of publick self-defence against its publick enemies that is against any that by his Religion or his own profession bindeth himself to destroy that Nation if he can or by open arms seeketh no less than their destruction But as few calamities are worse to a Land than War so much is to be endured to prevent it It is like a red hot Iron which Fools lay hold on thinking it is cold till it fetch off skin and flesh to the bones and perhaps set the house on fire If your Cause be bad God will not be for you and he that so taketh the Sword shall perish with the Sword and if you bite and devour one another you shall be devoured one of another And alas thousands of the innocent usually perish or are ruined in the flames which furious men do kindle No doubt as suffering a Prison so venturing in War is a duty when God calls you to it But in its self a Prison is a far more desireable sort of suffering than a War Therefore between the danger of the miseries of an unlawful War and the danger of betraying our King or Kingdom for want of necessary defence how cautelous should all sober Christians be IX If you would promote the common good do your best to procure wise and faithful Rulers Quest What can private men do in this Ans 1. In Cases where they have choosing Voices they ought to prefer the best with greatest resolution and not for slothfulness to omit their part nor for worldly interest or the fear of men betray their Country as ever they would escape the punishment of the perfidious Wo to that Judas that sells his Country and Conscience for any bribe or by self-saving fear 2. In other Cases where you have no Choosing Vote with men you have a praying Voice with God Pray for Kings and all in Authority that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty God hath commanded no duty in vain Do it earnestly and constantly and hope for a good issue from God Do it not selfishly that you may have prosperity or preferment by them but sincerely for their own and the Common good God is the Fountain of power the absolute Soveraign of all the world Men are but his Provincial officers none claimeth an universal Government of the world but one that pretendeth to be Christs Vicar General and none believe his claim but blinded men There is no power but of and under God who hath made Rulers his Ministers for our good to be a praise to them that do well and a terrour to evil doers that they that will not be moved with the hopes of Gods future rewards and the fears of his punishments may be moved by that which is near them within the reach of sense And all men regard their bodies tho only believers are ruled by the everlasting interest of their Souls Therefore pray hard for Kings and Magistrates For if they be good they are exceeding great blessings to the world They will remember that their power is for God and the Common Good and that to God they must give a strict account They will take Gods Law for the only Universal Law to the world and conform their own as By-Laws to it They will take their own interest to consist in pleasing God and promoting the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ and the piety and saving of Mens Souls They will be Examples of serious Godliness of Justice and sobriety trustiness and temperance and Chastity to their subjects in their eyes a vile person will be contemned but they will honour those that fear the Lord Psal 15. 4. They will Love those most that Love Christ best and most deligently obey him and tenderly fear to sin against him Those please them best that please God best and are most useful to the common good They will set their hearts on the peoples welfare and are watching for all while all securely live under their vigilancy They will cherish all that Christ cherisheth and specially the faithful Pastors of the Churches that seek not the world but the welfare of the flocks When some are saying In this Mountain we must worship God and some at Jerusalem they will teach them all to worship God in Spirit and truth When Pastors and people grow pievish and quarrelsome for their several interests opinions and wills a Constantine will cast all their Libels into the fire and rebuke the unpeaceable and restreine the violent and teach them to forgive and love each other and will be the great Justice of Peace to all the Churches in the Land and pare their nailes that would tear and scratch their Brethren He will Countenance the sound and peaceable and tolerate all the tolerable but will tie the hands of strikers and the tongues of revilers He will contrive the healing of exasperated minds and take away the occasions of division and rebuke them that call for fire from Heaven or for the Sword to do that which belongeth to the word or to execute their pride and wrath Godliness will have all the encouragement they can giveit and innocency a full defence Malignity and Persecution and Perjury and unpeaceable revenge will be hateful where they rule and they had rather men feared sin too much than too little and would have all men prefer the Law and honour of God to theirs where the Righteous bear rule the people rejoyce The wisdom piety and impartiality of their Governours suppresseth prophaneness oppression and contention and keepeth men in the way of love and peace and as the welfare of all is the care of such a Ruler above his own pleasure wealth or will so he will have the hearts and hands and wealth of all with readiness to serve him No wonder if such are called Nursing Fathers and the light of our eyes and the breath of our Nostrils and the shaddow of a rock in a weary Land As they bear the Image of Gods Supereminency and doubly honour him they are doubly honoured by him so that the names of pious Princes shew not only the sense of Mankind but the special providence of God in making the memory of the Just to be blessed And as they could not indure to see in their days ungodliness triumph or serious godliness made a scorn or Conscience and fear of sinning made a disgrace or the Gospel hindred and faithful Ministers forbid to preach it so God will not suffer their Consciences to want the sense of his Love nor their departing Souls to fail of their everlasting hopes nor their memories to be clouded by obscurity or reproach Even among Heathens What a name have those Emperours left behind them who lived in justice charity and all virtue and wholly studied the good of all What a wonder is it that M. Antonine should be so extolled by so many Writers and not one of them all that I remember speak one word of evil of him save that a small and
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
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
cast you into Melancholy and disability at last six days shalt thou labour is more than a permission It s Saint Paul's Canon he that will not work if able let him not cat And it was King Solomons Mother who taught him the description of a virtuous Woman Prov. 31. She eateth not the bread of Idleness ver 27. God will have mercy and obedience as better than Sacrifice The Sentence in Judgment is upon doing good to Christ in his members Mat. 25. When many that heard much and Prophesied shall be cast out Mat. 7. 21. Doing good is the surest way of receiving good The duties of the first and second Table must go together He that is not zealous to do good as well as to get good hath not the peculiar nature of Christs Flock Tit. 2. 14. And zeal will be diligent and not for sloth 2. The other sort of the Idle are rich ungodly worldly persons who live as if God did give them plenty for nothing but to pamper their own flesh and feed their own and others sensuality They think that persons of wealth and honour may lawfully spend their time in idleness That is in Sodoms sin Ezek. 16. 49. As if God expected least where he giveth most How little Conscience do many Lords and Ladies make of an Idle hour or life when poor mens labour is such as tendeth to the Common good the rich by Luxury Sacrifice to the flesh the fruits of other mens endeavours and instead of living in any profitable employment devour that which thousands labour for It is not the toilsome drudgery of the vulgar which we take to be all rich folks duty But Idleness and unprofitableness is a sin in the richest Any of them may find good work enough that's sit for them if they be willing Children and Servants and Friends and Neighbours and Tenants have Souls and bodies which need their help None can say God found us no work to do Or that God gave them more time or wealth than they had prosuable use for Little do they think what it will be ere long to reckon for all their Time and Estates and to be Judged according to their works And their own flesh often payeth dear for its ease and pleasure by those pains and diseases which God hath suited to their sins and which usually shortens the Lives which they no better use or snatch them away from that Time and Wealth which they spent in preparing fuel for Hell and food for the Worm that never dyeth V. But what is it that a man should do that would do good to all or many There are some Good Works which are of far greater tendency than others to the good of many some of them I will name to you I. Do as much good as you are able to mens bodies in order to the greater good of Souls If nature be not supported men are not capable of other good We pray for our daily bread before pardon and spiritual blessings not as if it were better but that nature is supposed before grace and we cannot be Christians if we be not men God hath so placed the soul in the body that good or evil shall make its entrance by the bodily senses to the Soul This way God himself conveyeth many of his blessings and this way he inflicteth his Corrections Ministers that are able and willing to be liberal find by great experience that kindness and bounty to mens bodies openeth their Ear to Counsel and maketh them willing to hear instruction Those in France that are now trying mens Religion in the Market and are at work with Money in one hand and a Sword in the other do understand this to be true All men are sensible of pain or pleasure good or evil to the flesh before they are sensible what 's necessary for their Souls You must therefore speak on that side which can hear and work upon the feeling part if you will do good Besides this your Charity may remove many great impediments and temptations It is no easie thing to keep Heavenly thoughts upon your mind and specially to delight in God and keep the relish of his Law upon your hearts while pinching wants are calling away your mind and disturbing it with troublesome passions To suffer some hunger and go in vile Apparel is not very difficult But when there is a Family to provide for a discontented Wife and Children to satisfie Rents and Debts and Demands unpaid it must be an excellent Christian that can live contentedly and cast all his useless care on God and keep up the sense of his Love and a delight in all his Service Do your best to save the poor from such Temptations as you would your selves be saved from them And when you give to the poor that are ignorant and ungodly give them after it some Counsel for their Souls or some good Book which is suited to their Cases II. If you would do good to many set your selves to promote the practical knowledge of the great truths necessary to Salvation I. Goodness will never be enjoyed or practised without knowledg Ignorance is darkness the State of his Kingdom who is the Prince of darkness who by the works of darkness leadeth the blind World to utter darkness God is the Father of Lights and giveth wisdom to them that ask and seek it He sent his Son to be the Light of the World His Word and Ministers are subordinate Light His Servants are all the Children of Light Ignorance is virtually Errour and errour the cause of sin and misery And men are not born wise but must be made wise by skilful diligent teaching Parents should begin it Ministers should second them But alas how many Millions are neglected by both And how many neglect themselves when Ministers have done their best Ignorance and errour are the common Road to wickedness misery and hell 2. But what can any others do for such Two things I will remember you of 1. Set up such Schools as shall teach Children to read the Scriptures and learn the Catechism or Principles of Religion Our departed Friend Mr. Thomas Gouge did set us an excellent Pattern for Wales I think we have Grammar Schools enough It is not the knowledg of Tongues and Arts and Curious Sciences which the common people want but the right understanding of their Baptismal Covenant with God and of the Creed Lords Prayer Decalogue and Church Communion A poor honest man or a good woman will Teach Children thus much for a small stipend better than they are taught it in most Grammar Schools And I would none went to the Universities without the sound understanding of the Catechism Yea I would none came thence or into the Pulpit without it 2. When you have got them to read give them good books especially Bibles and good Catechisms and small practical books which press the fundamentals on their Consciences Such books are good Catechisms Many learn the words of the Creed Lords
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
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