been in chief account for their wealth, their sons should be driven even "to flatter the poor," and have nothing in their Job 20. 10.

hands, no not bread? that never snow in the sun melted faster, than do some men's riches as soon as they be gone?

These things are in the eyes of the whole world. O beloved, these are the judgments of God! Deceive not yourselves with vain words; say not in your hearts, This is the way of the world, some must get and some must lose. No, no, it is not the way of the world, it is the way of God's judgment. For to the reason of man nothing can be alleged, but that considering the infinite number of infinite rich men in this place, the posterity of them these many years should by this time have filled the whole land, were it much bigger than it is, with their progeny, even with divers both worshipful and honourable families from them descended; and it is well known it is otherwise, that there is scarcely a handful in comparison. This is not the way of the world, for we see divers houses of divers lines remain to this day in continuance of the same wealth and worship which they had five hundred years since. It is not therefore the way of the world, say not it is so, but it is a heavy judgment from the Lord. And these uncertainties, namely this last, came upon some of them for their wicked and deceitful getting of them; upon some of them for their proud and riotous abusing them; upon some of them for their wretched and covetous retaining them. And except ye now hear this the Lord's charge, look unto it, howsoever you wrestle out with the uncertainties yourselves, assuredly this last uncertainty remaineth for your children. "The Isa. 59. 1. Lord's hand is not shortened."

point if I break not from it.

I shall never get out of this

These are but three fruits of all your getting: 1. the tenure, 2. the fruition, 3. the parting with. See whether the Lord hath not laid one uncertainty on them all: 1. uncertainty in their tarrying with us, and uncertainty in our tarrying with them; 2. uncertainty of enjoying, by reason of the danger of the time; 3. uncertainty of our leaving them, by reason of the danger of our children's scattering. The estate in them, the enjoying of them, the departing with them, all being uncertain, so many uncertainties, might not St. Paul truly say, "the uncertainty of riches?"

SERM.

I.

There is yet one behind worse than them all. I will add no more but that; and that is, that our riches and our worship they shall leave us, because they be uncertain, but the pride of our minds and the vain trust in them, them we shall be certain of, they shall not leave us. And this is grave jugum, a heavy misery upon mankind: the goods, the lordships, the offices that they got, them they shall leave here; the sin that they commit in getting and enjoying them, they shall not leave behind them for their hearts, but that shall cleave fast unto them. This is a certainty, you will say; it is indeed a certainty of sin, but therefore an uncertainty of the soul: so doth Job reckon it amongst the uncertainties of riches. For Job 27. 8. "what hope hath the hypocrite when he hath heaped up riches, if God take away his soul?" where is his hope or his trust then? Never will they shew themselves in their own Isa. 36. 6. kind to be a "staff of reed," as then; both deceiving them which lean on them, and besides going into their souls and piercing them. For very sure it is, many of that calling die in great uncertainty this way, wishing they had never seen that wealth which they have seen, that so they might not see that sin which they then sce. Yea some of them, I speak it of mine own knowledge abroad, wish they had never come further than the shovel and the spade; crying out at the hour of death, both of the uncertainty of their riches and of the uncertainty of the estate of their souls too.

This point, this is a point of special importance, to be spoken of by me, and to be thought of by you. I would God you would take it many times, when God shall move you, into sad consideration. With a great affection, and no less great truth, said Chrysostom, that Heaven and earth and all the creatures in them, if they had tears they would shed them in great abundance, to see a great many of us so careless in this point as we be. It is the hand of the Lord, and it is His gracious hand, if we could see it, that He in this manner maketh the world to totter and reel under us, that we might not stay and rest upon it, where certainty and steadfastness we shall never find, but in Him above, where only they are to be found. For if riches, being so brittle and unsteady as they be, men are so mad upon them, if God had settled them in any certainty, what would they have done? What poor

man's right, what widow's copy, or what orphan's legacy should have been free from us?

III. The third

"trust in

Well then, if riches be uncertain, whereto shall we trust? If not in them, where then? It is the third point: "Charge point: them that be rich in this world, that they be not high- God." minded, neither trust in the uncertainty of riches, but that they trust in God." It is the third point of the charge in general, and the first of the affirmative part; and containeth partly a homage to be done for our riches to God, and that is, trust in him; and partly a rent-charge laid upon our riches, which is doing good. And indeed, no other than David had said before, "Trust in the Lord and be doing Ps. 37. 5. good."

10.

St. Paul will batter down and lay flat our castle, but he will erect us another wherein we may trust. Yea indeed, so as Solomon did before, setteth up a tower against the tower, the "tower of the righteous, which is the name of the Lord," Prov. 18. against the rich man's tower, which is as you have heard before, his riches. Instead of the worldling's faith, which is to make money an article of his faith, teacheth us the faith of a Christian, which is to vouchsafe none but God that honour. Even so doth the Apostle here, and that for great reason; nam qui vult securus sperare, speret in Eo Qui non potest perire, 'he that will trust and be secure in his trust, let him trust in Him Who Himself never failed, and never failed those that put their trust in Him; in Whom is no uncertainty, no not so Jas. 1. 17. much as any shadow of uncertainty.

Trust in Him, by looking to Him first ere we admit any else into our conceit; and by looking to Him last and not looking beyond Him to any, as if we had a safer or trustier than He.

And that because He is "the living God:" as if He should say, That you fancy to yourselves to trust in, is a dead idol, and not a "living God," and if ever you come to any dangerous disease, you shall find it is an idol dead in itself, not able to give itself life, much less to another; not able to ransom the body from the death, much less the soul from hers; not able to recover life when it is gone, nay not able to preserve life when it is present; not to remove death, nay not to remove sickness, not any sickness, not the gout from your feet, not

I.

SERM. the palsy from your hands, nay not so much as the ache from your teeth; not able to add one hair to your head, nor one hair's breadth to your stature, nor one hour to your days, nor one minute to the hours of your life. This moth-eaten god, as our Saviour Christ calleth it, this canker-eaten god, this god that must be kept under lock and key from a thief, trust not in it for shame. O let it be never said the living trust in the dead. Trust in "the living God" That liveth Himself, nay That is life Himself; in His Son That was able to quicken Himself and is able to quicken you, of Whose gift and inspiration you have already this life, by Whose daily Spirit and visitation your soul is preserved in this life, in this mortal and corruptible life, and of Whose grace and mercy we look for our other immortal and eternal life.

115. 16.

Who not only liveth but also "giveth you," &c. A living and a giving God, that is, That liveth and That giveth; of Whose gift you have not only your life and term of years, but even also your riches themselves, the very horns that you lift so high, and wherewith unnaturally many times you push Ps. 24. 1. against Him That gave them. He giveth, for "the earth was the Lord's, and all that therein is," till "the earth He gave Haggai 2.8. unto the children of men ;" and "silver and gold" were the Lord's, till not by a casual scattering but by His appointed giving, not by chance but by gift, He made them thine. He gave them; thou broughtest none of them with thee into the world, thou camest naked. He gave them, and when He gave them He might have given them to thy brother of low estate, and made thee stand and ask at his door as He hath made him now stand and ask at thine. He giveth you riches, you get them not, it is not your own wisdom or travail that getteth them, but His grace and goodness that giveth them. For you see many men of as great understanding and foreEccl. 9.11. sight as yourselves, want not only "riches" but even "bread." It is not your travail; except the Lord had given them, all the early uprising and late down-lying had been in vain. It is God That giveth: make your recognizance it is so, for fear lest Job 1. 21. if you deny Dominus dedit, you come to affirm Dominus abstulit. God teacheth it was IIe That gave them, by taking them away.

This is St. Paul's reason: let us see how it serves his con

clusion to the overthrow of our vain pride and foolish trust in them. If it be gift, si accepisti quid gloriaris? be not 1 Cor. 4. 7. proud of it. And if it be gift, He That sent it can call for it again; trust not in it.

11, 13.]

service.]

"Who giveth us all things," &c. All things, spiritual or corporal, temporal or eternal, little or great; from the least, and so upward; from the greatest, and so downward; from panem quotidianum, a morsel of bread,' to Regnum cœlorum, [Mat. 6. "the kingdom of heaven.' He giveth us all, even unto Himself; yea He giveth us Himself and all, and more we cannot desire. Why then, if He give all, all are donatives, all that we tenure by [1i. c. a hold we hold in frank-almoigne '; and no other tenure is divine there at God's hands, or in our law. For quid habes quod 1 Cor. 4.7. non accepisti? "what is there?" that is to say, name one thing thou hast that thou hast not received; and if there be any one thing, boast of that and spare not. But if that be nothing, then let Cyprian's sentence take place, so much commended and so often cited by St. Augustine, De nullo gloriandum est, [S. Cyp. Test. 1. 3. quia nullum est nostrum; and add unto it, De nullo fidendum c. 4.] est, quia nullum est nostrum, 'We must glory of nothing, for that we have nothing of our own; neither must we trust any thing, for that we have nothing of our own.'

3.

"That giveth us all things to enjoy." Not only to have, but "to enjoy." For so to have them, that we have no joy of them; so to get all things, that we can take no part of them when we have gotten them; so to possess the labours of our hands, that we cannot eat the labours of our hands, as good be without them. This is a great "vanity” and vexation, and Eccl. 6. 2. indeed, as Solomon saith, "an untimely birth were better" than so to be. But blessed be God That besides these blessings to be enjoyed giveth us healthful bodies to enjoy them with, the favour of our Prince to enjoy them under, the days of peace to enjoy them in, whereby our souls may be satisfied with good things, and every one may cat his portion with joy of heart.

"That giveth all things to enjoy ;" that is, dealeth not with you as He hath dealt with the poor, hath given you things not only of use and necessity, but things also of fruition and pleasure; hath given you not only manna for your need, but also quails for your "lust;" hath given you out of Ophir, not Ps. 78. 30.