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	keep_v	love_v	23,346	5	7.4368	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51227	A sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, on the 28th of May, 1682 by John Moore ...	Moore, John, 1646-1714.	1682 (1682)	Wing M2552; ESTC R20127	21,938	53

inestimable Value it is a Kingdom but he that sets himself to rest and folds his hands shall never be the better for it for that Kingdom shall only be taken and possest by them who violently invade it Nothing can be perform'd without Gods assistance who works in men to will and to do but then it is only in those who Concur with him and do work out their own Salvation with Care and Concernment with fear and trembling Christ has purchased for us a liberty as to Places and Times as to the choice and difference of meats but not a liberty to omit our Duty or do the least sin he has freed our shoulders from the burden of Moses Law but not discharged our obligation to any one Moral Virtue or Law of nature The Faith that will carry a man to Heaven must be a Faith that Worketh by love and love is the keeping the Commandments So the holy Scripture declares so the Primitive Fathers taught St. Ignatius makes Faith and Love the whole Duty of a Christian Faith the beginning Love the end Faith the guide Love the way and he hardly ever recommends the one but in the Company of the other Faith preceeds Fear builds Love makes perfect 5 That whatsoever Doctrines are not according to Godliness are so far from being necessary that they cannot be true For if it be the Scope and End of the Gospel to advance Godliness and that it is an argument both of the Credebility and excellency of it that it does so as I have before prov'd then it plainly follows if we suppose the Doctrine of the Gospel to be a true Doctrine that all such Opinions as are either contrary to the Godliness or do disserve the interests of it can neither be necessary Doctrines nor true ones Seeing then the truth of this Proposition is evident from the foregoing discourse I shall only now make it my business briefly to reflect on some of the many ill opinions which tho they have been taught for sound and Orthodox yet upon examination will appear not to be according to Godliness 1. The first I take notice of is that of Gods being the Author of Sin which has been expresly maintained by some men Now it is not possible that Opinion should be true which is inconsistent with the Reason of mankind or manifestly repugnant to the Attributes of God for all Controversies in Religion must be decided by Reason either from the Principles of Natural Religion or Divine Revelation and from the Principles of Natural Religion it is evident that there can be nothing in a Religion which comes from God that is repugnant to his Essential Attributes that is to himself Now that God should be the Author of Sin that is the Author of what does offend and dishonour him is very absurd and unreasonable that he should be Author of that which he has so often and solemnly declared he does abhor and detest thwarts with the attribute of his truth and that he should be the efficient cause of all the wickedness which is done and he will so severely Punish is a gross repugnancy not only to his infinite goodness but his justice it self Such Opinions as these deprive God of the holiness essential to his Nature and which even by the Gentiles unassisted with the light of the Gospel in their Praiers and Devotions was constantly ascribed to him 2. The Doctrine of irrespective decrees cannot be according to Godliness because it takes away the ground of all the motives to a Godly Life For if a man be included within the decree of Election the greatest sins will not Damn him and if he be left out of it the most holy Life cannot put him in a capacity of Salvation Again if God has decreed to save or reprobate men without regard had to either their good or evil Lives then they will be saved or lost without any respect had of either for what God has decreed that certainly will come to pass but to say that Men shall have sentence pass upon them to go either to Heaven or Hell without any consideration of their Faith and Obedience on one hand or their infidelity and impenitence on the other is to make a day of Judgment unnecessary and repugnant to that justice according to which God has declared he will then proceed We must all appear before the judgment of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 3. Among these ill Opinions we may rank that of the Popish Casuists who teach that the precept of loving God is in it self only Obligatory at the very point of Death altho we be always under the protection of Gods unwearied Providence and do every moment that we breath receive good at his hand tho there is no day of our Lives but we offend and stand in fresh need of his mercy yet these Licentious Casuists to say no worse of 'em are of opinion that it is a sufficient return of Gratitude to God for the infinite and unspeakable Acts of his love to us if in the end of our Lives we express one act of Love towards him But there needs no other Confutation in this Auditory of an Opinion so impious and directly contrary to the first and greatest Commandment of the Evangelical Law than the bare rehersal of it 4. Another Doctrine to be reflected upon is that which Teaches and Directs us to the use of such Means for the promotion of Christian Religion as are destructive of the ends of it The end of Christian Religion is to make men sincere in what they profess true to their word and upright in their dealings and therefore they who by lying and perjury equivocation and reserves endeavor to propagate the Religion of our Blessed Savior do by the means they use subvert the end they pretend to serve The design of Christian Religion is to teach men Peace and Subjection to all lawful Authority therefore they who would instil Principles of Sedition and Rebellion in order to the work of Reformation do defile and corrupt that pure Religion which they make such a shew of reforming The end of Christian Religion is to render men harmless kind and Charitable one to another therefore they who Condemn mens bodies to the stake and fire in order to refine their Minds and cut their Throats to save their Souls instead of doing service to the institution of Christ they bring the utmost slander and disgrace upon it that possibly they can No we must not doe evil that good may come of it we may not make use of unlawful means to bring about an honest end God in no Case will allow it neither can true Religion ever be reduced to such extremity as to stand in need of it But the time not allowing that I should further pursue this point or take any more of the

end all the Precepts of our Lord all his great actions and grievous sufferings were directed But for the further illustration and proof of this point give me leave to offer these three things to your Consideration 1. That not any of the Discourses or Sermons of our Saviour were made upon Subjects purely speculative The Sermons he Preacht were to teach men to be humble meek pure and peaceable to bear reviling language patiently and willingly to submit to Persecution for Righteousness sake to put hypocrisy out of Countenance and to reform such notions in Religion as were impediments to real Piety and upheld men in wicked life And in this Course he was carefully follow'd by his Apostles and those who were joyned with them in planting his Religion Concerning the Original of the Soul whether it be immediately Created or infused or deriv'd from the Parents and the manner of its Union with the body concerning the orders ranks and numbers of the Angels and how they converse and convey their thoughts to each other concerning the bounds figure and capacity of Heaven the Scholemen have written great Volums but the Inspired Writers have treated very sparingly because an accurate skill in these nice speculations and much acquaintance with them will not make us one jot the better men since we may have our heads ful of these curious notions without advancing one step nearer Heaven and being in the least degree more acceptable to God 2. The revelation God has made of himself in Scripture is such as most Conduceth to the promotion of Godliness and of his great design of putting us upon the attainment of these qualifications which can only fit us for the Kingdom of Heaven and are the necessary terms of our Salvation for there we constantly find God to be set forth as Just and Righteous in all his works as pure and holy in all his ways and as the rewarder only of them who love and fear him and keep his Commandments Nay God is there pleased to ascribe unto to himself the passions of men love hatred anger revenge hope grief and repentance not that these passions are properly in God who is wholy free from the imperfections which cause them in us but meerly in Condescension to the weakness of our Nature and to help the slowness of our understanding to the end that what is there declared to be the object of Gods Love and Hatred his Grief or Anger might be the object of ours likewise and more strongly affect us And as an Evidence of this we may Observe that these passions hardly ever are attributed to God in Scripture but to encourage Virtue or discourage Vice So true is it that the several descriptions the Bible giveth us of God are accommodated to the Doctrine of Godliness and do tend to the advancement of it Now as this seems to be the only Reason why God has made some discovery of the Perfections of his blessed Nature unto us that we should profoundly reverence him and sincerely love him and Religiously conform our selves unto his Will so if we neglect to answer the ends of this glorious manifestation God will declare at the day of Judgment that he knows us not as he has already declared we know not him he that saith he hath known him and keepeth not his Commandements is a liar and the truth is not in him Upon this Argument St. Basil speaks excellently taking his occasion from those words of our Lord. I know my sheep and am known of mine What do you mean by knowing do you understand what Gods Essence is or can you measure his greatness no my sheep know me that is they hear my Voice See then by what means you may Arrive at the knowledg of God it is by hearing his Commands and doing them when you have heard them The knowledg then of God consists in the observation of his Commandments not in a curious prying into the nature of his Essence and the things above the World not in the contemplations of Invisible Beings my Sheep know me and I know Mine It is enough for you to know you have a good Shepherd who hath layd down his life for the Sheep Let this then be the bounds of your knowledg of God But the questions that concern the immensity of the Divine Nature are dangerous to him who puts them and can never be penetrated into by him who undertakes to answer them the best cure for such is silence So that knowledg and practice how much soever they may differ in our notions of them are in Christian Religion but two terms importing the same matter And as they who keep not the Commandments cannot in a Scripture sense without a lie pretend that they know God so neither at the day of Judgment will Christ know them who lived in disobedience to the great laws of his Religion and neglected the chief instances of their Duty Insomuch that to those who have eaten and drank in his presence and heard him Preach in their Streets and upon that score only do claime a knowledg of him and an interest in his Death and Sufferings he will reply I tell ye I know not whence you are depart from me all ye Workers of iniquity Wherefore that man does but deceive himself and will in the end certainly miscarry who diligently Searches after Knowledg only that he may gratify a vain curiosity and qualify himself to become an able Disputant in Religion for all our knowledg will avail us nothing unless it have an influence upon our practice and prove serviceable to us in the reformation of our manners In this State then of Imperfection and tryal of our Obedience we need to enquire no further after the Essence of God and study the mysteries of his incomprehensible Nature then it may either serve to instruct us in such Instances and Cases as 't is our Duty to imitate him and be as conformable to him as we can or furnish us with Arguments that will give us courage to break through the difficulties and opposition that we may meet with in our Christian Race and minister Patience and Comfort to us under the bitterest Persecutions we shall suffer for the sake of our Master and because we would not do violence to our Consciences Indeed in the life that will follow this we shall see God as he is and all the glories of the Divinity will lie open to our eys Then in the Company of the whole Church Triumphant of all the Saints and Angels we shall stand round about the Throne and for ever behold search into admire and adore the infinite wisdom and goodness and Power of God and with the highest transport of Love and joy we shall bless and praise and magnify the Lamb with whose blood all our defilements are washt away and our Robes made white and by whose all-powerful mediation we are admitted into the glorious presence of God and shall continue to all Eternity as much as