\st. Faith, 1 John v. 4., " This is the victory that overcometh the world, oven our faith." The root of covetousness is the distrust of God's providence ; faith believes God will provide, — God who feeds the birds, will feed his children, — he who clothes the lilies, will clothe his lambs, — and so faith overcomes the world. Faith is the cure of care; faith not only purifies the heart hut satisfies the heart ; faith makes God our por- tion, and so in him we have enough, Ps. xvi. 5, 6., " The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heri- tage." Faith, by a divine chemistry, ex- tracts its chief comfort out of God. A lit- tle with God is sweet. Tlius faith is a re- medy against covetousness; faith overcomes, not only the fear of the world, but the love of the world.
2(1, The second remedy is, judicious con- nideration.
1. What poor things these things below are, that we should covet them. — 1. They are below the worth of the soul, which car- ries in it an idea and resemblance of God. The world is but the workmanship of God, the soul is the image of God. — 2. You co- vet that which will not satisfy you, Eccl. v. 10.5 " He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver." Solomon had put all the creatures in a limbeck, and stilled out the quintessence, and behold, " All was vanity," Eccl. ii. 11. Covetousness is a dry dropsy ; the more a man hatli, the more he thirsts. ' Qiio plus sunt potcc, plus sitiun- tur aqua' — 3. Worldly things cannot re- move trouble of mind. King Saul being perplexed in conscience, all his crown-jew- els could not administer comfort to him, 1 Sam. xxviii. 15. The things of the world will no more case a troubled snirit, than a
gold cap will cure the headach. — 4. Tlie things of the world, if you had more of them, cannot continue with you. The crea- ture hath a little honey in its mouth, but it hath wings to fly away. These things either go from us, or we from them : what poor things are these to covet?
2. Second consideration : the frame and contexture of the body ; God hath made the face to look upward towards heaven.
Os finmini sublime dedit, cmlumque tiieri Ji/ssit Ovin.
Anatomists observe, that whereas other creatures have but four muscles to their eyes, man hath a fifth muscle, by which he is able to look up to heaven ; and as for tlie heart, it is made like a glass vial, narrow and contracted downwards, but wide and broad upwards. And as the fiame and contex- ture of the body teacheth us to look to things above, so especially the soul is pl.inted in the body, as a divine sparkle to ascend upwards. Can it be imagined that God gave us intellectual, immortal souls, to co- vet only earthly things ? What wise man would fish for gudgeons with golden hooks? Did God give us glorious souls, only to fish for the world ? Sure our souls are made for an higher end, — to .aspire after the en- joyment of God in glory.
3. Third consideration : the examples of those who have been contemners and de- spisers of the world. The ])rimitive Chris- tians,— as Clemens Alexandrinus observes, — were sequestered from the worhl, and were wholly taken up in converse with God ; they lived in the world above the world, — like the birds of paradise, who soar above in the air, and seldom or never touch with their feet upon the earth. Luther saith, that he was never tempted to this sin of covetousness. The saints of old though they did live in the world, they did trade in heaven ; Phil. iii. 20., " Our conversa- tion is in heaven :" the Greek word signi- fies, our commerce, or trafiic, or burgher- ship is in heaven. " Enoch walked with God," Gen. v. 24. His affections were sub-
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iimated, he did take a turn in heaven every day. The righteous are compared to a palm-tree, Ps. xcii. 12. Philo observes that whereas all other trees have their sap in their root, the sap of the palm-tree is to- wards the top: the emblem of the saints, whose hearts are above in heaven, where their treasure is.