and permanent effect.

As a text to

As a text to my discourse, (if it be not too late to introduce one,) I would use those words inserted in the 35th verse of the xxvth chapter of LEVITICUS.

"IF THY

BROTHER BE WAXEN POOR AND FALLEN INTO DECAY WITH THEE, THOU SHALT RELIEVE HIM; YEA, THOUGH HE BE A STRANGER OR SOJOURNER, THAT HE MAY LIVE WITH THEE."

THIS is the admirable injunction of the, Jewish legislator. He had been stating the law for the institution of the jubilee, or year of liberty. This was to take place every fiftieth year. It was a season of national Care ceased and

rest, festivity and joy. labour was suspended. The ground remained untilled, and whatever it spontaneously produced belonged to the poor and needy. Slaves were manumitted, captives released, and prisoners set free. All debts were cancelled, all controversies adjusted, all law-suits terminated. Mortgaged and alienated estates reverted back to their original owners; for these were so entailed that the right heir could never be wholy excluded from his patrimony. This law was intended to preserve a perfect distinction of tribes and families;

to fix the Jews in Canaan, and attach them to the country; to cut off the means and suppress the greediness of heaping up wealth; to prevent the rich from oppressing the poor; and to preserve, as much as possible, the equality of their fortunes and condition.*

BUT to guard against the uneasiness such a liquidation of debt and reversion of property might occasion; or rather, to prevent any from the necessity of incumbering or alienating their estates to get a livelihood; it was made a solemn requisition that the more fortunate and opulent should exercise the utmost charity and compassion to their brethren under decay; contribute to their relief by every means in their power; and lend them money if they desired it, to be repaid as they could make it most convenient, and without demanding any thing for its use. They were bidden to extend their assistance even to strangers and sojourners, as well as neighbours and fellow citizens: for

*For this end their genealogical records, were, of necessity, to be carefully kept, that they might be able to prove their right to the inheritance of their ancestors. By this mean, in after times, the family of the Messiah was readily and fully ascertained, to be, as the prophets had foretold, "of the tribe of Judah and lineage of David."

CUNEUS, de Repub. Hebr. lib. 1. c. 3.

the exercise of benevolence should not be confined to kindred nor limited to place; every human being who needs, has a claim to its regards.*

SOME of the before-mentioned regulations, to be sure, were peculiarly accommodated to the Jewish commonwealth, and are not applicable to any other condition of civil society: but the disinterested and generous principles on which they are founded belong to THE

PERPETUAL CODE OF HUMANITY.

ALTHOUGH an equalization of property and a community of goods was attempted among the first christian converts, yet it is evident that it was not intended that the circumstances of mankind in after ages should thus be adjusted. Special reasons made it expedient then, which would never operate again.

In fact, a perfect equality of station and

"Charity is a complete and consistent thing. It is not a segment but a circle. Its affections stream from GOD, as their centre; all mankind compose their circumference: they go forth, not only in one, but in all directions towards the production of others' good."

† Acts ii. 44, 45; and iv. 32.

FAWCETT.

possession, however pleasing in theory, is not reducible to practice. Mankind are too corrupt and selfish for such a condition to continue long, were it once introduced. The strong would soon take advantage of the weak, and filch by power a larger share from the common stock. Cupidity would accumulate, and avarice prevent diffusion. And, while the industrious increased their property, the indolent would become poor.

BUT even were this equalization possible, it would not be desirable: for it would be incompatible with improvement and unfavourable to virtue. There would be no stimulus to mental application, and no use for intellectual improvement. Industry and indolence would have the same success.— Merit would fail of promotion; and performance, of reward. The chain of mutual dependence, which renders us according to the expressions of St. Peter, "subject one to another," would be broken. There would be no room for a reciprocity of kindnesses, no opportunity for the bestowment of charity, and nothing to call into exercise those benevolent affections and tender sympathies which are the ornament of our species and the prolific causes of individual and social happiness.

INSTEAD, therefore, of making any vain attempt to bring the conditions of mankind to a common standard; or indulging any idle wishes that they were more upon a level; it is much more expedient, commendable, and proper, that the rich and the poor, by a mutual interchange of good offices, should contribute to each other's accommodation and comfort; that the abundance of the one should be freely and generously bestowed to supply the wants of the other; and that thus, as Saint Paul enjoins, "there may be in some sort an equality."*

HAVE we been fortunate in the labours of industry, or successful in the enterprizes of business; have our stores been increased by the successive seasons of productive years; have our riches been rolled in with the propitious tide, or wafted home by the favouring gale? This is under the auspices of heaven. "Not our hand, nor our might hath gotten us this wealth." It is bestowed by a blessing we did not deserve, and secured from contingencies we could not controul; that in its use we might be happy, and make others so too. It is conferred on us by the supreme Proprietor, not to support our indolence or pamper

* 2 Cor. viii. 14.

K