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for Affected Poverty and Beggary. And it is very plain that our Saviour hath taught us to pray for a competent Portion of Worldly Goods, which is neither Poverty nor Riches. And this Petition feems to be the Prayer of Agur, Prov. 30. 8, 9. Give me neither Poverty nor Riches, feed me with Food convenient for me: Left I be full, and deny thee, and fay, Who is the Lord? Or left I be poor, and steal, and take the Name of my God in vain. That is, that I may be free from the Temptations of Riches on the one hand, which are, to Pride, and Luxury, and Wantonnefs, and from the Temptations of Poverty on the other, which are, to Difcontent, and Stealing, and the like. But yet I doubt not, that altho' Agur prayed for the middle State of Food convenient, yet if he were a Rich Man, as most probably he was, he was careful to avoid the Temptations of great Wealth, and to exer cife thofe Virtues which it gives a Man an Opportunity of improving himself in. Or if he were a Poor Man, that he was yet contented and honeft, and made it his Bufinefs to avoid the Dangers of that State. For no Man is fo fit to encounter, and to overcome the Temptations of either fide, as he that defires the fafe Condition between them both, and prays for no more than what our Saviour judg'd to be the best Portion for us, that is, for our daily Bread,

which is not to pray for Riches, it is to pray against Poverty.

3. Since our Saviour hath taught us to pray for our daily Bread, that is, to expect it from God, we are hereby ftrongly engaged to use no dishoneft Ways for the Supply of our Needs. For he that by Lying, Stealing, Cheating, or any fort of Injustice, by any Wicked Means provideth for his own Subfiftence, he doth thereby renounce all Truft in and Dependance upon God for it. This Petition doth not only teach us from whom we are to expect the Supports and Comforts of Life, but likewife how we are to compass them. For if we live by Overreaching and Knavery, by Defrauding and Oppreffing the Poor, or by Stealing from the Rich, that which we get thefe Ways is not by the Bleffing of God, but by the Affiftance of the Devil. And it is a foul Piece of Mockery for any Man that fupplies himfelf by the Devil's Help, to ask his daily Bread from God. Such a Wretch is guilty of a double Scandal; one, by getting his daily Bread, tho' that were all to get, by Robbery; the other, by daring all the while to ask of God to give him his daily Bread, as if the Purchase of his Villany was of God's fending. This is a Petition fit only for the Mouth of an Honeft Man. A Knave profanes the Name of God by using it, and affronts him to his Face. Nothing can be plainer

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plainer than that the Confidence which we are fuppofed to have in Divine Providence, when we ask this Thing of God, fuppofes also that we are careful to keep in his Ways, and to obferve his Will, without which no Man hath a Right to that Promife of God's adding all thefe Things, that is, all the neceflary Comforts of Life to Spiritual Bleffings. We must feek the Kingdom of God, and the Righteousness thereof, that is, we muft be univerfally obedient to his Will, but especially we must keep our felvés from making the leaft Encrease to our Store, or bringing in the leaft Gain by difhoneft and wicked Means. Every wilful Sm, of what nature foever it be, weakens that Ground of Confidence in God which this Petition fuppofes, but Sins of Injustice and Wrongdoing are perfectly contrary to it, and quite deftroy it, or rather they fuppofe that a Man had never any just Confidence in God, nor repofed any due Truft in his Providence, and durft not believe God's Promifes. For otherwife what need was there why he should run to the Devil's Help for a Livelihood? So that he was all along a most notorious Hypocrite, pretending to believe in God and truft him, when there was no fuch Matter. And when it happens, as it often does, that the Devil fails fuch a Man, and his Knavery, instead of bettering his Condition, brings him to Poverty and Di

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ftrefs, he is not in Condition to commit himfelf to God, and to beg his Bread from God in good earneft, he has forfaken God, and now fees what he has got by it, God forfakes him too. And now that all his Projects of Wickedness fail him, and he has nothing left to raise himself withal, the Guilt of all that he has gotten by Fraud or Violence fticks upon him, and the Reftitution he owes, while he has nothing wherewithal to help himself, makes him, as we ufe to fay, fo much Worfe than Nought; and he is therefore in no good Condition, when reduced to the laft Extremity, to ask his dai ly Bread of God, to whom he is still obnoxious for all his Injuftices and Wrongs. Such a defperate Eftate does he venture upon that lives by indirect and difhoneft Arts, and fo impudent a thing it is, as I told you before, to ask our Suftenance of God, while at the fame time a Man does in effect feek it of the Devil!

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4. This Petition doth moreover inftruct us that we fhould ufe our Worldly Goods Soberly, Temperately, Charitably, and Religioufly, that is, according to the Donor's Will. For feeing our daily Bread, and all the Comforts of our Life, are his Gifts, we are bound to use them juft as he would have us. To this Purpose we may obferve, that our daily asking of thefe Things is an Acknowledgment that our prefent Poffeffi

on of them does not give us any fuch Right in them, as to exclude God's Dominion and Property in any thing we have. I may receive a Thing by another Man's Gift, fo as I need not ask it of him any more, fince I may have an abfolute Right to it, excluding all Claims from the Perfon of whom I first had it. But this holds not true with refpect to the Bleffings I receive from God, Therefore I am to ask them of him as long as I have them, because his Dominion over thofe Things he gives is full and abfolute; and by asking them while I do enjoy them, I do acknowledge him to be ftill the Lord of Every Thing I enjoy, and it is his Gift to me every Moment that I enjoy it; and therefore I am bound to use every Thing I have received to his Pleafure, fince I ftill enjoy it by his Conftant Gift. Therefore I am not to make thofe Worldly Goods, whereof I have a Competency, and which I enjoy, Inftruments of his Difhonour Means of Diffoluteness and Debauchery, or Excufes for a lazy and an unprofitable Life. But if he has given more than a bare Competency, I am particularly concerned to look to it, that I ferve him out of that Superfluity he hath beftowed upon me. God has required the Rich in this World to diftribute to the Neceffities of others out of their own Plenty, I fhould not fay Theirs, but His. For God ftill has the chiefeft Proprie

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