The Sure Way to Wealth Infallible, Title page – Epigraph
The Sure Way to Wealth. INFALLIBLE DIRECTIONS To get and keep Sufficient RICHES; Even while Taxes Riſe, and Trades Sink. By DANIEL BURGESS, Paſtor of a Church near Covent-Garden, London.
This is the Way, walk ye in it, Iſa. 30.21.
My God ſhall ſupply all your Need, Phil. 4.19.
London, Printed for Andrew Bell and Jonas Luntley at the Peſtle and Mortar, over againſt the Horſe-ſhoe-Tavern in Chancery-Lane. MDCXCIII.
To my dear Brothers and Siſters;
Mr. OBADIAH BURGESS,
Mr. WILLIAM BURGESS,
Mrs. MARY HAUSE,
Mrs. SARAH PLUMMER,
Mrs. HANNAH LEWIS,
Mrs. ELIZABETH HARRISON:
With their faithful Conſorts.
THIS Branch of Directions hath been thought likely to bear good Fruit; and the more, becauſe it puts forth in ſo ill Times. Ill Ones, as they are called by thoſe through whoſe Means they are ſo made.
I have taken the Weather-ſide of them; and made their worſt Winds to blow good unto my Arguments. Which are more than a little ſtrengthned, by the Decays of our Foreign and Home-trade, and their conſumptive Effects.
Vexation, the Hebrews ſay, gives Underſtanding. And Oppreſſion is known to have made mad Men wiſe, as well as wiſe Men mad. Who dares ſay, that there is no place for our hope of the Experiment? It was in a howling Wilderneſs, that Iſrael was taught the Law; it may be, in this howling and murmuring ſtate of ours, we ſhall be better taught the Goſpel.
Being perſwaded to make publick this Eſſay, it liked me jointly to ſalute you in this Entry. So expreſſing my dutiful Regard to your Souls, in my miniſtration unto others; wherein I cannot own my ſelf ſhort, when it hath not been thus expreſs'd. An eldeſt Brother ſhould be as a Father, ſaid one; unto whom I aſſent. And having inſcribed another ſmall Writing to your Nephew and Nieces, I reſolved to mete like Meaſure, and inſcribe this to your ſelves: Who are as truly dear unto me, and from whom I am as undivided in Joys and Sorrows, as from thoſe Apples of my Eyes.
You will all join with me in the Doxology, to which I am carried by the thoughts of you. Good is the Lord, whoſe we are, and whom we ſerve. Let our Father's Houſe ſay, His Mercy endureth for ever. For,
In his good Pleaſure and rare Mercy, we, the Children of his Servants do continue, every one of us. We continue in the Land of the Living, and in the Houſe of God. None buried, none dead while he liveth, or Excommunicated. None is gone down to the Duſt, in the ſenſe of the Pſalmiſt, (Pſal. 22.29.) not one ſunk into ignominious Poverty. As on the other hand, no one is of the very Fat of the Earth; no one hath his Houſe full of Silver and Gold. God hath choſen for all, what Agur choſe for himſelf, neither Poverty nor Riches. Not one Name infamouſly ſtained; not one Body deformed; not one Limb or Senſe diſabled. Ʋnto every one is a Help-meet; a Covering of the Eyes,Gen. 20.16. Ezek. 24.26. that is the deſire of them.
We are Children ſo beloved for our Father's ſake, and Mother's: For ſake of the Covenant made with them by their God: VVho hath brought upon us, that which he promiſed them for us. There faileth not ought of any good thing which the Lord ſpake unto them, and for which they truſted him.
Signally illuſtriouſly truſted him; Chuſing rather to ſuffer Afflictions with the People of God, and to make us partakers of their Sufferings at Malborough, than to enjoy the Opulence of Collingburn-ducis for a Seaſon: To name no more, well known in Wiltſhire.
Let our Seal be ſet, God is true! The Juſt Man walks in his Integrity, and his Children are bleſſed after him!
And let this Vote paſs into an Act; He is our God, we and our Houſes will ſerve him; He is our Father's God, and we will exalt him.
So ſhall we do, if theſe Rules be followed. I mean, with theſe Cautions taken; viz. That God's Glory be the higheſt End of our Obedience; and we do not obey ultimately for Self-ends. That our Reward which we dutifully expect, be not look'd for as our Merit; but we ſtill acknowledg that our Services deſerve not a drop of Water, while we conclude that Grace will follow them with the Rivers of God's Pleaſure.
My Prayers aſcend inceſſantly for you and your little Ones. Nor hath our God greater Bleſſings, than thoſe that I ask him for you. And of you all, chiefly for that Family which Providence hath placed moſt remotely from us, in another Kingdom. Ʋnto which we all owe peculiar Offices of Love, whereto I muſt hope none will ever be difficult, but all continue moſt forward.
I am, Your moſt affectionate Brother, and Servant in Love, Daniel Burgeſs.
S. Woodford in Paraphraſe on Pſal. 37, and 34.
IN War good Men are kept, in Famine fed:
In the worſt Times, bluſh not, nor be afraid;
God, who's their Shield, himſelf doth find them Bread;
And only makes their Enemies diſmay'd.
Sinners, like Fat of Lambs, ſhall waſte,
And only leave a Smoak behind,
To be the Triumph of the Wind;
Their Goods ill gotten ſhall not laſt,
But like their ſudden Growth, their End ſhall come as faſt.
Say, Lord, this poor Man to thee cried,
And thou heardſt him; why then am I denied?
I who no leſs am thy great Care,
Since equally round both encamp'd thine Angels are.
Try God but thus, and thou ſhalt know
Thy Joy as certain, as my Joys are now:
How good God is, how happy they,
Who make his Pow'r their Hope, his Love their Stay!
Dread him! for if he has thy Fear,
Thou may'ſt be confident thy Wants ſhall have his Ear.
He'l be himſelf thy mighty Store,
When ſavage Lions ſhall for Hunger roar:
While thoſe that glory in their Gold,
And in his own Chains would the Priſoner hold,
Spoilers themſelves are Captives made,
And into ſudden Want, which they leaſt fear'd, betray'd.