Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	love_n	love_v	word_n	4,771	5	4.7257	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40092	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Maior of London, and the Court of Aldermen, &c. on Wednesday in Easter week, in the Church of St. Andrew Holborn being one of the anniversary spittal sermons / by Edward Fowler.	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.	1688 (1688)	Wing F1719; ESTC R10667	20,353	37

Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these my brethren ye did it not to me Again see what our Lord saith Luk. 6.35 Love your Enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again or hoping for no Reward from those whose Benefactors you are and charitable Creditors and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the Children of the Highest c. And Mat. 5.7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Whereas S. Iames hath declared Ch. 2.13 that He shall have judgment without mercy that sheweth no mercy I am sure you will acknowledge that there 's no need of going farther than these two Considerations for the Confirmation of the Doctrin raised from the Text. If it be asked How this one part of Religion can be said to give a Title to these Everlasting Habitations I hope none of us do believe that there is any thing more of proper Merit in these than in other good works since the Falsity and Dangerousness of the Popish Doctrin of Merit hath been sufficiently exposed to us from time to time As also the Folly of imagining that Creatures can deserve any Reward at the hands of their Great Creator and much more of thinking that Sinners can and much more that they can deserve such an immensely Great Reward as the Kingdom of Heaven by the best Works they are in a possibility of performing these Works not bearing the least proportion with that Reward Nor need I surely go about to perswade a Congregation of Protestants That the Righteousness of Christ is the only Meritorious or procuring Cause of whatsoever Good we have received or can hope to receive And as to that Saying that Christ hath merited that we may merit 't is so far from good Doctrine that 't is impossible to make any good Sense of it But 1. Works of Mercy and Charity are Conditions to the sincere performance of which GOD in his infinite Grace and Bounty and for Christ's sake or in and through Christ hath promised these Everlasting Habitations And they are such Conditions as our Saviour might well propose without naming any other with them because the whole of Religion is virtually contained or implyed in them Who knows not that Faith and Love and Obedience are words which severally express in Scripture all Religion But all these are implyed in true Christian Charity Both the Tables are comprized by our Saviour in the Love of God and our Neighbour and the summ of what is required in the Gospel is sometimes expressed by Believing and other times by Obeying Now as Charity hath a respect to God's Gracious Promises or as a Christian is excited thereto by them so is it an eminent Act and Exertion of Faith As it hath respect to the many Commandments of GOD and our Saviour so every act of Charity is an act of Obedience As it hath respect to our infinite Obligations to GOD and our Saviour and is an Expression of Gratitude towards them so every act of Charity is an act of Divine Love As it hath respect to the Necessities of our Brethren so is it an act of Brotherly Love and that which hath these several respects is the truly Christian Charity Considering this well might S. Iames say Ch. 1.27 Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction and to keep ones self unspotted from the World. And therefore good reason had our Saviour here to instance solely in employing our Estates in doing Good as that which intitles to Everlasting Habitations in the Heavenly Mansions And this likewise justifies that Advice of the Prophet Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar Ch. 4.27 Break off thy sins by Righteousness and thine iniquites by shewing mercy to the Poor c. And also this interprets to us those words of S. Peter 1 Ep. 4.8 Charity shall cover the multitude of sins Above all things have servent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover the multitude of sins 2. Works of Mercy and Charity give a Title to these Everlasting Habitations as they are the best Evidence of our being Regenerate and Christians in Deed as well as in Profession The Tree saith our Saviour is known by its Fruits But it hath already appeared and will farther appear that no Fruit speaks a good Tree like these Fruits And therefore S. Paul preferreth the Grace of Charity before the Graces of Faith and Hope And now abideth Faith Hope and Charity but the greatest of these is Charity 1 Cor. 13. ult 'T is confest he doth not here mean by Charity the meer giving of Alms as appears by the third Verse of this Chapter but as wheresoever that Charity is which the Apostle describes in the foregoing Verses there will be a cheerful forwardness to the relieving of our Necessitous Brethren so this forwardness proceeding from the forementioned Motives is the best Expression of that Charity And what single Evidence of a Man's being a good Christian can excel nay can equal this Who can doubt whether that man doth truly and sincerely Believe in God and embraceth with his Heart that Religion which he professeth with his Tongue or whether he hath a powerful Sense of another Life and sets his Affections on the things above that can freely forego present Profit and Advantage for their sake What surer Argument can there be of our sincerely loving GOD and our Blessed Saviour than our readily parting with those things at their Command which the Generality are so tenacious of and most unwilling to let go upon any other account than the some way or other serving themselves I mean promoting their carnal Interests And I need not say that this is the best Evidence of a man's loving his Neighbour as himself since all other Signs thereof can signifie nothing without this For 't is too plain a Case to need proving that he is a Lyar who pretendeth love to his Neighbour while he cannot find in his Heart to Relieve him in his Necessity in some proportion to his Ability S. Iohn makes this the great distinguishing Character of a sincere Lover of GOD from an Hypocritical Pretender to the love of Him in 1 Ep. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren Or for the promoting of their eternal welfare But whoso hath this Worlds Goods and seeth his Brother hath need and shutteth up his Bowels of compassion from him that is so far from venturing his life for him that he will not so much as open his purse to him How dwelleth the love of God in him My little Children let us not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth Or Let us not only profess Love to our Brethren but demonstrate the sincerity of that Profession by Acts of Bounty and Beneficence Then it follows And hereby we know that we are in the

truth and shall assure our hearts before him c. Or We cannot desire a more certain Evidence a more infallible Mark of our being upright-hearted Christians than such a temper of mind as shall be on all occasions engaging us in such Works as these 3. By Works of Mercy and Charity we are made more and more Capable of being received into these everlasting Habitations more and more meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light which principally consists in a Likeness to God and a Complete Enjoyment of Him. There is nothing whereby we can so Resemble GOD and therefore that can put us into such a Capacity of Enjoying Him as our being habituated to these Works The Divine God-like Nature must needs most eminently appear in these since Mercy and Goodness Benignity and Loving Kindness are the Perfections by which the Best of Beings doth above all other Recommend himself to us as might be largely shewed from the Holy Scriptures Therefore the Definition which S. Iohn gives us of God is Love. God is Love saith he and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in Him. The Lord is good to all saith the Psalmist and his tender mercies are over all his Works Nothing is so natural to Him as Doing Good. The Prophet Isaiah calls his Iudgments and Acts of Severity his Strange Work. And the Prophet Ieremiah tells us that He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of men The Divine Severity is not an Effect of Choice but of Necessity for the maintenance and upholding of God's Government of the World. It proceeds from a Necessity of Sinners making But He hath thus declared by the now nam'd Prophet I am the Lord which exercise Loving-Kindness and Righteousness in the Earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is as natural to God to do good as to Fire to warm and to Light to enlighten saith S. Clemens of Alexandria Those therefore who do most good and are most delighted therein are most like to God whereas those who most Resemble Him in Power and Knowledge if void of Goodness the Devils for instance are most unlike Him. And those who are most like to God are best qualified for enjoying Him and capable of enjoying most of Him. And such as by their Likeness to God are fitted to Enjoy Him shall not fail so to do I may truly say cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There cannot be a separation betwixt God and his Likeness said the Philosopher excellently The Application NOW from what hath been Discoursed we learn First Wherein lieth the Goodness and Desirableness of a plentiful Fortune If we give any Credit to our Blessed Lord we must believe that it doth not lie in its inabling us to Lay up but to Lay out the more and that upon Pious and Charitable Designs not upon our Selves or Families and much less to gratifie Pride or Luxury and the better to promote by that means the Great Business for which we were sent into this World to make our selves so much the greater Blessings to it and more to glorifie our Creator and Redeemer by Good Works than we are capable of glorifying them without Plentiful Estates and to attain to the Higher degrees of Blessedness and Glory in the World to come I say we are abundantly satisfied from what our Lord hath declared to us in our Text and other places and from what hath been discoursed that herein alone consists the Advantage of being Rich. And he is a Person not sufficiently purged from Worldliness and Sensuality who endeavours or can desire to be Rich for other Ends or to make his Children so for any other reason than that by this means they may be the more serviceable to their Fellow-Creatures may bring the more Glory to GOD and gain the larger Proportions of Bliss and Happiness in the other Life In Comparison of which this Life is nothing worth and truly all things considered not worth any thing in it self nor at all desirable but as 't is a State of Probation for the fitting and preparing us for an infinitely better And if we considered how far a large Estate is from making the Owners of them Happy in this life nay how it involves them in innumerable anxious Cares and distracting Troubles and a World of Misfortunes which those are secure from who possess but just so much as not to stand in need of the Charity of others we should think it the most desireable thing for our selves and ours to have no whit more than Agurs with viz. a Competency except for the foresaid Purposes And especially considering the Dreadful Account which those shall be called to who have not Hearts to imploy their Riches to such purposes and withal what our Lord hath said of the extreme difficulty of Rich mens entering into the Kingdom of Heaven in regard of the difficulty of their not trusting in their Riches and of their not being made Covetous or Proud or Sensual by them one would think that all who have any serious Concern for the Souls of their dear Children should tremble at the thoughts of venturing them with Great Estates and be under no Temptation upon their account of not being liberal And I cannot imagine but that every truly-Good man must needs dread for his Childrens sake as well as for other reasons being backward to Works of Charity Nothing being more commonly observed than that the Children of Covetous Close-handed Parents do either as prodigally fling away what they scraped together for them or prove mere Mammonists and Muck-worms like them and so have their Portion like them too in this Life Which no man that really believes the other Life shall need to be told is an Evil to be dreaded unspeakably more than their going a Begging from door to door Secondly We learn from our past Discourse that 't is not in the least disbecoming a Christian Spirit nor at all inconsistent with that Ingenuity which Christianity requires to have Respect with Moses to the Recompence of Reward in the Good we do or to be excited thereby to Well-doing Many Charitable and Good Souls have perplex't themselves with doubts that their Good Works are not of the true Christian kind because they think they are Conscious to themselves of not being principally moved to them by Love to GOD but by self-Love being perswaded that the onely spring and principle of Evangelical Obedience is Divine Love and Gratitude and that neither Hope nor Fear is so But since so very many Promises and Threats are to be found in the Gospel 't is evident they are greatly mistaken and that they fear where no Fear is For is it to be thought that we should be stirred up to Good Works by such Motives as these by Our Blessed Saviour Himself if their having their designed influence upon us would so spoil them as