IT hath been a mighty out-cry in the Church of Rome, and the calumny hath vended a­mongst the multitude, like other groundless Traditions, that our Religion is so meer a brag of Faith, that to show how perfectly it disclaims all kind of dependance upon the merit of good works, it discharges its Professors from all obli­gations of doing them; and had not our Ance­stry (whiles govern'd by the Noble and generous principles of a munificent devotion and piety) erected such Monuments of the usefulness and [Page 2]excellency of their Religion, we had had no such august fabricks for performing the Solemnities of our Worship, as now we have, but had con­tented our Selves probably with an ungarnisht [...], some neglected upper-room, which the rage and tyranny of the Age, made the Apostles and Primitive Christians, through fear of obser­vation, meet in. Much less had we known what an Hospital had meant, or any useful com­munities supported by the alms and pious dispo­sals of such whom the Romish faith had inspir'd to it.

But this clamour certainly, as it was only rais'd before the reform'd Religion had time or capaci­ty of exerting it self in practice in that kind; so it were strange if it could be kept up now a­mongst any, but those who have never seen, or read of the constitutions or manners of a Na­tion, wherein this Religion is profest.

For as to the former, I mean our Churches, we have had (God knows) too late and sad an occasion to show, what the mind conducted by the Protestant Faith can do, when with so much largeness and alacrity we have rebuilt the Chur­ches their Hellish rage had burnt; and exceeded in the decency and ornaments of those places, though not led to it by the blind and ignorant dictates of a fond and unreasonable Superstition; [Page 3]which we find so inconsistent with it self, that it can as furiously destroy those foundations, and lay the whole structure in ashes, the building of which they have insisted on, as one plausible ar­gument for their Religion, and the devotion of their Ancestry.

As to the latter, I mean the erecting of Hospi­tals, and constituting other useful Societies from the mighty supplies which the good and well-dispos'd minds of those within our Church have thought fit to administer. Were it worth the while to enumerate what foundations have been laid for the poor and disabled in Hospitals and Alms-houses, for education and encouragement to the ingenuous in Schools and Colledges, for the painful and industrious in Corporations and Work-houses, for the maintenance of those that attend at the Altars, and minister in Holy things; in a word, what large and profuse issues have been from the wealth and charity of some a­mongst our selves, for all the just uses and con­veniencies of life, from the time of the first Re­formation to this day, it would be found there hath been as much life in our faith, for the pro­duct of Good Works, as ever hath been in any one Age of the Church, since the time that a community of goods, made the mutual love of Primitive Christians, so great and remarkable▪

And amongst the rest, I may very well say that this very Place, the memory of whose Foun­der we celebrate this day, becomes a standing eviction to the knavery of that calumny, where­by the Protestant Religion hath been scandaliz'd, as a cold, and barren, and empty name, that hath nothing of the thing or substance of good works in it. A Foundation this is, which having been first laid without any other Ministry, but that of one single Purse; and having had no other im­provements, but what the products within it self, may have swell'd and increas'd it to; is be­yond all the instances that can be elsewhere gi­ven, either at home or abroad; no one place in Europe probably, or within the whole diffusions of Christianity, having either beforehand set the like Copy, or wrote after this, since; the Summ total of this Charity amounting to a far larger ac­count (as it hath serv'd to much greater pur­poses) than that Cloyster of Carthusians, which formerly had, to so idle and mistaken uses, nest­led here.

It is true, the Principles have not been the same upon which have been grounded this, or other Foundations of our Protestant Charity, with what have influenc'd those in the Church of Rome; nor have there been those wretched arti­fices us'd, as consequent to those principles, by [Page 5]which the Brokers for the Romish Charity have been so successful in the solicits they have made for the revenues of it. We have not first possest the World with any frightful perswasions about the Torments of a Purgatory, pretending it the lot of most Men to pass through the refinings of that fire into the state of the blessed; and that the Prayers of some devout Persons secluded from the World to that purpose, together with some other Ministries, will hasten the dispatches of those Souls from thence, who have had the devotion, and the fortune to give liberally to­ward the maintenance of such Chauntries.

We have no Doctrines that teach any expia­tory and atoning merit in such works as these, so as to give us the opportunity of screwing out of the confessions of some sinners, such Sums for commutation of Penance, or satisfaction to Divine Justice as may build a Monastery or add to the supports of one already built. We erect no Foundations upon the Sins of the People; we dismiss not the Soul of the unruly Tyrant, who hath besmear'd himself with the bloud of numberless Innocents, and rais'd his dominion upon the Necks of just Proprietors, we dismiss not such an one with this appeasement of consci­ence, under all the horrors of his butchery and injustice, that might reasonably rack and torment [Page 6]him; if you build such a Religious house, or give so much into the Treasury of the Church, you will find your self absolv'd there, and so all the scores of bloud and u­surpation wip'd out for ever.

We do not tell the infamous Lecher, that hath done infinite injuries to Families by his boundless lust, and made himself a stink and abhorrence, by the Disease that Vengeance allots to that Vice, we do not tell such an one, that his Charity to­ward a Nunnery (where the vow'd chastity of those Secluses may recompence for his beastli­ness) will secure his forgiveness in the other World, and his reputation in this; Whereas in truth, that very Convent which the Money of such a Wretch may have endow'd or augment­ed, may prove his Heir in his filthinesses, as well as his estate; and by a Pile of Skuls of the poor murder'd Infants (begot in those secrecies of Villany) may raise a proper and adequate Mo­nument to the Lust of the first Founder.

We do not pretend that those Goods, which the Rapine of some hath unjustly extorted from the right owners, or which the prodigious ava­rice of others hath congested to the scandal and reproach of himself, or the injury of his relatives; that such, if converted to Religious uses, when the fate of the Possessor hath set him for ever out of the reach of them, will make him such [Page 7]friends here, and above too, that the Prayers of the one, and the interest of the other shall lodge him safely enough in Abraham's bosom.

No, the undesigning plainness of our Do­ctrines, so directly suited to the simplicity of the Gospel, hath laid bare all the cheats and wheadles of that kind; and by propounding and clearing up all the true notions of repentance and faith, and a good life, have made all that sort of disgui­ses so thin and airy, that we have made our selves uncapable of Juggling by such artifices; and what acts of charity are now perform'd a­mongst us; as they are always design'd toward the best and most useful purposes of life; not for the satiating of some lazy Monks, or idle Gossips, whose sloth, and whose plenty, instead of the Divine and contemplative life, which they pretend, exposeth them to all the tempta­tions of lust and wantonness: as (I say) the acts of our Charity have not this tendency, but to better designs, so they are grounded from better Principles, and promoted by more Christian per­swasions in the breasts of the Donors.

The intentions of our charity are chiefly dire­cted against Idleness the Nursery of all Vices: or toward the relief of such Persons whom po­verty [Page 8]or other misfortunes may have reduc'd to the extremest disablements: or, in a word, the institution of ingenuity in Youth, or composure of thoughtfulness and solicitude in old Age, that some after a long and cumbersome part acted, may have the advantage of retiring themselves, where, freed from the cares or the hazards of this life, they may in all repentance and devotion make up the reckonings betwixt their Souls and God, and fit themselves for the Summons they must expect at his Bar: and of such a Nature is this great and almost unparallel'd Foundation, where so many Youths may be shap'd and mo­dell'd for service in the World, and so many aged Gentlemen drawn off and eas'd after the service they have done, and put into circumstan­ces, wherein they need be thoughtful about no­thing but Immortality.

The Principles of which (no question) were, that Humanity and Brotherly love which the Christian Religion especially teacheth; that trust and stewardship which we are told in the Scri­ptures, is repos'd in great and rich Men; that affinity and kindred, which bounty and merciful­ness hath with all other parts of goodness and righteousness, and, to add no more, that relation and nearness which the Founder of our Religi­on, [Page 9]the Blessed Jesus, the Man-Christ doth own with those of our natures, transferring the obli­gations of all good turns done to one another, as done unto himself; for so it is in the words of my Text, Verily I say unto you, In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.

These words are part of the representation which our Lord makes of his appearing in Judg­ment at the end of the World, where he pro­nounces the different Sentence upon those on the right hand, and on the left; The former he in­states in all the glories of a Kingdom prepared for them from the foundations of the World, v. 34. The latter he banisheth from his presence and all the bliss of it, into everlasting fire prepared for the De­vil and his Angels, v. 41. And the account of this different sentence alledg'd and explain'd: viz. the good deeds that those on the right hand had done, in feeding the hungry and relieving the stranger, clothing the naked and visiting the sick: and the neglects that those on the left hand had been guilty of, in all those excellent services which they had the obligation and opportunity of performing: à v. 35. ad finem.

I shall take no occasion here to make any re­marks [Page 10]upon this great Court of Judicature, nor consider the nature of the Process: I shall not determine for or against the conjecture of the learned Grotius, Lactant. Hieron. Theophy­lact. who would suppose (for which he also cites some considerable Fathers for strengthening his presumption) that this Scene of judgment seems only laid for the Christian World, whiles they that either had not known God, or rejected his Gospel, were by their dis­belief condemn'd already. All that I shall do, shall be with a direct eye upon what suits with the na­ture and reasons of this Assembly, wherein some of us that have in this place had our first insti­tution of Youth, and others of us that have had with our Education, our Maintenance too, do unitedly meet to recognize that bulky charity of our Founder, that hath given us the opportuni­ty of either. So that because throughout this whole Scene of action represented in the last Judgment, we may observe, partly that no other instances of life are mention'd or insisted on, but the extent or defect of Mens charity or good deeds; and partly the mighty acknowledgments which the Great Judge makes of such good deeds, as if the performance or neglect redoun­ded upon himself; I shall make this communi­cative charity the subject of my remaining Dis­course, and as briefly as I can dispatch what [Page 11]I have to say under two or three Heads, which may abundantly vindicate the Doctrines and the effects of the Protestant Faith, as by no means foreign to Good Works.

1. First, there is no duty or performance in the whole Christian Law more expresly pre­scrib'd and insisted on, than this of Alms-giving, or doing good to those that shall stand in need of it. This, I might argue, without mustering up the various injunctions in the Gospel, that look this way, from what we find urg'd in my Text, that our Blessed Lord should account such works, of so weighty an importance, that he makes it his [...], or the ground of his sen­tence, to absolve or condemn Mankind accord­ing to what they have done or not done in this kind. He does not here insist on the Ortho­doxy of their Religion, what Principles or Party they had espous'd, how demurely they had liv'd, what numbers or length of Prayers they had wonted themselves to, how many Fasts they had kept, or Sermons they had heard, (though herein the answer of a good conscience will be abundantly valuable at that day) but the reckon­ing is made upon the visits that have been given to the sick, what clothing to the naked, what food to the hungry, what protection and relief [Page 12]to the oppress'd and indigent? after which Copy the Apostle writes, when he tells us that this is the Religion indeed; Jam. 1.17. Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction, &c. It is a cheaper and easier performance to maintain a semblable regard for the duties of the first Table in our De­votions toward God, than this costly and active part of love toward our Neighbour, as compre­hended in the second Table of the Law. There were those in our Saviour's time, who, while they were devouring Widows houses, Matth. 23.14. could, in that very pretence be making long prayers, and it was Saint Basil's observation since that; Bas. M. in Luc. 12.8. [...]. I have known some that could fast, and pray, and groan, and be very dextrous at all the guises of a cheap and unexpensive Religion, and yet they have not the heart to give one Farthing to the Poor. There is nothing new under the Sun; the observation both of our Saviour's and this Father's, is as fresh and pertinent (God knows) in the Age we live in as ever.

But however disproportion'd the lives of some Christians are, or have been to their Law of Faith; yet have they no more explicit in­junctions [Page 13]in any thing than in this: Our Sa­viour having not only adopted the Moral Law into his, as he hath summ'd it up under those two great heads of love to God and love to our Neigh­bours; Matth. 22.37-39. but also explain'd and extended the obli­gation of that part that concerns our Neighbor, even to the loving our enemies, Matth. 5.44. and doing good to those that have wisht or done us hurt. So gentle, so good natur'd a Religion indeed became him whose errand into the World was to accomplish a charitable work which goes beyond the com­prehensions of Angels to indict just praises to.

To say the truth, this Law of Charity is in­separably indented in humane nature, to which indeed though the whole Christian Law (so far as it concerns our practice) does bear a suitable­ness and correspondency, yet doth this instance of it seem more immediately connate and agree­able, as in relieving any perplext and distress'd part of humane Nature, we labour in some­thing that is Natural, that is, the preservation of self, which whiles we withdraw from, we are in some measure in that unreasonable confede­racy represented in Menenius Agrippa's Apologue, where the rest of the Members would withhold their ministries from the belly till the whole starv'd.

And as it is a Law engraven even in humane Nature as so, so let me add, that it is an eternal Law, that is, it hath the eternal and unchange­able reasons of good in it, viz. of doing good where the necessities of an occasion shall offer. It is true indeed, such was not the original frame and disposure of Mankind, but that had it not been for the depravation of humane Nature, this Law of Beneficence might have been super­seded for ever. Providence was not unequal in the provisions it made, but as the Sun and the Stars which were always out of the reach of the Ambitious or the Envious, do still diffuse their universal heat and influence, according to their first ordinance and appointment, so would all the riches and products of the Earth and of the Sea have indifferently subserv'd for the abun­dant supply of all Mortals, there being enough in the bosom and repository of Nature for eve­ry one to have fetcht his sufficiencies; but Am­bition and Rapine made the Invasion, and since that, Power and cunning hath secur'd the ac­quist, Divine Providence having so far inter­pos'd for the order and government of the World, as to make the liberality of those who find themselves plentifully possest, where they diffuse it toward the attempering the extreme wants of others, and the patience and content­edness [Page 15]of those whose boundaries are more nar­row and straiten'd, equally a vertue, and equal­ly well-pleasing in his sight. And this is that now, which makes up the lovely harmony and gives the beauty of agreement in things so wide­ly different and disproportion'd; when the poor can in a still and quiet submission both serve and depend upon the Rich, and the Rich do not de­feat the expectations of the Poor, but (as the A­postle expresses it, 2 Cor. 8.14.) one Man's abun­dance supplies another man's wants, and in some mea­sure makes the equality. It was a generous expres­sion of him in Seneca; Ego mea sic habeo ut omnium sint. I do so far possess what I have, that it is e­very ones else.

Hence in that oeconomy amongst the Jewes, which was so peculiarly of God's immediate dis­pensing and regulation, we find the thirtieth part of every Man's in-come (as may be collected from the various tythings allotted for the Poor) was the ultimum quod sic; the very least of a neces­sary charity that must be set apart for the relief of the needy, and the observation of that cha­rity run into the account of justice and righte­ousness; he was not an honest man that would not be punctual and strict in it: he was one of an evil eye (as the Jewish Authors express it) that [Page 16]extended not his bounty to something consider­ably more. To which purpose (perhaps) we may conjecture the reason why, when our Chri­stian Law insists upon such strict and repeated commands for our charity, it prescribes no stated measures for it; because it would not suppose us bounded by any of the scantlings which former Laws have intimated. But, first, we have infi­nitely greater examples before us, than had ever yet been propounded to the World; such was the Lord of Life and Glory himself, 2 Cor. 8.9. who though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. He emptied himself of all that he was vested in, or had a title to, as to all the riches of his Kingdom above, with all the imaginable grandeurs of this World below, that by this voluntary beggary of his own, we, who had been so helplesly and fatally im­poverisht, might be not only restor'd to our ori­ginal honours, but to an Inheritance with Him­self, beyond all degrees what we could have pre­tended to.

Such was that other instance of a large and unbounded Charity in the first Christians, who, to show how much this was the Doctrine and Life of the Religion they had engag'd in, did quit their own properties so far, Acts 4.34, 35. where they had [Page 17]any, as by equal portions only, to share with the indigent Brotherhood; that (as the Apostle ap­plies the passage of the Israelites gathering Manna in the Wilderness) He that had gather'd much, 2 Cor. 8.15. had nothing over, and he that had gather'd little had no lack.

And as we have such transcendent examples built upon the Doctrines of Charity in our Law of Faith, so we may suppose our selves under obligations of larger displays of this vertue, than any other Law had yet directed Men to. Which considerations probably, (besides the exigencies which the Church in its persecuted state must needs conflict with, before it had the Patronage of Kings and Emperours) might fill the Pens of the ancient Writers with such large and im­portunate Exhortations to Charity; In so much that sometimes they charge such with rapine that convert what they have, beyond meer necessaries, to their own use; and therefore represent the richest Men but such Stewards, who are to make their Accounts to the Poor for all redun­dancy, beyond what themselves may modestly need; and at other times do Rhetorically bring the Poor upon the Stage, as claiming his pro­priety in that Silk, or that Gold wherein the gaudy Christian will ruffle it; in those disguiz'd, and various Messes, wherein the humorsome ap­petite [Page 18]will play the wanton even to a surfeit, as part of which should have cloath'd his naked­ness, and reliev'd his hunger, and the unjust wast must therefore be accounted for at another Bar. These things, however perhaps too se­verely spoke, at least not to pass current without the clearing up of some cases, which time will not allow to be at present discuss'd; yet are in thus much significant, that they teach us what sense the Ancients had of their obligations to Charity from the Laws of Christianity, and that we have indeed no boundaries to its diffusive­ness, but only the prudent considerations of our dependencies, that neither our selves nor they should really suffer, or be impoverish'd, through our unseasonable liberalities; and yet even as to this we are prevented all needless and unreason­able fears, by the warranty it hath pleas'd God to give us, both by his Word and Providence.

2. As there is no duty which is more expresly prescrib'd by the Christian Law, than this of Charity, so there are no encouragements want­ing to excite us to a chearful performance of it, although we suppose no expiation or attonement for sin, no merit or desert from God by the ut­most we can do in it. It is very true, that such are our circumstances with God, through an an­tecedent [Page 19]guilt that hath made us so obnoxious, that after all we can do, Luk. 17.10. we must needs say we are unprofitable servants. Sin is of that nature, that it makes every action of the man who is imbas'd and deprav'd by it, to be (in strictest account with God) unlovely and unacceptable; and no future performances can make up for the defects of former, because the utmost of all was due at first: However, if we are not amongst the meer Mercenaries and stipendiaries in Religion, we may find those encouragements to this vertue, which may render all the wheadles of satisfaction or merit needless and insignificant toward the making us conversant and exemplary in it.

As to this, I would not use the argument of applause and acceptation amongst Men, because this is a qualification in our Charity which our Blessed Lord hath expresly prescrib'd against; though at the same time he assures us this is an inseparable reward to it. We should not blow the Trumpet before our Alms, to be seen and ap­plauded by Men, though if we should do so, we should hardly miss of that reward. Matt. 6.2. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. This is an excel­lency that hath so universal an acceptation a­mongst Men, that he that hath the most aban­don'd it himself, either commends, or envies it [Page 20]in another; and the Philosopher spoke smartly enough when he told the Children of his Bene­factor, that he stood upon even ground with their Father for all his munificence, because he had given him the credit of it; for all Men spake well of him for his bounty to Xenocrates.

But this is a thought unworthy the Christian, and therefore ought not to be urg'd in this place. However, may I not intimate something of the natural pleasure that always lives and glowes in the mind thus employ'd? As it is hardly separa­ble in the humane Nature, but it must be uneasie and afflicted in whatsoever it seems miserable in its own kind, so there is as immediate a joy and well-pleasedness of mind where we are in the least in­strumental in its ease and relief. To make the sad and dejected countenance put on smiles; not only to still his groans, but turn them into laugh­ter, and to change the complaints and murmurs of the Poor reduc'd Caitiff into Thanksgivings to Providence, good wishes and blessings to our selves, which perhaps may mingle with our own Prayers (as those of the devout Centurion and pre­pare a speedier descent of some signal good to us; Acts 10.4. what can be more inwardly delightsome and agreeable to a well temper'd mind than this is? There is no good mind that can forbear sharing [Page 21]in anothers joys, and interesting it self so far in all the good dews that fall, though they reach not his own fleece, that even the pleasure he con­ceives in anothers happiness, does still derive something of it to himself. It was the Angelical temper, to unite in one transported Quire, and make their Songs give notice to the World how rejoyc'd they were in the behalf of Man when His Saviour was born: Luk. 2.13, 14. And it is a part of their good natur'd Heaven still, that they can frame a new joy at the conversion of a sinner. Luk. 15.10. Much more may it reflect a grateful touch upon the mind, when the Man himself hath been the Benefactor. This is a God-like complacency, when our own full and entire happiness, gives us not that rest and content, but that we must be endeavouring, what in us lies, to make others so: God himself rested not in the perfections of his own bliss, till he had created beings to whom he might com­municate, and make them happy in some deri­vative effluxes of himself: and the Blessed Jesus would fill up that eternity of delight he had in the bosom of his Father, with the pleasure he took in that unspeakable act of Grace, saving Man­kind, by interposing himself betwixt the stroke and death. It is an indication of the real joys that attend every act of beneficence, when it hath been so much delight to the ever blessed [Page 22]God himself to be thus doing good. Epicurus who made pleasure his God, yet declar'd this to be a part of that pleasure, [...], to be doing good; and he that was God himself, that had lain in the bosom of Pleasure from all eter­nity, left this as one of his Maxims when he taught in the World, which St. Paul quotes from him, either by the help of Tradition or Revela­tion: Acts 20.35. Remember the words of our Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

I may add (amongst many others) lastly, the grand encouragement in the Text, that our Lord, the Judge himself will not disdain to own the good that we have done to any other, as if it had been done unto himself. Heb. 2.11. He is not asham'd to own the least of his servants under the name and dig­nity of his brethren; and to such (whiles we do it with regard to that relation and affinity with him) he tells us elsewhere that a Cup of cold water is registred as a gift that shall be accounted for, Matth. 10.42. when the rewards come to be distributed.

Oh! wondrous condescension, that the Bles­sed Jesus should proclaim himself still walking in rags, or shackled in a Dungeon, and that whiles we are feeding the Beggar, we make Christ our Guest! who would not gladly pare off all his [Page 21]superfluities of life, that he might always have ready an entertainment for so great a Personage when he craves an alms? Had Abraham known the quality of his Guests while he invited Angels in, he would not have thought his whole sub­stance a competent entertainment: We have the word of our Lord himself for it, and may be sure we are treating Him, whiles we relieve the real sufferer that craves it in his Name. In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. What an infinite honour is it to be capable thus of laying up our Treasures in Heaven? to cloth and feed him whose is the Earth with all its fulness? to relieve and visit him whose is Heaven it self with all its Joys and Glories? It might well be esteem'd one of the severer parts of the Ecclesiastical censure in the first ages of Christianity, not to suffer some kind of offen­ders to cast in their charity into the offertory; and so Epiphanius tells us, [...]. We accept of no offerings from unjust or wicked men, but from those that live well. It was too great an honour for such to be permitted to give good Men their alms, or that such whom Christ had so near a relation to, should be behold­ing to his enemies.

These Considerations (I say) give Charity and good Works so high an estimate, that if we seriously entertain'd them, we need not, with the Church of Rome make lies our refuge, or make use of their lewd arguments from merit, or satisfaction, or a quicker dispatch from Purgatory, to animate to well-doing, because there are suffi­cient encouragements, we might derive from hence, which none but the Infidel or most aban­don'd Sensualist would account trivial, and not worthy to be govern'd and perswaded by.

3. Lastly, There are some fair and plausible appearances of this Charity, which yet really and indeed ought not to be esteem'd as so, because they answer not the true purposes and ends of it. We have some instances amongst our selves a­gainst which our Laws have wisely provided; such are our idle wanderers, who, though they may have the Plea of hunger, and cold, and naked­ness, to urge and perswade our compassion to­ward them, yet having hands, and health, and strength, which by their own industry might la­bour out a supply to themselves, our Laws for­bid the encouragement of such, and that upon the great Apostolical Foundation, 2 Thess. 2.10. that if any would not work, neither should they eat. These are not within the kindred of our Blessed Lord: [Page 23]Though he was poor, yet was not he idle and un­active himself, Act. 10.38. but spent his whole life in the la­bours of love: He went about doing good; and so he expects from all his houshold of faith.

Upon which occasion, I might again reflect upon most of the Religious Foundations in the Church of Rome; Perhaps the rise and original of such, might of old have been warrantable e­nough; whilst the Devotionist in those Societies had the real opportunities of withdrawing from the World, and contemplating the future state; and by severest mortifications and self-denial at home, as also industrious and exemplary instru­ctions abroad might put himself and others into a ready posture for another World: this was to the true purposes and ends of Charity, and who­ever by their beneficence begun or encourag'd such foundations as these, will be own'd by Christ, as having serv'd and supply'd Him in those his Brethren. But what shall we say now to those Nurseries either of Scandal or Mischief, into which the Religious-houses abroad are even U­niversally perverted? where either the luxury and lust of a pamper'd and well-fed Monk, the wantonness and dalliances of an idle and unwil­ling Nun, hath been the scoptick theme of witty and observing Men for some Ages. Or else if [Page 24]in other Societies they make not idleness their choice, and pretend not so much to the contem­plative, as to the busie and active life; what is the result of this industry, (especially in these last Ages of Jesuitism) but searching into the Coun­cils of Kingdoms, and States, and labouring out a mischievous interest from the intelligence they gain: perplexing and involving the World in Wars and Bloud; making the Thrones of Kings either unsafe or uneasie, contriving Subversions of Government, or Hellish Massacres, and all for advancing the Tyranny and Pride of an Apostate Prelate, to whose obedience and interests they have bound and oblig'd themselves, by Vows as impious as Hell it self could invent. The found­ing and endowing such confederacies as these, is so far from doing good to the brethren, that it will be found at last a maintenance and support to the enemies of the Holy Jesus; however they may a­buse and presume upon that Name of his to di­stinguish the fraternity.

But, thanks be to God, it is not so with us in any of our foundations of Charity; it is least of all so, in this, which we at present commemorate.

Here the Parent is disburthen'd from the cares and expences of his Child's education, and hath a [Page 25]moral assurance from the first entry and admissi­on of him here, that he is not only provided for, but likely to act a very useful and serviceable part upon the Stage of this World, either in the Church or in the Commonwealth. And here old age may compose it self, and having disintangled it self from all the bustles and the snares of an active employ'd life, may be at leisure to look backward, and repent of all the miscarriages of times past, and in doing so, may look forward with a well-grounded hope of closing up the whole in peace and bliss. Oh what a Crown of Joy is it likely to prove to our Founder, at the last great Solemnity, when he shall stand at the head of a numerous happy croud, who have had the opportunities of living usefully, and dying suc­cessfully, through the ministry of that significant charity of his!

Let me therefore, as an upshot to this discourse, bespeak both the Youth and the Age of this place, that you would in your different spheres and ca­pacities think your selves more peculiarly oblig'd by the bounty of this great Man, and kind allot­ments of Providence in giving you a share in it; to answer the ends and designs of it; the young ones, Eccl. 12.1. in remembring your Creator now in the days of your Youth, improving the advantages you have both [Page 26]for Learning and Piety, that His Memory may live in the fragrant savours of your Lives, and others may be encourag'd to multiply such works, when they discern such excellent effects of it in you. v. 13. And you Fathers, the Keepers of whose house do now begin to tremble; The decays of whose age assure you that the flame of life is dwindling and almost spent off; However you may have liv'd, make it your whole business to dye well: Let no pretended cares of life divert you, because the unlabour'd liberalities that feed and cloth you now have superseded all; but, as you are in rea­sons of Nature hastening to the endless state; so take hold of this season of leisure and retirement for making up your last periods in that devotion and seriousness, that when the great Judge shall come to reckon up the good deeds of our migh­ty Benefactor, your selves may be amongst the Number he shall point at, when he owns that they were done to these his brethren. Which God of his infinite mercy grant, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with Himself and Holy Spi­rit, be given all Praise and Glory for ever. A­men!