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Give me neither poverty, nor riches ; feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, who is the Lord? or, lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

SERM. THAT virtue and happiness are generally XIII. found between opposite extremes, will be univerfally acknowledged. Although in the exercise of the higher affections, the love of God, and univerfal benevolence, there ought to be no mediocrity, it is, nevertheless, true that, in the ordinary regulation of our hearts and conduct, the great

XIII.

point is to discover, and obferve, that mo- SERM, deration, which is equally removed from defect, on the one hand, and, from excefs, on the other. If we review the economy and course of nature, we fhall find that extremes are unknown in its constitution, and that every temporary excess is counterpoised by another, till the proper balance be restored. Extremes are the refult folely of human folly and corruption. Man, rising in rebellion against his maker, has endeavoured to establish an order of things, which is, at bottom, disorder, and confusion, and, by the evils it produces, brings along with it the punishment of his prefumption and depravity. Pleasure, it is fuppofed, can never be too much enjoyed, nor the means of obtaining it be multiplied to excefs; neither can pain, or inconvenience of any kind be too ftudiously avoided. Enjoyment itself is, thus, corrupted by immoderate ufe; and the rewards of exertion and patience are precluded with a view to fatisfaction and eafe.

The golden rule of mediocrity is pecu

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SERM. liarly applicable in estimating the different conditions of human life, as reducible to these three grand claffes; the wealthy and elevated; the poor and depreffed; and the middle, placed between these extremes.

This was alfo the opinion of the wife Agur, who, having fupplicated God to grant him that candid, difcerning, and upright mind, in which the chief happiness of man is found, next entreats to have allotted to him that condition of life which is not depreffed by poverty, nor corrupted by riches; which places us not too much above, nor too much below, the proper state of man; and is beft calculated to unite the improvement of the foul with provision for the body. Give me neither poverty, nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, who is the Lord? or lest 1 be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

It fhall, now, be my business to establish

and illuftrate the fentiment contained in the text, and, consequently, to prove that the middle condition of life is productive of

the

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the greatest satisfaction, and moft eligible SERM. on the whole. In prosecution of this defign the text itself fuggefts the method to be obferved. Give me not riches, lest I be full, and deny thee, and say who is the Lord? Hence, I am led to confider, in the first place, the dangers, the temptations, and the general inconveniences of a wealthy and exalted ftation. Give me not poverty, lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. Hence, the temptations, difadvantages, and various evils of a poor and low condition come, in the fecond place, to be confidered. I fhall, thirdly, evince the advantages of the middle sphere of life, and recommend it to your preference. Laftly, fome inferences from the preceding comparison, and the judgment to which it leads, fhall clofe this fubject.

Before I enter on the particular branches of it, I must premife one remark with regard to the expreffions of the text. It is evident that Agur fpecfies only one danger to which riches and poverty are feverally expofed. His chief reafon for depre

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SERM. cating the former is, lest he should be full, XII. and deny his God. His chief reafon for de

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precating the latter is, lest he should steal, and take the name of his God in vain. He thus fignifies that wealth and splendour have a tendency to render men irreligious, and profane, and are, on this account, not to be coveted. He exhibits alfo the chief temptation to which poverty is expofed, namely, dishonesty and fraud, and the horrid crime of perjury, in order to avoid detection and punishment, and, consequently, the principal reason why that condition of life ought, if poffible, to be avoided,

Thefe, however, are not the fole, but the most remarkable grounds on which the prophet's choice was founded. He places before us the most prominent and confpicuous circumstances of mifery, in both cafes, as representatives, as it were, of all the other evils which accompany them. There are many other precipices, and quickfands, and whirlpools in these extreme regions of human life, which render it prudent and falutary to endeavour to fteer a middle courfe

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