SERMON XI.

ON CHARITY.

JOHN vi. 11.

And Jefus took the loaves, and, when he had given thanks, he diftributed to the difciples, and the difciples to them that were fet down.

Ir is not without defign that our Saviour affociates the disciples, in the prodigy of multiplying the loaves, and that he makes use of their ministry in diftributing the miraculous food among a people preffed with hunger and want. He might, again, no doubt, have made manna to rain upon the defert, and faved to his disciples the trouble of fo painful a diftribution.

But, might he not, alfo, after raifing up Lazarus from the dead, dispensed with their affistance in unloofing him? Could his Almighty voice, which had just broken asunder the chains of death, have found any refiftance from the feeble bands which the hand of man had formed? It is because he wished to point out to them beforehand the facred exercife of their ministry; the part they were afterwards to have in the spiritual refurrection of finners; ard that whatever they should unloose upon the earth fhould be unloofed in heaven.

t

Again, when there was queftion of paying tribute to Cefar, he might have avoided the fnare of Peter, by producing a piece of money out of the bowels of a fifh: He who, even from ftones, was able to raise up children, of eup Abraham, might furely with greater ease have converted them into a precious metal, and thereby furnished the amount of the tribute due to Cefar: But, in the character of Head of the Church, he meant to teach his miThe meant to nifters to refpect those in authority; and, by rendering honour and tribute to the powers established by God, to set an example of submission to other believers.

Thus, in making ufe, upon this occafion, of the intervention of the apostles to diftribute the loaves to the mul titude, his design is, to accuftom all his difciples to compaffion and liberality towards the unfortunate: He eftablishes you the minifters of his providence, and multiplies the riches of the earth in your hands, for the fole purpofe of being diftributed from thence among that multitude of unfortunate fellow-creatures which furrounds you. He, do doubt, might nourish them himself, as he formerly nourifhed Paul and Elijah in the defert; without your interference he might comfort those creatures which bear his image; he, whofe invisible hand prepares food even for the young ravens which invoke him in their want; but he wishes to affociate you in the merit of his liberality; hẻ wishes you to be placed betwixt himfelt and the poor, like refreshing clouds, always ready to fhower upon them those fructifying streams which you have only received for their advantage.

7

Such is the order of his providence; it was neceffary that means of falvation fhould be provided for all men: riches would corrupt the heart, if charity were not to

expiate

expiate their abuse; indigence would fatigue and weary out virtue, if the fuccours of compaffion were not to foften its bitternefs; the poor facilitate to the rich the pardon of their pleasures; the rich animate the poor not to lose the merit of their fufferings.

Apply yourself, then, be whom you may, to all the confequence of this gofpel. If you groan under the yoke of poverty, the tendernefs and the care of Jefus Chrift to wards all the wants of a wandering and unprovided people will confole you: If born to opulence, the example of the disciples will now inftruct you. You will there fee, ftly, The pretexts which they oppofe to the duty of charíty confuted: 2dly, You will learn what ought to be its rules. That is to say, that in the first part of this discourse we fhall establish this duty againft all the vain excuses of avarice; in the second we shall instruct you in the manner of fulfilling it against even the defects of charity; it is the most natural instruction with which the hiftory of the gofpel prefents us.

PART I. It is fcarcely a matter of controverfy now in the world, whether the law of God make a precept to us of charity: The gospel is fo pointed on this duty; the fpirit and the ground-work of religion lead us fo naturally to it; the idea alone which we have of Providence, in the difpenfation of temporal things, leaves fo little room on that point to opinion or doubt, that, though many be ignorant of the extent of this obligation, yet there are almost none who do not admit of the foundation and principle.

Who, indeed, is ignorant that the Lord, whofe providence hath regulated all things with an order fo admirable

and

हैं

and beautiful, and prepared food even for the beasts of the field, would never have left men, created after his own image, a prey to hunger and indigence, whilst he would liberally fhower upon a small number of happy individuals the blef fings of heaven and the fat of the earth, if he had not in tended that the abundance of the one fhould, supply the neceffities of the other ? an of

Who is ignorant that originally every thing belonged in common to all men; that fimple nature knew neither property nor portions; and that, at firft, fhe left each of us in peffeffion of the univerfe? But that in order to put bounds to avarice, and to avoid trouble and diffenfions, the common consent of the people established that the wif eft, the most humane, and the most upright, should like wife be the most opulent; that befides the portion of wealth deftined to them by nature, they should also be charged with that of the weakeft, to be its depofitaries, and to de fend it against ufurpation and violence: confequently, that they were established by nature itself as the guardians of the unfortunate, and that whatever surplus they had was only the patrimony of their brethren confided to their care and their equity?

Who, laftly, is ignorant that the ties of religion have ftill more firmly cemented the first bonds of union which nature had formed among men; that the grace of Jefus Christ, which brought forth the firft believers, made of them not only one heart and one foul, but also one family, where the idea of individual property was exploded; and that the gospel, making it a law to us to love our brethren as ourselves, no longer permits us to be ignorant of their wants, or to be infenfible to their forrow's ?,

But

But it is with the duty of charity as with all the other duties of the law; in general, the obligation is not, even in idea, dénied; but, does the circumftance of its fulfil ment take place? A pretext is never wanting, either to dispense with it entirely, or at least to be quit for a moiety of the duty. Now, it would appear that the spirit of God hath meant to point out to us all thefe pretexts, in the an swers which the disciples made to Jesus Christ in order to excufe themfelves from affifting the famished multitude which had followed him to the defert.

In the first place, they remind him, that they had scarcely wherewithal to supply their own wants; and that only five loaves of barley, and two fishes remained: behold the first pretext, made use of by covetousness, in opposition to the duty of compaffion. Scarcely have they fufficient for themselves; they have a name, and a rank to fupport in the world; children to establish; creditors to fatisfy; public charges to support; a thousand expences of pure bene. volence, to which attention must be paid; now, what is any income, not entirely unlimited, to fuch endless demands? in this manner, the world continually speaks; and a world the most brilliant, and the most sumptuous.

1

Now, I well know, that the limits of what is called a fufficiency, are not the fame for all ftations; that they extend in proportion to rank and birth; that one ftar, says the apostle, muft differ in luftre from another; that, even from the apoftolic ages, men were seen in the affemblies of believers, clothed in robes of diftinction, with rings of gold, while others, of a more obscure ftation, were forced to content themselves with the apparel neceffary to cover: their nakedness; that, confequently, religion doth not confound ftations; and that, if it forbid those who dwell in

the