have not so much as hinted, that opulence is in itself a crime. Indeed they could not have done so, without shutting their eyes to the moral constitution of man, and the physical properties of the globe. The extreme inequality in the mental powers of man, from the utmost capacity for those various scientific pursuits, by which individuals are so much. benefited, and nations are so highly exalted; to those humble qualifications, which are barely sufficient to enable them to perform the most ordinary services for the community; is one unequivocal demonstration of the intention of the Almighty, respecting the different orders, of which societies have always been found to consist. Again, the remarkable distinction between the natural productions of the earth, and (we may add) the artificial inventions of human skill and ingenuity is another. The same God who has ordained the earth to bring forth the plainest food in abundance for the use of men, has also enabled it to produce with comparative scarcity, its more choice and excellent fruits. The same Almighty power which has created the ready means of clothing the naked in profusion, has also buried deeply in the earth the precious

metals, and the rarest and most beautiful gems—and these facts shew incontestibly, that he designed the wide distinctions of wealth and poverty, which have always prevailed amongst mankind. For as it is impossible to conceive, that he did not intend even the rarest and most costly fruits to be cultivated, or the most valuable minerals and jewels to be brought to light, for the service and the gratification of his creatures; we must conclude, that he also intended some of them to be extremely poor, and others extremely rich: for none but the former could be induced to labour for some of these objects; and none but the latter could be able to repay them, for such arduous and hazardous services.

But the more clearly we demonstrate the Providence of God to have permitted these distinctions of rich and poor, the more firmly do we establish the consequences deducible from it. For as God is essentially good and just, the purposes he had in view must be generally beneficial to his creatures. It is impossible to believe that he could have intended one portion (and that the smallest) of them, to be benefited at the expence of the rest. But his wisdom has devised a system, where

ever man does not counteract it, whereby the greatest sum of happiness may be secured to all; though in some instances it may be really, and in others apparently diffused with great inequality. He has marked out no less by his works than his word, that he has appointed the rich to guard against those evils, which may occasionally result from a state of things, so peculiarly advantageous to them, if they make a right use of it; but infinitely more prejudicial to them if they do not. If they consider their riches as possessed by them for their exclusive gratification, they trust in them in the worst sense of the phrase; and will infallibly, when it is too late, find that they have trusted in them to their eternal destruction. But if they consider themselves as stewards for the poor, and are determined to be found faithful in their stewardship, they may not only innocently enjoy all the rational advantages which their wealth can procure for them in this world; but may also make it instrumental, to their eternal felicity in the world to come.

As all things are possible to God, we cannot doubt that he could have constituted this world, very differently from what he has done.

That he could have established a perfect equality amongst men, so that all should have had enough, and none any thing superfluous. And to meet such a state of things, he might no doubt have appointed uniformly prosperous and plentiful seasons, and have guarded against all those grievous vicissitudes in human affairs, which have hitherto been so lamentably frequent and disastrous. Whether this would have been preferable, to the actual course of his government, or at all consistent with his great object, which must be our future eternal, and not our present brief existence, is not the question. It is sufficient that he might have done this, but that he has done the very reverse. He has contrived a world, in which the utmost inequality amongst his creatures, is not the effect of accident, but of evident design. In which from unfavourable seasons, and a thousand other natural and political causes, multitudes may be, and frequently are involved in the deepest distress; but from which comparatively a few, are wholly exempt. Now, I would seriously ask all such persons, for what purpose they imagine themselves to have been so highly favoured above their fellow-creatures? Will they lay

claim to any superior merit of theirs, to account for this distinction? I hardly suppose they will dream of such a thing. Will they ascribe it to their pre-eminent abilities? Though in many instances this plea would be manifestly unsound, even when it were valid, the question would remain; to whom were they indebted, for those very abilities, but to him, who might in one moment have turned them into weakness and vanity? Will they confess then the truth, that God is the real author of all their prosperity; but maintain that he has bestowed it upon them freely, unconditionally, for their exclusive enjoyment, or for no other end that they can distinctly see and comprehend?

Again, I would call upon them with all seriousness, to reflect calmly upon this matter. Let them look around them and consider, whether there are not in the world unequivocal marks of the intentions of the Almighty, in permitting some to abound to excess, whilst others are utterly destitute? Whether the word of God as proclaimed in his Gospel, and his works as displayed in his creation, do not speak one and the same plain and intelligible language? We read in the simplicity of the