lodged me and I sayes another was sick and in prison and this man came unto me and so of the rest And what shall be the issue and consequent of all this Testimony at last why even that which is there signified to us Matth. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world IV. This holds good in a way of Gratulatory entertainment those friends whom you have made by your almes shall receive you into heaven so farr forth as any of them as it may happen being there before you shall rejoice to see you come thither as indeed they shall Look as there is joy in Heaven amongst the Angels for any one sinner that is converted so is there joy also in Heaven amongst amongst the Saints for any one convert that is glorified there is a mutual Heavenly welcome which they doe bid as I may say one to another into those everlasting Habitations and this is that which you who have formerly bin bountiful to them shall then partake of from them The consideration of this point thus opened and in larged may be thus far useful to us namely from hence to teach us to set an high price and estimation upon the poor servants of Christ and to think highly honorably of them We doe usually so farr reckon of any persons as they are able to doe the most for us now see here by this rule how to account of such persons as those who are enabled thus to help us to Heaven which is the greatest good of all we should honour them and think highly of them in the midst of many outward disparagements they are men of great interest with God and so they should be of great esteem with us and we should never think we can doe enough for them nor never repent of any good that ever we did them as being sure it shall not be lost but abundantly recompensed to us take heed of despising one of these little ones who have such great things in their reach Yea and take heed of disingageing them also and of doing any thing to them whereby to loose or abate of their affection which may be of more use unto us perhaps then we are aware of not only as to the keeping off of temporal evils calamityes and the procuring of many temporal blessings but also as to the diverting of God's eternal wrath and indignation and admittance into the everlasting Habitations And that 's the second thing here intimated xiz The practise of the poor releived Christans which they will be ready to comply with in reference to those persons that relieve them The third and last is the Issue or effect in regard of the thing it self and that is that these liberal persons who doe lay out of their essates to good uses they shall indeed at the last have admittance and entrance into those everlasting habitations They shall receive you that is no more but you shall be received by taking the words not relatively so much as absolutely nor personally but impersonally rather And this is very sutable and agreable to other places of Scripture where the like Form and manner of expression hath the like sense and meaning with it as Luk. 6 38. Good measure shall they give into your bosome that is good measure shall be given Luk. 12.20 This night shall they take away thy Soul that is thy Soul shall be taken away And Revel 12.6 Speaking of the woman fled into the wildernesse where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her that is that she might be fed as will appear if we shall compare it with the 14 verse of that chapter And so now answerable here in the text that they may recieve you that is I say that you may be recieved And so now it does not so much point out the Persons as rather the state and condition it self not the Persons conferring but rather the state and condition it self which is conferred This is the summ of all that those who faithfully expend of their â—states to the relief of the poor servants of Christ when they dye they shall have Heaven it self bestowed upon them This is the doctrine of this present text and of the whole scripture likewise beside which yet that it may be duly and rightly understood by us must be taken with this explication I. That this is not meant of any meritorius virtue in the act of Beneficence it self so that whosoever shall give an Almes more or less to any one poor man or more he shall thereby ipso facto and as it were ex opere operato promeriti a place in Heaven for that he shall not nor cannot doe There is no proportion or commensuration betwixt our bounty and the bounty of God in eternal life II. It is not so meant neither as if this liberality were enough of it self for any man that should go to Heaven with out other graces besides for so neither it is not It is not liberality considered solitarily or abstractly but in its full concomitancy in the association of other good works going along with it It is not when ye faile of your duty but when ye faile of your Life III. It is not meant neither Independently upon the general principle of saving Grace wrought in the Heart we are said to be created in Christ Iesus unto good works that we should walk in them Eph. 2.10 And it holds good of these works of Beneficence among the rest which are no further properly good neither have Salvation attending upon them then as they flow and proceed in us from such a root and spring as this not from a common principle only of morality but from a special principle of regeneration and the new Creature The end of the commandement is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and of Faith unfeigned 1. Tim. 1.5 So then the plain and direct meaning is briefly this That as God will reward all other good services besides with Eternal life in a subject duly fitted and qualified thereunto so amongst the rest in a special manner will he take notice of the kindnesse which is done to any of his poor servants and will at last reward that also with eternal happinesse and salvation This is matter of great encouragement to any to be faithful in such performances as these alwaies to abound in this work of the Lord for asmuch as they hear and may know that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. That which makes men commonly so strait-handed and close-fisted towards the poor is because they have this conceit with themselves that they shall otherwise be loosers by the bargains But here now for their comfort it is the contrary if it be gain to be partakers of Heaven they shall not loose that are bountiful towards the poor And therefore let this argument have its full force and efficacy upon us Those
THE VNRIGHTEOVS MAMMON EXCHANGED FOR THE TRUE RICHES OR A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of William Adams Esq In the Parish Church of St. Lawrence Iury on Tuesday Septemb. 3. 1661. BY THOMAS HORTON D. D. Psal 112.5.9 A Good Man sheweth mercy and lendeth He wil guide his affaires with Discretion He hath dispersed abroad He hath given to the poor his righteousnesse remaineth for ever LONDON Printed by I. R. for John Clark and are to be sold at the Entrance into Mercers Chappel 1661. To the Right Worshipfull The Master Wardens and Assistants Of the Company of HABERDASHERS IN LONDON Right Worshipfull and much Honoured in Christ BEing requested by the Friends of this worthy Citizen and Brother of your Company now lately deceased to put this Sermon in to print which was preach'd at his interrment I knew not to whom more properly to dedicate and intitle it then to your selves who being made the Trustees for that Bounty which he hath left behind him might be also the Witnesses of those Truths which are asserted of Him and applyed unto Him The Scripture which is here handled I conceived to be every way suitable and agreeable to the present Occasion which first being a Funeral hath therefore in it the seasonable remembrances of Death and final dissolution and preparations for another World And then being the Funeral of a person whom God had blest with a very fair plentifull Estate hath likewise in it the pertinent mention of this worldly and earthly Mammon and the Riches of this present life And lastly being the Funeral of a Bountifull and Liberal Person and of one that had disposed of his Estate in a Charitable Improvement hath accordingly in it Directions to make Friends of this Mammon of unrighteousness to the best and most desirable Advantage Now the main scope and end of such Discourses as these are is that those who are acquainted with them might in some sort be Conformable to them and have them wrought as it were into themselves This I look upon as that which is more particularly Your Opportunity from that Work wherein you are ingaged for the managing of this Persons Liberality I know not how it comes to pass but mens spirits doe usually and for the most part partake of their Imployment Those who are taken up in low and meaner services they have commonly a lowness of Spirit ingendred contracted by them Whereas Noble and Generous Performances beget noble and Generous Affections and transform the Persons which are interested concerned in them into the very nature of the things themselves Upon which account it is much to be hoped that as many of you as God hath furnished with abilities answerable thereunto in this discharge of a Trust for another you will your selves be unawares drawn into a complyance with so good an example as is here set befor you At least that you will so order and dispose of this Charity of His as in a manner to make it your own thereby to make to your selves so many Friends of this Mammon of Righteousness which you may do at the second hand The Heart of man by nature is so desperately treacherous deceitfull where it is not rectified by the Grace of God and a special watchfulness over it self as that from hence there are great mistakes and miscarriages oftentimes in the world in such matters as these are both for the performing of the works of Charity in men's own particular Persons as also for the Executing of the charity of other men which yet is no disparagement at all to the works themselves simply consider'd being still the same in their own nature nor yet any reflexion upon such persons as are really conscionable in them who shall notwithstanding reap the fruit of their own Integrity But it is that which may awaken all men very narrowly to look into themselves and to examine their own soules in this particular Because othervvise they may give not onely half but all their Goods to the feeding of the poor and yet be void of charity and may likewise be thought in some sort to discharge their Trust and yet not to discharge their Consciences Our Saviour in this very chaprer and upon this very occasion it self tells the Pharisees whom he converst withall that They were such as justified themselves before men but that God knew their Hearts for THAT WHICH IS HIGHLY ESTEEMED AMONGST MEN IS ABOMINATION IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. The better that any thing is of it's own nature wherein we are imployed the more need have we to look to our Mindes Affections in the managing of it that so we may not miscarry in that wherein we seem to triumph and most to glory and pride our selves Which that it may be the better avoided in this present business in hand as in all others besides it is worth the while for men to enquire into their state Condition in Grace and the constant and general frame temper of their own Hearts there being nothing done as it should be which does not flow from such a Principle as this Our Saviour again in the following words makes this sober and serious Expostulation If ye be not faithfull in that which is ANOTHER man's who shall give you that which is your OWNE we may a little invert it and turn it thus If ye be not faithfull in that which is your Own who shall trust you with that which is another man's There is no man can ever be a Good Husband for Others that is a Bad Husband for Himself and he that neglects the Care of his own Soul can never be a good Trustee for another's Estate Religion is an Vniform business and consistent to it self Men may carry it perhaps plausibly and gloriously in the Eyes of the World and make a fair shew in the flesh for a little time but every man will have so much Comfort at last as he hath sinceritie in him and a spirit in vvhich is no guile When God shall come to Iudgement and Christ shall sit upon his last Tribunal as he one day vvill He will then call men to Account for Affections as well as for Actions and for the Principles of doing as well as for the Things themselves which have bin done by them and then shall every one have Praise or Blame from Him These things I doe not suggest as any way suspecting your Selves who have given sufficient Testimony of your Fidelity in things of this nature by former experiences Nor yet as in the least reflecting upon the Example here presented unto you whom I have looked upon as a Person of as great Integrity in this Business as any man else But onely as taking occasion from the Opportunity which is here afforded to discourse of the Point at large and to express my thoughts about it in a General and Theological Discussion I have nothing further but my Prayers that God would set home the Truths here mention'd
upon the Hearts of all those that are partakers of them and that he would send forth many such Persons out of your renowned and flourishing Societie as may be inrich'd with the like Estates and the like Hearts which is the earnest and unfeigned Desire of Your SERVANT for the True Riches And Your FRIEND for the Everlasting Habitations Thomas Horton Luke XVI 9. And I say unto you Make unto your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye faile they may receive you into everlasting Habitations THat which hath bin wont sometimes to be said of a good wit it is more especially and properly true of a good heart that it is able to make use of any thing and to improve it to its own advantage not only in the examples of virtue by conforming to that whch is absolutely and substantially good in them but likewise in the examples of Iniquity by picking out that which is occasionally and circumstantially good in them also An instance whereof we have here in this Scripture which we have now before us in the Parable of the unjust Steward mentioned in the beginning of this chapter whose providence and forecast for Himself against the time of his expected ejection out of his Stewardship though by sinful and unlawful meanes is improved by our blessed Saviour as a pattern to all rich Persons to provide for their soules against the time of their expected dissolution and departure out of this world but in a way far more warrantable though in some respects sutable thereunto that is by making to themselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that so when they fail they may receive them into everlasting habitations In the words themselves there are three general Parts considerable first the quickning Preface or authoritative Introduction I say unto you Secondly The sober advice or serious counsel following upon it Make unto your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness Thirdly The persuasive Argument or Ground for the practise of it That when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations We begin with the former viz. The quickning Preface or Introduction I say unto you This is a form of speech which our Saviour Christ does often use in his discourses especially in such businesses as are of more weighty and serious consideration or where the minds of his hearers are not altogether so quick and attentive Here he does usually excite and stir them up from the thoughts and apprehensions of the Person whom they have to deal withal that so they may take heed least they refuse him that speaketh who should most effectually prevaile with them And there 's a twofold intimation in it to make it so much the more efficacious First of Skil and understanding I that Know what I say Secondly of Love and affection I that speak it out of my good will unto you Where there is a concurrence of these two an Intelligent speaker and an Affectionate there 's very great cause for listning and attending to him and so it is here I. There 's his skill and understanding He is not one that speaks at randome he knows not what but with a great deal of wisdome and discretion so great as that none the like Never any man spake as he spake And that as to knowledge and judgement He knows all kind of Natures and Persons and Actions and Events His Name is Counsellour And so he is fittest to advise his people for his wisdome II. For his Love and affection ther 's much considerable in that also there are many who can speak admirablely and give very good Counsel in regard of that which comes from them but it may be they have some sinister End or unworthy design in it but for Christ what he speakes it is in sincerity and out of good will to the persons to whom he speaks But this I doe not insist upon as hastening to that which is mainly and principally intended that 's the First General viz. The quickning Preface or Introduction I say unto you The second is the sober Advice or Council which follows upon it in these words Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnesse wherein again we have two branches more First the thing advised to and that is the making of friends Secondly The meanes advised to for the effecting and accomplishing of this thing and that is to do it by the Mammon of unrightuousness For the First the thing it self advised to it is here exprest to be the making of friends This will be the more observeable if we shall consider the quality of the Persons to whom these words are directed and that is as appears by the scope of them to rich men such persons as have an abundance of these worldly goods by them these are they who are heere call'd upon to the making of friends to themselves But stay what need have these of friends those that have wealth and riches and a fulness of these outward possessions they can shift well enough of themselves and be their own friends though they had none else to regard them or look after them yea indeed sometimes they think so and are lifted up with such thoughts as these are well but for all that sayes our Saviour do you make your friends you which are rich and wealthy persons such as these have need of friends as well as any man else yea and they have need to make friends too there 's that also in the text make to your selves friends As for poor men indeed we are apt to think with our selves that such as they have need to make friends because they have so many Enemies All the Brethren of the poor hate him how much more doe his friends go farr off from himâ— he pursueth them with words yet they are wanting to him Pro. 19.7 And again Pro. 14.20 The poor is hated even of his own neighbour but the rich hath many friends Or many are the Lovers of the rich as it is in the Hebrew text Rich men as one would think they have friends enow made to their hands from the Nature of their condition well but yet still for all this have these I say need to make friends and Christ himself sayes it also yea they have need to make friends of the poorest and meanest people that are as having great use of them God hath in his infinite wisdome and providence so ordered and disposed it that no sorts of men should be absolute or independent one upon another but that they should be mutually helpful beneficial The rich do as much need the poor as the poor the rich and they cannot say unto them wee have no need of you no more then the members of the body one to another 1 Cor. 12.21 Dives pauper duo sibi sunt Contraria sed iterum duo sibi sunt necessaria sayes St. Austin the rich and the poor they are two contraries to one another but yet they are two