Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n
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A97012
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A sermon preached at the Oxfordshire feast at St. Mary le Bow, November 15, 1694 by Samuel Walker, M.A. ; published at the request of the stewards.
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Walker, Samuel, M.A.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing W414; ESTC R42867
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8,197
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26
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he provides abundantly for us in this life his mercies are renewed to us every day and every morning is a fresh instance of his goodness in him we live move and have our being and these obligations should ingage us to love him with all our hearts and our neighbour as our selves to promote the interest and welfare of our brother if he is in misery to help him in want to relieve him if in trouble to comfort him if ignorant to instruct him if wicked to admonish him in the spirit of meekness if godly to incourage him and imitate his pious example let his condition and state be high or low noble or ignoble thou mayst be useful and serviceable to him in praying to God in his behalf Thus the vilest mortal that rakes a kennel the poorest beggar that craves an alms may shew his charity to the greatest King In this sense the deaf the blind and lame may do good to themselves and the Church of God This is our duty and ought to be our practice to love all men fervently without exception to pray for them constantly without intermission and heartily without dissimulation If we consider in our most sober thoughts and serious meditations that God Almighty is our bountiful Benefactor that he daily loads us with his benefits and multiplys his blessings upon us This consideration will surely move our affection and compassion to their proper objects in raising up the drooping spirits of those who lay low in the world filling their bodies with good things and their hearts with joy and gladness Thus we should imitate the divine Goodness we should refresh others with some of those comforts which daily flow upon us from the fountain of eternal bliss God Almighty requires us to acknowledge his bounty by our kindness to those who are unable to resist a low and contemptible state and too weak to overcome it Not to act like the sordid earthly Mortal who wants if I may so speak the good nature of the Gadaren's Darling the brutish Hog to pity and compassionate the miseries and calamities of his fellow creatures his own flesh who like a standing Pool is confined within his own filthy black and deadly banks but God requires us to act like men full of bowels of compassion to be ready to every good work to help the miserable to relieve the distressed to support the weak to comfort the broken-hearted continually to give our helping hand to those of a low fortune and to promote the interest of our indigent brother to pour the wine of gladness and oyl of comfort into the wounds of our neighbors body or soul whether they be afflicted like Lazarus with the sores of poverty and want or like Gehazi covered with the Leprosie of their own sins thus the merciful man acts dealing his bread to the hungry cloathing the naked visiting the afflicted soul filling the poor with good things seeking all opportunities of doing good bringing forth the blessed fruits of Righteousness and Mercy for the merciful man like the kind and lively stream disfuseth his love liberally into his neighbouring soil and gives fatness to the poor and barren land Secondly The constant practice of our blessed Lord commends this duty of increasing more and more in charity and mercy for he went about continually doing good giving eyes to the blind feet to the lame understanding to the ignorant and wisdom to the simple curing the diseases of the body healing the distempers of the soul quickning those who were dead in trespasses and sins And if we who call our selves his disciples do not abound in gentleness meekness and love in acts of benevolence and beneficence he will not own us as his Sheep nor give us a Mansion in his Fathers House If we do not imitate him in those works of kindness and love to our Brethren the Son of God will not acknowlege himself our Lord nor will he give us any Reward in the life to come but that which he hath prepared for unprofitable servants and disobedient Children If we call our selves his Members and walk not in conformity to him our Head we deceive our selves provoke him to wrath and he will take no pleasure in us Thirdly Our most holy and excellent Religion obliges us to perform works of charity and mercy and to continue in the performance of them for that exhorts you to increase in every good work Col. 1. v. 10. To be kind one to another tender-hearted Ephes 4. v. 32. But to serve one another by love not to be weary in well doing Gal. 5. v. 13. To be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are unto the praise and Glory of God Phil. 1. v. 11. Without these holy dispositions and divine acts you cannot be sincerely Religious nor bear such fruits by which our heavenly Father is glorified Therefore saith St. Peter add to your faith vertue to vertue knowledge to knowledge temperance to temperance patience to patience godliness to godliness brotherly kindness to brotherly kindness charity for if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the work of the Lord. And now my beloved Brethren Natives of that delightful and well-situated City in whose situation the goodness of the Lord hath greatly appeared for God hath blessed her Inhabitants with all things conducive to the health of their bodies as a sweet serene Air neither too mild nor too severe pleasant Rivers fruitful Hills and Vallies full of fatness And God hath provided for the health of their souls spiritual Physicians indued with wisdom and knowledge who administer milk to the infant Christian and to the strong they apply more solid and substantial nourishment For that glorious City is adorned and beautified with a famous University which is admired abroad and preferred at home by all but the contenders for a parallel Some of her venerable body late ingenious Members are at this instant the reverend and laudable Pastors of the most honourable Churches in this magnificent City and are as much the Honour and Renown of the Metropolis as she is the Splendor and Glory of the Nation Now my Fellow Countrymen of that pleasant and fruitful Country which is superiour to most inferiour to none I beseech you strive with a spiritual Ambition and holy Emulation to exceed the rest of mankind in Piety Charity and Mercy strive to excel each other in Courtesie Friendship and Generosity in Peace Goodness and Love that others may walk by the light of your bright and splendid examples in the blessed path of brotherly love and Christian Charity which leads to eternal life Oh let not your Charity grow cold to your Brethren your own flesh kindle it into a holy and generous flame that the poor and lowly Cottages of your Country may be warmed by the heat of your compassion and mercy The man that hath no affection for his own Country deserves not to be a member of any