but it gives us a principle, which is able to support us under trials, and to fill us with joy in the midst of tribulations. In a word, it presents us with a view of God as our God, and shews us, that nothing in this world can either add to, or take from, the happiness of him who has so rich a portion. This is the principle which enabled Job, under the loss of all his worldly possessions, to say, " The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away : blessed be the name of the Lord." Now the want of this resignation argues an undue value for the things of this world. If, under an apprehension of some loss, we are filled with anxiety, so as to be quite unfitted for an attention to our spiritual concerns ; if, on having sustained that loss, we give way to vexation and grief, instead of rejoicing that we have in God an all-sufficient portion ; do we not then in effect say, like Micah, when he had lost his idols, " They have taken away my gods, and what have I more ?" Assuredly this is an undeniable mark of covetousness : indeed, God himself puts this construction upon it: " Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye haveV When we are truly delivered from this evil principle, we shall be able to say with the Apostle, " I have learned, in what- soever state I am, therewith to be content : I know both how to be abased, and how to abound ; every where and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need1."]
Our next inquiry must be,
II. Why our Lord so earnestly guards us against it — The terms in which he expresses the caution, are exceeding strong; " Take heed, and beware k." But there is abundant occasion for such earnestness ; for covetousness is,
1. A common principle —
[The man who came to desire our Lord's interposition, seems not to have had the smallest idea that he was actuated by this unworthy principle ; and probably would have com- plained of a want of charity in any one who should have imputed it to him. And so it is at this time. However ready we may be to notice it in others, we all overlook it in ourselves, and cloke it by the name of industry or prudential care ; so that, if we were to give credit to every man's account of himself, we should not find this principle in the world. But it is deeply rooted in the heart of man1, and as naturally
h Heb. xiii. 5. * Phil. iv. 11, 12. k 'Opdre kcu tyvkaaaioBe.
1 Mark vii. 21.