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hand_n	day_n	lord_n	soul_n	5,145	5	4.8761	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45310	The remedy of discontentment, or, A treatise of contentation in whatsoever condition fitted for sad and troubled times / by Jos. Hall ...	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1684 (1684)	Wing H405; ESTC R42064	37,772	178

THE REMEDY OF DISCONTENTMENT OR A TREATISE OF Contentation in whatsoever Condition Fitted for sad and troubled Times By Jos. Hall D. D. and B. N. The Fourth Edition Phil. 4. 11. I have learned in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content 12. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound Every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to want LONDON Printed by G. Larkin for Obadiah Blagrave at the Bear in St. Pauls Church-yard 1684. Vera Effigies Reverendi Do ni Josephi Hall Norwici nuper Episco TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Grace and Peace WHat can be more seasonable then at this time when all the world is sick of Discontentment to give counsels Receits of Contentation Perhaps the Patient will think it a time ill chosen for Physick in the midst of a Fit But in this case we must do as we may I confess I had rather have stayed till the Paroxism were happily over that so the humors being somwhat setled I might hope for the more kindly operation of this wholsom Medicine But partly my age weakness despairing to out-live the publick distemper and partly my judgment crossing the vulgar opinion for the season of some kind of Receipts have now put me upon this safe and useful Prescription God is my witness that I wrote this in the depth of mine own afflictions the particulars whereof it were unseasonable to trouble the world withal as one that meant to make my self my own Patient by enjoyning my self that course of remedies that I prescribe to others and as one who by the powerful working of Gods Spirit within me labour to find my heart framed to those holy dispositions which I wish and recommend to every Christian soul If there be no remedy but the worst of outward troubles must afflict us it shall be happy yet if we may find inward peace in our bosoms which shall be if we can reconcile our selves to our offended God and calm our spirits to a meek undergoing of those sufferings which the divine Providence hath thought fit to measure forth unto us This is the main drift of this ensuing labour Now the same God who hath in these blustring times put into my heart these quiet thoughts of holy Contentation bless them in every hand that shall receive them and make them effectual to the good of every soul that shall now and hereafter entertain them that so their gracious proficiency may in the day of the appearance of our Lord Jesus add to the joy of my account Who am the unworthiest of the servants of God and his Church J. N. THE CONTENTS OF the several Sections following Sect. I. THe excellency of Contentation and how it is to be had p. 1. § II. The contrariety of estates wherein it is to be exercised 3 § III. Who they are that know not how to want and be abased 7 § IV. Who they are that know how to want 14 § V. Considerations leading to Contentation and first the consideration of the fickleness of life and of all earthly commodities Honor Beauty Strength c. p. 17 § VI. Considerations of the unsatisfying condition of these worldly things 28 § VII The danger of the too much estimation of these earthly comforts 33 § VIII The consideration of the divine Providence ordering and over-ruling all events 36 § IX The consideration of the worse condition of others 41 § X. The consideration of the inconveniencies of great estates and therein first their cares 46 § XI The danger of the distempers both bodily and spiritual that follow great means and the torment in parting with them p. 53 § XII Consideration of the benefits of Poverty 59 § XIII Consideration of how little will suffice Nature 65 § XIV Consideration of the inconveniencies and miseries of discontentment 70 § XV. The gracious vicissitudes of Gods favours and afflictions 77 § XVI Consid of the great examples of Contentation both without and within the Church of God 85 § XVII Contentment in death it self 96 § XVIII The miseries and inconveniencies of the continued conjunction of the soul and body 104 § XIX Holy dispositions fer contentment the first whereof Humility 111 § XX. 2. Self-resignation 119 § XXI 3. The true inward riches 126 § XXII Holy resolutions and 1. That the present estate is best for us 131 § XXIII 2. Resolution to abate our desires 139 § XXIV 3. Resolution to inure our selves to digest smaller discontentments 147 § XXV 4. Resolution to be frequent and fervent in Prayer 155 § XXVI The difficulty of knowing how to abound the ill consequences of the not knowing it 158 THE REMEDY OF Discontentment SECT I The excellency of Contentation and how it is to be had IF there be any happiness to be found upon earth it is in that which we call Contentation This is a flower that grows not in every Garden The great Doctor of the Gentiles tells us that he had it I have learned saith he in what estate soever I am therewith to be content I know how to be abased I know how to abound Lo he could not have taken out this lesson if he had not learn'd it and he could not have learnt it of any other then his Master in heaven What face soever Philosophy may set upon it all Morality can not reach it neither could his learned Gamaliel at whose feet he sate have put this skill into him no he learn'd it since he was a Christian now professeth it So as it appears there is a divine art of Contentation to be attained in the School of Christ which whosoever hath learnt hath taken a degree in heaven and now knows how to be happy both in want abundance SECT II. The contrariety of Estates wherein Contentation is to be exercised THe nature of man is extreamly querulous we know not what we would have and when we have it we know not how to like it we would be happy yet we would not die we would live long yet we would not be old we would be kept in order yet we would not be chastised with affliction we are loth to work yet are weary of doing nothing we have no list to stir yet find long sitting painful we have no mind to leave our bed yet find it a kind of sickness to lie long we would mary but would not be trobled with houshold cares when once we are married we wish we had kept single If therefore grace have so mastered nature in us as to render us content with what ever condition we have attained to no small measure of perfection Which way soever the wind blows the skilful Mariner knows how to turn his sails to meet it the contrariety of estates to which we lie open here gives us different occasions for the exercise of Contentation I cannot blame their choice who desire a middle estate betwixt want and

many from their lives Yea how many that out of an impatience to stay the leasure of vengeance have made their own hands their hasty Executioners And even where this extremity prevails not look about and ye shall see men that are not able matches to their passions wofully macerating themselves with their own thoughts wearing out their tedious days upon the rack of their own hearts and making good that observation of the wise man By the sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken Now all these mischiefs might have been hapily prevented by a meek yieldance of our selfs to the hands of an All-Wise and an All-Merciful God and by an humble composure of our affections to a quiet suffering It is the power of patience to calm the heart in the most blustering trials and when the vessel is most tossed yet to secure the fraight This if it do not abate of our burden yet it addes to our strength and wins the Father of Mercies both to pitty and retribution Whereas murmuring Israelites can never be free from judgments and it is a dreadful word that God speaketh of that chosen Nation Mine heritage is unto me as a Lion in the forest it still yelleth against me therefore have I hated it A Child that struggles under the rod justly doubles his stripes and an unruly Malefactor draws on besides Death tortures SECT XV. Consider the vicissitudes of Favours and Afflictions FUrthermore it is a main help towards Contentation to consider the gracious vicissitudes of Gods dealing with us How he intermixes Favours with his crosses tempering our much hony with some little gall the best of us are but shrewd Children yet he chides us not always saith the Psalmist he smiles often for one frown and why should we not take one with another It was the answer wherewith that admirable pattern of patience stopped the querulous mouth of his tempting Wife What shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil It was a memorable example which came lately to my knowledge of a worthy Christian who had lived to his middle age in much health and prosperity and was now for his two last years miserably afflicted with the Strangury who in the midst of his torments could say Oh my Lord God how gracious hast thou been unto me thou hast given me eight and forty years of health and now but two years of pain thou mightest have caused me to lie in this torture all the days of my life and now thou hast caried me comfortably through the rest and hast Mercifully taken up with this last parcel of my torment blessed be thy Name for thy Mercy in forbearing me and for thy justice in afflicting me To be thankful for present blessings is but ordinary but to be so thankful for Mercies past that the memory of them should be able to put over the sense of present miseries is an high improvement of Grace The very Heathens by the light of Nature and their own experience could observe this interchange of Gods proceedings and made some kind of use of them accordingly Camillus after he had upon ten years siege taken the rich City Veios pray'd that some mishap might befal himself and Rome to temper so great an happiness when one would have thought the prize would not countervail the labour and the loss of time and blood And Alexander the Great when report was made to him of many notable Victories atchieved by his Armies could say O Jupiter mix some mis-fortune with these happy news Lo these men could tell that it is neither fit nor safe for great blessings to walk alone but that they must be attended with their Pages afflictions why should not we Christians expect them with patience and thanks They say Thunder and Lightning hurts not if it be mixed with Rain In those hot Countries which lie under the scalding Zone When the first showres fall after a long drought it is held dangerous to walk suddenly abroad for that the earth so moistned sends up unwholsome steams but in those parts where the Rain and Sun-shine are usually interchanged it is most pleasant to take the air of the earth newly refreshed with kindly showres Neither is it otherwise in the course of our lives this medley of good and evil conduces not a little to the health of our Souls One of them must serve to temper the other and both of them to keep the heart in order Were our afflictions long and our comforts rare and short we had yet reason to be thankful the least is more then God owes us but now when if heaviness endure for a night joy commeth in the morning and dwells with us so that some fits of sorrow are recompensed with many months of joy how should our hearts overflow with thankfulness and easily digest small grievances out of the comfortable sense of larger blessings But if we shall cast up our eyes to Heaven and there behold the glorious remuneration of our sufferings how shall we contemn the worst that earth can do unto us There there is glory enough to make us a thousand times more then amends for all that we are capable to endure Yea if this Earth were Hell and Men Devils they could not inflict upon us those torments which might hold any equality with the glory which shall be revealed and even of the worst of them we must say with the blessed Apostle Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory When the blessed Proto-Martyr Stephen had stedfastly fixed his eyes on Heaven and that Curtain being drawn had seen the Heavens opened and therein the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God do we think he cared ought for the sparkling eyes and gnashed teeth and killing stones of the enraged multitude Oh poor impotent Jews how far was that divine Soul above the reach of your malice how did he triumph over your cruelty how did he by his happy evolation make all those stones precious SECT XVI Consider the Examples of Contentation both without and within the Church of God LAstly it cannot but be a powerful motive unto Contentation that we lay before us the notable Examples of men whether worse or better then our selves that have been eminent in the practice of this vertue men that out of the meer strength of morality have run away with losses and Poverty as a light burden that out of their free choice have fallen upon those conditions which we are ready to fear and shrink from What a shame is it for Christians to be out-stripped herein by very Pagans If we look upon the ancient Philosophers their low valuation of these outward things and their willing abdication of those comforts wherewith others were too much affected made them admired of the multitude Here do I see a Cynick housed in his Tub scorning all