true goodnes He who gets this generall grace to have his heart indeed and seriously bent upon the course of piety towards God and innocency towards men the Lord wil not so far suffer to erre in his way as to misse of heauen in the end notwithstanding his particular aberrations of humayn frailty which God will cover under the veyl of his rich mercy by the persons sincere fayth and generall repentance CHAP. XXV Of Means MEans are so called of the middle place which they hold betweene the efficient and finall causes serving the one for the furthering and atcheiving of the other And so all creatures whether persons or things come under this account in respect of him from whom and for whom all things are God is able without meanes to doe whatsoever work of power he doth or can doe by them and the reason is playne for that he both creates and provides the meanes and also giues the blessing upon them by which they are avayleable Neyther if we minde it hath the Lord ever done greater workes then those which the hand of his power hath wrought eyther immediately or by meanes very weake and feeble which being improved by Gods omnipotency haue produced wonderfull effects Thus God and froggs could plague Pharaoh and all Egipt So can the H. Ghost and simple preaching make men wise unto salvation God often useth meanes verie weake and base not because he wants better but partly for his owne glory as first for the glorie of his goodnes that being so mightie and excellent in majestie he will vouchsafe to imploy them and secondly of his greatnes in bringing to passe what he will by them as he tould Gedeon the people were too many for him to saue Israel by when men make wars they geâ—t the powerfullest helps they can therein bewraying their owne weaknes whereas God on the contrary wanting no mans help oft times makes choyse of weake meanes as needing none Partly the Lord doth this for the means themselvs that they which God so farr honours specially for good to men should not be despised and partly for others that none should be overmuch affected with or to them To trust to means is Idolatry to abuse them want of wisdom or of conscience or both to neglect them eyther desperatenes when a man is without hope of good by them or presumptuous tempting of God when he expects good without them or sloath when he will not trouble himself with them With all which unthankfulnes to the Lord is joyned who provides them as helps against our infirmities and therewith profane sawcines also if with the contempt of the means which we have we long after such as we have not as did the Israelites in the wildernes in loathing manna and lusting after flesh and the Iewes in despiseing Christs miracles upon earth and desiring to see a signe from heaven of him We must then as one sayth mingle our owne sweate with faith to make a sweete odour withall to God For though his power be not bound to means yet his will bindes us to such as he in mercie affoardeth partly as helps of our fayth which need such glasses wherein to see Gods helping hand and partly to exercise our obedience and partly to stir up our diligence And this we must do the rayther for that when God purposeth good to or by a man eyther he commonly provides him means accordingly which when opportunity servs he expecteth he should use in good conscience for atteyning to the good unto which they as it were lead him which to neglect is to disobey a kynde of reall calling from God In the carefull use of naturall means we shew most wisdom and that we are not like beasts without understanding and of supernaturall means prayer and the like the most grace and that we are not as men which know not God A man must be sure in his most carefull use of means alwayes to bear in mynde the end for which he useth them that he be not like the messenger who so myndes his way as he forgets his errand To sever the means and end to which they lead ordinately is vanity in all courses in divine matters mere madnes He that sinning without repentance looks to escape hell separates the end from the means He that without fayth and obedience lookes for heauen separates the means from the end which he aymes at Both would pervert Gods word and work of providence CHAP. XXVI Of Labour and Idlenes GOD who would have our first father even in innocency and being Lord of the whole world to labour though without payne or wearisomnes in dressing the Garden and when he had sinned to eat his bread with the sweat of his brows would haue none of his sinfull posteritie lead their life in Idlenes no nor without exerciseing themselvs diligently in some lawfull calling or other I say diligently For as poore men play for recreation now and then so do rich men work But that sufficeth not For God who hath in the naturall body appointed unto every member its office and function which it is constantly to exercise would have no member in any societie or body of men ordinarily unimployed Neyther doth that man how great or rich soever keep a good conscience before God who makes labour but an accessorie and not a principall and that which takes up his ordinarie tyme. Man is borne to sore labour in body or minde as the spark to fly upward In heauen is onely rest without labour in hell restles payn and torment and as sin makes the earth which is between both liker to hell then heauen so God for sin hath given to the sons of man soar travail to afflict them upon earth And that in most wise and gratious providence considering the mischiefs that come by idlenes as The weakning of the endowments of nature whereas labour brings strength to the body and vigour to the mynde yea the consumption of grace as rust consumes the iron for want of using yea whereas idlenes brings bodily poverty like an armed man it brings not onely spirituall povertie in graces with it but withall a legion of vices like so many armed divels puffing up the flesh with pride and makeing the heart Sathans anvile who is commonly least idle when men are most whereon to forge a thowsand vanities and sinfull lusts as having a fit opportunity to perswade men to doe evill when he findes them doing nothing that so they who will not sweat in earth eyther with the labour of the hand or heart though king Alphonsus sayd that God and nature had given kings hands as well as other men might sweat in hell and that if they will not bear their part in the payns of men they might partake in the payns of the Divils Whereas on the contrary if we doe that which is good and well done though with labour and
by this he doth whatsoever he pleaseth in the Heavens and in the Earth The former will which stands in commanding promiseing and the like may be and is too oft resisted and made ineffectuall by men this latter neuer possibly except men be stronger then God By it his power availeth to make things to be which were not to continue them that are to work all good and to order all evill unto good And as the works of Gods power according to his will are manifold so hath he wrought them all in wisdom For notwithstanding both the absolutenesse of his will and infinitenesse of his power in regard whereof one saith It is more becoming God to ascribe any power to him then to make him impotent yet is he neither wilfull in willing nor unwealdy in working By his wisdom he not onely eternally and infallibly knoweth himself and all Creatures that are or can be and what either he or they or both together will do or can do and that upon supposition of whatsoever can be supposed but both willeth and doth in time himself what he willeth and doth it also for good cause and to good purpose and accordingly either on the one side hinders or on the other sustains effects and orders everie motion of everie Creature By exerciseing these Attributes God worketh all his works whether immediate by himself alone or mediate by the creatures which he useth of all kindes and everie one according to his kinde whether good or evill reasonable or without reason By Gods works I mean all things whatsoever are in the World or haue any being and existence In nature For He hath made the whole World and all things therein In him we live and move and have our being He giveth all to all things And of him and through him and for him are all things As he gives being unto all things that are by communicateing the effects of his being with them so is there nothing either so casuall in regard of men as that he directs it not or so voluntarie as that he determines it not Nothing so firm but he sustains it nor so small but he regards it nor so great but he rules it nor so evill but he over-rules it Neither can any of the works of God possibly be other then verie good and righteous seeing they are all wrought by the exerciseing of his holy will divine power and godly wisdom And if a simple man ow the honour to him that is of greater wisdom and understanding then himself to think upon occasion that the other hath reason for that which he speaks or does though he in his shallownes cannot reach unto it how much more do all men and Angels ow this honour unto God to beleev alwaies that whatsoever he saith is true and whatsoever he doth good and righteous though they discern not the reason of it Some of the works of God are such as we can rather admire at them then discern of them Some again are such as at which proud flesh is ready to repine and murmur Amongst the works of Gods most wise and powerfull providence upon bodily things it is most admirable that the Heavenly bodies the Sun Moon and Starres should by their influence and operation have such power and effects upon the bodies here below as to change order and dispose the Ayer Earth and Water with all things framed and compounded of them as they appear to do by Scripture sence and experience Yet if we consider besides the two greatest lights and most powerfull agents the Sun and Moon the numberlesse number of the Stars their huge greatnesse the varietie and excellencie of vertues wherewith they are furnished far above the most precious Pearls or any earthly quintessence and with all these the infinite power and wisdom of him that made and constituted them it will not seem incredible unto us that the least suddainest naturall change in the Ayer Water or other Elementarie bodies should be wrought by the position and disposition of the Stars and Celestiall bodies Neither doth this at all diminish or detract from the honour of the Lord in governing the World but rather amplifieth it as it ads to the honour of the skilfull Artificer so at the first to frame his Clock or other work of like curious deuise as that the severall parts should constantly move and order ech other in infinite varietie he as the Maker and first Mover moveing and ordering all Where yet this difference must alwaies be minded that the Artisan leavs his work being once framed to it self but God by continuall influx preservs and orders both the being and motions of all Creatures Here also we except both unnaturall accidents and specially supernaturall miraculous events which are as it were so many particular creations by the immediate hand of God In them that are made partakers of the grace of God the remainders of corrupt reason is readiest to rise up at the work of Gods providence in the prosperitie of the way of the wicked and workers of iniquitie especially if they themselvs be pressed with any singular afflictions as we may see in David Ieremy and other But the same men of God who were in their persons present exampls of humain frailtie do in their writeings by the Holy Ghost affoard us matter sufficient for Divine comfort and direction As first that before we come to plead with God how his works are righteous we know and acknowledg them all to be righteous that so we may learn how and wherein their righteousnesse consists Secondly that God is both as good to those whom he loves in their afflictions as in their prosperitie and as wroth with his enemies in their momentarie prosperitie as if his rod were already upon their backs Thirdly that he hath appointed a day in which he will right whatsoever seemeth crooked in the mean while and will fully and for ever recompence both the good and evill In the expectation of which day and of the work of the Lord in it we should satisfie our selvs for the present and suspend our thoughts till the manifestation of his righteous Iudgment therein In them that desire to establish mans righteousnesse rather then Gods either righteousnesse or power fleshly reason is most apt to quarrell partly that work of Gods mercie by which he freely justifies a sinner and partly those his just dispensations upon which followeth the Creatures sin and miserie for sin But for the former It stands not with the riches of Gods mercie and grace whereof he would make full manifestation in the justifying of sinners to borrow any thing of mans merit but well becomes his bountie freely to bestow both the gift and hand to receav it For the latter It must be considered that Gods work so far as it is his is good as well in the sinfull doings or miserable sufferings of men as in their most holy and happy estate The
use of all earthly things that we may watch and to watch that we may escape the danger of spiritual enimies which watch for our destruction When thou sittest to eat with a ruler sayth the wise man consider diligently what is before thee and put thy knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to thine appetite They that eat with rulers or where there is varietie of delicates are apt enough to consider diligently what is before them but it is for the most part not to restreyn their appetite as it should be but rayther to provoke it But a wise man will consider of his temptations to escape the danger of them a foole to provoke himself to swallow them the more greedily as the fish doth the bayt with the hook under it He onely is not overtaken with unlawfull things who inureth himself at times to absteyn from many things lawfull He that will go as near the ditch as he can will at some time or other fall in So he who will take all the libertie that possibly he may lawfully cannot but fall into many unlawfull things Thereupon Austins mother would not allow the young mayds committed to her government to drink as much water as they would least afterwards becomming wives and having plentie they should use excesse in wyne CHAP. XXXI Of Liberality and its contraries LIberalitie teacheth us to bestow our worldly goods when upon whom and as we ought in obedience unto God and for mens good This is to be done without hope of requitall from them as not being a mercinary vertue but that wherein a man looks to his dutie to others and not to profit from them Els it is not liberality rightly performed but a bargayn well made Neyther is that to be accounted liberalitie which is done for vayn glory seeing the work is named from the affection Least of all that when men give to some that they may take from others This is rayther theeverie upon condition Many account themselvs and are by others accounted not onely liberall but even bounteous because they give great gifts whereas if we consider the persons on whom and the ends for which they so pour out themselvs and their mony and other mens also oft tymes we shall see that in truth they deserv no more the name of liberall then those prodigals do who bestow their goods upon harlots for the satisfying of their lusts For as that is not a benefit which wants the best part of it namely to be given in iudgment so neyther is that liberalitie which wants that part but the casting away of a mans goods This vertue exercised in great states and gifts is called bountie and a hingly vertue But may preserv the due respect of liberalitie in the smallest matters and by the poorest persons if it be constant which rayther teacheth to give a litle to many then much to few This was verifyed in the churches of Macedonia towards the poore Saints in Ierusaelem whose deep povertie abounded unto their rich liberalitie The same is confirmed by our Saviours testimonie of the poore widows contribution of two mites that she gave therein more then all the rich men None can give more and therein be more liberall then he that leavs himself litle or nothing On the contrary None can spare more and therein be more covetous then he that will not do the litle which he can do and his neighbour stands in need of It is the dangerous errour of poore men that onely the rich are covetous or liberall They may be and oft are as very mizers and odiously covetous in their penny as the other in their pound So may they be as liberall Every one sayth Solomon is a freind to a man of gifts which have in them sayth another a kinde of secret force to draw the mindes of men as the loadstone draweth iron and that not onely of them that desire to use the liberalitie of others but of such also as neither need nor would use the same Look what liberalitie looseth a man in his purse it gets him in a better place not onely in heauen but in earth also and the best place there the hearts of men and their loving affection On the contrarie covetous men are contemned and hated not onely of them whom they wrong by unjust getting or keeping but by all others that know them though all dare not so manifest Their credit with others and comfort in themselvs is onely in their purses It is a question amongst learned men whether of the two extreames of liberalitie prodigalitie in the excesse or covetousnes in the defect is worse but something the lesse needfull to be determined considering how often they meet together in the same person and beget eyther the other Many lust and desire to have and sometimes obteyn that they may consume upon their pleasures like unto kites and gleads and other ravenous birds who are ever watching and catching for prey and yet remain ever caryon-lean converting the greatest part of their nourishment into long feathers As some desire riches that they may haue them so a great part of the covetousnes reigning in the world is to maintayn prodigall expences that look what covetousnes hath gathered together ryot may lash out and consume For men as well as women being with child of ryot and excesse in diet apparrel and other worldly vanities long â—or riches and great gettings to nourish and maintain their lusts without which they are in danger to cast their calf On the other side they who scape best with prodigalitie are driven to repair their too great lavishnes in one thing by too great nigardlines in another But as it was said of Cataline that he was prodigall of his own and covetous of other mens so the greatest mispenders for the most part are constreyned to be as great misgetters to feed one vice by another Hence some borrow without means or meaning to pay again circumvent others if they haue more cunning then they oppresse them if they have more power and some are driven to plain theeverie violent or secret Yet if we will compare together these two naughts we shall finde covetousnes the worse of the twayn For first it is the root of all evill for that there is no evill fruit but will grow of it Iudas sould Christ for it And manie thousand daylie sell their bodies and souls to sin and hell for it and would sell Christ if he were in their hands whereas wise men and lawyers count the prodigall raither vayn or at the worst but half mad and not capable of governing his own goods then mischeivous Secondly Covetousnes is â—â— the Apostle called Idolatrie not in the common condition of all sinns in which men either in affection or effect esteeme of transitorie vanities aboue God and despise him in comparison of them but especially for that they