Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	evil_a	good_a	indifferent_a	2,973	5	9.5052	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42264	Profitable charity a sermon preached before the right honourable Sir Thomas Lane, Lord Mayor of London, and the honourable Court of Aldermen, &c. at the parish-church of St. Brides, on Easter-Monday, 1695 / by Robert Lord Bishop of Chichester.	Grove, Robert, 1634-1696.	1695 (1695)	Wing G2154; ESTC R16834	15,473	34

and without hypocrisy The Philosopher tells us that Prudence is the common tie and ligament by which all the Vertues are united and the Apostle says the same of Charity that it is the bond of perfectness Col. iii. 14. Without the one there can be no moral Vertue and no Christian Grace without the other Again Owe no man any thing but to love one another For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law For this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. xiii 8 9 10. This is a Duty of so wide and comprehensive a Nature that there must be a mixture of it in all our good Actions and in our Alms in an especial manner And it is this that gives them the only Value and Esteem in the sight of God It was this that inhanced the Price of the Widow's Mite and made it outweigh all the abundance of the Rich. When it is given with a good inclination a Cup of cold Water shall not go without its reward For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not And whatsoever we thus do with a sincere and honest Heart shall turn to our eternal Advantage in the great and terrible Day The Proceedings then shall be determined by Acts of Kindness and Benificence and whatever we shall do for any of his poor distressed Members shall be rewarded as if it had been done to our Blessed Lord himself For so it shall be declared before that general Assembly of Men and Angels Verily I say unto you in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me II. But if this Charity be the only thing that makes our Alms profitable to us then Secondly without this whatever we give shall be of no Advantage at all as to our eternal Concerns In all Matters of a Moral Nature the End and Motive upon which they are done is always the thing that is to be principally considered It is that which specifies the Action and makes it Good or Evil when it was before in it self indifferent And therefore tho' a good End can by no means justify a bad Action yet a bad End does certainly spoil a good one It will not sanctify a Murder if a Man should imagine he committed it for the Glory of God but it will turn our Charity into Malice and Revenge if we relieve one poor Man with a design to inable him to ruin another It must be Compassion to our Neighbour and Obedience to Almighty God that can make our Liberality to the indigent and necessitous any way acceptable When a thing is discovered to be bestowed with an ill will or a sinister intent it does not oblige even him that receives it The poor Man may be glad of the Dole but he cannot have a good Opinion of him that gave it But taking it for granted in the general that it is the kind and charitable Intention of the Donor and not the bare distribution of our Goods that makes our Bounty really valuable in the Eyes of God and Men I shall lay down a few particular Instances of some of the false Ends which Men may sometimes propose to themselves and which are too often the chief inducement they have to be Liberal to the Poor 1. And the first and it may be the most common of these is Vain-Glory This may incline Men to give freely enough to the Necessities of those that are in Distress but it is only to purchase a Reputation and gain the good Opinion of the People and to be admired and applauded for Persons of noble and generous Minds This was that which oppened the Hands of the proud Pharisees they were griping and rapacious to the highest Degree but their Ambition and Thirst after Praise was stronger than their Covetousness They would therefore give Alms but it was that they might be seen of men They would have their good Deeds proclaimed and published as it were by the sound of a Trumpet If they happened to find an object of Pity in the Street or the Market-place or the Synagogue where the People might crowd about them to observe what they did they would not fail to relieve him but if they had met the same Person in the Wilderness where there had been no Witness of their Actions they would have suffered him to perish without any remorse This is the Charity of the Pharisaical Hypocrite But he that is sincerely Charitable rejoyces at all opportunities of doing Good and rather prefers that which is the most Secret and is best pleased when he has no other Witnesses of his Bounty but only God and his own Conscience 'T is true indeed it is our Saviour's Command Mat. v. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify not you but your Father which is in Heaven We must not altogether decline the being seen when we do Good but we must not do it only to be seen It must be for Example and not for Ostentation that others may be excited and encouraged to do the like to benefit our Neighbours and bring praise unto God and not to gratify a foolish itch of popular Applause Otherwise as we are expresly told Mat. vi 17. We have no reward of our Father which is in Heaven For he that seeks Honour to himself by an external shew of Charity or Piety or whatever it be makes himself his own Idol He serves not God but an idle vain-glorious Humor and he may possibly gain what he so earnestly desires he may be admired and magnified here but he shall get nothing hereafter but shame and everlasting contempt 2. A Second false End that Men may have is an opinion of Merit This mistake we know is mightily favoured and industriously nourished by those of the Romish Communion They perswade their Votaries to be liberal to the Poor and so far it is very well done especially they encourage them to be very bountiful to the Mendicants and other Religious Orders as they call them who pretend to have renounced the World and make profession of a kind of voluntary Poverty And in this what Design they may have we are not ignorant but whatever it be their Doctrine of Merit is a very high Presumption and that which will loose them the Fruit of their Labours they might otherwise have expected For when we have done if we could do all those things which are commanded us we must yet acknowledge and say that we are unprofitable servants For tho' God has been pleased of his mere Goodness and