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 Membâ—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
Tulse Mayor Curia Special tent die Mercurii in Hebdomad Festi Pasch secund April 1684 Annoque Reg. Regis Caroli Secundi Angliae c. xxxvi THis Court doth desire Dr. Hickes Dean of Worcester to Print his Sermon Preached in St. Brides Church on Tuesday last before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City WAGSTAFFE 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 Court of ALDERMEN Together with the GOVERNORS of the Hospitals upon the Subject of Alms-giving By George Hickes D. D. Dean of Worcester and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for W. Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard and R. Kettlewell at the Hand and Scepter in Fleet-Street 1684. To the Right Honourable Sir Henry Tulse Lord Mayor of London and to the Honourable Court of Aldermen My Lord I Here present your Lordship with my Sermon which you heard with so much Candour and must profess my self glad of this opportunity to testifie the Respects which I have for your self and the Honourable Court of Aldermen among whom there is not one Man who hath not signalized his Loyalty in the late distinguishing times when the Common-wealth Party strugling for Empire with the Monarchy engaged and Loyal Men to shew themselves to be so and among those great and publick Spirits who durst stand up for the Government when a powerful and daring Faction durst oppose it your Lordship was one of the most Eminent for which His Majesty willing to declare His Royal Esteem for you hath committed unto your Administration the Government of this City which is vertually the Government of the whole Kingdom because as London is well or ill Governed so will all the Country be If the Governours of the City beat down Schisme and Faction and keep the Citizens in Peace and Order the Magistrates of all other Towns will be able and willing to do the same but if at any time they openly countenance Factious and Schismatical Spirits or underhand connive at them Faction and Schisme will presently grow too strong for the Magistrates in the Country Towns This my Lord hath been found true by the experience of many years insomuch that the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London are in effect the Governours of all other Cities and Corporations who will obey or disobey their Magistrates in the same measure and proportion as you will let the Citizens obey or disobey you The King therefore my Lord hath done you a very signal Honour in committing so Comprehensive a Trust unto you the good or ill management whereof will make him easie or uneasie in his Government and the Nation happy or unhappy and as you and your Loyal Brethren of the Bench have in all things acted suitably to the Greatness of this Trust which his Majesty reposes in you So it is my hearty Prayer among other Loyal Subjects to God that this City may never want such a Lord Mayor and such a Court of Aldermen all of one Principle of Loyalty and all hearty Lovers of their King and the Church We already feel the happy Effects of having such Loyal Governours over us and if God in mercy please to continue the Blessing unto us we shall within a few years see such happy days as our Ancestors did before the deceivable multitude were led into the Gain-saying of Corah and taught to set up private Temples and private Altars in opposition to the Church God grant that we may so walk as to deserve the continuance of such a Blessing which is the daily Prayer of Your Lordships Most Obedient Servant George Hickes Heb. XIII 16. But to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased THE Primitive Christians living in a state of Persecution had no other way to relieve their poor Brethren but by transient Beneficence and Contributions not daring as yet to found Hospitals or erect Banks of standing and publick Charity for them lest they should be seized or escheat to the Higher Powers if they came to be discovered and this is the true reason why at first they had all things in common and why all along the New Testament and much longer we never read of Building or Endowing Houses of Charity but only of Collections and Contributions So that if a man had a mind to trifle as the Congregational Writers do in arguing against National Churches we might ask you Where are Hospitals commanded in the Scriptures Shew us an Example of any one man in the new Testament that builded an Hospital a School or a College No! these are but Humane Inventions mere ostentations of Charity and devices of Satan to make men trust in good works But the Gospel way of supplying the wants of the Poor which is of Gods own Institution is by giving distributing and making Collections as it is * 1 Cor 1é 1,2 written Now as concerning the Collection for the Saints do ye as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia let every one of you the first day of the week at the publick Assembly lay by something in store for the Collection as God hath prospered him that there be no need of gathering when I come and then I will send your liberality to Jerusalem by whomsoewer you shall approve So saith the Apostle to Timothy * 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge those who are rich that they be ready to give and glad to distribute and in my Text to do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased This indeed was the Primitive and only way of Charity while the Church was in the Wilderness but when after many Sufferings and much Passive Obedience she was setled as it were in the Holy Land under the protection of Christian Emperors and Kings she then let her light shine before men in standing and visible works of Charity proceeding to Erect Buildings of publick use and for the publick benefit insomuch that Julian the Apostate Emperor exhorted his Pagan Subjects in imitation of the Christians to build 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soz. l. 5. c. 16. Naz. 1 Invect p. 102. Edit par 1630. Hospitals and Schools and Houses for reception of indigent Travellers together with Monasteries for Contemplative and Religious Persons of both Sexes thinking that the doing of these good Works would bring Paganisme into as much Credit among the Christians as it had done Christianity among the Pagans * Ep. 49. Appoint saith he unto Arcasius Chrief Priest of Galatia Hospitals for poor Travellers in every City for it is a great dishonour to us that when none of the Jews go about begging and the impious Galileans maintain not only their own but ours too our Poor should only be neglected and left naked and helpless by us So advantageous even by the Confession of its most malitious Enemy
Parabolical saying Make ye Friends of the vain transitory Mammon for that is the meaning of the place that when you shall fail they may receive you into Everlasting Habitations So Luke 12.33 Sell that you have and give Alms provide your self Bags which wax not old a Treasure in the Heavens that faileth not where no theif approacheth nor moth corrupteth Nay he hath so espoused the cause of the Poor as to declare that what we do unto Them he will take it as done unto his own Person as it is written Verily I say unto you in as much as ye did it unto one of these my hungry sick and naked Members you did it unto me Hence it comes to pass that we read so much of Collections and Ministring to the Saints in the New Testament when the Rich Christians reserving to themselves only Food and Rayment were therewith content Charity to Men was then the only Test of Love unto God according to what St. John saith He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can be love God whom he hath not seen and whosoever hath the goods of this World and shutteth up the bowels of his compassion from his Brother whom he sees in need how dwelleth the love of God in him II. Having now shewed that doing of Almes-deeds is a Duty incumbent upon all men that have wherewith to do them I proceed in the Second place to shew That the performance of this Duty is highly acceptable unto God and beneficial unto Men. The first is the very Motive by which the Apostle exhorts us unto Beneficence in my Text To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased It is plain from hence that God accepts of what we do for the Poor as done unto Himself and that our Almes under the Gospel have the Nature of Offerings and Sacrifices with which God was pleased and rendered propitious under the Law The Apostle expresses the acceptable Nature of Alms-giving yet more Emphatically in Phil. 4.18 where he saith unto them I am full of the good things which I received from you by Epaphroditus as an offering of sweet smelling odour a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing unto God This Phrase of a sweet smelling odour is purely Sacrificial and taken from the Old Testament where God is said to have smelled in the Sacrifices and to have smelled a sweet Savour in the Offerings and Sacrifices which he accepted as in Gen. 18.21 When Noah offered burnt Offerings upon the Altar which he builded after he came out of the Ark the Text saith that the Lord smelled a sweet Savour And in Eph. 5.2 the Apostle in allusion to that place saith that Christ gave himself a Sacrifice an offering to God for a sweet smelling Savour I would not be so misunderstood by this remark as if I thought Alms-giving were an offering of the same Nature and Value as the offering of Christ far be that from me but only to let you see how highly acceptable it must needs be to God when his holy Spirit expresses the acceptable Nature of it by the same Sacrificial term by which he sets forth the acceptance of the Sacrifice of Christ Adn as sweet odours perfume other things and make them delightful to the smell so the sweet odour of our Alms perfumes our very Prayers and makes them more acceptable unto God Prayer saith the Angel unto Tobias is good with Almes and it is better to give Almes than to lay up God and saith the Angel unto Cornelius who gave much Almes unto the People Thy Prayers and thine Almes are come up for a memorial before God And from hence St. Cyprian concludes that our Prayers whether in Deprecations or Petitions * Ostendit orationes nostras ac jejunia minus posse nisi eleemosynis adjuventur deprecationes solas parum ad impetrandum valere nisi factorum operum accessione farciantur Revelat angelus manifestat firmat eleemosynis petitiones nostras efficaces fieri Cypr. de opere eleemosyâ—is are of little force and efficacy without the joint assistance of Almes I observed before how our Lord looks upon doing of Almes as done unto himself and therefore since the doing of them is so very acceptable to God and opens his Ears unto our Prayers it must needs in the end redound very much to the benefit and advantage of men Thus saith the Lord in Deut. 15. Thou shalt surely give unto thy poor Brother and let not thy heart be grieved when thou givest unto him because that for this thing the Lord shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto So saith the Prophet Isaiah If thou draw out thy soul unto the hungry and satisfy the afflicted Soul then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noon day and the Lord shall be thy reward and guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered Garden and like a spring whose waters never fail So saith the Psalmist Blessed is he that considereth the Poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble And in the 37th Psalm he confirms this Doctrine by the Observation and Experience of many years I have been young saith he but now am old yet I have never seen the Righteous i. e. the Charitable man forsaken nor his seed begging bread he is ever merciful and lendeth and his Posterity is blessed So Prov. 19.17 He that hath pity upon the Poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again And in the Third Chapter he saith Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first Fruits of thine increase so shall thy Barns be filled with plenty and thy Presses shall burst our with new wine To this purpose speaketh Tobit to his Son Tobias in the 4th Ch. Give Alms of thy substance and when thou givest Almes let not thine Eye be envious neither turn thy Face from the Poor and the Face of God shall not be turned away from thee If thou hast abundance give Almes accordingly and if thou hast but a little be not afraid to give of that little for so shalt thou lay up a good Treasure for thy self against the day of necessity So saith our Blessed Lord Lay not up for your selves Treasures upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where Thieves break through and steal but rather lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust do corrupt nor can Theives break through and steal By laying up Treasures in Heaven our Lord understands giving of Almes as is plain from his Words to the young man in another place of the same Gospel If thou wilt be perfect go and sell what thou hast and give it to the Poor and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven In this very Sense it is that the Son of
shall be watered himself And to this purpose speaks our Lord and Saviour saying Give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom for with the same measure that you mete withal it shall be measured to you again So saith the Apostle to the Corinthians He that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully for God loveth a chearful giver and is able to make all grace or charity abound towards you that you having all-sufficiency always in all things may abound to every good work And God that administreth seed to the sower thereof will minister bread to your food and multiply the seed which you have sown and increase the fruits of your bounty which causeth through us who dispense it among the Saints thanskgiving unto God So saith the Son of Sirach there is a gift meaning a gift of Bribery that shall not profit and there is a gift meaning gifts of Charity whose recompence is double And in another place he faith Give unto the most High according as he hath inriched thee and as thou hast gotten give with a chearful eye for the Lord recompenseth and will give thee seven times as much Wherefore * Fragm Julian in his Exhortation of the Pagans to Charity challenges them to tell him of any one Man that ever fell into want through his liberality to the Poor For my own part saith he whatever I have given to the poor I have still received it of the Gods with manifold interest although I am one that understand not the Art of getting money for not to mention my Royal Munificence since I was Emperor I ascribe it to my Charity while I was a private man that my Grandmothers inheritance which had been injustly kept from me fell to me because out of the little pittance I had at first to live upon I dispensed part unto the poor The Apostate still kept himself Orthodox in this piece of Divinity having so much of the Christian yet remaining in him as to believe that God is prompted by his goodness to provide in a particular manner for Charitable men according to what he must have often read and heard in the Church of Nicomedia where he was a Reader God is not unrighteous to forget your good works and the charity which you have shewed towards his name in ministring unto the Saints Wherefore let me speak unto you as St. Cyprian did upon the same argument to the People of his Dâ—ocâ—ss Do not fear that your Charity can begger you or that you can lose by the money which you lend to Christ upon use I do here promise and engage not of my self but upon the faith of the holy Scriptures and the authority of Gods promises it cannot for the Holy Ghost hath said by the mouth of Solomon He that giveth to the poor shall not lack And that the Lord will not suffer the liberal soul to famish These Promises we also find verified by many Examples in the Scriptures as when God fed Elias in the Wilderness by the Ministry of a Raven and prepared a Dinner for Daniel in the Lyons Den where that speech of King David's was literally fulfilled when he said The Lyons do lack and suffer hunger but they who seek the Lord shall want nothing that is good So the Widow of Sarepta for a morsel of bread which she gave the Prophet when she had not a whole Loaf for her self was sustained with all her Family by a Miracle The barrel of her meal never wasting or her cruse of oyl failing until the famine was removed out of the Land These things as the Apostle saith were written for our Instruction to shew us that God will not falsify his promises but rather work Miracles than let those perish who trusting to them relieved other mens wants After so many promises and such instances of the fulfilling of them A doubting heart saith that Charitable Saint Cyprian would become no man who belongs to the houshold of faith No! saith that Holy Father * Vâ—t Cyprper Pontâ—um ejus Diaconum who sold a great Estate and gave it to the Poor before he was baptized doubting thoughts in this case are sacrilegious and to want Faith in this point is to treat Christ like the Pharisees who being covetous derided him when he exhorted them to make themselves friends of the false unconstant Mammon and by so doing oblige God to commit unto them the true and lasting riches In know it is often objected against this Doctrine that Charitable Men and their Children sometimes fall from Plenty into Poverty and suffer as much by want as those who hardened their hearts against the Poor To which I answer That such Instances are rare and seldom happen but when Charitable Men suffer with others in common judgments when as Heathen Apologists for Gods Providence have observed God visiting a Nation or a City as such must punish Good with the Bad. 2ly Of those few Instances which otherwise may be brought it is doubtful whether those esteemed Charitable Men were really so or no For as there is an Art of appearing Rich or Learned when Men are not so there is Art of appearing Charitable and of that small number of Men reputed Charitable who come to suffer want it may very well be presumed that a great part of them were such only as had the Name and Reputation of being Charitable without being so indeed 3ly Of those that are really Charitable really I mean as to the eyes of Men many do not or cannot give aright and so their Charity though it be real as to the material performance of it yet through other defects it is false and vitious and not that true genuine Charity which hath a right unto the promises of God Such is the Charity of those Pharisees who give to be seen of Men and all extorted or disproportionable Charity which is given too sparingly and grudgingly and doth not proceed from a Charitable Free and Compassionate mind Likewise Charity of those who give Almes to cover their Injustice Extortion and Oppression and who foolishly think to satisfy God by their Almes-giving before they have made restitution unto Men. This is to offer unclean Beasts and unhallowed Bread upon the Altar to bring the hire of a Whore or the price of a Dog into the House of the Lord which are Abomination unto him or as Malachy speak To cover the Altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and with crying out for such offerings are the Tears of Widows and Bread of Orphans and as St. Basil well observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be imparted to the giver as if he had robbed a Man The Sacrifice of the wicked saith Solomon is an abomination to the Lord especially when he bringeth it with a wicked mind and he that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten saith Siracides his offering is ridiculous and whoso bringeth an
as to a single Man It is a most Divine Virtue which will oblige God to dwell among us and shelter us under the Wings of his Divine Majesty It will make him become unto us a Cloudy by Day and a Pillar of Fire by Night it will make him fight our Battels and scatter our Enemies and be as a Wall of Brass round about us It will make him lengthen the Days of our Gracious King and preserve him against all Conspiracies It will keep our Cities from Fire and Plague our Fields from Mildews and Blastings our Ships from Wrack our Religion from Popery and Enthusiasme the Government from Usurpation and our Purses and Estates from Arbitrary Power In a word it will help us all to an happy and glorious Resurrection and to appear with joy and comfort at the day of Judgment when standing at the right hand of our Lord we shall hear him say unto us Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungry and you gave me meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked I was and ye clothed me I was sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came unto me to pay my debts and set me free All this you did for my sake to my Poor Members whom you always had with you And in as much as you did it unto them ye did it unto me Thus much for the general Exhortation unto the great duty of Charity I shall conclude it with another more particular which for your further Encouragement I was desired by the Governours of the Hospitals to read A true REPORT of the great number of Poor Children and other Poor People Maintained in the several HOSPITALS under the pious care of the LORD MATOR Commonalty and Citizens of the City of LONDON the year last past CHildren put forth Apprentices Christ's Hospital and discharged out of Christ's Hospital the year last past 101. Ten whereof being instructed in the MATHEMATICS and NAVIGATION were placed forth Apprentices to Commanders of Ships out of the Mathematical School in the said Hospital Founded for the benefit of this Kingdom by the Kings Most Excellent Majesty 101 Children buried the year last past 12 Children now remaining under the Care and Charge of the said Hospital 712. They being so many in number and the Charges of keeping them so great and the Hospital having sustained great Losses by the late lamentable and dreadful Fire it is hoped several good Christians will freely contribute towards the maintenance of the said Children The certain Revenue of the said Hospital being little more than the Moiety of the necessary Charges thereof THere have been Cured in the Hospital of St. Bartholomew S. Bartholomew 's Hospital the year last past of Wounded Sick and Maimed Persons though as it hath pleased God the greatest part of the Revenues of the said Hospital was consumed by the late dreadful Fire 1793 Buried this year after much charges on them 227 Persons remaining under Cure in the said Hospital 237 THere have been Cured S. Thomas Hospital and Discharged this year last past in the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark of Wounded Sick and Maimed Persons though as it hath pleased God not only a principal part of their Revenue was consumed in the dreadful Conflagration in this City 1666 but also the best of their remaining houses were wholly burnt down in the great dismal Fire in Southwark which happened in May 1676 wherein also the Scite of this Hospital it self was very much damnified and very likely to have been destroyed 1410 Buried this year last past after much Charge in the time of their Sickness 232 Remaining under Cure at the Charge of the said Hospital 291 REceived this last year into the Hospital of Bridewel Bindewel Hospital Vagrants and other Indigent and Miserable People 822 Maintained in the said Hospital and brought up in divers Arts and Trades at the only Charge of the said Hospital Apprentices notwithstanding it pleased God the Hospital and all the Houses within the Precinct thereof which was the greater part of its Revenue were wholly consumed by the late dreadful Fire besides the great Loss sustained in the remains of its Revenue by two terrible Fires the one in June 1673 and the other in November last 168â— which happened in Wapping 223 Bethlem Hospital BRought into Bethlem Hospital the last year Distracted Men and Women 75 Cured of their Lunacy and discharged thence the said year 41 Distracted Persons buried the last year 13 Now remaining there under Cure and provided with Physick Dyet and other Relief at the Charge of the said Hospital 118 The Charge whereof is great and the Revenue of the said Hospital so small as not to amount to one half part of the yearly Expences thereof and the Building of the Old Hospital of Bethlem being Ruinous and not Capacious to receive and contain the great number of Distracted Persons for the admission of whom daily applications are made to the Governours thereof a more commodious House was Erected in the Building and Finishing whereof the Governours of the said Hospital have laid out and disbursed above Seventeen Thousand Pounds whereby not only the Stock of the said Hospital is Expended but the Governours thereof have been necessitated to take up several great Sums of Money for the Finishing the same for which they pay Interest And therefore the said Hospital is a very fit object of all good mens Charity to do as God shall enable them towards the relief of the said poor Lunaticks and payment of their Debts There having been and daily are by the Blessing of God and the Charge of the said Hospital and the Care of those that are intrusted therewith divers reduced to their former Senses These are the fruits of their Charity who have gone before us in the Faith God give us grace to follow their good Example that with them we may be partakers of Eternal Glory though Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be ascribed as is most due Eternal Praise Might Majesty and Glory now and ever Amen FINIS
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