THE BLESSEDNESS OF BEING BOUNTIFUL: OR, Our Blessed Saviour's usual PROVERB, Opened, Asserted, and Practically Improved.  
By SIMON FORD, D. D.   an angel looks on a madonna figure who is holding two children and being prayed to by 5 people 
LONDON, Printed for James Collins at the King's Arms in Ludgate-street, 1674.   

VIRO NATALIBUS, ERUDITIONE, Omnimodisque VIRTUTIBUS Nobilissimo, GEORGIO Baroni de BERKELEY;  
IN ALBUM CURATORUM HONORIFICORUM HOSPITII Vulgo DICTI DE BRIDEWELL, Alteriúsque de BETHLEM, DEMISSIONE SUI GRATIOSA NUPER ADSCRIPTO;  
ET PROINDE IN HAC PAGELLA (HONORIS ergô) SEPARATIM NOMINANDO:  
HUNC (TANQUAM TESTI EXPERTO) De BEATITUDINE BENEFICENTIAE TRACTATULUM, Humillimè Offert, OMNI OBSERVANTIAE GENERE ADDICTISSIMUS,  
SIMON FORD.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL; Sir William Turner, Kt. PRECEDENT, With his Assistants, the Governors of the two HOSPITALS of Bridewell and Bethlem.  
Gentlemen,  
IF, (as it hath of late in like cases been customary) I should plead the Authority of your Court, as that which hath without any inclination of mine own, solely prevailed with me to print this Discourse; I must ingenuously confess, it would be no other than a modester kind of dissimulation with you and the World.  
For I must own, that when I delivered the substance of it from the Pulpit in two Sermons (the one at the Spittle before the Lord Maior then being, and the Aldermen of this City, on Wednesday in Easter-week, 1672. and the other, which was but the former (at the Instance of some of you) repeated with some suitable enlargements, in your own Chapel of Bridewell at your late General Meeting, 1673.) I was not without thoughts of publishing it: because my principal Design in preaching it being (as in Duty I am bound, having by your favour been elected and hitherto continued Preacher to one of them) to promote the good of the two Hospitals under your Government; I justly conceived that the more public I made it, the more effectually it was like to answer my end.  
Only I must withal acknowledge, that the general acceptance which it found from those of you that heard me in both Auditories, and the testification of your Desires (by an express Order of Court) to have it printed, concurring with mine own inclinations; gave me a great additional encouragement to adventure it thus to the public View.  
Concerning the success of which undertaking, I am not altogether out of hope that it may in some sort answer my desires; considering the serious Importance of the weighty Argument it handles, and the great suitableness of the matter contained in it, to the blowing up those few sparks of Charity, which (notwithstanding these hard Times) remain yet unextinguished in the breasts of many worthy Citizens and others; into such Acts and Expressions, as the great Exigences of this City, and particularly, of these your Hospitals, do require.  
However, if my hopes of success upon others should unhappily fail me; yet I have reason to believe that my Endeavours herein will meet with a favourable acceptance and compliance from you, who have already given me so great a pledge of it, in commanding its publication.  
I shall not farther enlarge this Dedicatory Address to you, because I shall thereby the longer detain you from the Discourse itself; which I hope you had no other design in calling for, than that you might read and practise it, and thereby acquire that Blessedness to yourselves unto which it directs. Which also, that you may obtain, is and shall be the constant Prayer of  
(Right Worshipful,) Your Obliged Servant in the Work of our Lord Jesus, Simon Ford.   

The Blessedness of being Bountiful, etc.  Acts 20. 35. — It is more blessed to give than to receive. 

SUch hath always been the acknowledged Dominion of Proverbial Say over the Principles and Lives of mankind; that some Etymologists have thence taken an Argument to derive the Hebrew 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  name of them from a Root which (though it have another signification besides, yet) seems most of all to fit their purpose in that of ruling or commanding.  
This Dominion, (besides what the worth and weight of their matter gives them) is in a great degree conferred upon them, by the great Reputation of their Authors; who (being ordinarily either wise, or great, or prosperous, beyond the rate of other men) contribute that veneration to their Speeches, which is wont to be given to their Persons. Which veneration also they obtain the rather, because they are looked on by Posterity as the Abstracts of those grand Principles, by the Practice whereof those eminent Persons arrived at that degree of excellency in which they were placed; and are therefore esteemed the most certain and compendious measures, by which the actions of all others can be governed, who design to arrive at the same degree of eminency by their examples.  
And hence (probably) it is, that the wisdom of God thought meet to place a Book of such Say in the Canon of Holy Scripture, with the great name of Solomon, (who was most eminently both wise, and great, and prosperous) prefixed; that the Principles of true Religion and Virtue, of which that Book is composed, might not be destitute even of that lower degree of recommendation (superadded to their divine Authority) which results from the credit of humane Testimonials.  
To shorten this Preface: It is upon this account that I chose at this time to speak from this Text, which is much of the nature of a Proverbial Paradox, which not only contains in it a great Truth, and therein the most powerful motive to Works of Charity that can be couched in so few words; but is withal recommended from the excellency of its Author beyond any of that kind. For supposing all those that are digested into that one Book of Holy Scripture before mentioned to be originally Solomon's, (which yet some question, and only entitle him to the collection of the greatest part of them;) yet, this Proverb is quoted from an Author in all the mentioned respects, far beyond both him and all other men: one that was more truly than he, wiser than all men; 
● King. 4. 31. 1 Cor. 1. 24.  for he was the wisdom of God: one that was infinitely greater than he, or any other mere man; for he was the Power of God, and 
Psal. 72. 8, 9, 10.  of whose greatness even that of Solomon himself was but a Type or shadow: and one that was also more prosperous than he, and all the most successful men in the world; seeing the greatest design that ever was undertaken in the World (the redemption of mankind from all their greatest, that is spiritual, dangers and enemies) prospered in his hand. 
Is. 53. 10.   
For it is the Lord Jesus Christ himself whom our Apostle (having occasion to make use of this Proverb, in his Visitation Sermon to the Elders of Ephesus, of which my Text is a part) avouches to be the utterer and frequent user of it. Ye ought (saith he) to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said (and it was his usual saying, for so such forms of quoteing commonly import) that it is more blessed, or rather blessed, (for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will bear both senses) to give, than to receive.  
And though we read not this saying of our Saviour, in terminis, in any of the Gospels of the Holy Evangelists who professedly undertaken the penning of his Speeches and Actions; yet have we not therefore any sufficient Reason to doubt the Truth of the Apostles Quotation; seeing it was not (as one of them professeth for himself, and it is with the 
John 20, 30, 31, 21, 25.  same reason to be so judged of all the rest) the design of those holy Penmen to give a perfect numerical account of every individual Passage of our Saviour's Life; but only to commend so much of it to Posterity, as might (without tiring the Reader and confounding his memory with the length) suffice to beget a Faith that he was the Son of God, and to instruct him sufficiently in those Doctrines that were necessary to salvation. Yea, rather we have very weighty reasons to justify the Apostle in this Quotation against all exception.  
1. Because it is a saying, which doth so aptly suit some others, recorded from his mouth by the Evangelists; and which some Interpreters mention, to salve Interpreters mention, to salve this Objection by Equivalency. For we find him in his first Sermon commending mercifulness to his Disciples, under the same encouragement of Blessedness; and promising 
Matt. 5. 7.  in the account he gives them of the last Judgement, that he will then pronounce them eternally blessed, who extend their bounty to him in his members; and those eternally cursed, who have in such good deeds been notoriously negligent and defective, Matth. 25. 34. to the end.  
2. Because our Apostle quotes it before those to whom the very form of his Speech supposeth it to be as well known as to himself; if not to some of them better, who (it may be) personally conversed with the Lord Jesus, (which he himself did not) and heard it from his own lips. For he tells it them not as a new thing that they knew not before, but only bids them remember it; intimating that their own memories could not but attest that it was his saying to whom he attributed it.  
3. Add we to this Evidence, that the natural import of the Doctrine herein contained is such, that it cannot with like Decorum be ascribed to any man, as to him, who was himself (electively) the greatest Giver, and the least Receiver that ever was in this world; and one (therefore) who must be supposed to have most amply experimented the blessedness it speaks of, by the constant practice of it.  
4. Mind we, lastly, that the Saying itself is a most divine saying, every way besitting that mouth which spoke the very thoughts of God's bosom to men; 
Joh. 1. 18.  seeing it so aptly and adequately expresseth the very inward sentiments and satisfactions of the Divine Essence, which employs itself incessantly in being the inexhaustible Fountain of all good 
Jam. 1. 17.  givings and perfect gifts to his Creatures, upon no other account (as you will see more fully anon) but only the pleasure he takes therein.  
You see, by this time (beloved) a double motive to engage your attention, to what I have to say to you on this Text: the great Authority by which it comes recommended; and the great Truth contained in it. Which attention so prepared, I shall employ, by handling it in this method.  

1. I shall open the words by a brief Explication.  
2. Show you the Foundations of Reason upon which the great Doctrine contained in them stands.  
3. Gather some practical Inferences from it.   
I. In the Explication of the Words, I have promised to be brief. And therefore I shall wave the Philosophical Notions in a great measure, which (being in general considered without the coherence in which here they stand) they would afford; as, concerning [The nature, and kinds, and degrees of humane Blessedness; and (that which might in some sort also conduce to our present purpose) the natural tendency of Acts of giving beyond those of receiving to that blessedness naturally considered:] as apprehending, partly, that those notions are not much conducing to your Christian Edification; and partly, that our Saviour, and our Apostle quoting this saying from him, cannot be supposed to intent the instruction of their Hearers in a Metaphysical Speculation; but rather, the laying before them and us a moral direction, to teach us by what actions in this life men may most contribute to the advancement of their own felicity.  
And so the words are a determination of our Saviour upon a supposed Question concerning the comparative Acts of Giving and Receiving the good things of this Life: to wit [which of the two doth most truly and most plentifully conduce to man's blessedness?] In which Determination he casts the scale on the side of Giving, (which imports, in general, the doing good to others in whatever kind or way, and in special, by Acts of Liberality and Bounty;) against Receiving, (which, in general, includes whatever way of doing good to a man's self in this life, and in special, by Acts of getting and keeping this World's goods to his own single emolument and advantage) as tending to make him more certainly and cumulatively blessed. For in this sense, it is plain by the Context, this Proverb of our Saviour is here made use of by the Apostle, as an Argument to persuade the Elders of Ephesus to preach the Gospel to their people in their present state of affairs, gratis, and therein to give them that temporal reward in to the bargain, which they might (as he elsewhere determines, viz. 1 Cor. 9 12.) have challenged of them, together with the Gospel; it being as much a gift to forgive a Debt, as to give a sum of money out of ones own Purse: which piece of bountiful self-denial he exhorts them to for this end, that they might (for their more effectual edification) comply with the weakness of their young converts who loved not (as few do) a chargeable Gospel; though they were thereby forced in the mean while, as he himself did, to labour with their own hands to get a livelihood. And this is that, which in the beginning of this Verse, he calls, [supporting the weak;] to induce them whereunto, he quotes this notable saying of our Lord Jesus, to assure them that the inward satisfaction which they would receive from the conscience of having faithfully promoted the salvation of souls by preaching under such disadvantageous circumstances, would be of more worth to them, than the richest temporal Rewards and Revenues they could expect, or might lawfully challenge, for their pains.  
So that (in sum) you may take the whole sense of the words in this short Paraphrase. Q. d. I know the World is generally apt to think that the way to Happiness is by getting and possessing abundance of earthly goods. But I tell you from the Lord Jesus, that man provides more truly and effectually for his own blessedness, and promotes it more plentifully, by contributing to the benefiting of others, then by doing good to himself: he is a surer and a greater gainer by giving, then by having; by laying out thus, then by laying up, as the most of the World do; by Bounty and Charity, then by Covetousness and Parsimony.  
II. And this Paradox (for such it seems to all Worldlings) thus explained, I am (in the next place) engaged to make good from its proper foundations of Reason. For though speaking to an Auditory of professed Christians, as I do, I might very well acquiesce in the great Authority of our Saviour, to which we all submit, as a sufficient justification of that which is his own Assertion: Yet, because the greatest divine Truths carry greater Evidence with them when they are proved to be consonant to the common Notions implanted in humane nature; I therefore think it needful to fortify this Doctrine (abundantly capable of it) with Proofs of that kind also.  
And this undertaking I thus endeavour to perform. All the good things which generally (even in the opinion of worldlings) are thought contributory to selicity, are either honourable, pleasurable, or profitable: and (if this be granted, which I know none that denies,) I must confess myself much out of the way in the matter of Reason and Argument, if I be not able to make it good, that Giving hath more of all these in it, than Receiving.  
[1. Begin we therefore with the greater Honourableness of Bountiful Actions.  
Honour is the real inward esteem that Persons who are meet Judges therein have of any one for things and actions of true worth and excellency. So that, to be truly Honourable, is, to be and do that which is really worthy and excellent; and which is so esteemed to be by the most competent Judges.  
Whence I have two things on this Head to prove.  

1. That Acts of giving are Acts of more real worth and excellency than those of receiving.  
2. That they are, and have always been so esteemed by the most competent Judges, and such as in this case can rationally be refused by no man.   
1.] There is a real worth and excellency in Acts of Giving, beyond those of Receiving. Which is to me evident from two main Arguments.  
(1. From the greater conformity, which the former bear to the genuine temper and constitution of the Soul of Man. The strength of which Argument lies in this Principle; That where any Nature is acknowledged in itself to be Honourable, (as certainly humane Nature is, being, in the confession of Heathens themselves, God's offspring 
Acts 17. 23.  in a special way of Descent, and standing not so many removes from him, as all other sublunary natures do;) there it is most honourable for all that partake of that Nature to act conformably thereunto. Now the humane Soul is certainly a Being endowed with large, generous, and beneficent propensions: so that it cannot without very great uneasiness be confined and cooped up within narrow and selfish Principles. It is strongly inclined to be sociable and conversive; to be communicative and obliging; to be pitiful and compassionate; all which qualities are of a giving nature: and that to such a degree, that the expressions of these inclinations by one man to another, are ordinarily called (as if they only were so, and the contrary propensions were accounted an implicit abrenunciation of humane nature, and an herding one's self with Brutes,) by the name of Humanity. Insomuch that our Saviour, when he was to undertake an Office for our benefit, which required compassionate affections, chose to be made like unto us in all things, that he might, (by the inclinations of his own assumed humane nature, as well as by the determinations of his Divine Will,) become a Merciful 
Heb. 2. 17. 4. 15.  High Priest, and compassionately touched with the feeling of our infirmities.  
Add we, (for a close of this Head) to this evidence of Reason, one or two from Experience; which, where it is constant, is wont to found Maxims and Principles for the use of Reason itself.  
The first Instance I shall give, shall be in Friendship, wherein the soul of man doth most voluntarily fling off all disguises, and appears most delightfully in its proper Naturals to the object of its dearest Affections. Now in such circumstances wherein usually contests of friendship do arise, the great dispute betwixt those Souls that are so linked together, is, whether the one or the other shall exceed in acts of noble and generous bounty: which extends to a pulling down all the Enclosures of Meum and Tuum, and rendering all things, even life itself, mutually common.  
The other Instance shall be in a Vice, which (even in those who at other times use all the Arts they can to disguise their natures, and keep their breasts shut to all mankind,) is wont to pick the lock of men's bosoms, and, whether they will or no, to expose them to common view: I mean, that of Dunkenness. Now in that sinful excess, among many vicious inclinations (which are various in several men, and which then appear variously,) this one virtuous propension, (which that vice that most transforms men to beasts, cannot eradicate) doth most evidently and almost universally discover itself; insomuch that the most covetous and illiberal Persons in the world are in their cups always generously frolic, and free of their Purses; and those that can worst spare it many times, are yet apt to take it ill that any one in the company offers to pay any part of the reckoning but themselves.  
Which I make use of only, as an argument of great force from common experience, that the purely Natural Temper of the Humane Soul is more inclined to Giving than Receiving; and (by consequence) that that Propension which is thus naturally implanted in us, renders those Acts which are most couformable to it (viz. those of Giving,) most Honourable. My first proof.  
2. The second, I shall take from the greater agreeableness of Acts of Giving to principles of Justice, than those of Receiving. Which if I can make good, I doubt not of gaining what I intent by it. Now this Notion I thus make out.  
God hath originally, by the Law of the Creation, given the 
Psal. 115. 16.  Earth to the Children of men: that is, hath entitled every man to so much of it, as may yield him a competent and comfortable subsistence. And the propriety that one man hath in this, and another in that proportion of the common Father's Bounty, is not set out by him, immediately; but by particular Compacts and Constitutions of men themselves. Which Compacts and Constitutions, though they be sufficient bars, (even upon the obligation of Conscience) to fence men's particular rights against the eruptions of fraud or violence, to alter the possession against the owners will; yet cannot destroy the fundamental Title that any man in want hath to be supplied in his necessities, suitably to his occasions, out of the abundance of other men. Whence it necessarily follows, that there lies an obligation of Justice upon the abounding possessor of this world's goods, in all such cases, (as indeed in all other, wherein any of those uses are concerned, which God and Nature have made necessary for the support of common Humanity in the several generations of the World) to quit his propriety so far, by his own consent, as may suffice for the relief of his Brethren, and the satisfying of those uses, (whatever they be,) without which mankind cannot be preserved or maintained as it ought to be.  
Which is the Reason, in likelihood, why the abundance of any man's Riches is called by our Saviour, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that which is 
Luk. 16. 12.  another's, (i. e. another's with him, and not entirely his own:) so that no man can justly say of his worldly Estate, as Nabal did, and in his sense, [My bread, and my 
1 Sam. 25. 11.  water, and my flesh, etc.] as if no creature had any share therein but himself. For indeed, (besides that all we have, even whiles we have it, is (in reference to God) not ours; for he loseth not his Supreme Right and Propriety of Dominion by any of his bounties:) a greater part of most men's Estates than usually they imagine, is by the Original Divine Law that I told you of before, not entirely their own, even with reference to their brethren in humanity; but they, in several capacities, may justly challenge considerable shares therein, which cannot with Justice be denied them. And particularly, in the case of Charity (which I specially here drive at,) Alms is therefore frequently called Justice or Righteousness, and he that gives them, a Just or Righteous man, in the usual Hebrew Idiom throughout the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and some say, in the New 
Mat. 6. 1. 2 Cor. 9 10, etc.  also in some places of special note, which I will not now insist on. And he that denies or delays his relief, in his Brothers needs, is said (by Solomon) to withhold 
Prov. 3. 27.  good from those to whom it is due, or (as the Margin reads it) from the Owners thereof. So that (Justice, which is the foundation of all moral virtues, being on that account Honourable, and Bounty an Act of Justice; and tenaciousness or sordid parsimony, on the contrary, of injustice;) it is evident, that that act which bears most conformity to Justice, must be more Honourable than that which for a great part is, and more commonly is suspected to be, of Confederacy with Injustice: i. e. Giving, then Receiving.  
2.] And lest any person should seek protection from the dishonourable Reflections this Doctrine makes upon his sordidness; by alleging, that this Judgement, concerning the real excellency of acts of Giving above Receiving, is not made by competent Judges; I shall (in the next place) show you who they are on whose determinations I rely, for the justifying this Assertion: who (I am bold to assert) are not to be refused (by any person who owns himself a Creature, a Man, or a Christian,) as the most meet to determine in this matter.  
(1. The first Judge to whom I appeal in this cause, is God himself, who must needs be owned by every Creature, as the Supreme Judge in a Court of Honour; being the most excellent of Being's, and the Fountain of all that is honourable. Now God, besides what he hath declared in his written word, which tells us that the horn 
Psal. 112. 9  of him that disperseth and giveth to the poor shall be exalted, (a Metaphor taken from those ruling Beasts in the Herd that carry their horns higher than the rest, with a kind of glorying, and confidence,) with honour: I say, besides what his Word, (in that and other places) declares expressly; God doth most evidently pronounce his Judgement in this matter, by his own actions; who, (renouncing the capacity of receiving from any other Being, as a disparagement,) takes it for his honour to be and to be owned as the universal Giver, that gives to all life and breath and all 
Act. 17. ●5.  things: and argues, (with some kind of exprobration) the unworthiness of those men's thoughts concerning him, that conceit any man can give any thing to him; from the precedency and causality of his Bounty to all that capacity we can pretend to, to do any thing to oblige him withal, seeing that of him and through him 
Rom. 11. 35, 37.  are all things.  
(2. Nor can the Lord Jesus be refused as a competent Judge in this matter, by any that owns the Name of Christian, and acknowledgeth the highest Honours of the whole Creation to be due to him; who is worshipped by all the Angels of God, and 
Heb. 1. 6. Phil. 2. 10.  hatha Name above every Name, a Name to which every knee must bow, etc. Now it must needs be yielded by any rational man, that (had he not, as he hath, verbally declared his Judgement in this particular of Blessedness as well in many other Scriptures, as in the Text, yet) he hath sufficiently by his deeds proclaimed that to be the most worthy and honourable action, by the constant exercise whereof he procured his own Honours; emptying himself that he might fill us: and becoming poor for our sakes that we 
Phil. 2. 7. 2. Cor. 8. 9  through his poverty might be rich; and in the prospect whereof, he quitted the natural Honour of being equal to his Father, to assume an office wherein he was to be his Inferior, that he might thereby acquire the peculiar Honour of being our Redeemer. Now it is evident, that the whole work of our Redemption consisted of acts of Giving, not Receiving.  
(3. However, as Men, it is to be hoped that none that owns himself of that number, will in this matter refuse the Judgement of all mankind. Which Judgement may be evidently gathered,  
(1.) From the respect and Duty which (all the world over) superior Relations expect and receive from their Inferiors, which in humanity are equal to themselves: whereof, if we inquire the Reason, there can be no other given (antecedent to Divine or Humane Laws, which yet are founded upon antecedent Reason) than this; that they are, or else are supposed to be, the Authors of such and such benefits (either of Being, or conducing to well-being) which those Inferiors receive from them, or enjoy under them.  
(2.) From the Testimonies of Gratitude, which are every where and in all Ages given to those who are eminently beneficial to Mankind, or to particular Societies of men. Wherein, there could never be so universal a consent, but from the concurrence of all men's Judgements in this Principle, that to do good, is more noble than to receive.  
Now this is evident, (in matter of fact) from all Histories. The old Heathens thought they could not honour such Instruments sufficiently with any humane Honours; and therefore they deified, (as far as in them lay, by Temples, and Altars, and Sacrifices, etc.) the Inventours of useful Arts and Sciences; the Founders of Kingdoms and Empires; the Authors of public Constitutions and Laws; and the great and noted Champions and defenders, or Saviour's and deliverers, of any Communities of men from great and public calamities.  
Yea, they bestowed like Honours, upon the Heavenly Bodies, and Earthly Elements. The Sun and the Moon, and divers of the noted Stars: yea the Earth itself, and the Sea that encompasseth it, the Fire and the Air, and Rivers and Springs; (and whatever else contributed to the support of man;) were either reputed Gods themselves, or the special residencies of some Deities, who by them communicated their particular Bounties to mankind.  
And where these Heathen Idolatries have been exploded, yet even there, men have generally thought such persons worthy the highest Acknowledgements that Humane Nature was capable of: Which they have expressed in Panegyrics and Poems, in Statues and other magnificent Structures, in Coins and other public Inscriptions, (and whatever other lasting Monuments they could devise;) to render them, as to their Names and Memories (who could not be in their Bodies) immortal.  
Let now, (for a close of this Head) the sordid self-ended sort of men, show us any Instances, if they can, of like Honours done to those who (without doing good to any but themselves) have spent their Time in finding riches as a nest, and gathering them like 
Isa. 10. 14.  eggs, to sit on. Yea, rather, let the experience of all Ages speak, and it will tell us, that there are no sort of men in the world, whom the generality of Mankind have treated with more curses and bitter scoffs whiles they lived; or hissed off the stage of this life with more open reproach and infamy when they died. So that I hope, I have sufficiently demonstrated, that (whether we respect the nature of the Acts themselves, or the concurrent Judgement of God and Man,) it is more honourable by far to give than to receive.  
[2. The Pleasure which accrues to men from Acts of Bounty, doth no less exceed that which ariseth from those of Covetousness and Parsimony.  
Of which there needs no farther evidence (in Reason) than what I before intimated upon the former Head; viz. [the greater agreeableness of such actions to the native largeness and generosity of the soul of man, and the Principles of Universal Justice:] There being no such satisfactory pleasure in the world attainable by Humane Nature, as is the inward content which a virtuous man takes in reflecting upon those things which he hath done with the approbation of his own Reason and Conscience; and no greater grief, than when they complain that they are violenced and oppressed by unnatural and unreasonable Lusts and Passions.  
But to make this also more evident by particular Instances.  
(1. It is an undeniable Argument of the Pleasure that Giving yields beyond Receiving, that God, whose infinite Perfection placeth him beyond all capacity of Receiving (as was said before) can be supposed to have no other motive to Give, as he doth continually, but the inward satisfaction he finds in Beneficence itself. Whence some tell us, that his Name, Elshaddai, hath the Notion of a full breast in it, to which nothing can be so pleasurable as to vent itself into the mouth of the sucking Infant: which is pained with its own fullness, and finds its only ease in being emptied. And indeed, the complacency that he is said to have taken in all the works of his Creation, when he had finished them, employed in that so often repeated Phrase, God saw 
Gen. 1. 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31. Psal. 145. 16.  that it was good; the readiness that is in him to satisfy the desires of every living thing; the constant unweariedness of his Bounty (the greatest evidence of the pleasure taken in any action) continually 
Psal. 104. 24.  filling the earth with his riches; the invitations he so frequently 
Ps. 50. 15.  gives to men to call upon him, opening the mouths of their holy desires wide that he may fill them, 
Ps. 81. 10.  and in all things making their requests 
Phil. 4. 6.  known to him; with the delight he professeth to take in 
Prov. 15. 8.  the prayers of good men, which invite his Bounties: sufficiently argue the divine pleasure that is in giving; being the satisfaction which God himself chooseth for himself. And to be sure, be the pleasure of receiving what it will, it cannot pretend to so high an Original.  
(2. The like may (secondly) be argued from the example of our Lord Jesus, who seems by his actions to have preferred the pleasure of seeing his spiritual seed, 
Isa. 53. 10. Heb. 2. 10. 5. 9  and bringing many sons to glory, by being the Author and Captain of their Salvation; before the infinite satisfactions and delights of his Father's Bosom, wherein he rejoiced 
Pro. 8. 30.  always before him from all eternity: and that so far, that he deprived himself (in a sort) of the very pleasures of Divinity for a Time, by becoming Man, that he might be the Redeemer and Saviour of Mankind.  
The very prospect of this great work cheered his heart before he undertook it, he rejoiced in the 
Pro. 8. 31.  habitable part of God's Earth, and his delights were with the Sons of men; when he entered upon that Body the Father had prepared for him, though he knew he was to make it a Sacrifice, yet he did it (as he professeth) with delight to 
Heb. 10. 5, 7.  do his Fathers will therein; he spent all his Time on Earth in going about and doing good gratis, 
Acts 10. 38.  to those miserable Creatures that could not any way requite him; did divers of his great works in 
Joh. 7. 4, 5.  silence and privacy, and forbade 
Luk. 5. 14. 8. 56. Joh. 6. 15.  the publication of them; and refused the Honours that men offered him for those that were of too public benefit to be concealed; and when he knew that his doleful Hour was come, how did he complain the minutes moved slowly, till he had opportunity offered to accomplish that bloody 
Luk. 12. 50.  Baptism, that he foretold he was to be baptised withal? His Cross on which he suffered, he is said 
Col. 2. 15.  to triumph upon, as a Conqueror in a Chariot of State. And (after his Death,) his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven again, he looked on as a Joy set before him; 
Heb. 12. 2.  not surely on his own account only, but because he also knew he was going to prepare Mansions 
Joh. 14. 2.  for us, as our Harbinger, to lead us the way into the Holy Place, as our forerunner, and to lie as our 
Heb. 6. 20.  Lieger there to do us good Offices by his intercession till he had saved us to the utmost. So that our 
7. 25.  Saviour's Practice is a full and further evidence of the Pleasure that is in Giving more than Receiving.  
(3. God's holy Angels, as (of all Creatures) they nearest approach to the Divine Nature, so herein they proportionably imitate his perfections; that (like him) they are continually employed in doing good upon the like motives of the delight and satisfaction they find therein. For continuing in the state of felicity wherein they were at first created, they must be supposed to be above any need of receiving any real addition to the happiness which the continual standing in God's presence affords them; and yet, with what cheerfulness and alacrity do they do the will of 
Heb. 1. 14.  God, even in those low Ministeries whereunto they stoop to serve our occasions? They keep us in all our ways, and that with as much carefulness, as the Nurse doth the tender Infant, bearing us 
Ps. 91. 11, 12.  up in their hands, that we dash not so much as our foot against a stone; they pitch their tents, as a 
Ps. 34. 7.  constant lifeguard, about good men, (yea, an whole Army of 
2 Kings 6. 17.  them, sometimes, about one Saint) for their security; they fight for us against evil Spirits, under the 
Apoc. 12. 7.  Captain of our Salvation; they fly swiftly, as our Intelligencers, 
Dan. 9 21.  on good errands, to comfort us; and these, and all other good offices, they are ready to do on all occasions, for the least and meanest of Mankind (even those 
Isa. 58. 7. Mat. 18. 10.  whom we, who are their own flesh, are apt to despise) while they live; and when they die, think it not beneath them to take up their 
Luk. 16. 32.  Souls into their blessed Arms, and carry them to their habitation of bliss and glory. All which offices they would never descend to do with so much unwearied alacrity, if they found not the doing of them pleasurable: for if they disgusted them in any sort, as burdensome and uncomfortable employments; it must needs imply, that all the while they are so employed, their perfect holiness must suffer a diminution, and their perfect happiness an eclipse.  
(4. But all these Instances, it may be objected, are above us, and so not imitable by us: nor are our pleasures to be measured by theirs. Let us therefore (in the next place) make trial, whether, even men of like passions with ourselves, have not been wont to find the same satisfaction in giving; and for that reason preferred it before receiving.  
(1.) Look we first, on the Christian part of Mankind. And, whatever we may observe in the later Ages and very dregs of Christianity, whrein Religion is even swallowed up and devoured by Interest all the world over; yet I am sure, from the beginning it was not so. Those first Disciples of our Master Christ took the greatest delight in copying out the great examples of his Generosity and Bounty: They sold (some of them) considerable Estates, and gave in the price of them to the common stock, to supply the necessary charges of the first Plantation of Christianity. Acts. 4. 34. to the end. They carried about the great and unsearchable riches of Christ, and 
2 Cor. 2. 14.  scattered the savour of his knowledge with triumph in every place freely: and when they might, refused to receive any thing from those to whom they gave so much, and would not be stopped of this glorying, nor suffer it 
1 Cor. 9 15.  to be made void: accounting it the very reward of their work to do it without reward; and render 
V 18.  the Gospel without charge.  
And the great hardships and hazards that they underwent, in the Discharge of this Duty so infinitely beneficial to Mankind, they did undergo with the greatest delight and inward satisfaction. I take pleasure (saith our Apostle) in infirmities, (i. e. of suffering) in reproaches, in necessities, 
2 Cor. 12. 10.  in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: which abundantly shows what pleasure that work yielded, that made all those necessary difficulties pleasurable, which were then to be encountered for its sake. For, however they that underwent these things had by Faith a prospect of a future great reward, which contributed very much to their present Comfort; yet, even that argues sufficiently the verity of our Hypothesis, that in that condition wherein they were not in any temporal respect receivers, nor capable of being so, they found such overbalancing pleasures in the nature and consequences of their very work, as weighed down all the discouraging Circumstances in which they were by Providence engaged.  
(2.) But, to be sure, whatever future hopes Christians had to encourage them in well doing with delight: the Heathens had none such; for the Apostle tells 
Eph. 2 12. 1 Thess. 4. 13.  us, they were without hope (i. e. such as is grounded and certain,) of these felicities of another world. And yet even divers of them, have found a kind of intellectual Epicurism (if I may so say) in the very acts of Beneficence. Of which it is a notable Instance which Xenophon gives us in the character of his Hero, of whom he tells us most divinely, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he had a greater delight in what he gave than in what he possessed. And on the other side, it is a great Instance of the self-displeasure of a virtuous man, when he hath miss the opportunity of doing good in this kind; that the good Emperor Titus was wont to complain he had lost that day, which he had spent without doing some body a good Turn; than which, nothing can more strongly argue the pleasure he found in every other Day wherein he had been so employed.  
(3.) Lastly, look we on Mankind indefinitely, and we shall find, that all persons (whether Christians or Heathens) own a great Pleasure in giving or doing good to others, beyond the proportion of what receiving or doing good to themselves yields. For whence is it else, that the careful Nurse delightfully suffers her body to be drained of the best nourishment it receives, in suckling her Infant; that she undergoes with singing so many nauseous drudgeries for him; and disquiets herself with so many restless and wakeful nights to breed him; from whom for divers months she can expect no other present return than a few smiles now and then, when she can get him in a good humour; and whose future qualities or condition she cannot foresee so as to expect any certain future requital from him? Whence is it, that every one generally loves the creature of his own Bounty, and studies to oblige him more, to whom he hath formerly been wont to show special kindnesses? And yet this many times is done to those that have nothing of real worth to deserve, nor ever arrive at proportionable capacities to requite them. Certainly, the most obvious Reason of these actions, that occurs to a considering man, must be (that that I am discoursing of,) that to all rational Being's there is a pleasure that accompanies giving or Beneficence in any kind; which is more generous and refined than any that comes in by receiving.  
(5. Lastly, it seems not altogether unworthy to be taken notice of upon this Head, that the Scripture (in conformity with this Notion of the pleasure of Giving, and probably the more to commend it to us to make an experiment in ourselves) expresseth the inanimate Creatures themselves as Instances of rejoicing in acts of beneficence to Mankind.  
For thus the outgoings of the 
Ps. 65. 8:  Morning and Evening are said to rejoice, when in their constant vicissitudes they refresh us: thus the Sun, when he ariseth to enlighten the world, is described as a Bridegroom coming out of his 
Ps. 19 5.  Chamber, and a Giant rejoicing to run his race: thus, in Jothams' Parable, the Olive, and the Vine, and the Figtree, are represented as unwilling to forgo the pleasures of bearing sweet fruit to furnish divine Sacrifices, and humane Treatments, to obtain a Monarchy 
Judg. 9 9, 11, 13.  among the Trees: and thus, lastly, the Pastures, when they are covered with Grass, and Flocks to 
Ps. 65. 13.  crop it, and the Valleys, when laden with Corn to be reaped by us, are said to shout and sing for joy. As, on the other side, the Heavens are said to be black with 
Jer. 4. 28. 12. 4. Is. 24. 4, 7. 33. 9  grief, and the Earth to mourn, and the Vine to languish (as it were) with sorrow; when in a barren year their wont fertility is restrained.  
In sum therefore, (to close up this head too) whether we take measure of the delight and pleasantness that is in Acts of Giving beyond Receiving; either from God or Christ, or good Angels, or Christians, or Heathens, or inanimate Creatures themselves, (which distribution takes in almost all Being's but Devils, whose delight, indeed, is only in doing mischief:) we find, that the felicity that accrues from Pleasure, is greater from giving than receiving.  
[3. The third and last thing that contributes to blessedness is Profit. And my next business is to show, that in that respect also Giving hath the advantage of Receiving, as being of the two the more profitable.  
And so it is both in reference to the Benefit that thereby is attained in this World, and in that which is to come.  
(1. In reference to this World, There is a threefold Concern to be regarded, wherein the advantage I speak of evidently appears,  
1. In Life.  
2. In Sickness and Death.  
3. After Death.  
1.) In Life, (this Life, wherein 
Ps. 17. 14.  the Worldlings portion principally lies) man's portion of this World's good things is by acts of Bounty,  
1. Best Secured,  
2. Most Comfortably enjoyed,  
3. Most plentifully Improved.  
(1.) This Portion is hereby best secured. Insomuch, that no Deeds or Evidences, or Bonds or Mortgages, or Bags or Chests, or Walls or Forts, or Locks or Bars, or Bolts or Guards, afford us like Security for what we have; as charitable Giving bestows upon us. And that, not only in reference to a Security of Equivalency, (in which notion St. Ambrose handsomely Rhetoricates with the rich man in the Gospel, who was solicitous to pull down his old 
Lu. 12. 18.  Barns, as not big enough to receive his increase, and build bigger; when he tells him, that the course he took was the way to pull down rather than to build; and adds, that he will direct him to a better course to secure and lay up his Goods, by making the houses of the Widows, the Stomaches of the Poor, and the Mouths of the Orphans his Barns and Granaries; And our Saviour before him, when he tells us of laying 
Mat. 6. 19  up our Treasure (by laying it out,) where rust or moth doth not corrupt, and where thiefs cannot break through and steal; and to put our money into bags that 
Lu. 12. 33.  will not wax old, &c:) but also in reference to that temporal Security in kind, which the worldling most looks after, in whose Hearts as well as in his Deeds [to have and to hold] is the clause of principal respect and esteem. Let us see therefore, how even this Security may be chief attained by Giving. And here, (besides the rational conducibleness of the Principles of Generosity and Bounty to the preservation of men's temporal Estates, from the general Friendship which such a Temper procures a man, whiles every mouth is open for him, every hand is ready to be lifted up in his defence, and every man's Power and Interest is engaged to preserve him as a public benefit; and the very worst of men, that are wont vivere rapto, to live by cheating and robbery, have a great awe of injuring such an one, as judging such a Crime to be of a guilt little inferior to Sacrilege:) I say besides this rational Security, the munificent man hath the far greater Religious Security of divers Promises of Divine Protection. If thou deal thy bread to the hungry, (saith the Prophet Isaiah,) and satisfy the afflicted soul; if thou bring the poor that are cast out of their own, to thy house, and when thou seest the naked thou cover him, and hid not thyself from thine own flesh, i. e. any one that is partaker of common humanity with thyself, &c: then shall thy righteousness go before thee, as thy Avantguard, and the glory of the Lord (as the presence of God to the Israelites in their march out of Egypt) shall be thy Rearward. And the Lord shall guide thee continually, into ways of safety and security, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered 
Isa. 58. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.  Garden, and like a Spring whose waters fail not, when public calamities destroy the estates of others, as the scorching Sun doth the fruits of the earth in a dry season.   

Which Promise is the same in substance (abating the high Metaphors) with what (in plainer and more intelligible words, according to the Language of those Times) we find elsewhere thus expressed; that the righteousness of him that is bountiful, shall endure for ever, i. e. he shall never be other, than a giver, he shall always have wherewithal to give, and wealth and riches shall 
Psal. 112. 3. 9  (as constant inhabitants) be in his house. I could heap up many places of Scripture more to the same purpose. That of the Prophet before mentioned, that by 
Isa. 32. 8.  liberal things the liberal man shall stand, when others fall to decay. That of the same Prophet, that he that walketh righteously, (of 
33. 16, 17.  which righteous walking Almes-giving (as I told you before) is a part) shall dwell on high, (the proper situation for strength,) his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks, (not to be stormed or undermined,) bread shall be given him, and his waters shall be sure; so as not to be starved or famished out of his fortification, placed in the Divine Protection, etc. But I forbear, that I be not too tedious in so copious an Argument.  
In a word, by this means that Quicksilver-wealth, that is so volatile, that ordinarily it makes itself wings to fly away, (by offering 
Pro. 23. 5.  Temptations to the owner to waste it in riots and debaucheries, or to the Robber to take it away by fraud and violence) is fixed and kept constant to its Possessor: and uncertain riches 
1 Tim. 6. 17.  (as the Apostle calls them,) being joined with wisdom and righteousness, (true Godliness and Alms,) 
Pro. 8. 16.  become durable and abiding.  
Whereas, on the contrary, the withholding what is meet from the good uses wherein Providence calls for it, tendeth to Poverty; 
Prov. 11. 24.  i. e. is the ready ready way to undo a man even in this world. For, (as constant Experience shows) most men are wont to make little Conscience, (when they have ability and opportunity to do it,) of getting what they can from such an one as is noted to be sordidly tenacious; every one contributing either his wishes or his help to the pillaging of him: and Gods Curse also seconds such attempts (though unjust, as from men, justly,) blowing 
Hag. 1. 9  upon such Estates, till he hath blown them away (as your Margin in the place quoted reads it) which a sordid Parsimony scrapes together, and holds fast by humane contrivance and endeavour. Thus you see the Security that Giving yields to our present enjoyments, beyond Receiving.  
(2.) This Portion is rendered more comfortable to us in the use of it, by Giving, than by Receiving. And this from a twofold cause.  
1. From the satisfaction that a bountiful giver hath in his own Conscience, that he spends out of that Estate which is clearly and entirely his own: a satisfaction, which (how good a Title soever one hath as to men) no person can have, as to God, but he. For whereas all our Estates are held of God as their Supreme Lord, (and that, under such and such charges and Duties to issue out of them to pious and charitable uses;) it follows, that except those uses be first duly satisfied, we have just reason to fear a forfeiture, and thereupon to question our legal Title, in foro Dei, to the remainder. For, by taking from that Lump or Heap from which Gods portion is not separated, we are in continual hazard of devouring that which 
Prov. 20. 25.  is holy, together with that which is our own propriety; i. e. of committing Sacrilege, which of all sins doth most forfeit ourselves and what we have to God's Exchequer. Whereas, on the contrary, the liberal Person that bountifully dischargeth all these Payments, is free from that scruple. For, as the paying of First-fruits, 
Deut. 26. 11.  under the Law, unto God, discharged the remainder of each years' profits, to be freely and comfortably made use of by the Owner: so doth Alms, under the Gospel, given proportionably to what we possess, (as our Saviour tells the Pharisees) make our 
Lu. 11. 41.  whole Estates, in point of Conscientious use, clean unto us.  
2. From the true comfortable relish of the natural good which the Creatures afford with God's blessing; which the sordid Receiver never tastes so sweetly as the bountiful Giver. For (besides that the great gatherers of worldly riches do many times through sordid penuriousness, deny themselves, as well as all others, the enjoyment of what they have, and have not the heart to eat 
Eccles. 6. 2.  thereof;) it often falls out that cares and fears and other uncomfortable Passions which such men are subject unto, when they do eat, make their bread to them like 
Ps. 102. 9 Prov. 20. 17.  ashes, and fill their mouths with gravel, as the Scripture phraseth the uncomfortable use of those Creatures to some that are the comfortable food of other men. So that the bountiful man, whose generosity sets him above those vexing distempers, enjoys more of the Creature itself in far meaner accommodations, than he that hath the good things of the world in the greatest affluence, with the sordid attendance of those disquieting Passions that are wont to wait on penurious parsimony and covetousness. So that a little (if it be but a little) that a righteous 
Ps. 37. 16.  (i. e. the charitable) man hath, is in this respect better than the riches of many such wicked: And if, (for so it often falls out, as will by and by appear more fully) the Blessing of God upon bountiful givers make them really rich; he makes them herein (withal) richer than all others of equal or greater Estates, that he adds no 
Prov. 10. 22.  sorrow with it.  
(3.) But the greatest advantage of all, (in reference to his Portion in this life) accrueing to the generous and religious Giver, is that which the worldly man most looks after, [Improvement and Increase;] which (even in men's Temporal Estates) is acquired also by Bounty rather than by Covetousness and Parsimony. For indeed, though such persons as give liberally, are ordinarily said to be too free to be fat; and the more a man takes from the heap, (in humane judgement,) he makes it so much the less: yet herein we often judge by false Measures, and might, if we duly weighed things, find ourselves as often confuted by Experience itself. For it is from thence, that those speeches of Solomon got the reputation of Proverbs, that there is that thus scattereth and yet increaseth; 
Prov. 11. 24, 25.  and that the liberal soul, though free, becomes fat (to cross the former Saw,) and he that watereth others, is watered (plentifully with God's benediction in the same kind) himself.  
Whence it is, that Giving, in the Scripture, is frequently compared to sowing, wherein the seed doth not (as one saith) perire, but parturire; it is not lost, but impregnated by the Soil on which it falls, and made fruitful; God increasing to bountiful givers the fruits of their righteousness (i. e. the 
2 Cor. 9 3, 9, 10.  Estates which their Alms do scatter;) and making all Grace, (that is, all sorts of effects of his own Bounty,) towards such to abound; and giving them all sufficiency in all things; and even those (among the rest) of which they seem, by bestowing so much on others, to endanger the not leaving what is sufficient for themselves.  
So that (as an ancient Writer tells us,) the breasts of Charity the more they are sucked, breed the more milk; the Woman of Sarepta's Barrel and Cruse have no 
1 Kings 17. 16.  bottom, whiles she is charitable to God's Prophet; and the Miracle of our Saviour, (in a sort) is daily acted over and over, whiles, as in his, so in the bountiful donours hands, the loaves 
Matth. 14. 19, 20. 15. 36, 37.  as they are distributed, multiply.  
Very ingenious, to this purpose, is the comparison that one makes betwixt the Expenses that men are at to maintain their Lusts, and those that they charge themselves withal to charitable Uses; to the eating a Field of Corn in the blade, (as is usual when it is rank,) by Horses and Sheep. The teeth of Lusts in an Estate, though never so great, are like (says he) to those of Horses in such a Field, that tear up the Corn by the roots; but those of the poor, like the teeth of Sheep, that by cropping it moderately make it spread and increase.  
And the story Melancthon (as I find him quoted) tells us of a certain good Bishop, is very proper to this purpose. The good man upon a journey being compassed about by a crowd of poor people (who, knowing his charitable mind, begged his Alms) commands his servant that managed his expenses, to give them three Crowns, which fell out then to be all he had in Purse. The servant (considering the many occasions that in travelling fall out) thought it good husbandry in his present circumstances, to curtail the Charity of his Master, and save one of the three; withal, telling his Master how thrifty he had been for him. They had not traveled much further, when certain great Personages meeting them, and knowing formerly the Bishop's bountiful disposition, gave the same Servant for his Master's use 200 Crowns. Which Bounty when his Master understood, he presently expressed his displeasure thus to his Servant for his former unseasonable Providence. Thou (saith he) hast clearly lost me an hundred Crowns. For thou gavest the Poor but two Crowns when I bade thee give three: and now God hath sent me but two hundred: si autem tres dedisses, trecentos accepisses, if thou hadst given the third Crown too, these two hundred had been three.  
Be the credit of the story with the Author or Relater: but I am sure, the Moral of it, (if it be a fable,) is good, and fully to our present purpose; to show how man's Bounty engageth God's; and we never lose more, than by what we think we save from pious and charitable Uses to add to our own Estates.  
And the Reason upon which this great Truth is bottomed, is this; that (as Solomon tells us) he that hath pity upon the Poor 
Prov. 19 17.  doth, (in the rendering of the Vulgar out of the 72.) Domino foenerari; he lends upon usury to the Lord, who is the best Creditor, and sure in such cases to repay the Principal Money with ample Interest; even to an hundred fold in this life (as his promise 
Mat. 19 29.  runs, verified in the former story) besides the Interest upon Interest, accumulated, in life everlasting.  
Whereas, on the other side, the hoarding receiver (as St. Ambrose again tells the Rich man in the Gospel) nescit struere divitias, is indeed ignorant of the true Art of thriving which he professeth; for he takes the wrong way to Riches, whiles he deals only with men that may break, (by a thousand accidents, as well as, which too often falls out, through a dishonest Design;) and so often loseth the Interest with the Principal; and refuseth to trust God for his Creditor, who can never fail by casualty, and (to be sure) never will by deceitfulness, and cozenage.  
And thus have you seen, by what I have said, that (even in this Life) the Concerns of the Giver (as to point of Profit) are in a better Condition every way, than those of the Receiver. And they are no less so  
2.) In Sickness and Death. For whereas the sordid Receiver usually hath a doleful and uncomfortable Time of it, and receives the sentence of death in himself with a great deal of horror; whiles (partly) the omission of the good that was in the power of his hand to have done, pursues him with guilt, and (partly) the consideration that he and his beloved Mammon must now eternally part company, and nothing of all that he enjoyed can descend into the grave after him, afflicts him 
Ps. 49. 17.  with grief, and (partly) the settlement of what he hath unconscionably gathered distracts him with cares, and (lastly) the uncertainty of his Eternal Estate, which he hath formerly neglected, oppresseth him with just and deserved fears: the bountiful Giver, (if, at least, he hath managed his Charities with Religious Principles) either hath, or hath cause to have, an easy and peaceable Passage out of this world, a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in all respects. Whiles he is assured by God's Promise, that he will strengthen him upon 
Psal. 41. 3.  his bed of languishing, and make all his bed in his sickness: whiles the leaving his earthly goods lies not near his heart, having continually kept the cares of keeping them at a distance from it; and the Conscience of his good deeds in this world, and the comfortable assurance of the Friendships he hath made in another world, dismiss him hence with that applause, which the vain Emperor 
Augustus' apud Suetonium.  once fond called for of those friends which assisted him in his last Agonies.  
3.) After Death: whereas there are are two things (in reference still to this world) which commonly men when they come to die are concerned for, (their Memory, and their Posterity;) both these also are secured to the bountiful Giver.  
(I.) His Memory, which Solomon 
Eccles. 7. 1:  tells us is better than precious ointment, (to embalm and keep Men from putrefaction when they are dead:) the same holy Author tells us, shall be blessed. All men 
Pro. 16. 7.  will speak of such an one with just commendations, and bury his Infirmities in his Grave, as thinking themselves obliged to have his good deeds only in everlasting remembrance. The good woman that spent her Box of precious ointment upon our Saviour's feet, received from him another ointment far more precious; in the assurance he gave her, that wherever that Gospel should be preached 
Mat. 26. 13.  in the world, that good deed should be told in memorial of her.  
But of the tenacious Receiver (whom in opposition to the liberally righteous the wise man calls 
Prov. 16. 7. suprà.  the wicked) he says withal, that his memory shall rot, i. e. not only perish, but also stink and be offensive whiles it is perishing, in the nostrils of Posterity: and though he take as great care as Absalon 
2 Sam. 18. 18.  did in his life-time, to raise himself the most magnificent Monuments to preserve his Name, when he is dead, yet they shall serve only (as they say his Pillar doth) to invite Survivors to cast stones at, in detestation of his Memory.  
(2.) His Posterity, and remaining Relations enjoy an entailed Blessing on the Estate which the liberal man leaves behind him; and that in the largest extent that can rationally be desired. And no wonder: For by his Charity he hath engaged God to be the Executor of his Will, the Husband of his Widow, and the Guardian to his Fatherless Children. And under his Tuition (the Psalmist assures us, both by Promise, and answerable Experience to back it) they shall be well looked to. For (saith he) the man who is merciful and dareth, (sometimes 
Psal. 37. 25, 26.  lending is as true a Charity as giving) his seed shall be blessed. And he makes it good by an Experimental Observation of his own; I have been young and now am old, but I never saw the charitably righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.  
Whereas, the Posterity of the sordid Receiver have no such provision made for them, but (as to any Divine Promise) are left to the wide world, without any assurance of being thus cared for by him. So that (however they far, when the Parent is gone, upon the account either of common Providence, or (if they prove better than their Ancestor) by Divine Benediction as the reward of their personal Piety; yet) the comfort hereof can no way lighten the cares and fears of his dying Bed: because he hath no warrant to expect any better event to befall them, than the Prophetical Curse bestowed upon Judas, to be continually Vagabonds 
Psal. 109. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.  and beg, etc. And Experience too often proves that Curse to extend farther than the Person it was principally meant for; even to the Children of all those who (like him) remembered not to show mercy. It being a thing of common observation, that the more the covetous Father leaves his Posterity, the more certain Prey they become to as covetous Tutors and Guardians; or, if they escape them, are (too often) worse handled by their own prodigal Lusts; which (before the third Generation) scatter all that with the fork, which the careful Predecessor gathered with the Rake. So that frequently within one man's Memory a great Estate, in one and the same Family, is both gotten and spent; and spent in fewer months it may be than it was years in getting. It is an handsome Memento that one of the Ancients (before mentioned) gives the sordid gatherer: Thou takest care, saith he, to oblige thy Heir by employing the contrivances of thy grey head to augment the Estate thou intendest to leave him. Alas, Wretch, (saith he) thou art mistaken. Thy young Spark odit incrementa haereditatis suae, ad damna festinat; thinks thou art getting too long, and would fain have thee make an end of thy Trade of gaining, that he may begin his of spending what thou hast already gained.  
And thus have I shown you the advantage that in point of Profitableness, Giving hath beyond Receiving, in reference to this world, and the Concerns thereof; both in Life, in Death, and after Death. But the greatest Instance of the Profit that comes thereby, is  
(2. In reference to the World to come. For (although there be no proper Merit in Bounty, how large soever, or however well qualified, to purchase everlasting happiness; (no, far be such a thought from the breast of any charitable man;) for, our good in this life, be it what it will, extends not to God, as it must, if it 
Ps. 16. 2.  properly deserve any thing at his hands: yet) whiles we extend our bounties to the Saints that are on earth, with such dispositions as God requires, we come under a capacity of being rewarded with eternal felicity, by virtue of his Promise; who hath assured us, that he will not forget our work 
Heb. 6. 10.  and labour of love in this kind: and if we thus sow to the Spirit, 
Gal. 6. 7, 8.  by taking opportunities of doing good, we shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Upon the account of which security of Divine Promises, a good man by his Charities may have a stock going in another world while he lives, and when he comes to die, may transport, by Bills of Exchange (as it were) that cumbersome wealth, which no man can, (as the Psalmist 
Ps. 49. 17.  saith) carry with him in kind: and thus do our good works follow 
Apoc. 14. 13.  us into Heaven which we did upon Earth; and the more they here abounded to the relief of others, the more will they abound 
Phil. 4. 17.  there (as Fruits of the Spirit) to our account. When God and the truly charitable man come to reckon, (O happy reckoning!) with what infinite satisfaction shall he find all his great and numerous Debts to God's Justice by the blood and merit of Christ eternally cancelled, and his good deeds only booked by God (acknowledging himself by his gracious Promise his debtor;) to be everlastingly rewarded; and that so punctually, that not so much as a cup of cold water bestowed upon 
Matth. 10. 41.  a charitable account shall be forgotten.  
In this respect it is, that our Bounties are said to make us 
Luk. 16. 9  friends to receive us into everlasting habitations; to wit, such, as (in God's name and for his sake) receive from us: who, as they assist us whiles they live here, by their prayers to obtain them; and by acknowledging the receipt of what we bestow on them in their thanks to God for us, do (as it were) give us those Bills of Exchange which I before spoke of to draw upon God for them: so, when they die, and arrive at the same place of happiness themselves, they personally attest to those Charities they have received, to make good our Title to those Blessed Mansions.  
And thence it is, that our Saviour (acquainting us with the form of the Proceed in the last Judgement,) doth not only tell us, that our Charities will then be the great matters on which we shall be tried: but also, not obscurely intimates, that the Testimonials of his poor members then present, will stand us in great stead, as our witnesses; for so that phrase seems to import, Forasmuch as ye have done it 
Mat. 25. 40.  for the least of these my Brethren, (who are here ready to attest it) ye have done it unto me.  
Whereas, on the contrary, the sordid and tenacious Receiver, as he in his life-time loved his wealth too well to lay it out, though for the good of his Soul, (amator mammonae potiùs quam animae, in St. Cyprians phrase) and therefore hath no good works there recorded, no seed sown in that Country, to yield him any fruit towards his account: so he hath never a friend there to open his mouth for him, and give him a friendly Testimony in that Judgement. And, by consequence, how rich soever he was in this world, he must needs be poor, and naked, and every way miserable in another: having had all his good things in this life, (as the rich Glutton in Hell is told to his 
●u. 16. 25.  eternal discomfort,) he hath nothing to lay claim to in the next. Yea, (which is infinitely worse) as he hath showed no mercy upon Earth, so in the other world he shall have Judgement without mercy, 
Jam. 2. 13.  and not receive a drop of comfort there, who denied his very crumbs to his necessitous Brother here.  
And thus have I justified the Doctrine of my Text fully, by the foundations of Reason itself upon which it stands: and so dispatched the second part of my intended Discourse upon it. I come now to my third and last undertaking, to give you an account of  
III. The Inferences or practical Uses which it affords us, by way of deduction from it. In five Particulars.  
[1. It hence follows, that God hath put every man's present Blessedness, (at least) in a great measure, in his own power.  
For you see, the Acts by which it is very much to be promoted in this Life, are within the reach of his own choice; such the Acts of Giving are: and if a man (withal) take care to perform those Acts according to the measures of true Christianity, he may also thereby, as the Apostle saith, lay up in store for himself a good 
2 Tim. 6. 19  foundation against the Time to come, that he may lay hold on eternal life also.  
Obj. Will it be here objected, that the contrary seems to be the more proper Inference, [That God hath rather dealt hardly with the greater part of Mankind, in that he hath put them rather under a necessity of Receiving than a capacity of Giving, by reason of the narrowness of their Estates, and encumbrances of their worldly circumstances?]  
Sol. If so; I answer, (1) That the Giving in the Text extends not only to the donation of worldly wealth, but also, to all other ways wherein one man may be gratuitously benefited by another; so that he that cannot give money or money-worth, is not excluded from this blessedness by his poverty; seeing there be other ways of benefiting others, that put a man to no temporal expense. Our Counsels, and our Instructions, our Compassions, and our Visits upon many occasions to express them, our good words (many Times) to men, and our Prayers to God, always; are real and great Charities, where we have nothing else to give. (2.) That, even in reference to temporal Gifts, as there be few men, but often meet with objects more necessitous than themselves; so there are few so disabled, but by their labours they might, if they would, not only maintain themselves, but also be sufficiently provided to allow something out of their earnings to relieve those who (either through age or impotency) cannot labour for their own subsistence. (3.) And that the greatest part of those whose temporal condition is straight and uneasy, yet disable themselves more by their Lusts. Those Pence, yea Shillings and Pounds sometimes, which divers ordinary Labourers and Handicraftmen expend in needless company-keeping, in Pride of Apparel, and finer Fare than their condition and capacity will easily allow; might amount to considerable Charities, if employed that way. (4.) And lastly, that not actual giving only, but intentional and dispositive also, where power is wanting, will reach the blessedness of the Text; God accepting the desire which a man hath, in such cases, in stead of the performance, which a man 
2 Cor. 8. 12.  hath not in his own power. Insomuch that two mites are, from the 
Luk. 21. 3.  poor Widow, accounted more, than the great Gifts of wealthy Benefactors. So that, though every man cannot in kind equal the great charitable Donations of Kings and Princes; yet he doth not only equal but exceed them too, in God's account, who hath a mind as large as theirs, though in a far meaner condition: and gives (for generosity) 
2 Sam. 24. 23.  as a King, though (for Estate) he come short of ordinary Subjects.  
From all which, my first Inference appears not to be ill gathered; that the good God hath put this Blessedness so far in every man's power, that no man, if it be not through his own fault, is excluded from a capacity of obtaining it.  
[2. It hence follows also, that those men are so far enemies to their own Blessedness, as the import of this Text extends; who wilfully disable themselves to give, and unnecessarily cast themselves upon a necessity of receiving; and receiving too, in a most dishonourable and ungodly way, as too many do.  
(1. Such are those (in the first place) who out of love to sloth and idleness, choose rather to beg, or steal, than work for their living. Though indeed, as to this sort of men, I needed not to have distinguished betwixt begging and stealing; as if all that did needlessly beg, did not withal steal. For, the Truth is, every lusty Beggar and sturdy Vagrant is a Thief; even while he begs; and takes no more than is voluntarily given him. For so the Apostle plainly insinuates, when he commands those that stole to 
Eph. 4. 28.  steal no more, but rather to labour with their hands that they may have to give to him that needeth. Whence it evidently follows, that he accounts him that was a Thief before, to be the same still, and not to have left that Trade; who labours not, but lives upon the bounty of others, when by his labour he might put himself into a condition not to need it, yea, and to be able to contribute to others needs.  
And indeed, such an one is not only one way, but many ways a Thief: and commits a complicated Theft in every Alms he receives.  
(1.) He robs God of the Bounties he begs and takes of men for God's sake, as truly, as he robs his Neighbour, who in his name, without his order, takes up wares at any of your Shops. (2ly,) He robs himself of the gains which he might honestly make, and the Credit in which he might live, by a laborious Calling. And (3ly,) he robs those that are truly poor, in divers respects: both by defrauding them of that portion of subsistence, which they are entitled unto out of his own earnings, if he laboured as he should; and by diverting into a wrong Channel the Charities of others, which belong to them, whereby he eats the bread out of their mouths, and wears the  that belong to their backs; and lastly, by obstructing and discouraging the Incomes and Revenues of general Bounty; which would be more plentiful to the really necessitous, if they were not overlayed by such supernumerary multitudes of importunate and clamorous Beggars, that deserve not an Alms, and yet will not take an Answer.  
(2. Such as take to that way of living, out of a false opinion of meriting thereby. Which is the course of all those idle Drones and lusty Mendicants among the Papists, who make voluntary Poverty a Religious Profession, and place a great degree of Christian Perfection in a Vow of continual Begging: as if they were resolved to give the flat lie to our Saviour Christ himself by inverting my Text; and pronounce, (in direct opposition to him,) that it is more blessed to receive than give. These Persons are not only equally criminal with others of the Tribe of idle Vagrants and lusty Beggars, for breaking God's Commandment, that appoints all men to live by the labours of an honest Calling; but far more criminal than they, because they blasphemously entitle God himself to the Patronage of their disorderly and irregular living; and affirm that which is an express breach of his Law, to be a work of supererogation, that is, of greater perfection than it requires: and persuade the poor people where they reside, that to give to maintain their idle bellies, is an act of highest merit; whereas (indeed) it is the greatest misplacing of their Charity that can be, as being a direct abetting and encouraging them in a wicked and ungodly way.  
(3. Such as through prodigal Expenses upon their Lusts and Debaucheries, cast themselves into a necessity of receiving by vicious living. Wherein, besides the depriving themselves of that capacity wherein God's Providence once placed them of contributing to their own Blessedness by Bounty; and the simple infelicity which they draw upon themselves of needing Alms from others, who were once able to have bestowed them upon others: they expose themselves likewise to the aggravated misery of receiving just reproaches with their relief, both from their own Consciences, and the tongues of those whose Charities they implore: and can hardly, without a great degree of impudence, dare to beg in God's Name, who have reduced themselves to Beggary in the Devil's service. To whom, indeed, (as to both the former sorts also) your Bridewell is the most proper Almshouse, and the due Correction and Discipline thereof the most proper Alms. And yet,  
[3. It hence follows also, that no man ought to despise any miserable object, whose true Necessities call upon him for his Bounty: either by shutting up the 
1 Jo●. 3. 17.  bowels of his compassion from him, or bestowing the Charities he gives, so, as to clog and lessen them with opprobrious or disdainful circumstances. And that, upon these considerations, which hold also from the import of my Text.  
(1. That whosoever he be, that is presented to thee as an object of thy Charity, gives thee, (whoever thou art,) an opportunity of doing thyself a far better turn than thou canst do him. For how were it possible that any one could ever attain the Blessedness of actual giving, if there were none to receive? And therefore, it is a mercy of God to the Rich, that he hath so ordered it by his Providence, that they shall have 
Mat. 26. 11.  the poor with them always; in that he thereby affords them daily occasions, of making themselves blessed by the continual exercise of their Bounty.  
(2. That if (as among many that are not so in these necessitous times, some certainly are) any of the Petitioners for thy Alms be truly worthy; that which he returns to thee in thanks and prayers, is a greater gift than he receives from thee. For whiles he blesseth God for thee, and blesseth thee in his requests to God to requite thee; he gives thee security of the repayment of that which thou givest him, with the greatest Interest, out of God's Exchequer. And though (it may be) thou knowest not particularly, when those payments are made thee; yet thou hast reason to believe, that the prospering of thy worldly concerns (in general, if they go on prosperously) is a cumulative reward of thy several Charities together; and (it may be, in particular also) thou owest the return of thy next rich adventure, or the success of thy next gainful Bargain, to the last poor man's Prayers that thou didst relieve.  
(3. And, thirdly; that if he that asks thy Charity, be never so unworthy, upon whatever accounts, (even the worst of those mentioned in my former Inference,) yet by that very unworthiness, (whiles his present necessities require relief,) he gives thee an ampler opportunity of heightening thy generosity by the hopelesness of being ever requited by him in any kind; and herein rendering thyself the more like to God himself; who takes it for a great addition to the honour of his bounty, that he doth good to the unthankful, and 
Luk. 6. 35.  causeth his Sun to shine upon the 
Mat. 5. 45.  evil and the good, and his rain to fall upon the just and the unjust.  
[4. This Truth gives us woeful (and yet plentiful) occasion to wonder at and bewail that Ironheartedness of the uncharitable Age in which we live; and the gross Infidelity, or blockish Stupidity, or both, of the great Receivers, the men of ample Estates and Revenues of the world. Their gross Infidelity, if they believe not the Doctrine of my Text, so positively asserted by our Saviour, attested by so great an Apostle, and standing withal upon such fi●m foundations of unanswerable Reason, as I have before shown you this, if any in the Bible, doth. And if they do believe it, and yet act contrary to the evident import of it, their monstrous Stupidity; who are so little sensible of, or affected with, so great a part of their greatest concern, Blessedness.  
These rich Misers (as they are most truly called by a Name most opposite to Blessedness) both my subject, and my inclinations, lead me here to prosecute with the sharpest and keenest of reproofs. But I shall forbear, considering, that their own Consciences (if they have any) must needs (upon the Principles I have before laid down) do that work sufficiently for me: at least, that by their own  Confession, they have cause to do so, and they continually stand in fear that they will; seeing they meditate so many Excuses to guard themselves from their lashes, as they are constantly wont to do.  
And yet (unhappy men that they are!) it fares so unluckily with them, that those very Excuses which they are wont to make use of to stave off all charitable motions suggested to them from others, and stifle their own workings of good nature, if at any time they stir, in their bosoms; do only serve to declare how willing, and withal how skilful and ingenious they are, to cheat themselves of their own Blessedness. And this you will abundantly see, (and they too, if their eyes be not totally blinded) by this brief examination of the most usual of them by the measures of this blessed Proverb of our Saviour.  
Obj. The first, (and that that is most ready in all their mouths, when any considerable Charities are suggested to them) is; such and such are better able to give than they, and they will first see what they give, that they may follow their Example.  
Sol. That is, (being interpreted according to the Tenor of this Text) either, that they are willing to make this great Compliment to their Neighbours, that they are content to yield to them the precedency, though in point of Blessedness itself; and think it good manners, (even therein,) to let their betters go before them. But these men ought to consider, that it is a dear and costly compliment, that loseth a man an opportunity of making himself Blessed; yea, or any way retardeth it.  
Or else, that they are desirous to have the price of blessedness itself beaten down by other Chapmen, before they will deal in the commodity: which implies, that they are afraid of purchasing it for more than it is worth; a conceit that no man ever entertained before them in matter of Blessedness, which generally men think to be well purchased at the price of all that can be asked for it.  
Obj. A second usual excuse is, They are not the men the world takes them for; not so rich, or well to pass (as they say) as they are reputed.  
Sol. Nor so wise neither, as they desire to be reputed, if this Doctrine be true; who have an opportunity offered of making the best Bargain they ever made in their lives, for Blessedness itself, and yet want an heart to make use of it.  
Obj. Charities that have been bestowed by others before them, have been misemployed; and they will be satisfied that those are better disposed before they give more.  
Sol. The true meaning of this excuse is (being measured by the standard of my Text) that they are unwilling to be blessed themselves, till they can be assured that all the world is honest. And both, (if they continue of this mind,) are like to fall out together.  
Obj. There are so many objects of Charity, that it is even oppressed with the number; and it is to little purpose for a man to give to one or two, except he could give to all that need; for (at this rate) he cannot foresee, if he once begin to be charitable, when he shall make an end.  
Sol. That is, thou art sorely grieved, that thou hast so many opportunities offered to make thyself blessed; and art afraid, that the taking hold of those that are set before thee will draw on more; so that thou shalt never make an end of accumulating blessedness to thyself. Is this a rational fear?  
Obj. Times are hard; Trading is dead; Customers break daily in their debts; they run great hazards in the small deal the hard Times afford them; etc.  
Sol. Did ever rational Creature argue at this Rate? Times are bad; Ergo, 'tis out of season to make myself blessed. Trading is dead; Ergo, I am unwilling to deal in that Commodity, which yields the quickest and the richest Returns. Customers break; therefore I resolve to deal still with breaking Customers, and not with God that can never break. I run great hazards in the Trade I drive; therefore I am loath to take the best course in the world to ensure my Adventures; the taking God into Partnership with me in them. I commended some persons before to the Discipline of one of your Hospitals, that of Bridewell: And the men that argue at this rate, are as worthy to come under the Discipline of the other, that of Bethlem.  
Obj. I have Wife and Children to provide for, and I think myself obliged in the first place to take care of them: for if I neglect them, the Apostle tells me, I am worse than 
1 Tim. 5. 8.  an Infidel.  
Sol. That is, thou art desirous to provide better for them, than to make them blessed; which, I have told you before, the Families and Posterity of liberal men are. Nay (which is worse,) thou art willing to bequeath them a Curse in stead of a Blessing: to leave them an Estate blown upon and blasted by divine malediction, and yet to look on this as a good Provision for them: which, it is (indeed) to be worse than the worst of Infidels, so much as to imagine.  
Obj. I intent such and such Charities when I die, and therefore desire not to be importuned till then in things of this Nature.  
Sol. That is, in plainer Terms, (if my Text be true) that thou art resolved to part with nothing, (no not for Blessedness itself,) till thou needs must; that thou thinkest thy Executors fit to be entrusted with thy greatest Concern, (that of Blessedness) than thyself, and art willing to hazard it upon their fidelity; That thou art afraid of being blessed till thou come to die: as if (contrary to the desire of all mankind) thou thoughtest it out of season to foretaste any part of it in this life.  
Did you ever hear any thing that pretended to Reason and Argument, more unluckily confuting itself, than all these excuses that I have mentioned, do? And yet (such is the folly of sordid penuriousness,) there are a great many more of the same bran, perpetually in the mouths of the men that are rich in this world (as our Saviour saith) but not rich towards God; which, though I mention not, yet (by the measures I have given you from this Text) you may (whenever you meet with them) yourselves prove to be no less guilty of a like felonious destroying themselves.  
And now the foolish Mammonist, that thinks to hid his nakedness with these Fig-leaves, may see, that if his own Excuses taken up for his defence, thus fight against him in the judgement of men; they will be more killingly managed against him before the Judgement-seat of Jesus Christ: who is infinitely better able to manage the consequences of his own Doctrine, than I or any other Preacher can; and will undoubtedly then show all the world, what great Fools they are, that are so wise in their own conceits, to evade the Duty that he requires of them, and cheat themselves.  
And are these, now, the men whom the fond world is so apt to admire as shrewd men, for parts and cunning contrivances to advance themselves? whose examples they set before their sons; and whose say they are wont to approve and quote as the great rules of living happily; and prefer 
Ps. 49. 13.  them before this and others of like nature, that are recommended to them, from the mouth of their blessed Saviour, and the holy Penmen of the Sacred Scriptures? Or, are they not rather persons whose way is folly; whose sayings (indeed,) are only worthy to be reckoned among the wild and extravagant discourses of Children and Madmen; and themselves to be numbered, as the Spirit of God ranks them, among the beasts that perish? 
V 20.   
[5. It hence follows, that to excite and direct any man's charity (how ungrateful soever this Office of kindness seem to some) is really an obliging courtesy; because the intent of it is, (properly) to assist him towards the making himself blessed.  
Upon which account (hoping I have here to deal with those that will so interpret my intentions) I shall apply myself (in the last place) to exhort you to Charitable Actions, and direct you in the performance of them.  
(1. To exhort you, to the serious practice of this Doctrine: to be merciful, and bountiful, compassionate and charitable; rich in good works, ready to distribute, 
1 Tim. 6. 18.  willing to communicate; doing good to all men as you have opportunity; 
Gal. 6. 10.  obliging all the world, as far as in you lies, by real benefits, and effects of diffusive goodness.  
To persuade you whereunto, I hope I shall need no other Arguments, than (in the prosecution of this Text) I have already at large insisted on: And therefore I shall only make some short reflections upon it to my present purpose, and leave it to you to enlarge upon them, (which I hope you will do) in your private Meditations.  
(1.) And first, I entreat you from thence to inform yourselves, what it is that I persuade you to, Is it not, (that which you all profess, as your very nature inclines you, to desire above all things,) to make yourselves blessed? Is it not that, which all men (though they take different ways to it, according to their several apprehensions) do design and pursue?  
(2.) Will you say, you agree with me indeed in the end, but you are not so well satisfied in the means I advise you to for the attainment of it? Does it stick with you, that giving, (to which you are so averse,) is recommended as the way to blessedness? Do I, therefore, say this of myself, or saith not the Scripture the same also? View the Text again, and read there; [It is a blessed thing to give.]  
(3.) Is it an inferior and less effectual means to the attainment of that end, than (that which the general practice of mankind seems more to recommend,) the way of receiving; that is, of getting and keeping the good things of this life to yourselves? Glance on it again, and it tells you farther, [It is more blessed to give, than to receive.]  
(4.) Does this seem an hard saying to you; a Paradox, which you are difficult to believe without good Vouchers to assure you of the Truth of it? Look on once more, and you will find, it is quoted, as the saying of the Lord Jesus, an Author beyond all exception, (especially to Christians, as we all profess ourselves:) and one, who, (as I have before shown you) is the most competent Judge, in this case, of all men that ever were, or shall be.  
(5.) Do you question, whether he indeed said so, or is rather quoted as if he had said it, to give reputation to that which had its original from an obscurer Author? Surely, you cannot be of that mind; when you look backward, and there read, that it is a saying attributed to our Saviour, by the great Apostle St. Paul, in a Solemn Visitation Sermon, before the Elders of Ephesus, whom he calls in as Witnesses to the Verity of his Quotation, as I told you before; and knew, if he had falsifyed in that quotation, they were able to have confuted him.  
(6.) Does it seem, (seeing it is only in this one place taken notice of,) to be a casual word dropped from him by the by, (as we sometimes throw out Paradoxes to maintain discourse,) without Premeditation; and therefore used only once or twice by him; not frequently, much less constantly, as an axiom of approved Verity? The very form of the Apostles quotation confutes this conceit, for it is quoted, as Proverbs are wont to be, with an implication, that it was his familiar and constant word, for which he was noted, as governing his whole life by this Principle.  
(7.) Will you object (as we are wont to be very inventive when we study excuses to ward off a Truth we have no mind to entertain) that it was a saying (indeed) of his; but hardly thought great enough to be quoted from him, by any of those Apostles that heard him, or recommended to Posterity by any one but him that heard him not in person; they that did so, not minding it so much as to commit it to memory? The Text also confutes this fond conceit. For it supposeth it to be famously known, even as far as Ephesus; and so noted, that it needed only to be remembered by them actually, as a constant motive to Beneficence, which they had long before treasured up in their memories notionally, as a saying of special note and eminency.  
(8.) Lastly, will you suppose, that the Apostle, (who then quoted it, as he had occasion, to stir up the Charity of Christians,) did, (as too many Preachers do,) press upon his Auditory a saying of our Lord Jesus, which he, and his Brethren did not so far value themselves, as to practise it in their own Persons? Look then a little farther backward of the Text, and you will find him there urging his own example and experience in the practical use of this Principle. For he appeals to all their knowledges, to attest, that his own hands (whiles he 
V 34.  preached the Gospel freely among them) ministered (by daily labouring) to his and his companions necessities; and that he exhorted them not only to follow their Saviour's Doctrine, but also his own example in conformity to it.  
So that you see, beloved, no starting-hole is left (by the prudent foresight of the holy Penman of this Scripture,) for infidelity to escape the force and authority thereof: but every word and circumstance so ordered as to contribute more strength and efficacy to it.  
And now, what shall I say more, what need I to say more, upon this head? If such a saying, of such an Author, recommended to you by such an Orator, in such an Assembly, in so solemn and affectionate a manner, and preferred by him to that place in his discourse which was most likely to commend it to the special notice and remembrance of his hearers, (the very last close and concluding period of the last Sermon that ever he was to make among them:) I say, if such a saying, so circumstantiated, will not bear weight with you: it will be vain for me to imagine, that any thing said by me superadded thereunto, should be of any force or prevalency upon you.  
And therefore, (for a close of this part of my Address to you) I shall only recommend it to your own thoughts as a matter of serious consideration, how you will answer it at the last day, when that blessed Apostle, that spoke these words from the mouth of our Lord Jesus, and that holy Evangelist who hath transmitted them on Sacred Record to us, (that I join not myself with them who have all this while been pressing them upon you,) shall take up the Prophet's complaint against you, and say, Lord, who hath believed our report? 
Isa. 53. 1.  Yea, when your blessed Saviour himself shall charge you with infidelity, as those in whom his own words have no place? How 
Joh. 8. 37.  do you think, you shall be able to look him in the face, when it shall be objected to you before his terrible Tribunal, that the dirty Principles, and sordid Practices of a brutish sort of Worldlings and Muckworms, have had more force with you for the government of your lives, than his heavenly Doctrine, and glorious Example? that you never stuck at the gratifying your lusts with vast expenses, whenever they called for them; and never dropped halfpences or farthings so penuriously on any occasion, as when you were called upon in his Name and for his sake to promote a good work? that the Furniture of one room to beautify your new dwellings, the expense of one Treatment to entertain your riotous Guests, the price of one Jewel or other costly Ornament to express your vain Pride, the charge of one Months keeping for a cast of Hawks or a kennel of Hounds, for your Country Recreation; yea, (which is far worse,) the great stakes that you adventure upon one cast of a Die, the value of one bribe to blind the eyes of Justice, and promote a wrongful cause, the Hire of an Harlot for one nights sinful pleasure, and the like rates of other costly Debaucheries, (toties quoties,) a mounted to more by far, than all the sums, put all together, that all your lives long, you have bestowed upon Religious and Charitable Uses?  
Are these, my friends, are these the fruits that you desire may abound to your account at that 
Phil. 4. 1●.  Day? If they be, I fear, you will make but a sad account where such Items make up the doleful reckoning. Is this the way you take to make you friends to receive 
Lu. 16. 9  you, when you fail, into everlasting habitations? If so, I doubt, your Lodgings will be provided for you on the wrong side of the other world: not in the House made without hands, eternal in the 
2 Cor. 5. 1.  Heavens; but the Furnace of everlasting Fire, and the Dungeon of everlasting darkness. Is this the way wherein you think to lay up in-store a good foundation 
1 Tim. 6. 19  for the time to come, that you may lay hold of eternal life? If it be, I am sorely afraid, you will finde you have mistaken your ground, and built your hopes upon the sand without a foundation; as our Saviour tells us all those do, who hear his sayings (of which my Text is one of the chief,) and do 
Mat. 7. 26.  them not.  
But it may be, I have stood longer than needed upon this Exhortation, to those, divers of whom, (as the Apostle speaks in commendation of the M●c●donians) 
2 Cor. 8. 3.  are to their power, yea and beyond their power already willing of themselves; who devise liberal 
I●a. 32. 8.  things, and need only to be instructed how they may reduce their own good inclinations to act, and pursue their bountiful intentions, in such a sort, as to make them most effectually contributory to the blessedness which my Text promiseth them.  
Which, if it be so, (and I am willing in my Charity to so worthy an Auditory to presume it to be so;) gives me occasion in the next place, to enter on my last task, viz.  
(2. To give you such directions, in the pursuance whereof, you may amply experiment the truth of this Doctrine in yourselves. All which (as you will see,) have so much countenance from the Text itself, that you may take them all for further Deductions and Inferences from it.  
1.) The first shall concern the matter of your Charity; which must consist of that which is properly your own to give. The fountains of Charity that you disperse abroad, and the rivers that (like your New River) you derive through the streets, (to allude to that of Solomon in another case,) ought to be only your own, and 
Prov. 9 16, 17, 18.  no strangers with you; that your own bountiful Souls (the grand Fountain from whence they proceed,) may be blessed. Otherwise, God that hates Robbery for 
Isa. 61. 8.  a Burnt-offering, will never look upon your good deeds of this kind as sacrifices wherewith he is well 
Heb. 13. 16.  pleased. There is a Curse upon all those temporal blessings, which are the fruits of Theft and Rapine, of Cheating and Cozenage, of Bribery and Extortion; and (which is commonly lest thought of) the Sacrilegious spoils of his Church, and its Sacred Revenues: and blessedness can never grow upon that Stock, that (like the worm at that of 
Jonah 4. 7.  Ionas his Gourd) hath God's Curse at the root of it.  
Besides, the palpable Cheat that the very Design of reaping blessedness to a man's self from that seed which is stolen out of his Neighbour's Barn, does imply; is such a mockery of God, (who in such matters is not to be mocked,) 
Gal. 6. 7.  that such a Giver (as Jacob did when he attempted in his Brother's Garments to rob him of his Father's Benediction) may rather fear he shall by that very attempt, (if he were never so secure of it before,) bring a Curse 
Gen. 27. 12.  upon himself rather than a Blessing.  
2.) The motives of it, must be Christian. For it is from Christ, that the Blessedness of the Text must be expected: and he that seeks blessedness from Christ's Promise must govern himself by his Precepts: as in all other particulars, so in the ends and motives upon which he seeks it. Now those must be; pure obedience to the Command of Christ, and 
1 Pet. 2. 3. Heb. 13. 16. Mat. 5. 16.  Faith of being accepted in him; the glory of our Father which is in heaven, and the causing through 
2 Cor. 9 11, 12, 13.  our rich bounty thanksgivings to him to be abundant; the professing our subjection to the Gospel of Christ; the walking worthy of the 
Col. 1. 10.  Lord to all pleasing by our fruitfulness in every good work; the showing our Faith; the adorning 
Jam. 2. 18.  of the Doctrine of our Lord Jesus, 
Tit. 2. 10. 1 Tim. 2. 10.  and the Profession of Godliness.  
These, and the like motives and designs of Charity, we find recommended to Christians, by our Saviour and his Apostles; by which we ought to direct our intentions therein, that we may be blessed in our deed. But where the Romish Church learns those, which in the greatest Charities they boast so much of, have usually the greatest Influence, (the obtaining the pardon of sins, the delivering their own and others Souls out of Purgatory, and the meriting of Eternal Life,) I know not. I am sure, they have little countenance from Scripture: which, as it knows no Purgatory, and therefore directs no such means to any one to get out of it; so, can no expressions be found therein, that give any just countenance to expect either pardon of sins, or eternal life, as the merit of our Charities. For, if (as the Papists plead) the Scripture bids us break off our sins by 
Dan. 4. 27  righteousness, and our iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; yet it is only, (as in Nebuchadnezars case) the changing a course of oppression and unjust violence by Repentance into that of Charity and Beneficence, which is there intended. If it tell us, that Charity hideth a 
1 Pet. 4. 8.  multitude of sins, it means only preventively, in reference to the passionate effects of an uncharitable temper which stirreth up strife, as the opposition in Solomon's 
Prov. 10. 12.  Text whence it is quoted, interprets it. And to all other such places of Scripture, itself gives us this one grand Bar against expounding them to that Popish sense, that it tells us, that God hath appointed us another sufficient Propitiation for our sins, 
1 Joh. 2. 2.  who hath undertaken by himself, (and therefore needs not our Charities to assist him in this work) to purge them. And if it 
Heb. 1. 3.  allow us (as a secondary end) to have a respect to Eternal Life in our good deeds of this kind, yet it is only in order to the disposing ourselves for it, by such actions as perfect and improve us 
Col. 3. 14.  in Christianity, of which Charity in its full latitude is one; and not to encourage us in a fond opinion of meriting it by them. For it withal tells us, that we must receive the very reward of our good works as a Gift, not 
Rom. 6. 23.  as Wages, from God; and acknowledge, when we have done all, (if we could do all) that we ought, in this or any other kind, that we are even then but unprofitable 
Lu. 17. 10.  servants; and lastly, that we must look to be saved not by works of righteousness which 
Tit. 3. 5.  we have done, but of God's mere grace and mercy.  
3.) The manner in which our Charities must be performed, shall be the matter of my third Direction. And that includes these particulars: Which also receive like countenance from the Text.  
(1.) Readiness and voluntary forwardness of Mind, which (as I told you before) the Apostle so highly commends in the Macedonians; and also in the Corinthians, 
2 Cor. 8. 3, 10.  to whom he propounds their example, for their farther encouragement. And this evidently follows from the Doctrine contained in my Text. For there can be nothing more absurd, than to pretend a belief, that it is so great a blessedness to give; and yet to need to be forced by Law, or constrained by importunity thereunto: seeing there is nothing toward which we move with more freeness, than that that (we understand or believe) tends to make us blessed.  
(2.) Speediness and Celerity. Solomon requires us, in such cases, not to say to an indigent Neighbour, Go, and come again, 
Pro. 3. 28.  and to morrow I will give; and we are required by the Apostle, not to let slip the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the proper season or opportunity of doing 
Gal. 6. 10.  good; than which there is nothing of a quicker motion, or will sooner slip by us if neglected, and therefore it ought in all duties to be redeemed, by a careful 
Eph. 5. 16.  taking hold of it. And this (saith Seneca) is an argument of our unwillingness to such bountiful acts, when we are slow in doing of them. Qui tardè fecit beneficium, diu noluit. This direction also follows from the Text. For it implies a Contradiction, for any one to move slowly to that wherein he looks for Blessedness.  
(3.) Simplicity, or singleness of heart, must be another Ingredient in all our acts of Charity; which disclaims all byends and designs folded together with those true Christian ends which (I before told you) we ought herein to confine ourselves unto. He that gives for ostentation or vainglory, or any ambitious project, and blows (with the 
Mat. 6. 1, 2.  Pharisees) a trumpet before his Alms, to call spectators, hath his Reward, saith our Saviour; i. e. forfeits the true blessedness his Bounty would otherwise yield him, by an imaginary felicity he takes in the vain applause of men. He that gives with a covetous design, (as some do) to those from whom he hopes to receive in the like kind, makes receiving, his blessedness; not giving: because he makes that the end and this the means. Now that hath not in it the true nature of Blessedness, that needs any thing else to make it desirable.  
(4.) Plentifulness, and abundance. So the Apostle directs the Corinthians to extend their Charity, 
2 Cor. 9 5.  as a matter of Bounty not of Covetousness. Not, as if we were to buy a mean commodity in the Market, wherein we are wont to beat down the Price as low as we can, even to halfpennies and farthings: but as we would bid for a Pearl of inestimable value, which men think well bought at whatever rate: or as the Competitors bade for the Roman Empire (in its later Age when the Praetorian Soldiers made their markets of it,) that stuck at no sums to outbid each other. For so Blessedness deserves to be purchased: he that under-rates it, is never likely to obtain it. He that soweth sparingly (saith the Apostle, in this Argument,) shall reap sparingly, and he which soweth 
2 Cor. 9 6.  bountifully shall reap bountifully. A narrow-hearted giver, is as foolish, as he that from a few grains of Wheat expects to reap an Harvest like the rich man's in the Gospel, that was fain to enlarge his Barns to receive his increase.  
5. Constancy and Perseverance. We must not (saith the Apostle 
Gal. 6. 9  also, in this affair) be weary of well-doing. Our goodness must herein imitate Gods, which (as the Psalmist tells us) endureth continually. 
Psal. 52. 1.  We must sow our seed of Charity in the morning of our life, 
Eccles. 11. 6.  and in the evening we must not withhold our hand. And this also follows from the Doctrine of the Text. For that which we most desire in blessedness, (and which, indeed, completes it,) is duration. And therefore those acts by which it is attained, cannot rationally be wearisome; seeing lassitude can never be a companion of felicity.  
4.) The Measures and Proportions of your Chari●y shall fill the last place in these Directions. And those also are not obscurely to be determined, from the import of this Doctrine. And that both  

1. In general, and  
2. In special.   
(1.) In general; for the proportioning all your Charities, you ought to consider,  
1. Your own Abilities: and those not measured by the Standard of Pride, Covetousness, and unbelieving distrust of God's Providence; but by the rules of Christian prudence, considering all those circumstances which the condition of your affairs is accompanied withal. For he that gives much, in comparison with others that are beneath him (it may be far more) in Estate; and yet little, in comparison of what he might afford: withholdeth (in Solomon's Phrase) more than is 
Pro. 11. 24.  meet, and deserves blessedness should be measured to him, by the same scanty measure. And he, that by giving more than he can well spare, disables himself to give, deprives himself of so much blessedness for the future, as he loseth of the capacity he had, of continuing bountiful.  
2. The Receivers just capacity; all his circumstances also being duly weighed in the same balance of Christian Prudence. For by giving too largely upon one occasion, a man is necessitated many times to lose many future occasions of advancing his blessedness in the way we are speaking of: and by giving too little to any one, he loseth the present opportunity, or at least improves it not to the best advantage to that end.  
(2.) In special, for the proportioning of particular Bounties and Charities, as they are to be diversely ordered, both in precedency and quantity, according to the different obligations which result from the diversity of objects and occasions: there are these farther Rules to be observed.  
1. God, and our Country, our Parents, and our Children, and other near Relations, our former Benefactors and their Posterity, our Neighbours and Acquaintance, and among them especially those of the household of 
Gal. 6. 9  faith, and those that are industrious, and not wont to beg, but under some present providential exigency; etc. are to have (in their several circumstances proportionably,) the cream and chief of our Bounties; and the largest measures of it too. And from thence, we must descend to all men, Christians and Heathens, worthy and unworthy, that are partakers of the same common humanity with us.  
For the nature of the Soil, on which we sow to reap blessedness, (though no Soil be altogether barren) is to be considered by the Seedsman; and the more fruitful it is likely to be, the more seed is to be committed to it. Now, seeing all our good deeds of this kind are so far contributory to our blessedness, as they are accepted by God, and approved by our own Consciences; and the measure of both these is our Duty: therefore where in Duty we are obliged to give first and most, we may expect a more early and plentiful Harvest.  
2. Public Charities are to be preferred before private; and to do good to many, is more to be chosen, than to confine a man's Beneficence to a few. The blessedness that results from Bounty, (like the beams that are reflected from an enlightened Body,) is more or less large and plentiful, according to the largeness of the object upon which it falls. And indeed, seeing the public Benefactor, (of all men) is most like God, (the Sphere of whose Bounty is of equal dimensions with the whole world;) he cannot be supposed to approach less to him in Blessedness than he doth in Bounty: especially considering, that he is most communicative of himself, to those that most resemble him.  
3. Perpetual Charities are to be preferred before those that are of short continuance. I mean, such as are bestowed upon Churches, Colleges, Schools, Hospitals, Almshouses, and all other such uses as endure to successive Ages, and (as far as the Donours' intention and design can reach it,) to the end of the world. I say, as far as the Donours' design can reach it; because I know too often, those Charities that were intended to be immortal, are by the unfaithfulness or sacrilegious Covetousness of after Ages embezzled and perverted to private uses: though (yet) that should discourage no man's Bounties, seeing God judgeth of them, by the intendment of the Giver, not by the effect of the Gifts themselves, which it was not in the power of the Giver perpetually to secure. And the reason why Charities of this nature are to be so preferred, is (by a fair Inference from the Text also,) because perpetual Charities bear the best proportion to that property of Blessedness (to which they contribute) which I told you before, consummates it; that is, Perpetuity. For as to our memory, (which is the greatest blessedness, which we are capable of perpetuating in this world) this is the way to engage all generations to call us blessed. And, as to our Souls, and the condition of them in another world; it may on fair grounds be presumed, that the bountiful rewarder of our good works, will proportion the extent of the reward to that of the work, and make perpetual additions of happiness to those in Heaven, whose Charities perpetually grow upon earth.  
4. Lastly, Charities to men's Souls, are to be preferred before those that extend only to their Bodies. For he is the greatest Benefactor to any one, that doth him the greatest good; which is, certainly, the saving of his Soul. And then, it follows from the Text, that the greater the good is that any man does to another, the greater is the blessedness that reflects from it: as that Oven that is most intensely heated, sends back a greater and more intense heat upon him that heats it, than that which is made hot in a lower degree.  
And thus, I have done with my Text, both as to the Explication of the Terms, the farther confirmation of its Truth, and the general Inferences arising from it. And what now remains, but to close up this Discourse with a word of particular Application to yourselves, and your present occasions?  
It is a thing notoriously known, that (for these three sorts of Charity last mentioned) this famous City hath in all Ages passed yielded abundance of blessed Benefactors; as appears in the many public Monuments thereof: and those so ordered, as to be perpetual Reliefs both to the Bodies and Souls of Men, to all succeeding Generations. And I no ways doubt, but that the Names of many of the present Age, will be added to their worthy Predecessors, and transmitted, with like Honour to Posterity.  
And though we must acknowledge, that you the worthy trusties for the several Hospitals of this City, deserve to be reckoned among the blessed Givers in the Text, though you give them no more than you daily do when just occasion requires; to wit, your presence and countenance, your time and parts and pains, which you might otherwise employ to your worldly advantage; and lastly, your honest and faithful care in the managery of your Trusts, with no profit or emolument thence accrueing to yourselves: yet it is to be hoped, that you will also bless yourselves yet farther, by adding, of your own Donation, to the Charities, which you govern and manage for your Predecessors.  
And, in special, (as my present Relation obligeth me) give me leave, (not with any design to obstruct or discourage any ones good Inclinations to the rest, for the effects of the late dreadful Fire, have been so universal that they have all need enough) to mind you more particularly of your two Hospitals of Bridewell and Bethlem; too much (it may be) of late forgotten, in the subsidiary Charities of particular Citizens, though they are inferior to none in the uses they are appointed for; and (it may be too) in some respects, of greater public use and advantage than any of the rest.  
For in the one of them (that of Bethlem, the only Hospital, as I understand of that kind in the three Kingdoms) the constant Charities which you therein dispense, imitate the very creating goodness of God, in the successful means that are used for the restoring (not of men's lamed and maimed limbs, and members, as in some other of your Hospitals, but) of Humanity itself, to abundance of miserable Creatures, (and the more miserable for that they understand not their own misery, but rather delight and glory in it, and resist as far as they can, the means of their recovery;) who retain nothing of man, but shape and voice, to difference them from the worst of Brutes: whose understanding and reason 
Dan. 4. 34, 36.  returning to them (as Nebuchadnezzar's did when he was cured of a like distemper) bless God (and you under him the blessed means thereof,) for their restitution.  
In the other, (that of Bridewell,) besides the imitation of the converting and renewing Grace of God, (as far as just severities can effect it, and we have no reason to think them altogether ineffectual, seeing the Scripture tells us, that the rod and reproof, are means appointed 
Prov. 29. 15.  to give wisdom;) in the recovering and reclaiming notorious sinners from the error of their ways, and saving their souls from death, wherein the Apostle James placeth a great part of Charity: 
Jam. ●. ult.  you also strive to resemble his preventing Grace likewise by the constant care taken, and provision made therein, for the Christian education of many miserably necessitous Children in honest Trades and employments; wherein they may get their livelihood by labour, which otherwise, (being trained up to no other course of life but Begging or Thieving,) would be endangered to an almost inevitable ruin both of Body and Soul.  
All of whom, may, through God's blessing on your endeavours (though like the guests in our Saviour's Parable, they be many of them gathered up by your Officers from the Highways and Hedges, and brought into your Government by necessary compulsion) prove, as divers of them have done, (who, to their own Honour as well as that of your City, and to the Glory of God principally, that directed and enabled you to make such provision for them, have appeared and will hereafter (not doubt) Annually continue to appear in public to give proof thereof:) honest and substantial Citizens.  
A mercy, for which, (next under God, and the general influence of the Lord Maior and Aldermen of this famous City) they must acknowledge themselves infinitely obliged to the Fatherly care, and diligent inspection of a public spirited, prudent, vigilant, and active Precedent (whose larger character I must forbear at present in tenderness to his modesty) together with the worthy Governors his Assistants.  
All that I have more to add, concerning both Hospitals, at this Time, is, That, it is to be hoped, the blessedness, you have already (according to my Text) found in your past Beneficences, will encourage you (beyond all the Rhetoric which, if I had it, I could bestow on such an Argument,) to go on, and effectually promote such further designs, as shall be suggested to you for the rendering them more useful to the ends of these several Foundations.  
And here give me leave, (I beseech you) first of all, to recommend to you, the New-Building, (among all the famous Structures that your City hath raised for public uses since the last dreadful fire) of your Hospital of Bethlem: which I do upon this consideration, that those who have the particular Inspection of that Hospital, (and especially, that learned and diligent Physician who can hardly be valued sufficiently for his great skill, fidelity and industry in that employment) have declared, that they judge it very convenient, if not necessary, (considering the great numbers that are continually sent thither for cure) that their straight Accommodations of Lodging, should be enlarged both as to Capacity and Conveniency; but are discouraged in the pursuance of those thoughts, by the prospect of the great charge thereof far exceeding the proportion of its small Revenues, (the smallest of any Hospital in London) except they be assisted by some worthy Persons particular Munificences.  
And next, on the behalf of your other Hospital of Bridewell; it is not unknown to the most of you, that a very great part thereof was restored out of its ruins and rubbish, since the late dreadful Conflagration, at its own charge: whereupon, their whole Stock being exhausted, and the Building (for a great part remaining) likely to be left unfinished, they must for ever acknowledge the seasonable Assistance of the Right Honourable the Lord Maior and the Court of Aldermen, towards the perfecting of the Edifice, out of the public Purse; without which, those Wastes, were like to have been Desolations of many Generations.  
But yet when that great work is throughly finished, (which is now near done) there will (there also) be farther need of additional private Charities.  
First, in order to the endowing a School, (already as to the case, built,) for the improvement of the young Nurselings of your Charity, the Blue Boys, in Reading, Writing, and casting Account, etc. at such hours as shall be assigned by the Governors, with the least entrenchment that may be, upon their Master's occasions. Which, if it were once effected, it is not to be doubted, but some of them that are of riper Capacities, having their education thus heightened, would when they come out of their time, be enabled to apply themselves to more beneficial and advantageous employments, than they can expect the mean Manufactures they are there bred to, will afford them.  
And secondly, in order to the more liberal rewarding of the most honest and industrious of them, when they have faithfully served their Apprenticeships, with such an concouraging Stock to set up withal; as might enter them into their new Callings with an hopefuller prospect of carrying them on in a thriving and creditable way. Upon which expectation they would (doubtless) more generally be induced, to acquiesce in the services allotted to them, more contentedly, follow their business more diligently, and carry themselves, (in hope of their good word at parting to recommend them to your Bounty) to their Masters more dutifully: and not be tempted, (as too many daily are, by the difficulties of getting a livelihood by their Labours when they are freemen,) to run away, and return again to the worse Trade they were first bred in.  
These particulars, I have presumed to suggest to your wisdoms, not to limit them to my conceptions, as if I knew better how to manage your Governments than yourselves; but only as probationers for your approbation and effectual concurrence, in case, upon due consideration, you find them worthy thereof.  
Now the Lord give you all so affecting a sense of the Truths I have delivered concerning the blessedness of Giving above Receiving; that you may be desirous of making experiment of it yourselves: and then give you to find it every way as I have taught you, in your Persons, in your Houses, in your Trades, in your Memories, in your Posterities; and principally, in your Souls, and their everlasting Concerns, in the last and great day of our Lord Jesus: To whom, etc.   
FINIS.   

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