A15012:81
The poor mans advocate, or, A treatise of liberality to the needy. Delivered in…The poore mans advocate, or, A treatise of liberality to the needy. Delivered in…
The poor mans advocate, or, A treatise of liberality to the needy. Delivered in sermons by William Whately minister of BanburyThe poore mans advocate, or, A treatise of liberality to the needy. Delivered in sermons by William Whately minister of Banbury
London: printed by George for George Edwards, 1637
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3. He must lay in store for mercy, he must have a poor mans box in his house; when David minded to build an house for God, he provided all things before hand in abundance, so must we lay up materials for the building of mercy, that we may not be to seek at the time of using, this course Saint Paul prescribeth to the ⟨p. 148⟩Corinthians, 1 Cor. 16.1. and said that he had taken the like order with the Church of the Galatians, Let every one lay in store by himself as God hath prospered him, that there may be no gathering when I come. He that hath something lying by him which he did sequester for mercy, will give with a free heart, but it will come hardly if nothing be provided for it, if you ask me how much you must lay aside, I answer, Be sure you do it in convenient abundance, rather with the more then ⟨p. 149⟩the less. And I suppose it is a quantity that may well be spared of most men, the tenth of their comings in for pious uses, so shall one be sure he is rich in good works, and that he hath done as much this way, as in ordinary times God requireth of him, for the Jews had the poor mans tithes as well as the Levites, But try this way first, cast aside thy tenth penny, and if thou findest Gods blessing so liberal that thou canst well spare it, give it still, if not according as thou art prospered. ⟨p. 150⟩Beloved, now I have showed you how you may fit your hearts and your hands for this much commended service of mercy, let me go on to remove those excuses by which men are wont to hinder themselves from mercy, and as it is in my Text, to hide their eyes. 1Those are taken from four heads: first, from others, secondly, from themselves, thirdly, from the poor, fourthly, from the effects they think will follow of such giving.
3. He must lay in store for mercy, he must have a poore mans boxe in his house; when David minded to build an house for God, he provided all things before hand in abundance, so must we lay up materialls for the building of mercy, that we may not be to seeke at the time of using, this course Saint Paul prescribeth to the