he hath reserved by his parsimony and frugallity There is somtimes a greater reverence in us towards our ancient inheritance towards those goods which are devolved upon us by succession There is another affection expressed towards those things which dying friends have left us for they preserve their memories another towards Jewells or other Testimonies of an acceptation of our services from the Prince but still we love those things most which we have got with our own labour and industrey When a man comes to say with Jacob Gen. 32.10 with my staffe came I over Iordan now have I gotten two bands with this staffe came I to London with this staffe came I to Court and now am thus and thus increased a man loves those addisions which his owne Industry hath made to his fortune There are some ungratefull Natures that love other men the worse for having bound them by benefits and good turns to them but that were a new ingratitude not to be thankful to our selves not to love those things which we our selves have compassed We have our reason to do so in our great example Christ Jesus who loves us most as we are his purchase as he hath bought us with his bloud And therefore though he hath expressed a love too to the Angels in their confirmation yet he cannot be said to love the Angels as he doth us because his death hath wrought nothing upon them which were fallen before and for us so he came principally to save sinners the whole body and band of Angels are not his purchase as all mankind is This affection is in worldly men too they love their own gettings and those shall perish They have given their pleasant things for meat Chron. 1.11 to refresh their souls whatsoever they placed their heart upon whatsoever they delighted in most whatsoever they were loath to part withal it shall perish and the measure of their love to it and the desire of it shall be the measure of Gods judgement upon it that which they love most shall perish first In occupatione Those riches then those best beloved riches shall perish and that saith the text by evil travail which is a word that in the original signifies both Occupationem Negotiationem labour and Travail and afflictionem vexationem affliction and vexation They shall perish in occupatione then when thou art labouring and travailing in thy calling then when thou art harkening after a purchase and a bargain then when thy neighbors can impute no negligence thou wast not negligent in gathering nay no vice to thee thou wast not dissolute in scattering then when thou risest early lyest down late and eatest the bread of sorrow then shalt thou find not onely that that prospers not which thou goest about and pretendest to but that that which thou haddest before decaies and molders away If we consider well in what abundance God satisfied the children of Israel with Quails and how that ended we shall see example enough of this You shall eat saith God Num. 11.19 not one nor two daies nor five nor ten nor twenty but a whole moneth until it come out at your nostrils and be loathsome unto you here was the promise and it was performed for the plenty ver 31. that quailes fell a daies journey round about the Camp and they were two cubits thick upon the earth The people fell to their labour and they arose and gathered all that day and all that night and all the next day saith the Text 32. and he that gathered least gathered ten Gomers full But as the promise was performed in the plenty so it was in the course too whilest the flesh was yet between theïr teeth before it was chewed even the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people and he smote them with an exceeding great plague ver 33. Even whilest your money is under your fingers whilest it is in your purposes determined and digested for such and such a purpose whilest you have put it in a ship in Merchandice to win more to it whilest you have sow'd it in the land of borrowers to multiply and grow upon Mortgages and usury even when you are in the mid'st of your travail stormes at Sea theeves at land enviers at court informations at Westminster whilest the meat is in your mouthes shall cast the wrath of God upon your riches and they shall perish In occupatione then when you travail to increase them The Children of Israel are said in that place onely to have wept to Moses out of a lust and a grief for want of flesh God punished not that weeping it is a tenderness a disposition that God loves but a weeping for worldly things and things not necessary to them for Manna might have served them a weeping for not having or for loosing such things of this world is alwaies accompanied with a murmuring God shall cause thy riches to perish in thy travail not because he denies thee riches nor because he would not have thee travail but because an inordinate love an overstudious and an intemperate and overlaborious pursuite of riches is alwaies accompanied with a diffidence in Gods providence and a confidence in our own riches To give the wicked a better sense of this God proceeds often the same way with the righteous too but with the wicked because they do with the righteous least they should trust in their own riches We see in Iobs case It was not onely his Sons and daughters who were banquetting nor onely his asses and sheep and camels that were feeding that were destroyed but upon his Oxen that were ploughing upon his servants which were doing rheir particular duties the Sabaeans came and destruction in their sword His Oxen and his servants perished in occupatione in their labour in their travail when they were doing that which they should do And if God do thus to his children to humble them before-hand that they do not sacrifice to their own nets not trust in their own industry nor in their own riches how much more vehemently shall his judgments burn upon them whose purpose in gathering Riches was pricipally that they might stand of themselves and not need God There are beasts that labour not but yet furnish us with their wool alive and with their flesh when they are dead as sheep there are men that desire riches and though they do no other good they are content to keep good houses and that their Heire should do so when they are dead There are beasts that labour and are meat at their death but yield no other help in their life and these are Oxen there are men that labour to be rich and do no good with it till their death There are beasts that onely labour and yield nothing else in life nor death as horses and there are some that do neither but onely prey upon others as Lyons and others such we need not apply particularly there are all bestial
the people there was none with me The Angels then knew not this not all this not all the particulars of this The mystery of Christs Incarnation for the Redemption of Man the Angels knew it in generall for it was commune quoddam principium it was the generall mark to which all their service as they were ministring spirits was directed But for particulars as amongst the Prophets some of the later understood more then the former I understand more then the ancients Psal 119.100 sayes David and the Apostles understood more then the Prophets even of those things which they had prophesied Ephes 3.6 this Mystery in other ages was not made known as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles so the Angels are come to know some things of Christ since Christ came in another manner then before Ephes 3.10 And this may be that which S. Paul intends when he sayes that he was made a Minister of the Gospel To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdome of God And S. Peter also speaking of the administration of the Church 1 Pet. 1.12 expresses it so That the Angels desire to look into it Which is not onely that which S. Augustine sayes Aug. Innotuit a seculis per Ecclesiam Angelis That the Angels saw the mystery of the Christian Religion from before all beginnings and that by the Church Quia ipsa Ecclesia illis in Deo apparuit Because they saw in God the future Church from before all beginnings but even in the propagation and administration of the Church they see many things now which distinctly effectually experimentally as they do now they could not see before And so to this purpose Visus in nobis Christ is seen by the Angels in us and our conversation now Spectaculum sumus sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.9 We are made a spectacle to men and angels The word is there Theatrum and so S. Hierom reads it Hierom. And therefore let us be careful to play those parts well which even the Angels desire to see well acted Let him that finds himself to be the honester man by thinking so think in the name of God that he hath a particular tutelar Angel that will do him no harm to think so And let him that thinks not so yet think that so far as conduces to the support of Gods children and to the joy of the Angels themselves and to the glory of God the Angels do see mens particular actions and then if thou wouldst not sollicite a womans chastity if her servant were by to testifie it nor calumniate an absent person in the Kings ear if his friends were by to testifie it if thou canst slumber in thy self that main consideration That the eye of God is always open and always upon thee yet have a little religious civility and holy respect even to those Angels that see thee That those Angels which see Christ Jesus now sate down in glory at the right hand of his Father all sweat wip'd from his Browes and all teares from his Eyes all his Stripes heal'd all his Blood stanch'd all his Wounds shut up and all his Beauty returned there when they look down hither to see the same Christ in thee may not see him scourged again wounded torn and mangled again in thy blasphemings nor crucified again in thy irreligious conversation Visus ab Angelis he was seen of the Angels in himself whilest he was here and he is seen in his Saints upon earth by Angels now and shall be so to the end of the world Which Saints he hath gathered from the Gentiles which is the next branch Praedicat Gentib Psal 85.10 Predicatus gentibus he was preached to the Gentiles Mercy and truth meet together says David every where in Gods proceedings they meet together but no where closer then in calling the Gentiles Jesus Christ was made a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God Rom. 15.8 wherein consisted that truth to confirm the promises made unto the fathers says the Apostle there and that 's to the Jews but was Christ a Minister of the Circumcision onely for that onely for the truth No Truth and Mercy meet together as it followes there and that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercy The Jewes were a holy Nation Gal. 2.15 that was their addition Gens Sancta but the addition of the Gentiles was peccatores sinners we are Jewes by nature and not of the Gentiles sinners sayes S. Paul He that touch'd the Jewes touch'd the apple of Gods eye And for their sakes God rebuk'd Kings and said Touch not mine Anoynted but upon the Gentiles not onely dereliction but indignation and consternation and devastation and extermination every where interminated inflicted every where and every where multiplied The Jewes had all kinde of assurance and ties upon God both Law and Custome they both prescribed in God and God had bound himself to them by particular conveyance by a conveyance written in their flesh Isa 49. in Circumcision and the counterpane written in his flesh I have graven thy name in the palmes of my hands Eph. 2.12 But for the Gentiles they had none of this assurance When they were without Christ sayes the Apostle having no hope that is no covenant to ground a hope upon ye were without God in this world To contemplate God himself and not in Christ is to be without God And then for Christ to be preached to such as these to make this Sun to set at noon to the Jewes rise at midnight to the Antipodes to the Gentiles this was such an abundant such a superabundant mercy as might seem almost to be above the bargain above the contract between Christ and his Father more then was conditioned and decreed for the price of his Blood and the reward of his Death for when God said I will declare my decree That is what I intended to give him which is expressed thus Psal 2. I will set him my King upon my holy hill of Sion which seemes to concern the Jewes onely God addes then Postula a me petition to me make a new suit to me dabo tibi gentes I will give thee not onely the Jewes but the Gentiles for thine inheritatnce And therefore laetentur gentes Psal 97.1 sayes David Let the Gentiles rejoyce and we in them that Christ hath asked us at his Fathers hand and received us And Laetentur insulae sayes that Prophet too Let the Islands rejoyce and we in them that he hath raised us out of the Sea out of the ocean sea that over-flowed all the world with ignorance and out of the Mediterranean Sea that hath flowed into so many other lands the sea of Rome the sea of Superstition There was then a great mercy in that Predicatus gentibus Creditus Mundo that he was preached to the Gentiles
natures in rich men and God knows how to meet with them all and much more will he punish them which do no good in life nor death nay that labor not for their riches but surfet upon the sweat of other men since even the riches of those that trust in riches shall perish in Occupatione in the very labor and in the very travail which if it were not done with a confidence in the riches when they are got were allowable and acceptable to God You may have a good Embleme of such a rich man whose riches perish in his travail if you take into your memorie and thoughts a Spunge that is overfilled If you presse it down with your little finger the water comes out of it Nay if you lift it up there comes water out of it If you remove it out of his place though to the right hand as well as to the left it poures out water Nay if it lye still quiet in his place yet it wets the place and drops out his moisture Such is an over-full and spungy covetous person he must pour out as well as he hath suck't in if the least weight of disgrace or danger lye upon him he bleeds out his money Nay if he be raised up if he be prefer'd he hath no way to it but by money and he shall be rais'd whether he will or no for it If he be stirr'd from one place to another if he be suffered to settle where he is and would be still these two incommodities lye upon him that he is loathest to part with his money of any thing and yet he can do nothing without it He labours for riches and still he is but a bagg for other men Pereunt in occupatione as fast as he gather by labour God raises some occasion of drawing them from him again It is not then with Riches in a family as it is with a nail in a wall that the hard beating of it in makes it the faster It is not the hard and laborious getting of money the fixing of that in a strong wall the laying it upon lands and such things as are vulgarly distinguished from moveables as though the world and we were not moveables nor the beating that nail hard the binding it with Entailes of Iron and Adamant and perpetuities of eternity that makes riches permanent and sure but it is the good purpose in the getting and the good use in the having And this good use is not when thou makest good use of thy Money but when the Common-wealth where God hath given thee thy station makes use of it The Common-wealth must suck upon it by trade not it upon the Common-wealth by usury Nurses that give such to children maintaint hemselves by it too but both must be done thou must be enriched so by thy money as that the state be not impoverished This is the good use in having it and the good purpose in getting it is that God may be glorified in it some errours in using of Riches are not so dangerous for some imploying of them in excesses and superfluities this is a rust without it will be fill'd of with good counsel or it will be worn of in time in time we come to see the vanity of it and when we leave looking at other mens cloaths or thinking them the better men for their cloaths why should we think that others like us the better for our cloaths those desires will decay in us But an ill purpose in getting of them that we might stand of our selves and rely upon our Riches this is a rust a cancer at the heart and is incurable And therefore if as the course and progress of money hath been in the world from the beginning The observation is St. Augustins but it is obvious to every man acquainted with history That first the world used Iron money and then Silver money and last of all Gold If thy first purpose in getting have been for Iron that thou have intended thy money to be thy strength and defence in all calamities And then for silver to provide thee abundance and ornaments and excesses And then for gold to hord and treasure up in a little room Rom. 2.5 Thesaurisasti iram Thou hast treasured up the anger of God against the day of anger Go the same way still account Riches Iron naturally apt to receive those rusts which we spoke of in getting and using account them silver naturally intended to provide thee of things necessary but at last come to account them gold naturally disposed to make thee a treasure in heaven in the right use of them This is the true value of them and except thou value them thus Nisi Dominus edificaverit insi Dominius custodierit Psal 127. Except the Lord build except the Lord watch the house and city perish so except the Lord and his glory be in thy travail it is not said thou shalt not get by thy travail Sed pereunt in occupatione Even in the mid'st of thy travail that which thou gettest shall perish And then that which makes this loss the more insupportable is as we noted the words to signifie too pereunt in afflictione they shall perish then when thou art in affliction and shouldst have most use of them most benefit by them most content in them If the disfavour of great persons lye heavy upon me abroad mihi plaudo domi I may have health and wealth and I can enjoy those at home and make my self happy in them if I have not all that but that sickness lye heavy upon me yet gold is cordial that can provide all helps that may be had for my recovery and it gives me that comfort to my mind â—hat I shall lack no attendance no means of reparation But if I suffer under the judgement of the Law under the anger of the Prince under the vehemency of sickness and then hear that I am begged for some offence hear of fines and confiscations and extents hear of tempests and ship-wracks hear of Mens breaking in whose hands my estate was This is the wrath of Gods anger in this signifigation oâ— the word percunt in afflictione Those riches perish then when nothing but they could be of use to thee Mala. And all this hath one step lower yet They perish in evill Travail and in evil affliction Now travail did not begin in that curse In Sudore vultus for Adam was appointed to dress paradise and to keep paradise before and that implied a travail But then became his travail to be evil travail when seeing that he could not get bread without travail still that refreshed to him the guiltiness of that sin which had dejected him to that misery Then doth the rich Man see That his riches perish by evil travail when he calls himselfe to account and findes that he trusted wholly to his own travail and not to the blessings of God So also every affliction is not evil it is rather