glass as his word, we do in a manner see them. Things in other stories we do but hear; things in the Scriptures we see : the Scriptures are as a room wainscotted with looking-glass, we see all at once. But this evil sickness of reserving riches to our own evil, is plainer to be seen; because it is daily round about us, daily within us, and in our consciences, and experiences. There are sins, that are not evident, not easily discerned; and therefore David annexes a schedule to his prayer after all, Ab occultis meis munda me, saith David, There are sins, which the difference of religion, makes a sin, or no sin; we know it to be a sin, to abstain from coming to church, our adversaries are made believe it is a time to come. There are middle-men, that when our church appoints coming, and receiving, and another church forbids both, they will do half of both; they will come, and not receive; and so be friends with both. There are sins recorded in the Scriptures, in which it is hard, for any to find the name, and the nature, what the sin was; How doth the school vex itself, to find out what was the nature of the sin of the angels, or what was the name of the sin of Adam? There are actions recorded in the Scriptures, in which by God's subsequent punishment, there appears sin to have been committed, and yet to have considered the action alone, without the testimony of God's displeasure upon it; a natural man would not easily find out a sin. Balaam was solicited to come, and curse God's people; he refused, he consulted with God: God bids him go, but follow such instructions as he should give him after; and yet the wrath of God was kindled, because he went. Moses seems to have pursued God's commandment exactly, in drawing water out of the rock", and yet God says, Because you believed me not, you shall not bring this congregation into that land of promise. There are sins hard to be seen, out of the nature of man, because man naturally is not watchful upon his particular actions, for if he were so, he would escape great sins; when we see land, we are not much afraid of a stone; when a man sees his small sins, there is not so much danger of great. But some sins we see not out of a natural blindness in ourselves, some we see not out of a natural dimness in the sin itself. But this sickly sin, this sinful sickness, of gathering riches, is so obvious, so manifest to every man's apprehension, as that the books of moral men, and philosophers are as full of it as the Bible. But yet the Holy Ghost, (as he doth always, even in moral counsels) exceeds the philosophers; for whereas they place this sickness in gathering unnecessary riches injuriously; the Holy Ghost in this place extends it further, to a reserving of those riches; that when we have sinned in the getting of them, we sin still in the not restoring of them. But to thee, who shouldest repent the ill getting; Veniet tempus, quo non dispensesse, pænitebit, there will come a time. when thou shalt repent the having kept them: Hoc certum est, Ego sum sponsor, Of this I dare be the surety (saith St. Basil) but we can leave St. Basil out of the bond; we have a better surety and undertaker, the Holy Ghost in Solomon; so that this evil sickness may be easily seen, it is made manifest enough to us all, by precedent from God, by example of others, by experience in ourselves. To see this then, is an easy, a natural thing; but to see it so, as to condemn it, and avoid it, this is a wise man's flight; this was Solomon's flight. The wise man seeth the plague, and shunneth it; therein consists the wisdom. But for the fool, when he sees a thief, he runneth with him27; when he sees others thrive by ill getting, and ill keeping, he runs with them, he takes the same course as they do. Beloved, it is not intended, that true and heavenly wisdom may not consist with riches: Job, and the patriarchs, abounded with both; and our pattern in this place, Solomon himself, saith of himself, that he was great, and increased above all that were before him in Jerusalem, and yet his wisdom remained with him. The poor man and the rich are in heaven together: and to show us how the rich should use the poor, Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom; the rich should succour and relieve, and defend the poor in their bosoms. But when our Saviour declares a wisdom belonging to riches, (as in the parable of the unjust steward") he places not this wisdom, in the getting, nor in the holding of riches, but only in the using of them; make you friends of your riches, that they may receive 27 Psalm L. 18. 28 Eccles. ii. 9. 29 Luke xvi. you into everlasting habitations. There is no simony in heaven, that a man can buy so much as a doorkeeper's place in the triumphant church: there is no bribery there, to fee ushers for access; but God holds that ladder there, whose foot stands upon the earth here, and all those good works, which are put upon the lowest step of that ladder here, that is, that are done in contemplation of him, they ascend to him, and descend again to us. Heaven and earth are as a musical instrument; if you touch a string below, the motion goes to the top: any good done to Christ's poor members upon earth, affects him in heaven; and as he said, Quid me persequeris? Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? So he will say, Venite benedicti, pavistis me, visitastis me. This is the wisdom of their use; but the wisdom of their getting and keeping, is to see, that it is an evil sickness to get too laboriously, or to reserve too gripingly, things which tend naturally to the owner's evil: for, therefore in that parable doth Christ call all their riches generally, universally, mammonas iniquitatis, riches of iniquity, not that all that they had was ill got (that is not likely in so great a company) but that whatsoever, and howsoever they had got it, and were become true owners of it, yet they were riches of iniquity; because that is one iniquity, to possess much, and not distribute to the poor; and it is another iniquity, to call those things riches, which are only temporal, and so to defraud heavenly graces, and spiritual treasure of that name, that belongs only to them; and the greatest iniquity of all is towards ourselves. To take those riches to our heart, which Christ calls the thorns that choke the good seeds, and the apostle calls temptations, and snares, and foolish, and noisome lusts, which drown men in perdition, and in destruction", and which the wise man hath showed us here, to be reserved to the owners for their evil. To return to our beginning, and make an end; heaven is a feast, and heaven is a treasure: if ye prepare not for his feast, by being worthy guests at his table, if you embrace not his treasure, by being such merchants as give all for his pearl; another feast, and another treasure are expressed, and heightened in two such words, as never any tongue of any author, but the Holy Ghost himself spoke; Inebriabit absinthio, There is the feast, you 30 Matt. xiii. 22. 31 1 Tim. vi. 9. shall be drunk with wormwood, you shall taste nothing but bitter affliction, and that shall make you reel, for you shall find in your affliction no rest for your souls. And for the treasure, Thesaurizabis iram dei; You shall treasure up wrath against the day of wrath"; and this will be an exchequer ever open, and never exhausted. But use the creatures of God, as creatures, and not as God, with a confidence in them, and you shall find juge convivium, in a good conscience, and thesauros absconditos, all the hid treasures of wisdom and knowledge; you shall know how to be rich in this world by an honest getting of riches, and how to be rich in the next world by a christianly use of those riches here. SERMON CXLI. PREACHED AT Whitehall. Second Sermon upon ECCLESIASTES V. 12, 13. There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the sun: riches reserved to the owners thereof, for their evil. And these riches perish by evil travail : and he begetteth a son, and in his hand is nothing. THAT then which was intended in the former verse, that riches. were hurtful even to the owners, St. Augustine hath well and fully expressed, Eris præda hominum, qui jam es diaboli'; The devil hath preyed upon thee already, by knowing what thou wouldst have, and great men will prey upon thee hereafter, by knowing what thou hast. But because the rich man thinks himself hard enough for both, for the devil, and for great men, if he may keep his riches; therefore here is that, which seems to him a greater calamity inflicted; first, his riches shall perish; and secondly those riches, those which he hath laboured and travailed for; and thirdly, they shall perish in travail, and labour, and affliction. And then not only all his present comfort shall 32 Rom. ii. 5. 33 Col. ii. 3. 1 Aug. in Psalm cxxxi. perish, but that which was his future hope: the son which he hath begot, shall have nothing in his hand. He that increaseth his riches by usury and interest, gathereth them for him that will be merciful to the poor, says Solomon'. Is there a discomfort in this? There is. It is presented there for an affliction, and vexation to a rich man, to be told, that his money shall be employed in any other way, not only than he gathered it for, but than he gathered it by. It would grieve him to know, that his heir would purchase land, or buy an office with his money; for all other means of profit than himself hath tried, he esteems unthriftiness, casual, and hazardous; difference of seasons may change the value of his land, affections of men may change the value of an office; but whether the year be good or bad, a year it must be, and nothing can lengthen, or shorten his two harvests in the year, from six months to six. All ways, but his own, displease him in his heir; but if his heir will be giving to the poor (as Solomon says) then here are two mischiefs met together, that he could never abide the poor, and giving; and therefore such a contemplation is a double vexation to him; but much more must it be so, to hear that his riches shall perish; that they shall come to nothing, for though, if we consider it aright, it is truly all one, whether a covetous man's wealth do perish or no, for so much, as he hoards up, and hides, and puts to no use; it is all one whether that thousand pounds be in his chest or no, if he never see it, yet since he hath made his gold his god, he hath so much devilish religion in him as to be loth that his god should perish. And this, that is threatened here is an absolute perishing, an absolute annihilation; it is the same word, by which David expresses the abolition, and perishing of the wicked. The way of the wicked shall perish3; and which Moses repeats with vehemency twice together, pereundo peribitis; I pronounce unto you this day you shall surely perish. So Judas, and his money perished. The money that Judas had taken; he was weary of keeping it, and they who had given it, would none of it neither. Se primum mulctavit pecunia, deinde vita'. First he fined himself, and then he hanged himself; 2 Prov. xxviii. 8. 3 Psalm i. 6. * Augustine. |