rifks his eafe, honour and life, in the defence of the civil and religious liberties of his country, and efpecially if his prudent and fpirited efforts to that end prove happily fuccefsful! And O, who can defcribe the joy that muft circulate around the heart of the faithful minister of Chrift, who, amidst all his painful labours in the caufe of truth and religion, has ground to believe that this and that immortal foul will, through his means, escape the miferies of hell, and attain to the felicity and glory of heaven! Whatever be the felf-denial, pain, and affliction, which men endure, whilft thus nobly forgetful of their own things, they look attentively on the things of others; it is all more than compenfated by these refined pleasures which accompany their pursuits, and will be infinitely more fo by the glorious rewards which fhall in the end be conferred on them. It was a faying which frequently dropped from the lips of our divine Master, in the days of his pilgrimage here on earth, "It is more bleffed to give than to receive *." And this faying of his has been found to be true by the happy experience of thousands.

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It is further to be obferved, that our feeking the intereft of others is the laying them under an obligation to feek our intereft. It is not indeed every one that discharges the obligation. Some have it not in their power, and too many, fo difingenuous is their nature, have it not in their difpofition. Horrid inftances there are in our world of base ingratitude! Yet the man who is habituated to acts of benevolence, and cheerfully spends his life in the fervice of his fellow-creatures, will meet with many returns of kindnefs. They

* Acts xx. 35.

who

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who have shared of his beneficence will, at least fome of them, mingle their tears with his when he is in affliction, and ftep forth to his affiftance in the hours of danger and diftrefs. "The bleffing of him that was "ready to perish," will come upon him; and the prayer of "the widow, whose heart he has caufed to fing 'for joy +," will afcend to heaven on his behalf. How fair the inheritance which many of a public spirit have enjoyed in the affection of thousands around them! What tears of genuine forrow have been poured over their remains, when committed to the filent grave! And how fweetly have their characters been embalmed in the grateful bofoms of numerous furviving friends and relatives! But even admitting that gratitude were to take its final farewell of our world, and that the generously looking on the things of others were a direct means, through the miserable perverfenefs of mankind, to entail upon us poverty, neglect, and abuse; yet such disinterested conduct will not fail to meet the divine approbation, and to be largely rewarded in another world.

And here we are naturally led to speak of the evidence arifing from the character we have been recommending to the uprightness of a man's heart towards God. There is no genuine Christian who does not prefer the divine favour to every other enjoyment, and who does not wish above all things to have the grand question, whether he is in friendship with heaven, decided to his fatisfaction. Now what better evidence can a man poffefs upon this important point, next to the witneffing of the Holy Spirit, than what refults fron his participating the fame divine temper, which actuated the bleffed Jefus in all he did and fuffered

† Job xxix. 13.

fuffered for our fakes? "Let this mind be in you," fays the apoftle in the verfe following the text, "which "was also in Chrift Jefus." And what was this mind but that which we have been fo largely defcribing in this difcourfe? God is love. His moral perfections are all of them so many different modifications of love. The gospel is a fuperftructure which wifdom has erected on this foundation, love. And love is the feature which prevailed in the countenance of our Saviour, and expreffed itself more strongly than any other excellence in all his actions here on earth. And now, can a man have this fame mind in him which Chrift had Can he feel in his breaft a tender fympathy for the diftreffed? Can he paffionately with the happiness of all around him? Can he make their welfare his object, even to his own injury? Can he, in a word, be actuated in all thefe exertions for the public good, by the duty he owes to God, and the love he bears to his divine Master,-And at the fame time not be a good man, a real Christian, a believer in the fenfe of the New Teftament? It is impoffible. Would we then enjoy the fweet fatisfaction refulting from a humble hope, that we are reconciled to God through Jefus Christ, and are the heirs of future happiness and glory? O then let us be perfuaded, from the nobleft motives, to look not on our own things only, but also on the things of others!

Thus have we held up to your view the duties of a public spirit, and endeavoured to allure you to the practice of them by every poffible argument-arguments drawn from the relation we stand in to one another-the exprefs will of God fignified to us in various ways-the frame and tenor of the gospel-the most illu

ous examples-and our own trueft intereft. three reflections fhall clofe the whole.

Two.or

1. What fad caufe have the best of us for deep humiliation before God. Ah! my brethren, we have all failed in the duties we owe one another, and in the fervour of that difinterefted and generous temper which ought to have impelled us to them. Do we not look back with fhame, regret, and forrow upon the unprofitablenefs of our paft lives? Are we not pained at our very hearts with the thought, that we have lived fo much to ourselves, and fo little to the good of others? Does it not grieve us to recollect the many fair opportunities we have miffed of ferving the interefls of our fellow-creatures? And is it not afflicting to the last degree to reflect, that the flattering profpects of worldly eafe, honour, and emolument, have too often impeded, if not wholly obftructed, our nobler pursuits? How numerous have been our defects and failings in every character we fustain, and in every station of life we fill? And how great are the aggravations of our guilt? Let us humble our felves in the duft before God. And at the fame time, let us not he unduly difcouraged; but rather,

2. Rejoice that God of his mercy is difpofed, for the fake of the generous interpofition of his Son in our favour, to pardon all these our offences, and to accept and fave us. How free and unmerited is the love of God, and how unfpeakably great the condefcenfion and grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift? To expiate the guilt of all thofe omiffions we have been lamenting, he wept, and bled, and died. The tendereft offices of kindness he has rendered us, though we have been fo parfimonious in our favours to others. The veil

of

of charity he has thrown over our ingratitude, selfishnefs and basenefs; and entitled us, who had no claim at all upon the bounty of Heaven, and little upon that of our fellow-creatures, to the nobleft fruits of divine benevolence. O may we then be perfuaded,

3. Henceforth to live not unto ourselves, but unto him that died for us, and rose again? To look not on our own things, but every one of us on the things of others? The leaft return we can make to him for all his generofity to us, is to imitate the example he has fet us, and to contribute all that lies in our power to the happiness of our fellow-immortals.

DIS.