of Christianity To remember them that are in Bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as being our selves in the body Heb. 13. 3. Thirdly To do it sociably modestly humanely to be not onely bountiful but to adorn both our wealth and our good works with suavity of conversation with meekness placideness and facility of manners with an amiable and communicative deportment towards all men For a Mans very charity may be so morose and austere that tender stomacks may nauseate it as Physick that is wholesome but bitter Give me leave to press this duty upon you which the Apostle doth by so many and emphatical expressions with such considerations as these 1. From the example of God himself who requireth us to imitate him in works of mercy Luke 6. 36. His mercy is in the Heavens Psal. 36. 5. The Earth is full of his goodness Psal. 35. 5. His bounty is over all his works Psal. 145. 9. He punisheth unwillingly Lam. 3. 33. He watcheth to be gracious Isai. 38. 18. He chose mercy and grace as the choisest things to make his name known unto his people by Exod. 34. 6 7. He giveth his Son his Spirit his Love his Grace his Glory Himself unto us and yet his mercy is free he is not by any Law bound thereunto He sheweth mercy to whom he will shew mercy Rom. 9. 18. Whereas we are but his Stewards and have riches as the Sun hath light to disperse to others We have the custody but the comfort belongeth unto others it is called another mans and not our own Luke 16. 12. If a Man were master of the light of the Sun we should esteem him extreamly barbarous and inhumane if he should let it shine onely into his own house Our Money our Bread our Cloathing is as necessary for our poor Brother as the light of the Sun and therefore the inhumanity as great to withhold the one as it would be to monopolize the other Secondly From the example of Christ He was his Fathers Almoner Mercy was his Office It belonged unto him as the Son of David to shew mercy Matth. 9. 27. Mercy was his practise He went about doing good Acts 10. 38. All his miracles were in works of mercy feeding healing raising comforting and though he be now in glory yet he reckoneth the bounty shewed to his members as done to himself Matth. 25. 35 40. A Sacrifice was offered to God though eaten by the Priest and the people and our Alms are called Sacrifices Heb. 13. 16. Phil. 4. 18. The poor onely are benefited but God is honored by them And there is a connexion between his mercy and ours we forfeit his when werestrain our own Math. 5. 7. Jam. 2. 13. And the Argument is strong from his to ours his was to enemies ours to Brethren his to debtors ours to fellow-servants His free-grace to me mine just debt to my Brother Rom. 13. 8. His for ever to me mine but for a moment to my Brother his in Talents to me mine but in Pence to my Brother his in Blood to me mine but in Bread to my Brother his mercy inricheth me mine leaves my Brother poor still If then I live by the mercy which I do enjoy and must be saved by the mercy which I do expect shall so much mercy shine on me and none reflect from me upon my poor Brother shall all the Waters of life run from Christ unto me as those of Jordan into a Dead Sea to be lost and buried there Wherefore doth the Sun shine and the Rain fall on the Earth but that it may be fruitful The mercies of God should be as Dew and hear as manure and culture to the Souls of Men that being thereby inriched they may empty themselves and draw out themselves into the Bowels of others Christ is the Fountain Rich men the conduit and Poor men the Vessels which are there and thence supplied Thirdly From respect to our selves 1. Community of nature we also are in the flesh We thay want mercy from others as others do now from us Who would have thought that David should have stood in need of the Bread of a Churl Good offices between men and men are not duties onely but trade and merchandise I shew them to him now and another time he may shew them to me it is the Apostles argument 2 Cor. 8. 14. 2. A special honor when God makes us instruments of doing good for it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive Acts 20. 35. Mercy is the seed of honor Psal. 112. 9. Prov. 21. 21. Fourthly From respect to our Neighbor to whom we ow this debt of love For there is a debt of Charity as well as a debt of Justice A debt whereby I ow him that which is truly his and a debt whereby I ow him something of that which is mine own And this I do both unto Gods Image in him for every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten 1 John 5. 1. and unto mine own Image for his flesh is as mine own flesh Nehe. 5. 5. He that made me in the Womb made him faith Job Cap. 31. 15. And when I hide my self from him I hide from mine own flesh Isai. 58. 7. Homo sum humanum à me nihil alienum puto Fifthly For the credit of our Reformed Religion that the mouths of adversaries may be stopped who falsly charge us with preaching and you with professing a naked empty fruitless Faith We preach St. Pauls Faith a Faith which works by love remembring your work of Faith We preach St. Peters Faith a Faith which hath vertue and knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness and charity added unto it And we tell you with him That if these things be lacking you are blinde and your knowledge is worth nothing so long as it is barren and unfruitful We preach St. James his Faith a Faith which hath works which may be shewed which visiteth the Fatherless and Widows in their afflictions Abrahams Faith that hath a bosome for poor Lazarus Rahabs Faith which had an Harbor for endangered Strangers We preach St. Judes Faith a most holy Faith a Faith delivered to the Saints such a Faith as he who indeed hath it is not a Cloud without Water nor a Tree without Fruit We preach St. Johns Faith to believe on the Name of Christ and to love one another and to shew this love by opening our Bowels of Compassion to our needy Brother and loving him not in Word onely but in Deed and Truth We tell you if you trust in the Lord you must do good If you believe either the truth or the terrors or the promises of God you must not withhold the poor from their desire nor cause the eye of the Widow to fail This is the Faith we preach this the Charge we give We tell you without this your Faith is Hypocrital your Religion
THE Rich Mans Charge Delivered in a SERMON AT THE SPITTLE Vpon Monday in Easter Week 12 April 1658. BEFORE The Lord Major c. By EDW. REYNOLDS D D. London Printed by Tho. Newcomb for George Thomason at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Churchyard 1658. To the Right Honorable Sir RICHARD CHIVERTON Lord Major of the City of London and the Honorable Court of Aldermen Right Honorable IT is truly resolved by Learned men a That Theology is not a bare Speculative Science which ultimately terminateth and stoppeth in the understanding but that it is a Doctrine ordered and directed unto Practice prescribing not onely the b knowledge of Spiritual Truth but the c doing and loving of Spiritual Good The Apostle calleth it the d acknowledgment of the Truth which is after Godliness The Learning of Christ and of the Truth as it is in Jesus As light and heat lustre motion and influence are united in the Sun the one working with and by the other so Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are joyned with fulness of Grace and Holiness in the Sun of Righteousness whose Wings have healing in them The Doctrine of Religion is like the e Prophets Vision of Cherubims where he saw Wheels full of Eyes the one for Vision the other for Motion and Hands under Wings these to soar in contemplation those to be imployed in Action and Lamps and Burning Coals of Fire the one for light the other for heat f As an Heathens and Hereticks Moral actions do not benefit him without Faith in Christ so a Christians g speculative knowledge and meer Doctrinal Faith will not save him without good works and the fruits of new obedience h Fides esse sine charitate potest prodesse non potest Though therefore we dare not ascribe unto good works any meritorious dignity or proper causality whereby they procure or produce Salvation for us yet such a i necessity of them we ever acknowledge as that without walking in the way of holiness we shall not arrive at the Kingdom of Glory without doing the will of God we can never expect to receive the promises And as it is a dangerous temptation of Satan on the one hand to perswade men to deifie their own good works by putting confidence in them so it is no less dangerous on the other hand by meer notional aiery and Platonical speculations to eat out all care of good works and those moral duties of Piety Temperance righteousness and Charity in which the life and proper vertue of true saving faith doth exert it self These considerations moved me when I was invited to Preach before you at that solemn time when many proper objects of good works use to be presented to your eyes to single out that argument to treat upon And that so much the rather because we live in times wherein there is a concurrence of many of those symptomes and distempers upon which our Saviour hath concluded That the love of many should wax cold Wars and rumors of wars Nation against Nation Kingdom against Kingdom many offended many hating one another many false Teachers many seduced people and above all an abundance of iniquity And indeed it may be justly feared that where there are so many divisions prejudices animosities differences both of judgment and interest to say nothing of the luxury delicacy vanity and excess in private expences there cannot but consequently be a very great obstruction in the current of good works My hearty desire and prayer is That as this Sermon received favorable audience from you and is now by your own direction exposed to a more general view so some signal blessing may follow the publication thereof that thereby the hearts of many rich men may be inlarged to honor the Lord with their substance and to let their Merchandise and their Treasures have inscribed upon them Holiness to the Lord Your Honors most humble Servant in Christ EDWARD REYNOLDS THE Rich Mans Charge 1 Tim. 6. 17 18 19. Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy That they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good Foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life THe Wiseman telleth us that a word fitly spoken is like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver Prov. 25. 11. And our Lord in the Prophet telleth us that he had the Tongue of the Learned to speak a word in season Isai. 50. 4. Paul at Athens disproved the superstition of that Learned City out of the inscription of their own Altar and the testimony of their own Poet Acts 17. 23 28. And before * Felix a corrupt and intemperate Judge he Preached of Righteousness and Temperance Acts 24. 25. In solemn and publick meetings the most needful Doctrines to be pressed are those which are most suitable to the Auditory When Timothy is to Preach before rich men the Apostle here furnisheth him with the materials of his Sermon to warn them against the sins incident to that condition and of the duties incumbent upon it and because hard duties are both to be urged with cogent Arguments and sweetned with special Comforts here are Motives of both kindes used that by the necessity and the utility they may be perswaded unto the duty so that my Text is a very fit present for an Assembly of Rich Citizens a present of Gold and Silver Apples of Gold in Tables of Silver a present of Treasures Stable and abiding Treasures a good foundation an eternal life and all to be had not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in this present now but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in that living God who is yesterday and to day the same and for ever and who never faileth or forsaketh those that trust in him The Apostle having before shewed the great mischeif of covetousness that godly contentment is true gain that resolutions to be rich do cast men upon desperate and frequent temptations that worldly love is a seminary of unbelief apostacy and all mischeif and having warned Timothy in his own conversation to avoid such dangerous Lusts doth further direct him in his Ministerial Function to lay the same charge upon worldly Rich men in the words which I have read unto you Wherein we have First Timothies Duty {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} To charge Secondly The subject of that charge Rich Men Thirdly The limitation of that subject {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rich men in this World Fourthly The particulars and materials of the charge set down Negatively and Affirmatively and both twofold The Negative Not to be High-minded not to Trust or Hope in Riches with a Reason which reacheth unto both because of
they are not absolutely and per se good and therefore not simply to be desired We may not seek great things to our selves they who have most need of them may not greatly multiply them to themselves Deut. 17. 17. Cyrus esteemed himself more rich in the hearts and love of his people then in his Exchequer as he told Croesus We may be more rich in a narrow estate with Gods Blessing then many wicked men are in the midst of their abundance Psa. 37. 16. As a man may be rich in bonds who hath but little money in hand so may a good man be rich in promises who is but narrow in possessions He forbids Treasures of unrighteousness Micah 6. 10. Hab. 2. 6 9. Jere. 22. 13. He forbids misplacing of Treasures making our hearts the repositories of them Psal. 62. 12. But when God is pleased without the concurrence of our sinful actions and affections to give in abundance we may with a good Conscience enjoy it so long as it doth not draw away our delight from God but enlarge our hearts to honor him therewith and humble them the more to listen to his charge and to be inquisiâ—ive after his counsel I shall not stand to inquire what measure of wealth it is which makes a man a rich man We read of the vast riches of Croesus Pallas Narcissus Lentulus Seneca * and others and of the monstrous and portentous expences almost beyond Arithmetical computation in the Luxury of Games Feasts Apparel and Buildings amongst the Romans and others Cleopatra dissolved and drank in one draught of Wine a Pearl of above Seventy eight thousand pounds in value The Ornaments of Lollia Pautina amounted to above Three hundred thousand pounds and P. Clodius dwelt in an house which cost him above One hundred and fourteen thousand pounds There is no standing quantity which makes the denomination of a rich man In the Apostles accompt he certainly is a rich man who hath plenty sufficient for his calling his occasions his train family posterity for necessary decent and liberal expences In one word Whose estate is amply proportionable both to his condition and to his minde for copiosum viaticum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and penury doth not consist {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not in narrowness of wealth but in vastness of desire So that which is sutable to a mans minde and to his train or estate makes him a rich man But yet still all this wealth is but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} it inricheth a man but between this and his grave His glory will not descend after him in all points as he came into the World so he must go out naked in and naked out he brought nothing in he can carry nothing out he passeth but the Earth abides and his house will know him no more And this shews the baseness of worldly wealth First That it is communicable to the men of this World who have their portion onely here their Bellies may be filled with these Treasures they may have more then heart could wish they may be mighty in power and spend their days in wealth they may joyn house to house and lay field to field No man can know love or hatred by these things a Nabal and a Doeg may have them as well as an Abraham or a David Jacobs Ladder which conveyeth to Heaven may have its foot in a smoaking Cottage and there may be a Trap-door in a stately Palace which may let down to Hell Secondly That it is of but a very narrow use like a Candle needful in the night but absurd in the day like Brass Tokens fit to buy some small trifles with but not to purchase an Inheritance All the difference which riches make amongst men are but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in this little isthmus of Mortality As in casting accompts one Counter stands for a thousand pounds another for a penny as in setting Letters the same Letter may one while be put into the name of a Prince and the next time into the name of a Beggar but when the Counters are put into the Bag and the Letters into their Boxes they are there all alike no difference between the dust of Dives and Lazarus Come to Ahab and Jezabel when the Dogs have done with them and their Vineyard and their Paint is vanished unto all eternity A living Dog is better then a dead Lion a dead Lion no better then a dead Dog Our wisdom therefore it is to labor for that which Solomon calleth Durable Riches which is current in another World which will follow a man when he dies his wealth will not his works will Revel. 14. 13. To make the fear of the Lord our Treasure Isai. 33. 6. To be rich towards God Luke 12. 21. To lay up treasure in Heaven Luke 18. 22. To buy of Christ Gold tried in the fire that we may be rich Revel. 3. 18. As Abraham sent Jewels of Silver and Gold and Rayments unto Rebecca the Wife of Isaac the Son of Promise Gen. 24. 53. So doth the Lord give rich and pretious Ornaments unto the Church his Spouse Ezek. 16. 10 13. The graces of the Spirit are compared unto Chains and Borders of Gold and Studs of Silver Cant. 1. 10 11. These riches are returnable into Heaven to be rich in faith in knowledge in wisdom will stand us in stead when the World hath left us Things which come from Heaven to us while we are on the Earth will go to Heaven with us when we leave the Earth Graces are like the Waggons which Joseph sent to carry Jacob his Father Gen. 45. 21. They are the Vehicula like Eliah's Chariot of Fire to transport the Souls of Believers unto Christ Men naturally desire durable things strong Houses clear Titles lasting Garments Jewels and pretious Stones that will go every where No riches are indeed durable but those that are heavenly no Rust no Moth no Theif can reach them What the Philosopher affirmeth of Heavenly Bodies is certainly true of Heavenly Graces they are Incorruptible There is a strange contradiction between mens Professions and their Practice Ask a man which in his conscience he thinks the best Riches or Grace and he will answer very truly There is no comparison no more then berween God and Mammon Riches not to be named the same day with Grace But observe it and you will finde no man sit still and drowsily look when riches will drop into his mouth but he riseth early and goeth late to bed his worldly heart shakes and awakeneth him Surge inquit Avaritia ejah surge negas Instat surge inquit non queo surge He sweats he toils he spends his time his studies he ventures far and near Per mare pauperiem fugiens per saxa per ignes But for durable riches of Grace and Glory which our Saviour says Must