1 Tim. YI. 8.] the TiimxEENTn sermon. 307
God, no fretting and tearing ourselves ; the mind is framed to tlic estate, be it never so mean.
2. Distrustful and distracting cares. Men are full of troubles, espe- cially when they are in a hazardous strait and low condition ; therefore God forbids this : Mat. vi. 25, ' Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink ; or yet for the body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ? ' Men are fearful and anxious tor the future, and doubt whether God will allow them the necessaries of life, food, and raiment ; therefore it is said, Luke xii. 29, ' Be not ye of a doubtful mind.' They distract themselves with these anxious thoughts. The word properly signifies to be carried in the air, as clouds, by an un- certain motion ; and so it is applied to them who are tossed about with- out consistency or fixedness of mind, by an impatient suspense or anxious solicitude about God's providence.
3. Covetous desires : Heb. xiii. 5, ' Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have.' The apostle speaks there of times of persecution ; and no temper of mind is so fit for us in such times as contentation with whatever God at present allows us. They that are greedy of more forget or dislike what they have already. There is no reason for it ; for what use is there of more than what may nourish us within and cover us without ? But we punish ourselves with our own wild desires. Well, then, contenta- tion is opposite to all these ; it is such a quiet of mind as suiteth our hearts to our condition, and relieth upon God's merciful providence and gracious promises for support and necessaries during our service in the world, without being troubled about other things.
IL What considerations are offered and implied in the text as most apt to breed it.
1. That God is a sovereign Lord, and dispenses these outward things at his pleasure. We are not proprietaries ; we must only content our- selves with the use, or a transitory fruition : Luke xvi. 12, ' If you have not been faithful in another's, who will give you that which is your own ? ' That other s is God, who is the dispenser and disposer of these things. The whole drift of the parable is to show that we are but stewards : God reserves the sovereign right to himself — gives us only the use or trust for our own and others' good. No man esteemetli himself to be an owner of that which another besides himself hath power to dispose of, as God hath of us and of all that belongeth to us. Our possession of anything is but limited and respective. We are but tenants at the will of the Lord ; he can take us from our ser- vice, or our service from us at his own pleasure : Job ix. 12, * Behold, he takes away, who can hinder him ? Who will say to him. What doest thou ? ' God hath an absolute power, his right is uncontrollable ; so is not ours. Now, this hath a great influence upon contentedness with our condition ; for if we and all that we have be God's own, he may do with his own as it pleases him, Mat. xx. 15. If he takes any- thing from us, he doth but require his own ; and nothing more reason- able but that every one should have liberty to dispose of what is his own according to his will. Every one of you must say, I am God's creature ; he may use me for his glory, in what manner and in what rank and degree he pleaseth.
308 THE TniRTEENTH SERMON. [1 TlM. VI. 8.
2. It is the wisiloin and will of God not to give to all alike, that some shoiilil have more and some should have less. He puts ten talents into the hands of some of his servants, and but one into an- other's, Mat. XXV. Therefore if your portion be straiter than others, it is what God hath allotted : 1 Sam. ii. 7, 8, ' The Lord makes poor and the Lord makes rich ; he bringeth low and he lifteth up : he setteth some among the princes, and to inherit the throne of glory,' whilst others sit on the dunghill or roll in the dust. The world is not governed by chance, nor is it the blind idol fortune that dispenses honours and estates, but every man's portion and the bounds of his liabitation are set forth by God. It comes not from second causes, or an uncertain rolling about the sphere of human mutability, but God's ordinance and appointment, who, as he hath cast the world into hills and valleys, liath made the estate of one man differ from another. No estate in tliis world is universally good for all, as no gale of wind can serve for all passengers on the deep waters. Nor doth the same weather fit every soil ; that drought which burneth up the hotter grounds comforteth those which are more chill and cold. If one man liad another's blessings he would soon lun wild, as another would grow desperate if he had their crosses. Therefore the infinite wisdom of the great Governor of the world allots every one his portion. God knows the reasons of this unequal distribution, though they be hidden from us. Now, this also hath an influence upon contentment, for we ought to submit to the good pleasure of God, and can no more quarrel with his providence for keeping us low and bare than his creation, that he made us men and not angels, or that he will furnish the world with all kind of creatures, worms and beasts as well as men : Isa. xlv. i), ' Shall the clay say to the potter, Why hast thou made me thus ? '