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respect, render thee ready and eager to procure the fame happiness for others, who equally need it? fhall it not make thee the common guardian, as it were, of poor orphans, whofe minds are left as uncloathed and naked altogether, as their bodies; and who are expofed to all the temptations of ignorance, want, and idleness?

Art thou a true lover of thy country? zealous for its religious and civil interefts? and a chearful contributor to all thofe public expences which have been thought neceffary to secure them, against the attempts of the common enemy and oppreffor? is the near profpect of all the bleffings of peace welcome and defirable to thee? and wilt thou not bear a tender regard to all thofe, who have loft their health and their limbs in the rough fervice of war, to fecure these bleffings to thee? Canft thou fee any one of them lie by the as it were, "ftripped, and wounded, and half"dead;" and yet "pafs by on the other fide," without doing as much for thy friend, as that good Samaritan did for his enemy, when he had "compaffion on him, and went to him, and "bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, "and brought him to an inn," (or houfe of common reception, fo the word, Hardoxo, fignifies) and "took care of him."

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Have thy reasoning faculties been eclipsed at any time by fome accidental ftroke? by the mad joys of wine, or the excefs of religious melancholy? by a fit of an apoplexy, or the rage of a burning fever? and haft thou, upon thy recovery, been made fenfible, to what a wretched state that calamity reduced thee? and what a fad fpectacle,

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to all thy friends and acquintance, it rendered thee? And fhall not this affliction, which thou haft felt thyself, or perhaps obferved in others, who were near and dear to thee; fhall it not lead thee to commiferate all thofe, who labour under a fettled distraction who are fhut out from all. the pleafures and advantages of human commerce, and even degraded from the rank of reafonable creatures? wilt thou not make their cafe thine? and take pity upon them, who cannot take pity upon themfelves? wilt thou not contribute, to the beft of thy power, either towards restoring the defaced image of God upon their fouls; or (if that cannot be done) towards fupporting them, for a while under a charitable confinement, where human nature may be refcued from that contempt, to which fuch objects expofe it?

Once more; haft thou fuffered at any time by vagabonds and pilferers? hath the knowlege or opihion of thy wealth expofed thee to the attempts of more dangerous and bloody villains? have thy unquiet flumbers been interrupted by the apprehenfion of nightly affaults, fuch as have terrified, and perhaps ruined fome of thy unfortunate neighbours? Learn from hence duly to esteem and promote thofe ufeful charities, which remove fuch pefts of human fociety into prifons and work-houfes, and train up youth in the ways of diligence, who would otherwife take the fame defperate courfes: Which reform the ftubborn by correction, and the idle by hard labour; and would, if carried to that perfection of which they are capable, go a great way towards making life

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more comfortable than now it is, and property itfelf more valuable.

These are the feveral ways of beneficence, which you are now called upon to practife. Many arguments might be urged to induce you to it: But I am fenfible I detain you too long; and therefore fhall ufe but one; however, fuch an one as is equal to many, and cannot but have great weight with all that call themselves Chriftians. It is this-That our bleffed Saviour went before us, in the practice of every one of thefe four inftances of well-doing, which I have now recommended to you.

His compaflion and benignity towards little children, is obferved by all the Evangelifts; and with fuch circumftances as fhew, that he laid great stress upon this kind of charity, and did, in a peculiar manner, recommend it to all his fol lowers. For, when" his difciples rebuked thofe “who brought young children unto him, he was ❝ difpleased, and faid unto them, Suffer the little "children to come unto me, and forbid them

not; for of fuch is the kingdom of God. "Verily I fay unto you; Whofoever shall not "receive the kingdom of God, as a little child, ❝he fhall not enter therein. And he took them "up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and "bleffed them," Mark x. 13, 14, 15, 16. it was impoffible for him to have fhewed a greater tendernefs and concern for the infant-ftate, than by what he faid and did on this occafion. And, left we should still be apt to difdain fuch humble offi ces, and not to think them of importance fufficient to employ. our thoughts; he further affures VOL. II.

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us, that the care of thefe little ones is committed to miniftring fpirits, who attend continually on this very thing" I fay unto you, that in heaven "their angels do always behold the face of my "Father which is in heaven," Matth. xviii. 10. And we cannot furely think it beneath us, to fhare with thofe glorious beings, in fuch an administration!

As to the cure of the difeafed, the maimed, and the infirm, it was his familiar and every day's employment; I must work the works of him "that fent me" (fays he, in relation to these very cures)" whilft it is day; the night cometh, when "no man can work :" John ix. 4. And therefore the very laft miracle he did, before his day of working expired and he left this world, was the healing the ear of the high priest's fervant, whom St. Peter had wounded.

His compaffion towards the diftracted and lunatic, appears in divers inftances: For fuch many of thofe demoniacs feem to have been, whom he healed in great numbers. The defcriptions which the evangelifts give of these wretched objects, and of the feveral fymptoms with which their maladies were attended, are very particular and moving, and fhew, that both our bleffed Lord and the holy pen-men of his story were deeply affected with them. Hear the account, given by St. Mark, of one inftance of this kind; "the man "with an unclean fpirit, whofe name was Le"gion! He had his dwelling among the tombs, "and no man could bind him, no not with "chains; because he had been often bound with "fetters and chains; and the chains had been "plucked

"plucked afunder by him, and the fetters broken "in pieces; neither could any man tame him. "And always night and day, he was in the moun"tains and in the tombs, crying, and cutting him"felf with stones," Mark v. 2, 3,4, &c. Our Saviour took pity on him; and we find him foon afterwards "fitting at Jefus feet, cloathed, and in "his right mind."

Nay, he himself was pleafed to fet us a pattern alfo of that severe charity, which confifts in corporal punishment and correction. For, when he faw the outward court of the temple profaned by ungodly merchandife; He, who was meeknefs and mildness itself, "made a fcourge of finall “cords, and drove these buyers and fellers out "of the temple, and overthrew their tables," John ii. 15. This he is exprefly faid to have done, at two feveral paffovers; and with fo remarkable a degree of holy warmth and indignation, as made his difciples apply to him what the Pfalmift had faid, The zeal of thine houfe hath eaten me up! John ii. 17.

Ye fee, brethren, what a divine warrant you have, for abounding in all thofe offices of charity, which are this day proposed to you; and which the Saviour of the world did not himself in perfon difdain to exercife." If therefore there be 66. any confolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any "bowels and mercies; fulfil ye" the work to which ye are invited and appointed; Phil ii 1. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man alfo on the things of another! Let "this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Je

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