in the Time of Trouble. The Lord will prefcrve him and keep him alive, and he fhall be bleffed upon the Earth: and he will not deliver him into the Hands of his Enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the Bed of Languishing: He will make all his Bed in his Sickness. After a happy and well spent Life it will not only carry us with Honour to our Graves, but cause our Bones likewife to flourish out of that Place, and (like the precious Ointments of the Eastern Countries) to yield a most delightful and fragrant dour throughout all Generations. The Memory of the Wicked indeed fhall rot. Their Names defcend into the Grave with their Bodies, and thefe lye fhrowded together in everlasting Darkness : Death has an absolute and entire Domination over them their Honour and Glory as well as their Beauty mouldering and confuming all away in his infatiable Dwellings. But the Righteous live here, as well as hereafter for evermore. Their Bounty erects immoveable Trophies over Death and Oblivion, and their Works are had in Honour and everlafting Remembrance. They enroll their Names among the Princes of the Earth, and cause them to inherit the Throne of Glory. Glory. Men are fo far from hifling them out of their Place, that the Faithful of all Ages celebrate their Praife, and the very Babes and Sucklings find a Voice to call them Bleffed. Thus the Jews never mention any of their Deceased Worthies without fome great and honourable Encomium of their Merits. You may fee it 1 Maccab. 3. 7. where speaking of Judas Maccabeus, be griev'd,fays the Text, many Kings, and made Jacob glad with his Auts, Εως το Αιών@ τὸ μνημόσυνον autê lı5 iuλoylav. i. e. His Memorial is, or let his Memorial be blessed for ever. Thus too the Primitive Chriftians honoured their deceased Friends and Benefactors. Whoever had arriv'd to that glorious height of Charity, as chearfully to have laid down his Life for the Brethren; Whoever, I fay, had led an Exemplary Charitable Life, and at laft Seal'd his Love to the Saints with his own Blood, was honoured with an Anniversary Remembrance, when the Brethren in Multitudes affembled at his Sepulcher, and commemorated his good Actions in Praises and Panegyricks. Thus, laftly, have Men of all Persuasions, Pagans or Infidels, as well as Jews and Chriftians, behav'd themfelves in all Na tions towards their Patrons and BeneDe Nat. factors. Sufcepit Vita Hominum, ConDeor. lib. fuetudoque Communis, fays Tully, ut BeEd. Lond. neficiis excellentes Viros in Cælum famâ ac bonitate tollerent. 2. cap. 24. (r) Matt. 40.42. Now it must indeed be confefs'd, that the Expreffions of our Charity must be very Heroical and extraordinary, that can entitle us to this vaft and ample Retaliation. Yet may not this difcourage us from exercising the meanest Offices of Kindness to one another. The Light of a Candle as truly fhines as the Light of the Sun, tho' not with equal Extent and Splendour; and therefore, tho' we cannot arrive to the dazling Glories of the Brightest Stars, yet (like the Milky Way in the Heavens) we shall be difcover'd and diftinguish'd by our leffer Brightness. For tho he only who receives a Prophet, fhall have a Prophets, Reward; yet He, who is the Difpenfer of all our Rewards, has (r) himself af fur'd us, That but a Cup of cold Water, given to one of his Difciples, shall by no means go unrewarded. If to our Abilities therefore we minifter to the Neceffities of the Saints, God is not un righteous to forget our Work and Labour of Love, πλέσιοι ἐπώχευσαν καὶ ἐπείνασαν (s) (s) Says the Royal Pfalmift. The Rich he (+) Pfal.37. he had never seen the Righteous, i. e. (*) Pfal. (as the Context and () many other 112.6. places of Scripture determine it) the Prov. 21. Charitable Man forfaken, nor his Seed Matt.6.1. begging their Bread. He is ever merci 26, pag. 698. ful, fays he, and lendeth; and therefore bis Seed is bleffed. But the greatest Bleffing is yet behind. For, 2. What we lay out upon the Poor, the Lord will abundantly pay us too in the next State. What Sophocles fays of Philoctet. Piety in General, may be very fitly applied to Charity in Particular. Συνθνήσκει βροτοῖς, κἂν ζῶσι κἂν θάνωσιν, ἐκ ἀπόλλυται, It goes with Men into the other World, and whether they live or dye, it never leaves them nor forfakes them. Knowledge indeed, (our Partial and imperfect acquifitions of it I mean)and other at prefent useful and excellent Endowments, have their Periods and Death together with the Body.They outlaft not the Beatings of the Pulfe, nor furvive the Ruines of the Grave. They forfake the Soul, when the ftands hovering upon the Brink of the other World, and leave her defolate and unattended to fhift for her self in the Regions of Eternity, where the Confideration of thefe Gifts do often A |
