is our body, as the last is of the shoe: if the shoe be too big for the foot, it is but troublesome and useless; and how poor an answer would it be of the cordwainer to say, that he had leather good store! It is fitness, which is to be regarded here, not largeness.

Neither is this any other than the charge of the blessed Apostle; Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content ; 1 Tim. vi. 8. And if we have no more, we shall be but as we were, as we shall be: For we brought nothing into the world, neither shall we carry any thing out; v. 7.

SECT. 4.

It may be good for us to be held short.

THOU hast parted with thy wealth :-Perhaps, for thine own good. How many have we known, that have been cumbered with plenty, like as the ostrich or bustard with bulk of body, so as they could not raise their thoughts to spiritual things; who, when their weight hath been taken off, have mounted nimbly towards their heaven! How many have we known, that had lost their lives, if, with the Philosopher, they had not forgone their gold! Yea, how many, that had lost their precious souls! The whole vessel had sunk in this boisterous sea, if the luggage of this earthly freight had not been cast overboard. And why art thou so troubled to lose that, which might have undone thee in the keeping?

SECT. 5.

The danger of abundance.

THOU hadst wealth:-Hast thou not parted with that, for which many a man hath been the worse? worse, both in body and soul: and by which never any soul was better? Have we not seen many good corn-fields marred with rankness? have we not seen many a good bough split with the weight of too much fruit? Whereas those fields, had they been either thinner sown or seasonably eaten down, had yielded a fair crop; and those boughs, had they been but moderately laden, had outlived many autumns.

Dost thou not hear thy Saviour say, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! Mark x. 23. Art thou troubled, that there is a rub removed out of thy way to happiness? that the bunch of the camel is taken off, if yet thou mayest pass through the eye of the needle?

SECT. 6.

The cares that attend wealth.

THOυ hadst riches:-But hadst thou not cares to boot? Surely, else thou hast fared better than all thy neighbours. Nobody, but thyself, could ever handle these roses, without pricking his fingers.

He was famous amongst the Jewish Doctors, whose rule it was, "He, that multiplies riches, multiplies cares:" and our Blessed Saviour hath coupled these two together, The cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches; Mark iv. 19.

We have heard of one, who was glad to be rid of his latelyfound bag, that he might sleep and sing again. He was noted and envied at Rome for his wealth, which could experimentally say, "The poor man laughs more often and more heartily than the rich" and tells us, that "outward felicity is an unquiet thing, never ceasing to vex itself."

Thy sides are now rid of these thorns: why dost thou grumble at thine own ease?

SECT. 7.

The imperiousness of ill-used wealth.

THOU lately possessedst great riches :-Yea, mayest thou not rather say, thou wert possessed of them?

That wise Roman truly observed, that "many a one hath wealth, as we are wont to say, a man hath taken an ague; when, indeed, the ague hath taken him, and holds him in a painful manner." The truth is, many a man's wealth is his master, and keeps him under hard conditions; not allowing him sufficient diet, not competent rest, not any recreation. If thou wert thus a drudge to thine estate, thou art now thine own man enjoy thy liberty; and, together with thy patience, be thankful.

SECT. 8.

The causes and means of impoverishing us.

THOU art very poor :-Who made thee so?

If thine own negligence, laziness, improvidence, unthriftiness, rash engagements; thou hadst reason to bear that burthen,

Rab. Gamaliel.

h Sen. Ep. 80.
* Ep. 109.

i

Epist. 36.

which thou hast pulled upon thine own shoulders: and, if thou be forced to make many hard faces under the load; yet, since thy own will hath brought upon thee this necessity, even the necessity should move thy will to trudge away, as lightly and as fast as thou mayest, with that pressing weight.

If the mere oppression and injury of others, thou shalt the more comfortably run away with this cross, because thine own hand hath not been guilty of imposing it. How easy is it for thee here, to see God's hand chastising thee by another man's sin! and more to be grieved at the sin of that other's wrong, than at thine own smart!

How sad a thing it is, for any good soul to see brethren a prey to each other! that neighbours should be like the reed and the brake set near together, whereof the one starves the other! that we should have daily occasion to renew that woeful comparison of our Bromiard', betwixt the friends and enemies of Christ; That Jews do not suffer beggars; that Christians make beggars!

In the mean time, if God think fit to send poverty to thy door upon the message of men, bid it welcome, for the sake of him, that sent it; and entertain it, not grudgingly, for its own sake; as that, which, if it be well used, will repay thee with many blessings: the blessings of quiet rest, safe security, humble patience, contented humility, contemptuous valuation of these earthly things; all which had balked thy house, in a prosperous condition.

SECT. 9.

The examples of those who have affected poverty.

THOU art stripped of thy former conveniences for diet, for lodging, for attendance:-How many have purposely affected to do that out of choice, which is befallen thee upon need: some, out of the grounds of philosophy; others, of religion!

Attalus, the philosopher, might have lain soft; yet he calls for and praises the bed and pillow, that will not yield to his body and Nero's great and rich master brags of his usual dining without a table".

:

What should I tell then of the Pharisees' uneasy couches and penal garments? of the mats of the elect Manichees? of the austere usages of the ancient Eremitical Christians? their rigorous abstinences, their affamishing meals, their nightly watchings, their cold ground-lyings, their sharp disciplines? Thou art in ease and delicacy, in comparison of these men, m Sen. Epist. 108.

Brom. V. Eleemosyna.

" Epist. 83.

who voluntarily imposed upon themselves these hardnesses, which thou wouldst be loth to undergo from others' cruelty.

It was a strange word of Epicurus, the philosopher, not savouring of more contentment than presumption: "Give us but water, give us but barley-meal, and we shall vie with Jupiter himself for happiness":" and if this Ethnic, who was in an ill name for affectation of pleasure, could rest so well pleased with a poor mess of water-gruel; what a shame were it for us Christians, not to be well apaid with a much larger, though but homely, provision!

CHAP. IX.

COMFORTS AGAINST IMPRISONMENT.

SECT. 1.

The nature and power of true liberty.

THOU art restrained of thy liberty:-I cannot blame thee to be sensible of the affliction. Liberty is wont to hold competition for dearness, with life itself: yea, how many have lost their life, to purchase their liberty!

But, take heed, lest thou be either mistaken, or guilty of thine own complaint: for, certainly, thou canst not be bereaved of thy liberty, except thou wilt. Liberty is a privilege of the will: will is a sovereign power, that is not subject to either restraint or constraint. Hast thou, therefore, a freedom within; a full scope to thine own thoughts? It is not the cooping up of these outward parts, that can make thee a Prisoner.

Thou art not worthy of the name of a man, if thou thinkest this body to be thyself: and that is only it, which human power can reach unto.

Besides, art thou a Christian? then thou hast learned to submit thy will to God's: God's will is declared in his actions; for, sure, what he doth, that he wills to do. If his will be then to have thee restrained, why should it not be thine? And, if it be thy will to keep in, what dost thou complain of restraint?

SECT. 2.

The sad objects of a free beholder's eye.

THOU art restrained :-Is it such a matter, that thou art not suffered to come abroad? How ill hast thou spent thy time, if

Epic. in Ep. Sen. 110.

thou hast not laid up matter, both of employment and contentment, in thine own bosom !

And what such goodly pleasure were it for thee, to look over the world, and to behold those objects which thine eye shall there meet withal: here, men fighting; there, women and children wailing; here, plunders; there, riots: here, fields of blood; there, towns and cities flaming: here, some scuffling for patrimonies; there, others wrangling for religion: here, some famishing for want; there, others abusing their fulness; here, schisms and heresies; there, rapines and sacrileges! What comfortable spectacles these are, to attract or please our eyes! Thy closeness frees thee from these sights; the very thought whereof is enough to make a man miserable: and, instead of them, presents thee only with the face of thy keeper, which custom, and necessity hath acquitted from thy first horror.

SECT. 3.

The invisible company, that cannot be kept from us.

THOU art shut up close within four walls, and all company is secluded from thee:-Content thyself, my son: God and his angels cannot be kept out: thou hast better company in thy solitude, than thy liberty afforded thee. The jollity of thy freedom robbed thee of the conversation of these spiritual companions, which only can render thee happy; they, which before were strangers to thee, are now thy guests; yea, thy inmates, if the fault be not thine, to dwell with thee in that forced retiredness.

What if the light be shut out from thee? This cannot hinder thee from seeing the Invisible: The darkness hideth not from thee; saith the Psalmist; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee; Ps. cxxxix. 12.

Yea, I doubt not to say, God hath never been so clearly seen, as in the darkest dungeons; for the outward light of prosperity distracts our visive beams, which are strongly contracted in a deep obscurity. He must descend low, and be compassed with darkness, that would see the glorious lights of heaven by day: they ever shine; but are not seen, save in the night.

May thine eyes be blessed with this invisible sight, thou shalt not envy those that glitter in court, and that look daily upon the faces of kings and princes: yea, though they could see all that the Tempter represented to the view of our Saviour upon the highest mountain; all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.