let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Which brings me to the last thing proposed Vthly To consider the great Engagement we have to the fulfilling of this Duty in that Glorious Reward which God has promised to the performance of it Among all the Arguments which either the Authority of Holy Scripture or the Common principles of Reason afford to us to stir us up to the practice of this Duty there is none that strikes so forcibly upon the minds of all sorts of Men as the Consideration of those great Blessings which God has promised to the diligent performance of it and of those severe Judgments which he will one day execute upon those that shall continue to neglect and disregard it Other reflections may serve to convince Men of the Justice and Reasonableness of such a practice and which indeed is so very clear that there are few so ill-natured and insensible as to deny it But this shews the Necessity of it Others may force us to confess it to be very titting that we should be thus kind and charitable to one another But this speaks with Authority and makes us resolve in good earnest so to be He that tells me how highly reasonable it is that I should do all the Good I can with the portion which God has given me * That for this end I have received it and to this end ought especially to employ it * That my riches are not my own but committed to me in trust for the Benefit of others as well as for my own use and that I shall be false to that trust if I do no Good to others by them * That I ought to express my Gratitude to God for his extraordinary Favours to me by being Bountiful to those who have not received so large a portion of him * That this will above any thing render me most like unto God and most beloved of Men * That the poorest person in the World is yet my Brother partaker of the same Nature and Constitution it may be of the same Promise of Grace too with my self and therefore that it will be highly not only un-Christian but even unnatural and inhumane not to have some sense and feeling of his Miseries In a word * That our Riches are very uncertain and we should consider that what is the Condition of many Thousands now but lately in as flourishing an Estate as our selves may for ought we know the next Year be our own if God for our Vncharitableness shall think sit to let us also fall into the hands of the same Cruel and Merciless men and therefore that we ought to think what we should judge reasonable for others in such a Case to do to us and then remember the Great Rule both of Nature and the Gospel and do even so unto them does certainly speak a great deal of Sense and may justly move my Assent to his Arguments But 't is the man who can draw aside the Vail and set Life and Death Blessing and Cursing before me and then make it appear upon such Grounds as I cannot deny or even doubt of that my Happiness or Misery both in this World and the other depends upon my Observance or Neglect of this Duty that will awaken all the Powers of my Soul and at the same time both convince and force to a compliance And such is the Argument we have here before us and from which therefore the Apostle concludes the necessity of our doing Good as a matter that would admit of no debate Be not says he deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth that he shall also reap He that soweth to his flesh that is that either spends what he has on the sensual Enjoyments of the Flesh or else hoards it together to the Covetous satisfying the desires of it shall of the flesh reap corruption But he that soweth to the Spirit i.e. as the next Verses interpret it does good makes a wise and pious and charitable use of what he has shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Wherefore let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Many are the Promises of the like kind which we meet with in other places of Holy Scripture And from all which it is obvious to conclude that if we have any regard either to our present Happiness or to our future Glory there is nothing wherein we ought to be more careful than by our Charity to establish our selves in both For 1st As to this Present Life What is it possible for any one to desire to make him a happy man in this World that God has not freely promised to the merciful and liberal Would he secure his Riches Would he confirm the Enjoyment of them both to himself whilst he lives and deliver them down in peace to his posterity when he comes to dye This Charity has the promise of above any thing besides He that giveth to the poor says Solomon shall not lack And in another place he gives this as the very reason of it Prov. xxii 9. He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed for he giveth of his bread to the poor And holy David confirms the truth of this Remark not only from the Promise of God but also from his own Experience Psal. xxxvii 25. I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging their bread He is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed For the LORD loveth judgment and forsaketh not his saints they are preserved for ever But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off The righteous shall inherit the land and shall dwell therein for ever Nay but would he do yet more Would he even encrease his Wealth and grow more prosperous in the Enjoyment of it 'T is a strange Assertion but yet by the Blessing and Promise of God a very true one that by giving it thus away he shall encrease it There is says Solomon that scattereth and yet encreaseth And would you know who that is He will tell you in the next Verse The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself Would he provide himself a security amidst all the uncertain and many times miserable Varieties of this World And be safe even in the midst of all its Dangers Charity is the best defence the surest preservative against all Calamities Blessed is the man says David that considereth the poor and needy the LORD will deliver him in the time of trouble The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon the earth and not deliver him into the will of his enemies In short would he be blessed in all things that he putteth his hand unto and have every thing prosper according to his hearts
desire It was the promise of God to the Jews heretofore and I see no reason why we should not in proportion apply it to our selves now that he would deal with them according as they did with other men Deut. xv 7. If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee Thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother Thou shalt surely give him because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all that thou puttest thine hand unto These are some of the present Promises which God has made to the Charitable man I might to all this add the severe Threatnings even of present Evils to the Covetous Miser to him who has no bowels of Mercy towards any others and therefore deserves no compassion himself either from God or Man He hath swallow'd down Riches says Job and he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of his belly and that for this very reason ver 19. Because he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor But this is yet the least part of this Argument and therefore I will not insist any longer upon it And indeed the portion of the Cross which every good Christian must expect more or less to meet with in this world may often times make these present Promises much less certain to us now than they were to the Jews heretofore But the other part of the Consideration is without Exception viz. 2dly That if we be not weary in well doing then in due season when the great day of Retribution comes we shall infallibly reap if we faint not And here I shall presume that no One will so far mistake the meaning of St. Paul in these words as to imagine that this or any other Vertue alone will be sufficient to our Eternal Salvation So that if a man does but give liberally to the poor 't is no great matter how he lives or what he does with the rest of his Estate No this is by no means the meaning of this Promise Charity is indeed a most excellent Vertue and will go as far it may be farther towards the securing our Salvation than any One thing besides in the World St. Peter has told us that it shall cover the multitude of sins that is shall obtain the forgiveness of them And St. John prescribes it as the best means to assure our hearts before God that is to enable us to appear with confidence before him in Judgment And a Greater than both has told us that if we give Alms of such things as we have all things shall be clean unto us But yet when all is done neither this nor any other Vertue alone can save us There must be an Vniversal Holiness in all other respects too and without which no man shall ever see the LORD And yet perhaps even in this Case also tho by our neglect in other matters we should be so unhappy as to come short of Heaven our Charity nevertheless may not lose its reward but may serve to make us less miserable if not more glorious to allay our Damnation if not to encrease our Reward But not to pursue these Imaginations That which the Apostle here promises is plainly this That if we be not wanting to our selves our Charity shall be sure to meet with a proportionable recompence from God-Almighty and we shall reap among others these Three great Advantages by it First That it shall prepare the way for the more certain and easie forgiveness of our sins Secondly It shall procure us a more large and comfortable portion of Gods Grace to enable us to discharge our duty the better now And Thirdly If we faint not but persevere in this and all other parts of our duty it shall Crown us with a more exceeding weight of Glory hereafter Whilst the sordid covetous Miser were it possible for him otherwise to abound in all the highest perfection of Christian Piety yet for want of this One Vertue shall lose his Reward and be cast out with the unprofitable Servant who hid his Talent and made no use of it did no Good with it into utter darkness where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth And what then remains but that having all these Encouragements to stir us up to a warm and vigorous discharge of this duty we now suffer our selves to be perswaded in the words of our Saviour Christ to provide our selves Bags which wax not old a Treasure in Heaven that faileth not where no Thief approacheth neither Moth corrupteth Or as Himself elsewhere expresses it with more immediate reference to our last consideration To make to our selves friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness that when we fail they may receive us into Everlasting Habitations And yet I cannot conclude without adding one consideration more and which I hope may I am sure should be of very Great weight with us It has been one of the chiefest Reproaches which those of the Church of Rome have endeavoured to fix upon our Reformed Religion that it has not only put a stop to Charity but has moreover cut off the very Ground and Foundation of it and all this only for rejecting those superstitions by which they principally have their Gain How false this imputation is as to the latter part of it we have now pretty largely seen God be thanked Christianity affords Motives and Engagements enough to Charity without running to any vain and superstitious pretences for the support of it He who believes the singular Efficacy of this practise both by the promise of God and through the prayers of those whom He relieves to obtain the forgiveness of his sins and to deliver his Soul from Eternal damnation will need no Vision of Purgatory to open his Heart to the Poor He may indeed turn his Charity another way instead of bartering his Money with the Priests for Masses and Prayers for Pardons and Indulgences for Holy Trifles to prevent or expiate Sins He may bequeath it to the Poor which is a great deal better And if this be the Charity which our Religion has put an end to we shall neither be afraid or ashamed to confess it And for the former It might easily be made appear that laying aside the Superstitions we but now mention'd there has much more been done since the Reformation in works of wise and true Charity than ever was done in twice that time from the first rise of Popery among us to its going off And how much soever some of late have thought fit to Magnifie the Piety of Rome and Paris yet upon these Principles we may venture to say that in this as well as all other Advantages our own City do's exceed them To run through a particular comparison in this point were both to abuse your Patience and the Design
Capacities will permit us to do it For so we find the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes used not only in the best Greek Authors but even in these very Epistles and particularly Phil. IV. 10. where St. Paul excusing the Philippians that did not sooner send their relief to him tells them they wanted no Good-will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But ye lacked Ability so the Syriac renders it and so St. Chrysostome not to mention any others expresly tells us we are there to understand it But now what that proportion in particular is which every one ought to distribute in Works of Mercy and Charity this is what I shall not undertake precisely to define Thus much our Apostle tells us that what a Man sows the same he shall also reap And that we are to understand this not only with Relation to the kind but to the Measure and the Proportion too himself shews us 2 Cor. IX 6. He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully every Man according as he purposeth in his heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a chearful giver And from both which it is obvious to conclude that though S. Paul would not prescribe any certain Bounds to Men's Charity which ought to be a free-will Offering large and voluntary not narrow and constrained yet that in general he has plainly enough delivered his Opinion that the more we give the better God will accept of it and the greater and more certain shall our returns from Heaven be And to a truly Charitable mind there will need no other direction than this But because such is the narrowness of most Men's Souls that they are apt to think every little pittance that they bestow on Acts of Mercy to the Poor to be abundantly sufficient to intitle them not only to an Acceptance but to a Reward also Though I shall not presume to set any bounds where the Gospel has not by determining what men ought to lay aside for this Duty yet thus far I will adventure to correct their Mistakes as to shew what that proportion is below which I suppose Men ought not without some extraordinary Occasions to fall or if they do may have just cause to fear that they shall be look'd upon by God as Vnmerciful and Vncharitable Now in order hereunto I shall in the first place take it for granted that every Man ought to be the more liberal in his Charity to others the more free and bountiful the Providence of God has been in its distributions to him That is to say that our Charity must bear a proportion to our Abilities and that to whomsoever much is given of him in this sense also much shall be required This is what St. Paul seems to have laid down as the standing rule for the Corinthians to proceed by 1 Epist. XVI 2. That every one of them should lay aside according as God had prosper'd or blessed him Which was the very measure that we before saw Moses gave to the Jews heretofore Deut. XVI 17. Every man shall give according to the Blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee And the same Apostle in his 1st Epist. to Timothy VI. 18. Bids Timothy charge them that were rich in this world not only that they should be ready to give and glad to distribute but that they should be rich in good works i.e. should exceed others as much in their Charity as they did in their Estates And from all which it is very plain that if those to whom God has given a larger Ability than others whose riches are greater or whose occasions less who have neither so many to maintain now nor to provide for hereafter do not in some proportion go beyond them in works of mercy and beneficence They may justly be looked upon to come short of that Charity God expects from them though otherwise they should chance to give in a lower and more scanty degree But Secondly and to come more closely to the point proposed It cannot reasonably be doubted But that as our Saviour himself tells us that He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it So except our righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees the strictest and most diligent observers of the Law We shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It remains therefore that though the Gospel of Christ has not particularly defined what proportion every man should give in works of Charity yet that no Christians ought to give less now than what the Jews heretofore were ordinarily obliged to do Now the proportion of the Law was this That every third year they should set aside the tenth part of their yearly income for the use of the poor That they should permit them every Harvest to lease in their fields That they should lend to them without Vsury That they should not go over their Fields their Vineyards or their Olive-yards a second time to gather them clean or if they left any sheaf or clusters or bunches behind that they should not go back to fetch them but should leave all that escaped their first Gathering together with a certain Part of each field which they called the Corner of the field untouch'd for the Stranger for the Fatherless and for the Widow besides some other Instances of the like kind prescribed to them This was the Jew's righteousness that is his duty his obligation And if he transgress'd in any thing of all this he broke the Law and sinned against God But they had Acts of Charity yet beyond this and which they properly called by the Names of Mercy and Bounty Such were all their Voluntary Offerings at their Feasts before mention'd All their Occasional works of pity upon extraordinary Emergencies If for example God had given them a greater increase than ordinary in their fields or their Vineyards or they had met with any unexpected Good success in their Affairs If their Children and their Flocks were multiplied unto them or else on the other hand some greater sin was to be expiated or some Calamity to be prevented which seem'd ready to come upon them unless they took care by some extraordinary Acts of Charity and Repentance to prevent the evil and reconcile themselves to God Such was the measure of the Jews Charity under the Law and certainly the Christians ought not to be less And therefore tho' I shall not pretend to determine what every man ought to do in this particular and indeed amidst the great variety of Fortunes and Circumstances in the World could not well give any certain rules for this matter yet thus much I am perswaded we may conclude That no Christian can ordinarily excuse himself who does not lay aside somewhat more than the thirtieth part of his yearly income for the Stranger for the Fatherless and for the Widow