Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	epistle_n	paul_n	timothy_n	1,469	5	10.7239	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31078	Of the love of God and our neighbour, in several sermons : the third volume by Isaac Barrow ...	Barrow, Isaac, 1630-1677.	1680 (1680)	Wing B949; ESTC R12875	133,534	328

base impotency of soul so is the pleasure which charity doth breed altogether pure gratefull to the mind and encreasing by reflexion never perishing or decaying a man eternally enjoying the good he hath done by remembring and ruminating thereon In fine XX. Whereas the great obstacle to Charity is self-love or an extravagant fondness of our own interests yet uncharitableness destroyeth that for how can we love our selves if we do want charity how can we appear lovely to our selves if we are destitute of so worthy an endowment or if we can discern those unworthy dispositions which accompany the defect of it can we esteem so mean so vile so ugly things as we then are Aristotle saith that bad men cannot be friends to themselves because having in themselves nothing amiable they can feel no affection toward themselves and certainly if we are not stark blind or can but see wrath spite envy revenge in their own black and ugly hue we must needs if they do possess our souls grow odious and despicable to our selves And being they do rob us of so many great benefits and bring so many grievous mischiefs on us we cannot be otherwise than enemies to our selves by cherishing them or suffering them to lodge in us These are some very considerable Inducements to the practice of this great vertue there are divers others of a higher nature derivable from the inmost bowels of our Religion grounded on its peculiar Constitution and Obligations which I shall now forbear to mention reserving them for a particular Discourse by themselves O Lord 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 vertues without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee Grant this for thine onely Son Jesus Christ's sake The Seventh Sermon ROMANS 12. 18. If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men THIS Chapter containeth many excellent Precepts and wholsome Advices scarce any portion of Holy Scripture so many in so little compass From among them I have selected one alas but too seasonable and pertinent to the unhappy condition of our distracted Age wherein to observe this and such like Injunctions is by many esteemed an impossibility by others a wonder by some a crime It hath an apt coherence with yet no necessary dependance upon the parts adjoining whence I may presume to treat upon it distinctly by it self and without farther preface or circumstance we may consider several particulars therein I. And First Concerning the Advice it self or the Substance of the Duty charged on us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be in peace or live peaceably we may take notice that whether according to the more usual acception it be applied to the publick estate of things or as here doth relate onely to private conversation it doth import 1. Not barely a negation of doing or suffering harm or an abstinence from strise and violence for a meer strangeness this may be a want of occasion or a truce rather than a peace but a positive Amity and disposition to perform such kind offices without which good correspondence among men cannot subsist For they who by reason of distance of place non-acquaintance or defect of opportunity maintain no entercourse cannot properly be said to be in peace with one another But those who have frequent occasion of commerce whose conditions require enterchanges of courtesie and relief who are some way obliged and disposed to afford needfull succour and safe retreat to each other These may be said to live in peace together and these onely it being in a manner impossible that they who are not disposed to do good to others if they have power and opportunity should long abstain from doing harm 2. Living peaceably implies not some few transitory performances proceeding from casual humour or the like but a constant stable and well-settled condition of being a continual cessation from injury and promptitude to do good offices For as one blow doth not make a battel nor one skirmish a war so cannot single forbearances from doing mischief or some few particular acts of kindness such as meer strangers may afford each other be worthily styled a being in peace but an habitual inclination to these a firm and durable estate of innocence and beneficence 3. Living in peace supposes a reciprocal condition of being not onely a performing good and forbearing to do bad offices but a receiving the like treatment from others For he that being assaulted is constrained to stand upon his defence may not be said to be in peace though his not being so involuntarily is not to be imputed to him 4. Being in peace imports not onely an outward cessation of violence and seeming demonstration of amity but an inward will and resolution to continue therein For he that intends when occasion is presented to do mischief to another is nevertheless an enemy because more secret and dangerous an ambuscado is no less a piece of war than confronting the enemy in open field Proclaiming and denouncing signifie but good and ill intention constitute and are the souls of peace and war From these considerations we may infer a description of being in peace viz that it is to bear mutual good-will to continue in amity to maintain good correspondence to be upon terms of mutual courtesie and benevolence to be disposed to perform reciprocally all offices of humanity assistance in need comfort in sorrow relief in distress to please and satisfie one another by advancing the innocent delight and promoting the just advantage of each other to converse with confidence and security without suspicion on either hand of any fraudulent malicious or hurtfull practices against either Or negatively Not to be in a state of enmity personal hatred pertinacious anger jealousie envy or ill-will not to be apt to provoke to reproach to harm or hinder another nor to have reasonable grounds of expecting the same bad usage from others to be removed from danger of vexatious quarrels entercourse of odious language offending others or being disquieted ones self This I take to be the meaning of living or being in peace differing onely in degree of obligation and latitude of object from the state of friendship properly so called and opposed to a condition of enmity defiance contention hatred suspicion animosity II. In the next place we may consider the Object of this Duty signified in those words With all men We often meet in Scripture with exhortations directed peculiarly to Christians to be at peace among themselves as Mark 9. 5. Our Saviour layes this Injunction upon his Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have peace one with another inculcated by Saint Paul upon the Thessalonians in the same words and the like we have in the Second Epistle to Timothy Chap. 2. Ver. 22. Follow righteousness faith charity peace with them that call

events agreeable to our desire Charity hath a good eye which is not offended or dazled with the lustre of its neighbour's vertue or with the splendour of his fortune but vieweth either of them steadily with pleasure as a very delightfull spectacle It beholdeth him to prosper and flourish to grow in wealth and repute not onely without envious repining but with gladsome content Its property is to rejoice with them that rejoice to partake of their enjoyments to feast in their pleasures to triumph in their success As one member doth feel the health and the delight which another immediately doth enjoy so hath a charitable man a sensible complacence in the welfare and joy of his neighbour His prosperity of any kind in proportion to its importance doth please him but especially his spiritual proficiency and improvement in vertue doth yield matter of content and his good deeds he beholdeth with abundant satisfaction This is that instance of charity which S. Paul so frequently doth express in his Epistles declaring the extream joy he did feel in the faith in the vertue in the orderly conversation of those brethren to whom he writeth This charity possessed Saint John when he said I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth This is the charity of heaven which doth even cheer the Angels and doth enhance the bliss of the blessed Spirits there of whom it is said There is joy in heaven over every sinner that repenteth Hence This is the disposition of charitable persons sincerely to congratulate any good occurrence to their neighbour they are ready to conspire in rendring thanks and praise to the Authour of their welfare taking the good conferred on their neighbour as a blessing and obligation on themselves so that they upon such occasions are apt to say with Saint Paul What thanks can we render to God for you for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before God and We are bound to thank God always for you brethren because that your faith groweth exceedingly and that the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth and I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ that in every thing ye are enriched by him It is a Precept of Saint Paul Give thanks always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated for all things but it might as well be rendred for all persons according to that Injunction I exhort that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men Not onely Prayers are to be made but Thanksgivings are to be offered for all men out of general charity IV. Correspondently Love of our neighbour doth imply condolency and commiseration of the evils befalling him for what we love we cannot without displeasure behold lying in a bad condition sinking into decay or in danger to perish so to a charitable mind the bad state of any man is a most unpleasant and painfull sight It is the property of Charity to mourn with those that mourn not coldly but passionately for 't is to weep with those that weep resenting every mans case with an affection sutable thereto and as he doth himself resent it Is any man fallen into disgrace charity doth hold down its head is abashed and out of countenance partaking of his shame Is any man disappointed of his hopes or endeavours charity crieth out alas as if it were it self defeated Is any man afflicted with pain or sickness charity looketh sadly it sigheth and groaneth it fainteth and languisheth with him Is any man pinched with hard want charity if it cannot succour it will condole doth ill news arrive charity doth hear it with an unwilling ear and a sad heart although not particularly concerned in it The sight of a Wreck at Sea of a Field spread with Carcases of a Country desolated of Houses burnt and Cities ruined and of the like calamities incident to mankind would touch the bowels of any man but the very report of them would affect the heart of charity It doth not suffer a man with comfort or ease to enjoy the accommodations of his own state while others before him are in distress It cannot be merry while any man in presence is sorrowfull it cannot seem happy while its neighbour doth appear miserable It hath a share in all the afflictions which it doth behold or hear of according to that instance in Saint Paul of the Philippians Ye have done well that ye did communicate with or partake in my afflictions and according to that Precept Remember those which are in bonds as bound with them Such was the charity of Job Did not I weep for him that was in trouble was not my soul grieved for the poor Such was the charity of the Psalmist even toward his ingratefull enemies They saith he rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul but as for me when they were sick my cloathing was sackcloath I humbled my soul with fasting I behaved my self as though it had been my friend or my brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother Such was the charity of Saint Paul Who is weak said he and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not with fervent compassion Such was the charity of our Saviour which so reigned in his heart that no passion is so often attributed to him as this of pity it being expressed to be the motive of his great works Jesus saith Saint Matthew went forth and saw a great multitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was moved in his bowels with compassion toward them and he healed their sick and I have compassion on the multitude because they have nothing to eat and I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way and Iesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes and Jesus moved with compassion put forth his hand and touched him the Leper and saith unto him I will be thou clean and When the Lord saw her the Widow of Naim whose Son was carried out he had compassion on her and He beheld the city and wept over it considering the miseries impendent on it as a just punishment of their outragious injuries against himself and when the two good Sisters did bewail their Brother Lazarus He groaned in spirit and was troubled and wept with them whence the Jews did collect Behold how he loved him Thus any calamity or misfortune befalling his neighbour doth raise distastefull regret and commiseration in a charitable soul but especially moral evils which indeed are the great evils in comparison whereto nothing else is evil do work that effect To see men dishonour and wrong their Maker to provoke his anger and incur his disfavour to see men abuse their reason and disgrace their nature