day to keep it lioly." A covetous man doth not keep the sabbath lioly ; lie will ride to fairs on a sabbath : instead of read- ing in the Bible, he will cast up his ac- counts.— 5. Covetousness is a breach of the fifth commandment, " Honour thy father and thy mother." A covetous person will not honour his father, if he doth not feed him with money; nay, he will get his fa- ther to make over his estate to him in his lifetime, and so the father sliall be at the M»n's command. — 6. Covetousness is a breach of the sixth commandment, " Thou shalt not kill." Covetous Ahab killed Naboth, to get his vineyard, 1 Kings xxi. 13. How many have swimmed to the crown in blood? — 7. Covetousness is a breach of the se- venth commandment, " Thou shalt not commit adultery." Covetousness causeth uncleanness ; }X)u read of the " hire of a whore," Deut. xxiii. 18. An adulteress for money sets both conscience and chastity to sale. — 8. Covetousness is a breach of the eighth commandment, " Thou shalt not steal." Covetousness is the root of theft ; covetous Achan stole the wedge of gold. Therefore thieves and covetous are put to- gether, 1 Cor. vi. 10. — 9. Covetousness is a breach of the ninth commandment, " Thou shalt not bear false witness." What makes the perjurer take a false oath but covetous- ness ? he hopes for a dividend. — And, 10. It is plainly a breach of the last. command- ment, " Thou shalt not covet." The mam- monist covets his neighbour's house and goods, and endeavours to get them into his own hands. Thus you see how vile a sin covetousness is, — it is a mother-sin, — it is a plain breach of every one of the ten com- mandments.
(4.) Covetousness is a sin dishonourable to religion. For such as say their Iiojk's are above, yet their hearts are below ; for them who profess to be above tlie stars, to ' lick the dust' of the serpent, — to be born of God, yet buried in the earth, — how dis- honourable is this to religion ! The lap- wing wears a little coronet on its head, yet reeds on dung : an emblem of such as ^no- fess to be crowned kings and priests unto God, yet feed immoderately on these ter- rene dunghill comforts, Jer. xlv. 5., " And eekest thou great things for thyself? seek
them not." What, thou BarucTi, who art ennobled by the new-birth, and art illus- trious by thy office, a Levite, dost thou seek earthly things, and seek th«m now ? When the ship is sinking, art thou trim- ming thy ca])in ? O do not so degrade thy- self, nor blot thy scutcheon ! " Scekest thou great tilings ? seek them not." The higher grace is, the less earthly should Christians be; the higher the sun is, the shorter always is the shadow.
1. Covetousness exposeth us to God's ab- horrency : Ps. x. 3., " The covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth." A king abhors to see his statue abused : God abhors to see that man, made in his image, should have the heart of a beast given to him. Who would live in such a sin as makes him abhorred of God ? Whom God abhors he curseth, and God's curse blasts wherever it comes.
2. Covetousness precipitates men to ruin ; it shuts them out of heaven, Eph. v. 5., " This ye know, that no covetous man, who is an idolater, liath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." What should a covetous man do in heaven ? God can no more converse with him, than a king can converse with a swine. 1 Tim. vi. 9., " They that will be rich fjJl into a snare, and many hurtful lusts, which drown men in perdition." A covetous man is like a bee, that gets into a barrel of honey, and there drowns itself; he is like a ferryman, that takes in so many passengers to increase his fare, that he sinks his boat : so a cove- tous man takes in so much gold to the in- creasing of his estate, that he drowns him- self in perdition. I have read of some in- habitants near Athens, wlio lived in a very dry, barren island, and they took much pains to draw a river to this island to wa- ter it and make it fruitful ; but when they had opened the passages, and brought the river to it, the water broke in with such a force, that it drowned the laiid, and all the people in it : an emblem of a covetous man. he labours to draw riches to him, and at last they come in in such an abundance, that they drown him in hell and perdition. How many, to build up an estate, pull down their souls? Oh, therefore, flee from co- vetousness ! I shall next prescribe some remedies against covetousness.
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OF THE TENTH COMMANDMENT.
ExoD. XX. 17. Thou shall not covet thy Neighbour's House, thou shalt not covet thy Neigh-
hour's Wife, &^c.
I AM, in the next place, to resolve a ques- tion, How we may do to cure this itch of co- vetousness ?
Ans. For ^nswer to this, I shall pre- scribe some remedies and antidotes against this sin :