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great Creator, and all earth is a scale to heaven. He transfuses the joys that are at his own right hand, into all be bestows on his thankful children who having fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, enjoy him in all, and above all.

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22. Thirdly, seek not to increase in goods. "Lay not up for thyself treasures upon earth." This is a flat, positive command, full as clear, as, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." How then is it possible for a rich man to grow richer, without denying the Lord that bought him? Yea, how can any man, who has already the necessaries of life, gain or aim at more, and be guiltless? "Lay not up," saith our Lord, "treasures upon earth." If, in spite of this, you do, and will lay up, money or goods, what "moth or rust may corrupt, or thieves break through and steal :" if you will add house to house, or field to field, why do you call yourself a Christian? You do not obey Jesus Christ. You do not design it. Why do you name yourself by his name? "Why call ye me Lord, Lord," saith he himself, "and do not the things which I say?"

23. If you ask, "But what must we do with our goods, seeing we have more than we have occasion to use, if we must not lay them up? Must we throw them away?" I answer, if you threw them into the sea, if you were to cast them into the fire and consume them, they would be better bestowed than they are now. You cannot find so mischievous a manner of throwing them away, as either the laying them up for your posterity, or the laying them out upon yourselves, in folly and superfluity. Of all possible methods of throwing them away, these two are the very worst; the most opposite to the gospel of Christ, and the most pernicious to your own soul.

How pernicious to your own soul the latter of these is, has been excellently shown by a late writer. "If we waste our money, we are not only guilty of wasting a talent which God has given us, but we do ourselves this farther harm, we turn this useful talent into a powerful mean of corrupting ourselves: because so far as it is spent wrong, so far it is spent in the support of some wrong temper, in gratifying some vain and unreasonable desires, which, as Christians, we are obliged to renounce.

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"As wit and fine parts cannot be only trifled away, but will expose them that have them to greater follies: so money cannot only be trifled away, but if it be not used according to reason and religion, will make people live a more silly and extravagant life, than they would have done without it: if therefore you do not spend your money in doing good to others, you must spend it to the hurt of yourself. You act like one that refuses the cordial to his sick friend, which he cannot drink himself without inflaming his blood. For this is the case of superfluous money; if you give it to those that want it, it is a cordial. If you spend it upon yourself in something that you do not want, it only inflames and disorders your mind.”

In using riches where they have no real use, nor we any real want, we only use them to our great hurt, in creating unreasonable desires, in nourishing ill tempers, in indulging foolish passions and

supporting a vain turn of mind. For high eating and drinking, fine clothes and fine houses, state and equipage, gay pleasures and diversions, do all of them naturally hurt and disorder our heart. They are the food and nourishment of all the folly and weakness of our nature. They are all of them the support of something, that ought not to be supported. They are contrary to that piety and sobriety of heart, which relishes divine things. They are so many weights upon our mind, that make us less able and less inclined to raise our thoughts and affections to things above."

"So that money thus spent is not merely wasted or lost, but it is spent to bad purposes and miserable effects: to the corruption and disorder of our hearts, to the making us unable to follow the sublime doctrines of the gospel. It is but like keeping money from the poor, to buy poison for ourselves."

24. Equally inexcusable are those, who lay up what they do not need for any reasonable purposes. "If a man had hands, and eyes, and feet that he could give to those that wanted them; if he should lock them up in a chest, instead of giving to his brethren, that were blind and lame, should we not justly reckon him an inhuman wretch? If he should rather choose to amuse himself with hoarding them up, than entitle himself to an eternal reward, by giving them to those that wanted eyes and hands, might we not justly reckon him mad ?”

"Now money has very much the nature of eyes and feet. If therefore we lock it up in chests, while the poor and distressed want it for their necessary uses, we are not far from the cruelty of him, that chooses rather to hoard up the hands and eyes than to give them to those that want them. If we choose to lay it up, rather than to entitle ourselves to an eternal reward, by disposing of our money well, we are guilty of his madness that rather chooses to lock up eyes and hands, than to make himself for ever blessed by giving to those that want them."

25. May not this be another reason why rich men shall so hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven? A vast majority of them are under a curse, under the peculiar curse of God: inasmuch as in the general tenor of their lives, they are not only robbing God, continually embezzling and wasting their Lord's goods, and by that very mean, corrupting their own souls; but also robbing the poor, the hungry, the naked; wronging the widow and the fatherless, and making themselves accountable for all the want, affliction, and distress, which they may, but do not remove. Yea, doth not the blood of all those who perish for want of what they either lay up, or lay out needlessly, cry against them from the earth? O what account will they give, to him who is ready to judge both the quick and the dead!

26. The true way of employing what you do not want yourselves, you may, fourthly, learn from those words of our Lord, which are the counterpart of what went before: "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven; where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal.” Put out whatever

thou canst spare, upon better security than this world can afford. Lay up thy treasures in the bank of heaven: and God shall restore them in that day. "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and look, what he layeth out, it shall be paid him again.". Place that, saith he, unto my account. Howbeit," thou owest me thine own self also !"

Give to the poor with a single eye, with an upright heart, and write, "So much given to God." For "inasmuchas ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

This is the part of a faithful and wise steward. Not to sell either his houses or lands, or principal stock, be it more or less, unless some peculiar circumstance should require it; and not to desire or endeavour to increase it, any more than to squander it away in vanity but to employ it wholly to those wise and reasonable purposes, for which his Lord has lodged it in his hands. The wise steward, after having provided his own household, with what is needful for life and godliness, makes himself friends with all that remains, from time to time, of the "mammon of unrighteousness; that when he fails, they may receive him into everlasting habitations" that whensoever his earthly tabernacle is dissolved, they, who were before carried into Abraham's bosom, after having eaten his bread, and worn the fleece of his flock, and praised God for the consolation, may welcome him into Paradise, and to "the house of God, eternal in the heavens."

27. We" charge you" therefore, "who are rich in this world," as having authority from our great Lord and Master, ayadoɛgy to be habitually doing good, to live in a course of good works. "Be ye merciful as your Father who is in heaven is merciful," who doth good and ceaseth not. Be ye merciful," How far?" After your power, with all the ability which God giveth. Make this your only measure of doing good, not any beggarly maxims or customs of the world. We "charge you to be rich in good works;" as you have much, to give plenteously. Freely ye have received; freely give; so as to lay up no treasure but in heaven. Be ye "ready to distribute" to every one, according to his necessity. Disperse abroad; give to the poor; deal your bread to the hungry. Cover the naked with a garment, entertain the stranger, carry or send relief to them that are in prison. Heal the sick; not by miracle, but through the blessing of God upon your seasonable support Let the blessing of him that was ready to perish, through pining want, come upon thee. Defend the oppressed, plead the cause of the fatherless, and make the widow's heart to sing for joy.

28. We exhort you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be willing to communicate: xov@vix8G EIVAL. To be of the same spirit (though not in the same outward state) with those believers of ancient times, who remained steadfast, ev în noivavia, in that blessed and holy fellowship, wherein "none said, that any thing was his own, but they had all things common." Be a steward, a faithful and wise steward of God, and of the poor; differing from them in these two

circumstances only, That your wants are first supplied, out of the portion of your Lord's goods which remain in your hands, and that you have the blessedness of giving. Thus "lay up for yourselves a good foundation," not in the world, which now is, but rather, "for the time to come, that ye may lay hold on eternal life." The great foundation indeed of all the blessings of God, whether temporal or eternal, is the Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness and blood, what he hath done, and what he hath suffered for us. And "other foundation," in this sense, "can no man lay;" no, not an Apostle, no, not an angel from heaven. But through his merits, whatever we doin his Name, is a foundation for a good reward, in the day when "every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour:" therefore, "labour" thou "not for the meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life." Therefore, "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Therefore, let

"No fair occasions pass unheeded by ;

Snatching the golden moments as they fly,
Thou by few fleeting years ensure eternity?"

"By patient continuance in well-doing, seek thou for glory, and honour, and immortality." In a constant, zealous performance of all good works, wait thou for that happy hour when the King shall say, "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me. I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world !"

SERMON XXXI.

ON OUR LORD'S SERMON ON THE MOUNT.

DISCOURSE IX.

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

"Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall

eat; or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall

put on. raiment ? "Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: yet your heavenly Father feedeth them: Are ye not much better than they?

Is not the life more than meat, and the body than

"Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature?

"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

"And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.

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Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

“Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

"(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

"Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.-MATTHEW VI. 24-34,

1. IT is recorded of the nations, whom the King of Assyria, after he had carried Israel away into captivity, placed in the cities of Samaria, that "They feared the Lord, and served their own gods." "These nations," saith the inspired writer, "feared the Lord," performed an outward service to him, (a plain proof that they had a fear of God, though not according to knowledge) "and served their graven images, both their children and their children's children; as did their fathers, so did they unto this day," 2 Kings, xvii, 33, &c.

How nearly does, the practice of most modern Christians resemble this of the ancient heathens? They fear the Lord:" they also perform an outward service to him, and hereby show, they have some fear of God; but they likewise "serve their own gods." There are those who "teach them" (as there were those who taught the Assyrians)" the manner of the god of the land" the god. whose name the country bears to this day, and who was once worshipped there with an holy worship. "Howbeit," they do not serve him alone; they do not fear him enough for this. But "every nation maketh gods of their own every nation in the cities wherein they dwell. These nations fear the Lord," they have not laid aside the outward form of worshipping him. But they serve their graven images," silver and gold, the work of men's hands. Money, pleasure, and praise, the goods of this world, more than divide their service with the God of Israel. This is the manner both of "their

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