and he that watereth shall be watered againe By being watered and made fat is meant being stored with good things and to have store is the best prevention of want Let us shew you reasons too why this must needs be so First Reas 1 This is to bee a good Steward we all confesse that God is the Great Lord and Master of this Family of Heaven and Earth and that riches do not come to men either by fortune or chance or by their owne industry or the love of their friends or any like secondary meanes as the highest cause but all is from the dispensation and appointment of God who is the Ruler of all things making rich and making poore and setting up one and pulling downe another Wherefore all men bee but his servants and stewards to whom hee pleaseth to commit more or lesse as himselfe sees fit and hence it followes that it must needs availe much to the continuation and increase of any mans wealth that he be found a good Steward of the things committed to him by his Master for whom will a man rather intrust with his estate then those whom long experience hath approved to bee faithfull Now to communicate our substance to the poore with a large and inlarged heart and hand this is to doe the office of a good and faithfull Steward as Saint Peter teacheth in so many words 1 Pet. 4.9 10. Vse Hospitality one to another that is one act of bounty to be practised specially towards the poore and then hee adds this reason as every man hath received the gift so minister the same one unto another as good Stewards of the manifold graces of God Doe you not perceive that the due discharge of our Stewardship stands in ministring unto another the gifts that God hath given us wherefore he in whom the Lord doth find this fidelity shal never be put out of his office but rather the Lord wil deale with him as in the Parable the King did with his good faithfull servant to whom hee gave this praise saying Well done added this reward thou hast been faithfull in little be ruler over much Faithfullnes in using what we have you see to be the best meanes of being intrusted with more consequently of being freed from wants Now liberall distribution to the poore is a being faithfull in what we have this therfore if any thing will cause the Lord to give us more and more and never to waxe weary of giving to us if we will give unto others for his sake and according to his commandement Reas 2 Secondly Pro. 10.22 Salomon hath told us It procures Gods blessing which makes rich that the blessing of God maketh rich and addeth no sorrow therewith that is gives a comfortable and delightfull increase of our estate even such as is worth having and is truly beneficiall for to have a great estate as a great burden upon our shoulders and to bee but a horse to carrie a great loade of gold and silver through the world this is not to be a master but a slave of riches now such comfortable wealth doth not spring from mans wit or paines but from the blessing of God if you give credit to Salomon for if he vouchsafe not his blessing as the Watchman watcheth and the builder buildeth in vaine so doth the Husbandman plow and the merchant traffique and the labourer labour in vaine either no increase will come or none but a vexing and cumbersome increase now the Lord hath expressely promised his blessing unto those that will open their hands to their poore brethren saying in the fore-alledged place of Deut. 15.10 Because that for this thing the Lord will blesse thee in all thy workes and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto Doe you not all seeme covetous of Gods blessing doe you not beg it for your selves and for your children and friends hereby making a shew as if you counted it the most desirable of all things the most assured cause of all prosperity if you be any other then hypocrites in begging Gods blessing you must doe that for which hee saith hee will blesse you and in what in all your works and affaires yea and all you put your hands unto Certainely God will never bee found a promise-breaker what hee saith with his hand as Salomon professeth in his prayer that his own experience had taught him So we conclude our reason evidently and ungainesayably unlesse a man will deny Gods power and truth the efficacy of his blessing what will surely procure Gods blessing upon a mans affaires and estate that will save him from wants so will giving to the poore doe seeing hee hath bound it by promise to the liberall giver to the needy therefore this is the best way to be freed from wants A third reason I will add Reas 3 It is a lending to God Pro. 19.17 to lend unto Almighty God will surely procure abundance for hee will never prove bankerupt he will never borrow without a purpose and resolution to repay and without actuall repayment and that in the fittest time and manner The necessity of many great personages causeth that they are driven to borrow and cannot make satisfaction back againe in due time The covetousnesse of others causeth that though they have much lying by them yet they cannot bring their hearts to part with any portion to pay their debts as we see in experience so that the summes that are owing from such will never secure a man from want but must be reckoned amongst the number almost of desperate debts But I hope no heart amongst you will intertaine so base and wretched a conceit of Almighty God wherefore to have him in our debt is a sure meanes of having enough to preserve us from need Now you know the place well enough where he hath given his bill to you for the repayment of what you give to the poore saying Prov. 19.17 He that giveth to the poore lendeth to the Lord and that which he hath given he will pay him againe Loe brethren the bill of Gods hand as I may call it in which he hath both acknowledged the debt and promised payment Be it knowne unto all men by this present promise that I the Lord God of Heaven and Earth doe owe and acknowledge my selfe to be indebted to every mercifull liberall man all those summes of money which he hath bestowed or shall bestow in relieving the distressed to bee payed backe unto him whensoever he shall demand it for a bond or bill that names no day binds to payment at demand and to this payment well and truly to be payed I binde my selfe firmely by this present promise sent sealed and delivered by Salomon my knowne Secretary or Scribe Brethren unlesse you will proclaime the Lord an insufficient or a dishonest debter or paymaster you see that giving to the poore is the best way of saving your selves from wants for loe the Lords bill for
your security you shall have it againe every farthing token as you use to speake and that farre surer then checker which yet the proverbe hath chronicled for greatest assurance Reas 4 Let me add a fourth reason It will cause prayers and God will heare crying against therefore for Exod. 22.27 that you may beleeve a point to naturall reason so unbeleeveable what will cause many prayers and supplications to God for you that must sure cause Him to give you all good things in abundance and so deliver you from penurie and necessity you will yeeld this to be a truth if you account prayers worth any thing as Saint Paul certainely did and for this cause so often required them saying Brethren pray for us and againe I beseech you in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ and for the love of the Spirit that you strive in prayer to God for me The prayers made to God by his servants upon due ground and warrant cannot bee in vaine if God have not in vaine taken to himselfe the name of a God that heareth prayers now you know the poore will surely pay backe to you their prayers to God for you 2 Cor. 9.14 or if any should bee so unthankfull as not to doe it yet the houshold of God will to whom you ought most to abound in bountie The Lord saith that a poore man wronged will cry and God will heare his cry for he is mercifull Exod. 22.23 and will it not follow on the contrary a poore man refreshed will pray to God for you and God will heare him because he is mercifull If his mercy will moove him to punish the oppressor of the poore the said mercy must needs moove him to reward the succourer And if he be carnall that God will not heare his prayers for himselfe yet his prayer for his benefactor he will heare as well as his cryes against his wrong-doer Wherefore this giving is an undoubted course to procure all abundance of all good things and to chase away wants and necessity I know not how a point should bee accounted proved and confirmed sufficiently if you will not count this point so and beleeve it accordingly I come to the third point Hiding ones eyes that is hindering himselfe from knowing or resolving to doe this duty by putting any shifts and pretences before his mind this is to hide the eyes I conceive and I think none of you will object against the so interpreting the phrase The point is Doct. 3 It is a sinne to hinder ones selfe from knowing and resolving to doe his duty with idle shifts and pretences with excuses and allegations of this or that There is a double ignorance of a duty one of a duty in generall considered as a duty univerfally as not to know it is a duty to pray to releeve the poore which is a kinde of denying the proposition of a Syllogisme that the understanding must make There is an ignorance of a duty in particular to wit that this worke now at this time with these circumstances is a duty and this is a denying of the assumption and each of them will hinder the conclusion of the conscience therefore one must doe this Now to make ones selfe ignorant of a duty either of these waies by seeming reasons and objections is a sinne and the not doing of a duty which wee have made our selves so ignorant of will make us subject to curses you see as well as if a man plainely refuse to doe it without any such pretences for hee that hideth his eyes shall have store of curses This is that which the Scripture calleth winking with ones eyes Mat. 13.15 and detaining the truth in unrighteousnesse Rom. 1.18 This is that Saint Peter calleth a not knowing willingly 2 Pet. 5.3 as the men of the old world knew nothing of Noahs going into the Arke which had beene taught to them sixscore yeares together because with carnall objections they had blinded themselves This is a kinde of refusing to know judgement That this is a great fault I shall proove to you by two reasons Reas 1 First it is a meere fruit of hypocrisie that is of that vice by which a man desireth to seeme good and not to be so for because hee would not seeme to offend hee invents devices and shifts if the answer should be downe-right I know it is a duty but I will not doe it Such a flat opposition to conscience will make a man to be condemned of himselfe but because hee would maintaine in himselfe an opinion of himselfe that he is good and yet is not willing to be good in truth and shew it by doing the thing commanded though his corruption stand never so averse to it therefore he seekes about for reasons to hide his eyes to make him believe it is no duty that hee may at once both serve sinne and not be knowne to himselfe to serve it As did the proud men to whom God sent Ieremie with a commandement that they should not goe downe into AEgypt but tarry in the land Jer. 43.2 3 they would not seeme so rebellious as to say though God bid us tarry here yet we will not but they hid their eyes by making themselves beleeve that Ieremy was inticed by Baruch to prophesie this against them that hee might deliver them into the hands of the Babylonians Open rebellion faith I will not doe it though it be a duty hypocrisie will deale more finely and say I would doe it if it were a duty but it is not though it have none but frivolous allegations to disprove it hence commeth this hiding of the eye therefore it is a great offence Reas 2 This hiding of the eyes causeth the Lord at last to make men blinde even to strike them with a spirit of blindnesse that they shall bee so hood-winked muffled as the lightest and brightest truth that is shall never sinke into their mindes and so they will be hardned in sinne against all reproofes and exhonation and admonitions that nothing will worke them to amendment and so by utter impenitencie and hardnesse they tumble themselves headlong to the pit of perdition as you see in the Prophet Isay God saith Make the eyes of this people blind and their heart fat that is as much as if hee had said all thy labour with them shall profit nothing they shall grow harder and harder blinder and blinder the more they be taught and instructed Why What is the reason that God will sell them over to their owne hardnesse and blindnesse That place alledged also Mat. 13.14 15. leads us to the reason Their eyes have they closed least at any time they should see and convert and bee healed A refusing to know by closing ones eyes against light with fond excuses that is the true sinne which God punisheth even with giving them up to utter impenitencie and blindnesse so this that is a fruit of guile and procurer of utter
hardnesse is a fearefull sinne Now of the last point He shall have curses enough Doct. 4 The omitting of good duties will bring many curses sinnes of omission bring men under the curse as Christ doth declare in bidding men depart from him cursed because they had not visited him and the Law that saith Cursed is he that doth not establish the Law and the omitter of an injoyned duty doth not establish the Law therefore he is cursed Reas 1 There is a double reason of the point according as there is a double curse A wrong to God man They wrong God and man too and therefore God and man both curse him that is guilty Hee that refuseth to doe that which God enjoyneth him to performe to any man for his benefit is injurious to God that commands the doing of that good and to man that should enjoy the benefit of it The Steward which is wished by his Master to give so much to such a Servant and keepeth it himselfe is a theefe both to his Master and also to the person whom he hath defrauded of his Masters allowance Hence it is that men in anger many times will though they should not wreake themselves upon them with curses and imprecations and God alwaies will punish their unfaithfullnesse to him-ward with execution of the curses denounced against them Thus have I made good these severall points I will doe the best I am able to make them Usefull to you and that in way of reproofe instruction and comfort First for reproofe Uses 1 For Reproofe I beseech you brethren be willing to receive reproofe for the reproofes of wisdome are wholesome reproofes and tend to life give me leave yea give your own consciences leave to reprehend and chide you throughly for your great back wardnes unwillingnes to this work whereto the God of Heaven hath made so plaine and mercifull a promise and for your frequent falling into that sinne against which you reade and heare so fearefull and hideous and grievous a threat of many curses What a naughtinesse is it in a man that hath the will of God evidently revealed unto him in the Scriptures and that is not ignorant of those Texts that command duty and forbid sinne yet to fall still into the sinne forbidden and still to be found carelesse of the duties required yea so to fall into the faults and fore-slacke the duties that hee scarse ever taketh notice of his offending either waies to find fault with himselfe for it or to acknowledge his evill carriage therein Whence can this contrariety of our lives to the sacred Scriptures arise but from not beleeving the Scriptures that is our making God the author of them a Lier Beloved in our Lord come and lay your lives to this Text here God you see hath undertaken to save from want all those that by the exercise of bounty have beene carefull to supply the wants of the poore Say then how comes it to passe that you have beene so backward to those costs so negligent of this service so unwilling to lay out your money to this good worke Whence is it I say that you stand so averse to this service you may ascribe it to other causes if you lust to deceive your selves with your vaine reasonings and be not willing to see your owne badnesse but the true cause and that that doth indeed render you so slacke to such expences is nothing but that cursed bitter root of unbeleefe You give no sound credit to the promises of God in his Word made to the bountifull nor to the threats denounced against those that hide their eyes I say you doe not throughly and in your hearts assent to them It is a most easie thing to brag of faith and to affirme with our mouthes that wee beleeve the Scriptures but to beleeve them indeed is not easie and this is the cleerest distinction betweene a sound faith and a bare boasting and bragging of faith the one is effectuall and worketh by obedience and the other is powerlesse and cannot sway the heart to obey You are therefore now to take notice of your unbeleefe to ascribe your niggardlinesse to that and abhorre that evill roote that bringeth forth such bad fruit that growes on that roote and to abhorre your selves that you have not yet so farre prevailed with your own hearts as to make you beleeve the holy Scriptures seriously and throughly For let us a little reason with you about this matter doe you not find a great difference betwixt your disposition to other costs and those of giving to the poore you are ready to the other to this marvellous backward in the other you are free in this sparing in the other you are constant in this seldome the other you part with as if you saw some reason for them these you part with as if there were no cause at all that you should part with them This could not be if you did throughly beleeve this present Text of Scripture other costs you extenuate both before and after the bestowing pish t is but a matter of six pence let it go these you aggravate and make great why I pay six pence by the weeke or a shilling and for pounds your bounty of the most is never wonted to such high summes To workes of kindnesse some are pretty forward to superfluous expences about their bodies houses and children to trimme and set them forth very forward to workes of riot and luxurie many be over forward but to workes of pittie and to bestowing on the poore oh how quite contrarily affected I pray where hath God promised to preserve you from need if you lay out your money in rich and faire clothes in plenteous banquets in visitings in feasting in curtesies or the like no where that I can remember But if you lay out for mercy to the needie loe here and in many places besides you have a promise that you shall not want did you beleeve this and those promises by how much such giving is more acceptable to God and should bee more profitable to your selves by so much you would be more forward and plentifull therein oh therefore see confesse bewaile this niggardly disposition with the very fountaine of it infidelity not beleeving that the Scriptures be from God and so most undoubtedly true and shall most certainely bee fullfilled in every promise and every threat Furthermore consider how glad you are to fight against wants by such meanes as naturall reason doth prescribe and what paines you take to keepe out penurie The worldly waies of not being pinched with penurie are carefully followed What makes the ventrous Merchant to live within a few inches of death upon the floating waves and to commit himselfe to the danger of Pyrates shipwracke diseases and to undergoe the trouble of being imprisoned in his ship for many moneths together and the labour of a tedious journey why this is the meanes to save him from want and to