Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A61222
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Practical discourses on sundry texts of Scripture wherein is shewed and made known the absolute necessity for all people to turn immediately unto the Lord their God / by Richard Stafford ...
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Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing S5129; ESTC R34590
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179,430
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348
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vile and poor Many such like things might be objected against us if we came in our own Name or if we did promise them by our own Merit Excellency and Power But seeing we come in the Name of the Lord who hath created and ordained all things who will do nothing but he will reveal it to his Servants the Prophets Whatever his eternal Purpose and Decree is concerning Mankind he will some way make it known unto them by acquainting it to some who are to publish it unto others He hath so ordered that it might be known They do all hear the Rumour and they might seek after Acts 15. 17. and find it Salvation and the good things of God are forced upon none They may be brought nearer and pressed more urgently upon some than upon others yet still there is Liberty of Refusal Again they are not so far off from any but they may come near and receive them and to whom it is most inculcated and offered yet it is not all done to their Hand For Trial is had whether they will seek yet further There must be somewhat of Man's own Act and willing God doth manifest himself to be friendly and loving unto us by that constant Provision of temporal Mercies and also by doing all that lies on his Part for spiritual good things It is expected what we will do reciprocally as to what he doth require of us Saith the Son of God As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you Continue ye in my Love If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love even as I have kept my Father's Commandments and abide in his Love John 15. 9 10. Here we have Assurance of the divine Favour to us and we are instructed how we may continue and express our good Will towards him viz. by keeping his Commandments God is no Respecter of Persons but whosoever of the Children of Men doth this he is accepted with him Whosoever doth the Works of Abraham he is a Friend of God as Abraham was James 2. 23. which Word Friend imports that we do a thing presently and readily at his requiring By much Importunity we we may get a Kindness from a common Neighbour which he will do not out of Affection and Esteem towards us but to be freed from the Trouble which we give him by our Importunity But where is real Love and Friendship there is constant Readiness to do mutual Offices even before the other asks or upon the least Intimation that such a thing would be acceptable unto him Now to apply the Case as it stands between God and Mankind As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me Psal 18. 44. Nothing can be more just and reasonable than that he should require Obedience of his Creatures Is he not more to all of them and to each singly than one Man is to another He is infinitely more kind than Father or Mother Husband Friend or Brother for even he ordained these Relations and stirs up what he first put in those Bowels of Mercy and Compassion one to another Of God are all things and now he ordereth them as it pleaseth him So he is the Author of all good we ever received and as he made he doth now sustain us and loadeth us with Benefits May he not expect something from us even all that we can render unto him To acknowledge him in all things and to walk always in the Way he shews unto us and to observe those Commandments he gives us Lord How strange is it that a Creature should make any Dispute or Controversie concerning it As we live by him so it is meet we should live as he would have us Both the Members of Body and Faculties of Soul should do according as he made and designed them Therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's 1 Cor. 6. 20. The Potter makes Vessels to serve for those Uses he intended them and other Artificers which frame moving Instruments make them turn or go as they please Hath not the Lord the same Power and Understanding who hath given such Skill and Capacity to others And he who fashioned every Part of us might also have ordained that all within us should necessarily have so moved according to his Command and Will as the Pulse continually beats to keep Life and Motion Who formed the Heart to turn either way to Good or Evil he might have determined it only to the first who enabled us to think this or that he might have confined us to good only and he might have kept out from thence Wickedness and Vanity all one as we now remain ignorant of many hidden and unsearchable things If we had a right Knowledge of God we might discern how he is the Creator of us and of all things who made my single Person he hath made Millions of the same Sort And who created Mankind he hath also Ten Thousand times ten Thousand several Sorts of Creatures both living and inanimate all which are for his own Glory and to minister unto him Who hath called the Generations from the Beginning Isa 41. 4. and ordained them to succeed one another after that Manner as we see they now do And shall a single Atom an individual Dust and Ashes refuse one Moment to comply with his Will Nay if several do so besides yet it is thine and the other 's single Disobedience which make up and encourage the Corruption of many But let their Number be never so great they are but as a Swarm of Flies and Locusts And if they do mutter forth hard Speeches or commit ungodly Deeds it is but in very little and sudden Acts. And what is all this Sin and Wickedness to the whole World of Creatures which declare the Glory of God and shew forth all his Praise What are the refractory and stubborn Worms of the Earth to those Armies of Heaven which fulfil all the Pleasure of the Almighty When he commands the Children of Men to do after this or that manner they go on frowardly in the Way of their Heart yet his Throne is for ever established above the Circuit of Heaven and there he sits governing the World and for ought we know a Thousand others God exercises the supream and alone Authority over all Who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming Fire The Spirits are for the sudden and quick Dispatch of what he would have done and for the effectual Performance of the same And the flaming Fire is to burn up and consume all that lets or hinders and so make way for his Purpose He hath already fixed and ordained things in their appointed Courses and Places He hath appointed those several Motions and Bounds He hath sent forth his Word and given a Law He garnished out the Heavens by his Wisdom and laid out the Foundations of the Earth by his Understanding And we see it abideth according to his Ordinance for all things serve
as obedient Children and Servants forthwith do the same Agreeable hereunto was the practice of God's Servants of old Time as Noah Lot Abraham and Jacob they did Serve and Worship God and did many things purely out of his Command without reasoning and mercinariness That is without knowing wherefore and also without a particular Promise of any more Reward from the hands of God With such Obedience or Service God was well pleased and they are recorded for our admonition and ensample upon whom the ends of the World are come That albeit Glory and Immortality and Eternal Life are more clearly discovered and made known unto us than they were to our Fathers yet we should be altogether as zealous and diligent in the Work of the Lord as they were without so much consideration had to what is further promised and assured unto us but we should do it only because the Lord requires it and then leave it unto him whether he will make any Recompence yea and be contented if he should give none We should acknowledge our selves unprofitable Servants we have done only what was our duty to do It was God who brought us into being and gave us power thus to act so it is but a due return of our being formed by him even for the Engine to move as he would have it It is just to comply with the End of our Maker or if this be left to our choice and freedom it is better when so performed of a willing and ready mind for God loves such a disposition of Soul And if there be such an Heart in People all the future Discourse would be in vain for they would both offer and act willingly without being pressed to it Let the way be only shewed they will both walk yea and run in it without being pricked forward let it be declared what they have to do and they will forthwith actually do it without so much argument and persuasion If any one throughly assures and clearly demonstrates unto them That the Lord hath said and enjoyned them thus there is need of no more words for we will do it Truly God is good and all things shall work together for good to them that love God and that are called according to the purpose of his Will Rom. 8. 28. And we will trust in the general without being particularly told how the several things are so We will commit our way unto the Lord and keep stedfast in his Covenant come Life or Death Shame or Dishonour good Report or evil Report Loss or Advantage being assured that God will so over-rule things in his Providence that even these contrary things shall tend yet more to our real and enduring Happiness Those Saints of old who were hungry and thirsty are now come to that place where they are filled and they do enjoy the fulness and fatness of God's House It is a greater degree of Happiness to have been miserable to reflect that the contrary Evil is done away and there succeeds in the room a greater good and fulness so that even Self-denial and Hardship do make way for more Enjoyment and Rest Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus who went about doing good whose Meat and Drink it was to do the Will of his Heavenly Father who did not much regard the perishing Comforts of this World as to be fully employed in and faithfully discharge that Message he was sent about So Job did more regard the Words of God's Mouth than his necessary Food For the one was of more Concernment and greater Advantage to himself than the other as it was found at last And though this might not be at first apprehended yet the sense of his Duty to God did make him give the Esteem and Preference Where is Love and Good-will towards God this makes that his Commandments do not seem grievous They are indeed represented so by the Tempter who would keep off from the Observance of them but they are not so in themselves And this hath been at sundry times cleared and manifested both by the inspired Men who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and also by other Labourers in God's Vineyard who out of their VVritings and from the very Reality and Reason of things have brought out the Truth The like also we have endeavoured by God's Grace and Assistance to shew and even to demonstrate unto the most natural and ungodly Man VVho keeps off because of this Frightning and Temptation and therefore we addressed unto him if he would but judge of what he is vainly afraid to practise for then his former Fear and Aversation would wear off and he would experimentally find the Truth and Reality of things as they are there spoken of The Subject is Of Happiness wherein it is fully and particularly manifested that the greatest Happiness of this Life consisteth in the Fear of God and keeping his Commandments in Opposition to the Pleasures of Sin or the pretended Conveniency of Disobedience By Richard Stafford VVhich is shewed as to the present Evil and Pain of several Sins there named and also of the Good and Excellency of the commanded Duties there instanced in And the like may in the same manner be demonstrated of all the rest either mentioned in the VVord of God or ever heard of even as to all the Actions and Doings of Men whatever they are concerned in so it is differently of the Good and Evil Duty and Sin of what is commanded or what is forbidden Therefore I esteem all thy Precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false Way Psal 119. 128. The like Nature runs through them all that they are really good and desirable yea and to be observed So in every false VVay there is Destruction and Misery which should be avoided And was there a like Observance of all God's Precepts and an abstaining from all Appearance of Evil any one would both judge and experimentally find the same as the Man after God's own Heart did But by reason of that abundant Sin and Corruption which is every where and hath spread it self over all Nations and Men yea and there is also a reserved Iniquity in those who seem to be VVorshippers and Servants of God which like the Herb that caused Death in the Pot so this occasions Sowerness and Misery And therefore this great Truth is scarce discernable O that thou hadst hearkned to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea Isa 48. 18. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have Respect unto all thy Commandments Psal 119. 6. I shall not live in Doubt and Misery I shall not be disappointed of so much pretended Good or Conveniency as may be thought to be had in the Transgression of this or that Commandment as the Sinner thinks expedient In the forementioned Place of Isa 48. 18. It is first said Thy Peace had been as a River and then