Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	commandment_n	john_n	love_v	9,696	5	7.3869	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42834	The way of happiness represented in its difficulties and incouragements, and cleared from many popular and dangerous mistakes / by Jos. Glanvill ...	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1670 (1670)	Wing G835; ESTC R23021	46,425	190

earnestly of the love of Christ and express a mighty love to his name yet this may be too without any real conformity unto him in his Life and Laws The Jews spoke much of Moses in him they believed and in him they trusted Iohn v. 45 His name was a sweet sound to their ears and 't was very pleasant upon their tongues and yet they hated the Spirit of Moses and had no love to those Laws of his which condemned their wicked actions And we may see how many of those love Christ that speak often and affectionately of him by observing how they keep his Commandments John xiv 15 especially those of meekness mercy and universal love Thus imperfect strivers may imploy themselves in the external offices of Religion I have instanced only in Three the like may be said of the rest And to this I add That they may not only exercise themselves in the outward matters of duty but may arrive to some things that are accounted greater heights and are really more and spiritual and refined To instance SECT V. I. THey may have some love to God Goodness and good men The Soul naturally loves beauty and perfection and all mankind apprehend God to be of all Beings the most beautiful and perfect and therefore must needs have an intellectual love for him The reason that that love takes no hold of the passions in wicked men is partly because they are diverted from the thoughts of Him by the objects of sense but chiefly because they consider him as their enemy and therefore can have no complacency or delight in him who they think hath nothing but thoughts of enmity and displeasure against them But if once they come to be perswaded as many times by such false marks as I have recited they are that God is their Father and peculiar Friend that they are his chosen and his darlings whom he loved from eternity and to whom he hath given his Son and his Spirit and will give Himself in a way of the fullest enjoyment Then the Love that before was only an esteem in the understanding doth kindle in the affections by the help of the conceit of Gods loving them so dearly and the passion thus heated runs out even into seraphick and rapturous Devotions while yet all this is but meer animal love excited chie●ly by the love of our selves not of the Divine Perfections And it commonly goes no further then to earnest expressions of extraordinary love to God in our Prayers and Discourses while it appears not in any singular obedience to his Laws or generous and universal love to mankind which are the ways whereby the true Divine Love is exprest for This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments saith the Apostle 1 Iohn v. 3 And as to the other thus If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us 1 John iv 12 And on the contrary If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar John iv 20 Charity then and universal obedience are the true arguments and expressions of our love to God and these suppose a victory over corrupt inclinations and self-will But the other love which ariseth from the conceit of our special dearness to God upon insufficient grounds that goes no further then to some suavities and pleasant fancies within our selves and some passionate complements of the Image we have set up in our imaginations This Love will consist with Hatred and contempt of all that are not like our selves yea and it will produce it those poisonous fruits and vile affections may be incouraged and cherish'd under it So that there may be some love to God in evil men But while self-self-love is the only motive and the more prevalent passion it signifieth nothing to their advantage And as the imperfect striver may have some love to God so he may to piety and vertue every man loves these in Idea The vilest sinner takes part in his affections with the vertuous and religious when he seeth them described in History or Romance and hath a detestation for those who are character'd as impious and immoral Vertue is a great Beauty and the mind is taken with it while 't is consider'd at a distance and our corrupt interests and sensual affections are not concern'd 'T is These that recommend sin to our love and choice while the mind stands on the side of vertue with that we serve the Law of God but with the flesh the law of sin Rom. vii 25 So that most wicked men that are not degenerated into meer Brutes have this mental and intellectual love to goodness That is they approve and like it in their minds and would practise it also were it not for the prevalent biass of flesh and sense And hence it will follow likewise That the same may approve and respect good men They may reverence and love them for their Charity Humility Iustice and Temperance though themselves are persons of the contrary Character yet they may have a great and ardent aff●ction for those that are eminently pious and devout though they are very irreligious themselves The conscience of vertue and of the excellency of Religion may produce this in the meer natural man who is under the dominion of vile inclinations and affections and therefore this is no good mark of godliness neither Our love to God and goodness will not stead us except it be prevalent And as the love described may be natural and a meer animal man may arrive unto it So II. He may to an extraordinary zeal for the same things that are the objects of his love Hot tempers are eager where they take either kindness or displeasure The natural man that hath an animal love to Religion may be violent in speaking and acting for things appertaining to it If his temper be devotional and passionate he becomes a mighty zealot and fills all places with the fame of his godliness His natural fire moves this way and makes a mighty blaze Ahab was very zealous and 't is like 't was not only his own interest that made him so 2 Kings x. 16 The Pharis●es were zealous people and certainly their zeal was not always personated and put on but real Though they were Hypocrites yet they were such as in many things deceived themselves as well as others They were zealous for their Traditions and they believ'd 't was their duty to be so St. Paul while a persecutor was zealous against the Disciples and he thought he ought to do many things against that name And our Saviour foretells that those zealous murderers that should kill his Saints should think They did God good service in it John xvi 2 So that all the zeal of the natural man is not feigning and acting of a part nor hath it always evil objects The Pharisees were zealous against the wickedness of the Publicans and Sinners Zeal then and that in earnest for Religion may be in

Instrument of our Happiness and means that we must use implied in striving viz. SECT III. III. ACtive endeavour in which Repentance and the fruits of it are implied Both Faith and Prayer are in order to this and without it they can neither of them turn to account For Faith without works is dead Jam. ii 20 and Prayer without endeavour fruitless yea indeed in the Divine estimate it is ●one at all 'T is bodily exercise no Prayer For when we invoke Gods ●elp we desire it that we may use ●t Divine grace is not a Treasure to lay up by us but an instrument to ●ork with And when we pray that God would assist us in our endea●ours and endeavour not at all we mock God and trifle with him in our Prayers I say then That en●eavour is necessary and necessary in ● degree so eminent that this is always included in Faith when 't is ●aken in the highest and noblest ●vangelical sense viz. for the Faith ●hich justifies and saves for that ●omprehends all those endeavours ●nd their fruits whereby we are ●ade happy We must not expect that God ●hould do all exclusively in the ●ork of our Salvation He doth his part and we must do ours though we do that by his help too He that made us without o●● selves will not save us without o●● selves said the Father We are commanded to seek Mat vii 7 To Ru● 1 Cor. ix 24 To fight 1 Tim. vi 12 To give diligence 2 Pet. i. 10 The●● all import action and endeavour And that endeavour must not b● only a faint purpose or formal service but it must be imployed in the highest degree of care and diligence The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence Mat xi 12 and thi● violence must not be used in at heat and sudden fit only that cools and dies and contents it self with having been warm for a time Bu● it must be a steady and constan● course of activity a continual striving to overcome the remaining difficulties of the way We must endeavour then vigorously and constantly and in that after our Faith is strengthned by deep consideration and divine assistance implored by ardent Prayer our course is I. To abstain from all the outward actions of SIN and to perform the external acts of the contrary vertues To cease to do evil Isa. i. 16 is the first step When the Publicans askt Iohn the Baptist Luke iii. 12 what they should do His direction was That they should not exact vers 13. and to the Souldiers asking the same question he answers Do violence to no man vers 14. These were the sins of their particular Professions which were to be quitted before any thing could be done higher We have ordinarily more power over our actions than our habits and therefore we should begin here and resolve deeply by divine help to cut off those supplies that feed vitious inclinations For wicked habits are maintain'd by actions of wickedness when they cease the inclinations grow more faint and weak And when we are come but thus far to have confined our lusts we shall be encouraged to proceed to destroy them 'T is said There is no great distance between a Princes Prison and his Grave The saying is most true in the Case of Tyrants and Usurpers ● and the habits of sin are both when they are restrain'd they are not fa● from being destroyed if we imploy our endeavours and the divine aids as we ought This then I say must be don● First and the other part of the advice must be taken with it viz. we must ●ractise the outward actions of the ●ontrary vertues We must do well when we cease to do evil When we ●urn from darkness it must be to ●ight Acts xxvi 18 Not from one ●ind of darkness to another When we cease to oppress we must be ●haritable when we leave to tyran●ize over our inferiours we must ●e kind and helpful to them When ●e forbear to slander we must ●eak all the good we can of our Neighbour The outward actions of vertue ●re in our power and 't is somewhat ●o come so far as this What is ●ore viz. The inward love and de●●ght in goodness will succeed in ●●me if we persevere 'T is not ●●fe for us to propose to our selves ●●e greatest heights at first if we do we are discouraged and fall back God accepts even of that little if it be in order to more He despiseth not the day of small things Zech. iv 10 If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted Christ loved the young man who had kept the external part of the Commandments Mark x. 21 If he had had the courage to have proceeded what he had done would have steaded him much The inward love of vertue and holiness is promoted by the outward exercises o● them and hereby the contrary evils are both pined and thrust out Thus of the First thing ●hat endeavour implies upon this mu●● follow next II. An attempt up●n evil habi●● viz. Those that have been super● induced on us by car●lesness an● temptation bad customs and evil company Every victory is a means to another we grow stronger and the enemy weaker by it To have overcome the outward acts of sin is a beginning in our spiritual warfare but our chief enemies are the habits these must be attempted also but with prudence wild beasts are not to be dealt with by main strength A●t and stratagem must be used in ●his War and 't is good policy I think ●ere to fight the least powerful foes ●irst the contracted habits before we fall on the inbred natural inclinations While our forces are weak ●tis dangerous setting upon the ●trongest holds viz. the vices of ●omplexion which are woven into our very natures If a man apply ●ll his force where he hath not reso●ution enough to go through with what he undertakes he receives a foyl and 't is odds but he sits down and faints Prudence therefore is to be used where we distrust our strength Fall upon sin then where 't is weakest where it hath least of nature and least of temptation and where we have arguments from reputation and worldly interests wherewith to war against it If we prevail we are heartned by the success Our Faith and resolution will grow stronger by this experience when we have triumpht over the sins of evil custom example and sensual indulgence And when that is done we must remember that 't is not enough that those habits are thrust out others must be planted in their room when the soyl is prepared the seed must be sown and the seeds of vertuou● habits are the actions of vertue These I recommended under the last head and shall say more of the introducing habits under one that follows on purpose III. The next advance in our endeavours is In the strength of God and in the Name of his Son to assault the gre●ter Devils and to strive to cast out them I mean the sins of