Tulse Mayor. Curia special. tent. die Mercurii in Hebdomad. Fest. Pasch. secund. April. 1684. Annoque Reg. Regis Caroli Secundi Angliae, etc. xxxvi.  
THIS Court doth desire the Right Reverend Father in God, Francis Lord Bishop of Rochester to Print his Sermon, Preached in St. Bridgets Church on Monday last, before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City.  
Wagstaffe.   

A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable Sir Henry Tulse, LORD MAYOR OF The City of London: And the COURT of ALDERMEN, Together with the Governors of the Hospitals.  
AT The Parish-Church of St. Bridget, on Easter Monday, March 31. 1684.  
By the Right Reverend Father in God FRANCIS Lord Bishop of Rochester, and Almoner to His Majesty.  
LONDON: Printed for Be●j. took, at the Ship in Saint Paul's Churchyard. 1684.   

To the Right Honourable Sir Henry Tulse, LORD MAYOR OF THE CITY OF LONDON: And to the Honourable Court of ALDERMEN.  
My Lord,  
AS I showed the just Deference I had and must ever have to your Lordship, and to all the worthy Governors of this great City, when upon the first Intimation of the Choice you had done me the favour to make of me, I was ready to serve your Devotions, so upon the signification of your pleasure, that I should publish this Discourse, tho' fit for a Popular Audience, than for the Press, it would ill suit with the Office I have the Honovor to bear of Distributing the Royal Alms, should I any longer delay so slender a Contribution as This to the City-Charity, to be one of your Remembrancers, and Solicitors in that behalf.  
My Lord, While I Exhort you to do what is not only your Duty but your Practice, I take the only course that is proper for One in my Station to Adorn you and yet not Flater you, nay to Commend you without any Compliment; especially for your perpetual and most Loyal Care of the Public Peace, which does so mightily befriend all Public Works of Charity, you that preserve it by duly Exercising your Authority, tho' you are far from Affecting the style of Benefactors, yet you are such and more, in subordination to His Majesty; who as from His First Wonderful ●nd Happy Restauration He may justly Wear That Glorious Title, The Repairer of the Breach. So upon the Late no less happy, and perhaps all things considered, no less wonderful Re-Establishment of the Government, and Re-Settlement of so many Disordered Corporations, He may be truly styled, The Restorer of Cities to dwell in: For a Great City grows an Inhospitable if not an Inhabitable Place, and may be properly called a Great Wilderness, when the Bonds of Civil Government, which is so absolutely Necessary to keep Humane Society together, are broken asunder: Your Names will be famous in our Story, who under God and the King, have been so Instrumental in bringing back Excellent Order where Confusion, or which is all one, the Multitude began to Reign: That it may please God to Prosper and Perfect all Your Honourable and Charitable Undertake is my Hearty Prayer.  
My Lord, I am Your Lordship's most Obedient and most Humble Servant, Fran. Roffens.   

A SERMON PREACHED On St. Luke xiv. 13, 14.  
But when thou makest a Feast, call the Poor, the Maimed, the Lame, the Blind:  
And thou shalt be Blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just.  
WELL and Wisely has the Piety of those that went before us, (a Piety worthily followed by the present Noble Senators of this Great City) Ordained and Appointed, that these Holy Festival-Days, which wait upon Easter-Day, should be Honoured with these solemn Assemblies, and that in order to these two Great and Good Ends; in the first place, That of Praising God with the rest of the Christian World, for the Glorious Resurrection of our Blessed Lord and Saviour; in the second place, That of stirring up our Affections to such Good Works and Alms Deeds, as shall not fail to obtain their Ample Recompense at the Resurrection of the Just.  
Now both these weighty subjects, the Resurrection and Charity, which shall then receive its Everlasting Rewards, are joined in my Text, and it will challenge your best and most awful Attention, if you will but consider how Christ has put them together in another Text; where he gives us the same comfortable Expectation as he does here; but also a terrible warning that the particular Test and Trial of all men at the General Resurrection shall be, their having performed or neglected these Offices of Charity to the Poor, the Hungry, the Naked, or any way distressed Christians.  
To find out and show you the full extent and design of our Saviour's words in the Text, 'tis necessary to look back and lay before you the Occasion upon which they were spoken; Our Lord you know was so Charitable, so Condescending as to make himself Familiar, and in a manner Domestic to those that were none of the best, because he was still in hopes of doing them some good; and having been reflected upon by the Pharisees for Eating with Publicans, now to prevent their Murmuring he suffers himself to be over-entreated and invited by one of the Chief of the Pharisees to Eat Bread in his House; where it quickly appeared they had at least as much need of his Advice to Cure the Distempers of their minds, as had those whom they contemptuously styled Sinners; for presently 'tis said, that against all the Laws of Hospitality, they watched Him, that was, to steal His Words, or to find somewhat in his Actions to Accuse and Defame him; the Bait they had laid as most likely to take him, was a Work of Charity, A Man to be healed of a Dropsy; But it was their Saboath-Day, and when he puts them the Case of Conscience, Whether it were Lawful to heal him then or no, they held their Peace, but with intent to make noise enough of it afterward, in case he proceeded to work the Miracle of Mercy, which nevertheless he did with a generous undaunted freedom, and then what he had done he maintained with that strength of Argument, as he reduced them to an absolute Incapacity of Answering him again to these things.  
Now though they had utterly spoiled the Grace of the Treat they had given him, by making his Table a Snare to him, yet he whose Meat it was to do the Will of him that sent him, and to finish his Work; resolves to make a Spiritual Entertainment for them, who had pretended to oblige him, by Inviting him to partake with them their Corporal Food; and first he gives them to understand, That he would not Abridge their just Liberties of Entertaining, nor even of Feasting one another; but he would Regulate these Civil Meetings of theirs, when he marked how they chose out the Chief Rooms; he directs them how they may turn such Commerces and Correspondences as are necessary to support the Dignity and Comfort of Human Society, into the Exercises of Virtue, of that fundamental Virtue profound Humility, if they will change their Practice which savoured too much of Pride, and if they will take his Counsel, To go and sit down in the lowest Room.  
And having Preached to them Humility at their Public Feasts, than he goes on to Teach and show them a more Excellent way, as the Apostle calls it, that is Charity; Addressing himself to him that bade him to Dinner, and with him probably many other Guests, Friends, Brethren, or Kinsmen, or rich Neighbours, with an eye to some mean Advantage or pitiful Interest, that they should make him a suitable Return either in the same kind, or in equal value; he does not forbid this mutual kindness between Relations, as if it were a Crime in itself, but he puts him in mind, that all this may be no Virtue, that this may be nothing to Charity, nor yet advance one step in the way to Heaven. But if in stead of the Rich he would Call the Poor, in stead of his Kindred the Stranger that is in Want, in stead of his Friends and Neighbours that do not need a Meals-meat from him, and can afford him as good Cheer again, he would make much of those that can do nothing to help themselves, The Maimed, the Lame, the Blind, such as cannot Retribute any thing to him their Entertainer and Benefactor: then would the Hospitality be of the Noblest Kind, it would be perfect Charity, and he should be Recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just.  
The words than are easily divided into these four Parts:  
First, Here is a general express Precept for Alms-Deeds, A Charge to them that are Rich in this World, that they be ready to give, and apt to distribute, Call the Poor: 'Tis spoken to the Master of the House, and in him to all others of the like Ability.  
Secondly, Here is matter of Precept mixed and joined with matter of Counsel and Advice, concerning the Manner, the Measures, the Rules of Proportion and Decency to be observed in doing our Alms-Deeds: Here are excellent Directions given us to do them presently, and with our own Hands rather than leave them to be done by others after our Deaths, to do them Diligently, Cheerfully, Plentifully, nay Openly sometimes, as well as Secretly at other times; to do them with all the Condescending Kindness of Entertainers, for such good natured qualifications as these are implied in these words, When thou makest a Feast, Call the Poor.  
Thirdly, The Choice of fit Objects for the Charity of the Rich is here determined, they must be such as are Poor indeed, for such they are not, nor are they properly so called that are in condition to help themselves, they must be really helpless Creatures, the Maimed, the Lame, the Blind. Fourthly and Lastly, Here is set before us the most forcible Inducement, the strongest Motive to Charity, the great Reward of it, and the greater by far the later it is Repaid; the Danger is only lest a Recompense be made thee too soon; but if thou canst be Contented to stay a while, here is offered the sirmest Security, that thou shalt be Recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just.  
First here is a general express Precept for Alms-Deeds, A Charge to them that are Rich in this World that they be ready to give, and apt to distribute, Call the Poor: 'Tis spoken to the Master of the House, and in him to all others of the like Ability.  
For as Christ made this Exhortation to one of their Chiefs, so by parity of Reason it extends itself to those, and to those especially that bear Rule, Men Renowned for their Power, Leaders of the People by their Counsel, Rich Men furnished with Ability, living peaceably in their Habitations; These are the Titles of Honour which the Book of Wisdom bestows upon you, and to such as you is this word of Command given by the Lord of Life, that ye consider the Poor; for to this the Providence of God in the Beautiful Ordering of the World, and Ranging Mankind into several Degrees and Ranks, has given you a special Call, to look down from your High but Slippery Places, with an Eye of Pity upon those that lie at your Feet and can fall no lower; such is the wonderful and useful variety of God's Dispensations to Men, that some even hired Servants in our Father's house have enough and to spare, while many a Son (and he not always a Prodigal) is ready to perish with Hunger; and though King David after very long Experience was able to say, I have been Young and now am Old, and yet saw I never the Righteous forsaken, nor his Seed begging their Bread, that is, not Abandoned to a state of Beggary or craving of Alms without finding Relief, such a heavy Curse as that was denounced by David only against the Children of the Traitor Judas, to be Vagabonds and beg their Bread, to seek it also out of Desolate Places; yet that there should be some in a mean and low Condition, is as necessary as that others should Abound; for an equality of Wealth and Honour would be impossible, and a Levelling Principle can never be reduced to practice: For if all Men were Princes whom should each Govern? if none were Poor, who should do servile Offices, and who should then supply the Necessities of the Rich? I am apt to think that the greatest Alteration that ever happened in these Western Parts of the World, except when Christianity came in, was, when That by degrees turned out Slavery, the Roman Absolute Slavery, under which an incredible number of Men were subject to their Masters as to so many Monarches that had Power of Life and Death▪ over them; but what a Change would it be, if not only Slavery were gone out of the World, but Service also and Dependence of Inferiors upon those that are Exalted with Honour, of the Needy upon those that live at Ease and in Plenty; All those who know not now what it is to want, the Scene being so changed, would stand more in need of help than any do now of relief; Consider it then as a Bounty of God to the Rich, that the Poor shall never cease out of the Land, 'tis a Promise, a Gracious Promise, Deut. xv. 11. And Bless Almighty God for providing you these, not only as hewers of wood, and drawers of water, not only as helpers and supporters of your Temporal State, for the daily pressing necessities of Human Life, but as improvers of all your Spiritual Graces, Objects of your Commiseration, such as may call incessantly upon every tender Passion within you, such as may stir up Resentments of Gratitude to that Good and Gracious Master, who might with perfect Justice have laid you as low as others whom you see in the Dust; such as may excite you to produce continual Acts of Love to that Blessed Saviour, who shed his most precious Blood, the Blood of God, for the very lest of these; and has prepared a Receptacle in some of the many Mansions in his Father's House, for many a wretch who during his Pilgrimage here, takes up that Lamentation, I have no place to flee in●o, and no man careth for my Soul; yet 'tis most dear unto God, and precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of any Saint; tho' he be as contemptible as Lazarus was in the Eye of the Rich Man, yet the Angels of God are to carry his better part into the place of Rest, if he be Rich in Faith, if he well perform that Part which God has Appointed him in this Life; for as Human Life is aptly enough compared to the Acting upon a Stage, so he that Acts the Beggar well, and throughout maintains the decorum of the Person whom he sustains, deserves to be sent off with as great Applause, as he that stands for the Great Man in the Fable, since he is only the Richer Pageant of the two, and if it be truly said by the Psalmist that every Man is a Lie, than it may not be altogether improperly said, the Greater Man the Greater Lye. But if on the other side you see yet a sadder Spectacle, that is pinching extreme Poverty with lewd manners, for alas desperate wickedness, and cruel want, are often found to join their hands, how useful is even such an Object of Sin and Misery together, in those whom the Psalmist describes, that will run here and there for Meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied, 'tis well if they do not Curse too, how instructive are such miserable sights to make us pray hearty with the Son of Syrach, Give me neither Poverty nor Riches, feed me with food convenient for me; not Riches, foreseeing an evident Danger of Luxury and Epicurism leading to direct Atheism, lest I be full and deny thee, and say who is the Lord? and Danger too on the other side, lest I be Poor and steal, and take the Name of my God in vain; either forswearing himself to get off from Punishment, facing Almighty God when he sneaks and shrinks from Man, or else 'tis meant of habitual common Swearing, which heretofore few would be guilty of (so Abject a Vice it was thought) but the meanest People of as little Honour as Conscience.  
But besides such Reflections as these, which the sight of the miserable will suggest to raise and keep up Piety, 'tis our Advantage on another and greater Account, that the Poor we have always with us. Our Saviour has said it as it were Congratulating us the neverfailing Opportunities of Exercising our Charity; for were it not in Charity to us as well as to them, that we may do ourselves good, has God any need of our Aid to provide for those whose Condition seems so necessitous? Thou Lord of thy Goodness hast prepared for the Poor, says the Royal Prophet, 'tis his Goodness to those that give and not only to them that receive, that he will convey his Largesses through our hands to theirs, for all the Beasts of the Forest are his, and so are the  upon a thousand Hills: If I be hungry, (says he the Great Creator, and so if the least of his Creatures be hungry) I will not tell thee, for the whole World is mine, and all that is therein: Is there not Silver and Gold enough in the bowels of the Earth, and Pearls in the bottom of the Sea enough to satisfy all men's wants, and leave none to complain in our Streets: or is God's Hand shortened that he cannot rain Quails again with Manna every Morning? so all Men should Eat Angels Food, and have Meat enough; but the Divine Wisdom is not wont to be lavish of Miracles, and 'tis perfect Goodness to make us Men, God's Instruments, good Angels as it were to Guard and Assist our fellows in their Extremity; nor is this left to our Choice to do it, or not to do it. I called it a Precept or a Command to the Rich, and it was the very form of Ask an Alms by the Poor among the Jews, Give me as God has appointed or bidden you to do.  
'Tis an affirmative Precept, Call the Poor, and being such does not oblige ad Semper, as the Schools use to speak, that is, it does not bind us to do it at all times or without any Intermission, whereas Negative Precepts as, Thou shalt do no Murder, does so perpetually oblige, that we may at no time break them; but perhaps there are few more dangerous fallacies, yet none more common than this, because I cannot Charge another for wanting Charity, though he be not opening of his Hand, and giving every minute of his Life, the Man, but 'tis the Old Man still within us, will be apt to Conclude, if the duty of doing his Alms takes not fast hold of him now, nor to morrow, nor at any set time hereafter, then when does it lie upon him? on this supposition i● will be very rarely or never Practised: It gives little less than a general Dispensation, though not by Absolving a Man from any Tie upon him, yet by representing it as no moral sin to defer it as lon●, as he pleases; yet all this while his Conscience may quiet itself: This was the Case of the Rich Young Man in the Gospel, All the Commandments, saith he, have I kept from my Youth. St. chrysostom and most others are of Opinion that he was no Hypocrite, yet we are sure that he was not sincerely a Saint; but he did not lay his uncharitable Omissions to Heart, for he that loved his Money better than Christ, must needs have been guilty of shutting up his Bowels of Compassion many a time, when he saw his Brother have need, tho' his own memory could not perhaps reproach him with any one Odious Instance of having denied an Alms, when he thought himself strictly bound in Conscience to bestow it. But now to state our own Obligation.  
First you may set it down as a certain Truth, that our Saviour here calls upon us to get the Habit of Charity, for the Habit of Uncharitableness is utterly inconsistent with a state of Grace: Now a Habit of this nature cannot be gotten but by many Acts; and to think that one or a few inconsiderable Acts in the course of a Man's Life, will suffice to acquire and confirm this excellent Grace of Charity, 'tis as wild Divinity as that in the Jesuits Morals, where they have the hardiness to maintain, That one such Act of Love to God, tho' no more be exerted by one Man, may serve his turn and Save him: Once then for all, we may take the perfect notion of this or any other Acquired Habit, from the great Philosopher, who if he were not more a Divine, yet was less a Heathen is then many of those Romish Casuists. A Habit is then atrained when we have gained the Point upon ourselves, to work as we ought, with little or no difficulty; If then we give not easily, willingly, constantly, or at least very frequently, we are still to learn and to seek for the Habit of Charity.  
I must needs say in the second place, That some extraordinary Object of Compassion may be so pressing and lie so hard on the Conscience of any Christian, as to bear it down, and the feed of Grace the Vital Act in the Heart may be utterly destroyed for the present, if he turns away his Face and does not put forth his hand to save his Brother, for whom Christ was pleased to Die. The Priest and Levite who passed by the Poor Man that had fallen among Thiefs, and left him there weltering in his Blood, they drew it no doubt upon their own heads, and are Condemned by the Mouth of our Blessed Lord, for so not loving their Neighbour, as if they had been Accessories to the kill of him: nay Principals not only in mortally Wounding his Body, but their own Souls.  
But I must also offer this as my Third Conclusion, That a Passionate, a Vehement, an Affectionate, or for want of an English word to hit my Conceptions fully, give me leave to call it an Affectuous setting the Heart upon Wealth and worldy Goods, more than upon Heaven and the way to Heaven by Charity, is a state of Sin and of Death: though the Conscience like his who had great Possessions be so partial to its self, as being not throughly Examined, to make a Return not Guilty of any Gross Omissions in this kind, or of any notorious Act of Uncharitable dealing, or of any Habit to make one appear Hardhearted, yet if your Treasure be upon Earth and your Souls be set upon it, they must needs be staked down here too, and mount no higher; for it is a Judged Case, and with all the Reason in the world, That where your Treasure is, there will your Hearts be also.  
But it may be Objected and Thoughts may arise in your Hearts, if there be so much danger of doing too little and too slender Alms; then What is enough for the Rich to bestow upon Charity? shall I say, whatever they can spare from their own Occasions? that will not advance one foot toward stating the Question; 'tis only raising another, a harder Question, which the best Casuists will never be able to settle. De abjiciendo Superfluo, of the parting with our superfluity to relieve those in need or necessity. But what is superabundance to some, is scarce a Competency to others in different Circumstances; Upon the whole matter, no precise bounds and limits can be set for all Men, nor for any two Men in the World, though we could suppose them exactly alike in Minds, Bodies and Estates; It must be when all is done, in taking the measures of this or any other Christian Graces, prout vir prudens definiverit, as Old Philosophy could never otherwise assign the constant Exercise of moral Virtues its just Ampliations and Restrictions, but only as Prudence should define them in particular Cases; indeed to suit this with Divinity it must be Christian Prudence, that is well guided Piety or Conscience wisely directed; Nor does the Apostle St. Paul go very much farther towards fixing the definite Proportions of Charity in the almost infinite Circumstances of men, than the Masters of our morals had gone before him, in describing the Lines and Limits of what they called Mercy; only St. Paul seems to enjoin one thing necessary to Enter and Engage good Christians in a Course of Charity, that they all should have set times as they are the Stewards of God, to make up their Accounts for Pious Uses, that these set times should be so near one another, as to keep the Trade of Charity quick, upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store; But when it comes to naming the Sum that every one must allow, St. Paul himself could not offer any common measure, he does not decimate or call upon them for a Temh, nor yet for a Twentieth Part, or Exact upon them at any determinate Rate, But let every one lay by him in store as God hath prospered him.  
If it be Replied that this is to leave our Duty at such Uncertainty, as makes it hard to know when our Righteousness, that is, our Charity exceeds theirs who shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: my Answer is, All such Scruples are easily removed, if instead of disputing how much 'tis our Obligation to give, we fall to practising and abounding in the Work of the Lord, this is to take the safe and the highway to Heaven. And this falls in with my second Part: Here is a matter of Precept mixed and joined with matter of Counsel and Advice concerning the Manner, the Measures, the Rules of Proportion and Decency to be observed in doing our Alms-Deeds, Here are excellent Directions given us to do them presently, and with our own hands, rather than leave them to be done by others after our Deaths; to do them Diligently, Cheerfully, Plentifully, nay Openly sometimes as well as Secretly at other times, to do them with all the Condescending Kindness of Entertainers, for such good natured Qualifications as these are employed in these words: When thou makest a Feast, Call the Poor.  
This saying differs much from that other saying; Sell what you have and give to the Poor, so says our Blessed Saviour, St. Luke xii. but it is a plain Case, That was only proposed and advised to some, never imposed by Christ upon any but one, that Rich Young Man we spoke of; His Case was singular; Our Lord discerned him to be as worldly as wealthy, therefore it was necessary for his Eternal Salvation, to part him and his Great Possessions; But good Amends would have been presently made him, he would have been admitted to be one of the Peculiar Followers of Jesus, and probably the Power of working Miracles would have been given him: But for the Generality of Mankind they are left free, and forced upon none of these Extraordinary Attainments, whether they will or no; He that lied to the Holy-Ghost in the matter of Alms was told by St. Peter, While the Land remained was it not thine own, and after it was sold was it not in thine own power? that is to do what he pleased with the Money paid for it. And yet such as sold their Lands, and laid the prices at the Apostles feet, and Distribution was made unto every man according as he had need, these have that Character immediately given them, that Great Grace was upon them all. Notwithstanding which, to say that our Saviour's words in St. Luke, Sell what you have and give to the Poor, obliges the Rich to part with all, or as Zacheus did, (and it was well done of him) with the one half of his Goods to the Poor, this was one dangerous part of Pelagius'es' Heresy. Therefore Christ did not pr●ss that Publican to so vast a Proportion of Alms as he gave unasked, and then Christ Graciously Accepted it; nor does Christ Labour the Pharisee in my Text, to divest himself of his whole Estate at once; But implies sufficiently that it was Lawful for him to keep up some port, and to abide in a Condition of sometimes making a Feast; Nor can I think it unlawful for you that are Managers of useful Bounties, to keep up the Honour of this Renowned City, as well as you are Stewards and Governors of Public Charitys, that you maintain these your Hospitable Feasts, to encourage more such Charitable Benefactions, by the memorial of those whose Names are as precious Ointment; nor will I go about to stint the Allowance of your domestic friendly Meetings by the Fannian Law, which permitted the Citizens of Rome in the height and flourishing of their Empire, to spend no more at a Feast, and the Sempronian Law no more at a Marriage Feast, than would amount to a Crown of the Sun in the modern Coin; I will not presume to contract your Entertainments by so strict Laws as those, any more than I would confine your Estates by that Agrarian Law which the Commonwealths-men (that would gladly have a share in your Lands) would fain introduce upon you; But tho' I do not prescribe to your Liberality at the Table, hitherto shalt thou go and no further; for abundantly enough and to spare is allowed to a Feast, as our Blessed Lord approved by his own Practice, when he Treated the Multitude, there were taken up of the Fragments twelve Baskets full: tho' I do not offer to set you such bounds as you shall not pass in your Civil Intercourses, yet I must needs Add, there is danger enough when the Rich do but Feast one another, else it would never have been given in Caution, When thou shalt have Eaten, and art full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord; whom they are least apt to remember, who lie upon Beds of Ivory, and stretch themselves upon their Couches, and Eat the Lambs out of the Flock, and the Calves out of the midst of the stall, that drink Wine in Bowls, but they are not grieved for the Affliction of Joseph: there is hazard also of feeding the disease of our nature, too worldly Affections in Treating our Friends and Relations. The first great Feast we Read of was Gen. xxi. A better Man than he that made it, or a juster Occasion of Feasting could scarce have been found, Abraham the Father of Isaac and of all the Faithful, kept it in Token of Gratitude to God for the Son of his Old Age, and the Heir of Promise, yet it proved of Melancholy Consequence; it ended in Abraham's Sorrow and Ishmael's Banishment. But if our Feasts bear no resemblance with the Ancient Feasts of Charity, if there be no Consideration had of the Empty Souls, while we have enough and to spare, if God were Angry with his People's Fasts in Isaiah, for want of Alms joined with them, than how much more will he be with our Feasts, if we let our Brethren starve while we are indulging ourselves; But if to keep far enough from that uncharitable wasting Sin (as Divines call it) we aim at Charity in an Heroic Degree, Christ here chalks out the way to it, When thou makest a Feast, Call the Poor, that is make it sometimes on purpose to Solace and Relieve them; wherein there is  
First employed a Seasonable Advice for those who have not the Courage to give as long as they have the Power to keep any thing, but talk of Bequeathing much when it shall be no longer their own; they are Fools if they do not know what they Tempt those whom they pinch, to wish and pray for, and they are the greater Fools if they deny the Poor and themselves too, yet so do most of the Covetous, but he that Counsels us here to Feast the Poor, intends we should do it before there is nothing jest us but to feast the Worms; I confess if men have a fixed and sincere Intention of giving all in a lump to some very great and good Work for which they gather, God may be honoured by such a whole freewill Offering from them Living or Dying; but yet 'tis surer a great deal which is so given already as to be without power of a Revocation; 'tis safer to distribute with your own hands, than to trust in others what you could not obtain of yourselves to perform; 'tis greater consolation to see with your own Eyes so many of your good Works upon the sile, and it is more efficacious than any thing to increase your Charity, or even to inflame it, when the Head, the Hand, the Heart, is constantly exercised and yet never weary of well-doing; This is to keep up a Trade of Charity, where it may be truly said, that the light Gains make the heavy Purse, continual Acts of Mercy and spreading our Alms thin on many lesser Objects of our Compassion: This is most properly Sowing, and sowing plenteously, 'tis laying up a growing Treasure in Heaven, 'tis gathering to one's self a good Reward against the Day of Necessity, and think what a folly it is to leave the Torch behind one, being to go through a dark and dismal Passage, what madness to leave what thou lovest so well in the place from whence thou art going, instead of sending it before to that abiding City.  
Again, When thou makest a Feast, Call the Poor; it supposes a carefulness for them, a double-diligence first to find out and invite them, then to receive and refresh them; This is so extremely far from turning away thy face front any Poor Man, as rather to travel in quest of such pitiful Objects, this is what David calls, Considering the Poor and Needy, Laying out our Thoughts for them, and sending out our Messengers, as did the Venerable Hospitable and Charitable Old Man; When I saw abundance of Meat, said Tobit, I said to my Son, go and bring what Poor Man soever thou shalt find out of our Brethren, who is mindful of the Lord.  
Again, to Feast them means to Relieve them Plentifully, tho' it does not mean a Miser's Feast, for one Luxurious Meal, nor should the Poor be Treated with meats compounded and metamorphosed by the Rules of Irregular Gluttony: yet let it be a Feast, a frugal one but still a Feast to them, enough to satisfy the Soul of the Hungry should be sometimes prepared on purpose for them, and thus has God provided for them, that some of the best and most delicious Meats are the very cheapest and easiest to be had; since it was not only the Privilege of the Land of Promise, but a Common Blessing almost upon all Lands, to flow with Milk and Honey.  
Again, When thou makest a Feast, Call the Poor, and if this can hardly be done so silently, but that some little Notice will be taken of it, then be not Ashamed of seeming to do that Good which really thou dost; as this is a common Fault, now Piety is driven into Corners, and Charity itself is become a pusillanimous, a blushing thing before the Men of a Giantlike mind, who make a mock of Sin and of Virtue too; nor be Afraid to let thy Light shine before Men, since all manner of Goodworks that happen to be seen of Men, are not therefore unpleasing to God, but only such as are done with so vile a principal End as to be seen of Men, and not with a primary Intent, that those Men may Glorify thy Father which is in Heaven.  
Lastly, When thou makest a Feast, Call the Poor, that is Call them to be thy welcome Guests, thy humble Friends, thy Spiritual Kindred; since Christ has Called them his Brethren, since he has made them Heirs and Coheirs with himself and thee; Lay aside thy supercilious Demeanour toward them, nay put off now and then that Awful Distance which Decency requires thee to keep at other times; Let some of them at these good Times be seated at thy Table with thee; thy Betters have used them more familiarly, they have girded themselves and served them with a Real not an Affected Humility; The Greatest Kings and Queens have not thought it too little for them to wash and kiss their Feet, in Imitation of him that introduced the same significant Ceremony, proposing it for a Pattern to his Followers; and where can even Royal Dust and Ashes lay themselves low enough in an Office of Devotion to him in the Proxies or in the Persons of those that are his, when he the Son of God, he who thought it no Robery to be Equal with God, yet took upon him the form of a Servant, and was content to Abase himself, even to kiss the Feet of the Traitor Jud●s. But though we are not obliged to fall so low to the Poor as always to set them above us, yet there is one Compliment essential to make it a Feast, in all thy Gifts show a Cheerful Countenance, says the Wise Man, for God loves a Cheerful Giver, says the Apostle; and then there is felt and enjoyed true pleasure in the Act of Charity; when Cheerfulness dilates and enlarges the Heart of the Alm'ner as well as the Soul of the Almsman.  
But now 'tis high time for me to interpose one Caution, and that Caution will naturally meet me upon my third Head of Discourse: That fit Objects for the Charity of the Rich must be such as are Poor indeed, for such they are not, nor are they properly so called that are in condition to help themselves, they must be really helpless Creatures, the Maimed, the Lame, the Blind.  
For to nourish Idleness, the certain forerunner, if not the Companion of Wickedness, is but mistaken Charity, and those that have two hands left them to feed one Mouth, are to be counted with those that are Rich enough, if they are no way disabled; from such our Alms would be more kindly withdrawn than extended to them; or rather instead of these External Works of Mercy, those which the Schoolmen call Internal, should be applied to them; such as Good Counsel, with Assistance toward their Settlement, to make them some way useful to their Country, or at lest no longer Burdens of the Earth; or if Advice be lost upon them, another Office of Charity to their Souls at least, even Castigation and Compulsion upon them is but their Due as well as our Duty to solicit it. I must have leave in this place to lament the miserable Abuse of so vast a Fund for Charity, as perhaps no Kingdom under Heaven can boast the like, I mean that Yearly Treasure raised by virtue of that exceedingly well meant and ill managed Act for every Parish in the Nation to maintain their Poor, who thereupon make themselves such on purpose, and are become perfect Oppressors in the Land, which they will not set their Hands to Cultivate, how low soever the Husband-man's Trade is grown for want of Labourers, that Honourable thriving Profession heretofore, but now decayed and fallen together with your Rents; which is all for want of Executing with that wholesome Statute-Law, the same in substance with that Apostolical Canon, If any one would not Work neither should he Eat.  
But on the other side I must needs highly commend and congratulate this City, so many Work-Houses to Chastise and Reduce the Vagrant and Vicious Poor; so many Late useful Inventions to Employ the Willing-Poor, and to put even such as are half Cripples in a way of getting their Bread; so many worthy Active Undertakers to find'em work, that they may Eat the Labour of their Hands, whoever they are that Engage in this Labour of Love, to Gather the Dispersed from door to door, and to make 'em live by themselves and their own handiworks, they do as it were treat them every day, and may the good Conscience of their own deeds be to themselves a continual Feast! But the most goodly sight of all in this noble City are so many fair Hospitals, either to enclose those whom the Hand of God has touched with Lunacy; or to breed up poor Children abandoned to the narrow mercy of the wide World; or to keep those from starving that are poor indeed, the Maimed, the Lame, and the Blind: Let me but Read you a true Report, etc.  
Now I hope Strangers when they survey these Monuments of Ancient and Modern Piety, will not say that the Church of England owns any such Solifidian Doctrine, as tends to the Disparagement of Good Works, none will imagine that our Reformation is not a Soil for Charity to prosper upon, where has it grown or flourished more than it has among us both heretofore, and of late? I have been Asked abroad by way of Reflection, Who Built our Churches in London? I have Answered, The Old ones were most of them built before the Corruptions of Rome, and since the Fire of London we know who Rebuilt 'em. But no where does the City-Charity look more hopefully, nor promises greater Advantages to the Public as well as to the Poor, than it does in those several Royal and Ample Foundations lately Repaired and Restored to receive those wretched Infants, exposed to a Condition well nigh as deplorable as that whom the Prophet describes; to these the King is instead of God, and not only says unto them when they are as it were in their Blood, Live; ●ut takes such honourable Care of their Education, that they may not live in vain; may God Almighty add to the King's Life those Years which the King by his Bounty and Goodness has prevented from being cut off, from the Lives of these Little Ones; or from being so misemployed as would in all likelihood have brought 'em to shameful Deaths.  
And may his Majesty live to perfect his other most Royal, most Christian Design in the Neighbourhood of this City, that stately Pile whose Walls are now happily rising for the reception of Lame and Maimed Soldiers; that after Brave Men have served the King in his just Wars, they may not want a provision and place of Retirement in their Old broken Age, where they may end their Days in serving God, and still praying for the Life of the King.  
Such as these be they Young or Aged, as long as they are uncapable of subsisting by themselves, our Saviour in the words of my Text, effectually recommends them to be treated with all Humanity and Tender Mercy; such Poor as these are the Wealth of a Christian Corporation, as that holy Deacon S. Laurence Answered that Cruel and Covetous Precedent, who demanded of him the Gold and Silver rising from the great Oblations at the Altar where he Ministered, he mustered up a vast number of Poor Saints, some without Eyes, some whose Arms were quite withered away, others decrepit with Age, who had lost the use of their Feet, and ranging all these miserable creeping things so as the Governor might have his full view of them, Behold (said he) these are the Church's hidden Treasure: but I may say these are not only as the Public Stock of your City, but as its Walls and Bulwarks: and the mercy ye show to such as these, is as one of the Ornaments of your Power, like one of your Gold Chains, 'tis Solomon's Comparison and not mine, Let not Mercy forsake thee, bind it about thy Neck. Prov. iii. 3. as if Solomon himself for outward Glory had never been arrayed like one of those, who shine within and without by their noble Acts of mercy.  
And thus I am coming into my fourth and last part, the Glories of this Grace or the great Reward of Charity, so much the greater when it comes the longer it is a coming; And thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompense thee; they whom thou choosest to Relieve in thy disinterested Charity cannot if they would repay thee, but he that Assuredly can, Infallibly will; so this is placing our Charity as Usurers do their Money, most willingly on good Security to those that will keep it longest, so they shall be certainly paid Use upon Use for it, and considered for the very forbearance of their Interest: Not that the Charitable Man goes without a Blessing in this Life; the Poor have a special Prerogative from God to Bless; and as Rich as Job was before his Adversity, he was highly pleased to receive their Benedictions; When the Ear heard me then it blessed me, because I delivered the Poor that Cried, and the Fatherless, and him that had none to help him, the Blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me; And well may their Blessings be desirable, when on the other side their Curses are so formidable; for sure the Son of Syrach knew what he said, Turn not away thine Eye from the Needy, and give him none Occasion to Curse thee; for if he Curse thee in the bitterness of his Soul, his Prayer shall be heard of him that made him: Strange that an Imprecation should be called a Prayer ● such a Prayer as is turned into Sin upon him that puts it up, and yet is received by God as a Petition or Charge upon him that provokes and extorts it; But on the other side, how many are the Blessings that are even heaped upon the Liberal Soul that deviseth Liberal things, and by Liberal things shall he be established; If Blessing him in his Person that considers the Poor and Needy, If delivering him in the time of trouble, If preserving him and keeping him Alive that he may be blessed upon Earth, if Comforting him when he lieth sick upon his Bed and making all his Bed in his sickness, if these are mighty Blessings, all these are put together in one place, and a Concordance would help me to a thousand more such places, full of Blessings as great and as certain as these, and all these on this side Heaven: But the strongest motive of all is that in my Text, the most unresistible Argument for giving Alms, though ' Hoping for nothing again in this world, is That thou shalt be Recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just.  
It is not said thou shalt merit Heaven by thy Goodworks, the best, the noblest Act of Charity must needs be that, to lay down our Lives for our Brethren; yet Martyrdom itself ought not to be put into the Scale, as if it were Weighty or Worthy enough to deserve an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory; for I reckon (says St. Paul) that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be Compared with the Glory that shall be Revealed in us, yet, says the same Apostle in an other place, our light Affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory; so our Doing Good as well as our suffering Evil are a sure means to Obtain though not to Merit, and as the certain Recompense in the World to come is here made a most forcible Argument for Charity, so the Charity that some Exercise without receiving their Recompense in this World, is an invincible Proof of a World to come.  
For now suppose a man with all this heap of pitiful Accidents upon him which our Saviour puts together in the Text, Poor, Maimed, Lame, and Blind, add to these the Torments of Cramps and Stone, to keep him perpetually on the wrack from his Childhood to extreme Old-Age; and yet this poor man perseveres in the Faith, and practices more Charity even that of Alms, than do all the Rich, parting with his two Mite● (as the Widow did with all her Living) when he hears of one in more immediate danger of starving than himself; he will trust to him that feeds the Ravens, to supply his next days Exigence; though his patiented Continuance in well-doing may qualify and enable him to cry out, Centuplum in hac Vita, that God has given him a hundred fold in this Life, of Joy in the Holy-Ghost, and Expectations of Bliss, yet it can never consist with the Goodness of God to suffer any perfectly good Man feeding himself with such Expectations, to be at length defrauded and disappointed; and the Justice of God requires that he be one day recompensed, seeing it is a Righteous thing with God, says the Apostle, to recompense Tribulation to them that trouble his Saints, And to those who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels: And seeing it is a Stoical or rather a Chemical, an Empirical Divinity, that by making Virtue its own Reward, prepares a great Dissolvent to Annihilate Virtue itself, and bring it to nothing, then since that God is Just and most perfect Justice itself, there needs must be a Day of Recompense, a Time of Refreshing, a time when every Lazarus that received his Evil things shall be Comforted, and when every Rich Man that has already Received and Abused his Good things shall be Tormented; But this Time and that Recompense cannot be to a Man in such a Case as I have supposed, till after this Life, therefore it proves sufficiently that there is a Life to Come.  
But if such a practice of Good Works in the midst of such almost insupportable Evils of this Life, be a Reason strong enough to prove there's a Life to come, so that a Man shall say verily there is a Reward for the Righteous; then such a Life and such a Reward once proved, is the strongest Argument in the World, and the most persuasive to the Practice of such Goodworks: only to mention this Argument of a Recompense at the Resurrection, were Charity never so cold, were sufficient to raise it up from the dead again; to think that many a poor Good Man, whom you have seen frozen almost to Death this last hard Winter, and have supplied him with the means to warm him till his loins blest you, many a Blind, Maimed or Lame, whom you have as it were led by the hand out of his present misery, shall one day become a Guide to you as you were to him formerly; that he shall have the Agility of a Spirit, and the discerning power of a Spirit of a Just Man made perfect, to behold you coming toward the place of Bliss, and to call you as the good Angel did the Apostle, Come up hither; if this will not prevail with you to Call the Poor, and give them a little Comfort in this World, nothing will ever move you: this is that Powerful Motive our Saviour uses, to make ourselves friends in Heaven, by giving Alms upon Earth, that when we fail they may receive us, that the Heirs of Salvation may be allowed and sent forth by God to meet us when we enter into the New World, that they may Conduct us into their Everlasting Habitations; for as St. Chrysostom Argues upon that place, If we go to a strange City we need a Guide, much more to another World, when the Soul is torn away from the Body, the staff upon which it leaned, than it has Dreads and Horror (say he) when it quits this Flesh. And if you will forgive me the laying of one Quotation upon another, St. Cyprian speaks so pathetically to the same Purpose 
De Morta●ltat●.  how they shall welcome us into the Other World, for whom we had Charity or Kindness in this, that with a Lively Description and Discourse of His, since I cannot with a better, I shall Conclude mine. Who is there (say he) who being to sail homeward to his Friends does not make wishes for a prosperous Gale, that he may quickly embrace those whom he loves so dearly? Let us account that Paradise is our Country, as we have looked upon the Patriarches to be our Parents; why do we not hasten and move forward apace to see that Country of ours, and salute those Parents? there are a vast number of Persons very dear unto us that expect us, our Forefathers, our Brethren, our Children, a numerous Company that long for our coming to them, being secure of their own, and still solicitous for our Imortality: to see them again and grow into Embraces with them, How will it Affect and Transport both us and them? what kind of Bless is there in those Heavenly Kingdoms, which consists with no fear of Dying, with an Assurance of Living Eternally? there is the Apostles glorious Choir, there the Prophet's honourable Senate, there the Legions of Crowned Martyrs that Died and Suffered Valiantly, there the Triumphant Virgins that have subdued and tamed by the mighty hand of Continence the Carnal Desires of the Body, there the merciful Men who have dealt their Doles and Largesses to the Poor and Needy; Let us hasten away to these, winged with a fervent desire to be with these, to be with Christ. Let this be the Aim of all our wishes, Let God see such thoughts in us, Let Christ see the Travail of our Souls, the Intent of our Faith, who will assuredly give them larger Rewards, whose Souls are more enlarged toward Heaven and Eternity.  
Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, etc.