XI. popularity the great Diana, that trade by which men have SERM. their wealth. But perhaps the most of this is an extravagance, I wish and pray it may prove an unnecessary one. There is yet one branch of the application behind; the end why St. Paul delivered this text of mine, that I told you was the vindicating his ministry from contempt, the gaining some authority with the Corinthians. And let that be our method also, to come to that end by the non vestra sed vos, not to acquire that thin blast of air that chameleons are wont to feed on, but that solid substantial estimation that dwells only in the account of God and the hearts of true Corinthians; that that may disperse those fumes of prejudices that Satan is wont to blast the minister with when any saving effect is to be wrought by his ministry, that unblemished reputation here, that when it is to be had is a precious blessing, very instrumental to the edifying of others, and is a kind of coronet here in this life, preparatory to that crown hereafter. And sure there is no work of ours that we can justly hope God will think fit to reward with such a crown, but the sincere labouring in the word and doctrine, filling our souls with the earnest desire of saving others, espousing it as the sole felicity of our lives, the one promotion that we aspire to, to people heaven with saints, to send whole colonies of inhabitants thither. It was the excellence and pride of the ancient Jews, yea, and the craft peculiar to them, saith Josephus, TEKVOTTOINTIKỲ, “getting of children, propagating miraculously," and the barren was the most infamous person among them, "Behold I go childless, the saddest [Gen. xv. lamentation," and "Give me children or else I die," and 2; xxxi. "Take away our reproach," most pathetical Scripture ex- i. 25.] pressions; yea, and among the Romans the jus trium liberorum, "the right of three children," you know what a prerogative it was. This is our trade, my brethren, to beget children to heaven, and according to the law of the Goel in Deuteronomy, now our elder Brother (Christ) is dead, we are [Deut.xxv. 5.] the men, who by right of propinquity are obliged to raise up seed to our elder Brother. O let it not be our reproach to go thus childless to our graves, at least our guilt and just accusation to bereave our Saviour of that seed He expects from us; you know what a sin it was to repine at that duty; 23; Luke XI. SERM. let not us be wanting to Christ in this so charitable a service; charitable to Christ, that His blood may not have been shed in vain; charitable to others, whom we may by God's blessing convert unto righteousness, and the charity will at last devolve on ourselves, who by this means shall "shine as [Dan, xii, the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever 3.] and ever." SERMON XII. PREACHED IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH BEFORE THE LORD MAYOR AND ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF LONDON, ON APRIL 12, A.D. 1610. THE POOR MAN'S TITHING. DEUT. XXVI. 12, 13. When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year... Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God... XII. THAT the first sound of this text may not possess you with SERM, an expectation of a vicar's plea, a discourse of tithes, and querulous invective against sacrilege; and consequently by this prejudice your ears and hearts be fortified, impenetrable and impregnable against the speaker and the sermon; that I may reconcile the choice of this text with the imploring and hoping for your patience; I shall immediately deliver you from your fears, by assuring you that the main of this text is, and the total of my discourse shall be, bent quite toward another coast, that which in the sincerity of my heart I conceive may best comply with your designs, either as Christians, or as men, most tend to your serving of Christ, and enriching of yourselves with the increase of your wealth here and glory hereafter. And when I have told you this, I cannot choose but say that I am your friend, and for that may claim not as an act of favour, but justice, the payment of this debt, the return of your patience in receiving, and care in practising what shall be delivered. There was a double tithing among the Jews, the every year's tithing and the third year's tithing; the every year's tithing you know whose patrimony it was; but after that was set apart and presented unto the owners every third year, there was another to be raised, over and above, for the stranger, XII. chap. xiv. 29. 23. SERM. the fatherless, and the widow, as you may see it enacted. This was called by the rabbins the second tithing, and in another respect the third by some of them,—the tithe for feasts going Deut. xiv. for the second, and the tithe of the tithes, which the Levites paid the high-priest, going for the fourth, in that account,but most significantly y y "the tithe for the poor," TwoSekaтna in Josephus, the "poor man's tithing," or in the words of the text, the compleveris decimare anno tertio, "the making an end of tithing the third year." Till this were done there wanted a compleveris; whatever other dues were paid the work was incomplete, and upon the performance of that, here is a stock of confidence toward God for him that hath done it, a right invested on him to all the abundance of Canaan, a justifiable pretension to all temporal blessings, which he may depend on and challenge at God's hand; it were but a cold expression to say he might expect by petition, I will add, he may require by claim, and produce his patent for it here in my text, Cum compleveris, &c., "When thou hast made an end," &c. [Deut. xxvi.] 15. This text I have upon advice resolved not to divide into parts, but my discourse upon it I shall, by setting it these bounds and limits; 1. That it presents unto you the duty of almsgiving by occasion of these words, Cum compleveris decimare anno tertio, "when thou hast made an end of tithing... the third year." 2. The benefit arising from the performance of this duty from the rest, Dicas coram Domino, "then thou shalt" or mayest "say," i. e., hast right and power to say, "before the Lord thy God." In our progress through the first of these we shall observe these gesses'; 1. We shall begin with the őr, consider alms-giving simply, deducing the practice of the Jews down to us Christians, and so in a manner give you the history of alms-giving. 2. We shall look into the Tóσov, what portion ought to issue out of every man's revenues, taking our rise from the practice of the Jews, "a tithe of all increase every third year." 3. We shall proceed to the ori deî, consider it as a duty, and then we shall have done with the first general. a [This word is used by St. Jerome, Comm. in Ezek., lib. xiv. c. 45. Op., tom. v. col. 565, C; the reference to Josephus seems to be a mistake.] XII. In the second general we shall shew you, 1. In thesi, that S ERM. confidence or claiming any thing at God's hands, must take its rise from duty in performance, "Then thou mayest say;" then, but not before. 2. In hypothesi, shew you the connection between this confidence and this performance, claiming of temporal plenty, upon giving of alms. These are the several posts and stages of my future discourse, the monogram drawn in coal, as it were, wherein you may discern the lines and lineaments of the whole body; I must now descend to the filling them up, and giving you them a little more to the life, taking them in the order proposed, very loosely, and very plainly, making provision for your hearts, not your ears, for your future gain and not your present sensuality, and begin with the first general, and in that, the őr, or alms-giving, simply considered, deducing the practice of the Jews down to us Christians, and so give you in a manner the history of almsgiving. Though we assert not an equality of worldly riches from any decree either of God or nature, find not any statute of Táνта KOɩvà, any "law of community" in any but Plato's institutions, and those never reduced to practice in any one city in the world, attempted once by Plotinus, through his favour with Gallienus, who promised to reside in his Platonopolis, but soon altered his purpose again, as Porphyry tells us,yet I may suppose it for a granted maxim, that the extreme inequality that is now so illustriously visible in the world, is not any act of nature's primary intention, or God's first and general providence; Aristotle may tell us of some púσeɩ doûXo, some that nature hath bored through the ear to be slaves for ever, and we may believe him if we can find any ground for it, but of any þúσεɩ πтwɣоì, "colonies of men," sent into the world without any claim or right to any part of the world's goods, he hath not left us any thing upon record. Nor hath the book of creation in the Scripture, the Beresith, or natural philosophy of the Bible, given us any hint for such a resolution, that some should be born to riot, and others to famish, some to be glutted, and others to starve, that mankind should be thus dichotomized into such extreme distant fates, some to reign in paradise for ever, others to be thrown over the c Porph. in Vit. Plotin., [cap. 12.] d [Arist. Polit., lib. i. c. 5.] |