If a man be harsh or surly in his discourse, rugged or rude in his demeanour, hard and rigorous in his dealing, it is a certain argument of his defect in charity; for that calmeth and sweeteneth the mind; it quasheth keen, fierce, and boisterous passions; it discardeth those conceits, and those humours, from whence such practice doth issue.

Charity (saith St. Paul) oʊz doynuove, behaveth not itself unhandsomely; is not untoward, unseemly, uncivil, or clownish in word, or in carriage, or in deed it is in truth the most civilizing and most polishing disposition that can be: nothing doth render a man so completely genteel; not in an affected or artificial way (consisting in certain postures or motions of body (dopping, cringing, &c.); in forms of expression, or modish addresses, which men learn like parrots, and vent by rote, usually not meaning any thing by them, often with them disguising fraud and rancour), but in a real and natural manner, suggested by good judgment and hearty affection.

A charitable man may perhaps not be guilty of courtship, or may be unpractised in the modes of address; but he will not be deficient in the substance of paying every man proper and due respect: this indeed is true courtesy, grounded on reason, and proceeding from the heart; which therefore is far more genuine, more solid, more steady, than that which is built on fashion, and issueth from affectation; the which indeed only doth ape or counterfeit the deportment of charity; for what a charitable man truly is, that a gallant would seem to be.

Such are the properties of charity. There be also further many particular acts, which have a very close alliance to it (being ever coherent with it, or springing from it), which are recommended to us by precepts in the holy Scripture; the which it will be convenient to mention.

1. It is a proper act of charity to forbear anger upon provocation, or to repress its motions; to resent injuries and discourtesies either not at all, or very calmly and mildly: for,

Charity οὐ παροξύνεται, is not easily provoked. Charity paxgofeusi, suffereth long and is kind. Charity úrta dasμérei, doth endure all things."

Anger is a violent insurrection of the mind against a person, but love is not apt to rise up in opposition against any; anger is an intemperate heat, love hath a pure warmth quite of another nature; as natural heat is from a fever; or as the heat of the sun from that of a culinary fire, which putteth that out as the sunbeams do extinguish a culinary fire: anger hath an coišis durys, an appetite of revenge, or doing mischief to the object of it; but love is innocent and worketh no evil.®

Love disposeth, if our neighbour doth misbehave himself toward us (by wrongful usage, or unkind carriage), to be sorry for him, and to pity him; which are passions contrary to anger, and slaking the violences of it.

It is said in the Canticles, Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: charity would hold out against many neglects, many provocations.

Hence the precepts: Walk with_all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. Put off anger, wrath, malice, &c. Be slow to wrath.h

2. It is a proper act of charity to remit offences, suppressing all designs of revenge, and not retaining any grudge; for,

Charity πάντα στέγει, doth cover all things; and in this sense doth hide a multitude of sins: all dispositions, all intents to do harm, are inconsistent with it, are quite repugnant to it.'

Hence those precepts: Put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye : Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another; even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you: See that none render evil for evil, but ever

gret.

3. It is a duty coherent with charity, to maintain concord and peace; to abstain from contention and strife, together with the sources of them, pride, envy, emulation, malice.

We are commanded to be ouyvzo, and buggores, of one soul, of one mind, (like the multitude of believers in the Acts, who had one heart and one soul;) that we should keep the unity of the Sp.rit in the bond of peace; that we should be of one accord, of one mind, standing fast in one spirit, with one mind; that we should all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among us, but that we be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment; that there be no factions, or schisms in the body; that all dissensions, all clamours, all murmurings, all emulations, should be abandoned and put away from us; that we should pursue and maintain peace with all men: obedience to which commands can only be the result of charity, esteeming the person and judgment of our neighbour; desiring his good will, tendering his good; curbing those fleshly lusts, and those fierce passions, from the predominancy whereof discords and strifes do spring.

K

4. Another charitable practice is, being candid in opinion, and mild in censure, about our neighbour and his actions; having a good conceit of his person, and representing him to ourselves under the best character we can; making the most favourable construction of his words, and the fairest interpretation of his designs.

Charity disposeth us to entertain a good opinion of our neighbour; for, desiring his good, we shall be concerned for him, and prejudiced, as it were, on his side;

1 Col. iii. 12, 13; poppy; Eph. iv. 32; 1 Thess. v. 15; 1 Pet. iii. 9; Rom. xii. 17; Matt. vi. 14; v. 44; Prov. xx. 22; xxv. 21.

Phil. ii. 2; 1 Pet. iii. 8; Acts iv. 32; Eph. iv. 3; Phil. ii. 2; i. 27; 1 Cor. i. 10; 2 Cor. xiii. 11; Rom. xv. 5, 6; xii. 16; Phil. iii. 16; 1 Cor. xii. 25; xi. 18; i. 11; iii. 3; 2 Cor. xii. 20; Phil. ii. 14; Heb. xii. 14; Rom. xii. 18; 2 Tim. ii. 22; James iv. 1; 1 Cor. iii. 3; Gal. v. 20; 1 Tim. vi. 4.

Love cannot subsist without esteem; and it would not willingly, by destroying that, lose its own subsistence.

Love would preserve any good of its friend, and therefore his reputation; which is a good in itself precious, and ever very dear to him.

Love would bestow any good, and therefore its esteem; which is a considerable good.

Harsh censure is a very rude kind of treatment, grievously vexing a man, and really hurting him; charity, therefore, will not be guilty of it.

It disposeth rather to oversee and connive at faults, than to find them, or to pore on them; rather to hide and smother, than to disclose or divulge them; rather to extenuate and excuse, than to exaggerate or aggravate them.

Are words capable of a good sense? charity will expound them thereto: may an action be imputed to any good intent? charity will ever refer it thither: Coth a fault admit any plea, apology, or diminution? charity will be sure to allege it: may a quality admit a good name? charity will call it thereby.

It doth not λογίζεσθαι κακόν, impute evil, or put it to any man's account, beyond absolute necessity.

It hopeth all things, and believeth all things hopeth and believeth all things for the best, in favour to its neighbour, concerning his intentions and actions liable to doubt.

It banisheth all evil surmises;" it rejecteth all ill stories, malicious insinuations, perverse glosses and descants.

5. Another charitable practice is, to comport with the infirmities of our neighbour; according to that rule of St. Paul, We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves; and that precept, Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Is a man wiser than his neighbour, or in any case freer of defects? charity will dispose to use that advantage so as

III. Equity doth plainly require charity from us for every one is ready not only to wish and seek, but to demand and claim love from others; so as to be much offended and grievously to complain, if he do not find it.

We do all conceive love and respect due to us from all men; we take all men bound to wish and tender our welfare; we suppose our need to require commiseration and succour from every man: if it be refused, we think it a hard case, and that we are ill used; we cry out of wrong, of discourtesy, of inhumanity, of baseness practised toward us.

A moderate respect and affection will hardly satisfy us; we pretend to them in the highest degree, disgusting the least appearance of disregard or disaffection; we can scarce better digest indifference than hatred.

Charity is the imitation and copy of that immense love, which is the fountain of all being and all good; which made all things, which preserveth the world, which sustaineth every creature: nothing advanceth us so near to a resemblance of him, who is essential love and goodness; who freely and purely, without any regard to his own advantage or capacity of finding any beneficial return, doth bear and express the highest good-will, with a liberal hand pouring down showers of bounty and mercy on all his creatures; who daily putteth up numberless indignities and injuries, upholding and maintaining those who offend and provoke him.*

Charity rendereth us as angels, or peers to those glorious and blessed creatures, who, without receiving or expecting any requital from us, do heartily desire and delight in our good, are ready to promote it, do willingly serve and labour for it. Nothing is more amiable, more admirable, more venerable, even in the common eye and opinion of men; it hath in it a beauty and a majesty apt to ravish every heart; even a spark of it in generosity of dealing breedeth admiration, a glimpse of it

In all reason and equity, if I would have another my friend, I must be a friend to him; if I pretend to charity from all men, I must render it to all in the same kind and measure.

Hence is the law of charity well expressed in those terms, of doing to others whatever we would have them do to us; whereby the palpable equity of this practice is demonstrated.

much esteem, being deemed to accom. plish and adorn a man: how lovely, therefore, and truly gallant, is an entire, sincere, constant and uniform practice thereof, issuing from pure good-will and affection!

Love, indeed, or goodness (for true love is nothing else but goodness exerting itself, in direction toward objects capable of its influence) is the only amiable and only honourable thing: power and wit may be admired by some, or have some fond idolaters; but being severed from

It rendereth a man truly great, enlarging his mind unto a vast circumference, and to a capacity near infinite; so that it by a general care doth reach all things, by an universal affection doth embrace and grasp the world.

By it our reason obtaineth a field or

b Matt. vii.

serviency to it, they cannot obtain real love, they deserve not any esteem: for

* Ημᾶς εἴτις ἐρωτήσεις, τί τὸ τιμώμενον ὑμῖν καὶ προσκυνούμενον, πρόχειρον εἰπεῖν ἡ ἀγάπη; ὁ γὰρ Θεος

ἡμῶν ἡ ἀγάπη ἐστὶ, ῥῆσις τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, καὶ τούτο χαίρει μᾶλλον ἀκούων ὁ Θεός, ἤ τι ἄλλο.—Naz.

Or. 14.