The Art of Divine Contentment

1. If men are poor, they learn to be, 1. Envious: they malign those that are above them. Another's Prosperity is an eye-sore; when Gods candle shines upon their neighbours Tabernacle, this light offends them. In the midst of […] men can (in this sense) abound▪ viz. in envy and malice: An envious eye is an evil eye. 2. They learn to be querulous, still complaining, as if God had dealt hardly with them; they are ever telling of their wants, they want this and that comfort; whereas their greatest want is a contented spirit. Those that are well enough content with their sins, yet are not content with their condition.

1. If men are poor, they learne to be, 1. Envious: they maligne those that are above them. Anothers Prosperity is an ey-sore; when Gods candle shines upon their neighbours Tabernacle, this light offends them. In the midst of 〈…〉 men can (in this sense) abound▪ viz. in envie and malice: An envious eye is an evill eye. 2. They learn to be querulous, still complaining, as if God had dealt hardly with them; they are ever telling of their wants, they want this and that comfort; whereas their greatest want is a contented spirit. Those that are well enough content with their sinnes, yet are not content with their condition.

2. If men are rich, they learn to be covetous; thirsting insatiably after the world, and by any unjust ⟨p. 56⟩means scraping it together; their right hand is full of bribes, as the Psalmist expresseth it^*. Put a good cause in one scale, and a piece of Gold in the other, and the Gold weighs heaviest. There are (saith Solomon) four things that say, It is not enough^*. I may add a fifth, viz. the heart of a covetous man. So that neither poor nor rich know how to be content.