Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	bring_v	good_a	tree_n	9,027	5	9.0012	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55639	Publick-spiritedness recommended. A sermon preach'd before the gentlemen educated in merchant-taylors school, at Bow-Church, December 10. 1700. By Samuel Prat, D.D. chaplain to Her Royal Highness the Princess, and late almoner to His Highness the Duke of Glocester.	Pratt, Samuel, 1659?-1723.	1700 (1700)	Wing P3183; ESTC R214731	11,787	32

out a distressed Family to Relieve it if we seek out a disconsolate Family to Comfort it that will be our own Family it will always own us before God and we our selves shall enjoy as it were the Affluence the Refreshments the Joys of that Family If we deal out our bread to the hungry and satisfy the thirsty soul if we set free the Prisoner and take the burden from off the shoulder of the Oppressed if we instruct the ignorant and give advice to him that is destitute of Understanding if we are a Father to the Fatherless and a Husband to the Widow in all these we have an Interest and if they shou'd prove so ungrateful as not to acknowledge it yet he who has commanded us not to seek our own but to seek the good of others he will acknowledge it and he will reward it But that Reward though it be sure and certain must not be the only Motive upon which we do all this that will be seeking our own if what we do for others be only upon the hopes that God will retaliate and pay it back to us and much less may we propose to our selves any Secular and Temporal Advantage from the Benefits we confer upon our Fellow-Brethren we must not advance the Fortunes of our Relations because it is for our Credit and Reputation that they make a better Figure in the World but because we are more sensible of the Wants and Necessities of those that are near us than of those that are afar off we must not do good to our Tenants or our Chapmen or our Servants because they may be the better able to pay us or to deal with us or to serve us but because they have a dependance upon us and because they have a greater Right to our Assistance than others of equal Necessity We must not Relieve any one because he is a more conspicuous Object of Charity but because he is a Greater We must do good to him that will be most sensible of the Benefit rather than to him that will most thankfully acknowledge it So likewise in Duties to our selves we must not seek our own upon selfish Motives we must not be Temperate in Meat and Drink for the sake only of our Ease and Health but chiefly in Obedience to God and for a good Example to others we must not be sober in our Conversation and discreet in our Actions only because we are in such an Employment Place or Office but rather because we profess the Gospel of Christ and are call'd by his Name We must not be industrious in our Acquisitions and frugal in our Expences that we may fill our Bags and enlarge our Lands but because we have a Family to provide for or some great Acts of Charity and Munificence to perform We must not do great and glorious Actions for the Reputation that we may gain by 'em but for the Glory of God and the Honour of our Countrey all our Designs must be of a large and regular Circumference our Hopes and Desires must be elevated above our selves we must never stoop so low as to any selfish Consideration But every one must consider himself as no more than one among the rest of Mankind a Servant of Christ's and a Member of his Body and therefore he must seek that only as is most pleasing to his Lord and most beneficial to the Advantage of the whole he must seek to walk worthy of his Lord unto all pleasing and be fruitful in every good work as a Tree that brings not forth for itself but for others he must seek all Occasions and Opportunities of doing good to every one he must make every body's Case his own and be a Partaker and Fellow-feeler in every one's Circumstances he must rejoice with them that rejoice and mourn with them that mourn however he be Transported with his own Affairs to do good and to communicate he must not forget he must weigh his Vertue and measure his Grace and number his Days by the Good that he does to Mankind he must look upon himself as poor and miserable and destitute when he has not an Opportunity of Feeding the Hungry and Cloathing the Naked and Visiting the Sick and Comforting the Afflicted he must seek Occasions and Opportunities of doing all this and much more and he must rejoice when he hath found out a way of making others easy and happy For as the Enemy of God and Man goes about seeking whom he may devour so he who will be a Friend to God and Man must go about seeking whom he may support to which of all those for whom Christ died he may be any ways serviceable And now had I time I might apply my self more particularly to you who are here present as a Society The Self-gratification with which we this Day meet one another is one of the most Innocent at least if not likewise most Commendable Enjoyments that Human Nature is capable of We renew hereby our Pure Dis-interested and Virgin Friendships we bring back to our Remembrance the pleasing Images of the most lively Scenes the sweet Ideas of the Spring-time of our Age We look back upon the Original Figures that we made in the School we reflect upon the Wit the Docility the Sagacity the Good Humour of our tender Years we see as it were after a Resuscitation the known Air and Features of each one whom we then lov'd and esteem'd Sic oculos sic ille manus sic or a ferebat Virg. 〈◊〉 And here we compare our selves by our selves and what we are now we judge of one another by what we have been We see how the Gifts of Nature have been improv'd and how at the same time the Gifts of Fortune or that with St. Austin I may retract the Word the other Gifts of Providence have not alter'd us but that the same Love Friendship and Familiarity continues as at this day And we come hither to tast and see how good and gracious God has been to us in the prolonging of our Lives and blessing our Endeavours and putting us into a Capacity of being beneficial to others by which means others may behold and see and feel too how pleasant and joyful a thing it is Brethren to dwell together in Unity For though Self-satisfaction may be allow'd us in all these things yet we come not hither I hope to seek that only The main design of this Meeting is to seek the Good of others to seek it by contributing thereto I appeal to the inmost Thoughts of every one of our hearts whether we don't mean this day to vie in some measure with all the Societies in England of this kind And wherein shall we vie in the Honour and Antiquity of our School that indeed is very great but in this we must give way to one or more Is it in the Illustrious Conduct under which it now at this time flourishes Is it in the numerousness of Scholars within doors that