Thus ye fee the picture of discontentment; and does it not look very black? There are ounces and pounds of rebellion against the will of God, killing forrow, and fretting anger, and hideous heart blafphemy in it, while there is not one grain of religion or reafon that goes into this hellifh compofition. If one should take it for a description of hell, he would not be far out; for the truth is, difcontent is a hell in the bofom, and a lively emblem of the pit of darkness.

2. If ye view difcontentment in the rise of it, ye will fee further into the evil of it. It takes its rife from,

1ft, A blinded judgement, which puts darkness for light, and light for darkness, and cannot fee into the wisdom of the conduct of providence, that does all things well. When our blind minds begin to refine on the management of holy providence, they are apt to produce difcontent, which in refpect of providence is always unreasonable. See how good Jacob bewrays his folly and ignorance of the methods of providence, Gen. xlii. 36. Me have ye bereaved of my children: Jofeph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away all these things are against me. Compare with this the promife, Rom. vii. 28. All things fhall work together for good to them that love the Lord, to those who are the called according to his purpose; and alfo compare the event; and ye will fee that all these things were for the benefit of the good patriarch, and that of his numerous family.

Yea oft-times fo readily does it rife out of darknefs, that it fprings up from mere fufpicion, mifapprehenfion, and miflake, fo that a little cloud of that nature over the mind will in the end cover the mind with the blacknefs of difcontent; as in the cafe of Ahab, 1 Kings xxi. 4. compare ver. 6. And indeed there is never a ground of difcontent, but the blind mind does magnify it, and lay to it fuch

heaps of rubbish, as the heart is not able to ftand under it, as in the cafe of Rachel, Gen. xxx. 1, When Rachel faw that he bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her fifter; and faid unto Jacob, Give me children, or elfe I die. Thus are our own dark minds the anvil on which our miferies are beat out into greater breadth and length than they are of, as they come out of the hand of God, to the end they may cover our hearts with difcontent. Happy is the man that can take up his crofs as God lays it down, without adding more to it.

2dly, A proud heart. Haman's pride difcontented him for want of bows and cringes from Mordecai, which would never have troubled a humble man. A proud heart is a wide heart, Prov. xxviii. 25. Heb. It is not little that will fill it; it is long ere it will fay, It is enough: and fo it natively produces difcontent. The devil is the proudeft creature, and withal the most discontented; for pride and discontent lodge always under one roof. And could we get blood let of the heart-vein of pride, we would fee the fwelling ulcer of discontent fall apace. 3. An unmortified affection to the creature, 1 Tim. vi. 9. 10. Jonah had a gourd, and he was exceeding glad of it, Jonah iv 6. it is taken away, and then he is exceeding difcontented, ver. 9. The heart takes fuch a hold of fuch and fuch a created comfort, that it becomes like a live limb of a man's body; fo when it is rent away, what wonder one cry out, as if men were cutting a limb of him? No body cries out for the loofing of a tree-leg, becaufe it has no communication with the members of the man's body, it is a dead thing. So were our affection to the creature deadened to it, as it fhould be, discontent could have no access.

4. A fpirit of unbelief. Want of faith marred the acceptance of Cain's offering, Heb. xi. 4. and opened the fluice of difcontent on him too, Gen. iv. 5. Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

content feeds on wants, faith brings in the fupply of wants, and can feed on it, while it is yet in the promife. Where unbelief is, then no wonder dif content prevail. A lively faith would kill difcontent, whereas unbelief nourishes and cherishes it; for it puts an effectual bar in the way of the reft of the heart, which it can never attain but in God.

3. View it in the effects, and it will appear very black. The tree is known by its fruits.

ift, It mars communion with and accefs to God. Muddy and troubled water receives not the image of the fun, as a clear and ftanding water will do. So a difcontented heart is unfit for communion with a holy God, 1 Tim. ii. 3. Can two walk together except they be agreed? If one would have communion with God, his heart muft not be boiling in anger against his brother, Matth, v. 23. 24. How then can he have it, when he is angry with his God, as in difcontent?

2dly, It quit unfits a man for holy dutics, fo that he cannot perform them rightly or acceptably; for fpeaking to God in prayer, or his fpeaking to them by his word. 1. It deadens one's heart within him, as in Nabal's cafe, 1 Sam. xxv. 37. whofe heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 2. It takes away the relifh of fpiritual things, vitiates the tafte, and turns them faplefs to people, as it did to the Ifraelites in Egypt, Exod. vi. 7. 8. 9. 3. It carries the heart off the duty, to pore on the ground of difcontent, and makes them drive heavily in God's worship, and ferve him drooping and heartlefs, as it did the Jews in Malachi's time, Mal. ii. 13. 14. Their unkindness to their wives made them difcontented and fretful, fo that when they came to the temple, they were quite out of humour.

3dly, Nay, it unhits people for the work of their ordinary calling. It is not only an enemy to grace, but to gifts too, and common prudence. The black fumes afcending from the difcontented heart over

cloud the judgement in ordinary matters, that the one hand knows not what the other is doing, as in Nabal's cafe, who fhould have gone and made his peace with David. So that it is a plague to people, not only as Chriftians, but as men.

4thly, It mars the comfort of fociety, and makes people uneafy to those that are about them. When Elkanah went up to Shiloh with his family to rejoice before the Lord, fretting Hannah is out of tune, and mars the harmony, 1 Sam. i. 7. 8. Peninnah provokes Hannah, Hannah is angry with her, and Elkanah with both. So it is the peft of fociety, and makes an evil world ten times worse. It makes people a burden to others, because it gives hem a cloudy day while it lafts..

5thly, It is a torment to one's felf, and makes a man his own tormentor, 1 Kings xxi. 4. It wraps him up in darknefs, feeds him with bitterness, and gives him gall and wormwood to drink, Prov. XV. 16. for his ordinary. It robs him of the best worldly thing he can poffefs, i. e. his peace and tranquillity of mind; and makes his mind within him as the troubled fea that cannot reft. So the difcontented perfon is on a continual rack, and he himself is executioner. All fins are difpleafing to God, yet in many there is fome pleasure to men, both the actors and others; but corrupt nature cannot train any pleasure out of this in one's felf, nor in others either, unlefs like the devil they have a pleasure in feeing others miserable.

6thly, It is not only tormenting to one's mind, but is ruinous to the body, Prov. xvii. 22. A broken Spirit drieth the bones. It is a degree of felf-murder. It wastes the natural fpirits, and has a native tendency to cut fhort one's days. The foul and body are fo knit, that they mutually affect one another;, and the mind difordered by fretting paffions will fret the body, and confume it like a moth.

7tbly, It fucks the fap out of all one's enjoyments.

As a few drops of gall will embitter a cup of wine, and a few drops of ink will blacken a cup of the cleareft liquor; fo difcontent upon one ground will embitter and blacken all other enjoyments. See

it in Haman, Efth. v. 11. 12. 13. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and fervants of the king. Haman faid more over, Yea, Efther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that he had prepared, but myself; and to-morrow am I invited unto her alfo with the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, fo long as I fee Mordecai the Jew fitting at the king's gate See it alfo in Ahab, 1 Kings xxi. 4. And Abab came into his house, heavy and difpleafed, because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him for be bad faid, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers: and he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. As contentment, turns all metals into gold, fo difcontentment turns them into iron. What tafte is there in the white of an egg without falt? There is as much as in any enjoyinent under the fun without contentment. If we have not that for feafoning to our comforts, they are taftelefs and faplefs, as alhes. And therefore let a man have what he will, he enjoys no more than what he has contentment in.

8thly, Hence it always makes one unthankful. Let providence fet the difcontented man in a paradife, the fruit of that one tree which is forbidden him, and which he is fo uneafy about, will fo embitter him, that he will not give God thanks for all the variety of other delights which the garden is furnifhed with. For all these avail him nothing while that is kept out of his reach. It will make him pore fo on his crofs, that he will not look over his fhoulder to all his comforts. Ingratitude is a fin of a