11. The first and principal thing to be done by one that would give as God would have him, is, to get a truly charitable heart, which containeth all these parts:
1. That we see God in his needy creatures, and in his cause or work that needs our help.
2. That we be sensible of his abundant love in Christ to us, in giving pardon and eternal life, and that from the sense of this our thankful hearts are moved to do good to others.
3. That therefore we do it ultimately as to Christ himself; who taketh that which is done for his cause and servants, as done to him, Matt. xxv. 40.
4. That we conquer the cursed sin of selfishness, which makes men little regard any but themselves.
5. That we love our neighbours as ourselves, and love most where there is most of God and goodness, and not according to self-interest: and that as members of the same body, we take our brethren's wants and sufferings as our own; and then we should be as ready to help them as ourselves.
6. That we know the vanity of worldly riches, and be not earthly-minded, but regard the interest of God and our souls above all the treasures of the world.
7. That we unfeignedly believe the promises of God, who hath engaged himself to provide for us, and everlastingly to reward us in glory with himself. If these seven qualifications be wrought upon the heart, good works will plentifully follow. Make but the tree good, and the fruit will be good. But when the heart is void of the root and life which should produce them, the judgment will not be persuaded that so much is necessary, and required of us; and the will itself will still hang back, and be delaying to do good, and doing all pinchingly and hypocritically, with unwillingness and distrust.
No wonder if good works are so rare, when it is evident that to do them sincerely and heartily as our trade and business, it is necessary that the whole soul be thus renewed by faith, and love, and self-denial, and mortification, and by a heavenly hope and mind. They are the fruits and works of the new creature (which is, alas, too rare in the world): "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them," Eph. ii. 10. Therefore our first and chiefest labour should be to be sure that we are furnished with such hearts, and then if we have wherewith to do good, such hearts will be sure to do it: such hearts will best discern the time and measure, as a healthful man's appetite will in eating; for they will take it for a mercy and happiness to do good, and know, that it is they that give that are the great receivers. It is but a little money or alms that the poor receive of us, but it is God's acceptance, and favour, and reward that we receive, which is in "this life a hundred-fold, (in value,) and in the world to come eternal life," Matt. xix. 29. But if we have little or nothing to give, such a heart is accepted, as if we had given as much as we desire to give; so that if you have a heart that would give thousands if you had it, God will set down upon your account, so many thousands given (in desire). Your two mites shall be valued above all the superfluities of sensual worldlings: "For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not," 2 Cor. viii. 12. But God taketh not that for a willing mind, which only saith, I would give if I should suffer nothing by it myself, or were I sure I should not want; but that which saith, I will serve God as well as I can with my estate while I have it, and deny my flesh, that I may have to do good with, and trust God for my provision and reward; for if there be a readiness to will, there will be a performance also out of that which you have, 2 Cor. viii. 11.
12. Such a holy, self-denying, charitable heart, with the help of prudence, is the best judge of the due proportion which we should give: for this willing readiness being supposed, prudence will discern the fittest objects, and the fittest time, and the fittest measure, and will suit the means unto the end: when once a man's heart is set upon doing good, it will not be very hard to perceive how much ourselves, our families, the poor, and religious uses should have; for if such a person be prudent himself, he hath always with him a constant counsellor, with a general rule, and directing providence; if he want prudence sufficient to be his own director, he will take direction from the prudence of others.
13. Such a truly willing mind will not be much wanting in the general of doing good, but one way or other will serve God with his estate; and then if in any particulars he should come short, it will comparatively be a very small sin, when it is not for want of willingness, but of skill. The will is the chief seat of all moral good and evil; there is no more virtue than there is will, nor any more sin or vice than there is will. He that knoweth not how much he should give, because he is not willing to give it, and therefore not willing to know it, is indeed the miser and sinfully ignorant; but if it be not for want of a willing mind that we mistake the proportion, it will be a very pardonable mistake.
14. Your proportion of the tenth part is too much for some, and much too little for others, but for the most, I think it as likely a proportion as it is fit for another to prescribe in particular, with these following explications.
1. He that hath a full stock of money, and no increase by it, must give proportionably out of his stock; when he that hath little or no stock, but the fruits of his daily industry and labour, may possibly be bound to give less than the other.
2. It is not the tenth of our increase, deducting first all our families' provision, that you mean when you direct to give the tenth (for it is far more, if not all, that after such provision must be given); but it is the tenth without deduction that you mean; therefore when family necessaries cannot spare the tenth, it may be too much (else even the receivers must all be givers): but when family necessities can spare much more than the tenth, then the tenth is not enough.
3. In those places where church, and state, and poor are all to be maintained by free gift, there the tenth of our increase is far too little, for those that have any thing considerable to spare, to give to all these uses.
This is apparent in that the tenths alone were not thought enough even in the time of the law, to give towards the public worship of God: for besides the tenths, there were the first-fruits, and oblations, and many sorts of sacrifices; and yet at the same time, the poor were to be maintained by liberal gifts besides the tenths: and though we read not of much given to the maintenance of their rulers and magistrates, before they chose to have a king, yet afterwards we read of much; and before, the charges of wars and public works lay upon all.
In most places with us, the public ministry is maintained by glebe and tithes, which are none of the people's gifts at all, for he that sold or leased them their lands, did suppose that tithes were to be paid out of it, and therefore they paid a tenth part less for it, in purchase, fines, or rents, than otherwise they should have done; so that I reckon, that most of them give little or nothing to the minister at all. Therefore they may the better give so much the more to the needy, and to other charitable uses. But where minister, and poor, and all are maintained by the people's contribution, there the tenths are too little for the whole work; but yet to most, or very many, the tenths to the poor alone, besides the maintenance of the ministry and state, may possibly be more than they are able to give. The tenths even among the heathens, were given in many places to their sacrifices, priests, and to religious, public, civil works, besides all their private charity to the poor.
I find in Diog. Laertius, lib. i. (mihi) 32. that Pisistratus the Athenian tyrant, proving to Solon (in his epistle to him) that he had nothing against God or man to blame him for, but for taking the crown; telling him, that he caused them to keep the same laws which Solon gave them, and that better than the popular government could have done, doth instance thus: Atheniensium singuli decimas frugum suarum separant, non in usus nostros consumendas, verum sacrificiis publicis, commodisque communibus, et si quando bellum contra nos ingruerit, in sumptus deputandas: that is, Every one of the Athenians do separate the tithes of their fruits, not to be consumed to our uses, but to defray the charge in public sacrifices, and in the common profits, and if war at any time invade us. And Plautus saith, Ut decimam solveret Herculi. Indeed as among the heathens the tithes were conjunctly given for religious and civil uses, so it seems that at first the christian emperors settled them on the bishops for the use of the poor, as well as for the ministers, and church service, and utensils. For to all these they were to be divided, and the bishop was as the guardian of the poor: and the glebe or farms that were given to the church, were all employed to the same uses; and the canons required that the tithes should be thus disposed of by the clergy; non tanquam propriæ, sed domino oblatæ: and the emperor Justinian commanded the bishops, Ne ea quæ ecclesiis relicta sunt sibi adscribant sed in necessarios ecclesiæ usus impendant; lib. xliii. cap. de Episc. et Cler. vid. Albert. Ranzt. Metrop. lib. i. cap. 2. et sax. lib. vi. cap. 52. And Hierom (ad Damasc.) saith, Quoniam quicquid habent clerici pauperum est; et domus illorum omnibus debent esse communes; susceptioni peregrinarum et hospitum invigilare debent; maxime curandum est illis, ut de decimis et oblationibus, cœnobiis et Xenodochiis qualem voluerint et potuerint sustentationem impendant.
Yet then the paying of tithes did not excuse the people from all other charity to the poor: Austin saith, Qui sibi aut præmium comparat, aut peccatorum desiderat indulgentiam promereri, reddat decimam, etiam de novem partibus studeat eleemosynam dare pauperibus. And in our times there is less reason that tithes should excuse the people from their works of charity, both because the tithes are now more appropriate to the maintenance of the clergy, and because (as is aforesaid) the people give them not out of their own. I confess, if we consider how decimation was used before the law by Abraham and Jacob, and established by the law unto the Jews, and how commonly it was used among the gentiles, and last of all by the church of Christ, it will make a considerate man imagine, that as there is still a divine direction for one day in seven, as a necessary proportion of time to be ordinarily consecrated to God, besides what we can spare from our other days; so that there is something of a divine canon, or direction, for the tenth of our revenues or increase to be ordinarily consecrated to God, besides what may be spared from the rest. And whether those tithes, that are none of your own, and cost you nothing, be now to be reckoned to private men, as any of their tenths, which they themselves should give, I leave to your consideration. Amongst Augustine's works we find an opinion that the devils were the tenth part of the angels, and that man is now to be the tenth order among the angels, the saints filling up the place that the devils fell from, and there being nine orders of angels to be above us, and that in this there is some ground of our paying tenths; and therefore he saith, that Hæc est Domini justissima consuetudo; ut si tu illi decimam non dederis, tu ad decimam revocaberis, id est, dæmonibus, qui sunt decima pars angelorum, associaberis. Though I know not whence he had this opinion, it seemeth that the devoting of a tenth part ordinarily to God, is a matter that we have more than a human direction for.
15. In times of extraordinary necessities of the church, or state, or poor, there must be extraordinary bounty in our contributions: as if an enemy be ready to invade the land, or if some extraordinary work of God (as the conversion of some heathen nations) do require it, or some extraordinary persecution and distress befall the pastors, or in a year of famine, plague, or war, when the necessities of the poor are extraordinary; the tenths in such cases will not suffice, from those that have more to give: therefore in such a time, the primitive christians sold their possessions, and laid down the price at the feet of the apostles.
In one word, an honest, charitable heart being presupposed as the root or fountain, and prudence being the discerner of our duty, the apostle's general rule may much satisfy a christian for the proportion, 1 Cor. xvi. 2, "Let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him;" and 2 Cor. viii. 12, "according to that a man hath: " though there be many intimations, that ordinarily a tenth part at least is requisite.
III. Having thus resolved the question of the quota pars or proportion to be given, I shall say a little to the question, Whether a man should give most in his lifetime, or at his death?
Answ. 1. It is certain that the best work is that which is like to do most good.
2. But to make it best to us, it is necessary that we do it with the most self-denying, holy, charitable mind.
3. That, cæteris paribus, all things else being equal, the present doing of a good work, is better than to defer it.
4. That to do good only when you die, because then you can keep your wealth no longer, and because then it costeth you nothing to part with it, and because then you hope that this shall serve instead of true repentance and godliness; this is but to deceive yourselves, and will do nothing to save your souls, though it do never so much good to others.
5. That he that sinfully neglecteth in his lifetime to do good, if he do it at his death, from true repentance and conversion, it is then accepted of God; though the sin of his delay must be lamented.
6. That he that delayeth it till death, not out of any selfishness, backwardness, or unwillingness, but that the work may be better, and do more good, doth better than if he hastened a lesser good. As if a man have a desire to set up a free-school for perpetuity, and the money which he hath is not sufficient; if he stay till his death, that so the improvement of the money may increase it, and make it enough for his intended work, that is to do a greater good with greater self-denial: for,
(1.) He receiveth none of the increase of the money for himself.
(2.) And he receiveth in his lifetime none of the praise or thanks of the work. So also, if a man that hath no children, have so much land only as will maintain him, and desireth to give it all to charitable uses when he dieth, this delay is not at all to be blamed, because he could not sooner give it; and if it be not in vain-glory, but in love to God and to good works that he leaveth it, it is truly acceptable at last. So that all good works that are done at death, are not therefore to be undervalued, nor are they rejected of God; but sometimes it falleth out that they are so much the greater and better works, though he that can do the same in his lifetime, ought to do it.
IV. But though I have spent all these words in answering these questions, I am fully satisfied that it is very few that are kept from doing good by any such doubt or difficulty, in the case which stalls their judgments; but by the power of sin and want of grace, which leave an unwillingness and backwardness on their hearts. Could we tell how to remove the impediments in men's wills, it would do more than the clearest resolving all the cases of conscience, which their judgments seem to be unsatisfied in. I will tell you what are the impediments in your way, that are harder to be removed than all these difficulties, and yet must be overcome before you can bring men to be like true christians, "rich in good works."
1. Most men are so sensual and selfish, that their own flesh is an insatiable gulf that devoureth all, and they have little or nothing to spare from it to good uses. It is better cheaply maintaining a family of temperate, sober persons, than one fleshly person that hath a whole litter of vices and lusts to be maintained: so much a year seemeth necessary to maintain their pride in needless curiosity and bravery, and so much a year to maintain their sensual sports and pleasures; and so much to please their throats or appetites, and to lay in provision for fevers, and dropsies, and coughs, and consumptions, and a hundred such diseases, which are the natural progeny of gluttony, drunkenness, and excess; and so much a year to maintain their idleness, and so of many other vices. But if one of these persons have the pride, and idleness, and gluttony, and sportfulness of wife, and children, and family also to maintain, as well as their own, many thousand pounds a year perhaps may be too little. Many a conquering army hath been maintained at as cheap a rate, as such an army of lusts (or garrison at least) as keep possession of some such families, when all their luxury goeth for the honour of their family, and they glory in wearing the livery of the devil, the world, and the flesh (which they once renounced, and pretended to glory in nothing but the cross of Christ); and when they take care in the education of their children, that this entailed honour be not cut off from their families: no wonder if God's part be little from these men, when the flesh must have so much, and when God must stand to the courtesy of his enemies, and have but their leavings. I hope the nobility and gentry of England that are innocent herein, will not be offended with me, if I tell them that are guilty, that when I foresee their accounts, I think them to be the miserablest persons upon earth, that rob God, and rob the king of that which should defray the charges of government, and rob the church, and rob the poor, and rob their souls of all the benefits of good works, and all to please the devouring flesh. It is a dreadful thing to foresee with what horror they will give up their reckoning, when instead of so much in feeding and clothing the poor, and promoting the gospel, and the saving of men's souls, there will be found upon their account, so much in vain curiosities and pride, and so much in costly sports and pleasures, and so much in flesh-pleasing luxury and excess. The trick that they have got of late, to free themselves from the fears of this account, by believing that there will be no such day, will prove a short and lamentable remedy: and when that day shall come upon them unawares, their unbelief and pleasures will die together, and deliver them up to never-dying horror and despair. I have heard it often mentioned as the dishonour of France, that the third part of the revenues of so rich a kingdom should be devoted and paid to the maintaining of superstition: but if there be not many (and most) kingdoms in the world, where one half of their wealth is devoted to the flesh, and so to the devil, I should be glad to find myself herein mistaken: and judge you which is more disgraceful, to have half your estates given in sensuality to the devil, or a third part too ignorantly devoted to God! If men laid out no more than needs upon the flesh, they might have the more for the service of God and of their souls. You cannot live under so much a year, as would maintain twice as many frugal, temperate, industrious persons, because your flesh must needs be pleased, and you are strangers to christian mortification and self-denial. Laertius tells us that Crates Thebanus put all the money into the banker's or usurer's hands, with this direction, That if his sons proved idiots it should all be paid to them, but if they proved philosophers it should be given to the poor; because philosophers can live upon a little, and therefore need little. So if we could make men mortified christians, they would need so little for themselves, that they would have the more to give to others, and to do good with.
2. Men do not seriously believe God's promises; that he will recompense them in this life (with better things) an hundred-fold, and in the world to come with life eternal!" Matt. xix. 29. And that "by receiving a prophet, or righteous man, they may have a prophet's or righteous man's reward," Matt. x. 41. And that "a cup of cold water (when you have no better) given to one of Christ's little ones in the name of a disciple, shall not be unrewarded," Matt. x. 42. They believe not that heaven will pay for all, and that there is a life to come in which God will see that they be no losers. They think there is nothing certain but what they have in hand, and therefore they lay up a treasure upon earth, and rather trust to their estates than God; whereas if they verily believed that there is another life, and that judgment will pass on them on the terms described, Matt. xxv. they would more industriously lay up a treasure in heaven, Matt. vi. 20, and "make themselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness," and study how to be rich in good works, and send their wealth to heaven before them, and "lay up a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold upon eternal life," and then they would be "ready to distribute, and willing to communicate," 1 Tim. vi. 17-19; Luke xvi. 9. They would then know how much they are beholden to God, that will not only honour them to be his stewards, but reward them for distributing his maintenance to his children, as if they had given so much of their own; they would then see that it is they that are the receivers, and that giving is the surest way to be rich, when for transitory things (sincerely given) they may receive the everlasting riches. Then they would see that he that saveth his riches loseth them, and he that loseth them for Christ doth save them, and lay them up in heaven; and that it is more blessed to give than to receive; and that we should ourselves be laborious that we may have wherewith to support the weak, and to give unto the needy. Read Acts xx. 35; Eph. iv. 28; Prov. xxxi. 20, &c. Then they would not be weary of well-doing, if they believed that, "in due season, they shall reap if they faint not; but as they have opportunity, would do good to all men; but especially to them that are of the household of faith," Gal. vi. 9, 10. They would not "forget to do good, and communicate, as knowing that with such sacrifices God is well pleased, Heb. xiii. 16. A true belief of the reward, would make men strive who should do most.
3. Another great hinderance is the want of love to God and our neighbours, to Christ and his disciples. If men loved Christ, they would not deal so niggardly with his disciples, when he has told them that he taketh all that they do to the least of them, (whom he calleth his brethren,) as done to himself, Matt. xxv.; x. 39, 40.
If men loved their neighbours as themselves, I leave you to judge in what proportion and manner they would relieve them! Whether they would find money to lay out on dice and cards, and gluttonous feastings, on plays, and games, and pomp, and pride, while so many round about them are in pinching want.
The destruction of charity or christian love is the cause that works of charity are destroyed. Who can look that the seed of the serpent, that hath an enmity against the holy seed, should liberally relieve them? or that the fleshly mind, which is enmity against God, should be ready to do good to the spiritual and holy servants of God? Gen. xv.; Rom. viii. 6-8; or that a selfish man should much care for any body but himself and his own? When love is turned into the hatred of each other, upon the account of our partial interests and opinions; and when we are like men in war, that think he is the bravest, most deserving man that hath killed most; when men have bitter, hateful thoughts of one another, and set themselves to make each other odious, and to ruin them, that they may stand the faster, and think that destroying them is good service to God; who can look for the fruits of love from damnable uncharitableness and hatred; or that the devil's tree should bring forth holy fruit to God?
4. And then (when love is well spoken of by all, even its deadly enemies) lest men should see their wickedness and misery, (and is it not admirable that they see it not?) the devil hath taught them to play the hypocrite, and make themselves a religion which costs them nothing, without true christian love and good works, that they may have something to quiet and cheat their consciences with. One man drops now and then an inconsiderable gift, and another oppresseth, and hateth, and destroyeth (and slandereth and censureth, that he may not be thought to hate and ruin without cause); and when they have done, they wipe their mouths with a few hypocritical prayers or good words, and think they are good christians, and God will not be avenged on them. One thinks that God will save him because he is of this church, and another because he is of another church. One thinks to be saved because he is of this opinion and party in religion, and another because he is of that. One thinks he is religious because he saith his prayers this way, and another because he prayeth another way. And thus dead hypocrites, whose hearts were never quickened with the powerful love of God, to love his servants, their neighbours, and enemies, do persuade themselves that God will save them for mocking and flattering him with the service of their deceitful lips; while they want the love of God, which is the root of all good, and are possessed with the love of money, which is the root of all evil, 1 Tim. vi. 10, and are "lovers of pleasures more than of God," 2 Tim. iii. 4.
They will join themselves forwardly to the cheap and outside actions of religion; but when they hear much less than "One thing thou yet wantest: sell all that thou hast and distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have a treasure in heaven: – they are very sorrowful, because they are very rich," Luke xviii. 22, 23. Such a fruitless love as they had to others, James ii. such a fruitless religion they have as to themselves. For "pure religion and undefiled before God, is to visit the fatherless and widows in their adversity, and to keep yourselves unspotted from the world," James i. 27. See 1 John ii. 15; iii. 17, "Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" There are three texts that describe the case of sensual, uncharitable gentlemen.
1. Luke xvi. "A rich man clothed in purple and silk, (for so, as Dr. Hammond noteth, it should rather be translated,) and fared sumptuously every day," you know the end of him.
2. Ezek. xvi. 49. "Sodom's sin was pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."
3. James v. 1-7. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you. – Ye have lived in pleasure on earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in (or for) the day of slaughter. – Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you – ." And remember Prov. xxi. 13, "Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself and shall not be heard." And James ii. 13, "He shall have judgment without mercy that showed no mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judgment." Yea, in this life it is oft observable that, Prov. xi. 24, "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty."
Tit. 2. Directions for Works of Charity
Direct. I. Love God, and be renewed to his image; and then it will be natural to you to do good; and his love will be in you a fountain of good works.
Direct. II. Love your neighbours, and it will be easy to you to do them all the good you can; as it is to do good to yourselves, or children, or dearest friends.
Direct. III. Learn self-denial, that selfishness may not cause you to be all for yourselves, and be Satan's law of nature in you, forbidding you to do good to others.
Direct. IV. Mortify the flesh, and the vices of sensuality: pride and curiosity, gluttony and drunkenness, are insatiable gulfs, and will devour all, and leave but little for the poor: though there be never so many poor families which want bread and clothing, the proud person must first have the other silk gown, or the other ornaments which may set them out with the forwardest in the mode and fashion; and this house must first be handsomer built, and these rooms must first be neatlier furnished; and these children must first have finer clothes: let Lazarus lie never so miserable at the door, the sensualist must be clothed in purple and silk, and fare deliciously and sumptuously daily, Luke xvi. The glutton must have the dish and cup which pleaseth his appetite, and must keep a full table for the entertainment of his companions that have no need. These insatiable vices are like swine and dogs, that devour all the children's bread. Even vain recreations and gaming shall have more bestowed on them, than church or poor (as to any voluntary gift). Kill your greedy vices once, and then a little will serve your turns, and you may have wherewith to relieve the needy, and do that which will be better to you at your reckoning day.
Direct. V. Let not selfishness make your children the inordinate objects of your charity and provision, to take up that which should be otherwise employed. Carnal and worldly persons would perpetuate their vice, and when they can live no longer themselves, they seem to be half alive in their posterity, and what they can no longer keep themselves, they think is best laid up for their children to feed them as full, and make them as sensual and unhappy as themselves. So that just and moderate provisions will not satisfy them; but their children's portions must be as much as they can get, and almost all their estates are sibi et suis, for themselves and theirs: and this pernicious vice is as destructive to good works, as almost any in the world. That God who hath said that he is worse than an infidel who provideth not for his own family, will judge many thousands to be worse than christians, and than any that will be saved must be, who make their families the devourers of all which should be expended upon other works of charity.