Now God give us all Grace, that denying Ungodliness and worldly Lufts, we may live foberly, as well as righteously and godly in this prefent World: Looking for that bleffed Hope, and the glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jefus Chrift.

To him with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Praise.

SERM.

SERMON XIX.

MATT. VI. 19.

Lay not up for your felves Treasures upon Earth, where Moth and Ruft doth corrupt, and where Thieves break through and steal.

Ver. 20. But lay up for your felves Treasures in Heaven, where neither Moth nor Ruft doth corrupt, and where Thieves do not break through nor steal.

Ver. 21. For where your Treasure is, there will your Heart be allo.

Ver. 22. The Light of the Body is the Eye; if therefore thine Eye be fingle, thy whole Body fhall be full of Light.

Ver.

23. But if thine Eye be evil, thy whole Body fhall be full of Darkness; if therefore the Light that is in thee be Darkness, how great is that Darkness!

Ver. 24. No Man can ferve two Mafters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or elfe he will hold to the one, and defpife the other : Ye cannot ferve God and Mammon.

Ver. 25. Therefore I fay unto you, take no Thought for your Life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your Body, what ye shall

put on; is not the Life more than Meat, and the Body than Raiment ? Ver. 26. Behold the Fowls of the Air, for they fow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into Barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Ver. 27. Which of you by taking Thought, can add one Cubit to his Stature?

Ver. 28. And why take ye Thought for Raiment? Confider the Lillies of the Field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.

Ver. 29. And yet I fay unto you, that even Solomon in all his Glory, was not arrayed like one of thefe. Ver. 30. Wherefore if God fo cloath the Grass of the Field, which to Day is, and to Morrow is caft into the Oven; fhall be not much more cloath you? O ye of little Faith.

Ver. 31. Therefore take no Thought, faying, what Shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or wherewithall fhall we be cloathed.

Ver. 32. (For after all thefe Things do the Gentiles feek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye bave need of all thefe Things.

Ver. 33. But feek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteoufness, and all thefe Things Shall be added unto you.

Ver. 34. Take therefore no Thought for the Morrow; for the Morrow shall take Thought for the Things of itfelf: fufficient unto the Day is the Evil thereof.

O

The First Sermon on this Text.

UR bleffed Saviour goes on here in the Profecution of the fame Defign, training up his Disciples to higher Degrees of Virtue, than

had

had been taught by the Jewish Doctors. In the former Part of this Chapter, he had guarded them against the Sin of Pride and Oftentation in all religious Duties; and now from hence, to the End of the Chapter, he guards them likewise against Covetoufnefs, which was another clofe Vice of the Scribes and Pharifees, which it feems in many Things they approved of, at least neglected to principle their Difciples against it. Our Saviour handles this Subject at large, for fixteen Verfes together, giving us many Characters of the covetous Man, with feveral Arguments to diffuade us from Covetousness, and the inordinate Cares of the World. And it is no wonder he has taken all this Pains to principle us well against a Vice, which though it is as pernicious as any other whatsoever, yet is often difguised under the fpecious Shew of Temperance, Sobriety, Diligence, Frugality, Providence, and Care of Wife and Children, and feveral other very laudable Practices; by virtue of which, it infinuates itself with greater Advantage than most other Vices, and is much harder to be discovered and guarded againit. I thought once to have confidered all our Saviour's Characters and Defcriptions of this Vice by themfelves, before I had come to his Arguments and Diffuafives against it. But fince he intersperses the one with the other, I think it is my Part not to alter his Method, but to fpeak to the Words as they lye before us: by clearing up the Descriptions of that Vice, and opening the Arguments made ufe of to dehort us from it, in the fame Method in which they are here propofed.

To begin then, in the Words which I have read, ver. 19, 20, 21. we may obferve these three Things.

S3

I. A

[SERM I. A Character of the covetous Man; which is, that he lays up for himself Treasures upon Earth, and not in Heaven.

II. Our Saviour's Diffuafive from this Practice; Lay not up for your felves Treasures upon Earth, but lay up for your felves Treafures in Heaven.

III. The Reasons of this Exhortation; which are three, viz. 1. That it is but an earthly Treasure. And 2. liable to perishing by diverfe Accidents, fuch as Moth and Ruft, which corrupt it; and Thieves that break through and fteal it; whereas the heavenly Treafure is fecure, and out of the Reach of these, and all other Accidents whatsoever. And 3. That if our Treafures are upon Earth, they will draw our Hearts after them, and make them earthly too.

I. I begin with the Character of the covetous Man, which is, that he lays up for himself Treasures upon Earth, and not in Heaven. For understanding of which Way of fpeaking, I must acquaint you with an ufual Hebraifm, very common in the Holy Scripture-Stile; the Confideration of which is of great Ufe towards the understanding of this, and divers other Texts, which would be apt to puzzle an ordinary Reader. For it is a common Thing in Hebrew, of two Things which they mean only to compare together, and to prefer the one to the other, instead of that to bring them in by way of Antithefis, and to reject and prohibit the one, and chufe the other. As in that Expreffion, Hof vi. 6. I defire Mercy and not Sacrifice: The Defign was not abfolutely to condemn Sacrifices, (for God had commanded them) but only to prefer Mercy before them. So Gen. xlv. 8. Joepb fays to his Brethren, It was not

you