If preferment, or honour, or profit was in his eye, his _eye_ was not _single_. And our Lord knew no medium between a _single_ and an _evil eye_. The _eye_ therefore which is not _single_ is _evil_. It is a plain, adjudged case. He then that has any other design in undertaking or executing the office of a minister, than purely this, to glorify God and save souls, his eye is not _single_. Of consequence, it is _evil_; and therefore his _whole body_ must be _full of darkness. The light which is in_ him _is_ very _darkness_: darkness covers his whole soul: he has no solid peace: he has no blessing from God: And there is no fruit of his labours. It is no wonder, that they who _see no harm_ in this, see no harm in adding one _living_ to another, and, if they can, another to that; yet still _wiping their mouth_, and saying, they _have done no evil_. In the very first step, their _eye_ was _not single_: therefore their mind was filled with darkness. So they stumble on still in the same mire, till their feet _stumble on the dark mountains_. *It is pleaded indeed, That “a small living will not maintain a large family.” Maintain? How? It will not _cloath_ them _in purple and fine linen_; nor enable them to _fare sumptuously every day_. But will not the living _you_ have now, afford you and yours the plain necessaries, yea and conveniencies of life? Will it not maintain you in the frugal, Christian simplicity, which becomes a minister of _Christ_? It will not maintain you in pomp and grandeur, in elegant luxury, in fashionable sensuality. So much the better. If your eyes were open, whatever your income was, you would flee from these as from hell-fire. It has been pleaded, secondly, “by having a larger income, I am able to do more good.” But dare you aver, in the presence of God, that it was _singly_ with this view, _only_ for this end, that you sought a larger income? If not, you are still condemned before God; your _eye_ was not _single_. Do not therefore quibble and evade. This was not your motive of acting. It was not the desire of doing more good, whether to the souls or bodies of men, it was not the love of God; (you know it was not, your own conscience is as a thousand witnesses) but it was _the love of money_, and _the desire of other things_, which animated you in this pursuit. If then the word of God is true, you are in darkness still: It fills and covers your soul.