man has a secret satisfaction in the misfortunes even of his dearest friends. As envy is the antithesis of love, it is of all sins the most opposed to the nature of God, and more effectually than any other excludes us from his fellowship.
Thirdly, the Scriptures, however, make mention most fre- quently of covetousness under the form of an inordinate desire of wealth. The man of whom covetousness is the characteristic has the acquisition of wealth as the main object of his life. This fills his mind, engrosses his affections, and absorbs his energy. Of covetousness in this form the Apostle says it is the root of all evil. That is, there is no evil — from meanness, deceit, and fraud, up to murder — to the commission of which covetousness has not prompted men, or to which it does not always threaten to impel them. Of the covetous man in this sense of the word the Bible says, (1.) That he cannot enter heaven. (1 Cor. vi. 10.) (2.) That he is an idolater. (Eph. v. 5.) Wealth is his God, i. e., that to which he gives his heart and consecrates his life. (3.) That God abhors him. (Ps. x. 3.)
This commandment has a special interest, as it was the means, as St. Paul tells us, of leading him to the knowledge of sin. " I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." (Rom. vii. 7.) Most of the other commandments for- bid external acts, but this forbids a state of the heart. It shows that no external obedience can fulfil the demands of the law ; that God looks upon the heart, that He approves or disapprovos of the secret affections and purposes of the soul ; that a man may be a pharisee, pure outwardly as a whited sepulchre, but in- wardly full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.
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