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A34598
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Set on the great pot a sermon upon hospitality / preach'd at a late visitation at Turnbridge in Kent on 2 Kings IV. 38 by H.C.
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H. C. (Henry Cornwallis), 1654?-1710.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing C6334; ESTC R28413
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9,452
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32
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wonderful thing that you contribute towards our living and being easy for a time here Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple are maintained by the Offerings and Oblations that are made there You know little of the Constitution among the Jews if you think any opened or shut a Door in the Temple for nought Mal. 1.10 and if all the inferior Officers had fair Allotments in proportion much more they who attended at the Altar were Partakers with the Altar shared in all the Gifts and Offerings which were brought thither But why do I go about to light the Sun with a Taper and prove that to you by Reason which is so manifest by the Word of God Perhaps my Sermon may make no Impression on your Hearts because they are the Words of a mortal Man behold I will turn you to the Words of the ever-living God I am a frail Man and may err but God is a God of Truth that cannot lie nor alter the thing that is gone out of his Lips hear then what he says by his Prophet Malachy ch 3.8 9 10. Will a Man rob God yet ye have robbed me but ye say Wherein have we robbed thee In Tythes and Offerings Ye are cursed with a Curse for ye have robbed me even this whole Nation Bring ye my Tythes into my House and prove me whether I will not open the Windows of Heaven and pour out a Blessing c. In which Words we may observe 1 st Their Sin they robbed God 2 dly Their Punishment they are cursed 3 dly The Means to divert this Judgment viz. to bring the full Tythes Will a Man rob God 'T is an horrible Wickedness to rob and dispoil our Parents or Masters to ravish their Goods and Maintenance from them but to rob our God is a Wickedness much more flagitious a Sin so monstrous that the Jews though then very much degenerated and corrupted startled at the mention of Ye have robbed me but they say Wherein have we robbed thee In Tythes and Offerings For God the great Donor of all had reserved these to himself which he gave to his Priests for their Service in his Worship and with-holding these they robbed him Hear then the Judgment that he denounced against them Ye are cursed with a Curse 'T is bad to be cursed by Man Elishah's Curse proved fatal to the Children bred up in Idolatry that called him Bald Pate Now if the Curse of Man prove so fatal what is the Curse of God But now what was there to redeem them from this Curse mark in the following Verse Bring all the Tythes into the Store-house that there may be Meat in my House A mighty Encouragement not only for them but for all succeeding Generations to have a Regard for things sacred But now to draw to a Conclusion Give me leave to make this short Address to my Brethren of the Clergy not to instruct them in their Duty but to speak their own Thoughts in my plain Words If the Laity be just to us let not us be unjust to our Master but let us give according as we are able to the Necessity of the Poor Remember the Levites were the least of all the Tribes yet their Privileges and Revenues were greater than any other of the Tribes for they had not only the Tenth of all the Fruits of the Land but a share in all the Peace-Offerings and Free-will-Offerings of the People in their redemption of several things sacred to God as the First-born besides the many Cities and Lands which were set a-part in every Tribe for them with numberless other things that belonged to them Nay as I learned once by the Conference of an eminent Divine of the Church of England they had near the sixth Part of the Revenue of the Nation allotted to them But now why I pray were their Privileges and Revenues greater than any of the other Tribes Why this I take to be the Reason because they were not only Priests but Almoners to the other Tribes and their Houses were as Hospitals to the Poor Let us therefore as the Apostles advise us be given to Hospitality and following the Example of this great Prophet in time of Dearth and Famine Set on the Great Pot and seethe Pottage for our poor Brethren that are in Distress I shall now conclude with this earnest Prayer That you may never want Clergy Learned Persons and Orthodox and diligent Workmen that need not be ashamed daily dividing the Word of Truth and like good Stewards breaking the Bread of Life and distributing to each in their Families sutable to their Needs and Capacities and by an holy Life may powerfully lead as well as by sound Doctrine safely guide them to Heaven And I do further pray That these may never want a People teachable and obedient who may receive them as the Angels of God the Ambassadors of Christ and the Glory of the Churches and then there is no doubt but they will meet with not only their legal Dues but many grateful Returns for their abundant Labours reverencing their Persons consulting their Reputations contriving for their decent and becoming Support and Maintenance in a word esteeming them and theirs highly for their Works sake This would make our Country a Land of Delight indeed the Glory of all Places a little Resemblance and Figure of Heaven where Knowledg Righteousness Love and Unity with all other Graces and Vertues would flourish and abound to the Praise of him who has called us out of Darkness to his infinite Light which God of his infinite Goodness grant for the sake of his dear Son and our Saviour Christ Jesus the Righteous to whom with the Father and Eternal Spirit be ascribed all Praise Might Majesty and Dominion FINIS
themselves Exod. 22.21 Thou shalt do no Injury to Strangers And also the same Duty is in the 9 th Verse of the following Chapter pressed again and the Command is back'd with a forcible moving Reason viz. why we should be kind to them and this was the Reason because they were Strangers in the Land of Egypt and knew the Hearts of Strangers they were put in mind of the Condition they were once in and of the Usage they wished from the Egyptians And this Reasoning supposes they would now deal with others as they once wished they might be dealt withal themselves And the same Duty is again injoined them Lev. 19.34 And if the Stranger sojourn with you c. Why now I pray is this Duty so often inculcated why are we so often reminded of it but because 't is a Duty very necessary for all Men to put in practice But from the Jews let us now go to the Christians and see how well they practised this Duty And that you may not think this a legal Precept and abolished in the time of the Gospel let us see what Proofs are to be met with in the New Testament and in Rom 13.12 you will find it enjoined the Christians and they are commanded to use Hospitality And in Heb. 13. they are cautioned not to forget it which supposes that Christians are otherwise both by Nature and former Revelations taught to do thus And in Mat. 25. you will find the Practice of it is not only good and fit but necessary and indispensable which may appear from the sad Doom Christ pass'd on them that neglected it I was a Stranger and ye took me not in He does not lay this to their Charge that they were Whoremongers Adulterers Murderers guilty of those open Crimes which not only the Laws of God do threaten but the Laws of Men punish with Death but this was the chief Sin that was laid to their Charge I was a Stranger and ye took me not in that is you were inhospitable 3. And as it is commanded us in the Scripture so also is it recommended to our Practice from the Example of several eminent Persons that have performed it so that we have both Precepts and Precedents to oblige us to it Rules now are best learned when illustrated with Examples the rich Store-house of the Scripture affords us Variety of Instances both in the Old and New Testament some few I will instance in In the Old Law we find it to be the Practice of Abraham and Lot Men beloved of God and famous with us for they were not only honoured while they lived but are renowned among us to all Posterity And in Gen. 18.1 2 3 4. we may find Abraham's Hospitality recorded what he did and with what Heartiness Alacrity and Diligence he entertain'd them how free he was in it they asked not him but he them this was a Carriage that became the hearty Goodness of those old times and it was a Work worthy of and sutable to the great Faith of that excellent Man And also in the beginning of Chap. 19. we have Lot's Hospitality recorded he saw two Strangers he went to meet them bowed himself with his Face to the Ground addressed himself to them with all the most obliging Civility he would not be denied but when they said they would tarry in the Street all Night he forced them into his House entertained them bountifully and made a Feast for them But was this his Kindness unrewarded how did they gratify their Host why the same Chapter tells you how they saved his Life and rescued him and his Family from those fiery Showers fatal to the rest of the Inhabitants And as for his Brother Abraham they so greatly requited his Hospitality that they gave him the News of a Son in his old Age and also such a Son in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed We also find it upon Record in the New Testament in Acts 28. that Publius entertained Paul three Days courteously and in Requital he healed his Father-in-law of a Fever And Onesiphorus having once or twice refreshed Paul at his Table he remembred him in his Prayers and publickly acknowledged his Hospitality in his Epistles But now to instance in an Example above all Examples whose Example if we follow not we can never go to Heaven you may read Deut. 10.18 God himself is said to love the Stranger and to give him Food and Raiment but we have a far greater Proof of God's Love to Strangers than these for us Gentiles that were Foreigners hath he visited with his Salvation To us that had a long time sat in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death hath he given a Light he hath given to us his Son and treated us with all the Expressions of Kindness imaginable Now if this Duty be enjoined us in the Scripture if it hath been the Practice of the best Men that ever lived nay if it hath been the Practice of God himself let us then be hospitable that we may be like unto God And indeed as you ought to be hospitable to Strangers so ought you to be charitable to the Poor we have an express Mandate for it in Luke 14.13 14. When thou makest a Feast call the Poor the Maimed and the Lame and thou shalt be blessed c. And it may well deserve our Observation to consider the great Care God took of the Poor in the Mosaic Law for besides what was given privately God made several Laws for the publick and visible Relief of them When God Almighty had blessed them with Encrease and they came to reap their Harvest they were commanded to leave some uncut for the Benefit of the Poor Lev. 19.9 And besides every Year's Tything they had the third Year's Tythe which by God's Law was their due and not only the third Year but the seventh Year the Land was to lie still and they were to share in common the Fruits of it Neither did the Primitive Christians fall short of the Jews in their Charity witness that ancient and primitive Institution of the Offertory in the Sacrament which was so considerable a part of it that it gave Denomination to the whole and this I have read to be one reason why 't is called the Communion-Service because every Sunday the Primitive Christians did communicate to the Necessities of others Nay we may learn this Duty from the very Heathens themselves for they had a Temple in Athens and it was dedicated to charitable Uses and it was the greatest Reproach among them to upbraid one with this that they had never been at the Temple of Mercy And what greater Reproach can it be to a Christian than to be churlish and unmerciful We read in the Mosaick Law that the Shell-fish was accounted unclean this I take to be one Reason because the Meat was enclosed in the Shell and it was hard to come by They indeed are to be reckoned among the Unclean