Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	love_n	love_v	3,170	5	7.1590	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42553	Philadelphia, or, a treatise of brotherly-love Shewing, that we must love all men: love the wicked in general: love our enemies: that the godly must especially love another: and the reasons of each particular love. The manner of our mutual love; the dignity, necessity, excellenc, and usefulness of brotherly-love. That the want of love, where love is due, is hatred, shewed in divers particulars. The greatness of the sin of malice and hatred; with the reasons why wicked men hate the saints: together with cautions against those sins that break the bond of love. Many weighty questions discussed, and divers cases cleared. By William Gearing, minister of the word.	Gearing, William.	1670 (1670)	Wing G436C; ESTC R223669	92,727	215

on all things he sets his hand unto So must thou pray for others with the same fervency which thou usest in praying for thy self pray for that which will do them most good that they may every way be the better for thee that thou maist find by experience as Laban did That the Lord hath blest them for thy sake 4. Who doth not endeavour his own good with all his might The like care must thou have of thy Neighbours good especially of the Saints Love is a diligent Affection and the Fountain of Diligence Diligentia may well be derived à diligendo Diligence from Dilection or Loving the things as one saith are conjugate no less than the names Thy Love must be a labouring Love a Love that is full of mercy and good fruits The Apostle ascribeth Work and Labour unto Love because Love refuseth no pains it will spend and be spent even there where is least Love returned for most expended 5. Who doth not rejoyce in his own good Thou dost never envy thy self thine own Happiness So must thou rejoyce in the Gifts Parts Graces and Prosperity of others To envy at one anothers good is some of the Poyson of the old Serpent which he spitteth It is the principal quality of Devils to envy the Saints Happiness 6. Who is there that is weary in doing good to himself When doth a man cease to do good to himself So must thou do to others Thou must never be weary in well-doing to them A Friend a true Christian Friend loveth at all times Prov. 17.17 Let thy Love to thy Brother be without envy in Prosperity and without weariness in Adversity When the feigned Lover is to his Friend as the Cuckoo that affords you his company till you be weary of him in Summer but before Winter cometh takes his leave Be thou to thy Brother as the Black-bird that keeps constantly with us and is of use if need be to feed us in Winter Every man knoweth what is good for himself thence doth a good man conclude if Justice Mercy Knowledg Grace Credit be good for me then are they good for my Brother also and he will labour to procure them that he may serve his Brother through love Gal. 5.13 intending his good more than his own in loving of him True it is a man in loving another may have some respect to himself if he be Wise Judicious Learned to learn of him If Humble Loving Holy to imitate him If any way beneficial to be a Gainer by him in a way of God not of Lust or of the World But this is not the first and principal thing for which the Christian loveth another but as the result not as the moving Cause but as the Reward of Love as Man and Wife by shewing more Love to each other for Love's sake do reap more Love from each other SECT II. II. WE must love one another as Christ loved us Christ loved us when we were enemies to him Herein is the Love of God commended to us that when we were enemies Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 Yea when we were enemies to Christ and he might have wrought our destruction yet then he sought to us for our Love entreating us to be reconciled unto him he came to seek the lost Sheep of the house of Israel What surpassing Love is this That the great God should come and seek to his own Creatures for their Love that the Cedar should make suit to the Thistle What had Christ lost by it if every Son of Adam had been turned into Hell Could he not have made another World of Men to have glorified him and to reign with him in Glory yet that he should seek to us to be reconciled to him here is surpassing Love So must we love one another Are we injurious to one another and at variance one with another then let us seek to one another for reconciliation Christ so loved us that he was willing to lay down his Life for us Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his Life for us 1 Joh. 3.16 Christs could not shew greater Love to us than in dying for us Christs Love to us is the ultimum resolubile the last thing into which all his actions in the work of our Redemption is resolved Do ye ask Why God was incarnate why he suffered death why he endured such contradiction of Sinners such Mockings such a bloody Agony in the Garden this answereth all Because he loved us I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to death for me Gal. 2.20 The Apostle speaks here in the Person of all Beleevers These following Reasons may demonstrate to us that Christs Love was the Cause that made him to lay down his Life for us R. 1. Because there was no desert in us It is not our Love to him first that made him to love us no we love him because he loved us first Our Love to him is the effect and consequent of his Love to us not the cause of his Love What is there in any man considered as fallen from God that can deserve such incomprehensible Love as that God should dye for us Can Sin deserve the Love of Christ What is a natural Man but a very Body of Sin We do not nor can we Love God because we are enmity to him Amor descendit non ascendit There is more Love in a Father to a Child than in a Child to a Father His Love did first descend to us before our Love could ascend to him The Prophet Ezekiel sets forth the odious and most undeserving condition of Man under a Parable of a polluted Infant when we were most forlorn polluted and most helpless then was the time of Love Ezek. 16. When thou wast wallowing in thine own filthiness then was the time of Love 2. Because Christ reaps no good by us What if Adam and all his Posterity had been damned he had lost no whit of his Blessedness he was infinitely happy from everlasting and so is to everlasting and would be had not a man been partaker of his Glory therefore it must needs be his meer Love to us and such a Love as doth earnestly desire and tender our everlasting good and Salvation It was for our Reconciliation and Justification that he endured Wrath he died for our Redemptoin he shed his Blood for us miserable Creatures to make us eternally happy Sons of God and Heirs of Salvation What Motive or Ground had Christ to dye and suffer if it were not his meer Love to us so that we may well cry out with St. Augustine O Lord thou hast loved me more than thy self because thou wouldst dye for me and not for thy self 3. Because Christ laid down his Life being never desired of us therefore meer Love to us did encline him to dye for us Had Men taken Counsel together to devise a means to pacifie Gods Wrath had men been let

bring our hearts to it else we shall have no evidence to our Souls that we are the children of God Who is Love Thou wilt say perhaps that he hath given thee cause to hate him oh then remember that God hath sent thee a message that thou oughtest to love him Can the wrongs that he hath done thee discharge thee of that obedience which thou owest to the Lord's message and commandment Can any enemy give thee sufficient cause to disobey the Lord's commandment None can free a man from owing obeence to the lawful commands of lawful Authority but some higher Authority the Supream and highest Authority commandeth thee to love thy Brethren Neighbours and enemies all whomsoever though not all in the same degree Now the wrongs of any of these can by no means discharge thee from that bond of Love which the Authority of God layeth upon thee It is not enough to rule the tongue or hands and to abstain from open wrongs in word or deed and in the mean time to carry a bitter Spirit in our breasts against others Nay it is not enough to carry our affections upon terms of indifferency and neutrality so as neither to love nor hate as some men may flatter themselves and think they do well enough if they do not hate them though they do not love them As Balak said to Balaam concerning the Israelites neither bless them at all nor curse them at all sith he could not perswade him to curse them he would fain have had him not to bless them but to carry himself indifferently betwixt him and them so many men because they are forbidden malice and revenge do think they do well if they abstain from these albeit they bear no love to their Neighbour in their hearts especially if he be one that hath wronged them But this is not enough the Lord hath sent thee a message that thou shouldst love thy Neighbour Oh then labour to get the Spirit of Love and Power and of a sound mind to frame thy heart to love others because thou findest that God hath loved thee and commanded thee to love thy Brethren and thine enemies then thou wilt not think how ill such and such persons have deserved thy love CHAP. IV. II. INasmuch as the Lord hath sent a message of love unto men this sheweth That they are contrary unto God who carry messages between men that tend to the overthrow of love and breeding of ill-will and malice between men and men These cross the message of God which is a commandment of love betwixt man and man they think to get some carnal love from others towards themselves by seeking to alienate their hearts from others But let all take heed how they go about to separate those whom God would have to be joyned together in love III. This point sheweth how hardly men are brought to unseigned love toward each other Men are so alienated from this duty of Christian-love that the God of Love sendeth a message of Love from Heaven to bring them to it and to encline their hearts to love It is a sign that men are much bent upon Enmity and Variance when a King is fain to send an Emba●●ge of Love Peace unto them from a far countrey to set them agreed So it is a sign that men are much alienated from Christian-Love and enclined to the contrary when the King of kings seeth cause to send a message from heaven to earth to unite them to each other in Love All that live under the Gospel profess one Faith partake of one Baptism eat and drink all at one Table of the Lord c. Yet all this will not bring them truly to embrace each other in Christian-Love But God seeth there is need to send a message of Love from heaven to earth to unite them together CHAP. V. HAving considered the first Circumstance I come to the second which sheweth the Antiquity of this Doctrine of Love it was from the beginning whence I observe Observ That the Commandment of Love is from the beginning It is true we do not find that it was in express words given in command at the beginning of the world I mean we do not find any Record in the Word mentioning any such express Command of Love delivered in the beginning but it is certain that such a command was giv●n for otherwise Cain had not been guilty when he did so notoriously transgress the Law of Love in hating and murthering his Brother for where no Law is there is no Transgression But it is manifest that Cain did grievously transgress as appeareth by the wrath of God against him by his arraignment and punishment of him therefore there was a Law of Love given in the beginning against which this man that was the first man born of a woman offened grievously and for which he was severely punished Now it is out of Question That it was written in Adam's heart before his Fall for it was a special part of that holy Image of God in him But then it may be said that this Image of God was lost by the Fall and so the Law of Love as well as other parts of holiness was blotted out of his heart I answer that though it were blotted out of his heart yet I do not believe it was blotted out of his head and understanding but that still he retained a knowledg of this duty although his heart was now so corrupted and his affections so perverted and disordered that he could not frame his heart to obey this Law of Love He had lost that inclination to entire and perfect Love which he had by Creation and by which he resembled God who is Love But howsoever the writing the Law in the heart of Adam at his Creation or the remaining of this Law in the mind and understanding of Adam I conceive not to be meant here by this message of God sent to men and requiring them to love each other for that was not lex tradita sed insculpta not a Law delivered by way of message but a Law engraven and a Character of Love imprinted in the mind of Adam But this spoken of here is the delivery of a Law as a message sent from God to man Therefore I conceive That this Law of Love was by the Spirit of God revealed to Adam and to other holy men who were stirred up of God to teach and deliver it unto men and to propagate this Doctrine of Brotherly-love as men multiplied and encreased upon the earth So it appeareth in that soon after the the Fall the Doctrine of the Gospel and Salvation by Jesus Christ was delivered to Adam as a gracious message of Life Now this was the Doctrine of Faith and the Doctrine of Faith and Love are inseparable and always go together as the Graces of Faith and Love are always joyned For in Christ who is promised in the Gospel not only God is reconciled to man but also man is knit to