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and afflicted condition: 1. By attaining true godliness, unto which alone true contentment is annexed, 1 Tim. vi. 6. Godliness with contentment is great gain. 2. By being fully persuaded of, and seriously and understandingly eyeing the wise and good hand of God's providence, in his disposal of us, and bringing any affliction upon us, Job i. 21. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Psal. xxix. 9. I was dumb I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it, Psal. cxix. 75. I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right; and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. 3. By getting an interest, and trusting in God's promise, to cause all things, even the worst thing that can befal us, to work together for our good, Rom. viii. 2. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 4. By humility, and a deep sense of our undeservings, and ill deservings at God's hand for our sins, Gen. xxxiii. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant, Dan. ix. 8. 5. By looking unto others better than themselves, who have been lower in the world, and more afflicted than we have been; our Saviour had no where to lay his head and those of whom the world was not worthy, had no certain dwelling place in the world, and many of them destitute, afflicted andtormented. 6. By labouring so much the more to abound in spiritual riches the less we have of temporal; and if we have no searthly inheritance, to secure our right unto, and living by faith upon our heavenly inher itance, hereby the poorest, sometimes become the richest, and those that have most outward trouble, have most inward joy, James ii. 5. Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the king. dom which he hath promised to them that love him? 1 Thess. i. 6. Having received the word in much affiiction and with joy in the holy Ghost. 7. By considering how we brought nothing in the world, and that we can carry nothing with us out of it, Job i. 21. Na-ked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. 4 Tim. vi. 7, 8. For we brought

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nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. 1. By going to Christ. to teach us the lesson of universal contentment, and fetching strength from him to exercise this grace in every condition, Philip. iv. 11, 12, 13.

Q. 5. What doth the tenth commandment require in reference unto our neighbour?

A. The tenth commandment doth require in reference unto our neighbour, a right and charitable frame of spirit towards him and all that is his.

Q. 6. Wherein doth this right and charitable frame of spirit towards our neighbour, and all that is his, consist?

A. This right and charitable frame of spirit towards our neighbour and all that is his, doth consist, 1. In our affections of love, desire, and delight towards and in our neighbour, and his welfare: together with grief and sorrow with, and for our neighbour's evil and sufferings, Rom. xii. 15. Be kindly affectioned one to another, with brotherly love, rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep, Heb. xiii. 3. Remember those that are in bonds as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also ia the body. 2. In a ready disposition, and habitual inclination unto these affections towards our neighbour.

Q. 7. How may we attain such affections and dispositions towards our neighbour?

A. We may attain such affections and dispositions towards our neighbour. 1. By getting the law of God written upon our heart, whereby we are wrought into a love of the law, and to an inclination to do it, Heb. viii. 10. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts. 2. By getting our affections set chiefly upon God, which will incline unto any right affections one towards another. 1 John v. 1. Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. 3. By faith in Jesus Christ, which worketh the heart both to a true love to God, and one towards another, Gal. vi. 6. But faith which worketh by love. 3. By looking unto, and following the exam

ple of Jesus Christ, Eph. v. 2. And walk in love, as Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us.

81. Q. What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?

A. The tenth commandment forbiddeth, all discontentment with our own estate, envying or grieving at the good of our neighbour, and all inordinate motious and affections to any thing that is his.

Q. What are the sins forbidden in the tenth commandment?

A. The sins forbidden in the tenth commandment, are: 1. All discontentment, with our own estate. 2. All envying at the good of our neighbour. 3. All inordinate motions and affections towards any thing that is his.

Q. 2. Wherein doth discontentment with our own estate shew itself?

A. Discontentment with our own estate doth shew itself, in our not liking, or not being well pleased with our present condition, in our murmuring and repining, in our vexing and fretting, in our quarrelling, and complaining of our condition, and taking no rest or quiet therein, 1 Kings xxi. 3, 5. Esth. v. 11, 13. 1 Cor. x. 10.

Q. 3. Whence doth discontentment with our own estate arise ?

A. Discontentment with our own estate doth arise : 1. From our not believing, or not trusting the providence of God, who orders every particular circumstance of our estate and condition, and hath promised to order it for the best, Matth. x. 29, 30, 31. 2. From pride, and overvaluing of ourselves, as if we had some desert of our own, and such high thoughts, as if it were fit that such unworthy psrsons as we are, should be in a better condition than that wherein God hath placed us. S. From a carnal heart filled with inordinate selflove; which if God's providence doth not gratify with fall provisions for the flesh, it doth vex and grieve, and is disquieted. 4. From inordinate affections unto, and expectations of, and from these outward things, which caused inordinate grief and trouble in the loss of these

things, and great discontent in the disappointment of what we expected of them, and from them.

Q. 4. How may we be cured of discontentment with our own estate?

A. We may be cured of discontentment with our own estate, by mourning for it, and application of ourselves unto the Lord Jesus Christ, for pardon and healing: and by the diligent use of the means before directed, for the attainment of the grace of true contentment. Q. 5. What is the second sin forbidden in the tenth commandment?

A. The second sin forbidden in the tenth commandment, is envy, Gal. v. 26. Let us not be desirious of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Q. 6. What is envy?

A. Envy is grief at another's good, when the parts and gifts of the mind, or strength and beauty of the body, the wealth and outward prosperity, or the esteem and honour, or any good thing which another hath more than ourselves is a grief and trouble unto us, Psalm cxii. 9, 10. Neh. ii. 10.

Q. 8. Why ought we to forbear the envying one another?

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A. We ought to forbear envying one another : 1. Because this sin is very offensive unto God, reflecting great dishonour upon his goodness, Mat. xx. 15. Is thine eye evil, because I am good? 2. Because this sin is promoted by, and makes us like the devil, that envious spirit, John viii. 48. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. Because this sin of envy is heart-murder, and the spring of much strife and contention, and of much evil and mischief, which we shall be ready to do unto those whom we envy, James iii. 16. Where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. Because this şin of envy is very injurious unto ourselves : 1. To our bodies, it causeth a wasting and decay, and is the foundation of many distempers, and diseases, where it doth prevail, Prov. xiv. 14, 30. Envy is the rottenness of the bones. 2. To our souls, it puts our souls out of frame, and unfits us for the duties of God's worship,

Į Pet. ii. 1, 2, 3. To both body and soul, being such a sin as without repentance, and the mortification of it, will destroy both body and soul in hell.

Q. 8. How Ray we be delivered from the sin of envy? A. We may be delivered from the sins of envy?

1. By conviction of its evil, and hearty grief for it. 2. By application of the blood of Christ through faith, for the cleansing of our hearts from it. 2 John i. 7. The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. S. By cordial love and charity towards cur neighbour, 1 Cor. xiii. 4. Charity sufereth long, and is kind: charity envieth not. 4. By the indwelling of the spirit through whom alone this sin can be mortified and subdued, Rom. i. 15. If ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Q. 9. What is the third sin which the tenth commandment doth forbid?

A. The third sin which the tenth commandment doth forbid, is all inordinate motions and affections towards any thing that is our neighbour's, Col. iii. 5.

Q. 10. What special inordinate motion and affec tion is forbidden in this commandment ?

A. The special inordinate motion and affection which is forbidden in this commandment, is coveting that which is our neighbonr's either his house, or wife, or man servant, or maid servant, or ox, or ass, or any thing that is his.

Q. 11. Why ought we not to covet any thing that is our neighbour's?

A. We ought not to covet any thing that is our neighbour's: 1. Because God hath directly forbidden. it. 2. Because it is both uncharitableness and injustice towards our neighbour, to covet any thing that is his. 3. Because we lose the comfort of that which is our own, by coveting and inordinately desiring that 'which is another's.

Q. 12. Doth this tenth commandment forbid only the actual coveting that which is another's?

A. The tenth commandment doth not only forbid the actual coveting that which is another's, but also habitual inclinations hereunto, and all those inordinate motions of the spirit this way, which do preceed the

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