Can any man charge God,
that He hath not given him enough to make his life happy? No,
doubtless; for nature is content with a little. And yet you shall hardly
meet with a man that complains not of some want; though he, indeed,
wants nothing but his will; it may be, nothing but his will of his poor
neighbour, for not worshipping, or not flattering him: and thus, when
we might be happy and quiet, we create trouble to ourselves. I have
heard of a man that was angry with himself because he was no taller;
and of a woman that broke her looking-glass because it would not shew
her face to be as young and handsome as her next neighbour's was. And
I knew another to whom God had given health and plenty; but a wife
that nature had made peevish, and her husband's riches had made purse-
proud; and must, because she was rich, and for no other virtue, sit in the
highest pew in the church; which being denied her, she engaged her
husband into a contention for it, and at last into a law-suit with a
dogged neighbour who was as rich as he, and had a wife as peevish and
purse-proud as the other: and this law-suit begot higher oppositions, and
actionable words, and more vexations and lawsuits; for you must
remember that both were rich, and must therefore have their wills.
Well! this wilful, purse-proud law-suit lasted during the life of the first
husband; after which his wife vext and chid, and chid and vext, till she
also chid and vext herself into her grave: and so the wealth of these
poor rich people was curst into a punishment, because they wanted
meek and thankful hearts; for those only can make us happy.
Pages:
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232