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the Sea. This is that excellent Charity which Our Saviour practis'd, and which he taught and commanded us, and which alone will be accepted and valuable in his fight. For if you, fays he, do Good to them that do Good to you, what thank have you? for Sinners alfo do even the fame. And if you lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for Sinners alfo lend to Sinners to receive as much again. But do good and lend hoping for Nothing again, and your Reward fhall be Great, and Te fhall be the Children of the Higheft, for He is kind even to the Unthankfull and the Evil.

Having thus with what brevity I could, according to the Senfe of the feveral Interpreters, fhewn in what manner this Duty is to be Exercis'd, I fhall proceed and endeavour to fhew the Reasonableness and the Excellence of it.

ft. The Reafonableness of it is apparent by its being fo implanted by God in Our Nature, fo woven into the frame of our very Being that he must have quite put off all Humanity, who is not confcious to himfelf of an inbred forcible Inclination to it. The Natural Paffion of Pity was for this reafon born with Us, and made a part of Our Conftitution, that we might by That be continually excited and ftirr'd up to help and fuccour all that are in Neceffity and

Diftrefs.

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Diftrefs. Our Bowels naturally yearn at all miferable Objects, we cannot help, unless We have defac'd the firft and moft genuin impreffions of God upon our Souls, we cannot help, I fay, Feeling Within fomewhat anfwerable and A kin to all the Mifery that we fee Without, and we do but Relieve Ourfelves when we remove the Afflictions of a Brother. And this is evident from that Pleasure which unavoidably refults from thefe Offices of Love. Pleasure being always infeparable from Actions purely Natural. Now a good Man after every feafonable refreshment of the Wretched and Neceffitous finds an Unexpreffible Delight, an Ease of Mind, a Complacency of Spirit, and a fecret irrefiftible Joy fpringing up in his Breaft. All the good which He defign'd to fhed abroad and part with to his poor Brother recoils back upon himself, he feels more Comfort Within then he fent Out, reaps infinitely greater Satisfaction in Doing Mercy, than the Other by having it Done to him, and finds experimentally confirm'd that great Truth which St Paul quotes from our Saviour's own Mouth, It is more Bleffed to Give than to Receive. So he determin'd, who was undoubtedly the best Judge that ever was in this Cafe, having had continual Experience of both Conditions, who, tho' He himself fubfifted upon

the

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the Alms of thofe that Minifter'd to him out of their Subftance, yet even out of thofe Alms found wherewithall to fupply dayly the Neceffitys of Others.

There is a Natural Obligation to this Duty from the near Relation that every Man hath to the very meaneft and most abject, the poorest and most miferable of his own Kind. We are all the Workmanship of the fame hands, made of the fame matter, moulded in the fame form, and copy'd from the fame Image, even that of God himself. Did not. He that made Me in the Womb make Him? and did not One fashion, us? fays holy Job. From the Confideration of which the Wife Man tells us more than once, that he that Regards not the Poor, Reproaches his Maker. And this is fo Unnatural, that to deny Bread to the Hungry, Lodging to the Out-caft, and Covering to the Naked, is in that Elegant and Significant Expreffion of Ifaiah 58. 9. For a Man to hide Himself from His own Flefb. But as ftrictly as we are oblig'd by the Tyes of Nature, the Communion of Saints, layes yet a higher and more forcible Obligation upon us. For there is no Temporal Relation can be compar'd to that which is Spiritual and Eternal. As then there is a general Reafon for our Mercy and Kindness to All Men, fo there is a particular One for our doing

Good

Good to them that are of the Houfhold of Faith. Is it not fit that they fhould partake of the bowels of Man's Compaffion, who communicate with us in the Everlafting Mercies of God? who are endu'd with the gracious Influences of the fame Spirit, and have the Image of the fame God not only by Nature ftamp'd upon 'em but by Grace renew'd within them? How can we make Others, pay how can we make Ourfelves believe, that we are in Earneft when we dayly in our Creed profefs that we have an intimate Union with all the living Members of Chrift upon Earth, if we have no Fellow-feeling of their fufferings, nor in the leaft contribute to the Relief of their Distress?

We may confider too that We are but Pilgrims upon the Earth, and all Travellers upon the fame Road. The Greatest of us, tho he may Travel with Coftlyer Equipage and more Splendid Retinue, yet is at beft but a Paffenger, taking a Journey to the fame Country where the meaneft that fet out with him may be as great as He. Now how foolish and ridiculous as well as barbarous and inhuman muft it be for One in this Condition to deny fo poor a Sum, as would defray the Neceffary Expences of a Fellow Traveller, who at his Journey's End, and in his Own Countrey, which from

any

any of us is not very far off, has as great, perhaps a greater Eftate, as good, perhaps better Friends than himself? From all these Relations which we bear to each Other whether as Men or Chriftians, it plainly appears that this great Act of Religion, the Relieving the Poor, is a moft Reasonable Service.

But now were this Duty as feemingly Contrary to our Reason as it is manifeftly agreeable to it, yet God's pofitive Command would both Juftify the Equity and Wisdom of it, and exact our ready and entire Obedience to it. Therefore Help the Poor, fays the Son of Sirach Eccluf. 29. 9. for the Commandments fake. Now thro' the whole Word of God there is no Commandment more peremptorily enjoyn'd, or more frequently repeated than This, it fills every Page of Mofes and the Prophets in the Old, and thro' the whole New Teftament Our Blessed Lord and his Apoftles inculcate nothing fo often, urge nothing fo preffingly, recommend nothing fo affectionately as this great Evangelical Duty. It were needless they are fo obvious, and endless they are fo numerous, to recite only the Places where we meet with this Command. I fhall only obferve therefore, that as our Love to God is chiefly exprefs'd and only made visible by our Obeying Every one of his moft Holy

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Laws,

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