can eat them up. If more massy and solid, as gold and silver,-rust and canker, some slow and lingering lust, can insensibly eat them out: but both the one and the other subject to a thief, to some outward accident and miscarriage, which may spoil us of them. 2. In their promises and pretences: the fool promiseth himself long life, but was answered with a 'hac nocte.' Many men's riches are like Israel's quails, promise meat, but bring a curse; like Ezekiel's book, (Chap. ii. 10, and iii. 3) tastes like honey, but is written with woes: like John's roll, "sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the belly;" like Belshazzar's feast, wine on the table, and a handwriting on the wall. Achan's wedge of gold; Gehazi's talents; Ahab's vineyard; Jehoiakim's wide house', and large chambers; were all but like the queen's feast unto Haman, as poisoned dainties, sweet to the taste, but attended with death. Beds of ivory, Jambs of the flock, calves of the stall, instruments of music, wine in bowls, precious ointments, all comical harbingers of a tragical catastrophe. "They shall go captive, with the first that go captive." (Amos vi. 4, 7) Little reason to put trust in such false and uncertain things, which do not only lie and disappoint, but, like a broken reed, run into the arm of those that lean upon them; "kept to the hurt of the owners of them," as the Wise man speaks, Eccles. v. 13. But great reason for rich and poor to trust in God, who is a God able to replenish the soul, to help it in greatest extremities, true and faithful in all his promises; and truth is the ground of trust. No attribute of Gcd, which the soul may not rest upon. His eternity: He will never fail me, in him there is everlasting strength:-His 'immensity;' I have him ever with me:-His 'omniscience; I want nothing but he knows it:-His omnipotence;' I suffer nothing but he can rebuke it :-His wisdom;' he can order every condition to my good. If I do my duty in the use of means, I may comfortably venture on his blessing for a happy issue. is a living God, he ever abides; is a fountain of life to his poor servants; all that is desirable, is comprised in this one He í Josh. vii. 21. 2 Kings v. 23. h1 Kings xxi. 15. * Jer. xxii. 14. * Psalm xxxvi. 9. word, life: Whatever we delight in as good, is in order to the support, or to the comfort of life. Now riches can neither give life, nor preserve it, nor restore it: A "man's life stands not in his abundance';"-then there would be no poor man alive. It is not our bread, but God's word of blessing, which feeds us; and that blessing he can give to pulse", and withdraw from quails. Riches perish, but God lives; riches sometimes make us perish, but God makes us live. A thief can take away my gold; but who can take away my God? What hath a rich man, if he hath not God? And what wants a poor man, if he hath God? An acre of land, and a shepherd's cottage in the south, with the warmth and benignity of the sun,-is better than twenty thousand acres, and a stately palace, under the north pole. Better be in a wilderness with God, than in a Canaan without him. "If thy presence go not with us," said Moses, "carry us not up hence." (Exod. xxxiii. 15) He is a bountiful God: he is good, and he doth good: he is life, and he gives life. To him alone it belongeth to supply all necessaries, all comforts of life, unto us. We place riches in his throne,-we transfer his work and office upon them,--when we make them the objects of our trust. He "gives:" so do not riches; they buy, they do not give. I must part with so much of them, as I will proportionably have of other things. But when I have God, I need not exchange him away for other things; he brings them eminently in himself; he gives them bountifully with himself. The earth is his ; the silver and the gold his; the power, the strength, the wisdom, whereby we get riches, his; the blessing upon that strength and wisdom, his. We are not the getters, but he is the giver, of them. And if we boast of them, and trust in them, he that gives, can take them away; they that receive, must not glory as if they had not received '. And if he give first, he may well charge us to give too, since he requireth of us but his own. He gives "all things:" All the wealth in the world could not buy a mouthful of air, or a drop of light, if God subduct it. Rich men give nothing for sun, and moon, and stars, and breath, and health, and strength: God is the free giver of all: "The earth he gives to the children of men." All things that pertain "to life and godliness," 2 Pet. i. 3. two things, which all the riches in the world cannot reach. All things in the promises, all are yours. (1 Cor. iii. 23) I have all, I abound, I am full; (Phil. iv. 18) as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. (2 Cor. vi. 10) All things in measure, in proportion to our capacity, to our ability, to our exigencies, to our occasions. All things necessary, all things suitable; withholds no good thing, nothing but that which would be a snare and temptation unto us. We are not straitened in him, but in the bowels of one another. Our covetousness may defraud our brethren; God's bounty doth not. All things "richly." There is not the poorest man living, who is able to number up all the mercies which he doth enjoy. The light which he sees, is mercy; the air he breathes, mercy; the ground he walks on, mercy; the bread he eats, the water he drinks, the rags he wears, mercy; the bowels of those that pity him, mercy; the bounty of those that relieve him, mercy:—if dogs lick his sores, mercy; if a potsherd to scrape him, mercy; rotten rags to Jeremiah in a dungeon, mercy; a basket to Paul in a garrison, mercy. But for the poor in this world to be rich in faith, heirs of a kingdom, to have the same common Christ, the same hope, and spirit, and salvation; for a poor Lazarus to have the bosom of a rich Abraham to rest in at the last; how can the poorest saint in the world deny unto God the praise of being rich in mercy? It is not barely want, but ignorance of our deservings, ignorance of our enjoyments, unthankfulness to God, envy against others, our murmuring, discontent, idleness, imprudence, improvidence, which makes men poor. Were their hearts and mouths more enlarged towards God in praises, other men's bowels would be more enlarged to them in bounty and relief. Lastly: He gives all things "richly to enjoy:" and that is more than all the world can do. If it give the possession, it cannot give the fruition; it cannot give an healthy body; it cannot give a cheerful and contented mind; it cannot free a man from disquieting thoughts, from anxious fears, from dis cruciating cares, from wearisome labours, from a continual solicitude; it cannot give either a free, or a cheerful, or a pure use of the things which a man hath. As it is God that gives the power to get riches,' (Deut. viii. 18) so it is he who giveth knowledge, skill, wisdom, a heart seasoned with his fear, and cheered! with his favour,-whereby we may, with quiet contentment and sweet tranquillity, make use of those blessings which are reached unto us by the hand, andsanctified by the word, and sweetened by the sense and comfort of the love of God. It is God's blessing alone which maketh rich without sorrow; (Prov. x. 22) which, by his fear, taketh away the trouble of great treasures; (Prov. xv. 16) which maketh us enjoy the fruit of our labours; (Psalm exxviii. 2) which makes us eat and drink before him with cheerfulness; eat the fat, and drink the sweet, because "the joy of the Lord is our strength." (1 Chron. xxix. 22. Nehem. viii. 10, 11, 12) This is the frequent doctrine of Solomon. (Eccles. ii. 24, 36, and iii. 13, and v. 18, 19, and vi. 2) So much for the first affirmative duty, "To trust in God," who alone is the fountain of our life, the author of our comforts. We proceed now unto the second; which is, to imitate God in these his works of bounty, ayatospysv, "to do good, to be rich in good works :" for God hath not given them to us only to enjoy, but to do good with them too. He hath not given them for the fuel of our pride and luxury; but for the good of our souls, and the comfort of our poor brethren. We have our waters not only to drink ourselves, but also to disperse abroad. (Prov. v. 15, 16) Good works are taken, either in a more large sense for all such actions of regenerate men, as they do by the help of the Holy Spirit, in conformity to the law of God; as he that doth good, i ayatomowy, is said to be of God;' (3 John v. 11) and governors are said to be "for the praise of those that do well:"-(1 Pet. ii. 14) or else, more strictly, for works of bounty, charity, and beneficence: as Tabitha is said to have been full of "good works and alms-deeds;" where the latter clause is exegetical of the former. (Acts ix. 36) As elsewhere," Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again." (Luke vi. 35) Now it being here restrained to such good works, as it is proper for rich men, as rich men, to exercise; and being af ter explained by the words εὐμεταδότους εἶναι, and κοινωνικούς, Ι shall take it here in the more contracted sense for a direction touching the right use of riches; which is, to make them the materials of good works, that we may be profitable unto men. As God hath made us not only for ourselves, but to glorify him, and to serve our generation; so when he supplieth us with provisions, wherewith we may act towards those public ends, he requireth that his gifts should be used; not only for our own domestical interests, but for his honour, and the good of others. Rich men have their wealth, as the sun hath light, or the fire heat, to communicate unto others. And, of ail things, riches should be so employed, because their whole use is in motion. Some things put forth their virtue most, when they rest and stand still. The earth keeps its place, and yet is fruitful. Motion debilitates the virtue of some agents, and hindereth the fixing of their impressions: but the whole good that money doth, all the efficacy that it hath, is while it is in motion, and passing from hand to hand.. It is as insignificant in a worldling's chest, as when it lies in the bowels of the earth: we call it "current money," to note, that the use of it is, while it is in cursu.' The duty then it is of rich men, to make their wealth the materials of "good works." Money useth to have an image and superscription upon it; (Matth. xxii. 20) and the prophet hath given us an inscription for ours; (Isa. xxiii. 18) "Her merchandise, and her hire, shall be holiness to the Lord:" and so (Zech. xiv. 20, 21) hereby we stamp the image of God upon them. Homo homini Deus ;' by doing good a man is, as it were, a God to his brother. "Be ye merciful, as your father also is merciful." (Luke vi. 36) The Lord could have enriched all men; but he hath said "that we shall have the poor always with us;" that so the rich may have matter to imitate God, and the poor to praise him; that the poor may have Christ for an example of patience, and the rich for an example of goodness; that the rich man's supplying the poor man's wants, may be a pledge and an assurance of God's supplying his wants. For rich and poor are relations amongst men: but as we stand in relation to God, every man is poor, and must be always in a begging posture. (Luke xviii. 1) And as Christ hath taught us to pray, "Lord, I forgive others, do thou forgive me;" in |