Satan Teacheth them and as selfish Pride and Worldly interest incline them what wonder if such Love have murdered 30000 or 40000 at once in France and 200000 in Ireland and have filled the Christian World with Religious Blood Read but the doleful Histories of Church Contentions for 1300 years the Stories of their Wars and mutual Persecutions the Streams of Blood that have been shed in East and West the inquisitions and bloody Laws still kept up and all this as Good Works and done in Love and you would think that the Sacred Roman Hierarchy did Believe that Christ hath put down the Legal Sacrificing of Beasts that he might instead of it have the blood of men and that he who requireth his Disciples to lay down their lives for him would have a Priesthood kept up to Sacrifice their lives to him that will not wilfully break his Laws And all this is but as Christ foretold us that his Servants should be kill'd as a piece of Service to God No wonder if such men offer God a ludicrous mimical sort of Service and Worship him in vain by heartless lip-labour according to the Traditions of men when they dare Sacrifice Saints to the Lord of Saints and quiet their Consciences by calling them such as they are themselves But to the honour of Goodness and the shame of Sin to shew that they sin against the Light of Nature it self they put the Name of Evil upon Good before they dare openly oppose and persecute it and they put the Names of Good upon Evil before they dare defend and justifie it But alas it is not only the Ungodly that do mischief thinking verily that it is good How many doth the Church suffer by while they prosecute their mistakes who yet do much good in promoting the common truth which Christians are agreed in 2. He that will do Good to all or many must have an unfeigned Love to them Hatred is mischievous and neglect is unprofitable Love is the natural Fountain of Beneficence Love earnestly longeth to do good and delighteth in doing it It maketh many to be as One and to be as ready to help others as each Member of the Body is to help the rest Love maketh anothers wants sufferings and sorrows to be our own And who is not willing to help himself Love is a principle ready active ingenious and constant It studieth to do good and would still do more It is Patient with the infirmities of others which men void of love do aggravate into odiousness and make them their excuse for all their neglects and their pretence for all their Cruelties Could you make all the slanderers backbiters revilers despisers persecuters to love their Neighbours as themselves you may easily Judge what would be the effect and whether they would revile or prosecute or imprison or ruine themselves or study how to make themselves odious or suborne perjured witnesses against themselves 3. Yea he that will do good to many must Love many better than himself and preferre the Common-good much before his own and seek his own in the Common-welfare He that loveth good as good will best Love the best And an honest old Roman would have called him an unworthy beast that preferred his Estate or life before the Common welfare To be ready to do suffer or die for their Country was a vertue which all extolled A narrow-Spirited selfish man will serve others no further than it serveth himself or at least will stand with his own safety or prosperity He will turn as the Weathercock and be for them that are for his worldly interest I confess that God oft useth such for common good But it is by raising such storms as would sink them with the Ship and leaving them no great hope to escape by being false Or by Permiting such Villanies as threaten their own interest A Covetous Father may be against gaming and prodigality in his Children The men of this World are wise in their generation Many that have Abby Lands will be against Popery And even Atheists and Licentious men may be loth to be slaves to Politick Priests and to come under Confession and perhaps the Inquisition And those that have not sinned themselves into madness or gross delusions will be loth to set up a Forieign Jurisdiction and become the Subjects of an unknown Priest if they can help it God often useth vice against vice and if no worldly selfish men were the Countries or the Churches helpers it must suffer or trust to Miracles But yet there is no trust to be put in these men further than their own interest must stand or fall with the Common good If God and Heaven and Conscience be not more powerful with a man than worldly interest trust him not against the stream and tide or when he thinks he can make a better bargain for himself He that will sell Heaven and Christ for the world will sell you for it and sell his Country for it and sell Religion truth and honesty for it And if he scape here the end of Achitophel and Judas he will venture on all that 's out of sight Christ was the grand Benefactor to the world and the most excellent teacher of Love and self-denyal and contempt of the world to all that will follow him in doing good to many 4. He that will do much good must be good himself Make the tree good if you would have good fruit Operari sequitur esse A bad man is an Enemy to the greatest good that he should do Malignity abhorreth serious piety and will such promote it If Elias be a man of Miracles he shall hear Hast thou found me O my Enemy And Michaiah shall hear I hate him for he Prophesieth not good of me but evil Feed him with the Bread and Water of Affliction And a bad Man if by accident he be engaged for a good cause is still suspected by those that know him They cannot trust him as being a slave to lust and to strong Temptations and a secret Enemy to the true interest of his Country Alas the best are hardly to be trusted far as being lyable to miscarry by infirmity how little then is to be hoped for from the wicked 5. He that will do much good in the world must be furnished with considerable abilities Especially prudence and skill in knowing when and to whom and how to do it Without this he will do more harm than good Even good men when they have done much good by some one miscarriage tempted by the remnants of selfishness and Pride and by unskilful rashness have undone all the good they did and done as much hurt as wicked enemies There goeth so much to publick good and so many snares are to be avoided that rash self-conceited half-witted men do seldom do much unless under the conduct of wiser men 6. He that will be a publick blessing to the world must have a very large prospect and see the state of all the world
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
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
cast you into Melancholy and disability at last six days shalt thou labour is more than a permission It s Saint Paul's Canon he that will not work if able let him not cat And it was King Solomons Mother who taught him the description of a virtuous Woman Prov. 31. She eateth not the bread of Idleness ver 27. God will have mercy and obedience as better than Sacrifice The Sentence in Judgment is upon doing good to Christ in his members Mat. 25. When many that heard much and Prophesied shall be cast out Mat. 7. 21. Doing good is the surest way of receiving good The duties of the first and second Table must go together He that is not zealous to do good as well as to get good hath not the peculiar nature of Christs Flock Tit. 2. 14. And zeal will be diligent and not for sloth 2. The other sort of the Idle are rich ungodly worldly persons who live as if God did give them plenty for nothing but to pamper their own flesh and feed their own and others sensuality They think that persons of wealth and honour may lawfully spend their time in idleness That is in Sodoms sin Ezek. 16. 49. As if God expected least where he giveth most How little Conscience do many Lords and Ladies make of an Idle hour or life when poor mens labour is such as tendeth to the Common good the rich by Luxury Sacrifice to the flesh the fruits of other mens endeavours and instead of living in any profitable employment devour that which thousands labour for It is not the toilsome drudgery of the vulgar which we take to be all rich folks duty But Idleness and unprofitableness is a sin in the richest Any of them may find good work enough that's sit for them if they be willing Children and Servants and Friends and Neighbours and Tenants have Souls and bodies which need their help None can say God found us no work to do Or that God gave them more time or wealth than they had prosuable use for Little do they think what it will be ere long to reckon for all their Time and Estates and to be Judged according to their works And their own flesh often payeth dear for its ease and pleasure by those pains and diseases which God hath suited to their sins and which usually shortens the Lives which they no better use or snatch them away from that Time and Wealth which they spent in preparing fuel for Hell and food for the Worm that never dyeth V. But what is it that a man should do that would do good to all or many There are some Good Works which are of far greater tendency than others to the good of many some of them I will name to you I. Do as much good as you are able to mens bodies in order to the greater good of Souls If nature be not supported men are not capable of other good We pray for our daily bread before pardon and spiritual blessings not as if it were better but that nature is supposed before grace and we cannot be Christians if we be not men God hath so placed the soul in the body that good or evil shall make its entrance by the bodily senses to the Soul This way God himself conveyeth many of his blessings and this way he inflicteth his Corrections Ministers that are able and willing to be liberal find by great experience that kindness and bounty to mens bodies openeth their Ear to Counsel and maketh them willing to hear instruction Those in France that are now trying mens Religion in the Market and are at work with Money in one hand and a Sword in the other do understand this to be true All men are sensible of pain or pleasure good or evil to the flesh before they are sensible what 's necessary for their Souls You must therefore speak on that side which can hear and work upon the feeling part if you will do good Besides this your Charity may remove many great impediments and temptations It is no easie thing to keep Heavenly thoughts upon your mind and specially to delight in God and keep the relish of his Law upon your hearts while pinching wants are calling away your mind and disturbing it with troublesome passions To suffer some hunger and go in vile Apparel is not very difficult But when there is a Family to provide for a discontented Wife and Children to satisfie Rents and Debts and Demands unpaid it must be an excellent Christian that can live contentedly and cast all his useless care on God and keep up the sense of his Love and a delight in all his Service Do your best to save the poor from such Temptations as you would your selves be saved from them And when you give to the poor that are ignorant and ungodly give them after it some Counsel for their Souls or some good Book which is suited to their Cases II. If you would do good to many set your selves to promote the practical knowledge of the great truths necessary to Salvation I. Goodness will never be enjoyed or practised without knowledg Ignorance is darkness the State of his Kingdom who is the Prince of darkness who by the works of darkness leadeth the blind World to utter darkness God is the Father of Lights and giveth wisdom to them that ask and seek it He sent his Son to be the Light of the World His Word and Ministers are subordinate Light His Servants are all the Children of Light Ignorance is virtually Errour and errour the cause of sin and misery And men are not born wise but must be made wise by skilful diligent teaching Parents should begin it Ministers should second them But alas how many Millions are neglected by both And how many neglect themselves when Ministers have done their best Ignorance and errour are the common Road to wickedness misery and hell 2. But what can any others do for such Two things I will remember you of 1. Set up such Schools as shall teach Children to read the Scriptures and learn the Catechism or Principles of Religion Our departed Friend Mr. Thomas Gouge did set us an excellent Pattern for Wales I think we have Grammar Schools enough It is not the knowledg of Tongues and Arts and Curious Sciences which the common people want but the right understanding of their Baptismal Covenant with God and of the Creed Lords Prayer Decalogue and Church Communion A poor honest man or a good woman will Teach Children thus much for a small stipend better than they are taught it in most Grammar Schools And I would none went to the Universities without the sound understanding of the Catechism Yea I would none came thence or into the Pulpit without it 2. When you have got them to read give them good books especially Bibles and good Catechisms and small practical books which press the fundamentals on their Consciences Such books are good Catechisms Many learn the words of the Creed Lords
Prayer Commandments and Catechism by rote and never understand them when a lively book that awakeneth their Consciences bringeth them to sensible consideration and to a true understanding of the same things which before they could repeat without sense or savour It is the Catechistical truths which most of our English Sermons press And the lively pressing them maketh them pierce deeper than a Catechism If men that in life or at death give a stated revenue for good works would settle the one half on a Catechizing English School and the other half on some sutable good books it may prove a very great means of publick reformation When a good book is in the House if some despise it others may read it and when one Parish is provided every years rent may extend the Charity to other Parishes and it may spread over a whole Country in a little time Most of the good that God hath done for me for knowledge or Conscience hath been by sound and pious books III. A great means of publick good is the right ordering of Families all the week but especially on the Lords day Tho the Ministry be the usual means of Converting Heathens and Insidels Christian Education by Parents is the first means appointed by God for the holy principling of youth Parents must teach them with unwearied diligence lying down and rising up Deut. 6. 11. And they that will expect Gods blessing must use his appointed means Nature teacheth men and brutes to provide for their off-spring with diligence and patience And as Grace teacheth believers to expect far greater things for themselves and their Children than this world affordeth so it obligeth them to be at so much greater diligence to obtain it An everlasting Kingdom deserveth more labour than a trade of full estate for the flesh If all Parents did their parts to make their Children Sanctified Believers as well as they expect the Schoolmaster should do his part to make them Scholars and the Master do his part to teach them their Trades we might hope that Ministers would find them fitter for Church work and that Godliness would not be so rare nor so many wicked Children break their Parent hearts But of this I have spoken lately in my Counsel to young men Religion is never like to prosper if it be not made a Family work If it be there made the chief business of the house and done with reverent seriousness and constancy if Magistracy and Ministry should fail yet families would propagate and preserve it Begin with a reverent beging the help and blessing of God then read his word and call upon his name Speak serious words of Counsel to inferiours spend the Lords day as much as may be in publick worship and the rest in reading Godly books and in singing Gods praise and calling on his Name Put suitable books into the hands of Servants and Children to read when they have leisure Encourage them in it with Love and rewards and keep them out of the way of temptation And then Gods blessing will dwell in your Families and they will be as Churches of God If any complain of negligent Ministers or persecuting Magistrates and will not do their own Family duties which none forbids they condemn themselves IV. If you would be publick blessings and do good to many do your best to procure a skilful faithful Ministry in the Church 1. Send no Son to the University who doth not first shew these three qualifications a capable natural wit and utterance a love to serious practical Religion a great desire to serve God in the Ministry tho it should be in suffering from men If they want any one of these design them to some other Calling devote not an undisposed Lad to the Ministry in hope that God will make him better but stay till he is better 2. Seeing Pastors are here obtruded on the flock it is a work of great importance for Religious Gentlemen to buy as many Advowsons or Presentations as they can that they may introduce the best that they can get God hath hitherto made use of the qualifications of the Ministers as the special means for the welfare of his Church The bare title and office is so far from sufficing without the skill and fidelity of the persons that such have been the great corrupters and disturbers of the Church When pious men have heaped up riches and honours on the Clergy these have been baits for the worst men to become seekers and make the sacred Ministry but a trade for wealth And if carnal worldly men be Ministers alas what plagues may they be to the people and themselves They will hate the Spiritual practice of doctrine which they Preach when they have told men of a Heaven and Hell and the necessity of a holy heart and life as if they had been in jeast they will take those for hypocrites that believe them and live accordingly They will take the best of the flock for their Enemies because they are Enemies to their hypocrisie and vice Instead of imitating Saint Paul Act. 20. who taught them publickly and from House to House day and night with tears they will turn the Ministry into Complement and formality and think that by saying a cold unskilful Sermon and by roteing over a few heartless words they have laudably performed their part They will take those for their best hearers who will most honour them and best pay them tho never so ignorant and ungodly and their spleen will swell against the best and most Religious people because they dislike their unfaithful lives and Ministration If Religion should be in publick danger these will be the Judas'es that will sell it for gain They will do anything rather than suffer much They are Ministers of the world and not of Christ Readier to make Crosses for others than to bear the Cross of Christ For it is Gain that is their Godliness And when their treachery is seen and hated they will hate the haters of it And the studies of Malignant men will be their Laboratories and the Pulpits the place where the sublimate and essence of malice must be vended How effectually will Satans work be done when it is performed in the formalities of the Sacred Ministry and in the name of Christ O what hath the Church suffered by a worldly graceless Ministry these thousand years and more and what doth it yet suffer by them in East and West But on the other side a skilful faithful Minister will Preach sound Doctrine and worship God with serious devotion and live to Christ and the Churches good He will speak the word of truth and life with truth and liveliness As one that believeth what he saith and feeleth the power of it on his heart Tho he must have Food and Rayment as other men it is the saving and edifing of Souls which is his work to which he bendeth all his studies for which he prayeth and longeth and in which he rejoyceth
of publick self-defence against its publick enemies that is against any that by his Religion or his own profession bindeth himself to destroy that Nation if he can or by open arms seeketh no less than their destruction But as few calamities are worse to a Land than War so much is to be endured to prevent it It is like a red hot Iron which Fools lay hold on thinking it is cold till it fetch off skin and flesh to the bones and perhaps set the house on fire If your Cause be bad God will not be for you and he that so taketh the Sword shall perish with the Sword and if you bite and devour one another you shall be devoured one of another And alas thousands of the innocent usually perish or are ruined in the flames which furious men do kindle No doubt as suffering a Prison so venturing in War is a duty when God calls you to it But in its self a Prison is a far more desireable sort of suffering than a War Therefore between the danger of the miseries of an unlawful War and the danger of betraying our King or Kingdom for want of necessary defence how cautelous should all sober Christians be IX If you would promote the common good do your best to procure wise and faithful Rulers Quest What can private men do in this Ans 1. In Cases where they have choosing Voices they ought to prefer the best with greatest resolution and not for slothfulness to omit their part nor for worldly interest or the fear of men betray their Country as ever they would escape the punishment of the perfidious Wo to that Judas that sells his Country and Conscience for any bribe or by self-saving fear 2. In other Cases where you have no Choosing Vote with men you have a praying Voice with God Pray for Kings and all in Authority that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty God hath commanded no duty in vain Do it earnestly and constantly and hope for a good issue from God Do it not selfishly that you may have prosperity or preferment by them but sincerely for their own and the Common good God is the Fountain of power the absolute Soveraign of all the world Men are but his Provincial officers none claimeth an universal Government of the world but one that pretendeth to be Christs Vicar General and none believe his claim but blinded men There is no power but of and under God who hath made Rulers his Ministers for our good to be a praise to them that do well and a terrour to evil doers that they that will not be moved with the hopes of Gods future rewards and the fears of his punishments may be moved by that which is near them within the reach of sense And all men regard their bodies tho only believers are ruled by the everlasting interest of their Souls Therefore pray hard for Kings and Magistrates For if they be good they are exceeding great blessings to the world They will remember that their power is for God and the Common Good and that to God they must give a strict account They will take Gods Law for the only Universal Law to the world and conform their own as By-Laws to it They will take their own interest to consist in pleasing God and promoting the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ and the piety and saving of Mens Souls They will be Examples of serious Godliness of Justice and sobriety trustiness and temperance and Chastity to their subjects in their eyes a vile person will be contemned but they will honour those that fear the Lord Psal 15. 4. They will Love those most that Love Christ best and most deligently obey him and tenderly fear to sin against him Those please them best that please God best and are most useful to the common good They will set their hearts on the peoples welfare and are watching for all while all securely live under their vigilancy They will cherish all that Christ cherisheth and specially the faithful Pastors of the Churches that seek not the world but the welfare of the flocks When some are saying In this Mountain we must worship God and some at Jerusalem they will teach them all to worship God in Spirit and truth When Pastors and people grow pievish and quarrelsome for their several interests opinions and wills a Constantine will cast all their Libels into the fire and rebuke the unpeaceable and restreine the violent and teach them to forgive and love each other and will be the great Justice of Peace to all the Churches in the Land and pare their nailes that would tear and scratch their Brethren He will Countenance the sound and peaceable and tolerate all the tolerable but will tie the hands of strikers and the tongues of revilers He will contrive the healing of exasperated minds and take away the occasions of division and rebuke them that call for fire from Heaven or for the Sword to do that which belongeth to the word or to execute their pride and wrath Godliness will have all the encouragement they can giveit and innocency a full defence Malignity and Persecution and Perjury and unpeaceable revenge will be hateful where they rule and they had rather men feared sin too much than too little and would have all men prefer the Law and honour of God to theirs where the Righteous bear rule the people rejoyce The wisdom piety and impartiality of their Governours suppresseth prophaneness oppression and contention and keepeth men in the way of love and peace and as the welfare of all is the care of such a Ruler above his own pleasure wealth or will so he will have the hearts and hands and wealth of all with readiness to serve him No wonder if such are called Nursing Fathers and the light of our eyes and the breath of our Nostrils and the shaddow of a rock in a weary Land As they bear the Image of Gods Supereminency and doubly honour him they are doubly honoured by him so that the names of pious Princes shew not only the sense of Mankind but the special providence of God in making the memory of the Just to be blessed And as they could not indure to see in their days ungodliness triumph or serious godliness made a scorn or Conscience and fear of sinning made a disgrace or the Gospel hindred and faithful Ministers forbid to preach it so God will not suffer their Consciences to want the sense of his Love nor their departing Souls to fail of their everlasting hopes nor their memories to be clouded by obscurity or reproach Even among Heathens What a name have those Emperours left behind them who lived in justice charity and all virtue and wholly studied the good of all What a wonder is it that M. Antonine should be so extolled by so many Writers and not one of them all that I remember speak one word of evil of him save that a small and
short persecution of the Christians was made by some in his time till he restrained it And all the people almost deified him and would have perpetuated his Line and Name in the Throne but that the horrid wickedness of his Posterity forced them to a change What a name hath excellent Alexander Severus left behind him And what a blessing have wise and godly and peacemaking Christian Princes been in divers ages to the world And both the inferiour Magistrates and the Clergy usually much conform themselves at least in outward behaviour to their example For they will choose men of wisdom Conscience and Justice under them to judge and govern The Bishops and Pastors which they choose will be able Godly laborious men not seekers of worldly wealth and Honour not envious silencers of faithful Preachers nor jealous hinderers of Religious duties nor flattering man-pleasers nor such as Lord it over Gods heritage but such as rule not by constraint but willingly as Examples of Love and piety to the flock Pray hard therefore for Kings and all in Authority and honour all such as unspeakable blessings for the good of all But on the contrary wicked Rulers will be Satans Captains against Jesus Christ and Mens Sanctification and Salvation They will be Wolves in the place of Shepherds and will study to destroy the best of the people and to root out all serious Godliness and Justice Conscience and fearing sin will be to them a suspected yea a hated thing If any abuse it it serves them for a pretence against it They take the peoples welfare and their own interest to be enemies and presently look on these whom they should rule and cherish as the adversaries whom they must tread down They will purposely make Edicts and Laws that are contrary to Gods Law that they may have advantage to persecute the faithful and to destroy them as disobedient They will study to conquer Conscience and obedience to God lest his Authority should be regarded above theirs and Christ is used by them as if he were a Usurper and not their Soveraign but were again to be taken for an enemy to Caesar and their hatred to true Ministers will be such as Pauls accusers intimate who said he Preached another King one Jesus Wicked Rulers will be the Capital Enemies to all that will be enemies to wickedness and resolved to please God and save their Souls They will not be obeyed under God but before him nor served by the faithful Servants of Christ nor pleased but at the rate of mens damnation by displeasing God All men love their like The worst men if flatterers will seem the best to them and the best the worst and most intolerable And Church and State is like to be Written by their Copy O what dreadful Plagues have wicked Rulers been to the world and what a dismal case do they continue the Earth in to this day Not but that People and especially Priests do contribute hereto But the chief Authors are men in greatest power Five parts of six of the World at this day are Heathens and Infidels And what 's the Cause Rulers will not suffer the Gospel to be Preached to them The Eastern Christians were all torn in pieces by the wickedness and contention of the Governours of the State and Church banishing and murdering one another so that when the Turks invaded them the promise of Liberty to exercise their Religion tempted them to make the less resistance thinking they could not be much worse than before But the Vulgar are so apt to follow the Rulers that ever since the most of the Easterns are apostatized from Christ and turned to Mahometanism And tho in those Countries where the Turk alloweth the Christian people to have Governours of their own Religion somewhat prospereth yet where that priviledge is denied them and Turks only are their Rulers it withereth away and comes to almost nothing And what keepeth out Reformation that is the Primitive simple Christianity from the Popish Countries that have Religion corrupted by humane superfluities but the seduction of Priests and the Tyranny of Rulers that will not endure the Preaching of the Gospel and the opening of the Scriptures to the people in a known Tongue How much holy blood have Roman and Spanish Inquisitors and French and Irish Murderers and most other Popish Rulers to Answer for Even Walsh the Papist in his Irish History tells us all out of Ketin and others how commonly in Ages they lived there in the Sin of bloody Wars and Murders yea even when they professed greatest holiness Wicked Rulers are as the Pikes in the Pond which live by devouring all about them It is Satans main design in the world to corrupt Gods two great Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry and turn them both against Christs Kingdom and to destroy Christians in Christs Name Oh therefore pray hard that all Christian Nations may have good Rulers and be very thankful to God for such X. And if you would be instruments of publick Good know what are publick sins and dangers that you may do your part against them and joyn not with any that will promise never to endeavour any reforming alteration The chiefest are Ignorance Pride and Self-willedness in Teachers and People malignant enmity to goodness impatience with the infirmities of good men judging of persons and things by self-interest covetousness sensuality and taking Christianity but as the Religion of the Land without diligent Study to be rooted in the Truth And the scandals of Hypocrites and tempted Christians hardening the enemies especially by divisions and publick temerities and miscarriages is not the least XI I would also in order to publick good perswade serious Christians to be more zealous in Communication with their Neighbours and live not over-strangely to others and say not as Cain Am I my Brothers keeper Be kind and loving to all about you and live not as unknown men to them nor alienate them by sourness contempt or needless singularity But become all things lawful to all men to save some Lend them good books and draw them to hear Gods faithful Ministers Perswade them to pray in their Families even with a Form or Book till they need it not XII Lastly if you would do good be such as you would have others be and teach them by Examples of Piety Charity Patience Self-denial Forbearing and Forgiving And not by meer words contradicted by your lives These are the materials by which you must do good to all VI. What now remaineth but that we all set our selves to such a fruitful Course of life I greatly rejoice in the Grace of God which I daily see in many such of my familiar acquaintance who study to do good to all and to live in Love and Peace and Holiness by example and by self-denial and constant Charity using Christs Talents to their Masters ends for the temporal and eternal good of many But alas too many live as if it were enough to