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A30298
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An essay to revive the necessity of the ancient charity and piety wherein God's right in our estates and our obligations to maintain his service, religion, and charity is demonstrated and defended against the pretences of covetousness and appropriation : in two discourses written to a person of honour and vertue / by George Burghope.
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G. B. (George Burghope)
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1695
(1695)
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Wing B5732; ESTC R26568
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69,015
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226
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such must be the happy Condition of the Founders and Benefactors of Colleges Halls Hospitals and other religious and charitable Foundations whose Reward shall not only continue but be increased daily in proportion to the Good it doth and shall do daily till the consummation of all Things §. XVII The Conclusion shewing the difference betwixt the Desert and Reward of the ordinary and charitable Disposals And here give me leave to observe to you the difference betwixt Self-serving on the one Hand and Liberality and Charity on the other and desire you to consider the different Methods of Distribution and the different Deserts and Rewards by which you may judge which is the more prudent way of Disposal in our lives-time or Settlement at our death And for once let us suppose That every rich Man has a Son to be Heir of his Estate and Fourtunes yet even in that Case there is this to be said 1. We think our selves happy That of the Ordinary consider'd when we can beget our like and transmit our Nature to another and so preserve it from the common fate of Mortality And yet indeed it is no more ours when we die than anothers for then all Relations cease and Kindred is at an end And even while we live here considering the constant Flux of Matter there 's very little of us in our Children unless the Soul also cou'd be prov'd to be ex traduce However we call them ours we give them an Original and Nature by Nutrition and Increase But then we communicate to them our evil and corrupt Nature and Disposition and commonly our Customs and Habits If there be any Imperfection it is usually propagated and we may view our sinful selves in them An Object of Grief more than Joy And so much the more when by the want of Education or a depraved one when by Fondness and Lenity we make him twofold more the Child of Wrath than our selves But if we cou'd be secure of his happy and prosperous Life in respect of all his Capacities yet this like wise must be taken into Consideration That Families as well as single Men have their period and two or three Generations usually put an end to our Place and Name and then where 's the effect of all our Cares Projects Designs Joys and Griefs when Strangers shall inherit our Labours Well but what 's the present or future Reward for all our Cares and Troubles in providing Estates for our Heirs or Heirs for our Estates Verily nothing at all We have here but our Labour for our Pains and the thin aery Pleasure of thinking we shall leave an Estate to our Children or rather to we know not whom Sometimes we have the mortification to foresee that all shall be spent and wasted in a short time as 't is said of an eminent Person in a former Reign to have made this sorrowful Bequest Scelera omnia Edoardo Primogenito meo dissipanda neque unquam melius speravi religo c. And if Souls departed have any Account of the Affairs of their Successors here on Earth it must be most commonly a very sorrowful one but if they have none at all it will not concern us who they are and what they do Thus for our present and then for our future Reward we can expect nothing For this is the Effect only of self-love to support our selves first and then our second selves our Heirs and Assigns when we can hold it no longer and so do the Heathens and then what Reward can we expect more than they Or rather what Punishment may we not expect above them who have a greater Light Promises and Encouragements and yet manage our earthly Talent mostly worse than they And this is in short the Account of our ordinary Disposals of the Goods of Fortune as they are commonly called and Deserts and Rewards consequent thereunto §. XVIII That of the Charitable Persons c. 2. Let us now in the second place consider those of the Charible Person and for Instance sake that of the Founder of a College or School in particular He cannot be suppos'd to be Childless but has a numerous Family and that selected out of the best Wits and Humours in the Nation and the greatest Persons are glad to part with the most ingenious of their Sons to become his and serve under his Rules He prescribes Laws which they willingly bind themselves by Oath to observe with a greater Reverence and Care than the Commands of their natural Parents and they leave their Fathers and Mothers to become his Children Their continual Practice is that of Vertue Learning and Religion And thus the worst Natures are rectified and the best improv'd and all are mended And when this Work is perfected some go out into the World and are fitted to serve God in his Church the King and their Country and others succeed in their Places and Advantages So that his Family is a Seminary of Religion and Learning and there is a succession of it as long as the Sun and Moon endureth And when these have finished their Courses and the end of all Things is come he may present himself and them to his Maker with the Words of the Prophet Behold Lord I and the Children that thou hast given me §. XIX In Summ Charity hath the preference of any other Disposal of Estate and that in these Three Respects following First The Charitable Person doth Good to others and not to his own Family only and I wou'd not be so understood as if I pleaded for the neglect of them but the Good of others also and therefore his Work is more Heroick Diffusive and remov'd from private Good and so is more excellent And he may say out of the Mouth of Wisdom Behold I have not laboured Ecclus 24. 34. for my self only but for all them that seek Wisdom Secondly He doth the best Good not only in supporting the Bodies but dressing up the Souls and cultivating of the Minds of Men for Religion and Vertue And so the End of his Endeavours is the acquisition of the greatest present and future Happiness of Mind and Body here on Earth and afterwards in Heaven Thirdly Others Labours cease and rest as well as they from their Labours but his continue increase and produce new Advantages daily and so will continue to do till the end of the World unless the Supreme Providence suffers them to be invaded and diverted And even in that Case the Pious Donor may reasonably expect from the just God Rewards in proportion to the presumptive Effects of his Work and the Intention of the Benefactor So that let things happen how they will he cannot miss of his Reward If his Charity remains his Reward increaseth with its Fruits but if it be obstructed by Fraud or Violence yet it will be remunerated according to the uprightness of his Intention §. XX. In a word Every Action of Charity we do here is recorded above and hath its
returning back some of the Churches ancient Demesns or dedicating some Equivalent under such Conditions and Limitations that might oblige the Minister to frequency and fervency of Duty over and above what the Law can compel him to upon peril and loss of such Endowments and so become new Founders of Religion and Restorers of God's Glory And if this may be done then whether they are not bound in Conscience to do it These are weighty Considerations which nearly concern all Impropriators especially of what Degree soever they be and I pray God to set it home to their Hearts that they may make some sort of Satisfaction for the Sacrilege of the first Alienators and that the Curse of the wrong'd Donors may never reach them §. XXI To those that have no Children to provide for Third Let me next address my self to certain Persons of Estate and Quality in this Nation who are qualified and as it were mark'd out for such a Work Such are they to whom God never gave any Children the necessary Provision for whom we make our continual Plea for our selfishness or from whom he hath taken most or all and so consequently the Charge appropriated to them Men that have plentiful Estates but want Heirs of their Bodies and so are forc'd to seek for them amongst the other Branches of their Family or adopt some one of their Name amongst those that are no Relations and oftentimes bestow all upon one that wants it not or that shall waste all when they are dead and wish them so while living Fond Men that refuse God for their Heir and his Service to bestow their Estates upon even then when they can hold it no longer What might not such a Man do Why he might buy Heaven with Earth and a Crown of Glory with this worldly Trash He might purchase an everlasting Habitation with the Mammon of Vnrighteousness even then when he must use it no longer He might raise to himself an everlasting Monument and a Name more durable than that engraven in Brass or Marble And yet lose all those precious Advantages and throw away all he hath upon some Kinsman afar off or some Nieces Husband or some Body less deserving tho' nearer in Relation one who shall use it to the Satisfaction of his Lusts and Appetites and the dishonour of himself and his Maker Doth not such a Man seem to be design'd by Heaven to promote the Honour of his Maker his way is prepar'd all Obstacles are remov'd and himself adapted to so great and glorious a Work And shall a vain Name a pompous Retinue a great Table and a company of debauch'd Servants eat him up living And some politick Relation sweep all away when he dies and so defeat himself of the Product of all the Good that he might do or Example that he might give to others Or doth such a Man expect that God shou'd give him a plainer Indication of his Will than to take away all Objections and enable him to do some considerable Good He acts with Man by such Methods as are consistent with his freedom of Will he gives us opportunities and then leaves us to make our Election I wou'd not here nor any where else be misunderstood I think the Principles upon which these Discourses are built will make no Man unkind to his Relations or himself but this is all I say That if every Man that is Childless or otherwise enabled wou'd but leave God a Legacy worthy of him when he dies and lay up the Tenths of his increase while he liv'd for his Use it wou'd soon make every Living a Competency and every Church a House of Praise §. XXII 4. To the Bishops Dignitaries and others of the Clergy Fourthly Nor must I pass by my Lords the Bishops the Dignitaries and other the richer Part of the Clergy but humbly represent to them the Repairing of the House of God the proping up of a declining Church and that Service that must uphold them They are fed nourished and sometimes advanc'd by the Devotion of others to God's Altar To that many owe their Living and the Riches that they have gotten and 't is all the reason in the World that their Relations shou'd not sweep away all but that something shou'd be return'd back again to increase that Treasury from whence they have received all The Policy of the Church of Rome forbids the Marriage of their Clergy and if I am not mistaken makes the Church their Heir Our Church obliges us to neither Not to the first because contrary to the Holy Scriptures and Reason not to the latter because 't is contrary to Nature for Men to pass by their own Children and leave them Beggars But tho' the Church obliges to neither yet she cannot but commend both or either to those to whom this Gift is given Happy is that Man that is therefore unmarried that he may care for the things of the Lord whilst he lives and provide for them when he dies But woe is me Can there be any such Men amongst us whose desires of Pluralities and Riches are insatiable who take no other Care but to shear their Flocks and gather the good Things of the Altar and lay them up in store as if against an approaching Famine That leave the Cares of their Flocks to their poor Curates whose Faces they grind amongst the rest and will not allow them to live tho' they bear the Burthen of the Day That leave them the Care of great Parishes to attend the daily Service and themselves live at Ease reap all the Profit and allow them not the twentieth Part I am asham'd to say that there is such a Man For next to the Sot the Sensualist the Drunkard and the Debauch'd the covetous and cruel Clergy-man is the most unseemly and unbecoming Object and the very Contradiction of his Calling And let me humbly propose one thing Would every Bishop once in his whole Life do some eminent Work of Piety it wou'd not only be Exemplary to stir up others but wou'd have been considerable by this time and if every rich Clergy-man who has either no Children or whose Charge is moderately provided for wou'd but return to the Church some Part of those Alms that he hath receiv'd at her Hands and 't is all the reason in the World it shou'd be so it wou'd be the like And as for those of this Order that are utterly uncapable to add any thing but their Prayers to so good a Work I shall entreat them that they do not hinder it I mean that by the strictness of their Lives and the conscientious Discharge of their Duty they wou'd walk worthy of such a Blessing encourage Piety and Charity and shew that that which remains still to the Church is not perverted or thrown away upon it § XXIII 5. To all in general Lastly Let me apply my self to all Men in general that they wou'd take that Account of their Stewardship that they must make