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
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
thus to give Plus pauper tibi cansert quam á te accipit Ambr. Acts 20.35 the gift will prove more beneficiall to the giver then to the receiver if thou givest a penny the poore man gives thee a good prayer and blesseth thee in the name of God of which Iob made great reckoning Iob 20.13 31.20 Pro. 22.9 And for this thing God will blesse thee in all thy workes and in that thou putst thine hand unto Deut. 15.10 and blesse thy posterity Psal 37.26 Act. 10.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pro. 11.25 Eccles 11 1. Mat. 5.7 Heb. 13.16 2 Cor. 9.6 Our charitable actions ascend up to bee a memoriall before God or a standing monument and remembrance as the word signifieth wee shall heare of them at the resurrection Luke 14.14 God hath made many ample sweete and precious promises to the mercifull to reward them abundantly Pro. 11.25 Mat. 10.41 42. Luke 6.38 Heb. 6.10 He hath promised Temporall blessings they shall not lacke Prov. 28.27 They shall have comfort in sicknesse and bee delivered in time of trouble Psal 41.1 2 3. Spirituall Breaking off of sinnes and pardon Dan. 4.27 Perpetuity of righteousnesse Psal 112.9 Eternall A certaine treasure in heaven Luke 13.33 Receiving into everlasting tabernacles Luke 16.9 Possession of eternall life Mat. 25.34 Oh let us therefore doe good bee rich in good workes ready to distribute willing to communicate 1 Tim. 6.17 Beneficence to men is there expressed in the variety of foure Epithets both to shew the vehement intention of Saint Pauls desire of good workes and the important necessity of their performance this if wee doe Ver. 8. wee may lay hold on eternall life as hee there addes may bee as sure of it as if wee had it Let us give then that which wee cannot keepe that wee may gaine that which we cannot loose Luke 16.9 Let us make to our selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnesse that when wee faile they may receive us into everlasting habitations Your true Christian friend E. L. Perlegi hunc tractatum in quo nihil reperio quó minús cum utilitate imprimatur THO WEEKES R. P. Episc Lond. Cap. Domest THE POORE MANS ADVOCATE OR A Treatise of Liberalitie to the needy PROV 28.27 He that giveth unto the poore shall not lacke but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse THis sentence is left in GODS Booke to quicken men unto a much neglected duty for that end it delivers a promise and a threat shewing in the former what good shall come to them that are carefull of the duty in the latter what evill shall befall the promise note a duty standing in an action that is Giving and the object of the action to the poore Every man knows what it is to give as giving is strictly taken viz. a bestowing of a thing upon another of my owne free will which hee cannot challenge of right otherwise Now this giving is a thing much in use but not to the right object here named which are the poore Much is given away to the Rich and those that need it not as it were the powring of water into the Sea but into the empty vessell nothing is powred but the duty which God would commend is that which hath for its object a poore needy distressed man who is destitute of things necessary and knowes not by what meanes to relieve himself A poore man is one that wants things needfull for him But you must conceive that here is not meant a scant backward niggardly giving but a constant cheerefull discreete and upright giving and this is the duty commended now followes the reward No want hee shall bee secured from necessity and penury God will take order that those men shall not be broght to penury themselves which are so charitable and liberall that they bee ready to supply the wants of others This duty shall be rewarded with freedome from want but you must consider that the Holy Ghost useth a figure here where lesse is spoken and more is understood for he meaneth he shall have abundance God will increase his store as it is said elsewhere Pro. 11.15 Hee that watereth shall bee watered also himselfe You see first the promise next the threat in which note also the fault and the punishment The fault is hiding the eyes which intimateth a not giving by the cause of it not caring to take notice of the poore mans want and of ones duty to supply the same but using fond shifts and excuses to withhold a mans selfe from the duty He hides his eyes from doing a good worke that refuseth to know the necessity of it and to take notice of the fit occasions to doe it either not confessing that the thing generally considered is needfull or when particular opportunities of doing it shall offer themselves findeth out some shift or other to cause himselfe to beleeve that then he need not doe it This is the fault omitting acts of mercifull bounty out of carelesnesse to know or acknowledge the occasion yea wilfull ignorance and denying the same What is the punishment of it much of curses as it is word for word one that shall be plentifull in curses A curse is a speech tending to pronounce or wish not any small but some great evill or mischiefe upon man that is mans curse But Gods curse is both a pronouncing of evill and that in wrath and indignation to shew his detestation of the person and also an executing of the evill pronounced upon the offender to his ruine and destruction A curse noteth the denouncing bringing upon a man some great evill as a forerunner of eternall destruction and such as shall certainely bring that after it So you have the meaning of the words Here are foure severall points which for brevity sake I will confirme and prove severally and apply joyntly and all at once The first point is Doct. 1 Giving to the poore is a necessary duty I draw this point out of the Text in this manner what is commended to men with a gracious pracious promise and whose contrary is threatned with a curse must bee a duty sure as all will yeeld now so is this worke of giving to the poore as you see with your eyes wherefore it must be undeniably concluded a duty that is a thing not which we may doe if we will and if wee will not wee may choose but whereto our consciences are tied by the authority of God the sole Commander of the conscience and which if wee omit it shall be reputed a transgression Now that it is a duty you shall perceive by the many Texts of Scripture which doe most expressely require it Deut. 15.9 If thine eye bee evill against thy poore brother and thou givest him nought and it be sinne unto thee and verse the 10. Then shalt surely give him and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him and verse the 11. Thou shalt
make his state plentifull Why doth the Tradesman lay out his stocke frequent markets and faires toile and take paines in getting together commodities and selling them againe why else he could not maintaine his charge nor hold up his credit nor escape want What makes every man so thriftie so painefull so carefull of his estate he might sure spend all else and come to want Loe when reason prescribes to prevent wants you doe not stand on points of hazard labour or anything Surely if you gave credit to Gods promise as well as to the counsell of naturall reason you would try his way as well as the waies of the world It is undeniable every man would save himselfe and his from need and if you were perswaded that giving to the poore would doe it you would as certainely willingly and abundantly give as you are carefull to save and get and use all good husbandry in al other things And a little more to aggravate this great fault of niggardlinesse in giving to the poore Let us suppose that some mighty and rich Monarch should send his Sonne or Servant unto you requiring you to furnish him with things necessary for such an occasion and withall promise of his honour that you should never want any thing if hee found you for his sake liberall to such persons would not you bee at much cost for them would you not even straine your selves to the utmost for them Loe now beloved a King might winne you to lay out halfe your estate yea all and more then all even so as to run farre in debt if he would say to you thou shalt never lack if thou wilt do this kindnesse for me But the promise that God hath here made workes upon you no more then if you had never heard a word of it and yet it is one of the sentences that is to bee read and I thinke is read often in your eares Surely I conclude against you whatsoever your tongues say yet your hearts doe not verily beleeve the Scriptures and therefore the Word you heare profits not because it is not mixed with faith in you that heare it Will you not finde out your infidelity to condemne it in your selves by improoving your unwillingnesse to give to the poore as a just proofe of it if you doe not observe the roote upon which sinnes doe grow you shall never mend them because you shall never see their hatefullnesse and dangerousnes but if you informe your selves aright of the close and secret vices which produce neglects of good duties in you those omissions would so much humble you as to procure a reformation I have reproved you enough Use 2. Of Exhortation I proceed to exhort and provoke you to this duty and to deterre you from this sin Here is a duty giving to the poore here is a sinne hiding the eyes what say you will you performe this duty hereafter will you take heede of this sinne It is certaine that hearing without resolution to obey is meere hypocrisie and a loath some abuse of Gods ordinance you stand all here before the Lord as if you were his people and would obey him Now shew your selves to bee either true or false true by consenting to the Word and setling your hearts in a purpose of obeying or false by the contrary Make this conclusion with your selves hath the living God my Master not alone enjoyned me to give unto the poore but also undertaken to provide for me and mine that no want shall befall us if for his sake we will put upon us a liberall resolution and hath hee made me know that store of curses shall pursue me if I fore-slacke this duty upon any pretexts or excuses well then I doe even covenant with my selfe through his helpe to be more abundant in this duty then ever I have beene Lord thy commandement should binde me though no promise were annexed out of a mind willing to subject it selfe to thee I should performe that which thou requirest though thou didst not threaten A good servant will addresse himselfe to his masters work upon a bare bidding though his master threaten him not for negligence but if his master be so urgent as to quicken him by promises and threats because it is a proofe that his master is earnestly desirous to have that worke well looked unto he will bee so much more carefull and diligent Therefore now I will no longer hide mine eyes I will no more send my wits about to find out shifts evasions whereby I may winde my selfe out of the hands of mine owne conscience but I will through Gods helpe I will give liberally to the poore and if I finde my heart backward and my hand bound up with the cords of niggardlinesse if I find a kinde of rising and grumbling against the duty I will breake through that backwardnesse either by faire meanes or by foule I will helpe my selfe by the remembrance and consideration of this promise or threat or both I will demand of my selfe and say what meanest thou to bee averse from a duty that shall be so profitable unto thy selfe by giving to this man thou shalt not advantage him so much as thy selfe thou shalt a little supply his need for the present but thou shalt save thy selfe from need for ever I I my selfe shall be the gainer I shall interest my selfe into that expresse and evident promise of God which I heare Hee that giveth shall not want I shall assure my selfe upon the truth of the most faithfull God not to be delivered over unto penurie But contrarily If I yeeld to mine own pinching humour and stop mine eyes and hold my hand and doe not give when God calls for it in the necessities of his people I shall hinder my selfe endammage my estate more then tenne times so much money can hinder for the losse of halfe or of all mine estate were not so great a misery as to lie open to curses yea to many curses O I will never save a few pence shillings or pounds so foolishly I set by them to make my self obnoxious to a multitude of curses Brethren I pray you stirre up your resolutions to this duty by the consideration of this threat and promise if when you be in hearing you would cause your selves to be perswaded and set downe this conclusion I see this is a duty I see God hath promised abundant reward I see he hath threatned heavie punishment therefore J will resolve to obey so obedient hearing would bring forth fruit those resolutions would at length take place in your lives Gods Spirit would incline you to obey if you would thus strive to incline your selves to obey But when you heare with an evill and stiffe heart and will not so much as labour to worke your wills to a firme purpose of practising it cannot possibly fall out that you should put a duty in practise after hearing upon which you did not setledly resolve in hearing But that I