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 prefent.

4. Lastly, 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 covenantbleffings, 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, seeing God in Christ 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 clothes, 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 compass 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. Fulness in the world will not do it; for as the estate enlarges, the defire enlarges too, and knows no bounds till it comes to that which is infinite; and thither it connot come till it comes to God. A kingdom could not content Ahab, discontent crept in under a crown on his head, 1 Kings xxi. 4. If ye do not take up your foul's reft in God as your God in Christ, no confiderations will prevail to content you. But if ye do, there are several confiderations that may be of good use 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 fayeth 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 judgment unto the Son."

And will we not

venture our outward condition in his hand, on which we venture ourselves for eternity? A tongue, far lefs a hand, cannot move against us but by him, 2 Sam. xvi. 10.

2. Confider how unmeet you are to carve for yourselves; "and fhould it be according to thy mind? Job xxxiv. 33. How weak are ye to difcern your true intereft? Could ye venture to pilot yourselvs 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 so. Ay, but Chrift will be steersman for thee through the whole, or not at all. He will not share the government with thee; and there is no reason he should, for thou art weak, and feeft not far off. There is many a pleasant green path in the world that leads into the lions den, and many a rugged way that leads into a paradife: thou feeft the hithermoft end of the way, but not the far end; he fees it.

3. Have ye not already lived to see 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 yourself; 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 such 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 master of thyself. Believe it,

(1.) That the feven eyes of Infinite Wisdom are about it, Zech. iii. 9. Now, in the multitude of counsellers there is fafety. There is no chance-work in the world, no random work in thy condition; it is not a work huddled up in a hafte. The fcheme 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 goodness about it, Rom. viii. 28. A gracious Providence brings it forth out of the womb of the decree: why should 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 Wisdom, tempered with grace and good-will, orders our lot, is it not reafonable, 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 mayeft believe that is fo, upon this ground. Providence runs much under ground, fo as weak man cannot fee how the means answer 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 pleasant; 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 couldst have for the prefent. Infinite Wisdom 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 discontented with, thy croffes and afflictions, are best 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 discontented with, are truly neceffary for thee, Lam. iii. 33. If thou couldft 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 strong diseases must have strong remedies: blame not the

phyfician for that, but the disease. The wilful child would live without the rod, but the parent fees it neceffary to chaftife him. If God withdraw any thing from thee, it is but to starve a lust that would feed on it; if he lay on thee what thou wouldst not, it is but to bear down a luft, that other. wife would carry thee headlong. Give Providence a fair hearing, it will answer for itself. Why fhould people then caft out with their mercies, and be angry with their bleffings?

6. Confider, that great things in one's lot have a great burden with them. A man will get a softer bed in a palace than in a cottage, but the mean man will readily fleep founder in his cottage than the king in his palace. People look to the great things which others have beyond them, but they do not confider the burden going along with them. They who want the one want the other too, and therefore have reason to be content.

(1.) Where there is a great trust, there is a great reckoning, Luke xii. 48. Thou feeft others have much that thou wanteft, grudge it not; they have the more to reckon for. God keeps an account of all his mercies befstowed on all men, and they that have most now have most to account for when the Lord fhall feek an account of his fervants. Look well to thyself, and be content. I fear it be found, that for as little as thou haft, thou haft more than thou canst guide well.

(2.) Great things in the world are great fnares, and bring great dangers along with them, Mark x. 23. They that walk low make not fuch a figure as thofe that walk on high; but the latter are most apt to fall. How fond are we of the world even when it frowns on us? what would become of us if it did nothing but fmile? It is hard to carry a full cup even. Affliction is often seasonable ballaft to a light heart, that profperity would give too much fail to, till it fhould be funk.

7. Confider, if thou be a child of God, that which thou haft, thou haft on free coft, Rom. viii. 32. And therefore, though it be little, it is better to thee than the abundance of many others, which will bring a dear reckoning at length. The children of the family may fare more coarfely than strangers; but there is a great difference; the ftrangers have VOL. III. No. 24.

U.

a reckoning for it when they go away; but the children have nothing to pay.

(1.) Remember thou forfeited all in Adam; it is a mercy that thou haft any thing at all. I know nothing but fin and death that we can lay claim to as our own properly, Lam. iii. 39. He that deferves hell has no reason to complain, while he is out of it.

(2.) Any thing which thou haft a covenant-right to now, is through Chrift; it is the purchase of his blood. So that makes it precious, as being the price of blood; and that fhould make us content with it, feeing we have it freely through him.

8. Confider the vanity of all things below the fun, Eccl. i. 2. A just estimation of worldly things would make us content with very little. But a blind judgment firft fets an exorbitant price on earthly things, and raises the value of them; and then people think never to get enough of them. But low thoughts of them would clip the wings of our af fections to them, and little of them would content us, Prov. xxiii. 5. Riches make themselves wings, and flee away. There is a wing of change, cafualties, and loffes: and though by thy wisdom thou could clip all these wings, yet there is a wing of death and mortality that will carry them away.

9. Confider the precioufnefs and excellency of heavenly things, Col. iii. 2. More heavenly-mindedness would make us lefs anxious about these things. If we be in hazard of lofing thefe, it is madnefs to be taken up about trifles, and concerned with earthly loffes. Will he whofe life is in hazard go up and down making moan for a fore finger? And if they be fecured, it is horrid ingratitude to be discontent with our lot here. Would a man that has a fhip loaded with goods coming afhore, vex himself for lofing a pin out of his fleeve, or a penny out of his pocket? Heaven will make up all our loffes; and hell will make men forget their greatest croffes, in the world.

Laftly, Confider much of death and eternity. For as little as any of us have, we have perhaps as much as will ferve our turn here. Our time is uncertain. It is folly to vex ourselves, though we have not all conveniences that we would defire in a house that we have no tack of, but may remove from it to-morrow.

I have infifted largely on this point, because it is fo

very