Christian ethics -- Fiction; Christian fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction
But again, as this man should enquire into these things, so he should
also into this. How came I into this way of dealing in which I have
now miscarried? is it a way that my Parents brought me up in, put me
Apprentice to, or that by providence I was first thrust into? or is it
a way into which I have twisted my self, as not being contented with my
first lot, that by God and my Parents I was cast into? This ought duly
to be considered. {98f} And if upon search, a man shall find that he is
out of the place and Calling into which he was put by his Parents, or
the Providence of God, and has miscarried in a new way, that through
pride and dislike of his first state he as chose rather to embrace;
his miscarriage is his sin, the fruit of his Pride, and a token of the
Judgment of God upon him for his leaving of his first state. And for
this he ought, as for the former, to be humble and penitent before the
Lord.
But if by search, {99a} he finds, that his poverty came by none of
these; if by honest search, he finds it so, and can say with good
conscience, I went not out of my place and state in which God by his
providence had put me; but have abode with God in the calling wherein
I was called, and have wrought hard, and fared meanly, been civilly
apparelled, and have not directly, nor indirectly made away with my
Creditors goods: Then has his fall come upon him by the immediate hand
of God, whether by visible or invisible wayes. For sometimes it comes
by visible wayes, to wit, by Fire, by Thieves, by loss of Cattel, or
the wickedness of sinful dealers, &c. And sometimes by means invisible,
and then no man knows how; we only see things are going, but cannot see
by what way they go. Well, Now suppose that a man, by an immediate hand
of God is brought to a morsel of Bread, what must he do now? {99b}
I answer: His surest way is still to think, that this is the fruit of
some sin, though possibly not sin in the management of his calling,
yet of some other sin. God casteth away the substance of the wicked.
Therefore let him still humble himself before his God, because his hand
is upon him, and say, What sin is this, for which this hand of God is
upon me? and let him be diligent to find it out, for some sin is the
cause of this Judgment; for God doth not willingly afflict nor grieve
the children of men. Either the heart is too much set upon the world,
or Religion is too much neglected in thy Family, or some thing. There
is a Snake in the grass, a Worm in the gourd; some sin in thy bosom,
for the sake of which God doth thus deal with thee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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