Mar. x. 24.

apt to fing the Rich Man's Requiem, Luk.xij.19. Thou haft much Goods laid up for many Tears; take thine Eafe, Eat, Drink, and be Merry? This made our Saviour Pronounce it as Impoffible for those who Truft in Riches to enter inthe Kingdom of God, as for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle. Indeed, it is impoffible for any who Trust in their Riches, and look from them for Peace Health and Happinefs, fo much as to Understand, or have the least Notion of the Kingdom, that is, the Power and Government of God over All things: Because that whoever had a Juft and True Apprehenfion of the Sovereign Power of the Almighty, muft fee that all Ser cond Caufes were fo Abfolutely in His Hands, as that they had no Force or Virtue at all but what He gave them; And therefore, that ther was no Truft or Dependence at all upon any of them, or all together; but upon their High and Irresistible DISPOSER alone.

Alone: For if they receive All their Virtue from Him, it is His Power Alone, not His and Theirs together;

And

And He will not Give His Glory to An- Isa. xlij. 8. other. He must have All our Heart, or None: Therefore he faid, Te can- Matt.vj.24. not ferve God and Mammon. He is a Jealous God, and will admit of no Rivals.

2. But this is for our Good, not that He wants our Poor Service; for if we bring any thing else to Rival Him in our Hearts, it is our own Mifery; and if we place our Love and Dependence upon any thing else than God, we are fure to be Disappointed, because nothing else can afford any Satisfaction, not only against His Will, but there is nothing that has any Defirable or Profitable Quality, but what it receiv'd from God, not only at first, when He Made it, but every Minute that He Conferves it; without which, it would immediately fall into its first Nothing. So that not only he who feeks to be Happy against God's Will, in a Direct Manner, by Sinning PreSumptuously, and, as it were, Entring the Lifts against Him, Plundering, and Stealing, and Killing, to get Riches, is greatly mistaken when he thinks that the Riches which he has fo ac

quir'd,

quir'd, and wherein he takes Delight, have, in themselves, any Virtue or Beauty: But God gives it them, and gives them to him for his Greater Punishment, and the Greatest of all Judgments, to give us leave to stray from God, and fet up our Reft in what muft Fail us, and leave us Miferable for ever. I fay, this is not only the Cafe of thofe Open and Profeffed Sinners, before fpoke of, who Provoke God to His Face; but likewise Pfal. x.iij. of all the Covetous, whom God abhorreth. Of all who Trust in their Riches, and Depend not abfolutely and folely upon God for their Daily Bread, for all the Neceffaries and Comforts of Life, and for every thing elfe, as well in Relation to This World, as That which is to come.

Of all the Principalities in Hell, ther is none like Mammon, who Dare Rival GOD to His Face; ther is none who has Rebell'd with that Succefs; and Made fuch Havock of the Souls of Men.

Therefore God has, from the Beginning, Guarded us, with Greatest Caution, against this Devil. He has commanded

commanded him to be Sacrific'd upon His Altar, and made that a Part of the Worship of GOD.

SECT. IV.

That fome Part of our Substance is Due to God, as an Act of

I.

Worship.

"WE

E are not only to Worship
God with our Lips, and

give Him Praises with our Tongue, Prov.iij. 9.
which is but an Inferiour and Contem-
plative Worship; But He has Requir'd
that we fhou'd Pay Him an Active
Honour, that is, Worship Him, with Eccluf.
our Subftance.

This is a Neceffary Part of that Glory which we must give to God; and as much Preferable to Verbal Praises, as Deeds are more than Words. The Pfalmist Describes this Plainly, Pfal. xcvj. 8. Give unto the Lord the Glory due unto His Name, or, The Glory of His Name, as our Margin reads it. What is that Glory?

The

XXXV. 8.

The next Words fhew it; Bring an
Offering, and come into His Courts.

Exo. xxiij. Hence that Command is fo oft Re-
Ch. xxxiv. peated, That None fhou'd appear
Empty before the Lord.

20.

Deut. xvj.

16, 17,

2Sam.xxiv.

24,

When we Approach to Worship GOD, we muft Sacrifice more or less of our Mammon before Him; to shew that we Depend upon God for our whole Subfiftence, and that Mammon is not that God: But we offer him up as a Sacrifice to another God, to a Greater than he.

I will not offer unto the Lord my God (faid David ) of that which doth Cost me Nothing.

But I will not Labour this Point further, because I fuppofe that I fhall have none to oppose me.

For All Chriftians do Grant, that fome Part of our Subftance is Due to God. Nay, this is a Notion wherein All Mankind do agree, and have done, at All Times, fince the Beginning of the World. No Nation was ever fo Barbarous, that did not Sacrifice to fome God or other, And though the Outward Typical BLOODY Sacrifices have ceas'd

among