Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	brother_n	love_v	see_v	10,944	5	5.0158	4	true

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

doing Good may be sufficient to keep it alive The kind wishes of the Poor and Impotent shall be enough when they have not Ability to afford any further Assistance But those whom God has been pleased to bless with a plentiful or but a competent measure of worldly Goods if they do not communicate something of what they enjoy to those that are in want and necessity it is an undeniable Proof that they have no real Affection for them For if a Man doth not do that which lies within the compass of his Power it is a plain indication that he has not any desire or intention to do it or if he had yet if he frequently suppress it and will not suffer it to discover it self in some Overt Acts this will by degrees stifle and extinguish that very Desire A Fire may be kindled and begin to burn but if it be stopt up in a close place it will soon be smothered and go out in its own Smoak But when it has room to dilate it self and is ventilated by the open Air this increases and spreads the Flame and it grows stronger and enlightens and warms all that is about it In like manner Charity shut up within our own Breasts languishes and decays and comes to nothing but when we give it Vent by frequent exercise it feeds it self by being spent and one good Deed fits and disposes us for another Like the Widow's Oyl the more Vessels it fills the more it multiplies It is produced and confirmed like other Habits by the same repeated Acts but it is weakened and at last quite destroyed by a long intermission And from hence we may gather that Almighty God is very well pleased with those Expressions of Kindness which do maintain and coroborate that excellent Principle of Charity which is a faint resemblance and some kind of imitation of his own essential infinite Goodness 2. Secondly Such Acts as these are the surest Evidence of our Love of God We may indeed deal our Bread to the Hungry and cast our Money among the Poor and all this may be nothing but an hypocritical Pretence of Kindness We may do it upon wrong Motives as I have shewed and this notwithstanding we may have no true Love neither for God nor our Neighbour But of this he is the only Judge we must have a charitable Opinion of every thing that is Good tho' it should be but in appearance But tho' we cannot tell whether he that gives has therefore any real Love of God yet we may know that he that refuses to give has certainly none For he that will not part with any thing for God's sake is that covetous Idolater that loves his Money better than God or rather he makes a God of his Money Who so hath this hath this world's good says St. John and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him It cannot be for as the same Apostle observes in another place He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen It is a vain thing to talk of Raptures and Extasies and being wonderfully affected with invisible Things and not to be at all moved or concerned at that which lies before our Eyes The best way to shew our Regard to our Creator is by our Tenderness to his poor Creatures If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us 1 John iv 12. The Love of God and our Neighbour are so intimately united and so closely joined together that they cannot be separated And the most convincing and sensible Argument that we unfeignedly love the one is to be really kind to the other And with this God is highly pleased and honoured For every Ray of Mercy every Beam of good Will that falls directly upon our poor Brethren is by consequence reflected upon Him 3. Thirdly These Acts are the plainest demonstration of our Faith and Trust in God That in which the Men of the World are wont to put their greatest Confidence is their plentiful Estates the abundance of their Riches and the largeness of their Possessions But he that is willing to resign up these or any considerable Portion of them and cast himself upon the Providence of Heaven to make what Returns it shall seem good to the wise Disposer of all things does thereby declare that his Chief Dependance is upon God and not upon his Wealth And this Trust in God is that which gives us the surest Title to his Favour and Protection and that which brings Him the greatest Honour For it is that by which we do effectually shew that we do esteem him the Supreme and Sovereign Goodness and Truth and that we are verily perswaded that he will never leave us nor forsake us This was the Touchstone by which our Blessed Lord did sometimes try the sincerity of those that offered themselves to become his Disciples Go sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me He that was afraid to accept the Condition went away sorrowful and we never hear that he made a second Application But they that durst believe him and forsook All tho' that All were but a little were immediatly comforted with the Promise and are long since entered into the Possession of everlasting Bliss and Immortality This was the Reward of their Faith For he that quits a Treasure in Hand for a Treasure in Reversion he that leaves what he has upon Earth for the Promise of what he expects in Heaven gives the best assurance that it is possible that he does really believe the Truth of the Promise But he that will not be perswaded to give something liberally to the relief of the indigent and necessitous by all the great and glorious Encouragements that are proposed to induce him unto it does not heartily believe the Scriptures But he is indeed a sort of an Infidel that accounts Bonds and Mortgages and ready Money a better Security than the Word of God 4. Fourthly Acts of Charity are Profitable because they do in a peculiar manner incline God to be merciful unto us when we are thus merciful unto others It is one of the Beatitudes pronounced by our Saviour Mat. v. 7. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy This seems extremely congruous and agreeable to the Nature of God and to the Nature of the Thing God is always inclineable to Mercy and it is reasonable to think that he will extend it to none more readily than to those in whom there appear some little resemblances of that his most lovely and adorable Attribute He is sometimes set forth as if he did temper and accommodate himself as it were to the different dispositions and various qualifications of the several Subjects Psal xviii 25 26. With the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful With the upright