A26939:78
How to do good to many, or, The public good is the Christians life…How to do good to many, or, The publick good is the Christians life…
How to do good to many, or, The public 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.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.
London: printed for Rob. Gibs, 1682
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
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 Elijah 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.
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 liable to miscarry by infirmity, how little then is to be hoped for from the wicked?
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 public 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.