Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	action_n	good_a	sin_n	1,294	5	4.8298	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26939	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.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1682 (1682)	Wing B1283; ESTC R5487	40,184	56

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

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