\,... 6 6 The rare Jewel ofChriftian Contentment•. troubled about other things, What are the things that do dir.... quiet us here, but.fome by-matters in this vvorld? and it is, be,. caufe ou.r hearts are not t~ken up with that one Abfolute neceffary thing : Who are the men that are snofi difcontente.d, but idle perfons,1 per fans that have nothing to make up their minds, every little thing djfquiets and difcontents them? But nmv a man that bath bufinefs of great weight and cenfequence,. if all things goe well _with his great bufinefs that is in his bead, he is more fenfible of meaner things in the family;butnow a man that lies at home and ha th nothing to do, he finds fault with every thing; So it is IVith the neart; when the heart of a man ha.th no.• th_ing to do but to be bu[ie abcut creature comforts, every little thing troubles him~ but novv when the h~art is taken up rvith . the weighty things of Eternity, the great thing of . eternal life, t~e heart being taken up with them; there things that are hert'l below, that did difquiet it before, are things now of no confideration with him in comparifon to the other, fo as how. rhings fall out here is not much regarded, vvit~ him,if the Ont thing that is Necepary be provided for. -~ The feurth Leffon that the foul is infirueted' in to <:ome to this knovvledein the Art of Contentment, is this: The foul comes to. , underjl11nd in what relation it flanJs in here to the ~orld: by.. that I mean thus ,Gcd comes t,o inj1rHCf thefoHI"eJfe3fual}y througb· Chrift ly his Spirit, upon what terms it lives here- i·n·the w_orld; in what ·rt!atiotJ it is thM it d~th If and : as thus, Wb1le f Jive in tbe World my condition is to be btu: apilgrim;af1ranger, . a- traveller, a·nd a fouldier: Now the right underfianding of this,. and being taught this,not only by ~o~e,that 1 can fpeak thi word~ · over, but when I come ind~ed ro have ·my_foul · pof{efi iVith the confid~ration of this Tmtb, That God bath fet-me in this world, · not as in my home,but as a meer flranger &. a pilgrime,that I am travellingile,re..to another home,& that I am nere a (ouldier in my • warfare '0fis-a mighty h~lp to Contentment in vvhatfoever befals one: a! now to inllance of all thefe· conditions, When a man is at home, if he bath net things accordingto nis defire he wilt be finding fa mic, ana is not contented ; but if a man tr~ Yets abroad, perhaps he meets not with conveniences as be de· fires, the fervants in the hou(e are~ not at his-beck) or ire notfo. · - · diligent
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