16 The rare Jewel ofCbri~ia~ Contentmenr. it. So it you have leamed this art of (:ontemmem, you \V1~ not only be contented after a great deal of do to quiet your hearts, but readily as foon as ever you do. come to think that it is eh: hand of God, your-heart prefently clo{etb. Secondly; freely, That iJ not by conflrainr, not pa.tience by force (as we ufe to fay. ) As many will fay ti1at you mull be content, this is the hand of God and there is no help for it; Oh this is too low an expreffion for Chriflians, yec when Chrithans come to vifi.t one another, they fay friend or Neighbor you · mull be content, this is too low an expreffion for a ChriHian , Maft be content, No, readily, and freely I will be content. Iris futab1e to my heart to yield to God, and to be con;ent, I find it is a thing that comes off of it felf, that my fo>al will be content. - "Oh you fhould anfwer your Friends fo, that come and te11 you you muA: be content, nay I am willing to yield to God, and· I am freely content, that's tbe Second. And then a free att it comes after a rational way, that's freedoom, that is, it doth not come through ignorance, becaufe I know no better-condition, or that I know not what my affli6tion is, but ic comes through a fan6tified judgement, for that is the reafon that no Creature can de an..aet of freedome, but the rational creature, the hberty of a6tio~ is oSJly in ratioi'Jtlhireatures, and it comes from hence, for that's only freedom afld out of liberty that's wrought in ·a utignal way, as a natural freedome is when I by my judgment ' fee what is to be -done, underftancl the thing, and tben there is a doling with what I do underltand in my judgement, that is freely done; but now if aman cloth a thing and underHaAds not what he cloth, he cannot be fa id to do it freely. So if men are contented, but it is becaufe they underfland not what their affii6tion is, or becaufe they underHand no better, this is not freel y: as for inflance, Suppofe a Child bor~ in a Prifon and never in all his life went ont, "the Child is contented, Why? Becaufe he never kne~v better. but this is no free att ofContentation. But now to: me~ and women that do kno·.v better, that know that the condition in which they are in, it is an affiiB:ed condition, and a fad condition, and yet they can bring their hearts to a Conteotation out of a fanttified judg:nenr, rhis ,ii fteedom. Thirdly,
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