56 Long -life, Riches, and Honour, S E R M. a virtue, and very fuitable to the prefent VI. Rate of' men, whatever their Ration and circumftances in life be ; but above that contempt which generally attendeth ab- jea poverty, and thofe temptations to which many are expofed by it, according to Agur's prayer, Prov. xxx. 9. That I may not be poor, and flea!, and take the Name of God in vain. But efpecially, wealth may be valued as the means and the ability of doing good in a religious and moral Senfe; of juftice, and promoting the intereft of truth and vir- tue, of beneficence and compaffion, reliev- ing the neceffities of the poor, and in many refpeIs of being profitable to men. Riches, then, are in their own nature indifferent, capable of being ufed, and in faft they are ufed, either to good or bad purpofes ; and fince they have an aptitude to the former as well as the latter, it is no difhonour to wif- dom to place them in her gift, though a left -hand gift, as Solomon expreffeth it, and of an inferior nature. But the queftion is concerning the tenden- cy of virtue to the acquifition of wealth. Let it Rill be remembered that this is not the principal advantage of religion, nor at all the proper reward of it from the hand of the great judge in purfuance of his promifes or
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