Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	appear_v	love_v	world_n	2,596	5	5.0317	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39737	A sermon of the education of children preach'd before the right honourable the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen at Guild-Hall Chapel on Sunday, Novemb. 1, 1696 / by William Fleetwood ...	Fleetwood, William, 1656-1723.	1696 (1696)	Wing F1249; ESTC R15389	18,831	43

little occasion to press you with the Authority of the Text and to insist upon it that 't is King Solomon inspir'd by God that says That he that spareth the Rod hateth his Son It will be somewhat clearer by considering the other Clause in the Text and seeing what are the effects of Love which is early Chastisement He that loveth his Son chasteneth him betimes I have already made appear that Love and Hatred in these cases can only be securely judged of by the Effects not by the Feelings Motions and Affections of the Parents Heart but by the Fruits and Consequences of which the Children must be sensible themselves and all the World be Judges For the ground of all this mischief is that Parents commonly consult with no body but themselves to know if they love their Children and finding quickly by the Reply their Hearts make that they love them as they love their Eyes they rest contented with the Answer and use them indeed as tenderly whereas they should enquire of Strangers and of wise Men impartial and unprejudic'd they should take their Informations from Reafon and good Sense from the Experience of the Aged and such as study more particularly this Affair and they would shew them by the effects alone whether they lov'd or no the Marks and Tokens of Affection would be visible in Manners and Instruction beyond the Power of being deceived and if this be too much let them learn the Truth from the Pity of some and the Reproach of others and from the common Rumours of the Neighbourhood Every body but themselves will tell them that Love of Children must appear by its Effects and Fruits and no other thing can possibly convince another of that Love though they themselves are never so persuaded that they do and to confirm it could be content to die But of this enough already and also what it is to chasten it remains that I say a word or two of the proper Season and that is betimes he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes either betimes with respect to his Age or with respect to his Faults First with respect to his Age. It is in every thing of great Importance how we begin what Grounds we lay and what Foundation 't is we build upon if this be not right the rest is but Time and Pains mispent and will end in Loss and Disappointment It is as a Man that sets out false every step that he proceeds is so much out of his way and he must return and begin again And so it is with the Journeyings of Life if in our early Youth we set out false fall into evil Practices or be corrupted with pernicious Maxims it is either a great chance that we never see our Errour at all but blindly still proceed at all adventure or if we do we find our selves constrain'd to begin a-new to return to the place from whence we first fet out to our intollerable trouble and vexation What a deal of human Life is spent not in weaving a new web but in unravelling the old not in learning new Lessons of Truth and Vertue but in unlearning those of Vice and Falshood in forgetting of evil Principles and laying down old Prejudices in stripping our selves of our accustom'd Habits in parting with our old Acquaintances in forsaking our old Friends and in a manner tearing out our Vitals and rending of our Hearts asunder all which might in great measure be prevented by an early Seasoning in the ways of Goodness It was in prospect of this that one of the Ancients would have Children accustom'd to love and praise with delight all vertuous Actions and detest all Vices even before they attain'd the Use of Reason he would have them constantly observe know them compleatly and form in their Minds perfect Idea's of them and observing that Children are first of all affected with the Sense of Pleasure and of Pain he would have them used though never so little and young to take or think there is no Pleasure but in Goodness Vertue Temperance Justice and the like nor feel or think there is any great Pain but in those things that are truly evil Vice and Sin The thing is carried certainly too high and the Lesson too refin'd and subtil to be put in practice but the thing he means is this that the Preventions and Prepossessions of Vertue Goodness and Religion should answer at least the Prejudices of our natural Corruption and that Propensity and Inclination to Folly and to Sin we bring along with us into this World that the Artificial Principles of Education might be of equal poise with our original Corruption till the use of our Understanding bear down the Scale on the right side and if it be better to prevent than cure an Evil to save from Danger than deliver out of it then it is better to begin betimes with chastening of our Children to make them wise at our expence to let them know no Sin but by description to hinder them from making an Experiment so very unprofitable at best and fatal in the Event most commonly But Secondly betimes is also to be understood with respect to the Fault the first respecting Age would if 't were possible prevent the evil this latter is to put a speedy stop to it to hinder it from growing any farther the first Advice is to take all care imaginable that no corrupt or noxious Weeds should spring up in that pure and tender Soil the second is to root them out betimes if once they come so that to chasten betimes is to see that Punishment do constantly attend the Crime before it be forgotten and before an evil habit be contracted by the frequent repetition of evil Acts. First Before it be forgotten as well that it may not appear to proceed from a delight in Punishment or to be the effects of studied and deliberate Cruelty as also that the Fault being fresh in Memory the Justice and Reasonableness of the Infliction may the better appear and make the deeper Impression on the Mind and raise the greater Aversation and Abhorrence of the Thing that Impunity may not breed Security in Sin and that Children may not argue as older People often do that because Sentence is not speedily executed against an evil Work therefore their Hearts should be fully set in them to do Evil. 'T is a false and vicious Way of Arguing but because 't is obvious natural and too too easie it should be silenc'd quickly and convicted of its Falsehood that it may not impose on them a second Time But Lastly and most especially for fear of evil Habits being contracted the Dread of Punishment is the most natural Restraint upon the Mind t is the most powerfull Motive to Obedience the very Life of all Laws and without which they would be but a dead Letter and all the Reason in the World they should be so for who would obey against his Interest or who would practice against his

Parents there are too many and too intricate Circumstances to be consider'd before one can decisively pronounce on such Matters But neither of them are the safer for this Uncertainty and Doubt The Children shall unquestionably suffer for their own Sins and the Parents as unquestionably for their Neglect They have both of them Guilt enough and both of them shall have enough of Punishment the one for not having done what they shou'd the other for doing what they shou'd not Not that after all the Care and Discipline and early Chastisement the Parent is secure of the Event but secure of himself and his Design He has done his Duty and must leave the issue in the hands of of God he has taken the natural ready reasonable and usual and appointed Means and if the Strength of Temptations and the Violence of the Children's Passions or the Perverseness of their Wills obstruct and hinder these Means from attaining of their good End he has freed his Soul the Parent may be after that sad and unfortunate but has remov'd his Guilt and Punishment and next to the effecting what we would is the satisfaction of having done what one should And so much for Application to the Parent A word or two to the other Party and I have done and that not to persuade you that Reproof Restraint and Punishment are things eligible or no such grievous and uneasie States as they are fansied for they are undoubtedly uneasie States and just as bad as you experience them to be there is no arguing against sense or persuading against feeling but that you would believe since they proceed from People of the greatest Love and Tenderness and sore against their Inclinations that they are the most natural and necessary Means of effecting the greatest Good and preventing the greatest Evils in the World and so designed by those that do inflict them It is true what St. Paul observes in another case Heb. 12. I1 that no chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby You cannot love Correption and Restraint but when you shall hereaster see and feel the Effects of all this careful Discipline in the Fear of God in the Government of your Passions in Temperance in Chastity in Patience under evils in bearing Disappointments in the Joys of Innonence and the Comforts of a good Conscience then you will bless your Parents and Instructors who by their Admonitions seasonable Reproofs and early Chastisements delivered you from the Snares of Sin and Death from the Plague of a guilty Mind from an uneasie Remembrance of what is past and a fearful looking for of Evils to come which you will then desire to have avoided though with the utmost Pain and Torment and curse the Indulgence that prevented it You will have other Notions and Opinions of the Love of Parents and Instructors than you now have and therefore in the mean time let the Reason Wisdom and Experience of all Ages convince you that the Courses taken to make you good and happy are not only fit and suited to your Age and Tempers but necessary and unavoidable tho' for the present they appear so grievous and unacceptable and therefore ben't so hasty and impatient under them nor covet so to be deliver'd from them be not so fond of immature Manhood only because you think it is a State of Freedom from the Bondage of your Discipline That Age has no such Charms in it as you imagine and when aspir'd to so ambitiously and so unseasonably 't is only to perfect your Destruction and complete your Misery the sooner it is according to the good or ill Improvement of this your Season of Discipline that Manhood shall prove more or less comfortable the Ground is now a cultivating the Seed is now a sowing that shall spring up to lasting Honour and Advantage or to your lasting Shame and Ruine And therefore though the Heats of Fancy the Vigour of your springing Youth and Fervour of Complexion may suggest both strange and forward things yet trust them not nor listen to them It is but like the Gaiety that springs up from the Fumes of New Wine that warm and delight Men for a moment but soon evaporate and leave the Heart in greater Damps and Melancholy You will quickly find the Mischiefs of forsaking Discipline and all those gay Expectances will vanish and conclude in lamentable Disappointments but the trouble is that then Repentance comes too late the Time is irrecoverable and the Evil is irremediable And therefore to conclude learn to be wise in this your hour the Wisdom at least of suffering others to be wise and careful for you in things of which you have as yet no Knowledge or Experience and yet so necessary to you that thereupon depends the Welfare and Felicity of all your Lives FINIS