and without hypocrisy The Philosopher tells us that Prudence is the common tie and ligament by which all the Vertues are united and the Apostle says the same of Charity that it is the bond of perfectness Col. iii. 14. Without the one there can be no moral Vertue and no Christian Grace without the other Again Owe no man any thing but to love one another For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law For this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. xiii 8 9 10. This is a Duty of so wide and comprehensive a Nature that there must be a mixture of it in all our good Actions and in our Alms in an especial manner And it is this that gives them the only Value and Esteem in the sight of God It was this that inhanced the Price of the Widow's Mite and made it outweigh all the abundance of the Rich. When it is given with a good inclination a Cup of cold Water shall not go without its reward For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not And whatsoever we thus do with a sincere and honest Heart shall turn to our eternal Advantage in the great and terrible Day The Proceedings then shall be determined by Acts of Kindness and Benificence and whatever we shall do for any of his poor distressed Members shall be rewarded as if it had been done to our Blessed Lord himself For so it shall be declared before that general Assembly of Men and Angels Verily I say unto you in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me II. But if this Charity be the only thing that makes our Alms profitable to us then Secondly without this whatever we give shall be of no Advantage at all as to our eternal Concerns In all Matters of a Moral Nature the End and Motive upon which they are done is always the thing that is to be principally considered It is that which specifies the Action and makes it Good or Evil when it was before in it self indifferent And therefore tho' a good End can by no means justify a bad Action yet a bad End does certainly spoil a good one It will not sanctify a Murder if a Man should imagine he committed it for the Glory of God but it will turn our Charity into Malice and Revenge if we relieve one poor Man with a design to inable him to ruin another It must be Compassion to our Neighbour and Obedience to Almighty God that can make our Liberality to the indigent and necessitous any way acceptable When a thing is discovered to be bestowed with an ill will or a sinister intent it does not oblige even him that receives it The poor Man may be glad of the Dole but he cannot have a good Opinion of him that gave it But taking it for granted in the general that it is the kind and charitable Intention of the Donor and not the bare distribution of our Goods that makes our Bounty really valuable in the Eyes of God and Men I shall lay down a few particular Instances of some of the false Ends which Men may sometimes propose to themselves and which are too often the chief inducement they have to be Liberal to the Poor 1. And the first and it may be the most common of these is Vain-Glory This may incline Men to give freely enough to the Necessities of those that are in Distress but it is only to purchase a Reputation and gain the good Opinion of the People and to be admired and applauded for Persons of noble and generous Minds This was that which oppened the Hands of the proud Pharisees they were griping and rapacious to the highest Degree but their Ambition and Thirst after Praise was stronger than their Covetousness They would therefore give Alms but it was that they might be seen of men They would have their good Deeds proclaimed and published as it were by the sound of a Trumpet If they happened to find an object of Pity in the Street or the Market-place or the Synagogue where the People might crowd about them to observe what they did they would not fail to relieve him but if they had met the same Person in the Wilderness where there had been no Witness of their Actions they would have suffered him to perish without any remorse This is the Charity of the Pharisaical Hypocrite But he that is sincerely Charitable rejoyces at all opportunities of doing Good and rather prefers that which is the most Secret and is best pleased when he has no other Witnesses of his Bounty but only God and his own Conscience 'T is true indeed it is our Saviour's Command Mat. v. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify not you but your Father which is in Heaven We must not altogether decline the being seen when we do Good but we must not do it only to be seen It must be for Example and not for Ostentation that others may be excited and encouraged to do the like to benefit our Neighbours and bring praise unto God and not to gratify a foolish itch of popular Applause Otherwise as we are expresly told Mat. vi 17. We have no reward of our Father which is in Heaven For he that seeks Honour to himself by an external shew of Charity or Piety or whatever it be makes himself his own Idol He serves not God but an idle vain-glorious Humor and he may possibly gain what he so earnestly desires he may be admired and magnified here but he shall get nothing hereafter but shame and everlasting contempt 2. A Second false End that Men may have is an opinion of Merit This mistake we know is mightily favoured and industriously nourished by those of the Romish Communion They perswade their Votaries to be liberal to the Poor and so far it is very well done especially they encourage them to be very bountiful to the Mendicants and other Religious Orders as they call them who pretend to have renounced the World and make profession of a kind of voluntary Poverty And in this what Design they may have we are not ignorant but whatever it be their Doctrine of Merit is a very high Presumption and that which will loose them the Fruit of their Labours they might otherwise have expected For when we have done if we could do all those things which are commanded us we must yet acknowledge and say that we are unprofitable servants For tho' God has been pleased of his mere Goodness and
Profitable Charity A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable Sir THOMAS LANE Lord Mayor of LONDON AND THE Honourable Court of ALDERMEN c. AT THE Parish-Church of St. BRIDES ON EASTER-MONDAY 1695. BY ROBERT Lord Bishop of CHICHESTER LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1695. Lane Mayor Martis secundo Die Aprilis 1695. Annoque Regni Regis Willielmi Tertii Angliae c. septimo THIS Court doth Desire the Right Reverend Father in God Robert Lord Bishop of Chichester to Print his Sermon preached at the Parish Church of St. Brides on Easter-Monday last before the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Governours of the several Hospitals of this City Goodfellow A SERMON ON 1 COR. xiii 3. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing THE Apostle having declared that all the extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit which God was pleased to bestow upon his Church in the first Ages of Christianity were of very little or no Consideration if they were not joined with Charity he describes that which only was able to give any real Value to all the rest by some of the most genuine and proper Effects of it As that it Suffereth long that it is Kind that it Envieth not and the like He then commends it from its Duration because that all the other Gifts and Abilities how necessary soever they might be for the propagation of the Christian Religion for the present should yet fail cease and vanish away as things that should be of no further use in the other World But this alone should never fail but continue with us for ever in that blessed State of Happiness and Perfection He then mentions the three most eminent Graces Faith Hope and Charity but gives the preference to the last and concludes positively The greatest of these is Charity In the beginning he had affirmed that without this the speaking with the tongues of Men and of Angels was no better than a loud and insignificant Noise And that Prophecy and the deepest Knowledge in the Mysteries of Religion and the glorious Power of working Miracles were in themselves of no more Account than the other He then proceeds to assert the same concerning the greatest Liberality to the Poor and the laying down our very Lives which seems to be the utmost that can possibly be required of us upon any Occasion But yet says he Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing It is here manifestly implyed that a Man may part with his whole Estate and his Life too and yet that he may want Charity This may seem a very strange and surprizing Supposition to us that can see no further than the bare outside and appearances of things but God that is intimately acquainted with all the secret motions and imaginations of our Hearts knows that too often the most specious external Acts may proceed from a false or corrupt Principle And then tho' they may be highly esteemed and magnified in the Opinion of the World they cannot be acceptable to Him that is pleased with nothing that does not flow from a sincere and truly pious Disposition of the Soul I shall confine my Discourse to the former part of the Words and here I shall shew First What is that Charity that will make our Alms any way profitable to our Salvation Secondly That without this whatsoever we give it shall be of no Advantage at all as to our Eternal Concerns And Thirdly What are the Reasons that whatever we bestow on the Necessities of our poor Brethren upon the Principle of true Charity shall through God's gracious acceptance be Profitable to us in the great Day of Accounts I. What is that Charity that will make our Alms any way profitable to our Salvation For in this Sense we must understand the Apostie who was perfectly crucified to the World and therefore could esteem nothing really Profitable that had not some tendency towards the procurement of a better Life which was the only thing that he valued And when it is said here that without Charity all that we can bestow is not Profitable or Conducive to the promoting of that great End it must be implyed that with it it is Now the Charity that produces this excellent Effect is a Charity that arises from the Love of God that loves him as the supream and original Good and every thing else for his sake that admires and adores his infinite Fulness and esteems other things as the Streams and Emanations from that inexhaustible Fountain When we have not a due regard to this heavenly Standard of our Affections our Love will quickly degenerate into a silly Fondness or a covetous Desire or some turbulent uneasy and exorbitant Passion But when the Love of God rules in our Hearts when it presides over our very Thoughts and governs the most secret and inward Motions of our Spirits it will keep all steddy and even in a due composure without any excess or irregularity The Love of other Things whether it be of Pleasure or Profit or Honour or if there be any thing else that vain Men are wont to set their Hearts upon it is the universal Grievance of all the World the unhappy Occasion of all the Miseries that Mankind has groaned under ever since the Fall of our first Parents All the Fraud and Treachery all the Violence and Injustice all the Rapes and Murders all the Cruelties and Barbarities that ever were committed are owing to nothing but the excessive Love of some earthly Enjoyment The Divine Love as it is placed on a different Object so it has very different Effects it rejoyces the Soul and fills the World with a settled Calmness and Serenity it puts an end to all Strife and Contention all deceitful and undjust Dealing it considers that whatever it possesses is all received from the good Providence of God and in gratitude to him it makes some returns to any of his poor Creatures that it sees in a worse Condition than it self It has a tender and compassionate Sense of all Mens Calamities and is ready to the utmost of its Power to assist their Infirmities support their Weakness and relieve their Necessities and where it can do no more it will comfort them at least with its good Wishes and hearty Prayers It is like the Sun in the Firmament that enlivens all things that come near it and casts a chearful and pleasant Smile on those frozen Regions that lye beyond the influence of its Heat This excessive and universal Charity is the very Temper of Heaven the Image of the Divinity the Wisdom that is from above which is so gloriously described James iii. 17. It is first pure then peaceable gentle and easy to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality
special Favour to accept of the little Services he inables us to do him and has incouraged them with the promise of eternal Life yet we cannot claim it as that which is in strictness due to our weak and imperfect performances The Reward is of Grace and not of Debt The Wages of Sin is Death indeed it is that which it has earned and most justly deserved but the Gift of God is eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord This is a Gift a Thing freely bestowed not purchased with Alms or any Works of ours but by the precious Blood of our blessed Redeemer And he that should exact it as in Justice due to any thing he had done would set-up a wrong Title and let fall that by which he held before The Case is much the same as if a Sovereign should not only Pardon one of his rebellious Subjects but besides that settle an Inheritance upon him of an inestimable Value and only require him to be kind to his Fellow Traytors and dispose of some small matter of what he had given him among them for his sake and not the hundredth part it may be of what he owed him neither Now if this insolent wretch upon the laying down such a pitiful trifle should imagine that he had made a real purchase and refuse to accept the Estate as it was conveyed to him by an act of mere Grace but insist upon it as his undoubted Right he would by that Plea totally quit his proper Claim and forfeit all and incur the highest displeasure of his Lord for the unsufferable arrogance of such a proud and groundless Demand It is dangerous pleading of Merit when the matter in question is a pure Favour 3. The third false End is near a kin to this and maintained in the same Church and that is a Conceit that Men by their Alms may make Satisfaction for their Sins When the Guilt that has been contracted lies as a heavy Burden upon the Conscience and Men are frighted with the dreadful apprehensions of what must be the necessary consequence of a lewd and vicious Life they will think nothing too dear to procure a Pardon The miserable Worlding will then be willing to part with some of his ill-gotten Goods to escape the Punishment he knows to be due to his Rapine and Injustice especially when the Terrors of Death are upon him and he cannot retain the Treasures of Unrighteousness any longer he will then gladly throw any thing or all that he has into the imaginary Bank of the Church for the hopes of an Indemnity This Fancy has erected many stately Monuments and given large Endowments to many rich Foundations And it must be confessed that when such things as these are done with an humble sense of our own unworthiness they are very good if not some of the best expressions of our Love to the Brethren and our Gratitude to the Almighty But then we must beware that they are not polluted with a fond Opinion as if they were able to take away the gilt of a Sin We must not to think expiate a Murder by building a Monastery nor to make an atonement for the wickedness of our whole Life by founding an Hospital when we are dead No We were not redeemed with corruptible things There is no such commuting in the Court of Heaven there is no bribing of Justice there nor buying off the Sentence with Money God will be merciful unto us and accept our Alms when they are given in the way of Acknowledgement and not of Satisfaction 4. There is one false End more which I shall name and that is when Men will give only for the support of a particular Party All mankind is the complete and adequate Object of our Charity common Humanity gives every one an Interest in our Affections and intitles him to a share of our Bounty It is the Apostle's command As we have opportunity let us do good unto all men Gal. vi 10. 't is true he immediately adds Especially to them who are of the houshold of faith And it will be readily granted that we may and ought to have a more peculiar regard to these but not to the total exclusion of others We should be more liberal where the Obligations of the same Religion are superadded to those of the same humane Nature or where it is not in our Power to Relieve both we may lawfully prefer a Relation before a Stranger a Christian before an Infidel one of our own before one of the Roman Church But no Christian of any denomination whatsoever no Jew no Turk no Heathen no Man whatever he be but should have some small Portion at least of the good Things we possess if his Necessities require it This is the true Christian Charity that extends it self over the whole World but it is nothing but peevish Bigotry to be kind to none but our own perswasion Like the Jews that could be Bountiful enough to their own Nation but had no manner of Bowels or Pity for a poor Samaritan This is a bitter Zeal that quickly runs out into down-right Cruelty as when some shall be content to give profusely to the good Catholicks as they call them only to animate and abet them in the extirpation of Hereticks This is a Love that is begotten of Hatred this is to be Charitable in Spight and to do some kind of Good for the sake of a greater Mischief At best he that restrains his kindness to a Party has indeed no kindness for any but his own dear self for he loves others only because they Act and Think as he does These are the things that will make our Alms-to profit us nothing When they are corrupted with Vain Glory or an Opinion of Merit or Satisfaction or when they are too much confined to one particular sort of Men. III. I proceed now to the third Thing to shew what are the Reasons that whatever we bestow upon the Necessities of our poor Brethren upon the Principle of true Charity shall through God's gracious acceptance be Profitable to us in the great Day of Accounts And that it shall be 1. Because Acts of Beneficence are necessary to preserve the Principle 2. Because they are the surest Evidence of our Love of God 3. Because they are the plainest demonstration of our Faith and Trust in Him 4. And because they do in a peculiar manner incline Him to be merciful unto us when we are thus merciful unto others These are the Reasons for which our Alms are profitable to us and pleasing to God 1. First Because Acts of Beneficence are necessary to preserve the Principle The Principle by which these are to be produced and which is the only thing that can make them accepted is Charity the true inward Charity of the Heart as I have shewed and which I have endeavoured to describe unto you tho' very imperfectly Now where this Principle has no other opportunity of exerting it self a sincere desire only of
doing Good may be sufficient to keep it alive The kind wishes of the Poor and Impotent shall be enough when they have not Ability to afford any further Assistance But those whom God has been pleased to bless with a plentiful or but a competent measure of worldly Goods if they do not communicate something of what they enjoy to those that are in want and necessity it is an undeniable Proof that they have no real Affection for them For if a Man doth not do that which lies within the compass of his Power it is a plain indication that he has not any desire or intention to do it or if he had yet if he frequently suppress it and will not suffer it to discover it self in some Overt Acts this will by degrees stifle and extinguish that very Desire A Fire may be kindled and begin to burn but if it be stopt up in a close place it will soon be smothered and go out in its own Smoak But when it has room to dilate it self and is ventilated by the open Air this increases and spreads the Flame and it grows stronger and enlightens and warms all that is about it In like manner Charity shut up within our own Breasts languishes and decays and comes to nothing but when we give it Vent by frequent exercise it feeds it self by being spent and one good Deed fits and disposes us for another Like the Widow's Oyl the more Vessels it fills the more it multiplies It is produced and confirmed like other Habits by the same repeated Acts but it is weakened and at last quite destroyed by a long intermission And from hence we may gather that Almighty God is very well pleased with those Expressions of Kindness which do maintain and coroborate that excellent Principle of Charity which is a faint resemblance and some kind of imitation of his own essential infinite Goodness 2. Secondly Such Acts as these are the surest Evidence of our Love of God We may indeed deal our Bread to the Hungry and cast our Money among the Poor and all this may be nothing but an hypocritical Pretence of Kindness We may do it upon wrong Motives as I have shewed and this notwithstanding we may have no true Love neither for God nor our Neighbour But of this he is the only Judge we must have a charitable Opinion of every thing that is Good tho' it should be but in appearance But tho' we cannot tell whether he that gives has therefore any real Love of God yet we may know that he that refuses to give has certainly none For he that will not part with any thing for God's sake is that covetous Idolater that loves his Money better than God or rather he makes a God of his Money Who so hath this hath this world's good says St. John and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him It cannot be for as the same Apostle observes in another place He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen It is a vain thing to talk of Raptures and Extasies and being wonderfully affected with invisible Things and not to be at all moved or concerned at that which lies before our Eyes The best way to shew our Regard to our Creator is by our Tenderness to his poor Creatures If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us 1 John iv 12. The Love of God and our Neighbour are so intimately united and so closely joined together that they cannot be separated And the most convincing and sensible Argument that we unfeignedly love the one is to be really kind to the other And with this God is highly pleased and honoured For every Ray of Mercy every Beam of good Will that falls directly upon our poor Brethren is by consequence reflected upon Him 3. Thirdly These Acts are the plainest demonstration of our Faith and Trust in God That in which the Men of the World are wont to put their greatest Confidence is their plentiful Estates the abundance of their Riches and the largeness of their Possessions But he that is willing to resign up these or any considerable Portion of them and cast himself upon the Providence of Heaven to make what Returns it shall seem good to the wise Disposer of all things does thereby declare that his Chief Dependance is upon God and not upon his Wealth And this Trust in God is that which gives us the surest Title to his Favour and Protection and that which brings Him the greatest Honour For it is that by which we do effectually shew that we do esteem him the Supreme and Sovereign Goodness and Truth and that we are verily perswaded that he will never leave us nor forsake us This was the Touchstone by which our Blessed Lord did sometimes try the sincerity of those that offered themselves to become his Disciples Go sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me He that was afraid to accept the Condition went away sorrowful and we never hear that he made a second Application But they that durst believe him and forsook All tho' that All were but a little were immediatly comforted with the Promise and are long since entered into the Possession of everlasting Bliss and Immortality This was the Reward of their Faith For he that quits a Treasure in Hand for a Treasure in Reversion he that leaves what he has upon Earth for the Promise of what he expects in Heaven gives the best assurance that it is possible that he does really believe the Truth of the Promise But he that will not be perswaded to give something liberally to the relief of the indigent and necessitous by all the great and glorious Encouragements that are proposed to induce him unto it does not heartily believe the Scriptures But he is indeed a sort of an Infidel that accounts Bonds and Mortgages and ready Money a better Security than the Word of God 4. Fourthly Acts of Charity are Profitable because they do in a peculiar manner incline God to be merciful unto us when we are thus merciful unto others It is one of the Beatitudes pronounced by our Saviour Mat. v. 7. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy This seems extremely congruous and agreeable to the Nature of God and to the Nature of the Thing God is always inclineable to Mercy and it is reasonable to think that he will extend it to none more readily than to those in whom there appear some little resemblances of that his most lovely and adorable Attribute He is sometimes set forth as if he did temper and accommodate himself as it were to the different dispositions and various qualifications of the several Subjects Psal xviii 25 26. With the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful With the upright