man only strives to retain what he has; the covetous man sacrifices others to indulge himself; the avaricious man will sometimes sacrifice himself to indulge others; for generosity, which is opposed to covetousness, is sometimes associated with avarice."

"To hoard" signifies "to store up treasures secretly ;" and comprehensively implies the withholding of property from the many useful purposes to which it might be applied. Amongst these are the legitimate advantages which property could procure to the owner himself. Hence the words, "miser," "parsimony," and "penurious," refer to the real poverty and wretchedness of the infatuated possessor. There are other names and epithets of a low and barbarous kind, preferred even by men of taste as the energetic vehicle of their abhorrence, and applied very commonly to the character and conduct of the covetous man, showing the great contempt in which this despicable vice is held by almost every class of people. We ought not, perhaps, to except the covetous themselves; as they often thus express their dislike of avarice in others, either through a deluding ignorance of their own guilt, or some secret disapprobation of the conscious vileness to which they are miserably and helplessly enslaved.

It may be observed, that the varieties described in this vocabulary of Mammon must not be confined to their respective subjects. Several of them will be found in some instances to exist in the same subject, and to be mingled in different degrees and proportions in different subjects. The covetous man may neither be a miser nor penurious. In other instances he may have all the forms adverted to, and each, perhaps, in a very high degree. Covetousness, however, seems to be the genus; the others are the several species. But the various terms are even by the best writers often used indiscriminately, not as severally descriptive, but merely as different titles of the same great evil.

III. THE SUBJECT DESCRIBED.

THUS, in the present question, we naturally pass from words to things. What, then, is covetousness, in the proper yet comprehensive notion of the subject? Let the Judge of all the earth reply. In the phrases and sentences of Scripture, we more fully learn the nature of this vice; but we repeat, that already may be gathered from the verbal intimations given above, the

great truth, on this point,—that "the love of the world," denounced by St. John, is, in all its varieties, fundamentally and essentially its character and principle. Circumstances may in many instances prevent its more striking manifestations; but the germinating seed is there, as murder in the passion of him who "is angry with his brother," even when he abstains from the gross commission of that crime. The rapacity of the wolf lies concealed in the helpless cub.

Covetousness, then, chiefly consists of three things: 1. An irregular and overweening or excessive fondness for property in general, but principally discovered by the love of money. The evil lies not simply in loving, but in loving improperly; as in another case referred to by our Lord: " He that loveth his life shall lose it; for to love our life in one sense is a duty. 2. From this there follows an inordinate desire for more; not merely for more than is possessed by another, which, we may observe, is one essential meaning of the word, but for more indefinitely, or infinitely;—for no amount of gain can satisfy the restless and unreasonable hunger of a covetous disposition. He who shows this insatiable desire of riches is described by Solomon as "greedy of gain." 3. As a consequence of this, improper means are used to attain the object desired. Those means may be improper through excess of application, though lawful in themselves; or in their own nature, as acts of injustice. In this latter sense the word is sometimes used in both Testaments :"So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof." "Through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you." "An heart they have exercised with covetous practices." The world, indeed, may call them "honest," provided no legal objection could lie against them in a court of civil law; but the law of God condemns the entire principle, and the whole of its operations, however speciously veiled by appearances of virtue.

IV. THE SOURCES OF THIS VICE.

THE true nature of this vice may be farther illustrated by a brief view of the causes from which it takes its rise. Some of these are the common spring of all the vices, while some are more immediately connected with covetousness.

The most obvious is the dreadful corruption of our whole

nature by what is eminently termed "the fall." By this the very fountain of our character and actions is poisoned. Through this we are altogether ignorant of God and of his will, as also of ourselves, and of the moral dangers and right uses of the world around us. We are instinctively inclined to moral evil; and when subsequently we are called to virtue and glory by Jesus Christ, we refuse to obey the call from a natural and deeplyrooted enmity to God. All this is confirmed by early habits of inattention to Divine truth, and of intercourse with the creature, which we practically put in the place of the Chief Good, the Infinite Creator. This corruption runs in various channels, and with different degrees of intensity towards all forbidden objects. All are equally by nature devoid of the Divine life; but as in dead bodies all are not equally putrescent, so in moral death all the numerous individuals are not equally corrupt. Nor is the characteristic and palpable corruption of each always of the same kind. One may be naturally more inclined or determined to one description of evil than another; and all this may result from original constitution previous to the impressive influence of circumstances. The prerogative of God originally to divide, or restrain, or modify the general current, is not here the question. We are chiefly interested in the fact of the case. One great stream of the general tide is covetousness. This is evident from the early and powerful propensity of individuals to this particular evil, from the pertinacity of its hold, and the extent of its prevalence in opposition to counteracting circumstances. The covetousness so native to the heart is of all others the most deeply-seated, and certainly by much the least susceptible of cure; and where circumstances, not counteracting, but tempting, and confirmatory of the original disposition, concur in the case, and the whole is unresisted, the correction of the vice may be viewed as almost hopeless.

Unbelief shares deeply in the guilt of worldly-mindedness. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." He who departs from the living God will turn to other gods. Among these, Mammon stands conspicuous. The mind devoid of the Creator must be filled with the creature. In proportion to our want of faith will be our care and anxiety respecting the succours and satisfactions of this world. "Jesus said, If God so clothe the grass of the field, will he not much more clothe you, O ye of

little faith?"

Thus he who loves money makes gold his hope,

and says to the fine gold, "Thou art my confidence."

This unbelief is both a natural and intentional hostility to the truth of God in general; in consequence of which, its declarations in regard to his infinite sufficiency, and the absolute inanity of all created things without his favour, seem but as idle tales. As faith is not only the credence of the mind, but also a grace of the heart,-trust in God, produced by the Holy Spirit; so its contrary is not merely the disbelief of the truth, but an aversion to the subject, from which the soul rebounds to things more congenial to its taste. The origin of belief and disbelief lies deeper than the deliberative judgment, and must be fetched from the most secret predilections of the heart. The unbelief of the Jews was substantially their hatred of the person and doctrine of Christ. It is because men really believe in the paramount importance of earthly things that St. Peter says, "An heart they have exercised with covetous practices." A man's real belief is clearly known by his actions. A mere opinion of treasures hidden at some great depth in his grounds might produce no effect upon him; a firm conviction would infallibly determine him to dig in full search of them. Thus worldly-minded men are perfectly persuaded, that there is less of good in God, and more of solid satisfaction in the creature, than the Holy Scriptures have invariably asserted; and they act accordingly. Saving faith has also a most important influence upon the mind itself. It is the principle of the Divine life, and infallibly accompanied by regeneration; in consequence of which the soul is susceptible of right views, and of due impressions from the truth, both respecting heavenly and earthly things. To be destitute of this faith is, therefore, to be shorn of our moral strength, and to present a depth of corruption suited to any powerful temptation from without. These remarks are not, indeed, confinable to the subject of covetousness; though to this, we may judge both from the analysis and history of the crime, they apply with a peculiar propriety and force.

One great source of the evil in question is improper self-love, or, strictly speaking, selfishness. The corruption of the heart is the great trunk, of which pride, sensuality, and covetousness, are the three principal stems, with their respective offshoots of particular and subordinate vices. The covetous man never lifts up his eyes but with a view to himself. Even his occasional

bursts of apparent liberality originate in selfishness; and, after a progress of perhaps unobserved sinuosity, return to the same point. Selfishness is an exclusive and constant regard to our own interest because it is our own. This disposition tends directly to shrivel up the mind even to the extreme of narrowness, and to render it unserviceable to the interests of others. It appears in the proud and the sensual passions, but no where so palpably as in the vice we are now considering. Here it is both the cause and the effect of covetousness, and that in the full height of its obstinacy and power. An accurate and ample view of selfishness will greatly illustrate its connexion with covetousness. This view is furnished to our hands by a master, the famous Duke de la Rochefoucault. He speaks of human nature as he finds it, -deeply, universally, incurably corrupted,-because he speaks without regard to the renovating power of grace. He is, however, much opposed by some who contend for the natural disinterestedness of man. If this natural disinterestedness refer to the physiology of the mind, and to the supposition, that if man were not corrupt he would instinctively do good to others on the same principle on which he seeks his own good,-namely, from love to good as such, to good in general,-we see no great inconsistency between the parties. The difference seems to be chiefly this, that one describes man as he is, and the other as he ought to be. The history of mankind, we fear, at once originates and confirms, at least, the substance of the following description by this celebrated writer. It discovers, we conceive, more profound and more instructive views of this grand master-spring of covetousness, than is commonly to be met with among philosophic teachers. We shall, perhaps, be excused if we give this unrivalled paragraph without mutilation :—

"Self-love is the love of self, and of every thing for its sake. When fortune gives the means, self-love idolizes self, and tyrannizes over others. It never rests or fixes any where from home. If it settle on external things, it is only to extract, as the bee doth from flowers, whatever may be serviceable. Nothing so impetuous as its desires; nothing so secret as its designs; nothing so artful as its conduct. Its subtleness is inexpressible; its metamorphoses surpass those of Ovid, and its refinements those of chemistry. We can neither fathom the depth, nor penetrate the obscurity, of its abyss. There, concealed from the most piercing eye, it makes numberless turnings and windings.