sufficient simply to observe of the parties severally concerned, that "the Lord is the maker of them all." I shall take occasion from the saying,

I. First, to set before you the doctrine of holy Scripture respecting rich and poor.

II. And then to explain and enforce the duties which the two classes severally owe to God and to one another.

The application to the special occasion of my address will be obvious.

I. First, then, let us hear the doctrine of holy Scripture respecting the rich and poor.

It may be right, however, before we enter upon this, briefly to state who these parties are: for all, perhaps, are not quite agreed on this point. Some do not choose to be classed among the rich, because they see many much wealthier round them, and they possess, as they say, themselves no more than is enough to support them in their proper rank of life to which they were born. And again, these same persons will not class some others among the poor, because, though they know their means to be far smaller than their own, they have, nevertheless, at present, "food and raiment ;" they are not starving, and therefore they ought to be content.

This statement, however, cannot be admitted with a view to our present discussion. The question is now, who are the rich in that sense

and measure, that it that it may be accounted their bounden duty "to do good and to communicate" of their substance to the needy; and who are the poor in that sense and measure, that they may reasonably expect assistance, at least in some degree, and under some circumstances, from those whom God has made his stewards. And here I say, all who have a property or capital of their own, ought to reckon themselves the rich, in this view, though that property be not large; provided only it be such as to make it possible for them, after supplying their households with the absolute necessaries of life, to help the distressed also, more or less, through denying themselves some conveniences. And such, on the other hand, as, having nothing to maintain them but their labour, are liable at any time to be brought to want by any of the various accidents which may interrupt their earnings, they are the poor, whom it is the duty of the other party benevolently to watch over always, and liberally to assist often.

plied in it, and deducible from it, both for the correction of men's evil surmisings, and for their instruction in the way of duty.

1. The words mean, of course, in the first place, that God gave to every one, without exception, his natural life and being, bestowing upon all thereby the self-same gift. He made all men of one blood." One man, first, out of the dust of the earth; one woman afterwards of that man; and the whole race of that pair. So that all are of one stock, all one family, his children alike, and one another's brethren. None nearer to God or further from him than another, naturally; none better or worse than his fellow, naturally; none having more claim than another upon the one Author and Giver of all good: and, accordingly, we find it set down in scripture, that God does not admit any claim of one beyond another for, "He accepteth not the person of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor;" and the reason assigned is, that "they are all the work of his hands." And the same impartiality is manifest from his actions; for, while the wide difference of men's worldly lot is admitted, it must be borne in mind that it was not for this world that man was made. His treasure is in the world to come; his real life is hid with Christ in God." And with reference to this, all ranks are upon a level. Through one Christ-by one Spirit-all have

access to one Father, in order to one salvation; "low and high,"-so the invitation runs,—“ rich and poor together."*

This is the natural equality of mankind; and the meanest may remember to his comfort, and the highest must consider for his guidance, that it is not in the least destroyed by any kind of temporal distinctions. More of this, however, presently.

2. The clause of the text before us, if we compare it with other parts of scripture, has yet a further meaning. He who is the maker of rich and poor alike as they are men, is the maker of them also as they are "rich and poor." The ordainer, I mean, of their several conditions; the author, therefore, of that civil inequality which obtains in society, and of that unequal distribution of wealth especially, which is always so much noticed, and often so much complained of. It is the appointment of Divine Providence.

I do not affirm that it is God's design that any man should hoard and keep to himself an unreasonable measure of abundance, nor that God has not made the way plain, in general, by which industry and honesty may escape the extremes of indigence; but those accidents, as we call them, which may baffle any man's prudence, and bring him to distress in spite of his own best

* Psalm xlix. 2.

endeavours, he ordains, or at least permits, occasionally. And he will always have it so, that there shall subsist in the world the two classes whom I have described—namely, a certain number of persons in a condition to require help, and support, and kind offices, and beneficence; and another certain number in a capacity to bestow these aids. "Ye have the poor," says our Lord, always with you;"* and "the poor," says Moses, though you will observe the saying was delivered just before the whole land of Canaan was to be divided among the people," the poor shall never cease out of the land.”† "The Lord maketh poor," it is said again, "and maketh rich; he bringeth down and lifteth up." And it is as true in civil society as in the church, that "God hath set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased HIM." Indeed, unless God should totally alter the manner of his procedure in the distribution of all his gifts of whatsoever kind, and in the governance of the world; and unless mankind themselves should cease to be what now we find them, it is not conceivable that matters should be ordered otherwise. For what if we should suppose the whole property of a country thrown into a common storehouse, and then divided among all, without exception, in equal shares; is it imaginable that + Deut. xv. 11.