Be charitable before Wealth makes thee covetous, and lose not the Glory of the Mitre. If Riches increase, let thy Mind hold Pace with them; and think it not enough to be liberal, but munificent. Tho' a Cup of cold Water from some hand may not be without its Reward; yet stick not thou for Wine and Oyl for the Wounds of the distressed: and treat the poor as our Saviour did the Multitude, to the Relicks of some Baskets. Trust not to the Omnipotency of Gold, or say unto it, Thou art my Confidence: kiss not thy Hand when thou beholdest that terrestrial Sun, nor bore thy Ear unto its Servitude. A Slave unto Mammon makes no Servant unto God: Covetousness cracks the Sinews of Faith, numbs the Apprehension of any thing above Sense, and only affected with the Certainty of Things present, makes a Peradventure of things to come; lives but unto one World, nor hopes but fears another; makes our own Death sweet unto others, bitter unto our selves; gives a dry Funeral, Scenical Mourning, and no wet Eyes at the Grave. If Avarice be thy Vice, yet make it not thy Punishment: Miserable Men commiserate not themselves, bowelless unto themselves, and merciless unto their own Bowels. Let the Fruition of things bless the Possession of them, and take no Satisfaction in dying but living rich: for since thy good Works, not thy Goods, will follow thee; since Riches are an Appurtenance of Life, and no dead Man is rich, to famish in Plenty, and live poorly to die rich, were a multiplying Improvement in Madness, and Use upon Use in Folly. Persons lightly dip'd, not grain'd in generous Honesty, are but pale in Goodness, and faint hued in Sincerity: but be thou what thou virtuously art, and let not the Ocean wash away thy Tincture: stand magnetically upon that Axis where prudent Simplicity hath fix'd thee, and let no Temptation invert the Poles of thy Honesty: and that Vice may be uneasie, and even monstrous unto thee, let iterated good Acts, and long confirm'd Habits make Vertue natural, or a second Nature in thee. And since few or none prove eminently vertuous but from some advantageous Foundations in their Temper, and natural Inclinations; study thy self betimes, and early find what Nature bids thee to be, or tells thee what thou may'st be. They who thus timely descend into themselves, cultivating the good Seeds which Nature hath set in them, and improving their prevalent Inclinations to Perfection, become not Shrubs, but Cedars in their Generation; and to be in the form of the best of the Bad, or the worst of the Good, will be no Satisfaction unto them. Let not the Law of thy Country be the _non ultra_ of thy Honesty, nor think that always good enough which the Law will make good. Narrow not the Law of Charity, Equity, Mercy; joyn Gospel Righteousness with Legal Right; be not a meer _Gamaliel_ in the Faith; but let the Sermon in the Mount be thy _Targum_ unto the Law of _Sinai_.