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Now if you would get the maftery of this Sin, and keep it under, you muft,

1. Labour to ftrengthen Charity, and grow in Love. Charity envieth not; the more Charity you have,, the less Envy have you. And if we could in this Life arrive at the Perfection of Charity, we fhould be perfectly freed from Envy : Joh. 4. For as St. John faith, that perfect Love cafteth out Fear; fo may it be faid also, that perfect Love cafteth out Envy.

2. Keep your Heart with all diligence. Watch your Heart, and narrowly obferve all the first stirrings of Envy, and ftifle them in the birth. Set your felf against them, and that not coldly and flothfully, but earnestly, vigorously, and effectually, affoon as ever you difcover them. Suffer not one envious Motion of your Heart to pafs without a fevere check. Refift fuch Motions ftrongly, reafon them down, pray them down, and never leave till you reduce your Heart to a charitable frame.

3. When you obferve that you begin to envy any Man the good Things in any kind which God hath beftowed upon him, let it be your conftant practice to fet your self to blefs God for his

Bounty

Bounty and Goodness towards fuch a Perfon, and earnestly beg of him that he would be pleased to increase what he hath bestowed upon him. Now as Envy in fome cafes is attended with fpecial Aggravations, fo ought we in thofe cafes fo much the more to condemn our felves for it, and refist it. As,

(1.) When we envy Men for those Things which are really their Unhappiness, and threaten their Ruine; fuch as are, high Places unto which Mens vicious courses have advanced them, Riches ill gotten, and Wealth attained by fraudulent and unjust Practices, Succefs in wicked and ungodly Enterprizes, outward Profperity in a course of Sin, Lewdness and Debauchery. Here your envying Men is most abfurd and irrational; for as 'tis with them, they are fitter Objects for your Pity than your Envy.

(2.) Another Aggravation of our Envy is, when we envy Men thofe good Things which they have far better deferved than our felves. When 'tis manifeft (as fometimes it is) that the good Things for which we envy them, were bestowed on them by the bountiful

Hand

Hand of God, as Rewards of that Obe dience, and thofe Services, which we never performed, how unjust, as well as fpightful, is our Envy against them!

(3.) When we envy Men for having but a little of that with which we abound; when we are troubled that a few drops of that Bounty fhould light on them, which rains down upon us in plentiful fhowers.

(4.) When we envy Men thofe Gifts and Graces, thofe Abilities and Oppor tunities, whereby they are or may be ferviceable to God and his People. Here befides our Malignity against the Person whom we envy, we fhew how little regard we have either of God's Honour, or of the Welfare and Salvation of the Souls of Men. I fay, in these and any other fuch like cafes, where our Envy is thus aggravated, we fhould hate it fo much the more, and endeavour the fubduing and the mortification thereof with fo much the more Earneftness, Diligence and Conftancy.

And though upon our Endeavours, and the oppofition we have made against it, we should find that we are for the prefent rid of it, and that we difcern not the workings of it within us,

as

as heretofore we did, yet let us not presently be fecure, and make account that we fhall hear of it no more. Tho' we may think 'tis dead, and no longer to be feared, yet let us not deceive our felves 'tis ftill fecretly lurking and skulking within us we may be fure, and we shall feel 'tis still alive and strong enough, when Temptations to it are again prefented. Wherefore it concerns us to be ever watchful against it; and in a continual readiness to make refistance, whenfoever it fhall ftand up to renew its Affaults.