A30587:956
Irenicum, to the lovers of truth and peace heart-divisions opened in the causes and…
Irenicum, to the lovers of truth and peace heart-divisions opened in the causes and evils of them : with cautions that we may not be hurt by them, and endeavours to heal them / by Jeremiah Burroughs.Irenicum, to the lovers of truth and peace heart-divisions opened in the causes and evils of them : with cautions that we may not be hurt by them, and endeavours to heal them / by Jeremiah Burroughes.
London: printed for Robert Dawlman, 1653
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The third joining Principle.
The third joyning Principle.
It is better to do good, then to receive good.
It is better to doe good, then to receive good.
Active good is better then passive; only God himself, his Angels and Saints do good; all creatures can receive good. This principle would quickly join us; for if this were in mens hearts, they would study to do all the good they could to one another, and so gain upon one another's hearts: and the more good we do to any, the more will our hearts be inclinable to love them. The very communication of goodness, if it be out of a good spirit, carries the heart along with it to the subject this good is communicated to: the more good God doth to any, the more he loves them. God hates nothing that he hath made, but loves what there is in any thing of his work: but when he communicates his grace, his Spirit, when he gives his Christ in these gifts, he gives his heart: they do not only come from love, but they make the subject further lovely in his eyes. So it is with us in our proportion: if you take a poor child from the dunghill, or out of the Alms-house, and make him your heir, you do not only do this good to him because you love dim, but you also love him more,1 because you look upon him as an object of your goodness as one raised by you. Titus accounted that day lost, a day wherein he had not reigned, if he had done no good. This principle would make men great as well as good. It is the glory of God that he does so much good. And if men could account this greatness, satisfying greatness, the most and greatest contentions that are in the world would be laid down: for what do men contend so much for as for greatness?