why God has given us more quick and SER M. L.
vigorous Touches of Compaffion in the one
Cafe, than of Joy in the other, is plainly

this;
it is more in our Power to relieve
Distress, than it is to promote Happiness.
When a Perfon has had fome confiderable
Success, our hearty Congratulation is in a
great measure, if not altogether, useless and
unavailing; he has already gained his Point,
and our Joy will add little or nothing to
bis. But when we fee a Perfon in Distress,
a quick and pungent Senfe of his Pains is of
great Ufe to him: it prompts us imme-
diately to relieve him, or to follicit his Re-
lief; and, in relieving him, we in some
Sense relieve ourselves. Reafon, however
noble a Principle, is like Old-Age; too
flow, languid and unrefolving: But the
Paffions, like Youth, when they are hear-
tily interested, fet every Engine at Work;
and leave nothing unattempted to compass
their End. Whoever then thou art, whofe
Heart is hardened and waxed grofs, put
thyfelf in the Room of fome poor unfriend-
ed Wretch, befet perhaps with a large Fa-
mily; broken with Miseries, and pining
with Poverty; his Mind as it were bleed-
ing inwards, while filent Grief, like a Worm

SERM. I. at the Core, preys upon his Vitals: in such a Cafe what wouldeft Thou think it reafonable thy rich Neighbours fhould do? -that they, like the Priest and Levite in the Gospel, should look on Thee with an Eye of Indifference, and then pass by on the other Side regardless? -or that, like the good Samaritan, they should pour Balm into thy wounded Spirit? Be thyfelf the Judge, and whatever thou shalt think reasonable thy Neighbours should do unto Thee, in fuch a Situation; go now, and do likewife unto them. Make the Cafe of the Poor your own, and then confider how much you would, or might with Reafon, expect from the Rich and Easy, and then give accordingly.

2. The fecond Motive is the Pleasure of Benevolence.

The Reason and Foundation of Charity, the principal End and Design of Almsgiving, looks not more at the Relief of the Indigent, than at the training Men up to mutual Love and Good-will, in order to qualify them for Heaven. Mean and illiberal is the Man, whofe Soul the Good of himself can intirely fill and ingrofs. True Benevolence, extenfive as the Light of the

Sun,

Sun, takes in all Mankind. It is not in- SERM. I. deed in your Power to fupport all the Incurable and Aged; it is not in your Power to train up in the Paths of Virtue feveral helpless, friendlefs, fatherless Children. But if, as far as the Compafs of your Power reaches, nothing is hid from the Heat of your Bounty, and, where your Power falls short, you are cordially affected to fee the Work done by others, or heartily forry to fee it is not done: thofe Charities which you could not do, nay which were never done, will be placed to your Account. To grafp thus the whole Syftem of Reasonable Beings with an overflowing Love is to be— what fhall I call it? it is to be almost infinitely good-it is at least to make as near Approaches as poffible to infinite Goodnefs. And can there be any Thing more tranfporting than to poffefs this humane, this God-like Quality? Yes, the Pleasure rifes higher, if our Abilities be great, as well as our Inclination. What can affect a generous Soul more, than to make Mifery and Woe vanish before him, like Darkness before the Light; to raise a Heart that was finking beneath the Weight of Grief? To brighten up that Countenance, which was

Over

SERM. I. overcaft with Sorrow, into Joy and Gladnefs? To revive with refreshing Showers of Love and Kindness that barren and dry Land where no Water was? How muft his Heart burn within him while his Hands are thus ftretched out! Believe me, it is but a well-judged, more refined, and better Taste for Pleasure, to lay out, in undoing the heavy Burden of our Fellow-Creatures, that Money which all of us, more or less, expend in innocent but useless Gratifications; and too many of us, it may be, in criminal Pleasures. And who would not deny himself the short-lived Indulgence of some Appetite, fome trifling and gay Diverfion, rather than see his Brother pinched with Neceffity, and starving with Want? Deny himself, did I fay? No; He denies himself the most, who refuses to purchase fo many lafting and unallayed Pleafures at fo eafy a Rate.

We are affected with delightful Senfations when we fee even the inanimate Parts of the Creation, thofe Meadows, thofe Trees and thofe Flowers in a flourishing State. There must be fome deep and rooted Melancholy at the Heart, when all Nature appears fmiling and chearful about

us

us in its most advantageous Drefs, if we SERM. I. are not inclined to correfpond with the Rest of the Creation, and join in the univerfal Chorus of Joy. But if Meadows and Trees in their Verdure, if Flowers in their Bloom, and all the vegetable Parts of Nature in Chearfulness at this Seafon, can infpire Gladness into the Heart, and drive away all Sadness and Defpair; to see the rational Parts of the Creation flourishing, ought to give us a Pleasure as much superior, as the latter are above the former in the Scale of Beings. But ftill the Pleasure is greater, if we have been instrumental in contributing to their Happiness; if we have watered these Plants with our Bounty, and fenced them from the Inclemencies of the Seafons.

He that centers all his Regard upon himself, exclufively of others, has placed his Affections very odly; he has placed them on the moft worthless Object, in the World-himfelf. He that has fhut his Hands, and fteeled his Heart, against all Impreffions of Compaffion, is a most infignificant Blank in the Creation. He may have Sense enough to get and keep his For

tune;