Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	let_v	lord_n	magnify_v	2,538	5	10.8447	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57597	Shlohavot, or, The burning of London in the year 1666 commemorated and improved in a CX discourses, meditations, and contemplations, divided into four parts treating of I. The sins, or spiritual causes procuring that judgment, II. The natural causes of fire, morally applied, III. The most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire, IV. Councels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Preliminary discourses.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Physical contemplations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Sixty one meditations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Twenty seven meditations.	1667 (1667)	Wing R1877; Wing R1882_PARTIAL; Wing R1884_PARTIAL; ESTC R21820	301,379	534

needs be the happier time of the two One was a time of provoking his adversarie the other a time of agreeing with his adversarie whilst he is yet in the way Matth. 5.25 or of kissing the Son lest his wrath be kindled and he should perish in the mid-way When thou shalt begin to take acquaintance with thy closet with thy Bible with thy own heart with the duties of meditation prayer self-examination contemplation of heavenly things to which thou hast forme●ly been a stranger thou wilt confess thou didst but then begin to live and that all thy time before thou were but like a dead body assumed and carried about by an evil spirit wert altogether like the voluptuous widdow of whom the Apostle saith that she is dead whilst she lives I know but one sort of men that may reasonably look upon life to be less desireable as to them than death and that may justly reckon it a greater priviledge to die presently than to live any longer and they are those that can say with Paul 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God eternal in the Heavens Such only may with good reason have mortem in desiderio that is long to be dissolved But yet they also must have vitam in patientiâ that is be content to live though in the midst of trouble But alas how few of these are there in the Christian world how rarely doth this flower of assurance grow even in the garden of the Church yea and amongst those that are no weeds themselves Then bless the Lord O my soul and let all that is within me bless his holy name yea let others praise the Lord with me and let us magnifie his name together that we are yet alive though haply stript of many mercies and comforts of life which we have formerly enjoyed O Life thou art sweet though full of care and feare and hardship and trouble on ever side because thou art a day of grace a time of making our peace with God and getting the assurances of his love Art thou yet dead in sins and trespasses go to Jesus Christ for soulquicknings and thou maist come to live spiritually ere thou die temporally and be secured withall from dying eternally Hath God hid his face from thee hitherto take a right course and yet before thou diest maiest thou see his face with joy Hath he concealed himself from thee hitherto and spoken roughly to thee as Joseph to his brethren when he called them Spies yet as he at last said to them I am your brother Joseph so may God to us I am your father I am he that blotteth out your sins for mine own names sake though thou hast all this while sate in darkness and as it were in the region of death yet may the Lord be hence-forward a light to thee Some render those words Deut. 34.5 Moses died upon the mouth of God as one descants God did as it were kiss him into heaven so may he do by thee when thou commest to die Maiest thou not yet hear him saying to thee as to his Church Isa 54.11 Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempests and not comforted I will lay thy stones with fair colours and thy foundation with Saphires Lord thou knowest how to make me more thankful for life without health wealth ease honour liberty friends than ever I was for life in conjunction with all of these Cause me to improve life to those ends for which thou hast given it and give me a blessed fruit of that improvement then shall I casily acknowledge that meerly to live with such a heart and for such a purpose is more valuable than without this to live and swim in all the profits pleasures and honours of this world DISCOURSE IX Of the comfort that may be received by doing good more than ever A Man may do more good at a time when he receives less No man ever received less good from the world or more evil than Christ did yet no man ever did more good in it nor yet so much He went about doing good Acts 10.38 yea and it was meat and drink to him John 4.34 that is it was matter of great delight and comfort to him There is a real pleasure in doing as well as receiving good Psal 119.165 Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them It is surely a peace which passeth all understanding that can guard the heart and mind against all that might otherwise offend David had said but just before Seven times a day do I praise thee which shews how well he imployed himself and then he presently adds Great peace have they that love thy Law I have pitched upon this consideration because there are some who since the Fire do even despaire of ever receiving so much good in and from the world as they have formerly done from their trades because they are lessned their estates because they are impaired their friends because they are impoverished Now to such it may be a great relief to think they may receive as much comfort by doing as ever they have formerly done by receiving good yea and they may do as much good as ever they did I do not say as ever they could when yet they receive nothing like so much Some Stars receive less light from the Sun which yet give more light to the world some smaller lights are greater luminaries so may the world be better by us and for us than it had wont to be when yet it was never so bad that is so unkind and so unpleasant to us and so straight-handed as now it is There are more waies of doing good than with a mans purse onely though that is one way in which all must do good that have it Men may do good with their heads hearts tongues pens lives by their prayers parts graces precepts examples most men have one talent or other wherewith to do good though many have no hearts to use their talents though they be many and great Men of great estates do not alwaies keep the best houses or give the most relief to their poor neighbours neither are the ablest men in any kinde alwaies the most useful and serviceable to the publick Some persons as able it may be as those that write Volumes have never once appeared in print yea some of meaner gifts have furnished the world with many useful Treatises which shews that they who have received less may do more for God more for themselves more for the good of the Church and of the world than those who have received a great deal more who it may be are either over idle or over-bashful or too much awed by that Proverb That he that comes in print lies down and suffers every one that will to have a blow at him being over-tender of their reputations like the delicate woman that for delicacie will not set the sole of her foot to

morning and evening be as it were your medicinal times in which to give them something for their souls health next their heart in a morning next their rest at night Be ever and anon physicking them for wormes that is take heed of suffering them to be humoursome troublesome and hard to please Make them pay respect to your persons that they may reverence your counsel Give them those representations of God as may cause them as well to thirst after him to love and delight in him as to fear and stand in awe of him and those characters of Religion as may cause them to look upon all its ways as pleasantness all its paths as peace as an easie Yoak and a light burthen Teach them to be humble and then God will teach them Psal 25.9 Sin as little as may be for their sakes as well as your own lest God should lay up your iniquity for your children as it is Job 11.19 And whereas in many things we do all offend begge we earnestly of God that our Children may fare the better for our prayers and not the worse for our sins And now Lord that I have been writing what Parents should do for their Children's souls I dare not say with that young man in the Gospel all these things have I done but only that all these things I desire to do for and in reference to my Children by the assistance of thy grace As Peter said to Christ Lord thou knowest I love thee so can I appeale and say Lord thou knowest I love my Children's souls and am more transported with desires it might be well with them than that they might prosper upon all other accounts The only riches that I insist upon for them and Lord turn not away that prayer of thy servant which comes swiming to thee in melting teares and may it also in the blood of thy Son I say Lord the only riches I insist upon for my children whateser others do for theirs is that they may be rich in faith and heires of the Kigndome which thou hast promised to them that love thee James 2.5 DISCOURSE XIII Of that comfort under trouble which may be drawn from the consideration of Gods nature I Honour the wisdome of David who when God gave him his election of one evil out of three which he would made choice of that which might seem to come more immediately from God viz. the Plague saying Let us fal now into the hand of the Lord 2 Sam. 24.15 and let me not fall into the hand of Man and the reason he gives is because his that is Gods mercies are great or many It is a great relief in and under troubles to look upon our selves as in Gods hands and upon the nature of that God in whose hands we are as far better than is the nature of any even the best natured of men They misconstrue David that think he intimates as if men were not alwaies in the hands of God in every kind of affliction that befalls them be it sword or famine by siege for all he meaneth is that as to some troubles we do not fall into the hand of men but of God as namely under the plague which is an Arrow shot from God's bow not from Man's Men are called God's hand Psal 17.14 From Men which are thy hand so that when under the rage of men we are in the hand of God but we may be in the hand of God and not of men By the way what furious creatures are wicked men that David should be more afraid of Gods punishing him by their hand than by plague or famine That under all our troubles we are in Gods hand is clear Be also convinced that that is to be in a good hand that you are in a good hand when in the hand of God and that will comfort you exceedingly If the nature and disposition of God be very good transcendently good that is kind and gracious and mercifull as the scripture tells us in sundry places it is Exod. 34.6 Nehem. 9.17 31. Jer. 3.12 Joel 2.13 With an hundred more in the old Testament besides the new then must we needs be in a good hand when we are in Gods hand Is a Childe safe in the hand of his tender mother even when she hath a Rod in her other hand and are not Gods Children well in the hand of their heavenly Father who hath said to his Church though a Mother may forget her Childe yet will not I forget thee Isa 49.15 I have graven thee upon the palmes of my hands c. Methinks that heathen Poet spake divinely who speaking of the love of God to man understand him but of good men if of a love of complacency but of others also if of a love of benevolence Charior est illis homo quam sibi Man is more dear to them meaning to the Gods which plural number is the only thing in that saying that discovers the Author to have been a heathen and not an eminent Christian than he is to himself or God hath more love for men than they have for themselves That text Heb. 10.31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God if rightly understood no wayes contradicteth what I have said for it is meant of so falling into the hands of God as they must do who have trodden under foot the Son of God counted his blood an unholy thing and done despight to the spirit of Grace vers 29. for that is to fall not under the meer correcting but the revenging and consuming hand of God as he hath said vengeance is his vers 30. he will pour out fiery indignation upon the adversaries v. 27. meaning such Apostates as after illumination turn enemies to Christ and his truth But what is that to others It is ill for the rejecters and opposers of Christ to fall into the hand of God God out of Christ especially to them that set themselves against Christ is wrath But it is terrible But it is well for the accepters and receivers of Christ to fall into Gods hand for God in and thorough Christ is unspeakably gracious He is partly an Infidel that would have more assurance of the sweet nature and disposition of God than Scripture and experience but if the weakness of such men may be condiscended to I can presently call in sound reason for a witness Who shed abroad all that love and kindness and compassion and tenderness in the hearts of men and women fathers and mothers that is there found who taught men to know that love and pitty and mercy are real excellencies and perfections but hatred and cruelty are odious and detestable things the fruits of sin and weakness that what we call good nature doth as much excell that we call ill nature as light doth excell darkness who hath given us to understand that to do good and to show mercy are sacrifices acceptable to God but fury and

have since let them for moderate Rents such are honest gainers Others have let their houses at most excessive Rates and such have loaded themselves with dishonest gain But be their gains one way or another I think no man ought for the present to pocket the money which he hath clearly gotten by the fire if it be so they can spare it David would not drink of the waters of Bethlehem which were brought to him because as he said They were the price of Blood meaning his Souldiers had ventured their lives for it What men have gotten by this fire is little lesse than the price of Blood considering how many were impoverished that a few might be inriched or rather that the inriching of but a very few is by the undoing of many thousands Men may look upon their gains by this fire as Deodates Let as many as are able be their own Almoners and give it back to God Is it not a Sabbatical year in a doleful sense for that the poor City now injoyeth it's Sabbath and in a Sabbatical year that did bear a better interpretation the rich were not suffered to reap but were to leave the Crop to the poor as appeareth by comparing Exod. 23.11 with Levit. 25.5 If men who have only saved what they had before ought to contribute to them that have lost how much more ought they who have received an Addition by this very means To Build upon the Ruines of others is one of the worst Foundations that can be Let it never be said The fire hath made you rich whilst such multitudes continue poor miserably poor whom meerly the fire hath made so We use to say Men have gotten those things out of the fire which they came hardly by But what men got by or out of the late fire was easily come by well may it go leightly for it leightly came yet neither doth that go leightly which goes to the use of Charity When I consider how this fire which hath ruined many hath raised some it brings to mind what is said Luke 1.52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away How strangely and by seeming contraries doth the providence of God bring things to pass that when a dismall fire hapned some men should be made by it So a Prison made way for Joseph's preferment and Onesimus his running away from his Master for his returning to God and to himself and a better Servant to his Master than ever And Estate cast upon men by the desolating Fire sounds like such a Riddle as that of Sampson Out of the eater came meat and out the strong came sweetness Is it not as a Honey-comb found in the Carcase of a Lion You whom God by this fire hath unexpectedly enabled more than ever to eat the Fat and drink the Sweet you know what I allude to see that you send portion to them for whom nothing is provided MEDITATION XXVII Upon the Inducements unto re-building of London and some wayes of promoting it THat London should be re-built is so much the concern of England both in point of Honour and of Trade as hardly any thing can be more Whilst that lieth in the dust our Glory lieth with it Our Enemies rejoice to see it where it is but should we let it lie there long Oh! how would they scorn us for it and conclude it were because we had not wherewithall to build it up again They know as well as we that there is no part of England situate so commodiously for Trade as London is which name is said to signifie in the Language of the Britains it's first Inhabitants Shipton or a Town of Ships in regard that the famous River which runs by the side of it is able to entertain the greatest Ships that can ride upon the Sea which thing hath made it so famous a Mart those Ships bringing in all the rich commodities the world can afford Hence London for so many Ages past hath held it's Primacy over all other parts of England and none hath been thought fit to succeed it in that dignity though the shifting of Trade from one City to another and an alternate Superlativeness hath been frequent in other parts of the world where one place hath been as commodious as another But London never had rival that did or could pretend it's self as fit to make the great Emporium and Metropolis of England as was it's self The River of Thames made it so at first and that under God will and must make it so again It perished by fire and must be saved by water for that if any thing will make it once again what it was before as Job saith of a Tree onely the Root whereof is left in the ground that thorough the scent of water it will sprout again How venerable is London were it but for its Antiquity of which Ammianus Marcellinus reports that it was called an ancient City in his time which was above twelve hundreds years ago and Cornelius Tacitus seems to do the like three hundred years before him telling us that for multitudes of Merchants and Commerce London was very renowned fifteen hundred years ago nor can we suppose it to have presently arrived at that perfection Who would not assist the building of another City in that place hoping it may continue as many Ages as the other did and longer too if God be pleased to prevent the like disaster I confess I love not to hear men boast at such a time as this what they will do or what shall be done as to the building of London more glorious than ever The Inhabitants of Samaria are blamed for saying The Bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen Stones the Sycamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars We are but putting on our harness as to re-building let us not boast as if we were putting of it off This is not a time in which to say much though it becomes us to do all we can If we may see but such another City it will be a great mercy but one more glorious than that we may scarce expect till we see it Alas how many difficulties is that work clogg'd with How scarce and dear are all materials How poor are many that desire to build How hard and almost impossible will it be to satisfie the Interest of all proprietors Amongst all the Models that are presented for that purpose How hard will it be to know how to pitch upon that which may be most convenient If we build every where as before it will be incommodious for Passage dangerous for Fire if by a new Platform it is hard not to be injuxious to multitudes of People whose Houses stood inconveniently as to the Publick Lord Give our Senators double and treble wisdom that they may be satisfactory-Repairers of so great breaches But

Lord did rain upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven Those places were destroyed by a meer miracle which was no small aggravation of the judgement as it is of mercy when men are saved by miracle but so was not London conceived to have been Nextly the fire upon Sodom and the three other Cities consumed with it destroyed not only a major part of those Cities but the whole But the Beesom of destruction which swept London did not sweep so clean but God hath left some small remnant of City that it might not be like Sodom and like Gomornish Isai 1.9 Thirdly the fire upon Sedom and Gomorrah did consume not only places but persons not only four Cities but the greatest part of their inhabitants Gen. 19.25 But to the praise of distinguishing-mercy be it spoken the inhabitants of London were generally snatcht as fire-brands out of the fire and so was part of their substance Fourthly Sodom and Gomarah are said to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. Which expression so far as it is refer'd to the places themselves doth signifie that they were irrecoverably destroyed by fire so as that they shall eternally lie wast But concerning London we hope and have reason to hope better things and that she may say to her insulting enemies Rejoyce not over me For though I fall yet shall I rise again c. Fifthly As if one destruction had been too little and that by sire too Sodom Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim were destroyed by water also that whole Countrey being turned into a standing stinking Lake which at this day is called the Dead Sea and in the Scripture the salt-sea Gen. 14.3 Though formerly it was even as the garden of God or as the land of Egypt for fruitfulness Gen. 14.10 The Salt-sea it is supposed to be called from the Sulphurous combustions first occasioning it and the Dead-sea because the Charnel-house of so many dead Carcasses then destroyed therein or because it is quickned by no visible motion or because it kills all creatures that come into it Several marks of God's curse it retains to this day Though it be a Sea yet neither can fishes live in it nor ships sail in it neither hath it intercourse with any other seas or communion with the Ocean lest it should infect other waters with its malignity neither doth any healthful thing grow thereon God having blasted it as it were as Christ did the barren fig-tree Solinus calls it a Melancholy Bay which the black-soil thereof being also turned into ashes witnesseth to have been blasted from heaven I read of nothing that appeareth good in about Sodom since its destruction but a certain Apple and that doth but appear so neither for though it appear fair to the eye yet within the rind of it is nothing but an Ember-like Soot which being lightly pressed evaporates into smoak and becomes dust Lastly I might adde that God would not permit Lot and his wife to testifie their respects and compassion towards Sodom when the smoak thereo● went up like a furnace by casting so much as one look back upon it which L●●'s wife presuming to do became a pillar of Salt Genesis 19.26 In all these respects was the destruction of Sodom greater than that of London Yet Who is able to say Their sins were greater all things considered London had wherewithal to make its sins more out of measure sinful than were those of the Sodomites It may be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah at the day of Judgment than for some Londoners though the Judgement upon London at the present be less intolerable of the two Mat. 10.15 For if the mighty works which have been done in London had been done in Sodom possibly it had remained to this day Matt. 11.23 If any should say It is but just that the place where Sodom stood should he turned into a standing-Lake in memorial of the great Idleness of the Inhabitants That it should be turned into a Dead-Sea● so called from its killing all creatures that come near it in remembrance how the Sodomites did or would have corrupted all persons that came near them even the Angels themselves that were L●ts guests That the place where those Cities stood should have no communion with any other place should be an exception from that rule that All Rivers run into the Sea viz. by way of punishment for that unlawful communion which they had wont to have one with another changing the natural use to that which is against nature or that it should be a Dead-Sea because the Inhabitants living in pleasures were dead whilst they live as is said of Widows that so live or that no good thing should grow there because so many good creatures of God had wont to be abused by them one of whose sins was fulness of bread meaning Luxury That the fair Apple which grows there having nothing within it but Soot and ashes was an emblem and signification of their being burnt to ashes for lusting after Beauty I say if any will so discant upon the destruction of Sodom how easie were it to assign as many and as strong Reasons why God might have dealt by London as he dealt with Sodom When Londoners are ready to say No misery like theirs let them think of Sodom and the Inhabitants thereof betwixt whom and themselves not their own merits but Gods great mercy hath made a very wide difference MEDITATION XLVII Of the burning of Troy and the circumstances thereof compared with that of London TIme was when that place which was since called London went by the name of new Troy and as it sometimes bore the same name so they both came to the same end viz. by fire Old Troy was fired not accidentally but wilfully and by Enemies and so some think was New Troy otherwise called London Admit the story of Troy be partly fictitious as things related by Poets are suspected to be yet give me leave to moralize it as followeth Is is reported that Priamus giving leave to his Son Paris to ravish Helena Wife to Menelaus King of Sparta was that which forced the Greeks who burnt Troy to renew their ancient quarrel against it I think there have been sew Tragedies acted in the world but the lust of the flesh hath born a share in and been one great occasion of them I cannot say it was that which did provoke men to burn London if it were done by wilfull ●nstruments but I doubt not but that was one of the sins which did provoke God to suffer that goodly City to be burnt Was not Paris his treacherous slaying of Achilles who was in treaty of Marriage with his sister Polyxena another incentive to the Grecians to destroy Troy The unrighteous shedding of blood is a sin that will as easily kindle a fire as most that can be mentioned The Greeks as is said had it revealed to them that unless they could do

powerfull I poor mean despicable let me forfeit all again yea take thou the forfeiture of all thy spiritual comforts again which yet I would not thou shouldst do for ten thousand Worlds DISCOURSE VIII Of its being a great mercy to most Men that their lives are continued though their livelihoods are greatly impaired I Have not forgotten the words of good Elijah when he fled into the Wilderness for fear of Jezabel who sought his life how he sate him down under a Juniper Tree and requested for himself that he might die and said It is enough now oh Lord take away my life 1 Kings 19.4 Nor yet the words of Job to the same effect Chap. 7.15 My soul chooseth strangling and death rather than life nor yet that peremptory answer of Jonah when God asked him if he did well to be angry for the gourd who told God to his face He did well to be angry even unto death Jonah 4.9 These things are not recorded in honour of any of these three Men but as David speaks of himself I said this is my infirmity so may we say these were their infirmities they were good men but these were bad expressions and are delivered to us not for our imitation but for our warning and caution and as the Apostle speaks in another case 1 Cor. 10.6 These things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted But how incident is it to us to do the same thing even to wish for death when God hath deprived us of many comforts of life which formerly we enjoyed as if it were not worth while to live unless it be in wealth honour and prosperity This is such a pernicious error that I am very zealous to confute it and to establish that useful principle which is contrary to it namely that to escape with our lives is a very great mercy though we have no such comfortable livelihoods as we had wont to have yea though a bare livelihood or meer subsistence be all we have Job saith in one place I am escaped with the skin of my teet Job 19.20 meaning very poor and bare As Deodate parallels it with a proverb some use that such a one hath nothing left him but his teeth Though it may seem a paradox yet it is a very truth that it is a great mercy to most people living under the Gospel to escape viz. death and the grave though it be but with the skin of their teeth that is in as bare a condition as bare can be and live to live though it be uncler poverty disgrace restraint and many evils more Whilst the pride and passion of Men suggest the contrary Nature it self gives them the lie and votes for living when they vote for death as the fable of the Countrey-man doth ingenuously intimate who being weary with his bundle of sticks laid it by sate down and wished for death death over hearing him came and desired to know what he had to say to him Nothing replyed the Country-man but that thou wouldst help me up with my burthen Shewing that he was more willing to take up his burthen again than to lay down his life Why should a Man give all he hath for his life Job 1. if life be nothing worth when all a man hath is gone Were the enjoyment of honour riches pleasure the only or the greatest end of life when those were once taken away it would be scarce worth while to live nay death might be more elegible of the two but seeing the great ends of life are such things as are as much within the reach of those that are poor despised afflicted and that never eat with pleasure as the phrase is Job 20.25 As those who are rich renowned abounding with pleasures whose breasts are full of milk and their bones moistned with marrow who are wholly at ease and quiet as it is expressed Job 21.23 24. I say forasmuch as the great ends of life are as pursuable and as attainable by the former as by the latter of these as well the afflicted as the prosperous ought to look upon the continuation of their lives as a very great mercy Surely the great ends of life are that whilst it is called to day we should mind the things that concern our eternal peace that we should seek after God if haply by seeking after him we may finde him out Acts 17.27 That we should lay up a good foundation for the time to come that we may lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.19 That we should now sowe what we desire hereafter to reape viz. To the spirit that we may of the spirit reape life everlasting Gal. 6.8 that we might fight a good sight finish a good course keep the faith and so become assured that henceforth is laid up for us a crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 These are the things which God did principally aime at in bestowing life upon Men and to which he would have all the good things that Men enjoy subordinated yea and all their evil things made some way or other subservient these are the greatest improvements that can be made of our lives and the best uses we can turn them to therefore these are the great ends of life Had Moses thought otherwise he had not esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt or chosen to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11.25.26 Job could easily have answered that question which himself puts Job 3.20 Wherefore is life given to the bitter in soul which long for death which are glad when they can finde the grave I say he could easily have answered his own question if he had not been in too great a passion for he knew full well that the great ends of life were those that I have mentioned and therefore resolved accordingly that all the dayes of his warfare he would wait till his change should come viz. preparing for it as one that did remember that if a Man die he shall never live again viz. to amend the errors and to supply the defects of his former life Job 14.14 Now what should hinder but that a poor Man may pursue such ends of life as well as one that is rich yea the Scripture speaks as if it were harder for a rich Man of the two Luk● 15.24 when Jesus saw that he was sorrowfull he said How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdome of God It is easier for a Camel to go thorough a Needles eye than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdome of God But if the poor man say whilst I seek the Kingdome of God what shall I do for other things in the mean time Let him take an answer from our Saviours mouth Mat. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdome of God and the righteousness thereof and all other things shall be added unto you

will do more hurt than good They that will be rich be it after great losses fall into temptation and a snare 1 Tim. 6.9 It is not for us to say we will be rich then of all times when God hath said in effect that he will have us poor though wait upon his providence we may and must for a convenient subsistance O Lord thou hast given us fair warning not to set our hearts upon this world or flie too fast after that which flies so fast away from us Sin and the world are two enemies we are not bound to love yea we are bound not to love the first at all the last much Seeing it is the pleasure of God to take the world from us let us take off our hearts from it If God withdraw spiritual mercies it is to make us pursue them more eagerly but if he withdraw temporal it is that we should prosecute them more indifferently It being one of thy designs O Lord in taking part of this world from us to make us mind this less and the next more far be it from us upon that account to minde this world more and that which is to come less or to rob our general calling to recruit our particular when we should rather borrow time from our particular callings which thou hast diminished to add to our general O Lord teach us neither to deal with a slack hand which thou hast said tends to poverty not yet to be so hot upon it as if we were resolved by the fire of our zeal for the world certainly to repair what thou hast impaired by the fire of thine anger but give us rather to study how contentedly and comfortably we may live for less than how we may regain and repossess as much as ever DISCOURSE XXVI Of chusing rather to continue under affliction than to escape by sin IT is the greatest misery that attends a suffering condition that it tempts men to seek a deliverance by sin Agur gives this reason why he deprecated poverty Prov. 30.9 Lest saith he I be poor and steal and take the name of the Lord in vain Even Theft its self is a taking of Gods name in vain as being a practical denying of Gods alsufficience to provide for us without the interposition of our sin and thereunto are men tempted by extream poverty It were easie to recount many indirect courses which are taken by men and women utterly to defend themselves against want Some betake themselves to unlawful trades no less than prostituting their own bodies or the bodies of others therewith to provide for their backs and bellies some have other trades as bad as that if so bad can be others use lawful callings unlawfully vending bad commodities taking unconscionable rates pinching those poor people that work to them Some go the way of open violence as by robbery extortion oppression others the no less dishonest way of secret fraud and cousenage Some are tempted to break not because they cannot pay their debts and live but because they cannot live so as they were wont to do if they should pay their debts and therefore they will rather defraud their Creditors than their Genius Some if God take away from them but some part of what he hath given them resolve to lend him nothing in that sense as they who give to the poor are said to lend to the Lord not but that they are more able than some others who are careful to maintain good works and to be very charitable but because they are not so able as they have been as who should say if God impair his wonted bounty towards them though much of his bounty be still extended towards them howbeit not so much as formerly they will put an imbargo upon all their charity nothing shall 〈◊〉 out to the poor if there come not into them so much as formerly It sounds like taking some kind of revenge upon God himself I wish the words of David Psal 10.9 were not applicable to many where speaking of a wicked man he saith He lieth in wait to catch the poor he doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net Are there not many that work upon the necessities of poor men and grinde their faces when they have them at an advantage These are some of the ill methods and artifices whereby too many attempt to make up their losses But better it were to be alwaies poor than to grow rich by such waies as these Where sin is made use of as the cure of Affliction the remedy is worse than the disease and it is as our Proverb speaks Out of the Frying-pan into the Fire Deliverance obtained by sin is like Jacob's blessing procured by lying which was many waies imbittered to him For none of all the Patriarchs had so many crosses as he Sin is a worse labyrinth than affliction worse to stay in and worse to get out of So David found it when he would have concealed his shame in the matter of Bathshebah by making Uriah drunk that would not do his business neither did he see how he could effect his design without killing him and when that was done he was in a worse case than ever for then watered he his couch with his tears then were his bones broken So Peter thought to have secured himself by denying his master but that denying cost him dearer than it is probable his owning of Christ at that time would have done All that men truly get by sin they may put in their eyes as we say and not see the worse What had become of Job if he had followed the wicked counsel which his wife gave him whereby to put an end to his troubles saying Curse God and die Let those that are tempted to repair their losses by indirect means think but of three Texts The first is Prov. 21.6 The getting of creasure by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death The next is Prov. 22.16 He that oppresseth the poor to encrease his riches shall surely come to want The last is Jer. 17.11 As the Partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his daies and at his end shall be a fool But as for those that chuse rather to suffer than to sin God taketh a particular care of them witness Daniel preserved in the Lions den and the three children in the fiery furnace They that sin under sufferings what do they but take in more lading in a storm whereas the usual and best way is to cast out part of that lading which they had taken in before O Lord I desire to depend upon this that thou knowest how to deliver the righteous out of temptations and that without their unrighteousness Let not the lot of the wicked so long rest upon the backs of thy servants as to make them put forth their hands to wickedness Cause us to