Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	christian_a	great_a	354	4	2.1276	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00816	Compassion towards captives chiefly towards our brethren and country-men who are in miserable bondage in Barbarie. Vrged and pressed in three sermons on Heb. 13.3. Preached in Plymouth, in October 1636. By Charles Fitz-Geffry.	Fitz-Geffry, Charles, 1575?-1638.	1637 (1637)	STC 10937; ESTC S102148	49,481	72

the palme in charitable contribution Our covetous Nabals have their Topicks common places whence they fetch arguments against giving relieveing They offer to defend their Baal by Gods book which doth utterly overthrow it Busbequius a grave Authour sometimes Embassadour to the great Turke from the German Emperour reports how forward the Christian Marchants were in Pera a place adjoyning to Constantinople for the redeeming of certaine Christians there held captives Onely there was one out of whose fingers could not be wrung one farthing towards the advancement of this charitable designe His reasons were more unreasonable then his refusall What these men are said he I know not this I know that their affliction is from God Let them continue in that case into which God hath cast them untill it please him to free them seeing it pleased God thus to punish them who am I that should release thē unles I would be found to fight against God O cunning Sophister Satan who by arguments from the will of God can impugne the will of God from his providence maintaines covetousnesse the maine opposite unto Gods providence Mine Authour gives not the name of this monster Only he saith that he was an Italogrecian a mungrel between a Greeke an Italian Such as his lineage was such was his language God forbid that there should be among us such mungrels to barke out such dogged speeches This is certaine Compassion can have no admitta●●e into the heart where the evill spirit covetousnesse 〈…〉 possession A fift impediment is pretended want I am poore my selfe I have a great charge of mine owne I am in the Vsurers bands as hard a thraldome as some of them doe endure in Sally or Algier What of all this Thou shouldest remember them the sooner and by thine owne affliction conceive more feelingly of theirs But I have not wherewith to supply them But thou hast wherewith to pity them wherewith to pray for them All charity is not drawne out of the bag Insteed of a great gift give griefe give teares give compassion Condolement is no small comfort to him that suffereth A pitifull a pitying heart is many times no small almes He doth not shut up his bowels from his afflicted brother who affords him compassion whereby he shewes that he would relieve him if he were able God who requires a good work of such as are able accepts the good will of such as are unable If there be first a willing minde it is accepted according to that which a man hath and not according to that which he hath not If thou wilt not afford thy distressed brother a place in thy memory thou wilt hardly afford him any part of thy money If thou wilt not allow him the affection of compassion which the more it is extended the more it is augmented how wouldst thou extend to him thy earthly substance which the more it is distributed the more it is diminished But they are strangers unto me neither kiffe nor kin I never saw their faces nor heard of their names They have friends acquaintance kindred of their owne let them relieve them But they are of thine owne religion thine own nation thine owne nature And is not the least of these sufficient acquaintance when they are in misery Is it not both thine and their Makers charge When thou seest the naked thou shalt cover him any naked whether neighbour or stranger knowne or unknowne that 's all one Thou seest his nakednesse thou knowest his need that 's sufficient for acquaintance Marke the motive annexed Thou shalt not hide thy selfe from thine owne flesh Is there any better knowne or nearer kin to thee then thine owne flesh If thou hidest thy face from him in his need thou hidest thy selfe from one who is nearer kin to thee then thy nearest cosen by blood even from thine owne flesh Holy Iob professeth that while he was in his prosperity he saw not any perish for want of cloathing nor any poore without covering He saith not any of my kindred or any of my acquaintance but not any poore Vnto pious mindes Nature is a better Oratour then notion No man who is in need even in this regard that he is a man should be a stranger unto us Our Redeemer did not stand upon these nice points of kindred and acquaintance when he freed us from our most miserable bondage But though We were Gentiles in the flesh Aliens from the common wealth of Israel strangers from the covenant of promise yet all this could not estrange his compassion from us but he did and suffered more for us then it is possible any man can doe for his brother his father or best benefactour Can then any Christian be unknown to him to whom Christ is known Doe we say that we are united to the Head and can wee bee unacquainted with any member of the body Their hunger their bonds their burthens their blowes are not these sufficient for commiseration though we never saw their persons But the more to move us to compassionate these our barbarously oppressed brethren let us in the last place lay to your hearts these few among many forcible incentives First Nature it selfe incites us to this Sympathy This naturall instinct we finde in our owne bodies Whence is it that one in a company yawning or gaping the rest doe so likewise unlesse they prevent it That one eating bitter or tart meates others teeth doe water and are set on edge Is there such a Sympathy in our bodies Why not much more in our mindes From our selves desend we to bruite beasts Wee finde in them a kinde of compassion towards their kinde The wild buls doe bellow in the fields or woods if they finde one of their fellowes slaine and by kinde obsequies doe celebrate their brothers funerals What bruite beast more bruitish more beastly then the swine Whose life saith one is given them only to keepe their flesh from purrifying Yet if one of them be tangled in some gate or hedge you may observe how his crie calls the whole heard that is within hearing to come to him if they cannot yet they fall a crying with him as if they craved helpe for their fellow Come we unto senseles Creatures As in some things there is an Antipathy so there is a Sympathy in others Touch but one string in a lute and another soundeth though not neare unto it I omit the Sympathy betweene the load-stone and the iron betweene Amber and straw jet and an hayre rare secrets in nature common in triall Out of the premises I argue thus If our owne naturall bodies if brute creatures which are led only by sence yea if senselesse creatures by an occult quality be thus affected one towards another then what ought Christians to doe who are endued with reason enlightned with religion and led or rather drawne with naturall affection Now if nature doe teach us this

you freed mee In breife we give you great thanks that you would make us partakers of your carefulnesse and interest us with you in so good and necessary an imploiment as to present unto us fruitfull fields in which wee may sow the seedes of our hope expecting the harvest of those ample fruits which doe grow and proceed from such an heavenly and helpfull harvest Now we have sent one hundred thousand Sesterces that is 781 l 5 s sterling which summe hath beene raised by the contribution of the Clergie and Laytie in the Church over which by the providence of God we are made overseers which you shall distribute there and dispose of according to your diligence And wee desire indeed that there may not be the like occasion hereafter but that our bretheren being protected by Gods providence may be preserved safe from such dangers But if it shall please God for the triall of our charitable minde and faithfull heart that the like shall come to passe hereafter delay yee not to acquaint us therewith by your letters assuring your selves that the Church and whole society here as they doe earnestly pray that such things may not be againe so if they should bee they will willingly and largely send supplies againe And that you may remember in your prayers our brethren and sisters who have so readily and willingly contributed to this so necessary a worke that they may worke so alwaies and in your devotions for them returne unto them a requitall of this good worke I have subscribed the names of every one of them as also of our Colleagues and fellow-priests who themselves likewise being present have contributed both in their own and in the behalfe of their people according to their abilities And besides mine owne portion I have signified and sent the summe of theirs Of all whom as faith and charity requires you ought to bee mindefull in your prayers Most deare brethren we wish you alwayes well to fare A PASSAGE CONCERNING THE GOOD AND BENEFIT OF COMPASSION Extracted out of S. AMBROSE his second Booke of Offices CAP. 28. THE greatest incitement unto Mercy is that wee have a fellow-suffering with others in their calamities that we succour others in their necessities as much as we are able and sometimes more then we are able For it is better to suffer envie for shewing mercie then to pretend excuse for inclemencie As we our selves once incurred envy because wee did breake up the holy vessels for the redeeming of captives which deed displeased the Arians not so much because it was done as that they might have something for which they might carp at us For who is so cruel so yron-hearted as to be displeased that a man is to be redeemed from Death a woman from the pollutions of Barbarians which are more grieveous then Death young maidens children Infants from the contagion of Idols wherewith for feare of death they are in danger to be defiled Which action though we performed not without sufficient reason yet we so defended it before the people that we maintained it to be much more convenient for us to preserve for God soules rather then gold For he who sent his Apostles without gold did also without gold gather the Churches unto himselfe The Church hath gold not that it should keepe it but to disburse it and imploy it for necessarie releifes What need is there to keepe that which doth not helpe when wee have need Know you not how much gold and silver the Assyrians carried away from the Temple of the Lord Is it not better that the Priest should melt up these vessels if other supplies be wanting for the releefe of the poore then that the Sacrilegious enemie should carrie them away and defile them Will not the Lord say why didst thou suffer so many poore men to perish through hunger Surely seeing thou hadst gold thou shouldest have offered them nourishment Why are there so many captives carried away to be bought and sould and are not redeemed Why are there so many slaine by the Enemy Better it were that thou preservedst these living vessells then dead metalls No answere can be returned to those obiections For what wouldst thou say I feared lest the Temple of God should want ornaments He will answere thee the Sacraments seeke not gold neither doe they please the more for gold which are not purchased with gold The adorning of the sacraments is the Redemption of captives And verily those vessells are pretious which doe redeeme soules from death The true treasure of God is that which worketh the same which his blood wrought I then acknowledg it to be the vessell of the Lords blood when I finde Redemption in both that the Chalice redeemeth from the enemies those whom the bloud redeemed from sinne What an excellent thing is it when multitudes of captives are redeemed by the Church that it may be said Those are they whom Christ hath redeemed Behold the gold that is tried the profitable gold the gold of Christ which freeth from death Behold the gold whereby Purity is redeemed Chastity is preserved I had rather present these freed unto you then preserve gold for you This number this order of captives is a fa●re more acceptable sight then the shew of golden goblets Thus was the Redeemers gold to be imploied that it should redeeme those who were endangered I acknowledge the bloud of Christ powred into gold not only to have shined but to have imprinted the power of divine operation by the gift of redemption Such Gold did the holy Martyr Laurentius reserve for the Lord who when the treasures of the Church were required of him promised that he would produce them Next day he presented the poore saying These are the treasures of the Church And these truly are treasures in whom is Christ in whom is the faith of Christ. What better treasures hath Christ then those in whom he saith that he himselfe is For it i● written I was hungry and you fed me I was thirsty and you gave me drinke I was a stranger and you tooke me in And afterward That which you have done to one of those you have done it to me What better treasures hath Iesus then those in whom he loveth to bee seene These treasures Laurentius shew●d and prevailed because the Persecutor himselfe could not take them from him Therefore Iehoiachin who in the seige kept the gold and imploied it not to provide reliefe saw the gold to bee violently carried away and himselfe to be led into captivity But Laurentius who had rather bestowe the Churches gold on the poore then keepe it for the Persecutor according to the singular efficacie of the interpretation of his name received the sacred Crowne of Martyrdome Was it said to holy Laurentius thou oughtest not to have disbursed the treasures of the Church nor to have sold the sacred vessells Necessary it is that a man doe discharge that office with sincere faithfulnesse and discerning