HEARTS UPON THEM (Ps. Ixii. 10). We should observe how ruinous a thing it is to reckon upon our riches only in an economical, which is the lowest part of a moral view. For we think so much of them, and rely so much on their all sufficiency for accomplishing a variety of objects, that we are apt to exhaust them before we are aware of it, and find in the end, that "riches certainly make themselves wings" (Prov. xxiii. 5), if they do not fly towards heaven. So that, as the wise man again observes, "There is that withholdeth more than is meet; but it tendeth to poverty" (Prov. xi. 24), and we may often see men ruined by the effect of their own ill gotten wealth.

2, But it is in a spiritual view, that the baneful influence of riches or wealth is most to be dreaded. St. Paul writing to Timothy, one of his chief converts, and also one of the earliest bishops of the Christian church, his "dearly beloved son" (Tim. ii. 1, 2), as he calls him, meaning in principles and sentiments, cautions him against this dangerous temptation by a fact that he or any one may have observed, "They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." For the love of money (i.e., much of it, wealth) is the root of all evil which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (like those alluded to in Isaiah, v. g., Is. lvii. 13). "But thou O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness" (Tim. I. vi. 9, &c.). The master himself also exhorts his disciples to the same effect with this eminent apostle in the passage respecting thieves, &c. (Mat. vi. 19, 20), lately cited: telling them likewise in another passage of his discourse or conversation with them, that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God" (Ib. xix. 24). And the grounds of this difficulty are very obvious, v. g., that the rich man, esteeming others as he esteems himself more for their wealth than for their wisdom, is out of the reach of instruction. Our

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Saviour must often have experienced this delusion in the course of his teaching: and his ministers must often find thus much likewise-for he tells us, "The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also" (John xv. 20): thus much therefore his ministers may find, that there are many in the world who regard neither them nor their doctrine at present, because they are poor by honesty; but would regard them as oracles, if they were unprincipled and ignorant enough to avail themselves of the opportunities they have to be rich.

Riches indeed would seem to afford a facility for instruction; and this is also one of the best uses to which they can be applied: but if the two conditions of poverty and affluence were to be heard together, the pretensions of the former to wisdom and learning would soonest be allowed. For if affluence claims a Job, a David, a Solomon, a Daniel and others; poverty can shew not only some of these in their wisest years, but a Saviour and his apostles with a majority of their most consistent followers. And any candid teacher will own, for he cannot but have proved it, that with equal gifts and opportunities the poorer scholar is the likelier to excel.

To preserve therefore the advantage which this incidental may afford in any respect, as well as to honour and deserve it, we should forget that we are rich, till reminded that we have something to spare, either by our own actual occasions, or by some charitable demand of others on the store confided to our management. This is knowing how to abound, a harder part than knowing "how to suffer need" (Phil. iv. 12); and amounts to nearly the same with the Psalmist's exhortation, "If riches increase, set not your heart upon them " (Ps. lxii. 10), lately cited. Especially when a fortune has been amassed, we will say, not by "wrong and robbery," perhaps, but by prudence and industry, ought the advanced to beware of giving himself

unto vanity, thinking, and looking too perhaps like the king of Assyria: "For he saith, by the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom" (Isai. x. 13). For, as leaving a house open by night is offering a temptation for thieves to enter and ransack the same, so a human breast exposed or unguarded by conscious power and affluence offers a temptation for every evil spirit to enter and ransack its apartments, stripping the same of all their agreeable furniture or useful properties. Indeed affluence itself will often take away industry, dismissing at the same time every thing like exertion and ingenuity; will send humility, moderation, and content to other quarters; stifle the calls of nature and the voice of conscience: and make a man any thing in short but what one should like to see him, and what he would like to see himself while he retained a morsel of discernment. But more frequently a wealthy fool does not perceive, neither can it be expected that he should, how contemptible a figure he makes in the eyes of others, while he prides himself on his superfluous wealth.

If a man would both look well and be well as long as he lives, he ought to think of some better dependence than that worldly minion: which better dependence is the treasure of righteousness that our Saviour and his apostles teach us to lay up in heaven. For "he that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch" (Prov. xi. 28). "Riches profit not in the day of wrath; but righteousness delivereth from death" (Ib. iv. 4). Therefore," a small thing that the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly" (Ps. xxxvii. 16). It is said, that a man cannot carry his riches with him when he dies (Job i. 21; Ps. xlix. 17): being properly meant of such worldly riches: for to be sure he cannot carry a part of this world into the next. But heavenly riches; faith, love, honour, and sincerity, will accompany a man both here and for ever with all the good actions and works they include-A GOODLY EQUIPAGE!

5. If there be any thing positive in temporal wealth, or any outward condition definable as wealth, it is that in which the owner finds a Competency. A competency is the means of gratifying, not our necessary demands; for God only knows what they may be, but those which we reasonably esteem to be such. If a man should happen to have more than can reasonably be thought necessary for one in his condition whatever it may be, all the excess is to be considered as wealth: and hence it appears, that there can be no wealth nor even competency without content; because content is the foundation of both, being what the apostle would have other ministers to be with him, "as poor, yet making many rich" (Cor. II. vi. 10). Not, as it seems to be generally understood, that having as much as we know how to use is competency, and more, wealth. For a man's wealth is not to be computed by what he has, nor by what he wastes; but by what he enjoys and his poverty is not to be computed by what he has not; but by what he wants or wishes to have. Therefore the poorest man is comparatively rich; as enjoying all that he has-while another shall enjoy but half, or less. And by the same token likewise the richest man is not he who has most, but he who wants least. Which will make our competency to be a more creditable as well as more agreeable condition than wealth; since, understanding by the latter more than we well know what to do with, as the world understands it, will imply both a grievous burden and also a great want either of goodness or judgment.

In so necessitous a world as this generally is, and where there will always be so much room for improvement, wealth has not need to stand still long for want of either ends or objects: for goodness and judgment would soon reduce it to a bare competency, if it were seemingly inexhaustible and perpetually increasing. And as for competency being more agreeable than wealth: if light spirits may be more agreeable than indigestion; if a wellpoised habit, more agreeable than plethora in the body;

or an exact occupation, than excessive care for the mind; or just affections, than ungovernable passions of any sort for the spirit: if, in short, moderation can be more agreeable generally than excess in other more intimate respects, it may by the same token, be more agreeable likewise in all the foreign property of the Kingdom, whether it be real or personal; whether consisting in houses and lands, or in money, cattle, jewels and the like. And all things considered; who would not be of the same mind with Agur the son of Jakeh, as well in regard to wealth and competency, as in regard to other objects of Agur's petition "to Him who is a shield to them that put their trust in Him"?.

"Two things have I required of thee: deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full and deny Thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain" (Prov. xxx. 7, 8, 9).

If the name of Mediocrity had not been previously mentioned, it might here have been added to the list of good incidentals; although the term is susceptible of a wider meaning than that of inferiority in this respect only, and may be as well used to designate a middling degree or attainment only in any other respect, in respect of mental treasure, or bodily advantages, as well as in this of pecuniary resources. For admitting the general signification to be such as aforesaid, there could be no imprópriety in here considering the term to stand particularly for a middling endowment in the respect last mentioned; and at the same time, as a degree below competency in the estimation of the world, or a degree above according to the estimation of those who do not profess to follow that of the world. A man who could think more independently than usual might conceive, that any degree of a property so foreign to his person as worldly riches could -not be of that all-sufficient importance as the world will