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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	judge_v	open_v	3,039	5	7.3718	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31012	A sermon preach'd June 1, 1699, at Feckenham in Worcester-shire, before the trustees appointed by Sir Thomas Cookes, Kt. Bart. to manage his charity given to that place by John Baron ...	Baron, John, 1669 or 70-1722.	1699 (1699)	Wing B879; ESTC R10496	18,182	44

and looking round about us we see no Comforter then we should call to mind what Injuries we have forgiven how apt we were to pardon all Affronts and real Persecutions how we embraced Peace when it was offered us how we followed after Peace when it ran from us and when we are weary of one side we should turn upon the other and remember the Alms that by the Grace of God and his assistances we have done and look up to God and with the eye of Faith behold him coming in the Clouds and pronouncing the sentence of Dooms-day according to his Mercies and our Charity From what has been said I think 't is evident that it is upon several accounts more advisable for Men of Ability to dispose of what they intend for charitable Uses in their Life time than to leave it to be manag'd by others after their Death I proceed now in the 2. Second place to shew That Men of Ability are strictly oblig'd to do good while they live I shall not here undertake exactly to state how much good every Man ought to do indeed it cannot nicely be determined There is a great difference in the Conditions and Abilities of Men some want much more than others to support themselves handsomely according to the Station or Office they are in or to maintain or educate their Children agreeably to their Birth and Quality There cannot be one standing measure of Charity common to all and since it has not pleased God under the Christian Dispensation to assign any particular proportion every Man must be left to the direction of his own Conscience herein All that I am about to prove then is this That they who are able ought according to their Ability to do good if they have an opportunity while they live This will appear from the consideration of the Circumstances they are in and the relation they bear to the supreme Lord of all the World For who made them to differ from others or what have they which they have not received The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof the richest of Men are only Stewards and Trustees under him The many Talents they possess and all the special and eminent Blessings they enjoy above others are derived from the Fountain of his all-sufficient and overflowing Goodness Therefore they must be employ'd according to his Will and agreeably to those great and noble ends for which they were originally granted such as are the Glory of God and the assistance of their Fellow-Creatures And whether at all or how far they have improved the Advantages here afforded them will be strictly enquired into at the great Day of Retribution Then they must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ then the Almighty's Book of Remembrance will be opened all Men will be called to give an account of their Stewardship and will be rewarded or punished according to their Works They will not then be judged by their bare Intentions or conditional Resolutions which through their own fault never took effect neither will it be enquired what good they have remotely designed but what they have actually done when they were alive and had an opportunity of doing it The time of Life is the only proper season for exercising those Talents they are intrusted with The living the living they may praise God and honour him with their substance but in Death who remembers the Poor or how can a Man be charitable in the Grave Unless therefore Men of Ability will be content to be reckoned among the negligent or unfaithful Stewards either among such as hide their Talents and make no use at all of them or among such as abuse them to the dishonour of their Master they must search out for at least lay hold of every opportunity of improving them while they live I know such as get all that they can and keep all that they can get may say at the last gasp That tho' they have done no good in their Life time yet they have all along resolv'd it and according to these Resolutions their Charity will commence after their Death To this I answer first That Resolution is in its own nature an imperfect Act and therefore can signify nothing without Performance and Consummation unless it be where a sudden Death or some unforeseen irremoveable Impediment has hindred it So that this Resolution will prove an Argument against themselves for if they were not convinc'd of the absolute necessity of doing good why did they ever resolve it and if they were certainly they cannot imagine meerly to resolve it will be sufficient Secondly As for their Charity commencing after their death I dare not encourage any one to depend upon it who might as conveniently have employed it himself I am sure our blessed Saviour frequently presseth his Disciples to work while it is day i. e. while they live because the Night of Death cometh when no man can work And from that most solemn description of the last Judgment wherein he peculiarly recommends to us all the acts of Compassion and Mercy I find no mention made of resolving to clothe the Naked to feed the Hungry to visit the Sick and the like nor any great grounds to hope that a Death-bed Charity which might as well have been setled in the Life of the Donour will be accepted by him Nay rather upon an attentive and indifferent view of that account of the Process of the last Judgment we may conclude that to him that hath an opportunity of doing good while he lives and doth it not to him it will be sin I would not here be mistaken and therefore I must a little farther explain my self which I cannot better do than in the words of a late Author in his Practical Discourse concerning Death It is the good saith he we do while we live that shall be rewarded and therefore we must take care to do good while we live It is well when Men who do no good while they live will remember to do some good when they dye But if God should accept such Presents as these yet it will make great abatements in the Account that they kept their Riches themselves as long as they could and would part with nothing to God till they could keep it no longer The case is different as to those who did all the good they could while they lived and when they saw they could live no longer took care to do good after death Such surviving Charities as these prolong our Lives and add daily to our Account when such Men are removed into the other World they are doing good in this World still they have a stock a going below the increase and improvements of which will follow them into the other World Blessed are the dead which thus dye in the Lord. I come now in the 3. Third place to speak of the peculiar excellency and usefulness of those charitable Settlements which are design'd to promote and