fense, with flattery, and false friends, with which thousands and ten thousands have perifhed: they are apt to multiply our faults, and treacherously to conceal them from us they hourly adminifter to our temptations ;-and neither allow us time to examine our faults, or humility to repent of them :-nay, what is ftrange, do they not often tempt men even to covetousness ? and though, amidft all the ill offices which riches do us, one would leaft fufpect this vice, but rather think the one a cure for the other: yet so it is, that many a man contracts his fpirits upon the enlargement of his fortune, and is the more empty for being full.

But there is lefs need to preach against this: we seem all to be haftening to the oppofite extreme of luxury and expence we generally content ourselves with the solution of it: and say, 'tis a natural confequence of trade and riches-and there it ends.

By the way, I affirm, there is a miftake in the account; and that it is not riches which are the caufe of luxury, but the corrupt calculation of the world, in making riches the balance for honour, for virtue, and for every thing that is great and good, which goads fo many thousands on with an affectation of poffeffing more than they have, and confequently of engaging in a system of expences they cannot support.

In one word, 'tis the neceffity of appearing to be fomebody, in order to be fo-which ruins the world.

This leads us to another leffon in the parable, concerning the true use and application of riches

We may be fure, from the treatment of the rich man, that he did not employ thofe talents as GOD intended.

How GOD did intend them,may as well be known from an appeal to your own hearts, and the infcription you shall read there,—as from any chapter and verse I might cite upon the fubject. Let us then for a moment, my dear auditors! turn our eyes that way, and confider the traces which even the most infenfible man may have proof of, from what he may perceive fpringing up within him from fome casual act of generofity; and though this is a pleasure which properly belongs to the good, yet let him try the experiment, let him comfort the captive, or cover the naked with a garment, and he will feel what is meant by that moral delight, arifing in the mind from the confcience of a humane action.

But to know it right, we must call upon the compaffionate Cruelty gives evidence unwillingly, and feels the pleasure but imperfectly; for this, like all other pleasures, is of a relative nature, and confequently the enjoyment of it requires fome qualification in the faculty, as much as the enjoyment of any other good does :--there must be fomething antecedent in the difpofition and temper which will render that good a good to that individual; otherwife, though 'tis true it may be poffeffed,yet it never can be enjoyed.

Confider how difficult you will find it to convince a miferly heart, that any thing is good which is

not profitable; or a libertine one, that any thing is bad which is pleasant.

Preach to a voluptuary, who has modell'd both mind and body to no other happiness but good eating and drinking,bid him tafte and fee how good God is there is not an invitation in all nature would confound him like it.

In a word, a man's mind must be like your propofition, before it can be relifhed; and 'tis the refemblance between them which brings over his judgment and makes him an evidence on your fide.

'Tis therefore not to the cruel, 'tis to the merci

ful to those who rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep,-that we make this appeal: 'tis to the generous, the kind, and humane, that I am now to tell the fad * ftory of the fatherless, and of him who hath no helper; and befpeak your almfgiving in behalf of those who know not how to afk for it themselves.

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What can I fay more?—it is a fubject on which I cannot inform your judgment,and in such an audience, I would not prefume to practife upon your paffions let it fuffice to fay, that they whom GoD hath bleffed with the means, and from whom he has done more, in bleffing them likewife with a difpo fition,have abundant reafon to be thankful to him, as the author of every good gift, for the mea fure he hath bestowed to them of both: 'tis the re fuge against the stormy wind nd tempeft, which he has planted in our hearts; and the conftant fluctua tion of every thing in this world forces all the fons

Charity Sermon at St. Andrew's, Holborn.

and daughters of Adam to feek shelter under it by turns. Guard it by entails and fettlements as we will, the most affluent plenty may be ftripp'd, and find all its worldly comforts, like fo many withered leaves, dropping from us.-The crowns of princes may be fhaken; and the greateft that ever awed the world have looked back, and moralized upon the turn of the wheel,

That which has happened to one, may happen to every man; and therefore that excellent rule of our SAVIOUR, in acts of benevolence, as well as every thing else, should govern us ;-That whatsoever ye would that men fhould do to you, do ye alfo unto them.

Haft thou ever laid upon the bed of languishing, or laboured under a distemper which threatend thy life? Call to mind thy forrowful and penfive spirit at that time, and fay, What it was that made the thoughts of death fo bitter? If thou haft children, -I affirm it, the bitterness of death lay there!-if unbrought up, and unprovided for, What will become of them? Where will they find a friend when I am gone, who will stand up for them, and plead their cause against the wicked?

-Bleffed GOD! to thee, who art a father to the fatherless, and a husband to the widow,-1 intrust them.

Haft thou ever sustained any confiderable shock in thy fortune? or, Has the fcantinefs of thy condition hurried thee into great ftraits, and brought thee al moft to distraction? Confider who it was that spread a table in that wilderness of thought,-who made thy cup to overflow? Was it not a friend of confolation Vol. VI.

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who ftepped in,-faw thee embarraffed with the tender pledges of thy love, and the partner of thy cares, took them under his protection-Heaven! thou wilt reward him for it!and freed thee from all the terrifying apprehenfions of a parent's love? -Haft thou

-But how fhall I ask a question which must bring tears into so many eyes ?. -Haft thou ever been wounded in a more affecting manner ftill, by the lofs of a moft obliging friend,or been torn away from the embraces of a dear and promifing child by the stroke of death!-Bitter remembrance! Nature droops at it—but Nature is the fame in all conditions and lots of life.-A child thruft forth in an evil hour, without food, without raiment, bereft of instruction, and the means of its falvation, is a subject of more tender heart-aches, and will awaken every power of nature :—as we have felt for ourselves,

let us feel-for CHRIST's fake let us feel-for theirs and may the GoD of all comfort blefs you. Amen.