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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43672	A sermon preached at the Church of St. Bridget, on Easter-Tuesday, being the first of April, 1684, before the Right Honourable Sir Henry Tulse, Lord Mayor of London, and the Honourable by George Hickes ...	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1684 (1684)	Wing H1866; ESTC R12554	22,023	39

men were equal in their Estates there would be neither Poverty nor Riches but one uniform state of Temporal things in all places just as if the Valleys were raised as high as the Hills or the Hills levelled with the Valley there would be nothing but one uniform plane all over the World But this Civil Equality is morally impossible because no Common-weal little or great can subsist without Poor They are necessary for the establishment of Superiority and Subjection in Humane Societies where there must be Members of Dishonour as well as Honour and some to serve and obey as well as others to command The Poor are the Hands and Feet of the Body Politick the Gibeonites and Nethinims in all Countries who hew the Wood and draw the Water of the Rich. They Plow our Lands and dig our Quarries and cleanse our Streets nay those who fight our battels in the defence of their Country are the poor Souldiers who as the Legions of Blaesus once complained in a Mutiny sell their lives * Denis in diem assibus animan corpus aestimari Tacit An. 1. c. 17. for seven pence a day As there must be Rich to be like the Centurion in the Gospel in Authority so there must be Poor to whom they may say Go unto one and he goeth and to another come and he cometh but were all equally Rich there could be no subordination none to command nor none to serve But in such a case the body Politick must dissolve as the Natural body was like to do in the Fable of Agrippa when the rest to the Members would work no longer for the Belly which they thought did nothing at all Wherefore the Poor being as necessary for the Rich as the Rich are for the Poor the common Law of Equity received among all Mankind obligheth us to do unto them as if Fortune or the hand of Providence should turn the Wheel we would have them do unto us There could be nothing more unjust nothing more against the Law and the Prophets nay nothing more Inhumane and Barbarous than not to relieve their necessities and as the Apostle speaks Let our abundance be a supply to their wants for they are not only our Brethren but our fellow Members of the same body Politick and such ought to be the mutual compassion of the Memb●rs that if one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it Wherefore saith * Deut. 15. God unto the Jews Thou shalt not harden thine Heart nor shut thine Hand from thy poor Brother thou shalt surely give unto him and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him and for this thing the Lord shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto for the Poor shall never cease out of the Land Therefore I command thee saying thou shalt open thine hand wide unto the poor and needy Brother in thy Land This suggest unto me the Third consideration upon which it becomes the Duty of the Rich to be liberal to the Poor out of gratitude to God who hath put the difference between them and as Hannah saith in Samuel hath made the Rich and the Poor For as the Body is not all one member but many So it is God that hath set he Members saith the Apostle every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him If thou art a Rich and Honourable Member it is he that made thee so if thou hast much Treasure and large Possessions they came by his special Blessing who expects that all and every Man whom the hath made Rich should make becoming returns of their thankfulness to him in their Gifts and Offerings to the Poor He is Lord Paramount of every Rich mans Estate and every Landed Man holds of him in Chief as it is written The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and the Cattel that are upon a thousand Hills He hath made abundant Provision for all Men but because it is not consistent with the Being and Well-being of humane Polities that he should deal his Blessings to all alike therefore his Wisdom obligeth him to distribute them in very different proportions Like the Noble Man in the Parable to some he gives ten and to others five times as much as gives to another but then to those upon whom he bestows more than is sufficient he gives it not for their own sakes but for the sake of the Poor who ought to be maintained by them As a Prince or Great Man going into a far Country puts his Purse into his Stewards hands not altogether for his own sake but because to do so is necessary for the good Government of his Family that he rest depending for their maintenance upon him might be more subject and subservient to him But and if that Steward shall say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming and will not give his fellow Servants their meat in due season the Lord of that Steward shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and cut him asunder because he was a Traytor to his Trust In like manner the Rich are Gods Stewards for the Poor he laies up their Maintenance in their Treasuries because he would have them depend upon them and serve them but then as St. Paul said of Masters It is their Duty to give unto them that which is just and equal as knowing that they have a Lord and Master in Heaven And as King Henry the Third did Enact by the 4th Chap. of the Statute of Merton That the Peers and Great Men of this Land should allow their Inferior Tenants sufficient common Pasture for their use So God the King of Kings and Supreme Lord of all the Earth hath Ordained That the Great and Rich in all places should provide and allow what is sufficient for the use and maintenance of the Inferior and Poorer sort Hence it comes to pass that we meet with so many Admonitions and earnest Exhortations to this great Duty of Charity in the Holy Scriptures and other Moral Writings as not to repeat those I have already had occasion to mention our Blessed Lord hath made universal Charity one of the greatest Duties of the Christian Religion saying Give to every man that asketh of thee and if you do good only to them who do good unto you what thank have you for Sinners also do the same and if you lend only to them of whom you hope to receive what thank have you for Sinners also lend to Sinners to receive as much again but love ye your Enemies and do good to all and lend to those from whom you can hope for nothing again and be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful who is kind unto the unthankful and maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth his Rain on the just and unjust Nay he makes the best improvement of Riches to consist in the Charitable use of them in that

Sirach speaketh Eccles 29.11 Lay up thy Treasure according to the Commandments of the most High and it shall bring thee more profit than Gold shut up thy Almes in thy store-houses and it shall deliver thee from all Afflictions it shall fight for thee against thy Enemies better than a mighty Shield or strong Spear So saith the Apostle unto Timothy Charge them that are Rich in this World that they trust not in uncertain Riches but in the living God who giveth us all things richly to enjoy and that they do good and be rich in good works ready to distribute and willing to communicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on everlasting life From these Authorities it is plain without any further enumeration how beneficial the doing of Alms-deeds is to Charitable persons both upon a Temporal and Spiritual account Charity as the Apostle saith of Godliness having the Promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come But furthermore this Doctrine will appear by the rule of Contrary from the severe Judgments which are threatned to want of Charity as Prov. 28.17 He that giveth unto the Poor shall not lack but he that hideth his Eyes shall have many a Curse So Chap. 21.13 Whoso stoppeth his Ears at the cry of the Poor he also shall cry himself and shall not be heard Which our Saviour inculcated to the Jews in the Parable of the unjust Steward whom his Lord delivered in great anger to the Tormentors because he had not compassion on his fellow Servants as he had pity on Him To this purpose also speaketh the Son of Sirach Reject not the supplication of the afflicted neither turn away thy face from a Poor Man turn not away thine Eyes from the needy and give him no occasion to Curse thee for if he Curse thee in the bitterness of his Soul his Prayers shall be heard of him that made him Be as a Father unto the Fatherless and instead of an Husband unto their Mother so shalt thou be as the Son of the most High and he shall love thee more than thy Mother doth These are great advantages which are said to come unto Men as the Fruites of Charity but there are greater things said of it still For the Scriptures and other Writings of great Authority and Reverence speak of Charity as if it were sufficient to cleanse the Soul and make atonement to God for our Sins Thus our Lord told the Pharisees who were offended at Him and his Disciples for not washing before Dinner that the way to cleanse the Soul was not to wash the Body but to give Almes of such things as they had and then all things should be clean unto them And Solomon saith Prov. 16. That iniquity is purged by mercy and truth Accordingly we read Dan. 4. v. 27. That he spoke unto the King thus Wherefore O King let my Counsel be acceptable unto thee and break of thy sins by Righteousness i. e. by Kindness and Charity and thine iniquity by shewing mercy to the Poor if it may be on healing of thy Error To which agrees that of Tobit Chap. 4. v. 10. Give Almes of thy substance because Almes deliver from Death and suffereth not to come into darkness This is a mighty Virtue which is ascribed to Almes-doing and mightily sets forth the Dignity and Worth thereof especially if we attend to that saying of Siracides Water will quench a flaming fire and Almes maketh an atonement for sin Which is very agreeable to a place in Deut. where God saith Thou shalt not sleep with the Poor Mans pledge but thou shalt in any case deliver it to him when the Sun goeth down that he may sleep in his own Rayment and bless thee and it shall be Righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God According to this Doctrine Saint * Et quia semel in baptismo remissa peccatorum datur assidua jugis operatio baptismi instar imitata dei rursus indulgentiam largitur de Eleemes Cyprian saith That Alms-giving is equivalent unto Baptisme for the remission of sins and that the way for men to obtain pardon for their daily sins is to do daily good works By sins he understands sins of ignorance and error and sudden surprize by which the best men are obnoxious to the Justice of God if he should be severe to mark what they do amiss and by Alms-giving he doth not mean the opus operatum or mere external performance of the Duty but such Alms-giving as proceeds from pure Charity and not from Vain-glory or other by-ends as it did in the Pharisees who sounded Trumpets before them in the Synagogues and in the Streets when they gave Almes that they might have glory of Men and therefore they had no reward of God This Pharisaical humour was I believe to be found among the Christians of the Church of Corinth which made the Apostle say unto them Though I give all my goods to feed the poor and have not charity it profiteth me nothing No! such Alms-giving profiteth nothing nor hath any title to the promises of God but Almes-giving proceeding like good fruit from the Divine root of Charity justifieth sinners and maketh atonement for sins For Charity is a justifying Grace as well as Faith nay Faith owes its justifying Virtue to Charity and cannot justify a sinner by the terms of the Gospel unless it be such a Faith as worketh by love This is the secret of all the forecited Authorities about the atoning virtue of Charity It is so divine a Virtue and doth so conform a man after the image of God that for the sake of it and of the good works which proceed from it God will accept of honest hearty and sincere for sinless and unerring Obedience from the Charitable man who is so like him in the most excellent of his Moral Perfections I mean in his Goodness which moved him to Communicate and let out his infinite fulness among an infinite variety of Creatures and which as the Platonists say is the fundamental Attribute or Root of his blessed Nature and makes him to be God III. Having now shewed that doing of Almes is a great Duty and that the doing of the is very acceptable to God and beneficial unto Men. I proceed in the Third place to shew that the Charitable man who performenth this Duty shall notwithstanding have enough and that his Charity shall never bring him or his into want This partly appears from what I have observed before out of the Scriptures and other Venerable Writings and if we consult them further we shall find that employing our Money in Charitable uses is as profitable as to put it out to use So saith Solomon Eccl. 11.1 Cast thy-bread upon the waters i e. among the poor multitude for thou shalt find it after many days And Prov. 11.25 The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth