Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A61926
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The subject's religion directing and disposing them to a conscientious and careful discharge of their duty in the choice of publick magistrates and officers / by a citizen of London.
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Citizen of London.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing S6105B; ESTC R26950
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15,998
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24
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our Worship which ought to be the true God For if that be apprehended as he really is transcendently good and amiable willing and ready to be reconciled to Offenders then the great Impression it makes on the Mind is LOVE which cherishes Religion into Beauty Perfection and chearful Obedience But if it be apprehended as dreadful only and able to do hurt under the Attributes of Sovereign but independent Will and Power then Fear is all the Temper it gives to the Mind and this ferments the natural Seed of Religion into Superstition or a slavish Devotion so as I said before to worship God as the Heathen did their Daemons for fear of harm and to pacifie the Murmurs of Conscience For such Votaries though they believe the being of a God yet in their Hearts wish there were none But if there be few or no Apprehensions of Divine Attributes in the Mind to beget a real Love or Fear then the Soul of Man is at liberty to make use of Religion so far as serves Worldly Design and this principles it with Hypocrisie the Monster of the Age we live in to be of one two or all Persuasions to serve a Turn or carry on a Design So that Hypocrisie is nothing but Atheism dissembled under a Veil of Religion and Atheism is nothing but Hypocrisie unmask'd Now if there be a God the real Object of our Worship as we all pretend to believe there is doubtless our Religion ought to be real and not hypocritical For all Things are naked and open to his Eye And if our Religion be a perfect and acceptable Service doubtless it ought to be chearful and not slavish as Superstition is which proceeds only from Fear without Love If Goodness then and all Perfection be essential Attributes of a Divine Nature that is if Sovereign Power and Will be inseparable from Goodness in God and not its overmatch as some would think then God's Power is comfortable and not dreadful till his Goodness be abused and offended so that all our Fears and hard Thoughts of God do arise from our own Disobedience to his Will made known which nothing can remove but our Repentance and Obedience For as his Mercy is over all his Works and he would not have any to perish so he is just and cannot approve of Iniquity in his Creatures and when in obeying his Will we have an inward Sense of his Goodness and Love towards us it begets in us a Love towards him So that Love is the proper and genuine Principle of that Religion which is in its own Nature perfect and to God most be acceptable as is evident from the first and great Command Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart Soul and Strength and thy Neighbour as thy self And as this Love of God is always attended with an awful Veneration towards him as our Father which is a Child-like Fear of offending him So this Love of our Neighbour ought to be perfect Charity and universal to all Mankind especially to such as are Members of the Catholick Church and not limited restrained or confined to any Herd or Sect nor Mercenary but as the Sun shines giving out his Rays without expecting any Return 'T is true the Mind that is conscious of offending by Disobedience and Abuse of God's Goodness has its Eye always Bloodshot with Guilt and Fear and therefore can behold nothing in God for the present but Power and the Severities of his Justice nor arrive at any Opinion of God but as powerful in order to Punishment And such as continue thus in wilful Disobedience to the Will of God made known do gradually harden themselves till they degenerate into Despair of Mercy from whence proceeds Hatred of God and Goodness which is final Impenitency And this is the Case of the Devils themselves who can now frame no Apprehensions of God but what are terrible as appears by the Product of their Faith which is to make them tremble Before the Gospel the Mosaical Occonomy or Worship was not Superstition but Imperfection For the Law made nothing perfect but is as a School Master to bring us to Christ And Fear was that natural Temper which was impressed on the Mind under the Mosaical Discipline as a main impulsive Principle to the religious Observation of it And for that Reason we find Religion generally in the old Testament expressed by the Fear of God Jacob calls God Almighty the Fear of his Father Isaac And we may-assert that Fear continues the predominant and active Principle in our Devotion even now under the Gospel until God in Mercy gives us new Grounds of Hope for Pardon on our Repentance as he hath done to all Mankind by his Son whom he first promised and in due time sent him into the World for this very end to principle Men afresh with the Love of God which their Sin and Guilt had extinguished For which End we find the Proposals and Delivery of the Gospel are made after the sweetest way of Invitation as if it were in a wooing way of Intreaty We as Ambassadors of Christ saith the Apostle as if God by us did beseech you we pray you to be reconciled unto God Vpon which Account Religion through the whole Book of the New Testament is expressed by the Love of God And St. John tells us He that feareth that is he that is chiefly acted by this Principle of Fear to Religion is not made perfect in LOVE that is he hath not yet attained to that inward Frame or Affection of Mind LOVE which of all others is the most generous and acceptable Principle of serving God And 't is from this Principle alone that we are enabled to hold the Faith in the Unity of the Spirit and the Bond of Peace The Truth of both which do plainly appear from the Words of the Apostle Rom. 8. We Christians under the Gospel have not received the Spirit of Bondage again unto Fear as the Israelites did at the giving of the Law in a tremendous manner on Mount Sinai but we have received the Spirit of Adoption the filial Disposition of Children excited in us by the pleasing Invitation and paternal direction of the Gospel whereby we cry Abba Father Which Love of God in this merciful Act of Redemption appears more fully to Men than it did before in Creation and Providence because 't is super-added thereunto like a second Beam of Light conjoin'd to a former shines to all Eyes with a greater Lustere and therefore draws all hearts with a warmer Affection All which is summ'd up by the Apostle in his Epistle to the Ephesians c. 3. v. 17 18. That we being rooted and grounded in Love might be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and heighth and depth and to know the Love of Christ which passeth Knowledge that is to knew the Imensuy of that Love of God discovered in Christ Jesus super added to all the other Instances of
not doubting but if seriously considered it will distinguish it self in every pious and honest Mind from all false Persuasions together with some short Observations from thence and some brief Directions for the Subject's Guidance in their Choice of our Pulick Magistrates and Officers As that alone which will secure both our Religion and Government Of Religion in General Religion then in General is the Obligation we are under to God the supreme Original of Being and therefore implies all the Services we pay him and all that Obedience we give to any Law for his sake and with respect to any Divine Attribute that is to the Perfection of his Nature This in the general Notion of it is natural to Man and is indeed the specifick Difference of humane Nature rather than Reason because those inferiour Creatures who governed by a divine Instinct do in many things seem to vindicate or shew some kind and degrees of Reasoning yet they make no colour of Religion and therefore for deficiency in nothing so much as this is Man when he neglects Piety and Devotion become like or rather degenerated below the Beasts that perish Religion I say then is natural to Man as Man for that there is which none dare deny a supremely excellent and perfect Being the Author of all things besides to whom their Government doth belong and to whom therefore Worship is due is a Truth not only demonstratively argued from the Works of Creation and Providence Rom. 1. 20 but a Truth impress'd on the Nature of Reasonable Creatures inseparable totally from them and consequently to be reckoned amongst these Connate Notions which the Soul of Man both of things which the Scripture stiles The Law written in the Heart They who deny this do shake the Foundation of all certainty in Knowledge for that depends on some Common Standard in whose allowance all are agreed The Sense of a Deity therefore and the venerable Regards arising from it which we call Religion I conclude to be natural to Man a Notion by our Maker wrought into the very Fabrick of our Mind an essential Beam of that Coeval Light the Soul is indued with to discern things And from this Natural Principle or Venerable Awe of a Divine Power springs as naturally in the same Mind an Awe and Veneration of Government as the shadow of that Supreme Being in a Divine Authority impressed on Rulers and Governors as God's Vicegerents in the lower World which Natural Seed is cultivated and improved by Discipline and Nurture into greater Perfection The universal Consent of all Nations in all Ages confirms this Truth and proves Religion take it in the general was not a Politick Invention of Man though it be the best Prop of Government and Cement of Society And therefore amongst intelligent Creatures Religion is the first Law of Nature for that must needs consist in the first Obligation to a Rule a Rule directing our Duty being the proper Notion of a Law and if so then the first Obligation must needs consist in respect to that thing wherein supreme Dominion and all other Perfections are seated and that is in GOD alone Self-Conservation speaking of Mankind is but a Secondary Law of Nature tied up in Religion for it is all the Reason in the World that the first Law of Nature should primarily respect the first Cause GOD Himself and be chiefly terminated upon him in that we call Religion as the Secondary Law of Nature is chiefly terminated upon the Creature which we call the Conversation of it self So far therefore as our own Safety may be hazarded for the Preservation of our Religion we are obliged to prefer our Religion before our own Safety though in truth God hath so wisely linked these two together that our Religion preserved with what hazard soever to our selves will insure our own Safety He that loseth his Life for my sake and the Gospel's shall find it saith our Saviour This Natural Religion or venerable Sense of a Deity and Veneration towards our Governors is but at least in this degenerate Age a saint Seed till it meet with some farther active Principles or Dispositions in us to nurse it up and give it Culture And there are but three active Principles in Humane Nature capable to receive this Seed of Religion into thier Bosome that is Love or Fear or Worldly Design And then 1. Love as it is the radical Affection of Humane Nature terminates in God alone as the supreme Good the adequate Object and Centre of its Rest And so is the genuine and proper Principle of the Gospel and ought to be that inward Frame or Affection of Mind from which all our Services to God in Religion proceed and where this Principle is predominant in a Church there is the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And this inward Frame or Disposition of Mind from which our Religion should proceed as it is the chief thing regarded in God's Eye so ought it to be the â—â—â—ghtiest Consideration of our own because upon the Issues of this depends our Acceptance with God our well grounded Peace of Conscience and our everlasting Welfare and they that are religious from this Principle may be stiled Lovers of God and Religion for Goodness-sake and such may be said to delight in the Law of God and walk in his Ways 2. Fear is the proper Principle of Superstition for those that in their Religion are chiefly acted by Fear are dragg'd to their Devotion as the Heathens were to worship their Daemons for fear of harm from them 3. But Worldly Design devoid of either real Love or Fear is the proper Principle of Hypocrisie or that which bears the Name but not the Nature of Religion And Such as are acted by this Principle become most loathsome in the Sight of God though often ador'd because undiscovered by Men. For the Roots of Hypocrisie may be as various as Worldly Designs are Ambition Vain Glory Time-serving Compliance with prevalent Custom Riches Advantages to be Leader of a Sect Head of a Party Nay it may be Envy and Malice to sow Discord for the Apostle tells us some preach Christ out of Envy The Root of Superstition is Fear without Love that is a Dread of Harm if the Divine Power or what is so apprehended to be as the Object of our Worship be not appeased by such and such Services This brought so many dreadful Sacrifices to the Altar at Tophet and all the Heathen World over and is the slivish Principle obliging so many Corporal Severities affected and uncommanded Austerities superstitious Repetition and muttering Fopperies as telling over Beads at set times enjoin'd by the Priest Sacrifices to bribe a Deity and quiet the Murmurs of Conscience so much practised in the Church of Rome Now these three natural Seeds or active Principles Love Fear and Worldly Design that thus nurse up Religion into Beauty or Deformity do arise from the various Apprehensions we have of the Object of