hath made you so your accounts will be the greater and much will be required of all them that have received much Your wealth does not advance you toward the Kingdom of Heaven Our Lord hath said it A rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. xix 23. And St. James that he is made low Jam. i. 10. and St. Paul that God hath chosen the weak things of the world 1 Cor. i. 27. Again our Blessed Saviour Woe unto you that are rich for you have received your consolation Luke vj. 24,20 And on the other hand Blessed be ye poor for yours is the Kingdom of God Riches are so far from helping forward our Salvation that they often obstruct it and always render it more difficult and hazardous We must give a strict account how we got our Wealth and how we spend it Here 's enough to humble us no ground for Pride or Arrogance Well might the Apostle require Timothy to charge them that are rich that they be not high-minded But he would have them charged too that they trust not in uncertain Riches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That they do not confide in the uncertainty of Riches There is great reason for this charge if we consider how commonly Rich men miscarry in this matter or how great a folly and evil it is so to doe First Rich men do too often trust in their Riches We reade of them that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches Psal xlix 6. lij 7. Too many there are to whom the Psalmist's words may be applied Lo this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches We desire them passionately and promise our selves great ease and satisfaction from them We too commonly make them our refuge and stay and when riches encrease we set our hearts upon them Psal xlij 10. Hence we expect ease and relief we please our selves when we think of them and promise our selves mountains of felicity from them There is hardly any man of Wealth but is in danger and therefore had need be charged Secondly This is great folly and a great evil 'T is great folly to trust in uncertainty to fix our stay and our hope upon that which may fail us to bear and rest upon any thing that may fail us and give way is so great a piece of folly that we are not guilty of it in other cases Nothing is more uncertain than Riches This earthly treasure moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break through and steal Matt. vj. 20. It makes it self wings and flies away It lies at the mercy of wind and weather of fire and water of robbers and false people of a multitude of accidents and contingencies Besides to trust in uncertain Riches is a great evil 'T is to make Riches our God 'T is Idolatry in the truest sense 'T is no matter though we build no Altars though we offer no Bloud nor Incense if we trust in them and give them our hearts we make them our God and shut our selves out of the Kingdom of Heaven How hardly says our Saviour shall they that have Riches enter into the Kingdom of God! Mark x. 23,24,25 They are an hindrance to them that have them but for them that Trust in them as our Saviour adds afterward It is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than for such men to enter into the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. vj. 9. This Idolatry will exclude us from the inheritance of God's Kingdom This puts us out of God's favour and the state of grace this friend of the World is the enemy of God And such a friendship of this world is that Idolatry which is wont to be expressed by Adultery or Spiritual Fornication And this seems to be the importance of what St. James says Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God Jam. iv 4. Our Saviour assures us that we cannot serve two Masters God and Mammon Mat◠vj. 24. II. II. I consider the Duty of Rich men or what they ought to be earnestly put upon viz. To trust in the living God to doe good to be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate First To trust in the living God Not that this is the peculiar duty of the Rich for 't is the Duty of all But the Rich are considered here as prone to trust in uncertain Riches and in opposition to that are to be warned and charged to trust in the living God And that very agreeably in this place For whereas Riches are perishing things flitting and uncertain unsatisfactory and disproportionate unable to make us happy and at ease and are so far from it that they often perplex us and pierce us with many sorrows 't is very fit they should be directed where to place their trust and their hope and so wisely to place it that they may not be disappointed and nothing could have in this case been advised more agreeably than this that they should Trust in the living God In the living God and not in fading and perishing Riches In God who lives and lives for ever who is the first and the last and always the same who lives from himself and can never dye or fail to be and be what He is with whom is no variableness or shadow of turning 'T is worth our while to make him our trust who cannot fail us to place our hope in Him who onely hath immortality What can our Riches avail what comfort can they afford in the day of tryall what proportion do they bear to our needs or to our capacities what stupendious folly is it to trust in such uncertainty To direct our thirsty and parched Souls to these empty and broken vessels and to neglect the fountain of living waters On the side of Riches there 's nothing but vexation or vanity but varnish and uncertainty a splendid nothing that hath baffled and abused the Sons of men from one generation to another On the other hand if we trust in God in the living God we shall never be deluded with false hopes never frustrated in any just expectation We shall be provided for by an infinite Wisedom protected by an Almighty power and be sure to lack nothing Here 's a motive to this in my Text Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy We ought to trust in the giver not in the gift to hope in Him that gives us all things and not only our being our life and breath not onely the necessaries of our being but the comforts and satisfactions of it also not onely what is needfull but what is for delight and for ornament for entertainment and caress He hath advanced the Rich above their Fellow-creatures and dealt out his favours with a bountifull and liberal hand And therefore are the