Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	pure_a	religion_n	undefiled_a	1,985	5	11.7434	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51026	The good patriot set forth in the example of the publick-spirited centurion in a sermon preached in the Gray-Friar Church of Edinburgh, on the first Munday of June, 168-, being the day ordinarly [sic] observed for the anniversary commemoration of George Herriot, the religious founder of the hospital called after his name Herriots Hospital.	Mackqueen, John, d. 1734.	1694 (1694)	Wing M227; ESTC R22268	32,260	60

the same at another time But truly I think his Works may supercede any historical account of Him He has left a more lasting Monument of his Piety and Charity to bear His Name and perpetuat his Fame then all paper Memorials whatsomever are capable to perform so long as there will be any Memory of this honourable City his name shall be mentioned with honour esteem when all the flashes of sensual pleasure are quite extinct when all the glances of Temporal Felicity and Human Excellency are quite forgot When all the flowers of Secular Glory are withered away When all earthly Trophies are buried in their funeral ashes When all the Elogies of Conquerours engraven on Brass or these pompuous Inscriptions on Marble undergo the fate of those drawn on the Sand or writen in water When all the stately Monuments and sumptuous Statues of the Roman Heroes are levelled with the ground When this World and all its parade shall be consumed Isay 34. When the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll and the Host thereof dissolved When the Elements shall melt and the Earth be burnt up with Fervent heat Psalm 112. The Name of the Renowned G. HERRIOT will be blessed before the LORD and his Works will be in Everlasting Remembrance I must tell you such Houses are not so compleat or fully finished but a Good Man will easily find some what or other alwayes to be added to their Beauty and Glory THOMAS FISHER And this we find by the Care and Industry of the present Worthy * Treasurer of this House who thinks no pains too great no cost too much for the Honour of the Religious Founder the Credit of the City or the Benefite of the House in all its Charitable concerns What Beauty is added to the Edifice in the great reparations made about it what considerable improvement of its Revenue how the number of the Boyes maintained is doubled That whereas at his Entry they were but Threescore they are now Sixscore dayly Furnished and Supplyed with all necessaries If Religious Founders of Hospitals and Churches of Colledges and Alms-houses are Blessed before the LORD Certainly the Names of those that better and improve the Revenues of those places of Charity shall be Honourable among Men these who are intrusted with the custody and mannagement of them who distribute them and discharge their office with a good conscience may be reputed the Repairers of such Houses and placed next the Founder And I know none in this City who can deny this Honour to Worthy and Honest THOMAS FISHER Some may think I should have pressed the Head of Benificence more amply for as it is a vanity to speak much of some Barren Theames So it is difficult to speak little of some Fertile Subjects But to people of large Souls and proportionable Fortunes there is enough said to excite them to acts of Charity And for those who are otherwayes disposed there is enough said to condem and Witness one day against them I am afraid the most eloquent Harangues of better heads and Neater Pens will operate little on this Iron Age to induce them to works of Benificence It were well some Zealous Pretenders did more to adorn their Religion by good works and stop the mouths of our Roman Adversaries by such demonstrations to the World that we lay not the stress of our hope of Salvation on an unactive fanciful Faith or an idle verbal Charity I am not so vain as to imagine by publishing this Discourse to prevail with many to follow the Centurions example 16. Oration de amo●e pauperum or the Renowned Herriots either I know the great and Famous Nazianzon insinuates People entertain discourses of Charity with the same coldness and indifferency they do the Poor themselves Although we be all but Beggars and Objects of the Divine Charity For all the little Scantling measures of Advancement some of us have above others As he prettily and floridly words it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I had once a design and it is not altogether out of my head to tranflate the whole Oration With some others of this Eloquent Father but the Pointedness of his Periods and Politness of his Phrase does somewhat fright me from the Attempt And I know all Translations are short of the Original how soever there be who magnifie some refined peices of this Nature of some French Beaux Spirits beyond the Authors expressions Whatever Truth be in this as to some Glassick Moral Writers yet for the Fathers of the Church whether Greek or Latin I am sure they are most charming in their own Dress Like those Roses which are best adorned with their own Natural Leaves I think as it is to no purpose in this dull heavy Age to spend much time in pleading against the Possibilitie of Perfection no more need we declaim against the pompous Magnificenee and the Prodigal Superfluities of Superstitious Romanists Nor see I any great necessity to strain our Rhetorick too much against the Merit of Good Works for I think few will be so impudent as to lay Tittle to Heaven by their Charitable Deeds or are like to storm it by violence to their covetous Inclinations Or will make themselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness by founding of Hospitals or building of Churches by inriching of Colledges or erecting of Bridges I know not whither the Superstition of Romanists or the Sacriledge of Protestants is most to be lashed But it is matter of Regrate to all serious considering minds that we should have the best Religion in the World and the worst practice That we should counteract it in so considerable a Branch of it placing so little of it in Acts of Benificence and Works of Mercy Cap 1.27 while according to St. James Divinity Pure Religion and undefiled before GOD and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widows in their afflictions and to keep our selves unspotted from the World The great and pompous things wherewith we seek to set off our Profession and commend it into others will not so much promot it as our uncharitableness and oppression will prejudge and discredit it with opponents whether Turks or Jews Pagans or Papists if they see under an affected humility pride lurking starchtly under an averseness to superstition fraude sacraledge and cheatry sheltering themselves under a sham-zeal against Dissenters cruelty and bitterness advancing their Trophies If they hear men speak like Angels but see them act like devils If they see them lifting up eyes to Heaven while their hands are dyed in Blood with feet marching towards hell They will be apt to look upon our Religion as a peece of Pageantry a devout complement a cloak of licentiousness From which I pray GOD every man may vindicat his Profession by transcribing the Pity and Humility the Faith and Benificence of the Centurion From viewing of which I will detain you no longer Luke Chap. 7. Vers 4. And

affectionat are Pagans and Papists to their Superstitious Church-men than we are to our Pious and Learned Pastors The Piety and Charity of former times made our Predecessors more liberal Donators too and Zealous Admirers of the lesser Learning and meaner parts of these dayes then the conceited bigotry of this Age will permit them to treat the higher Attainments of more eminent Men. There are among us who will spend more on their Prde and Vanity on their Luxury and Ryot on adrunken Club or an expensive pastim a Litigious Law suite in a day then they●le bestow all the year over nay may be all their life time upon either pious works or charitable uses And we often see misery and Beggary succeed this uncharitable prodigality I have seen in my time what the Virtuous industry of Parents laid up for their Children converted into the feuel of the Vanity of their Posterity And what they earued with much toil I wish I could fay of them all with equal Honesty and Integrity Care and Pains squandred away upon Whoores and Hounds Hauks and Horses while those that bestowed some portions of their means for Honourable ends and charitable purposes made GOD their debitor the Nation their Protectress and Posterity the Honourer of their Memory and preserver of their praise We see how careful the Centurion was of their Religious concerns in encourageing their Worship and by his pious Liberality providing them a convenient place for their Devotion for he built them a Synagogue Let us consider if his Zeal emptied it self wholly in this Channel without reserving any parts thereof for their secular interest and we will find he was a Stranger to that new Theology which to the destruction of Religion and dissolution of all Government puts piety and Morality Zeal and Humanity by the Ears No no his Benificence is not confined to their Spiritual Ecclesiastick Affaires allanerly he is an affectionate Promotter of the Common Well-fare of their Countrey for so they declare he loveth our Nation He knew very well neither his long prayers in nor his Expences on the Synagogue could make compensation for injustice or oppression or justifie any thing of cruelty or in Humanity And that the fervour of his piety could not legittimate his Devouring Widdows Houses usurping the Rights and properties of others therefore he applyed himself to gain the Esteem and retain their favour by all the good offices of Charity and Benignity He loveth our Nation His Love was the Spring of his Beneficence it was not in him an idle passion or a passionate wish but a vigorous active principle which carried him above all Narrow designes and selfish purposes to promote the Universal good of the Nation and the common benefite of the Country Were all more influenced by such a generous principle nothing could conduce more to the Beauty and Order Security and Profit of Christian Societies which made the Prince of Philosophers say that Laws would be useless were Friendship Inthroned in mens hearts Lex venit in subsidium Amicitìae Aristotl Indeed Love is the Soveraign of all the virtues that conduce to our content or interest that which sets them all a working It is the Soul and Life of all that is Amiable Pleasant Profitable and Delightful in the World What the Light of the Sun is in HEAVEN and Earth in Kingdoms and Empires in Palaces and Cottages on Sea and Land That Love is in Familys and Citys Communities and Societys the Sweetness of Conversation the Pleasantness of Entertainment Nune ades aeterno complectens omnia nexu Orerum mistique salus concordia mun di Et sacer orbis amor Lucanus lib 4. the Comfortable Injoyment of Friends the mutual Assistance and Endearments of Relations the Felicity of Princes the Stability of Thrones the Happiness of Subjects and the Glory of Nations the Security Peace and Wellfare of the World are all maintained by Love The Universe would crumble into pieces were not for This It is the Cement of its Parts the preserver of its Harmony No wonder it is the melody of Heaven the exercise of its Inhabitants the delight of Angels O Foelix hominum genus si vestros animos amor quo coelum regitur Regat Boetius lib 2do the Imployment of Seraphims Were there more of it in this lower World it would make the Eatth an Image of Heaven and us fit Candidats for these blessed Regions above where it rules so powerfully and reigns so Triumphantly While I am speaking of the Centurion's Love which was the Source of his Beneficence I cannot omit to tell you one of its Miracles when it passes into a Divine Affection yea it retains something of it while it stayes in the lower Valleys of Human Passion And that is how it resembles the Divine Nature of which according to St. John it is the purest representation in this that as nothing was the theater of GODS Omnipotency in the Creation of the World so the power of Love seems to be set off by nothing when it makes not only what we do but what we do not be taken off our hands and registred as so many Items in GODS Book of Accounts for which he becomes our Debitor an affectionat Ardour to impart what we have yea what we have not for the Benefit and Good of others is reckoned by GOD no small debt on him 2 Sam 7 and accordingly rewards it this made David's purpose of building GOD a House as acceptable as Solomon's Performance Luke 21. And the Widdows Mite more valuable than all the Rich-Donations of the Opulent Rulers Here Love gave dimensions to the smalness of her Charity beyond their vast Oblations made it more bulky and weigh more than all their tedious prayers and sumptuous presents The largeness of her Heart made Compensation for the slenderness of her Gift But mind it was because the scantness of her offering was the Effect of the narrowness of her Fortune And let none of you to whom GOD has given Talents think that the Widdows Mite is a Precedent for the little pittances of your Charity or that he will accept of your Good will or faint indeavours where there is Power and Ability to offer and do more When a Man is pinched in the exercise of his Charity through the difficulty of his circumstances his Good will may be infinit and the Restraint which Necessity Justice or Prudence puts on him will not marr him of the blessing entailed on Bounty and Charity yea the sorrowful troubled Resentment that a Vertuous Man has that he cannot do more Good will be reckoned not the least part of his present Charity and will make up no small portion of his future Glory The Centurion's Benificence makes him acceptable both to GOD and Man we see CHRIST and the Elders magnifie his praise there is something singular in this Virtue to recommend it to us whence it has such power in Heaven and Earth such sway over GOD and