Son Isaac not Ishmael take him thy selfe and seek no other executioner take him presently and delay not the time I le not allow thee a day or houre to conferre with or comfort thy distracted heart Get thee into the land of Moriah three dayes journey so long shall thy soule be in suspence When thou comest thither slay him having slaine him burne him to me in sacrifice so many wayes did the Lord exercise his faith Thus our most delectable things are those wherein the Lord tryeth us 'T is wisdome then not to be too much endeared to that in affection which wee would still keepe with us in possession I will therefore endeavour to take off my heart from those things which God may take from me LXXX SOme there are who in prayer for temporall things are importunate beggers as if such things were absolutely and in their owne nature good But I know not whether to admire in them their folly or their sawcinesse Had the Lord made an absolute promise of temporalls it would be a sufficient ground for such prayers But oftentimes those things which seeme good prove ill unto us so that by desiring them we wish evill to our selves So farre as temporall things may doe us good so farre God hath promised them and we may expect them The Lord knows what to give and what we want better then we our selves But as for spirituall things wee may be as bold beggers as we will either in manner or measure These are simply good and are simply desirable When ever therefore I pray for a temporall thing I will first say Thy will be done and then Give me my daily bread LXXXI I Have learned in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content Phil. 41.11 saith the Apostle A lesson which though Paul the Master had learned his Schollers may be to learne Mens estates rise and fall ebbe and flow now the art is to make our spirits have the same cadence with our estates For herein a mans minde and estate resemble the scales of a Ballance which when one ascends the other descends Sometimes our minds are higher then our means otherwhiles our means are higher then our minds greater and requiring other behaviours Now nothing can exactly poize these but a contented minde If God set us low and give us povertie we must know how to be abased and to be hungry if he send us plentie and abundance then to know how to be full and to abound The difficultie lyes herein that when some are brought low they are overcome with impatience unbeliefe murmuring if they are set on high and have all things at full they prove either forgetfull of God or unthankfull to God or unkinde to others Now this knowledge and art of contentation orders our conversation a right in both God gives some plentie but withholds this knowledg from them thus their rising proves to be their fall God gives others povertie and teacheth them this art of contentment and then they have more comfort in a low estate then they had in a high O Lord I am brought very low make me know how to be abased and if ever thou settest mee on high teach me how to abound Let me not sinke being now poore nor swell if ever I be rich LXXXII GOdlinesse with contentment is great gaine 1 Tim. 6.6 No godlinesse without contentment and no true contentment without godlinesse He that hath enough may very well be content but a godly man hath enough he hath all he hath both things present and things to come he is an heir of the promises and he may bee sure of their performance because faithfull is he that promiseth A sufficiencie hee shall have here a satietie hereafter If any one say he is religious and is not content he hath but the form of godlinesse he denieth the power Godlinesse is of it selfe gain but with contentment it is great gain LXXXIII WHat way soever a Christian looketh hee may fide something to forward him in this art of contentation If hee look under him he sees what he is dust and ashes that from whence hee come and to which he must returne If within him he shall find nothing but unworthinesse whereby hee is lesse then the least of Gods favours If without him hee may see many better then him poorer and lower then himt If above him hee may see the place whither hee shall goe and where is fulnesse of joy Thus both heaven and earth our selves and others teach us the lesson of contentment If thou art therefore discontent with thy estate thou forgettest whence thou camest whither thou must goe what thou art what others are I will never murmure at my condition seeing others have lesse I am lesse then it seeing earth is my beginning and heaven my end LXXXIV GIve me neither poverty nor riches Pro. 30.8 was Agurs prayer A prayer which savours as much of modesty as wisdome of modesty seeing beggars ought not to be chusers of wisdome seeing a mean estate is the best estate he that knowes the inconveniences of a low or high estate will chuse a meane They that wil be rich fall into many temptations and they that are poore fall into them likewise Either of these extreames are fit baits for Satan and our corrup hearts but he that likes and keeps the mean is freed from both As I would not be a shrub of the vallies to be trampled on by all so I would not be a Cedar of the mountains to be envied at by most I have read a meane estate to be compared to the glasse of a window which keeps out a storme and admits the light such and estate is best as frees a man from the stormes of the world and admits the light of Gods countenance A great estate like a great wall may keep off the injuries of the world but not let in a beam of this light As I will not pray then for poverty so neither for riches but for a convenient estate LXXXV IT is written Psal 4.5 Man shall not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God The Word doth not only sanctifie our bread but satisfie us in stead of bread when the staffe of bread failes us the staffe of the Word upholdeth us They that think to live only by bread without the word may for the present abound but they that can live by the Word when they have no bread are sure never to want Carnall men may deride this kind of life but at destruction and famine they shall laugh the surest way to injoy our food is in the promise I will satisfie her poore with bread The heaven may with-hold its rain and the earth not yeeld her increase but before one word or tittle of Gods promise shall faile heaven and earth shall passe away Lord I should perish in my affliction but thy Word quickens mee Thy House is the house of bread the true
to take us to be his inheritance and can we think our selves poore that have God to our inheritance 'T was the honour of the tribe of Levi that they had no portion among their brethren but that the Lord was their portion Every beleeving person is of Gods * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.3 Clergie and portion and therefore if God be his God his lot is fallen in a faire ground he hath a goodly heritage O the humilitie of our blessed God that can denominate us to be his inheritance that have nothing in us good but what is from him O the happinesse of that soule that can truly say The Lord is my portion for that thou art Gods doth nothing benefit God but that God is thine is all in all to thee This is the onely abiding this the abounding portion If any one think not this enough Let his portion be in this life Psal 17.14 And then when times of losing come it shall be said of him This is the man that took not God to his portion X. GOD being Lord over all even of the earth and its fulnesse hath an universall soveraigntie over all an independent royaltie in all things so that whatsoever man doth injoy is by his dispensation Now if among men estates are incident to such forfeits as their Land-lords may by Law deprive them and reenter why may not the supreame Lord of heaven and earth deprive us of that which is his when we break our Covenants with him and run into so many forseits and arrearages And if in such a case none dare aske a Prince or Landlord why he doth it so here neither dare any one open his mouth against his Maker seeing he may doe what he please with his own To him that hath that is useth well what he hath shall more be given and from him that hath not i. e. useth not or abuseth what he hath shall it be taken away O Lord what I have is thine by right and dominion thine by my forfeit and self-deprivation mine onely by usurpation at most by dispensation I blesse thy mercy for the forbearance of thy right so long I blesse thy justice for depriving me of that right at last The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord. XI GOD as he is the author of all the good wee partake so he hath a hand in all the evill we suffer His holinesse denies him to be a cause of the evill of sinne his justice forceth him to inflict the evill of punishment Is there any evill in the Citie and the Lord hath not done it This Job knew when he saith The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away not onely the Chaldeans and Sabeans though they were the theeves what they did was by Gods permission Who gave Jacob for a spoyle and Israel to the robbers did not the Lord God concurreth in every evill action though not in the evill of the action The substance of it may be of God when the obliquitie is of man God hath an over-ruling hand over all mens wills yet those wills may have contrary motions of their owne Foolish men are they then who being afflicted either look upon the evill and not the cause or if the cause either the wrong or more immediate causes as misfortune malice of man want of discretion I will therefore look not so much on my affliction as on my afflicter and that not subordinate but supreame so shall I finde my suffering to be the more sweet as proceeding from a gracious father whose hand as it casts down will raise up as it woundeth will heale Thus in looking up to him the agent he will look down on me the patient and either remove the evill from me or make mee able to beare it XII GOd as he made man good so hee made every thing good for man Man was made uncapable of corruption and they of alteration If man had not fallen from God his Maker they had not fallen from man their owner Thus by one man sinne death corruption alteration came into the world It is sinne which separateth God from man man from man soule from body man from his goods his goods from himselfe Sinne corrupteth not onely the soule but the body not onely the body but the earth whence he came and the heavens whither he should goe It breedeth a moth in our garments a worme in our provision rust in our silver it exposeth all to the theese It setteth not only God at enmity against man but man with man yea beast with beast yea and makes one man be a beast a Wolfe a Lyon to another So that if wee lose the creature it is because wee have made it lose its primitive nature Now there 's no other way to gain this permanency either to our selves or others but by righteousnesse as this corruptibilitie came by unrighteousnesse But on the earth dwelleth not this righteousnesse nor durablenesse but we look for a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth not onely righteousnesse but perpetuitie and never fading happinesse XIII THe Lesson of the creatures corruptibilitie is that which the word of God doth still dictate and which this world doth daily demonstrate Wee have the volume of holy Writ and the large volume of the creatures to teach us this The Word says All is vanitie The world sheweth wherein this vanitie lyes Wee see men daily taken from their goods and their goods from them Wee see corruptions and alteration of things and yet wee dreame of such an unalterable condition in all things which may reach to eternitie Imaginary continuance of things is in our heads when reall changes are before our eyes Every creature groanes out this and yet wee heare not its voyce Wee build Castles in the ayre and upon the sandy foundation of our owne speculations promise to our selves an estate above the reach of enemies whereas the next storme that riseth doth not onely discover the weaknesse but overthrow the foundation of this imaginary fabrique The foole in the Gospel well so called hugg'd himselfe with this conceit that he had enough laid up for many dayes and therefore bid his soule take its repose whereas the next night his soule was taken from him Had his soule not been taken his goods might God though he had not destroyed his corn in the field yet he could have sent devourers into his barns yea if he had still brought his corne into his mouth he could have sent leanenesse into his soule Teach me O Lord to know not onely my selfe but all flesh to bee as grasse and all things to be vanity so shall I use the world as if Iused it not so shall I enjoy my goods and not bee enjoyed by them Thus the longer I possesse my riches the more I shall know them and the lesse shall be not onely my affection to them but my affiance in them XIV WEre Riches ever tokens of Gods love
word Martha's care was to entertain Christ delicately Mary's was to heare him diligently Such a guest as hee was was worthy to be entertained exquisitely and such an Orator as he was that spake as never man spake was worthy to be heard attentively Yet we see that our Saviour had rather bee entertained in us by his Word then by us through our service yet how many are there as farre behinde Martha in the duty of serving as she was behind Mary in the duty of hearing Make me O Lord to know the one thing which is needfull so shall I not be troubled about many things Thus shall Ibe a brother to Mary and a stranger to Martha XX. AMong the evils which Solomon saw under the Sun this was one Eccles 5.19 A man to whom God hath given riches wealth honour so that be wanteth nothing yet God giveth him not a heart and power to eate thereof but a stranger eateth it A disease it is indeed and almost Epidemicall For how many see we whose Barns are full Fat 's overflow yet fare coursly themselves have costly wardrobes yet not power to put it on have silver and gold in abundance yet die to save charges Thus the Lord makes them treasurers for other men hee gives them the creature but reserves the comfort and use of it for others So that such in a manner have no more benefit or comfort by their Corn and Wine then the Barnes and Cellars that hold it nor of their money then the Chests that contain it Thus though they have their goods yet in Jobs words Their good is not in their bands i. e. the use and comfort is not in their power When ever I begge for a temporall blessing I will adde this to my prayer that this blessing may goe along with it even a heart to use it Thus a stranger shall not intermeddle with my joy XXI BUt there is another evill which is this that as many have much but not hearts to use it so many have much yet have hearts to use more As evill a disease it is to have a mind exceeding ones means as means exceeding ones minde The power which many have to abuse the creature is as common as the want of power to use it The Moralists say that prodigalitie comes neerer the mean then covetousnesse how ever it cannot come to the nature of a vertue He then that hath this heart to carry him to a profuse spending of what he hath is as much to be pitied as hee that wants this heart to make use of what hee hath And if either of these drawneere the mean God must give the one a heart and renew it in the other It shall be my endevour so to use what I have as not to abuse it and so to apply to my selfe the comforts of my substance as not to deprive my selfe of the substance it selfe Otherwise I shall at last repent of having both a heart and riches for when all is thus spent the comfort vanisheth the guilt abideth XXII RIches have wings Pro. 23. now what is winged will keep no constant abode unlesse it bee straitned or its wings imped and in shortning the wings of riches wee set them flying neither can they so be caged up but at some time or other they will leave us or be taken from us Some birds being let loose may bee lured back again yet not all birds nor at all times If then my riches will once fly from mein possession my safest way is to flie above them in affection Thus shall I light upon a better object if they light upon another subject XXIII THis earthly globe is that dug and breast which the children of this world lie sucking at and which they will not leave so long as there is any sweetnesse in it God therefore to wean them from it doth with his Marah imbitter this dugge that so the present bitternesse may make them forget all former sweetnesse Lord though since I came into this world nothing could content me but this breast nourish me but its milk quiet me but its sweetnesse yet seeing now I see it imbittered by thee make me to behave my selfe as a weaned child cause me to suck at the breasts of consolation let those breasts satisfie me XXIV COmmonly one affliction to Gods people is the forerunner of another Job and no sooner heard of the losse of his Oxen and Asses but before that sound was out of his eares hee heares of the losse of his sheep and after that of his servants and sonnes The smaller losse doth usually usher in the greater Thus many are the troubles of the righteous many blowes must bee given before we are squared and made fit stones for the spirituall Temple In this troubled Sea wave will follow after wave one depth call for another till we are come to our haven I will then after one affliction look for another prepare for another thus shall I be not onely forewarned but forearmed if God reserve another tryall for me he will renew my strength to overcome or my patience to beare it My comfort is that as my tribulations doe abound my glory shall abound After all these sad messages God will send me some good Ahimaaz that will bring me good tidings of great joy XXV THe Prophet reproveth them that trusted in broken Cisterns Ier. 2.13 that would not hold water and forsooke the fountaine of living water All the comforts of this life are waters yea cistern waters and therefore not so fresh as others being standing neither so continuing as others being in broken cisterns Whatsoever I enjoy then shall be in God the fountaine and in his promises the streames so shall my comfort be ever savoury everlasting when that which others enjoy in cisterns shall be both unsavoury and unconstant Iob. 13 For a Summer will come when such waters shal make them ashamed When their bottles faile with Hagar they shall wish for death and then will the Lord discover unto me a fountaine of living water XXVI WEE see in Cities where space of ground is precious that the buildings are more high and lofty making more bold with the ayre and things above when they are scanted of earth and things beneath This may teach something and edifie us in our spirituall building When our lot falls out in a small portion of land here to seek for a larger inheritance above in heaven where is roome enough for us all and whither wee may boldly goe Lord seeing my portion is slender my estate narrow build me up some stories higher in grace and goodnesse that so the lesse I have in earth the more I may have in heaven thus shall I be brought the neerer to thee and receive more from thee Had I more scope here below I should not tend upwards or mind heavenly things XXVII THe onely Sanctuary in mans extremitie is Gods all-sufficiency Psal 84.11 The Lord is a Sunne and a Sbield
I shall not onely know but know all things what I had by study inspection I may now have by inspiration and thus I need not complain for want of bookes Besides having deprived me of books had they left me a Peripatetick not having a chamber so well furnished as Elisha's was at Shunem having in it a bed stoole table or candlestick their mercy would then have lessened my misery yet herein my comfort is that I shall lie no worse then my master did who had not whereon to lay his head and the remembrance of this my conformity to my Master and Saviour shall make any lodging as easie as a bed of Downe though it seeme as hard as Jacobs pillowes of stone Yet besides these losses of bed and bookes there had been some mercy in their crueltie if they had not deprived mee of house and means but in this my God is my comfort for the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof so that though I am dispossessed of one place the worlds widenesse and the Lords goodnesse can yeeld me another But if I have no further lot ordained for me on earth heaven also is the Lords and there are many mansions and I am assured he will provide a place for me there CV AS we ought not desire afflictions and losses before they come so we ought to pray that they may be sanctified unto us when they come upon us Now they are never truly sanctified to us till we see God in them and our selves altered by them Many men that are non-proficients under the word of God become well learned being a while under his rod. They who onely heard of God before with the eare will now see him with the eye As for my own part I ingenuously confesse that what I have preached to others I could never truly practise till now I have delivered to others many speculations of the use of afflictions of the life of faith in them now I find in my self experimentally true what I taught I am with the Apostle made able to comfort others which are in any trouble by the same comfort wherewith I am comforted of God 2 Cor. 1.4 In briefe I find these afflictions so far sanctified to me that I can say w th David It is good for me to be afflicted yea can say with him that said * Themistocles Periis sem nisi perussem I had been undone unlesse I had been undone True it is what Luther sayes is required to make a good Divine viz. Meditation Prayer Tentation CVI. VVHen I read of the beginning and end of Job I know not whether to admire the mutable insufficiency of the creature or the immutable sufficiency of the Creator We all know our beginnings but our ends are hid from us The Lord maketh rich and poore he setteth up on high and he casteth down The estate of Job at first consisted of seven thousand sheep and three thousand Camels five hundred yoke of Oxen and five hundred shee Asses Besides his own issue was seven sons and three daughters Here was an estate seeming impossible to begained by one man but more impossible being lost to be repaired in one mans time Yet we read that the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more then his beginning for his former substance was at the last doubled unto him in all things save onely his children they also as some think Conra Dieteric ex Aug. were multiplied so many being in heaven with the Lord as were on earth with him This should also bee my judgement were not my doubt that which was their fathers that they might at last curse the Lord in their hearts O Lord thou hast brought mee as low as Job and thou canst advance me as high as thou didst him I beleeve what thy Prophet told Amaziah that the Lord could give him much more then this However if thou dost not increase my substance with Job increase and continue in me the patience of Job CVII IT hath been the usuall proceeding of Beleevers for the acting of their faith on some difficult thing to reflect on some former act wherein the Lord demonstrated his power Thus did Abraham confirme himselfe in the faith of Isaacs resurrection because he was by the power of God raised to him from a barren wombe as a figure Heb. 11.29 And Job from the resurrection of his body argues the possibilitie of the raising of his estate Iob 19.25.26 27. Now there be two demonstrations of Gods power which being applyed by any beleever may keepe him from casting away his confidence in the greatest extremitie or distresse and povertie The first is Gods removing his sinne from him for there 's more evill and obliquitie in sinne then can be in any affliction or judgement for sinne and therefore why may not the same God remove the one that removed the other The second is the resurrection of their bodies at the last day which if they truly beleeve they cannot doubt of the raising their estates now Ezek. 37 That God that can make dry scattered bones reunite can make scattered goods come together he that shall raise the bodies of his people from the dust can also raise the poore and needie from the dunghill and set them with Princes That God who is a God pardoning iniquitie sinne will he so gracious as to remove mountains of trouble For he that can make the cause to cease can make the effect to discontinue CVIII TOo many there are that make hast to be rich I feare more hast then good speed and have nested themselves on high with more celeritie then sinceritie T is the end which most ayme at not regarding the means of attaining it they care not how bad the meanes be so the end be great Yet is it not unusuall to see men decline faster then they were raised and poverty to come upon them with more hast then their wealth did The higher the rise is the swifter and more precipitate is the fall If riches be my end I will choose the most right and plainest wayes and use the fairest and most lawfull meanes and if my corruptions drive mee on too fast I will slack my pace by faith He that beleeveth doth not make hast thus though I have waited the longer for an estate it shall stay the longer with me CIX OUr Saviour having sent forth his Apostles unprovided to see too without staffe scrippe money demands of them at their returne what they wanted and they said nothing A strange answer considering the length of their journey the diversitie of their hearers and the contrarietie of their new doctrine to flesh and bloud yet that they should be accommodated with every thing No question but they were truly welcome to many and it might appear so by their entertainment yet such a worke as they went about might want a supply of many things Christ told them That the labourer was worthy of his hire but many might thinke then as now in our dayes preaching to be scarce worth the hearing much lesse paying Surely in this worke of Christ Christ was with them in a more speciall manner His fulnesse was enough to supply all their wants at least to make them content in all estates not murmure at their pay so their worke went on Lord as thou wast with them so thou hast promised to be with thine till the end of th e world Goe thou forth therefore with me thy servant who is to goe forth emptie as they and then at my return their answer to thee shall be mine to others I want nothing CX VVicked men are the rod of Gods anger Isa 10.5 and the staffe of his indignation so call'd by the Prophet where 't is worth the observing where 't is said the staffe i.e. the power in their hand is not their indignation but Gods Now the anger of God is but for a moment theirs is implacable and if therefore they are Gods rod wee must not so much look to the instrument as to the hand that useth it They cannot give a blow more if God lay downe the rod and when the childe is chastised and amended the rod is cast into the fire The rod of the wicked may fall on the lot of the righteous but it shall not rest there Judgement may begin at Gods house but it shall be but a little while Isa 10.25 the indignation of God shall cease in ungodly mens destruction ISA. 33.1 WOe to thee that spoylest and thou wast not spoyled and dealest treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee when thou shalt cease to spoyle thou shalt be spoyled and when thou shalt make an end to deale treacherously they shall deale treacherously with thee FINIS
also himself bids them forsake all that would follow him and this his precept was seconded by the practice of many in those times However what they did doe in effect wee must doe in affection depart with all for Christ Hab. 2.6 That person who lades himselfe with thick clay makes himselfe too heavie to ascend up to Christ The Emblematist describes him fitly having one hand winged for heaven the other deprest w th agreat weight As then it is dangerous to possesse all and want Christ so it is most safe to lose all thereby to win Christ or keep him In this case then as I am not bound to cast away my estate yet I wil suffer it either to be taken away from me as a snare or offered up to Christ as a sacrifice for the further I am parted from earth the neerer I am to heaven The more empty I am the fitter I am for contemplation though unfit for action IV. THough poverty and want be the portion of some of the godly yet it is not the condition of all some are not onely heires of a crowne hereafter but have also large pledges of Gods love in the things of this life and that not onely to saciety but to superfluity This the abundant estates of Abraham Job Jacob Joseph David and Solomon doe abundantly testifie who were all good men in Gods eye and great men in the world The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof The Lord is their God and thus are they made heires of the promises and the promises are not onely of the life to come but of this present Yet seeing these things are subject to moth theef rust if this were all their portion they would esteeme themselves no wayes happier then others God then though he gives them this for their maintenance hee reserves the inheritance for them The Lord though he laies out much for his people here yet he lays up more for them hereafter Thus though they have much in possession they have more in reversion If then God be mine though I am not rich both wayes I am the latter What I have not in feeling I have in faith V. THe book of the creatures is a large volume such as very few do learne throughly Now as in some bookes there are many guilded and red Letters but more black so though in the creature there seem much beauty and glory yet the black dismall discontents sorrows and vanitie that ariseth are more The front of every leafe is not fuller of content then the backfide is of vexation Solomon though he were blessed with a confluence of all outward things yet his tongue nor penne could be bribed so as to speake nothing of the evill of them He wrote other bookes of the creatures vertue varietie glory yet the Lord would have those concealed and that onely reserved for us which speaks of its vanitie and vexation it being the fittest lesson for us to learne We should all desire to have some insight in the whole volume and the best School-master to teach us herein is affliction VI. AS the creatures glory declare much of God so its vanitie declareth much to us For when the creature becomes a vexing creature to us it is the rod of God and this rod is a speaking rod Mic. 6.9 He are yee the rod and he that appointed it It speakes to us of Gods justice in punishing of us of his mercy in moderating the punishment of his power and glory in bringing us out of tentation Every blow is a legible character of Gods hand where ever it falls in body estate good name and like Jonathans arrowes are sent to warne and direct us what to avoyd and what to doe Unprofitable and unfit Schollers they are for the School of Christ that can learne nothing out of his Crosse that are taken up with the joy of outward things as Peter James at the glory of Christs transfiguration saying Mat. 17.4 It is good to be here but when the Crosse doth come doe either deny Christ with Peter or forsake him with the other Apostles Happy therefore is the man whose eare is opened to both these kinds of Instructions As we ought to observe how the creatures declare the glory of God so also when the Lord by them declareth our sin and his wrath for sinne then let every one that hath eares heare VII THat God is the Author of every good and perfect gift is a Tenent that none but an Atheist in opinion can expresly deny yet which all that are Atheists in practise doe not truly know This appears when most sacrifice to their own nets others prophanely say with him in the Prophet By my own hand have I procured me this others more blinde ascribe all to the blinde goddesse Fortune crying her up as strongly as the Ephesians did their Diana Though this be the practise of the children of this world yet a childe of God knows that what he hath he hath received he seeeth God in every thing apprehendeth God above all receiveth all as proceeding from him saying still with Jacob Gen. 27.20 The Lord brought it unto me and with Job The Lord giveth Whatsoever I have then or shall receive I will labour to see God in it thus will the gift draw me neerer to the giver and the plentifull showres of his favours powred downe upon me shall make me more fruitfull and abundant in the work of the Lord. VIII GOd the giver hath gifts of a two-fold nature 1. Gifts of his right hand Prov. 3.16 as graces here and glory hereafter these are peculiar to his people onely the childrens meate 2. Gifts of his left hand as riches honours All sorts of men partake of this sort of gifts Esau Laban Nabal Belshazzar had as large a portion in them as any Thus all things fall alike to all neither can good or evill love or hatred be known by them For if there were no other disting uishing evidence of Gods love then these fading tokens then were the men of this world yea those Americans and Indians who abound in wealth of all men most happy They whose portion is onely in this life have it larger then others whereas the portion of Gods people is not like Benjamins messe larger then their brethren but lesser Yet here 's their qomfort that what they receive from God is extended to them by Gods right hand whereas others receive what they have from Gods left hand Laeva porrigere was among the Latines an unwelcome kinde of giving Whatsoever gift the Lord bestowes upon me if I might have my choice it should be that of his right hand Let his right hand fall on my head his left on others So though my portion be not the greater it will be the better IX GOD is my portion says David Psa 119.57 Deut. 32 9. Yee are my portion and inheritance says God How happie and rich doth the Lord think himself in us as
Bethlehem thy Word is the bread of life I will feed on it live by it so shall I never want when I am at thy finding LXXXVI I Will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted poore people Zeph. 3.1 that shall trust in the name of the Lord. Gods people though they are a poore people yet they are a trusting people And how can they be a poore people that are a trusting people Doth not the Apostle tell us that they are rich in faith And we read of the riches of full assurance 't is only in the worlds eye and in worldly things that they are poore none possesse more then they none can shew a title to more All they injoy is in God and they injoy all things in God When the plunderers have deprived them of all the hand of faith will receive more from God or lay hold on all in God It shall be my glory to be one of Gods poor afflicted people so I may have this grace to be one of his trusting people LXXXVII GReat is the use of faith glorious things are spoken of it It is called a shield and as heretofore many have done valiantly with this shield so also may we now By faith wee may be inabled with Abraham to leave our own countrey with Moses to forsake the pleasures and preferments of this life yea that which in these dayes is endeavoured to be done by strength of hand may be done assuredly by the strength of faith We may hereby subdue kingdomes and not only escape but learne how by faith to handle the sword faith making one of weak become strong and wax valiant in fight All our hope ariseth from and is stirred up by faith In trouble faith stirreth up prayer prayer stirreth up God God stirs up the means Faith will with Jacob make us continue wrastling with God till he blesse us Faith wil draw water from the wells of salvation it will not only support us in trouble but bring us out By faith I will be rich when I am poore strong when I am weak joyfull when I am sorrowfull By it I will conquer even when I am conquered Let the Lord give me this grace of faith and take away all that I have yet by it I shall have as much as I had more then I had all that a God can yeeld is then mine LXXXVIII IT is the nature of faith in its workings to suspend the soule from reflecting on its own weaknesse and other difficulties directing it to look up to the Lord in whom its hope is and from whom its help must come In affliction we should not onely consider how unable we are to beare them but how able God is to help our infirmities Afflictions and troubles are manifold but God is one and the same and a true faith can make use of one God to conquer twenty troubles one promise to support him in many dangers Sense presenteth many enemies but faith seeth more with it then are or can be against it What rule and course the Apostle Heb. 12.13 prescribeth to lay aside any weight of sinne viz. To look up to Jesus the same must we take to be eased of any weight of affliction LXXXIX IT is written The just shall live by faith Now faith lives on the promise and the promise lives and abides because God lives and abides the same for evermore The life of a beleever is not maintained by any mutable perishing thing and therefore it cannot suffer mutation When we have no other feeding then faith can be our bread when wee have no other stay faith can be our staffe and when temporall things are removed from us yet if faith apprehend a promise it hath plenty enough one promise supporteth faith more then many thousands per annum Hee then that hath a large faith hath a large living That onely which causeth discomfort in a Christian walke is the suspension and intermission of faiths actings For if wee would let faith have its perfect work it would support us in all wants Now faith doth its work best alone having a higher principle then the life of sense Faith acteth upon a faithfull promise and an Almighty God Now as faith will not leave God so God will not faile faith The dutie then of beleeving onely is ours the worke of helping is Gods XC THe sight is the quickest of all the senses for it can ken from earth to heaven in a moment and is also the largest for it can behold the whole Hemisphere by one act of viewing Most fitly therefore in the Scriptures doth the Spirit of God set forth the acts of faith by seeing beholding looking Hereby Abraham is said to see afarre off whereas unbeleevers are by S. Peter described to be such as cannot see afarre off O then let us labour for a large faith as we have a large object for wee can never be straltned in our God unlesse we be straitned in our faith If wee had a thousand times more faith we might receive a thousand times more blessings of God When the Prophet came to the widows house as many vessels as shee had were filled with oyle The reason why so many abide under wants is because they cannot see more in God nor receive more from him For to them all communicable good that they see in God belongs unto them XCI IN Christ dwelleth all fulnesse a fulnesse not onely of sufficiency for himselfe but of redundancy for us A fulnesse not of a vessell which will hold no more and of which a little being taken its fulnesse is diminished but a fulnesse of the Ocean which though it be still emptying it self is still full A fulnesse of the Sun which though it diffuseth daily light and heat hath never the lesse Though all the Saints in heaven partake of Christs glory and all the Saints on earth of his grace yet hath he never the lesse glory or grace There is in Christ a fulnesse of power to protect of wisdome to direct of truth to confirme us of love to comfort us of life to quicken us Of all yea and more then all wee can aske or thinke Now of this fulness I may receive grace for grace for if I am a member I must partake of the heads fulnesse If I am a Spouse I must partake of my husbands fulnesse to supply all my wants I will therefore never complaine of emptinesse and wants as long as there is in Christ not onely a fulnesse but a freenesse to communicate For as sure as Christ is mine his fulnesse is mine Iam. 1.5 He gives to all men and yet he gives liberally which no rich man in the world is able to doe because as he gives to others himselfe decreaseth XCII OUr communiion with Christ is that which may comfort us in the disunion of all outward comforts from us for our nearenesse with him assures us of his compassion under them and his helpe to beare them If then I have