Part 60 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 61 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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[3.] Thirdly, Consider that God can make a little with holiness, go a great way. [Mr. Foxe speaks of a poor woman, who being threatened that she would have but a little bread one day, and a little water on the next, replied, "If you take away my food, I hope God will take away my hunger, and then it will be all one as if I had food."] A little with holiness shall serve the turn, and then enough is as good as a feast. God can make a handful of meal in the barrel, and a little oil in the cruse, hold out a long while, I Kings 17:10-17. Just so, Deut. 8:4, "Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years." Chapter 29:5, "During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet." Their clothes in forty years' time was not the worse for wearing, their garments were not worn out with wearing, in all that time they were not grown old and so unfit to wear. Oh no; but they were as fresh and strong, and fit for use at the last, as they were when they first came into the wilderness, and this was by a divine power that preserved them from decay. God supplied all the backs and bellies of the Israelites in such state, as if every Israelite had been a prince. When God brings his people into a wilderness condition, he will make their mercies last and hold out as long as their wilderness condition continues.
Just so, in that Proverbs 15:16-17, "Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. Better a meal of vegetables where there is love, than a fattened calf with hatred." [Sheep can live upon bare commons, where fat oxen would be quickly starved, etc.] Chapter 16:8, "Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right." Chapter 17:1, "Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices with strife." Psalm 37:16, "A little that a righteous man has, is better than the riches of many wicked." Where there is a holy God, and a holy heart—a little of the world will go far. A little will be a sufficiency to him, who with it enjoys that Holy One who is all-sufficiency itself, Phil. 4:11-20. Though a whole world will never fill nor satisfy an unsanctified heart; yet a little, a very little of the world will satisfy and content a holy heart. There are two things that an unholy heart can never find, it can never find any sweetness in spirituals, nor it can never find any satisfaction in temporals. But a holy heart always finds the greatest sweetness in spirituals, and is as easily satisfied with the least and poorest of temporals, Esther. 5:9-14. Gen. 28:20-21, "Then Jacob made a vow, saying—If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord will be my God." Holy Jacob does not indent with God for costly apparel, or delicate fare; he does not make a bargain with God to be housed in luxury, and fed daintily, and clothed gorgeously, and lodged easily, and waited on nobly. ["Bread and water with the gospel is good enough," said holy Greenham.] Oh no; bread to eat and clothes to wear is as much as holy Jacob looks after.
Ah friends, a little will serve nature, and less will serve grace, though nothing will serve or satisfy an unsanctified man's lusts. O sirs, the very bread which a holy man eats, relishes better than all the glutton's delicious fare; and the very sheep-skins and goat-skins which he wears, wear softer and finer than all the purple and soft raiment that is in princes' houses; and the very holes, and caves, and dens wherein holy men live, are more pleasant and delightful than the stately palaces of the great ones of the world. ["It is great riches not to desire riches, and he has most, who covets least." Socrates.] Godliness and contentment does so sweeten and so lengthen out all a Christian's mercies, that he cannot but reckon himself a happy man, though he may be the poorest among many men. Let me conclude this third answer thus—
This world's wealth that men so much desire,
May well be likened to a burning fire;
Whereof a little can do little harm,
But profit much our bodies well to warm:
But take too much, and surely you shall burn;
So too much wealth to too much woe does turn.
But,
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Part 61 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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