Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	saviour_n	spirit_n	worship_v	2,314	5	9.2452	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79909	Agapai aspiloi, or The innocent love-feast. Being a sermon preached at S. Lawrence Jury in London, the sixth day of September, Anno Domini 1655. On the publick festival of the county of Hertford; and published this present May 1656. / By William Clarke.	Clarke, William, d. 1679.	1656 (1656)	Wing C4566; ESTC R206588	32,538	47

Praying Hearing Communicating and the like external acts of Religion the intire order that these hold in the state of our obedience is only to spiritual ends and purposes and therefore although we are required to worship and glorifie God in our Bodies and in our Spirits which are Gods 1 Cor. 6.20 Yet God himself being a most pure spirit unto which all these outward acts of piety and worship tend and in whom they fully End it is therefore very improper to the nature of them that they should be accepted in and for themselves but only as they derive a devout influence from and have an original dependance upon the sincerity and zeal of the Inner man and the spirit from whence they proceed For doubtless that argument of our Saviour drawen from the nature of that God we serve Joh. 4. 24. is unanswerable when he saith That God is a Spirit and therefore must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth Wherefore to return to our purpose although Relief and Brotherly supply is the whole End of operative Charity consisting in the outward offices of Love which is sufficiently satisfied if those offices are performed yet if we take the duty of Christian charity in the whole state of the duty and not by parcel-meals we shall finde that operative charity is not the half part of that required in this precept of Love for this as all duties of the Second Table hath a double respiciency in it the immediate respect is towards our Neighbour the ultimate respect is towards God which is a consideration that makes the duties of love to become offices of piety to God as well as of charity to our Brother Now looking upon this duty in its immediate respect to our Neighbour I confesse if Gods Law were to be considered no otherwise then the Statute Lawes of the Land which for the substance of the precepts forbid the very same particulars as are expressed in the Second Table as Rebellion Murder Theft Adultery False witnesse c. and enjoynes also the same duties of Justice and Charity to our Brethren Now I say if Gods Law reached no further then Mans operative charity would fulfil the whole duty Mans Law looking no farther then to the restraining or enjoyning the outward act But seeing Gods Law ought to be considered as the first Law written in our hearts and the Law of Nature as well as of God in this consideration the inward principle of those offices of love from whom they proceed must be considered as well as the external acts themselves for as much as God at the first did so absolutely and to all purposes instruct and furnish our natures that look whatever outward duty he required at our hands he placed an answerable principle in our hearts to incline and carry us through the performance of that work required of us as conceiving it to be too severe a usage of man above all other works of the creation besides to require him to do that duty unto which God had not first imprinted a propension in his nature as to command him the outward offices of Society and Hospitality without giving him the inward principle of love or the duties of succouring the distressed or relieving the needy without the inward principle of pitty and commiseration and so in all the rest And truly though I deny not but many a good almes hath been given for vainglory to be seen of Men many through the importunity of our needy Brother and many through custome yet these are not natural but equivocal productions of charity much like the generations of Frogs and Flies and other Insects which are often ingendred of putrefaction and not from their own kindes which we call Imperfect Generations in Philosophy Even such unkindly productions are such sorts of good works in the Law of Charity that come besides the common order of Nature God therefore originally not only enjoyning the Act but administring the proper and univocal principle of that act in the spirit of Man By the Law of Nature rectified we are required to take both into consideration and not onely to be hospitable to our Brethren but also to love them not onely to help the miserable but also to pity and compassionate them so that the inward fervency of the spirit in works of charity is necessary in the first place Nec●ssitate principii as Natures proper principle for such acts But Secondly if we look upon charity as reflecting upon God we shall finde yet more cause why this fervency of the heart is requisite in this duty Because in this capacity it is a duty of piety as all other duties of Religion and worship are which have their outward acts as I have said purely in order to inward and spiritual purposes and grateful onely as they proceed from sincere and spiritual principles Now that charity bears such a reflection upon God and therefore becomes as it were a duty of the First Table is intimated by the Wiseman Prov. 14.31 where it is said That he that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker not only by his act of disobedience against the positive Law of God who by adding to this duty his divine sanction made that moral which was at first natural whereby you see the Heart is likewise necessary in this duty Secondly Necessi●ate praecepti but also reproacheth his Maker in respect to that order and relation in which they stand towards God having a supreme interest in all men but especially in the poor and needy and of these chiefly in them who together with their outward indigencies are poor in spirit also of whom Christ saith Matth. 25.40 In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me Now if offices of love and charity to our Brethren be performed to God and to Christ himself we knowing whom we serve know likewise our charity must be affectionate and fervent as well as operative and that as you see Thirdly Necessitate medii as a proper means of service answerable to that God we serve Vse 1 Away then 1. With Negative Friendships and Cold Neighbourhoods the universal practice of this uncharitable Age wherein Men think they discharge their duties sufficiently in this Law of Love if they do no wrong and offer no violence and are not professed Enemies alas this is too cold a disposition for this hot climate of Love true charity is a grace that puts the heart of a Christian into a fermentation and a fervent working of the bowels upon our Brethren for Love leavens the soul as well as Malice and there is a heat in both only the one is by a fire from Hell and the other from Heaven But this cold indifferency hangs between these two fires like the middle Region between Heaven and Earth in a perpetual frost having neither celestial grace enough to inkindle the kindly warmth of love nor infernal malice nor mischief enough or at least not courage