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	world_n	13,220	5	5.1546	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77757	God all in all or The highest happines of the saints. Jn [sic] two parts. The I. Asserting this happiness to consist in the enjoyment of God. II. Enquiring into the quality of that enjoyment. Together with a short appendix, wherein is very briefly considered, the claim of natural reason, and private inspirations to a guidance of us in the things of God. Also what courses dishonour the Gospel, and what duties we owe it. By Edward Buckler, preacher of the Gospel.	Buckler, Edward, 1610-1706.	1655 (1655)	Wing B5349; Thomason E1442_2; ESTC R209631	53,023	167

dilige fac quicquid vis said to Christ God doth freely say us First love me and then do what you will 3. All our abilities all our doings and sufferings will finde no entertainment above unlesse this love of God give them a certificate that they came from her See 1 Cor. 13.1 2. 4. 'T is something that this will continue to be a duty when most duties else shall be obsolete and out of date they are practicable on earth this in heaven They have their time this its eternity Now if there be so much of excellency in the Object God and in the Act Fruition this is motive enough if the Lord will vouchsafe to set it on to aspire after the enjoyment of God above all the enjoyments else that are under the Sunne SECT IX Some brief Directions as to the forementioned Duty IF the Saints would be as much in heaven as is here possible and grow up more and more in this unspeakable happinesse of enjoying God they must follow these directions First you must endeavour to encrease your knowledge of God and your acquaintance with those excellencies that he is cloath'd withall Much of that time which you spend in the study of other things will be very well worth the redemption to be laid out upon this * Incognitum non potest amari Aug. What you doe not know you cannot love what you doe not love you cannot so much as desire to enjoy There must be some appresion of the object before there can be any motion of the faculty toward it See before Sect. 2. Secondly you must endeavour to get and maintain an assurance of your interest in God give all diligence to put this out of question 2 Pet. 1.10 If there be never so much beauty goodnesse love power grace holynesse c. in God you can never enjoy it in case it be not or you think it is not there for you Fruition doth presuppose propriety and some knowledge of it He that is in his sins God will not own him and he that is in Christ and yet doubts it will not easily be perswaded to own God and be sure to build your assurance upon good grounds I have read of a melancholy man that supposed all the Ships in such a Haven to be his own * Thrasilaus putavit omnes naves in Pireum portum appella ntes suas esse and of a Gentlewoman in Mantua who would not be perswaded but that she was married to a King * Marcel Donatus de hist. med mirab l. 2. c. 1. as that poor man enjoyed those vessels which he had no title to an inch of and that woman the husband whom she never saw so doe those men God who have no interest in him but in a dream Thirdly abate of your desires to enjoy other things Love not the world that is Let not your hearts go out immoderately after it if any man doe so the love of the Fathers is not in him 1 Ioh. 2.15 A River let out into many channels must needs run the shallower in some 'T is grown into a Proverb that those persons who love over-many are never wont to love over-much * Alterius vires subtrahit alter amor The love of God and of the world are like two buckets in a Well while one goes up the other goes down We must leak our hearts and let out all that is too much of our love to the world they will then be the better at leisure to contemplate the beauty and to be ravisht with the excellencies of our God Shall we suffer any thing to be competitors for our hearts with him What is the enjoyment of a wife a child a friend an estate an office a command to the enjoyment of a God Indeed what is any thing to him before whom all the Nations of the world are lesse than nothing Isa 40.17 Fourthly walk close with God the nearer you walk up to him the more you are like to enjoy of him More particularly 1. Walk lovingly Let all your doings be done in charity 1 Cor. 16.14 Let Gods love in your souls be as a weight in the scale * Quod est pondus in librâ hoc est amor in animâ carrying all your designes its own way Let this love be the poize of all your actions and goe no other way but whither this shall lead you * Amor meus pondus meum illo feror quocunque feror Draw out the exercise of this grace as far upward toward God as you are able Love is a sociable affection it will carry you into the company of God and bring him into yours you are promised so much in Ioh. 14.23 If a man love me my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 2. Walk beleevingly Keep your eye of Faith as open as you can you have no way else of seeing him who is invisible Heb. 11.27 Neither is God wont to dwell in our hearts but by faith Eph. 3.17 If this eye of our soul be shut or drowsie we may say with Augustine Mecum eras non eram tecum God was with us but we were not with him We can have no converse even with those friends that are about us whilst we are asleep In a word 3. Walk holily This is to walk with God Gen. 5.24 and to have our conversation in heaven Phil. 3.20 then is God most enjoyed when a gracious life shall goe along an equal pace with a gracious heart if the Saints cannot sin themselves out of Gods favour yet they may out of his familiarity How often in Scripture is peace and comfort and the enjoyment of God promised unto his people in a way of holinesse See Psal 50.23 Galat. 6.16 Phil. 4.8 9. Pretend what you will you converse but a little with God who converse much with sin See 2 Cor. 6.16 1 Ioh. 1.6 7. SECT X. Of the enjoyment of God in Ordinances BEcause the most ordinary way of Gods conversing with his Saints here in the body is by his Ordinances as we have in part seen before Sect. 6. I shall enquire briefly into the causes why the Saints many times enjoy so little of God in them that they may see and remove those abatements of their felicity Is it not 1. Because we doe not seek God in his Ordinances but think we may enjoy as much of him any where else To how many are the Ordinances of God as indifferent things If once it become indifferent to men whether they eat and drink or not no wonder if they find neither their palats pleas'd nor their bodies nourished Qu. May not God be enjoyed his goodnesse love and sweetness tasted out of Ordinances as well as in them Sol. If this may be yet see whether 1. It be to be injoied by those that neglect his Ordinances What did the King do when such as were invited to his feast made light of it

is in the Fountain * Si sic in creaturis laboremus quid in ipso Deo if the Creatures have so much their maker cannot challenge less then all 6. When we have said and imagined all that we can of the excellencie of God when we are swallowed up and and have lost our selves under the contemplation of it we come infinitely short of what is indeed in him * Nullus intellectus creatus potest deum cognoscere ut cogn●scibilis est Aq. par 1. q. 12 Art 7 God is in all his glorious perfections incomprehensible Now truly if there be nothing in God that is not desireable nor a want of any thing that is if what ever we dote upon in the Creature be no more then a spark to that sun and that too let down from that Father of Lights if all the beauty and goodnesse we can see in him be short of what indeed it is and all that is be everlasting to supply sufficient matter for our delight and complacencie to all eternity how excellent is the enjoyment when this God shall be the Object of it 2. In regard of the Act Fruition which as we have seen already * Sect. 2. is a cleaving unto God by love for his own sake as the choicest emanation of the soul is love so of all loves that which pitcheth upon God which is then in its highest glory and excellencie when it carryes out the soul after him for his own sake for the good that is in him rather then the good that comes by him This love hath most of excellency in it whether you look upon 1. The kind of it 2. The degree First It s a love of a Nobler kind flowing from higher principles refined from those dregs that lie at the bottom of other loves Ex. gr 1. We may love God meerly because he is able to do us good having all in him that is wanting in us This is but Amor indigentiae a necessitous love and hath something of self in the composition of it and we may 2. Love God meerly that he may do us good This is Amor concupiscentiae a mercinary love as like to theirs as it can look who followed Christ for loaves Ioh. 6.26 and is not so much a love of God as of our selves and we may 3. Love God because he hath done us good given us health peace c. this at best is but Amor gratitudinis a thankful love and may easily flow even from a good nature but the love that is in Fruition is of another character when God is loved for himself Then 1. The desires of the soul are carryed out after him with a large wing thirsting after him as a dry and parched land for rain Psal 63.1 and panting after him as the chased heart for the brooks of water Psal 42.1 to whom she thinks she can never be near enough and there is not any way of Communion that she doth not ardently long to meet him in To see him and to gaze upon his beauty as long as she lives Psal 27.4 To hear him his mouth is most sweet his lips are like Lillies and every syllable is Myrrh that droppeth from them Cant. 5.13.16 To be in his arms one hand must be under her head and the other must embrace her Cant. 8.3 Yea to be in his very heart and to be set there as a seal Cant. 8.6 Yea all the familiarities that God affords her here doe not satisfie to be in the body is to be at too great a distance and is upon that account a burden that she groanes under 2 Cor. 5.4 A dissolution is lookt upon as far better Phil. 1.23 towards a fuller enjoyment of him no pace will serve but the swiftest Cant. 8. ult and her prayer is not onely Come Lord Jesus but come quickly Apoc. 22.20 Where art thou Lord saith Augustine * Soliloq cap. 1. why doest thou hide thy face Perhaps thou wilt say No man shall see me and live Eia domine moriar ut te videam if that Lord be all let me dye upon that condition This now is amor unionis a desire of enjoying God as immediately as we may When God is loved for himself Then 2. The soul is possessed with a full contentment in God as portion enough Psal 16.6 She will see more in him than in all the world beside and there will rest * Ama illud bonum in quod sunt omnia bona sufficit Aug. manual c. 34 see before Sect. 2. this is amor complacentiae a love made up of nothing but delight And 3. The soul will be inclined to all possible compliance with God that love which tyes us to him for his own sake is an imperative affection it will lay us at his feet 1 Cor. 13.7 it will never give us leave to say of any duty that God commands us that it is either dangerous see Dan. 6.10 Acts 4.18 19. or * Quid non cogit amor nihil amantibus durum nullus labor difficilis difficult Joh. 20.15 or tedious In eo quod amatur aut non labor laboratur aut amatur Gen. 29.20 1 Ioh. 5.3 or unprofitable of so excellent a kinde is this love of God 't is amor amicitiae a friendly love And Secondly for the degree of it it is a ravishment of spirit * Raptus ex intuitu divinae pulchritudinis ortus even unto sicknesse Cant. 2.5 begotten by a contemplation of divine beauty 't is amor inebrians prevailing upon the soul even to a spiritual drunkennesse 't is love intended to the uttermost the highest strain that the heart can reach unto Other things doth such a soul think may be loved too much but the measure by which she loves God is to love him without measure 't is love as hot as fire not glowing a little in the ashes but affording most vehement flame Can. 8.6 nay heat in fire may be put out by a little water many waters cannot quench this Can. 8.7 as it was said of Laurence frying upon the Gridiron * Segnior fuit ignis qui foris ussit quā qui intus accendit The fire without was lesse than the flame within 't is a love that moves our bowels which an ordinary qualm of affection can never doe Cant. 5.4 Such impressions can it make upon beleevers when it is duly acted who doe bear about upon their soules as Paul did in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus Gal. 6.17 but we cannot yet give over so sweet a theam let me offer you a further tast of its excellencie in these four particulars 1. God himself takes it into his proprieties if it be not rather his very essence God is love 1 Joh. 4.8 and God is nothing but what is excellent 2. It is the womb of all duties else which we owe to God and 't will bring them forth as occasion shall be offered as Augustine * Domiue

thing so lively as a glasse doth So the happiest sight of God out of heaven is to see him in the Gospel because it is the fullest I hope men wil take heed how they carry themselves to such a Gospel as this is and I wil anon speak with them about it Secondly It is comfort for the Saints that their highest happinesse shal be in the ful injoyment of God your hungrings and thirstings after more of him shal one day end in a compleat satisfaction you shal have as much of him as your souls can hold here it is much of your happinesse to have some glimpses of his glory shining upon you and some drops of his favour distilled into your hearts hereafter it shal be all your happinesse to have it poured in til you shal be able to receive no more and because all your Lords joy cannot enter into you to be sure of having enough you shal enter into it Mat. 25. v. 21. SECT XI That the enjoyment of God in which our highest happinesse shall consist is to be everlasting ALL that we have said of the injoyment of God though it rise to very much yet were it of any shorter date then eternity it would not be enough for an absolute blessednesse He ce 1. The Scriptures do every where expresse it to be everlasting and without end We shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 and the pleasures at his right hand are for evermore Psal 16.11 our weight of glory shall be eternall 2 Cor. 4.17 and our inheritance incorruptitible which fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1.4 and you know it is called life eternal and everlasting in a multitude of Scriptures 2. Were it any thing short of this two things would prove it short of its perfection First There would be a possibility of being one time or another miserable and so every desire would not be satisfied Misery set it at what distance you wil is not onely what we do not desire to come under but what we cannot * Miseri esse non solum nolumus sed nequaquam velle possumus Aug. 2d There were then some places for fear and so for pain 1 Joh 4.18 and consequently for evil and that condition is not perfectly happy which is capable of this for every evil is not excluded SECT XII This briefly applied by way of exhortation and comfort WEE have seen the immediate injoyment of God that nothing may shadow our happinesse the sole injoyment of God that nothing may abate it the free injoyment of God that nothing interrupt it wee have seen it so full that there is no room for more and yet all this must and shal be eternal too that we may * Beatitudo non est de eujus eternitate dubitatur Aug. never see the expiration of it And shal we not hence 1. Be exhorted not to place our happinesse in any thing that shal have an end and not to nauseate you with particulars such are all that our eyes behold here below the things that are seen are temporal 2 Cor. 4.18 were there no other insufficiency in them yet would this prove their injoyment infinitely short of happinesse that they can bee injoyed but for a time and upon this account the Apostles did not think them worth the looking upon 2 Cor. 4.18 what a fool was he that comforted his soul with goods laid up in store for many years Luk. 12.19 it seems the enjoyment of God himself would not amount to an absolute beatitude were it not everlasting how much lesse the enjoyment of the creature which to the happiest man under the sun cannot be above a span long Psal 39.5 2. Is not here comfort for the Saints in all their afflictions these can be suffered but for a time God shal be enjoyed to all eternity are we a while groaning under a burthen of sin Rom. 7.24 we shall be loaded with an eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 have we a spirit ful of wounds for a time Prov. 18.14 we shal have a soul ful of God for an eternity Doth God forsake us for a smal moment Isa 54.7 We shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thess 4.17 Doth heaviness endure for a night Psal 30.5 joy shal come in a morning that hath no night at all have we paines ever and anon Wee shall have pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 do we die daily we shal live everlastingly Saints comfort your selves Comfort one another with these words 1 Thes 4.18 SECT XIII A brief Application of the whole FRom all that hath been said of the quality of our enjoyment of God when we shal come to be at the happiest We may learn First That not one of the Saints is perfectly blessed in this life because not one of them doth enjoy God either immediately but what we do is darkly thorow a glasse by such mediums as do eclipse much of what that Lumen gloriae the light we shal have in heaven wil discover unto us or solely but in conjunction with other enjoyments which call out much of our hearts and many Item's of our love which hereafter shal be totally summed up and all laid out upon one God or freely but are thwarted with a thousand impediments which shal all be left behind us when we go to heaven or fully they are but part of his waies that we trace him in and how little a portion is heard of him Job 26.14 wee shal never see the compleatment of our happinesse until we go hence and be no more seen Ob. Why then do some persons say that they are as happy and do enjoy as much of God as ever they shall Sol. Can I tell perhaps it is too true in reference to some of them others may bee under a temporary delusion but sure I am they bee none of the Saints who have their portion in this life Psal 17.14 See before Sect. 2. Ob. Saints are happy in this life But why do the Scriptures so frequently call the Saints blessed and happy Sol. I shall lay before you what I conceive of it in these 6 particulars It s because First 1 Pretio The price by which we have a title to the happinesse we have enquired into is already paid and accepted of the possession of God is a purchased possession Eph. 1.14 and the purchase is made to our use upon which account our names are written in the book of life to bee of those many children whom God by the sufferings of his son meant to bring unto glory Heb. 2.10 when a captives ransom is paid he may be said to have his liberty although his Manu-mission be a while delayed 2. 2 Promisso God hath made us a promise of this happinesse before the world began to Christ for us Titus 1.2 and since the world began to us in Christ John 3.16 to have any thing in a promise is to be as sure of it as if we had it in ful possession it being

is not here Sure I am if it be wisdom here is the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 2.7 Beauty here 's the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 the fairest of ten thousand Cant. 5.10 Splendor 't is a glorious Gospel 2 Cor. 4.4 Truth 't is the word of truth Eph 1.13 Goodnesse 't is the good Word of God Heb. 6.5 Piety 't is a Doctrine that is according to godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.3 Power 't is the arm of the Lord Isa 53.1 Peace 't is the Gospel of peace Eph. 6.15 5. Duty Take off by your practices whatever disparagements shall be cast upon the Gospel Will any say it is not the Word of God and so make it such an imposture as would cheat the whole Christian world of their precious souls Pray confute this blasphemy by giving it such a power over your hearts and lives as none but the Almighty God can either challenge or exercise Suffer it to sway you simply without any quatenus or limitation against any counter-cōmand under heaven Will any say it is not a compleat Rule for belief and practice You must disprove this slander by keeping only and constantly to it and by professing that you doe so that peace may be upon you and mercy Gal. 6.16 because it is able to make you wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 because you may not receive any other though an Angel offer it you Gal. 1.8 c. 6. Duty Be not ashamed of the Gospel Rom. 1.16 Will you be ashamed of your God wil you blush at any degree of heaven * Timor justae vituperationis rei turpiter actae Shame is a fear of reproof for some unseemly action and is it such to own your highest blessednesse It was a preamble to Peters denyal of Christ that he followed him afar off Mat. 26.58 and Nicodemus was but in the infancy of his Discipleship when he came to Jesus by night Joh. 3.2 Read 2 Tim. 2.12 Luke 9.25 26. 7. Duty Hold fast the Gospel Do not part with one truth one ordinance one duty of it You have sad experience of the Devils nibling away of one piece of some mens Religion after another till they have no more left than Davids fool had Psal 14.1 8. Duty Let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel Phil. 1.27 So holy humble harmlesse honest sober just chast peaceable as becomes persons owning a Gospel so full of a holy God See Phil. 2.15 16. 1 Tim. 6.1 Tit. 2.10 Why else doe ye professe it Answer that Quaere of Christ if you can in Luke 6.46 See Mat. 7.23 Mat. 3.10 The Christianity of those that live counter to this Gospel is but meerly * Qui non vivit ut ipse docuit certum id documentum est non esse Christianum Just Mart. ad Anton. orat p. 128. titular that which is indeed true * Christianismus est similitudo Dei quantum possibile est humanae naturae Basil is as fair and full a draught of God upon the soul as it is capable of in a body of death For a conclusion take Phil. 4.8 9. The Table PART I. The First Proposition viz. The highest happiness of the Saints is the enjoyment of God This is 1 Explained by shewing FIrst What the enjoyment of God is made up of 1 The knowledge of God to let in Which he opens 1 His face 2 Our understandings 2 Influences from God 3 Acquiescence in God 4 Converse with God Secondly What our highest happiness is viz. 1. A perfect good 2. In possession 3. Excluding every evil 4. Filling every desire 2. Proved 1. By Scripture 2. By Reason all that makes us happy is in God only being a good 1. Pure 2. Sufficient 3. Satisfying 3. Illustrated by 3. Particulars First All our happiness here is in what we enjoy of God here proved by 1. God 2. The Saints Secondly Gods blessedness is in the enjoyment of himself Proved by 1. Scriptures 2. Reason Thirdly The greatst misery of the damned is that they do not enjoy God 4. Improved by way of First Information in five Particulars viz. 1. God is of a transcendent goodness 1. In himself 2. To his people 2. In things where there is most of God there is most of happiness 3. It is a false draught of Heaven that is not made to consist in the enjoyment of God 4. Most men but pretenders to a desire of going to Heaven as 1. Defying the means where God may be enjoyed 2. Trading in practises where they cannot expect it 5. Who are a peoples greatest enemies Secondly Reproof of such as place their happiness in outward things where Their 1. Charracter 2. Folly Thirdly Exhortation To labour for the enjoyment of God where First Motives From the excellency 1. Of its Object God 2. Of its Act in respect of Its 1. Kinde 2. Degree Secondly Directions viZ. 1 Increase your Knowledge 2 Maintain your assurance 3 Abate of your love to the world 4 Walk close with God Fourthly Declaration why we enjoy no more of God in Ordinances either we do 1 Neglect them 2 Not seek God in them 3 Not seek God in all of them 4 Not seek after a due Order PART II. The Second Proposition layed down That enjoyment of God which is the Saints highest Happinesse shall be immediate sole free full and everlasting FIrst That it shall be immediate is 1 Proved by 4 Particulars viz. 1 Christs Kingdom shal be delivered up 2 All rule c. shal be put down 3 To enjoy God by means is to see him but in a glasse 4 Gods immediate enjoyment groaned after by the Saints 2 Applied in 3 particulars viz. 1 The enjoyment of God by means far short of what it shall be without them 2 When the Saints shal be above the need of Ordinances 3 Death desirable Secondly That it shall be Sole 1 Proved in that 1 God shall be all 2 The world shal be ended 3 Much of our enjoyment is by love 4 The Saints thirst is after God Solely 2 Applied by way of First Exhortation to 4 duties Secondly Instruction in 3 things viz. 1 It s impossible to make the Saints miserable 2 The less we have of the world the more we may have of happiness 3 No cause to be troubled at the dissolution of all things Thirdly That it shall be Free 1 Proved in that 1 All Enemies shall be subdued 2 Every disturbance of Enjoyment is an Eclipse of happinesse 2 Applied for our 1 Information No Heaven where any sin 2 Instruction how to be much in Heaven here 3 Comfort In Heaven we shall enjoy God freely Fourthly That it shall be Full. 1 Proved in that 1 Our enjoyment here and hereafter do but differ gradually 2 Else every evil not removed c. 2 Applied To shew us that 1 The happiest sight of God out of Heaven is in the Gospel 2 The longings of the Saints after more of God shal be satisfied Fifthly That it shall be everlasting 1 Proved by 1 Scripture 2 Reason else 1 A posibility of being miserable 2 Some place for fear 2 Applied by way of 1 Exhortation Place not happiness in any thing that shall have an end 2 Comfort afflictions short happiness Eternal The whole Applied very briefly 1 In what sence we are said to be happy in this life 2 No nature below ours capable of blessedness 3 It is not vain to serve God ERRATA PAge 5. lin 25. for al one read alone p. 7. l. 3 prefix to the beginning of the l. 5. p. 10. l 7. for without r. with our p. 17. l. 22. for frownesse r. frownes p. 30. l. 12. dele ha●● p. 30. l. 17. for come r. came p. 31. l 13. for fondly r. formerly p. 46. l. penult adde 2. FINIS