^ Sheep can live upon bare commons, where fat oxen would be quickly starved, &c. * Bread and water with the gospel is good cheer, said holy Greenham. He is rich enough that lacketh not bread, and high enough that is not forced to serve. — Jerome.
304 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XIL 14,
and clothes to wear is as much as holy Jacob looks after. Ah friends, a little will serve nature, and less will serve grace, though nothing will serve or satisfy an unsanctified man's lusts. 0 sirs, the very pulse and locusts which a holy man eats, relishes better than all the glutton's delicious fare ; and the very sheep-skins and goat-skins which he wears, wear softer and finer than all the purple and soft raiment that is in princes' houses ; and the very holes, and caves, and dens wherein holy men live, are more pleasant and delightful than the stately palaces of the great ones of the world, i Godliness and contentment does so sweeten and so lengthen out all a Christian's mercies, that he cannot but reckon himself a happy man, though he may be the poorest among many men. Let me conclude this third answer thus —
This world's wealth that men so much desire, May well be likened to a burning fire ; Whereof a little can do little harm, But profit much our bodies well to warm : But take too much, and surely thou shalt burn; So too much wealth to too much woe does turn.
[4.] Fourthly, Consider that worldly riches and holiness do ojien meet together. A man may be a very holy man, and yet a rich man too. Abraham and Lot were as wealthy men as most in their time, and yet behind none for faith and holiness. Gen. xiii. ; David, and Solomon, and Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah had crowns on their heads and sceptres in their hands, and very great revenues at their commands, and in all these grace and greatness sweetly meet.^ Job was a very holy man, and yet a very rich man. Job i. 3, 8. If you cast your eye upon the first of Job, and survey his estate, you shall find that he had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she- asses, and a very great family ; but if you will look into the last of Job, and survey his estate, there you shall find it doubled. Joseph, Nehemiah, Mordecai, Daniel, and the three children, were very gracious, and yet very high and great in the world. As every wicked man is not a rich man, so every holy man is not a poor man. If you wiU but set the gracious against the graceless, the holy against the profane, I doubt not but for one holy man whose estate is low and mean, you will find thousands of wicked men whose conditions are beggarly and low in this world. God many times delights to confute the devil's proverb — viz., that plain dealing is a jewel, but he that useth it shall die a beggar. Now God by heaping up riches and hon- our and greatness upon the righteous, gives the devil the lie, and lets the world see that holiness many times is the ready way to worldly greatness.
It is observable, that when all the sons of Jacob returned with corn and money in their sacks from Egypt, Benjamin had not only corn and money in his sack, but he had over and above the silver cup put into the mouth of his sack, as a singular pledge of his brother Joseph's favour. Gen. xliv. ; so God many times gives to his Benjamins, the sons of his right hand, not only as much of the world as he does to
^ It is great riches not to desire riches, and he hath most that covets least. — Socratea. ' Isa. xli. 2. Abraham is called the righteous man.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 305
others, but more of the world than he does to others ; he does not only give them corn and money in common with others, but he also gives them the silver cup, the grace cup ; he puts in some singular temporal blessings into their sacks more than into other men's ; for he is the great Lord of all, and therefore may dispose of his own as he pleases. But, [5.] Fifthly, Consider that most men are best in a low condition. David was never better than when he was in a wilderness condition, for degrees of grace, and for the exercise of grace, and for communion with the God of grace. It was best with David when his condition was low in the world, Ps. Ixiii. 1-4. It was never better with Jacob than when he passed over Jordan with a staff in his hand, Gen. xxxii. 10. Job's graces never shined so gloriously as when he sat upon a dunghill, and could bless a taking God as well as a giving God, Job i. Though John was poor in the world, yet the Holy Ghost tells us that he was the greatest that was born of women. Mat. xi. 11. Paul was but a poor tent-maker, and yet his conversation was in heaven, Phil, iii. 20. The church of Smyrna was the poorest church, but yet the best of all the seven churches in Asia, Kev. ii. 8, 9. Christ knew very well that his disciples would be best in a low condition, and therefore he fed them but from hand to mouth. He that could have turned stones into bread, could as easily have turned stones into gold, and so have made his disciples rich and great in the world, but he would not. Christ could easily have changed their rags into robes, and their cottages into stately palaces, and their barley loaves into costly ban- quets, but he knew that their hearts would be best when their condition was lowest ; and therefore he makes them live upon short commons.! As there was none so holy as Christ, so there was none so poor as Christ, Mat. viii. 20, 21. Christ lived poor and died poor, for as he was born in another man's house, so he was buried in another man's tomb. Austin has long since observed, that when Christ died he made no will ; he had no crown lands ; all he had was a coat, and that the soldiers parted amongst them. Had there been any true happiness or blessedness in gold and silver, gay clothes, stately man- sions, brave attendants, or in well-furnished tables, &c.,2 Christ, who was, and still is, the Lord of all, would certainly have been so favour- able to himself, and so kind to his disciples, as not to have deprived himself or his family of that happiness and blessedness which they might have enjoyed, by enjoying the brave things of this world ; but he very well knew that true happiness and blessedness was too great and too glorious a thing to be found in any such worldly enjoyments, and upon that foot was willing to be without them himself ; and in his wise providence he so ordered the affairs of his own house, that those whom he loved best should have least of those things wherein there was no true happiness. Lazarus was very poor, but very holy ; he was houseless, but not Lordless ; his body was clothed with rags, but his soul was adorned with grace ; he had no bread to eat, and yet he had bread to eat that the world knew not of : whilst he lived, the dogs, being more kind than then- master, licked his sores, but when he