Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A10081
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Ianitor animæ: the soules porter to cast out sinne, and to keepe out sinne. A treatise of the feare of God. Written by William Price, Batchelour of Divinitie, and vicar of Brigstocke in Northamptonshire.
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Price, William, d. 1666.
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1638
(1638)
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STC 20335; ESTC S113693
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54,780
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288
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to bring it into act till after he fell As Adam standing had a power a facultie in him to bee pittifull if there had been an object whereupon to exercise his pitty And there is no question but in his innocent estate he feared God with the feare of honour reverence and observance Next for the Angels and Saints in heaven though that place will admit of no feare of punishment because no evill is possibly incident to the blessed for the celestiall pararadise is a mansion of eternall security wherin the enioyers are not onely safe but sure they are safe Et silvi securt But yet it doth not derogate from their happinesse to say that those that are in heaven doe feare God with a feare of honour and reverence which St Austin calles a secure feare Timor securus Aug. And Gregorie in his Morals speaking of those words in Iob the pillars of heaven tremble sayth Job 26.11 The powers in heaven stand in awe in the contemplation of God Virtutes coelestes in Dei contemplatione contremiscunt Greg. Non timor paenalis sed â—dmtrationis which feare he saith is not a penall feare but a feare of admiration extasie astonishment at the transcendent immensity of Gods glory And wee shall offer no violence to that Psal 19.9 The feare of God endures for ever and that Ier. 32.39 I will give them a heart to feare mee for ever if wee fasten this sence upon them CHAP. V. How the feare of God can stand with the love of God with joy faith and hope in God IT may be questioned next How the feare of God can consist and stand with the love of God and with joy faith and hope in God since it is sayd that perfect love casteth out feare 1 Ioh 4.18 and feare ioy feare and faith feare hope seem to bee plain contraries and to exclude each other To resolve which doubts we must know 1. For the love of God that though nothing is more opposite than sincere love and slavish feare yet none are more neare deare companions than love and the filiall feare of God Nothing is more fearfull than his love and nothing is more loving than his feare Where there is love Res est solliciti plâ—â—â— timo 〈…〉 there is a feare of the wronging of the thing beloved Love fulfills the Law sayth S. Paul And to feare God and obey him is the whole duty of man sayth Salomon Love is a grace that unites and knits the heart to God and feare is an uniting grace Psal 86.11 Vnite my heart to feare thy name sayth David I will put my feare into their hearts Jer. 32.40 and they shall not depart from me sayth God Feare and love keepe a man equally close to God And the same promises are made to love and feare in the Psalmist Psal 145.18.19 2. The case is as cleare for joy in God If feare and joy did expell each other David would never have said Rejoyce with trembling Psal 2.11 neither would he have joyned these two counsels together Feare the Lord Psal 112.1 and rejoyce greatly in his Commandements Hee that feares to offend God hath most cause of joy Gaudebit sapious coetert lasciviunt Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 14. Mat. 28.8 He that feares God is truly joyfull others are but wanton It is sayd of the two Maries that they departed with feare and great joy So that great joy and feare may stand together 3. The feare of God is no more an enemy to faith in God Noah beleeved that God would bring an universall deluge upon the world and yet save him from it and therefore beeing moved with feare hee prepared an Ark. Heb. 11.7 Noah being warned of God in faith and feare built an Arke Nothing is more common with David than to put faith and feare together Taste sayth he Psal 34.8.9 and see how good the Lord is blessed is the man that trusteth in him O feare the Lord all yee his Saints for there is no want to them that feare him The promises are made unto feare if therefore you feare God you may on that ground beleeve that God wil make his promises good to you You shall finde feare joy and faith linked together in two verses in the Psalme All men shall feare God Psal 6â— two last verses the righteous shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him Therfore the righteous feare God because they beleeve that God is just and powerfull And therefore many doe not feare God because they doe not beleeve Besides hee that stedfastly beleeves that God will save him wil not therefore presume but feare to dishonour so gracious a God 4. Feare and hope kisse each other also He that hopes sayth the Apostle purifies himself 1 Ioh. 3.3 that is he feares to present his God with an unpurified heart No man thinkes that that man hopes to rise who feares not to vex crosse and abuse his Prince A loyall subiect who feares to moove his Prince is the man of hopes And therefore David chaines feare and hope together The eye of the Lord sayth hee is upon them that Psal 33.18 feare him upon them that hope in his mercie And againe Psal 147.11 the Lord takes pleasure in those that feare him in those that hope in his mercie If the Soule triumph then in the Chariot of Grace whereof Love Ioy and Hope be three of the wheels I know not why the feare of God may not be a fourth wheele The Soule standing on these foure is like a foure square stone which way soever you cast it it falles right CHAP. VI. How far the filial feare of God may stand with the feare of Man THE filiall feare of God may stand 1. With the feare of reverence due unto men as they are subordinate unto God as they are the Deputies of God on earth God allowes that the sonne should honour his father and the servant his master and on this very ground hee challenges feare and honor to himselfe If then sayth hee I bee a Father where is my honor Mal. 1.6 If I be a Master where is my feare This feare of Man Saint Paul imposeth on us all Render to all their due Rom. 13.7 feare to whom feare honour to whom honour belongs and his reason is in the fore-going verse For they are Gods Ministers Hee cannot feare and reverence God whom doth not feare and reverence those that are Gods substitutes And therfore Salomon knew what he did when hee put these two duities together My son feare thou the Lord Pro. 24.21 and the King Feare the Lord first and most but yet feare the king too who is Gods Vicegerent on earth These two are not like the Arke and Dagon they will both stand under the roof of one heart Who feared God more than David and yet who feared King Saul more than hee
his heart smot him for cutting off but the skirt of K. Saul his garment 1 Sam. 24.4.5 Let the Pope whose religion is rebellion Forme of prayer on Novem. 5. and whose faith is faction perswade his mis-led fooles and his sworne slaves that to feare God and to kill Kings at his command are two vertues of one house Iam. 3.17 They whose religion is from above pure and peaceable know that light and darknesse heaven and hell God and the divell may as well have fellowship together The feare of God doth neither make voyd nor weaken this feare of observance towardes man but rather confirme and establish it 2. Wee may filially feare God and yet feare man with a feare of caution that is wee may feare the persecution and the societie of evill men 1. Wee may feare their persecutions our Saviour will justifie us in it Behold sayth he I send you forth as sheepe in the midst of wolves Mat. 10.16.17.23 Be yee therefore wise as Serpents and beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councels they wil scourge you in their Synagogues But when they shall persecute you in one Citie flye into another Moses fled from Pharaoh David from Saul Eliah from Iezebel Nay our Saviour himselfe from the Iewes Luke 4.29.30 when they would have cast him downe a hill When Athanasius was persecuted by the Arrians hee made this motion to his friends Secedamus ad tempus nubecula est quae citò evanescet Let us step aside for a time till this tempest bee overpast it will not bee long afore this little cloud vanishes And when his persecutors upbraided him with his flight he returned this answer to them Si sugere mihi turpe vobis me persequi turpius If it be a shame for me to flie it is a greater shame for you to persecute me Thus we may feare persecution 2. We may feare the societie of bad men both for the infection and the danger of it 1. We have just cause to feare the contagion of ill company Grex totus magris unius scabie cadit Iuv. Cum inter homines fui redeo inbumanior Sen. When I have been among men sayth Seneca I returne from them more inhumane Beware sayth Christ of false prophets who come to you in sheeps clothing Mat. 17.15 but within are ravening wolves Like our sneaking Masse-priests that pretend a pitty towardes our soules Haeretici sub specie corsulendi agunt negotium seducendi Greg. Mot. but their end is to make us seven-fold more the children of the Divell Heretickes act seducers under the habits of Counsellors And of such Saint Paul forewarnes us gives us their Character Traytors heady 2 Tim. 3.4.5 high-minded having a forme of godlinesse but denying the power thereof From such turne away 2. We have authority for fearing as the infection so the danger of ill societie by no lesse than a voyce from heaven Come out from Babylon my people Rev. 18.4 lest you bee partakers of her sins and of her plagues We read in Ecclesiasticall history that S. Iohn the Apostle being in a Bath at Ephesus wherin Cerinthus a grand Hereticke was bathing himselfe he leaped out of the Bath as if he had spied a serpent and with these words in his mouth I feare lest the ground should sink under me whereon such a mortall enemy of the truth stands So then the feare of God may stand with Nay what if I say it cannot stand without this kinde of feare of men Besides I must adde to prevent all mistake that Gods dearest saints and servants may bee tempted though not habitually yet actually to feare Man more than God The feare of man moved Abraham to deny his wife Sarah Gen. 20.2 so that shee might have beene exposed to Abimelechs lust The feare of K ng Saul moved Samuel to refuse to goe at Gods command 1 Sam. 16.1.2 to annoynt David King Davids feare of King Achish 1 Sam. 21.12.23 moved him to the dishonour both of religion and manhood to faine himselfe mad to scrabble on the dores and to let fall his spittle on his beard afore king Achish Ionah the Prophet Iona 1.2.3 his feare of the Ninivites moved him when hee was sent by God one way to flye another Iona 1.2.3 The feare of man moved Peter to deny Christ his master with an oath Mat. 26.69 and a bitter execration And yet when the Saints thus feare men 1. The Spirit of the feare of God hath residence in them Those that are in heaven are all spirit and no flesh the wicked on earth are all flesh and no spirit The saints on earth are partly flesh and partly spirit new converts are more flesh lesse spirit Ancient standers in the schoole of Grace are more spirit lesse flesh In all the faithfull there is a combate betweene the flesh and the spirit Gal. 5.17 The flesh and the spirit are contrary to each other so that we cannot doe the things that we would The spirit is willing but the flesh is weake A Christian betweene these two is like a peece of iron between two load-stones the one drawes one way and the other the other way like a horse under an unskilfull rider that spurres him on and reines him in Sometimes the spirit hath the better of the flesh sometimes the flesh hath the upper hand of the spirit sometimes the carnall feare of man prevailes against the filiall feare of GOD. When the Saints are thus shaken and winnowed by the reliques of sin in them and by the temptation of Sathan they are not hereby proved to bee chaffe though it appeares that they are not without chaffe 2. As this feare of men in good men is not separated from the true feare of God so neither from the true love of God When S. Peter denied Christ he did not hate Christ Non odio habendo Christum sâ—d scipsum nimis amando only he loved himselfe too much saith Saint Bernard It is one thing for a man to fall throgh the feare of the world another thing to fall through the love of the world for he that loves the world hates God if wee beleeve S. Iames Iam. 4.4 But hee that sometimes over-feares the world may yet both dearly love and sincerely feare God 3. When hee that feares God doth thus over-feare man hee doth it not with the uninterrupted swing of his affection but hee resists this carnall feare and heartily desires that it were wholly expelled and that the feare of God in him were perfect and unmixed Thy servants desire to feare thy name Nehem. 1.11 sayth Nehemiah The feare of man in them is a tyrant that forces their subjection not their King to whom they freely yeeld their homage 4. When the filiall fearers of God doe fall thus through the feare of men they fall not upon premeditation but suddenly beeing surprized by