VeS. 23.] SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. 27
unmortified corruption that spoils all, not wealth in itself. The poison is not in the flower, but in the spider. The carnal disposition which remains in us maketli us ready to drown our mind, our time and affec- tions, our life and love in the world, and the cares and pleasures thereof, and so they are ensnared thereby, and hindered from looking after heavenly happiness. Riches are an advantage of doing liberal, magni- ficent things, if they be used well ; and to blame riches simply, were to blame him that made them, and distributeth them according to his will, as if he did bait his hook with seeming blessings, and did set golden snares to entangle the souls of men. The goods of this world are profitable to them that can make a good use of them, as giving them the means of being more God-like, and more useful in their places ; for certainly * it is more blessed to give than to receive,' Acts X. 35. They do not make us corrupt, or put corruption into us, but only discover the corruption that is there already ; as when we fill a leaky vessel, the unsoundness of it is seen, as soon as it is filled it begins to run out. Our corruptions are drawn out by these things, and plainly discovered to the world, when the fault is not in the riches, but in the lust.
[2.] When wealth is spoken of as an estate full of spiritual danger, it is rather to check our desires of it than to lessen God's bounty, as if there were no obligation upon us by those temporal blessings. If we covet and seek great things for ourselves, we do but run into the mouth of temptation : 1 Tim. vi. 9, ' They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.' We are to bless God for his bounty, but we are to guard our own hearts, and contract our desires before the will of God is declared. When we ask riches, we know not what we ask. Do not aim at great things for yourselves in the world.
[3.] Wealth, considered not as sought by us, but as given by God, needeth peculiar and special grace to improve it, because we must not only look to the manner of acquisition, but to the manner of fruition. It is true we have honestly acquired it, it comes to us fairly, but then we must see how we enjoy it. Some are rich because they are wicked, having gotten their wealth by unjust and indirect means ; but others are wicked because they are rich, being corrupted by the enjoyment of them. There are some gifts of God that are ahsolufe bona, so abso- lutely good that they can never be evil, such things do certainly make the owner, or him that possesseth them, good too ; as the graces of the Spirit, faith in Christ, the love of God, fear of his name ; but one may be rich, but yet never the better. Nay, consider man in statu lapso. fallen from God to the creature : he is easily made worse, and usually is too, and that by the good things he doth enjoy, if the Lord doth not vouchsafe to him his grace.
[4.] I answer again — When temporal blessings follow eternal, then it is well, as wisdom with an inheritance is good ; and Solomon asked wisdom, and with it God gave him riches and honour in great abun- dance ; but where they are given singly and apart, so they are given to God's enemies. Elijah was poor, and Ahab rich : Paul, that holy man, was in prison, and bound with a chain, and Nero at the same time emperor of the world. God hath gifts for all his creatures : some in
28 SERMONS UPON MAEK X. 17-27. [SeR. X.
one way, some in another, shall find him a ^ootl God. Jesus Christ, that gave his Holy Spirit to the best of the apostles, gave the bag to Judas. Nay, Jesus Christ himself, that had the Spirit without measure, chose a poor estate. He that made a fish to pay him tribute could as well have made men to do so ; he that multiplied a few loaves could have increased his stock; he that made the world could have built himself a stately palace ; but ' when he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor,' 2 Cor. viii. 9, that he might sanctify holy poverty in his own person, and honour it by his own example ; and usually he cuts his children short, while wicked men live in plenty. Therefore they that merely have riches, that is, that have it apart from grace, are in a worse condition than those that are kept low and bare. As a child may be dieted for its health, while a servant is left to a free allowance, so God knows our weakness ; and they understand nothing in divinity that do not know this, that God works congruously, and will not only give strength, but will also abate the temptation itself, and not sufier us to have overmuch in the world, lest it should become a snare to us. So much for the persons spoken of, ' They that have riches.'