Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	good_a	hate_v	hatred_n	2,544	5	9.6222	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25835	The souls worth and danger, or A discourse exciting and directing to the due care of its eternal salvation upon the words of our blessed saviour	Armstrong, John, 1634 or 5-1698.	1677 (1677)	Wing A3708B; ESTC R214882	33,452	78

thankful for But as they are abstracted from God and inordinately loved sought and trusted in so they have this five-fold vanity which is but too easily discovered in them namely their unsatisfactoriness their commoness their deceitfulness their unsuitableness and unprofitableness 1. That which speaks the little worth but great vanity of worldly things is their unsatisfactoriness Ahab had the possession of a wealthy Kingdome and yet for want of Naboths vineyard only how was he heart-sick so as to take no content in all his other enjoyments 1 Kings 21. 4. In like manner to what a wonderful height of dignity and earthly happiness was Human advanced and yet how did so inconsiderable a thing as the want of poor Mordecaie's knee damp all the delights of his proud heart Esther 5. 11 12 13. Knock at the door of the Choicest earthly possessions and they will tell you one by one sufficiency is not in me The creature if parted from God is empty and the Soul too and what fulness can be had by adding one emptiness to another Many a poor man hath thought if I had but enough to supply such necessaries and discharge such debts how chearfully would I serve the Lord without distraction and not care so much for the world any more But when these desires have been granted they have found themselvs still unsatisfied being ready now to thirst as much after fulness as before after necessaries It is God only who is All-sufficient both as to his own happiness and our satisfaction Gen. 17. 1. It is Christ the uncreated Wisdome Prov. 8. 21. Who fills the treasures of those that love him and causeth them to inherit substance And if he do not make God ours as well as the creature our condition will be but like theirs mentioned Haggai 1. 6. Ye have sown much and bring in little Ye eat but ye have not enough Ye drink but ye are not filled with drink ye clothe you but there is none warm and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes Solomon that was so rich to compass all worldly accommodations and so wise to find out what was best in them to be enjoyed after a full experience tells us that if they lead not to God they will be but vanity and vexation of Spirit 2. How doth the Commonness of these worldly things abate the value of them Eccl. 9. 1 2. They come alike to all and none can certainly know by them either love or hatred whether they be the friends or enemies of God You cannot say God gives me poverty therefore he hates me or he gives me riches therefore he loves me such conclusions are weak and deceitful For the good may be afflicted as well as the bad and sometimes undergoe the heaviest burden of earthly trouble Luke 16. 15. And on the other hand the wicked may flourish for a while as well as the righteous and sometimes enjoy the greatest measure of worldly prosperity Psal 17. 13 14. Renewing grace is a certain sign of Gods favour and a special distinguishing mercy and therefore highly to be esteemed and earnestly sought after but outward comforts common natural gifts and acquired abilities as a fair estate an healthful body a faithful memory a quick understanding a ready utterance or the like these though blessings in themselves yet are but blessings of the left hand such as are given to the heathen Idolater as well as to the Christian Worshipper to the clean and unclean to him that sacrificeth and him that sacrificeth not And therefore this their commonness shews much of their vanity and worthlesness 3. How is there in worldly things a vanity of deceitfulness which also speaks them less valuable How many people come to the world as to a lottery looking for a prize but go away cheated with a blank How often doth the world by promising much and performing little first abuse our Judgements and then frustrate our hopes and expectations Have you not sometimes found creature-confidences like the trusting in the Staff of a brokenreed whereon if a man lean it will go into his hand and pierce it Isa 36. 6. Have you not sometimes enjoyed the pleasures of sin for a season and flattered your self with the long continuance of them Whereas that season is gone and never returns again Can you not remember what happiness you may have promised your self in such a friend such a purchase such a preferment but some unexpected disappointment or other some Crosse or other hath much imbittered them unto you and lessened your comfort in their enjoyment The mutability of the world is the great deceit of it which that we may avoid let us duly consider what the Apostle hath written 1 Tim. 6. 6 7 8 9 10 17 18 19. And again 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. Oh let us not suffer our selves to be imposed upon counting that to continue long which he according to the experience of all tells us shall abide but a short while and then passe away Oh let us not think with them Isa 56. 12. what carnal delights we will have this day and to morrow much more abundant Oh let us not say with him S t Luke 12. 19 20. Soul take thine ease eat drink be merry thou hast much goods layd up for many years Least we be awakened with that terrible voice of God saying as unto him Thou fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Why should we inordinately set our hearts and affections on that which is not for as Prov. 23. 5. Riches honours pleasures make themselves wings and fly away When we think our selves most sure of them when we trust most in them when by the abuse of them we are become most proud stomackful secure and negligent of Gods service then are we most sadly deceived then the wing of prodigality of oppression of casualty sweeps them from us or else the wing of death carries us away from them in a moment But suppose the world to perform more then it promiseth and that we could be sure of it for a very considerable while yet have we not immortal Souls to provide for Have we not matters of life or death to look after And what can all the world be to this Oh therefore how nearly doth it concern us to lay up in store for our selves a sure foundation for the time to come to anchor our Souls upon Christ the rock of ages who will never deceive us and not to hazard them for any thing in this worthless because deceitful and changeable world 4. That which further shews the worthlesness of the things of the world is their vanity of unsutableness in respect of the precious Soul Those are corporeal and fading this is spiritual and immortal Those are limited and finite beings this a substance of unbounded desires and can be fully satisfied with nothing but communion with the Father and the