deed if vve could attain to ir, but is it poffible for one to attain ' to this? Anfwer. It is if you get skill in the Art ofit, yon may attain to it, and it wttl p,rove to be no fuch dif&ult thing to you neither, if~ouimder{hnd but the Myfleryof it;as there's ma·- ny! things thac men d6 in their callings, that if a country man comes and fees, he thinks it is a mighty hard thing, and that he fhould'never be ab-le eo do it,but that's becaufe he underflands not the art of ir, there is a turning of the band fo as you may do it w,ith eafe. Now that's the bufin~s ofthis exercife, to open unto you the art and myfiery Of Contentment: What way a Chriflian comes to Contentment, there is a gre~t myllery aDd art in it; by that that bath been opened to you there will appear fome myflery and art, as that a man thould be content with his atHitt:ion and yet throughly fenfible of his affii61:ion too; to be throughly fenfible of an affiiCl:ion, and to endeavonr the removing of it by allla\'Vfull means, and ye.t to be content, there's a myHery in that, how to joyne thefe two together to be fenfibie o£ an affiietion as much as that man or woman that is not content, I am fenfible of it as flllly as they, and I feek waies to be - delivered from it as well as they, and yet fiill my heart abides · c0ntent, this is I fay a myllery that is very hard to be under· flood by a carnal heart ; but grace cloth teach foch a mixture, doth-teach us bow to make a mixture cf forro1v and a mixture of joy together ; and tbat makes CGntentment, the mingling of joy and forroiV, of gracio:.1s joy and gracious forrp~v together, grace teaches 1.1s hoiV to moderate and to order an affi ;B:ion fo as there iliall be a fenfe of it, and yet for all that, Contentment under it. There ~tre diverJ things furtb~r for th.e ope.ni11g of the Myfte· ry of Contentmenr. . The fidl t.hing therefore is this, To fbm tbllt there is a great myftery in it. One tn~t is conteflted in a Cbrilti~n way it may befaid ofhim that he IS the motl contented man m the world, and yet the mort unfa~isfied man in the world; thefe two t-ogether mull needs be my~erious,I fay 2, c~ntented man as he is the mofl contented,fo he 1S the moll unfat1sfied of any man in .the w.oxld. You never leamed the myflery of <:ontentment" · except;,·
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