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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	faith_n	heart_n	unfeigned_a	1,237	5	10.9662	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31078	Of the love of God and our neighbour, in several sermons : the third volume by Isaac Barrow ...	Barrow, Isaac, 1630-1677.	1680 (1680)	Wing B949; ESTC R12875	133,534	328

of all our good by just correspondence all our mind and heart all our strength and endeavour are due and reasonably might he engross them to himself excluding all other beings from any share in them so that we might be obliged onely to fix our thoughts and set our affections on him onely to act directly for his honour and interest saying with the Holy Psalmist Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none in earth that I desire beside thee Yet doth he freely please to impart a share of these performances on mankind yet doth he charge us to place our affection on one another to place it there indeed in a measure so large that we can hardly imagine a greater according to a rule than which none can be devised more compleat or certain O marvellous condescension O goodness truly divine which surpasseth the nature of things which dispenseth with the highest right and forgoeth the greatest interest that can be Doth not God in a sort debase himself that he might advance us doth he not appear to wave his own due and neglect his own honour for our advantage how otherwise could the love of man be capable of any resemblance to the love of God and not stand at an infinite distance or in an extream disparity from it how otherwise could we be obliged to affect or regard any thing beside the Sovereign the onely goodness how otherwise could there be any second or like to that first that great that peerless command Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart This indeed is the highest commendation whereof any Law is capable for as to be like God is the highest praise that can be given to a person so to resemble the divinest Law of love to God is the fairest character that can be assigned of a Law the which indeed representeth it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint James calleth it that is a Royal and Sovereign Law exalted above all others and bearing a sway on them Saint Paul telleth us that the end of the commandment or the main scope of the Evangelical doctrine is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned that charity is the summe and substance of all other duties and that he that loveth another hath fulfilled the whole law that Charity is the chief of the Theological vertues and the prime fruit of the divine Spirit and the bond of perfection which combineth and consummateth all other graces and the general principle of all our doings Saint Peter enjoineth us that to all other vertues we add charity as the top and crown of them and Above all things saith he have fervent charity among your selves Saint John calleth this Law in way of excellence the commandment of God and our Lord himself claimeth it as his peculiar Precept This saith he is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another and maketh the observance of it the special cognizance of his followers By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another These indeed are lofty commendations thereof yet all of them may worthily veil to this all of them seem verified in virtue of this because God hath vouchsafed to place this command in so near adjacency to the first great Law conjoining the two Tables making Charity contiguous and as it were commensurate to Piety It is true that in many respects Charity doth resemble Piety for it is the most genuine daughter of Piety thence in complexion in features in humour much favouring its sweet mother It doth consist in like dispositions and motions of soul It doth grow from the same roots and principles of benignity ingenuity equity gratitude planted in our original constitution by the breath of God and improved in our hearts by the divine Spirit of love It produceth the like fruits of beneficence toward others and of comfort in our selves It in like manner doth assimilate us to God rendring us conformable to his nature followers of his practice and partakers of his felicity It is of like use and consequence toward the regulation of our practice and due management of our whole life In such respects I say this Law is like to the other but it is however chiefly so for that God hath pleased to lay so great stress thereon as to make it the other half of our Religion and duty or because as Saint John saith This commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also which is to his praise a most pregnant demonstration of his immense goodness toward us But no less in the very substance of this Duty will the benignity of him that prescribeth it shine forth displaying it self in the rare beauty and sweetness of it together with the vast benefit and utility which it being observed will yield to mankind which will appear by what we may discourse for pressing its observance but first let us explain it as it lyeth before us expressed in the words of the Text wherein we shall consider two Particulars observable First The Object of the Duty Secondly The Qualification annexed to it The Object of it Our Neighbour The Qualification As our selves I. The Object of Charity is our Neighbour that is it being understood as the Precept now concerneth us according to our Lord's exposition or according to his intent and the tenour of his Doctrine every man with whom we have to doe or who is capable of our love especially every Christian. The Law as it was given to God's ancient people did openly regard onely those among them who were linked together in a holy neighbourhood or Society from which all other men being excluded were deemed strangers and foreiners aliens as Saint Paul speaketh from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise for thus the Law runneth in Leviticus Thou shalt not bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self where plainly Jews and Neighbours are terms equivalent other men being supposed to stand at distance without the fold or politick enclosure which God by several Ordinances had fenced to keep that Nation unmixt and separate nor can it be excepted against this notion that in the same Chapter it is enjoined But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou shalt love him as thy self for by that stranger as the Jewish Masters well interpret it is meant a Proselyte of righteousness or one who although a stranger by birth was yet a brother in Religion having voluntarily submitted to their Law being engaged in the same Covenant and thence admitted to the same Privileges as an adopted Child of that Holy

our neighbours concerns to our accompt That this is practicable experience may confirm for we may observe that men commonly do thus appropriate the concerns of others resenting the disasters of a friend or of a relation with as sensible displeasure as they could their own and answerably finding as high a satisfaction in their good fortune Yea many persons do feel more pain by compassion for others than they could do in sustaining the same evils divers can with a stout heart undergo their own afflictions who are melted with those of a friend or brother Seeing then in true judgment humanity doth match any other relation and Christianity far doth exceed all other alliances why may we not on them ground the like affections and practices if reason hath any force or consideration can any wise sway in our practice 4. It will greatly conduce to the perfect observance of this Rule to the depression of self-love and advancement of charity to the highest pitch if we do studiously contemplate our selves strictly examining our conscience and seriously reflecting on our unworthiness and vileness the infirmities and defects of nature the corruptions and defilements of our soul the sins and miscarriages of our lives which doing we shall certainly be far from admiring or doting on our selves but rather as Job did we shall condemn and abhor our selves when we see our selves so deformed and ugly how can we be amiable in our own eyes how can we more esteem or affect our selves than others of whose unworthiness we can hardly be so conscious or sure what place can there be for that vanity and folly for that pride and arrogance for that partiality and injustice which are the sources of immoderate self-love 5. And lastly we may from many conspicuous Experiments and Examples be assur'd that such a practice of this Duty is not impossible but these I have already produced and urged in the precedent Discourse and shall not repeat them again The Fifth Sermon EPHESIANS 5. 2. And walk in love SAint Paul telleth us that the end of the commandment or the main scope of the Evangelical Doctrine is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned that charity is a general principle of all good practice let all your things be done in charity that it is the sum and abridgment of all other duties so that he that loveth another hath fulfilled the whole law that it is the chief of the Theological vertues the prime fruit of the divine Spirit and the band of perfection which combineth and consummateth all other graces Saint Peter enjoineth us that to all other vertues we should add charity as the top and crown of them and Above all things saith he have fervent charity among your selves Saint James styleth the Law of Charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the royal or Sovereign Law Saint John calleth it in way of excellence the commandment of God This is his commandement that we should love one another Our Lord claimeth it for his peculiar Law This is my commandment and a new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another And he maketh the observance of it the special badge and cognizance of his followers By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another It being therefore a duty of so grand importance it is most requisite that we should well understand it and faithfully observe it to which purposes I shall by God's assistance endeavour to confer somewhat first by explaining its Nature then by pressing the observance of it by several Inducements The nature of it will as I conceive be best understood by representing the several chief Acts which it comprizeth or implyeth as necessary prerequisites or essential ingredients or inseparable adherents to it some internally resident in the soul others discharged in external performance together with some special properties of it And such are those which follow I. Loving our neighbour doth imply that we should value and esteem him this is necessary for affection doth follow opinion so that we cannot like any thing which we do not esteem or wherein we do not apprehend some considerable good attractive of affection that is not amiable which is wholly contemptible or so far as it is such But in right judgment no man is such for the Wise man telleth us that He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth and He is void of understanding that despiseth his neighbour but no man is guilty of sin or folly for despising that which is wholly despicable It is indeed true that every man is subject to defects and to mischances apt to breed contempt especially in the minds of vulgar and weak people but no man is really despicable For Every man living hath stamped on him the venerable Image of his glorious Maker which nothing incident to him can utterly deface Every man is of a divine extraction and allied to heaven by nature and by grace as the Son of God and the Brother of God Incarnate If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant when they contended with me what then shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him Did not he that made me in the womb make him and did not one fashion us in the womb Every man is endewed with that celestial faculty of reason inspired by the Almighty for There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding and hath an immortal spirit residing in him or rather is himself an Angelical spirit dwelling in a visible tabernacle Every man was originally designed and framed for a fruition of eternal happiness Every man hath an interest in the common redemption purchased by the bloud of the Son of God who tasted death for every one Every man is capable of Sovereign bliss and hath a crown of endless glory offered to him In fine every man and all men alike antecedently to their own will and choice are the objects of his love of his care of his mercy who is loving unto every man and whose mercy is over all his works who hath made the small and the great and careth for all alike who is rich in bounty and mercy toward all that call upon him How then can any man be deemed contemptible having so noble relations capacities and privileges How a man standeth in esteem with God Elihu telleth us God saith he is mighty and despiseth not any although he be so mighty so excellent in perfection so infinitely in state exalted above all yet doth not he slight any and how can we contemn those whom the certain voucher and infallible judge of worth deigneth to value Indeed God so valued every man as to take great care to be at great cost and trouble to stoop down from heaven to assume mortal flesh