---

1. Riches are not altogether inconsistent with Christianity. Usually they are a great snare. The moon never suffers eclipse but when it is at the full; and usually in our fulness we miscarry (Matthew 19:24). Plato, a heathen, saith the same almost with Christ, that it is impossible for a man to be eminently rich and eminently good. But you will say, "What will you have Christians to do then — in a lavish luxury to throw away their estates? or in an excess of charity to make others full, when themselves are empty?" No (see Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:23, 24). Riches in the having, in the bare possession, are not a hindrance to Christianity, but in our abuse of them. Your possessions will not be your ruin till your corruptions mingle with them. Under the law the poor and rich were to pay the same ransom (Exodus 30:15), intimating they may have interest in the same Christ. Riches in themselves are God's blessings that come within a promise. Yea, riches with a blessing are so far from being a hindrance to grace, that they are an ornament to it (Proverbs 14:24).

2. A. rich man's humility is his glory. Your excellency cloth not lie in the splendour of your condition, but in the meekness of your hearts. Humility is not only a clothing — "Put on humbleness of mind" (Colossians 3:12) — but an ornament. "Be decked with humility" (1 Peter 5:5). A high mind and a low condition are all one to the Lord, only poverty hath the advantage, because it is usually gracious. If any may glory, they may glory that have most arguments of God's love. Now a lowly mind is a far better testimony of it than a high estate. And so before men, as said, he is a great man that is not lifted up because of his greatness. You are not better than others by your estate, but your meekness. The apostles possessed all things though they had nothing. They have more than you if they have a humble heart.

3. The way to be humble is to count the world's advantages our abasement. The poor man must glory in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made low. Honours and riches do but set us beneath other men, rather than above them, and do rather abate from than add anything to you; and it may be you have less of the Spirit because you have more of the world.

4. If we would be made low in the midst of worldly enjoyments, we should consider the uncertainty of them. Outward riches are so far from being the best things, that they rather are not anything at all. Solomon calleth them "that which is not"; and who ever loved nothing, and would be proud of that which is not?

5. The uncertainty of worldly enjoyments may be well resembled by a flower — beautiful, but fading.

(1) Though the things of the world are specious, yet they should not allure us, because they are fading. Flowers are sweet, and affect the eye, but their beauty is soon scorched; the soul is for an eternal good, that it may have a happiness suitable to its own duration. An immortal soul cannot have full contentment in that which is fading. When the creatures tempt you, be not enticed by the beauty of them, so as to forget their vanity. Say, Here is a flower, glorious, but fading; glass that is bright, but brittle.

(2) The fairest things are most fading. Creatures, when they come to their excellency, then they decay, as herbs, when they come to flower, they begin to wither; or, as the sun when it cometh to the zenith, then it declineth. "Man at his best estate is altogether vanity" (Psalm 39:5); not at his worst only, when the feebleness and inconveniences of old age have surprised him. So the prophet speaketh of "a grasshopper in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth" (Amos 7:1). As soon as the ground recovered any verdure and greenness, presently there came a grasshopper to devour the herbage: the meaning is, a new affliction as soon as they began to flourish. Well, then, suspect these outward things when you most abound in them.

(T. Manton.)

---

---

KJV: Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

WEB: But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position;