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	word_n	2,963	5	3.8797	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76962	A wise and moderate discourse, concerning church-affaires. As it was written, long since, by the famous authour of those considerations, which seem to have some reference to this. Now published for the common good.	Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.	1641 (1641)	Wing B343; Thomason E205_7; ESTC R212605	16,986	49

A Wise and Moderate Discourse Concerning Church-Affaires As it was written long since by the famous Authour of those Considerations which seem to have some reference to this Now published for the common good Imprinted in the yeere 1641. IT is but ignorance if any man finde it strange that the state of Religion especially in the dayes of peace should be exercised and troubled with controversies for as it is the condition of the Church militant to be ever under trialls so it commeth to passe that when the fiery triall of persecution ceaseth there succeedeth another triall which as it were by contrary blastes of doctrine doth sift and winow mens faith and proveth them whether they know God aright even as the other of afflictions discovereth whether they love him better then the world Accordingly was it foretold by Christ saying That in the latter times it should bee said Loe here loe there is Christ which is to be understood not as if the very person of Christ should bee assumed and counterfeited but his authority and preheminence which ought to bee truth it selfe that should bee chalenged and pretended Thus have we read and seene to bee fulfilled that which followeth Ecce in deserto ecce in penetratio while some have sought the truth in the conventicles and conciliables of Heretickes and Sectaries others in the externe face and representation of the Church and both sorts been seduced Were it then that the controversies of the Church of England were such as did divide the unity of the Spirit and not such as doe unswaddle her of her bands the bands of peace yet could it be no occasion for any pretended Catholicke to judge us or for any irreligious person to despise us or if it be it shall but happen to us all as it hath used to doe to them to bee hardened and to us to endure the good pleasure of God But now that our contentions are such as we need not so much that generall Canon and sentence of Christ Erratis nescientes Scripturas c. as wee need the admonition of Saint Iames Let every man bee swift to heare slow to speake slow to wrath And that the wound is no way dangerous except wee poyson it with our owne remedies As the former sort of men have lesse reason to make themselves musicke in our cord so I have good hope that nothing shall displease our selves which shall bee sincerely and modestly propounded for the appeasing of these dissentions For if any shall bee offended at this voyce Vos estis fratres yee are brethren why strive yee hee shall give great presumption against himselfe that hee is the party that doth his brother wrong The controversies themselves I will not enter into as judging that disease requireth rather rest then any other cure Thus much we all know and confesse that they bee not of the highest nature for they are not touching the high mysteries of faith such as detained the Churches after their first peace for many yeares what time the heretickes moved curious questions and made strange anatomies of the nature and person of Christ and the Catholicke Fathers were compelled to follow them with all subtillity of disputations and determinations to exclude them from their evasions and to take them in their owne Labyrinths so as it is rightly said Illis temporibus ingeniosa res fuit esse Christianum In those dayes it was an ingenious and subtile matter to bee a Christian Neither are they concerning the great parts of the worship of God of which it is true that Non servatur unitas in credendo nisi eadem adsit in colendo There will bee kept no unity in beleeving except it bee intire in worshipping such as were the controversies in the East and West Churches touching Images and such as are many of those which are betweene the Church of Rome and us as about the adoration of the Sacrament and the like But wee contend about Ceremonies and things indifferent about the externe policie and government of the Church In which kinde if wee would but remember that the ancient and true bonds of unity are one Faith one Baptisme and not one Ceremonie one Policie If wee would observe the league among Christians that is penned by our Saviour Christ Hee that is not against us is with us if wee could but comprehend that saying Differentia rituum commendat unitatem doctrinae and that Habet religio quae sunt aeternitatis habet quae sunt temporis Religion hath parts which belong to eternity and parts which belong to time And if wee did but know the vertue of silence and slownesse to speake commended by Saint Iames our controversies would of themselves close up and grow together But most especially if we would leave the overweening and turbulent humours of these times and renue the blessed proceedings of the Apostles and Fathers of the Primitive Church which was in the like and greater cases not to enter into assertions and positions but to d●liver counsels and advices we should need no other remedy at all Si cadem con●ulis frater qua affirmas debetur consulenti reverentia cum non debetur fides affirmanti Brother if that which you set downe by way of assertion you would deliver by way of advice there were reverence due to your counsell where credit is not due to your affirmation Saint Paul was content to speake thus Ego non Dominus I and not the Lord secundum consilium meum ●…ording to my counsell But now men do so lightly say Not I but the Lord yea and binde it with heavie denunciations of his judgements to terrifie the simple which have not sufficiently understood out of Salomon that the causlesse curse shall not come Therefore seeing the accidents are they which breed the perill and not the things themselves in their owne nature it is meet the remedies bee applied unto them by opening what it is on either part that keepeth the wound greene and formaliseth both sides to a further opposition and worketh an indisposition in mens mindes to be reunited wherein no accusation is pretended But I finde in reason that it is best built by repetition of wrongs and in example that the speeches which have been by the wisest men De concordia ordinum have not abstained from reducing to memory the extremities used on both parts So as it is true which was said Qui pacem tractat non repetitis conditionis dissidii is magis animos dulcedine pacis fallit quam aequitate componit And first of all it is more then time that an end were made of this unmodest and deformed kinde of writing lately entertained whereby matters of religion are handled in the stile of the stage Indeed bitter and earnest writing is not hastily to be condemned for men cannot contend coldly and without affection about things they hold deare and pretious A politicke man may write from his braine without touch or sense of his heart as in

a speculation that pertaineth not unto him but a feeling Christian will expresse in his words a character either of zeale or love the latter of which as I would wish ratherto be embraced as being more fit for the times yet is the former warranted also by great examples But to leave all reverend and religious compassions toward evils or indignation toward faults to turne religion into a Comedy or Satyr to search and rip up wounds with a laughing countenance to intermix Scripture and Scurrilility sometime in one sentence is a thing farre from the devour reverence of a Christian and scant beseeming the honest regard of a sober man Non est major confusio quam serii joci there is no greater confusion then the confounding of jest and earnest The majestie of religion and the contempt and deformity of things ridiculous are things as distant as things may be Two principall causes have I ever knowne of Atheisme curious controversies and prophane scoffing Now that these two are joyned in one no doubt that Sect will make no small progression And here I do much esteem the wisedome and religion of that Bishop which replied to the first pamphlet of this kinde who remembred that a foole was to be answered but not by becomming like unto him and considered the matter hee handled and not the person with whom he dealt Iob speaking of the majesty and gravity of a Iudge in himselfe saith If I did smile they beleeved me not as if he should have said If I diverted or glanced unto conceit of mirth yet mens mindes were so possessed with a reverence of the action in hand as they could not receive it Much more ought this to be amongst Bishops and Divines disputing about holy things and therefore as much doe I mislike of him who as it seemed pleased himself with it as no mean policie That these men are to be dealt withall at their own weapons and pledged in their owne cup. This no doubt seemed to him as profound as when the Cardinall counselled Iulius the second to encounter the Councell of Nice with the Councell of Lateran or as lawfull a chalenge as M. Iewell made to confute the pretended Catholicks by the Fathers But these things will not excuse the imitation of evill in another It should contrariwise be with us as Caesar said Nil malo quam eos similes cum sui me mei But now dum de bonis contendimus in malis consentimus while we differ in good things we resemble in evill Surely if I were asked of these men who were the more to bee blamed I should perhaps remember the proverbe That the second blow maketh the fray and the saying of an obscure fellow Qui replicat multiplicat he that replieth multiplieth But I would determine the question with this stutterer Alter principium malo dedit alter modum abstulit by the one means we have a beginning by the other we shall have none end And truely as I doe marvell that some of those preachers which do call for reformatiō whom I am farre from wronging so farre as to joyne them with these scoffers doe not publish some declaration whereby they may satisfie the world that they dislike their cause should be so sollicited so I hope assuredly that my Lords of the Cleargy have no intelligence with these other libellers but do altogether disallow that their dealing should be thus defended For though I observe in him many glozes whereby the man would insinuate himselfe into their favour yet I finde too ordinary that many pressing fawning persons do misconjecture of the humours of men in authority and many times veneri immolant suem they seeke to gratifie them with that they most dislike For I have great reason to satisfie my selfe touching the judgement of my Lords the Bishops in this matter by that which was written by one of them whom I mentioned before with honour Neverthelesse I note there is not an indifferent hand carried toward these pamphlets as they deserve For the one sort flieth in darknesse and the other is uttered openly Wherein I might advise that side out of a wise writer who hath set it downe that punitis ingeniis gliscit authoritas and indeed we ever see it falleth out that the forbidden writing is thought to be a certaine sparke of truth that flieth up in the faces of them that feeke to choke and tread it out whereas a booke authorized is thought to bee but temporis voces the language of the time But in plaine truth I doe finde to my understanding these pamphlets as meet to be suppressed as the others First as the former doe seeke to deface the government of the Church in the persons of the Bishops and Prelates so the other doth lead into contempt the exercise of religion in the persons of sundry Preachers so as it disgraceth the higher matter though in the meaner person Next I finde certaine indiscreet and dangerous amplifications as if the civill government if selfe of this estate had neere lost the force of its sinewes and were ready to enter into some convulsion all things being full of faction and disorder which is as unwisely acknowledged as untruly affirmed I know his meaning is to inforce this unreverent and violent impugning of the government of the Bishops to bee a suspected fore-runner of a more generall contempt And I grant there is a sympathy between both the estates but no such matter in the civill policie as deserveth a taxation so dishonourable To conclude this point As it were to bee wished that these writings had been abortive and never seene the Sunne so the next is that seeing they be common abroad that they bee censured of all that have understanding and conscience as the untemperate extravagants of some light person yea further they may beware except they meane to deprive themselves of all sense of religion and to pave their owne hearts and to make them as the high way how they bee conversant in them and much more how they delight themselves in that veine but rather to turn their laughing into blushing and to bee amazed as at a short madnesse that they have in matters of religion taken their disport and solace But this perchance is one of those faults which will bee soonest acknowledged though I perceive neverthelesse there wants not some which seeke to blanch and excuse it But to descend to a more narrow view and consideration of the accidents and circumstances of these controversies wherein either part deserveth blame and imputation I finde generally in causes of Church-controversies that men do offend in some or all of these five points 1. The first the giving of occasion unto controversies and also the inconsiderate and ungrounded taking of the occasion 2. The next is the extending and multiplying of controversies to a more generall opposition and contradiction then appeareth at the first propounding of them when mens judgements are least partiall 3. The third