Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 6 · Verse 19
Verse 19. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth.]
This is the fourth common-place handled here by our Saviour, of casting away the inordinate care of earthly things, which he presseth upon all, by nine severall arguments, to the end of the Chapter. By treasures here are meant worldly wealth in abundance, precious things stored up, as silver, gold, pearls, &c. All … are but earth, and it is, but upon earth … they are laid up. What is silver and gold but white and yellow earth? And what are pearls and precious stones, but the guts and garbage of the earth? Dan. 2. 45. The stone brake in pieces, the iron, the brasse, the clay, and silver, &c. The Prophet breaks the … order of speech, forforeign clay, iron, brasse, silver, &c. to intimate (as some conceive)foreign that silver is clay, by an elegant allusion in the Chaldee, shouldBroughton. we load our selves with thick clay? Surcharge our hearts with cares of this life, Luke 21. 34? Gen. 13. 2. It is said, Abraham was … rich in cattel, in silver and in gold. There is a Latine translation that hath it, Abraham was very heavy. And the originallforeign indifferently beareth both: to shew (saith one) that riches are a heavy burden, and a hinderance many times to heaven and happinesse. They that have this burden upon their backs, can asforeign. hardly get in at the straight gate, as a Camel or Cable into a needle,foreign. and that because they trust in their riches (as our SaviourMat. 19 23. … expounds himself) and here plainly intimates, when heforeign … of … up …; providing thereby for hereafter, … to morrow (so … word …) and thinking themselves … the safer, and the … for their outward abundance, … the rich fool did, The rich mans wealth is his strong City, saithProv 10. 15. …, his wedge his confidence, his gold, his god; … …. 5 5.…. Paul calleth him an Idolater, S. James an …, because he…, 4. 4. … God of his flower, his trust; and goeth a whoring after … vanities: he soweth the winde, and reapeth the whirlwinde: … treasureth up wealth, but withall wrath, Jam. 5 3. and by … all sish that commeth to net, he catcheth at length, the … and all. Hence it is that S. James bids such (and not … Atistoteles … foreign. l 4 Ethic. ca 1.cause) Weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon them. … looks upon them as deplored persons, and such as the … could call and count incurable and desperate. For the heart … is first turned into earth and mud, will afterwards freeze and … into steel and adamant, The Pharisees that were covetous … Luk. 16. 14.Christ, and perished irrecoverably. And reprobates are … by S. Peter to have their hearts exercised with covetous practices, 2 Pet. 2. 14.which they constantly follow, as the Artificer his trade, beingforeign. …. ab … illu … viduarum domos devorantibus … apprentices to the devil, 2 Cor. 2. 11. Lest Satan should get an advantage against us. or … us, as covetous wretches do … novices. These as they have served an ill Master, so they shall receive the reward of unrighteousnesse, and perish in their corruptions, 2 Pet. 2. 12, 13. Their happinesse hath been laid up in the earth, nearer hell then heaven, nearer the devil then God, whom they have forsaken, … shall they be written in the earth, Jer. 17. 13.that is, in hell, as it stands opposed to having their names written in …. 3. 19.heaven. Those that are earthly minded have damnation for their end. God to testifie his displeasure, knocks his fists at them, Ezek. 22. 13. as Balac did at Balaam. And lest they should reply, Tush, these … but big words, devised on … to … silly people: we shall do well enough with the Lord; he addeth, vers. 14. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong in the daies that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will doe it. Oh that cur greedy muck-moles (that lie rooting and poring … the earth, as if they meant to dig themselves thorow it, a nearer way to hell) would consider this before the cold grave holds their bodies, and hot Tophet … their souls … the one is as sure as the other, if timely course be not taken, O … nequam, saith S. Bernard; O most wretched and … world, how little are thy … ….beholden to thee; seeing thy love and friendship exposeth … to the wrath and … of God, which burneth as low as … nethermost hell. How fitly may it be said of thee, as … the river …: they that know it at … …it, they that have experience of it at last, doe, not … cause condemn it? Those that will be rich, are resolved to get rem rem, … modo rem, as he saith, these … necessarily … many noisome lusts that drown men in …: desperately drown them in remedilesse misery (as … word signifieth;) Christ must be praid to be gone, saith that …,foreign. lest all their pigs be drowned. The devil shall have his dwelling … ….gain in themselves, rather then in their pigs: Therefore to the … shall they go, and dwell with him, &c. They feed upon carrion, … Noahs raven; upon dust, as the Serpent; upon the worlds …, as those in Job, They swallow down riches, and are …, as the Pharisees, Luk. 11. 41. but they shall vomit them … …. and …. fol ….again, God shall cast them out of their bellies. Their mouths … cried Give, Give, with the horse-leech, shall be filled ere long… with a shovell-full of mould, and a cup of fire and brimstone … ….down their wide gullets. It shall be worse with them, … it was once with the covetous Chaliph of Babylon, who being …, together with his City by Haalon, brother to Mango the great Chan of T …, was sit by him … the middest of the … which he and his predecessours had most …. heaped up together, and bidden of that gold, silver and … stones, take what it pleased him to eat, saying, by way of …, That so gainfull a guest should be fed with the best, whereof he willed him to make no spare. The covetons Caitiff, kept for…. Hist. …. 113. certain daies, miserably died for hunger, in the midst of those things whereof he thought he should never have had enough, whereby he hoped to secure himself against whatsoever dearth …. … loveth to confute carnall men in their …. They shall passe on hardly bestead and hungery; and it shall come to …, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, … their King, and their God, and look upward. And they … unto the earth (where they have laid up their …, but now … their hopes) and behold trouble and darknesse, … of …: and they shall be driven into darknesse, Isa. 8. 21, 22. utter darknesse; where their Never-enough shall be quitted with … …, but a black fire, without the least glimpse of light or ….
Where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where …, &c.]
A … earthly-mindednesse, … the … of riches, … to a double danger or waste. 1. Of … in …. 2. Of violence from others; rust or robbery … undo us. As the fairest flowers or fruit-trees breed a worm …, that eats out the heart of them. As the Ivy killeth … it; so, of the matter of an earthly treasure … moth or rust that … it. … ward things are of a … nature, they perish in the use, they melt away betwixt our …. S. Gregory upon those words in Job, Qui ingreditur in Job 38. 22.… nivis? Who hath entered into the treasures of the snow? …, that … treasures are treasures of snow. We see … children what pains they take to rake and scrape snow … to make a snow-ball; which after a while dissolves and … to nothing: Right so, the treasures of this world, the … that wicked men have heaped, when God entreth …, come to nothing. He that trusteth to his riches shall fall, …. 11. 28. as he shall that standeth on an hillock of ice, or heap … snow. David, when got upon his mountain, thought … cock-sure, and began to crow, that he should never be …. But God (to … him) had no sooner hid his face, butPsal. 30. 6, 7. … troubled. What's the air without light? The AEgyptians had no joy of it: no more can a Christian have of wealth without Gods favour. Besides, what hold is there of these earthly things? more then there is of a … of birds? I cannot say they are mine, because they sit in my yard. Riches have wings, saith Solomon, great Eagles wings to flee from us, saith a Father; but to follow … us, Ne passerinas …, not so much as small sparrowsProv. 23. …. wings. Whereupon Solomon rightly argues, Wilt thou set thine … upon that which is not? that hath no reall subsistence, that is, nothing, and of no more price, then meer opinion … upon it? The world cals wealth substance, but God gives that name to wisdom only. Heaven is said to have a foundation, earth to be hangedJob. upon nothing. So, things … said to be … heaven, as in a mansion,foreign. but on earth, on the surface only, as ready to be shaken off. Hence the world is called a sea of glasse, frail and fickle, mingled R. v. …. 15. 2. a Pet. 3. 10.with fire of temptations and tribulations. The very firmament (that … name from its firmnesse) shall melt with servent heat, and the whole visible fabrick be … by the fire of the last …. Solomon sets forth the world by a word that betokeneth … …. … …for its mutability. And S. Paul, when … telleth us, That … fashion of the world passeth away, useth a word of art, that signifieth…. a bare externall, mathematicall figure, Cui veri aut selidi nihil … saith an Interpreter, that hath no truth or solidity in it at all Gilliner King of Vandals, being conquered, and carried in … by Bellisarius the Roman Generall, when he stood in the … field before the Emperour Justinian, and beheld him sitting … … … 528.his throne of State, remembring withall what an high pitch himself was fallen from, he broke out into this speech, Vanity of …, all is vanity. That was Solomons verdict, long since delivered up, upon well-grounded experience. But men love to … conclusions; and, when they have done, What profit, saith … hath a man of all his pains? what … and remaining fruit (… ….the word signifieth) to abide with him? When all the … Eccles. 1. 3.subducted (his happinesse resolved into it's finall issue and …) there resteth nothing but ciphers. A Spider … himself, and wasteth his own bowels to make a web to catch …: so doth the worldling for that which profiteth not, but … in the use: Or say that it abide, yet himself perisheth, when to … the things he hath gotten might seem a happines, as the rich fool, Alexander, Tamberlain, others. Most of … … gat nothing by their adoption or designation, …, ut citius interficerentur, that they might be the sooner slain. All, … most of them till …, died unnaturall deaths, and in theJer. 17. …. best of their time. He that gettethriches, and not by right, … …. 5. 15.leave them in the … of his daies, and at his end shall be a fool. God will make a poor fool of him. As he came forth of his … womb, naked shall he return, to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. Say his treasure escape both rust and robber, death as a thief will break in, and leave him not … a groat. Who would not then set light by this pelf, and put on that Persian resolution, Isa. 13. 17. Not to regard silver, nor be desirous of gold? Who would not tread…. in the steps of faithfull Abraham, and answer the devil with his golder. offers, as he did the King of Sodome, God forbid that I should take of thee so much as a shoe-latchet? When great gifts were…. sent to Luther, he refused them with this brave speech, … me … fic satiari a Deo, I deeply protested that … should not put me off with such poor things as these. The Heathenish… Romans had, for a difference in their Nobility, a little … in the form of a Moon (to shew that all worldly honours were mutable) and they did wear it upon their shooes (to shew that they did tread it under their feet) as base and bootlesse. This is check to many Christians, that have their hands elbow-deep in the world, and dote as much upon these earthly vanities, as Xerxes once did upon his Plane-tree, or Jonas upon his …. There is a sort of men that say of the world, as Solomons …, It is naught, it is naught: but when he is gone apart, he boasteth and closeth with the world. S. Paul was none of these: for neither at any time, … he, used we flattering words, as ye know: nor …. 14.a cloak of covetousnesse, God is my witnesse. No; he looked upon… a very … of mortisication. the world as a … dung-hill, and cared to glory in nothing, save in the crosse of Jesus Christ, whereby the world was crucified to him, and he to the world. So David, My soul, saith he, is even … a weaned childe, that cares not to suck, though never so fair and … a brest. So Luther confesseth of himself, that though he were a … man, and subject to imperfections, yet the infection of … Pully his ….never laid hold of him. Now I would we were all Lutherans in this, saith One, &c.