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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56276	A sermon preach'd at the anniversary meeting of the gentlemen educated at St. Paul's School, at St. Paul's Church, January 25, 1698/9 by John Pulleyn ...	Pulleyn, John.	1699 (1699)	Wing P4199; ESTC R34562	15,490	36

Mr. PVLLEYN's SERMON Preach'd before the Gentlemen Educated at St. Paul's SCHOOL AT St. PAUL's Church Jan. 25. 1698 9. A SERMON Preach'd at the Anniversary Meeting OF THE Gentlemen Educated at St. Paul's School AT St. PAUL's Church January 25. 1698 9. Published at the Request of the Stewards By JOHN PULLEYN A. M. And Prebendary of St. PAULS London Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1699. TO THE Worthy Gentlemen THE STEWARDS OF St. Paul 's School Feast Robert Fowle Gent. John Killingworth Esq George Smith Gent. Samuel Lloyd Gent. John Baggs Esq William Bonner Gent. GENTLEMEN THO' this Sermon was preached at your earnest Request yet I could have wished you would have excused me from the Publication of it But since you would not be denyed I should be very well pleased if you share not in the Faults and Imperfections of this Discourse which you have now made your own by espousing the Subject and obliging the Preacher to the Printing of it I have only this to say for my self that your Genorous inclinations to do Good and your present Resolutions to encourage all the Worthy Gentlemen who were educated at St. PAUL's School to lay a new Foundation of Charity for that Place led me to the Subject of this ensuing Discourse And I hope this will be one Consequent of it that this beginning of your Charity will annually be emproved by all those who bear any Relation or Love to the Place of their Education And I do not question but succeeding Years may raise a noble Superstructure of Charity from this Ground-work you have so happily laid for the Honour of our School and for the Encouragement of all Arts and Learning May all your excellent Designs prosper your Christian Charity in General flourish may you bring Honour to our Establish'd Church and Kingdom whereof you are Worthy Members and may you never want a Blessing and Success in all your particular Stations and Empolyments which is the hearty Wish of GENTLEMEN Your most Sincere and Humble Servant John Pulleyn ACTS XX. ver 35. latter part It is more blessed to Give than to Receive JOY and Pleasure being the Bright side of human Life it never touches the Heart and the Affections with a greater satisfaction than when it arises from the Consideration of those many Blessings and Advantages which result from Societies and Combinations of Men And therefore it is not only a delightful Prospect to me but I presume likewise to every one here present to behold the Lustre of this Solemn Day the Design of which is so excellent and commendable and all the Circumstances of it so harmonious and beautiful What can be more grateful and ravishing than to see the Children of one fruitful School the Offspring of a Pious Learned and Religious Founder to see them so well united to pay their sincere Gratitude and Honour to the Place of their Education in the face of the World And especially to see them begin this their Gratitude with a dutiful acknowledgment to the great God of Heaven and Earth in whom all that is now expected and desired of us This Day ought to terminate I was glad said the Royal Prophet when Psa 122. 1. they said unto me Let us go into the house of the Lord glad to see that thither the Tribes go up to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. And now Worthy School-Fellows by whatever Titles you may be dignified above or distinguished from one another since you have met together on this Day and in this most Holy Place which the Church hath set apart to commemorate the great Apostle St. Paul to render Thanks for that Blessing of our Education in that School which so worthily bears that Name and which ought likewise ever to put us in mind of those Benefits and Advantages we have received from thence I hope this Religious beginning of our appearance this Day will give a happy and a successful Influence upon the following part of your Solemnity especially seeing you are resolved to retrieve in some measure the primitive Feast of Charity which is in truth the chief and most laudable Design of these and other the like Anniversary Meetings A Design so noble and generous in it self so beneficial to others so becoming Men and so truly Christian that as it formerly obtained amongst us and met with good Encouragement so I hope upon the revival of this Feast it will now be carried on and cherished and supported both by the Approbation and Contributions of all pious and well-meaning Persons And therefore in regard all the Benefits and Advantages of a Free and an Ingenuous Education was the last Year excellently and fully in this Place and upon the same Occasion declar'd unto you I shall wave that Argument of Discourse and at present only entertain you with what is as suitable and proper to all the Purposes of our present Meeting as will appear from the Consideration of these Words of our blessed Saviour here cited by St. Paul It is more blessed to give than to receive These Words of the Holy Jesus are not recorded by any of the Evangelists the Gospel of St. John and probably that of St. Mark being not written when St. Paul cited them He must therefore either receive them as an Oral Tradition from the Apostles or some first-hand Witnesses or else from him who gave him the first Instruction of his Office and communicated the Gospel to him which he declared he did not receive it from Men but was taught it by the Gal. 1. 12. Revelation of Jesus Christ But notwithstanding the first conveyers of this remarkable Sentence are uncertain yet the Author of them is unquestionable the Apostle plainly affirming that they were spoken by our blessed Saviour Remember the Words of the Lord Jesus how he said It is more blessed c. Which Words are to be expounded according to the measure and limitation of other Proverbial Sentences in Scripture not as if they would hold in that full latitude which Grammar and the sound of Words will allow The Meaning only is that the Nature of Things is usually such that generally speaking It is more blessed to give than to receive Generally speaking I say upon a due ballance of Circumstances and a supposal of right Qualifications For otherwise if He that dispenses his Charity doth it out of a Principle of Interest or Vain-glory to gain a Reputation or strengthen a Faction If he do it to encroach upon the just Liberties of the Person obliged to upbraid him with his Necessities to betray him into sinful Compliances and to make him absolutely obnoxious to his Humour and Inclination a grateful Acknowledger and benevolent Receiver is much to be preferred before such a Donor as this such scandalous Reserves as these are enough to take off the Value and null the Obligation of the largest proportion of Alms and Liberality If a Man should give away a Kingdom

imagine themselves to flourish in their Offspring Now the Receiver if he is not of a very happy and Christian Temper if the Obligation was not conferr'd upon him with frankness and affability he will not find himself in any vigorous disposition toward Gratitude For there is nothing more certain than that the acknowledgment of Mens inability and dependance which results from the Relation of a Benefactor make some Persons abate in their affections toward him But the obliging Person hath a delightful sense and prospect of his Condition He views himself under the notion of Power and Goodness which is a strong Motive to invite his Charity and Beneficence because he finds himself magnified by it and the farther advances he makes in the exercise of this Vertue the more he raises the Elevation of his Being Thus I hope I have in some measure made good the Truth of these excellent Words of our Saviour It is more blessed to give than to receive I shall briefly infer something from the Text and so conclude 1. Since it is more happy to Give than to Receive I think we ought carefully to avoid all vanity and superfluousness in the managery of our Fortunes that so we may be the better able to contribute more liberally to those that want Indeed were there no such thing as Want and Necessity in the World was every one competently furnished with the Conveniencies of Life Men might then have been permitted a freer and a more indulgent use of their Wealth Then provided that they had not fallen into any vicious Excesses they might have been allowed to entertain their Appetites at a more expensive rate and to have pleased their little Fancies with the glitterings of State and Magnisicence For tho' a strong propensity to the pleasures of Sense and an affected ostentation of Riches would be an argument of a weak and an obnoxious Mind yet others would not have been the worse for such an Extravagance But now since we have the Poor always with us since there are so many in indigent and unsupported Circumstances if we prefer the vanity and effeminacy of an unaccountable Desire before the Necessities of our Brethren we are both Unjust and Inhuman For what can be more unaccountable than to throw away the surplusage of our Fortune upon empty and insignificant Shews when there are so many Misfortunes and Miseries of Mankind which might have been in a great measure removed and alleviated by us And as there is nothing more unreasonable and unrighteous to spend the Patrimony of the Poor upon Luxury and Pride so it likewise deprives us of the great Pleasure which is consequent to a Charitable disposition Such a Person can't conclude that he hath the Favour and Esteem either of God or Man the belief of which is one of the greatest supports and entertainments to a rational Mind On the contrary if he hath but sense and impartiality enough to examine his own Actions and Temper when he sees how selfish and narrow-spirited he is how void of the proper Tenderness and Generosity of his kind in this Case if he have any apprehension of Good and Evil left him he cannot choose but be a very unagreeable Spectacle to himself and condemn himself in those Things which he allows 2. Those which are Receivers ought not to murmur against the Providence of God and be discontented with their Condition That the Givers Circumstances are more desirable must be granted for the forementioned Reasons But to draw the Balance somewhat towards an evenness we may add that as the Receiver's Condition is not so liable to some Vices as the other is so neither hath he so large an Account to give up afterwards For as our blessed Saviour tells us that to whom much is given much will be required so he whose Trust is small will have the less proportion of Stock and Improvement to be answerable for Besides by his Acknowledgment and good Wishes and Prayers he hath a fair opportunity of discharging the Debt and returning the Obligation upon the most Considerable Benefactor As for Dependance which all Mankind have a natural aversion to is rather out of a Spirit of native Greatness than Pride I say this unacceptable attendance of a Low Condition is not so peculiar to it as to be the Poor-man's Fate alone This is an Inconvenience that pursues the Indigent and defenceless State of humane Nature in general there being no rank nor degrees of Men raised to that height of Self-sufficiency but are in some measure sensible of the weight and uneasiness of it As long as Men carry these frail Bodies about them they must lie at the mercy of a foreign Assistance and be subject sometimes to the Insolence and Ill-nature of an uncompassionate and haughty Disposition But when we have nothing but a poor Spirit to take care of which is able to maintain it self upon the strength of its own Being it is impregnable against all Assault And when this Mortal shall have put on Immortality and shall be no longer liable to Want or exposed to Injury then all the Causes of Dependance will vanish and fall off and Men in the most comprehensive sense will be translated into the most glorious Liberty of the Sons of God For notwithstanding the Saints will have different degrees of Glory proportionable to the great Works of Piety and Goodness they have done here yet this Distinction will not subject those of the Lowest Order to any dependance upon a Superior Quality For the Apostle St. Paul tells us then that all Rule and Authority shall 1 Cor. 15. be put down and God shall be all in all Which noble State of Freedom must without all question much endear the Society of that Place and consequently augment the happiness of those who have the honour to make a part of it 3. And Lastly Since the Case stands thus with us I shall in a very few words more exhort every one here present to this Duty of Charity I mean more particularly those of us who have enjoyed the advantages of a Liberal Education at St. Paul's School And if ever I could hope to prevail and persuade in this Matter I should certainly expect no little Success in such an Assembly as this which consists of Persons well Taught and Bred whose Natures have been refined and polished and whose Minds have been improved and cultivated new moulded and fashioned by the Care and Skill of those Excellent Persons to whose Charge we were committed The several Meetings and Solemn Feasts which the Jews who were a Particular Society and Body of Men distinct from the rest of the World held unto the Lord were appointed and instituted by God himself such were the Passeover the Feast of Harvest and Ingathering And there was very great care taken in the strict Observation of them that none were then to appear Empty before the Lord. And tho' this Festival Assembly this Anniversary Feast which we hold now unto the Lord hath not the same Divine Authority to warrant its Institution yet I am sure it hath the same pious and laudable Ends accompanying it For we are here met in this Sacred Place to offer up our Praises and Thanksgivings for all those excellent Advantages which we by his goodness have obtained from a Free and an Ingenuous Education at our School To praise him with our Mouths whose Lips he hath opened with the Key of Knowledge to rejoice before him that our Lot fell to us in so good a Ground That he vouchsafed to plant us by the Water-Springs by the Rivulets of Knowledge that we might bring forth the several Fruits of our proper Callings in our due time and season Neither in this our Meeting must we appear before the Lord Empty seeing that our Charity and our Piety ought to go hand in hand and kiss each other Let us then shew our Tenderness of Thought and Affection to the Place where we received our Institution and had our younger Years seasoned with Honest and Religious Principles and laid a solid Foundation for our after-life to live upon Let this Love be expressed by a liberal Contribution to it I mean for the Educating of good Mens poor Children in useful Literature and Knowledge This being one of the most beneficial Acts of Charity we owe to it To take a Youth that is poor and destitute of all advantages of Education and to bring him up in the knowledge and fear of God and to put him into a way wherein by his future diligence and industry he may arrive to an honest Livelihood in this World Let us deposite this Tribute of our Affection for this Use and what you leave with the Worthy Stewards of the Eeast this Day be an Earnest-peny of your Generous Inclinations in doing something further as God shall bless you for the advantage of our School in succeeding Years to come Resolve to do this before you go hence before the Lord your God from the Ground of your Heart and make him some chearful and suitable acknowledgment of his distinguishing Providence towards you and yours So shall the rest of your Substance be blessed and increased the Honour of our School promoted and advanced so as that Generations to come will rise up at the mentioning of your Names and call you Blessed In a word Great will your Reward be that you will have in the Lord since you are assured from the sacred Writ that God is not unrighteous to forget your Work and Labour of Love which you have herein shewn towards his Name in that you have Ministred unto them and yet resolve to Minister Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Power Might Majesty and Dominion from this time forth and for evermore Amen FINIS