A Christian library, or, A pleasant and plentiful paradise of practical divinity in 37 treatises of sundry and select subjects ... / by R. Younge ...

CHAP. XIX.

AND so much of the ninth judgement which God usually inflicts upon the merciless Miser. I will adde but one more, nor needs he any more to make him compleatly miserable; for though the former were wofull enough, yet this last is worse then all the rest, as I shall clearly demonstrate in the ensuing pages. For,

Tenthly, doth covetousness reign in a man? is he bewitcht with the love of money? is his heart rivited to the earth? and is he once insla∣ved to this sin? if so, there is no probability, hardly any possibility, that ever he should be converted or saved; nor is it to any more end to ad∣monish him, then to knock at a deaf mans door, or a dead mans grave.

Covetousnesse is not more the root of all evil, as the Apostle fitly stiles it, then it is the rot of all good, as is easie to prove; it is the root of all e∣vil, the mother and metropolis of all sins that can be named; for th•••••• is no sin whatsoever, but it hath sprung from this cursed root, whether it be lying, or swearing, or cursing, or slandering, or Sabbath-breaking, or drunk∣enness, or adultery, or bawdery; whether theft, murther, treason, cozening in bargains, breaking of promises, perfideous underminings, contempt of God and all goodness, persecuting the truth, opposing the Gospel, hatred of Gods Messen∣gers, sleighting of his Ordinances, unbelief, idolatry, witch-craft, ante-Cri∣stanism, sacriledge, soul-murther, &c. For whence spring all these, and what else can be named, but from covetousness? There is no evil that a covetous man will not put in practise, so goods may come of it; you can∣not name the sin, but the Auaritions will swallow it, in the sweet broth of commodity.

He that is greedy of gain, will sell the truth, sell his friend, his father,

his ma••••er, his Prince, his Countrey, his conscience; yea, with Ahab he will sell himself for money, as I might instance in a world of examples; yea, daily experience hath taught us, since our Civil Wars, that many to ad∣vantage themselves five shillings, will indamage another five hundred pounds; and to gain five pounds, will indanger the losing of three whole Kingdoms; yea, when once men are bewitcht with the love of money, as Iudas was, a small matter would hire them to sell Christ himself, were he now on the earth to be sold.

A resolution to be rich, is the fountain of infinite evils; yea, Covetous∣ness is the Index, or Epitomy of, or rather a Commentary upon all sin and wickedness. Name but covetousness, and that includes all the rest, as being a sin made up of many such bitter ingredients. All vices rule, where gold reigns, at least that heart which hath once inslaved it self to this sin, may be wrought by Satan to any thing.

Iustice is the mistress of all vertues, and the truest tryal of a good man, but the covetous heart, is a very mint of fraud, and can readily coyne falsehoods for advantage, upon all occasions.

And as it is the root or cause of all evil, so it is the rot or main hinder∣er of all good; Covetousness is the grave of all goodness, it eats out the very heart of grace, by eating grace out of the heart, Rom. 1.29. When Ava∣rice once gets admission into the heart, it turns all grace quite out of doors; as where salt grows, it makes the ground so barren of all other things, that nothing else will breed therein; this is the cursed devil that mars all, Covetousness.

No such impediment to conversion and salvation as it; as for instance, Ministers wonder that their Sermons take no better, that among so many arrows none should hit the mark: but God tells us the reason, Ezek. 33. they sit before thee, and hear thy words, but their hearts go after their cove∣tousness, ver. 3. Whence is is, that you may see swearers, drunkards, a∣dulterers, &c. weep at a sermon, where as you never saw the covetous shed a tear, be the Doctrine never so dreadful.

Oh this golden devil, this Diana of the Ephesians, doth a world of mis∣chief, it destroyes more souls then all other sins put together, as the Apostle intimates, 1 Tim. 6.10. Whence it is, that we shall sooner hear of an hundred Malefactors contrition at the gallows, then of one covetous Misers in his bed.

The Children of Israel would not beleeve Samuel, that they had sin∣ned in asking a King, before they saw a miracle from Heaven, even rounder and rain in wheat harvest, which was contrary to the nature of that Climate, and then they could confesse it, and repent, 1 Sam. 12.17, 18, 19. But the covetous are in Pharaohes case, whom neither miracles nor judgements could prevail withall, and of whom God speaks to Moses in this manner. See that thou speak all the words, and do all the wonders before Pha••aoh, which I have put in thine hand; but I will harden his heart, and he shall not let the people g••, Exod. 7.1, ••, 3, 4. And certaiuly, they of all others are the men to whom these ensuing Scriptures are applyable;

Go, and say unto these people, ye shall hear indeed, but you shall not understand▪ 〈◊〉〈◊〉 shall plainly see and not perceive; make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and shut their ey••, lest they see with their eys, and hear with their ears, & understand with their hearts, and convert, and he heal them, Isa. 6.9, 10. They would none of me, nor hear my voice, so I gave them up unto the hardness of their heart, and they walked in their own counsels, Psa. 81.11, 12. Go up unto Gilead, and take balm, O Virgin daughter of Egypt, in vain shalt thou use many medicines, for thou shalt have none health, Jerem. 46.11.

The precious stone Diacletes, though it have many excellent sove∣rainties in it, yet it loseth them all, if put into a dead mans mouth; so are all means ineffectuall that are used for the recovery of the covetous, as is well imployed in those words of Abraham, to the rich Glutton, Luk. 1••.29, 30, 31. our Saviour expresly affirmeth, that it is easier for a Camel to go through the ey of a needle, then for a rich man (that is, a covetous rich man) to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, Luk.18.25. and the Apostle, That no covetous man can look for any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ▪ and of God, Eph. 5.5. 1 Cor. 6.9, 10.

Such an ones doom is set down, Deut. 17.12. That man that will do presumptuously, not hearkening unto the Priest that standeth before the Lord to minister there, that man shall dye, saith the Lord.

And again, Prov. 29.1. He that hardeneth his neck when he is reproved, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy, implying that there is no hope of such a man; and indeed, he that despiseth Moses law, dyeth without mercy, as the Apostle concludes, Heb. 10.28. A covetous man, is like a sick patient that cannot spit, whom nothing will care, or like a crack•• Bell, for which there is no other remedy then the fire, or like one that hath the plague tokens, who (as is conceived) is past all hope, and for whom all that can be performed, is to say, Lord have mercy upon him, Deut. 17.12. Pro. 1. Heb. 10.28. which makes Musculus say, that Divines shall reform this vice, when Phisicians cure the gout, which is incurable. Our Mithologists tell us of many strange metamorphoses, of men turned into beasts, by Circe. Our Poets tell of Licaon, turned into a Wolf, but when a ravenous Oppressor repents, and turns pious and mercifull, there is a Wolf turned into a man, yea, a Devil turned into a Saint; Whence the Holy Ghost (speaking of Zacheus, and his conversion) brings it in with a•• ••cce, behold, as if it were a wonder that Zacheus a covetous man should be converted; as let me referre it to the experience of the spirituall Reader, Did ye ever know, or hear, of three such covetous extortio∣ners as Zacheus was, that repented and made restitution as he did? no, for if you should, it were as great and as rare a miracle, as if at this day the Turk, Pope, and K. of Spain, ware at once perswaded to forsake their Idolatry and Superstition.