profound sciences; by experiments in natural philosophy, and by researches in moral; by the steady exercise and humane temper of laws; by the liberal and enlarged principles of civil government, the Gospel is making new progress. The expectations of every worthy man may, therefore, be innocently employed upon the prospect of some happy period, when the belief of our holy religion shall be universal, and its efficacy shall be complete. His efforts, at least, may be laudably exerted in accelerating that momentous event, by which the cavils of unbelievers will be effectually put to silence, and by which the knowledge and the love of God will be deeply fixed in the hearts of all Christians, through all ages, and in all nations.

SERMON II.

PREACHED AT ST. PETER'S MANCROFT,

Friday, March 24, 1780.

HEBREWS, xiii. 16.

To do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

THE excellence of religion is never more illustrious than when it inculcates such virtues as are approved, not only by the laborious operations of the understanding, but the finest sensibilities of the heart. In respect to some of those sublime, but abstruse doctrines which Christianity proposes to our faith, they overwhelm the mind with awe, rather than warm it with affection; and their effects even upon the best of men, after beginning in tumultuous admiration, terminate in languid assent. Of many arduous duties that are prescribed to us, we endeavour to explain away the seeming rigour; and though we be compelled to acknowledge the necessity of performing them, our prejudices and our passions throw a cloud over their immediate

use.

But when we are commanded to do good, and to communicate, the fitness of the command is instantaneously perceived, the beauty of it is universally felt, and deficient as may be the conduct

of some amongst us, in speculation at least, the utmost harmony usually subsists between the generous man, who is anxious to recommend what he practises, and the selfish man, who is ashamed to condemn even what he neglects.

The Epistle from which my text is taken, abounds with allusions to Jewish ceremonies. Hence the exercise of charity is called a sacrifice acceptable to God, with the same propriety as, in a former verse, we are directed to offer up the sacrifice of praise. No terms can, indeed, more strongly paint either the value of charity in the sight of God, or the advantages it produces to mankind; for, as the sacrifices in the temple made atonement for the sins of the people under the Mosaic dispensation, so among those who profess to be guided by the light of Christianity, the habit of doing good will be sufficient to cover a multitude of sins. Revelation, doubtless, when the principles of it are examined without prejudice, and interpreted without enthusiasm, will always be found to set morality far above ritual observances. Thus you have the decisive evidence of the Prophet, "that to obey is better than the fat of rams:" and from authority yet more respectable, we may learn, that "God will have mercy, not sacrifice"-mercy, which involves in it the essence of virtue, not sacrifice, which is only an arbitrary and exterior sign-mercy, where the intention of doing good is ripened into action, not sacrifice, where the act of doing good may never be performed, nor the intention of performing it sincerely felt.

Charity justly claims a distinguished rank in the catalogue of social excellencies; and it well deserves our notice, that in languages both ancient and modern, as in writers both sacred and profane, the expressions which, in their simple state and generic signification, comprehend the whole system of moral rectitude, are, in their compounded state and specific signification, emphatically applied to works of beneficence-Eveрyerev-benefacere-beneficence. What the law of nature required, and the light of nature discovered in the heathen world, Revelation has described with greater exactness, and enforced with greater earnestness. Hence, in the Christian scheme of ethics, charity is delineated, not as an external and solitary act, but as a vital and inward principle of action; and the rewards annexed to it are to be attained, not by any detached and occasional effort of the will, but by a fixed and habitual disposition of the soul. It challenges, moreover, our attention, not only as it engages the approbation of God, but as it enables us to co-operate, as it were, with him in the government of the universe. By the discharge of this duty we become perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. We at once act up to our profession as Christians, and to our nature as men. We make some approaches to that attribute of goodness, which we are most fond of contemplating amidst the glorious perfections of our Maker, in the existence of which we are most nearly interested in the ordinary course of his providence, and by the display of which he

has more especially distinguished himself in the extraordinary revelations of his will.

Before the venerable and learned audience, ✶ whom I have now the honour to address, it were unnecessary for me to enter upon a formal defence of those Divine appointments from which result the occasions of doing good, and the obligations to do it. That natural evil is productive of moral good; that the internal and external inequalities of mankind are necessary to the existence of every social relation, and the exercise of every social virtue ; that they connect the highest and the lowest ranks of the community, furnish correspondent objects to our better affections, and open a wide field for the exertions of our nobler faculties; that all seeming discord in the physical and civil condition of the world leads to harmony imperfectly understood, yet really preserved, are truths, upon which the dictates of philosophy happily fall in with the doctrines of religion. Instead therefore, of tracing through the labyrinths of useless and endless speculation, the reasons for which evil is permitted, you will be more becomingly employed in considering the means which God has supplied, in order to check its devastations, and to correct its malignity. Do you behold a fellow-creature in distress? God has not authorized, nor, perhaps, enabled you to explore all the causes of that distress. But, in giv-.

* It is a custom for the Clergy of the City of Norwich to attend the Charity Sermon on Good Friday.