in question demands, I ask you, secondly, do the elevation and abundance in which you are born dispense you from simplicity, frugality, modesty, and holy restraint? By being born great, you are not the less Christians. In vain, like those Israelites in the desert, have you amassed more manna than your brethren; you cannot preserve for your use more than the measure prescribed by the law* Were it not so, our Saviour would have forbidden pomp, luxury, and worldly pleasures but to the poor and unfortunate, those to whom the misery of their condition renders needless that defence.
Now, this grand truth admitted, if, according to the rule of faith, it be not permitted to you to employ your riches in the gratification of your appetites; if the rich be obliged to bear the cross, continually to renounce themselves, and to look for no consolation in this world, equally as the poor; what can the design of Providence have been in pouring upon you all the riches of the earth, and wrhat advantage could even accrue to you from them? Could it be in order to administer to your irregular desires? But you are no longer bound to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. Could it be in order to support the pride of rank and birth? But whatever you give to vanity, you cut off from charity. Could it be for the purpose of hoarding up for your posterity? But your treasure should be only in heaven. Could it be in order that you might pass your life more agreeably? But if you weep not, if you suffer not, if you combat not, you are lost. Could it be in order to attach you more strongly to the world? But the Christian is not of this world; he is citizen of the age to come. Could it be for the purpose of aggrandizing your possessions and your inheritances? But you would never aggrandize but the place of your exile; and the gain of the whole world would be vain, if you thereby lost your soul. Could it be that your table might be loaded with the most exquisite dishes? But you well know, that the gospel forbids a life of sensuality and voluptuousness, equally to the rich as to the indigent. Review all the advantages, which, according to the world, you can reap from your prosperity, and you will find almost the whole of them forbidden by the law of God.
It has not, therefore, been his design, that they should be merely for your own purposes, when he multiplied in your hands the riches of the earth. It is not for yourself that you are born to grandeur; it is not for yourself, as Mordecai formerly said to the pious Esther, that the Lord hath exalted you to this point of prosperity and grandeur; it is for the sake of his afflicted people; it is to be the protector of the unfortunate. If you fulfil not the intentions of God, with regard to you, continued that wise Israelite, he will employ some other, who shall more faithfully serve him; he will transfer to them that crown which was intended for you; he will elsewhere provide the enlargement and deliverance of his afflicted people; for he will not permit them to perish; but you, and your father's house shall perish. In the designs of the Almighty, you therefore are but the ministers of his providence toward those
