Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	blood_n	body_n	jesus_n	12,126	5	6.1739	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71107	A sermon preached at the first general meeting of the gentlemen, and others in and near London, who were born within the county of York in the church of S. Mary-le-Bow, Decemb. 3, 1678 / by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1679 (1679)	Wing T1232; ESTC R3330	12,766	42

matter of it and yet how great in regard of the mind that gave it I mean the Widow 's two mites which she cast into the Treasury One could hardly give less and yet none can give more for she gave all that she had All these excellencies and advantages of Love and Charity which I have briefly recounted are so many Arguments so many obligations to the practice of this Duty V. We will consider the great Instance and Example which is here propounded to our imitation As I have loved you that ye also love one another The Son of God's becoming man his whole Life his bitter Death and Passion all that he did and all that he suffered was one great and continued proof and evidence of his mighty love to mankind The greatest Instance of love among men and that too but very rare is for a Man to lay down his life for another for his Friend but the Son of God died for all mankind and we were all his enemies And should we not cheerfully imitate the Example of that great Love and Charity the effects whereof are so comfortable so beneficial so happy to every one of us Had he not loved us and died for us we had certainly perish'd we had been miserable and undone to all eternity And to perpetuate this great Example of Charity and that it might he always fresh in our memories the great Sacrament of our Religion was on purpose instituted for the Commemoration of this great love of the Son of God in laying down his life and shedding his precious blood for the wicked and rebellious Race of mankind But I have not time to enlarge upon this noble Argument as it deserves VI. The last thing to be considered is the place and rank which this Precept and Duty holds in the Christian Religion Our blessed Saviour here makes it the proper badge and cognisance of our Profession By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another The different Sects among the Jews had some peculiar Character to distinguish them from one another The Scholars of the several great Rabbis among them had some peculiar Sayings and Opinions some Customs and Traditions whereby they were severally known And so likewise the Disciples of John the Baptist were particularly remarkable for their great Austerities In allusion to these distinctions of Sects and Schools among the Jews our Saviour fixeth upon this mark and character whereby his Disciples should be known from the Disciples of any other Institution A mighty love and affection to one another Other Sects were distinguish'd by little Opinions or by some external Rites and Observances in Religion but our Saviour pitcheth upon that which is the most real and substantial the most large and extensive the most useful and beneficial the most human and the most Divine quality of which we are capable This was his great Commandment to his Disciples before he left the World This was the Legacy he left them and the effect of his last Prayers for them And for this end among others he instituted the Sacrament of his blessed Body and Blood to be a lively remembrance of his great Charity to mankind and a perpetual bond of Love and Union amongst his Followers And the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour do upon all occasions recommend this to us as a principal Duty and Part of our Religion telling us That in Christ Jesus that is in the Christian Religion nothing will avail no not Faith it self unless it be enlivened and inspir'd by Charity That Love is the end of the Commandment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of the Evangelical declaration the first Fruit of the Spirit the spring and root of all those Graces and Virtues which concern our duty towards one another That it is the sum and abridgment the accomplishment and fulfilling of the whole Law That without this whatever we pretend to in Christianity we are nothing and our Religion is vain That this is the greatest of all Graces and Virtues greater then Faith and Hope and of perpetual use and duration Charity never fails And therefore they exhort us above all things to endeavour after it as the Crown of all other Vertues Above all things have fervent Charity among your selves saith St. Peter And St. Paul having enumerated most other Christian Vertues exhorts us above all to strive after this And above all these things put on Charity which is the bond of perfection This St. John makes one of the most certain signs of our love to God and the want of it an undeniable argument of the contrary If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar for he who loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen This he declares to be one of the best evidences that we are in a state of Grace and Salvation Hereby we know that we are passed from death to life because we love the Brethren So that well might our blessed Saviour chuse this for the badge of his Disciples and make it the great Precept of the best and most perfect Institution Other things might have served better for pomp and ostentation and have more gratified the Curlosity or Enthusiasm or Superstition of mankind but there is no quality in the World which upon a sober and impartial consideration is of a more solid and intrinsick value And in the first Ages of Christianity the Christians were very eminent for this Vertue and particularly noted for it Nobis notam inurit apud quosdam it is a mark and brand set upon us by some saith Tertullian and he tells us that it was proverbially said among the Heathen Behold how these Christians love one another Lucian that great scoffer at all Religion acknowledgeth in behalf of Christians that this was the great Principle which their Master had instill'd into them And Julian the bitterest Enemy that Christianity ever had could not forbear to propound to the Heathen for an example the charity of the Galileans for so by way of reproach he calls the Christians who says he gave up themselves to humanity and kindness which he acknowledgeth to have been very much to the advantage and reputation of our Religion And in the same Letter to Arsacius the Heathen High Priest of Galatia he gives this memorable Testimony of the Christians that their Charity was not limited and confin'd only to themselves but extended even to their Enemies which could not be said either of the Jews or Heathens His words are these It is a shame that when the Jews suffer none of theirs to beg and the impious Galileans relieve not only their own but those also of our Religion that We only should be defective in so necessary a Duty By all which it is evident that Love and Charity is not only the great Precept of our Saviour but was in those first and best Times the general practice

our Divisions and what a plentifull harvest they have had among us during our Differences and upon occasion of them and how near their Religion was to have entred in upon us at once at those wide breaches which we had made for it And will we still take counsell of our Enemies and chuse to follow that course to which of all other they who hate us and seek our ruin would most certainly advise and direct us Will we freely offer them that advantage which they would be contented to purchase at any rate Let us after all our sad experience at last take warning to keep a stedfast eye upon our chief Enemy and not suffer our selves to be diverted from the consideration and regard of our greatest danger by the petty provocations of our Friends so I chuse to call those who dissent from us in lesser matters because I would fain have them so and they ought in all reason to be so But however they behave themselves we ought not much to mind those who only fling dirt at us whilst we are sure there are others who fly at our throats and strike at our very hearts Let us learn this wisedom of our Enemies who though they have many great differences among themselves yet they have made a shift at this time to unite together to destroy us And shall not we do as much to save our selves fas est ab hoste doceri It was a Principle among the ancient Romans a brave and a wise People donare inimicitias Reip. to give up and sacrifice their private enmities and quarrels to the publick good and the safety of the Commonwealth And is it not to every considerate man as clear as the Sun at Noonday that nothing can maintain and support the Protestant Religion amongst us and found our Church upon a Rock so that when the rain falls and the winds blow and the floods beat upon it it shall stand firm and unshaken That nothing can be a Bulwark of sufficient force to resist all the arts and attempts of Popery but an establisht National Religion firmly united and compacted in all the parts of it Is it not plain to every eye that little Sects and separate Congregations can never do it but will be like a Foundation of sand to a weighty Building which whatever shew it may make cannot stand long because it wants Union at the Foundation and for that reason must necessarily want strength and firmness It is not for private Persons to undertake in matters of publick concernment but I think we have no cause to doubt but the Governours of our Church notwithstanding all the advantages of Authority and we think of Reason too on our side are Persons of that Piety and Prudence that for Peace sake and in order to a firm Union among Protestants they would be content if that would do it not to insist upon little things but to yield them up whether to the infirmity or importunity or perhaps in some very few things to the plausible exceptions of those who differ from us But then surely on the other side men ought to bring along with them a peaceable disposition and a mind ready to comply with the Church in which they were born and baptized in all reasonable and lawfull things and desirous upon any terms that are tolerable to return to the Communion of it a mind free from passion and prejudice from peevish exceptions and groundless and endless scruples not apt to insist upon little cavils and objections to which the very best things and the greatest and clearest Truths in the world are and alwaies will be lyable And whatever they have been heretofore to be henceforth no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive And if we were thus affected on all hands we might yet be a happy Church and Nation if we would govern our selves by these Rules and walk according to them peace would be upon us and mercy and on the Israel of God Thirdly I shall conclude all with a few words in relation to the occasion of this present meeting I have all this while been recommending to you from the Authority and Example of our Blessed Saviour and from the nature and reason of the thing it self this most excellent Grace and Vertue of Charity in the most proper Acts and Instances of it But besides particular Acts of Charity to be exercised upon emergent occasions there are likewise charitable Customs which are highly commendable because they are more certain and constant of a larger extent and of a longer continuance As the Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy which is now form'd and establish'd into a charitable Corporation And the Anniversary Meetings of those of the several Counties of England who reside or happen to be in London for two of the best and noblest ends that can be the maintaining of Friendship and the promoting of Charity These and others of the like kind I call charitable Customes which of late years have very much obtained in this great and famous City And it cannot but be a great pleasure and satisfaction to all good men to see so generous so humane so Christian a disposition to prevail and reign so much amongst us The strange overflowing of vice and wickedness in our Land and the prodigious increase and impudence of infidelity and impiety hath of late years boaded very ill to us and brought terrible Judgements upon this City and Nation and seems still to threaten us with more and greater And the greatest comfort I have had under these sad apprehensions of God's displeasure hath been this that though bad men were perhaps never worse in any Age yet the good who I hope are not a few were never more truly and substantially good I do verily believe there never were in any Time greater and more real effects of Charity not from a blind superstition and an ignorant zeal and a mercenary and arrogant and presumptuous principle of Merit but from a sound knowledge and a sincere love and obedience to God or as the Apostle expresses it out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned And who that loves God and Religion can chuse but take great contentment to see so general and forward an inclination in People this way Which hath been very much cherished of late years by this sort of Meetings and that to very good purpose and effect in many charitable contributions disposed in the best and wisest ways And which likewise hathtended very much to the reconciling of the minds of men and the allaying of those fierce heats and animosities which have been caused by our Civil confusions and Religious distractions For there is nothing many times wanting to take away prejudice and to extinguish hatred and ill-will but an opportunity for men to see and understand one another by which they will quickly perceive that they are not such Monsters as they have been represented one to another at a distance We are I think one of the last Counties of England that have entred into this friendly and charitable kind of Society Let us make amends for our late setting out by quickning our pace that so we may overtake and outstrip those who are gone before us Let not our Charity partake of the coldness of our Climate but let us endeavour that it may be equal to the extent of our Country and as we are incomparably the greatest County of England let it appear that we are so by the largeness and extent of our Charity O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without Charity are nothing send thy Holy Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of Charity the very bond of Peace and of all Vertues Without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee Grant this for thy onely Son Jesus Christ's sake Now the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen THE END ADVERTISEMENT THere is now in the Press a Learned Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy By Dr. Isaac Barrow late Master of Trinity-College in Cambridge To be sold by Brabazon Aylmer at the three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill I. II. III. IV. V. VI. I. II. 3.