that we have afforded the needy, thus will every act whereby we have fhed light and confolation and joy around us, inasmuch as it was all done by us with an honest christian heart, nourish and enhance our fatisfaction and delight till that last day arrive, and then disclose to us new founts of pleasure and joy. Oh, my friends, who would not eagerly do good to the utmost of his power, who would not in earnest become continually more induftrious and alert in doing good, if he have once learnt duly to estimate his prefent life, and always to view it in its connection with the future?

Let fuch be your encouragements, my devout hearers, to exercise yourselves continually more and more in the virtue of beneficence, and never to be weary in well-doing. I know that many of you do much good, and I hope that none of you entirely neglect their duty in this particular. But even the best should be encouraged, and the dilatory and negligent require to be repeatedly roused, that the former may not be disheartened, and that the latter may quicken their diligence. Strive with renovated ardour for the prize of christian perfection. Sow plentifully, that ye may reap alfo plentifully. Sow not to the flesh, expend your temporal property not in the gratification of sensual appetites, on shortlived follies and inanities. Thus would you abfolutely and for ever lose it. Sow to the fpirit, employ your temporal property in works of beneficence, in the practice of virtue, in the promotion

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of good. Not only the good works we have done, and the rewards attending them, will follow us into the world of fpirits, but the good principles we havelearnt, the good habits we have formed, the generous and benevolent affections we have nourifhed and cultivated, will ftill make a part of our character, will accompany us into happier scenes, and still find them use and exercise. Thus will ye take your poffeffions with you into the future world, thus will ye reap from them an everlasting life, a happiness incapable of diminution or decay. Amen.

SERMON XXIX.

Examination of fome of the ufual Pretences for being difpirited in Beneficence.

GOD, who art doing good from everlasting to

oppor

everlasting, and findeft thy fupreme felicity in thy immenfe benignity. Us, thy children, thou haft likewise formed for kindness, made capable of beneficence, and wouldft that we should as it were partake with thee in this divine employment, this divine felicity. Never doft thou let us want for tunities, for incentives, for means of doing good; thou givest us goods of various kinds and in abun dant measure, that we alfo may give to others; ftrengtheneft us, that we may be able to fupport the weaker, helpest and bleffeft us, that we may again help others, and be in a condition to bless them. And thus fhould we all mutually give and receive, accept and enjoy life and confolation and relief and fatisfaction, and in this general commutation of kind offices, of benefits and gratitude, of love and returns of love, be happy! And that should we most affuredly be, be fo in an eminent degree, if we always followed thy will and acted agreeably to the true ends of our being! Oh let us however to

day and every day of our lives, acknowledge this truth from thorough conviction, and let that acknowledgement become lively and efficacious within us from day to day. May our duty, o God, the duty of beneficence be at once our joy and felicity! May an inward, hearty defire to be fufficiently thankful, and a fincere love to thee, our fupreme, most liberal, unwearied benefactor, ever be a ruling principle in us all, impelling us conftantly to the imitation of thee, and never fuffering us to be difpirited and weary in doing good to our brethren! Blefs then to the promotion of these ends those doctrines of truth, in the confideration whereof we are now to be employed. Let their efficacy be impaired by no prejudices or paffions, and the good impreffion they make on us be indelible for ever! For these benefits we pray thee in the name of thy son Jefus, and in firm unfhaken reliance on his promises, thus farther addrefs thee: Our father, &c.

GALAT. vi. 9.

Let us not be weary in well-doing.

BENEFICENCE, my devout auditors, benefi

cence is in fome degree natural to all mankind. When no unruly, felfifh paffion agitates the breast of man, obfcures and deludes his understanding, when man is properly himself, he is prompt to give, will

ing to communicate, ready to affift. He knows, he feels how blifsful it is to give and to communicate, and how reviving affistance is to the helpless, fupport to the weak, comfort to the wretched. He has already received much himself from others, is daily receiving from them much, is always dependent on all, and can easily put himself in the predicament of those whom he now intends to fuccour and relieve. Perhaps himself, perhaps his family may come to want the fame relief, the fame affiftance, and how lamentable would it be to him, were he or they to be denied it. While man can reason thus and draw fuch inferences, he will never be indifferent to foreign diftrefs. His heart will spontaneously open to compaffion and his hand to beneficence. And then if religion, if chriftianity be of ferious concern to him; if he worship the deity as the God of mercy and love, is deeply fenfible to the worth of his bounties, and cannot tell how fubftantially to fhew his gratitude to him; if he be actuated by the mind and spirit of Jefus, who conftantly went about doing good, and knows no higher honour, no greater happiness than that of becoming in thought and deed continually more like that benefactor of mankind, and thereby the more capable of his patronage and protection: oh how ftrong the motives he will then find within to the most liberal beneficence, to the most magnanimous inftances of bounty, how irresistible to him will then be the fight of every neceffitous brother, every indigent child of his heavenly

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