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der fuch a Preffure, they may be apt to SER M. fall; imputing them to their Distemper, and not to themselves. In a Word, let us endeavour to eafe their Sufferings as heartily as if they were our own; and to bear our own as patiently and refignedly as we generally do thofe of others.

Some indeed of the tender and compaffionate Make feem to feel fo much for and with others, that one cannot help wishing they might feel as little as poffible for themselves. They are fure at least of fuffering nothing alone. Every one that hath the leaft Tincture of Humanity muft fuffer with them in Diftrefs; with them, from whom they are fure to fuffer nothing; nothing by an unkind Word or Deed.

This Point, though well deferving our Attention, is but feldom touched upon; for which Reafon I have dwelt the longer upon it.

III. I now proceed to my third ge neral Head, which was to confider the Manner in which we are to dispense our Charity.

To

Acts of Mercy, public and private, have both their peculiar and diftinguishing Excellencies: Neither are to be omitted. say that because our Saviour has commanded us to give our Alms privately, therefore

we

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SER M. we are not to exercise any Acts of public Charity; would be as ridiculous as to argue, that because private Prayer is commanded, public Worship is forbidden. To put our Virtue to the Teft; to try whether it be genuine (as founded upon a pure unmixed Principle of pleafing God without any finifter Views of worldly Applaufe) our Saviour has ordered us to give Alms fecretly; and our Father which feeth in Heaven will reward us openly. That Virtue, on the other Hand, might not lofe the Benefit of public Example, He has commanded that, at other Times, we let our Light fo fhine before Men, that they may see our good Works, and glorify our Father which is in Heaven. If all our Charity was to be intirely fecret, removed from the Eye of the World; it would decay and dwindle into nothing. Juft as Religion itself would, for Want of a confpicuous, exemplary, avowed Piety: Both the one and the other then ftand in great Need of a public Countenance and Encouragement, which stamp a Credit upon them in the midft of a crooked and degenerate Age. If Charity, on the other Hand, was to be done always publicly and openly with Religion again it would degenerate into mere Hypocrify, Formality, and outfide Shew. Wifely therefore, very wifely, has our Saviour (who has given us the most perfect Model of Religion) en

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joined both the public and the private SER M. Practice of this one great and effential Duty of it.

In the Exercise of public Charity great Care is indeed to be taken that we fuffer not ourselves to be influenced by Oftentation, or any finifter Motive. Even the Sense of fhewing a good Example, and the inward Rifings of Pity, ought to be backed, if they be not introduced, by the most noble and generous Motive of all, the discharging our Duty to God.

By the Way; what an exalted Turn of Mind muft He have, who can be content to fufpend all Thoughts of Praife, till he receives it in that Place where his Actions cannot be misinterpreted; who can put off the Defire of Applaufe till he receives that Applaufe of infinitely more Value, than the united Commendation of all Beings in the whole World befides, that most invaluable Applause of his Creator-Well done, thou good and faithful Servant, enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord?

But befides the Circumftance of Place, there is the Manner in the Perfon to be obferved, which is fometimes as engaging as the Bounty he bestows. It is the leaft Glory in a Perfon of Worth to be fuperior to others in Point of Station and Fortune: His greatest Honour is to make that Superiority fit gracefully upon him, without any

forbidding

SER M. forbidding Appearances; and to make his XII. Inferior as little fenfible of it as poffible by

an eafy Dignity, and by an affable Complacency of Behaviour. An Action good in itfelf is greatly recommended by an agreeable Manner of doing it: An agreeable Manner being to Actions, what a lively Manner of Expreffion is to our Sense; it beautifies and adorns it, and gives it all the Advantage whereof it is capable. There is the fame Difference between a beneficial Deed, when endeared by an easy, affable Deportment, and when deftitute of that Circumftance, as between a beautiful Object, when enlivened by the chearful Light of the Sun, and when exhibited in a dim, fickly Light. In a Word, it is our Duty in general not only to have Virtue, but to make our Virtue truly amiable. A Gift may be great in itself, but if it is difpenfed with feveral ungracious Circumftances, in an over-bearing Way, or without the Appearance of a willing Mind, it is like an ungainly Building, admirable only for it's Magnitude; which does not affect or ftrike us half fo much as one of fmaller Dimenfions adjusted with Symmetry and Harmony of Parts, and fet off with the additional Beauty of decent Ornaments.

A Delicacy of this Kind is moft chiefly to be obferved with thofe who have not been used to receive Charity; Where we fhould

2

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fhould endeavour as much to conceal our SER M. Benevolence, as they do to hide their Mifery: Imitating herein the Behaviour of än Heathen Philofopher, who contrived hist Bounty to be conveyed in fo indirect a Manner, that Chance rather than Design feemed to have had the Disposal of it. But this leads me,

IVthly, and Laftly, To lay before you the Motives to Charity; and,

1. The first may be drawn from Compaffion.

Compaffion is the Call of our Father which is in Heaven, to us His Children who are in Profperity, to put us upon Relieving our Brethren who are in Diftrefs. This is an Affection wifely interwoven in our Frame and Nature by the Author of all Nature That whereas dry and abstracted Reason is too fedentary and remiss a Counfellor, we might have a more instant and vigorous Pleader in our Breafts to excite us to acts of Charity. As far indeed as it is ingrafted in us, it is mere Inftinet; but when we cultivate and clrerifh it till we love Mercy; when we dwell upon each tender Sentiment that opens our Minds, and enlarges our Heart; then it becomes a Virtue. Every one, who has not erafed all Sentiments of Humanity, muft be intimately conscious (the very higheft Degree of U

Certainty)