it impoffible for them to take any Part, or feek any Pleasure in the Shew, and Figure, and Riches, of this World. ONE would think that this one Reflexion, was alone fufficient to fhew us, what Contempt of the World, what heavenly Affection we are to afpire after. FOR how blind and weak must we be, if we can think that we may live in a Spirit and Temper, which could not possibly be the Spirit and Temper of Chrift and his Apostles? ANOTHER Pretence for worldly Care, and Labour after Riches, is to provide for Our Families. You want to leave Fortunes to your Children, that they may have their Share in the Figure and Shew of the World. Now confider, do you do this upon Principles of Religion, as the wifeft and beft Thing you can do, either for your self, or your Children? CAN you be faid to have chofen the one Thing needful for your felf, or the one Thing needful for them, who make it your chief Care, to put them in a State of Life, that is a Snare, and a Temptation, and the most likely of all others, to fill their Minds with foolish and hurtful Lufts? Is it your Kindnefs towards them, that puts you upon this Labour? Confider therefore. therefore what this Kindness is founded upon; perhaps it is fuch a Kindness, as when tender Mothers carry their Daughters to all Plays and Balls; fuch a Kindness, as when indulgent Fathers fupport their Sons in all the Expence of their Follies; fuch kind Parents may more properly be called the Tempters and Betrayers of their Chil dren. You love your Children, and therefore you would leave them rich. It is faid of our bleffed Saviour, that he loved the young rich Man that came unto him, and as an Inftance of his Love, he bid him fell all that he had, and give to the Poor. What a Contrariety is here? The Love which dwelleth in you, is as contrary to that Love which dwelt in Chrift, as Darkness is contrary to Light. WE have our Saviour's exprefs Command to love one another, as he hath loved us, and can you think that you are following this Love, when you are giving thofe Things to your Children, which he took away from his Friends, and which he could not poffibly have given them, without contradicting the greateft Part of his Doce trines? BUT fuppofing that you fucceed in your Intentions, and leave your Children rich, what muft you fay to them when you are M dying? dying? Will you then tell them, that you have the fame Opinion of the Greatness and Value of Riches that you ever had, that you feel the Pleafure of remembring how much Thought and Care you have taken to get them? Will you tell them, that you have provided for their Eafe and Softness, their Pleasure and Indulgence, and Figure in the World, and that they cannot do better, than to eat and drink, and take their Fill of fuch Enjoyments as Riches afford? This would be dying like an Atheist. BUT on the other Hand, if you will die like a good Chriftian, muft you not endeavour to fill their Minds with your dying Thoughts? Muft you not tell them, that they will foon be in a State, when the World will fignify no more to them, than it does to you, and that there is a Deceitfulness, a Vanity, a Littlenefs, in the Things of this Life, which only dying Men feel, as they ought? WILL you not tell them, that all your own Failings, the Irregularity of your Life, your Defects in Devotion, the Folly of your Tempers, the Strength of your Paffions, and your Failure in Chriftian Perfection, has been all owing to wrong Opinions of the Value of worldly Things; and that that if you had always feen the World in the fame Light that you fee it now, your Life had been devoted to God, and you would have lived in all thofe holy Tempers and heavenly Affections, in which you now defire to die? WILL you not tell them, that it is the Enjoyment of the World, that corrupts the Hearts, and blinds the Minds of all People, and that the only Way to know what Good there is in Devotion, what Excellence there is in Piety, what Wisdom in Holiness, what Happiness in heavenly Affection, what Vanity in this Life, and what Greatness in Eternity, is to die to the World, and all worldly Tempers? WILL you not tell them, that Riches fpent upon our felves, either in the Pleafures of Eafe and Indulgence, in the Vanity of Dress or the Shew of State and Equipage, are the Bane and Deftruction of our Souls, making us blindly content with Dreams of Happiness, till Death awakes us into real Mifery? FROM this therefore it appears, that your Kindness for your Children, is fo far from being a good Reason why you should fo carefully labour to leave them rich, and in the Enjoyment of the State and Shew of the World, that if you die in a Spirit of M 2 Piety, |