[2.] Be more ready to watch opportunities of charity, to distribute and dispense your estate than to increase it ; for there is nothing will free us from this sin so much as the continual exercise of charity, or the giving of alms. Therefore your great care and delight should be to hearken after charitable occasions for the relief of the poor and for the church of God, and be glad when occasions of doing good are offered. They that hunt after opportunities of gain trust in riches, but they that seek opportunities of doing good show they are clear from this sin : Luke xii. 33, ' Sell that you have, and give alms ; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens, that faileth not ; ' then you trust in the promises. Tour ofi&ce is not that of a treasurer, but of a steward, to have them in your hands, not in your hearts ; otherwise not you but your chest is rich.
[3.] Labour by faith to make God your trust and confidence : 1 Tim. vi. 17, ' That they trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God. To rely upon his power, mercy, and goodness for all that you have and stand in need of : ' Give us this day our daily bread ; ' for protection and provision. When God giveth you riches, suspect what your heart may do with them. It is good to fear always, especially when we have what we wish for or desire. Therefore, still be looking to God, taking your maintenance out of his hands, and praying to him, and blessing him daily for your supply, and this will tnake your estate sweet and comfortable to you, and free from those snares wherewith otherwise it will be encumbered.
[4.] Be sure you get grace together with an estate, for otherwise singly it will be a snare to you: Prov. xiv. 24, ' The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is foUy.' Paches are as they are used ; if they fall to the share of a man that is godly and wise, they are a crown and ornament, otherwise a snare ; for the one employeth them to the honour of God, and the good of the church and state, and is more publicly usefuk but the other groweth more haughty and fierce, and scornful of holy things, and sensual and vain, and eateth and drinketh, and swaggereth away the good gifts of God, which might have a more noble use. So Eccles. vii. 11, 'Wisdom is good with an inheritance ; ' it is good without it, but more conspicuously good with it. It is not said an inheritance is good without wisdom or grace. No ; it is reserved to the owners for their hurt. So Prov. xvii. 16, 'Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it.' Many a man hath a price, but he hath not a heart ; an estate is but as a sword in the hand of a madman, when a man wants grace to improve it.
48 SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. [SeR. XIL
[5.] Be sure your esteem of riches come below your esteem of religion and good conscience. As Nazianzen said of his eloquence, he had something of value to esteem as nothing for Christ. By all my wealth and glory, this alone I have gained, that I have something to which I might prefer my Saviour. This is like ' the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,' Kev. xii. 1, contemning all worldly and sublunary things for Christ.
[6.] Think of changes in the midst of your fulness : ' Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity,' Ps. xxxix. 5 ; not only at his worst estate, when God rebuketh him for sin. We should make suppositions, and see how we can bear the loss of all things, when they are represented but in conceit and imagination: Hab. iii. 17, 18, 'Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine, &c., yet I will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.' The fool durst not suppose the accidents of that night : Luke xii. 20, 'Thou fool! tliis night thy soul shall be required of thee.' Security is a coward ; acquaint the soul with a supposition of loss and danger.
SEKMON XII.
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. — Mark x. 25.
I HAVE now read you a sentence, that at first view may seem to cut off the greatest and most splendid part of the world from all hopes of salvation. Had it been my saying only, you might take liberty to tax it as rash and rigorous, but the mouth of truth itself hath spoken it, even Jesus Christ, whom we own as our Lord and master. He suffi- ciently knew the worth and way of salvation, and the state and danger of souls. Now he interposeth his authority : Mat. xix. 24, ' I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.' If we believe him, then let rich men look to themselves. He had already told them, that it is hard for them that have riches ; then he shows wherein the diffi- culty lay, because of their trusting in riches. Now, he represents the difficulty by a similitude; it is as hard for them to enter into the kingdom of God, as for a thing of the greatest bulk to pass through the"straitest place ; for what more strait than a needle's eye, and a camel is a creature of a great bulk. A camel cannot pass through a needle's eye without a miracle, nor a rich man enter into the kingdom of God without the singular power of God's grace. For the expression : Some say there was a gate at Jerusalem, called the eye of a needle, a strait gate, by which a camel could not enter. Nisi deposito onero, et flexis genibus, without laying aside his burden, and bending his knee. But no approved history mentions this, and the conceit lesseneth the force of our Saviour's speech. Others say that the word Kdfj.6\o<s