An APOLOGY for the Annual Collections made towards the Support of Clergymens Widows and Orphans, within the Counties of Durham and Northumberland. Being a Sermon preached at the Yearly Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy, at Newcastle upon Tyne, at St Nicholas's Church, on Thursday October 23, 1746. Published at the Requeft of the Society.

2 Kings, ch. iv. 1, 2.

Now there cried a certain Woman of the Wives of the Sons of the Prophets unto Elisha, Saying, Thy Servant my Husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy Servant did fear the Lord: And the Creditor is come to take unto him my two Sons to be Bondmen.

And Elisha faid unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what haft thou in the House? And fhe faid, Thine Handmaid hath not any thing in the Houfe, fave a Pot of Oil.

TH

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HE Points in this Paffage to which I SER M. would bespeak your Attention, are thefe following.

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First,

SERM.

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First, A WIDOW with Children in Diftrefs; poor and in Debt: her whole Substance being a Pot of Oil, and the Creditor coming upon her to make his Seizure.

Secondly, A Widow distinguished by a peculiar Character, being a Woman of the Wives of the Sons of the Prophets; and as fuch the makes her Addrefs for Pity and Relief. She declares her Relation to the Prophets at the fame Time that she declares her Widowhood; Thy Servant my Hufband is dead: And the pleads his Piety when the discovers her own Neceffities. She lays his Merits and her own. Afflictions together, to fet off the latter with more Force and Tenderness Thou knoweft that thy Servant did fear the Lord: And the Creditor is come-This is naturally and beautifully urged; and the lays her Stress upon Her Husband, it seems, had been a Worshipper and Servant of the true God in Times of great Idolatry and Defection of the Ifraelites to Baal: And this, it is not unlikely, was the Reason of his Poverty, being a good Man, discountenanced and oppreffed in an evil Age. Thou knoweft, &c. (fays Thou waft a Witness of

it.

fhe to Elisha) viz.

my

Hufband's Worth

and

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and Character: Bear Witnefs now to the ex- SER M. tream Hardship of my Cafe. No fooner is he dead and gone, but the Creditor is come; is come to take unto him my two Sons to be Bondmen, without Hope of Redemption; for their Father is no more, and their Mother is in Want.

Thirdly, Her Complaint is to a Prophet; to Elifba, the Mafter of the Prophets: One who, as fhe might reafonably prefume, would be the more fenfibly touched with her Cafe, in confideration of the Relation fhe bore to the Sacred College; and whofe Charity was likely to flow the more freely in her Favour, upon Remembrance of her late Husband's Piety' and Zeal in the Service of God; which the makes her principal Plea, and which is in her Mouth as a thoufand Arguments.

The fourth and laft Thing to be remarked, is the compaffionate Regard of Elisha towards this humble Supplicant: What shall I do for thee? And his particular Enquiry into her Circumftances, that he might proportion his Succours to her Wants: Tell me, what haft thou in the Houfe? He treats her as a Sister, or a Daughter, as one that he was bound to be

friend,

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SER M. friend, as one that was juftly intitled to what Affiftance he could make her, both in regard of her Circumstances, deplorable in themselves, and on account of her Claims, thro' Affinity, upon the whole Prophetic Order.

And now, whofoever doth not perceive, from these short Obfervations that I have made, fome Relation, Refemblance of Character, or circumftantial Likeness between the Perfons concern'd in my Text, and those who are concern'd in the Business of this Day, viz. The Petitioners for the prefent Charity, and the Dispensers of it: I fay, whofoever is not fenfible, from the few Remarks already made, what Room here is for an Application of this Scripture to the prefent Occafion of our Meeting, would hardly be made fenfible by any further Enlargement upon the Particulars.

But in Truth, it is only trifling with a Text of Scripture, nay worse, it is mifufing it, to labour to extend it further than its proper Latitude. This is only an historical Passage that hath no Reference to the Subject I am called up to speak to, otherwise than by Accommodation thro' Similitude of Circumftances; being a Description of a Cafe nearly

parallel

parallel to the Cafe in Hand. It is an Image SER M. borrowed from Antiquity, that doth aptly e

nough reprefent (in all the main Strokes and strongest Lines of it) the Quality of our Petitioners, and the Nature and Reasonableness of their Petition to us this Day. And, if it appear justly and properly introduced on this Occafion, (as I conceive it is) if the Widow and ber Sons, which are spoke of in the Text, have plainly their Correfpondents among the Objects of this Charity, and if the Sum and Substance of both their Stories and Complaints be nearly one and the fame; then (waving all other Points of Refemblance in the two Cafes, which cannot be adjusted with equal Propriety) my whole Design in producing this Scripture is anfwer'd. And as there are no prac-tical Duties arifing from it to be inforced, nor any Doctrine to be explained, I fhall therefore adapt the Remainder of this Discourse to the particular Occafion of our affembling here.

It is natural for People to ask in the first Place, How there comes to be any Occafion for Meetings of this Kind on the Behalf of the Widows and Orphans of Clergymen, fince we do not find any fuch publick annual Collec

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