Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	love_v	neighbour_n	self_n	2,652	5	9.4322	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28235	A looking-glass for the times being a tract concerning the original and rise of truth and the original and rise of Antichrist : showing by pregnant instances of Scripture, history, and other writings, that the principles and practices of the people called Quakers in this day and their sufferings are the same as were the principles and practices of Christ and His apostles ... / by George Bishope.	Bishop, George, d. 1668.	1668 (1668)	Wing B2998; ESTC R14705	345,237	250

is requisite that all should know him and what is his will and how can they do that unless they know the Principle of him where only his Will is to be known according to the decree of means conducing thereunto and this can only be the Spirit as his own words hath expressed it as hath been rehearsed which is graciously afforded them which must by the Doctors own words be the manifestation of the Spirit given to every one to profit withal of which the Apostle speaks and which he himself in the next words further expresses what it is This is the great Dictate of Nature which cannot be that which is in the transgression but the Divine and Prescript of the Law and what Law that is in the very next words he expresses This Duty is no less imprinted in the heart of man than in the Decalogue So it 's the Law written in the heart and the fear put into the inward parts which till it was come viz. the new Covenant the Seed which is Christ the Law or Decalogue was added or the outward administration which the other should do when it was come which was within but not seen or felt but put under or as it were dead buried and so lying the Seed which is Christ as hath been said amongst the means which God makes use of for the discovery of himself the Holy Scripture this must be understood by his own expressions by the Spirit as aforesaid is not onely the most excellent of all others but as to saving Truths it is the sole and only manifester thereof Thus as to the first part that is That all should know God and do his Will the great Dictate of Nature and Prescript of the Law And this great Dictate of Nature and Prescript of the Law must needs be the measure of God by which only God can be known and his Will done which all must have or how else can it be natural for Nature is a comprehensive word or that in which all that are of that stock and kind are intituled or invested or it cannot be Nature or a Law to be observed by all or prescribed if all have it not And so it is our or the Principle of the Quakers viz. the measure of God in all whereby and in which he is to be known and who is the Teacher of his People Now as to the other which is Preaching or teaching of others As the knowledge of God and what knowledge that is and how it hath been declared already out of his own words and unavoidable conclusions therefrom which I must desire the Reader to carry along with him that he may bear the sence for there is something in this matter attended with the Spiritual subjection of the Soul unto him intirely is the principal Commandment in the first Table which is the Principle of the People called Quakers as aforesaid as his own words hath concluded it So in the second the main thing enjoyned is the love of our Neighbour Now to love another is to wish and to will unto him all these things which we think good for him and as far as lies in our power to procure them for him yet this is not to love ones Neighbour as ones self by the Doctors leave as they use to say but as a man thinks it's good for his Neighbour So this is a wrong interpretation to the Commandment and so a taking away from thence and it is too narrow and hath a restriction And the more perfect discoveries of things that a lover hath the more perfect and excellent is the good that he wishes and cannot but wish unto him whom he loves Now since that love must be of a very transcendent degree and proportioned to that wherewith we love our selves it cannot be such unless we desire to communicate and impart unto our beloved as far as in us lies that which is the principal of all Goods and since the knowledge of God is life eternal and consequently the chiefest good one can wish unto another and what that knowledge of God is and wherein it consists and where it lies hath already been observed from his own words viz. the great Dictate of Nature the Prescript of the Law no less imprinted in the heart of man than in the Decalogue viz. the measure of God in every man which gives to know God and wherein onely he is to be known the knowledge of whom is eternal life It follows from the Dictates of this commanding and commanded Love that it is not Arbitrary for any to will or refuse to instruct another in this saving Knowledge viz. the measure of God the great Dictate of Nature the Prescript aforesaid to teach from this if he be able so to do but all are indispensibly obliged to this performance of their duty Thus the Doctor hath in terminis or so many words held forth the very same thing and no other than what the people called Quakers affirm as their Principle viz. that all should know God and what is his Will That this is the great Dictate of Nature and Prescript of the Law that this duty is no less imprinted in the heart of man than in the Decalogue that this Knowledge is saving and to instruct one another in this saving knowledge all that are able that is to say such as have received a gift in whom the thing moves to speak which gives the ability for this must be necessarily understood by those words and I suppose will be judged to be no straining of the signification of those his words are indispensibly obliged to the performance of this as their duty that is to say in the Scripture words As every one hath received the gift so minister the same one unto another as good Stewards of the manifold grace of God 1 Pet. 4. 10. Moreover that the only publick authentick and infallible Interpreter of the Holy Scripture is he who is the Author of them from the breathings of whose Spirit it derives all its verity perspicuity and authority and that therefore as there was never any visible Judge of Faith appointed by Christ so neither is there any use or need of such an Arbitrator These things and many more to the same purpose which I have omitted because of brevity A friendly man hath helped me to in his Book Intituled Light shining out See Light shining out of darkness pag. 76 77. and so onwards of Darkness c. printed in the year 1659. in which year the Doctor was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and for profession of those called Independants as the * Doct. Ingelo other Doctor is now of Eaton Colledge and so of the Collegiats I shall now take a third Doctor one of the Episcopals and a present Bishop by name Doctor Jeremiah Taylor now Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland and a man of singular abilities and ingenuity and very famous for a Book of his Intituled Liberty of Prophesying written

faileth not nor Conscience as it is undefiled and unseared and hath not been made shipwrack of but answers thereunto it hath been called by great Philosophers by the most venerable names as (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Domestick God or a God within Hieron (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Divine or God the Overseer a Sacred Goad or godly Prick Sophicles A (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God who hath framed to himself a natural Temple in the Conscience Justin Martyr To conclude this of the said Doctor when he hath given his conception Bentevol Vran. p. 189. of the notion of God Which we saith he form in our minds when we think of him This notion saith he when he hath given it is natural that is imprest upon our Souls by that God whose Idea it is men having not learnt it by custom or been forced to the belief of it by any Law What then is it which gives the understanding thereof By what is it natural or how comes it to be so And what nature is it that makes it so and whose impress is it or whence comes it but from himself and what is that which comes from himself but that which is of his own Nature whose Idea or Image it is who is the Son of God the belief of which Law makes not nor forces but nature constrains or rather gives to every man in which every man was made which gives to man to know that in which he was made which is everlasting the Principle of God by and in which man was made which forms this on man and gives him to believe it so that all men believe there is a God and the reason is Because God is in all men who gives them their beings and convinceth them that it is so who is the Nature in which man was produced So all have this because in and by this all were made that which is of him in them gives them the knowledge of this leaves the impress as it makes the man they both stand together because it is the Parent as I may so say or that by which man is which gives the Idea or Impress of him that made him and is as natural as he is who is made Unto which the Doctor saith further It is a Truth profest by all Nations who notwithstanding the difference of their customs the variety of their Laws diversity of Dispositions and hostility of their practices have universally agreed in this as a thing that naturally results from the use of Reason and which even by such as have not spoken very honorably of God hath been acknowledged as a common Prolepsis that is a connate information Which is the same that I have exprest Connate signifying as much as a thing that is born with a thing or things that are brought forth together The Doctor goes on to evince the same thing by father demonstration in what follows Of this I think my self saith he the more assured because no beginning of time can be assigned when the World entertained this belief but that the common Parent of mankind who was made with it and to whom it was confirmed by conversation with God taught it his Children who easily received it because when they arrived to that Age in which they were capable of being taught by others they plainly perceived that it did naturally spring from the free exercise of their own understandings If this were not true saith he I can give no rational account how it came to be generally received by the World it being impossible that by force or fraud any contract should have been made to have necessitated such a common Faith It is also manifest that this is an everlasting Truth deeply engraven in humane Souls since no succession of time hath been able to wear it out though falshood steal the mantle of Truth yet it cannot so conceal it self long for time will pull it off and discover the cheat If it Pag. 190. had been unnatural men would long before this time have rejected it and being alway impatient of Yokes they would not so long have born this which doth oblige them to the strictness of religious observances but they have been so far from abandoning this Truth that they have not subjected it to be dishonoured with disputes and so have declared that this is that great Article of their common Faith in which they all agree And speaking of the Kenapistians or the men of vain Faith who in Bent. Vran. lib. 3. p. 151. that his * A Romance is a kind of Parabolical expression of things under certain names fitted for the purpose unto which it is intended Page 152. Romance among others he reflects upon he thus saith in reproof of them The Kenapistians having thus reposed their hopes of security upon false Principles which what they were he layes down before too long in this place now to repeat contented themselves with a form of Religion and neglected the indispensableness of a holy Life The severities of Godliness were rediculous to them and the practice of Charity Arbitrary They reckoned the examples of the Primitive times inimitable and concluded the desire of goodness sufficient to Salvation In Theoprepia or the state worthy of God which by that tearm he gives to understand they love what these do but profess and do what these only say Flesh is allowed its dominion over the Spirit envy and hatred have banished Love and they have devised a new way to go to Heaven without peace of Conscience which they endeavour to quiet by neglect of examination Or if by chance they find they are not conformable in disposition or practice to holy Rules yet they excuse the business by alleadging That sin is unconquerable in this mortal Body That obedience is impossible That the best things we do are but splendid sins and the worst are but sins They repent as oft as they please Nay they believe That if they do but repent at the hour of death it serves their turn for the sins of their whole life and notwithstanding the greatest causes of despair they may believe and be safe for ever And Page 153. That God was obliged to excuse our disobedience because of the naturalness of sin and that he viz. Tuphlecon i. e. one that is wilfully blind who the Romance pretending to be sick Colax i. e. the flatterer took upon him to cure and for that purpose said thus to him He needed not to doubt of pardon for such faults as he was forced to commit by the irresistable power of tentation That God doth not exact perfection of us because it is impossible that he needed not to trouble himself that he was so bad since God had predestinated him to be no better And in short That he might make one answer for all Objections even of hypocrisie it self That Christ had been obedient for him I must end with the Doctor my old acquaintance and this Discourse Conclusion of the whole having turned through the Histories of the Times aforesaid and the Principles of men both in former and latter Generations of most Professions and through all evinced the thing of which I have declared to the end that seeing things as they stand in their own pretensions and the things they own themselves they may be brought into a little more familiarity friendliness with that which they thought monstrously of looking at a distance but taking a nearer view they may of those things be the better perswaded For my part all may judge I needed not these things as to my own information for I am satisfied and resolved upon that everlasting Truth which I have here asserted and elsewhere viz. The Principle of God in man which is in every man a measure thereof to lead and guide him which is able to lead him into all Truth and to deliver him from evil which will bring him to God And of all that which flows from thence which also may be called Principles because they are the reasons and grounds from whence they have their beings I delight not in prolixity nor would I have been thus long had mine own natural Genius or inclination led me But I have been doing the will of another viz. of the Lord who moved me to this thing and whose will I have done not through constraint neither but of a ready mind that men may see how near that is to them which they think afar off and how natural if that they would but come down unto that in which they were made for whose sakes I have thus written Geo. Bishope Bristol this 12th of the 5th month 1667. THE END