The true nature of a Gospel church and its government

The remote foundation of it lieth in that of our Saviour, The poor you have always with you, Joh. 12.8. He doth not only foretell, That such there should be in the Church, but recommends the care of them who should be so, unto the Church. For he maketh use of the words of the Law, Deut. 15.11. For the poor shall never cease out of the Land; therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy Brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy. This Legal Institution, founded in the Law of Nature, doth the Lord Christ by his Authority transfer and translate unto the use of Gospel Churches among his Disciples.

The remote foundation of it lieth in that of our Saviour, The poor you have always with you, Joh. 12.8. He doth not only foretel, That such there should be in the Church, but recommends the care of them who should be so, unto the Church. For he maketh use of the words of the Law, Deut. 15.11. For the poor shall never cease out of the Land; therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy Brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy. This Legal Institution, founded in the Law of Nature, doth the Lord Christ by his Authority transferr and translate unto the use of Gospel Churches among his Disciples.

AND it may be observed, that at the same instant Hypocrisy and Avarice began to attempt their Advantage on the consideration of this Provision for the Poor, which they afterwards effected unto their safety. For on the pretence hereof, Judas immediately condemned an eminent Duty towards the person of Christ, as containing a cost in it, which might have been better laid out in Provision for the Poor: The Ointment poured on our Saviour he thought might have been sold for Three hundred pence (it may be about Forty or Fifty Pound) and given to the Poor, But this he said, not that he cared for the