The improvement of trade and commerce has made another change, just hinted at, and I think, a very happy one, in the state of the world, as it has enlarged the middle rank of people; many of which are, in good measure, free from the vices of the highest and the lowest part of mankind. Now these persons must remember, that whether, in common language, they do or do not pass under the denomination of rich, yet they really are so, with regard to the indigent and necessitous; and that, considering the great numbers which make up this middle rank among us, and how much they mix with the poor, they are able to contribute very largely to their relief, and have in all respects a very great influence over them.
You have heard now the origin and progress of what this great city so much abounds with, riches; as far as I had occasion to speak of these things. For this brief account of them has been laid before you for the sake of the good admonitions it afforded. Nor will the admonitions be thought foreign to the charities which we are endeavouring to promote. For these must necessarily be less, and the occasions for them greater, in proportion as industry should abate, or luxury increase. And the temper of covetousness is, we all know, directly contrary to that of charity, and eats out the very heart of it. Then, lastly, there are good sort of people, who really want to be told that they are included in the admonitions to be given to the rich, though they do see others richer than themselves.
The ranks of rich and poor being thus formed, they meet together: they continue to make up one society. The mutual want which they still have of each other, still unites them inseparably. But they meet upon a footing of great inequality. For, as Solomon expresses it in brief, and with much force, "The rich ruleth over the poor," Prov. xxii. 7. And thus their general intercourse, with the superiority on one hand, and dependence on the other, are in no sort accidental, but arise necessarily from a settled providential
