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	hate_v	love_v	3,235	5	6.3193	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60687	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable, Sr. Thomas Stampe, Lord Mayor the Court of Alderman, and citizens of London, September 29th. 1692, at the election of the Lord Mayor for the year ensuing / by William Smythies ...	Smythies, William, d. 1715.	1692 (1692)	Wing S4373; ESTC R2611	11,870	27

prevail above all Obligations whatsoever God and Conscience and the Publick Good must be preferr'd above all 2. As Favour and Affection must not sway a Magistrate so much less must Covetousness and the Love of Riches They must be Men of Truth that is Men of Honesty and Sincerity and hating Covetousness Exod. 18.21 which is sordid and base in the esteem of all Men. A Magistrate may love his Friend but he must hate Covetousness He that will prostitute Justice to any base mercenary design is one that sells his Reputation and the Reputation of his Electors and which is more than all he sells the Peace of his own Conscience Or I may say of him as 't was said of Ahab He sells himself to work wickedness This is a Sin so odious to God and so provoking that it were better for such a Magistrate that a Mill stone and not a Chain were hanged about his neck and he cast into the Sea It were endless to give an Account of all that the Scriptures speak to this purpose Solomon justly gives the Title of a wicked man to such a Magistrate Prov. 17.23 A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosome to pervert the ways of Judgment that is he taketh it secretly out of the bosom of another man But whatever the Value of the Gift be it connot compensate the Guilt that is and the Terror that will be in his own bosome Let it be never so secret 't is as open and manifest to God as it would be to men if that which is engraven in his Conscience were set over his door Here is Iustice to be Sold. The Scripture tells us of Rulers who instead of hating Covetousness delighted in nothing more than Bribes The Rulers with shame do love Give ye Hos 4.18 The shame spoken of doth not denote the Temper of the man for he is past shame but the Nature of the Crime to which purpose some Expositors read it O Dedecus O Ignominia The Rulers O Shame O Disgrace do love Give ye And we find in the beginning of the next Chapter the severe Judgment of God threatned against them The like Complaint we find by the Prophet Micah Chap. 7. ver 3. They do evil with both hands earnestly The Prince asheth and the Judge asketh a Reward and the great Man uttereth his mischievous desire so they wrap it up There were corrupt Magistrates who for a Reward would gratifio mischievous Designs and let Justice and the prosecution of it drop out of their hands They had but two hands and they were both wickedly employ'd They did evil with both hands earnestly and the mischievous desires were wrapt up But God would not wrap them up for he hastned their visitation and perplexity in the next Verse This is hateful to God and man When the man that took a Reward was cursed all the People were to say Amen Deut. 27.25 There is another Consideration which I am loath to omit He that is guilty of this abominable sin is a Reproach to this brave and generous City All the three Kingdoms and it may be most of the Kingdoms in this part of the World do ring of the Noble and Charitable Acts which have been done by the Magistrates and other Worthy Citizens of London such as have not with shame lov'd Give ye but with honour and renown have lov'd I will give They have been and are at this day Fathers of the Fatherless by whose Bounty Orphans who might have perished are so happily provided for when their Parents are dead and gone that as 't is said in Job Their Children come to Honour and they know it not They are Husbands to the Widows who are so comfortably relieved that as Job saith of himself they make the Widows hearts to sing for joy They are good Samaritans who have provided Houses for the Wounded and Wine and Oyl to supply them to the end of the World They have provided Hospitals for the Lame and Impotent who have been carryed in with pale faces and dejected countenances but have come out again like the man whom the Apostles cured walking and leaping and praising God for such Benefactors And a most excellent Structure is built for those who have lost themselves their Reason I mean without which all the World signities nothing who have had that Benefit by their Charity which the Lunaticks in the Gospel had by our Saviours Miracles restoration to their right Minds 'T is Pity that a Covetous man should ever be the Governour of a City that hath been so liberal And the Truth is those that are Citizens indeed will account themselves obliged to do such worthy Acts as a grateful Acknowledgment of the good which they have received in the City We often find in the Scriptures that Cities are called Mothers and the Citizens are called their Children from which we may conclude that there lies a kind of Natural Obligation upon them to do good to the City in which they enjoy Prosperity and which hath been as a tender Mother that hath swadled and brought them up Lam. 2.22 And such Worthy Men are highly to be valued We read in St. Lukes Gospel Chap. 7. That when the Centurions Servant who was dear to him was taken sick the Elders came to our Saviour to desire him to go to his House and urged this prevailing Argument He is worthy for whom thou shalt do this for he loveth our Nation and hath built us a Synagogue He who loveth the City and hath a mind disposed to Acts of Piety and Charity is worthy of all the Respect and Honour that Citizens can shew to him III. A third Qualification is Diligence A Magistrate must be a Man that will bestir himself to do God and the King and the City service in his great Station He who loves to have his hand in his bosom ought not to have the sword put into it He must be like Job who was diligent as well as just and if he had not been diligent he could not have been just who saith Chap. 29 16. The cause which I knew not I searched out He did not consult his own ease by hudling up the cause which came before him but searched into the bottom of it And in this he shewed himself to be a Righteous Magistrate according to that of Solomon Prov. 29.7 The righteous considereth the cause of the poor but the wicked regardeth not to know it Magistrates as 't is said in Deutronomy Ch. 13. v. 14. must enquire and make search and ask diligently The Office though very Honourable is very burthensom as Jethro told Moses it had not need to be laid upon the shoulder of him that loves his ease Moses his diligence made him an excellent Magistrate who was from the Morning unto the Evening sitting in Judgment Exod. 18 13. IV. A Magistrate must have Courage He must not be afraid to do his Duty whomsoever he disobliges He cannot be a righteous Magistrate who is

that they should execute Judgment in the morning which was anciently the time of that Administration because Magistrates were then more sit for that great Affair than after they had eaten and drank Intemperance makes a Man forget his business and therefore the Heathens were wont to call the God of Wine the Son of Forgetfulness If Magistrates are guilty of this it may cause them to pervert Justice The Prince who was made sick with bottles of Wine stretched out his hand with scorners Hos 7.5 when he should have stretched out his hand against them 2. There must be wisdom in the government of his Passion I mean that of anger for when that prevails it is a second drunkenness And truly he that is in the seat of judicature had need to have command of himself considering how many and how great the provocations are which he dayly meets with We read of wise Heathens who were very averse to Magistratical engagements because of the vexations that attended them One said that he could better endure banishment Another that he had rather go to his grave in quiet Most certain it is that the Office will try the Temper and Patience of him that undertakes it Moses was the meekest Man in the world and yet not always meek enough to govern his passion when disturb'd by a disorderly and Murmuring people who as the Psalmist saith provoked him so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips for which God was offended at him Solomon saith he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruseth his Spirit than he that taketh a City Prov. 16.32 The meaning is that he who overcomes himself is more to be valued than he who by force and violence overcometh others Immoderate anger is called by the Latines Impotentia It is the weakness and impotency of a man which will give occasion to the Envious to Reproach them that are placed above them Where passion prevailes in the chief Magistrate the whole City may be discompos'd by his discomposure And amongst other evils which are too many for me to reckon up this great one is to be expected from a passionate Magistrate viz. passing hasty judgment it being impossible for him with due attendance and sedateness to weigh and consider all that is offered on both sides Slanderous Ziba putting King David into a passion caused a very undeserved severity against Mephibosheth It was a good saying concerning good Magistrates Ad puniendum non ●racundia sed equitate ducuntur 'T is not passion but equity that is their guide 2. He must have wisdom to govern others By wisdom I chiefly mean knowledge of the Laws which he is to execute and of those rights and priviledges which he is to preserve What Solomon saith of a Nation I may say of a City Prov. 28. By a man of understanding the state thereof is prolonged It reflects upon the Wisdom of Electors when a man is chosen who is only Honored to his Face because of his High Station and ridicul'd behind his back in many Companies for his great inability to perform the duty of it And I may use the words of Selomon in another place with little alteration Eccl. 10. v. 16. Wo unto thee O City when thy Governour is a Child which is all one in reference to age and understanding It was a great judgment which God threatned to the disobedient That he would take away the mighty man and the prudent man and give them Children to be their Princes and Babes to Rule over them Esa 3. And on the contrary it is a great blessing of God to have wise and good governours which he promised by the prophet Esaiah as an encouragement to reform the disobedient c. 1.25 I will restore thy Judges at the first and thy Councellors as at the beginning Such as Moses and Joshua and David were The world never was without mischievous men who would destroy the welfare of it nor any great City without those that seek to undermine its peace and prosperity By which every one may understand how necessary it is that it should be govern'd by a wise Magistrate according to that of Solomon Prov. 29.8 Scornful men or as 't is rendred pestilent men bring a City into a snare but Wise Men turn away wrath They prevent the fury of those men It was a good saying of a wise Heathen Vbi preses fuerit Philosophus ibi civitas erit felix where the President or Magistrate of a City is a wise man that City is happy And another saith that of all arts the well-government of a City hath the preheminence Wisdom is a necessary Qualification .. That 's the first II. A Second is Justice and Uprightness Which must appear by these two Negatives First He must not be byass'd by any personal favour Secondly He must not be byass'd by any sinister design of advantage to himself First Not by any personal favour or affection He must be an upright Man that doth not lean on one side A Malefactor must not be spar'd for any former friendship nor receive the greater punishment because of any former pique or prejudice Solomon saith Prov. 24 25. To accept persons in judgment is not good which is a Meiosis and signifies that it is exceedingly bad and abominable We read of two Eminent Heathens who acted diversly for this principle of uprightness and impartiality One of them being chosen a Senator and accepting of it made a splendid Feast to which he invited all his friends and entertained them with all imaginable respect and kindness But at the end of it he took a solemn leave of them as if he had been going into another Countrey at that time when he was only going into another Station intimating thereby that no friend must expect the least favour or kindness from him in the discharge of that Office in which the peace of his Conscience and the welfare of the City were greatly concern'd The other being Elected utterly refus'd it saying that he would never be placed at that post where he should be obliged to make no difference between his friends and his foes We may by these instances see how just and upright these men were who had only the light of natural Principles and not that revelation of the will of the Righteous Lord who loveth Righteousness and whose countenance doth behold the upright Psal 11.7 And who threatneth his Eternal wrath and displeasure to the unrighteous I may add farther that Magistrates must not only turn their backs upon their friends and acquaintance that justice may take place but upon their nearest and dearest Relations A Magistrate must be like Melchizedeck without Father and without Mother He must imitare our Saviour who when he was told That his Mother and his Brethren were without waiting for him said Who is my Mother and my Brethren Intimating that he had that business to do to which Natural Affection must give place Justice and Uprightness must