fay with Respect to the lower Part of Mankind, where the Obligation to this Duty begins; for although fome who labour may be Debtors to Charity, yet all are not, because all are not able to answer the Neceffities of themselves and their Families by the Profit of their Work; and fuch can be under no Call to contribute to others. If I may have leave to deliver an Opinion in a Matter no where clearly determined, I would found it on the Advice which St. Paul gives to the Corinthians, that they should lay by in Store the first Day of every Week, as God had profpered them; that is, that some Part of what remained after a Provifion for the prefent Occafions of themselves and Families, fhould be referved to Charity. In this View, all who are in a faving Way, or who may be fo with prudent Care, are under the Obligations of Charity; for it is but reasonable, that we should do good in Proportion as we grow rich. Between our own prefent Wants, and the present Wants of others, Nature will admit of no Comparifon; but when we are able to lay up for ourfelves, it is hardly confiftent with the Love we owe our Brother, to be fo partial to ourselves, as to fuffer the Care for

our

our own future Wants, to fhut out the Confideration of his prefent Mifery. But this Matter is left to every Man's Difcretion, in order to prove his Love, fince too ftrict Rules would in great Measure destroy the Virtue of Charity, the true Value of which lies chiefly in this, that it is a Free-will Offering.

Let us then proceed to the fecond Enquiry, namely, who are duly qualified to receive Charity.

I have fhewed you all Things, how that so labouring, ye ought to fupport the Weak. By the Weak here we must understand, fuch as are not able to labour and work for their own Living; for fince all who can labour are placed on one Side, and made Debtors to Charity, the Weak, who are placed on the other Side, and who have a Right to be fupported by Charity, must be such as are not able to work, or to provide for themfelves in any honeft Calling or Employment. This Cafe is fully determined by the Apostle in his fecond Epistle to the Theffalonians; When we were with you, fays he, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should be eat; for we hear that there are fome which walk among you diforderly, working

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working not at all, but are Bufy-bodies: Now them that are fuch we command, and exhort by our Lord Fejus Chrift, that with Quietness they work, and eat their own Bread, Chap. iii. 10, 11, 12. Here you fee all fuch as could work, excluded from the Benefit of Charity, and laid under a Neceffity to labour by this Injunction; If they will not work, neither let them eat; that is, let them not be supported in their Idleness, but be compelled by Hunger to do their Duty, that they may, as the Apostle speaks, eat their own Bread, and not become a Burthen upon the Charity of the Church.

The general Rule then arifing from these apoftolical Precepts, seems to be this: That fuch only are due Objects of Charity, who are through Sickness or other Infirmity rendered incapable of Labour. And yet this Rule, if conftrued to a rigorous Senfe, will be found inconfiftent with Reafon and

Equity; for it may happen, that the Man who is moft able to labour, and who does labour to the utmost of his Strength and Power, may be the most pitiable and unexceptionable Object of Charity: the Reafon is, because a Man is not in all Cafes able to earn fo much as the Neceffities of himself

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and Family require; and then he must either perish, or be relieved; and his working for his Maintenance as much as he can, is fo far from excluding him, that there cannot be a better Plea in his Behalf. Where poor Families are numerous, and confist mostly of young Children, who can bring in nothing to the common Stock, by any Thing they are capable of doing, this Cafe often happens; and the Wants of the Family exceed all that the Diligence and Industry of the Parents can provide.

But though we cannot ftate the Rule of Charity fo as to exclude all who can labour; yet it may feem reasonable perhaps fo to limit it, as that all who can work fhould work before they are entitled to any Affiftance from others. There is much more. Equity in this than the other; yet even to require this, in all Cafes, would be cruel and inhuman: we know the Casualties that all human Things are subject to; we have seen many reduced to Poverty and Want, from the most flourishing and profperous Condition: Fire and Water, Winds and Storms, which are the fecret Minifters of Providence, caufe mighty Changes in the World,

and

and often place the Richeft upon the fame Level with the Pooreft; and whenever it pleases God to fet fuch Inftances before us, the tendereft Regard is due to their Misfortunes. When you fee a Man fallen under fuch Calamities, one perhaps too who has been a Father to the Needy and Friendless, who has relieved Hundreds in the Days of his Profperity, would you, when the Hand of God was upon him, turn aside from his Affliction, and fay, Go, work for your Living? Though indeed, in a reasonable Way of judging, they who have not been inured to labour from their Youth, but have had a liberal ingenuous Education, may be fairly reckoned in the Number of thofe who are not able to work. The Plea of the unjust Steward in the Gofpel, when it was put into the Mouth of fuch an honeft unfortunate Man, has every Thing in it to move your Pity and Compaffion: I cannot dig, to beg I am afhamed.

Since then there can be hardly any general Rule fixed, which will be equally applicable to all Cafes, it may be worth our while to examine the Reafon and Equity from which this Duty flows, which will