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
coelestial and eternal As what is the reason that there are few rich men that will not rather offend the Divine Majesty then the Temporal Authority and few poor men that resemble not the poor Swedes in their serving of God who always break the Sabbath saying it is only for rich men and Gentlemen that have means to keep that day yea that almost all men rich and poor are for matter of Religion like Sir John Kennede who in chusing of his wife would have her well born and educated fair rich wise kind with the like accomodations but quite forgot to wish her good and vertous and was accordingly blest in his choise as King James who made many such Matches used the matter the main reason of all is men beleeve not a God or a day of judgemert Whence it is that amongst all the desired priviledges of this life men commonly leave out holinesse which sufficiently argues their infidelity which in these times is much propagated and strengthened for the plurality of faiths among many hath brought a nullity of faith in the most Worldly minds mind nothing but worldly things their busines is thought upon not God nor their salvation for they make that no part of their business their business gives them no leave or leisure to think of their consciences nor do they go to Church to serve God but the State which they use not as a means to save their souls but charges There is no Religion in them but the love of money most men have their souls as it were wrapt up in the port-mantua of their sences and to them all spiritual coelestial and eternal things seem incredible because they are invisible Machiavil thought all piety and religion to be nothing but policy Pharoah imputed mens worshiping of God to idleness They be idle saith he therefore they cry let us go offer sacrifice unto our God Exod. 5. 8. It is a foolish thing saith Cato to hope for life by anothers death Seneca jeered the Jews for casting away a seventh part of their time upon a weekly Sabbath and of their minds are the most among us if they would speak out their thoughts Let the word or Minister tell them that prefer profit before honesty that godliness is great gain as having the promises of this life and of that which is to come yet their conclusion is they cannot live unless they deceive they cannot please unless they flatter they cannot be beleeved unless they swear as Demetrius thought he should beg unless he might sell Images Act. 19. 27. Nothing will sink into their heads that cannot be seen with their eys or felt with their fingers We hate the Turks for selling Christians for slaves what do we think of those Christians that sell themselves and how odious are they the poorest cheat's soul if ever he be saved cost Christs precious blood yet half a crown yea six pence sometimes will make him sell it by forswearing himself CHAP. XXI SEcondly another reason is if a covetous man do repent he must restore what he hath wrongfully gotten which perhaps may amount to half or it may be three parts of his Estate at a clap which to him is as hard and harsh an injunction as that of God to Abraham Gen. 22. 2. Sacrifise thy son thine only son Isaac Or as that of our Saviours to the young man Luk. 18. 22. Sell all that ever thou hast and distribute unto the poor And is there any hope of his yeelding No Covetousness is idolatry Eph. 5. 5. Col. 3. 5. And Gold is the covetous mans god and will he part with his God a certainty for an uncertainty No a godly man is content to be poor in outward things because his purchase is all inward but nothing except the assurance of heavenly things can make us willing to part with earthly things neither can he contemn this life that knows not the other and so long as he keeps the weapon evil-gotten goods in his wound and resolves not to pluck it out by restoring how is it possible he should be cured Besides as there are no colours so contrary as white and black no elements so disagreeing as fire and water so there is nothing so opposit to grace and conversion as covetousness and as nothing so alienates a mans love from his vertuous spouse as his inordinate affection to a filthy strumpet so nothing does so far separate and diminish a mans love to God and heavenly things as our inordinate affection to the world and earthly things yea there is an absolute contrariety between the love of God and the love of money no servant saith our Saviour can serve two masters for either he shall hate the one and love the other or else he shall leane to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and riches Luk. 16. 13. Here we see there is an absolute impossibility and in the fourteenth Chapter and elsewhere we have examples to confirm it All those that doted upon purchases and farms and oxen and wives with one consent made light of it when they were bid to the Lords Supper Luk. 14 15. to 23. The Gadarenes that so highly prised their hoggs would not admit Christ within their borders Luk. 8. Judas that was covetous and loved money could not love his Master and therefore sold him When Demas began to imbrace this present world he soon forsook Paul and his soul-saving Sermons 2 Tim 4. 10. and how should it be otherwise with these Misers for they love and serve Mammon they put their trust and place their confidence in their riches they make gold their hope they set their hearts upon it and do homage thereunto attributing and ascribing all their successes thereunto which is to deny the God that is above as we may plainly see Iob 31. 24 28. and as for his love and regard to the Word of God I will referre it to his own conscience to determine whether he finds any more taste in it then in the white of an egge yea whether it be not as distastfull to him as dead beer after a banquet of sweet-meats Nor is it only distastfull to his palat for his affections being but a little luke-warm water it makes his religion even stomack-sick Let him go to the Assemblies which he does more for fear of the Law then for love of the Gospel and more out of custome then conscience as Cain offered his sacrifice and so will God accept of it he sits down as it were at Table but he hath no stomack to eat his ears are at Church but his heart is at home and though he hear the Ministers words yet he resolveth not to do them for his heart goes after his covetousnes as the Lord tells Ezekiel touching his Auditors Ezek. 33. 30. to 33. And as is his hearing such is his praying for that also is to serve his own turn he may afford God his voice but his heart is rooted and rivited to the earth
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
the bread of deceit but men finde it as gravel crashing between their teeth Nor will his troubled conscience suffer him to steal a sound sleep yea he sleeps as unquietly as if his pillow were stuft with Lawyers per-knives I may give ye a hint of these things from the word but onely God and he can tell how the remembrance of his forepast cozenages and oppression occasions his guilty conscience many secret wrings and pinches and gives his heart many a sore lash to increase the fear and horror of his soul every time he calls the same to remembrance which is not seldom As O poor wretches what do they indure how are they immerged in the horrors of a vulned conscience there is more ease in a nest of Hornets then under the sting of such a tormenting conscience He that hath this plague is like a man in debt who suspecteth that every bush he sees is a Sergant to arest and carry him away to prison It was Gods curse upon Cain when he had slain his brother Abel to suspect and fear that every one he met would kill him yea it makes him so afraid of every thing that a very Maulking frights him and it is much that he dares trust his Barber to shave him Dionysius was so troubled with fear and horror of conscience that not daring to trust his best friends with a razor he used to findge his beard with burning coals as Cicero records He is much like a Malefactor in prison who though he fare well yet is tormented with the thought of ensuing judgement It is the hand-writing on the wall that prints bloody characters in Belshazzars heart So that if any should deem a man the better or happier for being the richer he is very shallow as many looking on the outer face of things or see but the one side as they used to paint Antigonus that they might conceal his deformity on the other side see not how they smart in secret how their consciences gripe them Nor does any one know how the shoo wrings the foot but he that wears the same Or admit the best that can come as suppose they can stop consciences mouth for a time or with the musick of their mony play it asleep for the present yet when they lye upon their death-beds it will sting them to the quick For when death hesiegeth the body Satan will not fail to beleagure the soul yea then he will be sure to lay on load for as all corrupt humors run to the diseased and bruised part of the body so when conscience is once awakened all former sins and present crosses joyn together to make the bruise or sore more painful As every Creditor falls upon the poor man when he is once arested Or let it be granted that his conâ—cience never troubles him on his sick bed and that he have no bonds in his death as the Psalmist speaks Psal. 73. but departs like a Lamb which is not onely possible but probable for more by many thousands go to hell like Naball then like Judas more dye like sots in security then in despair of conscience yet all this is nothing for the sting of conscience here though it be intollerable is but a flea-biting to that he shall endure hereafter where the worm of conscience dyeth not and where the fire never goeth out This is part of sins wages and Satans reward We have sinned therefore our hearts are heavy Isa. 59. 11 12. The sorrows of them that offer to another God as do the covetous shall be multiplyed says holy David Psal. 16. 4. Yea Seneca an heathen could say that an evil life causeth an unquiet minde so that Satans government is rather a bondage then a government unto which Christ giveth up those that shake off his own What his government is you may partly guess at by the servile slaveries he puts his subjects upon As O the many hard services which Satan puts his servants upon and what a bad Master is he when we read that Origen at his onely appointment made himself an Eunuch Democritus put out his own eyes Crates cast his money into the Sea Thracius cut down all the Vines whereas David did none of these Ahaz made his son to pass through the fire Jephta sacrificed his onely daughter as the text seems to import Wicked men think they do God good service in putting his children to death but where do we finde any Religious Israelite or servant of God at such cost or when did God require this of his servants The Prophets and Apostles never whipt nor lanced themselves but Baals Priests did this and more And so of the Papists those hypocrites of late yeers and the Pharisees of old How many sleepless nights and restless dayes and wretched shifts treacherous and bloody plots and practises does covetousness and ambition cost men which the humble and contented Christian is unacquainted with How does the covetous mans heart droop wish his Mammon How does he turmoile and vex his spirit torment his conscience and make himself a very map of misery and a sink of calamity it is nothing so with Christs servants CHAP. XIII I Have much more to enlarge of the miseries of unmerciful and ingrate full Misers but before I speak of them I will give you the reasons and uses of these already dispatcht wherein I will be as brief as may be You see that God may give men riches in wrath and so as they shall be never the better for them but the worse Now that you may not think it any strange thing observe the reasons why and how justly they are so served The first Reason is the unmerciful Misers monstrous unthankfulness for those millions of mercies he hath received from God of which I shall give you an account in the second part this causes God either not at all to give him or in giving him riches to add this you have heard as a curse withall He is unthankful for what he hath therefore have he never so much it shall not be worth thanks He is cruel to the poor therefore he shall be as cruel to himself The poor shall have no comfort of what he hath therefore himself shall have as little The covetous are cozen Germans to the nine leapers thankless persons They are so much for receiving that they never mind what they have received He deals with God as a dog doth with his master who as Austine observes devoureth by and by whatever he can catch and gapeth continually for more Nor hath covetousness any thing so proper to it as to be ingrateful A greedy man is never but shamefully unthankful for unless he have all he hath nothing He must have his will or God shall not have a good look from him yea as the Mill if it go empty makes an unpleasant and odious noise so the covetous man if the Lord does not satisfie his desires in every thing he will most wickedly murmur and blaspheme his
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
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
lands given to the most vertuous of that race not admiting any impious heir whatsoever to inherit as Varro well notes But it is otherwise in this case for in regard of Gods curse upon this unmerciful Muckworm if he have more sons then one the eldest proves a prodigal and he inherits Every mans own experience can tell him that for the most part a scatterer succeeds a gatherer one that wasts vertues faster then riches and riches faster then any vertues can get them one that is as excessive in spending as the other was in scraping for as the father choseth to fill his chests so the son is given to satisfie his lusts Nor could the one be more cunning at the rake then the other will be at the pitchfork The moneys which were formerly chested like caged birds will wing it merrily when the young heir sets them flying And as Cicero speaks he roituously spends that which the father had wickedly gotten The one would have all to keep the other will keep nothing at all the former gets and spends not the latter spends and gets not Yea the son being as greedy of expence as the father was in scraping he reddeth that with a fork in one year which was not gathered with a rake in twenty Yea how oft is that spent upon one Christmas revelling by the son which was fourty yeers a getting by the Father Which Diogenes well considered for whereas he would ask of a frugal Citizen but a penny of a Prodigal he would beg a talent and when the party asked him what he meant to desire so much of him and so little of others his answer should be Quoniam tu habes illi habebunt because thou hast and they will have I shall begg of thee but once thy estate will so soon vanish of them often yea give me now a talent I may live to give thee a groat And at another time hearing that the house of a certain Prodigal was offered to sale he said I knew well that house was so accustomed to surfeting and drunkenness that ere long it would spue out the master Nay in all likelihood he foresees it himself and therefore as he makes short work with his estate so not long with his life as knowing that if he should live long he must be a begger As seldom but he shortens his days some way for he gives himself to all manner of vice gluttony and drunkenness chambering and wantonness pride riot contention c. He even banishes civility and gives himself over to sensuality and such a life seldom lasts long They may rightly be called spend-alls for they not onely spend all they have but themselves also instead of quenching their thirsts they drown both their bodies souls and estates in drink They will call drawer give us an Ocean and then leave their wits rather then the wine behinde them One cryes to his fellow do me reason but the drink answers I will leave thee no reason no not so much as a beast hath for these Nabals cannot abound but they must be drunk and surfet They have not onely cast off Religion that should make them good men but even reason that should make them men And saving only on the Sea they live without all compass as a ship on the water so they on the land reel too and fro and stagger like a drunken man Psal. 107. 27. All their felicity is in a Tavern or brothell house where harlots and sicophants rifle their estates and then send them to robbe or teach them how to cheat or borrow which is all one for to pay they never mean and prodigallity drives them to repair their too great lavishness in one thing by too great covetousness and injustice in another The greatest mispenders for the most part are constrained to be as great misgetters that they may feed one vice with another Now as if they had been bred among Bears they know no other dialect then roaring swearing and banning It is the tongue or language of hell they speak as men learn before hand the language of that Country whether they mean to travel By wine and surfetings they pour out their whole estates into their bellies The father went to the devil one way and the son will follow him another and because he hath chosen the smoother way he makes the more hast The father cannot finde in his heart to put a good morsel into his belly but lives on roots that his prodigal heir may feed on Phesants he drinks water that his son may drink wine and that to drunkenness The one dares not eat an egge least he should lose a chicken and goes to hell with whay and carrots the other follows after with Canary Partridges and Potatoes These are Epicures indeed placing Paradise in their throats and heaven in their guts their shrine is their Kitchin their Priest is their Cook their Altar is their table and their belly is their God By wine and surfeiting they pour out their whole estates into their bellies yet nevertheless complain against nature for making their necks so short Aristippus gave to the value of sixteen shillings for a Patridge his clownish neighbor told him he held it too dear at two pence Why quoth Aristippus I esteem less of a pound then thou dost of a penny the same in effect sayes the prodigal son to his penurious father for how else could he so soon bring a noble to nine pence an inheritance of a thousand pounds per annum to an annuity of five hundred shillings besides the one obtains a thousand pounds with more ease then the other did a thousand pence and by how much the less he esteems of money by so much the more noble and better man he esteems himself and his father the more base and hereupon he scorns any calling and must go apparelled like a Prince God hath inacted it as a perpetual law In the sweat of thy face beit brow or brain shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth Gen. 3. 19. And for the best Gentleman to despise honest callings mental or manual is a pride without wit or grace Even gallant Absalom was a great sheepmaster the bravery and magnificence of a Courtier must be built upon the ground of frugality Besides exercise is not more wholsome for the body then it is for the minde and soul but this vain glorious Coxcombe is all for sports and pleasure and seldom ceases hunting after sports as Esau for venison untill he hath lost the blessing But he should O that he would consider that medicines are no meat to live by Then for his pride in apparel you may know that by this he is like the Cinamon tree whose barke is of more worth then his body or like the Estridge or Bird of Paradise whose feathers are more worth then her flesh Or some Vermine whose case is better then her carcass And yet this swells him so and makes him look as big as if
with the unjust Steward who having wasted his masters goods for the time past could not bee trusted with the like for the time to come and whereas hitherto he hath with Esau rejected the blessing of prosperity it will be denyed him hereafter though he should seek it with tears and which is worse then all if death find him as is much to be feared as banquerout of spirituall a of worldly goods it will send him to an eternal 〈◊〉 for what can wee think of them that do not only lose crusts crummes which our Savior would have carefully gathered up John 6. 12. but even lavish wherle away whole patrimonies yea most wickedly spend them in riot and upon Dice Drabs Drunkenness Oh the fearful account which these unthrifty Baylifs will one day have to give up to our great Lord and Master when he shall call them to a strict reckoning of their talents he was condemned that encreased not the sum concredited to him what then shall become of him that lawlessely and lavishly spends and impaires it bringing in such a reckoning as this Item spent upon my lusts pleasures and pride fourty years and five hundred or ten thousand pounds c. let them be in their right sences they cannot think that God will take this for a good discharge of their Steward-ships though the devill may and will make them believe that Christ will quit all scores between him the father and them And thus I have made it plain that want and beggery is the heir apparent to riot and prodigality and that he who when he should not spends too much shal when he would not have too little to spend a good lesson for young gulls I have likewise showne that what the covetous hath basely gotten is as ill bestowed and worse imployed a good item for old Curmudgens to take notice of that so they may not starve their bodies and damn their souls for their sons to so little purpose As O that the covetous Moule who is now digging a house in the earth for his posterity did but fore-see how his prodigal son will consume what he with so much care and industry hath scraped together for should he have leave hereafter to come out of hell for an hour and see it hee would curse this his folly yea if possible it would double the pain of his insernall torment as it fares with Gnipho the Usurer who as Lucian seigneth lying in hell lamenteth his miserable estate that one Rodochares an incestuous Prodigal on earth consumed his goods wastfully which he by unjust means had scraped together so carefully the which seemeth to have some affinity with the word of truth why else is Dives being in hell torments said to lift up his eyes and to see Abraham a farre off and Lazarus in his bosome parlying so seriously about his brethren whom he had left behind him Luke 16. 23 c. Why else doth our Saviour say that the wicked shall gnash their teeth for vexation when they shall see Abraham Isaac Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven and themselves thrust out of doors Luke 13. 28. But that thou mayst the better fore-see or at lest fore-think what will follow I will shew thee thy case in sundry other persons Clodius son to Esophus the Tragedian spent marvelous great wealth which his father left him Epicharmus the Athenian having a large patrimony left him by his parents consumed it in six dayes and all his life time after lived a begger Apicius in banqueting spent great revenues left him by his parsimonious father and then because he would not lead a miserable life hanged himself Pericles Callias and Nicius by prodigall lavishing and palpable sensuallity spent in a shorttime very great patrimonies left them by their parents and when all their means was gone they drank each of them a poysoned potion one to another and dyed in the place Again we read that Caligula in one year of his reign spent prodigally sixty seven millions of gold which Tiberius his Predecessor had gathered together as Tacitus tells us and where as John the 22. left behind him as Petrarch reports two hundred and fifty tun of gold insomuch that an odde fellow made this jest of him Erat Pontifex maximus si non virtute pecunia tamen maximus Pope Sixtus Quintus called of Englishmen a by word for selling our Kingdom to Philip of Spain Six Cinque through his intollerable covetousness left in his Exchequer five millions but his successor Gregory the fourteenth wasted four of them in ten months and less besides his ordinary revenues in riot and prodigality and many the like which I could tyre you with insomuch that the curse of Epimenides is daily fulfilled which was that all the treasure whorded up by the covetous should be wasted by the prodigall for for the most part the Misers meanes lights into the hands of some such ding-thrifty dearth-maker as out of a laborious Silk-worm rises a painted Butter-flye CHAP. XIX AND so much of the ninth judgement which God usually inflicts upon the merciless Miser I will adde but one more nor needs he any more to make him compleatly miserable for though the former were wofull enough yet this last is worse then all the rest as I shall clearly demonstrate in the ensuing pages For Tenthly doth covetousness reign in a man is he bewitcht with the love of money is his heart rivited to the earth and is he once inslaved to this sin if so there is no probability hardly any possibility that ever he should be converted or saved nor is it to any more end to admonish him then to knock at a deaf mans door or a dead mans grave Covetousnesse is not more the root of all evil as the Apostle fitly stiles it then it is the rot of all good as is easie to prove it is the root of all evil the mother and metropolis of all sins that can be named for there is no sin whatsoever but it hath sprung from this cursed root whether it be lying or swearing or cursing or slandering or Sabbath-breaking or drunkenness or adultery or bawdery whether theft murther treason cozening in bargains breaking of promises perfideous underminings contempt of God and all goodness persecuting the truth opposing the Gospel hatred of Gods Messengers sleighting of his Ordinances unbelief idolatry witch-craft ante-Cristanism sacriledge soul-murther c. For whence spring all these and what else can be named but from covetousness There is no evil that a covetous man will not put in practise so goods may come of it you cannot name the sin but the Auaritions will swallow it in the sweet broth of commodity He that is greedy of gain will sell the truth sell his friend his father his master his Prince his Countrey his conscience yea with Ahab he will sell himself for money as I might instance in a world of examples yea daily experience hath taught us since our Civil Wars that