Imatges de pàgina
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the exchange and issuing it to the indigent. And he that is unmerciful and unjust is extremely unlike God. But in taking this estimate concerning our excrescences, we are to proceed according to the rules of prudence, not making determinations in grains and scruples, but in the greater actions and accountable proportions of our estates. And if any man, seeing great necessities of indigent and calamitous persons, shall give beyond his ability, he had the Philippians for his precedent, and he hath God engaged for his payment, and a greater share in heaven for his reward. Only this; as we are to provide for ourselves, so also for our family, and the relatives of our charge and nearer endearments, not only with a provision of the present day's entertainment, but also for all nearer, probable, foreseen, and expected events, such as are portions for our children, dowries for our daughters: but this must not be extended to care and reservations for all possible and far distant events; but so much is to be permitted to the Divine providence as our present duty gives leave. In which, although a prudent guide and a sober reason are to make application to practice, yet the rule in general is, that by so much we are to relieve the poor, as we can deduct from such a portion of good things as God permits us to use for our own support, and reasonable and temporal conveniences of our person and condition; ever remembering, that if we increase in our estate, we also should increase in charity, that in this also may be verified what is written, "He that had much had nothing over, and he that had little had no lack." There is, in the quantity of these donatives, some latitude; but if we sow sparingly," or if we scatter plentifully, so we shall reap only we must be careful that no extreme necessity or biting want lies upon any poor man, whom we can relieve, without bringing such a want upon ourselves, which is less than the permissions of fortune which the mercies of God have permitted to us, that is, " food and raiment" proper for Under "food and raiment" all the necessaries of our life are to be understood: whatsoever is more than this is

us.

• Hoc nam est maximum incentivum misericordiæ, ut compatiamur alienis calamitatibus quantum possumus, imò interdum plus quàm possumus. - S. Ambr. lib. ii. de Offic.

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counsel and perfection; for which a proportionable reward is deposited in the treasures of eternity.

3. Secondly: If question be made concerning the persons who are to be the object of our alms, our rule is plain and easy; for nothing is required in the person suscipient and capable of alms, but that he be in misery and want, and unable to relieve himself. This last clause I insert in pursuance of that caution given to the church of Thessalonica by St. Paul," If any one will not work, neither let him eat;" for we must be careful that our charity, which is intended to minister to poor men's needs, do not minister to idleness and the love of beggary, and a wandering, useless, and unprofitable life. But, abating this, there is no other consideration that can exempt any needy person from participation of your charity; not, though he be your enemyi; (for that is it which our blessed Saviour means in the appendix of this precept," Love your enemies," that is, according to the exposition of the apostle, " if thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink,") not, though he be an unbeliever; not, though he be a vicious person; provided only that the vice be such to which your relief ministers no fuel, and adds no flame; and if the mere necessities of his nature be supplied, it will be a fair security against the danger; but if the vice be in the scene of the body, all freer comforts are to be denied him, because they are but incentives of sin, and angels of darkness. This I the rather insert, that the pride and supercilious austerities of some persons become not to them an instrument of excuse from ministering to needy persons, upon pretence their own sins brought them into that condition. For though the causes of our calamities are many times great secrets of Providence, yet suppose the poverty of the man was the effect of his prodigality, or other baseness, it matters not, as to our duty, how he came into it, but where he is; lest we also be denied a visit in our sicknesses, and a comfort in our sorrow, or a

h 2 Thess. iii. 10.

1 Ὅταν δέη συγκινδυνεῦσαι φίλῳ ἢ πατρίδι, μὴ μαντεύεσθαι, εἰ συγκινδυνευτέον. καὶ γὰρ ὁ Πύθιος ἐξέβαλε τοῦ ναοῦ τὸν οὐ βοηθήσαντα ἀναιρουμένῳ τῷ φίλῳ. - Epict. c. 39.

k Herodes Atticus, vir Consularis, quum palliatus quidam specie philosophi stipem emendicâsset, respondit, Demus huic aliquid æris cujusmodi est, tanquam homines, non tanquam homini. - A. Gell. lib. ix. c. 2.

counsel in our doubts, or aid in any distress, upon pretence that such sadness was procured by our sins: and ten to one but it was so. "Do good to all," saith the apostle, "but especially to the family of faith;" for to them our charity is most proper and proportioned: to all, viz. who are in need, and cannot relieve themselves; in which number persons that can work are not to be accounted. So that if it be necessary to observe an order in our charity, that is, when we cannot supply and suffice for all our opportunities of mercy, then "let not the brethren of our Lord go away ashamed;" and in other things observe the order and propriety of your own relations, and where there is otherwise no difference, the degree of the necessity is first to be considered'. This also, if the necessity be final and extreme, whatever the man be, he is first to be relieved, before the lesser necessities of the best persons or most holy poor. But the proper objects of our charity are old persons, sick or impotent, laborious and poor housekeepers, widows and orphans, people oppressed or persecuted for the cause of righteousness, distressed strangers, captives and abused slaves, prisoners of debt. To these we must be liberal, whether they be holy or unholy, remembering that we are sons of that Father who makes the dew of heaven to drop upon the dwellings of the righteous, and the fields of sinners.

4. Thirdly: The manner of giving alms is an office of Christian prudence; for in what instances we are to exemplify our charity, we must be determined by our own powers, and others' needs. The Scripture reckons entertaining strangers, visiting the sick, going to prisons, feeding and clothing the hungry and naked: to which, by the exigence of the poor, and the analogy of charity, many other are to be added. The holy Jesus, in the very precept, instanced in lending money to them that need to borrow; and he adds, "looking for nothing again," that is, if they be unable to

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nunc sportula primo

Limine parva sedet turbæ rapienda togatæ.

Ille tamen faciem priùs inspicit, et trepidat ne

Suppositus venias, et falso nomine poscas. —Juven. Satyr. 1.

Οἱ τὰς ὀφοῦς αἴροντες ὡς ἀβέλτεροι,

Και, Σκέψομαι, λέγοντες· ἄνθρωπος γὰρ ἂν

Σκέψῃ σὺ πεξὶ τοῦ, δυστυχὴς ὅταν τύχῃ. — Menand.

pay it. Forgiving debts is a great instance of mercy, and a particular of excellent relief: but to imprison men for debt, when it is certain they are not able to pay it, and by that prison will be far more disabled, is an uncharitableness next to the cruelties of savages, and at infinite distance from the mercies of the holy Jesus.

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ANOTHER instance of charity our great Master inserted in this sermon, "not to judge our brother:" and this is a charity so cheap and so reasonable, that it requires nothing of us but silence in our spirits. We may perform this duty at the charge of a negative; if we meddle not with other men's affairs, we shall do them no wrong, and purchase to ourselves a peace, and be secured the rather from the unerring sentence of a severer judge. But this interdict forbids only such judging as is ungentle and uncharitable: in criminal causes, let us find all the ways to alleviate the burden of the man by just excuses, by extenuating or lessening accidents, by abatement of incident circumstances, by gentle sentences, and whatsoever can do relief to the person, that his spirit be not exasperated, that the crime be not the parent of impudence, that he be not insulted on, that he be invited to repentance, and, by such sweetnesses, he be led to his restitution. This also, in questions of doubts, obliges us to determine to the more favourable sense; and we also do need the same mercies, and, therefore, should do well, by our own rigour, not to disentitle ourselves to such possibilities and reserves of charity". But it is foul and base, by detrac

m Amicitiam si ad fructum nostrum referemus, non ad illius commoda quem diligimus, non erit ista amicitia, sed mercatura quædam utilitatum suarum: prata, et arva, et pecudum greges diliguntur isto modo, quòd fructus ex eis capiuntur; hominum charitas et amicitia gratuita est. Cicer. de Nat. Deor. lib. i.

" Qui ne tuberibus propriis offendat amicum

Postulat, ignoscat verrucis illius: æquum est

Peccatis veniam poscentem, reddere rursus. — - Horat. lib. i. Sat. 3. Ne judices proximum, donec ad ejus locum pertingas. — Prov. Judæor.

elicu

Quàm temerè in nosmet legem sancimus iniquam!

Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur; optimus ille est

Qui minimis urgetur.

Horat, ibid.

tion and iniquity, to blast the reputation of an honourable action, and the fair name of virtue with a calumny. But this duty is also a part of the grace of justice and of humility, and, by its relation and kindred to so many virtues, is furnished with so many arguments of amability and endear

ment.

THE PRAYER.

HOLY and merciful Jesus, who art the great principle and the instrument of conveying to us the charity and mercies of eternity, who didst love us when we were enemies, forgive us when we were debtors, recover us when we were dead, ransom us when we were slaves, relieve us when we were poor, and naked, and wandering, and full of sadness and necessities; give us the grace of charity, that we may be pitiful and compassionate of the needs of our necessitous brethren, that we may be apt to relieve them, and that, according to our duty and possibilities, we may rescue them from their calamities. Give us courteous, affable, and liberal souls; let us, by thy example, forgive our debtors, and love our enemies, and do to them offices of civility, and tenderness, and relief; always propounding thee for our pattern, and thy mercies for our precedent, and thy precepts for our rule, and thy Spirit for our guide: that we, showing mercy here, may receive the mercies of eternity by thy merits, and by thy charities, and dispensation, O holy and merciful Jesus. Amen.

DISCOURSE XII.

Of the second additional Precept of Christ; namely,
of Prayer.

1. THE soul of a Christian is the house of God: "Ye are God's building," saith St. Paul; but the house of God is the house of prayer: and, therefore, prayer is the work of the soul, whose organs are intended for instruments of the Divine praises; and when every stop and pause of those

a 1 Cor. iii. 9.

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