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
A66095	Divine meditations. Written by an honourable person. Whereto is adjoyned, a determination of the question, whether men ought to kneele at the receipt of the Holy Communion. And an essay of friendship	Wake, Isaac, Sir, 1580?-1632.	1641 (1641)	Wing W226B; ESTC R219891	35,999	169

from dangers and frequent victories over all their enemies But when they went out of their way by murmuring disobedience and Idolatry then were they stung * Num. 21.6 with fiery serpents and sould into the hands of their Enemies or smitten with the Plague none of Gods Angels comming in to helpe them till they returnd into the way againe by Repentance The Royall Prophet oft harpes on this stringe in the Booke of Psalmes which Saint Hilary truly calles The Key of Scripture If we peruse the Psalmes 44.18.80.106 we shall see the Iewes prospering and flourishing under Gods Protection while they walkt in their way and dejected and abandoned when they started aside like a broken Bow While Samsons haire was uncut which was his Vow of a Nazarite his strength was unresistable but when he went out of his way to Timnah Iud. 14.1 and Delilah had cut his Lockes though he went out against the Philistins as at other times God having left him they prevailed against him When Saul sinned the Spirit of God departed from him 1 Sam. 16.14 Iosiah the best King that ever raigned in Ierusalem never went out of his way for ought We read but once when he would needs fight with Pharoah-Necho King of Egypt who had no quarrell to him and then as if God had watched him to take him in his first fault he miscarried and was slaine 2 Chro. 35. Let us then take heede how wee goe with Ionas to Tharsis when we are commanded to goe to Nineveh least we draw a bitter storme on our selves and those that are in our company The wayes we are to walke in if we expect the protection of God and Assistance of His holy Angels are traced out unto us in the Decalogue where we are taught what to doe and what not to doe The Old and New Testament are Commentaries on these tenne Commandements and therefore we must study read and meditate Gods word if we desire to know His Will and to doe it David askes the question Wherewithall shall a young man cleanse his way and instantly resolves it Even by ruling himselfe by thy word This word is a Lanterne to our way and a Light to our Paths Psalm 119 in which Psalme almost in every Line there is mention made of the word Law Statutes and Commandements of God wherein the Prophet desires to be instructed and professes to be singularly delighted Since then our way is chalked out in Gods word let us pray with the Prophet Order my steps in thy word so shall no wickednesse have dominion over me Psal 143. Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes make me to goe in the Paths of thy Precepts Psalm 119. If we can thus pray with a pure heart God will answer us as Psalm 32.9 I will informe and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt goe and I will guide thee with mine Eye If by prayer and Repentance we can purchase this Grace from God to be guided and directed in our wayes and if we looke to our steps and be carefull not to goe out of the way when he hath set us in we may rest assured of His gracious providence and angelicall protection in our severall vocations But O Lord What is man that thou art mindfull of him and the son of man that thou visitest him Psal 8.4 Thou madest him lower than the Angels and yet thou commandest thy blessed Angels to attend him to have charge over him and to beare him * As Nur●es be are young children in their arms So the Originall imports in their hands What moveth thee O Lord to be so gracious and so good to this poore creature of thine 14. Because he hath set his love upon me therefore shall I deliver him I shall set him up because he hath known my Name 15. He shall call upon mee and I will heare him Yea I am with him in trouble I will deliver him and being him to honour 16. With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my salvation The causall Particle here Because iterated Vers 14. is not to be understood as if it implied any Merit in us or as if God were obliged in regard of our knowledg of him to protect us from the Pestilence or to make Lions and Dragons subject to us as he did to David Daniel and others of his children but hath reference simply and purely to his mercy and goodnesse who hath a speciall care of his Elect whom he covers under his wings in all times of danger and to his promise which he hath made to reward freely and not for any desert those that entirely love him and faithfully invocate him If we desire the honour to be called his Sonnes are we not bound to love and honour him whom we call Father Can we doe lesse than love God the Father for creating us after his owne Image God the Sonne for redeeming us when we were lost God the Holy Ghost for alwayes comforting and assisting us And when we have done our best * Deus magis delectatur affectu quam effectu Amb. are we not unprofitable servants Herein is love saith Saint Iohn not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Sonne to be a propitiation for our sinnes 1 Ioh. 4.10 And indeed how could we possibly love him if he had not given us the grace to know him and consequently to love him Ignoti nulla cupido Now although we can claime no merit by our loving of God because it is our bounden Duty yet are we well encouraged thereto by the Reward which accompanies it in vertue of Gods Promise and of his pure Mercy and Goodnesse In the second Commandement he promises to shew mercy to Thousands in them that love him and keepe his Commandements And Psal 31. O love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserves them that are faithfull c. As therefore it is our duty to expresse our gratitude for graces or benefits received by loving God who conferres them so is it an Act of Gods meere goodnesse to love us for loving him and to make us see and feele the effects of his love by his preservation and protection David Psal 130.4 saith There is mercy with thee therfore thou shalt be feared which may seeme to have some repugnancy with the love formerly spoken of in that ordinarily men hate those whom they feare Oderint dum metuant This is true among Barbarians and those that are opprest by Tyrants But we must distinguish betwixt a servile and filiall feare The former is proper to the reprobate the latter to the elect There is no childe of God that will not feare to offend and displease his heavenly Father that hath beene so indulgent and gracious unto him as he must needs acknowledge and confesse if he have any sense of God or godlinesse or any understanding of his stupendious creation redemption and preservation Yea the more graces or benefits he hath received of

friend in such or such cases and just so hee ought to doe to him And on the contrary he ought to consider what he would do to his friend upon such and such occasions and just so he ought to expect from him They are dissemblers that say they love any man better than themselves and because they want the Truth of friendship they guild over the meanest of their affections with such Protestations and make them appeare more glorious then true friendship it selfe He hath attaind the height of friendship who loves another equally to himselfe and friendship is so indivisible a thing that hee that loves not so * The fordid demeanour of a false friend is thus describ'd by Siracides If he have need of thee hee will deceive thee and smile upon thee and put thee in hope hee will speake thee faire and say What wantest thou And he will shame thee by his meates and at last he will laugh thee to scorne c. Eccl. 13.6 7. Compare Prov. 23.6.7 8. and Eccl. 18.18 and there will result the true Character of a cheating Laban and churlish Nabal D.L. is not worthy of the Name of a True Friend Since then a man ought to love his friend in the same degree that hee loves himselfe then is required betweene friends such an Equality of Worth and Merit that one Friend must in all congruity of Reason equally deserve to bee loved as the other not in that opinion which other men have of them for that is without them and doth not concerne them but in the opinion which they have one of another For the reason why a man loves his friend as well as himselfe is because he assuredly beleeves that his Friends Abilities are both as great and as much his owne as those which he hath himselfe and that he can imagine no Danger or Inconvenience that hee would undergoe to purchase his owne contentment that his friend would not with the same willingnesse put himself upon for the same end Neither is an Equality of Birth and Nobilitie to be required For as I said before no men are borne friends neither is Friendship between Men as they are either Kings Lords or Beggers but as they are Men. Neither is a just equality of Age necessary though it bee very convenient that their yeares doe not much differ because the bodies of old and young men do so much differ that 't is almost impossible their affections should runne so requall a course as is fit for the Sympathy of Desires which is ever betweene friends Their estates must necessarily bee equall that is their wants For since no mans state is so plentifull but hee desires still to adde somewhat to it in one kind or other which in his opinion he yet wants Mens estates are in realitie more or lesse one then another according as their Wants are fewer and lesse Essentiall It is fit therefore that the Estate of Friends should bee in common * Of this Community see an illustrious precedent in the Golden Age of the Primitive Church Acts 2.41 to the end in every thing that respects the Conveniencies of Life But in matters of superfluitie there 's no such Necessitie for suppose there were two friends of which one had five hundred per ann and the other a very little yet being a discreet man and out of those Employments which require with the Necessitie as many Abilities to perform them did so manage his little that hee made it supply him all the Conveniences of life there were no Necessitie that hee that had the Great estate should share it with the other But if the one Friend should chance by any misfortune to fall into miserable want it is fit that the other should releeve him to the uttermost penny of his estate For Friends are * Members should have the same care one for another 1 Cor. 12.25 At dum sibi quisque plus satis addictus est alios praeteritac negligit Hoc vitium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superat amor proximi Vnde autemid nisi a Deo qui particuiam suae bonitatis hominum cordibus instillat I. C. Members of equall Dignity of one and the same Body of Friendship And as no man that had one of his hands dangerously wounded and the other whole and had in his Power so much Money as would either cure the hurt hand or buy a fine Ring for a Finger of that hand that were sound would bee so indiscreet as to preferre the vaine affectation of having a Gold-Ring for his sound Finger before the Essentiall benefit of recovering the decayed health of a hand and yet no man would impose a necessitie upon a man that had both his hands sound to divide a Ring that one hand wore with the other Iust so is it with Friends who in points of Necessity ought to joyneboth their Forces to the relieving of him that wants but in Matters of Superfluitie let every man enjoy that he hath To conclude True Friendship is the Crowne of all Morall Vertues for Morall Vertue instructs a man to govern all Actions in such a regular Manner as may best serve to preserve society and mutuall Conversation amongst men And as the most excellent and perfectest end of Societie is Friendship so doubtlesse that is the Excellence and perfection of Vertue which directs a man to the Attainement of this most happy state and preserves him in it As it is the Consummation of Vertue so I desire it may bee of my life which I will endeavour to governe by it And I shall esteeme my selfe as happy as the World can make mee if having laid the Foundation of my life in Honesty and continued this Fabricke through the various Opinions of Men and Chances of this World with a perpetuall desire of taking hold of every Opportunitie of doing vertuous and worthy acts I shall conclude my life enjoying and being enjoyed of a constant * A perfect friend is no shaking Reed like Varroes Metamelos inconstantiae silius but like God who is not variable in his Love Iam. 1.17 Perfect friend in the Noble entercourses of mutuall amity Appendix of LOVE and FRIENDS According to Aristotles Judgement delivered in his second Booke of Rhetorik chap. 4. TO Love is to wish well to another for that others not ones own sake A FRIEND is hee that Loves and is beloved Friends are they that mutually love each other A Friend therefore hee is That rejoyces at anothers good That grieves at his hurt That wishes the same with us to a third whether good or hurt And that is Enemy or Friend to the same person We love them That have beene beneficiall to Us or Ours especially if amply readily or seasonably That are our Friends friends That are our Enemies enemies That are Bountifull That are Valorous That are Iust And those wee would have love Vs. And good Companions And such as can abide Iests And such as breake Iests And such as commend us especially for somwhat that wee doubt of in our selves And such as are neat And such as upbraid us not with our Vices or their own benefits And such as quickly forget injuries And such as lest observe our errours And such as are not of ill language And those that are ignorant of our Vices And such as crosse us not when wee are busie or angry And such as are officious towards Vs. And such as professe the same Trade or course of life where they impeach not each other And such as labour for the same thing when both may be satisfied And such as are not asham'd to tell us freely their faults so it bee not in contempt of Vs and the Faults such as the whole World rather than their owne Consciences condemnes And such as are indeed asham'd to tel us their very faults And such as we would have honour us and not any way to envie but to imitate us And such as We would doe good to except with greater danger or hurt to our selves And such as continue their firme Affection to the Dead And such as speak their minde And such as are not terrible And such as wee may relie on The severall sorts of Friendship are Society Familiarity Consanguinity Affinity c. The things that procure love are the bestowing of benefits Freely Voluntarily Privately FINIS Imprimatur Tho. Wykes R.P. Episc Lond. Capell DOMEST