And first, let me tell them, they may have much, and be never the better. The chimney overlooks all the rest of the house: is it not, for all that, the very basest piece of the building? The very heathen man could observe worλois o daíμar*, &c. that "God gives many a man wealth for their greater mischief:" as the Israelites were rich in quails; but their sauce was such, that famine had been better: little cause had they to be proud that they were fed with meat of princes, with the bread of angels; while that, which they put into their mouths, God fetched out of their nostrils. Haman was proud, that he alone was called to the honour of Esther's feast: this advancement raised him fifty cubits higher, to a stately gibbet. If your wealth be to any of you an occasion of falling; if your gold be turned into fetters; it had been better for you, to have lived beggars.

Do

Let me tell them next, of the Folly of this pride. They are proud of that, which is none of theirs. That which Law and CaseDivinity speak of life, That man is not dominus vitæ suæ sed custos, is as true of wealth. Nature can tell him in the philosopher †, that he is not Dominus, but Colonus, not "the Lord," but "the Farmer." It is a just observation of Philo, that God only, by a propriety, is stiled the Possessor of Heaven and Earth, by Melchisedech in his speech to Abraham; Gen. xiv. 19: we are only the tenants, and that, at the will of the Lord. At the most, if we will as Divines, we have jus ad rem, not dominium in rem, "right to these earthly things," not "lordship over them;" but right of favour from their Proprietary and Lord in heaven, and that liable to account. we not laugh at the groom, that is proud of his master's horse; or some vain whiffler, that is proud of a borrowed chain? So ridiculous are we to be puffed up with that, whereof we must needs say, with the poor man of the hatchet, Alas, master, it is but borrowed; and whereof our account shall be so much more great and difficult, as our receipt is more. Hath God therefore laded you with these earthly riches? be ye like unto the full ear of corn, hang down your heads in true humility toward that earth from which you came: and, if your stalk be so stiff, that it bears up above the rest of your ridge, look up to heaven, not in the thoughts of pride, but in the humble vows of thankfulness, and be not high-minded but fear.

2. Hitherto of the High-Mindedness that follows wealth. Now, where our Pride is, there will be our CONFIDENCE.

As the wealthy therefore may not be proud of their riches, so they may not trust in them. What is this trust, but the setting of our hearts upon them; the placing of our joy and contentment in them; in a word, the making of them our best friend, our patron, our idol, our god? This the true and jealous God cannot abide; and yet nothing is more ordinary; The rich man's wealth is his strong city, saith Solomon: and, where should a man think himself safe, but in his fort? He sees Mammon can do so much, and hears him talk of doing so much more: it is no marvel, if he yield to trust him.

κ κατ' εὔνοιαν φέρων μεγ. διδ. ἐντυχήματα, &c. Arist. ↑ Seneca,

Mammon is so proud a boaster, that his clients, which believe in him, cannot chuse but be confident of him: for what doth he not brag to do? Silver answers all, saith Solomon: that we grant; al though we would be loth it could answer to truth, to justice, to judgment.

But, yet more; he vaunts to procure all, to pacify all, to conquer all. He says, he can procure all secular offices, titles, dignities; yea, I would I might not say in some sacrilegious and perjured wretches, the sacred promotions of the Church: and ye know that old song of the Pope and his Roman traffic, Claves, Altaria, Christum*: yea, foolish Magus makes full account, the Holy Ghost himself may be had for money. He says, he can pacify all; A gift in the bosom appeases wrath; yea, he says, look to it ye that sit in the seats of judicature, he can sometimes bribe off sins, and pervert judgment. He says, he can overcome all, according to the old Greek verse, Fight with silver lances, and you cannot fail of victory t. Yea, he would make us believe he thought this a bait to catch the Son of God himself withal; All these will I give thee.

Briefly, he says, according to the French proverb, Silver does all. And let me tell you indeed, what Mammon can do: he can bar the gates of hell to the unconscionable soul, and help his followers to damnation. This he can do; but, for other things, howsoever, with us men, the foolish silver-smiths may shout out, "Great is Mammon of the worldlings," yet, if we weigh his power aright, we shall conclude of Mammon, as Paracelsus doth of the Devil, that he is a base and beggarly spirit. For what, I beseech you, can he do? Can he make a man honest? Can he make him wise? Can he make him healthful? Can he give a man to live more merrily, to feed more heartily, to sleep more quietly? Can he buy off the gout, cares, death; much less the pains of another world? nay, doth he not bring all these?

Go to then, thou Rich Man: God is offended with thee; and means to plague thee with disease and death: now, try what thy bags can do: begin first with God; and see whether thou canst bribe him with thy gifts, and buy off his displeasure; Wherewith shalt thou come before the Lord, and bow thyself before the high God? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Micah vi. 6, 7. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts; Hag. ii. 8. If that speed not, go to the serjeant of God, Death: see if thou canst fee him, not to arrest thee: he looks thee sternly in the face, and tells thee, with Ehud, he hath a message to thee from God; and bids thee, with the prophet, Set thine house in order, for thou must die. Yet, if he hear thee not, go to the under-bailiff of death, Disease: see if he can be wrought to forbear thee: he answers thee, with Laban, This thing is proceeded of the Lord; I cannot therefore say to thee evil or good. In sum, Disease will summon thee unto Death; Death will arrest thee to the Judgment-Seat of God; God will pass his doom upon

"Keys, Altars, Christ." † ἀργυραῖς λόγκασι μάχε, &c.

thee; and, in all these, Riches avail not in the day of wrath. And who would be so mad as to trust a friend, that he knows will be sure never to fail him, but when he hath most need?

Take heed therefore, as ye love your souls, how ye bestow your trust upon riches: ye may use them, and serve yourselves of them; yea, ye may enjoy them in a Christian moderation: God will al low it you. That praise, which the Jesuits' College at Granado gives of their Sanchez, That, though he lived where they had a very sweet garden, yet he was never seen to touch a flower; and that he would rather die than eat salt, or pepper, or ought that might give relish to his meat: like as that of some other monks, That they would not see the sun, nor shift their clothes, nor cleanse their teeth, carries in it more superstition and austerity and slovenry, than wit or grace. Wherefore hath God made his creatures, but for use? This niggardliness is injurious to the bounty of their Maker: we may use them; we may not trust to them: we may serve ourselves of them; we may not serve them: we may enjoy them; we may not over-joy in them. So must we be affected to our goods, as Theoderic †, the good King of Aquitaine, was with his play; In bonis jactibus tacet, in malis ridet, in neutris irascitur, in utrisque philosophatur: "In good casts he was silent; in ill, merry; in neither, angry; a philosopher, in both." But, if we will be making our wealth a rival unto God, now the jealousy of God shall burn ike fire: this is the way to bring a curse upon our riches and us: if we lean upon this reed, it shall break, and run into our hand; and he that trusteth in riches shall fall; Prov. xi. 28.

Now, as the disdainful rival will be sure to cast reproaches upon his base competitor; so doth God: that we may see how unworthy RICHES are of our trust, he tells us, they are UNCERTAIN, yea Uncertainty itself. Were our wealth tied to our life, it were uncertain enough: what is that but a flower, a vapour, a tale, a dream, a shadow, a dream of a shadow, a thought, a nothing? What are great men but like hail-stones, that leap up on the tiles, and straight fall down again, and lie still, and melt away? But now, as we are certain, that our riches determine with our uncertain life, for goods and life are both in a bottom, both are cast away at once; so we cannot be certain they will hold so long: our life flies hastily away; but, many times, our riches have longer wings, and out-fly it. It was a witty observation of Basil §, that "wealth rolls along by a man, like as a heady stream glides by the banks." Time will moulder the away bank it washeth; but the current stays not for that, but speeds forward from one elbow of earth unto another: so doth our wealth; even while we stay, it is gone. In our penal laws, there are more ways to forfeit our goods, than our lives. On our highways, how many favourable thieves take the purse, and

very

Collegium Granatense Præf. ad lectorem contin. vitam R. P. Tho. Sanchez. præfix. Operi Morali in præcepta Decal. t.C. Sol. Apollin. Sidon. Epist. de Theoder. † ἐπὶ ἀδηλότητι το πλέτε. § ρευσἢ ἡ φύσις τα πλετο, χειμάρα ἔξυτερως τῦτο ἔχοντας παρατρέχει, &c. Basil. in Psal. xvi.

VOL. V.

I

save the life! And, generally, our life is the tree; our wealth is the leaves or fruit: the tree stands still, when the leaves are fallen, the fruit beaten down. Yea, many a one is like the pine-tree, which, they say, if his bark be pulled off, lasts long; else, it rots: so doth many a man live the longer for his losses. If, therefore, life and wealth strive whether is more uncertain, wealth will sure carry it away. Job was yesterday the richest man in the east; to day he is so needy, that he is gone into a proverb, "As poor as Job:" Belisarius, the great and famous commander, to whom Rome owed her life twice at least, came to Date obolum Belisario; "One half-penny to Belisarius."

What do I instance? This is a point wherein many of you Citizens, that are my auditors this day, might rather read a lecture unto me. You could tell me how many you have known, reputed, in your phrase, Good Men, which, all on the sudden, have shut up the shop-windows, and broken for thousands. You could reckon up to me a catalogue of them, whom, either casualty of fire, or inundation of waters, or robbery of thieves, or negligence of servants, or suretiship for friends, or oversight of reckonings, or trusting of customers, or unfaithfulness of factors, or unexpected falls of markets, or piracy by sea, or unskilfulness of a pilot, or violence of tempests, have brought to a hasty poverty; and could tell me, that it is in the power of one gale of wind to make many of you either rich merchants or beggars.

O miserable uncertainty of this earthly pelf, that stands upon so many hazards; yea, that falls under them! who would trust it? who can dote upon it? What madness is it in those men, which, as Menot says, like unto hunters, that kill a horse of price, in the pursuit of a hare worth nothing; endanger, yea cast away their souls upon this worthless and fickle trash! Glasses are pleasing vessels; yet, because of their brittleness, who esteems them precious? All Solomon's state was not comparable to one tulip: his royal crown was not like the Crown Imperial of our gardens; and yet, because these are but flowers whose destiny is fading and burning, we regard them thereafter. No wise man bestows much cost in painting mud-walls. What mean we, my Beloved, to spend our lives and hearts upon these perishing treasures?

It was a wise meditation of Nazianzen to his Asterius; That "good is to no purpose, if it continue not;" yea, "there is no pleasant thing in the world," saith he, "that hath so much joy in the welcome, as it hath sorrow in the farewell." Look therefore upon these heaps, O ye wise-hearted Citizens, with careless eyes; as those things, whose parting is certain, whose stay is uncertain; and say with that worthy Father; "By all my wealth, and glory, and greatness, this alone have I gained, that I had something to which I might prefer my Saviour." And know, that, as Abraham, while he was in his own country, (it is Cyril's note,) had never God appearing to him, save only to bid him go forth; but after, when he was gone forth, had frequent visions of his Maker: so, while in our affections we remain here below in our coffers, we can

hot have the comfortable assurances of the presence of God; but, if we can abandon the love and trust of these earthly things, in the conscience of our obedience, now God shall appear to us, and speak peace to our souls, and never shall we find cause to repent us of the change. Let me, therefore, conclude this point with that divine charge of our Saviour, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

3. Thus much of the Negative part of our charge; wherein we have dwelt so long, that we may scarce sojourn in the Other: "Trust not," but TRUST.

The heart of man is so conscious of his own weakness, that it will not go without a prop; and better a weak stay, than none at all: like as in matter of policy, the very state of tyranny is preferred to the want of a king. The same breath therefore, that withdraws one refuge from us, substitutes a better; and, instead of Riches, which is the false god of the world, commends to us the true and living GoD of Heaven and Earth: even as some good carpenter raises up the studs, and, instead of a rotten groundsel, lays a sound.

The same trust then must we give to God, which we may not give to Riches: the object only is changed; the act is not changed. Him, must we esteem above all things: to Him, must we look up in all: on Him, must we depend for all, both protection and provision: from His goodness and mercy, must we acknowledge alf: and in Him, must we delight with contempt of all: And this is to Trust in God.

It was a sweet ditty of the Psalmist, which we must all learn to sing, Bonum est confidere in Domino; It is good to trust in the Lord: good, in respect of Him; and good for Us.

For Him; it is one of the best pieces of glory to be trusted to: as, with Us, Joseph holds, Potiphar cannot do him a greater honour than in trusting him with all. And his glory is precious, that he cannot part with that to any creature: all other things he imparts willingly, and reserves nothing to himself but this. Being, life, knowledge, happiness, are such blessings as are eminently, originally, essentially in God; and yet, Being he gives to all things, Life to many, Knowledge to some kinds of creatures, Happiness to some of these kinds: as for Riches, he so gives them to his crea ture, that he keeps them not at all to himself; but as for his Glory, whereof our trust is a part, he will not endure it communicated to angel or man; not to the best guest in heaven, much less to the dross of earth: whence is that curse not without an indignation, Cursed be the man, that trusts in man, that maketh flesh his arm, yea, or spirit either, besides the God of Spirits: Whom have I in heaven but thee? Herein, therefore, do we justice to God, when we give him his own; that is, his glory, our confidence.

But the greatest good is our own; and God shews much more mercy to us, in allowing and enabling us to trust him, than we can do justice in trusting him: for, alas, he could, in his just judgment,