oblig'd to observe The Divine are contain'd in the Ten Commandments and in the New Testament which contains the precepts of Faith Hope and Charity Faith obligeth all the Faithful to believe the doctrines of Christianity as they are sum'd up in our Creed By Hope we trust by the grace of God and our own sincere endeavour to obtain and use all necessary means of Grace and Eternal Life at last all which in this assurance we heartily beg in the Lord's Prayer And Charity requires of us to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves A Christian by these three virtues is made a new and holy creature Faith inlightens and directs his understanding Hope raiseth him up and sets his will at work for God and to God Charity unites him wholly It is also necessary to understand the necessity of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and true Repentance which are all Divine Institutions indispensably necessary to all that will be saved For except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 And Except we eat the flesh and drink the bloud of Christ we have no life in us Joh. 6.53 And as for Repentance it is the only remedy we have for the sins committed after Baptism that by it we may be made clean again 2. Lastly there are also Human Laws Enacted by the Church or the State we live in and them we are also to know and to observe with meekness and humility and for Conscience sake But no man of himself is able to keep all these Laws which God hath bound upon us none can obey them without the true light from above enlighten and guide him as it is written Psal 94.12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastnest O Lord and teachest him in thy Law For ever since sin came into the World men without the light of Faith sit in darkness and the shadow of death and take an account of good and evil not by the measures of truth but by their lusts and depraved passions We must therefore earnestly beg the divine assistance that he that commands what he wills would enable us to do what he hath commanded healing our blindness and impotency destroying self-love and filling our hearts with devout love to him for the end of the Commandment is Charity and he that truly loves God keepe his Commandments without hypocrisie or reservation CHAP. XXXIV The difference betwixt the outward and the inward man 1. OUR Christian hope is not for this World nor for this present time and we were not created to enjoy that Earthly happiness which the World only seeks but God made us for that Eternal Bliss which he hath promised and whose excellency we cannot as yet understand For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither is it entred into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love him We therefore that are called to the possession of that Kingdom which was prepared for us from the beginning of the World ought not to govern our selves only by human reasons and live by natural instincts after the common manner of men who are unacquainted with the ways of Eternity and the motions of Divine Grace But happy are they that wisely dive into the depth of things who live to God and commune with him in their hearts and suffer not their thoughts and affections to range and dwell abroad 2. These men live an inward life they are recollected and dwell at home always disposed to hear Gods voice within them and to understand his secrets Whereas they live an outward life that are most affected with outward things having fair pretences for their worldly-mindedness being greedy of news and curious sights and sensual pleasures walking saith the Apostle Eph. 4.17 in the vanity of their minds alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them For the more a man profits in carnal wisdom the more ignorant he becomes in the things of God As much as we love the creatures as much we lessen our love to the Creator CHAP. XXXV How dangerous it is to be governed by opinion and false apprehension of things 1. HE is a wise man that weighs things justly and then esteems them according to their intrinsick value for every thing in the world hath a twofold aspect or a double face the one natural and real and the other disguised and fallacious The first is what God judgeth and hath revealed it to be and the second depends on mens passions and false opinions Thus for Example the Dignity of a Bishop is in effect and according to Gods appointment a high and Angelic office of such a weight as should make human strength tremble and shrink under it it is a place of great honour but also it requires the greatest labour and diligence to watch for the Souls intrusted with the dignified Prelat who shall give a strict account for them in the day of judgment But in the Worlds account a Bishoprick is only a degree of honour in the Church which promotes the owner of it to riches and greatness and temporal advantages Hence it is that they that rightly apprehend what the office is fear and avoid it and are so far from seeking that they refuse it when offer'd and it is much to be feared that they follow the worlds judgements and seek themselves that seek it and make it their aim and the object of their passionate desires The same may be said of all other dignities and places of trust in Church and State Generally men have a wrong notion of them and understand not their definition and hence the confusions and malvorsations that are in the world that men mistake things and hate truth and will not see nor follow divine light but the darkness of their own perverse hearts 2. Such names are commonly used amongst men as are consecrated by the Bloud of Christ and the highest virtues of his greatest Saints as that some be called Bishops Priests Deacons Monks or Hermits Some Kings Princes and Magistrates and all together Christians but who is there that duly considers the great worth the strength and true significations of those names what virtues what perpetual care what duties they require from such as bear them the bare Titles with a vain shadow of the things remain but the reality and significancy of them is vanish'd few men are in truth what they call themselves few live according to the name of Christian because few make it their first care to follow the example of Christ This unhappy deceit is also an effect of the first and worst of evils Self-love the most crafty deceiver hardly found out by the wisest and seldome quite conquer'd by the best of men 3. The truth is that the good and evil things of this present life are so mixt and confused that if we take an exact view of the nature of them we shall hardly discern the one
to righteousness unto holiness as it is written Be ye holy for I am holy saith the Lord. Lev. 11.45 3. Now as Christianity checks and restrains self-love so doth self-love keep men from understanding and approving the Christian doctrines for how can he that seeks and loves himself rightly apprehend that whatever the world dotes upon is meer vanity that Estates and Honours bring great vexations and great slavery that to forgive Enemies and do good to them that hate us is the part of a noble and generous mind that 't is better to despise than to possess riches that 't is more honourable to be subject where God commands than to bear rule and to domineer that for a man to restrain his appetite and conquer himself is more glorious than to win battels and take fenced Cities These are Paradoxes hard and incredible sayings to the self-lover whose fondness of himself ties him fast to this earth to whatever can be useful and any ways pleasant to the flesh whereas the Children of God live to God being not led and govern'd by the flesh but by the spirit they live in the flesh but not after the flesh some of their actions are natural whilest they are in the body yet they proceed from a supernatural principle and are designed to a nobler end for they continually deny themselves and mortifie all sensual unruly desires Self-lovers hold a great regard should be had to the flesh 't is true but it must be such as Christ hath taught us to keep it under otherwise Saint Paul hath declar'd that to be carnally minded is death CHAP. XXXI That Self-love is that Babylon out of which God hath called us 1. GOD at first placed man in Paradise but Adam in whom we all sinned transported us into this world out of Paradise out of Jerusalem into Babylon out of our freedom into slavery out of integrity into corruption out of our countrey into banishment and out of life into death Thus from truth and perfection we fell into vanity we are now like unto vanity nay every man is but vanity as the Psalmist saith Psal 39.6 Man is vain in his body which ends in death and corruption vain in his soul which being inslav'd to sin is obnoxious to death eternal and vain in all his outward enjoyments which all perish or must be forsaken when he dies Yet man strangely dotes on this vanity he passionately runs after these transitory things which are all cheats and lies whereby he is drawn into thousands of pernicious errors and out of the Heavenly Jerusalem into a Hellish Babylon 2. Now these two Cities are built by two sorts of love to love God so as to despise our selves makes the City of God and to love our selves so as to despise God makes the Devils Babylon the City of this World The way to this is broad and short to that is streight difficult and long because dull and earthly as now we are we more easily fall on the earth and descend down to Hell than we can raise up our selves and ascend to Heaven Let every man therefore examine himself and find out what he chiefly loves for if he loves God so as to deny himself he is doubtless a Citizen of the Jerusalem which is from above but if he loves himself so as to prefer his own desires to God 't is plain he belongs to that Babylon out of which God hath called his Children For thus the Scripture cries aloud Go ye forth of Babylon and remove out of the midst of her Isa 48.20 Jer. 50.8 and again the Psalmist Psal 137.8 O Daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones We come out of Babylon when we leave the confusion of sin forsaking our disorderly course of life and we dash the children of Babylon against the stone when our love to Christ overcomes our ill desires and ill inclinations Self-love is the death of the Soul and the love of God is its life therefore he doth not truly love himself who by self-love destroys himself CHAP. XXXII How men naturally seek themselves even in their best works 1. IT may seem strange to observe that whereas mens opinions and inclinations are so various and different yet all men are agreed in this that none appears vile to himself none is willing to yield and submit to others none though never so mean but thinks himself somebody and is desirous to be taken notice of every one seeks to be higher than others every one is indulgent to himself and severe to others all men will have their will and their saying all applaud to their own inventions and conceits and censure others they count their own follies wisdome and notwithstanding their great ignorance there is nothing but what they think to know They carefully hide their own faults and pretend to those virtues they know they have not And what is most of all to be wonder'd at even good men who endeavour to please God and seem to aim at nothing but his honour and glory Even they sometimes in their best actions by a secret and natural instinct almost unknown to themselves seek their own comfort and complacency most of all and the more excellent are their works the more subtil and undiscernable is this snare which self-love sets to the most spiritual 2. What better than to obey God to read his Sacred Word and preach it to receive and administer his Holy Sacraments Yet these duties are commonly stain'd with some secret desire of praise and except the Christian be very watchful over his own heart he may easily lose his better reward Though I speak with the tongues of men and Angels saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.1 and have not Charity I am become like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal And though a man should give all his goods to the Poor and even his Body to be burnt yet without Charity without the love of God hath purified his heart it will profit him nothing According to the saying of the Prophet Haggai 1.6 Ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink and he that earns wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes for thus good works avail nothing if done out of respect to our selves and not to please God This being therefore the bent of our corrupt nature to draw us to our selves we ought carefully to examine our selves and search the hidden corners of our hearts that there lurk not in them some ill purpose of vain-glory or self-interest to mix with our best actions either first or last This is the Rule of a true Christian Life always to seek and love the things of God and never his own CHAP. XXXIII Things which every Christian is bound to know in order to obedience 1. EVery Disciple of Christ ought to know those Divine and Human Laws under which he lives and the which he is
too restless and busie from prodigality many fall to covetousness and from superstition to profaneness and irreverence The last cheat of Opinion I shall now reckon is that it generally makes us judge and esteem our selves not according to our own sense and consciousness but according to the vain thoughts and talk of other men We defer so much not only to our own but also to others opinions that except they will count us happy we cannot be so We are not contented to live to our selves but we must also entertain a troublesome imaginary life to please we know not whom people that perhaps know us not and to be sure care not for us whose judgment we our selves slight in other things Thus neglecting that true and real life which we our selves enjoy we make it our care and indeavour to preserve and adorn that life which depends on others and hath no subsistence but in ours and other mens fancy and so far doth this delusion prevail that what we our selves feel and know is nothing to us except others be acquainted with it From all these mischievous errors and deceptions of opinion we cannot be freed by the power of natural reason without the supernatural light of the Divine Grace enlighten our minds For our opinions become true or false according as is the light that guides us CHAP. XI That the Doctrine of Salvation is much slighted even by some that pretend to it 1. ALL knowledge is good that agrees with truth but he that would work out his salvation with fear and trembling had need learn first what concerns it because our time is short and great learning in other things is great trouble and great vanity It is the saying of S. James that to him that knows to do good and doth it not to him it is sin 4.17 As if he should say that it is ill to eat and not digest For as indigested meat nourisheth not but rather hurts so much knowledge not concocted and converted to use by the fire of holy charity fills men with pride and such peccant humors and at last ends in death These two things men are to care for whilst they are in this World first to keep the life of the Soul which consists in the grace and the favour of God and secondly to preserve their temporal life but for the first many are unconcern'd let what will become of the Soul their study and all their labour is that it may be well with the body And so they run blindfold after their lusts and sensual enjoyments being wise indeed as children of this world but having none of that wisdom which makes men wise unto Salvation 2. They that speak doubtfully and deceitfully are odious to men saith the Son of Sirach much more are they odious to God that live so whose very life is a lie as well as their words They pretend to know God and his holy ways and vainly boast to follow them when yet they go quite contrary they reprove and tutor others not themselves they cunningly dissemble their vices and make a shew of those virtues they are strangers to But they cannot deceive God who searcheth the heart and their hypocrisie cannot be hid from him who seeth the things that are in secret and at the last day will bring all to light And O that men would view their stains and imperfections in the great and eternal light of that terrible day for then they could easily discern and as easily cleanse and amend them We have but these two ways to take notice of our defects and deformities either in the light of our own reason comparing them to our selves or in the light of Divine Revelation bringing them forth before the bright and glorious presence of the most holy God The first is like a winter days light dim and cold but the second is the sun-shine of a summer-day so clear as to make the least mote visible and hot enough to burn and consume all our dross But to see this saving divine light a man must come out of himself and go to God in whom alone is truth and wisdome and out of whom all things are meer impostures and follies CHAP. XII That Self-will is a great Evil and must be renounc'd 1. ALL our actions contrary to God's will and in compliance to our own are the fewel for that fire which is unquenchable For self-will may be said to be the maker of Hell and the leader to it the Author of all the evils which eternally afflict all the wicked that rebell'd against God As likewise even in time the less a man follows his own will the farther he is from being miserable the nearer he comes to true happiness And he that hath wholly renounc'd to his own desires and inclinations hath the greatest assurance that can be had here of being eternally happy hereafter How this is to be done our Blessed Saviour taught us when he said follow me for he himself as he testified came not into the world to do his own will but the will of the Father that sent him so that to follow him we must follow his obedience forsake our own will to comply with his to follow him we must take up and bear his yoke and his Cross which to the flesh is indeed hard and afflictive but to the Spirit is comfortable and delicious 2. This our Christian profession doth require from us that in all our works and undertakings we may heartily say Not my will but Gods will be done This also is the design of the supreme eternal will of God in creating and preserving mens wills that they may freely serve him and in all things fulfil his good pleasure And truly it is the greatest and most blessed freedom to be in subjection to God to be able from our hearts to say in all events Even so Father for so it hath seemed good before thee My only will is Gods will may be done He is infinitely good and wise I freely resign my self to him and desire evermore to have an entire dependence on him and to be contented with all the disposals of his Providence and that in all things his blessed name may be glorified All mens troubles and vexations proceed from their unwillingness to submit to God for there is not a greater pain or grief than to be what we would not be CHAP. XIII Of the advantages of Solitariness and Retirement 1. TO be much alone in quiet silence and there to examine and instruct ones self is the way to have our senses and our thoughts well compos'd Therefore a wise man hates much talk and much company keeps his eyes close to curiosities and his ears to flying reports and cumbers not himself with too much of the world remembring the saying of wise Ben-Sirach that he shall become wise that hath little business Ecclus. 38.24 God is but one and he can best commune with God that dwells by himself And if a wise man be called
eyes and mind on that Original which he means to copy So should a follower of Christ in all his words and actions set before himself his Master's Life as the most perfect exemplar he is resolv'd to imitate and never to swerve from 2. Now he that professeth Christ and remains in him should walk as he walked carefully observe and follow the steps of his new and better Lord. For as whilest we remain in the state of Nature and follow its instinct we are Children of wrath and are slaves to Satan and to our own lusts so now we are redeem'd from that unhappy slavery by the bloud of Christ his Grace must be the principle of all our actions we must carefully follow him whose members we are 1 Cor. 15.47 The first man is of the Earth earthly the second man is the Lord from Heaven therefore as we have born the Image of the Earthy we should also bear the Image of the Heavenly making that our first and chiefest care that we walk worthy of our high calling as being led by his Spirit from whom we have our highest title for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his saith the Apostle Rom. 8.9 3. Now he alone hath the Spirit of Christ whose outward and inward life that is whose actâ—ons and affections are according to the Pattern of Christ's blessed example who endeavours always to speak and act as Christ his Master did According as we are exhorted not to walk after the flesh but after the Spirit being created anew in Jesus Christ unto good works We should look unto the Rock whence we are hewn not living after the methods of depraved man but walking in the ways of that righteous God from whom we have our being that we being holy in all manner of conversation may be own'd to be the children of our Father which is in Heaven For he certainly is no child of God who is not led and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ CHAP. XVIII The Just liveth by faith not by the laws of flesh and bloud 1. FAith is to all virtues and to a Christian life the same thing as the root is to the tree the foundation to the building and the Spring to the fountain for it is the first lesson of Christianity from whence we learn all the rest there we must first begin and without it it is impossible to please God for the just lives by faith The Commendation Job gives to wisdom Chap. 28. is justly due to Faith Faith being the principle of it and likewise it is evident and granted by all wise men that Solomon's high Encomium of Wisdom doth but set forth the Divine excellencies of Faith Wisd 7. Gold in respect of her is as little sand and silver shall be counted as clay before her she is a treasure unto men that never faileth which they that use become the friends of God She is the brightness of the everlasting light the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and the Image of his goodness The doctrine of Faith apprehended by Faith teacheth us all Truth informs our Souls what we ought to love what to shun and what to pursue It teacheth us that what the world counts good is evil And that worldly calamities are good if indur'd patiently It teacheth us to despise things visible and temporal and all that which is for no use but to the material part of us It teacheth us to know God and to know our selves which is the true saving knowledge and the highest of our wisdome And it frees us from the pernicious errors of this foolish world and from its wretched slavery to make us wise unto salvation and set us at perfect liberty 2. There is a vast distance and great contrariety betwixt the instructions of faith and the customs of this present world but then Christ who delivers the first being ever true and infallible it is clearly our duty and interest to live by faith and not by sense to follow the holy light of our holy faith not the wicked example of this wicked world And withal 't is much to be observ'd that depraved as we now are there is nothing in us nothing in our nature but what is contrary to the principles of the Christian Faith and altogether destructive of them For 't is the constant dictate and endeavour of flesh and bloud and natural reason to procure by all means possible a well-being to our selves in this present world without taking any further care of a better life and a blessed Eternity This evil men have from Adam and from those lusts which reign in their mortal bodies and the best of men have still some cause to groan under the sense of it Rom. 7. The good that I would I do not and the evil which I hate that I do O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death St. Paul answers the Grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ will deliver us For by Grace we are sav'd from our blindness and impotency and enabled to see and chuse that which is good and to perform the same and the first and chiefest work of that grace is faith whereby we are united to Christ and receive a new life from him CHAP. XIX That Faith works in a Christian self-denyal and contempt of the World 1. GReat is the power and strength of Faith for it makes the faithful Christian to be as it self is unshaken and unmovable The true believer whose faith is lively and active regards and seeks nothing but God and in him alone finds light and peace delight and full satisfaction but in the world and in the sons of men he finds neither rest nor pleasure for in time of need there is no help in them They are like all other things under the Sun perishing and unstable so that he that relies on them must expect the same destiny whereas he that trusts on God who is unmoveable is established for ever As the Saints that see God as he is become like unto him so should our life express the holiness of our belief our actions should be a lively representation of what we see by faith and we should glory in nothing but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ which to the lovers of this present world is a reproach and an offence 2. The first man indeed in the state of his innocence might have come to Bliss by a free and lawful use of those good creatures which God had prepar'd for him in the delights of Paradise but after he had rebel'd against God and infected his unborn posterity with sin the Divine Wisdom appointed another way to Bliss that is the way of the Cross and Self-denyal through which Christ himself past and appointed the same to all his followers saying Luke 9.23 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross daily and follow me And again Luke 14.26 33.
the cause why so many are not so perfect and holy as their Christian faith requires and would enable them to be that they are not sincere but want truth in the inward parts The false opinions of the World are of greater power with them than the precepts and the examples of Christ and those moral virtues which nature it self recommends are commonly made sin or subservient to it by the depraved judgments and customs of men We therefore that live in a crooked and perverse generation among corrupt and deceived persons ought seriously and often to make this inquiry whether we our selves do know the right way and whether we truly follow it Now that way which is the way of truth is one and altogether unchangeable and they that will keep it without change must not look to the World but up to Heaven must not follow the example of men but must directly follow God who alone is the way the truth and the life CHAP. XXV That a hearty affection is the life of good actions 1. WE must have a special care that the sensitive part of us have not the principal concern in our good works and that we be not led by sense in our actions for sense is the great deceiver the fountain of error therefore 't is said that the mortification of sense is the life of truth And hence it is that we cannot be confident ever to have done any thing perfectly good and without defect because that we bear a part in our best works and as far as they proceed from us they are stain'd with imperfection although they be done upon Gods account and by the impulse and assistance of divine Grace Thus it was said to the Angel or Bishop of Sardis Rev. 3.2 I have not found thy works perfect before God and thus it might be said to any other For our Prayers Fastings and Alms and such like good works though they may appear complete before men who see nothing but the outside yet before God who searcheth the heart they are defective and cannot be acceptable in the least except they be done with a pure and sincere intention to please him 2. Of ten Virgins mentioned in the Gospel five foolish were excluded from the wedding not but that they were Virgins and had lamps that is works but because they wanted the oil of good intentions and holy affections This may well be the case of every one of us our works will be dead before God and unpleasing to him except we breath life into them by our inward sanctified spirit and fervent love to God In outward acts and appearance all Christians are almost alike but as the hand of a watch is mov'd by the hidden springs and as the colour of the face depends on the secret constitution of the body so the good are distinguisht from the bad by their inward spirit or the hidden man of the heart for the Kingdom of God is within us CHAP. XXVI Whence the goodness of our works proceeds 1. AS many that eat much yet are feeble and infirm and lean because they overcharge their stomach so that their nourishment is not well concocted and as many that eat very moderately yet because they digest well are strong and healthy and long-liv'd So likewise some Christians there are that do many good things and yet themselves become little better because they go not the right way to work They think that by doing much they must become great proficients though they do it remisly and incuriously whereas to do our duty every day with greater fervency and exactness is the right way to perfection a few things well done profit more than heaps of works done negligently 2. For so there are others that compared to these first do but little and yet increase much in the love of God because they endeavour always to work with greater affection and a more upright intention so that at the end of every good action they may in some manner use that expression of Christ on the Cross Joh. 19.30 It is finished I have in this as far as was possible done what God required of me as perfectly as my infirmity would allow and his free grace enabled me who gives us to will and to do and without whom we can do nothing They so spend each day that at night they can say It is finished and they so spend their whole life that when 't is ended they can say with an holy and humble confidence I have now perfected that work which God had appointed me to do He that lives so lives like a Christian and he shall not fear in the evil day CHAP. XXVII How useful and comfortable is the consideration of God being always present 1. NOthing will more prevail to make perfect our works as much as is possible than to consider that God is present every where and that from him and in him all things have their being power and motion This is the most pressing Argument why we should always act with the greatest circumspection that God sees the things that are in secret and we can never be hid from his eyes that in him we live and move and have our being and that he never forsakes us till we forsake him to turn our affections upon the creatures For this is the unhappy effect of our original corruption that our senses are so affected and pleased with material things present that our mind is drawn from the contemplation of Gods presence and things as yet invisible whereas if the love of this world did not bear too great a sway in our heart we could see God in every place holy affections would always see him who is the Author of all holiness according to the saying of our Blessed Saviour Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God 2. For indeed 't is not to be exprest how sweet and comfortable is the goodness of God which he hath laid up for them that fear him but laid up it is none have a sense of it but they that love God they alone taste and see how gracious the Lord is For 't is not enough to have a treasure we must know we have it before we can be rich and we must know the use and the worth of it Now such a treasure we have within us as is of an inestimable infinite value and yet we seem not to know it for we run after motes and shadows and catch at painted drops that cannot quench our thirst as the Psalmist saith O ye sons of men how long will ye love vanities and seek after lies Thus we are cheated and understand not our own happiness for God is present to us every moment and we could always enjoy him we are rich and we know it not 3. We could if we would anticipate the joys of Heaven we could now have a taste of the felicity of beatified Saints but that we indulge Sense to the prejudice of the Soul we
upon all inferior things as perishing and soon ended and therefore sets his affections on the Riches above which are true and everlasting There he seeks for Honour where 't is given to none that are unworthy of it he expects that Kingdom which being obtain'd expells all fears and all dangers all his possessions here he offers to God with himself being ready freely to be in want if Providence shall please 3. Now by these tokens it will appear that our hearts are free from Covetousness and the love of Mammon If we are perswaded that they are a cumbrance and a heavy burthen if we slight them and are very well pleased to be without them if when we have them we are not pust up with Pride and Vain-Glory and if we look upon fine Houses and rich Furnitures and such things as the vain Monuments of Mens Vanities and the great obstacles to their Salvation Happy are they that are free from the love and desire of those things they shall live in peace and safety and trouble and fear shall not be able to take hold of them As 't is better to sleep well in a mean narrow Couch than to be sick and restless in a stately Bed so is it much better to be content and quiet with a little than to have much and therewith much of vexation He that is content is Rich and Happy CHAP. XVI Of Poverty in Spirit and the contempt of the World 1. OUR Blessed Saviour hath assign'd the Kingdom of Heaven to them that are Poor in Spirit Mat. 5.3 Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Such are they that neither desire to be Rich nor place their Peace and Contentment in Riches whose wishes and possessions can never fail nor be taken from them who are more afraid of having their good things in this Life than others are of being Poor and whose Heart raised above all created things can truly speak in this manner I am Rich praised be God and have more than sufficient for my needs and more than I desire and my affections cleave not to what I have I have the use but not the trouble of it for I can freely part with it without pain or regret I am truly inricht with the possession of that Divine Truth which is from above in it all things are contain'd and it is all-sufficient of it self for in it I perceive that I have right to nothing that I am nothing and that I can do nothing of my self That Blessed Truth tells me that I must not place my Contentment in Earthly Transitory things which like shadows will soon pass away and would deceive me and that nothing can happen to me but by that Gracious Providence of my Heavenly Father which brought me naked from my Mothers Womb and naked will bring me to the Dust again This is the Wisdom of the Just infused from above their 's only is the Kingdom of Heaven for they only despise this Earth 2. Would to God Christians were thus wise and did well understand this Truth for then none of them would seek after the perishing Riches of this World and none would love them but as few are chosen few are Wise and but few Poor in Spirit Blessed is the Rich that is found without Blemish and that is not gone after Gold saith the Son of Sirach Who is he and we will call him Blessed for wonderful things hath he done among his People Ecclus. 31.8 For indeed you shall hardly find one man that can possess the things of this World as not being his own and that can be Rich and Content under Poverty Few they are that come to this Perfection because men love the Vanities and Conveniencies of this Life which are purchast with Riches and few they are that regard the Precepts of Christ Mat. 6. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its Righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you And Be Content with your Food and Raiment and be not solicitous for it for your Heavenly Father knows that you want those things Why then don 't we believe our loving Saviour and trust the Providence of our Heavenly Father because we suffer our desires to run over the World and we consider not that the way to Heaven is streight and narrow and because we give ear to our Lusts and will not hearken to the Truth nor be guided by it The broad way is for them that carry the World before them or at least carry it in their hearts but the narrow way is for the naked such whose Spirit is free from the cumbersome Riches of the World What will the false Mammon avail if we are destitute of the true Riches We are Strangers and Pilgrims travelling homeward through a streight and difficult way and great loads can be but great hindrances CHAP. XVII Of the Necessity and the Measures of Alms-giving 1. SUch Riches as are not imploy'd in a moderate supply of our necessities according to our quality may not be kept nigardly nor spent profusely upon Pride or Luxury but they belong to the Poor they must be spent in Good Works and Pious uses for the advancement of God's Glory and the benefit of mens Souls and Bodies and he much indangers his Salvation that doth not dispose of them on this wise Mony kept in bags is but dress its worth consists in the use of it and if it serves not for the relief of the necessitous and the gathering Treasures in Heaven then it becomes mischievous and the guilt of it doth exceed its weight Lands Moneys and other moveables are generally called Goods not that they make a man good of themselves but because the owner may do good with them and thereby make himself better and happier as it is written Psal 112.9 He hath dispersed he hath given to the Poor his Righteousness endureth for ever For The ransom of a Man's Life are his Riches saith Solomon Prov. 13.8 And as water will quench a flaming fire so Alms make an attonement for Sin saith the wise Ben-Sirach Ecclus. 3.30 Nothing suits better with our Christian Profession than to pitty and help the afflicted remembring and relieving the infirmities of our common Nature in the afflictions of others and nothing is more unnatural and Anti-Christian than to refuse comfort and assistance to others or even to our selves in our wants that we may increase our Wealth and inrich our heirs but the worst of all is to lose our share of the joys of Heaven and damn our Immortal Souls that they that shall seize upon our Riches may have wherewith to be Prodigal and Vicious 2. I shall not undertake to determine when and how far every one that can should deprive himself that he may spare for Charity this can have no other measures than such as Piety and Christian Prudence shall assign Only I say that God knows our hearts and abilities and we must approve our selves to him And I hear