the Design of many Years before for the King Himself was then but Twenty three at the most an Age most commonly of little Thinking with Great Men or at best of little else than how to pass away that Spring of Life in Gaiety and Pleasure But yet it was his Earliest Undertaking and Design and had for some considerable time been the whole Employment of his Thoughts and his Heart was so intent upon the Matter that he had little Rest till he had brought it to a hopefull Prospect and to some Degrees of its Perfection It was no sudden accidental Thing that mov'd HIm it was not the Effect of his Relenting Thoughts after the shedding some Innocent Blood by the Rage of his own Hands or by the hasty Execution of some furious Order for he was Meek and Mercifull Sparing of Blood and tender to his Ruine of such a Gentle and Forgiving Disposition that when a rude and impious Souldier struck him knowingly in prison He afterwards upon the Throne rebuk'd him only with a piece of Scripture told him he should not strike the Lords Anointed Nor was it an Effect of his Repentance upon the Cooling of his Youthfull Blood nor of the Injunction of his Confessor for some Extravagances common to that Age. For what was said of virtuous Gratian may be said of Him with equal Truth not Vesta's Altar Pontifex his Bed nor Flamen's Pillow was more pure and holy than his Chamber No Honourable Wife no Noble Virgin Private Maid or Consecrated Spouse of Christ call'd at his Hands for Satisfaction to their injur'd Honour He was of such white Innocence and such unsullied Sanctity in that behalf that He could not bear those Liberties and Freedoms that since make up the very Innocence and Modesty of Courts This Virtue was in Truth so much his own and so peculiarly engross'd up by Him that He seems to have carried her to Heaven along with Him and not to have left Succeeding Kings the very Virtue of Hypocrisie no not so much as the Grace to dissemble any kind of liking to that Purity Nor was it an Attonement for some loud Oppression Violence Injustice or some Sacrilege It is said One of old the last Defence of Wicked Kings to take away from Some to give to Others and deprecate the Envy and the Odium of their present Rapines by some large Works of Bounty to Posterity But 't was not so with Him for thô his Reign were long and troublesome and its Years might have been nam'd and numbred from some remarkable Calamity befalling His Person or His Government His Affairs perpetually embroil'd by the prevailing Faction of his powerfull Rival and Competitor for Soveraignty and by the Passions of his own Imperious and Intriguing Queen by the Rude works of War abroad and by the Miseries of a worse at Home and consequently a great deal of Injustice must be done yet no Man ever had the hardiness to charge the King with any Evil and that not for Good manners or Respect but for the Truth and Justice sake And 't is so little likely He would cement our Buildings with the Blood or Tears of the Oppressed that when He was in want of Money to expedite his Intentions and was shown the way by Seizing to that use the Estates of some that had forfeited them by Treason He generously rejected their Advice and could not bear the Thoughts that any One in after Times should curse our Walls and call with bitterness and anguish of their Souls for their Forefathers Patrimony It is not without Design I own that I have chosen to recommend Our Founder and Foundation from these Topicks For they who are conversant in the Histories both of our own and other Nations and I am sensible where I am know very well that Blood and Lust and Violence have laid the Bottoms of more Abbies Monasteries Nunneries more Chantries Priories more Hospitals and other Charitable Houses than any other three much better Principles And thô the good Effects may have atton'd for their bad Causes the goodly Children answer'd for the ungracious Parents yet no one sure can be so partial to the Fruits as not to wish they had sprung from a more Creditable Stock And I cannot but think We have some Advantage in having so Mercifull so Chaste and Righteous a King our Founder and mov'd by no other Principles than those of Honouring God and Benefiting Mankind Thirdly The Excellence and Merit of the Bounty we are Sharers of rise yet much higher than that commended by St. Paul by its Advantage of Duration and Continuance That was a temporary transient Act but This has all the Eternity that human Things admit of That call'd for new Supplies within a while This only wants that Men would have the Fear of God before their Eyes and would withhold their hands from Sacrilege and Robbery Farther That but supplied the bare Necessities This both the Ease and the Conveniences of Life That made Life tolerable This might make it eligible it were not for the Honour of these kind of Works to say they went much farther to say they furnish'd us with a luxurious Table an overflowing Bowl or ministred to our Excess in any kind 'T is enough that they indulge to somewhat more than is required by parsimonious uncorrupted Nature by sober well considering Reason and by the Austerities of Christian Discipline The last and greatest Advantage that arises to Us from this sort of Bounty is that it supplies the Necessities of the Mind and Soul it gives us opportunities of Improving the powers and faculties of the One and consulting the true and everlasting Interest of the Other We are here at perfect Ease aud Liberty free from all other Cares and Troubles than what we seek or draw upon or plunge into our Selves entirely vacant to the pursuits of Wisdom and the Practice of Religion have all the Helps and all the Encouragements that We can want or wish for Here We consult with dead Authorities and living ones may understand the rules of Wisdom by the Examples and learn the Precepts from the apparent Practice of every Grace and Virtue Here We have Opportunities of Frequent Sacraments and more than Daily Prayers a kind of Force and most agreeable Necessity of being Good or of appearing so or being singular in Evil of proof against the Injunctions of our Governors the force of Custom and the influence of good Examples and consequently Sin without Excuse In a Word if we would measure our Felicities by the Judgment and Opinion of the World without by our own Longings and Desires after this state of Life before we have attain'd it or by the Torments and Vexations that attend the Remembrance of having left a while or lost or ill improv'd it we must conclude that we have Opportunities of being Learned Honest Sober Good and Happy Persons and that it is in our power by co-operating with the good Grace of God to fulfill the Words of the Text
and the Desires of Glory when they are Dead or from what other Motive certain or unknown those who receive the Benefits are most undoubtedly oblig'd to make their due Acknowledgments to God by their Returns of Praise and Thanksgiving For let the Cause and Motives and the Instruments be what they will yet the kind Fruits and good Effects will certainly require and certainly deserve it at their Hands The Goods are equally the Gifts of God and the Dispensers of them equally his Stewards with respect to the Receivers as if they had had immediate charge there to bestow them And God must not lose his Praise though the Givers do thô they too should be Loosers onely in the day of Recompence We must not do as some Men do who see no farther than the Hand that reaches and only mind the next immediate Cause that ministers to their Relief like some but few absurd Idolaters of old that Deified the visible and flowing Streams but never thought upon the hidden Springs from whence they came they entertain with joy and thankfulness to Men the Pleasures and the Benefits that they receive but never think of looking up to God the Fountain and Original of all their Happiness But 't was not so with those of whom St. Paul treats they made the kind Benevolence of their Benefactors an occasion of Praising God and Honouring his most Holy Name and by seeing and by feeling Mens good Works they learnt as all of us should do to glorifie their Father in Heaven Thirdly and lastly They were gratefull to their Benefactors by praying to God for them It cannot fairly be denied but that there is a strong propension in us all to self-sufficiency and independence one upon another No man can say but he had rather want no help than be oblig'd to others for it but since this cannot be the next thing we have to do is to contrive how to be even and on the square again with our Obligers and the nearer we come to it the freer we think our selves and certainly are more contented and at ease but since the state of affairs in this life will not admit of equal gratitude in kind or indeed in any tollerable proportion God in his goodness hath prepar'd for the poor the comfort and relief of Prayer and hath annex'd such promises to the due performance of that work as may quickly equal the most considerable advantages they can receive from any of their Benefactors and hath made it their Religious duty as well as their Natural desite to pay their debts and obligations and hath commanded them to sollicit him by earnest Prayers and by incessant Cries to shower down favours on their Benefactors heads and as there is an unaccountable venom in their bitter cries and curses so have their Prayers a marvellously penetrating power and force And of this the World hath been in every age so well assur'd that there have not wanted men of all conditions and degrees Sons of Peace and Conquering Heroes high and mighty Princes Clergy Laity learn'd and ignorant that have exchang'd their Gold and Silver Lands Jewels rich Donations ample Settlements stately Structures Colleges and Hospitals for the bare purchase of these Prayers and thought it no ill bargain That have look'd upon their following Victories and Triumphs the prosperous and successfull Issues of their undertakings as so many returns and answers of these Prayers so many Blessings forc'd from Heaven by the sweet violence of their importunate addresses to the throne of grace So that praying for Benefactors hath not been more esteem'd a duty on the Receivers side than it hath prov'd a motive and encouragement to Giving And it may be it is better to stop here than proceed to tell the extravagancies to which the excessive confidence that men repos'd in these kind of Prayers and Services transported many a good but indiscreetly zealous Soul. And since there is now no danger from the examples let us rather choose to cover than excuse or condemn the faults shall I say or rather the mistakes of our Forefathers And now having done what right I could be well allowed to do the Text I am come in the second place to apply what I can to our present purpose And first if St. Paul so earnestly exhorts to and commends a Piece of private casual temporary transient Charity how much is due what might be said of such a publick so deliberately design'd and such a Lasting one an Everlasting one I hope as I stand here the Gratefull Subject of A private Man may cast his Bread upon the Waters in hopes to find it after many days and give a Portion to seven and also to eight because he knoweth not what Evil shall be upon the Earth And if notwithstanding this Design and these self-interested Principles the Work is excellent and acceptable both to God and Man it must needs be infinitely more so when a Prince becomes the Donor under whose Consideration none of those Hopes or Fears can reasonably be thought to fall And if the Relieving private and some few Persons want not its Praise and Glory they must both of them rise as the Merit does where the Publick is oblig'd and all may put in equal Claim and Title to the Benefaction that will be content with his way of Education The Story is well known to Vs be sure but he that would record the Virtuous Qualities and Fair Endowments of our Glorious Founder to those that are without or to Posterity could not by any means forget that most Remarkable and Noble Instance of his large and comprehensive Soul in generously Rejecting one of our first Governours for his too partial Fondness to his Native Countrey and endeavouring to appropriate all the Royal Bounty to it only considering with Himself that though a Private Man might do the same with Reason enough and Justice too yet that a Prince should both in this and every thing besides approve Himself a Father of the Publick Secondly A form'd premeditated and deliberate work of Charity has certainly the advantage of a casual accidental One this may be wrested only by the importunity of some that want compliance with the custome of the place forc'd by the example of the company and shame of being singular or exprest from men by the lamentable moans and presence of some piteous object and men are often seen upon removal of those objects and the going down of those mechanick springs of tenderness to harden and return again to their ill-natur'd tempers and frequently repent them of the good they did wishing themselves again possessors of their riches But he that acts deliberately that forms his designs beforehand without any present artificial motives and certainly intends them for a lasting benefit to all posterity must be presum'd in reason and in justice to build upon the best and surest grounds to proceed upon the noblest and most perfect Principles It can't indeed be said that this Foundation was
therefore to this Necessity and strict injunction of this Duty hath God in his goodness made the pleasure and delight that constantly attends it There is that sweetness and complacency in doing good to those that want that even the bare desires and wishes of it when it is beyond our power to do it give us a good degree of peace and quiet and content within and we can satisfie our scruples with the sincerity of our designs and purposes but if we bring those purposes to good effect there is then such a spring of joy and contentation rising in the soul the spirits overflow so pleasingly and the heart swells with such sweet gayety and pride that it is hard to find a name for the delightfull passion and we can sooner feel than can express what 't is we mean. And though these extasies abate in time and languish by degrees yet the delights of doing good pursue a man as long as the remembrance of it lasts It is impossible to call to mind a mans good deeds or view the objects of his charity without abundance of content and solid satisfaction I make no doubt but the devout and humble soul returns God frequent thanks for his exciting and assisting grace but I doubt very much whether 't is possible in humane Nature not to reflect Honour and Pleasure on ones self withall they do so naturally flow so unavoidably result from the remembrance of those Acts of Charity and kind Beneficence And Seneca had never more reason then when describing this Virtue he said it was Actio benevola tribuens gaudium capiénsque tribuendo Thirdly 'T is agreeable to all Mankind We are frequently forc'd when we would recommend a Virtue to our audience to tell them 't is approv'd and practic'd by all the Wise and Good and sober Persons of the World which thô it is not so yet it may look like begging of the question because we are already prepossess'd in favour of that Virtue and consequently may be thought to call and judge those Persons Wise and Good and Sober barely from the practice of it But when a man can safely say that all the World approves a thing that high and low rich and poor young and old good and bad agree to it and have been always of the Opinion when they who cannot practice it still wish they could and they who do not are asham'd and make what shew they can as if they did when no mans confidence or wit hath ever carried him so far as to dispute its Excellence or praise its Opposite a man must be forsaken quite of sense and reason and good manners he must do strange violence to all the powers of his Soul whom the reverence that is due to the so general judgement of the world cannot impress upon or move to the belief and practice of this Noble Duty upon all occasions Fourthly 'T is acceptable in the sight of God it must needs be so he would not otherwise have charged it on us with such earnestness commanded it so positively and call'd upon us for performance so incessantly and threatned its neglect so terribly throughout the Scriptures It must needs be acceptable because we are thereby kind to Him himself in relieving his Friends for such is his goodness that he hath made the cause of those that want his Own and reckons up the good we do to them done to himself and will accordingly reward it It must needs be acceptable because we thereby exercise an act of faith and confidence in his truth and goodness we give him something sure and in possession for the reversion of rewards we know at present little of we give because He bids and trust because He says that He is faithfull And the Scriptures place a great deal of the merit of Abrahams faith in obeying when he was called to leave his Country and his Fathers house and going out althô he knew not whither he went that is in ready confidence and in implicit faith it must needs be acceptable because we thereby honour him in obeying his commands are just in owning him the Lord and true Proprietor of all we have and paying this acknowledgement and by shewing our selves gratefull and in some measure worthy of his mercies And to conclude in a great many other ways not needfull to recount at present But if the works of Charity are thus excellent and sweet thus acceptable both to God and man when exercis'd on those that only want they are yet more excellent and sweet and more agreeable when exercis'd on those that want and that deserve them at the same time It is a great improvement of the Argument when the administration of this service supplieth the want of the Saints Not but that to stand in need of Charity is strictly speaking to deserve it and is the first and most immediate cause and motive both of Giving and Receiving so that he that asks and receives upon presumption of his Want and yet wants not is at the best but a Deceiver and a Cheat and he that gives without Presumption of that Want may be munificent or liberal good natured vain or whatever else he pleases but not Charitable But when both Want and Merit meet the Practice of this Grace is much more satisfactory to ones Self and more agreeable to God and Man. It is a Complicated act of Goodness then it is approving and rewarding Virtue encouraging Religion Industry and Honesty and whatever else may be the merits of the Receiver as well as pitying and relieving his Distress Let us try said One of old with admirable reason how to make our Benefits most lasting and most serviceable and such as may never turn to Evil and that will be by carefully and wisely choosing where to place them most deservedly I will never give Mony to a Man qui adulterae numerabit I wont be so far accessary to his lewd acts or purposes I will if I can reclaim him but if not I don't intend to encourage or promote his Wickedness with a great deal more to good purpose and agreeable to the voice of right Reason which advise us to associate Prudence with Beneficence and whilst we are succouring Human Nature to discountenance Vice and Immorality withall to encourage Virtue and Religion and serve the Interests of the Commonwealth And to tie this Duty closer it is now become an Obligation of Reveal'd as well as Natural Religion and we must as we have opportunity do good to all Men but especially to those that are of the houshold of Faith. And amongst other Duties summ'd up in Rom. 12. one is Distributing to the Necessities of the Saints and St. Paul makes a journey on purpose to Jerusalem to minister to the Saints and raises the Character of the Mà cedonians from their making Contributions to and that of the House of Stephanas from addicting themselves to the Ministery of the Saints And thô in all those places by the Saints we are