1 ous foul is of great price, and the loss thereof bard to bear. Lay thy account Chriftian, to run the ba zard of this dammage, and mind thou art in the world, where there are a world of invidious perfons; whereof fome will envy thy glory, because it excel leth their own; fome will obfcure and diminish it, because they have none of their own, and other will do what they can to defame thy name, to alle viattheir own infamies, but whatever injurious af perfions may be caft upon thee, be not removed from the ftraight paths of pietie, neither forfake the refolute pursuit of vertue, and thou shall find true pietie and vertue, thy fhield, thy song, and the crown of thy unfading dignitie, which God will vios dicat and clear when He comes to difcover the bid"den works of darkness and to unvail the innocence of the children of light, that hath been long invidi." oufly flandered by men of wicked minds, Some few Meditations on the Loffes that ou fpiritual Merchant is in danger to sustain, 1. Meditat. The most thriving Merchants fomes: mes have loffes: wife providence feems so to dif pence & difpofe things that in every mans lot, there is a mixture of varieties, whiles bis affairs going profperous well, at other times misfortunes marring his fucceffes Sometimes he plunges in deeps of troo bles,and when be pleafeth he pulls out again,Hence Solomon tells us, that the al governing God bath aps pointed to everiething a feafon, and among other feafons, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up, a time to get, and a time to lofe. &c. Eccl. 3.1 to 6. even to the moft thriving Chriftians have bad their dammages and downcomes. Mind Job, 2. Med 1. Meditat. There are no kind of loffes fo conti etable as fpiritual loffes: put the whole world in >ne scale, and one foul in the other, and it will be ound that the whole world is lighter than the dust a the ballance in comparison of the precious loul; arely they are void of understanding, who are eafis y touched with corporal (offes, and yet nothing ag grieved for fpiritual ones. 3. Meditat, In the times of greateft common loffes, fome are making their gains, in the worst of winters there are fome trees green, in the greatest Rorms there may be fome fhips faved, aud fome are enriched by the dammages of others. In times of greatest defection, there may be fome ftedfaft; when all flesh bas corrupted their ways, fome may keep their garments clean; and when the bulk and body of a profelling people are withered, there may be Tome flourishing fruit-bearing Chriftians, Sa. 17.4.6 4. Meditat, Ye may meet with many loffes, yet not be loft, your stock may be impaired, yet not quite broken: grace may difappear in the fruit, & yet there may be fap in the root, a Chriftian may fall yet not fall away,he may fall feventy times feven, and as often rife again, grace may get a mortal wound, yet not prove mortiferous, for once in a flate of grace, ay in a ftate of grace, though fometimes the exercise of grace may lurk and lye by. 5. Meditat, Our loffes for the moft part come more through our own default & unthriftinefs, than by the fetches of cross-providences, the Lord afflicts none willingly, neither takes he pleasure to grieve the children of men, but they by grieving his fpi procure to themselves the deprival of good things and the multiplication of ill things; fome who have been gainers by Sea, yet by being gamfters by Land, have loft all their profits; fome have increased their flock by water, and have destroyed it by wine: fo likewise manie Chriftians are not ftraitned in the Lord, but in their own bowels, and by their neutras lity and negligence in Gods ways, bring themselves to a piece of bread, that is to fay, they are brough to fuch a pinch, as to have but as much of God and of his grace, as keeps in the very life of grace; whatever be your dammages or difalters, never blame a good God but your own ill hearts, and with the fame breath juftifie God and condemn your felves. 6. Meditat. Some bave fuftained great loffes, yet afterwards have become very rich, yea furpaffed the goodness of their former ftate before it happened to be bad; fome have loft much by fire, who yet afterwards have gain triple by water, God blefling their Sea adventures to make them rich landed men; fo fome of our fpiritual merchants have been fore caften aback, who yet have fet up again, to their wonderfull enrichment and increase in the grace and knowledge of Chrift; when Jobs captivity was turned, who was a man of incomparable loffes, the Lord gave him thrice as much as be had before, and bleed his latter end, more than bis beginning, Job 42. 10. 12. And Peter who loved Chrift before his fall, yet loved him thrice fo much after, John 11.1% before his fall be denied Chrift for fear of a tillie Young woman, but after his fall, he avowed Chrift int the terrour of armed men,and amidst the ins Aruments truments of Death, ter he loved riot his Life unto he Death. 7. Meditat, Some never recover all their Loffes, aor arrive at their priftine primitive Wealth; fome Chriftians get a back-fet that bows them down for all their days, it is a great queftion with fome if David after bis Gufull carnal delights with Bathfheba did ever delight himself in the Lord, or if the Lord de ighted in him, by fuch mutual love intercourfes, as had been Davidi delight in former times. 12. Dre Ire&ion, Dealjufly and bonefly with all men, cheating no man, defrauding no man, by yes, equivocations, nor anie other deceitfull methods; juft dealing is fure dealing, but the deceitfull dealer both deceives and defroyes himself. Pray confider thefe following paffages & fuch like, Prov, 10. 17. Bread of deceit is fweet to a man,but afterwards his mouth fhall be filled with gravel. Hofea 12. 7, 8, 14. He is a merchant the ballance of deceit are in his band, he loveth to opprefs; and Ephraim aid, yet I am become rich, Ephraim provoked him to anger, therefore thall be leave his blood upon him, and his reproach fhall his Lord return unto him. Micab 6. 1o. to 16. Are there not yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wick ed, and the feant menfure that is abominable, fhall I count them pure with the wicked bals lances, and with the bag of deceit full weights? for the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the is bitants thereof bave spoken lyes, and their ten de deceitfull in their mouth, therefore will I make thee defolate because of thy tins. You see here the Lord takes notice that it is an ufual ill trick among Mere chants to make themselves rich by fpeaking lyes and uttering deceit with their tongues, in fach kind ol fpeeches to thofe who buy from them, that it cof! fo much, that they have no more of fuch a commo ditie, that they would not fell fo cheap to another, when yet there is nothing true of what they fay,and furelie there cannot be a more hatefull wickedness than this, thus to lye and equivocate, hence fays Homer, Iliad. Odi illos at claufta Erebi quicunque loquuntur i, e. These fordid Souls I hate as Hell Of the foul Stygian lake. I lay then in all thy dealings with man, difcharge thy felt as if dealing with God,for God is an all-fee ing witnefs of all the actions and tranfactions of the Sons of Men; and therefore alfo in all your religi. ous performances be honeft-hearted and upright, in your confellions be fall and particular, in your repentance be real, in your faith be unfeigned, in your hope be conftant, let your love be without di limulation, in your prayers be fincere, in making your vows be Gingle, and faithfull in the perform ance of them,in a word, in the whole courfe of your converfation behave as becomes good Chriftians, |