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A26153 The power of charity to cover sin a sermon preach'd before the President and Governors of Bridewell and Bethlehem, in Bridewell-Chapel, August xvi, 1694, being the election-day / by Francis Atterbvry ... Atterbury, Francis, 1662-1732. 1694 (1694) Wing A4150; ESTC R22865 16,602 27

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affirm That a true Principle of Charity is that Qualification of Mind which of all Others is most grateful and acceptable to God and such as at the Day of Final Retribution He will have a Particular Regard to so as to make no severe Scrutiny into that Man's Faults and Failings who has Eminently Liv'd and Practis'd by it And This They Think sufficiently intimated by Our Saviour's Account of the Process of that Day Where the Onely Head of Inquiry he mentions is What Good and Charitable Deeds we have done to any of our Poor Brethren Which implies thus much at least That That will be the Chief Point upon which we shall be examin'd and that Our Acquittal as to Neglects in Other Parts of Our Duty will depend very much upon Our being able to give a good Answer to it And I hope this Assurance it self is a sufficient Encouragement to Charity without Our needing to strain the Words of the Text to such a Gross Sense as no Wise Man can believe that they ought and no Good Man would wish that they might be taken in V. There is indeed One Further Sense of the Words than has Yet been mention'd to which they may however be innocently and truly extended They have been hitherto consider'd only as containing a Particular Promise to Particular Men They may be understood also with regard to Those Blessings which Publick Charities procure on Publick States and Communities For it is true also that Acts of Charity shall Cover the Sins of Cities and Kingdoms as well as Those of Private Men if Cities and Kingdoms unanimously agree to perform ' em Our Fathers it is to be thought were of This Opinion and were powerfully acted and influenc'd by it in erecting These Charitable Foundations They could not but see that the Wealth of the Church though it was really grown too Great and was by some Rich Lazy Orders in it scandalously employ'd yet had been retrench'd on This Account beyond what needed and had not been apply'd afterwards to any Religious or Publick Use but was squander'd away for the most part upon Favorites and upon such as fell in with the Honest Zeal of Our First Reformers not out of any Principle of Conscience but the mere Design of enriching Themselves The Sense of This doubtless affected deeply the Good and Pious Men of Those Times and made them very Earnest and Active to procure some part of These Church-Spoils to be set aside to Charitable Uses that Retribution as it were might by This Means be made to God of what had been torn away in too Large Proportions from his Worship and Service To speak plainly that by a True Spirit of Charity Those Sins might be Cover'd which a Spirit of Lust and Avarice under the Pretence of Reforming the Abuses of Charity had caus'd And These Endeavours of Theirs God bless'd so wonderfully that some Millions of Money were in a Few Years contributed towards erecting and endowing in all Parts of our Country Hospitals and Houses of Charity This sufficiently baffled the Caluminies and stopp'd the Mouths of Our Adversaries of the Church of Rome Who cry'd Us down as Men that were Reforming away Good Works and turning all Religion into a Notional Faith How Other Protestant Countries have freed Themselves from that Imputation I am not able to say sure I am Ours deliver'd it self so well of it as to turn the Edge of the Objection back upon the Church of Rome it self that first manag'd it against us For upon a Fair and Impartial Computation it appears that there were Greater Expences upon Publick Works of Charity such I mean as we are at present discoursing of in Sixty Years after the Reformation than had been in Five times that Number of Years while Popery stood some have added than there were from the Conqu●st down to King Edward the Sixth that Good and Excellent Prince the Great Promoter and Encourager of These Works and Who is not to be mention'd without particular Honour in This House which acknowledges him for Her Pious and Munificent Founder I cannot but observe to You here that it was the Ruling Part of This Great City with a Good Bishop of London and Martyr for the Protestant Religion at the Head of 'em that Together stirr'd up that Young Prince to set upon so publick-spirited a Design And it is natural for me also at the same Time to wish that That Honourable Body may thus heartily always continue to join Their Endeavours and Interests with Those of Their Right Reverend Diocesan in promoting Publick Charities and Publick Blessings of any kind either in Church or State Indeed it must always be remember'd to the Honour of That Great Body That as Her Foundations of Charity such as we are speaking of are larger for ought I can find than Those of any Other City in the Christian World so They were All rais'd and endow'd either directly by Her Own Members or if by Other Hands yet at Her earnest and importunate Suit So that the Fabricks and Revenues of This Kind that belong to Her are not onely as in Other Parts the Useful Ornaments of the Place but so many standing Monuments also of the Great Piety and Unparallell'd Bounty of Her Ancestours It was They who sollicited the Cause of the Poor and the Infirm the Lame and Wounded the Vagrant and Lunatick with so particular an Industry and Zeal as had those Great and Blessed Effects which we at This Day see and feel A Zeal never to be forgotten by Men and which we hope God also will never forget But when he comes down to Visit for the many Ill Effects of Wealth misapplyed will for the sake of it Visit in Mercy and consider the Multitude of Her Charities as well as That of Her Sins Graciously allowing the One to be in some Measure a Cover to the Other But I have not Room to speak of All These Benefactions at large and am call'd upon by the Occasion of this Present Assembly to say somewhat more particularly of Those of This Place I think it by no means a fit and decent thing to vye Charities and to erect the Reputation of One upon the Ruines of That of another This is for the sake of Charity to forget the True Character and Essential Properties of it which are as St. Paul tells us to be kind and not envy not to vaunt it self or be puffed up not to behave it self unseemly However This I think I may say with Modesty and Truth to the Advantage of That Charity to which we belong That though the Bottom of Wealth it stands on be not so Large as that of Others yet is it in the Design of it so Comprehensive and Full as not any where I think to be parallell'd Here are Supplies to Outward Want and Necessity liberally imparted The Poor and Fatherless not only taken Care of but so bred up as to be able to be useful to the Common-wealth and perhaps to take