dition, as a suit is to the body that sits close and neat, neitiier too short, nor too long ; we cannot desire a better condition in this world. This was it that wise Agur requested of God, Prov. xxx. 8, 9- ** Give me neither poverty nor riches, but feed me with food conve- *' nient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say who is the *' Lord ? Or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God '' in vain." Against both he prays equally^ not absolutely ; that had been his sin ; but, comparatively, and'submissively to the will of God. He had rather, if God see it fit to avoid both of these extremes ; but what would he have then ? Why, food convenient. Or accord- ing to the Hebrew, give me my prey or statute-bread ; which is a metaphor from birds which fly up and down to prey for their young, and what they get they distribute among them ; thev bring them enough to preserve their lives, but not more than enough to lie moul- dering in the nest. Such a proportion Agur desired, and the reason why he desired it is drawn from the danger of both extremes. He measured like a wise Christian, the convenience or inconvenience of his estate in the world, by its suitableness or un suitableness to the end of his being, which is the service of his God. He accounted the true excellence of his hfe to consist in its reference and tendency to the glory of his God ; and he could not see how a redundancy^ or too great 2i penury of earthly comforts could fit him for that ; but a mid- dle estate, equally removed from both extremes, best fitted that end. And this was all that good Jacob, who was led by the same Spirit, looked at, Gen. xxviii. 20. " And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, " if God will be with me, and keep me in the way that I go, and " give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again *' to mv father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God."" Poor Jacob, he desires no great matters in the world, food and rai- ment will satisfy him ; in spiritual matters his desires are boundless, he is the most greedy and unsatisfied man in the world, Hos. xii. 4. but in the matters of this life, if he can get from God but qffam et aqunm, a morsel of meat and a mouthful of water, he will not envy the richest Crcesus, or Crassus upon earth. C'lhus et potus sunt divitce Christianorum ; meat and drink are the riches of Christians. Divifice sunt ad legem naturce composHa paupertas^ saith Pomponius Atticus ; riches are such a poverty, or mediocrity, as hath enough for nature's uses ; and such a state is best accommodated both to the condition, and to the desires of a saint.
1. To his condition, for what is a saint but a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, a man in a strange country travelling homeward 't So David professed himself. Psalm cxix. 12. " I am a stranger in this *^ earth." And so those worthies, who are now at home in heaven, Heb. xi. 13. they professed themselves to be strangers and pilgrims upon earth, and to seek a country ; a viaticurn contents a traveller, he will not incumber himself with superfluous things, which would rather clog and tire, than expedite and help him in his journey.
THE IIEAVEXLY USE OF EAPvTHLY TinXGS, 43
S. It suits best with his desires, I mean his regular and advised desires. For.
1, A gracious soul earnestly desires a free condition in the Avorld ; he is sensible he hath much work to do, a race to run, and is loth to be clogged, or have his foot in the snare of the cares or pleasures of this life. He knows that fulness exposes to wantonness and irreli- gion, Deut. vi. 12. Hos. xiii. 6. It is hard, in the midst of so many tempting objects, to keep the golden bridle of moderation upon the affections. The heart of a Christian, like the moon, commonly suffers an eclipse when it is at the full, and that bj the interposition of the earth.
It was Solomon's fulness that drew out and dissolved his spirits, and brought him to such a low ebb in spirituals, that it remains a question with some. Whether he ever recovered it to his dvino- day. As it is the misery of the poor to be neglected of men, so" it is the miser}^ of the rich to neglect God. Who can be poorer than to have the world and love it.^ Or richer, than to enjoy but little of it, and live above it ?
And on the other side, extreme poverty is no less exposed to sin and danger. Lev. vi. 2, 3, 4. As high and lofty trees are subject to storms and tempests, so the lower shrubs to be browsed on by every beast; and therefore a saint desires a just competency as the JUtesf, because ihe^reest state.
2. A gracious person desires no more but a competency, because there is most of God's love and care discovered in giving in our daily bread, by a daily providence. It is betwixt such a condition, and a fulness of creature-provisions in our land, as it was betwixt Eo-ypt and Canaan ; Egypt was watered with the flood from the river Nilus, and little of God was seen in that mercy ; but Canaan depended upon the dews and showers of heaven ? and so every shower of rain was a refreshing shower to their souls, as well as bodies. Most men that have a stock of creature-comforts in their hands, look upon all as coming in an ordinary, natural course, and see very little of God in their mercies. Pope Adrian built a college at Louvain, and caused this inscription to be written in letters of gold on the gates thereof; Trajectiimplantavit, Louvan'mm rigavit, Ccesar dedit incrementum ; (i. e.) Utrecht planted me, Louvain watered me, and Csesar gave the increasf^. One to reprove his folly wrote underneath. Hie Dens nihil fecit ; here God did nothing. Carnal men sow, and reap, and eat, and look no further.
But now, when a man sees his mercies come in by the special and assiduous care of God for him, there is a double sweetness in those mercies ; the natural sweetness which comes from the creature itself, every one, even the beasts, can taste that as well as thee ; but besides that, there is a spiritual sweetness, far exceeding the former, which none but a believer tastes ; and much of that comes from the manner
44? HUSBANDRY SPIRITUALIZED ; OR,
in which he receives it, because it comes (be it never so coarse or lit* tie) as a covenant mercy to hira. " He hath given bread to them ^^ that fear him, he is ever mindful of his covenant," Psal. cxi. 5. Liiitr.er, who made many a meal upon a broiled herring, was wont to sav, Mendicato pane h'lc vivamus, annon hoc pvlchre sarcHur in eo, quod pasc'imur pane cum angdls et vitaccterna, Christo ct s-acramen^ tic : Let us be content with coarse fare here, have we not the bread that came down from heaven ^ Do we not feed with angels ? A preg- nant instance of the sweetii ^ss of sunh mercies is given us by a worthy divine of our own, Mr. Isaac Ambrose, ' * For my own part (saith
* he) however the Lord haih seen cause to give me but a poor pit- ' tance of outward things, for which I bless his name, yet in the