CERTAIN Sermons preached of late at Cicester, in the county of Gloucester, upon a portion of the first Chapter of the Epistle of james: wherein the two several states, of the rich and poor man are compared and examined, the differences in quality, and duty betwixt them showed, both directed to such Christian parts and offices, as the sufficiency of the one may, and aught to perform, and the wants of the other do necessarily require.  
Penned at the earnest requests of divers well affected Inhabitants of the place: and now published as well for the use of others, as for the further profit of that particular congregation.  
By Philip jones, Preacher of the word of God in the same Town.  
Allowed by authority.  
Imprinted at London by T. D. for Thomas Butter 1588.   

¶ To the right Reverend Father in God, john, now Bishop of Gloucester, and Commendatarie of Bristol, Philip jones wisheth the increase of all good graces fit for the discharge, and answering of so great a calling in this life and in the next, the fruition of those joys, which are everlasting in Christ jesus.  
PAUL that chosen vessel unto God, 
Act. 9.15.  being appointed a principal instrument or minister, for, the bearing of his name, before the Gentiles, and kings, & the children of Israel, having passed through the hands of many keepers, Centurions, Soldiers, high priests, and governors, at last appeared in Caesarea before Agrippa the king, who being desirous to hear him and his cause, & having for that purpose given him lawful liberty to speak for himself, he thought and pronounced himself happy, 
Act. 26.2.3.  in that he was called and permitted to answer before him of all the things whereof he was accused of the jews, chief, because he had knowledge of all customs and questions which were then amongst them. In like manner I at this time (right Reverend) cannot but take myself if not in the same degree happy, yet in some proportion fortunate, in meeting with this present opportunity for the use of free speech to, and before you, not in the customs, and questions of the jews, but in the things that concern a better state and government seen, and exercised sufficiently. For I esteem it no small adiument, or furtherance of an honest cause, to have such a judge of the controversy as both in quality is willing to hear, & in judgement able to determine according to reason & equity: although at this time it is not my intention, to solicit you as a judge in a common quarrel, but to purchase you as a Patron to a scholars work: little I confess in quantity, & far from any exact or exquisite thing, whether you respect the phrase & style, or the manner of handling throughout the whole tractate: by reason whereof, I could fully have satisfied myself, either in the close reserving thereof among my papers, or otherwise in the private communicating of the same with my friends: but being pressed with the importunities of many good brethren, who being present at the preaching, have made report of the fruit & benefit they thereby reaped, & therefore would take no answer, but the grant of a public use of the same, for their further comfort, and the profit of others, I could not in conscience or courtesy, deny so reasonable a request proceeding from such Christian & commendable minds. And having at the last, for their contentment in this one part (though leaving them discontented, for the rest,) yielded to the multitude of reasons, wherewith they urged me, I have taken this course, and made this choice in the publishing to use your Reverend name, and patronage for the same. whereunto besides sundry effectual motives inducing me, (which for some respects I here suppress) one is of good consequence, meet in this place to be introduced, and specified: and that is, an earnest desire wherewith I have for a season travailed, to have you thoroughly acquainted with the state, and truth of certain actions of mine, which by reason of the practices of such adversaries, 
Ezra. 4.1.  as juda and Benjamin sometimes had, in a matter not much different in nature though somewhat in circumstance, are so far from being entertained with lawful favour, as that they are prosecuted with extreme displeasure under you, yea and by you, (as of late in your heat and passions openly appeared) to the great encouragement of the common enemy, and no little discomfort of many that profess sincerely and discreetly. I crave pardon if any syllable sounding to offence, be in my words to yourself or others towards whom my meaning perhaps may seem to reach: for, I carry no purpose to rip up, particular matters or to make the name of any man odious by complaint, but only a care, and conscience to maintain a good cause, to deliver the truth of things, and to preserve from wrack a Christian account, and reputation, which according to Solomon maketh fat the bones. 
Prou. 15.30  Which things I find myself animated in this sort (or otherwise if occasion be offered) to undertake upon this surmise, that to yourself, (I mean yourself, simply considered, and not by others enchanted) there cannot be a thing of more prompt acceptance then an honest mean used to remove such unkind and causeless opinions, as upon privy suggestion have been (too easily) conceived, and to scatter such mists of accusations, as by the inventions of malignant spirits, have been plotted, & preferred against my temperate course. I speak nothing but that which is common in the knowledge of the world, 
Acts 26.26.  as not done in a corner: the dealings of some men (I will not say monsters, being such so many so impudent, so malicious, & so furious against us, as that a way to prevent their mischiefs, and a time to breath ourselves are hardly recovered, from their ordinary vexations. Whereunto when I add in my private consideration, the immoderate and fierce proceed of yourself, your courts, and officers, by interrupting the use of my ministry, and stretching the arms of authority to the uttermost▪ I may not say beyond law, reason, and christian conscience) to the increase of my disquietinges, and the full measure of my molestations, I see small cause in common sense, of taking any heart or spirit to fulfil my course, and to grow on in that spiritual work, whereof a beginning of great hope is already made, and a foundation laid amongst them, who at this present do enjoy the benefit of my attendance: when as those who after a sort naturally (by the community of office) should lend their shoulders & hands, to bear of the blows, and injuries of hypocrites & the brood of vipers, do contrary to the course of nature, and duty, join (as it is feared) with them, to strengthen their practices, and to give more life to their devices, for the utter spoil & overthrow of many good & singular possibilities, which thing hath made me of this opinion, that either you have egregiously forgotten (my reverence to your place & person premised) or that you do wittingly neglect the advise, or rather charge of the most reverend, & honourable, the Archbishop of this province, (whom for duty & honours sake, in respect of many his special favours towards myself I here reemmber) sent & directed to you by letter, to do nothing, that might tend to my discourage or trouble, bearing my self in that lawful, & answerable sort wherein I have always squared, & measured the several parts of my ministration: & whether I have done so or not, I refer the judgement to the testimonies of all indifferent persons not surprised with malice towards us, nor transported with partiality to the contrary faction, yea to yourself, & your own sentence, when the time shall come, and occasion shall yield itself, to impart with you the true, & perfect knowledge, of all late accidents, touching both sides, and causes. In the mean time I conceive hope of this effect, that upon the perusing of this part of my poor daily labours, which with all submission, and regard of duty I present you, yourself of your wisdom will discern, what great & manifest untruth the adversaries reports do carry with them, which spare not to charge my endeavours, with bitter invectives against persons, and seditious speeches against authority, and the present policy & government of our church established. Ab uno disce omnes, 
Aenead. lib. 2.  by this one you may judge of all my travels: for I myself in the fear of God do protest, & the common audience of our assemblies, can & will witness, that the manner & method, used and to be seen herein, hath been, and is the true form of my daily practice and performance of duty. And I am not in the appurtenances, and necessary adiunctes of my profession so much to seek, but that I know according to the mind of a worthy and famous Prelate of this our age, 
joh. juellus. in lib. de vit. jewel.  and country (whose name, and memory amongst us is better than any sweet, and excellent ointment as the wise man speaketh) that the preaching of the Gospel standeth not in an idle and unfruitful discoursing of rites, 
Eccles 7.3.  and ceremonies, but in a sound delivery, and application of doctrine to the conscience of a Christian to work faith, and repentance in the hearers: and therefore I doubt not but that howsoever hitherto Doeg the Edomite hath curried favour with his master, by disclosing David, 
1. Sam. 22.9.  and accusing Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, I mean howsoever some whisperers have prevailed with your good nature (for what thing by craft is sooner abused?) wresting the same to a hard conceit, and misconstruction of us, and our actions, yet now upon this just, and reasonable apology for ourselves, your gravity will borrow, and carry Alexander's two ears, 
Bruson. lib. 3. cap. 10.  one always stopped, and reserved for the defendant so shall colours be quickly distinguished from causes, and the truth of things shallbe received, and not the informations of those men credited, which carry in their bosoms large consciences to dispense with any report be it never so adulterate, tending to my prejudice. And as I doubt not of this, so I mistrust not the issue of a further thing, to wit: that although Agrippa, notwithstanding Paul's notable and true declaration, 
Acts. 26.31.32.  and the evident immerit of his bonds departed from the common hall, doing nothing in his matter, speaking well of him, and his innocency but not delivering him according to justice and the honour of a king, yet your reverend discretion, having discovered the pretences of the adversary, and having viewed with a good eye the uprightness of our cause, will, not in regard of us, but of the matter directly respective to the honour of God, and the health of many souls, execute with a good conscience, that judicial prescription, delivered by the Lord himself to Moses, not as pertinent to that time, and his policy only, 
Exod. 23.2.  but perpetual for all ages, thou shalt not agree in a controversy, to decline after many and overthrow the truth. And in so doing I hope the time shall come, wherein as in the days of Solomon a man may dwell without fear under his vine, 
1. Kings 4.25.  and figtree, from Dan even to Beersheba: and thus having hope for my support I rest for this present, commending myself to your good opinion, and speech, and my poor labour to your protection: requesting upon the oversight, rather your partial, then equal judgement, because of the imperfections scattered in the same: the grant whereof I shall take and repute, not only as a sufficient recompense and satisfaction for this pains, but a spur and provocation also in time by the will of God, to shadow under the breadth of your wings, matters of more substance, and greater perfection, The God and father of our Lord jesus Christ, the shepherd, and Bishop of our souls, who hath furnished you with many good graces, multiply the same in you with all things necessary for your room, and place that God by you in all your actions may be glorified, the truth of his word and mysteries ratified, the faithful disposers thereof cherished and couraged, the idle and ignorant ministers (the bane of our Church) reform, and yourself in the end blessed with endless felilicitie. London. May the 17. 1588.  
The Lords unworthy servant, and your suppliant, prepared for all godly commandments and duties. PHILIP JONES.   

The text.  
Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted.  
Again he that is rich in that he is made low: for as the flower of the grass shall he vanish away. james 1. verse 9.10.  

The first Sermon.  
YE heard in my reading the last Sabbath, by occasion of the forerunning verse, how odious before God, & hateful in his sight, the sin of hypocrisy, and dubblenesse of mind is: especially in religion, & in the service of God: when men will bear fair wether with the world, and seem to carry good minds, and upright affections towards Zion, the true Church of God, and yet secretly work the dangerous effect of thorns and pricks to the sides thereof. As also when men will make their profession, and religion, as it were a shipman's hose, and an indiferent thing, swearing by the Lord, and by Malcham, 
Zephan. 1.5. 1 Kings. 18.21.  and halting betwixt two opinions, as the people whom sometimes Eliah the Prophet sharply reproved because they cared not whether they worshipped God, or Baal, and passed not whether they served God altogether, or in part, with whom many of this our age do jump, & join hands, who make conscience of no religion: for whether it be the light of the Gospel, or the blindness of popery and superstition that prevaileth, they esteem not, so that it serve for their commodity, and advantage, having a heart, and a heart, as the Greek word significantly importeth, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  one for the old law, and another for the new learning, as they term it. But we showed, and proved both by testimonies, & examples, that as the sin of such men is great, so is their end horrible, and their punishment grievous many times in this life. And in the conclusion of my former lecture, it was further declared, that as it happeneth in the ordinary use, or rather abuse of oaths, that the man which is a common swearer will not stick sometimes for his profit to forswear himself, the same sin being increased by practice, and by custom grown to an habit in him: and as it comes to pass also amongst murderers, who making no conscience of the slaughter of innocent children, or servants, will make no bones to proceed further, namely to imbrue their hands in the guiltless blood of greater personages, 
Mat. 21.33. etc.  as appeareth by the parable of the vineyard let out to the husbandmen, who having slain the householders servants, did not spare to commit the like outrage, against his son, and heir, representing the progress of malice in the jews, who having murdered the prophets, crucified at last the Messiah also, 
Heb. 1.1. Mat. 23.32  the heir of all things, & so fulfilled the measure of their fathers: even so it falleth out in the sin of hypocrisy, that he that commonly exerciseth double dealing, and dissimulation in worldly matters, will smell also of the same in the service of God, putting no difference betwixt the holiness of religion, and the profaneness of his ordinary dealings: so that whether he useth prayer, or frequenteth sermons to hear, or whether he fasteth, and giveth alms, or whatsoever else is done by him in this case, it is done in that sort as the counterfeit show of great devotion was made by the people of juda, who although they used to say the Lord liveth, 
jer. 5.2.  yet they did swear falsely, & as in that one, so in all other religious matters, they played the hypocrites. And of such the prophet David speaketh in the excellent Psalm, containing the sum of all the benefits of the Lord, showed, and extended to his people the posterity of Abraham, they remembered (saith he) that God was their strength, 
Psal. 78 35.36.37.  and the most high God their redeemer, but they flattered him with their mouth, and dissembled with him with their tongue, for their heart was not upright with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant. Meaning that their double dealing in his service was such, and so great, as that they ran unto him, and sought him early, as though they had been very holy, and religious, but all was for fear of punishment, and not for any hearty love, or obedience, that they did carry towards God. Whereby together with other reasons, I confirmed the former sententious speech of james in the 8. verse, that a double minded man is unstable not in one but in all his ways: and so inferring an exhortation, and direction, to pray unto God to avoid, and fly from all the points and parts of hypocrisy, and doubleness of heart, I ended for that time. It now followeth in the 9 verse. Let the brother of low degree rejoice. etc. In which words, the Apostle in my opinion seemeth to return to the argument of joy and patience to be used of us in our afflictions whereof as you have already heard, he entreated before in the 2.3. & 4. verses of this present chapter. Which argument he hath hitherto left, & broken of, with purpose to take away such objections as might be made and framed prejudicial to the same doctrine and matter. For if you would for a trial as it were strike, and race out the verses interposed betwixt this 9 and the 4. then it would evidently appear, and ye should easily find that this present verse is in good order and artificial method, added & applied to the 4. verse: for there the Apostle speaketh of patience, & of perfection in patience consisting in perseverance in the time of trouble and adversity, and now in this verse he comes back again to the same argument, and proceedeth therein for the further comfort & consolation of the afflicted. And knowing that amongst all the crosses and calamities of this life, the cross of poverty and of want in respect of common necessaries, is both very general and very grievous also, yea to the weak shoulders of flesh & blood almost intolerable, insomuch that many times, yea daily we see those of that state, which are not prevented with the grace of God nor governed by the spirit, and so not persuaded to rely upon the providence of God, and to content themselves with their poor condition, do break the walls of obedience, and run headlong into unlawful actions and thereby into the danger of the laws, seeking to satisfy themselves by theft, and to relieve themselves by robbery, and oftentimes murder the consequence thereof, rather than stand to the miseries, and indigengencies of their unfortunate place, the holy Apostle having a special consideration hereof, doth hear by his counsel, and persuasion labour to cure this malady, and to apply a salve to the sore of the poor man, delivering his mind freely and sufficiently in the matter. And if we do with diligence consider, and with judgement examine the contents of these verses, we shall find that the Apostle doth hear make, & institute a comparison betwixt those two divers things, which oftentimes are occasions of temptations & provocations to some disorders & mischiefs in those men which are within the compass of the same, namely poverty, & riches, of the first whereof he speaks in this 9 verse, of the other in the sequel of the place, so that I take the disposition and order of these verses consisting of three several points to be this. First the Apostle doth enter into a course of schooling the poor man showing him by direction, with what mind he is to take, and to bear the cross of his poverty and how to behave himself in the state and time of his low degree: that is, he is not to fire his eyes, and to look only upon the vileness, and baseness of his condition, and to dwell still upon the consideration of his pinching necessities, but he is to take another, and better course, namely to erect and lift up his mind in some heavenly meditation, to take as it were a spiritual view of that immortal inheritance, and celestial possession, wherein he shall be joined partner with all the faithful and children of God, if he practise contentation, patience, obedience, & godliness in the course of the simple life, whereby it pleaseth God for a time to try & to humble him. In the second place he undertaketh the admonishing & advising of the rich man also, teaching him with what mind he is to take, & in what sort to use the blessing, & abundance of his riches, to wit, he is not by occasion thereof to exalt himself in his conceit, & to lift himself up in an opinion of his happiness, as though that his wealth should for ever continue with him, & he with it, but he is to know that as his life is uncertain, so is his riches, forasmuch as the Lord giveth both, and taketh both away at his pleasure: so that he is not to ware proud or to grow arrogant, upon the taste and feeling of the felicity of this life, but rather to be meekly spirited, in the time of his greatest flourishing, as knowing that although he be now at this present in much prosperity, & hoist up to the top and mount of good fortune, yet he may suddenly be turned down to misery, and stripped of all that now he possesseth. Thirdly, and lastly, lest the Apostle should seem to speak this without his warrant and evidence, he doth in the latter part of the tenth verse, produce a reason as an amplification of the doctrine, to fortify his assertion withal, which is done by way of similitude consisting of the quality and nature of a common flower of the grass, representing the weak state, and short durance of human prosperity: than which flower ye know yourselves there is nothing more mutable, and subject to a change, by reason of the small force, and substance that it hath to abide, and stand, in his beauty: for although it spread itself gloriously in the morning, and seem to be the thing, wherein nature hath laboured to show all her skill, yet the heat of the sun when it riseth overmatcheth the glory thereof, and makes it quickly to whither, and come to nothing. Such is the rich man, and his riches. So that by this only division, and resolution of the verses ye may well conceive what notable, and necessary matter is lodged and contained in them. Being such, as doth concern all estates, and respect all degrees, high and low, rich and poor, the noble parsonage and the poorest cottager, all and every one may here-hence learn a direction for his life, and furnish his mind with a sufficient treasure of instructions, how & after what manner to dispose of himself, and his doings in the best sort to the glory of God, and the everlasting comfort of his soul. The poor man because of his wants and defects is not to despair: the rich man by reason of his abundance, and fuperfluities is not to presume of himself, and his ability: the honourable is to temper his high degree with humbleness of mind, the jazar or miserable creature, to mitigate, and qualify his smart by the use of patience, as hereafter in the process of our speech ye shall see, by the grace of God, more at large.  
Concerning therefore the first of our parts, although the Apostles phrase be here singular, seeming to speak of some special or particular person, yet by conferring other places with it of the same form of words, and by considering the reach of the doctrine to extend generally to all, I doubt not but they are plurally to be taken, and conserved. For the proposition being indefinite, and the consequence of the place so jointly, and sensibly depending upon the precedence it cannot be but equivalent, and the same with an universal speech. To acquaint you with my meaning in plain terms, albeit the Apostle doth hear say let the poor man, or brother of low degree rejoice, it is all one, or as much as if he had said, let all poor men, and all brethren of low degree rejoice, because that, which he requireth at the hands of one of that sort, he looketh for of all, and if ye do with diligence note, and with judgement consider the scripture speeches, ye shall in many places light upon words of the same course & nature, delivered in such singular manner and yet importing, and including universal constructions. In that the common name of a poor man is not hear used, but the appellation of a brother, it may teach us, what is to be thought of such a one upon whom it hath pleased God to impose, and lay the cross of poverty, in which case to be taught, and informed, I take it to be very requisite, and necessary for many of us: for we in our common judgements are very carnal, and in our opinions foolish, who use to measure the worthiness of a man by the appearance, and upon the sight and view of his misery do by and by pronounce him a wicked person, a vicious liver, a man accursed, and punished in such sort deservedly for his sins, when as the purpose of God in the visiting of many with his crosses, is not so much to notify, and confirm to the world the desert in them of such afflictions, but either to make proof & trial of their faith, or else to convert their humiliations to other good purposes, serving for his glory & their bettering. I confess that there is not one man amongst the sons of men consisting all of corrupt & mortal matter so holy, and righteous as that he deserveth not any punishment or correction, if the Lord would straightly mark iniquities, & do nothing but that, which the rules of his justice do prescribe, who then should stand; as the prophet speaks: 
Psal. 130.3.  but forasmuch as it hath pleased God in the abundance of his love, to take away the curse of the law due for sin by the death of his son and not to impute sin to him that believeth, and seeing the very faithful themselves are subject to crosses and afflictions sundry ways, and in greater measure subject then the children of unbelief, it cannot be that troubles and calamities should always be demonstrations of the wrath of God, or testimonies of great sins in those, whose shoulders lie under such burdens. But we are otherwise to think, that sometimes God doth discipline his children by the use of his rod for some secret sins, and imperfections which themselves do not espy: sometimes he doth before hand prevent their sins the fruit of that corruption, which lieth hid in them and would otherwise break forth, except by sickness, poverty, imprisonment, hunger, or such like means they be admonished, and restrained: sometimes he hath respect to his own glory, beginning with judgement at his own house, lest he should seem to approve those sins in his elect, which his justice doth more sharply punish in the reprobates: sometimes he doth suffer Satan that roaring Lion & his ministers, to have after a sort power over the states, and bodies of his children for the experiment of their constancy, and the instruction of others: and sometimes also he doth use the dangers, & extremities of the saints, as occasions to show forth his own power, glory, mercy, wisdom, and righteousness in his church, by miraculous deliverances, bringing them into manifest perils, and yet finding means to preserve them beyond the hope and opinions of men. These together with other intentions in the works of God if they be well considered, will bridle the overlashing humour of carnal judgement, and leave no root of cause in the mind of any man, to take such persons for sinners, and despised of God, whose lives are hear subject to some external difficulties. In the holy story of job, we read, that when his three friends, hearing of the evil that was come unto him, came from their places to see him, and to lament his case with him, & beheld the great and strange misery whereunto he was brought, and the lamentable plight wherein he stood, they were so carried away with the stream of a false imagination, and conceit concerning him that whereas before they took him for an upright, and just man, and high in the favour & love of God, they now upon the appearance judged him to be an hypocrite, and spared not rashly to affirm, that he was in that sort & measure justly plagued of God for his his sins: for Eliphaz the Temanite wished him to remember and call to mind who ever perished being an innocent, or where the upright were destroyed. 
job. 4.7.  I have seen it, said he that they which plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, do reap the same, so concluding, that job could not be innocent or upright or free from wickedness, because the fruit & effect of such misfortunes, & calamities was fallen upon him. And I doubt not but that in the same Eliphaz is a pattern of all carnally minded, & ignorantly conceited worldlings, who use commonly to draw arguments from the afflictions of the children of God, censuring thereupon that they are not good, nor honest, nor such as they would seem to be, because they live not in such a free, & happy, & glorious state of life, as others do. Wherein they discover themselves to be as brutish, 
Now called Malta.  & barbarous, as those barbarians of the isle of Melita, whereinto Paul happened after his escape from shipwreck, who upon the leaping of a Viper upon his hand, 
Acts. 28.4.  from the fire, condemned him by & by for a murderer, & for such a one as vengeance would not suffer to live. This is in common that rash verdicts of our Atheists, Epicures, Libertines, & profane Gospelers, who respecting nothing but the outward accident, and not considering by reason of their natural blindness the course of God in his works commit sin in their sentences, speaking good of evil, and evil of good, 
jer. 5.20.  ill of the righteous, & well of the covetous whom God abhorreth. They may learn to correct their erroneous judgements both by the sequel of that place of the Acts before cited, and by the answer of job, who to purge himself, & to defend his innocency against the overhasty opinions of his friends affirmed that the Lord knew his way & tried him & that he should come forth like the gold: 
job. 23.10.  meaning that although the world was ignorant of the true cause of his misery, yet the knowledge thereof was with the Lord, who used the same as a mean to bring to pass his greater profit. Let us make some use then of this matter for ourselves, & know assuredly, that as on the one side it is no sufficient reason to prove the virtue, and goodness of a man because he hath wealth and riches in possession, so on the other side it is no necessary conclusion to condemn a man for wicked, and unrighteous, because he is afflicted with poverty and lack of sufficient relief for himself, the remembrance, and consideration whereof, will work in us a charitable, and Christian opinion concerning our poor brethren, not to think that they are the worse men in the sight of God because of their hard hap in that case, they are our brethren still, in profession, and essence, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, of the same proportion in making, and of the same mettle in substance, whereof we ourselves be we never so dainty, are created, and therefore they are not to be used of us with such contempt and indignity as they receive generally of the world: forasmuch as it is not their poverty that doth either alter their nature which is still common with ours, or prove them to be disfavored of the Lord, 
Heb. 12.6.  the case so standing, that whom God loveth he chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son that he receiveth, and the affliction of a base estate, is many times to the man rather an argument of the love of God than a testimony of his wrath: as appeareth expressly by the words of the Prophet David, who being grievously afflicted himself, & knowing the purpose of God therein sufficiently, doth pronounce a blessing to those that did pity his case, and conceive a good opinion of him, and of all those, which should be in the like sort visited: for he breaketh forth into this effectual speech, 
Psal. 41.1.  blessed is he that judgeth wisely of the poor, the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble. Meaning such a one as doth not condemn that man for accursed whom God doth afflict with poverty knowing that there are many causes, why his hand is in such sort heavy upon a man. Secondly by this appellation and title of brother which the Apostle doth here apply to the poor man, we may learn by his example how to use our words, and temper our speeches concerning men of base place, and state. To give them the best style that we can, and to avoid the intemperate humours of many disdainful persons, who cannot frame their tongues to any indifferent words respecting their inferiors, but revile them, and taunt them, and load them with such contemptuous terms, as are neither comely in their own mouths, nor in any sort fitting the persons towards whom they use such immoderation. 
Prou. 17.27.  Solomon affirmeth that he that hath knowledge spareth his words. 
james. 4.11.  And our Apostle james will have us in no case to speak evil one of another. A third matter there is also in these words, which is not to be omitted without note and observation, namely that in the Apostles directions here to the poor man, and in the use of his name, he doth not call him the poor brother, or beggarly brother, but the brother of low degree, although in so doing it may seem that part of his meaning is to increase and magnify the glorious exaltation of such a man to the kingdom of God, which by a comparison made with a precedent baseness, is made so much the more high and magnificent, by how much the more low and simple his condition was before in the world, because that contrary things being one set against another, are then most clearly and perfectly seen what they are, yet I doubt not but that the commodities of the low estate of a poor man, are here insinnuated, and regarded by the use of the phrase: for the low degree of a man, although it be accompanied with some wants in respect of the abundance of the richer sort, who are commonly destitute of nothing serving to the outward prosperity of this life, yet it is free from those hazards, and perils, whereunto the high estate of the wealthy is continually subject. For they may in good sense be compared to high trees situated and planted in the tops of mountains, which by reason of their place lie open to every wind that bloweth, and every storm that ariseth, yea a little puff of the air maketh them to shake, and to tremble: but the poorer sort are with good probability resembled to low shrubs, or bushes growing in the valleys under the wings, and defence of the hills, which by reason of their low growth, are safe from the raging storm, and beating tempest, they are not assaulted with the fierceness of every whirlwind, they are not beaten with the drops of every scouring shower, they stand and spring in quiet, and safety, when the high Cedars must needs receive every wether, and refuse none, and therefore are many times by contrary and furious winds rend and torn, and so prevented of further increase. And many times we see great and mighty trees by violence of the wind overthrown broken and plucked up by the roots, seldom or never doth the like overthrow happen to a low and little bush. Again the higher & statelier the tree is the more terrible is his fall, and the more sign, and impression thereof doth he make in the earth: the bush or bramble suppose he be rooted up and thrown down he falls without any harm, and pierceth not. And again if a great tree fall, all the bows and branches, that are on his falling part are bruised, and crushed under him: but so is it not in the shrub: for as his leaves be few and his branches small, so is his danger the less, and his harm none at all. All which things the rich man for his admonition, and the poor man for his comfort, are to apply to themselves. The rich man whether we consider him in respect of his conceit, or simply of his place, he is a high tree, in his conceit many times he is such a one, as stands within the threat of the prophet Esay. 
Esay 2.12.13.  The day of the Lord of hosts is upon all the proud and haughty and upon all that is exalted, and shallbe made low, even upon all the Cedars of Lebanon, that are high, and exalted, and upon all the Oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up: meaning in that place by the high trees, and hills, such manner of men as are lifted up in pride, and grown loftly minded by reason of their wealth gathered by covetousness, thinking themselves thereby to be towers, and walls, as it followeth in the fifteenth verse of that chapter, that is strong, and mighty of themselves, not able to be overthrown. And doubtless many such high trees, I mean many high spirited men there are amongst us, who being ravished, and carried away with an opinion of themselves, are altogether forgetful of their mortal state, they think with the king of Babel, that they shall live for ever, they say with Nimrodde and his company, 
Gen. 11 4.  let us build and get us a name, they trust in their goods, & boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, they think their houses and their habitations shall continue for ever, even from generation to generation, 
Psal. 49.6.11.13.  and call their lands by their names. But what sayeth the prophet concerning the end of such men, this their way uttereth their foolishness, for their beauty shall consume when they shall go from their house to the grave. And in the prophesy of Ezekiel, 
Ezek. 31. ●.  there is a notable place to this purpose, where the prophet speaking of the king of Ashur, affirmeth that once he was like a Cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches, and thick shadowing bows, and shot up very high, and his top was amongst the thick bows, his height was exalted above all the trees of the fieeld. 
verse. 11.12.  etc. but what follows in the place, thus saith the Lord I have cast him away for his wickedness, his branches are fallen, his bows are broken, all the people of the earth are departed from his shadow, and have forsaken him, yea he is gone down to hell. This is the end of such a high tree, and the effect of such loftiness, verifying that famous sentence of Solomon in his Proverbs, 
Prou. 16.16.  that pride goeth before destruction, and an high mind before the fall. Which thing, is of some consequence to be learned of all men for warning, and to be considered of such men for amendment, as are subject to this sin: who if they cannot, and care not to reform themselves by that which already hath been spoken yet they are to remember further the judgement of that high tree, that proud king Nebuchadnezar, who in the prophesy of Esay is compared with Lucifer, 
Esay. 24.13.  which said in his heart, I will climb up into heaven, and exalt my throne besides the stars of God etc. But what followeth? thou shalt be brought down to the ground and to the sides of the pit, and more of his destruction ye shall find, if ye read the chapter. Now in place and degree, the rich man also is a high tree, and by reason thereof subject to many inconveniences: every sharp wind of alteration in the common wealth, of invasions of the enemy, and of other grievous accidents driveth upon him: and not so only, but in other respects his height is also dangerous. 
Wisd. 6.5.8.6.  For an hard judgement shall they have that bear rule, so sayeth the wise man: and again, for the mighty abideth the sorer trial: and again, the mighty shallbe mightily tormented, but he that is most low is worthy of mercy. 
Verse. 6.  The poor man being a low shrub or bush is not so subject to the Are, to mutations, to judgements, he escapeth in safety when the rich man is rifled, crushed, and by his mighty fall, like a great stone from the top of the building is dashed into many pieces, and so his fall made unrecoverable: and therefore it is better in my opinion to be Abstemius his mule, 
Abstemij fabula.  though carrying great burdens of wood every day with peace and safety, then be his palfrey clad in purple, adorned with furniture of Gold, and fed with the best provender, and subject to the fearres and wounds, received commonly in the wars. And this being considered I do not see why the brother of low degree that is, the poor man, should not according to the Apostles words, rather be glad then any way pensive, forasmuch as he stands far of from thundering, and gun-shot: as his state is low, so are his mischiefs few, as his degree is not high, so his fall is not to be feared: but be it that he doth fall, yet being within the compass of the Lords protection, it is no otherwise then the prophet David speaketh, 
Psal. 37.24.  though he fall he shall not be cut off, for the Lord putteth under his hand, the Lord supporteth, and shoreth him up so that in his fall there is no harm. The special doctrine then that this consideration, and matter yieldeth, is not only a comfort to the poor man, to hold himself contented with his state, because of the benefit, and commodity of safety which it beareth in divers respects, but a persuasion & counsel also to the rich man, not to be carried away with the itching vain of ambition, not to hunt with greediness after promotion, not to be possessed with such vainglorious humours, as were the Scribes, 
Mat. 23.6.7.  and the pharisees, who loved the chief places at feasts and the highest seats in the assemblies, and greetings in the market, and to be called of men Rabbi, 
verse. 12.  Rabbi. It is an inrevocable decree, that whosoever will exalt himself shallbe brought low, and humbled. Somewhat it was that jotham the youngest son of jerubbaal, standing in the top of mount Gerizim, 
judges. 9.8.  after that Abimelech the Tyrant had usurped the kingdom and slain his brethren the sons of jerubbaal about 70. persons upon one stone in propounding his parable to the men of Shechem affirmed, that when the trees went out to consult about the electing, and anointing of a king over them, it was neither the olive that would leave his fatness, nor the fig tree his sweetness, nor the vine his wine, none of these trees, being indeed worthy of preferment would advance themselves to the government and kingdom, but the contemptible bramble and scratching briar whereunto jotham likened the same Abimelech, he in the pride of his heart and the arrogancy of his stomach, would needs take upon him the state and be Lord over the rest, not contenting himself with that place, which nature and birth had assigned him: but his high conceit went before his fall and his ambitious spirit was rewarded with a miserable destruction. And therefore in this case the answer of David to Michal his wife, who despised him because of his dancing, and rejoicing and praising of God before the Ark, is generally commended I will be yet more vile said he than thus, 
2. Sam. 6.22  & willbe low in mine own sight, and of the very same maid servants which thou hast spoken of shall I be had in honour. So that the first step to true honour in deed is the practice of lowliness, and a mind free from the infection of an ambitious appetite, by the use whereof, although a man may peradventure sometimes by the patience of God aspire to dignities, and offices of high place, yet the same is nothing else, but a mean and preparative to a greater mischief, and overthrow. So that my meaning in this matter may be easily conceived, which is, not to condemn a lawful authority, nor to dissuade any man from the undertaking of such rooms of credit and estimation as are of great necessity in the common wealth, and profitable for the peace and prosperity of the same, but my purpose only is by occasion of my terte to reprove the extremity, which consisteth in a thirst and hunger to be aloft and to exceeded the common state of men: when a man following the unbridled sway of his proud conceit doth disdain the society, and company of his honest brethren, as not brooking any equality: saying with Adonijah the son of Haggith I will be king, 
1. Kings. 1.5.  and with Aaman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, all the honour, and glory that I have, doth not avail me, 
Hester 5.13.  as long as I see Mordecaye the jew sitting at the king's gate. This is it that I speak of, and against a climbing humour, a brambles spirit, a disposition inclining to pre-eminence, not with intent to do any common good to the country, but with purpose only to feed, and satisfy the root of arrogancy, and ambition, to command all men, and to be subject to no man. Which I take to be reproved by him, whose life was the spectacle and precedent of all humility, ye receive honour one of another, 
john 5.44.  and seek not the honour that cometh of God. Which is a thing generally found in these days, and therefore requires a general warning. For even amongst us there are those, who although they are not furnished with any excellent gift or grace of God, and have nothing in them deserving commendation, save only a little more money, and wealth than their neighbours have, yet they are so unreasonably led away with the force of this insolent conceit, as that they vouchsafe not a good look towards those, who albeit they possess not so much wealth, yet they practise more virtue, and honesty, than themselves. And there are many petty Absolom also flourishing amongst us, nothing but the crown and kingdom, I mean the Magistracye, and room of justice can content them, insomuch that there is no rest of their continual laboring, till they come to sit down in the chair of David, in that reverend place which requireth a great measure of judgement, wisdom, experience, knowledge, and conscience, from all which things they are as far, as they are near unto the gall and bitterness of presumption. So that I see the date of that ancient prophesy of the holy Apostle out, and expired, who long ago foresaw, 
●. Tim. 3.1.  that in the last days there should come perilous times, men should be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud etc. intemperate, fierce, no lovers at all of them that are good, heady, high minded lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God: the full accomplishment of which prophesy whosoever seethe not, seethe nothing. But as the Apostle prophesied of such men, so may we prophesy of the end of them, not undertaking the spirits of prophets, but collecting by the ends of other men, who in our remembrance were in such sort affected, and therefore even in this life tasted the bitter fruit of their own works and qualities, that the reward whereof the Apostle here speaketh, and promiseth remaining for the brother of low degree, which is exaltation, and great glory, shallbe no part of their recompense, because they smell not of the sweet spirit of humility, which is the beginning, and step to that high degree of true honour, and felicity, which is proper only to such, and reserved only for such, as do deck themselves inwardly with lowliness of mind and humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, 
1. Pet. 5.5.6.  to whom there is a promise of exalting made in due & convenient time. The Apostle having thus used the name of the poor man, doth now proceed to his purpose, namely to direct him to that thing, which in the time of his poverty he is to practise, & that is joy, for so it followeth in the verse. Let the brother of low degree rejoice. He might have said let him not be sorry, or let him not be impatient, or let him content himself, or any such like thing, which might well have agreed both with his intent and with the poor man's quality, but he useth here a word of greater effect and force, Let him rejoice, whereby he doth labour to remove all sorrow and sadness from the mind of the poor man, wishing him not to be heavy in heart, nor doleful in conceit, but rather to pluck up his spirit, to be of good cheer, and comfort, yea to conceive gladness in the time of his greatest smart of poverty, upon consideration of the high degree of glory & felicity whereunto it is the purpose of God to exalt him, wherehence every one, that is subject to the cross of poverty may draw out for himself a singular consolation, and learn withal how he is best to behave himself, when his shoulders are crushed with the same burden, and yoke, how to support, and strengthen himself, lest he fall into these dangerous mischiefs and inconveniences, which the mayor part of that sort, being destitute of grace & government, do daily run into: his best course is, to fix his eyes, by the use of his hope & faith upon the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge hath laid up, and will give to all those that love his appearing, and in a joyful expectation of the same, do with quietness sustain, and with patience go thorough this special affliction, knowing that it pleaseth God sometimes to use the same as a mean or instrument to bring a man to the knowledge of himself, to faith, repentance, prayer, obedience, and other Christian duties, and at the last to the end of his faith, which is the salvation of his soul. So that although I must needs confess that on the one side the drinking of this bitter cup, and the feeling of the miseries of this state may discourage a man, and drive him to the door of faintness, and almost despair, yet on the other side the remembrance of the promised glory of God to come, and assuredly to be showed may as a sweet and pleasant draft extinguish the former bitterness, and turn the strong stream of impatiency into a quietness of contentation, to effectuate thereby that same practice of joy whereunto he is here, as it were by the hand of the Apostle led and conducted in the mides of his calamity. And for the better help and furtherance of the poor man to this good use and practise, and to cause him both the more readily, and the more plentifully also to conceive this joy he is with some diligence to ponder with himself the most loving course that it hath pleased God to take with him over and above the manner of dealing he useth with and towards the rich man. For whereas he is most usually in the leaves of the scriptures reproved, threatened, condemned, and wished to mourn and lament, the poor man contrariwise is comforted, encouraged, commended, and willed to rejoice, as in this place. In the fift chapter of this Epistles, 
Verse. 1.2.  james singes another manner of song to the richer sort: go too now ye rich men weep and howl for the miseries which shall come upon you, your riches are corrupt, and your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shallbe a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. etc. which words I could wish were written in some place object to the eyes of all of that sort, that seeing of themselves they will not remember, yet by this means they might always be admonished of their great abuses committed in the blessings of God, and of the plagues which those abuses will bring upon them without speedy, and hearty repentance. But for our use, I note thus much by comparing these two places together: that the common sort of rich men are wonderfully deceived in their opinion, and do mightily err in their conceit, who imagine that the only true joy and pleasure consisteth in the possession of riches, and in the enjoy of wealth, to be able to tell much money, to produce good store of gold, to be able to buy, and build, and by continual purchase to join land to land, house to house, and Lordship to Lordship, so to live, and dwell as princes of the earth, this is the mother of joy amongst them: by occasion whereof they sing and rejoice and slay oxen, and kill sheep, 
isaiah. 22.13.  & eat flesh, and drink wine, and say, let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die: but this joy proceeding not from God nor his spirit, who is the Author and fountain of all Christian and lawful rejoicing, is no true joy, but rather a madness and frantikenes, when as men forgetting themselves, and not considering the vanity of their minds, the brevity of their pleasures, and the uncertainty of prosperity, and carnal wealth, do rejoice in their boastings, 
james 4.16, Act. 7.41.  and in the works of their own hands, yea in a thing of nought and say, have not we gotten us horns by our own strength? 
Amos 6. ●3.  I deny not but that riches being well used, and applied to their right ends, namely to the furtherance of God's glory, the preferment of his word, the profit of his Church, the relief of the poor, and such other good & holy purposes a man in the performance of these duties, may rejoice with thanks to God, that it pleased him to work in his heart such acceptable motions, and to dispose him to the exercise of the fruits of his faith for the discharge of his conscience, and the provocation of others to the like obedience, but to think that where wealth and prosperity is abused, being converted to the nourishing of pride, prodigality, banqueting, covetousness, oppression, usury, revengement, and such like wicked actions, the pleasure which men take, and the joy which they conceive to be good or honest, or any way commendable, is an opinion very absurd, and unworthy the brain of a Christian. And yet there are such amongst us, who being hoodwinked with the veil of carnal conceit, do as it were clap their hands, and throw up their caps at their good fortune, triumphing in the increase of their wealth and making banquets because of their abundance, and go no further, either to the acknowledging of the goodness of God, from whence all good things proceed, or to the directing of their riches to such uses as by duty, and conscience they are bound unto. In such cases they ought rather to weep and howl as james speaketh, because all good sense and feeling is taken away from them, and their hearts not moved by the blessings of God towards them, to be thankful to him for the same, and to fructify in good works to the praise of his name, and the good of his Church. Again on the other side also, the poor man is not free from error, nor to be excused in his opinion, who by reason of the wants of his state, and the manifold miseries which by compulsion he is driven to sustain, doth quite banish from his heart all joy, and gladness, applying no comfort to his mind, no peace to his spirits, no solace to his soul, but passing his time in miserable carefulness, and languishing by the force of his imagination. He is in this case for his correction, and remedy, to have recourse to the word of God, and to derive out for himself those sweet promises, which are directly made and leveled therein towards him, to keep him from all such mischiefs, as without the help and stay thereof, he might dangerously fall into. Solomon that prince of peace, and of wisdom also, in his book of proverbs, or notable sentences, affirmeth that a little with the fear of the Lord, 
Prou. 15.16  is better than great treasure, & trouble therewith, as commonly it happeneth to the richer sort, who take not so much pain to get as they are disquieted with cark, and care, to preserve and increase that which they have gotten, and therefore the spirit of God by the Apostle condemneth them, 
1. Tim. 6.10.  as men having pierced themselves thorough with many sorrows, reaping an evil conscience, as the fruit or harvest of their covetous labours. 
Psal. 37.  The Prophet David also in that excellent Psalm which containeth matter of encouragement, and consolation, to such as mark and grieve at the prosperity of the ungodly, and do after a sort stagger in faith because of the contrary, which is affliction, & crosses, wherewith the children of God are always compassed, he doth amongst other things minister a comfort to the heart, and conscience of the weak, like and equal with that of Solomon, 
verse 16.  pronouncing that a small thing unto the just man is better than great riches to the wicked, & mighty. The reason is, because the just man, although he be poor in condition, yet he is rich in spirit and mind, because he dependeth upon the promise and providence of God, and contenteth himself with his small portion. But the unrighteous man, though possessing much external wealth is nothing so blessed nor happy as the poor man because he is never satisfied: he is like unto the horseleech, who hath two daughters crying, 
Prou. 30.15.  give, give, he is like unto the barren womb, and the grave which will never be full, and like to a man that hath the dropsy, who the more he drinketh, thinking thereby to extinguish his thirst, the more he doth increase the dryness thereof, so the covetous rich man, the more he hath, the more he wanteth, and the more he aboundeth, the more he thinketh himself destitute, & therefore careth not what unlawful means he useth to make his commodity, having no feeling of conscience, and no sparkle of the fear of God in him. And therefore it is that the holy Apostle Paul resolutely affirmeth in this matter, that godliness is great gain, 
1. Tim. 6.6.  if a man carry a contentation, and a moderation of mind. For therein consisteth the true sufficiency of this life, and without it, there is nothing else but the very plague of greediness, 
Ibid. 10.  and of unsatiable avarice, which is the root of all evil. And to these places we may add also that same protestation of the Prophet, made for the increase of his own comfort, and of others in such sort minded as himself, being grounded upon the trial and experience which he himself had gotten in the course and race of his whole life, 
Psal. 37.25.  professing that he had been young, and was then old, yet he never saw the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Which is a speech full of sweet encouragement to the faithful man, knowing thereby, that howsoever it pleaseth God for his trial to afflict him with poverty, & external wants, so that he hath not the like fullness and measure of relief as the ungodly man hath, yet he is never forsaken of the love and favour of God towards him, but is in such sort regarded, and blessed of him, that although he lead a poor life, and is not furnished with plenty of temporal things, yet that carnal want is answered, & recompensed, with store of spiritual graces, which are the only true treasure, & riches which cannot perish, whereof the Apostle no doubt speaketh to the Corinthians, when he saith concerning himself, & other his fellow workers, that they were as sorrowing, and yet always rejoicing, as having nothing, 
2. Cor. 6.10.  & yet possessing all things. And our Apostle james also urgeth the same to the consciences of the rich, after this sort. Hearken my beloved brethren, 
james. 2.5.  hath not God chosen the poor of this world, that they should be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? Thereby convincing the rich men of the world, of partiality, and evil judgement in their thoughts by their own confession, because they knew that God had promised the inheritance of his kingdom to the poor, & had adorned them with the riches and excellency of faith, 
Math. 5.3.  and yet they used respect of persons, yea, they despised the poor, and oppressed them by tyranny, & drew them before judgement seats. The like argument also Paul useth in another place of the Corinthians, where speaking of the state of the Church of God in Corinth, which consisted but of mean, and simple persons, who notwithstanding confounded, and overthrew the wisdom of the Scribe, & the eloquence of the disputer, and the understanding of all the Philosophers of Greece, 
1. Cor. 1.26.27.  he remembreth the same Church thereof in these words. Brethren you see your calling, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confounded the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty things, and vile things of the world, and things that are despised, hath God chosen, yea things which are in man's judgement nothing, to bring to nought things that are. So that the poor man upon the consideration of this, that although he swimmeth not in the outward commodities of this life, as the wicked do, yet possesseth in good measure the graces, and blessings of the spirit, whereby that which is otherwise wanting, and defective in his state is furnished in his mind, hereupon with good reason, and justly he may separate all sorrow, and lamentation from his heart, and dispose himself to some comfort, and christian rejoicing, and testify with the Prophet, 
Psalm 4.7.  Thou O Lord hast given me more joy of heart than the sons of men have had when their wheat, and their wine did abound: Let worldlings therefore triumph in the ruff of their pleasures, 
verse 6.  and say who will show us any good? that is plant their joy and felicity in riches, and in frequenting the vain delights of this life, let the poor man solace himself with the light of the Lords countenance, & with the remembrance of his favour, which he may assure himself to be greater riches, than all the Gold of Ophir which is in India, 
1. Kin. 9.28. 2. Chron. 9.14.  or the Silver which Solomon had from the Kings of Arabia.   

The second Sermon.  
WE are not to pretermit in this matter an examination of the latter part of that notable protestation of the prophet David cited the last day out of the thirty and seven Psalm, where for the consolation of the poor, just, and righteous man he professeth that as he had never seen himself forsaken of the Lord, so also he had never seen his seed left so barely, or driven to such extremities, as that they were forced to beg their bread: a thing, which the poor man is with some diligence to consider as making for the better engendering of his contentation and comfort: for whereas the increase of the poor man's misery consisteth many times in the view of his wife, and children, whose mind by reason of them is so much the more oppressed with care, by how much the less he seethe any ordinary means to leave them after his death in any good or reasonable state, it cannot be, but that when he shall find out a remedy for this special grief he shall with great alacrity apply himself to the conceiving of this joy, whereof he is here by the Apostle james remembered. This salve or remedy, the prophet David will quickly give him, for he speaketh to the conscience of the poor man, where the wound or sore lieth, protesting in the word of a prophet, and man of God, that the seed of the righteous man was never seen by him begging bread. Which words are not so to be taken, as though the issue of the righteous man, should be always left in such sufficient case in respect of outward things as that they should never want any thing serving for supplying of corporal wants, but the sense of the words is, that the afflictions of this life, and the use of the Lords trials is not always permanent, nor continually remaining in the seed and posterity, of a righteous man, but that all the corrections of the Lord used towards them are momentany and for a time, and endure not always: so that although himself doth die, and be untimely taken away from his children, yet the Lord who provided for him in the time of his life willbe careful for his posterity after his death, so that they shall enjoy his good blessings, and be preserved for evermore. 
Psal. 37.28.  Whereas on the contrary the seed of the wicked man shallbe cut off. 
versu eodem. Psal. 109.10.  His children shallbe vagabonds, and beg their bread, coming out of their destroyed places: his posterity shallbe consumed, and in the generation following his name shallbe put out: yea the iniquity of such children's fathers shallbe had in continual remembrance with the Lord, so that according to the tenor, & course of the threat contained in the law, the jealousy, and fire of the lords wrath shallbe kindled so hot, and shall burn so furiously, and so continually against them that their iniquitites shallbe visited upon the children, 
Exod. 20.5.  upon the third, and fourth generation, of them that hate him: but on the contrary the beams of his mercy, and the sun shine of his favour shall stretch, & be extended unto thousands to them that love him, and keep his commandments. The performance of which gracious promise, if there be any that stand doubtful of, and therefore seem to distrust the former profession of the prophet David, because they see that the offspring of many good and righteous men do not enjoy the same promised blessing, but are oftentimes left very simply, and driven to many inconveniences, insomuch that without the help and relief of others, they might not only beg but famish and perish, and come to a lamentable end, they that pause upon this matter, and suspend their judgement, as not crediting the truth of the promise, nor the report of David, are first to consider, that it is a part of the performance of the same premise, that it pleaseth God by his special providence to move the hearts of good men to show compassion upon the desolate and fatherless children of a righteous man, to be taken up of them, and preserved by them from the common miseries and mishaps of the world, whereas on the contrary the same prophet hath constantly affirmed, that for a full punishment of the sins of the wicked, 
Psal. 109.12.  it shall so come to pass after them that there shallbe none to extend mercy unto them, neither any to show pity upon his fatherless children. Again they are in this matter to carry a good eye, and sound judgement, and to compare scripture with scripture, and to consider what the Lord speaketh to this purpose by his prophet Ezekiel, where he makes this promise conditional. If a son shall see the sins of his father, & fear, 
Ezek. 18.14.11.16.  and not do the like, etc. he shall not die in the iniquity of his father, but he shall surely live: but if the son be cruel, a shedder of blood, an adulterer, an oppressor, an usurer, that hat● taken interest, if he doth these things, saith the Lord, shall he live? he shall not live: seeing he hath done all these abominations he shall d●… the death, and his blood shallbe upon him: for ye see how this matter standeth. 
Verse 10.11.12.13.  You must needs confess, that seeing God doth not afflict nor punish any man injuriously or unjustly therefore the affliction, and misery which the posterity of a righteous man are sometimes subject unto, proceed not from any rigour, or too much severity in God, but from the desert of their own actual, and personal sins, God is not so cruel or preposterous in his justice as to punish one man for the sin of another: ye shall use this proverb no more saith the Lord, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, 
verse 1.4.  & the children's teeth are set on edge, but the soul that sinneth that soul shall die: and therefore the sense of the law in Exodus is this: God will visit the iniquity of fathers upon their children: true, if they hate him, if they proceed, and persever in the sins of their fathers: otherwise if they forsake their father's sins, they shall not feel their father's plagues. And again. God will show mercy unto thousands: true, to them that love him, that keep his commandments, that do continue and go forward in their father's obedience & holiness: but if they break of the course, & practise of their father's virtue, they shall cut themselves of from the taste of their father's blessings: so that although amongst us many times it comes to pass, that the children of a good man, of a zealous protestant, of a christian unspotted in his life, are destitute of relief, & left to themselves, & run into mischiefs, they prosper not, they play the unthrifts, they spend all, they continue not the name, & honest room, and report which their fathers had, we are not to think that there is any fault in the promise of God or defect in his providence but rather we are to assure ourselves, that the apostasy of the children from the steps of their good father hath plucked upon them that just plague which their sins have deserved, & so are the authors of their own destruction. A third regard there is also to be had in this matter, and the consists in the ignorance, & unsufficiencie of our judgements, for we many times are deceived in our opinions, taking the man for just & righteous which is not so in deed: so that by reason of the want of perfect knowledge in this case, we are carried away with the main current of false sentences, & with doubt & distrust in the promise of God. Therefore we are to set a watch before our hearts, and to keep the door of our lips taking heed how, and what we do think and pronounce concerning the seed and posterity of men, and the state of their fathers: for many a man have been taken for honest, zealous, well disposed, a good gospeler, & a man upright in his actions who nevertheless hath played the hypocrite in all these things, and carried a visor before his face to blind the eyes, and to abuse the judgements of the world: so that it is no marvel, that whereas we took him for a man of great integrity and godliness, being in our opinions deceived, his issue and generation after him tracing in the same steps of hypocrisy and iniquity with their fathers, are visited with the sharp rod of the lords indignation, growing into necessity, impotency, beggary, and such like miseries, the fruits and reaping of their own dissolute sowing. Ye see then how the words of the prophet David are to be taken & how the poor man is therehence to collect, and apply to his sick conscience, his salve of comfort. Let him content himself with his low degree: let him serve the Lord in pureness of spirit, let him rely in all things upon his good providence and according to his ability provide for the good education of his children, and then let him commit himself to the Lord, and commend his children to his protection: he giveth to beasts their food, 
Psal. 147.9.  and to the young Ravens their sustenance. The fowls of the heaven that sow not, reap not, 
Mat. 6.26.  and carry not into any barns are fed by your heavenly father. The Lilies of the field do spring, and are clothed in such sort, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them, how much more will he clothe, and feed you, your wives, your children, your family, your posterity for ever, if ye be not like Gentiles without faith, but like good Christians without immoderate thought, not as those whose whole delight is seated and planted, in Mammon which is riches, and made so drunken with the pleasures of sin, that God and all godliness is quite forgotten, and out of mind, but as those that first of all seek his kingdom and the righteousness thereof, to whom there is this sweet and singular promise made, by him in whose mouth there was never found guile, 
Verse. 33.  that all other necessaries whatsoever belonging to the preservation, of our bodies, and natures shallbe by him sufficiently provided, and ministered abundantly for our use, and comfort. It will not be amiss in this matter for the benefit of the poor man, & his better inducement to contentation and joy, to go a little farther, and to consider how much his estate is commended in the course of the scripture, and preferred before the state of the rich man. For I assure you for any thing that I can read to the contrary, that the quality of a low degree being in many places compared with the condition of a rich man, the first by reason of some special advantages which it carrieth, receiveth most commonly the worthier place, and better commendation than the other. I will not stand upon this point, that it pleased the son of God Christ himself, to make choice of a poor estate upon earth, rather than of a rich, and of an estate so poor, as that by his own confession, the Foxes had holes, and the birds of the heaven had nests, 
Mat. 8.20. 2. Cor. 8.9.  but he himself had not whereon to rest his head, so that in his person we may see and find the condition of poverty sanctified unto us, and not in him only but in his Apostles also, who left and forsook all that they had, and followed him, insomuch that Peter's particular song to the cripple, 
Acts. 3.6.  might have been song of all of them, silver, and gold have I none, the observation of which point might serve somewhat to the matter, but I will leave examples, which do rather beautify than prove, and record that which is expressed, as taught, & commanded by Christ, serving very fitly to the purpose, in a place of Matthew, where he directing a certain young man a course to grow to a perfection in the commandments wished him to go and make sale of all that he had, and give it to the poor, 
Mat. 19.21.  and to come & follow him. By which words we may gather how the state of poverty was commended by Christ unto him, as a better trade, & condition of life than the possession of great lands, which then he retained. I will not say that this is a thing necessarily belonging to our time, and that the precept or counsel there given by Christ to the young man is general, as binding us & others now to the prescription thereof, as though, that without the sale of our goods and the undertaking of a voluntary poverty, no man might perform the measure of fear & service which God requireth, for so say our adversaries, 
Canisius Catechis. titul. de council. fol. 336.  but I know that the same direction was special for the time, & personal for the young man whose inward disease Christ searched, & touched by the sharpness thereof, containing a rule or pattern of perfect love, which he was to look into, and to frame himself accordingly, who before bragging of that sufficiency and full obedience which was not in him, had lied egregiously to Christ, in affirming that he had kept all the commandments of the second table from his youth and lacked nothing, whereof he was immediately in the presence of Christ at that time convicted, being so far from the practice of any such perfect and absolute love, as that upon the speech of Christ. he departed heavy and sorrowful, because he had great possessions: whereby he apparently bewrayed, how many leagues he was of from a consummate obedience, in that he preferred his covetous affection, before the love that he falsely pretended to carry towards his neighbour. But although the same direction reached for that time to him only and particularly, yet I doubt not but the same may serve now as a peculiar rule, for such a one as shallbe found culpable in the same fault, and offend in the same error with him. But suppose not, yet my collection is probable, that the two several conditions of poverty, and riches being there set one against another in that young man, the first in regard of the profit of the man, is preferred before the latter: for otherwise to what end serveth that same consequent judgement of Christ upon the sight of that young man's behaviour, pronounced to his disciples, and that with an asseveration. Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven, and the Evangelist Mark reporteth the speech to have been delivered in manner of admiration, 
Mark. 10.23.  how hardly do they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God? meaning that the very possessing of riches is such a pulbacke or rather plague unto a man, as that it keepeth him from such good actions, and Christian courses, which otherwise not being in that sort burdened, he might cheerfully perform and prosecute with delight, for the discharge of those several duties, whereunto he is bound by the word and law of God. And yet this is not all that is there uttered by Christ to the purpose, but he proceedeth further and affirmeth the matter not only hard but impossible also that a rich man should be saved: insomuch that the passage for a Camel through the eye of a needle is easier and more possible, than the entrance of a rich man into the kingdom of God. A hard speech I confess, and yet the speech of him whose truth & knowledge may not be called in question, being himself the very truth, but ye may say to me, as the disciples said then unto Christ, being exceedingly amazed at the words, who can then be saved: I answer, such as are not in mind proportionable, nor in quality like to that poor man, from whom the occasion of this speech grew and was taken, for I acknowledge that riches itself considered simply, are the good creatures of God, and in their nature they are not evil, but commodious, and profitable divers ways: but in that place Christ indeed speaketh of such rich men, as in their wealth are idolaters, 
Col. 3.5.6.  for which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience: such as incline their hearts not to the testimonies of God but to covetousness, 
Psal. 119.36.  making their gold their very God, not by profession, but by a kind of cursed confidence planted therein. And the truth of this approveth by the former place of Mark, where it is evident that Christ speaketh of such as put their trust in their riches, 
Mark 10.24.  the very same words being there expressly used. So that not riches but covetousness is here condemned as the thing that produceth an impossibility for an entrance to salvation, and as it were a bar and obstruction that keepeth fast the door opening a passage to the kingdom of God. Notwithstanding ye see, how that Christ in that place of Matthew although he taxeth only that gross sin which dependeth upon riches, yet he pronounceth the difficulty or impossibility against the rich man without any special limitation: because indeed we are so perverse in heart, and in nature so corrupt, as the without an extraordinary grace, and government, it is impossible that we should not presume of our wealth, and wax proud thereof, and forget God and so run into those mischiefs, in the whirlpool whereof the common sort of rich men are miserably plunged. For we see what the universal case almost of all our rich men is, having their thoughts estranged from God, and all love of godliness banished from their hearts: being set out in colours in the person of that rich man, the parable of whom is known of all his kinsmen, but his sin is avoided of few of them: who upon the large increase of his fruits: 
Luke. 2.16.  and the plenteous blessing of his grounds, did not dispose himself to return the duty of thankfulness to god for the same, but applied his heart to the delight, and pleasure thereof, being occupied with care for the amplifying of his barns, & the gathering of his goods, and the procuring of the ease of his soul, to eat and drink, and take pastime not considering in whose hands and power that soul of his rested, who for the abuse of his plenteousness, & profane security plucked the same from him, when he thought himself far from any such plague or peril. This is the exact image and mirror of the most rich men of our time, who being deprived of all spiritual, and Christian sense, and wholly possessed with a spirit of carnal greediness, seek only the things of the world, coveting to be rich in themselves, 
Verse 21.  but not in God, using all unlawful practices, and ungodly policies, to hale, and pull corruptible pelf into their hands, whereby they bewray themselves to be no better then greedy dogs, as the prophet speaks, 
Esay 56.11.  which think that they have never enough. And from this filthy fountain, springs the foul streams of their irreligious lives, their proud conceits, their voluptuous desires, their profane epicurism, their brutish forgetfulness of God, his honour, his word, & their own duties every way. Let us look for example upon the state particularly of our own country & take a view of the ordinary course of life in those who amongst us sit in the highest rooms, & by reason of their wealth, bear the stroke in government, and other matters, where shall we find more Atheism, barbarousness, confusion, looseness, outrage, sacrilege, and what you will else then among them? For their own part they think that they may sin by authority being as men not subject to the checks or controlements of any, their likings be laws, and their wills reasons: and as they themselves live without law, so do their families without order: their houses being not lodgings for Christians, but harbours for Savages: not exercised with any one point of good discipline, or piety: but suffered to stand as monuments of misrule, and spectacles of all kind of lewdness: their children fed, but not taught: their servants and retinue, as far from the fear of God, and the fruits thereof, yea from human civility, as they are near to the contempt of God, the irreverence of his word, and the dishonour of his name by their common swearings, and blasphemies. And I would to God that this were the fault only of the Libertines of our age, who carry no note at all, nor mark in the matter of zeal and sincerity, but this abuse, & oversight (which may justly provoke tears,) is crept within the doors and roofs of such as make great show of religion, & are reputed of the number of the best Professors, and favourers, whose houses are not in such sort purged & reform from these common corruptions, as in soul I wish, & themselves in conscience are bound unto. Which thing I take to be most requisite for their consideration, & most worthy of their christian attendance & carefulness, that so all stumbling blocks of offence, & occasions of slander to our common cause may be removed, whereby the enemy that speaketh evil of us as of evil doers, 
1. Pet. 2.12.  may by our good works which he shall see, glorify God in the day of visitation, so that I hope you now conceive by the premises, the full sense & reason of the former allegation or speech of Christ, pronouncing the impossibility of entrance into the kingdom of God against the rich man, standing in the difficulty of applying himself, by occasion of his wealth, to the practice of good things: and in the impediments which do accompany the possession of riches, withholding a man from the free course of christian duties, & obedience, which otherwise he might in good measure yield himself unto, the experience whereof is very large, and plentiful amongst us, forasmuch as we find not one rich man almost amongst a hundred well given, religious, zealous, a lover of the truth, a regarder of his soul, and salvation, more than of his lust and pleasure, but from the least of them to the greatest, 
jere. 6.13.  with one mind and consent they draw after covetousneesse, following the way of Cain, & cast away by the deceit of Baalams' wages: 
Jude 11.  so that we may run to and fro by our streets, as by the streets of jerusalem, 
jere. 5.1.5.  in the days of jeremy, and seek and inquire in our open places if there be any one man amongst our great men, that executeth judgement, and seeketh the truth, but we shall not find him: they have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds, and have not known the judgement of the Lord, so that in this case I cannot resemble our time better, then to the time wherein Christ lived, wherein the mysteries of the kingdom of God, were hid from the wise & prudent, and men of understanding, 
Mat. 11.25.  and were opened to the simple yea unto babes, and wherein the great men, the princes, the Scribes, and the Pharisees, and the richer sort despised Christ, and counted the preaching foolishness but the poor by his own testimony, 
Mat. 11.5.  and trial received the Gospel, & were not offended in him. I will not here (although good occasion is offered) enter into a rehearsal of the common speeches of our great worldlings, and Atheists, who swelling with pride, and almost renting asunder with disdain and rancour, because of the liberty of the Gospel, and the passage of the word (maugre their hearts & beards,) do break out into that same wicked answer of the Pharisees to their officers, concerning Christ: who being amazed at the grace of his words, and stricken in their hearts with the efficacy of his doctrines, were so far from doing violence unto him, as the high Priests had commanded them, as that contrariwise they bare witness of his power, and confessed the excellency of his sayings, affirming, that never man spoke as he did. 
joh. 7.46.47  But what said the Pharisees? are ye also deceived? do any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believe in him? but this people that know not the law are cursed: these are the very formal words of the lose livers of this time, who of purpose to disgrace as much as they can the Preachers of the word, and to diminish the glory of the Gospel if they could, do usually make comparisons betwixt the base condition of such as are lovers of the truth, and diligent hearers of the word preached, and the high degree of those that make a mock of Christ, and apply themselves to the persecuting of him in his saints and members: look (say they) what a sort of beggarly, and poor fellows do follow him, such as have scarce a piece of silver in their purses, or of bread in their houses, they are his disciples, and are become great holy folks, and will shortly prove Preachers, and proceed Doctors: but who of us do fancy him? do not we that be Gentlemen, rich men, rulers, and magistrates speak evil of the man: do not we report the worst we can of him, among ourselves, and to strangers: do not we contemn his pulpit talk, make a jest of his threatenings, and prefer accusations, articles, and bills of inditements against him? there are none of us that do love him, and therefore both he, and they that hear him are deceived and accursed. Thus the Pharisees of our time deal with us, and show themselves as it were in print, to be such manner of men as were the jews, whose hearts upon the hearing of Stephen's words braced for anger, 
Act. 7.54.  and whose teeth gnashed upon him: and such also, as were the Priests, and captain of the Temple, and Saducees in jerusalem, who being not able to contain themselves, by reason of the malicious spirit wherewith they were possessed because that Peter and john did such, and such things in their ministery, 
Act. 4.1.2.  they came upon them and took it grievously, that they taught the people, and preached in the name of jesus the resurrection from the dead, but they are condemned by their own mouths as evil servants, disclaiming from the love, and knowledge of that thing, and of those men, who ought to be their joy, 
2. Cor. 2.16.  and pleasure, and would be a savour of life unto life in them, if they were ordained to salvation. We confess that in external braveries, and in the glory of flesh, and pomp of the world they exceed and go beyond us, but this is not a thing that may breed a just offence in any of us, forasmuch as the cause of faith and religion, doth not hang upon the sleeves, and authority of men, neither doth consist in multitude nor in the degrees of persons, but the same is to be judged by the eternal and immutable word of God, which is the word of truth, 
Coloss. 1.5.  of life, of salvation, of reconciliation of the spirit, the only rule & direction of the faithful: so that although the heathen do rage, and the people murmur, the kings of the earth band themselves, and the princes do assemble together, yet all this may be against the Lord, and against his Christ, with purpose to cast off the yoke of his service, 
Psal. 2.2.3.  and to break the band of their obedience, for multitude is no privilege for truth, neither is gentility, any warrant for godliness. The true wisdom of God, which is the Gospel was not known of any of the Princes of the world, for had they known it, 
1. Cor. 2.7.8  they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And therefore albeit in number we be few, in estate poor, and in birth not Gentlemen, yet in the knowledge of God we may be noble, in faith rich, 
james 2.5.  and in the sight of God as precious as the honourable. Yea, in this matter the case doth so stand, that for the most part those things, which to the eyes of the world seem most excellent, and by the judgement of man are commended, and preferred, are notwithstanding abhorred of the Lord, whose eyes behold, not the face and legs, but doth pierce into the reins: and so likewise on the contrary, those things which in the opinion of men are vile and of no estimation, are nevertheless in high account before God. For he seethe not as man seethe, 
1. Sam. 16.7.  for man looketh on the outward appearance, but he beholdeth the heart, so said the Lord himself to Samuel, being deceived in the fair complexion and high stature of Eliab, the eldest son of Ishaie. It is a notable sentence of Solomon in his proverbs to this purpose, Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, 
Prou. 28.6.  than he that perverteth his ways though he be rich, and again, a poor man is better than a liar, meaning that although a man be destitute of riches, and yet doth possess, and practise virtue, he is to be esteemed above that man, which having much wealth, yet stands void of all honesty, so that if there were nothing else but this only good thing following the estate of the poor man, yet it might be a sufficient motive, to provoke him to the joy, and rejoicing which james doth here set before him, because the fear of God, and obedience to his truth doth not consist in gold, and silver, in many possessions & noble progenies, but in a regenerated spirit, and in a heart purified by faith. Which spirit & heart, seeing he may plentifully be adorned with, although in the external things of the world, he be not so full as others, there is no reason that he should pass his time with tears, and separate all comfort from his heart, the blessed Apostle affirming for his consolation, that the kingdom of God is not meat nor drink, nor any such outward things, 
Rom. 14.17.  but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost: and forasmuch also as by the simpleness of his condition, and the absence of riches, being the very chains and fetters of the mind, he may more quietly apply himself to the service of God, and run the course of righteousness, tending to the gate of God's kingdom more promptly than the rich man, who by reason of the load of his wealth, is so pressed with care, and prisonned with carnal cogitations, as that he hardly can dispose himself accordingly, therefore the man is the sooner, and the better to content himself with his poor, but profitable state, and not either by grief to torment himself, or by a hungry humour to covet that thing, which may bring with it more trouble than quietness, and more disadvantage than commodity if he make price of the sweet freedom of his conscience. A very reverend, 
Muscul. in Math. cap. 21. fol. 490.  and learned Divine of this latter age, disputing of purpose concerning this matter, setteth down briefly divers special things wherein the state of the poor man, is more happy and fortunate than the condition of the rich, which although at the first blush it may seem to be somewhat strange, because we see how every man contendeth to avoid and flee from the door of poverty, as from a Scorpion, and is as unwilling to come near it, as a mariner is loath to approach a rock in the sea for fear of shipwreck, yet upon a sober and prudent balancing of the differences, it will appear how probable, and reasonable the matter is, and that howsoever men do follow their natural and greedy appetites in coveting to be rich, yet when they have done all that they can in that respect, they must say with Solomon, 
Eccl. 2.11.  that it is but vanity, and vexation of the spirit, and jump in judgement with this divine, to prefer the poor man's unhappiness before their own bliss. For ye shall see. The poor man is not so much entangled with the cares of the world, and deceitfulness of riches, as the other is, 
Mat. 13.22.  which are expressly called thorns by Christ, because in many they do suffocate or choke the good seed of the word, and makes them altogether unfruitful: the rich man he is in mind troubled, in body businessed, in his thoughts distracted, he hath so many farms to visit, so many yoke of Oxen to look unto, so many bargains to make, so much money to pay, and to receive, and so many things to do, as that he can spare no time to regard the state of his soul, nor spend an hour to provide his spiritual wealth, and welfare, by the hearing of the word of GOD, the means of his salvation preached, and if he do by chance come to a sermon at any time, it were as good, or rather better he were absent: for although his body be in the Church, yet his wits run upon his business, and his senses are occupied about other matters, the voice of the Preacher is as an unperfect sound to his ears: he receiveth the beginning of a sentence, but attends not the latter end: he hears the latter end, but hath forgotten the beginning, and so it comes to pass, that as he came to the temple with little devotion, so he returns home with little profit, but the poor man is at liberty in respect of these things, his mind is not in such sort forestalled, nor his wits with such cares troubled, but with a free mind, and conscience prepared with the fear of God, he doth apply himself to his service, desiring to increase in knowledge and in all good things, holding nothing so precious, as the discharge of his duty in that case, the glory of God, and the Christian care of his own salvation.  
Again, the rich man is Cousin german to Dives the glutton, who as he was full in his purse, so he would needs be delicious in his fare: his wealth and his diet must be correspondent, 
Luke 16.19.  he must eat and drink of the best, his table must be furnished with all the delicate meats, and drinks that may be gotten for money, making his belly his God, and planting a felicity in the variety of meats, and drinks, and multitude of dishes. And here hence grow the inconveniences and mischiefs of surfeiting, drunkenness, wantonness, concupiscences, and idleness the mother of all wickedness, for the belly being full, the bones look for rest, and not of this only, but of the diseases of the body also, as the Gout, and dropsy, with others of the like nature, the fruits of superfluous, and immoderate feeding. But now the poor man as he cannot by reason of his wants, so he doth not acquaint himself with such a gluttonous kind of life: he contents his nature with a little, and therefore hath his body sound, his mind uncorrupt, his limbs strong for labour, his legs proportionable, and by reason of his good course, liveth long, and dieth in a good age, which is the blessing of God, whereas the gorged rich man doth by his intemperance abbreviate the continuance of his own life, and so commits a great sin in the breach of the sixth commandment of the law. 
Exod. 20.13   
Further, the poor man by reason of his daily labour, and ordinary travel in his vocation, doth so weaken the forces & powers of his body for the time, as that in the evening, and hour of rest, he refresheth himself with great pleasure, having that sweet comfort of nature which is sleep, as it were at his commandment: whereby he is so sufficiently revived, that in the morning he returneth again to his common business, fresh, lusty, joyful, and fit for his work, whereas the rich man is in this point like to Ahassuerosh the king of Persia, of whom we read in the book of Hester, 
Hest. 6.1.  who could not sleep in the night, and therefore called for the book of the Records, or Chronicles of the land, that by perusing of them, he might drive out the time of the night: our rich men consider not that it pleaseth GOD many times for a punishment to them to withhold his benefit of natural sleep from their eyes, the same being a special gift of his, for the preservation of our nature, which otherwise without the same could not possibly endure. The first man Adam could not sleep of himself until the Lord caused it to fall upon him, 
Gen. 2.21.  as showing thereby that it is in his hands either to give it or not to give it, to send it or to withdraw it as pleaseth him. And therefore in the use of his justice, he doth many times deprive the rich men of this comfort, suffering them to lie tossing, & tumbling upon their beds, desiring this ordinary refreshing, but cannot have it, and I myself have heard many of them complaining of the want thereof, that they pass many nights, with little or no sleep at all, taking the same to come by some hap or fortune, by the length of the night, or some stir and noise, not considering the justice of God afflicting them in that sort with unrest in the night, to put them in remembrance of the ill spending of the day, which thing being regarded of Solomon, 
Eccl. 5.11.  made him to affirm, that the sleep of him that travaileth is sweet, whether he eat little or much, but the satiety of the rich will not suffer him to sleep, and again, the heart of such a man taketh no rest in the night. 
Ib. 2.23.   
Moreover, the poor man, by reason of the perpetual necessities of his life, is so well accustomed with common afflictions, as hunger, loss, displeasure, injuries, want of money and such like things, as that it is no trouble nor disquietness unto him, when he is in any such sort pinched, because his youth, and age, and all the days of his life hath been nothing else but as it were a school of discipline, and furnace of trial to him, and therefore whatsoever cross happeneth, he doth endure it with patience, and undergo it with contentation, being well pleased with his lot, but the rich man that hath been acquainted with no such crosses, having lived in ease, wealth, friendship, prosperity, quietness, pleasure and delight, and therefore not knowing what affliction meaneth, when he by the hand of God is never so little touched, whether it be with an injury, enemies, hunger, loss of children, lands, or wealth he is by & by carried away beyond the limits of all reasonable patience, he fretteth, and fumeth and taketh on like a mad man, yea, sometimes foameth out blasphemies against God, and complaineth of the hard dealing of God towards him, as though God were bound by the receipt of some benefit of his, to extend always the parts of love & courtesy for show of thankfulness: and so thinking that God should still let him live in such a flourishing state, as sometimes he did, when he feels but a small alteration, though it be but a gentle admonition, he takes it in no good part, he grows outrageous, & will not be persuaded to any moderation of mind: so that it is impossible that the singular virtue of patience should possess his soul: but the poor man is prepared for every occasion, come what affliction or adversity will come it is no news to him, seeing the whole course of his life, hath been a practice of bearing and suffering.  
Lastly the poor man having lived in his simple estate with a good conscience carried in all his actions, when the time cometh that he must pay his due to nature, and go the way of all flesh, death which is common to all, is welcome to him: he hath no great will or testament to make, no goods gotten by usury, and oppression to restore, no mass of money to leave behind him, no store of treasure to breed in him a hatred of death, but knowing that the same is his port of rest, and conclusion of all sorrows, he receives it quietly joyfully, and Christianly. But oh what a terror to the mind of the rich man is the consideration of death, how many grievous sins hath he marching before him, which makes him to abhor the end of his life: the respect of his former felicity in this world, his wife, his wealth, his place, his coffers, his lands, his houses, his servants, every of these particulars ministers a thousand occasions of desiring life to his heart, and as he lieth loath to die, so he knows not how to prepare himself for the same, but many times it comes so to pass, that the man that hath passed all his life in sin, and security, and vanity without a discharge of a good conscience towards God and the world, is by the justice of God so far from repentance, and a Christian end, as that what with carnal cares, and hope of longer continuance, and other things of the like quality, whereof Satan at that time will power in plenty, and sufficient number into his head and brains, he shall have no remembrance of making an atonement betwixt God, and his soul, but shall die desperately without hope of mercy, and impenitently without remorse for his sin: this point of difference in the departure of the rich and poor man is notably touched by the son of Sirachi, 
Ecclus. 41.1.2.  who in one verse crieth out, O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, unto the man that hath nothing to vex him, & that hath prosperity in all things. But in the next verse he proclaimeth, O death how acceptable is thy judgement to the needy unto him whose strength faileth, and is vexed with all things, etc. Whereby is proved, that good resolution concerning death that the poor man carrieth, being glad when the end of his miseries approacheth: but contrariwise the horror, and fear of death, which possesseth the mind of the rich man, who can in no case abide to hear speech of the same, being the thing that amongst all things else he lest brooketh, & most abhorreth. Now all these things being considered I refer the judgement to yourselves, which of these two is the happier man: the rich with so many inconveniences attending his person, or the poor with so many advantages accompanying his estate, and when ye have passed your verdict, then apply it to the present words of james for the strengthening of his direction of joy to the poor man: for I doubt not but that the dililigent observation of these differences, as it cannot but breed in the rich man a kind of disliking of himself, and his condition, so it cannot but engender in the poor man an allowance, & approbation of his poverty, & so cause him the more willingly to practise joy & contentation in the manifold distresses of this life. But now by the way if for your satisfaction you ask me this necessary question, what manner of poor men I speak of all this while, because that matter is sun what doubtful, in that there are divers persons, going under the name & title of the poor, who by reason of their lewd, & wicked course of life deserve no jot of these good speeches, but rather the whip & correction, & all manner of disgrace, being such as are unworthy in any good place to be remembered or spoken of: I will shortly resolve you, the that by the poor man I do not understand the idle beggar, and roguish companion, who not applying himself to any ordinary labour, makes a profession of beggary, and lives altogether upon the spoil: such both by the law of God, and the commendable laws of this realm provided in that behalf, are to be punished according to the measure of their idleness, and quality of vagabond living: neither do I mean by the poor man such manner of persons, as are common haunters of alehouses, unthrifts, spendals, and drunkards, having scarce either penny in their purses or coat to their shoulders, and yet all the week long lie at such tippling places, having no regard for a civil behaviour, nor desire to purchase an honest & good report amongst men. Which special thing I could wish by some severe order might be reform in this place, wherein there are many offenders in this case, the negligent consideration whereof is occasion of many riots and breaches of the law in many points (and of much sin also) but by the poor man I mean such a one as in scripture by the spirit of God is commended unto us, and committed to our regard, the man upon whom it hath pleased God not to bestow so great a portion of riches as upon others for some secret purpose of his wisdom, being no tall Cedar, no man of great office or authority in the common wealth, but an artificer or handicrafts man, labouring diligently in his manuary trade or science, to relieve himself, and maintain his family thereby, demeaning himself honestly as a christian, and quietly like a subject in the fear of God, and according to the quality of his vocation, such a one in scripture I take to be meant by the name of a poor man. As for our rogues, and vagabonds I exclude them out of the role, and number of poor men, commended by the spirit of God, and spoken of by us, who because they do not labour, they should not eat, & I could wish for them also, that by the good execution of our laws, the country might be rid of the burden and charge of them, who by the duty, and diligence of the officers ought to be taken and sent to our bridewelles, and mill-houses erected for the purpose, that so by justice they might be driven to that pains and amendment of life which of themselves they purpose not to practise. Within this compass of poor men we may include those also, upon whose shoulders it hath pleased God to lay the cross of poverty for their trial or punishment: having been sometimes in very sufficient state, and able both to live of themselves, and to relieve others in necessity, but now by some casuality, are decayed, and come behind hand, and fallen into poverty, as either by fire, robbing, shipwreck, sureteship or such like occasions, and therefore are compelled to rely upon a general charity, with whom we may in like sort join the poor of our alms houses, the old, lame, blind, maimed soldier, and other such impotent persons, to whom there are promises made of far better states, if for the time they can resolve themselves to hear of their miseries with a shoulder of patience, and to trust to the good providence of God expecting a time of help and deliverance from him. And as these men are in divers places of scripture persuaded to quietness and contentation, so here by the Apostle james they are provoked to rejoicing, to cast off all mourning and complaining, and all parts of impatiency, to consider the commodities of their low degree, to look up to the height and excellency of God's kingdom prepared for them, to acknowledge the mercies of God, to give him thanks without grudging for his visitations, and so to live, as that by their poverty, God may accordingly be glorified, and their afflicted bodies, and souls in the end saved: of which matter ye shall hear more (if God permit) the next time.   

The third Sermon.  
Rejoice in that he is exalted. It is nothing strange that james should here give counsel to the poor man to rejoice in his poverty, or rather in his exaltation, although the Lord by the prophet jeremy, doth restrain, 
jer. 9.23.24.  and limit all rejoicing, and glorying to the knowledge, and understanding of his will: saying, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches, but let him that glorieth, glory in that he understandeth and knoweth me: and our Saviour would not give liberty to the seventy, 
Luke 10.20.  to rejoice because the devils were subdued to them in his name, but rather because their own names were written in heaven: and the blessed Apostle also would not dispose of himself to rejoice in any thing, but in the cross of our Lord jesus Christ, as himself professeth to the Galatians: 
Galat. 6.14.  which places overthrow not the words of james here, because the scripture is not as a house or kingdom divided in itself, but as God is always one, and he never contrary to himself, for his word also is one, and that never jars with itself. A general rule for all our joy is given by Paul to the Corinth. 
1. Cor. 1.31.  saying, he that rejoiceth let him rejoice in the Lord: which rule if it doth square out, and measure the use of our mirth, and gladness, than whatsoever special thing it be that we do rejoice in, or of, it can but be lawful in itself, and acceptable to God: for the joy of the faithful is not in such force tied up as it were by the wings, in respects of the receipt of the graces of God, but that there is this scope given them, that look how many good blessings they are made partakers of from God, of so many they may freely, and without sum be glad, and joyful, provided always that the rule be kept, to make God the foundation of their joy, and in the use thereof to have regard of thankfulness of the benefit, and the praise of his name. If we search the scriptures & peruse the histories of the Church, we shall read of many things from whence the godly in all ages have taken occasion to rejoice: as of the deliverance of the faithful, out of the hands of persecutors, victory against the enemies, return from captivity, the free course of the Gospel, the obedience and constancy of the brethren, the government of a good prince, that peace of conscience upon feeling of the mercy of God, & many other things, which particulars if they hap to us, as they have of old to the Church of God, we may in like sort, & without all offence rejoice in them as they have done. So that hereby all the carnal rejoicings of the wicked are condemned, who many times boast of their sin, & triumph in doing evil, making not God, but Satan whom they serve the foundation of their joy: for when the children of God are in some distress, and any way afflicted, then as Tyrus rejoiced at the overthrow of jerusalem, 
Ezek. 26.2.  saying, a hath gate of the city is broken, it is turned unto me, for seeing she is desolate I shallbe replenished, so do the wicked Tyrians of all times clap their hands & are well paid when they see the miseries of the righteous thinking the sight of their calamity, to be a sufficient cause and reason for their execrable melody. The proof whereof is great, and large even amongst us, seeing it can not be denied, but that there are such scoffing mates, and rhyming merchants, as were in the days of David, who made songs of his trouble, & triumphed in his adversity, 
Psal. 32.15.16.  and said, a ha, a ha, our eyes have seen the man overthrown, so these persons, when they see never so little trouble raised up against us, that we are molested, cited, suspended, excommunicated, indited, inhibited, and in such like sort divers ways handled, they cry out there, there, so we would have it, they make feasts one to another in token of joy, and look big upon us, as if they would devour us, yea they deal as the pharisees sometimes dealt against Christ, 
Mark. 14.11.  who when they heard that judas Iscariot would betray him into their hands they were glad of it, and promised him money to do it, so these men rejoice when they can have any occasion of advantage by the canon law, the injunctions, or otherwise against us, and both by persuasions, and promises, do encourage others to work our mischief: but they rejoice in their boastings, & all such rejoicing is evil. 
james 4.16.  And therefore we know to our comfort, that look as the Lord brought a most horrible judgement upon Tyrus for triumphing at the fall of jerusalem, 
Ezek. cap. 26. & 27  so these men shall not escape the force of the Lords wrath, who being jealous of his honour, cannot abide to see his servants abused, & his prophets, the apple of his eye made jesting stocks: & as we do admonish them, so we advise all others, to be careful in this case of their mirths and triumphs not to rejoice in the wickedness of their hands, and in the sins of others, as it is seen now a days, that there are those, which take a felicity, and pleasure to make a man by abundance of drink lose the use of his senses, laughing at his drunkenness, & rejoicing at that, which the souls of gods children do mourn for, & they themselves if there were any fear of God in them should condemn in themselves: but such is the desperatenes of this age by reason of our corruptions, and want of good discipline, that the glory of God lieth in the dust, the way of God is evil spoken of, and sin and iniquity hath gottten he upper hand, and trampleth upon godliness: but leaving the sorrow and lamentation for the same, and prayer either for the redress of all things amiss, or for the end and finishing of all things, to your Christian souls and consciences, I will proceed with the Apostle is the text, who now concludeth with the poor man, and giveth him a sight of his crown and glory, and cause of joy, consisting in a future preferment, or promotion in the words, in that he is exalted. It is a common use not only of the spirit of God in scripture, but of us amongst ourselves also in the time of a man's trouble to minister comfort unto him by an argument drawn from the hope of deliverance, and remedy in the end. If ye read the thirty and one chapter of the prophecy of jeremy, the whole prophecies of Micha, Nahum, Abacuch, and so to Malachy, the last of the prophets, ye shall have sufficient proof, and instance of this matter. And in the new testament, ye shall light almost upon no leaf, or page, but ye shall find comforts of this quality. 
Mat. 5.12. Luke 12.32. Luke 23.43 Luke 21.28. john 14.18. Acts. 27.34. 1 john. 2.25.  Great is your reward in heaven. It is your father's pleasure to give the kingdom. To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Lift up your heads for your redemption draweth near. I will not leave you fatherless, but will come unto you. There shall not an hear fall from the head of any of you: this is the promise that he hath promised unto us, even that eternal life with infinite other places of the like importance: which course is also followed and taken of us in our consolations to our afflicted friends, because we know that there can not be applied to their consciences, a more special matter of comfort, then hope and assurance of help, and relief at the ●ast. The very same manner of encourage, meant, and cheering, james doth here lay and spread before the eyes of the poor man wishing him to be contented with his state, to practise patience, yea joy because the time shall come wherein, although he be now in grievous misery, and lie in the dust, yet he shallbe lifted up to a supreme degree and height of glory, and shallbe made partaker of all the honours, and excellencies of the sons of God: so that if there be any brother or sister among us, punished, and afflicted with any kind of cross, and calamity, whether it be poverty, weakness, sickness, contempt, diffamation, or persecution, or whatsoever else the regard of the present matter, we have now in hand, may in great measure strengthen their feeble arms and solace their heavy spirits assuring them that the said afflictions, shall not always continue, & endure upon them, but shall have not only an end but also a recompense of such glory at the last, as all the miseries of this present time, are in no respect worthy of. 
Rom. 6.11.  And lest any man should mistrust the truth of his promise, and stagger with doubt of the assurance, it is with diligence to be marked, how of purpose to take away all occasion of such incredulity, the Apostle doth here use not the future but the present tense, he doth not say in that he shallbe exalted but in that he is exalted, as though he were in present fruition already of the joys of that kingdom: the like or rather more effectual manner of speaking is used by Paul to the Romans, where to approve the certainty of the glory of the faithful, he speaketh after the manner of the Hebrews, 
Rom. 6.13.  using the time past although the benefit be to come, in respect of the time with us, for he doth not say there, that God will predestinate, call, justify, and glorify the faithful but that he hath done these things already, and that the glorification of the saints of God, is as it were past & gone, a most elegant course of words, ratifying, and sealing unto the elect their true and undoubted blessedness, & there is no question, but that the children of God now living & as yet carrying about them this earthly tabernacle, do notwithstanding in their consciences feel as it were the taste & beginning of those exceeding joys, whereof hereafter they shall have by the mercy of God real, & actual possession. This place doth further show, what is the proper course of aspiring to the excellency, & pre-eminence of the felicity of God's kingdom, & what that means or ladder is to ascend or climb up by to the gate of perfect glory: not a dainty, and delicate life, not a proud, and lordly behaviour, not a quiet state free from all afflictions, and perturbations, but humility, lowliness, persecution, killing, the losing of the life in this world, these are the means to step up to the seat, and sceptre of true and triumphant happiness. The man that is desirous to come to a vain of gold, he must dig for it, and descend into the bowels of the earth, without which descent he shall never fulfil his wish. Paul proposeth before the Romans, and by them before us, the person of Christ for an example in this matter, 
Rom. 8.17.  who being the son of God by nature, first suffered, and then was glorified: so that we being the sons of God by grace, & adoption, and heirs annexed with Christ, if we purpose to be made partakers of his glory we must first be partakers of his cross, & take that course for our preferment which he did. The regard of which matter may be a singular comfort to all the faithful who by reason of the afflictions of this life are after a fort battered and thrown down in conscience, with some natural distrust of the glory to come: whose weak faith is to have this support, that their trouble and adversities, are the very high ways leading to God's kingdom, and their misery as it were the door, by which they are to enter and pass in, so that the feeling of the extremities of this life, is no cause why they should fear or be discouraged, but rather is as an indenture, and firm obligation, confirming the assurance of their future comforts, whereof God in his word hath made them large promises, & therefore as they are hereby to pluck up their spirits, and to comfort their hearts, so on the contrary part those men that receive their consolations in this life, & cannot abide the smart of the least affliction, but shunning it themselves, do labour to increase the same in others, and add to the bonds of the Saints, and play the tyrants over the poor, flaying them and selling them even for shoes, and oppressing them with all burdens, they may learn here-hence what little cause they have to rejoice in their lusts, or to take pleasure in these actions, forasmuch as the time shall come, wherein although the poor be made here their footstools, and bondslaves, they like Pope's riding on their shoulders, yet a sudden change, and great alteration, shall happen, when the poor man shallbe exalted, and lifted up to the skies, and they shallbe taken by the justice of God, and hurled into the depth of hell. And that this is true, hearken what the wise man saith concerning the matter, who speaking of the different ends of the wicked, and righteous man, doth pronounce that at the judgement of all flesh, 
Wisd. 5.1.2. etc.  the righteous man shall stand in great boldness before the face of such as have tormented him, and taken away his labours, but the wicked when they see him shall be vexed with a horrible fear, and shallbe amazed for his wonderful deliverance: and then they shall change their minds, and sigh for grief, and say within themselves. This is he whom we sometimes had in derision, and in a parable of reproach: we fools thought his life madness, and his end without honour, but how is he now counted among the children of God, and his portion is among the Saints, & thereupon they shall break forth into a condemnation against themselves, & say, we have erred from the way of truth, & the light of righteousness hath not shined unto us, and the sun of understanding rose not upon us: we have wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness, and destruction, and we have gone thorough dangerous ways, but we have not known the way of the Lord, & further, they shall then though too late grow out of conceit with their former vanities of the world, and pleasures of sin, which they enjoyed for a season, and shall cry out, what hath pride profited us, or what gain hath the pomp of riches brought unto us, for all these things are passed away as a shadow and as a post that passeth by, etc. Surely if these things do not move, and cannot work the hearts of our worldlings to another conceit of themselves, and better course of life then now they hold, I must needs pronounce they are made not of flesh, but of flint and adamant, which beats back the blow of the hammer, and will receive no impression, but I hope the best of them: and I do also pray to God for them, that a new creation of heart may be wrought in them, that they may be touched with a feeling of their own sin, & sense of the necessities of the saints of God, and may so run the race of this life, that the crown of righteousness stored up for the faithful, & the high degree of exaltation to the glory of the sons of God, spoken of here by james, may be communicated by the mercy of God with them and us.  
For the helping forward of which matter in their behalf, I will now trace forward in the steps of the Apostle, and go on with him to the second part, or member of his comparison hear made, and instituted: comprehending a special direction for the rich man, teaching and schooling him, as well as the poor man, how he is to behave himself in his good estate, and time of prosperity, to wit, not to build upon his wealth, as upon a rock or foundation, thinking that there is no quality of weakness, or possibly of decay therein, but rather to consider the natural incerteinty, and slipperiness thereof, and upon that consideration, to cast off all his vain trust, and foolish confidence reposed in the same, and while he hath his riches in possession so to use it, and dispose of it, as God in his word hath prescribed. For such I take to be the meaning of the Apostle in the words, Let the rich man rejoice in that he is made low. That is, let him keep himself within the compass of his duty, and think that as many times after peace comes war, and after fair weather a storm, so a great mutation may happen to and upon his felicity, whereby it may come to pass, that although he be now rich, yet he may be made poor: although he be now mounted aloft,, and risen up to the top of worldly glory, yet he may be plucked down again to the earth, and thrown into the dust of misery, as many have been before him. And therefore he is to carry in his heart, this point of knowledge, and consideration, and therewith to be armed in such sort, as that when this alteration shall come, he may be prepared for it, and go out as it were to meet it: saying with job to his wife, shall we receive good things at the hand of God, 
job 2.10.  and not evil also? or otherwise these words may be taken, and that with good probability and sense: to wit, that the rich man although by reason of his sufficiency & good measure of wealth, he be promoted, and advanced to some high estate, and excellent calling, yet in his opinion he is to bear a low sail, and to carry an humble mind still within him, to be far from any arrogant, and proud conceit of himself, and although he be high in degree, yet to be low in behaviour, in gesture meek, and in speech courteous, which things are able to win the general love of men, yea of enemies, & in such sort to apply himself to the practice of humility in his greatest honour, as that it may be seen that a gentlens of spirit, and lowliness of mind is more regarded of him then the quantity of his wealth, or the quality of his calling: both these constructions being so reasonable, and so agreeable with the purpose of the Apostle, and the duty of the rich man, we will shortly by the grace of God dispatch for your comfort, & edifying. I hope you are not so ignorant as not to know, nor so froward as not to acknowledge the natural mutability, and uncertainty that is in this life, and in the possession of riches, to day a king, to morrow without a kingdom, to day a Queen, 
Reu. 18.7.8.  no widow, seeing no mourning, to morrow, a fall, death, sorrow, famine, and burning with fire. Solomon in his Book called the Preacher, being written in his latter days after long experience doth dwell after a sort upon this argument, proving largely and strongly, that there is nothing of stay, and continuance under the sun, for the very generations do pass and go away, and all things have their end. Who would have thought reading the beginning of the story of job, where it is said that his substance was seven thousand sheep, 
job. 1.3.  & three thousand Camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, & five hundred she Asses, his family very great, no man in all the East part of the world like unto him, not one amongst all the Arabians, Chaldeans, Idumeans, and the rest of the nations comparable unto him for wealth, I say who would have thought that notwithstanding all this, he should by and by read concerning him, that in one day he had his servants slain, his cattle stolen, his sheep burnt, his children murdered, all that he had, spoiled, destroyed, taken away, and nothing left him, yea his very body also made a spectacle of horror, and an image of misery, being smitten with sore biles from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, and no part remaining whole about him? It is not almost credible in human opinion, that so sudden a change, so miraculous an overturn from so good a state to so vile a case, from so much wealth to so much woe, could possibly have happened: but the story is true, and the accident is nothing impossible, and job himself confessed, that as he was borne naked, so he should die naked, and that as the Lord had given him that wealth, so he had also taken it away from him at his pleasure. But what was job, an Indfidell, and a reprobate? No surely, 
job. 1.1.  an upright and a just man, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil, so saith the spirit of God expressly of him, and yet this change from riches to poverty, and from good to bad fell upon him, how much more than are the ungodly sinners, and unrighteous men of the world subject to the same. judgement saith Peter gins at the house of God, if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them which obey not the Gospel of God? and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly, and the sinner appear? 
1. Pet. 4.17.18.  Did job, feel the suddenness and the weight of an alteration, and shall those in whose heart there is no fear towards God, in whose hands there is no innocency, and in whose mind there is no desire of any good thing, shall they escape the plague of the same? no no, the Prophet David affirmeth plainly concerning them, that they shallbe consumed as the fat of Lambs, their prosperity shall pass away, 
Psal. 37.20.  as a cloud, their bay trees shall not always be green, they stand in slippery places, the Lord will cast them down into desolation, they shallbe suddenly destroyed, 
Psal. 73.18.  perished, and horribly consumed: how many instances and examples can I give you of this matter? but to leave all, and to remember one, who can sufficiently express, or thoroughly describe all the glory, magnificence, pomp, pleasure, prosperity and wealth of Nebuchadnezar the king of Babel, who had power over all kingdoms, 
jere. 2 6.7.  and all nations served him, and did put their necks under his yoke and by reason of his conquest over jerusalem, and over jehoiakim the king of juda, 
2. King 2.24.  and over the house of the Lord, his gold and silver, and treasure was mightily increased, and yet for all this, as high as his estate was, and as infinite as his wealth was, you know what justice happened unto him: he was cut down by the watchman, his kingdom was taken from him, and he from it, and he became both poor amongst men, 
Dan. 4.30.  and miserable among beasts. This the Lord our God to whom no man is like is able to do, he maketh poor, and maketh rich, as Hanna the mother of Samuel sometime did sing, 
1. Sam. 2.7.  he exalteth, and bringeth low, it is as easy a matter with him to make a man a caitiff, as a king, and a peysant as a Prince, for health, and sickness, life and death, prosperity and beggary they are in his hands, to give the one for a blessing, and to inflict the other for a punishment, when, where, and how it pleaseth him. How many men are there even among us, within the compass of our own knowledge, who sometimes flourished in the world, & braved it out in the best sort, & who but they? wanting nothing that might serve for the fulfilling of their desires and the glory of their pleasures, swimming in silks, abounding with wealth, houses, grounds, sheep, oxen, & many other things, yet now they are stripped into their doublets, and turned as it were to their bag & staff, not so full before as now they are miserable and empty: this is the uncertainty of human happiness. who therefore but a foolish or rather mad man, will trust this world, & put any confidence in his wealth, and proceed to ware proud thereof, as though it should for ever continued with him, nay, suppose it do stand with a man a long time, yet although his riches leave not him, yet he in the end shall leave his riches, & be he as rich as Croesus, or as Dives was, yet at the last he shall jump with Lazarus, and be as poor as he. And therefore it is not in vain that Paul in his instructions to Timothy, doth of purpose touch this particular point of the uncerteinety of carnal wealth. 
1. Tim. 6.17.  Charge them that are rich in this world (saith he) that they be not high minded, & that they trust not in uncertain riches but in the living God. etc. Observe the attribute: he doth not say, that they trust not in wicked riches, deceitful riches, or such like words, but in uncertain riches, which epithet, he doth their use as a special argument to dissuade men from the reposing of any trust in the same: for it is a great foolishness to trust to an uncertain thing: who will leave to a broken staff in leaping over a ditch? what mariner will hazard his ship with a rotten cable? what man will build a tower upon a weak foundation? & what distressed person will in extremity rely upon a siccle friend? now if it be a consequence of want of wit in a man to do any of these things, is it not the like also in him that shall plant his affiance in riches, being a thing in confession, as brittle as a broken staff, as weak as a rotten cable, as tottering as a sandy foundation, as unconstant as a wavering friend, as mutable as the wind, and as meltable as the snow? let the rich man therefore upon remembrance of this point if he be careful of his own good, cast of his immoderate desire of wealth, and unchristian opinion of the strength thereof, & content himself with lawful means in the use of his trade, & if God doth bless his labours as he hath promised to the righteous man, let him convert his sufficiency to the enlargement of the kingdom of God, his glory, the furtherance of his word, the comfort of the Saints, and the profit of the Church of God every way, not yielding to the affections of a foolish heart which will carry a man to ostentation, pride, and prodigality, and other vanities, but in all his actions seeking the honour of him, from whom he received his blessings: let him carefully consider the uncertainty for continuance in that he possesseth, and thereupon while he hath his riches, before the evil days do come, dispose of it according to knowledge and conscience, lest when the years of dearth, and necessity do approach, than he say as a common Gamester, and Diceplayer usually doth, who having lost his money at one unthrifty, will then swear, and take on, and profess, I would I had rather given it to the poor, saying so when his money being gone is become another man's, but when he had it as his own, he had no such good mind to do it. I myself have heard many, who sometime were in good case, and state, but now are in the contrary, wishing that when their ability was good, they had done this, and that, to the poor, to the Church of God, to the Preacher, and to other good uses, but when they were in their prosperity they had no such good motion, nor gracious feeling in them. There is no doubt, but that Dives when he once felt the torment, & knew the cause thereof, he repented ten thousand times, that he had not relieved Lazarus in his life: but then his repentance was too late, and had I witted, is always the natural and essential property of a fool. For a wise man will provide a remedy for a mischief while time serves, but a fool when it is too late. Remember therefore the Parable of the talents, and therein the judgement of that evil and slothful servant, 
Mat. 25.26.  who not employing his one talon to the advantage of his master, had the same taken from him, & given to his diligent fellow, & himself in the end, as an unprofitable hireling, thrown into utter darkness. And surely in this respect, that place of Solomon in his preacher is most excellent, who speaking of the miserable mind of the covetous man, not having the grace to use his riches as he should do, 
Eccle. 6.1.2.  he doth affirm that he had seen an evil under the sun, which was much amongst the sons of man, namely, a man to whom God hath given riches, & treasures, & honour, & he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that it desireth, but God giveth him not power to eat thereof. Which indeed is a plague of plagues, that a man should have in his fingers & custody, that, by the good use whereof he might do singular good in God's Church, to his glory, and the salvation of many souls, & yet doth abuse his blessings to the maintenance of his pride, bellicheere, wantonness, luxuriousness, covetousness, usury, and other sins, without any regard of that duty whereunto the word of God doth bind, and direct him. If this thing be well marked, and advisedly considered of our rich men, 
Luk. 16.8.9  I doubt not but that by the help of God, the same good & prudent effect which wrought in the unrighteous steward, upon the reckoning which his master called for at his hands, will follow in them, namely a wise, and provident dealing while they are in office, & a purchasing of friends by the riches of iniquity, that when themselves do want, they may be received into everlasting habitations: but now, if we take these words in the other sense, namely that the rich man is not to be proud of his wealth, not to boast thereof, nor to be blown up in any arrogant conceit of himself thereupon, but rather to join humility with the same, to be lowly in his own eyes, & to be so much the more lowly, by now much the greater his substance is, as the construction may be & is good, so is the doctrine profitable, for it teacheth the rich man, with what virtue amongst the rest, his state must be accompanied & adorned, & with what temperature, he is to mix the sweetness of his abundance, & the eminency of his degree, to be full, & yet to be as if he were empty, rich, & yet as if he were poor, high in countenance, and yet as if he were low in calling, to be of the same mind whereof the holy Apostle was, as he reports of himself, saying, 
Philip. 4.12.13.  I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I can be abased, and I can abound every where in all things, I am instructed, both to be full, and to be hungry, and to abound, and to have want, I am able to do all things through the help of Christ which strengtheneth me, as if he had said in other words, when I am on the one side pinched with poverty, loaden with contempts oppressed with miseries, or howsoever afflicted & persecuted, I am content I despair not, I submit myself, & refer my case to the will, & pleasure of God, and I do with patience in mind, & constancy in behaviour endure, & undergo the burden of my crosses. And on the other side also, when I am out of the peril of all mishaps, when my foot hath escaped the fowler's net, and my soul the Persecutors sword, so that my life & liberty is in no hazard, or distress, & I feel the want of no good thing, than I am not high minded, I wax not proud, I exalt not myself arrogantly, & presumptuously, but with a sober mind, in the fear of God I take and use the benefit of his good blessings, the evidences of his love returning unto him the duties of praise, & thanks for all things. This is a singular disposition of spirit, & a mirror of mortification & wisdom, or rather the chief skill & art of the children of God to carry themselves so uprightly, directly, & equally in all occurrents, as neither by the storms of afflictions to be broken & overthrown, nor yet by the sweet draft of prosperous events to be made drunk, neither to be dismayed with the sharpness of the Lords discipline, and trials, nor yet to surfeit with the pleasure of his favours, but so to live and stand in both cases, as if they were one: & howsoever the world goeth, or their condition altereth, to be the same manner of men, of the same mind, behaviour, government, & quality still. Which good and constant example in Paul, if it were of us imitated and expressed, I should think that the overflowing rich man would not so much forget himself in the time of his felicity as he doth, living in pomp, and security without all fear of God, and holy exercises: and that the needy poor man also, would not so often acquaint himself, with unlawful actions, practised for his violent relief, whereby many times the peace of the country is hazarded, and broken, but rather content himself with his mean fortune, and live within compass of law and honesty, relying upon the good providence of God, which being continually working for sparrows, will not fail him if he faithfully trust in his mercy. But ye see what the drift of my speech is by occasion of the present words, that the rich man if he will rejoice, and be proud of any thing it must be of humility, and not of any vain confidence in himself, or his wealth, to avoid the vainglorious humour of the Pharasie, whose wealth bred pride in his heart, and the pride of his heart ministered contempt to his lips, 
Luke 18.11.  in despising, and disdaining his neighbour the Publican. Which thing is many times a fruit, & consequence of abundance without special moderation, and government. For the Apostle affirmeth that the bounteousness of God leading a man to repentance is not so taken of him but rather converted to an abuse of the lords patience, and sufferance, to the hardening of heart, and heaping up of a treasure of wrath for himself against the day of wrath: 
Rom 2.4.5.  and in the prophesy of jeremy the Lord himself makes complaint that whereas by the great measure of his blessings powered with both his hands upon his people, he had provoked them to obedience, they contrariwise followed the sway of their lusts, 
jerem. 5.7.8  and being fed full assembled themselves by companies in the harlot's houses: they rose up in the morning like fed horses, for every man neighed after his neighbour's wife. The experience of this woeful matter we see in these days plainly as in a diamond, wherein the good blessings of God which should stir us up to Christian thankfulness, are shamefully profaned, and turned quite as it were against the hear, to an engendering, and fostering of sin, and abomination. As we are equal with Sodom & jerusalem in fullness of bread, so in iniquities, 
Ezek. 16.49.  pride, abundance of idleness, & neglect to strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Nay Sodom, and jerusalem, and add to them a third, Samaria, these never committed half of our sins, but we have exceeded the number of their transgressions, & have justified all their works. And did the Lord in his displeasure make them carry their own shame, and confounded them, 
Ib. ver. 54.  & will he pass by us, & our houses, & not suffer the destroyer to come in? hath he plagued his own city wherein his name was called upon, and shall we go free? 
Rom. 11.21.  hath he not spared the natural branch, and shall we that are grafts escape the axe, and judgement? is it not good reason, and equity, that if we commit their sins, we should also feel their scourges? for God is not partial in his justice, neither can any favour or regard pervert the course of his righteousness, but as sure as he liveth we shall know the price of our sins, & feel the full smart of his wrath as they have done, except we proclaim our fast, and put on our sackcloth, and sit in ashes, crying mightily to the Lord for mercy, 
jonah. 3.5.8 10.  and every man turn from his evil ways, & from the wickedness of his hands, than the Lord will repent him of the evil that he hath purposed against us, & not do it, & the which he hath said he would do, he will not do it, otherwise the abuse of his blessings being continued, & the multitude of our other sins increased, shall procure the sudden desolation, which shall never be recovered, & the horrible destruction, which shall cause our names to be abhorred of the generations to come. Well it remaineth now only to stand upon the the third & last part of our division, containing by amplification a reason of the former speech of the Apostle, wherefore the rich man is not to trust to his wealth, nor to depend upon the strength of his riches, the reason is, because the same as Solomon speaks, 
Pro. 23.5.  is as an Eagle which suddenly takes her wings, & flieth into the heaven, It is a flying thing, a thing subject to corruption & change: no surer than the flower of the grass, which always perisheth, and vanisheth away. There are in scripture many swift things to the uncertain qualities whereof the nature of wealth and riches is likened, and resembled: as sometimes to a shadow, which of itself in substance is nothing, but the bare glimpse of the body being interposed betwixt the sun & the earth: sometimes to a post, and speedy messenger, who coming in post departeth in haste, either in some service from the prince, or in carrying news to the court: 
Wis. 5 9.10.11.12.  sometimes to a ship which passeth thorough the waves of the water, the trace whereof being once gone cannot be found, nor the path thereof seen in the floods, sometimes to a bird that flieth in the air, and no man can see any token of her flight: sometimes to an arrow which is shot at a mark which divideth the air for a time, but it cometh together again immediately, so that a man cannot know where it went thorough, and sometimes to the dust which is blown away by the wind, all these things naturally, and lively expressing the hopeless condition of riches, and the trustless prosperity of this life. But amongst all other fit, and proper things to this purpose, the same comparison which the Apostle useth in this place, is not the least nor the last in conveniency, and aptness, making an equality betwixt the rich man, & a flower of the grass, which although for a time it be very glorious, and beautiful, yet all the glory thereof is weak, and all the beauty thereof vain, and subject to a sudden change. And as in this place riches, so in other places such things, as are in their prime, and gallantness are compared with this flower, and amongst the rest the time of youth, and young years, is termed by the name of the flower of a man's age, because then the body is lusty, the limbs strong, the proportion comely, the blood stirring, the wits fresh, the memory quick, all the powers perfect, and nothing in nature wanting for inward and outward sufficiency. But most commonly in scripture, such things as be short in continuance, and in state transitory, are resembled to this flower, as in the book of job, that holy, and patiented man, entering into a description of the miserable state and course of man's life from his birth day, to his dying day, affirmeth that man being borne shooteth forth as a flower, 
job. 14.2.  and is cut down, he vanisheth also as a shadow, and continueth not. Quickly come, and quickly gone: soon ripe, & soon rotten as the proverb is. The crying voice in the prophet Esay, doth make a difference betwixt the state of a grass, and of a flower, the one being of longer continuance, 
Esay 40.6.7  though all be but little then the other. All flesh is grass, but the grace of flesh, that is the beauty excellency, wisdom, and power of flesh is as the flower of the fieeld, the flower is more orient, and elegant, than the grass, but the grass is more durable, and permanent than the flower: both are subject to decay, and corruption, but yet the one droppeth to the earth sooner than the other. Which thing is to be applied to the words of our text, and to be regarded of the rich man with some special diligence, for as much as himself is hear by the Apostle resembled, not to the grass but to the flower thereof, which of the two makes most speed to consumption. The holy Ghost by the prophet David, doth of purpose describe a flower, or grass, showing what it is, and of what force, and time for continuance. For having spoken in the former circumstances of the Psalm, of the fragility and weakness, of the brevity, and shortness of man's life, proving it to be of no longer perpetuity, than a day, a flood, a watch, a sleep, a thought, and last of all a grass, he doth thereupon enlarge that last similitude, by expressing the state of the same grass, in the morning (saith he) it flourisheth, and groweth, 〈…〉 the evening 〈◊〉 is cut down, 
Psal. 90.6.  and 〈…〉. Which is all one with that further description, which james makes hear in the next verse of this chapter, where amplifying this reason which we have now in hand, he showeth the manner of the decay of the rich man, by the degrees of corruption, whereunto the grass is subject. For as when the sun ariseth with heat, than the grass withereth, and the flower falleth away, and the goodly shape of it perisheth, even so shall the rich man whither away in all his ways: In which words he toucheth the general course of increase, & decrease in all vegetative & growing things, which as they have their beginning, so they have also their declination, and end, and cannot always continue in one state: so in riches there is a beginning, and that sometimes base and simple, and as small as the beginning of a root of a grass, or of the seed of a flower which is not great in the greatest. We see and know amongst ourselves, many who now are rich and wealthy, and in sufficiency far beyond many of their neighbours, who began the world but with a small stock, with little or nothing, yet by the blessing of God, & their own diligence, their stock is increased, their state bettered, and their room and place now reverend amongst us. Which beginning & original of theirs, I could wish many to revoke, and call back to memory, who are now so far gone with pride, and arrogance, by reason of their present prosperity, that they forget the place from whence they came, the parents from whom they descended, the simple seed from whence the great measure of their wealth hath spong, and their own unworthiness every way without God's mercy to receive any such blessing. Which thing being remembered, and advisedly considered, I doubt not, will work that good effect, which is now wanting in those, whom their fullness hath made drunk, and oblivious of their own progeny, and the graces, and favours of God towards them extended: namely thankfulness to God for the same, care of his honour, respect of his true service, humility, lowliness of mind, and tenderness of heart towards those, who feel now the sharpness of that want, and necessity, whereunto themselves in the remembrance of many were sometimes subject. But by reason of the common neglect of Christian duties in this case, we see how in justice the Lord doth deal with such manner of men who sloting up for a time, as the sea or flood when it ariseth, yet at the last are brought down to a low ebb, and jump in conclusion with that barren fig-tree, which received a curse from the mouth of him who never blesseth unrighteous branches, 
Mat. 21.19.  and by and by for all his glorious leaves withered, and came to nothing, or with that same gourd, which came up as a shadow to the head of jonas for a time, but being smitten by a worm presently dried up, 
jonah. 4.7.10.  so that as it sprang in a night, so it perished in a night. Examples of our time in this case are superfluous: for the matter is most evident, and the men are yet living, whose states are spectacles of this justice, and whose decay are glasses of this declination, their tree of wealth having known the force of a curse, and their gourd of pleasures having felt the worm of vengeance, so that as their riches already hath, so themselves hourly do, according to the words of james, in this place, vanish away as a flower of the grass. Which thing being true I do not a little marvel, that there are so many in the world, who contrary to their own knowledge (for in this matter they cannot plead ignorance) do make their wealth their support, and their treasure their shoot anchor, not only being proud thereof, but that which is an argument of a miraculous unsensibleness, do plant their confidence in the same, looking for help and deliverance from their rusty and corrupt gatherings, which shall consume as a snail that melteth, and as the untimely fruit of a woman, that hath not seen the sun. It was a special thing given in charge by Paul to Timothy that he should enjoin rich men in no case to trust in their riches: 
1. Tim. 6.17.  for he knew sufficiently how to a rich man a persuasion intending to trust and repose in his wealth, is most plausible, even as we see it apparent in these days, by the actions of those men, whom God hath blessed with great abundance, who presuming upon the same, and thinking themselves able thereby to compass any matter, do apply themselves to oppression and tyranny, by excoriating or skinning the poor man, challenging those lands, and possessions wherein they have no interest, but make a claim, and pretenced right, of purpose to defraud, and undo those, whom they know by reason of their wants not able to make their part good, by continuing the charges of law against them. And many other vile things of like nature, are commonly put in practice by them, not mistrusting the success of any matter they take in hand, intending, that if bribery, and corruption, and rewards, may purchase particularly, and pervert the righteous course of justice they will assuredly speed of their purpose: this is the reason that so many bad and odious suits are now undertaken and prosecuted, overthrowing the foundations, and states of many good men, because the opinion which the unrighteous man hath of victory, and prevaylement by his wealth, is a spur in him to tyranny, supposing that his gold shall bear him out, and the countenance of his money shall terrify as many as resist him. This oppressor doth little think of the words of james in this place, proclaiming the natural uncertainty of the rich man, and his Mammon, or of the mighty foolishness of his heart, or of the judgement of God entering into his doors, from whose hands his money shall not save him, 
Ezek. 7.19.  nor his coin keep him in the day of his wrath. How necessary then for the time is this doctrine, and that counsel of the holy prophet. 
Psal. 62.10.  Trust not in oppression and robbery, if riches increase set not your heart thereon, and that notable confession of job also for example and direction, whose life is a precedent for us, who sometimes in in great vehemency wished, that his arm might fall from his shoulder, and be broken from the bone, 
job. 3.24.25.  if he had ever made gold his hope, or had said to the wedge of gold thou art my confidence, or rejoiced in that his substance was great, and that his hand had gotten much. A confession which thousands of our days cannot make with any truth, whose whole trust standeth in the heap of their treasure, and whole glory in the possession of their wealth, having the like vain, and vainglorious conceit which Haman in the Book of Hester, who instead of acknowledging the goodness of God towards him called his friends together, 
Hester. 5.11.  and in the pride of his heart told them all the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the King had promoted him, etc.  
But against such manner of men the Lord by the Prophet Amos doth threaten, to raise up an afflicting nation, from the entering in of Hamah, unto the wilderness that is a general destruction without the escape of any, because they rejoice in a thing of nought, 
Amos 6. 1●.13.  and say have not we gotten us horns by our own strength? how much better than were it for us, and all men to cast of this peevish confidence in the arm of flesh and in the vanishing shadow of carnal things, and to trust in him, and his mercy, who is the shield, and buckler of the faithful, the God of all strength and salvation, and able sufficiently to save those, that rely upon his goodness: how much more profitable for ourselves, and for our souls comfortable were it to put in use that sweet direction of our Saviour, lay not up treasures for yourselves upon earth, where the moth, and canker doth corrupt, and where thieves do dig through, 
Mat. 6.19.20.  and steal, but lay up treasure for yourselves in Heaven, where neither the moth nor canker corrupteth, and where no thieves can dig thorough to steal. Which words if they were well considered, and diligently examined, would appear to carry within the compass or bowels of them many good reasons to dissuade us from all miserable endeavours of scraping together the pelf of the world, and all idolatrous confidences in the same. I will not stand to discourse at large of those three several enemies to whose power the nature of all carnal treasure is subject, and must obey, forasmuch as there is nothing which a man externally can possess, but that in time, either the moth may fret it, or the canker may corrupt it, or the thief may violently break in and surprise it, whereby first the corruption, than the consumption, and last the danger, and small security of wealth is most fully and excellently showed, and withal the huge vanity of men's hearts condemned, who serve with devotion, and honour, that transitory trash, wherein there is neither strength to continue, nor substance to endure, nor assurance to stand without decay and loss: but this one thing in the words may be with brevity observed, that our Saviour doth there remember us of the place wherein we live, 
〈…〉  and useth the same as a reason to withdraw our minds, from the heaping up of treasure in the same. This earth is not our habitation, but thoroughfare: we are not here as dwellers for ever, but as sojourners for a time, as all our fathers were, we have here no rest, 
Micha. 2.10 Heb. 13.14.  nor continuing City, but we must seek one to come, we must have wives as if we had none, we must weep as though we wept not, and rejoice as though we rejoiced not, and buy as though we possessed not, 
1. Cor. 7.39.30.  and use this world as though we used it not for the fashion of this world goeth away: and therefore if there were any measure of ordinary wit and wisdom in us, we would not so greedily apply ourselves to covetousness, nor so carnally dispose of ourselves to the love of the world, and worldly things as we do, being by our own knowledge so naturally subject to a short durance, and so constantly ordained to an universal destruction, but rather we would respect that place, which is immortal, and that treasure which is incorruptible, and lay up for ourselves in store (as the spirit speaketh) a good foundation against the time to come, 
1. Tim. 6.19.  that we may obtain eternal life. 
2. Pet 3.10.13.  Do we not know that the Heavens shall pass away with a noise, and that the elements shall melt with heat, and that the earth with the works that are therein shall be burnt up? And if we do know it, is it not expedient for us, that we look over, and beyond all these things, and by a holy conversation, and faithful hope, expect new Heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness? Is it not requisite for us to be risen with Christ, and to seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of GOD, that when he shall appear 
Colos. 3.1.4.  and come in judgement with thousands of Angels, we may also appear with him in glory? My beloved brethren, and sisters in the Lord, suffer the words of exhortation: if there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, 
Philip. 1.  if any compassion of mercy, look to yourselves, and regard the state of your souls: let not the precious death of Christ jesus be made without effect in you, grieve not the holy spirit of GOD by which you should be sealed against the day of redemption, 
Eph. 4. 3●.  set your affections upon heavenly things, and not upon the things of corruption. Let your conversation be without covetousness, to do good, 
Heb. 13.16.  and to distribute forget not, for with such sacrifices God is pleased, if all these things be amongst you and abound in you, you cannot possibly be unfruitful in the acknowledging of Christ. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord jesus, 
Heb. 13.20.21.  the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in all good works, to do his will, working in you that which is pleasant in his sight through jesus Christ, to whom be praise for ever, and ever. Amen.   
FINIS.   

The errors and misprinting of words escaped in the press, are here amended, which otherwise might mar the sense, and hinder the Reader.  
leaf: Page: Line: Error: Correction. 3 2 25 rithes riches. 6 2 18 corrupion corruption. 8 1 22 gteater greater. 14 1 1 exceeded exceed. 15 2 22 these those. 24 1 2 in in in 25 2 11 before being. 27 2 23 approveth appeareth. 29 2 26 which with. 31 1 27 we were 32 1 1 external eternal. 35 2 11 his this. 40 2 13 riches che riches. 41 1 1 for so. 42 2 15 he the 44 2 24 fort sort. 50 2 16 said say. 54 2 10 flying flitting. 56 2 27 sponge sprang. 57 1 22 bare barren. lb. 1 27 ground gourd. 59 1 10 hope heap.   

❧ Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the vintry by Thomas Dawson for Thomas Butter. 1588.