[4.] Holy walking is necessary, because none can make a comfortable claim to this privilege but those that are sincerely God's people. He is their habitation. Others, whatever indulgence they have by God's common providence, can have no certain hope or comfortable claim : Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, 'For the Lord God is a sun and a shield, the Lord will give grace and glory : no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly ; ' those that fear him, love him, choose him for their portion. Others build castles in the air. They do not dwell in the secret place of God that live in their sins, and yet lean upon the Lord. By sin you run out of your dwelling-place and weaken your trust : 1 John iii. 21, ' Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God.'
[5.] Constant communion with God: Job xxii. 21, 'Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace, thereby good shall come unto thee.' We must not run to God as we run to a shelter, with a mind to depart thence as soon as the storm ceaseth. Our habitation is a place of constant residence. So we must make use of God not when we are in straits only, to serve our turn, but abide and dwell in him as our habitation.
SERMON UPON 1 TIMOTHY VI. 9.
But they that loill he rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful lusts, ivhich drown men in desti-uction and perdition. — 1 Tim. vi. 9.
In these words we may observe —
1. The parties described, ' They that will be rich.'
2. Their danger ; represented in two things — (1.) That they lie open to temptation ; (2.) Fall into a snare.
Some think it an hendiadys, e't? ireipaafiov koI rrayiSa, for et? -rrar/lSa Treipaa-fiov, the snare of temptation. But the considerations are dis- tinct, the one being a degree of the other. ' Temptation ' showeth how the devil taketh them captive; 'snare,' how he keepeth or holdeth them captive. So he that fixeth this as his purpose doth lay himself open to the devil, yea, give up himself captive to him. Men are first tempted, drawn to delight in or admire these things ; secondly, snared, cannot get out of the entanglings of the world.
Now in the text, the general nature of this snare is represented. It is lusts, sinful and unlawful affections and dispositions of heart. (1.) The number or quantity of them, ' Many lusts.' (2.) The quality, kind and sort of them, * Foolish and hurtful lusts.' (3.) The result and issue of them, * Which drown men in destruction and perdition.' In the main of which, Paul doth not speak of what doth often fall out, but what doth constantly and necessarily fall out.
Doct That a will to be rich is the occasion of much mischief to those that cherish it and allow it in their own souls.
The point will be best opened by laying forth the circumstances of the text.
I. What it is to have a will to be rich. When we make it our scope and our work, our epyov. Mark, it is not he that is rich, but he that will be rich. Eiches in themselves are God's gift, not the cause of the evils mentioned ; but our love and lust to them, though a man be otherwise poor, according to that of Peter, ' Corruption that is in the world through lust,' 2 Peter i. 4. Here it is, ' They that will be rich,' that fix it as their scope, that make it their business. For the bent of the will is bewrayed by two things — intention and industrious prosecution.
1. Those that fix it as their scope, are wholly intent upon getting wealth, that give up their hearts to find out and follow after ways of woi'ldly increa.se. Tliis is to set wealth in the place of <^!<'(1 ; for
190 ' SERMON UPON I TIMOTHY VI, 9.
that is interpretatively a man's god which is the last end of his actions, and upon which his care, and thoughts, and endeavours do run most ; whether it be belly, world, credit, friends, or whatever else : Phil. iii. 18, •' For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ ; whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.' And then we can never act regularly. Christ and religion will be taken up upon worldly ends and advantages. All stoopeth to the chief end, religion, and con- science, and all, when we fix this as our intention and the designed scope of our lives. It is elsewhere expressed : Prov. xxviii. 20, ' He that maketh haste to be rich cannot be innocent.' A man that fixeth this as his end will not care what means he useth, leap over hedge and ditch, and cannot be content to travel the long road of providence to come to his journey's end. There are many such, that will be rich, whether God will or no, say what he will, and almost do what he can to hinder them ; when their wa)'s are shut up, not only by a com- mandment, but the hedge of God's providence : though disappointed in their projects, yet they will through ; if they can take faith and a good conscience along with them, they will , but if not, they will be rich without them.