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Secondly, Who are duly qualified to receive Charity.

Thirdly, What is the Bleffing and Reward that attends upon the faithful Discharge of this Duty.

The firft Thing to be confidered is, how far this Duty extends; I have shewed you all Things, fays the Apoftle, How that fo labouring ye ought to fupport the Weak. In the Verfes preceding the Text, he had fet before them his own Example, and the Method he took to provide for himself, and thofe who were with him. I have coveted, fays he, no Man's Silver or Gold or Apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these Hands have ministered unto my Neceffities, and to them that were with me. Now the Exhortation of the Text being founded on the Example which the Apoftle himfelf had given, and thofe Words, That fo labouring ye ought to fupport the Weak, neceffarily referring to fuch Labour as St. Paul had undergone, when his own Hands ministered to his own Neceffities; it is evident, that the Apoftle directed, that Part of what they could earn, even by the Labour of their Hands, fhould be fet afide and dedicated to Works of Charity. The fame Direction is

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repeated in his Epiftle to the Ephefians, Chap. iv. 28. Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his Hands the Thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Where you find Labour enjoined them, not only that they may have an honest Means of fupporting themselves, but that they might have something likewise to spare in Charity to fuch as were in Diftrefs, and unable to work for their own Living. As the Apostle pleads his own Example to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus; so does he likewife to the Theffalonians, in his 2d Epiftle wrote to them; Neither did we, fays he, eat any Man's Bread for nought; but wrought with Labour and Travail Night and Day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you. Not because we have not Power, (i. e. a Right to claim a Maintenance as Ministers of the Gofpel) but to make ourselves an Enfample for you to follow us. Chap. iii. verfe 9.

From thefe Paffages laid together, it is manifest, that the Apostle calls upon all indifferently, the Elders and Pastors of the Church, as well as others, to labour, working with their Hands; and he chargers on their

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their Labour, not only the Duty of providing for themselves and Families, but also the Care of fupporting thofe among them who were indigent and neceffitous but the Measures and Proportions of Charity not being Things of a determinate Nature, but fuch as are relative to the Circumftances and Conditions of Times and Perfons, and vary and change together with them; it must be abfurd to apply the Rules relating to Charity, which are to be found in the Holy Scriptures, to ourselves and our own Times, without making a due Allowance for the Difference in our Circumftances and theirs to whom the Rules were first directed. And therefore to give you a just sense of the Meaning of the Text, and of other apoftolical Rules concerning the Practice of Charity, it will be neceffary to fhew you what was the State of the Times and Perfons to which thofe Rules have Reference.

The Church of Chrift at the first preaching of the Gofpel confifted almost wholly of the Poor and Indigent, fuch as were hardly able to fupport and maintain themfelves by their Labour, much less to be liberal towards the Support of others: for this Reafon St. Paul chofe rather to work

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for his Bread with his own Hands, than to make his Ministry burthenfome to the Churches; though at the fame Time he afferts the Right he had to be fupported by them in his Function, notwithstanding the Narrowness of their own Circumftances. The Learning and Education of the first Converts were no better than their Fortunes; and even the Rulers of the Church were oftentimes taken from Trades and mean Employments; the Spirit of God wonderfully fupplying their Defects, and enabling them under all outward Difadvantages to promote the Cause of the Gospel with great Courage and Succefs. Upon this Account the Gofpel is fpoken of, as the peculiar Portion and Inheritance of the Poor; our Saviour gives it as a Characteristick of himfelf and his Miffion, that the Poor had the Gofpel preached to them, Matth. xi. 25. And St. Paul addreffing to the Corinthians, discovers to us the Condition of that Church; Ye fee your Calling, Brethren, how that not many wife Men after the Flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God bath chofen the foolish Things of the World, to confound the Wife; and God hath chofen the weak Things of the World, to confound the Things

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Things which are mighty; and bafe Things of the World, and Things which are defpifed, bath God chofen, yea, and Things which are not, to bring to nought the Things that are. 1 Cor. i. 26, 27, 28.

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Thefe Circumftances of the first Christians confidered, it is easy to justify the Propriety of the Apoftle's Exhortation in the Text. When you reflect how Poverty reigned through the whole Body, you will not think it strange that the Apostle speaks of Labour, even to the Elders of the Church; fince their own Labour and Work were the only Riches the Chriftians of those Days were in Poffeffion of; and it must be either Perverseness or Ignorance that makes fome argue from this, and other like Paffages of Scripture, against a fettled Maintenance for the Chriftian Clergy; without feeing, that the Confequence, if there be any Thing in it, muft equally affect the whole Body of Chriftians for the Reason why the Governors of the Church were poor, was, because the whole Church was fo; and if the Example must be preffed to oblige the prefent Times, all Men must part either with their Eftates, or their Religion; otherwise we cannot be in the Condition of the pri

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