Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	affection_n	heart_n	love_n	1,178	5	5.0861	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58838	The life of God in the soul of man, or, The nature and excellency of the Christian religion with the method of attaining the happiness it proposes : and An account of the beginnings and advances of a spiritual life : in two letters written to persons of honour.	Scougal, Henry, 1650-1678.; Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1677 (1677)	Wing S2101; ESTC R2701	52,875	148

enlarge in so known a matter nothing can be more clear than that the happiness of Love depends on the return it meets with and herein the Divine Lover hath unspeakably the advantage having placed his affection on him whose Nature is Love whose Goodness is as Infinite as his Being whose Mercy prevented us when we were his enemies therefore cannot choose but imbrace us when we are become his friends it is utterly impossible that God should hide his Face and deny his Love to a Soul wholly devoted to him and which desires nothing so much as to serve and please him he cannot disdain his own Image nor the heart in which it is engraven Love is all the tribute which we can pay him and it is the Sacrifice which he will not despise Another thing which disturbs the pleasure of Love and renders it a miserable and disquiet Passion is absence and separation from those we love it is not without a sensible affliction that friends do part though for some little time it is sad to be deprived of that society which is so delightful our life becomes tedious being spent in an impatient expectation of the happy hour wherein we may meet again but if death have made the separation as sometime or other it must this occasions a grief scarce to be parallelled by all the misfortunes of humane life and wherein we pay dear enough for the comforts of our friendship But O how happy are those who have placed their love on him who can never be absent from them they need but to open their eyes and they shall every where behold the traces of his Presence and Glory and converse with him whom their Soul loveth and this makes the darkest Prison or wildest Desart not only supportable but delightful to them In fine a Lover is miserable if the person whom he loveth be so They who have made an exchange of hearts by love get thereby an interest in one anothers happiness and misery and this makes Love a troublesome Passion when placed on Earth The most fortunate person hath grief enough to marre the tranquillity of his friend and it is hard to hold out when we are attacked on all hands and suffer not only in our own person but in anothers But if God were the Object of our Love we should share in an infinite happiness without any mixture or possibility of diminution we should rejoyce to behold the Glory of God and receive comfort and pleasure from all the Praises wherewith Men and Angels do Extol him It should delight us beyond all expression to consider that the Beloved of our Souls is infinitely happy in himself and that all his Enemies cannot shake or unsettle his Throne That our God is in the Heavens and doth whatsoever he pleaseth Behold on what sure foundations his happiness is built whose Soul is possessed with Divine Love whose will is transformed into the Will of God and whose greatest desire is that his Maker should be pleased O the peace the rest the satisfaction that attendeth such a temper of mind What an infinite pleasure must it needs be thus as it were to lose our selves in him and being swallowed up in the overcoming sense of his goodness to offer our selves a living Sacrifice alwayes ascending unto him in flammes of love never doth a Soul know what a solid Joy and substantial pleasure is till once being weary of it self it renounce all propriety give it self fully up unto the Author of its being and feel it self become a hallowed and devoted thing and can say from an inward sense and feeling My Beloved is mine I account all his interest mine own and I am his I am content to be any thing for him and care not for my self but that I may serve him a person moulded unto this temper would find pleasure in all the dispensations of Providence Temporal Enjoyments would have another relish when he should taste the Divine Goodness in them and consider them as tokens of Love sent by his dearest Lord and Maker And chastisements though they be not joyful but grievous would hereby lose their sting the rod as well as the staff would comfort him he would snatch a kiss from the hand that were smiting him and gather sweetness from that severity nay he would rejoyce that though God did not the will of such a worthless and foolish creature as himself yet he did his own Will and accomplished his own designs which are infinitely more holy and wise The Exercises of Religion which to others are insipid and tedious do yield the highest pleasure and delight to Souls possessed with Divine Love they rejoyce when they are called to go up to the house of the Lord that they may see his power and his glory as they have formerly seen it in his Sanctuary They never think themselves so happy as when having retired from the world and gotten free from the noise and hurry of affairs and silenced all their clamorous passions those troublesom guests within they have placed themselves in the presence of God and entertain Fellowship and Communion with him they delight to adore his Perfections and recount his Favours and to protest their affection to him and tell him a thousand times that they love him to lay out their troubles or wants before him and disburthen their hearts in his Bosom Repentance it self is a delightful exercise when it floweth from the principle of love there is a secret sweetness which accompanieth those tears of remofse those meltings and relentings of a Soul returning unto God and regrating its former unkindness The heightned endearments of Lovers newly reconciled after some estrangements of their affections are a very imperfect shadow and resemblance of this The severities of a holy Life and that constant watch which we are obliged to keep over our hearts and ways are very troublesom to those who are only ruled and acted by an External Law and have no law in their Minds inclining them to the performance of their duty but where Divine Love possesseth the Soul it stands as Sentinel to keep out every thing that may offend the Beloved and doth disdainfully repulse those temptations which assault it it complyeth cheerfully not only with explicite Commands but with the most secret Notices of the Beloved's pleasure and is ingenious in discovering what will be most grateful and acceptable unto him it makes Mortification and Self-denial almost change their harsh and dreadful names and become easie sweet and delightful things But I find this part of my Letter swell bigger than I designed indeed who would not be tempted to dwell on so pleasant a Theme I shall endeavour to compensate it by brevity in the other Points The next Branch of the Divine Life is an Universal Charity and Love The Excellency of this Grace will be easily acknowledged for what can be more noble and generous than a Heart inlarged to imbrace the whole World whose

there we shall behold the Perfections of the Divine Nature though covered with the vail of humane Infirmities and when we have fram'd unto our selves the clearest Notion that we can of a Being Infinite in Power in Wisdom and Goodness the Author and Fountain of all Perfections let us fix the Eyes of our Soul upon it that our Eyes may affect our Heart and while we are Musing the fire will burn Especially if hereunto we add the consideration of Gods Favour and Good-will towards us nothing is more Powerfull to engage our affection then to find that we are beloved expressions of Kindness are alwayes pleasing and acceptable unto us though the person should be otherways mean and contemptible but to have the love of one who is altogether lovely to know that the Glorious Majesty of Heaven hath any regard unto us how must it astonish and delight us how must it overcome our Spirits and melt our Hearts and put our whole Soul unto a Flame Now as the Word of God is full of the expressions of his Love towards Man so all his Works do loudly proclaim it he gave us our being and by preserving us in it doth renew the donation every moment he hath placed us in a rich and well furnished World and liberally provided for all our necessities he raineth down blessings from Heaven upon us and causeth the Earth to bring forth our provision he giveth us our Food and Raiment and while we are spending the productions of one year he is preparing for us against another he sweetneth our lives with innumerable comforts and gratifieth every faculty with suitable objects The Eye of his Providence is alwaies upon us and he watcheth for our safety when we are fast a sleep neither minding him nor our selves But least we should think these Testimonles of his kindness less considerable because they are the easie issues of his Omnipotent Power and do not put him into any trouble or pain he hath taken a more wonderful Method to endear himself to us he hath testified his affection to us by suffering as well as by doing and because he could not suffer in his own Nature he assumed ours The Eternal Son of God did cloath himself with the Infirmities of our flesh and left the companie of those Innocent and Blessed Spirits who knew well how to Love and adore him that he might dwell among Men and wrestle with the obstinacy of that rebellious race to reduce them to their Alleagiance and felicity and then to offer himself up as a Sacrifice and Propitiation for them I remember one of the Poets hath an Ingenious fancy to Express the Passion wherewith he found himself overcome after a long resistance that the god of Love had shot all his Golden arrowes at him but could never pierce his Heart till at length he put himself unto the bow and darted himself straight into his breast Methinks this doth some way adumbrate Gods Method of dealing with Men he had long contended with a stubborn World and thrown down many a blessing upon them and when all his other gifts could not prevail he at last made a Gift of himself to testifie his affection and conciliate theirs The account which we have of our Saviours Life in the Gospel doth all along present us with the story of his Love all the pains that he took and the troubles that he endured were the wonderfull effects and uncontrollable evidences of it But O that last that dismal Scene Is it possible to remember it and question his kindness or deny him ours Here here it is my dear Friend that we should fix our most serious and solemn thoughts that Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith and we may be rooted and grounded in Love comprehending with all the Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and knowing the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge that so we may be filled with all the fulness of God We ought also frequently to reflect on those particular Tokens of Favour and Love which God hath bestowed on our selves how long he hath born with our follies and sins and waited to be gracious unto us wrestling as it were with the stubbornness of our hearts and essaying every method to reclaim us We should keep a register in our Minds of all the eminent Blessings and Deliverances we have met with some whereof have been so conveyed that we might clearly perceive they were not the issues of chance but the gracious effects of the Divine Favour and the signal returns of our Prayers Nor ought we to imbitter the thoughts of these things with any harsh or unworthy suspition as if they were designed on purpose to enhaunce our guilt and heighten our eternal Damnation No no my Friend God is Love and he hath no pleasure in the ruine of his Creatures if they abuse his goodness and turn his grace into wantonness and thereby plunge themselves into the greater depth of guilt and misery this is the effect of their obstinate wickedness and not the design of those benefits which he bestowes If these considerations had once begotten in our hearts a real Love and Affection towards Almighty God that will easily lead us unto the other Branches of Religion and therefore I shall need say the less unto them We shall find our hearts inlarged in Charity towards men by considering the relation wherein they stand unto God and the impresses of his Image which are stamped upon them They are not only his Creatures the workmanship of his hands but such of whom he taketh special care and for whom he hath a very dear and tender regard having laid the designs of their happiness before the foundations of the World and being willing to live and converse with them to all the Ages of Eternity The meanest and most contemptible person whom we behold is the off-spring of Heaven one of the Children of the Most High and however unworthily he might behave himself of that relation so long as God hath not abdicated and disowned him by a final Sentence he will have us to acknowledge him as one of his and as such to embrace him with a sincere and cordial affection You know what a great concernment we are wont to have for those that do any wayes belong to the person whom we love how gladly we lay hold on every opportunity to gratifie the Child or Servant of a Friend and sure our Love towards God would as naturally spring forth in Charity towards men did we mind the interest that he is pleased to take in them and consider that every Soul is dearer unto him than all the material World and that he did not account the Blood of his Son too great a price for their Redemption Again as all men stand in a near relation to God so they have still so much of his Image stamped on them as may oblige and excite us to love them In