Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	faith_n	good_a	love_n	22,225	5	6.2514	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59557	A sermon preached at the second general meeting of the gentlemen and others in and near London who were born within the County of York in the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, February 17, 1679/80 / by John Sharpe ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1680 (1680)	Wing S2985; ESTC R18978	18,137	40

capable of doing good Thirdly I shall make two or three Inferences by way of Application I begin with the First thing seriously to recommend the practice of doing good But where shall I begin to speak either of the Obligations that lye upon us or of the Benefits and Advantages that do accrue to us by doing good in our lives or having begun where shall I make an end the subject is so copious that the study of a whole life cannot exhaust it The more we consider it still the more and the weightier Arguments will present themselves to us to ingage us in the practice of it and the more we practise it still the more shall we desire so to do and the more happy and Blessed shall we find our selves to be For to do good is nothing else but to act according to the frame and make of our Beings It is to gratifie those Inclinations and Appetites that are most strongly rooted in our Natures such as Love and Natural Affection Pity and Compassion a Desire of Friends and a Propensity to knot our selves into Companies and Societies what are all these but so many stimuli so many powerful incitements of nature to put us upon doing good offices one to another To do good is the end of all those Acquisitions of all those Talents of all those Favours and Advantages that God has blest us with it is the proper use we are to put them to If we do not employ them this way we are so far from being better for them that we are much worse What will signifie our Wit and good Humour our Strength of Reason and Memory our Wisdom and Knowledge our Skill in Arts and Dexterity in managing Business our Wealth and Greatness our Reputation and Interest in the world I say what will all these signifie if they do not render us more Useful and Beneficial to others That which sets the price and value upon every worldly blessing is the Opportunity it affords us of doing good To do good seems to be the foundation of all the Laws of Nature the supreme Universal Law it is that by which the World is supported and take that away all would presently fall into confusion And perhaps if it were particularly examin'd it would be found that all the other Natural Laws may be reduced to this and are ultimately to be resolv'd into it It is a question whether there be any natural Standard whereby we can measure the Virtue or the Viciousness of any Action but the Influence that it hath to promote or hinder the doing of good This is that that seems to stamp Virtue and Vice To do good is the great Work for the sake of which we were sent into the world and no man lives farther to any purpose than as he is an Instrument of doing good Be our lives otherwise never so busie and full of action yet if others receive no benefit by them we cannot give our selves any tolerable account of our time we have in effect liv'd idly and done nothing To do good is that which of all other services is most acceptable to God it is that which he hath laid the greatest stress upon in the Scripture it is that which he hath with the most earnest and affectionate perswasives with the strongest Arguments with the greatest promises and with the most dreadful threatnings enforc'd upon us It is that which he hath chosen before all Sacrifices and all Religious worship strictly so called to be serv'd with It is that which he hath appointed for the great Expression both of our Thankfulness for his Benefits and of our Love and Devotion to him Lastly it that which Moses and the Prophets make the Sum of the Old Law and Christ and his Apostles the Sum of the New And very great Reason there is for it for to do good is to become most like to God It is that which of all other Qualities gives us the greatest resemblance of his Nature and Perfections for perfect Love and Goodness is the very Nature of God and the Root of all his other Attributes and there was never any Action done any work wrought by him throughout the vast Tracts of infinite space from the Beginning of time to this Moment but was an Expression of his Love and an instance of doing good nay I doubt not to say the most severe acts of his Justice and Vengeance have all been such And therefore with great reason hath our blessed Lord told us that the way to become the Children of our Heavenly Father is to do good to all with the same Freedom and Unreservedness that God makes his Sun to shine upon the World And of this our Blessed Saviour himself was the most illustrious Example that ever appeared in the world so that to do good is that which doth most truly and perfectly render us the Disciples and Followers of Jesus makes us really be what we pretend we are His whole life as the Gospel tells us was but a continual going about doing good The great Design of his Coming from Heaven and of all that he spoke and of all that he did and of all that he suffer'd upon Earth was the benefiting of others And he hath left it as the great distinguishing Badge and Character whereby his Disciples should be known from other men that they should love one another even as he had lov'd them that is as his Apostle expounds him they should love and do good to that degree as to lay down their lives for the brethren But to do good is not only our greatest Duty but our greatest Interest and Advantage which is that that Solomon chiefly refers to in the Text. It is certain that no man can take a more Effectual way to render his Being in the world Happy and Comfortable to him according to the ordinary course and event of things in what Condition or Circumstances soever he is placed than to do all the good he can in his life so that though a man that lays out himself in this way seems only to respect the good of other people yet in true reckoning he most consults his own profit For to do good in the natural way to raise us friends who shall be oblig'd to contribute their Endeavours to the furthering our honest designs to the upholding and securing us in our Prosperity and to the succouring and relieving us when we are in any evil Circumstances such is the Contrivance and the Constitution of this World that no man can subsist of himself but stands in continual need of others both for their comfortable Society and their necessary Assistance in his Affairs Now of all men living the Good man who maketh it his Business to oblige all about him is most likely to be the best befriended To do good is the truest way to procure to a mans self a Good name and Reputation in the World which as it is a thing desirable upon many

and endeavours as to these matters do take effect Let this be the great rule by which we proceed in the Education of our Children and Relations and the provisions we make for them in the world Let it be our first care to possess them with a deep sense of the duty they owe to the Publick and to furnish them with such qualities as will render them profitable members of it and to put them into such professions and employments as may afford them fair scope for the exercise of those qualities If we thus provide for them though we otherwise leave them never so small an Estate yet with the Blessing of God they have a good Portion Lastly let this design of doing good influence our very Offices of Religion When we make our applications to the Throne of Grace let us be sure to have the Publick always in mind and even when we pray for our selves let it be with this design and resolution that as God in mercy bestows upon us the Blessings and the Grace we pray for we will employ them for the good of others O that we would thus seriously concern our selves in doing good O that we would once lay a side all our little selfish designs and that narrowness and penuriousness of Spirit with which most of us are bound up and with ardent Love and Charity set our selves not to seek his own but every man anothers good as the Apostle exhorteth Secondly if the doing good be so necessary a duty as hath been represented what must we say of those men that frame to themselves Models of Christianity without putting this duty into its notion There is a sort of Christianity which hath obtained in the world that is made up of Faith and knowledge of the Gospel Mysteries without any respect to Charity and good works Nay have we not heard of a sort of Christianity the very perfection of which seems to consist in the disparaging this duty of doing good as much as is possible crying it down as a heathen virtue a poor blind piece of Morality a thing that will no way further our salvation nay so far from that that it often proves a hindrance to it by taking us off from that full relyance and recumbency that we ought to have on the Righteousness of Jesus Christ only in order to our Salvation But O how contrary are these Doctrines to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles How widely different a thing do they make Christianity to be from what it will appear if we take our notions of it from their Sermons and Practices Is it possible that he that went about doing good himself made it his meat and drink the business and employment of his life should set so light by it in us that are his followers Is it possible that they that so often call upon us to do good to be rich in good works above all things to have servant charity among our selves telling us that all faith is nothing all knowledge of Mysteries is nothing all gifts of Prophecy and Miracles are nothing but that Charity is all in all I say is it possible that they should think doing good so insignificant so unprofitable nay so dangerous a thing as these I spoke of do represent it But I need not further reprove these Opinions because I hope they find but few Patrons but this seriously ought to be reproved among us viz. that we do not generally lay that stress upon this duty we are speaking of that we ought to do Many are ready enough to acknowledge their Obligations to do good and count it a very commendable thing and a work that God will bless them the better for yet they are loth to make it an essential ingredient of their Religion they think they may be Religious and serve God without it If they be but sober in their lives and just in their dealings and come to Church at the usual times they have Religion enough to carry them to Heaven though in the mean time they continue covetous and hard and uncharitable without bowels of pity and compassion and make no use of their wealth or their power and interest or their Parts and industry or their other Talents committed to them for the doing good in the world Far be it from any man to pretend to determine what vertues or degrees of them are precisely necessary to Salvation and what Vertues or degrees of them a man may safely be without But this is certain that charity and doing good are none of those that can be spared The Scripture hath every where declared these qualities to be as necessary in order to our Salvation as any condition of the Gospel Nay if we will consult St. Matth. 25. where the Process of the General Judgment is described we shall find these to be the great points that at the last day men shall be examined upon and upon which the whole case of their eternal state will turn So that if we take the Scripture for our Guide these men at last will be found to be much mistaken and to have made a very false judgment both of Religion and of their own condition Thirdly From what hath been said about doing good we may gather wherein that Perfection of Christianity which we are to aspire after doth consist It has been much disputed which is the most Perfect life to live in the world as other men do and to serve God in following our employments and taking care of our families and doing good offices to our neighbors and discharging all other duties that our relation to the publick requires of us or to retire from the world and to quit all our secular concernments and wholly to give up our selves to Prayer and Meditation and those other exercises of Religion properly so called This latter kind of life is so magnified by the Romanists in comparison of the other that it hath engrossed to it self the name of Religious None among them are thought worthy to be styled Religious persons but those that Cloyster up themselves in a Monastery But whatever excellence may be pretended in this course of life it certainly falls much short of that which is led in a publick way He serves God best that is most serviceable to his Generation And no Prayers or Fasts or Mortifications are near so acceptable a Sacrifice to our Heavenly Father as to do good in our lives It is true to keep within doors and to attend our devotions though those that are in appearance most abstracted from the world are not always the most devout persons I say this kind of life is the most easie and the safer A man is not then exposed so much to temptations he may with less difficulty preserve his innocence but where is the praise of such a vertue Vertue is then most glorious and shall be most rewarded when it meets with most tryals and oppositions And as for the bravery of contemning the world