Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	friend_n	great_a	love_v	6,235	5	6.3276	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25316	The evidence of things not seen, or, Diverse scriptural and philosophical discourses, concerning the state of good and holy men after death ... by that eminently learned divine Moses Amyraldus ; translated out of the French tongue by a Minister of the Church of England.; Discours de l'estat des fidèles après la mort. English.	Amyraut, Moïse, 1596-1664.; Minister of the Church of England.	1700 (1700)	Wing A3036; ESTC R7638	98,543	248

we love One whereof are insensible of our love because they are so in themselves The other have knowledge of our affection and on their part correspond unto it the love that we have for the first gives not a pleasure that comes near that of the love that we have for the second then when we are assured that they love us reciprocally And the reason thereof is two fold The first is that the things that cannot love us reciprocally however excellent they may otherwise be are nevertheless void of understanding those that are capable of a true affection for us are partakers of it Now things endued with understanding are infinitely better than those that are not if therefore the satisfaction that we receive either from our contemplation or from our love encreaseth as we have seen above according to the proportion of the excellency of the object upon which our faculties display and exercise themselves the love that we have for things endued with understanding must infinitely over-weigh the other The second is that as we love nothing earnestly which we do not value much so we cannot perceive our selves loved but we perceive our selves also valued and esteemed by those that love us Now 't is a thing supreamly sweet and pleasant to be valued and esteemed by those that we believe do exactly know us and which otherwise we know are themselves to be valued and esteemed in a Soveraign manner For either they esteem us for the sake of our proper worth as when we love our Friends for the sake of their virtue Or else they esteem us for this that although in our selves in comparison of them we be of no marvellous great price so it is nevertheless that they have made us and 't is by them that we are what we are So we love our Children so every understanding Cause loves the work that he hath produced with some Understanding and Art The first is marvellously pleasant For if it be a thing agreeable to be and to know that we are how much more is it to possess a Being accompanied with commendable qualities The second ought to be much more For although we do not perceive our selves commendable in our selves 't is no small commendation to be dependances of a great Cause and parts of a Noble Principle from whom we are derived Now in the Estate in which we shall be in the Kingdom of Heaven we shall possess both all these degrees and all these kinds of happiness For as we shall love both the Angels and the faithful that shall there be partakers with us in one and the same glory with tenderness unimaginable so will they on their part love us so heartily that they will perfectly correspond to our affections And in the same manner that we shall love them as well with that kind of love wherewith we embrace our Friends by reason of their Holiness and virtue which we shall see arrived at the highest pitch of its perfection as with that kind of love wherewith we love our Brethren For the sake of the Communion we shall have with one and the same Heavenly Father So we do certainly know that we shall be perfectly loved of them on the same considerations because our virtue and perfections will be the same with theirs and we shall be equally the Sons of God So that as by the love that we shall bear to them we shall be so closely joined to them that we shall have them perpetually in our minds they will be joyned so closely to us by the affection wherewith they will embrace us that they will have us perpetually in theirs and so our Souls shall be as it were melted and mingled together And this will be wonderful in the vehemence and sincerity of this love that whereas 't is impossible here below to have many such Friends for whom we have such deep and great affection there will be above in the Heavens Millions with whom we shall have these indissoluble Tyes and Obligations For on one side here are found but few that upon Trial we have judged or can judge worthy of this degree of love and on the other side our minds in this natural Constitution in which they are cannot supply to so many Operations of so great and extraordinary vehemence Whereas there we shall be fully assured of the excellency and merit of all our Objects without any need of Tryal and our minds having obtained by their glorification a supernatural and extraordinary vigour they will become as it were fruitful and inexhaustible fountains of these kinds of operations from whence love and kindness will run down not as little streams or brooks which presently grow dry but as floods abounding and remaining to eternal ages Again as we shall love the Lord Jesus and the Heavenly Father all as much as the properties infinitely and supremely amiable that are in them shall be known by faculties such as ours will be that is to say with the whole extent of the power of a reasonable Creature raised to glory in like manner they both the one and the other will love us all as much as such Creatures can be loved by those that are wholly love Insomuch that although we do not find in our selves to whatever perfection we do arrive what may correspond to the honour of so great love Nevertheless we shall not cease to esteem our selves supremely happy in it and to receive unspeakable joy from it For this Relation which we shall have with God of being his Children and that which we shall have with Jesus Christ of being his beloved Brethren will certainly be sufficient to give us esteem and value and to make us eternally the objects not only of those which shall partake with us in the same Salvation but the admiration of Angels themselves Behold will they say those that were taken from the Earth raised above the Heavens those that had deserved Eternal confusion advanced to the top of glory and honour those that have deserved to inhabite Hell with Devils partaking Heaven with the Son of God Those that were sometimes worthy that God should separate them from his presence Eternally received into his own bosom there to enjoy the Communion of his Holy Spirit in Eternal life and glory Now to him that shall have all the powers of his Soul filled with so great and perfect contentment what can be wanting of a most perfect and Soveraign happiness Observe principally as I have above represented it that the Body shall become shining incorruptible and immortal and that the enjoyment of this happiness will be given us in an Habitation Eternally glorious For it is not for nothing that St. John representing the Jerusalem that is on high saith that 't is full of the glory of God and that its light is more sparkling than that of Pretious Stones That the wall thereof is Jasper the buildings thereof of pure Gold like unto transparent glass The foundations thereof so many Quarries of Pretious Stones That its twelve gates were twelve Pearls its Streets paved with Gold and that the Lord Almighty and the Lamb that accomplished our Salvation is the Temple thereof That it hath no need of Sun nor Moon For God enlightens it on all sides and the Lamb is the Torch which makes it sparkle with an Eternal light For although these terms be Prophetick and Mysterious their sense is nevertheless a representation of a magnificence which cannot be expressed And although it have a particular regard to the light of knowledge and the perfect holiness of the Church of God nevertheless it includes the quality of its remaining happiness and the beauty of its Habitation Now although it be not unprofitable thus to bring down if I may so express it Heaven to Earth by our Meditation and from thence to form some imperfect Idea thereof in our minds 'T is yet notwithstanding incomparably more advantageous to raise as far as our infirmity will permit Earth to Heaven and even now to fix our hearts and affections on high expecting that the Lord Jesus will do us the favour and bestow on us the priviledge really to contemplate there what we do not yet see but in the promises that he hath given us to him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory power and dominion for ever and ever Amen FINIS ERRATA PAge 3 l. 14 r. merry l. 16 r. occurence p 4 l. 1 r. of p 5 l. 7 r. fails l. 21 r. consequence p 6 l. 14 blot out forms p 9 l. 22 for to r. so p 14 l. 25 r. there p 15 l. 4 r. that l. 9 r. abstractions p 17 l. 1 r. those l. 28 r. on p 18 l. 8 r. he p 19 l. 22 r. how p 21 l. 12 r. affixed l. 22 r. retained p 22 l. 28 r. Spirits p 26 l. 8 r. this p 30 l. 27 r. therein p 31 l. 9 r. so p 33 l. 27 r. Christ p 35 l. 13 r. buried l 16 r. so p 39 l. 20 r. Orpheus p 52 l. 10 r. entred p 59 l. 3 r. it p 75 l. 9 r. may p 81 l. 12 r. there p 83 l. 21 r. consists p 85 l. 4 r. them not p 97 l. 27 r. already p 109 l. 12 r. of r. All l. 15 blot out now p. 111 l. 8 r. love p 114 l. 3 r. so 122 l. 14 r. raised p 123 l. 1 blot out of p 126 l. 23 r. precedent p 131 l. 15 r from p 147 l. 11 r. then p 148 l. 22 r. wraps p 150 l. 20 r. will appear p 153 l. 8 r imbued p 157 l. 15 r. means l. 16 r. Brethren p 163 l. 3 r. Calvin p 165 l. 23 r. Flaminius And Also p 166 l. 6 and p 170 l. 12 r. and Prophets

infirmities into glory This is he that conversed here below in mean condition among men and behold him raised above the magnificence of all the Angels This is he that suffered the contradiction of sinners but receives now the applause and veneration of all the Inhabitants of Heaven This is he that ignominiously hung upon the Cross but now all Creatures behold him with reverence and trembling This is he that here below suffered death but who now holds in his hand the life of all things and the subsistance of the universe This is he that was seen laid in a dark Tomb in comparison of whom now the splendor of the Sun is but as a shadow This is he that was thought unworthy that the Earth should bear him who now walks upon the Heavens and under whose feet the whole Fabrick of the World doth Tremble This is he in whom sometimes I believed indeed but with a faith always imperfect always spotted with some darkness always mingled with some remainders of incredulity whom I now see fully and manifestly and to whom I have liberty to approach without fear and behold him face to face After having in some sort represented what is the excellence of the knowledg which the believing Soul obtains when 't is received into Heaven there is no need that I should stay long to examine what is the measure of the happiness that it there enjoys For happiness consists as well in the absence of evils as in the fruition of good which are inconsistent or agreeable to the nature of those Beings which we call by the name of happy As for evils there are none that enter the Kingdom of Heaven which is a marvellous happiness to a nature sensible as ours is As for good things what may they be which are suitable to a reasonable Soul notwithstanding 't is separate from the Body Certainly as the happiness of the eye consists in seeing agreeable things and as the happiness of the ear in hearing pleasant and harmonious sounds and generally the happiness of all the other senses in exercising themselves upon those Objects whereunto nature hath appointed them with pleasure and content the happiness of the separate Soul consists in a suitable exercise of its faculties upon the most excellent Objects which can be presented to it and in the joy that is consequent thereunto It s understanding therefore being both perfectly purified in it self and filled with the presence of Objects so admirable its happiness in this respect is proportionable to the excellency of its Operation and those contemplations in which it is perpetually employed If those therefore that have any spark of generosity and any thing brave in their Souls do esteem those happy that have obtained any skill in those Sciences to which men ordinarily apply themselves and yet nevertheless an excellent Philosopher had reason to say that one drop of the knowledg of the nature of Celestial Bodies is more to be desired by reason of the nobleness of their essence and the advantage of their utility than all the Sciences that men have formed upon the other Beings of the World how happy must that Soul be that perfectly knows those things whose excellency as far surmounts the Sun and other the Stars of Heaven as they are to be esteemed more worthy than all the other Bodies of these Elementary Regions And if none of our faculties do employ themselves in their Operations in a suitable manner upon those subjects that are proportionable unto them without receiving some sensible pleasure what may be the satisfaction that a faithful Soul receives in being incessantly exercised in such marvellous Operations Certainly the pleasure of the eyes and ears is great when they are filled with such Objects whose colour or figure or harmony and justness of proportion is capable reasonably as satisfying the hunger that uncorrupted nature hath placed in those Senses For pleasure properly consists in this that now when the Objects that are without do occur unto our faculties and apply themselves to the desires or capacities that are there with so much proportion and equality that the motions that they make there be neither too languishing nor too violent but in an agreeable measure The pleasure of the mind when it employs it self with success in the contemplation of things intellectual is much more great than that of the eyes or ears because 't is a more noble faculty and things Spiritual are more excellent than Bodies and by consequence Operations more exquisite and curious do arise from the occurrence of them From whence it follows necessarily that when the faculties of the Soul are come to that point of perfection in which they do as it were as much surpass themselves when they were in a state of nature as in this state of nature they did surpass the eyes and ears and that when the Objects that are presented to them have as many or more degrees of excellency above those things intellectual which we ordinarily apprehend as they have above sensible and Corporeal Objects it is indubitable that the joy and content that doth accompany Operations so Divine must infinitely excel that which can be Ministred by the knowledg of the most perfect and sublime Sciences The understanding being filled with such excellent knowledg it must necessarily be that the will be full of love marvellously ardent towards those Objects from whence it doth derive For things that are excellent do draw our affections for their own sake and deserve our love by the sole respect of their beauty And the content that we take in the knowledg of them is a cause that we love them also for our own sake because we love our selves it cannot be that in that respect we should not love those things that Minister to our satisfaction Besides we are so naturally disposed that we do not only love those Objects from whence such excellent knowledg derives but we singularly esteem the means by which we do enjoy it and 't is for that reason that some have said that we have our eyes above our other Bodily Senses because they discover to our knowledg a far greater multitude of things than our others and under greater variety And experience teaches us that of all visible Objects light seems to be most beautiful and pleasant which comes to pass not only from its natural constitution in that it seems to be the Object which hath the most proportion with the faculty of seeing but also because 't is that which renders other things visible and which if I may so say doth colour even colours themselves and give the form and figure to the forms and figures of Bodies So that we may not doubt but that blessed Souls are wholly inflamed with the love of the persons and things which on high are perpetually presented to the eyes of their understandings Now love is of it self a thing full of contentment and joy when we enjoy the thing we love and know that we are

same Objects before their eyes when there shall be nothing to divert them neither one nor other from being exercised without any intermission in the contemplation of excellent things and that God who is all in all shall fill them with the illuminations of his Spirit it is difficult to conceive how some shall be more advanced than others in this Knowledge Nevertheless it is not my intention to determine any thing concerning it in this place and it is much more to the purpose to be exercised in embracing the Cross of Christ by which alone we have right to partake with him in the inheritance of the Heavens than to busie our selves in computing our good actions or measuring the degrees of our virtues that one day in the highest Heavens we may see if our Rewards be proportionable unto them it remains therefore that we explain in a few words what fruit the Contemplation of all these wonders will produce towards what concerns our happiness We have in us two Faculties absolutely inseparable the Understanding and Will and as to what concerns the Understanding forasmuch as its felicity consists in its Perfection and that its Perfection lies in knowledge and a Perfection of what it knows it cannot be filled with so many Divine Illuminations as I have essaied to represent by my words as if I should have drawn the Sun with a Cool but it must perceive it self eternally happy and taste therein inexpressible pleasure They which think that the contentment that we take in seeing things depends of this that they excite the operation of our faculties and that by the Operation of our faculties we perceive that we are and that the perception of our own Being gives satisfaction and joy joy indeed something very considerable and very true for Being if you compose it with Not-Being seems to be good in some kind infinite the sense of the enjoyment whereof must give a great deal of content Nevertheless because griefs also give us a sense of our Being 't is necessary to add to this opinion that the Objects whereupon we act must have such proportion with the faculties whose operations they do excite in us that they do not at all offend them otherwise instead of giving us pleasure they importune and trouble us We may yet go a little farther and say that excellent things being more active than others do also more powerfully awaken our faculties and excite our operations in such manner that giving us more sense of our Being than things common and ordinary do they render the pleasure that ariseth from them proportionably more excellent and sensible To conclude it seems to me that as grief depends of this that the thing which causes it tends to the destruction of the faculty in which it produces this afflictive and troublesom sentiment so the pleasure and the joy that comes to us from the fruition of our Objects depends of this that our faculties are perfected and raised to a more noble and advantageous condition by their presence for by reason that the faculty is designed unto certain operations and that Operations are not performed without Objects and by consequence do not act at all they remain imperfect as Matter void and destitute of Form which desires some one that may fill it with extream greediness according to the same measure therefore that the Object is excellent encreases the perfection of that estate in which the faculty is placed and by consequent the pleasure which is generated from the Perception of the Perfection of its Essence as if the Matter whereof bodies are formed here below had any knowledge of it self there is no doubt but it would receive incomparably less content to see it self filled and possessed with the Form of a vile and contemptible Stone than with that of a rich and precious Diamond and of whatsoever Matter Elementary or Quint-essential the Heavens be made I know not whether in that insensibility which is attributed to them they do not experiment some pleasing touch of joy to see themselves united to a Form so pure so incorruptible and shining our understandings therefore being so marvellously filled with the forms of so many excellent Objects and becoming if I may so say one and the same thing with them by the power of Contemplation it can neither be expressed nor conceived what will be the greatness of their content and happiness to see themselves transformed into those admirable Idea's wherewithal they will be enlightned and into the Perfections of Jesus Christ and those of God himself Concerning the Will its happiness consists in loving things amiable according to the knowledge that the Understanding hath of them and in that which necessarily follows the perception that it loves them Not only for that we perceive our Being in perceiving that we love them and that in the degree that the things that we esteem worthy of our love are excellent in the same they awaken this perception with much the greater efficacy but also for this that as the Understanding transforms it self in some manner into the nature of its Objects by Contemplation the Will unites it self so to his by the force of love that it confounds it self with them and incorporates them with it self So that there being so many brave things in the world whose excellency and worth we shall perfectly understand it cannot be but that we must earnestly love them nor that according to the proportion of our love we should not have a sense of pleasure and joy There is yet more the nature of things that we love on Earth is such that there is nothing in them surely permanent Be it therefore that they absolutely cease to be or that they only cease to be amiable the fear of not loving them at some time or other mingles it self ordinarily with the affection that we bear them and so holding our minds in suspense it weakens both our love and the exercise of it and by consequent so much diminish the content and joy thereof And it hath been well said by some that this maxim that we ought to love so as we may one day hate ruins all friendship from bottom to top it being impossible it should subsist with thoughts as bespatter the object which at present we ought to love with qualities worthy of hatred wherewith it may be possessed in the time to come This is it that causes it to give us an aversion whereas it should attract our good will and affections The love therefore that we shall have for so many brave Objects as will be in the Heavens will have this advantage which cannot be sufficiently esteemed that never suffering any change they will always be presented to us under one and the same Idea and that being always considered by us under the same aspect they will enkindle in our hearts an affection the pleasant and agreeable flame whereof will endure eternally To Conclude as it happens that there are two sorts of things that