JaS. IV. 2.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 335
destroyed your souls: Hosea ii. 6, ' I will hedge up her way willi thorns.' Some cross providences may be a hedge to keep thee from further misery.
Use 3. It teacheth you what reflections to make upon yourselves in case of disappointment. When wc miss any worldly thing that we have desired, say, Have not I lusted after this ? Did not I covet it too earnestly ? Absalom was the greater curse to David because he loved him too much. Inordinate longings make the affections mis- carry. Observe it, those objects seldom prove happy that have too much of our hearts. We find it often that men of great care arc successless ; they turn and wind hither and thither, and are still like a door upon the hinges, in the same state and case : Ps. cxxvii. 2, ' It is in vain to rise early, and go to bed late, and eat the bread of soiTows.' A carking industiy may be in vain and to no purpose ; the success of human endeavours lieth in God's blessing and con- currence ; it is the prerogative he hath reserved to himself; he keepetli it as a bridle over mankind, to keep them in obedience, duty, and dependence. Providence doth sometimes wean us from lust to grace, and showeth us that a blessing is sooner had by faith than worldly care : Ps. xxxix. 6, ' Surely every man walketli in a vain show ; heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.' Man goeth and cometh, and tosseth to and fro, and is gathering of riches, and increaseth the heap, and God of a sudden scattereth all. How often have you seen a covetous, carking man, like a mill-horse, still going round, and yet always in the same place ?
Obs. 2. That where there is covetousness there is usually strife, envy, and emulation. 'ETriOvfielre, ye lust; (povevere, ye hill; ^rfKovre, ye emulate : these hang in a string. As there is a connection and a cognation between virtues and graces — they go hand in hand — so there is a link between sins, they seldom go alone. If a man be a drunkard he will be a wanton ; if he be covetous he will be envious. Christ cast out seven devils out of one Mary Magdalene, and another man was possessed with a legion. When the heart is brought under the power of any sin, it lieth equally obnoxious to all sin. Covetous- ness may be known by its companions, strife, envy, and emulation : Kom. i. 29, 'With covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy.' Self- love is the root of all the three ; it maketh us covet and desire what is good and excellent, and it maketh us envy that others shoidd enjoy it ; and then to break all bonds of duty and charity that we may wrest it from them. A covetous man is a full wicked man ; he enlargeth his desires for himself, but is much straitened towards others ; his eye is evil when God's hand is good. We often meet with strange compounds and prodigies of vice and sin : 2 Tim. iii. 2, ' Covetous, proud, boasters, lovers of theinselves,' &c. It is said of Catiline that he was monsiruvi ex variis diversisque et inter se imgnantibus naturis conjiatinn, a compound and bundle of warring lusts and vices ; so are many wicked men a composition of many sins, which seem to differ in their essence, but spring from the same root of corruption.
Obs. 3. From that ye lust, ye kill, yejight and war. — It is lust and covetousness that is most apt to trouble neighbourhoods and vicinities. Solomon saith, Prov. xv. 27, ' He that is greedy of gain troubleth his
336 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [Jas. IV. 2.
own house ; ' we may add, yea, and all the liouses near hiiu ; he is truly ' the troubler of Israel.' J\Ian is by nature a sociable creature, fit for commerce.^ A covetous uian is a wen of the body politic, not a member. A wen, by suckinL-; the nourishment that is due to other parts, groweth monstrous and ugly in itself, and robbeth the body ; so he being altogether for private gain, perverteth that which is the cement of all confederacies and societies — a care of the commonweal. Bodies are preserved when ' the members care for one another : ' 1 Cor. xii. 24. But this is not all. Covetousness is a base affection, that will put a man upon the basest and most unworthy practices ; men given to it trouble their families by exacting all their labours, and trouble human societies ]»y unjust contentious ; they quarrel with tliose that possess that which they covet. Ahab spilt Naboth's blood for his vineyard's sake. Tliey i)romote public changes and innova- tions, that they may feather their nests with the common spoils. Besides all this, they bring down God's judgments upon their people: Achan's covetousness troubled whole Israel, Josh. vii. Especially if high in place and honour; as when magistrates build their own houses upon others' ruins, and purchase large revenues and estates with the public purse, or detaining the hire of the poor. See Jer. xxii. 13. Well, then, no wonder that covetous men meet with public hatred and detestation ; tliey are not only injurious to God, but human societies ; they are a sort of men that are neither moved with arguments of nature or grace. It is a character of a bad spirit, Luke xviii. 2, that ' he neither feared God nor regarded man.' These two restraints God hath laid upon us — his own fear to preserve religion, and the shame of the world to preserve human societies. Now some men are moved with neilhei-. It was a character of the Jews in their depravation, 1 Thes. ii. 15, ' They please not God, and are contrary to all men ; ' they agree with none but themselves. So elsewhere it is said, 2 Thes. iii. 2, ' Unreasonable men, that have not faith ; ' neither grace, nor good nature, nor faith, nor reason. So Lactantius saith of Lucian, Nee diis nee hominibus j^^j^ercit, he spared neither God nor man. Covetousness maketh men of such a harsh and sour disposition. Towards God it is idolatry ; it robbeth him of one of the flowers of his crown, the trust of the creature ; and it is the bane of human societies. Why are men's hearts besotted with that which is even the reproach and defamation of their natures ?