Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	heart_n	love_v	sin_n	9,337	5	4.8347	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49459	The chief interest of man, or, A discourse of religion, clearly demonstrating the equity of the precepts of the Gospel, and how much the due observance thereof doth conduce to the happiness and well-being as well of humane societies as of particular persons by H. Lukin.	Lukin, H. (Henry), 1628-1719.	1665 (1665)	Wing L3473; ESTC R125	65,780	204

the nature of the object and the capacity of the sense for receiving it or acting upon it such is the pleasure that it finds therein and the more noble the faculty and the object are the more noble is the delight which ariseth from the Union betwixt them so that all Philosophers are agreed that intellectual delights exceed sensual pleasures Now in Heaven our Souls shall be perfected according to the capacity of a finite being otherwise they would be no more capable of enjoying God than a deaf man of being delighted with musick or a blind man in the most perfect beauty therefore we are said to be made meet to be partakers of an inheritance with the Saints in light sanctification qualifying us naturally for Heaven as justification doth morally and God himself shall be the object of our happinesse whom we shall see as he is and love him and delight in him according to his goodnesse and glory I know it is hard for us to conceive what it is to enjoy God but to help us in the conception of it let us consider a little what it is to enjoy a friend to have an absent friend is a comfort but to be with him is a great addition to our contentment to receive the expressions of their love and to testifie ours to them Those who are of a more noble and generous complexion find more true satisfaction herein than in whatever else this World can afford them and what is it that endears another to us but Love and Lovelinesse where there are amiable endowments in persons of worth they command an esteem from us though they know us not and though we are never the better for them but where they have a particular affection to us take us into their bosom make us of their entire friends this doth much more endear them to us Now as I have already said we find in God in a far more eminent degree that which renders the Creatures amiable and lovely Besides his goodnesse towards the whole Creation which the Earth is full of his special favour to Mankind and it may be to us above many thousands of others the exceeding Riches of Grace towards the Elect which Men and Angels shall admire to the days of Eternity there is that Beauty that is intellectual beauty or such Beauty as is objected to the understanding which will ravish the whole intellectual Creation His Wisdom is unsearchable his Power irresistable and his Grace and Clemency as far exceeding what is to be found in the Creature as his Majesty and Glory Job had heard of God but when he came to see him abhorred himself to see the infinite distance betwixt the Soveraign Creator and a poor Mortal that durst dispute the case with him Oh! what thoughts shall we have of God when we come to see him as he is What astonishment will seize upon us what confusion will cover us when we see what a God it is whose grace we have so oft despised whose patience we have so long abused whose authority we have so boldly contemned and yet see that he who had us alwayes at his mercy and could at his pleasure avenge himself on us should pardon us for his own sake and make such glorious preparations for us We shall then perfectly understand all the dimensions of his love and continually as it were read the stories of it We may the better conceive of it by fancying to our selves what a singular favour it would be to have some great Prince take a singular affection to us though we did the least of any in the World deserve it and had dis-obliged him by a thousand provocations if he should take us home to his house and maintain us alwayes at his table keep us alwayes in his presence this would fall infinitely short of that love which God will manifest to us and what an addition will it be to our happinesse to see him in his Glory who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood the story of whose love we have so oft read over a sight of whose Face though but through the Glass of Faith we have so oft so long desired and lamented a feer to have the society of the innumerable company of Angels and the general assembly of just men made perfect a meeting of the Saints of all Ages and places and these perfected both in Grace and Glory so that they shall have no infirmities no Pride Ignorance self-seeking to exercise our charity or patience no sufferings to move our pity or compassion and we shall never need to disquiet our selves with the thoughts of such a sad parting as Paul had Acts 20.39 We shall keep an everlasting Holy-Day the marriage of the Lamb shall be for ever celebrated by all his Friends and as Eternity will perpetuate our happinesse and make it the greater extensivè so the assurance and consideration hereof will heighten it and make it greater intensivè and every moment of our felicity will be more sweet to us in that we shall never be disquieted with the thoughts that our condition as happy as it is will one day have an end SECT X. The necessity of holiness to salvation proved by many plain Scriptures Objections answered The imprudence of being but formal half Christians and the advantages that stict serious Christians have above such THere is yet another consideration which will much enhance the glory of Heaven but before I come to speak of that I must shew how necessary an holy conversation is to the enjoyment of it Many have entertained a suspition that some morose Men peevishly envious against the happinesse and contentment of Mankind and too superstitiously precise would lay upon them a yoke which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear confining their liberty to too narrow bounds and frighting them from Religion by exacting so much strictnesse and severity Now that I may not seem to any to make the way to Heaven more narrow than God hath made it I will but set down the plain words of God himself not to speak of what those have attained to who yet are plainly declared to be under the sentence of condemnation and in a state of wrath I shall only instance in some places where the Scripture sets down what is indispensibly necessary to salvation or what doth plainly argue a Man to be in the state of damnation Math. 5.20 I say unto you that except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees who yet went a great way in the Profession of Religion and in both Moral and Ceremonial righteousnesse you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Cap. 6.20 Where your Treasure is there will your heart be also Cap. 7.13 Enter ye in at the strait Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there be many which go in thereat but strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that

wise to do evil but he hath no knowledge to do good Now experience doth more confirm us in the belief of this than a thousand Arguments Again we oft read of the enmity of the Devil against Mankind and though his power be not much discerned by many yet it is like the influence of Coelestial Bodies Sun Moon and Stars upon these sublunary things powerful and effectual though not discerned but in the effects hence we read of his working effectually in the hearts of the Children of disobedience of men being taken captive of him at his pleasure of the strength of delusion of his going about like a roaring Lion of wrestling with principalities and powers and resisting the Devil stedfast in the Faith He that should have seen the Poor Man cured by Christ offering violence to himself and casting himself sometimes into the fire sometimes into the water would have easily concluded that he was acted by some evil spirit to such things as were destructive to his own nature so to see men sin against their own souls and run such desperate hazards against their own interest is a clear argument that they are acted by some other nature which seeks their ruine and destruction Now these may be remote causes of the prevalency of that Atheism which we see and lament in the World but yet there must be some nearer causes searched out for unlesse it be in some secret Sympathies and Antipathies Man doth ordinarily act according to reason that is what is either really so or seems so to him and there must be some ratio motiva to elicite or draw forth the acts of his will The Grace of God is powerful in good actions yet it works congruously to our natures moving by the means of some rational arguments and principles so the efficacy of the Devil is very great in evil actions yet he makes use for the most part of moral arguments though he had such a hand in Judas his Treason and Annanias his cosenage as that he is said to put these things into their hearts yet by the whole tenor of their story we find that there were some moral motives he made use of and that it was covetousness that did more immediately sway in these sins Now it seems one main reason of Mens Atheism which is more near and immediate is the prevalency of sense as there are some actions which do prevent the reasonings of the mind which we call actiones hominis but not humanae which indeed are actions of Men but not humane actions proceeding from the essential principle of man objects coming to the sense before they can have access to the understanding the spirits move disorderly till the understanding taking cognizance of the matter do rectifie such motions of the spirits as in a sudden noise or unexpected sight the senses as the Centinels take the first alarm but as soon as the news is carryed to the understanding as the main guard or principal officer and found to be of no dangerous consequence this sudden commotion is allayed so in more important passages of our lives sense makes many disorderly sallies and motions without taking counsel of the understanding and objects do make very deep impressions upon them and the Scripture doth take notice how much we are led by sense in this frail state wherein we are so as we may all say with the Propher Law 3.51 Our eye affects our heart this is the foundation of the Apostles argument 1 John 4.20 He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen We have a thousand times more reason to love God than to love our Brother considering the perfections and excellencies that are in God to render him amiable and the obligations which we are under to him who hath done more ten thousand times for us than all the friends which we have in the World but whatever reason there may be in the thing it self the Apostle argues according to our poor capacity the access that things have to us and doth clearly suppose that things which have accesse to out senses are more effectual for moving our affections than such things as are only the object of faith So though we hear of an infinite Majesty that created and sustains our selves and all other finite beings who seeth all our actions and will one day call us to an account for them and likewise of an eternal weight of glory made up of things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor ever entred into the heart of Man to conceive these things do not move us because they are far out of our sight and the things of the World which are nearer to our senses and are the immediate objects of them pleasing the tast delighting the smell tickling and flattering the Ear dazling the eyes have more prevalency upon us But yet upon examination we shall find this is not sufficient to prevail against those important considerations which I have already proposed nor to leave mankind excusable for abandoning himself to the pleasures of this life so as to neglect those better things which are propounded as the reward of holiness Let us but quit our selves like men and exercise those common principles of reason which we exercise in other affairs of our lives and though we cannot perhaps thereby silence the clamors of sence yet we may confute them and reject them Do we not ordinarily see men correct the errors of sense by reason Do we not see them part with their blood to prevent the inconveniency of a disease which for the most part they do believe or suspect not upon the evident demonstrations but probable conjectures of a Physician or at best by their own reason Do not men endure the cutting off of a member to save the body and lengthen out a miserable life for some days or years Do not men drink the most unpleasing potions for the recovery of their health or repairing their decayed strength Do not men cast their seed into the earth in hopes of receiving the increase of it Doth not the Merchant send away his goods in hope to receive others for them which may bring him some gain and advantage And what is all this to denying ungodliness and worldly lusts denying our selves the pleasure of sin for the pleasure of Heaven yea do we not see men ordinarily binding their Sons to some Apprenticeship for many years that so they may learn a Trade to maintain themselves in some repute in the world when they shall come to years rather than let them live in idlenesse and pleasure giving up themselves to childish sports and vanities when they are young which would afterwards expose them to poverty and contempt And he is accounted a cruel and unjust Father that will not thus love his Child with such a prudent severity rather than undo him by a foolish indulgence yet how wide a difference is there in these cases And how