Christians joy It will not be then a little flock not despised for singularity nor hid in the Crowd of impious sinners nor dishonoured by infirmities or paltry quarrels among our selves nor with the mixture of hypocrites It will not be over-voted or trod down and persecuted by the power or number of the ignorant Enemies O Christians go on in doing good to all men with chearfulness for it all tendeth to make up the body of Christ and to prepare for that glorious state and day Every Soul you convert every brick that you lay in the building tendeth to make up the House and City of God But as all motion and action is first upon the nearest object so must ours and doing Good must be in order First we must begin at home with our own Souls and lives and then to our nearest Relations and Friends and Acquaintance and Neighbours and then to our Societies Church and Kingdom and all the world But mark that the order of execution and the order of estimation and intention differ Tho God set up Lights so small as will serve but for one room and tho we must begin at home we must far more esteem and desire the good of multitudes of City and Church and Commonwealth and must set no bounds to our endeavours but what God and disability set II. But What is that Good that we must do Good is an attribute of Being and is its perfection or well-being Gods Goodness is perfection it self And as he is the fountain of being so also of Goodness and therefore his Goodness is called Love whose highest act is his essential self-love which is infinitely above his love to the world But yet it is Communicative Love which made all things good and rested in seeing them all good And as he is the fountain so the same Will or Love is the measuring Rule and the end of all derived good The prime notion of the Creatures goodness is its Conformity to the Will of God But the second is its own perfection as its own which indeed is but the same Conformity Therefore the true good which we must do men is to make them conformable to the Regulating Will of God that they may be happy in the Pleased Will of God and to help them to all means for soul and body necessary hereunto And this for as many as possibly we can III. The Rules for judging and doing good are these 1. That is the greatest good which is Gods greatest interest And his interest is his Glory and the complacence of his fulfilled Will 2. Therefore the good of the world the Church of Nations of multitudes is greater than the good of few 3. The good of the Soul is greater than of the body 4. The avoiding the greatest evil is better than avoiding less 5. Everlasting good is better than short 6. Universal good which leaveth no evil is better than a particular good 7. That is the best good as to means which most conduceth to the evil 8. There is no Earthly good that is not mixt with some evil nor any Commodity that hath not some inconvenience or discommodity 9. No sin must be done for any good 10. Some things may be done for good which would be sin were it not for the good which they are done for It would be sin to give a robber your mony were it not to save your life or some other Commodity It would be sin to do somethings on the Lords day which necessity or a greater good may make a duty Your own defence may make it a duty to strike another which else would be a sin 11. In such cases there is need of great prudence and impartiality to know whether the good or the evil do preponderate And a great part of the actions of our lives must be managed by that prudence or else they will be sinful 12. Therefore it is no small part of a Ministers duty to Counsel men as a wise skilful and faithful Casuist IV. To do good to many requireth many excellent qualifications This is so far from being every ones performance that we should be glad if a great part of Mankind did not do more hurt than good 1. He that will do his Country good must know what is good and what is bad A fools Love is hurtful He knoweth not how to use it He will love you to death as an unskilful Physitian doth his most beloved Patients Or love you into calamity as amorous fondlings oft do each other This is the great enemy of humane peace Men know not good from evil Like him that kild his Son thinking he had been a Thief or like routed Soldiers that run by mistake into the Army of the Enemy Malignity and errour make mad and doleful work in the World and worst in those that should be wisest and the greatest instruments of publick good The Scripture mistaketh not which tells us of Enemies and haters of God And most of the World are professed Adversaries to Christ The Jews Crucified him as an Enemy to Caesar and to the safety of their Law and Country And if we may Judge by their enmity to Holiness the Spirit of Christ is taken for an intolerable Enemy by no small part of nominal Christians The Laws of Christ are judged too strict The Hypocrites that bow to him and hate his Laws do call them Hypocrites that are but serious in the practice of Christianity and hate them that have any more Religion than Complements Ceremony and Set words The Image of a Christian and a Minister is set up in Militant opposition to them that are Christians and Ministers indeed If men that are Called to the Sacred Office would save Souls in good earnest and pull them out of the Fire and go any further than Pomp and Stage-work they pass for the most insufferable men in the world Elias is taken for the troubler of Israel and Paul for a pestilent seditious Fellow and the Apostles as the off-scouring of all things Many a Martyr hath died by Fire for seeking to save men from the Fire of Hell And when the Bedlam World is at this pass what good is to be expected from such men When men called Christians hate and oppose the God the Christ the Holy Ghost to whom they were vowed in Baptism when Drunkenness and Whoredom and Perjury and Lying and all debauchery is taken for more friendly and tolerable than the most serious Worship of God and Obedience to his Laws and avoiding Sin In a word when the greatest good is taken for unsufferable evil you may know what good to expect from such They will all tell you that we must Love God above all and our Neighbours as our Selves but to fight against his Word and Worship and Servants is but an ill expression of their Love to God And seeking their destruction because they will not Sin is an ill expression of Love to their Neighbours When men judge of Good and Evil as
How to do Good to Many OR THE PUBLICK GOOD IS THE Christians Life DIRECTIONS and MOTIVES to it Intended for an AUDITORY of London Citizens AND Published for them for want of leave to preach them By RICHARD BAXTER Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a People zealous of good Works LONDON Printed for Rob. Gibs at the Ball in Chancery Lane 1682. The Contents GAL. 6. 10. Doct. To do Good to all men is all mens duty to which every Christian especially must apply himself I. Who this All meaneth and in what order p. 4. II. What is the Good that we must do p. 5. III. The Rules for judging and doing good p. 5. IV. What qualifications are necessary hereto 1. To know good from evil p. 6. 2. To love all men p. 8. 3. To love many and the Common good above himself p. 9. 4. To be good himself p. 10. 5. Suitable abilities 6. A large prospect of the world and of time to come 7. Christian fortitude against discouragement 8. To look to God for his reward p. 11. And finally believe the life to come The Impediments of doing good p. 12. V. Particular good works or directions for publick good I. Do as much good as you can to mens bodies in order to the good of Souls p. 15. II. Promote knowledge of necessary truth 1. Set up Reading Schools 2. Give Bibles and good Books p. 16. III. Order Families aright and Educate Children for Christ p. 18. IV. Promote a faithfull Ministry 1. Devote not your Children to the Ministry that are unqualified p. 18. 2. Let honest Rich men buy Presentations The difference between good and bad Pastors p. 19. V. Keep order and Discipline in particular Churches p. 20. VI. Promote Love and Concord with all that deserve to be called Christians p. 21. Who those are p. 22. VII Do your best to keep up sound Religion in the Parish Churches and do nothing to deprave or lose it there p. 24. VIII See that no injuries tempt you into Sedition or unlawful Wars What is lawful Patiently trust God and cut not the Infant of deliverance out of the Womb before his time of birth p. 25. IX Do your best to procure faithful and just Rulers What private men may do The great difference between good Rulers and bad p. 30. X. Know publick sins and dangers to oppose them p. 31. XI Know your duty to your Neighbours and be not strange to them XII Be such as you would make others p. 31. Use of exhortation to do good Cavils refuted Motives to do good to many p. 33. Specially to Magistrates and Ministers p. 35. Consectaries 1. A selfish fleshly life is the state of Hypocrites p. 38. 2. How carefully should we take heed of doing hurt p. 39. 3. It s not enough to leave others to do good by our last Wills 4. Yet dying men should do what good they can by their Wills p. 39. Leaving great Estates to Children who are like to do hurt with them or no good but live in idleness and fulness proved a great sin and the objections answered p. 40. 5. Humbly proposed to Merchants and Rich men 1. Whether our Factories might not be made more useful to promote the Gospel by Chaplains and Factors 2. Whether Armenians Greeks and Mofcovites might not be helpt and how 3. Might not more be dove for the Natives in our Plantations 4. Or at last for the Blacks that are their slaves p. 45. 6. The great opposition to good in all the World by Satan and his Servants the more obligeth all Christs Servants to seek to over do them and to be zealous of good works p. 46. ERRATA Page 1. blot out 1 before Gal. 6. pa. 26. 1. 15 for Cold read Gold pa. 23. 1. 31. for with read within TO THE TRULY CHRISTIAN Merchants and other Citizens OF LONDON AS my Disease and the Restraint of Rulers seem to tell me that my Pulpit work is at an end so also my abode among you or in this World cannot be long What Work I have lived for I have given the World more durable notice than transient words It hath been such as Men in Power were against and it seems will no longer indure What Doctrine it was that I last prepared for you I thought meet to desire the Press thus to tell you not to vindicate my self nor to characterize them who think that it deserves six months imprisonment but to be in your hands a Provocation and Direction for that great Work of a Christian Life which sincerely done will prepare you for that safety joy and glory which London England or Earth will not afford and which men or Devils cannot take from you When through the meritorious righteousness of Christ your holy Love and good Works to him in his Brethren shall make you the joyful Objects of that Sentence Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom c. This is the life that need not be repented of as spent in vain Dear Friends in this Farewel I return you my most hearty thanks for your extraordinary love and kindness to my self and much more for your love to Christ and to his Servants who have more needed your releif God is not unjust to forget your work and labour of Love You have visited those that others imprisoned and fed those that others brought into want and when some ceased not to preach for our affliction it quenched not your impartial Charity It hath been an unspeakable Mercy unto me almost all my dayes when I received nothing from them to have known so great a number as I have done of serious humble holy charitable Christians In whom I saw that Christ hath an Elect peculiar People quite different from the brutish proud hypocritical malignant unbeleiving World O how sweet hath the familiarity of such been to me whom the ignorant World hath hated most of them are gone to Christ I am following We leave you here to longer tryal It s like you have a bitter Cup to drink But be faithful to the death and Christ will give you the Crown of Life The Word of God is not bound and the Jerusalem above is free where is the general Assembly of the first Born an innumerable company of Angels the Spirits of the just made perfect with Christ their glorified Head The Lord guide bless and preserve you How to do Good to Many OR THE PUBLICK GOOD IS THE CHRISTIANS LIFE c. 1 Gal. 6. 10. As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all Men especially unto them who are of the houshold of Faith GOOD is an Epithite of the highest signification of any in humane Language Some think the Name GOD is thence derived Greatness and Wisdom are equally his Attributes but Goodness is the completion and sweetest to the Creature Christ appropriateth it to God to be good that is essentially primarily and perfectly and universally communicative
When it is said that God is Love the sense is the same that he is the infinite essential and efficiently and finally amiable perfect Good But tho no one of his Attributes in propriety and perfection are communicable else he that hath one part of the Deity must have all yet he imprinteth his similitude and image on his works And the impress of his Love and Goodness is the chief part of his Image on his Saints This is their very Holyness For this is the chief part of their likeness to God and dedication to him when the Spirit of Sanctification is described in Scripture as given upon believing it signifieth that our faithful perception of the redeeming saving love of God in Christ is that means which the Spirit of Christ will bless to the operating of the habit of holy Love to God and Man which become a new and divine nature to the Soul and is Sanctification it self and the true principle of a holy Evangelical Conversation And as it is said of God that he is Good and doth Good so every thing is enclined to work as it is Christ tells us the Good Tree will bring forth good fruits c. And we are Gods Workmanship Created in Christ Jesus to Good Works which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Eph. 2. 10. Yet man doth not Good as the Sun shineth by a full bent of natural necessitation else the World would not be as it is But as a free undetermined Agent which hath need to be commanded by a Law and stirr'd up by manifold Motives and Exhortations such as the Holy Ghost here useth in the Text. Where 1. Doing Good is the substance of the duty 2. Men are the objects 3. To all men is the extent 4 Especially to them of the Houshold of Faith is the direction for precedency 5. And while we have opportunity is the season including a Motive to make haste So large and excellent a Theme would require more than my allotted time to handle it fully Therefore I shall now confine my self to the duty Extended Do Good to All men Doct. To do Good to all men is all mens duty to which every Christian especially must apply himself All men should do it True Christians can do it through Grace and must do it and will do it A Good man is a common good Christs Spirit in them is not a dead or idle Principle It makes them in there several measures the Salt of the Earth and the Lights of the World They are fruitful branches in the true Vine Every Grace tendeth to well doing and to the Good of the whole Body for which each single Member is made Even Hypocrites as Wooden Legs are serviceable to the body but every living Member much more except some diseased ones who may be more troublesome and dangerous than the Wooden Leg. It 's a sign he is a branch Cut off and withered who careth little for any but himself The malignant Diabolist hateth the true and Spiritual Good The ignorant know not Good from Evil The erroneous take Evil for Good and Falshood for Truth The slothful Hypocrite wisheth much Good but doth but little The formal Ceremonious Hypocrite extols the Name and Image of Goodness The worldly Hypocrite will do Good if he can do it cheaply without any loss or suffering to his Flesh The Libertine Hypocrite pleadeth Christs Merits against the necessity of doing Good and looketh to be saved because Christ is Good tho he be barren and ungodly and some ignorant Teachers have taught them to say when they can find no true Faith Repentance Holiness or Obedience in themselves that it is enough to believe that Christ Believed and Repented for them and was Holy and Obedient for them He was indeed Holy and Obedient for Penitent Believers not to make Holiness and Obedience unnecessary to them but to make them sincerely Holy and Obedient to Himself and to excuse them from the necessity of that perfect Holiness and Obedience here which is necessary to those that will be Justified by the Law of Works or Innocency Thus all sorts of bad men have their oppositions to doing Good But to the sincere Christian it is made as Natural His heart is set upon it He is Created and Redeemed and Sanctified for it as the Tree is made for Fruit. He Studieth it as the chief Trade and Business that he liveth for He waketh for it Yea he sleepeth and eateth and drinketh for it even to enable his body to serve his Soul in serving that Lord whose Redeemed peculiar People are all Zealous of Good Works Tit. 2. 14. The Measure of this Zeal of doing Good is the utmost of their power with all their Talents in desire and sincere Endeavour The extent of the Object is to All tho not to all alike that is to as many as they can But for order sake we must here consider 1. Who this All meaneth and in what order II. What is Good And what is that Good which we must do IV. What Qualifications he must have that will do Good to many III. What Rules he must observe in doing it V. What works are they that must be done by him that would do good to many VI. What motives should quicken us to the practice VII Some useful consectaries of the point I. It is Gods prerogative to do good to all Mans ability will not reach to it But our all is as many as we can do good to 1. To Men of all sorts High and Low Rich and Poor Old and Young Kindred Neighbours Strangers Friends Enemies Good and Bad none excepted that are within our power 2. Not to a few only but to as many persons of all sorts as we can As he that hath true grace would still have more for himself so he that doth good would feign do more good and he that doth good to some would fain do good to many more All good is progressive and tendeth toward increase and perfection why are the faithful said to love and long for the day of Christs appearing but because it is the great Marriage day of the Lamb when all the Elect shall be perfected in our Heavenly Society and that makes it a much more desirable day than that of our particular glorification at death The perfection of the whole body addeth to the perfection of every part For it is a state of felicity in perfect Love And Love maketh every mans good whom we love to be as sweet to us as our own yea maketh it our own And then the perfection and glory of every Saint will be our delight and Glory And to see each single ones love united in one perfect joy and glory will add to each persons joy and glory And can you wonder if our little sparks of Grace do tend towards the same diffused multiplication and if every Member long for the compleating of the body of Christ O how much will this add to every faithful
Satan Teacheth them and as selfish Pride and Worldly interest incline them what wonder if such Love have murdered 30000 or 40000 at once in France and 200000 in Ireland and have filled the Christian World with Religious Blood Read but the doleful Histories of Church Contentions for 1300 years the Stories of their Wars and mutual Persecutions the Streams of Blood that have been shed in East and West the inquisitions and bloody Laws still kept up and all this as Good Works and done in Love and you would think that the Sacred Roman Hierarchy did Believe that Christ hath put down the Legal Sacrificing of Beasts that he might instead of it have the blood of men and that he who requireth his Disciples to lay down their lives for him would have a Priesthood kept up to Sacrifice their lives to him that will not wilfully break his Laws And all this is but as Christ foretold us that his Servants should be kill'd as a piece of Service to God No wonder if such men offer God a ludicrous mimical sort of Service and Worship him in vain by heartless lip-labour according to the Traditions of men when they dare Sacrifice Saints to the Lord of Saints and quiet their Consciences by calling them such as they are themselves But to the honour of Goodness and the shame of Sin to shew that they sin against the Light of Nature it self they put the Name of Evil upon Good before they dare openly oppose and persecute it and they put the Names of Good upon Evil before they dare defend and justifie it But alas it is not only the Ungodly that do mischief thinking verily that it is good How many doth the Church suffer by while they prosecute their mistakes who yet do much good in promoting the common truth which Christians are agreed in 2. He that will do Good to all or many must have an unfeigned Love to them Hatred is mischievous and neglect is unprofitable Love is the natural Fountain of Beneficence Love earnestly longeth to do good and delighteth in doing it It maketh many to be as One and to be as ready to help others as each Member of the Body is to help the rest Love maketh anothers wants sufferings and sorrows to be our own And who is not willing to help himself Love is a principle ready active ingenious and constant It studieth to do good and would still do more It is Patient with the infirmities of others which men void of love do aggravate into odiousness and make them their excuse for all their neglects and their pretence for all their Cruelties Could you make all the slanderers backbiters revilers despisers persecuters to love their Neighbours as themselves you may easily Judge what would be the effect and whether they would revile or prosecute or imprison or ruine themselves or study how to make themselves odious or suborne perjured witnesses against themselves 3. Yea he that will do good to many must Love many better than himself and preferre the Common-good much before his own and seek his own in the Common-welfare He that loveth good as good will best Love the best And an honest old Roman would have called him an unworthy beast that preferred his Estate or life before the Common welfare To be ready to do suffer or die for their Country was a vertue which all extolled A narrow-Spirited selfish man will serve others no further than it serveth himself or at least will stand with his own safety or prosperity He will turn as the Weathercock and be for them that are for his worldly interest I confess that God oft useth such for common good But it is by raising such storms as would sink them with the Ship and leaving them no great hope to escape by being false Or by Permiting such Villanies as threaten their own interest A Covetous Father may be against gaming and prodigality in his Children The men of this World are wise in their generation Many that have Abby Lands will be against Popery And even Atheists and Licentious men may be loth to be slaves to Politick Priests and to come under Confession and perhaps the Inquisition And those that have not sinned themselves into madness or gross delusions will be loth to set up a Forieign Jurisdiction and become the Subjects of an unknown Priest if they can help it God often useth vice against vice and if no worldly selfish men were the Countries or the Churches helpers it must suffer or trust to Miracles But yet there is no trust to be put in these men further than their own interest must stand or fall with the Common good If God and Heaven and Conscience be not more powerful with a man than worldly interest trust him not against the stream and tide or when he thinks he can make a better bargain for himself He that will sell Heaven and Christ for the world will sell you for it and sell his Country for it and sell Religion truth and honesty for it And if he scape here the end of Achitophel and Judas he will venture on all that 's out of sight Christ was the grand Benefactor to the world and the most excellent teacher of Love and self-denyal and contempt of the world to all that will follow him in doing good to many 4. He that will do much good must be good himself Make the tree good if you would have good fruit Operari sequitur esse A bad man is an Enemy to the greatest good that he should do Malignity abhorreth serious piety and will such promote it If Elias be a man of Miracles he shall hear Hast thou found me O my Enemy And Michaiah shall hear I hate him for he Prophesieth not good of me but evil Feed him with the Bread and Water of Affliction And a bad Man if by accident he be engaged for a good cause is still suspected by those that know him They cannot trust him as being a slave to lust and to strong Temptations and a secret Enemy to the true interest of his Country Alas the best are hardly to be trusted far as being lyable to miscarry by infirmity how little then is to be hoped for from the wicked 5. He that will do much good in the world must be furnished with considerable abilities Especially prudence and skill in knowing when and to whom and how to do it Without this he will do more harm than good Even good men when they have done much good by some one miscarriage tempted by the remnants of selfishness and Pride and by unskilful rashness have undone all the good they did and done as much hurt as wicked enemies There goeth so much to publick good and so many snares are to be avoided that rash self-conceited half-witted men do seldom do much unless under the conduct of wiser men 6. He that will be a publick blessing to the world must have a very large prospect and see the state of all the world
Concord men will never know where to rest nor ever agree in any ones determination but Christs All men that can get power will be making their own Wills the Rule and Law and others will not think of them as they do and the variety of fallible mutable Church Laws and terms of Concord will be the Engine of perpetual discord as Ulpian told honest Alexander Severus the Laws would be which he thought to have made for sober Concord in fashions of Apparel Those that are united to Christ by faith and have his sanctifying Spirit and are justified by him and shall dwell with him in Heaven are certainly Christians and such as Christ hath commanded us to love as our selves And seeing that it is his Livery by which his Disciples must be known by loving one another and the false Prophets must be known by the fruits of their hurtfulness as Wolves Thornes and Thistles I must profess tho Order and Government have been so amiable to me as to tempt me to favourable thoughts of some Roman power in the Church I am utterly unreconcilable to it when I see that the very complexion of that Hierarchy is malice and bloodiness against Men most seriously and humbly pious that dare not obey them in their sinful usurpations and that their cause is maintained by belying hateing and Murdering true Christians And on the other side too many make Laws of Love and Communion to themselves and confine Christs Church with their little various and perhaps erroneous Sects And all others they Love with pity but only those of their Cabin and singular opinions they love with complacency and communion those that condemn such as Christ justifieth and say that Christians are not his are near of kin to one another tho one sort shew it by Persecution and the other but by Excommunication or Schismatical separation We are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 4. 28. And therefore I advise all Christians to hate the causes and ways of hatred and Love all the causes and means of Love Frown on them that so extol their singular sentiments as to backbite others and speak evil of what they understand not Especially such as the Pamphleters of this Age whose design is weekly and daily to fight against Christian Love and to stir up all men to the utmost of their power to think odiously of one another and plainly to stir up a thirst after blood Never did Satan Write by the hand of man if he do it not by such as these The Lord of Love and Mercy rebuke them And take heed of them that can find enough in the best that are against their way to prove them dishonest if not intolerable and can see the Mote of a Ceremony or Nonconformity to a Ceremony in their Brothers Eye and not the Beam of Malice or Cruelty in their own Take heed of those that are either for confounding Toleration of all or for dissipating cruelty on pretence of Unity That Land or Church shall never truly prosper where these three sorts are not well distinguished 1. The Approved that are to be encouraged 2. The Tolerable that are to be patiently and lovingly endured 3. The Intolerable that are to be restrained They may as well confound Men and Beasts Wise Men and Mad Men Adult and Infants as confound these three sorts in reference to Religion I add this Note to prevent Objections that tho meekness and gentleness promote peace yet to speak sharply and hatefully of hatred un peaceableness and cruelty and all that tends to destroy Love is an act of Love and not of an uncharitable unpeaceable man VII If you love the common good of England do your best to keep up sound and serious Religion in the publick Parish Churches and be not guilty of any thing that shall bring the chief interest of Religion into private Assemblies of men only tolerated if you can avoid it Indeed in a time of Plagues Epidemical infection tolerated Churches may be the best preservatives of Religion as it was in the first 300 years and in the Arrians Reign and under Popery But where sound and serious Religion is owned by the Magistrate tolerated Churches are but as Hospitals for the sick and must not be the receptacle of all the healthful And doubtless if the Papists can but get the Protestant interest once into prohibited or tolerated Conventicles as they will call them they have more than half overcome it and will not doubt to use it next as they do in France and by one turn more to cast it out The countenance of Authority will go far with the Vulgar against all the scruples that men of Conscience stick at and they will mostly go to the allowed Churches whoever is there Let us therefore lose no possession that we can justly get nor be guilty of disgracing the honest Conformists but do all we can to keep up their Reputation for the good of Souls They see not matters of difference through the same Glass that we do They think us unwarrantably scrupulous We think the matter of their Sin to be very great But we know that before God the degree of guilt is much according to the degree of mens negligence or unwillingness to know the Truth or to obey it And prejudice education and converse maketh great difference on mens apprehensions Charity must not reconcile us to sin but there is no end of uncharitable censuring each other It hath made me admire to hear some mens words against Comprehension as they call it that they would not have Rulers revoke that which they judge to be heynous sin in their impositions unless they will revoke all that they think unlawful lest it should strengthen the Parish Churches and weaken the tolerated or suffering part I will not here open the sin of this policy as it deserves But I wish them to Read a small book called The whole Duty of Nations said to be Mr. Thomas Beverleys VIII If you love the common good take heed lest any injuries tempt you into sedition or unlawful Wars No man that never tried them can easily believe what an Enemy Wars and Tumults are to Religion and to common honesty and sobriety Men are there so serious about their Lives and Bodily safety that they have no room or time for serious Worshipping of God The Lords day is by necessity made a common day And all mens Goods are almost common to the will of Soldiers Either Power seems to authorize them or necessity to allow them to use the Goods of others as their own as if they were uncapable of doing wrong It is their honour that can kill most and how little place there is for Love it is easie to conceive I doubt not but it is lawful to fight for our King or Country in a good Cause As Nature giveth all private men a right of private self-defence and no more so the same Law of Nature which is Gods Law giveth all Nations a Right
do no harm and say as the slothful Servant here is thy Talent which I hid And some there be that in a blind jealousie of the Doctrine of Justication not understanding what the Word Justification signifieth Cry down even the words of James as if they were unreconcileable with Pauls and can scarce bear him that saith as Christ Mat. 12. By thy words thou shalt be Justified and by thy words thou shalt be Condemned As if they had never read well done good and faithful Servant c. for I was an hungry and ye fed me c. Nor Heb. 5. 9. He is the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him or Heb. 13. With such Sacrifice God is well pleased or he that doth righteosness is righteous or that we shall be judged according to our works or Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of Life and may enter in by the Gates into the City Or Gal. 6. What a man soweth that shall he reap He that soweth to the Spirit of the Spirit shall reap Everlasting Life With many such No man well in his Wits can think that any thing we do can merits of God in commutative justice as if he received any thing from us This were even to deny God to be God But are we not undera law of Grace and doth not that Law command us obedience and the improvement of our Talents in doing good And shall we not be judged by that Law And what is Judging but Justifying or Condemning No works of ours can stand the tryal by the Law of Innocency or Works but only the perfect righteousness of Christ But he that is accused of final impenitency Infidelity Hypocrisie or unholyness if truly accused shall never be justified and if falsely must be justified against that charge by somewhat besides what is done out of him by Jesus Christ It is an easier thing to be zealous for an opinion which is sound or supposed such about works and grace than to be zealous of good works or zealously desirous of grace How sad use did Satan make of mens zeal for Orthodox words when the Nestorian Eutychian and Monothelite Controversies were in agitation He went for a hollow hearted Neuter that did not hereticate one side or other And I would that factious ignorant zeal were not still alive in the Churches How many have we heard on one side reviling Lutherans Calvinists Arminians Episcopal Presbyterians Independents c. To render them odious that never understand the true state of the difference And how fiercely do some Papists and others cry down Solifidians and perswade men that we are Enemies to good works or think that they are not necessary to Salvation because some rashly maintained that in a faction against George Major long ago or at least that they are no further necessary but as signs to prove that which God knoweth without them And on the other side how many make themselves and others believe that the true expositors of Saint James's words are almost Papists and teach men dangerously to trust to works for their Justification while they understand not what either of the Apostles mean by Justification Faith or Works Many so carefully avoid trusting to good works that they have none or few to trust to No doubt nothing of man must be trusted to for the least part that belongs to Christ But all duty and means must be both used and trusted for its own part Consider well these following motives and you will see why all Christians must be zealous of doing all the good they can 1. It rendreth a man likest to God to be good and to do good On which account Christ requireth it even towards our enemies Mat. 5. That we may be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect who doth good even to the unjust And he that is likest God is the best man most holy and most happy and shall have most Communion with God 2. And when Christ came down in flesh to call man home by making God better known to the world he revealeth him in his attractive goodness and that was by his own beneficence to Man He came to do the greatest good to be the Saviour of the world and to reconcile revolted man to God and all his life yea his death and his Heavenly intercession is doing good to those that were Gods Enemies And to learn of Christ and imitate his example is to be his true Disciples And what else do his Laws Command us They are all holy just and good and our goodness is to love them and obey them By keeping these we must shew that we are his Disciples When he tells you who you must do good to in the instance of the Samaritan he addeth go thou and do likewise Joh. 15. He largely tells us of what importance it is for every branch that is planted into him to bring forth fruit 3. It is much of the end of all the Sanctifying operations of theholy Spirit Grace is given us to use Even natural powers are given us for action What the better were man for a Tongue or hands or feet if he should never use them Life is a principle of action It were as good have no Life as not to use it And why doth God make men good but that they may do good even in their duty to God themselves and one another 4. It is Gods great mercy to mankind that he will use us all in doing good to one another And it s a great part of his wise Government of the world that in societies men should be tyed to it by the sense of every particular mans necessity And it is a great honor to those that he maketh his Almoners or Servants to convey his gifts to others God bids you give nothing but what is his and no otherwise your own than as his Stewards It s his bounty and your service or Stewardship which is to be exercised He could have done good to all men by himself alone without you or any other if he would But he will honour his Servants to be the Messengers of his bounty You best please him when you readily receive his gifts your selves and most fully Communicate them to others To do good is to receive good And yet he will reward such for doing and receiv 5. Self-love therefore should perswade men to do good to all You are not the least gainers by it your selves If you can trust Christ sure you will think this profitable Usury Is not a Cup of cold Water well paid for when Christ performs his promise And is it not a gainful loss which is rewarded in this Life an hundred fold and in the world to Come with Life Eternal Those that live in the fullest exercise of Love and doing good are usually most loved and many are ready to do good to them And this Exercise encreaseth all fruitful Graces And there is a present
delight in doing good which is it self a great reward The Love of others makes it delightful to us And the pleasing of God and the imitation of Christ and the Testimony of Conscience make it delightful An honest Physitian is far gladder to save mens lives or health than to get their Money And an honest Soldier is gladder to save his Country than to get his pay Every honest Minister of Christ is far gladder to win Souls than to get Money or Preferment The believing giver hath more pleasure than the receiver And this without any conceit of commutative meriting of God or any false trust to works for Justification 6. Stewards must give account of all What would you wish were the matter of your true account if death or judgment were to morrow Would you not wish you had done all the good you could Do you believe that all shall be Judged according to their Works Did you ever well study that great prediction of Christ Matth. 25. And it is some part of a reward on Earth that men that do much good especially that to whole Nations are usualy honoured by Posterity however they be rewarded by the present Age. 7. Every true Christian is absolutely devoted to do good What else is it to be devoted to God our Creator and Redeemer Whaâ— live we for or what should we desire to live for but to do good II. But this Exhortation is especially applicable to them that have special opportunity 1. Magistrates are the Capitals in the Societies and Publick Affairs of mankind They are placed highest that they may have an universal influence Tho it be too high a word to call them Gods or Gods Vice-gerents unless secundum quid yet they are his Officers and Regent Ministers but it 's for the common good In them God shews what Order can do in the Government of the World As the placing of the same figure before many doth accordingly advance its value in signification so it is a wonder to Note what the Place of one man fignifieth at the Head of an Army of a City of a Kingdom They are appointed by God to govern men in a just subordination to Gods Government and no otherwise To promote obedience to Gods Laws by theirs and by their Judgment and Execution to give men a foretaste what they may at last expect from God And by their Rewards and Punishments to foretel men whom God will Reward and Punish And by their own Examples to shew the Subjects how temperately and soberly and godly God would have them live Atheists can see and fear a Magistrate that fear not God because they know him not They that prefer those as the most worthy of honour whom God abhorreth for their wickedness and hate and oppress those whom God will honour do shew themselves Enemies to him that giveth them all their power And they that by countenance or practice do teach men to despise the fear of God and to make light of Drunkenness Whoredom Lying Perjury and such like odious Crimes do in a sort blaspheme God himself as if he who exalted them were a lover of Sin and a hater of his own Laws and Service There are few Rulers that are unwilling of Power or to be accounted Great And do they not know that its a Power to do Good that God hath given them And that Obligation to do it is as essential to their Office as Authority And that they who govern as the Officers of God and pretend to be liker him in Greatness than their Subjects must also be liker to him in Wisdom and Goodness Wo to that man who abuseth and oppresseth the Just and Faithful in the Name of God and by pretence of Authority from him to do it Wo to him that in Gods Name and as by his Authority countenanceth the wicked whom God abhorreth and under Christs banner fighteth against him As Christ saith of the Offensive It were good for that man that he had never been born Prov. 24. 24. He that saith to the wicked thou art righteous him shall the people Curse Nations shall abhor him Prov. 17. 15. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord. God looketh for great service from great men Great Trust and Talents must have great account A Prince a Lord a Ruler must do much more good in promoting Piety Conscience Vertue than the best inferiors To whom men give much from them they expect the more It greatly concerneth such men seriously to ask their Conscience can I do no more to encourage Godliness Conscience and Justice and to disgrace Malignity brutish sensuality and fleshly lusts than I have done O when they must hear give account of thy Stewardship thou shalt be no longer Steward little think many Rulers what an account it is that will be required of them O what a deal of good may the Rulers of the earth do if instead of overminding their partial Interests and serving the desires of the flesh they did but set themselves with study and resolution to promote the common good by disgraceing sin and encouraging Wisdom Piety and Peace And where this is not sincerely done as surely as there is a righteous God and a future Judgment they shall pay for their omissive treachery And if Satan do prevail to set his own Captains over the Armies of the Lord to betray them to perdition they shall be deepest in misery as they were in guilt One would think the great delight that is to be found in doing good to all should much more draw men to desire Authority and greatness than either riches or voluptuousness or a dominering desire that all men should fulfil their Wills II. The Ministers of Christ also have the next opportunity to do good to many And it is a debt which by many and great obligations they owe to Christ and men But it will not be done without labour and condescention and unwearied patience It is undertaken by all that are ordained to this office but O that it were performed faithfully by all What a doleful life would the persidious Soul-betrayers live if they knew what a guilt they have to answer for Even the contempt of the peoples Souls and of the blood of Christ that purchased them O hear that vehement adjuration 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and Kingdom Preach the word Be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and Doctrine Speak with holy studyed skill speak with Love and melting Pity Speak with importunity Take no denyal Speak as Saint Paul Act. 20. Publickly and from house to house Speak before you are silenced in the dust Speak before death have taken away your hearers It is for Souls it is for Christ it is for your Selves too While you have opportunity do good
of the name and lineage that proveth worthy There are many other good works by which some rich men may be very profitable to the Common-wealth such as setting all the poor on work and building Hospitals for the Impotent c. But these this City is happily acquainted with already and tho still there be much wanting yet there is much done V. But one more I will presume to name only to you that are Merchants For I am not one who have the ear of Princes who are more able might not somewhat more be done than yet is to further the Gospel in your Factories and in our Plantations Old Mr. Eliots with his helpers in New-England have shewed that somewhat may be done if others were as Charitable and zealous as they The Jesuites and Fryars shewed us in Congo Japan China and other Countries that much might be done with care and diligence Tho the Papal interest was a corrupt end and all the means that they used was not justifiable when I read of their hazards unwearied labours and success I am none of those that would deprive them of their deserved honour but rather wish that we that have better ends and principles might do better than they and not come so far behind them as we do if half be true that Pet. Massoeus and the Jesuites Epistles and many other writers tell us of them I know that they had the advantage of greater helps from Kings and Pope and Prelates and Colledges endued with trained men and copious maintenance But might not somewhat more be done by us than is yet done 1. Is it not possible to send some able zealous Chaplains to those Factories which are in the Countries of Infidels and Heathens Such as thirst for the Conversion of sinners and the enlargment of the Church of Christ and would labour skilfully and diligently therein Is it not possible to get some short Christian books which are fitted for that use to be translated in such languages that Infidels can read and to distribute them among them If it be not possible also to send thither Religious Conscionable Factors who would further the work the case of London is very sad II. Is it not possible at least to help the poor ignorant Armenians Greeks Moscovites and other Christians who have no Printing among them nor much Preaching or knowledge and for want of Printing have very few Bibles even for their Churches or Ministers Could nothing be done to get some Bibles Catechisms and practical books printed in their own tongues and given among them I know there is difficulty in the way But mony and willingness and diligence might do something III. Might not something be done in other Plantations as well as in New-England towards the Conversion of the Natives there Might not some skilful zealous Preachers be sent thither who would both promote serious piety among those of the English that have too little of it and might invite the Americans to learn the Gospel and teach our Planters how to behave themselves Christianly towards them to win them to Christ IV. Is it not possible to do more than hath been done to Convert the Blacks that are our own slaves or servants to the Christian faith Hath not Mr. Goodwin justly reprehended and lamented the neglect yea and resistence of this work in Barbados and the like elsewhere 1. Might not better Teachers be sent thither for that use 2. Is it not an odious crime of Christians to hinder the Conversion of these Infidels lest they lose their service by it and to prefer their gain before mens Souls Is not this to sell Souls for a little mony as Judas did his Lord And whereas the Law manumits them from servitude when they turn Christians that it may invite them to Conversion and this occasioneth wicked Christians to hinder them from knowledge were it not better move the Government therefore to change that Law so far as to allow these Covetous Masters their service for a certain time useing them as free Servants 3. And whereas they are allowed only the Lords day for their own labour and some honest Christians would willingly allow them some other time instead of it that they might spend the Lords day in Learning to know Christ and worship God but they dare not do it lest their wicked Neighbours rise against them for giving their Slaves such an Example might not the Governours be procured to force the whole Plantation to it by a Law even to allow their Infidel Servants so much time on another day and cause some to congregate them for instruction on the Lords days Why should those men be called Christians or have any Christian reputation or priviledges themselves who think both Christianity and Souls to be no more worth than to be thus basely sold for the gain of mens servilest labours And what tho the poor Infidels desire not their own Conversion Their need is the greater and not the less VI. I conclude with this moveing inference The great opposition that is made against doing good by the Devil and his whole Army through all the world and their lamentable success doth call aloud to all true Christians to overdo them O what a Kingdom of Malignants hath Satan doing mischief to mens Souls and bodies through the Earth Hating the Godly oppressing the just corrupting doctrine introducing Lies turning Christs labourers out of his Vineyard forbidding them to Preach in his name the saving word of life hiding or despising the Laws of Christ and setting up their own Wills and Devises in their stead making dividing distracting Engines on pretence of Order Government and Unity Murdering mens bodies and ruining their Estates and slandering their names on pretence of love to the Church and Souls encouraging Prophaneness Blasphemy Perjury Whoredom and Scorning Conscience and fear of sinning What diligence doth Satan use through the very Christian Nations to turn Christs Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry against himself and to make his own Officers the most mischievous Enemies to his Truth and Kingdom and saving work to tread down his Family and Spiritual worship as if it were by his own Authority and Commission To Preach down Truth and Conscience and real Godliness as in Christs own name and fight against him with his own word and to teach the people to hate his servants as if this pleased the God of Love And alas how dismal is their success In the East the Church is hereby destroyed by barbarous Mahometans the remnants by their Prelates continued in Sects in great ignorancé and dead formality reproaching and anathematizing one another and little hope appearing of recovery In the West a dead Image of Religion and Unity and Order drest up with a multitude of gawds and set up against the Life and Soul of Religion Unity and Order and a War hereupon maintain'd for their destruction with sad success So that usually the more Zealous men are for the Papal and formal humane Image the more zealously they study the extirpation of Worshipping God in Spirit and Truth and thirst after the blood of the most serious Worshippers and cry down them as intolerable Enemies who take their Baptism for an obliging Vow and seriously endeavour to perform it and live in good earnest as Christianity bindeth them and they take it for an unsufferable Crime to prefer Gods Authority before mans and to plead his Law against any thing that men command them In a word he is unworthy to be accounted a Christian with them who will be a Christian indeed and not despise the Laws of Christ and unworthy to have the liberty and usage of a man that will not sin and damn his Soul So much more cruel are they than the Turkish Tyrants who if they send to a man for his head must be obeyed And is the Devil a better Master than Christ and shall his work be done with greater zeal and resolution Will he give his Servants a better reward Should not all this awaken us to do Good with greater diligence than they do evil and to promote Love and Piety more earnestly than they do malignity and iniquity Is not saving Church and State Souls and Bodies better worth resolution and labour than destroying them And the prognosticks are encouraging Certainly Christ and his Kingdom will prevail At last all his Enemies shall be made his footstool yea shall from him receive their doom to the everlasting punishment which rebels against omnipotency goodness and mercy do deserve If God be not God if Christ will not conquer if there be no life to come let them boast of their success But when they are rottenness and dust and their souls with Devils and their names are a reproach Christ will be Christ his promises and threatnings all made good 2 Thes 1. 6. c. He will judg it righteous to recompense tribulation to your troublers when he cometh with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on rebels and to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all true Believers And when that solemn Judgment shall pass on them that did Good and that did Evil described Matth. 25. with a Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom and go ye Cursed into everlasting fire doing Good and not doing it much more doing mischief will be better distinguished than now they are when they are rendred as the reason of those different dooms FINIS