The Art of Contentment, Section 3
SECT. III.
Of Gods Vnlimited Bounty.
1. IT is the known character of an unworthy nature, to write injuries in Marble, and benefits in dust: and however some (as Seneca well observes) may acquit themselves of this imputation as to man, yet scarce any do so in relation to God. Tis true indeed the charge must be a little varied; for God neither will nor can do us injury: yet we receive any thing that is adverse with such a resentment as if it were, and engrave that in our memories with indelible characters, whilst his great and reall benefits are either not at all observ'd, or with so transient an advertence, that the comparison of dust is beyond our pitch, and we may be more properly said to write them in water. Nay so far are we from keeping records and registers of his favors, that even those standing and fixt ones which sense can promt us to (without the aid of our memories) cannot obtain our notice.
2. WERE it not thus, it were impossible for men to be so perpetually in the complaining Key, as if their voices were capable of no other sound. One wants this, and another that, and a third somthing beyond them both, and so on ad infinitum; when all this while every one of them enjoies a multitude of good things without any remark. That very breath wherewith they utter their complaints, is a blessing, and a fundamental one too: for if God should withdraw that, they were incapable of whatsoever else they either have, or desire. Tis true that some mens impatiencies have risen so high, as to cast away life, because it was not clothed with all circumstances they wisht. Yet these are rare instances, and do only shew such mens depraved judgment of things. A rich Jewel is not the less valuable, because a mad man in his raving fit flings it into the fire: but as to the generality of men, the devil (tho a liar) gave a true account of their sense, when he said, Skin for skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life. Job. 2. 4. And tho perhaps in an angry fit many men have with Jonas Chap. 4. 3. wisht to die, yet ten to one should death then come, they would be as willing to divert it, as was the man in the Apologue, who wearied with his burden of sticks, flung it down and call'd for death, but when he came, own'd no other occasion for him, but to be helpt up again with his bundle. I dare in this appeal to the experience of those, who have seemed very weary of life, whether when any suddain danger has surprised them, it has not as suddenly altered their mind, and made them more desire life, then before they abhor'd it. Tis the common saying, As long as there is life there is hope: there is so as to secular concerns, for what strange revolutions do we often see in the age of a man? from what despicable beginnings have many arriv'd to the most splendid conditions? Of which we have divers modern as well as ancient instances. And indeed tis admirable to see what time and industry will (with Gods blessing) effect. But there is no work, nor device, nor knowledg, nor wisdom in the grave. Ecc. 9. 10. we can improve no more when we are once transplanted thither.
3. BUT this is yet much more considerable in respect of our spiritual state. Our life is the day wherein we are to work. Joh. 9. 4. (yea to work out our Salvation:) but when the night comes (when death overtakes) no man can work. Now alas when tis consider'd how much of this day the most of us have loiter'd away, how many of us have stood idle till the sixt or ninth hour, it will be our concern not to have our day close before the eleventh. Nay alas tis yet worse with us: we have not only bin idle, but very often ill busied; so that we have a great part of our time to unravel, and that is not to be don in a moment. For tho our works may fitly enough be represented by the Prophets comparison of a spiders web, Isay. 59. 5. yet they want the best property even of that; they cannot be so soon undon. Vices that are radicated by time and custom, lie too deep to be lightly swept away. Tis no easy thing to perswade our selves to the will of parting with them. Many violences we must offer to our selves, a long and strict course of mortification must be gon thro, ere we can find in our hearts to bid them be gon: and yet when we do so, they are not so tractable as the Centurions servants. They will indeed come when-ever we bid them, but they will scarce go so: they must be expell'd by force and by slow degrees; we must fight for every inch of ground we gain from them: and as God could not assist the Israelites to subdue the Canaanites, at once Deut. 7. 22. so neither ordinarily do's he us to master perfectly our corruptions. Now a process of this difficulty is not to be dispatcht on a sudden. And yet this is not all our task, for we have not only ill habits to extirpate, but we have also good ones to acquire: tis not a mere negative vertue will serve our turns, nor will emty lamps enter us into the marriage chamber, Mat. 25. 10. We must add to our faith vertue, and to vertue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, &c. 2 Pet. 1. 5. No link must be wanting of that sacred chain, but we must (as the same Apostle advises) be holy in all manner of conversation. 1 Pet. 1. 15.
4. AND now I would desire the Reader seriously to consider, whether he can upon good grounds tell himself that this so difficult (and yet so necessary) a work is effectually wrought in him. If it be, he is a happy man, and can with no pretence complain of any external want: (he that is fed with Manna, must be strangely perverse if he murmur for a belly-full of leeks and onions. Num. 11. 5.) But on the contrary he owes infinite thanks to God, that has spared him time for this important business, and did not put a period to his natural life, before he had begun a spiritual. For I fear there are among the best of us few of so entire an innocence, but they may remember some, either habits or acts of sin, in which it would have bin dreadful for them to have bin snatcht away. And then how comprehensive, how prolifie a mercy has life bin to them, when it has carried eternity in its womb, and their continuance on earth has qualified them for heaven? Neither are such persons only to look on it as a blessing in the retrospect, as it relates to the past, but also in the present and future: which if they continue to employ well, do's not only confirm, but advance their reward. Besides God may please by them to glorify himself, make them instrumental to his service; which as it is the greatest honor, so it is also the greatest satisfaction to a good heart. He shews himself too mercenary that so longs for his reward, as to grow impatient of his attendances: he that loves God, thinks himself blest in the opportunity of doing work, as well as in receiving wages. Thus we see how life is under all these aspects a mercy to a pious man, and such as not only obliges him to contentment, but gratitude.
5. BUT supposing a man cannot give this comfortable account of his life, but is conscious that he has spent it to a very different purpose, yet do's not that at all lessen his obligations to God, who meant he should have emploi'd it better, and that he has not don so is merely his own fault. Nay indeed the worse his state is, the greater mercy it is, that God has not yet made it irreversible, that he has not cut him off at once from the earth and the possibility of heaven too, but affords him yet a longer day, if yet he will hear his voice Psal. 95. 7. This long-suffering is one of the most transcendent acts of divine goodness, & therefore the Apostle rightly stiles it the riches of his goodness and long-suffering and forbearance Rom. 2. 4. and so at last we commonly acknowledg it, when we have worn it out, and can no longer receive advantage by it. What a value do's a gasping despairing soul put upon a small parcel of that time, which before he knew not how fast enough to squander? Oh that men would set the same estimate on it before, and then certainly, as it would make them better husbands of it, so it would also render them more thankful for it, Accounting that the long-suffering of our Lord is Salvation. 2 Pet. 3. 15.
6. INDEED did men but rightly compute the benefit of life upon this score, all secular encumbrances and uneasinesses of it would be overwhelmed, and stand only as Cyphers in the account. What a shame is it then that we should spend our breath in sighs and out-cries? which if we would employ to those nobler ends for which twas given, would supersede our complaints, and make us confess we were well dealt with, that our life (tho bare and stript of all outward accessaries) is given us for a prey. Jer. 45. 5. And indeed he that has yet the great work of life to do, can very ill spare time or sorrow to bestow upon the regretting any temporal distress, since his whole stock is little enough to bewail and repair his neglects of his eternal concerns. Were our lives therefore destitute of all outward comfort, nay were they nothing but a scene of perpetual disasters, yet this one advantage of life would infinitly outweigh them all, and render our murmurings very inexcusable.
7. BUT God has not put this to the utmost trial, has never plac'd any man in such a state of unmixt calamity, but that he still affords many and great allaies: he finds it fit somtimes to defalk some of our outward comforts, and perhaps imbitter others, but he never takes all away. This must be acknowledged, if we do but consider how many things there are in which the whole race of mankind do in common partake. The four Elements, fire and water, air and earth, do not more make up every mans composition, then they supply his needs: the whole host of heaven, the Sun, Moon, and Stars, Moses will tell us, are by God divided to all nations under the whole Heaven, Deut. 4. 19. Those resplendent bodies, equally afford their light and influence to all. The sun shines as bright on the poor Cottage, as on the most magnificent Palace; and the stars have their benign Aspects, as well for him, that is behind the Mill, as for him that sitteth on the Throne. Ex. 11. 5. Propriety (the great incendiary below) breeds no confusion in those celestial Orbs, but they are every mans tresure, yet no mans peculiar (as if they meant to teach us, that our love of appropriation descends not from above Jam. 3. 15. is no heavenly quality.)
8. AND as they make no distinction of the ranks and degrees of men, so neither do they of their vertues. Our Savior, tells us God causes his Sun to rise on the good and on the evil, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust, Mat. 5. 45. If now we descend lower to the sublunary creatures, they equally pay their homage to man, do not disdain the dominion of the poor, and submit to that of the rich, but shew us that that their instinct extends to the whole nature. An horse draws the poor mans plough, as tamely as the Princes chariot, and the beggars hungry cur follows him with as much obsequiousness and affection as the pamper'd lap-dogs of the nicest Ladies. The sheep obey a poor mercenary shepherd as well as they did the Daughters of the wealthy Laban Gen. 29. 9. or of Iethro a Prince Exod. 2. 16. and as willingly yield their fleece to clothe Lazarus, as to make purple for Dives. And as animals, so vegetables are as communicative of their qualities to one man as another. The corn nurishes, the fruits refresh, the flowers delight, the simples cure the poor man as well as the rich.
9. BUT I foresee it will be objected, that these natural privileges are insignificant, because they are evacuated by those positive laws which bound propriety, and that therefore tho one man could use the creatures as well as another, yet every man has them not to use. I answer, that for some of the things I have mention'd, they are still in their native latitude, cannot be inclosed or monopoliz'd. The most ravenous oppressor could never yet lock up the sun in his chest: he that laies house to house and land to land, till there be no place Esay. 5. 8. cannot inclose the common air: and the like may be said of divers of the rest, so that there are some (and those no mean) blessings, which continue still the indefeisible right of mankind in general.
10. As for those other things which are liable to the restrictive terms of meum and tuum, tis not to be deni'd but there is vast difference in the dispensing them; as great as Nathans parable describes, when he speaks of the numerous flocks of the rich man, and the single ewe lamb of the poor, 2 Sam. 12. 2. yet there is scarce any so deplorably indigent, but that by one means or other, he has or may have the necessary supports of life. Perhaps they fall not into his lap by birth-right and inheritance, yet they are acquirable by labor and industry, which is perhaps the better tenure. They cannot it may be arrive to Sodoms fulness of bread: yet if they have not her abundance of Idleness, Ez. 16. 49. they commonly need not want that, which was the height of Agurs wish, food convenient, Pro. 30. 8. Tis true indeed, if they will fold their hands in their bosom, if with Solomons Sluggard, they will not plough by reason of the cold, they must take his fate in the summer, as they have his ease in the winter, they may beg in harvest, and have nothing, Prov. 20. 4. But then tis visible they are the Authors of their own necessities. And indeed to men of such lazy careless natures, tis hard to say, what degree of Gods bounty can keep them from want, since we often see the fairest fortunes dissipated as well by the supine negligence, as the riotous prodigality of the owners. And therefore if men will be idle, they are not to accuse God, but themselves if they be indigent.
11. BUT then there is one case wherein men seem more inevitably expos'd, and that is when by age, sickness, or decrepitness, they are disabled from work; or when their family is too numerous for their work to maintain. And this indeed seems the most forlorn state of poverty: yet God has provided for them also, by assigning such persons to the care of the rich; nay he has put an extraordinary mark of favor on them, given them the honor of being his proxies and representatives, made them letters of Attorny (as it were) to demand relief in his name, and upon his account. And tho tis too true, that even that Autority will not prevail with many of the rich to open their purses, yet even in this Age of frozen charity, there are still some who remember upon what terms they received their wealth, and employ it accordingly. And tho the number of them is not so great as were to be wisht, yet there are in all parts some scattered here and there like Cities of refuge in the Land, Deut. 19. 2. to which these poor distressed creatures way flee for succour. And I think I may say, that between the legal provisions that are made in this case and voluntary contributions, there are not very many that want the things that are of absolute necessity: and we know St. Paul comprizes those in a small compass, food and raiment, and proposes them as sufficient materials of Content. 1 Tim. 6. 8. I say not this to contract any mans bowels, or lessen his compassions to such poor wretches. For how much soever they lend, I wish as Ioab did in another case to David, the Lord increase it a hundred-fold, 2 Sam. 24. 3. I only urge it as an evidence of the assertion I am to prove, that no man is so pretermitted by God or his disposal of temporals, but that even he that seems the most abandon'd has a share in his providence, and consequently cannot justly murmur, since even this state which is the highest instance of human indigence, is not without its receits from God.
12. BUT the number in this form are but few, compar'd to those in a higher, for between this and the highest affluence, how many intermedial degrees are there, in which men partake not only of the necessaries, but comforts of life; that have not only food and raiment, but their distinction of holy-day and working-day fare and apparel? He that is but one step advanced from beggery has so much, he that has got to a second has more then is necessary, and so every degree rises in plenty till it comes to vanity and excess, and even there too there are gradual risings, some having so much fewel for luxury, that they are at as great a losse for invention, as others can be for materials, and complain that there are no farther riots left for them to essay. How many are there who have so cloi'd and glutted their senses, that they want some other inlets for plesure, and with the rich man in the Gospel, are in distress where to bestow their abundance?
13. AND sure such as these cannot deny that they have reciev'd good things, yet generally there are none less contented, which is a clear demonstration that our repinings proceed not from any defect of bounty in God, but from the malignant temper of our own hearts. And as it is an easier thing to satisfy the cravings of an hungry, then to cure the nauseous recoilings of a surfeited stomach; so certainly the discontents of the poor, are much easier allai'd then those of the rich; the indigence of the one has contracted his desires, and has taught him not to look farther then a little beyond bare necessaries, so that a moderate Alms satisfies, and a liberal transports him: but he who by a perpetual repletion has his desires stretcht and extended, is capable of no such satisfaction: when his enjoiments forestall all particular pursuits, and he knows not upon what to fasten his next wish; yet even then he has some confus'd unform'd appetites, and thinks himself miserable because he cannot tell what would make him more happy. And yet this is that envi'd state which men with so much greediness aspire to, every man looks on it as the top of felicity to have nothing more to wish in the world. And yet alas even that when attain'd, would be their torment. Let men never think then that contentment is to be caught by long and forreign chaces; he is likliest to find it who sits at home, and duly contemplates those blessings which God has brought within his reach, of which every man has a fair proportion, if he will advert to it.
14. FOR besides these external accessions (of which the meanest have some, the middle sort a great deale, and the uppermost rather too much) man is a principality within himself, and has in his composure so many excellent impresses of his Makers power and goodness, that he need not ask leave of any exterior thing to be happy, if he know but aright how to value himself: the very meanest part of him, his body is a piece of admirable workman-ship, of a most incomprehensible contrivance, as the Psalmist saies, he is fearfully and wonderfully made; and tis astonishing to think of what a symmetry of parts this beautiful fabric is made up. Nor are they only for shew, but use: every member, every limb is endowed with a particular faculty to render it serviceable to the whole; and that admirable contexture of veins and arteries, sinues and muscles, nerves and tendons, none are superfluous, but some way or other contributes to vegetation, sense, or motion, nay the most noble and most useful parts are all of them double, not only as a reserve in case of misadventure of one part; but also as an instance of the bounty of the Donor. And indeed it is observable of Galen in his writings, that after he had taken great care to exemt himself and all of his Profession from taking notice of the Deity, by saying that to discourse concerning the Gods, was the task of speculative Philosophers; yet coming to write de usu partium, and considering the frame of humane bodies, and therein discovering the wonderful contrivance of every part in reference to its self, and also to the whole; their strength, agility, and various movement, infinitly surpassing the powers of all Mechanic engines; he seems to have had the fate we read of Saul in holy Scripture, and against his genius and purpose, to become a Prophet; breaking frequently out into Hymns and sacred raptures; saying, these Mysteries are more divine then the Samothracian or Elusinian; and confessing they both strictly require, and infinitly excell the low returnes of human praise. But beyond the fabric of parts as organic, what an extract of wonder are our senses, those five operations of the Lord as the son of Syrach rightly (and by way of eminence) stiles them, Ecclus. 17. 5? By these we draw all outward objects to our selves; what were the beauties of the universe to us, if we had not sight to behold them, or the most melodious sounds, if we had not hearing? and so of the rest. And yet these are not only generally given, but also preserv'd to the greater part of men, and perhaps would be to more, did not our base undervaluing of common mercies, force God somtimes to instruct us in their worth, by making us feel what it is to want them.
15. MULTITUDE of refreshments also God has provided for our bodies, particularly that of sleep, of which he has bin so considerate, as in his distributions of time, to make a solemn allotment for it: yet who almost when he lies down considers the mercy, or when he rises refresht, rises thankful also? But if our rest at any time be interrupted by the cares of our mind, or pains of our bodies, then, (and not till then) we consider, that tis God who gives his belov'd sleep Psal. 127. 2. and think it a blessing worth our esteem. Thus it is with health, strength, and every thing else, we despise it whilst we have it, and impatiently desire it whilest we have it not; but in the interim sure we cannot complain, that Gods hand is shortned towards us, when in the ordinary course of his providence we commonly enjoy these mercies many years, which we find so much miss of, if they be withdrawn but for a few houres. And indeed there is not a greater instance of human pravity then our senseless contemt of blessings, merely because they are customary; which in true reason is an argument why we should prize them the more. When we deal with men, we discern it well enough, he that gives me once a 100. pounds, I account not so much my benefactor, as if he made it my annual revenue; yet God must lose his thanks, by multiplying his favors; and his benefits grow more invisible by their being alwaies before us.
16. BUT the body (with its enjoiment) is but the lowest instance of Gods bounty, tis but a decent case for that inestimable Jewel he has put in it: the soul, like the Ark, is the thing for which this whole tabernacle was framed, and that is a spark of Divinity in which alone it is that God accomplished his design of making man in his own image Gen. 1. 26. Twould be too long to attemt an exact survey of its particular excellencies, the mere intellectual powers wherewith it is indued, have exercised the curiosity and raised the admiration of the great contemplators of nature in all ages, yet after all, of so subtile composure is the soul, that it is inscrutable even to it self: and tho the simplest man knows he has the faculties of Imagination, Apprehension, Memory, Reflecting; yet the learnedst cannot assign where they are seated, or by what means they operate. Tis enough to us that we have them, and many excellent uses for them; one whereof (and a most necessary one) is a thankful reflexion on the goodness of God who gave them. He might have made us in the very lowest form of creatures, insensible stocks or stones; or if he had advanc'd us a step-higher, he might have fixt us among mere animals, made us perhaps of the noxious, at best of the tamer sort of beasts; but he has plac'd us in the highest rank of visible creatures, and not only given Dominion over the works of his hands Psal. 8. 6. but has given us reason wherewith to manage that soveraignty, without which we had only bin the more masterful sort of brutes.
17. YET still the soul is to be consider'd in a higher notion, that of its immortality and capacity of endless bliss: and here indeed it owns its extraction, and is an image of the first being, whose felicity is coexistent with himself; this as it is the most transcendent accomplishment of our nature, so it is most universal. Whatever disparity there may be between man and man in other respects, yet in this all are equal, the poor begger at the gate has a soul as capacious of eternal happiness, as he whose crumbs he begs for (nay somtimes better prepar'd for it, as that parable shews Luke 16. 21.) And tho the dignities of earth are the prize of the rich and noble, the subtle and designing; yet heaven is as easily mounted from the dung-hill as the throne, and an honest simplicity will sooner bring us thither, then all the Machiavelian policy. Nay God has not only design'd us to so glorious an end, but has don all on his part to secure us of it, sent his Son to lead us the way, his spirit to quicken us in it. We need not dispute how universal this is; tis sure it concerns all to whom I am now speaking, those that are within the pale of the church: and if it should prove confin'd only to them, the more peculiar is their obligation, that are thus singled out from the rest of the world, and the greater ought to be their thankfulness. The heathen Philosopher made it matter of his solemn acknowledgment to fortune, that he was born a Grecian and not a Barbarian: and sure the advantages of our Christianity are of a much higher strein, and ought to be infinitly more celebrated. The Apostle we find often applauding this glorious privilege, as that which makes fellow citizens with the Saints, and of the houshold of God, Ephes. 3. 19. nay which elevates us to a higher state, the adoption of sons, Gal. 4. 5. nor only Sons, but Heirs also of God, and joint Heirs with Christ, Rom. 8. 17. And what ambition is there so greedy which this will not satisfy? yet this is our common state, the birth-right of our regeneration, if we do not degrade our selves, and with Esau basely sell our title.
18. AND now methinks every man may interrogate himself in the same form, wherein Ionadab did Amnon 2 Sam 13. 4. why art thou, being the Kings son, thus lean from day to day? Why should a Person who is adopted by the King of Kings, thus languish and pine? What is there below the sun worthy his notice, much less his desires, that hath a Kingdom above it? Certainly did we but know how to estimate our selves upon this account, twere impossible for us with such sordid condescentions to court every petty wordly interest, and so impatiently vex our selves when we cannot attain it. Alas how unworthily do we bear the name of Christians, when that which carried the Forefathers of our Faith thro the most fiery trials, cannot support us under the disappointment of any extravagant desire? They had such respect to the recompence of the reward, Heb. 11. 26. as made them cheerfully expose their Fame to ignominy, their Goods to rapine, their Bodies to the most exquisite tortures, and their Lives to death. Yet the same hopes cannot work us to any tolerable degree of patience, when we suffer but the smallest diminution in any of these. What shall we say? Is Heaven grown less valuable, or Earth more then it was then? No surely, but we are more infatuated in our estimates: we have so long abetted the rivalry of the hand-maid, that the Mistress, like Sarah, appears despicable. Like Ionah we sit down sullen upon the withering of a gourd, never considering that God has provided us a better shelter, a building of God eternal in the Heavens. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Indeed there can be no temporal destitution so great, which such an expectation cannot make supportable. Were we in Iobs condition sitting upon a dunghil, and scraping our selves with a potsheard, yet as long as we can say with him our Redeemer liveth. Job. 19. 25. we have all reason to say with him also, blessed be the name of the Lord. Chap. 1. 21. What a madness is it then for us to expose our selves to be pierc'd and wounded by every temporal adversity, who have so impenetrable an armour? nay what an ungrateful contumely is it to that goodness of God, to shew that we cannot make him a counterpoise to the most trivial secular satisfaction? on which account sure he may again take up that exprobrating complaint we find in the Prophet, A goodly price that I was valued at by them. Zac. 11. 13.
19. BUT how mean soever he is in our eies, tho Christ seem the same to us in his glory which he did in his abjection, to have no beauty that we should desire him; yet he puts another rate upon himself, and tell us that he that loves Father or Mother, Son or Daughter more then me, is not worthy of me. Mat. 10. 37. Now our love and our joy are passions coincident, and therefore whatever we joy more in then we do in him, we may be presum'd to love better; and if he cannot endure the competition of those more ingenuous objects of our love he there mentions, how will he suffer that of our vanities, our childish wanton appetites? And yet those are the things after which we so impatiently rave. For I believe I may truly affirm, that if there were a scrutiny made into all the discontents of mankind, for one that were fastned upon any great considerable calamity, there are many that are founded only in the irregularity of our own desires.
20. BY what has bin said we may justly conclude in the Prophets phrase, God hath not bin to us a wilderness, a land of darkness, Jer. 2. 31. but has graciously dispen'st to us in all our interests. Yet the instances here given are only common, such as relate to all, or at least the far greater part of mankind: but what volums might be made, should every man set down his own particular experiences of mercy? In that case twould be no extravagant Hyperbole we find Joh. 22. 25. That even the world it self could not contain the books which should be written. God knows our memories are very frail, and our observations slight in this point: yet abstracting from all the forgotten or neglected favors, what vast catalogues may every man make to himself, if he would but yet recollect, what effects he has had of Gods bounty in giving, of his providence in protecting, of his grace in restraining, and exciting, of his patience in forbearing? And certainly all these productions of the divine goodness were never design'd to die in the birth. The Psalmist will tell us, the Lord hath so don his marvellous works, that they ought to be had in remembrance. Ps. III. 4. Let every man then make it his daily care to recount to himself the wonders God hath don, as for the children of men in general, so for himself in particular. When the Israelites murmured under their bondage, Pharaoh imputes it to their idleness, and prescribes them more work, as the readiest cure: a piece indeed of inhuman Tyranny in him, but may with equity and success be practiced by us upon our selves. When we find our appetites mutinous, complaining of our present condition, let us set our selves to work, impose it as a task upon our selves to recollect the many instances of Gods mercies. And surely if we do it sincerely, and with intention, we cannot have past thro half our stages, before our sullen murmurs will be beat out of countenance, and retire with shame, when they are confronted with such a cloud of witnesses, such signal testimonies of Gods goodness to us: for when we have muster'd up all our little grievances, most critically examin'd all our wants, we shall find them very unproportionable to our comforts, and to our receits; in which comparative notion, the next Section is to consider them.