has set before us the evil and the danger of sin; He has offered us a full and free pardon of all our offences, on conditions most reasonable; He has proposed to us very great happiness, and made it our own fault, if we come short of it. After this, He expects that we should love Him in some measure proportionable to the blessings we have received, and do expect from Him. For so, you see, did this worthy penitent in the history before us; so do all people who are truly sensible of the obligations they lie under; and so shall we too, if we understand, and be true to, our own everlasting interest.

We shall shew that we love God (for love will shew itself), by always doing that which He has commanded, that which we believe will please Him. We shall always live in the fear of God, that we may not consent to known iniquity. "I [Ps. 16. 8.] have set God always before me, therefore I shall not fall," saith the Psalmist. If at any time we fall into sin (for there is no man that sinneth not), we shall remember the practice

60.]

of the same holy man: "I made haste, and delayed not to [Ps. 119. keep Thy commandments." We shall be very careful to call upon God by diligent prayer, by which we shall learn to love and depend on Him.

Being thus disposed, His Holy Spirit will direct us in the way we should go, assist us when we want help, awaken us when we grow careless, correct us when we forget our duty, and will never forsake us until He bring us safe to heaven, when all danger will be over, and we shall be for ever happy.

In the mean time, and in prospect of this happiness, it behoves every person here present, who is engaged in a sinful course of life, to bethink himself what he is like to suffer, by delaying his repentance; that leaving his folly, and his sinful choices, he may learn by the example of this penitent, whose sins were many, not to despair of mercy, but to make all the haste he can to break his bonds, to regain the favour of God; that he may taste and see how gracious the Lord is, how ready to forgive, how bountiful to reward, His sincere servants.

And happy surely are all such whom God vouchsafes thus powerfully to call from a state of sin and death; happy are

SERM. all those sinners, who are so wise as to obey His gracious LXXVIII. call, and live to bring forth fruits meet for repentance !

But the ways of sin are extremely dangerous; and the return to righteousness, difficult, irksome, hazardous, and uncertain.

More happy therefore by far, and more safe, are the circumstances of those, who, from their very youth, are taught to know and to fear the Lord their Maker. And commendable are the endeavours, and glorious will be the reward, of all such as any way contribute to so good a work!

It is true, all parents stand charged, and are answerable for the good education of their children; all masters are in some measure accountable for the faith and manners of their servants; and every Clergyman, who has a cure of souls, is obliged to extend his care to, and feed the lambs, as well as the sheep of Christ.

But, alas! when we consider, what an infinite number of parents there are, who know not their own duty; what an infinite number of children there are, who have no parents, or none able, or not willing, to take care of them; how many masters, who are no further concerned for their servants, than to have their labour and their time at their command; and lastly, how many parishes there are, so large, and unproportionable to the endeavours of the most careful pastor; we may easily guess at the infinite number of souls, which must go to the grave untaught; who know little or nothing of their errand into the world, or of the account they must give of their time spent in it, unless by some kind providence of God they are otherways instructed.

And blessed be God, who has put it into the hearts of so many Christians of this, and other Churches and nations, to set up Charity Schools, in order to enlarge the kingdom of Christ, and (by the good blessing of God) to weaken that of Satan.

And indeed, had not these, and some other worthy societies, stood in the gap, to stop the growth of ignorance, of profaneness, and infidelity, and to provide proper remedies either to cure or to prevent them, most dismal, in all probability, must have been the face of religion in a few years; perhaps so deformed, and provoking, as to force God to remove our

candlestick, as He has done many others; and to deprive us of that light, which we had made so ill use of.

For this is plainly the state of religion, and of its professors, at this day. Too many of those, whom God has distinguished by honours and great estates, are extremely corrupted by His favours; they forget the God that raised them, the vows that are upon them; they despise the means of grace and salvation which He offers them, and, by a wickedness worse than pagan, they would have all others as much infidels as themselves.

On the other hand, there are a mighty number of people, whose circumstances are low and mean, whose understandings are slow, and whose opportunities of learning their duty are very few; if any of these ignorant people better their condition in the world, prosperity is but a snare to them; and if they continue poor, they often only live to people the world with a posterity as ignorant as themselves.

In short; we often lament the darkness in which the heathen world is involved, and pity the condition of those who know not the true God. In the mean while, we do not consider that even amongst ourselves, in the very throng of Christians, there are a great many who are in a manner utter strangers to the design of the Gospel, and entirely uninfluenced either by its promises or threatenings.

And much greater would have been the number of these unhappy souls, had not so many good people contributed their helping hand to rescue them out of this state of want and ignorance.

For this good work I am now an advocate; a work which will prosper as long as God has mercies in store for this nation, notwithstanding the evil report which Satan and his instruments have endeavoured to fix upon it. We need make no apology for calling those the instruments of Satan who have set themselves to speak and write against the Charity Schools; because these very people speak contemptibly of the Word and Ordinances of God, confound men's notions of good and evil, make these the fancies of men, rather than the consequence of eternal reason and truth.

But what is the reason of all this zeal against Charity Schools, and those that endeavour to support them? Why,

LXXVIII.

SERM. they are afraid, that if the children of the poor are to have an orderly and Christian education, they shall want beasts of burden (for such, by their way of arguing, they esteem them) to do their drudgery; that is, provided the rich can have the bodies and labour of the poor at their service, it is no matter what becomes of their souls. They do not consider, that the Christian instruction and education that children have in these schools is the likeliest method of making them better men and better servants, obedient to their masters, true and just in their dealings, and to do their duty in that state of life unto which the providence of God shall call them. Neither have, I believe, these hard-hearted people considered (and yet it may very probably come to pass), that, by the just judgment of God upon them for their infidelity and profaneness, their own posterity in the next generation may come to want that help and instruction which they now envy these poor children.

[Acts 26. 18.]

But I shall say no more on this head. The work will commend itself; and if any unforeseen evil consequences creep into it unawares, when they are observed, they will no doubt be guarded against, without laying aside a design and work so well calculated for promoting the glory of God, and the good of souls. And as such I recommend it to you, as the likeliest way to avert the judgments and draw down the blessings of God upon this Church and nation.

For the great design of this charity is the very same with that of the Gospel, "To turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." And that, as in our daily devotions we pray that the kingdom of God may come, we may, by our hearty endeavours, and cheerful contributions, strive to advance it in good earnest.

In order to this, we should endeavour to lay aside all selfish principles, which are apt to make us refer all things to ourselves. Let us rather look upon these children in the same light that God Himself sees them; namely, as the work of His hands, as part of His love and care, as persons redeemed by the blood of His dear Son, as members of Christ's visible Church, as part of that body, which must suffer if any of its members suffer, as creatures capable of eternal happiness, and yet liable to eternal misery. And then we shall

think ourselves bound, by all the obligations of interest, of duty, of compassion, and of gratitude, to contribute towards giving them a Christian education, towards supporting a charity whereby the bodies and the souls of the poor are regarded, by which parents receive both relief and comfort in the care that is taken of their children; and an infinite number of souls have been and are like to be rescued from the consequences of poverty and ignorance, which are, very often, vice and misery in this world, and eternal misery in the world to come.

And before I conclude, let me just put you in mind of the text, and the inferences made from it; namely, that as our love of God will always rise in proportion to the sense we have of the debt He has forgiven us, or that we expect He will forgive us; so, wherever there is a sincere love of God, it will evermore appear, according to our power, in acts of mercy and charity.

To conclude the whole: it is by the favour of God that so many of us here present do want nothing that is needful either for our souls or for our bodies. Whatever we have cometh of God, and whatever we give, of His own do we give Him. And happy will it be for us, if what any of us give upon these occasions may but atone for our many vain

expenses.

Happy would it be for us, if the frequent occasions of this kind, which we meet with, may make us more careful to husband the talents wherewith we are intrusted, that we may always be ready to offer some testimony of our love and gratitude to God, who has been so good and kind to us. That if it should ever be His pleasure to change our circumstances into a lower condition, we may have this comfort however, which will be no small one, that so much as we have given to God, and for His sake, to these good purposes, so much treasure we have laid up in heaven. For which place, may our merciful God prepare us all, by disposing us all to acts of mercy and piety, and in His good time bring us thither for the Lord Jesus' sake.

To Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.