SERM.I. we are not to exercife any Acts of public Charity; would be as ridiculous as to argue, that because private Prayer is commanded, public Worship is forbidden. To put our Virtue to the Teft; to try whether it be genuine (as founded upon a pure unmixed Principle of pleafing God without any finifter Views of worldly Applaufe) our Saviour has ordered us to give Alms fecretly; and our Father which feeth in Heaven will reward is openly. That Virtue, on the other Hand, might not lofe the Benefit of public Example, He has commanded that, at other Times, we let our Light so shine before Men, that they may fee our good Works, and glorify our Father which is in Heaven. If all our Charity was to be intirely fecret, removed from the Eye of the World; it would decay and dwindle into nothing. Just as Religion itfelf would, for Want of a confpicuous, exemplary, avowed Piety: Both the one and the other then stand in great Need of a public Countenance and Encouragement, which stamp a Credit upon them in the midst of a crooked and degenerate Age. If Charity, on the other Hand, was to be done always publicly and openly with Religion again it would degenerate

generate into mere Hypocrify, Formality, SaRM. I. and outside Shew. Wifely therefore, very wifely, has our Saviour (who has given us the most perfect Model of Religion) enjoined both the public and the private Practice of this one great and effential Duty of it.

In the Exercise of public Charity great Care is indeed to be taken that we fuffer not ourselves to be influenced by Oftentation, or any finifter Motive. Even the Sense of fhewing a good Example, and the inward Rifings of Pity, ought to be backed, if they be not introduced, by the most noble and generous Motive of all, the discharging our Duty to God.

By the Way; what an exalted Turn of Mind muft He have, who can be content to fufpend all Thoughts of Praife, till he receives it in that Place where his Actions cannot be misinterpreted; who can put off the Defire of Applaufe till he receives that Applause of infinitely more Value, than the united Commendation of all Beings in the whole World befides, that most invaluable Applaufe of his Creator- -Well done thou good and faithful Servant, enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord?

C 3

But

SERM. I.

But befides the Circumftance of Place, there is the Manner in the Person to be obferved, which is fometimes as engaging as the Bounty he beftows. It is the least Glory in a Person of Worth to be fuperior > to others in Point of Station and Fortune: his greatest Honour is to make that Superiority fit gracefully upon him, without any forbidding Appearances; and to make his Inferior as little fenfible of it as poffible by an easy Dignity, and by an affable Complacency of Behaviour. An Action good in itself is greatly recommended by an agreeable Manner of doing it: an agreeable Manner being to Actions, what a lively Manner of Expreffion is to our Sense; it beautifies and adorns it, and gives it all the Advantage whereof it is capable. There is the fame Difference between a beneficial Deed, when endeared by an eafy, affable Deportment, and when deftitute of that Circumftance, as between a beautiful Object when enlivened by the chearful Light of the Sun, and when exhibited in a dim, fickly Light. In a Word, it is our Duty in general not only to have Virtue, but to make our Virtue truly amiable. A Gift may be great in itself, but if it is difpen

fed with several ungracious Circumftances, SERM. I. in an over-bearing Way, or without the Appearance of a willing Mind, it is like an ungainly Building, admirable only for it's Magnitude; which does not affect or strike us half fo much as one of fmaller Dimenfions adjusted with Symmetry and Harmony of Parts, and fet off with the additional Beauty of decent Ornaments.

A Delicacy of this Kind is most chiefly to be observed with those who have not been used to receive Charity: where we fhould endeavour as much to conceal our Benevolence, as they do to hide their Mifery: imitating herein the Behaviour of an Heathen Philofopher, who contrived his Bounty to be conveyed in fo indirect a Manner, that Chance rather than Defign feemed to have had the Difpofal of it. But this leads me,

IVthly, and Laftly, To lay before you the Motives to Charity; and,

1. The first may be drawn from Compaffion.

Compaffion is the Call of our Father which is in Heaven, to us His Children who are in Profperity, to put us upon Relieving

SERM. I.

our Brethren who are in Distress.

This is

an Affection wifely interwoven in our
Frame and Nature by the Author of all
Nature that whereas dry and abstracted
Reason is too fedentary and remifs a Coun
fellor, we might have a more inftant and
vigorous Pleader in our Breafts to excite us
to acts of Charity. As far indeed as it is
ingrafted in us, it is mere Instinct; but
when we cultivate and cherish it till we
love Mercy; when we dwell upon each
tender Sentiment that opens our Mind, and
enlarges our Heart; then it becomes a
Virtue. Every one, who has not erafed all
Sentiments of Humanity, must be intimate-
ly confcious (the very highest Degree of
Certainty) that he has fuch a Principle:
And it is a material Obfervation, which
may fill give us a deeper Senfe of the
Goodnefs and Wifdom of God in framing
our Nature, that we are more paffionately
and feelingly affected to behold the extreme
Anguish of a Perfon that is even a Stranger
to us, than we are to fee the Happiness of
one that is indifferent to us. We are more
apt in this Cafe to weep with them that

weep, than we are in the
with them that do rejoice.

other to rejoice

Now the Reafon,

why