“If you would be kept from gross scandalous sins, beware of a covetous heart. Covetousness is a dry drunkenness. He who thirsts insatiably after the world, will stick at no sin, he will betray Christ and a good cause for money. 1 Tim. 6:10. The love of money is the root of all evil.
From this root comes: First, theft. Achan’s covetous humour made him steal a wedge of gold. Josh. 7:21. Covetousness makes the jowls so full.
Secondly, From this root comes murder. Why did Ahab stone Naboth to death, but to possess his vineyard? 1 Kings 21:13. Covetousness hath made many swim to the crown in blood.
Thirdly, from this bitter root of covetousness proceeds cozenage [fraud]: It is the covetous hand that holds false weights.
Fourthly, from this Root of covetousness comes Uncleanness. You read of the hire of a Whore, Deut. 23:18. For money she would let both her conscience and chastity be set to sale.
O if you would be kept from the evil of sin, beware of covetousness which is the inlet to so many sins.”
Thomas Watson (1620-1896) English Puritan Preacher in A Body of Practical Divinity: One Hundred Seventy Six Sermons on the Lesser Catechism (London: Thomas Parkhurst, 1692) 873.