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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	darkness_n	light_n	shadow_n	7,372	5	9.4624	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39739	A sermon preached at Christ-Church, before the governors of that hospital, on St. Stephen's day by William Fleetwood ...	Fleetwood, William, 1656-1723.	1691 (1691)	Wing F1250; ESTC R21005	20,165	36

of the place which is contradicted in the next words but especially to those of the houshold of faith But that no Nation Party or Religion should exclude men from their charity if their wants had made them objects of it That all mankind was sitted for their love and pity and was to partake of it in time and place convenient notwithstanding his Opinions in Religion difference of Nation Practice or Belief That People's wants made them Objects of Charity and not their Agreement in Opinion or their being of such a Party And therefore he that would be Charitable must relieve the wants of the Necessitous whoever they were as it came in his way When therefore he exhorts us to do good to all he only means that no one should be absolutely excluded and incapacitated from receiving benefit when his condition calls for it and ours will bear the doing it He does not hereby make void the difference and distinction that the Laws of Nature Nations and Religion have already made and such as are certain nor such as by unfortunate accidents or unforeseen or unavoidable calamities are become such The calls of Nature must and will be heard first and no Laws can or will supersede them And the Positive Laws of God are to be heard next and next to them the Laws of the Land and after these are satisfied men are left to govern themselves by the rules of Prudence and Discretion by the Affections of their Minds and the Examples of wise and good People It would be tedious to recount the Particulars that are to be preferred in doing good I will only give a word or two to the instance St. Paul uses here especially to those that are of the household of faith because some men are not so well satisfied in this Particular as in the rest But the reasonableness of this will appear 1. From the practice of all Times and Nations conforming to each other and agreeing in this That the Priesthood was to be provided for apart and that it was to be maintained in honour and esteem Where-ever there has been People there has been Religion such as it was where-ever there has been Religion there have been Persons consecrated and set apart from Secular Employments to attend its service and where-ever it has been so there was a maintenance provided for them at the Publick Charge 2ly It was so by God's Appointment with the Jews 3ly It was so by Christ's Appointment under the Gospel as appears from the Passage before cited by St. Paul 1 Cor. 9. 14. Even so hath the Lord ordained That they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel And tho St. Paul himself work'd for his Living in a Secular Employment and some perhaps at that time with him yet the case was singular and he chose to do so for particular ends and purposes he had and argued strongly in behalf of others provision tho he made no use of it himself And there has been no other Instance since his time of any Church-man that hath taken up a profess'd Employment or Trade to live by without great Scandal to the Church and against its Rules and Canons No People till of late ever thought it decent to remove from the Shop to the Pulpit None from the days of Corah Dathan and Abiram till some years ago have dar'd to say with them That all the Congregation were holy every one of them and the Numb 16. 3. Lord among them in the sense of those deplorable Sufferers 4thly The Canons of the Church have not only forbid them taking up any Trade or Calling but the Laws of the Land have made it highly Penal for them so to do * 21 H. 8. c. 13. even to the taking of a Farm to rent which yet is one of the most innocent and least scandalous ways of living amongst us Lastly Tho this should be permitted them yet the way of Education that is absolutely necessary to the accomplishing and fitting People for the Ministry does perfectly unqualifie them for any other Employment and the time that is necessarily spent in the due discharging of that Office will afford them but little leisure to attend any other gainful one These Reasons whose Heads I have on●y mentioned with a great many others that easily occur to any thinking person may be sufficient to shew the reasonableness and equity of St. Pau●'s remembring the Galatians That in their doing good to all men they should have a more especial regard to such as are of the houshold of faith But tho the Apostle's Argument do necessarily require That by the Houshold of Faith be here especially meant the Pastors of the Church and them that teach yet those terms do also comprehend the whole Christian Church all the body of Believers as opposed to the Prophane Gentiles and to the Unbelieving Jews and then the words are to be taken in this sense You are in danger to be taught by the Jews with whom I find you frequently converse That all your Charity is to be tied to one Nation and confined to People of the same persuasion but this is too narrow a Notion of the Christian Charity which is designed to enlarge mens hearts and to extend their love and kindness over all the world the Commands of Christ and consequently his Apostle's Exhortations are That Christians should do good to all men but that where a preference can be made without offence to Charity it be made in behalf of Christ's Servants If there come a competition betwixt a Jew a Gentile and a Christian and the Merits and the Wants be equal the preference should be made in favour of the Christian in honour of our Lord and to the encouragement of his Religion And the same reason there is that in our distributions among Christians respect be had to those that are the best that behave themselves more devoutly towards God and carefully and honestly towards their Neighbours where the distress is equal and the necessities alike for the better people are the nearer relation they have to God and the higher Offices they bear as it were in God's Houshold and consequently have a better title to the benefits exhorted to in the Text To them especially that are of the houshold of faith Thirdly Here is the Time expressed of doing this III. good namely whilst we have opportunity Yet a little while is the light with you walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth While ye have light believe in the light that ye may be the children of light saith our Saviour Joh. 12. 35. Give glory to the Lord your God saith the Prophet Jer. 13. 16. Before he cause darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains and while ye look for light he turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness I must work saith the Lord of Day and Night

himself John 9. 4. the works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work There is a Light and a Day and a Time given us all to work out our Salvation in to do the Will of God to perform his Commands and to perfect the business in he sent us hither for And behold as St. Paul says 2 Cor. 6. 2. now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation The Light and the Day is this life and the place is this world and it is now and it is here that we must walk in the ways of God and do the works of his Commandments Now while we live is the time of making matters sure now is the only opportunity of doing good which if we once let slip there is no more recovering it for there is no Eccl. 9 10. wisdom in the grave saith Solomon and he that goeth down thither shall come up no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more saith Job 7. 9. Since then it is agreed upon at all hands That it is all our Duties to do all the good we can as we have opportunity and that we have no opportunity of doing it beyond this life Why is not doing good the consequence of these two Premises How comes it that men know the necessity of doing it and the benefit of it when done and the time allotted them to do it in and yet there is so little done The reason I think is this That men promise to themselves still better opportunities than the present time they think affords them They put the execution of their good Purposes off from day to day and imagine that a more convenient season will present it self That to morrow and the next day may produce some new matter and change the circumstances of things to their advantage and waver about in these uncertainties till Life it self the great Opportunity is unexpectedly cut off and all their thoughts perish Whereas if they were as wise in this as in other matters they would rather argue thus I find I am obliged by Nature Reason and Religion and God be thanked by my own inclinations to do all the good I can and I know assuredly withall that the good to be done by me is to be done in this life while it pleases God to continue me in this World and because I can't possibly tell how long I have to live and what is like to be the number of my days and that every day produces some strange instance of the uncertainty of life and the suddenness of Death therefore I must put my designs of doing good in execution presently for fear I should be prevented my desires and resolutions may prove abortive if I defer them any longer therefore my Purposes shall be as soon as possibly they can Performances Can any Premises be plainer Can any consequence be juster and more reasonable than this I must do good whilst I have opportunity but I can't tell how long this opportunity may last or when it will end I am only sure of the Present time that which I have in possession is only mine therefore if I will secure my self I must do all the good I can immediately and whilst the time is in my hand the time to come is none of mine I am not Master of the ensuing Year nor can command the Month that 's entring If I bid the Morning hasten or the Evening slacken its pace because that I intend to do some good they neither hear nor mind me but proceed according to appointment and each of them may find me cold and sensless and incapable of either doing or receiving any farther good in this world And therefore when St. Paul advises to do good whilst we have opportunity he advises us to do it as soon as possibly we can and that we lose no Opportunity by delay It may otherwise happen to us as it did to the poor man that promised himself such ease and pleasure in the enjoyment of the Fruits and Riches he had treasur'd up Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided We frame a great many fine projects in our heads contrive abundance of good designs and intend to do the Lord knows how much charity but the Sentence passes out from God upon us and cuts us off in the midst of all our Purposes and what is then become of all our good intentions We are gone to a place where great account will be had of all the good we actually have done and would have done if we had had but opportunity but little or none at all will be had of that which vanished in design and went no farther than the Brain But that may not be the worst in some cases where we shall give account for all the Abilities and Opportunities we had of doing good but over-slipt or quite neglected But Secondly There is an Opportunity of the Will as well as Time which must be taken hold of for tho the Opportunity of Time may be continued to a man yet the Will and Inclination may be changed The Will we know is very uncertain and tacks about with every new Variety of Accidents the Inclinations alter with and without reason as they see convenient and he that promises to himself at this time that Six Months hence he will have the Mind and Inclination to do such and such things understands his Temper but a little and is but indifferently acquainted with the inconstancy of humane Nature and the deceitfulness of his own Heart He may be sure enough indeed that if he be then of the same Opinion he is now that he shall do the things he now resolves on but for ought he knows his mind may be then averse from the purposes he now makes and therefore if they are good he had best fulfil them in their properest season which is Now when Time and Inclination meet and are agreed The Mind I say is humorous and fantastick toss'd up and down in great uncertainty and even the gravest soberest and most necessary Resolutions are oftentimes perverted by the most inconsiderable and trivial accidents and therefore we must strike in with the Inclinations presently and not permit the designs of doing good to cool and grow remiss Sometimes it happens that the mind is warm'd with some unusual supernatural Heat and is ardently enflamed with the desire of doing good and it looks like an Impulse from Heaven but if it be not presently complied with it returns no more but vanishes Sometimes a man returns from Church and the Sacrament and sometimes rises from his Prayers or from reading or hearing an affectionate Discourse sometimes is seiz'd upon the sudden with a heart full fraught with godly Purposes charg'd with good Intentions and excellent Resolves he finds himself sensibly affected with what passed sees the reasonableness and the