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taken him fo, believe that ye have him instead of it. Say, Lord, there is an empty room in this heart of mine, such a comfort would I have to fill it; but thou feeft meet to refuse it; therefore I give up with it; thy will be done; but I take thyself inftead thereof to fill up that room. And now I have made the exchange, and Chrift is to me inftead of that which I want. So fhalt thou find thy heart fatisfied. And if God fee the comfort meet for thee, thou art then in the faireft way to get it too, Pfal. Xxxvii. 4.

This is the way of the gofpel to full contentment, viz. the way of believing, by which all Chriftian duties are done, and gofpel-graces are nourished in the heart. And to let you fee the efficacy of thefe means for contentment, confider,

1. The heart of man is an 'empty hungry thing, that must be filled with fomething, and cannot abide want. Therefore it is, that when people mifs their defired fatisfaction in one thing, they go to make it up by another. Mordecai's not bowing to Haman discontented him, and he went to make it up by a re venge on all the Jews. But the mifery is, there is a want in that thing too. It is like the putting of an empty spoon in the child's mouth, that may ftop it for a moment; but as foon as it finds it is difappointed, and there is nothing in it, it falls a-crying again. Now, this directs you to that which infal libly makes up the want, and in which there is no want. And it is a fad matter, that those who have tried fo many ways to make up their wants, will not try this too.

2. God is the Fountain of all perfection, and whatever is defirable in the creature is in an eminent way in God, Matth. xix. 17. If the fun fhine in at your windows, ye do not complain for want of candle-light. If all the veffels in your house were emptied of water, and the fountain were brought into it, ye are at no lofs, but in better cafe than be

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fore. Even fo, if all created ftreams fhould dry up, if ye have God for your God, ye may fay indeed, that ye want thefe created things, but ye have all the good that was in them, in another, to wit, in God. Ye want the veffels, but ye want not the water of comfort that was in them, for ye have it in God.

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3. Having God for your God, ye have all in the promife, Rev. xxi. 7. He is unreasonably diffatiffied that has a good stock in bills and bonds from a fure hand, though he has little in his pocket, efpecially when all that is needful will be upon them anfwered on demand. He that has the lively faith of his inheriting all things at length, will find it none of the most difficult tasks to be ferved with very little for the present.

4. Laftly, Having God for your God, the nature of your afflictions is altered. Your croffes are changed from curfes into bleffings; and however heavy they be, they run in the channel of the covenant to the common end of all covenant-bleflings, your good, Rom. viii. 28.

This way of believing in order to contentment is, 1. A fure way, which will infallibly produce it, as furely as the laying of a hungry babe to a full breaft will ftay it. How many ways do men try for this which all mifgive? but this cannot mifgive, feeing God in Chrift is a full contenting object. And if our faith were perfect, our contentment would be fo too. When faith is perfected in fight in heaven, the faints will be warm without cloaths, full without meat, and rich without money, for God will be all to them.

2. A fhort way, by which we may come quickly at it. What a far way about do men go for contentment, while they compafs the creation for it, and when all is done mifs it? But here we may fay, Be not afraid, only believe, 'Mark v. 36.

3. The only way; there is no other way to come

at it. Fulnefs in the world will not do it; for as the eftate enlarges, the defire enlarges too, and knows no bounds till it comes to that which is infinite, and thither it cannot come till it comes to God. A kingdom could not content Ahab, difcontent crept in under a crown on his head, 1 Kings xxi. 4. If ye do not take up your fouls reft in God as your God in Chrift, no confiderations will prevail to content you. But if ye do, there are feveral confiderations that may be of good ufe to you. As,

1. Confider, that the heaviest thing in thy lot comes out of a friend's hand. It is good news to Zion in the worst of times, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publifheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publifheth falvation, that faith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! If, lii. 7. Whoever be the inftruments of our affliction, and whofe hand foever be heavy on us, we meet with nothing but what comes through our Lord's fingers, John v. 22. The Father hath committed all judgement unto the Son. And will we not venture our outward condition in his hand, on which we venture ourfelves for eternity? A tongue, far less a hand, cannot move against us but by him, 2 Sam. xvi. 10.

2. Confider how unmeet you are to carve for yourselves; and should it be according to thy mind? Job xxxiv. 33. How weak are ye to difcern your true intereft? Could ye venture to pilot yourselves through the rocks and fhelves in the world? No, ye dare not, if ye know yourselves. Why will ye not then refign yourselves to wife providence? But, fay ye, it is only in fome things we would have it fo or fo. Ay, but Chrift will be fteerfman for thee through the whole, or not at all. He will not fhare the government with thee; and there is no reafon he fhould, for thou art weak, and fecft not far off, There is many a plealant green path in the world that leads into the lion's den, and many a rugged way

that leads into a paradife: thou feeft the hithermost end of the way, but not the far end; he fees it.

3. Have ye not already lived to fee your hopes and fears both baffled by the conduct of wife providence? As for the hopes ye have conceived of the choice of your own wilful will, have ye not been fometimes made to let the knife drop with fhame, after ye have cut your fingers in carving for yourfelf; like Lot, not daring to stay in all the plain, though fome time before he built his own neft in the heart of it? And for your fears of the conduct of providence, have ye not feen how God has drawn you to your good against your will, and that it was good ye were croffed in fuch a matter, and that fuch a project of yours was baffled? Seeing then we are fuch bunglers at the carving of our lot, it is reafonable we quit the knife, and give it over, as Jacob did in Jofeph's cafe.

4. Confider, that there is much about the ordering of thy lot, infinitely more than thou art mafter of thy felf. Believe it,

(1.) That the feven eyes of infinite wisdom are about it, Zech, iii. 9. Now in the multitude of counsellors there is fafety. There is no chancework in the world, no random work in thy condition; it is not a work huddled up in a hafte. The scheme of it was drawn from eternity, and lay before the Lord, without any need of alteration. Every thing in thy condition, however late brought forth, was from eternity in the womb of the wife decree, Zech. vi. 1.

(2.) That there is a foft hand of grace and goodwill about it, Rom. viii. 28. A gracious providence brings it forth out of the womb of the decree: why fhould we not then embrace it, and welcome it into the world? There is a ftream of grace that goes through all the difpenfations of providence to the Lord's people. Now, when infinite wifdom, tempered with grace and good-will, orders our lot, is

it not reasonable, that we be fully content with it? Hence I infer,

1. Thy condition, whatever it is, is for God's honour; for it is ordered by him who does all for that end, and cannot fail of his defign. Though thou doft not fee how it is fo, thou mayft believe that it is fo, upon this ground. Providence runs much under ground, fo as weak man cannot fee how the means anfwer the end; but God fees it, and that is enough. This is a contenting confideration to a gracious foul, that will be pleafed with that which may glorify God, Phil. i. 20.

2. Thy condition is good for thee, Rom. viii 28. That may be good that is not pleafant; it may bring profit that brings no pleasure. God loves to work by contraries, to bring health to the foul out of fickness of the body, to enrich his people by poverty, to do them good by croffing of them, and blow them to their harbour by teeth-winds.

3. Nay it is beft for thee. If thou be a child of God, thy prefent lot in the world is the beft thou couldft have for the prefent. Infinite wifdom fees it is fo. And grace and good will makes it fo. All God's works are perfect in their kind, Deut. xxxii. 4. Will vain man come after God, and tell him how to mend his work? If it were not fitteft for his own holy ends, it were not perfect. Nay, if thou be not in Chrift, thofe things in thy lot which thou art difcontented with, thy croffes and afflictions, are beft for thee; for if any thing in thy lot bring thee to God, it will be this. Which brings me to a fifth thing.

5. Confider, that those things in thy lot which thou art fo ready to be difcontented with, are truly neceffary for thee, Lam. iii. 33. If thou couldst want them, thou wouldst not get them; for God takes no pleasure merely in making his creatures miferable. If thy lot be afflicted, know that ftrong difeafes must have strong remedies: blame not the phyfician VOL. III.

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