. evil converfation.

Yet this merciful work of admonition ought to be managed with caution: * there is a particular tenderness due to perfons under a prefent affliction, not only that we may not feem to vex them, whom God hath wounded; and perfecute them, whom he hath afflicted; but becaufe men are more fufceptible of refentment, in proportion to the greatness of their diftrefs. If the perfon we reprove be out of our power, we ought to forbear him till his paffion is down, till his mind is calm and eafy: whoever reproves a man, when difordered by paffion or intemperance, preaches patience to the wind, which the more he endeavours to refift, the louder it will ftorm. When one is fit to receive a reprehenfion, we ought to give it with the greateft privacy: if he offend in publick, where there are witneffes, unless the matter be highly fcandalous, it is fufficient that we express our diflike of it by our looks and the seriousness of our behaviour, and afterwards to fhew the folly and danger of his fin in private: to reprove men publickly looks more like malice than mercy; efpecially till we have first made trial of private reproofs, and found them unsuccessful. Nor with our reproofs ought we to minglelightnefs or drollery, nor paffion, nor upbraidings; but to perform this merciful office with modefty, feri- How to be oufnefs, and compaffion: to reprove a man lightly given. or paffionately derides and reproaches him for his fin, but never reclaims him from it. Again, we ought to reprove him for matters culpable, not to reprehend him for any innocent freedom, not for a very trifling indecency, but only for plain and unquestionable trefpaffes upon religion: left he Thould look upon our reproofs as the language of a proud and ill-natured temper; but rather represent that a vicious ftate doth weaken and difable men's faculties, impair the health and vigour of their minds, and that for their recovery it is neceffary, that their thoughts should be fixed on a confideration of the evil and danger of their fins, and of the bleffed hopes which God hath fet before them, to renounce and forfake them. And fince we see so many forrowful inftances every day amongst men, who in their fober thoughts will lament

See the duty of a friend on pages 232, 233, 234, 235, 236.

lament their follies, and blush in the morning when they remember how their brains were set on float by their laft night's intemperance, who yet, when the next

Ir caf of intempe

Tance.

temptation beckons them again, return as greedily to it as ever; and though, when they have repented of their fin, they refolve againft it; yet when they are tempted, fin again, and call themselves miferable: we in this cafe particularly are bound in mercy to recommend their condition to the God of all grace and compaffion, to befeech him to take pity on their weakness, and with the out-ftretched arm of his grace to touch their dead fouls, and raise them up into a thorough converfion: and tho', in all cafes of mifery, prayer is a proper work of mercy, yet there is none that fo much needs our prayers as this.

Charity requires us to render to our neighbours, friends and acquaintance, who through fickness, imprisonment, perfecution, or any other misfortune, have need of our affiftance, fuch good offices as do conduce to their fupport and recovery; In fickness. and if their fickness be such as will fafely admit of converfation, we are obliged to visit them, to chear their drooping fpirits and forrowful hours with godly conversation, and to adminifter the fupports and comforts of religion; to awaken their minds into ferious thoughts and purposes; to refolve their doubts; to comfort and fupport them with the hopes of glory, and to take all opportunities to prepare their fouls for a happy death: that fo, whether they recover or no, this fickness of their bodies may contribute to their foul's health; and if they are poor and indigent, to fupply them with fuch remedies as are neceffary to their health and recovery. When a man is in prifon, he is in a fort of captivity. Is it In cafe of not a calamitous condition for a man to be shut up imprison- in a close and unwholefome gaol; to dwell with hunger and cold, confined to hard lodging and wretched companions; to be with-held from the converfation of friends, from the comforts of diverfion, and from bufinefs and employment, and all opportunities of making provifion for his family in diftrefs? Therefore it is our duty towards these unfortunate men to vifit them in this their uncomfortable imprisonment, if they are our friends and açquaintance;

ment.

quaintance; and to divert their forrows, to ftrengthen their hopes, and to chear them with affurances of friendship; toufe endeavours to foften their adverfaries, to vindicate their innocence, or to compound with their creditors, if they are not able to discharge their debts. And whether they are our friends or acquaintance or no, charity obliges us, as we have opportunity and ability, to relieve their neceffities, to redress their injuries, to contribute to their enlargements, that they may by their honeft induftry make provifion for those who depend on their honeft endeavours. But

Thofe who are unjustly perfecuted for confcience fake, who, to fecure their fouls, are forced to fly, or to fubmit In cafe of to fpoil and plunder, to imprifonment, and famine perfication. and death, are of all others the greatest objects of our mercy; because they fuffer for our common Mafter, and in our common caufe. Therefore if we have any compaffion, by what more fuitable acts can we exprefs it, than by a kind reception of those, when they fly to us for fuccour, and a liberal contribution towards their relief and fubfiftence; and by affifting those with the charity of our prayers, whom we cannot reach with the charity of our alms; by remembering those that are in bonds, to pity and pray for them; and if it were in our power, so to visit and relieve them, as being bound with them; and alfo to remember thofe that fuffer adverfity, as being ourselves alfo in the body? And

How to pro

If it should fall to our lot at any time to profecute an offender in a juft caufe; we muft remember, that tho' injuries do give us a right to punish the offender by fecute an ofcourfe of law, or by our own power, when at our fender. own difpofal; yet, because men's fouls are out of the reach of human punishments, we can exact no other penalties of offenders, but fuch as affect their bodies with fhame or pain, with lofs of goods, with wearifome labour or confinement; which punishment is an act of mercy, more than an act of revenge, the end of it being to do good, rather than to return evil for evil: therefore fecing that the end of punishment is do-. ing good, it ought to be executed with a kind intention; not to difcharge our rage, or recreate our malice; but to vindicate our right, to reclaim the offender or terrify others by his punishment.

nishment. Confequently, in lighter injuries, fuppofe a man fhould give me the lye, or call me names, or abufe me with reproachful language, mercy requires me to remit and forgive the fault, and not to ftrike and wound him, nor rigidly by a vexatious fuit at law to exact the hurt of the offender for fuch trifling offences as do me no harm.

A'debtor.

Who are

Again, put the cafe I have an infolvent debtor, that owes me a great deal, and can pay me nothing, and it is in my power according to the letter of the law to caft him into prifon, and force him to languifh away his wretched life; to what end fhall I inflict this punishment? I cannot hope to recover my own by this means; for a prifon will pay no debts, as every body must know. Can I pretend to reform him by it; No; for prifons are fruitful nurseries of all evil. Neither can I warn others by it; for what warning can oblige men to do that which is not in their power? Hence obferve, that he is an unmerciful creditor, who, rather than abate the leaft part of his due, will strip unmerciful. his poor debtor to the skin, and reduce him to the utmoft extremity; and he is an unmercifu! punifher that exacts to the full defert of the fault, and ftretches his right of punishment to the utmost extent, to make the offender miferable without any service to himself or to the publick. a word, mercy requires us to follow the great example of God, who, in the midst of juftice, doth always remember mercy; who makes large abatements of his right to punish us, and never exerts the utmoft punishment which our iniquities require. Wherefore we are obliged in punishing others to mingle mercy with our feverities, and proportionably to the offender's penitence, or the pitiable circumstance of his fault, or the neceffities of his prefent condition, to make a favourable allowance. Again,

Charity in

SUNDAY XII. PART II.

In

III. This CHARITY is to be fhewn towards the goods of our neighbour, whether he be rich or poor, by affifting and furthering him in all honeft ways to improve and to preserve them. Thus,

refpect of goods.

If our rich neighbour is like to fuffer lofs, we are not to permit it, if it be in our power any way to prevent Towards it; and we must take all opportunities to advance the rich. his profit, when it does not leffen our own fubftance. But, If our poor neighbour calls upon our charity, we must freely part with our own to fupply his neceflities; for, Towards as St. John faith, Whofo hath this world's goods, the poor. and feeth his brother hath need, and fhutteth his bowels of compaffion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

If we see our brother have need, pinched with hunger, or parched with draught, his hungry family crying for By almfwant of bread, and none to give them; children fhi- giving. vering with cold, and drooping with famine, and without any view of relief, whilft their pined carcafes are covered with rags, and more deftitute than the beasts of the field, and birds of the air, for want of proper shelter where to lay their heads; then we are obliged by charity to a tender fympathy, to affect our fouls with a compaffionate fenfe of the wants of our poor brethren, and reprefent their condition as if it were our own: Therefore to relieve the poor is declared by the apoftle to be a facrifice wherewith God is well pleafed, and accepted by him. And confequently the church of Chrift hath always joined it, as a proper part of a chriftian's duty, to the adminiftration of the Lord's fupper, where, among many other fuch-like fcriptural exhortations, we are commanded to do good, and to diftribute forget not. Tho' indeed, if we ourfelves are poort and needy, we are not obliged to pinch ourfelves or families, to relieve the neceffities of others; for the defire of felf prefervation being of all others the most vehement paffion in our natures, God doth thereby not only warrant, but direct us to take care of ourfelves, and not to facrifice the means of our own prefervation to the neceflities of our neighbours. And,

As the obligations we are continually under to practife this duty are great and numerous, it may be ufe- Matives to ful to diftinguish them under their proper heads, as almgiving. they rife from the confideration either of GOD, our neighbour, or ourselves. And with refpect to GOD, Is it not the As it rething that he has chofen, to loose the bands of Spects God. wickedness,