Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	apostle_n	jesus_n	lord_n	3,237	5	3.3841	3	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

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 D. D. Dean of Canterbury and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill And William Rogers at the Maiden-head over against S. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1679. Imprimatur Guil. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à sacris domest Feb. 25. 1678 9. To my Honoured FRIENDS and COUNTRYMEN Mr. Hugh Frankland Mr. Leonard Robinson Mr. Abraham Fothergill Mr. William Fairfax Mr. Thomas Johnson Mr. John Hardesty Mr. Gervas Wilcockes Mr. George Pickering Mr. Edward Duffeild Mr. John Topham Mr. Jam. Longbotham Mr. Nathan Holroyd Stewards of the York-shire Feast GENTLEMEN THIS Sermon which was first Preached and is now published at your desires I dedicate to your Names to whose prudence and care the direction and management of this First general Meeting of our Country-men was committed Heartily wishing that it may be some way serviceable to the healing of our unhappy Differences and the restoring of Unity and Charity among Christians especially those of the Protestant Reform'd Religion Gentlemen I am Your affectionate Country-man and humble Servant Jo. Tillotson 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 JOHN 13. 34 35. A new Commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another AS the Christian Religion in general is the best Philosophy and most perfect Institution of Life containing in it the most entire and compleat System of moral Rules and Precepts that was ever yet extant in the World so it peculiarly excells in the Doctrine of Love and Charity earnestly recommending strictly enjoining and vehemently and almost perpetually pressing and inculcating the excellency and necessity of this best of Graces and Vertues and propounding to us for our imitation and encouragement the most lively and heroical Example of kindness and charity that ever was in the Life and Death of the great Founder of our Religion the author and finisher of our Faith Jesus the Son of God So that the Gospel as it hath in all other parts of our Duty cleared the dimness and obscurity of natural light and supplied the imperfections of former Revelations so doth it most eminently reign and triumph in this great and blessed vertue of Charity in which all the Philosophy and Religions that had been before in the World whether Jewish or Pagan were so remarkably defective With great reason then doth our blessed Saviour call this a new Commandment and assert it to himself as a thing peculiar to his Doctrine and Religion considering how imperfectly it had been taught and how little it had been practised in the World before A new Commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another I shall reduce my Discourse upon these Words under these six Heads First To enquire in what sence our Saviour calls this Commandment of loving one another a new Commandment Secondly To declare to you the Nature of this Commandment by instancing in the chief Acts and Properties of Love Thirdly To consider the degrees and measures of our Charity with regard to the several Objects about which it is exercised Fourthly Our Obligation to this Duty not only from our Saviour's Authority but likewise from our own Nature and from the Reasonableness and Excellency of the thing commanded Fifthly The great Example which is here propounded to our imitation as I have loved you that ye also love one another Sixthly and Lastly The Place and Rank which this Precept holds in the Christian Religion Our Saviour makes it the proper badge of a Disciple the distinctive mark and character of our Profession By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another I. In what sence our Saviour calls this Commandment of loving one another a new Commandment Not that it is absolutely and altogether New but upon some special accounts For it is a branch of the antient and primitive Law of Nature Aristotle truly observes that upon grounds of natural kindred and likeness all men are friends and kindly disposed towards one another And it is a known Precept of the Jewish Religion to love our Neighbour as our selves In some sence then it is no new Commandment and so St. John who was most likely to understand our Saviour's meaning in this particular all his preaching and writing being almost nothing else but an inculcating of this one Precept explains this matter telling us that in several respects it was and it was not a new Commandment 1 Joh. 2. 7 8. Brethren I write no new Commandment unto you but that which ye had from the beginning that is from antient Times But then he corrects himself Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but yet a new Commandment I write unto you So that though it was not absolutely new yet upon divers considerable accounts it was so and in a peculiar manner proper to the Evangelical Institution and is in so express and particular a manner ascribed to the teaching of the Holy-Ghost which was conferr'd upon Christians by the Faith of the Gospel as if there hardly needed any outward instruction and exhortation to that purpose 1 Thess. 4. 9. But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you for ye your selves are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinely taught and inspired to love one another This Commandment then of loving one another is by our Lord and Saviour so much enlarged as to the Object of it beyond what either the Jews or Heathens did understand it to be extending to all mankind and even to our greatest enemies so greatly advanced and heightned as to the Degree of it even to the laying down of our lives for one another so effectually taught so mightily encouraged so very much urged and insisted upon that it may very well be called a new Commandment for though it was not altogether unknown to mankind before yet it was never so taught so encouraged never was such an illustrious Example given of it never so much weight and stress laid upon it by any Philosophy or Religion that was before in the world II. I shall endeavour to declare to you the Nature of this Commandment or the Duty required by it And that will best be done by instancing in the chief Acts and Properties of Love and Charity As humanity and kindness in all our carriage and behaviour towards one another for Love smooths the dispositions