A practical exposition of the X. Commandments with a resolution of several momentous questions…A practical exposition of the X. Commandements with a resolution of several momentous questions…

Before we pass this Command, we may consider the punishment of the breach of it, and that in a threefold consideration; 1. Before God (or in foro poli) and so there is no question but it secludeth from the kingdom of Heaven; the covetous and others are, 1 Cor. 6.10. particularly debarred, yea, it is a sin which the Lord abhorreth, Psal. 10.3. 2. Consider it in foro •cclesiastico, as to Church-discipline, and it seemeth by sundry places of Scripture, that the covetous have been thus taken notice of, as 1 Cor. 5.10, 11, &c. where the covetous are reckoned as contradistinct from extortioners, in which place we conceive that the Apostle doth mean a man, that in the main of his way hunteth after the world, although he be not chargeable with direct theft or oppression, this he calleth, Phil. 3.19. minding of earthly things: and Coll. 3.1, 2. setting the affections on those things which are on the earth; which certainly may be much discovered by the strain of a mans carriage, his devotedness, and addictedness to the world, the little time he doth bestow upon Gods service, his little usefulness to others, as Nabal was to David, his sordid niggardliness, that he can neither give to others, nor use himself what he possesseth, as it is Eccles. 6. 1. his being defective in other duties from that ground, his being in his way of living miserably, much within his estate and station, his taking advantage of every ⟨p. 426⟩thing that may bring him gain, as of a trick of Law (and such like) even when it is rigid as to another's hurt, or like the man that is cruel against others, taking them by the throat, saying, Pay me all that thou owest; distraining and distressing for little things, when he himself is not straitened, unmercifully treating others, when they are not able to stand out against him, as Laban did, in changing Jacob's wages ten times, Gen. 31.41. and many such characters are there, whereby the covetous may be tried and discovered, as especially when they come to justify and defend, and continue in these forementioned unseemly ways of getting gain, and much more when unlawful shifts are used to gain by; It is like that in such cases covetous persons have been ecclesiastically reprehended, or at least, there hath been a brotherly withdrawing from them to put a note on them, as was put on drunkards, extortioners, &c. as also