4 Sermon Illustrations on Covetousness

If you should see a man that had a large pond of water, yet living in continual thirst, not suffering himself to drink half a draught for fear of lessening his pond; if you should see him wasting his time and strength in fetching more water to his pond, always thirsty, yet always carrying a bucket of water in his hand, watching early and late to catch the drops of rain, gaping after every cloud, and running greedily into every mire and mud in hopes of water, and always studying how to make every ditch empty itself into the pond; if you should see him grow gray in these anxious labors, and at last end a careful, thirsty life by falling into his own pond, — would you not say that such a one was not only the author of his own disquiet, but was foolish enough to be reckoned among madmen? But, foolish and absurd as this character is, it does not represent half the follies and absurd disquiets of the covetous man. Law.

As the ass that earrieth meat for his master's belly, and clothes for his back, yet himself doth feed upon grass, and contenteth himself with one hair-skin; even so the covetous man, whose chests are stuffed with money and his wardrobe with apparel, can hardly afford his belly a good meal's meat, or cover his back with a good coat. Cawdray.