apostle from place to place, as a public pest. And when the Gentiles, on a certain occasion, had rescued him out of their hands, forty of the most hardened among them engaged themselves by an oath, neither to eat nor drink till they had assassinated him. But, notwithstanding the most indubitable proofs of their bloody disposition toward him, his fervent charity threw a veil over their cruelty, and made him wish to die for his persecutors. "I declare," saith he, "the truth in Christ, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart: for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh," Rom. ix, 1-3. As though he should say, "It is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree," Gal. iii, 13. Thus Christ himself became accursed for us, and I also would lay down my life for my brethren, "that I may have fellowship with him in his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death," Phil. iii, 10; "and filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ, in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the Church," Col. i, 24. It is by expressions so charitable, and by actions which demonstrate the sincerity of those expressions, that Christians avenge themselves of their enemies, and work upon the hearts of their countrymen.

If the sentiments of every sincere disciple of Christ are expressed in the preceding language of St. Paul, how deplorable then must be the state of those Christians, whose anxiety either for their own salvation, or for that of their nearest relations, bears no proportion to that eager concern which this apostle manifested for the salvation of his bitterest persecutors! And if good pastors feel so ardent a desire to behold all men actuated by the spirit of Christ, without excepting even their most malicious enemies, what shall we say to those ministers who never shed a single tear, nor ever breathed one ardent prayer for the conversion of their parishioners, their friends, or their families?

TRAIT XIX.

His love to those whom he knew only by report.

THOUGH the true minister takes a peculiar interest in every thing that concerns the salvation of his countrymen, yet his Christian benevolence is far from being confined within the narrow limits of a particular country. He desires to bear the name of his Saviour to the ends of the earth; and if he is not able to do this by his personal addresses, he will do it, at least, by his earnest wishes and his constant prayers. If Providence have not yet fixed him in a particular Church, he writes, in the manner of St. Paul, to the inhabitants of the most distant countries: “I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that I" consider myself as a "debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the wise and he unwise. And as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome," where error and impiety have fixed their throne. "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," Rom. i, 13-16. If he writes to stranger converts, whose faith is publicly spoken of in the world, he declares his sincere attachment to them, and his longing

desire to afford them every spiritual assistance, in terms like these: "God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Making request, if, by any means, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me," Rom. i, 9-12.

If the Apostle Paul, when he knew the Romans no otherwise than by report, expressed so ardent a desire to see them for the sole purpose of inciting them to seek after higher degrees of faith and piety; what must be the disposition of those ministers who feel no desires of this nature, even for the members of their own flock? And in how great an error are those Christians, who frequently assemble together, either in their own houses, or in more public places, for the very purpose of mutually forgetting the restraints of piety, losing their time in frivolous conversation, and debasing their minds by puerile amusements! Farther: if the new nature of the regenerate excites in them that lively concern for the salvation of their neighbours, which St. Paul expressed for the salvation of those who inhabited the remotest parts of the earth, is it becoming in the faithful to stifle the motions of that commendable zeal which Christian charity alone can inspire? And if there are to be found among us dignified teachers, who, far from seconding a zeal so necessary in our day, are rather disposed to extinguish the first sparks of it, wherever they are discernible; whom may they be said to take for their model, Paul the apostle, or Saul the Pharisee? Doubtless Saul, the agent of a bigoted sect, and the open persecutor of the faithful.

TRAIT XX.

His charity toward the poor in giving or procuring for them temporal relief.

THOUGH Our Lord came principally to save the souls of sinners, yet he was by no means unmindful of their bodies. "He went about doing good," in the most unlimited sense, daily relieving, with equal care, the corporal and spiritual maladies of the people. Thus, when he had distributed the word of God to those who were hungering and thirsting after righteousness, he expressed an anxious concern for the support of those among his followers who were sensible of no other wants, except such as were of a temporal nature: "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat”—and not content with barely expressing his concern for their corporal necessities, he wrought an astonishing miracle for their immediate relief, Mark viii, 2. The true minister cheerfully imitates the conduct of his gracious Master, by a strict and affectionate attention to the spiritual and temporal wants of his people. "James, Cephas, and John," saith St. Paul," gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen: only they would that we should remember the poor: the same which I also was forward to do," Gal. ii, 9, 10.

When the liberality of St. Paul toward his necessitous brethren was

restrained by his own excessive indigence, he employed the most effectual means to procure for them the generous benefactions of their wealthier companions in the faith of the Gospel. The following passages, extracted from his epistles, may serve as sufficient proofs of this: "Brethren," I cannot but inform you "of the grace of God bestowed on the Churches of Macedonia; how that, in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves; praying us, with much entreaty, that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. Therefore, as ye abound in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. I speak by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich. Wherefore, show ye, before the Churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf," 2 Cor. viii, 1-24.

Not yet content with these earnest solicitations in behalf of the poor, the apostle thus proceeds to enforce his importunities: "I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they should go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness. But this I say, he that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully. God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: as it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor; his righteousness remaineth for ever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness; that ye may be enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causes through us thanksgiving to God. For the administration of this service not only supplieth the wants of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God: while, by the experiment of this ministration, they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men," 2 Cor. ix, 5–13. Who could possibly refuse any thing to a godly minister pleading the cause of the poor, with all this apostolic dignity, simplicity, and zeal?

After having obtained alms for the poor, the Apostle Paul cautiously avoided all suspicion of appropriating any part of them to the relief of his own necessities; and was equally careful that they were never misemployed through the unfaithfulness of those who were appointed to distribute them. One of our brethren, adds the apostle, "chosen of the Churches, accompanies" us in our journey "with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of ` your ready mind: avoiding this, that no man should blame us in this abundance, which is administered by us: providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men," 2 Cor. viii, 9-21. Mentioning again his favourite employment, he writes to a distant Church, "Now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.

For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints, which are at Jerusalem. When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain. Now I beseech you, brethren, that ye strive together in your prayers for me, that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea; and that the service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints," Rom. xv, 25-31.

Thus to wait upon the Churches, and particularly thus to attend upon the poor, is to merit the name of a faithful minister.

TRAIT XXI.

His charity toward sinners in offering them every spiritual assistance.

To solicit alms for those who are destitute of food and raiment, and at the same time to withhold the word of God from those "who hunger and thirst after righteousness," is to manifest an unhappy inconsistency of character. Such inconsistencies, however, are frequently discoverable even among pastors, who pique themselves upon their disposition to works of benevolence and charity.

Man has an immortal soul. This soul, which is properly himself, is rendered, by disobedience, so totally ignorant and completely miserable, that she seeks to enrich herself with the vanities of the world, and to gratify her inclinations with the pollutions of sin. In pity to the soul in this state of wretchedness, the truths of the Gospel are proposed by a compassionate God, as a sacred remedy, adapted to the nature of her innumerable wants they illumine the blind with spiritual light and knowledge; they clothe the naked with the robe of righteousness; they feed the hungry; they heal the sick; they burst the captive's bands; they give eternal life to those who are dead in trespasses and sin: in a word, they make us partakers of the great salvation of God. To publish this Gospel, then, or to procure the preaching of it to sinners, is undoubtedly to give them an important proof of the most excellent charity; while, on the other hand, to refuse them the word of God, or to avoid any occasion of administering it, is absolutely or occasionally to deny them those spiritual alms and assistances which the Saviour of the world has appointed for their daily relief. The pastor who acts in this unbecoming manner resembles a physician, or an almoner, who, having received a charge from his prince to supply the poor with food, or the sick with medicine, not only refuses to acquit himself with his acknowledged duty with diligence and impartiality, but strenuously opposes those who endeavour to supply his lack of service. Such a minister seems to maintain a system as absurd and cruel as would be that of either of those characters just alluded to, who should pretend that no one had authority to administer alms to the poor, or medicine to the sick, except such as received pensions from the prince for that purpose; and that even these would act in a disorderly manner, if they should dare to distribute alms or remedies except on the Sabbath day, and then only during particular hours.

So long as any pastor seeks his own glory, so long he will be subject to some degree of that contemptible jealousy, which will not suffer him to behold with pleasure the more abundant and successful labours of his

brethren. But the faithful minister of Christ, whose chief desire is the prosperity of the Church, is actuated by a totally different spirit. Though he has a peculiar satisfaction in beholding the success of his own spiritual labours; yet when he hears the Gospel published by others, and even by such as are apparently influenced by unworthy motives, he greatly rejoices in their success. His charity, which neither envies another's prosperity, nor seeks his own particular advantage, expresses itself, upon so delicate a subject, in the language of St. Paul: "Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. What then? notwithstanding every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and I will rejoice," Phil. i, 15-18.

Influenced by envy, or rendered insensible by their lukewarmness, worldly ministers are absolute strangers to the generous pleasure here mentioned by the apostle; nor have they the least idea of acting in a criminal manner, when they will not permit the truths of the Gospel to be freely declared by all who are disposed to announce them.

The good pastor, by whatever name he may be distinguished, lives only to publish the Gospel, and to convert the souls committed to his charge to restrain him then from attending to these important labours, is to force him aside from the true end of his calling, and must appear to every enlightened mind a greater act of cruelty, than to withhold the rich from giving alms, or to detain an expert swimmer from saving his drowning brethren. If such a pastor, in any period of his life, has acted like a monopolist of the Gospel, and, by denying to the "poor in spirit," what was freely given for their support, has caused in any place a" famine of the word;" he believes himself abundantly more culpable than those avaricious merchants, who, by forming a monopoly of grain in the East Indies, caused a grievous famine in that country, by which an innumerable multitude of its inhabitants perished. Those covetous men denied to the bodies of their neighbours a perishable nourishment; but he has withheld from the souls of his brethren that precious manna, which might have preserved them to everlasting life. Such was the crime of those whom our Lord addressed in the following words: "Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them, that are entering, to go in," Matt. xxiii, 13. Observe St. Paul's sentiments of such characters. With respect to those Jews, "who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved," filling up by this means the measure of their sin: "for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost," 1 Thess. ii, 15, 16.

If the character which the apostle here describes was odious in a Jew, without doubt it is more so in a Christian, and still doubly detestable in a minister of the Gospel, whose heart should continually be animated with a fervent desire for the conversion of sinners, and the salvation of all mankind. Were it possible for those who are distinguished by this trait of the character of Antichrist to discover the turpitude of their own conduct, they would acknowledge themselves abundantly more guilty than the robber, who should force away from a famished pauper the