Secondly, What is the true Meaning of the Apostle's Affirmation concerning this Charity, that it shall cover the Multitude of Sins.

As to the First Inquiry, it will appear by the Language made ufe of by St. Peter, that he is not recommending any particular Duty, much less any particular Acts of Duty. (The Words in the Original, rendered by our Tranflators fervent Charity, are àɣányv éxlevñ, continual or uninterrupted Love.) Love is a Principle, or a good Habit of Mind, from which many Duties flow, but does not denote any one kind of Duty more than another; and therefore the. Charity spoken of in the Text has no more immediate Relation to Almfgiving, (as the Ufe of the Word in our Language often leads People to think it has) than it has to Patience, Forgiveness of Injuries, or any other natural Effect of Love or Charity. It is therefore the Principle of Charity, or a general Beneficence of Mind towards one another, which the Apostle recommends. And this must be constant and regular, not subject to the Efforts of Paffion or Resentment; it must preside with a Superiority over all the Defires of our Heart, that neither Wantonness and Luft, nor Anger

and

and Revenge, nor Covetoufnefs and Ambition may carry us afide from the Ways of Righteousness and Equity in our Dealings one with another.

This Description distinguishes the Virtue of the Gofpel from what the World means by Good-nature, which feems to be a Quality refulting rather from the Constitution, than from the Reason of a Man, and is frequently fubject to great Efforts of Paffion and Refentment; to the Defires of Ambition and Lafciviousness, and other Vices, which have no Society, which can have none, with Christian Charity. Good-nature has oftentimes fomething that wants to be corrected in the very Principles of it; fometimes it is an agreeable and eafy Weakness of Mind, or an Indolence or Carelessness with respect to Perfons and Things. But Charity is Reason made perfect by Grace: It is a Beneficence which arifes from a Contemplation of the World, from a Knowledge of the great Creator, and the Relation we bear to Him and to our Fellow-Creatures: It is that Reafon into which all Duties owing from Man to Man are ultimately refolved; and when we chufe to fay in a word what is the Character, the Temper, or the Duty of a Dif

ciple of the Gospel, Charity is the only Word that can exprefs our Meaning.

The fame Sort of Actions materially confidered do oftentimes proceed from very different Principles. Liberality and Hofpitality are natural Effects of Charity, which infpires us with the tender Motions of Compaffion and Benevolence towards our FellowCreatures: But it is no very uncommon Thing for Men to be liberal out of Pride, and hofpitable out of Vanity; to do their Alms before Men, that they may be feen of them; and of fuch our Saviour's Judgment is, that they Jhall have no Reward of their Father, which is in Heaven.

This leads to an Inquiry, By what Means we may certainly diftinguish the Principles from which our Actions are derived, without which we can have no well-grounded Confidence towards God, how fpecious foever the Appearance may be which we make in the Eyes of the World? The ready Anfwer to which Inquiry is, that we must confult our own Hearts, and examine what paffes in them, in order to form a right Judgment upon the Motives of our own Actions. But if we confider what is meant by fearching the Heart, we fhall find that to fearch

the

the Heart, and to examine into the Motives and Principles of our Actions, is one and the fame Thing; and therefore this Direction does not fet us one Step forward in the Inquiry. Befides, it is no eafy Matter to come to the Knowledge of our own Hearts, fince from Experience it is plain, that Men do impose upon themselves at least as often as they do upon the World; and find an Ease and Satisfaction in doing the Things, which shall yield no Fruit in the great Day, when the Secrets of all Hearts fhall be difclofed. And though in Actions which require Deliberation, and are not undertaken without a previous Debate had with ourselves upon their Expediency or Inexpediency, an honest Man may judge of his own Motives and Sincerity; yet a thousand Things there are which Men do habitually, and with so much Eafe and Readiness, as not to attend to the Influence of any particular Motive at the Time of doing the Action. Charitable Perfons do not, in each fingle Inftance of Charity, fet before their Minds the Connection of that Action with the Honour of God, and the Good of the World; nor can they perhaps be able to fay what particular Motive led to each Act of Charity. A Man of a

regular

regular Chastity and Sobriety does not every Day, nor perhaps every Month, reafon himfelf into the Obfervation of thefe Duties, and exert the Motives in his Heart, upon which the Practice of these Duties is founded; nor can he anfwer, fhould he be examined to the Point, how far his Virtue is owing to this or the other Motive, or how far to his natural Temperament and Conftitution. And fince no one Virtue confifts in a fingle Act, or in any certain determinate Number of fingle Acts, but in a regular and habitual Conformity to the Rules of Reason and Morality; which Conformity the more habitual it is, the lefs we feel of the Influence of any par ticular Motives; it is hardly poffible for Men to estimate the Good or Evil of their Actions, by confidering the immediate and fenfible Connection between each Action, and the Motives producing it. For, as many Motions of the Body, which depend on the Acts of our Will, are exerted with the greatest Reafon, and yet the Reafon of exerting them is but feldom by any, and by fome hardly ever attended to; fo in moral Actions a Man of confirmed habitual Goodnefs does many things right, without recurring back by Reflection to the fpecial Grounds

and