A51847:675
Sermons preached
Sermons preached by the late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...
London: printed for Brabazon Aylmer, 1678
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. In the general; it is a Mystery only learned in Christ's School. Phil. 4. 11, 12. I have learned in whatsoever state I am, to be therewith content: and I know how to be abased and to abound, I am instructed both to be full, and to be hungry, both to abound, and to suffer need; I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. This Art is not soon learned. What is there in Christianity above other Disciplines to teach us this Contentation? The Doctrine of God's particular Providence, Fatherly Care and Eternal Life, these seconded by the sanctifying Operation of the Holy Ghost, cause this resolution in us, to encounter all the difficulties of this present Life in an humble and quiet Mind.
2. More particularly, let us consider, 1. What is necessary to this Contentment. 2. What Effect it produces.
1. What is necessary to this Contentment.
(1.) Faith, or a sound belief of God's Being, and gracious Promises and Eternal Recompenses. That there is a God, that he hath a particular care of Humane Affairs, and that he will not leave his People to unsupportable Difficulties, but will guide them to Eternal Life. It is in vain to press People to contentedness till they be thus persuaded. For the first Truth that there is a God, He that cometh to God, must believe that God is. For the second Truth, that he hath a particular care of Humane Affairs,