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SERMON 27

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By Johnson, Samuel

Samuel Johnson: Sermons

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SERMON 271

To do good and to distribute2 forget not: for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.

HEBREWS xiii.16

The great duty of charity, and beneficence, however it may be sometimes forgotten or neglected, is so generally admitted, and so zealously professed, that it may seem superfluous to recommend, and difficult to enforce it: superfluous, because those that omit it, seem rather inclined to conceal, than vindicate their conduct, and shew, by their desire of secrecy, their consciousness of guilt; and difficult, because, what is universally known, must be, of itself, easily discoverable; and it is vain to labour for forms of argument, to evince that of which sensation or intuition will inform us.

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How important this duty is esteemed, the most transient view of the various religions, by which mankind has been divided, will discover; all of which comprize precepts of charity, however irrational in their other doctrines, however indulgent to the appetites and passions, however ridiculous in their rites and observances, however apparently framed for political purposes, and however destitute of a divine sanction. All, though contradictory in general to each other, are yet found to agree in this, that they recommend, either a general or partial beneficence. Their authors appear to have evidently considered this part of their precepts, as a mark, by which mankind would judge of their institutions; they had no hope of introducing a religion, but by throwing over it the lustre of benevolence; and the only difference among them, on this head, appears to have been how this charm, of which they all knew the efficacy, might be most forcibly applied.

Some imagined, that unbounded and universal charity, was a conception too extensive for vulgar minds, such as must form the greatest part of every sect, or perhaps, had themselves minds, too narrow to conceive it; they therefore employed all their influence to recommend charity in particular relations, and extended it, more or less, as they were led by their education, interest or opinion.

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The most sensual and voluptuous of all the sects of philosophers, incessantly declaimed upon the excellence of friendship, and the necessity of fidelity, tenderness and constancy; they endeavoured to find in friendship, that care and protection, which their tenets did not suffer them to solicit from heaven,3 of which they imagined the powers to look without any concern upon human transactions, neither delighted by virtue nor offended by wickedness.

This contracted and ignoble kindness, of which the reciprocations are speedy, and the satisfactions strong, where benefits are the consequences of affection, and passion co-operates with duty, is, indeed, of most use to those, who have no regard but to the present day, and whose ultimate purpose, is the gratification of their senses; and friendship, private friendship is, indeed, so necessary, not to the enjoyment only, but to the support of life, that it cannot wholly be taken away; every individual has his particular afflictions, and ought therefore to have his particular reliefs.

The religion of Jesus has, therefore, not abolish’d friendship, but superadded charity; we are not commanded to extinguish particular affections, but not to suffer them, wholly to engross us; we are not, while we are studying the gratifications of our friends, to neglect the universal happiness of mankind; but, at once, to attend to private and general duties, as the sun, at the same time, gives the day by one motion, and the year by another.

Others have carried their benevolence still farther, and taught, that the general duty of life, is the love of our country; these, likewise, were mistaken, not in asserting that this was a duty, but that it was the only duty; that it was to absorb all other considerations, and that consequently nothing was criminal, by which the greatness of a particular society might be augmented, or its prosperity advanced: this principle was the dictate, not of piety, but ambition, we are to endeavour,

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indeed, the happiness of our country; but in subordination to the happiness of mankind.

Enthusiasm has dictated another limitation of benevolence, which it has confined to those of the same religion, having taught, with a fatal confidence, that all other sects are to be considered, as the enemies of God; that error, however involuntary, is entitled to no compassion even from fallible beings; and that those, whom God hath cursed with ignorance, are to be excluded from the general charter of humanity, to be persecuted as beasts of prey, and swept away, as too prophane to enjoy the same sun, or to tread on the same earth, with the favourites of their maker. But far different are the doctrines inculcated by the precepts, and enforced by the example of our blessed Saviour, who refused not the charity of a miracle to the foreign centurion,4 or of information to the woman of Samaria;5 and who, when he commanded his apostles to preach the gospel, authoriz’d them to use no other methods, than those of lenity, meekness and beneficence.6

Among Christians, some sects have attempted to recommend themselves by an ardour of benevolence, well adapted to dazzle the weak, and to ensnare the needy; but which was never commanded by the author of our religion, and is not practicable without confusion. They have introduced an absolute community of possessions, and asserted, that distinction of property,

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is inconsistent with that love, which we are commanded to exercise towards one another. The absurdity of this notion, it is not difficult to shew. Every man must easily discern that difference of property, is necessary to subordination, and subordination essential to government; that, where there is no property, there can be no motive to industry, but virtue; and that the bad, must then always be supported by those, whose generosity inclines them to provide for them.

There was, indeed, once a time, when community of goods was the practice of Christians, but it does not appear, even then, to have been required as a necessary condition:7 and, when our Saviour ordered the rich man to sell all, he ordered him, at the same time, to follow him; he ordered him to resign his possessions, not because he was to become a Christian, but a preacher; because he was, not only to profess, but establish a new religion, and to enter into a state, in which he could no longer use his riches, nor enjoy them.8

It will be therefore to no purpose, that any man attempts to prove, from this passage, the necessity of an absolute resignation of all temporal goods, unless he can prove, likewise, that every Christian is ordered to dedicate his life to the conversion of the Gentiles.

Our holy religion exalts, but does not violate, our affections; and directs us to practice every duty consistently with nature. We are taught to exercise charity, such as is, at once, ardent and rational; not contracted by selfish or partial exclusions, nor sublimed9 into a total disregard of all private happiness; and this charity is inculcated in the most powerful manner, commanded by the most expressive precepts, enforced by the

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most inviting promises, and most dreadful threatenings; and recommended by the example of him, who, when he delivered this amiable doctrine, was himself always emploied in healing the sick, or instructing the ignorant; in softening the miseries of the present state, or in pointing out the way to everlasting happiness.

By him we are taught, that “to do unto others, as we would they should do unto us, is the law and the prophets”;1 by him we are informed, that when he shall, at the last day, come surrounded by angels and arch-angels, and invested with the glories of divinity, to fix the final doom of created beings, the great distinction, that will be then for ever established, shall be made by the test of this duty.2 At that day, when all the generations of the earth, shall stand forth in the immediate presence of their God, will the practice or neglect of charity be chiefly noted; then they, who have looked with indifference upon the calamities of others, who have scoffed at the mourner, and insulted the captive; who have diverted the uneasiness of sympathy by vicious enjoyments, and suffered others to languish in pain or poverty, for want of that relief, which would cost only a momentary pleasure, shall be condemned to an everlasting society, with those beings, whose depravity incites them to rejoice at the destruction of mankind. And those who have, in obedience to the institutions and in conformity to the example of their Saviour, endeavoured to alleviate calamities and to remove distress; those by whose bounty the gloom of prisons has been cheered, and by whose tenderness, the languor of sickness has been solaced; those by whom oppressive power has been disarmed, and helpless innocence been defended, shall be exalted to perpetual and unchangeable felicity, and stand for ever in the presence of God, emploied in the contemplation and praise of infinite benevolence.

That a duty, on which our eternal happiness is thus declared

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to depend, may not be neglected, or erroneously practiced, it is necessary to enquire, First, what are the hindrances, by which charity is obstructed; and, Secondly, what are the rules to be observed in the practice of charity.

The great impediment of charity, as of all other virtues, is “the love of the world”; that love which the Apostle has declared to be inconsistent with “the love of the Father.”3 Men are not charitable, as they are not just; because they suffer themselves to be captivated by their senses; because they are wholly engrossed by present happiness, and extend not their prospects to another state; they do not contemplate the duration of their future existence, or impress upon their minds, the great importance of pleasing God; and the danger of falling into everlasting misery; and have therefore no motives, which they can oppose to the solicitations of appetite, the incitements of passion, or the tranquility of negligence; but pass their lives, some in the slumbers of indolence, and others in the hurry of business or of pleasure, without any preparation for that change, which must determine their state to all eternity.

It is, indeed, not easy to prevail upon avarice to remit its anxieties; upon gaiety to be attentive, or upon luxury to reason; but, surely, when doctrines, thus important, are to be delivered, a short pause of action might be obtained from the most laborious of the slaves of wealth or greatness; and a suspence of sensuality might be granted by those, who have resign’d themselves to jollity and pleasure. And no long time can be required to shew that they are, at present, wholly negligent of their own interest; that they are in pursuit of uncertain and transient advantages, which they may, perhaps, never obtain; which, while they possess them, can afford little satisfaction; and which, however they may now please, must very soon be taken away.

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The man, who places his felicity in riches, and the power and influence, which are confer’d by them, who passes, without regard, by the wretched and the poor, and forgets to “lay up treasures in heaven,”4 may, surely, employ one moment in considering that his “soul” may “this night be required of him”;5 and that he may enter, in a few hours, into a state, in which all distinctions will be for ever obliterated, but those of virtue; and where only he can hope for mercy by whom mercy has been shewn. He, who counts his days by a succession of pleasures, nor knows any other use of time, than to squander it in amusements; who thinks on the miseries of others, only to heighten his own felicity, or declines the thought, only that his own enjoyments may not be interrupted, will surely start from his dream at the sound of age and death; at the mention of that time, in which he shall say, “I have no pleasure in it”;6 and of that hour, that shall translate him to scenes of horror and of misery; where nothing of his past gratifications, shall be remember’d, but the guilt.

It might be hoped that those who place their own happiness in riches, should readily compassionate that poverty, of which they shew how much they are sensible of the misery, by their solicitude to avoid it; and, that those whose only care, is, to heighten and multiply their pleasures, who shrink from the first approach of pain, and shudder at the idea of hardship or of toil, should readily contribute to the relief of those calamities, which they conceive themselves unable to support; nor would this expectation be disappointed, if we could be taught to think without partiality, and to consider the state of others, as our own.

Charity is likewise obstructed in particular persons by particular vices and habits, which, though, perhaps, in themselves,

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not enormous or detestable, ought yet, to be, very diligently, corrected, since, in their consequences, they may prove equally pernicious with greater crimes, by hindering the practice of that virtue, without which no salvation has been promised.

There are some, whose indolence inclines them to put off works of charity, like all others, from day to day; and who neglect all present opportunities of virtue, because they flatter themselves, with the approach of a more convenient season; but these may very fitly be reminded, that “the night cometh, when no man can work,”7 that the uncertainty of life allows no distant prospects, or dilatory measures; and, that from him, who neglects the good, which God now puts in his power, the power of doing good may soon be taken away.

He who gives quickly may be said to double his bounty,8 and he only who gives quickly, can be sure, that death will not intercept his beneficence.a “Say not to him that asketh, go thy way now, and to-morrow I will give, when thou hast it by thee.”9

Others, of a timorous and melancholy temper, are hindered from the practice of charity, by an unreasonable fear of future want, and endeavour to find in parsimony, that security, which is only to be obtained from the divine blessing; but this blessing is promised only by God to those that trust in him; and, surely, they who neglect their duty, lest they should grow poorer by performing it may be deservedly forsaken, by that God, who has promised to repay, what is given to the poor.

In others, the ardour of charity is overborn and destroyed by

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the flame of zeal, by which they suffer themselves to be so much engrossed, that they forget all duties, but the support of their favourite opinions; and believe no one worthy of their assistance, whose education or reflections, have inclined him to sentiments, different from their own. Of this rage of party, this madness of superstition, too many instances are hourly to be seen; every day produces examples of merit, which nothing, but difference of opinion in doubtful questions, hinders from being regarded; and of misery, at which those who behold it, rejoice only, because it frees them from the danger of opposition.

But let us remember, that God “causes the sun to shine on the evil and on the good”;1 and that acts of kindness are due to the miserable, not because they are of any particular sect, but because they are men; because they have one common nature and one common father with ourselves.

It should, likewise, be remember’d, that he best shews his regard to truth, who most contributes to its propagation; and that he will propagate it with most success, who recommends it by benevolence; a virtue, with which heaven and earth are delighted; and of which, few have been so profligate, as to deny the excellence; or so obdurate, as to withstand the influence, when it has been practiced in conformity to the institutions of our Saviour; which will be more accurately understood if we enquire,

Secondly, what rules are to be observed in the practice of charity.

In the practice of charity, our Lord has very expressly warned us, against ostentation, and directed us in the exertion of our beneficence, to banish from our thoughts, all regard for the esteem of men. He has justly decreed, that only they, who give alms in confidence of recompence from God, shall be approved by him; and that they, who desire the applause of “men,” shall, in that applause find “their reward.”2

We are, likewise, to take care, that our charity to the bodies of men, is not inconsistent with charity to their souls. We are not to suffer our liberality to be abused to the indulgence of idleness, or to the encouragement of vice; for this, like all other

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virtues, is estimable for its effects, and that charity, which should contribute to the corruption of mankind, can expect no reward, from the God of rectitude and purity.

As there is a virtuous compassion, which is the highest exaltation of human nature, there is, likewise, a weak facility, which, when it is mentioned with indulgence, may be said to be a quality indifferent, and to deserve neither praise nor blame: he that gives without reason, is, indeed, more amiable, than he that denies; because, he may do good, though he does it by chance; but he can have little hopes of recompence from God; because, tho’ he has not hid his talent in the ground,3 he has scattered it in the wind, and emploied it indifferently, to good and bad purposes. In the choice of objects, however, we are not to be too scrupulous, and he may justly suspect himself to want charity, who finds objections too frequently against its expediency; and it is always to be carefully observ’d, that we are not to refuse any man relief, because he is wicked, but to afford it in such a manner, as may not contribute to confirm his vices; the crime and the criminal are always to be distinguish’d, and the detestation that we may properly indulge against the one, ought never to harden our hearts against the other.

With regard to the charity now proposed, the most scrupulous can raise no difficulties, nor can the most artful advocates, for hardness of heart, find any pretence for denying their contributions. Nothing is here endeavoured, but the relief of those, who have been recommended by God himself to our compassion; nothing but the comfort of widows, and the support of orphans; of those orphans, who would have stood in less need of assistance, had the abilities, which their fathers exerted in teaching the way of salvation, and turning souls from death, been emploied in promoting pleasure, in gratifying vanity, or in smoothing the paths to everlasting ruin.

It is no honour to the age, that the most useless and trifling employment, will more certainly enable those, who profess it, to secure their families from want, than the great art of rectifying the morals, and purifying the mind; and, that he, who

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exhausts his strength in the labour of converting wickedness, and instructing ignorance, is frequently rewarded with less liberality, than the meanest artizan.

But as the temporal encouragements annex’d to the work of the ministry are less, the piety of those who chearfully undertake, and resolutely perform it, must be allowed to be greater; and their widows and orphans, may be with more justice recommended to regard. For, if the gratitude of mankind, has, in all ages, continued to the posterity of illustrious men, those honours, which the virtues of their ancestors acquired; it may be hoped, that children will, by the same gratitude, be rescued from poverty, which only the virtue of their fathers has brought upon them.

The church of Rome, to secure her ministers from domestic perplexities, has introduced greater evils, by enjoining celibacy; but it is undoubtedly the interest of religion, that its teachers should not be overburthened with temporal solicitude; and, therefore, nothing can more contribute to the promotion of piety, than a provision for the children of those, who are intrusted with the mighty work of saving souls; since the fear of leaving their families exposed to misery, must, on many occasions, repress their zeal, and weaken their patience, intimidate their admonitions, and shake their integrity. Those may submit to mean compliances to preserve their children from calamity, who could themselves with intrepidity stem the torrent of distress, or stand undisturb’d amidst the storms of persecution.

As charity, therefore, is the most excellent of all moral virtues,4 because it conduces most to the happiness of mankind; so that kind of charity is most laudable, of which the benefits are most extensive. And, surely, no man can wish greater effects from his munificence, than the advancement of general virtue, by such encouragement to those who teach it, as we may rationally hope from the charity, which we are now assembled to promote.

“Let,” therefore, “those, who are rich in this world, be,”

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on this occasion, “ready to give, and glad to distribute; laying up for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may attain eternal life.”5

Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour, praise, might, majesty and dominion, both now and for evermore. Amen.6

FINIS.

Editorial Notes

1 Mrs. Thrale noted (Thraliana, ed. Katharine C. Balderston, 1951, p. 204) in a “Catalogue of such Writings as I know to be” SJ’s, the following: “Sermons for Strahan & Hervey-I know not how many.” This clue enabled Dr. L. F. Powell (see Introduction, p. xix, n. 1) to discover and attribute to SJ this sermon, written for the Reverend Henry Hervey Aston (for title page, see Illustration opposite). Aston (1701-48), whom SJ called “a vicious man, but very kind to me” (Life, I.106), was a brother of the celebrated Lord Hervey, Queen Caroline’s intimate and Pope’s Sporus. In 1743 he was ordained a clergyman; having sold his military commission, he left the dashing and debtridden life that had earned him among the ladies the nickname “Ha Ha” for one that led David Garrick to call him “the hack-apostle.” Faced with the prospect of preaching a charity sermon at St. Paul’s Cathedral before a fashionable audience that included the Archbishop of Canterbury, several other bishops, the Lord Chief Justice, and several aldermen of the City, Aston turned to SJ, who wrote the sermon which, when preached by Aston on 2 May 1745, produced a larger collection than usual and which, after it was published on 27 May 1745 over Aston’s name, fell into oblivion. See James L. Clifford’s introduction to the reprint of the sermon by the Augustan Reprint Society (No. 50, 1955). Sermons 4 and 19, the two charity sermons written for Taylor, are closely parallel in theme and style to the one for Aston. The Sons of the Clergy, a corporation of clergymen of the Church of England at whose annual service this sermon was preached, was a charitable organization, formed probably as early as 1655, and given a royal charter in 1678 for the purpose of helping children and widows of the clergy and others in financial need and of providing education for orphans of the clergy. At its annual festival, the society’s program included a special service held since its inception-apart from the years 1674 to 1696-at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The choice of festival preachers was officially determined by the stewards of the society, in consultation with the Archbishop, although there were at least two occasions in the eighteenth century when preachers offered their services and were appointed. In later times the Archbishop had the major say in the selection. The list of Aston’s distinguished predecessors includes Thomas Sprat (1705), Thomas Sherlock (1710), Henry Sacheverell (1713), and Joseph Trapp (1720). The time of the festival, originally December, was changed to February in 1727, then to April, or early May, in 1740, “at the instance of the Archbishop of Canterbury, upon an Idea that it would be of much Advantage to the Charity.” (See E. H. Pearce, The Sons of the Clergy, 1904, pp. 214 ff).

2 “Communicate” (King James version). SJ here follows the reading of the Book of Common Prayer (see, for example, ed. of 1741), where the text from Hebrews xiii.16 appears exactly as SJ quotes it; it is one of the sentences with which the Offertory in the Communion Service may be begun. SJ here departs from his usual practice of quoting the Biblical text of the sermon in the King James version, perhaps because “distribute” introduces an appeal to charity more appropriately than “communicate.” But see pp. 44 and n. 8, 223 and n. 5.

3 Compare SJ’s comment to Boswell: “I do not approve of figurative expressions in addressing the Supreme Being; and I never use them” (Life, IV.294-95). SJ’s references to God in the sermons are usually austere, but they often possess a metaphorical quality and suggest law, government, power, creation. For a discussion of SJ’s conception of God, see Jean H. Hagstrum, Samuel Johnson’s Literary Criticism (1952, 1967), pp. 64-68.

4 See Matthew viii.5-13, where Jesus’ healing of the centurion’s servant is reported.

5 John iv.7-29. The “information” Jesus did not withhold from the Samaritan woman is either personal-what she describes as “all things that ever I did” (verse 29)-or else doctrinal-that “God is a Spirit” (verse 24) and that Jesus is the Messiah (verse 26). SJ is here enforcing the example as well as the teaching of Christ, who challenges Jewish prejudice by confiding basic theological truth to a Samaritan woman and by performing a miracle for a Roman centurion.

6 Cf. Mark xvi.15-18 and Luke vi. 27-38. Compare SJ’s condemnation of the methods of Jesuit missionaries-and of the Roman Catholic Church generally-in the Preface to the Translation of Father Lobo’s Voyage to Abyssinia: “It is not easy to forbear reflecting with how little reason these men profess themselves the followers of Jesus, who left this great characteristick to his disciples, that they should be known by loving one another, by universal and unbounded charity and benevolence” (par. 7). In the Introduction to The World Displayed (1759) SJ writes: “The first propagators of Christianity recommended their doctrines by their sufferings and virtues; they entered no defenceless territories with swords in their hands ...” (par. 38).

7 Acts ii.44-45.

8 Luke xviii.22. See Greene, Politics of S J, pp. 148-50.

9 In the Dictionary SJ recognizes sublime as a transitive and an intransitive verb. His meaning here is explained by the first two verbs of his third definition (“To exalt; to heighten; to improve”). But both this and another use (Sermon 17, p. 182, where a crime is “sublimed to the highest state of enormity”) suggest that SJ tended to use the term ironically for a wicked or foolish “heightening.” He may also intend the sense of sublimate, whose first definition in the Dictionary is identical with that of sublime and which may bear the connotation of “refined away.” For “sublimation” see Sermon 23, p. 239, and Anna Seward’s characterization, “the sublimated, methodistic Hill Boothby, who read her bible in Hebrew” (Letters of Anna Seward, 1811, 11, 103).

1 A condensation and slight adaptation of Matthew vii.12: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” See Sermons 14, 18, 24, pp. 157, 198, 256.

2 Matthew XXV.31-46, especially verse 45: “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”

3 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John ii.15); “... know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” (James iv.4).

4 Cf Matthew vi. 19-20, which appear as one of the Offertory sentences in the Communion Service: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven; where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”

5 Luke xii.20. See Sermons 14, 25, pp. 153, 266.

6 Ecclesiastes xii.1: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.”

7 John ix.4. “At this time [spring, 1768] I observed upon the dial-plate of his watch a short Greek inscription, taken from the New Testament, Nυξ ɣαρ ερχεταı, being the first words of our Saviour’s solemn admonition to the improvement of that time which is allowed us to prepare for eternity: ’the night cometh, when no man can work’” (Life, II.57). Compare SJ’s short, undated supplication “Imploring Diligence”: “O God, make me to remember that the night cometh when no man can work” (Yale I.118). See Sermons 4, 25, pp. 50, 271.

8 SJ here translates “Bis dat qui cito dat” (Erasmus, Adagia, 1508, 92 verso). Cf. Life, II.290 and n.

a beneficence. emend.] beneficence, 45

9 “Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee” (Proverbs iii.28)

1 Matthew v.45: “For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good.”

2 Matthew vi.2.

3 Cf. Matthew XXV.25, where the wicked and slothful servant of Christ’s parable hides his talent in the earth. Cf. also Sermon 19, p. 212 and n. 3.

4 Virtue 45. The phrasing (“the most excellent of all ...”) requires the plural “virtues.”

5 A shortening and adaptation of 1 Timothy vi.17-19.

6 Compare the liturgical ascriptions that conclude Sermons 6, 7, and 9; and see p. 73, n. 5.

Transcription

Document Details

Document TitleSERMON 27

AuthorJohnson, Samuel

Creation DateN/A

Publ. Date1745

Alt. TitleN/A

Contrib. AuthorAston, Henry Hervey

ClassificationSubject: Hebrews; Subject: Charity; Subject: Friendship; Subject: Compassion; Genre: Sermon

PrinterN/A

PublisherJ. Brindley

Publ. PlaceLondon

VolumeSamuel Johnson: Sermons

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