Chapter 15

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Matthew 5:7: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Containing a discourse of mercifulness.

These verses, like the stairs of Solomon's temple, cause our ascent to the Holy of Holies. We are now mounting up a step higher: Blessed are the merciful. There was never more need to preach of mercifulness than in these unmerciful times wherein we live. It is reported in the life of Chrysostom that he did much preach on this subject of mercifulness, and for his much pressing Christians to mercy, he was called by many the alms-preacher, or the preacher for mercy. Our times need many Chrysostoms.

Blessed are the merciful. Mercy stands both in the van and rear of the text; in the beginning of the text it stands as a duty; in the end of the text it stands as a reward. The Hebrew word for godly signifies merciful; the more godly, the more merciful. The doctrine I shall gather out of the words, which will comprehend the whole, is this:

That the merciful man is a blessed man. As there is a curse hanging over the head of the unmerciful man (Psalm 109:6-9): Let Satan stand at his right hand; when he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin; let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow; let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg; let the extortioner catch all that he has, and let the stranger spoil his labor; let there be none to extend mercy to him; let his posterity be cut off, and in the following generation let their name be blotted out. Why? Verse 16: Because he remembered not to show mercy. See what a long vial full of the plagues of God is poured out upon the unmerciful man! So by the rule of contraries, the blessings of the Almighty crown and encompass the merciful man. 2 Samuel 22:26; Psalm 37:26; Psalm 41:1: The merciful man is a blessed man. For the illustration of this, I shall show: first, what is meant by mercifulness; second, the several kinds of mercy.

First, what is meant by mercifulness? I answer: it is a melting disposition, whereby we lay to heart the miseries of others, and are ready on all occasions to be instrumental for their good.

Question 1: How do mercy and love differ?

Answer: In some things they agree, in some things they differ; like waters that may have two different springs, but meet in the stream. Love and mercy differ thus: love is more extensive; the sphere that love walks and visits is larger. Mercy properly respects those who are miserable; love is of a larger consideration. Love is like a friend that visits those who are well; mercy is like a physician that visits only those who are sick. Again, love acts more out of affection; mercy acts out of a principle of conscience. Mercy lends its help to another; love gives its heart to another. Thus they differ. But love and mercy agree in this: they are both ready to do good offices; both of them have compassionate hearts and healing under their wings.

The spring-head of mercifulness rises higher than nature; mercy, taken in its full latitude, proceeds from a work of grace in the heart. By nature we are far enough from mercy. The sinner is a bramble, not a fig tree yielding sweet fruit. It is the character of a natural man to be unmerciful (Romans 1:31). A wicked man, like Jehoram, has his compassion fallen out (2 Chronicles 21:19). Therefore he is compared to an adamant (Zechariah 7:11), because his heart melts not in mercy. Before conversion the sinner is compared to a wolf for his savageness, to a lion for his fierceness, to a bee for his sting (Psalm 118:12), to an adder for his poison (Psalm 140:3). By nature we do not send forth oil, but poison; not the oil of mercifulness, but the poison of maliciousness.

Besides that inbred unmercifulness which is in us, there is something infused too by Satan. The prince of the air works in men (Ephesians 2:2). He is a fierce spirit, therefore called the red dragon (Revelation 12:3). If he possesses men, no wonder if they are implacable and without mercy. What mercy can be expected from hell? So if the heart is tuned into mercifulness, it is from the change that grace has made. When the sun shines, then the ice melts. When the Sun of Righteousness once shines with beams of grace upon the soul, now it melts in mercy and tenderness. You must first be a new man, before a merciful man; you cannot help a member of Christ, until first you yourself are a member.

Second, the several kinds of mercy, or how many ways a man may be said to be merciful. Mercy is a fountain that runs in five streams; we must be merciful to the: first, souls of others; second, names of others; third, estates of others; fourth, offenses of others; fifth, wants of others.

Showing that mercy is to be extended to the souls of others.

First, we must be merciful to the souls of others; this is a spiritual alms. Indeed, soul-mercy is the chief; the soul is the most precious thing. It is a vessel of honor; it is a bud of eternity; it is a spark lighted by the breath of God; it is a rich diamond set in a ring of clay. The soul has the blood of God to redeem it, the image of God to beautify it. It being therefore of so high a descent, sprung from the Ancient of Days, that mercy which is shown to the soul must needs be the greatest. This soul-mercy to others stands in four things.

First, in pitying them. If I weep (says Augustine) for that body from which the soul is departed, how should I weep for that soul from which God is departed? Had we seen that man in the gospel cutting himself with stones and fetching blood from himself, it would have moved our pity (Mark 5:5). To see a sinner stabbing himself, and having his hands stained in his own blood, should cause relentings in our hearts. Our eye should affect our heart. God was angry with Edom, because he cast off all pity (Amos 1:11).

Second, soul-mercy is in advising and exhorting sinners. Tell them in what a sad condition they are, in the gall of bitterness. Show them their danger; they tread upon the banks of the bottomless pit, and if death gives them a nudge, they tumble in. We must dip our words in honey, use all the mildness we can (2 Timothy 2:25): In meekness instructing. Fire melts, ointment softens; words of love may melt hard hearts into repentance. This is soul-mercy. God made a law (Exodus 23:5) that whoever saw his enemy's donkey lying under a burden, he should help him. On which words Chrysostom says: We will help a beast that is fallen under a burden; and shall we not extend relief to those who are fallen under a worse burden of sin?

Third, soul-mercy is in reproving stubborn sinners. There is a cruel mercy, when we see men go on in sin, and we let them alone. And there is a merciful cruelty, when we are sharp against men's sins, and will not let them go to hell quietly. Leviticus 19:17: You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall in any wise rebuke your neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. Fond pity is no better than cruelty. Titus 1:13: Rebuke them sharply — the Greek word means, cuttingly. The surgeon cuts and lances the flesh, but it is in order to a cure; these are healing wounds. So by a cutting reproof, when we lance men's consciences and let out the blood of sin, we exercise spiritual surgery; this is showing mercy. Jude 23: Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. If a man were in the fire, though you hurt him a little in pulling him out, he would be thankful and take it as a kindness. Some men when we tell them of sin say, O this is bitterness; no, it is showing mercy. If a man's house were on fire, and another saw it and did not tell him for fear of waking him — would not this be cruelty? When we see others sleeping the sleep of death, and the fire of God's wrath ready to burn about their ears, and we are silent, is not this to be accessory to their death?

Fourth, soul-mercy is in praying for others. This is like medicine used in a desperate case, and it often recovers the sick patient. James 5:16: The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. As it cures the sick body, so the sin-sick soul. There is a story of one who gave his soul to the devil, who was recovered through the prayers of Luther. When Eutychus fell down from a high loft and was taken up dead, Paul fell on him — that is, he effectually prayed over him — and he prayed him alive (Acts 20:9, 11). By sin the soul has fallen from a high loft, that is, a state of innocency; now, fervent prayer often fetches life into such a dead soul.

Use 1. See what a blessed work the work of the ministry is! The preaching of the word is nothing but showing mercy to souls. This is a mighty and glorious instrument in the hand of the Lord of Hosts for the beating down of the devil's strongholds. The ministry of the word does not only bring light with it, but eye-salve, anointing the eyes to see that light. It is a sin-killing and soul-quickening ordinance; it is the power of God to salvation. What enemies are they to their own souls that oppose the ministry! They say the people who live under the equator curse the sun and are glad when the sun sets, because of its burning heat. Foolish sinners curse the sun-rising of the ministry, and are offended at the light of it, because it comes near their sins and scorches their consciences — though in the end it saves their souls.

Use 2. It reproves those that have no mercy to souls.

First, evil magistrates, who either take away the key of knowledge, or give a toleration to wickedness, allowing men to sin by a license. The meaning of such toleration is this: if men will go to hell, none shall stop them. Is not nature enough poisoned? Do not men sin fast enough, but must they have such political engines as screw them up higher in wickedness? Must they have such favorable winds from the breath of great ones as serve to carry them full sail to the devil? This is far from soul-mercy. What a heavy reckoning will these statesmen have in the day of the Lord!

Second, evil ministers. First, such as have no compassion to the souls of their people; they do not pity them, pray for them; they seek not them, but theirs. They preach not for love, but for gain; their care is more for tithes than souls. How can they be called spiritual fathers who are without compassion? These are hirelings, not ministers.

Second, such as feed not the souls of their people with solid truths. When Christ sent out his apostles, he gave them their text and told them what they must preach (Matthew 10:7): Preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand. On which place Luther says: The ministers of Christ must preach things that pertain to the Kingdom of God — pardon of sin, sanctification, living by faith. They are unmerciful to souls who, instead of breaking the bread of life, fill their people's heads with mere speculations and notions; who tickle the fancy rather than touch the conscience, and give precious souls music rather than food.

Third, such as darken knowledge with words, and preach so as if they were speaking in an unknown tongue. Some ministers love to soar aloft, like the eagle, and fly above their people's capacities, endeavoring rather to be admired than understood. They are like some crabbed authors who cannot be read without a commentary. God calls his ministers ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), but they must not be like foreign ambassadors who cannot be understood without an interpreter. It is unmerciful to souls to preach so as not to be understood. Ministers should be stars to give light, not clouds to obscure the truth. Paul was learned, yet plain. Clearness and clarity is the grace of speech. It is cruelty to souls when we go about to make easy things hard. This many are guilty of in our age, who go into the pulpit only to tie knots, and think it their glory to amuse the people. This savors more of pride than mercifulness.

Fourth, such as see others going on in sin, but do not tell them of it. When men declare their sin as Sodom, it is the minister's duty to lift up his voice like a trumpet, and show the house of Jacob their sin (Isaiah 58:1). Zeal in the ministry is as proper as fire on the altar. He who lets another sin, and holds his peace, is a man-slayer. That sentinel deserves death, who sees the enemy approaching and gives not warning (Ezekiel 3:20).

Fifth, such as poison souls with error; how dangerous is the leprosy of the head! A frenzy is worse than a fever. What shall we say to such ministers as give poison to their people in a golden cup? Are not these unmerciful? Others there are — unworthy the name of ministers — itinerants, the devil's journeymen, who ride up and down, compassing the earth to devour souls. It would pity one's heart to see poor, unstable creatures misled by rude and illiterate men, who feed the people with blasphemy and nonsense, and make them fitter for Bedlam than the New Jerusalem. All these are unmerciful to souls.

Let me beseech all that fear God to show soul-mercy. Strengthen the weak, reclaim the wandering, raise up those that are fallen. James 5:20: He which converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death.

Showing that Christians must be tender of one another's names.

Second, we must be merciful to the names of others. A good name is one of the greatest blessings upon earth; no chain of pearl so adorns as this. It being so, we ought to be very tender of names. They are to be accounted in a high degree unmerciful who make no conscience of taking away the good names of their brothers. Their throats are open graves to bury the fame and renown of men (Romans 3:13). It is great cruelty to murder a man in his name. Song of Solomon 5:7: The watchmen found me, they took away my veil from me. Some expositors interpret this of her honor and fame, which covered her as a beautiful veil. The root of this unmerciful treatment of names is:

First, pride. Pride is such a thing as cannot endure to be outshone; it does not love to see itself exceeded in gifts and eminence. Therefore it will behead another in his good name, that he may appear somewhat lower. The proud man pulls down others in their reputation, and so by their eclipse thinks he shall shine the brighter. The breath of a proud man causes a blight or mildew upon fame.

Second, envy (1 Peter 2:1). An envious man maligns the dignity of another, therefore seeks to harm him in his name. Religion teaches us to rejoice in the esteem and fame of others. Romans 1:8: I thank my God for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. A good report is a credit to religion (Hebrews 11:4). If persons professing godliness have not a good name, religion will have no very good name. But envy, consulting with the devil, lays a train, and fetches fire from hell to blow up the good name of another.

Question: How many ways may we be unmerciful to the names of others?

Answer, first: By misreporting them, a sin forbidden (Exodus 23:1): You shall not raise a false report. Eminence is commonly blasted by slander. Psalm 64:3: Their tongues are as arrows shot out. The tongue of a slanderer shoots out words to wound the fame of another, and make it bleed to death. The saints of God in all ages have met with unmerciful men, who have fathered things upon them that they were not guilty of. Surius the Jesuit reported of Luther that he learned his divinity of the devil, and that he died drunk. But Melanchthon, who wrote his life, affirms that he died in a most pious, holy manner, and made a most excellent prayer before his death. It was David's complaint (Psalm 35:11): They laid to my charge things which I knew not. The Greek word for devil signifies slanderer. 1 Timothy 3:11: Not slanderers. Some think it is no great matter to defame and traduce another; but know, this is to act the part of a devil. How many unmerciful men are there who go for Christians, but play the devil in venting their lies and slanders! Wicked men in Scripture are called dogs (Psalm 22:16). Slanderers are not like those dogs which licked Lazarus's sores to heal them, but like the dogs that ate Jezebel — they rend and tear the precious names of men. Valentinian the emperor decreed that he who was openly convicted of this crime of slander should die for it. And Pope Gregory decreed that such a person should be excommunicated and not have the Communion given him; I think it was a just decree.

Answer, second: We are unmerciful to the names of others when we receive a slander, and then report what we hear. Leviticus 19:16: You shall not go up and down as a talebearer among your people. A good man does not evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor (Psalm 15:3). We must not only not raise a false report, but not take it up. To divulge a report before we speak with the party and know the truth of it is unmerciful, and cannot acquit itself of sin. The same word in the Hebrew means both to raise a slander and to receive it (Exodus 23:1). The receiver is even as bad as the thief; it is well if none of us have received stolen goods in this sense. When others have stolen away the good names of their brothers, have we not received these stolen goods? There would not be so many to spread false rumors, but that they see this liquor pleases other men's taste.

We deal unmercifully with the names of others when we diminish from their just worth and dignity — when we make more of their infirmities and less of their virtues. James 4:11: Speak not evil of one another. I have read a story of one Idor, an Abbot, that he was never heard to speak evil of any man. Augustine could not endure that any should eclipse and lessen the fame of others. Wicked men are still paring off the credit of their neighbors, and they make thick parings; they pare off all that is good, leaving nothing but something that may tend to their disparagement. Unmerciful men know how to reduce a man's merit to nothing; they have a devilish art to so extenuate and lessen the merit of others that it is boiled away to nothing. Some, though they have not the power of creation, yet they have the power of annihilation. They can sooner annihilate the good which is in others than imitate it.

We are unmerciful to the names of others when we know them to be falsely accused yet do not vindicate them. A man may sometimes wrong another by silence as much as by slander. He who is merciful to his brother is an advocate to plead in his behalf when he is unjustly accused. When the apostles, who were filled with the wine of the Spirit, were charged with drunkenness, Peter vindicated them openly (Acts 2:15). A merciful man will take the dead fly out of the box of ointment.

They are in a high degree unmerciful to the names of others who bear false witness against them. Exodus 23:1: Put not your hand with the wicked to be a false witness. Putting the hand is taking an oath falsely, as when a man puts his hand upon the book and swears to a lie. A false witness is compared to a hammer (Proverbs 25:18), because he is hardened — first in impudence, he blushes at nothing; second in unmercifulness, there is no softness in a hammer, nor is there any relenting to be found in a false witness. All these ways men are unmerciful to the names of others.

Let me persuade all Christians, as they make conscience of religion, so to show mercy to the names of others; be very careful and tender of men's good names. Consider:

First, what a sin it is to defame any man (Titus 3:2; 1 Peter 2:1): Laying aside all envies and evil speakings — envy and evil speaking are put together.

This word means 'putting away,' as a man would put away a thing from him with indignation, as Paul shook off the viper (Acts 28:5).

Second, consider the injuriousness of it. You that take away the good name of another wound him in that which is most dear to him; better take away a man's life than his name. By eclipsing his name you bury him alive; it is an irreparable injury. A wound in the name is like a flaw in a diamond or a stain in fine cloth which will never come out; no physician can heal the wounds of the tongue.

Third, God will require it at men's hands; if idle words must be accounted for, shall not reproachful slanders? God will make inquisition one day as well for names as for blood. Let all this persuade to caution and circumspection; you would be loath to steal the goods of others, and a man's name is of more worth. He that takes away the good name of another does more sin than if he had taken the corn out of his field or the wares out of his shop.

Especially, take heed of wounding the names of the godly: God has set a crown of honor on their head, and will you take it off? Numbers 12:8: Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? To defame the saints is no less than defaming God himself, they having his image drawn upon them and being members of Christ. Oh, think how ill Christ will take this at your hand another day! It was under the old law a sin to defame a virgin, and what is it to slander Christ's spouse? Are the names of the saints written in heaven, and will you blot them out upon earth? Be merciful to the names of others.

Showing that mercy in some cases must be extended to the estates of others, and that Christians must not insist on the full letter of the law.

Third, be merciful to the estates of others. If a man is your debtor and Providence has frowned upon him so that he cannot pay, do not crush him when he is sinking, but remit something of the rigor of the law. Blessed are the merciful. The wicked are compared to beasts of prey that live upon plunder and spoil, caring not what mischief they do. Psalm 10:9: He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; he catches the poor when he draws him into his net. Chrysostom says the drawing into the net is when the rich draw the poor into bonds, and in case of non-payment, seize upon all they have. It is not justice but cruelty, when others lie at our mercy, to be like that hard-hearted creditor in the gospel who took his debtor by the throat saying, 'Pay me what you owe' (Matthew 18:28). God made a law (Deuteronomy 24:6): No man shall take the lower or upper millstone to pledge, for he takes a man's life to pledge. We should in this imitate God, who in the midst of anger remembers mercy. God does not take the full extremity of the law upon us; but when we have nothing to pay, if we confess the debt, he freely forgives (Proverbs 28:13; Matthew 18:27).

Not but that we may justly seek what is our own; but if others are brought low and submit, we ought in conscience to remit something of the debt. Blessed are the merciful.

Showing that Christians must be merciful to the offenses of others.

We must be merciful to the offenses of others — be ready to show mercy to those who have injured you. Thus Stephen the first martyr (Acts 7:60) knelt down and cried with a loud voice, 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' When he prayed for himself, he stood; but when he came to pray for his enemies, he knelt down — to show, said Bernard, his earnestness in prayer and how greatly he desired that God would forgive them. This is a rare kind of mercy. Proverbs 19:11: It is a man's glory to pass over a transgression. Mercy in forgiving injuries, as it is the touchstone, so it is the crown of Christianity. Bishop Cranmer was of a merciful disposition; if any who had wronged him came to ask a favor, he would do all that lay in his power for him, insomuch that it grew to a proverb: 'Do Cranmer an injury, and he will be your friend as long as he lives.' To overcome evil with good and answer malice with mercy is truly heroic and renders religion glorious in the eyes of all.

That mercy must be extended to the supplying of the wants of others.

We must be merciful to the wants of others. This the text chiefly intends. A good man does not, like the snake, twist within himself; his motion is direct, not circular. He is ever merciful and lends (Psalm 37:26). This merciful charity to the wants of others stands in three things.

First, a judicious consideration (Psalm 41:1): Blessed is he that considers the poor. And you must consider four things.

First, it might have been your own case; you yourselves might have stood in need of another's charity, and then how welcome and refreshing would those streams have been to you?

Second, consider how sad a condition poverty is. Though Chrysostom calls poverty the highway to heaven, yet he that keeps this road will go weeping along it. Consider the poor — behold their tears, their sighs, their dying groans; look upon the deep furrows made in their faces and consider if there is not reason why you should scatter your seed of mercy in these furrows. The poor man feeds upon sorrow, he drinks tears (Psalm 80:5); like Jacob, in a windy night he has the clouds for his canopy and a stone for his pillow.

Furthermore, consider that poverty often becomes not only a cross but a snare; it exposes men to much evil, which made Agur pray, 'Give me not poverty' (Proverbs 30:8). Want puts men upon indirect courses. The poor will venture their souls for money. If the rich would wisely consider this, their alms might prevent much sin.

Third, consider why the wise God has suffered an inequality in the world: it is for this very reason, because he would have mercy exercised. If all were rich, there would be no need of alms, nor could the merciful man have been known. If the man who traveled to Jericho had not been wounded and left half dead, the good Samaritan who poured oil and wine into his wounds would not have been known.

Fourth, consider how quickly the balance of Providence may turn; we ourselves may be brought to poverty, and then it will be no small comfort that we relieved others while we were in a capacity to do it. Ecclesiastes 11:2: Give a portion to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil shall be upon the earth. We cannot promise ourselves always calm days; the cup which now runs over with wine may be filled with the waters of bitterness. Ruth 1:21: I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home empty. How many have we seen who were invested with great possessions, who have on a sudden brought their manor to a morsel?

So it is wisdom in this sense to consider the wants of others. Remember how soon the scene may alter; we may be put in the poor man's clothes. And if adversity comes, it will be no trouble of mind to think that while we had an estate we laid it out upon Christ's needy members. This is the first thing in mercifulness: a judicious consideration.

Second, a tender compassion (Isaiah 58:10): If you draw out your soul to the hungry. Bounty begins in pity. The Hebrew word for mercy signifies 'bowels.' Christ first had compassion on the multitude, then worked a miracle to feed them (Matthew 15:32). Charity which lacks compassion is brutish. True religion begets tenderness; as it melts the heart in tears of contrition toward God, so also in bowels of compassion toward others. Isaiah 16:11: My heart shall sound as a harp. When our bowels of pity sound, then our alms make sweet music in the ears of God.

Third, mercifulness consists in a liberal contribution. Deuteronomy 15:8: If there is a poor man within your gates, you shall open your hand wide to him. The word 'to disperse' (Psalm 112:9) signifies a largeness of bounty; it must be like water that overflows the banks. If God has enriched men with estates and made his candle shine upon their tabernacle, they must not enclose and hoard all to themselves, but be as the moon which, having received its light from the sun, lets it shine to the world. The ancient writers made oil the emblem of charity; the golden oil of mercy, like Aaron's oil, must run down upon the poor who are the lower skirts of the garment. This liberal giving to the wants and necessities of others, God commands, and grace compels.

First reason: God commands. There is an express statute-law (Leviticus 25:35): If your brother grows poor and falls into decay with you, you shall relieve him. The Hebrew word means 'you shall strengthen him' — put under him a silver crutch when he is falling. It is worth observing what great care God took of the poor. Besides what was given to them privately, God made many laws for the public relief of the poor. Exodus 23:11: The seventh year you shall let the land rest and lie still, that the poor of your people may eat. God's intention in this law was that the poor should be liberally provided for; they might freely eat of anything that grew of itself that seventh year, whether herbs, vines, or olive trees.

There is another law made (Leviticus 19:9): When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Some corners of the field were for the poor's sake to be left uncut; and when the owners did reap, they must not go too close to the ground with their sickle. Something like an after-crop must be left; the shorter ears of corn and such as lay bending to the ground were to be reserved for the poor.

And God made another law in favor of the poor (Deuteronomy 14:28): At the end of three years you shall bring forth the tithe of your increase that same year and shall lay it up within your gates, and the Levite and the fatherless and the widow within your gates shall come and eat and be satisfied. The Hebrew writers record that every third year, besides the first tithe given to Levi — called the perpetual tithe (Numbers 18:21) — the Jews set apart another tithe of their increase for the use of widows and orphans, called the tithe of the poor. Besides, at the Jews' solemn festivals, the poor were to have a share (Deuteronomy 16:11).

And as relieving the needy was commanded under the law, so it stands in force under the gospel. 1 Timothy 6:17-18: Charge those who are rich in this world to do good, to be rich in good works. It is not only a counsel but a charge, and the non-compliance with it brings men into a gospel-level offense. What benefit is there of gold while it is buried and locked up in the mine? And what is the better to have a great estate if it is so hoarded and closeted as never to see the light?

Second reason: As God commands, so grace compels to works of mercy and beneficence. 2 Corinthians 5:14: The love of Christ constrains. Grace comes with majesty upon the heart. Grace does not lie as a dormant habit in the soul, but will put forth itself in vigorous and glorious actions. Grace can no more be concealed than fire; like new wine, it will have vent. Grace does not lie in the heart as a stone in the earth, but as seed in the earth — it will spring up into good works.

Containing a vindication of the Church of England.

Use 1 may serve to justify the Church of England against the calumny of malevolent men. Julian upbraided the Christians for being those who relied on faith alone, and the Church of Rome lays upon us the aspersion that we are against good works. Indeed we do not plead for the merit of them, but we are for the use of them. Titus 3:14: Let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary use. We read the angels had wings, and hands under their wings (Ezekiel 1:8) — emblematic of the truth that Christians must not only have the wings of faith to fly, but hands under their wings to work the works of mercy. Titus 3:8: This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to maintain constantly, that those who have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. The lamp of faith must be filled with the oil of charity; faith alone justifies, but justifying faith is not alone. You may as well separate weight from lead or heat from fire as works from faith. Good works, though they are not the causes of salvation, yet they are evidences; though they are not the foundation, yet they are the superstructure. Faith must not be built upon works, but works must be built upon faith. Romans 7:4: You are married to another, that you should bring forth fruit to God. Faith is the grace which marries Christ, and good works are the children which faith bears. For the vindication of the doctrine of our church and in honor of good works, I shall lay down these four propositions.

First proposition: Works are distinct from faith. It is vain to imagine that works are included in faith as the diamond is enclosed in the ring. No, they are distinct, as the sap in the vine is different from the clusters that grow upon it.

Second proposition: Works are the touchstone of faith. James 2:18: Show me your faith by your works. Works are faith's letters of credential to show. If, said Bernard, you see a man full of good works, then by the rule of charity you are not to doubt his faith. We judge of the health of the body by the pulse, where the blood stirs and operates. Christian, judge of the health of your faith by the pulse of mercy and charitableness. It is with faith as with a deed in law — to make a deed valid there are three things required: the writing, the seal, and the witnesses. So for the testing and confirmation of faith there must be these three things: the writing (the Word of God), the seal (the Spirit of God), and the witnesses (good works). Faith justifies works; works testify faith.

Third proposition: Works honor faith. These fruits adorn the trees of righteousness. Let the liberality of your hand (said Clement of Alexandria) be the ornament of your faith, and wear it as a holy bracelet about your wrists. Job 29:15: I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame; I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. While Job was the poor man's benefactor and advocate, this was the badge of his honor — it clothed him as a robe and crowned him as a diadem. This is what takes away reproach and makes others speak well of religion, when they see good works as handmaids waiting upon this queen.

Fourth proposition: Good works are in some sense more excellent than faith — in two respects.

First, because they are of a more noble, diffusive nature. Though faith is more needful for ourselves, yet good works are more beneficial to others. Faith is a receptive grace — it is all for self-interest, moving within its own sphere. Works are for the good of others, and it is a more blessed thing to give than to receive.

Second, good works are more visible and conspicuous than faith. Faith is a more hidden grace; it may lie in the heart and not be seen. But when works are joined with it, now it shines forth in its native beauty. Though a garden be never so decked with flowers, they are not seen until the light comes. So the heart of a Christian may be enriched with faith, but it is like a flower in the night — it is not seen until works come. When this light shines before men, then faith appears in its true colors.

A check to the unmerciful.

Use 2: If this is the mark of a good man, that he is of a merciful disposition, then it sharply reproves those who are far from this temper. Their hearts are like the scales of the Leviathan, shut up together as with a close seal (Job 41:15). They move only within their own circle but do not indulge the necessities of others. They have a flourishing estate, but like the man in the gospel, they have a withered hand and cannot stretch it out to good uses. These are akin to the churlish Nabal. 1 Samuel 25:11: Shall I take my bread and my water and give them to men I do not know? It was said of the Emperor Pertinax that he had a large empire but a narrow, scanty heart.

There was a temple at Athens called the Temple of Mercy, dedicated to charitable uses, and it was the greatest reproach to be told you had never been in the Temple of Mercy. It is the greatest disgrace to a Christian to be unmerciful. Covetous men, while they enrich themselves, debase themselves, setting up a monopoly and committing idolatry with money. In the time of pestilence it is sad to have your houses shut up, but it is worse to have your hearts shut up. How miserable to have a sea of sin and not a drop of mercy? Covetous hearts are firm as a stone (Job 41:24); one may as well extract oil from flint as the golden oil of charity from their flinty hearts. The coldness of the heart is a sign of death: when men's affections to works of mercy are frozen, this coldness at heart sadly suggests that they are dead in sin. We read in the law that the shellfish was accounted unclean — possibly because the meat of it was enclosed in the shell and hard to come by. They are to be reckoned among the unclean who enclose all their estate within the shell of their own cabinet and will not let others be the better for it. How many have lost their souls by being so saving!

There are some who will give the poor good words, and that is all. James 2:15-16: If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' yet you give them not those things which are needful — what does it profit? Good words are but a cold kind of charity; the poor cannot live on air. Let your words be as smooth as oil — they will not heal the wounded. Let them drop as the honeycomb — they will not feed the hungry. 1 Corinthians 13:1: Though I speak with the tongue of angels and have not charity, I am but as a tinkling cymbal. It is better to be charitable as a saint than eloquent as an angel. Such as are cruel to the poor — know that you unchristian yourselves; unmercifulness is the sin of the heathen (Romans 1:31). While you put off the bowels of mercy, you put off the badge of Christianity. Ambrose said that when we do not relieve one whom we see ready to perish with hunger, we are guilty of his death. James 2:13: He shall have judgment without mercy who showed no mercy. How do they think to find mercy from Christ, who never showed mercy to Christ in his members? Dives denied Lazarus a crumb of bread, and Dives was denied a drop of water. At the last day we see the sinner's indictment (Matthew 25:42): I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. Christ does not say 'you took away my food,' but 'you gave me none.' When Christ's poor come to your doors and you bid them depart, the time may come when you shall knock at heaven's gate and Christ will say, 'Depart from me, you cursed.'

In short, covetousness is a foolish sin. God gave the rich man in the gospel the title 'Fool' (Luke 12:20). The covetous man does not enjoy what he possesses; he embitters his own life, tormenting himself with care, whether how to get, how to increase, or how to secure an estate. And what is the result? Often as a just reward of sordid stinginess, God blasts and withers him in his outward estate. God many times lets the thief take away and the moth consume what is unjustly and unmercifully withheld from the poor.

Before I leave this point, I am sorry that any who go for honest men should be brought under the indictment — that any professors should be guilty of covetousness and unmercifulness. God's elect are told to put on bowels of mercy (Colossians 3:12). I tell you, these devout misers are the reproach of Christianity; they are blemishes in the face of religion. Aelian reports in his history that in India there is a griffin having four feet and wings — it is hard to rank him among the beasts or the fowl. So I may say of stingy religious professors: they have the wings of profession by which they seem to fly to heaven, but the feet of beasts walking on the earth and licking the dust. Oh, take heed that since your religion will not destroy your covetousness, your covetousness does not in the end destroy your religion. Covetousness, though it has many fair pretenses to insinuate itself into the heart, once let in will never stop prickling until it has choked all good beginnings and thrust all religion out of your hearts.

Persuading to mercifulness.

Use 3: I proceed next to the exhortation — to beseech all Christians to put on bowels of mercies, to be ready to indulge the miseries and necessities of others. Ambrose calls charity the sum of Christianity; and the apostle makes it the very definition of religion (James 1:27): Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. The Hebrew word for 'poor' signifies one who is empty or drawn dry. So the poor are exhausted of their strength, beauty, and substance — like ponds they are dried up; therefore let them be filled again with the silver streams of charity. The poor are, as it were, in the grave; the comfort of their life is buried. God sends his springs into the valleys (Psalm 104:10); let the springs of your liberality run among the valleys of poverty. Your sweetest and most gentle influences should fall upon the lower grounds. What is all your seeming devotion without bounty and mercifulness? Basil said he had known many who prayed and fasted but did not relieve those in distress — they are for a zeal that will put them to no cost. What are they the better for all their seeming virtue? We read that the incense was to be laid upon the fire (Leviticus 16:13); the flame of devotion must be perfumed with the incense of charity. Aaron was to have a bell and a pomegranate; the pomegranate, as some of the learned observe, was a symbol of good works. They want the pomegranate who have no good works. The wise men did not only bow the knee to Christ but presented him with gold, myrrh, and frankincense (Matthew 2:11). Pretenses of zeal are insufficient; we must not only worship Christ but bestow something upon his members. Isaac would not bless Jacob by the voice alone but felt and handled him, and supposing them to be Esau's hands, he blessed him. God will not bless men by their voice alone, their loud prayers, their devout discourses; but if he feels Esau's hands — if their hands have worked good works — then he blesses them.

Let me exhort you therefore to deeds of mercy; let your fingers drop with the myrrh of liberality; sow your golden seed. Remember that excellent saying of Augustine: 'Give to the poor those things you cannot keep, that you may receive those things you cannot lose.' There are many occasions for exercising your mercifulness; poverty is everywhere. Hear the orphan's cry, pity the widow's tears. Some there are who want employment — it would do well to set their work going. Others who are past employment — be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. Some whole families are sinking if some merciful hand does not help to shore them up. Before I press arguments to liberality and generosity, there are three objections in the way which I shall endeavor to remove.

Objection 1: We may give, and so in time come ourselves to want.

Answer: Let Basil answer this: 'Wells which have their water drawn spring ever more freely' (Proverbs 11:25). The liberal soul shall be made fat. Luther speaks of a monastery in Austria which was very rich while it gave annually to the poor, but when it left off giving, the monastery began to decay. There is nothing lost by doing our duty; an estate may be shared yet not impaired. The flowers yield honey to the bee yet do not hurt their own fruit. When the candle of prosperity shines upon us, we may light our neighbor who is in the dark and have no less light ourselves. Whatever is disbursed to godly uses, God brings it in by some other way; as the loaves in the breaking multiplied, or as the widow's oil increased by pouring out (1 Kings 17:16).

Objection 2: I cannot do as much as others — erect churches, build hospitals, endow libraries, maintain scholars at the university.

Answer: If you cannot do so much, yet do something. Let there be quality of virtue, though not quantity of mass. The widow's two mites cast into the treasury were accepted (Luke 21). God, as Chrysostom observes, looked not at the smallness of her gift but the largeness of her heart. In the law, he that could not bring a lamb for an offering, if he brought but two turtle-doves, it sufficed. We read (Exodus 35) the people brought gold and silver and goats' hair to the building of the tabernacle. On which Origen says: 'I desire, Lord, to bring something to the building of your temple — if not gold to make the mercy-seat, if not silk to make the curtains, yet a little goats' hair, that I may not be found in the number of those who have brought nothing to your temple.'

Objection 3: But I have nothing to bestow upon the necessities of others.

Answer 1: Do you have nothing to bestow upon your lusts? Do you have money to feed your pride, your self-indulgence? And can you find nothing to relieve the poor members of Christ?

Answer 2: Granting this excuse to be real — that you have not such an estate — yet you may do something whereby you may express your mercy to the poor. You may sympathize with them, pray for them, speak a word of comfort to them. Isaiah 40:2: Speak comfortably to Jerusalem. If you can give them no gold, you may speak a word in season which may be as apples of gold in pictures of silver. More than that, you may be helpful to the poor by stirring up others who have estates to relieve them. As it is with the wind — if a man is hungry, the wind will not fill him, but it can blow the sails of the mill and make it grind corn for the use of man. So though you have not an estate yourself to help one in want, yet you may stir up others to help him; you may blow the sails of their affections, causing them to show mercy, and so may help your brother by a proxy.

Having answered these objections, let me now pursue the exhortation to mercifulness. I shall lay down several arguments which I desire may be weighed in the balance of reason and conscience.

Argument 1: To be diffusively good is the great end of our creation. Ephesians 2:10: Created in Christ Jesus to good works. Every creature answers the end of its creation; the star shines, the bird sings, the plant bears. The end of life is service. He that does not answer his end in respect of usefulness cannot enjoy his end in respect of happiness. Many, said Seneca, have been long in the world but have not lived — they have done no good. An unprofitable person serves for nothing but to cumber the ground, and because he is barren in figs, he shall be fruitful in curses (Hebrews 6:8).

Argument 2: By this we resemble God, who is a God of mercy. He is said to delight in mercy (Micah 7:18). His mercies are over all his works (Psalm 145:9). He repays good for evil; like the clouds, which receive ill vapors from us but return them to us as sweet showers. There is not a creature that lives but tastes of the mercies of God. But men and angels taste in a more particular manner the cream and quintessence of God's mercies.

First, what temporal mercies have you received! Every time you draw your breath, you suck in mercy; every bit of bread you eat, the hand of mercy carves it to you; you never drink but in a golden cup of mercy.

Second, what spiritual mercies has God enriched some of you with — pardoning, adopting, saving mercy! The picture of God's mercy can never be drawn to the full. You cannot take the breadth of his mercy, for it is infinite; nor the height of it, for it reaches above the clouds; nor the length of it, for it is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 103:17). The works of mercy are the glory of the Godhead. Moses prayed, 'Lord, show me your glory' (Exodus 33:18); God replied, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you' (verse 19). God accounts himself most glorious in the shining robes of his mercy. Now by works of mercy we resemble the God of mercy. Luke 6:36: Be merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

Argument 3: Alms are a sacrifice. Hebrews 13:16: To do good and to share, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. When you are distributing to the poor, it is as if you were praying, as if you were worshipping God. There are two sorts of sacrifices — expiatory (the sacrifice of Christ's blood) and gratulatory (the sacrifice of alms). This, said the godly Richard Greenham, is more acceptable to God than any other sacrifice. Acts 10:4: The angel said to Cornelius, 'Your alms have come up for a memorial before God.' The backs of the poor are the altar on which this sacrifice is to be offered.

Argument 4: We ourselves live upon alms; other creatures do liberally contribute to our necessities. The sun has not its light for itself but for us; the earth brings us a fruitful crop. One creature gives us wool, another oil, another silk; we are all beggars to the creation. Shall every creature be for the good of man, and man only be for himself? How absurd and irrational this is!

Argument 5: We are to extend our liberality by virtue of membership. Isaiah 58:7: Hide not yourself from your own flesh. The poor are of the same clay; they are fellow-members of the same body. The members by a law of equity and sympathy contribute to one another; the eye conveys light to the body, the heart blood, the head spirits. That is a dead member in the body which does not communicate to the rest. So it is in the body politic. It is a pity if that hand should be cut off which disdains to pluck a thorn out of the foot. It is spoken in honor of the Empress of Theodosius the great that she did herself visit the sick and prepare relief for them with her own imperial hands.

Argument 6: We are not lords of an estate but stewards. And how soon may we hear that word, 'Give an account of your stewardship, for you may be no longer steward' (Luke 16:2). An estate is a talent to trade with; it is as dangerous to hide our talent as to spend it (Matthew 25:25-30). If the covetous man keeps his gold too long, it will begin to rust, and the rust of it will witness against him (James 5:3).

Argument 7: The examples of others who have been renowned for acts of mercy and generosity.

First, our Lord Christ — a great example of charity; he was not more full of merit than bounty. Trajan the emperor tore off a piece of his own robe to wrap his soldier's wounds. Christ did more: he tore his flesh; he made a medicine of his body and blood to heal us. Isaiah 53:5: By his wounds you are healed. Here was a pattern of charity without a parallel.

Second, the Jews are noted in this kind. It is a rabbinical observation that those who live devoutly among the Jews distribute a tenth part of their estate among the poor. They give so freely, said Philo the Jew, as if by giving they hoped to receive some great reward. Now if the Jews are so devoted to works of mercy — who live without priest, without temple, without Messiah — shall not we much more who profess our faith in the blessed Messiah?

Third, let me tell you of heathens. I have read of Titus Vespasian, who was so accustomed to works of mercy that remembering he had given nothing that day, he cried out, 'I have lost a day.' It is reported of some among the Turks that they employ servants on purpose to seek out their poor and send relief to them. The Turks have a saying that if men knew what a blessed thing it were to distribute alms, rather than spare they would give some of their own flesh to relieve the poor. And shall not a Christian's creed be better than a Turk's?

Let all this persuade to works of mercy.

When poor, needy creatures — like Moses — are laid in the ark of bulrushes weeping, ready to sink in the waters of affliction, be as temporal saviors to them and draw them out of the waters with a golden cord. Let the breasts of your mercy nurse the poor. Be like the trees of the sanctuary, both for food and medicine (Ezekiel 47:12). When distressed and even starved souls are fainting, let your costly ingredients revive and restore spirits in them. Let others see the coats and garments you have made for the poor (Acts 9:39).

Argument 8: The sin of unmercifulness. First, the unmerciful man is an ungrateful man — and what can be said worse? You to whom the Lord has given an estate, your cup runs over, but you have a miserly heart and will not part with anything for good uses. Know that you are in the highest degree ungrateful; you are not fit for human society. The Scripture has put these two together: unthankful, without natural affection (2 Timothy 3:2-3). God may repent that he ever gave such men estates and may say, as in Hosea 2:9: Therefore will I return and take away my grain and my wine in their season, and will recover my wool and my flax.

Second, the unmerciful man lacks love to Christ. All men would be thought to love Christ and would be very angry with anyone who questioned their love. But do they love Christ who let the members of Christ starve? No — these love their money more than Christ, and come under that fearful condemnation (1 Corinthians 16:22).

Argument 9: Lastly, I shall use but one more argument to persuade to works of mercy — the reward which follows almsgiving. Giving of alms is a glorious work, and let me assure you, it is no unfruitful work. Whatever is given to the poor is given to Christ. Matthew 25:40: Insomuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me. The poor man's hand is Christ's treasury, and there is nothing lost that is put there. The text says the merciful shall obtain mercy. What is it we need most? Is it not mercy — pardoning and saving mercy? What is it we desire most on our deathbed? Is it not mercy? You that show mercy shall find mercy; you that pour in the oil of compassion to others, God will pour in the golden oil of salvation to you (Matthew 7:2). The Shunammite woman showed mercy to the prophet, and she received kindness from him in return (2 Kings 4); she welcomed him to her house, and he restored her dead child to life. They that sow mercy shall reap in kind — they shall obtain mercy. Such is the sweetness and mercifulness of God's nature that he will not suffer any man to be a loser. No kindness shown to him shall be unregarded or unrewarded. God will be in no man's debt for a cup of cold water; he shall have a draught of Christ's warm blood to refresh his soul. Hebrews 6:10: God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints. God's mercy is tender, pure, and rich; mercy shall follow and overtake the merciful man. He shall be rewarded first in this life, and second in the life to come.

First, the merciful man shall be rewarded in this life. He shall be blessed:

First, in his person. Psalm 41:1: Blessed is he that considers the poor. Let him go wherever he will, a blessing goes along with him; he is in favor with God.

Second, blessed in his name. Psalm 112:6: He shall be had in everlasting remembrance. When the miser's name shall rot, the name of a merciful man shall be embalmed with honor and give forth its scent as the wine of Lebanon.

Third, blessed in his estate. Proverbs 11:25: The liberal soul shall be made fat. He shall have the fat of the earth and the dew of heaven.

Fourth, blessed in his posterity. Psalm 37:26: He is ever merciful and lends; his seed is blessed. He shall not only leave an estate behind but a blessing behind to his children, and God will see that the entail of that blessing shall not be cut off.

Fifth, blessed in his negotiations. Deuteronomy 15:10: For this thing the Lord your God shall bless you in all your works, and in all that you put your hand to. The merciful man shall be blessed in his building, planting, and journeying; whatever he is about, a blessing shall empty itself upon him. He shall be a prosperous man; the honeycomb of a blessing shall be still dropping upon him.

Sixth, blessed with long life. Psalm 41:2: The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive. He has helped to keep others alive, and God will keep him alive. Is there anything then lost by mercifulness? It spins out the silver thread of life. Many are taken away the sooner for their unmercifulness; because their hearts are narrowed, their lives are shortened.

Second, the merciful man shall be rewarded in the life to come. God will reward the merciful man hereafter, though not for his works, yet according to his works. Revelation 20:12: I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. As God has a bottle to put our tears in, so he has a book to write our alms in. As God will put a veil over his people's sins, so he will in free grace set a crown upon their works. The way to lay up is to lay out. Other parts of our estate are left behind, but that which is given to Christ's poor is hoarded up in heaven. That is a blessed kind of giving which, though it makes the purse lighter, makes the crown heavier.

You that are mercifully inclined, remember whatever alms you distribute:

First, you shall have good security. Ecclesiastes 11:1; Luke 6:38; Proverbs 19:17: He that gives to the poor lends to the Lord, and that which he has given will he pay back again. There is God's own bond to save you harmless — better security than any public faith. Yet here is our unbelief and atheism: we will not take God's bond; we commonly put our deeds of mercy among our desperate debts.

Second, you shall be paid with over-measure. For a wedge of gold which you have parted with, you shall have a weight of glory; for a cup of cold water, you shall have rivers of pleasure which run at God's right hand for evermore. The interest comes to infinitely more than the principal. Pliny writes of a country in Africa where the people for every bushel of seed they sow receive a hundred and fifty fold increase. For every penny you drop into Christ's treasury, you shall receive above a thousandfold increase. Your after-crop of glory will be so great that, though you are still reaping, you will never be able to bring in the whole harvest. Let all this persuade rich men to honor the Lord with their substance.

Containing directions in showing mercy.

Before I conclude this subject, let me lay down some rules briefly concerning works of mercy.

Rule 1: Charity must be free. Deuteronomy 15:10: You shall give, and your heart shall not be troubled — that is, you shall not be troubled at parting with your money. He that gives grudgingly gives not freely; it is not a gift but a tax. Charity must flow like spring-water; the heart must be the spring, the hand the pipe, the poor the cistern. God loves a cheerful giver. Do not give to the poor as if you were delivering your purse on the highway. Charity without eagerness is rather a fine than an offering; it is more like doing penance than giving alms. Charity must be like the myrrh which drops from the tree without cutting or forcing.

Rule 2: We must give that which is our own. Isaiah 58:7: Deal your bread to the hungry — it must be from your own bread. The word for alms in the Syriac signifies 'justice,' to show that alms must be of that which is justly gotten. The Scripture puts them together (Micah 6:8): to do justice, to love mercy. We must not make a sacrifice of sacrilege. Isaiah 61:8: For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery for burnt-offering. He that builds an almshouse or hospital with goods ill-gotten displays the badge of his pride and sets up the monument of his shame.

Rule 3: Do all in Christ and for Christ.

First, do all in Christ; labor that your persons may be in Christ. We are accepted in him (Ephesians 1:6). Origen, Chrysostom, and Peter Martyr affirm that the best works not springing from faith are lost. The Pelagians thought to have stumped Augustine with the question whether it was sin for a heathen to clothe the naked. Augustine answered rightly: the doing of good is not in itself simply evil, but proceeding from unbelief it becomes evil. Titus 1:15: To those who are unbelieving, nothing is pure. That fruit is most sweet and genuine which is brought forth in the vine (John 15:4). Out of Christ all our almsdeeds are but the fruit of the wild olive; they are not good works but dead works.

Second, do all for Christ — namely, for his sake, that you may testify your love to him. Love mellows and ripens our almsdeeds; it makes them a precious perfume to God. As Mary out of love brought her ointments and sweet spices to anoint Christ's dead body, so out of love to Christ, bring your ointments and anoint his living body — that is, the saints and members.

Rule 4: Works of mercy are to be done in humility; away with ostentation. The worm breeds in the fairest fruit, the moth in the finest cloth. Pride will be creeping into our best things; beware of this dead fly in the box of ointment. When Moses's face did shine, he put a veil over it. So while your light shines before men and they see your good works, cover yourself with the veil of humility. As the silkworm, while she weaves her curious works, hides herself within the silk and is not seen, so we should hide ourselves from pride and vainglory.

'Twas the sin of the Pharisees, while they were distributing alms, they did blow the trumpet (Matthew 6:2). They did not give their alms, but sell them for applause. A proud man casts his bread upon the waters, as a fisherman casts his angle upon the waters, he angles for vain-glory. I have read of one Cosmus Medices, a rich citizen of Florence, that he confessed to a near friend of his, he built so many magnificent structures, and spent so much on scholars and libraries, not for any love to learning, but to raise up to himself trophies of fame and renown. A humble soul denies himself, indeed, even annihilates himself; he thinks how little it is he can do for God; and if he could do no more, it were but a due debt; therefore looks upon all his works as if he had done nothing. The saints are brought in at the last day as disowning their works of charity (Matthew 25:37): Lord, when did we see you hungry, and fed you? A good Christian does not only empty his hand of alms, but empties his heart of pride; while he raises the poor out of the dust, he lays himself in the dust; works of mercy must be like the cassia, which is a sweet spice, but grows low.

Rule 5. Dispose your alms prudentially; it is said of the merciful man, he orders his affairs with discretion (Psalm 112:5). There is a great deal of wisdom in distinguishing between them that have sinned themselves into poverty, and who by the hand of God are brought into poverty. Discretion in the distribution of alms consists in two things.

1. In finding out a fit object. 2. In taking a fit season.

1. In finding out a fit object, and that comes under a double notion. 1. Give to those who are in most need; raise the hedge where it is lowest; feed the lamp which is going out. 2. Give to those who may probably be more serviceable; though we bestow cost and dressing upon a weak plant, yet not upon a dead plant; breed up such as may help to build the house of Israel (Ruth 4:11), that may be pillars in church and state, not caterpillars, making your charity to blush.

2. Discretion in giving alms is in taking the fit season: give to charitable uses in time of health and prosperity; distribute your silver and gold to the poor, before the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken (Ecclesiastes 12:6). He who gives quickly gives twice; make your hands your executors; not as some, who do reserve all they give till the term of life is ready to expire; and truly, what is then bestowed, is not given away, but taken away by death; it is not charity, but necessity. Oh do not so marry yourselves to money, that you are resolved nothing shall part you but death; be not like the medlar, which is never good till it be rotten. A covetous man may be compared to a Christmas-box, he receives money, but parts with none, till death breaks this box in pieces; then the silver and gold comes tumbling out: give in time of health; these are the alms which God takes notice of, and (as Calvin says) puts into his book of accounts.

6. Give thankfully: they should be more thankful that give an alms, than they that receive it. We should (says Nazianzene) give a thank-offering to God that we are in the number of givers, and not receivers. Bless God for a willing mind; to have not only an estate, but a heart, is matter of gratulation.

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