The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb.…

4. Some of them will trust God and the creature jointly; and as they serve God and Mammon, and think to make sure of the prosperity of the body, and the salvation of the soul, without losing either of them; so they trust in both conjunctly, to make up their felicity. Some think when they read Christs words, Mark 10.24. How hard is it for them that trust in Riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God?] that they are safe enough if that be all the danger; for they do not trust in their riches, though they love them: He is a mad man they say, that will put his trust in them. And yet Christ intimateth it as the true reason why few that have riches can be saved, because there is few that have riches, who do not trust in them: You know that riches will not save your souls; you know that they will not save you from the gr•ve, you know that ⟨p. 266⟩they will not cure your diseases, nor ease your pains: And therefore you do not trust to riches, either to keep you from sickness, or from dying, or from Hell: But yet you think that riches may help you to live in pleasure, and in reputation with the world, and in plenty of all things, and to have your will, as long as health and life will last; and this you take to be the chiefest happiness which a man can make sure of: And for this you trust them. The fool in Luke 12.19. who said, Soul, take thy ease, eat, drink, and be merry, thou hast enough laid up for many years, did not trust his riches to make him immortal, nor to save his soul: But he trusted in them, as a provision which might suffice for many years, that he might eat, drink, and be merry, and take his ease; and this he loved better, and preferred before any pleasures or happiness which he hoped for in another world. And thus it is that all worldly hypocrites do trust in riches: Yea the poorest do trust in their little poor provisions in this world, as seeming to them surer, and therefore better than any which they can expect hereafter. This is the way of trusting in uncertain riches, (viz. to be their surest happiness) instead of trusting in the living God, 1 Tim. 6.17. & 4.10