of them delivered to St. Paul, and by him preserved to us in his farewel-speech to the elders of Ephefus. In which after he had given them some needful advice, and commended them to the grace of God, he appeals to them concerning the integrity of his conversation among them; that he was so far from seeking his own advantage, and from coveting any thing that was theirs, that he had not only supported himself, but also relieved others by the labour of his own hands; giving them herein a great example of charity, which, it feems, he was wont to enforce upon them by an excellent saying of our Lord, It is more blessed to give, than to receive.

And it is really a particular endearment of this saying to us, that being omitted by the Evangelists, and in danger of being loft and forgotten, it was so happily retrieved by St. Paul, and recorded by St. Luke. The common fayings of ordinary persons perish without regard, and are spilt like water upon the ground, which no-body goes about to gather up, but the little and fhort fayings of wife and excellent men are of great value, like the dust of gold, or the least sparks of diamonds. And fuch is this saying of our Lord, which is not only valuable out of respect to its author, but for the fake of that admirable sense which is contained in it.

Some interpreters have needlefly troubled themselves to find these words, or something equivalent to them, in the gospel. That the fenfe of them may be inferred from several passages in the gospel, none will deny; but that they are either exprefly to be found there, or that there is any saying that sounds to the same sense, I think no-body can shew. Besides, that St. Paul cites a particular fentence or faying of our Lord, that was ῥητῶς, and in those very words spoken by him.

And there is no reason to imagine, that the gospels are a perfect and exact account of all the sayings and actions of our Lord, though St. Luke calls his gospel, A treatise of all things that Jesus did and spake; that is, of the principal actions of his life, and the substance of his discourses, at least so much of them as is needful for us to know: for St. Luke leaves out several things related by the other Evangelists. And St. John exprefly tells tells us, that Jesus did innumerable things not recorded in the history of his life: and there is no doubt but the difciples of our Lord remembered many particular fayings of his, not fet down in the gospels, which upon occafion they did relate and communicate to others, as they did this to St. Paul.

The words themselves are the proposition I shall speak to, It is a more blessed thing to give, than to receive. This, I know, seems a paradox to most men, who know no happiness but in hoarding up what they have, and in receiving and heaping up more; but as strange as this saying may appear, the sense of it is owned and affented to by those great oracles of reason, the wisest and moft confiderate Heathens; τῆς ἀρετῆς μᾶλλον τό ἔυ ποιεῖν ἢ τὸ ἐυ πάσχειν, " It is a more virtuous thing

to do than to receive good," says Aristotle, which according to his opinion was to say, it is a greater happiness, because he placed happiness in the practice and exercise of virtue. To the same purpose is that saying of Plutarch, ἓν ποιεῖν ἡδιον ἐσιν ἢ πάσχειν, “ There is

σε

more pleasure in doing a kindness, than in taking " one." And that of Seneca, Malim non recipere beneficia, quam non dare; "Of the two, I had rather not " receive benefits, than not bestow them." And that the Heathen have spoken things to the same sense of this saying of our Saviour's, is so far from being any prejudice to this saying of our Saviour, that it is a great commendation of it, as being an argument that our Saviour hath herein said nothing, but what is very agreeable to the best notions of our minds, and to the highest reafon and wisdom of mankind. In the handling of this proposition, I shall do these two things,

First, Endeavour to convince men of the truth and

reasonableness of it.

Secondly, To perfuade men to act suitably to it.

First, To convince men of the truth and reasonableness of this principle, that it is more blessed to give, than to receive. And this will fully appear by confidering these three things.

I. That it is an argument of a more happy spirit and temper.

II. Of a more happy state and condition. And, III. That it shall have the happiness of a greater reward.

I. To be governed by this principle, is an argument of a more happy spirit and temper. To do good, to be useful and beneficial to others, to be of a kind and oblig. ing difpofition, of a tender and compaffionate fpirit, sensible of the straits and miseries of others, so as to be ready to ease and relieve them, (for to this kind of goodness and charity the Apostle applies this saying of our Saviour, as appears by the context,) this certainly is the happiest spirit and temper in the world; and is an argument of a noble, and generous, and large heart, that is not contracted within itself, and confined to little and narrow designs, and takes care of no-body but itself, envying that others should share with it, and partake of its happiness; but is free and open, ready to do good, and willing to communicate, and thinks its own happiness increased, by making others happy.

It is the property of narrow and envious spirits to think their own happiness the greater, because they have it alone to themselves; but the noblest and most heavenly dispositions defire that others should share with them in it. Of all beings, God is the farthest removed from envy and ill-will, and the nearer any creature approacheth to him, the farther it is from this hellish difpofition. For it is the temper of the devil to grudge happiness to others; he envied that man should be in paradise, and was restless till he had got him out.

Some perfections are of a more folitary nature and disposition, and shine brightest when they are attained to but by few, as knowledge and power: but the nature of goodness is to diffuse and communicate itself, and the more it is communicated, the more glorious it is. And therefore knowledge and power may be in a nature most contrary to God's; the devil hath these perfections in a high degree.

To receive good from others, is no certain argument of virtue or merit, for the unworthy and unthankful often receive benefits: but to be good and do good, is the excellency of virtue, because it is to resemble God in that which is the most amiable and glorious of all his

VOL. IX.

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other

other perfections. And therefore when Mofes defires to fee God's glory, Exod. xxxiii. 19. he tells him, that he will cause all his goodness to pass before him. Without goodness the power and wisdom of God would be terrible, and raise great dread and superstition in the minds of men. Without goodness, power would be tyranny and oppreffion, and wisdom would degenerate into craft and mischievous contrivance. So that a being endowed with all power and wisdom, and yet wanting goodness, would be a dreadful and omnipotent mifchief. We are apt to dread power, and to admire knowledge, and to suspect great wisdom and prudence; but we can heartily love and reverence nothing but true goodness. It is not the infinite power and knowledge of God, confidered abstractedly, and in themselves, but these in conjunction with his great goodness, that make him at once the most awful and amiable being in the world; which is the reason why our Saviour, Matth. v. 48. speaks of the mercy, and goodness, and patience of God, as the top and fum of the divine perfections; Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. How is that? in being good to the evil and unthankful, as God is, who makes his fun to rife, and his rain to fall, not only on the just but unjust. And therefore St. Luke renders it, Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father which is in heaven is merciful. To be good and merciful as God is, is to be perfect as he is; because it is to imitate him in that which is his chief perfection.

Gratitude is one of the noblest virtues, and our goodness to men is gratitude in us to God. It is an acknowledgment of the blessings we have received from God; the best use we can make of them, and the best requital we can make to him for all his benefits. For we can give him nothing again, because he stands in need of nothing. But a truly grateful person, who hath a kindness done to him by one that is out of all capacity and reach of requital, will enquire whether there be any of his family and relations, to whom he may shew a kindness for his fake. Yea, benefits have often been requited by thankful persons, upon those who did but resemble their benefactors, though they were no ways related to them. Though we can do nothing to God,

God, yet we may do it to men, who are made after the image of God. We may shew kindness to his relations, and to those of his houshold and family, to his creatures, to his servants, to his friends, and to his children here in the earth.

Befides that our goodness to others like ourselves, is an argument of great confideration and prudence; it is a fign that we know ourselves, and confider what we are and what we may be; it shews, that we have a due sense of the indigence and infirmity of human nature, and of the change and vicissitude of human affairs, it is a just sense and acknowledgment of our state, that we are infufficient for our own happiness, and must depend upon the kindness, and good-will, and friendship of other men; that we all either do or may stand in need of others one time or other: for he who is now in the greatest plenty and abundance of all things, and thinks his mountain so strong, that he can never be moved, may, by a fudden revolution of fortune, by a thousand accidents, be thrown down from his height of profperity, into the depth of misery and necessity.

And as it is an argument of confideration, so of great prudence. He that is good to others, apt to commiserate their fad case, and to relieve them in their straits, takes the wisest and surest way that can be, to incline and engage others to be good to him, when it shall fall to his lot to ftand in need of their kindness and pity. Upon this account our Saviour commends the prudence of the unjust steward, who laid in for the kindness of others, against himself should have occafion for it.

And though it should happen otherwise, and that we should have an uninterrupted tenour of profperity, which few or none have, or that coming to stand in need of others, our kindness should meet with no equal returns, yet it would not be quite loft; for as Seneca truly says, delectat etiam fterilis beneficii confcientia, though our charity should fall upon stony and barren ground, and we should find no fruit of it from those whom we have obliged, yet there is a pleasure in being confcious to ourselves, that we have done well, what was worthy and generous, and what became wife and confiderate men to do, whatever the event and success