can to more fuccefsful attempts in future?

And then, my dear friends, does it well become us, to complain of undeferving perfons and mifarplied benefactions, and to be fo fcrupulous on this point; we, who are daily, hourly receiving fo many bounties from God, of which we are not deferving; we who fo frequently abuse his most precious largeffes, and fo feldom make the best use of them, and yet are always requiring and actually obtaining fresh benefits, and of ftill greater magnitude of him? Oh let us be as kindly disposed to our brethren, as God is to us! Let us be merciful, even as our father in heaven is merciful! Let us fhed like him our benevolence and our beneficence on the evil and on the good, on the just and on the unjuft, and like him never be weary in doing good!

It is however, to conclude, alleged, and this is a fourth pretence under which we are apt to excuse our laffitude in doing good: But am I not unjust to my children and my pofterity by being fo bountiful and liberal? Muft I not be accountable to them for the application of my property as an estate held in truft? Is it not even at prefent their lawful inhe ritance? May they not justly reproach me fometime hence for having mifapplied a part, a confiderable part of it to other purposes? No, that they cannot and ought not to do, my chriftian friend, for thy eftate, particularly that part which thou haft thyfelf acquired, is no more their property than it is the property of an alien. An eftate in truft it cer

tainly is, though not entrusted to thee by thy children, but by God and by fociety, and not to thy children, but to God and to fociety must thou be accountable for it. The opinion, my pious hearers, that by liberal beneficence we wrong our children and relatives, is one of the most pernicious and vulgar of prejudices. It would be generally pernicious to most children themselves, nay, it would be an unfortunate circumftance for them, to be rich while children, or while young folks, and to know that they are fo. This is a matter which daily experience places beyond every doubt. Run through all claffes and ranks of fociety, collect in your mind all the ufelefs, unprofitable, peftilential, vicious perfons, all the wretched, fickly, weak, discontented, fullen, morofe, melancholy perfons around you, and you will find most of them, especially in great towns and among the upper ranks, to have been children of wealthy parents, who, because they were rich, have learnt nothing thoroughly, have not properly exercifed and unfolded their capacities and powers, who have been cockered and fpoilt in their infancy, inured to no hardship, strangers to croffes and difappointments, and at first were addicted to vanity, "to wantonnefs, to idleness, afterwards enfnared by vice, and at length are become peevish, gloomy, fullen, churlish and miferable. How baneful then must this prejudice be to human fociety at large! How many might and would have afforded far more

VOL. I.

relief

relief to the poor and wretched, far more substantial fupport to beneficial institutions, falutary reforms, important attempts in ameliorating the condition of the lower claffes, in arts and fciences, in establishing fchools and feminaries of wholesome instruction, if they had not been checked by the futile dread of wronging their children by it, or of seeing them lefs opulent! Banish these idle fears, my chriftian friend, if thou wouldst discharge thy duty as a man, as a member of fociety, as a chriftian. Let them never obstruct thee in acts of beneficence. No, education, a truly difcreet, found education thou owest to thy children, this they have a right to demand of thee, and nothing befides! Educate them therefore as carefully, as confcientioufly as ever thou canft, fpare in this refpect neither pains nor exp.nfe, and if thou fhouldft be obliged to beftow upon it all that thou canft fcrape together, betow it freely. Teach them principally to love both God and man, to understand their prefent and future appointment, and to feek their fatisfaction and happinefs not without them, but within; teach them to restrain and to govern their appetites, to moderate their expenfes, to contract their wants, and to act more upon just and fixt principles than from popular opinions; inftill into them right notions of honour and fhame, of mifery and happiness; infpire them with a ruling affection for moderation, for order and regularity, for diligence and industry, for a busy, retired and useful life, and cultivate in them an ha

bitual tafte for these things: fo wilt thou affuredly, better than by any other means, fecure them against pinching poverty and real mifery; so mayst thou be easy and unconcerned about their future fuccefs in the world, whether thou bequeath them little or much. Thou leaveft them at least unimpaired faculties, juft perceptions, good difpofitions and habitudes, the love of God and their fellow-creatures, all the capacities and means to be truly happy, and for becoming ever happier! And is not that of infinitely more value than the greatest riches?

Thus falfe and ungrounded, my pious hearers, are the pretences, under which we are wont to endeavour at excufing our languor and remiffness in doing good! Never allow yourselves to be impofed upon by them, my dear friends. Let them never prevent you from being liberal and bountiful, that ye may here enjoy the felicity of beneficence in full measure, and hereafter reap everlasting advantages from it. Amen.

SERMON XXX.

The natural Equality of Mankind.

OD, thou art the creator and father of us all,

GOD,

thou knoweft and loveft us all, thou careft for us all. Thou haft raised us all to the rank of thy children, to the rank of rational immortal beings. Thou wouldst render us all perfectly and everlastingly happy, the poor as well as the rich, the def pised as well as the respected and honoured. Thy pure intellect no borrowed luftre can deceive. From thee the moft fecret virtues are not concealed. Thou feeft and judgeft us as we are in ourselves, and with thee is no refpect of perfons. Neither high nor low, neither rich nor poor, may boast as fuch of thy distinguished favour; but all the upright and fincere, all who heartily love thee and their neighbour, are agreeable in thy fight, are happy in thee, and may expect from thee nought but good both in the prefent and the future world. Though thou diftributeft outward diftinctions, temporal goods in various proportions among mankind, yet thou leaveft none deficient in means and opportunities for attaining the end for