The Eighth Consideration

A further consideration may be this, That before your conversion, before God wrought upon your souls, you were contented then with the world without grace, though you had no interest in God nor Christ, why cannot you now be contented with grace and spiritual things without the world? If you yourselves were content with the world without grace, there is reason you should be content with grace without the world? Certainly there is infinitely more reason. Yes, you see that many men of the world have a kind of contentment, do not murmur nor repine when the world comes though they have no interest in God and Christ. Then can you not have as much contentment with God and Christ without the world, as they can with the world without God and Christ? This is an infinite shame it should be so.

A further consideration: before your conversion, before God worked on your soul, you were content with the world without any grace — you had no claim on God or Christ, yet you were satisfied. Why then can you not now be content with grace and spiritual blessings without having the world as well? If you yourself were once content with the world without grace, there is every reason to be content with grace without the world. Certainly there is infinitely more reason for contentment now than there was then. You can see that many worldly people manage a kind of contentment, never murmuring or complaining, even though they have no interest in God or Christ. Can you not have at least as much contentment with God and Christ, even without the world, as they have with the world but without God and Christ? It is a profound shame if you cannot.