Quest. Can the same reason be for contraries ?
Ans. Yes. That is, for thyself, when thou art alone, take all things boldly. God envies not thy liberty. Take any refreshment, yet needest thou not to eat * to oftend thy brother ; ' God having given thee variety of creatures, even in abundance, and hath not limited thee to this or that cj-eature ; so that the same reason answereth both. ' The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.' Use it then alone, and not to the scandal of thy brother. ' For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.' Why shouldst thou use this creature, as if there were no more but this ?
VOL. IV. B
18 A christian's portion ; or,
And therefore in case of scandal and oflfence, we should suspend our Uberty, though all be ours.
Again, though all bo ours, yet notwithstanding we have not a sanctified use, but by the word and prayer. ' Every creatux'e of God is good, if it be received with prayer and thanksgiving,' 1 Tim. iv. 4. His meaning is, though we have a right to all things to our comfort, to help us to heaven, to cheer us in our way, to be as it were chariots to caiiy us ; yet in the use of that right, we must do it in faith, that we miij apprehend our right, that we do not use them with a scrupulous conscience, and sanctify them by prayer. We must take them with God's leave. A father gives all to his son that he needs, and promi^eth his son that he shall want nothing ; but he will have his son seek to him, and acknowledge him. You shall have all, but I will hear from you first ; you shall have all, but I will reach it to you from my hand. So God deals with his children. They have a right to all, but he reacheth it to them in the use of means. We must have a civil right by labour, or by contract, &c., and then we must have a religious right by prayer. We must not pull God's blessings out of his hands. For though he give us a right in the thing, yet, in the use of that right, he will have us holy men.
Case 5. If you ask. What is the reason that good men oft fall to decay, and have a great many crosses in the world?
Why surely (not to enter into God's mysteries), when they have God's blessings they sanctify them not with prayer ; they ventm-e upon their right with scandal and ofi'ence to others. f Case G. Again, ' all things are ours.' Therefore truth, wheresoever we ;' find it, is ours. We may read [aj heathen author. Truth comes Irom God, wheresoever we find it, and it is ours, it is the church's. We may take it from them as a just possession. Those truths that they have, there may be good use of those truths ; but we must not use them for ostentation. For that is to do as the Israelites ; when they had gotten treasure out of Egypt, they made a calf, an idol of them. So we must not make an idol of these things. But truth, wheresoever we find it, is the chui'ch's. There- fore with a good conscience we may make use of any human author. I thought good to touch this, because some make a scruple of it.
' All things are ours..'
Use 1. Now to make some use of this point, * all things are ours.' We see then that a Christian is a great man, a rich man indeed ; and only he is great and rich. It is but imagination and opinion that makes any worldly man great. Can we say that all is his ? No. A spot of earth is his, and not his neither ; for it is his but to use for a time. He shall be turned naked into the grave ere long, and then he shall be stripped of all. But a Christian is a great man ; though he be as poor as Lazarus, ' all is his.'
Olfj. But you will say these are great words, ' all is his.' Perhaps he hath not a penny in his purse.
Ans. It is no great matter. God carries the purse for him ; he is in his non-age, and not fit for possession. He hath much in promises ; he is rich in bills and evidences. Again, let a Christian be never so poor, others are rich for him. Solomon saith there are some kind of oppressing rich men, ' that gather for those that will be good to the poor,' Prov. xxviii. 8. God hath given gifts to wicked men for the good of the church. They them- selves are not the better for them. They want love and humility to make use of them. But all things are ours, as well what we want as what we have. For it is good for us that we should want them. A man hath riches
A CHRISTIAN S CHARTER. IQ
when he hath a spirit to want riches. Is not he richer that hath a heart subdued by grace to be content to want, than he that hath riches in the world ? For outward things make not a man a whit the better. But ho that hath the Spirit of God to support him, tliat ho can snljmit to God, he is truly rich. It is the mind of a man that makes him rich, and not his purse. Now there is no child of God, but he is master of all things. Though he bo poor, he is master of riches, because he can want them, and be without them. Grace teacheth him to want and to abound, as St Paul Baith of himself, ' through Christ that strengtheneth him,' Phil. iv. 13. Ho hath grace to master poverty and whatsoever is ill, and to be content to be what God will have him to be. In want he hath contentment, and in Butfering patience, I appeal to the conscience of any man that hath a con- science, is it not better to want temporal things, when we have supply in grace, in faith, itc, than to have great possessions as snares, for so they are to a carnal heart ? Is not a Christian better in his wants, than another in his possessions. "WTio would be as many great ones are and have been alway, though they be invested into much greatness, both of authority and riches ? Who would not rather choose the state of a Christian ? Though he be poor, yet he hath grace. [Who would choosej rather to be great without grace and to be left of God to their corruptions, to abuse that greatness and riches to their own destruction, and the destruction of many others ?