is to be acquired from mere theory and system. The care, therefore, of the spiritual concerns of the objects of this charity hath been very properly recommended to the academical clergy of this place. They, on their part, have most readily and willingly undertaken it: and many of the most respectable members of that body have set a laudable and edifying example, by a voluntary and constant attendance hitherto : leading the way to the establishment of a more stated and regular provision for the future, now to take place: in which, I doubt not, such care is taken already, and will from time to time hereafter be taken, both in the appointment and superintendence of the duty, and in the choice of persons of ability, diligence, and zeal, adequate to the performance, as the great importance of the service requires.

Your regulations have indeed from the first been well adapted to the improvement of those sentiments of piety, which sickness and calamity naturally awaken in the mind of man. The daily celebration of public worship, the weekly preaching of the word of God, the frequent administration of the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, cannot but have, in such circumstances, a peculiar and more than common effect. How must the serious, the humble, the penitent, be affected on these occasions! how, even the thoughtless, the dissolute, the profane; those, who have before neglected and despised the ordinances of religion! When such a person enters the general assembly, gathered together in the place set apart for the worship of God; will he not be awed by the order, the

decency, the solemnity, of the public devotions? will he not be struck with the appearance of so many wretched suppliants, in the same state of distress with himself? will he not be penetrated by the general voice of confession and supplication, so needful in his own case? will not the secrets of his heart be made manifest; and, falling down on his face, will he not confess, that God is present with those that call upon him, and add with humble fervency his own addresses to the throne of grace? The seeds of religion, connate with the human mind, however uncultivated, however wilfully suppressed and smothered for a time, can never be totally rooted out: and the heart of man, how obdurate soever, is hardly proof against so powerful, so searching a trial. Advice, consolation, exhortation, instruction in righteousness, duly administered in such a season, shall, with the blessing and grace of God, confirm the good resolutions, which awakened piety may have inspired ; and so fix them on the subdued and converted heart, as never afterward to be removed or shaken. When one of these shall return healed to his own house, and shall declare, what great mercy God hath shewed him, and what He hath done for his soul; his report and his example may have a proper influence in his family, and among his neighbours. And I doubt not, that, by the preaching of the Gospel to the poor in our public Infirmaries, much spiritual comfort hath been administered, the broken-hearted have been healed, and many have been converted to righteousness; and that the good effects of these institutions have been

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extended far beyond the more immediate object of them effects in no case so obvious to observation, as the cure of bodily diseases; but as much more important, as heaven is higher than earth, and as eternal salvation exceeds in weight every temporal advantage.

Go on, therefore, as you have begun; proceed in this charitable work, with the same readiness and bounty, with the same piety and zeal complete your generous designs, and abound yet more and more. May all of you, who are engaged in carrying on this good work, and who bear any relation to it, diligently attend each to his proper part. Let those, whose situation and leisure will allow them to spare to it some small portion of their time and endeavours, cheerfully undertake the office of governors and visitors, and execute it with vigilance and constancy: let those, whose charge is a personal attendance, and care of the sick, exercise it with assiduity, with kindness, and tenderness let those, who minister in spiritual things, faithfully wait on their ministration, instructing, exhorting, comforting, with authority, with patience, with gentleness and may God

open the hearts, and strengthen the hands, of all of you according to your several abilities, to assist in this good work, by your knowledge, your counsel, your favour, your liberality, your example. Nor doubt of the success of this your labour of love in every way; of the certain benefits, that will flow from it, not only, according to your desire and intention, on the poor objects of your benevolence; as well in regard to their everlasting, as to their

temporal, health; on them, and, through them, on the public, in both respects; but on yourselves also, though your generous and disinterested views are not this way directed: ye may not reap the fruits of it here; but ye shall be blessed in this your deed hereafter: ye know, that "they cannot recompense you," and therefore the more shall ye be blessed; "for ye shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."

SERMON VII'.

ROMANS xii. 11.

Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.

A DILIGENT performance of our duty in respect to ourselves and others in that station of life, in which the Divine Providence hath placed us; and a serious attention to the worship of our Creator, animated with a well-informed and a well-tempered zeal; both alike founded, not only on a conviction of the reasonableness, utility, and moral obligation of these duties considered in themselves, but on a regard also to the commands of our only Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, who hath expressly required them at our hands; these form the principal outlines of the character of a good citizen and a good Christian. The great object of this Society, and of our present meeting, is to promote these principles, and to diffuse them more universally

Preached before the Society corresponding with the Incorporated Society in Dublin, for promoting English working-schools in Ireland, at their general meeting in the parish church of St. Mary-le-Bow, on Wednesday, May 19, 1773. By the Right Reverend Robert Lowth, Lord Bishop of Oxford. London, 1773. 4to.