NV. The EpleDedicatory. with the contrite, and have relpeft to him that is poor and humble, and trembleth at his word, it kerns they are moil to be refpetled, and are the molt honourable, if God can put more honour upon us by his approbati- on then man. God will not ask us,ithere we havegrown (in order to our Justification) but what fruit we have born r nor whether we were Richor poor but whe- ther we were Holyor unholy e nor twha mos our Elation but How we behaved our [elves in it e Profperity ufually breedeth a tendernefs and fickly frame of foul, fo that we can fcarce look out ofdoor, but our affedions take cold ; and can force feed on the moll wholefome food, but we receive it wiih forne loathing, or turn it to the matter of fome difeafe. But to worldly vanities, it breeds a Canine appetite : that ambitious wretches are like dogs, that greedily fsvallow the morfel that you caft them, and prefently gape for more. But wholefome poverty, hardeneth us again{( fuch tenderness and infirmities, andbreedeth not Lich difeafes in the foul [ A Poor mans rod when thou doji ri4le, is both a weapon and a guide] faith our ferlow Poet. I sleep moll fweetly when I have tra- velled in the celchfrofl and mow are friends to the feed, though they are enemies to the flower. Adverfity in- deed is contrary to Glory, but it befriendeth Grace. Plutarch tells us, that when Cefar paft by a finoky riaity village, at the foot of the A1pes, fome of his Commanders merrily askt him, [whether there was rich a fiirfor Commands anddignities and honours among thofe cattages, as there was at Rome ? The anfvver's eafie. Do you think that an Antony, a Matk, a Hierom, or fuch other of the antient retired Chriftians, were not- wifer and happier men, then a Nowt a Cahgulg yea or. a.
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