wherein ye dwell. Ye may be _highly esteemed of men_; but ye are _an
abomination in the sight of God_. How long shall your souls cleave
to the dust? How long will ye load yourselves with thick clay? When
will ye awake and see, that the open, speculative Heathens, are nearer
the kingdom of heaven than you? When will ye be persuaded to chuse
the better part; that which cannot be taken away from you? When will
ye seek only to _lay up treasures in heaven_, renouncing, dreading,
abhorring all other? If you aim at _laying up treasures on earth_,
you are not _barely_ losing your time, and spending your strength for
that which is not bread: for what is the fruit, if you succeed? You
have murdered your own soul. You have extinguished the last spark of
spiritual life therein. Now indeed, in the midst of life you are in
death. You are a living man, but a dead Christian. _For where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also._ Your heart is sunk into
the dust: your soul cleaveth to the ground. Your affections are set,
not on things above, but on things of the earth; on poor husks that may
poison, but cannot satisfy an everlasting spirit, made for God. Your
love, your joy, your desire are all placed on the things which perish
in the using. You have thrown away the treasure in heaven: God and
_Christ_ are lost. You have gained riches and hell-fire.
14. O _how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of
God_! When our Lord’s disciples were astonished at his speaking thus,
he was so far from retracting it, that he repeated the same important
truth, in stronger terms than before. _It is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God._ *How hard is it for them whose every word is applauded,
not to be wise in their own eyes! How hard, for them not to think
themselves better than the poor, base, uneducated herd of men! How
hard, not to seek happiness in their riches, or in things dependent
upon them; in gratifying the desire of the flesh, the desire of the
eye, or the pride of life! O ye rich, how can ye escape the damnation
of hell?――Only with God all things are possible.
15. *And even if you do not succeed, what is the fruit of your
_endeavouring_ to lay up treasures on earth? _They that will be rich_
(αἱ βουλόμενοι πλουτεῖν, they that desire, that endeavour after it,
whether they succeed or no) _fall into a temptation and a snare_, a
gin, a trap of the devil, _and into many foolish and hurtful lusts_;
ἐπὶ θυμίας ἀνοήτους, desires with which reason hath nothing to do;
such as properly belong, not to rational and immortal beings, but only
to the brute-beasts, which have no understanding: _which drown men in
destruction and perdition_, in present and eternal misery. Let us but
open our eyes, and we may daily see the melancholy proofs of this: men,
who desiring, resolving to be rich, _coveting after money, the root of
all evil, have_ already _pierced themselves through with many sorrows_,
and anticipated the hell to which they are going.
*The cautiousness with which the apostle here speaks, is highly
observable. He does not affirm this absolutely of _the rich_; for a
man may possibly be rich, without any fault of his, by an over-ruling
providence, preventing his own choice. But he affirms it of οἱ
βουλόμενοι πλουτεῖν. _Those who desire_ or seek _to be rich_. Riches,
dangerous as they are, do not always _drown men in destruction and
perdition_. But the _desire of riches_ does: those who calmly desire
and deliberately seek to attain them, whether they do, in fact, gain
the world or no, do infallibly lose their own souls. These are they,
that sell him who bought them with his blood, for a few pieces of gold
or silver. These enter into a covenant with death and hell: and their
covenant shall stand. For they are daily making themselves meet to
partake of their inheritance with the devil and his angels.
16. O who shall warn this generation of vipers, to flee from the wrath
to come! Not those who lie at their gate, or cringe at their feet,
desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fall from their tables. Not
those who court their favour, or fear their frown; none of those who
mind earthly things. But if there be a Christian upon earth, if there
be a man who hath overcome the world, who desires nothing but God,
and fears none but him that is able to destroy both body and soul in
hell: thou, O man of God, speak and spare not; lift up thy voice like
a trumpet. Cry aloud and shew these honourable sinners the desperate
condition wherein they stand. It may be, one in a thousand may have
ears to hear, may arise and shake himself from the dust; may break
loose from these chains that bind him to the earth, and at length lay
up treasures in heaven.
17. And if it should be, that one of these, by the mighty power of God,
awoke and asked, What must I do to be saved? The answer, according to
the oracles of God, is clear, full and express. God doth not say to
thee, _Sell all that thou hast_. Indeed he who seeth the hearts of men,
saw it needful to enjoin this in one peculiar case, that of the _young,
rich ruler_. But he never laid it down for a general rule, to all rich
men, in all succeeding generations. His general direction is, first,
*_Be not high-minded_. God seeth not as man seeth. He esteems thee not
for thy riches, for thy grandeur or equipage, for any qualification or
accomplishment, which is directly or indirectly owing to thy wealth,
which can be bought, or procured thereby. All these are with him as
dung and dross: let them be so with thee also. Beware thou think not
thyself to be one jot wiser, or better for all these things. Weigh
thyself in another balance: estimate thyself only by the measure of
faith and love which God hath given thee. If thou hast more of the
knowledge and love of God than he, thou art on this account and no
other, wiser and better, more valuable and honourable than him, who is
with the dogs of thy flock. But if thou hast not this treasure, thou
art more foolish, more vile, more truly contemptible, I will not say,
than the lowest servant under thy roof, but than the beggar laid at thy
gate, full of sores.
18. *Secondly, _Trust not in uncertain riches_. Trust not in them for
help: and trust not in them for happiness.
First, Trust not in them for help. Thou art miserably mistaken, if thou
lookest for this in gold or silver. These are no more able to set thee
_above the world_, than to set thee above the devil. Know that both
the world and the prince of this world laugh at all such preparations
against them. These will little avail in the day of trouble: even if
they remain in the trying hour. But it is not certain, that they will:
for how oft do they _make themselves wings and fly away_? But if not,
what support will they afford, even in the ordinary troubles of life?
The desire of thy eyes, the wife of thy youth, thy son, thine only son,
or the friend which was as thy own soul, is taken away at a stroke.
Will thy riches re-animate the breathless clay, or call back its late
inhabitant?――Will they secure thee from sickness, diseases, pain? Do
these visit the poor only? Nay; he that feeds thy flocks or tills thy
ground, has less sickness and pain than thou. He is more rarely visited
by these unwelcome guests: and if they come there at all, they are
more easily driven away from the little cot, than from the cloud-topt
palaces. And during the time that thy body is chastened with pain, or
consumes away with pining sickness, how do thy treasures help thee? Let
the poor Heathen answer.
_Ut lippum pictæ tabulæ, fomenta podagrum,
Auriculas citharæ collecta forde dolentes._
19. *But there is at hand a greater trouble than all these. _Thou_
art to die. _Thou_ art to sink into dust; to return to the ground from
which thou wast taken, to mix with common clay. _Thy_ body is to go
to the earth as it was, while thy spirit returns to God that gave it.
And the time draws on: the years slide away with a swift tho’ silent
pace. Perhaps your day is far spent: the noon of life is past, and
the evening shadows begin to rest upon you. You feel in yourself
sure-approaching decay. The springs of life wear away apace. Now what
help is there in your riches? Do they sweeten death? Do they endear
that solemn hour? Quite the reverse. _O death how bitter art thou,
to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions?_ How unacceptable
to him is that awful sentence, _This night shall thy soul be required
of thee_!――Or will they prevent the unwelcome stroke, or protract
the dreadful hour? Can they deliver your soul that it should not see
death? Can they restore the years that are past? Can they add to your
appointed time, a month, a day, an hour, a moment?――Or will the good
things you have chosen for your portion here, follow you over the great
gulf? Not so: naked came you into this world; naked must you return.
_Linquenda tellus, & domus & placens
Uxor: nec harum quas seris arborum
Te præter invisam cupressum,
Ulla brevem dominum sequetur!_
Surely were not these truths too plain to be _observed_, because they
are too plain to be _denied_, no man that is to die could possibly
_trust_, for help, _in uncertain riches_!
20. *And trust not in them for happiness. For here also they will
be found _deceitful upon the weights_. Indeed this every reasonable
man may infer, from what has been observed already. For if neither
thousands of gold and silver, nor any of the advantages or pleasures
purchased thereby, can prevent our being miserable, it evidently
follows, they cannot make us happy. What happiness can they afford to
him, who in the midst of all is constrained to cry out,
“To my new courts sad thought does still repair,
And round my gilded roofs hangs hovering care.”
Indeed experience is here so full, strong, and undeniable, that it
makes all other arguments needless. Appeal we therefore to fact. Are
the rich and great, the only happy men? And is each of them more or
less happy, in proportion to his measure of riches? Are they happy at
all? I had well nigh said, they are of all men most miserable! Rich man,
for once, speak the truth from thy heart. Speak, both for thyself, and
for thy brethren,
“Amidst our plenty something still――
To me, to thee, to him is wanting!
That cruel something unpossest
Corrodes and leavens all the rest.”
Yea, and so it will, ’till thy wearisome days of vanity are shut up in
the night of death.
Surely then, to trust in riches for happiness, is the greatest folly
of all that are under the sun! Are you not convinced of this? Is it
possible, you should still expect to find happiness in money, or all
it can procure? What! *Can silver and gold, and eating and drinking,
and horses and servants, and glittering apparel, and diversions and
pleasures (as they are called) make thee happy? They can as soon make
thee immortal.
21. These are all dead shew. Regard them not. _Trust_ thou _in the
living_ God. So shalt thou be safe under the shadow of the Almighty;
his faithfulness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler. He is a
very present help in time of trouble; such an help as can never fail.
Then shalt thou say, if all thy other friends die, _the_ Lord _liveth,
and blessed be my strong helper_! He shall remember thee when thou
liest sick upon thy bed: when vain is the help of man, when all the
things of the earth can give no support, he will _make all thy bed in
thy sickness_. He will sweeten thy pain; the consolations of God shall
cause thee to clap thy hands in the flames. And even when this house of
earth is well nigh shaken down, when it is just ready to drop into the
dust, he will teach thee to say, _O death where is thy sting? O grave,
where is thy victory? Thanks be unto_ God _who giveth me the victory
through my_ Lord Jesus Christ.
*O trust in him for happiness as well as for help. All the springs of
happiness are in him. Trust _in him who giveth us all things richly
to enjoy_, παρέχοντι πλουσίως εἰς ἀπόλαυσιν· Who of his own rich and
free mercy, holds them out to us, as in his own hand, that receiving
them as his gift, and as pledges of his love, we may _enjoy all_ that
we possess. It is his love gives a relish to all we taste, puts life
and sweetness into all, while every creature leads us up to the great
Creator, and all earth is a scale to heaven. He transfuses the joys
that are at his own right-hand, into all he bestows on his thankful
children: who having fellowship with the Father and his Son _Jesus
Christ_, enjoy him in all and above all.
22. Thirdly, seek not to _increase in goods_. _Lay not up for thyself
treasures upon earth._ This is a flat positive command, full as clear,
as _thou shalt not commit adultery_. How then is it possible for a rich
man to grow richer, without denying the Lord that bought him? Yea, how
can any man, who has already the necessaries of life, gain or aim at
more, and be guiltless? _Lay not up_, saith our Lord, _treasures upon
earth_. If in spite of this, you do and will lay up, money or goods,
which _moth or rust_ may _corrupt, or thieves break through and steal_:
if you will add house to house, or field to field, why do you call
yourself a Christian? You do not obey _Jesus Christ_. You do not design
it. Why do you name yourself by his name? _Why call ye me_ Lord, Lord,
saith he himself, _and do not the things which I say_?
23. *If you ask, “But what must we do with our goods, seeing we have
more than we have occasion to use, if we must not lay them up? Must
we throw them away?” I answer, if you threw them into the sea, if you
were to cast them into the fire and consume them, they would be better
bestowed ♦than they are now. You cannot find so mischievous a manner of
throwing them away, as either the laying them up for your posterity, or
the laying them out upon yourselves, in folly and superfluity. Of all
possible methods of _throwing them away_, these two are the very worst;
the most opposite to the gospel of _Christ_, and the most pernicious to
your own soul.
How pernicious to your own soul the latter of these is, has been
excellently shewn by a late writer. “If we waste our money we are
not only guilty of wasting a talent which God has given us, but we do
ourselves this farther harm, we turn this useful talent into a powerful
means of corrupting ourselves; because so far as it is spent wrong, so
far it is spent in the support of some wrong temper, in gratifying some
vain and unreasonable desires, which as Christians we are obliged to
renounce.”
“As wit and fine parts cannot be only trifled away, but will expose
those that have them to greater follies: so money cannot be only
trifled away, but if it is not used according to reason and religion,
will make people live a more silly and extravagant life, than they
would have done without it: if therefore you do not spend your money
in doing good to others, you must spend it to the hurt of yourself.
You act like one that refuses the cordial to his sick friend, which
he cannot drink himself without inflaming his blood. For this is the
case of superfluous money; if you give it to those who want it, it is
a cordial. If you spend it upon yourself in something that you do not
want, it only inflames and disorders your mind.”
“In using riches where they have no real use, nor we any real want, we
only use them to our great hurt, in creating unreasonable desires, in
nourishing ill tempers, in indulging foolish passions, and supporting
a vain turn of mind. For high eating and drinking, fine clothes and
fine houses, state and equipage, gay pleasures and diversions, do all
of them naturally hurt and disorder our heart. They are the food and
nourishment of all the folly and weakness of our nature. They are all
of them the support of something, that ought not to be supported. They
are contrary to that sobriety and piety of heart, which relishes divine
things. They are so many weights upon our mind, that make us less able
and less inclined to raise our thoughts and affections to things above.”
“So that money thus spent is not merely wasted or lost, but it is spent
to bad purposes and miserable effects; to the corruption and disorder
of our hearts, to the making us unable to follow the sublime doctrines
of the gospel. It is but like keeping money from the poor, to buy
poison for ourselves.”
24. Equally inexcusable are those, who _lay up_ what they do not need
for any reasonable purposes. “If a man had hands and eyes and feet that
he could give to those that wanted them; if he should lock them up in a
chest, instead of giving them to his brethren, that were blind and lame,
should we not justly reckon him an inhuman wretch? If he should rather
chuse to amuse himself with hoarding them up, than intitle himself to
an eternal reward by giving them to those that wanted eyes and hands,
might we not justly reckon him mad?”
“Now money has very much the nature of eyes and feet. If therefore we
lock it up in chests, while the poor and distrest want it for their
necessary uses, we are not far from the cruelty of him, that chuses
rather to hoard up hands and eyes, than to give them to those that want
them. If we chuse to lay it up, rather than to intitle ourselves to
an eternal reward by disposing of our money well, we are guilty of his
madness, that rather chuses to lock up eyes and hands, than to make
himself for ever blessed, by giving them to those that want them.”
25. *May not this be another reason why rich men shall so hardly enter
into the kingdom of heaven? A vast majority of them are under a curse,
under the peculiar curse of God: inasmuch as in the general tenor of
their lives, they are not only robbing God continually, imbezzling and
wasting their Lord’s goods, and by that very means corrupting their own
souls: but also robbing the poor, the hungry, the naked; wronging the
widow and the fatherless, and making themselves accountable for all
the want, affliction and distress, which they may, but do not remove.
Yea, doth not the blood of all those who perish for want, of what they
either lay up, or lay out needlessly, cry against them from the earth?
O what account will they give, to him who is ready to judge both the
quick and the dead!
26. The true way of employing what you do not want yourselves, you may,
fourthly learn from those words of our Lord, which are the counterpart
of what went before: _Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven;
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
break thro’ and steal_. Put out whatever thou canst spare, upon better
security than this world can afford. Lay up thy treasures in the bank
of heaven: and God shall restore them in that day. _He that hath pity
upon the poor lendeth unto the_ Lord, _and look what he layeth out,
it shall be paid him again_. Place that, saith he, unto my account.
Howbeit! _thou owest me thine own self also_!
Give to the poor with a single eye, with an upright heart, and “Write,
so much given to God.” For _inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least
of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me_.
This is the part of a _faithful and wise steward_. Not, to sell either
his houses or lands, or principal stock, be it more or less, unless
some peculiar circumstance should require it; and not to desire or
endeavour to increase it, any more than to squander it away in vanity:
but to employ it wholly to those wise and reasonable purposes, for
which his Lord has lodged it in his hands. The wise steward, after
having provided his own houshold, with what is needful for life and
godliness, _makes_ himself _friends with_ all that remains from time
to time of the _mammon of unrighteousness; that when he fails, they may
receive him into everlasting habitations_: that whensoever his earthly
tabernacle is dissolved, they who were before carried into _Abraham’s_
bosom, after having eaten his bread, and worn the fleece of his flock,
and praised God for the consolation, may welcome him into paradise, and
into _the house of_ God, _eternal in the heavens_.
27. *We _charge you_, therefore, _who are rich in this world_, as
having authority from our great Lord and Master, ἀγαθοεργεῖν, _to be
habitually doing good_, and to live in a course of good works. _Be ye
merciful as your Father which is in heaven is merciful_, who doth good
and ceaseth not. _Be ye merciful_,――“How far?”――_After your power_,
with all the ability which God giveth. Make this your only measure of
doing good, not any beggarly maxims or customs of the world. We _charge
you to be rich in good works_; as you have much, to _give plenteously_.
Freely ye have received; freely give; so as to lay up no treasure
but in heaven. Be ye _ready to distribute_, to every one according to
his necessity. Disperse abroad, give to the poor; deal your bread to
the hungry. Cover the naked with a garment, entertain the stranger,
carry or send relief to them that are in prison. Heal the sick; not by
miracle, but thro’ the blessing of God upon your seasonable support.
Let the blessing of him that was ready to perish thro’ pining want,
come upon thee. Defend the oppressed, plead the cause of the fatherless,
and make the widow’s heart sing for joy.
28. We exhort _you_, in the name of the _Lord Jesus Christ_, to _be
willing to communicate_: κοινωνικοὺς εἶναι. To be of the same spirit
(tho’ not in the same outward state) with those believers of antient
times, who _remained stedfast_ ἐν τῇ κοινωνίᾳ, _in_ that blessed and
holy _fellowship_, wherein _none said, that any thing was his own, but
they had all things common_. Be a steward, a faithful and wise steward,
of God and of the poor; differing from them in these two circumstances
only, that your wants are first supplied, out of the portion of
your Lord’s goods which remains in your hands, and that you have the
blessedness of giving. Thus _lay up for yourselves a good foundation_,
not in the world, which now is, but rather _for the time to come, that
ye may lay hold on eternal life_. The great foundation indeed of all
the blessings of God, whether temporal or eternal, is the _Lord Jesus
Christ_, his righteousness and blood, what he hath done, and what he
hath suffered for us. And _other foundation_, in this sense, _can no
man lay_; no not an apostle, no not an angel from heaven. But thro’ his
merits, whatever we do in his name, is a foundation for a good reward,
in the day when _every man shall receive his own reward, according
to his own labour_. Therefore, _labour_ thou, _not for the meat
that perisheth, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life_.
Therefore _whatsoever thy hand_ now _findeth to do, do it with thy
might_. Therefore let
“No fair occasion pass unheeded by;
Snatching the golden moments as they fly,
Thou by few fleeting years ensure eternity!”
_By patient continuance in well-doing seek_ thou _for glory and honour
and immortality_. In a constant, zealous performance of all good works,
wait thou for that happy hour, when _the King shall say, I was hungry
and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink. I was a
stranger and ye took me in, naked and ye cloathed me. I was sick and ye
visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me. Come, ye blessed of my
Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world!_
SERMON XXIX.
UPON OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT.
DISCOURSE IX.
MATT. vi. 24‒34.
_No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and
love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye
shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what
ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body
than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they
reap, nor gather into barns: yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lillies of the
field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was
not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore if God so cloath the grass of the field, which to-day
is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more
cloath you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what
shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be cloathed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But first seek ye the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself: sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof._