TENDENCY OF COVETOUSNESS. 



113 



lid :r at ions already stated, and from the whole 

 tenor of Divine Revelation ; and it is in unison 

 with reason, and with the common sense of 

 mankind, that the merit or demerit of any action 

 is to be estimated, according to the intention of 

 the actor, and the disposition from which it 

 flows. That no doubt may remain on this point, 

 the Supreme Legislator closes the decalogue 

 with a command, which has a reference solely to 

 the desires and dispositions of the mind : &quot; Thou 

 shall not covet.&quot; Covetousness consists in an 

 inordinate desire of earthly objects and enjoy 

 ments. This desire, when uniformly indulged, 

 leads to a breach of almost every other precept of 

 the Divine law ; and is the source of more than 

 one half of all the evils which afflict the human 

 race. It leads to a breach of the eighth com 

 mand, by exciting either to fraudulent dealings, or 

 to direct acts of theft and robbery. It leads to 

 a breach of the ninth command, by cherishing the 

 principle of falsehood which is implied in every 

 fraudulent transaction. It leads to a violation of 

 the sixth command, by engendering a spirit of re 

 venge against those who stand in the way of its 

 gratification ; and by exciting the covetous man 

 to the commission of murder, in order to accom 

 plish his avaricious desires. It also leads to a 

 violation of the seventh command ; for, when one 

 &quot; covets his neighbour s wife,&quot; the next step is 

 to endeavour to withdraw her affection from her 

 husband, and to plunge a family into misery and 

 distress. It also leads to a violation of the fifth 

 precept of the law, not only as it steels the heart 

 against those kindly filial affections which child 

 ren ought to exercise towards their parents, but 

 as it excites them to withhold from their parents, 

 when in old age and distress, those external com 

 forts which are requisite to their happiness, and 

 which it is the duty of affectionate children to pro 

 vide. And, when covetousness has thus led to 

 the breach of every other precept of the second 

 table of the law, it follows, that all the precepts of 

 the first table are also virtually violated. For all 

 the commandments of the first table are briefly 

 summed up in this comprehensive precept, &quot;Thou 

 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart:&quot; 

 but it is obviously impossible, nay, it would be a 

 contradiction in terms, to suppose, that supreme 

 love to the Creator can reside in the same breast 

 in which an inordinate desire of worldly enjoy 

 ments reigns uncontrolled, and in which love to 

 man has no existence. So that covetousness 

 may be considered as the great barrier which 

 separates between man and his Maker, and also 

 as the polluted fountain from whence flow all the 

 moral abominations and the miseries of mankind. 

 The more obvious and direct manifestation of 

 this principle is generally distinguished by the 

 name of Avarice, or an inordinate desire of riches. 

 And what a countless host of evils has flowed 

 from this unhallowed passion, both in relation to 

 individuals, to families, to nations, and to tho 

 28 



world at large ! In relation *.o the avaricious 

 man himself, could we trace all the eager desires, 

 anxieties, perplexities, and cares, which harass 

 his soul ; the fraudulent schemes he is obliged to 

 contrive, in order to accomplish his object ; the 

 miserable shifts to which he is reduced, in order 

 to keep up the appearance of common honesty ; 

 the mass of contradictions, and the medley of 

 falsehoods, to which he is always obliged to have 

 recourse ; the numerous disappointments to which 

 his eager pursuit of wealth continually exposes 

 him, and by which his soul is pierced as with so 

 many daggers we should behold a wretched 

 being, the prey of restless and contending pas 

 sions, with a mind full of falsehoods, deceitful 

 schemes, and grovelling affections, like a cage- 

 full of every unclean and hateful bird, a mind in 

 capable of any rational enjoyment in this life, and 

 entirely incapacitated for relishing the nobler 

 enjoyments of the life to come. Such a man is 

 not only miserable himself, but becomes a moral 

 nuisance to the neighbourhood around him; 

 stinting his own family of its necessary comforts ; 

 oppressing the widow and the fatherless ; grasp 

 ing with insatiable fangs every house, tenement, 

 and patch of land within his reach ; hurrying 

 poor unfortunate debtors to jail ; setting adrift 

 the poor and needy from their long-accustomed 

 dwellings ; and presenting to the young and 

 thoughtless a picture, which is too frequently 

 copied, of an immortal mind immersed in the 

 mire of the most degrading passions, and wor 

 shipping and serving the creature more than 

 the Creator, who is blessed forever. 



In relation to large communities and nations, 

 this grovelling passion has produced, on an ex 

 tensive scale, the most mischievous and destruc 

 tive effects. It has plundered palaces, churches, 

 seats of learning, and repositories of art ; it has 

 polluted the courts of judicature, and the tribunals 

 of justice ; it has corrupted magistrates, judges, 

 and legislators ; and has transformed many even 

 of the ministers of religion, into courtly syco 

 phants, and hunters after places and pensions. 

 It has ground whole nations to poverty, under 

 the load of taxation ; it has levelled spacious 

 cities with the dust ; turned fruitful fields into a 

 wilderness ; spread misery over whole empires ; 

 drenched the earth with human gore ; and waded 

 through fields of blood in order to satiate its un 

 governable desires. What has led to most of 

 the wars which have desolated the earth, in every 

 age, but the insatiable cravings of this restless 

 and grovelling passion? It was the cursed love 

 of gold that excited the Spaniards to ravage 

 the territories of Mexico and Peru, to violate 

 every principle of justice and humanity, to mas 

 sacre, and to perpetrate the most horrid cruelties 

 on their unoffending inhabitants. It is the same 

 principle, blended with the lust of power, which 

 still actuates the infatuated rulers of that unhappy 

 nation, in their vain attempts to overthrow the 



