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to Ged; we can do him no real benefit; but our charity to men is really useful and beneficial to them. For which reafon, God is contented, in many cafes, that the exter. nal honour and worship which by his pofitive command he requires of us, fhould give way to that natural duty of love and mercy which we owe to one another. And, to fhew how great a value he puts upon charity, he hath made it the great teftimony of our love to himself; and, for want of it, rejects all other profeffions of love to him as falfe and infincere: If any man fay, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath feen, how can he love God whom he hath not feen?

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5. This is that which will give us the greateft comfort: when we come to die, It will then be no pleasure to men, to reflect upon the great eftates they have got, and the great places they have been advanced to; becaufe: they are leaving thefe things, and they will ftand them in no ftead in the other world: Riches profit not in the day of wrath but the confcience of well doing will refresh our fouls even under the very pangs of death. With what contentment does a good man then look upon the good he hath done in his life? and with what confidence doth he look over into the other world, where he hath provided for himself bags that was not old, a treafure in the heavens that faileth not? For though our eftates will not follow us into the other world, our good works will; though we cannot carry our riches along with us, yet we may fend them before us, to make way for our reception into everlasting habitations, In. fhort; works of mercy and charity will comfort us at the hour of death, and plead for us at the day of judgement, and procure for us at the hands of a merciful God a glorious recompence at the refurrection of the juft. Which leads me to the

6. Laft confideration I fhall offer you; which is, the reward of doing good, both in this world, and the other. If we believe God himself, he hath made more particu lar and encouraging promifes to this grace and virtue, than to any other.

The advantages of it in this world are many and great. It is the way to derive a lafting bleffing upon our eftates.

Acts

Acts of charity are the best deeds of fettlement. We gain the prayers and bleflings of thofe to whom we extend our charity; and it is no fmall thing to have the bleffing of them that are ready to perish to come upon us : for God hears the prayers of the delitute, and his ear is open to their cry. Charity is a great fecurity to us in times of evil; and that not only from the fpecial promife and providence of God, which are engaged to preferve from want those that relieve the neceffities of others, but likewife from the nature of the thing, which makes way for its own reward in this world. He that is charitable to others, provides a fupply and retreat for himself in the day of diftrefs for he provokes mankind, by his example, to like tenderness towards him, and prudently befpeaks the commiferation of others against it comes to be his turn to fland in need of it. Nothing in this world makes a man more and furer friends, than charity and bounty, and fuch as will ftand by us in the greatest troubles and dangers: For a good man (fays the Apostle) one would even dare to die. It is excellent counfel of the fon of Sirach, Lay up thy treasure according to the commandment of the Moft High, and it fall bring thee more profit than gold. Shut up thy alms in thy ftorehoufe, and it hall deliver thee from all affliction; it hall fight for thee againfi thine enemies, better than a mighty Shield and ftrong pear. It hath fometimes happened, that the obligation that men have laid upon others by their charity, hath, in cafe of danger and extremity, done them more kindnefs than all the reft of their eftate could do for them; and their alms have literally delivered them from death.

But what is all this to the endless and unspeakable happiness of the next life, where the returns of doing good will be vaftly great, beyond what we can now expect or imagine? For God takes all the good we do to others as a debt upon himself; and he hath estate and treasure enough to fatisfy the greatest obligations we can lay upon him. So that we have the truth, and goodness, and fufficiency of God, for our fecurity, that what we scatter and fow in this kind, will grow up a plentiful harvest in the other world; and that all our pains and expence in doing good for a few days, will be recompenfed and crowned with the joys and glories of eternity. SER.

SERMON

XIX.

On the 5th of November 1678. Before the Honourable Houfe of Commons.

LUKE ix. 55. 56.

But he turned, and rebuked them, and faid, Ye know not? what manner of Spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to deftroy mens lives, but to fave them.

Among many other things which may juftly recom

mend the Chriftian religion to the approbation of mankind, the intrinfic goodness of it is most apt to make impreffion upon the minds of serious and confiderate men. The miracles of it are the great external evidence and confirmation of its truth and divinity: but the morality. of its doctrines and precepts, fo agreeable to the best reafon and wifeft apprehenfions of mankind, fo admirably fitted for the perfecting of our natures, and the fweetening of the fpirits and tempers of men, fo friendly to hu man fociety, and every way fo well calculated for the peace and order of the world; thefe are the things which our religion glories in, as her crown and excellency. Miracles are apt to awaken and astonish; and, by a fen. fible and overpowering evidence, to bear down the prejudices of infidelity: but there are fecret charms in goodnefs, which take faft hold of the hearts of men; and do infenfibly, but effectually, command our love and esteem.

And furely nothing can be more proper to the occafion of this day, than a difcourfe upon this argument, which fo directly tends to correct that unchristian spirit and miftaken zeal which hath been the cause of all our troubles and confufions, and had fo powerful an influence upon that horrid tragedy which was defigned, now near upon fourfcore years ago, to have been acted as upon this day. And that we may the better understand the reason of • Saviour's reproof here in the text, it will be requifite

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to confider the occafion of this hot and furious zeal which appeared in some of his difciples; and that was this: Our Saviour was going from Galilee to Jerufalem; and, being to pafs through a village of Samaria, he fent meffengers before him, to prepare entertainment for him : but the people of that place would not receive him, becaufe he was going to Jerufalem. The reafon whereof was, the difference of religion which then was between the Jews and the Samaritans. Of which I fhall give you this brief account.

The Samaritans were originally that colony of the Affyrians which we find in the book of Kings was, upon the captivity of the ten tribes, planted in Samaria by Salmanaffer. They were Heathens, and worshipped their own idols, till they were fo infefted with lions, that, for the redrefs of this mischief, they defired to be inftructed in the worship of the God of Ifrael, hoping by this means to appease the anger of the God of the country; and then they worshipped the God of Ifrael, together with their own idols; for fo it is faid in the hiftory of the Kings, that they feared the Lord, and ferved their own gods.

After the tribe of Judah were returned from the captivity of Babylon, and the temple of Jerufalem was rebuilt, all the Jews were obliged, by a folemn covenant, to put away their Heathen wives. It happened that Manaffes, a Jewish priest, had married the daughter of Sanballat the Samaritan; and, being unwilling to put away his wife, Sanballat excited the Samaritans to build a temple upon Mount Gerizim, near the city of Samaria, in oppofition to the temple at Jerufalem; and made Manaffes, his fon-in law, prieft there.

Upon the building of this new temple there arose a great feud between the Jews and Samaritans; which in procefs of time grew to fo violent a hatred, that they would not fo much as fhew common civility to one another. And this was the reason why the Samaritans would not receive our Saviour in his journey, because they perceived he was going to worship at Jerufalem.

At this uncivil ufage of our Saviour, two of his difciples, James and John, prefently take fire; and, out of a well meaning zeal for the honour of their master, and of the true God, and of Jerufalem, the true place of his worship,

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worship, they are immediately for dispatching out of the way these enemies of God, and Christ, and the true religion, these heretics and fchifmatics; for fo they called one another. And to this end they defire our Saviour to give them power to call for fire from heaven to confume them, as Elias had done in a like cafe, and that too not far from Samaria. And it is not improbable, that their being fo near the place where Elias had done the like be fore, might prompt them to this request.

Our Saviour, feeing them in this heat, notwithstanding all the reafons they pretended for their paffion, and. for all they fheltered themselves under the great example of Elias, doth very calmly, but feverely, reprove this tem per of theirs: Te know not what manner of Spirit ye are of: for the Son of man is not come to deftroy mens lives, but to fave them.

Grotius obferves, that these two excellent fentences. are left out in a manuscript that is in England. I cannot tell what manufcript he refers to; but if it were a copy written out in the height of Popery, no wonder if fome zealous tranfcriber, offended at this paffage, ftruck it out of the gofpel; being confident our Saviour would not fay any thing that was fo directly contrary to the current doctrine and practice of thofe times. But, thanks be to God, this admirable faying is still preserved, and can never be made use of upon a fitter occafion.

you

Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of; that is, ye own yourselves to be my difciples, but do you confi. der what fpirit now acts and governs you? Not that furely which my doctrine defigns to mould and fashion into, which is not a furious, and perfecuting, and deftructive fpirit; but mild, and gentle, and faving; tender of the lives and interefts of men, even of those who are our greatest enemies. You ought to confider, that you are not now under the rough and four difpenfation of the law, but the calm and peaceable inftitution of the gofpel; to which the fpirit of Elias, though he was a very good man in his time, would be altogether unfuitable. God permitted it then, under that imperfect way of religion; but now under the gofpel it would be intolerable for that defigns univerfal love, and peace, and good-will: and now no difference of religion, no pretence of zeal for God and Christ, can warrant and jufti.

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