who bestowed their possessions upon themselves, and were unmindful of him, and of his poor brethren, he saith, Depart from me, I know you not.

Think then, all ye that have ability: think what a serious trust is committed to you, and what great things depend upon a faithful discharge of it. We count the rich happy; we labour for wealth; we court popularity; we are proud of honours and titles; but all these things will fail us in the time of trouble. No man can be accounted happy, but he who shall find deliverance from God. This deliverance is promised to the charitable man; and the promise of God shall never disappoint him. In all the cares and vexations of life; in the temptations of prosperity, and in the sorrows of adversity; in health and in sickness; in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment; blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy; the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble.

SERMON XI.

NOW CONCERNING

THE COLLECTION

FOR THE

SAINTS, AS I HAVE GIVEN ORDER TO THE CHURCHES OF GALATIA EVEN SO DO YE:

UPON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, LET EVERY ONE OF YOU LAY BY HIM IN STORE, AS GOD HATH PROSPERED HIM. I COR. XVI. 1, 2.

The

HENCE we learn, that the custom of providing for the wants of necessitous Christians by a voluntary contribution, is as ancient as Christianity itself. method ordained by the apostle in the churches of Galatia, and, by this precept of the text, in the church of Corinth also, was to lay by something in store weekly, according to the abilities of each, and the blessing of God upon their affairs; and at stated times, what was so raised, was collected by the governors of the church, and distribution was made as every man had need; so that in the first ages, though there would of course be many poor in the church, because there were people of all orders converted to the faith, yet there were none without relief. If they were sick, or under persecution, or any other misfortune, they were the pensioners of the church, and

for an hungry multitude in a wilderness; if he, I say, thought it expedient that we should make the most of his gifts, the same rule will oblige us to make the most of our own gains, and to take care that nothing be lost. It is a sort of tempting God, if we expect him to work two miracles, when a prudent application of one would answer the end. The means were miraculous the first time the multitude were fed; but they were natural when the fragments that had been laid up were distributed. It is the care of Providence to put us in a way, and do what we cannot do for ourselves; but it must be our care to make the most of his gifts by a prudent attention to them.

A second qualification, necessary to those who would lay by any thing, is industry. Idleness is the disgrace of human kind. It was made neither for the rich nor the poor; neither for man when he was in Paradise, nor now he is out of it. The body, the mind, and the estate, all suffer by it. It brings diseases upon the rich, and filthiness upon the poor: it weakens all the faculties of the mind, and leaves it empty and dissatisfied; it ruins the estate, because an idle disposition is for the most part attended with expensive inclinations, while it brings in nothing for the supply of necessary wants. Idle people are generally vicious: they are idle because they are vicious; and vice always did cost more than virtue to maintain it. Instead of having any thing to lay by, idleness expects to receive that from the labours of others, which it does not deserve from any body. The idle man is to society, what a useless limb is to the body, which must be carried or dragged along by the rest; and if he is not troublesome to-day, he will be soon: for he that has neither house nor land, nor any useful employment, must be maintained either by beggary or by

working in the dark, when other men are asleep : therefore, such people ought to be strictly watched; and every society has a right against them on a principle of self-defence; for he who does them no good, will very soon do them some mischief. In a neighbouring nation, celebrated for few virtues besides those of frugality and industry, they endure no idleness amongst them; so you see no beggars about their streets, and very seldom hear of any executions for felony. If any poor man turns idle, and admonition does him no good, they take the following method to make him work: they confine him in a large cistern, into which the water runs so fast, that unless he pumps it out with all his might for several hours, it will prevail over him and drown him. Our schools of labour are called houses of correction; but the place where this discipline is exercised, is called the bettering house: and if the first trial does not make a man better, they give him a second; and so on, till he is brought to reason with himself: then he discovers, that it will be less trouble to earn his living by moderate labour, than to do such hard work and get nothing by it. This, however, is a way of teaching men as we teach brutes, by compulsion. How much better is it to hearken and learn as children do, and be bettered by the instructions of wisdom! Go, then, to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

But now, thirdly, I am to remind you, that he who would lay any thing by for charity, must be temperate. No man will ever be able to do much good to others, who does not lay some restraint upon himself. Intem

:

perance is hurtful to the rich; but it is ruinous to the poor and alas! we have too many examples of it in all places; of men who spend all they have upon themselves, and sometimes more than they have, and live more like swine than Christians. If there should be any such here present, may God give them grace to understand rightly the miserable bondage into which they have been betrayed by ungoverned appetites; while, instead of fancied indulgence, they find nothing but real misery; the ingredients of which are the three great evils of human life, sickness, guilt and poverty. If we were to follow some people of the lower class of life, to observe how they live, particularly those who are employed in handicraft trades, in the great metropolis of this kingdom; we should see them working hard for a few days, then taking their wages, and giving themselves up for as many days more to idleness and intemperance in a public house. There they meet with others as idle as themselves; who are come upon the same errand, to waste their time and their money. They sit till all is spent, and, perhaps, till their senses are gone together with their money; but if not so bad as that, their consciences are wounded, and their peace of mind is destroyed; so that they have not one moment of rational enjoyment. In the mean time, if we were to see the un- . happy wife of one of these free-livers, we should find her at home, with her poor, ragged, helpless children about her, hungering and thirsting for the fruit of their father's labour; with which, he is all the while abusing himself in other company. When all is gone, and he has time to think a little, the distress of his family stares him in the face; he is entertained with bitter accusations, which he has brought upon him