SERM. V. judged and punished, the fitteft and kindest enquiry that our judge can make, is, What deeds of charity we have to alledge in extenuation of our punishment?

6. The fecret manner, in which acts of mercy often are, and ought to be performed, requires this public manifeftation of them at the great day of account. There are, I think, but three duties, in the performance of which God hath, after a peculiar manner, recommended fecrecy to us alms, fafting and prayer. The two latter of these (as far as we are obliged to fecrecy in the difcharge of them)relate chiefly to ourselves and to our own concerns: but the first regards our neighbour alone, and cannot therefore be done altogether without a witness. However, as far as the nature of this duty will admit of privacy, our Saviour hath enjoined it, and in terms of a particular fignificancy and force. For he knew that good and bountiful minds were sometimes inclined to oftentation, and ready to cover it with a pretence of inciting others by their example; and therefore checks this vanity in thefe remarkable words: "Take heed," fays he, " that ye do not your alms before men, to be feen of them.- That thou doft not found a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do, that they may have glory of men: Verily I fay unto you, they have their reward, But when thou doft alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth,” Matt. vi. 1, 2, 3. And that we might be encouraged punctually to observe this precept, by a reward proportioned to the nature of the duty, therefeore he adds And thy father, which feeth in fecret, fball himse f reward

reward thee openly; Matt. vi. 4. that is, in the fight of angels and men, at the great day of retribution. For that this is his meaning, may appear from a parallel place in St. Luke, where the reward promised to charity, is thus expreffed; And thou shalt be recompenfed at the refurrection of the just; Luke xiv. 14. at that time, when God fball Judge the fecrets of men by Chrift Jefus; Rom. ii. 16. Shall openly punith their fecret fins, and openly own and reward their fecret virtues; their acts of charity efpecially, which, as they were, in obedience to his command, performed privately, fo they fhall now, according to his promife, be rewarded openly. A reward, every way congruous and fitting! For it gives God and good men the glory, that would otherwife be loft, of many retired graces and virtues; which deferve fo much -the rather to be published, because they declined obfervation! It reproaches and fills with confu fion those unmerciful and wicked men, who looked upon all fuch concealed inftances of goodness, as unprofitable folly, as the caft ng of our bread up on the waters, which, they did not think, would thus be found after many days, Eccl. xi. 1. It pro claims the triumphs of humanity and goodness in a proper audience, even before the whole race of mankind, then affembled. The objects of mercy themfelves will be prefent, and will, with plea→ fure, difcover the bleffed hands that relieved them; nor fhall their teftimony be wanting, when the Judge of the world doth, as it were, point and appeal to them in the throng, as evidences of the equity of that fentence he is then about to pronounce: Inafmuch as ye have done it to one of the VOL. II.

leaft

least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto

me.

And this furnishes us with yet one more reason, why our Saviour lays fuch a particular stress on acts of mercy; because he looks upon every one of them as a personal kindness done to himself; ye have done it unto me! How this is to be underftood, and upon what account our Lord is pleafed to exprefs himself on this occafion with so wondrous a degree of condefcenfion, is what I, upon my fecond general head, proposed to fhew.

II. Inafmuch as ye have done it unto one of the leaft of thefe my brethren, ye have done it unto me. To me! that is, at my instance, and for my fake; to my brethren, as fuch, on account of their relation to me; and what is thus done in obedience to my commands, and with a peculiar regard to my perfon, I efteem a perfonal kindness, and will acknowledge and reward it accordingly: For, as he elsewhere fpeaks, Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a difciple, [or, as belonging to Chrift] verily I fay unto you, he fhall in no wife lofe his reward, Mark ix. 41.

It is certain, that thofe good men, who take fuch pleasure in relieving the miferable, for Chrift's fake, would not have been lefs forward to minister unto Christ himself, if they had been bleffed with an opportunity of doing it. Now, what they were thus ready to have done, our Saviour reckons as done, and places to their account. For if there be firft a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to

that

that a man hath not, 2 Cor. viii. 12. And this is the ground of that favourable decifion of his, in behalf of the poor widow, who, while many, that were rich caft much into the treasury, threw in two mites-Verily (faid he) she hath caft in more than they all! Mark xii. 42, 43. i. e. if she had as much as they all had, fhe would have caft in more than they all did; and God refpects, not the gift, but the bountiful mind and intention of the giver; calling (in this sense alfo) the things that are not, as if they were Rom. iv. 17.

But there is yet a more strict and proper fenfe, in which the words of our Lord may be underftood. He hath taken our nature upon him, and united it to himself; and is, therefore, on the account of this union and alliance, fome way interested in the joys and griefs of those who fhare the fame nature with him. For, according to the reafoning of the divine writer to the Hebrews, both he that fanctifieth, and they who are fanctified, are all of one [i. e. are all partakers of the fame flesh and blood; as he afterwards explains himself ;] for which caufe he is not afbamed to call them brethren. Heb. ii. II.

We are indeed his brethren, as we are men : but we are still more fo, as we are Christians ; that is, as members of that myftical body, of which Chrift Jefus is the Head. Now (as St. Paul argues concerning this myftical body)" whether one member fuffer, all the members fuffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoyce with it ;" 1 Cor. xii. 26. The Head especially, which is the principle of life, and motion, and fenfe to the reft; and "from which all the

O 2

body

body by joints and bands having nourishment miniftred, and being knit together, increaseth with the increafe of God." They are ftill the fame apoftle's words; who is every where full of this union and sympathy between Christ and his members; having received very strong impreffions of it at the time of his converfion, when he heard that voice from heaven, "Saul, Saul, Why perfecuteft thou me? And he faid, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord faid, I ana Jefus whom thou perfecuteft." In like mannes as Jefus is perfecuted, when any of his poor members fuffer, he is relieved alfo when they are relieved. Inafmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Indeed, our Saviour is reprefented every where in fcripture as the fpecial patron of the poor and the afflicted, and as laying their interests to heart (as it were) more nearly than thofe of any other of his members. The reafon of which is not obfcurely intimated to us.

Our Saviour's humiliation confifted not merely in taking human nature upon him, but human nature cloathed with all the lowest and meanest circumftances of it. He led a life of great poverty, fhame, and trouble; "not having where to lay his head," or wherewithal to fupply his own wants without the benevolence of others, or a miracle:"He was defpifed and rejected of men, a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief," I. iii. 3. So that the reft of the world "hid as it were, their faces from him." Now, in the epiftle to the Heb >ws we are told, that, by thus taking on bim the feed of Abraham, he became a merciful

and