Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	love_n	love_v	word_n	4,771	5	4.7257	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49447	Meditations upon retirement from the world Occasioned by a discourse with a gentleman, who begun to see the vanity of worldly enjoyments, whereof he had had a very great share, and thought it necessary by despising of them, to secure the interest of his soul, while there was any time left.	Ludolf, Heinrich Wilhelm, 1655-1710.	1691 (1691)	Wing L3464; ESTC R216641	10,010	11

difficulty to be overcome by one who would fain injoy that Retirement wherein we are past being displeased with any thing but what displeases God Almighty MEDITATION IV. SUCH a disengagement of our hearts from all worldly affections fits us for that love of God whereby we endear our selves to him and receive those returns from him which bring us to so much experience of his mercy that we never despond even under the worst circumstances but bear the worst lot of his Providence without reluctancy It would be strange if God Almighty who hath given so innumerable proofs of his goodness towards us should look with indifferency upon those that endeavour to answer his design in creating of Man and endowing him with understanding If we think we have reason to lessen our kindness for a person which doth love another besides us How can we imagine that Infinite Being should take it well at our hands when we kindly entertain so despicable Rivals besides him Many pious persons hold that God created Man only for a witness to his wonders to admire and injoy the beauty of the whole Creation and after Man had by his ingratitude forfeited so great a bliss and by his disobedience brought the sad punishment upon him which hath made his Posterity smart ever since Yet God was pleased to give still a greater proof of his Love in pittying Mans deplorable condition and providing a mean for its relief What is not such an Infinite Goodness like to do for one who is sensible of so unspeakable a Mercy and with a due acknowledgement of his unworthiness makes it his utmost care to please his Creator If we make never so few Christian Reflexions upon the course he takes with us we will soon find that he courts us for our heart by all the methods imaginable and when they do not prevail he imbitters the enjoyment of those very things which inticed our heart away from him He doth not deserve so great a favour as affliction that doth not look upon it as a design of God Almighty to wean us from those things which rendered us treacherous to him Our mind must have some thing to delight chiefly in and which way soever it inclines there it sticks closer and closer If it bend towards the world it will intangle it self faster and faster in it and remove further and further from God But if our mind fix once upon God it will despise the world more and more and grow in delighting in God Almighty and Heaven The more our love tends this way the more our expectations will be answered Till by degrees it bring us to so straight a union with God that no Temptation will tear us from him When God once finds us true to him he gives us those assurances of his being true to us that nothing is able to shake us or to grieve us till at length we arrive at such an intimacy with him as to have no other will but his and to bear with an intire resignation his disposals Then we begin to see wonders of Wisedome Goodness Mercy and Justice even in those Events which the world thinks chance and we will find that the more we seek Heaven the more we find happiness upon Earth whereas seeking the Trifles of the Earth makes us lose Heaven and doth nothing but inbroil us here upon earth So that in my opinion it is Prudence as well as Religion to give our Heart to God and not to the World than I am sure the Vanity of the World will never make us uneasie nor puzzle us where to find that tranquillity and cherfullness of mind which sweetens this life and gives us a foretaste of that which is to come MEDITATION V. FOr fear any body should think these Notions insignificant whims of my own brains I advise to examine whether they are not agreeable to what was said before by one whose Wisdom and Truth no Christian can have an exception to There is scarce another sence to be given to those words of our Saviours whereby he declared That the Love of his Heavenly Father was not in us as long as we loved the World But if people will not mind his Doctrine how can they wonder at their not finding the Truth and Benefit of it Withdrawing our heart from the World and giving it to God is that forsaking of every thing which hath the promise of an hundred fold recompence Whereof no body is like to gain a fortunate experience that doth not think it worth his while to attempt a trial of it Though I am of opinion the truth of my Notions will be called in question by no body who owns the Bible to contain Gods Word The number indeed of those is far greater which think it beneath them to submit their understanding to Gods Wisdome not to speak of those which count David a fool for calling those Fools which denyed a God I will not now incroach upon the province of Divines and threaten those Sparks with the heavy Judgments that are like to befal them or think so meanly of my time as to go about the proving their errors since they admit only of heathenish arguments they may go those passages in Seneca which make Contempt of Riches the great Road towards becoming Rich. And they may learn of Epicurus that since mans happiness consists in pleasure he must needs be most happy whose pleasure is least subject to uncertainty or to taste as much of Gall as of Hony My Meditations being designed only for the improvement of Christianity I dare assure my self that any person who will earnestly endeavour for Christs sake to forsake his Life will by Gods blessing find a far better I have not been yet in the other World and cannot speak by experience of what we have to expect there But I know that forsaking of those courses which set us at a greater and greater distance from God will bring us by degrees to such a life here upon Earth which is not only free from disquiet and fear but wherein natural pleasures are easie and even the thought of their loss most pleasant I shall never be perswaded to embrace the sottish conceipt of those that suppose all the pleasures of the body were by the bountiful Creator of the Universe laid only as so many snares for our Soul and upon that account deny their bodies not only recreation but necessaries It is too low a fancy to imagine that so infinite a goodness as that of the Almighty can take delight in making us uneasie and I have reason to believe that the infinite liberality of our Creator desireth nothing of us but a grateful injoyment of what is given being so free to grant the desires of those that love him that they can scarce thank him heartily for a mercy received before there is a greater one ready Though I am afraid there is not over many that have had a full sence hereof since there is so few that think