THE RIGHTEOUS MAMMON:  
An Hospitall-Sermon Preached in the solemn Assembly of the CITY on Monday in EASTER-weeke 1618.  
By JOS HALL. D. of D.  
LONDON, Printed by Edward Griffin for Nathaniel Butter. 1618.   

TO MY MUCH HONOURED FRIEND Sr HENRY BAKER Knight & Baronet.  
SIR,  
AMongst many to whom my poor labonrs owe much for their acceptation, I know none that can challenge so deep a debt as yourself. If others have tasted of my well-meant papers, you have fed heartily on them; and so made them your own, that your memory may compare with others eyes, and your practice with the speculation of others: Neither have your hand or tongue been niggardly dissemblers of your spiritual gain. Unto you therefore (to whose name I had long since in my desires devoted my next) do I send this mean present: A Sermon importunately desired of many: That which the present Auditors found useful, the Press shall communicate to posterity; The gain of either, or both is no less mine: I doubt not but you have already so acted that part of this discourse which concerneth you, that the direction I give to others is but an history of what you have done. And go on happily (worthy Sir) in those your holy courses which shall lead you to immortality; and so use your riches that they may be made up into a crown for your head in a better world: My hearty well-wishes shall not be wanting to you, and your virtuous Lady, as whom you have obliged to be justly  
Worcester April 14. Yours Jos. HALL..   
1 TIM. 6. 17. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. etc. 
THOSE things which are excellent, and beneficial in their use, are dangerous in their miscarriage: It were lost labour for me to persuade you how good riches are: your pains and your cares are sufficient proofs of your estimation; And how deadly the abuse of them is, many a soul feels that cannot return to complain; There is nothing more necessary therefore, for a Christian heart, than to be rectified in the managing of a prosperous estate; and to learn so to be happy here, that it may be more happy hereafter; A task which this Text of ours undertakes, and (if ye be not wanting to it and yourselves) will be sure to perform: What should I need to entreat your attention (Right Honourable, right Worshipful, and beloved) to a business so nearly concerning you? The errand is Gods; the use of it yours.  
I never held it safe to pull Scripture in pieces: These words fall alone into their parts. Timothy is set upon the spiritual Bench, and must give the charge. A charge, to whom? Of what? To whom? To the rich: Of what? what they must avoid, what they must endeavour: What must they avoid? Hy-mindednesse, & Trust in wealth: What are the duties they must labour unto? Confidence in God; Beneficence to men: And every one of these is backed with a reason to enforce it: Why should they not be hy-minded? Their wealth is but in this world; Why should they not trust in Riches? They are uncertain. Why should they trust in God? He is a living God, and a liberal God: Why should they extend their beneficence to men? By this they lay up to themselves a sure foundation: Here is work enough you see for my discourse, and your practice: The God of heaven bless it in both our hands.  
Charge hath janus-like) a double aspect; 
Charge  one that looks up to S. Paul, the other that looks down to Timothy, and from him, to the rich: In the first there is Apostolical superiority; for (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) Charge thou, refers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 13. I Charge thee; so Paul charges Timothy to charge the rich; He that gives the Charge, if he be not the chief of the Bench, yet he is greater than the jury; The first foundation of the Church is laid in an inequality; and hath ever since so continued; There can be no harmony where all the strings or voices are of one tenor; In the latter, as it looks on Timothy, it carries in it Episcopal power, evangelical sufficiency: Episcopal power; for this Charge is by the vulgar turned, and the Translation of the Syriac, Praecipe, command; and so do we translate it in the first of this Epistle, and the third verse; Timothy was left at Ephesus (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) to command.  
The rich are commonly great; Nobility in the account of God is joined with wealth; Curse not the King in thy thought, nor the Rich in thy Bedchamber, saith Solomon; so Dives at whose gates Lazarus lay is by some no mean ones guessed to be Herod, 
Maldona● could incline to that. in locum.  or some other King; and so are jobs friends termed by the seventy▪ Yea the rich is not only a little King amongst his neighbours, but Dives, quasi Diws; as a petty God to his underlings, and yet even the rich man that (as Solomon notes) speaks with command unto others, he must be spoken to with command. Command the rich. That foolish shaveling soared too high a pitch, when in his imperious Bull he mands the Angels: Francis of Assize and he, were both of a Diet; But we may safely say that all powers below the Angels, are liable to our spiritual Charge; and this Command implies obedience; Else, to what purpose do we command and go without? Christ gave us the keys; (for that which the Romanists would plead out of Origen, of Claves coeli, The keys of heaven to the rest, and Claves coelorum, The keys of the heavens to Peter is a distinction without a difference); What becomes of them? That I may not say on some of our hands they are suffered to rust for want of use; on others, (as the Pontificians) the wards are altered, so as they can neither open nor shut; Sure I am that (if they be not lost on our behalf whether in dis-vse, or abuse) the power of them is lost in the hearts of many: They have secret picklocks of their own making, Presumption and security, whereby they can open heaven gates though double locked by our censures, and shut the gates of hell at pleasure, which their own sins have opened wide to receive them; What use is there of us, but in our chair? and there, but to be heard, and seen? Even in this sense spectaculo facti sumus; we are to gaze on, not to employ: Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye reign as Kings without us; we are weak, ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised; It was well noted by one, that the good father of the prodigal, though he might himself have brought forth the prime rob; or have led his son into his wardrobe to take it, yet he commands his servants to bring it forth (Proferte stolam) because he would bring means into credit; because he would have his sons beholden to his servants for their glory. It is a bold word, but a true one, Ye shall never wear the long white rob, unless his servants your ministers bring it, and put it on. He that can save you without us, will not save you but by us: He hath not tied himself to means, man he hath; He could create you immediately to himself, but he will have you begotten by the immortal seed of your spiritual fathers: Woe be to you therefore, if our word have lost the power of it in you: you have lost your right in heaven: Let us never come there if you can come thither ordinarily without us. The words of the wife (saith Solomon) are like goads, like nails; But if these goads light upon the skin of a Leviathan, who esteems iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood; If these nails meet with iron, or marble in their driving, that they turn again; What shall we say but our Gospel is hid to them that perish; and woe unto your souls, 
Es. 3. 9  for ye have rewarded evil to yourselves.  
Hitherto the power implied in this charge; the sufficiency followeth: This Euangelicus must be parangelicus; Like as the forerunner of Christ had a charge for all sorts, so must his followers; So hath Timothy in this Epistle, A charge for wives, for Bishops, for Deacons, for widows, for servants, and here for the rich; He must charge; and how shall he charge, if he have neither shot nor powder? It is no brag to say that no Nation under heaven since the Gospel looked forth into the world, ever had so many, so learned teachers as this ISLAND hath at this day. Hierom said of old to his Paulinus, De Hierosôlymis & de Britannia aequaliter patet aula coelestis; Heaven is as open in Britain as in Jerusalem; It holds well if you take it for a prophetical comparison betwixt jerusalem as it had been, and Britain as it should be: jerusalem the type of God's Church upon earth, in the glory of all her legal magnificence was never more blessed, than this Church of ours: For the Northern part of it beyond the Twede, we saw not, we heard not of a Congregation (whereof indeed there is not so great frequency) without a preaching Minister; 
Somewhat above eight hundred.  and though their maintenance hath been generally but small, yet their pains have been great, and their success suitable: And now lately, his sacred Majesty in his last years journey (as if the sun did out of compassion go beyond his Tropic line, to give heat unto the Northern climate) hath so ordered it, that their means shall be answerable to their labours; so as both Pastors and people profess themselves mutually blessed in each other; and bless GOD and their KING for this blessedness: As for the learning and sufficiency of those Teachers (whether Prelates or Presbyters) our ears were for some of them sufficient witnesses, and we are not worthy of our ears, if our tongues do not thankfully proclaim it to the world. As for this Southern part, when I consider the face of our Church in an universality, me thinks I see the firmament in a clear night, bespangled with goodly stars of all magnitudes, that yield a pleasing diversity of light unto the earth; But withal, through the incomparable multitude of Cures, and the incompetent provision of some, we cannot but see some of our people (especially in the utmost skirts) like to those that live under the Southern pole, where the stars are thinner set; & some stars there are in our Hemisphere, like those little sparkles in the Galaxy, or Milky circle, wherein ye can scarce discern any light; The desire of our hearts must be that every Congregation, every soul might have a Timothy to deliver the charge of God powerfully unto it; even with S. Paul's change of note; That every one which hath a charge were (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) able to give the charge; and every hearer (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) ready to take it: Wherein I cannot but thankfully congratulate the happiness of this famous City, which if in other riches it equalize the best, I am sure in this it exceeds all. There is not a City under the cope of heaven so wealthy in the spiritual provision; yea there are whole countries in Christendom, that have not so many learned Preachers, as are within these walls and liberties; Hear this, ye Citizens, and be not proud, but thankful; Others may exceed you in the glory of outward structure, in the largeness of extent, in the uniform proportion of streets, or ornaments of Temples, but your pulpits do surpass theirs; & if preaching can lift up Cities unto heaven, ye are not upon earth; Happy is it for you if ye be as well fed as taught, and woe be to you if you do not think yourselves happy.  
Charge then, 
The Rich.  but whom? The rich: Man that came naked out of the womb of the earth, was even then so rich, that all things were his; Heaven was his roof or Canopy, earth his floor, the sea his pond, the Sun and Moon his torches, all creatures his vassals: And if he lost the fullness of this lordship by being a slave to sin, yet we have still Dominium gratificum, as Gerson terms it; Every son of Abraham is heir of the world: 
Rom. 4. 13.  But to make up the true reputation of wealth (for thus, we may be as having all things, and possessing nothing) another right is required beside spiritual, which is a civil and human right; wherein I doubt not but our learned wickliff, and the famous Archbishop of Armach, and the more famous Chancellor of Paris (three renowned Divines of England, France, and Ireland have had much wrong, whiles they are accused to teach, that men in these earthly things have no tenure but grace, no title but Charity: 
Titulun Charitatis Dom. à Soto de justitia & jure.  which questionless they intended in foro interiori, in the Consistory of God, not in the Common-pleas of men; in the Courts, not of Law, but of Conscience; in which only it may fall out, that the Civil owner may be a spiritual usurper, and the spiritual owner may be a civil beggar. God frames his language to ours, and speaking according to that Ius Gentium, whereon the division of these earthly possessions are grounded, he calls some Rich, others, poor: Those heretics which called themselves Apostolic (as some body doth now at Rome) before the time of Epiphanius & Augustine, which taught the unlawfulness of all earthly proprieties; seconded in Austin's time, by our countryman Pelagius, and in our times by some of the illuminate Elders of Munster; are not worth confutation; or, if they were, our Apostle hath done it to our hands, in this one word, Rich; for there can be neither Rich nor poor in a community; Neither doth he say, Charge men that they be not rich, but Charge the rich that they be not hye-minded.  
With these, let us couple our ignorant Votaries, that place holiness in want; with whom, their very crosses cannot deliver their coin from sin; which, to make good the old rule, that it is better to give then to receive, give all they have away at once, for but a licence to beg for ever. Did these men ever hear that the Blessing of God maketh rich? That the wings of riches carry them up to heaven? That the crown of the wise is their wealth? Do they not know that if Lazarus were poor, yet Abraham was rich, and Pium pauperem suscepit sinus divitis; It was the happiness of poor Lazarus that he was lodged in the bosom of rich Abraham. I am no whit afraid, (o ye rich Citizens) lest this paradox of our holy Mendicants shall make you out of love with your wealth; I fear some of you would be rich, though ye might not; Now we tell you from him, whose title is Rich in mercy, that ye may be at once Rich and holy; In divitijs cupiditatem reprehendit, non facultatem saith Austen: It is a true word of the son of Sirach, which I would have you carry home with you, and write it as a fit Motto, in your Countinghouse; Bona est substantia, si non sit peccatum in conscientia; Substance doth well in the hand, if there be not evil in the heart. Ecclesiasticus 13. 25.  
Charge the Rich; Who are they? There is nothing wherein is greater mesprison. One man in a Laodicean conceitedness thinks himself rich, when he hath nothing; Another, in a covetous humour thinks he hath nothing, when he is rich; and how easy is it for another man to mistake us, if we may thus easily mistake ourselves? I fear some of you are like the Pageants of your great solemnities, wherein there is the show of a solid body, whether of a Lion, or Elephant, or Unicorn, but if they be curiously looked into, there is nothing but cloth, and sticks, and air; Others of you contrarily are like a dissembling Covent, that professes poverty, & purchases Lordships; The very same did Solomon observe in his time, in the great Burgomasters of jerusalem Pro. 13. 7. For the avoiding of both extremes, let us inquire who is rich. And though greatness and riches be in the rank of those things, which are held to have no absolute determination, but consist rather in respect & comparison (for a rich Farmer is yet poor to a rich Merchant, and a rich Merchant is but poor to a Prince, and he to some great Emperor; That great Mammonist would say he is rich that can maintain an Army, a poor man would say according to that Italian inscription, He is rich that wants not bread); Yet certainly there are certain general stakes and bounds, which divide betwixt poverty and competence, betwixt competency and wealth; As there were variety of shekels among the jews, yet there was one shekel of the Sanctuary that varied not; Who then is rich? I must give you a double answer; One will not serve; The one according to true morality, the other according to vulgar use: In the first he is rich that hath enough, whether the world think so or not; Even Esau though he were poor in grace, yet in estate he was rich, I have enough my brother; And he that said, Soul thou hast goods enough for many years, was almost so; It was not his fault that he thought he had enough, but that he meant to lie down, and wallow in it. A man's wealth or poverty is most-what in himself; And though nature have professed to read unto heathen men this lesson of wise moderation, yet it hath been seldom seen that any thing but true piety, hath taught them to take it out; Godliness is great gain with contentment: Victus & vestitus divitiae Christianorum, saith Hierom: Food and raiment are the Christians wealth; Those men therefore, which are still in the horse leeches note, sucking and craving; which like Pharaohs lean kine are ever feeding, and never the fatter, are as far from true wealth, as they would be from poverty, and further I am sure they cannot be, and not further from wealth then godliness; Having is the measure of outward wealth, but it is thinking that must measure the inward; thoughts, I say, of contentment, cheerfulness, and thankfulness, which if ye want, it is not either or both the indies that can make you rich.  
In the latter, he is rich that hath more than enough, whether he think so or no▪ He that hath the possession (whether civil, or natural) of more than necessary: Now if necessary and superfluous seem as hard to define as rich; know there are just limits for both the●●● Superfluous is defined by necessary; for what is 〈◊〉 necessary, is superfluous: There is then a double necessary; One of nature, the other of estate: That is necessary to nature without which we cannot live, that to estate, without which we cannot live well: That is necessary to estate, which were superfluous to nature; and that which were superfluous to nature, is not so much as necessary to estate; Nature goes single, and bears little breadth; Estate goes ever with a train; The necessity of nature admits little difference, especially for quantities; the necessity of estate requires as many diversities, as there are several degrees of human conditions, and several circumstances in those degrees. justly therefore do the Schoolmen and Casuists teach, that this necessary to the decency of estate doth not confist in puncto individuo, but hath much latitude; That is necessary to scarlet, which to russet were superfluous; that is but necessary to a Nobleman, which to an Esquire were superfluous; That were superfluous to a Pere, which to a Prince is but necessary: That is necessary to the father of a family, which to a single man were superfluous: Neither doth this necessity look only to the present, but to the future; not to what may be (which were an endless prospect) but to what must be, the marriage of a daughter, the education of a son, the honest provision for posterity: He that in a just estimate can go beyond the bounds of this necessary, enters into the superfluous estate, and may well pass with the world for rich.  
Such a one is rich; let him look how he became so: That God which can allow you to be rich, will not allow you always to your wealth: He hath set up a golden goal, to which he allows you all to run, but ye must keep the beaten road of honesty, justice, charity, and truth; if ye will leave this path, and will be crossing over a shorter cut through by-ways of your own, ye may be rich with a vengeance. The heathen Poet (one of them whom S. Paul cited) could observe (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) which Solomon translates to us Prou. 28. 20. 
Menander.  He that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent. If you have filled your bags with fraud, usury, extortion, this gain may be honey in your mouth, but it will be gravel in your throat, and poison in your soul: There are some means of wealth in an ill name, as those two trusty servants of Mammon, use and brocage; there are others as bad as they, little said to: Since I speak to Citizens, let me be bold to say, there is not so errand usury in letting of money, as in sale of wares. This oppression is both more, & more universal. There are two maxims that do usually mislead men of Traffic, all the world over; The one i, Res valet quanti vendi potest, A thing is worth what it may be sold for; The other, Caveat emptor, At the buyers peril: The one is in regard of the price, the other in regard of the quality of the wares. In the first, whereas our Casuists have set three prices, low, mean, rigorous, they super add a fourth, excessive; and think they may lawfully get what they can: Whereas they shall once find, that as the rigorous price is a strain of charity, so the excessive is a violation of justice; neither doth this gain differ aught from theft, but that it is honested by a fair cozenage. In the second; It matters not how defective the measure be, how vicious the substance, how false the kind, let this be the buyers care; No man is bound to buy, no man can do wrong to himself; Such wares must be put off, (perhaps not to customers) with concealment of faults, if not with protestations of faultlesnes. In Salomon's time, It is nought, it is nought said the buyer, & when he was gone apart, he boasted; But now, It is good, it is good, saith the seller, and when the buyer is gone, he boasteth of his deceit. Let me appeal to your bosoms, if these two, Excess of price, and Deficiency of worth have not been the most serviceable factors to bring in some of your wealth; And let me tell you, if these be guilty of your gains, you may mis-name your trades, Mysteries, but sure these tricks are mysteries of iniquity. It were envious and infinite to arraign the several sciences of their adulteration and fraud; let me rather shut them all up together in that fearful sentence of wise Solomon, 
Pro. 21. 6,  Vhe gathering of treasures by a deceitful tongue, is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death: and (if ye please) read on in the next verse, 
7.  The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them. Search your chests, search your hearts (o all ye that hear me this day) and if any of you find any of this adulterine gold amongst your heaps, away with it, as ye love yourselves, away with it; Else know that (as Chrysostome wittily) ye have locked up a thief in your countinghouse, which will carry away all, and if ye look not to it the sooner, your souls with it.  
Rich, In this world, 
I● this world.  not Of it. As S. john distinguisheth of being in the Church, and being of it, so doth S. Paul of the world; Those are the rich of the world which are worldlings in heart, as well as in estate; Those are rich in the world, whose estate is below, whose hearts are above: The rich of the world are in it, but the rich in the world are not of it: Marvel not there should be so much difference in little particles; The time was when this very difference of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, set the the whole world together by the ears in the controversy of Eutyches, and Dioscorus; and here, you see there is no less distance between them, then betwixt heaven and earth: If Timothy, or S. Paul either, should have charged the rich of the world he had charmed a deaf adder; Yea perhaps even with this charge (like a rusty or ill-wrought piece) they had recoiled in his face with those Athenians, What will this babbler say? The Prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, as they say in the Prophet: There is no good to be done on a worldly heart; it is both hard and cold; Let the Smith strike a bar newcome out of the fire (though it be iron) it bows, let him strike on his anvil never so long, there is no impression, but rather a rebound of the stroke: The maker of all hearts tells us, that the unregenerate man hath Cor lapideum, an heart of stone, and to what purpose do we with our venerable Countryman preach to an heap of stones? Will ye have the reason why we preach ourselves hoarse and dead, and prevail not? The world is in men's ears, the world is in their hearts; and they are not in the world, but of it; and there can be nothing in them that are of the world, but that which is enmity to God; and that which God repays with enmity, so as there is no way for them but perishing with the world: It is for those only whose hearts are not in their bags, to receive the charge from God for their wealth, and to return glory to him by it: To these (whereof I hope here are many before me) must Timothy's charge, and my speech be directed: Let these hear their condition first, and then their duty: Their condition, They are rich, but In this world; For distinction, for limitation; one implies the estate of their riches, the other the time.  
Their estate, as learned Beza, that they are but worldly riches. The very word imports that there are other riches, not of the world; as Austen distinguishes of Pauper in animo, and in sacculo; poor in mind, and in purse; so may we of the rich: There is a spiritual wealth, as well as a secular; and so true and precious is the spiritual, that the secular wealth is but stark beggary to it; This outward wealth is in acres of earth, in the bowels of the earth, the fruits of the earth, beasts of the earth; and all of it is valued by pieces of earth, and one mouthful of earth makes an end of all; Who knows not that Earth is the basest piece of the world, and yet earth is at the end of all these riches, and all of them end in the earth: See what it is that the world dotes and dreams of (for these earthly hopes, as the divine Philosopher said, are but dreams of the waking) even Nebuchadnezzars image, a composition of metals, and the foot of all is clay. Earthly men tread upon their felicity, and yet have not the wit to contemn it and to seek a better, which is the spiritual wealth; the cabinet whereof is the soul, and the treasure in it, God himself. Oh happy resolution of that blessed Father, 
Austen.  Omnis mihi copia, quae Deus meus non est, egestas est, All wealth besides my God, is penury. Ambiant terrena, saith another, Let the Gentiles seek after earthly things which have no right to heavenly, let them desire the present, which believe not the future; The Christians wealth is his Saviour, and how can he complain of measure that hath the author of all? What should I need to say more of the Christian heart, He is rich in God; and therefore well may he sing that contented ditty of the Psalmist, Funes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris, My lot is fallen in a good ground, and I have a goodly heritage: Oh that it could be our ambition that Nazianzen reports of his Philagrius, lutum contemnere, to scorn this base and (pardon an homely word) dirty God of the world, and to aspire unto the true riches; and when Satan shall offer to grease us in the fist to remit but a little of the rigour of a good conscience, we could cast it in his face with S. Peter's indignation, Thy gold and thy silver perish with thee.  
The estate of wealth is not more described by this world, than the time; For (
a world.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) when it is absolutely spoken, be, as the Philosopher (
b ever-being  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) yet when it is restrained with a (
c Now.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) it is scarce a time; and at the most, is turned justly seculum à sequendo, as Isidore. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Like as the same word in the Hebrew that signifies eternity, at other times signifies but fifty years, the compass of a jubilee; So as (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) is but the space of human life, which how short soever, is the utmost extent of the use of worldly riches. Wealth is like unto words, by imposition, not natural; for commodities are as they are commonly valued; we know bracelets of glass, and copper chains, and little bells, and such like trifles are good merchandise somewhere, though contemptible with us; and those things which the Indians regard not, Europe holds precious: What are coins where their use and valuation ceases? The Patars, and Souses, and Deniers, and Quart-d'escus that are currant beyond the water, serve but for counters to us: Thus it is with all our wealth: Consider I beseech you that all our Crowns, and Soveraynes, and Pieces, and halfe-peeces, and Ducats, and double Ducats are currant but to the brim of the grave, there they cease; and we justly laugh at the folly of those Eastern pagans, which put coin into the dead man's hand for his provision in another world: What should we do therefore, if we will be provident travelers, but make over our money here, to receive it by exchange in the world to come; It is our saviours counsel, Make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon, that they may receive you into everlasting habitations: And as a Father says sweetly, If ye will be wise merchants, thrifty and happy usurers, part with that which ye cannot keep, that you may gain that which ye cannot lose; Which that ye may do, both in preparation of mind, and (when need is) in a charitable abdication, hearken to the Duties which GOD lays upon you. The removal of evil must make room for good; First therefore our Apostle would have our hearts cleared of evil dispositions, then settled in good: The evil dispositions that do commonly attend wealth, are Pride and Misconfidence: Against these our Apostle bendeth his charge; That they be not hye-minded; That they trust not in uncertain riches.  
For the first; 
That they be not eye-minded.  It is strange to see how this earthly dross, which is of itself heavy, and therefore naturally sinks downward, should raise up the heart of man; and yet it commonly carries a man up, even to a double pitch of Pride, one above others, the other above himself, Above others in contempt, above himself in overweening; The poor and proud is the Wiseman's monster, but the proud and rich are no news: It is against all reason that metals should make difference of reasonable men, of Christians; for as that wise Lawgiver said, 
Theodericus refer. Cassiodore.  A free man can be valued at no price; Yet Solomon noted in his time, The rich rules the poor; not the wise; and Siracides in his, The rich speaks proudly, and what fellow is this? and S. james in his, The man with the gold ring looks to sit highest. And not to cast back our eyes, Do ye not see it thus in our times? If a man be but worth a foot-cloth, how big he looks on the inferior passengers? and if he have purchased a little more land, or title than his neighbours, you shall see it in his garb; If he command, it is imperiously, with sirrah, and fellow; If he salute, it is overly, with a surly and silent nod; if he speak, it is oracles; if he walk, it is with a grace; if he control, it is in the kill accent; if he entertain, it is with insolence, and whatsoever he doth, he is not as he was, nor, as the Pharisee says, like other men. He looks upon vulgar men, as if they were made to serve him, and should think themselves happy to be commanded; and if he be crossed a little, he swells like the sea in a storm; Let it be by his equal, he cares more for an affront, then for death, or hell; Let it by his inferior, (although in a just cause) that man shall be sure to be crushed to death for his presumption: And alas when all is done, after these high terms, all this is but a man, and (God knows) a foolish one too, whom a little earthly trash can affect so deeply.  
Neither doth this pride raise a man more above others, then above himself; And what wonder is it if he will not know his poor neighbours, which hath forgotten himself? As Saul was changed to another man presently upon his anointing, so are men upon their advancement; and according to our ordinary proverb, Their good and their blood rises together; Now it may not be taken as it hath been; Other carriage, other fashions are fit for them; Their attire, fare, retinue, houses, furniture displease them, new must be had; together with coaches, and lackeys, and all the equipage of greatness: These things (that no man mistake me) I mislike not; they are fit for those that are fit for them. Charity is not straitlaced, but yields much latitude to the lawful use of indifferent things; (although it is one of Salomon's vanities that servants should ride on horseback, and he tells us it becomes not a swine to be ringed with gold) but it is the heart that makes all these evil; when that is puffed up with these windy vanities, and hath learned to borrow that part of the devils speech, All these things are mine; and can say with him that was turned into a beast, Is not this great Babel that I have built, or with that other pattern of pride, I sit as a Queen, I am, and there is none beside me, now all these turn into sin.  
The bush that hangs out, shows what we may look for within; Whither doth the conceit of a little inheritance transport the Gallants of our time? O God, what a world of vanity hast thou reserved us to? I am ashamed to think that the Gospel of Christ should be disgraced with such disguised clients. Are they Christians, or Antics in some Carnevale, or children's puppets that are thus dressed? Pardon, I beseech you, men, brethren, and fathers, this my just and holy impatience, that could never express itself in a more solemn assembly (although I perceive those whom it most concerns, are not so devout as to be present). Who can without indignation look upon the prodigies, which this mis-imagination produces in that other sex, to the shame of their husbands, the scorn of religion, the damnation of their own souls. Imagine one of our forefathers were alive again, and should see one of these his gay daughters walk in Cheapside before him; what do you think he would think it were? Here is nothing to be seen but a verdingale, a yellow ruff, and a periwig, with perhaps some feather waving in the top; three things for which he could not tell how to find a name: Sure, he could not but stand amazed to think what new creature the times had yielded since he was a man: And if then he should run before her, to see if by the fore-side he might guess what it were, when his eyes should meet with a powdered firzle, a painted hide shadowed with a fan not more painted, breasts displayed, and a loose lock erring wanton over her shoulders, betwixt a painted cloth, and skin, how would he yet more bless himself to think, what mixture in nature could be guilty of such a monster. Is this (thinks he) the flesh and blood, is this the hair, is this the shape of a woman? or hath nature repent of her work since my days, and begun a new frame? It is no marvel if their forefathers could not know them; God himself that made them, will never acknowledge that face he never made, the hair that he never made theirs, the body that is ashamed of the maker, the soul that thus disguises the body; Let me therefore say to these Dames, as Benet said to totila's servant, Depone filia quod portas, quia non est tuum; Lay down that ye wear, it is none of your own: Let me persuade them (for that can work most) that they do all this in their own wrong: All the world knows that no man will rough cast a marble wall, but mud, or unpolished rag: That beauty is like truth, never so glorious, as when it goes plainest; that false art in stead of mending nature, mars it: But if none of our persuasions can prevail; Hear this ye garish popinjays of our time, if you will not be ashamed to clothe yourselves in this shameless fashion, God shall clothe you with shame and confusion: Hear this, ye plaister-faced Iezebels, if you will not leave your daubing and your high washeses, God shall one day wash them off with fire and brimstone.  
I grant, it is not wealth alone that is accessary to this pride; there are some that (with the Cynic, or that worse dog, the patched Cistertian) are proud of rags; there are others, that are rich of nothing but clothes, somewhat like to Nazianzens' country of Ozizala, that abounded in flowers, but was barren of corn; Their clothes are more worth than all the rest; as we use to say of the Elder, that the flower of it, is more worth than all the tree beside; but if there be any other causes of our hye-mindednesse, wealth is one, which doth ordinarily lift up our heads, above ourselves, above others; and if there be here any of these empty bladders, that are puffed up with the wind of conceit, give me leave to prick them a little; and first, let me tell them they may have much, and be never the better; The chimnye overlookes all the rest of the house, is it not (for all that) the very basest piece of the building? The very heathen man could observe (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc.) 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. Arist.  That God gives many a man wealth for their greater mischief; As the Israelites were rich in Quails, but their sauce was such, that famine had been better; little cause had they to be proud that they were fed with meat of Princes, with the bread of Angels, whiles that which they put into their mouths, God fetched out of their nostrils. Haman was proud that he alone was called to the honour of ester's feast, this advancement raised him fifty cubits higher, to a stately gibbet; If your wealth be to any of you an occasion of falling, if your gold be turned into fetters, it had been better for you to have lived beggars. Let me tell them next, of the folly of this Pride; They are proud of that which is none of theirs. That which law, and case-divinitie speaks of life, that man is not dominus vitae suae sed custos, 
Sene●.  is as true of wealth: Nature can tell him in the Philosopher, that he is not Dominus but Colonus, not the Lord but the farmer: It is a just observation of Philo, that God only by a propriety is styled the possessor of heaven and earth, by Melchisedech, in his speech to Abraham; 
Gen. 14.  We are only the Tenants, and that at the will of the Lord; At the most (if we will as Divines) we have ius ad rem, not dominium in rem, right to these earthly things, not lordship over them; but right of favour from their proprietary, and Lord in heaven, and that liable to an account: Do we not laugh at the groom that is proud of his Master's horse, or some vain whiffler, that is proud of a borrowed chain? So ridiculous are we to be puffed up with that, whereof we must needs say, with the poor man, of the hatchet, Alas master it is but borrowed; and whereof our account shall be so much more great, and difficult, as our receipt is more; Hath God therefore laded you with these earthly riches, be ye like unto the full ear of corn, hang down your heads in true humility towards that earth from which you came: And if your stalk be so stiff, that it bears up above the rest of your ridge, look up to heaven, not in the thoughts of pride, but in the humble vows of thankfulness, and be not hye-minded, but fear.  
Hitherto of the hye-mindednesse that follows wealth; 
And that they trust not  Now where our pride is, there will be our confidence; As the wealthy therefore may not be proud of their riches, so they may not trust in them; What is this trust, but the setting of our hearts upon them, the placing of our joy and contentment in them; in a word, the making of them our best friend, our patron, our idol, our God? This the true and jealous God cannot abide, and yet nothing is more ordinary; The rich man's wealth is his strong City, saith Solomon, and where should a man think himself safe but in his fort? He sees Mammon can do so much, and hears him talk of doing so much more, it is no marvel if he yield to trust him, Mammon is so proud a boaster, that his clients which believe in him, cannot choose but be confident of him; For what doth he not brag to do? Silver answers to all, saith Solomon; That we grant; although we would be loath it could answer to Truth, to justice, to judgement: But yet more, he vaunts to procure all, to pacify all, to conquer all; He says he can procure all, secular offices, titles, dignities; yea (I would I might not say in some sacrilegious and perjured wretches) the sacred promotions of the Church; and ye know that old song of the Pope, and his Roman traffic, 
Keys, Altars, Christ.  Claves, Altaria, Christum: Yea foolish Magus makes full account the Holy Ghost himself may be had for money: He says he can pacify all; A gift in the bosom appeaseth wrath; yea he says (look to it ye that sit in the seats of judicature) he can sometimes bribe off sins, and pervert judgement: He says he can overcome all, according to the old Greek verse, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. etc.  Fight with silver lances, and you cannot fail of victory; yea he would make us believe he thought this a bait to catch the son of God himself withal (All these will I give thee), briefly he says according to the French proverb, Silver does all; And let me tell you indeed, what Mammon can do; He can bar the gates of heaven, he can open the gates of hell to the unconscionable soul, and help his followers to damnation: This he can do; but for other things, howsoever with us men, the foolish Silversmiths may shout out, Great is Mammon of the worldlings, yet if we weigh his power aright, we shall conclude of Mammon (as Paracelsus doth of the Devil) that he is a base and beggarly spirit: For what I beseech you, can he do? Can he make a man honest? can he make him wise? can he make him healthful? Can he give a man to live more merrily, to feed more heartily, to sleep more quietly? Can he buy off the gout, cares, death, much less the pains of another world? nay, doth he not bring all these? Go to then, thou rich man; God is offended with thee, and means to plague thee with disease and death; Now try what thy bags can do; Begin first with God, & see whether thou canst bribe him with thy gifts, and buy off his displeasure; Wherewith shalt thou come before the Lord and bow thyself before the high God? 
Micha 6.  will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts, Haggai 2. If that speed not, go to the sergeant of God, death; see if thou canst fee him, not to arrest thee; He looks thee sternly in the face, and tells thee with Ehud he hath a message to thee from God; and bids thee with the Prophet set thine house in order, for thou must die; Yet, if he hear thee not, go to the under-bayliffe of Death, disease, see if he can be wrought to forbear thee; he answers thee with Laban, This thing is proceeded of the Lord I cannot therefore say to thee evil or good. In sum, Disease will summon thee unto death; Death will arrest thee to the judgement seat of God, God will pass his doom upon thee, and in all these Riches avail not in the day of wrath: And who would be so mad as to trust a friend that he knows will be sure never to fail him, but when he hath most need? Take heed therefore, as ye love your souls, how ye bestow your Trust upon riches; Ye may use them, and serve yourselves of them; yea ye may enjoy them in a Christian moderation; God will allow it you: That praise which the Jesuits College at Granado gives of their Sanchez, 
Collegium Granatense Praef. ad lectorem con●●●. vitam R. P. Tho. Sanchez. prae●●●. Operi Morali in praecepta Decal.  that (though he lived where they had a very sweet garden) yet he was never seen to touch a flower, and that he would rather die then eat salt, or pepper, or aught that might give relish to his meat; like as that of some other Monks, that they would not see the sun, nor shift their clothes, nor cleanse their teeth, carries in it more superstition and austerity and slovenry, than wit or grace: Wherefore hath God made his creatures but for use? This niggardliness is injurious to the bounty of their maker; we may use them, we may not trust to them; we may serve ourselves of them, we may not serve them; we may enjoy them, we may not over-ioy in them; So must we be affected to our goods, 
C. Sol. Apollin. Sidon. Epist. de Theoder.  as Theoderic the good King of Aquitaine, was with his play, In bonis iactibus tacet, in malis ridet, in neutris irascitur, in utrisque philosophatur; In good casts he was silent, in ill, merry; in neither angry, a philosopher in both. But if we will be making our wealth a rival unto God, now the jealousy of God shall burn like fire; this is the way to bring a curse upon our riches, and us; If we lean upon this reed, it shall break, and run into our hand; and he that trusteth in riches shall fall. Prou. 11. 28.  
Now as the disdainful rival will be sure to cast reproaches upon his base competitor; 
In uncertain riches.  so doth God, that we may see how unworthy riches are of our trust, he tells us they are uncertain, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  yea uncertainty itself. Were our wealth tied to our life, it were uncertain enough; what is that but a flower, a vapour, a tale, a dream, a shadow, a dream of a shadow, a thought, as nothing? What are great men but like hailstones, that leap up on the Tiles, & strait fall down again, & lie still, & melt away? But now, as we are certain that our riches determine with our uncertain life (for goods and life are both in a bottom, both are cast away at once;) so we cannot be certain they will hold so long; Our life flies hastily away, but many times our riches have longer wings, and out-fly it; It was a witty observation of Basil that wealth rolls along by a man, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. etc. Basil. in Ps. 61.  like as an heady stream glides by the banks; Time will molder away the very bank it washeth, but the current stays not for that, but speeds forward from one elbow of earth unto another; so doth our wealth even while we stay, it is gone gone In our penal laws, there are more ways to forfeit our goods, than our lives; On our high ways, how many favourable thieves take the purse, and save the life? And generally, our life is the tree, our wealth is the leaves, or fruit; the tree stands still when the leaves are fallen, the fruit beaten down; Yea many a one is like the Pine-tree, which (they say) if his bark be pulled off lasts long, else it rots; so doth many a man live the longer for his losses; If therefore life and wealth strive whether is more uncertain, wealth will sure carry it away. job was yesterday the richest man in the East; to day he is so needy that he is gone into a proverb, As poor as job: Belisarius the great and famous Commander, to whom Rome owed her life twice at least, came to Date obolum Belisario; one halfpenny to Belisarius. What do I instance? This is a point wherein many of you Citizens, that are my auditors this day, might rather read a lecture unto me; You could tell me how many you have known, reputed in your phrase, goodmen, which all on the sudden have shut up the shop windows, & broken for thousands; You could reckon up to me a catalogue of them, whom either casualty of fire, or inundation of waters, or robbery of thieves, or negligence of servants, or suretyship for friends, or oversight of reckonings, or trusting of customers, or unfaithfulness of Factors, or inexpected falls of markets, or piracy by sea, or unskilfulness of a pilot, or violence of tempests have brought to an hasty poverty; and could tell me that it is in the power of one gale of wind to make many of you either rich Merchants, or beggars: Oh miserable uncertainty of this earthly pelf, that stands upon so many hazards, yea that falls under them! who would trust it? who can dote upon it? what madness is it in those men, which (as Menot says) like unto hunters, that kill an horse of price, in the pursuit of an hare worth nothing, endanger yea cast away their souls upon this worthless and fickle trash. Glasses are pleasing vessels, yet because of their brittleness, who esteems them precious? All Salomon's state was not comparable to one Tulip, his royal crown was not like the Crown Imperial of our Gardens; and yet because these are but flowers, whose destiny is fading and burning, we regard them thereafter; No wise man bestows much cost in painting mud-walls. What mean we (my beloved) to spend our lives and hearts upon these perishing treasures? It was a wise meditation of Nazianzen to his Asterius; that good is to no purpose if it continue not; yea there is no pleasant thing in the world, saith he, that hath so much joy in the welcome, as it hath sorrow in the farewell: Look therefore upon these heaps, o ye wisehearted Citizens, with careless eyes, as those things whose parting is certain, whose stay is uncertain; and say with that worthy father, By all my wealth, and glory, and greatness this alone have I gained, that I had something to which I might prefer my Saviour. And know that as Abraham whiles he was in his own country (it is Cyril's note) had never God appearing to him, save only to bid him go forth, but after, when he was gone forth, had frequent visions of his maker; So whiles in our affections we remain here below in our coffers, we cannot have the comfortable assurances of the presence of God; but if we can abandon the love and trust of these earthly things, in the conscience of our obedience, now God shall appear to us, and speak peace to our souls; and never shall we find cause to repent us of the change. Let me therefore conclude this point with that divine charge of our Saviour, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and thieves break thorough and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven.  
Thus much of the negative part of our charge; Wherein we have dwelled so long, that we may scarce sojourn in the other. Trust not, 
But (trust) in God.  but Trust; The heart of man is so conscious of his own weakness, that it will not go without a prop; and better a weak stay than none at all; Like as in matter of policy, the very state of Tyranny is preferred to the want of a King; The same breath therefore that withdraws one refuge from us, substitutes a better; and in steed of Riches, which is the false God of the world, commends to us the True and living God of heaven and earth; Even as some good Carpenter raises up the studs, and in steed of a rotten groundsel lays a sound; The same trust than must we give to God, which which we may not give to Riches; The object only is changed, the act is not changed. Him must we esteem above all things, to him must we look up in all, on him must we depend for all both protection, and provision; from his goodness and mercy must we acknowledge all, and in him must we delight with contempt of all; and this is to Trust in God. It was a sweet ditty of the Psalmist, which we must all learn to sing, Bonum est consider in Domino, It is good to trust in the Lord: Good, in respect of him, and good for us. For him, It is one of the best pieces of his glory, to be Trusted to: as, with us, joseph holds Potiphar cannot do him a greater honour, then in Trusting him with all; And his glory is so precious, that he cannot part with that to any creature; All other things he imparts willingly, and reserves nothing to himself but this: Being, life, knowledge, happiness are such blessings, as are eminently, originally, essentially in God, and yet, Being, he gives to all things, Life to many, Knowledge to some kinds of creatures, happiness to some of those kinds, as for Riches, he so gives them to his creature, ●hat he keeps them not at all to himself; But as for his glory (whereof our trust is a part) he will not endure it communicated to Angel, or man; not to the best guest in heaven, much less to the dross of the earth; Whence is that curse not without an indignation, Cursed be the man trusts in man; that maketh flesh his arm, yea or spirit either, besides the God of spirits; Whom have I in heaven but thee? Herein therefore we do justice to God, when we give him his own, that is, his glory, our confidence.  
But the greatest good is our own; and God shows much more mercy to us in allowing and enabling us to trust him, than we can do justice in trusting him; For alas he could in his just judgement glorify himself in our not Trusting him, in taking vengeance of us for not glorifying him: Our goodness reaches not to him; but his goodness reaches down to us in that our hearts are raised up to confidence in him. For, what safety, what unspeakable comfort is there in Trusting to God? When our Saviour in the last words of his divine-farewell-sermon to his Disciples would persuade them to confidence, he says (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉): 
Joh. 16. ult.  and so doth the Angel to Paul in prison; a word that signifies Boldness; implying that our confidence in God causeth Boldness and courage; And what is there in all the world that can work the heart to so comfortable and unconquerable resolution as our reposal upon God? The Lord is my trust, whom then can I fear? In the Lord put I my trust, how say ye then to my soul, flee hence as a bird to the hills? Yea how oft doth David infer upon this Trust, a non confundar, I shall not be ashamed; And this case is general, That they that put their trust in the Lord are as mount Zion that cannot be moved; Faith can remove mountains, but the mountains that are raised on faith, are unremovable. Here is a stay for you (o ye wealthy and great) worthy of your trust; If ye were Monarches on earth, or Angels in heaven, ye could be no way safe but in this trust; How easy is it for him to enrich, or impoverish you, to hoist you up to the seats of honour, or to spurn you down? What mines, what Princes can raise you up to wealth, against him, without him? He can bid the winds and seas favour your vessels, he can bid them sink in a calm. 
Prou. 22.  The rich and the poor meet together, God is the maker of both; Ye may trade, and toil, and cark, and spare, and put up, and cast about, and at last sit you down with a sigh of late repentance and say, Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; It is in vain to rise early, and lie down late, and eat the bread of sorrow. Unto how many of you may I say with the prophet Haggai, Ye have sown much, and bring in little; Ye eat and have not enough, ye drink, but ye are not filled, ye clothe you, but ye be not warm; and he that earneth much, puts his gains into a broken bag. And whence is all this? Ye looked for much, and lo it came to little; when ye brought it home I did blow upon it, saith the Lord of hosts. Behold how easy a thing it is for the God of heaven to blast all your substance; yea not only to diminish, but to curse it unto you, and to make you weary of it, and of yourselves. Oh cast yourselves therefore into those Almighty hands, seek him in whom only you shall find true rest and happiness; Honour him with your substance, that hath honoured you with it; Trust not in riches, but trust in God.  
It is motive enough to your Trust, that he is a God; all arguments are enfolded in that one; yet this text gives you certain explicit enforcements of this confidence; Every one of these reasons (implying a secret kind of disdainful comparison betwixt the true God and the false) persuade you to trust in God; Riches are but for this world, the true God is Lord of the other, and begins his glory where the glory of the world ends: therefore Trust in him. Riches are uncertain, the true GOD is Amen, the first and the last; ever like himself, therefore trust in him. Riches are but a lifeless and senseless metal, the true God is a living God, therefore trust in him. Riches are but passives in gift, they cannot bestow so much as themselves, much less ought besides themselves, the true God gives you all things to enjoy, therefore Trust in him; the two latter, because they are more directly stood upon, and now fall into our way, require a further discourse.  
(El-chai) The living God, 
The living.  is an ancient and usual title to the Almighty; especially when he would disgrace an unworthy rival. As S. Paul in his speech to the Lystrians, opposes to their vain Idols, the living God. Vivo ego, As I live, is the oath of God for this purpose, as Hierom noteth, neither do I remember any thing besides his holiness, and his life that he swears by: When Moses asked God's name, he described himself by, I AM; He is, he lives; and nothing is, nothing lives absolutely, but he; all other things by participation from him. In all other things, their life and they are two; but God is his own life, and the life of God is no other than the living God: And because he is his own life, he is eternal; for (as Thomas argues truly against the Gentiles) Nothing ceases to be but by a separation of life, and nothing can be separated from itself; for every separation is a division of one thing from another; Most justly therefore is he which is absolute, simple, eternal in his being, called the living God: Although, not only the life that he hath in himself, but the life that he gives to his creatures challengeth a part in this title; A glimpse whereof perhaps the Heathen saw, when they called their jupiter, (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) from (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) which signifies to live: In him we live (saith S. Paul to his Athenians). As light is from the Sun, so is life from God, (which is the true soul of the world, and more; for without him it could not be so much as a carcase; and spreads itself into all the animate creatures. Life (we say) is sweet; and so it is indeed; the most excellent and precious thing that is derived from the common influence of God. There is nothing before life, but Being; and Being makes no distinction of things; for that can be nothing, that hath no Being; Life makes the first and greatest division; Those creatures therefore, which have life, we esteem far beyond those, that have it not, how noble soever otherwise; Those things therefore which have the perfectest life must needs be the best; Needs than must it follow that he which is life itself, who is absolute, simple, eternal, the fountain of all that life which is in the world, is most worthy of all the adoration, joy, love, and confidence of our hearts, and of the best improvement of that life which he hath given us. Trust therefore in the living God. Covetousness (the spirit of God tells us) is Idolatry, or (as our old Translation turns it) worshipping of Images. Every stamp or impression in his coin is to the covetous man a very Idol; And what madness is there in this Idolatry, to dote upon a base creature, and to bestow that life which we have from God, upon a creature that hath no life in itself, and no price but from men: Let me then persuade every soul that hears me this day, as jacob did his household, Put away the strange Gods that are among you, 
Gen. 35. ●.  & be clean; and as S. Paul did his Lystrians; Oh turn away from these vanities unto the living God.  
The last attractive of our Trust to God is his mercy, 
Who gives us richly all things to enjoy.  and liberality; Who gives us richly all things to enjoy: A theme, wherein ye will grant it easy to lose ourselves. First God not only hath all in himself, but he gives to us, He gives, not somewhat (though a crust is more than we are worthy of) but all things. And not a little of all, but richly; and all this, not to look on, but to enjoy; Every word would require not a several hour, but a life to meditate of it; and the tongue not of men, but Angels to express it. It is here with us, as in a throng; we can get neither in nor out; But as we use to say of Cares, so it shall be with our discourse, that the greatness of it shall procure silence; and the more we may say of this head, the less we will say: It shall content us only to top these sheaves, since we cannot stand to thrash them out.  
Whither can ye turn your eyes to look beside the bounty of God? If ye look upward; His mercy reacheth to the heavens. If downward; The earth is full of his goodness, and so is the broad sea. If ye look about you; What is it that he hath not given us? Air to breath in, fire to warm us, water to cool us, clothes to cover us, food to nourish us, fruits to refresh us, yea delicates to please us; beasts to serve us, Angels to attend us, heaven to receive us, and which is above all, his own Son to redeem us. Lastly, if ye look into yourselves; Hath he not given us a soul to inform us, senses to inform our soul, faculties to furnish that soul. Understanding, the great survayer of the secrets of nature, and grace; Fantasy and Invention the master of the works; Memory the great keeper or Master of the rolls of the soul, a power that can make amends for the speed of Time, in causing him to leave behind him those things, which else he would so carry away, as if they had not been: Will, which is the Lord Paramount in the state of the soul, the commander of our actions; the elector of our resolutions. judgement, which is the great Counsellor of the will: Affections, which are the servants of them both. A body fit to execute the charge of the soul, so wondrously disposed, as that every part hath best opportunity to his own functions; so qualified with health arising from proportion of humours that like a watch kept in good tune it goes right, and is fit to serve the soul, & maintain itself. An estate that yields all due conveniences for both soul, and body; seasonable times, rain, & sunshine; Peace in our borders; competency, if not plenty of all commodities, good laws, religious, wise, just governors, happy and flourishing days, and above all the liberty of the Gospel. Cast up your books, o ye Citizens, & sum up your receipts, I am deceied if he that hath lest shall not confess his obligations infinite. There are three things especially wherein ye are beyond others, and must acknowledge yourselves deeper in the books of God, than the rest of the world; Let the first be the clear deliverance from that woeful judgement of the Pestilence. Oh remember those sorrowful times, 
Above 30000 in one year.  when every month swept away thousands from among you; When a man could not set forth his foot but into the jaws of death; when piles of carcases were carried to their pits as dung to the fields; when it was cruelty in the sick to admit visitation, and love was little better than murderous; And by how much more sad and horrible the face of those evil times looked, so much greater proclaim you the mercy of God, in this happy freedom which you now enjoy; that you now throng together into God's house without fear, and breath in one another's face without danger: The second is the wonderful plenty of all provisions both spiritual and bodily; You are the Sea, all the rivers of the land run into you; Of the land? yea of the whole world, Sea and land conspire to enrich you. The third is the privilege of careful government; Your charters as they are large and strong, wherein the favour of Princes hath made exceptions from the general rules of their municipal laws, so your form of administration is excellent, and the execution of justice exemplary, and such as might become the mother City of the whole earth. For all these you have reason to ask, Quid retribuam with David; What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits? and to excite one another unto thankfulness with that sweet singer of Israel, Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness: and (as beneficence is a binder) these favours of God call for your confidence: What should you do but ever trust that God, whom you have found so gracious? Let him be your God, be ye his people for ever; and let him make this free and open challenge to you all; If there be any power in heaven, or in earth that can do more for you then he hath done let him have your hearts and yourselves.  
And thus from that duty we owe to God in our confidence, and his beneficence to us, we descend to that beneficence which we owe to men; expressed in the variety of four Epithets, Doing good, 
That they do good, and be rich in good works.  being rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; all to one sense; all is but beneficence: The scriptures of God lest any Atheist should quarrel at this waste, have not one word superfluous; Here is a redoubling of the same words without fault of Tautology; a redoubling of the same sense in divers words, without idleness. There is fervour in these repetitions, not looseness; as it was wont for this cause to be observed both in Counsels, and acclamations to Princes, how oft the same word was reiterated, that by the frequency they might judge of the vehemence of affection. It were easy to instance in many of this kind, as especially Exod. 25. 35. Psal. 89. 30. joh. 1. 20. and so many more, as that their mention could not be void of that superfluity which we disclaim. This heap of words therefore shows the vehement intention of his desire of good works, and the important necessity of their performance; and the manner of this expression enforces no less, Charge the rich, that they do good, and be rich in doing good. hearken than ye rich men of the world; it is not left arbitrary to you, that you may do good if you will, but it is laid upon you as your charge and duty; You must do good works, and woe be to you if you do not. This is not a counsel, but a precept; Although I might say of God, as we use to say of Princes, his will is his command; The same necessity that there is of Trusting in God, the same is in Doing good to men. Let me sling this stone into the brazen foreheads of our adversaries, which in their shameless challenges of our religion dare tell the world, we are all for faith, nothing for works; and that we hold works to salvation as a parenthesis to a clause, that it may be perfect without them: Heaven and earth shall witness the injustice of this calumniation; and your consciences shall be our compurgators this day, which shall testify to you, both now, and on your deathbeds, that we have taught you there is no less necessity of good works, then if you should be saved by them; and that though you cannot be saved by them, as the meritorious causes of your glory, yet that you cannot be saved without them, as the necessary effects of that grace which brings glory.  
It is an hard sentence of some Casuists (concerning their fellows) that but a few rich men's Confessors shall be saved; I imagine, for that they daub up their consciences with untempered mortar, and soothe them up in their sins; Let this be the care of them whom it concerneth; For us, we desire to be faithful to God, and you; and tell you roundly what you must trust to; Do good therefore ye rich, if ever ye look to receive good; if ever ye look to be rich in heaven, be rich in good works upon earth: It is a shame to hear of a rich man that dies, and makes his will of thousands, and bequeathes nothing to pious and charitable uses: God and the poor are no part of his heir; We do not hover over your expiring souls on your deathbeds, as Ravens over a carcase; we do not beg for a Covent, nor fright you with Purgatory, nor chaffer with you, for that invisible treasure of the Church whereof there is but one Key-keeper at Rome; but we tell you that the making of friends with this Mammon of unrighteousness is the way to eternal habitations: They say of Cyrus that he want to say he laid up treasures for himself, whiles he made his friends rich; but we say to you, that you lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven, whiles you make the poor your friends upon earth: We tell you there must be a Date, ere there can be a Dabitur; that he which gives to the poor, lends upon use to the Lord; which pays large increase for all he borrows; and how shall he give you the interest of glory, where he hath not received the principal of beneficence? How can that man ever look to be God's heir in the kingdom of heaven, that gives all away to his earthly heirs, and lends nothing to the God of heaven? As that witty Grecian said of extreme tall men, that they were Cypresse-trees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. fair and tall, but fruitless, so may I say of a straithanded rich man; And these Cypresses are not for the garden of paradise; none shall ever be planted there but the fruitful: And if the first paradise had any trees in it only for pleasure, I am sure the second, 
Revel. 22. 2.  which is in the midst of the new jerusalem, shall have no tree that bears not twelve fruits, yea whose very leaves are not beneficial; Do good therefore o ye rich, and show your wealth to be, not in having, but in doing good. And if GOD have put this holy resolution into any of your hearts, take this with you also, from him; Do not talk, and purpose, and project, but execute; Do not so do good that we may thank your deathbed for it, and not you: Late beneficence is better than none, but so much as early beneficence is better than late; He that gives not till he dies, shows that he would not give, if he could keep it, and God loves a cheerful giver; That which you give thus, you give it by your Testament, I can scarce say you give it by your will: The good man's praise is, Dispersit, dedit, he disperses his goods, not, he left them behind him; and his distribution is seconded with the retribution of God, His righteousness endureth for ever, Psal. 112. 9 Our Saviour tells us that our good works are our light, Let your light so shine, that men may see your good works; which of you lets his light go behind him, and hath it not rather carried before him, that he may see which way it goes, and which way himself goes by it? Do good therefore in your life, that you may have comfort in your death, and a crown of life after death.  
Now all this have I spoken, not for that I have aught (as S. Paul says) whereof to accuse my Nation; Blessed be God, as good works have abounded in this age, so this place hath superabounded in good works. Be it spoken to the glory of that God, whose all our good works are, to the honour of the Gospel, to the conviction of that lewd slander of Solifidianisme. LONDON shall vie good works with any City upon earth; This day and your ears are abundant witnesses; As those therefore that by an handful guess at the whole sack, it may please you by this years brief to judge of the rest; Wherein I do not fear least Envy itself shall accuse us of a vainglorious ostentation; Those obstreperous benefactors that (like to hens which cannot lay an egg but they must cackle strait) give no alms but with trumpets, lose their thanks with God; Alms should be like oil, which though it swim aloft when it is fallen, yet makes no noise in the falling; not like water, that still sounds where it lights: But howsoever private beneficence should not be acquainted with both the hands of the giver, but silently expect the reward of him that seeth in secret, yet God should be a great loser, if the public fruits of charity should be smothered in a modest secrecy: To the praise therefore of that good GOD, which gives us to give, and rewards us for giving, to the example of posterity, to the honour of our profession, to the encouragement of the well-deserving, and to the shame of our malicious adversaries, hear what this year hath brought forth.  
Here followed a brief memorial of the charitable acts of the City this year last passed. etc.  
And if the season had not hindered, your eyes should have seconded your ears in the comfortable testimony of this beneficence, Euge etc. Well done good and faithful servants; Thus should your profession be graced, thus should the incense of your alms ascend in pillars of holy smoke into the nostrils of God; thus should your talents be turned into Cities: This colour is no other than celestial, and so shall your reward be; Thus should the foundation be laid of that building, whose walls reach up unto heaven, whose roof is finished and laid on, in the heaven of heavens, in that immortality of glory, which the God of all glory, peace, and comfort hath provided for all that love him; Unto the participation whereof the same God of ours mercifully bring us, through the son of his love, jesus Christ the righteous, to whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, one infinite and incomprehensible God be given all praise, honour, and glory now and forever.  
Amen.