Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	good_a	grace_n	lord_n	7,245	5	3.6848	3	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

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

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 Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a People zealous of good Works LONDON Printed for Rob. Gibs at the Ball in Chancery Lane 1682. The Contents GAL. 6. 10. Doct. To do Good to all men is all mens duty to which every Christian especially must apply himself I. Who this All meaneth and in what order p. 4. II. What is the Good that we must do p. 5. III. The Rules for judging and doing good p. 5. IV. What qualifications are necessary hereto 1. To know good from evil p. 6. 2. To love all men p. 8. 3. To love many and the Common good above himself p. 9. 4. To be good himself p. 10. 5. Suitable abilities 6. A large prospect of the world and of time to come 7. Christian fortitude against discouragement 8. To look to God for his reward p. 11. And finally believe the life to come The Impediments of doing good p. 12. V. Particular good works or directions for publick good I. Do as much good as you can to mens bodies in order to the good of Souls p. 15. II. Promote knowledge of necessary truth 1. Set up Reading Schools 2. Give Bibles and good Books p. 16. III. Order Families aright and Educate Children for Christ p. 18. IV. Promote a faithfull Ministry 1. Devote not your Children to the Ministry that are unqualified p. 18. 2. Let honest Rich men buy Presentations The difference between good and bad Pastors p. 19. V. Keep order and Discipline in particular Churches p. 20. VI. Promote Love and Concord with all that deserve to be called Christians p. 21. Who those are p. 22. VII Do your best to keep up sound Religion in the Parish Churches and do nothing to deprave or lose it there p. 24. VIII See that no injuries tempt you into Sedition or unlawful Wars What is lawful Patiently trust God and cut not the Infant of deliverance out of the Womb before his time of birth p. 25. IX Do your best to procure faithful and just Rulers What private men may do The great difference between good Rulers and bad p. 30. X. Know publick sins and dangers to oppose them p. 31. XI Know your duty to your Neighbours and be not strange to them XII Be such as you would make others p. 31. Use of exhortation to do good Cavils refuted Motives to do good to many p. 33. Specially to Magistrates and Ministers p. 35. Consectaries 1. A selfish fleshly life is the state of Hypocrites p. 38. 2. How carefully should we take heed of doing hurt p. 39. 3. It s not enough to leave others to do good by our last Wills 4. Yet dying men should do what good they can by their Wills p. 39. Leaving great Estates to Children who are like to do hurt with them or no good but live in idleness and fulness proved a great sin and the objections answered p. 40. 5. Humbly proposed to Merchants and Rich men 1. Whether our Factories might not be made more useful to promote the Gospel by Chaplains and Factors 2. Whether Armenians Greeks and Mofcovites might not be helpt and how 3. Might not more be dove for the Natives in our Plantations 4. Or at last for the Blacks that are their slaves p. 45. 6. The great opposition to good in all the World by Satan and his Servants the more obligeth all Christs Servants to seek to over do them and to be zealous of good works p. 46. ERRATA Page 1. blot out 1 before Gal. 6. pa. 26. 1. 15 for Cold read Gold pa. 23. 1. 31. for with read within TO THE TRULY CHRISTIAN Merchants and other Citizens OF LONDON AS my Disease and the Restraint of Rulers seem to tell me that my Pulpit work is at an end so also my abode among you or in this World cannot be long What Work I have lived for I have given the World more durable notice than transient words It hath been such as Men in Power were against and it seems will no longer indure What Doctrine it was that I last prepared for you I thought meet to desire the Press thus to tell you not to vindicate my self nor to characterize them who think that it deserves six months imprisonment but to be in your hands a Provocation and Direction for that great Work of a Christian Life which sincerely done will prepare you for that safety joy and glory which London England or Earth will not afford and which men or Devils cannot take from you When through the meritorious righteousness of Christ your holy Love and good Works to him in his Brethren shall make you the joyful Objects of that Sentence Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom c. This is the life that need not be repented of as spent in vain Dear Friends in this Farewel I return you my most hearty thanks for your extraordinary love and kindness to my self and much more for your love to Christ and to his Servants who have more needed your releif God is not unjust to forget your work and labour of Love You have visited those that others imprisoned and fed those that others brought into want and when some ceased not to preach for our affliction it quenched not your impartial Charity It hath been an unspeakable Mercy unto me almost all my dayes when I received nothing from them to have known so great a number as I have done of serious humble holy charitable Christians In whom I saw that Christ hath an Elect peculiar People quite different from the brutish proud hypocritical malignant unbeleiving World O how sweet hath the familiarity of such been to me whom the ignorant World hath hated most of them are gone to Christ I am following We leave you here to longer tryal It s like you have a bitter Cup to drink But be faithful to the death and Christ will give you the Crown of Life The Word of God is not bound and the Jerusalem above is free where is the general Assembly of the first Born an innumerable company of Angels the Spirits of the just made perfect with Christ their glorified Head The Lord guide bless and preserve you How to do Good to Many OR THE PUBLICK GOOD IS THE CHRISTIANS LIFE c. 1 Gal. 6. 10. As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all Men especially unto them who are of the houshold of Faith GOOD is an Epithite of the highest signification of any in humane Language Some think the Name GOD is thence derived Greatness and Wisdom are equally his Attributes but Goodness is the completion and sweetest to the Creature Christ appropriateth it to God to be good that is essentially primarily and perfectly and universally communicative