will save no man because he is poor; but condemn poor and rich that are ungodly.

Tempt. vIII. Another great temptation of the poor, is to neglect the holy education of their children; so that in most places, there are none so ignorant, and rude, and heathenish, and unwilling to learn, as the poorest people and their children; they never teach them to read, nor teach them any thing for the saving of their souls; and they think that their poverty will be an excuse for all. When reason telleth them, that none should be more careful to help their children to heaven, than they that can give them nothing upon earth.

Direct. Ix. Be acquainted with the special duties of the poor; and carefully perform them.' They are these,

1. Let your sufferings teach you to contemn the world; it will be a happy poverty if it do but help to wean your affections from all things below; that you set as little by the world as it deserveth.

2. Be eminently heavenlyminded; the less you have or hope for in this life, the more fervently seek a better*. You are at least as capable of the heavenly treasures as the greatest princes; God purposely straiteneth your condition in the world, that he may force up your hearts unto himself, and teach you to seek first for that which indeed is worth your seeking.

3. Learn to live upon God alone; study his goodness, and faithfulness, and all-sufficiency; when you have not a place nor a friend in the world, that you can comfortably betake yourselves to for relief, retire unto God, and trust him, and dwell the more with him. If your poverty have but this effect, it will be better to you than all the riches in the world.

4. Be laborious and diligent in your callings; both precept and necessity call you unto this; and if you cheerfully serve him in the labour of your hands, with a heavenly and obedient mind, it will be as acceptable to him, as if you had spent all that time in more spiritual exercises; for he had rather have obedience than sacrifice; and all things are

x Phil. iii. 18. 20, 21. 2 Cor. v. 7, 8.

y Matt. vi. 33. 19-21.

z Gal. ii. 20. Psal lxxiii. 25-28. 2 Cor. i. 10.

pure and sanctified to the pure; if you cheerfully serve God in the meanest work, it is the more acceptable to him, by how much the more subjection and submission there is in your obedience a.

Va

5. Be humble and submissive unto all. A poor man proud is doubly hateful: and if poverty cure your pride, and help you to be truly humble, it will be no small mercy to you b.

6. You are specially obliged to mortify the flesh, and keep your senses and appetites in subjection; because you have greater helps for it than the rich: you have not so many baits of lust, and wantonness, and gluttony, and voluptuousness as they.

7. Your corporal wants must make you more sensibly remember your spiritual wants; and teach you to value spiritual blessings; think with yourselves, if a hungry, cold and naked body, be so great a calamity, how much greater is a guilty, graceless soul! a dead or a diseased heart? If bodily food and necessaries are so desirable, O how desirable is Christ, and his Spirit, and the love of God and life eternal?

8. You must above all men be careful redeemers of your time; especially of the Lord's day; your labours take up so much of your time, that you must be the more careful to catch every opportunity for your souls! Rise earlier to get half an hour for holy duty; and meditate on holy things in your labours, and spend the Lord's day in special diligence, and be glad of such seasons; and let scarcity preserve your appetites.

9. Be willing to die; seeing the world giveth you so cold entertainment, be the more content to let it go, when God shall call you; for what is here to detain your hearts?

10. Above all men, you should be most fearless of sufferings from men, and therefore true to God and conscience: for you have no great matter of honour, or riches, or pleasure to lose as you fear not a thief, when you have nothing for him to rob you of.

11. Be specially careful to fit your children also for hea

a Ephes. iv. 28. Prov. xxi. 25. 1 Sam. xv. 22. 2 Thess. iii. 8. 10.

b Prov. xviii. 23.

ven: provide them a portion which is better than a kingdom; for you can provide but little for them in the world.

12. Be exemplary in patience and contentedness with your state for that grace should be the strongest in us, which is most exercised; and poverty calleth you to the frequent exercise of this.

Direct. x. Be specially furnished with those reasons which should keep you in a cheerful contentedness with your state; and may suppress every thought of anxiety and discontent.' As 1. Consider as aforesaid, that that is the best condition for you which helpeth you best to heaven; and God best knoweth what will do you good, or hurt. 2. That it is rebellion to grudge at the will of God; which must dispose of us, and should be our rest. 3. Look over the life of Christ, who chose a life of poverty for your sakes; and had not a place to lay his head. He was not one of the rich and voluptuous in the world; and are you grieved to be conformed to him. 4. Look to all his apostles, and most holy servants and martyrs. Were not they as great sufferers as you? 5. Consider that the rich will shortly be all as poor as you. Naked they came into the world, and naked they must go out; and a little time makes little difference. 6. It is no more comfort to die rich than poor; but usually much less: because the more pleasant the world is to them, the more it grieveth them to leave it. 7. All men cry out, that the world is vanity at last. How little is it valued by a dying man? And how sadly will it cast him off! 8. The time is very short and uncertain, in which you must enjoy it: we have but a few days more to walk about, and we are gone. Alas, of how small concernment is it, whether a man be rich or poor, that is ready to step into another world? 9. The love of this world drawing the heart from God, is the common cause of men's damnation: and is not the world more likely to be over-loved, when it entertaineth you with prosperity, than when it useth you like an enemy? Are you displeased, that God thus helpeth to save you from the most damning sin? And that he maketh not your way to heaven more dangerous? 10. You little know the troubles of the rich. He that hath much, hath much to do with it, and much to care for; and many persons to deal with,

c Phil. iii. 7-9.

and more vexations than you imagine. 11. It is but the flesh that suffereth; and it furthereth your mortification of it. 12. You pray but for your daily bread, and therefore should be contented with it. 13. Is not God, and Christ, and heaven, enough for you? Should that man be discontent that must live in heaven? 14. Is it not your lust, rather than your well-informed reason that repineth? I do but name all these reasons for brevity: you may enlarge them in your meditations.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Directions for the Rich.

I HAVE said so much of this already, Part i, about covetousness or worldliness, and about good works, and in my book of "Self-denial," and that of "Crucifying the World;" that my reason commandeth me brevity in this place 2.

Direct. I. Remember that riches are no part of your felicity; or, that if you have no better, you are undone men.' Dare you say, that they are fit to make you happy? Dare you say, that you will take them for your part? and be content to be turned off when they forsake you? They reconcile not God; they save not from his wrath; they heal not a wounded conscience; they may please your flesh, and adorn your funeral, but they neither delay, nor sanctify, nor sweeten death, nor make you either better or happier than the poor. Riches are nothing but plentiful provision for tempting, corruptible flesh. When the flesh is in the dust, it is rich no more. All that abounded in wealth, since Adam's days, till now, are levelled with the lowest in the dust.

6

Direct. 11. Yea, remember that riches are not the smallest temptation and danger to your souls.' Do they delight and please you? By that way they may destroy you. If they be but loved above God, and make earth seem better for you than heaven, they have undone you. And if God

a See more in my Life of Faith.'

recover you not, it had been better for you to have been worms or brutes, than such deceived, miserable souls. It is not for nothing, that Christ giveth you so many terrible warnings about riches, and so describeth the folly, the danger, and the misery of the worldly rich. And telleth you how hardly the rich are saved. Fire burneth most, when it hath most fuel; and riches are the fuel of worldly love, and fleshly lust.

Direct. 111. Understand what it is to love and trust in worldly prosperity and wealth.' Many here deceive themselves to their destruction. They persuade themselves, that they desire and use their riches but for necessity; but that they do not love them, nor trust in them, because they can say that heaven is better, and wealth will leave us to a grave! But do you not love that ease, that greatness, that domination, that fulness, that satisfaction of your appetite, eye, and fancy, which you cannot have without your wealth? It is fleshly lust, and will, and pleasure, which carnal worldlings love for itself; and then they love their wealth for these. And to trust in riches, is not to trust that they will never leave you; for every fool doth know the contrary. But it is to rest, and quiet, and comfort your minds in them, as that which most pleaseth you, and maketh you well, or to be as you would be. Like him in Luke xii. 18, 19. that said, "Soul take thy ease, eat, drink, and be merry, thou hast enough laid up for many years." This is to love and trust in riches.

а

Direct. IV. Above all the deceits and dangers of this world, take heed of a secret, hypocritical hope of reconciling the world to heaven, so as to make you a felicity of both; and dreaming of a compounded portion, or of serving God and mammon.' The true state of the hypocrite's heart and hope is, 'To love his worldly prosperity best, and desire to keep it as long as he can, for the enjoyment of his fleshly pleasures; and when he must leave this world against his will, he hopeth then to have heaven as his reserve; because he thinketh it better than hell, and his tongue can say, It is better than earth, though his will and affections say 'the contrary.' If this be your case, the Lord have mercy xvi. 19-21, &c. xviii. 21-23, &c. Rom. xiii. 13, 14.

Luke xii. 17-20. c 1 John ii. 15, 16.