Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A50837
|
A false faith not justified by care for the poor prov'd in a sermon preach'd at St. Paul's Church, August 28th, 1698 / by Luke Milbourne ...
|
Milbourne, Luke, 1649-1720.
|
1698
(1698)
|
Wing M2031; ESTC R9394
|
18,941
|
32
|
his Maker He believes in God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost according to those Revelations they have made of themselves in Scripture and would rather believe the Prophets and Apostles honest Men than quibbling Sophisters His pure unspotted Love with respect to God must always believe in him depend on admire and adore him and when he remembers his own distance from God by Sin and God's Condescention to purchase Pardon and Grace for him by his own most precious Blood though in that state of Enmity That Faith which he has in him that Love which he has to him must make him always tender compassionate and merciful with respect to Men. We need to run to no false Opinions to excite us to Beneficence Wise Men wont pretend to gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles This is a faithful saying and these things we of the Church of England affirm constantly That those who have believ'd in God might be careful to maintain good Works these things are good and profitable to Men. We would then have the Poor provided for we would encourage a just care for them we pretend in vain to be Christians if we forget our poor Brethren for we were poorer by far when our merciful Saviour made himself poor on our Accounts and extended his Compassion toward us If any one will give all his Goods to feed the Poor provided he wrongs none else by that Liberality and the Love of God constrains him may his Heavenly Father who sees in secret reward him openly He who gives to the Poor should give without Constraint without Grudging and with Pleasure for God loves a cheerful Giver He ought to give proportionably to what God has blest him with He who voluntarily devotes the Tenths of all he has to the support of the Poor does no more and none ever suffer'd yet by a Bounty so proportion'd What he gives ought to be his own i. e. not gotten by Address and Craft or by Violence for he who wrongs one to feed or cloath another gives Nothing and by such Sacrifices never pleases but offends his Maker But if the Rich in this world be sound in the Faith if they do good if they be Rich in Good Works ready to distribute willing to Communicate they lay up in store for themselves a good foundation that they may lay hold on eternal Life Here 's Love here 's Charity indeed enough to sanctifie their Alms and to make the Prayers of the Poor a Treasure of Eternal Blessings to them But since the Rich and Willing cannot perhaps tell readily where to bestow their Bounty without the Hands and Eyes of others V. Vitringam de Nominibus Ministrorum Ecclesiae Synagogae c. 5 surely we cannot in our own Church among Christians want some Man or Men of Honest report full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom who therefore will neither deny his Being nor reduce him to the meanness of a Creature nor divert the treasures of the Poor to encourage such as by their Writings and Discourses do both who may be appointed over this Business Ill Men are commonly of the most active and stirring Tempers they know the least neglect ruins their Affairs Good Men suppose their Cause will manage and secure it self but though it will do so their Industry is not a whit the less requir'd and while the activity of Ill Men destroys them we have an infallible Assurance That it 's good to be zealously affected always in a good Cause Men sound in the Faith would not only be Faithful Stewards with regard to the Bodies of those in Want but they 'd be Pious Guardians of their Souls too They'd instil the Principles of sound Religion into them as well as relieve their outward Necessities and a Love to Mens Bodies must certainly yield to a tenderness for their Souls A Lazarus full of sores and starving may be carry'd by Angels into Abraham 's Bosom but without Faith its impossible to please God and by Grace both Poor and Rich must be sav'd and that not of themselves it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 1 Thes 1.3 The Work of Faith the Labour of Love and the Patience of Hope will always be favourably remembred both by God and Men. I 'll never confide in that Man who will not believe his God and must suspect Him to be full of Trick and Design who represents his Maker as guily of Artifice and Chicanery in his Revelations of himself to the Children of Men. But he who is right and sincere in his Faith toward God I 'm sure will be trusty to his Neighbour He 'll be kind to both the Bodies and Souls of the Poorest He 'll visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Afflictions and keep himself unspotted from the World By such a Hand I 'll give what I can to feed the Poor I 'll live by Faith I 'll wait in Hope and act with Charity and never fear losing my Everlasting Reward Collect on Quinquages O God who hast taught us that all our Doings without Charity are nothing worth send thy Holy Ghost and pour into our Hearts that most excellent Gift of Charity the very bond of Peace and of all Virtues without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before Thee Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake Amen Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons but One Infinite and Eternal God be given as is most due all Honour Glory Praise Power Might Majesty and Dominion now henceforth and for evermore Amen and Amen FINIS MYsteries in Religion Vindicated Or the Filiation Deity and Satisfaction of our Saviour Asserted against Socinians and others With Occasional Reflections on several late Pamphlets By Luke Milbourne a Presbyter of the Church of England The Doctrine of the Glorious Trinity not Explained but Asserted by several Texts as they are Expounded by the Ancient Fathers and Later Divines for the Satisfaction of such as doubt the Conviction of such as deny the Confirmation of such as believe this Mysterious Article of the Christian Faith By Francis Gregory D. D. and Rector of Hambleden in the County of Bucks An Answer to an Heretical Book called The Naked Gospel which was Condemned and ordered to be Publickly Burnt by the Convocation of the University of Oxford Aug. 19. 1690. With some Reflections on Dr. Bury's New Edition of that Book To which is added A Short History of Socinianism By William Nichols M. A. Fellow of Merton College in Oxford and Chaplain to the Right Honourable Ralph Earl of Montague All Three Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop ' s. Head in St. Paul 's Chuch-Yard BOOKS Printed for Brab Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil SERMONS concerning the Divinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour Preached in the Church of Sr. Lawrence Jewry By John late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury 8 vo Certain Propositions by which the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is so explain'd according to the ancient Fathers as to speak it not Contradictory to Natural Reason together with a Defence of them in answer to the Objections of a Socinian Writer in his newly Printed Consideration on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity Occasioned by these Propositions among other Discourses 4to Price 6 d. A Second Defence of the Propositions by which the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is so explained according to the Ancient Fathers as to speak it not Contradictory to Natural Reason In Answer to a Socinian Manuscript in a Letter to a Friend Together with a third Defence of those Propositions in Answer to the newly Published Reflections contained in a Pamphlet Entituled A Letter to the Reverend Clergy of Both Vniversities in 4to Price 1 s. Both by the Right Reverend Father in God Edward Lord Bishop of Gloucester A Defence of the Blessed Trinity By Isaac Barrow D. D. late Master of Trinity College in Cambridge Never before Printed in 8vo Price 12 d. A Seasonable Vindication of the Blessed Trinity Being an Answer to this Question Why do you believe the Doctrine of the Trinity Collected from the Works of the most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and the Right Reverend Dr. Edward Stillingfleet now Lord Bishop of Worcester In 8vo Price 12 d.
A FALSE FAITH not Justified by Care for the POOR PROV'D in a SERMON PREACH'D at St. PAUL's Church August 28th 1698. By LVKE MILBOVRNE a Presbyter of the Church of ENGLAND 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Julianus ad Arsacium LONDON Printed by R. R. for W. Kettelby and B. Aylmer At the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard and at the Three Pigeons against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhill MDCXCVIII Mr. MILBOVRNE's SERMON AT St. Paul's Church August 28. 1698. EDWIN Mayor Martis viii die Septembris 1698 Annoque RRs Will. tertii Angliae c. decimo THis Court doth desire Mr. Milbourne to Print his Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul on Sunday the 28th of August last before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City GOODFELLOW 1 COR. XIII 3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the Poor and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing A Close Union in Faith and Practice between the Members of Christ that there may be no Schism in the Body but that they may by Faith hold to their One Eternal Head and by Love have the same Care one for another is the Glory and Security of his Church Other Spiritual Gifts may Beautify and Adorn it These with their Companion Hope give it Substance and Vigor make Faithful Christians fix their Thoughts above break through a thousand difficulties below and imitate the prodigious Love of their Master to miserable Sinners by a diffusive tenderness for one another These then are the certain Test of a sound Christian A Man set off with all the Charms of irresistible Eloquence may be follow'd and admir'd the ravish'd World may hang Eternally on his Lips who speaks with Power and Demonstration and who with clear Sense and proper Expressions makes the obscurest things plain and intelligible and who would not be his Captive who by a great number of indisputable and unaccountable Miracles commands Submission But for a Man to condescend to the Necessities of the Poor to look upon himself as sent into the World to relieve the Indigent to be the Father and Guardian of those who are generally despis'd by a careless and uncompassionate World and to be so fond of suppos'd Truth as to seal it with his Blood These are such Demonstrations of a sincere Goodness as might one would think stop the Mouths of captious Inquirers and make the Eloquent Preacher and the Worker of Miracles pass for a compleat Saint The concurrence of such Qualifications must needs glitter wonderfully before the Common World and prejudice them very far in favour of their glaring Lustre yet these may possibly meet where true justifying Faith and unfailing Hope are wanting and the most extensive Bounty may be without Charity Where it 's so however foolish Men may applaud them their Eloquence makes them no better than sounding Brass or tinkling Cymbals Their Knowledge and Miracles make them just nothing and their Zeal and Liberality can profit them nothing These three alide indeed Faith Hope and Charity but the greatest of these is Charity Love or Charity is the certain Evidence the natural Consequence the inseparable Companion and the Crowning Perfection of the other Two There 's no such Love as the Text requires but where there 's sound Faith and vigorous Hope and there 's no such Hope or such Faith but it will always work by Love This Charity therefore and Almsgiving or Care for the Poor are very different things they are excellent Companions indeed but they may be parted and where they are so though I beslow all my Goods to feed or to provide all Necessaries for the Poor for Feeding in the Text imports that general Care it profiteth me nothing The Assertion shews that among the Corinthians there were some in the Apostles times who had wonderfully high thoughts of Mercy to the Poor and believ'd with that * Tobit 4.10 Hujusmodi Axiomata ab Haereticis frequentissimé producuntur Hinc Apelles authore Rhodone Tatiani Discipulo apud Eusebium Apocryphal Writer That Alms deliver from Death and suffer not to come into darkness without any Addition whatsoever As if Beneficence or conferring outward good on those in want and providing for their Bodily necessities only were enough to procure Eternal Salvation without either a right Faith or a just Hope or true Christian Love or Charity St. Paul corrects this Error puts himself in the place of such a bountiful Man for none can be more Bountiful than he who gives his All to the Poor and lets them know that tho he should do this yet if he had not Divine Charity which could not be without Faith and Hope since they subsist or abide together it would all stand him in no stead it would profit him nothing * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hist Eccles l. 5. c. 13. This Love or Charity mention'd here as the Perfection of all other Excellencies is of a vast and undefinable extent on which reason the Apostle who recommends it every where gives no particular Definition of it any where but endeavours to imprint a right Notion of it in our minds by recounting its several Negative and Positive Qualifications all which justifie that difference between it and Almsgiving or care for the Poor which we commonly but improperly call Charity For This Charity suffers long The Christian endued with exercises the utmost Patience under the greatest Injuries He reflects on God's dealing with himself and with a wicked World and therefore breaks not out into a Rage against him who wrongs him much less will he meditate Revenge he leaves that to God and as his Heavenly Father is gracious both to the Good and Bad his Servants and his Enemies so this Man of Love will be kind to All particularly to those who have us'd him worst But the Man who gives Alms in abundance may be waspish malicious revengeful barbarous Charity or true Christian Love envieth not The true Christian sees his Enemy thrive with Joy He 's pleas'd with every good Action which proceeds from him and with every Reward which he receives He looks on the Learning Virtue Piety of all Men with satisfaction and when they grow Great Powerful Rich by such means or have a mighty Interest among good Men he 's pleas'd to see his Father's Honour promoted and can quietly let others get a greater Reputation even in those things in which himself is most ambitious to excell The Man of Alms may grudge every thing that slips his own hands and in the Care for the Poor foolishly strive to engross the sole Management and the entire Reputation This Love or Charity vaunteth not it self is not puft up He who is bless'd with this Grace is not loud when he gives his Alms nor stunns every Company with the noise of his Industry and Beneficence The deepest waters slide with the greatest silence and the most merciful Men love to be kind in secret They would not have their left hands know what their right