the warm zeal of a brother, mixed with the affectionate discretion and care of a parent, who was not satisfied with taking him under his protection and supplying his present wants, but in looking forwards for him, and taking care that his wants should be supplied when he should be gone, and no longer near to befriend him.

I think there needs no stronger argument to prove how universally and deeply the seeds of this virtue of compassion are planted in the heart of man, than in the pleasure we take in such representations of it: and though some men have represented human nature in other colours (though to what end I know not), yet the matter of fact is so strong against him, that from the general propensity to pity the unfortunate, we express that sensation by the word Humanity, as if it was inseparable from our nature. That it is not inseparable, I have allowed in the former part of this discourse, from some reproachful instances of selfish tempers, which seem to take part in nothing beyond themselves; yet I am persuaded, and affirm 'tis still so great and noble a part of our nature, that a man must do great violence to himself, and suffer many a painful conflict, before he has brought himself to a different disposition.

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'Tis observable in the foregoing account, that when the priest came to the place where he was, he passed by on the other side; he might have passed by, you'll say, without turning aside. No; there is a secret shame which attends every act of inhumanity, not to be conquered in the hardest natures; so that, as in other cases, so especially in this, many a man will do a cruel act, who at the same time will blush to look you in the face, and is forced to turn aside before he can have a heart to execute his purpose.

Inconsistent creature that man is! who at that instant that he does what is wrong, is not able to withhold his testimony to what is good and praiseworthy!

I have now done with the parable, which was the - first part proposed to be considered in this discourse; and should proceed to the second, which so naturally falls from it, of exhorting you, as our Saviour did the lawyer upon it, to go and do so likewise but I have been so copious in my reflections upon the story itself, that I find I have insensibly incorporated into them almost all that I should have said here in recommending so amiable an example; by which means I have unawares anticipated the task I proposed. I shall therefore detain you no longer than with a single remark upon the subject in general, which is this: 'Tis observable in many places of scripture, that our blessed Saviour, in describing the day of judgment, does it in such a manner, as if the great enquiry then, was to relate principally to this one virtue of compassion, — and as if our final sentence at that solemnity was to be pronounced exactly according to the degrees of it." I was a hungred, "and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave 66 me drink; naked, and ye clothed me; - I 66 was sick, and visited me;ye in prison, and ye 66 came unto me.' Not that we are to imagine from thence, as if any other good or evil action should then be overlooked by the eye of the Allseeing Judge, but barely to intimate to us, that a charitable and benevolent disposition is so principal and ruling a part of a man's character, as to be a considerable test by itself of the whole frame and temper of his mind, with which all other virtues and vices respectively rise and fall, and will almost necessarily be connected. Tell me therefore of a compassionate man, you represent to me a man of

a thousand other good qualities; on whom I can depend, whom I may safely trust with my wife, my children, my fortune and reputation. 'Tis for this, as the Apostle argues from the same principle," that he will not commit adultery, 66 that he will not kill, that he will not steal,

"that he will not bear false witness." That is, the sorrows which are stirred up in men's hearts by such trespasses, are so tenderly felt by a compassionate man, that it is not in his power or his nature to commit them.

So that well might he conclude, that Charity, by which he means love to your neighbour, was the end of the commandment; and that whosoever fulfilled it, had fulfilled the law.

Now to God, &c. Amen.