flicted, and to do the utmost in your power to diffuse happiness among all around you.

4. The example of men eminent for their public fpirit, comes next to be confidered, in order to animate us to our duty.

Many inftances of this fort we meet with in profane hiftory; though, alas! it must be acknowledged, that the benevolence for which the wiser heathens, most of them, were fo renowned, was disgraced with not a little vanity, felf-applaufe, and regard for their own interest. The fcriptures, however, furnish us with truly illustrious examples of this description, which demand our most grateful recollection, and our most careful imitation.

Mofes the man of God holds a high rank in the lift of thofe, who fought not their own things, but the things of others. "He chofe rather to fuffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleafures of fin for a feafon *;" and cheerfully renounced all pretenfions to the crown of Egypt, that he might become the deliverer of his oppreffed brethren the Ifraelites. And when the rebellion of that perverfe people against God, and their ungrateful murmurings against him, had like to have brought down inftant vengeance upon their heads; fuch was his public fpirit that he interpofed all his influence with Heaven on their behalf, and with a generofity that scarce admits of a parallel, thus paffionately expreffes himself on the occafion, “Now, O Lord, if thou wilt, for'give their fin and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out "of thy book which thou haft written †." The flattering prospect of the erection of his own family into

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*Heb. xi. 25.

† Exod. xxxii. 32.

a great nation, upon the ruins of this people, who fo justly deserved to be devoted to deftruction, could not fubdue the unconquerable attachment he felt to their intereft *. And fo far was he from wishing to accumulate all the honours, peculiar to the prophetic character, to himself and a few others, that he most fincerely wished, that "all the Lord's people were prophets +." In short, his story exhibits to our view one continued feries of the most difinterested and painful exertions for the good of mankind. A great many other examples I might mention of men of a public and benevolent fpirit, whofe characters and actions fhine with diftinguished luftre in the book of God, fuch as, Joshua, Gideon, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Nehemiah, and others.

The apoftles too were all of them famous for their unwearied attention to the public good, and none among them more fo than he who spoke the language of the text. His life was a striking comment on the paffage before us. So far was he from looking on his own things, that, amidst his zeal for the glory of God and the falvation of men, he loft almost all idea of his own private and perfonal interefts. And it was with a view not to acquire applause, but to conciliate the regards of the Corinthians to his miniftry, and thereby promote their welfare, that he gives them fuch a recital of his fufferings and actions, as fhews him to have been of all men the most difinterested and benevolent." In labours," fays he, "I have "been more abundant: in ftripes above measure : "in prifons more frequent in deaths oft. Of the "Jews five times received I forty ftripes fave one. Thrice

*Exod. xxxii. 10.

† Numb. xi. 29.

was I beaten with rods, once was I ftoned, thrice I "fuffered fhipwreck: a night and a day I have been "in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of wa

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ter, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own coun"trymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in wearinefs and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in "faftings often, in cold and nakednefs. Befides those "things that are without, that which cometh upon me "daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, "and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn "not" Nor muft I forget to mention a paffionate expreffion that drops from his pen, when speaking concerning his countrymen the Jews, which breathes the noblest patriotism, and shews him to have been caft into the fame mould with his great ancestor Mofes: "I "have great heavinefs," fays he, " and continual forrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were "accurfed from Chrift, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh +."

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But the temper and conduct of our Lord Jefus Chrift, when here on earth, exhibit the moft ftriking features of that character we mean to recommend, and wish you to attain. Of the great object of his miffion, which was generously to offer his life a facrifice for fin, we have already fpoken. His actions, during the courfe of his public ministry, are what we have now in view. And thefe were the most benevolent that can be imagined. Did he feek his own things, when at the age of twelve years he difputed with the doctors in the temple? "Wift ye not," says he

*2 Cor. xi. 23---29.

Rom. ix. 2, 3.

he to his parents, when they fought him forrowing, "that I must be about my Father's bufinefs *?" Did he confult his own intereft, when, proof against all the infidious attacks of Satan, and all the flattering profpects of worldly wealth and grandeur, he devoted himfelf to the painful fervice of the miniftry? Did he court the applaufe of men, when he boldly fet himself to oppose the errors, prejudices, and vices of the times? Were power and splendour his object, when he declined the preffing inftances of thousands of people, who, having been miraculously fed by his bounty, would have fain taken him by force and made him a king? Did he affect ease and self-gratification, when travelling on foot from village to village to preach the gofpel, he denied himself often the common refreshments of life? Did he aim to please himself, when, though he had it in his power to escape them, he fubmitted to the vileft indignities that could be caft on him? On the contrary, what illuftrious proofs did he give of the generofity of his heart, in his unremitting exertions for the temporal and fpiritual good of mankind! Now we fee him amidst a croud of poor, abject, wretched beings, the blind, the deaf, the halt, and the like, difpenfing with a gracious smile, the bleffings of health, cafe and happiness among them. Now raising the dead from their graves, and delivering them again into the embraces of their mourning relatives. Now entering the cottage of the helpless widow, and mingling his tears with hers: and now taking little children into his arms, and blessing them. And then we behold him in the temple, and in the ftreets of Jerufalem, in the towns of Galilee and Judea, and in the chief places of concourse, infructing

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* Luke ii. 49.

ftructing the people with unwearied attention, pouring tears of anguish over their spiritual maladies, and befeeching them to accept life and falvation at his hands. In fhort, from the inftant he appeared on the ftage of action to the tragical moment he paffed off it, all concern for his own temporal interefts was abforbed in that he nobly felt for others.

Forgive me that I have enlarged fo particularly on this head of difcourfe. Example hath ufually greater efficacy than precept. It teaches and perfuades at one and the fame time. And I cannot help flattering myfelf with the hope that, with these patterns before our eyes, we fhall feel ourfelves irrefiftibly impelled to the duties of a public fpirit. It remains now to be observed,

5. and laftly, That generously to confult the intereft of others, is in effect to confult our own intereft.

This is an argument addreffed to a paffion which every one feels, a paffion which cannot be eradicated from the human breaft, and which, when duly regulat`ed, will not fail to operate to the general good.— Here let us advert a moment to the refined and exalted pleasure, which refults from the idea of being the inftruments of communicating happiness to our fellowcreatures. What a gratification must it be to a man of a generous fpirit, to refcue a family from poverty and wretchednefs, and to reftore cheerfulness and joy to the gloomy manfion of the widow and fatherless! How exquifite must be the fenfations of an affectionate parent, whilft he realizes, in all the future honour, happiness, and usefulness of his rifing offspring, the rich and lafting fruits of his unwearied attention to their beft interefts! How great must be the fatisfaction which that man feels, who, from the pureft motives,

rifks