Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A59599
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Adam Abel, or, Vain man a discourse fitted for funeral occasions, but serviceable to men in all ages and conditions of life to make them humble and heavenly-minded / by Samuel Shaw ...
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Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing S3034; ESTC R9572
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39,662
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130
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of ones Mind with Solomon Who knows and who can tell Lord what a Disease is this in the human Nature and what a state of Vanity does it argue but this I pass by as having spoken something of it before Lastly This Knowledge we get by all our Enquiries is very poor mean and imperfect in comparison of the Visions and Intuitions of the other World when we shall see as we are seen and know as we are known feast upon Truth itself and behold all things in God and him in the pure Rays of his own Divinity The Apostle Paul knew much but he did not know the whole and that which he did know he knew but in part 1 Cor. 13. 9 10. We know in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away But this also I toucht upon before What shall I say of vain Man It is impossible to enumerate his Fatigues and Vanities In short therefore Does he work Then he wearies himself and exhausts his Strength Does he play Then he forgets himself and emasculates his Spirits Does he Trade by Land Then he is either tempted to cheat or liable to be cheated either to get another mans unduly or to have his own got from him deceitfully Does he Traffick by Sea He may indeed see the Wonders of the Lord in the Deep but no greater Wonder than that he himself is not there Who but vain Man would expose his Life to so eminent Dangers for things not necessary to Life yea some that are more hurtful than useful and all the Sweets of his Family and Country for a few foreign Spices Does he go into Wars He lies at the Mercy of every random bit of Lead shot by a Fool or a Child or a Mad-man If he conquer and kill here is no cause of glorying one would think to have sent his Brother's Body to the Grave and it may be his Soul to Hell Does he purchase He is either mistaken in the Title abus'd by the Law envy'd or hated by his Neighbour However would he but be patient and stay a while he should have Earth enough to serve his turn without any Cost or Charge at all Does he marry He does certainly fall into Incumbrances Does he vow a single life He does as certainly fall into Snares If he marry he is fain to endure the Yoke if he do not he has much ado to endure to be curb'd Does he study Day and Night Poor man with a great deal of Pain and Weariness he comes to understand that all things are Uncertainty and Vanity a thing that one had better never to have known And after all How dyeth the wise man even as the fool dyeth Eccles 2. 16. Does he arbitrate differences and make peace blessed is he saith Christ But for all that he shall be sure to meet with many a Curse To go about to please both Parties is as if a man should undertake to serve two Masters which no body can well do Does he court the Favour of great men by Fawning and Flattery It is a great Slavery to an ingenuous and generous Mind the Favour of wise Princes will not be so gotten And if they be foolish and inconstant it will be soon lost Is he active and brisk and a lover of business He disquiets himself yea active Tempers that cannot manage their own Metal many times disquiet the World about them He that does much will certainly sometimes do amiss if he should do all things well he will yet be accounted a Busie-body Is he idle careless and unconcern'd He is then a selfish Sot an unprofitable Member of the Universe He that regards nothing does not himself deserve to be regarded In a word Cast your Eyes over the World and behold the Diseases and Distresses of some and what will you call it but an Hospital Behold the Distractions and Disorders of all the rest in one kind or other and what will you call it but a Bethlehem And so I come in the last place briefly to consider Man in the highest acts of Human Life viz. his religious acts and to shew that even in them also he walketh in a vain shew or to give it you in the Psalmist's words elsewhere Every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Now these Religious acts are either outward or inward As to outward acts Men do not only work and trade but even pray and come to Church in a vain shew Not only Markets and Fairs but even religious Assemblies and Congregations are a shew too which men walk in whilst they pretend to walk with God Those make a great noise in the Ears of Men and these are little better than a noise in the Ears of Heaven Who can deny but that the Worship of the Prophane is a vain shew who to day swear by the Name of God and to morrow call upon the Name of God to day eat unto Gluttony and drink unto Drunkenness to morrow eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of God to day pray to God to damn them and to morrow pray him to save them to day behave themselves so reverently as if God were in the Head and to morrow live as if there were no God in Heaven Who can imagine but GOD and Men too must loath such impious Vanity as this is Who can deny but that the Idolatrous and Superstitious Worshippers walk in a vain shew who worship either they know not what or they care not how offering up strange Fire to God and indeed affronting him whilst they pretend to adore him Who can deny but that the Worldling who has set up the World in his Heart for his Idol walks in a vain shew who sits before God as an attentive Hearer of his Word and makes much love to him with his Lips when his Heart is far from him and runs after his Covetousness Who can deny but the Hypocrite walks in a vain shew who comes with his God I thank thee in his Mouth when he has no love for him in his Heart who confesses the Sins which he has no mind to part with who begs the Grace which he has no mind to receive who seems to condemn and humble himself before God in the mean time is great in his own Eyes and ceases not upon all occasions to magnifie and applaud himself before men But some one will say All men are not prophane worldly idolatrous hypocritical there are some substantial Worshippers that worship the Father in Spirit and Truth Answ It is true indeed The father seeketh such to worship him Joh. 4. 23. but I doubt he findeth few for not to strain the Apostle's words to the utmost and most uncharitable sence 1 Joh. 5. 19. Totus mundus positus est in maligno though Prophaneness may be easily discerned yet sure I am predominant Worldliness and Hypocrisie are in many Hearts where they are not discover'd nay it is to be feared
the false Heart itself will not be convinc'd of them And as for Idolatry though the foreign Reformed Churches do all put it off from themselves to the Heathen and Antichristian Nations yet I fear concerning some of them one may take up Samuel's words to Saul If ye have indeed destroyed Idolatry utterly what means this bleating of the sheep and lowing of the oxen which I hear If any one should answer as Saul did we have reserved these innocent safe and significant Ceremonies to sacrifice to the Lord to adorn and grace the Worship of God it will perhaps be replied as Samuel replies Obedience is better than Sacrifice or as another Prophet expresses it Quis ne quisivit hoec I answer further What man is there upon Earth in whom these Sins are not found in some degree or other And so far as they are found they do pollute the Worship and subject it to the denomination of Vanity But I answer thirdly That the word Tselem in the Text does not signifie a vain shew properly but a shew a resemblance a representation or image in opposition to substantial as the Picture which we see in a Looking glass is the representation or resemblance of the Face that looks into it And so every man without exception may be said to walk betselem in imagine in a shew as to his religious acts which I shall further explain under the next Head viz. his inward religious acts The internal actings of Grace are but a shew a resemblance of some such thing in comparison of what they were in Man innocent or shall be in Man glorified The inward pious acts of our Minds do make us approach the nearest to Substance of any thing that we have or do For as a man thinketh in his heart saith Solomon so is he If any thing will denominate a man a substantial Christian it is these inward Acts of the Mind the Acts of Faith Hope and Love the Acts of Self-denial and Contempt of the World and of the whole Creation in comparison of the Creator And yet even these are but a shew a resemblance of something rather than any thing substantial The Love that the most affectionate devout and refined Soul exercises towards GOD in this mixt state is but a shadow a resemblance of Love in comparison of the Ardours of another World I love thee said Peter I love thee yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee John 21. 15 16 17. Poor Peter I believe in a degree he did love him yet I believe he was grieved that he could love him no better Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind with all thy strength Mark 12. 30. This is the first and great Commandment a great one in deed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And who is able to perform it How many All 's are here All and All and All and All. Lord what mortal man can with any Modesty pretend to such a generous Love as this is Every man that has his Senses exercised to discern between Good and Evil will confess that this Command is just equal and reasonable yea and very pleasant too for what is what can be sweeter than a Life of Love But yet the most devout the most amorous and ardent Soul that this day inhabits a mortal Body must needs confess his Straitness and bewail his Unaffectionateness and though he may seem to be drench'd in this holy Passion yet has cause to pray Lord shed abroad the Love of God in me Perfect love says the loving and beloved Apostle casts out fear 1 John 4. 18. Alas Where is this perfect Love then for Fear yea some degree of slavish Fear is found in every Heart of Man yea though he love GOD sincerely and ardently too yet he is apt to fear he does not love him enough The hottest of our Love is cold the strongest is weak and faint in comparison of what Adam's once was and Abraham's now is We call it Love indeed but it is rather Liking than Love rather hankering than either It is but a going Fire a Glow-worm at best but a Blaze or a Blazing-Star in comparison of the Fervors the Delights the Complacencies of the Spirits of Just men made perfect The greatest zeal of mortal Man for GOD which yet is the Flower of Love is in comparison of the angelical Ferver but as a Fire painted upon the Wall in comparison of that which burneth upon the Hearth The Apostle Paul was as zealous for his Lord and did and suffer'd as much for him as any of his Disciples whatsoever so that in nothing was he behind the chiefest Apostles yet he esteemed himself as nothing which is not so much as a shew 2 Cor. 12. 11. How weak and tottering is the Trust and Confidence in GOD which the most steddy Soul can pretend to in this World in comparison of the unmixt and unshaken Affiance in him which constitutes the Joy and Security of the other World The three unmartyr'd Martyrs in Dan. 3. are renowned for their Faith and firm Dependance upon their GOD ver 17. He will deliver us out of thy hands O King This was their Confidence in GOD but it had its If for all that ver 18. But if not be it known to thee O King c. But the Affiances and Assurances of the other World are above all Buts and Ifs The stoutest of our Confidence here is but a shadow of that Confidence which shall have no shadow of turning What fear of miscarrying can there possibly be to him who perpetually walks in the light of God's Countenance what Danger what Suspicion can there be of being pluckt from thence to a Soul folded in the Arms and wrapt up in the Bosom of the Almighty And what is our Hope in this mortal state A poor languid thing a faint Velerity a dull yawning rather than a greedy gasping a lifeless stretching forth the Hands towards rather than an eager laying hold upon Eternal Life It ought to be an earnest and vehement Longing and alas it scarce amounts to a sincere Desire or Expectation And what are our Acts of Self-denial in comparison of the exinanition of the glorified Saints who cast down their Crowns before the Throne Rev. 4. 10. What is our Contempt of the World in comparison of that Disdain with which refined and glorified Souls behold all earthly Possessions eying and enjoying all things in GOD alone Alas what mortal man can oculo irritorto spectare acervos with an Eye altogether undazzled or with a Heart altogether unaffected and disengaged contemplate the Bravery and Grandeur the precious and glistering Possessions of this World whether his own or other mens perfectly free from Enchantment I mean who can do it and neither dote nor envy But they that are got above the Sun and look down with the Eyes of Angels do see all things under the Sun to be a contemptible Vanity a sore