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Been fo long laying up. God fays to him, Thou fool, this night thy foul fhall be required of thee; and then whofe fhall thofe things be which thou haft provided? that is, what good then will all these things do thee, when thou hait no further ufe of, and occafion for them? So that if he had been the poorest man in the world, and had not been provided for the next meal, he might have lived as long as he did with all his ftores. You fee then that in this fenfe, a man's life confifteth not in the abundance of the things which he poeeth: For notwithstanding all his great barns, and the abundance of fruits he had flowed in them, he did not live one jot the longer than the poorest man might have done.

Secondly, Nor do riches contribute to the happinefs and comfort of our lives. Happiness is not to be bought and purchased together with great lordships ; it depends upon a great many caufes, among which a competency of the things of this world is one; but. riches and abundance is none of them. The happi-· nefs of this world confifts in these two things

1. In the enjoyment of good; and,

2. In a flate of freedom from evil.

Now riches do not neceffarily make a man happy. in either of thefe refpects.

First, For the enjoyment of good, a competent eftate fuitable to the condition and station in which God hath fet us in the world, will give a man whatever nature and reafon can defire; and abundance: cannot make a man happier If a man had an hundred times more than he needed, he could but enjoy it according to the capacity of a man; for if he confulted his own happinefs, and would truly enjoy what he hath, he muft eat and drink within the bounds of temperance and health; and must wear no more cloaths than are for his convenience. It is true he hath wherewithal to put on a new fuit every day; which is to be uneafy all the days of his life; and may drink, if he pleafes, every time out of a new cup; which would be a vain expence, and a great

trouble

trouble to his fervants, without any manner of convenience to himself.

But then if riches fall into the covetous man's hands, they can be no happiness to him, because he hath no heart to enjoy them. He hath indeed the eftate of a rich man, but he wants the comfort of it, because he hath the mind of a poor man; and enjoyment is all the felicity that is in a great fortune: what we enjoy is ours, but what we lay up, is from that time not ours, but fomebody's elfe. He that heaps up riches, and enjoys them not, is rich only for his heir, but a beggar for himself.

We are apt to pity poor men, and too apt to defpife them; but furely no man's condition is more to be deplored than his, who ftarves himself in the midst of plenty, and being furrounded with the bleffings of God, turns them into the greatest curfe; for it is a much greater curfe, not to use an estate when one has it, than not to have it. It is like a plentiful table without an appetite.

But it may be it is a great happiness to have a great eftate, though a man never ufe it: the pleasure of feeing it, and telling it over, may be like the removing of billets; which may warm a man as much as if he had spent and confumed them. But this is real, and the other only imaginary. I doubt not many covetous men take a great deal of pleasure in ruminating upon their wealth, and in recounting what they have; but they have a great deal of tormenting care and fear about it; and if they had not, it is very hard to understand where the reasonable pleasure and happiness lies of having things to no end. It is at the best like that of fome foolish birds, which, they fay, take pleasure in ftealing money, that they may hide it; as if it were worth the while for men to take pains to dig filver out of the earth, for no other purpofe, but to melt it down and stamp it, and bury it there again.

But many neceffities may happen which we cannot forefee, and it is good to provide against them. There is nothing fo bad, but fomething may be faid in excufe. of it; and.I do not deny but that a pro

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vident care against the common accidents of human life is very commendable; but it is unreasonable to think of providing against all poffibilities, which it is impoffible either to forefee or prevent. It is very poffible, that after a man hath gotten the greatest eftate imaginable, he may lose it all by fome fatal accident; and then to what purpofe was all this provifion made, when that which was fo long a time a getting and laying up is loft at once ?

Befides that it is not eafy to conceive what neceffity can happen to a covetous man, to give him an occafion of using his eftate. He cannot find in his heart to bestow it upon himfelf in fuch things as are convenient, nay, almoft neceffary, for the fupport of his life; for no man can feed his fervants more penuriously than he does himself. All the religion he values himself upon, is a strict obfervance of the Leffian diet, which he recommends to thofe few that can deny themselves to dine with him, in hopes to make better meals upon his eftate when he is gone. And if he be fo penurious to himself, the neceffities of others are not like to move him to be liberal. I can but imagine one occafion that could tempt fuch a man to lay out what he hath; namely, when one part of his eftate is in danger, to spend the other to fecure it. And yet even in that case, if his caufe were not very clear and good, he would go nigh to lofe it, by ufing it as he does himself; that is, by ftarving it. And if this be all, then a man had as good be without an eftate, and fave himself the trouble either of getting it, or fecuring it; for if it were all gone, he might live as well as he does, and that with half the care and pains.

Secondly, The happiness of this world confifts in a ftate of freedom from evil. Now the great evils that men are liable to in this world, are fuch as are incident to them, either in the courfe of their lives, or at the time of their death; and riches do not contribute to mens happiness, by freeing them from either of thefe. I fhall speak to thefe fevera y

1. Not from the evils which are incident to men

in the course of their lives.

inward and outward.

Thefe are of two kinds,

1, Inward evils, by which I mean thofe of the mind; and our greatest troubles are from within, from the anxiety of our minds, and the guilt of our confciences, from the vicious inclinations of our wills, and the irregularity and diforders of our paffions. Now riches were an admirable thing indeed, and worth our coveting, if they would help to cure these diftempers of our minds; but they are the leaft fitted for fuch a purpofe of any thing in the world; for not he that the greateft eftate, but he that hath the feweft and most reafonable defires, and the best governed paffions, and the moft virtuous inclinations, is the happiest man, and dwells nearest to fatisfaction: Nemo malus felix; no bad man can be happy, though he were poffeffed of the whole world; because he hath that within him which frets and difcontents him, which galls his fpirit, and keeps his mind reftlefs and uneafy; and he that does not enjoy himself, can enjoy nothing else.

Did but men know how much happiness hath been enjoyed by many a pious and virtuous man in a mean fortune, how quiet and eafy their minds have been, how much fuller of joy and pleasure, than the heart of any covetous worldling ever was in his moft profperous eftate, and when his corn, and wine, and oil abounded; did we (I fay) but know this, we fhould not envy the men of mighty fortunes. Nam neque divitibus contingunt gaudia folis. Rich men are not the only happy people in the world. If they be not good as well as rich, happiness is a greater ftranger to their dwellings, than to the cottages of poorer men.

Now riches are fo far from helping to make men good, that they are one of the greatest temptations to them in the world to be otherwife; which is the reafon why our Saviour fays, it is fo very hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven; because confidering the powerful and almoft irrefiftible temptations of a great eftate, and the impotency and weakness of human nature to govern itself in a plen

tiful fortune, it is very hard for a rich man to be fo good as he ought; it requires a great force and firmnefs of refolution, a very folid and vigorous conftitution of mind, to bear a great fortune, and not të be corrupted by it; and a man hath never more reafon to implore God's gracious help and affiftance, and to confult his own beft and coolest thoughts, to know what he ought to do, and how he ought to demean himself, than when the outward bleffings of this life flow in amain upon him; felicitate corrumpimur; nothing fooner debaucheth men than profperity: and he is a very happy man, whom wealth and a good for tune do not make licentious and diffolute; because these tempt men with the power and opportunity to do all the ill that their wicked hearts can defign or defire.

The temptation of riches, and the power that goes along with them, is fo forcible and prevalent, that the devil, who is a fagacious fpirit, and hath great and long experience in this kind, when he was making the experiment whether Chrift was a mere man, or the Son of God, reserved this for his laft temptation, refolving, if that would not do, to try him no farther. After he had affaulted him in feveral kinds, he represents to him at laft that which was fufficient to have furfeited two of the most insatiable defires of human nature, ambition and covetoufnefs, even all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, in a moment, or point of time; he brings all the rays of his glory to one point, that the temptation might kindle and take hold the fooner; and fays to him, all this will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worShip me. He fuppofed, with great probability, that if he were but a mere man, the strongest and most refolved mind would bend and yield to fo dazzling a temptation as this; but when he faw that this temptation was rejected, he found himself baffled, and gave him over; fince this did not move him, he concluded now, that he was the Son of God indeed, and that it was in vain to tempt him any farther.

From all this it appears, that riches are 10 far from

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