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after fuch a declaration as this, to flatter themfelves with the hopes of getting to heaven, without abounding in the offices of charity. 'Twas chiefly to roufe men up into a fense of their duty and danger in this refpect, that our Saviour uttered the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man is not blamed in the parable, as having made use of any unlawful means to amafs riches, as having thriven by fraud and injustice, or grown fat upon the fpoils of rapine and oppreffion: All that is there laid to his charge is, That he was "cloathed with purple and fine "linen, and fared fumptuously every day," without regarding the wretched condition of Lazarus, who was laid at his gate; and who is faid, indeed, to have "defired to feed of the crumbs which "fell from his table," but is not faid to have obtained what he defired. And even this want of humanity to an object fo pityable and moving, did, it feems, deferve to be punished with everlafting torments. Hear and tremble, all ye who "have this world's good, and fee your brother "have need, and fhut up your bowels of compaffion from him," John iii. 17.

But I believe far better things of all, and know far better things of many, that compofe this audience; for I fee here, the worthy governors and encouragers of thofe public and ufeful charities, which are a greater ornament to this city than all it wealth and fpledor; and do more real honour to the reformed religion, which gave birth to them, than redounds to the church of Rome, from all those monkish and fuperftitious foundations,

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of which she vainly boasts, and with which the dazzles the eyes of ignorant beholders.

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We live at a time, when popery, which is fo far fhut out by our laws as not to be able to reenter openly, is yet ftealing in privately by the back-door of atheism, and making many other fecret and unperceived advances upon us. Its cmiffaries are very numerous, and very bufy in corners, to feduce the unwary. And among the popular pleas, which they employ to this purpofe, there is none more enfnaring (I speak what I know, by experience) than the advantageous reprefentations they make of the public charities, which abound in their communion. Many ways there are of expofing the vanity of fuch pretences: but I have found none more fuccefsful, than to direct the perfons, who are ftruck with the fpecious appearances of charity in that church, to the real and fubftantial effects of it in ours; those noble monuments of glory to God, and good-will to men, which the piety of our proteftant ancestors raised; and which have fince received as great additions and improvements, as the renouned city itfelt to which they belong. I mention them together, because I take the one of them to have fprung, in fome measure, from the other; and the prefent profperous eftate of this great emporium to be owing, not more to the industry of its inhabitants, than to thofe fhining inftances of charity in which they excel; there being no furer way towards increafing riches, than by fharing them with the poor and the needy.

I have not room to give you a complete view of what hath been expended in fuch charitable dif

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tributions within the walls of this city, fince the time of our bleffed reformation, when these goodly plants were firft fet, which have fince, by due watering and culture, fo wonderfully grown and flourished: You may guefs at the prodigious fum to which fuch an estimate would amount, when you have heard, what hath been here done for the poor by the five hofpitals and the work-house, within the compafs of one year, and towards the end of a long, expenfive war; which, however it may have drained our wealth in other respects, yet hath (thanks be to God) not exhaufted, and fcarce diminished, our charity. I fhall give you a fhort account of two reports, which were read at large to you yesterday.

[Here an abstract of those reports was read.]

"Tis not neceffary to plead very earnestly in behalf of thefe charities; they fpeak fufficiently for themselves, by a filent, but powerful eloquence, that is not to be withftood. There is fuch a native comeliness and beauty in well-defigned works of beneficence, that they need only be fhewed, in order to charm all that behold them. Particularly thefe, of which you have had an account, are fuch wife, fuch rational, fuch beneficial inftitutions, that it is impoffible for a good man to hear them repefented, without wifhing them all manner of fuccefs; and as impoffible for one that is both rich and good not to contribute to it. To relieve the helple's poor; to make furdy vagrants relieve themfelves; to hinder idle hands from being mifchievous to the common-wealth; nay, to employ

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them for that they may be of public fervice; to reftore limbs to the wounded, health to the fick, and reafon to the distracted; to educate children in an honeft, pious, and laborious manner; and, by that means, to fow a good feed, of which perhaps another age, and another race of men, may reap the benefit; thefe are things of fo evident ufe, of fo confeffed an excellence, that it would be an affront to men's understandings to go about to prove it.

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Befides, the vigilance of those who prefide,over thefe charities, is fo exemplary, their conduct fo irreproachable, that perfons difpofed to do good in thefe inftances, can entertain no fufpicions of the mifapplication of their bounty; but are almost as fure, that what they give will be made ufe of to its proper end, as they are that the end itself is good, for which they bestow it... It is a mighty check to beneficent tempers to con❤ fider, how often good defigns are fruftrated by... an ill execution of them; and perverted to pur- . pofes, which, could the donors themselves have forefeen, they would have been very loth to promote. But it is the peculiar felicity of charitablyminded perfons in this place, to have no objectons of that kind to ftruggle with. All they have. to confider is, What portion of their wealth they defign for the ufes of the poor; which they may then chearfully throw into one of these public repofitories; fecure, that it will be as well employed as their hearts can defire, by hands well verfed in the labour of love, and whose pleasure it is to approve their own beneficence to the publiɛ,,

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lic, by a careful management and distribution of other men's charity.

This gives benefactors an opportunity of doing their alms, with that felf-denying fecrefy, which our Lord recommends, and which greatly enhances the prefent pleasure and the future reward of them. For we may then fafely conceal our good deeds from the public view, when they run no hazard of being diverted to improper ends, for want of our own inspection. Hence it is, that thefe public charities have been all along fapplied and fed by private fprings; the heads of which have fometimes been wholly unknown. And I take it to be an argument of God's peculiar bleffing upon them, that the expences of fome of them do always much exceed their certain annual income; but feldom, or never, their cafual fupplies. I call them cafual, in compliance with the common form of fpeaking; though I doubt not but that they owe their rife to a very particular direction of povidence. The overfeers of these bounties feem to me, like those who live on the banks of the Ni'e; who plough up their ground, and fow their feed, under a confident expectation, that the foil will in due time be manured by the overflowing of that river, though they neither fee, nor know the true caufe of it.

May God touch the hearts of all that are able to contribute to fuch works of mercy, and make them as willing as they are able! In order to excite their chriftian compaffion, I need ufe no other motive than that which the text fuggefts; that the Lord Jefus will look upon whatever we do of this kind, as done to himself; “in

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