"Many points of wisdom": A Hackney Phalanx sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

From A Course of Sermons, for the Lord's Day throughout the Year, Volume II (1817) by Joseph Holden Pott - associated with the Hackney Phalanx - an extract from a sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity.  The text for the sermon is taken from the concluding words of the Gospel of the day, the strange words spoken by the Lord at the conclusion of the Parable of the Unjust Steward: "And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations". The sermon is a good example of the Old High use of Trinitytide to expound the duties of the Christian life; in this case, the need for a wisdom and prudence in those duties which "imitate[s] the unjust steward's wisdom, so far as it will teach us to provide for future needs, and to employ fit means to further our designs".

It may be granted, then, that there are many points of wisdom, to be found in some parts of the conduct and the characters of worldly men. They do not always use bad means for their purposes; but they frequently make use of good and useful methods for obtaining their desires; and the lesson certainly is most easy to be understood, and least confined, when these particulars are set forth. Thus it is indeed true, that worldly men employ great pains in their pursuits. They use great forecast for the coming day. They know how to call in patience, vigilance, and self-denial, to their aid. These are good methods, very fit to be employed for good designs; and if they use them for mean considerations, and often for the worst ends, how much more readily should we employ them about rightful objects.

Base and foolish as their choice is, who prefer this world and its advantages, to nobler prospects; yet they, whose preference is thus misplaced, are often wise enough in taking measures to promote their views. We find such men prompt and watchful to embrace those opportunities which favour their design. They are often steady, uniform , and constant, in all efforts to obtain their wishes. Inclination quickens their inventions. They are circumspect in all their projects, and with reason, for they have to deal too often with men as crafty as themselves. Who so watchful as the miser? Who so ready to forego the pleasures and indulgences of life, even after long and unremitted efforts have succeeded in increasing the bulk of his beloved hoards, and in filling up the measure of his useless acquisitions? Who so tenacious of his purpose, as the man who is governed by the spirit of revenge? No disappointment can prevail to check his malice: it is the same tomorrow, as today. If his spite be foiled at one time, he can wait with all composure, and be just as ready at another. Where diligence and industry are requisite, how active, how laborious, are the children of this world?