if they were but once perfwaded that this is the Cafe; that there really is fuch an inexpreffible Pleafure, fuch a Spring of Joy and Contentation rifing in the Soul, the Spirits overflowing fo pleasingly, and the Heart Swelling with fuch fweet Gaiety and Pride (as (f) one finely, and yet ftill imperfectly, expreffes the delightful Paffion) in doing good. But how fhall we fatisfie them of this? Experience is certainly the best Conviction; and they who will exercise themselves in doing good, will quickly find how joyful and pleafant a Thing it is. But in the mean while, the Authority of great, and efpecially good Men, who probably fpeak only what they have often felt themfelves, ought to have fome Weight with us in a Cafe of this Nature. And what then will a Chriftian fay, when he hears his Saviour himself pronouncing that Acts xx. it is more bleffed to give than to receive and St. Paul using this very Maxim to

35.

the

(f) Bp.Fleetwood's Sermon in King's-College Chappel 1689.

f

the Elders of the Church of Ephesus, to encourage them to fupport the weak? Nay, what will any Man fay, whether Chriftian or not, when he hears one Heathen afferting, (as even Epicurus (g) did) that it is not only more excellent, but more pleafant, to do Acts of Kindness, than to receive them; for nothing is fo fruitful of Foy as doing good: And (b) another telling us, that a good Office is an Action that gives foy, and receives it by giving it: Thefe are Teftimonies of thofe, who could hardly say these Things but upon a fenfible Experience of the ineffable Plea fure of doing good. And the Argument is fo fuited to the general Temper of Mankind in pursuing Pleasure, that it is truly Matter of Wonder, how this Gra tification of our felves, this Epicurism, if I may fo call it, in one of the higheft Inftances of Pleafure and Delight, fhould be fo much neglected, when it may be enjoyed without denying our felves

B 2

(g) Plutarch. Moral. pag. 778. (b) Seneca de Beneficiis, Lib. 1.C.6.

441

felves in any other Satisfaction that can be thought lawful and innocent. It is indeed a purely fpiritual and mental Pleasure, it has nothing to do with the Body, or the animal Life of Man; it is like the Pleasure which God himself takes, when, as he speaks by the Mouth Jer.ix.24. of his Prophet, in thefe Things 1 delight, Jaith the Lord; but then it must for thefe Reasons be agreeable to those, whose Business it is to live above the Body and the World; who are invited to taft of Pleasures that this World cannot give, any more than it can take for even where it is not in our Power to do, there is yet a fecret and uncommon Pleasure in wishing well, and a fure Acceptance with God of the Heart for the Hand. For,

away;

Fourthly and lastly, There is an Obligation of Intereft, as well as of Humanity, Duty to God, and Pleasure to our selves in the Action, to determine us to communicate to others the Bleffings we enjoy our felves, when we know their Wants of them, and their Want

of

of true Happiness without them. For to be thus willing to communicate, is the most ready way to fecure to our felves a lafting Poffeffion of what we enjoy. It is like Building a Wall of Defence about our own Bleffings; it is Laying up our Treasure in a fecure Place, and Purchasing a never-failing Title to it. For, probably enough, those to whom we communicate a Share of what we enjoy, will not be fo ungrateful as to grudge us what we ftill retain, but in Juftice to our felves, and for our own Use; they will rather be inclined to joyn with us in Defence of the common Bleffings, and with one Heart and one Hand to oppofe their and our Enemies. And this is a natural Confequence of doing good to others, and feldom fails to be our Reward at prefent, but where Men are funk into the lowest Degeneracy of Principles and Manners.

But at the fame Time we have a greater Security in Almighty God himself than in Man, for the Good we do: Since

B 3

Since he has promised that this shall be the Reward of those who do not only thankfully receive his Bleffings, buc chearfully communicate them to others, that they fhall never want his Favour and Protection; that if they fow plentifully, they fhall reap plentifully; that what they give to their Brethren, be will look upon as lent to himself, and that he will take Care to repay it them again; fometimes (nay, generally speaking) even here in this World, but affu redly hereafter, in full Measure, preffed down, and running over, will he give into their Bofoms, who having received his Bleffings, whether fpiritual or temporal here, have, out of a due Sense of their own Happiness in them, and a compaffionate Feeling of their Brethrens Want of them, done all that was in their Power to make them alfo Partakers of the fame.

you

the

And thus having laid before. Grounds on which the General Propofi tion I raised from the Text is founded, I

fhall go on as I promised in the

Second