Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	consist_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	17	3	10.0125	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44148	The true reformation of manners, or, The nature and qualifications of true zeal in a sermon preach'd in the parish church of Bridgewater : occasion'd by a more than ordinary concourse of dissenters there, upon that pretence / by Matth. Hole ...	Hole, Matthew, 1639 or 40-1730.	1699 (1699)	Wing H2414; ESTC R8060	15,367	34

that they ran well for a time in their Christian Course but they soon waxed faint and tired and so lost the Prize for not holding out to the end of the Race Christianity is often in Scripture styl'd a Warfare in which you know 't is not the furious Charge but the deliberate Courage and Constancy that wins the Field In like manner 't is Perseverance only that commends our Zeal and crowns our Actions with success and victory And therefore the Apostle wills us to hold on in our Christian Course and to be zealously affected always even to the end which is the first Qualification of true Zeal The second respects the Object about which it is conversant and that must be a good thing It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing where we are taught to measure the goodness of our Zeal not by the height of the Passions of which 't is compos'd but by the goodness of the thing about which 't is employ'd And here two things are to be observ'd for the better clearing of this Matter As First The object of our Zeal may be sometimes a thing that is evil and yet a Zeal about it may be a good and commendable thing as for example All Sin in general and particularly Atheism Profaneness Sacriledge Schism and the like are all very bad things and yet to be zealous against these is to be Zealously affected in a good thing but here the Zeal consists not in the love but hatred of them not in practising but punishing of them yea the worse the thing is the better is the Zeal that is employ'd against it Thus the more bold and daring any Sin or Wickedness is grown the higher act of Zeal is it to oppose and suppress it Again Secondly A thing may be materially good and yet a Zeal about it may be sometimes a very bad thing as for instance All acts of Religion in general and particularly Praying Hearing Reformation of Manners and the like are all very good things and yet a seeming Zeal about them may be sometimes a very evil and pernicious thing as when they are embas'd by bad Ends and made use of to promote evil Designs you know the Pharisees made long Prayers the better to devour Widows houses you cannot be ignorant how some upon occasion attend the publick Worship only to qualify them for an Office and take the holy Sacrament to enable them to undermine the Communion of the Church Do not some talk much of reforming the Manners of others without any regard at all to their own 'T is no new thing to pretend Reformation to carry on very bad Designs and we all know what vile things have been acted under a cloak and colour of Religion so that a great talk and appearance for Reformation may be rather Collusion than Zeal and a pompous shew of Religion about it may be rather a mocking than serving of GOD. In short A thing may be materially good and carry a fair shew of being so and yet may want many Qualifications that are necessary to make it really and in truth such It may proceed from a bad Principle be carried on by bad Means and tend to a bad End either of these may spoil the goodness of the thing and marr the Zeal that is employ'd about it The Object then of Zeal may be good and evil and a hearty loving of the one and hating the other will justify our Zeal in both for as Goodness hath charms enough to engage the Affections so Sin hath deformity enough to beget dislike and aversation and consequently to be zealous for the one and against the other is in both to be zealously affected in a good thing But to come to particulars What are those good or evil things about which our Zeal may be thus lawfully and laudably employ'd I shall mention some of the chief of them the better to direct you in these great and weighty Matters of Religion As First To be zealous for the Glory of GOD and the Honour of his Laws is to be zealously affected in a good thing The Glory of GOD is the great end of our Creation and as the Almighty ever propounds it to Himself so ought we to make it the principal aim and scope of all our Actions Whether ye eat or drink saith the Apostle or whatever ye do do all to the praise and glory of God 1 Cor. 10. This is to be the chief care and business of our Lives in which if we are sincere we cannot easily exceed for the highest degrees of all pious Affections are to be fix'd on GOD He is to have our most ardent Love our strongest Desire our firmest Hope our purest Joy all which when screw'd up to the highest pitch fall vastly short of the infinite Perfections of his Nature and our great Obligations to his Goodness And therefore our Minds should be eagerly bent on things whereby GOD may be glorified that his Power Wisdom and Goodness may be celebrated in the World and his Praises sound to the ends of the Earth Again We are to set our selves with all our might and main against those things whereby GOD may be dishonoured his Name prophan'd his Worship neglected or contemn'd we are to have a tender love and esteem for GOD's Laws and be deeply affected with the breach and violation of them These are proper Matter for our Zeal and are to be prosecuted with the utmost warmth and vigour of all our Faculties and when we stand thus affected to the Honour of GOD and his Laws then may we be truly said to be zealously affected in a good thing yea in the chiefest good and the best of things Secondly To be zealous for the Honour of CHRIST and the Doctrine deliver'd by Him is to be zealously affected in a good thing This is the Zeal here recommended by St. Paul namely To strive for the Truths of the Gospel against those false Teachers that would subvert or undermine them And herein we of this Age ought to be more than ordinarily zealous when the Being and Divinity of CHRIST are both call'd in question and the Mysteries of the Gospel not only denied but derided Is not a Crucified Saviour once more become a stumbling block to some and to others foolishness And do not too many use their Tongues and Wits in decrying all Divine Revelations And is it not time to appear for Christ and his Religion in such a profane and dissolute Age St. Jude exhorts Christians to Contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints and elsewhere we are charg'd not to let go but to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering meaning that we should not betray it by Cowardise nor corrupt it with Error nor suffer it to be lost or swallowed up by Infidelity but to come forth in the defense of the Truth against all its Adversaries to use our utmost endeavours in our several Stations to vindicate the