there goes more to a mans being truly grateful than the entertaining the person that obliged him with fair speeches and professions of his Obligations And on the other side to think of requiting God in a proper sence by returning real kindnesses to him for those he hath done to us is equally absurd for all the services we can pay to him cannot add any thing to his infinite Blessedness How then must we express our thankfulness for the wealth that he hath bestowed upon us why he himself hath prescribed the way to us He hath devolved his right to our kindness upon our Brethren He hath deputed them to receive the real testimonies of our gratitude to him and whatsoever obligations we put upon them he takes them as an expression of our Love and thankfulness to him This our Saviour himself hath told us in express words in the 25 of S. Matt. In as much saith he as ye have done it i. e. done acts of kindness and charity to one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me And the charitable contributions of the Hebrew Christians to their indigent brethren is by S. Paul styled a work and labour of love shewed to God himself Heb. 6. If therefore Rich men would not be unkind and ingrateful to him that gave them all they have there is a necessity they should do good c. Secondly The Practice of this must likewise be charged upon them in point of Iustice as well as Gratitude it is a piece of dishonesty not to do good with the wealth that God hath given us for it is a falsifying our trust it is an embezling our Masters goods and putting them to quite other uses than those he gave us them for We are not to think that God ever made a man rich for his own sake alone for the serving his own turns and the satisfaction of his own private desires without respect to the community No at the best we are but the Stewards of Gods blessings A stock of Talents he hath committed to all of us to some in greater and to others in smaller proportions and out of this stock he hath given us leave to make provision for the necessities and conveniencies of our selves and our families but we must not think all our own that accrues to us so that it is at our liberty whether we will hoard it up or spend it profusely No we must have regard to the rest of our Masters servants After we have served our own needs we must dispense the surplusage among the family of God otherwise we are false and wicked Stewards we abuse and misemploy our Masters Talents and a severe account we shall one day render for so doing Thirdly Mens Religion and Christianity are also deeply concerned in this point Works of Charity are so essential to all Religion and more especially to that which we call Christian that without them it is but an empty name in whosoever professes it Let men pretend what they will let them be never so Orthodox in their belief or regular in their conversation or strict in the performance of those duties that relate to the worship of God yet if they be hard hearted and uncharitable if God hath given them wealth and they have not hearts to do good with it they have no true piety towards God They may have a name to live but they are really dead An unmerciful Christian or a Religious covetous man are terms that imply a contradiction For the satisfying you of this I shall but need to put these following questions Can that man be accounted Religious that neither loves God nor his neighbour sure he cannot for these two things are the whole of Religion as the Holy Scripture often assures us but now the Covetous man neither doth the one nor the other His neighbors he doth not love that is certain for if he did they would find some fruits of it unless this be to be accounted love to give them good words to say to a brother or a sister that is naked and destitute of daily food depart in peace be ye warmed and filled when notwithstanding they give them not those things that be needful for the body But this kind of love S. Iames hath long ago declared not to be worth any thing And as for the love of God another Apostle hath put it out of doubt that the uncharitable man hath no such thing in him Whoso saith S. Iohn hath this worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Can he be thought a Religious man or a true Christian that wants the two main qualifications that go to the making up a Disciple of Christ that is to say Faith and Repentance yet this doth he that is rich in this world but is not rich in good works Good works are the very soul of Faith and it is no more alive without them than the Body is without the Spirit as S. Iames has expresly told us If we mean that our Faith should avail us any thing it must work or be made perfect by Charity saith S. Paul for though a man have all faith so that he could remove mountains i. e. though he be so heartily perswaded of the truth of Christs Religion as in the strength of his belief to be able to work miracles as was usual in the first times of Christianity yet if he have not charity his Faith is nothing If it be said that the charity that S. Paul makes so necessary to effectual Faith is not giving alms but quite another thing for according to him a man may give all his goods to feed the poor and yet want the Charity that he speaks of I answer it is true a man may give alms and very largely and yet want that Charity that S. Paul here so much recommends but then on the other side none can have that Charity that he speaks of but they will certainly express it in alms and bounty as they have ability and opportunity so that for all this suggestion Alms and bounty are absolutely necessary to the efficacy of Faith if there be opportunity of doing them The plain account of this matter is this S. Paul speaks of Charity with respect to its inward principle in the heart which consists in an universal kindness and good will to the whole Creation of God and we speak of it with respect to the outward fruits of it in the life and conversation which are all sorts of good works especially works of mercy and bounty but both these come to the same thing as to our purpose for the one always follows the other whereever there is charity in the heart it must of necessity shew it self in these kind of actions
from the world are not always the most devout persons I say this kind of life is the most easie and the safer A man is not then exposed so much to temptations he may with less difficulty preserve his innocence but where is the praise of such a vertue Vertue is then most glorious and shall be most rewarded when it meets with most tryals and oppositions And as for the bravery of contemning the world and all the Pomps of it which they so magnifie in this kind of life alas it is rather an effect of pusillanimity and love of our ease and a desire to be free from cares and burdens than of any true nobleness of mind If we would live to excellent purpose indeed if we would shew true bravery of spirit and true piety towards God let us live as our blessed Lord and his Apostles did Let us not fly Temptations but overcome them let us not sit at home amusing our selves with our pleasing contemplations when we may be useful and beneficial abroad Let us so order our devotions towards God that they may be a means of promoting our worldly business and affairs and doing good among men Let us take our fit times of retirement and abstraction that we may the more freely converse with God and pour out our souls before him but let this be only to the end that we may appear abroad again more brisk and lively in vanquishing the Temptations that come in our way and more prompt and readily disposed to every good work This is to imitate our Lord Jesus to walk as we have him for an example This is a life most sutable to the contrivance and the genius of his Religion which is more accommodated to Cities and publick Societies than to Cloysters and Deserts And lastly this is to walk in a conformity to his command who hath bid us make our light so to shine before men that they may see our good works and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven But Fourthly and lastly If it be a thing so necessary that every man should do good in his life as hath been represented then how much to be Reproved are they that do no good till their death That live scrapingly and uncharitably and uselesly to the world all their lives long and then when they come to dye think to Atone for their sins and neglects of this kind by shewing some extraordinary Bounty to the poor or devoting some part of their estates to publick or pious uses I must confess this kind of proceeding doth to me seem just like the business of putting off a mans repentance to his death-bed It is absolutely necessary that a man should repent though it be never so late and so it is that he should do good if he have done little good in his life he is bound as he loves his soul to shew some extraordinary uncommon instances of Charity and a Publick spirit when he comes to die But then it is here as it is with the long delaying of Repentance the deferring it so long has robbed the man of the greatest part of the praise and the comfort he might have expected from it His Rewards in heaven will be much less though his good deeds should be accepted but he is infinitely uncertain whether they will or no. It must be a very great act of Generosity and Charity that can obtain a pardon for a whole life of uncharitableness Let us all therefore labour and study to do good in our lives let us be daily giving evidences to the world of our kind and charitable disposition and let not that be the first which is discovered in our last Will and testament If God hath blessed us with worldly goods let us distribute them as we see occasion in our life time when every one may see we do it voluntarily and not stay till we must be forced to part with them whether we will or no for that will blast the credit of our good deeds both with God and man I have said enough concerning the first point recommended in the Text viz. doing Good I now come briefly to Treat of the other that is Rejoycing which is equally a part of the business of this day There is no good saith Solomon in any earthly thing or there is nothing better for any man than to rejoyce and to do good The Rejoycing here recommended is capable of two sences the first more general and more concerning us as Christians the other more particular and which more immediately concerns us as we are here met upon this occasion In the first place by Rejoycing we may take to be meant a constant habit of joy and chearfulness so that we are always contented and well pleased always free from those anxieties and disquiets and uncomfortable reflections that make the lives of mankind miserable This now is the Perfection of Rejoycing and it is the utmost degree of Happiness that we are here capable of It must be granted indeed that not many do arrive to this state but yet I doubt not but that it is a state that may be attained at least in a great measure in this world Otherwise the Holy men in Scripture and particularly the Apostles of our Lord would never have recommended it to us so often as they have done Rejoyce ever more saith S. Paul to the Thessalonians and to the Philippians Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce The way to attain to this happy condition doth consist chiefly in these three things First a great innocence and virtue a behaving our selves so in the world that our Consciences shall not reproach us This St. Paul lays as the Foundation of Rejoycing This saith he is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my conversation in this world It is in vain to think of any true solid Joy or Peace or Contentment without a hearty practice of all the duties of our Religion so that we can satisfie our selves of our own sincerity before God And then secondly to make us capable of this constant Rejoycing besides the innocence of our lives there must go a firm and hearty perswasion of Gods particular Providence a belief that he not only dispenseth all events that come to pass in the world even the most inconsiderable but that the measure of the Dispensations of his Providence is infinite Wisdom and Goodness and nothing else so that nothing doth or ever can happen to us in particular or to the world in general but what is for the best Now when we firmly believe this and frequently attend to it how can we be either solicitous for the future or discontented at the present events of things let them fall out never so cross to our desires and expectations This is the best Antidote in the world and an effectual one it is against all trouble and vexation and uneasiness that can happen to us upon
all But now having said this by way of caution to prevent all occasion that any may take from our so earnestly pressing Charity to undervalue and neglect other duties It cannot be denyed on the other side that very great effects are by our Saviour and his Apostles ascribed to this virtue with respect to mens Salvation in the other world In the 6 th of S. Luke our Lord thus adviseth Love saith he your enemies give to him that asketh do good and lend hoping for nothing again so shall your reward be great and ye shall be the children of the most highest Now sure to be entitled to great rewards and to be the children of the most high doth look farther than this present world Our Saviour without doubt means the same thing here that he expresses upon the same occasion in another place viz. They those that you do good to cannot recompence you but you shall be recompenced at the Resurrection of the just Again the Parable of the unjust Steward that provided so well for himself against a bad time out of his Masters goods is wholly designed to this purpose and that the Application of it sufficiently shews for our Saviour having said that the Lord of this Steward commended him for his providence and care of himself he thus applies it to all his Disciples Wherefore I say unto you make you friends to your selves of the Mammon of unrighteousness i. e. of these false deceitful riches that when you fail you may be received into everlasting habitations plainly declaring that the best provision that rich men can make for themselves against the time of their death in order to their reception into the other world must be the charitable actions they do with their wealth while they live here Lastly In another place our Saviour saith the very same thing in effect that is said in the Text for this is his counsel to all that mean to be happy in the next life viz. that they sell that they have that is when the times are such that it is reasonable so to do that they give alms for thereby they provide to themselves bags which wax not old a Treasure in the Heavens where no thief approacheth nor moth corrupteth To these three Texts of our Saviour I shall add three others of three of his Apostles which speak just to the same effect and with them I shall conclude The first is that of S. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews where having spoken most severe things and denounced no less than Hell fire against the false brethren among them yet thus he comforts the Church to whom he writes But beloved saith he we are perswaded better things of you and things that do accompany salvation though we thus speak And what I pray is the reason he is thus perswaded Verily this For God saith he is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have shewed to his name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and yet do minister It was purely their Charity to the brethren that made him have these good hopes of them that they were in a state of Salvation Though that Church as to other things was in a very degenerate condition yet considering they had been laborious and diligent in the exercise of Charity and still continued so to be God would not forget them nay he was not so unrighteous as to forget them And then that which follows in the next verse is very observable And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to wit in the practice of charity to the full assurance of hope unto the end If they would have their hopes of a future life assured to them the way to do it was to persevere in their diligent attendance to works of mercy and kindness and charity The second passage is that of S. Iohn Hereby faith he perceive we the love of God towards us because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren But whoso hath this worlds good and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him My little children let us not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth and hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him I pray mind that By our charitable disposition and doing good to our brethren by this we know we are true disciples of Jesus Christ and this is that that will assure our hearts will give us confidence to appear before God at the last day when he comes to judge the world And this is a point that the Apostle thinks so considerable that he goes over with it again in the next verse Beloved if our hearts condemn us not i. e. condemn us not as to this point of love and charity then have we confidence towards God and whatsoever we ask we shall receive of him because we do those things that are pleasing in his sight The last Text to this purpose that I desire may be taken notice of is that of S. Peter Above all things my brethren have fervent charity among your selves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins O how comfortable are these words there is none of us even the best but hath a multitude of sins to answer for by what means now must we obtain that these sins shall be covered that is shall be forgiven for covering of sins is the forgiveness of them in the Scripture-language Why the Apostle hath directed us to the method above all things put on charity for it is charity that shall cover the multitude of sins Charity is of that power with God that it alone is able to overcome the malignity of many of our sins and frailties that would otherwise do us mischief If any thing can make atonement for the carelesness and the many failings of our lives and prevent the punishment that is due to them it is to be very charitable and to do much good Charity covers a multitude of sins in this life A great many temporal judgments that would otherwise have fallen upon us for our sins are hereby prevented and that not only private ones but publick too And I think it no Popery to affirm that Charity will cover a multitude of sins in the other life also That is whoever is of a truly charitable disposition and doth a great deal of good in his generation though he may have a great many infirmities and miscarriages to answer for yet if he be sincerely virtuous in the main and so capable of the rewards of the other world his other failings will be overlooked they will be buried in his good deeds and the man shall be rewarded not withstanding Or if he be a vitious person and so must of necessity fall short of the glory that shall be revealed yet still in proportion the good he hath done in his life will cover the multitude of sins Though it will not be available for the making him happy because he is not capable of being so yet it will be for the lessening his punishment He shall be in a much more supportable condition among the miserable than those that have been unmerciful or cruel or uncharitable in their lives O therefore what remains but that considering all these things we should be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in these works of the Lord for as much as we know that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Giving all diligence to add to Faith Virtue and to virtue Knowledge and to knowledge Temperance and to temperance Patience and to patience Godliness and to godliness Brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness Charity By our good works making our calling and election sure so some Copies have the 10 th ver of 1 Pet. 1. that doing these things we may never fall but an entrance may be ministred to us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Iesus Christ. THE END Eccles. 1.13 ver 18. Cap. 2. ver 1 3. ver 2. ver 4. ver 8. ver 11. 1 Iob. 4.8 Mat. 5. 44 45. Iob. 13.34 35. 1 Iob. 3.16 Prov. 10.7 Psal. 37. ver 3. Ibid. v. 2◠1 Cor. 10.24 3. Tim. 6.18 1 Pet. 4.8 1 Cor. 13.2.13 Mat. 5.16 1. Thess. 5.16 Phil. 4.4 2. Cor. 1.12 2 Cor. 4.17 See Deut. 16. Exod. 23.15 〈…〉 Luke 12.16 c. Iames 2.14 c. 1 Iohn 3.17 cap. 4.20 Iames 2.26 Gal. 5.6 1 Cor. 13.2 ver 3. Luke 3.10 11. Dan. 4.27 Eccles. 4.10 1 Tim. 6.10 Eph. 5.5 Ps. 10.3 Iam. 2.13 Luke 6.24 Luke 16.25 Matth. 25.31 c. 2 Tim. 2.19 Vid. Dr. Hammond in loc Iam. 2.10 Luk. 6.30 35. Luke 14.14 Luke 16. ver 9. Luk 12.33 Heb. 6.9 ver 10. ver 11. 1 Iohn 3.16 c. 1 Pet. 4.8 Ps. 33.1 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Pet. 1.5 c. ver 10.