It is a very wild imagination, to think that poverty will excufe mens pride, and rudeness, and infolence; unless it be a virtue to be proud, when men have no temptation to it, and have nothing to be proud of.

Will poverty excufe floth and idleness? When men have nothing to live by but their hands, is that a reafon why they fhould not work? When men are able to work, and get their own living; is poverty an excufe for begging and living idly, upon the charity and induftry of other men ?

But above all things, poverty is the most unreasonable and fenfelefs excufe for irreligion, for neglecting the worship of God. For certainly, if any thing will make us fenfible, how much we ftand in need of God, poverty will. Rich men, whofe coffers aré full of treasure, who have goods laid up for many years, are apt to forget God, because they think they have no present need of him. They have no occafion (they think) to beg their daily bread of him, who have enough to last their lives, and to maintain their pofterity in luxury, when they

are gone. But methinks poor men, who

have no provifions beforehand, and know not where they fhall have their bread the next day, fhould be very fenfible that they live upon providence, and have nothing elfe to truft to. And would not any one reasonably expect, that fuch men would be very devout worshippers of God, would pray conftantly and heartily to him, to take them into his care, when they have nothing but the providence of God to depend on. One would think fuch men fhould above all things take care to please God, and to make him their friend and patron; for if he caft them off, they have no other refuge. That is a profane irreligious mind indeed, whom want and distress will not drive to God.

So that, you fee, religion is the business, and ought to be the care of poor men as well as of the rich. There are graces and virtues for them to exercife, proper for their ftate of life. And therefore they shall be judged as well as the rich, and ought frequently to think of a future judgment, and to live under the conftant awe and fenfe of it.

The conftant fenfe of a future judgment is indeed very neceffary for all mankind, to

govern their lives, and to prepare their accounts; but befides this, it is of the greatest use to poor men of any other; for it will in a great measure help to cure their poverty, or to make it easy.

In ordinary cafes, a man who lives under a constant sense of judgment, cannot be poor to extremity. For the fenfe of judgment will make him diligent, and induftrious, and honeft, and frugal, and temperate, and a devout worshipper of God; which are all thriving virtues, and will not suffer a man to be miferably poor. The diligent hand maketh rich; and when it doth not make rich, it at least prevents poverty. Inflexible honesty Inflexible honesty gives a man réputation in the world, brings him into business and employment, and that is a way to thrive. Frugality and temperance fave what is got, and increase the store. And reverence and devotion for God brings down bleffings on them, and gives fuccefs to their honeft labours; and we know it is the bleffing of God which maketh rich.

The experience of the world, as well as the reason of the thing, proves this. The miferable poor are generally the most cor

rupt

rupt and profligate part of mankind, the very reproach of human nature. And if we make any curious obfervations about it, we shall generally find, that it is not their poverty which makes them wicked, but their wickedness makes them poor. You fhall very rarely fee an honeft, industrious, fober, pious man, but makes a very good fhift to live comfortably in the world, unless the times prove very hard indeed. And in this cafe fuch induftrious poor feldom want friends. For every one who knows them, is ready to help them. And therefore poor men ought to think of a future judgment, not only to fave their fouls, but to teach them to live in the world, to deliver them from the extreme preffures of want. And this is a double obligation upon poor perfons to think frequently of a future judgment, that it is neceffary to provide a comfortable fubfiftence for them in this world, and to fave their fouls in the next.

But whether this remove their poverty or no, it will fupport them under it, and make them patient and contented with their portion here. If they govern their lives under the fenfe of a future judgment, it

will fupport them under the meannefs and calamities of their prefent fortune, with better hopes. They will then contemplate Lazarus in Abraham's bofom, and comfort themselves with the change of their condition, as foon as they remove into the other world. There they fhall hunger no more, nor thirst any more. Their wants and fufferings in this world, if they bear them well, fhall be greatly rewarded; and tho' they grovel in the dust here, they shall then fhine forth like the fun, in the kingdom of their father. It is a miserable condition indeed, to remove from a dunghill to hell; but a dunghill is a palace, if it will advance us to heaven. Nothing but these things can make extreme poverty tolerable; but fuch hopes as these will make the pooreft man rich and happy.

WHEREFORE, let us all, both rich and poor, mind the business of religion; as being that, which will render our condition happy or miserable to all eternity. Since we must all be judged, let us live in conftant expectation of it. And this is the conclufion which Solomon made, after a long

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