3. Discontent does not ejise us of our burden, but it makes the cross heavier, A contented spirit goes cheerfully under its affliction. Discontent makes our grief as unsupportable as it is unreasonable. If the leg be well, it can endure a fetter and not complain : but if the leg be sore, then the fetters trouble. Discontent of mind is the sore that makes the fetters of affliction more grievous. Discontent troubles us more than the trouble itself, it steeps the affliction in wormwood. When Christ was upon the cross, the Jews brought him gall and vinegar to drink, that it might add to his sorrow. Discontent brings to a man in affliction, gall and vinegar to drink ; this is worse than the affliction itself. Is it not folly for a man to embitter his own cross ?
4. Discontent spins out our troubles the longer. A Christian is discontent because he is in want, and therefore he is in want, be- cause he is discontented; he murmurs because he is afflicted, and therefore he is afflicted, be- cause he murmurs. Discontent doth delay
and adjourn our mercies. God deals here- in with us, as we use to do with our chil- dren ; when they are quiet and cheerful, they shall have any thing ; but if we see them cry and fret, then we withhold from them, — we get nothing from God by our discontent but blows ; the more the child struggles, the more it is beaten, — when we struggle with God by our sinful passions, he doubles and trebles his strokes ; God will tame our curst hearts. What got Is- rael by their peevishness ? They were with- in eleven days journey of Canaan ; and now they were discontented and began to mur- mur, God leads them a march of forty years long in the wilderness. Is it not folly for us to adjoiu-n our own mercies? Thus you have seen the evil of discontent. I have been long upon this argument ; but nunquam nimis dicitur, quod mmquam satis dicitur.
Sect. 8. The eighth argument to contenta- tion.
The next argument or motive to content- ment is this, why is not a man content with the competency which he hath ? Per- haps if he had more he would be less con- tent; covetousness is a dry drunkenness. The world is such that the more we have the more we crave ; it cannot fill the heart of man, Wlien the fire burns, how do you quench it ? Not by putting oil on the flame, or laying on more wood, but by withdraw- ing the fuel. When the appetite is inflam- ed after riches, how may a man be satisfied ? Not by having just what he desires, but by withdrawing the fuel, &c. Moderating and lessening his desires. He that is contented has enough. A man in a fever or dropsy thirsts ; how do you satisfy him ? Not by giving him liquid things, Avhich will inflame his thirst the more ; but by removing the cause, and so curing the distemper. The way for a man to be contented, is not by raising his estate higher, but by bringing his heart lower.
Sect. 9. The ninth argument to contenta- tion.
The next argument to contentment is the shortness of life. It is ' but a A'^apour,' saith James, Jam. iv. 14-. Life is a wheel ever-running. The poets painted time with wings to shew the volubility and swiftness of it. Job compares it to a swift post, Job
ART OF DIVINE CONTENTMENT.
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ix. 25. ; — our life rides post — and to a day, not a year. It is indeed like a day. In- fancy is as it were the day-break, — youth is the sun-rising, — full growth is the sun in the meridian, — old age is sun-setting, — sickness is the evening, — then comes the iiiglit of death. IIow quickly is this day of life spent ! Oftentimes this sun goes down at noon-day ; life ends before the evening of old age comes. Nay, sometimes the sun of life sets presently after sun-rising. Quickly after the dawning of infancy the night of death approaches. O, how short is the life of man ! The consideration of the brevity of life may work the heart to contentment. Reinember thou art to be liere but a day ; thou hast but a short way to go, and what needs a long provision for a short way ? If a traveller hath but e- nough to bring him to his journey's end he desires no more. We have but a day to live, and perhaps we may be in the twelfth hour of the day ; why if God gives us but enough to bear our charges, till night, it is sufficient, let us be content. If a man had the lease of an house, or farm, but for two or three days, and he should fall a building and planting, would he not be judged very indiscreet ? So, when Ave have but a short time here, and death calls us presently off the stage, to thirst immoderately after the world, and pull down our souls to build up an estate, it is an extreme folly. There- fore, as Esau said once, in a profane sense, concerning his birth-right, " Lo, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birth-right do me ?" so let a Christian say in a religious sense, " Lo, I am even at the point of death, my grave is going to be made, and what good will the world do me ? If I have but enough till sun-setting, I am content."