I. Plenty, and the pleasures of the world, are no proper inftruments of happiness. It is neceffary, that a man have some violence done to himself, before he can receive them. For nature's bounds are, to be free from hunger, and thirft, and cold; that is, to have nothing upon us, that puts us to pain: against which, we are provided with the fleece of the fheep, and the skins of beafts; by the waters of the fountain, and the herbs of the field. And of these no good man is deftitute, for that fhare that he can need, to fill thofe appetites and neceffities which he cannot otherwise avoid.

For it is unimaginable, that God should be a parent, natural and indulgent to the beafts of the foreft, and the fishes of the fea, to every herb and plant, and to every creeping thing that creepeth upon the face of the earth, making his storehouses always to ftand open to them; and that for the chief of all these, even to the noblest production of the creation, he should have made no provifion, and only produced in us vehement appetites, and left us to chance or violence to feed and cloath us.

This is fo far from truth, that we are eertainly more provided for by nature, than all the world befides. For every thing can minister to us; and we can pass into none of nature's cabinets, but we find our table spread. So that what David faid to God, Whither shall I go from thy presence? If I go to heaven, thou art there; if I defcend to the deep, thou art there alfo; if I take the wings of the morning, and flee into the uttermost parts of the wilderness, even there thou wilt find me out, and thy right hand fhall uphold me ;-we may say it concerning our table and our wardrobe. If tve go into the fields, we fhall find them tilled by the mercies of heaven, and watered with fhowers from God, to feed and cloath us. If we go down into the deep; there God hath multiplied our ftores, and filled a magazine which no hunger can exhaust. The air drops down delicacies; and the wilderness can fuftain us; and all that is in nature, that which feeds lions, and that which the ox eateth, that which the fifhes live upon, and that which is the provision for the birds, all that can keep us alive.

And

And if we confider, that for these nature hath prepared but one kind of food, and this alfo we fometimes fecure from them with guards, and drive away birds and beafts from that provision which nature hath made for them, yet feldom can we find that any of these perish with hunger; much rather shall we find, that we are fecured by the provifions proper for the more noble creatures by that providence, that disposeth all things; by that mercy, that gives us all things, which to other creatures are miniftred fingly; by that labour, that can procure what we need; by that wisdom, which can confider concerning future neceffities; by that power, which can force it from inferior creatures; and by that temperance, which can fit our meat to our neceffities.

For if we go beyond what is needful; as we find fometimes more than was promised, and very often more than we need, fo we diforder the certainty of our felicity, by putting that to hazard, which nature hath fecured.

For it is not certain, that if we desire to have the wealth of the Indies, we fhall for

all

all this never want. It is not nature that defires these things; but appetite, and violence. By a disease of the mind we entered into that neceffity; and in that state of trouble it is likely we may dwell for ever, unless we reduce our appetites to nature's measures.

And therefore it is, that plenty and plea→ fures are not the proper inftruments of felicity. Because felicity is not a jewel that can be locked in one man's cabinet. God intended that all men should be made happy; and he, that gave to all men the fame natural defires, and to all men provision of fatisfactions by the fame meats and drinks, intended, that it should not go beyond that measure of good things, which corresponds to thofe defires which all men naturally have.

He that cannot be fatisfied with common provision, hath a bigger need than he that can: It is harder, and more contingent, and more difficult, and more troublefome, for him to be fatisfied. He that can be fatisfied out of nature's flores, may defy the pleasures of coftly ambition. Nature's provifions are eafy; they are to be gotten

gotten without amazing cares.

No man

needs to flatter, if he can live as nature did intend. He needs not fwell his accounts, and intricate his fpirit with arts of fubtilty. and contrivance. He can be free from fears; and the chances of the world cannot concern him.

In fhort, All our trouble is from within. us And if a moderate fare can cure all, our defires, fo that we fhall have neither thirst, nor pride, nor envy, nor ambition ; we are lodged in the bosom of felicity. And indeed, no men fleep fo foundly, as they that lay their heads upon nature's lap. For a plain provifion, drawn from the ftorehouse of nature, can cure our hunger and thirst: But the most sumptuous entertainment cannot fatisfy our ambition, and our pride.

He therefore that hath the fewest defires, and the moft quiet paffions, whose wants are foon provided for, and whofe poffeffions cannot be disturbed with violent fears, he that dwells nigh to fatisfaction, and can carry his needs and lay them down where he pleases; this is the happy man: and VOL. III.

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