11. Do you ask, what it is to lay up treasures on earth? It will be needful to examine this thoroughly. And let us, first, observe, what is not forbidden in this command, that we may then clearly discern, what is.
We are not forbidden in this command, first, to provide things honest in the sight of all men, to provide wherewith we may render unto all their due, whatsoever they can justly demand of us. So far from it, that we are taught of God, to owe no man any thing. We ought therefore to use all diligence in our calling, in order to owe no man any thing: this being no other than a plain law of common justice, which our Lord came not to destroy but to fulfil.
Neither, secondly, does he here forbid the providing for ourselves, such things as are needful for the body: a sufficiency of plain, wholesome food to eat, and clean raiment to put on. Yea, it is our duty, so far as God puts it into our power, to provide these things also; to the end we may eat our own bread, and be burdensome to no man.
Nor yet are we forbidden, thirdly, to provide for our children, and for those of our own household. This also it is our duty to do, even upon principles of Heathen morality. Every man ought to provide the plain necessaries of life, for his own wife and children: and to put them into a capacity of providing these for themselves, when he is gone hence and is no more seen. I say, of providing these, the plain necessaries of life, not delicacies, not superfluities: and that by their diligent labour; for it is no man’s duty to furnish them any more than himself, with the means either of luxury or idleness. But if anyman provide not thus far for his own children, (as well as for the widows of his own house; of whom primarily St. Paul is speaking, in those well known words to Timothy): he hath practically denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel, or Heathen.
Lastly, We are not forbidden in these words, to lay up from time to time, what is needful for the carrying on our worldly business, in such a measure and degree, as is sufficient to answer the foregoing purposes: in such a measure, as first, to owe no man any thing; secondly, to procure for ourselves the necessaries of life; and thirdly, to furnish those of our own house with them while we live, and with the means of procuring them when we are gone to God.
12. *We may now clearly discern (unless we are unwilling to discern it) what that is which is forbidden here. It is, the designedly procuring more of this world’s goods, than will answer the foregoing purposes: the labouring after a larger measure of worldly substance, a larger increase of gold and silver; the laying up any more than these ends require, is what is here expresly and absolutely forbidden. If the words have any meaning at all, it must be this: for they are capable of no other. Consequently, whoever he is, that owing no man any thing, and having food and raiment for himself and his houshold, together with a sufficiency to carry on his worldly business, so far as answers these reasonablepurposes: whosoever, I say, being already in these circumstances, seeks a still larger portion on earth, he lives in an open, habitual denial of the Lord that bought him. He hath practically denied the faith, and is worse than an African or American infidel.
13. *Hear ye this all ye that dwell in the world, and love the world wherein ye dwell. Ye may be highly esteemed of men; but ye are an abomination in the sight of God. How long shall your souls cleave to the dust? How long will ye load yourselves with thick clay? When will ye awake and see, that the open, speculative Heathens, are nearer the kingdom of heaven than you? When will ye be persuaded to chuse the better part; that which cannot be taken away from you? When will ye seek only to lay up treasures in heaven, renouncing, dreading, abhorring all other? If you aim at laying up treasures on earth, you are not barely losing your time, and spending your strength for that which is not bread: for what is the fruit, if you succeed? You have murdered your own soul. You have extinguished the last spark of spiritual life therein. Now indeed, in the midst of life you are in death. You are a living man, but a dead Christian. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Your heart is sunk into the dust: your soul cleaveth to the ground. Your affections are set, not on things above, but on things of theearth; on poor husks that may poison, but cannot satisfy an everlasting spirit, made for God. Your love, your joy, your desire are all placed on the things which perish in the using. You have thrown away the treasure in heaven: God and Christ are lost. You have gained riches and hell-fire.
14. O how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! When our Lord’s disciples were astonished at his speaking thus, he was so far from retracting it, that he repeated the same important truth, in stronger terms than before. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. *How hard is it for them whose every word is applauded, not to be wise in their own eyes! How hard, for them not to think themselves better than the poor, base, uneducated herd of men! How hard, not to seek happiness in their riches, or in things dependent upon them; in gratifying the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life! O ye rich, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?—Only with God all things are possible.
15. *And even if you do not succeed, what is the fruit of your endeavouring to lay up treasures on earth? They that will be rich (αἱ βουλόμενοι πλουτεῖν, they that desire, that endeavour after it, whether they succeed or no) fall into a temptation and a snare, a gin, a trap of the devil, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts; ἐπὶ θυμίας ἀνοήτους, desires with which reason hath nothing to do; such as properly belong, not to rational and immortal beings, but only to the brute-beasts, which have no understanding: which drown men in destruction and perdition, in present and eternal misery. Let us but open our eyes, and we may daily see the melancholy proofs of this: men, who desiring, resolving to be rich, coveting after money, the root of all evil, have already pierced themselves through with many sorrows, and anticipated the hell to which they are going.
*The cautiousness with which the apostle here speaks, is highly observable. He does not affirm this absolutely of the rich; for a man may possibly be rich, without any fault of his, by an over-ruling providence, preventing his own choice. But he affirms it of οἱ βουλόμενοι πλουτεῖν. Those who desire or seek to be rich. Riches, dangerous as they are, do not always drown men in destruction and perdition. But the desire of riches does: those who calmly desire and deliberately seek to attain them, whether they do, in fact, gain the world or no, do infallibly lose their own souls. These are they, that sell him who bought them with his blood, for a few pieces of gold or silver. These enter into a covenant with death and hell: and their covenant shall stand. For they are daily making themselves meet to partake of their inheritance with the devil and his angels.