Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	great_a	heaven_n	life_n	6,050	5	4.1663	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59548	The duty and happiness of doing good two sermons : the former, preached at the Yorkshire feast, in Bow-Church, Feb. 17, 1679 : the other, before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, at the Spittle, Apr. 14, 1680 / by John Sharpe ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1680 (1680)	Wing S2976; ESTC R6463	37,896	84

our selves we have done some good with them It is the doing good that sanctifies our other enjoyments and makes them matter of Rejoycing Now in treating of this Argument I shall briefly endeavour these Three things First I shall earnestly recommend to you the Practice of doing good upon several Considerations Secondly I shall represent the Practicableness of it by shewing the several ways which every person though in the meanest Circumstances is capable of doing good Thirdly I shall make two or three Inferences by way of Application I begin with the First thing seriously to recommend the practice of doing good But where shall I begin to speak either of the Obligations that lye upon us or of the Benefits and Advantages that do accrue to us by doing good in our lives or having begun where shall I make an end the subject is so copious that the study of a whole life cannot exhaust it The more we consider it still the more and the weightier Arguments will present themselves to us to ingage us in the practice of it and the more we practise it still the more shall we desire so to do and the more happy and Blessed shall we find our selves to be For to do good is nothing else but to act according to the frame and make of our Beings It is to gratifie those Inclinations and Appetites that are most strongly rooted in our Natures such as Love and Natural Affection Pity and Compassion a Desire of Friends and a Propensity to knot our selves into Companies and Societies what are all these but so many stimuli so many powerful incitements of nature to put us upon doing good offices one to another To do good is the end of all those Acquisitions of all those Talents of all those Favours and Advantages that God has blest us with it is the proper use we are to put them to If we do not employ them this way we are so far from being better for them that we are much worse What will signifie our Wit and good Humour our Strength of Reason and Memory our Wisdom and Knowledge our Skill in Arts and Dexterity in managing Business our Wealth and Greatness our Reputation and Interest in the world I say what will all these signifie if they do not render us more Useful and Beneficial to others That which sets the price and value upon every worldly blessing is the Opportunity it affords us of doing good To do good seems to be the foundation of all the Laws of Nature the supreme Universal Law it is that by which the World is supported and take that away all would presently fall into confusion And perhaps if it were particularly examin'd it would be found that all the other Natural Laws may be reduced to this and are ultimately to be resolv'd into it It is a question whether there be any natural Standard whereby we can measure the Virtue or the Viciousness of any Action but the Influence that it hath to promote or hinder the doing of good This is that that seems to stamp Virtue and Vice To do good is the great Work for the sake of which we were sent into the world and no man lives farther to any purpose than as he is an Instrument of doing good Be our lives otherwise never so busie and full of action yet if others receive no benefit by them we cannot give our selves any tolerable account of our time we have in effect liv'd idly and done nothing To do good is that which of all other services is most acceptable to God it is that which he hath laid the greatest stress upon in the Scripture it is that which he hath with the most earnest and affectionate perswasives with the strongest Arguments with the greatest promises and with the most dreadful threatnings enforc'd upon us It is that which he hath chosen before all Sacrifices and all Religious worship strictly so called to be serv'd with It is that which he hath appointed for the great Expression both of our Thankfulness for his Benefits and of our Love and Devotion to him Lastly it that which Moses and the Prophets make the Sum of the Old Law and Christ and his Apostles the Sum of the New And very great Reason there is for it for to do good is to become most like to God It is that which of all other Qualities gives us the greatest resemblance of his Nature and Perfections for perfect Love and Goodness is the very Nature of God and the Root of all his other Attributes and there was never any Action done any work wrought by him throughout the vast Tracts of infinite space from the Beginning of time to this Moment but was an Expression of his Love and an instance of doing good nay I doubt not to say the most severe acts of his Justice and Vengeance have all been such And therefore with great reason hath our blessed Lord told us that the way to become the Children of our Heavenly Father is to do good to all with the same Freedom and Unreservedness that God makes his Sun to shine upon the World And of this our Blessed Saviour himself was the most illustrious Example that ever appeared in the world so that to do good is that which doth most truly and perfectly render us the Disciples and Followers of Jesus makes us really be what we pretend we are His whole life as the Gospel tells us was but a continual going about doing good The great Design of his Coming from Heaven and of all that he spoke and of all that he did and of all that he suffer'd upon Earth was the benefiting of others And he hath left it as the great distinguishing Badge and Character whereby his Disciples should be known from other men that they should love one another even as he had lov'd them that is as his Apostle expounds him they should love and do good to that degree as to lay down their lives for the brethren But to do good is not only our greatest Duty but our greatest Interest and Advantage which is that that Solomon chiefly refers to in the Text. It is certain that no man can take a more Effectual way to render his Being in the world Happy and Comfortable to him according to the ordinary course and event of things in what Condition or Circumstances soever he is placed than to do all the good he can in his life so that though a man that lays out himself in this way seems only to respect the good of other people yet in true reckoning he most consults his own profit For to do good in the natural way to raise us friends who shall be oblig'd to contribute their Endeavours to the furthering our honest designs to the upholding and securing us in our Prosperity and to the succouring and relieving us when we are in any evil Circumstances such is the Contrivance and the Constitution of this World that no man can subsist of