i. 7. 6.

13. ad

mofi extreme of all evils, death itself; thofe being names SERM. only among fuch as philofophate, names of calamity, void XLI. of reality; but the real calamity this, to be at variance with via, & vores, God, and to do that which difpleafeth him; feeing evi-, ** επήρεια, ἐπ dently, according to just estimation, no evil beareth any ia, &c. proportion to the evil of fin, if we have a due fenfe thereof Chry Ave. we can hardly be affected with any other accident; if we Vid. ad Olymp. Ep. can keep our minds intent upon the heinous nature and the lamentable confequences of fin, all other evils cannot Theod. 1. but feem exceedingly light and inconfiderable; we cannot but apprehend it a very filly and unhandsome thing to refent or regard them: what, fhall we then judge, is poverty, in comparison to the want of a good confcience? what is fickness, compared to distemper of mind and decay of spiritual strength? what is any disappointment, to the being defeated and overthrown by temptation? what any lofs, to the being deprived of God's love and favour? what any difgrace, to the being out of esteem and respect with God? what any unfaithfulness or inconftancy of friends, to having deferted or betrayed our own foul? what can any danger fignify to that of eternal mifery, incurred by offending God? what preffure can weigh against the load of guilt, or what pain equal that of ftinging remorfe? in fine, what condition can be fo bad as that of a wretched finner? any cafe furely is tolerable, is defirable, is lovely and fweet, in comparison to this: would to God, may a man in this case reasonably say, that I were poor and forlorn as any beggar; that I were covered all over with botches and blains as any Lazar; that I were bound to pass my days in an hofpital or a dungeon; might I be chained to an oar, might I lie upon the rack, fo I were clear and innocent: fuch thoughts and affections, if reflecting on our finful doings and ftate do fuggeft and imprefs, what place can there be for refentment of other petty crosses?

10.

Contrition alfo upon this score is productive of a certain 2 Cor. vii. sweetness and joy, apt to quash or to allay all worldly Vid. Chryf. grief: as it worketh a falutary repentance not to be repented ad Demet. of, fo it therewith breedeth a fatisfactory comfort, which letch. tom.

et ad Ste

6.

SERM. doth ever attend repentance: he that is very fenfible of XLI. his guilt, cannot but confequently much value the remedy thereof, mercy; and thence earnestly be moved to seek it; then, in contemplation of divine goodness, and confidering God's gracious promifes, will be apt to conceive faith and hope, upon his imploring mercy, and resolution to amend; thence will fpring up a cheerful fatisfaction, fo poffeffing the heart, as to expel or to exclude other dif pleasures a holy and a worldly fadness cannot well confift together.

Mater me genuit.

'Ayadà di παραίφασίς

5. Another good inftrument of contentedness is fedulous application of our minds to honeft employment. Honeft ftudies and cares divert our minds, and drive fad thoughts from them: they cheer our spirits with wholefome food and pleasant entertainments; they yield good fruits, and a fuccefs accompanied with fatisfaction, which will extinguish or temper difcontent: while we are ftudious or active, difcontent cannot eafily creep in, and foon will be ftifled.

Idlenefs is the great mother and the nurse of difcontent: it layeth the mind open for melancholy conceits to enter; it yieldeth harbour to them, and entertainment there; it depriveth of all the remedies and allays which bufinefs affordeth.

Reciprocally, discontent also begetteth idleness, and by it groweth; they are like ice and water, arifing each out of the other we should therefore not suffer any sadness fo to encroach upon us, as to hinder us from attending to our bufinefs, (the honeft works and ftudies of our calling,) for it thereby will grow ftronger and more hardly vincible.

6. A like expediment to remove difcontent is good israig company. It not only fometimes miniftereth advices and arguments for content, but raiseth the drooping fpirit, erecting it to a loving complaifance, drawing it out towards others in expreffions of kindness, and yielding delight in those which we receive from others, infecting us by a kind of contagion with good humour, and inftilling pleasant ideas into our fancy, agreeably diverting us from fad and irkfome thoughts: difcontent affecteth re

tirement and folitude, as its element and food; good com- SERM. pany partly starveth it by fmothering fad thoughts, partly XLI. cureth it by exhilarating difcourfe. No man hardly can feel difpleasure, while friendly converfation entertaineth him; no man returneth from it without fome refreshment and ease of mind.

7. Having right and lowly conceits of ourselves is a moft fure guardian and procurer of content: for answerable to a man's judgment of himself are his refentments of the dealing he meeteth with from God or man. He that thinks meanly as he ought of himself, will not eafily be offended at any thing: any thing, will he think, is good enough for me; I deferve nothing from God, I cannot de serve much of man; if I have any competence of provifion for my life, any tolerable ufage, any respect, it is more than my due, I am bound to be thankful: but he that conceiteth highly (that is, vainly) of himself, nothing will fatisfy him; nothing, thinks he, is good enough for him, or answerable to his deferts; nobody can yield him fufficient respect; any small neglect disturbeth and enrageth him he cannot endure that any man fhould thwart his intereft, fhould crofs his humour, fhould diffent from his opinion; hence, seeing the world will not eafily be induced to conceit of him as he doth of himself, nor to comply with his humours and pretences, it is impoffible that he fhould be content.

8. It conduceth to this purpose to contemplate and refent the public state of things, the intereft of the world, of our country, of God's church. The fenfe of public calamities will drown that of private, as unworthy to be confidered or compared with them; the fenfe of public prosperity will allay that of particular misfortune. How (will a wife and good man fay) can I defire to profper and flourish, while the state is in danger or diftrefs? how can I grieve, feeing my country is in good condition? is it just, is it handfome, that I fhould be a nonconformist either in the public forrow or joy? Indeed,

9. All hearty charity doth greatly alleviate discontent. If we bear fuch a good-will to our neighbour, as to have a

SERM. fincere compaffion of his evils and complacence in his XLI. good, our cafe will not much afflict us. If we can appro

priate and enjoy the profperity, the wealth, the reputation, of our neighbour, by delighting in them, what can we want; what can difpleafe us? if our heart is enlarged in pity for the misfortunes of others, it cannot be contracted with grief for our own our forrow, like water, being thus diffused, cannot be fo deep, but it will be more fruitful; it will produce fuch effects as will comfort and please us: it is a ftingy felfishness which maketh us fo very fenfible of croffes and fo uncapable of comfort.

10. Again, if we will attain contentment, we must take heed of fetting our affection upon any worldly thing whatever, so as very highly to prize it, very paffionately to affect it, very eagerly to purfue it; fo as to conceive our happiness in any measure to hang on it or stick thereto: if there be any fuch thing, we shall be disappointed in the acquift or the retention of it; or we fhall be diffatiffied in its enjoyment.

So to adhere in affection to any thing is an adulterous difloyalty toward our Maker and beft Friend, from which it is expedient that we should be reclaimed; whence God, in juft anger or in kind mercy, will be apt to cross us in our attempts to get it, or to deprive us of its poffeffion; whence the difpleafure will follow, which always attendeth a feparation from things we love. But if we be suffered to obtain or to retain it, we shall foon find diffatisfaction therein; being either difgufted with fome bitterness in it, (fuch as doth lurk in every fenfible good,) or being cloyed with its lufcioufnefs: it after a fmall enjoyment will become either distasteful or infipid.

This, according to continual experience, is the nature of all things, pleasant only to fenfe or fancy, presently to fatiate: no beauty can long please the eye, no melody the ear, no delicacy the palate, no curiofity the fancy; a little time doth waste away, a fmall use doth wear out the pleasure, which at first they afford: novelty commendeth and ingratiateth them; diftance reprefenteth them fair and lovely; the want or absence of them rendereth them defirable; but

the presence of them dulleth their grace, the poffeffion of SERM. them deadeneth the appetite to them.

New objects with a gentle and grateful touch warble upon the corporeal organs, or excite the fpirits into a pleasant frisk of motion; but when use hath levigated the organs, and made the way fo fmooth and eafy that the fpirits pafs without any ftop, thofe objects are no longer felt, or very faintly; fo that the pleasure ceaseth.

Only those things which reafon (religious and found reason) doth approve, do yield a lafting (undecaying, unalterable) fatisfaction; if we fet our affections on them, we cannot fail of content: in seeking them, we cannot be disappointed; for God (without any refervation or exception) hath promised to beftow them upon those who serioufly and diligently feek them: nor can we be difpoffeffed of them; God will not take them away, and they lie beyond the reach of any other hand: having them, then, we cannot but fully and durably be satisfied in the fruition of them the longer we have them, the more we fhall like them; the more we tafte them, the better we fhall relish them: time wasteth not, but improveth the sense of their unfading beauty and indefectible sweetness.

11. It is of great influence toward contentedness with an earnest and impartial regard to contemplate things as they are in themselves, divefted of tragical appearances, in which they are wrapt by our own inconfiderate fancy, or which vulgar prejudices do throw upon them: as all things, looked upon by the corporeal eye through a mist, do feem bigger than in reality they are; fo to the eye of our mind all things (both good and evil) seem hugely enlarged, when viewed through the fogs of our dufky imagination, or of popular conceit. If we will efteem that very good, which with a gay appearance dazzleth our imagination, or which the common admiration and applause of men recommendeth, the moft vain and worthless, the most dangerous, the most mischievous things often will appear fuch and if we please to account those things greatly bad, which look ugly or horridly to imagination, which are defamed by the injudicious part of men, or which men

XLI.