Providence To be fed out of his store-house and to be cloathed out of his Wardrobe and take my rest where he shall provide me a lodging Certainly he who hath so bountiful so compassionate and so powerful a Master can't chuse but be sufficiently accommodated and comforted during the whole discharge of his faithful service And therefore why should I take thought torment and vex my self about what I should eat and what I should drink and wherewithal I shall be clothed when I very well know that the God whose I am and whom I serve liberally provides all these for the lillies of the field and the fowl of the air without the least of their care and contrivance Math. 6.25,26 Nay the Holy Book informs me that the Son of his love in whom the Father was always well pleased was little better provided for he had neither house nor land nor revenues to furnish him with a subsistence in the days of his flesh but lived all along for above thirty years especially the three last of them purely upon Gods Providence and good mens charity Though he hath often created food for his followers yet he hath been sometimes fain to beg it for himself and for all that never harbour'd the least repining or dissatisfaction at the meanness of his quality or entertainment And most of those renowned Heroes both before and after our Saviours Incarnation men so famous for their Piety in their several generations that the ungrateful wicked world was not worthy of their continuance in it trod the very same steps They wander'd about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented Heb. 11.17 And yet all these by their faith in God by their dependance upon his Providence by their thankfulness for his protection and their obedience to his will obtained a good report Vers 39. very highly favour'd by God and worthily reputed of amongst men their names and their vertues being had in everlasting remembrance And now if to compleat the scene of my Poverty it should please God to bring me to such a pass that neither my own endeavours nor mens charity nor any extraordinary dispensation should help me with bread to eat nor clothes to put on which hardly yet ever came to pass however it should never come to pass but that the Lord should be my God him only would I serve and on him alone would I place all my joy And I should think I had great reason to do so if upon no other account yet for this that he would be pleased amongst all the children of men to make choice of me to witness to the world that man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Mat. 4.4 And in a word I should neither have bread nor flesh to sustain me withal I should notwithstanding have one sort of meat to eat which the world knows not of and can never take from me and that is the refreshment of a good conscience this would afford me many a delicious meal when every thing else is wanting and the joy that does arise from the consideration and prospect of a well-led life will furnish me with a perpetual Gaudie which will do more than administer health to my navil and marrow to my bones Prov. 3.8 being able to strengthen then a fainting spirit and to enliven and cheer a dejected Soul This will make ones heart merry and that will without further care or trouble give a continual feast Prov. 15.15 And when after all this ravishing treatment I shall find nature to decay and no longer able to support my fading-tabernacle of clay I would in all humility and contentment of mind resign up my soul into the hands of my gracious Father breathing out my last breath in the accents of fainting Elijah 1 King 19.4 It is enough now O Lord take away my life for I am not better than my fathers And I would not doubt but that God would in pity to my extream want and unreliev'd hunger either mercifully take my Soul into his bosom of blessedness or else were I as good a man and as useful a person to Gods Church as Elijah was would as miraculously provide me with food to sustain my feeble fainting nature as he did for that his distressed languishing Prophet But besides this of Poverty a good Christian can bear up his heart and lift up his head with joy amidst all the misery pain and vexation of a long tormenting sickness Many people 't is true are in this particular of Satans opinion they think they could easily grapple with all the hardships of poverty and the utmost mischief this world can bring upon them so long as they enjoy their health but if once God stretches out his hand upon their bodies and smites them with a sore disease they can then no longer hold their integrity their hearts repine and their tongues blaspheme and their whole life is nothing but a scene of quarrellings and defying of the Almighty Skin for skin and all that they have they could be content to give for their life and the preservation of their health but if once God puts forth his hand and touches but their bone and their flesh they presently set their mouths against Heaven and let fly against God himself and in this condition adventure to curse him to his face Job 2.4,5 But now a good Christian when he once finds that God hath laid a sore disease upon his loins and cast him upon his sick-bed he does in all humility quietly submit to his stroke heartily implore his mercy and patiently attend his pleasure and with a joyful confidence commits his body and his soul into the hands of his gracious Father For this indeed is the never failing comfort and principal cordial of his afflicted heart That 't is the merciful Physician of the Universe who brought this sickness upon him that the same good God makes the sore and binds it up and that he hath wounded him whose hands make whole Job 5.18 So that though by reason of the infirmity of his flesh he may possibly express his uneasie sad condition in the language of holy Job saying Chap. 7.3,4 I am made to possess months of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me When I lie down I say when shall I arise and the night he gone I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day Nay though he may continue his complaint to God in the words of holy David Psal 38. O Lord thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hands presseth me sore there is no soundness in my flesh neither is there any rest in my bones my wounds stink and are corrupt I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long Yet can he cheer up his heart and refresh his soul with the comfortable language of the same holy Prophet saying Vers 9. Lord all