9. When, therefore, you would represent to your mind how Christians ought to live unto God, and by what degrees of wisdom and holiness they ought to use the things of this life, you must not look at the world; but you must look up to the society of angels, and think what wisdom and holiness is fit to prepare you for such a state of glory. You must look to all the highest precepts of the gospel; you must examine yourself by the Spirit of Christ; you must think how departed souls would live, if they were again to act the short part of human life; and what degrees of wisdom and holiness you will wish for when you are leaving the world.
10. And as Christianity consecrates all states and employments to God, as it requires us to aspire after universal obedience, doing and using every thing as the servants of God; so are we more especially obliged to observe this exactness in the use of our estates and fortunes.
The reason is plain, if we only consider, that our estate is as much the gift of God, as our eyes, or our hands, and is no more to be buried, or thrown away at pleasure, than we are to pull out our eyes, or throw away our limbs.
But besides this consideration, there are several other important reasons why we should be exact in the use of our estates.
11. *First, because the manner of using our money, enters so far into the business of every day, and makes so great a part of our common life, that our common life must be much of the same nature, as our common way of spending our estate. If reason and religion govern us in this, then reason and religion have got great hold of us; but if humour, pride, and fancy are the measures of our spending our estate, then humour, pride, and fancy will have the direction of the greatest part of our life.
12. Another reason is, because our money is capable of being used to the most excellent purposes, and is so great a means of doing good. If we waste it, we don’t waste a trifle that signifies little; but we waste that which might be as eyes to the blind, as a husband to the widow, as a father to the orphan. If a man had eyes, and hands, and feet, that he could give to those that wanted them; if he should either lock them up in a chest, or please himself with some needless or ridiculous use of them, instead of giving them to his brethren that were blind and lame, should we not justly reckon him an inhuman wretch? If he should rather chuse to amuse himself with furnishing his house with those things, than to intitle himself to an eternal reward, by giving them to those that wanted eyes and hands, might we not justly reckon him mad?
Now money has much the nature of eyes and feet: if we either lock it up in chests, or waste it in needless and ridiculous expences whilst the poor and the distressed want it for their necessary uses; if we consume it in the ridiculous ornaments of apparel, whilst others are starving in nakedness, we are not far from the cruelty of him that chuses rather to adorn his house with the hands and eyes, than to give them to those that want them. If we indulge ourselves in such expensive enjoyments, to satisfy no real want, rather than to entitle ourselves to an eternal reward, by disposing of our money well, we are guilty of his madness, that rather chuses to lock up eyes and hands, than to make himself for ever blessed, by giving them to those that want them.
13. *Thirdly, if we waste our money, we are not only guilty of making that useless, which is so powerful a means of doing good, but we turn this useful talent into a powerful means of corrupting ourselves; because so far as it is spent wrong, so far it is spent in the support of some wrong temper, in gratifying some vain and unreasonable desires.
*As wit and fine parts cannot be only lost, but expose those that have them to greater follies, if they are not strictly devoted to piety; so money, if it is not used strictly according to reason and religion, cannot only be trifled away, but it will betray people into greater follies, and make them live a more silly and extravagant life, than they would have done without it. If therefore you don’t spend your money in doing good to others, you spend it to the hurt of yourself. You will act like a man that should refuse to give a cordial to a sick friend, tho’ he could not drink it himself without inflaming his blood. For this is the case of superfluous money; if you give it to those that want it, it is a cordial; if you spend it upon yourself, in something that you do not want, it only inflames and disorders your mind, and makes you worse than you would be without it.
14. Consider again the fore-mentioned comparison; if the man that would not make a right use of spare eyes and hands, should, by continually trying to use them himself, spoil his own eyes and hands, we might accuse him of still greater madness.