V. Shall conclude all, with an exhortation to high and low,
rich and poor, one with another, to be found in the constant
practice of this valuable and commendable duty.
_First_, I shall consider this duty, as relating to the bodies of men.
And,
1. O that the _rich_ would consider how praise-worthy this duty is, in
helping their fellow-creatures! We were created to be a help to each
other; GOD has made no one so independent as not to need the assistance
of another; the richest and most powerful man upon the face of this
earth, needs the help and assistance of those who are around him; and
though he may be great to-day, a thousand accidents may make him as
low to-morrow; he that is rolling in plenty to-day, may be in as much
scarcity to-morrow. If our rich men would be more charitable to their
poor friends and neighbours, it would be a means of recommending them
to the favour of others, if Providence should frown upon them; but
alas, our great men had much rather spend their money in a playhouse,
at a ball, an assembly, or a masquerade, than relieve a poor distressed
servant of JESUS CHRIST. They had rather spend their estates on their
hawks and hounds, on their whores, and earthly, sensual, devilish
pleasures, than comfort, nourish, or relieve one of their distressed
fellow-creatures. What difference is there between the king on the
throne, and the beggar on the dunghill, when GOD demands their breaths?
There is no difference; my brethren, in the grave, nor will there be
any at the day of judgment. You will not be excused because you have
had a great estate, a fine house, and lived in all the pleasures that
earth could afford you; no, these things will be one means of your
condemnation; neither will you be judged according to the largeness of
your estate, but according to the use you have made of it.
Now, you may think nothing but of your pleasures and delights, of
living in ease and plenty, and never consider how many thousands of
your fellow-creatures would rejoice at what you are making waste of,
and setting no account by. Let me beseech you, my rich brethren, to
consider the poor of the world, and how commendable and praise-worthy
it is to relieve those who are distressed. Consider, how pleasing this
is to GOD, how delightful it is to man, and how many prayers you will
have put up for your welfare, by those persons whom you relieve; and
let this be a consideration to spare a little out of the abundance
wherewith GOD has blessed you, or the relief of his poor. He could have
placed you in their low condition, and they in your high state; it is
only his good pleasure that has thus made the difference, and shall not
this make you remember your distressed fellow-creatures?
Let me beseech you to consider, which will stand you best at the day
of judgment, so much money expended at a horse-race, at a cockpit,
at a play or masquerade, or so much given for the relief of your
fellow-creatures, and for the distressed members of JESUS CHRIST.
I beseech you, that you would consider how valuable and commendable
this duty is: do not be angry at my thus exhorting you to that duty,
which is so much recommended by JESUS CHRIST himself, and by all his
apostles: I speak particularly to you, my rich brethren, to intreat
you to consider those that are poor in this world, and help them from
time to time, as their necessity calls for it. Consider, that there is
a curse denounced against the riches of those, who do not thus do good
with them; namely, “Go to now you rich men, weep and howl for your
miseries that shall come upon you; your riches are corrupted, your
garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust
of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh, as
it were fire; ye have heaped your treasure together for the last day.”
You see the dreadful woe pronounced against all those who hoard up the
abundance of the things of this life, without relieving the distresses
of those who are in want thereof: and the apostle _James_ goes on
also to speak against those who have acquired estates by fraud, as too
many have in these days. “Behold the hire of the labourers, which have
reaped down your fields, which is by you kept back by fraud, crieth;
and the cries of them who have reaped, are entered into the ears of
the LORD GOD of Sabbaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and
been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.”
Thus, if you go on to live after the lust of the flesh, to pamper
your bellies, and make them a God, while the poor all round you are
starving, GOD will make these things a witness against you, which shall
be as a worm to your souls, and gnaw your consciences to all eternity;
therefore, let me once more recommend charity unto the bodies of men,
and beseech you to remember what the blessed LORD JESUS CHRIST has
promised unto those who thus love his members, that “as they have done
it to the least of his members, they have done it unto him.”
I am not now speaking for myself; I am not recommending my little flock
in _Georgia_ to you; then you might say, as many wantonly do, that I
wanted the money for myself; no, my brethren, I am now recommending
the poor of this land to you, your poor neighbours, poor friends, yea,
your poor enemies; they are whom I am now speaking for; and when I see
so many starving in the streets, and almost naked, my bowels are moved
with pity and concern, to consider, that many in whose power it is, to
lend their assisting hand, should shut up their bowels of compassion,
and will not relieve their fellow-creatures, though in the most
deplorable condition for the want thereof.
As I have thus recommended charity particularly to the rich among you;
so now I would,
2. _Secondly_, Recommend this to another set of people among us, who,
instead of being the most forward in acts of charity, are commonly the
most backward; I mean the _clergy_ of this land.
Good GOD! how amazing is the consideration, that those, whom GOD has
called out to labour in spiritual things, should be so backward in this
duty, as fatal experience teacheth. Our clergy (that is the generality
thereof) are only seeking after preferment, running up and down, to
obtain one benefice after another; and to heap up an estate, either to
spend on the pleasures of life, or to gratify their sensual appetites,
while the poor of their flock are forgotten; nay, worse, they are
scorned, hated, and disdained.
I am not now, my brethren, speaking of all the clergy; no, blessed be
GOD, there are some among them, who abhor such proceedings, and are
willing to relieve the necessitous; but GOD knows, these are but very
few, while many take no thought of the poor among them.
They can visit the rich and the great, but the poor they cannot bear in
their sight; they are forgetful, wilfully forgetful of the poor members
of JESUS CHRIST.
They have gone out of the old paths, and turned into a new polite way,
but which is not warranted in the word of GOD: they are sunk into a
fine way of acting; but as fine as it is, it was not the practice of
the apostles, or of the christians in any age of the church: for they
visited and relieved the poor among them; but how rare is this among
us, how seldom do we find charity in a clergyman?
It is with grief I speak these things, but woful experience is a
witness to the truth thereof: and if all the clergy of this land were
here, I would tell them boldly, that they did not keep in the ways of
charity, but were remiss in their duty; instead of “selling all and
giving to the poor,” they will not sell any thing, nor give at all to
the poor.
3. _Thirdly_, I would exhort you who are poor, to be charitable to one
another.
Though you may not have money, or the things of this life, to bestow
upon one another; yet you may assist them, by comforting, and advising
them not to be discouraged though they are low in the world; or in
sickness you may help them according as you have time or ability: do
not be unkind to one another: do not grieve, or vex, or be angry with
each other; for this is giving the world an advantage over you.
And if GOD stirs up any to relieve you, do not make an ill use of what
his providence, by the hands of some christian, hath bestowed upon
you: be always humble and wait on GOD; do not murmur or repine, if you
see any relieved and you are not; still wait on the LORD, and help one
another, according to your abilities, from time to time.
Having shewed you how valuable this is to the bodies of men, I now
proceed,
_Secondly_, To shew you how much more valuable this charity is, when it
extends to the souls of men.
And is not the soul more valuable than the body? It would be of no
advantage, but an infinite disadvantage, to obtain all the world, if we
were to lose our souls. The soul is of infinite value, and of infinite
concern, and, therefore, we should extend our charity whenever we see
it needful, and likewise should reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all
godliness and love.
We should, my dear brethren, use all means and opportunities for
the salvation of our own souls, and of the souls of others. We
may have a great deal of charity and concern for the bodies of our
fellow-creatures, when we have no thought, or concern, for their
immortal souls: But O how sad is it, to have thought for a mortal,
but not for the immortal part; to have charity for the body of our
fellow-creatures, while we have no concern for their immortal souls;
it may be, we help them to ruin them, but have no concern in the saving
of them.
You may love to spend a merry evening, to go to a play, or a
horse-race, with them; but on the other hand, you cannot bear the
thoughts of going to a sermon, or a religious society, with them; no,
you would sing the songs of the drunkard, but you will not sing hymns,
with them; this is not polite enough, this is unbecoming a gentleman of
taste, unfashionable, and only practised among a parcel of enthusiasts
and madmen.
Thus, you will be so uncharitable as to join hand in hand with those
who are hastening to their own damnation, while you will not be so
charitable as to assist them in being brought from darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan unto GOD. But this, this, my dear brethren,
is the greatest charity, as can be, to save a soul from death: this is
of far greater advantage, than relieving the body of a fellow-creature:
for the most miserable object as could be, death would deliver it
from all. But death, to those who are not born again, would be so far
from being a release from all misery, that it would be an inlet to all
torment, and that to all eternity. Therefore, we should assist, as much
as possible, to keep a soul from falling into the hands of Satan: for
he is the grand enemy of souls. How should this excite you to watch
over your own and others souls? for unless you are earnest with GOD,
Satan will be too hard for you. Surely, it is the greatest charity to
watch over one another’s words and actions, that we may forewarn each
other when danger is nigh, or when the enemy of souls approaches.
And if you have once known the value of your own souls, and know what
it is to be snatched as brands out of the burning fire, you will be
solicitous that others may be brought out of the same state. It is not
the leading of a moral life, being honest, and paying every man his
just due; this is not a proof of your being in a state of grace, or of
being born again, and renewed in the spirit of your minds: No, you may
die honest, just, charitable, and yet not be in a state of salvation.
It is not the preaching of that morality, which most of our pulpits now
bring forth, that is sufficient to bring you from sin unto GOD. I saw
you willing to learn, and yet were ignorant of the necessity of being
born again, regenerated, of having all old things done away, and all
things becoming new in your souls: I could not bear, my brethren, to
see you in the highway to destruction, and none to bring you back. It
was love to your souls, it was a desire to see CHRIST formed in you,
which brought me into the fields, the highways, and hedges, to preach
unto you JESUS, a crucified JESUS as dying for you. It was charity,
indeed it was charity to your souls, which has exposed me to the
present ill treatment of my letter-learned brethren.
Therefore, let me advise you to be charitable to the souls of one
another; that is, by advising them with all love and tenderness, to
follow after CHRIST, and the things which belong to their immortal
peace, before they be for ever hid from their eyes.