Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A28581
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A brief account of the first rise of the name Protestant and what Protestantism is ... / by a professed enemy to persecution.
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Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing B3477; ESTC R16825
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36,552
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49
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former Ages were acquainted with devising new ways to satisfie for Sin and undertaking to save Mens Souls after they are dead in Sins Hence there is something Men call Religion that must certainly please the Careless and as some tell us as certainly Save them If you are melancholly and inclined to strictness and Corporal Mortifications they will humour you in that they can provide you Pennances and Securities which shall sufficiently vex and macerate your Flesh If you are soft and tender if you would have a Jovial Religion and would allow your selves in wantonness and excess c. and yet not miscarry at last they can fit you with Indulgencies and Pardons and will not question to send you safely to Heaven by vertue of the Merits and Righteousness of some of their Antient Friends who never had a Being in the World or of others who tho they might have a Being here on Earth in all probability never got to Heaven themselves I am sure they never had Righteousness enough of their own to carry them to Heaven however it is grown so bulky since they left it behind them and has crept into the Churche's Treasury But the Apostle acquaints us that Antichrist will come with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish 2 Thes 2. 10. Sâ—condly Declining from their Love to and Zeal for the Faith growing cold and indifferent concerning the Faith when People have not that affection and concern for the Faith with which they seemed at first to entertain and welcome it See Rev. 2. 4 5. People are too prone thus to Apostatize from the True Faith after that they have made a Profession of it and if Matters be well considered there is not much ground to wonder it should be so For 1. People do too ordinarily make a Profession of the Faith upon unsuitable Motives and Principles not because they understand it and have their Consciences convinced of its truth and excellency but meerly because it is the fashion and custome of the People where they live to make such a Profession or it is a Profession that has got into repute or upon some other such mean and fickle Account Men that have no sound Principles will ever be for that Profession which is uppermost and is attended with most Pomp and Pleasure c. Christ had Followers in abundance whil'st he fed them with Loaves but how did they fall off and slink away when they failed of their Expectations Joh. 6. 26. 2. Multitudes content themselves with a meer notional knowledge in Religion and take no due care to digest Truths and turn the Principles of Religion into solid Nourishment Now the Doctrines of Religion if they do not sink down into our Hearts if they have not a powerful efficacy on our Affections if they do not put us invincibly upon such a Course of Life as bears some proportion with their nature and tendency they have no fast hold on us they will soon evaporate we shall easily part with them Luke 6. 49. Let the Food we eat be never so good and wholesome for the kind if we do not digest it if our Stomacks do not turn it into good Chyle and Nutriment it will soon become nauseous and the least provocation will make us vomit it up again 3. God doth often in just Judgment leave those to be hurried away by an evil Spirit of Delusion and Impiety who having long injoyed the means for their instruction and settlement in the True Faith have made no careful improvement of the same for those ends God ordinarily suffers such to be led away by Sathan and his lying Emissaries into Opinions drametrically opposite to the plainest Truths as well as to those vile affections which prompt to all uncleanness and practices which are inconvenient even according to the dictates of natural Light. Such are a ready and self-prepared prey to him whose coming is after the workings of Sathan c. 2 Thes 2. 9 10 11 12. 4. Over-loading Ecclesiastical Offices with Worldly Revenues Temporal Power and Dignities hath contributed very much to the prejudice of Christianity Too true did that voice prove This day is poison poured into the Church These things are powerful baits and strong temptations to ambitious covetuous domineering Persons Those who have such Offices so drest up and beautined to confer and bestow need not doubt but they shall find Advocates enough for their own particular Opinions and Ways though never so Erroneous And when Errours and Superstitions are back't with Power Greatness Wealth c. Oh what multitudes will they draw after them Besides when those who have not a mighty concern for the Interests of real Religion are too much advanc't in Ecclesiastical Affairs and rais'd above themselves it too usually falls out that an arbitrary Imperiousness starts up and prevails and then things of no great moment and for which Christ and his Apostles thought not fit to ingage their Authority or lay any stress of Religion on get into their heads and must needs be made terms of Christian Communion that they may be sure their Authority is acknowledged What Contests and Divisions have been raised and created by this means What Heats and Animosities have been this way occasioned Hereby Differences have been carried to such heights that at last Religion it self is even lost in the Quarrels commenc't about its Vestments and Trappings How have People's zeal or fury about things called Indifferent extirpated or quenched all serious and due concernment for the true Interests of Religion 'T is to be feared that hence there is occasioned an indifferency in the minds of multitudes touching the great Substantials of Religion which doth surpass the Indifferency of the things themselves for which we have so desperately contended The love of Worldly Grandure carried Demas away from the Faith 2 Tim. 4. 10. And over much concernedness for little Extra-Religious Matters gave the Apostle ground to suspect that those who were so affected would not be so honest firm and faithful to the Faith of the Gospel as good Christians ought to be Observe how he expostulates with them and lays down the grounds of his fears touching them Gal. 4. 9 10 11 12. 5. God permits Afflictions Persecutions and Sufferings to be brought on them who profess his Truth not only to try the Graces of the Faithful and to make their Graces appear more illustrious by their eminent exercise but that Hypocrites and meer Formalists who have no real love for his Truths nor give any hearty assent unto them may be discovered and have their disguises taken away In times of peace and quiet and whil'st the true Religion is on the thriving hand in the World many pretend to it who too much resemble Erasmus's Good Christian who appeared a very zealous Professor he would always have a New Testament hanging at his Girdle on one side but then he must have a Bottle of good Sack hanging on the other side As long as the True