SERMON XVII.

PROVERBS iii. 27.

WITHHOLD NOT GOOD FROM THEM TÓ WHOM IT IS DUE, WHEN IT IS IN THE

POWER OF THINE HAND TO DO IT.

W

HEN we reflect on that general turn to acts of charity and humanity which is fo obfervable in this country, it may perhaps appear perfectly needless to recommend to our hearers the injunction contained in the text. If they are fo well difpofed, as it fhould feem they are, to do good, to what purpose are they exhorted not to withhold it from them to whom it is due ? And, indeed, if there was no other way of doing good but that of relieving the indigent, there would not often, it must be owned, be much occafion to urge the practice of this duty. But we must not flatter

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flatter ourselves, that when we have distributed to the neceffitous all the wealth we can spare, we have done every thing that the love of our neighbour requires at our hands. At the beft, we have only performed one part, and that a fmall part, of the great, the ROYAL LAW*, (aș it is called) of CHRISTIAN CHARITY, which involves a great variety of most important and ufeful acts of kindness to our fellow-creatures. Several of thefe, though extremely easy and obvious, are for that very reafon, perhaps, apt to be overlooked. Some of them, therefore, I fhall beg leave, at prefent, to fuggeft to your thoughts, from whence the two following good confequences, among others, may arise. The great and the wealthy will fee, that to be truly benevolent, fomething more is neceffary than liberality to the poor. And they who are in a humbler ftation of life, and who on that account are apt to lament their inability to do good, will find that there are many roads to beneficence ftill open to them; and that fcarce any one, however low or indigent, can want opportunities of doing good, if he will but honeftly make use of them.

1. First, then, there is a negative kind of benevolence, which it is moft certainly in every man's power to exercise if he pleases; and that is, ABSTINENCE FROM MISCHIEF. As the first step towards wisdom is to avoid error, and towards happiness to feel no pain, fo the first advance towards benevolence is to do no harm. It may feem, perhaps, a great impropriety of expreffion to dignify this with the name of benevolence. But if benevolence confifts, as it certainly does, in contributing to the comfort and happiness of our fellow-creatures, there is not any one act of humanity that will operate fo effectually and extensively to this end, as refraining from every thing that can offend, distress, or injure others. By far the greatest part of the mifery we see in the world, arifes not fo much from omitting acts of kindness, as from committing acts of unkindnefs and cruelty; and were all these to cease at once, the effect on the general happiness of mankind would be fomewhat fimilar to that inexpreffible comfort we experience in ourfelves on the removal of fome violent pain. Think only what infinite mischief arifes from peevishnefs, ill-nature, and pride; from de

traction,

traction, falsehood, deceit, and treachery; from fraud and oppreffion; from envy, hatred, anger, luft, ambition, revenge, and the whole infernal family of malevolent paffions. Annihilate all the evils that arife from these fources, and this world would be a paradise. Every other kind of charity would be almoft unneceffary. For it is the chief business of human compaffion, to heal those wounds which human malignity is conftantly inAlicting. How much, then, is it to be lamented, that this most important branch of charity, is not more attended to, than it seems to be! There is no one character in the world, which men are in general so ambitious of having afcribed to them, as that of good-nature and benevolence. With fome (especially thofe that reject Chriftianity, but profefs themselves friends to virtue) this is deemed not merely the first of human duties, but the only one worth their notice; the one thing needful, the fum and fubftance of all morality and religion. One should naturally fuppofe, therefore, that this virtue at least, this favourite and fashionable virtue, would be perfectly well understood and practifed, and

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every the minutest branch of it most affiduoufly cultivated and improved. But how far this is from being the cafe, is but too appaThe common pretence to it is feldom any thing more than a little conftitutional eafiness of temper, a fociability of disposition, and a thoughtless, indiscriminate, perhaps even pernicious liberality. On thefe grounds do great numbers fancy themfelves the kindeft, the gentleft, the moft benevolent of human beings. And yet, at the fame time, these men of benevolence will not scruple, perhaps, where their own intereft is concerned, to opprefs and harafs their inferiors without the least feelings of compaffion or remorse, to invade their clearest rights, difregard their most equitable claims, distress them with expensive and tedious litigations, and crush them with the weight of their wealth and power. If envy or ambition, if prejudice or party, if fpleen or refentment, inflame their minds, they will fay fometimes the bitterest and the cruelleft things of those whom they happen to diflike, will calumniate the faireft and moft unblemished characters, will misrepresent the best intentioned actions and designs, and give way

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