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	heart_n	mind_n	2,955	5	5.1791	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30930	A sermon preached at St. Mary Le Bow, on Whitsunday, May xxxi, 1691 at the consecration of the Most Reverend Father in God, John, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and primate of all England / by Ra. Barker ...	Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.	1691 (1691)	Wing B777A; ESTC R17105	11,838	31

stint his Bowels stop the current of his Love His Love wants nothing to make even Him if I may so say and all others happy but the diffusing and communication of it which therefore is the greatest Service the most acceptable Love unto him And since he hath made us the Instruments and Dispensers of his Love we then love him most we please him best when we are active when we are successful in it when we make his Love known unto Men in Preaching his sincere Word when we use that Authority which Christ hath left us for the edifying of his Church when we hazard all that is dear to us our Ease our Credit our Lives that we may at any time and by any means comply with his Will carrying on the design of his Love 4. The Work is great and hard indeed but as the Apostle saith of all the Commandments 1 Joh. v. 2. upon this Principle of Love they are not grievous if we sincerely love Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. vi 24. so as not to be corrupted by the baits and allurements of this World this great this hard Work will be but the Labour of Love and that we know is the gentlest and easiest of all Labours and in many cases cannot brook the name of Labour for in all Love the Spirits flowing to the Heart make the person active and vigorous able and willing to take pains This Love of Christ is a most active busie Principle always putting us in remembrance of this Duty always stirring up the Grace of God which was given us by the imposition of Hands at our entrance upon this Work and continually pushing us on in our endeavours and making our very endeavours both to enlarge our Strength and Love that we shall find it a Spirit of Power and of a ready Mind Love must be the inward Principle of this Duty this Duty must be the outward expression and proof of this Love Love without Duty is but empty Complement Duty without Love is but Toil and Drudgery 5. When then we enter upon this Work is it not necessary that we should do it with a solemn Profession that we trust we are moved by the Holy Ghost by this Divine Principle of Love unto Christ and desire to serve him in it He that entereth not thus into the Sheepfold but climbeth up some other way it is to steal and to rob and I wish such would seriously ask themselves when they profess to be moved by the Holy Ghost whether they do not lie unto the Holy Ghost And as this Love must be the first and great Principle of this Duty so must it be the Guide and Measure of it we must feed Christs Sheep out of love to them as well as unto Christ with Love unfeigned and a pure Heart fervently For what we do to them we do to Christ what Meekness and Tenderness what Bowels of Mercy and Compassion what long Suffering and obliging Behaviour we shew to them and these I take to be some of the most proper expressions of Love are thereby done to Christ himself 6. Can we love him and at the same time persecute him Can our Bowels yearn towards him whilst we are tearing out his very Bowels and making havock of all his Members Can we be kindly affectioned toward Him and above measure mad against his Sheep If the Sheep will not starve her Lamb to spare us all her Milk shall we suck her Blood Because the Lamb cannot feed on such strong meat as the old one doth shall we starve her Because some go astray must they become meat to all the Beasts of the Field Ezek. xxxiv 5. and all this out of pure Pity and Compassion Ah weeping Crocodile Ah ye Holy Fathers of the Inquisition Is this Christ's way of Feeding Is it not that spoken of by the Prophet as the severest threat Thus saith the Lord my God Feed the flock of the slaughter whose possessours slay them and hold themselves not guilty and they that sell them say Blessed be the Lord for I am rich and their own shepherds pity them not Zach. xi 4 5. If this be the Spirit of Christ that Love which is the whole of the Gospel the filling up and completion of it surely the Gospel it self is Transubstantiated and worser abused than ever Christ's Body was that Bread should be made his Body is not so great a Prodigy as that Cruelty should be Love Oppression Mercy Fire Dragooning and Devastation should now be the Bowels of Christ and the tender Mercies of the Gospel 7. But let the Extravagances of some make us wiser and teach us such a Love as may preserve us from being thus beloved let us Instruct with Meekness Correct with Mildness gently leading on as the Flock is able to bear that they who are not of our Minds may yet partake of our Affections they who are not in our Congregations may yet be in our Hearts that although we do not Convert them we may yet Convince them if we cannot satisfie them we may be able to satisfie our own Consciences both now in the presence of Christ and of all the World Feeding doth imply something more than just setting Meat before any it is the doing it in such a manner as may do them most good it is the Kindness and the Seasonableness of an Entertainment which doth recommend it The Shepherd the Parent the Nurse are feign to study the Palat the Stomach the Strength of those they are to Diet or else they may Weaken and Starve them with good Fare and I have often observed some Truths proposed in such a manner as have provoked the person whom they should and might have instructed Would you persuade a Man of small Courage to decline such an occasion of quarreling by telling him that to your knowledg he is a Coward the Argument is the worst Provocation and it is just the same to convince a Man of Error by calling him Heretick and then railing against Heresie it may well be questioned whether this hath not made more Hereticks than ever it Convinced Is not the Duty of a Pastor expressed by his beseeching praying obliging winning Such I am sure was S. Paul's Method And is not the Bishop to be Patient able to bear the Infirmities of those that are in the wrong Is he not to behave himself with all lowliness with long Suffering and forbearing in Love Are they not to please their Flocks for their good unto Edifying shewing all Meekness towards all Men even them that oppose themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is not Meekness a yielding Temper a steping back that it may more surely gain its great and main end Must not the Bishop be one of a good Report in Credit with his Flock one whom they have a good Opinion of one whom they find to love both the Truth and them the Truth for their sakes and them for Christ's For when all is done most Men do hear with

Furtherance in the success of our Duty Such believe and are sure they speak from their Heart and from their own Experience which is always accompanied with life and warmth piercing to the very heart and inward affections of the hearers hath the advantage of mens Senses as well as of their Understandings and every where besets them that the Righteous find such a mans Conversation an Exhortation and the Wicked find it a Reproof to their ways such a Preacher cannot be silenced when his mouth when even his breath is stopt he yet speaketh And here give me leave to instance in one thing as particularly exemplary in Pastors and the chief of Pastors and that is Patience and Constancy Courage and Resolution under the many sufferings and discouragements which they are to meet with in the discharge of their duty Our Saviour enjoyning St. Peter to feed his Sheep immediatly adds to it Verily verily I say unto thee when thou wast young thou girdedst thy self and walkedst whither thou wouldest but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not signifying both his death and what treatment he was to expect in the discharge of this duty Our Saviour who had foretold his Denial here foretels and by that commends and increases his Patience and Courage and being thus converted how doth he both in his Practice and Preaching endeavour to strengthen his Brethren How stout and bold was he in his Preaching to the People in arguing with the Magistrates in taxing the Sanhedrim He saw there was no standing against that stream but with an holy Confidence and Christian Courage He was slighted despised persecuted for shewing them the way of Salvation but against all he was a true Rock unshaken unaffected with it His Epistles are full of Exhortations to this indispensable Duty full of incouragements under these unavoidable Trials He tells us it is part of our Calling to suffer wrongfully to be buffetted and reviled to bear the greatest scoffs and slanders the greatest indignities and persecutions and yet for conscience towards God to endure it all and neither be afraid of their terror nor yet troubled but to be armed with the same mind that was in Christ yea to rejoyce under all this as being thereby partakers of Christs sufferings Was not our great Shepheard thus abused thus stricken and smitten and was it not thus that he entred into his glory and that he accomplished the saving of his Flock and shall the Servant expect to be better treated than his Master Shall any be such a Satan as to be far from suffering and not to savour these things which be from God Let us not then for these things faint or draw back we have a faithful Creator who hath the charge of our Souls we have the promise of his Spirit to rest upon us to support and comfort us and we have this assurance that when his glory shall be revealed we shall be glad with exceeding joy These Considerations carried on our Apostle in the many years service which he did the Church and he was so far from shrinking under his Persecutions that he rather affected the aggravation of them in his desires as we are told to be crucified in a more disgraceful and painful posture than his Master thus did this good Shepherd lay down his life for his Sheep and therein manifest that he loved Christ and his Sheep more than life it self for herein is Love that a Man lay down his life for his Sheep Would we then have an unerring proof of our Love let us ask our selves Can we look afflictions in the face endure hardship and despise shame Can we count all things loss and dung for the fellowship of Christs sufferings if we suffer can we count it a gift if reproached can we think it honourable if evil entreated can we exult and be glad Whilst we bear about the dying of our Lord Jesus can we feel the life of Jesus manifested in our mortal bodies These are the Expressions which he will somtimes seek of our Love these are the instances which others will seek and depend upon from us when there is occasion as that which must support and encourage them to bear their shares of the afflictions of the Gospel we must lead up in the day of tryal we must stand against the Wolves and the Foxes are we not in the midst of them and have we not seen the comfortable effects of our Pastors standing in the gap the courage and deliverance which it occasioned to the whole Flock This is that found Love which in the New Testament is joyned with Patience and to walk in Love is to walk so as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us that is such a Love as holds out under tryals and sufferings and neither waxeth cold nor remitteth which elsewhere is made the highest pitch and perfection of our Love Herein is our Love made perfect that we have boldness in the day of Judgment that is that we be constant and couragious in our Profession and Duty notwithstanding all the attempts and proceedings of our Adversaries and are neither frighted at the greatness of the Work nor dismayed at the opposition which it meets with and so I come to the second thing I proposed which was to consider our Love to Christ as the Ground and Foundation as the Guide and Measure of this Duty 2. Love is indeed the affection and disposition of the Soul but such as is active and vigorous and will display it self in proper applications to the thing loved so as the please and oblige it as far as it hath opportunity Thus to love Christ is to keep his Commandments that is to do that which he delights to see done and so this Love reaches not only all our Heart and all our Soul but also all our Strength We must then judg of our own Love by the effects of it and we must judg the effect of it to be proper and genuine by the sutableness and acceptableness of them to the persons loved especially where they can judg better than we can To know then the greatness the sincerity of a Pastours Love is by his care of Christ's Flock and how sutable and acceptable this is to Christ may be gathered from Christ's love and concern for it that he purchased it with his Blood that his whole Life all that he did and suffered whilst here all that he doth now transact in Heaven as our High Priest our Mediator and Advocate was and is for the purchasing the purifying the securing and increasing this Flock 3. We are then his Substitutes carrying on his Work and whilst we do that we are made the Conduits and Pipes through which his Love is transmitted unto them the conveyancers and inlargers of his Love and can any thing be more acceptable to him Can we say we love him whilst we restrain his Affections

their Affections and there is no coming at their Understandings but by them we lose our labour if we think to storm that Fort without gaining these Out-works and seeing it is so we must speak to Men as they are capable of hearing perhaps it is thus on purpose to teach us that Love is as valuable as many Truths that it is the way of gaining all Hath not God commanded us to follow the Truth in Love hath he not resolved that he will teach the meek his ways that he will not accept all Knowledge all Faith and what can Truth it self aim at more without Charity It is not the prerogative of Truth to convince it is but the Way not the End we water but God gives the increase we propose but God convinces we rebuke but it is God who gives Repentance What Pride what Presumption then is it for any to be angry and peevish if so soon as they have watered the increase doth not appear if upon their proposing the Person is not presently convinced if upon their rebuking he shew no Repentance And shall any do well to be angry in these cases Doth not all such Passion fly in the face of God himself who is pleased to withhold his Concurrence either because they proceed not in his way did not rebuke with Meekness or because they claimed too great a share in it themselves they must have them to be their Converts or lastly because God knows better than we when to interpose and bestow his Mercy that the power may be of God and not of Man that it may answer his ends rather than theirs I have been the longer upon this because I do believe that our feeding in Love is loving of Christ the Object different but the same Affection for that very Union which makes Christ to be one with them makes our Love of them to be our Love of Christ and that Feast of Love which we are going to partake of makes us to be one with Christ as it unites us in Love and Good-will towards each other whereby we being many become one Body one Church the members of Christ and of each other To conclude all Suffer I beseech you a word of Exhortation and let me once twice and a third time inforce this Duty that if you love Christ that as you love Christ that as you desire your Love may be approved and inlarged by him you would feed and thus feed his Sheep gathering the Lambs with your Arms and carrying them in the Bosome gently leading those that are with young and fetching back the lost upon your shoulders These are the Expressions which God by his Prophet and Christ in his Gospel are pleased to make use of setting forth thereby their great Care and tender Concern for their Sheep and can you take a better Course Can you follow a better Pattern than to be merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful than to be sent as Christ himself was to seek and to save May you so faithfully discharge this great Duty that Christ may own and bless whatsoever you do for him and his and the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect to do his Will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight to whom be Glory for ever Amen FINIS Books Printed for James Adamson I. A Defence of Diocesan Episcopacy in answer to a Book of Mr. David Clarkson lately published Entituled Primitive Episcopacy by Henry Maurice D. D. Octavo II. Vita Reginaldi Poli Cardinalis ac Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi Acta Disceptationis inter Legatos Angliae Galliae in Concilio Constantiensi de utriusque Gentis Dignitate Praerogativa in Conciliorum Tomis desiderata Libri Rarissimi olim quidem Editi sed paucis noti ac nullis facile obvii Octavo III. Pauli Colomesii Observationes sacrae Editio secunda auctior emendatior accedunt ejusdem Paralipomena de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis Passio sancti Victoris Massiliensis ab eodem emendata Editio quarta ultima longè auctior emendatior Oct. IV. The Travels of Monsieur de The venot into the Levant In three parts viz. 1. Into Turky 2. Persia 3. The East Indies Folio V. Mr. Chillingworth's Book called The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation made more generally useful by omitting Personal Contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common Cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some genuine Pieces of Mr. Chillingworth's never before printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an Account of what moved the Author to turn Papist with his Confutation of the said Motives Quarto VI. A Treatise of the Celibacy of the Clergy wherein its Rise and Progress are Historically considered Quarto VII A Treatise proving Scripture to be the Rule of Faith writ by Reginald Peacock Bishop of Chichester before the Reformation about the year 1450. VIII Doubts concerning the Roman Infallibility 1. Whether the Church of Rome believe it 2. Whether Jesus Christ or his Apostles ever Recommended it 3. Whether the Primitive Church knew or used that way of deciding Controversies IX A brief Historical Account of the Behaviour of the Jesuits and their Faction for the first twenty five Years of Q. Elizabeths Reign with an Epistle of W. Watson a Secular Priest shewing how they were thought of by other Romanists of that time Quarto X. A brief Examination of the present Roman Catholick Faith contained in Pope Pius his new Creed by the Scriptures Ancient Fathers and their own Modern Writers Quarto