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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	great_a	time_n	2,069	5	3.0647	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64369	A sermon concerning doing good to posterity preach'd before Their Majesties at White-Hall, on February 16, 1689/90 / by Thomas Tenison ...	Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715.	1690 (1690)	Wing T711; ESTC R16614	10,863	38

become a Blessing to these Lands for ever These Evil Principles Lusts Passions and Humours which I have mentioned are the Causes of the Decay of that generous Charity so beneficial to the Ages to come But Fourthly Let us not follow the inordinate Affections and unreasonable Customs of the Men of this World but be prevailed with to imitate David or rather the God of David who hath a Blessing for every Age and who when he rested from the Work of Creation did not forbear the Works of Providence To this purpose First That we may be capable of practising this sort of Charity the forementioned Passions are to be subdu'd by pious Consideration by Prayer for the especial Grace of God by firm and steadfast Resolution by Conversation with Christians whose Hearts are enlarged by reading the holy Scriptures and in them the History of God's Power and Goodness Secondly being thus made capable of doing present and future Good that we may do it as we ought the Good-Will the right Scope the Decence the Iustice of It are well to be weighed And First Good-Will ought to be the Spring which moves Men that benefit those who succeed them for it is no Vertue to leave that behind us which Death will not permit us to carry away Dives laid up Goods for many years and he left them to Others without being to them a Benefactor for he laid them up for himself upon a vain and presumptuous supposition of long Life in which he was miserably disappointed by the surprizing Justice of that Righteous God who said to Him Thou Fool this Night thy Soul shall be taken from thee Again This Good-Will is to be directed to a right and profitable Scope that Charity may not be blinded by Superstition which hath founded many Societies and left great Revenues and enriched many Shrines to the hurt of Posterity by promoting the Honour of false Deities and Saints and by encouraging a Worship from Age to Age in which the True God can take no pleasure There is also to be observed in this Practice a Decency which forbids a Man to be severely Penurious all his days for the doing a greater Good at the last It is true He is not to be condemned for cutting off unnecessary Pomps and Expences in order to so good an End And he may be bold with himself But though there may be a laudable Frugality there must not be a sordidness in his Self-denial Add to this That Iustice as well as Decency becomes all Men who piously design to be Benefactors to Posterity They are not to do Evil that Good may come of it or to be unjust Oppressors Extortioners in one Age that they may be bountiful to another Yet such is the manner of the Covetous who love not Mankind nor their very Off spring as Men but in the Quality of their second-selves They run the hazard even of Damnation for the greatning of those who generally spend with vicious profuseness all that Wealth which with such guilt of Conscience they had gathered together Thirdly Having found out such Rules as these for the governing of our Practice we may render our selves more fit for the discharge of so Excellent a Duty First By removing certain Discouragements Secondly By attending to some further Motives The Discouragements are of Two Kinds 1. Suspicions of Ability to do such good 2. Hindrances of Willingness in Those who are able to do it and in some of them who are not ill inclined 1. Men of inferiour condition suspect their Ability imagining that he who would become a Benefactor must be arm'd with great Power and Authority indued with high degrees of Wisdom and furnished with such heaps of growing Wealth as may supply Charity without sensible Diminution whereas there are divers waies by which Persons in meaner Circumstances may in their Age be useful both to that and the next A poor Man as we read in Ecclesiastes did by his prudent Counsel deliver a City And that Place had probably the Benefit of his good Advice a long Time after though whilst his Wisdom made him considerable his Poverty exposed him to the Scorn and Neglect of the Proud and Ungrateful There are true Benefactors in the World besides such who have Ability to make Publick Waies to repair Breaches of the Sea to calm that which is as tumultuous the Rage of the People to build Houses for God's Worship to found Colledges and Hospitals to subdue public Enemies and to enact wholsom Laws which are the Nerves of Society and by the strength of which we a while by God's Blessing subsisted though Popish Superstition did so furiously assault us Many may communicate to their Neighbours a wholsom Medicine though they cannot erect a House for the Sick and Wounded and Impotent Every Master of a Family in Israel was obliged to shew his Children the Reason of the Paschal Feast and to teach them the Law of God Those therefore were not Performances out of their Power for then they could not have been their Duty And to Christians their great Master saith What excellent things do ye What do ye more than others Much Good they may do by rehearsing the Holy History of God's Law and his wonderful Works before others that they may learn it and transmit it to the next Generation Much Good they may do by teaching of necessary Doctrines to Youth and by forming the Manners of those who are likely to outlive them They may instil into them betimes such Christian Principles as may grow up with them and bring forth Fruit in their Age. He who hath a small proportion of Silver or Gold may yet be sometimes capable of leaving behind him a more valuable Legacy By giving the World a Book of Piety such as that of the Whole Duty of Man by which the judicious and modest Author hath done a greater Good to those who lived in and after his Time than if he had poured forth other Riches upon them in overflowing measure Most are capable of doing a durable Charity by good Example which may operate when they are dead and gone To how many Generations has the Instance of the Patience of afflicted Iob administred Courage and Support whilst they have called it to Remembrance in the Time of their Trouble And there is great need of virtuous Example for the ballancing of that which is Bad the Contagion of which sticks like Leprosie in Families Churches and Kingdoms Ieroboam the Son of Nebat made Israel to sin to commit that great Sin of Idolatry by worshipping the true God by an Image both in his Time and after he was gone to answer both for his own and for other Men's Sins But what Answer could he make for either Either was a Burthen too heavy for him to bear Then for the Charity of Prayer who is there that cannot call on God for a Blessing on Persons and Families on Churches and States after they shall have left this unquiet Stage