than a contentment, an exultancy and transport of joy under the heaviest pressures, under reproaches and persecutions; "Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy" (Luke vi. 23). And sure nothing can be more contrary to this than to be always whining and complaining; crying, in the prophet's phrase, "my leanness, my leanness, wo is me" (Is. xxiv. 16); when perhaps Moses' simile does better fit our state, "Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked" (Deut. xxxii. 15). 13. And as this querulous humour is against our interest and duty, so it is visibly against our ease. It is a sickness of the mind, a perpetual gnawing and craving of the appetite, without any possibility of satisfaction; and indeed is the same in the heart which the caninus appetitus is in the stomach; to which we may aptly enough apply that description we find in the prophet, "he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry, and he shall eat on the left, and not be satisfied” (Isaiah ix. 20). Where this sharp, this fretting humour abounds, nothing converts into nourishment-every new accession does but excite some new desire; and, as it is observed of a trencher-fed dog, that he tastes not one bit for the greedy expectation of the next, so a discontented mind is so intent upon his pursuits, that he has no relish of his acquests. So that what the prophet speaks of the covetous, is equally applicable to all other sorts of malcontents: "he enlarges 8 A dog's appetite; a disease of inordinate hunger. his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied" (Hab. ii. 5). And sure if the " desire accomplished" be, as Solomon says, "sweet to the soul" (Prov. xiii. 19), it must be exceedingly bitter to be thus condemned to endless unaccomplishable desires; and yet this is the torture which every repining, uncontented spirit provides for itself. 14. What a madness is it, then, for men to be so desperately bent against their interest and duty as to renounce even their ease too for company! One would think this age were sensual enough to be at defiance with the least shadow of uneasiness. It is so, I am sure, where it ought not; every thing is laborious when it is in compliance with their duty. A few minutes spent in prayer, "O, what a weariness is it!" (Mal. i. 13.) If they chance but to miss a meal, they are ready to cry out, their “knees are weak through fasting" (Ps. cix. 23); yet they can, without regret or any self-compassion, macerate and cruciate1 themselves with anxious cares and vexations, and, as the apostle speaks (1 Tim. vi. 10), 66 pierce themselves through with many sorrows.' That proposal, therefore, which was very rashly made by St. Peter to our Saviour, "Master, pity thyself" (Matt. xvi. 12), which we render "be it far from thee," would here be an advised motion to the generality of mankind, who are commonly made unhappy, not by any thing without them, but by those restless impatiences that are within them. 10 Macerate,-to make lean; cruciate,—to torment. 15. It may therefore be a seasonable office to endeavour the appeasing these storms, by recalling them to those sober rational considerations, which may shew as well the folly as uneasiness of this repining, unsatisfiable humour. It is certain that in true reasoning we can find nothing whereon to found it, but a great deal to enforce the contrary. Indeed, it is so much against the dictate of reasonable nature to affect damage, sin, and torment, that, were there nothing else to be said but what I have already mentioned, it might competently discover the great unreasonableness of this sin. 16. But we need not confine our appeal to reason, as it is only a judge of utility and advantage, but enlarge it to another notion, as it is judge of equity and right; in which respect also it gives as clear and peremptory a sentence against all murmuring and impatience. To evince this, I shall insist upon these particulars: First, that God is debtor to no man, and therefore whatever he affords to any, it is upon bounty, not of right-a benevolence, not a due. Secondly, that this bounty is not strait or narrow, confined to some few particular persons, and wholly overskipping the rest, but more or less universally diffused to all; so that he who has the least cannot justly say but he has been liberally dealt with. Thirdly, that if we compare our blessings with our allays,11 our good things with our evil, we shall find our good far surmounting. Fourthly, 11 11 Allay,-abatement, baser metal mixed in coinage. that we shall find them yet more so, if we compare them with the good we have done; as, on the contrary, we shall find our afflictions scarce discernible if balanced with our sins. Fifthly, that as God is the rector of the universe, so it appertains to him to make such allotments, such distributions, as may best preserve the state of the whole. Sixthly, that God, notwithstanding that universal care, has also a peculiar aspect on every particular person, and disposes to him what he discerns best for him in special. Seventhly, if we compare our adversities with those of other men, we shall always find something that equals, if not exceeds, our own. All these are certain irrefragable truths, and there is none of them single but may, if well pressed upon the mind, charm it into a calmness and resignation; but when there is such a conspiration of arguments, it must be a very obstinate perverseness that can resist them; or, should they fail to enforce a full conviction, will yet introduce those subsidiary proofs which I have to allege so advantageously, as will, being put together, amount unto perfect and uncontrollable evidence. C HE first proposition, that God is debtor to no man, is too clear and apparent to require much of illustration; for as he is a free agent, and may act as he pleases, so he is the sole proprietary, and can wrongfully detain from none; because all original right is in himself. This has been so much acknowledged by the blindest heathens, that none of them durst make insolent addresses to their gods, challenge any thing of them as of debt, but by sacrifices and prayers owned their dependence and wants, and implored supplies. And sure Christianity teaches us not to be more saucy. If those deities, who owed their very being to their votaries, were yet acknowledged to be the spring and source of all, we can with no pretence deny it to that Supreme Power in "whom we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts xvii. 28). For if it were merely an act of his choice to give us a being, all his subsequent bounties can have no other original |