Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	brother_n	know_v	love_v	5,820	5	6.8841	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40092	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Maior of London, and the Court of Aldermen, &c. on Wednesday in Easter week, in the Church of St. Andrew Holborn being one of the anniversary spittal sermons / by Edward Fowler.	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.	1688 (1688)	Wing F1719; ESTC R10667	20,353	37

Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these my brethren ye did it not to me Again see what our Lord saith Luk. 6.35 Love your Enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again or hoping for no Reward from those whose Benefactors you are and charitable Creditors and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the Children of the Highest c. And Mat. 5.7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Whereas S. Iames hath declared Ch. 2.13 that He shall have judgment without mercy that sheweth no mercy I am sure you will acknowledge that there 's no need of going farther than these two Considerations for the Confirmation of the Doctrin raised from the Text. If it be asked How this one part of Religion can be said to give a Title to these Everlasting Habitations I hope none of us do believe that there is any thing more of proper Merit in these than in other good works since the Falsity and Dangerousness of the Popish Doctrin of Merit hath been sufficiently exposed to us from time to time As also the Folly of imagining that Creatures can deserve any Reward at the hands of their Great Creator and much more of thinking that Sinners can and much more that they can deserve such an immensely Great Reward as the Kingdom of Heaven by the best Works they are in a possibility of performing these Works not bearing the least proportion with that Reward Nor need I surely go about to perswade a Congregation of Protestants That the Righteousness of Christ is the only Meritorious or procuring Cause of whatsoever Good we have received or can hope to receive And as to that Saying that Christ hath merited that we may merit 't is so far from good Doctrine that 't is impossible to make any good Sense of it But 1. Works of Mercy and Charity are Conditions to the sincere performance of which GOD in his infinite Grace and Bounty and for Christ's sake or in and through Christ hath promised these Everlasting Habitations And they are such Conditions as our Saviour might well propose without naming any other with them because the whole of Religion is virtually contained or implyed in them Who knows not that Faith and Love and Obedience are words which severally express in Scripture all Religion But all these are implyed in true Christian Charity Both the Tables are comprized by our Saviour in the Love of God and our Neighbour and the summ of what is required in the Gospel is sometimes expressed by Believing and other times by Obeying Now as Charity hath a respect to God's Gracious Promises or as a Christian is excited thereto by them so is it an eminent Act and Exertion of Faith As it hath respect to the many Commandments of GOD and our Saviour so every act of Charity is an act of Obedience As it hath respect to our infinite Obligations to GOD and our Saviour and is an Expression of Gratitude towards them so every act of Charity is an act of Divine Love As it hath respect to the Necessities of our Brethren so is it an act of Brotherly Love and that which hath these several respects is the truly Christian Charity Considering this well might S. Iames say Ch. 1.27 Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction and to keep ones self unspotted from the World. And therefore good reason had our Saviour here to instance solely in employing our Estates in doing Good as that which intitles to Everlasting Habitations in the Heavenly Mansions And this likewise justifies that Advice of the Prophet Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar Ch. 4.27 Break off thy sins by Righteousness and thine iniquites by shewing mercy to the Poor c. And also this interprets to us those words of S. Peter 1 Ep. 4.8 Charity shall cover the multitude of sins Above all things have servent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover the multitude of sins 2. Works of Mercy and Charity give a Title to these Everlasting Habitations as they are the best Evidence of our being Regenerate and Christians in Deed as well as in Profession The Tree saith our Saviour is known by its Fruits But it hath already appeared and will farther appear that no Fruit speaks a good Tree like these Fruits And therefore S. Paul preferreth the Grace of Charity before the Graces of Faith and Hope And now abideth Faith Hope and Charity but the greatest of these is Charity 1 Cor. 13. ult 'T is confest he doth not here mean by Charity the meer giving of Alms as appears by the third Verse of this Chapter but as wheresoever that Charity is which the Apostle describes in the foregoing Verses there will be a cheerful forwardness to the relieving of our Necessitous Brethren so this forwardness proceeding from the forementioned Motives is the best Expression of that Charity And what single Evidence of a Man's being a good Christian can excel nay can equal this Who can doubt whether that man doth truly and sincerely Believe in God and embraceth with his Heart that Religion which he professeth with his Tongue or whether he hath a powerful Sense of another Life and sets his Affections on the things above that can freely forego present Profit and Advantage for their sake What surer Argument can there be of our sincerely loving GOD and our Blessed Saviour than our readily parting with those things at their Command which the Generality are so tenacious of and most unwilling to let go upon any other account than the some way or other serving themselves I mean promoting their carnal Interests And I need not say that this is the best Evidence of a man's loving his Neighbour as himself since all other Signs thereof can signifie nothing without this For 't is too plain a Case to need proving that he is a Lyar who pretendeth love to his Neighbour while he cannot find in his Heart to Relieve him in his Necessity in some proportion to his Ability S. Iohn makes this the great distinguishing Character of a sincere Lover of GOD from an Hypocritical Pretender to the love of Him in 1 Ep. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren Or for the promoting of their eternal welfare But whoso hath this Worlds Goods and seeth his Brother hath need and shutteth up his Bowels of compassion from him that is so far from venturing his life for him that he will not so much as open his purse to him How dwelleth the love of God in him My little Children let us not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth Or Let us not only profess Love to our Brethren but demonstrate the sincerity of that Profession by Acts of Bounty and Beneficence Then it follows And hereby we know that we are in the

as they become fit for them So that they being as well Taught as Fed are not only in an Excellent way to be inabled comfortably to provide for themselves but also to Relieve others To be useful in the World and great Blessings to their Country Nay by your Charity to this Hospital you no less contribute to poor Orphans eternal Happiness than to their temporal Well-fare To their Souls no less than to their Bodies and Charity to the Souls of our Fellow-Creatures I need not say is incomparably the most Worthy and Excellent in it self and therefore the most Grateful to God and the most highly Rewardable And in the Hospital of Christ's Church I am well assured no means are neglected for the well Principling its Children in the True Religion all Care is taken for the Training of them up in the Way that they should go in Piety and Devotion Vertue and Goodness God Almighty reward those as most certainly He will who so faithfully discharge this greatest of Trusts And give the Poor Children His Grace to be duly affected with and carefully to improve so inestimable a Blessing In the Hospitals of S. Bartholomew and S. Thomas you bestow your Charity on the Sick Lame and Wounded who must inevitably perish and while they live lie in great Misery without the help of Charity And as you have now heard from the Paper there are such great Numbers of these Miserable People received into these Houses that they must be very large Contributions that will defray their Charges And these Objects of Charity you shall not need to be told are sad Ones indeed 'T is a lamentable thing to be destitute of Food Fire and Cloathing but over and above these Wants to want Health too or the Vse of Limbs which Wants render uncapable of supplying the other and to have excessive Pain added to extreme Poverty Oh what a pitiable Case is this What is given to the Hospital of Bridewell contributes to the Maintaining of Poor Youths and fitting them for Trades and putting them out to them which are much like Objects of Charity with those in the Hospital of Christs Church It farther contributes towards the Reducing of Vicious People to Sobriety which whatever the success be is never the less Acceptable Charity Endeavour being our Work and not success And what is bestowed here helps also to the Relieving of indigent miserable People and to the sending of poor Vagrants to the Places which ought to be their Homes that are bound by Law to take care of them and to their Relief and Subsistence in the mean time And though many I fear of these last do much more need than deserve your Charity yet this is so far from being a good Objection against giving to them that it carrieth with it a no small Motive thereto viz. that this is imitating the Charity of our Heavenly Father who is kind as our Saviours Words are to the Vnthankful and to the Evil. And if those should want the Charity of Heaven who are far from deserving it we should all go without it But I am not now encouraging you to any great Liberality towards our street Vagrants and much less to such of them as are not by Age or loss of Eyes or Limbs disabled from Working The Truth is the so swarming and I doubt daily encreasing of Common Beggars is a great temptation to reflect upon our Government And Lastly As to the Hospital of Bethlem Lord how deplorable is the Condition of those for whom your Charity is here desired Of those who have lost their Reason and so are rendred as Vnuseful to themselves as to the World and have left them but little more to make them distinguishable from Brute Creatures than the Shapes and Tongues of Men and Women But the Case of Lunaticks is too Lamentable to need Aggravation for the raising of Compassion Those therefore can be no less void of Sense than these poor Souls who need to be told that what is given towards the reducing of such as are destitute of other help to their right Minds is extraordinary Charity And now let me commend those Words of the Author to the Hebrews Ch. 13.3 to your very serious consideration Remember them that are in Bonds as bound with them and them which suffer Adversity as being your selves also in the Body That is as being liable your selves whilst you are in this World to the same Adversities The Richest man among us hath no Assurance but that he may be as poor as Iob. The Healthiest and Soundest of us all cannot promise himself that he shall not Live to be as full of Sores as was that Good man and Lazarus in the Parable or as miserably Diseased as the most languishing People in either of our Hospitals The Ripest Wits and best Parted in our City do little know but that they may end their days in Bedlam And the best Security we can have from such like Calamities is to Sympathize with and extend what Relief we are able to such-like Sufferers As on the other hand 't will be most just with GOD so to abandon us by His Providence as to permit our falling into very miserable Circumstances if we have little Compassion for our Fellow-Christians or Fellow-Creatures in Misery And whensoever this may happen as God only knows what a day or what an hour may bring forth How must then our Consciences needs upbraid us as Ioseph's Brethrens did them When they said one to another we are verily Guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the Anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear Therefore is this Distress come upon us I doubt I have tired your Patience but I can't however conclude till I have Addressed my Self in a few words to those of you whose Hearts and Souls are in doing Good Who chiefly value your Riches upon the account of the Good you are inabled by them to do in the World Who cheerfully Embrace all Opportunities of expressing a Compassionate and Charitable Temper The Great S. Paul who next to our Blessed Saviour was the most wonderful Example of Charity the World hath known though he was not in Circumstances to be so of that part of it which consists in Alms-giving S. Paul I say assures such as you that God is not Vnrighteous to forget your Work and Labour of Love And that You who sow bountifully shall reap bountifully And therefore as it follows Every man according as he purposeth in his Heart so let him give not grudgingly or as of necessity or as being constrained by importunity for GOD loveth a Cheerful Giver 2 Cor. 9.6 7. And give me leave to read what follows to the End of this Chapter And God is able to make all Grace abound towards you that ye alwaies having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every Good Work or may still have plenty for all Charitable Works As it is Written he hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the Poor his Righteousness remaineth for ever Or his Charity And therefore he hath ever wherewithal to be Charitable Now he that ministreth Seed to the Sower both minister Bread for your Food and multiply your seed sown and Encrease the Fruit of your Righteousness or of your Charity Being inriched in every good thing to all Bountifulness or having enough to be liberal at all times which causeth through us Thanksgiving to God. Or gives us Occasion to Bless GOD for all His Blessings bestowed on you For the Administration of this Service not only supplieth the want of the Saints but is abundant also by many Thanksgivings unto God. Or causeth mighty Thankfulness to God from those that are Relieved by you and those that are Beholders of your Charity While by the Experiment of this Ministration they glorifie GOD for your professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution to them and to all men And by their Prayer for you which Long after you or are in Love with you for the exceeding Grace of GOD in you Thanks be to God for His Vnspeakable Gift Or for this His Great and Unspeakable Gift of Charity THE END Psal. 37.35 Eccle. 8.8 Ch. 9.3 Ch. 5.15 Ch. 6.4 Ch. 9.12 Deut. 32.29 See Dr. Hammond's Note on this place 1 John 4.16 Esay 28.21 Iam. 3.33 Jer. 9.24 Stromat Lib. 1 p. 313. Hicrocles Jam. 2.10 Mat. 25.30 Ch. 3.10 2 Cor. 8.12 Gal. 6.10 2 Cor. 9.6 Prov. 11.24 Luke 6.35 Gen. 42.21