Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	conscience_n	good_a	sin_n	3,825	5	5.2827	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

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

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

short persecution of the Christians was made by some in his time till he restrained it And all the people almost deified him and would have perpetuated his Line and Name in the Throne but that the horrid wickedness of his Posterity forced them to a change What a name hath excellent Alexander Severus left behind him And what a blessing have wise and godly and peacemaking Christian Princes been in divers ages to the world And both the inferiour Magistrates and the Clergy usually much conform themselves at least in outward behaviour to their example For they will choose men of wisdom Conscience and Justice under them to judge and govern The Bishops and Pastors which they choose will be able Godly laborious men not seekers of worldly wealth and Honour not envious silencers of faithful Preachers nor jealous hinderers of Religious duties nor flattering man-pleasers nor such as Lord it over Gods heritage but such as rule not by constraint but willingly as Examples of Love and piety to the flock Pray hard therefore for Kings and all in Authority and honour all such as unspeakable blessings for the good of all But on the contrary wicked Rulers will be Satans Captains against Jesus Christ and Mens Sanctification and Salvation They will be Wolves in the place of Shepherds and will study to destroy the best of the people and to root out all serious Godliness and Justice Conscience and fearing sin will be to them a suspected yea a hated thing If any abuse it it serves them for a pretence against it They take the peoples welfare and their own interest to be enemies and presently look on these whom they should rule and cherish as the adversaries whom they must tread down They will purposely make Edicts and Laws that are contrary to Gods Law that they may have advantage to persecute the faithful and to destroy them as disobedient They will study to conquer Conscience and obedience to God lest his Authority should be regarded above theirs and Christ is used by them as if he were a Usurper and not their Soveraign but were again to be taken for an enemy to Caesar and their hatred to true Ministers will be such as Pauls accusers intimate who said he Preached another King one Jesus Wicked Rulers will be the Capital Enemies to all that will be enemies to wickedness and resolved to please God and save their Souls They will not be obeyed under God but before him nor served by the faithful Servants of Christ nor pleased but at the rate of mens damnation by displeasing God All men love their like The worst men if flatterers will seem the best to them and the best the worst and most intolerable And Church and State is like to be Written by their Copy O what dreadful Plagues have wicked Rulers been to the world and what a dismal case do they continue the Earth in to this day Not but that People and especially Priests do contribute hereto But the chief Authors are men in greatest power Five parts of six of the World at this day are Heathens and Infidels And what 's the Cause Rulers will not suffer the Gospel to be Preached to them The Eastern Christians were all torn in pieces by the wickedness and contention of the Governours of the State and Church banishing and murdering one another so that when the Turks invaded them the promise of Liberty to exercise their Religion tempted them to make the less resistance thinking they could not be much worse than before But the Vulgar are so apt to follow the Rulers that ever since the most of the Easterns are apostatized from Christ and turned to Mahometanism And tho in those Countries where the Turk alloweth the Christian people to have Governours of their own Religion somewhat prospereth yet where that priviledge is denied them and Turks only are their Rulers it withereth away and comes to almost nothing And what keepeth out Reformation that is the Primitive simple Christianity from the Popish Countries that have Religion corrupted by humane superfluities but the seduction of Priests and the Tyranny of Rulers that will not endure the Preaching of the Gospel and the opening of the Scriptures to the people in a known Tongue How much holy blood have Roman and Spanish Inquisitors and French and Irish Murderers and most other Popish Rulers to Answer for Even Walsh the Papist in his Irish History tells us all out of Ketin and others how commonly in Ages they lived there in the Sin of bloody Wars and Murders yea even when they professed greatest holiness Wicked Rulers are as the Pikes in the Pond which live by devouring all about them It is Satans main design in the world to corrupt Gods two great Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry and turn them both against Christs Kingdom and to destroy Christians in Christs Name Oh therefore pray hard that all Christian Nations may have good Rulers and be very thankful to God for such X. And if you would be instruments of publick Good know what are publick sins and dangers that you may do your part against them and joyn not with any that will promise never to endeavour any reforming alteration The chiefest are Ignorance Pride and Self-willedness in Teachers and People malignant enmity to goodness impatience with the infirmities of good men judging of persons and things by self-interest covetousness sensuality and taking Christianity but as the Religion of the Land without diligent Study to be rooted in the Truth And the scandals of Hypocrites and tempted Christians hardening the enemies especially by divisions and publick temerities and miscarriages is not the least XI I would also in order to publick good perswade serious Christians to be more zealous in Communication with their Neighbours and live not over-strangely to others and say not as Cain Am I my Brothers keeper Be kind and loving to all about you and live not as unknown men to them nor alienate them by sourness contempt or needless singularity But become all things lawful to all men to save some Lend them good books and draw them to hear Gods faithful Ministers Perswade them to pray in their Families even with a Form or Book till they need it not XII Lastly if you would do good be such as you would have others be and teach them by Examples of Piety Charity Patience Self-denial Forbearing and Forgiving And not by meer words contradicted by your lives These are the materials by which you must do good to all VI. What now remaineth but that we all set our selves to such a fruitful Course of life I greatly rejoice in the Grace of God which I daily see in many such of my familiar acquaintance who study to do good to all and to live in Love and Peace and Holiness by example and by self-denial and constant Charity using Christs Talents to their Masters ends for the temporal and eternal good of many But alas too many live as if it were enough to