Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	bear_v	good_a	great_a	1,447	5	2.3997	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64367	A sermon concerning discretion in giving alms preached at St. Sepulchres Church in London, instead of the Spittle, upon Wednesday in Easter-week, April vi, MDCLXXXI / by Tho. Tenison ...	Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715.	1681 (1681)	Wing T709; ESTC R21759	21,328	54

adjourn all its Charity to the last Will which is sometimes never made but in a vain purpose and as often not fulfill'd Fifthly Discretion considereth the quality of our Alms. And here it is our prudence to prefer those which serve towards a constant provision before those which are transient those I mean which help a man in a pang of need but put him not into a way of living which just hold him up from perishing for an hour but do not take him out of the deep waters Wisdom also perswadeth always to give suitable supplies and not mere counsel when bread is wanting And it perswadeth to give such suitable supplies if it consisteth with our convenience rather in kind than in that which will purchase them as Cloaths to the naked and Food to the hungry and Books to the uninstructed and Physick to the sick Money can answer all these needs but it will not be always laid out upon them And for some materials of Charity discretion does purchase them from Work-houses for the poor at the same time doubling the good by encourageing diligence and administring supply Sixthly Discretion considereth the due measure and proportion of Alms that it be fitted to the needs of the receiver and to the ability of the giver Touching the needs of the receiver it doth not always limit it self to mere necessity but in persons whose fortunes are by loss and accident in declension it hath respect to decence considering how great the fall is from Riches to Poverty And in men always poor but always in hard labour and able only to refresh life with the continual sweat of their brows it pitieth the heaviness of their yoke It sometimes sweetneth their flavish estate by some addition to the wages of their drudgery and alloweth them some Sabbath for the ease of humane nature Touching the ability of the giver discretion considereth what we justly possess and what quantity of it is required for the supporting of us in the condition of our birth our place our office our family and for the discharge of our obligations It doth not require of all the same proportion Some may afford a twentieth and others a thirtieth part and to others whose Children and dependents are numerous and whose fortunes are entangled the hundredth part may be over measure According as the heap is so the wise man soweth Religious Prudence does not pull down one Family for the support of another But for raising of a new Family to worldly grandeur especially where the heirs of it are not encouragers of our hope either by the quickness of their parts or the virtuousness of their tempers or the goodness of their educations the wisdom of charity does not press it with earnestness This is a design of no great use but of great uncertainty The Family of Herod was all extinct in a single century of years And it is noted by the Author of the Baronage of England that of the 270 Families of which he treats there were not when he wrote above eight remaining And yet a great many imprudent men live all their daies in unbecoming parsimony and without doing good so much as to their selves for the advancing of some mean man born to labour and low estate and uncapable of any thing greater than that which he is already And such a one is ruin'd by his preferment Galba said the honest truth of himself when he told his Friends That they had spoil'd a good Souldier and made the worst of Emperours Lastly Discretion hath regard to the due manner of dispensing Charity obliging both by what it gives and by the way of giving It giveth not grudgingly or of necessity but with signs of a free and willing heart It findeth out privately just needs and it preventeth asking and surprizeth with a kindness for which the needy did not look And this strengthens their faith in the providence of God who createth friends to them out of the dust who bringeth them supply without and beyond their expectation Wherefore when prudence giveth it doth it without malicious upbraiding or proud insulting When a miserable creature would borrow or beg of him it turneth not him away That is it does not remove him to a distance with signs of disdain and contemptuous violence It oppresseth not the modesty of the humble especially of those who have been wont to give and not to receive To the more confident it giveth with a mixture of governance and favour that they neither be encouraged in insolence nor driven to desperation Having said all this touching the necessity and the nature of discretion in giving Alms and all with reference to the further judgment and definition of a prudent man when a particular case does lie before him It remaineth In the last place That I exhort both to Charity it self and to the prudent exercise of it First I beseech you be ye willing to give and glad to distribute Consider that power to do good is a dangerous ability unless we use it Remember that it is God who giveth wealth and that he expecteth some answerable returns of it Live not in such inhumane manner as if Nabal and Judas were come again into the world Think frequently and warmly of the love of God and Jesus to you You will not deny your crumbs to the miserable when you thankfully call to mind that Christ gave for you his very flesh and his blood Consider that as one great end of Poverty is Patience so one great end of Wealth is Charity Think how honourable it is to make a present to the great King of the world And what a condescension it is in his Alsufficiency to do that good by us which he could so abundantly do without us Forget not that you your selves are in the body and that you know not what calamities may fall down upon the Earth and what relief from others you may stand in need of And let this be one of your daily thoughts that according to your Charity the sentence of doomsday will pass upon you Secondly When you give Alms do not offer the sacrifice of the indiscreet which it self needeth atonement Be not uncharitable by your charity Add not to other evils the great grievance of a numerous unmannag'd Poor Remove as far as in you lies the reproach of a late sharp Writer who says in effect of the people of England that they generally use a kind of mother-wit and have the generosity to do great things but not the discretion to do them wisely Now that our Charity may be discreet let us First Exercise our minds with good compass of thought He that regardeth only a few things shall never arrive at Prudence It is necessary for a man to consider his own condition to view objects of Charity with a strict and judicious Eye and to look round about them in all the circumstances which attend them The imprudent behold a shew of misery and consider no further