hath been pleased to bring down my condition now if the Lord bring down my heart and make it even with my condition then I am well enough And so when God brings down his condition he doth not so much labour to raise up his condition again as to bring down his heart to his condition The Heathens themselves they had a little glimps of this they could say That the best riches that is it is the poverty of desires that is a speech of a Heathen that is If a man or woman have their desires cut short and have no large desires that man and woman they are rich when they can bring their desires to be but low So this is the Art of Contentment Not to seek to adde to our conditions but to substract from our desires Another hath this The way to be rich saith he it is not by increasing of wealth but by diminishing of our desires for certainly that man or woman is a rich man or woman that hath their desires satisfied now a contented man hath his desires satisfied God satisfies his desires that is all considered he is satisfied in his condition for the present to be the best condition and so he comes to this Contentment by way of Substraction and not Addition The Third thing in the Art of Contentment is this A Christian comes to Contentment not so much by getting off his burden that is upon him as by the adding another burden to him this is a way that flesh and blood hath little skilll in You will say how is this In this manner art thou afflicted and is there a great load and burden upon thee by reason of thy affliction thou thinkest there is no way in the world to get Contentment but O that this burden were but off O it is a heavy load and few know what a burden I have What doest thou think there is no way for the Contentment of thy spirit but this getting off thy burden O thou art deceived the way of Contentment is to adde another burden that is labour to load and burden thy heart with thy sin and the heaviour the burden of thy sin is to thy heart the lighter will the burden of thy affliction be to thy soule and so shalt thou come to be Content If thy burden were lightened that would content thee thou thinkest there is no way to lighten it but to get it off but thou art deceived for if thou canst get thy heart to be more burdened with thy sin thou wilt be lesse burdened 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 sâ—n 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 bemoning thy sâ—n 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 befals them Oh what a deal of discontentment is there between man and wife 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 fals crosse 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 Oh let us go and humble our souls before God together let us go into our chamber and humble our souls before God for our sin whereby we have abused those mercies that God hath taken away from us and we have provok'd God against us Oh 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 Conntentment 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 adde 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 meane in regard of the use of it though for the matter the affliction abide stil The way of Contentment to a carnal heart it 's 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 till 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 to 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
the peace that is when all shal be in an hubbub and uprore yet then this man shal be peace That 's the tryal of grace when you find Jesus Christ in your hearts to be peace when the Assyrian shall come into the land You may think you find peace in Christ when you have no outward troubles but is Christ your peace when the Assyrian comes into the land when the enemy comes Suppose you should hear the enemy come marching to the City had taken the works and were plundering what would be your peace Jesus Christ would be peace to the soul when the enemy comes into the City and into your houses If there be any of you that have been where the enemy hath come what hath been the peace of your souls That that 's said of Christ may be applyed to this grace of Contentment when the Assyrian the plunderers the enemies when any affliction trouble distresse doth befal such a heart then this grace of Contentment brings peace to the soul at that time brings peace to their soul when the Assyrian comes into the land The grace of Contentment it 's an excellent grace therâ—'s much beauty much strength in it there is a great deal of worth in this grace and therefore be in love with it The Third thing in the excellency of Contentment is this By Contentment the soul is fitted to receive mercy and to do service I 'le put those two together Contentment makes the soul fit to receive mercy and to do service no man or woman in the world is so fit for to receive the Grace of God and to do the work of God as those that have contented spirits 1 Those are fitted to receive mercy from the Lord that are contented As now if you would have a vessel to take in any licquor you must hold the vessel still if the vessel stir and shake up and down you cannot powre in any thing but you will bid hold stil that you may powre it in and not loose any so if we would be the vessels to receive Gods mercy and would have the Lord powr in his mercy to us we must have quiet still hearts we must not have hearts hurrying up and down in trouble discontent and vexing but we must have still and quiet hearts if we would receive mercy from the Lord If a child throws and flings up and down for a thing you will not give it him then when he cries so but first you will have the child quiet though perhaps you do intend the child shall have the thing he cries for but you will not give it him till he is quiet and comes and stands still before you and is contented without it and then you will give it him and truly so doth the Lord deal with us for our dealing with him are just as your froward childrens are with you as soon as you would have a thing from God if you have it not you are disquieted presently and all in an upprore as it were in your spirits God intends mercy to you but saith God you shall not have it yet I will see you quiet first and then in the quietnesse of your hearts come to me and see what I will do with you I appeal to you you that are any way acquainted with the waies of God have you not found this to be the way of God towards you when you have been troubled for want perhaps of some spiritual comfort and your hearts were vext at it you get nothing from God all that while but now if you have got your heart into a quiet frame and can say well it 's fit the Lord should do with his poor creatures what he will I am under his feet and am resolv'd to do what I can to honour him and let him do with me what he will I will seek him as long as I live I will be content with what God gives and whether he gives or no I will be content yea are you in this frame saith God now you shall have comfort now I will give you the mercy A prisoner must not think to get off his fetters by pulling and tearing he may gall his flesh and rend it to the very bone certainly he will be unfettered never the sooner but if he would have his fetters taken off he must quietly give up himself to some man to take them off If a begger after he hath knockt once or twice at the door and you come not and thereupon he is vext and troubled and thinks much that you let him stand a little while without any thing you think that this begger is not fit to receive an almes but if you hear two or three beggers at your door and if you hear them out of your window say let us be content to stay perhaps they are busie it 's fit that we should stay it 's well if we have any thing at last we deserve nothing at all and therefore we may well wait a while you would then quickly send them an almes so God deals with the heart when it is in a disquiet way then God doth not give but when the heart lies down quietly under Gods hand then is the heart in a fit frame to receive mercy Your strength shall be to sit still saith God you shall not be delivered from Babylon but by your sitting still 2 As fit to receive mercy So fit to do service Oh the quiet fruits of righteousnesse the peaceable fruits of righteousnesse they indeed do prosper and multiply most when they come to be peacable fruits of righteousnesse As the Philosophers say of every thing that moves nothing that moves but it moves upon something that is immovable as a thing that moves upon the earth if the earth were not still it could not move Object The ships move upon the Sea and that is not still Answ But the Seas they move upon that which is still and immovable there is nothing moves but it hath something immovable that doth uphold it The wheels in a Coach they move up and down but the exletree that moves not up and down so it is with the heart of a man As they say of the Heaven it moves up and down upon a pole that is immovable so it is in the heart of a man if he will move to do service to God he must have a steady heart within him that must help him to move in the service of God those that have unsteady disquiet spirits that have no steadfastnesse at all in them they are not fit to do service for God but such as have steadfastnesse in their spirits they are men and women fit to do any service and that 's the reason that when the Lord hath any great work for any servants of his to do usually he doth first quiet their spirits he doth bring their spirits into a quiet sweet frame to be contented with any thing and then he sets them about imployment The Fift excellency is
's some kind of honour that God hath in it and some excellency that he hath not in Heaven and that 's this In Heaven there is no overcoming of temptations they are not put to any trials by afflictions there in Heaven they have exercise of grace but they have nothing but encouragement to it and indeed those that are there their grace is perfect and in that they do excel us but there is nothing to cross their grace they have no trials at all to tempt them to do contrary but now for a man or woman to be in the midst of afflictions temptations and troubles and yet to have grace exercised and yet to be satisfied in God and Christ and in the Word and Promises in the mid'st of all they suffer this may seem to be an honour that God hath from us that he hath not from the Angels and Saints in Heaven Is it so much for one that is in Heaven that hath nothing else but good from God hath nothing to try them no temptations is that so much for them to be praising and blessing God as for the poor soul that is in the mid'st of trials and temptations and afflictions and troubles for this soul to go on praysing and blessing and serving God I say it is an excellency that thou shalt not have in Heaven and God shal not have this kind of glory from thee in Heaven and therefore be contented and prize this Contentment and be willing to live in this world as long as God shal please and do not think Oh that I were delivered from all these afflictions and troubles herein this world if thou wert then thou shouldest have more ease to thy self but here 's a way of honouring God and manifesting the excellency of Grace here when thou art in this Conflict of temptation that God shal not have from thee in Heaven and therefore be satisfied and quiet be contented with thy Contentment I want such and such things that others have but blessed be God I have a contented heart that others have not then I say be content with thy Contenement for that 's a rich portion that the Lord hath granted unto them if the Lord should give unto thee thousands here in this world it would not be such a rich portion as this that he hath given thee a contented spirit Oh go away and praise the Name of God and say Lord it 's true these and these comforts that others have I should be glad if I had them but thou hast cut me short but though I want these yet thou hast given me that that is as good and better thou hast given me a quiet contented heart to be willing to be at thy dispose SERMON VII PHILIPPIANS 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content WE proceed now There are some two or three things more of the excellency of Contentment and then we are to proceed to Applycation of the point The Eight excellency is Contentment is a great blessing of God upon the Soul There is Gods blessing upon those that are content the blessing of God is upon them and their estates and upon all that they have We reade in Deut. of the blessing of Judah the principal Tribe this is the blessing of Judah And he said hear Lord the voice of Judah and bring him unto his people let his hands be sufficient for him and be thou an help to him from his enemies Let his hand be sufficient for him that is bring in a sufficiency of all good unto him that he may have of his own that 's the blessing of Judah So when God gives thee a sufficiency of thine own as every contented man hath there is the blessing of God upon thee the blessing of the principle Tribe of Judah is upon thee It is the Lord that gives us all things to injoy we may have the thing and yet not enjoy it except God comes in with his blessing now whatsoever thou hast thou do'st injoy it Many men have estates and do not enjoy them it 's the blessing of God that gives us all things to enjoy it is God that through his blessing hath fashioned thy heart and made it sutable to thy condition The Ninth excellency Those that are content they may expect reward from God that God shall give unto them the good of all those things that they are contented to be without and this brings in abundance of good to a contented spirit There is such and such a mercy that thou thinkest would be very comfortable unto thee if thou had'st it but canst thou bring thy heart to submit to God in it thou shalt have the blessing of the mercy one way or other if thou hast not the thing it self in re thou shalt have it made up one way or other thou shalt have a bill of exchange to receive somewhat in lieu of it there is no comfort that any soul is content to be without but the Lord will give either the comfort or somewhat in stead of it Thou shalt have a reward to thy soul for what ever good thing thou art content to be without You know what the Scripture saith of active obedience and the Lord doth accept of his servants their will for the deed though we do not do a good thing yet if our hearts be upright to will to do it we shall have the blessing though we do not do the thing You that complain of weaknesse you cannot do as others do you cannot do as much service as others do if your hearts be as upright with God and would fain do the same service that you see others do you would account it a great blessing of God upon you the greatest blessing in the world if you were able to do as others do now you may comfort your selves with this having to deal with God in the way of the Covenant of Grace you shall have from God the reward of all you will do as a wicked man shall have punishment for all the sin he would commit so thou shalt have the reward for all the good thou wouldest do Now may not we draw an argument from active obedience to passive there is as good reason why thou shouldest expect that God will reward thee for all that thou art willing to suffer as well as for all that thou art willing to do now if thou beest willing to be without such a comfort and mercy when God sees it fit thou shalt be no looser certainly God will reward thee either with the comfort or with that that shall be as good to thee as the comfort therefore consider how many things have I that others want and can I bring my heart into a quiet contented frame to want what others have I have the blessing of all that they have and I shall either possesse such things as others have or else God will make it up one way or other either here or hereafter in
the service of God And it causes many distractions in duty it unfits for duty and when you come to perform duties Oh the distractions that are in your duties when your spirits are discontented when you hear of any ill news from Sea and cannot bear it or of any ill from a friend or any losse or crosse Oh what distractions do they cause in the performance of holy duties When you should be in enjoying communion with God you are distracted in your thoughts about the crosse that hath befallen you whereas had you but a quiet spirit though there should great crosses befal you yet they would never hinder you in the performance of any duty 3 Consider what wicked risings of heart resolutions of spirit there are many times in a discontented fit In some discontented fits the heart rises against God and against others and sometimes hath even desperate resolutions what to do to help themselves If the Lord should have suffered you to have done sometimes in a discontented fit what you had thought to do what wonderfull misery had you brought upon your selves Oh it was a mercy of God that did stop you had not God stopt you but let you go on when you thought to help your selves this way and the other way Oh it had been ill with you do you but remember those risings of heart and wicked resolutions that sometimes you have had in a discontented mood and learn to be humbled upon that 4 Vnthankefulnesse that 's an evil and a wicked effect that comes from discontent Unthankfulnesse the Scripture doth ranke among very great sins For men and women that are discontent though they enjoy many mercies from God yet they are thankfull for none of them for this is the vile nature of discontentment to lessen every mercy of God to make those mercies they have from God to be as nothing to them because they have not what they would have Sometimes it 's so even in spiritual things if they have not all they would have the comforts that they would have then what they have is nothing to them do you think that God will take this well If you should give a friend a kinsman a purse of money to go and trade withal and he should come and say what do you give me they are but a few counters they wil do me no good you cannot bear this at his hand if he should do so because he hath not as much money as he would So for you to be ready to say All that God hath given me is nothing worth will do me no good they are but counters though they are the precious Graces of Gods Spirit that are more worth than thousands of worlds yet for you to say they are nothing they are but common gifts and all is but in hypocrisie all counterfeit Oh! what an unthankful thing is this the graces of Gods Spirit are nothing to a discontented heart that hath not all that it would have and so for outward blessings though God hath given you health of body and strength and hath given you some competency for your family some way of lively-hood yet because you are disappointed in somwhat that you would have therefore all is nothing unto you Oh! what unthankfulnesse is here God expects that every day you should spend some time in blessing his Name for what mercy he hath granted unto you there 's not any one of you who are in the lowest condition but you have abundance of mercies to blesse God for but discontentednesse makes them nothing It 's an excellent speech that I remember Luther hath saith he This is the Rhetorick of the Spirit of God it 's a very fine speech of his to extenuate evil things and to amplyfie good things if there fals out a crosse to make the crosse to be but little but if there be a mercy to make the mercy to be great as thus If there be a cross if the Spirit of God prevails in the heart such a man or woman will wonder that it is no greater and will blesse God that though there be such a crosse yet that it is no more that 's the work of the Spirit of God and if there be a mercy wonders at Gods goodnesse that God granted so great a mercy The Spirit of God extenuates evils and crosses and doth magnifie and amplifie all mercies and makes all mercies seem to be great and all afflictions seem to be little But saith he the Devil goes quite contrary the Rhetorick of the Devil is quite otherwise he doth lessen Gods mercies and amplifie evill things as thus A godly man wonders at his crosse that it is no more a wicked man wonders his crosse is so much Oh saith he none was ever so afflicted as I am If there be a crosse the Devil puts the soul upon musing on it and making it greater than it is and so it brings discontent And then on the other side if there be a mercy then it 's the Rhetorick of the Devil to lessen the mercy I indeed saith he the thing is a good thing but what is it it is no great matter and for all this I may be miserable Thus the Rhetorick of Satan doth lessen Gods mercies and doth increase afflictions And for this I 'le give you a notable example that we have in Scripture it is the example of Korah Dathan Abiram In Numb 16.12 13. And Moses sent to call Dathan Abiram the sons of Eliab which said we will not come up Is it a smal thing that thou hast brought us up out of a Land that floweth with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness except thou make thy self altogether a Prince over us Mark they slighted the land that they were going unto the Land of Canaan that was the Land that God promised them that should flow with milk and honey But mark here their discontentednesse because they met with some troubles in the wildernesse Oh it was to slay them they made their affliction in the wilderness to be greater than it was Oh it was to kill them though it were indeed to carry them to the Land of Canaan But now their deliverance from Egypt though it was a great mercy they made that mercy to be nothing for say they you have brought us out of a land that floweth with milk and honey what land was that It was the Land of Egypt the Land of their bondage but they call it a Land that flowed with milk and honey though it were the land of their most cruel and unsupportable bondage whereas they should have blessed God as long as they had liv'd for Gods delivering them out of the land of Egypt yet meeting with some crosse they make their deliverance from Egypt no mercie no it was rather a miserie to them Oh say they Egypt was a land that flowed with milk and honey Oh what basenesse is there in a discontented spirit a discontented spirit out of envie
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 crosse 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 crosse in our estates any taxations and trouble 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 Prelats 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 wofull 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 shifttings of spirit they that murmur and are discontent are lyable to temptations to shift for themselves in sinful and ungodly waies discontent is the ground of shifting courses and unlawful waies How many of you may have your consciences condemn you of this that you in the time of your afflictions have fought to shift for your selves by waies 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 waies labour 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 injoy 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 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 follie in your hearts It is unthankfulnesse 2 There 's a great deal of follie in discontentment for by all your discontent you cannot help your selves you cannot get anie thing by it Who can by taking anie carking care adde 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 mercie ever a whit the sooner because of the murmuring of your spirits Oh no but mercie will be rather deferred the longer for it though the Lord were before in a way of mercie yet this distemper of your hearts were enough to put him out of his course of mercie 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 verie reason why there are so manie 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 discontentment 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 heart is guilty of They carry themselves foolishly towards God and towards men there are such expressions and such kind of behaviour comes from them as makes their friends to be ashamed of them manie times their carriages are so unseemlie they are a shame to themselves their friends 4 There is a great deal of folly in discontent and murmuring for it doth eat out the good and sweetnesse of a mercy before it comes If God should give a mercie that we are discontented for the want of yet the blessing of the mercie 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 then when the meat is eaten out of it then you shall have the shell If a child should crie 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 and you are troubled for the want of it but the verie trouble of your spirits is the worm that eats out the blessing of the mercy and then perhaps God gives it you but gives you it 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 mercie 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 deer 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 til thou wilt be pleased to humble their hearts for their discontent let not them have the mercie til 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 find your hearts discontented for want of any thing to be humbled for it thinking thus with your selves Lord if that that I do so immoderatly 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
the Chapter is ended in the 23. verse When they came to Marah in the same Chapter they could not drink of the waters of Marah for they were bitter therefore the name of it was called Marah and the people murmured against Moses After so great a mercy as this was what unthankfulnes was there here in their murmuring Then God gave them water but in the very next Chapter they fell to their murmuring you reade not that they were humbled for their former murmuring and therefore they murmur again Exod. 16.1 c. All the Congregation of the Children of Israel came to the wildernesse of Sin c. And the whole Congregation in the second verse of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wildernesse and the Children of Israel said unto them Would to God we had dyed by the hand of the Lord in the Land of Egypt when we sate by the flesh-pots and when we did eat bread to the full Now they want flesh they wanted water before but now they want meat they fell to murmuring again they were not humbled for this murmuring against God neither when God gave them flesh according to their desires but they fell to murmuring again they wanted somewhat else In the very next Chapter they went not far in the 17 of Exod. beginning And all the Congregation of the Children of Israel journied from the wildernesse of Sin and pitthed in Rephadim and there was no water for the people to drink then in the second verse Wherefore the people did chide with Moses and said Give us water that we may drink and Moses said unto them Why chide you with me wherefore do you tempt the Lord And in the third verse And the people thirsted there for water and the people murmured against Moses and said Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our Children and our Cattell with thirst So one time after another still as soon as ever they had received the mercie then they were a little quieted but they were not humbled I bring these Scriptures for this to shew that if we have not been humbled for murmuring the next crosse that we meet withal we will fall to murmuring again And now there are divers agravations of this sin of murmuring I 'le mention but one now and I shall but begin that The first Agravation is this To murmur when we enjoy abundance of mercy the greater and the more abundant the mercy is that we enjoy the greater and the viler is the sin of murmuring As here now when God had newly delivered them out of the house of bondage for them now to murmur because they want some few particulars that they desire Oh to sin against God after a great mercy this is a great agravation and a most abominable thing Now my brethren the Lord hath granted us very great mercies I 'le but speak a word of what God hath done of late what mercies hath the Lord granted to us this summer heaped mercies upon us one mercie upon another what a condition were we in at the beginning of this summer and what a different condition are we in now Oh what a mercie is it that the Lord hath not taken advantages against us that he hath not made those Scriptures before mentioned good upon us for all our murmuring the Lord hath gone on with one mercie after another We hear of mercie in Bristol and mercy to our brethren in Scotland But still if after this we should have any thing befall us that is but crosse to us that we should be ready to murmur again presently Oh let us not so requite God for those mercies of his Oh let 's take heed of giving God any ill requital for his mercies Oh give God praise according to his excellent greatness to his excellent goodnesse and grace And now hath God given to you the Contentment of your hearts Take you heed of being the cause of any greife to your brethren think not that because God hath been gracious unto you that therefore he hath given you liberty for to bring them into bondage Oh let not there be such an il effect of Gods mercy to you as for you to exclude by petitioning or any other way your Brethren that the Lord hath been pleased to make Instruments of your peace let not that be the fruit of it nor to desire any thing that your selves do not yet understand God is very jealous of the glory of his mercy and if there should be an ill use made of the mercy of God after we enjoy it Oh it would go to the heart of God! nothing is more grievous to the heart of God than the abuse of mercy As now if any way that is hard and rigid should be taken towards our Brethren and those especially that God hath made such special Instruments of good to us that have been so willing to venture their lives and all for us now when we have our turns served let God and his People and Servants that have been a means to save us shift for themselves as well as they can Oh! this is a great aggravation of your sin to sin against the mercies of God But for this Aggravation and specially in this particular we shall speak to God willing the next day SERMON IX PHILIPPIANS 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content NOW because it is very hard to work upon a murmuring spirit there are divers aggravations I told you we are to consider of for the further setting out of the greatness of this sin I mentioned but only one the last day now we shall proceed in that The first Agravation of the sin of discontent and murmuring is this For men and women to be discontent in the mid'st of mercies in enjoyment of abundance of mercies To be discontent in any afflicted condition is sinful and evil but to be discontent when we are in the middest of Gods mercies when we are not able to count the mercies of God yet after to be discontent because we have not all we would have this is a greater evil I only mentioned this the last day that I might shew to you what a great sin it is at such a time as this The Lord this summer hath multiplied mercies one upon another the Lord hath made this summer to be a continued miracle of mercie never did a Kingdom enjoy in so little space of time such mercies one upon another Now the publick mercies of God should quiet our hearts and keep us from discontent and the sin of discontent for private afflictions is exceedingly aggravated by the consideration of publick mercies to the Land when the Lord hath bin so merciful to the Land wilt thou be feetting and murmuring because thou hast not in thy family all the comforts that thou would'st have As it is a great aggravation of a mans evill for him to rejoyce
apparantly their hearts are not humbled and broken when their spirits after daies of humiliation still should be froward and pettish as before But especially for the generallity of the Kingdom how far are we from being an humbled people we are not yet capable of what mercy God intendeth for us in this regard because we are not humbled Oh the exceding pettishness envie and pride and worse a great deal not only in many people of the Land but even in those that are godly and gracious how are the spirits of men of one brother opposite to another that because there is some difference in judgment in such and such a thing O they could be content many of them to have them rid out of the Land and if God did not prevent whereas the persecution by Bishops is now at an end who knows except God humble their hearts more whether many of Gods dear servants that do but differ in some point of judgement might not meet with a great deale of sufferings even from those that are godly and that is the worst suffering better a thousand times suffer from wicked men it is not so hard to the spirits of godly men to suffer from never so many Bishops and wicked men as to suffer from one godly man Oh! there wants that charity and tenderness of spirit one towards another that should be we are not yet humbled and brought upon our knees and therefore it is just with God to lay us upon our backs a while or that we should even be with our faces upon the ground confounded in our own thoughts before that great Salvation comes that God intendeth for us That 's the first reason 2. Reas God brings to straights because he takes much delight in the Exercise of faith My beloved Faith it is a most glorious grace it is one of the most glorious things that ever God enabled any creature to do and especially now when there is so much guilt upon them it is a more glorious work than Adam perform'd in Innocency For a poor creature to beleeve upon God for his good here and in the midst of all extremities to rely upon him it is a most glorious work and God is exceedingly delighted in it and therfore the Scripture calleth Faith Precious Faith in the beginning of the 2 Epistle of Peter now God loves the acting of precious things God loves to see the actings of all his creatures every creature active in his way but when God hath put such a precious grace as faith into the heart Oh! how God doth delight to see the acting of that precious Faith and therfore it hath been the way of God to go quite crosse after the Lord hath made a promise of mercy and salvation he goes seemingly crosse only to exercise Faith I think I have told you sometimes of that to Abraham that there were but two promises made to him first That the Country that God would give him should flow with milk and honey and secondly His seed should be as the stars of Heaven and mark what way God goes to bring this about assoon as ever he gets into Canaan he was ready to starve there is this the country that flows with milk and honey and then for the other His seed should be as the stars of Heaven he stayed twenty yeers before he had a child Isaac stayed forty yeers before he had a child and yet his seed should be great and Isaac must be killed too and then there was another thing exercised his faith he would give him the Land and yet notwithstanding during his life he must not possesse one foot of the Land but only a burying-place and what was the reason of all this It was to exercise his faith and the promise God makes to his Son Christ I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession yet Christ must not have a hole to hide his head in he hath not so much as the foxes and the birds have to hide his head in Thus the way of God is to seem to go quite contrary that he might draw forth that glorious work of faith he so much delights in and because this is the only time of exercising this precious grace and there shall be no such faith in Heaven exercised as this is and therefore God because he will have as much as may be of the excellency of this faith though he be in a way of salvation he brings his people into straights 3. Reas Because the Lord delights so much in the prayers of his people that he might draw out their prayers Oh! the voice is sweet the voice of prayer it is very melodious in the ears of God It 's true God delights in a praising voice too but here in this world rather in prayer why because God shall have a praising voice to all eternity Gods Saints shall be praising him to all eternity but they shall not be praying to him to all eternity now God delighting so much in the praying voice of his Saints and he knowing he shall have a great deal of praise from his people when they are delivered from great troubles no marvel he doth exercise his people that which pleases God more than Heaven and Earth is the exercise of the faith and the prayers of his people they are the most pleasing things to God in all the world and therefore he brings into straights 4. Reas Because God would discover wicked men Before he brings his great salvation he would discover those that are vile and wicked that they should not partake of that great salvation As in our times we know how God in every straight we have been in hath made some useful discovery to us it hath been a discovering time of many that we have known to be vile and naught that we did not know before Luke 2.35 you know the place A sword shall pierce thorow thy soul why that the thoughts of many may be discovered there shall be great afflictions and troubles and the end I aim at is to discover the thoughts of many How have mens thoughts been discovered by plots when God was bringing his people into Canaan he would not have a rebellious generation come in among them and all the trouble they had in the wildernesse it was by a mixture of a base and vile generation that you have plain in Num. 11. when they were in such a distressed condition and in a murmuring and a vexing way mark the 4. verse The mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting They disturbed all the host of God And certainly if men should not be discovered more than they are if God should come to set up a full reformation amongst us herein England to bring us to that Canaan we desire we should be so troubled with a mixt multitude the mixt multitude would so vex and trouble the Church of God that they should scarce ever have
should be brought to passe else we do not shew a quiet spirit though an affliction be upon thee let not thy heart sink under it So far as thy heart sinks and thou art discouraged under thy affliction so much thou wantest of this lesson of Contentment 7 To sinful shiftings and shirkings out for ease and help As we see in Saul running to the witch of Endor and in his offering sacrifice before Samuel came Nay the good King Jehoshaphat joynes himself with Ahaziah 2 Chron. 20. Vlt. And Asa goes to Penhadad King of Assyria for help not relying upon the Lord 2 Chr. 16.7 8. Though the Lord had delivered the Ethiopian Army into his hands consisting of a thousand thousand 2 Chro. 14.11 And good Jacob joyned in a lye with his mother to Isaac he was not content to stay Gods time and use Gods means but made too great haste and stept out of his way to procure the blessing which God intended for him as many do through the corruption of their hearts and weaknesse of their faith because they are not able to trust God and follow him fully in all things and alwaies and for this cause the Lord often follows the Saints with many sore temporal crosses as we see in Jacob though they obtain the mercy It may be thy wretched carnal heart thinks I care not how I be delivered so I may but get free from it Is it not so many times in some of your hearts when any crosse or affliction befals you Have not you such kind of workings of spirit as this Oh that I could but be delivered out of this affliction any way I would not care your hearts are far from being quiet And this sinful shifting is the next thing in opposition to this quietnesse which God requires in a contented spirit The Eighth and last thing that this quietnesse of Spirit is opposite to is desparate risings of heart against God in a way of rebellion That is most abominable I hope many of you have learned so far to be content as to keep down your hearts from such distempers and yet the truth is not only wicked men but sometimes the very Saints of God find the beginnings of this when an affliction lies long and is very sore and heavy upon them indeed and strikes them as it were in the master vein they find somewhat of this in their hearts arising against God their thoughts begin to bubble and their affections begin to stir in rising against God himself especially such as together with their corruptions have much melancholy and the Devil working both upon the corruptions of their hearts and the melancholy distemper of their bodies though there may lie much grace at the bottom yet there may be some risings against God himself under affliction Now Christian quietness is opposite to all these things that is When afflictions come be it what affliction it will be yet you do not murmur though you be sensible though you make your moan though you desire to be delivered and seek it by all good means yet you do not murmur nor repine you do not fret nor vex there is not that tumultuousness of spirit in you there is not unsetledness in your spirits there are not distracting fears in your hearts no sinking discouragements no base shiftings no rising in rebellion any way against God This is the quietness of Spirit under an affliction and that is the second thing when the soul is so far able to bear an affliction as to keep quiet under it Now the Third thing I would open in the discription is this It is an inward quiet gracious frame of Spirit It is a frame of Spirit and then a gracious frame of Spirit Contentment it is a Soule businesse First it is inward Secondly quiet Thirdly it is a quiet Frame of Spirit Frame by that I mean these Three things There are Three things considerable when I say Contentment consists in the quiet frame of the Spirit of a man First That it is a grace that spreads it self through the whol Soul as thus It is in the judgment that is The judgment of the soul of a man or woman tends to quiet the heart In my judgment I am satisfied that is one thing to be satisfied in ones understanding and judgment as thus This is the hand of God and this is that that is sutable to my condition or best for me although I do not see the reason of the thing yet I am satisfied in my judgment about it And then it is in the thoughts of a man or woman As my judgement is satisfied so my thoughts are kept in order And then it comes to the will My will yeilds and submits to it my affections are all likewise kept in order so that it goes through the whol soul There is in some a partiall Contentment and so 't is not the frame of the soul but some part of the soul hath some Contentment as thus Many a man may be satisfied in his judgment about a thing and yet cannot for his life rule his affections nor his thoughts cannot rule his thoughts nor the wil nor the affections though the judgments be satisfied I make no question but many of you may know this by your own experience if you do but observe the workings of your own hearts Cannot you say when such an affliction befals you I can blesse God I am satisfied in my judgment about it I have nothing in the world to say in respect of my judgment against it I see the hand of God and I should be content yea I am satisfied in my judgment that my condition is a good condition in which I am but I cannot for my life rule my thoughts and will and my affections me thinks I feel my heart heavy and sad and troubled more than it should be and yet my judgment is satisfied This seem'd to be the case of David Psal 43. O my Soul why art thou disquieted David as far as his judgment went there was a contentednesse that is His judgment was satisfied in the work of God upon him and he was troubled but he knew not wherefore O my soul why art thou east down within me That Psalm is a very good Psalm for those that feel a fretting discontented distemper in their hearts at any time for them to be reading or singing he hath it once or twice in that Psalm Why art thou cast down O my soul In vers 5. And why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him for the helpe of his countenance David had enough to quiet him and that that he had had prevailed with his judgement but after it had prevailed with his judgement he could not get it further He could not get this grace of Contentment to go through the whole frame of the Soul There is a great deal of stir sometimes to get Contentment into their judgments that is To satisfie their judgment
find not such happinesse 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 immoderatly 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 shal have them but though she had a child 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 crosse to them that ever they had in all their lives such a child 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 heart all the daies of your lives One observes concerning Manna when the people were contented with their allowance that God allowed them then it was verie good but when they would not be content with Gods allowance but would gather more than God would have them then saith the text there was worms in it So when we are content with our conditions and that that God disposes of us to be in there 's a blessing in it then it 's 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 afflictions 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 heaviour for a discontented heart is a proud heart and a proud heart wil not pul down his sails when there comes a tempest and storme If a Marriner when a tempest and storme 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 is it 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 over-whelms his soul And thus you see what a great deal of folly there is in the sinne 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 unto Aaron saying what did he say How long shall I bear with this evill Congregation which murmur against me How long shall I bear with them saith God This evil congregation Oh it 's an evil congregation that murmur against me And how long shall I bear with them they do murmur and they have murmured as those that have murmuring spirits and murmuring dispositions they wil murmur again and again How long shall I hear with this evil congregation that murmur against me How justly may God speak this 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 murmurings 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 comes from you And observe further in this verse how the Lord repeats this sin of murmuring How long shall I bear with this evill 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 expresse indignation against a thing you will repeat it over again and again now the Lord because he would express his indignation against this sin he repeats it over again and again and it follows in the 28. vers Say unto them as truly 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 verse 29 30. Doubtless your carkeises shall fall in the wilderness and you shall not come into the land concerning which I swear to make you dwel 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 beleeved not his word But murmured in their tents and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord therefore be lifted up his hand against them to overthrow them in the wildernesse 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 beleeved not his word but saith the text they murmured in their tents and hearkened not to 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 discontentednesse
immoderately in his own private comforts when the Church is in affliction when the publick suffers grievous and hard troubles if any man shall then rejoyce and give liberty to himself at that time to satisfie his flesh to the uttermost in all outward comforts this is a great aggravation of his sin So on the contrary for any man to be immoderately troubled for any private afflictions when it goes well with the publick with the Churches this is a great aggravation of his sin It may be when the Church of God was lowest and it went worst in other parts yet thou didst abate nothing of the comfort of thy flesh but gavest full liberty to satisfie thy flesh as formerly know this was thy great sin so on the other side when we have received such mercies in publick we should have all our private afflictions swallowed up in the publick merciâ—s and we should think with our selves though we be afflicted for our particular yet blessed be God it goes well with the Church and with the publick the consideration of that should mightily quiet our hearts in all our private discontents and if it doth not so know that our sin is much increased by the mercies of God that are abroad Now shall Gods mercies aggravate our sins This is a sad thing this is to turne the mercies of God to be our misery Did'st not thou pray to God for these mercies that God hath sent of late to the publick these great victories that God hath given did'st not thou pray for them now thou hast them Is not there enough in them to quiet thy heart for some privat trouble thou meetest withall in thy family Is not there goodness enough there to cure thy discontentment Certainly they were not such mercies worthy to be prayed for except they have so much excellency in them as to countervail some private afflictions Publick mercies are the aggravation of privat discontent as so of publick discontent too if we receive so many publick mercies yet if every thing goes not in the publick according as we desire if we be discontent at that it will exceedingly aggravate our sin God may say what shall I bestow such mercies upon a people and yet if they have not every thing they would have they will be discontent Oh! it's exceeding evil So in particular the mercies that concerns thy self thy family if thou wouldest consider thou hast a great many more mercies than thou had'st afflictions I dare boldly aver it concerning any one in this Congregation suppose thy afflictions be what they will there is never a one of you but that have more mercies than afflictions Object You will say I but you do not know what our afflictions are our afflictions are so as you do not conceive of them because you feel them not Answ Though I cannot know what your afflictions are yet I know what your mercies are and I know they are so great as I am sure there can be no afflictions in this world so great as the mercies you have If it weâ—e but this mercy that you have this day of grace and salvation continued to you it 's a greater mercie than any affliction set any affliction by this mercie and see which would weigh heaviest this is certainly greater than any affliction that you have the day of grace and salvation that you are not now in Hell this is a greater mercie that you have the sound of the Gospel yet in your ears that you have the use of your reason this is a greater mercie than your afflictions that you have the use of your limbs your sences that you have the health of your bodies health of body is a greater mercy than poverty is an affliction there is no man that is rich but if he be wise if he hath a sickly body he would part with all his riches that he might have his health therefore thy mercies are more than thy afflictions We find in Scripture how the holy Ghost doth aggravate the sin of discontent from the consideration of mercies you have a notable Scripture for it in the 16 of Numb 8. verse c. It 's a speech of Moses to Korah and his company when they murmured And Moses said unto Korah hear I pray you ye sons of Levi there 's somewhat that you are sons of Levi Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you neer to himself to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the Congregation to minister unto them Korah and his company were murmuring but mark how Moses aggravates this Seemeth it a smal thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you neer to himselfe to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord c. You see 't is a great honour that God puts upon a man a great mercy that he doth bestow upon any man to seperate him from others for himself to come neer to him to imploy him in the service of the Tabernacle to minister to the Congregation in holy things this is a great mercy and indeed it 's such a mercy as one would think there should be none that God bestows such a mercy upon that should have a murmuring heart for any affliction It 's true many Ministers of God they meet with hard things that might discourage them and trouble and grieve their spirits but now this consideration that God is pleased to imploy them in such a service neer to himself that though they cannot do good to themselves yet they may do good to others this should quiet them And yet in the 10. verse And he hath brought thee neer to him and all thy Brethren the Sons of Levi with thee and seek ye the Priest-hood also have not you enough already but still you are discontented with what you have and must have more seek ye yet more Seek ye the Priest-hood also for which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord And what is Aaron that ye murmur against him what hath God given you such things and yet will you be murmuring because you cannot have more Me thinks that this place should keep Ministers from murmuring though they should meet with never such afflictions and crosses and unkind dealings from men yet still they should go on with hearts quieted and comforted in the work that God hath set them about and labour to countervaile all their Afflictions by being more abundant in the work of the Lord. That is the first text of Scripture that shews how the mercies we enjoy are Aggravations to the sin of murmuring And then a second Scripture is in the 2. of Job 10. vers A speech of Job to his wife what saith Job when his wife would have had him curse God and die that was a degree beyond murmuring saith he Thou speakest
Covenant of grace God makes sure the stock is kept in the hand of Christ and we must go to him for supply continually for Christ keeps the stock perhaps we may trifle away somwhat in our trading but God takes that care still we stall never spend the stock As a man when his Son breaks having squandered away his stock that he gave him before afterwards he puts his stock into a friends hand and saith he you shall keep the stock and it shall not be at his dispose so we are in a more setled condition in respect of our eternal estate then Adam was in innocencie therefore let that comfort us in all our unsetled conditions in the matters of the world A Eleventh Plea But yet there 's another reasoning that many murmuring hearts think to feed their humour withal say they If I never had bin in a better condition then I could bear this affliction if God had alwaies kept me in so low a condition I could be content Oh but there was a time that I prospered more and I had things at more full hand and therefore now it is harder to me to be brought low as in these times perhaps a man that had five or six hundred a yeer but now hath had nothing for a great while if that man had not bin born to so much or never had prospered in any higher degree than now he is in this affliction had bin less perhaps he hath some mony and friends to live upon but if he had never bin in a better condition he would not have accounted it so great a matter to have been without it now This many times is our greatest wound that once we were in a better condition and this is the most unreasonable thing for us to murmur upon this ground of any For first Is thy eye evil because God hath been good to thee heretofore It 's an ill thing for us to have our eye evil because God is good to others but to look upon our condition with an evil eye now because God was once good to us hath God done thee any wrong because he was formerly more good to thee than he was to others Secondly Thou didst heretofore more prosper did God heretofore give thee more prosperity it was to prepare thee for afflictions we should look at all our outward prosperity as a preparation to afflictions if thou hadst done so then it would not have bin so difficult for thee to have indured affliction now when thou hadst a great estate yet if thou hadst made use of this mercy of God to prepare thee for thy afflicted estate then the change of thy estate would not be so greivous That every Christian should do have I an estate now I should prepare 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 greivous to thee Marriners that are in a calme will prepare for storms would they say if we never had calms we would bear storms but now we have had calms so many yeers or weeks together this is greivous In thy calme thou art to prepare for storms and the storme would be lesse 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 a forehand with me in the waies of his mercy this one consideration may help murmuring hearts Dost thou murmur because once thou wert better know God was beforehand with thee in the waies of mercy thou shouldest rather think thus I have lived for these many yeers forty yeers perhaps or more in a comfortable condition I have liv'd in health and peace and plenty what though the remaining part of my time have some sorrow and affliction The Lord hath granted to me a comfortable sunshine 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 months together what if you have a little storm when you are within sight of land will you murmur and repine Oh no but rather blesse 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 blesse Gods Name that you have had so many comfortable daies Now you reason quite contrary whereas you should blesse 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 murmur 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 loines to have and to hold for ever God doth not give any outward thing so upon no 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 alwaies shine upon me that I must have fair weather all my daies that which God gives to me he gave it to me as a pledge of his love let me return it 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 for your obedience that that you had from me as a pledge of my love we should cheerfully come in to God and blesse God that we have any thing to render unto him as a pledg of our obedience and say Oh it is thy love O Lord that hath given us any thing that doth enable us to render a pledge of our
these times especially it were a very great evil for any to aim at great things Seek them not be willing to take hold low to creep low and if God doth raise thee thou shalt have cause to blesse him but if thou shouldest not be raised there would not be much trouble one that creeps low cannot fall far but it is those that are on high whose fall doth bruise them most that is a good rule Promise not your selves great matters neither aime at any great things in the world The Eighth Direction Labour to get your hearts mortified to the world dead to the world we must not content our selves that we have gotten some reasoning about the vanity of the Creature and such kind of things as these are but we must exercise mortification and be crucified to the world saith Paul I die daily we should die daily to the world We are baptized into the death of Christ that is to signifie that we have taken such a profession as to professe to be even as dead men to the world now there 's no crosses that fals out in the world that doth trouble those that are dead if our hearts were dead to the world we should not be much troubled with the changes of the world nor the tossings about of worldly things As it is very observable in those souldiers that came to break the bones of Christ they brake the legs of one that was crucified with him and of the other but when they came to Christ they found he was dead and so they did not break his legs there was a providence in it to fulfil a Prophesie but because they found he was dead they did not break his bones Let Afflictions and trouble find thee with a mortified heart to the world and they will not break thy bones the bones of those that are broken by crosses afflictions are those that are alive to the world that are not dead to the world but one that hath a mortified heart and dead to the world no afflictions or troubles will break the bones of such a one that is they will not be very grievous or painful to such a one as is mortified to the world This I fear is a mystery and riddle to many for one to be dead to the world to be mortified to the world Now it is not my work to open to you what Mortification is or death to the world is but only thus to have our hearts so taken off from the things of the world as to use them as if one used them not not to make account that our lives our comforts our happinesse doth consist in these things they are things that are of another nature that our happinesse doth consist in and we may be happy without these this is a kind of deadnesse 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 child that hath a sore about him his finger is alwaies upon the sore and so men and women their thoughts are alwaies 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 mervail though you live a discontented life if your thoughts be alwaies poring upon such things you should rather labour 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 child Ben-oni that is a son of sorrows now Jacob he thought with himself if I should call this child 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 befals 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 it the similitude of Basil a learned man faith 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 alwaies looking upon the fire or upon the beams of the Sun no saith he one that hath sore eyes must get things that are sutable to him and such objects as are fit for one that hath such weak eyes therefore they will get green colours as that being a more easie colour and better for weak eyes and they will hang green sarsnet before their eyes because it is more sutable 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 rather upon that which may be sutable 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 alwaies 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 waies towards you if there can be any good interpretation made of Gods waies towards you make it Ye think it much if you have a friend that should alwaies make bad interpretations of your waies towards him you would 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 waies towards us If God deals 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
peace among themselves and therefore God in mercy will discover them beforehand before Canaan comes he will discover this mixt multitude 5. Rea. God will bring them into straits because he might give occasion to the Adversary to vent his malice to the utmost and to ripen his sin that it may be ripe to the full before God comes to deliver us that they may be gathered together to be a great sacrifice to the Lord therefore Gods people are brought to such straights that if they will blaspheme they shal blaspheme to the full In our times now the more straights we are brought into the greater are the blasphemies of the wicked and if God should bring us into more straights and give them the better over us I beleeve there will be that horrible blasphemy in England that never was in any place in the world the heavens never did hear nor the earth never did bear such blasphemies and blasphemers as there would be if God should but deliver up his people in any degree to the hands of their enemies we know not but for the ripenning of their sins and that so they may come to be remarkable for Gods vengance on them here in this world God may give them power over his people and bring his people yet into greater straights And then the last reason is 6. Reas Because the work of Jesus Christ will more appear at the last the greater the straight is And therefore in Dan. 9.25 He will build up the City even in troublesome times Every one can build in quiet times but in troubled times Christ will build up the City And he rules in the midst of his enemies Christ loves to rule in the midst of his enemies that so his rule may be the more conspicuous 1. Vse Is it so with us Take heed then that we have not our hearts sinck because of straights Let us not say why is it thus with us If God be in a way of mercy why deals he thus with us and presently be ready to conclude against the waies of God certainly all is gone God is gone surely whatsoever the hopes and confidences of such and such were we see all is undone all their hopes are undone God forbid there should be such an unbeleeving heart in any of you or such murmuring and repining speeches among any of you whatsoever straight you are brought into 2 Doct. In these straights Gods people are mightily troubled It was so here in every straight they repin'd and were in a distraction and especially at this time stand still saith Moses what mean you to do They were all in a confusion and as it was there so it is many times in many of Gods Saints As the blessed man Heman that made that 88. Psalm you shall find in that Psalm he was distracted and yet though Heman was one of the wisest men upon the earth for so you shall find it in the 1. of Kings where the holy Ghost speaks of wise men in 4.31 Solomon did exceed the wisedom of all in Egypt for saith the text he was wiser than all men than Heman and yet Heman was in woful perplexity when he was brought into straights And in the 8. of Isaiah It was the same case there that seems to be ours now Oh there was a Confederacy a Confederacy and many people did joyn together against Gods servants and upon that the text saith in the 11. verse The Lord spake to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people saying say ye not A Confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say A Confederacy neither fear ye their fear Mark God was fain to speak to the Prophet with a strong hand that he should not be so troubled as other people were in the time of their fears Yea we shall find that many of Gods Saints that he hath delivered in a most glorious way yet at some other times they have been too secure their hearts have bin all in a confusion and were not able to stand before the difficulties that they met withal And for that you have a famous example 1 Kings 19. of Elijah if you reade the 18. Chap. you may see what a Spirit Elijah had he would appear before Ahab As the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand I will surely shew my self to him to day to Ahab and he did shew himself to Ahab and tels him it was he and his people that troubled Israel when Ahab said to him Art thou he that troubleth Israel No saith he It is thou and thy fathers house that troubleth Israel And then he comes and gets the Priests of Baal together and gets fire from heaven to consume the Sacrifice and destroies all the Priests of Baal and gets rain from heaven to rain upon the earth What an excellent Spirit had Elijah in the 18 Chapter Yet in the 19. Chapter Jezabel did but threaten Elijah and he takes himself to his heels and runs away at the threatning of wicked Jezabel though he had such a brave Spirit in the former Chapter So it is truly with many men at some time their courage makes their adversaries afraid and at other times their cowardice makes their friends ashamed many have been so they have been a terror to their adversaries one day and a shame to their friends another day Reas 1. Because we have much flesh still in the best of us all and we are much led by sence and because we are not throughly skilful in the waies of God because the fear of God is so weak in us therefore it is that the fear of man is so strong and therefore we know so little of Gods secrets the secrets of God are with them that fear him did we fear God more we should know his secret waies and not be so much troubled Reas 2. Because there is a great deal of guilt rests in the best and that will make any one afraid where there is much guiltiness in their hearts it is exceeding troublesome to the soul Reas 3. Because they are too to confident in the flesh they are too to confident in themselves Thence it is that God withdraws himself from them and at what time they are afraid they cannot trust in God as David it is an admirable sweet text professes of himself That at what time he was afraid he would trust in God There is many a man that for the present thinks he can trust in God but he cannot do it at that time when he is afraid Psal 56.3 What time I am afraid I will trust in the Lord. When your passion comes then you make no use of your faith to trust in God As now many a man or woman can be meek quiet till they have a temptation but when your passion is up can you be meek then and rise then and beat it down with the contrary grace So when the passion of your fears and troubles
of affliction takes not away sense of mercies Page 165 2 It hinders not Duty ibid 3 It will make us bless God for the mercies of others ibid 2 Plea My trouble is for my sins 1 It is not if you were not troubled for sin before Page 166 2 When the greatest care is to remove affliction ibid 3 If after affliction is removed sin troubles not ibid 4 If there be not care to avoid sin after Page 167 5 There is the more cause to accept of the punishment ibid 3 Plea God withdraws himself 1 We think God is departed when he doth but afflict Page 168 2 Disquiet is a sign and cause of Gods departure ibid 3 If God depart from us we should not from him Page 169 4 Plea I am troubled for mens ill dealing 1 Men are Gods instrrments Page 170 2 We should rather pity them than murmur Page 171 3 We have righteous dealing with God ibid 5 Plea It is an affliction I looked not for 1 It is folly not to look for afflictions ibid 2 We should be more careful of our carriage in it Page 172 6 Plea The affliction is exceeding great 1 It is not so great as thy sins ibid 2 It might have been greater Page 173 3 It is greater for thy murmuring ibid 7 Plea It is greater than others afflictions Answered in 4 things Page 173 8 Plea If any other affliction they could be content Answered in 4 things Page 174 9 Plea My afflictions make me unservicable to God 1 Though thou art mean thou art a member of the body Page 176 2 Thy generall calling is high Page 177 3 Thou art equal with Angels ibid 4 God highly esteems the actions of mean Christians Page 178 5 Faithfulness in a mean calling shall be rewarded ibid 10. Plea My condition is unsetled 1 Every man in his setled estate is vanity Page 179 2 God will have us live in dependance ibid 3 Thy spiritual condition may be setled Page 181 11 Plea I have been in a better condition 1 Thy eye should not he evill because the eye of God hath been good Page 182 2 Prosperity was to prepare thee for affliction ibid 12 Plea I am crost after much pains 1 The greater the cross the more the obedience Page 184 2 Thy pains should be with submission to God Page 185 3 Contentment in such a condition is a testimony of more love to God ibid 13 Plea Distempers of heart accounted as words before God ibid Considerations to work the heart to Contentment 1 Consid The greatness of the mercies we have Page 187 2 God is beforehand with us with mercies Page 188 3 The abundance of mercies we enjoy Page 189 4 All creatures in a visicitude ib. 5 The creature suffers for us ibid 6 We have little time in the world Page 190 7 It hath been the condition of our betters Page 191 8 We were once content with the world without grace and should now with grace without the world Page 193 9 When we had Contentment we gave not God the glory ibid 10 Experience of Gods doing us good in afflictions ibid Directions to Contentment 1 There must be grace to make the soul steady Page 195 2 Not to gripe too much of the world ibid 3 Have a cal in every business Page 196 4 Walk by rule ibid 5 Exercise much faith Page 197 6 Labour to be spiritually minded Page 198 7 Promise not your selves great things Page 200 8 Get mortified hearts to the world ibid 9 Pore not too much on afflictions Page 201 10 Make a good construction of Gods wayes towards us Page 202 11 Regard not others fancies but what we feel Page 205 12 Be not inordinately taken with the comforts of the world Page 206 The CONTENTS of the last Sermon On EXODVS 14.13 STanding still five waies evill Page 304 Good three wayes Page 307 Doct. 1 When God is in a way of salvation he may bring his people into straights Page 311 Reasons 1 Because God will humble them Page 313 2 He delights in the exercise of their faith Page 315 3 He delights in their prayers Page 316 4 To discover those that are evill ibid 5 That the adversaries may vent theie malice Page 317 6 That Christs work may appear the more ibid Use Not to sink because of straights Page 318 Doct. 2. In straights Gods people are mightily troubled ibid Reasons 1 Because there is much flesh in the best Page 319 2 There is a great deal of guilt ib. 3 There is self-confidence ib. Use 1 To blame our selves for sinking in straights Page 320 2 To think what will become of wicked men ibid Doct. 3 In those straits we should quiet our selves and look for Gods salvation Page 321 1. Quiet our selves 1 Because then we are fit to look to the wisdom faithfulness and power of God Page 322 2 Because else we cannot make use of our graces ibid 3 We cannot shew our subjection to God Page 323 4 Nor our reverence to God ib. 5 We cannot make use of that we hear ib. 6 We shall hinder others Page 224 2 To expect salvation from God 1 Hereby we sanctifie Gods Name ib. 2 This shews the excellency of faith Page 325 3 It engageth God in our Cause ib. Doct. 4 The sight of salvation after straits a glorious thing Page 328 FINIS THE RARE JEWEL OF CHRISTIAN Contentment PHILIPPIANS 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content HERE is a very seasonable Cordial to revive the drooping spirits of the Saints in these sad and sinking times For the hour of temptation is already come upon all the world to try the Inhabitants of the earth and in special this is the day of Jacobs troubles in our owne bowels Our great Apostle experimentally holds forth in this Gospel-Text the very life and soul of all practical Divinity wherein we may plainly reade his own proficiency in Christs School and what lesson every Christian that would evidence the power and growth of godliness in his own soul must necessarily learn from him These words are brought in by Paul as a plain argument to perswade the Philippians that he did not seek after great things in the world and that he sought not theirs but them He did not passe for a great estate he had better things to take up his heart withal I do not speak saith he in respect of want For whether I have or have not my heart is fully satisfied I have enough I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I have learned Contentment in every condition is a great art a spiritual mystery It is to be learned and so to be learned as a mystery And therefore verse 12. he affirms I know how to be abâ—sed and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed The word which is translated Instructed is derived from that word which signifies Mystery and it is
that they are in still thus we are to submit to the dispose of God in every condition Obj. But you will say This that you speake of is good indeed if we could attain to it but is it possible for one to attain to this Answer It is if you get skill in the Art of it you may attain to it and it will prove to be no such difficult thing to you neither if you understand but the mystery of it as there 's many things that men do in their callings that if a country man comes and sees he thinks it a mighty hard thing and that he should never be able to do it but that 's because he understands not the art of it there is a turning of the hand so as you may do it with ease Now that 's the business of this exercise to open unto you the art and mystery of Contentment What way a Christian comes to Contentment there is a great Mysterie and art in it by that hath been opened to you there will appear some mystery and art as that a man should be content with his affliction and yet throughly sensible of his affliction too to be throughly sensible of an affliction and to endeavour the removing of it by all lawful means and yet to be content there 's a mystery in that how to joyne these two together to be sensible of an affliction as much as that man or woman that is not content I am sensible of it as fully as they and I seek waies to be delivered from it as well as they and yet still my heart abides content this is I say a mystery that is very hard to be understood by a carnal heart but grace doth teach such a mixture doth teach us how to make a mixture of sorrow and a mixture of joy together and that makes Contentment the mingling of joy and sorrow of gracious joy and gracious sorrow together grace teaches us how to moderate and to order an affliction so as there shall be a sence of it and yet for all that Contentment under it There are divers things further for the opening of the Mystery of Contentment The First Thing therefore is this To shew that there is a great mystery in it One that is contented in a Christian way it may be said of him that he is the most contented man in the world and yet the most unsatisfied man in the world these two together must needs be mysterious I say a contented man as he is the most contented so he is the most unsatisfied of any man in the world You never learned the mystery of contentment except it may be said of you that as you are the most contented man so you are the most unsatisfied man in the world You will say how is that A man that hath learned the art of Contentment is the most contented with any low condition that he hath in the world and yet he cannot be satisfied with the injoyment of all the world and yet he is contented if he hath but a crust but bread and water that is if God disposes of him for the things of the world to have but bread and water for his present condition he can be satisfied with Gods dispose in that yet if God should give unto him Kingdoms and Empiers all the world to rule if he should give it him for his portion he would not be satisfied with that here 's the mystery of it though his heart be so inlarged as the injoyment of all the world and ten thousand worlds cannot satisfie him for his portion yet he hath a heart quieted under Gods dispose if he gives him but bread and water to joyn these two together this must needs be a great art and mystery Though he be contented with God in a little yet those things that would content other men will not content him The men of the world they seek after estates and think if they had thus much and thus much they would be content they aime at no great matters but if I had perhaps some man thinks but two or three hundred a year then I should be well enough If I had but a hundred a year or a thousand a year saith another then I should be satisfied but saith a gracious heart If he had ten hundred thousand times so much a year it would not satisfie him if he had the quintescence of all the excellencies of all the creatures in the world it could not satisfie him and yet this man can sing and be merry and joyfull when he hath but a crust of bread and a little water in the world Surely Religion is a great mystery great is the mystery of godlinesse not only in the Doctrinal part of it but in the Practical part of it also Godliness teacheth us this mystery Not to be satisfied with all the world for our portion and yet to be content with the meanest condition in which we are As Luther when he had great gifts sent him from Dukes and Princes he refused it and saith he I did vehemently protest God should not put me off so 't is not that which will content me A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage Marke here lies the Mystery of it A little in the world will Content a Christian for his passage but all the world and ten thousand times more will not Content a Christian for his portion Now a carnal heart will be Content with these things of the world for his portion and there is the differnce between a Carnal heart and a Gracious heart But saith a gracious heart Lord do with me what thou wilt for my passage through this world I will be content with that but I cannot be content with all the world for my portion so there is the mystery of true Contentation A contented man though he be most contented with the least things in the world yet he is the most unsatisfied man that lives in the world That Soul that is capable of God can be filled with nothing else but God nothing but God can fill a soul that is capable of God though a gracious heart knows that it is capable of God and was made for God Carnal hearts think of no reference to God but a gracious heart being inlarged to be capable of God and injoying somewhat of him nothing in the world can fill a gracious heart it must be only God himself and therefore you shall observe That let God give what he will to a gracious heart a heart that is godly except he gives Himself it will not do a godly heart will not only have the mercy but the God of that mercy as well as its self and then a little matter is enough in the world so be it he hath the God of that mercy he doth injoy In Phil. 4.7.9 I shall need go no further to shew a notable Scripture for this Compare vers 7. with vers 9. And the peace of
God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ The peace of God shall keep your hearts Then in vers 9. Those things which ye 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 carnall 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 injoy 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 injoy 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 hadest God himself There lies the first mystery of Contentment 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 way of Contentment and that is a way that the world hath no skill in I open it thus Not so much by the adding to what he would have or to what he hath not by adding more to his condition but rather by substracting of his desires and so to make his desires and conditon to be even and equal A carnal heart knows no way to be Contented but this I have such and such an estate and if I had this added to it and the other comfort added that now I have not then I should be Contented it may be I have lost my estate if I could have but that given to me so as to make up my losse then I should be a contented man But now Contentmet doth not come in that way it comes not in I say by the adding to what thou wantest but by the substracting of thy desires it is all one to a Christian either that I may get up unto what I would have or get my desires down to what I have either that I may attain to what I do desire or bring down my desires to what I have already attained my estate is the same for it is as sutable to me to bring my desire down to my condition as it is to raise up my condition to my desire Now I say a heart that hath no grace and is not instructed in this Mystery of Contentment knows no way to get Contentment but to have his estate raised up to his desires but the other hath another way to Contentment that is He can bring his desires down to his estate and so he doth attain to his Contentment So the Lord fashions the hearts of the Children of men Now if the heart of a man be fashioned to his condition he may have as much contentment as if his condition be fashioned to his heart some men have a mighty large heart but they have a straight condition and they can never have Contentment when their hearts are big and their condition is little but now though a man cannot bring his condition to be as big as his heart yet if he can bring his heart to be as little as his condition to bring them even from thence is Contentment The world is infinitly deceived in this To think that Contentment lies in having more than they have here lies the bottom and root of all Contentment when there is an evennesse and proportion between our hearts and our conditions and that is the reason that many that are godly men that are in a low condition live more sweet and comfortable lives than those that are richer Contentment is not alwaies cloathed with silk and purple and velvets but Contentment is sometimes in a russet sure in a mean condition as well as in a higher and many men that sometimes have had great estates and God hath brought them into a lower condition they have had more Contentment in that condition than the other Now how can that possible be Thus easily For if you did but understand the root of Contentment it consists in the sutablenesse and proportion of the spirit of a man to his estate and the evenness when one end is not longer and bigger than another the heart is contented there is comfort in that condition now let God give a man never so great riches yet if the Lord gives him up to the pride of his heart he will never be contented But now let God bring any one into a mean condition and then let God but fashion and sute his heart to that condition and he will be content As now in a mans going Suppose a man had a mighty long leg and his other leg were short why though one of his legs be longer than ordinary yet he could not go so well as a man that hath both his legs shorter than he I compare a long leg when one is longer than another to a man that hath a high condition and is very rich and a great man in the world but he hath a great proud heart too and that is longer and larger than his condition now this man cannot but be troubled in his condition Now another man that is in a mean condition his condition is low and his heart is low too so that his heart and his condition is both even together and this man goes on with more ease abundantly than the other doth So that now a gracious heart works after this manner The Lord
It is a speech of Ambrose Even poverty it 's self it is riches unto holy men Godly men do make their poverty turn to be riches they get more riches out of their poverty then ever they get out of their revenues out of all their trading in this world they never had such incomes as they have had out of their poverty this a carnall heart will think strange that a man shall make poverty to be the most gainfull trade that ever he had in the world I am perswaded that many Christians have found it so that they have got more good by their poverty than ever they got by all their riches you find it in Scripture therefore think not this strange that I am speaking of you do not find any one Godly man that came out of an affliction worse than when he came into it though for a while he was shaken yet at last he was better for an affliction but a great many Godly men you find have been worse for their prosperity scarce one Godly man that you reade in Scripture of but was worse for prosperity except Daniel and Nehemiah I do not reade of any hurt they got by their prosperity that they had scarce I think is any one example of any Godly man but was rather worse for his prosperity than better so that you see it 's no such strange thing neither to one that is gracious that they shall get good by their affliction Luther hath such an expression in his Comment upon the 5. Chap. of the Galatians in the 17. verse in his Comment upon that place saith A Christian becometh a mighty worker and a wonderful creator that is saith he to create out of heavinesse joy out of terrour comfort out of sin righteousnesse out of death life and brings light out of darknesse It was Gods prerogative and great power his creating power to command the light to shine out of darknesse now a Christian is partaker of the divine nature so the scripture saith Grace it is part of the Divine Nature and being part of the Divine Nature it hath an impression of Gods Omnipotent power that is to create light out of darkensse to being good out of evill now by this way a Christian comes to be content God hath given a Christian such a vertue as can turn affliction into mercyes can turn darkenesse into light if a man had the power that Christ had when the water pots were fil'd he could by a word turn the water into wine if you that have nothing but water to drink yet if you had a power to turn it into wine then you may be contented Certainly a Christian hath received this power from God to work thus miraculously it is the nature of grace to turn water into wine that is to turn the water of your affliction into the wine of heavenly consolation If you understand this in a carnal way I know it will be rediculous for a Minister to speak thus before you and many carnal people are ready to make such expressions as these to be rediculous understanding them in a carnal way Just as Nicodemus in the 3. of John What can a man be born when he is old can be enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born So when we speak of grace that it can turn water into wine and turn poverty into riches and make poverty a gainful trade saith a carnal heart Let them have that trade if they will and let them have water to drink and see if they can turn it into wine Oh take heed thou speakest not in a scornful way of the waies of God grace hath the power to turn afflictions into mercies Two men shall have one affliction and to one man it shall be as gall and wormwood and it shall be wine and honey and delightfulness and joy and advantage and riches to another This is the mystery of Contentment not so much by removing the evil as by Metamorphosing the evil by changing the evil into good The Fifth thing is this A Christain comes to this Contentment by making up the wants of his condition by the performance of the work of his condition This is the way of Contentment There is such a condition that I am in many wants I want this and the other comfort well how shall I come to be satisfied and content A carnal heart thinks this I must have my wants made up or else it is impossible that I should be content No but saith a gracious heart What is the duty of the condition God hath put me into Indeed my condition is changed I was not long since in a prosperous condition but God hath changed my condition the Lord hath called me no more Naomi but Marah Now what am I to do what can I think now are those duties that God requires of me in the condition that he hath now put me into and let me put forth my strength in the performance of the duties of my present condition Others they spend their thoughts in those things that shall disturb and disquiet them and so they grow more and more discontented yea but let me spend my thoughts in thinking what my duty is what is the duty of my present condition which I am in O saith a man whose condition is changed and he hath lost his estate Had I but my estate as I had heretofore how would I use it to his glory But God hath made me to see that I did not honour him with my estate as I ought to have done Oh had I it again I would do better than ever I did but this may be but a temptation therefore you should rather think What doth God require of me in the condition I am now brought into And thou shouldest labour to bring thy heart to quiet and Contentnent by setting thy soul on work about the duties of thy present condition And the truth is I know nothing more available for the quieting of a Christian Soul and getting Contentment then this The setting thy heart on work about the duties of the very present condition that now thou art in and take heed of thy thoughts about other conditions as a meer temptation I cannot compare the folly of men and women that think to get Contentment with their musing about other conditions better than to the way of Children perhaps they are gotten upon a hill and they look a good way off and see another hill and they think if they were on the top of that then they were able to touch the clouds with their fingers but when they are on the top of that hill alas then they are as far from the clouds as they were before So it is with many that think If they were in such a condition then I should have Contentment and perhaps they get into that condition then they are as far from Contentment as before But then they think if they were in another condition they would be contented
way challenge whatsoever they have need of We cannot express the right of a holy man the difference between his right and the right of the wicked more fully than by this similitude a Malefactor that is condemned to die yet he hath by favour granted to him his supper provided over night and you cannot say though the Malefactor hath forfeited all his right to all things to every bit of bread yet if he shall have a supper granted to him he doth not steal it though all his right is forfeited by his fault after he is once condemned he hath no right to any thing so it is with the wicked they have forfeited all their right to all comforts in this world they are condemned by God as Malefactors and are going to execution but if God will in his bounty give them something to preserve them here in the world they cannot be said to be thieves or robbers Now a man hath granted to him a supper over night before his execution but is that like the supper that he was wont to have in his own house when he eat his own bread and had his wife and children about him Oh a dish of green herbs at home would be a great deal better than any dainties in such a supper as that is but now a child of God hath not a right meerly by donation but what he hath it is his own through the purchase of Christ every bit of bread that thou eatest if thou beest a godly man or woman Jesus Christ hath bought it for thee thou goest to market and buyest thy meat and drink with thy money but know that before thou hast bought it or paid money Christ hath bought it at the hand of God the Father with his blood thou hast it at the hands of men for money but Christ hath bought it at the hand of his Father by his blood And certainly it is a great deal better and sweeter now though it be but a little Fifthly There 's another thing that shews the sweetness that there is in that little that the Saints have by which they come to have contentment whereas others cannot that is Every little that they have it is but as an earnest penny of all the glory that is reserved for them it is given them by God but as the Fore-runner of those eternal mercies that the Lord intends for them now if a man hath but twelve pence given to him as an earnest penny for some great possession that he must have is not that better than if he had forty pounds given unto him otherwise So every comfort that the Saints have in this world it is an earnest penny to them of those eternall mercies that the Lord hath provided for them as every affliction that the wicked have here it is but the beginning of sorrowes and fore-runner of those eternall sorrows that they are like to have hereafter in Hell so every comfort thou hast is a fore-runner of those eternal mercies thou shalt have with God in Heaven not only the consolations of Gods Spirit are the fore-runners of those eternal comforts thou shalt have in Heaven but when thou sittest at thy Table and rejoycest with thy wife and children and friends thou mayest look upon every one of those but as a fore-runner yea the very earnest-penny of eternal life unto thee Now then if this be so no marvel though a Christian be contented this is a mystery to the wicked I have what I have out of the love of God and I have it sanctified to me by God and I have it of free-cost from God by the purcase of the blood of Jesus Christ and I have it as a fore-runner of those eternal mercies that are reserved for me and in this my soul rejoyces There 's a secret dew of Gods goodness and blessing upon him in his estate that others have not and by all this you may see the meaning of that Scripture Prov. 16.8 Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right A man that hath but a little yet if he hath it with righteousness it is better than a great deale without right yea better than the great revenues of the wicked so you have it in another Scripture That 's the next Particular in Christian Contentment the mystery is in this That he lives upon the dew of Gods blessing in all the good things that he doth enjoy The Ninth thing wherein the mystery of Christian Contentment consists is this Not only the good things that he hath he hath the dew of Gods blessing in them and they are very sweet to him but all the afflictions all the evils that do befall him he can see love in them all And can enjoy the sweetness of love in his afflictions as well as in his mercies yea the truth is the afflictions of Gods people comes from the same Eternal love that Jesus Christ did come from And that speech of Hierom He is a happy man that is beaten when the stroke is a stroke of love All Gods strokes are strokes of love and mercy all Gods waies are mercy and truth to those that fear him and love him Psalm 25.10 The wayes of God the waies of affliction as well as the waies of prosperity are mercy and love to him Grace gives a man an eye a piercing ye to pierce into the Councels of God those Eternal Counsels of God for good unto him even in his afflictions to see the love of God in every affliction as well as in prosperity Now this is a mystery to a carnal heart they can see no such thing perhaps they think God loves them when he prospers them and makes them rich but they think God loves them not when he doth afflict them that 's a mystery but grace instructs men in that mystery grace inables men to see love in the very frowns of Gods face and so comes to receive contentment In the Tenth place A godly man hath Contentment in the way of a mystery because as he sees all his afflictions come from the same love that Jesus Christ did so he sees them all sanctified in Jesus Christ sanctified as a Mediator he sees I say all the sting and venom and poyson of them all to be taken out by the vertue of Jesus Christ the Mediator between God and Man As now for instance Thus a Christian when he would have Contentment fals a working what is my affliction Is it poverty that God strikes me withall Jesus Christ had not a house to hide his head in the Fowls of the air had nests and the Foxes had holes but the Son of Man not a hole to hide his head in now my poverty is sanctified by Christs poverty I can see by faith the curse and sting and venom of my poverty taken out by the poverty of Jesus Christ Christ Jesus he was poor in this world to deliver me from the curse of my poverty that it should not be cursed unto
to go out to the promises and fetch from the promise that that may supply But this is but a dry businesse to a carnall heart but it 's the most real thing in the world to a gracious heart when he finds want of Contentment he repaires to the Promise and the Covenant and fals a pleading the promises that God hath made As I should have shewen several promises that God hath made let the affliction be what it will I will but only mention one that is the saddest affliction of all in case of the Visitation and the Plague In Psalm 91. now those that cannot have their friends come to them by reason of the plague and that cannot have other comforts in other afflictions they might have their frinds and other things to comfort them but in that they cannot Psal 21.10 There shall no evil befal thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling then here is a promise for the penilence in the 5. and 6. verses this is a Scripture to those that are in danger of it you will say this is a promise that the Plague shall not come nigh them but mark these two are joyned There shall no evil befal thee neither shall the plague come nigh thee the evil of iâ— shall not come nigh thee Object You will say It doth come to many godly men and how can they make use of this Scripture it is rather a Scripture that may trouble them because here 's a promise that it shal not come nigh them yet it doth come nigh them as wel as others Ans First this is the Answer I would give the promises of outward deliveraÌ„ces that were made â—o the people of God in the time of the law were to be understood then a great deal more litterally fulfilled more litterally thaÌ„ in the times of the Gospel God makes it up otherwise with as much mercy though God made a covenant of grace eternal life in Christ with them yet I think there was another Covenant too that God speaks of as a distinct covenant for outward things to deal with his people by according to their waies either in outward prosperity or in outward afflictions more than now in a more punctual set way then in the times of the Gospel and therefore when the Children of Israel did but sin against God they were sure to have publique judgments to come upon them and if they did well alwaies publique mercies the generall constant way of God was to deal with the people of the Jewes according as they did well or ill in an ordinary way with outward judgments and outward mercies but it 's not so now in these times of the Gospel we cannot bring such a certain conclusion that God did deal so severely with men by such and such afflictions that he wil deal so with them now and so that they shall have outward prosperity as they had then therfore that 's the first thing for the understanding of this and all other texts of that kind The Second Answer I would give is this It may be their faith doth not reach to this promise and God brings many times many outward afflictions because the faith of his people doth not reach the promise and that not only in the old Testament but in the times of the new Testament Zachariah his time may be said to be in the time of the new Testament when he was struck with dumbness because he did not beleeve and that is given to be the cause why he was struck with dumbnesse But you will say now hath faith warant to beleeve deliverance that it shall be fully delivered I dare not say so but it may act upon it to beleeve that God will make it good his own way perhaps you have not done so much and so upon that this promise is not fulfilled to you Thirdly When God doth make such promises to his people yet still it must be with this reservation that God must have liberty to these three things 1. That notwithstanding his promise he will have liberty to make use of any thing for your chastisement 2. That he must have liberty to make use of your estates or liberties or lives for the furtherance of his own ends If it be to be a stumbling block to wicked and ungodly men God must have liberty though he have made a promise to you he will not loose the propriety that he hath in your estates and lives 3. God must have so much liberty to make use of what you have for to shew that his waies are unsearchable and his judgments past finding out God reserves these three things in his hand still Object But you will say What good then is there in such a promise that God makes to his people First That thou art under the protection of God more than others But what comfort is this if it doth befal me Ans Thou hast this comfort that the evill of it shall be taken from thee that if God will make use of this affliction for other ends yet he will do it so as he will make it up to thee some other way Perhaps you have given your children such a thing but yet afterwards if you have use of that thing you will come and say I must have it why father may the child say you gave it me But saith the father I must have it and I will make it up to you some other way Now the child doth not think that the fathers love is ever a whit the less to him So when there is any such promise as this is that God by his promise gives thee his protection and yet for all that such a thing befals thee it is but as if the father should say I gave you that indeed but let me have it and I will make it up to you some other way that shall be as good saith God let me have your health and liberty and life and it shall be made up to you some other way Secondly When ever the Plague or Pestilence comes to those that are under such a promise it is for some special and notable work and God requires of them to search and examin in a special manner to find out his meaning there is so much to be learned in the promise that God hath made concerning this particular evill that the people of God they may come to quiet and content their hearts in this affliction I reade in this Psalm that God hath made a promise to his people to deliver them from the Plague and Pestilence and yet do I find it to come It may be I have not made use of my faith in this promise heretofore and if God do bring afflictions upon me yet God will make it up some other way God made a promise to deliver me or at least to deliver me from all the evil of it now if this thing doth befall me and yet I have a promise of God certainly the evil of it
but God expects that every day you should turn over a leaf in your own hearts you will never come to get any skil in this Mysterie except you study the book of your own hearts Marriners they have their books that they study those that will be good Navigaters and Scholers they have their books those that study Logick they have their books according to that and those that would study Rhetorick and Philosophy have their books according to that and those that study Divinity they have their books whereby they come to be helped in the study of Divinity but a Christian next to the book of God is to look into the book of his own heart and to reade over that and this will help you to Contentment these three waies 1. By the studying of thy heart thou wilt come presently to discover wherein thy discontent lies when thou art discontented thou wilt find out the root of any discontentment if thou doest study thy heart well many men and women they are discontented and the truth is they know not wherfore they think this the other thing is the cause but a man or woman that knows their own heart they will find out presently where the root of their discontent lies that it lies in such a corruption and distemper of my heart that now through Gods mercie I have found out It is in this case as it is with a little child that is very froward in the house if a stranger comes in he doth not know what the matter is perhaps the stranger will give the child a rattle or a nut or such a thing to quiet it but when the Nurse comes she knows the temper and disposition of the Child and therefore knows best how to quiet it so it is here just thus for all the world when we are strangers with our own hearts we are mightily discontented and know not how to quiet our selves because we know not wherein the disquiet lieth and indeed when we are strangers to our own hearts we cannot tell how to quiet our selves but if we be very well verst in our own hearts when any thing fals out so as to disquiet us we find out the cause of it presently and so quickly come to be quiet So a man that hath a Watch and he understands the use of every wheel and pin if it goes amisse he will presently find out the cause of it but one that hath no skill in a Watch when it goes amisse he knows not what the matter is and therefore cannot mend it So indeed our hearts are as a Watch and there are many wheels and windings and turnings there and we should labour to know our hearts well that when they are out of tune we may know what the matter is 2 This knowledge of our hearts wil help us to Contentment because by this we shall come to know what is most sutable to our condition As thus a man that knows not his own heart he thinks not what need he hath of affliction and upon that he is disquieted but that man or woman that hath studied their own hearts when God comes with afflictions upon them they can say I would not for any thing in the world have been without this affliction God hath so suted this affliction to my condition and hath come in such a way that if this affliction had not come I am affraid I should have fallen into sin a poor country man that takes Phisick the Phisick works and he thinks it will kill him because he knows not the ill humours that are in his body and therefore he understands not how sutable the Physick is to him but a Physitian takes a purge and it makes him extreamly sick saith the Physitian I like this the better it doth but work upon the humour that I know is the matter of my disease and upon that such a man that hath knowledge and understanding in his body and the cause of his distemper he is not troubled or disquieted So would we be if we did but know the distempers of our own hearts carnal men and women they know not their own spirits and therefore they fling and vex upon every affliction that doth befall them they know not what distempers are in their hearts that may be healed by their afflictions if it please God to give them a sanctified use of them 3 By knowing their own hearts they know what they are able to manage and by this means they come to be Content the Lord perhaps takes away many comforts from them that they had before or denies them some things that they hoped to have got now they by knowing their hearts know this that they were not able to mannage such an estate and they were not able to mannage such prosperity God saw it and saith a poor soul I am in some measure convinced by looking into mine own heart that I was not able to mānage such a condition A man desires greedily to gripe more perhaps than he is able to mānage and so undoes himself as countrey men do observe that if they doe over-stock their Land it will quickly spoyl them and so a wise Husband-man that knows how much his ground will bear he is not troubled that he hath not so much stock as others why because he knows he hath not ground enough for so great a stock and that quiets him so many men and women that know not their own hearts they would fain have a prosperous estate as others have but if they knew their own hearts they would know that they were not able to mannage it if one of your little children of three or four yeers old should be crying for the coat of her that is twelve or twenty yeers old and say why may not I have a coat as long as my sisters If she had it would soon trip up her heels and break her face but when the Child comes to understanding she is not discontented because her coat is not so long as her sisters but saith my coat is fit for me and therein takes Content So if we come to understanding in the School of Christ we will not cry why have not I such an estate as others have the Lord seeth that I am not able to mannage it and I see it my self by the knowing of mine own heart You shall have children if they see but a knife they will cry for it because they know not their strength and that they are not able to mannage it but you know they are not able to mannage it and therefore you will not give it them and when they come to so much understanding as to know that they are not able to mannage it they will not cry for it so we would not cry for such and such things if we knew that we were not able to mannage them when you vex and fret for what you have not I may say to you as Christ saith you know not of what spirits you are
how many things depend upon this providence Now we are willing to suffer our friends will to be crost in one thing so that our friend may attain to what he desires in a thousand things if thou hast a love and friendship to God be willing to be crost in some few things that the Lord may have his work go on in the universal in a thousand of other things Now that 's the Third thing to be understood in Gods providence that Christ doth learn those that he teacheth in the Art of Contentment 4 Christ teaches them the knowledge of providence that is The knowledge of Gods usual way in his dealings with his people more particularly The other is the knowledge of God in his providence in general But the right understanding of the way of God in his providence towards his people and Saints is a notable lesson to help us in the Art of Contentment If we come once to know a mans way and course we may better sute and be contented to live with him than before we come to know his way and course as when a man comes to live in a society with men and women it may be the men and women may be good but till a man comes to know their way and course and disposition many things may fall very crosse and we think they are very hard but when we come to be acquainted with their way and spirit then we can sute and cotten with them very well and the reason of our trouble is because we do not understand their way So it is with you those that are but as strangers to God and do not understand the way of God they are troubled with the providences of God and they think them very strange and cannot tell what to make of them because they understand not the ordinary course and way of God towards his people If a stranger sometimes comes into a family and sees such and such things done he wonders what the matter is but those that are acquainted with it it troubles them not at all So servants when they come first together and know not one another it may be they are froward and discontented but when they come to be aquainted with one anothers waies then they are more contented just so it is when we come first to understand Gods waies Object But you will say What do you understand by Gods waies Answ By that I mean these Three things And when we come to know them we shall not wonder so much at the providence of God but be quiet and contented with them 1. The First thing is this Gods ordinary course is that his people in this world should be in an afflicted condition God hath revealed in his Word and we may there find he hath set down to be his ordinary way even from the begining af the world to this day but more especially in the times of the Gospel that his people here should be in an afflicted condition Now men that do not understand this they stand and wonder to hear of the people of God that they are afflicted and the enemies prosper in their way for those that seek God in his way and seek for Reformation for them to be afflicted and routed and spoiled and the enemies to prevail they wonder at it but now one that is in the School of Christ he is taught by Jesus Christ that God by his eternal Counsels hath set this to be his course and way to bring up his people in this world in an afflicted condition and therefore saith the Apostle Account it not strange concerning the fiery tryal 1 Pet. 4.12 We are not therefore to be discontented with it seeing God hath set such a course and way we know such is the will of God that it should be so The Second thing that is in Gods way is this Vsually when God intends the greatest mercy to any of his people he doth bring them into the lowest condition God doth seem to go quite crosse and work in a contrary way when he intends the greatest mercies to his people he doth first usually bring them into very low conditions if it be a bodily mercy an outward mercy that he intends to bestow he useth to bring them bodily low and outwardly low if it be a mercie in their estates that he intends to bestow he brings them low in that and then raises them and in their names he brings them low there and then raises them and in their Spirits God doth ordinarily bring their Spirits low and then raises their spirits usually the people of God before the greatest comforts have the greatest afflictions and sorrows now those that understand not Gods waies they think that when God brings his people into sad conditions that God leaves and forsakes them and that God doth intend no great matter of good to them but now a Child of God that is instructed in this way of God he is not troubled my condition is very low but saith he this is Gods way when he intends the greatest mercy to bring men under the greatest afflictions When he intended to raise Joseph to be the Second in the Kingdom God cast him into a dungeon a little before So when God intended to raise David and set him upon the Throne he made him to be hunted as a partrige in the mountain 2 Sam. 26.20 God went this way with his Son Christ himself went into glory by suffering Heb. 2.20 And if God deal so with his own Son much more with his people as a little before break of day you shall observe it is darker than it was any time before so God doth use to make our conditions darker a little before the mercy come When God bestowed the last great mercy at Nazby we were in a very low condition God knew what he had to do before-hand he knew that his time was coming for great mercies it is the way of God to do so Be but instructed aright in this course and tract that God uses to walk in and that will help us to Contentment exceedingly The Third thing that there is in Gods way and course is this It is the way of God to work by contraries to turn the greatest evill into the greatest good To grant great good after great evil is one thing and to turn great evils into the greatest good that 's another and yet that 's Gods way the greatest good that God intends for his people many times he works it out of the greatest evil the greatest light is brought out of the greatest darknesse and Luther I remember hath a notable expression for this saith he it is the way of God he doth humble that he might exalt he doth kill that he might make alive he doth confound that he might glorifie this is the way of God saith he but saith saith he Every one doth not understand this this is the Art of Arts and the Science of Sciences the knowledge of knowledges
as one of the foolish women shall we receive good at the band of God and not evil you see Job did help himself against all murmuring thoughts against the waies 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. vers 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 joyfull 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 joyfull but what if Afflictions befals 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 fee 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 child but he hath been merciful to you in another child set one against the other God afflicted David in Absolom but he was merciful to David in Solomon and therefore when David cryed out Oh Absolom my Son my Son if David had thought upon Solomon and cried 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 doth 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 manie sins we hope that God will accept of our poor services why then should not we in the midst of our afflictions blesse God for his manie 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 slight them and disregard them If thou in the midst of Gods mercies shalt 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 smal 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 orchyards 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 neighbours vinyard 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 child that hath all the limbs and parts compleat a child that is very comly and hath excellent parts wit and memory but it may be there is a wart that grows upon the finger of the child 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 child and all the goodnesse of God to her in the child is swallowed up in that would not you say this were a folly a very great evil in a woman so to do Truly 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 child saith she Why am I thus As if she should say I had as good have none only because she found a little pain and trouble in her body To be discontent when the affliction is small and little that increases very much the sin of murmuring it is to much for any one to murmur upon the heaviest crosse that can befall one in this world but upon some small things to be discontent and murmur that 's worse I have read of one when he lay upon a heap of damask-roses he complained that there was one of the rose
we sit down quiet without murmuring Certainly thou never knewest what it was to be humbled for thy manifold sins that art discontented at any administration of God towards thee The Eighth Agravation of the sin of murmuring is For those men that are of little use in the world for them to be discontented If you have but a beast that you make much use of you wil feed it well but if you have but litttle use of him then you turn him into the commons little provision serves his turn because you make not use of him If we liv'd so as to be exceeding useful to God and his Church we might expect that God would be pleased to come in in some encouraging way to us but when our consciences tell us we live and do but little service for God what if God should turn us upon the commons yet we are fed according to our work according to our imployment why should any creature be servicable to thee who art so little servicable to God This one meditation would much help us to think I am discontent because such and such creatures are not servicable to me but why should I expect that they should be servicable to me when I am not servicable to God And that 's the Eighth Aggravation A Ninth Aggravation of the sin of murmuring is this For us to be discontent at that time when God is about to humble us It should be the care of a Christian to observe what are Gods waies towards him what is God about to do with me at this time Is God about to raise me to comfort me let me close with Gods goodnesse and blesse his Name let me joyn with the work of God when he offers mercy to me to take the mercy he offers But again Is God about to humble me is God about to break my heart and to bring my heart down to him let me joyn with God in this work of his this is for a Christian to walk with God It is said that Enoch and Noah walked with God walked with God what 's that That is To observe what is the work of God that God is now about and to joyn with God in that work of his so that according as God turns this way or that way the heart should turn with Grd and have sutable workings unto the workings of God towards him Now then I am discontented and murmuring because I am afflicted Therefore thou art afflicted because God would humble thee and the great design that God hath in afflicting of thee is to break and humble thy heart and wilt thou now maintain a spirit quite opposite to the work of God for thee to murmur and be discontented is to resist the work of God God is doing thee good if thou could'st 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 had'st 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 discontentednesse 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 and that 's another aggravation A 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 any time to murmur 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 doth expresse his wil 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 remarkably 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 it 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 murmur 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 wil 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 yeeld 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 appeare 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 affliction it 's more evil Though an heifer at first when the yoke is put upon him he wrigles up and down and will not be quiet but if after many monthes or yeers it shall not draw quietly the husbandman would rather feed it fat and prepare it for the butcher than be troubled any longer with it So though the Lord was content to passe by that discontented spirit of thine at first yet God having a long time kept the yoke upon
thee thou hast bin under his afflicting hand it may be divers yeers 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 discontent 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 yeeldeth the peacable 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 yeeldeth the peacable 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 yeers perhaps thou mayest say as Heman did That thou art afflicted from thy youth up in the 88. Psal Oh it 's a very evil thing if being exercised long with afflictions you are not yet contented The eye in the body of a man is as tender a part as any part that a mans body hath 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 contentednesse 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 makest a noise and canst not bear affliction but art thou an old Chistian 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 discontent 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 sence of my condition I hope you would have me sensible of my condition perhaps when God takes away a friend or some other comfort they are inordinatly sorrowful and wringing their hands as if they were undone and let any one but speak to them say they Would you not have me sensible of my affliction And thus many would hide their sinful murmuring under Gods hand with this pretence that it is but sensibleness of their affliction To that I answer First there is no sence of any affliction that will hinder the sense of Gods mercies nay the more we are sensible of our afflictions if it be in a gracious manner the more sensible we will be of Gods mercy but thou art so sensible of thy affliction as it takes away the sense of all thy mercies Oh this is sinful discontent this is not to be sensible of thy condition as God would have thee but it is to be sensible in a wicked way you go beyond your bounds By this rule you may come to know when your sorrows and troubles for your afflictions goes beyond the bounds we may be sorrowful when God afflicts but Oh! that I might know when my sorrow goes beyond the bounds of it truly thou mayest know it by this doth the sence of thy afflictions take away the sense of thy mercies If it doth then it goes beyond the bounds Secondly If it were but a bare sence of an affliction it would not hinder thee in the duties of thy condition the right sence of our afflictions will never hinder us in the performance of the duties of our condition but thou art so sensible of thy affliction as thou art made unfit for the performance of the duties of the condition that God hath put thee in surely it's more then meer sence of thy affliction Thirdly If it were but meer sence of thy affliction yet then thou couldest in this thy condition blesse God for the mercies that others have but thy discontentednesse usually breeds envie at it when any one is discontented with their condition they have an envious spirit at the conditions of those that are delivered from what afflictions they bear certainly then it 's turn'd to be sowre and naught when thou art so sensible of thy afflictions and unsensible of mercies as thou art unfit for the duties of thy condition and envious at others that are not afflicted as thou art The Second Plea But wil a discontented heart say I am not so much troubled with my afflictions but it is for my sin rather than my affliction and I hope you wil give leave that we should be troubled and discontented with our sin and were it not for sin that I see in my self I should not be so discontented as I am Oh! it is sin that is heavy upon me and it 's that that troubles me more than my afflictions Deceive not thine own heart there is a very great deceit in this there 's many people that when Gods hand is out against them they will say they are troubled for their sin but the truth is it 's the affliction that doth trouble them rather than their sin their heart doth exceedingly deceive them in this very thing For First They were never troubled for their sin before this Affliction came but you will say It 's true I was not before for my prosperity blinded me but now God hath opened mine eyes by afflictions Hath he so Secondly Then thy great care will be rather for the removing of thy sin than thy affliction art thou more solicitous about the taking away thy sin than the taking away of thine affliction Thirdly If it be thy sin that troubles thee if God should take away thy afflictions yet except thy sin be taken away and thy heart be better this would not content thee thou couldest not be satisfied but we see it ordinarily that if God removes their afflictions there 's no more trouble for their sin Oh! many do bely themselves in this in saying that they are so troubled for their sin and especially those that are so troubled that they are in danger to miscarry and to make away themselves there 's not one in ten thousand that are in such
obedience to thee When God cals for thy estate or any comforts that thou hast God cals for it as a pledge of thy obedience to him A Twelfth Plea Another reasoning of a murmuring heart is this Oh but after I have taken a great deal of pains for such a comfort yet then I am crost in it after a great deal of labour and pains that I have taken now to be crost Oh this goes very hard First I answer The greater crosse the more obedience and submission Secondly When thou did'st take a great deal of pains was it not with submission to God Did'st thou take pains with resolution that thou must have such a thing when thou labourest for it Then know that thou labourest not as a Christian but if thou did'st labour and take pains was it not with resignation to God Lord I am taking pains in the way of my calling but with submission I depend wholly upon thee for successe and a blessing And what was it that thou did'st aime at in thy labour was it not that thou mightest walk with God in the place that God had set thee A Christian should do so in his outward calling I am diligent in my outward calling but it is that I might obey God in it it 's true I do it that I might provide for my family but the chief thing that I aime at is That I might yeild obedience to God in the way that God hath set me Now if God cals thee to another condition to obey him in though it be by suffering thou wilt do it if thy heart be right Thirdly There will be the more testimony of thy love to God if so be thou shalt now yeeld up thy self to God in that that cost thee dear shall I offer that to God saith David that cost me nothing thy outward comforts hath cost thee much and thou hast taken much pains to obtain them and now if thou canst submit to God in the want of them I say in this thy love is more shown that thou canst offer that to God that cost thee dear Now these are the principal reasonings of a discontented heart A Thirteenth Plea There 's one Plea more that may be nam'd and that is this saith some Though I confess my affliction is somwhat hard and I feel some trouble within me yet I thank God I break not out in discontented waies to the dishonour of God I keep in although I have much ado with my own heart Oh! do not satisfie your selves with that for the distempers of your hearts and their sinful workings are as words before God My soul be silent to God That we spake of in the begining of the opening of this Scripture it is not enough for thy tongue to be silent but thy soul must be silent there may be a sullen discontentednesse of heart as well as a discontentednesse manifested in words And if thou doest not mortifie that inward sullennesse if thou beest afflicted a little more it wil break forth at last And thus the Lord I hope hath met with the cheife reasonings and Pleas for our discontent in our conditions I beseech you in the Name of God consider these things and because they do concern your own hearts you may so much the better remember them I had thought to have made a little enterance into the next head and that is some way of helping you to this grace of Contentment It is a most excellent grace of admirable use as you have heard and the contrary is very sinful and vile SERMON XI PHILIPPIANS 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content NOW we are coming to the close of this point of Contentment that Jesus Christ doth teach those that are in his School we have opened the point unto you and shewed you wherein the Art and Skill and Mystery of Christian Contentment lies and divers things in the way of application rebuking the want of this and the last day I finished that point of shewing the several Reasonings of a murmuring and discontented heart I shall now as being desirous to make an end leave what was said and proceed to what remains There are only these two things for the working of your hearts to this grace of Christian Contentment First The propounding of several Considerations for the contenting of the heart in any afflicted condition Secondly The propounding of Directions what should be done for the working of our hearts unto this The First Consideration We should consider in all our wants and inclinations to discontent The greatnesse of the mercies that we have and the meanesse of the things that we want The things we want if we be godly they are things of very small moment in comparison to the things we have and the things we have are things of very great moment for the most part that that people are discontent and murmur for the want of it is because they have not such things as reprobates have or may have why should'st thou be troubled so much for the want of that that a man or woman may have yet be a reprobate as that thy estate is not so great thy health not so perfect thy credit not so much thou mayest have all those things and yet be a reprobate now wilt thou be discontent for that that a reprobate may have I shall give you the example of a couple of godly men meeting together Anthony and Diddimus Diddimus was blind and yet a man of very excellent parts and graces Anthony askt him if he was not troubled at this his want of sight he confest he was but saith he shall you be troubled at the want of what flies and dogs have and not rather rejoyce be thankful that you have what Angels have God hath given you those good things that makes Angels glorious is not that enough to you though you want what thing a fly hath And so a Christian should reason the case with himself what am I discontented for I am discontented for want of that that a dog may have that a Devil may have that a reprobate may have shall I be discontent for not having that when as God hath given me that that makes Angels glorious Blessed be God saith the Apostle in Ephe. 1.3 that hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in heavenly places It may be thou hast not so great blessings in earthly places as some others have but if the Lord hath blessed thee in heavenly places that should content thee there 's blessings in heaven and he hath set thee here for the present as it were in heaven in a heavenly place the consideration of the greatnesse of the mercies that we have and the littlenesse of the things that God hath denyed us is a very powerful consideration to work this grace of Contentment The Second Consideration The consideration that God is beforehand with us with his mercies should content us I spake to this as an
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 bin beforehand 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 yeers of age and enjoyed his health for eight and forty yeers exceeding well and liv'd in prosperity and the two last yeers his body was exceedingly diseased 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 yeers in health I wil 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 beforehand 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 unthankfulnesse that it doth so we should blesse God for what we have had and not think that we are worse because we have had thus and thus we might have been alwaies miserable and certainly that mans condition is not very miserable that hath no other great aggravation of his misery but because once he was happy If there be nothing else to make you miserable that is no such agravation but that thou mayest bear it for there is much mercy in that that thou hadst once and therefore let that content thee A Third Consideration The consideration of the abundance of mercies that God bestows we enjoy It is a speech of Luther saith he the Sea of Gods mercies 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 flour of your house it makes a great shew 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 A Fourth Consideration Consider the way of God towards all creatures God carries on all creatures in a visicitude of several conditions as thus we have not alwaies summer but winter succeeds summer we have not alwaies day but day and night we have not alwaies fair weather but fair and foul the vegitive creatures do not alwaies flourish but the sap is in the root and they seem as if they were dead there 's a visicitude of all things in the world the Sun doth not shine alwaies to us here but there is darknesse comes after light now seeing God hath so ordered things with all creatures that there is a mixture of conditions why should we think it much that there should be a visicitude of conditions with us sometimes in a way of prosperity and sometimes in a way of affliction A Fifth Consideration A further consiadertion is this The creatures do suffer for us why should not we be willing to suffer to be servicable to God God subjects other creatures they are fain to lose their lives for us to lose what ever beauty and excellency they have to be serviceable to to us why should not we be willing to part with any thing in way of service for God certainly there is not so great a distance between other creatures and Man-kind as there is between Man-kind and God 'T is an expression of that Martyr Master Hooper that we reade of in the Book of Martyrs in labouring to work his own heart and the hearts of others to contentedness in the mid'st of his sufferings he hath this similitude and you may be put in mind of that every day saith he I look upon the creature and see what it suffers to be useful to me as thus The bruit beasts must die must be rost in the fire and boyl'd must come upon the trencher be hackt all in pieces must be chewed in the mouth and in the stomack turn'd to that which is loathsome if one should behold it and all to nourish me to be useful to my body and shall not I be willing to be made any thing for God for his service what abundance of alterations the creature comes under to be made useful for me to preserve me then if God will do so with me for his use as he doth subject the creatures to me for my use why should not I rest contented If God will take away my estate and make me poor if God will take away my life hack me in pieces put me in prison whatsoever he doth yet I shall not suffer more for God than the creature doth for me and surely I am infinitly more bound to God than the creature is to me and there is not so much difference between me and the creature as between me and God such considerations as these wrought the heart of that Martyr to contentedness in his sufferings and every time the creature is upon your trenchers you may think What! doth God make the creature suffer for my use not only for my nourishment but for my delight what am I then in respect of the infinit God A Sixth Consideration Another Consideration for the working of Contenement it is To consider that we have but a little be time in this world If thou beest godly thou shalt never suffer but only in this world why do but shut your eyes and presently another life is come as that Martyr said to his fellow Martyr Do but shut your eyes saith he the next time they are opened you shall be in another world Athanasius saith it is but a little cloud when he was banished and it will be over notwithstanding presently These Afflictions they are but for a moment a Marriner when he is abroad doth not think it much if a storm arises especially if he can see the Heavens cleer beyond it saith he it will be over presently Consider we have not long to live it may be it may be over before our daies be at an end but suppose it should not death will put an end to all all Afflictions and troubles will soon be at an end by death A Seventh Consideration is this Consider the condition that others have been in that have bin our betters We made some use of that before to shew the evil of discontentment But further for to work this upon our hearts it is a mighty Argument to work upon our hearts a contentedness in any condition Thou many times doest consider who are above thee but consider
was against such and such particular men as especially your Ministers that were most faithful and conscionable they were the fore-front they did bear the brunt and it was aimed especially against them now the case is far different when the aime of the Adversary is against particulars and not against the godly in general when it is against particulars there may be all lawful means by an avoyding and flying when it is against the godly in general then every one should stand still and keep in their waies and stations to come in and adde what strength they can to the publick cause and certainly those that shall shift then and think to fly then God may justly meet with them as we reade of Jeremiah and Vrijah Vrijah the Priest he flies in publick time of danger and he was sent for and catched and put to death Jeremiah staies and is saved But when the case is the danger of particular persons then it is nothing against this text to fly in any lawful way many people will cry out against flying by a lawful way in times of danger because they think they may shift from flying themselves and if others that are in danger should not do so they would be far enough from helping and assisting them in extremities and yet they will be crying out against it Peter Martyr I remember hath this answer to it It is just for all the world in this case as a man that hath a dangerous sicknesse upon him and the Physicians tell him there is no way but by taking such strong Physick or by cutting off a leg or a limb now he comes and pleads I will not so distrust God and be so impatient of my present pain as to take such a course to help me I 'le rather continue patient and quiet and endure my present pain and trust in God rather than put my self to any such hazard now is this man more patient than another man that will take such strong Physick or have a member cut off is it through the strength of his patience no it is rather through the weaknesse of his spirit because the other is a certain great pain and hazard and while he goes on in the use of ordinary means he hath a lesser pain with hope that he may be delivered from a greater and preserved himself So this is the Objection against flying in particular danger because the flying is a certain great suffering they that have fled have found it so now others will rather satisfie themselves to endure a little uncertain suffering than to go upon a certain great suffering and that is the very ground But that this is not against Faith at all to fly in danger when it is particularly aimed at particulars I 'le give you but a Scripture or two for that to cleer it that it is not against Faith It is remarkable we might spend a great deal of our time in this case here but I have done with it in the 10. of Matthew When they persecute you saith Christ in this Citie fly into another he speaks of particular persecution of this or that body and not of a whole Kingdom now flee say they we will be more beleeving and trust in God and not be afraid have we not a good cause and is not God with us this would argue too much fear Mark in the next words Christ speaks after he had given them liberty and commanded them to flie saith he fear them not therefore though it is the next thing he speaks of in the 28. verse and fear not them that can kill the body you see these two can well stand together that there is not fear of them that can kill the body and yet there is a flying and so Christ himself flies in the 12. of Matthew when he did but hear what Herod did to John when Jesus knew it that was when the Pharisees sought him when he knew it he did withdraw himselfe in the 12 and 13. verses And when Jesus heard of it be departed thence c. When he heard but what was done to John Christ withdrew himself and went away Therefore it may stand with faith so to avoid danger in particular Cases But now when persecution is general we are to stand still and not avoid our station The third thing in this stand still of faith is The looking up for the Salvation of God the expecting a good issue one way or other I know not how Salvation wil come but that there will be Salvation one way or other that my soul rests upon I stand not still out of stoutness of spirit or because I think I have means enough to resist whether I have means or no when I am put into the greatest extremitie yet I can stand still and look for Salvation What stand still and look for the Salvation of the Lord what talk you of Salvation might they say to Moses when there is nothing but distruction before us True if you look before you behind you and without you and within your selves there is nothing but distruction yet look up to Heaven and there is salvation stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord. I have done no more than the meer openning of the text and what is contayned in it There are these 4. Doctrinal Conclusions in the Text. 1. Doct. That when God is in a way of mercy and salvation to his people he doth many times bring them into great straights even then when he is in a way of Salvation 2. Doct. That in time of these great straights even the people of God are subject to have their hearts to be overwhelmed with trouble distracting fears and to be disquieted 3. Doct. That it is our duty to stand still keep quiet and look for Gods Salvation in the time of the greatest straights 4. Doct. That the sight of Gods Salvation coming after straights is a glorious sight to behold Stand still see the savation of God These are the 4. For the first then First When God is in a way of salvation yet he may and doth divers times bring his people into very great staits Truly this straight in the text is exceeding remarkable but I 'le shew you further how when God was about to save this people of Israel out of the Egyption bondage which is the work God hath now to do with us to save us out of the Egyptian bondage that we were in and that we were going further into after they were delivered from this straight from Pharaoh and all his host yet in the 15. Chap. you shall find the very next Chapter after they were come out of the Sea they presently wanted water to drink yea the waters were bitter that they could not drink them saith the text 15. vers The waters were bitter they could not drink them they were ready to perish for want of water As soon as ever they were delivered out of that strait mark the 16. Chap. they were in
come up can you then trust in God I that is somewhat-like but because we trust so much in our selves therefore when the time cometh we should trust in God God withdraws himself from us and we are most afraid Vse This is that we should lay our hands upon our hearts and charge our souls for and be ashamed for before the Lord Never a one here but hath cause to lay his hand upon his heart and say Oh that I that have had so much experience of God of his waies of helping and delivering me out of six troubles and seven and yet the Lord knows upon any new trouble I am to seek as much as ever and in any hurly-burly in as great distemper of fear as ever be ashamed of this before the Lord. It is true Gods people may be so and you are so therefore be ashamed of it and labour to prepare for such times those that are troubled with fainting fits use to carry their bottle of Aqua-vitae about with them so you that have been disquieted in times of trouble lay up somewhat that may help in those times Though a candle light will serve to carry in a yard in calme weather yet it must be a torch a great light that must serve when the wind blows so a little may serve now but a great deal must be laid up for times of extremity First Lay up encouraging Promises Secondly Lay up encouraging experiences that may help you against such times of fainting and trouble Vse 2. But then if it be so with the Saints and Gods own people that when they are in straights they are so ready to be troubled with distracting fears cares what shal become of the wicked and ungodly then when they come in straights how must their hearts sink in horror because all their straights are no other but the beginning of eternal straights present sorrows making away to eternal sorrows the way of their deliverance from present straights is by being brought into greater straights many women with child have strong pains in their child birth yet when they think they shall be delivered they have joy in stead of sorrow but a woman that is with child and is only reprieved because she is with child till she be delivered though she have a great deal of trouble and pain before she be delivered she desires not to be rid of it because then she knows she shall come to greater to be hang'd and if she could live seven yeers together and never be delivered she could be content with the trouble because when that is gone greater comes So wicked and ungodly men that are in great straights for the present may well be content with them because when they are gone greater will come 3. Doct. In the time of these straights it is our duty to stand stil and look for Gods salvation to quiet our spirits and look up to God First For the quieting of our spirits As they were to be delivered out of this bondage in that way so they were to be delivered out of the Babilonish bondage in the same way So you shall find it Isa 30. see what God saith for that deliverence he tels them plainly at the 15. vers In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength and you would not In quietness and confidence it 's true they were in a passionat way and God tels them that in quietness and in confidence is their strength and they would not So come to many people that are in great extremities to some women and others when they are wringing their hands and hanging about their husbands necks and tel them your confidence must be in quietness they wil be ready to row you off But they would not saith God So in Isa 30.7 I cried concerning this Their strength is to sit still My Brethren this day in the Name of God do I cry concerning al our straights after we have used all the means we can we are to sit still and see the salvation of our God to quiet our hearts with this beleeving stand stil and look up to God for our salvation It was their great fault they did not so in their deliverance out of their captivity there is one remarkable place for that Jer. 31.22 How long wilt thou go about Oh thou backsliding daughter for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth How long wilt thou go about Oh thou backsliding daughter What 's the meaning of this text It is thus In the time of their deliverance from Captivity they met with a great deal of difficulty many straights and they went about to this and that sharking course and did backslide when they were in a good way they went back again and the Prophet could not get the◠〈◊〉 stand stil 〈◊〉 â—ny way as if he should have said go on right in the way be not discouraged by difficulties by extremities seck not any shifting way be not backsliding but stand to your tackling and work God hath set you about for the Lord hath created a new thing Perhaps you will say there was never the like straight we are in well God hath such mercy as he never shewed the like before God hath created a new thing many cry out in their straights O my affliction and my straitght is such as never was in the world well gratifie them so as many times we must needs gratifie distemper'd spirits when they cry out of the greatness of their straights yet is there no comfort for them to stay them yes Isa 64.4 It was never known since the beginning of the world what God hath laid up for them that wait for him Do but wait for him and there was never such mercy shown in the world as God hath laid up for thee so that come let us grant it that there was never the like of that affliction that thou art under yet there is reason enough for thee to wait and look for the salvation of God in such a way in such a condition I shall give some reasons of that part of the doctrine that we are to stand still and be quiet for by our standing still and our quieting our hearts in our straights 1. Reas We are fit to look to the Wisdom Faithfulness and Power of God we are not able to see Gods Wisdom Faithfulness and Power nor to make use of it except we get our spirits to be quiet first get them quiet and then we can look up to God Psalm 46.10 Be still saith the text and know that I am God there is a God in Heaven that can help and succour in time of great straights and extremities but for all this people are in a hurly-burly and their spirits are distemper'd and they are wringing their hands and crying they cannot know that God is God they can have no use of all the power and goodnesse and faithfulnesse and mercy of God First get your hearts still and quiet in your Families and in
Dishonour A Christian discontented when God is dishonoured Page 15 Dispose see Freely Disquiet Disquiet the the cause of Gods departing Page 168 See Murmuring Duty Duty of a Christian in prosperity Page 89 What unfits for duty Page 134 God accepts of weak duty Page 156 Sence of affliction hinders not duty Page 165 E Efficacy Efficacy of Gods providence Page 95 Ever God gives grace for ever Page 184 Evil Evil of afflictions taken from Gods children Page 56 Excellency Excellency of God how we come neer it Page 117 Excellency of God what ibid Expectation Expectation of a Christian Page 132 F Faith Ordinary works done in Faith precious Page 7 Murmuring below the grace of Faith Page 131 Exercise of faith brings Contentment Page 198 See Affliction Mean Faithfulnesse God in rewarding looks to faithfulnesse Page 178 Father God the Father of a Christian Page 126 We should labour for the Spirit of our Father Page 129 Feel What we feel to be preferred to others fancies Page 205 Fill see God Fit God knows what afflictions are fit Page 174 Grace makes fit for any condition ibid Foolish Discontent a foolish sin 138 139 Frame Contentment a frame of spirit Page 9 Free Freely c. A Christian freely submits to God Page 15 Freedom what Page 16 God gives freely Page 42 Freeness of Gods mercies aggravate sin Page 158 Fretting Fretting opposite to a quietnss of spirit Page 6 G Glory What a Christian hath here is an earnest of glory Page 43 Glory of God wherein it appears Page 105 Glory to be given God in the enjoyment of blessings Page 193 God To look up to God in all conditions Page 19 Nothing can fill the heart but God Page 28 Happiness of a Saint in God Page 38 Saints enjoy all in God Page 49 Outward comforts taken away when they keep us from God Page 50 See Life Creature Excellency Walk Good Christians of themselves unfit to receive good Page 70 We should not be discontent that God is good to others Page 173 God doth good to his by afflictions Page 193 See Sanctifie Christ Grace Grace much exercised in Contentment Page 103 Grace the strength of it ibid Grace better than the Creature Page 113 Discontent contrary to Grace Page 122 Grace should content us without the world Page 193 See Beauty Gracious Contentment a gracious frame of heart Page 13 Great Afflictions not so great as our sins Page 172 Affliction greater for murmuring Page 173 Not to promise our selves great things Page 200 H Habitual Contentment an habitual frame Page 13 Had To praise God for what we had Page 188 Heart Contentment quiets the heart Page 5 The heart to be let out to God Page 67 The knowledge of our own hearts Page 82 Benefits of knowing our own heart Page 84 A great evil to be given up to our own heart Page 91 Rising of the heart Page 135 Distempers of the heart how esteemed with God Page 185 See Gracious Heaven Heaven in the souls of the Saints here Page 59 Things of Heaven real to a Saint Page 67 Heaven what Page 114 Contentment better than Heaven ibid Help Help of a Christian what Page 132 No help by discontent Page 139 High see Calling Angels Honour What is the greatest honour God hath of us in this world Page 81 Humble We should not murmur when God would humble us Page 161 See Contentment I Idle see Discontent Joy Joy immoderat how known Page 206 Injoy Godly men content with that that they injoy Page 4 Good men injoy what they have Page 116 See God Inward Inward discontent Page 4 Inward content ibid Judgment Many not content in their judgement Page 11 See Affections K Kind To submit to afflictions of every kind Page 22 King The soul subdued to Christ as King Page 124 Every Christian a King Page 128 L Life Life of a Saint where it is Page 56 Conversion a work all our life Page 125 Long Long afflictions not to be murmured at Page 163 Look Afflictions to be looked for Page 171 Care in afflictions not looked for Page 172 Losse No loss of us if we perish Page 71 Love Love of God in what a Christian hath Page 41 Love in afflictions to the godly Page 44 Love in a Christians estate Page 110 Love to God a sign of it Page 113 Low Lowest God brings lowest when he intends the greatest mercies Page 98 Men raised from a low condition should not murmur Page 159 Obedience seen most in a low calling Page 178 The soul oft best in a low outward estate Page 180 M Man Man Gods instrument in affliction 170 Mannage see Heart Mean Actions of a mean Christian accepted Page 178 Faith makes mean works glorious ibid Mercy How the soul is fitted to receive mercy Page 106 Mercies lessened by discontent Page 135 Discontent deprives of mercies Page 139 The greater mercies the greater sin to murmur Page 150 Every man hath more mercies than afflictions Page 154 Greatness of mercies should make us content Page 187 God is beforehand with his mercies to us Page 188 See Discontent Member Every Christian a member of Christ Page 127 Mean Christians members of Christs body Page 176 Mystery Contentment a mystery 2.26 Mortified To get our hearts mortified to the world Page 200 Murmuring Murmuring opposite to quietness of spirit Page 6 Murmuring the evill of it Page 119 Murmuring a note of a wicked man Page 120 Murmuring below a Christian Page 126 Murmuring the effects of it Page 134 Murmuring breeds disquiet Page 147 Murmuring the way to relaps into it Page 150 Murmuring aggravations of it ibid See Affection Rebellion Losse Child Curse Mercy Small N Nature see Angels Necessary The knowledge of one thing necessary Page 74 Nothing How a Christian comes to know he is nothing Page 69 A Christian of himself can do nothing Page 70 Naturally we are worse than nothing Page 71 See Deserve Use O Obedience When God gives in love we should return in obedience Page 184 The greater affliction the more obedience ibid One All Gods works from eternity but one Page 96 P Pain Pain sanctified to a Christian how Page 46 Parts Discontent aggravated in men of parts Page 158 Passage see Portion People Gods dealing with his people Page 97 Three things in Gods way with his people Page 98 Perfection see Uprightnesse Particular The Creatures particular comforts Page 113 Pity Pity to men that deal ill with us Page 171 Plague Promises concerning the Plague 54 55 56. Plea see Discontent Portion A Christian not content with little for his portion Page 28 Possesse Men discontent for what they possesse Page 159 Poverty Poverty sanctified by Christs poverty Page 45 See Prosperity Prayers How we undoe our prayers Page 133 Praise see Had Profession Profession of a Christian Page 131 Promise Promises performed more literally to the Jews 54.64 Gods liberty in performing temporal promises Page 55 Christians have interest in all former promises Page 65 See Covenant
complacency in Gods dispose ibid 8 In Gods dispose Page 19 9 In every condition Page 20 We must submit to God in every affliction 1 For the kind Page 22 2 For the time Page 23 3 For the variety 25 Contentment a Mysterie Page 26 1 A Christian is content yet unsatisfied Page 27 2 A Christian comes to Contentment by substraction Page 29 3 By adding another burden to that he hath Page 31 4 By changing the affliction into another Page 33 5 By doing the work of his condition Page 35 6 By melting his will into Gods will Page 37 7 By purging out that that is within 38 8 He lives by the dew of Gods blessing Page 40 1 He hath the love of God in that he hath Page 41 2 It is sanctified for his good ib 3 There is no after-reckoning for it Page 42 4 It is by the purchase of Christ 5 It is an earnest of glory he reafter Page 43 9 A Christian sees Gods love in affliction Page 44 10 His afflictions sanctified in Christ Page 45 11 He fetches strength from Christ Page 47 12 He makes up his wants in God Page 49 13 He fetcheth Contentment from the Covenant Page 53 Objection concerning the plague Answered Page 54 He supplieth wants by what he finds in himself Page 57 He fetches supply from the CoveCovenant Page 61 1 In General ibid 2 From particular premises Page 64 14 He reallizeth the things of Heaven Page 67 15 He letteth his heart out to God ibid Lessons whereby Christ teacheth Contentment 1 Self-denial Whereby a Christian knows Page 68 1 That he is nothing Page 69 2 That he deserves nothing ibid 3 That he can do nothing Page 70 4 That he can receive no good of himself ibid 5 If God withdraw himself he can mak use of nothing ibid 6 That he is worse than nothing Page 71 7 That there is no loss of him if he perish ibid 8 That he comes to rejoyce in Gods waier Page 72 2 Lesson To know the vanity of the Creature Page 73 3 Lesson To know that one thing wherefore Page 74 4 Lesson To know his relation in this world Page 76 5 Lesson Wherein the good of the Creature is Page 79 6 Lesson The knowledge of his own heart Page 82 Which helps to Contentment 1 By discovering wherein discontent lies ibid 2 By knowing what is sutable to our condition Page 83 3 By this we know what we are able to mannage Page 84 7 Lesson To know the burden of a prosperous estate Page 85 Which is four fold 1 The burden of trouble ibid 2 The burden of danger Page 86 3 The burden of duty Page 89 4 The burden of account ibid 8 Lesson A great evil to be given up to our own hearts desire Page 91 9 Lesson The right knowledge of of Gods providence Page 94 Wherein four things 1 The universality of it ibid 2 The efficacy of it Page 95 3 The variety of it ibid 4 Gods particular dealing with his people Page 97 In three things 1 They are ordinarily in affliction Page 98 2 When he intends them greatest mercies he brings them lowest ibid 3 He works by contraries Page 99 The Excellency of Contentment 1 Excellency By it we give God his due worship Page 101 2 Excel In it there is much exercise of grace 103 1 There is much strength of grace ibid 2 There is much beauty of grace Page 104 3 Excel The soul is fitted to receive mercy Page 106 4 Excel It is fitted to do service Page 107 5 Excel Contentment delivers from temptation Page 108 6 Excel It brings abundance of comfort Page 110 7 Excel It fetcheth in that that we possess not Page 111 In 4 particulars 8 Excel Contentment a great blessing of God upon the soule Page 115 9 Excel A contented man may expect reward Page 116 10 Excel By Contentment the soul comes neerest the Excellency of God himself Page 117 Use 1 To be humbled for want of Contentment Page 118 The Evils in a murmuring spirit 1 It is an Argument of much corruption in the soul Page 119 2 It is a note of a wicked man Page 120 3 Murmuring is accounted Rebellion Page 121 4 It is exceeding contrary to grace in conversion Page 122 The works of God in conversion 1 To make us sensible of the evil in sin Page 123 2 A sight of the excellency of Christ ibid 3 Taking the heart from the creature ibid 4 Casting the soul on Christ for all good Page 124 5 Subduing the soul to Christ as King ibid 6 Giving up the soul to God in Covenant Page 125 5 Evil Murmuring below a Christian Page 126 1 Below his relation 1 To God as a Father ibid 2 To Christ as a Spouse ibid 3 To Christ as a Member Page 127 4 To Christ as a Co-heir ibid 5 To Gods Spirit as a temple ib. 6 To Angels as one with them ib. 7 To Saints as of the same body ibid 2 Below his dignity Every Christian a King Page 128 3 It is below the spirit of a Christian Page 129 4 Below the profession of a Christian Page 131 5 Below the grace of faith ibid 6 Below the helps of a Christian Page 132 7 Below the expectation of a Christian ibid 8 Below what other Christians have done Page 133 6 Evill by murmuring we undo our prayers ibid 7 Evil The effects of a murmuring heart 1 Loss of much time Page 134 2Vnfitness for Duty ibid 3 Wicked risings of heart Page 135 4Vnthankfulness ibid 5 Shifting Page 138 8 Evil Discontent a foolish sin ibid 1 It takes away the comfort of what we have ibid 2 We cannot help our selves by it Page 139 3 It causeth foolish carriage to God and man ibid 4 It takes out the sweetness of mercies before they come ibid 5 It makes Affliction worse Page 141 9 Evil It provokes the wrath of God ibid 19 Evil There is a curse upon it Page 146 11 Evil There is much of the spirit of Satan in it Page 147 12 Evill It brings an absolute necessity of disquiet ibid 13 Evil God may justly withdraw his protection from such ibid Aggravations of the sin of murmuring 1 Aggravation The greater the mercies the greater the sin of murmuring Page 150 2 Agrav When we murmur for smal things Page 157 3 Agrav When men of parts and abilities murmur Page 158 4 Agrav The freeness of Gods mercy ibid 5 Agrav Discontent for what we have Page 159 6 Agrav When men are raised from a low condition ibid 7 Agrav When men have been great sinners Page 160 8 Agrav When those murmur that are of little use in the world Page 161 9 Agrav To murmur when God is about to humble us ibid 10 Agrav When Gods hand is apparant in an affliction Page 162 11 Agrav To murmur under long afflictions Page 163 Pleas of a discontented heart 1 Plea I am but sensible of my affliction 1 Sense
and then when they have got into that condition they are stil as far from Contentment as before No no let me consider what is the duty of my present condition and content my heart with this and say Well though I am in a low condition yet I am serving the counsels of God in that condition wherein I am it is the counsel of God that hath brought me into this condition that I am in and I desire to serve the counsel of God in that condition There is a notable Scripture concerning David it is said of him That he served his Generation after David had served his Generation according to the will of God then he slept It is a Speech of Paul concerning him in Act. 13.36 So it is in your books After he had served his generation according to the will of God But now the word that is translated will it is the counsell of God and so it may be translated as well That after David in his generation had served Gods counsel then he fell asleep We ordinarily take the words thus That David served his generation that is He did the work of his generation that is to serve a mans generation But it is more plain if you reade it thus After David in his generation had served the Counsell of God then David fell asleep O that should be the care of a Christian to serve out Gods Counsels What is the Counsel of God The conditiō that I am in God doth put me into it by his own Counsel the Counsel of his own will Now I must serve Gods Counsel in my generation look what is the Counsel of God in my condition I must look to serve that and so I shall have my heart quieted for the present and shall live and die peaceably and comfortably if I be carefull to serve Gods Counsel A Sixt thing in the mystery of Contentment is this A gracious heart is contented by the melting of his will and desires into Gods will and desires by this means he gets Contentment and this is a mystery to a carnal heart It is not by having his own desires satisfied as before but by melting his will and desires into Gods will So that he comes to have in one sense his desires satisfied though he hath not the thing that before he did desire yet he comes to be satisfied in this because he makes his will to be all one with Gods will This is a little higher degree than submitting to the will of God You all say you should submit to Gods will but a Christian hath gotten beyond this that is he can make Gods will and his to be the same So it is said of beleevers that they are joyned to the Lord and are one spirit that is look what Gods will is I do not only see reason to submit to it but Gods will is my will When the soul can make over as it were it's will to God it must needs then have Contentment Others would fain get the thing they do desire O but saith a gracious heart that that God would have I would have too I will not only yeild to it but I would have it too a gracious heart hath learned this art not only to make the commanding will of God to be it's own will that is what God commands me to do I will do it but to make the providential will of God and the opperative will of God to be his will too God commands this thing which perhaps you that are Christians may have some skill in but whatsoever God works you must will as well as what God commands you must make Gods providential will and his opperative will as well your will as Gods will and so you must come to Contentment here a Christian makes over his will to God and in making over his will to God he hath no other will but only Gods as suppose a man makes over his debt to another man if that man that I owe the debt to be satisfied and contented I am satisfied because I have made it over to him and I need not be discontented and say my debt is not payd and I am not satisfied yes you are satisfied for he that you made over your debt to he is satisfied Just thus it is for all the world between God and a Christian a Christian heart makes over his will to God now then if Gods will be satisfied then I am satisfied for I have then no will of mine own it is melted into the will of God for so that is the excellency of grace grace doth not only subject the will to God but it doth melt the will into Gods will so that they are now but one will what a sweet satisfaction must the soul have then in this condition when all is made over to God You will say this is hard I will express it a little more A gracious heart must needs have satisfaction this way because godliness doth teach him this to see that his good is more in God than in himself the good of my life and comforts and my happinesse and my glory and my riches is more in God than it is in my self that perhaps we may speak too further when we come to the lessons that are to be learned But upon this it is that a gracious heart hath Contentment he doth melt his will into Gods for saith he if God have glory I have glory Gods glory is my glory and therefore Gods will is mine if God have riches then I have riches if God be magnified then I am magnified if God be satisfied then I am satisfied Gods wisdom and holinesse is mine and therefore his will must needs be mine and my will must needs be his here is the art of a Christians Contentment he melts his will into the will of God and makes over his will to God Oh Lord thou shalt choose our inheritance for us Psal 73. The Seventh thing in the Art of Contentment is this The Mystery consists not so much by bringing any thing without to make my condition more comfortable as to purge out something that is within The men of the world now when they would have Contentment and want any thing Oh they must have somewhat from without to content them but saith a godly man let me get somthing out that is in already and then I shall come to Contentment As suppose a man hath an aguish humour that makes his drink taste bitter now saith he You must put some sugar into my drink and his wife puts in some and yet the drink tastes bitter Why Because the bitternesse comes from a bitter cholerick humour within but let the Physitian come and give him a bitter potion to purge out the bitternesse that is within and then he can taste his drink well enough Just thus it is with the men of the world Oh such a condition is bitter and if I could have such and such a mercy added to this mercy
then it would be sweet now if God should put a spoonful or two of sugar in it would be bitter still But the way to Contentment is to purge out thy lusts and bitter humours Jam. 4.1 From whence are wars and strifs are they not from your lusts that are within you they are not so much from things without but from within as sometimes I have said it is not all the storms that are abroad that can make an earthquake but the vapours that are got within and so if those lusts that are within in thy heart if they were got out thy condition would be a contented condition These are the mysterious waies of godlinesse that the men of the world never think of when didest thou ever think of such a way as this is for to go and purge out the distempers of thy heart that are within Here are Seaven particulars now named there were a great many more that I had thought of and now without the understanding of these things and the practice of them you will never come to a true Contentation in your way Oh you will be bunglers in this trade of Christianity but the right perceiving of these things will help you to be instructed in it as in a Mystery SERMON III. PHILIPPIANS 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content THE Mystery of Contentment will appear yet further A gracious heart gets Contentment in a mysterious way a way that the world is not aquainted with Eightly He lives upon the dew of Gods blessing It 's the similitude of one Adrian Junius setting out a Contented man by a Grashopper leaping and skipping up and down that lives upon the dew and he hath this motto I am content with what I have and hope for better A grashopper doth not live upon the grass as other things do you cannot know what it feeds upon other things though as little as grashppers yet feed upon seeds or little flies and such things but the grashopper you know not what it feeds upon So a Christian can get food that the world knows not of in a secret way is a Christian fed by the dew of the blessing of God a poor man or woman that hath but a little which hath grace lives a more contented life than his rich neighbour that hath a great deal coming in we find it so ordinarily so that though they have but a little yet they have a secret blessing of God going in it that they are not able to expresse to any other man if you would come to them and say How comes it that you live so comfortably as you do they are not able to tell you what they have but they find there is a sweetnesse in what they do injoy and they know this by experience that they never had such sweetnesse in former times that though they had more plenty in former times than now they have yet they know they had not such sweetnesse but how this comes they cannot tell and we may shew some particulars even in that godly men do enjoy that make their condition to be sweet As now Take these four or five particulars that godly men 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 Courrier 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 injoy they injoy it in Gods love as a token of Gods love and coming from Gods eternal love unto them and this must needs be very sweet unto them 2. What they have it is sanctified to them for good Other men have what they injoy in a way of common providence but the Saints in a special way Others have what they have and there is all they have meate 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 nearer to God by what I injoy 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 Inne an 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 childs fare is meaner than the fare of the stranger the stranger hath boyld and rost and baked 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