already; the chief defign of which is to illuftrate by a fact, what is evident both in reafon and fcripture, that a charitable and good action is feldom cast away, but that even in this life it is more than probable, that what is fo scattered fhall be gathered again with increafe. Caft thy bread upon the waters, and thou fhalt find it after many days. Be as a father unto the fatherless and instead of a bufband unto their mother, fhalt thou be as the fon of the Moft High, and he will love thee more than thy mother dotb. Be mindful of good turns, for thou knoweft not what evil fhall come upon the earth; and when thou fallest thou shalt find a ftay. It fhall preferve thee from all affliction, and fight for thee against thy enemies better than a mighty fhield and a ftrong fpear.

VOL. I.

K

The

The great inftability of temporal affairs, and conftant fluctuation of every thing in this world, afford perpetuaf occafions of taking refuge in fuch a fecurity.

What by fucceffive misfortunes; by failings and cross accidents in trade; by miscarriage of projects: what by unfuitable expences of parents, extravagance of children, and the many other fecret ways whereby riches make themfelves wings and fly away; fo many furprifing revolutions do every day happen in families, that it may not feem ftrange to fay, that the posterity of fome of the moft liberal contributors here, in the changes which one century may produce, may poffibly find fhelter under this very plant which they now fo kindly water. Nay, fo quickly fometimes has the wheel

turned

turned round, that many a man has lived to enjoy the benefit of that charity which his own piety projected.

But befides this, and exclufive of the right which God's promife gives it to protection hereafter, charity and benevo lence, in the ordinary chain of effects, Have a natural and more immediate tendency in themfelves to rescue a man from the accidents of the world, by foftening the hearts, and winning every man's wishes to its intereft. When a compaffionate man falls, who would not pity him? who, that had power to do it, would not befriend and raife him up? or could the most barbarous tem

1

per offer an infult to his diftrefs without pain and reluctance? fo that it is almost a wonder that covetousness, even in spite of itself, does not fometimes argue a man K 2 into

into charity, by its own principle of looking forwards, and the firm expecta tion it would delight in of receiving its own again with ufury. So evident is it in the courfe of God's providence and the natural ftream of things, that a good office one time or other generally meets with a reward. Generally, did I fay

how can it ever fail? when befides all this, fo large a fhare of the recompence is for infeparable even from the action itself. Afk the man who has a tear of tenderness always ready to shed over the unfortunate; who, withal, is ready to distribute and willing to communicate afk him if the beft things, which wits have faid of pleasure, have expreffed what he has felt, when by a fea fonable kindness, he has made the heart of the widow fing for joy. Mark then the expreffions of unutterable pleasure

and

and harmony in his looks; and fay, whether Solomon has not fixed the point of true enjoyment in the right place, when he declares," that he knew no "good there was in any of the riches

or honours of this world, but for a "man to do good with them in his life.", Nor was it without reafon he made this judgment. Doubtless he had found and feen the infufficiency of all fenfual pleasures; how unable to furnish either rational or a lafting feheme of happiness: how foon the beft of them vanished; the lefs exceptionable in vanity, but the guilty both in vanity and vexation of fpirit. But that this was of fo pure and refined a nature it burned without confuming it was figuratively the widow's barrel of meal which wafted not, and crufe of oil which never failed.