A Christian Directory

§. 5. Direct. 4. Remember what Promises God hath made, for the competent supply of all your wants. ¹Godliness hath the promise of this life and of that to come: All other things shall be added to you, if you seek first Gods Kingdom and the righteousness thereof▪ Matth. 6. 33. They that fear the Lord shall want nothing that is good, Psal. 37. All things shall work together for good to them that love God? Rom. 8. 28. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, Heb. 13. 5. Live by faith on these sufficient promises, and you need not steal.

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§. 6. Direct. 5. Overvalue not the accommodation and pleasure of the flesh, and live not in the sins ¹of gluttony, drunkenness, pride, gaming, or riotous courses, which may bring you into want, and so to seek unlawful maintenance. He that is a servant to his flesh cannot endure to displease it, nor can •ear the want of any thing which it needeth. But he that hath mastered and mortified his flesh, can endure its labour and hunger, yea, and death too, if God will have it so. Large revenues will be too little for a fleshly minded person: But a little will serve him that hath brought it under the power of reason. Magna pars libertatis est bene moratus venture, saith Seneca: A well nurtured, fair-conditioned belly, is a great part of a mans liberty, because an ill-taught and ill-conditioned belly, is one of the basest slaveries in the world. As a Philosopher said to Diogenes, If thou couldst flatter Dionysius, thou needest not eat herbs: But, saith Diogenes, If thou couldst eat herbs, thou needest not flatter Dionysius: He took this for the harder task: So the Thief and deceiver will say to the poor, If you could do as we do, you need not fare so hardly: But a contented poor man may better answer him, If you could fare hardly as I do, you need not deceive or steal as you do. A proud person, that cannot endure to dwell in a Cottage, or to be seen in poor or patched apparel, will be easily tempted to any unlawful way of getting, to keep him from disgrace, and serve his pride: A Glutton whose Heaven is in his throat, must needs fare well, how ever he come by it: A Tippler must needs have provision for his guggle, by right or by wrong. But a humble man, and a temperate man, can spare all this, and when he looketh on all the proud mans furniture, he can bless himself as Socrates did in a Fair, with Quam multa sunt quibus ipse non egeo: How many things be there, which I have no need of: And he can pity the sensual desires which others must needs fulfil; even as a sound man pitieth another that hath the itch, or the thirst of a sick man in a Fever, that crieth out for drink. As Seneca saith, It is Vice and not Nature, which needeth much: Nature, and necessity, and duty are contented with a little. But he that must have the pleasure of his sin, must have provision to maintain that pleasure.