having offered incense to Mammon. For the Scriptures teach, and
experience confirms, that "covetousness is idolatry." The covetous man
is not a worshiper of the true God. Gold and silver are the divinities
he adores. His heart is with his treasure. Here then is the portrait
of Felix: a portrait drawn by St. Paul in the presence of Felix, and
which reminded this prince of innumerable prohibitions, innumerable
frauds, innumerable extortions; of the widow and the orphan he
opprest. Here is the cause of Felix's fears. According to an
expression of St. James, the "rust of his gold and silver began to
witness against him, and to eat his flesh as with fire" (James v., 3).

Fourthly, consider Felix as a voluptuous man. Here is the final cause
of his fear. Without repeating all we have said on the depravity of
this passion, let one remark suffice, that, if the torments of hell
are terrible at all, they must especially be so to the voluptuous. The
voluptuous man never restricts his sensual gratification; his soul
dies on the slightest approach of pain. What a terrific impression
must not the thought of judgment make on such a character. Shall I,
accustomed to indulgence and pleasure, become a prey to the worm that
dieth not and fuel to the fire which is not quenched? Shall I, who
avoid pain with so much caution, be condemned to eternal torments?
Shall I have neither delicious meats nor voluptuous delights? This
body, my idol, which I habituate to so much delicacy, shall it be
"cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, whose smoke ascendeth up
forever and ever?" And this effeminate habit I have of refining on
pleasure, will it render me only the more sensible of my destruction
and anguish?

Such are the traits of Felix's character; such are the causes of
Felix's fear. Happy, if his fear had produced that "godly sorrow, and