Fifty sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London, and elsewhere whereof twenty on the Lords Prayer / by ... Anthony Farindon ... ; the third and last volume, not till now printed ; to which is adjoyned two sermons preached by a friend of the authors, upon his being silenced.

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Fifty sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London, and elsewhere whereof twenty on the Lords Prayer / by ... Anthony Farindon ... ; the third and last volume, not till now printed ; to which is adjoyned two sermons preached by a friend of the authors, upon his being silenced.
Author
Farindon, Anthony, 1598-1658.
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London :: Printed by Tho. Roycroft for Richard Marriott,
1674.
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Subject terms
Church of England -- Sermons.
Lord's prayer -- Sermons.
Sermons, English -- 17th century.
Link to this Item
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A40889.0001.001
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"Fifty sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London, and elsewhere whereof twenty on the Lords Prayer / by ... Anthony Farindon ... ; the third and last volume, not till now printed ; to which is adjoyned two sermons preached by a friend of the authors, upon his being silenced." In the digital collection Early English Books Online 2. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A40889.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 5, 2024.

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Page 419

The Six and Thirtieth SERMON. PART. I. (Book 36)

MATTH. VI. 11. Give us this day our daily Bread.

WE pass now from the three first Petitions, which looked up directly into heaven upon the face of God, unto the three last, which look up indeed to heaven also, upon the Giver of all things, but withal reflect upon our selves, and on our present necessities. The first where∣of is that I have read unto you, GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD. Before we come to handle which words, be pleased to take notice of the method here laid down by our Saviour for us to regulate our Devoti∣on by. Order and Method, as it makes the way easie and plain to every design we take in hand, so it poises our Devotion. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, saith the Historian, There is nothing so fair, nothing so commodious for use, as Order. This is it which hath given prae∣eminence to Aristotle above all the Writers before him, that he brought Nature it self, and all Arts and Sciences, into a certain order and method. Though men pursue knowledge with all eagerness and heat of inquisition, yet, if they begin where they should end, they will be alwaies beginning, and never end; they will but operose nihil agere, take a great deal of pains to be no wiser than they were: And though they strive forwards, and pace over much ground, yet will they be farther off from their wished end then when they made the first onset. Therefore what Vitruvius requireth in Architecture, is necessary in every work we undertake, especially in our Prayers, that there be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, order and disposition. There must be nothing in our Devotion 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ill disposed, or ill placed. For, as the devout Schoolman telleth us, that to incline too much to the sway of Sensuality and neglect the direction of Reason, tam sensualitatem quàm rationem extinguit, so also in our Devotion and Orizons, if we place them on temporal things and not spiritual; or on temporal before spiri∣tual; they never reach the mark, but fall short of both; they neither fill our hands with plenty, nor our souls with that spiritual Manna. If we prefer Mammon before God, we may expect to have leanness enter into our very souls, and to be punisht not only with a famine of bread, but of the Word of God also. The excellency of this method appeareth from the vast distance not only between the Body and the Soul, but also between that bread that

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perisheth and that which nourisheth us unto everlasting life. This latter is that which alone can satisfie that infinite appetite which God hath placed in the soul of man. This is favourable to us and benevolent; this admit∣teth at once satiety and desire; this worketh no loathing. For here is the difference between temporal and spiritual blessings: The one, when we have them not, kindle a desire in us; and being enjoyed, quench that de∣sire with loathsomness: But the other are never loath'd but when we have them not: when we have them, we more desire them. The more we feed, the more we are a hungry: and yet, when we are most hungry, we are full and satisfied. In illis appetitus placet, experientia displicet; in istis appetitus vilis est, experientia magìs placet, saith Gregory. In temporal matters our appetite pleaseth us, but experience is distastful: They are hony in the desire, but in the tast gravel. But unto spiritual things our appetite commonly is sick and queasy; but when we chew upon them, they are sweeter then the Honey and the Honey-comb. They are gall to the appe∣tite, but to the tast Manna. Much more might be said on this subject, but let this suffice at present.

We proceed now to a particular application of the words of this Petiti∣on. And every one of them is verbum operativum, ful of force and effi∣cacy, and hath its weight. We ask first for Bread; secondly for our bread; thirdly our daily bread: fourthly we ask it not as a debt, but as a gift: fifthly and lastly, we set a date as it were upon the petition, which putteth a period to our care and sollicitude, and binds our desires within the nar∣row compass of a day, give it us to day.

We begin with that which is the subject of our petition, Bread: which how∣ever placed, yet in nature is first to be Handled. For we must first propose the object and set it up as a mark, before we can carry our desires to it. First we must know what is meant by Bread, or else for bread we may ask a stone.

And here I find this Bread multiplied, not by any miracle, but by the activity of mens phansies, who have broke it out, and distributed it unto us: And if we take it from their hands, we may fit down and eat, and of the very fragments gather more then seven baskets full. Some take the word metaphorically, others properly. Some take Bread in a spiritual sense, and that either first for the bread of Righteousness, which Christians are to hunger and thirst after; or secondly for the bread of the Word, which is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the bread of Angels, by virtue of which we walk in the ways of righteousness all the days of our life, and are nourisht up to an Angelical estate: or thirdly for that Bread which is the WORD, even Christ him∣self, which whosoever eateth shall never hunger; or fourthly for Sacramental bread, which is consecrated and received in the holy Communion, which the Fathers call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the holy and hallowed Bread; and Ignatius, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the bread of God; and Eusebius, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the holy nutriment; or fifthly and lastly, for that bread of eternal Life which we shall then eat when we sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the blessed Saints, in the Kingdom of Heaven. Quinque panes sunt necessarii, quatuor in via, quintus in patria; There be five manner of loaves very ne∣cessary * 1.1 for us; four, whilest we travel here in our way; and the fifth at our journeys end, in our country: four in this wilderness of the world, and the last in that celestial Canaan: our corporal bread, to sustein us; our Spiritual, to inform us; our Doctrinal, to instruct us; our Sacramental, to purge and cleanse us; and the eternal bread of life, which the Father will give us, to make us happy. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as St. Chrysostome used to speak, I embrace all Senses. For why should not Righteousness be as our daily bread, to feed us? why should not we, with Job, put it on, to clothe us and make it as a Robe and Diadem? Why should not we thirst,

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as the Hart, after those waters which are drawn out of the Wells of Salvati∣on? Why should we not long for our 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the Fathers call the holy Eucharist, for that holy Bread which is our provision and supply in our way? And eternal Life is Hominis optimum, saith St. Augustine, the best thing that can befall man, the very consummation and crown of our desires. For e∣very one of these we may solicite the Majesty of heaven and earth, and press upon God with a pious impudence and holy importunity; DANOBIS, PANEM HUNC DOMINE, Lord, evermore give us of this bread, of the Bread of Righteousness, of the Bread which thou breakest, of the Bread which thou art, of the Bread of thy Word, and of the Bread of thy Sacrament, which are primitiae futuri panis, the first-fruits of the Bread of eternal Life, which God the Father shall distribute with a full and bounti∣ful hand to all his children in the world to come. We reject none of these senses. Whether we take it in the metaphor, or take it in the letter, we do not erre, nor will our prayers return empty. For if we regulate our devotion by the will of God, whatsoever we ask we shall receive. Nor doth the Goodness of God consider so much the gloss and interpretation which we make as the affection which we bring. Yet I rather admit of that sig∣nification which the word BREAD doth first propose unto us. Our dis∣course would be too much enlarged if we should follow and examine meta∣phors, which are feracissimae controversiarum, very fruitful to engender both discourse and controversie. Chrysostome doth very seldom refer the word Bread to the Sacrament: But in his Homily upon the Lords Prayer, deri∣ving the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, he calls it our daily bread, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that BREAD which is turned into the very sub∣stance of our bodies. And Abulensis, upon Matth. 6. hath proved by many reasons that that interpretation by which the Fathers referred it to the Sacrament is far fetched and forced, and not so solid. And it is most pro∣bable that our Saviour by Bread in this Petition meaneth both food and ravment, and all other things whatsoever that tend to the sustentation and support of this temporal life: Both Food and Rayment, I say. For though Bread be a staff, yet without Clothes it will not uphold us: and though * 1.2 Clothes be domus corporis, as Tertullian calleth them, the house wherein the Body dwells, yet without Bread the Body will sink to the ground, and pull the house down with it. If we be either naked or hungry long, we know * 1.3 what follows, our soul will faint within us. The end therefore which moves us to pray for Bread must be as a light to shew us what that Bread is: Nec verba tantùm defendenda, sed ratio verborum constituenda; Nor must we so cleave to the letter as to admit of no sense of larger compass than it is, but look forward upon the end, which we may make gubernaculum inter∣pretationis, as it were a rudder to guide us, and to carry our interpretati∣on streight and even. The end of Bread is to nourish us and preserve life; but without Apparel it will not have this operation; therefore we must necessarily here understand both. With Bread our Garments are a shelter, and with Raiment Bread is a staff.

But this Bread here is not of compass large enough to take in the riotous fare of the glutton, and the full cups of the drunkard, and it is much too narrow to admit of excess and pride in apparel. Primùm tegendo homini necessitas praecessit, dehinc & ornando, imò & inflando ambitio successit, &c. saith the Father. If the Fathers lived now, how would they declaim a∣gainst the luxury of these our dayes! Shall I invite your eyes to look back upon the face of Antiquity, and shew you what commentary their Pra∣ctice made upon their Pater Noster, and what they esteemed Bread? And behold, instead of our soft beds, they had only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and usually lodg∣ed themselves upon the cold earth. Instead of our full tables, they had 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,

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and ate dry'd and parcht meats. Shall I set before you a Monks feast out of Cassian? It is quictly done. The cates were, Liquamen cum oleo, some Lard with Oyl; Olives, every one three; Cicer frictum, partch-Pease, every one five; and dried Figs, every one one. And these they called tro∣galia, Junkets. All which might keep their stomach a work, but sure not over-cloy the body. Vesci cocto, erat luxuria, saith St. Hierom; To tast of any thing that was boyled, was accounted great luxury. This was to them for Bread. And for that other help of Garments, instead of our Silks and Gold and fine Linnens, they had melôtas & cilicia, their sheep-skins and hair∣cloth, in which they wandred in Dens and Caverns of the earth; Tertullian went so far, and it may be too far, that he thought it was not fit to suppli∣cate God for our sins in costly apparel; Num ergò in coccino & tyrio suppli∣care nos condecet? saith he; Is it fitting, think you, to pray to God in silk and scarlet? Cedo acum crinibus distinguendis; Why then bring your crisp∣ing-pins, and your pomanders; wash your bodies in costly baths, fill your selves with pleasant meats and luscious Wines; and if any man ask you why you do so, Deliqui, dicito, in Deum; You must needs make this answer, I have offended God, and am in danger of eternal death; and therefore I thus afflict and torment my self, that I may be reconciled to that God whom I have thus offended. Thus did that holy Father whip the Luxurie and Looseness of his time. For my self, I have no power to enact leges sumptuarias, laws to restrain any either in their meat or apparel. But methinks we cannot take our pattern better than from the purest times, from the primitive Chri∣stians; who contented themselves with those meats quae mortem arcerent, & delicias non ministrarent, which were antidotes against death, but no philtra, no inticements to wantonness; Whose feasts were not only chast, but sober; Who received their bread with that modesty ut non tam coenam coenarent quàm disciplinam, that they seemed rather to have exercised a part of their Christian discipline than to have met together at their refection. And as I do not exact from every Christian that Monkish strictness and se∣verity, which notwithstanding I am not overhasty to condemn, yet the least I can require at your hands is Nyssen's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, frugality and mo∣deration, both in meats and apparel. And 1. bespeak you in St. Paul's words, that having food and raiment, you will be therewith content, and * 1.4 count these as your daily bread. For, if we regard our bodies and the sustentation of life, Bread is enough: and to repair this our tabernacle, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, saith Basil, a very small care, is sufficient. Our Bread is a kind of debt we owe it; but we must not pay more then the creditor will take: and when we owe it but Bread, we must not take our Debt-book, and set down Superfluities; when we owe it but one measure of wheat, take the bill, and set down fifty. If we would abate our Superfluities in diet and apparel, we might have enough for our selves, and something to spare for others; after we have fed and clad our own bodies sufficiently, we might fill the bellies, and clothe the backs of our poor brethren, and so relieve Christ our Head by supplying the wants of our fellow-members. Yea, by our sobriety and moderation in the use of these things we shall keep both soul and body in good plight, free from those distempers that naturally flow from Excess and Luxurie. Munditia vestitûs, animae immunditia, saith Hierome; They who are all for a gay out-side must needs be all foul and na∣stie within. For Nimia corporis cura, nimia animi incuria, saith another Fa∣ther: Such as care for nothing but to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, cannot put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Apostle biddeth * 1.5 us. They who will still go brave, and drink deep, and feed high, and fare deliciously every day, with the Glutton in the Gospel, are likely not on∣ly * 1.6 to suffer Lazarus to starve at their doors, but also to pine and begger

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their own souls to eternity. It may seem somewhat strange that St. Paul calls Esau 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a fornicator and a profane person, since Moses no * 1.7 where recordeth it: And Thalassius the Monk moves the doubt to Isidore Pelusiote, lib. 1. Epist. who returneth a ready answer, That it was no marvel at all that he should sell his chastity, who first had sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. For this Bread of Luxurie doth not only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Aristotle speaks, corrupt our health, but doth aggravare animam, layeth a burden upon the soul, that she can neither take the wing, and raise her self in the contemplation of God and his goodness, nor yet prompt the Eye or Hand or Tongue to do those offices for which they were created. It makes her 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, weaker, saith Clemens, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, slower, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, weak, sensless, stupid. For quorum corpora saginata, eorum animi in maciè, When the body is too full, streight leanness enters into the soul.

I may seem perhaps to have divided this Bread with too sparing a hand. I will therefore give you the whole Loaf; and more I cannot give you. And by Bread here we will understand that provision, that wealth, those neces∣saries which every particular mans calling requires, or which may fit that place which he bears either in Church or Common-wealth. For I am not so strait-laced as to imagine that every Artificer should be furnisht as richly as a Noble-man, or that every Nabal should make a feast like a King. Not the same measure and proportion for Joab the Captain of the Hoast and for David the King, for Shaphan the Chancellour and for Josiah, for Gellio the Deputy and for Caesar the Emperour. It is true, in many re∣spects there is no difference between man and man, but all are equal. We have all one Father, who hath made of one bloud all nations of men. And as we * 1.8 are all made of one mold, so are we all bought with the same price. The soul of him that sitteth on the throne cost Christ no more then did the soul of him that grindeth at the mill. All are one in Christ Jesus. All true * 1.9 Christians have the same holy Spirit to sanctifie and guide them, all have an army of holy Angels to pitch their tents about them; all are spiritual Kings and Priests; all are now vessels of grace, and shall hereafter be vessels of glory. And at the day of doom the great Judge will not look who lieth in a winding-sheet, and who in a sheet of lead; nor will he pardon this man because he was a King, and condemn that other because he was a Begger. Yet for all this, he hath made up his Church here not of Angels but of Men, who live in the world, and therefore must live under Government. Eccle∣sia non subvertit regna. The Church and Secular powers stand not in op∣position, but so well sute and sort together that God hath left this as a blessing unto his Church, and part of her dowry, That Kings should be her nursing fathers, and Queens her nursing mothers. Now Kingdoms and Com∣mon-wealths * 1.10 cannot be governed and maintained unless there be a disparity of persons and places. It hath pleased God therefore to dispense his gifts in a wonderful variety amongst the children of men, that so they might be fitted for several professions and callings; men of ordinary fashion and parts for lower and meaner vocations, to handle the Plough, or the Spade, or the Flail, or the Sheep-hook, to trade in the Shop, or to traffick by Sea, or to serve in the Wars: but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the Philosopher calleth men of more then ordinary endowments, choice, active persons, picked out of thousands, these deserve to become famous in their genera∣tions, to attend on Princes, to bear office in Court, or Camp, or Church, or Common-wealth. Sic opus est mundo: There is a necessity of dispropor∣tion between men and men. Nihil enim aequalitate ipsâ inaequalius; For there is no greater disproportion in the world then in a body politick to have all the parts equal. Being so, it cannot long subsist. Indeed some fantastick persons have long talkt of a Parity and Community: but it is to make

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themselves supream, and the greatest Impropriators in the world. For were the world so weak as to yield to their holy counsel and advice, you should then see these ravenous Wolfes strip themselves of their lambs∣skins, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, openly, before the Sun and the People, invest them∣selves with that power which they cry down for Antichristian. Sint pares, protinus erunt superiores; Let them part stakes, and they will have all: Let them be your equals, they will soon be your superiors: and give them but leave to stand on even ground with you, and they will before you can be aware of them lay you level with the ground. Now a Hezekiah is no better than a Senacherib, a Constantine than a Julian: every King is a Tyrant; every Bishop, Antichrist; no Guide, but the Spirit; no Court, but Heaven; no lash, but that of Conscience: Meum and Tuum are harsh words in the Church. Almost of the mind of the Carpocratians in Clemens, who, because the Air was common, would have their Wives so too. Quid verba audio: These words are most notori∣ously false and deceitful. For did they once rerum potiri, could they but shift the scene, and return back cloath'd with that power and ju∣risdiction which they libel, their own writings, which most barbarous∣ly call for the bloud and lives of men for no other reason, but be∣cause they cannot be fools enough to be of their opinion, shew what meek and gentle spirits we should find them. Now, No King, No Bishop, No Government; But then they will reign as Kings: Their little fingers would be bigger then the most cruel Tyrants loyns; and we, who before did not feel so much as a scourge, by these unhallowed Saints should be whipped with Scorpions.

But I must not stray too far out of my way to follow Thieves. I leave them to the mercy and justice of God, who in his due time will either work their conversion, or confound their devilish practices and machinations. To proceed then: God doth give every man his portion of bread. He did so in the beginning of the world, before the Floud; he did so in the restitution of the world, after the Floud; when that which every man first laid hold on was made his possession, which none could wrest from him, but by tort and violence and wrong. Had men indeed retain'd that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that simplicity and planeness, which they had at first, they had contented themselves with the water of the springs and those fruits which the earth did naturally bring forth: But when this failed from the sons of men (as it was not of long continuance) then there was a necessity

—signare & partiri limite campum,
for every man to become a proprietary of that which fell unto him either by express covenant, and by division, or in a more silent manner by oc∣cupation. And this though God did not command, yet he hath set his seal to it, and made it authentick. He gives the land of Canaan to the Israelites. He calls upon them to make their Hin and Ephah right. He calls false ballances an abomination. He pronounceth many woes against that Oppression which grinds the face of our neighbour. He sends his Prophet to meet Ahab as he was going to take possession of Naboth's vineyard, and to tell him that in the place where dogs did lick the bloud of Naboth, dogs * 1.11 should lick his bloud also. And as it was then, so is it now, even in Christia∣nity. Every man hath his Bread, those possessions which fall unto him either by inheritance, or gift, or purchase, or corporal labor and indu∣stry: Nor can any thing divide them from him but the hand of Violence, or his own hand, when Compassion and Charity stretch it forth to help

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his brother in distress. And therefore St. Augustine tells us that the Church of God is formed ex divitum pauperúmque concordiâ, of the concord of these two, the Rich and the Poor; as Plato saith that Love had its being by the marriage of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Abundance and Want. We read indeed * 1.12 that the first Christians had all things common: But this, though it were most laudable in them, doth no more bind us than the command Christ gave his Apostles doth, to have no shooes, to be content with one coat, &c. I will not press this further. For I do not love to quarrel for my Bread, and had rather want it then be too careful for it. But this Bread, as it is ours, so is it PANIS CHRISTI, Christs Bread and patrimony. Panis Christi est perdulcis panis, could that Atheistical Norman say, The Bread of Christ is very sweet bread, when he sold the Bishopricks and Dignities of his Church. All that I intend is this, to shew that we may ask for all those necessaries which belong to our place and calling, and that that wealth and provision which fits every mans person, either in Church or Common∣wealth, is his Bread. The Kings Dominions, the Noble-mans Lordships, the Trades-mans wealth, and the Church-mans Tenth, Abrahams Jewels, Josephs ring and fine linnen, Davids changes of apparel, Jonathans purple, the Princes royal robes, the Nobles mantle, the Churches vestments, may all go under this name. A rich estate may be my Bread, and a mean estate may be my Bread: The one Contempt turns ino a stone; the other, Envy. Tolle jactantiam, & quid sunt omnes homines nisi homines? Take away boasting and vain-glory, and what are all men but Men? Take away Envy, and the richest man is as low as the poor; take away Pride, and the poorest man is as high as the rich. We know some disgrace in all ages hath been thrown on Wealth, as if it were more than Bread. But for the most part we may observe this hath rather proceeded from love than hatred of ri∣ches. Many men have fallen upon the distast of them as Lovers upon dislike of their Mistresses, when they cannot fill and satisfie their desire; they change it into deadly hatred, and think it revenge enough to exe∣crate that which at first they doted on. For certainly the Rich man may dispense his Bread as well as the Poor. Christ is poor in the begger, but the rich man relieveth him: he is cold in the naked, but the rich man clothes him: he lies wounded by the way side, but the rich man hath oyl and wine to pour into his wounds, and a piece of money to pay for his cure: he is imprisoned in the poor, but the rich man sets him at liberty. We know men have feared Poverty more than Death; and yet there is indeed no such horror in it. It was happy to Tellus, affected of Diogenes, sought for by Crates, glorious to Epa∣minondas, just to Aristides. It is that wealth which Christ entitled to happiness. It is a vain thing, and savours of great ingratitude, but a common errour in the world, for men to think themselves contemp∣tible in low places, to struggle and strive as if they were in fetters, and to complain as if they had not their Bread. Art thou called be∣ing a Servant? care not for it, saith St. Paul: For he that is a servant, may be the Lords free-man. And he that is poor, may be the Lords rich man, and confer that on Christ which the rich man cannot, his Patience and Contentation. Perdidit paupertatem, qui nondum hoc di∣dicit. He hath made no use of his Poverty who hath not learnt to be poor: And he is bankrupt of his Riches who knows not how to abound. He hath lost his Poverty who cannot make it Bread; and he hath cankred and corrupted his Wealth who makes it more. Thus may Poverty become riches; and the rich poor. Thus may we hold a community even in a propriety, and observe a just proportion in an equality. Some may have more Bread, but every man enough. Thus may our Bread be turned

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into Manna. For as the Israelites gathered the Manna, so do we our daily * 1.13 bread: We gather it every man according to his eating; every man according to the number of our persons, and dignity of our places; every man for them which are in his tents. The King hath his Omer and Measure; the Noble∣man, his; the Priest, his; the Trades-man, his; the Landlord, his; and the Farmer, his: But when we mete it out, when we make use of that Bread which we pray for, he that gathereth much hath nothing over, and he that gathereth little hath no lack; but every man gathers according to his eating, prays for that proportion which his place in Church or Common-wealth exacteth. And thus much be spoken concerning the nature and extent of that which we are taught here in this Petition to pray for. We should now pass along to that which follows, and more particularly enquire why it is called Ours, and why our daily bread. But this we shall begin with the next Term.

Notes

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