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men generally take shelter, is that of inability. "Their circumftances will not permit them to "become benefactors; the public weight of taxes, "the general decay of traffic, and some particu"lar loffes they have felt, lie heavy upon them; "their families and their creditors do of right "lay claim to all they poffefs; and it would be 66 an injury to both, fhould they otherwise difpofe "of it. The care of the poor is not committed "to them, but to the rich, and profperous, and "childless." Now it is true, that from these the moft bountiful fupplies are expected; These are the great fprings, that chiefly feed the general current of charity; for "to whom much is given, "of them fhall be much required," Luke xii 48. However, there is ftill a proportion due even from thofe, who are not bleffed with their affluence; and, before we can excufe ourselves from paying it, it will behove us to confider-Whether there be no unneceffary expences, that we fupport; fuch as are unfuitable to our circumftances, and the duties of our rank and station do not require; whether we are too magnificent and fumptuous in our table and attendance; in our attire and furniture; in our houfes and gardens of pleasure : Whether we do not fquander away fome part of our fortune at play, or indulge fome coftly vice, which eats up all we have to fpare from the reafonable conveniences of life, and the just demands of our family. For, if any of these be the cafe, we have no right to plead inability, in refpect of works of mercy, which our faults and our follies only hinder us from promoting; but ought immediately to retrench thofe fuperfluous expences,

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in order to qualify ourfelves for the exercife of charity.

The public burthens, though they may be a good reafon for our not expending fo much in charity as perhaps we might otherwife do, yet will not justify us in giving nothing; especially if, as those burthens increafe, we take care to improve in our frugality and diligence; virtues, which always become us, but more particularly in times of war and public expence; however a diffolute people, whom God (in fpight of all their vanities and vices) has bleffed with fuccefs, may at prefent difregard them.

Our private loffes and misfortunes may indeed unqualify us for charity: But it were worth our while ferioufly to reflect, whether they might not originally be, in fome measure, owing to the want of it; I mean, whether fuch loffes may not have been inflicted by God, as a juft punifhinent of our former avarice and unmercifulnefs, when we had it more in our power than now (and yet had it as little in our will) to be charitable. And if fo, can we take a furer or nearer way towards repairing thofe loffes, than by betaking ourfelves to the practice of that duty, the omiflion of which occafioned them? For the lips of truth have faid; "He that giveth unto the poor, fhall not lack. The liberal foul fhall be made fat; "and he that watereth, fhall be watered alfo "himfelf," Prov. xxviii. 27.

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Our children and families have, indeed, a right to inherit our fortunes; but not altogether in exclufion to the poor, who have also a right (even God's right) to partake of them. As therefore

VOL. II.

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we ought not to defraud our children, for the fake of the poor; fo neither ought we to rob the poor of their fhare, for the fake of our children: For this is a kind of facrilege, and may prove an eating canker and a confuming moth in the estate that we leave them. Have thy children a due fense of religion? they will be pleased, that thou haft made a pious difpofal of fuch a part of thy fortunes, as will fanctify and fecure the reft to them: Are they ungracious and diffolute? thou haft the less reafon in thy charitable distributions to regard them; who, perhaps, when thou art gone, will be the most forward to tax thy needless parcimony, and will spend in riot what was faved by uncharitableness.

Out of a tender concern, therefore, for the welfare of thy family, that very concern which makes thee fhut thy hand to the poor, open it, and scatter among them a proper portion of the good things of life; "and be not faithless, but "believing," that thou, and they "fhall be "bleffed in thy deed: for there is that fcattereth, " and yet increafeth; and there is that withhold"eth more than is meet, but it tendeth to "poverty," Prov. xi. 24.

As to the excufe drawn from the demand of ereditors, if it be real, it is unanswerable: For no alms can be given, but out of what is properly our own; and nothing is our own, but what remains to us after all our juft debts are fatisfied. However, there is one fort of debt, which, to whomsoever it is owing, can only be paid to the poor; I mean, when, in the courfe of our dealing, we have either done wrong ignorantly; or

have afterwards forgotten the wrong, which we at first knowingly did; or have not within our memory, or reach, the persons to whom we did it. In fuch cafes, all the reparation we are capable of making, is, to bestow what was thus gotten by injuftice, on proper objects of charity. Which is agreeable to the good pattern fet by Zaccheus "Behold, Lord," fays he, "the half of my "goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken "any thing from any man-I reftore him four"fold," Luke xix. 8. He refolves to make perfonal reftitution, where the wrong can be difcovered, and the wronged perfon reached; and where they cannot, to make the best amends in his power, by fubftituting the poor in the room of the injured party. An example, worthy to be imitated by all thofe who are conscious, or jealous, that fome unlawful gain may (like the " Nail be"twixt the joinings of the ftones") have "stuck "faft" to them, between buying and felling." The best way of fatisfying that debt (which deferves to be confidered as well as other debts) is, by cafting a fin-offering (as it were) into fome of thefe public funds and receptacles of charity; which are not more useful to the poor, than to the rich of this great city: For if they afford the one relief, they give the other also (what they fometimes may, in order to the quiet of their confciences, equally want) an happy opportunity of beftowing it.

Hitherto of the firft excufe for uncharitableness, drawn from pretended inability; which I have confidered the more largely, in its feveral branches, because it is, of all others, the moft general and prevailing

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prevailing illufion: I proceed now to reckon up other pleas and pretences, which, not being of equal weight, fhall be handled more briefly. For,

II. There are thofe that plead unfettled times, and an ill profpect of affairs (whether wrongly or rightly, is not the cafe; but there are thofe that plead thefe things) as impediments to the exercise of charity. For in fuch an uncertain world, who knows, but that he may want to-morrow what he gives to-day? Who knows, what the fate of thefe public charities may be, which are now fo fair and flourishing?

But, if this be a good objection, it will at all times equally hinder us from abounding in the offices of charity; fince there is no time when we may not entertain fuch conjectures as these, and alarm ourselves with fuch fears and forebodings. "He that obferveth the wind, fhall "not fow; and he that regardeth the clouds, "thall not reap," Eccl. xi. 4 fays the wife man, in this very cafe, and of thefe very pretences: He that too curioufly obferves the face of the heavens, and the figns of the times, will be often withheld from doing what is abfolutely neceffary to be done in the present moment; and, by misfing his feed-time, will lofe the hopes of his harveft. And therefore the counfel there given by the fame pen is, "In the morning fow thy feed, "and in the evening withhold not thy hand: for "thou knowest not whether fhall profper, either "this or that; or whether they both shall be a"like good," ver. 6. Neglect no opportunity of doing good, nor check thy defire of doing it,

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