keep men from their good When Ministers dehort from loving the world Men think it is that al may come to them It is not unlawful to take for that which a man lends for the preservation of the publique no more then it is for a Labourer to take mony for making a fort to preserve it But Covetousness in some men makes them take mony of others who had it for their own preservation I beseech you my beloved Cure but your hearts of this distemper of Covetousness and self seeking Seek nor great things but just and righteous ones for your selves set a price upon them And then you wil find that there is neither too much spent so far as hath been laid out and imployed that way Nor is there any hard dealing with you to cal for more that that which is got may be preserved I thought to speak of this by the way because that Covetousness is the great underminer of States Especially in the change of things It is that which doth give away what God hath purchased for a man at a deare rate rather then he wil be at the charge to keep it The Times have brought forth this Man-child viz freedome from those that did labour to destroy and ruine you Now my beloved let there be nothing wanting When Ireland calls upon you that you would help them distribute freely when as the necessity of this nation calls upon you to releive it Give it as freely Why because you must beware of Covetousness And it is Covetousness for a man not to lay out what ever he hath for God to the uses which God calls it for Object Is a man to reserve nothing for himself That I wil answer afterwards when I come to the Cases of this point This is certaine That a publique good is to be preserved before a private And your happiness is more in doing good to a Kingdom then in providing for your own Families You get more your selves For if there be a doing of much good there shal be an offering up on your behalf many prayers and those God wil heare A man had better be rich in prayers then rich in Jewels He doth more for a man that prays to God to take care for him then he doth for himself that keeps thousands Take heed and beware of Covetousness When God hath saved you so miraculously suffer not your selves to be destroyed by a base lust When you have given so freely before for liberty and freedom do not loose it for a penny more He is a fool that comes to buy a Commodity that wil not give a penny more for it if he need it You may as wel be destroyers of the nation by not giving your help at the last as you would have been if you had held your hands in your bosomes and not have given at the first There is a great speech of Malignity in the world But this is the greatest for to loose that which you may easily have not to fight for that which was so hard to get I may say of Covetousness when I come to the sinews of it that it wil lay a taxe and charge upon al the world Few men wil be free Go to the State and Army to Godly men and Trades men of al sorts and conditions stil you wil find this sin he grubbing and like a Pyoneer digging at the root in mens spirits that it may first or last rob a man of the Injoyment of God at the least if it doth not do him an il turne at the present in this life CHAP. VIII Covetousness hard to be discovered being a spiritual sin and lying so neer upon the horders of Duty An act may be done that seemes contrary to Covetousness and yet the man be Covetous Though the end seemes to be against Covetousness a man may be Covetous in desiring Quest BVT how may this Covetousness be discerned Answ It s hard to be discovered It grows between the Stones of the Temple between the Saints themselves It s a sin that blinds the Judgment As gifts blind the eyes of the wise It is a more then ordinary crafty and deceitful sin Therefore they are called deceitful riches In ' Mark. 4.19 And it is used in the Similitude of care and providence and faithfulness to the opportunities God puts into a mans hands It is a spiritual sin born in the heart And may live there without breaking forth into any external evil Acts. As hypocrisy is hard to be discovered because it is between God and a mans own soul So is Covetousness because it may be and yet no external evil act done For it lyes in an inordinate desire A man may do al that is good he may neglect no duty of Religion nor transgress any Law of Justice in his calling and yet notwistanding be Covetous Therefore in 1. Cor. 5.11 He distinguisheth Covetousness from extortion or unjust gaine It is a sin that lyes so near the borders of Duty that as two colours alike or two persons are hard to be known So it s a hard thing for a man to distinguish between Care Providence Faithfulness and Covetousness It is a sin which lyes in the measure of the act and not in the act it self It is lawful to desire riches but so to desire them as not to be satisfied with what God gives make it a sin To shew how hard it is to be discerned Consider A man may do an act that may seem to be contrary to Covetousness and yet be Covetous There are two acts of Covetousness One is desiring more then a man hath The other is Retayning that which a man hath and not laying it out to the uses which God assigns them Now a man may be free from Covetousness in the one and yet not in the other A man may not keep that which he hath and yet be covetous in desiring to have that which he hath not For a man to desire such a stock to the end that he may do good unto others is Covetousness And yet that end seems to be against Covetousness Covetousness wil put a necessity upon earthly things for spiritual ends Earthly things cannot be necessary ends Riches are profitable and necessary only in a degree in regard of external circumstance As if a man think he cannot carry himself as a member of Christ nor do as religion requires of him without such an estate He is guilty before God Children are good But if you must have them or else you die you over love them So if you think you must have riches or else you cannot walk with God as you should do you fal into Covetousness which is a great sin for it makes the service of God depend upon things which are of common distribution Yet Covetousness may be found out as appears by 1 Cor. 5.11 Where he adviseth that the Covetous man as the unclean person should be excommunicated For with such a one eat not A Covetous man is as
ever Jesus Christ comes he comes as a King he will be Lord or nothing As Kings when they come into private mens houses command all their servants as their own and use every roome as if they that owed them had nothing to do with them They take all power out of their hands for the present and use nothing but what they bring with them and that which is of their own providing So when Jesus Christ is come into the Soul he will have every thought after his mind and not give a man leave so much as to look after any other thing than himself Men look not for such a kind of thing as this is by Christ and therefore they are not able to endure it Men look for ease and not to be kept to their duty and they look for peace and not for to be under the reproof and corrections and instructions of the Lord. And men look to have their good will accepted and that Jesus Christ will be served with nothing of what is ours but of what he gives Or rather thus when Jesus Christ comes unto men he brings trouble Behold a Sword He changeth men from what they were and takes them off from the practises wherein they walked which they thought were good As when Jesus Christ came he nulled all the services of the Jews which they thought were exceeding Glorious Now Jesus Christ comes and sets the ax at the root of the Tree and saith If we will not bring forth Fruit we shall be cut down Now the Soul looks not for any such thing as this What are the expectations of men by Jesus Christ but only that Jesus Christ should be a Chariot that Jesus Christ should give him his hand to sit by him in Heaven Men look that Jesus Christ should come with his Arms ready to receive them and his Bosom to lay them in They look for nothing but what may make their lives more free and their Spirits more quiet than they were before You will be mistaken in receiving Christ If you have peace with him you shall have trouble You shall be a King and reign but he will be a King and reign over you He will be served by you but you shall take all from his Treasure that you may say only as David did Of thy own do I serve thee Now this being contrary to mens apprehensions they are not willing to it and being not willing to it they are not believing If Jesus Christ be not received according to that Glory which he hath and which doth belong to him Make as much of him as you will yet still it will not be salvation to you We saw his Glory saith the Apostle when he preached as the Glory of the only begotten Son of God John 1.14 As that is it was no other Glory and can be counted no other Glory but what belongs unto God himself Now as Jesus Christ is preached and known so he must be received by the hearers There is nothing that is worship and honor unto God nothing that will make us happy but what is done unto God and Christ as such The Apostle makes this in 1 Thes 2.13 to be a sign of the effectuall calling and conversion of the Thessalonians That they received the word not as the word of man but as it was indeed the word of God As the word must be received as Gods word indeed so must Jesus Christ be received as he is indeed Look therefore what Jesus Christ must be that he may be the Author of salvation you must receive him as such if your Faith be saving It was necessary if he would save us that he should be God and Man that he should be the head of al things that he should be holy and separate from sinners Do you now receive him by Faith as such a one Doth your Faith close with him gladly under these respects It is not enough to saving Faith that you do not deny him to be thus but he must be owned by you to be thus I say he must be owned by you A man may under one consideration be wonderfull kind and respectfull to a Person when under another consideration he will shew no respect to him As for example They said unto Lot that he came in among them to sojourn and would have Lorded it over them That is as if they should have said If Lot will live among us and take his being with us as an ordinary Person he may But if he thinks all things must be as he wil If he will trouble himself with our matters and order al things according to his Will and be our Governor we wil have nothing to do with him Therefore the Apostle faith of some men that they love him not as a Lord 1 Cor. 16.22 If a man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed They love him as Christ for so he is anointed and as Jesus for so he is a Savior But this Lord being added makes their hearts to rise against him and against the precious oinment and Graces that are in him And so you shal find in Jude 4. He saith there are some that do deny the Lord. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used for a Lord is a Master of a family If Jesus Christ will come and he wil have all our time and strength and not only that but the things that are done must be after his order and according to his mind Our wisdome and reason must not direct us in the things that we do though they be materially good If so the Text saith They deny him that is They profess they will not have such a one to rule over them And thus if you compare it carefully in Luke 20. from 9. to 17. verse with Math. 21. where the same parable is repeated though those that had the Vineyards let out to them were angry with the servants yet they used them not so il as they used the Son And why did they use him so ill It was only because he was the heir and would have ruled over them We will not say they have this man rule over us And therefore as Persons are wont to enquire what the quality and disposition of those are with whom they desire to marry before they make any treaty or Covenant with them A wise Man or Woman first sits down and consider whether they can like a Man or Woman of such a Spirit and behavior Suppose him to be dull and harsh and contrary to her desire So first get the knowledg of Jesus Christ as he is one that saves and then examine your selves how you can submit unto him that you may judg whether your Faith be true or not Can you submit unto Christ as God having all things of himself and having an absolute dependance on him for all Can you receive him as your Lord and head and therefore say as John did he must increase but I must decrease he must reign and
the Faith that is unfeigned from that that is temporary and historicall And as the Children of God are distinguished by receiving so whatsoever a man gets if not by Faith it 's ill come by Yea he doth become guilty like goods gotten into a mans possession illegally Gal. 3.7 Received you the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith putting them in mind that if that Spirit they thought they were of came to them by the hearing of the Law it were not the Spirit of the living God by which they could be saved Therfore try your selves by this Thou saiest thou hast Faith Is thy faith a receiving Quality Somthing that does enable thee to gape and gasp Does it open thy Soul too in reaching after the things of Christ In plain tearms Is thy Understanding greedy of knowing Art thou willing to give up thy reason to the testimony that God gives of his Son Art thou loth to let the thoughts of Christ pass from thee Is thy Wil inclining and tending to them Now for the making out of this and I beseech you mark it of some the Scripture saies barely thus much That they received not Christ They are shut up under that As in John 1.11 the verse before my text He came to his own and they received him not And The naturall man receives not the things of God 1 Cor. 2.14 Some beleeve not and receive not but they are very neer it The fruit is neer their mouths the word as I may use it is not far from them Plainly thus There are some that are negative not privative Unbeleevers That is they are not Unbeleevers by way of opposition but by way of omission They have not denied and said they will not go out to Jesus Christ but they are about the matter and about the matter till the things of their peace be hidden from their Eyes Some Persons are neither free nor are they promised in marriage but are in treaty so as they cannot admit of another to come to them So there are some that hold Jesus Christ in hand cannot endure to think that Jesus Christ should leave them and yet they come not actually off to the closing with him and receiving him in to their hearts As there is a negative holiness the man can say I am not as this man So there is a negative unbelief when as it may be said of men they do not lay hold or receive but it cannot be said of them that they do reject or refuse Sometimes this doth arise from unsensibleness of the want of Jesus Christ Because we are not sensible of our need of Jesus Christ And that I take it was the case of the hearers who are compared to the high way upon whom the seed fell to whom the word of God came and they minded it not they gave it the hearing but they forgat it presently And somtimes it comes from being taken up with lawfull things as they in Matth. 22. would first of all go and do the works they had before them and they would then come to the Feast They did not say they would not come but they could not come then Or ' specially it comes from an unactiveness and slothfulness and listlessness of heart There is a kind of Condition of Soul that a man is like the Sea in a calme that you know not which way it goes A stillness there is or scarce any motion to that which is good Think on it Be it from what cause it will though it arise not from any dislike or opposition to the things of Jesus Christ yet it is a dangerous Condition A still liveless spirit is as well a spirit in a dangerous condition as that which is hurried and carried violently with strong temptations to sin In Matth. 21.30.31 One saies he wil go into the Vineyard he granted it to be his duty but he went not The Lord gives us thereby to understand that there are some who perish through not doing that which they have a purpose to do and that which they are convinced is best to be done by them He that said he would go and did not You are not to conceive him to be one that plaid the Hypocrite in promising to go and yet did not intend it but in this that he did not fulfill that which had gone out of his mouth There is hypocrisie when a man is convinced and does profess to do the good he does not Upon that account therefore you see there is a reason you should examine your selves But besides The Scripture does speak of some that contradict the Gospell and word of Faith In Act. 13.45 the Apostle exhorts them to receive with meekness the word ingrafted that should save their Souls That does imply that there is an aptness in men to be provoked at hearing the Gospell How many are there are wise to evade and exclude themselves from the compass of the promises that if any thing come neer them to comfort them by by some objection or other is made that so they may be stil in their doubts and stil in their fears In Act. 13.46 It is said they put away from them the Word of eternall life even as a sick man puts away the meat and saies he is not able to endure it So they say this is not for such as they are it is too holy for such dogs And as it was with Ammon when he had defiled his sister Thamar he thrust her out of doors and bolted the door against her So do men do with the things of Christ put them from them and bolt and bar their hearts against them with a resolution never to beleeve this while the World stands God opened the heart of Lidia Acts 16.14 she would not open it but he broke it open by his Spirit Yea lastly my Beloved There are that do trample under foot the things of Jesus Christ and instead of receiving of them count them vile and not worthy estimation Heb. 10.29 which by many is understood concerning the indisposition of heart that oft times does befall one that is saved afterward Now then seeing there are some that do not receive and some that do contradict and wil not receive but slight the things of Jesus Christ then try whether you have Faith or not by your receiving OBJECT But you have ranked me in my place You have set me in the place of those that have not Faith for I put away mercy from me Answ To that I answer A Godly man does oft times say nay to God when he wooes him to be saved and yet afterwards takes it Puts away the mercy which he is glad on with al his Soul even as a hungry man is of that food which when he was ful he laid by and would not meddle with When a godly man comes to see what he hath done in refusing and rejecting and disputing against the Grace of God then his heart breaks and then
6. In that its joy is full when it comes to know that it hath by Faith received Jesus Christ FOr the further discovery therefore of this joy and Faith wherein this willingness to beleeve and love of Christ appears I shall name these six particulars First Wherever there is true Faith in any measure the Soul doth love to hear the Doctrine of faith of Jesus Christ Of al truths that is most pleasing And most pleasing not only because it 's most profitable but because it 's most self-denying If so be the Soul would make its choice or call for any thing out of the Book of God before another it should be for somthing that laies open Christ and presseth beleeving on him How beautifull are the Feet of them that bring glad tidings Rom. 10.15 How beautifull that is they are as lovely as can be Nay so lovely as no words are able to express How beautifull The Apostle Paul did desire to know nothing among the Corinthians but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 that is he desired to make nothing else known And look what it was in him preaching so in every Beleever In Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his Death and the vertue of his Resurrection These things a man loves and he loves to hear spoken of and discoursed of Evil men therefore do love corrupt words and unsavory language Beleevers they love to hear of Jesus Christ His name is sweet and precious Not only to hear of him as a story but as a person whereof there is need and of whom there is use and absolute necessity unto salvation First I say the heart loves to hear of Jesus Christ Acts 13.42 When the Apostle had preached in the name of Christ all that were good came to him and prayed him to preach that over the next Sabbath day or as it is in some translations between this and the next Sabbath day as the word may well be rendred And he did as you may read there As in John 6. they cryed out ever more give us this bread so the poor Soul desires to hear of that again and again When Lidia heard Paul preach Jesus Christ she attended as one that would not lose a fillable nor a word of what was spoken concerning jesus Christ Acts 16.14 How heautifull as I said before are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of peace It is good to love the Law of God which teacheth a man his duty like one that is carefull to do his masters will Psal 1.2 He meditates therein day and night But it 's a better sign for a man to love the Gospel of Jesus Christ the glad tidings of him As I shal shew you if I come to it that there is not only as great honor given unto God thereby but thereby a man if more humbled and abased in himself and made nothing than by all that obedience which the Law requires or by all that sense of misery that the Law works in us because we have not done our duty A man hath meaner thoughts of himself when he thinks he must beleeve or he cannot be saved than he hath when he thinks if he be called to an account he must needs perish because he hath transgressed Gods Law The soul loves that law which shews its own face in a glass with al its spots upon it But it loves that glass better in which it beholds the face of God For thereby it is transformed from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3. last Out of a spirit of indignation and wrath against a mans selfe and sin a man is glad to heare any thing that can be against himself and his sin But out of a love of Christ and out of the love of greater excellencies in Christ then is in a mans self a man is glad to heare rather of Christ then of himself his name is as ointment powred forth Cant. 1.3 There is nothing in the scripture but what is sweet and as hony But the Gospel is as the hony-comb The whole scripture is as a sugared cup But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is as the bottom of that cup. Secondly Where ever there is true faith there is a desire and longing after Faith and Jesus Christ As new borne babes as the Text saith in 1. Pet. 2.3 A desire formally O Lord said the Disciples unto Jesus Christ increase our faith O Lord that we may receive our sight For its faith alone that makes us see the things freely given us of God and to know the treasury of grace and mercy which doth and hath lain hid from eternity And so there is also a vertual desire after Christ in al beleevers They long after the meanes whereby faith is wrought If you have rasted how good the Lord is As new borne babes you wil desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby Though that a Child cannot distinguish rationally between the Milk of the breast and that which is sugared It cannot tel that this is the one and this is the other But it hath a tast by which it can and nothing pleaseth but the mothers breast The Child cannot ask for it nor describe it but you may know it loves it because it is stilled with it and quieted with it So may be the case of many a Christian He may not be able by reason or by discourse or argument to make out the desirableness of Jesus Christ above al other things the excellencies of Jesus Christ above al other waies There may be Rhetorick put upon al other things beyond al that which he can see through or put upon the things of Jesus Christ But you wil find his heart quieted with nothing but Jesus Christ Let him pray with never so much in largedness and affections let him hear with never so much understanding and live with never so much unblameableness in the world yet al this is nothing his heart is unquiet because it is not according to what the law requires And if he sees no fault in it yet there is fault which the pure eyes of God behold when he comes to look it through and through And he hath no peace but when he comes to beleeve in Jesus Christ and receive peace from him What is there in al the meanes of salvation which thou longest after What is it which thou wouldest carry home with thee Is it somthing that may draw Jesus Christ nearer to thee and make him more lovely to thee So much thou mayest conceive of hope of thy state of Salvation The Love of Jesus Chrst is described by this that nothing gives the heart so much quiet and in nothing is the heart so much taken up and contented as it is with this that Jesus Christ is the Mediator and undertaker and is the surety and doth al with the father And that It doth do al with the father by him The heart being pleased and contented argues
Now that word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he will do with us as one that is Covetous The meaning is this Look as a Covetous man doth desire to be possessed of that which he hath not so doth the Devil lie at the Catch that he may seiz upon any spirit That which I bring it for is this That the Holy Ghost sets out al the devices and evill waies of Satan by this name of Coveting Because a man is as pat to sin as the Devill is to tempt And a man is made as covetous by sinning as the Devil is in his unsatisfied spirit So the greatness of the sin appears in this that it is the root of all sin and because of that it is the Cause of all sin It 's a sin that never goes alone but ingenders many others In whatever person it is it doth so If Covetousness fals upon Soldiers then in Luke 3.14 When they are not content with their wages they do violence and accuse falsly If Covetousness fals upon a Magistrate it makes him that he is partiall by Covetousness And therefore the mark of a good Magistrate is That he must fear God and have Covetousness Because Bribes blind the Eyes the Judgment If Covetousness fals upon Ministers it will in 1 Tim. 6.5 make them fall into perverse disputings for they suppose that Gain is Godliness If it fals upon an ordinary Christian there you shal find that it goes not alone neither for in Matth. 13.22 together with the deceitfulness of riches there goes the Cares as the Text saith of this life He that received seed among the thornes is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choak the word and he becometh unfruitfull In Luke 8.14 there is another sin ariseth from it besides unfruitfulness and that is that men take pleasure in the things of this life That which fel among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choaked with Cares and Riches and pleasures of this life And that you may see how strong a vertue there is in Covetousness to bring forth these sins mark the Text. When they have heard the word they go forth that is all the reason why the word of God and all the allurements of the word of God are not able to stay the heart from these Courses A Sin may be said to bring forth or to be the cause of sin divers waies 1. As it is the Cause of Gods withdrawing Grace from a man which should keep him from future sins And Covetousness doth this In Isaiah 57.17 For the Iniquity of his Covetousness I was wroth with him and he went on in the way of his own heart He went on A speech in the Hebrew which is taken from the speech of Cain in Gen. 4.14 I shall go wandring up and down saith he and have none to protect me and therefore shall be exposed to the wrath of al men and Creatures So saith God from their Covetousness it came to pass that they went and did what they would And how came this for the Iniquity of his Covetousness I hid my self from him Gods hiding did go before their doing what they would And Gods hiding was caused by their Covetousness 2. One sin may be the cause of another because it inclines the heart to another sin And in this respect Covetousness is the root of al sin because the Divel doth graft upon such a heart what temptations he pleaseth He observed Cain was covetous and that he had a mind to be building He therefore makes him neglect the means of reconciling himself unto God for his sin against his Brother Judas was covetous and he suggests to him to betray his master Demas was an Apostate and he fel away by the meanes of covetousness as appeares by the third Ground where the seed was sowen among thornes that is the covetous heart As wood that is dry is on fire as soon as a sparkle is put to it In such a temper is the soul when it is ful of the love of earthly things I shal speak more to that afterward 3. One sin may be the cause of another because it administers matter unto another And so covetousness breeds envying and strife or dissention with others But it is said to be the root of al sin in another and higher sense and that is 4. Because it is both a Parent and a ruler of other sins It s a Parent to them Out of the bowels of Covetousness comes pride 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded And unbeleife But trust in the living God And neglect of religion for Covetousness is Idolatry And fraud and deceit and unquietness and hardness of heart Take heed least your hearts be hardned through the deceitfulness of riches Pharoah you know was made by nothing so stout and stubborn against the commandement of God to let the people of Israel go as by this That his profit should go he should loose the labor of so many men and so many vassals And as Covetousness is a Parent to sin So it s a Prince and Ruler over them Those sins that do respect the self same and are ruled by one another Now because that the end of Covetousness is to get to a mans self abundance Therefore Covetousness sets on work the tongue to lie the hand to defraud the understanding to plot the Judgment to suspect and doubt of God The wil to make much of al advantages of Gain Do but reckon up the children and the childrens children do but reckon up the subjects that are under this Prince Covetousness and you shal find that al the whole Catalogue of sins that can be named are one way or other either descended from or allyed unto it In 2 Cor. 2.7 Saith the Apostle Comfort them least they be swallowed up by Satan of sorrow for if you do not comfort them saith he Satan wil take advantage of us as it is translated but the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we be not Covetous or used by Satan or Satan do with us as with Covetous men What is that saith he he leads them into al kind of sin and so he would us To deny ordinances and meanes of Grace and so we should fil up our iniquity To lay down but one thing more wherein the sinfulness of it may appear And that is 5. In the baseness of it There is not a lust that doth more debase a man then Covetousness doth Therefore it s said that a man is a servant to Mammon You cannot serve God and Mammon It debaseth the soul in its nature for God Made it to look after things not seen It debaseth a mans body in its posture for God hath made it tread upon the earth out of whose bowels it came Look how unnatural it is for fowles to live in the earth So it s for the soul
but speak the word saith he and my servant shall be healed And there are some things that the Scripture saith are hard to God there is more of God required to do them than other things And some things that are but possible unto God As if he should have said It 's all that God can do If there were but a whit of less strength in him he were not able to make a man that is covetous to beleeve Give me leave to speak with reverence according to the expression His strength is matched It 's as much as he can do It is but possible to him to make a rich man that is in love with this present evil world to come to Heaven And as if the Apostle Paul could not say enough to shew the hardness of being cured of this sin you shall find him heaping up words in 1 Tim. 6.9 There are Temptations and there are Snares and there are Sorrows The word properly signifies the pains of a Woman in Travel which can neither be avoided nor prevented and are impossible to be born long And he saith they are drowned in perdition and destruction having reference unto the 18. Chapter of Matthew at the 66. verse It was a kind of death to the Assyrians to tie a Mill Stone about a mans neck and to throw him into a deep water Look how there is no hope of saving such a man so little hope there is of a covetous man Observe it he speaks rather of such a man that was covetous who had made profession of Religion and known the truth rather than any other and he saith of them That they Pierce themselves through The word signifies they do as it s said of Julius Caesar that they came about him so with Bodkins and Swords that his Body was as a Butt or Pin-cushion there was not a whole place in him he was wounded in Back and Belly in Armes and Legs and in every part there was a wound So saith the Apostle You wil be by the Cares of this world you will be run through and through and through with Cares and Sorrows And what hope is there of a man when he lives thus when sin hath such advantage of him how hard a matter is it to be cured I have bin the longer in the explication because it is the sin of the times and the sin of Professors CHAP. IV. Use 1. Follâ—◠〈◊〉 Callings Use 2. Seek the Kingdom of 〈◊〉 and his righteousness and other things shall be added Use 3. Let all your care be for eternal life to be rich in God Use 4. You shall have all the things of this life that are needfull if you wil look after Grace Godly men never want but when they cannot be content to be at God's dispose Use 5. See your life lie in Grace not in Riches USE I. FOllow your Callings For the living in a particular calling is as necessary to pluck down the rankness of a mans spirit and to make him fit to serve God I say it is as necessary in its kind as the word is in its kind There are some sins that arise from the body and diligence in a particular calling mortifies them Follow your Callings Take what providence casts upon you in them but be not sollicitous Beloved Do not care how it may be with you so you may but provide for eternity Be content with a little so you may but have Grace If you have Food and Raiment be quiet As upon a day of fast a man may eat so much as may fit him to the work so my Beloved care for no more all the time of your life than what may keep you from temptations and inable you to the work of your Calling And that work of your calling you may certainly do for God whatever your condition be Turn all your care unto this that you may treasure up riches in Heaven What matter it if you be poor or have or not have as long as you do enjoy Christ This is the great exhortation of our Lord Jesus Christ in this place That time that men spend in forecasting how they should do in ill times that time is all lost and should be spent only in this How they may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a world to come I say it is all lost 〈◊〉 use you are not able to secure those things And it 's worse than lost because it is a sin to care for to morrow Prudently dispose of what God hath given you but be not troubled though you cannot so dispose of things as to save you from evill Be not afraid of any evill that can befall you fear nothing but sin and Gods wrath It is your wisdom to do so A wise man on a Journey cares not if his lodging be hard and diet course because he is upon his way and thinks to have better at home The love of his business makes him not think of these things What is your business but to provide for Heaven What is your home but to dwell with Jesus Christ and to have Communion with him Therefore mind not other things never be troubled what you are in other respects USE II. And let me add this in the second place That the more care you take for spirituall things the more care God will take for your earthly estate Seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shal be added to you in Math. 6.33 For al these things your Heavenly Father cares for that is if you care not In Heb. 13.5 6. Let your Conversation be without Covetousness for he hath said he wil never leave you nor forsâ—ke you God enters into Bond to save that man harmless from all losses and evils in the world that does but mind the things of him He were an unjust master to set us a work and to leave us to our own finding Is it not better a great deal to be at Gods hand than at your own That he should find you than your selves Therefore speak to your hearts after this manner I cannot by my care add one Cubit to my stature and make one business go well and get in one debt and take one penny the more and get one new Customer Let me speak to you in your own language If so be that I do what I can it wil be no advantage to me in these things But if I be careful to make my peace with God to get my pardon Sealed to get my waies Sanctified God wil give me so much of these as I need he hath enough and he wil give me liberally so that I shall have no cause to complain If I have not so much as another yet notwithstanding I shall have a blessing with what I have and that will be more than anothers much If men did put themselves upon this that it is to be their care to look to their Souls and when they have used meanes for their estates and bodies to leave all to God's disposing
dishonorable to God as an unclean Person therefore eat not with him The Consequent being put for the Antecedent It is cast him forth for that doth injoyn men not to eat with Persons excommunicated unless it be in cases of necessity As the Wife with the Husband But not to in vite them Therefore the Apostle cals it a Judging of them CHAP. IX Waies for discovery of Covetousness In Generall More Particularly 1. He that hath a quick and acute understanding in the matters of this life but is really dull as to spirituall things is a Covetous man The Reasons of this An Objection Answered 2. The triall of our affections to these things is when God cals us to part with all 3. He is Covetous who takes all opportunitits of getting and who is having and craving in his Spirit An Objection Answered Quest HOW shall we know that we are Covetous Answ Take General and Particular waies Consider by the way that Covetousness is not only a particular sin but it is the universal distemper of all mens hearts that are unregenerate When the Ground is free from Weeds it is fit for the Seed of God First In General When that time is counted long which is not spent in a mans calling and waies of getting Amos. 8.5 When wil the Sabbath be gone that we may buy and sell Again When a man doth Duties of Religion to get places of gain or Loaves or blessings from God Ezek. 33.31 They come before me and seem to be as my people but their hearts run after their Covetousness There is difference between a wordly thought in a mans mind in Duty and making the world his end He that makes the world his end is Covetous Though he makes it not his last end yet if he sets it in an higher place than those that are subordinate to God himself God wil allow a man to look to himself but after God But the last thing that a man is to take care for is for the things of this life Again Covetousness is not mortified when other Lusts are not All Lusts do live and die together In Colos 3.5 where he bids them to mortifie Covetousness he bids them to mortifie inordinate affections and evil concupiscence c. Inordinate affections belong unto the Irascible passions or faculties by which we oppose evil And evil Concupiscence belongs to the other faculties which belongs to the things of a mans good Now these take up a mans whole Soul But if these two be not in order Covetousness is not mortified The Lust of the eye is the Steward which provides for the lust of the Flesh and the pride of life If you wil pluck up Covetousness you must dig up the whole heart mortifie all Corruptions If any be left this will grow with it But in Particular When a man hath a quick and a large understanding apprehension and Judgment in the matters of this life but to the discerning of spiritual things is dul When a man is acute and sharp in understanding the things of this life but is really dul unto spiritual things A man is then Covetous And the reason is this Because the ground why a mans knowledg is more excellent in one thing than in another and why he is more attentive to know one thing more than another is because his affections are to one thing more than another Therefore if a man be quick in the things of this life and dul in the things of God he is covetous The worldly man is described by the Cares of this life which choak the word When a man is truly dul I say not when he is so in his own Judgment As the wisest men think they err in wisdom As a Sea-man thinks no horses goe fast because they go not so fast as a Ship So a wise man in spiritual things thinks himself a Fool. In Prov. 30.2 He saith He had not the understanding of a man He spake of things beyond a mans understanding and yet he saith of himself A man may be dul in his own apprehension and yet not so really Again The time must be considered and the means which we have had to make them understand the matters of Godliness If a man have lived under a rational and scripture teaching Ministry and have had a long time of it and yet is dul in the things of God and is grown wise in the things of the world It is a great sign that a mans care is for the things of this life and not for the things of God Object A man may have larger parts than Grace therefore a man may be wiser in the things of this world than in the things of God Answ That is without controversie Yet Grace sets a mans mind so upon spiritual things that a mans parts are set upon the things of God and they die unto the things of the world Diligence will make up and repair a mans parts And Grace makes a man diligent I speak of real dulness When a man is not dul in one paint of Religion but in al not only dul under one Ministry but under all I not when a man is heard to come to knowledg For men that come hardliest by knowledg when they have it do keep it longest And do you Judg of this Particular If your strength lies in the things of this world that you are exquisite there that you can go through all the turnings of this life and do any thing in the business of this life but in the things of God you speak notionally and not spiritually as one that heard the story and not as one that knows the things then you are Covetous Again See how it is with you when God cals you to part with all Men are such as they are when they are tryed Nothing tries mens affections to a thing so much as parting with it When things do come in competition and a man cannot have both he wil then take that which he loves Therefore Solomon commands the Child to be cut in pieces because motherly affections would appear Somtimes God threatens to take al And somtimes God takes all And somtimes a man is in his spirit as if he should lose all What are your hearts then In 2 Tim. 10 11. it is said when Paul was ready to be offered up that Demas did forsake him and did cleave unto this present world His heart was in the world because he did for the saving of his estate forsake and leave Paul To open that place Object It may be said that Demas did suffer Persecution for he was with Paul in his imprisonment and Paul recommended him unto Philemon and unto the Church of Colosse Every one of the grounds by which the severall sorts of hearers are to be understood do go beyond one another The High way ground doth give the word the hearing but repeats it not meditates not of it remembers it not but the stony ground went further and they did so but