reckon not only what will support our life, but also what will maintain the decency of our estate and person; not only in present needs, but in all future necessities, and very probable contingencies, but no farther. We are not obliged beyond this[1]." Thus then we must hold our property. But surely there is nothing in all this which authorizes us to spend it as we please; and it is the plain duty and wisdom of every man to whom any measure of it is intrusted, to sit down and count the cost; to estimate deliberately, after much consideration and earnest prayer, the proportions into which it ought to be divided; not to provide first for every thing else, and then to offer the remainder to his God and Saviour.
And that the measure thus devoted to God should be very much greater than we are ready to suppose, is no less certain. Let us hear the words of our Master. We are the disciples of the same Lord who said, to an innumerable multitude that followed Him, "If any man will come after Me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish
- ↑ Jer. Taylor, Holy Living, ch. iv. sect. 8.
