Moses his choice with his eye fixed upon Heaven, discovering the happy condition of…

Secondly, those come under this reprehension, who ¹though they do not choose things for their chief pleasures that are sin, yet do choose to themselves pleasures that come in by sin; and though this be not so ill as the other, yet ill enough; that is, those that shall strain their consciences to get something in the world, to raise their estates, and when they have got estates, and money, and things well about them, then they can be merry, then their tables are furnished, and they can eat and drink, and this they delight in: O poor deluded heart! what is this that can give thee so much content? Thou hast cause to look upon thy table, and every morsel that thou ⟨p. 151⟩eatest, as having death in it; and every draught you drink, as having the curse of God in it: Little cause thou hast, if thou knewest all, to rejoice in these pleasures that come in by sin, certainly there can be no good that comes in by sin as sin: I know God may turn sin to the good of some, but that which sin brings in of it self, it is impossible good should come of it; that which thou takest pleasure in, that which thou art merry and jocund in, delighting thy self withal, is, it may be, the calamity and misery of others; and how hard is that heart, that can make that his mirth and joy, that is the sorrow and distress of his brother? Chrysostom in a Sermon against luxury ²and excess, cries out against those who riot in those things that they have got by making others miserable, and says, It is the most grievous thing that can be.

Secondly, those come under this reprehension, who ¹though they do not choose things for their chief pleasures that are sin, yet do choose to themselves pleasures that come in by sin; and though this be not so ill as the other, yet ill enough; that is, those that shall strain their consciences to get something in the world, to raise their estates, and when they have got estates, and money, and things well about them, then they can be merry, then their tables are furnished, and they can eat and drink, and this they delight in: O poor deluded heart! what is this that can give thee so much content? Thou hast cause to look upon thy table, and every morsel that thou