SERMON XXVIII.

On the Measure of Beneficence; and fome Arguments in behalf of copious Bounty.

GOD, great as is thy power, great is alfo thy benignity. Both of them are infinite, both extend over all that is and ever will be. Yes, thou art effential love, thou never ceaseft to dispense light and life and joy and happiness upon the whole immense domain of thy creation, and to do good is thy fupreme delight. We moft humbly adore thee as our creator and father, and rejoice in being under thy dominion and providence, in being thy creatures, thy children. Oh that we were continually actuated by the tender, charitable, beneficent fpirit that alone can render us worthy to be called thy offspring! Thou wouldst have us all as fuch to imitate thee, our heavenly father, and in fome fort to partake with thee in the pleasure of doing good. Therefore haft thou diftributed thy bounties amongst us in fuch different proportions, and subjected us to fo many viciffitudes and adverse events in this lower world. They are defigned to confirm us in the generous fentiments of compaffion, of mercy, of helpfulness, of magnanimity, to

inconvenience, as he is no confiderable loser by it; in fhort, who is no farther fo than scarcely to be aware or fenfible that he is doing good, he certainly has no right to boast of the virtue of beneficence. He contracts it fo much that it no longer merits this title. Beneficence must be a bufy, governing affection in our breafts, impelling us to deny ourfelves many things that may otherwise be dear to us, and to do many things that otherwise might not be agreeable. It must be elaftic and expanfive in proportion as the wants and diftreffes of our brethren increafe. It must infpire us with the fentiments which the apoftle in our text recommends us to adopt: Let us not be weary in well-doing. To roufe and refresh these fentiments in you, my pious hearers, is the design of my discourse to-day, and the quality of the times and circumstances in which we live will fully juftify me in the choice I have made of this fubject. I fhall therefore, humbly trusting in the divine approbation, endeavour first by a few obfervations on the measure of beneficence, to fhew you the method of afcertaining how far it ought to go for deferving the title of a truly chriftian virtue. Afterwards I fhall furnish you with a few arguments for inciting and enabling you to practise beneficence in a more abundant measure than is usually done.

That in the first place our beneficence may deferve the title, not only of a moral, but a chriftian virtue, that is, a virtue in the fenfe of the christian doctrine and its author, we must beftow not merely

of our fuperfluity, we must not only give that to the poor and needy, which we cannot use ourselves, what is a fort of incumbrance to us, or what would even spoil were we not to give it away. What fenfible man, who was not plunged in the extremity of distress, but would difdain such a gift? What fenfible man, who was not finking under total destitution, would think himself obliged to gratitude by fuch a gift? And fhall we presume to imagine that by fuch infignificant alms, we please God, testify our obedience to him, fulfil our duty, or capacitate ourselves for the rewards of virtue in the future world? If therefore the rich man gives the garments which he can no longer wear, victuals which he cannot confume, the money which he had given up for loft, or which is undeserving his notice for expenditure or intereft, to the naked, the hungry, the poor, he certainly does well, and if he did not act thus it would be mean and difgraceful; but if he do no more than this, he will affuredly neither with God nor with wife and worthy men de serve the appellation of a virtuous benefactor to his brethren. No, my pious hearers, the virtue which cofts us nothing, which demands of us neither renunciation nor facrifice, is not genuine virtue. Alms that we take from a useless, or perhaps even from a cumbersome superfluity, are not the facrifices that are well pleasing unto God, however confiderable they may be in themselves. The kind and good offices which we afford to others, without any detri

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inconvenience, as he is no confiderable lofer by it; in fhort, who is no farther fo than fcarcely to be aware or fenfible that he is doing good, he certainly has no right to boast of the virtue of beneficence. He contracts it fo much that it no longer merits this title. Beneficence must be a busy, governing affection in our breafts, impelling us to deny ourfelves many things that may otherwise be dear to us, and to do many things that otherwise might not be agreeable. It must be elastic and expansive in proportion as the wants and diftreffes of our brethren increafe. It must infpire us with the fentiments which the apoftle in our text recommends us to adopt Let us not be weary in well-doing. To rouse and refresh thefe fentiments in you, my pious hearers, is the defign of my discourse to-day, and the quality of the times and circumftances in which we live will fully juftify me in the choice I have made of this fubject. I fhall therefore, humbly trusting in the divine approbation, endeavour first by a few obfervations on the measure of beneficence, to fhew you the method of afcertaining how far it ought to go for deferving the title of a truly chriftian virtue. Afterwards I fhall furnish you with a few arguments for inciting and enabling you to practise beneficence in a more abundant measure than is ufually done.

That in the first place our beneficence may deferve the title, not only of a moral, but a christian virtue, that is, a virtue in the fenfe of the christian doctrine and its author, we must beftow not merely

of our fuperfluity, we must not only give that to the poor and needy, which we cannot use ourselves, what is a fort of incumbrance to us, or what would even spoil were we not to give it away. What fenfible man, who was not plunged in the extremity of distress, but would difdain fuch a gift? What fenfible man, who was not finking under total deftitution, would think himself obliged to gratitude by fuch a gift? And fhall we presume to imagine that by such infignificant alms, we please God, teftify our obedience to him, fulfil our duty, or capacitate ourselves for the rewards of virtue in the future world? If therefore the rich man gives the garments which he can no longer wear, victuals which he cannot confume, the money which he had given up for loft, or which is undeferving his notice for expenditure or interest, to the naked, the hungry, the poor, he certainly does well, and if he did not act thus it would be mean and difgraceful; but if he do no more than this, he will affuredly neither with God nor with wife and worthy men de serve the appellation of a virtuous benefactor to his brethren. No, my pious hearers, the virtue which cofts us nothing, which demands of us neither renunciation nor facrifice, is not genuine virtue. Alms that we take from a useless, or perhaps even from a cumbersome fuperfluity, are not the facrifices that are well pleasing unto God, however confiderable they may be in themselves. The kind and good offices which we afford to others, without any detri

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