Yet, tho' it be the duty of a Chriftian to hide the favours he does his neighbour, and to wifh them unknown to all but God; however, gratitude always obliges the receiver to acknowledge, and fometimes to proclaim them. It is a fhame to be afhamed of a favour, and a crime to fly from a benefactor, as if his prefence reproached either our neceffity or our ingratitude. The fecond miracle was the cure of a Roman captain's fervant. There came to him a centurion, befeeching him, and faying, Lord, my fervant lieth at home, fick of the palfy. He addreffed himself to our Saviour with fuch a confidence, earneftness, faith and humility, that altho', according to the received maxim, A wife man admires nothing, the incarnate wisdom marvelled, and faid to them that followed him, I have not found fo great faith, no not in Ifrael. This Roman convert was fo follicitous for the health of his fervant, that he undertook the meffage himself: he befought our Saviour not to stoop fo low, as to enter into his house, unworthy to receive fo great a Gueft. He told him, his power was as able to work at a distance, as near; and that his word was no less efficacious, than his prefence: But Speak the word only, and my fervant shall be healed. The priests joined their prayers to the centurions; they pleaded his merits, that, tho' a Roman, he loved the nation, and that his piety went fo far as to build a fynagogue at his own expences, Luke vii. 5. But this new profelyte would neither pretend merit, nor allow of the commendation: they obtruded these without his confent, and made his panegyrick, against it; he fued for a favour, not for a reward; Lord, I am not worthy; and had recourse to our Saviour's bounty, without pretending any obligation of justice; and for this reafon he immedi ately ately received this gracious command, Go thy way, and, as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee. Nothing moves God more to confer favours on men, than humility. He ftoops (faith St. Austin) to the humble, and flies from the proud. Alas! we had no right to be, much less to, any thing befides. Our fins are our own, our virtues his; for he both gives the power, and the will, to do good. And tho' we fhould arrive at the fupreme pitch of Christian perfection, yet we must confefs we are unprofitable fervants. When therefore we afk a favour, let us first acknowledge our unworthiness, and then urge Chrift's merits as a motive, but never plead our own; thofe indeed are perfuafive, and God feldom refufes the favours we beg in his name, unless it would be a punishment to grant them. But who is the perfon, for whom the centurion intercedes with fo much earneftnefs? A fervant. This example of tenderness in a foldier for a poor domeftick, that lay under the pains and impotence of a palfy, condemns thofe Chriftians, that treat their fervants as Pharaoh did the Jews, overload them with burdens, work them down, and then take no more care, either of their bodies or fouls, than a Turk does of his flave in a bagnio. They look upon them merely as beafts of burden, made for drudgery; and perfuade themselves, Job's aphorifin, Man born to labour, marks the very end of their creation. But after all, the mafter and the man, the lady and the maid, are but different pieces of the fame clay; they were cast in the fame mould, and fo the one can pretend to no natural fuperiority over the other. Nature has placed them on equal ground; the whole advantage arifes from money, or title; and perchance from fraud, and circumvention; and in this cafe, in the judgment of God, an innocent flave is ten times more more noble, and more valuable, than a guilty emperor. But befides, we are all brethren in Jefus Chrift; he shed as many drops of his blood for poor Lazarus as for the mighty Dives, and has purchased as good a title to heaven for the meanest, as for the moft exalted mortals. Now all these relations deferve a tenderness, nay, and impofe a ftrict obligation on masters to treat their domefticks with kindness and charity. They are in fome fort their parents, as well as their lords; and for this reafon, the very Pagan Romans called them Patres-familiâs, Fathers of the family. Now the alliance between mafters and fervants being fo near, and founded in religion as well as nature itself, fhould they not regard them rather as relations, than as flaves, or creatures of another species? I know this hinders not a master from exacting a fervant's duty; he is taken into the family to work, not to play. But then he muft not be overcharged; nor fpend his blood, together with his fweat, in your fervice. Again, you must pay him his wages, and not withdraw it to fpend it on hounds and horses, or to throw it away on luxury and finery. The sweat of the poor is unfit nourishment for beafts; and, I affure you, neither your stable, nor your kennel will thrive upon man's flefh. God's curfe will fall heavy upon both, and, in all probability, may take in your whole family and eftate. Nor muft you brow-beat a poor creature that afks his wages, as if he put an affront on your perfon, or became importunate for a mere gratuity. He is guilty of an injury, who with-holds a stipend, not he, who demands his due. He requires the price of his fatigues, and you are obliged to return it as a strict debt, not as a free gift. When a fervant is fick, you must not turn him over to the hospital, nor fuffer him to struggle with his infirmity, without any care or concern for his recovery. Chriftianity inftils more charitable principles; it commands us to affift the neceffitous in general, and, by confequence, much more those who depend fo nearly on us, and have loft their health in our fervice. Do as you would be done by, is the voice of nature. Let mafters confider how they would defire to be treated in their fervants circumstances, and then let them fhew the fame tenderness they would expect and defire. Turn not upon the common an old crazy domeftick, because he is unfit for future fervice. This is to imitate those barbarous Indians, who expose their decrepit parents to the cruelty of lions and tygers. Let not intereft prevail against charity, nor the principles of avarice against thofe of religion. He is worn out in your fervice, and has fpent his fweat and strength in your family; it is juft therefore to fupport his drooping old age, and to enliven the remains of thofe fpirits he has loft in your service. But if mafters must take care of their fervants bodies, they must be fure not to neglect the welfare of their fouls. As these are more valuable, fo their care must rise in proportion. Masters must therefore fee, they are inftructed in the duties of a Chriftian, and command their practice: they must not fo overcharge them with labour, as to allow them no time for their devotions: they have a duty to pay their Maker, as well as their lord, and that must take place, Let a fervant be never fo ufeful, if he be a debauchee, turn him off. He will spread the infection in the family; and befides, he, who betrays his duty to God, is feldom faithful to his master. Encourage virtue, and fhew, that the only way to enter into your favour, is to practise it; and when fervants know, godlinefs alone opens the way to your favour and preferment, few will go over to vice. O moft merciful Saviour! I come, in company of this poor leper, to throw my self at your most facred feet. Behold, O Lord, my foul, covered over with the leprofy of fin; but I know, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean; and I allo know, that thy mercies are over all thy works. Stretch forth then, O Lord, thy merciful hand, and touch my foul with the healing balm of thy divine grace, that I may be cleanfed from all fpots of fin. I muft own with this good centurion, that I am unworthy thou shouldst come under my roof, but fpeak the word only, O Lord, and my foul fhall be healed. EPISTLE to the Romans, Chap. xiii. Verse 8. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another for be, that loveth another, bath fulfilled the law. 9. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not fteal, Thou shalt not bear falfe witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this faying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy felf. 10. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. The MORAL REFLECTION. TH HE apoftle, in almoft every chapter of his epiftles, repeats the doctrine of love one another; and feems to place the perfection of Christian I 2 morality |