II. indeed, in comparison whereto all other pleasures are no SERM. more than brutifh fenfualities, fordid impurities, fuperficial touches, tranfient flashes of delight: fuch as should be infipid and unfavoury to a rational appetite; fuch as are tinctured with fournefs and bitterness, have painful remorfes or qualms confequente. All the pious man's performances of duty and of devotion are full of pure fatisfaction and delight here, they shall be rewarded with perfect and endless joy hereafter. lvii. 1. lxi. As for fafety, the pious man hath it most abfolute and fure; he being guarded by Almighty power and wisdom; refting under the Shadow of God's wings; God upholding Pf. xvii. 8. him with his hand, ordering his fteps, fo that none of them xxxvi. 7. fhall flide, holding his foul in life, and fuffering not his feet 4. xci. 4. to be moved; he being, by the grace and mercy of God, cxix. 117. fecured from the affaults and impreffions of all enemies, xxxvii. 23. from fin and guilt, from the Devil, world, and flesh, from 133. Ixvi. 9. death and hell, which are our most formidable, and in cxix. 45. effect only dangerous enemies. xxxvii. 24. 31. cxix. As for liberty, the pious mån most entirely and truly doth enjoy that; he alone is free from captivity to that cruel tyrant Satan, from the miserable slavery to fin, from the grievous dominion of luft and paffion. He can do what he pleaseth, having a mind to do only what is good and fit. The Law he obferveth is worthily called the per- Jam. i. 25. fect law of liberty; the Lord he ferveth pretendeth only to command freemen and friends: Ye are my friends, faid John xv. he, if ye do whatever I command you; and, If the Son fet o you free, then are ye free indeed. 14. viii. 36. ἐκ ἔσιν ἐλεύ Chryfoft. ad θερος, άλλ' And for eafe, it is he only that knoweth it; having his s mind exempted from the distraction of care, from diforder Xisa fav. of paffion, from anguish of confcience, from the drudge- Theod. ries and troubles of the world, from the vexations and difquiets which fin produceth. He findeth it made good to • Quid enim jucundius, quam Dei Patris et Domini reconciliatio, quam veritatis revelatio, quam errorum recognitio, quam tot retro criminum venia? quæ major voluptas, quam faftidium ipfius voluptatis, quam fæculi totius contemptus, quam vera libertas, quam confcientia integra, quam vita fufficiens, quam mortis timor nullus, &c.? Tert, de Spectac. 29. II. SERM. him, which our Lord inviting him did promife, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give Matt. xi. you reft: he feeleth the truth of thofe divine affertions, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whofe mind is ftayed on thee; and, Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing hall offend them. 28. If. xxvi. 3. Pf. cxix. 165. Prov. xxviii. 5. As for knowledge, the pious man alone doth attain it confiderably, so as to become truly wife and learned to purpose. Evil men, faith the Wife Man himself, who knew well, understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand all things. It is the pious man that employeth his mind upon the most proper and worthy objects, that knoweth things which certainly best deserve to be known, that hath his foul enriched with the choiceft notions; he skilleth to aim at the best ends, and to compass them by the fittest means; he can affign to each thing its due worth and value; he can prosecute things by the best methods, and order his affairs in the best manner : fo that he is fure not to be defeated or disappointed in his endeavours, nor to miffpend his care and pains, without anfwerable fruit. He hath the best master to inftruct him in his ftudies, and the best rules to direct him in his proceedings: he cannot be mistaken, seeing in his judgment and choice of things he confpireth with infallible wisdom. Therefore ὁ εὐσεβῶν ἄκρως φιλοσοφεῖ, the pious man is the exJob xxviii. quifite philofopher. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; Prov.ix. 10. and to depart from evil is understanding. The fear of the Lord (as is faid again and again in Scripture) is the head 10. cxix. (or top) of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that keep his commandments. Trifmeg. 28. i. 7. Pfal. cxi. 34.99.104. 130. Farther: the pious man is enabled and difpofed (hath the power and the heart) most to benefit and oblige others. He doth it by his fuccour and affistance, by his inftruction and advice, which he is ever ready to yield to any man upon fit occafion: he doth it by the direction and encouragement of his good example: he doth it by his conftant and earnest prayers for all men: he doth it by drawing down bleffings from heaven on the place where he refideth. He is upon all accounts the most true, the most common II. benefactor to mankind; all his neighbours, his country, SERM. the world are in fome way or other obliged to him: at leaft, he doth all the good he can, and in wish doth benefit all men. Thus all the fruits and confequences of profit, the which engage men fo eagerly to pursue it, do in the best kind and highest degree refult from piety, and indeed only from it. All the philofophical bravados concerning a wife man being only rich, only honourable, only happy, only above fortune, are verified in the pious man: to him alone, as fuch, with a fure foundation, without vanity, with evident reason, those aphorifms may be applied. They are paradoxes and fictions abftracting from religion, or confidering men only under the light and power of nature: but suppofing our religion true, a good Christian soberly, without arrogance, in proportion and according to the measure of his piety, may affume them to himself, as the holy Apoftles did: I poffefs all things, I can do all things, he may in a fort fay after St. Paul. As for all other profits, fecluding it, they are but ima- Sen. Ep. 59. ginary and counterfeit, mere shadows and illufions, yielding only painted fhows inftead of fubftantial fruit. If from bare worldly wealth (that which usurpeth the name of profit here) a man seeketh honour, he is deluded, for he is not thereby truly honourable; he is but a fhining earth-worm, a well-trapped ass, a gaudy statue, a theatrical grandee with God, who judgeth most rightly, he is mean and despicable: no intelligent perfon can inwardly respect him. Even here, in this world of fallacy and dotage, the wifeft and fobereft men, whofe judgment usually doth sway that of others, cannot but conteinn him, as master of no real good, nor fit for any good purpose; as seeing that in the end he will prove most beggarly and wretched. If a man affecteth power thence, he is grievously miftaken: for, instead thereof, he proveth exceedingly feeble and impotent, able to perform nothing worthy a man, fubject to fond humours and paffions, fervant to divers lufts and pleasures, captivated by the Devil at his pleasure, D SERM. overborne by temptation, hurried by the stream of the II. world, and liable to the ftrokes of fortune. If he propoundeth to himself thence the enjoyment of pleasure, he will alfo much fail therein: for in lieu thereof he fhall find care and trouble, furfeiting and difeafe, wearisome fatiety and bitter regret; being void of all true delight in his mind, fatisfaction in his confcience; nothing here being able to furnish solid and stable pleafure. If he fancieth fafety, he deludeth himself: for how can he be fafe, who is deftitute of God's protection and fuccour; who is the object of Divine wrath and vengeance; who is affailed by many fierce and powerful enemies; whom the roaring lion is ready to devour; whom death 1 Theff. v. and fudden deftruction are coming to feize upon; whom Prov. x. 29. guilt threateneth, and hell gapeth for; who without any guard or fence ftandeth expofed to fuch imminent, fuch horrid and ghaftly dangers? 3. Prov. xxv. If he thirst for liberty, he will be fruftrated: for he can be no otherwise than a flave, while he continueth impious; Auguft. fervus tot dominorum, quot vitiorum, a flave to fo many mafters as he keepeth vices: a flave to himself and his own lufts: carrying about with him the fetters of unsatiable defire, being hampered with inconfiftent and irregular affections. 28. Eafe he cannot obtain, being oppreffed with unwieldy burdens of fin, of care, of trouble; being toffed with Ifa. lvii. 20. restless agitations of luft and paffion; being like the troubled fea, which cannot reft, whofe waters caft up mire and dirt. If he meaneth to get wisdom, he is out: for wisdom and impiety are incompatible things. All his knowledge is vain, all his fpeculations are no better than dreams, seeing he erreth in the main point, and is not wife to fal vation. He is, in fine, extremely mistaken, and in all his projects will be lamentably disappointed, whoever fancieth any true profit without piety: he never can attain to be fo much as wealthy; but drudge and plod what he can, II. must be a beggar, and a forlorn wretch. For how can he SERM. be any wife rich, who doth want all the best things, the only valuable things in the world, which any man may have, which any good man doth poffefs? How can he be rich, who is deftitute of the moft needful accommodations of life; who conítantly feedeth on the coarfest and most fordid fare, (the dust of pelf, the dung of sensuality;) who hath no faithful or conftant friends, (nothing earthly can be fuch ;) who is mafter of nothing but dirt, or chaff, or fmoke? Whereas alfo riches do confift, not in what one. enjoyeth at present, (for that can be little,) but in a prefumed ability to enjoy afterward what he may come to need or defire; or in well-grounded hopes that he shall never fall into want or diftrefs. How can that man be rich, who hath not any confidence in God, any interest in him, any reason to expect his bleffing? yea, who hath much ground to fear the difpleasure of him, in whofe hand all things are, and who arbitrarily disposeth of all? Piety therefore is the only profitable thing, according to juft efteem. She is more precious than rubies, and all the Prov.iii. 15. things we can defire are not to be compared to her. Upon this account it is most true, what the Pfalmift affirmeth, A little that the righteous hath is better than great riches of Pf. xxxvii. the ungodly. IV. That commendation is not to be omitted, which is nearest at hand, and suggested by St. Paul himself to back this affertion concerning the univerfal profitableness of piety; For, faith he, it hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come: that is, God hath promised to reward it with bleffings appertaining to this mortal life, and with those which concern the future eternal state. As for the bleffings of this life, although God hath not promised to load the godly man with affluence of worldly things, not to put him into a fplendid and pompous garb, not to dispense to him that which may ferve for pampering the flesh, or gratifying wanton fancy, not to exempt him from all the inconveniences to which human nature. and this worldly ftate are fubject; yet hath he promised 16. |