hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God takes away his soule Iob 27. 8. How should this awaken men to take heed and beware What though thou gaine the whole world by thy couetous courses yet what shall it aduantage thee to gaine the whole world and to lose thine owne soule He that purchaseth the whole world with the price and losse of his soule will find but a biting a smarting bargaine of it He must needs be a loser by the bargaine for he loseth God heauen happinesse his soule and himselfe Among all thy gaines thou art sure to haue hell into the bargaine What euer thou gainest Satan will be sure to gaine thy foule Now then ô thou couetous man be pleased a little to looke ouer these Items and summe vp thy gaines Auarus semper in rationibus A couetous man is much in his counting house Among other thine accounts be so good as to looke ouer this Inprimis by thine oppression fraudulent and false dealing thou hast gotten so many pounds Item by thine vsury and extortion so many hundreds Item by thy bribery so many thousands Well what is the whole summe The totall summe is the curse of God vpon thy body the curse of God vpon thy goods the curse of God vpon thy children the curse of Gods eternall vengeance vpon thy soule Now in good sooth and are not these goodly gaines would they not set any mans teeth on watering Yea but it may be these are but idle scar-crowes the figments of Preachers idle braines No no. God hath sworne twice in one prophecy Amos 4. 2. Amos 8. 7. to make them good God can no more be forsworne then he can ceasse to be God If he do forbeare the infliction of the temporall plagues yet shall it be abundantly recompenced in the heauy weight of eternall torment And thus haue we seene the double danger of this sinne which may both serue to verifie the Apostles saying 1. Tim. 6. 10. That the desire of money is the roote of all euill of all euill both of sinne and punishment as also to terrifie our dead hearts and make them awake to take heed and beware of couetousnesse The third thing followeth The remedies and preseruatiues What are we the better to know our disease and the danger thereof vnlesse we know the remedies withall The remedies therefore are these 1. That which we find 1. Ioh. 5. 4. This is the victory that ouercometh the world euen our faith Faith ouercometh not onely the feare of the world in threatning but the loue of the world in entising The roote of this roote of all euill is commonly diffidence and distrust in Gods all-sufficient prouidence This maketh men so greedily and eagerly prouide for themselues because distrustfully they imagine that they are left to the wide world as shiftlesse and fatherlesse children So much implieth our Sauiours speech verse 28. of this Chapter How much more will he cloath you ô ye of little faith Our great cares come from our little faith Greater faith would lessen our cares This remedie Paul teacheth Timothie 1. Tim. 6. 11. O man of God flie these things namely those foolish and noysome lusts which drowne men in destruction and perdition rising from the loue of money But how may we flie them Follow after righteousnesse godlinesse faith The soule in which this grace hath residence shall find it an heauenly amulet or plague-cake to defend it from the poyson of this sinne For faith not onely purifies the heart and so purgeth out this drosse but it also satisfieth the heart by making God its portion whereby the infinite desire of the soule is filled which nothing can satisfie but the fruition of the infinite God He alone that filleth heauen and earth and all things therein he alone can fill the boundlesse desires of the soule Onely faith maketh him ours And the soule hauing made God hers by faith she ceasseth to seeke satisfaction from the temporall and finite creatures Faith is a chymicall grace As couetousnesse is an earthly Alchymist that turneth gold into God so is faith a diuine Chymicke that turneth God into gold siluer and whateuer the heart wanteth and desireth Iob 22. 23. Eritue omnipotens lectissimum aurum tuum argentum viresue tibi Sic Iun. 24. 25. If thou returne to the Almightie then shalt thou lay vp gold as dust and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brookes yea the Almighty shall be thy choyce gold and siluer and strength vnto thee Would we haue our fill of gold and siluer so as we would haue our thirst quenched Let vs make God our portion by faith He that by faith hath made God his gold shall neuer through couetousnes made gold his god Temporall things can no more fill the heart then spirituall things a chest The world can no more fill the heart Mundus circularis est cor quadratum circulus quadraturam implere non potest then a circle can a square God alone is he that can satisfie the soule on whom the soule hauing layed hold it then holds it selfe well apaid and then and neuer till then sings with Dauid Psal 16. 5. 6. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places yea I haue a goodly heritage 2. Sobrietie and temperance sober affections in the vse of these earthly things For though couetousnes and prodigalitie be two extremes yet oftentimes couetousnesse is but subordinate to prodigalitie and mens prodigall and intemperate courses makes them couetously scrape that together which may be seruiceable to their lusts Many haue braue or base minds rather they must flaunt and cut it out in apparell furniture houshold attendance Pride must haue this thing delicacie must haue that pleasure cals for this and lust for that Which inordinacies of theirs being costlier then their own estates can beare then couetousnesse instructs them to lay the burden vpon others These intemperate affections crying like horse-leeches Giue giue they teach couetousnes to crie Take take and so by iniustice exaction and oppression do seeke maintenance and exhibition for their pride and luxury out of other mens estates and other mens maintenance which is for their bare necessities must be rauened vp to serue their inordinate and hellish voluptuousnesse Hence comes it that the poore Tenant is racked to maintaine the Landlords dogs hawkes and coaches the poore Tenants backe stripped that their dead walls may be richly clothed the poore Tenant can scarce go in good russet on high dayes because the Landlord like the rich glutton must fare deliciously and go in purple euery day Moderation breeds contentation contentation preserues from couetousnesse He that is content with his owne will neuer put forth his hand to wrong another 3. Set bounds and a stint to thine estate and learne to know when thou hast enough Couetousnes is a desire of more then enough Therefore do men still desire more because
this sinne getteth head it eateth out the heart of grace by eating all grace out of the heart While some haue lusted after money they haue erred from the faith 1. Tim. 6. 10. Nay they haue not stayd there but haue fallen from the faith 2. Tim. 4. 10 Demas hath forsaken me and hath embraced this present world It so fares with earthly minds as with the earth in which are the mines of siluer and gold of all earths they are obserued to be the most barren and of all hearts such are the most fruitlesse the most gracelesse Therefore in the parable the cares of this life are compared to thornes thornes choke the good seed As well may a man looke for an haruest in an hedge as for grace in a couetous heart These couetous desires are the seuen ill-fauoured empty eares that eate vp the full and good eares These are the caterpillers and grashoppers the canker and palmer wormes that consume the greene herbe of grace in the field of the heart The dampes of the earth do not more quench fire then the loue of the earth dampes grace And indeed no wonder that this sinne is such an enemy vnto grace for it is an enemy vnto and a scorner of the meanes of grace the preaching of the word Ezek 33. 31. They sit before thee and they heare thy words but they will not do them What was the reason Their heart runneth after their couetousnesse But that is not all behold yet a greater abomination then this It teacheth men not only to disobey but to despise and mocke at the word Luke 16. 14. And the Pharises also who were couetous heard these things namely our Sauiours Sermon against the seruice of Mammon and what was the successe And they derided him Couetousnesse is a profane sinne that seateth a man in the chaire of pestilence in the scorners pew We find a prohibition Pro. 23. 6. not to eate of a couetous mans bread A reason is secretly couched in that epithete there giuen him Eate not the bread of him that hath an euill eye He hath an euil eye which makes him wish a man choakt when he bids much good may it do him Such euill and counterfeit welcome should make a man take little pleasure in table-friendship and familiarity with him But yet there is a greater reason then this that should make vs shy of his conuerse namely the feare of the defilement of his pitch Couetousnesse is a defiling sinne Marke 7. 21. 22. Thefts couetousnesse these come from within and defile the man Yea it so defiles as that in that regard we should auoyd ouer familiar conuerse with him And vpon this ground doth Paul forbid eating his bread 1. Corint 5. 11. If any man that is called a brother be couetous with such an one no not to eate The world would faine hold that doctrine of veniall sinnes still and though Popery it selfe which first hatcht that distinction do ranke this amongst their mortall sinnes yet would men haue it but a veniall triuiall offence For a man to be an adulterer a fornicator I hope the world is not growne to that desperate passe yet but I may adde to be a swearer and a drunkard these are counted and indeed they are heynous abominations But for a man to be couetous this is slighted ouer as a matter of nothing I he ordinarie language of the world is He is a man somewhat with the hardest a little with the nearest a little too much for the world but yet a maruellous honest a wondrous good man Now in good truth were it not ridiculous to say so of a thiefe of an adulterer Why not then as ridiculous to say so of the couetous For as honest a man as the world makes him yet God still rankes him amongst the most heynous and transcendent transgressors Besides those places Marke 7. 21. 22 and Ephes 5. 3. 5 consider these two places 1. Cor. 5. 11. 1. Cor. 6. 9. 10. In both which places ye shall find the couetous in the middest of the throng crowded vp on both sides with fornicators idolaters sodomites theeues drunkards reuilers and extortioners God would let vs see by his companions with whom he sorts him what to thinke of his honesty Nay yet to helpe the matter and to let you see the full honesty of this sinne note it and with horrour note it you that are guiltie that the Apostle makes it a Symptome and signe of a reprobate sense Twentie and two of them are there in all and this is set in the fourth place Rom. 1. 29. Wherefore God gaue them ouer to a reprobate minde But how appeared it Being filled with all vnrighteousnesse fornication wickednesse couetousnesse Thus how light and slight soeuer this sinne be in the worlds esteeme yet behold how weightie and ponderous it is in the ballance and scales of the Sanctuary I doubt not but most mens iudgements will subscribe to this truth but conscience is not so soone wrought to obedience and the truth will sooner be confessed then practised therefore to bring men to the practise of this confessed truth I will commend to your Christian considerations these three particulars 1. What couetousnesse is 2. The Danger of it 3. The Remedies against it 1. What couetousnesse is This is a point so much the rather to be enquired after because though a couetous man will acknowledge couetousnesse to be a sinne yet by no meanes will he acknowledge himselfe to be couetous So that a man may say of the couetous man as Luther speakes of an hypocrite that he is tale monstrum quod est simpliciter impeceabile a sinlesse kind of monster that by no meanes will be borne downe to be guiltie An adulterer a drunkard a swearer these sinners and sinnes are easily discouered easily conuinced these openly weare Satans cognisance these are palpable impieties But this it is a sculking iniquitie it will needs be a vertuous vice a gracious sinne Paul hath a phrase 1. Thessal 2. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coloured couetousnesse or as our new translators the cloke of couetousnesse It is a colouring and a cloking sinne It is a sinne that weares the cloke and liuery of thrift prouidence good husbandrie honest care for a mans owne without which a man is worse then an infidell It is fit therefore that this false colour and complexion be washed off and that this monster be vncloked and vncased that his euill fauoured but naturall lineaments may appeare There be two words then in Scripture which seeme to expresse the full nature of this sinne 1. This word in my text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. That word of Paul 1. Tim. 6. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Loue of money 1. Some define it by the first to be a desire of hauing more But yet with their good leaues I desire to haue somewhat more in the definition thereof for euery desire of hauing more is not couetousnesse A man may pray Agurs prayer
is no sinne but it may be said to breake them all for he that breakes one is guiltie of the breach of the whole Law Iames 2. 10. because one sinne doth prepare and habitually dispose the mind to any sinne But this doth actually transgresse them all Please you in briefe to runne them ouer and see how 1. Commandement Thou shalt haue none other gods before me But the couetous Mammonist he hath Non adoro inquit Quare quia teipsum non inflectis incuruas multo magis adoras per facta res ipsas Haec enim est maior adoratio vt discas vide in Deo Quinam enim eum magis adorant ijne qui solum stant in precibus an qui faciunt eius voluntatem Chrys ad Ephes hom 18 other and he serues other gods then the God of heauen euen gods of the earth gods of mettall idols of siluer and idols of gold That as the Prophet complaines of the Iewes Ier. 2. 28. According to the number of thy cities are thy gods ô Iudah so may we complaine of the couetous According to the number of his bags nay of his pence is the number of his idols And therefore no maruell that the Apostle Colos 3. 5. calls couetousnesse idolatrie and Ephes 5. 5. the couetous an idolater For though he sacrifice not beasts to his idoll yet that which is worse he sacrifices his soule and himselfe and though he fall not downe vpon his knees and pray not to his siluer yet as the profane Atheist hath said in his heart There is no God Psal 14. 1 so the couetous Mammonist sayeth in his heart This is my god he sayeth to his wedge Thou art my confidence Iob 31. 24. And howsoeuer his couetousnesse enioyne him sorer and sharper labor more dangerous and desperate aduentures then euer God requires in his seruice yet is it willingly and cherefully obeyed and obedience is better then sacrifice 1. Sam. 15. 22 yea it hath both obedience and sacrifice Hab. 1. 16 They sacrifice vnto their net His golden idoll hath the loue confidence trust affiance and obedience of Et inter alia eius nomina quod Pecuma vocaretur Et Pecunia inquiunt vocatur eo quòd eius sint omnia O magnam rationem diuini nomims Sed nimirum hoc auaritia Ioui nomen imposuit vt quisquis amat pecuniam non quemlibet Deum sed ipsum regem omnium sibi amare videatur Qualis ergo ista theologia debet esse sapienti vbi rex deorum eius rei nomen accepit quam nemo sapiens concupiuit August de Ciuit. Dei l. 7. c. 12. his heart which are the things the first Commandement claimes for Gods part The goddesse Pecunia was one of the idols of old heathen Rome and Money as Augustine reports was one of the many names their Iupiter had Euery Mammonist is a professor of this paganish religion if at least it be not worse to giue vnto money the worship of God then vnto God the name of money The fond Israelites made them an idoll of the Egyptians iewels and then dance about it one calfe about another and sacrifice vnto it and say These be thy gods ô Israel Such a calfe such a sot is the couetous when he hath scraped together the worlds iewels he makes them his idols sayeth in his heart These be thy gods ô my soule to whom thou owest thy loue seruice and affectionate obedience And so makes himselfe a grosse and notorious transgressor of this first Law 2. Commandement Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen image c. A commandement that enioynes the puritie of Gods outward worship commands maintenance and forbideth the corruption thereof But in this is he as foule as in the former This corruption of the heart hath euer bene that which hath vshered corruptions into Gods Church worship Therefore are these two ioyned together Esay 2. 6. 7 Their land was full of siluer and gold and there was none end of their treasures Their land also was full of idols they worshipped the worke of their owne hands It is no wonder that couetousnesse in the breach of the first should prepare and make way for the breach of the second Commandement in grosse idolatrie What made Demetrius runne roaring and rauing about the streets of Ephesus and crying Great is Diana of the Ephesians but meerly the loue of his purse Sirs ye know that by this craft we get our goods and that craft brought in great gaines vnto the craftsmen It was the great gaine that made Diana so great and made him make so great noise for her What brought in the deuice of the hooke with the three teeth 1. Sam. 2. 13. but this hooking and catching sinne of couetousnesse What made the Temple in our Sauiour time a den of theeues Euen that sinne that made the Priests theeues the same sinne that made Iudas a theefe It was the couetousnesse of the Priests that admitted the money-changers and the oxen into the Temple They cared not with what corruption they filled Gods house so that they might thereby fill their owne houses and purses But this is most cleare in the Romish Synagogue which hath hewne out the principall pillars of her superstition out of this rocke of couetousnes Purgatory Iubilees Indulgences all these came out of Iudas his bag all coffer and kitchin doctrines The doctrine of the Church treasure in the merits of supererogating Saints a meere deuice to bring treasure into their Church Masses for the dead an inuentiō to bring in masses of wealth to the liuing Praying for the dead a very tricke to prey vpon the liuing And what turned the keyes of the Church into picklockes or picke-purses rather but their abominable couetousnesse Egges of the same cockatrice brats of the same hag are steeple and temple brokerage absolution for solutions impropriations ten-pound reading stipendaries that haue lesse learning then they haue liuing sacrilegious detention and fraudulent purloyning of the Church salary Couetousnesse brought in and couetousnesse holds in these plague-sores and botches of the Church It was not for nothing therefore that when the diuell would haue wrought our Sauiour to idolatrie that he first of all laboured to poyson him with couetousnesse thinking to make couetousnesse his shooinghorne to idolatrie He takes him vp into an high mountaine from thence sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world with the glory of them all these will he giue him if he will fall down and worship him The diuell knowes it is easie to draw on an heart corrupted with couetousnes to the most corrupt worship that may be And though the diuel sped not with our Sauiour yet with Demas he did who if Dorotheus be Doroth. de vitis c. of any credit turned from the faith of Christ to be an Idoll Priest of Thessalonica A foule a fearefull fall But whence might he take it Paul tels vs 2. Tim. 4. 10. Demas hath forsaken
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