and employ their wealth, to drive away want and distress from the habitations of the INDUSTRIOUS Poor. Now, would we regard our new Establishments in this view, we should have a sufticient answer to the Objection arising from the growing multi- plicity of them. They are, we have shewn, a Succedaneum, and the only one we have, to that great bond of Society, RELIGION: a partial extension of it, therefore, will hardly be sufficient. The Charity must spread and enlarge itself till it encompasses the whole, in order.. to enable it to supply the place of that natural and more efficacious tie, RELIGION, now loosened in most parts, but quite shattered and broken in that where its strength was most needful, I mean, the Populace. But this is not all: these Establishments abound in their uses; not only such as are public and general, which have been already explained, but private and particular likewise, as we shall see. Where every good man is his own almoner, compassion is always readier to bestow, than prudence and circumspection to distribute. It relieves labouring humanity when we ease an abject in distress. But the judgment (whenever we condescend to be governed by it) always withholds its assent, till the object appear worthy our care and attention. And were the judgment more consulted, we should not, at this very hour, have virtuous compassion, by a false pity, so much abused, as to become, instead of a blessing $ 4 a blessing, a public mischief; as it is in the relief of common vagrants and street-beggars. The charitable rich man is, as we have said, the chosen Substitute of God, to supply what, in the common course of his Providence, hath, for wise reasons, been left imperfect and deficient. It is of his office, therefore, to satisfy justice and mercy, in the support of distressed Virtue, before he allows the tender sentiments of a constitutional compassion, to administer to the alleviation of suffering vice. For these reasons, we shall, if we be wise as well as pious, make these public Charities the Treasuries of our private Alms; as being well assured, that what is there lodged will be dispensed in such a manner as may best advance the national interests ; may best serve the sacred ends of Religion; and best satisfy our own bountiful and humane disposition. And if, amongst these various Establishments, there be some whose principal objects are the wretches, who, by their vicious and intemperate appetites, have brought disease and misery on themselves, even these may fairly plead our pity, since they catched the infection of their immoral habits from the depraved Example of their Betters. But the distinguished Charity, which I am at this time to recommend to your protection, is of a very different nature. It is, in a word, the most humane, most useful, and most deserving the attention of all good men; as it is best calculated to produce the satisfactory and salutary purposes which 13 the the wisest Establishments of this kind profess to aim at. A still further inducement to support these Charities is the present state of the Public Manners; which are seen by all to be in so profligate a condition, as to require some atonement for insulted Truth and violated Virtue. The most natural indeed, and efficacious, is the amendment of our lives and reformation of our vicious habits: yet, while that is working (and it is always a work of time) as there is apparent need of some intermediate deprecation of the wrath of Heaven, we are unable to conceive any more acceptable service to the God of mercy and compassion, than the relief of his favourite Creature, Man, struggling under the rigour of his wise and necessary Dispensation. But then let no superstitious fancies, that our habitual vices may be indulged under the ample cloak of Charity, defeat these hopeful means of a beginning reconciliation with our offended Master. For though Charity or benevolence hides the faults of others from the severity of our censure, yet Charity or Alms-giving is totally unable to conceal our own from the observance of our all-righteous Judge. Indeed, the only cover for these, or, to speak more properly, the discharge of all their stains, is FAITH, is the BLOOD of Christ, working with repentance towards God. When FAITH, when the BLOOD of Christ, hath thus done its perfect work, and brought forth repentance, then we shall not be mistaken in concluding that one of the noblest fruits of repentance is of the growth of THIS ESTABLISHMENT; in giving covering covering to the naked, in dispensing food to the hungry, in pouring balm into the wounds of the afflicted, and administering cordials to the sick and languishing. May this be the constant employment of this humane Establishment! and may the God of all Mercies prosper its generous Undertakings! SERMON XXXII. Preached before the King, at Kensington, October 27, 1754. CHRIST'S LEGACY OF PEACE TO HIS GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, xiv. 27. PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU, MY PEACE I GIVE UNTO YOU NOT AS THE WORLD GIVETH, GIVE HE blessed Founder of our Faith, to shew us TH the superiority of the advantages which Religion offers to his faithful Servants, bequeaths to them this inestimable Legacy of Peace. All temporal good results into one or other of these two blessings, Pleasure and Peace. The first more strongly solicits the sensual appetites; the second, the intellectual: That strikes more forcibly on the fancy; this, on the understanding. Pleasure is the early and single object of the young and dissipated but Peace is the harbour of the wise and experienced, |