of this life He that spared not his own sonne but delivered him up for us all how shal he not with him freely give us all things He that saved our soules from death shall he not deliver our bodies from the dangers of this world Certainly he that hath prepared for us eternal delights at his right hand will not denie us our temporal daily bread This assurance in his love will sweeten our afflictions and lay downe our feares for being persuaded that God as he is infinitely good is also infinitely wise wee must in consequence beleeve that all the evills which he sends us are so many remedies to other evils that our most smarting dolours are corrosives applyed by that wise Physician to eate the proud flesh of our corrupt nature that he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3.33 especially when he chastiseth his children but is in a manner forced to that course by their necessity as when a man is pincht by his best friends to awake him out of a deep lethargy And since that eternal friend is every where present by his al-seeing knowledge and almighty power and hath promised besides his gracious presence to his friends saying I will not leave thee nor forsake thee what reason have we of joy confidence at all times in all places and in all the occurrences of this life having God with us allwayes observing us with his eye upholding us with his hand protecting us with his providence guiding us with his wisedome and comforting us with his love The last good office that Faith doeth unto us is in the approaches of death for then especially it doth represent the promises of God unto the faithfull soule and sealeth them afresh knitting that bond of perfectnes the mutual love between God and the conscience faster then ever By it God speakes peace unto the soule aspiring to heaven and makes it spread the wings of holy desires to passe with a swift flight from the combat below to the triumph above Faith bearing up the soule in that last flight changeth name and nature in the way and becomes love to embrace him for ever in glory in whom we have believed in infirmity CHAP. VII Of Christian Hope THe proper action of Faith is to embrace Christ and ground the soul upon him But it hath another action common to it with hope which is to embrace the benefits obtained to us by Christ Of these benefits the present grace is proper to faith which is justification otherwise the Reconciliation of God with the conscience the future glory by the contemplation of Gods face is more proper to Hope Both faith and hope bring a sweet peace and solid content to the soul that loveth God But it is peculiar to hope to adde to that peace a beam of glory much like those spies of Israel that entred into the Land of Promise before the rest of the people to whom they brought some of the fruit of the Land For it entreth into heaven beforehand and from thence brings us a taste of the promised inheritance Hope is the onely thing that puts some value upon the life of this world for all the good of this life consisteth in this that it is a way to a better and that the earth is the tyring-room of the godly soul where she makes herselfe ready for the wedding of the Lamb. But for that what were this life good for It would consist but in two things to do evill and to suffer evill The very goods of this life without that hope would be evill for none among the Pagans and all others that were not sustained by Christian hope was ever made happy The wisest of them have sought the soveraigne good out of the objects of the senses not finding any solid content in sensuall things or actions Solomon wiser then them all had found that all under the Sun was vanity and vexation of spirit and under all he comprehended intellectual as well as sensual things Neither could any give a more judicious verdict of all than he for he had tryed all things Where then shall we find any thing worth the paines of living but in Hope For if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Hope not keeping within the limits of the poor goods of this life liveth already with the life to come for it looks for the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this world as himself teacheth us where although he reigne as a soveraigne he reigneth not as a redeemer and so here is not the reigne of his redeemed We find it by experience Who so then will enjoy the peace of the soul and contentment of mind must have his hope and his spirit in a better place for why should we expect of the world more then it hath Can one gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles May one expect peace of a perpetual agitation or a durable content from things of short continuance For the soul of man being created for permanency is contented with nothing lesse then a permanent good which is the essential reason why no man could ever find satisfaction in the world there being such a disproportion between mans soul and the objects that the world presents to her for all worldly things are finite but the soul though finite in her substance is infinite in her desire which nothing lesse then infinity can satisfie Now it is by hope that the soul enjoyeth in this finite world an infinite good It is by hope that we rise from the dead before we dy being advanced to a degree of grace that hath already a streak of glory Of which St Paul giveth this high expression Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall we also appeare with him in glory Worldly hopes flatter us and then disappoint us But though they did performe all they promise the present possession of the best things of the world is nothing comparable to the hope onely of heavenly things even that lively hope unto which God hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritane incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.3 O holy and glorious hope which already makes us partakers of Christs resurrection and followers of his ascention even to the right hand of God! already living with the life of Christ animated by his spirit Blessed hope by which we are preserved from the general corruption as with a soveraigne antidote and by which we subsist yea and triumph in afflictions Heb. 10.34 taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods knowing in our selves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring substance It is by hope that we look joyfully upon our bodies decaying
that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened When this direfull remembrance sinkes into a conscience how man was put out of Paradice and Cherubims were placed at the gate with aflaming sword to keepe him out that he may not finde the way to the tree of life it is enough to sinke one downe with feare and anguish and make him cry out standing upon the brink of despaire Must I be driven away from God for ever and what way is left for me to returne to the tree of life without which I cannot shunne eternal perdition Upon that perplexity Prayer comes and offers her helpe saying I will bring thee thither and will goe with thee without any let of the flaming sword for I know a way to the tree of life where the terrour of the law doth not keep the passage the sonne of God who is the way the truth and the life hath made me way unto the throne of grace to which I goe with full assurance to obtaine mercy and finde grace to helpe in time of need This freedome of prayer to approach unto God was in some sort represented by the sacrifices That they were figures of prayers wee learne it out of the Psalme 141 where David beseecheth God that his prayer may be set forth as incense and the lifting up of his hands as the evening sacrifice Ps 141.2 As then the smoake of the sacrifices did mount up toward heaven which is a way which cannot be stopt likewise faithfull prayers have at all times a free passage to heaven and although Satan be called the Prince of the aire he cannot disturbe them in the way But that they may reach to heaven the incense of the merit of Christ must be layd over the sacrifice of prayer To that holy duty wee are encouraged by Gods commandement and promise Both are in this text Ps 50.12 Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shall glorifie me And so in this Come unto me saith Gods eternal Sonne all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will ease you Math. 11.28 None that prayeth to the father through the merit of the Sonne returnes empty For either he giveth us what we do aske or what wee ought to aske and that which is fit for us He that keepeth that holy correspondence with God is never dejected with sorrow or perplexed with feare for he finds in that divine communication a plaister to all his sores and an inexhaustible well of life and joy David had found it so when he sayd Ps 16 I have set the Lord allwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shal rest in hope By prayer wee ground our soules in faith raise them with hope inflame them with charity possesse them with patience during our life and yeeld them to God with joy in our last breath To reape these benefits by prayer wee must understand well the right use of prayer which is double It serveth to aske of God our necessities both of body and soule for since in him wee live and moove and have our being wee must continually seeke to him by prayer of whom wee continually depend But the noblest and most proper use of prayer is to glorifie God and converse with him because wee love him and because he is most perfect and most worthy to be beloved coming to that holy duty not as a taske but an honour the greatest honour and delight that a creature can be capable of in this world stealing away from affaires and companies to enjoy that pleasant and honorable conversation as lovers will steale away from all employments to entertaine their best beloved For what is sweet in the world in comparison of this sweetnes what is honorable compared to this honour to have familiarity with God and be admitted to his presence at any time to be received of him as his children and when wee lift up our affections to heaven the habitation of his glory to finde that himselfe is come to meete us in our heart and hath made it another heaven by his gracious presence In that meditation a faithfull man will call Gods benefits to minde and to conceive their excellency to his power he will from the consideration of Gods grace reflect upon that of his owne naturall condition sometimes criminal miserable and Gods enemy but now through Gods preventing love and unspeakable mercy changed into the quality of child of God and heire of his kingdome He hath bin provoked to pity us by the depth of our misery wherefore in all reason wee must be provoked to thankfulness by the height of his mercy And this is the chiefe employment of prayer an employment which paying our duty brings our felicity and though wee have payd but what wee owe and scarce that giveth us a present payment for the duty which wee have payd O what a heavenly delight it is to lose ones selfe in the thought of Gods mercyes which are beyond all reckoning and above all imagining and to say to him after David Ps 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wonderfull workes and thy thoughts which are to us ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee v. 8 If I would declare and speak of them they are more then can be numbred I delight to doe thy will O my God yea thy law is with in my heart Ps 86.11 Teach me thy way O Lord I will walke in thy truth unite my heart to feare thy name I will praise thee O Lord my God withall my heart and will glorifie thy name for evermore for great is thy mercy towards me and thou hast delivered my soule from the lowest hell Such a conversation with God to rejoyce in his love praise him for his graces and crave the leading of his spirit to walke before him unto all pleasing is an imitation of the perpetual imployment of Angels and glorified Saints It is a beginning of the Kingdome of heaven in this life In it consisteth the true peace of the soule and the solid contentment of minde CHAP. V. Of the love of God BEing entred into the meditation of the love of God let us stay upon it It is good for us to be here let us make here three tabernacles And more reason have wee so to speak in this occasion then St. Peter when he saw Christ transfigured in the Mount For by planting his abode there he could not have made Christ to doe the like nor given a settled continuance to that short bright lightning of glory But by our meditation upon the love of God wee make him to stay with us and our soul is transfigured with him being filled with his grace and his peace and already enlivened with a beame of his glory Now because the ground the spring and the cause of the love that
and warre in the world and of the subsistence and revolution of Empires Who would beleeve that at the same time he tels the number of our hairs and that not so much as one sparrow falls to the ground without his speciall appointment but that we are told it by his own mouth and that our experience assureth us of his care of the least of our actions and accidents of our life Here wee must rest amazed but not silent for our very ignorance must help us to admire and extoll that depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God whose eye and hand is in all places whose strength sustaineth whose providence guideth all things and taketh as much care of each of his creatures as if he had nothing else to looke to If our minds be swallowed up in the depths of Gods wisdome this one depth calls in another deep which brings no lesse amazement but gives more comfort that is the fatherly love of God to us his children Eph. 3.18 O the bredth the length the depth the heighth of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge the bredth that embraceth Jewes and Gentiles having broken the partition wall to make a large room to his wide love that his way might be known upon earth his saving health among all Nations Psalm 67.2 The length which hath elected us before the foundation of the world and will make us live and reigne with himselfe for ever The depth which hath drawne us out of the lowest pit of sorrow death to effect that hath drawn him down to that low condition The height which hath raised us up to heaven with him and makes us sit together with him in heavenly places With what miracles of mercy hath he preserved his Church from the beginning of the world How many graces doth he poure upon the several members thereof nourishing our bodies comforting our souls reclaiming us from iniquity by the gift of repentance and faith keeping off the malice of men and evill Angels from us by the assistance of his good Angels delivering our life from death our eyes from teares and our feet from falling But before and after all other benefits we must remember that principal benefit never sufficiently remembred Col. 1.12 Giving thankes unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Sonne in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgivenesse of sins This is the highest top of our felicity the main ground of the peace of the soul and the incomparable subject of the contentment of our minds Yea if we have such a deep sence of that heavenly grace as to praise God continually for it with heart and mouth For as we praise God because he blesseth us he blesseth us because we praise him and by his praise which is the eternal excercise of his blessed Saints we become already partners of their imployment their peace and their joy CHAP. IX Of good Conscience ALl that we have said hitherto regardeth the Principal causes both the efficient and the instrumental of the peace with God There are other causes which of themselves have not that vertue to produce that great peace yet without which it cannot be preserved nor produced neither these are a good conscience and the excercise of good workes Not that the reconciliation made for us with God by the merit of his Son needs the help of our works but becaus the principal point of our reconciliation and redemption is that we are redeemed from iniquity which is done by the same vertue that redeemes us from Hell and by the same operation For it is a damnable self-flattery and self-deceipt for one to beleeve that he is reconciled with God if he feele in himselfe no conversion from that naturall enmity of the flesh against God neither can he enjoy a true peace in his soul In that reconciliation God makes use of our wil for in all agreements both parties must concur and act freely And to make us capable of that freedome God by his spirit looseth the bonds of our unregenerate will naturally enthralled to evill But it will be better to medle but little with the worke of God within us and looke to our owne learning the duties which wee are called unto as necessary if wee will enjoy that great reconciliation The first duty is to walke before God with a good conscience for in vaine should one hope to keepe it tranquil and not good Conscience is the natural sence of the duties of piety and righteousnes warning every man unlesse he be degenerated into a beast to depart from evil and doe good And a good conscience is that which obeyeth that sense and warning But the ordinary use which I will follow by a good conscience understands onely the first part which is to beware of evil This good conscience is so necessary for the enjoying of that peace of God applyed to us by faith that the A postle to the Hebrewes requires it that wee may stand before God with a full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Let us draw neere saith he with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washt with pure water And St Paul chargeth Timothy 1. Tim. 1.19 to hold faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack shewing that faith and a good conscience must goe hand in hand and that the losse of a good conscience ushereth the losse of faith which is consequently followed with the losse of inward peace Whereas a good conscience brings forth confidence as St John teacheth us 1. Joh. 3.21 Beloved if our heart condemne us not then have wee confidence before God By a conscience that condemnes us not wee must not understand a conscience without sinne for there is none such to be found Much lesse a conscience that condemneth not the sinner after he hath sinned for the best consciences are those that forgive nothing to themselves and passe a voluntary condemnation upon themselves before God by a free and penitent confession But the good conscience that condemnes us not according to St Johns sense is that which beares witnes to a man to have walked in sincerity and cannot accuse him to have shut up his eyes since his conversion against the evident lights of truth and righteousnes or to have hardned his heart against repentance after he hath offended God The godly man will remember that the peace betweene God and us was made by way of contract whereby God gives himselfe to us in his Sonne and we give our selves to him If then any refuse to give himselfe to God there is no contract God will not give himselfe to him and so no peace for every contract must be mutual When the one party
the Devills haunting of gold mines and places where money and plate is hid gives a probable suspition that the Devill sticks by riches and breatheth upon them the aire of his malignancy Let every wiseman consider whether he will bestow for them as much as they cost that is whether he will weary his body vexe his minde offer violence to his conscience bring his heavenly soul captive under the things of the earth be diverted from seeking the goods which are onely permanent and true to them that have them once to runne after deceitfull goods which are none of ours even when we have them of which the keeping is uncertaine and the losse certaine though we might avoide the ordinary daingers whereby foolish rich men destroy their wealth and their wealth destroyes them The just measure of riches is as much as one needs for his use for that which is above use is of no use How they must be used we shall consider when we treat of Passions Here we seeke onely to know their price CHAP. IV. Of Honour Nobility Greatnesse THe proper rank of worldly honour is next after riches for it is to them chiefly that honour is deferred Without them the honour done to Vertue is but words Indeed the honour that followes is but smoake but yet smoake hath some substance words have none Of honour gotten by vertue and of its right worth something must be said when we speake of Renowne Here we have to do with that outward garish luster which dazleth the eyes of the vulgar gets salutations and opens a lane through the croud for a noble person Riches are to honour that which the bones are to the body for they keep it up When honour loseth riches it falls to the ground like hops without poles Nobility with poverty doth but aggravate it and make it past remedy A misery described in two words by Solomon Prov. 12.9 Honouring ones selfe and lacking bread In time of peace it is wealth that brings nobility and greatnesse In time of warre it is violence for by invasions high titles and royalties of Lordships had their beginning We may then value Nobility by its causes for wealth hath nothing praise worthy and it is the origine of new Nobility Invasion is meere Injustice it is the Origin of ancient Nobility so much cryed up There is a natural Nobility consisting in generosity and a nobility by grace which is our adoption to the right of Gods children These two together make a man truly noble Civil nobility is nothing in nature and consisteth meerly in the opinion of men and custome of nations We deduce it from masculine succession but in some Kingdomes of the East they derive it from the feminine because every one is more certaine of his Mother then his Father In China learning not extraction gives nobility In some places nobility consisteth in merchandize In some the military profession in some in leading an idle life Which different customes shew that worldly nobility lyeth altogether in fancy and in effect is nothing Yet such as it is it proveth a goodly ornament to Vertue it is like enamell which being of small value sets off the luster of Gold It addeth grace facility and power to vertuous actions Many vertues are obscured or altogether hid by poverty and meane condition Sobriety in a poore man is imputed to indigence continence to want of power patience to basenesse But these vertues become illustrious and exemplary when humility meets with greatnesse and temperance with power Vertue then shines when it is set in a high Orbe where a man takes for the measure of his desires not what he can but what he ought to do A right good man being high and rich hath great helpes to do good and power prompts him both with the occasion and the desire On the other side when greatness and meanes meet with a weake and perverse spirit it doth harme in the world And such are most men whose vicious affections appeare not when they are kept under by poverty obscurity but when they rise their vices will rise with them As Organs ill set and ill tuned shew not their defect while the bellowes lie down unstirred but when the winde is blowne into the pipes they gall the eares of the hearers by their discord and harshnesse Likewise many vices lie mute and quiet till the winde of honour and plenty get into them and blow up an ill composed minde with audaciousnesse rashnesse and discordance with himselfe which riseth too high with pride and together falls too low by miserablenesse and where all is out of tune by lust insolence and intemperance But even those that were evill before unless they have constant minds and throughly dyed with piety will bee corrupted by honour and plenty For all men whom wee call good are prone to evill and no greater invitation to evill then facility And if great honour which is never without great businesse doth not corrupt a man it doth interrupt him and as it gives him meanes to do good it takes off his mind from thinking of it and many times binds his hands from doing that good which he intends by reason of the diversity of businesse and several inclinations of men which he must accommodate himselfe unto it being certain the greater a man is the more he is a slave And it is in the highest condition that a man hath most reason to say after St. Paul Rom. 7.19 The good that I would I do not but the evill which I would not that I doe One is constrained to court those whom he despiseth favour those whom he feareth shut his eyes many times to see neither vice nor vertue till one use himselfe in good earnest to preferre conveniency before righteousnesse There a mans life is a continuall Pageant of dissimulation which he knowes in others and returnes it to them who also know it in him yet both parties put on the face of respect and kindnesse over an arrogant and mischievous minde and embrace those whom they would have choaked There also when a man would do good to others very often he doth harme to himselfe To advance one mans suite he must put back and discontent many and get ten enemyes for one friend who will lesse remember the good office then the others the injury which they think to have received by the repulse Truly high places are not fit for true friendship for they take away the freedome from it and by consequent the sweetnesse and the right use In the throng of businesse and companie the mind loseth its tranquillity And many times after one hath lost his rest he loseth his labour also It is a great misery for a man to be never his own and to have no time to think of God of which when one discontinueth the use he loseth in time the desire of it and too many acquaintances make one a stranger with God Paucos beavit aula plures perdidit
do him harme or hindred to do him good or deprived of the good he might do to the publique that worthy man must not altogether neglect to rectifye the misconceits taken against him which he may with lesse difficulty atchieve by a serene and constant course of integrity then by finding and proving confuting and keeping a great bustle to bring contrary witnesses face to face Innocency and the confidence that attends it must needs stand so high above the babling of the vulgar as to be no more moved with it then the Starres with the wind â—â—owing in the lower Region The dishonour that hath some ground in the truth must be wiped off not by excuses but by amendment Is one blamed for being vicious He must be so no more And that out of hatred of vice not of dishonour which being but a shadow of it will vanish at the rayes of Vertue CHAP. XII Of the evills of the body Unhandsomnesse Weaknesse Sicknesse and Paine OUr judgement being satisfyed that the good of the body beauty strength health and pleasure are none of the great goods we ought also to bee perswaded that their contraries are none of the great evills And if our very bodies must not be accounted ours because we cannot dispose of them at our pleasure and because by the undermining of age they sinke and slip away continually from themselves the commodities and incommodities of these fraile tenements at will where our soules are harboured for a few daies as ought not to disquiet us matters of any importance To beginne at Unhandsomnesse if a woman be unhandsome for that sexe is especially sensible of that disgrace let her stay but a while age will bring all the beauties to her row within few yeares and death after That last day draweth neere which will make faire and foule alike strong and weake sick and sound them that are tormented with dolour and them that torment themselves with voluptuousnesse and curiosity Whosoever is much grieved with those incommodities never apprehended aright the frailty of the opposite commodities We must not be vexed for the want of things which by their nature decay and perish very houre There are few incommodities but have a mixture of commodities which a wise lover of his owne tranquillity will pick and convert to his advantage The unhandsome woman shall not be admired but in recompence she shall not be tempted nor importuned as a prey by lust and insolence She hath with her a perpetual exhorter to humility piety and all vertue and to recompence the want of beauty with goodnesse Seldome is unhandsomnesse reproached to women but to them that aggravate with malice envy their disgraces of nature Beauty cannot be acquired but goodnesse may Yet among them that want beauty some are so wise and so good that they become handsome They are commonly more happy in marriage then great beauties for they give lesse jealousy to their husbands and study more to content them Persons of weak constitution are lesse obnoxious to acute sicknesses which many times will kil strong bodyes in three or foure dayes They are lesse tainted with that stupid pride which commonly attends great strength of body Finding themselves inferiour to others in excercises of strength they apply themselves to exercises of wit to which commonly they are more apt As weezels have more mettle and nimblenesse then Oxen there is often more industry and quicknesse of wit in little weak men then in men of of large and brawny limbs for the predominancy of blood and phlegme which makes the body large is the duller temper for wit whereas choler and melancholy which by their contractive quality limit the stretching of growth to a lesser extent serve also the one to sharpen the wit the other to give solidity to the judgement Weakenesse reads to a man a continual Lecture of prudence and compliance for being not able to carry on his designes with a high hand dexterity onely will serve his turne Also that want of strength teacheth him to make God his strength sticking fast to him by faith and a good conscience That way the weakest become too strong for all the world When I am weake then I aâ— strong saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 12.10 Of this Gods children have a blessed experience in sicknesse whereby God makes their body weake to make their faith strong and their soules by the dolours and lingring decay of their bodies susceptible of many salutary lessons for which health and ease have no eares Sicknesse and paine are evill in their nature but they are good by accident when God is pleased to turne evills into remedies to bring a man to repentance and make him looke up to the hand that striketh They are punishments to sin and wayes to death but to the faithful soul they become instruments of grace and conveighances to glory Many of them that beleeved in the Lord Jesus while he conversed among men were brought to it by bodily sicknesses And he when he healed a sick person often would say Thy sins are forgiven thee To give an impartial judgement of their quality and measure one must rather beleeve what he feeles then the cryes and compassion of them that love him and have interest in his preservation They say that a man is very sick when he feeles not his sicknesse Yet he hath so much good time till he feele it If the paine be sharp it is short If it be little it is tolerable If the evill be curable be patient good Cure will heale it If the evill be incurable be patient death will heale it No evill is superlative when one is certaine to come out of it By life or by death there must be an end of thy sicknesse All the remedies that Pagan Philosophy giveth in extremities come to this that patience is a remedy to evills that have none But here Christian Philosophy openeth the treasure of divine comforts which to make the faithfull man patient in tribulation make him joyfull in hope shew him the crown ready for him at the end of the combat In the combat he is strengthened by faith and the comforter whom Christ promist to his disciples powerfully assisteth him in his last agony Or if his triall be prolonged he tels him as Paul buffeted by a messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12.9 my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weaknesse By that grace sicknesse beates downe pride quencheth lust weaneth the heart from the love of the world makes the soule hungry and thirsty after righteousnesse Theodoricus Archbishop of Collen with great wisdome exhorted the Emperour Sigismond to have the will in health to live holily as he said when he was tormented with the gravel and gowte Sicknesses give to a godly man a sense of his frailty when wee feel these houes of mud our bodies drooping towards the ground their originall then doe we sigh for that building of God that house not made with hands
to satisfie the desire of temporal things is to abridge it A counsel comprehending these two Not to depend of the future and to be content with little for the present Both are effects of an entire confidence in Gods goodnes and providence Of not depending upon the future I shall have several occasions to speake hereafter To be contented with little is an unspeakable treasure That way one may with much ease get plenty which a covetous man cannot get by heapes of money scraped up with a greedy labour He that desires onely what he can have obtaines easily what he will have And he that desires nothing but what pleaseth God hath obtained it already All things smile on him because he receives all things at the hand of God whom he knowes to be good and wise Little and much are all one to him for both serve alike for contentment as it pleaseth God to extend a blessing upon it Let us apply this to the three principal desires that cause so much tumult and disorder in the world Covetousnes Ambition and Voluptuousnes CHAP. V Of Desire of Wealth and Honour What I have sayd of wealth and honours will persuade any man of good sense that they are not satisfying objects of a mans desire therefore not to be eagerly followed It is our Saviours consequence Luk. 12.15 Take heed and beware of covetousnes for mans life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth It is also St Johns consequence who forbids us to love the world and the things that are in it because the world passeth away 1 Joh. 2. These are two powerfull reasons to moderate the desire of the things of this world drawne from their nature The one that they are not necessary the other that they are transitory And yet the covetous and ambitious seeke after them as if life consisted in them or they were to endure for ever Which they cannot thus desire without turning their affection from the onely necessary and permanent thing which is God Matth. 6.24 You cannot serve God and Mammon saith the Lord Iesus For as when a channel is cut for a river in a ground lower then her bed all the water will fall where it finds a slope and leaves her former channel dry Likewise the desire of man whose true channel is the love of God will turne the whole affection of the soule towards low earthly things when that slope descent of covetousnes and ambition is made in the heart and nothing is left for God For it is improperly spoken that a man pretending to great worldly honours is aspiring too high Rather he is stooping too low for the most precious things of the world yea and the whole world are very much under the excellency of mans soule and more yet below the dignity of Gods children Who so then enslaveth his soule of heavenly origine and called to a divine honour unto temporal things which in this low world cannot be but low debaseth his dignity most unworthily And in all earthly things high or low condition makes but little unequality for still it is earth Hills and dales are alike compared with their distance from Heaven But what as the Israelites quitted Gods service to worship the golden calfe the luster of gold and honour will so dazell mens eyes and inflame their desires that they transport unto things of this world that devout love which they owe unto God Wherefore St Paul saith that covetousnes is idolatrie Col. 3. And it is no wonder that the sensual objects prevaile more upon Nature then the spirituall Yet covetous and ambitious desires are not properly natural but enormities of nature for little provision serveth nature whereas if all the waters of the sea were potable gold they would not quench the thirst of covetousnes Nature is contented with a meane degree but crownes heaped up to heaven would yet be too low for ambition Greedines is an unthankfull Vice It makes a man so thirsty after that he hath not that he forgets what he hath and thinks not himselfe advanced though he see a great many behind as long as he seeth yet some before him He cannot enjoy that he hath because he hangs upon that he hath not Thus he is allwayes needy discontented unquiet and spares his enemies the labour to find him a continual vexation And whereas the proper use for which Desire was given to man is to supply his necessities he makes use of his desire to multiply his necessities To that sicknes these are the proper remedies The first is to abridge our desire and be contented with little To him that contenteth himselfe with little little is much But to him that is not contented with much much is little To abridge our desire wee must beare downe our pride That which makes a man think a great wealth to be too little for him is his too great esteeme of himselfe Whereas the humble and meeke though they have but little think they have more then they deserve Who so will calmly compare what he deserveth with that which God hath given him shall find great matter to humble himself and praise God and silence the murmuring of his greedines Let us remember our beginning Being borne naked a little milke and a few baby clouts served us Who would think that some yeares after whole kingdomes could not satisfie us Yet our need since that time is not much increased 1. Tim. 6.8 Having food and raiment wee may be therewith content A little is sufficient for necessary desires but for curious and superfluous desires the whole world is too little Let us employ our greedy desire to heale it self considering that this greedines for the wealth and honour of the world spoiles the enjoyment and takes all content from it for no man hath joy in these things but he that useth them as not using them That greedines makes us seeke them with torment possesse them with unquietnes and lose them with anguish Yea many times greedines hindereth the acquisition Good fortune seldome yeelds to them that will ravish her but to the wise and moderate who though they lose no opportunity woe her as little concerned in her and are alwayes prepared for the repulse That wee spend no more about worldy fortune then it is worth Put in one scale the splendour of honour and the plenty of wealth Put in the other scale the labour to get them the care and vexation to keepe them the peril the envy the losse of time the temptations offered to the conscience the stealing of a mans thoughts from God and the danger of losing heaven while wee goe about to get the earth Then the incapacity of those goods to satisfie the desire their weakenes their uncertainty and how one infortunate moment destroyes the labour of many yeares and then judge whether they be worth enflaming our desire and enslaving our affections With the uncertainty of these possessions consider the uncertainty of the possessours that
peace and confidence is to make God our Confident It is also a great point of mutual friendship to yeeld to the interesses and desires one of another Herein God hath shewed the way to men having so farre condescended to the condition and necessity of men as to have put on their nature and taken their debt upon himselfe yea and to have discharged it He is dead like men and for men And being the soveraigne incomprehensible wisdome he descends to our capacity to declare himself to us and draw us to him He calls us indeed to denye ourselves that wee may give ourselves unto him but yet how much doeth he yeeld to our desires and feares And with what wisedome and sweetnes doeth he sort his tryals with our strength And where is the godly man that hath not found in his forest afflictions that kinde usage that St Paul speaks of 1. Cor. 10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man But God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to beare it Since then God who is so great doeth accommodate himselfe with us who are so little the law of reciprocall love requires that wee accommodate our selves with him who is so great that wee diligently informe our selves of his will to make it our will that wee observe the things which he loveth that wee may love them and the things which he hateth that wee may hate and avoyd them that all our interesses bow under his that the end of all our ends be his glory seeking not our owne things but the things of the kingdome of God Wee shall never be our owne till wee have wholly resigned our selves unto God Wee shall never have a true peace and content within till our affections be altogether subjected to his love and conformed to his will But then shall wee be peaceable contented and masters at home when God shall reigne within us and when wee shall know no more difference betweene his interest and ours Finally the highest point of love being an entire union and to have all things common it is also the purpose and in the end the efficiency of Gods love to us yea so farre that by his great and precious promises wee are made partakers of the divine nature 2. Pet. 14. and that Christ is in us and we in him Ioh. 17. What hath God reserved to himselfe that wee may not call ours Heaven and Earth are for us His providence is our purveyour His Angels are our keepers His kingdome our inheritance He gives us his good plenty his word his Sonne his Spirit his owne selfe Can any be persuaded of this beneficence of God and refuse to give him his body his soul his intentions and his affections Shall wee use reservations with God who keeps no good from us Would any poore man refuse to have community of goods with a rich man Now God who is the plenty and felicity it selfe will have community of goods with us Let us embrace the condition readily Let us give our selves to God and God shall be ours Or rather say wee God is ours let us render our selves to him for he prevents us in that Covenant since God is ours good reason wee should be his Blessed we that wee may say with the Spouse I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine for by that union of persons and community of goods with God the soul finds her selfe arrived to the soveraigne degree of riches peace glory and delectation CHAP. VI. Of Faith Faith is a Christian vertue whose most proper and natural office is to embrace that peace made for us with God by Iesus Christ And by it wee signe and seale for our part the Agreement made betweene God and man This expression is borrowed of John the Baptist speaking of the Lord Iesus He that hath received his testimony hath set to his Seale that God is true Joh. 3.33 All that we said before of our reconciliation with God by Christ how that reconciliation is applyed to our consciences is an explication of the duty and benefit of faith Yet we must speake of it againe as a consequence of Love For the principal most natural fruit of the love of God is to put our whole trust in Thus St Iohn having sayd much of the love of God to us and of the love that wee owe him for it addeth 1. Ioh. 4.18 There is no feare in love but perfect love asteth out feare because seare hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love Faith as the mother of all vertues brings forth the love of God but Love is soone eeven with faith and brings forth her owne mother For as wee love God because wee trust in him as certainly persuaded of his wisedome power and fidelity in his promises so wee trust in him because wee love him for in all our friendships our trust in the beloved person followes the measure of the love that wee beare to him He then that loveth God sincerely trusts in him And when calamity tempts him to unbeleeving fears he will observe Saint Peters exhortation 1. Pet. 4.14 Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in welldoing as unto a faithfull creatour It is impossible to love well without a good opinion of the person wee love especially of his fidelity and righteousnes Seeing then that God hath promised to pardon sins to those that confesse them with a serious repentance if wee love him wee shall trust in his promise that if wee confesse our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnes 1 Joh. 1.9 grounding our trust in his mercy upon his fidelity and righteousnes for since he promist it certainly he will doe it he is too faithful to breake his word and too just to punish us for those sins of which Christ hath borne the punishment in our name This gracious declaration he hath made Luk. 12.32 Feare not little flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdome Shal wee have such an ill opinion of him as to think that he hath promist more then he was willing or able to performe or that since the promise made his will is altered or his power diminisht Let us be sure that he that loved us from all eternity will love us to all eternity Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifyeth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen agnine who is even sitting at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us And if upon this safe ground we trust in God for the things of the life to come wee must upon the same ground trust his love for the things