money; and that there is not any additional fin, into which that paffion may not entice you. Go forth, and ask yourselves from time to time what it fhall profit a man to gain the whole world and lofe his own foul; and what he fall give in exchange for his foul. With what energy did our Saviour exprefs the dangers of wealth, the temptations which it brings to trust in it, to prize it, and to love it, when he exclaimed; How hardly fhall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! A little money may be wealth to you. Think not that you fhall not love money because you abound in it. On that very account you may love it the more. Think not that. you are fecured against the love of it by poverty. You may be as covetous in an humble line of life refpecting a cottage, as you would have been in a higher sphere respecting a palace; as grafping for an acre as you would have been for a kingdom. Look. to your heart. If your heart be fet on money, whether it be on a greater or on a lefs amount, there is no difference as to principle. You are governed by the love of money, the root of all evil; and involved, with all other covetous men, in the sentence of not having any part in the inheritance of the righteous. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If you love the duft of the flesh, or the luft of the eyes, or the pride of life; you will love money by which they are procured. Aim not at an impof fible compromise between the love of money and religion. You cannot ferve God and Mammon. Use your worldly wealth; but use it as not abufing it. Beware, left when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy filver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou haft is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God; and thou fay in thine heart, My power and the might of mine band bath gotten me this wealth. But thou halt remember the Lord thy God; for it is be that giveth thee power to get wealth. If you are rich, truft not in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy: do good, be rich in good works ready to diftribute, willing to communicate (p). If you have little, do your diligence gladly to give of that little. Remember the widow's mite. But cherish not the vain idea that liberality to the afflicted can make amends for offences against God. The fervent charity which shall cover the multitude of fins, is the love that throws a veil over the infirmities and offences of others; not the bounty (p) Deut. viii. 11-17. 1 Tim. vi. 17, 18, L 3 which which prefumes to think of making atone ment for iniquity (q). There is no atonement but in the blood of the Lord Jefus Christ. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth (r). Be faithful in the unrighteous Mammon. Let that gold, which is so frequently the fource and the instrument of iniquity, be fo confcientiously employed at all times by you to the glory of God through His beloved Son, that when you shall be fummoned to render up your account of your stewardship, you may give it with joy, and receive the true riches (s), the glories of the future world. Hide not the talent in a napkin. Bury it not in the earth. Occupy with it in your Master's fervice until He come. But as you value your eternal interefts, love it not. (9) 1 Pet. iv. 8. See the parallel passage, whence St. Peter probably quoted, Prov. x. 12, Hatred stirreth up ftrife, but love covereth all fins. (r) Luke, xii. 33. (s) Luke, xxi. 31. SER. SERMON IX. On the SACRIFICE of WORLDLY INTEREST to DUTY. 2 CHRON. Xxv. 9. " But ·And Amaziah faid to the Man of God; "what shall we do for the Hundred Talents, “which I have given to the Army of Ifrael?" And the Man of God anfwered; "The Lord “is able to give thee much more than this.” HE who, under the grace of God, would fhew himself disentangled from the love of money, is required in that branch of duty, as in every other, to prove his faith by his works. He must be prepared to make facrifices of money to conscience. Is the man then, who facrifices money, money to a very large amount, and in obedience to the command of God, ascertained to be a fervant of God? The hiftory of Amaziah will throw light on the enquiry. Amaziah fucceeded to the kingdom of Judah upon the death of his father Joafh. After he had established himself upon the throne, and had destroyed the murderers of his predeceffor, he prepared to make war upon the people of Edom, who had revolted. For this purpose he assembled all his forces. But being doubtful whether they were fufficient for the undertaking, and having determined to make the conquest of Edom certain, he hired to his affiftance an army of an hundred thousand men of Ifrael; and paid them in advance one hundred talents of filver. In hiring these Ifraelites the king acted rafhly and prefumptuously. For, in the first place, he enquired not of the Lord (a) upon the occafion. He fought not, as upon concerns of importance David and the other religious kings of Judah had conftantly fought, thofe fpecial directions from God, which, under the exifting difpenfation, a difpenfation, into the texture of which miracles were interwoven,, were always to be obtained by an immediate reference to the Moft High before His altar, And in the next place, he knew that the people of Ifrael had long been open idolaters and that the heaviest calamities had 2 Kings, xvi. (a) Judges, xx. 27. 1 Sam. xxii. 20. xxiii. 2. 4. xxx. viii. 2 Sam ii. 1. v. 19, 23. xxi. 1. X. 14. xxi. 30. fallen |