Durable riches. Two brief discourses, occasioned by the impoverishing blast of heaven, which the…

Fourthly, Under our Losses, we may do well to Consider, How we Got what we have Lost. It is a most memorable passage, in Jer. 17.11. As a Partridge sitteth on Eggs, and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth Riches, and not by Right, shall Leave them in the midst of his Days, and at his End shalt be a Fool. Many a man has been such a Fool, as to augment his Riches in some ways of Dishonesty; he has either by Fraud or Force made himself a Master of Gold, whereto he had no Right, by that Golden Rule, Do as thou wouldest be done unto. And what comes of it? The Eggs prove Addle. Or to speak more thoroughly; The Stolen Eggs carry Burning Coals with them, and Consume the Nest with all that belongs unto it. Well said the Psalmist, A Little that a Righteous man hath, is Better than the Riches of many Wicked. Why, a Righteous man misses many an Advantage, that is taken by them, that Make haste to be Rich. But then, the Little Money which he gets, has no Rust upon it; it will wear and last like any Steel. Whereas, let a Wicked man, in the ways of Wickedness grow never so Rich, and ⟨p. 17⟩worth many Thousands, 'tis a Thousand to One, but one Loss upon the back of another, will at last bring all to be, as the Riches of Pirates use to be. Father Latimer spoke once of a ••ugh that would come upon such as could swallow Dishonest Gains. Why, Losses do Ensue upon such Gains, like so many Coughs, and men Cough till they Vomit up all they have got. It is a Righteous Thing with God, That One Loss after another should snatch away from us, those Riches, whereat we have snatched more Greedily than Honestly. Any Remarkable Injustice, used either by Us, or by our Fathers before us, in scraping together much of this World, will but make one great Snow-ball of it all. One Loss will probably haunt it after another, till it be melted all away: at least, vix gaudet tertius haeres. Yea, There is many a Godly man, who through Ignorance, or Carelessness, never made a possible Restitution of Things unlawfully Obtained, if not by himself, yet by those that Left him what he has; and so a long Series of Losses is Entailed upon him. Thus also, such as have once Broken, by their own Extravagances, rather than by the Unavoidable Frowns of God upon them;

Fourthly, Under our Losses, we may do well to Consider, How we Got what we have Lost. It is a most memorable passage, in