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	love_v	world_n	4,727	5	4.9827	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44211	An account of the spirits working upon the minds of men in the several ages of the Christian church in a visitation sermon before the Right Reverend Father in God, Henry Lord Bishop of London, at Burntwood in Essex, Septemb. 14, 1680 / by Richard Hollingworth.	Hollingworth, Richard, 1639?-1701.	1680 (1680)	Wing H2485; ESTC R26432	13,861	26

and violent particles which had they no superiour powers to give Laws to their motion would like Phaeton set this world of Man on fire No no the great design of this Spirit is to mend that Soul which Christ died to purchase the life of and certainly when ever any man experiences its genuine operations he finds a vast alteration in the state of his mind his apprehensions of things are far different from their former selves when he was under the command of lust and prejudice he then better sees the nature of things and those several excellencies that are in them he pitches upon objects which are every way more agreeable to the delights as well as necessities of his soul than the husks he formerly fed upon And that love he has for God is not founded in the temperature of his body in some present glowings which arise from Rhetorical descriptions but in a deep consideration of the Divine Attributes and perfections of those displays and communications that he bountifully makes of himself to the world and his affections to the Lord Jesus are not fixed upon him barely upon the score of his Priesthood because he fondly and fancifully expects to be saved by him but he honours and loves him as his Lord and King and testifies the truth of his love by submitting to his Authority and resigning up himself to his will and pleasure and the Mans delight in God is bottomed in those rational satisfactions he hath had in a true performance of those duties through which God communicates himself to the intellectual and rational part of Man Alas those touches upon the animal spirits are but flashes and vanish in a moment upon which score we read of several persons in the late confusions who for a time made a great noise and pretended to give as great a light to the world in a moment after the spirits flagged and the course of their bodies altered sunk into the dregs of Atheism and Prophaneness and drolled upon Religion as the product of a few melancholy vapours from the head and not of a rational consideration from the mind Whereas had these men been brought to Religion by the exercise of their minds and reason about the Doctrins and Truths of the Christian Religion and by the help of Gods good Spirit which never fails to raise and heighten the faculties and to enlighten the object to such laborious men they had continued constant to their profession notwithstanding all discouragements for rational satisfaction conviction of mind and judgment cannot be laid aside but by great degeneracy and apostacy of mind or else by something that out-weighs it in point of satisfaction to the contrary And this was the way the Bereans took for though there was the greatest spirit in the World there yet it is said they searched the Scriptures whether those things were so or no Act. 17.11 that is they made use of their Reason to compare Prophesies with events and thereby got the name of being more noble and no doubt furnished themselves with a more full satisfaction Act. 17.2 And St. Paul as his manner was he went unto them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures that is he appealed to their judgments and understandings and not to their or his own private spirit whereby he intimates that that is the great method of conviction and that the work of the Spirit of God when such things are offered to our reason is to incline us to consider and pause upon the evidence that is in those arguments and to six our thoughts in such a manner as not to ramble from what is proposed but to look into the strength and force such and such Arguments are attended withal I say this this is the great work of the Spirit and to judge of the truth of the Spirits morions by the warmth of our affections and not by the true light of our understanding is to get into a Labyrinth out of which we cannot extricate our selves but by being guided by the clue of our Reason and there is nothing under such delusions as these but a return to a mans self to an exercise of his intellectual powers can save him and prevent his being plunged over head and ears in sin and Heresie And therefore let warm Enthusiasts cry down the use of Reason in Religion as long as they will and call us carnal Preachers for advising men to understand the reason of their Religion Yet for all that I dare desire all those who read these Papers to think themselves Christians upon no other account than that they are convinced their Religion is the best in the World both as to its grounds and as to its design and I dare assure them that if they improve their minds by pains and diligence they shall find constant strength infused into their souls by this good Spirit of God 3. Another thing I lay down concerning this Spirit is this that there is now nothing done by this ordinary Spirit of God which works upon the minds of diligent men which contradicts and gain-says whatsoever was said or done by the extraordinary Spirit in the Prophets and Apostles for the Holy Ghost is God and so is Truth it self and cannot lie and for any man to pretend he comes by vertue of a commission received from him and at the same time to spread abroad propositions of faith or rules of life which are not agreeable to what hath been already delivered down to the world he ought to be rejected as a monstrous Blasphemer a most vile Imposttor one that would thrust the notion of a God out of the world by rendering him contradictory to himself changing his mind upon all emergencies and making that matter of duty to day which not long agoe he declared against with the greatest severity And though one would think such a thing should never be done by any person that wears a mans head yet God knows those loose and scandalous times in which our Fathers and we have lived give us too sad experience of it What do you think of those who pretend to be governed by nothing else but a light within them and yet vent such Doctrins of Devils as these are to wit That Jesus Christ is not God That he died to be our example and not a Sacrifice That they themselves attain to such a perfection of degrees as to live without sin And that which wants not its aggravation namely That the Magistrates have nothing to do to hinder them in spreading these loose and desperate Principles And though I could name other Parties of men who come not much behind in some bad Principles yet I am resolved seeing I am vindicating the true Notion of the Spirit that descended in the likeness of a Dove to do it without any gall whatsoever Let me therefore intreat you if at any time such thoughts arise in your souls as are flatly contrary to Scripture or the like

own labour and industry have collected and got together For did it affist us not only with strength and resolution of mind to adhere to what we know but with the knowledge of things themselves without any inquiries of our own all labour and diligence would be discouraged and he that lived the most idle life might be improved to as due apprehensions of things as the most studious and solitary person whatsoever which if any man can give me an evidence of I will let go this first assertion but if I hold it till I meet with such an instance I believe I shall die of the same opinion I am now of And therefore those men that pretend to new lights to more glorious discoveries to more large manifestations of the mind and will of God than former Ages have been acquainted with why these men run up and down the World with a pretence whereby they may indeed make the silly world mad but I am sure they will never make if wiser or better for there is no such thing as new Lights and when the New Testament was sealed up God cursed any man that added to the words of that Book and he had certainly been wanting to his Church if they had wanted any necessary to salvation which he hath since revealed No no I say again the Spirit of God now brings no new things but its business is to set the old ones upon our hearts and souls to strengthen our good purposes for an holy life to enlighten our dark faculties whereby we may see the beauty and excellency of those Divine objects that are proposed to our understandings and to excite our affections to a love agreeable to the worth and value of those things in which our souls are more immediately concerned and if any man appear let him by looks and winks pretend to never so much Heavenly-mindedness yet I say if the man appear amongst you with promises of further discoveries of the way and Kingdom of the Lord Jesus than the Christian world hath yet been acquainted with look upon him as an Impostor as the Devils Agent who comes on purpose to disturb men in the good old way through which the blessed Apostles the noble Army of Martyrs the excellent Saints in Primitive times travelled to the New Jerusalem and this head I cannot leave till I have given you an account what one of the greatest Scholars this latter Age hath produced says concerning this Hales's Golden Remains The effects of the Spirit says he as far as they concern instruction and knowledge are not particular informations for resolution in any doubtful cases for this were plainly Revelation but as the Angel who was sent to Cornelius informs him not but sends him to Peter to School so the Spirit teaches not but stirs up in us a desire to learn desire to learn makes us thirsty after the means and pious sedulity and carefulness makes us watchful in the choice and diligent use of our means The promise to the Apostles of the Spirit of God which should lead them into all truth was made good unto them by private and secret informing their understandings with the knowledge of high and heavenly mysteries which as yet had never entered into the conceit of any man the same promise is made good to us but fulfilled after another manner for what was written in their hearts by revelation for our instruction have they writ in Books to us for information otherwise than out of these Books the Spirit speaks not When the Spirit regenerates a man it infuses no knowledge of any point of faith but sends him to the Church and to the Scriptures when it stirs him up to newness of life it exhibits not to him an inventory of his sins as hitherto unknown but either supposes them known in the law of nature of which no man can be ignorant or sends him to learn them from the mouths of his Teachers more than this in the ordinary proceeding of the holy Spirit in matters of instruction I could never descry so that to speak of the Spirit helping in private either in dijudicating or interpreting of Scripture is to speak they know not what And truly till the World especially that part of it whose understandings are of a more ordinary size come to such convictions as these it is impossible but we should be over-run with Doctrins of Devils and it is very probable that some worse Sect than that of the Quakers if a worse can come in their room will e're long be at the door in order to disturb the minds of Credulous People and to insinuate such Doctrins and Principles as tend to make them dishonest and immoral And therefore if any fancies spring up in your heads and you find your selves as it were smitten with it and ready to adopt it into one of the most necessary truths to be believed and known pray bring it to the touch-stone to Scripture and right Reason and there consider what weight it hath in it and what plea it can make in a sober and rational way for its acceptance amongst the great things of God And if men did but take this course the world would soon be reduced to order and every man would keep his place and live in those limitted dependencies upon the judgments of other men that are necessary for them considering the difference of mens education and improvements 2. Another thing I lay down concerning this Divine Spirit under the Gospel and the assistances that it affords men of pains and diligence is this that it works upon the intellectual part of man and not upon the animal spirits of the body the not understanding of which hath done a great deal of mischief to the world for the more ignorant part of mankind finding sometimes according to their fond affections they have for any person or thing a great warmth upon their spirits and a kind of eager fire burning in their bowels all which arises from the present motion of their bodily spirits increased by the strength of their fancy and imagination Why alas let the thing be never so dangerous and destructive yet away they run with it as if the whole interest of Jesus Christ lay at stake and they care not what perils they expose themselves to what losses they sustain what hazards they encounter nay nor what Authority they affront so they may but see Sion happy in the settlement of the present opinion they have conceived so great a kindness for and their ignorance and their zeal together hurls them out of all considerations and makes them deaf to all advice and suspicious of any man as an Enemy to the Kingdom of Christ who attempts their reduction to more calm and temperate thoughts But now certainly the Spirit of God which comes with a design to refine the mind and reform the manners of the Sons of Men hath a better and more worthy subject to work upon than a company of confused spirits hot