Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	love_n	love_v	see_v	3,860	5	4.0181	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B09701	The life of a Christian which is a lamp kindled and lighted from the love of Christ, and most naturally discovereth its original, by the purity, integrity and fervency of its motion, in love to its fellow-partners in the same life. Briefly displayed in this its peculiar and distinguishing strain of operation. As also some few catechistical questions concerning the way of salvation by Christ. Together with a post-script about religion. / By Isaac Penington, (junior) esq;.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1653 (1653)	Wing P1176; ESTC R181602	61,844	104

about the Temple but because it was his Fathers house which though expiring and growing out of date was as yet his Fathers and therefore more worthy then to be so prophaned The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up Yea the very end for which he desired his own glory was that he might be the more able to glorifie his Father Father glorifie thy Son that thy Son also may glorifie thee And for the people of God Christs heart goeth forth in wonderful love towards them He loved them all his life long even to the very last Joh. 13.1 Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the last His heart was ever working towards them He never thought any thing too good for them yea he layd down his very life freely for them and while he was doing it his thoughts ran more upon them then upon himself God had expressed perfect love to them in that he had chosen them as his peculiar treasure which he would enrich suitably to himself and enjoy in himself and make happy with himself for ever He chose Christ but to bring this about who in that respect is beneath them though as he is the chiefest part of this treasure and the head of it to them he is far above them Now Christ having just such an heart as his Father had could not chuse but entirely love that which his Father so loved before him Having the same love with his Father he could not chuse but act towards the same object as his Father did The love in Christ is the same still in him as it was first in God and therefore cannot but behave it self as the same Christ doth what he seeth the Father do Now seeing the Father do this so eminently he cannot but do it as eminently also His love is a copy of the Fathers love and his actings forth of it are a draught of the Fathers actings This ground Christ himself intimates Joh. 17.20 That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them Christ desires perfect union with them to be perfectly in them that is the prime and compleat operation of love yea but what is the rule whereby what is the attractive which he desires might draw him into them why that he himself tells you is the Fathers love Let thy love the same love wherewith thou hast taken possession of me take possession of them also and then I will immediately come after and dwell in them too It is from thy love that I love them and therefore I must first see thy love go before and then I will soon follow And for this cause take I such pains with them that I might make them a fit habitation for thy love and then that I my self might dwell and enjoy them in the same love and the same love in them 2. Another ground of Christs love to them is his Fathers will His Father gave them him to love and commanded him to love them yea and gave him that love wherewith he should love them As the Father giveth Christ to us to love so he gave us to Christ to love And as there are a great many duties we owe Christ but love is the main So of all the duties Christ did owe us as to leave all his glory and come into this world and seek us out and to dye for us to arise for us to ascend for us to take possession of our life and inheritance for us in Heaven and to take care of us here on Earth love was the main and that which fitted him for all the rest even as it fitteth us for all our duties both towards God towards Christ and towards one another Yea as this was the especial command which Christ gave us to love one another so it was the especial command God gave Christ to love us In this 15 Chapter of this Gospel of John Christ telleth his Disciples That if they keep his Commandments they shall abide in his love even as he kept his Fathers Commandments and abode in his love And of all his Commandments he picks out one presently in the 12 Verse following as if he would commend it unto us as that which will have the most especial influence of all to keep us in his love which is this of loving one another Now how cometh Christ to pick out this of all the rest but that his Father had set him such an example he had picked it out for him it was the main thing he had given him in charge and the main thing he expected from him as he intimates in the 10 Chapt. of this Gospel vers 17. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again He had been speaking vers 15. of laying down his life for the sheep from his knowledg of the Father from his knowledg of the heart and will of the Father As the Father knoweth me even so know I the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep The Father knoweth me whom he hath entrusted and I know him who hath entrusted me and want neither love to him nor them but lay down my life for them And other sheep he had to take care of besides those of this fold which he would take care of also vers 16. Now says he therefore my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I might take it again This is that act of love in me this is that act of obedience from me to the will and command of the Father which draweth and engageth the heart of the Father so exceedingly to me Therefore my Father loveth me because I lay down my life so readily in such a way of love in such strength of love to my sheep that I might take it again to perfect their Salvation So that God gave Christ this especial command as well as Christ giveth it us and his heart was so much in it that his love went out towards Christ as Christs heart went out in love towards his sheep This was the motive the attractive of the Fathers love to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore or for this my Father loveth me because I lay down my life c. And could God do less then give Christ a command to love them when he gave them him to this very end and therefore gave them unto him in all such relations as might draw love as as his brethren wherefore he is not ashamed to call them brethren as his own children behold I and the children which thou hast given me as his own most proper Spouse as the very natural members of his own body What could his meaning be in all this but that he should exceedingly love and cherish them And surely his Father would never have given them him unless he had had very good assurance that he would love them well And therefore to put that out of doubt he gave him love first before

arms into the hands into the shoulders c. so that every motion in every one of them will be easie and delightful It is the setting about duties without love which makes them so heavy How can that be done without love which is only to be done with love This is the great difference between our motions now adays and the motions of the primitive Christians theirs did issue from a Spring we go about to force out ours with artificial engines They had love kindled in them and love drawn forth in them by vertue of the same life which kindled it We reason love into our hearts and reason out the practises of it and alas how weak is this But had we of a truth love enough enough of that love and the art of proportioning out love enough to every duty we should fail in none nor complain of any Thus exceedingly profitable to our selves is love exercised by us toward the brethren Where by the way we may take notice of the strength of Christs love to us It is love in him to us which maketh him so strictly to lay this Commandment upon us of loving one another He knew how useful it would be for us and therefore in a more then ordinary manner he enjoyneth it unto us And thus we see the Reason why Christ beateth so much on this subject why his heart is so much in it why he maketh it his Commandment It is a thing which his Father much desireth and is much for his Fathers honour It is exceedingly useful to his Saints both them that practise it and all to whom they practise it and can you blame Christ in laying so much weight upon it To propose now a little Application of all this Is the heart of Christ so much in this thing is this his especial Commandment his peculiar Commandment the Commandment of his choyce which his Soul so thirsteth after to have observed by us That we should love one another as he hath loved us Then 1. What shall we say to our Lord Jesus Christ when we come to stand before him and his Father in the presence of all his Saints and Angels for our so gross neglect of this duty When this Law shall be read before us This is my Commandment that ye love one another c. and the often pressings of it by Christ himself and by his Apostles throughout all the New Testament and when our hearts and actions shall be looked into and so little of it found in either When the Saints in the Apostles times shall rise up and their hearts shall be opened which were so full of love and entireness that they could spend and be spent one for another When the Saints under the ten Persecutions shall arise whose love is reported to have been so firm and large that the very Persecutors themselves did bear witness unto it and were amazed at it When the hearts of worldlings shall be ripped up and stronger love appear there towards their fellow-worldlings then in the Christians of this generation towards their fellow-Christians When men directly-wicked shall appear to have loved the image of the Devil better in one another then we the image of God and of Christ Yea when our own hearts shall be ripped up and the actings of our natural affection being made visible it shall appear concerning our selves that we gave scope to that but the new nature and the powers of love in it have been rather choaked in us then drawn forth towards one another What shall we say in our own behalfs We can blame one another very sorely now in cases of far inferior consequence but how shall we answer this our selves before the Judg We own the life of Christ in one another but alas where is our love to that life We say Christ is our Lord why this is his great Commandment that wherein his very heart and soul and spirit is where is our obedience who can answer this in his own spirit now and if not now how will he be able to acquit himself then when the light shall be perfectly clear and all the fig-leaves wherewith we now so cunningly cover the evil of our hearts ways motions and actions from our own eyes quite taken away and made altogether unable from affording any shelter to us 2. It may occasion an enquiry why love should be so barren so dead among Christians so backward in its growth so prone to decay That little life and vertue which it had among us once where is it I shall not prosecute this enquiry so far as it lieth open to me but mention only these two causes from whence it may very well arise 1. From a decay of grace in us from our decay in love to Christ or at least from the weakness of it where it is not decayed Were grace strong were love to Christ strong we could not chuse but love those that are Christs more If we did not fail in love towards him who doth beget we should better love those who are begotten by him 2. From a carelessness in acting the duty We are not careful to draw out a spiritual affection and a natural affection will not do it and upon spiritual grounds and with a spiritual fervency and in a spiritual manner but we go to love Saints as we do other men We do not simply love grace in them There must be somewhat besides grace to draw forth and continue our affections or else they warp Our love goeth forth in flesh and not to the pure life but partly towards flesh which it many times missing of there presently groweth a faintness and decay of love If love were more pure in us and were drawn forth more purely from us towards its own pure object it would be more lasting 3. It speaks out a very strong Exhortation of it self inviting and vehemently perswading Christians to press hard after this duty and never to give their spirits rest till this duty be as much in their hearts and lives as it is in the heart of Christ concerning them For the prosecution of this Exhortation I shall propound some few Motives to it some Directions concerning it and likewise some Helps towards it To begin with the Motives Though all that hath been said be of a stirring attractive nature yet it may not be amiss at last cast to drive in two or three nails again First then Consider this well that this is the way which Christ himself hath appointed us to express our love to him in If ye love me keep my Commandments and what Commandments This is my Commandment that ye love one another Peter lovest thou me feed my Lambs If thou lovest me shew it and if thou wilt shew it shew it in thy love and care of my Lambs what thou dost to them thou dost to me Our goodness cannot reach God or Christ but the Saints Psal 16.2 2. Remember that this will yeeld unto Christ matter of joy in you He