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	know_v	love_v	12,241	5	6.1095	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35030	A sermon preached before the King at White-hal [sic] April the 12th, 1674 by the Right Reverend Father in God, Herbert, Lord Bishop of Hereford.	Croft, Herbert, 1603-1691.	1676 (1676)	Wing C6975; ESTC R29286	12,510	34

Christ was the mark he aimed at not that he hoped to come up fully to it yet pressed towards it But alas we have no such aim not a thought that way we press not towards Christ our Captain-General nor towards this Great Captain St. Paul nor any thing like it we had far rather be Pioneers to dig and moyl in the Earth to cast up Banks and raise Bulwarks of earthly Riches that we may skulk under them and avoid all Gun-shot or be Wagon-Drivers to attend on the Carriages of Provision Like the base Israelites that drew back and would not follow their Noble Captain Moses but still hanker'd after the Flesh-pots of Egypt the Belly-comforts as most of us do Our Ambition reaches no higher than to arrive to a full measure of those lustful sordid delights which the meanest and foulest Beasts enjoy as fully as any man can do What wretched thoughts are these for Men of Honour The steam of these Flesh-pots have so blinded our eyes so stupified and besotted our brain that like men bereft of common sense we can't discern betwixt Light and Darkness Vertue and Vice Honour and Shame but all is turn'd into a Chaos of Confusion For shame let us rouse up our selves out of this deadly Lethargie let us shew we have some sparks of Honour and true Nobility in us Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus Vertue is the only true Nobility a Heathen said it Consider then the high price of our Calling far above Heathens We are called Christians Sons of the Ever-living God Fellow-heirs with Christ Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven Let us walk worthy of this Vocation wherewith we are called not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness not in Strife and Envy worse then Heathens But in Sobriety Chastity Charity as good Christians If we can't walk with St. Paul Passibus aequis and keep up close with him yet let us Corde fervido hasten after and press towards him We serve a gracious God who will accept of desires for deeds A bruised Reed shall he not break and the smoaking Flax shall he not quench but rather enssame it Take a Candle newly put out and yet smoaking bring it near a flaming Candle the flame of that will descend by the smoak of the other and set it on fire So would we but with hearts like smoaking Flax draw near unto God his Holy Spirit would descend and set them a flaming Oh then let us earnestly desire at least and endeavour with St. Paul to live to Christ and the infinite mercy of God will accept us and enable us to live to Christ and then doubtless our death will like St. Pauls be gain unto us whereof I am now to treat To die is gain Many in times of Paganism considering the small and momentary pleasures men enjoy in this life the grievous and durable miseries men suffer all which death delivers them from did thereupon conclude death to be a great advantage and a wonderful gain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Plato in Apo. Socr. And Cicero de Fin. who in all things followed Plato called death Portum malorum perfugium aerumnosae vitae A Haven and Shelter from a tempestuous miserable life But Zeno the Stoick-master shall make answer to this affirming That there is no misery in this life but as we make it so and that a wise Philosopher is always happy in all conditions And a Disciple of his Seneca discourses the same at large shewing how the riches of the mind are much improved by noble Sufferings and these being of a far greater value than any earthly riches the noble Sufferer is happy by enlarging these though his Body or Estate suffer detriment And then the Conclusion must be That death can be no gain First because it deprives a man of life which is a good thing of its self and secondly it robs us of the opportunity to encrease the riches of the Soul which true Philosophers improve by Sufferings I doubt Plato and Cicero and such Academicks would be foully pusled to answer from Natural Reason these Arguments of Zeno and Seneca and the rest of the Stoicks But I will leave them to canvas and justle one another in the dark for truly I can't approve the Opinions of either party or their Principles For life being a natural pleasing thing I can't think it any gain to quit it without the assurance of a better life which Philosophers had not Nor can I think there 's any happiness merely in Sufferings though ever so gallant 'T is true a man should bear them like a man but this makes not a happy man if no recompence follow And though the Stoick Anaxarchus pun'd in a large Morter affirm'd he was there happy and defied the Tyrant Nicocrean saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bruise the Case of Anaxarchus thou canst not bruise nor touch the hidden Jewel therein my Soul Yet I believe could he have leap'd out of the Morter and escaped the Tyrant he would not hastily have leapt into it again to renew that happiness These are brave flourishes of the Pen whilst men sit at ease in their study or a good face put on the matter when a man is so fettered in an evil as he sees no possibility to escape then 't is better to brave it gallantly like a Lyon than to dye sneakingly like a Cur. But let us now see St. Pauls Philosophy we shall find it much better Thus far he agrees with the Stoicks that there is no such misery in this life but that men may receive benefit by it All things work together for good Rom. 8. 28. But to whom To all men No But to them that love God who for God's sake bear it patiently and by God shall be rewarded liberally and thus all things work together for good to them that love God But not to them who know not God much less love him For if there were no gracious God to recompence our Sufferings no other life after this to receive the reward then saith St. Paul were we Sufferers of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 5. 19. Sure very miserable to be made the filth of the World the off-scouring of all things 4. 13. And though St. Paul agrees likewise with Plato That death is a wonderful gain Yet not in it self as in putting off this house of Clay for any house is better than no house but as death is a passage to a better house A house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 1 Cor. 5. 1. And he desires to depart not so much to be rid of the present Misery as to be with Christ the only true Felicity And though life here be good yet To be with Christ is far better Phil. 1. 23. Thus you see how much wiser and better Christianity is than Heathen Philosophy which at best is but Gallant Folly But we have some Christian Philosophers who endeavour to lessen much our gain by death telling us