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	great_a	soul_n	3,163	5	4.7202	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40091	A sermon preached at the general meeting of Gloucestershire-men, for the most part inhabitants of the City of London in the Church of St. Mary le-Bow, December the 9th, 1684 / by Edward Fowler.	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.	1685 (1685)	Wing F1718; ESTC R10668	14,518	40

Stock and have one Common-Nature In a more strict sence all Christians are Brethren All that prosess Faith in Christ and are Members of the Catholick Church These St. John calls the Brethren And all the Members of a Particular Church are Brethren in a stricter sense than that and in a stricter sense than this to descend no lower those Christians are called Brethren whose places of Birth and Habitation are so near together as to stand in need of one anothers more immediate Assistance and to be combined in all the same interests For instance those of the same Town City or County Now though by the Brotherhood which in this place we are required to Love beonly to be understood Christians because Brotherhood is here distinguisht from all Men Honour all Men Love the Brotherhood Yet nothing is more evident from the Praecepts of our Saviour and His Holy Apostles than that 't is our duty to love that is to be concerned for the Welfare and Happiness of all Men without exception And 't is as evident that we are obliged to love our Fellow-Christians in an higher degree than the rest of the World and that according as Christians are more or less like to Christ as also according to the more or fewer Relations they stand in to us 't is no less evident they ought to be sharers in the degrees of our Love And what Duty is so often inculcated so vigorously urged so passionately pressed by our Blessed Lord and his Apostles as this of Loving each other Our Lord hath told us That a new Commandment he hath given us That we love one another even as He hath loved us That is at least that we love all Universally as He did and that in such a degree as to tast Death the most ignominious and torturing Death for every Man And he makes this the great Mark and Character of His true Disciples By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if you have love one to another And so desirous was He that they should not be defective in his Grace of Love that among all the excellent Petitions He put up for them when He was upon leaving the World John 17th this is the only Grace He particularly prays for in their behalf v. 21st He prays That they may be one even as He and his Father are one That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee That they may be United in Love and Affection have one Heart and one Soul And the reason for which he desires this doth mightily recommend this Grace That they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me In which words is implied that Christians loving one another would be a great Conviction to the World of the truth and excellency of the Christian Religion And so it was in the first Ages of Christianity when as Tertullian reporteth it was a common saying among the Pagans Ecce quam se diligunt Christiani Behold how these Christians love one another Though almost ever since the three first Centuries to our horrible reproach be it spoken we have given them cause to cry out Ecce quàm se odio prosequuntur Christiani Behold how these Christians hate one another But to proceed our Lord 's Beloved Disciple thought he could never speak highly enough of this Grace of Love For he makes it the very Definition of God himself He tells us That Love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God And we know saith he that we are passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren And that He that loveth not his Brother abideth in Death Or he is a wicked Wretch and that He who hateth his Brother is a Murtherer Nor is St. Paul wanting in pressing this duty of Love Owe saith he no Man any thing but to love one another For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law Or this is that Perfection of the Law which Christ requires And he shews in the following words that the whole second Table is herein implyed And in short the same Apostle preferreth Charity to all Accomplishments and Endowments whatsoever To the speaking with the Tongues of Men and Angels To gifts of Prophecy and Understanding all Mysteries To all Faith even the Faith of Miracles nay to the greatest Zeal such a Zeal as will carry a Man evcn to the Stake And he sheweth that Charity is so much to be esteemed above all these that they are none of them worth any thing or will avail in the least without Charity 1 Cor. 13th Chap. Much more might be added to shew what mighty weight is laid upon this duty of loving one another But it sufficiently appears by this little that hath been said I have told you what our Blessed Saviour the stupendious example and pattern of love and what two of His Apostles say of it I might add that there is no one thing wherein Mankind do more Universally agree than in the beneficialness of Love and Friendship both to single Persons and Communities That excellent Heathen Cicero in his Laelius tells us That although many do contemn Vertue it self and others despise Riches and Honours yet de Amicitia omnes ad unum idem sentiunt the whole World to a Man hath the self same opinion of Love and Friendship That is of the excellency and the necessity thereof to the happiness of Mankind And before these words he saith That they seem to pluck the Sun out of the Firmament who rob humane Life of Love and Friendship than which we receive nothing from the Immortal Gods that 's more excellent or more pleasant And he makes it in the same Book his request to his Friends That they would prefer Friendship before all humane things So that what ought to be so coveted so earnestly pursued I say so earnestly pursued for this Love of each other accompanied with the Love of God is that which mainly constitutes the Heavenly State All that we know saith the Poet the Blessed do above Is that they Sing and that they Love But it being an old Maxim Contraria juxta se posita mag is elucescunt I cannot more Endear Love and Friendship to you than by presenting you with some of the most mischievous Effects and Consequents of the contrary Vices ill Will and Malice Strife and Emulation c. 1. I will mind you of some of those by which the Community must needs greatly Suffer One is Wicked Partiality What Moses saith of a Gift or Bribe is every whit as true of ill-will emulation c. viz. It blindeth the Eyes of the Wise and perverteth the Judgment of the Righteous Nothing is more natural to men that are at variance and strife than to Saint all on their own side and to Reprobate their Adversaries and when they have so done no wonder if they see no Sin in those and deal with these in this

there the Devil and his Angels for whom Hell was originally prepared A Soul destitute of Love and fraught with the Contrary Qualities when it goes out of this Body will be prest down by them into the bottomless Pit 'T will as naturally sink down thither as the Stone or any Heavy Body falls to the Ground Hell is the very Center of all such Souls And therefore what remains but that we Hate this Malign Spirit as we Hate the Devil and that we Shun it as we would do Hell it self As also that we make it the Chief Business of our Lives to get our selves intirely possessed of the Godlike Spirit of Love of that Wisdom which is from above which is first Pure then Peaceable Gentle and Easy to be Entreated sull of Mercy and Good Fruits without Partiality and without Hypocrisy But it may be Objected are we obliged to be United in Love and Friendship with those who are Enemies to all Unity who do all they can to Encourage Faction and Sedition in the State and Schism in the Church and are Enemies both to our Ecclesiastical and Civil Government Hereto I Answer 1. If we could all be perswaded to love one another we should have no such Offenders as these among us All true Love and Unity hath its foundation as I shewed true Loyalty hath in the Fear of God And where that is as I shewed too there will be Submission to the Higher Powers The Combinations of Traiterous Factious and Schismatical Persons and indeed of all wicked Men whatsoever is as the Father saith Conspiratio non Unit as A Conspiracy not an Unity But because we cannot expect in this Depraved State of Mankind that so much as the Major part should be induced with the Principle of Love I answer 2. That there is a twofold Love a Love of Complacency and of mere Good-will Now as to the love of Complacency that cannot be between Persons of unlike Spirits and Tempers they cannot take delight in one another A Man of Loyal Principle and Practices can take no delight in a Man of Disloyal ones nor can any good Man take delight in a wicked Man nor ought he so to do if he could But then we ought still to retain the love of good-will for such we ought in this sense to love their Persons whilst we hate their Principles and Practices And we ought to express our good-will to their Persons by pitying them and praying for them and using all endeavours to reclaim them We ought as the Apostle adviseth with meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves if God per adventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth And when there is a necessity of exercising Severity it should never proceed from a Principle of Revenge but the design thereof ought always to be the Preservation of the Government and the Reformation too of the Offenders when their punishment is not Capital So that in no case whatsoever Malice and Revenge Wrath and Fury may take place among us And all Men whatsoever should be Objects either of our Love of Delight or of Good-will And now my Honoured and Dear Country-men God Almighty grant that this our happy Meeting may contribute towards the promoting and encrease of Love among us And fully answer the Designs thereof expressed in the Tickets viz. Mutual Society and Charity And it is my humble request to you that this our first Feast after a long discontinuance may give a noble Example to all succeedings ones of forwardness to this great work of Charity The putting out to Apprentice poor Children of our Country or otherwise releiving the most Necessitous of our Brethren And farther God Almighty grant that no other strife no other Emulation may ever be discerned in Our Brotherhood than these most highly Praise-worthy ones viz. Who of us shall give the best demonstration to the world of his Fearing God and Honouring our King or of Honouring our King from the true principle of Fearing God and of sincere Zeal for the interest of the Government Who of us shall be most concerned for the Religion of our truly Apostolick Church in opposition to both its Adversaries Popery on the one Hand and Fanaticism under all forms on the other And who of us shall most hate medling with either of those Extremes who would fain change our Government whether Civil or Ecclesiastical A word or two more and I will no longer Trespass upon your Patience We have a Country I think take it altogether not inferiour to speak modestly to any one in England both for Riches and Pleasure and a Country that is Honoured with Inhabitants of Great worth and Great Quality equally with most in England She hath indeed but a few of the Nobility but among these She can boast of one Family of the very Highest Rank of Nobles And I can't but take notice farther of the Honour which some would have to be done our Country by an Antient Proverb the like to which no other place I ever heard of can lay claim to except Heaven it self Namely this As sure as God is in Gloucester-shire Our Country 's so abounding heretofore with Religious Houses hath been thought as Dr. Fuller and others say to be the occasion of this Proverb But though those Houses have been long gone which we have no cause to be sorry for except their Religion were better than it was I could be content we might never lose our Proverb on condition that it may never for the future be prophanely used as alass now it is and that this for the time to come may be the ground of it viz. That Gloucester-shire abounds above all other Countries with Love and Friendship Then there may be a defence made for such a Proverb as this For though God be every where yet is He most especially and peculiarly present there where Love reigneth For God is Love and those that dwell in Love dwell in God and God in them As St. John assures us I say upon so Blessed an Account as this Let this Proverb so it be never as I said for the future prophanely or irreverendly used to all Generations be continued THE END ERRATA Page 1. l. 10. read no more Page 13. l. 21. read Representing Viz. Ever since the Burning of London His Grace the Duke of Beauford's