Now! Then! Let your charity be as great as your county, Yorkshiremen are told by one of their own at a Yorkshire Feast sermon in London

11 June 1682: Let your charity be as great as your county, Yorkshiremen are told by one of their own at a Yorkshire Feast sermon in London

George Hickes. 1682. The Moral Shechinah. London: Walter Kettilby. Get it:

Excerpt

This obligation in common to us with all our fellow-subject, but besides this we have particular reasons why we should be free and plentiful in our contributions to our poor countrymen, for our county as the curious observe, is the epitome of England, whatsoever is excellent in the whole land being to be found in proportion there. Besides this, God hath been pleased to make it the birthplace, and nursery of many great men, and special instruments of his Glory, as of Constantine the first Christian Emperor, whom all writers who assert Britain to have been the place of his birth, must needs acknowledge to have been born at York. I shall not name any more, because it is fitter to talk over the long catalogue of our worthies at the table than in the pulpit: and also because it cannot be done without seeming to flatter some very eminent and worthy persons of all ranks, and professions, whom I ought to suppose are present here.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

Henry Purcell’s “The pale and the purple rose” from his 1690 Of old, when heroes thought it base (Yorkshire Feast Song):

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Original

[Sermon on 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”]

Having now explained the true and genuine sense of Gods Glory, and having in the second place made a division of human actions into their several kinds, and shewn under each kind how they are to be directed to God’s Glory, I now come to bring the application of all this to our meeting and feasting together, that we may not fall short of the apostle’s rule, who tells us, that whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, me must do all to the glory of God.

These county-meetings as they are in the general designed, so they may in an especial manner be directed unto this great end; as they are excellent means of endearing countrymen together, and of begetting brotherly love and kindness among them to one another, but most especially as they give the richer sort an opportunity of providing for poor.

The customary manner in which we meet, doth declare this to be the principal end of this sort of meetings; for first we come together in the church, that we may worship the fountain of love and beneficence, and hear some profitable exhortation to imitate his charity, and then we go to eat and drink together in a joyful, and festival manner of his good creatures; that having our bodies refreshed, and our spirits exhilarated in the sober use of them, we should be better disposed to this good work. But if after all this shew and preparation we give nothing, or grudgingly, and not according to our power, we shall moralize the birth of the mountains, and disappoint the expectation both of God and men.

I believe there are no such provincial ‘ 〈…〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or feasts of charity in the capital city of any other nation in the world; it is perhaps the honor of the English to be the first authors of such beneficent and charitable institutions; but then this must needs be said on the other hand, that if they exceed other countries in this or any other sort of Christian magnificence, and liberality, it is but their duty to do so, because though England be not the richest country, yet the English are the richest people in the world.

For as the learned Chancellor Fortescue wrote long ago, it is the happiness of the English to live in a realm where the regal, or despotie is under the limitation of the civil power: and where the King cannot change the laws without the consent of his subjects, nor charge them with impositions against their wills, because he governeth his people, not only by regal, but also by political power:

This gives us a securer property than any other people, makes us masters of our purses, and estates, and if by the singular blessing of such a government we heap up riches above the subjects of any other foreign countries, it is but reasonable, that we should find out some peculiar ways of expressing our gratitude unto God.

Therefore in acknowledgement of all the blessings, and honors, which God hath bestowed upon our country, and to oblige him to keep it, as he did the Holy land, which it equals in greatness, under the wings of his special protection, let us now be ample benefactors to the poor thereof.

We cannot do any thing that will redound more to the credit of our country, and religion, or more manifest the presence of God among us in this solemnity than by doing for our indigent countrymen, as we should expect, our conditions being changed, that they should do for us. If we do so, we shall fully answer the end of this festival meeting, and lay up for ourselves a good foundation against the time to come, but if we do otherwise, not giving at all, or not giving to them according as God hath given unto us, we shall, to say no worse fall shamefully short of the apostle’s rule, who tells us, that whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do we must do all to the glory of God: to whom Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be ascribed, as is most due, all honor, praise and glory now, and evermore. Amen.

914 words.