10. *There is no one instance of spiritual infatuation in the world, which is more amazing than this. Most of these very men read, or hear the bible read, many of them every Lord’s day. They have read or heard these words an hundred times, and yet never suspect that they are themselves condemned thereby, any more than by those which forbid parents to offer up their sons or daughters unto _Moloch_. O that God would speak to these miserable self-deceivers, with his own voice, his mighty voice! That they may at last awake out of the snare of the devil, and the scales may fall from their eyes! 11. Do you ask, what it is to lay _up treasures on earth_? It will be needful to examine this thoroughly. And let us, first, observe, what is not forbidden in this command, that we may then clearly discern, what is. We are not forbidden in this command, first, to _provide things honest in the sight of all men_, to provide wherewith we may _render unto all their due_, whatsoever they can justly demand of us. So far from it, that we are taught of God, to _owe no man any thing_. We ought therefore to use all diligence in our calling, in order to owe no man any thing: this being no other than a plain law of common justice, which our Lord came _not to destroy but to fulfil_. Neither, secondly, does he here forbid the providing for ourselves, such things as are needful for the body: a sufficiency of plain, wholesome food to eat, and clean raiment to put on. Yea, it is our duty, so far as God puts it into our power, to provide these things also; to the end we may _eat our own bread_, and be _burdensome to no man_. Nor yet are we forbidden, thirdly, to provide for our children, and for those of our own household. This also it is our duty to do, even upon principles of Heathen morality. Every man ought to provide the plain necessaries of life, for his own wife and children: and to put them into a capacity of providing these for themselves, when he is gone hence and is no more seen. I say, of providing _these_, the plain necessaries of life, not delicacies, not superfluities: and that by their _diligent labour_; for it is no man’s duty to furnish them any more than himself, with the means either of luxury or idleness. But if any man provide not thus far for his own children, (as well as for _the widows of his own house_; of whom primarily St. _Paul_ is speaking, in those well known words to _Timothy_): _he hath_ practically _denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel_, or Heathen. Lastly, We are not forbidden in these words, to lay up from time to time, what is needful for the carrying on our worldly business, in such a measure and degree, as is sufficient to answer the foregoing purposes: in such a measure, as first, to owe no man any thing; secondly, to procure for ourselves the necessaries of life; and thirdly, to furnish those of our own house with them while we live, and with the means of procuring them when we are gone to God.