Answ. 1. That doing good doth make us likest to God. He is the universal Father and Benefactor to the world. All good is in him or from him, and he that is best and doth most good is likest him.

2. It is an honourable employment therefore: it is more honourable to be the best man in the land, than to be the greatest: greatness is therefore honourable, because it is an ability to do good; and wisdom is honourable because it is the skill of doing good: so that goodness is that end which maketh them honourable, and without respect to which they were as nothing. A power or skill to do mischief is no commendation.

3. Doing good maketh us pleasing and amiable to God, because it maketh us like him, and because it is the fulfilling of his will. God can love nothing but himself, and his own excellencies or image appearing in his works; or his works so far as his attributes appear and are glorified in them.

4. Good works are profitable to men, Tit. iii. 8. Our brethren are the better for them: the bodies of the poor are relieved, and men's souls are saved by them.

5. In doing good to others we do good to ourselves; because we are living members of Christ's body, and by love and communion feel their joys, as well as pains. As the hand doth maintain itself by maintaining and comforting the stomach; so doth a loving christian by good works.

6. There is in every good nature a singular delight in doing good: it is the pleasantest life in all the world. A magistrate, a preacher, a schoolmaster, a tutor, a physician, a judge, a lawyer, hath so much true pleasure as his life and labours are successful in doing good. I know that the conscience of honest endeavours may afford solid comfort to a willing though unsuccessful man; and well-doing may be pleasant though it prove not a doing good to others; but it is a double, yea, a multiplied comfort to be successful. It is much if an honest, unsuccessful man (a preacher, a physician, &c.) can keep up so much peace, as to support him under the grief of his unsuccessfulness; but to see our honest labours prosper, and many to be the better for them, is the pleasantest life that man can here hope for.

7. Good works are a comfortable evidence that faith is sincere, and that the heart dissembleth not with God: whenas a faith that will not prevail for works of charity, is dead and uneffectual, and the image or carcass of faith indeed, and such as God will not accept, James ii.

8. We have received so much ourselves from God, as doubleth our obligation to do good to others: obedience and gratitude do both require it.

9. We are not sufficient for ourselves, but need others as well as they need us: and therefore as we expect to receive from others, we must accordingly do to them. If the eye will not see for the body, nor the hand work for the body, nor the feet go for it, the body will not afford them nutriment, and they shall receive as they do.

10. Good works are much to the honour of religion, and consequently of God; and much tend to men's conviction, conversion, and salvation. Most men will judge of the doctrine by the fruits. Matt. v. 16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

11. Consider how abundantly they are commanded and commended in the word of God. Christ himself hath given us the pattern of his own life, which from his first moral actions to his last, was nothing but doing good and bearing evil. He made love the fulfilling of the law, and the works of love the genuine fruits of christianity, and an acceptable sacrifice to God. Gal. vi. 10, "As we have opportunity let us do good to all men, especially to them of the household of faith." Heb. xiii. 10, "To do good and communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Tit. iii. 8, "This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou constantly affirm, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works: these things are good and profitable to men." Eph. ii. 10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Tit. ii. 14, "To purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Acts xx. 35, "That so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." Eph. iv. 28, "Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." You see poor labourers are not excepted from the command of helping others: insomuch that the first church sold all their possessions, and had all things common; not to teach levelling and condemn propriety, but to show all after them that christian love should use all to relieve their brethren as themselves.

12. Consider that God will in a special manner judge us at the last day according to our works, and especially our works of charity: as in Matt. xxv. Christ hath purposely and plainly showed; and so doth many another text of Scripture. These are the motives to works of love.

Quest. II. What is a good work, even such as God hath promised to reward?

Answ. 1. The matter must be lawful, and not a sin. 2. It must tend to a good effect, for the benefit of man, and the honour of God. 3. It must have a good end; even the pleasing and glory of God, and the good of ourselves and others. 4. It must come from a right principle, even from the love of God, and of man for his sake. 5. It must be pure and unmixed: if any sin be mixed with it, it is sinful so as to need a pardon: and if sin be predominant in it, it is so far sinful as to be unacceptable to God, in respect to the person, and is turned into sin itself. 6. It must be in season; or else it may sometimes be mixed with sin, and sometimes be evil itself and no good work. 7. It must be comparatively good as well as simply. It must not be a lesser good instead of a greater, or to put off a greater; as to be praying when we should be quenching a fire, or saving a man's life. 8. It must be good in a convenient degree. Some degrees are necessary to the moral being of a good work, and some to the well-being. God must be loved and worshipped as God, and heaven sought as heaven, and men's souls and lives must be highly prized and seriously preserved: some sluggish doing of good is but undoing it. 9. It must be done in confidence of the merits of Christ, and presented to God as by his hands, who is our Mediator and Intercessor with the Father.

Quest. III. What works of charity should one choose in these times, who would improve his Master's talents to his most comfortable account?

Answ. The diversity of men's abilities and opportunities, make that to be best for one man which is impossible to another.¹⁷³ But I shall name some that are in themselves most beneficial to mankind, that every man may choose the best which he can reach to.

1. The most eminent work of charity, is the promoting of the conversion of the heathen and infidel parts of the world: to this princes and men of power and wealth might contribute much if they were willing; especially in those countries in which they have commerce and send ambassadors: they might procure the choicest scholars, to go over with their ambassadors and learn the languages, and set themselves to this service according to opportunity; or they might erect a college for the training up of students purposely for that work, in which they might maintain some natives procured from the several infidel countries, (as two or three Persians, as many Indians of Indostan, as many Tartarians, Chinese, Siamites, &c.) which might possibly be obtained; and these should teach students their country languages. But till the christian world be so happy as to have such princes, something may be done by volunteers of lower place and power; as Mr. Wheelock did in translating the New Testament, and Mr. Pococke by the honourable Mr. Robert Boyle's procurement and charge, in translating "Grotius de Verit. Christ. Relig." into Arabic, and sending it to Indostan and Persia. And what excellent labour hath good Mr. John Elliot (with some few assistants) bestowed these twenty years and more in New England; where now he hath translated and printed the whole Scriptures in their American tongue, (with a Catechism and Call to the Unconverted,) by the help of a press maintained from hence.

2. The attempt of restoring the christian churches to their primitive purity and unity, according to men's several opportunities, is a most excellent and desirable work; which though the ignorance and wickedness of many, and the implacableness and bloodiness of the carnal, proud, domineering part, and the too great alienation of some others from them, do make it so difficult as to be next to desperate, at the present, yet is not to be cast off as desperate indeed; for great things have been done by wise and valiant attempts. Princes might do very much to this, if they were both wise and willing. And who knoweth but an age may come that may be so happy? The means and method I would willingly describe, but that this is no fit place or time.

3. The planting of a learned, able, holy, concordant ministry in a particular kingdom, and settling the primitive discipline thereby, is a work also which those princes may very much promote, whose hearts are set upon it, and who set up no contrary interest against it; but because these lines are never like to be known to princes, (unless by way of accusation,) it is private men's works which we must speak to.

4. It is a very good work to procure and maintain a worthy minister in any of the most ignorant parishes in these kingdoms, (of which, alas, how many are there!) where the skilful preaching of the gospel is now wanting; or to maintain an assistant in populous parishes, where one is not able to do the work; or by other just means to promote this service.

5. It is a very good work to set up free-schools in populous and in ignorant places, especially in Wales; that all may be taught to read, and some may be prepared for the universities.

6. It is an excellent work to cull out some of the choicest wits, among the poorer sort in the country schools, who otherwise would wither for want of culture; and to maintain them for learning in order to the ministry, with some able, godly tutor in the university, or some country minister who is fit and vacant enough thereunto.

7. It is an excellent work to give among poor ignorant people, Bibles and catechisms, and some plain and godly books which are most fitted to their use. But it were more excellent to leave a settled revenue for this use, (naming the books, and choosing meet trustees,) that so the rent might every year furnish a several parish, which would in a short time be a very extensive benefit, and go through many countries.

8. It is a very good work to set poor men's children apprentices to honest, religious masters, where they may at once get the blessing to their souls of a godly education, and to their bodies, of an honest way of maintenance.

9. It will not be unacceptable to God, to relieve some of the persons, or poor children, of those very many hundred faithful ministers of Christ, who are now silenced and destitute of maintenance, many having nothing at all, but what charity sendeth them, to maintain themselves and desolate families, who were wont to exercise charity to the bodies and souls of others. Read Matt. xxv.; Gal. vi. 5-8.

10. It is a good work of them who give stocks of money, or yearly rents, to be lent for five, or six, or seven years to young tradesmen, at their setting up, upon good security, choosing good trustees, who may choose the fittest persons; and if it be a rent, it will still increase the stock, and if any should break, the loss of it may be borne.

11. It would be a very good work for landlords to improve their interest with their tenants, to further at once their bodily comfort and salvation, to hire them by some abatement at their rent days, to learn catechisms, and read the Scripture and good books in their families, and give the pastor an account of their proficience. Whether the law will enable them to bind them to any such thing in their leases, I cannot tell.

12. And the present work of charity for every one, is to relieve the most needy which are next at hand. To know what poor families are in greatest want, and to help them as we are able; and to provoke the rich to do that which we cannot do ourselves, and to beg for others; and still to make use of bodily relief, to further the good of their souls, by seconding all with spiritual advice and help.

Quest. IV. In what order are works of charity to be done? And whom must we prefer when we are unable to accommodate all?

Answ. 1. The most public works must be preferred before private. 2. Works for the soul, cæteris paribus, before works for the body; and yet bodily benefits in order of time, must oft go first as preparations to the other. 3. Greatest necessities, cæteris paribus, must be supplied before lesser: the saving of another's life must be preferred before your own less necessary comforts. 4. Your own and families' wants must, cæteris paribus, be supplied before strangers; even before some that you must love better; because God hath in point of provision and maintenance, given you a nearer charge of yourselves and families than of others. 5. Nature also obligeth you to prefer your kindred before strangers, if there be a parity as to other reasons. 6. And, cæteris paribus, a good man must be preferred before a bad. 7. And yet that charity which is like to tend to the good of the soul as well as of the body is to be preferred; and in that case ofttimes a bad man is to be preferred, when a greater good is like to be the effect. 8. A friend, cæteris paribus, is to be preferred before an enemy; but not when the good is like to be greater which will follow the relieving of an enemy. Many other rules might be given, but they are laid down already, part i. chap. where I treat of good works; whither I refer you.

Quest. V. Should I give in my lifetime, or at my death?

Answ. According as it is like to do most good; but none should needlessly delay: both are best.

Quest. VI. Should one devote or set by a certain part of daily incomes?

Quest. VII. What proportion is a man bound to give to the poor?

Answ. These two questions having answered in a letter to Mr. Thomas Gouge, now printed, and the book being not in many hands, I will here recite that letter as it is published.

Most dear, and very much honoured brother,

Even the philosopher hath taught me so to esteem you, who said, that "He is likest to God, who needeth fewest things for himself, and doth most good to others." And Christ telleth us, that universal charity (extending even to them that hate and persecute us) doth make us, as his children, like our heavenly Father, Matt. v. 44-46, 48. As hating and hurting their neighbours is the mark of the children of the devil, (John viii. 44,) so loving and doing good is the mark of the children of God. And it is observable, that no one treateth so copiously and pathetically of love (both of Christ's love to us, and ours to him) as the blessed disciple, whom Jesus is said to have eminently loved (as John xiii. 14-17, and 1 John, show).

It hath often pleased me to hear how dearly you were beloved, by that exceeding great and populous parish, where lately you were preacher, for your eminent charity to their souls and bodies; and to see that still you take it for your work and calling, to be a provoker of others to love and to good works, Heb. x. 24; whilst many that are taken for good christians, do deal in such works as rarities or recreations, only a little now and then upon the by, and whilst Satan's ministers are provoking others to hatred and to hurtfulness.

Your labour is so amiable to me, that it would contribute to my comforts, if I were able to contribute any thing to your assistance.

You desire me to give you my judgment of the quota pars; What proportion it is meet for most men to devote to charitable uses; whether the tenth part of their increase be not ordinarily a fit proportion?

The reason why I use not to answer such questions without much distinguishing (when lazy, impatient readers would have them answered in a word) is, because the real difference of particular cases is so great, as maketh it necessary; unless we will deceive men, or leave the matter as dark and unresolved as we found it.

I. Before I answer your question, I shall premise, that I much approve of the way which you insist upon, of setting so much constantly apart as is fit for us to give, that it may be taken by us to be a devoted or consecrated thing. And methinks that there is much of a divine direction for the time in 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2, together with the ancient church, "That upon the first day of the week, every one lay by him in store, as God had prospered him." And it will do much to cure pharisaical sabbatizing, when the Lord's day is statedly used in this, with holy works; and will teach hypocrites to know what this meaneth, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice," Matt. ix. 13; xii. 7. And that works of charity are an odour, a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing to God, who of the riches of his glory in Christ, will supply all the need of such, as bring forth such fruit to abound unto their account, Phil. iv. 17-19. So it be done without any insnaring vows, or rash engagements to unnecessary things; this constant setting apart a certain proportion for pious and charitable uses, will have these advantages:

1. Our distribution will be made deliberately and prudently, when beforehand we study a due proportion, and determine accordingly; whereas they that give only occasionally as some object suddenly inviteth them, will do it at random, without due respect to their own accounts, whether the proportion given be answerable to their own estate and duty.

2. This stated way will make men's charity much more extensive: when objects of charity are not in their sight, they will inquire after them, and they will seek for the needy, if the needy seek not unto them; because they have so much by them to dispose of, which is devoted to God. But those who give but as occasional objects draw it from them, will give to none but those that crave, or will pass by many as needy, whom they see not, while they relieve only these few that they hap to see.

3. And it will make men's charity also to be more constant, and done obediently as a christian's daily work and duty; when occasional charity will be more rarely and unconstantly exercised. In a word, as the observation of the Lord's day, which is a stated proportion of time, secureth the holy improvement of our time, much better than if God be served but occasionally, without a stated time; and as a constant stated course of preaching excelleth mere occasional exhortation; even so a constant course of giving, wisely, will find out objects, and overcome temptations, and discharge our duty with much more integrity and success. And if we can easily perceive that occasional praying will not so well discharge the duty of prayer, as a constant stated course will do; why should we not think the same of occasional giving, if men did but perceive that giving according to our ability, is as sure and great a duty as praying? Now to your question of the proportion of our gifts.

II. We must distinguish,

1. Between them that have no more than will supply their own and their families' true necessities, and those that have more.

2. Between them that have a stock of money which yieldeth them no increase, and those that have more increase by their labour, but little stock.

3. Between them whose increase is like to be constant, and theirs that is uncertain, sometimes more and sometimes less.

4. Between them that have many children, or near kindred, that nature casteth upon them for relief; and those that have few or no children, or have a competent provision for them, and have few needy kindred that they are especially obliged to relieve.

5. Between those that live in times and places where the necessities of the poor are very great, or some great works of piety are in hand; and those that live where the poor are in no great necessity, and no considerable opportunity for any great work of piety or charity doth appear. These distinctions premised, I answer as followeth:

1. It is certain that every true sanctified christian hath devoted himself and all that he hath to God, to be used in obedience to his will, and for his glory, 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20; x. 31; Luke xviii. 33. The question therefore is not, Whether the tenth part of our estate should be devoted to and employed in the service of God, one way or other, as he directeth us; for it is out of question that all is his, and we are but his stewards; and must give account of our stewardship, and of all our receivings, Matt. xxv. But the question is only what proportion is best pleasing to God in our giving to others.

2. A christian being unfeignedly thus resolved in the general, to lay out that he hath or shall have as God would have him, and to his glory (as near as he can); his next inquiry must be, (for finding out the will of God,) to know in the ordinary course of his distribution, where God hath gone before him by any particular prescript, and tied him to one certain way of giving; and where God hath only given him some general direction, and left him to discern his duty in particulars, by that general rule, and the further direction of objects and providence. And in this inquiry he will find,

1. That God hath first prescribed to him in nature, the necessary sustentation of his own life. And,

2. The necessary maintenance of his children and family.

3. The necessary maintenance of the preachers of the gospel, for the worship of God, and the salvation of men, 1 Cor. ix.; Phil. iv. 10, 11, 14, 17, 18; Luke x. 7; 1 Tim. v. 17, 18.

4. The necessary maintenance of the commonwealth, and paying tribute to the higher powers, who are the ministers of God to us for good; attending continually upon this very thing, Rom. xiii. 4, 6.

5. The saving of the lives of those that are in apparent danger of famine or perishing, within our sight or reach, 1 John iii. 17; Luke x. 33. Thus far God hath prescribed to us, how he would have us use our estates in an ordinary way. In many other things he hath left us to more general directions.

3. To know among good works, which is to be preferred, it principally concerneth us next to know, what works do most contribute to our chiefest ends; which God is most honoured by; which tend to the greatest good: and here we shall find that, cæteris paribus,

1. The souls of men are to be preferred before their bodies, in estimation and intention; but in time, the body is oft to be preferred before the soul, because if the body be suffered to perish, the helping of the soul will be past our power.

2. And so the church is finally and estimatively to be preferred before the commonwealth; but the commonwealth must be first served in time, when it is necessary to the church's support and welfare; for the church will else perish with the commonwealth.

3. The good of many is to be preferred before the good of few, and public good to be valued above private, Rom. ix. 3.

4. A continued good is greater than a short and transitory good. And so necessary is it to have chief respect in all our works to our chiefest end, (the greatest good,) that even when God seemeth to have prescribed to us the way of our expenses, yet that is but as to our ordinary course: for if in an extraordinary case it fall out, that another way is more to God's glory and the common good, it must be then preferred; for all means are to be judged of by the end, and chosen and used for it. For example, if the good of church and commonwealth, or of the souls of many, do stand up against our corporal provision of our children or families, it is to be preferred; which is easily proved a fortiore, because it is to be preferred before our own good, even the saving of our lives. A good subject will lose his life to save the life of his king; and a good soldier will die to save his general or the army; and a useless member of the church should be content to die, if it be necessary, to save the life of a pastor that is greatly useful. If a poor, ordinary christian then had been so put to it, that either Paul or he must famish, no doubt but his ultimate end would have commanded him to prefer the apostle before himself: so that in extraordinary cases, the end and greatest good must be our guide.

4. Though I may ordinarily prefer my own life before another's, yet I must not prefer my mere delight or health before another's life: and though men must provide for the lives of their children before the lives of others, yet the life of a poor neighbour (cæteris paribus) must be preferred and provided for, before the portions of your own children, and before the supply of their tolerable wants: so that as long as there are poor about you, that are in necessity of food to save their lives, the portions or comeliest clothing of your children must rather be neglected, than the poor be suffered to perish. How else do I love my neighbour as myself, if I make so great a difference between myself and him?

5. Even the food and raiment, and other necessaries, which a christian useth himself, he must use for God, and not for his carnal self at all; not taking it as his own, which he may use at and for his own pleasure, but as part of his Master's goods, which are all to be used only for his service. As a steward, that when he giveth every servant his part, and taketh his own part, it is not as if it were primarily his own, but as a servant on the same account with the rest: so when I devote all that I have to God, I am so far from excepting my own part, even my food and raiment, that I do more confidently intend the serving of God with that, than with the rest, because it is more in my power, and there is in it more of my duty. The same I may say of that which is given to our children and other relations.

6. Therefore when more of the service and interest of God, lieth upon your own or your children's using of his talents, than upon other men's, you are bound (for God, and not for yourselves) to retain so much the more to yourselves and children. It is a fond conceit that a man is bound to give all to others, rather than to himself or children, when it is most probable, that those others would do God less service with it, than himself or his children would do: as suppose such a man as Mr. Elliot in New England (that devoteth himself to the conversion of the Indians) had riches, when some neighbour ministers were poor, that are engaged in no such work. He that knoweth that God hath given him a heart and an opportunity to do him more service with it than another would do, is not bound to put it out of his own hands into another's, that is less like to be a faithful improver of it. If you have a son of your own that is a preacher of the gospel, and is more able and serviceable than other ministers in equal want, no doubt you have then a double obligation to relieve your own son before another; as he is your son, and as he is more serviceable to God. If other men are bound to supply your want for the work and interest of the gospel, you are not bound to give away your own supplies, to the disabling you from your work, unless when you see a greater work, or the present absolute necessity of others, doth require it.

7. It is imprudent and unsafe, and therefore unlawful, ordinarily, to tie yourself unchangeably for continuance, to any one particular way of using your estates for God; as to vow that you will give it to ministers, or to the poor, or to schools, &c.; because the changes may be such which God will make, as shall make that way to be one year necessary, which before was not, and so change your duty. We cannot prescribe to God what way he shall appoint us for the future, to use his talents in. His word bids us prefer the greatest good; but which is the greatest his providence must tell us.

8. He that hath no more than is necessary to the very preservation of his own life and his family's, is not bound to give to others (unless in some extraordinary case, which calleth him to prefer a greater and more public good): and he that hath no more than is needful to the comfortable support of himself and family, is not bound to relieve those that have no greater wants than himself. And his own necessity is not to be measured merely by what he hath, but by the use he hath for it: for a magistrate, or one that is engaged in public works, may have need of as many hundreds a year, as a private man of pounds.

9. Those that have many children to provide for, or poor kindred that nature casteth on them, cannot give so much (proportionably) to other poor, as those are bound to do that have few or none; for these are bound to give all, except their personal necessaries, to public, pious, or charitable works, because God calleth not for it any other way.

10. To pamper the flesh, is a sin as well in the rich as in the poor: the rich therefore are bound not only to give all that the flesh can spare, when its own inordinate desires are satisfied, but deny themselves, and mortify the flesh, and be good husbands for God, and studious to retrench all unnecessary expenses, and to live laboriously and thriftily, that they may have the more to do good with. It is a great extenuation of the largest gifts, as to God's esteem, when they are but the leavings of the flesh, and are given out of men's abundance, and when we offer that to God that costeth us nothing: as Christ doth purposely determine the case; comparing the rich man's gifts with the widow's two mites, he said, "Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had," Luke xxi. 1-4; that is, all the stock she had beforehand, though she had need of it herself. It is a very considerable thing in our charity, how much mortification and self-denial is expressed in it, and how much it costeth our own flesh to give to others. And therefore they that think they are excused from doing good to others, as long as they have any need of it themselves, and will give nothing but what they have no need of, (it being not of absolute necessity to their lives,) do offer a sacrifice of no great value in the eyes of God. What then shall we say of them, that will not give even out of their abundance, and that which without any suffering they may spare?

173. See the Preface to my book, called, "The Crucifying of the World."