Works of Mercy, or the several Kinds of corporal Alms.

The works of mercy are so many as the affections of mercy have objects, or as the world hath kinds of misery. men want meat, or drink, or clothes, or a house, or liberty, or attendance, or a grave. In proportion to these, seven works are usually assigned to mercy, and there are seven kinds of corporal alms reckoned: 1. To feed the hungry;²³⁸²³⁸Matt. xxv. 35. 2. To give drink to the thirsty; 3. Or clothes to the naked; 4. To redeem captives; 5. To visit the sick; 6. To entertain strangers; 7. To bury the dead.²³⁹²³⁹Matt. xxvi. 12; 2 Sam. ii. 5. But many more may be added. Such as are, 8. To give physic to sick persons; 9. To bring cold and starved people to warmth and to the fire — for sometimes clothing will not do it, or this may be done when we cannot do the other; 10. To lead the blind in right ways; 11. To lend money; 12. To forgive debts; 13. To remit forfeitures; 14. To mend highways and bridges; 15. To reduce or guide wandering travellers; 16. To ease their labours by accommodating their work with apt instruments, or their journey with beasts of carriage; 17. To deliver the poor from their oppressors; 18. To die for my brother;²⁴⁰²⁴⁰Nobilis haec esset pietatis rixa duobus; Quod pro fratre mori vellet uterque prior.—Mart. 19. To pay maidens ‘dowries, and to procure for them honest and chast marriages.