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	love_v	world_n	3,595	5	5.1710	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26356	The care of the peace of the church, the duty of every Christian in a discourse upon Psalm 122, 6, wherein the main pleas, for separation are examined and the true causes thereof shewed ... / by Tho. Adderley ... ; to which is annexed a letter, briefly shewing the great danger and sinfulness of popery, written to a young gentleman (a Roman Catholick) in Warwick-shire.	Adderley, Thomas, b. 1648 or 9.	1679 (1679)	Wing A509; ESTC R20224	39,054	53

our Saviours feet with a pound of Spikenard which says the Text was very costly Judas cryes out of a wast tells them that the Ointment might have been sold for an hundred pence and given to the poor Here indeed was a fair pretence viz charity to the Poor But St. John the Evangelist tells us that this was but a meer out-side a meer pretence and that covetousness was the true cause of his muttering against it for this he said says St. John not that he cared for the poor but because he was a Thief and had the bag and bare what was put therein John 12.6 And so too we have a great deal of reason to think that the real causes of the separation from our Church and of the clamor that is made against it are quite otherwise then what is commonly pretended It will be worth a while therefore to search a little into the true causes of our divisions because we shall thereby discover the true images of things through those dark mists which cunning but ungodly men have endeavored to cast before the eyes of the vulgar we shall hereby discern how sadly the ignorant but well-meaning vulgar are deluded with meer pretences and that while their teachers cry conscience conscience it is meerly their own lusts that promote and carry on divisions in the Church But because those that separate and divide from our Church are commonly distinguished into a two-fold rank and order the teaching and leading men and the silly and deluded vulgar we shall therefore reckon up the causes under a two-fold head and shew that some of them are to be appropriated to the one and some to the other And least those leading men who think themselves some body in their own conceit should take it in great dudgen if they should be put off to the last and that we may not offend them in this we shall therefore speak to them in the first place 1. First then the first cause or reason of these persons separating from the Church and consequently disturbing the peace and unity of it may be an ambitious and aspiring spirit There is no question to be made but that there have been and are still many such men in the world who viewing themselves in a false glass do Pigmalion like fall in love with their own parts and from an overweening conceit of them they will not only adore them themselves but expect that all the world should adore them too and those that do not see as much in them as they do in themselves they conclude that all such are blinded by emulation and envy From this over-weaning conceit of themselves comes a fancy that none are so worthily deserving of the more honorable places in the Church as they And when they come to make suit and claim for such places if they happen to be put by and others perhaps more deserving to be preferred before them This very thing shall presently put them into a rage they will forthwith bethink themselves of a revenge they will hereupon study how to make themselves considerable at the cost of those who they judged did consider them too little And hereupon they will contrive some fair pretence to draw a party after them and make a faction Thus we are told how that Arrius missing of a prelation to the order and dignity of a Bishop Alexander being preferr'd before him he broatch'd and troubled the Church with an heretical opinion whereby he denyed the Divinity of our Saviour Christ And some conceive that the occasion of Tertullian's defection from the true Faith and of his fall to Montanism was because that after the death of Agrippinus he sufferr'd a repulse and was put by the Bishoprick of Carthage I could produce divers instances of the like kind were it at all needful But it is much to be thought that our present age will afford too many that it would turn us out too many persons who have chose to set up a party against the Church and to be leaders of a faction meerly because they might not be Governors of it and could not satisfie or content themselves with what their Governors thought them deserving But what a sad thing is it and how unchristian too for men who pretend to be holyer and more conscientious then others to abuse and delude the world so grosly as to pretend that their separating from the Church is upon the account of conscience when it is meerly from an over-weaning conceit of their abilities that they are wiser and better then others and will therefore disturb the peace of the Church if they are not preferred before others Is this humor in the least answerable to our Saviours Command of Learning of him who was lowly in heart Matth. 11.29 Or doth it any ways answer his Apostles charge that in lowliness of mind we esteem others better then our selves Phillip 2.3 Certainly had they not quite laid aside and forgotten some of the weightier precepts of the Gospel they would quickly lay aside that vain fondness they have for themselves they would cast an eye upon their deformities as well as upon their excellencies and then they would begin a little to contract their plumes and think others as good if not better then themselves and no longer disturb the peace of the Church upon this account because they have not those honorable places in it which they vainly and groundlesly think they do deserve Secondly a second cause or reason of these persons separating from the Church and consequently disturbing the peace and unity of it is interest or the desire of gaining riches and money what sin is there indeed that the charming force of these will not perswade some men to Judas betrayed his Master for Thirty Pieces of Silver and the Husbandmen in the parable instigate and prompt each other to murder and to kill the heir to get the inheritance to themselves The love of money says the Apostle is the root of all evil 1. Tim. 6.10 And therefore why may it not be supposed to be the root of this evil we are now speaking of viz of the disturbance of the peace of the Church Nay he that reads but the next words following in the Text forenamed will find that the Apostle hath asserted as much himself The love of money says he is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the Faith And the same Apostle St. Paul hath left an instance of it upon record 2. Tim. 4.10 Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world There is no question but that some of those Doctrines which make the partition wall betwixt us and the Church of Rome somewhat higher and which they are so zealous to maintain are oweing meerly to interest and to the profit they get by them As I could instance in their Doctrines about purgatory about pardons and indulgences their Praying for the Dead and such like which would certainly fall to

that all is not popery that is in use and practice in the Roman Church and if we should once resolve to follow nothing that is used and practised there we must then resolve not only to for bear to say our prayers and to lift up our eyes to Heaven but also to lay aside the very profession of Christianity its self as I remember I have read that Renowned and Learned Prince King James long since observed somewhat to this purpose And therefore so long as there are no other things used in our Church but such as were generally received by all Christian Churches and by the Romans too but long before she left her first love and so became vitiated and corrupted this charge of Popery is very unjust and utterly unreasonable But not to dwell overlong in answering this objection let but any person seriously consider these two things and then he will most readily acquit her from this charge and save both my self and all others any further trouble 1st Let him consider that if this Church were any ways affianced to that of Rome I mean as to any thing that is truely superstitious and sinful certainly there had not been a man of all those pious Learned and conscientious Divines in Queen Mary's days that would have Sacrificed their estates and lives in testimony of the purity and uncorruptness of it The Devil though he was a lyar from the beginning yet in this he spake truth skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Job 2.4 And the Apostle St. Paul speaking of the extraordinary love of Christ in laying down his life for us sinners tells us Rom. 5.7 That scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye intimating thereby that none will go so far as to lay down their lives for any thing but what they are strongly opinionated to be good and holy If therefore this Church in it's first reformation and from whence she hath never deviated save only in some few things in meer condescention to our weak Brethren and I hope they will easily forgive her that wrong I say if this Church had then retained any thing sinful Surely we can never imagine that Cranmer Ridley and Latimer and divers others should have been so prodigal of their blood as to pour it out in testimony of the goodness and purity of it To say that we have greater light now and that we do espy those deformities in it which they at that time were not aware of is to charge those holy men with ignorance and blindness which is but an ill requital who were as quicksighted as holy and conscientious as any of our greatest zealots and pretenders now But Secondly if there be any person that entertains any such suspition of our Church as that it complyes too nearly with that of Rome let him tell me in the next place why those of the Romish Church should not only withdraw themselves from ours as any one that doth not wilfully shut his eyes may plainly see they do but also bear the most implacable spite and spleen against it greater indeed far greater then against any sect or party whatsoever If ye were of the world says our Saviour Christ to his Disciples the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you John 15.19 And so may we argue much after the same manner here if this Church was any ways of the Church of Rome the Church of Rome would rather love then hate it but because this Church is not of the Church of Rome therefore doth the Church of Rome so greatly hate it This very consideration I say together with the former will most clearly vindicate and acquit it in the judgment of every honest and unprejudiced person from that first objection which is so commonly made against it viz it 's too near complyance with the Church of Rome and it's superstitions Again Secondly their second objection is this That this Church commands and enjoyns those ceremonies in her worship and service which are no where commanded by God and therefore it is meerly will-worship which is condemned by the Apostle and cannot be comply'd with without sin Before I can return any answer to this objection I must take it in pieces and shew what it is we own and what we utterly disown and deny That this Church doth enjoyn some ceremonies in her service which God hath no where particularly and precisely commanded that we own but that she is therefore guilty of that will-worship which is condemned by the Apostle that we deny But why I wonder should they lay so great stress upon this objection as they commonly do What can be more easily answered What though God hath not particularly and precisely commanded such ceremonies What is all this to their purpose since he hath commanded by his Apostle in the 1. Cor. 14. ult That all things should be done decently and in order And therefore so long as the Church enjoynes no other then such as tend meerly to the preservation of decency and order What fault can any man justly find with her for it It is altogether impossible to perform any worship to God without some ceremonies He that goes to his devotions though but in his closet must use the ceremony either of sitting or standing or kneeling and one of these is as much a ceremony as the other He that stands as stiff as the Pharisee is as ceremonious as he that kneels with the Apostle or lyes prostrate with our Saviour And therefore these persons that exclaim so much against a ceremony must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only accusers but condemners of themselves too if ever they say their prayers Seing therefore that the worship of God cannot be performed without some ceremonies and since any of them is in itsself as lawful as the other the superior surely may appoint which he in reason and conscience thinks most fitting and in so doing he commands nothing unlawful And he that doth disobey any of these things after it is so commanded and appointed can never excuse himself from that sin of disobedience to Governors And if he be punished for it he hath no reason to think that he suffers for doing well for he is but buffeted for his faults and what glory is it says the Apostle though he takes it patiently 1. Pet. 2.20 But to make short of the business Let us but take the same course with these people as Nathan did with David 2. Sam. 12. or as our Saviour did with the Priests and Elders in the 21. Chap. of St. Matth. Gospel i.e. Let us but state the case to them under a disguise and I am perswaded that they will readily enough acquit their governors from all faults in enjoyning some harmless and indifferent ceremonies and condemn