reafon to avoid overcharging our hearts with either, is the most forcible that can be; left that day come upon you unawares*. Riches and greatness no one thinks can fecure him from death; but they can make many forget it as abfolutely as if they did think fo; and please themselves with the imagination, that they have much good laid up for many years, till, when they apprehend it leaft, their foul is required of them t Therefore we fhould often call to mind the Pfalmift's admonition: They that truft in their wealth, and boaft themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for himself, that he should live for ever, and not fee corruption; when he dieth he shall carry nothing away; his glory fhall not defcend after him. Man that is in bonour, and underftandeth not, is like the beafts that perisht like them in this world; but will wifh in vain to be like them in the next, when all that have lived unmindful of God, the kings of the earth, (as St. John foretells) and the great, and the rich, and the mighty, shall hide themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and shall say to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that fitteth on the throne, and from the face of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to ftand §. Luke xxi. 34. Pf. xlix. 6, 7, 9, 17, 20. † Luke xii. 19, 20. SER in the living God, Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor truft in uncertain riches, but who giveth us all things richly to enjoy that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to diftribute, willing to communicate. : I HAVE already, in two difcourfes on these words, explain ed and enforced the two cautions, which St. Paul requires that the minifters of God's word fhall give to perfons of wealth and rank, against the fins to which they are peculiarly liable. And now I proceed to the duties, of which he enjoins they fhall be peculiarly reminded. I. The first is, to trust in the living God, who giveth us all things richly to enjoy. After warning them against placing their happiness in the pre-eminences, the poffeffions or pleasures of this world, it was very natural to direct them where they should place it: for somewhere we must. And his precept carries the proof of its own fitnefs along with it. For the living God must have the greatest power to reward our truft, and he who giveth us all things richly to enjoy, hath fhewn himself to have the greatest will also. All that we are, and have, and can hope for, proceeds from him, and depends upon him. Since therefore he hath made us capable of knowing this, duty, gratitude and intereft, confpire to demand, that we devote our whole being to him; ufe what he hath bestowed on us agreeably to the rules, which he hath prefcribed, and for the attainment of the ends, which he had in view; nor ever be so abfurdly attentive Dd 2 to to his gifts, as to forget the giver: whofe bounty, the more largely we taste of it, ought surely to inspire the warmer love. And therefore the rich and great, on whom Providence hath conferred fo many distinguished benefits and privileges, (of the value of which they seem in general highly fenfible) are bound, beyond others, to a most affectionate piety in return and yet, is it not on the whole vifibly true, that these of all others exprefs the least piety in the whole compafs of their behaviour? Too many of them fcorn to obferve or acknowledge any rule of conduct at all, unless it be fashion, worldly advantage or pleasure. A great part of those who will own, and occafionally seem zealous for the obligations of virtue, or however of fome virtues, manifeft very little fenfe, if any, of the duties of religion. Some have never had the condefcenfion, or imagine they never had the leifure, once to think of it: others have heard objections against it, or at least have heard there are fuch; which, to prove themselves no bigots, they refolve to believe are unanswerable, without further inquiry. And not a few, who are fully perfuaded, after a fort, both of the greatness and the goodness of God, ftill are as abfolutely negligent of him, as if no regard whatever were due to him for either. Yet, if we are to reverence authority, and love mercy, and believe in veracity, and be forry for offences, amongst men; why are not all these things unspeakably more neceffary in relation to our Creator? Some perfons, it may be, when they are preffed upon the subject, will plead, that they are by no means without inward regard to God; though they cannot fay, they give much outward demonftration of it, in acts of worship. But how real, how deep, how practical, this regard is, they would do well to ask their hearts very carefully : for he that fees their hearts knows with certainty; they that fee only their lives, can form a strong prefumption: and no one will ever be a gainer, by attempting to deceive either God, or man, or himself. But fuppofing them fincere, what reafon can there be, why refpect to God fhould not be paid outwardly, when refpect to every superior befides is? For furely his knowing we have it, is no fufficient reason for omitting to exprefs it: fince vifible and stated acts of homage to him appear notwithstanding, both from reafon and experience, highly requifite, to preserve and ftrengthen a fenfe of religion in our own minds, and to spread it in in the world. Or could we have doubted of this otherwife; yet, when he hath exprefsly required himself to be worshipped, both in public and in private, what pretence have we to a fhadow of piety, if we either difobey or think meanly of that command? And they among the great, who neglect to honour God, difcern very clearly the neceffity, not only of their inferiors paying honour to them, but of their paying honour to perfons that are a little above them: and would think the excufes extremely frivolous in their own cafes, which they are determined, shall be good and valid in his. What can this inconfiftence mean? Surely they do not think it beneath them, to fall down and kneel before the Lord their Maker *, while they can bow fo very low to a fellow-creature, perhaps a worthlefs one. And yet really, the manner, in which they fometimes fpeak of religion, looks a good deal this way. I mean, when they own its importance to keep the vulgar in order, and their obligation to attend on its exercifes confcientiously, for that purpose; but intimate, that fome how or other they themselves are exempted. Now the difference in the eyes of God, between the higheft and lowest of men, is as nothing: and if any part of the world hath need to be restrained by the ties of religious duty; the upper part, being the least subject to other restraints, hath the greatest need: nor can it be more their interest, that the rest of mankind fhould have a sense of piety kept up amongst them; than it is the intereft of the rest of mankind, that the great should. But if this were otherwife, they may depend upon it, that if they will flight religion, fuch as fee them do so, will not be influenced by them to respect it. And therefore all the choice they have is, either to fhew fome regard to its précepts themfelves; or to be content, that their families, their dependants, and the world about them, shall have none. This latter is the refolution, that many feem to have taken: what will follow from it, hath been already felt too much; and if they go on, will be felt continually more. But God grant, they may rather fee, before it be too late, both the wickedness and the folly of throwing off that reverence, which is fo juftly due to him, whofe laws are, every one of them, provifions for our temporal happiness in this world, as well as our eternal felicity in the next. Men of rank and fortune, have a much Pfal. xcv. 6. : much greater concern in the welfare of fociety, than others; and therefore are more bound in point of prudence to support religion: they have a much greater ability of doing it, and are particularly intrufted with it, and therefore are more bound in point of confcience. But what completes their obligation, in both refpects, is, that if they neglect it, the endeavours of others will, humanly fpeaking, be all in vain. There may be fome hope, even for a wicked nation, while the fear of God remains in any confiderable number of the wealthy and ruling part of it but when they once come to be throughly corrupted; then every thing is ripe for ruin. And therefore the prophet Jeremiah, after complaining very pathetically, of the finfulness and impiety of the bulk of his countrymen, ftill thought there was one refource left. But when he found, that those of high condition were as bad or worse, than the reft; he immediately gives up all and pronounces their deftruction. I faid, (fpeaking of the common people) These are poor, they are foolish; they know not the way of the Lord, and the judgement of their God. I will get me unto the great men, and will Speak unto them: for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God. But, thefe have altogether broken the yoke, and burft the bonds. Wherefore a lion out of the forefts fhall tear them, and a wolf of the evening fhall Spoil them; a leopard fhall watch over their cities;-becaafe their tranfgrefhions are many, and their backflidings are increased *. But it is poffible for us to keep up a fufficient profeffion of religion, to fecure both public order and domestic tranquility; yet by no means have a fufficient sense of it, for obtaining eternal life and what will the former avail us without the latter? It is not a merely prudential and political piety; it is not one, that will only form our behaviour into an outward regularity, or affect our hearts tranfiently now and then, that will stand us in ftead hereafter it must be a fixed inward principle, that moves us effectually to look beyond every thing in this world, to God the fountain of all good; and to take him for our hope and our portion in the land of the living. He offers himself for fuch, and furely we ought to accept the offer. He is able to make us happy, and nothing elfe is whatever earthly good we have most pleasure in, quickly fails: or if it did not, in a : few . Jer. v. 4,-6, † Pfal. cxlii. 6. |