their sight and their hearing and had the rest of their sences the lame whom he cured did onely want the use of their feet and had the rest of their limbs the Lepers whom he cleansed did onely want their health and had the use of their limbs and sences but they which vvere dead had none of them all but vvere deprived of them altogether and so his raysing of such as vvere dead was a greater work then any of the former Therefore whensoever he raised the dead the people did greatly admire and honour him when he cured two blind men Mat. 9.31 Math. 9 They spread â—abroad his fame throughout all the land When he raised to life the Widowes sonne in Naim Luke 7.16 Luke 7. All that were present praised God and said A great Prophet is risen up amongst us and God hatâ— visited his people And vvhen he raised Lazarus from the dead John 11. it is said there that many of the Jewes that saw what Jesus did John 11. â—5 believed in him While a man is alive though he be never so much diseased or so dangerously sick yet vve send for Physitians and use other means because there is some hope that he may recover but when he is once dead there is no more hope and therefore we trouble our selves no further so when the Rulers daughter was sick he came unto Christ and besought him for her My little daughter saith he lyeth at the point of death but I pray thee come and lay thy hands on her and she shall live Mark 5.23 Mark 5.35 But his daughter dying before Christ came to her some brought the Ruler word Thy daughter is dead why troublest thou the Master any further as thinking it in vain when his daughter was dead to seek for help because the Physitian is not sought to for the dead but for the living But Christ that was as well able to revive the dead as to heale the sick raised diverse in the Gospel from death to life whereof some are not named but onely mentioned ingenerall as here it is said that the dead were raised up without specifying in particular who they were some are mentioned in particular as the Rulers daughter whom he restored to life when she was newly dead Marke 5. Mark 5.42 Luke 7.15 Joh. 11.17 The Widowes Son that was carried forth to be buried Luke 7. and Lazarus that had been foure dayes dead and was laid in his grave John 11. If Christ then were able to raise the dead while he lived here in the form of a servant we may well he assured that being in glory at the right hand of his Father he is both able to raise our souls from the death of sinne to the life of grace and to raise our bodies when they lie dead in their graves to the life of glory Indeed the raising of the body being dead see us a thing incredible unto flesh and blood And therefore when St. Paul Acts 17. did preach to the Athenians about the resurrection they were so far from believing that the dead should rise that they counted him a babler and laughed him to scorne But as Christ here raised some from death to life so at the â—â—st day he will raise all Act. 7.60 the one being as easie to him as the other Therefore our bodies when they die are said in the Scripture to â—all a sleep because Christ can as easily raise our bodies being dead as one man can wake another when he is faln a sleep If many be fallen asleep in a Chamber together yet one voice you know is able to waken them all and so the voice of Christ at the last day shâ—ll raise all that are dead in the whole world together The houâ—e shall come saith our Saviour John 5. John 5.28 in the which all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Sonne of Man and they shall come forth that have done good unto the resurection of life and they that have done evill unto the refurrection of condemnation 1 Cor. 15.42 And therefore the buriall of our bodies is fitly resembled by St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. to the sowing of seed because as the seed being sowen in the ground doth afterwards revive and spring up againe so our bodies after they are dead and buried shall be revived and quickned Qui tibi grana seminum mortua et putrefacta vivificat August de ver Apost Sermo 34. per quae in hoe saeculâ— vivas multo magis te ipsum resuscitabit ut in aeternum vivas He saith St. Augustine that quickens for thee the graines of Corne when they are dead and rotten whereby thou mayst live upon the earth for a time much more will he raise thy self hereafter that thou mayst live for ever in Heaven For he hath not onely redeemed our souls but likewise our bodies and therefore will not suffer them to perish in their graves but will quicken them again that both our bodies and souls may live with him And thus much concerning his raysing the dead The last thing which is here mentioned is that the poore had the Gospel preached unto them It is the saying of the Prophet Esay Chap. 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath annointed me to preach good tydings unto the poore he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaime liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Which words Christ expounding Luke 4. when he preached in Nazareth he applies them to himself This day saith he Luke 4.21 is this Scripture fulfilled in your eares to shew that he was annointed of God to preach the Gospel unto the poor Now by the poor to whom he preached the Gospel they are understood who are said by our Saviour Math. 5.3 to be poor in spirit For there are two sorts of poverty the one outward vvhen a man hath not means to maintain himself but wants outward necessaries the other inward vvhen a man is destitute of spirituall graces And thus every one of us all are poor but some do not see their poverty and want as the Laâ—diceans Revel 3.17 that thought themselves rich and increased with goods when they were poor and naked Some see their poverty and find in themselves a want of grace and therefore do hunger and thirst after it and these are the poore to whom Christ is said here to have preached the Gospel Therefore in the place which I named before the Prophet shews to what poor the Gospel should be preached by naming presently the broken hearted And Esay 66.2 The Lord promiseth to have respect unto him that is poore and of a contrite Spirit the latter of these explaining the former that they are the poor whom God respects who are humbled with the sight of their spirituall wants and bewaile nothing more then their want of grace Such were they to whom Christ here
we must be content to yield him obedience and to live as becomes his servants or he will not save us And therefore only the godly that serve him in their life can with comfort commend their souls unto him at the time of their death and say as Steven did Lord Jesus receive my spirit He prayes not for his body but for his soule Though it were his body which was here in danger while the Jews were stoning him yet it is not his body but it is his soule that he prayes for as being more sensible of his future estate then of his present condition and not so much regarding this present life as the life to come Many in their life and at the time of their death are carefull for their bodies thinking of the great pain which their bodies are to suffer when death siezes upon them and taking care how they shall be able to overcome the same This care troubles many that are good Christians who are the more afraid of death for the pain thereof and imagine the pain to be greater then it is That death is painfull there is not any question Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non magna esset martyrum fortitudo saith Augustine If there were no sharpnesse and pain in death it were no great fortitude in the Martyrs to suffer it But though death be painfull yet we must remember this for our comfort that it will be no more painfull to us then it hath been to the godly in all ages and therefore why should we be afraid to undergo that which all the godly have undergone before us Will not any man be content to be put to that whereunto the King puts his chiefe Favourites for he will think with himselfe if I be put to no more then the Kings Favourites are I shall fare well enough The godly ye know are Gods chiefe Favourites God loves and favours them above all others if therefore they have suffered the paine of death and have not been exempted by God from it we may well be the lesse carefull to undergo it and may assure our selves that though the paine were never so great yet Christ who hath redeemed both our soules and bodies will inable us to bear it and as Cyprian saith Qui semel pro nobis mortem vicit semper vincet in nobis He that once overcame death for us will alwayes overcome it in us And therefore whether we die for the Lord or in the Lord we may well lay the care of our bodies aside and may chearfully commend our soules unto Christ as Steven here did Lord Jesus receive my spirit Doct. I might hence observe the immortality of the soule That though the body do die yet the soule is immortall This is signified by those words of Solomon Eccles 12.7 That the body shall returne to the earth from Whence it was taken and the spirit shall returne unto God who gave it Mat. 10.28 and by that saying of our Saviour Fear not those that can kill the body but are not able to kill the soule But I will passe this over and come briefly to the prayer which he makes for his persecutours He kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their charge Where first observe the gesture he used he kneeled down when he prayed The Jews did commonly stand when they prayed Therefore Christ alluding to this their custome Mark 11. When ye stand saith he and pray if ye have ought against any man forgive him And the Jewes have a saying Sine stationibus non consisteret mundus that the world could not consist without standing that is without praying because they were wont to pray standing 1 Kings 19.4 1 Chro. 17.16 The Prophet Eliah when he fled from Iezabel he prayed sitting And we read the like of David that he sat and prayed Other kinde of gestures we use in our prayers which may be reduced unto these two heads such as we use in regard of our Hope or in regard of our Humiliation and Reverence In regard of our hope we lift up our eyes and we stretch forth our hands as expecting and requiring Gods help and assistance So David in the 121. Psalm I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help And Moses praying for the Isracletes Exod. 17. That they might prevale against Amaleck he stretched forth his hands For as Saint Austin saith Oculus erectus expectat manus extensa postulat The eyes being lift up expect help and the hands being stretcht forth do seeme to reuqire it In regard of our humiliation and reverence we uncover our heads we bow down our bodies and we kneele on our knees we uncover our heads which is Magnificentia depositio a laying aside of our greatnesse And thus Kings and Princes when they pray unto God do uncover their heads laying aside their state and acknowledging thereby that they are Gods Servants So we prostrate our selves and fall down on our knees as Steven here did in token of the reverence we owe unto God in offering our prayers And this gesture of kneeling we finde to have been often used by the faithfull and as the Magdeburgenses who wrote the Centuries affirme hath been the most ancient gesture in prayer and the most used by the Church in all ages Peter as we see in the 9. of the Asts and Paul in the 20. did pray kneeling so did the Prophet Daniel in his sixt Chapter Saint James the first Bishop of Jerusalem was so frequent in praying on his knees that he made his knees as hard as the hoofe of a Camel with continuall kneeling And the like did Asella as we read in St. Jerome It is true indeed that it is the heart and affection of him that prays and not the gesture of the body which God respects but withall this is true that he that makes no conscience of praying reverently doth never pray heartily and he that will not bend the knee unto God much lesse out of doubt will he bend the heart O come let us Worship and fall down saith the Psalmest and kneele before the Lord our maker Psal 95.6 Micah 6.6 Where withall shall I come saith the Prophet Micah in his sixt chapter before the Lord and bow my self before the high God To shew that he might not come into his presence but with great reverence And therefore this serves to reprove those that shew no signes of reverence unto God 2 Chr. 6.13 Luke 22 4â— when they come before him to offer up their prayers We see that Solomon when he consecrated the Temple 2 Chron. 6. he kneeled down and prayed and a greater then Solomon our blessed Saviour Luke 22. kneeled down when he prayed be for his passion If he therefore used such reverence in prayer should not we much more For shall mercy bend her knee and shall not misery Shall the Physician and shall not the Patient Shall
the day of judgement 2 Pet. 3.3 Know this saith Saint Peter that there shall be scoffers in the last dayes Walking after their own lusts saying where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue say they as they were from the beginning of the creation And thus many because the World hath continued so long a time in the same state do perswade themselves that it shall continue so for ever and that there shall be no end of the World nor day of judgement These Saint Peter in the same place confutes by this reason That though the World have continued in the same state for a long time yet it followes not from thence that therefore the World should continue so for ever for it wa a long time from the Creation of the world till the coming of the floud yet the world was then destroyed by one of the elemente whereof it was made namely by water and so though it seems a long time till the end of the world yet in the end it shall be destroyed by another element namely by Fire And as they who lived in the time of Noah would not be perswaded that the world should be drowned till the floud came suddenly and swept them away so the end of the world and Christs coming to judgement shall as suddenly come upon unbelievers while they think not of it Christ indeed doth deferre his coming in divers respects As that the number of the elect may be fulfill'd whom God hath decreed from all etermity to call in all ages by the preaching of the Gospel till the end of the world that the patience of the faithfull who waite and long for the coming of Christ may be tried and exercised and that the wicked may be left without excuse being forborne so long and having had so large a time of repentance In these respects Christ defers his coming but though his coming be deferr'd for a time yet in the end he will not faile to come as the Scripture assures us by evident testimonies by visible signes and by invisible reasons The testimonies are divers The Prophesie of Enoch which is alleadged by Saint Jude is plaine and evident Jude 14.15 Enoch saith he the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all the ungodly among them of all their wicked deads Where ye see the world was no sooner made but that the end thereof was presently fore-told for Enoch was but the seventh from Adam and yet he prophesied of Christs coming to judgement and that so plainly as if he had seen him coming Ecce venit Behold saith he he comes Dan. 7.9.10 So Daniel prophesied of the day of judgement I beheld saith he till the thrones were prepared and the auncient of dayes did sit there issued forth a fiery stream and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the judgement was set and the books were opened I saw saith Saint John the dead both small and great stand before the Lord Revel 20.12 and the books were opened and another book was opened which was the book of life and the dead were judged c. Where to shew the certainty of Christs coming to judgement he speaks ye see thereof as if it were past because he shall come at the time appointed as certainly as if he were come already I might alleadge many other places wherein the coming of Christ to judgement is plainly fore-told And as the Scriptures have fore-told Christs coming to judgement so to assure us the better thereof it hath likewise given us many signes which go before it whereby we may know that it will not be long before he come When the King ye know is come to a Town he commonly sends his harbingers before him and when they see his harbingers they say the King is coming because they know by the coming of his harbingers that it will not be long before the King himselfe comes Christ hath given us many signes of the end of the world and his coming to judgement which are as his harbingers sent before his coming and these signes which go before his coming are of two sorts either such as go longer before his coming and are further from it or such as go but hard before and shall be nigh unto it Of the former sort are divers signes as the preaching of the Gospell all over the world foretold by our Saviour Mat. Mat. 24.2 Thes 2. Rom. 11. Luke 17. 24. The revealing of Antichrist that man of sinne and sonne of perdition fore-told by the Apostle 2 Thes 2. The calling of the Jews fore-told by St. Paul Rom. 11. The great security want of faith which shal be found in many foretold by Christ Luke 17. And many other signes which the Scripture mentions many whereof are already past and are fore-runners of the end of the world and shall continue and prolong their course till the very day of Christs coming to judgement Of the second sort are those fearfull signes which the Scripture mentions in divers places as that the earth shall tremble and move out of her place Mat. 24.29 Acts 2.20 that the seas shall roare and make an hidcous noise that the powers of heaven shall be shaken that the starres shall fall from heaven that the Sunne shall be turned into darknesse and the Moon into bloud before that great and notable day of the Lord come These things shall come to passe at the end of the world and when these things come to passe they are evident signs that the end of the world is then hard at hand For like as it is in the body of man when the eyes waxe dimme and the sight failes when all the joynts waxe weake and the whole body trembles it is a signe of old age and a manifest token that he in whom these signes are to be seen is very near his end and cannot hold out long So it is likewise in the great Body of the world when the eyes of the world the Sunne and the Moon begin to wax dim and their light failes when the heavens shall be shaken as it were with a palsie and the earth shall tremble and move out of her place as the Scripture speaks it is a manifest signe that the world is ending Lastly As the Scripture hath foretold the end of the world Christs coming to judgment both by evident testimonies and visible signs so likewise by divers invincible reasons For first all other things which the Scriptures have fore-told are come to passe as namely of Christs first coming in the flesh of the destruction of Jerusalem of the dispersion of the Iows of the coming of Antichrist all which and many other as they have been fore told so they have been likewise accomplisht and therefore the
never a one of their children but expired in a day Though this be spoken of the Year which hath twelve months and every month thirty dayes yet their expiring so soone may well put us in mind of ours seeing the shortness of our life is such that we are not sure we shall live a year no not a month nay though we be now wel for ought we know yet for ought we know we may be dead before to morrow How many have we known that have been well and lively in one houre and yet dead the next how many are there in this Land that were alive this morning and dead before noon Nay how many are there in the World that are now alive and since thou hast read these words are now alive are now dead who no doubt made reckoning as many now do that they should have lived a long time But the Scripture teacheth us to make another account by joyning together as many times it doth the day of our birth and the day of our death Eccles 3.2 without making any mention of the time of our life as if our lifetime were so short that it were not worth the naming So Solomon Eccles. 7. Eccles 7.1 Job 14.2 The day of death is better then the day of mans birth So Job Man that is borne of a Woman is of few dayes and full of trouble he comes up like a flower and is cut down Upon which words Bernard saith thus In ipso statim introitu de exitu quoque admonemur In the very beginning and entrance into life we are put in mind of the end of our life as if there were no distance between them both And hence it is that we are often in the Scripture compared to those things which are of the shortest abode and continuance So our bodies are compared to vessells of earth we have 2 Cor. 4.7 saith the Apostle this treasure in earthen Vessells He compares them not to Vessells of brasse or Iron which will last long but to earthen Vessells which are soone broken In the Potters shop there are Vessels ye know of divers sorts some lesse some greater some made for one use and some for another but all so brittle that a little force will break any of them to peeces And such is the frailty of our mortall bodies some are stronger and more durable then other but yet none so strong but that a little sickness will soone pull him down and bring him to nothing Nay earthen Vessells howsoever they be brittle yet if we let them alone if we set them up safe and keep them from falling they will continue the same for a longtime but such is our frailty that we never continue in one stay but though we look never so carefully to our selves though we avoid all occasions of coming into danger yet before it be long even age will consume us So we are compared by St. James to a vapour that appeares for a while and presently vanishes so by Job to a Weavers shuttle that makes no stay in the Webbe but passeth in a trice from one side to the other So to a Garment that is soon worne out to a tale that is soone told to a span which is soone measured and here to the grasse and flowers of the field which are soone withered The field we see hath variety of flowers but none of them all do continue long but come up and are cut down and others grow up in their roome So it is likewise with the owners of those fields they are soon gone and others succeed them There is not any field that hath had such variety of flowers in it as owners of it the same field which thou holdest hath been held by thousands before thee who held it for a while one after another and lest it to thee as thou must leave it to others after thee and thou dost not know whether thy self or the flowers which spring up in thy field shall be gone soonest for thy dayes are but as grasse and as the flowers of the field so thou flourishest If you aske why God hath made our life so short the answer is that it is his goodness and mercy towards us to shorten our dayes For though Theophrastus the Philosopher complained at the time of his death that nature had given to Harts and Ravens a long time of life but a short time to man who could better have imployed the benefit of time yet indeed it is his mercy towards us that we live not so long because he saw that a short life would be better for us in divers respects First That we might the sooner be freed from the miseries of this life Gen. 47.9 Few and evill saith Jacob have the dayes of the years of my life been If the dayes of our life be evill it is well they be few for for if they were more they would be more evill Man saith Job that is borne of a Woman Job 14.1 is of few dayes and full of trouble So full of trouble that one of the wisest among the Heathen could say Nemo vitam acciperet si dare turscientibus Seneca If life were not given us before we had knowledge of it there is no man but would refuse it Herod Tap. Therefore the Tracians as Herodotus writes were wont according to the Custome of their Country to mourne and lament when their Children were borne reckoning up the calamities which they were to undergoe through the whole course of their lives but when they died they followed them to their graves with mirth and rejoycing because they were freed from a World of miseries Our bodies are subject to labour and weariness to sickness and paine and a thousand Diseases our soules besides the grief and sorrow which they are subject unto they are continually assaulted with strong temptations and alwayes in danger of many powerfull enemies for we wrestle not saith St. Paul Ephes 6.12 against flesh and blood but against Principalities and powers and the Prince of darkness from all which we are not freed till this life be ended and therefore God in mercy hath shortned our life that we might the sooner be freed from the miseries thereof and that in the mean time we might have this comfort that though our life be miserable yet withall it is short Secondly God hath shortned our life that we may the sooner come into his presence and inherit the Kingdom he hath prepared for us Ye know when Absolon lived in exile and was kept for a time from the sight of his Father it grieved him so much that he wisht rather to die if he had deserved it 2 Sam. 13.32 then to be kept any longer from his Fathers presence God knowes how his Children while they live here in this World the place of their banishment do long to be with him saying with David Psal 42.2 Phil. 1.23 when shall I come to appear before the
to a little sinne that sinne will grow in the heart as the child growes in the wombe and that if he can bring us to give entertainment but to an angry thought though we count this but a small matter yet it will grow from the heart to the tongue and from the tongue to the hand so that many like Cain begin with anger and end with murder For he knows that little sinnes if we yield unto them will grow to be great ones and will procure our ruin The Swallow in the Fable when she saw the Husband-man begin to sow Hemp-seed in his field she counselled the Birds to peck it up because otherwise if it were let alone it would prove dangerous for them The Birds could not see how so small a seed should do them any harme but afterward vvhen it vvas grovvn ripe and vvas cut dovvn the Husband-man made snares and nets of the Hemp vvhereby the Birds vvere taken Those little sinnes vvhich vve thinke so small that they can do us no harme yet the Devill vvill use them as snares to intrap us and to vvork our destruction And therefore he vvill begin vvith small sinnes and dravv us on by degrees from the lesse to the greater as he drew on Peter from lying to perjury and David from adultery to commit murder And yet that he may the more easily deceive us what sin soever he tempts us unto he will commonly set such a Glosse upon it that it shall seem to be either no sinne at all or a very small matter till we have committed it Nay that which is strange many times when he tempts a man to never so hainous a sinne yet he will make him believe that it is a good vvork and that he shall deserve commendation and reward for the doing of it as when he tempted Paul to persecute the Church he made him believe that he did God good service and when he perswads the Jesuites to the murdering of Princes he make them believe that it is a meritorious worke and puts them in hope of being rewarded by God as the Amalekite was in hope of being rewarded by David 2 Sam. 1.14 15 16. for bringing him word that he had killed King Saul and instead of a reward he was executed for it And as his subtiltie appears in tempting us to evill under the colour of good so likewise in tempting us to do that vvhich is good but to an evill end As vvhen he tempts us vvith the Pharisees to give almes in publicke and openly in the sight and view of the world that vve may be seene of men and commended for it The giving of Almes is a good deed and to give them in publick is likewise lawfull that others may be moved to do the like by our example But the Devill knows that though it be a good deed yet if a man do it openly for vaine glory the good deed becomes evill in the doer of it and therefore he vvill tempt a man to do that vvhich is good where he sees it vvill be a sinne in him that doth it And indeed his craft and subtiltie is such he hath so many vvays to deceive and beguile us that vve have great cause to sear all our vvorks lest we be taken vvith his hook at unawars He will do the best he can to turn those good gifts vvhich God gives unto men to be occasions of sinne Thus many times vvhere God gives Knovvledge and Learning the Divill allures men thereby to pride vvhere God gives beauty the Devill allures men thereby to vvantonnesse vvhere God gives strength the Devill abuseth it to do wrong violence and vvhere God gives vvit the Devill turns it to gibing scoffing at others Yet still vvhen he tempts a man to sin he vvill extenuate the same make it seeme lesse and to make him to yield the more easily unto it he will perswade him that God is infinitely mercifull and that he daily pardons many sinnes of many that are far greater When he hath brought a man to yield to his temptation then he labours to make him continue in his sinne by putting him in hope that he hath a long time to live and that he may repent him when he comes to be old and all in good time And when he hath now brought him to this that he sees him continue secure in his sinnes then he will go a degree further he will labour to hinder him from hearing the word from praying unto God and from all other meanes that might bring him to repentance as the enemy when he hath besieged a City he will stop all the passages and will hinder any from coming to the City for their aide and assistance And these are indeed his most usuall vviles whereby he deceives us And as he is subtil so he is very malicious He would deale with us if God would suffer him as he dealt with Job he would take away from us all that ever we have and would leave us nothing unlesse it were that which might do us harme as when God gave him leave to afflict Job he took away his goods his Servants and his Children but left him his wife to be a crosse unto him Therefore it is that he is called our adversary your adversary saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 5. Like a roaring Lyon walkes about seeking whom he may devoure For such is his malice that he is never at rest but goes compassing the earth from one end to the other Job 1.7 seeking the destruction of the vvhole race of Adam both in body and soule Now if ye ask the reason why the Devill is so maliciously set against man the reason is plain because that man is the Image of God The Devil bears infinite hatred to God for casting him out of Heaven and because he cannot do God any harme yet he seekes maliciously to deface his Image and to be revenged upon man not unlike the Panther whose hatred towards man is so implacable as St. Basil saith that if he see but a mans Picture he will set furiously upon it and tear it in peeces Lastly As his subtilty and malice are great so likewise is his power Therefore Christ calles him the Prince of this World to shew that his power is very great And therefore St. Paul when he tells us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers he councells us twice in the same Chapter to take and put on the whole Armour of God that so we might be able to resist his temptations We see then what this enemy is whom we are exhorted to resist one that is both subtil and powerfull and malicious Though he were never so malicious against us yet if he were not powerfull withall like a curst Cow as the Proverb is that hath short hornes for want of power to effect his malice we might fear him the lesse Or though he were both malicious and powerfull yet if he were
are kept out by Porters yet they have free liberty to come into Gods House and though they have not accesse to rich mens tables yet they may have accesse to the Table of the Lord as well as the richest And though here the poor toile and take great pains to supply their wants yet this may be their comfort That God hath provided them if they serve him a place of rest hereafter and that the time is but short that they shall live in want and be forced thereby to toile and take paines for when they die they shall be freed from their wants and shall rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 And in the mean time though the poor do live in want yet as that holy Martyr said when some threatned to famish her Elizabeth Young If you saith she take away my meat I trust that God will take away my hunger So if the poor depend upon God for that which they want instead thereof he will give them contentment by taking away their desire of that which they want that they shall not need it And these things if the poorer sort considered it would make their poverty lesse evill to themselves and lesse hurtfull to others And as Agur here prayes That God would not give him poverty so likewise that God would not give him riches Give me saith he neither poverty nor riches To pray against poverty which many so fear is no more then the most will do but to pray against riches which the most so desire may be thought a Paradox But Agur here desiring rather to be good then great and fearing that riches would make him worse he praies that God would not give him riches Though riches be not evill in their own nature yet they may be as we heard before of poverty occasions of evill occasions of evill to him that is rich and of evill to others through his being rich First Of evill to him that is rich For riches do often make men proud and to forget God This Agur implies in the next verse by giving this reason why he desired that he might not be rich Least saith he I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord For none are so prone to forget God as they commonly are whom he hath blest with riches though their riches should make them the more to remember him as gifts call to mind the givers of them Therefore Moses gave a speciall Caveat to the Children of Israel to beware they forgat not the Lord when he had enricht them in the Land of Canaan Deut. 6.10 When the Lord thy God saith Moses Deut. 6. shall have brought thee into the Land to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not and houses full of all good things which thou filledst not and wels digged which thou diggedst not vineyards and olive-trees which thou plantedst not when thou hast eaten and art full then beware lest thou forget the Lord. Deut. 8.11 And again Deut. 8. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast builded goodly houses and dwelt therein and when thy heards and thy flocks do multiply and when thy silver and gold and all that thou hast is multiplyed then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord implying that then they would be most prone to forget him For riches by the fair shew they make do steal away mens hearts from God 2 Sam. 15.6 Psal 62.10 as Absolon by his fair shews to the people did steal away their hearts from David Therefore David gives rich men this counsell Psal 62. If riches increase set not your hearts upon them because if the heart be set upon riches then not upon God For no man saith our Saviour can serve two Masters Mat. 6.24 ye cannoâ— serve both God and riches no more then the eye as St. Augustine saith can both look up to heaven and down to the earth at the same time And as riches do steale mens hearts from God and make them not to regard him so sometimes they steale mens hearts from themselves that they regard themselves lesse then they do their riches and therefore toyle continually to get Wealth and yet are not satisfied though they have more then enough And therefore Agur in the 15. and 16. ver of this Chapter compares the covetous rich-man to those things that are the most insatiable of all other as to the Horse-leach which is ever crying give give which sucks the blood untill she be filled and then she fals off and yet presently after she fals to it a fresh and is as hungry of it as she was before To the grave that never cries it is enough but though it receive never so many dead bodies yet it consumes all and is still gaping as it were and opening the mouth that it may receive more To the earth that cannot be satisfied with water but though sometimes it be so glutted with raine and made as it were drunken so that it vomits it up againe that a man would thinke that it had taken such a surfet that it would brook rain the worse for a long time after yet ye know if it be but without showers for a while it will begin to chappe and chaune and be as thirsty thereof as it was before And so likewise to fire which is of so insatiable a nature that it cannot be exstinguisht with adding fewell unto it but the more fewell it has the more greedy it is catching hold of all that is round about it first of the chimney where it was first kindled then of the roof of the house then of the whole building and yet it will not stay there but will presently take hold of the house that is next it and so will still go further further till it have devour'd and consumed whatsoever is nere it Now as these are insatiable as the Horse-leach is not satisfyed with sucking blood the grave with the dead the earth with water nor the fire with fewell no more can a covetous rich-man be satisfied with riches though he have never so much Hence it is that such do make themselves drudges to the world to get wealth and yet grudge themselves any part thereof as unwilling to lessen that which they have For the more they have Viri divitiarum the more they desire their riches which should be a medicine to cure them of covetousnesse increasing their disease and making them more covetous and lesse willing to spend any thing upon themselves For Mammon doth commonly use his servants as Gardeners use their Asses in some Countries loading them to the Market with good herbes which are a burden to them and food for others and turning them when they have done to feed upon Thistles And thus doth Mammon deale with his followers loading them with wealth and not suffering them to injoy the benefit thereof but makes them to fare