I. CHAP. VI. The Confolation of Poverty. K JESUS-CHRIST. NOW then, well-beloved Poverty, that Humility will receive thee with joy. To all others thou art unknown; and fo art like to continue; be not troubled. Remember that I my felf alfo was a ftranger to many. If they have perfecuted me, they will alfo perfecute thee. If they hated me, they will alfo hate thee. Remember my word, which I faid: The fervant is not greater than his Lord. In Humility and Patience, thy ftrength and confolation will confift. POVERTY. Behold thy Handmaid, be it unto me according to thy will. Thou haft fpoken unto thy Servant; and whence is this to me, that I fhould find fo much Grace in thine Eyes! How abundant art thou in thy Mercies, to vifit the Stranger, to blefs the Widow, and not to forfake the defolate! II. My heart for joy cannot contain it felf, that fo great a Majefty fhould not difdain to caft an eye upon my misery; fo great a height, to enquire after an humbled, under-troden creature; fo infinitely powerful and opulent a King, to love a poor deftitute afflicted wretch! And what else is this, but the riches of his Goodness, the bowels of his Compaffion, and the unfpeakable sweetness of his Charity? It had been a great thing, if he had vouchfafed to remember me fo far, as to have fent unto me one of the meaneft of his Servants. But now he himself hath rifen up from his Throne in Heaven, exchanged his royal Power for Poverty, and hath been found in fashion as a poor Man; putting on the form even of a fervant; and not only of a fervant, but of the very vileft of fervants ; that for us he might be delivered up to Death and be crucified, who had done nothing worthy of Death, neither was guile found in his mouth. In all things he was made like unto me, in age, in habit, in relation; for he became a poor helpless Infant; and had made choice not of rich, but poor Parents. Great therefore is my boafting and rejoicing, much my confidence and confolation in Chrift Jefus. Comfort ye, ye, comfort ye my people, faith your Lord, GOD. Who are the People of the Lord, but his Poor? The rich ones of the world are not the People of GOD. III. For wo unto you that are rich, for ye have received your confolation. Wherefore Jefus hath faid: Bleffed are the poor in fpirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Whether this be understood of real or fpiritual Poverty, certain it is that voluntary Poverty is in every one lovely and praife-worthy. JESUS-CHRIST. Take heed therefore that ye defpife not one of thefe little ones, that believe in me, and are become poor Name's fake. for my For I, faith the Lord GOD, am the father of the poor, and defend the cause of the orphans and widows. I have heard the defire of the poor, I prepare their heart, and mine ear bearkeneth thereunto & Touch them not, neither hurt them by force or fraud. I am the avenger of all. Wherefore grieve them not, nor afflict them, for they are all under my protection. And now b Ifai. xl. I. e Matth. xviii. 10. c Luke vi. 24. d Matth. v. 3. g Pfal. x. 19. where where are ye, ye Poor of my People? Have ye not heard my Voice? Behold. what teftimonies I have produc'd for you, to the end my beloved Poverty might be come acceptable and pleafing to you. IV. I call her my Beloved, because by my own act and example I have render'd her most precious: That all Kings and Princes of the Earth may learn not to defpife her, but to cherifh and revere her, as being in truth most valuable; fince the King of Heaven and Earth, even the King of Kings, confecrated her in his Holy Infancy. If ye believe not my words, believe my works. Go then, and fee the place where the Lord was laid, whether in the Manger, or in the Sepulchre. Am not I Chrift JeJus? Feel therefore and fee, that I have no riches nor pleafures, but only rags and a napkin. Believe now, that I am not rich, and love my Poverty. And fo much may fuffice for the Praife of Poverty, which is truly laudable, and ought to be much lov'd by all the Servants of God; because GoD, and all the Saints preferr'd it before all the Riches of the World. OF Of the Leffons and Examples of Humility delivered by Christ. I. B THE DISCIPLE. UT let us pass next to the Virtue of Humility. For unlefs Humility go along with Poverty, Poverty can never be acceptable and well-pleafing unto God. Wherefore as thou haft fpoken of Poverty, fo fpeak unto me, my Lord GOD, of Humility alfo. I obferve this Grace to be often and powerfully recommended in thy Scriptures; and find it to have shone in thee eminently and remark |