corripitur saith St. August Think not that thou canst love thy Servant and not correct him thy Son and not chastise him or thy Neighbour and not reprove him Non est ista Charitas sed languor this is not Charity but fondness and stupidity Fervet Charitas ad emendandum ad corrigendum perfect Charity burns with an holy Zeal and will not be satisfied till it hath wrought that Character and Impression of Grace and Goodness in others which it hath received in it self reason IV Fourthly and lastly We cannot imitate our heavenly Father in any thing more than in endeavouring the Spiritual Good of others without which Man is so unlike the Image wherein he was made that he is but little better than a Beast preying only to satisfie his own appetite whereas Homo homini Deus a good Man is a God among Men For as every Creature derives its Being from that inexhaustible Fountain of Goodness that is in God 〈◊〉 the whole Universe is partaker of the Charitable Mans communicated Goodness This is it Charity I say it is that gives Life and Being to all other Graces and Virtues which without this are not so properly Graces as Blemishes and Deformities not so truly Virtues as Vanity and Emptiness Honour Riches Beauty Wisdom Knowledge if not season'd with this Salt do but putrefy and lose their savour Hast thou all Faith so that thou canst remove Mountains and hast not Charity thou art nothing 1 Cor. 13.2 Couldst thou comprehend in thy Memory the whole Book of God and understand all the Mysteries thereof couldst thou speak all Tongues and unriddle every Prophecy yet if thou enjoyest those Gifts to thy self only If thou hidest these Talents in the Earth or puttest this Light of thine under a Bushel Mat. 25.25 Luke 11.33 what is the World the better for thee what account canst thou give of these Graces to him who hath intrusted thee with them True Love is never idle wheresoever it is it is working so that when once the Holy Spirit of God hath made this impression on our Hearts there doth naturally and necessarily succeed an indefatigable endeavour to propagate that Goodness in others which God hath imprinted on our selves and therefore let us beseech God that he would Engrave the Characters of this Divine Love on our Hearts That we may every one of us as we have received the Gift minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God So much for that sence of the words as they signisie the improvement of God's Gifts and Graces in us to the spiritual Benefit and Edification of others I come now to the other sence of them namely That of Communicating the good things of this Life wherewith God has supplied us to the Releif and Support of those from whom he hath either withheld or withdrawn them that we would in this respect according as every man hath received the Gift that is his Portion of God's Bounteous Liberality minister the same that is impart and dispence of our Substance toward others that are in want as good Stewards as becometh faithful Stewards who are intrusted with God's various Mercies and Blessings to the same end of the manifold Grace of God that is of his Liberality in divers kinds particularly of the Wealth he has committed to them as Stewards to distribute to them that stand in need of it saith the Learned Dr. Hammond in his Note on the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Place And here we may observe how that God in the Allwise Dispensations of his Providence has order'd it so that we should never want Objects to exercise our Charity upon some being Born in such Circumstances as daily to need the Assistance and Releif of others some being reduced by the sudden violence of Fire Water Storms Tempests Thunder Lightning Rapine and other surprizing Accidents from a plentiful Condition to extreme Want and Poverty from being able to assist others to stand in need of that assistance themselves Some by the cruel Tyranny of Merciless Men to be driven from under their own Vines and their own Fig-trees to seek Shelter and Support in Foreign Countries and that too for the sake of God and his holy Religion chusing rather to endure and undergo the greatest Hardships than to make Shipwrack of their Faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 which is the Case of those who are this day recommended to your Charity who if Suffering for Righteousness sake can claim any Title to our Pity and Compassion and certainly we must disclaim our own Title and Interest in Christ if it does not may challenge as great a measure of our Commiseration as ever any Object did they being such as have kept their Faith intire and undefiled ever since their first embracing the Gospel and that is longer than can be said of any other Nation or People in the Christian World and rather than they will now pollute themselves with Romish Idolatry and Superstition suffer not only the spoiling of their Goods Heb. 10.34 but even the being Exterminated and Banished from their Native Soil Enduring a great fight of afflictions wandring in Deserts and Dens and Caves of the Earth Heb. 10,32 11,38 herein coming not behind the first Professors of Christianity who were dispersed and scattered abroad upon the Persecution that arose about Stephen Act. 11.19 On the mentioning of which let me propound to you the example of that First Age of Christians how ready the Churches of Philippi Thessalonica and Corinth were to relieve the Necessities of their Poor Brethren that were in Judea Of which we find St. Paul giving a large account in the 8 th and 9 th Chapters of his 2d Ep. to the Cor. How that even under a great tryal of afflictions when they were in great Distress and Poverty themselves they abounded in a chearful Liberality toward them and even beyond what their Circumstances would allow them to do they were willing of their own accords without being so much as called upon to make large Collections for their Supply that they did I say without being solicited voluntarily contribute what they were able nay and more than they could well spare to their power saith St. Paul yea and beyond their power they were willing of themselves 2 Cor. 8.3 And that ye may all here present abound in this Grace also v. 7. I need use no other nor can give you better Encouragement than the Apostle gives his Corinthians on that occasion encouragement I First From the Example of Christ For ye know saith he the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that tho' he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye thro' his poverty might be rich v. 9. As if he should have said To the performance of this Duty ye can want no Motives when ye consider the Example of Christ in his Dealings towards us his Liberality and Bounty