childe to provide for in all the world besides The Lord hath a Book to write down your names and a bottle to put your tears in His power likewise is yours the Lord hath not so much need of your patience as you have of his power and as what the Lord is he is for you and as what the Lord hath he hath for you so what the Lord can do he will do for you Though the promise of God be the measure of your faith and therefore beware in times of tryal of charging your selves for unbelief when God himself possibly doth not in that particular command you to believe yet your faith is not the measure of his power The Lord usually doth for his Church more then they believe and we must believe he can do more for his Church then he doth nothing but contradiction to speak reverentially of God passeth omnipotency Gods people have a double guard one within them and that is The finger of God the Spirit another without them and that is The arm of God his Power a double hold also on God as he hath that double guard on them Promise what he will do experience what he hath done As Sions cause is good so she wants not as good a Champion to maintain it The name of the Lord is a strong Tower and though the righteous cannot rest in a name of Godliness yet they may in the name of God and therefore in times of trouble they run to it Prov. 16.10 Lord may Syon say Support under tryals and deliverance from danger is an Article of thy Covenant And will not the Lord be faithful Are our infirmities many the Lord our God hath mercy to pardon them Are our corruptions many he hath power to subdue them Are our sins great he hath love to cover them What a Constellation and Centre of Attributes are in God! Righteousness Holiness Wisdom Power Grace and mercy I every one of these Attributes is God and as when Mithridates espoused the daughter of a poor laboring man the General to testifie the approbation of his choice sent the old Father a Cap full of gold with which he being over-joyed runs up and down the streets shewing of it to all the people crying out All this is mine So may the people of God whose Promises Providences Ordinances Attributes Graces are theirs triumphantly signifie to the world All these are ours and that which is more then all this if more can be you whose God is the Lord Sixthly Have a propriety in God himself in Christ himself as the Lord when he could swear by no greater sware by himself so he having no greater thing to give gives himself Christ who is the beloved of the Father and the First-born of every Creature he likewise is yours your King to Rule you your Priest to satisfie for you your Prophet to Indoctrinate and teach you his Death and Resurrection and Intercession are yours not onely for signification but for efficacy His blood his precious and pearless blood is yours to pardon you His glorious and sweet Spirit is yours to purifie and purge you And for all things else in the World they are 1. But short and transitory Riches are well called Moveables and ere long they will either take their leave of us or we shall certainly take our leaves of them Honor is but brittle it is even like Glass of which they say when it shineth brightest its nighest melting And for the rest how uncertain are all things money for the Thieves Merchandizes for the Winds Cattel for the Rot Buildings for the Fire The glory of this World is in it self but the Scheme but the Picture of Happiness and it will not sit so long before your eyes as that you may draw its Picture it s gone before you can say 't is here But suppose Worldly happiness were long yet Secondly It s Insatisfactory Worldly comforts are even like drink to the Dropsie man encreasing thirst like Wood to the Fire enlarging its Flame The chest may be filled with gold but God onely can fill the heart These things cannot make you happy because they are desired not for themselves but for other things but the Lord is desirable not for something else beside himself but onely for himself Deus propter Deum If you have Riches you may look beyond them and see Honors to tempt your eye if you have Riches and Honors you may look beyond them and see moral Wisdom to tempt your head if you have all these you may yet look beyond and see health to tempt your heart And while these partial and imperfect happiness lay before you you may look beyond them all and see a necessity of something else that is God to be your God But let a man be made an heir of salvation let a man be adopted into the Family of God and be able to say The Lord is my God and I provoke that man to say its true God and Christ and Heaven and Grace are mine but I want something else besides these in the world to make me happy These things are not universally good clothes are but for the back meat for the belly musick for the ears flowers for the smell and eye c. but the Lord is a Catholick a viscerate and entire good he is Almighty or All-sufficient As a man that hath a minde to some particular dish can finde all dishes in that one dish as suppose Patridges Capons or Pheasants So a childe of God can finde all things in God riches honor pleasure The covetous man makes his gold his God but a gracious heart saith God is my Gold A man may have silver but silver shall never satisfie him without God but if a man love God he will satisfie him without silver When a poor Beggar is matched to a Royal Prince she views his Palace she surveys his gardens and pleaseth her self in a delightsome prospect of all his greatness and glory and can say These are mine for the Prince himself is mine So because you have a title to the Fountain the streams are yours Whatever happiness is scattered here and there abroad in the Creatures it is all virtually eminently and superlatively in God I read of a couple of Ambassadors the one a Spaniard the other a Venetian and they did both of them extol and prefer the Revenues of their particular Masters said the Venetian Ambassador My Master hath so many chests of Silver and Gold alass said the Spanish Ambassador Your Masters Treasures have a bottom but my Masters Treasures in the Indies have a Root a Spring So may a true Saint say to the World your riches and comforts have a leak or limitation but my Lord Jesus his comforts and riches his Treasures have neither Banks nor bottom God is mine and if he can make me happy I shall not be miserable This this my Beloved is your Inventory for Happiness that can say The Lord is our God I shall now
BLESSEDNESS OR GOD and the WORLD Weighed in the BALANCES OF THE SANCTUARY AND THE World found too light Preached in a Sermon at Pauls before the Right Honorable the Lord Major Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of London on a Thanksgiving-Day for the prosperity of our Navy in a conflict with the Spaniard October 17. 1656. By Francis Raworth Teacher to the Church at Shore-ditch London Printed by T. Maxcy for John Rothwell at the Fountain in Goldsmiths-Row in Cheap-side 1656. To the Right Honorable ROBERT TITCHBURNE LORD MAjOR And the Right Worshipful the ALDERMEN of the City of LONDON Honorable and Beloved IT cannot be denyed but that our greatest happiness in this world is That we have liberty to make provision for the world to come yet generally so unhappy are men as that they little ponder upon their future Crown and little consider of their present race but either they vainly mis-spend their time to allude to the Roman Emperor in gathering Cockle shells in heaping together the Mammon of unrighteousness or in a more degenerous way in a base drudgery for the lusts of the Flesh The Profession of Christianity laboreth under two Extreams some pretend to an Anticipation or prevention of Heaven and would fain perswade us that there is no state of Glory after this life These men notwithstanding their present Triumphs are under great Temptations and in a sober sense are rather besides their wits then above Gods Institutions Others charge the faithful Professors of Religion with usurpation against God with Antedating the state of Perfection as if they did confound the distinction between the Church Triumphant and Militant No say they Purity and Holiness are our aim on earth but our possession onely in Heaven These Sensualists may learn that the great change of man is made in this world and onely confirmed in the next the Tribunal Bar Regenerates no man but publiquely and finally acquitteth the Regenerate Heaven must first enter into us before we can enter into Heaven though the perfection of Purity be onely in Heaven yet the principle of Purity is to be had on Earth He that dies a sinner shall never rise a Saint He that by the Love of the Brethren shoots not the gulf here shall never pass from death to life hereafter He that hath not God to be his Lord now shall never have the Lord to be his God Wo be to that man that was born and is bred and shall be buried in sin that goes out of this world in that condition that he came into the world with happy had he been that he had never been born happy if when dead he never should have had a resurrection because he shall arise not so much to be judged as to be condemned Nothing is so much discoursed of as blessedness yet nothing so little understood some place it one thing some in another yet both amiss some men would be happy but without communion with God which is impossible These should know That God hath not onely Mines of Brass but Mines of Silver and Gold and that though the enjoyment of this world be not an Argument of Gods anger yet it s no argument of his peculiar love and therefore we must take heed of valuing the good things of Gods foot-stool above the good things of his Throne My work in this Sermon hath been to give the world its due both in its white and black sides I have weighed the blessedness of this world and of the next in the Balances of the Sanctuary and notwithstanding this world be pondrous in a providential sense yet comparatively by the verdict of God himself it is found too light to which when you had given a patient hearing you were pleased by your order to importune its publication I have satisfied your request and my prayers to God are That because it is a subject of the highest nature that it may have the deeper Impression on your hearts That as God hath lifted you up into the seat of Honor so you may lift up that God with Thankfulness That as you have publick Opportunities to do good to restrain Prophanation and discountenance Error so you may have hearts suitable to your Opportunities That as God hath thrown into your laps the outward Happinesse of this World so you may prize the Benefactor and set a greater Estimate on the light of his Countenance the least beam whereof is worth ten thousand Worlds Your Honors and the Churches Servant in the Gospel Francis Raworth PSAL. 144. ult Happy is that people that is in such a case yea Happy is the people whose God is the Lord. WHatsoever the Prophet David whose Character is A man after Gods own heart doth undertake he performs it cordially and heartily If he be in a gratulatory vein and fall to the praises of God he cannot nullifie and debase man too low with him He is but vanity and his days are but as a shadow not worthy to be taken notice of ver 3 4. And he cannot magnifie and advance the Lord too high He is his Goodness his Fortress his Tower his Deliverer and his Shield If he be in a praying posture he is so pathetical and powerful as if God q. d. could not deny him audience Bow the Heavens O Lord and come down send thine hand from above and deliver me out of great waters I and with such a majesty and life as if he had the key of Gods Armory to open it at pleasure and to throw out swords and flaming fire of wrath against the wicked Cast out lightning and scatter them shoot out sharp arrows and destroy them ver 5 6 7. Finally If he begin to exalt God he sets him out with such beauty and excellency as no Creature or created comfort can be preferred before no not possibly be weighed in the balance with him to which purpose it is observable that as the maledictions threatned against David were presented by the Prophet under three forms of War Famine and Pestilence so here in the latter part of this Psalm the Blessings of God are expressed under three contraries against the Pestilence is opposed this Petition That our sons may be as Plants grown up in their youth ver 12. Against Famine That our Garners may be full affording all manner of store ver 13. Against War That our oxen may be strong to labor that there be no breaking in nor going out that there be no complaining in our streets ver 14. And my Text is an Epiphonema with which he concludes Happy is that people that is in such a case c. There is a double blessedness sinistra beatitudo a Blessedness of the left hand a Blessedness of this World And secondly There is dextra beatitudo a right hand Blessedness a Blessedness of Grace of Salvation This Blessedness is the aim of men on earth but the perfect possession onely of men in Heaven Accordingly there is a double interpretation of this Text suitable
ungodly men count children but Bills of charges and it s an ordinary thing to say such a man hath a fair estate and would be an happy man but that he hath a great charge of children Man is immortal not onely Physically in his soul because that dies not being immortal not onely morally in his name and reputation if godly because God hath engaged himself to make men afraid to pollute the names of them who while living feared his name but also naturally in regard of off-spring a man leaving so many Lamps burning behinde him as he hath children surviving and as it was an Old Testament curse to be barren and to have no light so also for God to put out a mans Lamps and in that sense to leave a man no light to follow him Happy or Blessed am I said Leah when Zilpah her maid bare Jacob another son for the daughters will call me Blessed and she called his name Ashur And as for friendship a Friend is a mans second self he careth at all times he is particeps curarum partaker of our care he is as Alexander was wont to boast the best treasure We know diseases of stoppings and suffocations are the most dangerous in the body and it is not much otherwise in the minde You may take Sarza to open the Liver and Steel to open the Spleen flour of Sulphur for the Lungs but no receipt in a moral sense so opens the heart as a faithful Friend The Parable of Pythagoras is obscure but true Cor ne edito Eat not the heart Certainly if a man would give it a hard phrase those that want friends to open themselves to are Canibals of their own hearts Two saith the Wise-man are better then one when one falleth the other helpeth him up To have health and liberty and relations and friends is comfortable under God and who doth not applaud his happiness that is in such a case But Fourthly What though a man had all these Providential favors if he wanted an Estate though its a thing more honorable to be master over his Lusts then to be master of a great estate and more glorious for a man to have Grace Love and Faith and Patience in his heart then silver and gold in his purse yet who knows not but Money is a Queen and those that abound in it are Kings upon earth with men that the Borrower is a servant I oft a very slave to the Lender that he that hath riches hath wherewithal to give which because its an imitation of God is better then to be on the receiving hand that it is somewhat for a man to be able to defray his charges as he passeth out of the world and when he is dead rather to have the Parish left to his children then his children to the Parish And riches as the great States-man saith are so honorable among wordlings that its hard to distinguish between virtue and fortune for the most virtuous if unprosperous have been despised and the most impious if prosperous have ever been applauded It is certain that its onely the right hand of Christ the light of his countenance that must save that must imbrace us yet his left hand may be under our heads the mercies of this world may help keep us from murmuring and distrust they may uphold us It is not for nothing that God coupleth Poverty and Shame together Prov. 13.18 The reason whereof may be either because poverty usually maketh men ashamed though in it self its no more shame for a man to be poor then to be honest and often is a temptation to men to do things that are shameful and that Solomon intimates to us that there is greater danger in extremity of want then in excess of wealth Give me saith he neither poverty nor riches Why so Not riches lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord A desperate Interogatory indeed but yet not poverty neither Why so Lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of God in vain Mark it the Temtation of Riches is Pride but the temptation of Poverty is sacriledge against God and it is a greater sin to Blaspheme God whom we own then to turn Athiest and deny him But Fifthly How can this man be yet happy if in his wealth he want Honor and Reputation It is known that our Lord and Master lost his good name and was mis-called before he lost his life and sure enough there will to the comfort of the righteous at the last day be a Resurrection of their Names as well as of their Bodies Though it be the affliction of a just man to be traduced yet it s the sin onely of the Traducer for though we have the command of our ears yet we have no bridle to restrain others tongues and its an ordinary yet a royal thing to do well to hear ill And let no man be despondent that his coat be torn if his conscience be whole yet it must be acknowledged a great Blessing though not to be flattered yet to be well reported of not onely to have a good conscience towards God but a just credit before men and if a man lose the opinion of being good though yet he be good he may be packing out of the world for any advantage of doing good for though a good conscience be necessary for our own salvation yet a good name is necessary for the salvation of others and though it be the care of men generally rather to be thought honest then to be honest To covet a milk white name and to be cryed up and down the world to have the encomiums of men There goes a righteous man there goes a charitable man yet it s an honor for a man to have a pot of oyntment and to have no dead flies in it to make it stink Eccles 10.1 And a good name is rather to be chosen then great riches and loving favor rather then silver and gold though such may not have the Lord to be their God yet happy is he in a moral sense that is in such a case Sixthly But how inestimable were a man and so a Nation with all this respect if they should want Dominion and Empire It is a promise that Gods People shall possess the Gates of their Enemies Gen. 22.17 and that their Rule shall extend from Sea to Sea The Athenians reckoned their great Empire to be their greatest glory Alexander thought himself unhappy that he had not another World to Conquer Caesar had rather be King of a Cottage he so loved Rule then the second at Rome The King of SPAIN gives for his Arms a Shield with the Sun rising and setting on it It is observed That he that hath the command of the Sea hath the command of the world and he that hath the command of the Navy hath the command of the Sea Now let us suppose a Nation to have riches at home and power abroad for a Nation to be
what is it to have Friends favor c. and to have a hard heart a reprobate minde for God to frown on me for to live like a Rebel and Runagate without Christ and the Covenant of Promise It is true you should have sought the Kingdom of Heaven first and then all things would have been added to you but yet since you have begun with the World for Gods sake for your souls sake end with God you are already in possession of temporal Blessings will it be any damage to have the accession of eternal happiness Are you jealous lest as you should gain Christ you should lose the world and that as Grace comes into your hearts that your Estates must needs go out of your hands Have there been many that in the midst of their outward pomp and splender that yet have cryed out Undone and that for want of Gods presence and will their riches impoverish you their wisdom make you fools and their Plaister wound you Can All-sufficiency it self undoe you Will security always bar out wrath Will your Opinion never alter concerning the World Will Jesus Christ never be precious Will there not come a time when the favor of God will be more necessary there then this mans favor is now What will you give for a Christ at the last day Will the sense of your past joys kill the then stinging worm of conscience Do but try what peace of conscience means after your troubles how much the Pearl of Price weighs after your worldly experience and if one smile after true possession of Gods favor if the least assurance of the pardoning sins do not out-weigh all things else return to the world and to your lusts again It s reported of Pyrrhus That one day he opened his minde to his friend Cyneas and told him If he were but Possessor of Italy what then said his friend Why then if he could but conquer Africa what then Pyrrhus O then if he could but subdue Asia he would be at rest and be merry with his friends so you may be now saith Cynâ—as without all that trouble Sixthly and lastly By way of Satisfaction How shall I have evidence in the enjoyment of worldly happiness or goods that the Lord is my God A. 1. If thy Estate come to thee by descent Industry or the bounty of Providence it is one thing to have what we have be Covenant another to have it by Extortion Many can say This Estate this Land is mine because God is mine but others have occasion to say If God had been mine this had not been mine It is a currant but unhappy Proverb in England Happy is that childe whose Father goes to the Divel the meaning of it is The Son oft comes by a great Estate and the Father sells his soul to get it for him but better it were that the estate should never come to the children then that the father should go to the Divel for it Ah Lord How sollicitous are men to adorn the bodies of their children but how careless for their souls How many leave vast Estates to their children there 's no hurt in providing for their Families that 's a duty but this is their misery their Oppression and Extortion which procured them entail the curse of God on those Estates Wo be to them says the Prophet Isa 5.8 that joyn house to house and that lay field to field till there be no place c. Then wo be to me said a Landed Extortioner and to my children 2. Another evidence of our true enjoyment of this world upon a good ground is when we can see God in what we enjoy The Language of Esau is I have enough but Jacobs Dialect is otherwise The Lord hath given to me and that which is remarkable he saith of his children Which the Lord hath graciously given to me One would think Jacob were speaking of the pardon of sin of the hope of the Messias or of everlasting life Grace seems to be the language of the Gospel and proper onely to spiritual Blessings but a gracious heart sees not onely providence but Grace in what he hath he sees grace in his cat el grace in his children The rich fool in the Gospel talked at a great rate I will pull down my barns and I will bestow my fruits all belike was his own God was not in all in any of his thoughts Though we must not look on the Creatures with doting eyes so as too much to admire them yet we must not look away from them with shut eyes so as to neglect to see God in them How comfortable is it for the soul to see the love of God to him in the love of his children and the protection of God ratified to him in the obedience of his servants to him and the Image of the King of Glory in graven in all his Coyn on all his gold and silver 3. We may know the Lord is our God in the fruition of the world by the enjoyment of God in them It is nothing for a man to finde a piece of Parchment a Deed signed and sealed unless there be Land conveyed in it so the possession of a great Estate is no Argument of Gods love You have the Deeds the Conveyances the Honor and riches of Gods left hand but by what title Evidences my Beloved are Evidences to them that have a title If a man enjoy God in his Goods he hath a title with his Evidence a better title then that the worldling hath It is a suspitious thing to finde Goods in a mans house and for him not to be able to tell how he came by them My soul How camest thou by thy Estate is it given to thee as to a Son or as to a slave thou art advanced into high place but since thou art lifted up hast thou lifted up God in thy Honor Ah Lord How many are risen in honor but forgot that hand that lifted them up and the ground from whence they came Are your Estates as Looking-glasses to see God in to see his wisdom and care and load-stones to draw out your love by Are they wings to make you mount up to Heaven or no If they be not wings they will be weights to sink you down to Hell Do Riches make you charitable Doth Honor make you humble Doth your strength make you watchful Do you not cast away the Net now you have got the Fish Are you in satisfied when you have the cap full of gold till you have the kiss To allude to the competition of Cyrus his two Friends Chrysautus and Artabarus are your turns served of God and do you turn your backs on God Are you the better for your goods and the more in love with the Rose of Sharon for your beauty Can you bless God the more for your Blessings and say There was a time I was poor and passionate but as God hath given me riches so also a thankful heart as God hath encreased my store so he hath encreased my Faith and the higher I am the more holy the greater the better If so we are happy otherwise it were better we had had less of this World then that like the Moon at the full we should be more distant from the Sun then that with Jonathan we should follow the chase be exact Professors or Professors of exactness no longer then till we meet with honey It is a serious Observation of a great Traveller That notwithstanding all the Religious pretences of the Court of Rome That the Indians have brought more of the Spaniards to worship their gold then the Spaniards have brought of the Indians to worship their God that is The Indians have made more Infidels then the Spaniards have made Christians 4. When we imploy our Treasures for God then we spiritually enjoy our Treasures from God They are not Goods to us if we do not good to others with them We are too ready to receive the Token and to neglect the Contents of the Letter that God sends us We say such a man hath an happy Estate when he hath a great Estate but whatever the Estate be the man is unhappy if he be not charitable Wherefore David giving the Character of a blessed man tells us Blessed is the man What man not he that hath riches but he that considers the poor Consider how to bestow them Psalm 41.1 Oh that men would consider they are not masters of their Estates and it is well if their Estates be not master over them but Stewards And the Language of a gracious Steward is How shall I dispose of my Trust best for my Masters use where shall I finde a naked back that I may clothe it an empty belly that I may fill it an aged Christian or Minister of God past the labors of their special Callings that I may succor and supply them And it would be a noble enquiry of Magistrates whom God makes successful against Babylon how shall we consecrate the gain taken from them to the Lord for Sions good for the advancement of the Gospel and Ministerial Propagation of Christs Kingdom for the preservation of Gospel Ordinances amongst us from the Invasion of Prophaneness and the attempts of Heresie and Atheism But where are these ubies How many are loaden with Blessings and yet load God with Curses How do men employ their Estates rather against then for God like water putting out the fire and like clouds hindring the sight of the Sun But there is a time a caming when ye men of the World shall see that Charity was the best Usury that a good Estate was better then a great Estate when they shall take their leave of this World and the glory thereof when they shall by Death be summoned out of this life and lose their Estates and their Souls together how happy soever they have been accompted of by men on earth yet when they shall arrive to that Infelicity and ruine Who would be in their case whose God is not the Lord FINIS
to the double Blessedness in it One interpretation proposeth it by way of competition Blessed is the people that is in such a case that is while others are annoyed with the Pestilence have prosperity while others are consumed by the Famine have plenty while others are destroyed and harrassed with Wars Tumults and Alarums have peace and quietness in their Borders sic aiunt ferunt This is the Popular rumor this is the onely Language and Dialect of the vulgar If they can but have these things they think themselves happy whatever become of Religion or of their immortal souls but David stands up as offended with this vote and verdict How now Is this true Blessedness to enjoy the shell without the kernel the Ring without the Jewel to live like a Beast and die like a Dog and having no portion in God afterwards to be damned like a Divel No no saith the Prophet this is a false Maxime a man may be thus imaginarily happy he may have riches honor plenty pleasures and the world at will and yet be really in a miserable case to all eternity But if you speak of happiness I will put you a better case Happy yea thrice happy is that people whose God is the Lord a notable Epanorthosis and correction of the Opinion of worldly happiness But the second interpretation more probably supposeth it to be spoken by way of subordination and comparison as if David had said You call poverty and disgrace miseries and you call riches and honor happiness Why let this be granted that there is some kinde of felicity in this world and that it is better to be rich then poor to be in honor then in disgrace I will not affirm that there is an inconsistency inchoherency between a possession in this life and a propriety in the next let it be so that a people in such a case is happy and so it is a Synchoresis or grant it is true what you say How happy then is that people that hath not onely peace without but peace within that hath a portion in this world but yet not this world for their portion that hath a title not onely to the streams and Creatures but also to the Fountian Creator yea doubtless happy indeed Well fare that man that Nation who in this sense have God to be their Lord and farewell the contrary Prop. The proposition from hence is That the greatest happiness in this world is not to have this world to be our happiness but in our Worldly happiness to have God to be our Lord. The truth whereof will the better appear by setting before your eyes as in a Table and by weighing as in scales the happiness of this world and the happiness of Gods people 1. We must make an Anatomy of the World view it and see what it bids towards happiness and without offence I presume I must personate the moral or meer worldly man and shew you the happiness of being in his case 1. Let health strength and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good temper of body appear and indeed what is a velvet Pantofle to a dis-joynted foot a Velvet Jacket to a broken arm the most delicate vyands to a dis-eased Stomach The world my Beloved is like an Hospital of diseased Patients Here stands one man crying out of the Tooth-ach there sits another tormented with the stone there lies a third distracted with the Collick a fourth wracked with the Gout And who is there in this great Assembly that can say For my part I know not who you speak to I feel no distemper I bless God I ail nothing But how many are ready to complain with him that cryed out 't is true God hath set his Rain-bow in the Heavens his mark in the clouds that the world shall not again be drowned with water But what 's that to me that am like to be drowned presently So what is Peace and Tranquillity abroad when I have a burning fear within my body what is it to have plenty in the Land when I have a lingring Consumption and Feaver in my blood It is true there is never a gracious heart but would of the two rather be a Lazarus here then a Dives hereafter rather if God put it to his choice beg his bread on earth then his water in hell yet as to this world it is better to fare delicately then to be a Beggar to be a Dives then a Lazarus for a man to have work for God to do and to have ability of God to do it while others groan out their days and waste their precious time in languishments for others to have good blood running in their veins to have their bones as the Prophet speaks full of marrow and strength Who would not think himself happy to be in such a case Secondly What though a man have health if he enjoy not his Liberty I must confess It is better to be a Gally-slave at Algiere then to be a drudge to the Divel it is better to be a Cato in a Prison with shackels fetters about ones heels then a Caesar in the Senate house with a chain of Gold about his neck Yet how sweet is freedom not onely in Conscience but of Body Whom doth it not pity to see anothers Body to be a Gaol to his Soul and his House to be a Prison to his Body And who would not give the greatest sum with that Greek Captain in another sense to obtain this freedom Matth. 22.28 When I take a view of our weekly Bills of Mortality in London I finde a report of so many dying in one Parish of a Fever of so many dying in another Parish of a Consumption c. But when I cast my eye down to the bottom of the Leaf suspecting still that I should see some Funerals of the Plague contrarily for these 12. moneths and above I finde there nothing but Ciphers Ah Lord how unthankful are we for such a blessing when thou might'st as justly as suddenly turn our Ciphers into Figures cause our faces to gather paleness hang our streets with mourning and make us know what an happiness health and liberty is by the doleful and dreadful effects and restraint of the Plague and Pestilence Thirdly But what a case were man in though he had his health if he wanted Relations and Friends How comfortable is it in the Marriage state for a man to have his Table compassed about not with Thorns and Bryars but with Olive-plants emblems of peace How much better is it for a man to have so many children to call him Father then to have so many pieces of gold to call him Lord Therefore it is that when God would give us an Inventory of Jobs happiness he first sets down his piety A man fearing God but descending to his comforts in this life he begins with his children before his estate Item saith God Job had given him so many sons and daughters whereas certainly some
condition he that loseth that he cares not to enjoy and enjoys that he can't lose And in a spiritual sense he onely is such a man whose God is the Lord Methinks the words are here represented as Antiphanys Dialogue-wise The world begins Happy is he whose Sons grow like Olive plants yea saith David whose God is the Lord the World succeeds Happy is he whose Oxen are strong to labor and that Nation whose streets knows no complaining yea saith David whose God is the Lord still that is the note of a gracious heart as he rescribed back nothing but King of France King of France King of France and why happy such a man above a worldling 1. He that hath outward happiness in the world may not have a title to the Lord but he that hath God to be his Lord hath a title a spiritual title to the World The Corinthians were ready to quarrel about their properties I am of one from Paul saith one I am from Apollo said another tush said a third I care neither for Paul nor Apollo give me Cephas I am for Cephas The Apostle rounds them in the ear what saith he Is Christ divided will you contend for a part All men are gain not onely Paul Apollo Cephas but all things life death things present and things to come But by what tenure Why Because Christ is gain When we lost our Title to God we lost our comfortable title to the Creatures and no wonder the Creature rebels against us since we have rebell'd against the Creator The Creatures may justly say to unregenerate men that hunt after and dig for happiness in them I say Honors Riches Pleasures may say to such as Samuel did to Saul Why come ye to us since God is departed from you He is a Rebel that harboreth him whom the King hath Proclaimed a Traytor And what comfort can that soul have to lay his head in the bosome of any Creature when God himself hath turned his back on him But he that hath a new title to God hath a better title to outward comforts he holds them in capite God hath provided for him a Kingdom and therefore doth not grudge him crums How sweet are those moâ—sels of bread that by Faith are dipt in Christs blood not that property comes by Grace but it is cleared up by Grace Many a man hath an Estate and a childe of God enjoys the comfort of it The worldly man may say This house this childe is mine by Creature right a Saint saith These are also mine by Covenant right but you may have all worldly happiness and not be happy Therefore secondly Grace claims a title to all the Ordinances of God Preaching is thy Chariot to bring the Lord down to thee Prayer and Meditation are wings to carry thy soul up to God It is generally believed and without scruple among the judicious that the visible and not the invisible Church is the prime and proper subject for the dispensation of Gospel Seals but his title to them that hath a right to Christ is indisputable He that can say the body and blood of Christ is his may challenge and claim the Bread and Wine that signifie those as his He that hath right to the Pearl hath right to the Casket He that is marryed to the King of Glory ought not upon any pretences whatsoever to be kept out of the Presence Chamber and from prayer while others stand like strangers without doors knocking and speaking to God at a distance as slaves to a master you have freedom to enter into the Palace of Heaven and cry Abba Father The Ordinances are the glory of a Nation and where ever God goes his Ordinances go too and where ere they reside and abide he abides too My Beloved God and his Institutions go and come from and to a Nation together as it s the honor of a Nation to say Jehovah-Nissi The Lord is our Banner in a Military sense for God to fight for us so a greater for others to say of any Nation Jehovah-Shammah The Lord is there in an Ecclesiastical sense The Ordinances are the comfort of the soul they are not as some new Anti-scripturists calumniate the Grave wherein Christ lies but the Throne whereon he sits as King of the Church and we were better lose our evidences for our Lands then part with the seals of the Gospel Is it then a small matter to have liberty to tread in Gods courts to sit under the tree of Life and dew of Heaven to have commerce with Angels to have communion with the Lord of Glory when thou art hungry to have freedom to run to Gods House for Bread when thou art distracted and troubled with doubts of thy Faith thy salvation to have recourse with David to Gods Sanctuary for resolution and that by thy title to the Lord as thy Lord Thirdly Thou hast moreover a propriety in all his Providences his Providences are thine for thy satisfaction if thou wantest enlightning he is thy Sun if defending he is thy shield if a Nation be fearful he is a wall of fire without if fainting he is a well of water within They may be without many things but we have the Broad-Seal of Heaven for it that they shall want no good thing Thou art in trouble and if thy Friend could but see thee How happy God is therefore Omniscient Thou art weak if thy Friend could help thee God is therefore Omnipotent El Shaddai All-sufficient If thou art weak he hath a shoulder to carry thee if feeble a bosom to warm and cherish thee He that hath him that is all hath all Secondly For thy security and that 1. To sustain thee If thou goest into the water I will be with thee if into the fire I le be with thee said God q. d. If thou burn I le burn too if thou drown I le drown too Hence it was that Israel was safe in the Red-sea and the three children secure in the Furnace God may cast his childe down and so his Nation yet not cast them away he often breaks your hearts that he may not break your backs 2. To order all for thee The Devil may turn Cordials into poyson but providence turns those poysons into Cordials again God hath his fairest ends in our foulest ways when temptations have sucked our corrupt blood away those Leeches shall be taken off when you are provoked to storm at God and quarrel with the seeming inequality of his ways are ready to judge his present carriage to your souls inconsistent with the hopes of election past or future glory Let despair vail and murmuring be tongue-tyed and consider the Lord thinks it better rather to bring order out of these spiritual disorders then not to suffer those disorders to be at all It s easier for vain man to wrangle with the Almighty and to set up in his pride an Anti-Providence in the world then rightly to discern what God is a doing we neglect