HOW TO DO GOOD TO MANY. 547 may put them under other judgments, and what the fruits may be to posterity. Many, things cause death which give the patient present ease. 7. He that will do good to many mustlsave Christian fortitude, and not be discouraged with difficulties and opposition. He must serve God for the good of men with absolute resolution, and not with the hypocrite's reserves. He must be armed with patience against not only the malice of enemies, but the ingratitude of friends. The follies, the quarrels, the mutinies, and divisions, and often the abuses of that he would do good to, must not overcome him. He must imitate God, and do good to the evil, and bless those that curse him, and pray for them that despitefully use him. He must not promise himself more success than God bath prom- ised him, nor yet despair and turn back discouraged; but con- science must carry him on to the end through all, whatever shall befall him. 8. Therefore he must look for his reward from God, and not expect too much from man. Men are insufficient, mutable, and uncertain: their interests and many accidents may change them. The multitude are of many minds and tempers ; and if you please some, you shall displease others; and it is hard toplease even one person long. Some great ones will not be pleased,. unless you will prefer their wills before the will of God, your country's good, and your own salvation. The poor are so many and sò indigent, that no man can answer their desires. If you give twenty pounds to twenty of the poor, forty or hundred, that expected the like, will murmur at you, and be. displeased. What man ever did so much good in the world as not,to be accused by some, as if he were a covetous or a hurtful man ? Therefore, he that will do much good, must firmly believe the life to come, and must do that hedoth' 'as the work of God, in obedience to him, and look for his reward in 'heaven, and not as the hypocrite, in the praise of men, much less as the worldling, in the hope of temporal ,advantage. He must not wonder ifhe be rewarded as Socrates was at Athens, and as Christ and his apostles were in the world. Themistocles likened himself to a great fruit- tree, which men run for shelter under in a.storm ; and when the storm is over; they throw stones and cudgels at it, to beat down the fruit. Reckon not on a reward frommen, but from God. By what is said, you may'perceive'what are the great impedi- ments of doing good to many, which must be overcome. i. One, and the worst, is malignity, which is an enmity to spir- itual good for who will promote that which he is against? ii. Another is unbelief of God's cotnmands and promises, when
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