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 life_n love_v 3,278 5 5.8521 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A30733 A sermon preach'd at St. Mary-le-Bow to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, April 5, 1697 by Lilly Butler. Butler, Lilly. 1697 (1697) Wing B6282; ESTC R27140 16,186 51

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

so pious and noble and profitable a Work for fear of those silly and lewd and ungodly Wretches that oppose it We should go out in the name of the Lord against them and in that have strong confidence Though we knew that we must wrestle both with Flesh and Blood and with spiritual wickednesses in high Places yet for all this we should not decline the Combate but be strong in the Lord and in the power of his Might We should be ready to answer with St. Paul if we were told as he was that bonds and afflictions did abide us that none of these things move us neither count we our lives dear unto us so that Christ may be magnified in our Bodies Acts 20. 23 24. Phil. 1. 20. The opposition we meet with would rather heighten our Courage and strengthen our Resolutions and animate our Endeavours and increase our Labours in so pious and charitable a Work Fourthly He that is zealously affected in a good thing will be liberal in his Expences for the promoting of it Thus we find the Zeal of the Primitive Christians prevailed with them even to sell their possessions and to lay the price at the Apostles feet when the great Necessities of the Church required it of them Acts 4. 34 35. Thus also the Zeal of the Churches of Macedonia made the riches of their liberality to abound in their deep poverty They were ready as St. Paul tells us to their power yea and beyond their power they were willing of themselves praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the Gift 2 Cor. 8. 3 4. They offered more unasked than they could well spare and earnestly besought them to accept their Contributions Thus liberal should we be in advancing those good works we are pleading for if we were as zealously affected as they were We should be glad to distribute and willing to communicate of our earthly Goods in so heavenly a Cause so acceptable to God so serviceable to his Honour and to the Interest of his Church and Kingdom But because as the Apostle intimates in the Verse before the Text we may be zealously affected but not well I proceed Fourthly To shew what are to be the Qualifications of our Zeal in these things or what Cautions are to be given to them whoare thus zealously affected First Our Zeal must be impartial with respect to Persons and Parties It is a general Reformation of all sorts of Men we pretend to be zealous for and therefore it must not have only a particular Regard to some particular Men. The Laws are made for the restraint and correction of all Mens enormous Vices and therefore our Endeavours in promoting the execution of them should also have equal Respect to all God and Religion are dishonoured and the Publick good is prejudiced and indangered by all sorts of wicked Men and all Mens Souls are equally hazarded by their scandalous Offences And therefore it cannot be a truly religious Zeal which is guided by any private or partial Respects It may be a Zeal of Spight and Malice of some carnal or worldly Affection but it cannot be a Zeal of Love to God and our Neighbour If it were a Zeal of Love to God it would use the same Endeavours where the Honour of God is equally concerned if it were a Zeal of Love to our Neighbour it would not be least active where we love most If we use those we call the Means of Reformation and promote the execution of Laws chiefly upon those to whose Persons or Interests or religious Communion we are disaffected our pretended Zeal for a general Reformation of Mens Lives is certainly counterfeit and hypocritical It cannot be thought we should be most concerned for their good for whom we have the least Affection And therefore the Zeal of such Endeavours will shew a great concern to see Men punished rather than reformed It will not be punishing Mens Persons that we may reform their Vices but punishing their Vices that we may hurt their Persons Secondly Our Zeal must be wise and prudent and all its Endeavours guided with Deliberation and Discretion Zeal is a sharp Instrument and therefore not to be managed with a careless or unskilful Hand If we use it rashly and without good Advice we may stab our own Designs and ruin that Cause we would defend by it We should not therefore lean too much to our own Vnderstandings in the methods of prosecuting those good Designs we are zealous in but be continually asking Counsel of God and of grave and wise and experienced Men. We should consider Seasons and Circumstances and with great Deliberation and Judgment make choice of those that are most proper to set forward the good Work we have in hand In prosecuting the noble design of Reformation wherein you are like to meet with so many Difficulties and such mighty Opposition it will behove you as wise Men are wont to do in like cases to strengthen your Hands all you can to unite your Forces and to combine together into Societies that you may mutually advise and countenance and support and encourage and vindicate and defend one another in your Attempts for the Accomplishing of it Thirdly Your Zeal must be orderly It must not transport you beyond the Bounds of your Places and Callings Private persons must not usurp the Office of the Priest or Magistrate but move exactly in their own Sphere towards that good End they have before them God hath set us in the Church as Members in the Body and all Members have not the same Office If the Feet will invade the Office of the Head what can follow but overturning and confusion The Law is good if we use it lawfully But if we desert our Station or take any illegal courses to procure the execution of it we make our selves Transgressors whilst we pretend to be Reformers We cannot expect the Countenance of sober Men or the Protection and Blessing of God You know how severely God dealt with Vzzah for his irregular Zeal in attempting to preserve the Ark of God from falling Fourthly Your Zeal in these good matters must be attended with a proportionable regard to all other parts of your Duty and of the same Piece with the rest of your Lives otherwise it will very ill become you and serve the End it is in persuit of You must be holy and harmless and without rebuke your selves whilst you are zealously endeavouring to reform the Vices of a crooked and perverse Nation You may reasonably expect that reply Physician heal thy self when you are applying Remedies to other Mens Diseases and are infected with those that are as mortal your selves You must carefully avoid giving any just occasion to any man to speak evil of you for many will seek Occasions and improve them all they can to disgrace both you and the good Design you are zealously affected in But if whilst you make Men feel the Warmth of your Zeal they also see the