Thomas Boston, Works, 5:119:
Though men have the right of propriety in their own substance, yet the poor have a right of charity in them, so far as they need, and their neighbours can spare. And the truth is, those to whom God has given substance, they are his stewards, and have their orders from him to steward faithfully as they will be answerable; and the poor and needy are among those who by him are committed to their stewardship. And the weight laid on this piece of righteousness, as an evidence of imputed righteousness, by our Lord himself, Luke 16:9, and in Matt. 25, will always have weight with a good man, to be a worker of righteousness, in point of a charitable disposition.
Though men have the right of propriety in their own substance, yet the poor have a right of charity in them, so far as they need, and their neighbours can spare. And the truth is, those to whom God has given substance, they are his stewards, and have their orders from him to steward faithfully as they will be answerable; and the poor and needy are among those who by him are committed to their stewardship. And the weight laid on this piece of righteousness, as an evidence of imputed righteousness, by our Lord himself, Luke 16:9, and in Matt. 25, will always have weight with a good man, to be a worker of righteousness, in point of a charitable disposition.
