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
A92775	A glasse for the times: wherein is represented the malady and remedy of divisions. / In a sermon preached at Mercers Chappel, April the 7th 1650. By La. Seaman D.D. pastor at Alhallowes-Breadstreet. London.	Seaman, Lazarus, d. 1675.	1650 (1650)	Wing S2175; Thomason E597_13; ESTC R206295	20,165	35

soveraignty in us at all times whatsoever providence it pleaseth God to exercise us withall anger zeale and hatred against the sins of men should not transport us from the love of their persons But I shall shew you in some particulars a little more distinctly when Division imports more then ordinary danger 1. When it estranges us from God himselfe to the dislike either of his Service or Providence 2. When we are estranged in opinions and affections and thereby taken off from communion and duties of love one towards another Division amongst men hath its original in Division from God for if we could keep our hearts close to God by vertue of our union with him we should be the more compacted amongst our selves but when we begin a little to fall off from him we are the more easily and endlesly divided among our selves Object But will some say I hope we fall not off from God in these times we run not into idolatry and superstition we make not voide the Commandments of God by receiving the traditions of men however we are divided amongst our selves in some matters of opinion and about civill things yet we keep our first faith against Popery Answ But alas then our hearts are divided from God when we are not united unto him according to the tenor of the first and great Commandment Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule and with all thy minde and with all thy might When a man hath a spirit in him that doth really obey God in the substance of this Commandment then his heart indeed is close to God but if we be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God as it 's prophecyed of many in the later times if we love our selves more then him if we love our estates lives and credit or our relations more then him we make them our gods Suppose there be no grosse idolatrous principle we have no minde to worship the host of heaven nor to fall downe before any Image this is a base kinde of idolatry that we scorne wondring at the folly of men that lived in former generations for things of this kinde but the question which we must put to our selves is whether we be not of a worldly minde of that young mans temper who being required to sell all upon a promise to receive treasure in heaven he went away sorrowful because he had great possessions And did you never heare that covetousnesse is Idolatry It 's much to be feared in these times that many feare men more then God this is a certaine signe that our hearts are divided from God As also when we are exceeding solicitous in those things that concern our outward being here but leave all things appertaining to the glory of God to take care for themselves Secondly hearts are divided when they are at a distance one from another Ye know the second Commandment which is like unto the first Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe And now there is nothing but self love in us when as one man takes no care for another puts not himselfe into another mans stead but looks what power and authority he hath in his hands this I can do and this I will do and this I may do and this no body can or will trouble me in this shewes our hearts are divided one from another when we consider not the case and state one of another so indeed and really to do as we would be dealt withall when we break thus with God and thus with men this is Division Would you know how great a sin this is I beseech you consider of these two things First of all That when God would inflict a great spiritual judgment upon a people then he useth to make use of Division Secondly when God doth intend to bring a people unto destruction he prepares them for it by Division So as Division is both the cause of judgment the means to bring the judgment and the signe and forerunner of some greater judgment and it selfe no small judgment as no small sin In Psal 55. v. 9. you shall finde David praying in this manner against his enemies Destroy them O Lord and divide their tongues for I have seene violence and strife in the City Violence and strife are the sins which stirred up the zeale of David He knew that such sins exposed people to destruction and that Division was the meanes which God used to effect it by When God hath a minde to destroy he needs not think of any other course then giving way to mens tongues This he may most justly do to punish oppression for when men get power into their hands they use it not for the interest of the persons with whose good they are intrusted but for themselves this is a crying sin Holy men that are endowed with an extraordinary spirit of discerning sometimes by way of imprecation call for such a judgment as they foresee God purposes to inflict and then their prayers are not only prayers but prophecies and so it seems to be in the place forenamed When God had a mind to destroy those builders of Babel he confounded their language they could not understand one another and so by that meanes their enterprize had no other then a ridiculous issue In like manner when God intends destruction to a people he useth to prepare them for it by Division It 's worth our observing concerning the Jewes they were many yeers contending about government from their coming out of Babylon till their subduing by the Romans whether the Priests should govern them or some other till such time as they were reconciled by a desolation God destroyed their Temple and their City and by that means put an end to all their intestine quarrels about government But till such time as God had brought upon them that judgment they could not be quiet Division so farre prevailed amongst them that when their City was besieged by the Romans without they had no sooner gotten any little respite by beating back their assaults but they fell presently to fight as eagerly amongst themselves as if they had had no enemy neere them If we would know how likely a people are to be destroyed or how near they are to a mercy let us consider with our selves how farre forth they are divided or how farre forth they are in a way of reconciliation The more Division increaseth so much the nearer they are to ruine the nearer reconciliation so much the more hope of a mercy In Hosea 10. 2. the Lord observeth this Their heart is divided now shall they saith he be found faulty He shall break downe their Altars and spoile their Images and they shall say we have no King because we feared not the Lord what then should a King do to us The Originall of all misery is this their heart is divided or as the words may be read He hath divided their hearts God hath brought this heavie