easing the pains of disease, and lightening the burden of oppression: he commands that the superfluity of bread be dealt to the hungry, and the raiment, which the possessor cannot use, be bestowed upon the naked; and that no man turn away from his own flesh.

This is a tribute, which it is difficult to imagine that any man can be unwilling to pay, as an acknowledgment of his dependence upon the universal Benefactor, and an humble testimony of his confidence in that protection, without which, the strongest foundations of human power must fail at the first shock of adversity, and the highest fabrics of earthly greatness sink into ruin; without which, wealth is only a floating vapour, and policy an empty sound.

But such is the prevalence of temptations, not early resisted; such the depravity of minds, by which unlawful desires have been long indulged, and false appearances of happiness pursued with ardour and pertinaciousness; so much are we influenced by example, and so diligently do we labour to deceive ourselves; that it is not uncommon to find the sentiments of benevolence almost extinguished, and all regard to the welfare of others overborne by a perpetual attention to immediate advantage, and contracted views of present interest.

When any man has sunk into a state of insensibility like this, when he has learned to act only by the impulse of apparent profit, when he can look upon distress without partaking it, and hear the cries of poverty and sickness without a wish to relieve them; when he has so far disordered his ideas as to value wealth without regard to its end, and

to amass with eagerness what is of no use in his hands; he is indeed not easily to be reclaimed: his reason, as well as his passions, is in combination against his soul, and there is little hope, that either persuasion will soften, or arguments convince him. A man, once hardened in cruelty by inveterate avarice, is scarcely to be considered as any longer human; nor is it to be hoped, that any impression can be made upon him by methods applicable only to reasonable beings. Beneficence and compassion can be awakened in such hearts only by the operation of divine grace, and must be the effect of a miracle, like that which turned the dry rock into a springing well.

Let every one, that considers this state of obdurate wickedness, that is struck with horror at the mention of a man void of pity, that feels resentment at the name of oppression, and melts with sorrow at the voice of misery, remember that those who have now lost all these sentiments, were originally formed with passions, and instincts, and reason, like his own let him reflect, that he, who now stands most firmly, may fall by negligence, and that negligence arises from security. Let him, therefore, observe, by what gradations men sink into perdition, by what insensible deviations they wander from the ways of virtue, till they are at length scarce able to return; and let him be warned, by their example, to avoid the original causes of depravity, and repel the first attacks of unreasonable self-love; let him meditate on the excellence of charity, and improve those seeds of benevolence, which are implanted in every mind, but which will not produce fruit without care and cultivation.

Such meditations are always necessary for the promotion of virtue; for a careless and inattentive mind easily forgets its importance, and it will be practised only with a degree of ardour, proportioned to the sense of our obligations to it.

To assist such reflections, to confirm the benevolence of the liberal, and to show those who have lived without regard to the necessities of others the absurdity of their conduct, I shall inquire,

First, Into the nature of charity; and

Secondly, Into the advantages arising from the exercise of it.

First, I shall inquire into the nature of charity. By charity is to be understood every assistance of weakness, or supply of wants, produced by a desire of benefiting others, and of pleasing God. Not every act of liberality, every increase of the wealth of another, not every flow of negligent profusion, or thoughtless start of sudden munificence, is to be dignified with this venerable name. There are many motives to the appearance of bounty, very different from those of true charity, and which, with whatever success they may be imposed upon mankind, will be distinguished at the last day by Him to whom all hearts are open. It is not impossible that men, whose chief desire is esteem and applause, who court the favour of the multitude, and think fame the great end of action, may squander their wealth in such a manner, that some part of it may benefit the virtuous or the miserable; but as the guilt, so the virtue, of every action arises from design; and those blessings which are be

VOL. I.

D

stowed by chance, will be of very little advantage to him that scattered them with no other prospect than that of hearing his own praises; praises, of which he will not be often disappointed, but of which our Lord has determined, that they shall be his reward. If any man, in the distribution of his favours, finds the desire of engaging gratitude, or gaining affection, to predominate in his mind; if he finds his benevolence weakened, by observing that his favours are forgotten, and that those whom he has most studiously benefited, are often least zealous for his service, he ought to remember, that he is not acting upon the proper motives of charity; for true charity arises from faith in the promises of God, and expects rewards only in a future state. To hope for our recompense in this life, is not beneficence, but usury.

And surely charity may easily subsist without temporal motives, when it is considered, that it is by the exercise of charity alone that we are enabled to receive any solid advantage from present prosperity, and to appropriate to ourselves any possession beyond the possibility of losing it. Of the uncertainty of success, and the instability of greatness, we have examples every day before us. Scarcely can any man turn his eyes upon the world, without observing the sudden rotations of affairs, the ruin of the affluent, and the downfall of the high; and it may reasonably be hoped, that no inan, to whom opportunities of such observations occur, can forbear applying them to his own condition, and reflecting, that what he now contemplates in another, he maỹ, in a few days, experience himself.

By these reflections he must be naturally led to inquire, how he may fix such fugitive advantages; how he shall hinder his wealth from flying away, and leaving him nothing but melancholy, disappointment, and remorse this he can effect only by the practice of charity, by dealing his bread to the hungry, and bringing the poor that is cast out to his house. By these means only, he can lay up for himself treasures in heaven, "where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal." By a liberal distribution of his riches, he can place them above the reach of the spoiler, and exempt them from accident and danger; can purchase to himself that satisfaction which no power on earth can take away; and make them the means of happiness, when they are no longer in his hands. He may procure, by this means, of his wealth, what he will find to be obtained by no other, a method of applying an alleviation of the sorrows of age, of the pains of sickness, and of the agonies of death.

To enforce the duty of charity, it is so far from being necessary to produce any arguments drawn from a narrow view of our condition, a view restrained to this world, that the chief reason for which it is to be practised, is the shortness and uncertainty of life. To a man who considers for what purpose he was created, and why he was placed in his present state, how short a time, at most, is allotted to his earthly duration, and how much of that time may be cut off; how can any thing give real satisfaction that terminates in this life? How can he imagine that any acquisition can deserve his labour, which has no tendency to