Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

particulars, together with the application of this whole difcourfe, I fhall refer to another opportunity.

[blocks in formation]

And he faid unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetoufness; for a man's life confifteth not in the a bundance of the things which he poffeffeth.

The fourth fermon on this text.

'N my two laft difcourfes on this fubject, I have reof covetoufnefs, in four particulars. I proceed now to the fifth and laft particular, whereby I told you the evil and unreafonablenefs of it would appear, viz.

That riches are fo far from being the happinefs of human life, that they ufually contribute very much to our mifery and forrow; as will evidently appear, if we confider thefe four things:

Firft, The labour and care which the covetous man is at in getting of a great estate.

Secondly, The anxiety of keeping it, together with the fears of lofing it.

Thirdly, The trouble and vexation of having loft it. Fourthly, The heavy and dreadful account which every man muft give of a great estate.

First, The labour and care which the covetous man hath in getting a great estate. He that will be rich, muft fweat for it, and refufe no pains and trouble; he muft rife up early, and lie down late, and eat the bread of carefulness. A flave that digs in the mines, or rows in the gallies, is not a greater drudge, than fome covetous worldlings are; only with this difference, that the covetous man thinks that he labours and takes all thefe pains for himself; whereas the flave understands the matter more truly, and thinks that he does it for another..

But

But befides the pains he takes, he is full of care and anxiety. How is he, through the greedy defire of having, racked between the hopes of getting, and the fear of mifling what he feeks? The Apottle obferves what tormenting cares accompany this vice: 1 Tim. vi. 10. The love of money (faith he) is the root of all evil; not only of the evil of fin, but of the evil likewife of trouble and difquiet: For it follows, which while fome coveted after, they have pierced themselves through with many forrows. Variety of troubles attend them that will be rich.

Secondly, If we confider the anxiety of keeping what they have got, together with the fear of lofing it again, this is another great part of a covetous man's infelicity. The rich man here in the parable after the text, when he faw his eftate coming upon him fo faft, cries out, What shall I do? Poor man! who would not pity his condition, to fee him put to this difficulty and distress, and to hear him make as heavy a moan as the pooreft man could do! Now that he hath a plentiful harveft, and his crop hath anfwered, if it were poffible, his covetous defire, he is in a great deal of perplexity, and almost at his wits end how to difpofe of it. He was horribly afraid left any of it fhould be loft for want of a fecure place to ftore it up in: What shall I do, because I have no room where to beftow my fruits? Where was the difficulty of this? Why, he was loth to lose his fruits, and he was loth to lay out money to fecure them. But, upon farther confideration, he refolves of the two evils to chufe the leaft; and he said, This will I do, I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there will I bestow· all my fruits, and my goods. But why could he not let the barns he had ftand, and build more? No, that he did not think fo well; he loved to fee all his good things at one view, and what a goodly fhow they would make together. Befides that, it is the humour of covetoufness, when it breaks out into expence, to over-do; the mifer's buildings are like his feafts, always extravagant. The covetous man (as to the bufinefs of expence) is like a coward as to fighting; he declines it as long as he can; but when he

[ocr errors]

is pushed to the laft neceffity, he grows defperate, and lays about him.

[ocr errors]

Tantis parta malis, curâ majore metuque
Servantur: mifera eft magni cuftodia cenfis.

Riches which are got with fo much trouble, are not kept without greater fear and care. A covetous man is in nothing more miferable, than in the anxiety and care of difpofing and fecuring what he hath got. When a man's defires are endless, his cares and fears will be fo too.

Thirdly, As great an evil as any of the former, is the vexation of having loft these things. If by any accident the man happens to be deprived of them, then he takes on heavily, hangs down his head, and mourns as a man would do for his first-born; and is ready to cry out with Micah, They have taken away my gods, and what have 1 more? Upon every little lofs the covetous man is undone, though he have a hundred times more left than he knows what to do withal. So deeply are the hearts of earthly-minded men many times pierced with earthly loffes, as with Rachel to refufe to be comforted. Nay, St Paul obferves, that the forrow of the world fometimes worketh death, 1 Cor. vii. 10.

Fourthly, But the faddeft confideration of all is, that heayy and dreadful account that must one day be given, both of the getting and ufing of a great eftate. They that have got an eftate by fraud and falfehood, or by oppreffion and grinding the face of the poor, may read their doom at large, James v. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miferies that fhall come upon you; your riches are corrupted, and your garments moth-eaten; your gold and filver is cankered, and the ruft of them fhall be a witnefs against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire: Te have heaped treafure together for the last days. Behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the cars of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in

pleasure

pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourifhed your hearts as in a day of flaughter.

And we must be accountable likewife for the ufing of our eftates. God gives them to us in truft, and the greater they are, the more we are to account for. So much as we need is ours; but beyond what will fupport us, and be a convenient provifion for our families, in the rank God hath placed them; all that is given to us, that we may give it to others and indeed it is not ours; we are the proprietors of it in refpect of men, but in respect of God we are but truftees and stewards, and God will require an account of us how we have difpofed of it.

:

:

And can there be a more reigning madnefs among men, than to take care only to increafe their account more and more, by receiving much; whereas our great care and concernment fhould be to clear our account, by lang out what we receive, according to the truft repofed in us? How much we fhall receive of the things of this world, is in the care and will of our mafter but our care and fidelity is feen in laying it out as we ought. Among men (fays one) it is well enough if a steward can give, an account of fo much laid out, and so much in cash, and upon this he fhall have his difcharge. But we cannot this way clear our account with God; for it is not offering him his own again that will fatisfy him, as we may learn from the parable of the talents. So that upon the whole matter, we fhould be fo far from envying the rich, that we fhould rather envy the fafety and happiness of those who are not intrufted with fuch dangerous bleffings, and who are free from the temptations of a plentiful fortune, and the curfe of a covetous mind, and from the heavy account of a great eftate.

I come now, in the laft place, to make fome application of this difcourfe to ourfelves.

I. Let our Saviour's caution take place with us, let thefe words of his fink into our minds, Take heed, and beware of covetousness. Our Saviour, I told you, doubles the caution, that we may double our care.

It is a fin very apt to fteal upon us, and flily to infinuate itself into us under the-fpecious pretence of induiry in our callings, and a provident care of our families; but however it may be coloured over, it is a great evil, dangerous to ourselves, and mifchievous to the world. Now, to kill this vice in us, befides the confiderations before mentioned, taken from the evil and unreasonableness of it, I will urge these three

more :

1. That the things of this world are uncertain. 2. That our lives are as uncertain as these things: And,

3. That there is another-life after this.

1. The uncertainty of the things of this world. This fhould very much cool our affections toward them, that after all our care and diligence for the obtaining of them, we are not fure to enjoy them; we may be deprived of them by a tho fand accidents. This confideration Solomon urgeth, to take men off from an over eager purfuit of thefe things, Prov. xxiii. 5. Wilt thou fet thine eyes upon that which is not? for. riches certainly make to themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle towards heaven. After we have fat brooding over an estate many years, it may all on a fudden, before we are aware, take wing, and fly away, like an eagle towards heaven foaring fuddenly out of our fight, and never to return again.

And the fame argument St Paul ufeth, to take off mens affections from the world, 1 Cor. vii. 31. becaufe the fashion of this world paffeth away; xapayas Tо σχῆμα το κόσμο τέτου. He compares the things of this world to a fcene, which is prefently changed, and vanisheth almost as foon as it appears. Now, feeing these things are fo uncertain, we fhould take heed how we fix our hearts too much upon them ; we fhould not make love to any thing that is fo fickle and inconftant as this world is; we should be afraid to contract too near and intimate a friendfhip with any thing which will forfake us, after we have courted it with fo much importunity, and purchased it with fo much pains, and endeavoured to fecure it with fo · much caution and tenderness.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »