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of holy wisdom had been so much better than the gaining of gold, as Solomon saith, Prov. iii. 4. you would have laid out much of that time in labouring to understand the Scriptures, and preparing for your endless life. How many unnecessary thoughts have you cast away upon the world, which might better have been laid out on your greater concernments! How many cares, and vexations, and passions doth it cost men, to overload themselves with worldly provisions! Like a foolish traveller, who having a day's journey to go, doth spend all the day in gathering together a load of meat, and clothes, and money, more than he can carry, for fear of wanting by the way: or like a foolish runner that hath a race to run for his life, and spends the time in which he should be running, in gathering a burden of pretended necessaries. You have all the while God's work to do, and your souls to mind, and judgment to prepare for, and you are tiring and vexing yourselves for unnecessary things, as if it were the top of your ambition to say, in hell, that you died rich. "Godliness with contentment is great gain: for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content: but they that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred (or been seduced) from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows'." Piercing sorrows here, and damnation hereafter, are a very dear price to give for money. For saith Christ himself," What shall it profit a man to gain all the world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" That is, What money or price will recover it, if for the love of gain he lose it? "He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house, but he that hateth gifts shall livet." Do you not know that a godly man contented with his daily bread, hath a far sweeter and quieter life and death, than a self-troubling worldling?

Saith Plutarch. de tranquillit. anim. Alexander wept because he was not lord of the world, when Crates having but a wallet and a threadbare cloak, spent his whole life in mirth and joy, as if it had been a continual festival holiday.

1 Tim. vi. 5-10.

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You may easily perceive it. "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith "."

Direct. 1x. Look much on the life of Christ on earth, and see how strangely he condemned worldliness by his example.' Did he choose to be a prince or lord, or to have great possessions, lands, or money, or sumptuous buildings, or gallant attendance, and plentiful provisions? His housing you may read of, Matt. viii. 20. "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." His clothing you may read of at his crucifying, when they parted it. As for money he was fain to send Peter to a fish for some to pay their tribute. If Christ did scrape and care for riches, then so do thou: if he thought it the happiest life, do thou think so too. But if he contemned it, do thou contemn it if his whole life was directed to give thee the most perfect example of the contempt of all the prosperity of this world, then learn of his example, if thou take him for thy Saviour, and if thou love thyself. "Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich."

Direct. x. Think on the example of the primitive Christians, even the best of Christ's servants, and see how it condemneth worldliness.' They that by miracle in the name of Christ could give limbs to the lame, yet tell him, “Silver and gold have we none." Those that had possessions sold them, and laid the money at the apostles' feet, and they had all things common, to shew that faith overcometh the world, by contemning it, and subjecting it entirely to charity, and devoting it entirely to God. Read whether the apostles did live in sumptuous houses, with great attendance, and worldly plenty and prosperity? And so of the

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Direct. xI. Remember to what ends all worldly things were made and given you, and what a happy advantage you may make of them by renouncing them, as they would be provision for your lusts, and by devoting yourselves and them to God.' The use of their sweetness is, to draw your

u Prov. xv. 16.

* Chrysostom saith, his enemies charged him with many crimes, but never with covetousness or wantonness. And so it was with Christ and his enemies.

Et sicut in patria Deus est speculum in quo relucent creaturæ ; sic è converso

souls to taste by faith the heavenly sweetness. They are the looking-glass of souls in flesh, that are not yet admitted to see these things spiritual face to face. They are the provender of our bodies; our travelling furniture and helps ; our inns, and solacing company in the way; they are some of God's love-tokens; some of the lesser pieces of his coin, and bear his image and superscription. They are drops from the rivers of the eternal pleasures; to tell the mind by the way of the senses how good the donor is, and how amiable; and what higher delights there are for souls; and to point us to the better things which these foretell. They are messengers from heaven, to testify our Father's care and love, and to bespeak our thankfulness, love, and duty, and to bear witness against sin, and bind us faster to obedience. They are the first volume of the Word of God: the first book that man was set to read, to acquaint him fully with his Maker: as the Word which we read and hear is the chariot of the Spirit, by which it maketh its accesses to the soul; so the delights of sight, and taste, and smell, and hearing, were appointed as an ordinary way for the speedy access of heavenly love and sweetness to the heart, that upon the first expression of the goodness and sweetness of the creature, there might presently be transmitted by a due progression, a deep impression of the goodness of God upon the soul; that the creatures, being the letters of God's book, which are seen by our eye, the sense (even the love of our great Creator) might presently be perceived by the mind: and no letter might once be looked upon but for the sense; no creature ever seen, or tasted, or heard, or felt in any delectable quality, without a sense of the love of God; that as the touch of the hand upon the strings of the lute do cause the melody, so God's touch by his mercies upon our hearts, might presently tune them into love, and gratitude, and praise. They are the tools by which we must do much of our Master's work. They are means by which we may refresh our brethren, and express our love to one another, and our love to our Lord and Master in his servants. They are our Master's stock, which we must trade with, by the improvement of which, no less than the reward of endin via creaturæ sunt speculum quo creator videtur. Paul. Scaliger in Ep. Cath. lib. 14. Thes. 123. p. 689.

These are the uses to which
Love them thus, and de-

less happiness may be attained. God gives us outward mercies. light in them, and use them thus, and spare not; yea, seek them thus, and be thankful for them. But when the creatures are given for so excellent a use, will you debase them all by making them only the fuel of your lusts, and the provisions for your flesh? And will you love them and dote upon them in these base respects; while you utterly neglect their noblest use? You are just like children that cry for books, and can never have enow; but it is only to play with them because they are fine; but when they are set to learn and read them, they cry as much because they love it not or like one that should spend his life and labour in getting the finest clothes, to dress his dogs and horses with, but himself goes naked and will not wear them".

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Direct. XII. Remember that God hath promised to provide for you, and that you shall want nothing that is good for you, if you will live above these worldly things, and seek first his kingdom, and the righteousness thereof.' And cannot you trust his promise? If you truly believe that he is God, and that he is true, and that his particular providence extendeth to the very numbering of your hairs, you will sure trust him, rather than trust to your own forecast and industry. Do you think his provision is not better for than your own? All your own care cannot keep you alive an hour, nor can prosper any of your labours, if you provoke him to blast them. And if you are not content with his provisions, nor submit yourselves to the disposal of his love and wisdom, you disoblige God, and provoke him to leave you to the fruits of your own care and diligence and then you will find that it had been your wiser way to have trusted God.

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Direct. x111. Think often on the dreadful importance and effects of the love of riches, or a worldly mind. 1. It

Even Dionysius the tyrant was bountiful to philosophers. To Plato he gave above fourscore talents, Laert. in Platone, and much to Aristippus and many more, and he offered much to many philosophers that refused it. And so did Crœsus.

a Look upon the face of the calamitous world, and inquire into the causes of all the oppressions, rapines, cruelties, and inhumanity which have made men so like to devils: look into the corrupted, lacerated churches, and inquire into the cause of their contentions, divisions, usurpations, malignity, and cruelty against each other and you will find that pride and worldliness are the causes of all.

is a most certain sign of a state of death and misery, where it hath the upper hand. It is the departing of the heart from God to creatures. See the malignity of it before. Good men have been overtaken with heinous sins; but it is hard to find where Scripture calleth any of them covetous. A heart secretly cleaving most to this present world and its prosperity, is the very killing sin of every hypocrite, yea, and of all ungodly men. 2. Worldliness makes the Word unprofitable, and keepeth men from believing and repenting, and coming home to God, and minding seriously the everlasting world. What so much hindereth the conversion of sinners, as the love and cares of earthly things? They cannot serve God and mammon: their treasure and hearts cannot chiefly be both in heaven and earth! They will not yield to the terms that love this world: they will not forsake all for a treasure in heaven. In a word, as you heard, the

When men of a proud and worldly mind have by fraud, and friendship, and simony usurped the pastorship of the churches, according to their minds and ends, they turn it into a malignant domination, and the carnal, worldly part of the church, is the great enemy and persecutor of the spiritual part; and the fleshly hypocrite, as Cain against Abel, is filled with envy against the serious believer, even out of the bitter displeasure of his mind, that his deceitful sacrifice is less respected. What covetousness hath done to the advancement of the pretended holy catholic church of Rome, I will give you now, but in the words of an abbot and chronicler of their own, Abbas Urspergens. Chron. p. 321. Vix remansit aliquis episcopatus, sive dignitas ecclesiastica, vel etiam parochialis ecclesiæ, quæ non fierit litigiosa, et Romam deduceretur ipsa causa, sed non manu vacua. Gaude mater nostra Roma, quoniam aperiuntur cataractæ thesaurorum in terra, ut ad te confluant rivi et aggeres nummorum in magna copia. Lætare super iniquitate filiorum hominum; quoniam in recompensationem tantorum malorum, datur tibi pretium. Jocundare super adjutrice tua discordia; quia erupit de puteo infernalis abyssi, ut accumulentur tibi multa pecuniarum præmia. Habes quod semper sitisti; decanta Canticum, quia per malitiam hominum non per tuam religionem, orbem vicisti. Ad te trahit homines, non ipsorum devotio, aut pura conscientia, sed scelerum multiplicium perpetratio, et litium decisio, pretio comparata.

Fortun. Galindas speaking of pope Paul the fifth, his love to the Jesuits for helping him to money, saith, Adeo præstat acquirendarum pecuniarum quam animarum studiosum et peritum esse, apud illos, qui cum animarum Christi sanguine redemptarum, in se curam receperint, vel quid anima sit nesciunt, vel non pluris animam hominis quam piscis faciunt: quod credo suum officium Piscatum quendam esse aliquando per strepitum inaudierint: quibus propterea gratior fuerit, qui animam auri cum Paracelso, quam animam Saxoniæ Electoris invenisse nuntiet. Arcan. Soci. Jesu p. 46. Lege ibid. instruct. secret, de Jesuitarum praxi.

Et Joh. Sarisbur. lib. vii. c. 21. de Monach. Potentiores et ditiores favore vel mercede recepta facilius (absolutione) exonerant, et peccatis alienis humeros supponentes, jubent abire in tunicas et vestes pullas, quicquid illi se commisisse deplorant. -Si eis obloqueris, religionis inimicus, et veritatis diceris impugnator.

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