A CAVEAT FOR THE COVETOUS. OR, A SERMON PREACHED at Paul's Cross, upon the fourth of December, out of Luke. 12.15.  
By WILLIAM WHATELIE, Preacher of the word of God, in Banbury.  
The love of the world is enmity against God.  
You cannot serve God and Mammon.  
LONDON: Printed by T. S. for Thomas Man, and Matthew Law, 1609.   

TO THE courteous Reader.  
CHristian READER, Nothing is more lamentable than the worldliness of us Christians. Our life is little else but a breach of our most solemn vow to the Lord of life. We renounced the world at our first entrance into the Church of God, devoting ourselves to the service of Christ. (These were good words, if there were any thing besides words in the most of us.) But being grown we renounce Christ, and return to the service of the world in all our actions. Our deeds prove that we do but only talk of God and Christ, and heaven: for what hath God but our breath? and with what do we seek heaven, but with the tongue? the world hath heart and hands, and (if not all yet) most of all our strength. Being therefore (against my will, and earnest entreaty to the contrary) commanded to speak unto this great congregation, I thought I could not discharge mine own duty, & profit the present auditory better, than if I did labour to beat down this vice, which hath gotten more ground against the power of godliness, (I think) then the devils whole host of lusts beside. If I have offended in any thing, it is in being too plain: which whether it be a fault, yea or no, in a preacher, I cannot determine with myself, but I know well it is less faulty, then that other extreme which in our times is more in price and use. Yet me thinks the Apostle Paul hath given us a very good direction, saying; it hath pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save the believers. 
1. Cor. 1.21.  Doth the Apostle disgrace God's ordinance by giving it such a name? or doth he not rather deride men's censures that so miscall it? For not the wise, not the learned, not the witty, not the eloquent kind of preaching, doth help men's souls to heaven; but that kind, which the greatest part (out of their fleshliness) esteem base and foolish, because it wants the excellency of words, & the enticing speeches of man's wisdom, as elsewhere the same Apostle saith; If I should aim at any other end in preaching, than the salvation of men: were I not accursed for doing Gods work negligently, or perversely? If aiming at this, I should use any but his own means, were I not foolish, that would prefer mine own thoughts to his? If this kind of preaching please God, why not speaker? why not hearer? why not all? If it save men, why should it not content those that come, the one to offer, the other to seek salvation? To say the truth, I do not unwillingly confess, that my learning is but small: For much learning requireth much reading, & much reading many years, which all that know me, know to be wanting unto me. Wherefore to make show of much (by the help of an index or such like) when I have it not, were but a cozening trick, and a prank beseeming a bragger or a bankrupt, of whom Solomon saith, There is that maketh himself rich and hath nothing. But say I had had the greatest abundance of learning, yet it behoved me to remember, that a pulpit is not a place to show scholarship in, but faithfulness, nor to declare how well read we are in other authors, but how ill practised the hearers are in the will and word of God the best author. Preaching was not appointed to tickle the ear with a gay speech and learned oration, but to pierce the heart, with a sharp reproof and earnest exhortation not to win credit and applause to the speaker; but to work knowledge and obedience in the hearer: not to make the auditory commend us, and say, sure he is a good Scholar, a man of good wit and great reading, etc. But to condemn themselves, and say we have been bad men, men of polluted hearts and lives. In a word, not to draw men to admire the gifts of him that speaketh, and offer him preferment; but to repent of their own sins, and offer submission unto Christ that sent him to speak. This if the Minister aim at, he is happy, and the people also, if he attain it; but whosoever aims at credit or profit in preaching, may go from the Pulpit to hell, and take his wages with the hypocrite to whom it is said, that he hath received his reward. Loth would I be to buy praise or profit at such a price, neither did I dare to hazard myself unto God, for misintending his ordinance, and handling his word in a wrong manner. With this determination did I come to speak; with this determination should every Christian come to hear. And if any twit me with the name of an English Preacher (a name taken up to disgrace the foolishness of preaching which God commends) I have to answer, that I speak to Englishmen, and, the most, no Scholars, otherwise it had not been hard to have heaped up, and learned by heart, and spoken readily many a Greek and Latin sentence fit for the purpose: but who would lose labour and time, & make two speakings where one would serve the turn? And in this plain manner (Reader) have I encountered, by the sword of the spirit, this capital evil of the world, which is worldliness I was willing to publish, being spoken, what I was not willing to speak, hoping to help some man against the sin, (which I speak against) besides mine hearers, if but one Christian grow less earthly by benefit of this labour, my recompense is sufficient; if not one, yet I have this fruit that I intended to do good and endeavoured it. Now Reader, if thou meet with any fault, censure it with favour, for I am but a man, and in reading apply nothing to any, but to thyself, & I have my desire. Thus I commend thee, and thy growth in virtue, to the help and assistance of our gracious Father.  
Banbury, january. Thine in all Christian affection, William Whately.   

M. WHATELIES' SERMON, PREACHED AT PAUL'S CROSS.  Luke 12.15. 
Take heed and beware of covetousness, for though a man have abundance, his life consists not in his riches.  
THese are the words of our Saviour Christ, uttered upon occasion of a certain accident related immediately before. Two brethren were at variance, about their father's lands. It seems that one would have had all to himself, and left very little or nothing to his brother. Hereupon the party that thought himself wronged, entreats our Saviour by good counsel, to compose the controversy betwixt them, and to bring his brother to some more equal course of division. Our Lord that always regarded the the soul more than the state, perceiving covetousness to be the cause of this contention, refuseth to intermeddle with the parting of their lands, and falls to cure that disease of their souls which procured all this distemper. This he gins to do in the verse present, and prosecutes more at large in the sequel of the Chapter. These words divide themselves into two parts: The first, Christ's exhortation, Take heed, and beware of covetousness. The second, the reason wherewith he backs his exhortation taken from the ineffectualness of wealth, the object of covetousness, for though a man have abundance, etc. that is, if any man should heap up all superfluities, he shall find no more safety, quiet, or contentment of life, from this his copheaped plenty of outward things. The point of doctrine which our Saviour Christ aims at, Doctrine. in the discussing of which I purpose to spend the time allotted, is so manifest, that no man can choose but see it, whosoever will be ruled by Christ, must beware of Covetousness. All true Christians, that do hang at Christ's mouth for direction, and show their hope of salvation by practice of obedience, must shun and avoid with all diligence this hateful sin of worldliness; one word of Christ should be sufficient to a Christian soul, but he was not so scant of words as once only to warn us of such a capital evil. The same spirit spoke in his Apostles, that in himself and by their mouths he hath given us many like advertisements, whereof some one or two it shall suffice to have mentioned. Colos. 3.5. The Apostle speaks to Christians in this manner. Mortify therefore your earthly members, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which, (to provoke our greater hatred) he calls by that hateful name of idolatry. And well might he so call it, for it causeth a man to repose his hope of safety upon riches, which should be wholly and only fixed upon the Lord of hosts, seeing it is impossible that any thing should secure a man from danger, unless it do surpass all other things in power and in greatness: this sin is you see a capital enemy of our salvation, which in our Christian warfare we should fight against, and strive to slaughter in ourselves. The Apostle also, Heb. 13.5. hath said to the same purpose, Let your conversation be without covetousness. The word is in the original, without the love of money. But all comes to one reckoning. And it is observable that he saith (your conversation,) to meet with the deceitful hollowness of those that content themselves in some few actions to appear not covetous, whilst in other actions at other times they be wholly polluted with this sin. Their counterfeit and maimed diligence, answers not the large extent of this commandment. A good man's life if God's counsel might be heard, should not in one or two alone, but in all the parts thereof, be free from the stains of this wickedness. More places might be produced for the proof of the same truth, if it were as needful, as easy so to do. But the chief difficulty in this thing will be, not so much to win consent of judgement to the point, as conformity of practice to the judgement. Wherefore to the intent that Christ's speeches may be more profitably regarded, and this fault more carefully shunned by you all that hear me this day; I will in few words set out some of the most harmful effects that ensue upon this vicious disposition of mind that Christ calls covetousness.  
First, Reason. 1 it utterly hinders the saving operation of the word of God, and causeth the most powerful instrument of regeneration and salvation, to be altogether ineffectual for the producing of these effects, in that party in whom it beareth sway. That our Saviour plainly witnesseth, when he compareth the word to seed, the Preacher to the seedsman, the heart to the ground, this covetousness to the thorns that choke the seed. The Husbandman may cast away grain upon a parcel of land overrun with brambles, but the seed so bestowed will never come in at harvest: So the Minister may preach the word to worldly minded men; but he shall spend his strength in vain. Let us study never so painfully, teach never so constantly, prove never so strongly, exhort never so powerfully, this time and labour is but lost, among our earthly affected hearers. Either they come not to hear, or attend not in hearing, or meditate not after hearing. And this you must mark brethren, that even attentive hearing without meditation will not engraff the word into your hearts, it will not profit the soul more, than much getting when a man keeps nothing can benefit his estate. Well may it increase swimming, but not saving knowledge: it may furnish one's head with words and matter for honest discourse, but not one's heart with uprightness and sincerity for godly conversation. Thus then stands the case. The Lord offers thee his word to enlighten thy mind, to sanctify thine heart, to convert thy soul, and make thee a true Christian: Covetousness opposeth itself, & will not suffer the word to dwell in thine heart, nor thine heart to ponder upon the word, and so causeth thee to be but an hypocrite at the best, shouldest thou not avoid it?  
Secondly, Reason 2 another evil as bad as this comes up together with this. This sin steals away the heart from heaven, and those desirable graces of God's spirit that fit a man for heaven. 
Colos. 3.2.  The Apostle Paul wisheth us to set our affections upon the things that are above, and not upon the things that are below; intimating an utter impossibility to do both; as if he had told us that there be 2. sorts of objects, after which men's affections are carried, some are of the earth earthly, momentany, transitory, and unable to give any sound and lasting contentment. Such are houses, lands, goods, money, in a word, worldly things. Others are from heaven, heavenly, substantial, constant, immortal, truly profitable to the whole man, such are faith, repentance, the spirit of prayer, the favour of God, in a word, Christ and his benefits. And we must understand this, that the body may ascend and descend at the same time, as well as the soul or affections go earthward and heavenward both at once; Where the treasure is, there will be the heart, be it in heaven or in earth: no man hath two hearts, two treasures, the one is but counterfeit, if any at all. Now this covetousness as an arrow shot from hell, doth nail the heart to the very ground, that it cannot be lifted upwards, and as a lime-twig set by the Devil so entangles the wings of the soul, that it cannot possibly fly upward toward its proper home. The worldly man is so taken up in courting and wooing his harlotry mistress, the world; which hath taken him with her eyelids of gain, and inveigled him with her naked breasts of commodity, that the suit for heaven and things thereof, is altogether neglected and forsaken. Therefore the scripture calls the worldling an adulterer, because as the whoremaster leaves a beautiful and wel-conditioned wife, to embrace a common and polluted courtesan, so doth he abandon God and salvation, to satisfy himself with this most deformed and misshapen world. And is it not the highest degree of unhappiness to be rob of one's understanding; and be so far forth infatuate as to exchange heaven itself for a few shillings, yea farthings; and be more painful and earnest to get a little glistering silver into the chest, than the glorious image of jesus Christ into the soul? for though God do often cast these outward things upon those that take no great pains for them and the world falls into the mouths of many before they be aware of it, (as we say) yet it is not so for heavenly things. God never spill such treasures, nor parts with them to any without suit, without thanks. He must call for wisdom, and dig for understanding that will have them, and strive to enter that hopes to find a place in heaven, and miss of his entrance that striveth not. The case stands so therefore with thy soul, God offers himself and eternal life unto thee, upon condition of convenient diligence in using the means to get it on thy part: the world steps betwixt, draws thine heart, diverts thy thoughts, cares, desires, an other way, and so causeth thee to forfeit even an eternal kingdom, not for want of means, but of care and pains to attain the same. Oughtest thou not as Christ bids, to take heed thereof? but yet more evil proceedeth from this master evil: Reason. 3 It exposeth that heart which harbours it, with allowance unto all manner of loathsome sins and dangerous temptations. The Devil hath the covetous man always upon the hip, as we speak; that is, ever at such an advantage, that he doubts not to give him the overthrow in any assault. Satan is a cruel fowler, having his nets and his call, and every thing in readiness, and if once he become acquainted with the birds diet, he makes no question of his game: yea, he promiseth himself to have the poor fowls neck between his fingers speedily. And indeed no hawk is better trained to the fist of the cunning falconer, than the worldly man to all the devils ways; whatsoever sin he would have him commit, let him but hollow & cast up the lure of commodity, he stoops presently and falls upon it. Would he have him lie, promise him profit; then gins he to hem and haw, and falter in his speech, and equivocate, and at length proceeds to downright lying, and impudent facing out a known untruth. Would he have him perjured, the same art doth that also; show him commodity, use silver persuasions, he will assay and go back, and fear, and sweat, but at last hardens himself, and cares not to pollute the name of God, with a thousand falsehoods, and a thousand oaths. Yea, the Devil can make such a man wade up to the chin in a stream of warm blood, with the glistering show of gold, and cause him to leap headlong into the bottomless and burning pit of hell, with the large hope of enriching his estate. In a word, there is not the rankest of all Satan's poisons, but he will greedily devour in the sweet broth of commodity. Those unnatural crimes which would make the soul aghast, if they came barefaced, send them in a guilded vizard, as it were in a mask to the covetous man's house, he will entertain them kindly with a kiss, & fears not to embrace them even in both his arms.  
Those hideous and enormous evils for which hell itself doth gape upon the conscience with an open mouth, are (we see it with our eyes) even fearelesly committed in hope of advantage. And therefore the Scripture calls this sin, not a branch, but a root, which itself, hath many large, and big, and fruitful branches, and that not of some one or two, or few, but of all evil: because there can be no sin named so hateful, which profit hath not made the lovers of profit, either to commit themselves, or, which is all one, to consent to in others. The worldling is a fit piece of timber for any place in Satan's building. This mercenary soldier doth never think himself too good for any service in all the devils camp, where pay and booty may be gotten. He can make an Image-worshipper, and a defender of Image-worshippe, a perjured person, a Sabboth-breaker, and a maintainer of them that do it, a killer of Father and mother, a murderer of Kings, a blower up of Parliament houses, a staruer of souls, a whoremaster, an harlot, a more polluted wretch, a robber, a forsworn accuser, and what not in the highest degree against any commandment? This sin is like a great beast that makes a large gap for any other beast to enter in at afterwards. This is the devils great Ordinance wherewith he makes such fearful battery upon the walls of the conscience, that there are many wide breaches for all his army of other lusts, to give an irresistible assault thereat, upon the heart and life and so to win the same to himself. So that whereas God forbids all sin in pain of damnation, the Devil may persuade thee if thou be covetous, to any sin, in hope of commodity, and shouldst not thou abhor this most pernicious vice?  
But neither yet is this all. Reason. 4 A man might begin to practise sins, and yet after feeling the bitterness of these paths of death, return back into the ways of blessedness, and be safe. But this sin is like the harlot, a deep and narrow ditch, and like the wicked woman that Solomon calls more bitter than death, whose heart is as nets and snares, and her hands as bands to keep a man fast in the ward and prison of the devil. For in the fourth place, whosoever is overruled by this sin, cannot tread one of the sure steps towards heaven: and in what measure this lead is tied to any man's heels, he is utterly disabled from climbing up the ladder of blessedness, which the Scripture hath framed for us. You know that our Saviour Christ hath showed eight beatitudes, as it were so many stairs up to the throne of heaven; to be poor in spirit, to mourn spiritually, to be meek, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to be mercifully, to be pure in heart, to be a peacemaker, and to suffer persecution for righteousness sake. Now the covetous man cannot lift up the legs of his soul to any one of these stairs, and therefore whilst he continues covetous, there is no possibility of his ever coming to God. Poor in spirit he cannot be: For he is so taken up with fear of poverty in purse, and the sense of the misery which want will bring, that his soul grows altogether senseless of the misery into which the fall of Adam and his own sins have case him. Spiritual penury is not felt there, where want and poverty are so extremely pinching. Again, he can never mourn truly for his sins: for either carnal joy) which he takes inordinately by seeing the increase of his worldly substance (as the rich man in the Gospel, when he thought he had riches laid up in store for many years) doth so tickle and warm his heart that the stream of tears is dried up, which should be spent in bewailing his sins: or else that worldly sorrow and vexation (that stings him upon the sense of outward crosses, and the disappointment of his hopes in earthly matters) doth turn the stream of weeping quite another way, that it cannot come to the washing of his soul, and purging of his conscience, Then meek he cannot be, for he is always possessed with one or other passion of carnal joy, or grief, or envy, or the like, which as a storm or tempest on the sea doth fill him full of rage and distemper. The spirit of God hath called him a trouble house, saying, he that is greedy of gain troubles his own house, and it is impossible that his heart should be meek and quiet, when as he cannot suffer his house so to be. Also for hungering and thirsting after righteousness, it cannot be that his appetite should stand that way, for the doges-hunger, and dropsie-thirst of wealth doth so gnaw & torment his soul, that he hath no leisure to long for Christ, and the imputation or communication of his righteousness. So that he may freely lap in the filthy puddles of the world, he never cares for the sweet and wholesome streams to which jesus Christ doth invite him, and if the may gorge himself with the foul garbage of ill gotten goods, the pleasant and delightful food of the soul is but unsavoury to him. And like as one that hath the green sickness, or some other such disease, will leave the best meat, to feed on salt, oatmeal, or some such like unwholesome thing: so the palate and stomach of his soul is in that measure disordered, as he will reject righteousness itself, to surfeit upon filthy lucre. But as for being merciful, that stands not in any sort with his profession, if he should suffer his heart to relent at the miseries of distressed men, and open his purse to relieve them, that would surely lessen the heap of his money, which he must not dare to do. A piece of money goes from him as drop of blood from his heart, with such a lively feeling and pain, that he cannot be well pleased with that whatsoever, which draws it away. And therefore he hath either no pity and mercy, or else but by starts and fits now and then, which is as good as none. Now for purity of heart, how can it be conceived that he should have it, whose soul is as nest for the devil, or a cage of unclean birds, in which sin and Saith an may sit, and hatch, and hurke, and bring up all their broods of damnable lusts and practices, if that they will lay now and then a golden egg or two among, for the satisfying of his greedy humour? He that hath the root of all evil in his heart, cannot have a pure heart. Moreover for peace making, cross him in his penny, and he will trouble all the world, neither can he put up a wrong that toucheth him in his commodity, without, being avenged. All the world can tell that covetousness is the father, mother, nurse and all, of most debates and strifes, for it makes a man set against every man, from whom he may wrest any prsofit, and stand against every man also to whom he should pay any dues. And for the last step of all, which is to suffer persecution for righteousness sake, this he will never do, his goods are his God, & if it come to those terms that either he must leave riches or righteousness, with true religion and the practice of it, he loves God well, but his money better. Alas, he must be borne with, God gives good words indeed, but a man cannot live with words: his money he can feel & see, that pleaseth his sense so well, that he thinks it folly to part with it, for such a matter. And therefore as the young man in the Gospel, he hangs his head in his bosom, and goes his ways with a sad countenance, something sorry that he cannot please Christ, and keep his wealth both, but what ever come of it, he must keep that. The world is his mistress, and he must embrace her, then farewell righteousness and religion. So that now a man might very truly turn the speeches of our Saviour Christ against the covetous man and say: Cursed be the covetous for he is not poor but proud in spirit, & therefore the kingdom of hell is his: cursed be the covetous, for he cannot mourn for his sins but for his losses only, and therefore he shall never be comforted. Cursed be the covetous, for he is not meek but froward in heart, and therefore he shall not inherit the earth which he so much wisheth. Cursed be the covetous, for he doth not long after righteousness, but after riches, and therefore he shall never be satisfied. Cursed be the covetous, for he is not merciful, but hardhearted, and therefore he shall find no mercy. Cursed be the covetous, for he is not a peacemaker but a makebate, and therefore he shall be called the child of the Devil. Cursed be the covetous, for he is not pure but filthy in heart, and therefore he shall never see God. Cursed be the covetous, for he cannot suffer the loss of his wealth for righteousness sake, and therefore the kingdom of hell is his. Must you not then needs yield brethren, that this is a sin much to be shunned, which doth annihilate the saving power of the word of God, steal away the heart from the love of heaven, & the things of God: force the heart to the harbouring of the most foul temptations, and hinder the heart from attaining any part of blessedness, yea plunge it into such a multitude of curses?  
Seeing then it is apparent that this vice is most enormous, and pernicious to the soul, let us make some use of this point to our consciences. First then upon this ground we may safely build an exhortation to all and every of you, that you do search your own hearts and lives, to find how far this filthy sin hath found entertainment there, when jesus Christ doth so precisely forbidden an evil, no Christian can deny, knowing his nature to be inclinable to all evil, that it behoveth from such exhortation, to take occasion of examining himself, how far forth he hath offended or doth offend in that kind. Christ would not give warning of a fault to his servants, if they were not also subject to it, and if we be subject to it, what can we do less than look to it, if it be breeding in us yea or no? So then, seeing you have heard and perceived the vileness of this sin, I beseech you every one not censure another, but to consider of his own heart and life, and to observe diligently if the have not been at the least tainted and blemished with the same, though not wholly polluted with it, which exhortation is so much the more needful, by how much the practice of most men is more contrary thereto; we come for the most part very ill affected to the word of God. When any sin is there disgraced, and showed to be dangerous, we labour to post off those speeches to another man and sending the eyes of our mind abroad, which might have been far better busied at home; we seek a fit man to bestow such a lesson upon, choosing rather to cast it upon any man, than to learn it ourselves. We are too full of courtesy at these spiritual banquets. When such a dish as this is set before us, namely the discountenancing or discommending of a fault, we lay that liberally upon every man's trencher, and no man almost will carve to himself, because that meat is indeed less toothsome, though nothing less wholesome than the rest. I beseech you brethren that it may not be so with you in this point. Do not say, (as it is an hundred to one that divers of your hearts have been busied in saying.) if covetousness be such a sin, how shall such a man and such and such a man do, for all the world knows them to be covetous? Nay, hear not so idly, the Lord spoke to thee, and intended the exhortation to thy soul, and would have thee say to thine own self, is covetousness so vile a fin, how careful should I be to find it, and drive it out of mine heart, and my conversation? Do not I practise it, do not I live in it? let me look narrowly, for as it is dangerous, so it is crafty, and will not appear in it own name, but (like a traitor that hath escaped out of prison) will miscall and disguise itself, and take twenty titles, and names, rather than that wherewith it should be called. Men are willing to cloak their sins, & to shift their hands of seeming to be nought, not being so. And as when the plague is rife, every man desires, though it be in his house, yet to keep it close, and say it is any other disease because it will be some hindrance to be shut up for it: So for this disease of filthy lucre, which as an infectious pestilence hath spread itself over the world, into all Cities, towns, and villages, scarce any will be known to be diseased with it, fearing the disgrace rather than the danger. Some would confine covetousness to rich men's houses only, as if it were not possible to be earthly minded, unless a man had much earth in possession. But these men are exceedingly deceived about the nature of this evil, as themselves might well perceive had they but consulted with the wise man, that saith, The sluggard lusteth and hath nothing. A man may have a strong lust to wealth, albeit he have none of it. yea, though he be frozen up in the cold dregs of idleness, & laziness, so that he will not adventure to set his foot upon the cold ground for it. Nay, such men are most desperately covetous, for because their sloth serves them not to take the ordinary pains for getting it, therefore their lusts drives them to hunt and seek for it, in the secret and unbeaten ways of cozenage and villainy. I would to God there were not a great number of such slothful lustres known in the world, perhaps also present in this place, whose covetousness is no less than other men's, out it is overbeared by some other lust that is more than quarter master with it. For this you must know, that this vice may be after a divers manner in divers men; in some it is the chief Lord and sovereign, bearing rule and commanding for itself; in others it rules as an under officer to another lust, and is as I may say, the putueyer, or take for idleness, ambition, or prodigality. Sometimes it is whole master, sometimes half, sometimes quarter master with these sins before named; sometimes as servant to all or some of them, for though these sins cannot well agree among themselves, yet they can all agree well enough against godliness and piety of life. Some scrape to keep and look upon it; some scrape to scatter & misspend it; the one of these is as violent in his courses, as the other, and this sin is as hurtful, yea, and more hurtful to the party's self, to the Church and Common weal, when it is kept as a retainer to an other sin, than if he had the chiefedome and Lordship itself. Let not the prodigal, let not the ambitions, let not the sluggard say, that he is not covetous. I dare be bold to affirm, that if he had the grace and wise. doom to search into himself, he should find this wicked vice as great a doer in his soul inwardly, and in his carriage out wardly, as in theirs, whom with great scorn, he disgraces by the name of absolute chuffs, and mere misers: Send therefore I pray you brethren, each man his own most serious considerations, as it were searchers into his heart and life, (and take an oath of them, to deal truly, and unpartially) to see and observe, whether or no, he have the infection of this pestilent sickness, which also the words of Christ do import, for he saith, look and ward yourselves against Covetousness: as intimating, that there is no escaping it, if we do not look to it. Now to the intent you may not be deceived through error in this search, I will stand a while to give you some directions, which by following, you shall be sure not to mistake in examining and judging ourselves as concerning this matter. To this end it shall be needful for me to declare unto you both; 
What covetousness is.  First, What covetousness is: And secondly, What be the marks and tokens of it: which being known, it shall be easy for him that is not wilfully blind, to pass an upright sentence of himself.  
First, therefore to show what covetousness is: It is the dropsy of the mind, an horseleech humour after wealth, which evermore cries give, give. It is that that makes the heart as a grave for money, or a devouring sepulchre, or a hell for goods, that will not be satisfied though you cast very much into it. In few and plain terms, It is the desire of having more than what a man hath already, that being sufficient for necessary maintenance. If the Lord hath bestowed upon any man means enough to feed himself, and those that belong to him, with food wholesome & competent, though perhaps somewhat course, as also to  himself and his, with warm clothing, though neither of the finest not in the fashion, if his desires do not here stay themselves, but still cry more, more, this man is covetous, this sin is covetousness. He that would have more than he hath, having that which will suffice for his honest maintenance, though not in such gay & frolic manner as his flesh desireth, this is the covetous man, and so the word that is used by Christ signifies, vz, an having disposition: when a man so longeth for more than he hath, that he is still ready to take, (which cannot but follow) more than he should have. For covetousness & true contentment, are one opposite to the other, as night and day, white and black, and therefore we may well know what covetousness is, by the contrariety which it hath with true contentment. Now the Apostle doth describe true contentment in these terms, 
1. Tim. 6.6  saying, If we have food and covering, let us be sufficed or satisfied with these, that is, let us count that even sufficient. These be the bounds which the Holy ghost hath made to hem and keep in the unruly desires of men in respect of outward things, as it were wild Bucks within a pale or park Now if the wishes will not be ranged within these lists and limits, but break through them, or leap over them, to find a larger walk, it cannot be denied that the sin of covetousness is committed. For the desire that is in ordinate is this, that Christ forbids, and it is then inordinate when it exceeds the rule, order, 
Heb. 13.5.  and precincts that God hath set and appointed for it, which are, to think the present things enough (and stop themselves from straying any further) when they will afford meat, drink and cloth, sufficient to content nature, in it moderate use to keep one's self out of debt, and so bring him well to heaven, his journeys end, as it were enough money to bear his charges in his travail towards God. Now if any man object against this and say, if covetousness be that which you have described it to be, where will you find a man that hath it not, where can one be brought quite free from it? To this question I must answer. No where, not under heaven, not within the compass of the whole earth, for this sin as well as other is bred in our nature, and cleaves as fast to the soul of every son of Adam, as his skin to his flesh. Why? but may some man further object, is every man then subject to those enormous effects and hideous curses, which you before showed to follow upon covetousness? I anfwere, in no sort, but alone those men in whom this sin is suffered to be with allowance, is yielded to, and followed. In some men as I showed you before, this vice is as a sovereign Lord; in others it rules under ambition, and prodigality, in both these, all the bad effects named before, will certainly follow, all the curses denounced are to both these sorts of men certainly due. In other some it is as an unwelcome guest that intrudes himself, it is like a bad tenant that is often warned to go out, and will take no warning, it is not suffered to have command, but it is striven against, resisted, complained off, and hath many a supplication put up, and many a suit commenced against it, in the court of heaven, for usurping in an other man's right. To such it is exceeding cumbersome & tedious, and doth them marvelous much annoyance, but yet it can neither produce those vile effects, nor bring in those horrible curses. In a word, some have it, and do beware and take heed of it, as a disease that is applied with medicines. These it molests, but kills not. Others have it, and never suspect, fear, nor take heed of it, as a disease that a man carelessly lets go without medicining: to these it is not so toilsome, but more dangerous; for it slays their soul, by bringing forth those bad stuits before named. And thus as plainly as I could, I have showed you what covetousness is in the very nature of it, considered without respect of the degrees thereof.  
Now I come to show you the marks and tokens of it 
The signs of it.  which was the second thing I promised, to the end men might know themselves, by which a man may also see in what measure or degree this sin is in him; for if these things be found in his life, rarely and seldom, then covetousness hath some secret and unknown allowance, through the deceitfulness of his heart; but it is not wittingly and wilfully maintained: if they do appear often and ordinarily, than covetousness rules there, and is by him favoured, loved, yielded unto, and obeyed; it is Lord of his soul, though perhaps he be so full of hypocrisy as not to see or confess it. And indeed it is a thing very needful to show these signs plainly, because when out of our evil will we censure other men, we call them extremely covetous, upon these grounds which will bear no such accusation or action. As namely, if they be painful in their callings, if they have more dealings in the world than ourselves, if they will not give at what time we would have them, or such like. But when in our fond self-love we are to speak of ourselves, we will not dare to conclude, we are very covetous, no not upon the soundest grounds and surest proofs.  
To return therefore to the point, There be 4. sure and infallible signs and marks of this vice, which do as certainly prove it to be in the soul, as the yellow hair in the law did the leprosy, and as the carbuncle doth the plague The first of these is carking & caring, 
1. Carking  which is a note most easily seen and felt in men of lower place; for as some diseases have their divers signs, in divers constitutions, so have also sins in divers conditions and estates, divers marks to know them by. Now this carking is for men of meaner estate, principally to try themselves by. He that doth grieve & molest himself for the fear of want and misery to come hereafter (for that is a proper description of carking, it is sorrow conceived upon the doubt and suspicion of that need that may come) the man I say, that doth so vex and trouble himself, is in that degree covetous that thus grieved. For the affections of our heart, are in their several working so joined and linked together, that the working of some will not appear, but upon the precedent working of other. No man can inordinately sorrow for fear of wanting that in the future time, which he doth not inordinately desire for the present time. And for this cause our Saviour Christ, where he intends to overthrow covetousness, both in this Chapter, in the sequel of his speech, as also in Mat. 6. falls upon the matter of carking, and dwells much upon that, saying: Care not what you shall eat, what you shall drink, 
Matt. 6.25.34.  and what you shall put on: and after, care not for to morrow, bringing also many reasons to that purpose, as well seeing, that this sin and covetousness do always go hand in hand, in the poorer sort chiefly, and sometimes also in the wealthy: and that those arguments which are of force to beat down the one, are also fit & able to subdue the other too. And therefore also in the Parable, he calleth covetousness by the very name of the cares of this world: because wheresoever it is strong, there it doth encumber the heart, and pester it up with a throng and multitude of most noisome carkings.  
So then, if any man do find himself to stand so disposed in mind, that having enough for the present time, yet he doth eat up his heart, break his sleep, disquiet himself, and turn into gall, that comfort which he might have in his life, by this unprofitable and overreaching thoughtfulness: Ah how shall I do if a dear year come? how, if I have so many children? how if I live till I be so old, or till I be lame or blind? sure I shall spend all, I shall consume all, I shall be undone, I shall die a beggar, and come to great want and extremity, and such like terrible dreams: if any man I say stand thus affected, these things do most rankly savour of covetousness: this vice plays the Lord and Tyrant in that man's soul, when he that is not assured of life till to morrow, nay, that aught to be ready to departed this life before to morrow, will thus turmoil himself with fruitless and unprofitable fear about that which his dreaming conceit tells him may befall, many a day, nay, many a year after (so not suffering himself to be free from a burden, when he may, because he fears he shall not be free when he would) this man is most notoriously and violently covetous, and so must know himself to be, whether he be rich or poor.  
A second note of covetousness, is niggardice, 
2. Niggardice. Pro. 11.14  which is the fault which Solomon points out, when he saith; he that spareth more than is fit. When a man is so overchary of his wealth that he cannot suffer a grain to be diminished from the heap hereof, with any willingness, no not then, when good, just, and reasonable causes do require expense, when he keeps his wealth to feed his eye, and saves his money to look upon, this is a fit that proceedeth from the desiring of earthly things overmuch, and doth plainly declare an excess of that humour. This the wise man sets out, when he saith; 
Eccles. 6.1.2.  There is an evil seen under the Sun, a man to whom God hath given riches and treasures, but he hath not the power to eat thereof. This nearness, & immoderate saving, shows that a man's soule hath the dropsy, and that not alone when it grows to such extremity, as a man will pinch and deprive his own person, and his wife, children, and servants of those comforts and benefits that he might enjoy, but even then also, when a man is pinching towards the poor, and so close-fisted, that he will not part with a part of his substance for the relief of those which are in need and necessity, by him (which is indeed the true end, why God gives to one man more abundance, to an other less) even this hardness, I say, to the poor and needy, doth prove a man to be very dangerously covetous, though he do never so liberally, yea, and perhaps over-liberally bestow upon himself; of which we have a clear proof in the words of the Apostle, that saith; Whosoever hath this world's goods, 
1. joh. 3.17  and seethe his brother want, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? That man, you see, that is so much given to hold and keep, as when God calleth for it to relieve the distressed coming as it were to borrow in and by them) he will say him nay, and turn him away empty, or poorly served, the love of God doth not dwell in that man, whatsoever show he may make; and therefore consequently the love of this world hath taken up the holt of his heart, I do not mean, (neigh their doth the Apostle) that he which gives not to every vagrant rogue, or idle beggar which comes to his door, or meets him in the way, may presently be termed unloving, and covetous: Nay there be two sorts of poor; Gods poor, whom his hand crossing them any way, hath brought to want, though they be laborious, and thrifty: and the devils poor, upon whom their own idleness, riot, and sinful courses have forced necessity: now for these last, unless they will settle themselves to labour, and live honestly, they should be relieved with punishment and correction, and helped out of their sin, not maintained in it, by abusive mercy, or rather foolish pity: but the former sort of men, are those whose case we should pity and tender, as our own, and therefore both open our hearts in compassion, and our purses according to our power in liberality, to secure and to help them. God's poor must have God alms, and for those that in such case can go slincking, and trudging away, not extending their charitable contribution to the refreshing of their bowels, & comforting their hearts that are pressed with want, they must either give the Apostle the lie, or confess, that the love of the world hath choked the love of God, and of their neighbour, in them; yea when soever any needful thing doth require us to be at some cost and expense, either for the maintenance of God's worship, or of the common good, as in public services, payments, and the like, but chief for works of mercy, then to mutter and grudge, and murmur and pinch, and hang back, and complain; is a certain sign of an heart greedily disposed towards earthly things; he that thinks himself overcharged by such expenses, is certainly overcharged with worldliness. As he is prodigal that spends when the Devil and his lusts call for it, so he is covetous, that spares when God and good uses call for it.  
The third note of covetousness, 
3. Too much business in the world.  is to clog a man's self with too much outward business, and to prosecute these earthly affairs over eagerly. When a man falls into that sin which. Solomon forbids saying, 
Pro. 23.4.  Toil not thyself to be rich: than it is sure that he hath cast his eyes upon that which is nothing, that is, set his desires over-strongly upon those outward vanities that have no true substance in them. If any man for get the rule of the Apostle Paul, 
1 Cor. 7.31.  that bids us use this world as if we used it not: and fall to such immoderatenes in his dealings, as if he had never heard of a better world to prepare for: it is an unquestionable truth that he desires the things of this world more than he should do. Now than any man's business is over-plentifull and excessive, when the multitude thereof doth hinder him from the careful & constant performing of all or any of the good duties appointed by God, for the salvation of his own, or his family's souls. For the Lord hath composed man of two parts, the one a body which is fading and mortal, to live here for a few days, and then yield to the stroke of death, and of corruption: the other a soul incorporal, spiritual, immortal, which cannot die, nor suffer corruption. And the Lords will is, that a man living here in the body, should make all careful, wise, and godly provision for his soul, that that departing hence out of the body, may not be cast into the torments of eternal vengeance (which are prepared for such as in this life use not all good diligence to escape them) but may rather enjoy its portion in that everlasting and unspeakable bliss, which is also made ready for all them that do constantly and with honest hearts use the means to attain the same. And the means of attaining this happiness, are faith & repentance, and the continual increase of these graces, by praying, reading, and meditating in the word, and good conference daily, as also hearing the word preached when occasion is offered, and sanctifying unto the Lord for these uses every seventh day. For the former of these, are to the soul of him that hath a true living soul, as I may so term them, daily repasts and meals wherewith his inward man is strengthened and refreshed, growing daily from grace to grace: the latter, that is, the celebration of the sabbath, is as I may say, a solemn feast day, and a great banquet for the soul, wherein all bodily labours so far as mercy, necessity and comeliness will permit, being set apart, the soul should have liberty after a more than ordinary manner, to solace and delight itself in God, and feed upon jesus Christ, in the word and Sacraments, & other holy exercises, that it may grow fat, & well liking in all graces, and chiefly faith and repentance, the two principal graces.  
Now these being the means of Gods own ordaining to attain sound grace here, and glory hereafter, daily to pray, read, and meditate, and confer of good things, & weekly to sanctify the Sabbath, he that doth so surcharge himself or his family with outward business, that he hath not leisure daily to perform the daily duties, and weekly, that weekly duty in such conscionable sort as God doth require at his hand, for a purpose so profitable and most excellent, cannot deny that he loves the world too much; being that he seeketh not, as Christ commands: first, the kingdom of heaven, but first the worthless things that this earth can afford, and leaving that which is the true and proper end of his being here; that is, to get grace and salvation, employs himself too much about that which was but a secondary end, and to be done only by the way, so far as might be helpful to the former, and no further. Every man will yield that he desires earthly things inordinately, which desires them more than eternal life: and it is as certain, that he rather wisheth wealth then eternal life, which suffers the means of attaining that, to shoulder out and exclude quite, or else drive into a very narrow corner, & small room, the means of attaining this: for the desires rule the actions, and that a man longeth most for, which he most labours for. As he that suffers hawks, hounds, and vain, though in themselves lawful pastimes, so to devour his time, that he hath little or no leisure for the performing of the forementioned religious duties; is convicted before all unpartial judges to be a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God: So he that suffers buying, selling, bargaining, reckoning, travailing, and any such business lawful in it self, but unlawful in the immoderate use of it, to rob him of leisure for the same exercises, must needs be condemned to love wealth more than God, by the verdict of any man that will speak the truth, according to his conscience: and therefore be it noted as a sure rule, that every man is in that measure covetous, that over-worke-some and laborious about worldly things, and in that measure over-laborious, that he suffers the plenty of these things to withdraw him from the conscionable, constant, and holy performing of better things, tending more directly to a better life. 
4. Unjustice of which.  Now folfows the last note of covetousness, and that is unjustice, or the using of injurious and indirect means to get wealth. For must it not needs be yielded, that he desireth wealth too much, which will dig to hell, & fall down to the devil for it? And what else is it, but a falling down to the Devil for it, when a man doth put the regard of obedience to God, of charity to his neighbour, of honesty in himself, behind the respect of enriching his estate; to all which things, doth he not manifestly prefer money that will do wrong to win it? God forbids wrong, charity, honesty, and every man's conscience forbids it, only the Devil and lucre command it: Is he not worthy to be called a money-slave, and a slave to the devil, that will disobey all these, to serve the desire of being rich, for is not every man his servant to whom he doth obey? And doth he not obey lucre abjectly, that will rebel against the most high Lord, and the conscience his officer for these things sake?  
So then every man is so far forth covetous as unjust in his dealings. 
1 In general.  Now all those practices are unjust and unequal, which be not conformable to two general rules set down in Scripture, that by them we might square out all our particular actions. The first is, to do to every man as we would have him do unto us. Not as we out of our disordered & distempered passions sometime be content to have another deal with us, so we may deal with them; but what in the true sentence of our judgement, 
Mat. 7.12.  grounded upon due and deliberate consideration of the things we would approve of being done to us, that we must do to our neighbours: so that whatsoever thing a man would condemn in his judgement, not in his passions, being offered to himself, that is wrong and iniquity, if he offer it to another.  
The second rule is, 
Gal. 5.13. 1 Cor. 13.6  to serve each other in love: for love seeks not it own things: meaning only without regard of another, but doth so equally and indifferently consider another with itself, that it would not profit itself with this endamagement; therefore whosoever is wholly possessed with selfe-regards, and hath his eye so fixed upon his own advantage, that he cannot look upon another man with any even regard of him; this man in all such dealings walks injuriously, because uncharitably, and shallbe condemned (though not by the strict law of human justice, yet by the perfect rule of Christian charity) for a wrong doer. And by these 2. rules wisely applied to each several action, it willbe easy to spy out unjustice, though it hide itself under never so fair and colourable pretexts. But we shall not have sufficiently pressed this sore, if we deal with it alone in such general terms, wherefore it is our purpose to speak more particularly thereof, and leaving these practices that are of all men condemned as odious and vile, 
2. In particular of such unjustice as is found.  and practised alone by the vilest men in corners and in darkness (such as are stealing, robbing, forgery, and all manner of cozenage, so termed:) we will speak of those which have been practised in the world usually, with more applause and in the Sun. shine; yea and some of them perhaps also defended, as if they did not deserve the censure of uninstice. And because the things be many whereof we must speak, we will rank them into certain heads, according to the nature of the subjects in whom they be most often found, for the relief of our own and your memories. Some wrongful actions therefore are found in ministers of justice, some in ministers of the Gospel, some in tradesmen, some in landlords, some in all men without respect of their several callings; of all which, we will speak somewhat in order, and briefly to the intent that by them, every man may (as we hope, every Christian man professing religion will) search himself to the quick, and unpartially. First then, for ministers of justice, (by which name I term all those that have any thing to do in the administration of public equity) in them unless they be careful, 
Ministers of injustice  there will be found very often three notorious points of wrong through the desire of gain. There first is bribery, or the receiving of gifts, 
1. Taking a gift.  though it be from the innocent, to have hearing and justice. For a bribe, is any gift taken by him that hath to deal in matters of justice, of those which are to come under his censure, whether for matters penal or capital, whether they be offenders, or not offenders. And therefore the holy Ghost hath flatly forbidden to them the receiving of any gift at all: 
Exod. 29.8  and in more than one or two places, hath cried out against those that love gifts, and take gifts A gift of this kind is a thing of very ill name and note in the writing of the Spirit of God, who shows his anger, saying: Fire shall devour the houses of bribes. job. 15.34. This doth even as it were build a nest for unjustice and falsehood, wherein she may come with allowance, hearing, and entertainment, to lay all her subtle and crafty devices and tales, for the forestall of a true narration, that might else clear a case to the full. This fills up the ear with the earewaxe of partiality, that truth cannot have liberty with approbation to show her mind and speak for herself, unless she use a golden earepicke first: and therefore God himself saith, 
Exo. 23.8.  That it blinds the eyes of the wise: let a man have never so good skill and knowledge in the law and matters of justice, if he suffer this dust of a bribe, to be scattered in the eyes of his judgement, this will surely follow, his eyes will (as I may say) water and twinkle, and grow worse and worse, till at the length he can see nothing, but becomes as blind as a mole or bat. And indeed this kind of gain must needs in God's account, be as stolen goods, for the party receiving the same, hath no manner of right or interest into it. For if the man that gives it be innocent, to the knowledge of the magistrate, he should have his cause heard and sentenced aright, even for his innocency sake, though he gave nothing: If the magistrate know him to be nocent, a world of goods should not keep his sin from being made known and punished: If the magistrate do not yet know either his innocency or faultiness, he should not make himself blind with a blinding gift, before he come to look upon the cause. And if any think that the will of the giver doth transfer right to him that takes in such case, he must know himself to be deceived in so thinking, for it is not a pure and voluntary will, but forced, because he knows the humour of the man to be such, that he will not do right unless he be hired to it. Even as a man is willing rather to give this purse to the purse-taker, than to venture his life or limb: so is he to give a bribe to the bribe taker, rather than adventure his cause: & therefore I dare boldly I say, and the God of heaven will justify my words, at the last day, that a thief hath as much true right to the money that he takes by the high way, as the magistrate to the gift that he takes even of the innocent party for a day of hearing, or the like: yea though it come not immediately unto his own hands, but be given to the wife, or son, or servant, or friend, by his appointment or allowance; which is but a little more cleanly conveyance of a bribe. Should justice be made as an hackney, that stirs not out of doors but for hire, or as a mercenary Soldier, 
1. Perverting justice or reward.  that will not draw his sword but for his pay? A second thing incident to this calling, is perverting of justice for a reward, which is a thing different from the former; for a man may be said to take a bribe, though he pass true sentence, & do justice for it: but this that I speak of is worse, when a man will go against equity for wages sake, and this the scripture doth also plentifully condemn in many places. If the judge for something that he hath already received, or hath covenanted, or hopes to receive hereafter, for him or any by his procurement, will find a knot in a rush, & condemn the cause which he should maintain, but maintain that which he should condemn; or if those that are to plead and declare matters in that truth which they see in them, will for an over-abundant fee, set a fair colour upon a false cause, & paint over a lie with shows, that it may seem truth, (as by concealment of some circumstances & the like) to delude right; (which is, to call evil good, and good evil; light darkness, & darkness light, a thing that the holy Ghost cries woe upon, whatsoever the wit of a covetous man can say, to make it seem lawful,) or when other officers that have the execution, or helping to execute orders, will for a piece of money find out delays & shifts and devices, (as for example, frustrating or changing the order or decree, in setting it down, and twenty such other ways that I know not, but their consciences can tell of that practice them, and God doth also see) all to shield and defend the wrong doer from the verdict that equity hath passed against him; these, and every of these practices, to pervert judgement for advantage sake, are notorious and palpable wrongs, and such as every man would condemn and abhor, if they were offered to himself.  
A third action of unjustice on such, is Extortion, 
3. Extortion.  which also the laws of the Land do forbid, when he that hath his allowance allotted him for his pains, in such measure as is thought by the law competent, (which also he may very lawfully and justly take, so that he perform his duty for it,) when such one I say will do nothing, or as good as nothing unless this fee be doubled or perhaps trebled, or perhaps will take fees on both sides, one to speak, another to hold his peace, or speak nothing to the purpose. This is vile unjust dealing, the eye of nature can see it, the eye of grace can abhor it, this is to take that which is none of ones own. If any present have or do offend in these or any of these points, or any like to these, be it known to him, that he lives unjustly and covetously, and these actions shall stand up before God and the world at the last day and witness against him, saying; thou didst harbour this covetousness which Christ condemns, thou art the covetous man which the scripture saith cannot go to heaven.  
Now come we to such unjustice as is found in ministers of the Gospel, 
2 In Ministers.  as a witness of their covetousness, for God and man would cry shame upon us for partiality, if we should not tax this sin in men of our own coat, as well as others; seeing all the world can testify, that it finds harbour in them also. Now the first sinful and unjust course used by Cleargimen, is called Simony, 
1. Simony.  when a man buys a Church-living, he shows himself to serve covetousness in the sum, not God, because he comes in rather by the help of money than by the calling of God. And not alone is this sin then committed, when men be such bunglers, in managing their matters, that the law will catch hold of them, but then also when there is Art in sinning, & as we say craft in daubing, when the man that is desirous of living, doth not come with a downright bargain, for fear of law: nor saith; Sir, if you will be my friend, and help me to such a benefice or promotion, I will give you so much money, or yield you, or your younger son, or your servant, or friend, so much commodity out of it, and so forth. But either in great good will, (to his own preferment. I mean not to the patron) will send him some goodly gift, or else in good earnest will lay some wager with him, purposing to lose the wager, rather than, not win the living, or else we sell him too good a pennyworth in some thing, taking far less than it is worth, or buy something of him, for much more than it is worth; or use any such like tricks to delude law and cousin equity: these devices be also Simony, as odious in truth as the most plain kind of bargain that can be made; under which rank also comes for the most part, that usual course of buying advowsons, for he that buys, must sell, that every man knows, or else he must live by the loss, which men of this stamp, will seldom or never do if they can choose. And in this fault, the patron hath as great a share as the Minister, yea, and greater too; because the fountain of the fault is in him; for if he would give freely, no man need to buy it, & he should be able to discern that such a covetous harpy as is willing to pay for it, were in no sort fit for the place, & therefore should in no sort bestow it upon him, much less set it to sale to him, being that the laws have committed this care to his charge, not that he should make a commodity of it, for than it had been fit to give it unto poorer men, whose low ebb did require to be filled up by such helps, and not as it is commonly, to the Lords of the places, whose revenues if they were not grossly either covetous or prodigal, might well suffice them: the laws, I say, have laid the care of presenting a fit man upon him, not because he should pass it over to another for money, or himself make a gain of it; but because he should do faithful and profitable service unto the Church & Commonweal, in providing a man of good parts and competent gifts, as being thought the most of ability to judge of such an one, & to seek him out. Here therefore a covetous Patron, and a covetous Minister, must be content to divide the fault betwixt them, and endure to be called unjust and worldly, for making bargain and sale of the maintenance of God's worship.  
A second fault and that far more notorious in men of this rank, is, 
2. To feed themselves and not the flock.  when they do feed themselves, and not the flock, through idleness, or carelessness, do seldom or never drive the sheep of Christ unto the green pastures, or the still waters, that the Lord hath provided for them.  
When I say, such a thing as this is done, it is of all the particular unjustices which I have named, or shall name, the most abominable to God, & aught to be so accounted also amongst men. For the Church-livings are, as it were, the revenues of jesus Christ, and his endowments, to be disposed by him, and it is his order that those should live of the Altar, not which loiter, but which labour at it and therefore those that labour not have no interest from him to eat of the fruits, & if they presume to do it, they fill and fat themselves with stolen and ill gotten goods, which though they taste sweet in the mouth shall prove gravel, yea wormwood, yea, poison in the bowels. Now the labour that the holy Ghost requires at the hand of the Ministers of the Gospel, is apparently set down in Scripture, that no man can without wilfulness be ignorant of it. 
Mat. 29.19.20.  Go preach and baptize all nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; And again woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel; 
1 Cor 9.16 2. Tim. 4.1.2.  And again, I charge thee before God, & before the Lord jesus, who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearance, and in his kingdom, preach the word in season, and out of season. Reprove, exhort, rebuke, with all long suffering and doctrine. another part of his function is, 
Tim. 2.15.  to read the word unto them publicly, as the Levites did in former time, for God forbidden we should disallow this so profitable & comfortable an ordinance, 
Act. 8.31.  because many content themselves with this alone. And another part is, to pray with them, and be as it were their petitioner to God in public. Another is, to administer the Sacraments of baptism & the Lords supper. another part of his duty is, in private to oversee their ways, comforting the weak, strengthening the feeble, & admonishing the unruly, that so he may give a good account to God for them, who will require them and their blood at his hand. Now he that feeds upon the living, & doth not in some good measure set himself to do those things which God calleth upon him to do, he is a loiterer, he is an hireling.  
To take God's wages, and not do his work at all, or else negligently, is a great and a cursed wrong, and so much the more hurtful than other wrongs, by how much it doth more nearly & dangerously touch the souls of men, who must (for any thank that is due to him) perish for ever; when the means of God appointed to save men, is not used by him the Minister, whom God sets as a watchman, and puts in trust with such a weighty employment. And all such men shall have the blood of the parties perishing through their default required at their hand. It behoved me to have my nostrils strangely stopped with a pose of prejudice, if I had not smelled these practices to savour rankly of covetousness, and to have had my mouth basely muzzled with partiality, if I had not freely reproved it: and therefore if any in the ministry be present, that useth these courses to enrich himself by, be it known to his face, yea, to his soul, that these sins shall arise before God, with the assent of his own conscience, and with a loud and shrill voice, proclaim in his ears, to his shame and confusion, if he repent not. Thou hast harboured this covetousness that Christ bids beware of, thou art the covetous man, that canst not inherit the kingdom of God.  
Now let us proceed to Tradesmen, 
3. Tradesmen.  who are occupied in buying & selling, & show how indirect courses are incident to their place, as testimonies of a worldly heart.  
The principal are these. 
1. False weights & measures.  First, to use false weights and measures, that is, when the weights and measures, by which they buy or sell, either are not of the same content, extent, & height that the law requires they should, and they are by custom taken for, or if they be, yet there is cozenage used in applying of them, by jogging, shaking, turning and swift conveyances, that I cannot name, but men's hearts can tell that use them, and so also can the Lord that seethe the heart. Now such, the light of nature joaths, and God condemns with a woe, and saith, 
Pro. 11.1.  false weights (and they be as bad as false that are falsely used,) are an abomination to the Lord, and he would not abhor them, if they were not unjust.  
The second is, to sell, corrupted, false, sophisticated, and insufficient wares, 
2. Insufficient wares.  such as are not in quality as good, or in substance the same, that the seller would have the buyer to take them for; which sin is most grievous in Apothecaries, because there it may also have a spice of murder, mixed with unjustice, and for such dealing as this, seeing every man will exclaim and grudge against it, being offered to himself, we will seek no other proof but his own confession, to condemn it in himself.  
The third is, to engross, or forestall, 
3. Ingrosings.  that is, to buy up any commodity before hand, when it is, or might be cheap, to the foreseeing of a future dearth, that so he may make his gain at his pleasure afterwards. It is lawful to buy up the overplus of any commodity, I mean the residue, when men's turns are served in the time of plenty, as joseph did; that a man may have it to help the common weal in time of dearth, with some good and moderate gain to himself also; but the engrosser in stead of laying up the superfluity of plenty, to prevent and help a dearth; doth hoard up the store of plenty, to procure one, which is to cut the throat of the common weal for his own advantage sake: And therefore Solomon saith, 
Pro. 11.26  Him that hoards up corn the people shall curse. And seeing the same reason is of all things in their degree, I may say the same of all, the ingroser shall be accursed, & he could not be so, if he were not unjust.  
A fourth thing injurious in such men is, 
4 To abuse the simplicity or necessity of men.  play and prey upon the necessity or simplicity of men, either in thrusting a thing upon them for much, that a man's self knows to be worth little; or in getting a thing from them for little, which he knows to be worth more; because they know not the thing, or else must needs have it, or part with it. In a word, any exacting of too much, or giving too little, chief when we abuse the ignorance or the need of our neighbour to this end; is to serve one's self in self-love, and not his brother in love, and therefore is unjust.  
Now if any ask how I can inform their consciences concerning the increasing or diminishing of the price, I will refer him to the first general rule forenamed, and wish him to ask as little, & offer as much as himself, if he were in the same case, would willingly, not by compulsion have taken of him, or given to him, all things considered in due manner; to deal otherwise then so, is to deal injuriously and unrighteously.  
The fift to this condition of people, 
5. To get away another man's custom or bargain.  is to get away another man's custom by odd tricks; as for example, to offer and sell him a very cheap pennyworth, yea, cheaper than can be afforded for once or twice, which a man purposeth to fetch out at some other time, afterwards, when he hath gotten him in, and such like, and so to take an other man's bargain out of his hand, is in the same kind for the buyer, that this named for the seller: for such dealing no man can take in good part, when it is done to himself, and therefore the law of nature and God both, do condemn it, as nought and unequal.  
The last unjustice in men of this condition, is to live by wicked trades, 
6. Using unlawful trades, or abusing lawful.  which serve directly to the supporting of vice and wickedness: as for example, by keeping dicing houses, filthy houses, bowling alleys, & such like places of hellish resort, which are as it were the devils houses of office: the hot and unsavoury steams whereof, do provoke heaven, and defile the world. And such is also the abuse of lawful trades to the same purpose, as in Painters or the like, in making idolatrous or filthy pictures as fit instruments to provoke spiritual or bodily fornication. So of Stationers, in selling and dispercing filthy and lascivious pamphlets: and here the common sin of Vintners and Ale-hous-keepers be severely taxed, in that they permit brutish creatures worse than swine, to sit and swill, & wash away their reason & discretion, till the house be made a sink of filthy vomiting the baseness of which men, & loathsomeness of which practise no man would suffer within his doors, but that the sweetness of gain makes him ready to give welcome to the blackest fiend of hell, that shall come with a full purse, and a lavish hand to misspend the same.  
Now these, or all, or any of these, if any tradesman present use, be it known to him without doubting, that they shall all stand up to his condemnation in the presence of God, and cry out upon him, saying; Thou dost entertain this covetousness that Christ forbids: thou art the covetous man so much condemned in the word of God, whose soul cannot be saved if it so continue.  
And now must I go on to speak of those evilsin landlords, 
4. Landlords, as  that having much themselves, set or let grounds, or livings, or houses, which do proclaim the sovereignty & dominion of covetousness in them.  
The first is, to rack Rents, 
1. To rack rents.  and exact immoderate and excessive fines, I mean not the requiring of more rents than have been accustomed in former times, to be paid; for it is doubtless lawful to improve land; but I mean, lifting them to such an high & unreasonable rate, that the tenant shall not live any thing comfortably thereby, but in extremity of toil and want, being forced either to use unlawful shifts, & base niggardice, or else to dash himself upon the rock of penury and need. This is to grind the faces of the poor, and it is that sin of oppression, so much spoken against in men of this place, by God's word. Now if any man ask what rule may be set down out of Scripture, as a sure direction for the prices in such cases? I answer, let him set himself in the Tenant's place, & what he would then give (voluntarily, not upon constraint and extremity, all things laid together according to the quantity of the thing, that, and no more than that, must he take, & not suffer himself to be transported by the sweet tongue of every flattering servant, and unsatiable desire of getting money, to fling away upon his pleasures, or else augmenting the revenues for the next heir. He that will not make himself a pattern of his dealing to others, is condemned by his conscience to deal not righteously.  
The second fault of Landlords is, to burden and lad their tenants with carriages & like services, more than was agreed upon in the covenant betwixt them, 
2. To burden the tenant with carriages &c. more than condition.  without paying him for it as an other man will do. As for example, to carry stone and timber for his building, to blow land, to inn hay and corn, to fetch fuel or firewood, to remove household stuff, and all this gratis. The Landlord may not challenge this privilege over the Tenant, to make him work for nothing, where he is not tied by the condition of his lease, nay, nor then neither, if it be unreasonable, and tend to his undoing. For this the Prophet jeremy durst condemn in a King; and therefore I need not fear to condemn it in a landlord, of what place soever. For so saith he of the King of judah, jehoachim son of joshuah. 
jer. 22.13.  Woe to him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers without equity, and wherein stood this lack of equity? he useth his neighbour (or makes him serve) without wages, and gives him not for his work. You see this sharply reprehended by the Prophet long ago, as void of equity, that no man may diride it as a toy of our own head.  
A third unjustice among Landlords, is by fraud or might to deprive the tenants of any part of their duties, as of some green, or common, or wood, or such like, that appertaineth unto them: this is that which the Prophet condemns by the name of coveting a field, and taking it by force. Now these courses specified, or any of the like kind, if any Landlord present accustom himself unto, be it plainly spoken unto him also, that these his actions, shall make appearance, and give in evidence against him before the great judge, ringing this grievous outcry in his ears, and saying; Thine heart hath lodged the forbidden sin of covetousness, thou also art that covetous man, that so continuing cannot be saved. Now we come in the last place to set forth the lewd practices that are common to all men, without respect of their several places, and these are four.  
First, 
1. Promise breaking.  to make deceitful promises, or to break promises and covenants. When a man looks to his profit more than to his truth or honesty; and therefore will make his bargain or promise in such slippery or doubtful words or manner, that still he will find some evasion to pull out his own neck, when he hath made another to serve his turn, as by pleading that he meant not so, or so; or that such and such a thing should be understood; or that he hath forgot it, or such like: albeit he had wit enough to express his meaning fully, and plainly, if he had would, and needed not to have reserved something for afterclaps. Yea, and hath sufficient memory, if he had sufficient honesty to bear it in mind too, but chief when he will come to a plain refusal, being destitute of all shifts and excuses, this is monstrous unjustice, which the blind light of nature can see well enough and challenge. For an honest man, much more a Christian, should stand to his lawful word, though to his own hindrance, & that according to the true meaning and intent, expressed in his promise, and understood by the party to whom it was made. 
2. Usury.  A second notorious unjustice is usury. When a man makes a gain of lending, and binds the party borrowing, without consideration of his gains or losses, to repay the principal with advantage. For whereas there be three sorts of men that use to borrow, either poor men, whom necessity drives to it, or unthrifts, whom prodigality drives to it: or sufficient men, that hope to make a commodity of it: It is apparent by the confession even of those that would seem to say somewhat for this usury, (as if it were not a sin simply) that it is wicked to lend on use to the poor needy borrower, 
Deut. 15.7.8.9.  for God hath flatly commanded to lend unto him freely; and for the unthrift, it is also certain that he should not be lent to at all; for that is to feed his issue with ill humours, and to put a sword into his hand wherewith to destroy himself; and thus the usurers most accustomed and greatest gains are cut off. Now for the third kind of men, of them to exact gain unconditionably, not respecting their losing or getting, is altogether against the law of charity and equity both. For the light of nature will not suffer any to deny this principal of equity: that he which will have part in weal, must also have part in woes; and he that will divide the sweet, must also divide the sour: he that will take of the good success, must also take of the bad: and the light of religion will not suffer him that hath any of it, to deny this principal of charity; that Christians must serve one another in love, and not themselves alone in self-love; both which principals are directly contrary to the very trade of the usurer, for he makes sure for himself to have a part only and infallibly in the profit, and therefore serves himself alone, and also his brother; and for this cause the usurer is set among those that cannot come to dwell in the mountain of God, which be should not be, were he not unjust. So then, the usurer whether he do it plainly or underhand, as men have a thousand policies to cover their sin in this respect, must undergo the imputation of living by wrong and injury.  
A third unjustice in any man, is, to withhold dues from those to whom they belong, as debts, wages, and the goods of orphans, and such things as have been given for charitable uses, and the like. These be so openly evil, that I see not how any man can open his mouth with any show, or colour to justify them. When a man will pay his hireling nothing, but keep his own from him by fraud or put him off with ill words, and post him away from time to time, or make him because he is his tenant, etc. take one or two pence in a day, less than others give, or pay him very grumblingly, who could brook such dealing, and not say, fie upon it, it is stark staring wrong? So when a man hath wherewithal to pay his debts, in some measure at least, and yet will break and not discharge them so far as it will go, or when being a rich man, he sends away the creditor all to be rated and shaken with ill words, and empty of money, but laden with reviling speeches; yea, though he have to discharge it: what man doth not loath to meet with such usage to himself? but chiefly when the fatherless child or widow have not the portion bequeathed to them, and committed in trust to a friend, reasonably, fully, and readily paid in unto them, this every man sees to be bad dealing. In a word, to retain any part of another's due, is indignity.  
For Solomon hath said, Withhold not the goods from the owners thereof. 
Prou. 3.27 To live upontenths, chiefly not providing for the maintenance of God's worship.  Another unjustice of this kind in laymen, is possessing of tenths, or church-living, specially without any care, to have the duty of the ministry faithfully and sufficiently discharged. For not to stand upon that question, whether tenths be due by God's law to the minister, (which yet I think) might probably and sufficiently be defended, even against a cavilling and witty objector, because the Apostle saying, that he which is taught in the word, must make him that teacheth him partaker of all his goods; 
Gal. 6.6.  doth thereby interest the minister into some portion of his people's substance. Now seeing none other part was ever assigned him, either by the law of nature, or the law of God, but this, doth not it probably at the least follow, that even under the Gospel this is his due? but I say not to dispute this question, we have another reason to convince apparently, that the tenths cannot, by that true right which will hold good in the courts of conscience, and of heaven, be detained from the ministry, without some full requital other way; for whatsoever hath once been given & consecrated to the maintenance of God's worship, and the true religion established by him, that is, invested into the person of God, or entangled unto jesus Christ (as I may so speak) who will never acknowledge any fine, and hath this royal prerogative, that whatsoever is once his, the same is always his; and whatsoever is given to him can never be taken from him: neither is there any prescribing against him, seeing he hath neither superior, nor law above him, & therefore can forfeit no right; 
Pro. 20.25  so that it is always destruction to devour holy things and after the vow to require. Now that these tithes were given & devoted by men well disposed to the maintenance of the true worship of God, even before gross and heretical popery had overclouded the face of the world, is a thing that I think no man will or can deny. Wherefore the conclusion follows inevitably, that they be Gods still, and not to be bestowed any other way than in his service. So many laymen therefore as serve themselves with church-good, deal unjustly with God and men's souls, and cannot escape the blot of worldliness, if knowing this, they reform it not. The last unjustice that I will name as common to all sorts of men, is gaming in hope of gains. Neither let the the gamester except that his riotous humour cannot come within the compass of covetousness, for he doth therefore venture unthriftily that he may get more unlawfully, and his manner of gaining is most palpable wrongful. He takes that to which he hath no right at all that might make it his. He pleads none other title but that he won it, that is, played better than another, or perhaps not so, but only cast the lot more luckily, and all the wit under heaven can never set a colour of lawfulness upon this plea. I must have his money, because I played better than he, or threw the dice more happily. If he allege the covenant betwixt him & the party that playeth with him, that is nothing to the purpose. Forevery lawful covenant is the expressing of some lawful right that was in nature before the covenant, as the ground thereof, which he cannot name any, and therefore the covenant is unlawful, & cannot give him lawful possession of any thing. If he fly to the mutual will of them that play, let him not urge that will, but the ground of it; which is to get another man's goods, and therefore it is wicked, & cannot be the foundation of a just covenant. Indeed all will transferring right, must either be free-will (and then the thing so passed over is free gift, of which nature he will not acknowledge the thing that he wins, neither can he call it so if he would) or else will grounded upon some lawful and equal consideration, which the gamester cannot for his life make shift to name any: and therefore this will that he speaks of, is either none or nought, and so he plays the thief with another, when he wins, as with himself when he looseth. And whatsoever man he may be in presence, that accustoms to any of these last named things for his riches sake, let it be certified to his heart, that these things shall condemn him before the Lord and say; Thou also dost yield to this sin of covetousness, and thou art the covetous man that so continuing, cannot enter into life eternal. Thus have we at the last brethren, showed you both what covetousness is, and the notes of it, viz, carking, niggardice, greediness in dealing, and all unjustice: whether in Magistrates, Ministers, Tradesmen, Landlords, or any men: Be you exhorted now to deal plainly and faithfully with your own souls, and by these notes, search, try, and examine your own hearts, that you may know your own estate truly in this behalf: and be not deceived, God is not mocked. What will it avail thee to say, I am not covetous, if God will say thou art, shall not his word & sentence stand? And let this be the first use.  
Secondly, Use. 2 let me be bold to reprove those men among you, that have their consciences upbraiding them with this sin, by any of the forenamed signs. I cannot be thought to intend a particular invective against any man's person, my disacquaintance with this place & all in it will sufficiently defend me from this imputation, seeing I know scarce any of your faces. Nay, beloved brethren, it is the sin that I desire to make odious & hateful to all men, & not any man's person whatsoever: & as for those that cannot but plead guilty of this fault, they ought to submit their hearts to the sharpest reproof, and be content by a bitter medicine to be healed of a poisonful disease. I know that that is very true which David saith; The covetous blesseth himself, none more, and his hand hath gotten wealth; no man must find fault with him, that were inequity; but by how much he is more sparing to himself, by so much must we with more loudness and vehemency, sound forth the trumpet of God's vengeance against him: and let him hear it to his affrightment, if his hard heart would feel any thing, that he is as loathsome in God's eyes as any, & as subject to his curse as who is most subject. And whereas the prints, and footsteps of this enormous crime, are apparent almost every where in every condition of men, I must be bold in God's name, to pronounce a woe against their souls, and tell their consciences which will also bear witness to my words, that they are as abominable in gods eyes, as the world is precious in theirs. Ah what a shameful thing is this, that a man professing the gospel of jesus Christ, which would be esteemed his faithful subject, should yet harbour in his heart, & serve in his life, this vile traitor which Christ hath prescribed long ago, & would have exiled & banished, yea, & quite chased out of the world, chiefly out of the hearts of all that call themselves by his name, Christians? Is this agreeable to the profession of Christianity, to have thine heart thus wedded to the world, still earth-ward, earthward, always looking to the things that are below? hast thou so learned jesus Christ? Doth he deal so unlovingly with thee, as not to give thee better, more lasting, and comfortable things to delight in? or dealest thou not most unlovingly with thyself and him, that having an offer of that most precious treasure, joyest rather to lad thyself with this thick clay? With what words shall I sufficiently condemn & disgrace this folly? it is madness, mere madness, and worse than the worst lunacy that is. When wilt thou learn to be ashamed of thyself, and to blush in consideration of thy childish dealing, yea, thy wicked demeanour in this respect? Did we ever learn any such thing in the school of Christ, or in his example? did his conversation ever savour of covetousness? yea, did he not willingly choose to want all things almost for our sakes? to teach us in his own person, that poverty is no such matter, and wealth no such desirable things as we make them in our conceits? Must we not then needs blame ourselves, that have rather chosen to follow our own corrupted affections, & the sinful fashion of the wicked world, than his most wholesome direction, and most holy pattern? What must Christ say unto thee, when thou shalt appear before him in another world? or art thou so very an Atheist, as not to dream of such a day? must he not strike thine ear with a chiding and unpleasant voice, & say; Disloyal and unfaithful servant, would neither words nor deeds work upon thee? I commanded; thee to beware of covetousness; I commanded thee first to seek the kingdom of heaven, & the righteousness thereof; I commanded thee not to labour for the things that perished, but for the things that endured to eternal life. Mine example also taught the same things, thou never readest of any carking in me, though I had not an house to put mine head in, thou never heardest of any niggardice, toiling, or unjustice in all my life: yea, I did contemn these things as trifles, not worth looking after, & refused a kingdom, when it should have been thrust upon me. Canst thou be ignorant of these things without wilfulness, or knowing, neglect them without rebellion? and yet wilt thou call thyself my servant, when thou regardest neither deeds nor words of mine? What could the Heathen have done more, or worse? Say it had never been told thee, that there was a God, a Heaven, an eternal Kingdom; say thou never hadst heard, or suspected any happiness to be found, besides wealth, and outward abundance, couldst thou have been more cold, & drowsy in seeking the one, more fervent & eager in pursuing the other? could my word profit thee no more, to divorce thee from the love of this world, to persuade thee of the baseness of earthly things, & the perfect excellency of heavenly things? Go then and take thy reward with worldlings; Consider brethren, what a most terrible word it will be, to be bid then depart from Christ, to the devil & his angels, whether we will or nay; because we departed from him wilfully before to the world, and its dung and dross: and know you that as sure as God is true, so you shall find it at the last day, a covetous man shall not go for an honest man, or good Christian more than a whore or thief. Flatter not yourselves with being neither whores nor thieves, harlots and adulterers: thieves & robbers shall as soon come into the kingdom of God as yourselves, and yet you know that such shall never come there.  
But if the covetous man disdain comparison with such foul companions, and think himself wronged, in that such loathsome men are equaled with him; Let him hear what Saint Paul saith; This you know, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, shall inherit the Kingdom of God and of Christ. Lend thine ear and be affrighted, O thou worling, is this Scripture, or is it not? Art thou an Atheist to deny it, or one of salomon's fools to despise it? But yet for more assurance hear again the same Apostle saying; No fornicator, nor Idolater, nor Adulterer, nor wanton, nor Buggerer, nor thief, nor extortioner, nor covetous man, nor drunkard, nor railer, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Lo thy companions and fellows, & know what thou art in God's account, doth he not tie thee, as a malefactor, in the same chain, with those whom all the world cries shame upon, and whom thyself dost loath and scorn? wilt thou not see thyself also to be a limb of the devil, because a darling of the world, and as far from heaven as she that lives in the stews, and he that robs by the high wayside?  
Now if perhaps any will stand out and say he is not a covetous man, let me call God, and the world, and your own consciences and your deeds to witness against a number of you, that you be so in extremity. Do not many of you cark, and care, and pine your hearts almost with needless doubtings, and suspicions of necessity to be hereafter, when your own being is uncertain, even for a day, and are you not covetous? Are not many so pinching and miserable, that no mercy, no liberality, no bounty can be seen in their lives, and the time is to come that ever they did voluntarily bestow any thing for the relief of the needy, or if any thing, it comes out pinchingly in pence, & twopences, when God hath given it in greater abundance to do more good, and yet are you not covetous? Do not a number lad themselves so burdensomely with worldly dealings, that God and Religion, and a better life, can find no place in their serious considerations; and that either they never pray, read, meditate, or else so drousily, and coldly, and shortly, as if they thought every hour ten, till they were returned to their work; yea, doth not the world enchroch upon the greatest part of the Sabbath, in many men's tongues and hands, that would be thought Religious, and are you not yet covetous? Is not all unjustice rife? Ask your own hearts you Magistrates, and answer in secret, but in truth: Do you not take gifts? Do you not often force your Consciences to think what they should not, and your hands to do what they should not, in defending, sentencing, writing, executing any thing for a reward? and will you deny that you are covetous? question with your hearts, ye tradesmen, will they not tell you that you do engross, exact sophisticate, and use false weights, measures, and words, and perhaps also more dark tricks, that God's eyes see, and can tell of, and are you not covetous? Do not you Landlords rack your rents, burden your tenants, defraud them, oppress them, grind their faces: and will you say that you are not covetous? Do not some of you Ministers, come in by Simony, and being entered, loiter and neglect a flock or two, feeding the Lord's sheep more carelessly than you would be content to have an heard of your own swine fed, and are you not covetous? Are they not common amongst all sorts, to lie, cousin, and break promise and shift, to give your money to usury, to withhold the goods of others in your hands, to live by Church-livings, and care not for the Church, & are you not covetous? I would to God brethren, that these things did not cry out in the ears of the Lord of hosts, and the ordinary practice of them, like the roaring of many waters, complain unto him of our earthliness. Yea I would we did not complain too much one against another; and he that practiseth covetousness in one thing, seeks to make himself seem honest, by exclaiming against as bad pranks in others. Magistrates cry out of tradesmen, and they of Magistrates; they of Ministers, the people of Landlords; almost every man of another for this sin, and will you not see it in yourselves, and be ashamed of it? Let me discharge a good conscience, and without fear, tell the covetous man, I mean him in whom any of these things do bear sway, that he is a counrerfeit Christian, an hollowhearted protestant, and a dissembling professor, that makes gain his godliness, and his wealth his God: and know thou again, that heaven is shut against thee as fast, as against the foulest sinner that the earth holds. Hearken O covetous man, whosoever thou be'st, and see, that thou shalt surely die in this thy sin, if thou do not speedily amend it: the love of the world will pull thee down to hell, unless thou make haste to cast it off, and be thou also among the other crew of presumptuous sinners, accursed in the name of the Lord. But ah my brethren, do we delight in threatenings, or is it our pleasure to rake in the wounds of your soul, with the nail of a reproof? nay we desire to heal them, which we could not do without wiping forth this festered water: and for none other end show you the danger of your estate, but that you may get out of it; and therefore for the last use, do beseech you all, that see what is amiss to reform yourselves.  
There be two degrees of covetous men, some so fully possessed with the spirit of the world, that God is their enemy, and they his, and so they cannot possibly be saved. Such are those whose custom it is to run thorough thick and thin, to get riches, and who live in the ordinary practice of known evils for wealth's sake; namely, those which I have before named, or some like to them. If thou be one of these, to thee the curse denounced doth certainly belong; and shall cleave to thy soul so fast, that neither men nor Angels shall separate the same, unless thou do speedily amend. Pity thyself miserable man, pity thyself, leap not into hell, it is a place of torment, both fearful and eternal. Cast not thyself into the flames of damnation. Why wilt thou die, and hast been warned? Is all the world worth one soul? Ah make not such an hard bargain, but have compassion upon thy dying soul. Bewail and confess thy sin before the Lord, leave and forsake thine unjust courses, and covetous desires. Be it sufficient that thou hast been all this while a slave to the world; now lay hold upon this liberty of the sons of God: shake off this yoke of Satan; wean thyself from the breasts of the world, and cast from thee the too much liking of those things that are more base, than that an eternal spirit should build it delights upon them. But if I cannot prevail with this near and absolute worldling, if he will needs be guilty of his own damnation, & refuse to commiserate himself, what remedy, who can help him that will not help himself? let him perish. And let me with more hope of success, turn my speech to the second degree of covetous men, such as though they be not wholly excluded the hope of salvation, because this sin is not absolute Lord of their lives, yet are hindered from many necessary comforts, and come into many lamentable evils; because they be not careful enough to purge themselves of this vice. Of this kind are many professors of true religion, that have given some good testimony of their uprightness and truth, and made good proceed in the ways of God, which yet for want of sufficient care to resist & reform this fault in themselves, have been shamefully foiled by Satan, and drawn sometimes to most unjust and discommendable courses, such as the wicked world hath even taken notice of; and as I may so speak, hath shouted and howted at them, glad to take any exception, and therefore much more rejoicing that so just a cause of evil speaking hath been offered. It is an outcry of the world, that those which would be accounted most forward professors of religion, those that do seem to make so much account of preaching and sermons, and so forth, even these are as hard, as unjust, as covetous in their dealings, as the worst of their neighbours. And surely brethren, though the world (willing to report the worst of things) do use a trick of rhetoric in aggravating, yet it cannot be denied that your lives hath given matter enough to work upon; It is a true complaint of many that make great show of religion, that though they be not as covetous as the worst, yet they be too notoriously covetous; and the overabundance of this evil weed, doth disfavour all the graces and virtues which are or seem to be in them. Why wilt thou if thou fearest God, suffer thyself to be so basely carried away with the desires of these things, that here-hence thou shouldest run into courses of that nature as make thy profession evil spoken of, as open the wicked mouths of clamorous men against thee, as renders thy name, a white or mark, for all those that are willing to cast out the venomous darts of oblequie and reproach against the same; as gives wicked men occasion to shelter themselves from all reproofs by retorting thy bad actions in the face of the reprover, as make sinners to applaud themselves in their sins, and think, though I make not such a show as such an one, yet he is as covetous, as I am otherwise faulty. Yea, as do cause all good men and religion itself to receive disgrace, when they can say (though lyingly, yet badly enough, having the example of some such to pretend as evidence against all) that such are all the sort of you. I beseech you brethren if any of you that fear God, have been overled with these earthly things, let him now see and consider of these many and grievous inconveniences, and see what the immoderate following of the world can yield him answerable to the loss of all those comforts that his heart should enjoy if it were rid better of this sin, and to those good affections, and praises that he should have from good men, if he did overcome this sin, and to that freedom and safety from the scourge of the tongues of lewd men, that might come to him, had he not given them the advantage against him, by unmuzling their mouths, with the too too gross practising of this sin.  
Now then consider this with thyself, whosoever thou mayst be; Disgrace thyself, disgrace religion; dishonour God's holy name, cause wicked men to exult, thy friends & Gods servants to be grieved no more. Do no more I say rush upon all, or any of these inconveniences, through the too much dotage after these base and contemptible things. If I cannot prevail with them that have been wholly worldlings, and altogether men of this earth, yet with thee that hast some good things, some sparks of God's spirit, some truth of religion, and hope of a better life, let me, yea, let God and God's ordinance prevail to make thee reform thine heart and life, in this behalf, in coming to this place, and lending your ear to jesus Christ, speaking in his own ordinance; you make a show to intend obedience to his word, who by his spirit stands in the midst of you searching every man's hidden heart; you make a show of obedience, the end of hearing is doing. Show me that you were not hypocrites in coming to the sermon, let your lives speak for you, that you did in sincerity present yourselves before the Lord, and were neither fools to come hither to no end, nor dissemblers to come for a wrong end. I doubt not but every one of your consciences, which hath with any reasonable attention hearkened, is, I am sure it ought to have been sufficiently convinced of the loathsomeness and vileness of this sin; yea, and of our own faultiness in it divers ways. Show forth the fruit of the word, gain a blessing, be doers, not hearers alone.  
Now you have looked in the glass of the word and seen the spots and stains of earthliness discovered, go home & purge and cleanse yourselves of them hereafter. Be not like him that looks in a glass, but washeth not his face; be not so, but let the word of God be to you in power, cast this monstrous evil and the dregs of it out of your like and your lives. But will some man say, is sin so easily left? or can we so soon prevail against it indeed, as you speak against it? no but there must be some pains taken about it, and then I do not doubt, nay, dare promise to a christian soul, the victory against this sin, & that it shall go down the wind, and be of the losing hand. And that you may the better amend yourselves in this matter, I will stand a while to show you these two things.  
First what be the causes of covetousness: Secondly, 
The causes of covetousness are misconceiving of God and of wealth.  what be the remedies against covetousness, which if any man will apply wisely unto himself he shall find a marvelous cure, and that in a short space, wrought upon his heart.  
First then, the main and principal procreant causes of covetousness, are two errors in the understanding or judgement: For indeed such is the nature of the affections, that they do seldom or never offend, but through the former faultiness of the mind. Seldom doth the desire, or love, or hatred, overshoote themselves, but through the deceit of the understanding part, that being first disordered itself, disorders those that are as servants to it; overhasty to the worst, and over-slow in the best actions. And in the particular, therefore the desire is inordinately and unlawfully carried after wealth, because the eye of the mind mistaketh it mark, in these two respects: First, it doth not apprehend in God such abundance of power and will to save, help, and deliver, as indeed there is in him, and every man should acknowledge in him, and so the mind being by this falsehood driven from the strong hold of God's name is feign to cast about for some other place of defence, and then wealth offers itself to help, as the bramble to the king over the trees, & the mind still dazzled, and judging after the appearances of things, not after the truth, doth conceive that riches are indeed able to help. Now upon these two gross mistake, it follows, that the desire which is ready priest to pursue that which is esteemed helpful and profitable, sets forward itself, with all it might to pursue after wealth, and this is the original of covetousness. So is this foul evil begotten of the mind; it is the dark and blind brood of an erroneous and deluded judgement. And both these causes are laid open clear enough before us in the Scripture.  
The first in Heb. 3. where having warned us of covetousness, he saith, for he hath said, I will never leave, etc. By this coherence, sufficiently intimating, that covetousness comes, because one thinks God will not be sure enough to him, but too quickly and lightly leave him to himself. And the second cause Christ notes in this Text, saying: for though a man have much, his life consists not in his wealth: as if he had said, you desire much wealth, because you think it can make you live more comfortably & safely, but indeed it cannot. You see now the true causes of covetousness. I know men are willing to make show that this their desire of wealth is of better parentage, but the truth is, it is as I have said, the base brood of ignorance and error.  
Now come we to show the remedies of this sin, 
2. The remedies. 1 Apply the word to it in serious meditation.  and how it may be consumed out of us: First, there are four remedies in all. The first is, to meditate upon the word of God that forbids it. Applying the reproofs, and threatenings, and commandments, against any sin in the word of God to a man's own soul, by serious meditation, is a common remedy against all sins, and so also against this. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit, serving to keep out all lusts from coming within us, and to cut, wound, and slay them; to which purpose it is then effectual, when it is weelded as it ought, by turning the precepts and reproofs of it into earnest complaints against our sins, & strong petitions for ourselves before the Lord in secret. Indeed lamentable experience drives us to confess, that the word of God is of little operation in most men for God: & whence is this? even from their own folly, that out of their sinful hollowness, will not lay it as a plaster to the sores of the soul: but be this spoken in assurance of truth, & let the heart of every godly man give consent to it, that whosoever he be which takes the word of God in any particular matter, and alone betwixt God & his own soul, stands to consider, saying: Lo how plainly the Lord hath forbidden this sin, what sharp reproofs he hath uttered against it, how great the danger is, that he hath threatened shall arise from it, why do I commit it? why do I live in it? Do I either not believe his word, or not fear his displeasure? And then turning himself unto the Lord, doth earnestly cry out against himself, saying: Ah Lord God, how wicked have I been to break this thy law, and to endanger myself to thine indignation, and rush upon thine anger so over-ventrously?  
Now Lord give more wisdom, more grace, strengthen me to do thy will, which I see & know, but of myself cannot obey: whosoever I say, doth in this or the like manner spread the plaster of God's word upon his own heart, let him count the promises of God but leasings, if he find it not able to heal any lust, though never so cankered and inveterate; to quell any corruption, though never so strong and violent. Do thus therefore brethrens, for covetousness, we have showed you sufficiently, what an hurtful and unlawful thing it is. Enter into thy closet as Christ bids thee; ponder of these things; set down your own hearts with these reasons, and convince yourselves of the wickedness thereof, and accuse yourselves before God with indignation against yourselves, that are so basely inclining to this world, when the Lord bids the contrary; Yea, and beseech him to strengthen and sanctify your hearts now, that seeing his will, you may yield to it: and that these reproofs may be present with your hearts to control them, and check them sharply, when they so offend, & that it would please him to incline your hearts to his testimonies, and not unto covetousness, and he that thus doth constantly day by day, or as often as occasion is, let him be bold to promise to himself, that the word will prove a word of life and power unto him. It will knock off these clogs of wordliness, from his soul, that his affections shall be no longer so fettered with them.  
The second remedy against covetousness, 
Get assurance of eternal life.  is to labour for more and more assurance of the favour of God and everlasting life, through jesus Christ his son: and every man must have his happiness and delight. And if any man's heart be not set upon the true felicity, it will be seduced by false; & one guilded vanity or another will steal it away from him: but let a christian endeavour to make his calling and election sure, and to be steadfastly resolute of this, that God for his dear sons sake, pardoning all his fins, will beslow eternal happiness upon him, & cause him to reign as a king with his Son, in a throne of immortal glory; where is no sin, no sorrow, no trouble, nothing to grieve or vex him; but the fullness of joy at God's right hand for evermore; and the sight and comfortable expectations of this estate, will so ravish his heart, and take up his desires, that this vile earth will appear to be as it is, and he shall be able out of his own feeling to call it dung and ashes, as the Apostle doth, not suffering it to carry the name of a treasure in his estimation. Yea, and his soul from this main ground will draw another conclusion of no less force to beat down the rising of wordliness, saying; If God will give the flesh and blood of his son to be the food of my soul, will not he give me bread and drink to sustain my body? If his love were so infinite that he spared not his most beloved and only begotten son for my sake, how shall he not with him give me all things? He that will save the soul, will he not feed the body? will he deny dross, that gave gold? will he say nay for a pebble, that so liberally scattered pearls? Nay sure, if our Lord would give Christ for us, and to us, for our salvation, it were madness to doubt whether he will give earthly things for maintenance, so far as is good (and further what Christian can wish them) for God is always suitable to himself, in all his dealings: Get good reasons to trust God with thy foul, and thou wilt never fear thy body and thine estate. Have evidence strong enough for heaven, and thine heart will not desire earth, and much less doubt of having sufficient therein.  
The third remedy against covetousness is, to consider advisedly, 
3. Consider well God's temporal promises.  of God's gracious promises abundantly made and written in his word to his servants, even for provision of temporal benefits: we have his word, yea, his deed, his testament sealed and delivered unto us in the presence of all his Saints and Angels; we have his bond, under white and black, saying: The Lions shall be hunger-starved, but they that fear the Lord shall want nothing. And again; 
Psal. 34.10  The Lord our God is a Sun and shield, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. And again; 
Psal. 84.11  The Lord is my shepherd, I shall want nothing. 
Psa. 23.1.  And this the Author to the Hebrews presseth, saying; Let your conversation be without covetousness, 
Heb. 13.5.  and be content with that that is present. Yea, but we cannot be content, we have good reason to desire more; For how if hard times and dangers should come, who should then provide for us? Who should provide? Why, are you Christians, yea or no? if no: strive to be so first of all. If ye know that God is not so reckless a father, you are not left to shift for yourselves, nor cast over to your own providing. Nay, you have one to care for you, and that for ever, if you can but believe his word. He, the God of mercy, the God of wisdom, the God of truth, the God of power, the God of wealth, the maker and owner of all worlds, the God all-sufficient, he hath given his word for your surety. We give much credit to a man's promise, and think we are in good plight if a wealthy friend, specially if he be trusty also, do undertake to help us. This is not man that may be changed, but the unchangeable God: not man that may deceive, but God that cannot lie: not man that may be hindered, but God whom none can resist: not man that may die, but God that lives for ever. And he hath said, I will never leave you, not in age, not in sickness, not in a dear year, not in hard times, not when you be friendless, not when the world is nought, and the days hard and evil; he will never leave you nor forsake you; never cast you off, nor cease to do you good. O faithless and unbelieving hearts, if we do not rest, build, and repose ourselves, upon a promise so plain, so firm, so plentiful; and fools and absurd, if believing this we will give our hearts to the world Heap wealth together whilst thou wilt, it is not thine but Gods, he must give it thee out of thine own chest, as well as another man's. And if thou hast never so little, he hath never the less, and can give thee out of another man's chest, as well as thine own. What needest thou offend God, wrong man, and trouble thyself to get that which is provided for thee in Gods keeping long before? and thou hast it as much if it be in any man's custody, as if in thine own. But prodigal children will not live at their father's finding, till their own ways make them teturne weeping home: and we are loath to stand to God's simple provision forsooth, it sufficeth us not, we must have more, though we pierce ourselves through with woeful temptations for it, because we seek riches more than his favour. When will we cause our lives to witness that we believe God is true? yea, when will we cease to call him a liar actually, by coveting for ourselves, and not trusting on him that careth for us. Think we on these promises, have them in a readiness, and when our hearts do troublesomely question within us, who shall help us when we be old, or in adversity, if we do not now scrape together? set them down and say, God will care for me if he be true; and if he be not, it boots not to get wealth, for then the world and all in it must come to nothing, together with his truth, which is himself. 
4. Consider rightly what wealth is to which care, mark.  Now the last remedy against covetousness, and as needful as any of the rest, is, to inform ourselves truly as concerning the nature of wealth. For none can love it but through ignorance, nor desire it, but through love. Look upon it as it is in itself, without the paintings of opinion, and our desires will of themselves despise it, & as it were scorn to be captive thereunto. Now the contemptiblenes of wealth will be manifest, if we set ourselves well to consider of these things following. First, what kind of men have most of it. Secondly, how uncertain. 
1. What men have had most of it.  Thirdly, how unprofitable. Lastly, also how hurtful it is. For the first then, let the stories be asked both of holy writ and profane authors, & let them speak, who be the men, & what have they been which have waded through the sea of the world, in the greatest and the tallest vessels, have not many of them been the most brutish men, the veriest beasts, and the most loathsome & abominable creatures that ever breathed air, or saw the Sun, & such as a Christian man cannot name without hating? Kaynes; Nimrods', Cams, Ismaels', Esau's, Saules, Ahabs', Nebucadnezar's, Baltazers, Herod's, judasses, Devils? And in other authors, Nero, Commodus, Heliogabalus, & other monsters of men? Indeed I deny not, but good men have also been wealthy, but that which is so common to good and bad, that for the most part, the worst have had most of it: cannot if God be the disposer of things be the true treasure. What is that that a wise man doth commonly cast to dogs, but bones or carrion; that he gives to swine, but draff or husks; what is that God gives to such as are worse than swine, or dogs; but worse I mean, more base than draff or carrion? Think we that the God of heaven is so unwise a dispenser of good things, that he would cast pearls to swine, or good things to dogs? Surely were there so much excellency in these matters, as we foolishly dream of, they should not be fling to those whom God hates, and purposes to fat as Hogs for the day of slaughter; but rather most upon his children, whom he doth intend to glorify with himself. God feeds them full with these things, whom he will throw to hell; thou mayst be a rich man, and yet a devil for all that; go then and desire wealth, if thou thinkest it yet the true treasure.  
But yet further consider we how unprofitable it is. 
2 How unprofitable it is.  Take wealth as we mean it, for the overplus of things necessary to competent maintenance, and you shall not be able to deny (set opinion aside a while) that it is a thing of nought: Will you not yield that God is wise enough to call things by their right names, and to entitle every creature after the true nature of it? Ask then the scripture the voice of God, what this gold and silver, these lands, and linings, & rich possessions, this god Mammon should be called? Will it not answer A shadow saying: 
Psal. 39.6.  Man walketh in a shadow, he troubles himself in vain, every man heaps up, and knows not who shall gather it. Will it not say, A flower? 
1. Pet. 1.24.  for all flesh is grass, and the glory thereof as the flower of grass. Will it not say, lies? 
Psal. 62.9. Eccle 1.2.  The chief men are liars. Will it not say Vanity? for All is vanity. Will it not say Nothing? as Solomon, 
Prou. 23.7  Wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, and it is not, it hath no being? Either challenge God of folly, or falsehood, which hath called this wealth shadows, flowers, lies, vanity, nothing; or else yield that we have been deceived in thinking better of it Will we not see our error, and confess that we have been cozened as children, with gauds, and now begin to trust our father's judgement? But you shall see that it is not without cause vilified with these titles, and if you will but lend an heart to judge, as an ear to hear, you shall perceive as clear as noon day, that they be as unprofitable as any shadow. What will you term that, that can do no good, to soul, body, name, state, nor keep any evil from soul, body, name, state, nor mitigate such evils as a man is pressed withal, in any of these respects? Every man will yield it may well be called a thing of nought, and cannot well be called by a better name. Believe not shows and conceits, and then be yourselves judges, if wealth, I mean overplus of maintenance, can do any thing in any of the forenamed respects. 
1. Soul, for getting good things of it  What is good for the soul, but faith, repentance, the spirit of God, the answering of our prayers, the pardon of our sins, and the attaining of eternal life? And I pray you, can you buy these things for money? can you purchase them with jewels? or get them for exchange of goods? will God give heaven to any man, if he will mortgage a fair living to him for it? Will he give him faith, that can bring a rich jewel, or a purse of gold for it? or will he hear his prayers any whit sooner in his need, that is clad in cloth of gold, and hath thousands by the year, than if he went in mean apparel, & had not twice twenty pound, nay twenty pence yearly? or is there any commuting of penance in heaven? or can we by a great fine answer for a fault? Indeed if any of you be so blockish, as to believe the palpable deceits of popish Rome, some of these things are set to sale there, and there you may buy indulgences and pardons: but we know well enough that Rome and heaven stand a good way a sunder, and they be not ruled by the same laws, neither will God stand to those bargains that the Pope makes for money. You have all yielded, now that for soul, money cannot bring any good to it. But what? 
2. Body for the same respect.  cannot it profit the body more? Ask experience. Will wealth buy health? will it purchase ease, or a good night's rest, or an hours sleep, or a good stomach, or any of these things that are less than these? Answer what you know by proof: will wealth buy these things? and what is the body the better for it then? But yet perhaps the name may be more beholding to it. 
3. The Name.  It will surely bring credit, and good estimation. Indeed here, if in any thing, the rich man magnifies himself above the poor, because he takes himself to be in better reputation. But here if in any thing he is most of all deceived. I confess it makes him think much better of himself, but neither God nor man do think the better. Yea, God and good men think the worse of him for this. If it come in by violence, oppression, robbery, and unjustice, you will yield that no man hath the better liking of one for such wealth. But say that a man hath not waded through these filthy and stinking guzzels to get it, but have come unto it in the most cleanly manner, as some, but not the most do, it shall be plain, if any reason will rule us, that it cannot get a good name or credit. For say, what will you call credit? to have cap and courtesy, and a bended knee, and a few compliments of behaviour acted unto your silken coat, or before yourself it may be, or to be looked after and gazed upon by the deceived multitude, and to be followed by a great number of hangs-by that run after you, as Eagles after a dead carcase to feed upon you? Is this credit? is this estimation? to be crouched unto as a little cur doth to a mastiff, to be soothed up, and hear fair words, to be all besprinkeled with courtholy water every day; in a word, to be stabbed with the cutthroat kindness of flattery? If you call this credit, and if this be the good name you talk of, it is even a fit thing to be gotten with wealth, an unprofitable credit, an uncomfortable credit, an hurtful credit, with unprofitable, uncomfortable, and hurtful riches.  
And if any man have but a grain of wisdom, he will see that this is far from credit or a good name. But if it be to be well esteemed of in the hearts of men, to find reverence in their souls, to have their consciences commend one, and their inward man set him (as it were) in a good room of the affections, and their private thoughts, to yield a good testimony for him: If I say, this be accounted credit, as it is indeed, a man is never a whit the nearer to it for abundance of goods. That will make men fawn and wag the tail, as a cur upon his master that is at dinner, to get a bone, yea, and perhaps also to lick over his sores, with a poisoning, not an healing tongue (for in this a flatterer is ten times worse than a dog; yea, he is a venimmouthed dog) but behind his back, and in his absence none shall be more ready to talk of his faults, to deride them, to blaze them, to disgmce them, than he that crouched so much in his presence, and did him so much (as you please to call it) credit to his face; yea, and in the midst of all this crouching, no man's heart doth more loath, abhor, scorn, and contemn him, than the man that is so servile and officious because of wealth.  
And this is all that wealth can procure for the name, but nothing under heaven can make the hearts of men to reverence any, and their souls to have in good account, yea and prefer him (in their mature judgement) even before themselves. Nothing can do this I say, but grace and virtue, true piety, true holiness, and godliness of conversation, to which money cannot help a man. A poor man that fares but reasonably, and goes in ordinary attire, and cannot show either money or lands of his own in any great abundance, shall yet if he live virtuously, and walk in the fear of God, and in the obedience of his holy commandments, be more respected by many degrees, in the souls and consciences of all that know (yea of those also that do slander and envy, and malign him) than the most wealthy man under heaven wanting these things. john had more reverence in Herod's heart, than Herod amongst all his courtiers and servitors, though he wanted all that cap and knee wherewith Herod imagined himself to be lifted up to heaven in estimation. Yea, and if a rich man have this credit (as David, job, Abraham, and others had,) it is not his wealth but his goodness (which doth nothing at all depend upon his wealth) that brings the same unto him: for a low estate gives occasion to exercise as many virtues, and show as much grace, (let job be witness) which they that be wise (whose commendation alone is desirable) will also see and observe, as the most high and exalted. And wherein then is wealth to be regarded for credit sake? but that we are foolish, and miscall that credit which is but flattery; or at the least but complemental trouble and vexation? But if it can do no great good, 
2. For removing evil from thee.  yet I hope it can keep away much evil from me (will some man think) and make me safe in the day of danger. Let us a little consider seriously of that point too; and if you find that it be as little able to defend against any harmful thing, as to procure any good, you will not then surely deny, but that it may well be called a lie, as the holy Ghost in this respect doth term it; because he is never a whit the safer that hath it. Now than all evils are either spiritual or temporal, ghostly or bodily. The ghostly, are first, 
Sonle.  sins and lusts of our soul, as ignorance of God and his will, pride, unbelief, envy, malice, filthy desires, frowardness, unjustice, a lying, a blasphemous tongue, and the like. And will a golden plaster heal these diseases? Let experience speak, and let the heart of every one of you give answer to this question. Will a plaster made of gold and silver heal these diseases? Ah no, no: the whole world can tell it doth the contrary: rather causing them to fester and rankle; yea, and building a strong castle for every inordinate affection, to possess the heart of them that have it, with so much more might and tyranny: wealth makes a warm nest for sin to sit and hatch in, as we shall show anon. A man shall not overcome his lusts a whit the sooner, or the more easily, when his purse is full, his house furnished, his grounds stored, his revenues doubled, not these temporal, but spiritual weapons, the edge whereof is rather dulled by wealth, doth overcome such enemies. It is weeping, mourning, praying, and crying to God, it is even godly sorrow, that as a good plaster heals the soul, and wealth doth rather fill men full of laughter and jollity, & earthly delights, in which he that lives is dead whilst he lives: that Christ might well say; Woe be to you that are rich, woe be to you that laugh. And Saint james, howl ye rich men, for ye have lived in pleasure: and by consequent in sin up to the ears, seeing Christian mourning, only keeps a Christian soul in good temper. Yea, that one lust of covetousness which wealth seems most of all able to vanquish, yet it cannot. Money will not cure covetousness, more than wood & oil can quench fire. We see it and wonder, that even this lust is not lessened, but increased rather with it, as thirst with some harish and ill-brued drink, or wine which the Vintner hath adulterated with brimstone, or some such like gear. The more a man drinks of this, the more drought. The more a man hath, commonly the more worldly. And for the devil and an ill conscience with the horrors of it, we know that Satan can shake, affright, and terrify a rich man as soon, and as much, as a poor. When God sets the devil and an ill conscience lose, they fear not an heap of gold, a fair house, a silken coat, a great living, nay not a throne and Sceptre, but will as tormentingly, gnaw the soul of him that hath all these things, as if he wanted all. A garment of tissue can no more keep a broken bone from aching, than a rich estate an ill conscience from vexing. Yea, and the scorching flames of hell will burn, fry, and consume the soul of such, with as hideous torture as the poorest varlets. Witness the rich glutton Dives in the Gospel. So that the soul is no whit the more exempted from sin, from temptation, from horror, from damnation, because of wealth, & is it not sufficiently proved, that wealth is worth nothing? But what say you to temporal evils, will not money preserve a man from their danger neither? Not at all, common sense can tell us.  
For it cannot drive away the gout, the stone, the strangury, the colic, the fever, the plague, the headache, the toothache; Yea, a felon, or a whitloe, or the ache of a finger, nor the greatest, nor the least diseases of body, will be afraid of riches, his foot will stumble at a stone, his skin, his bones, break as stone, that hath them, as that wants them. These griefs, as the frogs of Egypt, enter into rich-man's houses, creep upon rich-man's bodies, yea they are rather more subject to divers evils, because of their over-abundant fare and daintiness, and yet do not enjoy their plenty, because they are commonly cloyed with too much, and to him that is full, an honey comb is bitter. So that these men's houses are as much troubled with bad stomachs, with consumptions, with Ohs, cry, & complaints, as the meaner sort. If you say but they can hire physicians, I answer, it is true, but the physician cannot heal the disease: yea, sometimes he kills them with too many drugs, and the poor man hath better physic, better cheap. His painful labour, and his moderate fare, is better to him, than a college of physicians.  
Also imprisonment, restraint, 
3. Estate.  confining and banishment, doth as soon befall to them, as to their less wealthy neighbours, as all age's witness, and all stories. Nay, I will yet add one thing more, that seemeth more strange than all this; wealth cannot keep a man from poverty, from beggary. And because I know you will all deny this, I will bring in 70. Kings at a time, to take their oaths upon it. Look in in the first of judges, and there you shall see 70. 
judges 1.6.7.  Kings with their fingers, and toes cut off glad like whelps to lick up crumbs at another King's table. And then a little while after, you shall see that the same King which made all them so poor is used in the same manner himself. What beggars-brat, could have come to more need?  
Now deny if you can, that a rich man may die a beggar, as well as he that is so borne. And I pray you do but ask your own memories, if they cannot tell of divers in their own knowledge, that from great wealth came to a morsel of bread, whose youth swimming in dainties, their elder years would have snapped at a crust, as we say, and been glad of any relief, and that also in many, not through their own default. And yet is not wealth unprofitable? Again, for inward troubles that be natural, as griefs, cares, jealousies and fears, 
4. Mind for natural respects.  we know that as cobwebs breed sooner under wainscot and fair hangings, than upon a plain wall: so these arise in greater measure to them that are most clogged with plenty, as whose lives in all men's sight do most show it, and if they do at any time want them, not their money but some other thing doth free them from the same. But yet perhaps wealth may mitigate the pain of a cross, though it cannot keep it off? Indeed of all the profitable effects, 
3. For mitigating any evil.  this is the least & lowest; but wealth is too base and weak to effect any such mitigation. When a rich man lies sick of any disease, hath he one pang less? or is he able to bear one pang more patiently, because he can make a greater Inventory than his neighbours? or when he is fallen into poverty and decay, doth it assuage? (nay doth it not rather augment) the sorrow that once he was in this and this place & abundance? If a libel or a false report be cast out against him, doth it sting or nettle him, less, or not rather more than another? Nay do we not see, that because it makes the heart bigger, it makes also the cross heavier commonly? so that a meaner man could with fewer cries and lamentations lay five Children in the grave, than he can carry out one. A poor man could with less vexation, bear an hundred ill words and railings than he the least cross-word. Of all men ordinarily none vex themselves more under a cross than the wealthy, because they least look for it: and wealth we know cannot buy patience, because not wisdom and godliness that are the mothers and nurses of patience. But yet will some man say, the rich man hath a fire when another man sits cold; the rich man is warm clad, when another is subject to wind and weather; he fares well, when an other is hungry. I answer, he is as free from cold that goes in freeze or carsey, as he that is in satin and velvet: and it hath not yet been brought to light, that the warmth of velvet is more wholesome, or more comfortable, than that of freeze. Also he sleeps as well that lies upon a flock-bed, or a pad of straw, as he that hath his downe-bed and pillows, and his Arras covering, and the softest sheets. Yea, and he that hath but one dish, or perhaps only bread and cheese, and now and then some warm meat, feeds as sweetly, and with as good an appetite, digests as wholesomely, and with as sound a stomach, as he that hath dainties brought to his table from the furthest quarters of the world: so that herein the man that hath but enough for food & raiment, is at least his equal, that hath an overplus; and not the rich man's superfluity, but his competency doth afford him these benefits, which divers times are made more unsavoury, never more able to comfort and content by their over-plentious store: and we took in hand to show, not that sufficient for meat, drink, and cloth, to content nature (which is the measure wherewith God limits our desires) but a superfluity of things (which covetousness aims at) is unprofitable, & worth nothing. Which seeing it can bring neither health, contentment, nor good name, neither grace, virtue, nor forgiveness of sins, seeing it cannot drive away sin, Satan, hell, death, sickness, pain, sorrow, yea, or poverty, nor extenuate the torment of any of these, as every man's heart will tell him that it cannot: In a word, seeing it will not make a man live one whit the longer, or with more comfort, nor die one whit free for pangs and grief, nor gain heaven, nor escape hell the sooner when he is dead? will you not see and confess it to be a thing of nought? And may I not say, cease from wealth, which hath no breath or strength at all, for wherein is it to be esteemed?  
And therefore though thy crooked heart is not willing to yield, 
How fickle and uncertain it is.  yet thy judgement cannot choose but be convinced of this, that great riches are unprofitable, and not worth a rush. But say it were not so little commodious, yea say that it could do any of the fore. named things, yet I will prove to your consciences, that it is not worthy your desires, because of the next property thereof, which is uncertainty. It is like a runagate servant, a fugitive, a plain vagrant, which though he be bigboned and strong and skilful, and able to work, yet no man greatly cares for, because he will be gone when a man hath most need of him, and perhaps also take something away with him that was more worth than all his service. So wealth will take its heels when a man hath most use for it, and carry contentment away too, which is more precious than all the false happiness that it could procure whilst it remained with us. This wealth hops from man to man, and place to place, as a light winged bird, from tree to tree. And no man can say where it will roost at night. The holy Ghost hath compared it to a wild foul, most swift of wing, and strong in flight, saying; 
Prou. 23.5.  Riches takes itself to it wings, and flies away. Not like a cock or hen, or some tame house-bird, that a man may follow and catch again, no nor like an hawk that will show where she is by her bells, and be called again with a lure; but like an Eagle, that mounts aloft past sight, and is carried away with so much haste that nothing will recall her. And where is the man that can clip the wings of this eagle, when it is in his own custody, that it shall not be gone from him when he thinks least of it? If it could procure any benefit to your lives, you see it were not yet worth your wishes, nor your toil, for it departs when you should use it; and that without taking leave: and then as he that riseth from a stool, and thinketh to sit down again, the stool being removed, takes the more dangerous knock; so the mind that relied on wealth, when it misseth it, is more tormented with vexation by the untrustiness thereof. And surely who hath lived so little a while, but he hath seen wealth run away from many a master, and never came at him again to his dying day? Yea, & ofttimes also leave him to hunger, thirst, nakedness, and all misery and reproach: yea, though here his forefathers have been at great toil, and perhaps hazarded a soul or two to get it. Yea it hath served many a Lord, Nobleman, and great Prince thus untrustily, and yet will we not take warning but trust it, dote upon it? The holy Ghost calls it a lie, because it will surely play him such slippery pranks, that hath confidence in it (as every man hath in that measure he desires it) and a shadow, because every cloud that flies over the Sun may (and that which is not to a shadow) irrecoverably cut it off. No man can promise himself to be wealthy till night, one coal of fire, one unadvised word, two false oaths, of two false villains, (and how many such be there in the world) may make him a beggar and a prisoner both at once? or if not so, yet he may go from it in a moment, as the rich man of whom Christ speaks immediately after my text, whose soul was called for, that night that he sang down secure to himself, and when a man hath gotten goods not by right, and dies in the midst of his days, and leaves his wealth to another perhaps he knows not, whom doth he not prove (that of himself the which was true before, but neither himself nor others would see, namely) that he was a stark fool? But all this is a little in comparison of that which I have to speak against it. It is not alone unprofitable, 
4. How hurtful it is too.  but hurtful also, and exceeding dangerous to him that possesseth it, creating much evil to his body & his soul, which harmfulnes proceedeth not from the nature of wealth, but from the corruption of men; as cold drink in itself is good, but not to him which hath the fit of an ague, yea to him, it is almost as bad as poison; and so, some meats are nought for men of some constitutions, which they love, but love not them, and of these men are accustomed to take heed. Neither is this danger a whit the less, because it comes from our ill nature, not from wealth itself, seeing this corruption of nature cleaves to our soul, as fast as the skin to the flesh, and we shall assoon cease to be, as to be so evil. Yea, most of all, is it harmful to him that most desires it; and howsoever others may escape the hurt of it, yet he cannot escape, seeing the overprizing thereof bringeth forth the desire, and both together cause the danger. It may therefore very well be likened to an artichoke, a little picking meat there is, not so wholesome as delicious, and nothing to that it shows for; more than the tenth part is unprofitable leaves; and beside there is a core in the midst of it, which will choke, not feed, and strangle, not nourish, if a man do not pick warily what he puts into his mouth, better it is that God give us our portion, than set the whole dish before us; we shall well-near choke ourselves with it; and such a thing is wealth: yea, it is like some kind of fishes, so full of small and unseen bones, that no man eats it without great heed, but with great danger, but a child cannot scape peril if he venture to eat it: and where shall we find a man not a child in understanding? if any other be past a child, yet certainly the man that loves wealth is not, It is like an headstrong and lusty horse, that casts the weak and unskilful rider, to the breaking of his bones, if not his neck: and though children desires to be on horseback, yet the father had rather keep them a foot: and certainly few have the strength to bridle and the skill to sit and manage this resty steed, it is sure none that loves to be upon the back of it, hath skill in this horsemanship. 
Bodily estate.  But wherein is it so dangerous will some man say? I answer, it is very troublesome to the outward man, and like a luggring carriage makes him sweat and puff that goes under it. The rich man's plenty will not let him sleep, his variety of dishes brings him to surfeiting, and that to many noisome diseases, and unquiet nights, and days; and beside, his eyes, his ears, his hands, his heart is not his own, he cannot be where he would feignest, nor speak nor think of what he most desires, being called away by multitude of affairs, too too many streams of business do drive him by force even from himself, and he may well be called any man's servant, rather than his own; so that in outward regards, when wealth grows very large, it is like a long coat or a garment too side, that a man treads upon often, and catcheth a fall, when another goes upright, either he must hold it up (and were it not as good be cut shorter?) or else it will bring him down; yea, it makes men obnoxious to envy, and so subject to malice, that none are more. As a tree that hath thick and large boughs, every man desires to lop him; besides that, the sidenes of his garment makes his own feet stumble: others also can more easily tread upon it, and give him a fall; But all this is nothing, a man might well either bear or prevent such troubles. There follows another rank of mischiefs out of the rankness of wealth, that are more pernicious to the soul and cannot so well be shunned.  
It breeds many noisome diseases to the soul. 
1. Soul. 1. Begetting evils, False confidence.  First it makes the soul very vainly and falsely confident. Men think themselves so much more safe, by how much more rich, and cannot be content to have wealth, unless they do also trust upon it; as David on his hill, which yet deceived him. The rich man's riches is a strong tower to his imagination, saith Solomon; he takes himself as it were walled and moated about by them, though indeed he lie as open to danger as other men. Secondly, it swells the heart with loathsome pride, 
2. Pride.  making a man think himself also so much the better, by how much, he possesseth more. This disease as well as the former, the Apostle notes, saying to Timothy, Charge them that be rich in this world, 
1. Tim. 6.  that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches: As if he had told us that these two maladies, false confidence and an haughty conceit of ones self, the pursinesse of the mind, do so quickly ensue upon great possessions, that few or none escape them. None can miss them without many warnings, many earnest exhortations, nay, nor scarce with them. This wealth is like strong drink to a weak brain, which sends such hot and fuming vapours up into the same, that a man imagines he can hit the sky with his head, when he cannot stand upright upon his feet, yea, scarce keep himself from tumbling in the mire. The monstrous violence of fiery passions into which, (as into fits of a burning ague) every small crossing by an inferior or equal, drives men of wealth, shows what big conceits they have of themselves. In a word, let examples here make the case plain. Name a man almost that did not wax proud by wealth, unless God so sauced his sweet meat with the sour sauce of affliction, that it was even made unsavoury to him. It bred this frenzy in David, Vzzia, Asa, Hezekiah, the best kings that the Scripture speaks of; and if such men could not bear it, what are we? If any think though it made others worse, it shall not make him so, let him know that this very conceit shows him to be proud when he hath it not, and how would he be then if it were in his hands? thou art now conceited when thou art in a lower estate, will thy conceit of thyself diminish with the increase of thy substance? Dost thou think God is so ill a disposer of things that he would not give it thee, if he knew thou couldst use it most to his glory? Give God leave to know what is in thee better than thyself, as the Physician knoweth the state of the patient's body when he knows it not. What child doth not think he could use a knife well? but the wise father knows his conceit ariseth from ignorance: so I say to thee, that dreamest wealth should not make thee worse. Art thou better than David and Solomon his son? To say as the thing is, therefore God doth not give so much of this wealth to his children, because he knows they would hurt themselves with it, but gives a low estate to most of his servants: for if they had more wealth, they would be so drunk with conceit, that they would think themselves too good to serve him, as many men do that have it. And no wonder that riches bring a man to great pride: for they make him utterly distaste religious exercises, which should wean the heart from conceit of itself. He cannot have while to pray, read, meditate, for following his pleasures, or seeking to add more to that he hath, so that none do seldomer visit God in their closet, with true devotion and fervent cries than these, unless the Lord fetch them in by a sore cross, and then themselves can see what harm their prosperity did unto them.  
Then from pride grows security; 
3. Security  as a dead sleep from drunkenness. Those that have their barns and houses full, as the rich man after my text, if they be not so wholly past sense as in words to take up his note, and say; Soul, soul, eat and drink, and take thine ease: yet indeed fall just to this practice, nuzling themselves in this world, as an hog in straw, and giving themselves to seek their pleasures, profits, and promotions, and are so possessed with their own thoughts, viz. how to get such a living, such a fair house, such a match for this daughter, such a thing for this son, that scarce once in a month or an year, they can have time seriously to think of getting heaven for themselves, or for their children; yea, and though they have some good thoughts put into their hearts by a good sermon, or good exhortation, they die all, like a spark of fire for want of blowing; and adding too more fuel; I would these things did need any proof, and it were not so plain, that all can see it, but those that feel it.  
Yea sometimes wealth breeds that notable licentiousness (where it is grown to a great flood) that it makes men not to care what they do, 
4. Licentiousness.  but commit whoredom, and other as foul sins, even openly, because no man, scarce their ministers, whom they will likely choose for their own turn, scorning to suffer the wholesome plainness of him that scorns to flatter; scarce I say, their ministers dare tell them they offend. Yea, they promise to themselves, by money and friends, to outface justice itself, and pervert righteous judgement; so that when none keeps them from sin by reproof, nor draws them to repentance by just punishment, they may go to hell without rub, as a bowl down an hill in a smooth place, the matter being referred to the last judgement, and the judge of all flesh, who will judge them so much more severely, by how much they boar out sins on earth with more quietness and safety.  
And least men should think only the worst men fell to these sicknesses, by fat pastures, behold David, a man after Gods own heart, who in his abundance stood upon his hill vaunting himself, and saying, He should never be moved; and suddenly fell to adultery, to murder, to such hardness in both, as not to confess them of a long time; and had not God strangely turned him, wealth would have brought him to the devil; and this is the good it doth even to good men, except God do chastise them every morning and every night, and make them sober by many tribulations, that a poorer man shall scape. In one word therefore, the richer any man is, unless he pray more, and bewail his sins more, and think more of his latter end, the worse he is, and if God do not cross him more than others; he will pray less than others.  
Wherefore unless his wealth be allayed by more pinching afflictions, and then who would wish it? 
1 Hindering.  he cannot but be a greater sinner than other men. And say he be God's child, yet he grows far slower in grace: others profit more at one sermon than he at ten; others make more fervent prayers, and have more holy meditations in a month, than he in a year; and think more of heaven in a day, than he in a month; so that Christ may well call riches the thorns that do even choke the word, and therefore they do also make the way to Heaven harder. 
1. Grace  The same means that draws poorer men to salvation, will not do him: hardly can a rich man go to heaven, it is as thick clay in his journey, that makes a man go softly. Not many rich men are saved, saith Paul. And how hard it is for him that hath riches to enter into heaven? saith he that cannot lie or be deceived. Now let them go and boast of their happiness, that makes them more proud, secure, and licentious than other men, and makes the way of grace, and the way of life to be much more difficult and tedious to them than other men; and who would be so greedy of that which the more he hath, the less virtuous he shall be, if he be not more afflicted, and shall find it more difficult to be saved: wherefore if any of you have doted on wealth heretofore, let him seriously consider and ponder upon this, how fickle it is, how little good it can do, how much hurt it will do; and I assure myself and him too, he shall soon grow less in love with it, if he will be led by reason and truth, not by fashion and opinion. 
Conclusion of all.  And thus Brethren I have according as I was able, showed you what covetousness is, the causes, effects, signs, and remedies. Try yourselves by this description and these signs, fright yourselves from it by these causes and effects, and heal yourselves of it by these remedies. Suffer your souls to be wrought upon, and let the success of your hearing be good, you are nearer damnation by this Sermon, if you mend not the fault reproved, nearer salvation, if you will take warning: let not the word be a savour of death to any of you. It comes to my mind, what is said in the Gospel, when Christ had spoken against covetousness, the pharisees that were covetous heard these things and they laughed him to scorn, as if he had disgraced covetousness only because he wanted wealth. If these speeches find no better effects, how ill have we bestowed our time? Be not as bad as pharisees, I beseech you, contemn not the speaker, deride not the word of God, but hear it, believe it, practise it, condemn the sin, leave the fault, beware of covetousness, and be that which no covetous man can be, true Christians, and true blessed men: which God grant for his sons sake Christ jesus, to whom with the Father & the holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.  
FINIS.