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Sufferings be from God or Man, thou wilt acknowledge them to be far fhort of what is due to thee, and therefore wilt be ashamed to be impatient at them.

Confideration.

Of our

State.

21. The third Virtue is CONSIDERATION; and this in a moft fpecial Manner we owe to our Souls: For without it we fhall, as rafh, unadvised People ufe to do, rufh them into infinite Perils. Now this Confideration is either of our State, or of our Actions. By our State, I mean what our Condition is to God-ward; whether it be fuch, that we may reafonably conclude ourselves in his Favour. This it much concerns us to confider and examine; and that not by those easy Rules Men are apt to frame to themselves, as whether they believe that Chrift died for their Sins; that they are of the Number of the Elect, and fhall certainly be faved? If these and the like were all that were required to put us into God's Favour, none but fome melancholy Perfon could ever be out of it: For we are apt enough generally to believe comfortably of ourfelves. But the Rules God hath given us in his Word, are those by which we must be tried at the laft Day, and therefore are certainly the only fafe ones by which to try ourselves now. And the Sum of those are, that whofoever continues in any one wilful Sin, is not in his Favour; nor can, if he do fo die, hope for any Mercy at his Hand.

The Rules by which to try

our State.

22. Now it is highly neceffary we fhould confider what our Condition is in this Refpect: For, fince our Life is nothing but a Puff of Breath in our Noftrils, which may, for aught we know, be taken from us the next Minute, it nearly concerns

us

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The Danger of Inconfide

ration.

us to know how we are provided for another World; that fo in cafe we want at prefent that Oil in our Lamps, wherewith we are to meet the Bridegroom, Matt. xxv. 8. we may timely get it; and not for want of it be ever fhut out, like the foolifh Virgins, from his Prefence. The Neglect of this Confideration hath undone many Souls; fome by too eafy a Belief that they were in a good Condition, without confidering and trying themselves by the foregoing Rule, but prefuming either upon fome flight outward Performances, or upon fuch a falfe Faith, as I even now described; others by their wretched carelefs going on, without fo much as asking themfelves what their Condition is, but hope they fhould do as well as their Neighbours, and fo never enquiring farther; which wretched Careleffnefs will as certainly undo the fpiritual, as the like would do the temporal Eftate. Yet in that every Man is wife enough to foresee, that a Man that never takes any Account of his Eftate, to see whether he be worth fomething or nothing, will be fure to be a Beggar in the End. But in this far weightier Matter we can generally be thus improvident.

Our Actions.

them.

23. The fecond Thing we are to confider, is our Actions; and those either before or after the doing of

Before we do them. In the first Place, we are to confider before we act, and not to do any thing rafhly or headily, but firft to advise with our Confciences, whether this be lawful to be done: For he that follows his own Inclination, and does every Thing which that moves him to, fhall be fure to fall into a Multitude of Sins. Therefore confider foberly, and be af

fured

fured of the Lawfulness of the Thing, before thou ventureft to do it. This Advisedness is, in all worldly Things, accounted fo neceffary a Part of Wisdom, that no Man is accounted wife without it; a rash Man we look upon as the next Degree to a Fool. And yet it is fure, there is not fo much need of looking about us in any Thing, as in what concerns our Souls; and that not only in respect of the great Value of them above all Things elfe, but also in regard of the great Danger they are in, as hath been fhewed more at large in the Beginning of the Treatise.

After they

are done.

24. Secondly, We are to confider the Actions when they are paft alfo; that is, we are to examine whether they have been fuch as are allowable. by the Laws of Chrift. This is very neceffary, whether they be good or bad: If they be good, the recalling them helpeth us to the Comfort of a good Confcience, and that Comfort again encourageth us to go on in the like; and befides, it ftirs up to Thankfulness to God, by whofe Grace alone we were enabled to do them. But if they be bad, then it is especially neceffary that we thus examine them; for without this, it is impoffible we fhould ever come to Amendment; for, unless we obferve them to have been amifs, we can never think it needful to amend, but shall ftill run on from one Wickedness to another, which is the greatest Curfe any Man can lie under.

Frequency of Confideration.

25. The oftner therefore we use this Confideration, the better; for the lefs likely it is that any of our Sins fhall efcape our Knowledge. It is much to be wifhed, that every Man would thus every Night try the Actions of the Day, that fo,

if he have done any thing amifs, he may foon check himself for it, and fettle his Refolutions against it, and not let it grow on to a Habit and Courte. And that he may alfo early beg God's Pardon, which will be the eafier had, the fooner it is afked; every Delay of that being a great Increase of the Sin. And furely, whoever means to take an Account of himself at all, will find this the easier Courfe; it being much eafier to do it fo, a little at a Time, and while Passages are fresh in his Memory, than to take the Account of a long Time together. Now, if it be confidered that every wilful Sin must have a particular Repentance, before it can be pardoned, methinks Men fhould tremble to fleep without that Repentance : For what Affurance hath any Man that lies down in his Bed, that he fhall ever rife again? And then how dangerous is the Condition of that Man that fleeps in an unrepented Sin? The weighing of these several Motives may be a Means, by God's Bleffing, to bring us to the Practice of this Duty of Confideration in all the Parts of it.

Danger of emitting it.

SUNDAY

SUNDAY VII.

Of Contentedness, and the Contraries to it; Murmuring, Ambition, Covetousness, Envy; Helps to Contentedness; Of Duties which concern our Bodies; Of Chastity, &c. Helps to it; Of Temperance.

Sect. I.

"T

HE fourth VIRTUE
is CONTENTED-
NESS; and this fure-

Contented

ness.

ly is a Duty we muft owe to ourselves, it being that without which it is impoffible to be happy. This Contentedness is a Well-pleasednefs with that Condition, whatever it is, that God hath placed us in; not murmuring and repining at our Lot, but chearfully welcoming whatfoever God fends. How great, and withal how pleasant a Virtue this is, may appear by the Contrariety it hath to feveral great and painful Vices; fo that where this is rooted in the Heart, it fubdues not only fome fuch fingle Sin, a Clufter of them together.

Contrary to
Murmuring.

2. And first, It is contrary to all Murmuring in general, which is a Sin moft hateful to God, as may appear by his fharp Punishments of it on the Ifraelites in the Wilderness, as you may read in feveral Places of the Books of Exodus and Numbers. And furely it is alfo very painful and

uneafy

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