....monimmi.1.11111111 546 HOW TO DO GOOD TO MANY. their own interest must stand or fall with the common.good., If God, and heaven, and conscience, be not more powerful with a man than worldly interest, trust him not against the stream and tide, or when he thinks he can make a better bargain for himself. He that will sell heaven ,and Christ for the world, will sell you for it, and sell religion, truth, and honesty for it; and if Ile escape here the end of Ahithophel and Judas, he will venture on all that is out of sight. Christ was the grand benefactor to the world, and the most excellent teacher of love, and self-denial, and contempt of the world, to all that will follow him in doing good to many.' 4. He that will do much good must be good himself. Make the tree good ifyou 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 aman of miracles, he shall hear, " Hast thou found me, O'my enemy !" And Micaiah 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 infirm- ity ; how little, then, is to be hoped for from the wicked! 4. He that will do much good'in the world, must be furnished with considerable abilities, especially piudence 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 unskillful 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. 6. He that will be a public blessing to the world, must have a very large prospect, and see the state of all the world, and foresee what is like to come. He must not live as if his neighborhood were all the land, or his country or his party were all the church, or all the world : he must know what relation all our actions have to other nations, and to all the church of Christ on earth. The want of this universal prospect involveth many in censorious and dividing sects, who would abhor that way if they knew the case ofall the church and world. And we must not look only to a present exigent or advantage, bit foresee how our actions will look hereafter, and what changes
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