Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	affection_n	desire_v	love_v	2,618	5	5.8704	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17647	A commentarie of M. Iohn Caluine vppon the Epistle to the Philippians wherein is set out the necessitie and profite of affliction vnto the faithfull, the benefite of God his word, the fruits, of vnitie and humilitie, free iustification by faith in Iesus Christ without our owne merites, the assurance, ioy, and contented mindes of the godlie, and their perseueraunce in godlinesse vnto the end. With many other comfortable and profitable pointes of religion. Translated out of Latine by W.B.; Commentarii in quatuor Pauli epistolas. English. Selections	Calvin, Jean, 1509-1564.; Becket, William, fl. 1584.	1584 (1584)	STC 4402; ESTC S107378	72,730	102

wherewith God vouchsafeth vs when we suffer persecution for his truth neither in vaine was it sayd Blessed shall you be when men shall all maner of wayes reuile and trouble you for my names sake Matth. 5.11 Let vs therfore remember that the fellowship of the crosse of Christ as a singular grace of God is with a cherefull and thankefull mind to be embraced of vs. To his bands he addeth The defence and confirmation of the Gospell that he might the better expresse how honorable a dutie the Lord enioineth vs when he opposeth vs against his enimies to giue testimonie vnto his Gospell For it is as if he should commaund vnto vs the patronage of his Gospell With this cogitation Martyrs being armed haue bene able to contemne all the rage of the wicked and to ouercome all their torments And I would to God this were in the mindes of all them that are called to confesse the faith that they are Patrons chosen by Christ to pleade his cause For being stayed vpon such a comfort they would be more couragious than easily to be turned vnfaithfully to fall from God But some man will aske here whether the confirmation of the Gospell depend vpon the constancie of men I answer that the truth of God is stronger of it selfe than that it néedeth any other way to be vpholden For we all are liers yet God remaineth true yet it is not absurd that weake consciences by such helpes should be confirmed Therfore this kind of confirmation which Paule remembreth hath relation vnto men as we learne by our owne experience this at the least is come to passe by the slaughters of so many Martyrs that the Gospell is sealed in our harts as it were by so many seales Whereof commeth that of Tertullian that their bloud is the séede of the Church whome I also haue imitated in a verse The holy bloud of martyrd Saincts which God his honor defend Is like the seede cast into earth which great encrease forth send 8 For God is my witnes Nowe he declareth more plainly his loue toward them for proofe whereof he addeth an othe and that iustly because we knowe how deare the building vp of the Church is vnto God It was very necessary that the loue of Paule should sufficiently be testified vnto the Philippians neither is this of small force to procure credite vnto the doctrine when the people is perswaded that they are beloued of their teacher He calleth God to be a witnes of the truth who alone is truth and to be a witnes of his affection who alone is the searcher of the hartes In this worde Desire the speciall worde is put for the generall it is a signe of loue because we desire the thinges we loue In our bowells He opposeth the bowells of Christ vnto carnall affection that he might signifie his loue to be holye and godlye for he that loueth according to the flesh hath respect of his owne profite and may thereafter according to the alteration of things and time change his minde in the meane season he admonisheth by what rule the affections of the faithful should be examined namely that forsaking their owne will they should suffer Christ to gouerne them And certainly true loue can not procéede from any other thing than from the bowels of Christ and this pricke should not lightly touch vs that Christ doth after a sort open his bowells whereby he might chearish mutuall loue amongest vs. 9 This I pray that your loue c. He commeth agayne vnto his prayer which by the waye he had in one worde touched afore He sheweth them therefore the summe of those thinges which he beséeched of God for them that they them selues also by his example might learne to praye and aspire to the increase of these giftes Whereas some doe take the loue of the Philippians for the Philippians them selues as commonly barbarous men are woont to speake sauing your reuerence your worship it is absurd for neither is there anye such example extant in Paule neyther had such foolishnes as yet come into custome beside the sentence shoulde not be full and otherwise the simple and naturall meaning of the wordes doth very well agrée for the true encrease of Christians is when they goe forward in knowledge and vnderstanding and afterward in loue therefore this worde In according to the phrase of the Hebrewe tongue is taken here for with as I haue also translated it except some had rather expound it By that it should signifie the instrument or the formall cause for the greater increase we make in knowledge the more should loue encrease in vs. Then the sense were that your loue shoulde encrease according to the measure of your vnderstanding All vnderstanding is taken for full and sounde vnderstanding not for the vnderstanding of all things 10 That ye may allowe The definition of Christian wisedome is to knowe that that is to the purpose or profitable not to disquiet the witte in vayne subtilties and speculations for the Lorde will not employe his seruantes vnprofitably least they shoulde learne that which shoulde nothing auayle them Hereof you may gather in what estimation the diuinitie of the Sorbonicall Sophisters is to be had wherein if thou spendest thy whole life thou shalt no more be edified touching the hope of euerlasting life nor reape anye more spirituall profite than out of the demonstrations of Euclides Truely although it did teache no false thing yet for this cause it shoulde worthily be accursed because the profaning of spirituall doctrine is verye daungerous for the Scripture as Paule sayth is profitable 2. Tim. 3.16 There we can finde nothing but colde disputations about trifles That ye may be pure This is the profit which we reape by knowledge not that euery man should craftilye prouide for his owne estate but that we should liue with a pure conscience before God It followeth And without offence The Gréeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of doubtfull signification Ghrysostome doth expounde it actiuely that like as before God he would haue vs pure and innocent so nowe before men he would haue vs leade an honest life lest by any euill examples they should hurt their neighbours This I reiect not yet in my iudgement the passiue signification agréeth better with the text for to this ende did he wish them wisedome that with blameles steppes they should goe forward in their vocation vntil the day of Christ as contrariwise by ignorance it commeth to passe that oftentimes we fall stumble and goe astray And how many offences Satan obiecteth vnto vs which might either breake of our course or hinder it euery one of vs for him selfe haue experience 11 Filled with the fruites of righteousnes This nowe pertaineth vnto the outward life for a good conscience bringeth forth her fruite by her workes therefore he desireth that they should be fruitefull in good workes vnto the glorie of God Such fruites he sayth are thorough Christ because they

and the other elements to restore that which hath béene put in them foorthwith our mindes are erected into a strong hope as it were into a spirituall sight of the resurrection And it is not amisse also to mark that the right power to raise the dead yea to do all things according to his own wil is bestowed on the person of Christ by which praise his diuine maiesty is excellently beautified Moreouer hereof we gather that the world was created by him because to submit al things to himself belōgeth not but ōly to the creator Chapter .4 THerfore my Brethren beloued longed for my ioy my crowne so stand in the Lord my beloued 2 I exhort Euodia I exhort Syntiche that they be of one accord in the Lord. 3 Yea I beseech thee also faithfull yokefellowe helpe those women which labored with me in the Gospel with Clement with my other helpers whose names are in the booke of life THerfore Brethren He shutteth vp his exhortatiō with more vehemēt words than he was accustomed that he might the more déepely imprint it in mens minds And he insinuateth into their affections with swéete appellations whyche notwithstanding procéed not of flattery but of a sincere loue He calleth them his ioy and his crowne because he being glad that they gottē by his trauell did continue in the faith hoped for that triumph whereof we spake when the Lord shal crowne our déeds with his own happines Where he biddeth them so stand in the Lord he signifieth that he alloweth theyr estate although this word So might be referred to the former doctrine but that is more fit that by praising their present state he might exhort them to perseuerance indéed they had already shewed some token of their constancie yet Paule being priuie vnto mans weakenes thinke that they haue néede to be confirmed for the time afterward 2. I exhort Euodia Syntiche It is a common opinion receiued for the most part that Paule would quiet I knowe not what grudge betwéen these two women touching which matter although I would not contend yet the coniecture in the words of Paule is lighter than that it can perswade me that it was so It appeareth by the testimony which he giue thē that they were very wise women for he attributeth so much vnto them that he calleth them fellow laborers in the gospel therefore because in their agrement there was much moment in their discord greate danger he encourageth them peculiarly vnto concorde We must marke also that so oft as he speaketh of cōsent he addeth this band In the Lord. For without the Lord al agrement shal be accursed and there is nothing so disseuered whiche muste not in Christe againe be gathered togither Yea and I beseeche thee also faithfull yokefellow I wil not dispute of the sexe Therfore whither he speaketh to a man or to a woman I leaue it indifferent although the argument of Erasmus be too weake who gathereth therof that it was a woman because mention is here made of women as though he doth not immediately adde the name of Clement in the same cause but I cease from that disputation only I déeme that the wife of Paule is signified vnder this name They that affirme this do cite Clemēt and Ignatius for the authors of it if they did cite them truly I woulde not dispise suche men especially But séeing that counterfaite writings are brought forth by Eusebius and added by the vnlearned munkes they deserue but little credit with readers of sound iudgemēt Therfore let vs enquire of the matter without the preiudice of mē When Paule writ the firste Epistle to the Corinthians he reporteth that he then was vnmarried 1. Cor. 7.8 To them he saith that are vnmarried and to widowes I speake it is good if they continue euen as I am He wrote that epistle at Ephesus when he was ready to depart Not long after he came to Ierusalem where he was cast into prison and brought vnto Rome How vnfit a tyme was thys to marrye a wyfe whiche he spente partelye in hys iourney and partelye in bondes who seeth not Adde herevnto that he was then readye to endure bondes persecutions as he witnesseth in Luke Act. 21.13 Neyther am I ignorant what is wonte to bée obiected on the contrary parte namely that Paule being marriried did abstaine from the company of hys wife But the wordes sounde otherwyse for he wisheth that they which are vnmarried myght continue in his estate And what is hys estate but the state of singlenes Whereas they bryng in that Is it not lawfull for me to leade about a wife 1. Cor. 9.5 to proue that he had a wife it is too friuolous so that it néede no answere But now that we may grante that Paule was married whence had he a wife at Philippos the which Citie it is not read that he entered into aboue twise and where it is credible that he neuer abode two whole moneths To conclude there is nothing lesse agréeyng to the matter than to speake here of a wife no nor of any woman in my iudgement it is probable notwithstanding I leaue it to the readers iudgement The worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whych Paule here vseth is in helping wise to apprehende embrace the same thing Whose names are in the booke of life The booke of life is the catalogue of the iust which are predestinate vnto life as in Moyses Exodus 33.32 This catalogue the Lorde kéepeth with himselfe Therefore the booke is nothing els but his eternall counsell determined in his brest For that sayth Ezechiell the writing of the house of Israel cap. 13.9 In the like respect it is said Psal 69.29 Let them be wiped out of the booke of the liuing and not be written among the righteous that is let them not be accounted among the elect of GOD whome he ascrybeth to hys Church and to the borders of his kingdome If any wil obiect that Paule therfore doth rashly who challenge vnto himselfe power to pronounce the secrets of God I answere that after a sort we may iudge by signes whereby God doth make his election manifest yet so much as our capacitie can beare Therfore in whomsoeuer we sée the notes of adoption to appeare let vs in the meane time accoūt them for the sonnes of God vntill the bookes shal be opened which shal altogither reueale al things It belōgeth only vnto god to knowe nowe those that are his and at length to separate the shéepe from the goats But it is our duty charitably to iudge al thē to be shéepe that obediently submit themselues vnto their pastor Christe who gather them selues into his shéepefold and there abide constantly It is our dutie so much to estéeme the gifts of the holy ghost which peculiarly he bestoweth vpon his elect that they may be to vs as it were seales of his hidden election 4 Reioyce in the Lord alwaie againe I say reioyce 5