and bequeaths nothing to pious and charitable vses God and the poore are no part of his heyre We doe not houer ouer your expiring soules on your death-beds as Rauens ouer a carcasse we doe not begge for a Couent nor fright you with Purgatory nor chaffer with you for that invisible treasure of the Church whereof there is but one Key-keeper at Rome but we tell you that the making of freinds with this Mammon of vnrighteousnes is the way to eternall habitations They say of Cyrus that he wont to say he laid vp treasures for himselfe whiles he made his freinds rich but we say to you that you lay vp treasures for your selues in heauen whiles you make the poore your freinds vpon earth We tell you there must be a Date ere there can be a Dabitur that hee which giues to the poore lends vpon vse to the Lord which payes large increase for all he borrowes and how shall he giue you the interest of glory where he hath not receiued the principall of beneficence How can that man euer looke to be Gods heyre in the kingdome of heauen that giues all away to his earthly heyres and lends nothing to the God of heauen As that witty Graecian said of extreme tall men that they were Cypresse-trees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. faire and tall but fruitlesse so may I say of a strait-handed rich man And these Cypresses are not for the garden of paradise none shall euer be planted there but the fruitfull And if the first paradise had any trees in it only for pleasure I am sure the second which is in the midst of the new Ierusalem shall haue no tree that beares not twelue fruits yea whose very leaues are not beneficiall Doe good therefore ô yee rich and shew your wealth to be not in hauing but in doing good And if GOD haue put this holy resolution into any of your hearts take this with you also from him Doe not talke and purpose and proiect but execute Do not so do good that we may thanke your death-bed for it and not you Late beneficence is better then none but so much as early beneficence is better then late Hee that giues not till hee dyes showes that he would not giue if he could keepe it and God loues a cheerefull giuer That which you giue thus you giue it by your Testament I can scarce say you giue it by your will The good mans praise is Dispersit dedit he disperses his goods not he left them behinde him and his distribution is seconded with the retribution of God His righteousnesse endureth for euer Psal 112. 9. Our Sauiour tells vs that our good works are our light Let your light so shine that men may see your good works which of you lets his light goe behind him and hath it not rather carried before him that he may see which way it goes and which way himself goes by it Do good therefore in your life that you may haue coÌ„fort in your death and a crowne of life after death Now all this haue I spoken not for that I haue ought as S. Paul saies whereof to accuse my Nation Blessed be God as good works haue abounded in this age so this place hath super-abounded in good works Be it spoken to the glory of that God whose all our good works are to the honor of the Gospell to the conviction of that lewd slander of Solifidianisme LONDON shall vye good works with any Citie vpon earth This day and your eares are abundant witnesses As those therefore that by an handfull guesse at the whole sacke it may please you by this yeares breife to iudge of the rest Wherein I do not feare least Enuie it selfe shall accuse vs of a vaine-glorious ostentation Those obstreperous benefactors that like to hens which cannot lay an egge but they must cackle straight giue no almes but with trumpets loose their thankes with God Almes should bee like oyle which though it swim aloft when it is fallne yet makes no noyse in the falling not like water that still sounds where it lights But howsoeuer priuate beneficence should not bee acquainted with both the hands of the giuer but silently expect the reward of him that seeth in secret yet God should be a great looser if the publique fruits of charitie should be smothered in a modest secrecy To the praise therefore of that good GOD which giues vs to giue and rewards vs for giuing to the example of posteritie to the honor of our profession to the incouragement of the well-deseruing and to the shame of our malicious aduersaries heare what this yeare hath brought forth Here followed a breife memoriall of the charitable acts of the City this yeare last past c. And if the season had not hindered your eyes should haue seconded your eares in the comfortable testimonie of this beneficence Euge c. Well done good and faithfull seruants Thus should your profession be graced thus should the incense of your almes ascend in pillers of holy smoke into the nosthrils of God thus should your talents be turned into Cities This colour is no other then celestiall and so shall your reward be Thus should the foundation be laid of that building whose walls reach vp vnto heauen whose roofe is finished and laid on in the heauen of heauens in that immortalitie of glory which the God of all glory peace and comfort hath prouided for all that loue him Vnto the participation whereof the same God of ours mercifully bring vs through the sonne of his loue Iesus Christ the righteous to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite and incomprehensible God be giuen all praise honor and glory now and foreuer Amen Charge Maldonaâ— could incline to that in locum Es 3. 9. Somewhat aboue eight hundred The Rich Rom. 4. 13. TituluÌ„ Charitatis Dom. à Soto de Iustitia Iure Menander Pro. 21. 6 7. Iâ— this world Austen a world b euer-being c Now. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they bee not â—ye-minâ—ed Theodericus refer Cassiodore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Arist Seneâ— Gen. 14. And that they trust not Keyes Altars Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Micha 6. Collegium Granatense Praef. ad lectorem conâ—â—â— vitam R. P. Tho. Sanchez praeâ—â—â— Operi Morali in praecepta Decal C. Sol. Apollin Sidon Epist de Theoder In vncertaine riches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Basil in Ps 61. But trust in God Joh. 16. vlt. Prou. 22. The liuing Gen. 35. â— Who giues vs richly all things to enioy Aboue 30000 in one yeare That they doe good and bee rich in good works Reuel 22. 2.
bold word but a true one Yee shall neuer weare the long white robe vnlesse his seruants your ministers bring it and put it on He that can saue you without vs will not saue you but by vs He hath not tyed himselfe to meanes man he hath He could create you immediatly to himselfe but hee will haue you begotten by the immortall seed of your spirituall fathers Woe be to you therefore if our word haue lost the power of it in you you haue lost your right in heauen Let vs neuer come there if you can come thither ordinarily without vs. The words of the wife saith Salomon are like goades like nayles But if these goades light vpon the skin of a Leuiathan who esteemes yron as straw and brasse as rotten wood If these nayles meete with yron or marble in their driuing that they turne againe What shall we say but our Gospell is hid to them that perish and woe vnto your soules for yee haue rewarded euill to your selues Hitherto the power implyed in this charge the sufficiencie followeth This Euangelicus must be parangelicus Like as the fore-runner of Christ had a charge for all sorts so must his followers So hath Timothy in this Epistle A charge for wiues for Bishops for Deacons for widdowes for seruants and here for the rich He must charge and how shall he charge if hee haue neither shot nor powder It is no brag to say that no Nation vnder heauen since the Gospell lookt forth into the world euer had so many so learned teachers as this ILAND hath at this day Hierom said of old to his Paulinus De Hierosôlymis de Britannia aequaliter patet aula coelestis Heauen is as open in Britayne as in Hierusalem It holds well if you take it for a propheticall comparison betwixt Ierusalem as it had beene and Britayne as it should be Ierusalem the type of Gods Church vpon earth in the glory of all her legall magnificence was neuer more blessed then this Church of ours For the Northerne part of it beyond the Twede we saw not we heard not of a Congregation whereof indeed there is not so great frequence without a preaching Minister and though their maintenance hath beene generally but small yet their paines haue been great and their successe sutable And now lately his sacred Maiestie in his last yeares iourney as if the sunne did out of compassion goe beyond his Tropick line to giue heate vnto the Northerne climate hath so ordered it that their meanes shall be answerable to their labours so as both Pastors and people professe themselues mutually blessed in ech other and blesse GOD and their KING for this blessednes As for the learning and sufficiencie of those Teachers whether Prelates or Presbyters our eares were for some of them sufficient witnesses and wee are not worthy of our eares if our tongues do not thankfully proclaime it to the world As for this Southerne part when I cōsider the face of our Church in an vniuersalitie mee thinks I see the firmament in a cleare night bespangled with goodly starres of all magnitudes that yeeld a pleasing diuersitie of light vnto the earth But withall through the incōparable multitude of Cures and the incompetent prouision of some we cannot but see some of our people especially in the vtmost skirts like to those that liue vnder the Southerne pole where the stars are thinner set some stars there are in our Hemisphere like those litle sparkles in the Galaxy or Milky circle wherein yee can scarse discerne any light The desire of our hearts must be that euery Congregatiō euery soule might haue a Timothie to deliuer the charge of God powerfully vnto it euen with S. Pauls change of note That euery one which hath a charge were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 able to giue the charge and euery hearer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready to take it Wherein I cannot but thankfully congratulate the happines of this famous Citie which if in other riches it equalize the best I am sure in this it exceeds all There is not a Citie vnder the cope of heauen so wealthy in the spirituall prouision yea there are whole countreyes in Christendome that haue not so many learned Preachers as are within these walls and liberties Heare this yee Citizens and be not proud but thankful Others may exceede you in the glory of outward structure in the largenesse of extent in the vniforme proportion of streets or ornaments of Temples but your pulpits do surpasse theirs if preaching can lift vp Cities vnto heauen yee are not vpon earth Happy is it for you if yee be as well fed as taught and woe be to you if you do not thinke your selues happy Charge then but whom The rich Man that came naked out of the wombe of the earth was euen then so rich that all things were his Heauen was his roofe or Canopy earth his floore the sea his pond the Sun and Moone his torches all creatures his vassals And if he lost the fulnes of this lordship by being a slaue to sinne yet we haue still Dominium gratificum as Gerson termes it Euery sonne of Abraham is heire of the world But to make vp the true reputation of wealth for thus we may be as hauing all things and possessing nothing another right is required besides spirituall which is a ciuill and humane right wherein I doubt not but our learned Wiclef and the famous Archbishop of Armach and the more famous Chancelor of Paris three renowmed Diuines of England France and Ireland haue had much wrong whiles they are accused to teach that men in these earthly things haue no tenure but grace no title but Charitie which questionlesse they intended in foro interiori in the Consistory of God not in the Common-pleas of men in the Courts not of Law but of Conscience in which onely it may fall out that the Ciuill owner may be a spirituall vsurper and the spirituall owner may be a ciuill begger God frames his language to ours and speaking according to that Ius Gentium whereon the diuision of these earthly possessions are grounded hee calls some Rich others poore Those hereticks which called themselues Apostolique as some body doth now at Rome before the time of Epiphanius Augustine which taught the vnlawfulnes of all earthly proprieties seconded in Austens time by our country-man Pelagius and in our times by some of the illuminate Elders of Munster are not worth confutation or if they were our Apostle hath done it to our hands in this one word Rich for there can be neither Rich nor poore in a communitie Neither doth he say Charge men that they be not rich but Charge the rich that they be not hye-minded With these let vs couple our ignorant Votaries that place holinesse in want with whom their very crosses cannot deliuer their coyne from sinne which to make good the old rule that it is better to giue then
food to nourish vs fruits to refresh vs yea delicates to please vs beasts to serue vs Angels to attend vs heauen to receiue vs and which is aboue all his owne Sonne to redeeme vs. Lastly if yee looke into your selues Hath he not giuen vs a soule to informe vs senses to informe our soule faculties to furnish that soule Vnderstanding the great survayer of the secrets of nature and grace Fantasie and Invention the master of the workes Memory the great keeper or Master of the rolles of the soule a power that can make amends for the speede of Time in causing him to leaue behinde him those things which else he would so carry away as if they had not beene Will which is the Lord Paramount in the state of the soule the commander of our actions the elector of our resolutions Iudgement which is the great Counsellor of the will Affections which are the seruants of them both A bodie fit to execute the charge of the soule so wondrously disposed as that euery part hath best oportunitie to his own functions so qualified with health arising frō proportion of humors that like a watch kept in good tune it goes right and is fit to serue the soule maintaine it selfe An estate that yeelds all due conueniences for both soule and bodie seasonable times raine sun-shine Peace in our borders competency if not plenty of all commodities good lawes religious wise iust gouernors happy and flourishing daies and aboue all the liberty of the Gospel Cast vp your bookes ô ye Citizens sum vp your receits I am decei'd if he that hath least shall not confesse his obligations infinite There are three things especially wherein yee are beyond others and must acknowledge your selues deeper in the bookes of God then the rest of the world Let the first be the cleare deliuerance from that wofull iudgement of the Pestilence Oh remember those sorrowfull times when euery moneth swept away thousands from among you When a man could not set forth his foote but into the iawes of death when piles of carcasses were carried to their pits as dung to the fields when it was cruelty in the sicke to admit visitation and loue was litle better then murderous And by how much more sad and horrible the face of those euill times looked so much greater proclaime you the mercy of God in this happy freedom which you now inioy that you now throng together into Gods house without feare and breath in one anothers face without danger The second is the wonderfull plenty of all prouisions both spirituall and bodily You are the Sea all the riuers of the land run into you Of the land yea of the whole world Sea and land conspire to inrich you The third is the priuiledge of carefull gouernment Your charters as they are large and strong wherein the fauour of Princes hath made exceptions from the generall rules of their municipall lawes so your forme of administration is excellent and the execution of Iustice exemplary and such as might become the mother Citie of the whole earth For all these you haue reason to aske Quid retribuam with Dauid What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits and to excite one another vnto thankfulnesse with that sweet singer of Israel Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and as beneficence is a binder these fauors of God call for your confidence What should you do but euer trust that God whom you haue found so gracious Let him be your God be yee his people for euer and let him make this free and open challenge to you all If there be any power in heauen or in earth that can doe more for you then he hath done let him haue your hearts and yourselues And thus from that dutie we owe to God in our confidence and his beneficence to vs we descend to that beneficence which we owe to men expressed in the variety of foure Epithets Doing good being rich in good workes ready to distribute willing to communicate all to one sense all is but beneficence The scriptures of God least any Atheist should quarrell at this waste haue not one word superfluous Here is a redoubling of the same words without fault of Tautologie a redoubling of the same sense in diuers words without idlenes There is feruor in these repetitions not loosenes as it was wont for this cause to bee obserued both in Councels and acclamations to Princes how oft the same word was reiterated that by the frequence they might iudge of the vehemence of affection It were easie to instance in many of this kinde as especially Exod. 25. 35. Psal 89. 30. Ioh. 1. 20. and so many more as that their mention could not be voide of that superfluitie which we disclaime This heape of words therfore showes the vehement intention of his desire of good workes and the important necessitie of their performance and the manner of this expression inforces no lesse Charge the rich that they do good and be rich in doing good Harken then yee rich men of the world it is not left arbitrary to you that you may doe good if you will but it is laid vpon you as your charge and dutie You must do good works and woe be to you if you doe not This is not a counsell but a precept Although I might say of God as we vse to say of Princes his will is his command The same necessitie that there is of Trusting in God the same is in Doing good to men Let me sling this stone into the brazen forheads of our aduersaries which in their shamelesse challenges of our religion dare tell the world wee are all for faith nothing for works and that we hold works to saluation as a parenthesis to a clause that it may be perfit without them Heauen and earth shall witnesse the iniustice of this calumniation and your consciences shall be our compurgators this day which shall testifie to you both now and on your death-beds that we haue taught you there is no lesse necessitie of good works then if you should be sau'd by them and that though you cannot be saued by them as the meritorious causes of your glory yet that you cannot be saued without them as the necessarie effects of that grace which brings glory It is an hard sentence of some Casuists concerning their fellowes that but a few rich mens Confessors shall be saued I imagine for that they dawbe vp their consciences with vntempered morter and sooth them vp in their sins Let this be the care of them whom it concerneth For vs we desire to be faithfull to God and you and tell you roundly what you must trust to Do good therefore yee rich if euer yee looke to receiue good if euer yee looke to be rich in heauen be rich in good works vpon earth It is a shame to heare of a rich man that dyes and makes his will of thousands