I beseech you obferve this, though you fhould forget many others. Make a good interpretation of God's ways toward you, if there can be any good interpretation made of God's wayscowards you, make it. You think it much if you have a friend that should always make bad interpretations of your ways towards him, you will take that ill if you fhould converse with people that you cannot speak a word in their hearing, but they are ready to make an ill interpretation of it, and take it in an illfenfe, you would think their company to be very tedious to you. It is very tedious to the Spirit of God when we make fuch ill interpretations of his ways towards us. If God deal with us otherwife than we would have him, if there can be any fenfe worfe than other made of it, we will be fure to make it; as thus: When an affliction doth befal you, there may be many good fenfes made of Gods works towards you, you should think thus, It may be God intends only to try me by this, it may be God faw my heart too much fet upon the Creature, and fo intends to fhew me what there is in my heart, it may be that God saw that if my eftate did continue I fhould fall into fin, that the better my eftate were, the worse my foul would be, it may be God intended only to exercise fome Grace, it may be God intends to prepare me for fome great work which he hath for me. Thus you should reafon.

But we on the contrary make bad interpretations of God's thus dealing with us, and fay, God doth not mean this, furely the Lord means by this, to manifeft his wrath and difpleasure against me, and this is bnt a furtherance of further evils that he intends towards me: Juft as they did in the Wilderness,Gol bath brought us bither to play as. This is the worst interpretation that poffibly you can make of God's ways: Oh! Why will you make thefe worst interpretations when there may be better? in 1 Cor.1.3.5. When the Scripture fpeaks of love,faith the text, Love thinketh no evil. Love is of that nature that if there may be ten interpretations made of a thing, if nine of them be naught, and one good, Love will take that which is good Ee 2

and

and leave the other nine; and fo though there might be ten interpretations prefented to thee concerning Gods waies towards thee, and if but one be good, and nine naught, thou fhouldest take that one that is good, and leave the other nine. I beseech you confider, God doth not deal by you as you deal with him, hould God make the worst interpretation of all your waies towards him, as you do of his towards you, it would be very ill with you; God is pleafed to manifeft his love thus to us, to make the best interpretations of what we do, and therefore it is, that God doth put a fenfe upon the actions of his people that one would think could hardly be; as thus, God is pleafed to call those perfect that have but any uprightneffe of heart in them, he accounteth them perfect, Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect; uprightness in Gods fenfe is perfection. Now alas, when we look into our own hearts, we can scarce fee any good at all there, and yet God is pleafed to make fuch an interpretation as to fay, it is perfect: When we look into our own hearts, we can fee nothing but uncleanness; God,he calls you his Saints, he calls the meaneft Chriftian that hath the leaft grace under the greateft corruption, his Saint; you fay, we cannot be Saints here, but yet in Gods efteem we are Saints: You know the ufual title the holy Ghoft gives (in feveral of the Epiftles) to those that had any grace, any uprightness, is, To the Saints in such a place; you fee what an interpretation God puts upon them,they are Saints to him, and fo I might name in divers other particulars, God makes the beft interpretation of things; if there be abundance of evil and a little good, God rather paffes by the evil, and takes notice of the good: That fometimes I have made ufe of, which is a very obfervable place in Peter concerning Sarab; Sarah had a speech to her husband in Genefis, 18. 12. the called her husband Lord, but there was but that one good word in an ill fpeech, it was an unbelieving fpeech, but yet when the Apoftle mentions that fpeech in 1 Pet.3.6.the holy Ghost leaves all the ill, and commends her for calling her husband Lord, for putting a reverent title upon her husband; thus how gratiously doth God deal with us? If there be but one good word among a great many ill, what an interpretation God makes! fo fhould we do, if there be but any one good interpretation that we can make

make of a thing, we should rather make ufe of the good one than of the ill; Oh my brethren, ( I would I could now speak only to fuch as are godly) retain good thoughts of God, take heed of judging God to be a hard Mafter, make good interpretations of his waies, and that's a special means to help you to contentment in all your courses.

The Eleventh DIRECTION.

Do not fo much regard the fancies of other men, as what indeed you feel your felves; For the reafon of our difcontentment many times, is rather from the fancies of other men, than from what we find we want our felves, we think poverty to be fuch a great evil, why? Because it is fo efteemed by others, more than what people feel in it themselves, except they be in extremity of poverty. I'll give you an evident demonftration that almost all the difcontent in the world is rather from the fancies of others than from the evil that is upon themselves. You that think your eftates to be low, and you are thereupon difcontent, and it is a grievous affliction to you, but if all men in the World were poorer than you, then you would not be difcontent, then you would rejoyce in your eftates, though you had not a penny more than you have: As take a man that can get but his twelve pence a day, and you will fay, this were but a poor thing to maintain a Family ? But fuppofe there were no man in the world that had more than this, yea, that all other men but your felves had fomewhat lefs wages than you, then you would think your condition pretty good; yet you should have no more then than you have now; therefore it appears by this, that it's rather from the fancies of other men than what you feel that makes you think your condition to be fo grievous; for if all the men in the world look'd upon you as happy, more happy than themselves, then you would be contented; Oh,let not your happiness depend upon the fancies of other men. It is a fpeech of Chryfoftom I remember in this very cafe, Let us not make the people in this cafe to be our Lords, as we muft not make men to be the Lords of our faith, fo not the Lorde four comforts; that is, that our comfort bould depend more upon their ima

ginations,

ginations, than upon what we feel in our felves. It may be o thers think you to be in an afflicted condition, yea, but I thank God, for my felf I do not fo apprehend it, were it not for the difgrace, difefteem and lighting of other men, my condition would not be fo bad to me as now it is; this is that which makes my condition afflictive.

The Twelfth DIRECTION.

Be not inordinately taken up with the comforts of this World when you have them. When you have them,do not take too much content in them: that's a certain rule, that look how inordinate any man or woman is in forrow when a comfort is taken from them, fo much immoderate were they in the rejoycing in the comfort when they had it: as now for inftance, God takes away a child, and you are inordinately forrowful, beyond what God allows in a natural or Chriftian way; now, though I never knew before how your heart was towards the child, yet when I fee this (though you be a meer ftranger to me) I may without breach of charity conclude, that your heart was immoderately fet upon your child or husband, or upon any other comfort that I fee you grieving for, when God hath taken it away, if you hear ill tidings about your eftates, and your hearts are dejected immoderately, and you are in a difcontented way because of fuch and fuch a cross, certainly your hearts were immoderately fet upon the world, and fo likewife for your credit, if you hear otheis report this or that ill of you, and your hearts are dejected because you think you fuffer in your name, your hearts were inordinately fet upon your name and credit, now therefore the way for you not to be immoderate in your forrows for affi ctions, it is not to be immoderate in your love and delights when you have prof perity. And there are the principal Directions for our help that we may live quiet, and contented lives.

My brethren, to conclude all for this point, if I could tell you that I knew how to fhew you a way never to be in want of any thing, I make no queftica but then we fhould have much flocking to fuc Sermon, when a man should undertake to ma

nifeft to people that they should never be in want any more, but I have been now preaching unto you that that comes to as much, that which countervails this, that which is in effect all one. Is it not almost all one, never to be in want, or never to be without Contentment that man or woman that is never without a contented fpirit, truly, can never be laid to want much; Ob! the Word holds forth a way full of comfort and peace to the people of God even in this World, you may live happy lives in the midft of all the ftorms and tempefts in the World, there is an Ark that you may come into, and no men in the world may live fuch comfortable, cheerful, and contented lives as the Saints of God: Oh, that we had learned this Leffon: I have been many Sermons about this Leffon of Contentment, but I am afraid that you will be longer in learning of it, than I have been preaching of it; it is a harder thing to learn it than it is fpeak or preach it. I remember) I have read of one man reading of that place in the 39 Pfal. I will take heed that I of fend not with my tongue: faith he, I have been this 38 years a learning this Leffon, and have not learned it throughly. The truth is, there are many (I am afraid) that have been profeffors neer eight and thirty years, have hardly learn'd this leffon; it were a good leffon for young Profeffors to begin to learn this betimes. But now, this leffon of Chriftian Contentment, it is as hard, and perhaps you may be many years in learning it: I am afraid there be fome Chriftians that have not yet learned, Not to offend grofly with their tongues: The Scripture faith, all a mans Religionis vain, if he cannot bridle his tongue; therefore, thofe that make any profeffion of godliness, one would think they should quickly learn this leffon, fuch a leffon that except learned, it makes all their Religion vain: But for this Leffon of Chriftian Contentment, it may take up more time to learn, and there is many that are learning it all the daies of their lives, and yet are not Proficients; but God forbid that it fhould be faid of any of us concerning this Leffon, as the ApoAtle faith of Widows in Timothy, That they were ever learning, &never came to the knowledge of the truth. Oh,let us not be ever on of Contentment and yet never come to have

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