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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	great_a	heaven_n	whole_a	5,727	5	4.9325	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54949	A spittle sermon preach'd in St. Brides Parish-Church, on Wednesday in Easterweek, being the second day of April, 1684 before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, and the sheriffs of the now Protestant, and loyal city of London / by Thomas Pittis ...	Pittis, Thomas, 1636-1687.	1684 (1684)	Wing P2318; ESTC R10785	19,235	47

demolished will remain in the Memories of some men as long as the Annals of time shall last till they become as old as History Hence came our Magnificent Buildings our Churches Colledges Hospitals and the like things that are the glory of a Land which Domesticks enjoy and Foreigners stand amazed at whilst they make narrow Inspections into them and carry reports into their own Countreys that the Examples may be entered amongst the Records of time From hence proceed our publick Revenues that enrich those Buildings which are an Ornament to themselves so that they become open Attestations to the great transcendent and infinite glory of the Supream God whom we pretend to worship are Seminaries and publick Schools of Literature or a lasting and perpetual relief to the Poor They proclaim the Religion and Charity of Nations and are acceptable to all that see or know them These Munificent gifts have been so common in former days that they almost seem needless in our own So that Charity which then ran in one stream has been forced by Laws to divert into divers and yet Chanels are opened for more So that although in some times the sence of Mens Consciences may be more affected with these things and they who receive more than ordinary influence from the Heavens are so spurr'd forward to Gratitude and returns that their inward shame may forcibly provoke them to publick acts of Benevolence and Bounty Yet the reason when time draws men towards the dregs and bottom of the World why they grow more contracted and penurious is not because we have fewer Objects or less Arguments to prevail for our Munificence but because mens Hearts and Consciences are narrowed being heated and scorched another way they are shrunk to this and by a long and continued time of tenderness they now grow hard and brawny Or else because their Iniquities abound so that the Charity of many is waxen cold and fashionable Vices become so numerous that they are also very chargeable to maintain For though it cannot but be apparent to the World that in this great and renowned City many famous and publick Buildings have like the Phoenix arisen out of ashes and the Charity of well-disposed persons has been sent abroad to both Universities and to other Publick Places of the Land Yet the increase of Wealth must alwayes be an argument to enlarge our Bounty since the Necessitous will continue to be more numerous than the Rich And should we take a view of the large and stately Structure of Solomon's Temple under the Law and thereby measure the enlarged hearts of the Professors of that antiquated Religion by those many great and splendid gifts that were amass'd together to compleat the building and the rich Utensils that were contained in it we must presently vilifie and explode our selves in the same Periods in which we magnifie and extol them There are two Churches that yet lie waste in this City which Christian men of ingenuity and Purse methinks should have some regard to And this I speak with the more confidence because I have no Free-hold in either the one bears the name of Christ the great Saviour and Redeemer of the World to which two of your Hospitals are specially related The other that of the most famous S. Paul who being his extraordinary Apostle became the Teacher and Doctor of the Gentiles the posterity of whom we cannot deny our selves to be unless we had rather be accounted Jews The building these which are now the blemish would mightily advance the ornament of this City and far exceed the glory of all the largest Inscriptions and heighth of a Monument But alas I am too mean to direct However I wish I had time enough to epitomize Examples of the great Bounty of the Primitive and most refined Christians in works of Piety and enlarged Charity although they were harassed with Tryals and Afflictions yet they liberally dispersed what the rage of their adversaries permitted them to enjoy The Rich and the Poor the hard season then requiring it threw all into a common bag laying it at the Apostles feet and rather became Objects of their own Charity than others should want sustenance and relief And afterwards when the Sun shined more favourably on them they scattered their Bounty as he did his Rayes In the morning they sowed their seed and in the evening they withheld not their hands knowing that in proportion to their seed so would the increase of their harvest be But alas this would be too large a task for me to accomplish and too much for you to hear at once Nay a Breviary of their pious and charitable works might seem only to enlarge our arraignment and upbraid our neglects Let us a little consider the fresh charity of later Ages especially that which I am bound to recommend and that shall be all that I will trouble you with upon this last Head And here you must understand the charitable and encreasing Fund by the largeness of the Disbursement which will appear by this True Report c. All that I need to note from hence is what is remark'd in the Report it self that the disproportion betwixt the Revenue and the Disbursements is an argument to engage the direction of mens Charity to these most Christian and Compassionate Foundations And now I have nothing else remaining but to exhort you according to your abilities to be followers of the best and most charitable examples And in this I must crave leave to beg a rais'd attention though it has been already sufficiently tired because time commands me to crowd my materials into a narrow room and only to mention those Heads that might be enlarged to fill a Volume Charity is so great and such a spreading duty that it makes men to be like God himself who causes his Sun to shine and strains his refreshing showers through the Clouds both upon the just and the unjust who giveth liberally and upbraids not the receiver It imitates the great Saviour of the World whose Charity to men was that which brought him down from Heaven and was the motive that caused him to mediate betwixt God and man that a whole Species might not be eternally ruined This caused him to preach his Doctrine on the earth to go about doing good and to endure his Tragical Tortures and Death It treads in the steps of the holy Spirit of God who diffuses the rayes of glorious light and sheds his influence on all that are qualified to receive it Charity is an eternal Vertue venerable not only for its excellence but its age For as God was from all eternity good so will he remain beyond all periods And as this is a Vertue communicated to men in which he delighteth they shall carry it with them into the most lofty Regions when they shall be for ever with the Lord when Faith shall be swallowed up in Vision and Prospect and Hope in an everlasting Fruition 'T is the only way that we

the person is not altogether to be measured by the dimensions of the gift but by the mind and ability of the Bestower Dabo egenti sed ut ipse non egeam says the Moralist Sic succurram perituro sed ut ipse non peream I will give to the necessitous so as not to bring Poverty to my self and I will so relieve him whose misery forces him to petition for redress that I may not throw my self into the pity and compassion of others Therefore the Liberal man whom prudence must guard is not so prodigal of his Bounty but that he will reserve a Subsistence for his Family nor will he be so narrow and restrain'd but that according to his Proportions he will be the author of good to others So that as our income should be the measure of our Disbursments and our Charity must not exceed the proportion of our Receipts yet we ought not to plead a needless poverty when fit Objects implore our relief For as a profuse Prodigality is frequently forced to shed tears at its own Funeral So a griping avarice is often an invitation to Birds of Prey that follow the streams of a loathsom Carkass It executes its Master by his own austerity and then buries it self with him and all that it has done for him was only to help him buy Mourning for himself that he may be accompanied to his Grave with a larger Pomp and more sumptuous Solemnity But he that observes the due mean betwixt these two opposite extreams and weighs his Bounty by his Possessions is not only bless'd in his life lamented at his death and entails smiles and kindness on his Posterity But he conveys to them together with his estate the just merit of all his Liberality and the honour and reputation of his surviving memory So that now we may easily perceive the rule according to which our Charity is to be extended by exercising Liberality according to proportion He that has but a smaller overplus may be as bountiful as he that wallows in golden dust and glitters with Indian sands about him Seneca that great and almost Evangelical author in his first Book de beneficiis ch the eighth gives us a famous instance of this When many of Socrates's Scholars brought him Presents in proportion to their Wealth Aeschines one of his poor Auditors approach'd him and told Socrates that he could find nothing worthy of him which he might presume to give And by this says he I know that I am poor I present you therefore with what is only properly mine and that 's my self and how slender soever the gift may appear I humbly beg that you would receive it kindly upon this Consideration That others whilst they have so plentifully rewarded your care and pains have enough left nay more than they bestowed To whom Socrates presently replyed Hast thou not presented me with a great gift Unless perhaps thou accountest thy self little I will take all the care I can to return thee better than I received thee Which the Moralist applies to confirm the Argument he is treating of viz. That the measure of Liberality is the largeness of the mind rather than the greatness of a gift And therefore he concludes with this Inference Vicit Aeschines hoc munere Alcibiadis parem divitiis animum omnium juvenum opulentorum munificentiam Aeschines by this noble Donation of himself when he had nothing else to give his Instructor overcame the greatness of Alcibiades's mind although it was proportionable to his Riches and out-shined the most glorious munificence in that rich Auditory But since an example more authentick to us because more sacred is ready at hand that may at once extend the practice of this virtue to those of the meaner and more inferiour size and argue our Charity to be then most acceptable unto God when it bears an equal proportion to our Riches I shall present it to you that it may be apparent that the Gospel does not cut Morality shorter but extends it to its just length and measure When our Saviour saw the rich men casting their voluntary Oblations into the Treasury of the Temple he perceived a poor creeping Widow casting in two Mites Upon which he said to record it to posterity Of a truth this poor Widow hath cast in more than they all For all these have out of their abundance cast in unto the Offerings of God But she out of her Penury hath cast in all the living that she has Luke 21.1 2. c. So that to be liberal in sowing our seed of Charity is to be frank upon all just occasions offered in a true distribution according to the proportion of our Wealth and the Circumstances attending our Estates and Families And now every one best knows his Mind and his Estate and the Freedom or narrowness of our own Charity together with our deliberate apprehensions of the necessities or merits of those that would receive We have heard Injunctions and Examples from the Law together with Precepts and practice under the Gospel and I must leave to the Religion and Prudence of all to measure the proportion and allotments of their gifts suitable to their Wealth together with the Objects and designs of their Liberality And proceed to the last general way in which men may sow the seed of their Charity morning or evening at every seasonable and fitting opportunity accordingly as Objects present themselves And this is called Munificence or Magnificence and by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This advances Bounty and Liberality higher in its charge and scatters with a full and larger hand Yet the Reward hereafter will infinitely exceed the greatest weight of our Expences even in this Now this concerns the great and mighty men of the World which a little Wealth cannot accomplish and therefore it is an height of Charity that God and Man can only expect from those to whom the Heavens have showred down larger allowances and the Earth and Sea have clubb'd together to make rich The hospitable and the liberal person relieve only sudden necessities and grant supplies for present wants But the Munificent man lays Foundations and erects Buildings for future ages and charitably entails an Estate on such as are Heirs to very little or none themselves And by such great actions splendid and renowned they erect large Monuments to themselves raise Pillars to their Immortal fame on which are engravened the great Characters of Charity and Munificence not only for the present age to read but for Posterity to gaze and comment on From hence proceeded our publick Buildings together with their endowments that are not confined to single Objects where the memory of the gift does not die with the first Receiver but endures as long as Succession lasts and is continued to many future ages since it is not written in Dust but Marble the very ruines of which if by any iniquity or unfortunate mishap they are