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
do no harm and say as the slothful Servant here is thy Talent which I hid And some there be that in a blind jealousie of the Doctrine of Justication not understanding what the Word Justification signifieth Cry down even the words of James as if they were unreconcileable with Pauls and can scarce bear him that saith as Christ Mat. 12. By thy words thou shalt be Justified and by thy words thou shalt be Condemned As if they had never read well done good and faithful Servant c. for I was an hungry and ye fed me c. Nor Heb. 5. 9. He is the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him or Heb. 13. With such Sacrifice God is well pleased or he that doth righteosness is righteous or that we shall be judged according to our works or Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of Life and may enter in by the Gates into the City Or Gal. 6. What a man soweth that shall he reap He that soweth to the Spirit of the Spirit shall reap Everlasting Life With many such No man well in his Wits can think that any thing we do can merits of God in commutative justice as if he received any thing from us This were even to deny God to be God But are we not undera law of Grace and doth not that Law command us obedience and the improvement of our Talents in doing good And shall we not be judged by that Law And what is Judging but Justifying or Condemning No works of ours can stand the tryal by the Law of Innocency or Works but only the perfect righteousness of Christ But he that is accused of final impenitency Infidelity Hypocrisie or unholyness if truly accused shall never be justified and if falsely must be justified against that charge by somewhat besides what is done out of him by Jesus Christ It is an easier thing to be zealous for an opinion which is sound or supposed such about works and grace than to be zealous of good works or zealously desirous of grace How sad use did Satan make of mens zeal for Orthodox words when the Nestorian Eutychian and Monothelite Controversies were in agitation He went for a hollow hearted Neuter that did not hereticate one side or other And I would that factious ignorant zeal were not still alive in the Churches How many have we heard on one side reviling Lutherans Calvinists Arminians Episcopal Presbyterians Independents c. To render them odious that never understand the true state of the difference And how fiercely do some Papists and others cry down Solifidians and perswade men that we are Enemies to good works or think that they are not necessary to Salvation because some rashly maintained that in a faction against George Major long ago or at least that they are no further necessary but as signs to prove that which God knoweth without them And on the other side how many make themselves and others believe that the true expositors of Saint James's words are almost Papists and teach men dangerously to trust to works for their Justification while they understand not what either of the Apostles mean by Justification Faith or Works Many so carefully avoid trusting to good works that they have none or few to trust to No doubt nothing of man must be trusted to for the least part that belongs to Christ But all duty and means must be both used and trusted for its own part Consider well these following motives and you will see why all Christians must be zealous of doing all the good they can 1. It rendreth a man likest to God to be good and to do good On which account Christ requireth it even towards our enemies Mat. 5. That we may be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect who doth good even to the unjust And he that is likest God is the best man most holy and most happy and shall have most Communion with God 2. And when Christ came down in flesh to call man home by making God better known to the world he revealeth him in his attractive goodness and that was by his own beneficence to Man He came to do the greatest good to be the Saviour of the world and to reconcile revolted man to God and all his life yea his death and his Heavenly intercession is doing good to those that were Gods Enemies And to learn of Christ and imitate his example is to be his true Disciples And what else do his Laws Command us They are all holy just and good and our goodness is to love them and obey them By keeping these we must shew that we are his Disciples When he tells you who you must do good to in the instance of the Samaritan he addeth go thou and do likewise Joh. 15. He largely tells us of what importance it is for every branch that is planted into him to bring forth fruit 3. It is much of the end of all the Sanctifying operations of theholy Spirit Grace is given us to use Even natural powers are given us for action What the better were man for a Tongue or hands or feet if he should never use them Life is a principle of action It were as good have no Life as not to use it And why doth God make men good but that they may do good even in their duty to God themselves and one another 4. It is Gods great mercy to mankind that he will use us all in doing good to one another And it s a great part of his wise Government of the world that in societies men should be tyed to it by the sense of every particular mans necessity And it is a great honor to those that he maketh his Almoners or Servants to convey his gifts to others God bids you give nothing but what is his and no otherwise your own than as his Stewards It s his bounty and your service or Stewardship which is to be exercised He could have done good to all men by himself alone without you or any other if he would But he will honour his Servants to be the Messengers of his bounty You best please him when you readily receive his gifts your selves and most fully Communicate them to others To do good is to receive good And yet he will reward such for doing and receiv 5. Self-love therefore should perswade men to do good to all You are not the least gainers by it your selves If you can trust Christ sure you will think this profitable Usury Is not a Cup of cold Water well paid for when Christ performs his promise And is it not a gainful loss which is rewarded in this Life an hundred fold and in the world to Come with Life Eternal Those that live in the fullest exercise of Love and doing good are usually most loved and many are ready to do good to them And this Exercise encreaseth all fruitful Graces And there is a present
delight in doing good which is it self a great reward The Love of others makes it delightful to us And the pleasing of God and the imitation of Christ and the Testimony of Conscience make it delightful An honest Physitian is far gladder to save mens lives or health than to get their Money And an honest Soldier is gladder to save his Country than to get his pay Every honest Minister of Christ is far gladder to win Souls than to get Money or Preferment The believing giver hath more pleasure than the receiver And this without any conceit of commutative meriting of God or any false trust to works for Justification 6. Stewards must give account of all What would you wish were the matter of your true account if death or judgment were to morrow Would you not wish you had done all the good you could Do you believe that all shall be Judged according to their Works Did you ever well study that great prediction of Christ Matth. 25. And it is some part of a reward on Earth that men that do much good especially that to whole Nations are usualy honoured by Posterity however they be rewarded by the present Age. 7. Every true Christian is absolutely devoted to do good What else is it to be devoted to God our Creator and Redeemer Whaâ— live we for or what should we desire to live for but to do good II. But this Exhortation is especially applicable to them that have special opportunity 1. Magistrates are the Capitals in the Societies and Publick Affairs of mankind They are placed highest that they may have an universal influence Tho it be too high a word to call them Gods or Gods Vice-gerents unless secundum quid yet they are his Officers and Regent Ministers but it 's for the common good In them God shews what Order can do in the Government of the World As the placing of the same figure before many doth accordingly advance its value in signification so it is a wonder to Note what the Place of one man fignifieth at the Head of an Army of a City of a Kingdom They are appointed by God to govern men in a just subordination to Gods Government and no otherwise To promote obedience to Gods Laws by theirs and by their Judgment and Execution to give men a foretaste what they may at last expect from God And by their Rewards and Punishments to foretel men whom God will Reward and Punish And by their own Examples to shew the Subjects how temperately and soberly and godly God would have them live Atheists can see and fear a Magistrate that fear not God because they know him not They that prefer those as the most worthy of honour whom God abhorreth for their wickedness and hate and oppress those whom God will honour do shew themselves Enemies to him that giveth them all their power And they that by countenance or practice do teach men to despise the fear of God and to make light of Drunkenness Whoredom Lying Perjury and such like odious Crimes do in a sort blaspheme God himself as if he who exalted them were a lover of Sin and a hater of his own Laws and Service There are few Rulers that are unwilling of Power or to be accounted Great And do they not know that its a Power to do Good that God hath given them And that Obligation to do it is as essential to their Office as Authority And that they who govern as the Officers of God and pretend to be liker him in Greatness than their Subjects must also be liker to him in Wisdom and Goodness Wo to that man who abuseth and oppresseth the Just and Faithful in the Name of God and by pretence of Authority from him to do it Wo to him that in Gods Name and as by his Authority countenanceth the wicked whom God abhorreth and under Christs banner fighteth against him As Christ saith of the Offensive It were good for that man that he had never been born Prov. 24. 24. He that saith to the wicked thou art righteous him shall the people Curse Nations shall abhor him Prov. 17. 15. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord. God looketh for great service from great men Great Trust and Talents must have great account A Prince a Lord a Ruler must do much more good in promoting Piety Conscience Vertue than the best inferiors To whom men give much from them they expect the more It greatly concerneth such men seriously to ask their Conscience can I do no more to encourage Godliness Conscience and Justice and to disgrace Malignity brutish sensuality and fleshly lusts than I have done O when they must hear give account of thy Stewardship thou shalt be no longer Steward little think many Rulers what an account it is that will be required of them O what a deal of good may the Rulers of the earth do if instead of overminding their partial Interests and serving the desires of the flesh they did but set themselves with study and resolution to promote the common good by disgraceing sin and encouraging Wisdom Piety and Peace And where this is not sincerely done as surely as there is a righteous God and a future Judgment they shall pay for their omissive treachery And if Satan do prevail to set his own Captains over the Armies of the Lord to betray them to perdition they shall be deepest in misery as they were in guilt One would think the great delight that is to be found in doing good to all should much more draw men to desire Authority and greatness than either riches or voluptuousness or a dominering desire that all men should fulfil their Wills II. The Ministers of Christ also have the next opportunity to do good to many And it is a debt which by many and great obligations they owe to Christ and men But it will not be done without labour and condescention and unwearied patience It is undertaken by all that are ordained to this office but O that it were performed faithfully by all What a doleful life would the persidious Soul-betrayers live if they knew what a guilt they have to answer for Even the contempt of the peoples Souls and of the blood of Christ that purchased them O hear that vehement adjuration 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and Kingdom Preach the word Be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and Doctrine Speak with holy studyed skill speak with Love and melting Pity Speak with importunity Take no denyal Speak as Saint Paul Act. 20. Publickly and from house to house Speak before you are silenced in the dust Speak before death have taken away your hearers It is for Souls it is for Christ it is for your Selves too While you have opportunity do good