The trades-man's calling being a discourse concerning the nature, necessity, choice, &c. of a…

3. This Contentedness is to be shown, in a patient bearing of the Losses and Disappointments that ⟨p. 173⟩befall him in his Trade. And here our Tradesman hath occasion for all Grace he hath: For sometimes he meets with great losses in his Goods themselves; perishing either by their own Corruptibility, or by the Carelessness of his Servants; sometimes he hath great Losses by the Breaking of his Chapmen or Correspondents; and sometimes merely by the Providence of God, permitting either dreadful Storms at Sea, or wicked Pirates to swallow them up. Now if God's Grace do not support his Spirits under these Losses; he frets himself in pieces with impotent Vexation: he falls out with his Trade, with Men, yea with God himself, and enjoys nothing of what he hath left, because he is deprived of what he hath lost. He enlarges upon the Folly of Trading, he condemns all Mankind, because he finds some of them dishonest; he extols every Man's Calling but his own; he frets at the Providence of God; nay, almost questions whether there be any Providence, because it frowns upon him; quarrels with his Meat, his Drink, his Servants, his Wife, yea with himself; because (forsooth) he could not prophesy; he could not fore-see and fore-tell how the Seas or Men would prove: whereas by virtue of Christian Contentment, the Tradesman, tho he be not insensible of his Losses, yet he labours to digest them; and things looking ill, he will not make them worse by his own Folly.

3. This Contentedness is to be shewn, in a patient bearing of the Losses and Disappointments that ⟨p. 173⟩befal him in his Trade. And here our Tradesman hath occasion for all Grace he hath: For sometimes he meets with great losses in his Goods themselves; perishing either by their own Corruptibility, or by the Carelesness of his Servants; sometimes he hath great Losses by the Breaking of his Chapmen or Correspondents; and sometimes meerly by the Providence of God, permitting either dreadful Storms at Sea, or wicked Pirates to swallow them up. Now if God's Grace do not support his Spirits under these Losses; he frets himself in pieces with impotent Vexation: he falls out with his Trade, with Men, yea with God himself, and injoys nothing of what he hath left, because he is deprived of what he hath lost. He inlarges upon the Folly of Trading, he condemns all Mankind, because he finds some of them dishonest; he extols every Man's Calling but his own; he frets at the Providence of God; nay, almost questions whether there be any Providence, because it frowns upon him; quarrels with his Meat, his Drink, his Servants, his Wife, yea with himself; because (forsooth) he could not prophesy; he could not fore-see and fore-tell how the Seas or Men would prove: whereas by virtue of Christian Contentment, the Tradesman, tho he be not insensible of his Losses, yet he labours to digest them; and things looking ill, he will not make them worse by his own Folly.