A SERMON PREACHED AT THE SPITTLE UPON TVESDAY IN Easter-Week Anno Dom. 1672. BY THOMAS HACKETT D.D. Formerly DEAN of Corke in IRELAND Now VICAR of Chesthunt Hartfordshire And Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed for Benjamin Tooke and are to be Sold at the Ship in St. Pauls Churchyard 1672. A SERMON Preached at the SPITTLE Tuesday in EASTER Week 1672. MATTH VI. 19 20 21. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break thorow and steal For where your treas ure is there will your hearts be also ALL things in the world affect Society as well as Man Virtues pair and Vices herd together For our Saviour having no sooner dispatcht vain-glory out of the way vers e 16. of this Chapter but a new one meets him in this Text about Riches which he opposes in these verses Lay not up c. And very well does the discourse of Riches follow that of Vain-glory because vain-glory is begot or much swoln by riches The Syriack word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Treasure comes from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to blind because Wealth often blinds men with Vain glory And on this score it is that our Saviour after having absolved this period descends unto the discourse about our Eyes v. 22 It is hard if in so great an Assembly as this of Rich men none need a gentle lesson against vain-glory Does any man here value himself for what he has not what he is or think all others do so Nay for this he is often reproacht and sham'd One bursting with envy to see his great Estate presently spits it upon his mean Original His brave House in which he glories did it not lift its crest into publick view the goers by might not mock it for being guilded with the Revenews of sad Widows and despoyled Orphans If others Civility should spare a man in this yet his Reason might reclaim him from any huff of himself on such an account Does a fine Livery make a servant good Does a Jade become a good Horse by putting a Golden-bit into his mouth Has the Moth cause of pride because wrapt up in a fine garment Psal 49.16 The Prophet tells us Emphatically such things may be the glory of our house but not of the man If the house be well adorned does any man say the man is brave If the ground be good may not the Owner be bad Nay he is the lower for aspiring so high As the Fallen Angels that were before above the good are now for Pride condemned to be under them This is the reason of the Connexion now for the Text it self Which is made up of a Prohibition and an Admonition Both of them attended with their Reasons by their sides The Prohibition is Lay not up for your selves treasures on Earth The Reason Where the Moth c. The Admonition But lay up c. Lay not up for your selves c. A sowr Inhibition Judas renounc'd Christ for mony Would not some their Christianity Let us see whether there be no dulcifying of this harsh Injunction What is the true intent of our Saviours mind in it I shall shew you 1. What is not injoyned us here 2. What is 1. Beggery no nor Poverty assumed or by constraint are here affianced to Christianity as Salmeron ingeniously grants against the common current of his Popish Brethren whose Arguments for it are as poor as the Clients they plead for For whose further credit you may know that it was Coelestius the Heretick's Opinion But S. Augustine advises us better Vtiliuas terrena opulemia tenetur humiliter quam superbè relinquitur That wealth is better retain'd humbly then discara'ed proudly 'T is no perfection but infirmity which they fearing and knowing fled the temptations of Riches 'T is more valiant to despise what you have then to have not to despise The Champion stripping himself is but entring the fight has not overcome Therefore lend such the pardon of their infirmity load them not with the envy of perfection Who shall by lying naked on the water get to shore but by swimming stoutly 'T is one thing to be Christ's Apostle Disciple and another to be a Christian To those he commanded this not us If we may not care for to Morrow Why do we build Houses plant Vineyards sow our Grounds lay up in Barns or Sellars Zachaeus renounc'd but half but he has left all that possesses much if his heart have forsaken it Doubtless there are some Poor good Apostasius vir Ditissemae paupertatis that is a Poor Rich Apostasius and a Lazarus But yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These poor grounds have weeds enough springing from them As Rich men like Rich grounds may yield great good crops fair sweet Flowers Witness this prospect of not a dead but living Spring beautifying this Circle that lyes here before your eyes of Violets in their Blue Coats c. Were all These like Glasses blown up by Air Or does not Rich Abraham to this day Nurse up Poor Lazarus in his bosome Let not the Poor therefore envy rail at the Rich like Children fighting with their own Nurses Would not the Beggars likewise if they could be Rich But I think a little Rhetorique may finish this work and perswade a Tradesman that to take mony is not ill if the mony he takes be but good 2. There is another way of opposing Christ's mind by keeping his word in this Law The Idle man lay's up no Treasures upon Earth but does the Scripture countenance Idleness In the Apostles times and after some were seduc'd by a mistake of their Christian liberty Not to Work which gave the Rise to Alms-houses Hospitals and Zenodochia Such S. Austin makes the Euchetes to have been So the Messalians whom for their sloth the Fathers call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Bishop of Ptolemais gave them a coyn'd name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vagrants compellible to no imployment But when they multiplyed too fast that Charity grew opprest with the burthen some brisk Laws of the Emperours spur'd them out of this Easy Walk making them mend their pace or wear gald sides And this was Charity too Of the same kind with that of our most excellent K. Edward the 6 th who Endowed not only a S. Thomas's Hospital but a Bridewel for Vagrant and Idle Persons The unciviliz'd parts of the world were still the Idle parts of the world Witness the naked hunting sporting Americans whos 's first Reduction begins in the fastning them to some Trade whereby they become Responsible to the places they inhabit putting in hereby a kind of Hostage to Fortune But all
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 again which is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to putrifie Therefore Moth and Rust must not be coupled here by a Hendyadis because v. 20. they are dis-joyned We must therefore put our Wealth into these three dividens Garments which the Moth devours Meat and Fruits which Men or the Canker and Mony or Jewels which some steal clancularly and some take by violence breaking through And farther 3. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we word to corrupt has a greater vigour for the LXX Translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by it or Anathema Deut. 7.2 Originally it signifies to disappear So that our Rich Bank supposed examined yields but thus much really That all wordly things do impair and end both which we can possess as we that possess them That Death has not one but many avenues to them the Moth Rust Thief and that by weakest assailants even the Moth and Worme undoing us oft by surprize for the Moth and Rust beat up no Drums nor ring Bells when they consume Nay without any forreign foe these things would ruine themselves for the Moth and Rust are intestine foes and of Natures own breeding and not to be secur'd by Bars or Gates for what keeps other enemies out le ts them in The Garment hid is the Moths prey and Treasure under surest guards is given away to the Rust And if they were not they will be wrested by violence from us by the Thief for where there is Necessity there will be Thieves nor are the Keepers of Treasures ever secure And there are many Thieves as Care a Thief will break into a mans head and heart depriving him of his rest and sleep one great piece of Natures treasure And if after all we could charge this only on the unkindness or injustice of men the worlds accidents or natures imperfection which cannot subsist of her self 't were ease But God appears and strikes the dead stroke for who can oppose his brandisht sword Now as we have some of us stoln secretly or used bolder violence to strip others of their Goods so are we by a just Talio doom'd to be used our selves And as some men like Spirits have sate over hidden Treasures never suffering them to behold the Sun Therefore will God make our Treasures disapppear and that by a Curse or Anathema whose execution sometimes falls in their own daies or sooner or later upon their descendants But all this were a Province too large to be managed in this time I shall therefore insist upon their deficiency in the bulk God shew'd Joseph an image of his Future ascent in his sleep Gen. 40.9 because when he possest it he should count it but a dream As his holy Father Jacob Gen. 28.12 had an Idea given of the World wherein some were still going up and others down as the Jews expound it to heal the grief of his present expulsion from the warm nest of his Mothers kindness and to be put upon the wing unto an unknown Land To agnize which and commit it to Memory Job made his Fortunes Godfathers to his 3 Daughters Job 4.2.14 from the fair morning of his first state of life he call'd his first Jemima then clouds and great darkness muffled him which for the sweet odour of Patience he calls Cassia and lastly his Sun breaking out again according to his dialect for Prosperity he names the last his Hornes Reversion But to leave the shore and take a small Brize from the Sea to see if that will relieve us in this exigent In the 27 of Ezech. v. 3 you have Tyre a Maritime City compared to that goodly sight A fair Ship with all her Cable Tackle Streamers Wastcloths and glory so that we would think the Shipwright had left nothing un-enterpriz'd that was fit for beauty much more safety And yet looking more nearly I see no Anchor set down in the Catalogue A perfect imperfection of a glorious transitory world wherein we are now tickled with the most pleasing delights but have no anchor that is any thing to fix us and then a storm coming we are presently lost upon some obdurate rock or swallowed up by a devouring quick-sand But we need not gad abroad beyond our own late sad experiences of the ebbings and flowings waxing and wainings of this Worlds Treasure which was sent with too much light in dreadful Fire upon this poor City a demonstration that made its way into the Estates as well as Vnderstandings making you acknowledg the small monys you have left to be rightly call'd Sterling because of its wings with which it flew away This Path hath God trod constantly and ever will in this World that the good men may be tryed and the bad men justly tormented to let us walk abroad in the day of our life with all our gaudy braveries for shew put upon us but at the night of Death we must undress sadly and go naked into our Beds And now secondly to shew the nerves of this Reason and how fast they bind Besides the horrid slavery that it was alwayes deem'd to be condemned to the Mines who can endure this constant cheat of the World as the Apostle Paul singularly calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 7.31 to be deluded with a figure and apparancics without any basis to stand steady upon Who would desire to lay up his treasures here where he can neither joy in the possession nor grieve for the amission who can neither promise himself the long continuance of them nor a devolution of them to his dearest posterity for some sweetness there were in that with an entayle that cannot be cut off The World is repleat with real Miseries but with phantastical Delights O World more slippery then Ice if thou art so doted upon by us perishing what wouldst thou have been alwayes enduring Thou complainest thou art robb'd undone did not Christ forewarne thee not to lay up thy treasure in such a place What is then to be done by us O man if thou art to remain alwaies here lay up thy treasures here but if thou art to march away why wilt thou leave thy beloved behind thee Wouldst thou go light let thy luggage pass before thee so shalt thou not go but fly to Heaven and meet in Which enters me fairly upon the Second Part of the Text Lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where the rust and moth doth not corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal But lay up c. It is a retarding to many in their Religion that their Profit stands in their light but you may be here instructed that Christ intends to enrich us not empair us nay to indulge our utmost Covetousness giving us scope to glut our selves with what is to our palate To lay up Treasures Only he advises us where in Heaven and when you
do come more liberally than those which pass under the publick conduct of the Heads and Companies in this City Of the true experience of which this Fair shew is an Annual probat which may it continue whil'st this World lasts according to both Givers and Distributers designs and then attend them in the future World according to God's Promise that so they may rejoyce that they found there what they only heard here That there Charityes are eternal and not invaded by any Thief nor consumed by any Moth nor corroded or lessened by any Worm And that will conduct me to the second Part The Reason of this Command in the Text But lay up where the Rust and Moth doth not c. You have heard before that Charity is Treasure in Heaven how and when you are to lay it up there But the stress of all will lye upon the Reasons moving a man to part with his own how to unlock the hard mans Heart And three there are exprest here by our Blessed Lord in the Text. The 1. drawn from us We shall there have them our selves 2. From them They shall not be lost but by this perpetuated to us 3. From us again The frames of our spirits shall hereby be better'd For where your Treasure is there will your Heart be also Of the First We shall there have them our selves Lay up for your selves Covetous persons are afraid and Unbelievers God would have us lose our Goods But He teaches how we shall keep them What you give thus is not lost nay all is lost which you part not withal thus either condemned by us or taken from us How suitably to our own desires is Christs Precept fram'd and will we not answer it What you give the Poor you shall have your selves what you give not another shall have beside your selves The Prophet tells us of the Charitable man Psal 112. 9 He hath given to the Poor his Righteousness remains for ever His Mony could not but his Righteousness the Hebrew word for Alms doth A happy exchange And the Wiseman consonantly to his holy Father Eccles 11. 1 Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many dayes thou shalt find it again The Waters in Scripture denotes the People for their unquietness weakness As the seed of Bread cast into moysten'd Earth is not lost but increased so is the product of thy Charity The Jews do illustrate this place with a handsome Parable c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. There was a man that used every day to cast a Loaf into the Water one day he buyes a Fish in exenterating which he found a pretious Stone This is the Man say they that lost not his bread which he seem'd to cast away but found it again after many daies Si sint vestra tolle vobiscum sayes a Father If they are ours let us take them with us when we dye But we neither brought them into this world nor can carry them out Others may take and we must surely leave them Therefore to make sure let us do as Merchants Send before us Bills of Exchange by them to be repaid in Heaven But then you will say The life of this stands in the Security and good Caution this shall be performed they not protested I Answer A man is bound by a bit of Paper and are not many Volumes of God Security Some may Reply Who shall require it compell him if he fail I Return His Truth Himself because he cannot lye Will he be hard in repaying that has been so liberal in bestowing on us We will believe our Father on Earth will we not our Father in Heaven He cannot keep thine from thee who hath given his own to thee But you desire to see them your self And have you all this day brought your Estates with you to Church yet hope well they are secure at home Fools Dare you trust your Servants and do you fear your God Stay till the time that your Monyes grow due and then complain if you receive them not with Interest And it is strange Man will allow but 6 in an 100 but God an 100 for 6 yet had we rather make Contracts with Man than God We do not lose then by Giving but keep and what we keep we shall keep for ever because laid up in Heaven that 's the Second There the Moth and Rust doth not corrupt and Thieves break not through and steal If your Friend should tell you your Corn which with great labour you have collected would be spoyl'd lost in a moist Low place were it not removed to a higher will not you credit him And will you believe your Friend not your Saviour is any so much your Friend Your Heart pants for the insecurity of Earth for the theft of Domestiques the violence of Externs and therefore you would fain put your Mony into a sure place and you put it into this you say because you cannot find a stronger But I can shew you a stronger Lay them up in Heaven where neither Rust nor Moth doth corrupt c. Did ever any Thief scale Heaven here are indeed no bars or bolts to these Gates no long retinue of guarding Servants but yet all security and yet no trouble Here God is the keeper who was the Donor and he that can save thy Soul cannot he save thy Mony What we obtain here once we shall keep ever How securely may he sleep who has God for his Keeper how needless are other Guards Servile fear cannot take such care as Paternal love What need any Bulwarks where the guard is Innocence it self What Armies must come to take that away which Charity concredits to so many hands to keep If your Charity be wine it never sowrs if bread it never moulds if cloaths they never consume if meat it never corrupts Miraculous Charity Methinks God has given an evidence beyond speculation of this truth even in this World below Where what has not been invaded removed by changes and alterations in the World Temples have not been a sanctuary to themselves nor things devoted to God free from the prey of rapacious Vultures But in the great Rotations both of Religion and Governments the Estates devolved on Charity stand inviolable still and they that were most weak have prov'd most strong to prove That Treasures once laid up in Heaven the Rust and Moth doth not consume and Thieves break not through and steal Who then is lover of Treasure let him wisely love it at this rate And if he will not follow his God let him follow his Bags to Heaven As the Tyrant did which fearing deposing sent great Treasures before him into a Forreign Country Which must one day be the condition of us all And who loves not an Eternal before a Temporal Estate and who does let him lay it up here Where he shall have what he cannot lose
read Rom. 8.22 That the brood of the Creation do groan and long after a future state be not thou only buried in the present That we may Obey then let us first like the Wisemen open our Treasures and secondly offer them up to Christ in Heaven 1. All know not what a Treasure is Not AEsops Cock who coveted most a grain of Barly nor the simple Merchant that is un-acquainted with Outlandish Commodities nor the Church of Rome though she truck much and know mony well for she tells us of an Exchequer in her Church that 's full of Treasure nay running over with the Merits of Christ and his Saints to be given I suppose upon some consideration to the indigent sinner But as it happens that men fall out about Monyes so do these Tellers for some will by no means allow the greatest Saint to have any thing to spare believing if he had done more God has sufficiently gratified him But the tyde of Christs Merits they say swell much and yet others think not so full but the Saints streams must flow in to raise it up to the High-water mark But this Treasure was Leather Mony in the Middle times of the Church but on no account Currant in the Scripture or Primitive times coming from Purgatory not Heaven and Coyned as is supposed not for any rich Veins there were in the Mine but rather for the poverty of those that were to issue them out Lay these by not up 2. But God knows and his Holy Word is the faithful Touch-stone to discern all true from adulterate Mettal In St. Matth. 13.44 we are told of a great Treasure hid which some interpret of Christ hid in the Types of the Scriptures Or the desire of heavenly things Or the life of a Just man whose several virtues and graces are a coacervation of the most excellent Treasures Treasures these are because Secret and so Rich that a man may have any thing with them even Heaven it self for God values them above all things Therefore our Saviour wondred not Mat. 8.10 at the Centurions Honour nor Riches but his Faith These are things so Rich that if Earthly things were eternal as they are not yet these Heavenly treasures were preferrable to them 3. But there is one Grace that Antonomastically has obtain'd this name and that 's Charity which is a way both of convoy to our own Treasures to Heaven and a rewarding us with greater when we come there for them And so the Hebr. interpret this Precept in whose Writings it was and perhaps there extracted for us In the Talmud King Mumboz is introduc'd as complain'd on by his Relations for consuming both his own Treasures and Ancestors on the accounts of Charity To whom he there shapes this Answer like Sr. Lawrence who call'd the Poor the Churches treasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Fathers laid up treasures on Earth but I in Heaven They laid it where the hand of the Thief might invade it but I in Heaven where none can attaque it And indeed this must be a great treasure there For as he that would be Rich carries to a Port not things that are common there or a Drug but what is most rare So he that would thrive in Heaven must not carry delights and joyes and pleasures and long life which are their already but Faith and Repentance and holy desires and works of Mercy which are not there The Arabick Language does well conclude this the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying both Alms and Riches and reason does accord and experience which is firmest You know the way to make the Ground rich is to scatter the Dung not let it lye on an heap and your selves rich to sow the Corn not hide it in a Barn Thus we may make gainful losses Gain life from that which is dead it self Lend a little to Christ upon Earth that you may receive greater proportions from him in Heaven Give Earth that you may receive Heaven a penny to buy a Kingdome a mite to gain all good We read in Story of a Bishop of Millan that bad his Servant give three Crowns to the Poor but he foolishly wise gave but two Within a while one sent him 200 Crowns the Bishop returning to his Man thus accosts him Ah saith he what hast thou done thou hast lost us 100 Crowns for if thou hadst given 3 we had receiv'd 300. Thus the Poor are our Porters we lose not what they carry but Mercy makes us better for their being worse Piety makes their evils ours and Charity makes our good theirs by which we get fame love prayers blessings here on Earth and a Crown in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Omnis Eleemosyna pax magna advocatus apud patrem Coelestem So from one crop of Mercy we receive two harvests one here and another hereafter And now consider though by Giving thou maist miss some treasure in Earth yet it is a greater matter to find it in Heaven For if in this life in which we are strangers rambling but for a short time it is so pungent a grief to suffer the hardships and contempts of Poverty What will it to be for ever in Heaven so where all the rest are Rich and to see the Poor of the Earth before thy eyes promoted to Heaven and thy self who wast a Rich man scornfully to be precipitated to Hell Therefore lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven Which that you may do you must be directed by two Cautions needful to be here annexed First of all Nothing that is Evil can get into Heaven and so nothing that is well given if it be ill gotten As pure water cleanses but filthy defiles so does this dirty Charity which many think to bribe God withal when they rob himself or his People and with a little laid out in Charity to make satisfaction for a great deal obtain'd by Injury Therefore the Jews call Alms by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justice because it should be so gotten Now there are two ways of sinning thus 1. By great mens Oppression In this world Men and Trees are not all of a growth so top-boughs commonly shade and drop on those which are under them But there is nothing of God nor can be acceptable to him out of this In Esaus Blessing there is not a word of God mention'd and the reason was because he was to get it by Violence But in Jacobs there is So God in his Sacrifices refused Hony 't is strange being so sweet yet the reason is because 't was got by Rapine So have Good men We read in History that the Fryers Minors refused a load of Friez sent by Henry the Second because he opprest his Subjects or if it be received by men he rejoyces
because he gave what he could not keep For if he does not himself will also be excluded there because of the propensions of his heart which will be anxious alwaies upon his Estate and turning on that axel where ever it lyes Which is the third and last Reason For where your Treasure is there will your heart be also The Heart is the intention and intuition of the Soul Will you know where your Treasure is advise where your Love is The Heart is the Needle and Treasure the Pole to which it tends let it be what it will Even God himself does not turn our hearts but by changing our Treasure exchanging our Loves Therefore in our pretended truths even with God himself as in Prayer and other divine Duties our fugitive Souls absent themselves too oft and are in the mean time undoingly complemental to pay a Visit to somewhat which they accost as their Treasure A man s lost to himself and all his Relations if his desires be vagrant and extern for he neither regards himself nor others as to Necessities much less Civilities His Soul is gone abroad having left the key under the door which he is very uneasy until he take up and follow This is the blind-side of Wisest men if you can hit them in their delight there is no Vessel that is so plyant to the winding conquering Rudder as they It is remarkt as a kind of a Monstrous thing that Numb 22. 29. upon Gods opening the mouth of Balaams Asse the Prophet was nothing amazed but parled with her not uncompos'd but at the common rate To which 't is said That he was so over gone with the Meditation of Balaaks rich Booty he wot going to invade that such an uncouth accident was even lost to him and he scarcely regarded the difference of a Man or Beasts discoursing with him Such an Empire has our Trensure over us and therefore we had need beware to whom we give up our keys for as if a mans Amours happen to be plac't in a great inferiority to his Estate it is lookt upon as the greatest infortune among men So if we place our values upon unsuitable Objects our Souls are undone And against this God enters therefore his Caution here As to drown a thing we use to tumble it with a great weight about the neck so if the Soul be glewed to the whole World Will not that sink her low enough think you And besides our Souls and Hearts will be embased by the mixture of this mean alloy We whose Original was Celestial shall be metamorphos'd into low pieces of sordidness by this unworthy Truck To omit in this Condition all the Cares that must perpetually sting us in our life the fears that will ague us but above all the intollerable agonyes that will be at the parting of these two dear Friends at our quitting the Scene of this World which we must do when Death shall storm the Fortress of our Bodies and force a surrender of our Souls When there will not be a taking leave but divorce and shrewd shrikes above the feign'd Mandrakes when 't is violently cruelly torn up for the forsaking of our beloved Treasure behind us After which when like Larks we should be climbing up the blew welkin we shall cast so many liquorish eyes of desire that God will never bid a Soul welcome to Heaven that thus comes not to him but is Ravisht But indeed her Seraphick wings are so luted here they cannot raise her have contracted so many vices with this tincture that she is not fit to be a Candidate of Heaven which would be a Hell to her because her delight is elsewhere Therefore as some Kings in their life by way of Testimony of their Respect unto some Religious Monastiques above others have devoted their hearts to be Interr'd among them So let us bequeath ours to God and Heaven which can only be done as the Text directs By laying up our Treasures there Our Soul is from above and our Gold from beneath and better 't is to advance our Coyn to the throne of our Souls then depress our Souls unto the dungeon of our Mines Let no dry Miser this day then think his sagacious Nose has scented out a profound design that was contrived in this Exhortation against his Pocket 'T is not his but himself that God seeks nor ro lay up your wealth in Heaven because he needs it there but you love it here and therefore would be miserable without it even there because where your treasure is there will your heart be also And now by this time I hope all that hear me are somewhat ripened toward this Exhortation of laying up your Treasures in Heaven You may yet see more Feathers for your wings that you prove not hagard in this flight from these few subsequent Considerations It is needfull that all who are to be examin'd before the Tribunal of Christ should either have the Judge their friend or some friend to intercede with the Judge And the Judge himself has taught who this Friend is Luke 16. Make you friends of Mammon Your common Proverb you see may be truer then you are aware That Mony may be a Mans best Friend If the Brother of our King or some grand Favourite of his should pass through this City by the presenting of whom we should be sure to purchase his Majesties favour and abundant compensation How would you contend to out-do one another in Gifts But Christ our King is not asham'd to call the Poor his Brethren Friends by being kind to whom we may oblige him and right our selves much and here most strive yet who shall be hindmost or be excused altogether Think we that God who made all could not have enricht all But that some might get Heaven by suffering ill he left some Poor and made others Rich that they might get Heaven by doing well Or could he not take these things by force from us but he bids us give that he might reward us and 't is His to dispose of not ours We are but his servants to carry hit purse and should not keep his mony to our selves We are his Almoners and that 's Honourable as well as profitable O! what an Honour methinks God hath done thee in this To suffter thy Fellow-creature and his Member to fall down before and pay thee a kind of worship to pray unto thee and weep more humbly truly to thee for a Farthing then thou dost to the great God to pardon all thy Sins or to give thee Heaven for thine Inheritance The full Cow loves to be milkt and kicks not if fulch't to make her give it down But most men abbor the Dunnings of Charity and are waspish if the Preacher importune them But is not the stomach offended if it communicates not the Meat and our Veins their Bloud Wells are the better for being drawn and why not