The right method for a settled peace of conscience, and spiritual comfort in 32…

To this sin I may add another, which is scarce another, but partly the same with this, and partly its immediate effect: and that is, Unpeaceableness and unquietness with those about us; this commonly occasioneth God to make us as unpeaceable and unquiet in our selves. When people are so froward, and peevish, and troublesome, that few can live in peace with them, either in family or neighbourhood, except those that have little to do with them, or those that can humour them in all things, and have an extraordinary skill in smooth speaking, flattering or man-pleasing, so that neighbours, servants, children, and sometimes their own yoke-fellows, must be gone from them, and may not abide near them, as a man gets out of the way from a wild beast or a mad dog, or avoideth the flames of a raging fire; is it any wonder if God give these people as little peace in their own spirits, as they give to others. When people are so hard to be pleased that no body about them or near them can tell how to fit their humours; neighbours cannot please them, servants cannot please them, Husband or Wife cannot please each other; every word is spoke amiss, and every thing done amiss to them; ⟨p. 304⟩what wonder if God seem hard to be pleased, and as frequently offended with them? especially if their unpeaceableness trouble the Church, and in their turbulency and self-conceitedness, they break the peace thereof.

To this sinne I may adde another, which is scarce another, but partly the same with this, and partly its immediate effect: and that is, Ʋnpeaceableness and unquietness with those about us; this commonly occasioneth God to make us as unpeaceable and unquiet in our selves. When people are so froward, and peevish, and troublesome, that few can live in peace with them, either in family or neighbourhood, except those that have little to do with them, or those that can humour them in all things, and have an extraordinary skill in smooth speaking, flattering or man-pleasing, so that neighbours, servants, children, and sometimes their own yoak-fellows, must be gone from them, and may not abide near them, as a man gets out of the way from a wild beast or a mad dog, or avoideth the flames of a raging fire; is it any wonder if God give these people as little peace in their own spirits, as they give to others. When people are so hard to be pleased that no body about them or near them can tell how to fit their humours; neighbours cannot please them, servants cannot please them, Husband or Wife cannot please each other; every word is spoke amiss, and every thing done amiss to them;