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A21043
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A counterpoison against couetousnes in a sermon preached at Pauls-Crosse, May 23. 1619. By Ier. Dyke minister of Gods word at Epping in Essex.
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Dyke, Jeremiah, 1584-1639.
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1619
(1619)
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STC 7412; ESTC S116229
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36,623
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67
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me and hath embraced this present world How easie is it to make him the diuels Priest that is once Mammons Chaplaine What religion or false worship will not that man embrace that hath once embraced this world The world is like the whores of Midian with whom no sooner an Israelite can be familiar but he shall be entised to the sacrifices of the dead to the sacrifices of Baal-Peor To marrie the daughter of a strange god is a grosse transgression of this Law And yet how many sticke not to wed to the Canaanites so get not thornes in their sides but in their consciences and all because their hearts are first wedded to the world 3 Commandement Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vaine Alas the couetous man thinkes this a very vaine Commandement Now fie vpon such precisenesse What! may not a man for his aduantage to put off his commodity helpe him selfe now and then with an oath He thinketh this needlesse scupulositie Nay and yet behold a worse abomination then this Paul calleth couetousnesse coloured couetousnesse or the cloke of couetousnesse 1. Thess 2. 5. Now though in the former Commandement it sticketh not for gaine to corrupt religion yet here for aduantage it will paint with religion and put on a religious cloke or habite Thus did the couetous Pharises prophane Gods holy name while they deuoured widdowes houses vnder the colour of long prayer Math. 23. 14. There was couetousnesse coloured with religion Certainly Gods holy name is not more abused by profane couetousnesse when it must be made a broker to helpe off base commodities then it is by seeming-religious couetousnesse when men vse religion for a siluer hook professe it as the Shecemites receiued circumcision Gen. 34. 23. Shall not their flockes and their substance and all their cattell be ours So shall not their custome and their countenance be ours Onely let vs make a shew of their religion for this is a maine principle in a couetous mans Catechisme that gaine is godlinesse 1. Tim. 6. 5. and therefore cares not to make a shew of godlinesse to bring in gaine that so in a profane sence he may say with himselfe Godlinesse pretended is great gaine But such with the Pharises shall receiue the greater damnation 4. Commandement Remember thou keepe holy the Sabboth day The couetous man is of Pharaohs religion He thinkes religion maketh men idle The people are idle therefore they crie Let vs go sacrifice saith Pharaoh Exod. 5. The couetous man thinketh the rest of the Sabboth to be but idlenesse It is a day lost in a weeke seuen weekes and an halfe in a yeare Oh how it grudges the wretch to spare God so much time Therefore they crie Amos 8. 5. When will the Sabboth be gone that we may sell corne Nay he hath not the patience now to stay so long He cries not now When will the Sabboth but when will the Sermon be done Couetousnesse was modest in Amos his dayes it would then stay marketting till the Sabboth were done It is now growne more profligate and impudent and dares impropriate as Gods tenthes in the second so Gods seauenths in the fourth Commandement What makes many keepe their Sabboths in their saddles and not so much as to keepe Sabbatum asinorum in the bare rest from labour but their couetousnesse What is the reason that many Lawyers chambers are in Sabboth afternoones better filled with Clients then many countrie Churches are with people but couetousnesse This this is that sinne that turneth Gods Sabboths into Sabbatum Tyri the Sabboth of Tyrus Nehe. 13. 16. that brought fish and all wares and sold on the Sabboth Ierusalem was troubled with fish-merchants on the Sabboth And many townes and cities in this kingdome are troubled with flesh-merchants wine-merchants ale and beere-merchants cup and tap-merchants and what breedeth these trouble-townes but couetousnesse He that is greedie of gaine troubles not onely his owne house but a whole towne a whole citie And was it better in this your honourable Citie till your worthy Nehemiahs opposed these Tyrian Sabbatarians set themselues religiously and zealously to the suppression of Mammons solemne seruice in the publike shambles and priuate temples of Bacchus Now honoured be their memories that first begun that good worke and no lesse theirs that do and shall continue it What greater honour can this renowned See and famous Citie haue then in their ioynt care and zeale to preserue Gods holy Sabboths from those foule profanations which couetousnesse and the loue of filthy lucre hath inuented Those Iewes Amos 8. cryed When will the Sabboth be gone that we may sell there was some kinde of honesty yet in their couetousnesse But there is a broode now that crie When will the Sabboth come that we may sell ale beere and tipling commodities They long for the Sabboth not that they might enioy God in the publike assemblies of his Saints but that the sonnes of Belial may haue their assemblies and guzzeling Randevous in their houses and cellars Now compare the sinne of Amos his times with the sinne of ours and it is but light in comparison of ours They broke the Sabboth but in thought and desire in word at most but our men grosly profane it by making it both Sabbatum Tyri and Sabbatum Bacchi at once a marketting and a iunketting a selling and a swilling day both And yet as light as their sin was see what an heauie threatning is denounced against them Am. 8. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this and euery one mourne that dwells therein And shall the land tremble for the lighter and not much more for the heauier sinne How great cause haue we to beg of God to giue all such whom it concerneth whether gouernours of the Church or commonwealth zeale and resolution to maintaine Gods honour in this point that in stead of trembling and mourning there may be ioy and reioycing to all good hearts in the flourishing of Gods ordinances Let me adde one thing that may adde encouragemēt to this work Nehemiah after the report of his care for the Sabboths reformation prayeth on this maner verse 22. Remember me ô God concerning this Lay Nehemiahs Memento to Gods Memento lay Gods commandement Nehemiahs prayer together Remember thou keepe holy the Sabboth saith God Nehemiah remembers it and then prayeth Remember me ô God They with comfort and confidence may pray to God to Remember them who with courage and conscience Remember him and his Sabboths But if we forget his Sabboths then God hath sworne by the excellencie of Iaacob Surely he will neuer forget any of these workes Amos 8. 7. 5. Commandement Honour thy father and thy mother That which Moses speaketh of Leui in a good sence Deut. 33. 9. He said to his father and mother I haue not seene him may be said of him in an ill sence He hath an euill a blinde eye that will not see and a deafe
your peace with God In whose name and feare I beseech you to make a conscience of pleading euery cause When an ill cause cometh to you for counsell say that of it plainly which the buyer of his commoditie speaketh dissemblingly Prou. 20. 14. It is naught it is naught It is not so great a sinne for a chapman to say of a good commoditie It is naught it is naught as for a Lawyer to say of a naughtie cause It is good it is good Make a conscience of pleading against a good cause Let not couetousnesse make your wits skill learning and tongues instrumentall to iniustice Neither be Tertullists to pleade against Paul nor Abiezrites to pleade for Baal Will ye pleade for Baal Let Baal and Belial pleade for themselues How thinke ye to haue the Lord Iesus for your Aduocate that dare be pleading aduocates for Baal and Belial Therefore all Lawyers Take heed and beware of couetousnesse 4. I commend this caueat to all Church-patrons Take ye heed also and beware of couetousnesse What is the reason that our Church groanes vnder the heauie burden of so many insufficient ministers Nothing more then the couetousnes of Church-patrons who while they looke more at the gifts and gratuities in the hand then gifts and graces of the heart sticke not to bring into Gods Sanctuary those for Leuites to diuide the word who in good truth giue them their due are not worthy the place of Gibeonites to cleaue and diuide wood and draw water vnfit for the meanest seruice of the Sanctuary Me thinks Iudas his halter should make you afraid of Iudas his question Quid dabitis What will ye giue God gaue him an halter Take heed lest while you ask the same question God do not giue you the same answer For certainly this sinne makes you as very theeues as euer was Iudas and what can a theefe looke for but the halter You are euery whit as bad as Iudas He sold the Head you sell the members he the shepheard you the sheepe and the same sinne that set him sets you on worke too the sinne of couetousnesse As bad as Iudas Nay in some respect ye are worse then he Not that I am of that heretical opinion of the old Cainites of whom Augustiné maketh Lib. de Haeres ad Quodvultd mention who held that Iudas betrayed Christ out of a good and an honest mind as foreseeing that infinite good which his passion death should bring to mankind No I know he was a murtherer and a theefe and yet I say that you are worse then he He sold but the body but you sell soules and so make your selues guilty of the sin of that execrable filth of Babylon whose merchandize Apoc. 18. 13. is not onely pearles linnen scarlet c. but also the soules of men Iudas by his barter made but the potters field you by yours make Christs field Christs Church an Aceldema a field of bloud while for your wicked pecuniary respects in stead of barking dogs to keepe you put in rauening wolues and sleepie greedy dogs to kill Christs sheepe Now as you feare to haue your hands besmeared with the gore of soules and as you dread that heauie account which must be giuen for soule-bloud so all Church-patrons take heed and beware of couetousnesse 5. Me thinkes in the next place whilest this sinne is thus complained of I should heare Landlords and men that liue on Offices saying to me as the Publicans to Iohn Luk 3. 12. What shall we do If couetousnes be thus foule a sinne how then and what then shall we do To whom I giue the same answer that Iohn did to the Publicans and the souldiers both Exact no more then is appointed to you and Do no man violence be content with your wages Take heed and beware of couetousnesse Take heed of exaction Take heed of oppression Take heed of racking your rents Take heed of tentring your poore Tenants Grinde not the faces of the poore vncloathe not their loines to cloathe your dead walls Many Landlords are like Darius Dan. 6. 16. he prayes God to helpe Daniel but in the meane time sends him to the Lions den so many oppressing Landlords they crie God helpe but in the mean time play the Lions God hath sworn by his Holinesse that he will takeaway such oppressors with thornes and their posteritie with fish-hookes Am. 4. 2. God will serue them as Gideon serued the men of Succoth Iudg. 8. 16. whom he did teare with the briers and thornes of the wildernesse It is but iustice that their flesh should be torne off with briers who were thornes and briers to teare off the flesh of others Tantum ergo natum est vt loca non sufficerent quae solebant quaerebat consilium miser non quomodo erogaret quod plus natum erat sed quomodo reseruaret Aug. serm de diuit 28. Ye find a rich man immediatly after my text whom the Lord calleth Foole Foole this night shall thy soule be taken from thee Wherein lay this mans folly In that he tooke care not to lay vp for good vses but to lay vp for voluptuous vses that surplusage of estate which God had giuen him Now marke what Augustine inferreth hereupon If he be a foole which layes but vp his owne goods Vos inuenite ei nomen qui tollit aliena find you out a fit name for him that takes away another mans What name then may we find out Salomon fits them with a name Eccles 3. 18. Viderem hos esse illis bestias so Iunius not fooles but beasts And what beasts may they be Kine of Bashan Amos 4. 1. that is with the easiest Therefore Zephanie and Nahum make them wolues euening wolues Lions Lions whelpes roaring and ramping Lions Zeph. 3. 3. Nah. 2. 11. 12. Beasts they are beasts of prey that liue ex rapto Not onely kine of Bashan that by oppression trample vnder foote but deuouring wolues not onely trampling but tearing beasts How fairely were this Iland blest if it were as cleare rid of these as it is of other wolues How happie were it if these Cannibals were amongst the sauage Indians How well if these man-eating beasts might be vsed as was Nebuchadnezzar turned to grasse Dan. 4. 30. He was Volunt nunc comparcere micas in alendo misero Lazaro cum prius effuderint in epulonem omnes opes suas Dederunt enim episcopis arces ciuitates ac nimis splendide ac laute habuerunt eos Nunc cum isti alendi sunt qui vere fideliter docent vix micas alioqui perituras eis concedunt Luther in Gen. 21. driuen from men and did eate grasse as the oxen 6. I may not here let passe such as are guiltie of sacriledge impropriators of Church liuings together with close and cunning defrauders of the Ministerie Take ye heed and beware of couetousnesse There is nothing so sacred and inuiolable which this Harpy dareth not seize vpon The