Were we disposed to deny the blessedness attend- ant on earthly prosperity, we should feel a jealousy over ourselves, in taking the two clauses of our text in a contrasted view : but, as it is our intention to give full weight to the former affirmation, and as the latter, if taken in somewhat of a contrasted view, contains a truth not confined to that dispensation, but common to every age and place, I shall take occasion, from the text, to shew, I. The comfort of earthly prosperity —
[Too sanguine may be our expectations from earthly things, no doubt: but, on the other hand, it is possible to speak of earthly things in terms more contemptuous than either the word of God, or the experience of his people will, justify. It is not uncommon for persons professing the Gospel, or even preach- ing it, to represent earthly things as altogether worthless. But who is there that finds them so ? Who is there that does not experience pain from the want, and satisfaction from the supply, of them ? Nor is this feeling at all unbecoming a real Chris- tian : for Christians are men ; and, consequently, susceptible of pain or pleasure from the want or the enjoyment of the things that are needful for the body. Let any one be honest, and he will confess that he is not so independent of earthly things as to feel no comfort from the possession of them, and no grief at the loss. As for those who affect voluntary poverty and privations, they are no more really mortified to the world than others : they prefer the gratification of their spiritual lusts to merely corporeal indulgences : and whatever they take out of the scale of earthly pleasure, they put, in full propor- tion, into the opposite scale of pride and self-complacency. They entertain a notion that the mortification of their bodies is meritorious, and that it will raise them in the estimation of God and man ; and, under this impression, they pour contempt on earthly comforts. But they only exchange one lust for another that is equally hateful in the sight of God. Their superstition contradicts the testimony of God himself, who, both under the Old Testament and the New, promises earthly things under the notion of blessings. The whole Mosaic law was enforced with promises of temporal prosperity. Was not that an acknowledgment that temporal prosperity contributed to our comfort? Even under the New Testament dispensation, we are told that " godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to comeV and, that " God hath given us all things richly to enjoy c : " which shews, that enjoyment is connected with the possession of them. b 1 Tim. iv. 8. ° 1 Tim. vi. 18.