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	good_a	will_n	3,330	5	5.9191	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27641	A learned treatise of the plague wherein the two questions, whether the plague be infectious or no, and , whether and how farr it may be shunned of Christians by going aside, are resolved / written in Latine by the famous Theodore Beza Vezelian.	Bèze, Théodore de, 1519-1605.	1665 (1665)	Wing B2196; ESTC R31585	20,458	25

ship Ye cannot be saved unless these tarry Christ also though he well knew that his hour was not yet come yet did he more than once withdraw himself when the Jews sought to kill him Finally that which they take for most certain namely that happening or chance is repugnant unto the sure and stedfast Decree of God which notwithstanding it maketh not much to the matter yet who will grant it them we call those happening or chancing Causes which of their own nature may fall out unto either part if any man should take them out of the nature of things I know not whether he should have any man of a right Judgment to hold with him They say out of St. Augustine That the will of God is the necessity of things I grant so far as pertaineth unto the end and effects of the Causes themselves But as St. Augustine saith very well It followeth not that though all things which God hath decreed shall come to pass must needs come to pass that therefore they come to pass of necessary Causes like as the Stoicks did falsely conclude and the same may be proved by most certain and most plain examples For do we not believe that Christ had indeed Man's bones and therefore such as of their own nature might at any time have been broken and yet indeed they could not be broken for that it was otherwise decreed by God Therefore by hap and chance concerning their own nature they were not broken when as notwithstanding they were such as might have been broken and yet by God's Decree they remained of necessity unbroken Again that Christ from the very time that he took upon him our Human nature was indued with a Mortal body all Christians do confesse therefore of his own nature he might have been slain by Herod with the other little Children but by God's Decree he could not Therefore that he was not then slain fell out by hap and chance if you consider the nature of his Body when as it might have chanced otherwise But by God's Decree he could no more be slain by Herod than the will of God could be changed Christ when he was carried to be crucified was then undoubtedly of such health that he needed not at that time to have died he died therefore by chance if you do consider the cause of his Natural death and yet be died of necessity if you look to the unchangeable appointment of his Father because his hour was come and withall he died willingly because he laid down his Life for us Thus far therefore is neither chance nor will repugnant unto the most certain Decree of God There remaineth one Argument taken from Experience which in shew seemeth very strong yet is it of no force to take away Infection I mean to prove the Plague not to be infectious If say they the Plague come of Natural causes or of some certain Constellation or of corrupt Air then should all they doubtless be infected which dwell under the same Constellation or breath in the same corrupt Air which is found to be false for even reason it self doth prove the falshood of this Argument For who is so unskilfull that knoweth not that one and the same Cause doth not always operate alike much less equally nay that the effects are divers according unto the diversity of the matter it worketh upon one and the self-same North-winde doth not equally annoy men with Cold every man therefore seeth how weak this reason is But let us grant that in some place every man of himself is apt to receive the corrupt air yet may many things happen why the same effect in all would not follow as for example one man taketh a Preservative medicine another doth not one forthwith useth a good medicine another very late or never Lastly that which is the principal point is to be considered That Almighty God doth govern Natural causes and their effects as it pleaseth him So that hence it cometh to pass that Infection toucheth not every one which is in danger of it as it is written Psal 91. 6. Neither yet is it deadly unto every one that it hath infected like as Poyson also drunken is not as it is written Mark 16. 18. Therefore this Argument also is not of force to prove there is no infection in the Plague because that many which keep company with those that are sick of the Plague are not taken and contrariwise they that are absent are infected As if the poyson of a Viper were not deadly because that Paul being bitten of one felt no harm at all Acts 28. 5. And thus far concerning Infection Now we must treat of going aside for so I had rather call it than flying though I think it the part of a Wise-man to fly peril with reason There are some therefore which do without exception finde fault with going aside for the Plague that they count it a very heynous offence though they think that those which tarry ought not to use rashness There are on the other side which hold that every man so soon as the Plague cometh ought to provide for himself having no regard or but very small of the fellowship and duties which Christian Charity doth command Now I for my part do dissent from both these and especially from the latter as having most lawful causes But ere I set down my own judgement in this Controversie let us hear these disputing the one against the other Thus therefore they which think it not lawful to fly do first of all Philosophically dispute against those that hold it not lawfull to tarry at all they alledge out of Plato his Gorgias That it is foolishnesse to fear Death and that he cannot seem to be a temperate person which flyeth Death because it proceedeth of too much delight in life nor yet to be a just man for that he which in the time of the Plague provideth for himself by running away doth yield neither to God nor Man his due To these Reasons they set down others taken out of the holy Scriptures as That they think not well of the providence of God by whose unchangeable Decree the course of man's life is limitted That they distrust God and believe not his promise I will be thy God and the God of thy Seed That they are void of all Charity nay and more of all Natural pitty and affection That they tempt God after the example of the Israelites Exod. 17. 3. Psal 78. 18. appointing God by what manner time and place and by what means he may save them That they love not God from their hearts for being enamoured and in love with Earthly goods they neglect and are careless of the heavenly That they fear death too much for that they set themselves against the will of God which is always good That they think themselves stronger than God and that they can escape his hand That they do openly break the law of Christ and of Nature by

which they are commanded to do unto others as they would be done unto themselves That they do and teach that which no Christian hath done but that which hath often been done by the Heathens And thus much say the first unto whom these later have nothing to answer who under pretence of saving their lives perswade flying away without exception Wherefore if these things alledged against those which do in such sort fly the Plague so that they in any thing swerve from the Rules and Laws of Godlinesse and Charity I hold with their Adversaries and count them worthy of all blame which fly from thence whither they should rather run if they had but the least spark of humanity But if these Reasons be wrested against those who being moved with just causes go aside and keep that mean by which they let passe no part of their duty either towards God or their Neighbours which we say may oftentimes be done we affirm that all these Arguments in shew never so plausible and strong to be of no force or value if the matter it self be diligently weighed and considered For answer to their first Reason albeit the Decree of God be unchangeable and that his eternal providence hath set the unremovable bounds of our lives Yet doth not this take away the ordinary and lawful means to save our Lives no not although a man have received an answer from God of prolonging his life as we have shewed by the manifest example of Saint Paul Acts 27. 14. and 31. much lesse that we may not use these means when it is yet hid from us what God from everlasting hath decreed concerning the prolonging and ending of our life Moreover why should he be said to distrust the promises of God who doth follow the wayes appointed by God to avoid Evils that notwithstanding he dependeth wholly upon God unlesse peradventure we can any where finde in the holy Scriptures this Commandment expresly written When the Plague rageth flye not away And amongst them preservative Remedies are to be reckoned and amongst these going aside in due time the like also as the very name of Contagion doth manifest And this also is plain That he doth not onely not offend against Christian Charity neither yet tempt God who in such manner by going aside doth avoid the Plague so that in the mean time he let passe no act of Piety towards God or of Charity towards his Neighbour That on the contrary unlesse he perform these Duties he may be thought to provoke the wrath of God against himself and to be worse than an Infidel as being one that rashly puts himself in danger of deadly Infection without any care of himself or his The fifth and sixth Allegation is not any whit truer They love not God say they and gaping after earthly things they care not for heavenly Because they which love God desire nothing more than to be with him which falleth out unto us by death but they on the contrary fear nothing more Then truly he who in loving hath onely his last end before another for his own profit-sake to enjoy the thing he loveth by what means soever it be shall worthily be judged to love himself rather than his Friends Therefore the self-same person which desireth to be loosed and to be with Christ wisheth also for his Brethrens sake to be separated as a thing accursed Acts 9. 3. Neither doth he deliver up his Life into the hands of them that lay in wait for him appealing unto Caesar Acts 25. 11. and giveth thanks for his health restored unto him 2 Cor. 1. 11. That David also doth not so much flye Saul and Absalon as Death being notwithstanding a Worshipper of God That he and Ezekias do expresly pray against Death therefore whosoever flyeth Death is not rashly to be judged or censured not to love God as contrariwise whosoever desireth Death is not to be thought to love God but he onely who lawfully and with a good Conscience obeying the will of God prepareth himself either to suffer or avoid death The like also is to be judged of the fear of Death that is if it be grounded upon good reason and moderately it is not onely not to be condemned but also to be allowed as a Preserver of life grafted in us by God Therefore that fear of Evil is condemned by Philosophers which is contrary to Fortitude and calleth us from that which every one of us oweth unto each other and out of holy Scripture that Fear which is against Faith and Charity For it is one thing to take clean away Natural affections which no man could ever possibly do and another to moderate and rule them the which the Philosophers very well teach ought to be done but how it may bedone the Word of God by the Holy Ghost doth onely declare And concerning those things which they cite out of Tertullian they shoot partly beyond his Mark when as he speaketh of flying onely in Persecution and partly with the great consent of the Church are reckoned amongst his blemishes as one that in this Argument was carried beyond the Butt No man questionless that is godly and of right understanding ever condemned the going aside of Jacob no man ever condemned David flying the fury of Saul and conspiracy of Absolon nor Elias avoiding by his flight the rage of Jezabel no man ever condemned the going aside of Athanasius more than once neither do we here fly either unto the Agonie of Christ or unto that of Matthew 10. 23. If they persecute you in one City fly unto another which places I confesse are of some not fitly alledged for as touching the fears of Christ they are grounded upon a peculiar consideration and are not to be drawn into example when as there is handled of the mysterie of our Salvation the parts whereof Christ alone both could and did take upon him in the which he did see that fearful wrath of his Father and indeed felt it bearing the Punishment due unto our Sins we contrariwise are not at our Death 's tryed with the same fears because we have the Father appeased with us and through Faith behold Life in Death it self And that saying of Christ is doubtlesse no Command of flying away but on the contrary admonisheth faithful Pastors that being feared with no threatnings if they be driven out of one place they hasten unto another the which afterwards we see diligently to have been done by the Apostles But let us hear something else of more weight peradventure There can be nothing sent of God say they but that which is good nay there is nothing Good but that which cometh of God But the Plague is sent of God therefore it is good if not of its own nature yet in respect of the good end namely to punish our Sins to try our Faith to drive us to Repentance and to bring forth Hypocrites to light Who therefore say they can deny but that They fly