Joseph Butler

“ But whoever can really think, that the necessities of the disabled poor are sufficiently provided for already, must be strangely prejudiced. If one were to send you to themselves to be better informed, you would readily answer, that their demands would be very extravagant; that persons are not to be their own judges in claims of justice, much less in those of charity. You, then—I am speaking to the hard people above mentioned—you are to judge what provision is to be made for the necessitous, so far as it depends upon your contributions. ”

“ For the necessary accommodations which have been provided, and the numbers who have been relieved, in so short a time, cannot but give high reputation to the London Infirmary. And the reputation of any particular charity, like credit in trade, is so much real advantage, without the inconveniences to which that is sometimes liable. It will bring in contributions for its support; and men of character, as they shall be wanted, to assist in the management of it; men of skill in the profession, men of conduct in business, to perpetuate, improve, and bring to perfection. ”

“ Indeed, the general dispensation of Christianity is an example of this; for its general design is to save us from our sins, and the punishments which would have been the just consequence of them. But the Divine example, in the daily course of nature, is a more obvious and sensible one. And though the natural miseries which are foreseen to be annexed to a vicious course of life are providentially intended to prevent it, in the same manner as civil penalties are intended to prevent civil crimes ”

“ It may be added, that real charitable persons will approve of these frequent exhortations to charity, even though they should be conscious that they do not themselves stand in need of them, upon account of such as do. And such can possibly have no right to complain of being too often admonished of their duty, till they are pleased to practise it. It is true, indeed, we have the satisfaction of seeing a spirit of beneficence prevail, in a very commendable degree, amongst all ranks of people, and in a very distinguished manner in some persons among the highest ”

“ Blessed are they who employ their riches in promoting so excellent a design. The temporal advantages of them are far from coming up, in enjoyment, to what they promise at a distance. But the distinguished privilege, the prerogative of riches is, that they increase our power of doing good. ”

“ Nor is it to be supposed, that we can any more promote the lasting good of our fellow-creatures, by acting from mere kind inclinations, without considering what are the proper means of promoting it, than that we can attain our own personal good, by a thoughtless pursuit of everything which pleases us. ”

“ Persons of the strictest characters, therefore, would give a more Satisfactory proof, not to the world, but to their own consciences, of their desire to suppress vice and idleness, by setting themselves to cultivate the religious part of the institutions of infirmaries, which, I think, would admit of great improvements, than by allowing themselves to talk in a manner which tends to discountenance either the institution itself, or any particular branch of it. ”

“ The large benefactions of some persons of ability may be necessary in the first establishment of a public charity, and are greatly useful afterwards in maintaining it: but the expenses of this before us, in the extent and degree of perfection to which one would hope it might be brought, cannot be effectually supported, any more than the expenses of civil government, without the contribution of great numbers. ”

“ However, we should always look with mildness upon the behaviour of the poor; and be sure not to expect more from them than can be expected, in a moderate way of considering things. We should be forward, not only to admit and encourage the good deserts of such as do well, but likewise, as to those of them who do not, be ever ready to make due allowances for their bad education, or, which is the same, their having had none; for what may be owing to the ill example of their superiors, as well as companions, and for temptations of all kinds. ”

“ But, besides the persons to whom I have been now more particularly speaking, there are others, who do not cast about for excuses for not contributing to the relief of the necessitous, perhaps are rather disposed to relieve them, who yet axe not so careful as they ought to be, to put themselves into a capacity of doing it. For we are as really accountable for not doing the good which we might have in our power to do, if we would manage our affairs with prudence, as we are for not doing the good which is in our power now at present. ”

“ They have moreover the prayers of all good men, those of them particularly whom they have befriended, and by such exercise of charity, they improve within themselves the temper of it, which is the very temper of heaven. ”

“ Now these seamen and manufacturers are employed in your immediate business. They are servants of merchants, and other principal traders; as much your servants as if they lived under your roof; though, by their not doing so, the relation is less in sight. And supposing they do not all depend upon traders of lower rank, in exactly the same manner, yet many of them do; and they have all connections with you, which give them a claim to your charity preferable to strangers. They are indeed servants of the public; and so are all industrious poor people, as well as they. ”

“ Charitable providence then, thus manifested in the course of nature, which is the example of our heavenly Father, most evidently leads us to relieve, not only such distresses as were unavoidable, but also such as people by their own faults have brought upon themselves. The case is, that we cannot judge in what degree it was intended they should suffer, by considering what, in the natural course of things, would be the whole bad consequences of their faults, if those consequences were not prevented when nature has provided means to prevent great part of them. ”

“ How unhappy a choice, then, do those rich men make, who sacrifice all these high prerogatives of their state to the wretched purposes of dissoluteness and vanity, or to the sordid itch of heaping up, to no purpose at all ”

“ For this kind of good-humour is so far from making the amends before-mentioned, that, though it be agreeable in conversation, it is often most mischievous in every other intercourse of life; and always puts men out of a capacity of doing the good they might, if they could withstand importunity, and the sight of distress, when the case requires they should be withstood ”

“ Indeed, there is such a thing as a prejudice against them, arising from their very state of poverty, which ought greatly to be guarded against: a kind of prejudice, to which perhaps most of us, upon some occasions, and in some degree, may inattentively be liable, but which pride and interest may easily work up to a settled hatred of them ”

“ And therefore as, on the one side, we are obliged to take some care not to squander that which, one may say, belongs to the poor, as we shall do, unless we competently satisfy ourselves beforehand, that what we put to our account of charity will answer some good purpose: so on the other side, when we are competently satisfied of this, in any particular instance before us, we ought by no means to neglect such present opportunity of doing good, under the notion of making further inquiries ”

“ For as it is certain on the one side, that those diseases are providential corrections of intemperance, it is as certain on the other, that the remedies are providential mitigations of those corrections, and altogether as much providential, when administered by the good hand of charity in the case of our neighbour, as when administered by self-love in our own. ”

“ And as there is danger that the receiver will err one way, is there not danger that the giver may err the other; since it is not matter of arbitrary choice, which has no role, but matter of real equity, to be considered as in the presence of God, what provision shall be made for the poor? ”

“ For the greatest persons receive honour from taking the direction of a good, work, as they likewise give honour to it. And by these concurrent endeavours, our Infirmary might at length be brought to answer, in some competent measure, to the occasions of our city. ”

“ And considering how inherited riches, and a life of leisure, are often employed, the generality of mankind have cause to be thankful, that their station exempts them from so great temptations; that engages them in a sober care of their expenses, and in a course of application to business: especially as these virtues, moreover, tend to give them, what is an excellent ground-work for all others, a stayed equality of temper and command of their passions. ”

“ We cannot, for instance, estimate what degree of present sufferings God has annexed to drunkenness, by considering the diseases which follow from this vice, as they would be if they admitted of no reliefs or remedies; but by considering the remaining misery of those diseases, after the application of such remedies as nature has provided. ”

“ But when a man is diligent and frugal, in order to have it in his power to do good; when he is more industrious, or more sparing, perhaps, than his circumstances necessarily require, that he may "have to give to him that needeth," Eph. iv. 28; when he "labours in order to support the weak," Acts xx. 35; such care of his affairs is itself charity, and the actual beneficence which it enables him to practise, is additional charity. ”

“ But still the behaviour of such creatures as men, highly criminal in some respects, may yet in others be such as to render them the proper objects of mercy, and, our Saviour does not decline saying, "thought worthy of it," Luke xx. 35. And conformably to our natural sense of things, the Scripture is very express, that mercy, forgiveness, and in general, charity to our fellow-creatures, has this efficacy in a very high degree. ”

“ In proportion as men make this use of them, they imitate Almighty God: and co-operate together with him in promoting the happiness of the world; and may expect the most favourable judgment which their case will admit of, at the last day, upon the general repeated maxim of the gospel, that we shall then be treated ourselves as we now treat others. ”

“ And though their idleness and extravagance are very inexcusable, and ought by all reasonable methods to be restrained; and they are highly to be blamed for not making some provision against age and supposable disasters, when it is in their power; yet it is not to be desired, that the anxieties of avarice should be added to the natural inconveniences of poverty.
It is said that our common fault towards the poor is not harshness, but too great lenity and indulgence. And if allowing them in debauchery, idleness, and open beggary ”

“ But even the poor who are settled here, are in a manner strangers to the people amongst whom they live; and, were it not for this provision, must unavoidably be neglected, in the hurry and concourse around them, and be left unobserved to languish in sickness, and suffer extremely, much more than they could in less populous places, where every one is known to every one, and any great distress presently becomes the common talk ”

“ Charity pronounces it to be better, that poor creatures, who might receive much ease and relief should be denied it, if their case does not admit of recovery, rather than that others, whose case does admit of it, be left to perish. But it shocks humanity to hear such an alternative mentioned; and to think that there should be a necessity, as there is at present, for such restrictions, in one of the most beneficent and best managed schemes in the world. May more numerous or larger contributions, at length, open a door to such as these ”

“ But the proper one seems to be very short and obvious, that by fervent charity, with a course of beneficence proceeding from it, a person may make amends for the good he has blameably omitted, and the injuries he has done, so far, as that society would have no demand upon him for such his misbehaviour ”

“ Medicine, and every other relief "under the calamity of bodily diseases and casaalties," no less than the daily necessaries of life, are natural provisions, which God has made for our present indigent state, and which he has granted in common to the children of men, whether they be poor or rich ”

“ The gospel, indeed, teaches us to look upon every one in distress as our neighbour, yet neighbourhood, in the literal sense, and likewise several other circumstances, are providential recommendations of such and such charities, and excitements to them ”

“ And such lenity towards the poor is very consistent with the most cruel neglects of them, in the extreme misery to which those vices reduce them. Now, though this last certainly is not our general fault, yet it cannot be said, every one is free from it. ”