that Sovereign Prerogative the Power of Covering Sin It is Her Nature to be comprehensive of and abounding in many Duties and therefore is it Her Reward also to be a Skreen for many Failings Charity is said in Scripture to establish a True Friendship and to create a Real Likeness between God and Man God passes by the Faults therefore of the Charitable as a Friend does those of his Friend and the Great Resemblance of the Divine Nature that shines out in him hides all Lesser Unlikenesses and makes 'em not to be discern'd 'T is difficult to stop on so Noble a Subject and yet more difficult to express ones self becomingly and well The Tongues of Men and Angels as they are said to be a Worthless Gift in comparison of Charity so are They not All able to set out Half the Worth and Excellence of it St. Paul has done something towards it in the XIIIth of the Ist. to the Corinthians and to Him I refer You. IV. It remains now that I should make Those Few Inferences I intended from the Whole and then direct All that has been said particularly upon the Occasion of this Present Assembly And First The Truth we have been upon suggests to us One Argument against Their Opinion who hold Iustification and all the Graces of the Gospel to be conveyed to us by Faith alone in such a sense as excludes any manner of Regard to be had to our Works in it For if Justification be a putting a Man into a state of Favour with God by remission of Sin and Acts of Charity be Works then do Works contribute to Justification This Point goes generally for a Speculative Nicety not worth insisting upon But sure They who think it so have not well consider'd what Influence it has experimentally had upon Practice and a Good Life in many of its Assertors Some Spiritual Libertines of the Antinomian Way have by it undermin'd the very Design of the Gospel and set us free from the Necessity of being Pious Just or Good in any other Principle but that of pure Gratitude onely And in Those who do not go to these Mad Heighths yet the Perswasions They have about Justifying Faith are observ'd mightily to lessen their Esteem for Good Works and from esteeming them less to come to practice 'em less God knows is a very Easie step and almost an unavoidable One Witness the Celebrated Institutions of a Great Divine where Faith is the solemn Subject of every Page but Charity scarce mention'd at all never insisted on And accordingly as Charity is little mention'd there so are the Rules of it little observ'd which do not I think at all consist with a bitter invective way of Writing Which leads me to a Second Inference also That if a Spirit of Charity shall cover a multitude of Sins then may we assure our selves that the contrary Temper a Spirit of Hatred Malignity and Ill Will shall cover a multitude of Vertues i.e. They shall be no Vertues to Him that has 'em Neither God nor Man shall regard 'em as such if Charity does not Crown ' em Charity covers many Sins because it is so noble and so excellent a Vertue What Vertue then beyond this can there be found of price enough to cover the Sin of Uncharitableness Thirdly From the Promise made in the Text We may learn the wondrous Goodness and Condescention of God He has a right to all the highest Instances and Degrees of Vertue that it is possible for us to put on and when we have practis'd 'em to the utmost we have done but what we were strictly oblig'd to do And yet so far he is pleas'd to abate of this Right as to accept the Performance of One Great Duty in lieu of the Omission of many Others An Act of Grace and Kindness which is enhans'd to Us by considering that Reason never did or could make this known to the Heathen World although the Gospel has now Reveal'd it to Us. Nay remarkable it is as I observ'd to you before that this Great Duty which is to compensate as it were for all Our Failings is the most pleasant and delightful Employment that belongs to us the most agreeable to our Nature and the most useful to our Fellow-Creatures Let us not complain therefore of the strictness of the Rule we are to walk by and of the Hardships which in our Christian Warfare we are to undergo The Rule is strict indeed but then as Great Helps and Assistances are given us to live up to it so great Abatements and Allowances we see are made at last if we do not There are indeed Difficulties to be undergone But sure the Labour of Love is none of ' em That as it makes a kind of Atonement to God for all the Faults we commit so does it make an Amends to Us for all the Troubles we are at in every other part of our Duty It gives an Easiness to that Yoke and a Lightness to that Burthen which is laid upon us Fourthly and Lastly If the Doctrine laid down be good then have we in it the plainest and most quickning Motive in the World to the Exercise of this great Duty of Charity such an One as exceeds the United Force of all the Arguments that ever were offer'd in this Case and of whose Power if a Man can be insensible all Other Motives will doubtless be lost upon him The wise Son of Syrach thought he had made a reasonable Plea for Charity when he said Lay up Thy Treasure according to the Commandments of the most High and it shall bring Thee more Profit than Gold Shut up Alms in thy Storehouses and it shall deliver Thee from All Affliction It shall fight for Thee against Thine Enemies better than a mighty Shield or a strong Spear But how Flat and Cold and Unmoving is All This when compar'd with the Life and Energy that is in Those Few Words It shall cover a multitude of Sins This Motive indeed has been carry'd too far and abus'd to ill Purposes by Men of another Communion who by the Help of it have made the most Impure and Profligate Wretches hope for a General Forgiveness of all Their Sins so They were but Liberal enough to the Church in their Wills and setled such a Revenue upon it as should make a Good Number of Holy Fathers think it worth their while to say Daily Masses for the Soul of the Depatred And how Gross a way soever This is of Expounding the Text it has prov'd a very Gainful One to Those who made use of it For perhaps half the Wealth of the C. of R. may justly be attributed to it A strong Perswasion of the Truth of this Exposition seems to have been that very Foundation-Stone on which a very Great Part of Her Charitable Buildings have been Erected The Ministers of the Reform'd Church indeed dare not go so far in inviting You to Works of Charity and Mercy But This They dare and do
affirm That a true Principle of Charity is that Qualification of Mind which of all Others is most grateful and acceptable to God and such as at the Day of Final Retribution He will have a Particular Regard to so as to make no severe Scrutiny into that Man's Faults and Failings who has Eminently Liv'd and Practis'd by it And This They Think sufficiently intimated by Our Saviour's Account of the Process of that Day Where the Onely Head of Inquiry he mentions is What Good and Charitable Deeds we have done to any of our Poor Brethren Which implies thus much at least That That will be the Chief Point upon which we shall be examin'd and that Our Acquittal as to Neglects in Other Parts of Our Duty will depend very much upon Our being able to give a good Answer to it And I hope this Assurance it self is a sufficient Encouragement to Charity without Our needing to strain the Words of the Text to such a Gross Sense as no Wise Man can believe that they ought and no Good Man would wish that they might be taken in V. There is indeed One Further Sense of the Words than has Yet been mention'd to which they may however be innocently and truly extended They have been hitherto consider'd only as containing a Particular Promise to Particular Men They may be understood also with regard to Those Blessings which Publick Charities procure on Publick States and Communities For it is true also that Acts of Charity shall Cover the Sins of Cities and Kingdoms as well as Those of Private Men if Cities and Kingdoms unanimously agree to perform ' em Our Fathers it is to be thought were of This Opinion and were powerfully acted and influenc'd by it in erecting These Charitable Foundations They could not but see that the Wealth of the Church though it was really grown too Great and was by some Rich Lazy Orders in it scandalously employ'd yet had been retrench'd on This Account beyond what needed and had not been apply'd afterwards to any Religious or Publick Use but was squander'd away for the most part upon Favorites and upon such as fell in with the Honest Zeal of Our First Reformers not out of any Principle of Conscience but the mere Design of enriching Themselves The Sense of This doubtless affected deeply the Good and Pious Men of Those Times and made them very Earnest and Active to procure some part of These Church-Spoils to be set aside to Charitable Uses that Retribution as it were might by This Means be made to God of what had been torn away in too Large Proportions from his Worship and Service To speak plainly that by a True Spirit of Charity Those Sins might be Cover'd which a Spirit of Lust and Avarice under the Pretence of Reforming the Abuses of Charity had caus'd And These Endeavours of Theirs God bless'd so wonderfully that some Millions of Money were in a Few Years contributed towards erecting and endowing in all Parts of our Country Hospitals and Houses of Charity This sufficiently baffled the Caluminies and stopp'd the Mouths of Our Adversaries of the Church of Rome Who cry'd Us down as Men that were Reforming away Good Works and turning all Religion into a Notional Faith How Other Protestant Countries have freed Themselves from that Imputation I am not able to say sure I am Ours deliver'd it self so well of it as to turn the Edge of the Objection back upon the Church of Rome it self that first manag'd it against us For upon a Fair and Impartial Computation it appears that there were Greater Expences upon Publick Works of Charity such I mean as we are at present discoursing of in Sixty Years after the Reformation than had been in Five times that Number of Years while Popery stood some have added than there were from the Conquâ—st down to King Edward the Sixth that Good and Excellent Prince the Great Promoter and Encourager of These Works and Who is not to be mention'd without particular Honour in This House which acknowledges him for Her Pious and Munificent Founder I cannot but observe to You here that it was the Ruling Part of This Great City with a Good Bishop of London and Martyr for the Protestant Religion at the Head of 'em that Together stirr'd up that Young Prince to set upon so publick-spirited a Design And it is natural for me also at the same Time to wish that That Honourable Body may thus heartily always continue to join Their Endeavours and Interests with Those of Their Right Reverend Diocesan in promoting Publick Charities and Publick Blessings of any kind either in Church or State Indeed it must always be remember'd to the Honour of That Great Body That as Her Foundations of Charity such as we are speaking of are larger for ought I can find than Those of any Other City in the Christian World so They were All rais'd and endow'd either directly by Her Own Members or if by Other Hands yet at Her earnest and importunate Suit So that the Fabricks and Revenues of This Kind that belong to Her are not onely as in Other Parts the Useful Ornaments of the Place but so many standing Monuments also of the Great Piety and Unparallell'd Bounty of Her Ancestours It was They who sollicited the Cause of the Poor and the Infirm the Lame and Wounded the Vagrant and Lunatick with so particular an Industry and Zeal as had those Great and Blessed Effects which we at This Day see and feel A Zeal never to be forgotten by Men and which we hope God also will never forget But when he comes down to Visit for the many Ill Effects of Wealth misapplyed will for the sake of it Visit in Mercy and consider the Multitude of Her Charities as well as That of Her Sins Graciously allowing the One to be in some Measure a Cover to the Other But I have not Room to speak of All These Benefactions at large and am call'd upon by the Occasion of this Present Assembly to say somewhat more particularly of Those of This Place I think it by no means a fit and decent thing to vye Charities and to erect the Reputation of One upon the Ruines of That of another This is for the sake of Charity to forget the True Character and Essential Properties of it which are as St. Paul tells us to be kind and not envy not to vaunt it self or be puffed up not to behave it self unseemly However This I think I may say with Modesty and Truth to the Advantage of That Charity to which we belong That though the Bottom of Wealth it stands on be not so Large as that of Others yet is it in the Design of it so Comprehensive and Full as not any where I think to be parallell'd Here are Supplies to Outward Want and Necessity liberally imparted The Poor and Fatherless not only taken Care of but so bred up as to be able to be useful to the Common-wealth and perhaps to take
care of many Others Here Idle Useless and therefore Necessitous Persons are taught the Rest of Lessons Labour inur'd to it and made aquainted with it and then sent out with such a Stock of Industry as will do 'em more real Service than any Other Kind of Benefaction if They will but make use of it and improve it Here Loose Men and Women are reduc'd by wholsome Discipline and Vagrants by Confinement Punishment it self is made an Instrument of Mercy and Goodness and as Meat is in some measure provided for the Belly so is there a Rod for the Back of Fools This Particular Instance of Charity would deserve to be enlarged on It is a Noble and untrodden Subject and may ask Your Patience on some Other Occasion But the Time to which I am confin'd is now almost run out and there are yet Other Instances behind to be Insisted on For Here not only External Necessities are relieved but Inward Wants also are supply'd not Ill Manners only are outwardly corrected but Ill Dispositions also are better'd Ill Minds reform'd And One single Instance in this kind is not confin'd to the Person that receives the Benefit but is a Real Piece of Service to an whole Community It puts a stop to a spreading Plague nay it gets Ground upon it by making Those who have had the Infection turn Physicians to Others by their Example and Future Good Manners Nay Here Men recover their Understandings as well as Their Vertues that is They recover Their Very Selves and are made once again Members of the Rational Creation able to See and Know their Duty and to Guide themselves by that Knowledge of it to pay once again their Rational Sâ—â—vice to God and to maintain a Civil Intercourse with Men. And on this Particular Head that Worthy and Learned Person deserves a Grateful mention who has by his Eminent Skill assisted the Hospital to be Charitable in This Way to much greater Numbers of Lunaticks than have been known to be Cur'd in Former Times So that this Great Receptacle of Miserable Objects of every kind seems to be like that Medicinal Pool at Bethesda where there were Vertues proper for every Malady all Infirmities were equally Cur'd in Those who had the Happiness to get into it I can carry the Parallel no further I thank God For the Prudence and Vigilance of its Governours as it hitherto has so I question not always will take Care that Contrary to what happen'd to the Impotent Man in That Story They who have most need of the Pool shall ever have the Happiness to get first into it Impartiality is the Soul of Mercy as well as Justice and adds Further Degrees of Use and Beauty to the most Useful and Beautiful Thing in the World To give You therefore the true Character of This Great Benefaction in little Charity is That which comprizes almost all Kinds of Vertues and This Foundation That which takes in almost all Sorts of Charities But tho' all the Chief kinds of Beneficence are here pursu'd yet many Miserable Objects in Each Kind are not possible to be reach'd with that present Stock of Charity which belongs either to This Hospital or to all Her Other Rivals in This Labour of Love put together God open the Hands of the Rich and direct the Hearts of the Merciful to build upon the Foundation Their Forefathers have laid and to supply what is wanting to compleat Their Designs Approving Themselves Thus the True Heirs of their Piety and Bounty as well as of their Wealth Else These Great Buildings and Endowments of Theirs like the Vertuous Acts and Atchievements of the First Founders of Noble Families will become a Reproach rather than be an Honour to a Degenerate and Worthless Posterity Consider with Your selves how God has blest this City for the sake of the mighty Works that have been done in Her I say for the sake of ' em For let a Man carry his Thoughts back to that Time when these Good Designs were first set a foot and fram'd and He shall find that from Thence the Rise and Growth of This City in Trade Wealth Interest and Greatness is precisely to be dated May it grow on in the same Proportion and by the same Means also That is May there still be found such a Number of Charitable Persons in it as will Continue the Character that has hitherto belong'd to it and by That means secure the Continuation of God's Blessings upon it May Charity go on to have its Perfect Work not Living meerly upon the Old Stock not continuing at a stay but Growing and Increasing still as the Necessities of Some Men increase and the Abilities of Others to Relieve ' em And thus spreading it self to a wider Compass it shall assuredly also procure a Greater Share of God's Mercies and cover a greater Multitude of Our Sins That This may be the Case the Good and Merciful God grant through the Great Steward and Dispenser of his Mercies Christ the Righteous To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be ascrib'd as is most due all Honour Adoration and Praise Now and Ever Amen! FINIS