may extend. Let them by their examples go on to plead this important cause; and let every art and labour of pious education be attended to, that the minds of youth may be rescued from the growing contagion, and stored with those seeds of virtue and piety, which may make the next generation much happier than the present: And to these labours of love let such join their fervent prayers, which have already, I doubt not, been in some cases efficacious, and which, in proportion as they grow more frequent and importunate, may be yet more so. All that love Zion, will say amen to them; and may the Lord our God say so too! To the rest, who swim with the stream, who follow the multitude, and who argue themselves into security, either from epicurean principles, or from not having yet felt those scourges of God, under which so many other cities and nations have fallen; to those who disregard providence, as well as neglect and despise the gospel-I shall only at present address that awful oracle of God by Zephaniah, which ought to have its weight wherever circumstances resemble what are there supposed: It shall come to pass, saith the Lord, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil: Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation. So it may really be, peaceful as the present appearances are. God can raise up enemies, where we least expect them; nor does he need the weapons of war to chastise, or its engines to overthrow a guilty city. But however its impenitent inhabitants may escape such temporal judgments, concerning the probability of which we can but very uncertainly denounce; I will take up the parable, and say in the sublimest sense, the following words can admit, and in such a light as the awful denunciation of my text throws upon them, The great day of the Lord is near, it is nearer and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; which shall be ushered in by the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; when the heavens as well as the earth shall be shaken, and pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the day, in which the mighty man, the boldest and the haughtiest sinner, shall cry bitterly: That day of wrath, that day of trouble and distress, that day of wasteness and desolation, that day of darkness and gloominess, that day of clouds and thick darkness, which no description even of a prophet's pen can paint in colours sufficiently terrible; that day of the trumpet and alarm, that shall bring distress upon men, because they have sinned against the Lord. They may trust in their strength, they may boast in their riches; but the fenced cities, and the high towers, shall be brought down; neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath, when the whole land, when the whole earth, shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy *. This alarm I leave with you; and Oh that it may operate to produce the great effect, in which all our ministry, if we understand our own true interest and yours, ought to center, even that of leading you to him, whose great prerogative and office, whose glory and joy, it is, to deliver from the wrath to come! Amen. *Zeph. i. 12-18. COMPASSION TO THE SICK Recommended and urged: A Sermon preached at Northampton, September 4, 1743, in favour of a design then opening to erect a County Infirmary there for the relief of the Poor, Sick and Lume. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF HALIFAX, MY LORD, THE generous and active zeal with which you have espoused the charity this sermon is intended to recommend, and the assiduity with which you have vouchsafed to preside in the committee appointed for ripening the ge neral scheme, and bringing it into effect, might justly have intitled your Lordship to this application; had your various abilities been much less conspicuous, and the other parts of your character, incomparably more valuable than any abilities, been less known to the author, or less reverenced by him. Yet I am very sensible, that the plain and hasty discourse, which I have now the honour of presenting to your Lordship, might fear the review of an eye so accustomed to all that is eloquent, beautiful, and finished in antiquity, did it not trust to that kind prejudice, which your attachment to its general design will naturally give you in its favour. I am sensible, how impertinent it would be in me on this occasion, to give myself a liberty of saying all the respectful things, which from my heart I think of the Earl of Halifax, or to imagine, that his general permission of inscribing this sermon to him would authorize the doing it. But it would be over rigorous in your Lordship to prohibit my intimating that pleasure I have shared with so many more discerning persons than myself, in observing that accurate judgment, that steady application, that impartial equity, and that engaging address, with which your Lordship, under the character of our chairman, has conducted the counsels and affairs of the committee. I know, that I speak the sentiments of several of its members, and I believe I speak the sentiments of all ; when I say, that in the fatigue of that close attendance, which we have thought it our duty to give on this good occasion, we have often been relieved by reflecting, as it was most natural to do, on the benefit which the public must receive from such talents, when exerted in the highest assembly of our nation. There your Lordship finds a sphere of action more amply proportioned to the largeness of your heart, and suited to that high sense of liberty, and benevolent concern for the general good, which is the brighest ornament of a Peer, and of a Briton. Go on, my Lord, to shine in this ornament more and more. Animated by every principle, which humanity, and nobility, and, what is most humane, and most noble, true christianity can suggest ; go on to exert the distinguished capacities of usefulness, with which providence has blessed you, in such ser vices, and by exerting to increase them; and with them to increase that veneration and affection, which every worthy heart will pay you as a just tribute, and that infinitely more important and divine pleasure, which your own will find, in the consciousness of having acted well. A pleasure indeed worthy of the most ardent pursuit ; and on which heaven sets so high a value that it allows it not to be treated with by proxy; nor will grant any thing like it, to the most illustrious birth, the most ample fortune, or the most elevated genius, unless the possessor of them all will go to the price of it by a resolute exercise of personal virtue. I rejoice, not for myself alone, but for my country, that our civil, and sacred liberty hath one such guardian among the rising nobles of our age: I hope, it has many; and I pray God, their number and their virtues may be increased; and that wherever they are, they may be rewarded with a rich variety and a long succession of external blessings, joined with that inward satisfaction which is inseparable from such a character. May your Lordship especially, not only have the sublime joy of beholding Great-Britain distinguished among the nations by public honour and prosperity, but see every thing, which can conduce to your personal and domestic happiness, added in private life! And in particular, when you condescend to turn your thoughts towards Northampton, a town under hereditary obligatious to your Lordship's family, which I hope it will never be so ungrateful as to forget, may you soon and long have the satisfaction to see its county hospital, which you are now so kindly cherishing in its infantweakness, grown up to full maturity, and giving more certain presages of being an extensive blessing to generations yet to come! I sincerely congratulate your Lordship, and the other illustrious nobles and worthy gentlemen, who are exerting themselves in this good work, on a capacity of doing greatly for its service, while my narrow sphere will allow me little more than to wish it well. Yet it is a comfort to me to think, that this discourse, in which, imperfect as it is, I flatter myself there will be found traces of an honest and a tender heart not easily to be counterfeited, will be some memorial of the affection with which I have endeavoured to serve it, and at the same time of the unfeigned and profound respect with which I am, My Lord, Your Lordship's most faithful, Most obedient, and most obliged humble servant, P. DODDRIDGE. COMPASSION TO THE SICK RECOMMENDED AND URGED. PREFACE. THE great desire which I have to promote that noble and amiable charity which is now set on foot among us, has engaged me to comply with the request of some of my friends in publishing this sermon, which was delivered on too little notice to allow of much preparation. But indeed very little reflection is necessary, where the arguments in its favour are so obvious; and little art can be required to plead a cause, which, as soon as it is admitted to a short hearing, speaks so loudly and so eloquently for itself. The only plausible objections, which I remember to have heard against it, are these two :-That the distant parts of the country can expect little benefit by it;—and that any private house, which can be taken for the purposes of a County Hospital, can bear but little proportion to what the necessities of so large a county will require. But I hope, neither of these objections will be found unanswerable; and if every objector will do his part towards removing them, I am sure they cannot be found so. I apprehend myself to have no right to speak here of the particular precautions, which the committee has taken with regard to the first of these; but shall refer the reader to the statutes of the intended Hospital, when they shall be published, as they quickly will. But it may, and ought to be taken for granted, till the contrary appear, which I persuade myself it never will, that the rules for the admission of patients will be so constituted among us, as well as elsewhere, that patients coming from distant parts will have some preference given them, to those that are near home. And as none but chronical cases are likely to offer from a distance, if due precautions be taken in writing and answering letters, in the representation of cases, and in bringing patients, I cannot see any probability of frequent disappointments. If the contrary be suspected, let gentlemen and others, who are willing to act for the encouragement of the charity, if it be duly ordered, favour us with their presence at our next general meeting of subscribers, and there let them examine what the committee will then offer on this head, as well as on others, and if they are not satisfied with what is already adjusted, let them propose any more effectual methods of making them easy on this head: They will no doubt be heard with all due regard, and the assistance of their counsels be thankfully acknowledged by all who have the interest of the Hospital at heart. As for the second objection, the force of it cannot be thoroughly judged of, till the house intended for the reception of patients be known, and the projected alterations in it are examined. If after this it be still insisted upon, that we should build, then let those, who are in that sentiment, subscribe their. respective benefactions for that purpose; and there can be no doubt, but the work will be joyfully undertaken, as soon as there appears any fund so considerable as to render it safe. But in the mean time it would surely be most unreasonable to clamour against any governors, or committee, who may be established, for not attempting it, while they have no stock for so great an undertaking, in any tolerable degree proportionable to it. This county, so well cultivated |