A Christian library, or, A pleasant and plentiful paradise of practical divinity in 37 treatises of sundry and select subjects ... / by R. Younge ...

CHAP. LVII.

EIgthly, (that I may not be said to set in a Cloud) Is he that commanded thee (this ••asie, and not costly, but most gainful service in the World) thy Heavenly Father, Maker and Pre∣server, yea, thy Saviour and Redeemer? Is he thy Lord by a manifold Right? And thou his Ser∣vant by all manner of obligations? As, First, He is thy Lord by the Right of Creation, thou being his Workmanship, made by him▪ Secondly, By the Right of Redemption, being his Purchase, having bought and ransomed thee out of Hell, by his precious Blood, where else thou must have been frying in flames to Eternity. Thirdly, Of Preser∣vation,

Being kept, upheld, and maintained by him, (all we have, being at his cost.) Fourthly, Thou art his by Vocation, even of his Family, ha∣ving admitted thee a Member of his visible Church. Fifthly, His also (if it be not thine own fault) by Sanctification, whereby he possesseth thee. Sixtly & lastly, He would have thee of his Court by Glorification, that he might crown thee. So that thou art every way his. Yea, he hath removed so many evils from thee, and conferred so many good things upon thee, that they are beyond thought or imagination; then certainly thou art of a sordid and base spirit, if thou deniest him so small a matter as the surplusage of thy Estate to the relief of his poor and distressed members; for were you loving children indeed, though there were no Hell to fear, nor Heaven to hope for; no torments to dread, no rewards to expect; yet you would obey your good and loving Father, and be the sorrowfullest creatures in the World, if yee have but once displeased him, onely for the meer love you bear towards him, and for the unspeak∣ble love he hath shewed towards you: How much more in this case, when whatsoever we give to the poor, we give it not so much to them, as to our selves, Dan. 4.27. Prov. 11.17.