the same time that we relieve them, and make ourselves not
only [their Patrons, [3]] but their Fellow Sufferers.

Sir _Thomas Brown_, in the last Part of his _Religio Medici_, in which
he describes his Charity in several Heroick Instances, and with a noble
Heat of Sentiments, mentions that Verse in the Proverbs of _Solomon, He
that giveth to the Poor, lendeth to the Lord_. [4]

'There is more Rhetorick in that one Sentence, says he, than in a
Library of Sermons; and indeed if those Sentences were understood by
the Reader, with the same Emphasis as they are delivered by the
Author, we needed not those Volumes of Instructions, but might be
honest by an Epitome. [5]'

This Passage in Scripture is indeed wonderfully persuasive; but I think
the same Thought is carried much further in the New Testament, where our
Saviour tells us in a most pathetick manner, that he shall hereafter
regard the Cloathing of the Naked, the Feeding of the Hungry, and the
Visiting of the Imprisoned, as Offices done to himself, and reward them
accordingly. [6] Pursuant to those Passages in Holy Scripture, I have
somewhere met with the Epitaph of a charitable Man, which has very much
pleased me. I cannot recollect the Words, but the Sense of it is to this
Purpose; What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I
gave away remains with me. [7]

Since I am thus insensibly engaged in Sacred Writ, I cannot forbear
making an Extract of several Passages which I have always read with
great Delight in the Book of _Job_. It is the Account which that Holy
Man gives of his Behaviour in the Days of his Prosperity, and, if
considered only as a human Composition, is a finer Picture of a
charitable and good-natured Man than is to be met with in any other
Author.

_Oh that I were as in Months past, as in the Days when God preserved
me: When his Candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I
walked through darkness: When the Almighty was yet with me: when my
Children were about me: When I washed my steps with butter, and the
rock poured out rivers of oyl.

When the Ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the Eye saw me, it
gave witness to me. Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the
fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him
that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the Widow's Heart
to sing for joy. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame;
I was a fat