SELFE-SATISFACTION Occasionally taught the Citizens in the Lecture At St. Magnes near London-bridge.  
By FRANCIS TAILOR, M. of A. and Pastor of Clapham.  
LONDON. Printed by john Norton, for Robert Bird, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Bible, in St. Laurence-Lane. 1633.   

ERRATA.  
p. 8. from the duty of piety, from the duties. p. 12. root of Apostcy, Apostasy. p. 14. covered with a bate, a bait. p. 31. plays it the midst, in the midst. Nothing cannot secure, can secure. p. 37. mark Shaddac, Shaddai, lo dac, ol day. p. 43. mark ta perton. peri tôn pragmat ôn. Is. Ib. p. 45. that gives a good, he gives.   

TO THE FRVITFULL VINE, AND pleasant Olive plants the Lady Hester Pie, Wife to the Right Worshipful, Sir Walter Pie, Attorney of the Court of Wards, and her Children, Captain Crispe, Mr. Samuel Crispe, Mr. Tobias Crispe, and their wives, Mris. Elizabeth Charnocke, and her Husband.  
IT is a most firm demonstration of God's excellency that although all creatures depend on him, yet is there such a Sea of goodness in God, that is never dried up. No one creature, not the greatest is able to uphold itself. God is every way sufficient of himself and could give himself full satisfaction, if their never had been a world. The happiest of the creatures is he that comes nearest to God. He that can subsist (if he be put to it) without any creatures help, and depends solely on the Creator. This excellent condition can none attain unto, but he that hath, and knows he hath a special interest in God. So fleeting are all worldly contentments, that nothing can be firm that is built upon them: the times in which we live are the last days: the Churches full of wars, blood and troubles: our sins have deserved that the clouds of affliction should cross the Seas to follow us. 
Psal. 61.2.  Happy is he therefore that is set upon a rock higher than himself. Happy is he that can say, and say feelingly, 
Psal. 56.11.  In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Happy is he that finds an Ark at home that can hide him when the waters are fare above the highest mountains. 
Gen. 7.19, 20.  Happy can he never assuredly be that falls short of this, and settles his rest on any thing under the Sun. He must come to salomon's experimental conclusion, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. The subject of these pains is so much the more worthy acceptation, because it is a ladder that leads to the happiest and surest condition. If in the handling I fall short of other men's expectation, I shall be glad to see other men handle it more exactly. To myself it is some comfort, I have written that which hath stayed me in many, & through God's grace may stay me in any trials. You and yours Madam have I chosen for the Patrons of this work, in regard of that ancient acquaintance that hath been between us: Your Family hath left me as many tokens of your love as I have Children. That short space which I lived in the City how much I was indebted to you, I forbear to speak, and desire rather to speak to God to requite it. And since I have received much comfort, and many kind encouragements and remembrance from your and their ourtesie. I have not seen a Family in the City to my best remembrance which God hath so plentifully watered with spiritual and temporal showers of blessings in the Root and in all the Branches. Your house and posterity are a remarkable example of God's promise of benediction and multiplication to them that fear him. 
Psal. 128.  If this labour may be pleasing and profitable to you, I shall hope it will be so to others. So I leave it as a perpetual token of my neverdying affection to your Family, wishing you, what the Title offers you, Selfe-satisfaction. Less I cannot wish you, more I need not. Let it suffice then that I rest,  
Yours in all Christian observance Francis Tayler. Clapham, Aug. 27. 1633.   

Selfe-Satisfaction.  PROV. 14.14. 
The Backslider in heart shall be satisfied with his own ways, and a good man from himself.  
Dear Beloved in our Lord and Saviour jesus Christ, the consideration of the uncertainty of all worldly comforts may force every one of us to seek for satisfaction from himself. The fleeting of the best of outward contentments may make him look for his best contentment within. The Text tells us of a double satisfaction: a bad one, and a good one. The former fills the owner with a world of miseries; the latter possesses the enjoyer with a heaven of contenttednesse.  
Proverbes have no coherence. It is as superfluous to give a connexion to Proverbes as to put them into rhyme. Both detract from the majesty of the Proverbes, which are golden and compendious sentences, that give satisfaction themselves, and contain a world of good matter in few words within themselves, and without depending one upon another. And because they have no coherence to illustrate them, they have the more need of careful exposition. A great help for their exposition, is their opposition. For though they cleave not one to another, yet the parts in many of them are one opposite to another, and contraries placed one by another illustrate each other. Beauty is never so beautiful, as when deformity stands in opposition to it.  
Therefore the wise God placed in the Elements contrary qualities. He made heat predominant in one Element, cold in another; dryness in one, moisture in another. Therefore doth he deprive his best servants of many singular mercies, that they may the better understand the worth of them by the want of them. The opposition than will help us in the exposition of this Proverb.  
Yet must you not imagine that this opposition of the parts takes any thing away from the truth of either part, because the opposition is in diverse subjects. To say Solomon did fall to idolatry, and Solomon did not fall to idolatry, cannot be both true. The one detracts from the verity of the other. But to say Solomon did fall to idolatry, and David did not fall to idolatry, are both true, for we speak of diverse subjects differing in their courses. The one is so fare from detracting from the truth of the other, that it rather illustrates the same. Salomons fall makes David's constancy the more admirable, and David's constancy makes salomon's fall the more discommendable. Thus shall we the better understand the good satisfaction that a godly man hath from himself, when we first conceive the sorry satisfaction that a wicked man finds from his own ways. But before I come to the logical opposition of the parts, give me leave to spend some time in the grammatical exposition of the words; for exposition is the ground of observation, and observation is the ground of application.  The backslider. 
The Hebrew is word for word, He that is turned back. 
Sug. part praet, aversus.  It points out unto us the provocations of the world, whereby men are turned away from the service of God. He that is turned back, finds some thing to turn him, besides the crookedness of his own disposition.  In heart. 
This word shows us the internal original of all backsliding, which is the heart. In vain were all the provocations of the world, if the heart stood it out. But when the heart once faints, then is the whole man soon turned backward.  Shall be satisfied. 
This seems an hard phrase: men are satisfied with good things, not with evil. 
Meton: effecti.  It must then be understood by a figure of the effect for the cause. He shall be satisfied, that is, he shall be filled, for fullness is the cause of satisfaction. An evil man shall be as full of misery as a good man is of contentedness when he is satisfied with it.  With his own ways. 
His ways here intended are not the footsteps of his body, but the actions of his life. 
Metaphora.  It is usual in Scripture to compare the course of man unto a walk. Blessed are the undefiled in the way. 
Psal. 119.1.  Bad actions are also compared to bad and filthy ways, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the , nor standeth in the way of sinners. 
Psalm 1.1,  The intent of the similitude is to show our strangeness by our birth, our restlessness in our life, and our progress to our death. Our birth is the entrance into our pilgrimage, the beginning of our journey. Our life is our travail, a restless and weary course. Our death is the end of our journey: it brings us to our everlasting home. There is a double home. Good men have a good home: this was the dwelling of the Corinthians, We have an house eternal in the Heavens. Bad men have a bad home: 
2 Cor. 5.1.  that is the habitation of traitorous judas, who left his Apostleship to go to his own place. 
Acts 1.25.  His ways than are his actions: but not all his actions, only his wicked actions: for God doth oftentimes reward evil men for moral good actions, and not plague them. 
1 Kings. 21.29. 2 Kings. 10.30 Synecdoche gener is.  So Ahab puts off the plague by his humiliation. So jehu by slaying the worshippers of Baal settles the Kingdom on his posterity to the fourth generation. The actions then of the backslider that trouble him are his sinful actions. Neither is it his sinful actions that do disquiet him, but his troubles and miseries that follow upon his sins. He is not weary of sinning, but of being miserable; or at least he is no further weary of sin, then as it brings misery upon him. 
Meton. consae.  So then his ways are his actions, his actions are his sinful actions, his sinful actions are the miseries that follow upon them, and these are they that perpetually vex him.  And a good man from himself. 
These words are diversely read, because of the want of the Verb, the double Preposition, 
Min and Gnal.  and the diverse significations of them. The vulgar Latin reads it thus: And a good man shall be over him. That is to say For his backsliding God will make him a slave to him that is good. Trimellius, the French Bible, and the Geneva English Bible thus, But a good man shall departed from him. That is, a good man foreseeing or seeing the miseries, that follow the sinful courses of a backslider, will avoid his company. The latter translation reads it fare better, And a good man shall be satisfied from himself. The safest way of addition where a word is wanting, is to supply it out of the former part of the sentence. Seeing then the beginning of the verse speaks of an evil man's satisfaction from his evil ways, the conelusion must needs speak of a good man's satisfaction from himself. The Hebrew phrase is from with himself, that is, from those things that are within him; or, that God hath bestowed upon him. So S. Paul, Not I, 
1 Cor. 15.10.  but the grace of God which was with me. Meaning the grace which God had bestowed upon him: And it is worth your noting that the wise man doth not say, The backslider shall be satisfied from his own ways, and a good man from his: lest any man should imagine, that a good man merits his satisfaction, as a bad man doth his vexation. Neither doth the Hebrew phrase say, From himself, barely, but from with himself, that is from those graces that GOD hath given him: lest any man should maintain the full and free power of man's will, as if a good man's satisfaction came as originally from himself, as a bad man's vexation comes from the corruption of his own will. Thus it teacheth us to attribute the beginning of an evil man's misery to his own backsliding, and the beginning of a good man's satisfaction to God's grace and bounty. Who this good man is that receives satisfaction from God's grace within him, I need not stand to unfold, the opposition in the text shows it plainly: It is he that is no backeslider, but keeps him close to God's Commandments.  
The sum then of all is this, He that is by the provocations of the world drawn away from that service, that he owes to Almighty God, shall bring so many troubles upon himself, that he shall be weary of his life. But he that walks conscionably in that way, that God hath apppointed him to walk in, shall be so enriched with the graces of God's Spirit, that he shall be able to give satisfaction to himself, though he be forsaken by all the world.  
God hath two sorts of children, and he hath two portions for them, both set out in the words of the text. Some are rebellious children, nourished by God, but rebelling against him. Their portion is misery flowing from their own sins. Others are obedient children not fashioning themselves according to the lusts of ignorant men: 
1 Pet. 1.14.  and their portion is satisfaction arising from the grace of God within them. The portion of backsliding children commends to our careful considerations these  
Four particulars.  

1. The Person. in the first word. The backslider.  
2. The provocations external. in the phrase. He that is turned back.  
3. The original internal. in the next word. In heart.  
4. The patrimony. in the last words. Shall be filled with his own ways.   
For the first.  
That there are backsliders is a needless thing for me to prove. 
The person.  Scripture and experience of all ages prove it to my hand. My labour must be to show who they are, from the particular kind of Apostasies. A backslider is he that falls away either from that good course he hath taken, or at least from that good course he ought to take. 
Rom. 3.12. 2 Pet. 2.21.  The latter is a turning out of the right way. The former is a returning to a wrong way. 
Rom. 3.9.  The one is natural and common to all both jews and Gentiles. It is the estate we are borne in: it is the estate they live and dye in, that know not the Gospel or the way of salvation by Christ alone. The other is voluntary, 
2 Pet 2, 20,  not a condition put upon us by our parents, but chosen by ourselves. The one is a failing in our duty, the other is a falling from our profession. I let pass the natural defection, because it is not that which Solomon here aims at, preaching to the backsliding jews, not to the wandering Gentiles. Neither is it needful for me to speak of, that speak to such as are believing Christians, not unbelieving heathen by profession. We profess a double duty: the one to God, comprehended in the precepts of the first Table: the other to man, contained in the Commandments of the second. The profession of a double duty, makes us subject to a double apostasy. The first is a falling from the duty of piety. The second is a falling from moral honesty. Our falling from duties of piety is either a public, or a private defection. The public apostasy is the falling from the profession of the true Religion to Idolatry and false worships: this apostasy the Israelits were much subject unto: They turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: 
Psal. 78 57.58.  they were turned aside like a deceirfull Bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places: and moved him to jealousy with their graved images. Thus dealt they with God under their judges: they served him in their misery, but when their judges were dead, they returned to idolatry. And when the Lord raised them up judges, 
judge 2.18.19.  than the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge (for it repent the Lord because of their groan by reason of them that oppressed and vexed them.) And it came to pass when the judge was dead, that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other Gods to serve them, and to bow down to them: they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. Thus dealt they with God, under their Kings: when their Kings were good, they served God, and when they were evil, they served Idols. Such are they that after so great light by the preaching of the Gospel, turn to antichrist, renounce the true Religion and fall to popery. Such are they that being taken by the enemies of the Christian name turn Turks, that they may not turn slaves. They venture their souls to save their bodies, forsake their God to procure their quietness. Their offence is so much the greater, because they not only leave Christ, but cleave to Antichrist. They not only forsake God, but serve Satan against God. These are traitorous soldiers, that content not themselves to fail their Captain in the heat of the battle, but fight against him openly under the colour of his known Adversary. They not only weaken God's part what lies in them, by their Apostasy; but also strengthen the adverse part by their contrary profession.  
The private defection is a falling from the practice of those private duties men have formerly performed to the LORD of Hosts. Such are they that have been careful of praying Morning and Evening in their Families, and daily in their closerts. But afterward neglect all private Prayers, and like bad husbands waste their own private stock, and look to live upon the public charge. Such are they that have been zealous for the glory of GOD, but are grown remiss, and care not how God be dishonoured. Such are they that have with patience borne all troubles, as coming from God: but now murmur at the least calamity, as if it came from the Devil that hated them, and not from God that loved them. These are like to rotten Apples, that when they begin to putrify grow worse and worse, till they be good for nothing.  
The second fall is from moral honesty, when men have been careful to live justly in the world for a time, and afterwards deceive the expectation of the times, and prove deceitful themselves. Ye have many that have been wonderful just servants, that prove most unjust masters: When they were servants they dealt truly, for the gain was their masters; now they are masters they deal falsely, for the gain is their own. Some children are very quiet in their younger years, and the delight of their parents, who in their elder years prove most troublesome, and perpetual vexations to them that with most tenderness have bred them. Absalon and Adoniiah were David's joy, when they were children, and David's annoyances when they were men. Some have been famous for deeds of charity in the strongth of their years, that in their doteage have been strangely miserable, as if they had taken no care for the world, when they were likely to live long in it, and take care for nothing else but the world when they were likely to go soon out of it. These are they that have set God and the world at defiance; they neither regard to keep a good conscience towards God, nor a good name before men: they have made shipwreck of faithfulness towards men, and of a good conscience before God.  
Let us now come to the second point, What may make these men to slide back? 
Externall provocations to Apostasy.  Surely, the manifold provocations of the world. That they may the better be avoided, they may be ranked into these particulars. First, the troubles of the world. Man hath a strange passion called fear, that will smell out danger before it come, and oftentimes before it be intended. All his care now is to prevent this trouble: whether it be by good means or bad, his wisdom will not forecast, because it aims at nothing, but freedom from imminent danger. Man's nature is very tender: it seeks to turn away all manner of hardness. Peter espies a cloud coming, he must needs deny his Master, 
Mat. 26.35.70.  or bear trouble with him: his stout heart that before would dye with him rather than deny him, now will deny him that it may not dye with him. Many a man plays abroad with the Bee, and gathers honey in the summer of prosperity, that hides his head within his hive in the winter of adversity. 
judge 7.3. ●  If God like Gideon should make a proolamation of a war, and send back every one whose heart faileth him, he must be contented with ten thou sand, and let twenty two thousand go back again to live in peace.  
Secondly, the profits of the world drive many back from their former forwardness. Desire is a strong passion. It is like a River with a violent current: no banks can keep it in. If it once fasten upon riches, it cannot easily be pulled off. Demas keeps S. Paul company a while, 
2 Tim. 4.10.  but in the end forsakes him for the love of this present world. Religion looks at another world, her prayers, her plots all look that way. Covetousness looks at this world, her devices aim at nothing but at riches. 
Matth. 26.15.  judas follows Christ a while, but afterwards for desire of gain leaves him, nay betrays him. Riches are the thorns that choke the seed, 
Luke 8.14.  so that it comes not to perfection. They must forsake God that serve Mammon, 
Math. 6.24.  for it is impossible to please both. And no wonder if that be the root of Apostey, which is the root of all evil: even the love of money, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, 
1 Tim. 6.10.  and pierced themselves thorough with many sorrows.  
Thirdly, the delights of the world are the sweet singing Sirens, that draw many back to their utter overthrow. These work upon the affection of joy or delight. A pleasing affection, but never satisfied, it never saith enough: 
Gen. 19.26.  the sweet content that Lot's wife had in the idle pleasures of Sodom commands her affection: and her affection commands her eyes to look back once more to behold the place she so well loved. Unthankful she shows herself to God that freed her preferring the imaginations of her own pleasures before the Commandment of God, and stands as a monument to posterity, a pillar of Salt. These are bewitching temptations and forcible provocations: it is fare more pleasing to man's nature to live at ease abounding in pleasures, then to cark and care labouring for riches. Both withdraw from God's service, but that is most dangerous which withdraws with most contentment to the mind of man.  
Fourthly, evil counsels of others draw many back from their professions of piety and equity. This is the mischief of bad kindred. This is the discommodity of bad neyghbourhood. This is the fruit of evil acquaintance. All men desire to have their friends like to themselves; all men wish naturally to be as like them whom they love, as they can. Hence it is that bad counsel is easily given, and easily taken. The one's tongue is the fire, the others heart is the fuel, that eafily bursts out into a flame. 
Numb. 25.18.  Thus the Midianites vex the Israelites with their wiles: they first use them courteously, draw them into their acquaintance, so persuade them both to corporal and spiritual fornication. Thus many sweet dispositions have been undone: and they that might by good advice have been turned to the praise of GOD, have been made jarring instruments of loud impieties. Bad Masters, evil Tutors, hollowhearted Guardians, have ruined many young men's pliable dispositions with their patrimonies. Nettles in a Garden grow not alone, but produce a multitude of other stinging weeds, as bad as themselves. Pharises compass Sea and Land to make a Proselyte, 
Math. 23.15.  and make him the child of the Devil twofold more than themselves.  
Fiftly, evil example is the bane of many: Man is of a sociable disposition; he love's not to walk alone, but to go where others go before him. Thus evil Rulers undo the poor people by their example, and Ancestors seduce their posterity. It is the pillar of the popish religion; our fathers lived and died in this religion, and so will we. Evil counsels seduce much, but evil examples much more the likeness of our nature and natural corruption makes one man over forward to imitate another. Ill words are like a hook covered with a bate, that deceives one fish among many. Ill examples are like nets that take fare more than they let go. What we see other men do, that we think we may do; and their boldness in sin and freedom from punishment dulls the edge of God's threatenings in the mouths of his Ministers, and of his curses red in the Law, because we see no punishment light upon them: therefore do we persuade ourselves, that we shall escape punishment as well as they, if we sin as deeply as they do. Peter dissembles but a little, and the other jews dissemble with him: 
Gal. 2.13.  and no marvel, for Barnabas himself makes one, and takes part with Peter in the same dissimulation. What will bad men do? how easily will they imitate one another in bad ways, when good men are so prone to do it? And thus much for the provocations, that lead men backward, that may avoid them.  
The third point considerable is the internal original of backsliding, 
The internal original of backesliding.  which is the heart. The backslider in heart. The provocations of the world may persuade, but they cannot prevail, unless the heart be first tainted: the body will never turn back unless the heart yield first: therefore God requires all the heart for his service, 
Deut. 10.12.  for he knows well, that when the heart gins to faint, the body will not long stand it out. God requires a perpetual remembrance of him in the heart as a preservative against disobedience in the life: 
Deut. 8.11.  beware thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments, and Statutes and his judgements, which I command thee this day. The woman devours the sweetness of the forbidden fruit in her heart, before she taste of it with her mouth. 
Gen. 3.6.  When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat. The heart is the receptacle of all evil counsels that tend unto defection: whatsoever the eye or ear let in, the heart takes it into consideration: there is the Council table, where the understanding, the will, and all the affections consult and conclude, what shall be brought into action, the beginning of all evil actions is there, there is the shop in which are forged all evil words and wicked deeds before they be set forth to sale in the life. So doth our blessed Saviour testify, Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, 
Math. 15.19.  false witness, blasphemies. Though the occasion of backsliding be from the world, yet the true original is of ourselves. Our Creator who love's what he hath created, persecates no man, but him that first persecutes himself. God departs from no man, that doth not first departed from God, as S. Augustine truly teacheth. 
A nulle recedit Deus, nisi prius ipse ab eo recedat Aug. de salut docum. c. 54.  And Fulgentius treading in the steps of Augustine, God, saith he, would not have destroyed evil men in judgement, if they had not first perished through their own iniquities. Backsliding then from the chiefest good to the meanest good, this is proper to the sinner, and his voluntary evil by which the unjust man, destroys himself. And because God is not the author of this evil, 
Dignè homini qui se perdidis peccato, redditur in tormentis aeterna perditio. Fulg de praed. ad Mon. lib. ●.  but the perverse man; therefore eternal destruction is justly rendered to that man in porments, who hath first undone himself by his wickedness. There needs now no further search for the true beginning of defection from profession of piety. It is not to be imputed to God's permission, nor to the world's provocation, but the first beginning of the act of defection is in man's wavering inclination. Satan should tempt in vain, and the world provoke to no purpose, if man's heart did not yield to the temptations of the one, and the provocations of the other. And so much for the internal original of apostasy.  
The fourth thing is the patrimony of the backslider. He shall be filled with his own ways. No man else need work him any mischief: 
Backesliders' patrimony.  he will be sure to bring sorrow enough upon his own head. Solomon was here no false Prophet, for he confirmed it afterwards by his own woeful experience; he fell to idolatry but for a time, but he wrought himself misery so long as he lived. 
1 Kings 11.14.23.26.  First, Hadad the Edomite disturbs the peaceable government of Solomon. Next, Rezon the son of Eliada of Damascus. Lastly, jeroboam the son of Nebat lifts up his hand against him. Asa King of judah to prevent the plots of Baasha, 
2 Chron. 16.2 7.12 13.  King of Israel commits sacrilege, robs God and the Kingdom to have Gold and Silver to send to Benhadad the King of Syria to relieve him: he trusts not in God, but trusts in Benhadad, God lays a plague upon him, that Benhadad cannot heal, that makes him sleep with his fathers, a disease in his feet. We have spoken of Kings, let us now speak of Kingdoms. The Kingdom of Israel falls to idolatry, they will not come to jerusalem, lest they should return to the house of David: they set up calves in Dan, 
〈◊〉. 1.3.  in Bethel. They have gone a whoring from their God. They shall no longer dwell in the Lord's land, but they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. They forsook their God, and the Assyrians carry them out of their land. The jews transgress after all the abominations of the heathen, 
2 Chron. 36 14, 16, 17.  and pollute the house of the Lord. They despise Gods Words, and misuse his Prophets. Therefore God destroys their City, and sends them into Babylon to captivity. They that drink poison may please their palate but they drink their own death. They that go back from God's service run forward to their own overthrow. Defection in the conscience is like dust in the eye: it makes it foul, it makes it unserviceable, it makes it painful. The remembrances of backslidings are like scars left when wounds are cured; they trouble the owner with the sight of them. The heathen man knew well the stinging force of a troubled conscience. The greatest punishment, 
Maxima peccantium est paena peccasse. Nec illum saelus, licet illud fortuna. exoruet muneri● bussuis, licet tueatur ac vindicot Impunitum est, quoniam sceleris in scelere supplicium est Senec. epist. 97.  saith he, of sinners, is that they have sinned. Neither is any sin unpunished, although fortune adorn it with rewards, although it defend and maintain it, because the punishment of wickedness is within itself. Their greatest enemy need wish backsliders no greater punishments, than their own ways written in their own consciences. Many losses and crosses also do Apostatas bring upon themselves. Sometimes God turns their wealth unto poverty: sometimes he takes away their children, or makes them greater crosses to them, then if he took them quite away from them, for a cross child is worse than a lost child: the one is a temperary, the other a perpetual vexation. 
2 Sam. 12.10.  David goes back but a little way, but the sword never departs from his house for it.  
Absalon troubles him while he life's, and grieves him when he dies. Adoniiah will be King in spite of him, when his father grows old. Add unto this the infamy, that wicked men bring upon themselves. Thus Tamar foretells Ammon of the discredit, that would follow upon his incestuous violence, I whither shall I cause my shame to go? 
2 Sam. 13, 13  and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. So men by their folly make themselves justly a tabletalk to others, and their very name to be abhorred. And not their name alone, while they are alive, but they make their memorial also to stink when themselves are dead and gone. It is added in Scripture as a perpetual monument of jeroboams' backsliding, 
1 Kings 16.29.  jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. God records the backslidings of  men in Scripture to the worlds-end, 
Math. 10.4.  to their perpetual disgrace. judas treason is recorded, and he himself not often named without that infamous addition, judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. The greatest Princes whose facts no man durst censure while they lived, are by mean Historians chronicled for all posterity, and their blemishes written with a pen of iron for all the world to peruse. The proudest Popes that have made Emperors to kiss their feet, and turned Kingdoms topsy-turvy, have their sorceries, their strumpets; their bastards upon record to make their savour stink in the eyes of all men.  
Disgrace then attends upon defection, and never fails it. 
Eccles. 10.1.  Dead Flies cause the ointment of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour. If the book of Ecclesiastes be as it is thought to be, Salomons recantation after his fall to idolatry; no doubt he found this dead fly at home, and was a strange example of his own precept. The world had not such a pattern, all things considered: a man so famous for wisdom fall to so foul idolatry as Solomon did: the wisest of men seduced by a company of foolish women. No doubt Solomon knew what he writ, and laboured under the loss of his own reputation, and writ this for a warning to others out of his own woeful experience.  
Lastly, defection brings eternal perdition of soul and body. 
Heb. 10.39.  We are not of them who draw back to perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. There are no doubt thousand thousands in hell, who are more than filled with their own ways, and with the remediless, yet insupportable troubles, that their own backslidings have brought upon them. Who if they might live to undo what they have done, would be patterns to others to avoid Apostasy. Yet so incredulous are we that live, that we neither believe these miseries will come upon us, though threatened in GOD'S Word: 
Luke 16.31.  neither would we repent, if one should arise from the dead, that had tasted of those woeful torments.  
And no wonder if backsliders bring so many miseries upon themselves, when they provoke so many heavy enemies against them. God himself is become their enemy from whose service they are slidden. God I say, 
Deus a quo everti, cadere in quem connerti, resurgerin quo mantre, consistere est Aug. Soli. c. 1.  turning from whom is falling, returning to whom is rising, tarrying in whom is standing, as Augustine sound informs us. If there be no safety to them that are hated of Kings, within their dominions, what safety can there be to those whom God hates, in all the world? How can they expect a quiet conscience, or safety in their states, that have GOD for their adversary? He will raise up men to be our enemies if we be his, and to cross us if we cross him. Solomon was a wise, a rich, and a most potent Prince; yet when he forsakes God, GOD raiseth him up such enemies, as all Salomons wisdom and power could not pull down. jeroboam and his posterity forsake God's service, and set up golden calves in Dan and Bethel. 
1 Kings 15.29.  God raised up Baasha to smite all the house of jeroboam, who leaves him not one breathing. Baasha and his son continue in jeroboams' evil courses, and GOD sets against him Zimri, 
1 Kings 16.11.  who slays all his house, with his kinsfolks and friends, and leaves him not one to piss against the wall. Omri and Ahab his sons for all this take no warning, 
2 Kings. 10.1.  but add to the former, other idolatries: God pulls him down by jehu, who slew all his great men and his kinsfolks, and his Priests, until he left him none remaining. So hard a thing is it for man to stand upright without standing to God.  
If men be to favourable, God hath worse instruments to plague us withal: all the devils are at his command, and are no other than God's executioners, whom he useth in the severity of his wrath. They will be sure to strike home, for they plague us not for obedience to God, nor for love of justice, nor yet for gain or profit, which is the loadstone of most executioners, but for hatred of us, for envy at our felicity, and seek to bring us to their unspeakable, and unpardonable misery. No doubt, but they will be severe, that seek nothing but the eternal destruction of our souls and bodies. Lastly, all the creatures fail them that fail God. Nay they do not only fail them, but exercise all their force to hurt and to annoy them. They deny them that service they were created to do them, and proclaim open wars against them, that have been openly disobedient against their GOD. Pharaoh the great King of Egypt, and the great oppressor of Israel had enough to do, and more than he could do to defend, not his people, but his own royal person from Lice, Frogs, Boyles, Scabs, Flies, and such like vermin. His soldiers could not expel them out of his Country, nor his Guard keep them out of the bedchamber of their King. There is no mercy to be found with these enemies, they hurt and spoil all where they come. They have no reason, and therefore will be persuaded to show no favour. Thus you see what miseries backsliders bring upon themselves: now let us come to the application.  
The great danger of backsliders, Use. 1 
For examination.  and the miseries they bring upon themselves, drive us to an examination of our own condition. We are not igno-what service we own to God, let us sift our own souls and try how well we have performed it. We know what professions we have made in Baptism, let us see how we have been answerable to our professions. We see, and others have seen how forward we have been in God's service, let us examine our present zeal whether it be correspondent to the former. If the world have had a good opinion of us for equity and charity, let us take heed that no cause be given by us to diminish their good opinion. In matters of lesser weight, carelessness is more tolerable; but in things of this consequence it is not to be endured. One main cause why many Citizen's decay in their estates, is because they look not well to their books: they know not what they own to others: they know not what others own to them; they are worse than naught before they be ware. So is it with evil men, they are gone fare backward, because they daily look not into themselves, nor observe not, how they grow, upward or downward. The wounded man is loath to search his wound, the pain makes him unwilling to dive into it, and so it grows uncurable. The backslider is not willing to ponder upon his own courses, lest the beginning of his life condemn the end of it. He goes to hell, because he will not see that he is going thither.  
Secondly, 
For consolation.  after examination the conclusion will appear. If we find ourselves acquitted in the judgement of our own consciences from backesliding, we may have much comfort in our ways. It is no mean encouragement to goodness to find some progress upon examination. He that plants an Orchyard, takes a singular contentment to see every Tree, how it grows and how it bears fruit one year more than another. The diligent citizen who in the end of the year, when others are idle, casts up his own estate, and finds some increase of profit arising from his trading, his heart is joyful within him. Every man's conscience is his judge. It must consider of the talents that GOD hath given him to trade withal. If it find a good increase, it gives him that commendation within, that God will one day give him before men and Angels. Well done good and faithful servant, 
Math, 25.21.  thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over much: enter thou in to the joy of thy Lord. Such a man may call in his friends and neighbours to rejoice with him, 
Luke 15.8.9.  as the Woman did, who had found her piece of silver that was lost. When Philip had been called by Christ, how triumphantly doth he boast to Nathaniel, We have found him of whom Moses in the Law, 
joh. 1.45.  and the Prophets did write, jesus of Nazareth the Son of joseph. So may he triumph who upon just examination finds, that he hath made some good progress in the ways of godliness.  
Thirdly comfort must be seconded with care, 
For caution.  else will it end in discomfort. We had need to be cautious that we may stand it out for time to come. We must not be lifted up, that we have stood it out so long, but be watchful, that we may hold out unto the end. He that hath escaped one great storm at Sea, must not be secure though, till he come unto the haven. Another storm may endanger him that hath escaped a former. Many are the provocations of the world. If it prevail not one way, it will try another. If the adversities of the world will not discourage us, it will try, whither the pleasures or profits of it will work us. It becomes us carefully to take heed of all these but especially to be wary, that while we are busy with the world abroad, we be not betrayed by our own flesh within. In a besieged City it is not unusual, while the besieged resist an assault made at one side of the Town for some false traitor to let in the enemy on the other side and toruine the City. So while we think ourselves safe against the allurements of the world, we are often betrayed by the corruption of our own flesh. They are fools that work themselves troubles: yet whence come all our troubles, but from our own backslidings, and whence come our defections, but from our carelessness? We have a vigilant enemy, who neglects no occasion of advantage, let us be as watchful for our own preservation, lest God being provoked by our negligence give us over to our spiritual enemy to be ruined. A breach is not healed at that cost it might be prevented. Though there may be a recovery, yet some scars of infamy and infirmity will be remaining.  
Fourthly, it sounds terror to them that after examination are forced to set down for the sum of their accounts, 
For consternation.  That they are backsliders. Their own ways will be their own overthrow: there is no need of great Politicians to over reach them with some subtle devise to the overthrow of their honours, lives, or estates: they themselves will lay snares for themselves, and dig pits with their own wickedness to bury their fortunes in, with themselves. There needs no great and mighty men whose hatred and power may bring down backesliders, they fall with their own weight. We have corrupted ourselves internally by our defection, and internal corruption works external destruction. A rotten Apple needs not be crushed, the inward putrefaction will bring it to nothing though no hand touch it. A wounded body needs no Sword to kill it, nor no poison to destroy it, it hath that within, that will bring it to the grave. A decayed House needs not be pulled down by the hands of workmen, it will fall of itself for want of reparation. An high Empire overgrown in term and territories, needs no outward foes to put an end to it. Civil wars and home bred vexations settled in the veins of it, will lay it low enough. So is it with Apostates. There needs no foreign art, nor force to undo them, they daily further their final overthrow. How ever it go with them in this world, their own consciences can tell them, it will never go well with them in the world to come. Go to now, ye backsliders, weep and howl for the miseries, that shall come upon you. 
james 5.1.   
Fiftly, finding ourselves in so ill a condition; let us betimes recall ourselves. 
For revocation.  It is not good to ride too fare out of the way. It will ask the more labour to come in again. We do not terrify men with their evil conditions to vex them, but to draw them out of it. Let us consider from whom we are slidden: it is from GOD, to whom if we do not return, we can never expect safety in any other. He will destroy us for failing him: others cannot save us for cleaving to them. It is sufficient that others seek our overthrow, let us not seek our own. While we live in this world, we have liberty to return to God, and opportunity to seek the Kingdom of God. But if we slide away more and more from God in this world, we can have no access to God in another world. The traveller that knows he is out of the way, needs no great persuasions to go in again. The sick man that knows his disease to be dangerous, wants not many arguments to urge him to be studious of his own recovery. If we were as sensible of spiritual errors and diseases, as we are of temporal, small Rhetoric would serve to draw us back from our backslidings. Our estate is naught now, but it is like to be much worse hereafter, and which is no small addition to our misery, we know not how soon we shall be most miserable: there may be but a minute between us and death; there cannot be above a minute more between death and hell. How long then will you run on toward your own damnation? Return, return to God's favour, lest ye perish in his anger. Remember whence ye are fallen and repent before the candlestick of your life be removed, and ye left in perpetual darkness. 
Reuel. 2.5.   
Sixtly, it is not sufficient for us to recall ourselves, 
For reclamation.  but a needful deed of charity when we have recalled ourselves, to reclaim others. At least to endeavour to reclaim them, for the success is to be expected from God. We see the danger of defection: they see it not: the sight of it makes us to return to God, let us strive to make others to see their misery too that they also may return from their backslidings. They that have been cured of the Gout or Stone are no niggards of their knowledge, but easily communicate the same unto others. It is our blessed Saviour's command to S. Peter, 
Luke 22.32.  that when he should find himself converted, he should strengthen his brethren. It is David's promise, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, 
Psa. 51.12.13  and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy way, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Christianity teacheth us to live in a communion of spiritual and temporal comforts and counsels. Which communion requires not only that we be liberal to them that want bodily means, but also to advice for the best such as want spiritual directions. If we have erred and recalled ourselves, let us not think all the work done. We are a Body: the hand hath not done his own part in pulling a thorn out of itself. it must pull it out of the foot also. Heaven is not prepared for us alone, we must endeavour to lead others thither with us.  
And thus much for the first part of the Text, the portion of backsliders. The portion of obedient children follows in the conclusion of the Text.  And a good man shall be satisfied from those things that are within himself. 
Good men have matter enough within their own souls to give satisfaction to themselves in the greatest dangers that can befall them. Hence come those admirable boastings of David, 
Psalm 16.8.  I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Though his own strength might fail him, yet he knew God, could not. The Lord is my light and my salvation, 
Psalm. 27.1.  whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? His own store might fail him in a famine, though he had a kingdom: his own art might disappoint him, though he were wiser than his enemies, if the pestilence came. As the silly sheep than thinks himself safe under the shepherd's protection, when the wolf lays for him, so doth he under Gods, in greatest perils. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. 
Psalm 23.1.4  Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. And lest it might be thought to be his case alone, he joins others with him that fear God. 
Psam 46.1, 2, 3  God is our refuge and strength: a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear though the Earth be removed: and though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea. Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. A very high strain indeed, and worthy of a Musical note of Elevation. Hence come S. Paul's triumphs. He knew he had enough within him to uphold him, what ever outwardly happened in the world. I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, 
Rom. 8 38.39.  nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ jesus our Lord. An Apostolical height! yet such a pitch as may be attained by private Christians, whom S. Paul joins with himself in the body of this triumph. Many are the gifts and graces that God hath enriched a good man's soul withal. Among those many, diverse there are that are given him to give satisfaction to his own soul, though I deny not, but sundry other internal endowments are bestowed on him to enable him to honour God, and to do good to men by his actions, while the earth affords him a dwelling place, and till heaven be ready to receive him. God deals with him as a father with his tender child, whom he bestows great breeding upon to his no little cost, partly to make his life profitable to others, and partly to make it comfortable to himself. Thus God furnishes his Children with abundance of graces, that they themselves may have cause to bless God for such as give satisfaction to their own souls; and others, for such as bring profit and benefit to them. Let us now view the particulars, and bring into a list such graces as shine inwardly and enable God's servant to satisfy himself. 
Means of self satisfaction.  The first jewel that God bestows upon the soul of a good man, is peace of conscience. I put it in the first place, because it yields most comfort. 
Peace of conscience,  This can satisfy a man inwardly whatsoever befalls him outwardly in the world. His conscience being naturally unsettled hath led him through all the conditions that every man passed through in this world. He looks back to the state of Creation. He views it as a state of innocency, and a condition of felicity. But (saith the conscience) what is that to thee? Adam was innocent and happy: but by his fall he hath made thee sinful and miserable. There is as little comfort in thinking of lost happiness, as in a starving man ruminating upon his lost Gold and perishing. It doubles the grief in ourselves to think we have been happy in our first parents. Seeking rest in the state of Creation and finding none, at length his thoughts fasten upon the estate of corruption. The former was a good, but is a lost condition. The latter is a bad one, better lost then found, yet easily found but not easily lost. This is his natural condition. This makes him hang down his head with heaviness. At length a third condition offers itself unto his consideration, a state of reconciliation to GOD by the blood of Christ. His conscience cannot deny he hath sinned, but God in the Gospel offers him pardon for all his sins in Christ. This Offer he hath applied to himself by a true faith. Now the plaster applied hath healed the wound. His transgressions are removed from him, 
Psalm. 103.12  as fare as the East is from the West. His conscience now is at peace within him. His soul is joyful. It is secured from the wrath of GOD: what need it fear the wrath of men? He finds peace from Heaven: he fears not wars on Earth. 
Rom. 5.1.3.  Thus being justified by faith he hath peace with GOD through our Lord jesus Christ. And this peace makes him to glory in tribulation. 
Psa. 91.1.5.6  Now doth he dwell in the secret place of the most high, and therefore shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Now plagues and dangers are not so terrible to him as before, because he knows none can hurt him whom God love's and protects. A ship at Sea plays it the midst of storms, there are no trees to shelter it, no anchores can hold it. Nothing cannot can secure it that is without it; all the safety it hath is from within. If it be well balanced it may escape. So is it with the ship of man's conscience. When GOD'S wrath smites upon it like a storm, and the world blows upon it like a tempest, no honours can quiet it, no tiches can pacify it. If any thing keep it from sinking, it must be the inward peace of a good conscience: this assures him of God's love, and that gives him satisfaction. The soul was made according to God's Image: nothing then can satisfy it, but God himself; according to whose Image it was created. Take a seal and join it to wax, the stamp or image that is left in the wax, cannot be filled but with the same seal again. Neither can God's Image in man be fully satisfied but by the fruition of God himself. Man's nature, (saith S. Augustine) although it be mutable, yet it may obtain blessedness by cleaving unto the highest God, who is the only unchangeable good. To make it happy, it must have satisfaction for all the defects of it. 
Aug. de ciu. Dei lib. 12. cap. 1.  Now all the world is not sufficient to satisfy the necessities of the soul, God only can do it. The same Father in his Confessions, presseth the end of man's creation, to show what only can give him satisfaction. Thou hast made us (saith he) O Lord, 
Fecisti nos ad te; et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te. Aug. Coufess. l. 1. c. 1.  for thee, and our heart is restless, till it rest in thee. This was Cyprians counsel to Donatus to seek for satisfaction not from the world without him, but from his own conscience within him. There is but one pleasing and sure tranquillity: one solid, firm, and perpetual security, if a man withdraw himself from the tempests of this disquieting world being surely settled in a safe haven, and lift up his eyes from earth to heaven, and being admitted to God's favour, and in his mind now nearest to his God, glories to find within his own conscience whatsoever others deem high or great among worldly commodities. 
Nihil appetere tam, nihil desiderare de saeculo potest, qui saeculo maior est. Cypr. ep. 2.  He can now covet nothing, he needs desire nothing of the world, who is already greater than the world. Now as he need desire nothing that the world hath, who is at peace with God, so need he fear nothing that the world can do against him, for God can supply him with what the world denies him, and can protect him against what the world threatens him with. Thus is he by God's favour in despite of all the world able to give satisfaction to himself. The legacy that our Saviour left unto his Disciples was peace. 
joh. 14.27. Non pax temporis quia exponendierant multis tributationibus sed pax pectoris et paxaeternitatis prima in praesenti, secunda infuturo. Lud. vita. Christi part. 2. cap. 77. fig. 6.  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. What that peace was, let Ludolphus declare, Not peaceable times in this life, but a peaceable heart leading to eternal life. As when the mind is troubled with the sense of God's anger, all the world cannot pacify it: gold and silver please no more than straws: friends are but miserable comforters: we languish inwardly notwithstanding a world of outward comforts: so when the conscience is pacified with the sweet persuasion of God's favour, all the tribulations of the world cannot daunt that heart, but like the Bee it can come abroad and taste the commodities of summer, and feed itself with the honey it hath gathered biding within the hive, when the winter storms with her tempests. By this means he enjoys the benefits of all outward comforts, and can fustaine himself with his inward peace in the midst of all outward crosses.  
The second favour wherewith God graces' a good man's soul to enable him to satisfy himself is the testimony of God's Spirit. 
Testimony of God's Spirit.  This confirms and assures us of the former peace with God. It breeds also unspeakable joy in the apprehension of God's favour. That rejoicing we have in tribulations in hope of the glory of God, 
Rom. 5.2.3.5.  proceed from the holy Ghost which is given us. The sum of the testimony of God's spirit within us is to persuade us fully of God's love and favour to us in Christ. So S. Paul instructs us. It is the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 
Rom. 8.15.16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Now what better news can the Spirit of God bring to us, than the tidings of God's favour. David prefers it before his being. 
Psal. 63.3.  Thy loving kindness is better than life. This testimony internal of God's favour to the soul is able to sustain a man against all outward force and malice. They that have store of food and raiment, of weapons, of munition, being lodged in a strong hold, fear not the enemy without, though he be very powerful. No more need a good man fear troubles. He that hath store of gold and silver within his coffers, cares not though he want brass or leaden money. So he that is warranted by God's Spirit, that God affects him, need not care much though he want health, or wealth, or other worldly comforts. Thus God's Spirit dwelling in him, makes him able to satisfy himself, however it go with others.  
A third blessing that helps the servant of God, to uphold himself, 
Memory.  is his memory. This is the chest of the soul, wherein she looks up all her treasures. It is the retentive faculty of the mind, wherein the instructions it hath formerly read or heard, are registered. The understanding without this is like a prodigal, it receives many rents, but spends all. Or like the weak stomach that takes food, but is not nourished by it, because it cannot hold it to feed upon it. S. Augustine compares the memory to a barn, wherein things seen are laid up for future provision. Thou seest something (saith he) and perceivest it with thine eyes, 
Aug. in euang. joh. Tract. 23.  and commendest it to thy memory: and that which thou hast committed to thy memory is there laid up within in a secret place, as it were in a barn: as it were in a treasury: as it were in a certain closet, or inward garden. The memory than is much beneficial to the settling and satisfying of a good man's mind: means of further comfort may be kept from him. The Scriptures and creatures may be denied to his eyes: sermons and friends maybe kept from his ears: but what is lodged in his memory, can never be taken from him by the malice of persecutors: there may he read in the darkest dungeon, without a candle. Two things there are that may stagger the satisfaction of a good man in time of trouble. The one is the doubting of God's power to deliver him, in regard of the greatness of his afflictions. The other is the questioning of Gods will, because of the greatness of his sins. The memory helps to give satisfaction to both these doubts. To the first, it answers by precedents. 
Memoria animae nostrae quasi columna est; notae huic in scriptae, bonorum exempla. Greg. Nyss. Tract. 2. in  The memory (according to Gregory Nyssen) is the pillar of the soul: the memorial written in it, are the examples of good men. So the godly jews persuade themselves, that God can do wonders for them, because he hath done them for their fathers. O God, say they, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us, what works thou didst in their days, in the time of old. 
Psal. cap. 4. Psalm 44.1.2  How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand and plantedst them; 
Psalm. 119.58  how thou didst afflict the people and cast them out. So David cheers up himself, and rouzes up his spirits, I remembered thy judgements of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. Thus the good man's memory tells him, what God hath done for others, and his reason informs him, that he can do as much for him. If he should be tempted to doubt of what God hath done for others, yet he cannot doubt of such great acts as God hath done for himself. Thus David arms himself against the Giant, The Lord that hath delivered me out of the paw of the Lion, 
1. Sam. 17.37  and out of the paw of the Bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. Thus S. Paul strengthens himself from his Asian deliverance, 
2 Cor. 1.10  God delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver us, in whom we trust, that he will yet deliver us. Thus he persuades himself strongly of God's power to free him from other inconveniences by reason of his Roman deliverance. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work, 
2 Tim. 4.17.18  and will preserve me unto his heavenly Kngdome. So the goodman's memory assists him against all doubting of GOD'S power. To the second doubt it answers by promises. God's will is known by his Word. What he hath promised to do that he will do. Thus the memory lodging God's several promises of spiritual and temporal comforts in the closet of the soul, leaves no occasion to doubt Gods will. This makes David in his sorrows put God in mind of his promise although God never forget it. This comforts him in his greatest sorrows, that God hath promised him deliverance. 
Psal. 119.49.50  Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.  
The fourth means to settle the godly man's quietness of mind is contentation, a gift that God hath given him, 
Contentation.  whereby he can satisfy himself in any condition. This attends upon godliness, as the shadow waits upon the shining sun. For this we have S. Paul's warrant, Godliness with contentment, is great gain, or rather, 
1 Tim. 6.6  with its self sufficiency. For S. Paul's meaning was not to inform us, that godliness was great gain, if a man could get contentedness joined with it, but rather to show us, that godliness brings sufficient of itself to give satisfaction to the godly man, although he want many outward comforts. Godliness then brings contentedness with it, or at least sufficient to give contentment, if her store be well viewed: for so much the Greek word imports. 
Sufficientia su●.  The Syriac translation confirms this interpretation, which gives this brief paraphrase of the words. For our gain is great, which is the fear of God, with the use of our sufficiency: 
Cum usu sufficientiae nostrae.  As much as to say, Godliness brings enough with it to satisfy us, if we know how to use that store it hath attending upon it, & bestows upon us. This made David prefer the righteous man's poverty before the wicked man's plenty. A little that the righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked. 
Psalm 37. 1●  For the godly man is contented with a little: the wicked man is not satisfied with abundance. This reason may be gathered from Solomon, David's understanding son, 
Prou. 15.16  Better is little with the fear of the Lord, then great treasure and trouble there with. A good man is satisfied with a little, for he enjoys it with quietness of mind. A wicked man is not satisfied with a great deal, because he hath many cares and troubles with it. A good man is content with little on earth, because he looks for abundance: in heaven. A wicked man is not content with abundance here, because he looks for little hereafter. Religion may well bring satisfaction to a good man, because it brings him to God the Fountain of all goodness. 
Psalm 16.5.  The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, saith the Psalmist. God persuades Abraham to take care for nothing but to walk before him in uprightness: and adds this, I am the Lord all-sufficient: that is, I have sufficient, I will provide for thee, 
Genes. 17. ● Shaddac. asher lo dac. cui est sufficientia.  care thou only for my service. Piety then that brings a man to have an interest in God, shows him that what is wanting in him shall be supplied by God, who hath enough to supply the wants of all the creatures. Now he that will not be content with God himself, how should he be satisfied if he had all the world, all the store whereof falls infinitely short of Gods? So then when the whole world cannot give satisfaction to a covetous man, a little contents a good man: because he knows he hath enough in God. Though another man hath more knowledge than he, yet is he contented, because God hath communicated enough to him to make him know Christ and the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. Though many have more wealth, yet he rests satisfied with less, considering that he hath God's favour with it, which many of them want. He wisely forecasts the conveniences that attend upon his smaller portion, and the inconveniences that accompany their greater possessions. They have many cares that cannot be avoided, for many crosses and losses accompany great and rich employments. He is freed from those cares to serve God quietly with a little. They are subject to many disorders: he wants fuel to maintain the fire of lust. They have a great account to give unto God, at the day of judgement of the employment of their ten talents: he hath a lighter reckoning for his five. These thoughts give him contentation, and contentation gives him self-satisfaction.  
The fift gift of God that furthers this selfe-satisfaction in a good man, 
Temperance.  is Temperance. Among other virtues that adorn the soul of man, this is none of the least. And it is much material to selfe-satisfaction: for nature is contented with a little, and temperance teacheth a man to abstain from superfluities, and content himself with that that nature can be content withal. S. Paul had well learned this lesson, 
philip. 4.11.12  I have learned in what soever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. The goodman remembers the world is but an Inn: he must be temperate, that his money may hold out to his iournyes end. He shall exceed when he comes home. Thus his frugality and temperance gives him some satisfaction, because it makes that content him which will not satisfy an intemperate appetite. This makes him not greedy of worldly wealth, because a little will serve his turn. He strives to be as S. Augustine saith he should be, It becomes not a Christian (saith he) to gape greedily after this world's gain, to whom a Kingdom is promised in Heaven: but by abstinence to live as becomes the servant of such a Lord 
a Aug. de Tempser. 248.  that he may live in joy with his Lord for ever. This temperance is increased in God's Servant by consideration of the fleeting of all worldly comforts, and the durableness of spiritual treasures, which makes him the more sparring in the use of the one, and more plentiful in exercising the other. This 
b Illa diues est, quae in Deo diues est, illa locuples est quae locuples in Christo est: bona illa sunt, quae sunt spiritualia, divina, caelestia, quae nos ad Deum ducant quae nobiscum apud Deum perpetua possessione permaneant. Caeterum quaecumque terrenas unt in seculo accepta, et hic cum seculo remansura tam contemni debent; quam mundus ipse contemnitur, cuius pompis et delicijs iam renunciavimus. Cypr. de disc. et hab. virg.  Cyprian very well knew, and that made him to use these arguments to persuade virgins to moderation in their apparel: She is rich (saith he) that is rich in God: She is wealthy that is wealthy in Christ: those are true riches which are spiritual, Divine, and heavenly, which lead us to God, which remain with us in perpetual possession in the presence of God. But whatsoever earthly things we have received in the world, and must leave here with the world must as easily be contemned as the world itself is contemned, whose pomps and delights we have already renounced. This temperance when God's servant hath by these reasons settled in himself, it equals his mind to his means when it cannot bring his means to his mind. It makes him well contented with what he hath, when he cannot have what he rather would have. 
De laelitia et tristitianascitur temperantia, cuius est tristitia causae. laelitia fructus, Temperata laetitia nihil aliud quam temperantia est Ber. par. et var. serm. 6.  S. Bernard informs us, That temperance is bred of cheerfulness and heaviness; the cause of it is heaviness, the fruit is cheerfulness. So that Temperance is nothing else but a well tempered cheerfulness. The godly man's temperance purgeth his heart, and so teacheth him the right and moderate use of all God's creatures in his body. So that as a good stomach turns the hardest meat into nourishment, whereas a weak one turns the choice of meats into diseases, so the temperate heart feeds the body with the hardest estate, whereas the intemperate man ruins his soul and body with his wealth. Bernard on that place in the 90. Psalm, Thou shalt tread upon the Asp and the Basilisk, and shalt trample under feet the Lion and the Dragon glosses thus. The Lion will roar, who will not be afraid? If there shall be found any such, he shall be styled a valiant man. But when the Lion is frustrate of his purpose, there is a Dragon hidden in the sand, that by his poisoned breath he may taint the soul, breathing into it, as it were, the concupiscence of earthly things. Who, thinkest thou, shalt escape his deceits? no man surely, but a wise man. But peradventure while thou art afraid to come down to these lures, somebody urges thee with trouble, and lo forthwith the Asp is present. For he thinks he hath gotten a convenient time for himself. Who will not be exasperated by this Ape? 
Quis non exas. perabitur ab aspide ista.  Surely the temperate and moderate man, who knows how to abound and how to suffer penury. I suppose that upon this occasion, the ill flattering wicked eye will endeavour to bewitch thee. Who will turn away his eye? Truly the just man will, who not only will not himself take the glory which is Gods, but will not so much as receive it, 
Ber. in ps. 90 ser. 14.  when it is offered him by another. The temperate man than avoids all these different snares, and so gives satisfaction to himself. I will conclude this means with S. Augustine's exclamation, and commendation of temperance. 
O magna et admirabilis absti●●ntiae virtus, per quam non solum animarum salus, agitur, sed etiam corporum sanitaspossidetur. Aug. ad frat. in eremo Sir 31.  O great and admirable virtue of abstinence, whereby not only the safety of the soul is preserved, but also the health of the body is possessed. And what can a man require more to be able to give satisfaction to himself then safety of soul with health of body?  
The sixth means whereby a good man is enabled to give satisfaction to himself, is Patience. It is a companion of Godliness. It is a way whereby the servants of GOD turn away many troubles from themselves, 
Patience.  which foolhardy men bring upon themselves by their peevish hastiness. The firmness of patience, saith Bernard, is a staff, 
Ber. sent.  whereby the rage of Wolves is kept off. Yet let the servant of GOD be as patiented as he can, he cannot turn away all troubles from himself. Patience therefore stands him in good stead also when troubles are come upon him. It makes him owner of his own soul. 
Luke 21.19.  In your patience possess ye your souls, faith our blessed Saviour. Upon which words of his, 
●ustos omnium virlutum patientia est, in qua animas, quae cor pus possident, pes sidemus, cum i● sas animas ad patiendum ratione regimus. Vnde Beda: Sic conditi mirabiliter sumus, ut, ratio animam, et anima possideat corpus. Ius verò animae a corporis possessione praepeditur si non priûs anima aratione possidetur. Lud. de vit. Christi. part. 2. cap. 39 not. 9, 10  Ludolphus thus dilates, Patience is the keeper of all virtues, by which we do possess our souls, which do possess our bodies when we do by reason dispose our own souls to suffering. But he that is impatient, possesseth not his own soul because he cannot restrain the fury and anger of his own heart. Whereupon Bede saith, We are so wonderfully framed, that reason ought to possess the soul, and the soul the body. But the right of the soul is hindered from the possession of the body, if the soul be not first possessed by reason. The Lord therefore hath showed us, that patience is the keeper of our condition, because it hath taught us, how to possess our own selves. Those things then which are troublesome to wicked men, are not so to a good man, because his patience makes heavy burdens, light. To this end he considers of many things to make him patiented. He ruminates upon the original of all afflictions, and remembers that they come from heaven. He endures them patiently, because he would be loath to be found a fighter against God. He resolves with David, 
Psalm 39.9.  I will be dumb, and not open my mouth, because thou didst it O Lord. He proceeds in his meditations to the progress of all troubles: 
Psalm 32.6. Oportet paetienter ferri, quod non potest feslinanter auferri. Aug. de Temp. Ser. 223. Vtrumque es mihi Domine jesu, et speculum patiendi, et prae●nium patien. eyes. Trabe me post te, libenter te sequor, libenti●● fruor.  remembers that they are called waters, and therefore will have their tide, neither will they ebb, till they have done flowing. He agrees with Augustine, that we ought to bear that with patience, which cannot be taken away in haste. He looks back to the most famous pattern of patience, that ever man's eyes beheld in man, and cries out with Bernard, Thou art to me, O Lord JESUS, both a mirror of patience, and a reward, when I am patiented. Draw me after thee, I will follow thee willingly, and enjoy thee more willingly. 
Si sic bonus er Domine sequentious te, qualis futurus es assequentibus te? Ber. in Cant. Ser. 47. Paena, de adversis mundi ille senit, cuiet laetitia et gloriae omnis in mundo est.Ille maeree et deflet, si sibi malè sit in seculo, cui bene non potest esse post seculum. Caeterùm nullus ijs dolor est de incursatione malorum praesentium, quibus fiducia est futurorum bonrum. Cypr. ad. Demetr s. 15. Rom. 8.18. 2. Cor. 4.17. Epict. Ench. c. 79.  O Lord if thou be thus good unto them that follow thee, how good wilt thou be unto them that overtake thee? He looks forward to the heavenly end of all worldly troubles, and concludes with Cyprian, He feels it a punishment to be crossed in the world all whose joy and glory is in the world. He morns and laments, that it goes ill with him in this life, with whom it cannot go well after this life. But they grieve not for the invasion of present evils, that have a confident expectation of future happiness. Thus S. Paul teacheth his Romans, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory, which shall be revealed in us. Thus he instructeth his Corinthians, Our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. So then our good man collects that fare more certainly from Scripture, which the heathen man collected from nature, Tyrants may kill me indeed, but they cannot hurt me. He sees that temporal evils may stand with his eternal good. Yea he sees they are not evil in themselves simply, but rather in men's estimation. So could the natural, or rather moral Philosopher say, Men are troubled not with the things that befall them, 
On ta pragmata, alla ta perton pragmaton dog. mata. 1●.  but with those opinions which they have of the things. For example. Death is not evil, else would it have appeared so to Socrates also: but our opinion of death is that which makes it evil. Hence it is that a good man endures sickness and death quietly which much perplexeth a wicked man. So Cyprian labours to persuade the Gentiles that crosses appeared far otherwise to the Christians then to them; because there was an infinite difference in the bearing of them, Think ye that we bear adversity equally with you, when ye see that the same crosses are not borne alike by us and you? 
●ypr. ad Demet. s. 16.  Thus patience furthers selfe-satisfaction by turning away many crosses and making others easier to be endured.  
The seventh help that a good man hath to help to satisfy himself withal, 
Innocency.  is his innocency, which though it be not complete in action, yet it is in intention. And it is a great comfort in all crosses. A good man is oftentimes crossed by them, of whom he hath deserved no hurt but rather much good. Hence ariseth a world of inward comfort in outward crosses. Herewith David comforts himself before the Lord against the slanders invented by saul's followers, believed by Saul himself, and very costly to David, 
Psal 7.3.4.5.  O Lord my God, saith he, if I have done this, if there be any iniquity in my hands; If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me: (yea I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy.) Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it, yea, let him tread down my life upon the Earth, and lay mine honour in the dust: Herewith job comforts himself against the unkindness of his friends, GOD forbidden that I should justify you: 
job. 27.5.6.  till I die I will not remove my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. And else where, 
job. 31.35.36.37.  If mine adversary had written a Book, Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a Crown to me. I would declare unto him the number of my steps, as a Prince would I go near unto him Yea in sicknesses and afflictions that come from God, innocency is a great comfort, witness Hezekias prayer in his great sickness near unto death, I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, 
2 Kings 20.3.  and have done that which is good in thy sight. Sin is the very sting of afflictions. He, saith Chrysologus, 
Qui innoc entiae creditum seruat paenitentiae non soluit usuram Chrysol. ser. 167. Clem. Alex. strom. 1.6.  that keeps the debt of inocency, needs not pay the use of penitency. It is a sign of peace within, when a man slights afflictions without. Witness Clemens Alexandrinus, It is the glorifying of a boasting soul indeed, but yet it comes from a good conscience to be able to discourse against those troubles that come upon us. Innocency is a testimony to our consciencs, that our afflictions are not punishments inflicted upon us by GOD for our sins, but trials of our patience tending to our greater glory. Thus the good man comforts himself from his innocency both against mortal men, and also before the immortal God.  
The last grace of GOD that gives a good man to enable him to satisfy himself, is Hope. 
Hope.  This satisfies the soul of a good man for the present, because it persuades him upon good ground that it will go better with him hereafter. So that, although now it be not so well with him as he could wish, yet because he knows it will be better, he rests satisfied. S. Augustine compares hope unto an Egg, For hope, saith he, hath not yet attained the thing itself. And an Egg is something: but it is not yet a chicken. Beasts than bring forth young ones: but Birds bring forth only hope of young ones. 
Aug. ●e ver. Dom ser. 29.  The hope then of a good man is somewhat, and hath some ability to give him satisfaction for the present, though it be not so much nor cannot so well satisfy as the glory he hopes for hereafter. It is a morsel to stay a good man's stomach, till the feast of the Lamb's marriage be ready, where he shall be fully satisfied. Peradventure it goes not well with him now, but it will go well with him one day, and this thought upholds him. Thus loving jonathan comforts dejected David, Fear not, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee, and thou shalt be King over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth. 
1 Sam. 23.17.  So the good man knows, and his adversaries are not altogether ignorant, that heaven is prepared for him, and therewithal he satisfies himself. A young Prince brought up under tutors and disciplined by meaner men than himself, yet rests satisfied, because he life's in expectation of a Kingdom. So do Gods Princes being exercised by wicked men look up to heaven, and quiet themselves. Moses lost his honours in Egypt and his pleasures to suffer afflictions with the Israelits, Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches, 
Heb. 11.26.  than the treasurs in Egypt: for he had respect to the recompense of the reward. There is a hope of worldly preferments, which oftentimes brings shame, because men hope for that they never attain. 
Rom. 5.2.5.  But this hope of the glory of God, following justification, maketh not ashamed, for such persons never miss of that they hope for. Thus many strings hath a good man to his bow, and every one helps to further his selfe-satisfaction. If a threesold cable cannot be easily broken, how shall an eightfold? So many graces of God's Spirit linked together in one soul cannot but make it able to satisfy itself, if need be, without help of others. For each of these hath his several force, and therefore as being joined together they are the stronger, so each one putting forth his own vigour, what cannot be done by one, is done by another. As the Physician joins many things in one potion, that what one thing cannot help, another may, so God joins many graces in a good man's soul, that where one grace cannot give him satisfaction for the present, another may. There is not any truth of GOD so undeniable, but many things may be, yea many things have been by erroneous spirits objected against it. So this truth of GOD so honourable to God and so comfortable to man hath not wanted many engines to batter it, yet it will stand invincible.  
First, Object. 1 it hath been objected that God's servants have been so fare from giving satisfaction to themselves, that they have been glad to beg of others food and other necessaries for their satisfaction. So David was fain to send to Nabal for food for himself and his men and was shamefully denied. 
1. Sam. 25.4. etc.  So Lazarus was forced to beg of the Richman the crumbs that fell from his Table and was cruelly starved by his denial. 
Luke. 16.21.  A man would think that Nabal were better able to give himself satisfaction than David, and the Richman than Lazarus. How can this stand with self satisfaction?  
I answer, a good man may be without many outward comforts, but yet he hath an internal contentation, Answer. which he can oppose against all outward wants and uphold himself against them all. If David have none of nabals victuals, yet he and his men shall be provided for. If Lazarus die for lack of the Rich-man's crumbs, yet he dies contentedly, and is by Angels conveyed to eternal happiness. There be many things which a good man hath not, but there is nothing which he wants. For he that is well contented with what he hath, 
Dives a Dinus, quia ut Deus nihil indigere videtur. Varro de ling. Lat. lib. 4. Locuples est, qui paupertati suae aptus est, et paruo se divitem fecit Sen. ep. 108.  cannot be said to want any thing that he hath not. A Richman therefore that hath enough for all uses, is called in Latin Dives from Diws, a God, because like to God, he seems to stand in need of nothing. Let Seneca the heathen man tell how a poor man may be rich, and a man of a mean estate wealthy. He is wealthy whose mind is fitted to his poverty, and who hath made himself rich having but small possessions. If a heathen man could thus teach a poor man, how to make himself rich, much more may the Scriptures inform him. Who counts the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour poor, though they had forsaken all and followed Christ, when he sees how rich they were in faith and miracles, but especially in sweet contentment? Let S. Paul speak for the rest, 
Hôs' mêden, echon●es c●i pania cat●chontes. 2 Cor. 6.10.  and say what the Apostles were, as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. Shall we count the Angels and blessed Spirits in heaven poor, because they have no meat nor drink, nor apparel? The Saints had more apparel, when they were on earth, and more food, yet they were much poorer, than they are now in heaven where they have none. But to mount up to the example of examples, who can deny God himself to be rich? For every beast of the Forest is his, 
Psalm 50.10.  and the cattles upon a thousand hills. All men receive all their treasures from him, yet he himself heapeth up no gold nor silver. A good man then that is most like God of all his creatures, somewhat resembles his Majesty in this, that he can be rich, although he lay up no money. His internal contentment makes him wealthy, although external things flow not in so plentifully to him as unto others.  
Secondly, it may be objected, Object. 2 that good men in their passions do by their words and outward gestures declare, that they are not internally satisfied. The trembling of their bodies doth in imminent perils bewray the fear of their minds. The tears issuing out of their eyes in calamities fall'n upon them, publisheth to others the grief of their hearts. How far then are these from selfe-satisfaction?  
We deny not, Answer. but a good man may be troubled with grief or fear for a time. He hath not changed his nature but is as sensible of misery as he was before. His body is as tender: his heart as melting as any man's else. Besides the same substance of nature, which likes not to be afflicted, he hath the same corruption of nature in some part remaining, which makes him too sensible of worldly unkindnesses, and too liable to Satan's temptations, and wiles.  
No marvel then if at some time the Devil do beguile him, and urge him so that he show forth his imperfections to the world, and his discontent unto his neighbours. But yet we say though the troubled channel of his own imperfections clog his heart for a time, yet is there pure water of God's grace therein sufficient to give him satisfaction without going to other men's rivers, if he do but recollect his own forces: he hath matter enough to satisfy him within him, although his troubled spirit cannot discern for the present how to use it. A while after when his passion is as an ague fit vanished away, then can he by meditation recall his wand'ring thoughts, bring them into order and settle them by the help of his patience and innocency and other forenamed virtues lodged in his own breast by the finger of God. So then for all this bullet, the fort of selfe-satisfaction cannot be pierced.  
Thirdly, Object. 3 it is objected, a godly man cannot subsist neither naturally nor spiritually in this life without the help of God's creatures. If he want food, he will be starved. If he want drink, he will be choked. If he want apparel, he will be chilled to death. What needed God to have made so many creatures for man's use, if they were able to give satisfaction to themselves? For his spiritual state what comfort could he have to come into God's Church, if water in baptism did not assure him of the pardon of his sins? What hope could he have of heaven if Bread and Wine in the Lord's supper did not assure him that Christ died for him, and that by faith in him he may attain life everlasting? How can he be said to be able to give satisfaction to himself, that hath need of so many creatures for the stay of his natural and spiritual condition?  
For answer hereunto, Answer. we must take notice, 〈◊〉 a godly man can be safe and may be saved without these helps. But God hath given him these, for to make his passage the more comfortable. His creatures he hath afforded him both for aliment for his natural life, and props to uphold his faith for the comfort of his soul. If he want Gods creatures for the upholding of his natural life, he knows that either God will uphold him without these, for Man liveth not by bread alone, 
Math. 4.4.  but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God: Or else God will take him to his heavenly Kingdom, where he shall need none of these. If he be denied the Sacraments, he knows that God can save him without them so he have true faith in Christ. He knows God's covenant is good though no seal be set to it. It is not in God's covenant as it is in men's. Seals are not set to for fear of any unfaithfulness in God that promiseth, but because of the weakness of our faith in giving credit to God's promises. The good man then well weighing God's power and God's promise can uphold himself in the want of bodily food and Sacraments.  
Lastly, it is objected, Object. 4 that a good man cannot give satisfaction to himself, for then all government in Church and Commonwealth would be overthrown. A good man cannot live peaceably without the help of the Magistrate. Nay he needs the help of Princes more than other men, because the world hates him, and his religion forbids him revenge by reason whereof every wicked man will play upon him, and show himself ready to oppress him. 
1 Tim. 2.2.  Therefore S. Paul teacheth us to pray, For Kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Moreover a good man cannot live well without Ministers to instruct him in Gods will. To this end God hath appointed Pastors and Teachers for the building up the Saints till we come to perfection of knowledge in Christ, that we may not be carried about with every wind of doctrine. 
●phe 4.11, 12, 13, 14.  Without these political and ecclesiastical helps a good man cannot subsist. How can this stand with selfe-satisfaction? Answer. True it is a good man receives much comfort from both these, and blesseth God for them with all his heart. Yet he can satisfy himself also without them. As in the times of persecutions by heathenish Emperors when such were deprived of their liberty, shut up in dungeons, denied the benefit of subjects, and the freedom of the Gospel preached: nay if both were his enemies; the Magistrate seeks the ruin of his body, and the Minister of his soul, if the one should mightily oppress him, and the other craftily seduce him. Yet a good man would uphold and satisfy himself with that store of grace that God hath planted in him before, and hold on without both these, nay in despite of them, till he attain to liberty unlooked for upon earth, or glory unspeakable in heaven. All these cannons then nor whatsoever else the devil can invent are not able to beat down the castle of selfe-satisfaction. But it stands firm, and will stand to the end, that how soever things altar in the world, a good man will be able to satisfy himself with those graces that God hath given him, and so to stand upon his own bottom, when great and rich men's estates come tottering down to the ground, and no man can uphold them. Thus have we wandered up and down the garden of the soul to view those sweet flowers that give contentment to a good man, and those medicinable herbs that help him to cure all the maladies of his soul. All which grow within the walls of his own garden that they may be ready for service when ill savours or spiritual distempers shall oppress the soul. Now are we to come to shut up all with application.  
First, Use 1 from these flowers a good man may gather the honey of comfort to carry home to the hive of his soul to feed upon in the winter of discontent. 
For comfore.  It tells him he hath attained to the best condition in the world. There can be no better state, then for a man to be filled with grace from above, that he be able in time of need to uphold, nay to satisfy himself without the help of any other creature. Nay that he be able to stand his own ground and to make good his own condition in despite of the subtlety of all crafty politicians, and the power and malice of all worldly tyrants. Nay in despite of all creatures and which are the most powerful of all creatures, and most malicious, of the gates of hell. He is a member of the Church which is built upon the rock, 
Math. 16.18.  and therefore the gates of hell cannot prevail against him. When he seethe troubles spirituallor corporal approach unto him, then let him look inward, and gather together the forces of his soul, and then may he boldly look dangers in the face, and not fear to overcome them: Thus David oppressed with many enemy's comforts himself against them, and lies down quietly without fear of them, I laid me down and slept, 
Psalm 35, 6.  I awaked for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. So is the servant of God by God's goodness made as it were a little God upon earth, 
Cultum tantùm Deo deberi dicimus, qui verus est Deus, facitque suos cultores Deos. Aug. de ciu, Dei. l. 10. c●a.  able through God's grace to stand of himself against all oppositions, and to satisfy himself in all occurrents. O happy condition, and most happy man that hath attained to it.  
Secondly, Use 2 a good man may from hence receive singular direction. 
For direction.  Let him not hunt for felicity abroad in the world, which he may find at home within his own walls. Who would not beg him for a fool that having a fountain of his own at hand, would run to other men's to seek for water? So vain a thing is it for a man to seek for satisfaction from the wealth or honours of the world abroad which he might find much more comfortably, and infallibly from his own conscience within doors. For when all the wealth of the world cannot satisfy the mind, peace of conscience can. Let other men seek with all eagernes for worldly commodities, & place their sole satisfaction in them. David will place it in God's favour. With the light of thy countenance Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time, 
Psalm 4.7.  that their corn and their wine increased. Show thou thyself a good man by thy contentedness, when thou wantest outward comforts and riches in the world. Look upon the wide sea, behold how every day it sends forth plenty of waters into all the rivers about it, & daily takes them back again, yet is the sea never dry, neither doth it ever want water. Go thou and do likewise. Show thyself as well satisfied when floods of wealth are flowed from thee, as when springs of riches run unto thee. So shalt thou be to the world a proof of the text, and an example of selfe-satisfaction.  
Thirdly, Use 3 it may inform wicked men what tickle terms they stand upon, 
For information.  and how great a mischief the want of goodness is: their conscience is unquiet perhaps. All the world cannot give them satisfaction who might receive it from their own consciences, if they were good and feared God. Perhaps their conscience is quiet for the present. So may the sea be for a time, but every little wind will move it and suddenly make it rage. The wicked are like the troubled Sea, 
Esay 57.20.21  when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace saith my God, to the wicked. So miserable is the condition of a wicked man, that he hath no assurance of quietness, nor no solid satisfaction in unquietness of mind. They that want goodness are no where assured to remain quiet, much less are they able to give satisfaction to themselves for this is a good man's privilege, and a wicked man hath no share in it. So the want of goodness both lays a man open to a world of mischiefs, and also deprives him of all means of selfe-satisfaction.  
Lastly Use. 4 all that hath been spoken may serve for provocation, 
For provocation.  to stir up every one with all his might to seek after goodness. This is the only way to selfe-satisfaction. A wicked man when his goods are lost, raves and rages, as if he had lost all his happiness. A goodman quiets himself with holy job, 
job. 1.21.  Naked came I out of my mother's womb: and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. A wicked man when his body is sick, and he disquieted with pain, and in fear of death, quakes for fear of hell torments. A goodman concludes with S. Paul, 
2 Cor. 5.1.  We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens. A wicked man when his friends forsake him, 
So the words are in the Hebrew. He means that Christ will plead for him to God the Father. job. 16.20.21.  cries out against the perfidiousness of this age and the unfaithfulness of the world. A good man looks up unto God in Christ as job did before him, saying, My friends are my scorners: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. And he will plead for man with God, and the Sun of man for his friend. A wicked man when wars rage and the trumpets sound in his ears, and the sword glitters in his eyes, finds his heart dead within him like nabals. 
1 Sam. 24.37. Psalm 46.1.2.  A good man resolves with David, God is my refuge and strength: a very present help in trouble. Therefore will I not fear, though the earth be removed: & though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea. Behold a man able to stand of himself, when Mountains are moved, and to give himself satisfaction, when the stable earth is fleeting. A good man is like a die, throw it which way you will, it is always square: so is a good man ever the same in his main and general carriage, how ever for the present he may be daunted at some sudden accident unlooked for in the world. 
Stu●tus ut luna mutatur: sapiens ut, sol. In sole et f●ruor et splendour stabilis in luna solus splendour, atque is ommino ●muta●ilis et incertus qui nunquam in eodem statu permaneat. Berinthia de Beata. Mar.  The fool, saith Bernard, is changeable like the Moon: but the wise man is constant like the Sun. In the Sun there is both heat and brightness constant, in the Moon only brightness, and that altogether mutable & uncertain, as never remaining in any condition. In all the creatures God hath placed somewhat to prove them to be his: somewhat to resemble him and somewhat above the power of any creature to infuse, that it might appear to be God's workmanship: especially in a good man God hath placed selfe-satisfaction, whereby he is most like his Creator, and which none could put into him but God, that God might have all the glory of it. To conclude, goodness and selfe-satisfaction, holiness & happiness go together. 
Reuel. 20: 6. Indè beatus undè bonus Aug. ep. 121.  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On which words S. Augustine shortly and sweetly comments, He is therefore happy, because he is good. wouldst thou then be safe? Get goodness that thou mayest have selfe-satisfaction in this world, and thou shalt be sure of eternal happiness in the world to come.  
Which God grant every one of us, through jesus Christ, our Saviour, Amen.  
FINIS.