Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A41668
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The young man's guide through the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Canaan shewing him how to carry himself Christian-like in the whole course of his life / by Tho. Gouge ...
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Gouge, Thomas, 1605-1681.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing G1387; ESTC R32454
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122,357
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176
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unprofitable yielding little profit to those who have most of them Matth. 16. 26. What will it profit a man though he gain the whole World and lose his Soul As he assuredly will who sets his heart more upon gold than upon Grace and Godliness and seeketh more earnestly after worldly things than after an interest in Christ after the light of Gods Countenance and the assurance of his loving favour Suppose a man have an affluency of this Worlds goods yet what profit or priviledge hath he above him that enjoyeth but a competency A little will be enough to a prudent mind and enough is a feast When thou hast the most what wilt thou have more than for Food and Rayment out of all thy store For what 's over and above thou must be Accountant to thy Lord and Master at the Great Day how and where thou hast bestowed it for him Obj. It may be thou wilt reply that the rich may have daintier Diet and more costly Apparel than the poorer sort of people A. To which I answer That the rich have no greater priviledge or profit thereby because the pleasure of eating and drinking consisteth not so much in the daintiness of the fare as in the goodness of the stomack He who feedeth on his course fare with an hungry appetite taketh more delight in his Meat than he who is glutted with often feeding on his delicious fare Neither hath the rich man any more benefit by his costly Apparel than the poor man by his plain habit which keeps him as warm as the finer and richer But how many rich Misers are there who though they have abundance of this Worlds goods yet have not the heart to use them but spare from their own backs and pinch their own Bellies to fill their Purses What profit or benefit have such by their riches but only the beholding them with their eyes Besides no outward riches can make us better in the best things They cannot make us more acceptable to God neither can they make us more rich in Spiritual Grace more Vertuous or Religious they cannot assure us of Gods love nor of our future happiness they will not profit us at the day of death being then like Iob's Friends miserable Comforters adding to our grief neither will they benefit at the day of Judgment but rather increase our Bills of account how we have gotten how we have used and spent them Thus you see how unprofitable riches are to the owners and possessors of them 5. Consider how riches are not only unprofitable but also hurtful and pernicious to those who setting their hearts upon them do inordinately seek after the same Hurtful they are not in themselves and in their own nature but through our corruption whereby we are apt to abuse them unto evil 1. The immoderate seeking after riches will both keep us from the performance of Holy and Religious Duties and distract us therein 2. It will expose us to manifold temptations as 1 Tim. 6. 9. and put us upon the committing of any sin for the obtaining a little worldly wealth 3. It will hinder us from attaining unto Heavenly Happiness and like the Camels bunch keep us from entring into the strait Gate These considerations seriously weighed will be a special means to take off thine heart from an immoderate seeking after worldly riches CHAP. XXV Sheweth the danger of bad Company and the advantage of good Company IV. BE careful of thy Company especially whom thou makest thy bosom and familiar friends for that is a matter of exceeding great concernment to thy Spiritual Welfare This I shall branch into two Heads 1. Avoid the Society of wicked and prophane persons 2. Desire and imbrace the Company of the Godly I. Avoid the Society of wicked men which hath been the bane and ruine of thousands of Young Men. I do not say that all manner of Society with graceless and prophane persons is sinful and unlawful and that thou oughts not to come at all into their company nor to have any intercourse and commerce with them in buying selling and the like But thy care must be to avoid all intimate society and familiarity yea and all needless and unnecessary conversing with them 1. For first It is exceeding dangerous without a just Warrant and Calling to be much in the company of wicked and prophane men especially such as are Scoffers of Religion and Traducers of good men who by their loose Conversation and continual railing against Religion and the Professors thereof will take off thine heart from all love and delight in holy and Religious exercises and work in thee a distast and contempt of the ways of Godliness There is a secret and bewitching power in prophane company to impoyson and pervert even the best disposition sin being of a contagious nature more infectious than the Plague and the Soul much more catching of the contagion of sin than the body of any infectious disease It is a thing of great difficulty ordinarily and intimately to converse with wicked men and not to be tainted with their sins For besides that they are apt to infect others we are very apt to receive the infection having the seeds of all sins remaining in us Ioseph though he were a Vertuous Young Man yet living in the Kings Court soon learned to swear ordinarily by the Life of Pharaoh Gen. 42. 13 14. Common experience telleth us how many hopeful Young Men who have blossomed fairly and brought forth some good fruit yet by frequenting the company of wicked and lewd persons have proved very prophane and debauch'd The Philosophers do well observe that all waters both in colour and taste do participate of the nature and disposition of those grounds through which they pass In like manner men do participate of the disposition and manners of those with whom they frequently and familiarly converse 2. It is not for the honour of Gods Children to hold intimate society and 〈◊〉 with wicked men men being generally reputed to be of their temper and disposition with whom they ordinarily and intimately converse according to that old Proverb Birds of a feather will flock together The company in which thou delightest sheweth what courses thou lovest and what spirit thou art of If therefore thou delightest in the company of lewd and prophane persons thou hast cause to suspect that thine heart is not right The beloved Disciple Iohn makes it a sign That we are passed from Death to Life if we love the Brethren 1 Joh. 3. 14. And 't is Love that makes their company delightful And what sign is it in thee that lovest and associatest with the haters of the Brethren Search and consider if this do not mark thee out for one whose Soul abideth in death Therefore O Young Man as thou desirest to keep up the credit of Religion thine own Reputation with the godly and the hopes of thine own uprightness with God beware of evil workers and as much as possible keep
cloaths I must have money I am sure these things are necessary for me for I must not starve I but is there not an higher necessity here whether I have bread or no whether I starve or no I must look to it that I be be not damned for ever Skin for skin and all that a man hath will a man give for his life Job 2. 4. I but skin and flesh and bone and life and all must go rather than lose my soul. If I can live and maintain my self here in an honest way it must be done If I can be a rich man and a good Christian a wealthy man and a godly man 't is well enough But whether I be rich or poor I must have Christ and Life and Christ I cannot have without turning from my sins to him What O my soul art thou such an enemy to Godliness that thou wilt rather die than become a Godly man Art thou so in love with a carnal and earthly life that thou wilt sell thy life to the Devil rather than change thy course will thy necessity prevail nothing with thee Thou art in necessity O my soul in necessity of Christ in necessity of pardon in necessity of Grace and holiness Thou art ready to perish a slave to Lust a slave to the Devil these Tyrants are thrusting thee down to the eternal prison thou art in necessity of Christ there 's no hope of escaping but by getting thee into Christ. 2. Would it not be for my profit to turn How can I spend my time to better advantage than by making the everlasting Kingdom sure to me Whom dost thou O my Soul account to have been wise men and the best husbands in the World whose care and whose labour have best turned to account either those who have gotten oyle into their Lamps that have been sowing to themselves in righteousness that have been laying up to themselves treasure in Heaven or they that have had their occupation wholly about this earth or else loytered their time in mirth and idleness which of these two sorts dost thou think are best provided for whose Harvest or Vintage is like to be the most plentiful and blessed However thou judgest now in this sowing day yet when the reaping-day comes then in which of the two cases wouldst thou be either of those who had sown in Righteousness and reap in mercy or else in case of those which have sown in the flesh and reap Corruption which have sown in Iniquity and must reap in wrath and fire would it not be more to thy profit to reap with the righteous and the godly than with the wicked and ungodly Why does the case stand thus Is it both necessary and profitable for me to be a sincere Convert to the Lord Come my Soul away with all excuses away with all delayes come in this day and yield thy self to the Lord come give thy self come joyn thy self to him in a perpetual Covenant that shall never be forgotten CHAP. VIII Containeth a direction unto Young men how to get a stock of Grace III. AT thy first setting up content not thy self with a competent stock of mony to begin the World withal but be sure likewise to get a good stock of Grace Thou art to drive two Trades together a trade for thy body and a trade for thy soul and each trade must have its distinct stock to be maintained upon 'T is like to be but poor trading where there is no stock to begin upon Thou maist as well drive a Trade for thy body without a stock of mony as a Trade for thy soul without a stock of Grace Get a stock of saving Grate a stock of Faith and Love and habitual holiness upon the wise improvement of this thou wilt grow rich unto God This is the true riches the best riches a little of it is more worth than all the world For 1. Riches oft prove hurtful to the owners of them Eccl. 5. 13. There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun namely riches kept for the Owners thereof to their hurt proving oftentimes occasions of sin unto them being the bellows of pride and the fuel of Lust. But Grace always proveth an exceeding great advantage to the Owners thereof Never any man suffered by having too much grace It s good upon all accounts For it sanctifies mens earthly riches teaching them how to use and improve them to the glory of God the good of others and comfort of their own Souls Yea grace sanctifies not onely blessings but likewise crosses and afflictions turning them to their good For all things shall work together for the good of every gracious Soul of every one that loves and fears God Rom. 8. 28. Whereupon saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2. Worldly riches are uncertain they make to themselves wings and fly away Prov. 23. 5. Sure it is that within a short time either they will be taken from us or we from them either they will leave us or we must leave them Yea they are such slippery ware that the harder we graspe them the sooner they will slip out of our hands Whereas Grace is a blossome of Eternity which will abide with us for ever It doth not only continue with us so long as we live here but it endureth with us to all Eternity therefore called durable riches Prov. 8. 18. I know some tell us of falling away from Grace True it is a Christian may lose 1. The comfortable sense and feeling of Grace so that in his own apprehension it may be utterly lost 2. He may lose some degree of saving Grace for Faith is sometimes more lively and strong and sometimes more dull and weak Yea all Graces have their full and wane their ebbings and flowings 3. He may lose the powerful operation of Grace I mean the acts of Faith and other Graces may be intermitted and suspended when as the Graces themselves are not abolished but continue with us for ever In which respects you may discern the transcendent excellency of Grace above riches How should the consideration thereof prevail with you to labour in the use of all means God hath sanctified for the attainment thereof To help you therein take these Directions 1. Mourn and weep if possibly for thy graceless condition take up a lamentation and say Woe and alas that ever I was born especially that I have lived thus long in a graceless condition without God and without Christ in the World O what will become of me if I die in this estate Surely hell and damnation must needs be my portion to all Eternity Thus make thy closet an House of mourning and know that the mourning of thy Soul will cause the earnings of God's bowels towards thee so that he will not deny grace to a mourning Soul 2. As thou wouldst have grace