covenant-breakers, implacable, unmerciful," Rom. i. 28-31. If this infernal association does not speak thousands of volumes as to the mind of God respecting this great crime, we ask, Where can that mind be at all discovered?

This estimate is farther seen by the indignation of God, announced in all its various and most dreadful forms. A varice put the whip into the hands of Christ more than once, when he arose with the vengeance of a holy zeal, to drive it from God's temple. O think of infinite love made angry ! of his meekness and gentleness turned into fierceness! his grace and pity blazing into just and holy wrath! "For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him." In this let the guilty lover of the world behold how God abominates the sin which he, on the contrary, blesses as the chief and darling source of all his hopes and enjoyments.

upon you.

The threatenings of God most unequivocally demonstrate the same abhorrence. These are as numerous as they are dreadful and alarming. If we select but one, as at random, we shall be inclined to suppose it might have stood for all the rest, as quite sufficient to shake the whole soul and frame of the most covetous man on earth with dreadful horror and dismay, and sever from him the filthy idol he has long held to his heart, by the mighty blow of its judicial and terrible announcement. It is this: "Ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten: Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire: Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." The whole history, indeed, of the Divine inflictions on this one sin, as it might be amply gathered from his word and providence, in regard to the punishment of cities and of families;—not omitting what we constantly perceive in common life of the misery of mind attendant upon covetousness; and all in certain and inseparable connexion with infinitely greater miseries in the eternal world, and which are hastening forward, like a tumultuous tide, on the self-secure and easy fool who is about to build his barns; yes, the whole of this appalling history, or, rather, prophecy, speaks with the trumpet-voice of Sinai what is the estimate of covetousness in the infinite understanding and judgment of God. How soon will another trumpet at the last day rattle in the ears of the avaricious Babylon of this world !–“O thou that dwellest

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upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness!

And let the sinner know, that to abhor is to loathe and detest, with a mixture of anger and scorn. Scorn adds terribly to the agony of other sufferings. To this, as well as to sympathy, there must be something analogous in the Divine Mind. How greatly it must aggravate the shame and pain of the covetous in the presence of all worlds! "I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh." And all this only strengthens the evidence, that God abhors the covetous. What proof, then, is wanting to show the utter wickedness and folly of the contrary estimate of him who attempts to falsify the unequivocal and firm decisions of Almighty God, by making earth his idol?

XI. EXAMPLES.

THE subject we have attempted to sketch in a faint and general outline, might now be illustrated, and the principles of its practical design and operations strongly enforced, by appropriate examples and instances, on both sides of this question. Full-length portraits, in their own respective costumes, situations, and employments, might vividly exhibit both the good and the evil of which we have been speaking, in a fresh and very impressive light. But as this essay has perhaps been extended much beyond its proper limits, we cannot, for the present, even enter on the subject. Our Divine Pattern, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the great apostle Paul, are the two grand, yet not the only, examples on the admirable side of the subject. And, not to go beyond our own times, the Howards and the Reynoldses, produced by the British Isles, are most interesting subjects of study and of commendation. Beholding these, in contrast with the characters on which we have dwelt so long, we might fancy we beheld, even on the canvass, the frown of sorrow in the former, and in the latter, at least, the gathering and downcast blush of conviction.

XII. MEASURES AND PROPORTIONS OF GIVING.

WE must now conclude with some brief observations on the measure of benevolence expected from those who have been cured of this great evil; or from all who are possessed of superabundant property, which may be applied to the temporal and spiritual good of others.

Under the Mosaic law every family possessed its own peculiar portion, on which a certain charge was fixed for the benefit of the poor. This charge, however, appears to have been the minimum of communication, while the possessor was invited by many reasons and inducements to heighten his piety and usefulness by still larger gifts. The Gospel also has its rules, but they relate to the principles, and not to the details; to the diligent and serious cultivation of piety and zeal for the Divine glory, and of a burning and conscientious charity for all men. As the absence of rules of life, in some minute cases, gives scope for prudence and other virtues, which otherwise could not be so well exercised; so the want of an exact measure as to almsgiving, and works of benevolence in general, affords great scope for many signal exercises of charity and liberal feeling. Hence it is that, in Scripture, the strongest and most frequent exhortations and commands are given in reference to the charitable bias of the heart, while not a word is uttered which requires a certain sum and share of any specified amount of individual property. Of this the lover of the world takes a very unfair and ungenerous advantage, making rules for himself, which regard some petty measures, very coldly but nicely calculated, and having no relation whatever to any boundless wishes of the liberal heart, and the ample sufficiency of the means he enjoys. Nor would even these petty measures be afforded but for some frown from his legal conscience, or some pride, or policy, or the pressure of some importunity which he can scarcely resist.

Some say a tenth of income is a proper rule; but if that income should be extremely small, and attended with real difficulty and distress, it might be too much; if, on the contrary, the income were very ample, and far above the wants and station of the possessor, a tenth might be too small. Others, more cautious on the saving side, have named a tenth of all annual profits. Here the careful soul, with no small stretch of nobleness, actually consecrates one part to God, and lays by nine parts for his own still dearer self. Surely, this is beating down his Maker in the bargain, even to the farthing; and this he takes without a blush.

The rich do not profess to live upon the scale of the lowest possible supply of their personal necessities; nor does God himself, or charity, or reason, ask this of them. The claim urged by the rich is, that they ought to live upon a good scale

of civil respectability. But they demand the privilege of determining for themselves the extent of what is thus respectable. In some sense they have the right to do so, for sumptuary laws in states are obsolete; and if the laws of worldly justice be not violated, every man may live as expensively as he pleases, without the least restriction. But there is a court of equity above, which, by its own eternal rules of what is proper to be done in every case of riches, will finally determine and reward their possessors. In the mean time, let this gentleman of respectability compare himself with some more liberal person in the same rank of life, and whose property, perhaps, is not quite equal to his own, and let him reduce his property by acts of benevolence to the same inferior level; if this be done, will he not still possess respectability, in a true and sufficient sense of the expression, as well as all the necessary enjoyments of life? Nay, might not both these gentlemen descend from their present species of respectability to another of the genus just a little lower, or, perhaps, one lower still, and yet, in all reason and conscience, be sufficiently respectable, keep the same respectable company, and retain, if we may use the expression, all the essential luxuries of life? Thus the abominable hoarding of property would, at least, be precluded. What objection can there be to all this? We think it admits a very liberal allowance to the party, while it gives very great enlargement to his highest interests in the wider exercise of a most delightful and rewardable benevolence.

The objection, perhaps, will be, that this would go to reduce the elegant enjoyments of society, to the preparation and commerce of which articles so many thousands owe their livelihood. In reply, it may be said, that this objection proves, if any thing, too much, at least, for the covetous; it proves, that, while he is possessed of money, he ought to consume still more of those luxuries with a view to that kind of usefulness to which he has referred; and here again his beloved hoarding must be at an end. But must private consumption be measured by the benefit it brings to the vender, without a qualifying regard to the personal and religious duties and interests of the purchaser? At all events, the money-lover has no claim to this plea; for if he be a consumer, it is sure to be on his own account, and not with a view, to serve the public. But if all were to act on principles of economy, and industry, and the moderate enjoyment even of what may be called "luxuries,"—of course, we refer to those

who could procure them, there would then be more than sufficient for the comfortable supply of all classes of society; and the plans of liberality which we have endeavoured to enforce would be, indeed, the very best to promote a flourishing and advantageous commerce.

After all, we must recur to the heart: A good state of the heart will suggest far more just and noble rules of action, than the most powerful and logical understanding devoid of such a state. It will teach the rich, without the help of casuistry, the true sense and application of the golden rule already quoted, to do to others what we could wish they would do to us,-a rule which we ought to charge home upon our consciences and feelings in every case which presents itself as an object of benevolence. Let us remember, that, whether we choose to "give of our penury or not, we are absolutely bound to "give of our abundance; " or, as was said before, of our superfluity. And if the possessor scarcely know how much to give in certain cases, let him be willing to be convicted, and instructed, and amended; let him pray to God for direction, yielding promptly, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, to benevolent emotions, and liberal suggestions. This sincerity cannot but be divinely guided and prospered. But if the bias of the heart be on the other side, if it demur to generous plans, and if it keenly pry for reasons to justify a narrow line of conduct, and laboriously strive to make it harmonize with duty and propriety, there will be very little hope of liberal measures from that man. If you recommend him to gain all he can, to save all he can, and to give all he can, he will adopt the first two parts of the counsel literally and cordially; but the other-to give all he can—he will cut down and qualify, and torture to his own liking, till charity becomes impatient of his drivelling, and takes her flight from the selfish Jesuitism of a heart not right with God, and on which all the mighty motives to benevolence which emanate from God himself, through the bright and burning medium of the Gospel, make no more impression than successive suns upon a mountain of eternal snow.

XIII. THE CONCLUSION.

THE question now is, whether, in all the various views which we have taken of this subject, the odious sin of covetousness has been justly represented? Those views, we think, harmoniously