put on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercy. And God, to give us an example of it, in the cafe of Ifrael, was pleafed to exprefs himself with this affectionate tenderness, *Is Ephraim my dear fon? is be a pleasant child? for fince I fpake against him, I do earnestly remember him ftill: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will furely have mercy upon him, faith the Lord. And according to this, the Prophet Ifaiah, in the name of the captivity, addreffes himself to God. Where is thy zeal and thy ftrength, the founding of thy bowels, and thy mercy towards me? Our Saviour alfo fully expreffed this difpofition in himself, when taking a profpect of Jerufalem, then indeed in profperity, but (as he forefaw the judgments haftening down upon it) ready to be devour'd and laid wafte by the deftroying Romans, he fell into a fudden weeping, and cried out over it, If thou hadst known (or, ob that thou hadst known) the things that belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. This, therefore, is a very natural and neceffary expreffion of mercy to those who are in an afflicted ftate, let their fuffering be what it will; and 'tis indeed the least we can do for them. Pity, without any thing more, is but a cheap relief, a charity which cofts us nothing; and though it be of great ufe toward the comfort of the unhappy fufferer, yet in most cases 'tis far from being the whole extent of mercy due to them, For, 2. WE must add the more fubftantial benefit of affiftance and fupport, according as the nature of the affliction requires. If pain or ficknefs be the thing which may give them reftore their health, we cafe, and we know any cafe, or contribute to ought to acquaint them, or fupply them with it. Jer. xxxi. 20. + Luke xix. 42. Ifai. Ixili. 15. * If a fudden accident have happened to them, as to the traveller mentioned in the Gofpel, who was robbed, and stripped, and wounded; we, like the good Samaritan, fhould readily give all the help we can, that they may be provided for, and taken care of. If a man's reputation be unjustly blasted, if a worthy and a virtuous perfon fhould be undefervedly contemned and vilified, we should not only pity him, but labour alfo to vindicate his character, and fet him right in the esteem of the world, fo far as we are able. And the like we are to do proportionably in other cafes; and especially in that most common one of want or poverty. St. James has an excellent paffage to this purpofe, † If a brother, or fifter, be naked, and deftitute of daily food, and one of you say to them, depart in peace, be you warmed and filled; notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit? The Apoftle here fuppofes pity, or a compaffionate fenfe of their fuffering, but fhews that that alone is not enough; there must be a charity more fubftantial, an actual and real fupply, fo far as our own circumftances will permit. I fhall therefore explain the affiftance or fupport to fuch as are under poverty, in these particulars. The first is giving and thus the divine mercy deals with us; it does not reft in the bare language of affection or commiferation, but iffues in the beftowing fomething fuitable to our present neceffity, And that we may be convinced how great an obligation lies upon us to this charity towards our fuffering fellow Chriftians, we ought to confider our felves as only fewards under God, in all which we enjoy. Our eftates are committed to us by him, the Sovereign Lord of all things, to employ them to Luke x. 30, to 38. ‡ Matth. xxv. 14. H 3 † Jam. ii. 15, 16. our our own fubfiftence, and that of those who immediately depend upon us, in the first place; the remainder as he fhall otherwise direct us. And what direction has he given in this matter? He has, in innumerable places of Holy Scripture, as it were drawn bills upon us for the poor. He has undertaken to provide for fuch as are in want; but how? Not by raining down upon them bread from heaven, or by miraculous flights of quails, as he fed the Ifraelites in the wilderness; not by as great a miracle upon their garments, that they should not decay or wear out, as he did to that people there; but by referving and requiring portions from the rich, out of what he has put into their hands, for the ufe and maintenance of the poor. And therefore St. Paul bids Timothy, Charge them that are rich in this world, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. SECONDLY, Another particular included in the words affiftance and fupport, is lending; an inftance of mercy more to be confidered than it ufually is; for I do not here mean the lending for increafe, but in charity: not for our own profit, but the feasonable advantage and supply of fuch as stand in need. This charitable lending, as wholly ab-. ftracted from felf-intereft, is alfo required of us by our Saviour, as an act of mercy; Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and then it follows, in the next verfe, Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father is merciful. The meaning of the precept here, to lend, hoping for nothing again, feems to be plainly and naturally this; that where a perfon, under the preffure of great neceffity and want, fhall come to us, and defire to borrow fuch a fum of money as his prefent circumftances require, (provided we can fpare it, and if the providence of God fhould render the perfon unable to repay us, can well enough enough bear the lofs of it,) we ought not to refufe fuch a seasonable charity as this, or be afraid of lending, because of the probable hazard we run of never being paid again; but that, on the contrary, we should freely and cheerfully fupply him, with a resolution to lose it, if God fhould disable the person to whom we lend, fo as that he cannot without the utmost inconvenience repay us. But that this may not encourage idle and diforderly borrowing, St. Paul inferts a caution proper to be taken notice of, * Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; which I take to be as much a reftraint of careless and inconfiderate borrowing, as the other precept is of unmerciful denying. A third particular of mercy, which is near of kin to that which went before, and equally imply'd in the affiftance and fupport due to fuch as are really poor, is the voluntary releafe and quittance of fuch payments as cannot be expected, but by feverities which muft entirely ruin the poor debtor. Those who have the power of exercising this inftance of mercy, are to proceed by the rules of neceffity, rather than of contract. And that it is required of us, upon fuch occafions, we may reafonably infer from the parable of the † unmerciful fervant, who when his lord had frankly remitted to him a debt, which he was by no means able to pay, laid hold of his poor fellow fervant, who owed him, indeed, a trifling fum, but was as little able to discharge it, as the other his ten thousand talents; and, notwithstanding all fubmiffions and entreaties, barbaroufly caft him into prifon for it, At which unworthy proceeding, his lord (by whom Almighty God is reprefented to us in the parable) revok'd the remiffion of what that cruel wretch had ftood indebted in, and reproaching Rom, xiii. 8. Matth, xviii. 24, c. him him with these words, O thou wicked fervant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou defiredft me; houldst thou not alfo have had compaffion on thy fellow fervant, even as I had pity upon thee? He dealt accordingly with him, and caft him into prifon, 'till he fhould pay all which was due to him. It were well if this part of mercy also were more in practice amongst Christians; for furely 'tis a fcandal to us, that our prifons are every where fo filled with miserable debtors, who want not the will, (but through mere poverty and misfortunes) the ability to difcharge the debt, while their families, in the mean time, are forced to beg or ftarve. Í queftion not, our laws defign'd imprisonment as a punishment for knavery, and not for poverty; this latter being in it felf no crime; and therefore, tho' indeed the laws have not provided for this cafe by any exception, it cannot but be very hard and barbarous, to throw men into goal for what they would, but cannot pay; a debt which they have not con tracted with any knavifh intention, or difabled themselves for the payment of it by vice and extravagance. What good does the poffeffion and confinement of a debtor's body, who is in fuch circumstances that his creditor cannot be repaid, tho' the prifoner ever fo much defire it? Nay farther, docs not fuch a confinement ftill the more difable him from paying? For fuppofing an honeft intention, (and a Chriftian fhould always be ready to believe and hope the best of his neighbour,) if he were at liberty, and time were given him, he might by his labour and induftry, be paying off the debt by little and little: But under imprisonment he can do nothing but get a bare fubfiftence, and very often not that, without the charity of others: Sọ that if the creditor can hope to be repaid at all by fuch a man, it must be fomewhere else than in a goal. And if the debt be fuch, that even in liberty the |