SERMON III.

CHARITY.

PREFATORY ADDRESS.

My fellow Chriftians,

BEFORE I enter particularly into the Subject on which I am invited to addrefs you, I fhall request your attention to a short obfervation, which I can at no time introduce with more propriety than the prefent. It is this.Many of those who afcend the pulpit upon charitable occafions are wont to speak of Charity, not only as "covering a Multitude of Sins," but every Sin; not only as "the greatest," but as the whole,

*When St. Paul fays, "Now abideth Faith, Hope, Charity," and terms the latter "the greateft" virtue, he does not barely mean Almsgiving, but Benevolence; of which if we are deftitute," though we give all our goods to feed the poor, it will profit us nothing."

duty

duty of man. This they do from a good motive; namely, to ferve, to the utmoft, the Caufe for which they plead; to melt (if I may be allowed the expreffion) their hearers to their purpose, without fpecifying any other principle as neceffary to Christian Salvation, which might operate with fome of them as an Alloy. As fuch Authority, delivered from fuch a place, may have a dangerous tendency, I fhall guard against it: and, with the tongue of Honesty assure you that-great, important, and indif penfable, as I hope to convince you Charity is it is not the only Duty of a Chriftian. There is another Principle, -a divine and falutary Principle, which must attend it, in order to render it a Christian Virtue that is FAITH IN CHRIST. It is true, without Charity, as "without Holiness no man fhall fee the Lord." It will powerfully recommend: but ftill Faith will be requifite to "justify;" to cover those numberlefs Sins and Imperfections, from which no perfon-however amiable, however virtuous, is free. For, as our Redeemer juftly tells us→→→→

" when

"when we have done all that we are commanded to do, we are but unprofitable Servants."

I shall now address you on the fubject which more particularly demands our present attention, from the following text of Scripture:

LUKE xiv. 14.

They cannot recompenfe thee: but thou shalt be recompenfed at the Refurrection of the Just.

IN the great Family of human nature,

the Circumstances of its Members are extremely various. Some are placed in fituations of affluence and comfort: while others are deftined to indigence and mifery. Some are" clothed in purple, and fare fumptuously every day;" while others are almost destitute of raiment to cover their nakedness,of food to fatisfy their hunger,—and have scarcely" where to lay their head." Indeed fo deftitute, that, for the Pity we bestow, we cannot expect from them

any

any recompence.-Yet, all thefe differences of stations and circumstances are permitted and ordained by our heavenly Father; who, as the Scripture tells us," maketh poor and maketh rich."Why he does this, and why he permits fuch inequalities among his children -it becomes not them to enquire. The richeft and the pooreft have all their fphere of action: and let them ftrive to do their duty in that state of life, unto which it hath pleased God to call them.

There will come a time when "the Rich and the Poor fhall meet together;' fhall ftand at the fame tribunal, and meet the fame impartial Judgment, according to their works: when no Diftinction fhall be exercised towards them; -" for the Lord is the Maker of them all," But till that time fhall come, various must be their lots, and different their fortunes. "The Poor," we are told, "shall never ceafe out of the land:" and the Rich are commanded to be kind to, and protect them. God expressly fays, "Thou shalt not harden

thy

thy heart, nor shut thine hand against thy poor Brother. But thou fhalt surely give him; and thine heart fhall not be grieved when thou givest unto him; because that for this thing the Lord thy God fhall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou putteft thine hand unto. Therefore I command thee, faying, Thou fhalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to the Poor, and to

the Needy in thy land."-From Solomon we have thefe ftriking words"Whofo stoppeth his ears at the cry of the Poor, he alfo fhall cry, but fhall not be heard." Similar is the language of St. James-"He fhall have Judgment without Mercy, that hath fhewed no Mercy."-But, fays Jefus Chrift, "Bleffed are the Merciful; for they shall obtain Mercy." And in that sublime picture of the laft Judgment, the different deftinies of the Bleffed and the Accurfed are determined by their different conduct towards their needy fellow-creatures." I was an hungered," fays he to the latter (in the name of his poor neglected brethren)-“ I

was