name otherwise he unworthily usurpeth to be just merciful temperate humble meek patient charitable to get the habits and to exercise the acts of these and all other holy graces and vertues Nay more the Gospel imposeth upon us some moral strictness which the Stoicks themselves or whoever else were the most rigid Masters of morality never so much as thought of Nay yet more it exalteth the Moral Law of God himself given by Moses to the people of Israel to a higher pitch then they at least as they commonly understood the Law took themselves thereby obliged unto That a man should forsake all his dearest friends yea and deny his own dearest self too for Christs sake and yet for Christs sake at the same time love his deadliest enemies That he should take up his Cross and if need were lay down his life not only for his great master but even for the meanest of his fellow-servants too That he should exult with joy and abound in hope in the midst of tribulations of persecutions of death it self Surely the Mystery that driveth at all this must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the highest degree the great mystery of godliness That for the scope 27. Look now secondly at the parts and parcels the several pieces as it were whereof this mystery is made up those mentioned in this verse and the rest and you shall finde that from each of them severally but how much more then from them altogether joyntly may be deduced sundry strong motives and perswasives unto Godliness Take the material parts of this Mystery the Incarnation Nativity Circumcision Baptisme Temptation Preaching Life Death Buriall Resurrection Ascension Intercession and Second coming of Christ. Or take if I may so call them the formal parts thereof our eternal Election before the world was our Vocation by the preaching of the Gospel our Iustification by Faith in the merits of Christ our Sanctification by the Spirit of grace the stedfast promises we have and hopes of future Glory and the rest It would be too long to vouch texts for each particular but this I say of them all in general there is not one linke in either of those two golden chains which doth not straightly tye up our hands tongues and hearts from doing evil draw us up effectually unto God and Christ and strongly oblige us to shew forth the power of his grace upon our soules by expressing the power of Godliness in our lives and conversations That for the Parts 28. Thirdly Christian Religion may be called the mystery of Godliness in regard of its Conservation because Godliness is the best preserver of Christianity Rootes and Fruits and Herbs which let alone and left to themselves would soon corrupt and putrifie may being well condited with sugar by a skilful Confectioner be preserved to continue for many years and be serviceable all the while So the best and surest means to preserve Christianity in its proper integrity and power from corrupting into Atheisme or Heresie is to season it well with Grace as we do fresh meats with salt to keep them sweet and to be sure to keep the Conscience upright Holding the mysteries of Faith in a pure Conscience saith our Apostle a little after at ver 9. of this Chapter and in the first Chapter of this Epistle ver 19. Holding faith and a good Conscience which later some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack Apostacy from the faith springeth most an end from Apostacy in manners And he that hath but a very little care how he liveth can have no very fast hold of what he beleeveth For when men grow once regardless of their Consciences good affections will soon languish and then will noysome lusts gather strength and cast up mud into the soule that the judgement cannot run clear Seldome is the head right where the heart is amiss A rotten heart will be ever and anon sending up evil thoughts into the minde as marish and fenny grounds do foggy mists into the aire that both darken and corrupt it As a mans tast when some malignant humour affecteth the organ savoureth nothing aright but deemeth sweet things bitter and sowre things pleasant So where avarice ambition malice voluptuousness vain-glory sedition or any other dominering lust hath made it self master of the heart it will so blinde and corrupt the judgement that it shall not be able to discern at any certainty good from evil or truth from falshood Wholsome therefore is S. Peters advice to add unto Faith Vertue Vertue will not only keep it in life but at such a height of vigour also that it shall not easily either degenerate into Heresie or languish into Atheisme 29. We see now 3. Reasons for which the doctrine of Christianity may be called The mystery of Godliness because it first exacteth Godliness and secondly exciteth unto Godliness and is thirdly best preserved by Godliness From these premises I shall desire for our neerer instruction to infer but two things only the one for the triall of Doctrines the other for the bettering of our lives For the first S. Iohn would not have us over forward to beleeve every spirit Every spirit doth he say Truly it is impossible we should unles we should beleeve flat contradictions Whilest one Spirit saith It is another spirit saith It is not can a man beleeve the one and not disbeleeve the other if he hear both Beleeve not every spirit then is as much in S. Iohns meaning as if he had said Be not too hasty to beleeve any spirit especially where there appeareth some just cause of suspicion but try it first whether it be a true spirit or a false Even as S. Paul biddeth us prove all things that having so done we may hold fast what upon triall proveth good and let the rest goe 30. Now holy Scripture is certainly that Lapis Lydius that Test whereby this trial is to be made Ad legem ad testimonium when we have wrangled as long as we can hitherto we must come at last But sith all Sectaries pretend to Scripture Papists Anabaptists Disciplinarians All yea the Divel himself can vouch Text to drive on a Temptation It were good therefore we knew how to make right application of Scripture for the Trial of Doctrines that we do not mistake a false one for a true one Many profitable Rules for this purpose our Apostle affordeth us in sundry places One very good one we may gather from the words immediately before the Text wherein the Church of God is said to be the pillar and ground of truth The collection thence is obvious that it would very much conduce to the guiding of our judgements aright in the examining of mens doctrines concerning either Faith or Manners wherein the letter of Scripture is obscure or the meaning doubtful to informe our selves as well as we can in credendis what the received sense and in agendis what the constant usage and
from the most regular and concluding discourses that can be tendered to them if they discern any thing therein disagreeing from the dictates of Rome and so are perpetually shut up into a necessity of erring if that Church can erre unlesse they can be wrought off from the belief of that Principle which is not very easily to be done after they have once swallowed it and digested it without the great mercy of God and a huge measure of self-denial Even so have these our Anti-cerâ—monian Brethren framed to themselves a false Principle likewise which holdeth them in Errour and hardeneth them against all impressions or but Offers of Reason to the contrary 8. All Errours Sects and Heresies as they are mixed with some inferiour Truths to make them the more passable to others so do they usually owe their original to some eminent Truths either misunderstood or mis-applied whereby they become the lesse discernable to their own Teachers whence it is that such Teachers both deceive and are deceived To apply this then to the businesse in hand There is a most sound and eminent Truth justly maintained in our own and other Reformed Churches concerning the Perfection and Sufficiency of the holy Scriptures which is to be understood of the revelation of supernatural truths and the substantials of Gods worship and the advancing of moral and civil duties to a more sublime and spiritual height by directing them to a more noble end and exacting performance of them in a holy manner but without any purpose thereby to exclude the belief of what is otherwise reasonable or the practise of what is prudential This Orthodox Truth hath by an unhappy mis-understanding proved that great stone of offence whereat all our late Sectaries have stumbled Upon this foundation as they had layed it began our Anti-ceremonians first to raise their so often-renewed Models of Reformation but they had first trans-formed it into quite another thing by them perhaps mistaken for the same but really as distant from it as Falsehood from Truth to wit this That nothing might lawfully be done or used in the Churches of Christ unless there were either Command or Example for it in the Scriptures Whence they inferred that whatsoever had been otherwise done or used was to be cast out as Popish Antichristian and Superstitions This is that unsound corrupt Principle whereof I spake that root of bitternesse whose stem in processe of time hath brought forth all these numerous branches of Sects and Heresies wherewith this sinful Nation is now so much pestered 9. It is not my purpose nor is this a place for it to make any large discovery of the cause of the mistake the unsoundness of the Tenent it self and how pernicious it is in the Consequents Yet I cannot but humbly and earnestly intreat them for the love of God and the comfort of their own souls as they tender the peace of the Church and the honour of our Religion and in compassion to thousands of their Christian brethren who are otherwise in great danger to be either misled or scandalized that they would think it possible for themselves to be mistaken in their Principle as well as others and possible also for those Principles they rest upon to have some frailties and infirmities in them though not hitherto by them adverted because never suspected That therefore they would not hasten to their Conclusion before they are well assured of the Premises nor so freely bestow the name of Popish and Superstitious upon the opinions or actions of their Brethren as they have used to do before they have first and throughly examined the solidity of their own grounds finally and in order thereunto That they would not therefore despise the offer of these few things ensuing to their consideration because tendered by one that standeth better affected to their Persons then Opinions 10. And first I beseech them to consider how unluckily they have at once both straitned too much and yet too much widened that which they would have to be the adequate Rule of warrantable actions by leaving out Prudence and taking in Example Nor doth it sound well that the Examples of Men though never so godly should as to the effect of warranting our actions stand in so near equipage with the commands of God as they are here placed joyntly together without any character of difference so much as in degree But the superadding of Examples to Commands in such manner as in this Assertion is done either signifieth nothing or overthroweth all the rest which is so evident that I wonder how it could escape their own observation For that Example which is by them supposed sufficient for our warranty was it self either warranted by some command or former Example or it was not If it were then the adding of it clearly signifieth nothing for then that warrant we have by it proceedeth not from it but from that which warranted it If it were not then was it done meerly upon the dictates of Prudence and Reason and then if we be sufficiently warranted by that Example as is still by them supposed to act after it we are also sufficiently thereby warranted to act upon the meer dictates of Prudence Reason without the necessity of any other either Command or Example for so doing What is the proper use that ought to be made of Examples is touched upon a little in the Eighth Sermon Ad Aulam towards the later end but is very needful to be better understood then it is considering the ill use that hath been made of Scripture Examples both in former and much more in these our later times 11. Secondly I beseech them to consider whereof also I have given some touch more then once in the ensuing Sermons what scandal is given and what advantage to the Anabaptists Familists Quakers and the whole crew of our modern Sectaries by what other name or title soever they are called or distinguished When this gap was once opened What command have you in Scripture or what Example for this or that Unà Eurúsque Notúsque it was like the opening of Pandora's Box or the Trojane Horse As if all had been let loose swarms of Sectaries of all sorts broke in and as the Frogs and Locusts in Egypt overspread the face of the Land Not so only but as often it happeneth these yong Striplings soon out-stript their Leaders and that upon their own ground leaving those many Parasangs behinde them who had first shewed them the way and made entrance for them For as those said to others What Command or Example have you for kneeling at the Communion for wearing a Surplice c for Lord Bishops for a penned Liturgy for keeping Holy-dayes c. and there stopt So these to them Where are your Lay-Presbyters your Classis c. to be found in Scripture Where your Steeple-houses your National Church your Tithes and Mortuaries your Infant-sprinklings Nay where your Meeter-Psalms your two Sacraments your observing a weekly
it nor benefit to them from it but yet by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God who most wisely and powerfully ordered all those various and vitious motions of the creature for the effectuating of his own most glorious and gracious purposes That is one Reason 10. Secondly we use to call all such things Mysteries as cannot possibly come to our knowledge unless they be some way or other revealed unto us whether they have or have not otherwise any great difficulty in them Nebuchadnezzars dream is so called a Mystery Dan. 2. And S. Paul in one place speaking of the conversion of the Iews calleth it a Mystery I would not Brethren that you should be ignorant of this Mystery Rom. 11. and in another place speaking of the change of those that should be found alive at Christs second coming calleth that a Mystery too Behold I shew you a Mystery we shall not all dye c. 1 Cor. 15. In this notion also is the Gospel a Mystery it being utterly impossible that any wit of man by the light of Nature or strength of humane discourse should have been able to have found out that way which Almighty God hath appointed for our salvation if it had not pleased him to have made it known to the world by supernatural revelation The wisest Philosophers and learnedst Rabbies nor did nor could ever have dreamt of any such thing till God revealed it to his Church by his Prophets and Apostles This mystery was hid from ages and from generations nor did any of the Princes of this world know it in any of those ages or generations as it is now made manifest to us since God revealed it to us by his spirit as our Apostle elsewhere speaketh 11. The Philosophers indeed saw a little dimly some of those truths that are more cleerly revealed to us in the Scriptures They found in all men a great proclivity to Evil and an indisposition to Good but knew nothing at all either of the true Causes or of the right remedies thereof Some apprehensions also they had of a Deity of the Creation of the world of a divine providence of the immortality of the soule of a final retribution to be awarded to all men by a divine justice according to the merit of their works and some other truths But those more high and mysterious points especially those two that of the Trinity of persons in the Godhead and that of the Incarnation of the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers use to call them together with those appendices of the later the Redemption of the world the Iustification of a sinner the Resurrection of the body and the beatifical Vision of God and Christ in the kingdom of Heaven not the least thought of any of these deep things of God ever came within them God not having revealed the same unto them 12. It is no thanks then to us that very children among us do believe and confess these high mysterious points whereof Plato and Aristotle and all the other grand Sophies among them were ignorant since we owe our whole knowledg herein not to our own natural sagacity or industry wherein they were beyond most of us but to divine and supernatural revelation For flesh and bloud hath not revealed them unto us but our Father which is in heaven We see what they saw not not because our eyes are better then theirs but because God hath vouchsafed to us a better light then he did to them Which being an act of special grace ought therefore to be acknowledged with special thankfulness Our Saviour hath given us the example I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Mat. 11.25 13. Truly much cause we have to bless the holy Name of God that he hath given us to be born of Christian parents and to be bred up in the bosome of the Christian Church where we have been initiated into these sacred mysteries being catechised and instructed in the doctrine of the Gospel out of the holy Scriptures even from our very childhood as Timothy was But we are wretchedly unthankful to so good a God and extremely unworthy of so great a blessing if we murmur against our Governours and clamour against the Times because every thing is not point-vise just as we would have it or as we have fancied to our selves it should be Whereas were our hearts truly thankful although things should be really and in truth even ten times worse then now they are but in their conceit only yet so long as we may enjoy the Gospel in any though never so scant a measure and with any though never so hard conditions we should account it a benefit and mercy invaluable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St Paul esteemed it the very riches of the grace of God for he writeth According to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdome and prudence having made known to us the mysterie of his will Eph. 1. If he had not made it known to us we had never known it And that is the Second Reason why a Mystery 14. There is yet a Third even because we are not able perfectly to comprehend it now it is revealed And this Reason will fetch in the Quantum too For herein especially it is that this mysterie doth so far transcend all other mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great marvellous great Mysterie In the search whereof Reason finding it self at a loss is forced to give it over in the plain field and to cry out O altitudo as being unable to reach the unfathomed depth thereof We believe and know and that with fulness of assurance that all these things are so as they are revealed in the holy Scriptures because the mouth of God who is Truth it self and cannot lie hath spoken them and our own Reason upon this ground teacheth us to submit our selves and it to the obedience of Faith for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so it is But then for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nicodemus his question How can these things be it is no more possible for our weak understandings to comprehend that then it is for the eyes of bats or owles to look stedfastly upon the body of the Sun when he shineth forth in his greatest strength The very Angels those holy and heavenly spirits have a desire saith S. Peter it is but a desire not any perfect ability and that but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither to peep a little into those incomprehensible mysteries and then cover their faces with their wings and peep again and cover again as being not able to endure the fulness of that glorious lustre that shineth therein 15. God hath revealed himself and his good pleasure towards us in his holy
that fault when you finde another of those holy Angels so very shy in a case of that nature Who when Iohn fell at his feet with the intent to worship him timely and severely forbad him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see thou do it not at any hand I am but thy fellow-servant that honour belongeth to our Master onely and not to me worship God And how did Paul and Barnabas bestir themselves at Lystra when the people began to deifie them and were preparing Oxen and garlands to sacrifice to them As soon as ever they heard of it in token of grief and detestation they rent their clothes and in all haste ran in among the people crying out Sirs what do you mean Why do you thus Mistake not your selves nor us Neither are we Iupiter and Mercury as you suppose neither if we were are Iupiter and Mercury Gods But we men subject to like passions both of sin and misery with you and they but Idols and Vanity 18. There is yet a fourth thing whereof I cannot but intreat you to be exceeding wary above all the rest Not that it is worse nor perhaps simply so ill as some of those afore-named but that it is in some respects more dangerous as being for the most part less suspected then they and not altogether so easie to be discerned as they And that is this That we beware by all means we do not indeed manage our own quarrels whilest we pretend to stand for the glory of God Is it not enough for us to doat upon our own wilde fancies as Pigmalion did upon the image himself had carved Enough when we have embraced some fond conceipt upon weak grounds through ignorance or prejudice to contend with some acrimony for it Enough having perhaps over-shot our selves in some speech or action rashly to set our selves to maintain it for our credits sake when our hearts can tell us all was not right but we must needs draw in God and make him a party in the business as if the cause were his as if in all we had said or done we had sought nothing more then him and his glory nothing less then our selves and our own interest Alas what a pity it is nay what a shame that Conscience Religion the honour of God and the vindicating of his glory should be made a stale to disloialty sacriledge sedition faction or private revenge Yet so it is daily and so it ever was and so it ever will be more or less whilest the World standeth In nomine domini you know the old saying and what a world of errours and mischiefs men have been led into under that notion Those words are used pro formâ and set in the beginning of the Instrument when all that followeth after in the whole writing contain nothing but our own wills Time was when they that killed the Apostles thought they did God a piece of good service in it and when our Apostle before his conversion made havock of the Church it was the zeal of Gods glory that so bemadded him Concerning zeal persecuting the Church And neither of these I take it a pretended zeal but true and real that is to say not counterfeit though erroneous 19. But as in all Monopolies there is a pretension of some common good held forth to make them passable when as in most of them it may be there is no good at all intended to the publick but private lucre onely or at the best together with some little good to the publick such an apparance withal of private interest over-ballancing it as that wise men justly fear they will prove rather mischievous then beneficial taken in the whole lump So doubtless many times zeal of Gods glory is unconscionably pretended where either it is not at all but in shew or at leastwise mingled with such a strong infusion of corrupt partiality and self-seeking as sowreth it extremely and rendreth it very inexcusable How did the Pharisees and other Iews juggle with the poor man that had been born blind Ioh. 9. seeking to worke upon him with fair words and pretences Give God the praise c. when at the same instant they did most wickedly endeavour to obscure the glory of that miraculous cure which Christ had wrought upon him in giving him his sight 20. It were no hard matter if the time would suffer or indeed if the times would suffer to set before you variety of instances even unto satiety But I shall only give you a taste in two both concerning matters Ecclesiastical the one in point of Government the other of Worship For Church-Government who knoweth not on the one side how in some former ages one man taking the advantage of every opportunity whereof the ambitions and factions of Princes and Bishops in every age afforded good store to lift up himself still higher and higher hath perked himself up at length in the Temple of God there bearing himself as God or a vice-god at least stretching his Diocess over the whole world and challenging a Monarchical superintendency over the universal Church of Christ as Oecumenical Pastour or Christs Vicar-general upon earth And who seeth not on the other side how busie some spirits have been in this last age and a very little before to draw all down to such a Democratical parity for such indeed it is and not Aristocratical as they would fain have the world believe it to be as was never practised nor for any thing appeareth in the ancient histories and monuments of the Church ever so much as heard of in any setled Church in Asia Europe or Africa for fifteen hundred years together Both sides pretend from Scripture and for the glory of God both and that with equal confidence and for ought I know upon equal grounds that is to speak plain no grounds at all for either For no man yet on either side hath been able to make it sufficiently appear from clear evidence of Scripture or Reason that it is the pleasure of God to be glorified by either of those new devises 21. Likewise in point of publick worship How just the blame is on either side I dispute not that is not now the business But some have been blamed for bringing into the Church new forms and Ceremonies or which is all one in the apprehensions of men that consider not much and so is liable to the same censure for reviving old ones but long dis-used and forgotten and other-some have been blamed for seeking to strip her both of old and new and to leave her starke naked of all her ornaments and outward formalities In this case also as in the former the glory of God is pretended on both sides Those thinking their way maketh most for the honour of God as adding decency and solemnity to his service and these theirs as better suiting with the simplicity of the Gospell 22. Methinks dust and ashes that we are we should tremble to make so bold with
what will do us good and how much and when and how long to continue c. and proceedeth in every respect thereafter 25. Thirdly whereas our earthly parents have a limited and that a very narrow power and cannot therefore do their children the good they would our heavenly Fathers power is as his wisdom infinite Not limited by any thing but his own blessed will quicquid voluit fecit as for our God he is in heaven he hath done whatsoever pleased him Not hindred by any resistance or retarded by any impediments quis restitit Who hath resisted his will Rom. 9. Not disabled by any casualties occurrences or straitness of time adjutor in opportunitatibus Psal. 9. Even a refuge in due time of trouble That is his due time commonly dominus in monte when it seemeth too late to us and when things are grown in the eye of reason almost desperate and remediless The most proper time for him to lay to his hand is when to our apprehensions his law is even quite destroyed when men have fallen upon most cursed designes trampled all lawes of God and men under their feet and prospered And here indeed is the right tryal of our faith and whether we be the true children of faithful Abraham if we can hope beyond and against hope That is if we can rest our faith intirely upon the power and providence of God not staggering through unbelief at any promise seem it never so unlikely and continue stedfast in our holy obedience to the will of God not staggering through disobedience at any command seem it never so unreasonable Abraham did both and out of this reason as the Apostle rendereth it Rom. 4. because he was firmly grounded in this perswasion of the power of God that what he had promised he was able also to perform 26. The last attribute proposed is Gods Eternity Our Fathers and Mothers where are they and do Prophets or Princes or any sort of men live for ever They all pass like a shadow wither as grass and are driven away as the Grashopper When they must go they cannot help themselves and when they are gone they cannot help us They are mortal men he the immortal God they are dying men he the living God Life is one of his prerogatives Royall All other things that partake of life in any degree have but a derived life and â—uch as either shall have an end or at least had a beginning God alone hath life in and of himself and his life alone is measured not by Time but Eternity He is therefore said to inhabit Eternity He lifteth up his hand when he sweareth by himself having no greater to swear by and saith Behold I live for ever His remembrance endureth throughout all generations and his years fail not 27. And therefore when our Fathers and Mothers and friends forsake us because either their Love faileth or their skil faileth or their power faileth or their life faileth our heavenly Father who wanteth neither love nor wisdome nor power nor life but is infinite in all we may rest assured is every way accomplished to succour us at all assayes and to take us up And that he will engage all these for our relief if we will but cast our selves wholy upon him we have his gracious promise in the last place to fill up the measure of our assurance Whereby he hath obliged himself not only to give us all spiritual graces and comforts necessary for the everlasting salvation of our souls but also to provide and furnish us with all the good things and to preserve deliver us from all the evils of this life so far as in his excellent wisdom he shall see it conducing to his glory the weal of his Church and the salvation of his chosen 28. The particular promises are many and lie scattered every in the holy Scriptures whence every man may gather them for his own use as his occasions require I shall mention but that one general Promise which though delivered first to Iosua in particular yet was afterwards applied to other persons also and alledged Heb. 13. as a ground of such general duties as are common to all Christians and fitteth as properly as any other to the present argument namely this I will not fail thee nor forsake thee He promiseth that whosoever else faileth us yet he will not all one with what is here presumed in the Text by David And having promised it we were very Infidels if we should doubt whether he will perform it or no. It were to question his wisdom as if he had not considered what he promised when he passed his word to question his Love as if he would not be as good as his word to question his Power as if he could not be as big as his word 29. Having therefore such Promises dearly beloved it behoveth us to be very wary when troubles lie long and heavy upon us that we complain not too distrustfully as if God had quite forsaken us And the rather because it is an infirmity incident to very good men but yet an infirmity and so confest by them Hath God forgotten to be gracious c. Davids complaint in Psalm 77. But presently acknowledging it an Errour he correcteth himself for it in the immediate following words And I said it is mine infirmity We by his example early to silence all tumultuous thoughts and secret murmurings of our evil hearts which are so ready to charge God foolishly and to break out into unseasonable complaints against his most wise and holy dispensations and that by meditating effectually upon the Attributes and Promises aforesaid Who so confidently professeth himself to trust in God as almost all do and yet repiningly complaineth as if God had forsaken him as very many do either maketh God a liar or bewrayeth himself in some degree an Hypocrite He maketh God a liar if he say God hath forsaken him when he hath not and he bewrayeth some Hypocrisy in himself if he say he puteth his trust in God when he doth not 30. And as it becometh us not to be too querulous for the present so neither secondly to be too solicitous for the future I forbid not to any but require rather in every man a moderate provident care for the getting keeping and disposing of the things of this life in an industrious and conscionable use of lawful means still leaving the success intirely to the good pleasure of our heavenly father But sure did we firmely beleeve that his care over us is no whit lesser but rather infinitely greater then that of our earthly Parents we would not suffer our selves to be disquieted with perplexed thoughts nor our spirits to be vexed with distrustfull anxieties about the future successe of our affairs Children whilest they are in their fathers house and at their finding use not to trouble themselves with such thoughts as these What