1. There are duties we owe to men as men, and purely on the ground of their being of the fame species with ourselves.

All our fellow-creatures, whatever may be their fituations, characters, or circumstances, are entitled to our fympathy and benevolence. A good man will with well to every one of his brethren of mankind, fincerely pray for their happiness, and heartily concur in measures for extending the bleffings of civil and religious liberty far and wide. The attention he pays to his family, friends, and neighbourhood, will not exclude those from his regards, who are beyond the circle wherein he moves. His predilection in favour of his native country will not excite animofity in his breaft against the fubjects of other ftates. Nor will the juft prejudices he has conceived against the ignorance, fuperftition, and bigotry of Pagans, Mahometans, and Papifts, or against those who have injured him, obliterate the compaffionate feelings of humanity towards them. Detefting those wretched maxims of policy and felf-interest which tend to the dividing mankind, and alienating them from one another, he will confider himself obliged, upon the grand principle, that God hath made men of one blood, and that his fun fhines upon the evil and the good, to contribute what in him lies to the welfare of all. In short, as religion confirms and improves that univerfal philanthropy which nature teaches, fo the Chriftian feels himfelf difpofed not only to the duties of truth, fincerity, and justice, but to thofe of civility, fympathy, and love towards the whole race of mankind.

2. The duties we owe to our country come next to be enumerated.

Thefe

These are of a more particular defcription than the former. They are the refult of a regard due to others, not as men only, but as men inhabiting one country, cast into one civil fociety, and fubfifting under one form of government. This regard or attachment is what we call patriotism, a kind of instinct implanted in our breafts for wife and noble purposes; and which, therefore, a good man will cherish and cultivate to the utmost of his power. And the duties of it are fuch as thefe in general, the feeking the fafety, honour, and profperity of our country. The confidering the enemies of it, whether foreign or domeftic, as our enemies. The ufing our endeavours to detect every infidious, and to defeat every open attempt againft it. The contending earnestly for its civil and religious rights and liberties. The paying all due allegiance, honour, and fubmiffion to its magiftrates, fupreme and fubordinate. The rendering tribute to whom tribute is due. The leading peaceable lives in all godliness and honefty. The endeavouring to promote harmony and goodwill, condefcenfion and fubordination, among all orders of men. And, in a word, the exerting ourselves, as far as our abilities and stations will admit, to check the progrefs of vice and profaneness, and to promote virtue and religion. Which leads me,

3. To the duties we owe, as Chriftians, to the church of God.

Here our views are confined within a circle of a different defcription from the former. All good men, wherever fituated and however diftinguished from one another, compofe one large family, fociety, or kingdom, of which God is the Father, and Chrift is the Sovereign

Sovereign and King. And our duty, as belonging to this one catholic church or body, is, in general, to maintain fteadily the grand principles on which it is united, to contend earnestly for its rights and privileges, to endeavour, by all poffible means, to promote its profperity and increafe, and to cherish in our breasts a cordial and unreferved affection to every individual of which it is compofed.

But as the various fituations and circumftances of Chriftians, and their different modes of thinking refpecting matters which do not affect the existence of the whole, make it neceffary that they fhould be formed into diftinct focieties, so there are duties which the members of fuch focieties owe to one another. And it is an important expreffion of a public fpirit to pay a faithful attention to thefe duties, as hereby not only the particular interests of these separate societies are promoted, but the general welfare and glory of the whole. And here I might mention the various mutual offices required of minifters and their people towards each other, in regard of public worship, the celebration of divine ordinances, and the maintenance of good order, fellowship, and love. He is a man of a public catholic fpirit, who in respect of these matters feeks not his own things, but the things of Chrift, and can say with the apostle, "For me to live is Chrift," it is my grand object to promote his kingdom and intereft: who endeavours with all his might to preserve the Chriftian doctrine and institutions inviolable; and to that end often foregoes his own eafe, emolument, and honour : and who, abhorring from his very heart a narrow, uncandid, bigotted fpirit, feels a cordial affection for all other Chriftian focieties, who hold Christ as the head,

though

though they differ in many circumftantials of doctrine and duty; and moft heartily concurs with them in every laudable scheme for the general good.

4. and lastly, The duties of benevolence are to be further confidered in their reference to families and individuals.

And here I forbear to enumerate all the offices required of us towards each other, in the various characters of husbands and wives, parents and children, brethren and fifters, mafters and fervants, buyers and fellers, relatives, friends, neighbours, and members of civil fociety. These offices are almost infinitely diverfified, yet they are all the objects of his attention who looks not on his own things only, but also on the things of others.

A bufy officious temper ought, however, to be particularly guarded againft. Far was it from the apoftle's intention to give any countenance to fo little, mean, and base a passion, as that of looking or prying into other people's affairs. A paffion that has done infinite mischief in the world and in the church. particularly inveighs against it in his epiftles to the Theffalonians and to Timothy, where he defcribes perfons of this character, as "walking diforderly, work

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ing not at all, and being bufy-bodies." And, as "learning to be idle, wandering about from houfe to "house, tatlers, and fpeaking things which they ought

not +." A man of a public and benevolent spirit is infinitely fuperior to every thing of this fort. He meddles not with the concerns of others. Yet glad would he be to make every individual with whom he is connected happy, and fincerely does he lament it that

that too often, through human frailty and criminal në — glect, he fails in his duty.-This general view of the duties to which the apoftle exhorts us in the text, and which are hereafter to be more particularly confidered, shall at present suffice.-Our obligations to the regular and cheerful difcharge of the duties of a public fpirit, remain now to be confidered. But this will be the fubject of our attention the next opportunity.

PART II.

We have particularly confidered the evil we are cautioned against in the text, namely, a private or felfish fpirit-Look not every man on his own things. And we have explained and illuftrated the temper and conduct opposed to it, namely, a benevolent and public fpirit. Let every man look alfo on the things of others. And we now proceed,

SECONDLY, To enquire into our obligations to the regular and cheerful difcharge of the duties of bene

volence.

1. We will begin with the obligation which results from the relation we fland in to each other.

There are relations fubfifting among mankind, and thefe relations do of neceffity beget reciprocal duties. As for inftance, the moment I contemplate the relation between parents and their children, the obligation of the former to love the latter, and of the latter to reverence the former, forces itself upon my. mind. There is no feparating the ideas. And the fame may be faid of every other relation among reafonable beings. Let men be placed in what connection they may with each other, that connection will, it

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