read in the words of the text: 'I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak; and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.'

There are some duties so essential to religion, so necessary to form the character of a good man, much more of a good Christian, that they always have been, and I hope will always continue to be, the preacher's common topic. Yet this I know is in some respects a disadvantage, and that exhortations of this kind are esteemed to be so much things of course, that they are often used with more effect by others, from whom they are less expected. I have need therefore to bespeak your favor, that I may be heard on this subject, without incurring the censure of being thought a common beggar. And yet not to dissemble my intention, beg I would; partly indeed for your sakes, whose necessities can no otherwise be relieved but by charity; but much more for your sakes, whose ample fortunes, if rightly adminis-! tered, intitle you to the choicest blessings of the gospel; For it is more blessed to give than to receive.'

In speaking of the duty and obligations of charity, in this restrained sense of the word, in which it regards only the temporal wants and necessities of our brethren; there are three things proper to be considered.

First, how far the obligations of this duty extend; for that they do not extend equally to all is evident, because such as are qualified to receive are in all ordinary cases exempted from giving.

Secondly, who are duly qualified to receive charity.

Thirdly, what is the blessing and reward that attends on the faithful discharge of this duty.

The first thing to be considered is, how far this duty extends; I have showed you all things, says the apostle, 'how that so laboring' ye ought to support the weak. In the verses preceding the text he had set before them his own example, and the method he took to provide for himself and those who were with him. I have coveted,' says he, 'no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.' Now the exhortation of the text being founded on the example

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which the apostle himself had given, and those words, 'That so laboring ye ought to support the weak,' necessarily referring to such labor as St. Paul had undergone,' when his own hands ministered to his own necessities; it is evident that the apostle directed that part of what they could earn, even by the labor of their hands, should be set aside and dedicated to works of charity. The same direction is repeated in his Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. iv. 28. 'Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.' Where you find labor enjoined them, not only that they may have an honest means of supporting themselves, but that they might have something likewise to spare in charity to such as were in distress, and unable to work for their own living. As the apostle pleads his own example to the elders of the church of Ephesus, so does he likewise to the Thessalonians in his second Epistle written to them: Neither did we,' says he, eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power,' (i. e. a right to claim a maintenance as ministers of the gospel,) but to make ourselves an ensample for you to follow us:' chap. iii. ver. 8. 9.

From these passages laid together, it is manifest that the apostle calls on all indifferently, the elders and pastors of the church, as well as others, to labor, working with their hands; and he charges on their labor not only the duty of providing for themselves and families, but also the care of supporting those among them who were indigent and necessitous: but the measures and proportions of charity not being things of a determinate nature, but such as are relative to the circuinstances and conditions of times and persons, and vary and change together with them; it must be absurd to apply the rules relating to charity, which are to be found in the holy Scriptures, to ourselves and our own times, without making a due allowance for the difference in our circumstances and theirs to whom the rules were first directed. And therefore to give you a just sense of the meaning of the text, and of other apostolical rules concerning the practice of charity, it will be necessary to show you what

was the state of the times and persons to which those rules have reference.

The church of Christ at the first preaching of the gospel consisted almost wholly of the poor and indigent, such as were hardly able to support and maintain themselves by their labor, much less to be liberal towards the support of others: for this reason St. Paul chose rather to work for his bread with his own hands, than to make his ministry burdensome to the churches; though at the same time he asserts the right he had to be supported by them in his function, notwithstanding the narrowness of their own circumstances. The learning and education of the first converts were no better than their fortunes; and even the rulers of the church were oftentimes taken from trades and mean employments; the Spirit of God wonderfully supplying their defects, and enabling them under all outward disadvantages to promote the cause of the gospel with great courage and success. On this account the gospel is spoken of as the peculiar portion and inheritance of the poor; our Saviour gives it as a characteristic of himself and his mission, that the poor had the gospel preached to them :' Matth. xi. 25. And St. Paul addressing to the Corinthians, discovers to us the condition of that church; 'Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought the things that are :' 1 Cor. i. 26. 27. 28.

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These circumstances of the first Christians considered, it is easy to justify the propriety of the apostle's exhortation in the When you reflect how poverty reigned through the whole body, you will not think it strange that the apostle speaks of labor, even to the elders of the church; since their own labor and work were the only riches the Christians of those days were in possession of; and it must be either perverseness or ignorance that makes some argue from this and other like passages of Scripture, against a settled maintenance for the

Christian clergy; without seeing that the consequence, if there be any thing in it, must equally affect the whole body of Christians for the reason why the governors of the church were poor, was because the whole church was so; and if the example must be pressed to oblige the present times, all men must part either with their estates or their religion; otherwise we cannot be in the condition of the primitive church. It would at this time of day be no very proper exhortation to call on all Christians, without distinction, to work with their hands, that they might have something to spare in charity: but it was not only proper, but necessary in the beginning, when there was no other source of riches in the church but the work and labor of Christians. In the text you see the elders, and with them all others, were called on to labor, that they might be able to support the weak; and in the Epistle to the Ephesians the precept is general, To labor, working with the hands,' that there may be something to spare to him that needeth. Can you imagine that nothing is fit to be dedicated to charity but what is earned by bodily labor? or that those who have plentiful fortunes and estates are obliged to work with their hands, that they may by their labor supply the wants of others, which they can better and more effectually supply out of their large revenues? It may be, and certainly is, very proper for us to exhort you to part with something out of your abundance to ease the wants of the poor; to spare something out of the superfluities of fortune to support the necessitous; but it had been very improper for the apostles so to have exhorted Christians, at a time when there were none who had either abundance or superfluity; all they could do was to admonish and persuade those who were able to labor more abundantly, that they might be in a condition to contribute to the relief of such as were unfit for work by age, sickness, or other infirmity. Those who are able to work, who are blessed with health and strength, and soundness of limbs, are rich with respect to those who are incapable through want of limbs, or by the weight of years, to assist themselves; and therefore when bodily labor was the whole riches of the church, there was a necessity that the strong should work to support the weak; or that the weak should perish in their want and poverty. And this shows the reason of such precepts

of charity, in which men are moved to part with something, even out of the little they can earn by the sweat of their brows. This will help us likewise to understand some other passages of Scripture relating to the exercise of charity. St. Paul gives the Corinthians timely notice of his intention to make a collection among them for charitable uses; and exhorts them to lay by a little every week, as they could spare it, that he might find them prepared to contribute when he should come. Now this plainly regards their poverty and low circumstances; for had they been rich, there had been no need for it; but they were not so wealthy as to pay bills at sight; and therefore their only way was to prepare their sum by little and little, as their circumstances would give them leave to spare it.

In the second Epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle is on the same argument, and presses them to be liberal with great earnestness; but that he might not seem to bear too hard on their necessities, he thus corrects himself: I mean not that other men be eased, and you burdened; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want: 2 Cor. viii. 13. 14. What does this equality mean, which he would introduce between the givers and receivers of charity? Must we strip ourselves so far as to be on a level with the poor, who ask our alms? This is a hard saying, and if pursued strictly, would introduce great confusion and disorder into the world. But if you consider the condition of the church when the apostle wrote, you will see how properly he addresses them. They might well have said to him, why must all the burden lie on us? What have we that we do not purchase by irksome toil and labor? To prevent which complaint, the apostle is beforehand with them in declaring that he meant not that they should be burdened, and others set at ease: had he been applying to the rich and wealthy, there could have been no occasion for this caution, for they can give with a liberal hand, and yet not be burdened. So likewise the equality he speaks of has the same view; he presses it not as in itself just or necessary; but in respect to the time, it could not be avoided; for when there are none but poor to relieve the poor, it is plain how near the equality must be between the giver and the receiver. This equality, therefore, the apostle