comfort, as well as a great difhonour to God, and a fweet morfel to them that eat up the fin of God's people.

Cufbi. I think there are two fins which are not found in the dark catalogue of any gracious character in the Bible. One fin is what the law calls prefumption, Num. xv. 30; which David calls the great tranfgreffion, Psalm xix. 13; which John calls the fin unto death, 1 John v. 16; but Chrift calls it the unpardonable fin. Matt. xii. 31.

The other fin is covetousness; for this fin God was wroth with Ifrael and fmote him, and of this he promises to heal him. Isaiah lvii. 17, 18. Paul calls it the root of all evil, 1 Tim. vi. 10, and idolatry, Col. iii. 5, which the Saviour calls the fervice of mammon, Matt. vi. 24, and pronounces a wo on all fuch fervants. Luke vi. 24, 25. To the best of my knowledge, I do not remember that ever daring presumption, and the love of money, are once filed among any of the bills that God hath brought in againft a real citizen of Zion; his character excludes both thefe, Pfalm xv. These are the two fins againft which David levels the force of his prayers, Keep back thy fervant from presumptuous fins. Pfalm xix. 13. Incline my heart unto thy teftimonies, and not to covetousness. Pfalm cxix. 36. Both these are the devil's own marks, and I defy the world to prove them to be marks of a faint; wherever we find any thus marked, we may fay, They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not

the

the fpot of the children [of God]; they are a perverfe and crooked generation. Deut. xxxii. 5.

Abimaaz. I have often wondered why Paul calls the love of money the root of all evil. The apostle feems to intimate, that one fingle root is fufficient to produce the whole crop of wickednefs: I wonder what he makes the root of all godlinefs to be?

Cubi. The root of all vital godliness is the love of God, operating on the affections of a regenerate foul; and this love is fhed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghoft, which is given unto us: this is Paul's root, Be ye rooted and grounded in love. Eph. iii. 17. Job tells you, this root of the matter was found in him, as was before hinted; and falfe profeffors not having this root in them, is the caufe of their withering away. Matt. xiii. 6.

These two roots are clearly feen in the ten commandments; for that which is therein required is, love to God and thy neighbour; and he that loveth God and his neighbour hath fulfilled the law. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Rom. xiii. 10. As love includes all obedience to the law; fo covetoufnefs includes all difobedience. Thou shalt not covet. Exod. xx. 17. I had not known fin but by the law: for I had not known luft, except the law had faid, Thou shalt not covet. Rom. vii. 7.

Abimaaz. By the apoftle's calling the love of money a root, it must take a deep hold in man;

and

and if fo, nothing but the grace of God can root it up.

Cufbi. Salvation, applied to the finner's conscience by the Spirit of grace, will do it, and nothing else. There was a man named Zaccheus, who was chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he fought to fee Jefus who he was. And be ran before, and climbed upon into a fycamore-tree. But Jefus faid unto him, Zaccheus, make hafte, and come down, for to-day I must abide at thy house. And when they [the Lord's followers] Jaw it, they all murmured, faying, That he was gone to be gueft to a man that is a finner. And Zaccheus food, and faid unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by falfe accufation, I restore him four-fold. And Jefus faid unto him, This day is falvation come to this houfe, forafmuch as he also is a fon of Abraham. Luke xix. 2-9. Thus the prefence of the Lord, and his falvation, applied by the spirit of grace, opens the contracted bowels of a worldling, and makes him difgorge half his property at once. This fhews the purging quality of grace: Every branch in me that beareth fruit my Father purgeth it. John xv. 2. If a chofen veffel bath fwallowed down riches [when grace is revealed] it makes him vomit them up again: God fhall caft them out of his belly. Job xx. 15.

Abimaaz. Excufe my breaking in upon your difcourfe, which I fhould not have done, but I think

7

think you are wrong in excluding covetousness from the fins of bible faints. You know we are all fallible creatures, and liable to err; I think the church of the Laodiceans is charged with covetoufnefs, and that in exprefs terms, Because thou fayeft, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. Rev. iii. 17.

Cufbi. I do not pretend to infallibility; that belongs to God: nor do I deny what you fay of the Laodicean church; I take it for granted that there were fome real faints in that church; but those whom the Saviour's charge concerned, are faid to be altogether ignorant of their state. [Thou] knoweft not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Rev. iii. 17. If these covetous profeffors were ignorant, wretched, miferable, poor, blind, and naked, they were as deftitute of grace as ever Judas was; and if they were not graceless, they would not stand in need of being counselled to buy of the Saviour gold tried in the fire that they might be rich: and white raiment that they might be clothed, and that the frame of their nakedness might not appear; and to anoint their eyes with eye-falve, that they might fee. Rev.

iii. 18.

The love of money, the root of all evil, can never be rooted in a foil where the love of God keeps a proper hold; it is a fin that hell itself will never purge a foul from, any more than the fight of a gallows will deftroy the love of evil in a felon who

who is going reluctantly to receive, at the hand of justice, the dreadful wages of unrighteousness. Rom.

vi. 23.

Mammon, that fallen angel, has been in the horrors of hell nigh fix thoufand years, yet, to this day, he tempts thousands to covetoufnefs, and thousands are influenced with his difpofition; yea, they serve him with delight, and are in friendfhip with him, though Chrift declares, that when they fail of heaven, they fhall spend an eternity with him in hell. And I fay unto you, make to yourfelves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting babitations. Luke xvi. 10. Be not offended at my afferting that hell itself will not purge a foul from fin; hell is not intended to be a place of purgation, as fome affirm, but a place of punishment. 2 Thess.

i. 9.

Abimaaz. Well, I cannot contradict thee, my brother; but do let me hear a little of the converfion of Prodigalis; for I can take comfort in the repentance of a finner, but to hear of their wickednefs is rather a terror to me.

Cufbi. So can I; and am determined, through grace, to labour hard as long as I live to be inftrumental, if God pleafe, in bringing finners to repentance. After Mr. Prodigalis had wafted all his fubftance with riotous living, he became melancholy, his paft conduct began to recoil on his mind with the fenfible impreffions of guilt; this quenched