make our Lives miferable. He is not fparing in his Bounty to us. No, we cannot do him a greater Injury, than to think him fo niggardly and parfimonious, that he wou'd rather fee us perifh, than do us a Kindness. Eye never faw, Ear never heard, neither did it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive fuch Things as he hath now revealed unto us by the Gofpel: As if Heaven ftudied to give us Content; if God, and his Son, and his Holy Spirit, and the Society of Angels, and the Friendship of good Men, be able (as fure they are) to afford it to us. But,

Thirdly, His Goodness is in this most of all to be admired, that he hath, given us better Satisfaction than we defire. We defire Satisfaction in the World, and he beftows it upon us in himself. We would have Abundance on the Earth, and he gives us Treasures in Heaven. We wou'd fain enjoy always the Pleasures of the Body, and he ravishes us with the Pleafures of the Mind. We are greedy of the Riches of Gold and Silver, and he enriches us with Divine Wisdom, to which all the Wealth of the Indies is not to be compared. We feek for Contentment in living always in the Embraces of our dying Relations, and he invites us into the Eternal Embraces of the Lord of Life and Glory. We long for the Joys that crackle and make a Noife no longer than Thorns do under a Pot; and he imparts to us his own most solid Joys, and everlasting Confolation. We would fain fatisfy our Thirst in thefe muddy and dirty Streams here below; and he drinks to us, if I may fo fpeak, and would

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have us pledge him out of thofe pure Rivers of Pleasure, that flow at his Right Hand for evermore. Are we not much beholden to him? Doth he not do us a great Courtesy, in exchanging these lower Satisfactions for those that are fo high, that they tend to equal us with the Angels? Sure we are much to blame, if we find Fault with him, fhou'd he deny us any of these Earthly Contentments which we fancy, when it is out of pure Love to make us Partakers of infinitely greater. And,

Fourthly, Herein alfo his Goodness is to be noted, that he fo gives us Eafe from Trouble and Difquiet, as withal to give us Comfort and great Confolation. Thofe Things that content us, and quiet our Defires, do not merely affwage our Pain, but they fill us with Pleasure. They do not only allay our Grief, but bring us in Abundance of Joy. Whilft they ftill all evil Paffions, they ftir up those that are good. By expelling thofe Thoughts that trouble us, they fettle in the room of them, fuch as are as full of Delight, as our Hearts are full of them. The Contentment I mean that he gives us, is not a mere Freedom from Disturbance, but a Poffeffion of fome Good; which introduces a real Senfe of fuch Pleasures, as furmount all others, as much as God and Heaven furpass all the Earth.

II. Let us then, in the next place, confider the Excellence of Chriftianity, and what great Inducements there are to move the Heart of every one of us, to a fincere Affection towards

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it.

it. What Allurement can there be greater to any thing, than to the Life of Christ, which

First of all, brings us into the Poffeffion of that, which our Souls moft feek after; that is, to have enough? Is not this the Longing of every one of our Hearts, that we may be filled, and want nothing? Is it not for this that we toil Night and Day, to light fomewhere upon Satisfaction and Contentment? Riches, Friends, Health, Honour, and all other fuch like things, we do not defire for themselves; but for the Eafe, the Quiet, the Peace and Fulness which we hope they will bring along with them to our Souls. Now this is the Bufinefs of Christian Religion. This is the very Design of it, to put us into the Poffeffion of that Thing, on which our Minds are fo bent, that we can take no Rest for want of it; but are in an unwearied Purfuit, all our Life long, of its mere Shadow and Appearance. And this,

Secondly, Is a Favour which all the World cannot afford us. For when we have what we defire, we are still full of Defires. When the World fhines upon us, and courts us as much as we do it ; ftill we remain diffatisfied, and something or other vexes our Thoughts, till we come to repose them in the Love of God, and in an hearty Obedience to him, without which we cannot enjoy his Love. Why fhould any thing then in the World keep our Hearts from this, which all the World cannot give us without it? What Madness is it, to continue still in a Strangeness to our Saviour, out of a Love we bear to

any thing here; when that which we love these Things for, they are unable to bestow upon us without his Love? Confider alfo in the

Third place, That Christianity gives us this Satisfaction in a more excellent Manner than the World could do, were it in its Power to bless us with it. We feek for Eafe and Quiet in the Enjoyment of these Things below, but Chriftianity gives us this Eafe without their Enjoyment. The World promises us Contentment by poffeffing it; and Godliness bestows Contentment upon us, though we want what others poffefs. And this fure is a nearer and fhorter Way to Peace and Reft, than any other. Tho' we be without a Number of Things we fancy on Earth, yet without stirring one Foot toward the Attainment of them, we may be very happy, if we will but be Religious. The World we cannot have without a great deal of Pains; and when we have it, it will not ceafe our Pains: Chriftianity faves us all this Labour, and brings us the Comfort we defire from the World, with no more Pain than seeking after it, and that at laft will be a great Pleafure. When we have these Things, we feel not our felves well contented but by true Religion we feel our felves very well contented, though we have them not. This is its Excellency, that it can do more in the Abfence of all Things, than they can do by their Prefence. And that,

;

Fourthly, In all Conditions of Life. There is no Eftate into which we can be cast, but still we fhall find our felves at Eafe, if we want not

this. If we be thrown on a fick bed, if our Friends be torn from us, if our Houses be rifled, if a Prison be our Habitation; there much Contentment dwells, as well as in any other Place, if Chrift do but dwell in our Hearts by Faith, and work in us by his Love. This may be the Spiritual Meaning of thofe Words, Pfal. Ixxxii 16. in which God promises to fatisfy Ifrael with Honey out of the Rock. As he made the most barren and ftony Places of their Land fruitful, to yield Grafs and Flowers, out of which the Bees should fuck Honey: So now to all true Ifraelites, in whom there is no Guile, he makes Comforts fweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb, to grow in that Condition, where, one wou'd think, there can be nothing but Bitterness, Mifery, and Trouble. When we walk in ftony Ways, and craggy Paths; when we pafs over Rocks and Flints that cut and wound our Feet, even the Blood that trickles down doth not want its Pleasure : It is no less precious than fo many Drops of Balm, and yields us a Satisfaction greater than if we dipt our Feet in Oil, out of the Way of Christian Godliness.

III. See then the Reafon why Men want Comfort: Even because they want Chriftian Virtue. This is the Root of all the Miféries that are in the World. Hence flow all our Complaints and doleful Lamentations. Yea, all the Disturbance that Men give others, as well as themfelves, hath no other Original but only this, that they are defective in their Religion. They

are