Corinthians to be liberal in their charity, 2 Cor. ix. 6. He that foweth fparingly, fhall reap fparingly; but he that foweth bountifully, fhall reap bountifully. So that whatever we lay out in this kind, is to the greateft advantage, and upon the beft fecurity; two confiderations which use to be very prevalent with rich men to lay out their money.

We certainly do it to the greatest advantage; because God will confider the very fmalleft thing that any of us do in this kind. He that fhall give fo much as a cup of cold water to a difciple, in the name of a difciple, fhall not bfe his reward. Thefe laft words, fhall not life his reward, are a wors, and fignify much more than they seem to fpeak, viz. that he fhall have a very great reward, infinitely beyond the value of what he hath done.

And we do it likewife upon the beft fecurity. So Solomon affures us, Prov. xix. 17. He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth to the Lord; and that which he hath given, will he pay him again. And we may be confident of our fecurity where God is furety; nay, he tells us, that in this cafe he looks upon himself as principal; and that whatever we do in ways of mercy and charity to the poor, he takes as done to himself. So our Lord hath told us, Matth. xxv. 40. And we fhall hear the fame from him again out of his own mouth, when he fhall appear in his majefty to judge the world: Then the King fhall anfwer, and fay unto them, Verily I fay unto you, Inafmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, je have done it unto me.

And, on the other fide, the fcripture no where paffeth a more fevere doom upon any fort of perfons, than upon those who have no bowels of compaffion towards their brethren in diftrefs. That is a fearful fentence indeed, which the Apostle pronounceth upon fuch perfons, Jam. ii. 13. He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath fhewed no mercy. And this our Saviour reprefents to us in a moft folemn manner, in that lively defcription which he makes of the judgment of the great day, Matth. xxv. 31. &c. When the Son of man fhall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then fall he fit upon the throne of his glory. And before him fhall be gathered all nations; and he fall feparate them one from another, as a D d 3

Shepherd

Shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats: and he shall fet the beep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then fball the King fay unto them on his right hand, Come, ye bleed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. before the foundation of the world. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink? I was a ftranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was fick, and ye vifited me: I was in prifon, anď ye came unto me. Then fhall he fay also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat, &c. And thefe fhall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal. And if this be, as moft certainly it is, a true and proper reprefentation of the procefs of that day; then the great matter of inquiry will be, What works of charity and mercy have been done or neglected by us? and accordingly a sentence of eternal happiness or mifery will be paffed upon us. I was hungry, did ye feed me, or did ye not? I was naked, did.ye clothe me, or did ye not? I was fick, and in prifon, did ye vifit me, or did ye not? Not but that all the good or evil of our lives, in what kind foever, fhall then be brought to account; but that our Saviour did chufe to inftance particularly, and only, in things of this nature, fhould methinks make a mighty impreffion upon us, and be a powerful confideration to oblige us to have a very peculiar regard to works of mercy and charity, and to make fure to abound in this grace; that when we shall appear before the great judge of the world, we may find that mercy from him which we have fhewed to others, and which we shall all undoubtedly stand in need of in that day.

And, among all our acts of charity, thofe which are done upon leaft probability and forefight of their meeting with any recompence in this world, either by way of real requital, or of fame and reputation, as they are of all other most acceptable to God, fo they will certainly have the moft ample reward in another world. So our Lord hath affured us; and accordingly adviseth Luke xiv. 12. 13. 14. When thou makeft a feaft, invite not the rich, because they will recompenfe thee again: but

us,

call

call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind; for they cannot recompenfe thee; but thou shalt be recompenfed at the refurrection of the juft. If we be religious for worldly ends, and ferve God and do good to men only in con templation of fome temporal advantage, we take up with prefent payment, and cut ourselves fhort of our future. reward. Of fuch faith our Lord, Verily, I fay unto you, they have their reward; "they are their own fecurity, "and have taken care to fatisfy themselves, and there"fore are to expect nothing from God." But let us who call ourselves Chriftians, do fomething for God, for which we have no hopes to be recompenfed in this world; that we may fhew, that we truft God, and take his word, and dare venture upon the fecurity of the next world, and that recompence which fhall be made at the refurrection of the just.

And how great and glorious that shall be, our Saviour tells us immediately before my text: They that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the refurrection from the dead, they can die no more; but they are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the refurrection. If then we be heirs of fuch glorious hopes, and believe that he who is the God of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, will also be our God; let us live as it becomes the candidates of heaven, and the children of the refurrection; and fuch as verily believe another life after this, and hope one day to fit down with Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God.

And now that I have reprefented to you what encouragement there is to well-doing, and particularly to works of charity, from the confideration of the bleffed reward we fhall certainly meet with at the refurrection of the juft; I fhall crave your patience a little longer, whilft I propofe to you one of the fairest examples of this kind, which either this, or perhaps any other age could easily prefent us withal; I mean our deceas'd brother, to whom we are now paying our laft folemn refpects, the Reverend Mr. Thomas Gouge, the worthy fon of a reverend and learned divine of this city, Dr. William Gouge; who was Minister of this parish of Black-friars fix and forty years. He died in 1653, and ftill lives in the memory of many here present.

I must confefs, that I am no friend to funeral panegyricks, where there is nothing of extraordinary worth and merit in the party commended to give occafion and foundation for them. In fuch cafes, as praises are not due to the dead, fo they may be of ill confequence to the living; not only by bringing thofe of our profeffion that make a practice of it under the fufpicion of officious and mercenary flattery, but likewife by encouraging men to hope that they alfo may be well fpoken of, and even fainted when they are dead, though they should have done little or no good in their life. But yet, on the other hand, to commend thofe excellent perfons, the virtues of whofe lives have been bright and exemplary, is not only a piece of justice due to the dead, but an act of great charity to the living; fetting a pattern of well-doing before our eyes, very apt and powerful to incite and encourage us to go and do likewife.

Upon both these confiderations, first to do right to the memory of fo good a man, and then in hopes that the example may prove fruitful, and have a confiderable effect upon others to beget the like goodness and charity in them; I fhall endeavour, in as narrow a compafs as may be, to give you the juft character of this truly pious and charitable man; and, by fetting his life in a true light, to recommend, with all the advantage I can, fo excellent a pattern to your imitation.

He was born at Bow, near Stratford, in the county of Middlefex, the 19th day of September 1605. He was bred at Eaton fchool; and from thence chofen to King's college in Cambridge, being about twenty years of age, in the year 1626. After he had finifhed the courfe of his ftudies, and taken his degrees, he left the univerfity and his fellowship, being prefented to the living of Colfden near Croyden, in Surrey; where he continued about two or three years; and from thence was removed to St. Sepulchres, in London, in the year 1638 and the year after, thinking fit to change his condition, matched into a very worthy and ancient family, marrying one of the daughters of Sir Robert Darcy.

Being thus fettled in this large and populous parish, he did, with great folicitude and pains, difcharge all the parts of a vigilant and faithful Minifter, for about the

Space

fpace of twenty four years. For, befides his conftant and weekly labour of preaching, he was very diligent and charitable, in vifiting the lick, and miniftering not only fpiritual counsel and comfort to them, but likewife liberal relief to the wants and neceffities of thofe that were poor, and deftitute of means to help themselves in that condition. He did alfo every morning throughout the year catechife in the church, efpecially the poorer fort, who were generally moft ignorant; and, to encourage them to come thither to be inftructed by him, he did once a week distribute money among them, not upon a certain day, but changing it on purpose as he thought good, that he might thereby oblige them to be constantly prefent. These were chiefly the more aged poor, who, being past labour, had leifure enough to attend upon this exercife. As for the other fort of poor, who were able to work for their living, he fet them at work upon his own charge; buying flax and hemp for them to fpin; and what they fpun he took off their hands, paying them for their work; and then got it wrought into cloth, and fold it as he could, chiefly among his friends, himfelf bearing the whole lofs. And this was a very wife and well-chofen way of charity; and, in the good effect of it, a much greater charity, than if he had given these very perfons freely, and for nothing, fo much as they carned by their work; because, by this means, he took many off from begging, and thereby rescued them at once from two of the most dangerous temptations of this world, idlenefs, and poverty; and, by degrees, reclaimed them to a virtuous and induftrious course of life, which enabled them afterwards to live without being beholden to the charity of others.

And this course fo happily devised and begun by Mr. Gouge in his own parish, was, I think, that which gave the first hint to that worthy and ufeful citizen Mr. Thomas Firmin, of a much larger defign, which hath been profecuted by him for fome years with that vigour and good fuccefs in this city, that many hundreds of poor children, and others who lived idle before, unprofitable both to themselves and the publick, are continually maintained at work, and taught to earn their own livelihood much in the fame way: he being, by the ge

nerous