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Sermon 87: The Danger of Riches

   https://wesleyworks.ecdsdev.org/sermons/Sermon087

03:227 An Introductory Comment

Wesley’s followers were intensely loyal and, by and large, obedient. They revered him as founder, patriarch, even as cult-hero. They had responded to his gospel of salvation by faith; they had accepted most of his demands for disciplined Christian living (good works as the fruit and proof of faith). Moreover, given his stress on a self-denying moral rigorism, together with the general economic expansion in the Hanoverian era, it was natural enough that more than a few Methodists moved upward on the economic scale from erstwhile poverty toward modest affluence. In such a setting Wesley’s first two rules about ‘The Use of Money’ (‘gaining’ and ‘saving’) made eminently good sense.

It was the third rule against surplus accumulation (‘giving’) that made for trouble. Many, if not most, of the newly rich Methodists were stubbornly, though quietly, unconvinced that their affluence, in and of itself, was a fatal inlet to sin. Thus it was that they simply ignored Wesley’s insistence that they part with all but their ‘necessaries and conveniences’. Moreover, their views had lately been fortified by the immense influence of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776). This turn of events was, for Wesley, both perplexing and frustrating.

Something of this mood is suggested by the fact that the very first ‘original sermon’ published in the Arminian Magazine is this one (‘Sermon I’). It had been written in the late autumn of 1780 and appeared in the January and February instalments of Vol. IV (1781), pp. 15-23, 73-81, without a title. That was subsequently added when he included it in SOSO, VII.139-66. On April 16, 1783, in Dublin, he preached from the same text. In 1788, he wrote and published yet another sermon, ‘On Riches’(see No. 108). Then, in the very last year of his life, he wrote out yet another anguished warning on, ‘The Danger of Increasing Riches’ (see No. 131). If this trio of ‘late sermons’ is added to Nos. 28, ‘Sermon on the Mount, VIII’; 50, ‘The Use of Money’; and 51, The Good Steward; and if these are then placed alongside the other frequent blasts against riches in other sermons and other writings, an interesting generalization suggests itself: surplus accumulation leads Wesley’s inventory of sins in praxis. It was, in his eyes, an offence before [03:228]God and man, an urgent and dire peril to any Christian’s profession and hope of salvation. This is in clear contrast to the notion, proffered by the Puritans, but approved by others, that honestly earned wealth is a sign and measure of divine favour. What is interesting is that Wesley’s economic radicalism on this point has been ignored, not only by most Methodists, but by the economic historians as well.

The Danger of Riches

1 Timothy 6:9

They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

11. How innumerable are the ill consequences which have followed from men’s not knowing or not considering this great truth! And how few are there even in the Christian world that either know or duly consider it! Yea, how small is the number of those, even among real Christians, who understand and lay it to heart! Most of these too pass it very lightly over, scarce remembering there is such a text in the Bible. And many put such a construction upon it as makes it of no manner of effect. ‘“They that will be rich”’, say they, ‘that is, will be rich at all events, who will be rich right or wrong, that are resolved to carry their point, to compass this end, whatever means they use to attain it—“they fall into temptation,” and into all the evils enumerated by the Apostle.’ But truly if this were all the meaning of the text it might as well have been out of the Bible.

22. This is so far from being the whole meaning of the text that it is no part of its meaning. The Apostle does not here speak of gaining riches unjustly, but of quite another thing: his words are to be taken in their plain, obvious sense, without any restriction or qualification whatsoever.

1

Another affirmation of the principle of literal interpretation; cf. No. 21, ‘Sermon on the Mount, I’, §6 and n.

St. Paul does not say, ‘They that will be rich by evil means’, by theft, robbery, oppression, or extortion; they 03:229that will be rich by fraud, or dishonest art; but simply, ‘they that will be rich’; these, allowing, supposing the means they use to be ever so innocent, ‘fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition.’

33. But who believes that? Who receives it as the truth of God? Who is deeply convinced of it? Who preaches this? Great is the company of preachers at this day, regular and irregular. But who of them all openly and explicitly preaches this strange doctrine? It is the keen observation of a great man, ‘The pulpit is a fearful preacher’s stronghold.’

2

Cf. A. H. Francke, Nicodemus: Or, A Treatise Against the Fear of Man (1706). No. 19 among Francke’s list of seventy-four ‘signs and effects’ of ‘the fear of man’ reads: ‘The pulpit is a fearful preacher’s stronghold and castle; but when he has to speak face to face and bear witness to the truth, then he is very supple and complaisant.’ Cf. No. 14, The Repentance of Believers, I.7 and n.

But who, even in his stronghold, has the courage to declare so unfashionable a truth? I do not remember that in threescore years I have heard one sermon preached upon this subject. And what author within the same term has declared it from the press? At least in the English tongue? I do not know one. I have neither seen nor heard of any such author.
3

It is not easy to understand here why Wesley ignores a series of condemnations of riches in the literature that he almost certainly had seen. For example, there were Bishop Joseph Hall’s complaints in his Meditations and Vows, XIV (‘Century II’), in his Select Work (London, 1811), III.28. Or what of the even more vivid denunciations in Simon Patrick, Fifteen Sermons Upon Contentment and Resignation to the Will of God (1729)? In his Preface to SOSO, V (1788), Wesley praises ‘Dr. [William] Bates’; but what of Bates’s series of sermons, all on Prov. 1:32, under the general title, ‘The Dangers of Prosperity’, in Whole Works (1st edn., 1700; (1815), Vol. II)? He knew and might have cited John Tillotson’s four sermons on ‘Covetousness’ (Sermons XXXVI-XXXIX), in Works (1722), I.253-74, where Tillotson defines and denounces riches in similar terms to those of Hall, Bates, South—and Wesley. One might guess that what Wesley has in mind here was the huge popularity of Adam Smith’s case for economic self-interest and the lack of an adequate current critique from clergy and other opinion-makers.

I have seen two or three who just touch upon it, but none that treats of it professedly. I have myself frequently touched upon it in preaching, and twice in what I have published to the world: once in explaining our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, and once in the discourse on the ‘mammon of unrighteousness’.
4

I.e., Nos. 28, ‘Sermon on the Mount, VIII’, §§9-28 (and n.); and 50, ‘The Use of Money’, II.2-8, III.3-7; see also No. 122, ‘Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity’, §8.

But I have never yet either published or preached any sermon expressly upon the subject. It is high time I should, that I should at length speak as strongly and explicitly as I can, in order to leave a full and clear testimony behind me whenever it pleases God to call me hence.

03:230

44. O that God would give me to speak right and forcible words! And you to receive them in honest and humble hearts! Let it not be said: ‘They sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words; but they will not do them. Thou art unto them as one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not!’

5

Ezek. 33:31-32.

O that ye may ‘not be forgetful hearers, but doers of the word, that ye may be blessed in your deed’!
6

Cf. Jas. 1:25.

In this hope I shall endeavour:

First, to explain the Apostle’s words. And,

Secondly, to apply them.

But Oh! ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’

7

2 Cor. 2:16.

Who is able to stem the general torrent? To combat all the prejudices, not only of the vulgar, but of the learned and the religious world? Yet nothing is too hard for God! Still his grace is sufficient for us.
8

See 2 Cor. 12:9.

In his name, then, and by his strength I will endeavour,

1

I. To explain the words of the Apostle.

11. And, first, let us consider what it is to ‘be rich’. What does the Apostle mean by this expression?

The preceding verse fixes the meaning of this: ‘Having food and raiment’ (literally ‘coverings’, for the word includes lodging as well as clothes) ‘let us be therewith content.

9

See 1 Tim. 6:8 (Notes; ‘coverings, that is, raiment and a house to cover us’); but cf. Arndt and Gingrich, Greek-English Lexicon (σκεπάσματα): ‘chiefly clothing but also house (as in Aristotle, Metaphysics, 7, etc.)’.

But they that will be rich…’—that is, who will have more than these, more than ‘food and coverings’. It plainly follows, whatever is more than these is, in the sense of the Apostle, riches—whatever is above the plain necessaries or (at most) conveniences of life. Whoever has sufficient food to eat and raiment to put on, with a place where to lay his head, and something over, is rich.
10

A leaner definition of riches than Tillotson’s or Hall’s but one which Wesley uses consistently, early and late; cf. below, II.3; also Nos. 50, ‘The Use of Money’, intro.; 28, ‘Sermon on the Mount, VIII’, §§11-12; 108, ‘On Riches’, §4; 115, ‘Dives and Lazarus’, II.1; and 131, ‘The Danger of Increasing Riches’, I.1.

22. Let us consider, secondly, what is implied in that expression, ‘they that will be rich’. And does not this imply, first, ‘they that desire to be rich’, to have more than ‘food and coverings’; they that seriously and deliberately desire more than food to eat and 03:231raiment to put on, and a place where to lay their head; more than the plain necessaries and conveniences of life? All, at least, who allow themselves in this desire, who see no harm in it, ‘desire to be rich’.

33. And so do, secondly, all those that calmly, deliberately, and of set purpose endeavour after more than ‘food and coverings’; that aim at and endeavour after, not only so much worldly substance as will procure them the necessaries and conveniences of life,

11

Cf. No. 30, ‘Sermon on the Mount, X’, §26 and n.

but more than this, whether to lay it up, or lay it out in superfluities. All these undeniably prove their ‘desire to be rich’ by their endeavours after it.

44. Must we not, thirdly, rank among those ‘that desire to be rich’ all that in fact ‘lay up treasures on earth’

12

Cf. Matt. 6:19.

—a thing as expressly and clearly forbidden by our Lord as either adultery or murder. It is allowed, (1), that we are to provide necessaries and conveniences for those of our own household; (2), that men in business are to lay up as much as is necessary for the carrying on of that business; (3), that we are to leave our children what will supply them with necessaries and conveniences after we have left the world; and (4), that we are to provide things honest in the sight of all men, so as to ‘owe no man anything’.
13

Rom. 13:8.

But to lay up any more, when this is done, is what our Lord has flatly forbidden. When it is calmly and deliberately done, it is a clear proof of our desiring to be rich. And thus to lay up money is no more consistent with good conscience than to throw it into the sea.
14

An echo of Horace, Odes, III.xxiv.47: ‘In mare proximum…’; cf. No. 50, ‘The Use of Money’, §2 and n.

55. We must rank among them, fourthly, all who possess more of this world’s goods than they use according to the will of the Donor—I should rather say of the Proprietor, for he only lends them to us; or, to speak more strictly, entrusts them to us as stewards, reserving the property of them to himself. And indeed he cannot possibly do otherwise, seeing they are the work of his hands; he is and must be the Possessor of heaven and earth.

15

Gen. 14:19, 22.

This is his inalienable right, a right he cannot divest himself of. And together with that portion of his goods which he hath lodged in our hands he has delivered to us a writing, specifying the purposes for which he has entrusted us with them. If therefore we 03:232keep more of them in our hands than is necessary for the preceding purposes, we certainly fall under the charge of ‘desiring to be rich’. Over and above that we are guilty of burying our Lord’s talent in the earth, and on that account are liable to be pronounced ‘wicked’, because ‘unprofitable servants’.
16

Matt. 25:26, 30.

66. Under this imputation of ‘desiring to be rich’ fall, fifthly, all ‘lovers of money’.

17

2 Tim. 3:2 (Notes).

The word properly means those that delight in money, those that take pleasure in it, those that seek their happiness therein, that brood over their gold and silver, bills or bonds. Such was the man described by the fine Roman painter, who broke out into that natural soliloquy,

…Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
Ipse domi quoties nummos contemplor in arca.
18

Cf. Horace, Satires, I.i.66-67:

…populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca.
The people hiss, but at home I congratulate myself even
as I gaze on the moneys in my treasure chest.

In No. 84, The Important Question, III.10, Wesley had cited this same passage and more. This favourable reference to Horace as ‘the fine Roman painter’ connotes the vividness of his language; it is unusual for Wesley and reflects his strong feelings here. But he had many precedents for such an estimate, as in Abraham Cowley, ‘Ode Upon Occasion of a Copy of Verses of My Lord Broghill’s’, Works (11th edn., 1710), II.547; Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, Letter XLIV (written between Aug. 14-Oct. 20, 1740), Letters…to His Son (London, 1774), I.112; William Warburton, Works, VIII.299, 301; and William Law, An Humble, Earnest, and Affectionate Address to the Clergy (1761), in Works, IX.53.

If there are any vices which are not natural to man, I should imagine this is one; as money of itself does not seem to gratify any natural desire or appetite of the human mind; and as, during an observation of sixty years, I do not remember one instance of a man given up to the love of money till he had neglected to employ this precious talent according to the will of his master. After this, sin was punished by sin, and this evil spirit was permitted to enter into him.

77. But beside this gross sort of covetousness, ‘the love of money’,

19

1 Tim. 6:10.

there is a more refined species of covetousness, termed by the great Apostle, πλεονεξία,
20

Rom. 1:29; but see also 2 Cor. 9:5; Eph. 4:19; 5:3; Col. 3:5 (Notes).

which literally means ‘a desire of having more’—more than we have already. And those also [03:233]come under the denomination of ‘they that will be rich’. It is true that this desire, under proper restrictions, is innocent; nay, commendable. But when it exceeds the bounds (and how difficult is it not to exceed them!) then it comes under the present censure.

88. But who is able to receive these hard sayings? Who can believe that they are the great truths of God? Not many wise, not many noble,

21

1 Cor. 1:26.

not many famed for learning; none indeed who are not taught of God. And who are they whom God teaches? Let our Lord answer: ‘If any man be willing to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.’
22

John 7:17 (Notes).

Those who are otherwise minded will be so far from receiving it that they will not be able to understand it. Two as sensible men as most in England sat down together, some time since, to read over and consider that plain discourse on, ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.’
23

I.e., No. 28, ‘Sermon on the Mount, VIII’, on Matt. 6:19-23.

After much deep consideration one of them broke out: ‘Positively, I cannot understand it. Pray, do you understand it, Mr. L?’ Mr. L. honestly replied: ‘Indeed, not I. I cannot conceive what Mr. W[esley] means. I can make nothing at all of it.’ So utterly blind is our natural understanding touching the truth of God!

99. Having explained the former part of the text, ‘they that will be rich’, and pointed out in the clearest manner I could the persons spoken of, I will now endeavour, God being my helper, to explain what is spoken of them: ‘They fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition.’

‘They fall into temptation.’ This seems to mean much more than simply, ‘they are tempted.’ They ‘enter into the temptation’:

24

Cf. Mark 14:38, etc.

they fall plump down
25

Cf. Johnson, Dictionary: ‘to fall like a stone into the water’.

into it. The waves of it compass them about, and cover them all over. Of those who thus enter into temptation very few escape out of it. And the few that do are sorely scorched by it, though not utterly consumed. If they escape at all it is with the skin of their teeth,
26

Job 19:20.

and with deep wounds that are not easily healed.

1010. They fall, secondly, ‘into a snare’, the snare of the devil,

27

1 Tim 3:7; 2 Tim. 2:26.

03:234which he hath purposely set in their way. I believe the Greek word
28

παγίς: ‘trap, snare’, as in Rom. 11:9; 1 Tim. 3:7; 6:9; 2Tim. 2:26. The Vulgate reads laqueus, which also means ‘fetters’ or ‘chains’. Cf. Notes; also Nos. 131, ‘The Danger of Increasing Riches’, II.16; and 24, ‘Sermon on the Mount, IV’, §4, proem.

properly means a gin, a steel trap,
29

An example not noted in OED; Wesley hyphenated the word.

which shows no appearance of danger. But as soon as any creature touches the spring it suddenly closes, and either crushes its bones in pieces or consigns it to inevitable ruin.

1111. They fall, thirdly, ‘into many foolish and hurtful desires’: ἀνοήτους, silly, senseless, fantastic; as contrary to reason, to sound understanding, as they are to religion; ‘hurtful’, both to body and soul, tending to weaken, yea, destroy every gracious and heavenly temper; destructive of that faith which is of the operation of God; of that hope which is full of immortality;

30

See Wisd. 3:4. Cf. below, II.12; also No. 72, ‘Of Evil Angels’, II.4 and n.

of love to God and to our neighbour, and of every good word and work.
31

2 Thess. 2:17.

1212. But what desires are these? This is a most important question, and deserves the deepest consideration.

In general they may all be summed up in one—the desiring happiness out of God.

32

The shadow side of Wesley’s eudaemonism; cf. No. 6, ‘The Righteousness of Faith’, II.9 and n.

This includes, directly or remotely, every foolish and hurtful desire. St. Paul expresses it by ‘loving the creature more than the Creator’;
33

Rom. 1:25.

and by being ‘lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God’.
34

2 Tim. 3:4.

In particular they are (to use the exact and beautiful enumeration of St. John) ‘the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life’:
35

1 John 2:16; cf. No. 7, ‘The Way to the Kingdom’, II.2 and n.

all of which ‘the desire of riches’ naturally tends both to beget and to increase.

1313. ‘The desire of the flesh’ is generally understood in far too narrow a meaning. It does not, as is commonly supposed, refer to one of the senses only, but takes in all the pleasures of sense, the gratification of any of the outward senses. It has reference to the taste in particular. How many thousands do we find at this day in whom the ruling principle is the desire to enlarge the pleasure of tasting!

36

Here following William Law again; cf. No. 50, ‘The Use of Money’, II.2 and n.

Perhaps they do not gratify this desire in a gross manner, so as to incur the imputation of intemperance; much less so as to 03:235violate health or impair their understanding by gluttony or drunkenness. But they live in a genteel, regular sensuality; in an elegant epicurism,
37

Cf. No. 9, ‘The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption’, I.2 and n.

which does not hurt the body, but only destroys the soul, keeping it at a distance from all true religion.

1414. Experience shows that the imagination is gratified chiefly by means of the eye. Therefore ‘the desire of the eyes’, in its natural sense, is the desiring and seeking happiness in gratifying the imagination. Now the imagination is gratified either by grandeur, by beauty, or by novelty—chiefly by the last, for neither grand nor beautiful objects please any longer than they are new.

1515. Seeking happiness in learning, of whatever kind, falls under ‘the desire of the eyes’; whether it be in history, languages, poetry, or any branch of natural or experimental philosophy; yea, we must include the several kinds of learning, such as geometry, algebra, and metaphysics. For if our supreme delight be in any of these, we are herein gratifying ‘the desire of the eyes’.

1616. ‘The pride of life’ (whatever else that very uncommon expression ἡ ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου may mean)

38

It must have sounded ‘uncommon’ indeed in Wesley’s ears because ἀλαζονεία in classical Greek commonly means ‘false pretension’, ‘imposture’, etc. (cf. Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon); cf. also No. 14, The Repentance of Believers, I.7 and n.

seems to imply chiefly the desire of honour, of the esteem, admiration, and applause of men; as nothing more directly tends both to beget and cherish pride than the honour that cometh of men. And as riches attract much admiration, and occasion much applause, they proportionably minister food for pride, and so may also be referred to this head.

1717. Desire of ease is another of these foolish and hurtful desires; desire of avoiding every cross, every degree of trouble, danger, difficulty; a desire of slumbering out of life, and going to heaven (as the vulgar say) upon a feather-bed.

39

See Sir Thomas More (quoted as from Nicholas Harpsfield’s Life…, p. 75, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs): ‘We may not look…to go to heaven in feather-beds.’ Cf. Isaac Watts, ‘Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease…’, in ‘A Hymn for Sermon ΧΧΧI’, in Works, I.341.

Everyone may observe how riches first beget and then confirm and increase this desire, making men more and more soft and delicate, more unwilling, and indeed more unable, to ‘take up’ their ‘cross daily’,
40

Cf. Luke 9:23.

to ‘endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ’,
41

Cf. 2 Tim. 2:3.

‘and to take the kingdom of heaven by violence’.
42

Cf. Matt. 11:12.

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18. Riches, either desired or possessed, naturally lead to some or other of these foolish and hurtful desires; and by affording the means of gratifying them all, naturally tend to increase them. And there is a near connection between unholy desires and every other unholy passion and temper. We easily pass from these to pride, anger, bitterness, envy, malice, revengefulness; to an headstrong, unadvisable, unreprovable spirit—indeed to every temper that is earthly, sensual, or devilish.

43

See Jas. 3:15.

All these the desire or possession of riches naturally tends to create, strengthen, and increase.

1919. And by so doing, in the same proportion as they prevail, they ‘pierce men through with many sorrows’;

44

Cf. 1 Tim. 6:10.

sorrows from remorse, from a guilty conscience; sorrows flowing from all the evil tempers which they inspire or increase; sorrows inseparable from those desires themselves, as every unholy desire is an uneasy desire; and sorrows from the contrariety of those desires to each other, whence it is impossible to gratify them all. And in the end ‘they drown’ the body in pain, disease, ‘destruction’, and the soul in everlasting ‘perdition’.

2

1II. 1. I am, in the second place, to apply what has been said. And this is the principal point, for what avails the clearest knowledge, even of the most excellent things, even of the things of God, if it go no farther than speculation, if it be not reduced to practice? He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!

45

Matt. 11:15, etc.

And what he hears, let him instantly put in practice. O that God would give me the thing which I long for—that before I go hence and am no more seen,
46

Ps. 39:15 (BCP).

I may see a people wholly devoted to God, crucified to the world, and the world crucified to them!
47

See Gal. 6:14.

A people truly given up to God, in body, soul, and substance! How cheerfully should I then say, ‘Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace!’
48

Luke 2:29.

22. I ask, then, in the name of God, who of you ‘desire to be rich’? Which of you (ask your own hearts in the sight of God) seriously and deliberately desire (and perhaps applaud yourselves for so doing, as no small instance of your prudence) to have more than food to eat, and raiment to put on, and a house to cover you? Who of you desires to have more than the plain necessaries and conveniences of life? Stop! Consider! What are you doing? Evil is 03:237before you! Will you rush upon the point of a sword? By the grace of God, turn and live!

33. By the same authority I ask, who of you are endeavouring to be rich? To procure for yourselves more than the plain necessaries and conveniences of life?

49

Cf. above, I.3; see also, No. 30, ‘Sermon on the Mount, X’, §26 and n.

Lay, each of you, your hand to your heart, and seriously inquire, Am I of that number? Am I labouring, not only for what I want, but for more than I want? May the Spirit of God say to everyone whom it concerns, ‘Thou art the man!’
50

2 Sam. 12:7.

44. I ask, thirdly, who of you are in fact ‘laying up for yourselves treasures upon earth’?

51

Cf. Matt. 6:19.

Increasing in goods? Adding, as fast as you can, house to house, and field to field?
52

Cf. Isa. 5:8.

‘As long as thou’ thus ‘dost well unto thyself, men will speak good of thee.’
53

Ps. 49:18 (BCP).

They will call thee a ‘wise’, a ‘prudent’ man! A man that ‘minds the main chance’.
54

A proverbial motto for self-serving, running back at least to Persius, Satires, vi.158 (in Dryden’s translation, ‘Be careful still of the main chance, my son’). But see also John Lyly, Euphues (1579; Arbor’s Reprint, p. 104): ‘Lette mee stande to thee maine chaunce’; Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Pt. II, Canto II, ll. 501-2 (‘have a care of the main chance’); and John Tillotson, Works, I.293 (‘secure the main chance’). Wesley uses the phrase in Nos. 90, ‘An Israelite Indeed’, I.1; and 95, ‘On the Education of Children’, §19.

Such is, and always has been, the wisdom of the world. ‘But God saith unto’ thee, ‘Thou fool!’
55

Luke 12:20.

Art thou not ‘treasuring up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath’, and ‘revelation of the righteous judgment of God’?
56

Cf. Rom. 2:5.

55. Perhaps you will ask, ‘But do not you yourself advise, To gain all we can, and to save all we can?

57

See No. 50, ‘The Use of Money’, I.1 and n.; also II.1.

And is it possible to do this without both “desiring” and “endeavouring to be rich”? Nay, suppose our endeavours are successful, without actually “laying up treasures upon earth”?’

I answer, it is possible. You may gain all you can without hurting either your soul or body; you may save all you can, by carefully avoiding every needless expense, and yet never ‘lay up treasures on earth’, nor either desire or endeavour so to do.

66. Permit me to speak as freely of myself as I would of another man. I ‘gain all I can’ (namely, by writing) without hurting either [03:238]my soul or body. I ‘save all I can’, not willingly wasting anything, not a sheet of paper, not a cup of water. I do not lay out anything, not a shilling, unless as a sacrifice to God. Yet by ‘giving all I can’

58

This, of course, is the third division of Wesley’s sermon on ‘The Use of Money’, noted above.

I am effectually secured from ‘laying up treasures upon earth’. Yea, and I am secured from either desiring or endeavouring it as long as I ‘give all I can’. And that I do this I call all that know me, both friends and foes, to testify.

77. But some may say, ‘Whether you endeavour it or no, you are undeniably rich. You have more than the necessaries of life.’ I have. But the Apostle does not fix the charge barely on possessing any quantity of goods, but on possessing more than we employ according to the will of the Donor.

Two and forty years ago, having a desire to furnish poor people with cheaper, shorter, and plainer books than any I had seen, I wrote many small tracts, generally a penny apiece; and afterwards several larger. Some of these had such a sale as I never thought of; and by this means I unawares became rich.

59

Tyerman (JW), III.615-16, observes that Wesley was the ‘proprietor of a large publishing and book concern from which he derived considerable profits…, but of these he literally spent none upon himself except for an occasional suit of clothes.’ John Hampson, Memoirs of the Late Rev. John Wesley (1791), III.185-86, says that Wesley was ‘perhaps the most charitable man in England. His liberality to the poor knew no bounds. He gave away, not merely a certain part of his income, but all he had. We are persuaded, upon a moderate calculation, he gave away in about fifty years, twenty or thirty thousand pounds’ (cf. also John Whitehead, Life of John Wesley, II.481-82). Moore, Wesley, II.433-34, raises that figure: ‘[Mr. Wesley’s] accounts lie before me…and I am persuaded that Mr. Hampson might have increased the supposed sum to several thousands more.’ Naturally enough, an income of this magnitude gave rise to numerous accusations of hypocrisy and worse. For example, in a letter of Sept. 3, 1756, to an unidentified man, Wesley refutes such a charge: ‘[You say that] I who have written so much against the hoarding up money have put out £700 to interest.’ I never put sixpence out to interest since I was born; nor had I ever an hundred pounds together my own since I came into the world.’ In June 1760, he rejects the assertion of one John Baily that he ‘was as fond of riches as the most worldly clergyman.’

Actually, because of his indifference, the fiscal affairs of the movement and his publishing interests were chaotic; cf. JWJ, Sept. 8-9, 1756; Nov. 6, 1752; Aug. 21, 1773; Feb. 21, 1783; Jan. 1789; see also the letter to Robert Lindsay, Oct. 7, 1781. On July 16, 1790, he broke off his lifelong habit of keeping a monthly financial ‘Account’ with a characteristic comment: ‘For upwards of eighty-six years I have kept my accounts exactly. I will not attempt it any longer, being satisfied with the continual conviction that I save all I can, and give all I can, that is, all I have.’ Eighty-six years is either an exaggeration or else an inversion of ‘sixty-eight’, which would take us back to four years before his earliest recorded ‘account’, dated Sept. 1726. For more on Wesley’s money matters, see Tyerman (JW), III.614-17.

But I never desired or endeavoured after it. And now that it is come upon me 03:239unawares I lay up no treasures upon earth: I lay up nothing at all. My desire and endeavour in this respect is to ‘wind my bottom round the year’.
60

Cf. Prior, ‘An Epitaph’, l. 48; see also No. 89, ‘The More Excellent Way’, VI.4, and Wesley’s circular letter of June 20, 1766. OED defines the phrase as ‘bringing an affair to a final settlement’. Wesley might have borrowed the expression from a sermon of his grandfather Annesley (and therefore before Prior); cf. his extract of ‘On the Sovereignty of God’, in the Christian Lib., XLIV.303.

I cannot help leaving my books behind me whenever God calls me hence. But in every other respect my own hands will be my executors.

88. Herein, my brethren, let you that are rich be even as I am. Do you that possess more than food and raiment ask: ‘What shall we do? Shall we throw into the sea what God hath given us?’

61

Cf. No. 50, ‘The Use of Money’, §2.

God forbid that you should! It is an excellent talent: it may be employed much to the glory of God. Your way lies plain before your face; if you have courage, walk in it. Having ‘gained’ (in a right sense) ‘all you can’, and ‘saved all you can’; in spite of nature, and custom, and worldly prudence, ‘give all you can’. I do not say, ‘Be a good Jew,’ giving a tenth of all you possess. I do not say, ‘Be a good Pharisee,’ giving a fifth of all your substance.
62

A reference to the rabbinical tradition of the ‘two tithes’ which, between them, added up to ‘a fifth’; cf. Encyclopaedia Judaica, loc. cit. (see also the tractates in the Mishnah: Terumoth, Ma’aseroth, and Ma’aser Sheni).

I dare not advise you to give half of what you have; no, nor three-quarters—but all! Lift up your hearts and you will see clearly in what sense this is to be done.

“If you desire to be a ‘faithful and a wise steward’,
63

Luke 12:42. For other comments on stewardship, see Nos. 88, ‘On Dress’, §17; 89, ‘The More Excellent Way’, VI (proem); and 131, ‘The Danger of Increasing Riches’, I.7.

out of that portion of your Lord’s goods which he has for the present lodged in your hands, but with the right of resumption whenever it pleaseth him, (1), provide things needful for yourself—food to eat, raiment to put on, whatever nature moderately requires for preserving you both in health and strength; (2), provide these for your wife, your children, your servants, or any others who pertain to your household. If when this is done there is an overplus left, then do good to ‘them that are of the household of faith’.
64

Gal. 6:10.

If there be an overplus still, ‘as you have opportunity, do good unto all men’.
65

Ibid.

In so doing, you give all you can; nay, in a sound sense, all you have. For all that is laid out in this manner is really given to God. You render unto God the things that are God’s,
66

Matt 22:21.

not only by what you give to the poor, but 03:240also by that which you expend in providing things needful for yourself and your household.

Works [1771], Vol. 4, p. 56 [i.e., No. 50 ‘The Use of Money’, III.3, with minor rephrasings].

99. O ye Methodists,

67

Another use of the term ‘Methodists’ without some qualifier; this suggests extra emphasis, for §§9-16 constitute Wesley’s most explicit and direct condemnation of Methodists for their involvement in the accumulation of capital. There is nothing to match this sort of thing in any other English preacher in the century. See also No. 50, ‘The Use of Money’, intro.

hear the word of the Lord! I have a message from God to all men; but to you above all. For above forty years I have been a servant to you and to your fathers. And I have not been as a reed shaken with the wind:
68

Matt 11:7.

I have not varied in my testimony. I have testified to you the very same thing from the first day even until now. But ‘who hath believed our report?’
69

Isa. 53:1; John 12:38.

I fear, not many rich. I fear there is need to apply to some of you those terrible words of the Apostle: ‘Go to, now, ye rich men! Weep and howl for the miseries which shall come upon you. Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall witness against you, and shall eat your flesh, as it were fire.’
70

Cf. Jas. 5:1, 3.

Certainly it will, unless ye both save all you can and give all you can. But who of you hath considered this since you first heard the will of the Lord concerning it? Who is now determined to consider and practise it? By the grace of God begin today!

1010. O ye ‘lovers of money’, hear the word of the Lord! Suppose ye that money, though multiplied as the sand of the sea, can give happiness? Then you are ‘given up to a strong delusion, to believe a lie’;

71

Cf. 2 Thess. 2:11.

a palpable lie, confuted daily by a thousand experiments. Open your eyes! Look all around you! Are the richest men the happiest? Have those the largest share of content who have the largest possessions? Is not the very reverse true? Is it not a common observation that the richest of men are in general the most discontented, the most miserable? Had not the far greater part of them more content when they had less money? Look into your breasts. If you are increased in goods, are you proportionably increased in happiness? You have more substance; but have you more content? You know the contrary. You know that in seeking 03:241happiness from riches you are only striving to drink out of empty cups. And let them be painted and gilded ever so finely, they are empty still.

1111. O ye that ‘desire’ or endeavour ‘to be rich’,

72

1 Tim. 6:9 (Notes).

hear ye the word of the Lord! Why should ye be stricken any more? Will not even experience teach you wisdom? Will ye leap into a pit with your eyes open? Why should you any more ‘fall into temptation’? It cannot be but temptation will beset you as long as you are in the body. But though it should beset you on every side, why will you enter into it? There is no necessity for this; it is your own voluntary act and deed. Why should you any more plunge yourselves ‘into a snare’, into the trap Satan has laid for you, that is ready to break your bones in pieces, to crush your soul to death? After fair warning, why should you sink any more into ‘foolish and hurtful desires’? Desires as foolish, as inconsistent with reason as they are with religion itself! Desires that have done you more hurt already than all the treasures upon earth can countervail.

1212. Have they not hurt you already, have they not wounded you in the tenderest part, by slackening, if not utterly destroying your ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’?

73

Matt. 5:6.

Have you now the same longing that you had once for the whole image of God? Have you the same vehement desire as you formerly had of ‘going on unto perfection’?
74

Cf. Heb. 6:1.

Have they not hurt you by weakening your faith? Have you now faith’s ‘abiding impression, realizing things to come’?
75

Cf. Heb. 11:1, and Charles Wesley’s ‘Faith lends its realizing light’ (1780 Collection, Hymn 92:21; see 7:195 in this edn.)—though these do not constitute a clear source for the quotation.

Do you endure in all temptations from pleasure or pain, ‘seeing him that is invisible’?
76

Heb. 11:27 (Notes).

Have you every day, and every hour, an uninterrupted sense of his presence? Have they not hurt you with regard to your hope? Have you now a hope full of immortality?
77

Wisd. 3:4. Cf. above, I.11; also No. 72, ‘Of Evil Angels’, II.4 and n.

Are you still big with earnest expectation of all the great and precious promises?
78

2 Pet. 1:4.

Do you now ‘taste the powers of the world to come’?
79

Heb. 6:5.

Do you ‘sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus’?
80

Cf. Eph. 2:6.

[03:242]13. Have they not so hurt you as to stab your religion to the heart? Have they not cooled (if not quenched) your love of God? This is easily determined. Have you the same delight in God which you once had? Can you now say,

I nothing want beneath, above:
Happy, happy in thy love!
81

Cf. John and Charles Wesley, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, 2nd edn. (1743), p. 95 (Poet. Wks., VIII.247), on Ps. 131. See also Wesley’s letters to Sarah Pywell, Apr. 23, 1771, and to Miss Cummins, June 8, 1773.

I fear not. And if your love of God is in any wise decayed, so is also your love of your neighbour. You are then hurt in the very life and spirit of your religion! If you lose love, you lose all.

1414. Are not you hurt with regard to your humility? If you are increased in goods, it cannot well be otherwise. Many will think you a better, because you are a richer man; and how can you help thinking so yourself? Especially considering the commendations which some will give you in simplicity, and many with a design to serve themselves of you.

If you are hurt in your humility it will appear by this token: you are not so teachable as you were, not so advisable; you are not so easy to be convinced, not so easy to be persuaded. You have a much better opinion of your own judgment, and are more attached to your own will. Formerly one might guide you with a thread; now one cannot turn you with a cart-rope.

82

See Isa. 5:18; ‘cart-ropes’ as in the harness of strong ‘cart-horses’; cf. instances in OED.

You were glad to be admonished or reproved; but that time is past. And you now account a man your enemy because he tells you the truth. O let each of you calmly consider this, and see if it be not your own picture!

15. Are you not equally hurt with regard to your meekness? You had once learned an excellent lesson of him that was meek as well as lowly in heart.

83

See Matt. 11:29.

When you were reviled, you reviled not again.
84

See 1 Pet. 2:23.

You did not return railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing.
85

1 Pet. 3:9.

Your love was ‘not provoked’,
86

1 Cor. 13:5.

but enabled you on all occasions to overcome evil with good.
87

Rom. 12:21.

Is this your case now? I am afraid not. I fear you cannot ‘bear all things’.
88

Cf. 1 Cor. 13:7.

Alas, it may rather be said [03:243]you can bear nothing—no injury, nor even affront! How quickly are you ruffled! How readily does that occur: ‘What! to use me so! What insolence is this! How did he dare to do it! I am not now what I was once. Let him know I am now able to defend myself.’ You mean, to revenge yourself. And it is much if you are not willing as well as able; if you do not take your fellow servant by the throat.

16. And are you not hurt in your patience too? Does your love now ‘endure all things’?

89

Ibid.

Do you still ‘in patience possess your soul’,
90

Cf. Luke 21:19.

as when you first believed? O what a change is here! You have again learnt to be frequently out of humour. You are often fretful; you feel, nay, and give way to peevishness. You find abundance of things go so cross that you cannot tell how to bear them!

Many years ago I was sitting with a gentleman in London who feared God greatly, and generally gave away, year by year, nine-tenths of his yearly income. A servant came in and threw some coals on the fire. A puff of smoke came out. The baronet threw himself back in his chair and cried out, ‘Oh! Mr. Wesley, these are the crosses I meet with daily!’ Would he not have been less impatient if he had had fifty, instead of five thousand pounds a year?

91

Sir John Phillips (c. 1701-64) of Picton Castle, County Pembroke (Wales). Wesley repeats this recollection from the days of the Holy Club in No. 108, ‘On Riches’, II.8, and mentions it in a letter to Joseph Benson, Nov. 5, 1769 (‘You put me in mind of Sir John Phillips’s exclamation when a puff of smoke came out of the chimney…’). Cf. John Clayton’s letter to Wesley at Epworth, Sept. 4, 1732, and Sir John Thorold’s letter to Wesley, May 24, 1736, for examples of Sir John Phillips’s benefactions to the Holy Club (Curnock, VIII.278-80, 301).

1717. But to return. Are not you who have been successful in your endeavours to increase in substance, insensibly sunk into softness of mind, if not of body too? You no longer rejoice to ‘endure hardship, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ’.

92

Cf. 2 Tim. 2:3.

You no longer ‘rush into the kingdom of heaven, and take it as by storm’.
93

Cf. Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (1762), II.160, on Matt. 11:12 (Poet. Wks., X.249):

O might thy powerful word
Inspire a feeble worm
To rush into thy kingdom, Lord,
And take it as by storm.

(Cf. A Collection of Hymns (1780), No. 257, Vol. 7 of this edn.)

You do not 03:244cheerfully and gladly ‘deny yourselves’, and ‘take up your cross daily’.
94

Cf. Luke 9:23.

You cannot deny yourself the poor pleasure of a little sleep, or of a soft bed, in order to hear the word that is able to save your souls! Indeed, you ‘cannot go out so early in the morning; besides it is dark; nay, cold; perhaps rainy too. Cold, darkness, rain—all these together. I can never think of it.’ You did not say so when you were a poor man. You then regarded none of these things. It is the change of circumstances which has occasioned this melancholy change in your body and mind; you are but the shadow of what you were. What have riches done for you?

‘But it cannot be expected I should do as I have done; for I am now grown old.’ Am not I grown old as well as you? Am not I in my seventy-eighth year? Yet by the grace of God I do not slack my pace yet. Neither would you, if you were a poor man still.

18. You are so deeply hurt that you have wellnigh lost your zeal for works of mercy, as well as of piety.

95

For more on this distinction, see No. 14, The Repentance of Believers, I.13 and n.

You once pushed on, through cold or rain, or whatever cross lay in your way, to see the poor, the sick, the distressed. You went about doing good, and found out those who were not able to find you. You cheerfully crept down into their cellars, and climbed up into their garrets, to

Supply all their wants,
And spend and be spent in assisting his saints.
96

Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), II.281 (Poet. Wks., V.424; see also No. 482 in A Collection of Hymns (1780), Vol. 7 of this edn.).

You found out every scene of human misery, and assisted according to your power:

Each form of woe your generous pity moved;
Your Saviour’s face you saw, and seeing, loved.
97

π; author not identified so far.

Do you now tread in the same steps? What hinders? Do you fear spoiling your silken coat? Or is there another lion in the way?

98

See Prov. 26:13.

Are you afraid of catching vermin? And are you not afraid lest the roaring lion should catch you?
99

See 1 Pet. 5:8.

Are you not afraid of him that hath said, ‘Inasmuch as ye have not done it unto the least of these, ye have not done it unto me’?
100

Cf. Matt. 25:45.

What will follow? ‘Depart, 03:245ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’
101

Matt. 25:41.

1919. In time past how mindful were you of that word: ‘Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart. Thou shalt in any wise reprove thy brother, and not suffer sin upon him.’

102

Cf. Lev. 19:17.

You did reprove, directly or indirectly, all those that sinned in your sight. And happy consequences quickly followed. How good was a word spoken in season!
103

See Prov. 15:23.

It was often as an arrow from the hand of a giant.
104

See Ps. 127:5 (BCP).

Many a heart was pierced. Many of the stout-hearted, who scorned to hear a sermon,

Fell down before his cross subdued,
And felt his arrows dipped in blood.
105

Cf. John and Charles Wesley, Ps. 45, in A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1743), p. 74 (Poet. Wks., VIII.103):

Fall down before thy cross subdued,
And feel thine arrows dipped in blood.

But which of you now has that compassion for the ignorant, and for them that are out of the way? They may wander on for you, and plunge into the lake of fire without let or hindrance. Gold hath steeled your hearts. You have something else to do.

“Unhelped, unpitied let the wretches fall.
106

Cf. Samuel Wesley, Jun., ‘The Battle of the Sexes’, xxvii.8, ‘Unaided, friendless, let the wretches fall’ (Poems, 1736, p. 34; cf. John Wesley, A Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems (1744), III.29).

2020. Thus have I given you, O ye gainers, lovers, possessors of riches, one more (it may be the last) warning.

107

There is a hint of self-pity and frustration in this valedictory word. Actually, Wesley would live another decade and would fill it with further denunciations of riches; cf. Nos. 61, ‘The Mystery of Iniquity’, §12 (1783); 94, ‘On Family Religion’, III.16, 17 (1783); 63, ‘The General Spread of the Gospel’, §20 (1783); 68, ‘The Wisdom of God’s Counsels’, §§8, 16 (1784); 90, ‘An Israelite Indeed’, I.1 (1785); 80, ‘On Friendship with the World’, §3 (1786); 89, ‘The More Excellent Way’, VI.4 (1787); 108, ‘On Riches’, §4 (1788); 115, ‘Dives and Lazarus’, II.1 (1788); 122, ‘Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity’, §12 (1789); 126, ‘On Worldly Folly’, I.4, II.8 (1790); and 131, ‘The Danger of Increasing Riches’, I, II.16 (1790).

O that it may not be in vain! May God write it upon all your hearts! Though ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven,’
108

Cf. Matt. 19:24.

yet the things 03:246impossible with men are possible with God.
109

Luke 18:27 (Notes).

Lord, speak! And even the rich men that hear these words shall enter thy kingdom! Shall ‘take the kingdom of heaven by violence’;
110

Cf. Matt. 11:12.

shall ‘sell all for the pearl of great price’:
111

Cf. Matt. 13:46.

Shall be ‘crucified to the world’,
112

Cf. Gal. 6:14.

‘and count all things dung, that they may win Christ’!
113

Cf. Phil. 3:8.


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Entry Title: Sermon 87: The Danger of Riches

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