Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	catholic_n	church_n	member_n	1,642	5	8.9783	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48731	A sermon at a solemn meeting of the natives of the city and county of Worcester, in the church of St. Mary le Bow, June 24, 1680 by Adam Littleton ...	Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.	1680 (1680)	Wing L2567; ESTC R21369	14,936	41

they had been of us they would not have departed from us However we must have a love and kindness for them too and this Kindness to our brethren is to be exprest in thought word and action That we think the best of them put the best interpretation upon their actions that we wish them well rejoyce in their well-doing and condole their ills and this is that which by the Schools is called amor benevolentiae the love of good will That we speak the best of them according to the judgment of charity and that we judg not for fear of being judged That we do them all manner of good for this is the royal law to do as we would be done by And thus our blessed Lord who as he was our elder brother the first-born of the creation so was the author of our Religion he went about doing good and seeking opportunities of doing it Where this brotherly kindness is there will be no grudg and hatred no envy or malice at the heart no calumny and detraction no slander and reproach in the tongue no quarrel and strife no mischief or injury in action But then this kindness must not proceed so far as to degenerate into a sinful compliance with our brothers sins This would make us brethren in iniquity This the Apostle taxes Rom. 1. the last verse speaking of those who have pleasure in them that do evil things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that consent with them as the Psalmist says Thou sawest a thief and consentedst with him To be drunk with the drunken to fit with patience and hear my brother blaspheme God and damn his own soul to see him run down a precipice blunder into a pit and take the ready way for hell and not lay hold of him and pull him back this is such brotherly kindness as the Devil himself has for any man in the world What saies the rule in Leviticus Thou shalt love thy brother and not suffer sin upon him That 's the truest of loves Hence Correptio fraterna brotherly reproof in such cases is reckon'd to be one of the chief acts of Charity O my dear Brethren let it not be said of us that we meet for excess and riot for noise and quarrel but rather let it be seen by our carriage that we come together upon a religious a brotherly and a charitable account And that 's the thing we are all to conclude with where let me beg your patience as well as charity that you will not think me tedious whilst I inlarge my self upon this blessed subject of charity 3. CHARITY where art thou in what airy Mansion art thou lodg'd what invisible Palace dost thou inhabit Where may we find thee that we may make our dutiful addresses to thee S. Paul indeed has given a fair description of thee in 1 Cor. 13. but by those characters there laid down 't is very difficult finding thee out in any earthly abode and sure he himself was wrapt up into the third heaven when he took the copy of thy celestial countenance and drew those amiable lines and features of thy Seraphick beauty Thou wast she who from eternity wast that cement by which the three Persons of the glorious Trinity were united in the Unity of the Godhead and were satisfied in their mutual injoyments when as yet there was nothing without them nothing besides them Thou she who afterward by thy charms of love didst joyn the Upper and the Lower world who broughtest down the Son of God and madest him descend upon earth and who wilt bring us up to heaven after him whither he is ascended Thou art the very foundation and perfection of Christian Religion who with an infinite activity fulfillest all God's commandments and with as infinite a goodness coverest all our sins Thou createst and keepest up a good understanding betwixt a Prince and his People and betwixt the people among themselves making men of one wind in a house in a city in a Kingdom Thou art the very band and ligament of Peace who preservest and securest all the Interests of mankind their lives and liberties their plenty and prosperity in their several societies and stations He that abideth in thee abideth in God and God in him for thou and God are all one Thou with an omnipotence equal to Gods bearest all things indurest all things believest and hopest all things And at last after thou hast wrought thy mighty and glorious acts of kindness here below thou shalt ascend in triumph through the spangled vault and shalt enter into heaven with a train of thy good works following thee leaving thy two sister-graces behind thee at heaven-gate for in that blessed state of Vision and Fruition there will be no need of either Faith or Hope where thou alone O Charity together with the Three-One God shalt be all in all But hold what mean I in this transport to lose thee by inquiring after thee What did I say lose thee I have found thee I see thee Thou art blessed be God come into the Congregation and with thy gracious presence hast fill'd the Church I see thy holy flame sitting on each pious breast and inlivening and inlarging every devout heart with its heavenly warmth Let me now therefore look out for objects upon which thou mayst bestow thy blessed self Charity is of that diffusive nature that it extends it self to all mankind as being the emanation of divine goodness which is as infinite as God himself is and more especially reacheth its kindly effects over the whole Catholick Church to all of the houshold of faith it being that which unites and ties together all the members of that mystical body But I am not now to speak of it in that larger sense but in an importance appropriate to the Poor of our Brethren whom God hath appointed his Receivers as he hath made the Rich his Trustees That to wit that the Poor are his Receivers appears by the account Christ who himself is to be the Judge gives us of the last judgment Matth. 25. that what we do to any of our poor Brethren he takes it as done to himself and upon this score it is said He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord. This to wit that the Rich are but his Trustees is made good by the parable of the Talents which the only way of improving is to lay them out and by that charge the Apostle gives Charge them that are rich in this world that they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate c. Why charge them to do so if it be not their duty so to do This kind of charity is exprest in feeding the hungry in cloathing the naked in visiting the sick in relieving the widow and fatherless and generally in supplying the wants of all those especially in the circle of our own society and brotherhood who any way want our