manner in which he purposes to clear accounts with us, it is worth our while to hear it; because, perhaps we should be less inclinable to lend, if the coin, and time, in which we are to be paid, were not particularly specified to us.

6

In the first place, almsgiving brings a blessing on every thing we enjoy, and cleanses it for our use. 'Give alms of such things as you have, and behold all things are clean unto you.' In the next place, it will procure for us divine assistance and comfort, in time of sickness and trouble. 'Blessed is the man that considereth the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.' In the third place, it obtains for us the pardon of our sins. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged. Break off thy sins by righteousness,' saith Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, and thy iniquities, by shewing mercy to the poor.' In the fourth place, it is imputed to us for righteousness. He, saith David, speaking of the charitable man, hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor; and his righteousness remaineth for ever. In the fifth place, God promises lustre to the character, health to the body, fatness to the bones, direction to the ways, and success to the prayers of him who is compassionate to the poor. Is not this the fast that I have chosen? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer. If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity; the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.' In the last place, an heavenly treasure is promised to the friend of the poor. 'If thou wilt be perfect,' saith Christ sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.' Let not that man, from whom these glorious promises can extort nothing for the poor, dare to he believes, or is a Christian.

say,

God presses the duty of almsgiving on us in a yet closer and tenderer manner. He represents man as formed after his own image, and calls us his children. Nay, Christ hath connected us to himself, and made us members of that mystical body of which he is the head, and for which he was content his natural body should be crucified. Let us remember now, that the poor man is God's image, and a limb of Christ; and then ask ourselves, how we can bear to see this representative of God, this part of our Redeemer's body, through which he feels so sensibly, pining for want of those necessaries, which a small retrenchment from our idle expenses, or a few pieces from that hoard of wealth we even mean not to use, could procure. As if the pity of the poor, and the love of God, were the same thing, he says to us, Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?' Let us not say, we love our poor brother, if we shew no compassion for him in his distress. You are to be judged by your actions, not your professions. If a brother or sister be naked, or destitute of daily food; and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things that be needful to the body; what doth it profit? Or what other purpose doth it serve than to shew your contempt of your fellowcreature, and to insult the majesty of his maker? Neither let us say, we love God, since we will do nothing for his sake. It is an impudent lie, to say, we love God, whom we have not seen,' if we shew no love, no pity, to our poor distressed neighbours, whom we see every day, struggling, some with old age, others with numerous families, others with sickness, others in confinement, others under oppression, and all in want of the common necessaries of life. He gives an ill account of his piety, who is hard-hearted and close-handed to the poor; for Christ makes no difference in this respect between himself and the indigent. 'I,' that is, the distressed and miserable, was hungry, and you fed me not; was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; was naked, and you clothed me not; was sick and in prison, and you neither visited nor comforted me.' It will be in vain to say, 'we never saw thee in this condition;' for Christ hath said al

ready, and will say it again, when it must be minded, ‘if you do it not to one of these little ones, you do it not to me.' He, whose heart is shut against the poor, may assure himself, the ears of God are shut against all his applications. How can his prayers solicit for prosperity, who confines all he gets to his own use, and surfeits on that surplus of God's bounty, which ought to be imparted to the poor? How can he thank God for his wealth, who renders that wealth a curse to himself, by an unfaithful management of it, in respect to God the proprietor; and a cruel detention of it from the necessitous, for whose relief it was put into his hands? How can he sue for mercy from God, when calamity, when fear, when death, comes upon him, and drives the sting of guilt through his conscience, into his soul, who is deaf to the distressful cries of his own flesh and blood, of God's image, of Christ's member imploring relief from miseries, too affecting for a feeling heart to bear the very sight of in another? Nothing can be more evident, than that a want of pity for the poor, cuts off all religious communication between God and the hard-heated. He is indeed, too unlike the fountain of all goodness and pity, to leave room for any connexion with him; insomuch that, it is to be feared, the very mercy of God, which opens a door of pardon to other sinners, will shut it against this, in whom the best, the most lovely resemblance of man to God, is totally defaced. How can infinite pity shew itself to a heart that hath no pity, that is so opposite to itself? No: even mercy will plead against him, and give him less indulgence than justice itself.

There is one hindrance to the kind of charity I have been speaking of, which I cannot pass over unnoticed on this occasion. Many persons, otherwise well-affected to the poor, find their hearts cooled, and shut against real objects of compassion, by the gross abuse of their goodness, often shewn to idlers and thieves, who put on the appearance of distress. This unhappy turn of mind proceeds, in a great measure, from want of due circumspection; for, did the rich, who are disposed to almsgiving, take care to distinguish the pretended from the real object of charity, they would hardly ever make a wrong application of their alms. The distresses of their poor neighbours, which might be easily

examined into, ought, for the most part, to engross their pity, and leave little for such vagrants, as exercise a motley trade, made up of begging, pilfering, and sharping.

But there is little or no room for this abuse of charity, in its application to such almshouses, and public contributions for the education or support of the poor, as have been well considered, and are faithfully managed. Again, of all these contributions, none seems to bid so fair for doing good, as that which is intended for feeding, clothing and instructing poor children; because in the first place, there can be no mistake about their wants, nor doubts of their innocence; and, in the next, whatsoever is given for this use is expended on a manageable kind of poor, whom the donor at once relieves, and renders deserving of relief. Other charities but in part remove a calamity, after it hath been severely felt for some time; this prevents it, by enabling the object to support himself. Other alms bring assistance only to the body; this to both body and soul. Other alms supply a temporal necessity; this, as far as human means can contribute to so great an end, provides for eternal happiness. Other alms are generally given to persons, already rendered useless to mankind, who have little left about them that concerns society, but a mouth and stomach; this bestows on the community a number of useful hands, which otherwise might have been idle, or employed in doing mischief. Other alms are often expended on such as we can only pity, because reduced to poverty by sloth, extravagance, or wickedness; this on innocent creatures, whom we ought to pity, because, in themselves, they are altogether helpless; and, for whom, we ought to feel the greatest tenderness, because God and nature have rendered them exceeding lovely in our eyes, for that very purpose.

Consider you, whom the present charitable occasion hath assembled, what it is you are called upon to do. It is to take a number of yet innocent young creatures out of the hands of natural corruption, of vile company, of temptations to idleness, lying, debauchery, drunkenness, theft, robbery; to turn them from a course that tends, through vice and infamy, to the gallows and damnation, and to lead them, as it were, by the hand, through a regular course of education and good principles, to such a scheme of life, as

is most likely to be useful and happy here, and to end in eternal peace with God. Consider this, and you will want no other motive to contribute to the present charity.

I choose to touch but briefly on these considerations, important as they are, knowing that the tender and generous minds of those who hear me, are this moment pleading the same cause, with the eloquence of the heart, which is stronger than that of words. It is almost needless to remind an assembly, collected, as this is, out of a people already distinguished for their compassion to the poor, that the gracious Father of us all will doubly bless those in their own children, whose compassion extends itself to the children of their poor neighbours; or that a man can hardly do any thing more acceptable in the sight of Christ, than to cherish in his charitable arms, as he did, those engaging objects, so full of amiable innocence and sweet simplicity, that we need nothing more, in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, than to resemble them.

Should I take up more of your time in endeavouring to soften your hearts into a tenderness for human nature, in its most lovely, but most helpless, circumstances; I should but wrong you, who had never come hither, on this occasion, had not your hearts been previously affected with that very tenderness, from generous sensations, and beneficent motives of their own. Give way to this noble turn of mind; let your hands be as open as your hearts, that God, who is looking on, may see your pity; and the poor, who look up to you for relief, may taste the fruits of your compassion, and add their prayers to yours for every divine blessing on you, and all you love or possess.

The cry of the poor, that ascends daily before God, and draws his peculiar attention, returns in blessings on the liberal hand, and in judgments on the hard heart. Whosoever 'would choose blessing, rather than cursing, let him not turn his face from the poor man, and then the face of the Lord shall not be turned away from him,' when he becomes poor himself and destitute of righteousness to recommend him, shall beg and sue for mercy at the hour of death, and in the day of judgment. 'Let him provide for the sick and needy, that the Lord may preserve him alive, and bless him upon the earth. Let him deliver the poor that cries, and