and not their fervice. The avaricious is poor in his wealth: he wants for fear of fpending; and increases his fear with his hope, which is his gain; and fo tortures himself with his pleasure: the moft like to the man that hid his talent in a napkin, of all others; for this man's talents are hid in his bags out of fight, in vaults, under boards, behind wainscots; elfe upon bonds and mortgages, growing but as under ground; for it doth good to none.

§. XIV. This covetous man is a monster in nature; for he has no bowels; and is like the poles, always cold. An enemy to the ftate, for he fpirits their money away. A disease to the body politick, for he obstructs the circulation of the blood, and ought to be removed by a purge of the law: for these are vices at heart, that deftroy by wholefale. The covetous, he hates all useful arts and sciences, as vain, left they should cost him fomething the learning: wherefore ingenuity has no more place in his mind, than in his pocket. He lets houses fall, and highways poach, to prevent the charge of repairs and for his fpare diet, plain cloaths, and mean furniture, he would place them to the account of moderation. O monster of a man! that can take up the cross for covetousness, and not for Christ.

§. XV. But he pretends negatively to fome religion too; for he always rails at prodigality, the better to cover his avarice. If you would bestow a box of spikenard on a good man's head, to fave money, and to fhew righteous, he tells you of the poor: but if they come, he excufes his want of charity with the unworthiness of the object, or the caufes of his poverty, or that he can bestow his money upon those that deserve it better; who rarely opens his purfe till quarter-day, for fear of lofing it.

§. XVI, But he is more miserable than the pooreft; for he enjoys not what he yet fears to lofe; they fear not what they do not enjoy. Thus is he poor by overvaluing his wealth; but he is wretched, that hungers with money in a cook's shop: yet having made a god of

his gold, who knows, but he thinks it unnatural to eat what he worships?

§. XVII. But, which aggravates this fin, I have myself once known fome, that to get money, have, wearied themselves into the grave; and to be true to their principle, when fick, would not fpare a fee to a doctor, to help the poor flave to live; and fo died to fave charges: a conftancy that canonizes them martyrs for money.

§. XVIII. But now let us fee what inftances the fcripture will give us in reproof of the fordid hoarders and hiders of money. A good-like young man came to Christ, and enquired the way to eternal life: Chrift told him he knew the commandments: he replied, he had kept them from his youth: (it feems he was no loose perfon, and indeed fuch are ufually not fo, to fave charges) and yet lackest thou one thing (faith Chrift) fell all, diftribute it to the poor, and thou fhalt have ← treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.' It feems Chrift pinched him in the fore place; he hit the mark, and struck him to the heart, who knew his heart: by this he tried how well he had kept the commandments, to love God above all. It is faid, the young man was very forrowful, and went his way; and the reason which is given, is, that he was very rich. The tides met, money and eternal life: contrary defires: but which prevailed? alas! his riches. But what faid Chrift to this? How hardly fhall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God?' He adds, It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, ⚫ than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of • heaven:' that is, fuch a rich man, to wit, a covetous rich man, to whom it is hard to do good with what he has: it is more than an ordinary miracle: O who then would be rich and covetous! It was upon these rich men that Chrift pronounced his wo, faying, Wo unto you that are rich, for ye have received your confolation here: What! none in the heavens? no, unless you become willing to be poor men, can refign all, live

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loose to the world, have it at arm's-end, yea, underfoot, a fervant, and not a master.

§. XIX. The other inftance is a very difmal one too: it is that of Ananias and Sapphira. In the beginning of apoftolick times, it was cuftomary for thofe who received the word of life, to bring what fubftance they had, and lay it at the apoftles feet: of these, Jofes, furnamed Barnabas, was exemplary. Among the rest, Ananias and his wife Sapphira, confeffing to the truth, fold their poffeffion, but covetously referved fome of the purchase-money from the common purse, to themfelves, and brought a part for the whole, and laid it at the apostles feet. But Peter, a plain and a bold man, in the majefty of the Spirit, faid, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lye to the Holy Ghost; and to keep back part of the price of the land? ' whilst it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was fold, was it not in thine own power? why haft ' thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou haft 'not lied unto men, but unto God.' But what followed this covetoufnefs and hypocrify of Ananias? why, Ananias hearing these words, he fell down, and gave up the ghoft." The like befel his wife, being privy to the deceit their avarice had led them to. And it is faid, that great fear came upon all the 'church, and thofe that heard of these things:' and alfo fhould on those that now read them. For if this judgment was fhewn and recorded, that we fhould beware of the like evils, what will become of those, that under the profeffion of Chriftianity, a religion that teaches men to live loose from the world, and to yield up all to the will and fervice of Chrift and his kingdom, not only retain a part, but all; and cannot part with the leaft thing for Chrift's fake. I befeech God to incline the hearts of my readers to weigh these things. This had not befallen Ananias and Sapphira, if they had acted as in God's prefence, and with that entire love, truth, and fincerity, that became them. O that people would use the light that Christ hath given them, to fearch and see how far they are under the power of

this iniquity! For would they but watch against the love of the world, and be lefs in bondage to the things that are seen, which are temporal, they would begin to fet their hearts on things above, that are of an eternal nature. Their life would be hid with Chrift in God, out of the reach of all the uncertainties of time, and troubles and changes of mortality. Nay, if people would but confider how hardly riches are got, how uncertainly they are kept, the envy they bring; that they can neither make a man wife, nor cure diseases, nor add to life, much less give peace in death: no, nor hardly yield any folid benefit above food and raiment (which may be had without them) and that if there be any good ufe for them, it is to relieve others in diftrefs; being but stewards of the plentiful providences of God, and confequently accountable for our stewardship: if, I fay, these confiderations had any room in our minds, we fhould not thus poft to get, nor care to hide and keep, fuch a mean and impotent thing. O that the cross of Chrift (which is the Spirit and Power of God in man) might have more place in the soul, that it might crucify us more and more to the world, and the world to us; that, like the days of paradise, the earth might again be the footstool; and the treasure of the earth a fervant, and not a god, to man!-Many have writ against this vice; three I will mention.

§. XX. William Tindal, that worthy apostle of the English reformation, has an intire difcourfe, to which I refer the reader, intitled, The Parable of the Wicked • Mammon.' The next is

§. XXI. Peter Charron (a famous Frenchman, and in particular for the book he wrote of Wisdom) hath a chapter against covetoufness, part of which take as followeth "To love and affect riches, is covetouf"nefs: not only the love and affection, but also every "over-curious care and industry about riches. The "defire of goods, and the pleasure we take in poffeffing "of them, is grounded only upon opinion: the im"moderate defire to get riches, is a gangrene in our "fouls, which, with a venomous heat confumeth our ❝ natural

"natural affections, to the end it might fill us with "virulent humours. So foon as it is lodged in our "hearts, all honeft and natural affection, which we

owe either to our parents or friends, or ourselves, "vanisheth away: all the reft, in refpect of our "profit, feemeth nothing; yea, we forget in the end, " and condemn ourselves, our bodies, our minds, for "this tranfitory trash; and as our proverb is, We fell "our horfe to get us hay. Covetoufnefs is the vile " and base paffion of vulgar fools, who account riches "the principal good of a man, and fear poverty, as "the greatest evil; and not contenting themfelves " with neceffary means, which are forbidden no man, weigh that is good in a goldfmith's balance, when "nature has taught us to measure it by the ell of ne"ceffity. For, what greater folly can there be, than "to adore that which nature itself hath put under our feet, and hidden in the bowels of the earth, as un"worthy to be feen; yea, rather to be contemned, " and trampled under foot? This is that which the "fin of man hath only torn out of the entrails of the "earth, and brought unto light to kill himself. We "dig out the bowels of the earth, and bring to light "thofe things, for which we would fight: We are not "afhamed to esteem thofe things moft highly, which "are in the lowest parts of the earth. Nature feemeth even in the first birth of gold, and the womb from "whence it proceedeth, after a fort to have prefaged "the misery of those that are in love with it; for it "hath fo ordered the matter, that in those countries " where it groweth, there groweth with it neither grafs, nor plant, nor other thing that is worth any thing: as giving us to understand thereby, that in "thofe minds where the defire of this metal groweth, "there cannot remain fo much as a fpark of true "honour and virtue. For what thing can be more "base, than for a man to degrade, and to make him"felf a fervant and a flave to that which fhould be "fubject unto him? Riches ferve wife men, but com"mand a fool: for a covetous man ferveth his riches,

" and