shall be drunk with wormwood, you shall taste nothing but bitter affliction, and that shall make you reel, for you shall find in your affliction no rest for your souls. And for the treasure, Thesaurizabis iram dei; You shall treasure up wrath against the day of wrath; and this will be an exchequer ever open, and never exhausted. But use the creatures of God, as creatures, and not as God, with a confidence in them, and you shall find juge convivium, in a good conscience, and thesauros absconditos, all the hid treasures of wisdom and knowledge; you shall know how to be rich in this world by an honest getting of riches, and how to be rich in the next world by a christianly use of those riches here. SERMON CXLI. PREACHED AT WHITEHALL. Second Sermon upon ECCLESIASTES V. 12, 13. There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the sun: riches reserved to the owners thereof, for their evil. And these riches perish by evil travail : and he begetteth a son, and in his hand is nothing. THAT then which was intended in the former verse, that riches were hurtful even to the owners, St. Augustine hath well and fully expressed, Eris præda hominum, qui jam es diaboli'; The devil hath preyed upon thee already, by knowing what thou wouldst have, and great men will prey upon thee hereafter, by knowing what thou hast. But because the rich man thinks himself hard enough for both, for the devil, and for great men, if he may keep his riches; therefore here is that, which seems to him a greater calamity inflicted; first, his riches shall perish; and secondly those riches, those which he hath laboured and travailed for; and thirdly, they shall perish in travail, and labour, and affliction. And then not only all his present comfort shall 32 Rom. ii. 5. 33 Col. ii. 3. 1 Aug. in Psalm cxxxi. perish, but that which was his future hope: the son which he hath begot, shall have nothing in his hand. He that increaseth his riches by usury and interest, gathereth them for him that will be merciful to the poor, says Solomon'. Is there a discomfort in this? There is. It is presented there for an affliction, and vexation to a rich man, to be told, that his money shall be employed in any other way, not only than he gathered it for, but than he gathered it by. It would grieve him to know, that his heir would purchase land, or buy an office with his money; for all other means of profit than himself hath tried, he esteems unthriftiness, casual, and hazardous; difference of seasons may change the value of his land, affections of men may change the value of an office; but whether the year be good or bad, a year it must be, and nothing can lengthen, or shorten his two harvests in the year, from six months to six. All ways, but his own, displease him in his heir; but if his heir will be giving to the poor (as Solomon says) then here are two mischiefs met together, that he could never abide the poor, and giving; and therefore such a contemplation is a double vexation to him; but much more must it be so, to hear that his riches shall perish; that they shall come to nothing, for though, if we consider it aright, it is truly all one, whether a covetous man's wealth do perish or no, for so much, as he hoards up, and hides, and puts to no use; it is all one whether that thousand pounds be in his chest or no, if he never see it, yet since he hath made his gold his god, he hath so much devilish religion in him as to be loth that his god should perish. And this, that is threatened here is an absolute perishing, an absolute annihilation; it is the same word, by which David expresses the abolition, and perishing of the wicked. The way of the wicked shall perish3; and which Moses repeats with vehemency twice together, pereundo peribitis; I pronounce unto you this day you shall surely perish. So Judas, and his money perished. The money that Judas had taken; he was weary of keeping it, and they who had given it, would none of it neither. Se primum mulctavit pecunia, deinde vita. First he fined himself, and then he hanged himself; 2 Prov. xxviii. 8. 3 Psalm i. 6. 5 Augustine. first he cast back the money, and then he cast himself headlong and burst oftentimes the money perishes, and the man too: yea it is not here only that they shall perish, in the future; that were a reprieve; it were a stalling of a debt; but (as both our translations have it) they do perish, they are always melting; yea as the original hath it, cadit et periit, they are already perished, they were born dead; ill gotten riches, bring with them from the beginning a contagion that works upon themselves, and their masters. The riches shall perish, though they be his, though his title to them be good, if he put his trust in them; and those riches, those which he hath got by his travail, those which he hath reserved by his parsimony, and frugality. There is sometimes a greater reverence in us, towards our ancient inheritance towards those goods, which are devolved upon us, by succession; there is another affection expressed towards those things, which dying friends have left us, for they preserve their memories; another towards jewels, or other testimonies of an acceptation of our services from the prince: but still we love those things most, which we have got with our own labour, and industry. When a man comes to say with Jacob, With my staff came I over Jordan, and now have I gotten two bands, with this staff came I to London, with this staff came I to court, and now am thus and thus increased, a man loves those additions, which his own industry hath made to his fortune. There are some ungrateful natures that love other men the worse, for having bound them by benefits, and good turns to them: but that were a new ingratitude, not to be thankful to ourselves, not to love those things, which we ourselves have compassed. We have our reason to do so, in our great example, Christ Jesus, who loves us most, as we are his purchase, as he hath bought us with his blood; and therefore, though he hath expressed a love too, to the angels, in their confirmation, yet he cannot be said to love the angels, as he doth us, because his death hath wrought nothing upon them, which were fallen before; and for us, so he came principally to save sinners: the whole body and band of angels, are not his purchase, as all mankind is. This affection is in worldly men 6 Gen. xxxii. 10. too; they love their own gettings; and those shall perish. They have given their pleasant things for meat, to refresh their souls": whatsoever they placed their heart upon, whatsoever they delighted in most, whatsoever they were loth to part withal, it shall perish; and the measure of their love to it and the desire of it shall be the measure of God's judgment upon it; that which they love most, shall perish first. Those riches then, those best beloved riches shall perish, and that, saith the text, by evil travail; which is a word, that in the original signifies both occupationem, negotiationem, labour and travail, and afflictionem, vexationem; affliction, and vexation: they shall perish in occupatione, then when thou art labouring, and travailing in thy calling, then when thou art hearkening after a purchase, and a bargain, then when thy neighbours can impute no negligence, thou wast not negligent in gathering, nay no vice to thee, thou wast not dissolute in scattering, then when thou risest early, liest down late, and eatest the bread of sorrow, then shalt thou find, not only that that prospers not, which thou goest about, and pretendest to, but that which thou hadst before, decays, and moulders away. If we consider well in what abundance God satisfied the children of Israel with quails, and how that ended, we shall see example enough of this: You shall eat, saith God, not one or two days, nor five, nor ten, nor twenty, but a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and be loathsome unto you; here was the promise, and it was performed for the plenty, that quails fell a day's journey round about the camp, and they were two cubits thick upon the earth; the people fell to their labour, and they arose, and gathered all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, saith the text; and he that gathered least, gathered ten gomers full; but as the promise was performed in the plenty, so it was in the course too; Whilst the flesh was yet between their teeth before it was chewed, even the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and he smote them with an exceeding great plague. Even whilst your money is under your fingers, whilst it is in your purposes determined, and digested for such, and such a purpose, whilst you have put it in a ship in merchandise, to win more to it; whilst you have sowed it in the 7 Lam. i. 11. 8 Numb. xi. 19. land of borrowers, to multiply, and grow upon mortgages, and usury, even when you are in the midst of your travail, storms at sea, thieves at land, enviers at court, informations at Westminster, whilst the meat is in your mouths, shall cast the wrath of God upon your riches, and they shall perish, in occupatione, then, when you travail to increase them. The children of Israel are said in that place, only to have wept to Moses, out of a lust, and a grief, for want of flesh. God punished not that weeping; it is a tenderness, a disposition, that God loves; but a weeping for worldly things, and things not necessary to them, (for manna might have served them) a weeping for not having, or for losing such things of this world, is always accompanied with a murmuring; God shall cause thy riches to perish in thy travail, not because he denies thee riches, nor because he would not have thee travail, but because an inordinate love, an over-studious, and an intemperate, and over-laborious pursuit of riches, is always accompanied with a diffidence, in God's providence, and a confidence in our own riches. To give the wicked a better sense of this, God proceeds often the same way, with the righteous too; but with the wicked, because they do, with the righteous, lest they should trust in their own riches. We see in Job's case, it was not only his sons, and daughters, who were banquetting, nor only his asses, and sheep, and camels that were feeding, that were destroyed; but upon his oxen, that were ploughing, upon his servants, which were doing their particular duties, the Sabæans came, and destruction in their sword; his oxen, and his servants perished, in occupatione, in their labour, in their travail, when they were doing that, which they should do. And if God do thus to his children, to humble them beforehand, that they do not sacrifice to their own nets, not trust in their own industry, nor in their own riches, how much more vehemently shall his judgments burn upon them, whose purpose in gathering riches, was principally, that they might stand of themselves, and not need God. There are beasts that labour not, but yet furnish us, with their wool alive, and with their flesh, when they are dead; as sheep; there are men that desire riches, and though they do no other good, they are content to keep good houses, and that their heir |