Christians But it is necessary to add That it becomes us not to be desirous of more for ours than that they may live comfortably according to their Education and the Rank and Quality of Our Children Nor ought we to covet Great things for them since by this means we may endanger their being deprived of what is infinitely better than any thing we can leave them viz. God's Blessing And He hath made Promises enough to put us out of all doubt that the best Course we can possibly take to have our Children blest in the World is to be mighty cautious while we retain enough for their comfortable Subsistence of making the Poor and Needy fare the worse for them And now Fourthly and Lastly Since we have such abundant Evidence of the Absolute necessity of Making to our selves Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness if we would when we fail and are turned out of these mouldering Cottages be received into everlasting Habitations Since if we are not Infidels we must needs be convinced that there 's no Duty whatsoever but will as easily be dispensed with as this Duty and that 't is every whit as indispensable as Faith in Christ's Merits and Righteousness for the Remission of our sins And since we have not the least shadow of Reason to hope be we never so observant of other Precepts that Christ's Undertakings for Sinners will in the least avail us while we live in disobedience to his so often repeated Precepts of Charity and have none or but little fellow-feeling of the Distresses and Calamities of our poor Brethren Let us considering these things be perswaded to make as much Conscience every whit of this as of any other Duty to which our Religion does oblige us And in order to the still more effectually exciting you hereunto I might present you with as many Promises relating to this Life as well as the other as your hearts can wish for And I might shew particularly from not a few Texts of Scripture that to be Rich in good Works is the surest way to encrease your Riches to add to your Treasures on Earth as well as to secure and augment your Treasures in Heaven But as these Promises are forreign to my Text so you were on Monday minded of many of them As also had many bright and shining Examples of Charity the more to quicken you to this great Duty laid before you But yet I must not wholly wave this Great Topick but shall confine my self to those Examples which our own City hath been and God be thanked is still Blest with Examples enough to shame all Miserly People out of their excessive Backwardness to Works of Charity and more than enough to make our Adversaries ashamed of their Nick-naming Protestants Solisidians although they were wholly unacquainted as 't is impossible they should be with our Principles Which by the way are no more reconcileable with Solisidianism than is the Doctrine of the Bible For The Bible as Mr. Chillingworth saith The Bible is the Religion of Protestants Which if it were of another sort of Christians who call us Biblists it could not be one of their Avowed Doctrines That Good Works do Vere mereri augmentum Gratiae aeternam vitam augmentum Gloriae Truly or properly merit an Encrease of Grace Eternal Life and an Encrease of Glory Which are the words of the Council of Trent Nor would their Greatest Motive to Good Works be that which divers of them have frankly acknowledg'd is not in the Bible and which we are certain is a meer Figment and the very Dream of a Shadow And Serves to no better purpose than to spoil Charity and make it a thing forced and extorted by slavish fear I need not tell you I mean their Doctrine of Purgatory But to proceed I say we have had many Noble Examples among our selves and have at this day to encourage us to be Charitable And great instances of the Charity of our Fellow-Citizens for the most part are commended to your Imitation in this Paper A True Report c. HEre are Five Eminent Hospitals which you may be satisfied by what hath been now a third time read are such Treasuries for Charity as there are no where to be found better And which withal give us such Patterns of it as the like to them are not easily to be met with As these Hospitals have had of late years far more Liberal Contributions than heretofore so a very great part of their Revenues being consumed by the late dreadful Fires and the greatest part of three of them and the whole Stock of the Hospital of Bethlem exhausted by the Building of a far more Commodious House which cost above 17000 l. besides paying Interest for several great Summs for the finishing thereof they would since have signified nothing to what they now do without such Contributions Now certainly those whom God hath blest with Estates and who want not Hearts to be liberal with them cannot want Encouragement to Liberality towards these Houses of Charity For as in these they cannot fear depositing their Alms either in Unfaithful or Imprudent hands their Governours and Treasurers having so great a Reputation for their Excellent managing and improving of Charity so they cannot be bestowed on People whose Case is more compassionable than theirs is who are received into these Houses I mean among our own Country-men I thus limit it because the French Protestants for whom I must take all opportunities of being an Advocate must necessarily be acknowledg'd to be the most inviting Objects of Charity in the World Both in regard of the not to be parallel'd Greatness of their Sufferings and the Blessed Cause for which they suffer But if God's Stewards as all that have Estates will one day be convinc't they were and that GOD never parted with His Propriety in them would be but as just as He is bountiful to this City and Kingdom neither these distressed Forreigners nor our own Poor would have cause to complain of the want of Charity Our good GOD hath given among us enough and to spare for the Supply of both and no one be in ever a jot the worse Circumstances But to return to our business In the Hospital of Christ's-Church the Receivers of your Charity are poor Orphans who might have been cast upon the Wide World had they not here been taken in And whose begging about our Streets could only have been prevented by the hand of Charity And Who would not Covet being of their number whose Hearts are now rejoiced at the Lovely Shew now before us of Fatherless Children well Fed which is seen in their Countenances and as well Cloathed by the help and Assistance of their Charity But they are next under God obliged to their Benefactors for a far greater Blessing than mere Food and Rayment viz. a Liberal Education which is fitting them for good Callings suited to their several Genius's and Capacities and to which they are placed
thee The most Wealthy and Powerful have no power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither have they power in the day of death This is an Evil among all the things that are done under the sun that there is one event unto all unto the Rich and Poor But this is an intolerable Evil and never sufficiently to be lamented that the hearts of the far greater part of the Children of Men and especially of Rich men are full of Evil and madness is in their Hearts while they live and after that they go to the dead He who hath most improved his time in filling his Chests and laying House to House and Field to Field as he came forth of his Mothers Womb naked shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing of his Labour along with him which he may carry away in his hand in all points as he came so shall he go and what profit hath he he hath but laboured for the Wind that is supposing he hath not taken the Advice in the Text. This man cometh in with vanity and departeth in darkness and his name shall be covered with darkness And though we know nothing more certainly than that die we must Yet so inconsiderative are the Generality that they know not their time but as the Fishes that are taken in an evil Net and as the Birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them Though we all know that we must fail and can't be assured but we may the next moment and have innumerable Warnings given us to prepare for death yet most die suddainly and before they are aware O that we were wise that we understood this so as to lay it well to heart that we would consider our later end So much for that which these words suppose Secondly That which is Expressed in them is That the well-imploying and doing good with the good things of this present Life shall be rewarded with infinitely-better things in the Life to come And of this we have the fullest Assurance from these two Considerations and from either of them viz. I. That one Phrase whereby our Saviour expresseth doing Good and being Charitable with our earthly Enjoyments is laying up a Treasure in Heaven II. That He hath intitled the Heavenly Happiness to the sincere performance of this one Duty by many Promises and Declarations First One Phrase whereby He expresseth doing Good with our Earthly Enjoyments is Laying up a Treasure in Heaven This we find Matt. 6.20 In the foregoing Verse our Lord saith Lay not up for your selves Treasures on Earth where Moth and Rust do corrupt and where Thieves break through and steal Or Do not hoard up your Riches there being no Goodness in them but what consisteth in the well-using of them and besides by hoarding them up they will be liable to be either spoiled or stolen from you It follows But lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal c. Or according to your Ability do Good with your Estates make them serviceable to Works of Piety Mercy and Charity And agreeably to this sense He thus proceeds The Light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may better be rendred Liberal as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Liberality in several places thy whole Body shall be full of Light But if thine Eye be evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Envious or Covetous thy whole Body shall be full of darkness And this is plainly the Meaning of this Verse viz. As the Eye enlighteneth the whole Body and guides it this way or that so a liberal mind hath a like Influence upon all the Actions of a Christian But where an Vncharitable Spirit is there 's nothing but Darkness or the abounding of evil Works So that it appears by the Context that this Phrase Laying up a Treasure in Heaven was designed by our Lord to signifie being liberal and bountiful with our Riches But there could be no reason for his so calling it were it not to assure us that by this means we shall undoubtedly obtain a Treasure there And the like He doth Luk. 12.33 Sell that ye have and give Alms or rather than excuse your not giving Alms by your want of Money make Money of what you have that you may give Alms. And to encourage hereto he in the next words calls it Providing our selves Bags which wax not old a Treasure in the Heavens which faileth not where no Thief approacheth neither Rust corrupteth And in imitation of our B. Saviour S. Paul calls it Laying up in store for our selves a good Foundation against the time to come 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are Rich in this World that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the Living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy That they do Good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate O what a Charge is this How happens it that so few comparatively will Obey it But What Encouragement is there to it Surely the greatest imaginable for it follows Laying up in store for themselves a good Foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on Eternal Life Or Rich mens being Rich in good works is Laying up in store for themselves a good Foundation or Treasure against the time to come c. Secondly Our Lord hath intitled the Heavenly Happiness to the sincere performance of this one Duty by many Promises and Declarations As we have one of these in the Text so the time would fail me to recite all those which our Lord hath given us out of his own mouth and by his Apostles I shall now Content my self with presenting you with two or three of those which he himself delivered In Mat. 25.34 c. He expresseth no other reason for the pronouncing of that Ioyful Sentence Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World to the Sheep on his right hand but this I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me And on the contrary there is no reason exprest why the Goats on the Left Hand should have so Horribbe a Sentence pronounc'd against them as Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels but this I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink c.
Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these my brethren ye did it not to me Again see what our Lord saith Luk. 6.35 Love your Enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again or hoping for no Reward from those whose Benefactors you are and charitable Creditors and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the Children of the Highest c. And Mat. 5.7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Whereas S. Iames hath declared Ch. 2.13 that He shall have judgment without mercy that sheweth no mercy I am sure you will acknowledge that there 's no need of going farther than these two Considerations for the Confirmation of the Doctrin raised from the Text. If it be asked How this one part of Religion can be said to give a Title to these Everlasting Habitations I hope none of us do believe that there is any thing more of proper Merit in these than in other good works since the Falsity and Dangerousness of the Popish Doctrin of Merit hath been sufficiently exposed to us from time to time As also the Folly of imagining that Creatures can deserve any Reward at the hands of their Great Creator and much more of thinking that Sinners can and much more that they can deserve such an immensely Great Reward as the Kingdom of Heaven by the best Works they are in a possibility of performing these Works not bearing the least proportion with that Reward Nor need I surely go about to perswade a Congregation of Protestants That the Righteousness of Christ is the only Meritorious or procuring Cause of whatsoever Good we have received or can hope to receive And as to that Saying that Christ hath merited that we may merit 't is so far from good Doctrine that 't is impossible to make any good Sense of it But 1. Works of Mercy and Charity are Conditions to the sincere performance of which GOD in his infinite Grace and Bounty and for Christ's sake or in and through Christ hath promised these Everlasting Habitations And they are such Conditions as our Saviour might well propose without naming any other with them because the whole of Religion is virtually contained or implyed in them Who knows not that Faith and Love and Obedience are words which severally express in Scripture all Religion But all these are implyed in true Christian Charity Both the Tables are comprized by our Saviour in the Love of God and our Neighbour and the summ of what is required in the Gospel is sometimes expressed by Believing and other times by Obeying Now as Charity hath a respect to God's Gracious Promises or as a Christian is excited thereto by them so is it an eminent Act and Exertion of Faith As it hath respect to the many Commandments of GOD and our Saviour so every act of Charity is an act of Obedience As it hath respect to our infinite Obligations to GOD and our Saviour and is an Expression of Gratitude towards them so every act of Charity is an act of Divine Love As it hath respect to the Necessities of our Brethren so is it an act of Brotherly Love and that which hath these several respects is the truly Christian Charity Considering this well might S. Iames say Ch. 1.27 Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction and to keep ones self unspotted from the World. And therefore good reason had our Saviour here to instance solely in employing our Estates in doing Good as that which intitles to Everlasting Habitations in the Heavenly Mansions And this likewise justifies that Advice of the Prophet Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar Ch. 4.27 Break off thy sins by Righteousness and thine iniquites by shewing mercy to the Poor c. And also this interprets to us those words of S. Peter 1 Ep. 4.8 Charity shall cover the multitude of sins Above all things have servent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover the multitude of sins 2. Works of Mercy and Charity give a Title to these Everlasting Habitations as they are the best Evidence of our being Regenerate and Christians in Deed as well as in Profession The Tree saith our Saviour is known by its Fruits But it hath already appeared and will farther appear that no Fruit speaks a good Tree like these Fruits And therefore S. Paul preferreth the Grace of Charity before the Graces of Faith and Hope And now abideth Faith Hope and Charity but the greatest of these is Charity 1 Cor. 13. ult 'T is confest he doth not here mean by Charity the meer giving of Alms as appears by the third Verse of this Chapter but as wheresoever that Charity is which the Apostle describes in the foregoing Verses there will be a cheerful forwardness to the relieving of our Necessitous Brethren so this forwardness proceeding from the forementioned Motives is the best Expression of that Charity And what single Evidence of a Man's being a good Christian can excel nay can equal this Who can doubt whether that man doth truly and sincerely Believe in God and embraceth with his Heart that Religion which he professeth with his Tongue or whether he hath a powerful Sense of another Life and sets his Affections on the things above that can freely forego present Profit and Advantage for their sake What surer Argument can there be of our sincerely loving GOD and our Blessed Saviour than our readily parting with those things at their Command which the Generality are so tenacious of and most unwilling to let go upon any other account than the some way or other serving themselves I mean promoting their carnal Interests And I need not say that this is the best Evidence of a man's loving his Neighbour as himself since all other Signs thereof can signifie nothing without this For 't is too plain a Case to need proving that he is a Lyar who pretendeth love to his Neighbour while he cannot find in his Heart to Relieve him in his Necessity in some proportion to his Ability S. Iohn makes this the great distinguishing Character of a sincere Lover of GOD from an Hypocritical Pretender to the love of Him in 1 Ep. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren Or for the promoting of their eternal welfare But whoso hath this Worlds Goods and seeth his Brother hath need and shutteth up his Bowels of compassion from him that is so far from venturing his life for him that he will not so much as open his purse to him How dwelleth the love of God in him My little Children let us not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth Or Let us not only profess Love to our Brethren but demonstrate the sincerity of that Profession by Acts of Bounty and Beneficence Then it follows And hereby we know that we are in the
truth and shall assure our hearts before him c. Or We cannot desire a more certain Evidence a more infallible Mark of our being upright-hearted Christians than such a temper of mind as shall be on all occasions engaging us in such Works as these 3. By Works of Mercy and Charity we are made more and more Capable of being received into these everlasting Habitations more and more meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light which principally consists in a Likeness to God and a Complete Enjoyment of Him. There is nothing whereby we can so Resemble GOD and therefore that can put us into such a Capacity of Enjoying Him as our being habituated to these Works The Divine God-like Nature must needs most eminently appear in these since Mercy and Goodness Benignity and Loving Kindness are the Perfections by which the Best of Beings doth above all other Recommend himself to us as might be largely shewed from the Holy Scriptures Therefore the Definition which S. Iohn gives us of God is Love. God is Love saith he and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in Him. The Lord is good to all saith the Psalmist and his tender mercies are over all his Works Nothing is so natural to Him as Doing Good. The Prophet Isaiah calls his Iudgments and Acts of Severity his Strange Work. And the Prophet Ieremiah tells us that He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of men The Divine Severity is not an Effect of Choice but of Necessity for the maintenance and upholding of God's Government of the World. It proceeds from a Necessity of Sinners making But He hath thus declared by the now nam'd Prophet I am the Lord which exercise Loving-Kindness and Righteousness in the Earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is as natural to God to do good as to Fire to warm and to Light to enlighten saith S. Clemens of Alexandria Those therefore who do most good and are most delighted therein are most like to God whereas those who most Resemble Him in Power and Knowledge if void of Goodness the Devils for instance are most unlike Him. And those who are most like to God are best qualified for enjoying Him and capable of enjoying most of Him. And such as by their Likeness to God are fitted to Enjoy Him shall not fail so to do I may truly say cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There cannot be a separation betwixt God and his Likeness said the Philosopher excellently The Application NOW from what hath been Discoursed we learn First Wherein lieth the Goodness and Desirableness of a plentiful Fortune If we give any Credit to our Blessed Lord we must believe that it doth not lie in its inabling us to Lay up but to Lay out the more and that upon Pious and Charitable Designs not upon our Selves or Families and much less to gratifie Pride or Luxury and the better to promote by that means the Great Business for which we were sent into this World to make our selves so much the greater Blessings to it and more to glorifie our Creator and Redeemer by Good Works than we are capable of glorifying them without Plentiful Estates and to attain to the Higher degrees of Blessedness and Glory in the World to come I say we are abundantly satisfied from what our Lord hath declared to us in our Text and other places and from what hath been discoursed that herein alone consists the Advantage of being Rich. And he is a Person not sufficiently purged from Worldliness and Sensuality who endeavours or can desire to be Rich for other Ends or to make his Children so for any other reason than that by this means they may be the more serviceable to their Fellow-Creatures may bring the more Glory to GOD and gain the larger Proportions of Bliss and Happiness in the other Life In Comparison of which this Life is nothing worth and truly all things considered not worth any thing in it self nor at all desirable but as 't is a State of Probation for the fitting and preparing us for an infinitely better And if we considered how far a large Estate is from making the Owners of them Happy in this life nay how it involves them in innumerable anxious Cares and distracting Troubles and a World of Misfortunes which those are secure from who possess but just so much as not to stand in need of the Charity of others we should think it the most desireable thing for our selves and ours to have no whit more than Agurs with viz. a Competency except for the foresaid Purposes And especially considering the Dreadful Account which those shall be called to who have not Hearts to imploy their Riches to such purposes and withal what our Lord hath said of the extreme difficulty of Rich mens entering into the Kingdom of Heaven in regard of the difficulty of their not trusting in their Riches and of their not being made Covetous or Proud or Sensual by them one would think that all who have any serious Concern for the Souls of their dear Children should tremble at the thoughts of venturing them with Great Estates and be under no Temptation upon their account of not being liberal And I cannot imagine but that every truly-truly-Good man must needs dread for his Childrens sake as well as for other reasons being backward to Works of Charity Nothing being more commonly observed than that the Children of Covetous Close-handed Parents do either as prodigally fling away what they scraped together for them or prove mere Mammonists and Muck-worms like them and so have their Portion like them too in this Life Which no man that really believes the other Life shall need to be told is an Evil to be dreaded unspeakably more than their going a Begging from door to door Secondly We learn from our past Discourse that 't is not in the least disbecoming a Christian Spirit nor at all inconsistent with that Ingenuity which Christianity requires to have Respect with Moses to the Recompence of Reward in the Good we do or to be excited thereby to Well-doing Many Charitable and Good Souls have perplex't themselves with doubts that their Good Works are not of the true Christian kind because they think they are Conscious to themselves of not being principally moved to them by Love to GOD but by self-Love being perswaded that the onely spring and principle of Evangelical Obedience is Divine Love and Gratitude and that neither Hope nor Fear is so But since so very many Promises and Threats are to be found in the Gospel 't is evident they are greatly mistaken and that they fear where no Fear is For is it to be thought that we should be stirred up to Good Works by such Motives as these by Our Blessed Saviour Himself if their having their designed influence upon us would so spoil them as
to make them not truly Christian But I will say Two things in reference to this matter 1. It is true that self-Love ought not to be our onely Principle in doing Good. We ought to be constrained thereto by the Love of God and our Saviour and the wonderful Expressions of their Love to us We are obliged also to do Good Works from a sense of the Goodness of them and to be Charitable from the Love of Charity as such as it is a most lovely Thing an excellent Grace highly beneficial to the World and greatly ennobling and beautifying the Soul that 's therewith inspired And we ought likewise to shew pity to our Afflicted Brethren from a principle of Love to them But still since God and our Saviour have seen it necessary to lay before us the Motives of Promises and Threatnings 't is impossible it should be unworthy of Christians to be Acted by them in their Obedience And God knows that in this imperfect State the Best Christians find that they have need enough of these Motives But 2 d. 'T is a mighty Mistake to think that to be perswaded to the Obedience of the Precepts of the Gospel by it's Promises or Threats either is to obey from a meer selfish Principle For if we have a true Notion of that Happiness our Lord promiseth and of that Misery He threatneth we are no less acted by Love to God in that Obedience which our desire of obtaining the one and avoiding the other excites us to than by Love to Ourselves The Heavenly Happiness as hath been already observed principally consisting in a perfect Likeness to GOD and Enjoyment of Him viz. as Perfect as our Nature is Capable of and the Hellish Misery being a State of perfect Unlikeness to Him and Eternal Separation from Him. Thirdly We learn from what hath been said what a Folly it is for men of Estates to hope to be Received into the Everlasting Habitations in the Text without being Charitable with them without making to themselves Friends in our Saviour's sense of their Mammon of Vnrighteousness Let me Beg of such not to be offended if I take leave to be a little Free and Plain with them Do you really and indeed Hope to be saved To be sure you will say you do But for God's sake tell me why Hath GOD promised such as you these Habitations and will you expect them without a Promise I pray look into the Bible I can in the Name of GOD assure you that you shall not find one Syllable there of any Promise whatever and much less so exceeding great and precious a Promise as this made to such as you But you will there meet with Threatnings good store against you and such terrible ones too as would make a man even Tremble to read them though he should know himself to be unconcern'd in them You will no question say that you hope for Eternal Happiness through the alone merits of Iesus Christ. Very well But hath Christ promised to Save all by his Merits that Rely upon them for Salvation Hath he proposed no Terms to us without our Compliance with which He will not Save us Nay Have not He and His Holy Apostles most expresly and frequently told us that Obedience to His other Precepts is every whit as necessary to our Salvation as Obedience to that of Relying on his merits can be And is there any one Precept so often repeated so much inculcated as this of Charity As those of feeding the hungry and Cloathing the Naked of being Fathers to the Fatherless and Husbands to the Widows of being merciful and tender-hearted of being ready to distribute and willing to communicate c. Nay Is any one single Duty oftener made a Condition of Salvation than this of Charity There is scarcely any one made so so often Why then should not those who live in the open Transgression of the Laws of Temperance Sobriety and Chastity or of Iustice and Righteousness expect as well to be Saved by the Merits of Christ as you who live in the manifest Breach of those which oblige you to be Charitable There are many Promises of such Blessings as I know you desire with all your hearts and much more than you ought made to the Charitable Now what an unaccountable thing is it that those who cannot find in their Hearts to Trust in God for the fulfilling of his Promises by performing the Conditions of them should be able to Trust in Him without the Encouragement of any Promise nay against many solemn Declarations made by God and His Son Iesus on purpose to discourage us from expecting the least Favour from them while we persist in wilful disobedience to any of their Precepts Your are plainly told that Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all Or if it were possible for a Man to observe all the Laws of God but one and live in the Breach of that one this will as certainly make him liable to the Divine Vengeance as living in the Breach of all though not to the same degrees of Punishment And you are assured by Him on whose Merits you so rely for Salvation and who will be your Iudge that the Covetous and Vncharitable shall be placed on his left hand at the Day of Judgment and receive that foresaid fearful Sentence from Him Depart from me ye Cursed c. And yet I say in spight of such Declarations as these those I now address my self to will hope not only to escape the Wrath to come but to be eternally Happy too At least those of them will that are not secret Infidels as I must confess 't is hard to think most of them should not be profess they what they will But who can express the Folly the Madness rather of such a Hope I know many of our Covetous Christians I can't call them but Professors of Christianity do lay no small Weight on their being Iust and Righteous in their Dealings and taking great Care to do no wrong But 1. Suppose you are strictly just can you expect a Reward for this Nay can you expect that the King of Heaven should bestow upon you no less a Reward than the Kingdom of Heaven merely because you do no wrong merely because you are pleased not to be Mischievous In good time in truth But this is all that a barely just man can commend himself for viz. that he does no Mischief And remember I beseech you that our Lord hath declared that The Vnprofitable and not only the Injurious Servant shall be bound hand and foot and cast into outer Darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth And that The Tree which bears not Good fruit and not only that beareth bad shall be hewn down and cast into the fire But 2. 'T is more than an even Lay that those Misers who most boast of their Iustice are far from being strictly Iust. Nay I dare warrant
them should their Practices be narrowly lookt into if they be not found guilty of such gross Injustice as will render them obnoxious to the Laws of the Land yet they may be discerned to make no scruple of many such sly Tricks as will speak them no less Vnjust than Vncharitable in the Court of Heaven nay and also in any impartial Court of Equity That common Saying Such a one is a very just but an hard man is founded upon making mere humane Laws the Measure of Justice but a man may be a great Villain and yet be as honest as he can be made to be by the Laws of his Country And I say 't is many to one but that those Misers who most be-pride themselves in their being just and honest in their Dealings will be found to have much too good an Opinion of themselves were their Actions measured by either the Laws of the Gospel or of Natural Equity even such as are to be seen in Tully's Offices and many other Writings of the Pagans But however 3. Men are Unjust in being Uncharitable For the Uncharitable are alwaies transgressing that Rule of Justice given by our Saviour and which is as much a Maxim of the Law of Nature as of the Christian Religion viz. What you would that men should do unto you do you even the same to them There is no man let him be never so insensible of the Miseries of others who would not should himself fall into needy Circumstances complain of it as a great Cruelty to be denied Relief by those who have power to help him And therefore 't is the plainest Case that men as often transgress this Golden Rule as they refuse to close with Opportunities of being Charitable Again every Uncharitable Person is as such Unjust in that the Poor and Necessitous have a Right and Title to their Charity God hath by many Laws given them a clearer Title to our Charity than any man can shew for his Estate And therefore in denying it to them we withhold a plain Due and What is this but as plain Injustice These things considered What can be more evident than that those do put the grossest Cheat upon their own Souls and are befooling themselves into Eternal Misery let them be never so great Professors of Christianity and never so observant of its easie and cheap Duties who hope to be Saved upon such accounts while there is no prevailing with them by all the Arguments that Almighty GOD hath laid before them though they are the greatest imaginable to employ any considerable proportion of their Mammon of Vnrighteousness in Works of Charity Before I proceed farther I would briefly speak to this Question What Rules should we go by what Measures should we take to satisfie our selves that we are truly Charitable and therefore have a right to the Promises made to such 1. In answer hereto let us take notice that GOD expects our spending more or less in Works of Charity according to the Estates he hath blest us with If the H. Scriptures had been silent as they are not about this matter we may be certain from the Equity of the Divine Nature that according to our Circumstances and Abilities God looks for more or less from us If there be a willing mind it is accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not Which words the Apostle spake in reference to Charity And mens Estates and therefore their Abilities for doing good are to be measured not only by their incomes but also by their necessary layings out And consequently he who hath a Family to maintain is far from being obliged to give as much as he who hath no body to take Care of but himself though the Lands or Stocks of both are equal And according as a mans Family is greater or less more or less of his Estate is to go to Charity This is too plain to need proving 2. GOD expects more or less of our Charity according to the Opportunities His Providence presents us with of being charitable As we have opportunity saith the Apostle let us do good unto all men c. The more or greater the Objects of Charity are that we hear of within our reach the more Liberal are we bound to be 3. We ought to be much less cautious of offending on the Right than on the Left hand in our Charity He is like to be but a Sorry Creature at Charity who is resolved to do no more good than he needs must In an highly important Affair the Extreme of Over-doing is far more safe than that of Vnderdoing The Overdoer in a good Work supposing his Excess proceeds from a good Principle shall have his Charity rewarded and his Imprudence pardoned but the Wilful Vnderdoer must neither look for a Reward nor without Repentance that is Reformation a Pardon And whosoever is an Vnderdoer from too great inadvertency and a too-little Concern about the Duty of Charity hath no Title to any greater Promise than this He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly And as with respect to our selves the offending on the Right hand is by much the safer Extreme so is it also with respect to others There is more good in giving to one Needy Person than there is evil in giving to twenty Counterfeits For as being liberal to these proceeds from a better Cause than doth the with-holding from the really Necessitous so 't is more Eligible that some should have more than enough of our Charity than that any should want bread And the Extreme of being too charitable of which fault I doubt but few are guilty is better for the World in general which I need not stand to shew than the other Extreme In short Most I am sure do exceed in their Expences upon something or other but he who does so on Objects of Charity of all Exceeders exceeds the most safely That Saying Too good is stark naught needs some Wit and Pains to make it a true Proverb But 4. Though we should rather chuse offending on the Extreme of Charity yet we ought to manage our selves with such Prudence as so to give at one time that we may give at another and hold on in giving 5. This is the best general Rule I am able to prescribe Viz. That we never refuse to part with our Money to Charitable Uses from the love of Money It is not to be particularly and exactly stated how much it is each Persons Duty to give Circumstances in this Case to be considered being infinitely various But if this Rule be carefully observed and we keep alive and cherish in our Breasts the true Christian Principles of Charity which I need not again repeat though 't is possible we may not alwaies be so very prudent in our Charity as is desirable yet we need not fear but we shall so govern our selves in this weighty point as to be accepted of GOD and rewarded by him as Charitable
as they become fit for them So that they being as well Taught as Fed are not only in an Excellent way to be inabled comfortably to provide for themselves but also to Relieve others To be useful in the World and great Blessings to their Country Nay by your Charity to this Hospital you no less contribute to poor Orphans eternal Happiness than to their temporal Well-fare To their Souls no less than to their Bodies and Charity to the Souls of our Fellow-Creatures I need not say is incomparably the most Worthy and Excellent in it self and therefore the most Grateful to God and the most highly Rewardable And in the Hospital of Christ's Church I am well assured no means are neglected for the well Principling its Children in the True Religion all Care is taken for the Training of them up in the Way that they should go in Piety and Devotion Vertue and Goodness God Almighty reward those as most certainly He will who so faithfully discharge this greatest of Trusts And give the Poor Children His Grace to be duly affected with and carefully to improve so inestimable a Blessing In the Hospitals of S. Bartholomew and S. Thomas you bestow your Charity on the Sick Lame and Wounded who must inevitably perish and while they live lie in great Misery without the help of Charity And as you have now heard from the Paper there are such great Numbers of these Miserable People received into these Houses that they must be very large Contributions that will defray their Charges And these Objects of Charity you shall not need to be told are sad Ones indeed 'T is a lamentable thing to be destitute of Food Fire and Cloathing but over and above these Wants to want Health too or the Vse of Limbs which Wants render uncapable of supplying the other and to have excessive Pain added to extreme Poverty Oh what a pitiable Case is this What is given to the Hospital of Bridewell contributes to the Maintaining of Poor Youths and fitting them for Trades and putting them out to them which are much like Objects of Charity with those in the Hospital of Christs Church It farther contributes towards the Reducing of Vicious People to Sobriety which whatever the success be is never the less Acceptable Charity Endeavour being our Work and not success And what is bestowed here helps also to the Relieving of indigent miserable People and to the sending of poor Vagrants to the Places which ought to be their Homes that are bound by Law to take care of them and to their Relief and Subsistence in the mean time And though many I fear of these last do much more need than deserve your Charity yet this is so far from being a good Objection against giving to them that it carrieth with it a no small Motive thereto viz. that this is imitating the Charity of our Heavenly Father who is kind as our Saviours Words are to the Vnthankful and to the Evil. And if those should want the Charity of Heaven who are far from deserving it we should all go without it But I am not now encouraging you to any great Liberality towards our street Vagrants and much less to such of them as are not by Age or loss of Eyes or Limbs disabled from Working The Truth is the so swarming and I doubt daily encreasing of Common Beggars is a great temptation to reflect upon our Government And Lastly As to the Hospital of Bethlem Lord how deplorable is the Condition of those for whom your Charity is here desired Of those who have lost their Reason and so are rendred as Vnuseful to themselves as to the World and have left them but little more to make them distinguishable from Brute Creatures than the Shapes and Tongues of Men and Women But the Case of Lunaticks is too Lamentable to need Aggravation for the raising of Compassion Those therefore can be no less void of Sense than these poor Souls who need to be told that what is given towards the reducing of such as are destitute of other help to their right Minds is extraordinary Charity And now let me commend those Words of the Author to the Hebrews Ch. 13.3 to your very serious consideration Remember them that are in Bonds as bound with them and them which suffer Adversity as being your selves also in the Body That is as being liable your selves whilst you are in this World to the same Adversities The Richest man among us hath no Assurance but that he may be as poor as Iob. The Healthiest and Soundest of us all cannot promise himself that he shall not Live to be as full of Sores as was that Good man and Lazarus in the Parable or as miserably Diseased as the most languishing People in either of our Hospitals The Ripest Wits and best Parted in our City do little know but that they may end their days in Bedlam And the best Security we can have from such like Calamities is to Sympathize with and extend what Relief we are able to such-like Sufferers As on the other hand 't will be most just with GOD so to abandon us by His Providence as to permit our falling into very miserable Circumstances if we have little Compassion for our Fellow-Christians or Fellow-Creatures in Misery And whensoever this may happen as God only knows what a day or what an hour may bring forth How must then our Consciences needs upbraid us as Ioseph's Brethrens did them When they said one to another we are verily Guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the Anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear Therefore is this Distress come upon us I doubt I have tired your Patience but I can't however conclude till I have Addressed my Self in a few words to those of you whose Hearts and Souls are in doing Good Who chiefly value your Riches upon the account of the Good you are inabled by them to do in the World Who cheerfully Embrace all Opportunities of expressing a Compassionate and Charitable Temper The Great S. Paul who next to our Blessed Saviour was the most wonderful Example of Charity the World hath known though he was not in Circumstances to be so of that part of it which consists in Alms-giving S. Paul I say assures such as you that God is not Vnrighteous to forget your Work and Labour of Love And that You who sow bountifully shall reap bountifully And therefore as it follows Every man according as he purposeth in his Heart so let him give not grudgingly or as of necessity or as being constrained by importunity for GOD loveth a Cheerful Giver 2 Cor. 9.6 7. And give me leave to read what follows to the End of this Chapter And God is able to make all Grace abound towards you that ye alwaies having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every Good Work or may still have plenty for all Charitable Works As it is Written he hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the Poor his Righteousness remaineth for ever Or his Charity And therefore he hath ever wherewithal to be Charitable Now he that ministreth Seed to the Sower both minister Bread for your Food and multiply your seed sown and Encrease the Fruit of your Righteousness or of your Charity Being inriched in every good thing to all Bountifulness or having enough to be liberal at all times which causeth through us Thanksgiving to God. Or gives us Occasion to Bless GOD for all His Blessings bestowed on you For the Administration of this Service not only supplieth the want of the Saints but is abundant also by many Thanksgivings unto God. Or causeth mighty Thankfulness to God from those that are Relieved by you and those that are Beholders of your Charity While by the Experiment of this Ministration they glorifie GOD for your professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution to them and to all men And by their Prayer for you which Long after you or are in Love with you for the exceeding Grace of GOD in you Thanks be to God for His Vnspeakable Gift Or for this His Great and Unspeakable Gift of Charity THE END Psal. 37.35 Eccle. 8.8 Ch. 9.3 Ch. 5.15 Ch. 6.4 Ch. 9.12 Deut. 32.29 See Dr. Hammond's Note on this place 1 John 4.16 Esay 28.21 Iam. 3.33 Jer. 9.24 Stromat Lib. 1 p. 313. Hicrocles Jam. 2.10 Mat. 25.30 Ch. 3.10 2 Cor. 8.12 Gal. 6.10 2 Cor. 9.6 Prov. 11.24 Luke 6.35 Gen. 42.21