sarium' wholly neglected? Like the man in Plutarch, who went to the physicians to cure a sore finger, when, in the mean time, his lungs were putrefied, and he took no care of

them.

3. It is exceeding injurious, both to God and ourselves. 1. To God. It sets up the world in his room; is enmity against him,' (James iv. 4) is inconsistent with the love of him; (1 John ii. 15, 16) estrangeth the soul wholly from him; steals away the love of the heart, and engrosseth it unto itself. As the shadow of the earth makes night in the air, so doth the love of it in the heart when, (as Solomon speaks) the world is in it, Eccles. iii. 11. It goes along with a man, sleeps with him, wakes with him, goes to meat, goes to church with him. When it flows not in, O how he carks and cares, murmurs and repines, whines and distrusts God! If it abound, how doth he hug and grasp it, and fill his soul with no other comfort! Talk of spiritual things, faith, hope, love, repentance, new obedience, judgement to come; he is sick of such discourse; puts you off as Felix did Paul, to another time but speak of a rich bargain, of a goodly purchase, of a stately manor, of a gallant prize, you lead him into a paradise (such a one as it is); he says with Peter, "It is good being here, let us build tabernacles." It choaks the seed of the word in the soul, turns the house of God into a place of merchandise; yea, it will cause men to err from the faith, to know no godliness but gain, to take up religion as it is more or less in fashion, and advantageous; as the Samaritans would be Jews P, when the Jews prospered; and when they were down, would help to persecute them. It will warp the conscience, and corrupt the judgement, and make religion itself to serve turns, and to be subordinate to secular interests.

2. To a man's self. 1. It is unnatural: for nature hath set a commensurateness between objects and faculties. It is a miserable degrading of a reasonable soul, to grope for happiness on the backs of sheep, in the furrows of the field, to fish for it in ponds, or to hunt for it in parks, or to trade for it in ships, or to think to bring it home on the bunches of camels. It cost more to redeem a soul, and it must cost

• Plutarch. περὶ τοῦ ἀκούειν ποιητ.

P Joseph. Antiq. 1. 12. c. 3. et 7.

more to attain that redemption. Christ, the heir of all things, who could have commanded the attendance of all the creatures in the world, was pleased to live in a low condition, that he might make it appear that eternal life hath not the least cognation or dependence on worldly wealth, either in his procuring it for us, or in our deriving it from him. What an unnatural and incongruous thing would it be for angels to turn worldlings! And reasonable souls have the self-same blessedness to look after as angels have.

2. It is unnecessary. For had one man all the world, he could have no more out of it himself, than one back and one belly, and the exigences of one person did require: whatever is more, he doth but behold with his eyes.' (Eccles. v. 11) God is said to "give us all things richly to enjoy." (1 Tim. vi. 8, 17) He that hath sufficient to answer the necessity and decency of his estate, is therefore said to have all, because he hath as full a supply, as unto those purposes all the world could make him. "A little which the righteous hath, is better than the riches of many wicked." (Psalm xxxvii. 16) Jacob was not so wealthy a man as Esau; yet Jacob said, 'I have all ;' Esau said, I have much.' Jacob's little was all; Esau's more, was but much. (Gen. xxxiii. 9, 11)

3. It is a disquieting thing. Disquiets in the possessing. Riches are compared to thorns, Matth. xiii. 21. A man cannot hug them, without being pierced by them. (1 Tim. vi. 10) Disquiets in the parting; there is sorrow and wrath in his sickness, Eccles. v. 17. What a torment is it to flay off the skin of a man alive! Now the soul, by inordinate love, doth cleave closer to the world, than the skin to the flesh, and therefore is not torn from it without great pain. It is the saddest summons in the world to a rich fool,-Thou hast heaped up for many years: but within a few hours the cold arms of death shall grasp thee, and carry thee to God's tribunal. O what can riches, or multitudes of riches, do a man good in that day of wrath? If a Prince had a stone in his bladder, too big to be removed, all the jewels of his crown could not purchase him a recovery. What then can treasures avail a worm gnawing in the conscience?

I shall conclude this point with these limitations :

1. We may use the world, and with diligent labour procure the thing which we need, 1 Cor. vii. 31.

2. We may employ our heads, as well as our hands: for labour, without wisdom to guide it, is but a weary idleness. 3. We may receive the things of this world from God in Christ, as a fruit of his gracious covenant. (1 Tim. iv.

8)

4. We may lay up and provide for ourselves, and those that belong unto us, so far as the necessities of life, and decency of our particular state and condition do admit. Christ himself had a bag in his family. (John xiii. 29. 1 Tim. v. 8) But we may not love, nor set our hearts upon the world: "When riches increase, set not your hearts upon them." The world is for the back and the belly; but God only is for the heart. Though we may eye our own gain, yet the gain of the world is not that gain, which we are chiefly to eye. The soul being the most precious thing which a man hath, the saving and enriching thereof, is the only true Christian gain.

First, Take the word ux truth of the text will hold. and to lose the life? "Is

here for life, and even so the What gain is it to get the world, not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ?" (Luke xii. 23)

1. All the world cannot hold or lengthen life beyond the period set it by God. "Our times are in his hand." (Psalm xxxi. 15) The efficacy of all second causes is suspended upon his blessing. "Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matth. iv. 4)

2. Life is necessary to the enjoyment of the world. What good doth light, without an eye to see it? or musick, without an ear to hear it? what good do dainties, without a mouth. to taste them? or crowns, without a head to wear them? nay, a man may have his life so clogged with sickness, sorrow, discontent of mind, distress of conscience, that all the world shall not suffice to revive and comfort him.

3. When life is lost, the world is all lost with it. A living porter is richer than a dead Prince. Death translates properties. If a man purchase land to himself for ever, that ever is no longer than his own life: if he will have the purchase extend further, he must put in his heirs with himself.

Secondly, Take the word ux for the soul, as Luke xii. 19, 20, and then the truth holds much more. For, 1. If a man could keep his soul and the world together, there is so vast a

disproportion between them, that the one could never replenish the other. 2. If it could satisfy it for a time, yet it would cloy and satiate it at the last. There is excess in worldly enjoyments; and all excess is nauseous and painful. 3. If they could replenish and not cloy, so that there were a commensurateness between them, yet there is not an equality of duration. "One generation," saith Solomon, “passeth away, and another cometh; but the earth abideth." (Eccles. i. 4) If when a man goes away, the earth did go with him, haply the same content which he found in it here, he would find in it elsewhere: but when he goes, and that stays behind him, all the content which he had in the fruition, doth vanish in the separation. 4. Being parted, the soul must be for ever, as long as God is merciful to save, or just to punish and what comfort is it, think we, in hell, for a man to remember the pleasures of a short life, of which nothing there remains but the worm and the sting? The poet could say, "If men could feel but a little of hell before they sin, they would easily by that understand how empty and vanishing the pleasures of lust are, and how easily extinguished in a tormenting conscience, as a drop of wine loseth all its sweetness in a barrel of water. Again, what addition is it to the joys of heaven, for a man to recount the comforts of a perishing world? What content takes a grave wealthy learned man, in remembering the joy which, in his childhood, 5. The he was wont to take in his top and counters? nature of the soul is spiritual; and must have spiritual objects to converse about. Sensitive faculties may be delighted with material objects: mere natural reason may gaze some content upon the beauty, order, contexture, concatenation, of natural causes and effects: but the supreme spiritual part of the soul is of a more high and noble extraction, than ultimately to delight itself in any thing but in God, from whom it was breathed. It is capable of the knowledge of God; whom to know is perfect wisdom and eternal life. It is capable of the image and grace of God, of righteousness and true holiness to beautify and renew it capable of the peace of God, of the joy of his salvation; of the earnest, the seed, the seal, the witness of his Spirit, of the sense of

Alexis apud Athenæum. 1. 10.

with

his love in Christ, which is unspeakable and glorious: capable of that fulness of joy which is in his presence,—and of those everlasting pleasures, and of rivers of comfort, which are at his right hand :-capable of the heavy wrath of God, which is beyond the fear or the fancy of man to comprehend. As the goodness of God exceeds our faith, so the anger of God exceeds our fear. 6. The dignity of the soul appears by the spiritual enemies which war against it; of whom we may say, as the prophet of the Medes, (Isa. xiii. 17) that they regard not silver or gold;" they fight neither against house nor land, but against the soul only. Satan says, as the king of Sodom unto Abram, (Gen. xiv. 21) "Give me the souls, and take the goods to thyself." 7. By the guard of angels, which God hath appointed to protect it, and convey it to heaven (Luke xvi. 22) 8. By the heavenly manna, the breasts of consolation, the wells of salvation, the bread of life, the feast of marrow and fatted things, which the Lord, in his word and ordinances, hath provided to feed it; one sentence and period whereof is more worth in an hour of temptation, than rocks of diamonds or mountains of gold. 9. And above all, the dignity of the soul appears by the price, which was laid down to redeem it: "We were not redeemed by silver and gold, but by the blood of God." (1 Pet. i. 19) If silver and gold could have bought the soul, silver and gold haply might have blessed it; but since no price can purchase it but the blood of God, no treasure can enrich it but the fruition of God. "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance." (Psalm xvi. 5)

Very many uses might be made of this most important doctrine. To adore the infinite love of God towards the souls of poor sinful men, in finding out, of his own unsearchable wisdom, an expedient which neither men nor angels could ever have discovered, for the punishing of the sin, and saving of the soul that sinned.

2. The infinite love of Christ, who so loved us, as to give himself for us, to make his soul an offering for sin, that our souls might not be undone by it. A son to die for servants; a holy, an only, and beloved son, for rebellious servants; a judge for malefactors; to come not only to save, but to seek those who sought him not, that inquired not after him; as