Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	baptism_n	ghost_n	holy_a	4,984	5	6.3661	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