Dishonour A Christian discontented when God is dishonoured Page 15 Dispose see Freely Disquiet Disquiet the the cause of Gods departing Page 168 See Murmuring Duty Duty of a Christian in prosperity Page 89 What unfits for duty Page 134 God accepts of weak duty Page 156 Sence of affliction hinders not duty Page 165 E Efficacy Efficacy of Gods providence Page 95 Ever God gives grace for ever Page 184 Evil Evil of afflictions taken from Gods children Page 56 Excellency Excellency of God how we come neer it Page 117 Excellency of God what ibid Expectation Expectation of a Christian Page 132 F Faith Ordinary works done in Faith precious Page 7 Murmuring below the grace of Faith Page 131 Exercise of faith brings Contentment Page 198 See Affliction Mean Faithfulnesse God in rewarding looks to faithfulnesse Page 178 Father God the Father of a Christian Page 126 We should labour for the Spirit of our Father Page 129 Feel What we feel to be preferred to others fancies Page 205 Fill see God Fit God knows what afflictions are fit Page 174 Grace makes fit for any condition ibid Foolish Discontent a foolish sin 138 139 Frame Contentment a frame of spirit Page 9 Free Freely c. A Christian freely submits to God Page 15 Freedom what Page 16 God gives freely Page 42 Freeness of Gods mercies aggravate sin Page 158 Fretting Fretting opposite to a quietnss of spirit Page 6 G Glory What a Christian hath here is an earnest of glory Page 43 Glory of God wherein it appears Page 105 Glory to be given God in the enjoyment of blessings Page 193 God To look up to God in all conditions Page 19 Nothing can fill the heart but God Page 28 Happiness of a Saint in God Page 38 Saints enjoy all in God Page 49 Outward comforts taken away when they keep us from God Page 50 See Life Creature Excellency Walk Good Christians of themselves unfit to receive good Page 70 We should not be discontent that God is good to others Page 173 God doth good to his by afflictions Page 193 See Sanctifie Christ Grace Grace much exercised in Contentment Page 103 Grace the strength of it ibid Grace better than the Creature Page 113 Discontent contrary to Grace Page 122 Grace should content us without the world Page 193 See Beauty Gracious Contentment a gracious frame of heart Page 13 Great Afflictions not so great as our sins Page 172 Affliction greater for murmuring Page 173 Not to promise our selves great things Page 200 H Habitual Contentment an habitual frame Page 13 Had To praise God for what we had Page 188 Heart Contentment quiets the heart Page 5 The heart to be let out to God Page 67 The knowledge of our own hearts Page 82 Benefits of knowing our own heart Page 84 A great evil to be given up to our own heart Page 91 Rising of the heart Page 135 Distempers of the heart how esteemed with God Page 185 See Gracious Heaven Heaven in the souls of the Saints here Page 59 Things of Heaven real to a Saint Page 67 Heaven what Page 114 Contentment better than Heaven ibid Help Help of a Christian what Page 132 No help by discontent Page 139 High see Calling Angels Honour What is the greatest honour God hath of us in this world Page 81 Humble We should not murmur when God would humble us Page 161 See Contentment I Idle see Discontent Joy Joy immoderat how known Page 206 Injoy Godly men content with that that they injoy Page 4 Good men injoy what they have Page 116 See God Inward Inward discontent Page 4 Inward content ibid Judgment Many not content in their judgement Page 11 See Affections K Kind To submit to afflictions of every kind Page 22 King The soul subdued to Christ as King Page 124 Every Christian a King Page 128 L Life Life of a Saint where it is Page 56 Conversion a work all our life Page 125 Long Long afflictions not to be murmured at Page 163 Look Afflictions to be looked for Page 171 Care in afflictions not looked for Page 172 Losse No loss of us if we perish Page 71 Love Love of God in what a Christian hath Page 41 Love in afflictions to the godly Page 44 Love in a Christians estate Page 110 Love to God a sign of it Page 113 Low Lowest God brings lowest when he intends the greatest mercies Page 98 Men raised from a low condition should not murmur Page 159 Obedience seen most in a low calling Page 178 The soul oft best in a low outward estate Page 180 M Man Man Gods instrument in affliction 170 Mannage see Heart Mean Actions of a mean Christian accepted Page 178 Faith makes mean works glorious ibid Mercy How the soul is fitted to receive mercy Page 106 Mercies lessened by discontent Page 135 Discontent deprives of mercies Page 139 The greater mercies the greater sin to murmur Page 150 Every man hath more mercies than afflictions Page 154 Greatness of mercies should make us content Page 187 God is beforehand with his mercies to us Page 188 See Discontent Member Every Christian a member of Christ Page 127 Mean Christians members of Christs body Page 176 Mystery Contentment a mystery 2.26 Mortified To get our hearts mortified to the world Page 200 Murmuring Murmuring opposite to quietness of spirit Page 6 Murmuring the evill of it Page 119 Murmuring a note of a wicked man Page 120 Murmuring below a Christian Page 126 Murmuring the effects of it Page 134 Murmuring breeds disquiet Page 147 Murmuring the way to relaps into it Page 150 Murmuring aggravations of it ibid See Affection Rebellion Losse Child Curse Mercy Small N Nature see Angels Necessary The knowledge of one thing necessary Page 74 Nothing How a Christian comes to know he is nothing Page 69 A Christian of himself can do nothing Page 70 Naturally we are worse than nothing Page 71 See Deserve Use O Obedience When God gives in love we should return in obedience Page 184 The greater affliction the more obedience ibid One All Gods works from eternity but one Page 96 P Pain Pain sanctified to a Christian how Page 46 Parts Discontent aggravated in men of parts Page 158 Passage see Portion People Gods dealing with his people Page 97 Three things in Gods way with his people Page 98 Perfection see Uprightnesse Particular The Creatures particular comforts Page 113 Pity Pity to men that deal ill with us Page 171 Plague Promises concerning the Plague 54 55 56. Plea see Discontent Portion A Christian not content with little for his portion Page 28 Possesse Men discontent for what they possesse Page 159 Poverty Poverty sanctified by Christs poverty Page 45 See Prosperity Prayers How we undoe our prayers Page 133 Praise see Had Profession Profession of a Christian Page 131 Promise Promises performed more literally to the Jews 54.64 Gods liberty in performing temporal promises Page 55 Christians have interest in all former promises Page 65 See Covenant
complacency in Gods dispose ibid 8 In Gods dispose Page 19 9 In every condition Page 20 We must submit to God in every affliction 1 For the kind Page 22 2 For the time Page 23 3 For the variety 25 Contentment a Mysterie Page 26 1 A Christian is content yet unsatisfied Page 27 2 A Christian comes to Contentment by substraction Page 29 3 By adding another burden to that he hath Page 31 4 By changing the affliction into another Page 33 5 By doing the work of his condition Page 35 6 By melting his will into Gods will Page 37 7 By purging out that that is within 38 8 He lives by the dew of Gods blessing Page 40 1 He hath the love of God in that he hath Page 41 2 It is sanctified for his good ib 3 There is no after-reckoning for it Page 42 4 It is by the purchase of Christ 5 It is an earnest of glory he reafter Page 43 9 A Christian sees Gods love in affliction Page 44 10 His afflictions sanctified in Christ Page 45 11 He fetches strength from Christ Page 47 12 He makes up his wants in God Page 49 13 He fetcheth Contentment from the Covenant Page 53 Objection concerning the plague Answered Page 54 He supplieth wants by what he finds in himself Page 57 He fetches supply from the CoveCovenant Page 61 1 In General ibid 2 From particular premises Page 64 14 He reallizeth the things of Heaven Page 67 15 He letteth his heart out to God ibid Lessons whereby Christ teacheth Contentment 1 Self-denial Whereby a Christian knows Page 68 1 That he is nothing Page 69 2 That he deserves nothing ibid 3 That he can do nothing Page 70 4 That he can receive no good of himself ibid 5 If God withdraw himself he can mak use of nothing ibid 6 That he is worse than nothing Page 71 7 That there is no loss of him if he perish ibid 8 That he comes to rejoyce in Gods waier Page 72 2 Lesson To know the vanity of the Creature Page 73 3 Lesson To know that one thing wherefore Page 74 4 Lesson To know his relation in this world Page 76 5 Lesson Wherein the good of the Creature is Page 79 6 Lesson The knowledge of his own heart Page 82 Which helps to Contentment 1 By discovering wherein discontent lies ibid 2 By knowing what is sutable to our condition Page 83 3 By this we know what we are able to mannage Page 84 7 Lesson To know the burden of a prosperous estate Page 85 Which is four fold 1 The burden of trouble ibid 2 The burden of danger Page 86 3 The burden of duty Page 89 4 The burden of account ibid 8 Lesson A great evil to be given up to our own hearts desire Page 91 9 Lesson The right knowledge of of Gods providence Page 94 Wherein four things 1 The universality of it ibid 2 The efficacy of it Page 95 3 The variety of it ibid 4 Gods particular dealing with his people Page 97 In three things 1 They are ordinarily in affliction Page 98 2 When he intends them greatest mercies he brings them lowest ibid 3 He works by contraries Page 99 The Excellency of Contentment 1 Excellency By it we give God his due worship Page 101 2 Excel In it there is much exercise of grace 103 1 There is much strength of grace ibid 2 There is much beauty of grace Page 104 3 Excel The soul is fitted to receive mercy Page 106 4 Excel It is fitted to do service Page 107 5 Excel Contentment delivers from temptation Page 108 6 Excel It brings abundance of comfort Page 110 7 Excel It fetcheth in that that we possess not Page 111 In 4 particulars 8 Excel Contentment a great blessing of God upon the soule Page 115 9 Excel A contented man may expect reward Page 116 10 Excel By Contentment the soul comes neerest the Excellency of God himself Page 117 Use 1 To be humbled for want of Contentment Page 118 The Evils in a murmuring spirit 1 It is an Argument of much corruption in the soul Page 119 2 It is a note of a wicked man Page 120 3 Murmuring is accounted Rebellion Page 121 4 It is exceeding contrary to grace in conversion Page 122 The works of God in conversion 1 To make us sensible of the evil in sin Page 123 2 A sight of the excellency of Christ ibid 3 Taking the heart from the creature ibid 4 Casting the soul on Christ for all good Page 124 5 Subduing the soul to Christ as King ibid 6 Giving up the soul to God in Covenant Page 125 5 Evil Murmuring below a Christian Page 126 1 Below his relation 1 To God as a Father ibid 2 To Christ as a Spouse ibid 3 To Christ as a Member Page 127 4 To Christ as a Co-heir ibid 5 To Gods Spirit as a temple ib. 6 To Angels as one with them ib. 7 To Saints as of the same body ibid 2 Below his dignity Every Christian a King Page 128 3 It is below the spirit of a Christian Page 129 4 Below the profession of a Christian Page 131 5 Below the grace of faith ibid 6 Below the helps of a Christian Page 132 7 Below the expectation of a Christian ibid 8 Below what other Christians have done Page 133 6 Evill by murmuring we undo our prayers ibid 7 Evil The effects of a murmuring heart 1 Loss of much time Page 134 2Vnfitness for Duty ibid 3 Wicked risings of heart Page 135 4Vnthankfulness ibid 5 Shifting Page 138 8 Evil Discontent a foolish sin ibid 1 It takes away the comfort of what we have ibid 2 We cannot help our selves by it Page 139 3 It causeth foolish carriage to God and man ibid 4 It takes out the sweetness of mercies before they come ibid 5 It makes Affliction worse Page 141 9 Evil It provokes the wrath of God ibid 19 Evil There is a curse upon it Page 146 11 Evil There is much of the spirit of Satan in it Page 147 12 Evill It brings an absolute necessity of disquiet ibid 13 Evil God may justly withdraw his protection from such ibid Aggravations of the sin of murmuring 1 Aggravation The greater the mercies the greater the sin of murmuring Page 150 2 Agrav When we murmur for smal things Page 157 3 Agrav When men of parts and abilities murmur Page 158 4 Agrav The freeness of Gods mercy ibid 5 Agrav Discontent for what we have Page 159 6 Agrav When men are raised from a low condition ibid 7 Agrav When men have been great sinners Page 160 8 Agrav When those murmur that are of little use in the world Page 161 9 Agrav To murmur when God is about to humble us ibid 10 Agrav When Gods hand is apparant in an affliction Page 162 11 Agrav To murmur under long afflictions Page 163 Pleas of a discontented heart 1 Plea I am but sensible of my affliction 1 Sense
of affliction takes not away sense of mercies Page 165 2 It hinders not Duty ibid 3 It will make us bless God for the mercies of others ibid 2 Plea My trouble is for my sins 1 It is not if you were not troubled for sin before Page 166 2 When the greatest care is to remove affliction ibid 3 If after affliction is removed sin troubles not ibid 4 If there be not care to avoid sin after Page 167 5 There is the more cause to accept of the punishment ibid 3 Plea God withdraws himself 1 We think God is departed when he doth but afflict Page 168 2 Disquiet is a sign and cause of Gods departure ibid 3 If God depart from us we should not from him Page 169 4 Plea I am troubled for mens ill dealing 1 Men are Gods instrrments Page 170 2 We should rather pity them than murmur Page 171 3 We have righteous dealing with God ibid 5 Plea It is an affliction I looked not for 1 It is folly not to look for afflictions ibid 2 We should be more careful of our carriage in it Page 172 6 Plea The affliction is exceeding great 1 It is not so great as thy sins ibid 2 It might have been greater Page 173 3 It is greater for thy murmuring ibid 7 Plea It is greater than others afflictions Answered in 4 things Page 173 8 Plea If any other affliction they could be content Answered in 4 things Page 174 9 Plea My afflictions make me unservicable to God 1 Though thou art mean thou art a member of the body Page 176 2 Thy generall calling is high Page 177 3 Thou art equal with Angels ibid 4 God highly esteems the actions of mean Christians Page 178 5 Faithfulness in a mean calling shall be rewarded ibid 10. Plea My condition is unsetled 1 Every man in his setled estate is vanity Page 179 2 God will have us live in dependance ibid 3 Thy spiritual condition may be setled Page 181 11 Plea I have been in a better condition 1 Thy eye should not he evill because the eye of God hath been good Page 182 2 Prosperity was to prepare thee for affliction ibid 12 Plea I am crost after much pains 1 The greater the cross the more the obedience Page 184 2 Thy pains should be with submission to God Page 185 3 Contentment in such a condition is a testimony of more love to God ibid 13 Plea Distempers of heart accounted as words before God ibid Considerations to work the heart to Contentment 1 Consid The greatness of the mercies we have Page 187 2 God is beforehand with us with mercies Page 188 3 The abundance of mercies we enjoy Page 189 4 All creatures in a visicitude ib. 5 The creature suffers for us ibid 6 We have little time in the world Page 190 7 It hath been the condition of our betters Page 191 8 We were once content with the world without grace and should now with grace without the world Page 193 9 When we had Contentment we gave not God the glory ibid 10 Experience of Gods doing us good in afflictions ibid Directions to Contentment 1 There must be grace to make the soul steady Page 195 2 Not to gripe too much of the world ibid 3 Have a cal in every business Page 196 4 Walk by rule ibid 5 Exercise much faith Page 197 6 Labour to be spiritually minded Page 198 7 Promise not your selves great things Page 200 8 Get mortified hearts to the world ibid 9 Pore not too much on afflictions Page 201 10 Make a good construction of Gods wayes towards us Page 202 11 Regard not others fancies but what we feel Page 205 12 Be not inordinately taken with the comforts of the world Page 206 The CONTENTS of the last Sermon On EXODVS 14.13 STanding still five waies evill Page 304 Good three wayes Page 307 Doct. 1 When God is in a way of salvation he may bring his people into straights Page 311 Reasons 1 Because God will humble them Page 313 2 He delights in the exercise of their faith Page 315 3 He delights in their prayers Page 316 4 To discover those that are evill ibid 5 That the adversaries may vent theie malice Page 317 6 That Christs work may appear the more ibid Use Not to sink because of straights Page 318 Doct. 2. In straights Gods people are mightily troubled ibid Reasons 1 Because there is much flesh in the best Page 319 2 There is a great deal of guilt ib. 3 There is self-confidence ib. Use 1 To blame our selves for sinking in straights Page 320 2 To think what will become of wicked men ibid Doct. 3 In those straits we should quiet our selves and look for Gods salvation Page 321 1. Quiet our selves 1 Because then we are fit to look to the wisdom faithfulness and power of God Page 322 2 Because else we cannot make use of our graces ibid 3 We cannot shew our subjection to God Page 323 4 Nor our reverence to God ib. 5 We cannot make use of that we hear ib. 6 We shall hinder others Page 224 2 To expect salvation from God 1 Hereby we sanctifie Gods Name ib. 2 This shews the excellency of faith Page 325 3 It engageth God in our Cause ib. Doct. 4 The sight of salvation after straits a glorious thing Page 328 FINIS THE RARE JEWEL OF CHRISTIAN Contentment PHILIPPIANS 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content HERE is a very seasonable Cordial to revive the drooping spirits of the Saints in these sad and sinking times For the hour of temptation is already come upon all the world to try the Inhabitants of the earth and in special this is the day of Jacobs troubles in our owne bowels Our great Apostle experimentally holds forth in this Gospel-Text the very life and soul of all practical Divinity wherein we may plainly reade his own proficiency in Christs School and what lesson every Christian that would evidence the power and growth of godliness in his own soul must necessarily learn from him These words are brought in by Paul as a plain argument to perswade the Philippians that he did not seek after great things in the world and that he sought not theirs but them He did not passe for a great estate he had better things to take up his heart withal I do not speak saith he in respect of want For whether I have or have not my heart is fully satisfied I have enough I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I have learned Contentment in every condition is a great art a spiritual mystery It is to be learned and so to be learned as a mystery And therefore verse 12. he affirms I know how to be abâ—sed and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed The word which is translated Instructed is derived from that word which signifies Mystery and it is
It is a speech of Ambrose Even poverty it 's self it is riches unto holy men Godly men do make their poverty turn to be riches they get more riches out of their poverty then ever they get out of their revenues out of all their trading in this world they never had such incomes as they have had out of their poverty this a carnall heart will think strange that a man shall make poverty to be the most gainfull trade that ever he had in the world I am perswaded that many Christians have found it so that they have got more good by their poverty than ever they got by all their riches you find it in Scripture therefore think not this strange that I am speaking of you do not find any one Godly man that came out of an affliction worse than when he came into it though for a while he was shaken yet at last he was better for an affliction but a great many Godly men you find have been worse for their prosperity scarce one Godly man that you reade in Scripture of but was worse for prosperity except Daniel and Nehemiah I do not reade of any hurt they got by their prosperity that they had scarce I think is any one example of any Godly man but was rather worse for his prosperity than better so that you see it 's no such strange thing neither to one that is gracious that they shall get good by their affliction Luther hath such an expression in his Comment upon the 5. Chap. of the Galatians in the 17. verse in his Comment upon that place saith A Christian becometh a mighty worker and a wonderful creator that is saith he to create out of heavinesse joy out of terrour comfort out of sin righteousnesse out of death life and brings light out of darknesse It was Gods prerogative and great power his creating power to command the light to shine out of darknesse now a Christian is partaker of the divine nature so the scripture saith Grace it is part of the Divine Nature and being part of the Divine Nature it hath an impression of Gods Omnipotent power that is to create light out of darkensse to being good out of evill now by this way a Christian comes to be content God hath given a Christian such a vertue as can turn affliction into mercyes can turn darkenesse into light if a man had the power that Christ had when the water pots were fil'd he could by a word turn the water into wine if you that have nothing but water to drink yet if you had a power to turn it into wine then you may be contented Certainly a Christian hath received this power from God to work thus miraculously it is the nature of grace to turn water into wine that is to turn the water of your affliction into the wine of heavenly consolation If you understand this in a carnal way I know it will be rediculous for a Minister to speak thus before you and many carnal people are ready to make such expressions as these to be rediculous understanding them in a carnal way Just as Nicodemus in the 3. of John What can a man be born when he is old can be enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born So when we speak of grace that it can turn water into wine and turn poverty into riches and make poverty a gainful trade saith a carnal heart Let them have that trade if they will and let them have water to drink and see if they can turn it into wine Oh take heed thou speakest not in a scornful way of the waies of God grace hath the power to turn afflictions into mercies Two men shall have one affliction and to one man it shall be as gall and wormwood and it shall be wine and honey and delightfulness and joy and advantage and riches to another This is the mystery of Contentment not so much by removing the evil as by Metamorphosing the evil by changing the evil into good The Fifth thing is this A Christain comes to this Contentment by making up the wants of his condition by the performance of the work of his condition This is the way of Contentment There is such a condition that I am in many wants I want this and the other comfort well how shall I come to be satisfied and content A carnal heart thinks this I must have my wants made up or else it is impossible that I should be content No but saith a gracious heart What is the duty of the condition God hath put me into Indeed my condition is changed I was not long since in a prosperous condition but God hath changed my condition the Lord hath called me no more Naomi but Marah Now what am I to do what can I think now are those duties that God requires of me in the condition that he hath now put me into and let me put forth my strength in the performance of the duties of my present condition Others they spend their thoughts in those things that shall disturb and disquiet them and so they grow more and more discontented yea but let me spend my thoughts in thinking what my duty is what is the duty of my present condition which I am in O saith a man whose condition is changed and he hath lost his estate Had I but my estate as I had heretofore how would I use it to his glory But God hath made me to see that I did not honour him with my estate as I ought to have done Oh had I it again I would do better than ever I did but this may be but a temptation therefore you should rather think What doth God require of me in the condition I am now brought into And thou shouldest labour to bring thy heart to quiet and Contentnent by setting thy soul on work about the duties of thy present condition And the truth is I know nothing more available for the quieting of a Christian Soul and getting Contentment then this The setting thy heart on work about the duties of the very present condition that now thou art in and take heed of thy thoughts about other conditions as a meer temptation I cannot compare the folly of men and women that think to get Contentment with their musing about other conditions better than to the way of Children perhaps they are gotten upon a hill and they look a good way off and see another hill and they think if they were on the top of that then they were able to touch the clouds with their fingers but when they are on the top of that hill alas then they are as far from the clouds as they were before So it is with many that think If they were in such a condition then I should have Contentment and perhaps they get into that condition then they are as far from Contentment as before But then they think if they were in another condition they would be contented
so far to him that he gained so much unto his soul by it so much soul-riches that he made account it was the best voyage that ever he had and truly sometimes it is so yea to you that are godly I make no question but you find it so that your worst voyages have proved your best when you have met with the greatest crosses in a voyage God hath been pleased to turn them to a greater good to you in some other way It is true we may not desire crosses that they may be turned to other advantages but when God in his providence doth so order things that you meet with ill voyages you may expect that God will turn them to a greater good and those that have been exercised in the waies of godlinesse any long time I make no question but they have abundance of experiences that they have gain'd by them You know sometimes it 's better to be in a little ship for they have advantage of greater ones in storms many times in a storm a little ship can thrust into a shallow place and so be safe but your great ships cannot they must be abroad and tost up and down in the storm and tempest and so many times split against the rocks And so it may be God sees there is a storme a coming and if thou beest in thy great ship thou maist be split upon rocks and sands God therefore doth put thee into a lesser vessel that thou mayest be more safe We wil lay aside the speaking of those considerations now but I would not have you lay them aside and put them out of your thoughts but labour those especially that most concern you to make use of them in the needful time when you find any discontentednesse of spirit to arise in you But the main thing that I intended for this exercise It is propounding directions what to do for the helping of our hearts to Contentment For as for any further considerations we have prevented the speaking largly of them because we have opened the most things in shewing what the lessons are that Christ teaches men when he brings them into his School to teach them this Art I say there we have spoken of the special things that are most considerable for the helping of us to this grace of Contentment Therefore now all that I shall further do about this point shall be the giving of some directions what course to take that we may come to attain this grace of Contentment The First Direction The first is this All the rules and helps in the world will do us little good except we get a good temper within in our hearts you can never make a ship go steady with propping of it without you know there must be ballast within the ship that must make it go steady And so there is nothing without us that can keep our hearts in a steady constant way but that that is within us grace is within the soul and that will do it The Second Direction Secondly If you would get a contented life do not gripe too much of the world do not take in more of the businesse of the world than God calls you to be not greedy of taking in a great deal of the world for if a man will go among thorns when he may go in a plainer way there is no reason that this man should complain that he is prickt with them thou goest among thorns is it thy way must you of necessity go among them then it 's another matter but if thou wilt electively chuse that way when thou mayest go another then thou hast no cause to complain so for men and women that will put themselves upon things of the world that they need not then no mervail though they be prickt and meet with that that doth disquiet them for such is the nature of all things here in the world that every thing hath some prick or other in it we are like to meet with disappointments and discontentments in every thing we meddle with and therefore those that have least to do in the world that is except God cals them to it we must put in that they are like to meet with many things that will discontent tehm The Third Direction Thirdly Be sure of thy call to every businesse thou goest about though it be in the leaâ—t businesse be sure of thy call to it then whatever thou meetest withal thou mayest quiet thy heart with this I know I am where God would have me there 's nothing in the world will quiet the heart so much as this when I meet with any cross I know I am where God would have me in my place and calling I am about the work that God hath set me Oh this will quiet and content thee when thou meetest with trouble that that God cals a man to with that he may have comfort in whatsoever befals him God is to look to thee and to see thee blest if thou beest in the work God cals thee to The Fourth Direction And especially if I adde a fourth rule and that is That I walk by rule in that work I am call'd to I am call'd to such a businesse but I must mannage this work that I am call'd to by rule I must walk by the word order my self in this businesse according to Gods mind so far as I am able then adde this to the other and then the quiet and peace of that soul may be made even perfect in a kind when I know it is not the work I put my self upon but God hath call'd me to it and I walk by the rule of the word in it then let come what will come God he is to take care of me there It was a spech of a Heathen saith he if thou wilt subject all things to thy self do thou subject thy selfe to reason and by that thou wilt make all things to be under thee I may adde a little more to it if you will subject all things under you subject your selfe to God and then the truth is all things are under you It hath been that that many times we have hinted the reason why many of our Gentry have been so malignant among us is because they are willing to be slaves themselves under some above them at Court so they may keep their neighbours under to be slaves to them for you know anyman heretofore that was great at the Court he could crush any country man that he was angry withal If there were an Arbitrary-government then all those that would be willing to be vassals and slaves to the Prince they can make all others vassals and slaves to them Now be thou willing to be a vassal to God to be absolutely under Gods command and then I say all things in the world are under thee All are yours saith the Apostle Life and death every thing is yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods All things in the world are servicable to
your own spirits and then you shall know that God is God God will not appear till first you be still 2. Reas We are not able to make use of our own Graces till we be quiet and still If God have bestowed Graces when we are in a hurly-burly we have no use of them at all therefore saith the text Psalm 4. Stand in awe sin not commune with your own hearts upon your beds and be still Commune with your own hearts you have somewhat perhaps in your own hearts that may quiet you commune with your own hearts and be still you are not fit to commune with your own hearts till you get them quiet first be quiet and then commune Oh! my brethren A man or woman of a staid sound quiet and still spirit hath a mighty advantage of all passionate spirits there are many of you that are passionate at all other times and that is the reason that in such great extremities you are so over-rul'd with passion you are so over-rul'd with your passion of anger at other times and out of Gods just judgment you are over-rul'd with the passion of Fear now But if at other times you would labour to keep in your spirits God would help you now 3. Reas Because without this stilness and quietness we cannot manifest that subjection to God we owe him for then there is a great deal of sin and pride and stoutness committed against God and therefore in that fourth Psalm the old Latine hath it My soul be silent my soul is subject to God the subjection of our souls to God depends much upon this Quieting of our hearts 4. Reas Our reverence of God depends much upon it and therfore in this 4. Psalm Stand in aw and sin not commune with your own heart and be still for us to behave our selves in such a manner as many people do throwing out their hands and wringing and keeping such a stir as they do this shows there is not in their hearts that reverence they owe to God stand in awe If your hearts were possess'd with Gods fear you would not keep such a stir as you do in times of great danger 5. Reas This makes people unfit to listen to any thing that is spoken to them let any thing be spoken to them that is of any use they eannor hear it nor make use of it as we reade of the people of Israel Exod. 6.9 when Moses came to tell them of their deliverance the text saith He spake to the Children of Israel but they hearkned not to him why for anguish of spirit How many in trouble of conscience and in other times of extremity have their spirits in such anguish that they never hearken to any thing that is delivered to them and therefore they come with the same objection over and over again a hundred times in cases of conscience 6. Without this Quietness of spirit you are mighty hinderers of others and you daunt and discourage the hearts of others and many times the cause miscarries meerly upon the unquietness of the hearts of men and women in time of danger therefore you must be quiet and look up to God for salvation for Faith hath this excellency that it is able to bring life out of death light out of darkness it hath a kind of creating vertue as God himself brings one contrary out of another so faith hath such a kind of working if faith be of the right stamp a genuine faith it hath a mighty power in times of extremity to behold Gods salvation and make use of it I 'le give you one example of the use of faith in times of extremity and that is of David when he fled from Saul and when he was in the Cave mark Be merciful to me O God be merciful to me for my soul trusteth in thee yea in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge What was the shadow of Gods wings poor David was got into the shadow of the Cave and the Sun did not shine upon him but he looked upon himself in the Cave as under the shadow of Gods wings You poor people that live it may be in Cellers and in poor dark holes and Lanes the Sun scarce shines upon you in a year yet if you be godly you are under Gods wings by faith I shall now speak to the Second part of the Doctrine that we are to expect Salvation from God David did fly from Absolom and yet what confidence had David in that case in God reade but that third Psalm and you 'l see confidence enough in David and yet flying too Divers grounds and reasons I shall give for this why we must look up to God as well as be still Rea. Hereby we sanctifie Gods Name Fear ye not their fear but sanctifie God in your hearts saith the text You sanctifie not God else I suppose many of you would be loth to be guilty of swearing and taking Gods Name in vain in that kind but by your distracting thoughts and unbeseeming carriage in times of danger you take Gods Name in vain you break the third Commandement 2. Rea. This shews the beauty and excellency of Faith as David said Thou shalt see what thy servant can do So now there is a great deal of talk of faith in the world let us see now what it can do the truth of love is when I can love God for himself without his gifts so when I can beleeve in God without experience I shew the excellency of my faith when I can trust in God meerly upon his word as I love God meerly for himself when my faith taks Gods single bond without any security that is the excellency of Faith when I would have outward helps and assurances there I call for sureties So Christians when they must needs have outward helps and former experiences they call to God for sureties as if they would not trust God upon his simple bond that 's the excellency of faith to trust God upon his single bond 3. Rea. When we look up to God for salvation we engage God in our cause God owns not the cause till then and then he owns it Now how happy were we if thus we could do in al our particular and private straights stand still and look up to God for help and for salvation It 's true you cry out and complain I have lost a dear husband and a dear friend never man lost such a friend and these great straights I am brought into but lose not the quiet of thy heart too take heed of that that is a greater loss than any loss thou canst have in this world I remember I have read of a Phylosopher that had this expression saith he If the gods would grant to me my desire and bid me ask what I would have I would ask of them this thing that I might have the composed spirit of Socrates that I might have such a spirit as Socrates had for it is observed of
our friends and so are brought into such straights pray husband go back again and venture not your self thus and thus but it seems she was of a gracious spirit and quieted her self in God and was not afraid with amazement If you would approve your selv's the daughters of Sarah do ye so when God cals your husbands to any service though it be with some hazard do not you hang about their necks and wring your hands and say I beseech you husband consider what will become of me and my children will you leave me now Take heed you are not the daughters of Sarah at such a time if you hinder your husbands at such a time as this is 4. Doct. That the sight of salvation after straights will be a glorious thing If we be brought into straights that that is comming will pay for all there is enough to satisfie let us not be troubled at greater straights than yet we have Suppose blood should be shed beloved God hath such mercy for England that shall pay for all the blood of his Saints that shall be shed and the blood of his people is a precious thing Every drop of the blood of his people is very precious and the Adversary shal be accomptable for every drop God will value it and there shall be a valuable consideration given for every drop of blood and the more difficulties we have in obtaining that mercy God is about to give us the mercy shall be the greater Isa 54.11 O thou afflicted and tost with tempests thy foundations shal be laid with Saphires and with precious stones If we be afflicted and tossed with tempests and the blood of Gods people go for it comfort your selves with this The more precious blood that is shed in this business the greater mercy is to come for God will have a valuable consideration for all the blood of his Saints FINIS AN EXACT ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF ALL THE PRINCIPAL TRUTHS IN THE FORE-GOING TREATISE OF Contentment A Abundance ABundance of mercies enjoyed should make us content Page 189 Account Account of prosperity Page 89 Account of great men Page 90 Actions see Heart Adversity see Quiet Affections Men unsatisfied in their affections Page 10 See Wast Afflictions Faith to be acted in afflictions Page 47 Gods people to be ordinarily in afflictions Page 98 To be troubled for murmuring rather than afflictions Page 120 Afflictions How made worse Page 141 How to moderate grief in afflictions Page 152 Gods hand apparant in afflictions Page 162 Afflictions are not to be pored on too much Page 201 See Fear Love Christ Mercy Look Great Chuse Fit Service c. All in All God All in All to his Children Page 51 All-sufficiency All-sufficiency in the Saints how Page 3 Angels A Christian one with Angels Page 127 A Christian neerer the Divine nature than Angels Page 128 A Saints calling as high as Angels Page 177 Apparant see Afflictions Assurance see Covenant B Base A murmuring spirit a base spirit Page 130 Beams Creatures convey comforts but as beams Page 50 Being We enjoy creatures in reference to the first-being Page 80 Best God interprets what we do to the best Page 204 Better see Condition Soul Beauty Beauty of grace wherein seen Page 104 Blesse Sence of afflictions will make us blesse God for the mercies of others Page 165 See Dew Bread We are to pray but for daily bread Page 134 Broken A Broken heart brings Content Page 33 Burden Contentment by adding a new burden Page 31 Burden of sin makes affliction light Page 32 C Call Calling Calling of the soul what Page 124 A Christian general calling high Page 177 To be sure of a Call in every thing Page 196 Change To change affliction to another thing Page 34 All creatures go on in a way of change Page 189 Child A murmuring spirit like a weaning Child Page 130 Christ What the Saints have is purchased by Christ Page 42 Afflictions to the godly from the same hand that gave Christ Page 44 What hinders the sight of the excellency of Christ Page 123 In Conversion the soul cast on Christ Page 124 Christian see Murmuring Chuse We must not chuse our afflictions Page 174 Command The more solemn Gods command the greater the sin in breaking of it Page 163 Complacency A Christian takes complacency in Gode dispose Page 17 Complain We may complain to God in afflictions Page 5 Comfort Content brings comfort Page 110 Comfort how kept in the soul ibid Comfort of what we have How lost Page 138 See God Condition A Christian content in every condition Page 20 We should do the works of our present condition Page 35 How to know what saith our condition Page 83 Our condition better than our betters Page 191 Constraint Not to submit in affliction by constraint Page 16 Contentment Contentment what it signifies Page 2 Contentment to be skil'd in the mystery of it Page 3 Contentment what Page 4 Contentment whereof it is made Page 26 Contentment the bottom of it Page 30 Contentment the excellency of it Page 100 Contentment wherein it consists Page 112 To be humbled for want of Contentment Page 118 Contentment of former Christians Page 133 Considerations to move Contentment Page 187 Directions to Contentment Page 195 See Worship Soul Condition Comfort c. Conversion The work of God in Conversion Page 122 See Life Contrary God worketh by Contraries Page 99 Corruption Argument of corruption in the soul Page 119 Covenant Christians comfort from Gods Covenant 53.61 Gods Covenant his Assurance-Office Page 63 Particular promises part of the Covenant Page 64 In Conversion we give our selves to God in Covenant Page 124 See Works Creature To know the vanity of the Creature Page 73 To enjoy God in the Creature Page 80 In Conversion the heart taken from the Creature Page 123 Creatures suffer for us Page 189 Crowns God hath Crowns for all graces Page 174 Curse Curse of God upon murmuring Page 146 D Daily see Bread Danger Danger of prosperity Page 86 Dear A siggn of love to give him that that cost us dear Page 185 Deliverance Deliverance may be sought in afflictions Denial see Self Departed We think God is departed when we are afflicted Page 168 Though God were departed from us we should not from him Page 169 See Disquiet Dependance We should live in continual dependance upon God Page 179 Deserve We deserve nothing of God Page 69 Desires A Christian should take from his desires Page 29 Devil Devil his Rhetorick Page 136 Devil most discontented Page 147 Dew A Christian lives on the dew of Gods blessing Page 40 Dignity Dignity of a Christian Page 120 Discouragement Discouragement opposite to Contentment Page 7 Discontent Discontent the reason of it Page 73 Discontent a sin of idle men Page 76 Discontent the root of it Page 82 Discontent how aggravated Page 153 Discontent Pleas for it Page 165 See Grace Shift Foolish Mercies Devil Disgrace Disgrace how sanctified Page 45
THE RARE JEWEL OF CHRISTIAN Contentment Wherein is shewed I. What CONTENTMENT is II. The holy Art or Mystery of it III. Severall Lessons that Christ teacheth to work the Heart to Contentment IV. The excellencies of it V. The evils of Murmuring VI. The aggravations of the sin of Murmuring By Jeremiah Burroughs The first of the three Volumes that are published by Thomas Goodwyn William Greenhill Sydrach Simpson Philip Nye William Bridge John Yates William Adderley London Printed for Peter Cole at the Printing-Press in Cornhil near the Royall Exchange 1649. THou hast here a true Catalogue of all the works of Master Ieremiah Burroughs that are Published by us Thomas Goodwyn William Greenhil Sydrach Simpson Philip Nye William Bridge Iohn Yates William Adderly The first Volume The rare Jewel of Christian Contentment Wherein is shewed 1. What Contentment is 2. The holy Art or Mystery of it 3. Severall Lessons that Christ teacheth to work the Heart to Contentment 4. The excellencies of it 5. The evils of Murmuring 6. The aggravations of the sin of murmuring The second Volume Gospel-Worship Wherein is shewed 1. The right manner of Sanctifying the Name of God in general and particularly in these three great Ordinances 1. Hearing the Word 2. Receiving the Lords-Supper 3. Prayer The third Volume Gospel-Conversation Wherein is shewed 1. That the Conversation of Believers must be above what could be by the light of Nature 2. Beyond those that lived under the Law 3. Suitable to what Truths the Gospel holds forth All Printed for Peter Cole at the Printing-Presse in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange London 1649. To the READER THis worthy Man especially in his latter times was surrounded through Gods blessing on him with a very great confluence of what might give forth Contentment to a vast spirit of his ranck and calling He was enriched with a large measure of abilities and opportunities in serving his Lord to glorifie whom and do much good to others is the divine part of a man gracious which he was the highest and most solid satisfaction and in many respects exceeds what personall communion with God singly considered brings in Besides he lived and dyed in a fulnesse of honor and esteem with the best of men of Saints yea the worst of enemies Likewise of estate and outward comforts within his sphaere and rank all which might and did afford Contentment to what was outward in him In the midst of these his study was to finde out a more sublime way and hidden art of selfe sufficiency then was in the power of all things to contribute or teach Such a skill as did not only poyse compose his spirit in the present enjoyment of all but might fortifie and furnish him with provision for the future against the losse of all in times wherein no man knoweth what evil will be in the earth This mark his first lines shew he shot at This Art some Philosophers of old pretended themselves Masters of and to instruct other in through the assistance of Natural and Moral elements elevated to the utmost height their Principles could carry them but in vaine Their Chymistry in this kinde being able to produce no more but a sullen obstinacie and obduratenesse of minde The natural Spirit of a man feeling it selfe greater then all creatures gathering up and consolidating it self into it self is able as Solomon saies to sustaine its owne and all other infirmites But that Autarchy this Author here presents is a Mystery which none of these Princes of the world knew or the wisdome of man teacheth but the holy Ghost teacheth and which few but those that are perfect do attaine Teaching the soule to deny it selfe into weaknesse emptinesse in and to its selfe and all things else and thus dissolved to unite it selfe to him who onely hath blessednesse and all-sufficiencie with whom associated and made intimate it melts it selfe into all his interests making them its owne and thereby comes to have all that All-sufficiency of the High God to be its self-sufficiency And then what state can that soule be in wherein it may not be content seeing it hath God to be the chiefest comfort in its best times and onely comfort in its worst This though it be the inheritance of every Saint in the right and title to it yet the possession and enjoyment of it depepends upon an improvement of this inheritance and that upon a skill which is to be learned by experience and much exercise as Paul speaks I have learned in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content This piece of learning this serious spirited man inured himselfe unto and digging for it as Rubies as Solomons scholler for wisdome hath found it and hath hewen forth this Jewel a Title given neither by himselfe not us the Publishers to the subject it selfe yet the materials themselves deserving it out of the Rock and hath artificially cut it that the innate rays of this so glorious a Grace might shine forth to others And here it comes to be presented though set forth as the richest Jewels are often for awhile in ruder mettal untill bargained for but then are placed in Tablets worthy of them The onely seat this is ordained for is the precious Tablets of mens Hearts in and from which alone the native lustre of it will be made conspicuous Reader buy it set and wear it there and it shall as Solomon speaks be life unto thy soul and grace unto thy neck Thou shalt not be afraid when thou liest down yea thy sleep shall be sweet unto thee for the Lord will be thy confidence Thomas Goodwyn Sidrach Simpson William Greenhil Philip Nye William Bridge John Yates William Adderly THE CONTENTS OF THE INSUING TREATISE OF Contentment SERMON I A HE Words opened Page 2 Doctrine To be well skil'd in the mystery of Christian Contentment is the duty glory and excellency of a Christian Page 3 Christian Contentment described Page 4 1 It is inward Ibid 2 It is quiet which is not opposed 1 To sence of affliction Page 5 2 To complaint to God or man ibid 3 To a lawful seeking of help Page 6 But it is opposed 1 To murmuring ibid 2 To fretting and vexing ibid 3 To tumult of spirit ibid 4 To unsetledness of spirit Page 7 5 To distracting cares and fears ibid 6 To sinking discouragments ib. 7 To sinful shifting Page 8 8 To rising of the heart against God Page 9 3 It is a frame of spirit 1 It is spread through the whol soul 10. 2 It is a frame of soul Page 11 3 It is a habitual frame Page 13 4 It is a gracious frame opposed 1 To natural stilness ibid 2 To sturdy resolutions ibid 3 To strength of natural reason Page 14 5 It is a frame of spirit freely submitting 1 The heart is readily brought over Page 15 2 It is not by constraint Page 16 3 It is not out of stupidity 17 6 Freely submitting ibid 7 Taking
should be brought to passe else we do not shew a quiet spirit though an affliction be upon thee let not thy heart sink under it So far as thy heart sinks and thou art discouraged under thy affliction so much thou wantest of this lesson of Contentment 7 To sinful shiftings and shirkings out for ease and help As we see in Saul running to the witch of Endor and in his offering sacrifice before Samuel came Nay the good King Jehoshaphat joynes himself with Ahaziah 2 Chron. 20. Vlt. And Asa goes to Penhadad King of Assyria for help not relying upon the Lord 2 Chr. 16.7 8. Though the Lord had delivered the Ethiopian Army into his hands consisting of a thousand thousand 2 Chro. 14.11 And good Jacob joyned in a lye with his mother to Isaac he was not content to stay Gods time and use Gods means but made too great haste and stept out of his way to procure the blessing which God intended for him as many do through the corruption of their hearts and weaknesse of their faith because they are not able to trust God and follow him fully in all things and alwaies and for this cause the Lord often follows the Saints with many sore temporal crosses as we see in Jacob though they obtain the mercy It may be thy wretched carnal heart thinks I care not how I be delivered so I may but get free from it Is it not so many times in some of your hearts when any crosse or affliction befals you Have not you such kind of workings of spirit as this Oh that I could but be delivered out of this affliction any way I would not care your hearts are far from being quiet And this sinful shifting is the next thing in opposition to this quietnesse which God requires in a contented spirit The Eighth and last thing that this quietnesse of Spirit is opposite to is desparate risings of heart against God in a way of rebellion That is most abominable I hope many of you have learned so far to be content as to keep down your hearts from such distempers and yet the truth is not only wicked men but sometimes the very Saints of God find the beginnings of this when an affliction lies long and is very sore and heavy upon them indeed and strikes them as it were in the master vein they find somewhat of this in their hearts arising against God their thoughts begin to bubble and their affections begin to stir in rising against God himself especially such as together with their corruptions have much melancholy and the Devil working both upon the corruptions of their hearts and the melancholy distemper of their bodies though there may lie much grace at the bottom yet there may be some risings against God himself under affliction Now Christian quietness is opposite to all these things that is When afflictions come be it what affliction it will be yet you do not murmur though you be sensible though you make your moan though you desire to be delivered and seek it by all good means yet you do not murmur nor repine you do not fret nor vex there is not that tumultuousness of spirit in you there is not unsetledness in your spirits there are not distracting fears in your hearts no sinking discouragements no base shiftings no rising in rebellion any way against God This is the quietness of Spirit under an affliction and that is the second thing when the soul is so far able to bear an affliction as to keep quiet under it Now the Third thing I would open in the discription is this It is an inward quiet gracious frame of Spirit It is a frame of Spirit and then a gracious frame of Spirit Contentment it is a Soule businesse First it is inward Secondly quiet Thirdly it is a quiet Frame of Spirit Frame by that I mean these Three things There are Three things considerable when I say Contentment consists in the quiet frame of the Spirit of a man First That it is a grace that spreads it self through the whol Soul as thus It is in the judgment that is The judgment of the soul of a man or woman tends to quiet the heart In my judgment I am satisfied that is one thing to be satisfied in ones understanding and judgment as thus This is the hand of God and this is that that is sutable to my condition or best for me although I do not see the reason of the thing yet I am satisfied in my judgment about it And then it is in the thoughts of a man or woman As my judgement is satisfied so my thoughts are kept in order And then it comes to the will My will yeilds and submits to it my affections are all likewise kept in order so that it goes through the whol soul There is in some a partiall Contentment and so 't is not the frame of the soul but some part of the soul hath some Contentment as thus Many a man may be satisfied in his judgment about a thing and yet cannot for his life rule his affections nor his thoughts cannot rule his thoughts nor the wil nor the affections though the judgments be satisfied I make no question but many of you may know this by your own experience if you do but observe the workings of your own hearts Cannot you say when such an affliction befals you I can blesse God I am satisfied in my judgment about it I have nothing in the world to say in respect of my judgment against it I see the hand of God and I should be content yea I am satisfied in my judgment that my condition is a good condition in which I am but I cannot for my life rule my thoughts and will and my affections me thinks I feel my heart heavy and sad and troubled more than it should be and yet my judgment is satisfied This seem'd to be the case of David Psal 43. O my Soul why art thou disquieted David as far as his judgment went there was a contentednesse that is His judgment was satisfied in the work of God upon him and he was troubled but he knew not wherefore O my soul why art thou east down within me That Psalm is a very good Psalm for those that feel a fretting discontented distemper in their hearts at any time for them to be reading or singing he hath it once or twice in that Psalm Why art thou cast down O my soul In vers 5. And why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him for the helpe of his countenance David had enough to quiet him and that that he had had prevailed with his judgement but after it had prevailed with his judgement he could not get it further He could not get this grace of Contentment to go through the whole frame of the Soul There is a great deal of stir sometimes to get Contentment into their judgments that is To satisfie their judgment
about their condition Come to many that the hand of God is upon perhaps in a grievous manner and seek to satisfie them and tel them that there is no such cause to be disquieted O not such cause saith the troubled spirit O then there is no cause that any should be disquieted there was never any such affliction as I have and a hundred things they have to put off what is said to them so as you cannot so much as get into their judgments to satisfie them but there is a great deal of hope of Contentment if once your judgments come to be satisfied that you can sit down and say in your judgments I see cause to be contented but though you have gotten thus far yet you may have much to do with your hearts afterward for there is such unrulinesse in our thoughts and affections that our judgments are not able alwaies to rule our thoughts and affections and that makes me to say That Contentment is an inward quiet gracious frame of Spirit that is the whol Soul Judgment Thoughts Will Affections and all are satisfied and quiet I suppose in the very opening this you begin to see it is a lesson that you had need learn and it is not a thing soon got if Contentment be such a thing as this is The Second thing is this which is very observable That spiritual contentment comes from the frame of the Soul A man or woman that is contented in a right way their Contentment doth not so much come from outward arguments or any outward thing that helps them to be content as it doth from the disposition of their own hearts It is the disposition of their own hearts that causes this Contentment that brings forth this gracious Contentment rather than any external thing that doth it as thus I would open my self one that is disquieted suppose a child or man or woman if you come and bring them some great matter to please them that perhaps will quiet them and they will be contented it is the thing you bring them that quiets them but it is not the disposition of their own spirits not from any good temper that there is in their own hearts but from some external thing that is brought them but when a Christian is contented in a right way the quiet doth come more from the inward temper and disposition of their own hearts than from any external arguments or possession of any thing in the world I would yet open this further to you in this Similitude The being content upon some external thing it is like the warming of a mans cloathes by the fire but being content by the inward disposition of the soul it is like the warmth that a mans cloathes hath from the natural heat of his body A man that is of a healthful body he puts on his cloathes and perhaps when he puts them on at the first in a cold morning he feels his cloathes cold but after he hath them on a little while they are warm why how come they warm they came not nigh the fire No but it came from the natural heat of his body Now a sickly man that hath his natural heat decayed if he put on his cloathes cold they will not be hot in a long time but he must have them warmed by the fire and then they will quickly be cold again So this will difference the Contentments of men There are some men now that are very gracious and when an affliction comes upon them indeed at first it seems to be a little cold but after it hath been on a while the very temper of their hearts being gracious it makes their afflictions easie and makes them to be quiet under it and not to complain of any discontentment But now you shall have others that have an affliction upon them that have not this good temper in their hearts their afflictions are very cold upon them and greivous and it may be if you bring them some external arguments somwhat from without as the fire that warms the cloathes perhaps they will be quiet for a while but alas wanting a gracious disposition within in their own hearts that warmth will not hold long The warmth of the fire that is a Contentment that comes meerly from externall arguments will not hold long but that holds that doth come from the gracious temper of the Spirit It is from the frame and the disposition of the spirit of a man or woman there 's the true Contentment But this we shall speak too further in the opening of the Mystery of Contentment The Third thing is this It is the frame of Spirit that shews the habitualness of this grace of Contentment Contentment is not meerly one act a flash in a good mood you shall have many men and women that take them in some good mood and they will be very quiet but this will not hold this is not in a constant way there is not a constant tenour of their spirits to be holy and gracious under affliction But I say It is the quiet frame of spirit by that I mean The habitual disposition of their Souls that it is not only at this time and the other time when you take men and women in a good mood but it is the constant tenour and temper of the heart that is a Christian that hath learned this lesson of Contentment that in the constant tenour and temper of heart is contented and can carry it's self quietly in a constant way or else it is worth nothing for there is no body that is so furious in their discontent but will be quiet in some good mood or other Now First it is a heart-business Secondly it is the heart-quiet and then Thirdly it is the frame of the heart But Fourthly It is the gracious frame of the heart Indeed in Contentment there is a composition of all graces if the Contentment be Spiritual if it be truely Christian there is I say a composition of all Spiritual graces As it is in some Oyls there is a composition of a great many very precious ingredients so in this grace of Contentment which we shall yet further speak of in the opening of the Excellency of it But now the gracious frame of Spirit is in opposition to Three things 1 First In opposition to the natural stilness that there is in many men and women There is some of such a natural constitution that makes them to be more still and more quiet than others others are of a violent and hot constitution and they are more impatient than others 2 Secondly In opposition to a sturdy resolution As some men through the strength of some sturdy resolution they have not seemed to be troubled let come what will come and so it may be that through a sturdy resolution at some times they are not so much disquieted as others are Thirdly In way of distinction from the very strength of reason though not sanctified the strength of
natural reason may quiet the heart in some measure But now I say A gracious frame of spirit is not a meer stilnesse of body through a natural constitution and temper nor sturdinesse of resolution nor meerly through the strength of reason You will say wherein is this graciousness of Contentment distinguisht from all these More of this will be spoken to when we shew the mystery of it and the lessons that are learned but now we may speak a little by way of distinction here as now From the natural stilnesse of mens spirits many men and women have such a natural stilnesse of spirit and constitution of body that you shall find them seldom disquieted But now mark these kind of people that are so they likewise are very dull of a dull spirit in any good thing they have no quicknesse nor livelinesse of spirit in that which is good but now mark where contentment of heart is gracious the heart is very quick and lively in the service of God yea the more any gracious heart can bring its self to be in a contented disposition Oh the more fit it is for any service of God and is very active and lively in Gods service not dull in the service of God And as a Contented heart is very active and stirring in the work of God so he is very active and stirring in sanctifying Gods Name in the affliction that doth befall him The difference will appear very cleer thus One that is of a still disposition he is not disquieted indeed as others neither hath he any activenesse of spirit in sanctifying the Name of God in the affliction but now one that is content in a gracious way as he â—s not disquieted but keep his heartt quiet in respect of vexing and trouble so on the other side he is not dull nor heavy but is very active to sanctifie Gods Name in the affliction thas is upon him for it is not enough meerly not to murmur not to be discontented and troubled but you must be active in the sanctifying Gods Name in the affliction And indeed this will distinguish it from the other from a sturdy resolution I will not be troubled but though you have a sturdy resolution that you will not be troubled is there a conscionablenesse in you to sanctifie Gods Name in your affliction and doth it come from thence That is the main thing that brings the quiet of heart and helps against discontentednesse in a gracious heart I say the desire and care that thy soul hath to sanctifie Gods Name in an affliction it is that that quiets the soul which doth not in the other Neither when it is meerly from reason As Socrates it is said of him though he were but an heathen that what ever befel him he would never so much as change his countenance and he got this power over his spirit meerly by strength of reason and morallity but now this gracious contentment comes from principles beyond the strength of reason I cannot open that from whence it comes till we come to open the mystery of spiritual Contentment I will only give you this one note of difference between a man and a woman that is contented in a natural way and another that is contented in a spiritual way Those that are contented in a natural way they overcome themselves when outward afflictions doth befal them they are contented yea and they are contented as well when they commit sin against God either when they have outward crosses or when God is dishonoured it is all one either when themselves are crost or when God is crost but now a gracious heart that is contented with it's own affliction yet mightily rises when God is dishonoured The Fift is Freely freely submitting to and taking complacency in Gods dispose it is a free work of the spirit now there are four things to be opened in this freedom of spirit First that the heart is readily brought over that that one doth freely there is no great stir to bring them to it there are many men and women when their afflictions are grievous upon them with much adoe they are brought to be contented a great deal of stir there is to quiet their hearts when they are under affliction yet at last perhaps they are brought to it I but now this doth not come off freely if I desire a thing of another and I get it perhaps with much adoe and a great deal of stir there is but here 's no freedom of spirit but when a man is free in a thing do but mention it and presently he comes off to it So if you have learned this art of Contentment you will not only be contented after a great deal of do to quiet your hearts but readily as soon as ever you do come to think that it is the hand of God your heart presently closeth Secondly freely That is not by constraint not patience by force as we use to say As many will say that you must be content this is the hand of God and there is no help for it O this is too low an expression for Christians yet when Christians come to visit one another they say friend or neighbour you must be content this is to low an expression for a Christian Must be content no readily and freely I will be content It is sutable to my heart to yeild to God and to be content I find it is a thing that comes off of it self that my soul will be content Oh you should answer your friends so that come and tell you you must be content nay I am willing to yeild to God and I am freely content that 's the Second And then a free act it comes after a rational way that 's freedom that is it doth not come through ignorance because I know no better condition or that I know not what my affliction is I but it comes through a sanctified judgment for that is the reason that no creature can do an act of freedom but the rational creature the liberty of action is only in rational creatures and it comes from hence for that 's only freedom and out of liberty that 's wrought in a rational way as a natural freedom is when I by my judgment see what is to be done understand the thing and then there is a closing with what I do understand in my judgment that is freely done but now if a man doth a thing and understands not what he doth he cannot be said to do it freely So if men are contented but it is because they understand not what their affliction is or because they understand no better this is not freely as for instance Suppose a Child born in a prison and never in all his life went out the Child is contented why Because he never knew better but this is no free act of Contentation But now for men and women that do know better that know that the condition in which they are in it is
an afflicted condition and a sad condition and yet they can bring their hearts to a Contentation out of a sunctified judgment this is freedom Thirdly This freedom it is in opposition to stupidness for a man and woman may be contented meerly out of want of sence this is not free as a man in a dead palsie that doth not feel you nip his flesh he is not freely patient but if one should have their flesh nipt and feel it and yet for all that can be able to bridle themselves and do it freely that is another matter So it is here many are contented meerly out of stupidnesse they have a dead palsie upon them but now a gracious heart hath sence enough and yet is contented and therefore is free Sixthly Freely submitting to and taking complacency in Gods dispose Submitting to Gods dispose What is that The word Submit it signifies nothing else but to send under as thus One that is discontented the heart will be unruly and would even get above God so far as discontentment prevailes but now comes the grace of Contentment and sends it under to submit it is to send under a thing now when the soul comes to see the unrulinesse that there is in it here 's the hand of God that brings an affliction and my heart is troubled and discontented what saith the Soul Wilt thou be above God Is it not Gods hand and must thy will be regarded more than Gods O under under O thou soul get under keep under keep low keep under Gods feet thou art under Gods feet and keep under his feet keep under the Authority of God the Majesty of God the Soveraignity of God the Power that God hath over thee Keep under that is to submit then the Soul can submit to God when it can send it's self under the Power and Authority and Soveraignity and Dominion that God hath over it that is the Sixth Particular Yea but that is not enough yet you have not got to this Grace of Contentment except in the next place you take Seventhly Taking a complacency in Gods dispose That is thus I am well pleased in what God doth so far as I can see God in it though as I said I may be sensible of the affliction and may desire that God in his due time would take it off and use means to take it off yet I may be well pleased so far as Gods hand is in it To be well pleased with Gods hand that is a higher degree than the other and this comes from hence not only because I see that I should be content in this affliction but because I see that there is good in this affliction I find there is hony in this rock and so I do not only say I must or I will submit to Gods hand no but the hand of God is good it is good that I am afflicted That it is just that I am afflicted that may be in one that is not truly contented I may be convinced that God deals justly in this God is righteous and just and t is fit I should submit to what he hath done O the Lord hath done righteously in al his waies but that is not enough but thou must say Good is the hand of the Lord the expression of old Ely Good is the word of the Lord when it was a sore hard word that word that did threaten very grievous things to Ely and his house and yet Good is the word of the Lord saith Ely Perhaps some of you may say as David It is good that I was afflicted nay you must come to say thus It is good that I am afflicted Not good when you see the good fruit that it hath wrought but when you are afflicted to say It is good that I am afflicted Whatever the affliction be yet through the mercy of God my condition is a good condition it is the top indeed and the height of this art of Contentment to come to this pitch to be able to say Well my condition and afflictions are thus and thus and is very grievous and sore yet I am through Gods mercy in a good condition and the hand of God is good upon me notwithstanding Now I should have given you divers Scriptures about this I shall but give you one or two that are very remarkable you will think this is a hard lesson to come thus far not only to be quiet but to have a complacency in affliction Prov. 16.6 In the house of the righteous is much treasure but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble Here 's a Scripture now that will shew that a gracious heart hath cause to say it is in a good condition what ever it be In the house of the Righteous is much Treasure his house what house it may be a poor Cottage perhaps he hath scarce a stool to sit on perhaps he is fain to sit upon a stump of wood a piece of a block instead of a stool or perhaps he hath scarce a bed to lie upon or a dish to eat in yet saith the Holy Ghost In the house of the righteous is much treasure Let the righteous man be the poorest man in the world It may be there are some that have come and taken all the goods out of his house for debt perhaps his house is plundered and all is gone yet still In the house of the righteous is much treasure the righteous man can never be brought to be so poor to have his house rifled and spoiled but there will remain much treasure within if he hath but a dish or a spoon or any thing in the world in his house there will be much treasure so long as he is there there is the presence of God and the blessing of God upon him and therein is much treasure but in the revenues of the wicked there is trouble There is more treasure in the poorest bodies house if he be godly than in the house of the greatest man in the world that hath his brave hangings and brave wrought beds and chairs and couches and cupbords of plate and the like what ever he hath he hath not so much treasure in it as in the house of the poorest righteous soul therefore in a verse or two after my text no mervail though Paul saith he was Content you shall see in Phil. 4.18 But I have all and abound I am full I have all Alas poor man what had Paul that could make him say he had all where was there ever man more afflicted than Paul was many times he had not tatters to hang about his body to cover his nakednesse he had not bread to eat he was often in nakednesse and put in the stocks and whipt and cruelly used yet I have all saith Paul for all that Yea you shall have it in 2. Cor. 6.10 he professes there That he did possess all things as sorrowful yet alwaies rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet
that they are in still thus we are to submit to the dispose of God in every condition Obj. But you will say This that you speake of is good indeed if we could attain to it but is it possible for one to attain to this Answer It is if you get skill in the Art of it you may attain to it and it will prove to be no such difficult thing to you neither if you understand but the mystery of it as there 's many things that men do in their callings that if a country man comes and sees he thinks it a mighty hard thing and that he should never be able to do it but that 's because he understands not the art of it there is a turning of the hand so as you may do it with ease Now that 's the business of this exercise to open unto you the art and mystery of Contentment What way a Christian comes to Contentment there is a great Mysterie and art in it by that hath been opened to you there will appear some mystery and art as that a man should be content with his affliction and yet throughly sensible of his affliction too to be throughly sensible of an affliction and to endeavour the removing of it by all lawful means and yet to be content there 's a mystery in that how to joyne these two together to be sensible of an affliction as much as that man or woman that is not content I am sensible of it as fully as they and I seek waies to be delivered from it as well as they and yet still my heart abides content this is I say a mystery that is very hard to be understood by a carnal heart but grace doth teach such a mixture doth teach us how to make a mixture of sorrow and a mixture of joy together and that makes Contentment the mingling of joy and sorrow of gracious joy and gracious sorrow together grace teaches us how to moderate and to order an affliction so as there shall be a sence of it and yet for all that Contentment under it There are divers things further for the opening of the Mystery of Contentment The First Thing therefore is this To shew that there is a great mystery in it One that is contented in a Christian way it may be said of him that he is the most contented man in the world and yet the most unsatisfied man in the world these two together must needs be mysterious I say a contented man as he is the most contented so he is the most unsatisfied of any man in the world You never learned the mystery of contentment except it may be said of you that as you are the most contented man so you are the most unsatisfied man in the world You will say how is that A man that hath learned the art of Contentment is the most contented with any low condition that he hath in the world and yet he cannot be satisfied with the injoyment of all the world and yet he is contented if he hath but a crust but bread and water that is if God disposes of him for the things of the world to have but bread and water for his present condition he can be satisfied with Gods dispose in that yet if God should give unto him Kingdoms and Empiers all the world to rule if he should give it him for his portion he would not be satisfied with that here 's the mystery of it though his heart be so inlarged as the injoyment of all the world and ten thousand worlds cannot satisfie him for his portion yet he hath a heart quieted under Gods dispose if he gives him but bread and water to joyn these two together this must needs be a great art and mystery Though he be contented with God in a little yet those things that would content other men will not content him The men of the world they seek after estates and think if they had thus much and thus much they would be content they aime at no great matters but if I had perhaps some man thinks but two or three hundred a year then I should be well enough If I had but a hundred a year or a thousand a year saith another then I should be satisfied but saith a gracious heart If he had ten hundred thousand times so much a year it would not satisfie him if he had the quintescence of all the excellencies of all the creatures in the world it could not satisfie him and yet this man can sing and be merry and joyfull when he hath but a crust of bread and a little water in the world Surely Religion is a great mystery great is the mystery of godlinesse not only in the Doctrinal part of it but in the Practical part of it also Godliness teacheth us this mystery Not to be satisfied with all the world for our portion and yet to be content with the meanest condition in which we are As Luther when he had great gifts sent him from Dukes and Princes he refused it and saith he I did vehemently protest God should not put me off so 't is not that which will content me A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage Marke here lies the Mystery of it A little in the world will Content a Christian for his passage but all the world and ten thousand times more will not Content a Christian for his portion Now a carnal heart will be Content with these things of the world for his portion and there is the differnce between a Carnal heart and a Gracious heart But saith a gracious heart Lord do with me what thou wilt for my passage through this world I will be content with that but I cannot be content with all the world for my portion so there is the mystery of true Contentation A contented man though he be most contented with the least things in the world yet he is the most unsatisfied man that lives in the world That Soul that is capable of God can be filled with nothing else but God nothing but God can fill a soul that is capable of God though a gracious heart knows that it is capable of God and was made for God Carnal hearts think of no reference to God but a gracious heart being inlarged to be capable of God and injoying somewhat of him nothing in the world can fill a gracious heart it must be only God himself and therefore you shall observe That let God give what he will to a gracious heart a heart that is godly except he gives Himself it will not do a godly heart will not only have the mercy but the God of that mercy as well as its self and then a little matter is enough in the world so be it he hath the God of that mercy he doth injoy In Phil. 4.7.9 I shall need go no further to shew a notable Scripture for this Compare vers 7. with vers 9. And the peace of
and then when they have got into that condition they are stil as far from Contentment as before No no let me consider what is the duty of my present condition and content my heart with this and say Well though I am in a low condition yet I am serving the counsels of God in that condition wherein I am it is the counsel of God that hath brought me into this condition that I am in and I desire to serve the counsel of God in that condition There is a notable Scripture concerning David it is said of him That he served his Generation after David had served his Generation according to the will of God then he slept It is a Speech of Paul concerning him in Act. 13.36 So it is in your books After he had served his generation according to the will of God But now the word that is translated will it is the counsell of God and so it may be translated as well That after David in his generation had served Gods counsel then he fell asleep We ordinarily take the words thus That David served his generation that is He did the work of his generation that is to serve a mans generation But it is more plain if you reade it thus After David in his generation had served the Counsell of God then David fell asleep O that should be the care of a Christian to serve out Gods Counsels What is the Counsel of God The conditiō that I am in God doth put me into it by his own Counsel the Counsel of his own will Now I must serve Gods Counsel in my generation look what is the Counsel of God in my condition I must look to serve that and so I shall have my heart quieted for the present and shall live and die peaceably and comfortably if I be carefull to serve Gods Counsel A Sixt thing in the mystery of Contentment is this A gracious heart is contented by the melting of his will and desires into Gods will and desires by this means he gets Contentment and this is a mystery to a carnal heart It is not by having his own desires satisfied as before but by melting his will and desires into Gods will So that he comes to have in one sense his desires satisfied though he hath not the thing that before he did desire yet he comes to be satisfied in this because he makes his will to be all one with Gods will This is a little higher degree than submitting to the will of God You all say you should submit to Gods will but a Christian hath gotten beyond this that is he can make Gods will and his to be the same So it is said of beleevers that they are joyned to the Lord and are one spirit that is look what Gods will is I do not only see reason to submit to it but Gods will is my will When the soul can make over as it were it's will to God it must needs then have Contentment Others would fain get the thing they do desire O but saith a gracious heart that that God would have I would have too I will not only yeild to it but I would have it too a gracious heart hath learned this art not only to make the commanding will of God to be it's own will that is what God commands me to do I will do it but to make the providential will of God and the opperative will of God to be his will too God commands this thing which perhaps you that are Christians may have some skill in but whatsoever God works you must will as well as what God commands you must make Gods providential will and his opperative will as well your will as Gods will and so you must come to Contentment here a Christian makes over his will to God and in making over his will to God he hath no other will but only Gods as suppose a man makes over his debt to another man if that man that I owe the debt to be satisfied and contented I am satisfied because I have made it over to him and I need not be discontented and say my debt is not payd and I am not satisfied yes you are satisfied for he that you made over your debt to he is satisfied Just thus it is for all the world between God and a Christian a Christian heart makes over his will to God now then if Gods will be satisfied then I am satisfied for I have then no will of mine own it is melted into the will of God for so that is the excellency of grace grace doth not only subject the will to God but it doth melt the will into Gods will so that they are now but one will what a sweet satisfaction must the soul have then in this condition when all is made over to God You will say this is hard I will express it a little more A gracious heart must needs have satisfaction this way because godliness doth teach him this to see that his good is more in God than in himself the good of my life and comforts and my happinesse and my glory and my riches is more in God than it is in my self that perhaps we may speak too further when we come to the lessons that are to be learned But upon this it is that a gracious heart hath Contentment he doth melt his will into Gods for saith he if God have glory I have glory Gods glory is my glory and therefore Gods will is mine if God have riches then I have riches if God be magnified then I am magnified if God be satisfied then I am satisfied Gods wisdom and holinesse is mine and therefore his will must needs be mine and my will must needs be his here is the art of a Christians Contentment he melts his will into the will of God and makes over his will to God Oh Lord thou shalt choose our inheritance for us Psal 73. The Seventh thing in the Art of Contentment is this The Mystery consists not so much by bringing any thing without to make my condition more comfortable as to purge out something that is within The men of the world now when they would have Contentment and want any thing Oh they must have somewhat from without to content them but saith a godly man let me get somthing out that is in already and then I shall come to Contentment As suppose a man hath an aguish humour that makes his drink taste bitter now saith he You must put some sugar into my drink and his wife puts in some and yet the drink tastes bitter Why Because the bitternesse comes from a bitter cholerick humour within but let the Physitian come and give him a bitter potion to purge out the bitternesse that is within and then he can taste his drink well enough Just thus it is with the men of the world Oh such a condition is bitter and if I could have such and such a mercy added to this mercy
way challenge whatsoever they have need of We cannot express the right of a holy man the difference between his right and the right of the wicked more fully than by this similitude a Malefactor that is condemned to die yet he hath by favour granted to him his supper provided over night and you cannot say though the Malefactor hath forfeited all his right to all things to every bit of bread yet if he shall have a supper granted to him he doth not steal it though all his right is forfeited by his fault after he is once condemned he hath no right to any thing so it is with the wicked they have forfeited all their right to all comforts in this world they are condemned by God as Malefactors and are going to execution but if God will in his bounty give them something to preserve them here in the world they cannot be said to be thieves or robbers Now a man hath granted to him a supper over night before his execution but is that like the supper that he was wont to have in his own house when he eat his own bread and had his wife and children about him Oh a dish of green herbs at home would be a great deal better than any dainties in such a supper as that is but now a child of God hath not a right meerly by donation but what he hath it is his own through the purchase of Christ every bit of bread that thou eatest if thou beest a godly man or woman Jesus Christ hath bought it for thee thou goest to market and buyest thy meat and drink with thy money but know that before thou hast bought it or paid money Christ hath bought it at the hand of God the Father with his blood thou hast it at the hands of men for money but Christ hath bought it at the hand of his Father by his blood And certainly it is a great deal better and sweeter now though it be but a little Fifthly There 's another thing that shews the sweetness that there is in that little that the Saints have by which they come to have contentment whereas others cannot that is Every little that they have it is but as an earnest penny of all the glory that is reserved for them it is given them by God but as the Fore-runner of those eternal mercies that the Lord intends for them now if a man hath but twelve pence given to him as an earnest penny for some great possession that he must have is not that better than if he had forty pounds given unto him otherwise So every comfort that the Saints have in this world it is an earnest penny to them of those eternall mercies that the Lord hath provided for them as every affliction that the wicked have here it is but the beginning of sorrowes and fore-runner of those eternall sorrows that they are like to have hereafter in Hell so every comfort thou hast is a fore-runner of those eternal mercies thou shalt have with God in Heaven not only the consolations of Gods Spirit are the fore-runners of those eternal comforts thou shalt have in Heaven but when thou sittest at thy Table and rejoycest with thy wife and children and friends thou mayest look upon every one of those but as a fore-runner yea the very earnest-penny of eternal life unto thee Now then if this be so no marvel though a Christian be contented this is a mystery to the wicked I have what I have out of the love of God and I have it sanctified to me by God and I have it of free-cost from God by the purcase of the blood of Jesus Christ and I have it as a fore-runner of those eternal mercies that are reserved for me and in this my soul rejoyces There 's a secret dew of Gods goodness and blessing upon him in his estate that others have not and by all this you may see the meaning of that Scripture Prov. 16.8 Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right A man that hath but a little yet if he hath it with righteousness it is better than a great deale without right yea better than the great revenues of the wicked so you have it in another Scripture That 's the next Particular in Christian Contentment the mystery is in this That he lives upon the dew of Gods blessing in all the good things that he doth enjoy The Ninth thing wherein the mystery of Christian Contentment consists is this Not only the good things that he hath he hath the dew of Gods blessing in them and they are very sweet to him but all the afflictions all the evils that do befall him he can see love in them all And can enjoy the sweetness of love in his afflictions as well as in his mercies yea the truth is the afflictions of Gods people comes from the same Eternal love that Jesus Christ did come from And that speech of Hierom He is a happy man that is beaten when the stroke is a stroke of love All Gods strokes are strokes of love and mercy all Gods waies are mercy and truth to those that fear him and love him Psalm 25.10 The wayes of God the waies of affliction as well as the waies of prosperity are mercy and love to him Grace gives a man an eye a piercing ye to pierce into the Councels of God those Eternal Counsels of God for good unto him even in his afflictions to see the love of God in every affliction as well as in prosperity Now this is a mystery to a carnal heart they can see no such thing perhaps they think God loves them when he prospers them and makes them rich but they think God loves them not when he doth afflict them that 's a mystery but grace instructs men in that mystery grace inables men to see love in the very frowns of Gods face and so comes to receive contentment In the Tenth place A godly man hath Contentment in the way of a mystery because as he sees all his afflictions come from the same love that Jesus Christ did so he sees them all sanctified in Jesus Christ sanctified as a Mediator he sees I say all the sting and venom and poyson of them all to be taken out by the vertue of Jesus Christ the Mediator between God and Man As now for instance Thus a Christian when he would have Contentment fals a working what is my affliction Is it poverty that God strikes me withall Jesus Christ had not a house to hide his head in the Fowls of the air had nests and the Foxes had holes but the Son of Man not a hole to hide his head in now my poverty is sanctified by Christs poverty I can see by faith the curse and sting and venom of my poverty taken out by the poverty of Jesus Christ Christ Jesus he was poor in this world to deliver me from the curse of my poverty that it should not be cursed unto
me then my poverty is not afflictive if I can be contented in such a condition That is the way not to stand and repine because I have not what others have no but I am poor and Christ was therefore poor that he might bless my poverty to me And so again Am I disgraced dishonoured is my good-name taken away why Jesus Christ he had dishonour put upon him he was called Beelzebub and a Samaritan and they said he had a Devil in him all the foul aspersions that could be were cast upon Jesus Christ and this was for me that I might have the disgrace that is cast upon me to be sanctified unto me whereas another man his heart is overwhelmed with dishonour and disgrace and he goes this way to work to get Conntetment perhaps if you be spoken ill of you have no other way to ease and right your selves but if they do rail upon you you will rail upon them again and thus you think to ease your selves Oh but a Christian hath another manner of way to ease himself others rail and speak ill of me but did they not rail upon Jesus Christ and speak ill of him and what am I in comparison of Christ And the subjection of Christ to such an evil it was for me that though such a thing should come upon me I might know that the curse of it is taken from me through Christs subjection to that evill thus a Christian can be contented when any body speaks ill of him now this is a mysterie to you to get Contentment after such a manner as this is So if men jeer and scoffe at you did they not do so to Jesus Christ they jeer'd and scoff't at him and that when he was in his greatest extremity upon the Crosse say they Here 's the King of the Jews and they bowed the knee and said hail King of the Jews and put a Reed into his hand and mocked him now I get Contentment in the midst of scorns and jeers by considering that Christ was scorned and by acting faith upon that which Christ did suffer for me So am I in great pain of my body Jesus Christ had as great pain upon his body as I have though it 's true he had not such kind of sicknesses as we have but yet he had as great pain and tortours in his body and that that was deadly to him as wel as any sicknesse is to us the exercising of faith upon what Christ did indure that 's the way to get Contentment in the midst of our pains one lies vexing and fretting and cannot bear his pain art thou a Christian hast thou ever tryed this way of getting contentment to act thy faith upon all the pains and sufferings that Jesus Christ did suffer this would be the way of Contentment and a Christian gets contentment under pains after this maner sometimes one that is very godly and gracious you shall have them lie under grievous pains and extremities very cheerfully and you wonder at it this is the way that he gets it he gets it by acting his faith upon what pains Jesus Christ did suffer thou art afraid of death the way to get Contentment it is by exercising thy faith upon the death of Jesus Christ yea it may be thou hast inward troubles in thy soule and God withdraws himselfe from thee but still thy faith is to be exercised upon the sufferings that Jesus Christ indured in his soul he poured forth his soul before God then when he sweat drops of water and blood he was in an Agony in his very Spirit and he found even God himself in a way to forsake him now the acting thy faith upon Jesus Christ thus brings Contentment and is not this a mysterie to carnal hearts a gracious heart finds Contentment in a way of a mystery no marvel though Saint Paul saith I am instructed in a Mystery to be contented in whatsoever condition I am in In the Eleventh place there is yet a further mystery for this I hope you will find a very useful point unto you and you will see what a plaine way there is before we have done for one that is skil'd in Religion to get Contentment though it 's hard for one that is carnal I say the Eleventh mystery in contentment is this A gracious heart hath contentment by fetching strength from Jesus Christ he is able to beare his burden by fetching strength from another now this is a riddle indeed and it would be a rediculous thing to be spoken of in the schools of Philosophers to say if there be a burden upon you you must fetch strength from another indeed to have another to come and stand under the burden that way they would know but that you shall be strengthened by anothers strength that is not neer you to your outward view that they would think rediculous but now a Christian finds satisfaction in every condition by getting strength from another by going out of it's self to Jesus Christ and by faith acting upon Christ and bringing the strength of Jesus Christ into it's own soul and thereby is inabled to bear whatsoever God laies upon him by the strength that he finds from Jesus Christ of his fulnesse do we receive grace for grace there is strength in Christ not only to sanctifie and save us but strength to support us under all our burdens and afflictions and Christ expects that when we are under any burden that we should act our faith upon him to draw vertue and strength from him the acting of faith that 's the great grace that is to be acted under afflictions it 's true other graces should be acted but the grace of faith it draws strength from Christ in looking upon him that hath the fulnesse of all strength to be convayed into the hearts of all beleevers Now if a man hath a burden upon him yet if he can have strength added to him if the burden be doubled yet if he can have his strength to be tribled the burden will not be heavier but lighter than it was before to our natural strength Indeed our afflictions may be heavy and we cry out oh we cannot bear them we cannot bear such an affliction Though thou canst not tell how to bear it with thine own strength yet what canst thou tell what thou shalt do with the strnegth of Jesus Christ Thou saiest thou canst not bear it why doest thou think that Christ could not bear it if Christ could bear it why mayest not thou come to bear it You will say Can I have the strength of Christ Yea that is made over to thee by faith so the Scripture saith That the Lord is our strength God himself is our strength and Christ is our strength divers Scriptures we have that way that Christs strength is thine made over to thee that so thou mayest be able to bear whatsoever lies upon thee and therefore we find such a strange kind of expression in the Epistle
of Saint Paul to the Collossians praying for the Saints that they might be strengthened with all might according unto his glorious power unto what Vnto all patience and long suffering with joyfulnesse Strengthned with all might according to the power of God the glorious power of God unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness You may not therefore be content with a little strength so that you are able to bear what a man might bear by the strength of reason and nature But to be strengthened with all might according to the glorious power of God unto all patience and to all long suffering Oh you that are now under very heavy and sad afflictions more than ordinary look upon this Scripture and consider how this Scripture is made good in you why may you not have this Scripture made good in you if you be godly You should not be quiet in your own spirits except that you in some measure do get this Scripture to be made good in you so that you may with some comfort say through Gods mercy I find that strength coming into me that is here spoken of in this Scripture You should labour when you are under any great affliction you that are Godly to walk so that others may see such a Scripture made good in you Here is the glorious power of God that doth strengthen his servants to all long suffering and that with joyfulness Alas it may be you do not exercise so much patience as a wise man or a wise woman that hath but natural reason But where is the power of God the glorious power of God where 's the strengthening with all might unto all long-suffering and patience and that with joyfulnesse It is true the spirit of a man may be able to sustain his infirmities may be able to sustain and keep up his spirits the naturall spirit of a man but much more then when this spirit is acted with grace and holinesse and when it is fill'd with the strength of Jesus Christ this is the way of a godly mans getting Contentment the Mystery of it it is by fetching in strength from Jesus Christ Twelfthly Another Mystery that there is in it it is That a godly heart injoys much of God in every thing it hath and doth know how to make up all wants in God himself that is another Mystery he hath God in what he hath that I spoke too somwhat before in shewing the dew of Gods blessing in what he hath for God is able to let out a great deale of his power in little things and therefore the miracles that God hath wrought have been as much in little things as in great now as God lets out a great deal of his power in working miracles in smaler things so he lets out a great deal of goodnesse and mercy in comforting and rejoycing the hearts of his people in little things as well as in great there may be as much riches in a pearl as in a great deal of lumber but now this is a distinct thing Further a gracious heart as he lives upon Gods dew in a little that he hath so when that little that he hath shall be taken from him what shall he do then Then you will say If a man have nothing there can be nothing fetcht out of nothing But if the children of God have their little taken from them they can make up all their wants in God himself Such a man is a poor man the plunderers came and took away all that he had what shall he do then when all is gone But when all is gone there is an art and skill that godlinesse teaches to make up all those losses in God Many men that have their houses burnt go about gathering and so get up by many hands a little but a godly man knows whither to go to get up all even in God himself so as he shall injoy the quintescence of the same good and comfort as he had before for a Godly man doth not live so much in himself as he lives in God This is now a Mysterie to a Carnal heart I say a gracious man doth not live so much in himself as he doth in God he lives in God continually if there be any thing cut off from the stream he knows how to go to the fountain makes up all there God is his all in all while he lives I say t is God that is his all in all Am not I to thee saith Elkanah to Hannah instead of ten Children So saith God to a gracious heart thou wantest this thy estate is plundered Why Am not I to thee instead of ten houses and ten shops I am to thee instead of All yet not only instead of All but come to me and thou shalt have all again in me This indeed is an excellent Art to be able to draw from God what it had before in the creature Christian how didst thou injoy Comfort before was the creature any other to thee but a Conduit a pipe that did convey Gods goodnesse to thee The pipe is cut off saith God come to me the Fountain and drink immeadiately though the beams be taken away yet the Sun remains the same in the firmament as ever it was What 's that that satisfies God himself but because he doth injoy all fulnesse in himself so he comes to have satisfaction in himself now if thou injoyest God to be thy portion if thy soul can say with the Church in Lamentations 3.24 The Lord is my portion saith my soul why shouldest thou not be satisfied and contented as God God is contented he is in eternal Contentment in himself now if thou hast that God to be thy portion why shouldest not thou be contented with him alone God is contented with himself alone if thou hast him thou mayest be Contented with him alone and it may be that is the reason that thy outward comforts are taken from thee that God may be All in All to thee It may be whilst thou hadest these things here they did share with God in thy affection a great part of the stream of thy affection ran that way now God would have the full stream run to him As you know it is with a man that hath water come to his house and if there be several pipes upon which he finds the water comes but scantly into his wash-house he will rather stop the other pipes that he may have all the water come in where he would have it So here it may be God had some stream of thy affection that ran to him then when thou didest enjoy these things yea but a great deale was let out to the Creature a great deal of thy affections did run waste now the Lord would not have the affections of his Children to run waste he doth not care for other mens affections but for thine they are precious and God would not have them to run waste therefore doth he cut off thy other pipes that
his whole inheritance to be together and all intire within it's self And now still to shew this by further similitudes it is with him being fil'd with good things just like as it is with many a man that injoys abundance of comforts at home at his own house God grants to him a convenient habitation a comfortable yoke-fellow and fine walks and gardens and hath all things at home that he could desire now this man cares not much for going abroad other men are fain to go abroad to take the air but he hath a sweet air at home and they are fain to go abroad to see friends because they have raylings and contendings at home many ill husbands will give this reason if his wife make any moan and complaint of his ill husbandry of their bad husbandry and will make that their excuse to go abroad because they can never be quiet at home Now we account those men most happy that have all at home those that have close houses that are unsavory and smels ill they delight to go into the fresh ayr I but it is not so with many others that have these at home those that have no good chear at home they are fain to go abroad to friends but those that have their Tables furnished they had as live stay at home so a carnal man he hath but little Contentment in his own spirit it 's Austins similitude saith he an ill conscience is like a scoulding wife a man saith he that hath an ill conscience he cares not to look into his own soul but loves to be abroad and look into other things but never looks to himself but one that hath a good conscience he delights in looking into his own heart he hath a good conscience within him and so a carnal heart because there 's nothing but filthinesse a filthy stink in himself nothing but vilenesse and basenesse within him upron this it is that he seeks his Contentment else where And as it is with a vessel that is full of liquor if you strike upon it it will make no great noise but if it be empty then it makes a great noise so it is with the heart a heart that is full of grace and goodnesse within such a one will bear a great many strokes and never make any noise but an empty heart if that be struck that will make a noise those men and women that are so much complayning and alwaies whyning it is a sign that there 's an emptinesse in their hearts but if their hearts were filled with grace they would not make such an noise as now they do As a man that hath his bones fil'd with marrow and veins fill'd with good blood he complains not of cold as others do so a gracious heart having the Spirit of God within him and his heart fill'd with Grace he hath that within him that makes him find Contentment It is a speech of Seneca Indeed those things that I suffer will be incredible heavy when I cannot bear my self but now if I be no burden to my self if I have all quiet within mine own heart then I can bear any thing many men through their wickednesse they have burdens without but the greatest burden is the wickednesse of their own hearts they are not burdened with their sins in a godly way that would ease their burden but they have still their wickednesse in the power of it and so they are burdens to themselves The distempers of mens hearts are mighty burdens to them many times a godly man hath enough within to Content him Vertue it is Content with its self for to live well It s a speech of Cicero and its in one of his Paradoxes It finds enough within its own sphere for the living happily but how few are acquainted with this Mysterie Many think O if I had that that another man hath how happily and comfortably should I live Oh but if thou beest a Christian whatsoever thy condition be yet thou hast enough within thy self you will say such and such men that hath all things they need not be beholding to any body you shall have many that will labour and take pains when they are young that they might not be beholding to others I love to live of my selfe now a Christian may do so not that he doth not live upon God I mean not so but upon that that he hath of God within himselfe that he can live upon although he doth not enjoy the comforts that are without himselfe that 's it which I mean and those that are godly and keep close to God in their Communion with him they understand what I mean by this that a Christian hath supply of all his wants within himselfe and here you may see that the spirit of a Christian is a precious spirit a godly spirit is precious why because it hath enough to make him happy within himself The next thing that the Mystery of Contentment consists in is this That a gracious heart fetches supply of all from the Covenant and so comes to have Contentment which is a dry thing to a carnal spirit Now there are two things here First he fetches Contentment from the Covenant in general that is from the great Covenant that God hath made with him in Christ Secondly From the particular promises that God hath made with him in the Covenant First From the Covenant in general I 'le give you one Scripture for that it 's very remarkable in the second of Sam. 23. vers 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow It 's a most admirable Scripture of David that yet had not the Covenant of Grace opened so fully as we have But yet mark what David saith Although I find not my house so that is so comfortably every way as I would although it be not so what hath he to content his spirit saith he He hath made with me an everlasting Covenant this is that that helps all I am not may some men say thus and thus with God I do not find God come in so fully or it 's not with my house and family as I hoped it might be perhaps there is this or that affliction upon my house suppose you should have the plague come into your house and your house is not safe and you have not that outward comfort in your house as formerly you had but can you reade this Scripture and say Although my house be not so blest with health as other mens houses are although my house be not so yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant I am one yet in Covenant with God the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant as for these things in this world I see they are but momentary they are not everlasting I see in a family when all
was well but a week ago now all is down and the plague hath swept away a great many of them and the rest are left in sadness and mourning we see there is no resting in the things of this world yet the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things I find disorder in my heart in my family but the everlasting Covenant that 's ordered in all things yea and that 's sure alack there 's no surenesse here in these things I can be sure of nothing here especially in these times we know that a man can be sure of little that he hath who can be sure of his estate perhaps some of you here that have lived well and comfortably before and all was well about you and you thought your mountain was strong but you see within a day or two all taken away from you so that there is no surenesse in the things of this world But saith he the Covenant is sure what I venture to Sea that 's not sure but here 's an assurance Offiice indeed here 's a great assurance Office for the Saints and they are not at charge but only the exercising of Grace for they may go to this Assurance Office to assure every thing that they venture either to have the thing it self or be paid for it In an assurance Office you cannot be assured to have the very goods come in that you insured but if they be lost the Insurers do ingage themselves to make it good to you And this Covenant of grace that God hath made with his people it is Gods Assurance Office and the Saints in all their fears may and ought to go to the Covenant to assure all things to them to assure their estates and assure their lives You will say how are they sure their lives and estates go as well as others But God ingages himself to make up all And then mark what follows This is all my Salvation Why David wilt thou not have salvation from thine enemies and outward dangers from pestilence and plague The frame of his spirit is quieted as if he should say if that Salvation comes wel and good I shall praise God for it but that that I have in the Covenant that 's my salvation I look upon that as enough Yea and then further This is all my salvation and all my desire Why David is there not something else that thou wouldest have besides this Covenant No saith he it is all involved in this Now surely those men or women must needs live contented lives that have all their desires now saith the holy man here this is all my desire And though he make it not to grow But for all this Covenant perhaps you will not prosper in the world as other men do true but I am at a point for that Though God doth not make my house to grow I have all my desires Thus you see how a godly heart finds contentment in the Covenant many of you speak of the Covenant of God and of the Covenant of grace but have you found it so effectual to your souls have you suckt this sweetnesse from the Covenant and content to your hearts in your sad conditions It 's a speciall sign of the truth of grace in any soul that when any affliction doth befal him in a kind of natural way he doth presently repair to the Covenant just as a Child as soon as ever it is in danger you shall not need to tell him and say when you are in danger you must go to your father or mother nature tels him so so it is with a gracious heart as soon as it is in any trouble or affliction there is a new nature that doth carry him to the Covenant presently and there it finds ease and rest and if you find that your hearts do thus work presently to be runing to the Covenant it is an excellent sign of the truth of grace that 's for the general But now for particular promises in the Covenant of grace A gracious heart looks upon every promise as comming from the Root of the great Covenant of grace in Christ Other men look upon some particular promises that God will help them in straights and keep them and the like but they look not upon the conection of such particular promises to the root the Covenant of grace Now Christians do misse of a great deal of comfort they might have from the particular promises in the Gospel if they 'd look upon their conectiō to the root the great Covenant that God hath made with them in Christ Now I remember I spoke a little about that that in outward promises in the time of the Law they might rest more upon them than we can in the time of the Gospel I gave you the reason why we that live in the time of the Gospel cannot rest so fully for a litteral performance of outward promises that we meet withall in the old-Testament as they might in the time of the Law for there was a special Covenant that God pleased to call a New Covenant by way of distinction from the other Covenant that is made with us in Christ for eternal life And so even the Law was given to them in a more peculier way for an external Covenant of outward blessings in the land of Canaan and so God did deal with them in a more external covenant than he doth now with his people Yet godlinesse hath the promise of this life and that which is to come We may make use of the promises for this life but yet not so much to rest upon the litteral performance of them as they might but that God will make them good some way or other in a spiritual way if not in an outward way We must lay no more upon outward promises than this and therefore if we will lay more we make the promise to bear more than it will bear out For to give some instance to beleeve fully and confidently that the Plague shall not come nigh such a house I say it is to lay more upon such a promise than it will bear I opened that promise in Psal 91. now if I had lived in the time of the Law perhaps I might have been somewhat more confident of the litteral performance of the promise than I can now in the time of the Gospel the promise now bears no more than this that God hath a special protection over his people and that he will deliver them from the evil of such an affliction and if he doth bring such an affliction it is more than an ordinary providence it is some special providence that God hath in it I had thought to have given you divers promises for the contentment of the heart in the time of affliction Isa 43.2 When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not over-flow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither
but God expects that every day you should turn over a leaf in your own hearts you will never come to get any skil in this Mysterie except you study the book of your own hearts Marriners they have their books that they study those that will be good Navigaters and Scholers they have their books those that study Logick they have their books according to that and those that would study Rhetorick and Philosophy have their books according to that and those that study Divinity they have their books whereby they come to be helped in the study of Divinity but a Christian next to the book of God is to look into the book of his own heart and to reade over that and this will help you to Contentment these three waies 1. By the studying of thy heart thou wilt come presently to discover wherein thy discontent lies when thou art discontented thou wilt find out the root of any discontentment if thou doest study thy heart well many men and women they are discontented and the truth is they know not wherfore they think this the other thing is the cause but a man or woman that knows their own heart they will find out presently where the root of their discontent lies that it lies in such a corruption and distemper of my heart that now through Gods mercie I have found out It is in this case as it is with a little child that is very froward in the house if a stranger comes in he doth not know what the matter is perhaps the stranger will give the child a rattle or a nut or such a thing to quiet it but when the Nurse comes she knows the temper and disposition of the Child and therefore knows best how to quiet it so it is here just thus for all the world when we are strangers with our own hearts we are mightily discontented and know not how to quiet our selves because we know not wherein the disquiet lieth and indeed when we are strangers to our own hearts we cannot tell how to quiet our selves but if we be very well verst in our own hearts when any thing fals out so as to disquiet us we find out the cause of it presently and so quickly come to be quiet So a man that hath a Watch and he understands the use of every wheel and pin if it goes amisse he will presently find out the cause of it but one that hath no skill in a Watch when it goes amisse he knows not what the matter is and therefore cannot mend it So indeed our hearts are as a Watch and there are many wheels and windings and turnings there and we should labour to know our hearts well that when they are out of tune we may know what the matter is 2 This knowledge of our hearts wil help us to Contentment because by this we shall come to know what is most sutable to our condition As thus a man that knows not his own heart he thinks not what need he hath of affliction and upon that he is disquieted but that man or woman that hath studied their own hearts when God comes with afflictions upon them they can say I would not for any thing in the world have been without this affliction God hath so suted this affliction to my condition and hath come in such a way that if this affliction had not come I am affraid I should have fallen into sin a poor country man that takes Phisick the Phisick works and he thinks it will kill him because he knows not the ill humours that are in his body and therefore he understands not how sutable the Physick is to him but a Physitian takes a purge and it makes him extreamly sick saith the Physitian I like this the better it doth but work upon the humour that I know is the matter of my disease and upon that such a man that hath knowledge and understanding in his body and the cause of his distemper he is not troubled or disquieted So would we be if we did but know the distempers of our own hearts carnal men and women they know not their own spirits and therefore they fling and vex upon every affliction that doth befall them they know not what distempers are in their hearts that may be healed by their afflictions if it please God to give them a sanctified use of them 3 By knowing their own hearts they know what they are able to manage and by this means they come to be Content the Lord perhaps takes away many comforts from them that they had before or denies them some things that they hoped to have got now they by knowing their hearts know this that they were not able to mannage such an estate and they were not able to mannage such prosperity God saw it and saith a poor soul I am in some measure convinced by looking into mine own heart that I was not able to mānage such a condition A man desires greedily to gripe more perhaps than he is able to mānage and so undoes himself as countrey men do observe that if they doe over-stock their Land it will quickly spoyl them and so a wise Husband-man that knows how much his ground will bear he is not troubled that he hath not so much stock as others why because he knows he hath not ground enough for so great a stock and that quiets him so many men and women that know not their own hearts they would fain have a prosperous estate as others have but if they knew their own hearts they would know that they were not able to mannage it if one of your little children of three or four yeers old should be crying for the coat of her that is twelve or twenty yeers old and say why may not I have a coat as long as my sisters If she had it would soon trip up her heels and break her face but when the Child comes to understanding she is not discontented because her coat is not so long as her sisters but saith my coat is fit for me and therein takes Content So if we come to understanding in the School of Christ we will not cry why have not I such an estate as others have the Lord seeth that I am not able to mannage it and I see it my self by the knowing of mine own heart You shall have children if they see but a knife they will cry for it because they know not their strength and that they are not able to mannage it but you know they are not able to mannage it and therefore you will not give it them and when they come to so much understanding as to know that they are not able to mannage it they will not cry for it so we would not cry for such and such things if we knew that we were not able to mannage them when you vex and fret for what you have not I may say to you as Christ saith you know not of what spirits you are
when they come to suffer any crosse Oh that what God doth might please me I labour to do what pleases God and I labour that what God doth shall please me here 's a Christian indeed that shall endeavour both these now this is but one side of a Christian to endeavour to do what pleases God but you must as well endeavour to be pleased with what God doth and so you shall come to be a compleat Christian when you can do both And that 's the first thing in the excellency of this Grace of Contentment The Second thing in the opening of this excellency of Contentment is That in Contentment there is much exercise of Grace There is much strength of Grace yea there is much beauty of Grace in Contentment there is much exercise of Grace strength of Grace and beauty of Grace I put all these together 1 Much exercise of Grace There is a composition of Grace in Contentment there is faith and there is humility and love and there is patience and there is wisdom and there is hope all graces almost are compounded it 's an oyle that hath the ingredients of all kind of graces and therefore though you cannot see the particular grace yet in this oyl you have it all God sees the Graces of his Spirit exercised in a special manner and this pleases God at the heart to see the Graces of his Spirit exercised In some one action that you do you may exercise some one grace especially but now in Contentment you exercise a great many graces at once 2 There is a great deal of strength of Grace in Contentment It argues a great deal of strength in the body the body to be able to endure hard weather and whatsoever fals out and yet not to be much altered by it so it argues strength of Grace to be content You that complain of weaknesse of memory and weaknesse of parts you cannot do what others do in other things but have you this gracious heart-contentment that hath been opened to you I know that you have attained to strength of Grace in this when it is so spiritual as hath been opened to you in the explication of this point As it is with a mans braine if a man be distempered in his body and hath many obstructions in his body hath an ill stomack and his spleen and liver obstructed and yet for all this his brain is not distempered it is an argument of a great strength of brain and though there be many ill fumes that riseth from his corrupt stomack yet still his brain is not distempered but he continues in the free exercise of the use of his reason and understanding every one may understand that this man hath a very strong brain that such things shall not distemper him whereas other people that have a weak brain if they do not disgest but one meals meat the fumes that do arise from their stomacks doth distemper their brain and makes them unfit for every thing whereas you shall have others that have strong heads and strong brains though their stomacks be ill that they do not disgest meat yet still they have the free use of their brain this argues strength So it is in a mans spirit you shall have many that have weak spirits and if they have any ill fumes if accidents befal them you shall presently have them out of temper but you shall have other men that though things do fume up yet still they keep in a steady-way and have the use of reason and of other graces and possess their Souls with patience As I remember it 's reported of the Eagle it 's not like other fowls other fowls when they are hungrie make an noise but the Eagle is never heard to make an noise though it wants food and it is from the magnitude of his spirit that it will not make such complaints as other fowls will do when they want food it is because it is above hunger and above thirst So it is argument of a gracious magnitude of spirit that whatsoever befals it yet it is not alwaies whyning and complaining so as others are but goes on still in it's way and course and blesses God and keeps in a constant tenour whatsoever thing befals it such things as causes others to be dejected and fretted and vexed and takes away all the comfort of their lives it makes no alteration at all in the spirits of these men and women I say this is a sign of a great deal of strength of Grace 3 It 's also an argument of a great deal of beauty of Grace It 's a speech that Seneca a Heathen once had saith he When you go abroad into groves and woods and there you see the talnesse of the trees and their shadows it strikes a kind of awful fear of a Deity in you and when you see the vast rivers and fountains and deep waters that strikes a kind of fear of a God in you but saith he do you see a man that is quiet in tempests and that lives happily in the middest of adversities why do not you worship that man he doth think him a man even to be honoured that shall be quiet and live a happy life though in the middest of adversities The glory of God appears here more than in any of his works there is no works that God hath made the Sun Moon and Stars and all the world wherein so much of the glory of God doth appear as in a man that lives quietly in the middest of adversity That was that that covinc'd the King when he saw the three Children could walk in the midest of the fiery furnace not be toucht the King was mightily convinc'd by this that surely their God was a great God indeed that they were highly beloved of their God that could walk in the mid'st of the furnace and not be toucht whereas the others that came but to the mouth of the furnace were devoured so when a Christian can walk in the mid'st of fiery trials and not his garments singed but have comfort and joy in the mid'st of all as Paul in the stocks can sing that wrought upon the jaylour so it will convince men when they see the power of grace in the middest of afflictions such afflictions as would make others to rore under them yet they can behave themselves in a gracious and holy manner Oh it 's the glory of a Christian It is that that is said to be the glory of Christ for so by Interpreters it is thought to be meant of Christ In Micah 5.5 And this man the text saith shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land and when he shall tread in our pallaces This man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land for one to be in peace when there is no enemies it 's no great matter but saith the text when the Assyrian shal come into our land then this man shall be
the peace that is when all shal be in an hubbub and uprore yet then this man shal be peace That 's the tryal of grace when you find Jesus Christ in your hearts to be peace when the Assyrian shall come into the land You may think you find peace in Christ when you have no outward troubles but is Christ your peace when the Assyrian comes into the land when the enemy comes Suppose you should hear the enemy come marching to the City had taken the works and were plundering what would be your peace Jesus Christ would be peace to the soul when the enemy comes into the City and into your houses If there be any of you that have been where the enemy hath come what hath been the peace of your souls That that 's said of Christ may be applyed to this grace of Contentment when the Assyrian the plunderers the enemies when any affliction trouble distresse doth befal such a heart then this grace of Contentment brings peace to the soul at that time brings peace to their soul when the Assyrian comes into the land The grace of Contentment it 's an excellent grace therâ—'s much beauty much strength in it there is a great deal of worth in this grace and therefore be in love with it The Third thing in the excellency of Contentment is this By Contentment the soul is fitted to receive mercy and to do service I 'le put those two together Contentment makes the soul fit to receive mercy and to do service no man or woman in the world is so fit for to receive the Grace of God and to do the work of God as those that have contented spirits 1 Those are fitted to receive mercy from the Lord that are contented As now if you would have a vessel to take in any licquor you must hold the vessel still if the vessel stir and shake up and down you cannot powre in any thing but you will bid hold stil that you may powre it in and not loose any so if we would be the vessels to receive Gods mercy and would have the Lord powr in his mercy to us we must have quiet still hearts we must not have hearts hurrying up and down in trouble discontent and vexing but we must have still and quiet hearts if we would receive mercy from the Lord If a child throws and flings up and down for a thing you will not give it him then when he cries so but first you will have the child quiet though perhaps you do intend the child shall have the thing he cries for but you will not give it him till he is quiet and comes and stands still before you and is contented without it and then you will give it him and truly so doth the Lord deal with us for our dealing with him are just as your froward childrens are with you as soon as you would have a thing from God if you have it not you are disquieted presently and all in an upprore as it were in your spirits God intends mercy to you but saith God you shall not have it yet I will see you quiet first and then in the quietnesse of your hearts come to me and see what I will do with you I appeal to you you that are any way acquainted with the waies of God have you not found this to be the way of God towards you when you have been troubled for want perhaps of some spiritual comfort and your hearts were vext at it you get nothing from God all that while but now if you have got your heart into a quiet frame and can say well it 's fit the Lord should do with his poor creatures what he will I am under his feet and am resolv'd to do what I can to honour him and let him do with me what he will I will seek him as long as I live I will be content with what God gives and whether he gives or no I will be content yea are you in this frame saith God now you shall have comfort now I will give you the mercy A prisoner must not think to get off his fetters by pulling and tearing he may gall his flesh and rend it to the very bone certainly he will be unfettered never the sooner but if he would have his fetters taken off he must quietly give up himself to some man to take them off If a begger after he hath knockt once or twice at the door and you come not and thereupon he is vext and troubled and thinks much that you let him stand a little while without any thing you think that this begger is not fit to receive an almes but if you hear two or three beggers at your door and if you hear them out of your window say let us be content to stay perhaps they are busie it 's fit that we should stay it 's well if we have any thing at last we deserve nothing at all and therefore we may well wait a while you would then quickly send them an almes so God deals with the heart when it is in a disquiet way then God doth not give but when the heart lies down quietly under Gods hand then is the heart in a fit frame to receive mercy Your strength shall be to sit still saith God you shall not be delivered from Babylon but by your sitting still 2 As fit to receive mercy So fit to do service Oh the quiet fruits of righteousnesse the peaceable fruits of righteousnesse they indeed do prosper and multiply most when they come to be peacable fruits of righteousnesse As the Philosophers say of every thing that moves nothing that moves but it moves upon something that is immovable as a thing that moves upon the earth if the earth were not still it could not move Object The ships move upon the Sea and that is not still Answ But the Seas they move upon that which is still and immovable there is nothing moves but it hath something immovable that doth uphold it The wheels in a Coach they move up and down but the exletree that moves not up and down so it is with the heart of a man As they say of the Heaven it moves up and down upon a pole that is immovable so it is in the heart of a man if he will move to do service to God he must have a steady heart within him that must help him to move in the service of God those that have unsteady disquiet spirits that have no steadfastnesse at all in them they are not fit to do service for God but such as have steadfastnesse in their spirits they are men and women fit to do any service and that 's the reason that when the Lord hath any great work for any servants of his to do usually he doth first quiet their spirits he doth bring their spirits into a quiet sweet frame to be contented with any thing and then he sets them about imployment The Fift excellency is
this Contentment it doth deliver us from abundance of temptations Oh the temptations that men of discontented spirits are subject to the Devil loves to fish in troubled waters That 's our proverb of men and women their disposition is to fish in troubled waters they say it is good fishing in troubled waters this is the maxime of the Devil he loves to fish in troubled waters where he sees the spirits men and women troubled and vext there the Devil comes saith he there 's good fishing for me when he sees men and women go discontented up and down and he can get them alone then he comes with his temptations saith he will you suffer such a thing take such a shifting indirect way do not you see how poor you are others are brave you know not what you shall do against winter to provide fewell and get bread for you and your children and so he tempts them to unlawful courses this is the special distemper that the Devil fastens upon when he brings men and women to give up their souls to him it is upon discontent That 's the ground of all those that have been witches and so have given up themselves to the Devil the rise of it hath been their discontent and therefore it is observable that those the Devil worketh upon to make them witches usually they are old and melancholy people and women especially and those that are of the poorer sort that are discontent at home their neighbours trouble them and vex them and their spirits are weak and they cannot bear it so upon that the Devil fastens his temptations and draws them to any thing if they be poor then he promises them money if they have revengefull spirits then he tels them that he will revenge them upon such and such persons now this quiets and contents them Oh! there 's matter of temptation for the Devil where he meets with a discontented spirit As Luther saith of God God doth not dwell in Babylon but in Salem Babylon signifies confusion and Salem signifies peace now God doth not dwell in spirits that are in a confusion but he dwels in peacable and quiet spirits Oh if you would free your selves from temptations labour for Contentment It is the peace of God that guards the heart from temptation I remember I have read of one Marius Curio that when he had bribes sent him to tempt him to be unfaithful to his Countrey he was sitting at home at dinner with a dish of turnips and they came and promised him rewards saith he That man that can be contented with this fare that I have will not be tempted with your rewards I thank God I am content with this fare and as for rewards let them be offered to those that cannot be content to dine with a dish of turnips So the truth is we see it apparently that the reason why many do betray their trust as in the Parliament service and Kingdom because they cannot be contented to be in a low condition Let a man be contented to be in a low condition and to go meanly cloathed if God sees it fit such a man is shot-free as I may so say from thousands of temptations of the Devil that do prevail against others to the damning of their souls Oh in such times as these are when men are in danger of the loss of their estates I say these men that have not got this grace are in a most lamentable condition they are in more danger for their souls then they are for their outward estates you think it is a sad thing to be in danger of your outward estates that you may loose all in an night but if you have not this contented spirit within you you are in more danger of the temptations of the Devil to be plundered that way of any good and to be led into sin Oh when men think thus they must live as brave as they were wont to do these men make themselves a prey to the Devil but for such as can say let God do with me what he pleases I am content to submit to his hand in it the Devil wil scarce meddle with such men It 's a notable speech of a Phylosopher that lived upon mean fare and as he was eating herbs and roots saith one to him If you would but please Dionisius you need not eat herbs and roots but he answered him thus If you would but be content with such mean fare you need not flatter Dionisius So temptations will no more prevail upon a contented man then a dart that is thrown against a brasen wal That 's the Fifth particular The Sixth excellency is The abundant comforts in a mans life that Contentment will bring Contentment will make a mans life exceeding sweet and comfortable nothing more than the grace of Contentment many waies I will shew how it brings in Comfort 1 As first What a man hath he hath it in a kind of Independent way not depending upon any Creature for his Comfort 2 A Contented man whose estate is low if God raises his estate he hath the love of God in it and then it 's abundantly more sweet than if he had it and his heart not contented for if he had not the love of God in it for it may be God grants to a discontented man his desire but he cannot say it is from love if a man hath quieted his spirit first and then God grant him his desire he may have more comfort in it and more assurance that he hath the love of God in it 3 This Contentment is a comfort to a mans spirit in this that it doth keep in his comforts and keep out whatsoever may damp his comforts or put out the light of them I may compare this Grace of Contentment to a Marriners Lanthorn a Marriner when he is at Sea let him have never so much provision in his ship yet if he be thousands of leagues from land or in a rode that he shall not meet with a ship in three or four moneths if he hath never a Lanthorn in his ship nor nothing whereby he can keep a Candle light in a storm he will be in a sad condition he would give a great deal to have a Lanthorn or some thing that may serve in stead of it When a storm comes in the night and he cannot have any light come above-board but is puft out presently his condition is very sad so many men can have the light of comfort when there is no storm but let there come but any affliction any storm upon them their light is puft out presently and what shall they do now When the heart is furnished with this Grace of Contentment this Grace is as it were the Lanthorn and it keeps comfort in the spirit of a man light in the midst of a storm and tempest When you have a Lanthorn in the midst of a storm you can carry a light every where up and down the ship to the top
of the Mast if you will and yet keep it light so the comfort of a Christian when it is enlivened with the grace of Contentment it may be keept light whatever storms or tempests come yet he can keep light in his soul Oh! this helps thy comforts exceeding much Seventhly There is this Excellency in Contentment that it fetches in the comfort of those things we have not really in possession and perhaps many that have not outward things have more comfort than those have that do enjoy them themselves As now a man by distilling herbs though he hath not the herbs themselves yet having the water that is distil'd out of them he may enjoy the benefit of the herbs so though a man hath not the reall possession of such an outward estate an outward comfort yet he by the grace of Contentment may fetch it in to himself By the art of Navigation we can fetch in the riches of the East and West-Indies to our selves so by the art of Contentment we may fetch in the comfort of any condition to our selves that is we may have that comfort by Contentment that we should have if we had the thing it self There is an notable story you have for this in Plutarch in the life of Pyrus one Sineus comes to him and would very fain have had him desist from the wars and not war with the Romans saith he to him May it please your Majestie it is reported that the Romans are very good men of warre and if it please the gods we do over-come them what benefit shall we have of that Victory Pyrhus answered him We shall then straight conquer all the rest of Italy with ease Saith Sineus Indeed it is likely which your Grace speaketh But when we have won Italy will then our wars end If the Gods were pleased said Pyrhus that the victory were achieved the way were then broad open for us to attain great conquests for who would not afterwards go into Africk and so to Carthage But saith Sineus when we have all in our hands what shall we do in the end then Pyrhus laughing told him again we will then be quiet and take our ease and make feasts every day and be as merry one with another as we can possible saith Sineus What letteth us now to be as quiet and merry together fith we enjoy that presently without further travel and trouble which we should go seek for abroad with such shedding of blood and so manifest danger Cannot you sit down and be merry now So a man may think if I had such a thing then I would have another and if I had that then I should have more and what if you had got al your desire then you would be content why you may be content now without them Certainly our Contentment doth not consist in the getting of the thing we desire but in Gods fashioning our spirits to our conditions There 's some men that have not a foot of ground of their own yet will live better than other men that are heirs to a great deal of land I have known it in the country somtimes that a man lives upon his own land and yet lives very poorly but you shall have another man that shall farm his land and yet by his good husbandry and by his care shall live better somtimes than he that hath the land of his own so a man by this art of Contentment may live better without an estate than another man can of an estate Oh! it adds exceeding much to the comfort of a Christian and that I may shew it farther there is more comfort even in grace of Contentment than there is in any possessions whatsoever a man hath more comfort in being content without a thing than he can have in the thing that he in a discontented way doth desire You think if I had such a thing then I should be content I say There is more good in Contentment than there is in the thing that you would fain have to cure your discontent and that I shall open in divers particulars As thus 1. I would fain have such a thing and then I could be content but if I had it then it were but the creature that did help to my Contentment but now it 's the Grace of God in my soul that makes me content and surely it is better to be Content with the Grace of God in my soul than with the enjoying of an outward comfort 2. If I had such a thing indeed my estate might be better but my soul would not be better but by Contentment my soul is better that would not be bettered by an estate or lands or friends but Contentment makes my self to be better and therefore Contentment is a better portion than the thing is that I would fain have to be my portion 3. If I get Content by having my desire satisfied that 's but self-love but when I am Contented with the hand of God and am willing to be at his dispose that comes from my love to God in having my desire satisfied there I am contented through self-love but through the Grace of Contentment I come to be contented out of love to God and is it not beteer to be contented from a principle of love to God than from a principle of self-love 4. If I am contented because I have that that I have a desire to perhaps I am contented in that one particular but that one particular doth not furnish me with Contentment in another thing perhaps I may grow more dainty and nice and froward in other things if you give children what they would have in some things they grow so much the more coy and dainty and discontented if they have not other things that they would have but if I have once overcome my heart and am contented through the grace of God in my heart then this doth not content me only in a particular but in general whatsoever befals me I am discontented and would fain have such a thing and afterwards I have it now doth this prepare me to be contented in other things no but when I have gotten this Grace of Contentment I am prepar'd to be contented in all conditions and thus you see that Contentment doth bring comfort to a mans life fils a mans life full of comfort in this world yea the truth is it is even a Heaven upon Earth why what is Heaven but the rest and quiet of a mans spirit what 's the special thing that is in Heaven but rest and joy that makes the life of Heaven there 's rest and joy and satisfaction in God so it 's here in a contented spirit there 's rest and joy and satisfaction in God In Heaven there 's singing praises to God a contented heart is alwaies praising and blessing God thou hast Heaven while thou art upon earth when thou hast a contented spirit yea in some regards it's better than Heaven How is that you will say there
's some kind of honour that God hath in it and some excellency that he hath not in Heaven and that 's this In Heaven there is no overcoming of temptations they are not put to any trials by afflictions there in Heaven they have exercise of grace but they have nothing but encouragement to it and indeed those that are there their grace is perfect and in that they do excel us but there is nothing to cross their grace they have no trials at all to tempt them to do contrary but now for a man or woman to be in the midst of afflictions temptations and troubles and yet to have grace exercised and yet to be satisfied in God and Christ and in the Word and Promises in the mid'st of all they suffer this may seem to be an honour that God hath from us that he hath not from the Angels and Saints in Heaven Is it so much for one that is in Heaven that hath nothing else but good from God hath nothing to try them no temptations is that so much for them to be praising and blessing God as for the poor soul that is in the mid'st of trials and temptations and afflictions and troubles for this soul to go on praysing and blessing and serving God I say it is an excellency that thou shalt not have in Heaven and God shal not have this kind of glory from thee in Heaven and therefore be contented and prize this Contentment and be willing to live in this world as long as God shal please and do not think Oh that I were delivered from all these afflictions and troubles herein this world if thou wert then thou shouldest have more ease to thy self but here 's a way of honouring God and manifesting the excellency of Grace here when thou art in this Conflict of temptation that God shal not have from thee in Heaven and therefore be satisfied and quiet be contented with thy Contentment I want such and such things that others have but blessed be God I have a contented heart that others have not then I say be content with thy Contenement for that 's a rich portion that the Lord hath granted unto them if the Lord should give unto thee thousands here in this world it would not be such a rich portion as this that he hath given thee a contented spirit Oh go away and praise the Name of God and say Lord it 's true these and these comforts that others have I should be glad if I had them but thou hast cut me short but though I want these yet thou hast given me that that is as good and better thou hast given me a quiet contented heart to be willing to be at thy dispose SERMON VII PHILIPPIANS 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content WE proceed now There are some two or three things more of the excellency of Contentment and then we are to proceed to Applycation of the point The Eight excellency is Contentment is a great blessing of God upon the Soul There is Gods blessing upon those that are content the blessing of God is upon them and their estates and upon all that they have We reade in Deut. of the blessing of Judah the principal Tribe this is the blessing of Judah And he said hear Lord the voice of Judah and bring him unto his people let his hands be sufficient for him and be thou an help to him from his enemies Let his hand be sufficient for him that is bring in a sufficiency of all good unto him that he may have of his own that 's the blessing of Judah So when God gives thee a sufficiency of thine own as every contented man hath there is the blessing of God upon thee the blessing of the principle Tribe of Judah is upon thee It is the Lord that gives us all things to injoy we may have the thing and yet not enjoy it except God comes in with his blessing now whatsoever thou hast thou do'st injoy it Many men have estates and do not enjoy them it 's the blessing of God that gives us all things to enjoy it is God that through his blessing hath fashioned thy heart and made it sutable to thy condition The Ninth excellency Those that are content they may expect reward from God that God shall give unto them the good of all those things that they are contented to be without and this brings in abundance of good to a contented spirit There is such and such a mercy that thou thinkest would be very comfortable unto thee if thou had'st it but canst thou bring thy heart to submit to God in it thou shalt have the blessing of the mercy one way or other if thou hast not the thing it self in re thou shalt have it made up one way or other thou shalt have a bill of exchange to receive somewhat in lieu of it there is no comfort that any soul is content to be without but the Lord will give either the comfort or somewhat in stead of it Thou shalt have a reward to thy soul for what ever good thing thou art content to be without You know what the Scripture saith of active obedience and the Lord doth accept of his servants their will for the deed though we do not do a good thing yet if our hearts be upright to will to do it we shall have the blessing though we do not do the thing You that complain of weaknesse you cannot do as others do you cannot do as much service as others do if your hearts be as upright with God and would fain do the same service that you see others do you would account it a great blessing of God upon you the greatest blessing in the world if you were able to do as others do now you may comfort your selves with this having to deal with God in the way of the Covenant of Grace you shall have from God the reward of all you will do as a wicked man shall have punishment for all the sin he would commit so thou shalt have the reward for all the good thou wouldest do Now may not we draw an argument from active obedience to passive there is as good reason why thou shouldest expect that God will reward thee for all that thou art willing to suffer as well as for all that thou art willing to do now if thou beest willing to be without such a comfort and mercy when God sees it fit thou shalt be no looser certainly God will reward thee either with the comfort or with that that shall be as good to thee as the comfort therefore consider how many things have I that others want and can I bring my heart into a quiet contented frame to want what others have I have the blessing of all that they have and I shall either possesse such things as others have or else God will make it up one way or other either here or hereafter in
eternity to me Oh what riches are here with Contentment thou hast all kind of riches Tenthly and lastly By contentation the soul comes to an excellencie neer to God himselfe yea the neerest that may be for this word that is translated Content it is a word that signifies a Self-sufficiencie as I told you in the opening of the words A contented man is a self-sufficient man what is the great glory of God but to be happy and self-sufficient in himself Indeed he is said to be All-sufficient but that 's but a further addition of the word All rather than of any matter for to be sufficient is All-sufficient now is this the glory of God to be Sufficient to have sufficiencie in himselfe El-shaddai to be God having sufficiency in himself now thou comest neer to this thou partakest of the Divine Nature as by grace in generall so in a more peculiar manner by this grace of Christian Contentment what 's the excellency and glory of God but this Suppose there were no creatures in the world and that all the creatures in the world were anihilated God would remain the same blessed God that he is now he would not be in a worse condition if all creatures were gone neither would a contented heart if God should take away all creatures from him a contented heart hath enough in the want of al creatures and would not be more miserable than now he is Suppose that God should continue thee here and all creatures that are here in this world were taken away yet thou still having God to be thy portion wouldest be as happy as now thou art and therefore contentation hath a great deal of excellency in it Thus we have shewed in many particulars the excellency of this grace labouring to present the beauty of it before your souls that you may be in love with it Now my brethren what remains but the practice of this for this Art of Contentment it 's not a Speculative thing only for contemplation but it is an art of Divinity and therfore practicall ye are now to labour to work upon your hearts that there may be this grace in you that you may honour God and honour your profession with this grace of Contentment for there is none doth more honour God and honour their profession than those that have this grace of Contentment Now that we may fall upon the practice there is required First That we should he humbled in our hearts for the want of this that we have had so little of this grace in us For there is no way to set upon any duty with profit till the heart be humbled for the want of the performance of the duty before many men when they hear of a duty that they should perform they will labour to perform it but first thou must be humbled for the want of it therefore that 's the thing that I shall endeavour in the Application to get your hearts to be humbled for the want of this grace Oh had I had this grace of Contentment what a happy life I might have lived what abundance of honour I might have brought to the Name of God and how might I have honoured my profession and what a deal of comfort might I have enjoyed but the Lord knows it hath been far otherwise Oh how far have I been from this grace of Contentment that hath been opened to me I have had a murmuring a vexing and a fretting heart within me every little crosse hath put me out of temper and out of frame Oh the boisterousnesse of my spirit what a deal of evil doth God see in my heart in the vexing and fretting of my heart and murmuring and repining of my spirit Oh that God would make you to see it Now to the end that you might be humbled for the want of this I shall endeavour in these particulars to speak unto it First I shall set before you The evil of a murmuring spirit there is more evil than you are aware of In the Second place I will shew you some agravations of this evil It 's evil in all but in some more than in others Thirdly I shall labour to take away the pleas that any murmuring discontented heart hath for this distemper of his There 's these Three things in this use of humiliation of the Soul for the want of this grace of Contentment For the first now at this time The great evil that there is in a murmuring discontented heart In the first place This thy murmuring and discontentedness it argues much corruption that is in the Soul as Contentment argues much grace and strong grace and beautiful grace so this argues much corruption and strong corruption and very vile corruptions in thy heart As it is in a mans body if a mans body be of that temper that every scratch of a pin makes his flesh to ranckle and to be a sore you will say surely this mans body is very corrupt his blood and his flesh is corrupt that every scratch of a pin shal make it ranckle so it is in thy spirit if every little trouble and affliction shal make thee discontented and make thee murmur and even cause thy spirit within thee to ranckle or as it is in a wound in a mans body the evil of a wound it is not so much in the largenesse of the wound and the abundance of blood that comes out of the wound but in the inflamation that there is in it or in a fretting and corroding humour that is in the wound an unskilful man when he comes and sees a large wound in the flesh looks upon it as a dangerous wound and when he sees a great deal of blood gush out he thinks these are the evils of it but when a Chirurgion comes and sees a great gash saith he this will be heal'd within a few daies but there 's a lesse wound and there 's an inflamation or a fretting humour that is in it and this will cost time saith he to cure so that he doth not lay balsome and healing salves upon it but his great care is to get out the fretting humour or inflamation so that the thing that must heal this wound it is some drink to purge But saith the patient what good will this do to my wound You give me somewhat to drink and my wound is in my arme or in my leg what good will this do that I put in my stomack Yes it purges out the fretting humour or takes away the inflamation and till that be taken away the salves can do no good So it is just for all the world in the souls of men it may be there is some affliction upon them that I compare to the wound now they think that the greatnesse of the affliction is that that makes their condition most miserable Oh no there is a fretting humour an inflamation in the heart a murmuring spirit that is within thee and that is the misery of thy condition and that
the service of God And it causes many distractions in duty it unfits for duty and when you come to perform duties Oh the distractions that are in your duties when your spirits are discontented when you hear of any ill news from Sea and cannot bear it or of any ill from a friend or any losse or crosse Oh what distractions do they cause in the performance of holy duties When you should be in enjoying communion with God you are distracted in your thoughts about the crosse that hath befallen you whereas had you but a quiet spirit though there should great crosses befal you yet they would never hinder you in the performance of any duty 3 Consider what wicked risings of heart resolutions of spirit there are many times in a discontented fit In some discontented fits the heart rises against God and against others and sometimes hath even desperate resolutions what to do to help themselves If the Lord should have suffered you to have done sometimes in a discontented fit what you had thought to do what wonderfull misery had you brought upon your selves Oh it was a mercy of God that did stop you had not God stopt you but let you go on when you thought to help your selves this way and the other way Oh it had been ill with you do you but remember those risings of heart and wicked resolutions that sometimes you have had in a discontented mood and learn to be humbled upon that 4 Vnthankefulnesse that 's an evil and a wicked effect that comes from discontent Unthankfulnesse the Scripture doth ranke among very great sins For men and women that are discontent though they enjoy many mercies from God yet they are thankfull for none of them for this is the vile nature of discontentment to lessen every mercy of God to make those mercies they have from God to be as nothing to them because they have not what they would have Sometimes it 's so even in spiritual things if they have not all they would have the comforts that they would have then what they have is nothing to them do you think that God will take this well If you should give a friend a kinsman a purse of money to go and trade withal and he should come and say what do you give me they are but a few counters they wil do me no good you cannot bear this at his hand if he should do so because he hath not as much money as he would So for you to be ready to say All that God hath given me is nothing worth will do me no good they are but counters though they are the precious Graces of Gods Spirit that are more worth than thousands of worlds yet for you to say they are nothing they are but common gifts and all is but in hypocrisie all counterfeit Oh! what an unthankful thing is this the graces of Gods Spirit are nothing to a discontented heart that hath not all that it would have and so for outward blessings though God hath given you health of body and strength and hath given you some competency for your family some way of lively-hood yet because you are disappointed in somwhat that you would have therefore all is nothing unto you Oh! what unthankfulnesse is here God expects that every day you should spend some time in blessing his Name for what mercy he hath granted unto you there 's not any one of you who are in the lowest condition but you have abundance of mercies to blesse God for but discontentednesse makes them nothing It 's an excellent speech that I remember Luther hath saith he This is the Rhetorick of the Spirit of God it 's a very fine speech of his to extenuate evil things and to amplyfie good things if there fals out a crosse to make the crosse to be but little but if there be a mercy to make the mercy to be great as thus If there be a cross if the Spirit of God prevails in the heart such a man or woman will wonder that it is no greater and will blesse God that though there be such a crosse yet that it is no more that 's the work of the Spirit of God and if there be a mercy wonders at Gods goodnesse that God granted so great a mercy The Spirit of God extenuates evils and crosses and doth magnifie and amplifie all mercies and makes all mercies seem to be great and all afflictions seem to be little But saith he the Devil goes quite contrary the Rhetorick of the Devil is quite otherwise he doth lessen Gods mercies and amplifie evill things as thus A godly man wonders at his crosse that it is no more a wicked man wonders his crosse is so much Oh saith he none was ever so afflicted as I am If there be a crosse the Devil puts the soul upon musing on it and making it greater than it is and so it brings discontent And then on the other side if there be a mercy then it 's the Rhetorick of the Devil to lessen the mercy I indeed saith he the thing is a good thing but what is it it is no great matter and for all this I may be miserable Thus the Rhetorick of Satan doth lessen Gods mercies and doth increase afflictions And for this I 'le give you a notable example that we have in Scripture it is the example of Korah Dathan Abiram In Numb 16.12 13. And Moses sent to call Dathan Abiram the sons of Eliab which said we will not come up Is it a smal thing that thou hast brought us up out of a Land that floweth with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness except thou make thy self altogether a Prince over us Mark they slighted the land that they were going unto the Land of Canaan that was the Land that God promised them that should flow with milk and honey But mark here their discontentednesse because they met with some troubles in the wildernesse Oh it was to slay them they made their affliction in the wilderness to be greater than it was Oh it was to kill them though it were indeed to carry them to the Land of Canaan But now their deliverance from Egypt though it was a great mercy they made that mercy to be nothing for say they you have brought us out of a land that floweth with milk and honey what land was that It was the Land of Egypt the Land of their bondage but they call it a Land that flowed with milk and honey though it were the land of their most cruel and unsupportable bondage whereas they should have blessed God as long as they had liv'd for Gods delivering them out of the land of Egypt yet meeting with some crosse they make their deliverance from Egypt no mercie no it was rather a miserie to them Oh say they Egypt was a land that flowed with milk and honey Oh what basenesse is there in a discontented spirit a discontented spirit out of envie
the Chapter is ended in the 23. verse When they came to Marah in the same Chapter they could not drink of the waters of Marah for they were bitter therefore the name of it was called Marah and the people murmured against Moses After so great a mercy as this was what unthankfulnes was there here in their murmuring Then God gave them water but in the very next Chapter they fell to their murmuring you reade not that they were humbled for their former murmuring and therefore they murmur again Exod. 16.1 c. All the Congregation of the Children of Israel came to the wildernesse of Sin c. And the whole Congregation in the second verse of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wildernesse and the Children of Israel said unto them Would to God we had dyed by the hand of the Lord in the Land of Egypt when we sate by the flesh-pots and when we did eat bread to the full Now they want flesh they wanted water before but now they want meat they fell to murmuring again they were not humbled for this murmuring against God neither when God gave them flesh according to their desires but they fell to murmuring again they wanted somewhat else In the very next Chapter they went not far in the 17 of Exod. beginning And all the Congregation of the Children of Israel journied from the wildernesse of Sin and pitthed in Rephadim and there was no water for the people to drink then in the second verse Wherefore the people did chide with Moses and said Give us water that we may drink and Moses said unto them Why chide you with me wherefore do you tempt the Lord And in the third verse And the people thirsted there for water and the people murmured against Moses and said Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our Children and our Cattell with thirst So one time after another still as soon as ever they had received the mercie then they were a little quieted but they were not humbled I bring these Scriptures for this to shew that if we have not been humbled for murmuring the next crosse that we meet withal we will fall to murmuring again And now there are divers agravations of this sin of murmuring I 'le mention but one now and I shall but begin that The first Agravation is this To murmur when we enjoy abundance of mercy the greater and the more abundant the mercy is that we enjoy the greater and the viler is the sin of murmuring As here now when God had newly delivered them out of the house of bondage for them now to murmur because they want some few particulars that they desire Oh to sin against God after a great mercy this is a great agravation and a most abominable thing Now my brethren the Lord hath granted us very great mercies I 'le but speak a word of what God hath done of late what mercies hath the Lord granted to us this summer heaped mercies upon us one mercie upon another what a condition were we in at the beginning of this summer and what a different condition are we in now Oh what a mercie is it that the Lord hath not taken advantages against us that he hath not made those Scriptures before mentioned good upon us for all our murmuring the Lord hath gone on with one mercie after another We hear of mercie in Bristol and mercy to our brethren in Scotland But still if after this we should have any thing befall us that is but crosse to us that we should be ready to murmur again presently Oh let us not so requite God for those mercies of his Oh let 's take heed of giving God any ill requital for his mercies Oh give God praise according to his excellent greatness to his excellent goodnesse and grace And now hath God given to you the Contentment of your hearts Take you heed of being the cause of any greife to your brethren think not that because God hath been gracious unto you that therefore he hath given you liberty for to bring them into bondage Oh let not there be such an il effect of Gods mercy to you as for you to exclude by petitioning or any other way your Brethren that the Lord hath been pleased to make Instruments of your peace let not that be the fruit of it nor to desire any thing that your selves do not yet understand God is very jealous of the glory of his mercy and if there should be an ill use made of the mercy of God after we enjoy it Oh it would go to the heart of God! nothing is more grievous to the heart of God than the abuse of mercy As now if any way that is hard and rigid should be taken towards our Brethren and those especially that God hath made such special Instruments of good to us that have been so willing to venture their lives and all for us now when we have our turns served let God and his People and Servants that have been a means to save us shift for themselves as well as they can Oh! this is a great aggravation of your sin to sin against the mercies of God But for this Aggravation and specially in this particular we shall speak to God willing the next day SERMON IX PHILIPPIANS 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content NOW because it is very hard to work upon a murmuring spirit there are divers aggravations I told you we are to consider of for the further setting out of the greatness of this sin I mentioned but only one the last day now we shall proceed in that The first Agravation of the sin of discontent and murmuring is this For men and women to be discontent in the mid'st of mercies in enjoyment of abundance of mercies To be discontent in any afflicted condition is sinful and evil but to be discontent when we are in the middest of Gods mercies when we are not able to count the mercies of God yet after to be discontent because we have not all we would have this is a greater evil I only mentioned this the last day that I might shew to you what a great sin it is at such a time as this The Lord this summer hath multiplied mercies one upon another the Lord hath made this summer to be a continued miracle of mercie never did a Kingdom enjoy in so little space of time such mercies one upon another Now the publick mercies of God should quiet our hearts and keep us from discontent and the sin of discontent for private afflictions is exceedingly aggravated by the consideration of publick mercies to the Land when the Lord hath bin so merciful to the Land wilt thou be feetting and murmuring because thou hast not in thy family all the comforts that thou would'st have As it is a great aggravation of a mans evill for him to rejoyce
immoderately in his own private comforts when the Church is in affliction when the publick suffers grievous and hard troubles if any man shall then rejoyce and give liberty to himself at that time to satisfie his flesh to the uttermost in all outward comforts this is a great aggravation of his sin So on the contrary for any man to be immoderately troubled for any private afflictions when it goes well with the publick with the Churches this is a great aggravation of his sin It may be when the Church of God was lowest and it went worst in other parts yet thou didst abate nothing of the comfort of thy flesh but gavest full liberty to satisfie thy flesh as formerly know this was thy great sin so on the other side when we have received such mercies in publick we should have all our private afflictions swallowed up in the publick merciâ—s and we should think with our selves though we be afflicted for our particular yet blessed be God it goes well with the Church and with the publick the consideration of that should mightily quiet our hearts in all our private discontents and if it doth not so know that our sin is much increased by the mercies of God that are abroad Now shall Gods mercies aggravate our sins This is a sad thing this is to turne the mercies of God to be our misery Did'st not thou pray to God for these mercies that God hath sent of late to the publick these great victories that God hath given did'st not thou pray for them now thou hast them Is not there enough in them to quiet thy heart for some privat trouble thou meetest withall in thy family Is not there goodness enough there to cure thy discontentment Certainly they were not such mercies worthy to be prayed for except they have so much excellency in them as to countervail some private afflictions Publick mercies are the aggravation of privat discontent as so of publick discontent too if we receive so many publick mercies yet if every thing goes not in the publick according as we desire if we be discontent at that it will exceedingly aggravate our sin God may say what shall I bestow such mercies upon a people and yet if they have not every thing they would have they will be discontent Oh! it's exceeding evil So in particular the mercies that concerns thy self thy family if thou wouldest consider thou hast a great many more mercies than thou had'st afflictions I dare boldly aver it concerning any one in this Congregation suppose thy afflictions be what they will there is never a one of you but that have more mercies than afflictions Object You will say I but you do not know what our afflictions are our afflictions are so as you do not conceive of them because you feel them not Answ Though I cannot know what your afflictions are yet I know what your mercies are and I know they are so great as I am sure there can be no afflictions in this world so great as the mercies you have If it weâ—e but this mercy that you have this day of grace and salvation continued to you it 's a greater mercie than any affliction set any affliction by this mercie and see which would weigh heaviest this is certainly greater than any affliction that you have the day of grace and salvation that you are not now in Hell this is a greater mercie that you have the sound of the Gospel yet in your ears that you have the use of your reason this is a greater mercie than your afflictions that you have the use of your limbs your sences that you have the health of your bodies health of body is a greater mercy than poverty is an affliction there is no man that is rich but if he be wise if he hath a sickly body he would part with all his riches that he might have his health therefore thy mercies are more than thy afflictions We find in Scripture how the holy Ghost doth aggravate the sin of discontent from the consideration of mercies you have a notable Scripture for it in the 16 of Numb 8. verse c. It 's a speech of Moses to Korah and his company when they murmured And Moses said unto Korah hear I pray you ye sons of Levi there 's somewhat that you are sons of Levi Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you neer to himself to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the Congregation to minister unto them Korah and his company were murmuring but mark how Moses aggravates this Seemeth it a smal thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you neer to himselfe to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord c. You see 't is a great honour that God puts upon a man a great mercy that he doth bestow upon any man to seperate him from others for himself to come neer to him to imploy him in the service of the Tabernacle to minister to the Congregation in holy things this is a great mercy and indeed it 's such a mercy as one would think there should be none that God bestows such a mercy upon that should have a murmuring heart for any affliction It 's true many Ministers of God they meet with hard things that might discourage them and trouble and grieve their spirits but now this consideration that God is pleased to imploy them in such a service neer to himself that though they cannot do good to themselves yet they may do good to others this should quiet them And yet in the 10. verse And he hath brought thee neer to him and all thy Brethren the Sons of Levi with thee and seek ye the Priest-hood also have not you enough already but still you are discontented with what you have and must have more seek ye yet more Seek ye the Priest-hood also for which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord And what is Aaron that ye murmur against him what hath God given you such things and yet will you be murmuring because you cannot have more Me thinks that this place should keep Ministers from murmuring though they should meet with never such afflictions and crosses and unkind dealings from men yet still they should go on with hearts quieted and comforted in the work that God hath set them about and labour to countervaile all their Afflictions by being more abundant in the work of the Lord. That is the first text of Scripture that shews how the mercies we enjoy are Aggravations to the sin of murmuring And then a second Scripture is in the 2. of Job 10. vers A speech of Job to his wife what saith Job when his wife would have had him curse God and die that was a degree beyond murmuring saith he Thou speakest
obedience to thee When God cals for thy estate or any comforts that thou hast God cals for it as a pledge of thy obedience to him A Twelfth Plea Another reasoning of a murmuring heart is this Oh but after I have taken a great deal of pains for such a comfort yet then I am crost in it after a great deal of labour and pains that I have taken now to be crost Oh this goes very hard First I answer The greater crosse the more obedience and submission Secondly When thou did'st take a great deal of pains was it not with submission to God Did'st thou take pains with resolution that thou must have such a thing when thou labourest for it Then know that thou labourest not as a Christian but if thou did'st labour and take pains was it not with resignation to God Lord I am taking pains in the way of my calling but with submission I depend wholly upon thee for successe and a blessing And what was it that thou did'st aime at in thy labour was it not that thou mightest walk with God in the place that God had set thee A Christian should do so in his outward calling I am diligent in my outward calling but it is that I might obey God in it it 's true I do it that I might provide for my family but the chief thing that I aime at is That I might yeild obedience to God in the way that God hath set me Now if God cals thee to another condition to obey him in though it be by suffering thou wilt do it if thy heart be right Thirdly There will be the more testimony of thy love to God if so be thou shalt now yeeld up thy self to God in that that cost thee dear shall I offer that to God saith David that cost me nothing thy outward comforts hath cost thee much and thou hast taken much pains to obtain them and now if thou canst submit to God in the want of them I say in this thy love is more shown that thou canst offer that to God that cost thee dear Now these are the principal reasonings of a discontented heart A Thirteenth Plea There 's one Plea more that may be nam'd and that is this saith some Though I confess my affliction is somwhat hard and I feel some trouble within me yet I thank God I break not out in discontented waies to the dishonour of God I keep in although I have much ado with my own heart Oh! do not satisfie your selves with that for the distempers of your hearts and their sinful workings are as words before God My soul be silent to God That we spake of in the begining of the opening of this Scripture it is not enough for thy tongue to be silent but thy soul must be silent there may be a sullen discontentednesse of heart as well as a discontentednesse manifested in words And if thou doest not mortifie that inward sullennesse if thou beest afflicted a little more it wil break forth at last And thus the Lord I hope hath met with the cheife reasonings and Pleas for our discontent in our conditions I beseech you in the Name of God consider these things and because they do concern your own hearts you may so much the better remember them I had thought to have made a little enterance into the next head and that is some way of helping you to this grace of Contentment It is a most excellent grace of admirable use as you have heard and the contrary is very sinful and vile SERMON XI PHILIPPIANS 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content NOW we are coming to the close of this point of Contentment that Jesus Christ doth teach those that are in his School we have opened the point unto you and shewed you wherein the Art and Skill and Mystery of Christian Contentment lies and divers things in the way of application rebuking the want of this and the last day I finished that point of shewing the several Reasonings of a murmuring and discontented heart I shall now as being desirous to make an end leave what was said and proceed to what remains There are only these two things for the working of your hearts to this grace of Christian Contentment First The propounding of several Considerations for the contenting of the heart in any afflicted condition Secondly The propounding of Directions what should be done for the working of our hearts unto this The First Consideration We should consider in all our wants and inclinations to discontent The greatnesse of the mercies that we have and the meanesse of the things that we want The things we want if we be godly they are things of very small moment in comparison to the things we have and the things we have are things of very great moment for the most part that that people are discontent and murmur for the want of it is because they have not such things as reprobates have or may have why should'st thou be troubled so much for the want of that that a man or woman may have yet be a reprobate as that thy estate is not so great thy health not so perfect thy credit not so much thou mayest have all those things and yet be a reprobate now wilt thou be discontent for that that a reprobate may have I shall give you the example of a couple of godly men meeting together Anthony and Diddimus Diddimus was blind and yet a man of very excellent parts and graces Anthony askt him if he was not troubled at this his want of sight he confest he was but saith he shall you be troubled at the want of what flies and dogs have and not rather rejoyce be thankful that you have what Angels have God hath given you those good things that makes Angels glorious is not that enough to you though you want what thing a fly hath And so a Christian should reason the case with himself what am I discontented for I am discontented for want of that that a dog may have that a Devil may have that a reprobate may have shall I be discontent for not having that when as God hath given me that that makes Angels glorious Blessed be God saith the Apostle in Ephe. 1.3 that hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in heavenly places It may be thou hast not so great blessings in earthly places as some others have but if the Lord hath blessed thee in heavenly places that should content thee there 's blessings in heaven and he hath set thee here for the present as it were in heaven in a heavenly place the consideration of the greatnesse of the mercies that we have and the littlenesse of the things that God hath denyed us is a very powerful consideration to work this grace of Contentment The Second Consideration The consideration that God is beforehand with us with his mercies should content us I spake to this as an
apparantly their hearts are not humbled and broken when their spirits after daies of humiliation still should be froward and pettish as before But especially for the generallity of the Kingdom how far are we from being an humbled people we are not yet capable of what mercy God intendeth for us in this regard because we are not humbled Oh the exceding pettishness envie and pride and worse a great deal not only in many people of the Land but even in those that are godly and gracious how are the spirits of men of one brother opposite to another that because there is some difference in judgment in such and such a thing O they could be content many of them to have them rid out of the Land and if God did not prevent whereas the persecution by Bishops is now at an end who knows except God humble their hearts more whether many of Gods dear servants that do but differ in some point of judgement might not meet with a great deale of sufferings even from those that are godly and that is the worst suffering better a thousand times suffer from wicked men it is not so hard to the spirits of godly men to suffer from never so many Bishops and wicked men as to suffer from one godly man Oh! there wants that charity and tenderness of spirit one towards another that should be we are not yet humbled and brought upon our knees and therefore it is just with God to lay us upon our backs a while or that we should even be with our faces upon the ground confounded in our own thoughts before that great Salvation comes that God intendeth for us That 's the first reason 2. Reas God brings to straights because he takes much delight in the Exercise of faith My beloved Faith it is a most glorious grace it is one of the most glorious things that ever God enabled any creature to do and especially now when there is so much guilt upon them it is a more glorious work than Adam perform'd in Innocency For a poor creature to beleeve upon God for his good here and in the midst of all extremities to rely upon him it is a most glorious work and God is exceedingly delighted in it and therfore the Scripture calleth Faith Precious Faith in the beginning of the 2 Epistle of Peter now God loves the acting of precious things God loves to see the actings of all his creatures every creature active in his way but when God hath put such a precious grace as faith into the heart Oh! how God doth delight to see the acting of that precious Faith and therfore it hath been the way of God to go quite crosse after the Lord hath made a promise of mercy and salvation he goes seemingly crosse only to exercise Faith I think I have told you sometimes of that to Abraham that there were but two promises made to him first That the Country that God would give him should flow with milk and honey and secondly His seed should be as the stars of Heaven and mark what way God goes to bring this about assoon as ever he gets into Canaan he was ready to starve there is this the country that flows with milk and honey and then for the other His seed should be as the stars of Heaven he stayed twenty yeers before he had a child Isaac stayed forty yeers before he had a child and yet his seed should be great and Isaac must be killed too and then there was another thing exercised his faith he would give him the Land and yet notwithstanding during his life he must not possesse one foot of the Land but only a burying-place and what was the reason of all this It was to exercise his faith and the promise God makes to his Son Christ I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession yet Christ must not have a hole to hide his head in he hath not so much as the foxes and the birds have to hide his head in Thus the way of God is to seem to go quite contrary that he might draw forth that glorious work of faith he so much delights in and because this is the only time of exercising this precious grace and there shall be no such faith in Heaven exercised as this is and therefore God because he will have as much as may be of the excellency of this faith though he be in a way of salvation he brings his people into straights 3. Reas Because the Lord delights so much in the prayers of his people that he might draw out their prayers Oh! the voice is sweet the voice of prayer it is very melodious in the ears of God It 's true God delights in a praising voice too but here in this world rather in prayer why because God shall have a praising voice to all eternity Gods Saints shall be praising him to all eternity but they shall not be praying to him to all eternity now God delighting so much in the praying voice of his Saints and he knowing he shall have a great deal of praise from his people when they are delivered from great troubles no marvel he doth exercise his people that which pleases God more than Heaven and Earth is the exercise of the faith and the prayers of his people they are the most pleasing things to God in all the world and therefore he brings into straights 4. Reas Because God would discover wicked men Before he brings his great salvation he would discover those that are vile and wicked that they should not partake of that great salvation As in our times we know how God in every straight we have been in hath made some useful discovery to us it hath been a discovering time of many that we have known to be vile and naught that we did not know before Luke 2.35 you know the place A sword shall pierce thorow thy soul why that the thoughts of many may be discovered there shall be great afflictions and troubles and the end I aim at is to discover the thoughts of many How have mens thoughts been discovered by plots when God was bringing his people into Canaan he would not have a rebellious generation come in among them and all the trouble they had in the wildernesse it was by a mixture of a base and vile generation that you have plain in Num. 11. when they were in such a distressed condition and in a murmuring and a vexing way mark the 4. verse The mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting They disturbed all the host of God And certainly if men should not be discovered more than they are if God should come to set up a full reformation amongst us herein England to bring us to that Canaan we desire we should be so troubled with a mixt multitude the mixt multitude would so vex and trouble the Church of God that they should scarce ever have