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Sermon 108: On Riches

https://wesleyworks.ecdsdev.org/sermons/Sermon108

03:518 An Introductory Comment

The last sermon in SOSO, IV (1760), had been on ‘The Use of Money’. Now, the last sermon in SOSO, VIII (1788), is ‘On Riches’—and the parallels between the two sermons (and their placement) are noteworthy. In the three-decade interim, however, many Methodists by their diligence and thrift and the general prosperity of the times had become affluent (comparatively, at least), and Wesley had found it quite in vain to try to persuade them to follow his third rule: ‘Give all you can.’ The tone of ‘The Use of Money’ had been admonitory (what a Christian should do with riches, in case; for as he says below, II.10, not a single Methodist was rich ‘when they first joined together’). Now he is in an earnest pastoral conflict with people whose actual ‘riches’ were, as he believed fervently, a mortal danger to their souls, a hindrance to their ‘entering the kingdom of heaven’. It was, therefore, fitting that his last word to them in his collected sermons should be a warning and an exhortation.

Along with its two predecessors, ‘On Riches’ was finished within the fortnight between April 8 and 23, in the midst of an arduous preaching mission in Lancashire, which suggests that he was working under the pressure of a deadline to complete the quota of fourteen sermons designed for his concluding volume of collected sermons; it was published in the ensuing summer. Indeed, it is a reasonable guess that he wrote out these last three sermons expressly for this volume.

At any rate, ‘On Riches’ first appeared in SOSO, VIII.273-91, and this is the primary text for this edition. That text was then reprinted, with negligible alterations, in the March and April issues of the Arminian Magazine (1789), XII.117-22, 174-80, without title but numbered as ‘Sermon L’. There is, however, a problem with the postscripted place and date as given in the Arminian Magazine: ‘Rochdale, April 22, 1788’. Both Journal and diary agree that he did not arrive in Rochdale until the afternoon of April 23—which means that since Rochdale was almost certainly the right place, then April 23 was almost certainly the right date.

03:519 On Riches

Matthew 19:24

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 God.

11. In the preceding verses we have an account of ‘a young man’ who ‘came running’ to our Lord, ‘and kneeling down’, not in hypocrisy, but in deep earnestness of soul, and said unto him, ‘Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?’ ‘All the commandments’, saith he, ‘I have kept from my youth: what lack I yet?’

Matt. 19:16, 20; cf. Mark 10:17.

Probably he had kept them in the literal sense; yet he still loved the world. And he who knew what was in man

John 2:25.

knew that in this particular case (for this is by no means a general rule) he could not be healed of that desperate disease but by a desperate remedy. Therefore he answered, ‘Go and sell all that thou hast, and give it to the poor, and come and follow me. But when he heard this, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.’

Cf. Matt. 19:21-22.

So all the fair blossoms withered away! For he would not lay up treasure in heaven at so high a price! ‘Jesus’, observing this, ‘looked round about and said unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 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 God. And they were astonished out of measure, and said among themselves, Who then can be saved?’

Mark 10:23, etc.

—if it be so difficult for rich men to be saved, who have so many and so great advantages, who are free from the cares of this world, and a thousand difficulties to which the poor are continually exposed!

22. It has indeed been supposed, he partly retracts what he had said concerning the difficulty of rich men’s being saved by what is added in the tenth chapter of St. Mark. For after he had said, 03:520‘How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God,’

Ver. 23.

when ‘the disciples were astonished at his words’, Jesus answered again, and said unto them, ‘How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!’

Ver. 24.

But observe, (1), our Lord did not mean hereby to retract what he had said before. So far from it that he immediately confirms it by that awful declaration, ‘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 God.’ Observe, (2), both one of these sentences and the other assert the very same thing. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for those that have riches not to trust in them.

33. Perceiving their astonishment at this hard saying, ‘Jesus looked upon them’ (undoubtedly with an air of inexpressible tenderness, to prevent their thinking the case of the rich desperate), [and said,] ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.’

Mark 10:27.

44. I apprehend by a rich man here is meant, not only a man that has immense treasures, one that has heaped up gold as dust, and silver as the sand of the sea,

See Job 22:24; 27:16; Zech. 9:3; Ps. 78:28 (BCP).

but anyone that possesses more than the necessaries and conveniences of life.

Cf. No. 30, ‘Sermon on the Mount, X’, §26 and n.; see also No. 50, ‘The Use of Money’, intro.

One that has food and raiment sufficient for himself and his family, and something over, is rich. By the kingdom of God, or of heaven (exactly equivalent terms) I believe is meant (not the kingdom of glory, although that will without question follow, but) the kingdom of heaven, that is, true religion upon earth. The meaning, then, of our Lord’s assertion is this: that it is absolutely impossible, unless by that power to which all things are possible, that a rich man should be a Christian—to have the mind that was in Christ,

See Phil. 2:5.

and to walk as Christ walked.

See 1 John 2:6.

Such are the hindrances to holiness, as well as the temptations to sin, which surround him on every side.

I. First, such are the hindrances to holiness which surround him on every side. To enumerate all these would require a large volume: I would only touch upon a few of them.

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11. The root of all religion is faith, without which it is impossible to please God.

Cf. Heb. 11:6; cf. also No. 3, ‘Awake, Thou That Sleepest’, I.11 and n.

Now if

Both early texts here read ‘whether’; in Wesley’s copy of AM this is corrected to ‘if’, though not in Wesley’s hand.

you take this in its general acceptation, for an ‘evidence of things not seen’,

Heb. 11:1.

of the invisible and the eternal world, of God and the things of God—how natural a tendency have riches to darken this evidence, to prevent your attention to God and the things of God, and to things invisible and eternal! And if you take it in another sense, for a confidence in God,

‘in God’: Wesley’s marginal annotation in SOSO, VIII (1788).

what a tendency have riches to destroy this! To make you trust, either for happiness or defence, in them, not ‘in the living God’!

1 Tim. 4:10.

Or if you take faith in the proper Christian sense, as a divine confidence in a pardoning God, what a deadly, what an almost insuperable, hindrance to this faith are riches! What? Can a wealthy, and consequently an honourable man, come to God as having nothing to pay? Can he lay all his greatness by and come as a sinner, a mere sinner, the vilest of sinners? As on a level with those that feed the dogs of his flock? With that ‘beggar’ who ‘lies at his gate full of sores’?

Cf. Luke 16:20.

Impossible, unless by the same power that made the heavens and the earth. Yet without doing this he cannot in any sense ‘enter into the kingdom of God’.

22. What a hindrance are riches to the very first fruit of faith, namely, the love of God! ‘If any man love the world’, says the Apostle, ‘the love of the Father is not in him.’

1 John 2:15.

But how is it possible for a man not to love the world, who is surrounded with all its allurements? How can it be that he should then hear the still small voice

1 Kgs. 19:12.

which says, ‘My son, give me thy heart’?

Cf. Prov. 23:26.

What power less than almighty can send the rich man an answer to that prayer,

Keep me dead to all below,

Only Christ resolved to know:

Firm, and disengaged and free,

Seeking all my bliss in Thee!

John and Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), p. 220. See also Wesley’s letters to Lady Rawdon, Mar. 18, 1760; to Philothea Briggs, June 20, 1772; and to Ann Bolton, Jan. 5, 1783. See also ‘A Thought Upon Marriage’, §7, in AM (1785), VIII.535.

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33. Riches are equally a hindrance to the loving our neighbour as ourselves, that is, to the loving all mankind as Christ loved us. A rich man may indeed love them that are of his own party, or his own opinion. He may love them that love him: ‘do not even heathens’, baptized or unbaptized, ‘the same’?

Cf. Luke 6:33.

But he cannot have pure, disinterested goodwill to every child of man. This can only spring from the love of God, which his great possessions expelled from his soul.

44. From the love of God, and from no other fountain, true humility likewise flows. Therefore so far as they hinder the love of God riches must hinder humility likewise. They hinder this also in the rich by cutting them off from that freedom of conversation whereby they might be made sensible of their defects, and come to a true knowledge of themselves. But how seldom do they meet with a faithful friend, with one that can and will deal plainly with them! And without this we are likely to grow grey in our faults; yea, to die

“With all our imperfections on our head.

Cf. Shakespeare, Hamlet, I.v.76-79:

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,

Unhousel’d, disappointed, unaneled,

No reckoning made, but sent to my account

With all my imperfections on my head.

”

55. Neither can meekness subsist without humility; for ‘of pride’ naturally ‘cometh contention.’

Cf. Prov. 13:10.

Our Lord accordingly directs us to learn of him at the same time to be ‘meek and lowly in heart’.

Matt. 11:29.

Riches therefore are as great a hindrance to meekness as they are to humility. In preventing lowliness of mind

Phil. 2:3.

they of consequence prevent meekness, which increases in the same proportion as we sink in our own esteem; and on the contrary necessarily decreases as we think more highly of ourselves.

66. There is another Christian temper which is nearly allied to meekness and humility.

See No. 21, ‘Sermon on the Mount, I’, I.7 and n.

But it has hardly a name. St. Paul terms it, ἐπιεικεία.

As in 2 Cor. 10:1 (cf. Greek of Acts 24:4). See Notes; and Nos. 97, ‘On Obedience to Pastors’, III.13 and n.; and 10, ‘The Witness of the Spirit, I’, II.6 and n.

Perhaps till we find a better name in English

In Wesley’s own copy of AM by a hand other than Wesley’s, ‘in English’ is a marginal addition.

we 03:523may call it ‘yieldingness’—a readiness to submit to others, to give up our own will. This seems to be the quality which St. James ascribes to ‘the wisdom from above’, when he styles it εὐπειθής,

Jas. 3:17. Cf. No. 97, ‘On Obedience to Pastors’, III.2 and n.; also No. 10, ‘The Witness of the Spirit, I’, II.6 and n.

which we render ‘easy to be entreated’; easy to be convinced of what is true; easy to be persuaded. But how rarely is this amiable temper to be found in a wealthy man! I do not know that I have found such a prodigy ten times in above threescore and ten years.

77. And how uncommon a thing is it to find patience in those that have large possessions! Unless when there is a counterbalance of long and severe affliction with which God is frequently pleased to visit those he loves, as an antidote to their riches. This is not uncommon: he often sends pain and sickness, and great crosses, to them that have great possessions. By these means ‘patience has its perfect work, till they are perfect and entire, lacking nothing’.

Cf. Jas. 1:4; see No. 83, ‘On Patience’, §5 and n.

II. Such are some of the hindrances to holiness which surround the rich on every side! We may now observe, on the other side, what a temptation riches are to all unholy tempers.

11. And, first, how great is the temptation to atheism,

See No. 23, ‘Sermon on the Mount, III’, I.11 and n.

which naturally flows from riches; even to an entire forgetfulness of God,

For ‘dissipation’ as an ‘uncentring from God’, see No. 79, ‘On Dissipation’, §6 and n.

as if there was no such Being in the universe! This is at present usually termed ‘dissipation’

A ‘cant word’ of the day used in the sense of relaxation, diversion, distraction; see No. 79, ‘On Dissipation’, §1 and n.

—a pretty name affixed by the great vulgar

See No. 31, ‘Sermon on the Mount, XI’, I.6 and n.

to an utter disregard for God, and indeed for the whole invisible world. And how is the rich man surrounded with all manner of temptations to continual dissipation! Yes, how is the art of dissipation studied among the rich and great! As Prior keenly says,

Cards are dealt and dice are brought, …

Happy effects of human wit,

That Alma may herself forget.

A paraphrase of Matthew Prior’s ‘Alma’, III.488-91.

Say rather,

“

That mortals may their God forget!

03:524

That they may keep him utterly out of their thoughts, who, though he sitteth on the circle of the heavens,

See Isa. 40:22.

yet is ‘about their bed, and about their path, and spieth out all their ways’.

Cf. Ps. 139:2 (BCP).

Call this wit, if you please; but is it wisdom? O no! It is far, very far from it! Thou fool, dost thou imagine because thou dost not see God that God doth not see thee? Laugh on! Play on! Sing on! Dance on! But ‘for all these things God will bring thee to judgment!’

Cf. Eccles. 11:9.

”

22. From atheism there is an easy transition to idolatry—from the worship of no God to the worship of false gods. And, in fact, he that does not love God (which is his proper and his only proper worship) will surely love some of the works of his hands; will love the creature if not the Creator. But to how many species of idolatry is every rich man exposed! What continual and almost insuperable temptations is he under to ‘love the world’!

1 John 2:15.

And that in all its branches—‘the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life’.

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

What innumerable temptations will he find to gratify ‘the desire of the flesh’! Understand this right. It does not refer to one only, but to all the outward senses. It is equal idolatry to seek our happiness in gratifying any or all of these. But there is the greatest danger lest men should seek it in gratifying their taste; in a moderate sensuality; in a regular kind of epicurism. Not in gluttony or drunkenness—far be that from them! They do not disorder the body; they only keep the soul dead—dead to God and all true religion.

33. The rich are equally surrounded with temptations from ‘the desire of the eyes’; that is, the seeking happiness in gratifying the imagination; [to] the pleasures of which the eyes chiefly minister. The objects that give pleasure to the imagination

Cf. No. 44, Original Sin, II.10 and n.

are grand, or beautiful, or new. Indeed all rich men have not a taste for grand objects; but they have for new and beautiful things; especially for new, the desire of novelty being as natural to men as the desire of meat and drink. Now how numerous are the temptations to this kind of idolatry which naturally spring from riches! How strongly and continually are they solicited to seek happiness (if not in grand, yet) in beautiful houses, in elegant furniture, in curious pictures, in delightful gardens!

An echo from William Law; cf. No. 28, ‘Sermon on the Mount, VIII’, §§23-24 and n.

Perhaps in that trifle of all trifles, 03:525rich or gay apparel! Yea, in every new thing, little or great, which fashion, the mistress of fools,

Cf. No. 25, ‘Sermon on the Mount, V’, IV.3 and n.

recommends? How are rich men of a more elevated turn of mind tempted to seek happiness, as their various tastes lead, in poetry, history, music, philosophy, or curious arts and sciences! Now, although it is certain all these have their use, and therefore may innocently be pursued, yet the seeking happiness in any of them instead of God is manifest idolatry. And therefore were it only on this account—that riches furnish him with the means of indulging all these desires—it might well be asked, ‘Is not the life of a rich man’ (above all others) ‘a temptation upon earth?’

Cf. 1 Tim. 6:9.

44. What temptation likewise must every rich man have to seek happiness in ‘the pride of life’! I do not conceive the Apostle to mean thereby pomp, or state, or equipage, so much as ‘the honour that cometh of men’,

Cf. John 5:41.

whether it be deserved or not. A rich man is sure to meet with this: it is a snare he cannot escape. The whole city of London uses the words ‘rich’ and ‘good’ as equivalent terms. ‘Yes’, say they, ‘He is a good man: he is worth a hundred thousand pounds.’

I.e., a ‘plum’; cf. No. 131, ‘The Danger of Increasing Riches’, I.6 and n. For Wesley’s use of ‘a good sort of man’, cf. No. 80, ‘On Friendship with the World’, §21 and n.

And indeed everywhere if ‘thou dost well unto thyself’, if thou increasest in goods, ‘men will speak well of thee.’

Cf. Ps. 49:18 (BCP).

All the world is agreed,

A thousand pound supplies

The want of twenty thousand qualities.

π; Cf. No. 113, The Late Work of God in North America, I.12.

And who can bear general applause without being puffed up—without being insensibly induced ‘to think of himself more highly than he ought to think’?

Rom. 12:3.

55. How is it possible that a rich man should escape pride, were it only on this account, that his situation necessarily occasions praise to flow in upon him from every quarter. For praise is generally poison to the soul; and the more pleasing, the more fatal—particularly when it is undeserved. So that well might our poet say:

Parent of evil, bane of honest deeds,

Pernicious flattery! Thy destructive seeds

03:526

In an ill hour, and by a fatal hand

Sadly diffused o’er virtue’s gleby land,

With rising pride amid the corn appear,

And check the hope and promise of the year!

Cf. Prior, Solomon, i.693-98.

And not only praise, whether deserved or undeserved, but everything about him tends to inspire and increase pride. His noble house, his elegant furniture, his well-chosen pictures, his fine horses, his equipage, his very dress, yea, even ‘the embroidery plaistered on his tail’:

Cf. Pope, Moral Essays, Epistle III, ‘To Lord Bathurst’, 90:

With all th’ embroid’ry plaister’d at thy tail.

all these will be matter of commendation to some or other of his guests, and so have an almost irresistible tendency to make him think himself a better man than those who have not these advantages.

66. How naturally likewise do riches feed and increase the self-will which is born in every child of man! As not only his domestic servants and immediate dependants are governed implicitly by his will, finding their account therein, but also most of his neighbours and acquaintance study to oblige him in all things; so his will, being continually indulged, will of course be continually strengthened, till at length he will be ill able to submit to the will either of God or men.

77. Such a tendency have riches to beget and nourish every temper that is contrary to the love of God. And they have equal tendency to feed every passion and temper that is contrary to the love of our neighbour. Contempt, for instance, particularly of inferiors, than which nothing is more contrary to love: resentment of any real or supposed offence; perhaps even revenge, although God claims this as his own peculiar prerogative;

See Rom. 12:19.

at least anger, for it immediately rises in the mind of a rich man: ‘What! to use me thus! Nay, but he shall soon know better: I am now able to do myself justice.’

88. Nearly related to anger, if not rather a species of it, are fretfulness and peevishness. But are the rich more assaulted by these than the poor? All experience shows that they are. One remarkable instance I was a witness of many years ago. A gentleman of large fortune,

Sir John Phillipps (c. 1701-64); see No. 87, ‘The Danger of Riches’, II.16 and n.

while we were seriously conversing, ordered a servant to throw some coals on the fire. A puff of smoke 03:527came out. He threw himself back in his chair and cried out, ‘O Mr. Wesley, these are the crosses which I meet with every day!’ I could not help asking, ‘Pray, Sir John, are these the heaviest crosses you meet with?’ Surely these crosses would not have fretted him so much if he had had fifty instead of five thousand pounds a year!

99. But it would not be strange if rich men were in general void of all good dispositions, and an easy prey to all evil ones, since so few of them pay any regard to that solemn declaration of our Lord, without observing which we cannot be his disciples: ‘And he said unto them all’—the whole multitude, not unto his apostles only—‘If any man will come after me’, will be a real Christian, ‘let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.’

Luke 9:23.

O how hard a saying is this to those that are at ease ‘in the midst of their possessions’!

Cf. Ecclus. 41:1.

Yet the Scripture cannot be broken. Therefore unless a man do ‘deny himself’ every pleasure which does not prepare him for taking pleasure in God, ‘and take up his cross daily’—obey every command of God, however grievous to flesh and blood—he cannot be a disciple of Christ, he cannot ‘enter into the kingdom of God’.

1010. Touching this important point of ‘denying ourselves, and taking up our cross daily’, let us appeal to matter of fact; let us appeal to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. How many rich men are there among the Methodists

From 1776 until his death Wesley’s complaints against Methodists who have not ‘given all they can’ multiply and gain in stridency. He was, in effect, trying to counteract the surge of capitalistic ideas given impetus by Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776).

(observe, there was not one when they were first joined together!) who actually do ‘deny themselves, and take up their cross daily’? Who resolutely abstain from every pleasure, either of sense or imagination, unless they know by experience that it prepares them for taking pleasure in God? Who declines no cross, no labour or pain, which lies in the way of his duty? Who of you that are now rich deny yourselves just as you did when you were poor? Who as willingly endure labour or pain now as you did when you were not worth five pounds? Come to particulars. Do you fast now as often as you did then? Do you rise as early in the morning? Do you endure cold or heat, wind or rain, as cheerfully as ever? See one reason among 03:528many why so few increase in goods without decreasing in grace—because they no longer deny themselves and take up their daily cross! They no longer, alas! endure hardship, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ!

See 2 Tim. 2:3.

1111. ‘Go to now, ye rich men! Weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you!’

Cf. Jas. 5:1.

That must come upon you in a few days, unless prevented by a deep and entire change! ‘The canker of your gold and silver will be a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh as fire.’

Cf. Jas. 5:3.

O how pitiable is your condition! And who is able to help you? You need more plain dealing than any men in the world. And you meet with less. For how few dare speak as plain to you as they would do to one of your servants? No man living that either hopes to gain anything by your favour, or fears to lose anything by your displeasure. O that God would give me acceptable words, and cause them to sink deep into your hearts! Many of you have known me long, wellnigh from your infancy! You have frequently helped me when I stood in need. May I not say you loved me? But now the time of our parting is at hand: my feet are just stumbling upon the dark mountains.

An echo of Jer. 13:16.

I would leave one word with you before I go hence; and you may remember it when I am no more seen.

See Ps. 39:15 (BCP).

1212. O let your heart be whole with God! Seek your happiness in him and him alone. Beware that you cleave not to the dust!

See Ps. 119:25.

‘This earth is not your place.’

Charles Wesley; see No. 3, ‘Awake, Thou That Sleepest’, II.5 and n.

See that you use this world as not abusing

Cf. No. 20, The Lord Our Righteousness, II.20 and n.

it: use the world, and enjoy God.

Cf. Pascal, Pensées, ed., H. F. Stewart (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1950), pp. 304-5; see also No. 30, ‘Sermon on the Mount, X’, §7 and n.

Sit as loose to all things here below

See No. 44, Original Sin, II.9 and n.

as if you was a poor beggar. Be a good steward of the manifold gifts of God,

See 1 Pet. 4:10; cf. No. 51, The Good Steward.

that when you are called to give an account of your stewardship

See Luke 16:2.

he may say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord’!

Matt. 25:21.

Rochdale, April 23, 1788

The place and date were added in AM as ‘Rochdale, April 22, 1788’—‘22’ apparently a printer’s error for ‘23’; see JWJ, and his diary for the latter date: ‘3.15 Rochdale, sermon, prayed, tea; 6’.

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