§. 34. Direct. 13. Think often on the dreadful importance and effects of the Love of Riches, or a 1worldly mind. 1. It is a most certain sign of a state of death and misery where it hath the upper2 hand. It is the departing of the heart from God to creatures: See the malignity of it before. Good ⟨p. 262⟩men have been overtaken with heinous sins; but its hard to find where Scripture calleth any of them Covetous. A heart secretly cleaving most to this present world and its prosperity, is the very3 killing sin of every hypocrite, yea, and of all ungodly men. 2. Worldliness makes the Word unprofitable, and keepeth men from believing and repenting, and coming home to God, and minding seriously the everlasting world: What so much hindereth the Conversion of sinners, as the love and ca•es of earthly things? They cannot serve God and Mammon: Their treasure and hearts cannot be chiefly be both in Heaven and Earth? They will not yield to the terms of Christ that love this world: They will not forsake all for a treasure in Heaven. In a word, as you heard, The love of money is the root of all evil, and the Love of the Father is not in the lovers of the world. 3. It destroyeth holy meditation, and conference, and turneth the thoughts to worldly things: And it corrupteth Prayer, and maketh it but a means to serve the flesh, and therefore maketh it odious to God. 4. It is the great hinderance of mens necessary preparation, for death and judgement, and stealeth away their hearts and time till it is too late. 5. It is the great cause of contentions even among the nearest relations; and the cause of the Wars and calamities of Nations; and of the woeful divisions and persecutions of the Church; when a worldly generation think that their worldly interest doth engage them, against self-denying and spiritual principles, practices and persons. 6. It is the great cause of all the injustice, and oppression, and cruelty that rageth in the world. They would do as they would be done by, were it not for the love of money. It maketh men perfidious and false to all their friends and engagements: No vows to God, nor obligations to men, will hold a Lover4 of the world. The world is his God, and his worldly interest is his rule and law. 7. It is the great destroyer of Charity and Good works: No more is done for God and the poor, because the Love of the world forbids it. 8.
§. 34. Direct. 13. Think often on the dreadful importance and effects of the Love of Riches, or a 1worldly mind. 1. It is a most certain sign of a state of death and misery where it hath the upper2 hand. It is the departing of the heart from God to creatures: See the malignity of it before. Good ⟨p. 262⟩men have been overtaken with heinous sins; but its hard to find where Scripture calleth any of them Covetous. A heart secretly cleaving most to this present world and its prosperity, is the very3 killing sin of every hypocrite, yea, and of all ungodly men. 2. Worldliness makes the Word unprofitable, and keepeth men from believing and repenting, and coming home to God, and minding seriously the everlasting world: What so much hindereth the Conversion of sinners, as the love and ca•es of earthly things? They cannot serve God and Mammon: Their treasure and hearts cannot be chiefly be both in Heaven and Earth? They will not yield to the terms of Christ that love this world: They will not forsake all for a treasure in Heaven. In a word, as you heard, The love of money is the root of all evil, and the Love of the Father is not in the lovers of the world. 3. It destroyeth holy meditation, and conference, and turneth the thoughts to worldly things: And it corrupteth Prayer, and maketh it but a means to serve the flesh, and therefore maketh it odious to God. 4. It is the great hinderance of mens necessary preparation, for death and judgement, and stealeth away their hearts and time till it is too late. 5. It is the great cause of contentions even among the nearest relations; and the cause of the Wars and calamities of Nations; and of the woful divisions and persecutions of the Church; when a worldly generation think that their worldly interest doth engage them, against self-denying and spiritual principles, practices and persons. 6. It is the great cause of all the injustice, and oppression, and cruelty that rageth in the world. They would do as they would be done by, were it not for the love of money. It maketh men perfidious and false to all their friends and engagements: No vows to God, nor obligations to men, will hold a Lover4 of the world. The world is his God, and his worldly interest is his rule and law. 7. It is the great destroyer of Charity and Good works: No more is done for God and the poor, because the Love of the world forbids it. 8.
- 1Direct. 13.
- 2The mischiefs of a worldly mind. Look upon the face of the calamitous world. and enquire into the causes of all the oppressions, rapines, cruelties, and inhumanity which have made men so like to Devils: Look into the corrupted, lacerated Churches, and enquire into the cause of their contentions, divisions, usurpations, malignity, and cruelty against each other: And you will find that Pride and Worldliness are the Causes of all. When men of a Proud and Worldly mind have by fraud, and friendship, and Simony Usurped the Pastorship of the Churches, according to their Minds and Ends they turn it into a Malignant Domination, and the Carnal worldly part of the Church, is the great enemy and Persecutor of the spiritual part; and the fleshly Hypocrite, as Cain against Abel, is filled with envy against the serious believer, even out of the bitter displeasure of his mind, that his deceitful Sacrifice is less respected: What Covetousness hath done to the advancement of the pretended Holy Catholic Church of Rome, I will give you now, but in the words of an Abbot and Chronicler of their own, Abbas Urspergens. Chron. p. 3•• Vix remansit aliquis Episcopatus, sive dignitas Ecclesiastica, vel et• am Parochialis Ecclesiae, quae ron fie•et litig•osa, & Romam deduceretur ipsa causa, sed non manu vacua. Gaude matter nostra Roma, quondam aperiuntur cataractae thesaurorum in te•ra, ut ad te cons•uant rivi & aggeres nummo•um in magna copia. Laetare super iniquitate filiorum hominum; quondam in recompensationem tantorum malorum, datur tibi prec•um. Jocundare super adjutrice tua discordia; quia erupit de puteo infernalis abyssi, ut accumulentur tibi multa pecunia•um praemia. Habes quod semper sitisti; decanta Canticum, quia per malitiam hominum non p•• tuam Religionem, orbem vicist•. Ad te trahit homines, non ipsorum devotio, aut pura Conscientia, sed s••lerum multiplicium perpetratio, & litium decisio, precio comparata. Fo•tun. Galindas speaking of Pope Paul the fifth, his love to the Jesuits for helping him to money, saith Adeo praestat acquirendarum pecuniarum quam animarum studiosum & peritum esse, apud illos, qui cum animarum Christi sanguine redemptarum, in se curam receperint, vel quid anima sit nesciunt, vel non pluris animam hominis quam piscis faciunt: quod credo suum officium Piscatum quendam esse aliquando per strepitum inaudierint: quibus propterea gratior fuerit, qui Animam auri cum Paracelso, quam animam Saxoniae Electoris invenisse nuntiet. Arcan. Soci. Jesus. pag. 46. Lege ibid. Istruct. secret. de Jesuitarum paxi. Et Joh. Sarisbur. l. 7. c. 21. de Monach. Potentiores & ditiores favore vel mercede recepta facilius (absolution) exnerant, & peccatis alienis humeros supponentes, jubent abire in tunicas & vests pullas, quicquid illi see commisisse deplorant—Si eis obloquets, Religionis inimicus, & veritatis diceris impugnator.
