The rich mans charge delivered in a sermon at the Spittle upon Monday in…The rich mans charge delivered in a sermon at the Spittle vpon Monday in…

3. Rich men walk amongst more snares and temptations; for riches are the materials which provoke, excite, foment lust, call forth sinful pleasures, worldly love, self-confidence, contempt of the Word, endanger our Apostasy in times of persecution, and our security in times of peace. And this is certain, That a full Estate, is ⟨p. 20⟩like a full Diet; as this requires more strength of nature, so that more wisdom and grace to order and to digest it. Therefore a rich man ought to look downward the oftener, to take care of his feet, and the higher the wind is to hoist up the fewer Sails, because there are Rocks and Shelves round about him.

3. Rich men walk amongst more snares and temptations; for riches are the materials which provoke, excite, foment lust, call forth sinful pleasures, worldly love, self-confidence, contempt of the Word, endanger our Apostacy in times of persecution, and our security in times of peace. And this is certain, That a full Estate, is ⟨p. 20⟩like a full Diet; as this requires more strength of nature, so that more wisdom and grace to order and to digest it. Therefore a rich man ought to look downward the oftner, to take care of his feet, and the higher the winde is to hoise up the fewer Sails, because there are Rocks and Shelves round about him.

4. In making men rich, and setting them in great places, God hath exalted them enough already, and they ought the rather to be more low in their own eyes. The highest boughs in a Tree are the slenderest, the more nature hath raised them, the smaller they are in themselves, and by that means the less endangered by the tempests which they so easily yield unto. And so it should be with us, the more we are exalted by God, the less we should be in our own esteem; and the less we are in our own esteem, the safer we shall be against any temptations. Humility is not only an ornament, but a protection. We see the fruit grows upon the twigs and smaller branches of a Tree, not upon a Stock: Humility makes way to fruitfulness, and fruitfulness back again to humility. The more weighty the Ears of Corn, the more they hang downward towards the ground. The richer things are, the more humble they are. Ambition was the sin of the Bramble; the Vine, Olive, Fig-tree, were contented with their former dignity. Clouds, the fuller they are, are the more heavy; the Earth is the richest, and yet the lowest Element. Christ had in him the Treasures of Wisdom and Grace, and yet in nothing more proposed