Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	time_n	work_n	11,850	5	5.5870	4	false

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

of the name and lineage that proveth worthy There are many other good works by which some rich men may be very profitable to the Common-wealth such as setting all the poor on work and building Hospitals for the Impotent c. But these this City is happily acquainted with already and tho still there be much wanting yet there is much done V. But one more I will presume to name only to you that are Merchants For I am not one who have the ear of Princes who are more able might not somewhat more be done than yet is to further the Gospel in your Factories and in our Plantations Old Mr. Eliots with his helpers in New-England have shewed that somewhat may be done if others were as Charitable and zealous as they The Jesuites and Fryars shewed us in Congo Japan China and other Countries that much might be done with care and diligence Tho the Papal interest was a corrupt end and all the means that they used was not justifiable when I read of their hazards unwearied labours and success I am none of those that would deprive them of their deserved honour but rather wish that we that have better ends and principles might do better than they and not come so far behind them as we do if half be true that Pet. Massoeus and the Jesuites Epistles and many other writers tell us of them I know that they had the advantage of greater helps from Kings and Pope and Prelates and Colledges endued with trained men and copious maintenance But might not somewhat more be done by us than is yet done 1. Is it not possible to send some able zealous Chaplains to those Factories which are in the Countries of Infidels and Heathens Such as thirst for the Conversion of sinners and the enlargment of the Church of Christ and would labour skilfully and diligently therein Is it not possible to get some short Christian books which are fitted for that use to be translated in such languages that Infidels can read and to distribute them among them If it be not possible also to send thither Religious Conscionable Factors who would further the work the case of London is very sad II. Is it not possible at least to help the poor ignorant Armenians Greeks Moscovites and other Christians who have no Printing among them nor much Preaching or knowledge and for want of Printing have very few Bibles even for their Churches or Ministers Could nothing be done to get some Bibles Catechisms and practical books printed in their own tongues and given among them I know there is difficulty in the way But mony and willingness and diligence might do something III. Might not something be done in other Plantations as well as in New-England towards the Conversion of the Natives there Might not some skilful zealous Preachers be sent thither who would both promote serious piety among those of the English that have too little of it and might invite the Americans to learn the Gospel and teach our Planters how to behave themselves Christianly towards them to win them to Christ IV. Is it not possible to do more than hath been done to Convert the Blacks that are our own slaves or servants to the Christian faith Hath not Mr. Goodwin justly reprehended and lamented the neglect yea and resistence of this work in Barbados and the like elsewhere 1. Might not better Teachers be sent thither for that use 2. Is it not an odious crime of Christians to hinder the Conversion of these Infidels lest they lose their service by it and to prefer their gain before mens Souls Is not this to sell Souls for a little mony as Judas did his Lord And whereas the Law manumits them from servitude when they turn Christians that it may invite them to Conversion and this occasioneth wicked Christians to hinder them from knowledge were it not better move the Government therefore to change that Law so far as to allow these Covetous Masters their service for a certain time useing them as free Servants 3. And whereas they are allowed only the Lords day for their own labour and some honest Christians would willingly allow them some other time instead of it that they might spend the Lords day in Learning to know Christ and worship God but they dare not do it lest their wicked Neighbours rise against them for giving their Slaves such an Example might not the Governours be procured to force the whole Plantation to it by a Law even to allow their Infidel Servants so much time on another day and cause some to congregate them for instruction on the Lords days Why should those men be called Christians or have any Christian reputation or priviledges themselves who think both Christianity and Souls to be no more worth than to be thus basely sold for the gain of mens servilest labours And what tho the poor Infidels desire not their own Conversion Their need is the greater and not the less VI. I conclude with this moveing inference The great opposition that is made against doing good by the Devil and his whole Army through all the world and their lamentable success doth call aloud to all true Christians to overdo them O what a Kingdom of Malignants hath Satan doing mischief to mens Souls and bodies through the Earth Hating the Godly oppressing the just corrupting doctrine introducing Lies turning Christs labourers out of his Vineyard forbidding them to Preach in his name the saving word of life hiding or despising the Laws of Christ and setting up their own Wills and Devises in their stead making dividing distracting Engines on pretence of Order Government and Unity Murdering mens bodies and ruining their Estates and slandering their names on pretence of love to the Church and Souls encouraging Prophaneness Blasphemy Perjury Whoredom and Scorning Conscience and fear of sinning What diligence doth Satan use through the very Christian Nations to turn Christs Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry against himself and to make his own Officers the most mischievous Enemies to his Truth and Kingdom and saving work to tread down his Family and Spiritual worship as if it were by his own Authority and Commission To Preach down Truth and Conscience and real Godliness as in Christs own name and fight against him with his own word and to teach the people to hate his servants as if this pleased the God of Love And alas how dismal is their success In the East the Church is hereby destroyed by barbarous Mahometans the remnants by their Prelates continued in Sects in great ignorancé and dead formality reproaching and anathematizing one another and little hope appearing of recovery In the West a dead Image of Religion and Unity and Order drest up with a multitude of gawds and set up against the Life and Soul of Religion Unity and Order and a War hereupon maintain'd for their destruction with sad success So that usually the more Zealous men are for the Papal and formal humane Image the more zealously they study the extirpation of Worshipping God in Spirit and Truth and thirst after the blood of the most serious Worshippers and cry down them as intolerable Enemies who take their Baptism for an obliging Vow and seriously endeavour to perform it and live in good earnest as Christianity bindeth them and they take it for an unsufferable Crime to prefer Gods Authority before mans and to plead his Law against any thing that men command them In a word he is unworthy to be accounted a Christian with them who will be a Christian indeed and not despise the Laws of Christ and unworthy to have the liberty and usage of a man that will not sin and damn his Soul So much more cruel are they than the Turkish Tyrants who if they send to a man for his head must be obeyed And is the Devil a better Master than Christ and shall his work be done with greater zeal and resolution Will he give his Servants a better reward Should not all this awaken us to do Good with greater diligence than they do evil and to promote Love and Piety more earnestly than they do malignity and iniquity Is not saving Church and State Souls and Bodies better worth resolution and labour than destroying them And the prognosticks are encouraging Certainly Christ and his Kingdom will prevail At last all his Enemies shall be made his footstool yea shall from him receive their doom to the everlasting punishment which rebels against omnipotency goodness and mercy do deserve If God be not God if Christ will not conquer if there be no life to come let them boast of their success But when they are rottenness and dust and their souls with Devils and their names are a reproach Christ will be Christ his promises and threatnings all made good 2 Thes 1. 6. c. He will judg it righteous to recompense tribulation to your troublers when he cometh with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on rebels and to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all true Believers And when that solemn Judgment shall pass on them that did Good and that did Evil described Matth. 25. with a Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom and go ye Cursed into everlasting fire doing Good and not doing it much more doing mischief will be better distinguished than now they are when they are rendred as the reason of those different dooms FINIS

When it is said that God is Love the sense is the same that he is the infinite essential and efficiently and finally amiable perfect Good But tho no one of his Attributes in propriety and perfection are communicable else he that hath one part of the Deity must have all yet he imprinteth his similitude and image on his works And the impress of his Love and Goodness is the chief part of his Image on his Saints This is their very Holyness For this is the chief part of their likeness to God and dedication to him when the Spirit of Sanctification is described in Scripture as given upon believing it signifieth that our faithful perception of the redeeming saving love of God in Christ is that means which the Spirit of Christ will bless to the operating of the habit of holy Love to God and Man which become a new and divine nature to the Soul and is Sanctification it self and the true principle of a holy Evangelical Conversation And as it is said of God that he is Good and doth Good so every thing is enclined to work as it is Christ tells us the Good Tree will bring forth good fruits c. And we are Gods Workmanship Created in Christ Jesus to Good Works which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Eph. 2. 10. Yet man doth not Good as the Sun shineth by a full bent of natural necessitation else the World would not be as it is But as a free undetermined Agent which hath need to be commanded by a Law and stirr'd up by manifold Motives and Exhortations such as the Holy Ghost here useth in the Text. Where 1. Doing Good is the substance of the duty 2. Men are the objects 3. To all men is the extent 4 Especially to them of the Houshold of Faith is the direction for precedency 5. And while we have opportunity is the season including a Motive to make haste So large and excellent a Theme would require more than my allotted time to handle it fully Therefore I shall now confine my self to the duty Extended Do Good to All men Doct. To do Good to all men is all mens duty to which every Christian especially must apply himself All men should do it True Christians can do it through Grace and must do it and will do it A Good man is a common good Christs Spirit in them is not a dead or idle Principle It makes them in there several measures the Salt of the Earth and the Lights of the World They are fruitful branches in the true Vine Every Grace tendeth to well doing and to the Good of the whole Body for which each single Member is made Even Hypocrites as Wooden Legs are serviceable to the body but every living Member much more except some diseased ones who may be more troublesome and dangerous than the Wooden Leg. It 's a sign he is a branch Cut off and withered who careth little for any but himself The malignant Diabolist hateth the true and Spiritual Good The ignorant know not Good from Evil The erroneous take Evil for Good and Falshood for Truth The slothful Hypocrite wisheth much Good but doth but little The formal Ceremonious Hypocrite extols the Name and Image of Goodness The worldly Hypocrite will do Good if he can do it cheaply without any loss or suffering to his Flesh The Libertine Hypocrite pleadeth Christs Merits against the necessity of doing Good and looketh to be saved because Christ is Good tho he be barren and ungodly and some ignorant Teachers have taught them to say when they can find no true Faith Repentance Holiness or Obedience in themselves that it is enough to believe that Christ Believed and Repented for them and was Holy and Obedient for them He was indeed Holy and Obedient for Penitent Believers not to make Holiness and Obedience unnecessary to them but to make them sincerely Holy and Obedient to Himself and to excuse them from the necessity of that perfect Holiness and Obedience here which is necessary to those that will be Justified by the Law of Works or Innocency Thus all sorts of bad men have their oppositions to doing Good But to the sincere Christian it is made as Natural His heart is set upon it He is Created and Redeemed and Sanctified for it as the Tree is made for Fruit. He Studieth it as the chief Trade and Business that he liveth for He waketh for it Yea he sleepeth and eateth and drinketh for it even to enable his body to serve his Soul in serving that Lord whose Redeemed peculiar People are all Zealous of Good Works Tit. 2. 14. The Measure of this Zeal of doing Good is the utmost of their power with all their Talents in desire and sincere Endeavour The extent of the Object is to All tho not to all alike that is to as many as they can But for order sake we must here consider 1. Who this All meaneth and in what order II. What is Good And what is that Good which we must do IV. What Qualifications he must have that will do Good to many III. What Rules he must observe in doing it V. What works are they that must be done by him that would do good to many VI. What motives should quicken us to the practice VII Some useful consectaries of the point I. It is Gods prerogative to do good to all Mans ability will not reach to it But our all is as many as we can do good to 1. To Men of all sorts High and Low Rich and Poor Old and Young Kindred Neighbours Strangers Friends Enemies Good and Bad none excepted that are within our power 2. Not to a few only but to as many persons of all sorts as we can As he that hath true grace would still have more for himself so he that doth good would feign do more good and he that doth good to some would fain do good to many more All good is progressive and tendeth toward increase and perfection why are the faithful said to love and long for the day of Christs appearing but because it is the great Marriage day of the Lamb when all the Elect shall be perfected in our Heavenly Society and that makes it a much more desirable day than that of our particular glorification at death The perfection of the whole body addeth to the perfection of every part For it is a state of felicity in perfect Love And Love maketh every mans good whom we love to be as sweet to us as our own yea maketh it our own And then the perfection and glory of every Saint will be our delight and Glory And to see each single ones love united in one perfect joy and glory will add to each persons joy and glory And can you wonder if our little sparks of Grace do tend towards the same diffused multiplication and if every Member long for the compleating of the body of Christ O how much will this add to every faithful