and when some ceased not to preach for our affliction, it quenched not your impartial charity. It has been an unspeakable mercy unto me almost all my days, (when I received nothing from them,) to have known so great a number as I have done, of serious, humble, holy, charitable Christians, in whom I saw that Christ hath an elect, peculiar people, quite different from the brutish, proud, hypocritical, malignant, unbelieving world! O how sweet hath the familiarity of such been to me, whom the ignorant world hath hated! Most of them are gone to Christ, I am following: we leave you here to longer trial it is like you have a bitter cup to drink, but be faithful to the death, and Christ will give you the crown of life. The word of God is not bound, and the Jerusalem above is free, where is the general assembly of the first-born, an innumerable company of angels, the spirits of the just made perfect, with Christ their glorified head. The Lord guide, bless, and preserve you.

HOW TO DO GOOD TO MANY;

OR, THE

PUBLIC GOOD IS THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE.

GAL. vi. 10.

As we have, therefore, opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

GOOD is an epithet of the highest signification of any in human language. Some think the name of God is thence derived. Greatness and wisdom are equally his attributes, but goodness is the completion, and sweetest to the creature. Christ ap

propriateth it to God to be good, that is, essentially, primarily, and perfectly, and universally communicative; 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 though 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 holiness; 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 becomes a new and divine nature to the soul, and is sanctification itself, 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 inclined to work as it is; Christ tells us the good tree will bring forth good fruits, &c.; and we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God hath ordained, that we should walk in them. (Eph. ii. 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 stirred 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 household 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 myself to the duty extended, “Do good to all men."

Doct. To do good to all men is all men's 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; Christ's Spirit in them is not a dead or idle principle. It makes them in their several measures the salt of the earth, and the lights of the world; they are fruitful branches of 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 is 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 falsehood 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 Christ's merits against the necessity of doing good, and looketh to be saved because Christ is good, though 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. ii. 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, (though not to all alike,) that is to as many as they can. But for order's sake we must here consider:

I. Who this all meaneth, and in what order.

II. What is good; and what is that good which we must do. III. What qualifications he must have that will do good to many.

IV. 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 God's prerogative to do good to all; man's ability will not reach 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 fain do more good; and he that doth good to some would fain do good to many more. All good is progressive, and tendeth towards increase and perfection; why are the faithful said to love and long for the day of Christ's 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 man's 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 one's love united in one perfect joy and glory, will add to each person's 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 completing of the body of Christ? O how much will this add to every faithful Christian's joy! It will not be then a little flock; not despised for singularity, nor hid in the crowd of impious sinners, nor dishonoured by infirmities, or paltry quarrels among ourselves, nor with the mixture of hypocrites; it will not be over-voted, or trod down, and persecuted by the power or number of the ignorant enemies. O Christians! go on in doing good to all men with cheerfulness, for it all tendeth to make up the body of Christ, and to prepare for that glorious state and day; every soul you convert, every brick that you lay in the building, tendeth to make up the house and city of God.

But as all motion and action is first upon the nearest object, so must ours; and doing good must be in order: first we must begin at home with our own souls and lives; and then to our nearest relations, and friends, and acquaintance, and neighbours ; and then to our societies, church, and kingdom, and all the world. But mark that the order of execution, and the order of estimation and intention, differ. Though God set up lights so small as will serve but for one room, and though we must begin at home, we must far more esteem and desire the good of multitudes, of city, and church, and commonwealth; and must set no bounds to our endeavours, but what God and disability set.

II. But what is that good that we must do? Good is an attribute of being, and is its perfection, or well-being: God's goodness is perfection itself; and as he is the fountain of being, so also of goodness; and, therefore, his goodness is called love, whose highest act is his essential self-love, which is infinitely above his love to the world; but yet it is communicative love, which made all things good, and rested in seeing them all good. And as he is the fountain, so the same will or love is the measuring rule, and the end of all derived good. The prime notion of the creature's goodness is its conformity to the will of God; but the second is its own perfection as its own, which, indeed, is but the same conformity.

Therefore, the true good which we must do men, is to make them conformable to the regulating will of God, that they may be happy in the pleased will of God; and to help them to all