Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	apostle_n	faith_n	work_v	4,705	5	7.7266	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89482	Temporis Angustiæ Stollen houres recreations. Being meditations fitted according to the variety of objects. By Tho. Manley, jun. gent. and student, anno. ætatis 21mo.	Manley, Thomas, 1628-1690.	1649 (1649)	Wing M449; Thomason E1374_1; ESTC R209219	34,225	131

Temporis Angustiae Stollen Houres Recreations BEING Meditations fitted according to the variety of Objects Martial lib. 8. Epig. 2. Tune potes dulces ingrate relinquere nugas Dic mihi quid melius desidiosus agas Sat plenè si sat benè BY THO. MANLEY Jun. Gent. And Student Anno Aetatis 21 mo LONDON Printed for John Stephenson At the Signe of the Sun on Ludgate-hill 1649. TO THE Most vertuous and truly worthy Gentlewoman M rs A. M. Thomas Manley wisheth all the blessings of this life and that which is to come Deare Mistris OUt of that spare time stollen from the houres of my more serious studies I have here from variety of objects extracted and rough-drawne a few light Meditations the extravagancies of a lighter braine which I have ●esumed to dedicate to your Name hoping that ●●om it they will gaine both weight and credit A pre●●nt I confesse too meane for so great vertue yet 〈◊〉 assured confidence of your goodnesse that you ●ill not so much looke at the meannesse of the gift 〈◊〉 the good will of the giver and accept it because 〈◊〉 comes from a friend was the maine cause of my ●oldnesse which if you please to pardon adding ●ithall a grant of my desire acceptance I shall not ●nly acknowledge my selfe to be bound to you by the ●trictest tye of friendship but shall be bound to ac●nowledge my selfe M rs Your most affectionate friend Tho. Manley Jun. TO THE Friendly READER TO make a tedious Preface to our ensuing short discourses seemes to me as vaine and unnecessarie as was his worke who made the gates to his Citie larger then the Citie it selfe all I shall say to thee is this I desire thee with sinceritie to reader and without Criticisme to amend what thou findest amisse so for such a friend this short Epistle will be long enough but if thou beest otherwise affected and readest only that thou mayst carpe to such I have made this too long I desire really thou mayst profit by thy reading so shalt thou receive comfort and I my desired reward thy good will farewell Thine to doe thee good M. J. Temporis Angustiae MEDITATION I. IT is a Maxime in Phylosophie that out of nothing comes nothing but this would put us into confusion and reduce us againe to a Chaos unlesse we were set upright by Divinity which assur●s us that an omnipotent hand out of nothing hath extracted and drawn all things being then thus rectified let us raise our thoughts to their highest pitch in contemplation of the end for which we were created The first and chiefest thing certainly is to exalt with prayses the power of our God And the next is to love our brethren and neighbours for if we love not our brethren whom wee have seen how can we love God whom we have not seen for the former our duty towards our God is to beleeve that he is that he is Almighty and that all his attributes are true what Nation was ever so barbarous which did not acknowledge a superintendent deity Nature it selfe hath taught us that there is somewhat beyond it selfe to whose glory and for the advancement of whose honour all our actions ought to tend The Scythians though farre remote both from civility and vertue yet acknowledged their Jupiter The Egyptians whose mindes vvere only stuffed with the study of Witchcrafts yet worshipped their Osiris The Indians then whom vvho more savage yet they rather then will have none to worship fall downe to the Devill To conclude the Turke though none more cruell yet have they their Mahomet Nay those Anthropophagi those man eatting Cannibals then whom though none more devillish yet have they their Deity on whose Altars they offer sacrifices and to whom they put up and preferre their Petitions And shall we who are Christians bought with a price even the bloud of the Lamb I say shall we be more barbarous then b●●barisme it selfe not only denying the honour due to our great God but even as much as in us lies both denying our God to be and endeavouring to pull him if it were possible out of heaven by our sinnes We knovv his power but contemne it and all men are sufficiently instrued but Patience abused is turned to fury Secondly we must love our brethren Love saith the Apostle worketh no harme to his neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law and our Saviour himselfe faith This command I leave you that yee love one another Certainly the often inculcation and repetition of this duty in the Scripture sheweth unto us how strict and diligent we ought to be in the observation of it It is a command upon whose observance depends our vvhole happinesse for what happinesse can there be where love is taken away Or hovv can that Common-wealth flourish where nothing abounds but strifes and contentions By Concord small things in little time grow great nay come to the top of prosperity by discord things already great in a small time grovv lesse nay vanish into nothing as by the one we rise to th● highest top of humane felicity so by the other we are throwne into the depth and gulfe of all wretched calamities Hence then you serpentin brood of Cadmus who onely begin to live that ye may study and endeavour to ruine one another Thinke you that God created man to be a selfe-destroyer nay we see otherwise in the very beginning Cain for murdering his brother Abel was cursed by God with a heavie curse to be a vagabond and God set a marke upon him lest any man should kill him If yee bite and devoure one another yee shall be consumed one of another What can be expected there but desolation where every man vvill be in all cases his owne both Judge and Executioner When every man may doe that which is right in his owne eyes What society can there be among men where Love is taken away Love is the life of the soule the maintainer of unity the bond of peace the efficient cause of happinesse and as Logicians say Causa sine qua non it is the builder of Common-wealths the repairer of breaches the restorer of pathes to dwell in VVe know not God unlesse we love God is love To conclude Love covereth a multitude of sinnes Love is like the Spring in and by which all things flourish it is the most noble passion of the soule which wholly spends it selfe in the attaining of a desired good I could vvith the Silke-worm quite worke my selfe to death spend my selfe all my choysest parts all my abilities in this heavenly Subject he is a child a senselesse creature a beast worse then a beast that hath never been touched with this heroike passion but I digresse I transgresse to returne Let brotherly love continue so shall wee bring to our selves blessing upon blessing we shall enjoy the God of love and by the love of God we shall be made a mirrour of happinesse the glory of all people A

out one repentant teare the sin of our soul is the soul of our sin and vvhen our eyes cannot dissolve themselves into rivers of teares our hearts congeale as hard as rocks of Adamant yet that Adamant can be broken with vineger and teares of repenpentance will wash away the hardness of our stony heart Lord grant me grace to turne away sins smart And make my teares soften my flinty heart MED 62. THe poor Publican vvas sooner heard that said little and stood afar off then the proud-loud-boasting Pharisee 't is not the multitude of our words but the zeal of our hearts that God affects the righteous man in the midst of trouble can fly to God by his prayer when the abundant prosperity of the wicked makes him guilty both of neglect and infidelity the prayer of the heart is the heart of prayer and where my faith fails my prayer falls our infidelity stops Gods eare and makes us that we cannot heare vvhen he calls I will be humble in prayer but not fearefull Qui timide rogat docet negare MED 63. THe sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord when the prayer of the righteous is as a sweet smelling odour Zeno sayling vvith a company of lewd Athiests there suddenly arose such a storm as drove the most impious among them to his prayer peace quoth he lest the gods hearing cast us away because you are here 't is our iniquities that separate between us and our God I will never therefore absent my self from God by prayer so long as that vvhen I come I should be taken as a stranger nor shall the burden of my sins so clog me down but that I will fly to my God MED 64. IN the midst of extremities to fly to Christ is the sign of a true Christian faith to hope and rest on God is the best muniment We reade our Saviour slept in the height of a storm a quiet conscience is a bed of Downe yet is he not so secure in himself but that he can sympathise vvith his disciples shall vve say his suffering them to ingeminate their calls vvas either because of a deafness in his eare or dulness in his heart O no he heard them at first but he loved to heare them again but they no sooner speak we perish but he awakes me thinks I see our Saviour startle at that word thus do we see the gentle prayer of a disciple is sooner heard in heaven then all the thundring of the creature and that Christ that sleepes in a storm wakens with a prayer Lord teach me but to pray so shall no sea Of woe ore whelm me for I le fly to thee MED 65. HAve you seen the rugged Ocean disturbed with the impetuous blasts of furious windes how it curles its angred forehead with threatning vvaves affrighting with the terrour of death the most skilfull Pilot and valiantest Navigator that ever sayled on the Maine but then to remember the storm our Saviour stilled comforts them and tells us that Gods Justice never failes it alalwayes meets with the ringleaders in any sedition neither doe the followers escape unpunished The windes resemble the leaders the waters like the common people are of themselves quiet but once moved montes volvuntur aquarum I will never raise such a spirit which I am not able to allay lest at last it pull my house over my head MED 66. WHen a sudden storme arises how fast will the harmelesse sheep runne to the next brambles where thinking to save her selfe by its shelter from the fury of the storme it is deceived into a greater ill and returnes with some losse of its fleece just such thinke I many times proves the friendship of some ingrateful and self-seeking friends to whom when driven by the adverse blasts of a contrary fortune I retire my selfe for help and comfort they either altogether cast me off or prey upon my necessitie so that such help proves more fatall to me then my worst calamitie I may patiently beare all outward miseries and though I am wet to the skin I can drie my selfe againe but when my professed friend instead of love works my woe this this cuts me to the heart Brutus one stroke went neerer Caesars heart then the stabs of all his other enemies MED 67. WHat a beastly drunkennesse will soone surprize that man that sits all day and drinkes nought but wine when the same moderately used is both pleasant and good Prosperitie is this wine a constant enjoyment whereof might cast into a surfeit of sinne God therefore mingles it with affliction to keepe us sober Shall I dislike the physicke because it pleases not my palate I care not whether it be toothsome so it be wholsome we would have it to cure not to please us give me so much prosperity as may make me mindeful to returne and cast me not downe so much as to make me despaire of thy love I may as well starve as surfeit MED 68. AS the Hart panteth after the rivers of water so longs my soule after thee oh God It vvould be an easie matter to come to heaven if outward shewes and professions would bring us thither there must be a hearty desire an earnest longing and a constant perseverance therein we will run through all difficulties to attaine what we long for what we desire hence then is our Love to God knovvn to be hearty if for his sake we make light of the world contemne afflictions and count all things but drosse in comparison of him I will not serve God because others doe so but because it is my duty MED 69. AM I the first whom a false report hath slandered or doe I thinke I shall be the last Why then doe I so trouble and vexe my selfe It is the commonest thing of a thousand to be told of our failings though what we doe well is husht up in oblivion and can any man think to sinne and not heare of it yea but the falsenesse of the thing laid to my charge is the cause of my vexation they laid to my charge things that I never heard of but shall I expect better measure here then was dealt to our Saviour was not he more maliciously accused but this thing will make me take heed to my wayes I will never say or doe any thing that I would be ashamed to let all the world see and heare The only way to deterre us from sinning is to say this I am about to act is sin and therefore cannot be secret MED 70. BLessed are the Peace makers how happy then is he that composes and allaies divisions the greatnesse of the blessing is never rightly knovvn but by the goodnesse that Marriner can never truly prize a calme that hath not been in a storme in a calme the Sea is the skies looking-glasse it is the stil musick of the world Peace is the vigour of the Law the honest mans best patent the harmony of the soule the richest casket