Satan’s Second Stratagem Defeated That viz. In Which He Represents The Christian’s breastplate as PREJUDICIAL TO HIS WORLDLY PROFITS 2/2

1. It is a great sin.The devil sure would tempt Christ to no small sin.  We find him, laying this gol­den bait before him, when he ‘showed him all the kingdoms of the world,’ and promised them all unto him, if he would ‘fall down and worship him,’ Luke 4:5-7.  What was the foul spirit's design in this demand, but to draw Christ to acknowledge him the lord of the world, and by worshipping him, to declare that he ex­pected the good things of the world, not from God, but him?  Now truly, every one that by unrighteous­ness seeks the world’s pelf, he goes to the devil for it, and doth in effect worship him.  He had as good speak out, and say he acknowledges not God, but the devil, to be lord of the world, and to have the dis­posing of it; for he doth what God interprets so. Now, how much better is it to have poverty from God, than riches from the devil?  Here is a daring sin with a witness, at one clasp to take away God’s sovereignty, and to bestow it upon the devil, to do what he pleases with the world!
2. It is a foolish sin.‘They that will be rich’ —that is, by right or wrong—‘fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish...lusts,’ I Tim. 6:9.  What greater folly than to play the thief to acquire that which is man's already?  If thou beest a saint, all is thine the world hath.  ‘Godliness’ hath the ‘promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come,’ I Tim. 4:8.  If riches be good for thee, thou shalt have them, for that is the tenure of temporal promises; and if it be not thought good by God—who is best able to judge—to pay thee the promise in specie—in kind, then another promise comes in for thy relief, which assures thee thou shalt have money-worth.  ‘Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,’ Heb. 13:5.  If God hath given thee riches, but calls thee to part with it for his name’s sake, then he gives thee his bond upon which thou mayest recover thy loss, with ‘a hundred-fold’ advantage ‘in this life,’ besides ‘eternal life in the world to come,’ Matt. 19:29.  And he is a fool, with witness, that parts with God’s promises, for any secur­ity the devil can give him.
3. Unrighteous gain will appear to be a dear bar­gain,from the heavy curse that cleaves unto it.  ‘The curse of God is in the house of the wicked,’ Prov. 3:33; but ‘in the house of the righteous is much treasure,’ Prov. 15:6.  You may come to the righteous man, and find, possibly, no money in his house, but you are sure to find ‘a treasure;’ whereas there is no treasure in the wicked man’s house when much gold and silver is to be found, because the curse of God eats up all his gains.  God’s fork follows the wicked's rake.  It is most righteous for him to scatter what such gather by unrighteousness.  They are said therefore, to ‘consult shame to their house,...for the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it,’ Hab. 2:10, 11.  O who that prizeth the comfort of his life would, though for tons of gold, live in a house thus haunted!—where the cry of his unrighteousness follows him into every room he goes, and he doth, as it were, hear the stones and beams of his house groaning under the weight of his sin that laid them there!  Yea, so hateful is this sin to the righteous Lord, that not only they who purse up the gain thus got are cursed by him, but also the instruments such use to advance their unrighteous projects.  The poor servant, that to curry favour with his master, advan­ceth his estate by fraud and unrighteousness, God threatens to pay him his wages.  ‘I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit,’ Zeph. 1:9.  This is spoken of either servants standing at the door to hook in customers they may cheat; or else of great men’s officers that came with absolute power into men’s houses to take by violence from them what they pleased; these, though their masters pocketed the gain, shall be punished—their masters as the great devourers, and they as their sharks to seek and pro­vide prey for them.