Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A39739
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A sermon preached at Christ-Church, before the governors of that hospital, on St. Stephen's day by William Fleetwood ...
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Fleetwood, William, 1656-1723.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing F1250; ESTC R21005
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20,165
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36
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IMPRIMATUR Z. Isham R. P. D. Henrico Episc Lond. Ã Sacris Jan. 7. 1690 1. A SERMON Preached at Christ-Church BEFORE THE GOVERNORS OF THAT HOSPITAL ON St. STEPHEN's Day By WILLIAM FLEETWOOD Rector of St. Austin's LONDON Printed for Edw. Brewster and Ric. Chiswell at the Crane and at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCI To the Right Worshipful Sir JOHN MOOR Kt. and Alderman President of CHRIST'S HOSPITAL London To the Worshipful MATTHEW HAWES Esq the Treasurer And to the Rest of the Worshipful Governors of the said Hospital Gentlemen IT was with great readiness that I undertook the Preaching of this Annual Sermon and it is not with any great reluctance that I submit to the Printing it I propose the same end and entertain the same hopes of doing good by it now as I did then and somewhat the more I promise my self by how much farther it may chance to spread I am loath to say that the Absence of a great many Persons whom I looked for whom Custome and the obligation of their Trust should call together on these Solemn good Occasions might furnish me with an excuse for making publick this Discourse if otherwise I wanted one For if it be necessary men should hear these things we must pursue Them when they fly from Us and give them Opportunities out of course when they will not take them in the appointed Seasons But I hope there is no need of any Excuse for doing this It is an excellent Subject I have taken in hand and greatly concerns us all but those especially whom God hath bless'd with great Estates Whether I have treated it well or no will best be seen by its effects for if that be the best Sermon which brings forth the best Fruits it will depend entirely upon You whether This shall be a Good one or no. Make it I intreat you in the name of God as good as possibly you can and let the Poor and Needy in their several kinds both see and feel that you like and love to practice as well as read a Sermon upon Charity The God of mercy and compassion keep and bless you for your Care and Faithfulness in the discharging that good Trust reposed in you and raise you up continually Benefactors to support the constant great Expence that you are at To the Glory of his Great Name the Honour of our Holy Church and Nation and this great City in especial manner and to the comfort of his poor and needy Servants I am Gentlemen Your most Affectionate and most Humble Servant W. FLEET WOOD. GALAT. vi 10. As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men especially unto them who are of the household of Faith SAINT Paul being about to conclude his Letter to the Galatians and having heard 't is very likely that the Pastors of that Church were much neglected exhorts them to the exercise of due and decent liberalitytowards the Ministry in the 6th Verse Let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things Agreeable to what he saith 1 Cor. 9. 11. If we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things Do ye not know That they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple and they which wait at the Altar are partakers of the things of the Altar And lest any one should object that this refers to the Jewish practice and concerneth not the Christians He adds in the 14th Verse Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel And foreseeing what Excuses and Pretences men would make some That their Families were to be maintain'd others that they had not wherewithal and all of them shifting it off as well as they could he proceeds in the 7th Be not deceived God is not mocked Don't think it such a light and trifling matter this that I have mentioned God will not suffer himself to be despised and mocked in the Persons of his Ministers He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth Luke 10. 6. me despiseth him that sent me i. e. God saith our Saviour And tho he may for a while defer his Judgments yet he will one day in its proper season punish the Contempts and Injuries that are pour'd upon his Servants And lest they should think that all that goes besides their own hands were lost and so should be withheld from contributing as they should and ought to do He tells them That whilst they were doing good they were in a manner sowing what in time would rise up to a plenteous Harvest that it was not thrown away that they advanc'd to this or any other other good purpose that they serv'd a very Righteous and a Faithful Master one that would not forget their labour of love in ministring to good Ends and good People One that was able and engag'd by frequent Promises to make them good amends and fair Returns for all the expence they should be at on his account and One that on the other hand would take a strict account how 't was they spent the Stock he made them Stewards of in this life how they employed the Talents he committed to their trust For what a man soweth that shall he also reap for He that soweth to the flesh He that considers nothing but the necessities conveniencies and pleasures of this life without regard to or provision for the next he that seeketh his own only and looks after nothing but himself and mindeth neither God nor God's Servants shall of the flesh reap corruption the Harvest shall be answerable to the Seed sown he shall heap together what shall come at last to nothing Whereas he that soweth to the spirit he that liveth a spiritual life whose heart is with God whose thoughts are above and who mindeth heavenly things and whose Actions consequently are guided by God's Rule and accordingly does all the good he can this Man shall from this Spiritual Seed reap life everlasting And then by way of encouragement adds And let us not be weary of well-doing whilst we are here on Earth let us be doing all the good we can let us with chearfulness and readiness of mind be exercising our Charity to good people and sowing to the Spirit all we can for in due time we shall reap The Apostle persists in his Metaphor still and distinguishes the Seasons of sowing and of reaping Now is the time of sowing whilst we live now is the season of doing good whilst Christ in his Gospel shines upon us in this life and the time of reaping is that to come Solomon says that he who observeth Eccl. 11. 4. the winds shall never sow and he that will in like manner wait till the world goes well with good men and all things succeed to the desires of the charitable and bounteous person before he will do good
shall never do any good at all for men will always be unthankful and the World will always return evil for good and therefore that we should not be weary of well doing the Apostle propounds the greatest reward imaginable but in the other World and that too upon supposal of perseverance to the end if so be that we faint not for they who persevere not to the end are like those foolish Husbandmen who when they have plowed and sowed proceed no farther take no care to cover it from the Fowls or from the nipping Frost or scorchings of the Sun they have thrown their Seed and Time and Pains away to bad purpose and so do they who begin in sowing to the Spirit but faint before the time of reaping come In hopes then of this glorious Harvest Let us whilst we have opportunity do good to all men but especially to them who are of the household of faith to God's Domestic Servants in especial manner In which words we have these things to consider I. The Duty exhorted to of doing good Let us do good II. The extent of this Duty as to Persons to all men in general but especially to God's Domestic Servants especially to the houshold of faith III. The time of doing it whilst we have opportunity IV. and Lastly The Reward we are to set continually before our eyes to the stirring us up to the doing good implied in the word therefore He had said in the foregoing Verse We shall reap in due time and in the Text Therefore whilst we have opportunity let us do good to all men Of these in their order and I st Of the Duty exhorted to Let us do good I. To go good is a phrase of large and comprehensive signification and takes in the whole duty of a Christian man to which we are undoubtedly exhorted in the general but in this particular to do good signifies to do acts of charity and beneficence And indeed it is hardly possible to do good with respect to ones Neighbour but that good must be a kind of Charity a relief or succour to them in some particular or other where they wanted it or else it could not deserve the name of good which must have relation to some evil or inconvenience they would otherwise have suffered and it has obtain'd by custom that doing good and being charitable are phrases of the same importance And so it is frequently in the New Testament Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath-day saith our Saviour when he was curing Diseases Mark 3. 4. Ye have the poor with you always when you will you may do them good Mark 14. 7. Charge the rich that they do good 1 Tim. 6. 18. But to do good and to communicate forget not Heb. 13. 16. And that doing good in this and in all senses indeed is the general duty of us all is not only plain from Reason and Scripture but acknowledged and confess'd by all the World When a man is the Object of this Charity and Good himself then he sees nothing so clear and evident as that all mankind are by Nature obliged and urged by Reason and compelled by Scripture to shew that Charity and do that Good he finds he wants and he thinks the man injurious to him that refuses him what he stands in need of and the other could supply without his detriment and loss And when the scene changes and he himself becomes the party applied to he does not plead that he is not oblig'd to relieve the distressed Supplicant but makes excuses of his inabilities and seems concern'd that he wants the power to answer to his will And whether mens Excuses are good or bad whether their wants be true or pretended ones is no great matter here they serve alike to shew that in Reason and Conscience all men are and hold themselves oblig'd to do all the good they can So that there needs no proving the reasonableness and necessity of mens complying with the Exhortation in the Text Let us do good One might also if there were occasion enforce this matter farther from the consideration of the pleasure and the profit too that attends the practice of doing Good There is nothing fills the mind with more content and satisfaction than acting agreeably to natural Light and to the Rules of Reason There is a secret joy moreover springs up in the heart at helping of a fellow-creature in rescuing Humane Nature from the wrongs and mischiefs that it suffers in our Brother There is an innocent and pleasing kind of pride in being superior to the evils that afflict another and it makes up a triumph in the mind to free that other from them There is nothing in a word that is more pleasing in contrivance and design nothing more grateful and delightful in the acting nothing that leaves a sweeter odour after it and raises more complacence in the mind and glad remembrances than doing good Neither is the profit any whit inferior to the pleasure as might be shewn at large from several Heads if it were necessary I rather chuse to pass on to the Second thing to be considered II. The extent of this Duty of doing Good which II. is to all men The Galatians were in danger of Judaizing in their Practices as well as Doctrines i. e. of loving none but themselves and Countrey-men The Jews were grown so famous for this churlish and uncharitable temper that the Heathens took great notice of it They would not so much as direct a Wandring-Passenger into the Right-way nor shew a Thirsty Traveller a Fountain where he might refresh his Thirst unless he were a Jew or Proselite And our Saviour seems to hint at this when he tells them who their Neighbour was Luke 10. 30. where he discovers this ill-natured practice by the Priests and Levites passing by the Stranger who were both of them Jews and informs them they must leave off those unneighbourly ungenerous and narrow Notions and must do good to all mankind as it came in their way and not imagine that the Jews alone were the Neighbours intended by God when he commanded them to love their neighbours as themselves And it is with this prospect that St. Paul advises the Galatians to do good to all men not to suffer themselves to be led away by the example of the close and and narrow-hearted Jews but to account that all that wanted their assistance had a right to it by virtue of that title of Want That our Saviour had commanded them not only to do good to those they loved and were beloved by but to those that cursed hated and despitefully used them That they might be the Children of their Father which is in heaven who maketh the sun to rise upon the evil and good and sendeth rain on the just and unjust Not that they should make no difference and distinction in their charitable acts but give promiscuously and alike to all for that cannot be the meaning