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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	faith_n	fruit_n	justification_n	5,104	5	9.2286	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31012	A sermon preach'd June 1, 1699, at Feckenham in Worcester-shire, before the trustees appointed by Sir Thomas Cookes, Kt. Bart. to manage his charity given to that place by John Baron ...	Baron, John, 1669 or 70-1722.	1699 (1699)	Wing B879; ESTC R10496	18,182	44

A SERMON Preach'd June 1. 1699. AT Feckenham IN WORCESTER-SHIRE Before the Trustees appointed by Sir Thomas Cookes Kt. Bart. To Manage his Charity given to that Place By JOHN BARON M. A. and Fellow of Balliol College in Oxford To him that soweth Righteousness shall be a sure Reward Prov. 11.18 OXFORD Printed by Leon. Lichfield 1699. To the Right Worshipful Sir Tho. Cookes OF BENTLEY Knight-Baronet SIR I Hope You will not be surpriz'd when You find your Name set before the following Discourse As it was Preach'd at your Request so I think I have no reason to doubt of Your favourable Acceptance of it especially since I know You are perswaded that the Doctrines contain'd in it are both sound and seasonable The Charitable Settlements which You have already made are a sufficient Argument that You firmly believe Good Works to be absolutely necessary to Salvation and Your very earnest Desire of perfecting Your more noble Designs notwithstanding the Discouragements You have met with farther shew that You look upon the time of Life to be the most proper if not the only time of doing good As far as I remember I have never seen any just Discourse on this Subject and I heartily wish what I have here said may answer my chief design in the Publication of it which is that I may convince Men of Ability of the danger of delaying their Charity till they dye If I should not be so happy as to succeed herein it will yet be a great satisfaction to me to consider that I have so fair an opportunity of acknowledging Your generous Kindness to me and of assuring You withal that I am Honour'd SIR Your very Humble Servant JOHN BARON Ball. Coll. Oxford July 11. 1699. GAL. Chap. VI. Ver. 10. As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men IN these Words there are three things contain'd I. A Duty recommended II. The Extent of this Duty III. The proper Time of performing it I. The Duty here recommended is that most excellent one of doing good to which we are indispensably oblig'd both by the Principles of natural and reveal'd Religion Right Reason directs us to it Almighty God has expresly commanded it our blessed Saviour while he was upon Earth exemplify'd it to us for he went about doing good Act. 10.38 and he has likewise assured us all who are call'd by his holy Name that we must be exercis'd in it if we desire or hope at the last day to give up our Accounts with joy and not with grief Notwithstanding the great heats that have been rais'd about Justification herein all agree that good Works are the necessary visible Fruits whereby the sincerity of our Hearts may be known without these our Hope is Presumption our Assurance nothing but a groundless Confidence and our Faith absolutely ineffectual For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also Jam. 2.26 II. The second thing to be observed is the universal Extent of this great Duty express'd in these words Let us do good unto all men Our Kindness must be extended as the Blessings of Heaven are and the displays of our Love must reach like those of the Sun in the Firmament to the just and the unjust For we are all Brethren descended from the same common Stock and he that is afar off as well as he that is near is according to the Christian interpretation of the word our Neighbour 'T is true indeed the proud and ill-natur'd Pharisees of old restrain'd the sence of this Word and accordingly confin'd their Charity and Mercy within the narrow limits of their own Nation But he who came to fulfil the Law to supply what was wanting and to explain what they by their false Glosses and ill-grounded Comments had darkned and perplexed He who was the way the truth and the life has taught us by the Parable of the good Samaritan taking pity on a Stranger that fell among Thieves that under the Gospel every Person who stands in need of our relief tho' he be as great an Adversary to us as a Jew to a Samaritan must yet be looked upon as the object of our Compassion and Mercy and of any charitable acts which he can receive and we perform III. The third thing to be observed is the proper time of performing this Duty which is when and while we have opportunity For though to do good to all Men be a Duty incumbent upon us yet we are not at all times equally oblig'd to the exercise of it The cries of some that want never come to our ears and the necessities of others may be so great that we are not able to relieve them No Man can be oblig'd beyond his knowledge and power neither will much be requir'd of him to whom little has been given The Apostle therefore saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As we have opportunity let us do good unto all Men. The old Version is while we have time Dr. Hammond renders it as we have ability Grotius his Note upon the place is Dum manet haec vita While we are alive All these put together will compleat the signification of the Word for after death we can do nothing and in this Life we can then only be said to have an opportunity offered us of doing good when the wants of others and our own plenty meet together So that what St. Paul here presses from the certainty of a reward which we shall reap in due time if we faint not is That we be merciful after our power and so far as we have ability embrace every opportunity of doing good while we live These things being premised that my following Discourse may the better suit with the present occasion I shall endeavour to shew 1. That 't is upon several accounts more advisable for Men of Ability to dispose of what they intend for charitable Uses in their Life time than to leave it to be manag'd by others after their Death 2. That Men of Ability are in Duty oblig'd to do good while they live 3. I shall speak of the peculiar excellency and usefulness of those charitable Settlements which are design'd to promote and encourage Learning 4. And lastly I shall enquire what is the Duty of all those who more immediately enjoy the Benefit and Advantages of such Foundations First I am to shew that it is upon several accounts more advisable for Men of Ability to dispose of what they intend for charitable Uses in their Life time than to leave it to be manag'd by others after their Death This Proposition I hope to make good from the following Considerations 1. That it is utterly uncertain whether that which Men of Ability leave to the disposal of others be ever settled according to their original design and intent 2. It is a greater Argument of a free and generous Mind to dispose of what they design for charitable Uses while they live than to leave it to

in one may grow out of humour and re-call it by another The best and wisest of Men are very wavering and irresolute so that no one knows what a Day may bring forth And suppose there should be no danger in the delay but that the former should stand unalter'd yet a Testament is of no strength at all whilst the Testator liveth and therefore that his design'd Charity ever takes effect is not wholly due to his Will and Intention but in some measure also to that standing unchangeable Decree whereby it is appointed for Man once to dye If you could certify him that he had longer to live and that his Soul should not yet be requir'd of him he would be sure to hold fast his Possessions His Desires would increase with his Heaps till at length they became capacious and unsatiable as the Grave and I make no doubt but the same tenacious Principle which hinders him from reaching out his hand to do good as he has an opportunity would equally influence him an hundred Years hence twice told if we could suppose his days to be so prolonged on the Earth Those then afford us the highest demonstration of a noble a large and generous Soul who settle their Charity themselves thereby giving glory to God before he causeth Darkness before their Feet stumble upon the dark Mountains and they themselves fall into the ruines of Old-age 3. My third Consideration is this That they who dispose of what they design for charitable Uses while they live do thereby shew that they firmly trust in and more entirely rely on the good Providence of God The Lord saith the Psalmist hath prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom ruleth over all His Providence extends to all the Works of the Creation but he is said to be particularly concern'd for the Children of Men. We ought therefore to lay aside all anxious perplexing thoughts for to morrow and to cast all our care upon him who has promis'd not to leave us nor forsake us And the best way to evidence this our reliance upon the good Providence of God is to make him a plentiful return of his own Bounties and to do good proportionably to our Ability with what we at present enjoy We ought to remember that a considerable part of our blessed Lord's divine Sermon upon the Mount was design'd to remove our doubts concerning the things of this Life that we might not be troubled or discompos'd as the Heathens were with fearful apprehensions of future wants We may learn from thence that our Life is more than Meat and our Body than Raiment and therefore we may surely conclude that God who is so able and so kind as to give the one cannot be unable neither will he be backward to give the other We cannot but observe that the Fowls of the Air are plentifully fed though they contribute nothing to their own support and that the Lilies of the Field which do neither toil nor spin are yet so richly arayed that they exceed Solomon in all his glory And having such demonstrative Arguments of God's Providence over Beings of an inferior Class we may be very confident that his watchful eye is over Man who being made in his own Image is the perfection and master-piece of this lower World The case of the Gentiles was far otherwise the Idols they adored were Wood and Stone the work of Men's hands which they saw stood in need of the help and protection of their Votaries whose wants they were ignorant of and so could by no means be thought able to supply them upon this account it was no great wonder that they were so very solicitous for themselves But if we who worship the true living GOD who understands all our necessities before we ask and has promis'd in his due time to relieve them if we should continue to disquiet our selves about distant Events and future Contingencies it might justly be thought that we have not learned CHRIST so perfectly as we should and that this distrust of ours proceeds from a very great weakness if not from a total want of Faith And as there is some reason to suspect that the same evil distrustful Heart is in those who defer their Charity till they dye so the best method of removing all just grounds of such a suspicion is to be rich in good Works while they live For he that disperseth abroad and is glad to distribute to the necessities of others gives all the World a satisfactory and convincing Proof that he firmly believes in God and entirely depends upon his never-failing Providence for the supply of his own 4. I desire it may be considered by Men of Ability that the disposing of their Charity while they live may conduce very much to the raising of their Affections from things below and placing them on things above The conversation of all true Christians is in Heaven there they ought to set their Affections even while they sojourn upon Earth For they are but Strangers and Pilgrims here below and therefore they must not irregularly love the World neither the things of the World If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him The Friendship of the World is direct irreconcileable enmity against God and an immoderate desire of earthly Enjoyments is the root of all evil We can't serve God and Mammon Would we be able then to wean our Thoughts from all that looks great and inviting here Would we be able to raise our Minds to an heavenly frame and temper The way and means hereto is to return our Money into the other World Lay up saith our Saviour for your selves treasures in Heaven for where your treasure is there will your heart be also Where-ever we are our Affections will always point toward the beloved Object and whilst our Treasures are those of this World we shall not easily be brought to be intent on the next But if we do good with what we possess we are then said to lend unto the Lord and it will be no difficult matter to elevate our Desires and to fix them on Heaven when once we have remitted our Treasure thither Then we shall be wholly at leisure for Divine Contemplations never to be interrupted or distracted by any of those Casualties which trouble the thoughts of the Children of this World There will be no moth nor rust to corrupt no secret or avowed thieves to break through and steal And whereas the most cautious and subtle Usurer upon Earth is somtimes cheated and disappointed they who give credit to the sovereign Lord of all need fear no disadvantageous Compositions no shuffling or discount they are sure of receiving their own again with usury either an hundred-fold in this World or in the World to come Everlasting Life 5. It is worthy the consideration of Men of Ability That by disposing of their own Charity they will in all probability derive a Blessing