Our names... are in the hands of God, Who will preserve them so far as He has use of them, and further we shall have no use of them ourselves.

A noble heart is a thankful heart that loves to acknowledge whenever it has received any mercy.

When [the saints] perform actions to God, then the soul says: 'Oh! that I could do what pleases God!' When they come to suffer any cross: 'Oh, that what God does might please me!' I labour to do what pleases God, and I labour that what God does shall please me: here is a Christian indeed, who shall endeavour both these. It is but one side of a Christian to endeavour to do what pleases God; you must as well endeavour to be pleased with what God does, and so you will come to be a complete Christian when you can do both, and that is the first thing in the excellence of this grace of contentment.

Your mercies are more than your afflictions.

To be well skilled in the mystery of Christian contentment is the duty, glory and excellence of a Christian.

Thus, a godly man wonders at his cross that it is not more, a wicked man wonders his cross is so much.

Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.