he cares not what the people say so his baggs be full He drowns the noise of the peoples curses with the musick of his money as the Italians in a great thunder ringe their bells shoot off their Canons Nor hath pride so great power over him as covetousness He is not like Simon in Lucian who having got a little wealth changed his name from Simon to Simonides for that there were so many beggers of his kin and set the house on fire wherin he was born because no body should point at it Nevertheless though he prefers gaine before an honest reputation yet the word of God informs us that gain got with an ill name is great loss and certainly that man cannot be sparing in any thing that is commendable who is prodigal of his reputation But herein lies the difference gracious and tender hearts are galled with that which the carnally-minded slight and make nothing of Secondly they are not wise enough to know what a singular blessing it is to have a name spotless a report unreprovable and a fame for honesty and goodness as it fared with Joseph and Ruth and David and Samuel and Ester and Solomon and our Saviour and Cornelius and those worthies mentioned in the eleventh to the Hebrews who all obtained a good report which proceeds of the Lord and is bestowed as a great blessing upon such as he will honor Gen. 39. 21. Zeph. 3. 19 20. Act. 10. 22. Rom. 16. 19. Ruth 2. and 3. Chapters which makes wise Solomon say that a good name is better then a good ointment and to be chosen above great riches Prov. 22. 1. I know well that this miserly muckworm this for did pinchgut the very basest of creatures that look upwards does keep up his credit with some base ignoble persons some blind Moales like himself as being able to discern nothing but the barke or dregs of things For they account of men as we do of baggs of money prize them best that weigh heaviest and measure out their love and respect by the Subsidy Book for onely by their wealth they value themselves and onely by their wealth as Camels by their burthens be they valued If he have goods enough he both thinks himself and others think him good enough they think he is best that hath most and repute him most worthy that is most wealthy and naught is he be needy accounting poverty the greatest dishonesty Yea as if credit and reputation were onely intailed on the rich credit grows just as fast as wealth here in the City and in the country reputation is measured by the Aker and the words weigh according to the purse But others that are able to distinguish between good and evil know that either these are fools or Solomon was not wise Nor does he think himself more honorable then wise and good men think him base And certainly if such muckworms were as odious to the rest as they are to me they would appear in the street like Owls in the day time with whom no honest man would converse And why should I prefer him before a piece of copper that prefers a piece of gold before his Maker God commanded in the old Law that whatsoever did go with his breast upon the ground should be abomination to us how much more should we abominate the man who is indued with reason and a soul that hath glued his heart and soul unto a piece of earth But of this enough CHAP. XVII NInthly the next is That as the unmerciful Miser is all for sparing so his heir shall be all for wasting He lives poorly and penuriously all his life that he may dye rich He walks in a shaddow saith the Psalmist and disquieteth himself in vain heaping up riches not knowing who shall gather them Psal. 39. 6. As he hath reapt that which another sowed so another shall thrash that which he hath reaped He hordes up not knowing who shall injoy it and commonly they injoy it who lay it out as fast He takes onely the bitter and leaves the sweet for others perhaps those that wish him hanged upon condition they had his means the sooner Or possible it is he may have children which if he have he loves them so much better then himself that he will voluntarily be miserable here and hereafter that they may be happy He is willing to go in a thred-bare coat to starve his body lose his credit wound his conscience torment his heart and minde with fears and cares yea he can finde in his heart to damne his own soul and go to hell that he may raise his house leave his heir a great estate as thinking his house and habitation shall continue for ever even from generation to generation and call their lands by his name as the Psalmist shews Psalm 49. 11. He is careful to provide his children portions while he provides no portion of comfort for his own welfare either here or hereafter He provides for his childrens bodies not for their souls to shew that he begat not their souls but their bodies He leaves a fair estate for the worser part nothing for the estate of the better part He desires to leave his children great rather then good and is more ambitious to have his sons Lords on earth then Kings in heaven But as he that provides not for their temporal estate is worse then an infidel 1 Tim. 5. 8. So he that provides not for their eternal estate is little better then a devil which yet is the cace of nine parts of the parents throughout the Land But observe how his children requite him again and how God requites him in his children for commonly they are such as never give him thanks nor in the least lament his loss perhaps they mourn at his funeral yet not for that he is dead but because he died no sooner Nor is it any rare thing for men to mourn for him dead whom they would by no means have still to be alive Yea for the most part it is but a fashionable sorrow which the son makes shew of at his fathers death as having many a day wisht for that hour A sorrow in shew onely like that of Jacobs sons when they had sold their brother Joseph who profest a great deal of grief for his loss when inwardly they rejoyced Have ye not heard of a prodigal young heir that incouraged his companions with come let us drink revel throw the house out at windows the man in Scarlet will pay for all meaning his father who was a Judge but he adjudged the patrimony from him to one of his yonger sons more obedient And good reason he had for it for to give riches to the ryotous is all one as to pour precious liquor into a seeve that will hold no liquid substance which occasioned the Rhodians and Lydians to enact several laws that those sons which followed not their fathers in their vertues but lived viciously should be disinherited and their
poverty Proverbs 11. 24. The liberal person shall have plenty and he that watereth shall also have rain Verse 25. And the like in the Psalms Wealth and riches shall be in the house of him that hath compassion of and giveth to the poor Psal. 112. 3 to 10. See here how bounty is the best and surest way to plenty But notable to this purpose is that Prov. 28. 27. He that giveth to the poor shall not lack A rare and incomparable priviledge never to want And yet this is a bargain of Gods own making Plenty shall furnish the table where Charity takes away and gives to the poor He hath sparsed abroad sayes the Psalmist and given to the poor his benevolence remaineth for ever Psal. 112. 9. He hath alwayes to give that hath a free and bountiful heart to give sayes Saint Bernard And of this the Prophet Isaiah does assure us The liberal man sayes he deviseth liberal things and by liberality he shall stand Isaiah 32. 8. A man would think he should rather fall by being so liberal bountiful but this is the right course to thrive and hold out Nor was it ever known that God suffered a merciful and bountiful man to want ordering his affairs with discretion Psal. 112. 5. But you have not heard a tithe of these promises for the Scriptures no lesse abound in them then silver did in the dayes of Solomon of which only a few more for I had rather press you with weight then oppresse you with number of arguments What saith the Wiseman Prov. 3. Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first-fruits of all thine increase so shall thy barns be filled with abundance and thy presses shall burst with new wine Verse 9 10. In which regard whhat is this way expended may be likened to gold the best of metals of which experience teacheth that the third part of a grain will gild a wyre of 134 foot long Or rather to those loaves and fishes in the Gospel for as they did increase and multiply even while they were distributing so do our riches and indeed all other gifts Even out of that which the hand reacheth to the mouth it self is nourished And thus you see that if either Old or New Testament be true not getting but giving is the true and ready way to abundance That to give in this case is the way to have that parsimony is no good husbandry that we are the richer for disbursing Which makes Chrysostome say that the gainfullest Art is Almsgiving And hence it is that the Scripture compares Almsgiving to sowing of seed 2 Cor. 9. 6. he that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly but he that soweth bountifully shall also reap bountifully The Apostle compares giving to sowing to note unto us the great gain and advantage that commeth thereby for who knoweth not what gain a good husbandman hath by his sowing He casteth his seed into the ground and only forbeareth it a few moneths and when the season comes he reaps a harvest of thirty fourty or an hundred for one increase And the like of lending or putting money to interest to which the Scriptures also compare it Prov. 19. Psal. 37. He who hath pitty on the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he repay him again Prov. 19. 17. The Lord is content to acknowledge himself the charitable mans debtor Yea by our liberality to the poor our most gracious Redeemer acknowledgeth himself gratified and ingaged as himself does most fteely and fully acknowledge Matth. 25. I was an hungry and ye gave me meat c. And for as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me Verse 35 36 40. The poor mans hand is Christs Treasury or Bank as one fitly calls it and by putting thereinto a man becomes a Creditor to his Saviour Neither will he pay or recompence us as we do our creditors For as Augustine well notes what we receive by way of return is not ten for an hundred or an hundred for ten but an hundred for one yea a thousand thousand for one an hundred for one here in this world and in the world to come life everlasting together with a Kingdom even an immortal eternal Kingdom of glory and happinesse in heaven which is not to be valued with ten thousand worlds Ann why all this but in recompence of feeding clothing and visiting his poor brethren and members when they were destitute Where note but the incomparable and infinite difference between the receit and the return as ô the unmeasurable measure of our Saviours bounty And how happy is that man that may become a creditor to his Saviour heaven and earth shall be empty before he shall want a royal payment Wherefore hearke n to this all you self-lovers that are only for your own ends Do you indeed love your selves and your souls would you be rich indeed and that both here and hereafter then be charitable to the poor even to the utmost of your ability for this giving is not only an act of charity but also of Christian policie since we shall not only receive our own again but the same also with great increase for as it fared with the widow of Sarepta whose handfull of meal and cruse of oil with which she relieved the Prophet the more she spent the more it increased and the more she had so shall this precious oil bestowed on the poor for Christs sake be returned upon our heads in great measure as some that I could name can say out of admirable experience and others should finde would they but so far forth believe the Lord as to try him Which makes Saint Augustine say That the charitable man is the greatest usurer in the world I know this is such a paradox to misers and men of the world that nothing seems to them more absurd and ridiculous what perswade them that giving away their goods is the way to increase them You must make me a fool will such an one say before I can believe it and therein he speaks truer then he is aware of for these are the very words of St. Paul He that will be wise let him become a fool that he may be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. The wisdom of God is foolishness with the world and so is the wisdom of the world foolishness with God 1 Cor. 2. 14. 3. 19. To carnal reason it is as unlikely a thing as that which Elisha told to the King of Israel 2 Kings 7. that whereas the Famine was so great in Samaria one day that mothers aet their own children yet the next day there should be such plenty that a measure of fine flower should be sold for a sheckle and two measures of barley for a sheckle As improbable as that Abraham should have a son being almost an hundred years old and Sarah past child-bearing As impossible as that Lazarus should again live
The Prevention of Poverty Together with the Cure of Melancholy Alias Discontent Or the best and surest way to Wealth and Happiness being Subjects very seasonable for these Times wherein all are Poor or not pleased or both when they need be neither By Rich. Younge of Roxwel in Essex Florilegus Imprimatur Joseph Caryl LONDONâ—â—â—nted by R. W. Leybourn and are to be sold by James Crumpe a Book-binder in Little Bartholomews Well-yard 1655. Of the Prevention of Poverty By R. Y. VErtue is distributive and loves not to bury benefits but to pleasure all she can And happy is he that leaves such a president for which both the present and future Ages shall praise him and praise God for him It was no small comfort I suppose to Cuthemberg Anaximenes Triptolemus Columbus and other the like whose happiness it was to finde out Printing the Dial the Plough to enrich the World with the best of Metals with the Loadstone and a thousand the like But had they smothered their conceptions as so many lights under a bushel and not communicated the same for the publick it had argued in them a great dearth of charity whereas now to the glory of God all men are the better for them Nor is any employment so honorable as for a man to serve his generation and be profitable to many When like the Moon we bestow the benefits received from God to the profit and commodity of others It is the Suns excellency that his bright rayes and beamns are dispersed into every corner of the Universe The Tragick Buskin as they say would fit all that should put it on Here is that will much benefit thee being made use of be thy condition good or bad rich or poor learned or unlearned mental or manual The which to conceal would argue in the Authour either too much lucre or too little love Even the Physician that hath a sovereigne Receipt and dieth unrevealing it robs the world of many blessings which might multiply after his death leaving to all survivers this collection that he once did good to others but to do himselfe a greater C. E. The Prevention of POVERTY Together with the Cure of MELANCHOLY Alias DISCONTENT Or the best and surest way to Wealth and Happinesse Being Subjects very seasonable for these Times wherein all are Poor or not pleased or both when they need be neither THE PREFACE SECT. 1. WHen a Gentleman in Athens had his plate taken away by Ahashucrus as he was at dinner he smiled upon his friends saying I thank God that his Higness hath left me any thing So whatever befals us this should be our meditation It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed Lam. 3. 22. Or this He that hath afflicted me for a time could have held me longer he that hath touched me in part could have stricken me in whole he that hath laid this upon my name or estate hath power to lay a greater rod both upon my body and soul without doing me the least wrong And indeed if we but think of our deliverance from the fire of Hell or that our names are writ in Heaven it is enough to make us both patient and thankful though the trifles we delight in be taken from us But most men are so far from this that if God does not answer their desires in every thing they will take pleasure in nothing they will slight all his present mercies and former favours because in one thing he crosses them Like Ahab they are more displeased for one thing they want or rather fain â—nd pretend they want or at least have no right unto than they are thankfull for a thousand things they enjoy though the least mercy they injoy is beyond their best merit They are ready to receive all while they return nothing but sin and disobedience wherein they more than abound for they have done more against God in one week than they have done for him ever since they were born Yea such sotts they are that if another displease them they will be revenged on themselves grow melancholy and discontent like foolish Children who will forbear their meat and grow sick of the sullens if never so little crost Yea though men have all their hearts can wish and might if they would and had but the wit and grace be as happy as any men alive yet some small trifle shall make them weary of themselves and every thing else as it fared with foolish Haman Esther 5. 13. More particularly if their purses grow light their hearts grow heavy yea as if men did delight to vex themselves how many are there that of happy make themselves miserable or more miserable than they need by looking upon miseries in multiplying glasses the opinion onely of being poor or fear that they may be so when they are old makes them never injoy a merry day when they neither want nor are like to doe and every man is so miserable as he thinks himself The tast of goods or evils does greatly depend on the opinion we have of them SECT. 2. Thus millions are miserable melancholy discontent by their own conceit when thousands would think themselves happy had they but a piece of their happiness Which discontent or melancholy occasions more murmuring amongsts us than ever there was among those Israelites in the wilderness an unthankfulness able to make or keep them poor and miserable and that everlastingly Indeed because judgement is not executed speedily Eccles. 8. 11. they think it no sin at all such is their ignorance Otherwise they might know that as the Israelites was so their murmuring is against even the holy One of Israel as Isaiah affirmed of Senuacherib 2 King 19. 22. And David of Goliah a Sam. 17. 36 45. The Lord sayes Moses to the people when they grumbled for want of bread and also to Datban and Abiram heareth your murmuring against him and what are we your murmurings are not against vs but against the Lord Exod. 16. 8. Numb. 16. 15 21. Onely this is the difference multitudes of them were destroyed suddenly even fourteen thousand and seven hundred at a clap yea they had all been consumed in a moment for their murmuring had not Moses stood up in the gap and interceded for them Numb. 16. 41. to 50. and 32. 10. to 14. and 26. 64 65 and 11. 12 33. and 14. 12 22 23. and 21. 5 6. Whereas millions among us do the like and are not stung with fiery Serpents as they were because they are reserved without repentance to a fiery Serpent in Hell Nor stricken with death temporall because reserved to death eternal But God is the same God still and as just now as ever though now under the Gospel instead of corporall judgements he inflicts many times spirituall as blindness of mind hardness of heart and finall impenitency the fore-runner of eternal destruction of body and soul in that burning lake Revel. 19 20. For why is their ruine recorded but
Nor do I know any beast like him save Pharaohs seven lean and evill favoured kine and to them he is very like For when his large and greedy conscience hath devoured or eaten up many Customers or Clients estates as they did the seven fat and well favoured kine yet it cannot be known by any reall amendment that he hath eaten them but in his food raiment satisfaction of his mind c. he is as ill favoured as at the beginning He doth not more lock up his goods from the theis than from himself So that I cannot more fitly compare him to any thing than to an Idoll for as an Idoll hath eyes but sees not so he hath a reasonable soul but understands not And most just it is that he who is unjust to all others should be most unjust to himself And as a covetous man is good to no body so he is worst of all to himself It is the depth of misery to fall under the curse of Cham a servant of servants divitis servi maxime servi no thraldom to the inward and outward bondage too So that if there be any creature miserable it is the miserable miserly muck-worm and yet he is least to be pitied because he makes himself thus miserable Now this may move wonder to astonishment that they should take such care and paines and cast away their soules to heap up riches and when they have done to be never a penny the better for them Yea what can any wise man think of them are they not stark mad are they not fooles in folio What take so much care and paines indure so much greif sting of conscience losse of credit deprive themselves of heaven damn their own soules to get wealth and when they have got it not to be the better for it yea they are lesse satisfied and contented than before meanlier accommodated than mean men and could this possible be so if God did not give them their riches in wrath nor would he otherwise deny them the use of their own for the wise man hath given it as a rule That to whom God hath given riches as a blessing he also giveth him to eat and drink and to take pleasure and delight his soul with the profit of his labours wherein he travelleth under the sun for which see Ecces 2. 24. and 3. 12 13. and 5. 17 18 19. and 8. 15. And so you have one particular to prove what I promised But CHAP. VII SEcondly To this is added as another judgement let the ingrateful merciless miser have never so much he is never the more but the lesse contented As how many have mighty estates their houses full their shops and ware-houses full their coffers full their purses full and their pastures full and yet as if their hearts were bottomlesse that is still as lank and empty through an excessive desire of more as if they did indeed want all things The Cormorants desires are rather sharpened by injoying and augmented by possession For wishing still his wishes never cease But as his wealth his wishes still increase To shew that covetous men belong to hell after they dye they are like hell while they liue Hell is never filled and they are never satisfied covetous men drink brine which increaseth thirst rather than quenches it And though the devil should say to them as he said to our Saviour touching the whole world and glory thereof all these will I give thee though he needs not offer them all for they will serve him for less yet all would not content them no more than heaven it self contented Lucifer For as the rich glutton in hell desired a drop of water and yet a river would not have satisfied him for if his desire had been granted in the first he would have required more and then more to that never ceasing to ask never having enough nor being the better when he had it so it fares with the covetous man his abundance no more quencheth his lust than fuell does the flame For as oyle kindleth the fire which it seemes to quench so riches come as though they would make him contented but they make him more covetous And is not this thy very case that art covetous No man more happy in respect of outward things then thy self couldest thou but see it thou hast all things that heart can wish and shouldest thou but come to want what thou now injoyest and thinkest not worth thanks when it were past thou wouldest say thou wast most happy and after a little misse wish withall thine heart thou hadest the same again yea a world for such a condition and content withall Onely the devill by Gods just permission bewitches thee to think that thou hast not enough when thou hast too much and more than thou needest or knowest what to do withall Nor is it possible for a worldling to be contented for whereas naturall desires are soon satisfied those that are unnaturall are infinite Hunger is soon apeased with meat and thirst allayed with drink but in burning Feavers quo plus sunt potae plus sitiuntur aquae they still love amore concupi scentiae never amore complacentiae If covetous or ambitious men ever feel content in these transitory things it is no otherwise then as itching soars do in clawing and scratching fingers And indeed how should intemperate desires be satisfied with increase according as they are replenished when these appetites are not capable of satiety Men in this case are like poysoned Rats which when they have tasted of their bane cannot rest untill they drink and then can much less rest till they drink again swell and burst Covetousness is like the disease called the Woolf which is alwayes eating and yet keeps the body lean A moderate water makes the Mill goe merrily but too much will not suffer it to go at all Secondly another reason is Nothing can fill the heart of man but he that made it The heart shall be satisfied with gold when the body shall be contented with winde The whole world is circular the heart of man is triangular and we know a circle cannot fill a triangle Yea if it be not filled with the three persons in Trinity it will be filled with the world the flesh and the devil The heart is the seat or receptacle of spiritual things and the things of the world are corporal and carnal Now carnal and corporal things can no more fill our hearts then spiritual things can fill our Coffers Visible light will not cleer the invisible understanding nor will corporal food feed the soul Blessed are they sayes our Saviour who thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied Mat. 5. 6. not they that thirst after riches or honor or pleasure for instead of being satisfied they thirst more Yea these Mammonists are so infinite in desiring that could such a one swallow the whole earth that swallows all and will swallow him ere long it might choak him but not satisfie him
here nothing but torment her easter for the poorest are not seldom the wickedest Fourthly some have both God and the world as Abraham who was rich while he lived on earth and dying was glorious in Heaven Yea oftentimes they that are deerest to God do with great difficulty work out those blessings which even fall into the mouthes of the careless That wise disposer of all things knows it fit many times to hold us short of those favors which we sue for and would not benefit but hurt us Unlovely features have more libertty to be good because freer from Solicitors and though it be not a curse yet t is many times an unhappiness to be fair aswell as to be strong and witty Helena daughter to Jupiter and Leda for her excellent beauty was ravished at the age of nine yeers by Theseus and once again by Paris which caused the wars and utter ruine of Troy Plutarch observes that Lisander did more hurt the Lacedemonians in sending them store of riches and precious movables then Sylla did the Romans in consuming the reveneues of their treasure And as Sylvius relates the liberallity of Princes and especially of Metilda a Dutches of Italy who at her death made the Pope her heir begat ambition in the Bishops of Rome and ambition destroyed Religion These things are such as the possessors minde Good if well us'd if ill them ill we finde For even evil things work together for the good of the good and even good things work together to the evil of the evil Lucian feigneth that riches being sent by Jupiter from heaven come softly and slowly but from the infernal god comes flying apace And the other Poets feign Pluto to be the god of riches and of hell as if hell and riches had both one master And indeed he that resolves to be evil making no conscience how he comes by it may soon be rich but the blessings of God in our ill getting or unworthy carriage in their use prove but the aggravations of sin and additions to judgement And let this serve for the first use Secondly Let what hath been delivered touching the miseries of an unmerciful miserly muckworme serve to make us take heed and beware of all sin but especially of the sin of covetousness yea let us look to it lest while we hunt after the worlds venison with Esau we lose our Fathers blessing Can we not warm us at the Sun but we must make an Idoll of it to worship must we needs either hide our faces or bow our knees either renounce all profits and pleasures or be their slaves This is a second use Thirdly this if we seriously consider it may serve for a use of great comfort to the godly and conscientious For if worldlings are so many wayes perplexed and distracted with cares and fears about getting and keeping and losing their riches and great estates how happy are the servants of God that are not acquainted with any of them No man sayes the Apostle that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life because he would please him that hath chosen him to be a souldier 2 Tim. 2. 4. They cast their care upon God and he careth for them who will see that they shall never want what is good and fit for them Mat. 6. 25 30. But in the transgression of an evil man is his snare sayes wise Solomon Prov. 29 6. But of this by the way onely for there are other plagues yet behinde which God usually inflicts upon the merciless miser nor would one of them be left unconsidered CHAP. XVI THe eighth is the loss of his credit and good name which he seldom or never scapes which is not a light punishment however he esteems it The memorial of the just shall be blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot sayes Solomon Prov. 10. 7. Yea the cruel and unmerciful mans name stinks worse then a new opened grave His evil actions have been so many and notorious that like Vitellius as he waxeth daily more mighty so he grows daily more odious so that in a few yeers his credit proves a banckrupt with all men for as the Eagle by losing a feather at every flight hath never an one left by that she is old so it fares with him touching his credit When he dyes he alwayes goes away in a stink as is usually reported of the devil Nor will this his infamy dye with him for saith the Lord by his Prophet to such I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you and a perpetual shame that shall never be forgotten Jer 23. 40. It hath been proverbially spoken of him that would suddenly be rich he must have much greedins much diligence little credit and less conscience blame enough he cannot miss of For as shame is the fruit of sin Rom. 6. 21. and distrust the just gain of unfaithfulness so it is the just judgement of God that this cruel and hard-hearted wretch should be marked as it were with the letter law or Cains mark to make him hateful That as the fig-tree because it had no fruit was spoiled of his leaves so they who have made shipwrack of honesty shall make shipwrack of credit too that that which he seemeth to have should be taken from him His name shall go with a brand upon it like Cain the murtherer Simon the sorcerer Judas the traytor Thus Demas had for his title Demas that imbraced this present world Thus Esau was called Edom which signifieth red to keep his wickedness in remembrance because he had sold his birth right for a mess of red pottage And thus an extortioner shall not onely be dishonest and hard-hearted but known to be so like a rogue that is burned in the hand or hath lost his ears and he shall not be able to disguise himself so with the soberness of his countenance and smooth tongue but as though his life were writ in his forehead whereas he scarse thought he had been known to God every one shall point at him as he goes in the street And not seldom does some of his infamous actions stand upon reeord to posterity for as Christ promised that Maries good work should be spoken of to the worlds end so he hath caused Judasses evil work and Achans evil work and Absaloms evil work and Jeroboams evil work to be spoken of to the worlds end too Yea sin and shame is so inseparable and God is so severe in this case that though a man hath repented him of the sin yet some blemish sticks to his name even as a scar still remaineth after the wound is healed Matthew will ever be called Matthew the publican and Rahab Rahab the harlot Mary Magdalen will not longer be mentioned then the devils which were cast out of her will be mentioned with her and the like of others How carefully then should we avoid those actions which may ever stain us But all this he values not for like that wretched worldling in Horace
many to advantage themselves five shillings will indamage another five hundred pounds and to gain five pounds will indanger the losing of three whole Kingdoms yea when once men are bewitcht with the love of money as Judas was a small matter would hire them to sell Christ himself were he now on the earth to be sold A resolution to be rich is the fountain of infinite evils yea Covetousness is the Index or Epitomy of or rather a Commentary upon all sin and wickedness Name but covetousness and that includes all the rest as being a sin made up of many such bitter ingredients All vices rule where gold reigns at least that heart which hath once inslaved it self to this sin may be wrought by Satan to any thing Justice is the mistress of all vertues and the truest tryal of a good man but the covetous heart is a very mint of fraud and can readily coyne falsehoods for advantage upon all occasions And as it is the root or cause of all evil so it is the rot or main hinderer of all good Covetousness is the grave of all goodness it eats out the very heart of grace by eating grace out of the heart Rom. 1. 29. When Avarice once gets admission into the heart it turns all grace quite out of doors as where salt grows it makes the ground so barren of all other things that nothing else will breed therein this is the cursed devil that mars all Covetousness No such impediment to conversion and salvation as it as for instance Ministers wonder that their Sermons take no better that among so many arrows none should hit the mark but God tells us the reason Ezek. 33. they sit before thee and hear thy words but their hearts go after their covetousness ver. 31. Whence is is that you may see swearers drunkards adulterers c. weep at a sermon where as you never saw the covetous shed a tear be the Doctrine never so dreadful Oh this golden devil this Diana of the Ephesians doth a world of mischief it destroyes more souls then all other sins put together as the Apostle intimates 1 Tim. 6. 10. Whence it is that we shall sooner hear of an hundred Malefactors contrition at the gallows then of one covetous Misers in his bed The Children of Israel would not beleeve Samuel that they had sinned in asking a King before they saw a miracle from Heaven even thunder and rain in wheat harvest which was contrary to the nature of that Climate and then they could confesse it and repent 1 Sam. 12. 17 18 19. But the covetous are in Pharaohes case whom neither miracles nor judgements could prevail withall and of whom God speaks to Moses in this manner See that thou speak all the words and do all the wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thine hand but I will harden his heart and he shall not let the people go Exod. 7. 1 2 3 4. And certainly they of all others are the men to whom these ensuing Scriptures are applyable Go and say unto these people ye shall hear indeed but you shall not understand ye shall plainly see and not perceive make the heart of this people fat make their ears heavy and shut their eys lest they see with their eys and hear with their ears understand with their hearts and convert and he heal them Isa. 6. 9 10. They would none of me nor hear my voice so I gave them up unto the hardness of their heart and they walked in their own counsels Psa. 81. 11 12. Go up unto Gilead and take balm O Uirgin daughter of Egypt in vain shalt thou use many medicines for thou shalt have none health Jerem. 46. 11. The precious stone Diacletes though it have many excellent soverainties in it yet it loseth them all if put into a dead mans mouth so are all means ineffectuall that are used for the recovery of the covetous as is well imployed in those words of Abraham to the rich Glutton Luk. 16. 29 30 31. our Saviour expresly affirmeth that it is easter for a Camel to go through the ey of a needle then for a rich man that is a covetous rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Luk. 18. 25. and the Apostle That no covetous man can look for any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Eph. 5. 5. 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Such an ones doom is set down Deut. 17. 12. That man that will do presumptuously not hearkening unto the Priest that standeth before the Lord to minister there that man shall dye saith the Lord And again Prov. 29. 1. He that hardeneth his neck when he is reproved shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy implying that there is no hope of such a man and indeed he that despiseth Moses law dyeth without mercy as the Apostle concludes Heb. 10. 28. A covetous man is like a sick patient that cannot spit whom nothing will cure or like a crackt Bell for which there is no other remedy then the fire or like one that hath the plague tokens who as is conceived is past all hope and for whom all that can be performed is to say Lord have mercy upon him Deut. 17. 12. Pro. 1. Heb. 10. 28. which makes Musculus say that Divines shall reform this vice when Phisicians cure the gout which is incurable Our Mithologists tell us of many strange metamorphoses of men turned into beasts by Circe Our Poets tell of Licaon turned into a Wolf but when a ravenous Oppressor repents and turns pious and mercifull there is a Wolf turned into a man yea a Devil turned into a Saint Whence the Holy Ghost speaking of Zacheus and his conversion brings it in with an ecce behold as if it were a wonder that Zacheus a covetous man should be converted as let me referre it to the experience of the spirituall Reader Did ye ever know or hear of three such covetous extortioners as Zacheus was that repented and made restitution as he did no for if you should it were as great and as rare a miracle as if at this day the Turk Pope and K. of Spain ware at once perswaded to forsake their Idolatry and Superstition CHAP. XX AND yet it is no wonder if we consider the reasons For First the coverous man is an Atheist one that like Davids fool sayes in his heart there is no God the Mamonist is like Leo the tenth Hildebrand the Magician Alexander the sixth and Julius the second who were all meer Atheists who thought whatsoever was said of Christ Heaven Hell the day of judgement the immortallity of the soul c. to be but fables and meer impostures dreams toys and old wives fables and being Atheists that beleeve not a Heaven Hell or day of judgement when every man shall be rewarded according to his deeds be they good or evil what hope is there of their conversion or salvation or how should they not preferre temporal things before
and opulency go to hell When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. 32. Riches do so puff up some men that they even think it a discredit to their great Worships to worship God Nothing feeds pride nor keeps off repentance so much as prosperous advantage The Prodigal never thought of his father till he wanted husks We serve God as our servants serve us of whom many have too good clothes others too much wages or are too full fed to do work As a woman finding that her hen laid her every day an egg for all she was very lean had a conceit that if she were fat and lusty she would lay twice a day whereupon she fed and cram'd her thoroughly but in a short space she became so fat that contrary to her expectation she left laying altogether Who so nourisheth his servant daintily from his childhood shall after finde him stubbron Prov. 29. 21. Sixtly they fix their affections upon heavenly riches and not upon the temporary and transitory riches of this world because in sicknesse when they stand in the greatest need of all they will not do them the least good Your gold will not bribe a disease your bags will not keep your head from aking or your joynts from the Gout a loathing stomach makes no difference between an earthen dish and one of silver Riches can no more put off the stone or asswage grief or thrust out cares or purchase grace or suspend death or prevent hell or bribe the Devil then a sattin sleeve can heal a broken arm Indeed the foolish Prior in Melancthon rolled his hands up and down in a bason full of Angels thinking by this means to cure his Gout but it would not do Yea thou that placest thy happinesse and puttest thy confidence in a little white and red earth and dotest so upon the world tell me When the hand of God hath never so little touched thee what good thy great wealth will do thee Therefore ô vain desires and impotent contentments of men that place their happinesse in these things will not this your fair Herodias appear as a stigmatized Gipsie Will not all the toil and cost you haue been at to get riches appear as ridiculous as if a countryman should anoint his axle-tree with Amber-greece or as if a travaller should liquour his boots with Balsamum Yea your wealth will not only not save you from evils but help to make you more miserable and not only here but hereafter Psal. 49. 6 7 8. Why then do you set so high a price upon them and so shamefully undervalue the riches of the minde which will much mitigate your grief and increase your comfort in what condition soever you are But Seventhly they little set by the wealth of this world because their riches may soon leave them When with the Spider we have exhausted our very bowels to contrive a slender web of an uncertain inheritance one puff of winde and blast blown upon it by the Almighty carries all away What sayes Solomon Prov. 23. Cease from thy wisdome wilt thou cast thine eyes upon that which is nothing for riches taketh her to her wings as an Eagle and flyeth away Verse 4 5. and Jer. 17. 11. Isaiah 33. 1. Prov. 12. 27. Yea all riches are uncertain but those that are evil gotten are most uncertain as examples of all ages witnesse The first of these was verified in Job who lived to see himself poor to a Proverb and fell from the want of all misery to the misery of all wants And Dionysius who fell from a Tyrant over men to be a Tutor ever boyes and so to get his living And Perses son and heir who was fain to learn an Occupation the Black-smiths trade to relieve his necessity And Henry the Fourth that victorious Emperour who after he had fought two and fifty pitcht Battails became a Petitioner for a Prebendary to maintain him in his old age And Geliner that potent King of the Vandals was so low brought that he intreated his friend to send him a harp a spunge and a loaf of bread an Harp to consort with his misery a sponge to dry up his tears and a loaf of bread to satisfie his hunger Yea how many have we known in this City reputed very rich yet have broken for thousands There are innumerable wayes to become poor a fire a thief a false servant suretiship trusting of bad customers an unfaithful factor a Pyrate an unskilful Pilate Godwines sands a cross gale a wind and many the like hath brought millions of rich men to poverty And yet this is the only winde that blows up the Words bladder You see little children what pains they take to rake and scrape snow together to make a snow-ball right so it fares with them that scrape together the treasure of this world they have but a snow-bal of it for so soon as the Sun shineth and God breatheth upon it by and by it commeth to nothing And as riches well gotten are uncertain so those that are evil gotten are not seldome lost with shame As how many of our over-reachers have over-reached themselves so far either by perjury forgery receiving of stoln goods or the like that they have left either their bodies hanging between heaven and earth or their ears upon the pillory and died in prison so that the safest way to praise a covetous miser is when he is dead But CHAP. XXVII EIghthly to this may be added that if riches should not leave us and be taken away as they were from Job yet of necessity we must ere long leave and be taken from them as the rich man in the Gospel was from his substance and wealth Nor do we know now soon for so soon as a man is born he hastens as fast to his end as the Arrow to the mark each day is another march towards death and that little time of stay is full of misery and trouble and therefore it 's fitly called a passage a shadow a span a tale a vapour a cloud a bubble in the water It is like a candle in the winde soon blown out like a spark in the water soon extinguished like a thin Air soon expired like a little snow in the sun soon melted It is like a pilgrimage in which is uncertainty a flower in which is mutability a house of clay in which is misery a Weavers shuttle in which is volubility a Shepherds tent in which is variety to a ship on the sea in which is celerity to smoke which is vanity to a thought whereof we have a thousand in a day to a dream of which we have many in a night to vanity which is nothing in it self and to nothing which hath no being in the world And which is further considerable the young may die as soon as the old Yea more die in the spring and summer of their years then do live to their autumn
or winter and more before ten then after threescore There are graves of all fizes and likewise sculls in Golgotha as sayes the Hebrew proverb One dies in the bud another in the bloom some in the fruit few like the sheaf that comes to the barn in a full age Men may put far from them the evil day but they may finde it neerer then they are aware of Revel. 22. 12. The pitcher goes oft to the water but at length it comes broken home The cord breaks at last with the weakest pull as the Spanish proverb well noteth The tree falleth upon the last stroke yet all the former strokes help forwards A whirl-winde with one furious blast overturneth the greatest and tallest trees which for many years have been growing to their perfect strength and greatness so oftentimes the thrid of life breaketh when men think least of death as it fared with Saint Lukes fool who promised himself many years to live in ease mirth and jollity when he had not one night more to live Luke 12. 19 20. For when like a Jay he was pruning himself in the boughs he came tumbling down with the Arrow in his side John the 22th prophesied by the course of the Stars that he should live long but whilest he was vainly vaunting thereof the Chamber wherein he was fell down and bruised him to pieces His glasse was run when he thought it but new turned And the Axe was lifted to strike him to the ground when he never dreamed of the slaughter-house And whether thy soul shall be taken from thee this night as it fared with him formerly spoken of thou hast no assurance the very first night which the rich man intended for his rest proved his last night Nor was there any more between Nabals festival and his funeral then ten or a dozen dayes 1 Sam. 25. 38. And could any thing have hired death to have spared our forefathers they would have kept our possessions from us Neither is this all for if thou beest wicked and unmerciful thou hast no reason to expect other then a violent death for which see Job 24. 24. Psal. 37. 10 11. Job 36. 11 12. Psal. 37. 37 38 39. 55. 23. Prov. 12. 27. Great trees are long in growing but are rooted up in an instannt The Axe is laid to the root Matth. 3. 10. down it goes into the fire it must if it will not serve for fruit it must for fuel And what knowest thou but God may deal with thee as Mahomet did by John Justinian of Geneva who having taken Constantinople by his treason first made him King according to promise and within three dayes after cut off his head God may have fatted thee with abundance on purpose to send thee to the slaughter-house Nay why hath God spared thee so long as he hath probably not in love to thee but for some other end As perhaps God hath some progeny to come from thee As for good Hezekiah to be born his wicked Father Abaz is forborn Why did Ammon draw out two years breath in Idolatry but that good Iosia was to be fitted for a King Many sacrilegious extortioners Idollaters c. Are delivered or preserved because God hath some good fruit to come from their cursed loynes However thou canst not look to live many years The Raven the Phenix the Elephant the Lyon and the Hart fulfill their hundred yeares But man seldome lives to four score and thou art drawing towards it Besides the last moneth of the great yeare of the World is come upon us we are deep in December And that day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night for when thou shalt say peace and safety then shall come upon thee sudden destruction as the travel upon a woman with childe and thou shalt not escape as the Apostle speaks 1 Thess. 5. 2 3. That nothing is more certain then death nothing more uncertain then the houre thereof That this only is sure that there is nothing sure here below and that if we were owners of more land then ever the Devil proffered to Christ yet when death shall knock at our door no more can be called ours then the ground we are put into needs no more proof then experience See Psal. 37. 35 36. But Ninthly and lastly a godly mans desires are fixed upon the riches of the minde which being once had can never be lost The which Saint Augustine only counted true riches The wise and godly are of Pythagoras his minde who being asked why he cared no more for riches answered I despise those riches which by expending are wasted and lost and with sparing will rust and rot They are of Stilpons judgment who used to say All that is truly mine I carry with me They desire not so much to lay up treasure for themselvs upon earth but to lay up for themselvs in Heaven as their Lord and Master hath commanded them Matth. 6. 19 20. What saith the Apostle Let not covetousness be once named among Saints Ephes. 5. 3. As if that world which many prefer before Heaven were not worth talking of All worldly things are but lent us our houses of stone wherein our bodies dwell our houses of clay wherein our souls dwell are but lent us honours pleasures treasures money maintenance wives children friends c. but lent us we may say of them all as he said of the Ax-head when it fell into the water 2 Kings 6. 5. Alass they are but borrowed Only spiritual graces are given of those things there is only a true donation whereof there is a true possession worldly things are but as a Tabernacle a moveable heaven is a mansion Now put all these together and they will sufficiently shew that he is a fool or a mad man that prefers not spiritual riches which are subject to none of these casualties before temporal and transitory And so at lenght I have shewn you what it is not and what it is to be rich And I hope convinced the worldling that the richest are not alwayes the happiest Yea that they are the most miserable who swim in wealth wanting grace and Gods blessing upon what they do possesse while that man is incomparably happy to whom God in his love and favour giveth only a competency of earthly things and the blessing of contentation withall so as to be thankful for the same and desire no more I will now in discharge of my promise acquaint you how of poor melancholy and miserable you may become rich happy and cheerful CHAP. XXVIII THe which I shal do from the Word of God Nor need it seem strāge that for the improving of mens outward estates I prescribe them rules and directions from thence For would we be instructed in any necessary truth whether it be Theological concerning God Ecclesiastical The Church Political The Common-wealth Moral Our neighbours and friends Oeconomical Our private families Monastical Our selves Or be it touching Our Temporal estate
then God but he makes it his god shrines it in his coffer yea in his breast and sacrificeth his heart to it he puts his trust and placeth his confidence in his riches makes it his hope attributing and ascribing all his successes thereunto which is to deny God that is above as we may plainly see Job 31. 24 28. Nor ought covetous men to be admitted into Christian society We have a great charge to separate from the covetous Eat not with him sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 11. and also wise Solomon Prov. 23. 7. Covetousness is flat idolatry which makes it out of measure sinful and more hanious then any other sin as appears Col. 3. 5. Ephes. 5. 5. Job 31. 24 28. Jer. 17. 5. 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. Fornication is a foul sin but nothing to this that pollutes the body but covetousness defileth the soul and the like of other sins Yea it is such a sordid and damnable sin that it ought not once to be named among Christians but with detestation Ephes. 5. 3. It is a sound Conclusion in Divinity That is our God which we love best and esteem most as gold is the covetous mans god and bellychear the voluptuous mans god and honor the ambitious mans god and for these they will do more then they will for God Yea all wicked men make the devil their god for why does Saint Paul call the devil the god of this world but because wordly men do believe him trust him and obey him above God and against God and do love his wayes and commandments better then the wayes and laws of God We all say that we serve the Lord but as the Psalmist speaks other Lords rule us and not the Lord of heaven and earth The covetous Mammonist does insatiably thirst after riches placing all his joyes hopes and delights thereon does he not then make them his God yea God sayes lend clothe feed harbor The devil and Mammon say take gather extort oppress spoil whether of these are our gods but they that are most obeyed Know ye not saith Saint Paul that to whomsoever ye give your selves as servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey Rom. 6. 16. the case is plain enough that every wilful sinner makes the devil his god he cannot deny it I wish men would well waigh it The goods of a worldling are his gods Ye have taken away my gods says Micha and what have I more to lose Jud. 18. 24. He makes Idols of his coyn as the Egyptians did of their treasure They have turned the truth of God into a lye and worshipped and served the creature forsaking the Creator which is blessed for ever Amen Rom. 1. 25. The greedy Wolfe Mole or Muckworm who had rather be damned then damnified hath his Mammon in the place of God loving it with all his heart with all his soul with all his minde making gold his hope and saying to the wedge of gold Thou art my confidence and yet of all men alive he is least contented when he hath his hearts desire yea more then he knows what to do withall the issue of a secret curse For in outward appearance they are as happy as the world can make them they have large possessions goodly houses beautiful spouses hopeful children full purses yet their life is never the sweeter nor their hearts ever the lighter nor their meales the heartier nor their nights the quieter nor their cares the fewer yea none more full of complaints among men Oh cursed Ciatifs how does the devil bewitch them Generally the poorer the merryer because having food and raiment they are therewith content 1 Tim. 6. 8. They obey the rule Heb. 13 5. and God gives his blessing But for those that make gold their god how should not God either deny them riches or deny his blessing upon them and instead thereof blast his blessings with a curse and give them their riches in wrath so that they had better be without them If we put our trust and confidence in God he hath promised not to fail nor forsake us Heb. 13 5. But this is the man that took not God for his strength but trusted unto the multitude of his riches and put his strength in his malice Psal. 52. 7. Yea he saith in his heart God hath forgotten he hideth away his face and will never see Psal. 10. 11. He puts his certain trust in uncertain riches 1 Tim. 6. 17. And not for want of ignorance for to trust to God and not to any creature or carnal policy is the greatest safty A lesson yet to be learned of many that do in a good measure trust in God which this muckworme not so much as minds But shall we trust God with our jewels our souls and not with the box Mat. 6. 30 Take we heed lest whiles he doth grant us that wherein we do not trust him worldly riches he take away that wherein we do trust him everlasting joy and happiness Fiftly and lastly let a graceless and ingrateful cormorant an unmerciful miser have never so much he neither intends to glorifie God nor do good to others with his riches he will not change a peece without profit scarse let another light a torch at his candle He will not lose a groat to gain a mans life nor speak a sillable for God were it to save a soul And God cares for none that care for none but themselves making themselves the center of all their actions and aimes Whereas he is abundantly bountiful to publike spirits that aime at his glory and others good And so ye have the Reasons the Uses for the present and in this place shall be onely CHAP. XV Three 1. Of Information 2. Of Exhortation 3. Of Consolation ANd of these but a word First for Information let the premisses teach us this lesson That whatsoever is given to any one if Christ and a sanctified use thereof be not given withall it can be no good thing to him Did the stalled Ox know that his Master fatted him for the slaughter he would not think his great plenty an argument of his masters greater love to him The Physician setteth that sick person have what he will of whose recovery he despaireth but he restraineth him of many things of whom he hath hope We use to clip and cut shorter the feathers of Birds or other fowle when they begin to flye too high or too far So does God diminish the riches and honors of his children and makes our condition so various that we may not pass our bounds or glory too much in these transitory things As if we well observe it First some have the world and not God as Nabal who possessed a world of wealth not a dram of grace or comfort Secondly some have God and not the world as Lazarus his heart was full of grace and divine comfort whiles his body lacked crumbes Thirdly some have neither God nor the world nothing but misery