312 THE COMPLETE ANGLEB. [PART I. 



he would find content in any of his houses, he must 

 leave himself behind him ; for, content will never dwell but 

 in a meek and quiet soul." And this may appear, if we 

 read and consider what our Saviour says in St. Matthew's 

 Gospel: for he there says, "Blessed be the merciful, for 

 they shall obtain mercy. Blessed be the pure in heart, for 

 they shall see God. Blessed be the poor in spirit, for theirs 

 is the kingdom of heaven. And, Blessed be the meek, for 

 they shall possess the earth." Not that the meek shall not 

 also obtain mercy, and see God, and be comforted, and at 

 last come to the kingdom of heaven ; but in the mean time 

 he, and he only, possesses the earth as he goes toward that 

 kingdom of heaven, by being humble and cheerful, and 

 content with what his good God has allotted him. He has 

 no turbulent, repining, vexatious thoughts, that he deserves 

 better; nor is vexed when he sees others possessed of more 

 honour, or more riches than his wise God has allotted for 

 his share ; but he possesses what he has with a meek and 

 contented quietness ; such a quietness as makes his very 

 dreams pleasing both to God and himself. 



My honest scholar, all this is told to incline you to 

 thankfulness : and to incline you the more, let me tell you, 

 that though the prophet David was guilty of murder and 

 adultery, and many other of the most deadly sins : yet he 

 was said to be a man after God's own heart, because he 

 abounded more with thankfulness than any other that 

 is mentioned in Holy Scripture, as may appear in his 

 book of Psalms ; where there is such a commixture of 

 his confessing of his sins and unworthiness, and such 

 thankfulness for God's pardon and mercies, as did make 

 him to be accounted, even by God himself, to be a man 

 after his own heart : and let us, in that, labour to be as like 

 him as we can ; let not the blessings we receive daily from 

 God, make us not to value, or not praise Him because they 

 be common : let not us forget to praise Him for the inno- 

 cent mirth and pleasure we have met with since we met 

 together. What would a blind man give to see the plea- 

 sant rivers, and meadows, and flowers, and fountains, that 

 we have met with since we met together ? I have been 

 told, that if a man that was born blind, could obtain to have 

 his sight for but only one hour during his whole life, and 



