PREACHED UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS BY ROBERT SOUTH, D. D. PREBENDARY OF WESTMINSTER, AND CANON OF THE CHIEF HEADS OF THE SERMONS. VOL. III. SERMONS XLVI. XLVII. COVETOUSNESS PROVED NO LESS AN ABSURDITY IN REASON, THAN A CONTRADICTION TO RELIGION, NOR A MORE UNSURE WAY TO RICHES, THAN RICHES THEMSELVES TO HAPPINESS. LUKE Xii. 15. And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. P. 1. It is natural for man to aim at happiness, the way to which seems to be an abundance of this world's good things, and covetousness is supposed the means to acquire it. But our Saviour confutes this in these words, 1, 2. which contains, 1st, A dehortation, 3. wherein we may observe, 1. The author of it, Christ himself, 4. the Lord of the universe, 5. depressed to the lowest estate of poverty, 5. 2. The thing we are dehorted from, covetousness, 6. by which is not meant a prudent forecast and parsimony, 6. but an anxious care about worldly things, attended with a distrust of Providence, 7. a rapacity in getting, 9. by all illegal ways, 11. a tenaciousness in keeping, 13. 3. The way how we are dehorted from it; Take heed and beware, 15. For it is very apt to prevail upon us, by its near resemblance to virtue, 16. the plausibility of its pleas, 17. the reputation it generally gives in the world, 19. And there is a great difficulty in removing it, 20. |