Thirdly, RIches are esteemed a great ingredient of our happiness and well-being in this world; though some are of opinion, that they contribute nothing thereto, but that a mean estate is the best; and therefore Agur prays, Prov. 30.8. Give me neither poverty nor riches. And the Preacher, Eccles. 5.11. Saith of Riches, What good is there to the owners thereof, save the beholding of them with their eyes? And the Heathen Poet Horace, — Si ventri bene, si lateri est, quid Divitiae possunt regales addere majus?
If we are well provided with Food and Clothing, what more can Kingly Riches add to us? And the Apostle, 1 Tim. 6.8. adviseth us, That having food and raiment, we should therewith be content; because they that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful Lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. It is clear that Riches do expose to the temptations of Pride and Luxury, and the sad consequences thereof.
You will say, If Riches have such an ill influence upon Mens Manners, why then are they proposed in Scripture as rewards to vertuous actions? why are they made the effects and fruits of God’s Blessing?
I answer, Riches if well used, and it is our own fault if we use them not well, are real Blessings, enabling us to do much good in the World; to be rich in good Works, to relieve the Necessities of others, to feed the Hungry, to cloth the Naked, to redeem Prisoners and Captives, to deliver the Oppressed, to minister to the Sick convenient Diet and Physick, &c. And our Saviour tells us, That it is a more blessed thing to give, than to receive; and consequently to have whereof to give.
I should now proceed to shew, That Riches are a Blessing promised to our Obedience· and likewise a natural consequent and effect of it, and in the first place to explain what is meant by Riches; but I find this so well done to my hand by1 Dr. Wilkins, late Bishop of Chester, that I shall spare my pains, and only transcribe what I find upon this Head in his Treatise of the Principles of Natural Religion, Lib. 2. Cap. 4.
The Word Riches is capable of a twofold sense.
- Absolute,
- Relative.
- In the more absolute sense it may be defined to consist in such a measure of Estate, as may be sufficient to serve a Man’s occasions and conveniencies; when his Possessions are so proportioned as fully to answer all the necessities of his condition, and afford him a comfortable subsistence according to his Quality, and the station wherein he is placed. In which sense men of all ranks and degrees are capable of being rich. A Husbandman or an ordinary Tradesman may as truly be stiled a Rich Man, as a Gentleman, a Lord, or a King. Though perhaps what these can very well afford to fling away upon their Diversions be more than all the Estate and Possessions that the other can pretend to.
And upon this ground all men grant, that a man may be as truly liberal in giving a Penny, or but a poor Mite, as another in giving an Hundred Pounds; because these things are to be measured according to the different conditions of the givers, or proportion of their Estates: And a Man may as well be rich with a little, as liberal with a little.
Now though this be the true notion of Riches, yet in the opinion of Moralists and Philosophers is it not enough to denominate a man rich; but there is further required an acquiescence of Mind, contentment or satisfaction with such a sufficiency: Dives est non qui plus habet, sed qui nihil cupit: He is not rich who hath much, but who covets no more. Aristotle affirms, That the true nature of Riches doth consist in the contented use and enjoyment of the things that we have, rather than in the possession of them. Those that out of penuriousness can scarce afford themselves the ordinary Conveniencies of Life, out of their large Possessions, have been always accounted poor: Such men may be truly said to want those things they have, because lying by useless, it is all one as if they had them not.
Moreover, That Man who is not content with what is in it self sufficient for his condition, is not rich, nor ever will be so; because there can be no other real limits to his desires, but that of sufficiency, whatever is beyond this being boundless. less and infinite. And though men may please themselves with an Imagination, that if they had but such an addition to their Estates, they should then think they had enough, yet that is but a meer imagination, there being no real cause why they should be more satisfied then than they are now.
2ly. Riches may be taken in a more relative sense, and so they may be described to consist in having large Possessions, when a man’s Estate and Revenue is of such a proportion as is commonly esteemed great; whether with relation to the generality of other men; and so only those at the upper end of the world are capable of being counted rich; or else with respect to others of the same rank and order; and so all such are accounted rich, who do in their Possessions exceed the common sort of those that are of the same rank with them; this kind of Wealth consisting properly in comparison; there being not any one determinate sum or proportion of revenue to which the name of Riches may be appropriated, but that it may be as much below the occasions of some persons, as it is above the condition of others, who yet live plentifully.