"and I a Samaritan.-But are we not ftill both men ; partakers of the fame nature- and fubject to the "fame evils!—Let me change conditions with "him for a moment, and confider, had his lot be"fallen me as I journeyed in the way, what mea"fure I should have expected at his hand.-Should "I with, when he beheld me wounded and half"dead, that he fhould fhut up his bowels of com"paffion from me, and double the weight of my "miferies by paffing by and leaving them unpitied? "But I am a stranger to the man ;— -be it fo

"but I am no ftranger to his condition-misfor"tunes are of no particular tribe or nation, but be"long to us all; and have a general claim upon us, "without diftinction of climate, country, or religion. Befides, though I am a ftranger'tis nơ "fault of his that I do not know him, and therefore

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unequitable he fhould fuffer by it :-Had I known "him poffibly I should have had caufe to love and "pity him the more-For aught I know, he is fome $6 one of uncommon merit, whofe life is rendered "ftill more precious, as the lives and happiness of "others may be involved in it: perhaps at this in"stant that he lies here forfaken, in all this mifery,

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a whole virtuous family is joyfully looking for his "return, and affectionately counting the hours of "his delay. Oh! did they know what evil had "befallen him-how would they fly to fuccour "him!- Let me then haften to fupply thofe ten"der offices of binding up his wounds, and carrying him to a place of safety——or, if that affitt ance comes too late, I fhall comfort him at leas

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"in his laft hour-and, if I can do nothing else, "I fhall foften his misfortunes by dropping a "tear of pity over them."

'Tis almost neceffary to imagine the good Samaritan was influenced by fome fuch thoughts as these, from the uncommon generofity of his behaviour, which is represented by our SAVIOUR operating like the warm zeal of a brother, mixed with the affectionate difcretion and care of a parent, who was not fatisfied with taking him under his protection, and fupplying his prefent wants, but in looking forwards for him, and taking care that his wants fhould be fupplied when he fhould be gone, and no longer near to befriend him.

I think there needs no ftronger argument to prove how univerfally and deeply the feeds of this virtue of compaffion are planted in the heart of man, than in the pleasure we take in fuch reprefentations of it ; and though fome men have reprefented human nature in other colours (though to what end I know not), yet the matter of fact is so strong against them, that from the general propenfity to pity the unfortunate, we express that sensation by the word bumanity, as if it was infeparable from our nature. That it is not infeparable, I have allowed in the former part of this difcourfe, from fome reproachful in. ftances of selfish tempers, which seem to take part in nothing beyond themselves: yet I am perfuaded, and affirm 'tis ftill fo great and noble a part of our nature, that a man must do great violence to himself, and fuffer many a painful conflict, before he has brought himself to a different difpofition.

'Tis obfervable in the foregoing account, that when the priest came to the place where he was, he paffed by on the other fide-He might have paffed by, you'll fay, without turning afide.No, there is a fecret shame which attends every act of inhumanity, not to be conquered in the hardest natures; fo that, as in other cafes, fo efpecially in this, many a man will do a cruel act, who at the fame time will blush to look you in the face, and is forced to turn afide before he can have a heart to execute his purpose.

Inconfiftent creature that man is! who at that inftant that he does what is wrong, is not able to withhold his teftimony to what is good and praiseworthy.

I have now done with the parable, which was the firft part proposed to be confidered in this difcourfe; and should proceed to the second, which fo naturally falls from it, of exhorting you, as our SAVIOUR did the lawyer upon it, to go and do so likewife; but I have been fo copious in my reflections upon the story itself, that I find I have infenfibly incorporated into them almoft all that I fhould have faid here in recommending fo amiable an example; by which means I have unawares anticipated the task I propofed. I fhall therefore detain you no longer than with a fingle remark upon the subject in general, which is this: 'Tis obfervable in many places of fcripture, that our bleffed SAVIOUR, in defcribing the day of judgment, does it in fuch a manner, as if the great inquiry then, was to relate principally to this one virtue of com. paffionand as if our final fentence at that folemnity was to be pronounced exactly according to

ye

ye

the degrees of it. "I was a hungered and ye gave "me meat-thirfly, and ye gave me drink-naked, "and clothed me I was fick, and vifited me "-in prison and ye 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 All-feeing Judge, but barely to intimate to us, that a charitable and benevolent difpofition is fo principal and ruling a part of a man's character, as to be a confiderable teft, by itself, of the whole frame. and temper of his mind, with which all other virtues and vices refpectively rife and fall, and will almost neceffarily be connected- -Tell me therefore of a compaffionate man, you represent to me a man of a thousand other good qualities—on whom I can depend-whom I may fafely truft with my wife-my children, my fortune and reputation-Tis for this, as the Apostle argues from the fame principle"that he will not commit adultery-that he will not "kill that he will not fteal that he will not bear "falfe witnefs." That is, the forrows which are stirred up in men's hearts by fuch trefpaffes, are fo tenderly felt by a compaffionate 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 the love to your neighbour, was the end of the commandment, and that whofoever fulfilled it, had fulfilled the law.

Now to God, &c. Amen.

SERMON IV.

Self-Knowledge.

2 SAMUEL XII. 7. If part.

And Nathan faid unto David, Thou art the man.

THERE is no hiftorical paffage in fcripture which gives a more remarkable inftance of the deceitfulness of the heart of man to itself, and of how little we truly know of ourselves, than this; wherein David is convicted out of his own mouth, and is led by the prophet to condemn and pronounce a fevere judgment upon another, for an act of injuftice, which he had paffed over in himself, and poffibly reconciled to his own conscience. To know one's felf, one would think, could be no very difficult leffon :-for who, you'll fay, can well be truly ignorant of himfelf and the true difpofition of his own heart? If a man thinks at all, he cannot be a ftranger to what paffes there he must be conscious of his own thoughts and defires, he must remember his past purfuits, and the true fprings and motives which in general have directed the actions of his life: he may hang out falfe colours and deceive the world, but how can a man deceive himself? That a man can