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maft render us uneafy in the leaft. There is required a full contentment, without a discontented glance of the eye. Much goes to the making up of it, all here required.

1. Hearty renunciation of our own will, faying with the pattern of contentment, Not my will, but thine be done. We muft no more be chufers for ourselves of our own lot; but as little children. ftanding at the table, not to carve for themfelves, but to take the bit that is given them. He hall, chufe our inheritance for us, lays the pfalmift, Pfal. xlvii. 4. Shall not infinite wifdom rule the world? This lies in three things.

(1.) We must not determine the kind or fort of our comforts, as we often do, like petted children, that will not have this the parent holds out, but that which they fet their eye on. Like Adam, whom the fruit of the tree of life could not ferve, but he would have the forbidden fruit. The defire of fruit was natural, therefore not evil: other fruit would have ferved that defire if kept orderly; but the lufting defire could not want forbidden fruit. Rachel had a husband, but she must have children too, Orpah muft have a husband, Ruth wants

both; but fhe determines nothing, but only fhe muft have a God; and that the got, and both too. (2.) We must not be pofitive as to the measure of our comforts, and there is no reafon that beggars fhould be chufers. If the heart fay of our comforts, They are too little, and of afflictions, they are too great, it flies in the face of this command, and of God's fovereignty, fetting up for independency, 1 Tim. vi. 8. Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content, though the food be coarfe, though fcanty, &c. Nature is content with little, grace with lefs, and fets no measure; but the measure of luft can never be filled.

(3.) We must not be wilful in any thing, 1 Tim. vi. 9. They that will be rich fall into temptation

and a fnare, &'c. They that will have these things, and will not want them, will never be truly content till God's will be brought down to theirs; which will never be for altogether; and if in a particular it come to be fo, they will readily get their will with a vengeance, as the Ifraelites in the wilderness got. Pfal. ixxviii. 29. 30. 31. So they did eat, and were weli filled: for he gave them their own defire; they were not estranged from their luft: but while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them, and flew the fatteft of them, and fmote down the chofen men of Ifrael. Thus we must

renounce our own will.

2. Abfolute refignation to the will of the Lord, Matth. xvi. 24. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follows me. We muft give over the war betwixt our will and the will of God, and our will muft run as a captive af ter his triumphal chariot. His preceptive will is the rule of our duty; and his providential will muft, with our confent, be the rule of our condition. Our will muft follow his, as the fhadow does the body without gainfaying. If he will let us have a created comfort, we must be content to keep it; if not, we must be content to part with it. We must lie at the foot of providence, as a ball before him that toffes it, to be thrown up and caft down as our God fees meet. This providence will do with us whether we be willing or not; but if we are thus refigned, then our neceflity is our obedience.

3. Entire fubmiffion to the will of God, 1 Sam. iii. 18. It is the Lord: let him do what feemeth bim good. As they refign themfelves to his difpofal, they muft ftand to his decifion, in the cafe. We must no more difpute the fovereignty with God, but allow the divine will and pleasure to carry it over the belly of our corrupt inclinations, and be difpofed of by him as the weaned child is by the nurie. If that which is crooked cannot be made

ftraight, we muft ply to it as it is; if our lot be not brought up to our mind, we must bring down our mind to our lot, as Paul did, Phil. iv. 11. 12. Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned in whatfoever ftate I am, therewith to be content. I know both bow to be abafed, and I know how to abound: every where, and in all things I am inftructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to Suffer need. In this fubmiflion to the will of the Lord the foul of content lies. For God does not fubject the man only, or caft him down, as he can do the moft difcontented perfon, making him walk with the yoke wreathed about his neck, whether he will or But the man voluntarily fubmits himself to God's difpofal in the whole of his condition, whatever his wants be. Whatever be wanting in our condition, if we would be content,

not.

ift, We muft fubmit to them as juft, without complaining, as Cain did; faying with the prophet, Midah vii. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have finned against him, until he plead my caufe, and execute judgement for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I fall behold his righteousnefs. We meet with no hardships in our lot, but what we have procured to ourselves. And it is but juft that we kifs the rod, and be filent under it. Let us complain of ourfelves, why not? only leave our complaints there; but not fet our mouths against the heavens; no not in our hearts, for God knows the language of our hearts as well as our mouths. We must love his holiness and juftice, in all the works thereof, though against ourfelves. Nay

more,

2dly, We must be quiet under them, without murmuring, as tolerable, Lam. iii. 27. 28. 29. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He fitteth alone and keepeth filence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the duft, if fo be there may be hope. So was Job at first, tho

his corrption got up at length, Job i. 22. In all this Fob finned not, nor charged God foolishly. How of ten do we cry out of infufferable affliction? yet we do bear up under it for all that, and would bear the better if we could be content and quiet under it. A meek and quiet fpirit makes a light crofs, for a proud unfubdued fpirit lays a great overweight upon every crofs; as Rachel's unquict fpirit made the want of children wonderfully heavy, which others go very quietly and contentedly under. Nay more,

3dly, We must be eafy without those things we want, as things we can want, without anxiety to get them, Phil. iv. 12. Weaned hearts will be very easy without thofe things which others cannot digeft the I want of. What is the reafon of so much uneafiness in our condition, but that we are wedded to this and the other thing; and being exceeding glad of the having of it, we are exceeding uneafy at the parting with it, as Jonah was with his gourd? The contented man will be easy, and that not upon a fenfible profpect, but on the faith of the promife, Phil. iv. 6. Be careful for nothing but in every thing, by prayer, and fupplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be nade known unto God. But more than that,

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4thly, We must be well fatisfied, and bear up comfortably under the want of them; ftanding upright when they are gone, as we did when we had them, or would do if we had them; even as the houfe ftands when the prop that it did lean upon is taken away, Hab. iii. 17. 18. Although the fig tree fhall not bloffom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields hall yield no meat, the flock fhall be cut off from the fold, and there fhall be no herd in the falls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my falvation. it is a fad evidence of the corruption of our nature, that woful luft after the creature that is bred and born with us; that our comfort waxeth and

waneth according to the waxing and waning of created enjoyments, and ebbs and flows as the breafts of the creature are full or empty. So, many lofe all spirit and life in religion, when God pulls their worldly comforts from them; and even good people walk much difcouraged and damped, not fo much with the fenfe of God's anger, as the alliction in their lot. But what is yet more,

5thly, We must have a complacency in our condition, as what is good for us, otherwife we can have no full content. Obferve the language of a contented mind, not only Juft, but Good is the will of the Lord, If. xxxix. ult. Content fuffers not a person to go drooping under God's yoke, but makes him carry it evenly with a fort of complacency in it. Wife men have a pleasure in the working of phyfic, though it gripe them fore, if their phyfician thinks it good for their health, and they think fo too. And grace fometimes finds a pleasure in pain, and a paradife within the thorny thicket of afflictions. See how the apoftle gathered olive-berries off the thorn-hedge of croffes, 2 Cor. xii. 10. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in neceffities, in perfecution, in distresses for Christ's fake: for when I am weak, them am I strong. Ay there is a refined pleasure there, to fee how God ftops the entry for provifion, that lufts may be ftarved; how he cuts off the by-channels, that the whole ftream of love may run towards himfelf; how he pulls and holds off the man's burden, that he may run the more expeditely in the way to heaven, Nay more than all that,

6thly, We must have a complacency in our condition, as that which is beft for us for the time. Though he take health from thee, wealth, relations, c. How is that poffible. It is not eafy to do it, you muft endeavour to fee it; for that must be beft that God judges beft, and by the event it appears that God fees that condition beft for thee for the

but

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