word of God, and receiving the holy facrament, is, to difpofe and excite us to do good, to make us more ready and forward to every good work; and that it is the greatest mockery in the world, upon pretence of ufing the means of religion, to neglect the end of it; and because we are always preparing ourselves to do good, to think that we are for ever excufed from doing any.

Others are taken up in contending for the faith, and fpend all their zeal and heat about fome controverfies in religion; and therefore they think it but reasonable, that they should be excufed from those meaner kind of duties; because they ferve God, as they imagine, in a higher and more excellent way: as thefe who ferve the king in his wars, ufe to be exempted from taxes and offices. But do thofe men confider upon what kind of duties more efpecially our bleffed Saviour and his apoftles lay the great weight and stress of religion? that it is to the meek and merciful, and peaceable, that our Saviour pronounceth bleffednefs? that pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to vifit the fatherlefs and widows in their affiction? that the wisdom which is from above, is full of mercy and good works? These are the great and weighty things of religion, which, whatever elle we do, ought not to be left undone. Do they confider, that a right faith is wholly in order to a good life, and is of no value any further than it hath an influence upon it; fo that, whatever other duties we may be obliged to, nothing can excufe us from this? How much better is it to do good, to be really useful and beneficial to others, and how much more clearly and certainly our duty, than to quarrel about doubtful and uncertain opinions? Were men Chriftians indeed, they would be fo much delighted and taken up with this better work (more acceptable to God, and more profitable to men) that they could not find leifure, or if they could, they could not find in their hearts to employ all their time and zeal about things which are at fo great a distance from the life and heart of religion, as most of thofe queftions are which Chriftians at this day contend and languifh about. Were we poffeffed with the true fpirit of Chriftianity, thefe would be but dry, and infipid, and taftelefs things to us, in comparison of the bleffed employment of doing good in VOL. I. D d

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a more real and fubftantial way. If the fincere love of God and our neighbour were but once thoroughly kindled in our hearts, thefe pure and heavenly flames would in a great measure extinguish the unchriftian heats of difpute and contention; as fires here below are ready to languifh and go out, when the fun in his full ftrength fhine's upon them.

II. But the hardest part of my tafk is yet behind; and it is ftrange it fhould be fo; and that is, to perfuade us to the imitation of this blessed example. Let us go and do likewife; lat the fame mind be in us that was in Chrift Jefus; let us tread in the steps of the great God, and the beft man that ever was, our bleffed Saviour, who went about doing good. Methinks the work itself is of that nature, that men fhould not need to be courted to it by perfuafion, nor urged by importunity. The very propofal of the thing, and the pattern which I have fet before you, is temptation and allurement enough to a generous and well-difpofed mind. But yet, to influence you the more to fo good a work, be pleafed to dwell with me a little upon thefe following confiderations.

1. It is an argument of a great and generous mind, to employ ourselves in doing good, to extend our thoughts and care to the concernments of others, and to use our power and endeavours for their benefit and advantage; because it fhews an inclination and defire in us to have others happy as well as ourselves.

Those who are of a narrow and envious fpirit, of a mean and fordid difpofition, love to contract themfelves within themfelves, and, like the hedgehog, to fhoot out their quills at every one that comes near them. They take care of no body but themfelves, and foolishly think their own happiness the greater, because they have it alone, and to themselves. But the nobleft and most heavenly difpofitions think themfelves happieft when others fhare with them in their happiness. Of all beings, God is the fartheft removed from envy; and the nearer any creature approacheth to him in bleffedness, the farther it is off from this hellifh quality and difpofition. It is the temper of the devil, to grudge happiness to others; he envied that man fhould be in paradife, when he was caft out of heaven.

Other

Other perfections are (as one fays) of a more melancholic and folitary difpofition, and fhine brightest when they are alone, or attained to but by a few; once make them common, and they lofe their luftre. But it is the nature of goodnefs to communicate itself; and the farther it fpreads, the more glorious it is. God reckons it as one of his moft glorious titles, as the brightest gen in his diadem, The Lord mighty to fave. He delights not to fhew his fovereignty, in ruining the innocent, and defroying helpless creatures; but in refcuing them out of the jaws of hell and deftruction. To the devil belongs the title of the deftroyer.

Without this quality of goodness, all other perfections would change their nature, and lofe their excellency. Great power and wifdom would be terrible, and raise nothing but dread and suspicion in us: for power without. goodness, would be tyranny and oppreffion, and wisdom would become craft and treachery. A being endued with knowledge and power, and yet wanting goodness, woukl be nothing else but an irrefillible evil, and an omnipotent mifchief. We admire knowledge, and are afraid of power, and fufpect wifdom; but we can heartily love nothing but goodness, or fuch perfections as are in conjunction with it. For knowledge and power may be in a nature most contrary to God's; the devil hath these perfections in an excelling degree. When all is done, nothing argues a great and generous mind, but only goodnefs; which is a propenfion and difpofition to make others happy, and a readiness to do them all the good offices we can.

2. To do good, is the most pleasant employment in the world. It is natural; and whatever is fo, is delightful. We do like ourselves, whenever we relieve the wants and diftreffes of others. And therefore this virtue, among all others, hath peculiarly intitled itself to the name of humanity. We answer our own nature, and obey our reason, and shew ourselves men, in fhewing mercy to the miferable. Whenever we confider the evils and afflictions of others, we do, with the greatest reafon, collect our duty from our nature and inclination, and make our own. wilhes, and defires, and expectations from others, a law

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and rule to ourfelves. And this is pleafant, to follow our nature, and to gratify the importunate dictates of our own reafon. So that the benefits we do to others, are not more welcome to them that receive them, than, they are delightful to us that do them We ease our own na ture and bowels, whenever we help and relieve, those who are in want and neceffity. As, on the contrary, no man that hath not divefted himself of humanity, can be cruel and hard-hearted to others, without feeling fome pain in himself. There is no fenfual pleafure in the world, comparable to the delight and fatisfaction that a. good man takes in doing good. This Cato, in Tully, boafts of as the great comfort and joy of his old age, "That nothing was more pleafant to him than the con"fcience of a well-fpent life, and the remembrance of 66 many benefits and kindnesses done to others.' Senfual. pleasures are not lafting, but prefently vanish and expire: but that is not the worft of them; they leave a fting behind them: as the pleasure goes off,.

Succedit frigida cura ;

fadnefs and melancholy come in the place of it; guilt, and trouble, and repentance follow it. But the pleasure of doing good remains after a thing is done; the thoughts of it lie eafy in our minds, and the reflection. upon it afterwards does for ever minifter joy and delight to us. In a word, that frame of mind which inclines us to do good, is the very temper and difpofition of happinels. Solomon, after all his experience of worldly pleafures, pitches at laft upon this as the greatest felicity of human life, and the only good ufe that is to be made of a profperous and plentiful fortune, Eccl. iii. 12. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and do good in his life. And a greater and a wifer than Solomon hath faid, that it is more bleffed to give,. than to receive.

3. To employ ourfelves in doing good, is to imitate the higheft excellency aud perfection. It is to be like. God, who is good, and doth good; and to be like him. in that which he efteems his greatest glory; and that is his goodnefs. It is to be like the Son of God; who,

when

when he took our nature upon him, and lived in the world, went about doing good. It is to be like the bleffed angels, whofe great employment it is, to be miniftering fpirits for the good of others. To be charitable, and helpful, and beneficial to others, is to be a good angel, and a Saviour and a God to men. And the example of our bleffed Saviour more especially is the great pattern which our religion propounds to us. And we have all the reafon in the world to be in love with it; becaufe that very goodness which it propounds to our imitation, was fo beneficial to ourselves. When we ourselves feel! and enjoy the happy effects of that good which he did in the world, this thould mightily endear the example to us, and make us forward to imitate that love and kindnefs, to which we are indebted for fo many bleffings, and upon which all our hopes of happiefs do depend!

And there is this confiderable difference between our Saviour's charity to us, and ours to others: he did all purely for our fakes, and for our benefit; whereas all the good we do to others, is a greater good done to ourfelves. They indeed are beholden to us for the kindness we do them, and we to them for the opportunity of doing it. Every ignorant perfon that comes in our way to be inftructed by us, every finner whom we reclaim, every poor man we relieve, is a happy opportunity of doing good to ourselves, and of laying up for ourselves a good treafure against the time which is to come, that wer may lay hold on eternal life. By this principle the belt and the happieft man that ever was, governed his life and actions; esteeming it a more bleed thing to give than: to receive.

4. This is one of the greatest and most substantial dut-ties of religion; and, next to the love and honour which we pay to God himself, the most acceptable fervice that we can perform to him. It is one half of the law, and next to the first and great commandment, and very like unto it; like to it in the excellency of its nature, and in the neceffity of its obligation. For this commandment we have from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother alfo. The first commandment excels in the dignity of the object; but the fecond hath the advantage in the reality of its effects: For our righteousness extendeth not D.d.3