodies Marriage maketh two bodies one but love maketh two soules one yea many soules many bodies but one The Heathens were wont to say of the men of the Primitive Church ecce ut invic em se diligunt behold how they love one another they knew Christians by that badge but we may say ecce ut invicem se â—derunt behold how they hate one another not Christians but Wolves Lyons Leopards Divels nay worse for one Lyon eateth not another and the Divels strive not among themselves but maintaine their Kingdome Let Tygers and Beares and Leopards teare one another let Scythians Cannibals eat one another who know not God nor good humanity let them bee without naturall affections but let us love one another and let the Apostle his precept bee our practise bee of one minde one suffer with another love as brethren be pittifull be courteous not rendring evill for evill not rebuke for rebuke but contrariwise blesse knowing that yee are thereunto called that yee should be heires of blessing a 1 Pet. 3. 8. 9. In no quality doe wee resemble God more than in this Love God the Father is Love God the Sonne is Love God the Holy Ghost is Love God the Father in love gave the Sonne God the Sonne in love gave himselfe God the holy Ghost in love applyeth all this to us Now good reason have Kind of love we to examine our love to man for there are divers kinds of love First The Atheists love Atheists love and this comes from profit or from pleasure which love men as the dog doth the bone but this love proceedeth not ex cordepuro a pure heart therefore it is a love condemned Secondly the Gamesters Gamesters love Drunkards love for to glosse play eate drinke game be no good workes therefore this is not to love Thirdly There is carnall Carnall love love and this is condemned for love in man may be a vice aswell as a grace it is a vice when it is set upon a wrong obiect or is disordered and that three wayes 1. When we love things unlawfull as sinne 2. When we love things lawfull but too much as the world 3. When love is turned into lust and so it is the mother of fornication adultery incest and such like Fourthly There is a Christian love Christian love wee must love one another in the Lord and for the Lord this love is the badge of Christs Disciples by this shall all men know that you are my Disciples indeed if yee love one another as I have loved you b Iohn 13. To this Saint Peter exhorteth above all things have fervent love among your selves for love shall cover a multitude of sinnes c 1 Pet. 4. non expiando non veniam promâ—rendo sed fraternè condonando non vindicando non diffamando not by purging or satisfying for sinne not by deserving pardon and binding God to forgive sinne but by brotherly forgiving trespasses not revenging our selves nor defaming others There is another love condemned the love of Schismaticall Heretiques and Schismaticall love in cathedra unitatis Deus posuit doctrinam veritatis in the chaire of unity God hath put the doctrine of verity they agree as the false Prophets did not in the Lord but against the Lord. Papists boast much of their Councell of Trident and how they agree in all meetings Alas a few Bishops of Italy conspired together but thirty eight Bishops in all not like the Councell of Nice where were three hundred and eighteene or of Arimine where were sixe hundred Bishops nor like the Councell of Constance where were foure Patriarks twenty nine Cardinalls two hundred threescore and ten Bishops forty seven Arch-bishops five hundred threescore and foure Abbots and Doctors at the deposing of Benedict the third But our love let it bee as it should bee Christian love let us love as brethren Our love must bee Christian. and then the God of love and peace shall bee with us and if enemies will not bee pacified recommend the cause to God till wee meete in heaven where all injury shall bee forgotten and in the meane while I beseech you as S. Paul did the Saints of Corinth I beseech you I say by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that yee all speake one thing and that there be no dissension among you but that yee bee knit together in one minde and in one judgment d 1 Cor. 1. 10. and whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things pertaine to love e Phil. 4. 8. thinke on these things and the God of Love and peace shall bee with you f 1 Thes 3. 12. and the Lord increase your love and make it abound more and more one toward another Christs Commandement is all love his Spouse is all loving and Iohn will preach nothing but love and wee must follow after love and above all have fervent love among our selves for that shall cover a multitude of sinnes Seeing therefore it is not all love that is commended it stands us in hand to examine our love for none receive worthily but such whose love is 1. Holy Loves properties 2. Just 3. True 4. Constant First the Receivers love Holy Love must be holy love It must be for God and not against God under God and not above God for he loves not God that loves not his neighbour with God whom he loves not for God and hee that loves his neighbour more than God is unworthy of God and makes his neighbour to be his God Secondly The Receivers Iust love love must be Iust Wee must not love one another in evil but in good and for good pacem cum hominibus bellum cum vitiis wee must have peace with men war with their vices we must love their persons but hate their manners if they be evill Thirdly The Receivers True love love must be true love Wee must not love in word and in tongue but in worke and in truth g 1 Ioh 3. 18. nemo potest veraciter esse amicus ho minis nisi primitus fuerit amicus ipsius veritatis S. Augustine no man can bee S. Aug. a true lover of man unlesse
our heart Now to love God withall the heart is to love him with all our affections joying and delighting in none but in him for hee loves not God that delights in any What it is to love God with the heart S. Aug. thing more then God as S. Augustine saith truly Minus te amat qui aliquid tecum amat quod non prop ter te amat hee loves thee not who loves any thing with thee which hee loves not for thee Secondly we must love God must bee loved with all the soule God with all our soule induring rather a separation of the soule from the body than that our soule should bee separated from God who is the Soule of the soule and the comfort both of soule and body Thirdly God must be loved with all our mind so that our cogitations must be fixed upon him and ruled by him his word should direct our Reason our Reason rule our Wills that so wee may say with the Apostle wee live not but God doth live within us A Christians chiefest care should be how to performe this duty to God how to love him as the Church said I am full of love I am sick of love n Cant. 5. 8. All owe this debt to God This is that all men should doe this they owe to God but few pay it or if they doe it is with Crackt mony not currant in Gods Exchequer for our love to God is cold Mans love to God cold and dead yea plaine dead and that appeareth in the breach of the first Table wee are bankrupts both in piety towards God and charity towards men we love the World and our pleasures more then God we worship not God in spirit and in truth we sweare and blaspheme the name of God we prophane and pollute the Sabbaths of God wee come seldom to the house of God how can we say that wee love God the love of God standeth Love stands in keeping the Commandements in the keeping of his Commandements so saith our Saviour hee that hath my Commandements and keepeth them is he that loves mee and againe if any man love me hee will keepe my Word and my Father will love him and wee will come unto him and dwell with him and againe he that loveth me not keepeth not my words o John 14. 21. 23 26. He speaketh positively and privatively The blessed and undivided Trinity will dwell with that man who loveth God truely but till wee serve God in holinesse and righteousnesse till wee pray diligently heare his Word attentively receive the Sacraments penitently keepe the Lords day 's religiously use his name reverently let us bee ashamed to say that wee love God nunc regnum dei non est in verbis sed in vertute the Kingdome of God is not in word but in power Many Christians are mutilated and lame either they want an eare and cannot heare God or they want a tongue and cannot praise God or they want an heart and cannot love God These Atheists are a disgrace to Religion a Moth in the garment of the Church monsters in nature divels in shape of men as CHRIST said of Judas hollow Trees not holy Trees Beloved it is a most honorable thing An honorable thing to love God to be a lover of God it was one of Abrahams greatest titles of honour to bee called the friend of God it is a most blessed thing to be a lover of God they that love the Lord shall bee as the Sunne that riseth in his strength There is nothing in the Nothing can give rest to the soule but God World that can give rest unto the soule but God the heart of man is like the needle of the cumpasse that trembleth still untill it come at the Pole The soule of a wicked man is in a sling now that which is in a sling is violently tossed about so is the soule when it is not upon the proper object God It was the saying of the rich gluttan soule take thy ease thou hast goods laid up for many yeeres and David cryed returne my soule to thy rest p Luke 12. 19. 116. Psal 7. The first put his soule from the right object but the second when he said returne my soule to thy rest hee put it up on the right object Now a question may be asked Quaest Whether God is to bee loved for his benefits or for himselfe Resp God is to bee God is to be loved for himselfe loved for himselfe benefites in respect of our infirmities may bee motives to stirre us up to love God but hee is to be loved for himselfe Hypocrites serve God for gaine what shal it profit us say they if wee pray unto him they measure all their Religion by profit it is vaine they say to Job 21. 15 serve God and what profit is it that wee have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournefully before the Lord of Hosts q Mal. 3. 14 These are like unto little children who will not say their Prayers unlesse you promise them their breakfast and to these men gayne is godlinesse A second question to be propounded is Quest Whether the hatred of God or the ignorance of God be the greater sinne Res In divers considerations the hatred of God may bee a greater sinne then the ignorance of God and ignorance againe a greater sinne then the hatred First That is the greatest sinne that is most opposite to the great God now hatred of God being opposite to the Love of God must needs be the greater sinne Secondly If yee will consider ignorance as opposite to the vision of God wherein our blessednesse consisteth then the ignorance of God is a greater evill then the hatred of God for to see God is a more excellent thing then to love him though in Termino they cannot bee severed The End of the Seventh SERMON The Eighth SERMON 1 Corinthians 11. CHAP. 28. VERS But let a man examine himselfe and so let him eate of that Bread and drinke of that Cup. WEE heard in the former Sermon that whosoever would come worthily to Gods Table must examine himselfe narrowly before he comes examine hee must his Knowledge his Faith his Repentance his Obedience and lastly his love Foure of these I have insisted upon at large entrance hath been made into the last which is Love Love to God Love to man For the Love to God that wee have finished now it remaines that we spend some time on our love to man Now every receiver Love to man must be examined must examine this Knowledge concerning this for Wee all come to one Table All eate of the same Bread drinke all of the same Cup. Baptised all into the same baptisme Branches all of the same Vine Sheep of the same Shepheard Children of the same father Fellowes of the same houshold Heires of the same kingdome Members of the same body Professors of the same faith Obtainers