The spiritual bee, or, A miscellany of scriptural, historical, natural observations and occasional occurencyes applyed in divine meditations by an university pen

XXXIII.

THe Universal Center to which all the thoughts a∣ctions, and contrivances of Men, tend, the Point to which they are all directed is Con∣tentment; this is the great Spring to all the various moti∣tions of Mankinde: And how∣ever distant and contrary their ways and courses, their incli∣nations and constitutions are, yet here they all meet and con∣center in this one reconciling object: They doe perhaps pro∣pound to themselves as several Idaea's thereof as they have different faces, but their desire

is one and the same. Content∣ment is that which the Learned▪ seek's to attain in his industri∣ous quest after knowledge, this Jewel the Merchant seekes in his dangerous voyages, the Ambiti••us in his passionate pursuite of Honour, the Cove∣teous in his unwearyed heaping up of treasur••, the Lascivious in the pleasing charmes of beau∣ty, the Conquerour in his ear∣nest desires after victory, the Polititian in his deep designes and crafty knacks. But alas! The misery of men is that they would find that in the variety of the creatures, which is no where to be found but in the unity of the Creatour. It is not in the Wise Solomon's dear bought Experience, in the

Rich Fooles full Barnes, in am∣bitious Haman's state & Gran∣d••ur, in Ahab's ravish'd Vine∣yard, in Sampson's lovely Da∣lilah, in Nebuchadnezar's Rule over the World, in Achito∣phel's deep-pated Witt. It is peculiar to God's Wisdom to engross all content in his own hands that he may dispose of it by retail to the children of men, and enforce all, either to purchase it of him or want it. Hence it is that men generally waste themselves in desires, tire themselves with labours, form new projects, and yet all this while spend their mony for that which is not bread; and take up with glassebeads instead of that pearle of price. I condemn their desires as unjust, not because

they are without prudence▪ No matter though they be unsa∣tiable, if they were not blind and fix'd on objects too scan∣ty and disproportion'd. God as he is the only Principle of Being, so he is the only Foun∣tain of content; I will there∣fore desist from all vaine, a∣mazed and unsuccesful pur∣suits of it within the bounds of finite things where it is not to be found, and procure a Pa∣tent of it from him who hath reserved the Monopoly of it to himself.