5. Our good things are known by our unwillingness to part with them. Many profess they would not get the world with the loss of heaven, but that is not so close and present a trial ; but are you con- tent to lose the world, so you may have heaven at last ? The trial will rather lie here, for here it piucheth the sorest ; if you can sell all for the pearl of price. Mat. xiii. 44 ; if you can ' take joyfully the spoiling of your goods,' Heb. x. 34 ; if you faint not, but bear up with hope and patience under all pressures and afflictions : 2 Cor. iv. 16-18, ' For this cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.' You can be contented and ' choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,' Heb. xi. 25. God puts us sensibly to the trial, which are our good things, the recompense of reward, or our present interests ?
III. The misery is great before death, at death, and after death.
1. Before death, upon a twofold account —
[1.] Because of the uncertainty of their happiness : Prov. xxiii. 5, ' Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not ? for riches certainly make themselves wings, they flee away as an eagle towards heaven/ They may be gone or we may be gone : Luke xii. 20, * Thou fool ! this night thy soul shall be required of thee.' They are called ' uncertain riches,' 1 Tim. vi. 17. A man can never dwell securely in an house built upon the ice ; and he that hath not made sure of a better portion than the world can yield to him, he is upon the brink of hell and ever- lasting destruction. In short, a broken cistern will soon fail, and deceive those that look for refreshment in it Death and the grave
SERMON UPON LUKE XVI. 25. 303'
will soon put an end to all their happiness, if it should continue with them so long. They are posting apace to their eternal misery, and one moment puts an end to all their joy for ever.
[2.] Because prosperity is a plague and a snare to a wicked man ; and the greater his prosperity is, his snare is the greater : Ps. Ixix. 22, ' Let their table become a snare before them ; and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.' When God suffereth men's corrupt affections and suitable temptations and objects to meet, it is a snare to them ; as Judas, that was a thief, had the bag, John xii. 6. The carnal heart is the more entangled and besotted the less they are restrained from the desire of their hearts. As the sea turneth all things that fall or flow into it into salt water, so do they make aU their mercies an occasion unto the flesh ; so that in the very height of their prosperity they are but miserable, as sin is the worst misery of all. It is worse to be Nebuchadnezzar among the beasts, than to be Daniel in the lions' den ; the one was the fruit of his own madness, the other of the violence of others. Elijah was poor, and Ahab was rich ; who was the more miserable man ? So Paul, that holy man, was in prison, and Nero at the same time emperor of the world ; who was the happier man think you ? and in whose case would you be, of Nero the emperor, or Paul the prisoner ? Christ, that gave his Spirit to the rest of the apostles, gave the bag to Judas. Riches and the bag are not in such esteem with Christ, but that the basest of his followers may have them in keeping and under their power. Now whose lot would you choose, that of Judas or of the rest of the apostles ? Nay, Jesus Christ himself, that had the Spirit without measure, chose a poor estate. He that made a fish pay him tribute could as well have made men do so ; he that multiplied the five loaves could have in- creased his stock at pleasure ; he that built the world could have built himself stately palaces ; but ' when he was rich, he became poor for our sakes,' 2 Cor. viii. 9, that he might sanctify holy poverty in his own person, and honour it by his own example, and teach us that sin is misery, but grace is happiness and preferment, whatever our external condition be. And therefore he usually cuts his own people short, that he may prevent their snares and impediments, when wicked men live in plenty ; but certainly the rich wicked man is in a worse con- dition than the godly man who is kept low and bare ; as a child may be strictly dieted for his health, while the servants are left to a freer and larger allowance. More particularly —