Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	affection_n	heart_n	set_v	2,588	5	5.0743	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42264	Profitable charity a sermon preached before the right honourable Sir Thomas Lane, Lord Mayor of London, and the honourable Court of Aldermen, &c. at the parish-church of St. Brides, on Easter-Monday, 1695 / by Robert Lord Bishop of Chichester.	Grove, Robert, 1634-1696.	1695 (1695)	Wing G2154; ESTC R16834	15,473	34

Profitable Charity A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable Sir THOMAS LANE Lord Mayor of LONDON AND THE Honourable Court of ALDERMEN c. AT THE Parish-Church of St. BRIDES ON EASTER-MONDAY 1695. BY ROBERT Lord Bishop of CHICHESTER LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1695. Lane Mayor Martis secundo Die Aprilis 1695. Annoque Regni Regis Willielmi Tertii Angliae c. septimo THIS Court doth Desire the Right Reverend Father in God Robert Lord Bishop of Chichester to Print his Sermon preached at the Parish Church of St. Brides on Easter-Monday last before the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Governours of the several Hospitals of this City Goodfellow A SERMON ON 1 COR. xiii 3. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing THE Apostle having declared that all the extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit which God was pleased to bestow upon his Church in the first Ages of Christianity were of very little or no Consideration if they were not joined with Charity he describes that which only was able to give any real Value to all the rest by some of the most genuine and proper Effects of it As that it Suffereth long that it is Kind that it Envieth not and the like He then commends it from its Duration because that all the other Gifts and Abilities how necessary soever they might be for the propagation of the Christian Religion for the present should yet fail cease and vanish away as things that should be of no further use in the other World But this alone should never fail but continue with us for ever in that blessed State of Happiness and Perfection He then mentions the three most eminent Graces Faith Hope and Charity but gives the preference to the last and concludes positively The greatest of these is Charity In the beginning he had affirmed that without this the speaking with the tongues of Men and of Angels was no better than a loud and insignificant Noise And that Prophecy and the deepest Knowledge in the Mysteries of Religion and the glorious Power of working Miracles were in themselves of no more Account than the other He then proceeds to assert the same concerning the greatest Liberality to the Poor and the laying down our very Lives which seems to be the utmost that can possibly be required of us upon any Occasion But yet says he Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing It is here manifestly implyed that a Man may part with his whole Estate and his Life too and yet that he may want Charity This may seem a very strange and surprizing Supposition to us that can see no further than the bare outside and appearances of things but God that is intimately acquainted with all the secret motions and imaginations of our Hearts knows that too often the most specious external Acts may proceed from a false or corrupt Principle And then tho' they may be highly esteemed and magnified in the Opinion of the World they cannot be acceptable to Him that is pleased with nothing that does not flow from a sincere and truly pious Disposition of the Soul I shall confine my Discourse to the former part of the Words and here I shall shew First What is that Charity that will make our Alms any way profitable to our Salvation Secondly That without this whatsoever we give it shall be of no Advantage at all as to our Eternal Concerns And Thirdly What are the Reasons that whatever we bestow on the Necessities of our poor Brethren upon the Principle of true Charity shall through God's gracious acceptance be Profitable to us in the great Day of Accounts I. What is that Charity that will make our Alms any way profitable to our Salvation For in this Sense we must understand the Apostie who was perfectly crucified to the World and therefore could esteem nothing really Profitable that had not some tendency towards the procurement of a better Life which was the only thing that he valued And when it is said here that without Charity all that we can bestow is not Profitable or Conducive to the promoting of that great End it must be implyed that with it it is Now the Charity that produces this excellent Effect is a Charity that arises from the Love of God that loves him as the supream and original Good and every thing else for his sake that admires and adores his infinite Fulness and esteems other things as the Streams and Emanations from that inexhaustible Fountain When we have not a due regard to this heavenly Standard of our Affections our Love will quickly degenerate into a silly Fondness or a covetous Desire or some turbulent uneasy and exorbitant Passion But when the Love of God rules in our Hearts when it presides over our very Thoughts and governs the most secret and inward Motions of our Spirits it will keep all steddy and even in a due composure without any excess or irregularity The Love of other Things whether it be of Pleasure or Profit or Honour or if there be any thing else that vain Men are wont to set their Hearts upon it is the universal Grievance of all the World the unhappy Occasion of all the Miseries that Mankind has groaned under ever since the Fall of our first Parents All the Fraud and Treachery all the Violence and Injustice all the Rapes and Murders all the Cruelties and Barbarities that ever were committed are owing to nothing but the excessive Love of some earthly Enjoyment The Divine Love as it is placed on a different Object so it has very different Effects it rejoyces the Soul and fills the World with a settled Calmness and Serenity it puts an end to all Strife and Contention all deceitful and undjust Dealing it considers that whatever it possesses is all received from the good Providence of God and in gratitude to him it makes some returns to any of his poor Creatures that it sees in a worse Condition than it self It has a tender and compassionate Sense of all Mens Calamities and is ready to the utmost of its Power to assist their Infirmities support their Weakness and relieve their Necessities and where it can do no more it will comfort them at least with its good Wishes and hearty Prayers It is like the Sun in the Firmament that enlivens all things that come near it and casts a chearful and pleasant Smile on those frozen Regions that lye beyond the influence of its Heat This excessive and universal Charity is the very Temper of Heaven the Image of the Divinity the Wisdom that is from above which is so gloriously described James iii. 17. It is first pure then peaceable gentle and easy to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality