And _first_, can it be said, that _mammon_ is less _served_ by Christians, than by Jews and Infidels? Or can there be a fuller proof, that Christians, Jews, and Infidels, are equally fallen from God, since truth itself hath told us, That we _cannot serve God and mammon_? Is not this as unalterable a truth, as if it had been said, _Ye cannot serve God and Baal_? Or can it be affirmed, that the _Mammonist_ has more of Christ in him, than the _Baalist_, or is more or less an idolater for being called a Christian, a Jew, or an Infidel? Look now at all those particulars, which Christ charged upon the Jewish priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, and you will see them all acted over again in Christendom. And if God’s prophets were again in the world, they would have just the same complaints against the _fallen_ Christian church, as they had against the old carnal stiff-necked Jews, _namely, that of their silver and gold, they had made themselves idols_, Hosea viii. 4. For though figured idol-gods of gold are not now worshipped either by Jews or Christians, yet silver and gold, with that which belongs to them, is the mammon-god, that sits and reigns in their hearts. How else could be that universal strife through all Christendom, who should stand in the richest and highest place, to preach up the humility of Christ, and offer spiritual sacrifices unto God? What God but mammon could put into the hearts of Christ’s ambassadors, to make, or want to make a gain of that gospel, which from the beginning to the end, means nothing else but _separation_ from every view, temper and affection, that has any connexion with _the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life_? Our blessed Lord said a word to the Jews, that might well have made their ears to tingle, when he told them, that they _had made his Father’s house a den of thieves_; because sheep and oxen were sold, and money-changers sitting in the outer court of the temple. Now if you will say, that mammon has brought forth no prophanation like this in our Christian church, your best proof must be this, because our church-sale is not oxen and sheep, but holy things, cures of souls, parsonages, vicarages, &c. and our money-changers, our buyers and sellers, are chiefly consecrated persons. Look at things spiritual, and things temporal, and say if you can, that the same arts, the same passions, and worldly wisdom, are not as active in the one, as in the other. For if Christ at leaving the world, had said to his disciples, labour to be rich, make full provision for the flesh, be conformed to the world, court the favour and interest of great men, cloath yourselves with all the ♦worldly honours, distinctions, and powers ye can get; I appeal to every man, whether Popish and Protestant churches need do any thing else, than that which they _now_ do, to prove their faithfulness to such a master, and their full obedience to his precepts. ♦ “wordly” replaced with “worldly”