Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	fruit_n	good_a	justification_n	4,396	5	9.1232	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A18436	Charity enlarged: or The abridgement of the morall law Delivered by way of sermon, and preached for the maine substance thereof in a publicke assembly, on a lecture day, Dec. 4. Ao. Dom. 1634. and now published according to the authors review, with some new additions, for the farther instruction of the ignorant, satisfaction of the ingenuous, conviction of the uncharitable, and benefit of all sorts of people. By a serious welwisher to the peace of Ierusalem.	Serious welwisher to the peace of Jerusalem.	1636 (1636)	STC 5004; ESTC S119118	61,426	212

loc cit de doct Christ lib. 1. cap. 22. and to performe our severall duties to God and man not of constraint or for filthy lucre but onely for loves sake Love is like the Indian Figge-tree of which Scaliger writes t Exerci 166. that shee having shoote up her branches a convenient height reflects them downe againe to take new rooting in the earth and so makes a kinde of naturall arbour Gods love is the first seede which causes our love to take roote and to fructifie For Charity growes not like the fruit of the earth in the golden age without any seede sowne I meane without the seede of Gods grace sowne in the heart as the Pelagians u Conterraneus noster ●en Beda in libro quem scripsit contra Iulianum Episcopum Eclane●sem qui hodieque praefationis loco commentarijs eius super Cantica praefigitur testatur Pelagianos existimasse charitatem esse primogenitum bonum prorsus nativam qualitatem quamque gratia nunquam gignit sed quandoque nutrit auget Charitas secundum eos velut flax est quae suâ sponte ardet sed spiritu quasi vento agitata vehementius inflammatur Sed absolutè secundum Apostolum Fructus spiritus Charitas Gal. 5.22 imagined Then Charity by the assistance of Gods grace shootes up her branches a good height even to God himselfe in the highest heavens and from him shee reflects them downe againe unto the ground to wit to the men of the earth and takes new rooting there So Greg. Mag. lib. 7. Mora. cap. 10. Per amorem Dei amor proximi gignitur Per amorē proximi amor Dei g●g●itur Nam qui amare Deum negligit profecto diligere proximum nescit T is the Apostles phrase to shew Loves firmenesse fruitfulnesse Ephes 3.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yee being rooted and grounded in Charity This fruitfull roote strengthens the whole body of Religion and sends forth the manifold branches of piety bearing constantly the fruits of good workes and not onely the faire leaves of good words Our Saviour you know cursed the Fig-tree which made a faire shew at a distance yeelded no fruit when he came neere unto it although the time of fruite were not come To teach us to bee alwayes fruitfull in the good deeds of Charity because God allowes no season of spirituall barrennesse no not in the winter of old age Psal 92.14 Thirdly Charity fulfills the Law formally quia finis in moralibus habet rationem formae i. e. because in morallity the end hath the Nature of a forme also Charity is as it were the stampe in the which every lawfull action is to be coyned and without which how resplendent soever t is but counterfeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 16.14 Let all your things be done in or with Charity All things done without Charity are as it were nothing 1 Cor. 13.2 Hence Charity is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the band of perfection Coloss 3.14 because it unites and couples all good duties together which faith workes by love and so may be called in this respect sides formata A faith that hath her right forme but faith not working by love is a dead faith and so sides informis a formeles faith as some of our Divines doe justly acknowledge See Bishop Downham in his booke of the Covenant of Grace page 229 230. who will not yeeld to Bellarmine that love is the inward constitutive forme and soule as it were of faith yet denies not that it is the morall or consequtive forme thereof Then know that although you performe the Commandements of God materially or according to the substance as Iehu fulfilled the will of God in destroying the house of Ahab yet if you doe them not formally in Charity i. e. principally in love to God secondarily to your neighbour especially to the Church of God you may pull on your heads vengeance as Iehu did Hos 1.4 in stead of a blessing God preferres adverbs before substantives hee doth not so much regard what is done as in what manner the manner specificates the action and makes it good or bad morally Lastly note to conclude this point and therewith the whole explication of the Text our actions may bee formed by Charity eyther directly and explicitely which is when in the act it selfe wee thinke of the love of God and of our neighbour to forme the act thereby as wee goe to Church out of our present love to the house and ordinances of God we goe to visit our neighbour in any distresse because wee suppose it a duty of love so to doe or secondly implicitely and virtually when the love of God and man is habitually setled in our hearts but yet we doe not thinke thereof in such or such an action I conceive that for the maine duties of godlinesse actuall love is necessary but habituall love sufficeth for those which are of lesse moment and more ordinary Whatsoever we doe S. Paul will have us doe it to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 and so consequently out of our love to God But in some things as the habituall intention of his glory so the habituall love of him as it is a sufficient motive so a sufficient forme of our actions The love which I have proposed unto you is not a meere notion but a reall vertue and so consists not in speculation but action not in knowledge but application The objects unto which love is to bee applyed are foure in generall although in particulars infinite w Ang. de doct Christ l. 1. cap. 23. unū quod supranos the first and chiefest is above us to be loved before our selves or any x Si deus omni homine amplius diligendus est amplius quisque debet eum diligere quam seipsum Aug. de doct Christ. l. 1. cap. 27. man whatsoever Alterum quod nos sumus y As the love of wife parents children kindred benefactors friends c. Hence Lomb. observes 3 sent d. 29. lit C. that the Commandement concerning our parents is honora honour not dilige love because we doe that naturally In the next place our selves Tertium quod juxta nos est Thirdly he that is next our selves our neighbour Quartum quod infra nos est Fourthly that which is below us our bodies There are no precepts saith S. Augustine z Ib. cap. eod cap. 26. Inconcussa natura lege quod sumus quod infra nos est diligimus quae lex etiam in bestias promulgata est concerning the second and fourth object of Charity For wee naturally affect them and they who love not God or their neighbour love yet themselves and their owne flesh even as bruit beasts also doe by nature Fugax enim animus ab incommutab●li lumine omnium ●agnatore id agit ut ipse sibi regnet corpori suo Et ideo non potest nisi se corpus suum

of Love were the summe of the Law As t is evident by his enumeration of parts namely of some of the particular Commandements w Rom. 13.9 yet out of the order after which Moses set them downe x Saint Paul there quite omits the first Commandement puts the seaventh before the sixt which perhaps may afford matter for some idle Criticke to worke upon but for us tis enough to know that our Apostles scope was not to rep●are the Commandements but onely to give the abridgement of them perhaps to intimate that they are all alike to love which knowes no first nor last amongst them with a forme concerning the parts not named not dubitative but inclusive and if there bee any other Commandement signifying that love is as y Militum non est interpretari iussa sed exequi Tac. N●is obsequij gloria sufficit Id. ready to obey as God to command leaving all authority to God sibi obsequij gloriam relinquens leaving onely to it selfe the prayse of obedience Lastly this conclusive sentence is also exclusive love so fulfills the Law Without love no fulfilling of the Law that without love the Law cannot be fulfilled for he that offends in one that is in this one precept of Charity offends in all Iam. 2.10 quia violat vinculū Charitatis as breaking the band of the whole Law saies S. Aug. lib. de verâ falsâ penitentia cap. 14. si fortê is liber sit Augustini For the conclusion it selfe though the rigour of Logicke suffer mee not to prove it yet I shall produce one or two parallell places of Scripture for the illustration thereof and a sentence or two of the Fathers agreeable thereunto The first and chiefest Matth. 22.40 testimony is frō the best expounder and fulfiller of the Law that ever was Christ Iesus who informes us that on these two Commandemēts sc of the love of God our neighbour hangs all the Law and the Prophets Galat. 3.14 Then let S. Paul here witnes to himselfe no doubt but his witnes shal be true All the Law saith he is fulfilled in one word that verbum abbreviatum in S. Hieroms opinion thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe which precept Moses gives Levit. 19.18 This love explicitely fulfills the second Table implicitely also the first For thou canst not love thy neighbour as thy selfe unlesse thou love thy selfe first Thou canst not love thy selfe unlesse thou love him that is thy summum bonum thy chiefest good and intimius tibi quam tu tibi ipsi as Plato sayes of him more intimate with thee than thou art with thine owne soule in whom thou livest and moovest and hast thy being The love of God then absolutely fulfills the whole Law Ioh. 14.15.21.23 1 Epi. Ioh. 3.17 and is oft put for the whole service of God and the love of our neighbour fulfills halfe the Law with reference to the love of God owe nothing to any man but love sc which payes all duties but Saint Paul here as also Gal. 5. with our Saviour Mat. 7.12 names onely the duties of the second Table i Cum duo praecepta sint amor Dei proximi pro utroque saepe u●●m ponitur Lom 3. s d. 27. lit h. because these are the most palpable manifest fruits of love appearing to the example of men and glory of God whereas in the seeming zealous observation of the first Table in hearing and preaching of the Word and the like duties men sometimes deceive not onely others Charity but their owne soules also by the art of seeming Againe for that in case of urgent necessity when the actuall performance of both kinds of duties to God and man which are alwayes best united cannot bee done together the first table yeelds to the second God will then have mercy and not sacrifice a And Chap. 12.7 and out of Hos 6.6 Matth. 9.13 And hence wee may collect also why love is magnified 1 Cor. 13. verse the last even above faith that b Mat. 13.46 precious Iewell of the Gospel for the purchase whereof a man ought to sell all that hee hath as of himselfe So that even in the Gospell the love of God is called the greatest Commandement and the first and thē love of our neighbour is accounted the second like unto it Matth. 22.38 39. 1 Because faith in its owne nature abstracted from the fruits and effects thereof hath reference onely to God and so pertaines to the first Table but love hath relation both to God and man 2 Because faith in that abstractive considerat●on lyes hidden in the heart and so is knowne onely to God but love is like fire in the bosome which will breake out and cannot be concealed from man 3 Lastly for that love in its owne nature is a more noble and heroicall vertue than faith and of infinitely longer duration fulfilling the Law of God unto the end and c 1 Cor. 13.12 being without all end shining 1 Charitas in patriâ serventior est quam in via Aeternum enim ardentius diligitur adeptum quam desideratum u● docet Sanctus Aug. lib. 1. doct Christ cap. 38. vid. c. 39. Est Ciui●tas in hac vita in●ipiens profi●iens perfecta sc suo modo perfectissma vero est in coelo Vt asserit Lomb l. 3. sent in s●●e dist 29. most bright in heaven as the Sun without a Cloud and whilst that faith continues with it t is as it were d Iam 2.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. if not the life yet the breath of it For faith without workes is dead and faith workes by love Onely in a relative consideration as faith is the instrument of our justification and so the chiefe meanes of our salvation faith is of more excellency than love which is onely an evidence and testimony of faith For the Fathers if you please to recollect in your mindes what I have already noted out of S. Hierome and S. Augustine I shall have no neede to bee tedious in heaping up new testimonies onely heare S. Hierome againe describing the vertue of divine love putting forth the utmost of its ability in the service of God not onely doing every thing that hee commands but not daring to doe any thing which hee doth not require z Hier. Epist ad Caelant Grandem vim obtinet vera dilectio totam sibi amantis vendicat voluntatem Nihil est imperiosius charitate Si vere Christum diligimus nihil magis velle nihil omnino debemus agere quam quod illum velle cognoscimus And Saint Gregory a Hom. 27. super Evang. sayes omne mandatum de sola dilectione est omnia vnum praeceptum sunt quia quicquid praecipitur in solâ Charitate solidatur All the precepts are contained in one for Charity is the foundation of them all Charitas est multiplex lex dei b Vulgar Iob.