first he cast back the money, and then he cast himself headlong and burst oftentimes the money perishes, and the man too: yea it is not here only that they shall perish, in the future; that were a reprieve; it were a stalling of a debt; but (as both our translations have it) they do perish, they are always melting; yea as the original hath it, cadit et periit, they are already perished, they were born dead; ill gotten riches, bring with them from the beginning a contagion that works upon themselves, and their masters.

The riches shall perish, though they be his, though his title to them be good, if he put his trust in them; and those riches, those which he hath got by his travail, those which he hath reserved by his parsimony, and frugality. There is sometimes a greater reverence in us, towards our ancient inheritance towards those goods, which are devolved upon us, by succession; there is another affection expressed towards those things, which dying friends have left us, for they preserve their memories; another towards jewels, or other testimonies of an acceptation of our services from the prince: but still we love those things most, which we have got with our own labour, and industry. When a man comes to say with Jacob, With my staff came I over Jordan, and now have I gotten two bands, with this staff came I to London, with this staff came I to court, and now am thus and thus increased, a man loves those additions, which his own industry hath made to his fortune. There are some ungrateful natures that love other men the worse, for having bound them by benefits, and good turns to them: but that were a new ingratitude, not to be thankful to ourselves, not to love those things, which we ourselves have compassed. We have our reason to do so, in our great example, Christ Jesus, who loves us most, as we are his purchase, as he hath bought us with his blood; and therefore, though he hath expressed a love too, to the angels, in their confirmation, yet he cannot be said to love the angels, as he doth us, because his death hath wrought nothing upon them, which were fallen before; and for us, so he came principally to save sinners: the whole body and band of angels, are not his purchase, as all mankind is. This affection is in worldly men

6 Gen. xxxii. 10.

too; they love their own gettings; and those shall perish. They have given their pleasant things for meat, to refresh their souls": whatsoever they placed their heart upon, whatsoever they delighted in most, whatsoever they were loth to part withal, it shall perish; and the measure of their love to it and the desire of it shall be the measure of God's judgment upon it; that which they love most, shall perish first.

Those riches then, those best beloved riches shall perish, and that, saith the text, by evil travail; which is a word, that in the original signifies both occupationem, negotiationem, labour and travail, and afflictionem, vexationem; affliction, and vexation: they shall perish in occupatione, then when thou art labouring, and travailing in thy calling, then when thou art hearkening after a purchase, and a bargain, then when thy neighbours can impute no negligence, thou wast not negligent in gathering, nay no vice to thee, thou wast not dissolute in scattering, then when thou risest early, liest down late, and eatest the bread of sorrow, then shalt thou find, not only that that prospers not, which thou goest about, and pretendest to, but that which thou hadst before, decays, and moulders away. If we consider well in what abundance God satisfied the children of Israel with quails, and how that ended, we shall see example enough of this: You shall eat, saith God, not one or two days, nor five, nor ten, nor twenty, but a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and be loathsome unto you; here was the promise, and it was performed for the plenty, that quails fell a day's journey round about the camp, and they were two cubits thick upon the earth; the people fell to their labour, and they arose, and gathered all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, saith the text; and he that gathered least, gathered ten gomers full; but as the promise was performed in the plenty, so it was in the course too; Whilst the flesh was yet between their teeth before it was chewed, even the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and he smote them with an exceeding great plague. Even whilst your money is under your fingers, whilst it is in your purposes determined, and digested for such, and such a purpose, whilst you have put it in a ship in merchandise, to win more to it; whilst you have sowed it in the 8 Numb. xi. 19.

7 Lam. i. 11.

land of borrowers, to multiply, and grow upon mortgages, and usury, even when you are in the midst of your travail, storms at sea, thieves at land, enviers at court, informations at Westminster, whilst the meat is in your mouths, shall cast the wrath of God upon your riches, and they shall perish, in occupatione, then, when you travail to increase them. The children of Israel are said in that place, only to have wept to Moses, out of a lust, and a grief, for want of flesh. God punished not that weeping; it is a tenderness, a disposition, that God loves; but a weeping for worldly things, and things not necessary to them, (for manna might have served them) a weeping for not having, or for losing such things of this world, is always accompanied with a murmuring; God shall cause thy riches to perish in thy travail, not because he denies thee riches, nor because he would not have thee travail, but because an inordinate love, an over-studious, and an intemperate, and over-laborious pursuit of riches, is always accompanied with a diffidence, in God's providence, and a confidence in our own riches.

To give the wicked a better sense of this, God proceeds often the same way, with the righteous too; but with the wicked, because they do, with the righteous, lest they should trust in their own riches. We see in Job's case, it was not only his sons, and daughters, who were banquetting, nor only his asses, and sheep, and camels that were feeding, that were destroyed; but upon his oxen, that were ploughing, upon his servants, which were doing their particular duties, the Sabæans came, and destruction in their sword; his oxen, and his servants perished, in occupatione, in their labour, in their travail, when they were doing that, which they should do. And if God do thus to his children, to humble them beforehand, that they do not sacrifice to their own nets, not trust in their own industry, nor in their own riches, how much more vehemently shall his judgments burn upon them, whose purpose in gathering riches, was principally, that they might stand of themselves, and not need God. There are beasts that labour not, but yet furnish us, with their wool alive, and with their flesh, when they are dead; as sheep; there are men that desire riches, and though they do no other good, they are content to keep good houses, and that their heir

should do so, when they are dead; there are beasts that labour, and are meat at their death, but yield no other help in their life, and these are oxen; there are men that labour to be rich, and do no good with it, till their death; there are beasts that only labour, and yield nothing else in life, nor death, as horses and there are some, that do neither, but only prey upon others, as lions, and others such; we need not apply particularly; there are all bestial natures in rich men; and God knows how to meet with them all; and much more will he punish them, which do no good, in life, nor death, nay that labour not for their riches but surfeit upon the sweat of other men, since even the riches of those, that trust in riches, shall perish in occupatione, in the very labour, and in the very travail, which (if it were not done with a confidence in the riches, when they are got,) were allowable, and acceptable to God.

You may have a good emblem of such a rich man, whose riches perish in his travail, if you take into your memory, and thoughts, a sponge that is overfilled; if you press it down, with your little finger, the water comes out of it; nay, if you lift it up, there comes water out of it; if you remove it out of its place, though to the right hand as well as to the left, it pours out water; nay if it lie still quiet in its place, yet it wets the place, and drops out its moisture. Such is an over-full, and spongy covetous person: he must pour out, as well as he hath sucked in; if the least weight of disgrace, or danger lie upon him, he bleeds out his money; nay, if he be raised up, if he be preferred, he hath no way to it, but by money, and he shall be raised, whether he will or no, for it. If he be stirred from one place to another, if he be suffered to settle where he is, and would be, still these two incommodities lie upon him; that he is lothest to part with his money, of anything, and yet he can do nothing without it. He labours for riches, and still he is but a bag, for other men pereunt in occupatione, as fast as he gather by labour, God raises some occasion of drawing them from him again. It is not then with riches in a family, as it is with a nail in a wall, that the hard beating of it in, makes it the faster. It is not the hard and laborious getting of money, the fixing of that in a

strong wall, the laying it upon lands, and such things as are vulgarly distinguished from moveables, (as though the world, and we were not moveables) nor the beating that nail hard, the binding it with entails, of iron, and adamant, and perpetuities of eternity, that makes riches permanent, and sure; but it is the good purpose in the getting, and the good use in the having. And this good use is not, when thou makest good use of thy money, but when the commonwealth, where God hath given thee thy station, makes use of it: the commonwealth must suck upon it by trade, not it upon the commonwealth, by usury. Nurses that give suck to children, maintain themselves by it too; but both must be done; thou must be enriched so, by thy money, as that the state be not impoverished. This is the good use in having it; and the good purpose in getting it, is, that God may be glorified in it; some errors in using of riches, are not so dangerous; for some employing of them in excesses, and superfluities, this is a rust, without, it will be filed off with good counsel, or it will be worn off in time; in time we come to see the vanity of it and when we leave looking at other men's clothes, or thinking them the better men for their clothes, why should we think, that others like us the better for our clothes; those desires will decay in us. But an ill purpose in getting of them, that we might stand of ourselves, and rely upon our riches, this is a rust, a cancer at the heart, and is incurable. And therefore, if as the course, and progress of money hath been in the world from the beginning, (the observation is St. Augustine's, but it is obvious to every man acquainted with history) that first the world used iron money, and then silver money, and last of all, gold; if thy first purpose in getting, have been for iron, (that thou have intended thy money to be thy strength, and defence in all calamities) and then for silver (to provide thee abundance, and ornaments, and excesses) and then for gold, to hoard, and treasure up in a little room; Thesaurisasti iram; Thou hast treasured up the anger of God, against the day of anger'.

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Go the same way still; account riches iron, (naturally apt to receive those rusts which we spoke of, in getting, and using) account them silver, (naturally intended to provide thee of things

9 Rom. ii. 5.