with thy afflictions You will say this is a strange way for a man or woman to get ease to their condition when they are burdened to lay a greater burden upon them You think there is no other way when you are afflicted but to be jolly and merry and get into company Oh no you are deceived your burden will come again alas this is a poor way to get his spirit quieted poor man the burden will be upon him again but if thou wouldest have thy burden light if thou canst get alone and examine thy heart for thy sin and charge thy soul with thy sin if thy burden be in thy estate for the abuse of it or if it be a burden upon thy body for the abuse of thy health and strength and the abuse of any mercies that now the Lord hath taken away from thee thou hast not honoured God with those mercies that thou hast had but thou hast walked wantonly and carelesly and so fall a bemoaning thy sin before the Lord and thou shalt quickly find the burden of thy affliction to be lighter than it was before do but try this piece of skill and art to get your souls contented with any low condition that God puts you into many times in a family when any affliction befalls them O what a deal of discontentment is there between man and wise if crost in their estates at Land or ill news from Sea or those that they trusted are broke and the like and perhaps somwhat in the family falls cross between man and wife or in reference to the children or servants and there is nothing but brabling and discontent among them now they many times are burdened with their own discontent and perhaps will say one to another This life is very uncomfortable for us to live thus discontented so as we do but have you ever tried this way the husband and the wife have you ever got alone and said Come O let us go and humble our souls before God together let us go into our chamber and humble our souls before God for our sins whereby we have abused those mercies that God hath taken away from us and we have provok'd God against us O let us charge our selves with our sin and be humbled before the Lord together have you tried such a way as this is Oh you would find the cloud would be taken away and the Sun would shine in upon you and you would have a great deal more Contentment than ever yet you had If a mans estate be broken either by plunderers or any other way now how shall this man have Contentment how By the breaking of his heart God hath broken thy estate Oh seek to him for the breaking of thy heart likewise Indeed a broken estate and a whole heart a hard heart will not joyn together there will be no Contentment but a broken estate and a broken heart will so sute together as there will be more Contentment than there was before add therefore to the breaking of thy estate the breaking of thy heart what thou canst and that is the way to be contented in a Christian manner which is the Third Mystery in Christian Contentation The fourth thing is this It is not so much the removing of the affliction that is upon us as the changing of the affliction the Metamorphosing of the affliction when it is quite turned and changed into another thing I mean in regard of the use of it though for the matter the affliction abide still The way of Contentment to a carnal heart its only the removing of the affliction Oh that it may be gone no but saith a gracious heart God hath taught me a way for Contentment though the affliction shall continue still for the matter of it but there is a vertue of grace to turn this affliction into good it takes away but only the sting and poyson of it As now Suppose poverty A mans estate is lost well is there no way to be contented til your estate be made up again Till your poverty be removed Yes certainly Christianity would teach Contentment though poverty continues yet it will teach you how to turn your poverty into spiritual riches that you shall be poor still for your outward estate but this shall be altered whereas before it was once a natural evil to you it comes now to be turned into a spiritual benefit to you and so you come to be content It is a speech of Ambrose Even poverty it 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 than 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 carnal 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 read in Scripture of but was worse for prosperity except Daniel and Nehemiah I do not read 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. Chapter of the Galathians in the 17 verse in his Comment upon that place saith A Christian becommeth a mighty Worker and a wonderfull Creator that is saith he to create out of heaviness joy out of terror comfort out of sin righteousness out of death life and brings light out of darkness It was Gods Pretogative and great Power his Creating Power to command the light to shine out of darkness 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 darkness to bring good out of evil now by this way a Christian comes to be content God hath given a Christian such a virtue as can turn afflictions into mercies can turn darkness into light if a man had the power that Christ had when the water pots were fill'd he could by a word turn the water into wine if you that have nothing but water to
and therefore you cry for more I but God gives you not what you would have and upon that you throw away what you have Is not this folly in your hearts It is unthankfulness 2. There 's a great deal of folly in discontentment for by all your discontent you cannot help your selves you cannot get any thing by it Who can by taking any carking care add one cubit to his stature or make one hair that is white to be black You may vex and trouble your selves but you can get nothing by it Do you think that the Lord will come in a way of mercy ever a whit the sooner because of the murmuring of your spirits Oh no but mercy will be rather deferred the longer for it though the Lord were before in a way of mercy yet this distemper of your hearts were enough to put him out of his course of mercy and though he had thoughts that you should have the thing before yet now you shall not have it If you had a mind to give such a thing to your child yet if you see him in a discontented fretting way you will not give it him and this is the very reason why there are so many mercies denied to you because of your discontentment you are discontented for want of them and therefore you have them not you do deprive your selves of the enjoyment of your own desires because of the discontent of your hearts because you have not your desires And is not this a foolish thing 3. There 's a great deal of folly in this There are many foolish carriages commonly that a discontented hear is guilty of They carry themselves foolishly towards God and towards men there are such expressions and such kind of behavior comes from them as makes their friends to be ashamed of them many times their carriages are so unseemly they are a shame to themselves and their friends 4. There is a great deal of folly in discontent and murmuring for it doth eat out the good and sweetness of a mercy before it comes If God should give a mercy that we are discontented for the want of yet the blessing of the mercy is as it were eaten out before we come to have it Discontent is like a worm that eats the meat out of the Nut and when the meat is eaten out of it then you shall have the shell If a childe should cry for a Nut that hath the meat eaten out or all worm-eaten what good would the child have by having the Nut so such an outward comfort you would fain have you are troubled for the want of it but the very trouble of your spirit is the worm that eats out the blessing of the mercy and then perhaps God gives it you but gives it you with a curse mixed with it that you were better not have it than have it That man or woman that is discontented for want of some good thing if God doth give that good thing to them before they be humbled for their discontent that did proceed from them such a man or woman can have no comfort of the mercy but it will be rather an evil than a good to them And therefore for my part if I should have a friend or brother or one that were as dear to me as my own soul that I should see discontented for the want of such a comfort I should rather pray Lord keep this thing from them till thou wilt be pleased to humble their hearts for their discontent let not them have the mercy till they come to be humbled for their discontent for the want of it for if they have it before that time they will have it without any blessing And therefore it should be your care when you finde your hearts discontented for want of anything to be humbled for it thinking thus with your selves Lord if that that I do so immoderately desire should come to me before I be humbled for my discontent for want of it I am certain I can have no comfort of it but I shall rather have it as an affliction to me Many things which you desire as your lives and think that you should be happy if you had them yet when they do come you find not such happiness in them but they prove to be the greatest crosses and afflictions to you that ever you had and upon this ground because your hearts were immoderately set upon them before you had them As it was with Rachel she must have children or else she died well saith God seeing you must you shall have them but though she had a childe she died according to what she said Give me children or else I die So in regard of any other outward comforts people may have the thing but often-times they have it so as it proves the heaviest cross to them that ever they had in all their lives such a childe as you were discontent for the want of it it may be it was sick and your hearts were out of temper for fear that you should lose it and God restores it but he restores it so as he makes it a cross to your hearts all the days of your lives One observes concerning Manna when the people were contented with their allowance that God allowed them then it was very good but when they would not be content with Gods allowance but would gather more then God would have them then saith the text there was worms in it So when we are content with our conditions and that which God disposes of us to be in there 's a blessing in it then its sweet to us but if we must needs have more and keep it longer than God would have us to have it then there will be worms in it and no good at all 5 There 's a great deal of folly in discontentedness for it makes our affliction a great deal worse than otherwise it would be it no way removes our affliction nay while they do continue they are a great deal the worse and heavier for a discontented heart is a proud heart and a proud heart will not pull down his sails when there comes a tempest and storm If a Martinet when a tempest and storm comes should be froward and would not pull down his sails but is discontented with the storm Is his condition the better because he is discontented and will not pull down his sails Will this help him Just so it is for all the world with a discontented heart a discontented heart is a proud heart and he out of his pride is troubled with his affliction and is not contented with Gods dispose and so he will not pull down his spirit at all and make it bow to God in this condition in which God hath brought him now is his condition the better because he will not pull down his spirit No certainly abundantly worse a thousand to one but the tempest and storm overwhelms his soul And thus you see what a great deal of folly
great mercy this is a great aggravation 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 mercy 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 mercy 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 mercy after another We hear of mercy in Bristol and mercy to our brethren in Scotland But still if after this we should have any thing befall us that is but cross to us that we should be ready to murmur again presently Oh let us not so require God for those mercies of his Oh let us take heed of giving God any ill requital for his mercies Oh give God praise according to his excellent greatness to his excellent goodness and grace And now Hath God given to you the Contentment of your hearts Take you heed of being the cause of any grief 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 ill 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 Iustruments 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 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 especially in this particular we shall speak to God willing the next day SERMON IX at Stepney Sept. 21. 1645. PHIL. 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 letting out of the greatness of this sin I mentioned but only one the last day now we shall proceed in that The first Aggravation of the sin of discontent and murmuring is this For men and women to be discontent in the midst 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 midst 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 onely 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 continual miracle of mercy 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 been so merciful to the land wilt thou be fretting and murmuring because thou hast not in thy family all the comforts that thou wouldst have As it is a great aggravation of a mans evil of 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 affliction 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 worse 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 mercies 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 encreased by the mercies of God that are abroad Now shall Gods mercies aggravate our sins This is a sad thing this is to turn the mercies of God to be our misery Didst not thou pray to God for these mercies that God hath sent of late to the publick these great victories that God hath given didst not thou pray for them now thou hast them Is not there enough in them to quiet thy heart for some private trouble thou meetest withall in thy family Is not there goodness enough there to cure thy discontentment Certainly they were not such mercies so worthy to be prayed for except they have so much excellency in them as to countervail some private afflictions Publick mercies are the aggravations of private discontent also 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! its 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 hadst afflictions I dare boldly aver it concerning any one in this Congregation suppose thy afflictions to 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
for poverty Have I health now I should prepare for sickness Have I liberty let me prepare my self for imprisonment What know I what God may call me to Have I comfort and peace now in my conscience Doth God shine upon me While I have this let me prepare for Gods withdrawing from me Am I delivered from temptations Let me prepare now for the time of temptations If thou wouldest do so the change of thy condition would not be so grievous to thee Marriners that are in a calm will prepare for storms would they say if we never had calms we would bear storms But now we have had calms so many years or weeks together this is grievous In thy calm thou art to prepare for storms and the storm would be less thou shouldest reason quite contrary and say Now I am in an afflicted condition Oh but blessed be God I was in a comfortable condition and blessed be God that he was afore-hand with me in the ways of his mercy this one consideration may help murmuring hearts Dost thou murmure because once thou wert better Know God was before-hand with thee in the ways of mercy thou shouldest rather think thus I have lived for these many years forty years perhaps or more in a comfortable condition I have lived in health and peace and plenty what though the remaining part of my time hath some sorrow and affliction The Lord hath granted to me a comfortable sun-shine all the day long till towards evening and what if at seven or eight a clock at night it begins to rain Let me thank God I have had so fair weather all day You that are going a voyage if you have a comfortable wind and very fair for many moneths together what if you have a little storm when you are within sight of land will you murmure and repine Oh no but rather bless God that you have had such a comfortable voyage so long Oh this consideration would help us all If it were so that now God should say Well You shall never see comfortable day more for outward things in this world Oh then you have cause to fall down and bless Gods Name that you have had so many comfortable daies now you reason quite contrary whereas you should bless God that you have had so much comfort you make what you have had before to be an aggravation of your afflictions now and so murmure and are discontented That which God gave you before upon what terms did you hold it Did you hold it so as you have in your writings To have and to hold for ever God gives no such thing God gives to no man I say any thing but grace to run upon that tenour there 's no such thing in all Gods writings for any outward comforts To have and to hold for you and your heirs indeed for grace he doth give it to your selves To have and to hold for ever though not for every one that comes out of your Loyns to have and to hold for ever God doth not give any outward thing so upon any such tenour as that is if God gives me an understanding of himself and faith and humility and love and patience and such graces of his spirit he gives them me for ever if he gives me himself and his Christ and his Promise and his Covenant he gives me them for ever what am I therefore that the Sun should always shine upon me that I must have fair weather all my days That which God gives to me he gave it to me as a pledge of his love let me return in to him as a pledge of my obedience there 's all the reason in the world for it all that a godly man receives from God he receives it as a pledge of Gods love to him therefore when he comes into an afflicted condition saith God Return to me as a pledge of your obedience that you had from me as a pledge of my love we should cheerfully come in to God and bless God that we have any thing to render unto him as a pledge of our obedience and say O it is thy love O Lord that hath given us any thing that doth enable us to render a pledge of our obedience to thee When God calls for thy estate or any comforts that thou hast God calls for it as a pledge of thy obedience to him The 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 cross the more obedience and submission Secondly When thou didst take a great deal of pains was it not with submission to God Didst thou take pains with resolutions that thou must have such a thing when thou labourest for it Then know that thou labourest not as a Christian but if thou didst 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 success and a blessing And what was it that thou didst aim at in thy labour Was it not that thou mightest walk with God in the place that God hath 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 aim at is That I might yield obedience to God in the way that God hath set me Now if God calls 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 yield 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 the more shown that thou canst offer that to God that cost thee dear Now these are the principal reasonings of a discontented heart The Thirteenth PLEA There 's one Plea more that may be named and that is this say some Though I confess my affliction is somewhat hard and I feel some trouble within me yet I thank God I break not out in discontented ways to the dishonor 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 beginning of the opening of this Scripture it is not enough for thy tongue to be
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 Empires 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 satisfy 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 aim 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 satisfyed 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 quintessence of all the excellencies of all the creatures in the world it could not satisfie him 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 Godliness 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 Mark 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 difference 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 God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ The peace of God shall keep your heart Then in vers 9. Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you The peace of God shall keep you and the God of peace shall be with you This is that that I would observe from this Text That the peace of God is not enough to a gracious heart except it may have the God of that peace A carnal heart could be satisfied if he might but have outward peace though it be not the peace of God peace in the State and his trading would satisfie him But mark how a godly heart goes beyond a carnal all outward peace is not enough but I must have the peace of God But suppose you have the peace of God Will not that quiet you No I must have the God of peace as the peace of God so the God of peace that is I must enjoy that God that gives me the peace I must have the cause as well as the effect I must see from whence my peace comes and enjoy the fountain of my peace as well as the stream of my peace and so in other mercies have I health from God I must have the God of my health to be my portion or else I am not satisfied It is not life but the God of my life it is not riches but the God of those riches that I must have the God of my preservation as well as my preservation a gracious heart is not satisfied without this To have the God of the mercy as well as the mercy In Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but Thee and there is none upon the Earth that I desire besides thee It is nothing in Heaven or Earth can satisfie me but thy self if God give thee not only Earth but Heaven that thou shouldest rule over Sun Moon and Stars and have the rule over the highest of the sons of men it would not be enough to satisfie thee except thou hadst God himself There lies the first mystery of Contentment and truly a contented man though he be the most contented man in the world yet he is the most unsatisfied man in the world that is Those things that will satisfie the world will not satisfie him Secondly There is this Mystery in Christian Contentation A Christian comes to Contentment not so much by way of Addition as by way of Substraction that is his
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 ridiculous for a Minister to speak thus before you and many carnal people are ready to make such expressions as these to be ridiculous understanding them in a carnal way Just as Nicodem us in the 3. of John What! can a man be born when he is old can he 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 gainfull 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 scornfull 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 Christian comes to this Content ment 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 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 Oh! saith a man whose condition is changed and he hath lost his estate Had I but my estate that I had heretofore how would I use it to Gods glory But God hath made me to see that I did not honor 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 labor to bring thy heart to quiet and Contentment by setting thy soul on work about the duties of thy present condition And the truth is I know nothing more availeable for the quieting of a Christian Soul and getting Contentment than this The setting thy heart on work about the duties of thy 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 an 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 they should have Contentment and perhaps they get into that condition and then they are as far from Contentment as before But then they think if they were in another condition they would be contented and then when they have got into that condition they are still 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 Counsell 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 read it thus After David in his Generation had served the Counsel of God then David fell asleep O that should be the care of a Christian to serve our Gods Counsel What is the Counsel of God The condition that I am in God doth put me into it by his own Counsel the Counsel of his own VVill 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 sixth 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
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 digest but one meals meat the sumes that do arise from their stomachs do distemper their brain and make them unfit for every thing whereas you shall have others that have strong heads and strong brains though their stomachs be ill that they do not digest 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 befall 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 hungry make a noise but the Eagle is never heard to make a noise though it wants food and it 's from the magnitude of his spirit that 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 an argument of a gracious magnitude of spirit that whatsoever befalls it yet it is not always whining and complaining so as others are but goes on still in its way and course and blesses God and keeps in a constant tenour whatsoever thing befalls 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 tallness 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 midst of adversities why do not you Worship that man He doth think him a man even to be honored 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 midst of adversity That was that that convinced the King when he saw the three children could walk in the midst of the fiery furnace not to be touched the King was mightily convinced by this that surely their God was a great God indeed and that they were highly beloved of their God that could walk in the midst of the furnace and not be touch't whereas the others that came but to the mouth of the furnace were devoured so when a Christian can walk in the midst of fiery trials and not his garments singed but have comfort and joy in the midst of all as Paul in the stocks can sing that wrought upon the Jaylor so it will convince men when they see the power of Grace in the middest of afflictions such afflictions as would make others to roar 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 shall come into our Land then this man shall be the peace that is when all shall be in an hubbub uproar yet then this man shall 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 which is said of Christ may be applied to this grace of Contentment when the Assyrian the Plunderers the Enemies when any affliction trouble distress doth befall such a heart then this Grace of Contentment brings peace to the soul at that time brings peace to the soul when the Assyrian comes into the Land The Grace of Contentment it 's an excellent Grace there '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 these 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 liquor 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 still that you may powre it in and not lose any So if we would be the vessels to receive Gods mercy and would have the Lord powre in his mercy to us we must have quiet stil hearts we must not have hearts hurrying up down in trouble discontent and vexing but we must have still and quiet hearts if we would receive mercy from the Lord If a Childe flings and throws up and down for a thing you will not give it him then when he cries so but first you will have the Childe quiet though perhaps you do intend the Childe shall have the thing he cries for but you will not give it him till he is quiet and comes and
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 bath given you some competency for your family some way of lively-hood yet because you are disappointed in somewhat that you would have therefore all is nothing unto you Oh! what unthankfulness 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 bless God for but discontentedness makes them nothing It s an excellent speech that I remember Luther hath saith he This is the Rhetorick of the Spirit of God its a very fine speech of his to extenuate evil things and to amplifie good things if there falls out a cross to make the cross 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 bless God that though there be such a cross yet that it is no more that 's the work of the Spirit of God and if there be a mercy wonders at Gods goodness 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 evil things as thus A godly man wonders at his cross that it is no more a wicked man wonders his cross is so much Oh saith he none was ever so afflicted as I am If there be a cross 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 its the Rhetorick of the Devil to lessen the mercy 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 encrease afflictions And for this I 'le give you a notable example that we have in Scripture it is the example of Korah Dathan and Abiram In Numb 16.12 13. And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eltab which said We will not come up Is it a small 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 into the Land of Canaan that was the Land that God promised them that should flow with milk and hony But mark here their discontentedness because they met with some troubles in the wilderness 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 cross they make their deliverance from Egypt no mercy no it was rather a misery to them Oh say they Egypt was a Land that flowed with milk and honey Oh what baseness is there in a discontented spirit a discontented spirit out of envy to Gods Grace will make mercies that are great to be little yea to be none at all Would one ever have thought that such a word should have come from the mouth of an Israelite that had been under bondage and cried under it and yet when they meet with a little cross in their way to say you have brought us out of the Land that floweth with milk and honey to say they were better before than now and yet before they could not be contented neither this is the usual unthankful expression of a discontented heart And it is so with us now when we meet with any cross in our estates and taxations and troubles especially if any among you have been where the enemy hath prevailed you are ready to say We had plenty before and we are now brought to a condition of hardship we were better before when we had the Prelates and others to domineer and so we indanger our selves to be brought into that bondage again Oh let us take heed of this of a discontented heart there is this woful cursed fruit of discontent to make men and women unthankful for all the mercies God hath granted to them and this is a sore and grievous evil And lastly There 's this evil effect in murmuring It causes shiftings of spirit they that murmur and are discontent are liable to temptations to shift for themselves in sinful and ungodly ways discontent is the ground of shitting courses and unlawful ways How many of you may have your consciences condemn you of this that you in the time of your afflictions have sought to shift for your selves by wayes that have been sinful against God and your discontent was the bottom and ground of it If you would avoid shiftings for your selves by wicked ways labor to mortifie this sin of discontent to mortifie it at the root The Eight evil that there is in murmuring and discontent is this There is a great deal of folly extream folly in a discontented heart it s a foolish sin I shall open the folly of it in many particulars 1. It takes away the present comfort of what you have because you have not somwhat that you would have What a foolish thing is this that because I have not what I would have I will not enjoy the comfort of what I have Do not you account this folly in your children you give them some victuals and they are not contented perhaps they say it s not enough they cry for more and if you do not presently give them more they will throw away that they have and though you account that folly in your Children yet you deal thus with God God gives you many mercies but you see others have more mercies than you
there is in the sin of discontentment The ninth evil of murmuring and discontentment is this There is a mighty deal of danger in the sin of discontentment for it exceedingly provoketh the wrath of God it s a sin that doth much provoke God against his creature we find most sad expressions in Scripture and examples too how God hath been provoked against many for their discontent in Numb 14. you have a notable text and one would think that that were enough for ever to make you fear murmuring in the 26. verse it is said The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron saying what did he say How long shall I bear with this evil Congregation which murmur against me How long shall I bear with them saith God This evil Congregation Oh that 's an evil Congregation that murmurs against me And how long shall I bear with them they do murmur and they have murmured as those that have murmuring spirits murmuring dispositions they will murmur again and again How long shall I bear with this evil Congregation that murmur against me How justly may God speak of many of you that are this morning before the Lord How long shall I bear with this wicked man or woman that doth murmur against me and hath usually in the course of their lives murmured against me when any thing falls out otherwise than they would have it And mark what follows after I have heard the murmuring of the Children of Israel You murmur it may be others hear you not nay it may be you speak not at all or but half words yet God hears the language of your murmuring hearts and those muttering speeches and those half words that come from you And further observe in this verse how the Lord repeats this sin of murmuring How long shall I bear with this evil Congregation which murmur against me Secondly I have heard their murmuring Thirdly which they murmur against me Murmur Murmur Murmur Three times in one verse he repeats it and this is to shew his indignation against the thing When you express indignation against a thing you will repeat it over again again now the Lord because he would express his indignation against this sin he repeats it over again and again and it follows in ver 28. Say unto them as truely as I live saith the Lord As ye have spoken in mine ears so will I do to you Mark God swears against a murmurer sometimes in your discontent you will be ready to swear it may be do you swear in your discontent So doth God swear against you for your discontent And what was it that God would do unto them ver 29 30. Doubtless your carkasses shall fall in the wilderness and you shall not come into the Land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein as if God should say if I have any life in me your lives shall go for it as I live it shall cost you your lives A discontented murmuring fit of yours may cost you your lives You see how it provokes God there is more evil in it than you are aware of it may cost you your lives and therefore look to your selves and learn to be humbled at the very beginnings of such distempers in the heart So in Psal 106.24 25. Yea they despised the pleasant Land they believed not his word but murmured in their tents and hearkned not unto the voice of the Lord therefore he lifted up his hand against them to overthrow them in the wilderness Here are divers things observable in this Scripture First That which we spoke to before How a murmuring heart doth slight Gods mercies so it is here They despised the pleasant Land and that a murmuring heart is contrary to faith they believed not his word but saith the text they murmred in their tents and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. Many men and women will hearken to the voice of their own base murmuring hearts that will not hearken to the voice of the Lord if you would hearken to the voice of the Lord there would not be such murmuring as there is but mark what follows upon it you may not think to please your selves in your murmuring discontentedness and think that no evil shall come of it Therefore he lifted up his hand against them to overthrow them you that are discontented you lift up your hearts against God and you cause God to lift up his hand against you perhaps God laies his finger upon you softly in some afflictions that are upon you in your families or elsewhere and you cannot bear the hand of God that lies upon you as tenderly as a tender-hearted Nurse that laies her hand upon the childe you cannot bear the tender hand of God that is upon you in a lesser affliction it were just with God to lift up his hand against you in another manner of affliction Oh a murmuring spirit provokes God exceedingly There is another place in 16. of Numb compare the 41. vers and the 46. vers together But on the morrow all the Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron saying Ye have killed the people of the Lord And mark in the 46. verse And Moses said unto Aaron Take a Censer and put fire therein from off the Altar and put on incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun mark how Gods wrath is kindled in the 41. verse the Congregation had murmured and they murmured but against Moses and Aaron perhaps you murmur more directly against God and that was against God in murmuring against Gods Ministers it was against God but not so directly but it may be the murmuring of your hearts is more directly against Gods dealings with you if you murmur against those that God makes instruments because you have not every thing that you would have as against the Parliament or such and such that are publike Instruments it s against God it was but against Moses and Aaron that the Israelites murmured and they said that Moses and Aaron had killed the people of the Lord though it was the hand of God that was upon them for their former wickedness in murmuring It is usual for wicked vile hearts to deal thus with God that when Gods hand is a little upon them for to murmur again and again and so to bring upon themselves even infinite kind of evils but now the anger of God was quickly kindled Oh saith Moses Go take the Censer quickly for wrath is gone out from Jehovah the plague is begun so while you are murmuring in your families the wrath of God may quickly go out against you quickly in a morning or evening when you are a murmuring the wrath of God may come quickly out upon your families or persons you are never so prepared for present wrath as when you are in a murmuring discontented fit those that stand by
if thou couldest see it now if he be pleased to sanctifie thy affliction to break that hard heart of thine and humble that proud spirit of thine it would be the greatest mercy that ever thou hadst in all thy life Now wilt thou yet stand out against God It s even as if thou shouldest say Well the Lord is about to break me and humble me but he shall not this is the language of thy murmuring and thy discontentedness though thou darest not say so but though thou sayest not so in words yet it is certainly the language of the temper of thy spirit Oh! consider what an aggravation this is I am discontented when God is about to work such a work upon me as is exceedingly for my good but yet I stand out against him and resist him That 's the Ninth Aggravation The tenth Aggravation of the sin of murmuring and discontent is this The more palpable and remarkable the hand of God appears to bring about an affliction the greater is the sin of murmuring and discontent under an affliction It 's a great evil at any time to murmure and be discontent but though it be a sin when I see but an ordinary providence working for me not to submit to that but when I see an extraordinary providence working that 's a greater sin that is when I see the Lord in some remarkable way working about such an affliction beyond what any could have thought of shall I resist such a remarkable hand of God shall I stand out against God when I see God express his will in such a remarkable manner that he would have me to be in such a condition Indeed before we see the Will of God apparent we may desire to avoid an affliction and may use means for it but now when we see God expressing his Will from Heaven in a manner beyond ordinary and more remarkable then certainly it is fit for us to fall down and submit to him and not to oppose when God comes with a mighty stream against us it 's our best way to fall down before him and not to resist for as 't is an argument of a mans disobedience when there is not only a Command against a sin but when God reveals his Command in a terrible way the more solemn the Command of God is the greater is the sin in breaking that Command so the more remarkable the hand of God is in bringing an affliction upon us the greater is the sin for us to murmure and be discontented Then God expects that we should fall down when he as it were speaks from Heaven to thee by name and saith Well I will have this spirit of thine down do not you see that my hand is stretched out my eyes are upon you my thoughts are upon you and I must have that proud spirit of thine down Oh then it 's fit for the creature to yield and submit unto him When you speak in an ordinary manner to your servants or Children you expect they should regard what you say but when you make them stand still by you and you speak to them in a more solemn way then if they should disregard what you say you are very impatient So certainly God cannot take it well when ever he doth appear from Heaven in such a remarkable way to bring an affliction if then we do not submit to him The Eleventh Aggravation of the sin of murmuring is this To be discontented though God hath been exercising of us long under afflictions yet still to remain discontented For a man or woman at first when an affliction befals them to have a murmuring heart then it 's an evil but to have a murmuring heart when God hath been a long time exercising them with afflictions it 's more evil Though an Heifer at first when the yoke is put upon him he wriggles up and down and will not be quiet but if after many moneths or years it shall not draw quietly the Husbandman would rather feed and fat and prepare it for the Butcher than be troubled any longer with it So though the Lord was content to pass by that discontented spirit of thine at first yet God having a long time kept the yoke upon thee thou hast been under his afflicting hand it may be divers years and yet thou remain discontent still it were just with God that he should bear thy murmuring no longer and that thy discontent under the affliction should be but a preparation to thy destruction So you see when a man or woman hath been long exercised with afflictions and yet are discontented that 's an aggravation of the sin Mark that text in Heb. 12.11 Now saith the Scripture No chastening for the present is joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby It 's true our afflictions are not joyous but grievous though at first when our affliction comes it is very grievous but yet saith the text afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those that are exercised thereby When thou hast been a long time in the School of afflictions thou art a very Dullard in Christs School if thou hast not learned this Contentment I have learned saith Saint Paul in every state therewith to be content Paul had learned this lesson quickly thou hast been a learning many years perhaps thou mayst say as Heman did That thou art afflicted from thy youth up in 88. Psal Oh it s a very evil thing if being exercised long with afflictions you are not yet contented The eye is as tender a part as any is in a mans body but yet the eye is able to continue in and bear a great deal of cold because it is more used to it so those that are used to afflictions those that God exercises much with afflictions though they have tender spirits otherwise yet they should have learned Contentedness by this time A new Cart may creek and make a noise but after the use of it a while it will not do so So when thou wert first a Christian and newly come into the work of Christ perhaps thou madest a noise and couldst not bear affliction but art thou an old Christian and yet wilt thou be a murmuring Christian Oh that 's a shame for any that are ancient professors that have been a long time in the School of Jesus Christ to have murmuring and discontented spirits And thus you have had Eleven Aggravations of this sin of murmuring and discontentment But now my Brethren because this discontented humour is a very tough humour and it is very hard to work upon there 's none that are discontented but will have something to say for their discontent I shall therefore desire to take away what every discontented heart hath to say for himself The PLEAS of a discontented Heart In the first place Saith one that is discontented It is not discontentment it is the sense of my condition I hope
strength from Christ Page 47 12 He makes up his wants in God Page 49 13 He fetches Contentment from the Covenant Page 53 Objection concerning the Plague Answered Page 54 SERMON IV. He supplieth wants by what he findes in himself Page 57 He fetches supply from the Covenant Page 61 1 In General ib. 2 From Particular promises 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 Page 68 Whereby a Christian knows 1 That he is nothing Page 69 2 That he deserves nothing ib. 3 That he can do nothing Page 70 4 That he can receive no good of himself ib. 5 If God withdraw himself he can make use of nothing ib. 6 That he is worse than nothing Page 71 7 That there is no loss of him if he perish ib. 8 That he comes to rejoyce in Gods waies Page 72 2 Lesson To know the vanity of Creatures Page 73 3 Lesson To know that one thing necessary Page 74 SERMON V. 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 where discontent lies ib. 2 By knowing what is suitable to our condition Page 83 3 By this wee may know what wee are able to mannage Page 84 7 Lesson To know the burden of a prosperous estate Page 85 Which is fourfold 1 The burden of trouble ib. 2 The burden of danger Page 86 3 The burden of Duty Page 89 4 The burden of account ib. 8 Lesson A great evil to be given up to our own hearts desire Page 91 SERMON VI 9 Lesson The right knowledge of Gods providence Page 94 Wherein four things 1 The Universality of it ib. 2 The Efficacy of it Page 95 3 The Variety of it ib. 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 hee brings them lowest ib. 3 How he works by contraries Page 99 The Excellency of Contentment 1 Excellency By it we give God his due worship Page 101 2 Excellency In it there is much exercise of grace Page 103 1 There is much strength of grace ib. 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 which we possess not Page 111 In four Particulars SERMON VII 8 Excel Contentment a great blessing of God upon the soul Page 115 9 Excel A contented man may expect a reward Page 116 10 Excel By contentment the soul comes nearest 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 ib. 3 Taking the heart from the Creature ib. 4 Casting the soul on Christ for all good Page 124 5 Subduing the soul to Christ as King ib. 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 ib. 2 To Christ as a Spouse ib. 3 To Christ as a Member Page 127 4 To Christ as a Co-heir ib. 5 To Gods Spirit as a Temple ib. 6 To Angels as one with them ib. 7 To Saints as of the same body ib. 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 ib. SERMON VIII 6 Below the helps of a Christian Page 132 7 Below the expectation of a Christian ib. 8 Below what other Christians have done Page 133 6 Evil By murmuring we undo our prayers ib. 7 Evil The effects of a murmuring heart 1 Loss of much time Page 134 2 Unfitness for Duty ib. 3 Wicked risings of heart Page 135 4 Unthankfulness ib. 5 Shifting Page 138 8 Evil Discontent a foolish sin ib. 1 It takes away the comfort of what we have ib 2 We cannot help our selves by it Page 139 3 It causeth foolish carriage to God man ib 4 It takes out the sweetness of mercies before they come ib. 5 It makes affliction worse Page 141 9 Evil It provokes the wrath of God ib. 10 Evil There is a curse upon it Page 146 11 Evil There is much of the Spirit of Satan in it Page 147 12 Evil It brings an absolute necessity of disquiet ib. 13 Evil God may justly withdraw his protection from such ib. Aggravations of the sin of Murmuring 1 Aggravation The greater the mercies the greater the sin of murmuring Page 150 SERMON IX 2 Aggrav When we murmur for small things Page 157 3 Aggrav When men of parts and abilities murmur Page 158 4 Aggrav The freeness of Gods mercy ib. 5 Aggrav Discontent for what we have Page 159 6 Aggrav When men are raised from a low condition ib. 7 Aggrav When men have been great sinners Page 160 8 Aggrav When those murmur that are but of little use in the world Page 161 9 Aggrav To murmur when God is about to humble us ib. 10 Aggrav When Gods hand is apparent in affliction Page 162 11 Aggrav To murmur under long affliction Page 163 Pleas of a discontented heart 1 Plea I am not sensible of my afflictions 1 Sense of affliction takes not away sense of mercies Page 165 2 It hinders not Duty ib 3 It will make us bless God for the mercies of others ib. 2 Plea My trouble is for my sins 1 It is not if you were not troubled for sin before Page 166 2 What the greatest care is to remove affliction ib. 3 If after affliction is removed sin trouble us ib. 4 If there be not care to avoid sin after Page 167 5 There is the more cause to accept of the punishment ib. 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 ib. 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 Instruments Page 170 2 We should rather pitty them than murmur Page 171 3 We have righteous dealing with God ib. SERMON X. 5 Plea It is an affliction I looked not for 1 It
is folly not to look for afflictions ib. 2 We should be more careful in our carriage in it Page 172 6 Plea The affliction is exceeding great 1 It is not so great as thy sins ib. 2 It might have been greater Page 173 3 It is greater for thy murmuring ib. 7 Plea It is greater than others afflictions Answered in four things Page 173 8 Plea If any other affliction they could be content Answered in four things Page 174 9 Plea My afflictions make me unserviceable to God 1 Though thou art mean thou art a member of the Body Page 176 2 Thy general calling is high Page 177 3 Thou art equal with Angels ib. 4 God highly esteems the actions of mean Christians Page 178 5 Faithfulness in a mean calling shall bee rewarded ib. 10 Plea My condition is unsettled 1 Every man in his setled state is vanity Page 179 2 God will have us live in dependance ib. 3 Thy spiritual condition may be settled Page 181 11 Plea I have been in a better condition 1 Thy eye should not be evil because the Eye of God hath been good Page 182 2 Prosperity was to prepare thee for affliction ib. 12 Plea I am crost after much pains 1 The greater the Cross the more the obedience Page 184 2 Thy pains should he with submission to God Page 185 3 Contentment in such a condition is a testimony of more love to God ib. 13 Plea Distempers of heart accounted as words before God ib. SERMON XI Considerations to work the heart to contentment 1 Con The greatness of the mercies we have Page 187 2 God is before-hand with us with mercies Page 188 3 The abundance of mercies we enjoy Page 189 4 All creatures in a vicissitude ib. 5 The creatures suffer for us ib. 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 ib. 10 Experience of Gods doing us good in afflictions ib. Directions to Contentment 1 There must be grace to make the soul steady Page 195 2 Not to gripe too much of the world ib. 3 Have a call in every business Page 196 4 Walk by rule ib. 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 ib. 9 Pore not too much on afflictions Page 201 10 Make a good construction of Gods waies towards us Page 202 11 Regard not others fancies but what wee feel Page 205 12 Be not inordinately taken with the comforts of the world Page 206 FINIS THE RARE JEWEL OF CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT SERMON I. at Stepney July 27. 1645. PHIL. 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 own bowels Our great Apostle experimentally holds forth in this Gospel-Text the very life and soul of all practical Divinity wherein wee may plainly read 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 pass for a great estate hee had better things to take up his heart withal I do not speak saith hee 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 special 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 abased 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 as much as if he had said I have learned the mystery of this business Contentment is to bee learned as a great mystery and those that are throughly trained up in that art have learned a deep Mystery The which is as Sampsons riddle to a natural man I have leâ—ued it It is not now to learn neither had I it at first I have attained it though with much ado and now by the grace of God I am become Master of this Art In whatsoever State I am The word State is not in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but In what I am that is in whatsoever concerns or befals me whether I have little or nothing at all Therewith to be content The word which we render Content here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath in the Original much elegancy and fulness of signification in it In strictness of phrase it is only attributed unto God who hath stiled himself God Alsufficient as resting wholly satisfied in and with himself alone but hee is pleased freely to communicate of his fulness to the creature so that from God in Christ the Saints receive grace for grace Joh. 1.16 In so much that there is in them an answerableness of the same grace in their proportion that is in Christ And in this sense Paul saith I have a Self-sufficiency as the word notes But hath Paul a self-sufficiency you will say How are wee sufficient of our selves Our Apostle affirms in another case That wee are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 His meaning therefore must be I find a sufficiency of satisfaction in my own heart through the Grace of Christ that is in me though I have not outward comforts and worldly accommodations to supply my necessities yet I enjoy portion enough betwixt Christ and my own soul abundantly to satisfie me in every condition And this interpretation is suitable to that place Pro. 14.14 A good man is satisfied from himself and ageeable to what he verifies of himself in another place that though he had nothing yet he possessed all things because hee had right to the covenant and promise which virtually contains all and an interest in Christ the fountain and good of all and having that no marvel he saith that in whatsoever state he was in he was content Thus you have the genuine interpretation of the Text. I shall not make any division of the words because I take them only to prosecute that one duty most necessary viz. The
and as God will and how God will so that our wills are melted into the will of God this is no opposition to the quietness which God requires in a contented spirit Quest But then what is this quietness of spirit opposed unto Answ To murmuring and repining at the hand of God as the discontented Israelites often did which if we our selves cannot endure either in our children or Servants much less can God bear it in us 2 To vexing and fretting which is a degree beyond murmuring It is a speech I remember of a Heathen A wise man may grieve under but not bee vexed with his afflictions There is a vast difference betwixt a kindely grieving and a distempered vexation 3 To tumultuousness of spirit When the thoughts run distractingly and work in a confused manner so that the affections are like the unruly multitude in the Acts who knew not for what end they were come together The Lord expects that you should be silent under his rod and as hee said in Acts 19.36 You ought to bee quiet and to do nothing rashly 4 To unsetledness and un fixedness of spirit whereby the heart is taken off from the present duty that God requires in our several relations both towards God our selves and others We should prize duty at a higher rate than to be taken off by every trivial occasion a Christian indeed values every service of God so much that though some may bee in the eye of the world and of natural reason a slight empty business beggarly rudiments foolishness yet seeing God calls for it the authority of the command doth so over-awe his heart that he is willing to spend himself and to be spent in the discharge of it It is an expression of Luthers ordinary works that are done in faith and from faith are more precious than Heaven and Earth And if this bee so and a Christian know it it is not a little matter that should divert him but hee should answer every avocation and resist every temptation Nehemiah did chap. 6.3 Sanballat Greshem and Tobiah when they would have hindered the building of the wall with this I am doing a great work saith he so that I cannot come down why should the work of the Lord cease 5 To distracting heart-eating cares and fears A gracious heart so estimates its union with Christ and the work that God sets it about as it will not willingly suffer any thing to come in to choak it or dead it A Christian is desirous that the Word of God should take such full possession as to divide between soul and spirit but hee would not suffer the fear and noise of evil tidings to take such impressions in his soul as to make a division and strugling there like the twins in Rebeckahs womb A great man will permit common people to stand without his doors but he will not let them come in and make a noise in his closet or bed-chamber when hee purposely retires himself from all worldly imployments So a well-tempered spirit though it may inquire after things abroad without doors in the world and suffer some ordinary cares and fears to break into the suburbs of the soul so as to have a light touch upon the thoughts Yet it will not upon any terms admit of an intrusion into the privy chamber which should bee wholly reserved for Jesus Christ as his inward Temple 6 To sinking discouragements When things fall not out according to expectation when the tyde of second causes runs so low that we see little left in the outward means to bear up our hopes and hearts That then the heart begins to reason as he in the Kings If the Lord should open the Window of Heaven how should this be Never considering that God can open the eyes of the Blinde with clay and spittle he can work above beyond nay contrary to means hee often makes the fairest flowers of mans endeavors to wither and brings improbable things to pass that the glory of enterprizes may be given to himself Nay if his people stand in need of miracles to work their deliverance miracles fall as easily out of Gods hands as to give his people daily bread Gods blessing is many times secret upon his servants that they know not which way it comes as 2 Kings 3.17 Ye shall not see wind neither shall ye see rain yet the valley shal be filled with water God would have us depend on him though we do not see means how the thing should be brought to pass else we do not shew a quiet spirit though an affliction bee 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 wee see in Saul turning to the witch of Endor and his offering sacrifice before Samuel came Nay the good King Jehoshaphat joyns himself with Ahaziah 2 Chron. 20. ult And Asa goes to Benhadad King of Assyria for help not relying upon the Lord a Chron. 16.7 8 Though the Lord had delivered the Ethiopian Army into his hands consisting of a thousand thousand a Chron. 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 weakness of their faith because they are not able to trust God and follow him fully in all things alwaies and for this cause the Lord often follows the Saints with many sore temporal crosses as wee see in Jacob though they obtain the mercy It may bee thy wretched carnal heart thinks I care not how I bee delivered so I may but get free from it Is it not so many times in some of your hearts when any cross or affliction befalls you Have you not such kinde 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 sinfull shifting is the next thing in opposition to this quietnesse which God requires in a contented spirit The Eighth and last thing that this quietness of spirit is opposite to is desperate 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
to express to any other man if you would come to them and say How comes it that you live so comfortable as you do they are not able to tell you what they have but they find there is a sweetness in what they do enjoy and they know this by experience that they never had such sweetness in former times that though they had more plenty in former times than now they have yet they know they had not such sweetness but how this comes they cannot tell and we may shew some particulars even in that Godly men do enjoy that makes their condition to be sweet As now Take these four or five particulars that a Godly man finds Contentment in what he hath though it be never so little 1. Because in what he hath he hath the love of God he hath Gods love to him in what he hath If a King should send a piece of meat from his own table it is a great deal more comfortable to a Courtier than if he had twenty dishes at ordinary allowance if the King send but any little thing and say Go and carry this to such a man as a token of my love Oh how delightful is that unto him Are your husbands at Sea and send you a token of their love it is more than forty times so much that you have in your houses already Every good thing the people of God do enjoy they enjoy it in Gods love as a token of Gods love and coming from Gods eternal love unto them this must needs be very sweet unto them 2. What they have it is sanctified to them for good Other men have what they enjoy in a way of common providence but the Saints in a special way Others have what they have and there is all they have meat and drink and houses and cloaths and money and that 's all But a gracious heart finds contentment in this I have it and I have a sanctified use of it too I find God going along with what I have to draw my heart neerer to him and sanctifie my heart to him If I find my heart drawn neerer to God by what I enjoy it s more a great deal than if I have it without any sanctifying my heart by it there 's a secret dew that goes along with it there 's the dew of Gods love in it and the dew of sanctification 3. A gracious heart what he hath he hath it upon free cost he is not like to be called to pay for what he hath The difference between what a godly man hath and a wicked man is in this A godly man is as a child in an Inn and In-keeper hath his child in his house and the Father provides his dyet and lodging and what is fit for him Now there comes a stranger and the stranger hath Dinner and Supper provided and Lodging but the stranger must pay for all it may be the Childes fare is meaner than the fare of the stranger the stranger hath boyled and rost and bak'd but he must pay for it there must come a reckoning for it Just thus it is many of Gods people have but mean fare but God as a Father provides it and it is on free cost and they must not pay for what they have it is paid for before but the wicked in all their pomp and pride and bravery they have what they call for but there must come a reckoning for all they must pay for all in the conclusion And is it not better to have a little upon free cost than to come to have all to pay for Grace doth shew a man that what he hath he hath it on free cost from God as from a father and therefore must needs be very sweet Fourthly A godly man may very well be content though he hath but little For what he hath he hath it by right of Jesus Christ by the purchase of Jesus Christ he hath a right to it another manner of right to what he hath than any wicked man can have to what he hath a wicked man hath these outward things I do not say they are usurpers of what they have but they have a right to it and that before God But how It is a right by meer donation that is God by his free bounty doth give it to them but the right that the Saints have it is a right of purchase it is paid for and it is their own and they may in a holy manner and holy 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 favor 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 somthing to preserve them here in the world they cannot be said to be theeves 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 Childe 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 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 fourty pounds given unto him otherwise So every comfort that the Saints have in this world it is an earnest penny to them of those eternal mercies that the Lord hath provided for them as every affliction that the wicked have here it is but the beginning of sorrows and fore-runner of those eternal sorrows that they are like to have hereafter in Hell to 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 as the fore-runner 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 maiest look upon every one of those but as a fore-runner yea the very carnest 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 purchase 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 deal 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 onely 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 be fall 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 come 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 wayes are mercy and truth to those that fear him and love him Psal 25.10 The waies of God the waies of affliction as well as the waies of prosperity are mercy love to him Grace gives a man an eye a piercing eye to pierce into the Counsels 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 carnal hearts 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 enables 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 sanctified in Jesus Christ sanctified as a Mediator he sees I say all the sting and venom and poison 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 falls 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 discouraged dishonored is my good name taken away why Jesus Christ he had dishonor 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 dishonor and disgrace and he goes this way to work to get Contentment 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 evil 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 evil 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 sceff at you Did they not do so to Jesus Christ they jeered and scoffed at him and that when he was in his greatest extremitic upon the Cross 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 scorn'd 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 its true he had not such kinde of sickness as we have but yet he had as great pain and tortures in his body and that that was deadly to him as well as the sickness is to us The exercising of Faith upon what Christ did endure that 's the way to get
that hath been in the School of Christ and hath been instructed in the Art of contentment when such a one hath an estate he thinks in that I have an estate above my brethren in this consists the good of it to me in that I have an opportunity to serve God the better and I enjoy a great deal of Gods mercy to my Soul conveyed to me through the creature and hereby I am enabled to do a great deal of good and therein I account the good of my estate Now God hath taken this away from me now if God will be pleased to make up the enjoyment of himself another way that is will call me to honor him by suffering and if I may do God as much Service now in my way of suffering that is to shew forth the Grace of his Spirit in the way of my suffering as I did in the way of prosperity I have as much of God as I had before if I may be led to God in my low condition as much as I was in my prosperous condition I have as much Comfort and Contentment as I had before Object But you will say It s true If I could honor God in my low estate as much as in my prosperous estate then it were somwhat but how can that be Answ You must know the special honor that God hath from his Creatures in this world it is The manifestation of the Graces of his Spirit It 's true God hath a great deal of honor when a man is in a publike place and so he is able to do a great deal of good To countenance Godliness and discountenance Sin but the main thing is In our shewing forth the vertues of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light Now if I can say That through Gods mercy in my affliction I find the Graces of Gods Spirit working as strongly in me as ever they did when I had my estate I am where I was yea I am fully in as good a condition for I have that good now that I had in my prosperous estate for I accounted the good of it but in my enjoyment of God and honoring of God and now God hath blest the want of it to stir up the Graces of his Spirit in my Soul and this is the work that now God calls me to and I must account God is most honored when I do the work that he calls me to He sets me a work in my prosperous estate at that time to honor him in this condition and now he sets me awork at this time to honor him in this condition Now God is most honored when I can turn from one condition to another according as he calls me to it Would you account your selves to be honored by your servants when you set them about a work that hath some excellency and they will go on and on and you cannot get them off from it Now let the work be never so good yet if you will call them off to another work you do expect that they should manifest so much respect to you as to be content to come off from that though they be set about a meaner work if it be more sutable to your ends So you were in a prosperous estate and there God called you to some service that you took some pleasure in but suppose God saith I will use you in a suffering condition and I will have you honor me in that way now here 's the honoring of God that you can turn this way or that way as God calls you to it thus now you having learned this That the good of the Creature consists in the enjoyment of God in it and the honoring of God by it you can be content because you have the same good that you had before And that 's the Fifth Lesson The Sixth Lesson that Christ doth teach the soul that he brings into this School is this He doth instruct such a man or woman in the knowledge of their own hearts you must learn this or you will never learn Contentment you must learn to know your own hearts well to be good Students of your own hearts you cannot all be Scholars in the Arts and Sciences in the world but you may all be Students in your own hearts you cannot read in the book many of you but God expects that every day you should turn over a leaf in your own hearts you will never come to get any skill in this Mystery except you study the book of your own hearts Marriners they have their books that they study those that will be good Navigators and Scholars they have their books those that study Logick they have their books according to that and those that would study Rethorick 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 read over that and this will help you to Contentment these three ways 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 wherefore they think this and 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 mercy I have found out It is in this case as it is with a little childe 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 Childe 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 Childe 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 versed in our own hearts when any thing falls 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 amiss he will presently find out the cause of it but one that hath no skill in a Watch when it goes amiss 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
now when the Soul comes to understand this the Soul then cries out Why am I so troubled that I have not my desires There is nothing that God conveys his wrath more through than a prosperous Estate I remember I have read of a Jewish Tradition that they say of Uzziah when God struck Vzziah with a Leprosie they say that the beams of the Sun was darted upon the forehead of Vzziah and he was struck with a Leprosie with the darting of the beams of the Sun upon his forehead the Scripture saith Indeed the Priests looked upon him but they say there was a special light and beam of the Sun upon the forehead that did discover the Leprosie to the Priests and they say it was the way of conveying of it Whether that were true or no I am sure this is true that the strong beams of the Sun of prosperity upon many men makes them to be leprous Would any poor man in the Country have been discontented that he was not in Vzziahs condition He was a great King I but there was the Leprosie in his fore-head the poor man may say though I live meanly in the Country yet I thank God my body is whole and sound would not any man rather have russet and skins of beasts to cloath him with than to have sattin and velvet that should have the Plague in it The Lord conveyes the Plague of his curse through prosperity as much as through any thing in the world and therefore the soul coming to understand this this makes it to be quiet and content And then Spiritual Judgements are the greatest Judgements of all the Lord says such an Affliction upon my outward estate but what if he had taken away my life A mans health is a greater mercy than his estate and you that are poor people you should consider of that But is the health of a mans body better than his estate what is the health of a mans soul that 's a great deal better the Lord hath inflicted external judgements but he hath not inflicted spiritual Judgements upon thee he hath not given thee up to hardness of heart and taken away the spirit of prayer from thee in thine afflicted estate Oh then be of good comfort though there be outward afflictions upon thee yet thy soul thy more excellent part is not afflicted Now when the soul comes to understand this that here lies the sore wrath of God to be given up to a mans desires and for Spiritual Judgements to be upon a man this quiets him and contents him though outward afflictions be upon him perhaps one of a mans children hath the fit of an ague or the tooth-ach but perhaps his next neighbor hath the plague or all his children are dead of the plague now shall he be so discontented because his children have the tooth-ach when his neighbors children are dead Now think thus Lord thou hast laid an afflicted condition upon me but Lord thou hast not given me the plague of a hard heart Now take these eight things before mentioned and lay them together and you may well apply that Scripture in Isa 29. the last verse saith the text there They also that erred in Spirit shall come to understanding and they that murmured shall learn Doctrine Hath there been any of you as I fear many may be found that have erred in spirit even in regard of this truth that now we are preaching of and many that have murmured Oh that this day you might come to understand that Christ would bring you into his School and teach you understanding And they that murmured shall learn Doctrine what Doctrine shall they learn These eight Doctrines that I have opened to you And if you will but throughly study these lessons that I have set before your eyes It will be a special help and means to cure your murmuring against and repinings at the hand of God And so you will come to learn Christian Contentment The Lord teach you throughly by his Spirit these Lessons of Contentment SERMON VI. at Stepney Aug. 31. 1645. PHIL. 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I Shall only adde one Lesson more in learning of Contentment and then I shall come to the Fourth Head The Excellency of Contentment The Ninth and last Lesson that Christ teaches those that he doth instruct in this Art of Contentment It is the right knowledge of Gods Providence and therein are these four things 1. The Universality of Providence that the soul must be throughly instructed in to come to this Art to understand the Universality of Providence that is how the Providence of God goes through the whole world extends it self to every thing Not onely that God by his providence doth rule the world and govern all things in general but that it reaches to every particular not onely to Kingdoms to order the great affairs of Kingdoms but it reaches to every mans Family it reaches to every person in the Family it reaches to every condition yea to every passage to every thing that falls out concerning thee in every particular not one hair falls from thy head not a Sparrow to the ground without the providence of God There 's nothing befalls thee good or evil but there is a providence of the Infinite Eternal First-being in that thing and therein indeed is Gods Infiniteness that it reaches to the least things to the least worm that is under thy feet Then much more it reaches unto thee that art a rational Creature the Providence of God is more special towards rational Creatures than any others The understanding in a spiritual way the universality of providence in every particular passage from morning to night every day that there 's not any thing that doth befall thee but there 's a hand of God in it it is from God it is a mighty furtherance to Contentment Every man will grant the truth of the thing that it is so but as the Apostle saith in Heb. 11.3 By faith we understand that the worlds were made by faith we understand it why by faith we can understand by reason that no finite thing can be from it self And therefore that the world could not be of it self but we can understand it by saith in another manner than by reason So whatsoever we understand of God in way of providence yet when Christ doth take us into his School we come to understand it by faith in a better manner than we do by reason 2. The efficacy that there is in providence that is That the providence of God goes on in all things with strength and power and it is not to be altered by our power let us be discontented and vext and troubled and fret and rage yet we must not think to alter the course of providence by our discontent Some of Jobs friends said to him Shall the earth be forsaken for thee and shall the rock be removed out of his place Job
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 dealings with him are just as your froward Children 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 uproar 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 quietness of your hearts come to me and see what I will do with you I appeal to you you that are any ways acquainted with the ways 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 this 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 us poor Creatures what he will I am under his feet and am resolv'd to do what I can to honor 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 beggar 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 beggar is not fit to receive an alms but if you hear two or three Beggars at your door and if you hear them out at your window say Let us be content to stay perhaps they are busie it is 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 alms 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 Righteousness the peaceable fruits of Righteousness they indeed do prosper and multiply most when they come to be peaceable fruits of Righteousness As the Philosophers say of every thing that moves nothing that moves but it moves upon something that is immoveable 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 immoveable there is nothing moves but it hath something immoveable that doth uphold it the wheels in a Coach they move up and down but the Axle-tree that moves not up and down so it is with the heart of man As they say of the Heaven it moves up and down upon a Pole that is immoveable so it is in the heart of man if he will move to do service to God he must have a steady heart with him that must help him to move in the service of God those that have unsteady disquiet spirits that have no stedfastness at all in them they are not fit to do service for God but such as have stedfastness 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 fifth 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 maxim of the Devil he loves to fish in troubled waters where he sees the spirits of 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 fewel 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 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 melancholly 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 promiseth them money if they have revengeful spirits then he tells 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 dwells in peaceable and quiet spirits O 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 Country 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 content with this fare that I have will not be tempted with your rewards I thank God
willing to be at thy dispose SERMON VII at Stepney Sept. 7. 1645. PHIL. 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 Application 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 read in Deut. of the blessing of Judah the principle 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 the 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 principal Tribe of Judah is upon thee It is the Lord that gives us all things to enjoy we may have the thing and yet not enjoy it except God come in with his blessing now whatsoever thou hast thou dost enjoy 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 suitable 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 hadst 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 weakness you cannot do as others do you cannot do as much service as others do if your hearts be 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 would 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 wouldst do Now may we not draw an argument from active obedience to passive There is as good reason why thou shouldst expect that God will reward thee for all 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 possess 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 Contentment the soul comes to an Excellency neer unto God himself yea the neerest that may be for this word that is Translated Content is a word that signifies a Self-sufficiency 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 of himself Indeed he is said to be Al-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 Sufficiency in Himself 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 general 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 annihilated 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 all 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 laboring 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 onely for contemplation but it is an art of Divinity and therefore practical ye are now to labor to work upon your hearts that there may be this Grace in you that you may honor God and honor your profession with this Grace of Contentment for there is none doth more honor God and honor 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 be 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
God hath had from his people and therefore not to be content with smaller crosses this must needs be a great evil The Sixth evil that there is in a murmuring spirit is this By murmuring you undo your prayers for it is exceeding contrary to the prayers you make unto God When you come to prayer to God you acknowledge his Soveraignty over you you come there to profess your selves to be at Gods dispose what do you pray for except you acknowledg that you are at his dispose except you will stand as it were at his dispose never come to petition to him if you will come to petition to him and yet will be your own carver you go cross to your prayers to come as if you would beg your bread at your Fathers gates every day and yet you must do what you list this is the undoing of the prayers of a Christian I remember I have read of Latimer that speaking concerning Peter that he denied his Master saith he Peter forgot his pater-noster for that was Hallowed be thy Name and thy Kingdom come So we may say when you have murmuring and discontented hearts you forget your prayers you forget what you have prayed for for you must make the Lords Prayer to be as a pattern for your Prayers though you say not alwayes the same words what do you pray but give us this day our daily bread for that 's Christs intention that we should have that as a pattern and is a directory as it were how to make your prayers now God doth not teach any of you to pray Lord give us so much a yeer or let me have such kind of cloth and so many dishes at my table Christ doth not teach you to pray so but he teaches us to pray Lord give us our bread shewing that you should be content with a little What have you not bread to eat I hope there 's none of you here but have that Obj. But I do not know if I should die what should become of my Children Or if I have bread now I know not where I shall have it the next week or where I shall have provision for the Winter Answ Where did Christ teach us to pray Lord give us provision for so long a time no but if we have bread for this day Christ would have us content Therefore when we murmur because we have not so much variety as others have we do as it were forget out Pater-noster It s against our prayers we do not in our lives hold forth the acknowledgement of the Soveraignty of God over us as we seem to acknowledge in our prayers therefore when at any time you find your hearts murmuring then do but reflect upon your selves and think thus Is this according to my prayers wherein I held forth the Soveraign Power and Authority that God hath over me The seventh thing that I adde for the evil of discontentment is The woful effects that comes to a discontented heart from murmuring I 'le name you five There are five evil effects that comes from a murmuring spirit 1. By murmuring and discontent in your hearts you come to lose a great deal of time How many times do men and women when they are discontented let their thoughts run and are musing and contriving through their present discontentedness then let their discontented thoughts be working in them for some hours together and they spend their time in vain When you are alone you should spend your time in holy meditation but you are spending your time in discontented thoughts you who complain that you cannot meditate you cannot think on good things but if you begin to think of them a little presently your thoughts are off from them but if you be discontented with any thing then you can go alone and muse and roll things up and down in your thoughts to feed a discontented humor Oh labor to see this evil effect of murmuring the losing of your time 2. It doth unfit a man for duty A man or woman that is in a contented frame you may turn such a one to any thing at any time he is fit for to go to God at any time but when one is in a discontented condition then a man or woman is exceeding unfit for 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 loss or cross Oh what distractions do they cause in the performance of holy duties When you should be enjoying communion with God you are distracted in your thoughts about the cross that hath befallen you whereas had you but a quiet spirit though there should great crosses befall you yet they would never hinder you in the performance of any duty 3. Consider what wicked risings of heart and 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 wonderful 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 somtimes you have had in a discontented mood and learn to be humbled upon that 4. Vnthankfulness that 's an evil and a wicked effect that comes from discontent Unthankfulness the Scripture doth rank among very great sins For men and women that are discontent though they injoy many mercies from God yet they are thankful 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 withall and he should come and say What do you give me they are but a few counters they will do me no good you cannot bear this at his hand if he should do so because he hath not so 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 precious Graces of Gods spirit that are more worth than thousands of worlds yet for
of his spirit have I upon me that can find no rest at all Twelfthly Murmuring and discontent hath this evil in it There is an absolute necessity that thou shouldst have disquiet all the days of thy life As if a man that is in a great croud should complain that other folks touch him While we are in this world God hath so ordered things that afflictions must befal us and if we will complain and be discontented upon every cross and affliction we must complain and be discontent all the days of our lives Yea God in just judgement will let things fall out on purpose to vex those that have vexing spirits and discontented hearts and therefore there is a necessity that they should live disquiet all their days and men will not much care to disquiet those that are continually murmuring Oh they will have disquiet all their days Lastly There 's this dreadful evil in discontent and murmuring God may justly with draw his care of you and his protection over you seeing God cannot please you in his administrations We use to say so to discontented servants Nay if you be not pleased mend your selves when you will If you have a servant not content with his diet and wages and work you say Mend your selves So may God justly say to us we that profess our selves servants to him to be in his work and yet are discontented with this thing or that in Gods family God might justly say Mend your selves What if God should say to any of you If my care over you do not please you then take care of your selves if my protection over you will not please you then protect your selves Now all things that do befall you befall you through a providence of God and if you be those that belong to God there is a protection of God over you and a care of God Now if God should say Well you shall not have the benefit of my protection any longer and I will take no further care of you would not this be a most dreadful judgement of God from Heaven upon you Take heed what you do then in being discontent with Gods will towards you and indeed upon discontent this may befall you And this is the reason why many people though Gods protection hath bin very gracious over them for a time and they have thriven abundantly yet afterwards almost all that behold them may say that they live as if God had cast off his care over them and as if God did not care what befall them Now then my brethren put all these together all that we were speaking of the last day and these particulars that have been added now this morning for the setting out of a Murmuring and Discontented spirit Oh what an ugly face hath this sin of murmuring and discontentedness Oh what cause is there that we should lay our hands upon our hearts and go away and be humbled before the Lord because of this Whereas your thoughts were wont to be exercised about providing for your selves and getting more comforts to your selves let the stream of your thoughts now be turned to humble your selves for your discontentedness Oh that you may have your hearts break before God for otherwise you shall fall to it again Oh the wretchedness of mans heart You will find in Scripture concerning the people of Israel how strangely they fell to their murmuring again and again do but observe three texts of Scripture for that the first in the 15. of Exod. at the beginning there you shall have Moses and the Congregation singing to God and blessing God for his mercy Then sang Moses and the Children of Israel this song unto the Lord and spake saying I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the Sea And then The Lord is my strength and song and he is become my Salvation he is my God and I will prepare him an habitation my Fathers God and I will exalt him and so he goes on And who is like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods Who is like thee glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Thus their hearts triumphed in God but mark before the Chapter is ended in the 23. verse When they come 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 unthankfulness was there here in their murmuring Then God gave them water but in the very next Chapter they fell to their murmuring you read 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 wilderness of Sin c. And the whole Congregation in the second verse of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness and the Children of Israel said unto them would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the Land of Egypt when we sat 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 defires 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 journyed from the wilderness of Sin and pitched 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 Cattel with thirst So one time after another still as soon as ever they had received the mercy 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 cross that we meet withal we will fall to murmuring again There are divers Aggravations of this sin of Murmuring I 'le mention but one now and I shall but begin that The first Aggravation 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
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 affliction in this world so great as the mercies you have If it were but this mercy That you have this day of grace and salvation continued to you it s a greater mercy than any affliction set any affliction by this mercy 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 mercy that you have the sound of the Gospel yet in your ears that you have the use of your reason this is a greater mercy than your afflictions that you have the use of your limbs your senses 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 Levy 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 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 c. You see 't is a great honor that God puts upon a man a great mercy that he doth bestow upon any man to separate 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 vers 10. 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 seck ye yet more Seek ye the Priesthood 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 Methinks 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 countervail 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 vers 10. A speech of Job to his wife what saith Job when his wife would have had him curse God and dye that was a degree beyond murmuring why saith he Thou speakest as one of the foolish women shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evil you see Job did help himself against all murmuring thoughts against the ways of God with this consideration That he had received so much good from the Lord what though we receive evil yet do not we receive good as well as evil let us set one against the other that 's the way we should go In the 17. of Ecclesiastes the 14. verse you have a notable Scripture there whereby you may see what course is to be taken when the heart rises in murmuring In the day of prosperity be joyful but in the day of Adversity consider what should they consider mark what follows God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him God also hath set the one over against the other that 's thus When thou art in prosperity then indeed every man can be joyful but what if afflictions befalls him what then then consider Consider what That God hath set one over against the other thou hast a great deal of affliction and thou hast had a great deal of prosperity thou hast many troubles and thou hast had many mercies make one column of mercies and one column of afflictions and write one against the other and see if God hath not fil'd one column as full as the other you look altogether upon your afflictions but look upon your mercies also for instance It may be God hath afflicted you in one childe but he hath been merciful to you in another childe set one against the other God afflicted David in Absalom but he was merciful to David in Solomon and therefore when David cryed our Oh Absalom my Son my Son If David had thought upon Solomon and cryed Oh Solomon my son my son it would have quieted him And it may be God hath been merciful to thee in a Wife or in thy Husband set that against thy affliction it may be God crosses thee in thy Estate but it may be he doth imploy thee in his Service it may be thou art afflicted in some of thy Friends but thou hast other Friends that are great mercies to thee and therefore you should set one against the other and it doth concern you so to do for those mercies will be aggravations of your sins and you had better make Gods mercies a means to lessen your sins than to be the aggravation of your sins If you make not the mercies of God to help you against your murmuring you will make them to be aggravations of the sin of murmuring I beseech you for this take but this one consideration further and if you will but work it upon your hearts I hope you may find a
great deal of power in it You find afflictions and your hearts are troubled and murmur consider how Gods mercies do aggravate this sin thus In the midst of our sins we do make account God should accept of our services do but consider thus If in the midst of our many sins we hope that God will accept of our poor services why then should not we in the midst of our afflictions bless God for his many mercies Shall God be thus gracious to us that notwithstanding our many sins yet he will not cast away our poor duties and services that we perform then why should not we in the midst of our sufferings accept of what mercies we have and not sleight them and disregard them If thou in the midst of Gods mercies shall not be willing to bear afflictions that God laies upon thee then it were just with God that in the midst of thy sins he should not regard any of thy duties now is there not as much power in thy manifold sins to cause God to reject thy duties and services as there is power in afflictions in the midst of many mercies to take off thy heart from being affected with Gods mercies And that 's the first aggravation of the sin of murmuring To murmur in the midst of mercies A second Aggravation of the sin of murmuring is When we murmur for small things Saith Naamans servant to him Father for so he called him if the Prophet had required you to do some great thing would not you have done it how much more this little thing So I say if the Lord had required you to suffer some great matter would not you have been willing to suffer How much more this little thing I remember I have read in Seneca a Heathen he hath this similitude which is a very fine one to set out the great evil of murmuring upon smaller afflictions saith he Suppose a man hath a very fair house to dwell in and he hath fair Orchards and Gardens and set about with brave tall Trees for ornament if this man now should murmur because the wind blows off a few leaves off his Trees what a most unreasonable thing were it for him to be weeping and wringing his hands because he loses a few leaves off his Trees when he hath abundance of all kind of fruit Thus it is with many saith he though they have a great many comforts about them yet some little matter the blowing off of a few leaves from them is enough to disquiet them It was a great evil when Ahab having a Kingdom yet the want of his neighbors Vineyard had such power to disquiet him So for us to murmur not because we have not such a thing as we have need of but because we have not what possibly we might have this is a very great sin Suppose God gives a childe that hath all the Limbs and parts compleat a Childe that is very comely and hath excellent parts wit and memory but it may be there is a wart that grows upon the finger of the childe and she murmurs at it and Oh what an affliction is this to her she is so taken up with that as she forgets to give any thanks to God for her Childe and all the goodness of God to her in the Childe is swallowed up in that would not you say this were a folly and a great evil in a woman so to do Truely our afflictions if we weighed them aright they are but such kind of things in comparison of our mercies Rebeckah she had a mighty desire to have children but because she found some trouble in her body when she was with childe saith she Why am I thus As if she should say I had as good have none onely because she found a little pain and trouble in her body To be discontent when the affliction is small and little that encreases very much the sin of murmuring it is too much for any one to murmur upon the heaviest cross that can befal one in this world but upon some small things to be discontent and murmur that 's worse I have read of one that when he lay upon a heap of Damas Roses he complained there was one of the Rose leaves lay double under him So we are ready thus for very small things to make complaints and be discontented with our condition And that 's the second Aggravation A third Aggravation is this For men that are of parts and abilities to whom God hath given wisdom for them to be discontent and murmur that 's more than if others do it Murmuring and discontentedness is too much in the weakest yet we can bear with it sometimes in Children and Women that are weak but for those that are Men Men of understanding that have wisdom that God imploys in publick service that they should be discontent with every thing this is an exceeding great evil for men in their families to whom God hath given parts and wisdom when things fall out amiss there to be always murmuring and repining their sin is greater than for women and children to do it A Fourth aggravation is The consideration of the freeness of all Gods Mercies to us What ever we have it is of free-cost what though we have not all we would have seeing what we have is free If what we have were earned then it were somewhat but when we consider that all is from God for us to murmur at his dispensations is very evil Suppose a man were in a family entertained by a friend and he did not pay for his board but he hath it given him for nothing it s expected such a one should not be ready to find fault with every thing in the house with servants or with meat at table or the like if such a one that hath plentiful provision and all given him gratis and pays nothing for his diet should be discontented if a Cup should not be filled for him as he would have it or if he should stay a minute of an hour longer for a thing than he would this we would account a great evil So it is with us we are at Gods Table every day and it is upon free cost whatever we have It is accounted very unmannerly for a man at his friends table to find fault with things though at home he may be bold Now when we are at the table of God for so all Gods administrations to us are his table and are at free-cost now for us to be finding fault and be discontented this is a great Aggravation of our sin A Fifth Aggravation of the sin of murmuring is this When men and women murmur and are discontented and impatient when they have the things that they were discontented for the want of before they had them So it is sometimes with children they will cry for such a thing and when you give it them they throw it away they are as much discontented as they were before So it was with the people
silent but thy soul must be silent there may be a sullen discontentedness of heart as well as a discontentedness manifested in words and if thou dost but mortifie that inward sullenness if thou beest afflicted a little more it will break forth at last And thus the Lord I hope hath met with the chief Reasonings and Pleas for our discontent in our conditions I beseech you in the Name of God consider of 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 Entrance 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 X. at Stepney Octob. 1. 1645. PHIL. 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 greatness of the mercies that we have and the meanest of the things that we want The things we want if we be godly they are things of very small moment in comparison of 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 murmure for the want of it is because they have not such things as reprobates have or may have why shouldst thou be troubled so much for the want of that that a man or woman may have and 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 ask'd 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 and 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 things a flie 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 Ephes 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 greatness of the mercies that we have and the littleness of the things that God hath denied us is a very powerful consideration to work this Grace of Contentment The Second CONSIDERATION The Consideration That God is before-hand with us with his mercies should content us I spake to this as an aggravation of our discontent but now I shall use it as a consideration to help us to Contentment Thou wantest many comforts now but hath not God been before-hand with thee heretofore Oh thou hast had mercy enough already to make thee spend all the strength thou hast and time thou shalt live to bless God for what thou hast had already I remember I have read of a good man that had liv'd to fifty years of age and enjoyed his health for eight and forty years exceeding well and liv'd in prosperity and the two last years his Body was exceedingly discased he had the Strangury and was in great pain but he reasoned the case with himself thus Oh Lord thou mightest have made all my life to have been a life of torment and pain but thou hast let me have eight and forty years in health I will praise thy mercies for what I have had and will praise thy Justice for what now I feel Oh it 's a good consideration for us to think that God is before-hand with us in the way of mercy Suppose God should now take away your estates from some of you that have lived comfortably a great while you will say That aggravates our misery that we have had estates but it is through thy unthankfulness that it doth so we should bless God for what we have had and not think that we are worse because we have had thus and thus we might have been always miserable and certainly that mans condition is not very miserable that hath no other greater aggravation of his misery but because once he was happy If there be nothing else to make you miserable that is no such aggravation but that thou mayst bear it for there is much mercy in that that thou hadst once and therefore let that content thee The Third CONSIDERATION The Consideration of the abundance of mercies that God bestows and we enjoy It is a speech of Luther saith he the Sea of Gods mercy should swallow up all our particular afflictions name any affliction that is upon thee there 's a Sea of mercy to swallow it up If you powre a pail full of water on the floor of your house it makes a great show but if you throw it into the Sea there is no appearance of it so afflictions considered in themselves we think they are very great but let them be considered with the Sea of Gods mercies we do enjoy then they are not so much they are nothing in comparison The Fourth CONSIDERATION Consider the way of God towards all creatures God carries on all creatures in a vicissitude of several conditions as thus we have not always Summer but Winter succeeds Summer we have not always day but day and
may be happy without these this is a kind of deadness to the world The Ninth DIRECTION Let not men and women pore too much upon their afflictions that is busie their thoughts too much to look down into their afflictions you shall have many people that all their thoughts are taken up about what their crosses and afflictions are they are altogether thinking and speaking of them it 's just with them as with a childe that hath a sore about him his finger is always upon the sore and so men and women their thoughts are always upon their afflictions when they awake in the night their thoughts are upon their afflictions and when they converse with others nay it may be when they are praying to God they are thinking of their afflictions Oh! no marvel though you live a discontented life if your thoughts be always poring upon such things you should rather labor to have your thoughts upon those things that may comfort you You shall have many that if you propound any rule to them to do them good they take it well while they are with you and thank you for it but when they are gone they soon forget it It is very observable of Jacob that when his wife died in Child-birth his wife called the Childe Ben-oni that is a son of sorrows now Jacob he thought with himself If I should call this childe Ben-oni every time that I name him it will put me in mind of the death of my dear wife and of that affliction and that will be a continued affliction to me therefore I will not have my child have that name and so the text saith that Jacob called his name Benjamin and that was the son of my right hand now this is to shew us thus much that when afflictions befal us we should not give way to have our thoughts continually upon them but rather upon those things that may stir up our thankfulness to God for mercies It is the similitude of Basil a learned man saith he It is in this case as it is with men and women that have sore eyes now it 's not fit for those to be always looking upon the fire or upon the beams of the Sun no saith he one that hath sore eyes must get things that are suitable to him and such objects that are fit for one that hath weak eyes therefore they will get green colours as that being a more easie colour and better for weak eyes and they will hang a green Sarsnet before their eyes because it is more suitable to them So weak spirits it 's the very same a man or woman that hath a weak spirit they must not be looking upon the fire of their afflictions upon those things that deject that cast them down but they are to be looking rathe upon that which may be suitable for the healing and helping of them they should be considering of those things rather than the other It will be of very great use and benefit to you if you do lay it to heart not to be poring always upon afflictions but upon mercies The Tenth DIRECTION I beseech you observe this though you should forget many others Make a good interpretation of Gods ways towards you if there can be any good interpretation made of Gods ways towards you make it You think it much if you have a friend that should always make bad interpretations of your ways towards him you will take that ill if you should converse with people that you cannot speak a word in their hearing but they are ready to make an ill interpretation of it and take it in an ill sense you would think their company to be very tedious to you It is very tedious to the Spirit of God when we make such ill interpretations of his ways towards us If God deal with us otherwise than we would have him if there can be any sense worse than other made of it we will be sure to make it as thus When an affliction doth befal you there may be many good senses made of Gods Works towards you you should think thus It may be God intends only to try me by this it may be God saw my heart too much set upon the Creature and so intends to shew me what there is in my heart it may be that God saw that if my estate did continue I should fall into sin that the better my estate were the worse my soul would be it may be God intended only to exercise some Grace it may be God intends to prepare me for some great work which he hath for me Thus you should reason But we on the contrary make bad interpretations of Gods thus dealing with us and say God doth not mean this surely the Lord means by this to manifest his wrath and displeasure against me and this is but a furtherance of further evils that he intends towards me Just as they did in the Wilderness God hath brought us hither to slay us This is the worst interpretation that possibly you can make of Gods ways Oh! Why will you make these worst interpretations when there may be better In 1 Cor. 13.5 When the Scripture speaks of love saith the text Love thinketh no evil Love is of that nature that if there may be ten interpretations made of a thing if nine of them be naught and one good Love will take that which is good and leave the other nine and so though there might be ten interpretations presented to thee concerning Gods ways towards thee and if but one be good and nine naught thou shouldest take that one that is good and leave the other nine I beseech you consider God doth not deal by you as you deal with him should God make the worst interpretation of all your ways towards him as you do of his towards you it would be very ill with you God is pleased to manifest his love thus to us to make the best interpretations of what we do and therefore it is that God doth put a sense upon the actions of his people that one would think could hardly be as thus God is pleased to call those perfect that have but any uprightness of heart in them he accounteth them perfect Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect uprightness in Gods sense is perfection Now alas when we look into our own hearts we can scarce see any good at all there and yet God is pleased to make such an interpretation as to say it is perfect When we look into our own hearts we can see nothing but uncleanness God he calls you his Saints he calls the meanest Christian that hath the least grace under the greatest corruption his Saint you say we cannot be Saints here but yet in Gods esteem we are Saints You know the usual title the Holy Ghost gives in several of the Epistles to those that had any grace any uprightness is To the Saints in such a place you see what an interpretation God puts upon
120 Discouragement Disconragment opposed 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 Dishonor A Christian discontented when God is dishonored Page 15 Dispose see Freely Disquiet Disquiet 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 Sense 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 near 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 Faithfulness God in rewarding looks to faith fulness Page 178 Father God the Father of a Christian Page 126 We should labor 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 ib. Foolish Discontent a foolish sin Page 138 139 Frame Contentment a frame of Spirit Page 2 Free Freely c. A Christian freely submits to God Page 15 Freedome what Page 16 God gives freely Page 41 Freeness of Gods mercies aggravates sin Page 158. Fretting Fretting 〈…〉 to quietness of spirit Page 6 G Glory What a Christian hash here is an earnest of Glory Page 43 Glory of God wherein it appears Page 105 Glory to be given to 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 40 Outward comsorts taken away when they keep us from God Page 50 See Life Creature Excellency Walk Good 〈◊〉 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 Afflictions greater for murmuring Page 173 Not to promise our selves great things Page 200 H. Habitual Contentment an habitual frame Page 13 To praise God for what be 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 83 Benefits of knowing our own hears Page 84 A great evil to be given up to our own heart Page 90 Rising of the heart Page 135 Distemper of the heart how esteemed with God Page 18â— See Gracious Heaven Heaven in the Souls of the Saints here Page 56 Things of Heaven real to a Saint Page 67 Heaven what Page 11â— Contentment better than Heaven ib Help Help of a Christian what Page 13â— No Help by discontent Page 139 High see Calling Angels Honor What is the greatest Honor God hath of us in the world Page 81 Humble We should not murmure when God would humble us Page 161 see Contentment Idle see Discontent Joy Joy immoderate how known Page 20â— Injoy Godly men content with that they injoy Page 4 Good men injoy what they have Page 116 see God Inward Inward discontent Page 4 Inward concent ibid Judgment Many not content in their Judgment see Afflictions Page 11 K Kind To submit to afflictions of every king 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 Loss No loss 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 eslate 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 murmure Page 139 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 Page 170 Mannage see Heart Mean Actions of a mean Christian accepted Page 178 Faith makes mean works glorious ib Mercy How the soul is sitted to receive mercy Page 206 Mercies lessened by discontent Page 135 Discontent deprives of Mercies Page 139 The greater Mercies the greater sin to murmure Page 150 Every man hath more mercies than afflictions Page 154 Greatness of Mercies should make us content Page 187 God is before hand 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 Page â—26 Mortified To get out hearts mortified to the world Page â—00 Murmuring Murmuring opposite to quietness of spirit Page 6 Murmuring the evil of it Page 119 Murmuring a note of a wicked man Page 1â—0 Murmuring bolow a Christian Page 120 Murmuring the effects of it Page 134 Murmuring breeds disquiet Page 147 Murmuring the way to relapse into it Page 150 Murmuring aggravations of it ib See Affection Rebellion Loss Child Curse Mercy â—â—â—all 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 Perfection see Uprightness Particular The Creatures particular comforts Page â—â—3 Pity Pity to men that deal ill with us Page 171 Plague Promises concerning the plague Page 54 55 56 Plea see Discontent Portion A Christian not content with little for his portion Page 28 Possess Men discontent for what they possess Page 159 Poverty Poverty sanctified by Christs