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
A76517	Remarks, and animadversions, on Mr. Keith's two sermons, being his first after ordiantion, [sic] preached at the parish church of St. George's Butolphs-Lane, London, May the 12th. 1700. on St. Luke i. 6 Now impartially compared with his former writings, setting George against Keith, and endeavouring to reconcile them, by shewing what he should have said upon the subjest. By W.B. a communicant of the Church of England.	W. B.	1700 (1700)	Wing B224; ESTC R230841	17,705	18

any are so much our Enemies that they will never be our Friends God may and can turn their Hearts 3dly 〈◊〉 must never do any Evil which will make it impossible for our Enemies to be happy they are vital parts which must in no wise be cut off unless the case is very desperate True they are Men liable to Errors but yet as I was capable of Information they are God's Image and our Flesh and Bone let us not be angry with them if they have hitherto loitered and comes to be hired at the Ninth Hour Let us imitate our Lord and Master and as he has loved us so love one another and reward them as well for one Hour as if they had laboured all the Day Yet what if our Enemies be Infidels evil and foolish or no Christians having put off common Civility and Humanity verily the greater than is their Misery but since they are not Devils being as I was capable of a recovery the more compassionable are their case therefore to be pittied for its unnatural Cruelty monstrous Inhumanity and hellish Malice to hate and prosecute any in Misery What if they be our Enemies they are Friends to many others as good if not better than our selves and can't we be satisfied with and love that which is our particular Interest if others receive Advantage by it For if the Rain that overflows me makes my Neighbours Field fruitful I ought not to and must not dislike it or if the Sun warms thousands by its heat and scorches me or the Season by which I suffer favours many others I am not to be displeased we are all God's People and Sheep of his Pasture therefore we have the greatest engagement laid upon us to mutual Kindness and Good-will nay that Christian Virtue is more innocent and doth less harm to both our selves and others and as we find by sweet experience ordinarily prevails upon others to lay aside all malicious thoughts for we are naturally prone to imitate as with the Froward to learn Frowardness and with the Loving Love and further there 's no reason imaginable to hate one that loves us because we only hate that which is evil to us but if any Person love us we can't think he doth us evil since he designs and will do us good so that if we hate such we hate our own good To conclude this Command our returning Love for Hatred quencheth the violence of it for the common Observation is if the Sun shine upon the Fire it will put it out so Love takes away the Heat and Fewel from those unnatural and consuming Fires destroying both the Parent and Nurse of Enmity viz. Hatred and Evil which would have propagated and preserved it yea this is the firm Foundation of a lasting Peace even that which passes our Understanding obtaining an answer to all our Petitions by forgiving as we would be forgiven and as St. 1 John 3.22 saith Then whatsoever we ask we shall receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight And these are his Commandments to believe on Jesus Christ and love one another even our Enemies as he gave us Commandment so as to be Blameless The Second Commandment which our Saviour gave his Apostles is mentioned by St. Mat. 28.18 19 20. All Power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth Go ye therefore and teach that is to make Disciples all Nations Baptizing them c. teaching them to observe all Things whatsoever I have commanded you c. In which Words our Saviour first Asserts and Declares his own Commission shewing his Apostles that what he did was not the result of his own private Judgment but the Exercise of Authority which was given him of his Father who had confirmed unto him a full Power of ordering and disposing whatsoever belonged to the Church But since in his own Person he must Ascend and leave them he gave them their Deputation by sending the Holy Spirit the Comforter to be with and Comfort them to the end of the World And since they were Mortal he gave them Power to Depute others to succeed them in them same Care and to deliver down the same Power successively to the end of the World it 's then without doubt by that Promise that our Saviour intended some Benefits to the Church which should be of no less continuance than it self So the Apostles were to be the first Dispensers of those Benefits Now the Benefits as appears from the Commission were these these First Teaching Secondly Baptising and some other Things which he had Commanded as the Taking and Eating of the Bread and Drinking the Cup which was to be a shewing of his Death to the end of the World And the Exercising Censures against the Obstinate and Sinful such as Elimas the Sorcerer as Act 13. c. Now These were either to end with the Apostles or they were not if they were then to end The Church ever since their Deaths has been without such which amounts only to this that there has been no Church since their Decease Or if they did not end with the Apostles but have always been and are still to be exercised unto the end of the World then there ever must have been and now must be fit Persons Which like to the Apostles must have a just Power to dispense these Benefits or exercise these Offices for no less can be conceived to have been intended by Christ in his Promise of being with his Church to the end Now when the great Bishop of our Souls ordained his Apostles it was according to the Tenor of his own Ordination As my Father sent me so send I you Luke 4.18 And said John 23.21 22. Receive ye the Holy Ghost The case is the fame in Matthias Saul and Barnabas as Acts 1.24 ond 13.2 and in those which the Church made Overseers or Bishops as Act. 20.28 and Eph. 4.11 and we have no reason at all to doubt but that the Spirit doth as truly tho' not so visibly assist at the present Ordaining of Ministers as then since the Church Prays for and bids them receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God now committed to such by the Imposition of Hands And since many say that the Gospel-Priesthood is left open to all that will enter it without any further Ceremony than a geting up and Ride or a jumping from the Shop-board to the Pulpit or Desk Now to the sober Consideration of such I Humbly recommend the ensuing Particulars as First Since St. Paul setting down the Nature of a Church Stiles it the Body of Christ where he means not a Similar Body such as Fire Air and Water where all the parts are alike and perform the same Office But a Body consisting of Diversity of Organs for several Faculties and Operations such a Body as is not one Member but many knit together with Unity and Charity as

he takes notice of was that mentioned by St. Matthew 5.43 where he saith It hath been said thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy And vers 44. But I say unto you love your Enemies Which as St. John 13.34 tells us our blessed Lord calls a New Commandment which same Evangelist tells us in his 1 Epist John 3.7 was a Message even from the beginning as old as either the Law of Nature or Moses's but as most of the Ancients conceive this Commandment of our Saviour's was termed New being an Hebraism it therefore must as one of the Fathers saith be accounted most excellent of all or a rare choise and special one unum praeque omnibus unum i. e. One above all others and as Mr. Calvin Paraphrasing upon it saith Christ would have us perpetually mindful of that as if it were a Law newly enacted For we saith he know that Laws at the first making of them are carefully looked into and diligently observed but by degrees wear out of Mens Memory and in the end grows into disuse And for that end Christ recommended this as a New Commandment and being also propounded in a new Form For in the Law it run thus Love thy Neighbour as thy self but in the Gospel Love one another as I have loved you that is in some case more than your selves Now a Law may be said to be New out of a double consideration first either in respect of the thing commanded if it be such a thing as before never fell under any Law which caused the Proverb Novus Rex nova lex New Lords New Laws because or for the most part new Governours or Rulers bring in New Customs proclaim New Edicts and settle New Orders in Church or State Or secondly in respect of the New Act of Commanding So an Old Statute when it s revived an Old Book reprinted an Old Fashion laid aside for a long time and again taken up may be called a New One. So that in both these respects the Command may be said to be New So to love our Enemies is first to wish and desire and 2dly to do well to them for to think well of and towards another to wish and desire their welfare is the Soul and to do them that Good which is wished them is all the Body of real and true Love which must and will express it self variously according to the different conditions of its object and the divers degres of its own power for if the thing loved be very good then Love is to put on the Garment of Gladness and is delighted in it if it be in very bad estate and destitute of good then Love is to turn into Pity to commisserate If it be unable to help then it stays in Desires and good Wishes but if it has any power it exerts it and goes into Action to be Blameless Now its manifest that the Pharisees or they Pharasaically inclined wholly adheared to the Traditions of the Elders and the Opinions of their Doctors and Rabbies for their Carriage was such as shewed they thought themselves not only permitted but commanded to desire and do Evil to their Enemies and all were such in their esteem who were not Jews or Proselites therefore they denyed them common Offices of Civility yea would not so much as direct a Stranger in his Way if he were out of their Religion and besides called them by most uncivil Names such as Dogs c. in paying them by Fraud or Violence I could heartily wish that none of the Spawn were to be found now amongst us but to my Shame be it spoken such was I formerly but now thanks be to God I am washed and cleansed from such Pollutions and for the future will endeavour to observe and keep this New Commandment to be Blameless c. The Substance then of that New Command as I humbly conceive is in my thoughts to love our Enemies not that we should love any thing that is Evil to us and tends to our Ruin as such nor that we should not endeavour and take the best and likeliest Ways to free our selves from a bad estate nor that we should not do and desire some Evil to Men who may be our Enemies provided that it be in order to a greater Good than its Depravation of to themselves or others and not inconsistent with their Happiness but that we desire and do as much as we can of good to them who designs and does the worst Evils to us For first consider that tho' they are our Enemies yet by their evil design we may often be the better for them tho' they may intend no less than our ruin as some did mine formerly yet it often proves our Advancement yea the very Blow by which they would kill often cures so that the Sword becomes a Lancet and the Enemy which designs to make Wounds proves a Chirurgion and heals them True this being besides their Intention we perhaps may think they do not merit our Love or Thanks the more but since they prove Instruments of Good to us we should and must love the Cause as Joseph did Why should not we then as well love those that do us good against their Wills as those that do it without any Will at all tho' they have many evil Designs and mischievous Devices against us yet these do but make us more cautious and circumspect more exact in what we say and do than otherwise we would be which is a Spur to make us do our best c. Friends are often so blinded with Passion that they can see nothing that is amiss in us nay if some had fewer Friends and more Enemies they had been much better then they are Therefore we must love Enemies as we do Poysons that are mixt by a learned and careful Physitian being made soveraign Medicines to cure our Diseases 2dly Tho' they are our Enemies and do evil to us yet there is some good in them let us love them then for the sake of it and imitate our Maker it s but just that we prosecute and destroy the Wickedness of any but let us spare and save the Creature for its God's Image Physitians do never cut off any part of the Body which is so corrupted until there is no hopes of a Cure And in the Body Politick its certain that the relatives of an Offender are not involved in his Sufferings where the offence is not very great nor then unless it can be supposed that they were Partners with him or it be necessary for the Publick and greater Good both to demonstrate a greater Severity against such Crimes as thereby to terrify Men and also to engage all Relations to concern themselves in one anothers well doing like to this should our carriage be to those that hate us Pray are there no hopes that the Evils may be removed from the Lives and Minds of the Person without their ruine Try if there are Nay 't is hard to say that