thyfelf;" and give this proof of thy obfervance of the fecond commandment, the beft, the moft convincing, and fatisfactory; nay indeed the only proof-go and do as the good Samaritan did. If thy circumstances enable thee, when thou feeft the poor without 66 covering, clothe him, and turn not away " from thine own flesh: deal thy bread to the hungry, and give drink to the thirsty foul," then art thou giving an evidence of thy love of God. But if thy own neceffities forbid fuch expreffions of kindness, thou canst at least be civil, and courteous, and compaffionate. Let us beware, my brethren, that we place not our religion in mere acts of godliness-in going to Church oft, in repeating many prayers, in affuming a demure look, and wearing a fevere countenance. Thou mayft pray like Danicl three times in a day-like the Pharifee faft twice in a week-yet if thou doft not adorn such severity of religion by tenderness, and compaffion, and charity-it is not the Religion of Chrift, it is the religion of the devil; it is the feducing, the fatal bait, which the grand enemy of mankind fo officioufly throws in our way to lead us, by imperceptible degrees, to eternal perdition. What can be easier than to go regularly to Church, at the stated hours of prayer, and to "offer facrifice unto the Lord "our God of that which cofts us nothing? Let our alms, as well as our prayers, go up as a "memorial before God." The Supreme Judge, will reward us, not merely according to our prayers, but our charity. Let every man, therefore, who, like the Scribe, would know what he shall do to inherit eternal life, as the good Samaritan did, let him go and do likewife. SERMON The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bofom. The rich man alfo And in hell he lifted died, and was buried. HE parable, from which thefe words are THE taken, contains many useful leffons of inftruction. To the rich, who abound with wealth, and are happy in their independence, it fuggefts the uncertainty of their poffeffions, the termination of their power, the reckonings of futurity! to the poor, who are diftreffed with want, and afflicted with mifery, it adminifters the balm of comfort, the confolations of hope, the joys of heaven. But it displays not "the terrors of the Lord" to the rich, becaufe God has given them abundance, nor does it promise bleffings to the poor, because he has not, in his all-wife difpenfations, permitted "their cup to overflow." No, as each fhall conduct himself in the sphere in which he is ordained to move, he is the object of punishment, or of reward. 66 "There was a certain rich man, who was "clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared fumptuously every day. And there was a "certain beggar, named Lazarus, laid at his 66 gate, full of fores, and defiring to be fed with "the crumbs, which fell from the rich man's "table." The character of each is drawn in lively colors, and in exact proportions, with a beautiful view of the light of virtue, and a folemn contraft of the fhade of vice. The difference between their circumstances, and fituation, is not more visible, than the qualities of their minds, and the endowments of their hearts. The rich man "had received his "good things," and he enjoyed them without once looking up to the author of them. He poffeffed wealth, but he reflected not for what end it was given him. He confidered it his own, and that he was not accountable for the diftribution of it. "Whatfoever his eyes "defired, he kept not from them, he with"held not from his heart any joy:" the magnificence nificence of drefs, the diftinction of equipage, the luxuries of diffipation; these enchained his attention, and engroffed his foul. "He "lived to himself." Unmindful of his rank in fociety, he provided for the gratification of his defires, without giving himself leisure to reflect on the afflictions, and the wants of others, and how easily he might, by his attentions, and his bounty, have affwaged and relieved them. "Howbeit he meant not fo, "neither did his heart think fo." Wrapt up in the indulgence of his wifhes, to their falfe fecurity, and delufive enjoyments, he facrificed the calls of kindness, and the feelings of humanity. Whereas had he looked into himself -had he confidered whence he came, and whither he was going-had he attended to the difpenfations of Providence, and enquired "who made him to differ from another, and "of what he was poffeffed, that he had not "received from God"-had he examined his heart, by what eminence of merit, and diftinction of goodness, he was entitled to fuch fuperiority of station, the natural refult would have been, that he would have looked upon himfelf as accountable for the diftribution of his riches, and P 3 |