While believing money to be good in itself, and stressing that making money was good stewardship, the leading Puritan, Richard Baxter, was clear that spiritual rather than material values were paramount. His Puritan classic, The Saint’s Everlasting Rest, written in 1649, revealed his horror that people who had heard of heaven would settle for pursuing things in this life, rather than the priceless treasure of eternity with God.

If there be so certain and glorious rest for the saints, why is there no more industrious seeking after it in the world? One would think that a man that did but once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained, and did believe what he heareth to be true, should be transported with the vehemency of his desire after it, and should almost forget to eat or drink, and should mind and care for nothing else, and should speak of and inquire after nothing else, but how to get assurance and possession of this treasure! And yet people who hear it daily, and profess to believe it undoubted, as a fundamental article of their faith, do as little mind it, or care, or labour for it, and as much forget and disregard it, as if they had never heard of any such thing, or did not believe one word they hear. And as a man that comes into America, and sees the natives regard more a piece of glass, or an old knife, than a piece of gold, may think, Sure[ly] these people never heard of the worth of gold, or else they would not exchange it for toys; so a man that looked only upon the lives of most men, and did not hear their contrary confessions, would think either these men never heard of heaven, or else they never heard of its excellency and glory . . .

Ultimately, their priorities were wrong because their timing was wrong—they were living for the present not the future! Greed is futile; wealth cannot deal with death.

To the carnal, worldly-minded man, who is so taken up in seeking the things below, that he hath neither heart nor time to seek this rest. . . . “Foolish sinners! who hath bewitched you?” . . . what riding and running, what scrambling and catching, there is for a thing of nought, while eternal rest lies by neglected! What contriving and caring, what fighting and bloodshed, to get a step higher in the world than their brethren, while they neglect the kingly dignity of the saints! What insatiable pursuit of fleshly pleasures, whilst they look upon the praises of God, which is the joy of angels, as a tiring burden! What unwearied diligence is there in raising their posterity, in enlarging their possessions, in gathering a little silver or gold; yea, perhaps for a poor living from hand to mouth; while, in the mean time, their judgment is drawing near; and yet how it shall go with them then, or how they shall live eternally, did never put them to the trouble of one hour’s sober consideration!¹

What is the excellency of this earth, that it hath so many suitors and admirers? what hath this world done for its lovers and friends, that it is so eagerly followed, and painfully sought after, while Christ and heaven stand by, and few regard them; or, what will the world do for them for the time to come? . . . O sinful, unreasonable, bewitched men! will mirth and pleasure stick close to you; will gold and worldly glory prove fast friends to you in the time of your greatest need: will they hear your cries in the day of your calamity? . . . at the hour of your death . . . will they either answer, or relieve you; will they go along with you to the other world, and bribe the Judge, and bring you off clear, or purchase you a room among the blessed? Why then did so rich a man want a drop of water for his tongue? Or are the sweet morsels of present delight and honour of more worth than the eternal rest; and will they recompense the loss of that enduring treasure; can there be the least hope of any of these? . . . Why, how then doth the world deserve so well at men’s hands, that they should part with Christ and their salvation to be its followers? Ah, vile, deceitful world! how oft have we heard thy faithfullest servants at last complaining, Oh, the world hath deceived me, and undone me! it flattered me in my prosperity, but now it turns me off at death in my necessity! Ah, if I had as faithfully served Christ as I have served it, he would not thus have cast me off, nor have left me thus comfortless and hopeless in the depth of misery! Thus do the dearest friends and favourites of the world complain at last of its deceit, or rather of their own self-deluding folly, and yet succeeding sinners will take no warning.²

Footnotes:

¹	Richard Baxter, The Saints Everlasting Rest, in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, vol. 3 (Ligonier, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 152. In other editions see: Part 3, Chapter 5, Section 1-2.
²	Ibid., 153-154.