SERMON IV.

The Love of God and Man.

PROVERBS xvii. 5.

Whofo mocketh the Poor reproacheth bis Maker.

OF

IV.

F all the truths, for the direction SERM. of our conduct, with which this royal treasury of ancient wisdom abounds, there is none fuller either of profitable use or profound fcience than this contained in my text; which so severely cenfures all expreffions of contempt towards those whom Providence has thrown below us on the distressful stage of human life.

And, as we muft firft clear our cor- • rupt nature from this ranknefs, before

we

SERM. We can attempt to cultivate that immorIV. tal amarant of paradice, chriftian love and benevolence; it may not be improper to shew the reason and explain the use of the WISE MAN's divine aphorifm, Whofo mocketh the Poor reproacheth his Maker. As much as to say, "He who maketh the Poor the object of his contempt and ridicule, on account of those disastrous circumstances which attend the want of the goods of fortune, tacitly condemns and reproaches the wife and gracious order of Providence."

But it may not be amifs, previously to confider, In what state it is, that man becomes the object of this criminal mockery to his fellow-creature. It is plain, it cannot be in that where he lives uncivilized. For there, the diftinctions between RICH and POOR, whereon the infolence of wealth formeth those odious comparisons, which conclude in the contempt of penury, have hardly any place; that fordid condition, which, now contrafted to pomp and grandeur is become the subject of opulent fcorn, being .there fo general as to admit no room for an unfavourable diftinction: But, an univerfal

parity,

parity, like darkness, blots out all dif- SERM. ference between honourable and mean. IV. Nay, fhould the civilized beholder be difposed to regard with contempt the wants and miseries of this ftate, it would not be the criminal contempt forbidden in my text: because the ftate of nature is not that in which Providence intended we fhould remain; as appears by the large affiftance imparted to us, to felves from the diftreffes of it. by a shameful indolence, man fhould neglect to improve thofe advantages, the fordid circumstances, infeparable from an uncivilized condition, would have no claim to be exempted from fcorn and mockery: and, confequently, however CHARITY might fuffer, PROVIDENCE was not infulted.

free our

So that if,

It is only in SOCIETY, therefore, that the Poor become fubject to this outrage. And, in this state only, the outrage becomes IMPIETY. For Civil regimen, by inventing and improving the accommodations of life, and by fecuring, to the owner, what is fo invented and improved, changeth the natural equality of

condi

IV.

SER M. Conditions amongst men; and introduceth that invidious diftinction of Poor and RICH; made far more bitter from the infolence of Wealth, than the envious longings of Poverty. For it is the vicious caprice of Riches to be impațient under a rivalihip in the advantages of fortune, and yet, at the fame time, infenfible to the diftreffes, and contemptuous to the condition of thofe who have never striven with them for any of those advantages.

So that there is no circumftance in the diftreffes of want, but what infulting wealth can make the fubject of its mockery. To fome, their narrow Minds, their grofs conceptions, their unimproved talents, are fruitful fources of contempt and merriment. Others, who cannot rife fo high in their discoveries, can yet find matter of mirth in their impropriety of phrafe, their unpolished manners, their ill air, and unformed figure. Nay to fuch excefs of corruption have unbleft Riches brought their poffeffors, that, fome can make that very SORDIDNESS itself, that miferable cloathing of poverty, a subject for their scorn and ridi

cule.

IV.

cule. So that whether it be for want of sER M. thofe advantages of mind and perfon which their poverty disabled them from procuring, or whether it be for that very poverty itself, they are fure never to escape the inhumanity of unfeeling wealth.

But how highly criminal thefe infults are, my text now leads me to confider.

procur

As Society is the only means of ing the accommodations, and preferving the dignity, of our animal and reasonable nature; and as this nature is endowed with appetites and qualities which make it feek, and fit it for SOCIETY; we must needs conclude, Society to be, what Scripture informs us it is, THE ORDINANCE OF GOD. Now it is effential to this Society, that the goods of fortune be unequally diftributed ; To the end, that fome be goaded on by want to seek their relief in new inventions and improvements, which tending to the better commodity of life, are objective to the public good; and that others be enabled by abundance, and difpofed by the love of eafe and pleafure, to promote and encourage those endeavours.

For were

the