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	heart_n	love_v	13,370	5	6.0885	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64375	A sermon concerning the wandring of the mind in God's service preached before the Queen, at White-Hall, February 15, 1690/1 / by Tho. Tenison ...	Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715.	1691 (1691)	Wing T717; ESTC R20689	8,761	36

it proceed great defects in a Man's Duty to God his Neighbour or himself whilst the mind starts from that which is before it and leaves it unfinish'd reversing the Counsel of the wiseman Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might So serviceable to all Business Civil or Sacred is the application of the mind It is true that very devout Persons are subject to the Infirmity of Wandring it being difficult amidst such a variety of Images in the head to keep one certain line of them straight and continued and our great Adversary in the midst of our best Thoughts is busie in darting in such Suggestions as by their suddenness their incoherence their contrariety both to our present Thoughts and Affections and Prayers their Black and Diabolical nature shew that they are of their Father the Devil And tho it is in Divinity as in the Civil Law by which the Trees planted in another Man's Ground are not till they take root judged the Property of the Owner of the Soil tho evil Suggestions till by our consent they are rooted in our hearts are not our proper thoughts but either the Devil's Temptations or natural Infirmities which the Merciful God who considers our Frame will not impute to such in whom the spirit is willing and the flesh weak yet it is an unhappy and uncomfortable Circumstance which they ought to pray and strive against and to the utmost of their Skill and Power abate bearing with Patience the Weakness they cannot conquer till God Almighty in his good time shall work the blessed Alteration in them But then 2 dly When Men allow and indulge themselves in this roving of Imagination and when they do so even in the Worship of God Then 1 st Their sin is exceeding sinful And 2 dly Their Condition is very dangerous 1. Their sin is exceeding sinful both in it self and the Fountain whence it proceeds 1. This Practice flows from a corrupt heart which wants the love of God For where the Treasure is there will the heart be also If therefore the Heart valued God and Goodness if it truly lov'd his Honour and its own Salvation it would not perpetually go astray from them but be there fixed where true joys are to be found The Israelites when they were out of Egypt with their Bodies in their hearts they turned back again into Egypt its Idols pleasing their imaginations and its fruits their Appetites but the holy woman in the Gospel who chose the good part whose Affection was chiefly placed upon the One thing necessary she sate in the posture and with the attention of a Disciple at Jesus feet and heard his word 2. The root of this practice the want of the love of God being so evil the practice cannot but partake of the irreligious nature of it Wilful Wandring in God's service is a kind of Contempt of God and a coming into his Presence to slight him to affront him to his face and it gives him just occasion to complain as in Jer. 23.11 In my House I have found wickedness It is a preferring of our own ways and thoughts before his nay 't is the preferring of the Injections of the Devil to whom we give place by receiving of them into the room of pious meditations It is likewise a disobedient refusal of his call when he says with Importunity as well as Authority My son give me thine heart It disappoints the Ends designed by God's wisdom in his Service his own glory and the edification of the Worshippers for by such hypocrisie which withdraws the best part of Man's Service that which is inward judicious hearty and substitutes that which is scarce a shew of Devotion God is rather mock'd than honour'd and those who are present in his House with thoughts ranging in the world can neither improve in Knowledge nor Faith nor Devotion nor Morality seeing they attend not to the means and exercises of them For our Spiritual is not like our Natural Stature which grows up whether we think or think not of it Observable are the words of the Apostle Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things Add to this the great aggravation of ingratitude in Sinners of this kind who stand in such need of the especial grace of God and whom God's extraordinary Goodness hath obliged with the means of it for after all this they despise his and their own mercies and use the Grace of God as they ought to do the World with an indifferency and as if they used it not This undervaluing of the Riches of God's Love instead of giving him thanks this neglect of means instead of embracing and using them for the improvement of our very imperfect nature this spending of good hours to such ill purpose is not only wicked but 2 dly Exceeding perillous as indeed all wickedness is for how pleasant soever vain Thoughts are and how charming soever this Paradise in which the Fool wanders may for a season seem to him yet the immediate consequence is evil and the end of these things are shame and death Distraction abateth the zeal of the Heart as the scattering of the Rays does the heat of the Sun and when Men are either cold or luke-warm in their duty they are robb'd of the Comfort of it they cannot take delight in that which they mind not The service of God is a weariness to those whose Thoughts and Affections are elsewhere entangled So it was to the Israelites who groan'd even under their Priviledge and said When will the Sabbath be over that we may set forth wheat And for Almighty God how can we imagine that he will mind those Services of ours which we our selves do not He cannot but observe them but it is with the Animadversion of a Judge and in order to punishment and it is a fearful thing in such a manner and in so ill a cause to fall into the hands of the living God He will make good his threatning in Jer. 6.19 I will bring upon this people the fruit of their thoughts Now the Considerations of the Wickedness and the Peril of wilful and affected wandring in the Service of God do fitly prepare the way to the Third Part of this Discourse 3. A persuasive to Attention without which we cannot be either innocent or safe or useful Give therefore to God not a mechanical but a reasonable service Let him have more than the bodily Engine and the natural spring of it by which the Eyes and Hands and Lips and Knees are mov'd Consider that when all the Forces of Soul and Body are united They are still an imperfect Oblation how much more when they are divided and weak'ned by the Thoughts and Affections running in many and in crooked Channels Offer then to him what is his due and that which pleaseth him best and that which becomes a Man the Soul the intention the inward reverence give him it with judgment