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	send_v	son_n	12,821	5	6.4959	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51227	A sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, on the 28th of May, 1682 by John Moore ...	Moore, John, 1646-1714.	1682 (1682)	Wing M2552; ESTC R20127	21,938	53

we are capable to partake more and more of the Divine Perfections 3. There is no fundamental Doctrine of Christianity but an obligation naturally flows from it to some instance or other of a good Life If the Doctrine be that God is the maker of Heaven and Earth does not an obligation from thence lve upon all his Creatures to Gratitude and Praise if the Doctrine be that God is the great Soveraign of the World does not a duty plainly follow that we his Subjects are to govern our selves by his Laws does not the Doctrine of his Infinite Goodness make it our duty to love him and imitate him and that of his irresistible Power to dread the giving him the least offence and to submit our selves to his pleasure does not the Doctrine that Truth is one of his Essential Attributes make it our duty to believe him and to depend upon his promises does not the Doctrine of his unsearchable Wisdome oblige us to give up our wills unto his and to leave the Events of things to his wise Disposal does not the Doctrine of his Omnipresence his all seeing Eye engage us to have a constant and awful regard of him and to walk circumspectly in all our paths The Doctrine of Gods providence being concerned not only in our most weighty affairs but also extending even to those small things of which we our selves take no thought what powerful motives does it afford us against dejection pensiveness of mind and immoderate cares the Doctrine of all things working together for the good of the faithful Servants of God what a mighty obligation does it lay upon us to be contented and easy in our present condition how much soever it may be beset with adversities and afflictions and to take no indirect course to use no unlawful method or meanes to get out of it the Doctrine of Gods only having such a power over our Souls that he can destroy them how plainly does it imply that we are to dread God more than man and to disobey man rather than God The Doctrine of the necessity of the Sufferings and Passion of Christ does it not make it our indispensable duty to mortify the Flesh and to crucify the Lusts thereof and to prepare our selves rather to suffer Affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a Season and should not the Doctrine of his Resurrection and Ascention carry our thoughts and great designs into the other World and fix our Hearts and all our Affections upon the Treasure which is in Heaven In a word does not the Doctrine of a day of Judgment in which sentence shall pass upon all men for every Thought Word and Deed Oblige us if we have the least love of our selves and dessire of our own eternal welfare to put our Accounts in exact Order and to break off our Sins by a timely and sincere Repentance And this was the method generally of the Apostles when they have delivered a Doctrine they presently draw an Inference from it which is in the nature of a Precept and where they do not express the Precept it is ever imply'd and easy thence to be Concluded Seeing all these things shall be disolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness i. e. if ye believe this Christian Doctrine of the dissolution of the World your lives must come up to your Principle and your faith be render'd effectual by the holiness of your Conversation every man that hath this hope in him he purifyeth himself even as he is pure do you hope to see God it unquestionably followes that you are to endeavour to be like him by imitating his purity if ye then be Risen with Christ seek those things which are above i. e. if ye believe Christs Resurrection and as believers of it have been Baptized into a profession of the Christian Faith then it becomes you to mind those things which will procure your own Resurrection likewise As ye therefore have receiv'd Jesus Christ the Lord so walk ye in him if ye have receiv'd the Doctrine of Jesus Christ let not your behaviour carry any thing in it unsutable to his holy Doctrine but be ye mindful to Govern your selves by the Practical Rules therein contein'd But against the point I am now upon some will be apt to object that one great Doctrine of our Religion the mystery of the holy Trinity does not seem at all to concern a good life now tho it may so seem to them who slightly examin things yet those who shall be at the pains more exactly to consider this Doctrine will be otherwise perswaded For when we consider God so loved the World as to send his only begotten son to save all them from perishing who shall believe on him does not this lay the highest obligation upon us which is possible to make all the returns of praise and love and gratitude and obedience When we consider there was that aversion in the divine nature to sin that God would not pardon it before ample satisfaction was made at the Cost of the blood and life of his own Son can there be any argument in the World more effectual to deter a man from sin and if he have any ingenuity to make him abhor the thoughts of it when we consider that this very same Son of God who was the brightness of his Fathers glory and express image of his person is now our high Preist and has entered the holy of holies and does daily offer up our prayers to God and constantly there intercede with him on our behalf will not this be apt to create in us a mighty confidence to address our selves to the throne of Heaven in all our wants and strong hopes that God will never forsake us in distress When we consider the holy Spirit has consecrated our bodies and made them the Temples wherein he will vouchsafe to dwell which is the peculiar privilege and mercy of the Gospel is there not a deep engagement thereby laid upon us to prepare these bodies for his reception by keeping them pure from intemperance and filthy Lusts for fear we greive this holy guest and cause him to desert such unclean habitations and vex him that he turn to be our enemy And so I hope the sense of the 2d Point is cleared and the truth of it establisht that it is the design of the Doctrines of the Gospel to advance Godliness and that there is an aptness and direct tendency in them all to enforce the practice of it upon Christians this notion the Ancients had of Christian Religion when they stiled it an institution according to Godliness and an institution that comprehends all virtue and accordingly the first Christians as Minut. Felix observes were distinguisht from other men not by any thing peculiar in their habit and dress but by their innocence and modesty There was no other mark of

inestimable Value it is a Kingdom but he that sets himself to rest and folds his hands shall never be the better for it for that Kingdom shall only be taken and possest by them who violently invade it Nothing can be perform'd without Gods assistance who works in men to will and to do but then it is only in those who Concur with him and do work out their own Salvation with Care and Concernment with fear and trembling Christ has purchased for us a liberty as to Places and Times as to the choice and difference of meats but not a liberty to omit our Duty or do the least sin he has freed our shoulders from the burden of Moses Law but not discharged our obligation to any one Moral Virtue or Law of nature The Faith that will carry a man to Heaven must be a Faith that Worketh by love and love is the keeping the Commandments So the holy Scripture declares so the Primitive Fathers taught St. Ignatius makes Faith and Love the whole Duty of a Christian Faith the beginning Love the end Faith the guide Love the way and he hardly ever recommends the one but in the Company of the other Faith preceeds Fear builds Love makes perfect 5 That whatsoever Doctrines are not according to Godliness are so far from being necessary that they cannot be true For if it be the Scope and End of the Gospel to advance Godliness and that it is an argument both of the Credebility and excellency of it that it does so as I have before prov'd then it plainly follows if we suppose the Doctrine of the Gospel to be a true Doctrine that all such Opinions as are either contrary to the Godliness or do disserve the interests of it can neither be necessary Doctrines nor true ones Seeing then the truth of this Proposition is evident from the foregoing discourse I shall only now make it my business briefly to reflect on some of the many ill opinions which tho they have been taught for sound and Orthodox yet upon examination will appear not to be according to Godliness 1. The first I take notice of is that of Gods being the Author of Sin which has been expresly maintained by some men Now it is not possible that Opinion should be true which is inconsistent with the Reason of mankind or manifestly repugnant to the Attributes of God for all Controversies in Religion must be decided by Reason either from the Principles of Natural Religion or Divine Revelation and from the Principles of Natural Religion it is evident that there can be nothing in a Religion which comes from God that is repugnant to his Essential Attributes that is to himself Now that God should be the Author of Sin that is the Author of what does offend and dishonour him is very absurd and unreasonable that he should be Author of that which he has so often and solemnly declared he does abhor and detest thwarts with the attribute of his truth and that he should be the efficient cause of all the wickedness which is done and he will so severely Punish is a gross repugnancy not only to his infinite goodness but his justice it self Such Opinions as these deprive God of the holiness essential to his Nature and which even by the Gentiles unassisted with the light of the Gospel in their Praiers and Devotions was constantly ascribed to him 2. The Doctrine of irrespective decrees cannot be according to Godliness because it takes away the ground of all the motives to a Godly Life For if a man be included within the decree of Election the greatest sins will not Damn him and if he be left out of it the most holy Life cannot put him in a capacity of Salvation Again if God has decreed to save or reprobate men without regard had to either their good or evil Lives then they will be saved or lost without any respect had of either for what God has decreed that certainly will come to pass but to say that Men shall have sentence pass upon them to go either to Heaven or Hell without any consideration of their Faith and Obedience on one hand or their infidelity and impenitence on the other is to make a day of Judgment unnecessary and repugnant to that justice according to which God has declared he will then proceed We must all appear before the judgment of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 3. Among these ill Opinions we may rank that of the Popish Casuists who teach that the precept of loving God is in it self only Obligatory at the very point of Death altho we be always under the protection of Gods unwearied Providence and do every moment that we breath receive good at his hand tho there is no day of our Lives but we offend and stand in fresh need of his mercy yet these Licentious Casuists to say no worse of 'em are of opinion that it is a sufficient return of Gratitude to God for the infinite and unspeakable Acts of his love to us if in the end of our Lives we express one act of Love towards him But there needs no other Confutation in this Auditory of an Opinion so impious and directly contrary to the first and greatest Commandment of the Evangelical Law than the bare rehersal of it 4. Another Doctrine to be reflected upon is that which Teaches and Directs us to the use of such Means for the promotion of Christian Religion as are destructive of the ends of it The end of Christian Religion is to make men sincere in what they profess true to their word and upright in their dealings and therefore they who by lying and perjury equivocation and reserves endeavor to propagate the Religion of our Blessed Savior do by the means they use subvert the end they pretend to serve The design of Christian Religion is to teach men Peace and Subjection to all lawful Authority therefore they who would instil Principles of Sedition and Rebellion in order to the work of Reformation do defile and corrupt that pure Religion which they make such a shew of reforming The end of Christian Religion is to render men harmless kind and Charitable one to another therefore they who Condemn mens bodies to the stake and fire in order to refine their Minds and cut their Throats to save their Souls instead of doing service to the institution of Christ they bring the utmost slander and disgrace upon it that possibly they can No we must not doe evil that good may come of it we may not make use of unlawful means to bring about an honest end God in no Case will allow it neither can true Religion ever be reduced to such extremity as to stand in need of it But the time not allowing that I should further pursue this point or take any more of the