Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	act_n	faith_n	work_n	2,998	5	6.1099	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28635	A guide to eternity extracted out of the writings of the Holy Fathers and ancient philosophers / written originally in Latine by John Bona ; and now done into English by Roger L'Estrange, Esq.; Manductio ad coelum. English	Bona, Giovanni, 1609-1674.; L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.	1680 (1680)	Wing B3545; ESTC R23243	85,374	202

falling into some excess or other and returning worse than he went out This is the Fruit of Publick Conversation but we are not sensible of the damage we receive in Company till we come afterward to reflect upon it in Solitude Let us make what hast we can then into our selves before we are overcome with the Contagion of the Vicious Multitude The Mind that is most contracted is most chearful III. Let a man but imagine himself upon the top of an high Mountain and there taking a prospect of the miserable World he shall quickly see enough to put him out of love with it and all that 's in it Nothing but Robberies at Land Pyracies at Sea the Tumults and Horrors of War Humane blood spilt like water Sin and Iniquity broken loose and beating down all before it Look into the Cabinets of great men and you shall there see such spectacles of Brutal Lust as cannot but disgust and nauseate the very Actors themselves and every where else so boundless a License and Disorder that we would almost swear the whole world were a Bedlam but the mad-men are too many for the sober and their Number is their Justification The Laws themselves are turn'd into snares and Innocency is there invaded where it ought to be protected The Not-guilty is in more danger than the Guilty and the Judge more criminal than the Prisoner For where there is money there can be no transgression A pack of Calumniating Knaves in one place a troop of Fawning Parasites in another here Feuds there Flatteries one man wallowing in his Wine another stretching himself upon his Bed Insatiable Avarice on the one side Slavish Ambition on the other In all Publick Assemblies more Vices than Men Sins of irreverence toward God Injustice toward our Neighbour and Abuse of the Creature So that being guilty of all sins they are to expect that all sins will rise in judgment against them One would think that this view of the World might be sufficient of it self to take off any mans heart from the love of it But when a man considers the difficulty of mastering so many Temptations and bearing up against so many ill and powerful Examples certainly he cannot chuse but bethink himself of a Retreat It is a hard matter for a man to love Innocence where Wickedness is in Authority and Credit If it does not absolutely corrupt us it will yet puzzle and hinder us The only way to be safe and quiet is to retire into our selves were we may look upon the World without being endanger'd by it He that has renounced external things and withdrawn into himself is Invincible the World is to him as a Prison and Solitude a Paradise IV. But we are never the better for quitting the World if we do not vigorously apply our selves to the study and practice of Vertue without which we can have no Comfort no Repose and having that we can want nothing There are three things that seem to have a fair Analogy one with the other in all things and above all things is God himself Among Sensibles is Light and among the perfections of the Mind is Vertue God is the Light and Vertue of all things Light is the Vertue of the World and the Image of God Vertue is the Light of the Mind by which we are called and become the Children of God Without a pure mind there is no attaining of this Perfection for Vertue is the Perfection of a man that repairs all our failings and fills us with delight she raises up our fleshly Nature in things spiritual She is the Rule of Life a light to the Blind She beats down sin and brings us to Eternal Life In the study of Vertue we are to learn what it is in the first place both in general and in particular For no man seeks he knows not what We are then to keep our selves in the continual practice of it Like Souldiers that will be still exercising and skirmishing even in time of Peace and without an Enemy Very well understanding that these Encounters though but represented and in jest keep them in breath and readiness for Assaults in earnest Let a man suppose himself under all the Oppression and Indignity imaginable stript to his Shirt and thrown upon a Dunghill and let him then make tryal of his Patience as if this were his very case indeed He that exercises himself before the Battel will be more resolute in it He that has often lost Blood goes chearfully to the Combat V. The Habits of Vertues are the work of Time And we shall know when we are possest of any of them by these Tokens We have made a good Progress toward any Vertue when we have extinguish'd or at least in a large measure supprest the contrary Vice when we have brought all our Passions to a submission and obedience unto Reason when the practice of Vertue is become not only easie but delightful to us when in contempt of Temporizers we stand up with a generous Freedom in the Vindication of Vertue against all opposers when we come once naturally to abominate those things which formerly we doted upon with a depraved Inclination when the love of Vertue is grown so habitual to us that we allow our selves in nothing that is ill no not so much as in a dream when we come to imitate what we approve in others and to abstain from what we reprehend when nothing that is amiss seems little to us but worthy of our greatest care and diligence to avoid when we can see our Equals preferred without Envy when we have the honesty to confess our faults and submit them to correction and reproof when we can content our selves in the Testimony of a good Conscience without making publication of our good Works Which in the very doing are their own reward when the whole business of our life is Vertue which is always in Act and never tir'd CHAP. XXI Of Theological Vertues Faith is to be manifested in our Works In God alone we are to put our trust Motives to the Love of God The Love of our Neighbours shews it self in good Offices An Exhortation to Charity I. FAith is the Basis of all other Vertues and the Foundation of Christian Life without which no man can please God This is the Wisdom that has subdued the World to which we are firmly to adhere without any unnecessary Curiosity or Disquisition But we are to do as well as to believe for Faith without Works is dead Now while we are Christians in Profession and Discourse let us have a care not to be Infidels in our Lives and Manners If we believe the Gospel why do we not obey it If we do believe an Eternity why do we prefer a momentary Life and Pleasure before it What are we the better for believing that which is True and Good if in our Actions we be false and wicked A good Faith and an ill Life will hardly stand together For he that

trouble And it is not for us to say This or that is a small Business for I tell ye let it seem never so small It is a great advance the very first Step that leads to Vertue and Perfection V. If we may compare to a Tree the old man in us that derives his Original from the infected Seed of Adam we may resemble self-Self-Love to the Root a Perverse Inclination to the Trunk Perturbations to the Branches Vitious Habits to the Leaves Evil Works Words and Thoughts to the Fruit. Now the way to hinder all subsequent Corruptions and Wickedness is to lay the Ax to the Root and to begin with Self-Love Take away that and the whole Off-spring of Carnal Appetite is destroy'd at one Blow And this is done by Humility and Contempt of our selves We must be lowly in our own Eyes and not fear either the Scorn or the Displeasure of Men We must chearfully submit to what condition soever God hath appointed for us He that hates himself as he ought shall be sav'd He that loves himself as he ought not is in danger to perish CHAP. XIII Of Love the Nature of it Causes and Effects Its Remedies and somewhat added of Hatred I. LOve is a certain Delight or Satisfaction we take in that which is Good The first Impression that affects the Appetite proceeding from the Pleasure we take in a known Good It is the Cement of the World the most powerful of all our Passions subdue this once and the rest are easily overcome The Love which is divine aspires naturally toward its Original All Good comes from the Soveraign Good and thither it tends Let every man call his own Soul to a Shrift and see what it is that his Heart is most set upon For it is either the God which he should worship or the Idol which he should not It is the Command of God that we love him with the whole heart and without a Rival He that loves any thing else with his whole heart makes that his God II. Beside the ordinary Motives to Love which are Vertue and Beauty there is also a certain Agreement and Congruity of Minds and Manners together with several Graces and Advantages both of Body and Mind As Modesty of Behaviour Industry Nobility Learning Sharpness of Wit c. But the great Attractive of Love is Love it self which if accompany'd with Benefits is sufficient to turn even the strongest Aversion into a Kindness Men of clear Spirits warm and sanguine Constitutions mild and gentle Natures are much given to Love III. So great is the Power of Love that it does in a manner transform the Lover into the thing belov'd It is a kind of a willing Death a voluntary Separation of the Soul and Body He that is in Love is out of himself he thinks not of himself he provides nothing for himself and effectually he is as good as no where at all if he be not with the thing he loves His Mind is in one place and his Body in another How miserable is that man that loves and loves not God! What Proportion is there betwixt a corruptible Object and the Immortal Soul The end of such Love is Vanity and Vexation and Disappointment Whereas he that loves God lives always where he loves in him in whom all things live and in a secure possession of an unchangeable Good In Carnal Love there is a mixture of Bitterness and Violence but the Love of God is altogether humble and calm The one is full of Jealousies the other has none Here we are afraid of Rivals and there we pray for them We are to love God if we love our selves for we are only the better for it not He. Man is changeable and mortal but there 's no losing of God unless we forsake him IV. If we would have the love we bear to our Neighbour sincere it must be wholly sounded upon Piety and Religion abstracted from all the common Considerations of Wit Likeness Good Humour c. The Platonic Love which pretends from the sight of a Corporal Beauty to raise the Soul to the Contemplation of the Divine proves in the end to be the very Bane of Vertue It is very rarely that a man stops at the view of a lovely Woman without a desire to come nearer and whether it be a Ray only or some kind of Fascination with it that passes from the Eye to the Object somewhat there is that dissolves a man and ruines him There 's more danger in a slip of the Eyes than of the Feet The Cure of Love is the more difficult because the more we oppose it the stronger Resistance it makes And if it be not checkt at the very beginning it comes so insensibly upon us that we are in before we are aware but if we begin with it betimes the Remedy is not difficult One way of Cure may be by Diversion and plunging a mans self into business to put the thought of it out of his head But then we must avoid all occasions and Circumstances that may mind us of the Person we love For if we relapse there will be no Remedy but Time and Absence and we must expect to be perpetually seized with it till in the end it 's weary'd out and falls asleep Many have been cur'd out of mere shame to see themselves pointed at and made Town-talk and then perhaps they may have been brought to a better understanding of the Dishonour and Hazzard of their Proceeding Others have relieved themselves by finding out of Faults and Inconveniencies and by enquiring into the Errors and Imperfections of the thing they love But the last and surest Remedy is to drive out a Carnal Love with a Spiritual and to turn our Affections to God to Vertue to Heaven and to Eternity which are truly amiable A generous Mind cannot but be asham'd to set his heart upon a Dunghil Evil Love corrupts good Manners V. What is it but a kind of Natural Love-Chain that ties the whole World together and the several parts of it The Stars of the Firmament in their Motions the Birds of the Air and the Beasts of the Field Now this Sacred Bond is only dissolv'd by Hatred which leads to Division and Dissension as Love does to Union The most subject to this Vice are the Slothful the Fearful and the Suspicious for they fancy themselves to be threatned with Mischief which way soever they look There are some people of so unsociable a Nature that like Birds of ill Omen they both hate and fear all things together These men are a Burthen to themselves and to Mankind and to be avoided by all means but with Pity not Hatred And in truth there will be no place for Hatred if we turn every thing to the best for there is no man so ill but he has some mixture of Good in him There is nothing truly detestable but Sin and Damnation If we turn our Hatred any other way the harm is to