The Crucifying of the World, Preface

The Crucifying of the World · Preface

The Preface: To the Nobilty and Gentry, and all that have the Riches of this world.

Honourable, Worshipfull, &c.

HAving written here of a subject that nearly concerneth you, I have thought it my duty to give you a place, and according to your Dignity, the first place in the Application of it. Of which I shall first tender you my Reasons, and then set before you the matter of this address.

1. You are among us the most eminent and honoured persons, and therefore not to be neglected and past by: you are first, and therefore should first be served. You hold your selves most worthy of any temporal honour that's to be had; and therefore I shall honour you so much more, as to judge you fit, to be first spoken to by the Ministers of Christ, in a case that doth much more concern you: As you have and would have the precedency in worldly matters, here also you shall have the precedency: Its pitty that you shall be first in Hell, that are first in a Christian State on earth; or that you should be least in the Kingdom of Heaven, that are Greatest in that which is esteemed in the world. 2. You are Pillars in the Common-wealth: and the stakes that bear up the rest of the hedge. Your influence is great in lower bodies: You sin not to your selves only; nor are you Gracious only to your selves. The spots in the Moon are seen by more, and its Ecclipses felt by more, then the blemishes or changes of many of us inferiour wights. You are our first figures, that stand for more in matters of publick concernment, then all that follow. You are the Copies that the rest write after, and they are more prone to Copy out your vices then your graces. You are the first sheets in the Press; you are the Stewards of God, who are entrusted with his talents for the use of many. You are the noble members of the Body Politick, whose health or sickness is communicated to the rest: If you be ungodly, the whole body languisheth: If you live and prosper, it will go the better with us all: For your Wisdom, and Holiness, and Iustice, will be operative; and your station alloweth them great advantage, to work upon many, and to emulate a kind of universal Causality. Interest is the worlds byas; and all Power hath respect to use: You that have possession of the Treasure that is so commonly and highly esteemed, may do much to lead the sensual world by it, which way you please: Be it better or be it worse; they will follow him that bears the purse. If money can do wonders, you may do wonders. As money can perswade the blind, to part with God and life everlasting, and to renounce Religion and Reason it self, so no doubt but it might do something were it faithfully used, though not directly to sanctifie the heart, yet somewhat to incline it to the means by which it may be sanctified. You that have Power to Help or Hurt, to make it Summer or Winter to your subjects, and to promote or cross the interest of the flesh, are hereby become a kind of Gods, in the eyes of them that mind this Interest, (as in higher respects you are unto Believers.) Especially seeing they want that eye of faith, by which they should know the Soveraign Majesty, who at his pleasure doth dispose both of you and them, these purblind sinners can reach no further▪ but are contented to be Ruled by you, as terrestrial Deities: They see you, but they see not God: they know you, and perceive the effects of your favour and displeasure: but being dead to God, and savouring only fleshly things, they scarce observe his smiles or frowns. They see that which is visible to the eye which they have the use of; but the Objects of faith are to them as Nothing, because they have no eye to see them. And seeing you have such publick interest and influence, it is our duty first to look after your souls, and to see that you receive the heavenly impress. 3. To which I may add, that no men have usually more need of advice and help then you. For your temptations are the strongest: The world killeth by its flatteries: It is not the having it, but the Loving it that undoes men: And he is much liker to over-love it, that hath what he would have, and liveth in plentiful provisions for his flesh, then he that hath nothing from it but trouble and vexation. It is not poverty, and prisons, and sickness that are the flattering pandors of the world▪ but prosperity and content to the flesh. Though I know that many of the poor, do most of all over-value the world, because they never tryed so much of its vanity, but standing at a distance from prosperity, do think it a greater felicity then it is: For those are most in Love with the world that least know it; as those that least know him are least in Love with God and eternal glory. But yet it is pleasing and not displeasing, flattering rather then buffeting, that is the means of deceiving filly souls, and stealing their hearts from God to the world. Your mountains lie open to stronger winds then our vallies do: And your gulfs and greater streams are not so foordable as our more shallow waters. He never studyed God and Heaven; nor his own heart, that knoweth not that it is a very difficult thing, to have an heavenly mind in earthly prosperity, and to live in the desires of another world, while we feel all seem to go well with us in this. How hard to be weaned from the world, till we suffer in it; yea till we are plunged into an utter despair, of ever receiving here the satisfaction of our desires. 4. And truly we have too much sad experience, of the sensuality and ungodliness of most of the Rich, to suffer us to think that you have least need of our admonitions: Which leadeth me up to the Matter of my Address, which is first to complain of you to your selves, and then to Admonish you, and lastly to Direct you.

1. I know I speak to those (for the most part) that profess to believe a Life to come; but O that you had the honesty to live as you do profess! You durst not put it into your Creed, that you believe that earth is more desirable then Heaven, and that its better seek first after Carnal prosperity and delight, then for the Kingdom of God, and the Righteousness thereof. You would be ashamed to say that it is the wisest course first to make provision for the flesh, and to put off God and your salvation with the leavings of the world. And do you think it is not as bad and as dangerous to do so, as to say so? Would it bring you to your journeys end, to be of the Opinion that you should be up and going, as long as you sit still? Right Opinions in Religion are so unlikely to save a man that crosseth them in his practise, that such shall be beaten with many stripes. I had rather be in the case of many a Popish Fryer, that renounceth the world, though in a way that hath many errours, then in the case of many an Orthodox Gentleman that is drowned in the cares and pleasures of this life: Yea I think it will be easier for a Socrates, a Plato, in the day of Iudgement, then for such. Christianity is a practical Religion: It is a devoted seeking for another life, by the improvement and contempt of this: Put not that into your Life, that you are ashamed to put into your Profession or Belief. If you Do as Infidels, you will be as miserable as if you Believed but as Infidels. And Practising a while against your Conscience, may cause God to for sake your judgement also, and give you over to Believe as you Live, because you would not Live as you Believed. And I fear that this is the case of some of you: Nay I have too much reason to know it, that some of our Gentry, even persons of note and honour among us, have for saken Christ and are turned Infidels; and by the Love of this world, have carnally adhered to it so long, till they are so far forsaken of God, as to think that there is no other Life for them hereafter. God hath an eye on these wretches; and men have an eye on some of them. I shall now leave them in their slippery station, till a fitter opportunity. Some we have of our Nobility and Gentry that are Learned, Studious and Pious, and an honour and blessing to this unworthy Land; or else it were not like to be so well with us as it is. But Oh how numerous are the sensual and prophane which provoked that heavenly Poet, of Noble extract (Mr. G. Herbet, Ch. porch) to say,

O England full of sin, but most of sloth,

Spit out thy flegm, and fill thy brest with glory:

Thy Gentry bleats, as if thy native cloth,

Transfused a sheepiness into thy story:

Not that they all are so; but that the most,

Are gone to grass and in the pasture lost.

Gentlemen, I have no mind to dishonour you, but compassion on your souls and on the Nation, commands me to complain, in order to reform you: And yet if you sinned and perished alone, we were the less unexcusable if we let you alone. What abundance of you are fitter to swill in a buttery, or gorge your selves at a feast, orride over poor mens corn in hawking and hunting, then to govern the Common-wealth, and by Iudgement and Example to lead the people in the waies of life! What abundance of you waste your precious hours in feasting, and sports, and idleness, and complementing, and things impertinent to your great business in the world, as if you had no greater things to mind? Had you been by another commanded to a Dung-cart, or like a Carryer to follow pack-horses, (an honester and more honourable life then yours) you would think your selves enslaved and dishonoured: And yet when God hath set before you an Eternal Glory, you debase your own souls by wilful drenching them in the pleasures, and cares, and vanities of the world, and have no mind of that high and noble work, which God appointed you. So that when many poor men are …nnobled by an Heavenly Disposition, and an Heavenly Conversation, you enslave your selves to that which they tread under-feet, and refuse the only noble life: That which they account as loss, and dross, and dung, that they may win Christ and be found in him, (Phil. 3. 7, 8.) that do you delight in and live upon as your treasure. When once you know whether God or your money be better, whether heaven or earth, whether eternity or time be better, you will then know which is the noblest life.

Nay what abandance are there among you, that make a very trade of sensuality, and turn your sumptuous houses into sties, and your gorgeous apparel into hansom trappings, if the appurtenances may receive their names from the possessors: That never knew what it was to spend one day or hour of your lives in a diligent search of your hearts and waies, and heart-breaking lamentation of your sin and misery, and in serious thoughts of the life to come: but go on from feast to feast, and company to company, and from one pleasure to another, as if you must never hear of this again; and as if you were so drunken and besotted with the world, that you had forgotten that you are men, or that you have a God to please, and a soul to save or lose for ever. Nay how many of you hate a faithful Preacher, and an holy life, and make them the ordinary matter of your scorn; and cheat your souls with a few ceremonies and formalities, as if by such a Carnal Religiousnes, you could make all whole, when you have lived to the flesh, and loathed the Spiritual worship of God that is a Spirit, and the heavenly lives of his sanctified ones, and consequently the Law that commandeth such a life, and the God that is the Maker of that Law. I call not your Civil Controversies your Malignity; but it is the proper title of your Enmity to Holiness: And is it not enough that man in Honour will be without understanding, and make himself like the beasts that perish, Psal. 44. 20. but you must also take up the Serpentine nature, and hissing and stinging must be the requital that you return to Christ for all your Honours. Think, if you have yet a thinking faculty, whether this be kindly, or honestly, or wisely done, and what its like to be to your selves in the end. Your Riches and Honours do now hide a great deal of your shame; but will it not appear when these raggs are torn from your backs, and your souls are left in naked guilt? Saith Chrysostom, [If it were possible to do Justice on the Rich, as commonly on the poor, we should have all the Prisons filled with them: but Riches with their other evils have also this evil, that they save men from the punishment of their evil.] (O but how long will they do so?) This was plain dealing of an Holy Father: and is it not such as is as needful now as then? Is it not Greatness more then Innocency that saves abundance of you from shame and punishment?

Nay many of you think that because you are rich, it is Lawful for you to be Idle, and Lawful voluptuously to give up your selves to pleasures and recreations, and you think that you may do with your own as you list; as if it had been given you to gratifie the flesh: The words that converted Austin, never su…k yet into your hearts, Rom. 13. 13, 14. [Let us walk honestly as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness▪ not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.] You never felt the meaning of those words, Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but if by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live.]

But to turn my Complaint into an Admonition, I beseech you consider what you are, and what you do. 1. How unlike are you to Iesus Christ your pattern, that denyed himself all the Honours, and Riches, and Carnal delights of the world. Read over his Life, and Read your own, and judge whether any man on earth, be more unlike to Christ, then a voluptuous, worldly Gentleman? Especially if Malignity be added to his sensuality.

2. How unlike are you to the holy Laws of Christ. Are his precepts of Mortification and Self-denyal imprinted in your hearts, and predominant in your lives? Is a beast any more unlike a man, then your hearts and lives are unlike Christs Laws?

3. How unlike are you to the Antient Christians, that forsook all and followed Christ, and lived in a Community of Charity? And how unlike to every gracious soul, that is dead to the world, and hath mortified his members upon earth, and hath his conversation in another world. Are you not such as Paul wept over, Phil. 3. 18. Whose God is their belly, who glory in their shame, and who mind earthly things, and that are enemies to the Cross of Christ.] though perhaps you are no enemies to his Name. Believe it, Gentlemen, whatever your thoughts of your selves may be, you will find that no Religion will save you, that stoopeth to the world, and is but an underling to your fleshly interest.

4. How unlike are you to your Profession and your Covenant with God? and to your Confessions, and Prayers to him? Did you not renounce the flesh, the world and the Devil in your Baptism? Do you not still Profess that heaven is best, and God is to be preferred, and yet will you not do it, but let your own Professions condemn you? Do you not ordinarily confess that the world is vain, and yet will you shew your selves such Dissemblers, as to love and seek it more then God? As if there were no more Power in the Spirit of Christianity, then in the Opinion of Zeno the Philosopher, who having oft said that Poverty and Riches were neithe… good nor bad, but things indifferent, was yet dismaye▪ when he heard that his farms were seized on by the enemies, the Prince having sent one with the report to try him; telling him when he had done, that Now Riches and Poverty were not things indifferent. How oft have you prayed to be saved from Temptation? and yet will you still date upon your snares and fetters; and shew your selves such hypocrites as to love the temptations which you pray against.

5. You are guilty of a double injury to God; in that you are obliged to him as his Created subjects, and yet more obliged by your Riches and Honours, which he hath given you for your Masters use▪ [To whom men give much, from them will they expect the more, Luke 12. 48.] For a servant that hath double wages to abuse you; for a friend that hath received double kindness to prove false to you; for a Commander in the Army to betray his General, is sure an aggravation of the crime. Must God advance you highest, and will you thrust him lowest in your heart? Must he feed you with the best, and cloath you with the best, and will you put him off with the worst? Have you ten times, or an hundred times more wealth from him, then many an honest heavenly Believer; and yet will you Love and Serve him less?

6. Is it not pitty and shame, that you should thus turn Mercies themselves into sin, and draw your bane from that which might have been a blessing? Will you be the worse, because God is so good to you? Must he give you health and time for his service, and give you such plentiful provision and assistance, and will you be worse in health then others are in sickness, and worse in Plenty then others are in want? Is not this the way to dry up the streams of Mercy, when the more you have, the worse you are?

7. You exceedingly wrong the Church and Commonwealth: For it is for the publick good that you are advanced; and you should be a blessing to the Land: And will you cast away that time and wealth upon the flesh, which you have received for such noble ends. Rob not the Church and Common wealth, of what you owe it; by engrossing it to your selves, or consuming it on your lusts.

8. Great men have a great account to make: You shall shortly hear, [Give account of thy Steward-ship, for thou shalt be no longer Stewar….] If God have entrusted you you with a thousand pound a year, it is not the same reckoning that must serve your turn, as would serve his turn that had but an hundred. Your improvement must be somewhat answerable to your receivings. Do you need to be told, how sad a reckoning it will then be, to say, [Lord, I imployed most of it in maintaining the Pomp and Pleasure of my self and family, even that Pomp of the world, and those sinful lusts of the flesh, which in my Baptism I forswore; and the rest I left to my children, to maintain them in the same pomp and pleasure, except a few scraps of my Revenews which I gave to the Church, or poor.]

9. Your wealth and greatness do afford you great opportunities to do good, and to further the salvation of your selves and others: and worldliness and sensuality will rob you of these opportunities. O how many good works might you have done, to the honour of your Lord, and the benefit of others and your selves, if you had made the best of your Interest and Estates? The loss of the Reward will shortly appear to you a greater loss, then that which you now account the loss of your estates.

10. Your worldliness and sensuality is a sin against your own experience, and the experience of all the world. You have long tryed the world; and what hath it done for you, that you should so over-value it. You know that it is the common vote of all that ever tryed it, sooner or later, that it is vanity and vexation. And have you not the wit or grace, to learn from so plain a teacher as Experience, yea your own experience, yea and all the worlds experience.

11. You sin also against your very Reason it self, and against your certain knowledge. You know most certainly that the world will serve you but a little while. You know the day is hard at hand when it will turn you off; and you shall say, I have now had all that the world can do for me: Naked you came into it, and naked you must go out of it. Haud ullas portabis opes Acherontis ad undas. And then you shall more sensibly know what you now so overvalued▪ and what you preferred before God and your salvation, then now I am able to make you know. O what low thoughts will every one of you have of all your pomp and pleasure, your vain-glory and all your fleshly accommodations, when you perceive that they are gone, and leave your souls to the …ustice of that God, whom for the love of them you wilfully neglected? If poor men of mean and low education, were so so…ish as not to know these things, me thinks it should not be …ith you, that are bred to more understanding then they.

12. Lastly, you sin against the most plain and terrible passages of Scripture, seconded with dreadful judgements of God, inflicted either upon your selves, or at least on others of your rank before your eyes. You have read or heard the words of Christ, Luk▪ 9. 25. [For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, and be cast away.] And Luke 12. 33, 34. Sell all that you have, and give alms: provide your selves baggs which wax not …ld, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your hearts be also.] You have heard there the terrible Parable of the Rich man, Luke 12. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. which endeth with [Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided] with this general application, [So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not Rich towards God.] And you have heard that more dreadful Parable, Luke 16. of the Rich man that was cloathed in purple and fared sumptuously, and what was his endless end. You have heard the difficulty of the salvation of the Rich. Luke 18. 24, 25. [How hardly shall they that have Riches enter into the Kingdom of God?] Because they are so hardly kept from loving them inordinately, and trusting in them. You have heard how fully Christ is resolved that no man can be his Disciple that forsaketh not all that he hath for him, Luke 14. 33, 26, 27. And if you go never so far in your Obedience, and yet lack this one thing, to part with all (in affection, and resolution, and practise when he requireth it) and follow Christ in sufferings and wants in hope of a treasure in heaven, its certain that Christ and you must part. Luke 18. 22. You have heard the terrible passages in Jam. 5. 1, 2, &c. and abundance such in the word of God: And yet are you not afraid of worldliness or sensuality? You have seen in England the Riches of abundance quickly scattered, that were long in gathering; and God knows how many lost their souls, to build that which a few years wars pull'd down. And yet when you have but a little breathing time, you are at it again as eagerly as ever; as men that knew no greater good, and are acquainted with no better and more gainful an employment.

Gentlemen, do you know indeed, what it is that you make so great a stir for? which you value at so high a rate? which you hold so fast? which you enjoy so delightfully? You do not know: I dare say by your using of it that you do not know it. Or else you would soon have other thoughts of it, and use it in another manner. Come nearer, and see it through: and look into the inside. Consult not with blind and partial sense; but put on a while the spectacles of faith: go into the Sanctuary, and see the end. Nay Reason it self may t…ll you much of it. When you must part with it, you'l wish it hang'd loose from you, and not been so glued to you, as to tear your hearts. You feel not what the Devils lime-twigs have done, till you are about to take wing, either by an heavenly contemplation, or by death; and then you…l find your selves entangled. The world is like to bad Physitians, quo…um successus Sol intuetur, errores autem Tellus operit. The earth beareth yet all the good it doth you, but Hell hath hidden from you the mischief that it hath done to millions of your Ancestors: and therefore though this their way was their folly, yet do their posterity approve their sayings, Psal. 19. 13. Dic mi…i, saith Bernard, ubi sunt amatores mundi, qui ante pau…a t…n p…nobiscum fuerunt? Nihil ex ej… rema…sit, nisi cin…s & vermes. Attende diligenter, qui sunt & suerunt, si…ru, commederunt & biberunt, riserunt, duxerunt in bonis dies suos, & in puncto ad inferna descenderunt. Hic caro eorum vermibus; illic anima eorum slammis deputatur, donec▪ rursus infelici collegio colligati sempiternis ignibus in volvantur. Who would so value that which he must eternally complain of, and not only say, It hath done me no good, but also say; It hath deceived me and undone me? I would not thank you to make me the Owner of all your Lands and Honours to day, and take it from me all to morrow. What the better now are your Grand fathers, and great Grandfathers, for living in those houses and possessing those lands, and honours and pleasures, that you possess? Vnless they used them spiritually, and holily for God, and heaven, and the common good, they are now in hell for their sensuality upon earth, and are reaping as they have sown, (Gal. 6▪ 7, 8.) and paying dear for all their pleasures. Their bones and dust do give you no notice of any remnants of their honours or delights; and if you saw their souls, you would be further satisfied. It may be there stands agilded Monument, over their rottenness and dust; and it may be they have left an honourable name with those that follow them in their deceit, (and so might the tormented Rich man with his Brethren, Luke 16. who were following him towards that place of torment.) A just judgement of God it is, to to give up men that choose deceit, to be thus befooled. That they should not only despise the durable Riches, and choose a dream of honour, wealth and pleasure here; but also, that their end may answer their beginning, they should also take up with a picture of honour and felicity when they are dead; That their deceived posterity may see a guilded Image bearing an honourable mention of their names, and hear them named with applause, and so may be allured thee more boldly to go after them. And so a shadow of wisdom and vertue, hath a shadow of surviving Honour for its Reward; which alas, neither soul nor body is the better for. You see that all your wealth and honour will not preserve your Honourable Corpse from loathsom putrefaction. How much less will it keep your guilty souls, from the place that you have here been purchasing by your Mammon?

Sic metit Orcus

Grandia cum parvis non exorabilis auro.

If this be your Wealth, and Honour, and Delight, the Lord deliver me from such a selicity—

Haec alii capiunt; liceat mihi paupere cu…u

Securo, charo numine posse frui.

For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, ( or scraped together, as the Hebrew may be turned) when God shall take ( or pull) away his soul? Iob 27. 8. [The triumphing ( or praise) of the wicked is short, ( or but at hand) and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment, Job 20. 5.

Yea one would think that the very troubles and smart that in this life accompanyeth your wealth and honour, in the getting and keeping, and the gripes of conscience, that the fore-thoughts of the parting hour, and your heavy reckoning, must needs mix with all your pleasure and vain glory, unless you have laid asleep your wits; besides your experience of the emptiness and deceit of all that you have overvalued; I say, one would think that this much should somewhat allay your thirst, and calm your minds, and make you think of a better treasure. Sure I am that God would do ten thousand fold more for you, and be better to you; and yet because of some fleshly arguments, you are turned away from him. He cannot be thus loved, and delighted in, and sought, and yet he offereth more for you then the world doth. Saith Augustine, Ecce mundus turbat, & amatur▪ quid si, tranquill us esset? formoso quomodo haereres, qui duplicate page duplicate page sic amplecteris foedum: Flores ejus quomodo colligeres, quia spinis non revocas manum?] And it is just that they should▪ have a bed of thorns, that wilfully make choice of it. Seneca thus justifieth God, that though he give men such perplexities and vexations, it is nullis nisi optantibus, only to them that will needs have it …o, and are choosers of their own distructions: Choosers do I say? Yea and will compass Sea and Land for it? Stretch conscience for it till it tear or can stretch no further? Oppress and defraud for it (some of them): break Vows and Covenants for it▪ sell God and Heaven for it: scrambling with such distracted violence for the smoaky honours, the nominal wealth, the intoxicating pleasures of a few hasty daies, that they care not what they part with for them, nor who they bear down that standeth in their way. Quid non mortalia pectora cogit, Auri Sacre fames—. And is Christ worth no more, then to be sold with Judas for so base a price? Is our heavenly birth-right a thing so base, or the promise of our immortal Crown so uncertain, as to be parted with on Esau's terms? Is God and Endless Glory worth no more, then this comes to! Propter nummos Deum contemnere, saith Hierom, to despise and cast off God, for a thing so base, is the basest kind of despising him. The Idolators that villified him by making images of him, were askt, To whom will you liken me, saith the holy One, Isa. 40. 18, 25. And these sensual and covetous idolators must be asked, [Whom will you match with God? or set up against him, and prefer before him? What will you choose, if you choose not him? What shall be your portion instead of heaven?] Doth it excuse you that the world hath so lovely an aspect? Yes, if God be not more amiable then it, and if his face and favour be not more desirable. Doth it excuse you that the Baits of the world are pleasant and that it offered you fair: Yes if God had not out-bid it, and offered you ten thousand times more, Doth it excuse you that the world is near and certain, and heaven uncertain or out of sight? Yes, if you are beasts that have no Reason to know what will be, but only sense to feel what is; or if God have not given you an infallible promise, befriended by Reason, sealed by multitudes of uncontroled Miracles, and transcribed on his servants hearts; and if the Greatness of the Glory promised were not sufficient to do more at a distance with a man of faith and reason, then childish trifles near at hand; as the Sun at a distance giveth us more light then a glow-worm that is hard by. Yea and if the world which you think so certain, were not certainly transitory and vain; so that he that gets it, is certain shortly to be no gainer, and he that looseth it, to be no looser. You look on a poor praying self-denying Believer, but you look before you on a Saint that shall raign with Christ, and judge the world, when he cometh to be glorified in his Saints, and admired in all them that believe, 2 Thes. 1. 10. You see them sow their seed in tears, but see it not springing up, nor do you foresee the joyful harvest. You see them following Christ through tribulations, bearing his Cross and despising the shame; but you see them not yet set down with him on their thrones. The sight you see, but the triumph you see not. You see them tost at Sea, but you know not how sure a Pilot they have; nor do you see the riches of their fraight. You see sickness or persecution unpinning their corruptible rags, and death undressing them, but you see not the cloathes which they are putting on. You see them laid asleep by death; but you see not their awaking; nor the rising of their Sun, when the Righteous shall have dominion in the morning. The man that is dead to the world you see; but you see not the life that is hid with Christ in God, nor their appearing with him in Glory, when Christ who is their life appears. Your unbelieving souls imagine there will be no May or harvest, because it is now Winter with us: You think the Rose and beautious flowers which are promised us in that Spring, are but delusions, because you know not the vertue of that life thats in the root, nor the Powerful influence of that Sun of the Believers. You see the dead body, but you see not the soul alive with Christ, retired into its Root. You see the Candle put out, and know not whether the flame is gone, and think not how small a touch of the yet living soul will light it again.

And so on the other side, you look on the swaggering Gallant, but you look not on the ulcerous soul; you hear them laughing and jesting in their jovialty; but you hear them not yet groaning in their pains: you see them clambering into the seat of honour, but see them not cast into the grave: you see them run and ride in pompe and pleasure, following the delights of the flesh, attended by their followers that honour and applaud them; but you see them not yet gasping under the pangs of death, nor laid in the dust as still as stones. You see their beauty and glittering attire, but you see not the pale and ghastly face that death will give them, nor the skulls that are stript of all those ornaments; you smell their perfumes, but you smell not their putrefaction; you see their lands and spacious houses and sumptuous furniture; but you see not how narrow a room will serve them in the grave; nor how little there they differ from the most contemptible of men. Nay more; you see them with Ahab going forth to battle, and leaving the Prophets with the bread and water of affliction; but you see them not yet returning with the mortal blow; you see them in their honours and abundance, but see them not on Christs left hand in judgement: you see them cloathed richly and fa…ing deliciously every day; but you see them not in bell torments, wishing in vain for a drop of water to abate their flames: you hear them honoured, and hear their words of pride and ostentation; but you hear them not yet crying out of their folly, and bewailing their loss of present time, and lamenting in vain the unhappy choice that now they make. Sirs, believe it, future things are as sure as present: These things are no fables, because they are not visible yet: You see not God, and yet he is the Principal Intelligible object: you see not your own Intellectual souls; and yet you know you have them, by the Intellection of other things. You see not your own eye-sight; and yet you know that an eye-sight you have, by the seeing of other things. If there were not an Invisible God, there would have been no visible creatures. Visibles are more vile, and are for I visibles that are more noble. Our visible Bodies, are for our Invisible Souls. This visible life, is the womb of everlasting life that is Invisible: we are hatched by the Spirit in this shell, till we are ready to pass forth into that glorious light that here we see not. I beseech you Gentlemen awake, and be not so lamentably deceived, as to think that your honourable Pleasant Dreams, are the only Realities. O no! it is the last awaking hour, that will shew you the now unconceivable Realities. You are now but as in jest in your pomp and pleasure; but you shall then be in good sadness in your pains and loss; if Sanctifying Grace do not prevent it, by putting you out of your feasting vein, and making you in good sadness to be men of Real Faith and Holiness, and lay about you for the Real Ioies. Believe it Sirs, the life of Christianity is not a bare Opinion: It is a living by faith upon a life invisible: and so serious resolving a Belief of the Truth of the everlasting blessedness (as purchased and given b… Iesus Christ to persevering Saints) as effectually▪ turneth the affections and endeavours of the man to the Loving and seeking it above all this world. Its one thing to take God and heaven for your portion, as Believers do; and another thing to be desirous of it as a reservè▪ when you can keep the world no longer. Its one thing to submit to Heaven as a Lesser evil then hell; and another thing to desire it as a greater Good then earth. Its one thing to lay up your Treasure and Hopes in heaven, and to seek it first; and another thing to be contented with it in your Necessity, and to seek the world before it, and give God that the flesh can spare. Thus differeth the Religion of serious Christians, and of Carnal worldly hypocrites▪ But I shall break off my Admonition, and end with some Advice.

Direct. 1. Look upon this world and all things in it, with the fore-seeing eye of Faith and Reason, and vallue it but as it deserves: And then you will neither be eager after it, nor too much delighted in it, nor puft up by it, nor will it so prevalently entice you to venture or neglect eternal things. Did you know and well consider but what an empty fading thing it is, you could never be satisfied with so poor a portion, nor quiet your souls till you had assurance or sound hopes of better things: Nor would you take such pleasure in childish trifles; nor debase your selves, to be so inordinately imployed, about such low and sordid matters, while God and your eternal happiness are laid by. You take not your selves for the basest of men, much less for bruits or ideots: O then do not make your selves the basest, and do not unman your selves, and brutifie your immortal souls. A heathen could say, [Nemo alius est Deo dignus, nisi qui opes contempsit.] If you would be Rich, choose that which will make you Rich indeed: make sure of his favour that is the absolute Lord of all, and then you can want nothing, whatever you may be without. And if yet you thirst for worldly Riches, or inordinately Love them, and tenaciously keep them from your Masters use, remember that this discovereth your disease; and therefore should mind you rather to cure it then to feed it. It is not money nor any thing in this world, that will cure such an empty depraved soul. As Seneca saith, If a sick man be carried about, whether in a bed of gold or a bed of wood, his disease is carried with him. It is not a golden bed that will cure a diseased man: Nor is it all the gold or honour in the world, that will help such a deluded soul, as thinks this world will make him happy. Get but the cure of your Carnal minds, and a little will serve you. For it is your sinful fancy that would have much, and not your nature that needs much. Saith Seneca, Si ad naturam vives, nunquam eris pauper; si ad opinionem, nunquam eris dives: Exiguum natura desiderat; Opinio immensum.] He is not the poor man that hath but little; but he that would have more: Nor is he the Rich man that hath much, but he that is content with what he hath. If you pray but for your daily bread, be not such hypocrites as by the bent of your desires to cross your prayers. The nearest way to Riches, saith the Moralist, is the contempt of Riches; and saith the Christian, to be Rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised all that Love him, Jam. 2. 5. The greatest Riches are got (proportionably) on the easiest terms▪ Loving the world will not procure it: but Loving God will procure the everlasting fruition of his Love. Millions love the world that miss of it: but no man misseth of God that Loveth him, above the world. Buy not these gawds then at a dearer rate, then you may have the Kingdom. If you have not enough, make sure of heaven and that will be enough for you: and get a cure for your diseased minds, which is easier and more profitable then to fulfill them. No man, saith Seneca, can have all the world: but he may have a mind that can contemn all the world. No man can have all that he will▪ but he may be content to be without it. The disease is within you, and there must be the Cure.

Direct. 2. Be sure to fix with a serious faith upon the Inivsible glory as your portion: and then look at all things in this world, as good or bad, as they respect your end: and judge of them as they help or hinder you in the main. Nothing but a truly heavenly mind, is the saving cure of an earthly mind. No man will rightly let go earth, till he have the powerful Light that hath shewed him the greater good, and given him a taste of the world to come. Had you not been strangers to God and heaven (in heart, whatever you were in tongue and fancy) you could never have so fallen in love with earth. None are so much disposed to travail into other Countries, as they that are fallen out with their own. Remember that you have not one penny or pennies worth in the world, but what you had from God, and must be accountable to God for; and must employ with an eye upon his will, and your salvation. I do not call you to cast away your Riches, but to see that you use all that ever you have, as will be most comfortable to you in your last review. I know, as Seneca saith, He is a wise man that can make use of earthen vessels, as if they were all silver: and he is wise too, that can make use of silver vessels as if they were but earth. Infirmi est animi pati non posse divitias: but its one thing to Bear Riches, and Use them for God, and another thing to Enjoy them with delight. I neither take the Monasticks to be the only or the highest in perfection; nor yet do I condemn necessitated retirements. For I know it is hard to most to converse with God in tumults, and to hear the still voice of his Spirit, in the murmuring noise of a crowd: I know that the commons are usually more barren and fruitless then inclosures: and that the fruit-tree that groweth by the high-way side, shall have many a stone and cudgel thrown at it, which those that▪ are in your Orchard scape. But still look to your end, and secure the main: Dream not that you have any full Propriety: Remember that you are Gods Stewards. Set therefore your Masters name and not your own upon every penny-worth you possess: Let Holiness to the Lord be written upon all. Possess nothing but what is Devoted to him, to be used as he would have you. Put him not off with scraps and leavings, that gave you all. So much as you save from him, you lose, and worse then lose; and so much as you lose for him, and surrender to him, and improve for him, you save and more then save. For Godliness with content is great gain. And he that is faithful in a little, shall be made ruler over much. Its thus that all things are sanctified with the Saints.

Direct. 3. Think not that your Riches are given you to fulfill the least inordinate desire of the flesh: Or that you may take ever the more sensual ease or pleasure, if you had all the world: But remember that better wages obligeth you to more work: And therefore rise as early, and labour as hard in your own employment (the more for the common good, the better) yea and deny your flesh a… much, as if you had but food and rayment. If you have much, give the more, and use the more, but enjoy never the more; and let not your sensual desires find ever the more provision: A rich man that is wise, and a faithful Steward; may live in as much self-denyal, and labour as hard, and humble his flesh as much, as he hat hath but his daily bread. God sent you not in provision for his enemy: All that is made the food of sin, or that doth not help you up to God, is employed contrary to the end that you received it for.

Direct. 4. Be sure that you deal with the world as a Deceiver: Be very suspicious of all your Riches, and Honours, and Delights. Feed not on these luscious summerfruits too boldly, or without fear. Remember how many millions the world hath deceived before you. None come to Hell but those that are cheated thither by the flesh and the world. With what exceeding vigilancy then have you need to deal with such a dangerous deceiver; when all your happiness, and all your hopes is at the stake? and if you be deceived, you are undone: Its force is nothing so perillous as its fraud.

—Ubi vincere aperte,

Non datur, insidias arma que recta parat.

They that have to do with such a cheater in a case of such everlasting consequence, should be suspicious of every thing, and trust the world as little as is possible, when, Qui cavet ne decipiatur, vix cavet, cum etiam cavet.

Et cum cavisse ratus est, saepè is cautor captus est (ut Plaut.)

As Bucholcer was went to say when his friends extolled him, terreri se etiam laudationibus illis, ut fulminibus; So should you possess your Honours and Riches in the world. And as the same Bucholcer said to Hubner when he went to be a Courtier: Fidem diabolorum tibi commendo: credere & contremiscere: viz. promissionibus aulicis credere sed cautè, sed timidè: So should you be affected to the world: Trust and tremble; or rather Trust it not all: Nay, have you not been deceived by it already? And will you be more foolish then the silly fish, that will scarcely take the hook that he was once pricked by; or then the silly fowls that will be afraid of the net that once they have escaped from, and of the Kite that once hath had them in her claws: Tranquillas etiam naufragus horret aquas. Nay at the present, if you take any heed of your souls, you may easily perceive what a clog the world is: We are commonly better when we have least of it, or are leaving it, then when we have it at our will. A man may see the utmost visible part of the earth, and the Horizon at once; but if he look on the earth that is near him, he cannot see the heavens at that time, much less the Zenith. Our Own Riches, our Present Riches, our Nearest and Dearest temporal good, is the greatest averter of the mind from heaven. We are commonly like Antigonus sick souldier, that fought well because he lookt to die: but grew a Coward as soon as he was cured. So that most of us have need of the counsel which the Bishop of Colen gave the Emperour Sigismund that askt him, What he should do to be happy? [Live, saith he, as you promised to do, when you were last sick of the stone and gowt.] Even the most notorious sinners seem Saints when they see the world is leaving them. And doth not common reason tell us that that which will so move us then, should prevail with us as much before, when we are certain all our life time that this parting time will come? Indeed the creature as it is annexed unto God and subservient to him, may have an answerable trust and love: The smallest twig that is fast to the tree, may help you out of the water if you lay hold of it; But if it be broken from the tree, it will deceive you, though you hold it never so fast. O therefore look for surer footing: A handfull of water will not save you from being drowned. Build on the Rock of ages, that never faileth them that trust him; though yet the blind unbelieving world, be more distrustful of him, then of that which they have tryed is not to be trusted. A wise man should know him to be trusty that he trusteth in a case that concerneth his salvation. And true Believers and none but they may say with Paul, I know whom I have trusted, 2 Tim. 1. 12.

Direct. 5. Let it be your daily care to keep clear accompts between God and you, of your Receivings and Disbursements. Its time to bewail the expence of that, if it be but a groat, that you cannot give a comfortable account of. When ever you have several waies before you; for the laying out of your money or your time, let the Question be seriously put to your heart, Which of these waies shall I wish at death and judgement that I had expended it? and let that be chosen as the way.

Direct▪ 6. Be sure to watch those thieves that would rob you of your Masters talents that should be employed for his use. And will you give me leave to be plain with you in instancing in a few of them.

1. How many ungodly Gentlemen do wast that in a thing that they call, Great House-keeping, (that is, the inordinate provisions for the flesh, and a freedom for men to play the gluttons or drunkards in their houses) which might have been expended to their greater honour and commodity?

2. How many be there that spend that in unnecessary▪ feasting of their friends that might have been far more advantagiously improved?

3. How many be there that spend more in the excess of one or two suits of apparrel, then would have sufficed to the relief of a distressed family for a twelve moneths space?

4. How many be there that lay out more in needless buildings, walks and gardens, then would save the lives of an hundred or a thousand of the poor, that perish by hunger, (or by diseases bred by want:) They will not spare from their own superfluities, to supply the necessities of their Brethren? Is this loving their neighbours as themselves, and doing as they would be done by?

5. How many be there that spend more needlesly on horses; dogs, or hawks, and cast away more at one game at Dice, or at a Cock-fight, or an Horse-race, then would keep a poor Schollar at the University. (But I hope the Parliament hath cured this.)

6. But the principal and least lamented abuse of Riches, is Childrens excessive portions; For children are as a surviving self: Men think themselves but half dead, while their children live: And therefore as self is that Idol of the wicked, to whom all the creatures of God are sacrificed, so they employ all one way or other for themselves as long as they live, and then leave it when they die, to themselves in their posterity. When they have like unfaithfull Stewards, detained Gods due from him, as long as they live, they leave it to their children to detain it after them. Mistake me not: I perswade you not to be unnatural. Your children must be provided for if you be not worse then Infidels. But I tell you by what Rules I should proceed, were it my case. 1. If I had never such ungodly children, I should provide for them, if I could, their daily bread, and leave them enough for food and rayment, unless they were such as ought not to live, or be maintained. 2. If I had better children, that were likely to use what they had for God▪ I should leave them all that could be spared from more necessary uses, that their lives might be more free from care, and they might be serviceable to God with their wealth when I am dead: And the more confident I were that they would be faithful Stewards of it, the more I should commit to their trust. 3. I should not take it to be my Duty to levell my posterity with the poorer sort, unless some special Call of God, or extraordinary publick exigence did require it. So much for the Affirmative, What I should do for them. But (for the Negative, What I should not do for them) 1. I should think that in a case of some extraordinary Necessities to the Church or Common-wealth, I were bound to alienate all from my posterity, at least, except their food and rayment. 2. I should still in the General conclude that all must be for God, as he is the Owner of me and all; and therefore I should enquire which way it is his will that I should dispose of it. And where my conscience tells me he would have me use it, I should do it, though to the denyal of my self or my posterity. 3. I should alway prefer the Publick Good of Church or Common-wealth, before the personal wealth of my posterity, and therefore should provide for them in a subserviency to the greater good, and not prefer their wealth before it. 4. I should think my self bound to expend all that I had, in that way as might most promote the principal Interest of my Lord, unless in cases where he had tyed me by any special Obligation to a more private expense of it. 5. I should judge that the ordinary Necessities of the Church and poor are so great, as should command me very much to abate of full provisions for my posterity. And for the proportion, I should labour to discern, whether the times were such, and my posterity such, as that the stock of my estate would be more serviceable to God in their hands, or otherwise laid out. For the times and quality of children may make a great alteration in the case. 6. Had I an only son that were notoriously ungodly, I would leave him no more then food and rayment, if I had ten thousand pound a year, but would give it to God for the works in which I might promote his interest. My Reasons are many, which I have touched upon in another discourse. As, 1▪ Such as forfeit their very daily bread, should not have any more then their daily bread: But such notorious wicked ones forfeit their daily bread. He that will not labour, saith Paul, let him not eat, 2 Thes. 3. much more in such greater cases. 2. According to Gods antient Law, Deut. 21. they forfeit their lives, and the parents there were to cause them to be put to death, that were obstinately unreformed. And is the case so altered think you now, as that you are bound to make such children rich, that parents then were bound to put to death? 3. I am not bound to give unnecessary provisions to an enemy of God, to mis-employ it, and strengthen him to do mischief, and be more able to oppress Gods servants, or oppose his Truth, or serve the Devil.

I for bear to mention the proportions of mens estates, that I think they are ordinarily bound to alineate, but shall leave you to Prudence and the General Rules, lest I seem to you to go beyond my line. But in general I must say, that it is a selfish and an hainous errour, to think that men should lay up all that they can gather for their posterity, and all to leave them rich and honourable, and put off God, and all charitable uses, with the crums that fall from their Tables, or with some inconsiderable driblets. If the Rich man in Luke 18. might have followed Christ on such terms as these, he would hardly have gone sorrowfully from him.

1. By this men shew that they prefer their children before God. 2. And that they prefer them before the Church, and Gospel, and the Common-wealth: When an her…ick Heathen would have confessed that his estate and children, and his life were not too good to be sacrificed to his Countrey; as the case of the Decii and many other Romans that gave their lives for their Countrey witnesseth. 3. These men prefer the worldly riches of their children before the souls of men: When they have so many Calls to employ their wealth to the furthering of mens salvation, and put by all that their children may be rich. 4. They prefer their childrens Riches before their own everlasting good: Or else they would not deny themselves the Reward of an holy improvement of their talents, and cast themselves upon the terrible sentence that is past upon unprofitable servants, and all to leave their children wealthy. 5. They prefer the bodily prosperity of their children before their spiritual: Or else they would not be so eager to leave them that Riches, which Christ hath told them is such a snare, and hindrance to mens salvation. 6. They would teach all the world the easie art of never doing good in life or death. For if all must follow their principles, then the Parents must keep almost all for their children, and the children must do the like by their children, and so it must run on to all generations, that their posterity may be kept as rich as their predecessors. 7. How unlike is this to the antient Saints; and how unlike to the general precepts of self-denyal, and doing good to all while we have time, &c. which Christ hath left us in the Gospel. Enable your children to be serviceable in the Church and Common-wealth, as far as you may; but prefer them not before the Church or Common-wealth. Wrong not God, nor your own souls, nor the souls or bodies of other men, to procure your children to be rich. It will not ease your pains in hell, to think that you have left your children Rich on earth. Its few of the great and noble that are Called. They will have an easier way to heaven in a mean estate. Their Nurses milk contented them when first they lived in the world: and will nothing but Lands, and Lordships, and superlative matters now content them? when they have a shorter time to use it? Poor men can sing as merily as the Rich, and sleep as quietly, and live as comfortably, and die as easily: Cantabit vacuus— They are free from abundance of your cares and fears. The Philosopher that had received a great gift of Gold from a Prince, sent it back to him the next morning, and told him that he loved no such gifts as would not let him take his sleep (for thinking what to do with it.)

Direct. 7. Lastly, Study the Art of doing Good, and making your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, that when you go hence you may be received into the everlasting habitations. Remember how much of your Religion doth consist in the Devoting of your selves and all to God, and improving his stock, and being Rich in good works, ready to distribute and communicate, 1 Tim. 6. 18. And how much will be laid upon this at Iudgement, Matth. 25. God doth not call upon you for your charity, as if he would be beholden to you, or needed any thing that you can give him; but because he will thus difference his hearty followers from complementing hypocrites. The poor you shall have alwayes with you: and the Church shall alwayes want your help, and Christ will be still distressed in his members, to try the reality of mens professions, whether they love him above all, or else dissemble with him, and wheeher they have any thing that they think too good for him. It is a certain mark of an hypocrite, to have any thing in this world, so dear to you that you cannot spare it for Christ.

Remember then that it is your own concernment: If you would be ever the better for all your wealth, nay if you would not be undone by it, study how you may be most serviceable to God with it. Cicero could say, that to be Rich is not to possess much, but to use much. And Seneca could rebuke them that so study to encrease their wealth, that they forget to use it. If really you be Christians heaven is your portion and your end: And if so, you can love nothing else, nor use any thing else, rationally, but as a means to attain that end. See therefore in all your expences, how you attain or promote your end. Alas men are so busily building in their way, that they shew us that they take not themselves for travellers: They are so familiar with the world, that they shew us they are not strangers, but at home. They make their garments so fine, and lay such mountains on their backs, that we see they mean not to be serious Runners in the Christian race. The thorny cares that choak Christs seed, do shew that they are barren, and nigh to burning. If you gather Riches for your selves, (Luke 12. 21.) you are standing pits: If you are Rich to God, you will be running springs, or cisterns. There is a blessed Art of sending all your Riches to Heaven before you, if you could learn it, and were willing to be happy at those rates: It is not for your Riches that God will either condemn or save you; but for the Abasing or improving them. Though Lazarus was a beggar, yet Abraham had been rich, whose bosom he was in. Rich men must know, saith Ambrose, that the fault is not in Riches, but in them that know not how to use them, Nam divitiae ut impedimenta sunt improbis, ita bonis sunt adjumenta virtutum. O that you could but be sensible of the difference, betwixt them that can say at last, [We have used our stock for the service of our Lord: We studied his Will and Interest, and accordingly employed all that we had in the world] and them that must say, [We gave now and then an alms to the poor; but for the substance of our estates, we spent it carnally for the flesh, to bear up our pomp and greatness in the world, and then we left it to our children to do the like when we were dead.] There is as wide a difference between the end of these two waies, as there is betwixt Heaven and Hell: And surely the way is connexed to the end. Think not either that you can serve God and Mammon, or that you may live to the world, and die to God. When one was asked whether he had rather be Craesus or Socrates, he answered that he had rather be Craesus while he lived, and Socrates when he came to die: But dream not you of such a choice. Gal. 6. 7, 8. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap: If you sow to the flesh, of the flesh you shall reap corruption: but if you sow to the Spirit, of the Spirit you shall reap everlasting life.]

And this much more let me add, that if you intend your wealth for God, you must not think of evil getting it: For God will not accept a sacrifice, that is got by falshood, rapine or injustice. Nay if you intended it indeed for God, you would not dare to procure it by sin. For God needeth not fraud, perfidiousness or injustice, to promote his service. Pietas sua federa servat. As Austin …aith, Ream linguam non faci…, nisi rea mens: So I say here. Your mind is first guilty of denying God, whatever you pretend, when you dare thus by your deeds deny him.

Yea let me add, that so far should you be from yielding to any temptation to be covetous, for God, for your family, or any good end that may be offered you, that you should make an advantage of such temptations, to watch the world and your deceitful hearts the more narrowly hereafter. And if in all temptations to worldliness, you could turn them to a gain and duty, and over-shoot the tempter in his bow, it were a point of singular zeal and Prudence. When he would put any covetous motion into your mind, or work it into your hands, give then more liberally, or do more good then you did before. Let this be all that the deceitful flesh, and world shall get by you: Fallite, fallentes—Et in laqueos, quos posuere cadant.

I know that flesh and blood will stand in your way with abundance of disswasives, and make you believe, that this so plain and great a duty, is no duty. In the verbal part of godliness it would allow God but little: but in the more costly practical part, much less. Sometime it will tell you that men are so naught that they deserve not your charity: But Christ deserveth it: give it therefore to him Sometime it will tell you of mens unthankfulness: but satis est dedisse; you have done your duty: God accepteth it: Other mens thankfulness, is not your Reward. You are more unthankful your selves to God. You are called to imitate him that causeth his Sun to shine and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust, and that daily bestoweth his mercies on the unthankful. Sometime it will tell you of the uncertainty of reaching the end of your Charity: That if you maintain Schollars to Learning they may prove ungodly: if you leave any considerable gift to pious uses, sacriledgious and rapacious hands may alienate it. But you are sure of succeeding in your ultimate end, which is the pleasing of God and your own salvation: It is not lost to you if it be to others. Cast your bread upon the waters; if you cannot trust God, you cannot obey him, Do your part, and leave his part to himself. Its your part to Give; and its Gods part to succeed it for the attainment of the end He that is worst is likest to fail: And whether think you is better, God or you? and which should be more suspected. He is unworthy the name of a servant of God, that will run no hazard for him. Venter your charity in a way of duty, or pretend not to be charitable. Will you not sow your Masters corn, till you are certain of a plentious increase? And do you think that he will take this for a good account? This is the foolish excuse that Christ hath told you shall have a terrible sentence: you will hide Gods talent for fear of losing it; but wo to such unprofitable servants.

Sometime the flesh will tell you that you may want your selves, or your posterity at least; and that you were best gather till your stock arise to so much or so much, and then God shall have some. A fair bargain! Iust like ungodly men by their Repentance and Conversion; they will sin till they are old, and then they will turn. But few turn that delay with such resolutions. If God have not right to all, he hath right to none. If he have right to all, will you give him none but your leavings. A swine will let another eat when his belly is full. What if you are never richer, will you never do good therefore with what you have?

And for the impoverishing of your self, if you fear being a loser by God, you may keep your Riches as long as you can, and try how you can save your self and them. A mans life consisteth not in the abundance that he possesseth. Do not imagine that you need more then you do. If Monasticks think it their perfection to be wilfully poor, and Seneca thought it the Cynicks wisdom, quod effecit nequid sibi eripi posset; you may much more rejoyce in such an estate if God bring you to it, by or for well-doing. You live in dangerous times: Wars and thieves may soon levell your estates; Can there be greater wisdom then to send it all to heaven, and lay it up with God, and put it into the surest hands; and put it to the only usury? Aut ego fallor, aut regnum est, inter avaros, circumscriptores, latrones, plagiarios, unum esse, cui noceri non possit. Cannot a man live think you without wealth and honour. Siquis de talium faelicitate dubitat, potest idem dubitare, & de deorum immortalium statu, an parum bearè degant, quod illis non praedia, nec horti sint, &c. Sen. As it is the honour of God the first mover, omnia movere ipse non motus; So it is the honour of the greatest Benefactors, omnia dare nihil habentes; He that hath it to Give, hath it more transcendently, then he that hath it but to Use. He that hath most, hath most care, and trouble, and envy, and danger, and the greatest reckoning. Neither Poverty nor Riches, was the wise mans wish, but Convenient food. Optimus pecuniae modus est, qui nec in paupertatem cadit, nec procul à paupertate discedit. Sen. No man doth dissemble, lie, oppress, defraud for love of Poverty; but thousands do it for love of Riches. Neminem vidi tyrannidem gerere propter Paupertatem, plurimos vero propter divitias, saith the Cynick, citante Stob. Poverty is one of the cheapest medicines for the mind, and Riches a dear deceit. A Philosopher calls Poverty a self-taught vertue, and Riches a vice to be acquired with great labour and diligence: Poverty is a Natural Philosophy: an effectual doctrine of temperance: and Riches a Nursery of Pride, voluptuousness and every vice. And Paul comes near it, and speaketh more cautelously, yet home enough, that The love of money is the root of all evil, 1 Tim. 6. 10. and therefore is it self a transcendent evil.

Sweet healthful Temperance is cheap, and may be maintained without any great revenews: it is killing luxury, excess and pride that are so dear, and require so much for their maintenance. Our journey is not of such small moment, nor our way so fair, nor our day so long nor our strength and patience so great, as to encourage us to lo…d our selves with things unnecessary. Christian living is daily sighting; And we use not to fight with our Riches on our backs, but for them. He that swimmeth with the greatest load, is likelyest to sink. Men fancy that evil in a low estate which else they would not feel; and when they have pickt a causless quarrel with it, and undeservedly fallen out with it, they speak abusively of it, and of God himself for casting it upon them. Men love Riches so well, because they love sin so well. Did poverty accommodate mens vices, and feed and satisfie their sinful lusts as well as Riches, it would be loved as well. And if Riches did starve up luxury and voluptuousness as much as Poverty, they would be as much abhor'd. Few men speak highly of Honours, or Riches, or Pleasures at the last; nor hardly of a low or suffering state. And the last judgement is commonly the wisest.

Let not therefore the fear of Poverty deter you from good works. Yea rather give speedily, and do good while you have it, before all be gone and you be disabled. Saith Nazianzen (Orat. de Amor. Pauper.) Deo grat tudinis ergo aliquid tribue, quod ex eorum numero sis, qui de aliis bene mereri possunt, non qui aliorum beneficentia opus habeant: quod in alienas manus non oculos conjectos habeas, sed alii in tuas: Da operam, ut non solum opibus, sed etiam pietate, non solum auro, sed etiam virtute …is locuples. Cura ut proximo tuo idcirco praestan ior sis, quia benignior. Fac calamitoso sis Deus, Dei miserecordiam imitando. Nihil enim tam Divinum homo habet, quam de aliis bene mereri.] If you have no pitty on others, have some on your souls. Give not all your Lands and wealth to your flesh and your posterity: Give some of it to your souls, by giving it to God. Shall your bodies have it, and your souls have none, or but a little? [Hoc solum quod in opibus bonum est, lucremur; nempe ut animas nostras in eleemosynis acquiramus, facultates nostras pauperibus impertiamus, ut coelestibus ditemur. Animae quoque partem da; non carni duntaxat: Deo quoque partem da, non mundo tantum: Ex ventre aliquid subtrahe, & spiritui consecra: Ex igne aliquid eripe, ac procul à depascente flammâ reconde, à tyranno eripe, ac Domino committe—Da exiguum ei à quo multa habes: Da etiam omnia ei, qui omnia donavit: Nunquam Dei munificentiam vinces, etiamsi omnia tua bona proijcias, etiamsi te etiam ipsum bonis tuis adjungas. Nam hoc quoque ipsum Accipere est, nempe Deo donare] saith Gregory Nazianz. ubi sup.

Of any kind of covetousness, there is none more plausibly pretended against works of Charity, then that of some Ministers, that can spare no money, because their Libraries are yet unfurnished with many Books which they would fain have. Yet here we must see, that greater works be not for this omitted. Saith Seneca (de Tranquil.) Studiorum quoque quae liberalissima impensa est, tamdiu rationem habebo, quamdiu modum. Quo mihi innumerabiles libros & bibliothecas, quorum Dominus vix tota vita sua indices perlegit? Onerat discentem turba, non instruit: multoque saitius est paucis te authoribus tradere, quam errare per multos.—Studiosa haec luxuria; imo ne studiosa quidem, quoniam non in studium, sed in spectaculum.—Paretur librorum quantum satis sit; nihil in apparatum—Vitiosum est, ubique quod nimium est.]

Yea more, let me tell you all, and beseech you to consider it: It is your duty even to pinch your flesh, and spare it from your back and belly, that you may have wherewithall to do good. Its no thanks to you to relieve others out of that which you need not your selves: and to give God that which your flesh can spare. Such liberality may stand with little suffering or self-denyal; and therefore will be but a poor proof of your grace. Had I ten thousand pound a year, I should think it my duty for all that, to pinch my flesh, that I might spare as much of it as is possible for God. David would not offer that to God which cost him nothing, 2 Sam. 24. 24. If you fare the hardlyer, and go the plainer in your attire, and deny your selves that which is for any needless pomp or ostentation, or splendor in the world; that you may have so much the more to do good with; you deal then like good husbands for God and your souls, and faithful Stewards. Why should a covetous Miser pinch his flesh more to gather Riches for himself and his posterity, then you should do to gather it for God, and to expend it on the Church and poor? Be as frugal as they; but not to the same end; so you use it for God and your poor Brethren, an honest parsimonie and gathering is a duty; and such an holy covetousness is so far from condemnable, that it is the truest Charity, which God and all wise men will most applaud. I do not mean only to deny your flesh in gross excesses, but to pinch it by a just frugality and abstinence: And yet you shall not say that I am drawing you to extreams. I would not have you so far pinch your flesh as to disable it for duty, but to deny it whatsoever doth not some way help it for duty, that we may not feed our own unnecessary delights, though with a seeming decorum & moderation, while so many about us are pinched with the want of necessaries, and so many publick excellent works are calling for our help. The flesh is to be tamed, and humbled, and brought in subjection, and scanted when greater things require it, but not to be destroyed and made unserviceable. [Infid… huic corp ri quomodo conjunctus sim, haud equidem scio: quoque pacto simul & imago Dei sim, & cum coeno voluter: quod & cum pulchra valetudine est, bello me lacessit, & cum bello premitur, maerore me afficit: quod, & ut conservum amo, & ut in…micum odi at que aversor: quod, & ut vinculum fugio, & ut cohaeres vereor. Si debilitare illud & conficere studeo, jam non habeo quo socio & opitulatore ad res praeclarissimas ut…r; nimirum haud ignorans quam ob causam procreatus sim, quod que me per actiones ad Deum ascendere oporteat. Sin contra ut cum socio & adjutore m…tius agam, nulla jam ratio occurrit, qua rebellantis impetum fugiam, atque à Deo non excidam, compedibus degravatus, vel in terram detrahentibus, vel in ea detinentibus. Hostis est blandus & placidus: invidiosus amicus. O miram conjunctionem & alienationem! Quod metuo amplector, quod amo pertimesco. Antequam bellum gesserim in gratiam redeo: Antequam pace fruar, ab eo dissideo.] Greg. Naz. ubi sup. And for Delight, at least learn of an Heathen how to esteem of it. Sen. de vita beata. Tu voluptatem complecteris; ego compesco: Tu voluptate frueris, ego utor. Tu illam summum bonum putas: ego nec bonum. Tu omnia voluptatis causâ facis: ego nihil.]

What remains now Gentlemen, but that you be up and doing, and look about you where you may have the best bargain to lay out your money on for God and for your souls? Stay not till the Market is over, till thieves have rob'd you, till God in judgement have impoverished you; till meer necessity do constrain you to part with that which you cannot keep; or till the souls or bodies that need your help are removed from your sight. Seek after an object for your Alms as diligently as beggars seek the Alms; you have more cause; for you get more by Giving, then they do by Receiving: If you believe not this, you believe not Christ; and so are Infidels.

The summe of my Advice is, that as men that are drawing near to their account, and love Christ in his members, and believe the promise of Reward, you would Devote your selves and your estates to Christ, and study to do good, and make it your daily trade and business, as men that are zealous of Good works, and created to walk in them, (Tit. 2. 14. Eph. 2. 10.) and not as dropping a little upon the by. Say not that you have not wealth, or interest, or opportunity; The Rich have full opportunities: The poor have their two mites, or their cup of cold water to give to a Disciple. And he that hath neither, may have a Will to give thousands a year: And this is our comfort that have but little, that [if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.] 2 Cor. 8. 12. But where [there is a readiness to will, there will also be a performance out of that which you have] if you be sincere, Vers. 11. Et Nunquam usque eo interclusa sunt omnia, ut nulli actioni honestae locus sit.—Nunquam inutilis est opera civis boni: Au…itu enim, visu, vultu, nutu, obstinatione tacita, incessu que ipso prodest. Ut salutaria quaedam citra gustum tactum que odore proficiunt; ita virtus utilitatem etiam ex longinquo & latens fundit, sive spargitur, & se utitur suo jure; sive precarios habet excessus, cogitur que vela contrahere: sive otiosa muta que est, & angusto circumscripta; sive adaperta: in quocun que habitu est, prodest. Seneca de Tranq. (I give you not these passages of strangers to Christ, as if his Doctrine needed any such patches; but as imagining that the temper of those I speak to, may need such a double testimony, and to see the Book of Nature as well as of Grace: and to let you understand, how unexcusable a Professed Christian is that is worse then an Infidel.)

I have been long, and yet I would I had done. I have taught you, and yet I fear lest you have not learned. I have told you what you knew before, (unless it be because you will not know it;) and yet have more need to hear it, then a thousand things that you never knew. I have set you an easie Lesson, hard to be Learned. Were but your senses Rational, or were your Will but dis-engaged and morally Free, the work were done, and that would be learnt in an hour, that the Church & Common-wealth might rejoyce in till the Sun shall be no more. O had we but such Princes, Nobles and Gentlemen, as were thus Zealous and Studious of Good works, and wholly Devoted and Dedicated unto God, what a Resemblance should we have of Heaven or Earth? How then would our Princes and Nobles be both Loved and Honoured, when their Addictedness to God did make them so Divine? How Honourable then would our Parliaments be, and how chearfully should we flock together for their Election? How dear would our Iudges and countrey Magistrates be to all that have any thing of piety or humanity in them. Kings then would reign in Righteousness, and Princes Rule in judgement; and a man should be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land: And the eyes of them that see should not be dim, and the ears of them that hear should hearken; the heart also of the rash should understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers should be ready to speak elegantly.] Isa. 32. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. what help then should Ministers have in their work, and the souls of all the people for their happiness! and what a shaking would Satans Kingdom feel? Then neither seducers should have this pretence, nor the seduced this temptation as now they have▪ to call their various Modells of Republicks, by such splendid names, and to think Christ Reigns when they Reign; or that it is the only Government, to have all to be Governors, or to have the greatest Liberty to be bad. No forms will reform us and heal our maladies, till we are healed and reformed within. Lead will not be Gold, what form soever you mold it into. And though some waies may be more effectual to restrain the evil, and improve the good, that is among them, yet still the wicked will do wickedly. The The Swordfish and the Thresher would be the Tormentors of Leviathan, and God himself would be impatient of his Tyrannie. And his Brother would mend the matter, who by giving the Power to the vast tumultuous Ocean it self, may find that his Republick is not only inconsistent with a Clergy (an high commendation) but may possibly be as injurious to his Moral Honesty, as any other sort of Tyranny: and might have learned of his chiefest Master, Seneca, (de Tranquil. Anim.) that the free City of Athens could less endure Socrates then the Tyrants, and did put him to death, whom they had tolerated. [Nunquid potes invenire urbem miseriorem quam Atheniensium fuit cum illam triginta tyranni divellerent? Mille trecentos ci…es, optimum quemque occiderant.—Socrates tamen in medio erat—Et imitari volentibus, magnum circumferebat exemplar cum inter triginta dominos liber incederet. Hunc tamen Athenae ipse in carcere occiderunt: Et qui tutò insultaverat agmini tyrannorum, ejus Libertatem libera civitas non tulit.—]

Gentlemen, for the Lords sake, for your souls sake, for the Churches and the Gospels sake, for your Countries sake, and the spritual and corporal good of thousands, awake now from your sloth and selfishness, from your Ambition, Voluptuousness and sordid Worldliness, and give up your selves and all that you have to God by Christ, and to the Common Good, and make the best of all your faculties and interest, for the high and noble Ends of Christians: And convince all self-conceited founders or troublers of the Common-wealth, that you have hit the way of a true Reformation, without any alteration of the form, by correcting your selves the principal Materials. And let them see by your seeking the weale of all, that your form is as truly a Common-weale as theirs, and that they absurdly appropriate the Title to their own. If you deny us this, on you shall lie the blame and shame, and not on our want of a Popular form.

But because I have gone so far with you by perswasion, (though yet I doubt whether indeed you will be perswaded… ▪ I shall not leave you till I have added the …st part of my task, which is to set some Rules and Matter for Good works before you, that if you are but willing, you may set your money to the happyest usury, and that upon the best security.

1. (For General Rules) Aime at no lower an ultimate End in your Charity, then the Pleasing of God, and move from no lower a first moral Principle then the Love of God within you. Seek not self while you seem to Deny it. Give and do good to Christ in his servants.

2. Consider therefore of mens Relations to Christ, and understand where his Interest lyeth in the world. Avoid both their extreams, that would have you do Good to none but Saints, and that would have you do it to all alike. As God hath a special Love to his children, and yet doth Good to all, his mercy being over all his works; and as he is the Saviour of all men, but especially of them that Believe; so must you Love all men as men, and Saints as Saints; and do Good to all men, but especially to them of the houshold of faith, Gal. 6. 10. The New command of special Love, must not be thought to abrogate, the old Commandment of common Love, even of Loving our neighbour as our selves. You must do Good to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple: and to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet, Mat. 10. 42. and yet take the wounded man for your neighbour, that you see lie in your way, Luke 10. 30. I know the Serpentine seed, had rather you would kick against the Pricks, and tread down Christs interest, then there to lay out your greatest Charity. But its God that you have to reckon with, who judgeth not as they. The Philosopher being asked, Why all men were more ready to give to the halt and blind, then to Philosophers, answered, that They thought they might come to be halt and blind themselves, but were never like to be Philosophers: So I may say of many that would be content that you feed the common poor with bread, but the Disciples of Christ with stones. They think they may be poor themselves, but they are never like to be Christs Disciples: Nay some of them (such as Clem. writes in his mock▪ fides divina) will perswade you that its a sottish thing to conceive that any have Christs Spirit now, that work not Miracles, and that he hath no Church, Ministry or Saints, that is, that Christianity is not the right Religion, unless it had present Miracles to warrant it. And then you might be excused rather for your uncharitableness to it, then for your Charity. But wisdom is justified of all her children: And the mouths of her enemies will be quickly stopt: and they shall then know that Christ is Lord and Iudge, without either faith or further Miracles.

3. When you have two Good works before you, prefer the Greater, and choose not the less.

4. Caeteris Paribus, let Works of Spiritual and everlasting concernment, be prefer'd, to those that are meerly temporal.

5. And let Works for the Publick Good, of Church or Common-wealth▪ be preferred before private Works.

6. Let God have All in one way or other: even that which your selves and families receive: Take it but as your daily bread to support you in his service. Do not limit God, or tie him to any part. Take heed of Reserving any thing from him, or of halving with him, as Ananias and Saphira. He deserveth and he expecteth all. That which he hath not, you have not, but Satan hath it. You lose it, if you return it not to him.

And now in the Conclusion, I shall presume (though I foresee I may incurr a censure for it) to give you a Catalogue of some of those good works which are seasonable in our daies, by which you may make your reckoning comfortable. And do not think that God is beholden to you for it, if you perform them all: but take it as the happyest bargain that you can make: and thankfully take the opportunity while it is offered you, remembering that there is no such security nor advantage, to be made of your money, in any way as for God: and that it is more blessed to Give then to Receive: Say not another day but that you had a price in your hands: if you have not an Heart, you must suffer with the unfaithful.

A Catalogue of seasonable Good Works, presented to them that are sanctified to God, and dare trust him with their Riches, expecting the everlasting Riches which he hath promised, and are zealous of Good Works, and take it for a precious Mercy that they may be exercised therein.

1. ENquire what persons, burdened with children, or sickness, or on any such occasion labour under necessities, and relieve them, as you are able, and find them fit. And still make advantage of it for the benefit of their souls, instructing, admonishing and exhorting them, as they have need. If you give them any annual gift of cloathes, bread or money, engage them to learn some Catechism withall, and to go to the Minister and give him an account of it. Some I know that set up a monethly Lecture to be fitted to the poor, and give six pence or twelve pence to a certain Number of poor that hear it.

2. As far as Law will enable you, bind all your Tenants in their Leases to learn a Catechism, and read the Scripture, and be once a year at least accountable to the Minister, of their Profiting. If you cannot do this, at least, use your Interest in every Tenant you have to do it, and to seek God and worship him in their families (in which let your own families be eminently exemplary.) It is very much that Landlords might do for God if they had hearts. Discountenance the ungodly. Encourage the good: Give them back some little, when they pay their Rent, to hire them to some duty. And think not too much to go to their houses for such ends.

3. Buy some plain and rowzing Books, that tend to Conversion and are fittest for their Condition, and give them to the families that most need them, getting them to promise you to read them twice over, at least, and then to give their Teachers an account of the effect, and receive Instructions from them for their further profit. Many have this way received much good. Or you may buy the Books, and trust the Ministers to distribute them, and engage the receivers to read them, or to hear them read.

4. Take the children of the poor, and set them Apprentices to some honest trade, and be sure you choose them Godly Masters, that may take care of their souls as well as of their bodies: Or if you are able, settle a perpetual allowance for this use, entrusting the Minister with the choice of a Godly Master for them, and whom you see meet with the choice of the boies.

5. In very great Congregations that have but one Minister, nor are able and willing to maintain another, it is a very good work to settle some maintenance for an Assistant▪ without whom the flock must needs be much neglected: Impropriations may be bought in to that use.

6. To settle Schools in the more rude parts of the Countrey, where they use not to teach their children to read, or in Market Towns where people are numerous, is a very good work.

7. It is one of the best works I know within the reach of a mean mans purse, to maintain Scholars (in Sizers places) at about 10. l. per annum charge, till they are capable either of the Ministry, or of some other station in order to it, where they can maintain themselves. As also to maintain some of the choiceest parts for some special studies. There is an Intent of some to propound this work in a method fit for the whole Nation to concur in. T…ll that be done, any Rich man that is willing to do Good, may entrust some able Godly Ministers with the choice of the fittest youths (which is the greatest matter) and may allow them necessary maintenance. How many souls may be saved by the Ministry of one of these? And how can money be better husbanded?

8. It will be a very Good work also conjunctly to encourage Manufactures or other trades, and Piety too, if in Cities and Corporations, some yearly rents be given on these terms: That several of the honestest tradesmen, may have 5. l. or 10. l. a piece yearly of this Rent, lent them freely for four or five years to trade with, putting in security to repay it: And so the stock will encrease, and more Land may be bought by it after certain years, to go on to the same use: (only let the Trustees have power to remit all or part where there is an extraordinary unexpected failing) And that the fittest men may still receive it, some godly Trustees may be chosen, who may choose their successors; the Minister being one, as likest to choose the fittest subjects of this beneficence. If Honest men be kept up, they will better relieve the poor, then if it were left to their own hands.

9. It would be a blessed Work for our Rulers and some Rich men to erect a Colledge (at Salop, I think the only fit place, for many Reasons) for the education of Scholars for the use of Wales; a Countrey, whose present misery, and antient honour, and readiness to receive the Gospel, and zealous profession of what they know, should encourage all good men to help them. Too few will send their sons to our present Universities, and too few of those that come thither are willing to return. But if this may not be done, the next way, will be to add some Charitable help for them in Oxford, obliging them to return to the service of their Countrey.

10. Were I to speak to Princes, or men so Rich and Potent as to be able to do so good a Work, I would provoke them to do as much as the Jesuites have done, in seeking the Conversion of some of the vast Nations of Infidels, that are possest of so great a part of the world: viz. To erect a Colledge for those whom the Spirit of God shall animate for so great a Work, and to procure one or two of the Natives out of the Countries whose Conversion you design, to Teach the Students in this Colledge their language (which its like might be effected.) And when they have learned the Tongues, to Devote themselves to the Work, where by the Countenance of Embassadors, Merchants, Plantations or any other means, they may procure access and liberty of speech. Doubtless God would stir up some among us, to venture on the labour and apparent danger, for so great a work: If we be not better principled, disposed and resolved to do or suffer in so good a cause, then the Jesuites are, we are much to blame. And where we can but have opportunity, we are like to do mu… more good then they. 1. Because they are so importunate every where for the Interest of the Pope, that the People presently smell it to be but a selfish secular design. 2. Because when they have taken them from their Heathenish Idolatry, and taken down their Images, they set up the Divine Worship of the Host, and the Cross, and the Religious worship of the Virgin Mary and the Saints, with prayers to them, in the stead, with such abundance of Ceremonious additions, that the people think it is as good be where they are; as if it were but the taking down one Daimon or Divus to set up another in a kind of emulation and they think that every Countrey should continue the worship of their antient Patrons or Daimons. Whereas if we went among them, with the plain & pure Gospel, not sophisticated by these superstitions, with a simple intention of their spiritual good, without any designs of advantage to our selves, its like we might do much more, and might expect a greater blessing from God; as Mr. Eliot and his helpers find of their Blessed labours in New England, where if the languages, and remote habitations (or rather no habitations but dispersions) of the inhabitants did not deny them opportunity of speech, much more might be effected. And though the Mahometans are more cruel then the Heathens against any that openly speak against their superstition and deceit, yet God would perswade some, its like, to think it worth the loss of their lives to make some prudent attempt in some of those vast Tartarian or Indian Countries, where Christianity hath had least access and audience. As difficult works as these are, the Christian Princes and people are exceedingly too blame, that they have done no more in attempting them; and have not turned their private quarrels, into a common agreement for the good of the poor uncalled world.

I have told you of divers waies, in which you may secure your wealth from loss, and make an everlasting advantage of it. Those that have Power and not a Will, shall lose the Reward, and have the condemnation of unfaithful Stewaras. Those that have Power and an envious evil Will, that desireth not the Churches good, shall moreover have the Punishment of Malignant enemies. Those that have neither Power nor Will, or are both Impotent and Malignant, shall be judged according to what they would have done, if they had been able. Those that have an unfeigned Will, but not Power shall be accounted as if they had done the works: for God accepteth the will for the deed: All these Good Works are yours, poor Christians, that never did them, if certainly you would have done them, notwithstanding the difficulty, cost and suffering if you had been able. But it is the godly Rich, that are both Able and Willing, and actually perform them, that will profit both themselves and others, that both their own and others souls may have the comfort of it. I shall lay some of the words of God himself before your eyes, and heartily pray for the sake of your own souls, and the publick Good, that you may excell Papists as far in Works of Charity, as you do in the soundness of Doctrine, Discipline and Worship.

Gentlemen, excuse the necessary Freedom of speech, and Accept the Seasonable, Honourable, Gainful Motion, propounded to you from the Word of God, by

Feb. 20. 1657/8 Your faithful Monitor, Rich. Baxter.