perhaps, that they have offered up their prayers to heaven with great regularity, and have bestowed their property with a liberal hand to support and comfort the weak and wretched. Be it so. Happy for the world if so much has been done. These acts of prayer and charity ought to be found in every Christian; but before we allow them to be meritorious, we must diligently consider their nature and their end.

1st. With regard to Prayer; what is it but the expression of want? It is a petition from an inferior to a superior, to request that which the former has not, and which he cannot have, unless the latter is pleased to bestow it upon him. Were a beggar to come this day to your door, and plead his poverty and wretchedness, you would, I suppose, readily relieve his wants. Were he to come to-morrow, and say, he is still indigent, possibly your compassion might be again extended towards him; but were he to repeat his visits day by day your patience would presently be exhausted, and you would drive him from your door, as a very bold and impertinent fellow. Can it, in any sense, be said that such a petitioner merits your favour? I think not; and how, then, can you merit the favour of God by begging daily at the throne of grace, where, if you receive not, it is because you ask amiss; but, if you receive, your

obligations to love and gratitude are increased, so that unless you become every day more devoted and more holy, you will have prayed to little purpose, and have much to answer for before God. But, besides that prayer in its very nature excludes all idea of merit, where is the person, who always comes before God with that humility, reverence, and devotion, which it is proper for a creature to maintain in the presence of his creator? Do vain thoughts never intrude themselves? If they do, can the petitioner then be said to have the true spirit of prayer, and a true sense of the majesty of Him before whom he bows? Alas! in many instances the very prayers, of which some so idly boast, will turn to their condemnation, and they will find abundant reason to beseech the Lord to pardon the iniquity even of their most holy things.

2nd. Works of charity are considered by some as meritorious acts. They know that these are much commended in the Scripture, while every kind of cruelty and oppression is severely condemned; hence they reflect with pleasure on the abundance which they have bestowed, and upon the kindness and humanity, which they have shewn to various objects of distress: and so far is well; but, if they arrogate to themselves a right to the property,

which they possess, and bestow any part of it without a regard to the will of God, whose stewards they are, they will incur a degree of guilt, not of merit, in the distribution. "This estate (says one) I received from my ancestors, and this fortune I raised by my own industry and diligence; it is surely then, to all intents and purposes my own, and I may bestow it as I think proper." But, before you come to this conclusion, think who blessed your ancestors, and who gave you the power of increasing your store. Did you create your own capacity, and give yourself that understanding, which maketh the wise man to differ from the fool? Did you form yourself with strength of body, and sound health for labour? Did you make the sun to shine, the rain to descend, and the winds to blow, that you might gather the fruits of the earth in their due season? No.What power have you then to boast of? What claim to any thing that is not the gift of God? But, still you think that what you have is your own, and if you give a portion of it in charitable purposes, you may spend the rest as you please. In this you are mistaken. As all you have is the gift of God, it should be all devoted to his glory. I do not mean that you should give it all away, for then you would become a beggar yourself, and a burden to

your neighbour, but that, when you have made a decent provision for your own household, without pride, and without ostentation, you should consider the poor and destitute, and be liberal towards them without regard to friend or enemy:

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say without regard to friend or enemy; because the charity, which gains some persons high reputation for benevolence, is often a mere selfish act. They bestow their gifts upon those whom they may happen to like; while from others, who may have had the misfortune to offend them, they turn away, though the latter may be objects most worthy of their compassion, and most like him, who said, "in as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me." Christian charity will regard the will of God in all things; and if, in any instance, we give with the hope of being commended, or select such objects as the Lord will not approve of; if we hoard through covetousness, or spend for the sake of vanity and indulgence, we misuse our talent, and for that we must give an account at the day of judgment. Will any charitable man now say, that in the disposal of his property he has always regarded the will of God? Has he been strictly honest in the acquirement of every farthing which he possesses, and has all been laid out with a similar regard to his master's

will? I say all, for he, who is dishonest in the least, shews that he wants that reverential love, which should be the governing principle of all his actions. It will thus appear, I think, from what has been said of Charity, that he must be a bold man, who will think of pleading it before God as a meritorious act. Rather, when we consider how little we have bestowed aright, and how much we have bestowed amiss, we shall think it necessary to confess our failings before God in this commandment, and earnestly beseech him to have mercy upon us miserable sinners.

"Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith" for seeing we are such wretched sinners, so polluted in our very best deeds, so unworthy of God, and so justly liable to punishment, we cannot hope, for our own sakes, to obtain the divine favour; but, from the mere principle of self-love, from the absolute necessity of the case, are obliged to accept the offer of pardon through Jesus Christ, of whom we read such glorious things in the Word of Truth, and of whose love, and design to save sinners we have such indubitable proofs, that we must, with Saint Paul, and all true believers, come to this conclusion; that "A man is justified by faith without the deeds.