And he said unto them
Either to the two brethren, or to his disciples, as the Syriac
and Persic versions read, or to the whole company:
take heed, and beware of covetousness;
of all covetousness, as read the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic,
and Ethiopic versions, and some copies; that is, of all sorts of
covetousness, and every degree of it, which of all vices is to be
avoided and guarded against, being the root of all evil; and as
the Persic version renders it, is worse than all evil, and leads
into it:
for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the
things
which he possesseth;
of flocks and beasts, as the Persic version renders it: a man's
natural life cannot be prolonged by all the good things of the
world he is possessed of; they cannot prevent diseases nor death;
nor do the comfort and happiness of life, lie in these things;
which are either not enjoyed by them, but kept for the hurt of
the owners of them, or are intemperately used, or some way or
other imbittered to them, so that they have no peace nor pleasure
in them: and a man's spiritual life is neither had nor advantaged
hereby, and much less is eternal life to be acquired by any of
these things; which a man may have, and be lost for ever, as the
following parable shows.