The Support of Man therefore, is to be traced in a very fhort Courfe to the Sun and must we stop here? by no means; for this all-enlightning, and all-enlivening Body, is in like Manner dependent upon God. Our Saviour's Words are emphatical upon this Head, when he fays, that God maketh Matt. 5 his Sun to rife on the Evil and the Good, to fignify to us perhaps, that the Sun would not continue his falutary Influences to the World by its own natural Force and Effica-, cy, without the particular Agency of God; for after all the Solutions of learned Men, it is not easy to conceive how the first Quantity of Heat and Light, that were originally lodged in the Sun, fhould continue for fix thousand Years without any Diminution, confidering the immense Consumption that is made every Moment, and especially fince it appears by certain Experiment, that the Rays iffuing from it, are real Bodies detached out of its Subftance. And whence fhould new Recruits come to fupply this Wafte, but from him who is the Fountain of all Being, and the Father of Lights, and who notwithstanding the Motions he impressed at first on all the great Bodies of the Univerfe, and the certain Laws he put them unE 4

der

der, yet referved much for his own immediate Agency and Operation?

Here then we plainly fee that a great Eftate would be quite unprofitable to a rich Man, and that he must starve in the Midft of his ten thousand Acres, without Food and without Rents, were it not for the continual Goodness of God in rendring his Estate, fruitful.

I may proceed a Step further, and observe to the richest Man, that he depends not only upon God, but upon Men, and even the poorest of Men. For Riches and Poverty have a neceffary Relation to each other, fo that if there were no Poor, there could be none rich. What would a Man be the better for a great Eftate, if there were not poor Men to plow, and fow, and gather in his Harvest? were he forced to do this with the Labour of his own Hands, a very little Land would content him, and any body. might take the rest.

Rich Men therefore may learn from this to confefs their conftant Dependence upon God's Bounty in the Enjoyment of their large Poffeffions, and to pray to him for their daily Bread, even out of their own Estates,and to be frequent in their grateful acknowledg

ments

ments and Thanksgivings for all the good Things they daily receive from his Hands. Charge them that are rich in this World, fays 1 Tim. 6.17. St. Paul, that they be not high minded, nor truft in uncertain Riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all Things to enjoy.

And this, likewife, may ferve to humble the Pride and Infolence of Riches, and teach rich Men to be condefcending and kind towards the Poor, fince they live at their Ease upon their Labours, and could never be rich without the Aids of the Poor.

2dly, Let the Rich confider, that they are no more than Stewards of their Eftates, and that they must certainly account for the fame to their great Lord and Master.

If Men of Eftates would confider themfelves in this Light, it would have a fingular Effect for preferving them against the Mischiefs and Dangers before mentioned.

It would damp the infatiable Defire of accumulating Wealth, if a Man confidered that the abfolute Property, after all his Labour and Pains, did not reft in him, but was in another. For no Steward will covet to have his Trouble increased, when no Part of the Encrease.

Encrease is to become his own Property, and he is only to have his Labour for his Pains. It would make rich Men cautious how they spent their Incomes in the Gratification of their Lufts, because they have no Warrant for fo doing, and therefore it would be a Mifapplication and Embezzlement, for which Stewards must be feverely punished : For if the unprofitable Servant who had made no Improvement of his Talent, was caft into outward Darkness, what may he expect who has íquandred it away upon his Vices? It is a bitter Irony of Solomon to all fenfual Livers, tho' addrefs'd particularly to the Young as being in the greatest Danger, Eccl. 11. 9. Rejoice, O young Man, in thy Youth, and let thy Heart chear thee in the Days of thy Youth, and walk in the Ways of thy Heart, and in the Sight of thine Eyes; but know that for all thefe Things God will bring thee into. Judgment.

It would create more Attention in rich Men to the great Concerns of their Souls, and another World: For it is natural and reasonable for a Steward to have an Eye to his own private Intereft, and fecure fomething that he may call his own, by ferving his Mafter. If a rich Man therefore, would confider

confider himself only as God's Steward, it would lead him to do all the Good in his Power, with his Eftate, in order to make fure of an Inheritance eternal in the Heavens, that passeth not away like his worldly Estate, but will be his own for ever. This is the Moral of our Saviour's Parable concerning the rich Man and his Steward; and, I say Luke 16. 9. unto you, make your felf Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness, that when ye fail, when you lofe the Poffeffion of these earth

ly Riches, they may receive you into everlasting Habitations, that by being good Stewards of your Riches, you may obtain the Favour of God, and the Salvation of your Souls.

And it would likewise be a ready Way to cure all Self-fufficiency and Independency of Mind upon God; for a Steward is not a Steward of his own, but of another Man's Eftate; he is but a Servant, and the Property is in his Master; fo that it would be ridiculous for him to fet up a Title in himself, for then he would be no longer a Steward, but an Owner. And nothing can be more pleafing to God, than to fee rich Men fhew a grateful and becoming Dependence upon his Bounty, from whom they have received all that they enjoy.

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