being thus cared for by him So that however they fare when the Parent is gone upon the account either of common Providence or if they prove better than their Ancestor by Divine Benediction as the reward of their personal Piety yet the comfort hereof can no way lighten the cares and fears of his dying Bed because he hath no warrant to expect any better event to befall them than the Prophetical Curse bestowed upon Judas to be continually Vagabonds Psal 109. 10 11 12 13 14 15. and begge c. And Experience too often proves that Curse to extend farther than the Person it was principally meant for even to the Children of all those who like him remembred not to shew mercy It being a thing of common observation that the more the covetous Father leaves his Posterity the more certain Prey they become to as covetous Tutors and Guardians or if they escape them are too often worse handled by their own prodigal Lusts which before the third Generation scatter all that with the forke which the carefull Predecessor gathered with the Rake So that frequently within one mans Memory a great Estate in one and the same Family is both gotten and spent and spent in fewer moneths it may be than it was years in getting It is an handsome Memento that one of the Ancients before mentioned gives the sordid gatherer Thou takest care saith he to oblige thy Heir by employing the contrivances of thy gray head to augment the Estate thou intendest to leave him Alas Wretch saith he thou art mistaken Thy young Spark odit incrementa haereditatis suae ad damna festinat thinks thou art getting too long and would fain have thee make an end of thy Trade of gaining that he may begin his of spending what thou hast already gained And thus have I shewn you the advantage that in point of Profitableness Giving hath beyond Receiving in reference to this world and the Concerns thereof both in Life in Death and after Death But the greatest Instance of the Profit that comes thereby is 2. In reference to the World to come For although there be no proper Merit in Bounty how large soever or however well qualified to purchase everlasting happiness no far be such a thought from the breast of any charitable man for our good in this life be it what it will extends not to God as it must if it Ps 16. 2. properly deserve any thing at his hands yet whiles we extend our bounties to the Saints that are on earth with such dispositions as God requires we come under a capacity of being rewarded with eternal felicity by vertue of his Promise who hath assured us that he will not forget our work Heb. 6. 10. and labour of love in this kinde and if we thus sow to the Spirit Gal. 6. 7 8. by taking opportunities of doing good we shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Upon the account of which security of Divine Promises a good man by his Charities may have a stock going in another world while he lives and when he comes to die may transport by Bills of Exchange as it were that cumbersome wealth which no man can as the Psalmist Ps 49. 17. saith carry with him in kind and thus do our good works follow Apoc. 14. 13. us into Heaven which we did upon Earth and the more they here abounded to the relief of others the more will they abound Phil. 4. 17. there as Fruits of the Spirit to our account When God and the truely charitable man come to reckon O happy reckoning with what infinite satisfaction shall he finde all his great and numerous Debts to Gods Justice by the blood and merit of Christ eternally cancel'd and his good deeds only booked by God acknowledging himself by his gracious Promise his debtour to be everlastingly rewarded and that so punctually that not so much as a cup of cold water bestowed upon Matth. 10. 41. a charitable account shall be forgotten In this respect it is that our Bounties are said to make us Luk. 16. 9. friends to receive us into everlasting habitations to wit such as in Gods name and for his sake receive from us who as they assist us whiles they live here by their prayers to obtain them and by acknowledging the receipt of what we bestow on them in their thanks to God for us do as it were give us those Bills of Exchange which I before spake of to draw upon God for them so when they die and arrive at the same place of happiness themselves they personally attest to those Charities they have received to make good our Title to those Blessed Mansions And thence it is that our Saviour acquainting us with the form of the Proceedings in the last Judgement doth not only tell us that our Charities will then be the great matters on which we shall be tryed but also not obscurely intimates that the Testimonials of his poor members then present will stand us in great stead as our witnesses for so that phrase seems to import Forasmuch as ye have done it Mat. 25. 40. for the least of these my Brethren who are here ready to attest it ye have done it unto me Whereas on the contrary the sordid and tenacious Receiver as he in his life-time loved his wealth too well to lay it out though for the good of his Soul amator mammonae potiùs quam animae in St. Cyprians phrase and therefore hath no good works there recorded no seed sown in that Countrey to yield him any fruit towards his account so he hath never a friend there to open his mouth for him and give him a friendly Testimony in that Judgment And by consequence how rich soever he was in this world he must needs be poor and naked and every way miserable in another having had all his good things in this life as the rich Glutton in Hell is told to his â—u 16. 25. eternal discomfort he hath nothing to lay claim to in the next Yea which is infinitely worse as he hath shewed no mercy upon Earth so in the other world he shall have Judgment without mercy Jam. 2. 13. and not receive a drop of comfort there who denyed his very crums to his necessitous Brother here And thus have I justified the Doctrine of my Text fully by the foundations of Reason it self upon which it stands and so dispatched the second part of my intended Discourse upon it I come now to my third and last undertaking to give you an account of III. The Inferences or practical Vses which it affords us by way of deduction from it In five Particulars 1. It hence follows that God hath put every mans present Blessedness at least in a great measure in his own power For you see the Acts by which it is very much to be promoted in this Life are within the reach of his own choyce such the Acts of Giving
rather blessed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will bear both sences to give than to receive And though we read not this saying of our Saviour in terminis in any of the Gospels of the Holy Evangelists who professedly undertook the penning of his Speeches and Actions yet have we not therefore any sufficient Reason to doubt the Truth of the Apostles Quotation seeing it was not as one of them professeth for himself and it is with the John 20 30 31 21 25. same reason to be so judged of all the rest the design of those holy Penmen to give a perfect numerical account of every individual Passage of our Saviours Life but only to commend so much of it to Posterity as might without tiring the Reader and confounding his memory with the length suffice to beget a Faith that he was the Son of God and to instruct him sufficiently in those Doctrines that were necessary to salvation Yea rather we have very weighty reasons to justifie the Apostle in this Quotation against all exception 1. Because it is a saying which doth so aptly sute some others recorded from his mouth by the Evangelists and which some Interpreters mention to salve Interpreters mention to salve this Objection by Equivalency For we find him in his first Sermon commending mercifulness to his Disciples under the same encouragement of Blessedness and promising Matt. 5. 7. in the account he gives them of the last Judgment that he will then pronounce them eternally blessed who extend their bounty to him in his members and those eternally cursed who have in such good deeds been notoriously negligent and defective Matth. 25. 34. to the end 2. Because our Apostle quotes it before those to whom the very form of his Speech supposeth it to be as well known as to himself if not to some of them better who it may be personally conversed with the Lord Jesus which he himself did not and heard it from his own lips For he tells it them not as a new thing that they knew not before but onely bids them remember it intimating that their own memories could not but attest that it was his saying to whom he attributed it 3. Add we to this Evidence that the natural import of the Doctrine herein contained is such that it cannot with like Decorum be ascribed to any man as to him who was himself electively the greatest Giver and the least Receiver that ever was in this world and one therefore who must be supposed to have most amply experimented the blessedness it speaks of by the constant practice of it 4. Mind we lastly that the Saying it self is a most divine saying every way besitting that mouth which spake the very thoughts of God's bosome to men Joh. 1. 18. seeing it so aptly and adequately expresseth the very inward sentiments and satisfactions of the Divine Essence which imploys it self incessantly in being the inexhaustible Fountain of all good Jam. 1. 17. givings and perfect gifts to his Creatures upon no other account as you will see more fully anon but only the pleasure he takes therein You see by this time beloved a double motive to engage your attention to what I have to say to you on this Text the great Authority by which it comes recommended and the great Truth contained in it Which attention so prepared I shall employ by handling it in this method 1. I shall open the words by a brief Explication 2. Shew you the Foundations of Reason upon which the great Doctrine contained in them stands 3. Gather some practical Inferences from it I. In the Explication of the Words I have promised to be brief And therefore I shall wave the Philosophical Notions in a great measure which being in general considered without the coherence in which here they stand they would afford as concerning The nature and kinds and degrees of humane Blessedness and that which might in some sort also conduce to our present purpose the natural tendency of Acts of giving beyond those of receiving to that blessedness naturally considered as apprehending partly that those notions are not much conducing to your Christian Edification and partly that our Saviour and our Apostle quoting this saying from him cannot be supposed to intend the instruction of their Hearers in a Metaphysical Speculation but rather the laying before them and us a moral direction to teach us by what actions in this life men may most contribute to the advancement of their own felicity And so the words are a determination of our Saviour upon a supposed Question concerning the comparative Acts of Giving and Receiving the good things of this Life to wit which of the two doth most truely and most plentifully conduce to man's blessedness In which Determination he casts the scale on the side of Giving which imports in general the doing good to others in whatever kind or way and in special by Acts of Liberality and Bounty against Receiving which in general includes whatever way of doing good to a man's self in this life and in special by Acts of getting and keeping this World's goods to his own single emolument and advantage as tending to make him more certainly and cumulatively blessed For in this sence it is plain by the Context this Proverb of our Saviour is here made use of by the Apostle as an Argument to perswade the Elders of Ephesus to preach the Gospel to their people in their present state of affairs gratis and therein to give them that temporal reward in to the bargain which they might as he elsewhere determines viz. 1 Cor. 9. 12. have challenged of them together with the Gospel it being as much a gift to forgive a Debt as to give a summ of money out of ones own Purse which piece of bountiful self-denyal he exhorts them to for this end that they might for their more effectual edification comply with the weakness of their young converts who loved not as few do a chargeable Gospel though they were thereby forced in the mean while as he himself did to labour with their own hands to get a livelihood And this is that which in the beginning of this Verse he calls supporting the weak to induce them whereunto he quotes this notable saying of our Lord Jesus to assure them that the inward satisfaction which they would receive from the conscience of having faithfully promoted the salvation of souls by preaching under such disadvantageous circumstances would be of more worth to them than the richest temporal Rewards and Revenues they could expect or might lawfully challenge for their pains So that in summ you may take the whole sence of the words in this short Paraphrase Q. d. I know the World is generally apt to think that the way to Happiness is by getting and possessing abundance of earthly goods But I tell you from the Lord Jesus that man provides more truly and effectually for his own blessedness and promotes it more plentifully by contributing to
wherein Gods Providence once placed them of contributing to their own Blessedness by Bounty and the simple infelicity which they draw upon themselves of needing Alms from others who were once able to have bestowed them upon others they expose themselves likewise to the aggravated misery of receiving just reproaches with their relief both from their own Consciences and the tongues of those whose Charities they implore and can hardly without a great degree of impudence dare to begg in Gods Name who have reduced themselves to Beggery in the Devils service To whom indeed as to both the former sorts also your Bridewell is the most proper Almes-house and the due Correction and Discipline thereof the most proper Almes And yet 3. It hence follows also that no man ought to despise any miserable object whose true Necessities call upon him for his Bounty either by shutting up the 1 Joâ— 3. 17. bowels of his compassion from him or bestowing the Charities he gives so as to clogg and lessen them with opprobrious or disdainfull circumstances And that upon these considerations which hold also from the import of my Text. 1. That whosoever he be that is presented to thee as an object of thy Charity gives thee whoever thou art an opportunity of doing thy self a far better turn than thou canst do him For how were it possible that any one could ever attain the Blessedness of actual giving if there were none to receive And therefore it is a mercy of God to the Rich that he hath so ordered it by his Providence that they shall have Mat. 26. 11. the poor with them alwayes in that he thereby affords them daily occasions of making themselves blessed by the continual exercise of their Bounty 2. That if as among many that are not so in these necessitous times some certainly are any of the Petitioners for thy Almes be truely worthy that which he returns to thee in thanks and prayers is a greater gift than he receives from thee For whiles he blesseth God for thee and blesseth thee in his requests to God to requite thee he gives thee security of the repayment of that which thou givest him with the greatest Interest out of Gods Exchequer And though it may be thou knowest not particularly when those payments are made thee yet thou hast reason to believe that the prospering of thy worldly concerns in general if they go on prosperously is a cumulative reward of thy several Charities together and it may be in particular also thou owest the return of thy next rich adventure or the success of thy next gainfull Bargain to the last poor mans Prayers that thou didst relieve 3. And thirdly that if he that asks thy Charity be never so unworthy upon whatever accounts even the worst of those mentioned in my former Inference yet by that very unworthiness whiles his present necessities require relief he gives thee an ampler opportunity of heightning thy generosity by the hopelesness of being ever requited by him in any kinde and herein rendring thy self the more like to God himself who takes it for a great addition to the honour of his bounty that he doeth good to the unthankfull and Luk. 6. 35. causeth his Sun to shine upon the Mat. 5. 45. evil and the good and his rain to fall upon the just and the unjust 4. This Truth gives us wofull and yet plentifull occasion to wonder at and bewail that Ironheartedness of the uncharitable Age in which we live and the gross Infidelity or blockish Stupidity or both of the great Receivers the men of ample Estates and Revenues of the world Their gross Infidelity if they believe not the Doctrine of my Text so positively asserted by our Saviour attested by so great an Apostle and standing withall upon such fiâ—m foundations of unanswerable Reason as I have before shewn you this if any in the Bible doth And if they do believe it and yet act contrary to the evident import of it their monstrous Stupidity who are so little sensible of or affected with so great a part of their greatest concern Blessedness These rich Misers as they are most truely called by a Name most opposite to Blessedness both my subject and my inclinations lead me here to prosecute with the sharpest and keenest of reproofs But I shall forbear considering that their own Consciences if they have any must needs upon the Principles I have before laid down do that work sufficiently for me at least that by their own tacite Confession they have cause to doe so and they continually stand in fear that they will seeing they meditate so many Excuses to guard themselves from their lashes as they are constantly wont to doe And yet unhappy men that they are it fares so unluckily with them that those very Excuses which they are wont to make use of to stave off all charitable motions suggested to them from others and stifle their own workings of good nature if at any time they stir in their bosoms doe only serve to declare how willing and withall how skilfull and ingenious they are to cheat themselves of their own Blessedness And this you will abundantly see and they too if their eyes be not totally blinded by this brief examination of the most usual of them by the measures of this blessed Proverb of our Saviour Obj. The first and that that is most ready in all their mouths when any considerable Charities are suggested to them is such and such are better able to give than they and they will first see what they give that they may follow their Example Sol. That is being interpreted according to the Tenour of this Text either that they are willing to make this great Complement to their Neighbours that they are content to yield to them the precedency though in point of Blessedness it self and think it good manners even therein to let their betters goe before them But these men ought to consider that it is a dear and costly complement that loseth a man an opportunity of making himself Blessed yea or any way retardeth it Or else that they are desirous to have the price of blessedness it self beaten down by other Chapmen before they will deal in the commodity which implyes that they are afraid of purchasing it for more than it is worth a conceit that no man ever entertained before them in matter of Blessedness which generally men think to be well purchased at the price of all that can be asked for it Obj. A second usual excuse is They are not the men the world takes them for not so rich or well to pass as they say as they are reputed Sol. Nor so wise neither as they desire to be reputed if this Doctrine be true who have an opportunity offered of making the best Bargain they ever made in their lives for Blessedness it self and yet want an heart to make use of it Obj. Charities that have been bestowed by others before them have