Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	heart_n	love_v	world_n	13,220	5	5.1546	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51223	Of religious melancholy a sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall March the 6th, 1691/2 / by the Right Reverend Father in God John, Lord Bishop of Norwich.	Moore, John, 1646-1714.	1692 (1692)	Wing M2547; ESTC R9401	15,050	33

or disdain his reasonable Sacrifice because it is offered with less vehemence of Passion 2. We may say further That they who are not carried by their Passions into the Service of God but render worship to him upon rational motives because he is the giver of all good things seem to act upon a higher and more sublime Principle For notwithstanding they are destitute of that pleasing warmth in their Passions which provokes others to pray unto God and to be thankful unto him yet they do not cease to celebrate his praise because it is their duty to do it and because Reason suggests that they ought to make grateful acknowledgments of his Infinite Mercies 3. We may observe That the most zealous are not always the best men For their zeal may be without knowledge or on the wrong side as it was in St. Paul when he persecuted the Church And it is his own Observation That notwithstanding a man had such a zeal for the Cause of God as would prompt him to suffer Martyrdom and yet wanted Charity his sharpest Sufferings would profit him nothing I must confess where a man is zealously affected in a good matter and his active Spirits are discreetly directed to the Service of God such an one may prove a glorious Instrument for the propagating and promoting the Fear and Honour of God among men and also may have a more sensible pleasure in every Religious Performance But all cannot raise their Affections to this pitch however God will not quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised reed but pardon the wandrings pity the weaknesses quicken the affections and make gracious allowances for all the defects of infirm but honest Christians 4. That the most holy Servants of God cannot maintain an equal warmth in their Devotions at all times Experience doth teach them that in some Seasons an unaccountable heaviness will seize upon their hearts while they are on their bended knees supplicating the forgiveness of their sins who at other times can put their Souls all in a bright and pure frame by intense meditations on the unspeakable love of God If therefore now and then you perceive your minds dull and heavy at your Prayers it is but what sometimes doth happen to the most sincere Christians how great care and Diligence soever they use to uphold life and vigour in their Souls so that this is no just cause of disquiet and dejection of spirit Moreover Sickness Losses and all Afflictions do sometimes so disorder the Passions and oppress the Spirits even of the best men that it is hardly possible they should serve God with as much chearfulness under Calamities and Troubles as at other times tho' they may have as much integrity and as sincere desires to please him and he will take what they then do as kindly at their hands and bountifully reward such Services Hence I gather that since men are not able at all times to keep their Affections at an equal height when they address themselves to their heavenly Father either in the Church or in their Closets that he doth not expect it from them and they ought not to give place to melancholy Fears when they shall find it otherwise with themselves God has made nothing the subject of our obedience which is not within the bounds of our abilities and he will at the Day of Judgment condemn men for the Actions only which proceeded from their Wills and not for that want of heat in their Passions which was owing to the natural make of their Constitutions that they could not help or to outward unhappy Circumstances which they had not at their command 5. What hitherto hath been said about coldness and damps in the minds of men while they are engaged in religious duty has been to comfort those who are exceedingly grieved at it and who yet have not been able to conquer it tho' they have used true pains for that purpose Now notwithstanding it is not to be expected nor necessary that these innocent Persons should meet with a compleat cure of their grief yet I must tell them that nothing will more enliven their Spirits in the Service of God than deliberate Meditations of him and of themselves before they enter upon any part of Divine Worship If they would often engage their minds in Contemplations about the Divine Attributes and the Infinite Perfections of the Nature of God it would strangely help to deliver them from that drowsy Stupidity of which they so sadly complain and which hath so strong an influence on their Actions For frequent thoughts of Almighty Power will make the most sturdy Temper to tremble and the proudest heart to submit There is no thinking seriously of unsearchable Wisdom without being wrapt up in admiration of it and becoming very willing to be ruled by it And will not the meditations of Infinite Love diffussing it self over the World oblige us to adore to honour to love and to praise that most glorious Spring from whence it floweth Do but consider as the Providence of God watches over all the Works of the Creation so with what a particular care it hath preserved you and delivr'd you from the many and great Dangers which you did not foresee and against which you could make no provision and certainly it will give a sensible touch to your Soul and cause you to breake forth into Songs and Hymns of Thanksgiving But if you proceed still further to contemplate the deep Mysteries and inconceiveable love shewn by Christ in the mighty work of your Redemption to consider the great condescension of your Saviour when he left the Heavens to dwell amongst us the wonderful humiliation of himself when he took our Frail Mortal Nature upon him the Pains the Agonies the Horrors of the most dreadful Death he suffered to save us ungrateful Sinners and this can hardly fail to dissolve the most obdurate and stony heart and make you firmly conclude that you never can sufficiently admire love serve or suffer too much for this most Blessed Saviour Can your Passions continue all quiet when you look to this your most merciful Redeemer who left the Bosom of his Father to seek you when you had lost your selves in the ways of sin and the paths that lead to death Who came to procure Reconciliation for you with God whom as you had heinously provoked so you were in no respectable to make him satisfaction Do but with some seriousness recollect how often the Lord hath spared you when your own hearts have told you that you did deserve punishment How very often you have highly offended him and fearfully looked when he should destroy you and yet you are still suffer'd to be in the Land of the Living as so many Monuments of his Compassion and he is not yet wearied with waiting for your return that he may be gracious unto you Do I say but meditate upon these mercies of your God and try whether your hearts will not all melt into

love and affection Can we say too much or think too long of this Saviour who did joyn himself to our Flesh that he might loose the Bands of our Iniquity who being in the Form of God took the Form of a Servant that he might destroy the power of those sins which would have enslaved both our Souls and Bodies and made us for ever miserable Surely we cannot but fall down before the Lord with the deepest reverence and esteem him above every thing in Heaven and Earth who hath created us according to his own Image who hath redeemed us with the Blood of his own Son and who daily doth aslist us with the Graces of his most Holy Spirit and who hath provided for us a House not made with Hands in the Heavens Let such Subjects as these be the Arguments with which you entertain your Thoughts before you begin any Religious Duty and it will strangely conduce to the filling your Souls with Light and Life and make you diligently study to obtain God's Favour and breed in you most passionate Desires to dwell in his presence to all Eternity 3. I come to the last case I proposed to speak to which doth relate to these unhappy persons who have naughty and sometimes Blasphemous Thoughts start in their Minds while they are exercised in the Worship of God which makes them ready to charge themselves with the Sin against the Holy Ghost to pronounce their Condition to be without hopes of remedy and to fear that God hath utterly cast them off Now to give them the best ease and relief I am able I will endeavour these two things 1. To shew that their Case is not so dangerous as they take it to be 2. To give proper advice for their behaviour under the tumultuous Disorders of Mind and for their recovery from them That their Case is not so dangerous as they apprehend it I shall endeavour to shew by the following Considerations 1. Because these frightful Thoughts do for the most part proceed from the disorder and indisposition of the Body And this I take to be evident because they are more rise and troublesome and insult most over a Man after a fit of sickness or a great dsappointment or a heavy loss which hath deeprest his Spirits and made them gross and heavy but when it pleases God that he shall recover his health again and his spirits grow finer and move more briskly and his strength doth become more confirmed then these perplexing thoughts use much to abate and by degrees quite to vanish 2. Because they are mostly good People who are exercised with them For bad men whose Heads are busied in laying one Scene of Wickedness or other how they may gratifie their Malice or execute their Revenge or over-reach their Neighbours or violate their Trusts or satisfie their beastly Lust rarely know any thing of these kind of Thoughts or use to complain of them But they are honest and well-meaning Christians of unhealthy Constitutions and melancholy Tempers who are so miserably harrass'd by them who above all things earnestly desire an interest in their God and Saviour and for that reason the least dishonourable thought of him which infinuates its self into their Minds is so dreadful unto them 3. Because it is not in the power of those disconsolate Christians whom these bad Thoughts so vex and torment with all their endeavours to stifle and suppress them Nay often the more they struggle with them the more they encrease and when they are vehemently opposed they do more domineer and terrifie men And the true reason is because by successful strivings they do but feed this melancholy Humor and grow more dejected So that there is good cause as I observed to judge them to be Distempers of the Body rather than Faults of the Mind 4. We may observe that they who labour under the burden of such dismal Thoughts are seldom betray'd into any great or deliberate sin For they having a very low opinion of the Condition of their Souls are jealous of the least Temptations and tremble at the appearance of any notorious Evil. Which is the cause they commonly set a strict guard over their Words and Actions Hence it is apparent that the sins which most easily captivate others can scarce make an entrance into them They have little temptation to Covetousness who can find no satisfaction in Riches They cannot be hard hearted to their Neighbours in distress who are so ready to beg the prayers and help of all about them They are in no danger of of being swell'd with Pride who think a great deal worse of their own state than it deserves They being then thus humbled into a mean apprehension of themselves by the calamitous disorders of their Mind to contend the more abundantly to keep themselves blameless and unspotted from the World wherein they discovering no ease no relief for their doleful Complaints are not allured by any of its glittering or sensual Baits to transgress the Divine Laws From what has been said it plainly follows That there is more trouble than danger in the case of the dejected Christians which we have been considering Altho I own that none do more deserve our pity so black and dismal is the Sentence they pronounce against themselves and yet I make no question but God in his own season and when he sees it most proper for them will in some measure settle and quiet their Minds and also bestow a large Recompence on them for all the Troubles and Sorrows they have sustained out of fear that he was highly displeased with them I am now arrived at the last part of my Subject which is to give the best Advice I can for their behaviour under these perplexing Disorders of Mind and for their recovery from them Which I shall endeavour in the following particulars 1. Frequently observe how your Thoughts are imployed If they are engaged in a good Matter encourage them to persevere and secure them all you can from outward disturbance and diversions If they are taken up in trifling and vain Subjects of no real benefit to you translate them to some more noble and useful Argument For as your Thoughts are so your Actions will be Men cannot think foolishly and act wisely Besides idle Thoghts are Neighbours to bad ones and there is a straight and short passage from one to the other But if they are exercised in any evil design it highly behoves you to extinguish and suppress them for if the Fountain be muddy all the Streams must partake of its impurity And this Work you ought to take the first opportunity to do and that with all your might not only because it is of absolute necessity to the Health and Peace and Innocence of your Soul but because the Victory over them will be much easier at their first appearance than after by suffering them to dwell with you you have given them some countenance of encouragement and