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with a Power of Bleffing others, is yet SER M. relentless to the Cries of thofe who have nothing to plead for them but, what is the moft powerful Pleader with every generous Mind, extreme Mifery; and have nothing to return but their Prayers; Prayers, poured forth from the Fulness of a grateful Heart. They look with Abhorrence upon a Man, who is ever amaffing Riches without laying any Thing out in Charitable Ufes; as greedy as the Sea, and as barren as the Shore.

Numbers, it is true, think they have done enough in declaiming against the Practice of fuch Perfons: for upon the Great and Opulent they think the whole Burden of this Duty ought to rest: But for Themfelves, they being of fomewhat a lower Clafs, they defire to be excufed. Their Circumstances, they fay, are but just eafy; juft fufficient to answer the Demands of their Families, and their own neceffary Expences; and therefore they plead utter Inability, and expect to be totally exempted from the Performance of this Duty. But, before this Excufe will be of any Avail, it behoves them to confider; whether they do not indulge themfelves in Expences unfuitable to their Rank and Condition; fuch as Luxury, Gaming, or other prodigal Diverfions. If this be the Cafe, it is no flight Matter to wafte that Fortune in Idlenefs

SER M. and Riot, which fhould make them Feet to XII. the Lame, and Eyes to the Blind; as a Father to the Orphan, and as a Hufband to the Widow. It is no flight Matter to fquander away That which, if rightly used, would purchase for them the most valuable Treasures; Treafures in Heaven: But, if abused in unneceffary Expences or finful Intemperance, lays a Weight upon the Soul, which will make them as dead to all Sentiments of Piety, as they are to those of Charity.

Competency will be a Word of much too large a Signification, if we are to underftand by it Supplies for coftly Eating and Drinking; Supplies for high Enjoyment of Life; for Retinue and Equipage. Imaginary Wants are boundless, and Charity muft never begin if it is poftponed till thefe have an End.

He, it is true, is worse than an Infidel, who does not provide for his Family: But it is as true, that our Family ought not to engross all our Substance exclusively of the Poor, who have a Right; even God's Right. For fome Part of what we have is due to God as an Acknowledgment that we derive from Him the Whole: And God has made the Poor His Substitutes.

I know not whether feveral of the inferior Sort may not have taken up a Notion, that They have nothing to do in the Works of Charity:

Charity A Notion very falfe, and withal very dangerous. Rich and Poor are equally concerned in the Duty, but in Proportion to their Circumftances. And he that has Little is as ftrictly bound to give fomething out of that Little, as he that has more is obliged to give more. According to that of Tobit: If thou hast Abundance, give Alms accordingly; if thou haft but Little, be not afraid to give according to that Little; for thou layeft up a good Treafure for thyself against the Day of Neceffity. As the Rich are obliged to relieve the Poor; fo even the Poor are also bound, in Proportion to their Circumftances, to help one another. What an Advantage was it to the poor Widow, that She, by bringing her Mite only into the Treafury, could thereby exercife a nobler Charity than the greatest of all there had done! Have the Poor Little to give? Charity does not confift in Much or Little, but in doing the beft we can, and doing it with a willing Mind. The smalleft Prefent imaginable may be the greatest Bounty. And if by the Smallnefs of it, it prove but of little Benefit to the Receiver, yet it may be of ineftimable Use and Benefit to the Giver. And if a Day-Labourer, for Inftance, contributes a Day's Work, fuch a Charity may weigh more, than large Sums from others, and be in the Sight of God of great Price. Even the inferior T 3

Sort

SER M.

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SERM. Sort fometimes give into Expences that are XII. not ftrictly neceffary, from which there

fore they may and ought to retrench fomewhat to beftow on those who want even Neceffaries.

The only Perfons then that seem to have a fair Right of pleading an entire Exemption from this Duty are Those whose Circumstances are deeply involved: For till we can fatisfy our Creditors we ought not to relieve the Poor. We must be just before we can be charitable. It would be unjuft to give away what is not our own; and nothing is properly our own but what remains after our juft Debts are cancelled. Owe no Man any Thing, fays St. Paul, but to love one another; when we owe no Man any Thing in the legal Senfe but what we can pay, then we must answer the other great Debt, as much a Debt in the Eye of Reason the Loving one another, expreffed in proper Inftances of Kindness and Benevolence.

What has been the greatest Bar to the Exercise of this Virtue is, the Difficulty of pitching upon any fixed and stated Proportion, fhort of which our Charity ought not to fall: And where the determinate Measure of Duty is not or cannot be affigned, there Men's Intereft or Covetoufness will be ever fuggefting Excufes for the Non-Performance of it. We ought to adjust our Bounty to

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our Abilities; but, as there is no fixed Stand- SER M. ard, we feem willing to take Advantage of that Circumftance; and to measure our Abilities by our Inclination.

In Order to remove this Impediment, if we are not more difpofed to deceive than to direct our Confciences, we ought to follow the Rule laid down in all doubtful Cafes, i. e: to chufe the Part which is leaft dangerous. As in, the Gratifications then of Eating and Drinking, we should rather take too little than too much of our Liberty, for Fear of being betrayed into Intemperance; fo in the Exercife of Charity, we should rather exceed than fall fhort, for Fear of incurring the Guilt of Uncharitableness.

Again, the Apostle, giving the Corinthians Directions, orders; That every Man fhould lay by in Store as God had profpered him: That is, according to his Income, Increase or Revenue. Here then it may be of Ufe to fhew, that the Jews were, by the exprefs Command of God, obliged to appropriate the tenth Part of their Revenue every three Years to Charitable Ufes. Thus we read in Deuteronomy xiv. 28. At the End of three Years thou shalt bring forth all the Tithe (or Tenth) of thine Increase that fame Year, and fhalt lay it up within thy Gates: And the Stranger, the Fatherless and the Widow T 4 which