him a constant counsellor, with a general rule, and directing providence if he want prudence sufficient to be his own director, he will take direction from the prudence of others.

13. Such a truly willing mind, will not be much wanting in the general, of doing good, but one way or other, will serve God with his estate; and then if in any particulars he should come short, it will comparatively be a very small sin, when it is not for want of willingness, but of skill. The will is the chief seat of all moral good and evil: there is no more virtue than there is will, nor any more sin or vice, than there is will. He that knoweth not how much he should give, because he is not willing to give it, and therefore not willing to know it, is indeed the miser and sinfully ignorant; but if it be not for want of a willing mind that we mistake the proportion, it will be a very pardonable mistake.

14. Your proportion of the tenth part is too much for some, and much too little for others, but for the most, I think it as likely a proportion as it is fit for another to prescribe in particular, with these following explications.

1. He that hath a full stock of money, and no increase by it, must give proportionably out of his stock; when he that hath little or no stock, but the fruits of his daily industry and labour, may possibly be bound to give less than the other.

2. It is not the tenth of our increase, deducting first all our families' provision, that you mean when you direct to give the tenth (for it is far more, if not all, that after such provision must be given); but it is the tenth without deduction that you mean; therefore when family necessaries cannot spare the tenth, it may be too much (else even the receivers must all be givers): but when family necessities can spare much more than the tenth, then the tenth is not enough.

3. In those places where church, and state, and poor are all to be maintained by free gift, there the tenth of our increase is far too little, for those that have any thing considerable to spare, to give to all these uses.

This is apparent in that the tenths alone were not thought enough even in the time of the law, to give towards the public

worship of God: for beside the tenths, there were the first fruits, and oblations, and many sorts of sacrifices; and yet at the same time, the poor were to be maintained by liberal gifts beside the tenths; and though we read not of much given to the maintenance of their rulers and magistrates, before they chose to have a king, yet afterwards we read of much; and before, the charges of wars and public works lay upon all.

In most places with us, the public ministry is maintained by glebe and tithes, which are none of the people's gifts at all, for he that sold or leased them their lands, did suppose that tithes were to be payed out of it, and therefore they paid a tenth part less for it, in purchase, fines, or rents, than otherwise they should have done; so that I reckon, that most of them give little or nothing to the minister at all. Therefore they may the better give so much the more to the needy, and to other charitable uses. But where minister, and poor, and all are maintained by the people's contribution, there the tenths are too little for the whole work; but yet to most, or very many, the tenths to the poor alone, besides the maintenance of the ministry and state, may possibly be more than they are able to give. The tenths even among the heathens, were given in many places to their sacrifices, priests, and to religious, public, civil works, besides all their private charity to the poor.

I find in Diog. Laertius, lib. 1. (mihi) 32. that Pisistratus the Athenian tyrant, proving to Solon (in his epistle to him) that he had nothing against God or man to blame him for, but for taking the crown; telling him, that he caused them to keep the same laws which Solon gave them, and that better than the popular government could have done, doth instance thus: Atheniensium singuli decimas frugum suarum separant, non in usus nostros consumendas, verum sacrificiis publicis, commodisque communibus, et si quando bellum contra nos ingruerit, in sumptus deputandas:' that is, Every one of the Athenians do separate the tithes of their fruits, not to be consumed to our uses, but to defray the charge in public sacrifices, and in the common profits, and if war at any time invade us.' And Plautus saith, Ut decimam solveret Herculi.' Indeed as among the heathens the tithes were conjunctly given for religious and civil uses,

so it seems that at first the Christian emperors settled them on the bishops for the use of the poor, as well as for the ministers', and church service, and utensils. For to all these they were to be divided, and the bishop was as the guardian of the poor: and the glebe or farms that were given to the church, were all employed to the same uses; and the canons required that the tithe should be thus disposed of by the clergy; non tanquam propriæ, sed domino oblatæ :' and the emperor Justinian commanded the bishops, Ne ea quæ ecclesiis relicta sunt sibi adscribant sed in necessarios ecclesiæ usus impendant; lib. xliii. cap. de Episc. et Cler. vid. Albert. Ranzt. Metrop. lib. i. cap. 2. et sax. lib. vi. cap. 52. And Hierom (ad Damasc.) saith, Quoniam quicquid habent clerici pauperum est; et domus illorum omnibus debent esse communes; susceptioni peregrinarum et hospitum invigilare debent: maxime curandum est illis, ut de decimis et. oblationibus, cœnobiis et Xenodochiis qualem voluerint et potuerint sustentationem impendant.'

Yet then the paying of tithes did not excuse the people from all other charity to the poor: Austin saith,' Qui sibi aut præmium comparat, aut peccatorum desiderat indulgentiam promereri, reddat decimam, etiam de novem partibus studeat eleemosynam dare pauperibus.' And in our times there is less reason that tithes should excuse the people from their works of charity, both because the tithes are now more appropriate to the maintenance of the clergy, and because (as is aforesaid) the people give them not of their own. I confess, if we consider how decimation was used before the law by Abraham and Jacob, and established by the law unto the Jews, and how commonly it was used among the Gentiles, and last of all by the church of Christ, it will make a considerate man imagine, that as there is still a Divine direction for one day in seven, as a necessary proportion of time to be ordinarily consecrated to God, besides what we can spare from our other days; so that there is something of a Divine canon, or direction for the tenth of our revenues or increase to be ordinarily consecrated to God, besides what may be spared from the rest. And whether those tithes, that are none of your own, and cost you nothing, be now to be reckoned to private men, as any of their tenths, which they themselves should give, I leave to

your consideration. Amongst Augustine's works we find an opinion that the devils were the tenth part of the angels, and that man is now to be the tenth order among the angels, the saints filling up the place that the devils fell from, and there being nine orders of angels to be above us, and that in this there is some ground of our paying tenths; and therefore he saith, that Hæc est Domini justissima consuetudo; ut si tu illi decimam non dederis, tu ad decimam revocaberis, id est, dæmonibus, qui sunt decima pars àngelorum, associaberis.' Though I know not whence he had this opinion, it seemeth that the devoting of a tenth part ordinarily to God, is a matter that we have more than a human direction for.

15. In times of extraordinary necessities of the church, or state, or poor, there must be extraordinary bounty in our contributions: as if an enemy be ready to invade the land, or if some extraordinary work of God (as the conversion of some heathen nations) do require it, or some extraordinary persecution and distress befal the pastors, or in a year of famine, plague, or war, when the necessities of the poor are extraordinary the tenths in such cases will not suffice, from those that have more to give: therefore in such times, the primitive Christians sold their possessions, and laid down the price at the feet of the apostles.

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In one word, an honest, charitable heart being presupposed as the root or fountain, and prudence being the discerner of our duty, the apostle's general rule may much satisfy a Christian for the proportion, "Let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him';" and "according to that a man hath ;; though there be many intimations, that ordinarily a tenth part at least is requisite.

III. Having thus resolved the question of the 'quota pars,' or proportion to be given, I shall say a little to the question, Whether a man should give most in his lifetime, or at his death?'

Answ. 1. It is certain that the best work is that which is like to do most good.

2. But to make it best to us, it is necessary that we do it with the most self-denying, holy, charitable mind.

3. That' cæteris paribus,' all things else being equal, the present doing of a good work, is better than to defer it.

4. That to do good only when you die, because then you can keep your wealth no longer, and because then it costeth you nothing to part with it, and because then you hope that this shall serve instead of true repentance and godliness; this is but to deceive yourselves, and will do nothing to save your souls, though it do never so much good to others.

5. That he that sinfully neglecteth in his lifetime to do .good, if he do it at his death, from true repentance and conversion, it is then accepted of God; though the sin of his delay must be lamented.

6. That he that delayeth it till death, not out of any selfishness, backwardness, or unwillingness, but that the work may be better, and do more good, doth better than if he hastened a lesser good. As if a man have a desire to set up a free-school for perpetuity, and the money which he hath is not sufficient; if he stay till his death, that so the improvement of the money may increase it, and make it enough for his intended work; that is to do a greater good with greater self-denial: for,

(1.) He receiveth none of the increase of the money for himself.

(2.) And he receiveth in his lifetime none of the praise or thanks of the work. So also, if a man that hath no children, have so much land only as will maintain him, and desireth to give it all to charitable uses when he dieth, this delay is not at all to be blamed, because he could not sooner give it; and if it be not in vain-glory, but in love to God and to good works that he leaveth it, it is truly acceptable at last. So that all good works that are done at death, are not therefore to be undervalued, nor are they rejected of God; but sometimes it falleth out that they are so much the greater and better works, though he that can do the same in his lifetime, ought to do it.

IV. But though I have spent all these words in answering these questions, I am fully satisfied that it is very few that are kept from doing good by any such doubt or difficulty, in the case which stalls their judgments; but by the power of sin and want of grace, which leave an unwilling