CHAPTER XLIII – 3. The reputation of wealth to be denied
more than your Lord, and his worthiest servants have endured. What a pattern is Paul, that tells his converts, he "seeks not theirs but them, as parents lay up for their children, and not children for the parents, and would gladly spend, and be spent for them, though the more he love, the less he were beloved;" 2 Cor. 12:14, 15. See that you love God and them, and that is your duty; do that and you need not take care for the love of men to you. Their love is none of your felicity, and therefore their hatred depriveth you not of your felicity; for that lieth only in the love of God. Here therefore self must be denied.
CHAPTER XLIII
The Reputation of Riches to be Denied 3. ANOTHER part of the honour which self must be denied in, is the reputation of your riches; for wealth is one thing that men are proud of. Some desire to be esteemed richer than they are, and therefore go in the best apparel they can get, that they may not be thought to be persons of the lowest, poorest sort. And some that are rich do glory in their riches, and think they are much more to be honoured than the poor; but alas, if they had well read and considered what Christ hath said of the danger of the rich, particularly in Luke 12:16, 18 and 8:14. Matt. 13:22. Mark 10:23. and what James saith to them, James
5:1, 2, &c. they would see that riches is not a thing to be proud of; "Not many great and noble are called. God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, to be heirs of the kingdom." The talents for which we must give an account at the bar of Christ, should be rather the matter of our fear and trembling than of our pride. That which makes our passage to heaven to be as the camel's through a needle's