4. Consider, when you are most gorgeous, the beasts excel you. Croesus, king of Lydia, being gorgeously arrayed, asked Solon if ever he had seen a more beautiful spectacle ? He answered, Yes, sir ; I have seen peacocks and pheasants and other birds. And Mat. vi. 29, Christ takes notice of this, that ' Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of the lilies.' The draughts and colours of nature are more beautiful than art. Therefore neither delight in bravery nor envy it ; when thou seest the bravery of others, thou hast a fairer flower in thy garden.
5. Think often of Jesus Christ hanging naked upon the cross, who was stripped of his garments to satisfy for thy excess. Oh ! shall we again put him to open shame, as if he died in vain? say, Shall pride live when Christ died to subdue it, and mortify it, and to expiate for it ?
Fourth branch, sobriety in worldly cares.
140 SERMONS UPOK TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. VIII.
The next branch is sobriety of moderation in worldly cares. These also besot the mind, and deprive it of the sense of spiritual things. By a strange fascination and enchantment, our care becometh our pleasure, and men grow quite drank with the world, so that they are always scraping and raking here as if their whole time were given for nothing but getting wealth.
First, What this carking and worldly care is that must be moderated. The scripture doth not only allow but require an honest diligence. It is a command as well as a threatening : ' In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread,' Gen. iii. 19. The grievousness and burdensome- ness of labour falls under the threatening ; but the labour itself is a command, as moral as any of the ten. The apostle saith, Phil. iv. 6, ' Be careful for nothing ; ' but he doth not say, Do nothing. The scriptures would not have us to be idle and careless ; they commend the diligent hand. To let children and family shift for themselves were not only unchristian, but unmanly ; we see the very brute beasts provide for their young ones. Diligence is one of the means by which God i^rovideth for us. But yet, though the scriptures do allow a diligent care, yet they forbid a carking distrust. There is o-ttovSt], a care of dili- gence, and fxeptfjLva, a care of diffidence ; the first is a duty laid upon us, the second is a sin. Faith is painful, but not distrustful. It is repre- sented by the emblem of a pair of compasses ; while one foot is fast in the centre, the other wanders about in the circumference. So the heart is fixed in God by faith ; it depends upon him, and looks for the success and issue of all from his blessing, though the hand in the meantime be employed in the use of means. Certainly God allows us careful provi- sion against all visible evils, though they be to come ; as Joseph stored the granaries of Egypt against the dear years. But not to distract ourselves with a supposal of future contingencies ; therefore our Saviour saith, Mat. vi. 34, ' Take no thought for the morrow ; ' and ver. 31, ' Take no thought, saying. What shall we eat ? or what shall we drink ? and wherewithal shall we be clothed ? ' This is that the scripture forbids. You ought not to trouble yourselves with uncertain future events, but to refer yourselves to the disposal of God. Briefly, sinful cares may be thus discerned —
1. Distrustful care is troubled about the event, what shall be tho issue, but lawful care is employed in the use of means. The event is God's act, duty is ours ; and to trouble ourselves about it is to take God's work out of his hands. We set ourselves in God's stead when we think to accomplish our ends by our own industry. The Lord might lay this burden upon us as a punishment of sin, but he would have us cast it upon himself : 1 Peter v. 7, ' Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.' To neglect the means were to neglect providence ; but then to trouble ourselves about the event, what will be the issue, and how these means will succeed, that is to renounce pro- vidence, to reproach God as if he were not solicitous for us. A christian is not to trouble himself what will become of him and his posterity, that is God's care ; and it is altogether needless in us, for God is all- sufficient ; but he is to be diligent in a lawful calling, and then let God do what seemctb. him good.
2. Sinful care flieth to unlawful means, but religious care keepeth
VeR. 12.] SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. 141
within the bounds of duty : Prov. xvi. 8, ' Better is a little with right- eousness, than great revenues without right.' It useth no means that are indirect and sinful. Men that will not trust God with success, will soon go out of God's way. The unbeliever looketh not to what is just, but to what is gainful ; as those that gathered manna on the sabbath day, and ' trode wine-presses, and brought in sheaves, and laded asses,' Neh. xiii. 15.