and as God will and how God will so that our wills are melted into the will of God this is no opposition to the quietness which God requires in a contented spirit Quest But then what is this quietness of spirit opposed unto Answ To murmuring and repining at the hand of God as the discontented Israelites often did which if we our selves cannot endure either in our children or Servants much less can God bear it in us 2 To vexing and fretting which is a degree beyond murmuring It is a speech I remember of a Heathen A wise man may grieve under but not bee vexed with his afflictions There is a vast difference betwixt a kindely grieving and a distempered vexation 3 To tumultuousness of spirit When the thoughts run distractingly and work in a confused manner so that the affections are like the unruly multitude in the Acts who knew not for what end they were come together The Lord expects that you should be silent under his rod and as hee said in Acts 19.36 You ought to bee quiet and to do nothing rashly 4 To unsetledness and un fixedness of spirit whereby the heart is taken off from the present duty that God requires in our several relations both towards God our selves and others We should prize duty at a higher rate than to be taken off by every trivial occasion a Christian indeed values every service of God so much that though some may bee in the eye of the world and of natural reason a slight empty business beggarly rudiments foolishness yet seeing God calls for it the authority of the command doth so over-awe his heart that he is willing to spend himself and to be spent in the discharge of it It is an expression of Luthers ordinary works that are done in faith and from faith are more precious than Heaven and Earth And if this bee so and a Christian know it it is not a little matter that should divert him but hee should answer every avocation and resist every temptation Nehemiah did chap. 6.3 Sanballat Greshem and Tobiah when they would have hindered the building of the wall with this I am doing a great work saith he so that I cannot come down why should the work of the Lord cease 5 To distracting heart-eating cares and fears A gracious heart so estimates its union with Christ and the work that God sets it about as it will not willingly suffer any thing to come in to choak it or dead it A Christian is desirous that the Word of God should take such full possession as to divide between soul and spirit but hee would not suffer the fear and noise of evil tidings to take such impressions in his soul as to make a division and strugling there like the twins in Rebeckahs womb A great man will permit common people to stand without his doors but he will not let them come in and make a noise in his closet or bed-chamber when hee purposely retires himself from all worldly imployments So a well-tempered spirit though it may inquire after things abroad without doors in the world and suffer some ordinary cares and fears to break into the suburbs of the soul so as to have a light touch upon the thoughts Yet it will not upon any terms admit of an intrusion into the privy chamber which should bee wholly reserved for Jesus Christ as his inward Temple 6 To sinking discouragements When things fall not out according to expectation when the tyde of second causes runs so low that we see little left in the outward means to bear up our hopes and hearts That then the heart begins to reason as he in the Kings If the Lord should open the Window of Heaven how should this be Never considering that God can open the eyes of the Blinde with clay and spittle he can work above beyond nay contrary to means hee often makes the fairest flowers of mans endeavors to wither and brings improbable things to pass that the glory of enterprizes may be given to himself Nay if his people stand in need of miracles to work their deliverance miracles fall as easily out of Gods hands as to give his people daily bread Gods blessing is many times secret upon his servants that they know not which way it comes as 2 Kings 3.17 Ye shall not see wind neither shall ye see rain yet the valley shal be filled with water God would have us depend on him though we do not see means how the thing should be brought to pass else we do not shew a quiet spirit though an affliction bee upon thee let not thy heart sink under it So far as thy heart sinks and thou art discouraged under thy affliction so much thou wantest of this lesson of Contentment 7 To sinful shiftings and shirkings out for ease and help As wee see in Saul turning to the witch of Endor and his offering sacrifice before Samuel came Nay the good King Jehoshaphat joyns himself with Ahaziah 2 Chron. 20. ult And Asa goes to Benhadad King of Assyria for help not relying upon the Lord a Chron. 16.7 8 Though the Lord had delivered the Ethiopian Army into his hands consisting of a thousand thousand a Chron. 14 11. And good Jacob joyned in a lye with his mother to Isaac he was not content to stay Gods time and use Gods means but made too great haste and stept out of his way to procure the blessing which God intended for him as many do through the corruption of their hearts and weakness of their faith because they are not able to trust God and follow him fully in all things alwaies and for this cause the Lord often follows the Saints with many sore temporal crosses as wee see in Jacob though they obtain the mercy It may bee thy wretched carnal heart thinks I care not how I bee delivered so I may but get free from it Is it not so many times in some of your hearts when any cross or affliction befalls you Have you not such kinde of workings of spirit as this Oh that I could but be delivered out of this affliction any way I would not care your hearts are far from being quiet And this sinfull shifting is the next thing in opposition to this quietnesse which God requires in a contented spirit The Eighth and last thing that this quietness of spirit is opposite to is desperate risings of heart against God in a way of rebellion That is most abominable I hope many of you have learned so far to be content as to keep down your hearts from such distempers and yet the truth is not only wicked men but sometimes the very Saints of God find the beginnings of this when an affliction lies long and is very sore and heavy upon them indeed and strikes them as it were in the master vein they find somewhat of this in their hearts arising against God their thoughts begin to bubble and their affections begin to stir in rising against
so long as God would have the affliction abide upon you to be willing to stay and not to come out of the affliction no sooner than the Lord would have you come out of it you are not content in your condition else to be content meerly that I have such a hand of God upon me and not to stay under the hand of God that is not to be content under every condition but when I can find my heart submitting to Gods dispose in such particular afflictions that are very hard and very grievous and yet my heart is quiet here is one that hath learned the lesson of Contentment Contentment it is the inward quiet gracious frame of spirit freely submitting to and taking complacency in Gods dispose in every condition That is the description Now in this there hath been Nine several things opened 1. First That Contentment is a heart work within the soul 2. Secondly It is the quieting of the heart 3. Thirdly It is the frame of the spirit 4. Fourthly It is a gracious frame 5. Fifthly It is the free working of this gracious frame 6. Sixtly There is in it a submission to God sending the soul under God 7. Seventhly There is a taking complacency in the hand of God 8. Eighthly All to Gods dispose 9. Ninthly In every condition every condition though never so hard though it continue never so long Now those of you that have learned to be Content have learned to attain unto these several things the very opening of these things I hope may so far work upon your hearts as First That you may lay your hands upon your hearts upon this that hath been said the very telling of you what the lesson is I say may cause you to lay your hands upon your hearts and say Lord I see there is more in Christian Contentation than I thought there was and I have been far from learning this lesson I indeed have learned but my A B C in this lesson of Contentment I am but in the lower forme in Christs school if I am in it at all but these we shall speak to more afterward but the special thing I aim'd at in the opening of this point is to shew how great a Mystery there is in Christian Contentment and how many several lessons are to be learned that we may come to attain to this Heavenly disposition that Saint Paul did attain to SERMON II. at Stepney Aug. 3. 1645. PHIL. 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content WEE have made entrance you may remember into the Argument of Christian Contentment And have opened the words and shewed you what this Christian Contentation is that is the inward quiet gracious frame of Spirit freely submitting to and taking Complacency in Gods dispose in every condition And therein came to this last thing In every condition Now we shall a little inlarge that and so proceed 1 Submitting to God in what ever Affliction befalls us for the kind 2 For the time and continuance of the Affliction 3 For the variety and changes of Affliction Let them be what they will yet there must be a submitting to Gods dispose in every condition First for the kind Many men and women will in the general say that they must submit to God in affliction I suppose now if you should come from one end of this Congregation to another and speak to every soul thus Would not you submit to Gods dispose in what ever condition he should dispose of you to you will say God forbid it should be otherwise but we use to say There is a great deal of deceit in generals In general you would submit to any thing but what if it be in this and that particular that is most cross to you Then any thing but that we are usually apt to think that any condition is better than the condition that God doth dispose us to now here is not Contentment it should not be only to any condition in general but for the kind of affliction if it be that which is most cross to you God it may be strikes you in your Childe Oh if it had been in my Estate saith one I should be content perhaps be strikes you in your Match Oh saith he I had rather have been strucken in my health and if he had struck you in your health Oh then if it had been in my trading I would not have cared but we must not be our own carvers what particular afflictions God shall dispose us to there must be Contentment in them Secondly There must be a submission to God in every affliction for the time and continuance of the affliction It may be faith one I could submit and be content but this affliction hath been upon me a long time a quarter of a year a year divers years and I know not how to yeild and submit to it my patience is even worn and broke yea it may it is a spiritual affliction You could submit to God you say in any outward affliction but not in a soul affliction or if it were an affliction upon the soul trouble upon the heart if it were the withdrawing of Gods face yet if this had been but for a little time I could submit but seeking of God so long a time and yet God doth not appear Oh how shall I bear this We must not be our own disposers for the time of deliverance no more than the kind and way of deliverance and I will give you a Scripture or two about this That we are to submit unto God for the time as well as the kind in the latter end of the 1. Chapter of Ezek. When I saw it I fell upon my face and heard a voyce of one that spake the Prophet was cast down upon his face but how long must he lie upon his face And he said unto me Son of man stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee and the Spirit entred into me when he spake unto me and set me upon my feet Ezekiel was cast down upon his face and there he must lie till God bid him stand up yea and not only so but till Gods Spirit came into him to enable him to stand up So when God casts us down we must be content to lie till God bid us stand up and Gods Spirit enter into us to enable us to stand up So you know Noah he was put into the Ark certainly he knew there was much affliction in the Ark having all kind of creatures shut up with him for twelve months together it was a mighty thing yet God shutting him up though the waters were asswaged Noah was not to come out of the Ark till God bid him So though we be shut up in great afflictions and we may think there may be this that and the other means to come out of that affliction yet till God doth open the door we should be willing to stay God hath put us in and God
glued to another you cannot take off but you must rend it so it s a sign thy heart is glued to the world that when God would take thee off thy heart rends if God by an affliction should come to take any thing in the world from thee if thou canst part from it with ease without rending it s a sign then that thy heart is not glued to the world 4. A Fourth Work of God in converting of a sinner is this The easting the soul upon Jesus Christ for all its good I see Jesus Christ in the Gospel the Fountain of all Good and God out of free Grace tendering him to me for life and for salvation and now my soul casts its self rouls its self upon the infinite Grace of God in Christ for all good now hast thou done so hath God converted thee and drawn thee to his Son to cast thy soul upon him for all thy good and yet art thou discontented for the want of some little matter in a Creature-comfort art thou he that hath cast thy soul upon Jesus Christ for all good as he saith in another case Is this thy faith 5. The soul is subdued to God and then it comes to receive Jesus Christ as a King to rule to order and dispose of him how he pleases and so the heart is subdued unto God Now how opposite is a murmuring discontented heart to a heart subdued to Jesus Christ as a King and receiving him as a Lord to rule and dispose of him as he pleases 6. There is in the work of thy turning to God the giving up of thy self to God in an everlasting Covenant as thou takest Christ the head of the Covenant to be thine so thou givest up thy self to Christ In the work of Conversion there is the resignation of the soul wholly to God in an everlasting Covenant to be his hast thou ever surrendred up thy self to God in an everlasting Covenant then certainly this thy fretting murmuring heart is mighty opposite to it certainly thou forgettest this Covenant of thine and the Resignation of thy self up to God It would be a marvellous help to you to humble your souls when you are in a murmuring condition if you could but obtain so much liberty of your own spirits as to look back to see what the work of God was in Converting you there is nothing would prevail more than to think of that I am now in a murmuring discontented way But how did I feel my soul working when God did turn my soul to himself Oh how opposite is this to that work and how unbeseeming Oh what shame and confusion would come upon the spirits of men and women if they could but compare the work of corruption in their murmuring and discontent with the work of God that was upon their souls in Conversion Now we should labour to keep the work of God upon our souls that was at our Conversion for Conversion must not be only at one instant at first men are deceived in this if they think their Conversion is finished meerly at first thou must be in a way of Conversion to God all the days of thy life and therefore Christ saith to his Disciples Except ye be converted and become as little children Ye be converted Why were they not converted before Yes they were converted but they were to continue the work of conversion all the days of their lives and what work of God there is at the first Conversion it is to abide afterwards As thus Always there must abide some sight and sense of sin it may be not in the way which you had which was rather a preparation than any thing else but the sight and sense of sin it is to continue still that is you are still to be sensible of the burthen of sin as it is against the Holiness and Goodness and Mercy of God unto thee and the sight of the Excellency of Jesus Christ is to continue and thy Calling out of the Creature and the Casting thy soul upon Christ as a King still receive him day by day and the Subduing of thy heart and the Surrendring of thy self up to God in the way of Covenant now if this were but daily continued there would be no space nor time for Murmuring to work upon thy heart That 's the Fourth Particulan The Fifth thing in the evil of Discontentment Murmuring and discontentment is exceeding below a Christian Oh! it is too mean and base a distemper for a Christian to give place to it Now it 's below a Christian in many respects 1. How below the relation of a Christian The relation to which thou standest With what relation you will say First The relation thou standest in to God Dost not thou call God thy Father and dost not thou stand in relation to him as a childe what thou murmurer In 2 Sam. 13.4 It 's a Speech of Jonadab to Ammon Why art thou being the Kings Son lean from day to day wilt thou not tell me and so he told him but that was for a wicked cause he perceived that his spirit was troubled for otherwise he was of a fat and plump temper of body but because of trouble of spirit he was even pin'd away why what 's the matter thou that standest in this relation to the King and yet any thing should trouble thy heart that 's his meaning is there any thing that should disquiet thy heart and yet standest in such a relation to the King the Kings Son So I may say to a Christian Art thou the Kings Son the Son the Daughter of the King of Heaven and yet so disquieted and troubled and vext at every little thing that falls out as if a Kings Son should cry out he is undone for losing a bable what an unworthy thing were this So dost thou thou criest out as if thou wert undone and yet a Kings Son thou that standest in such relation to God as unto a Father thou doest dishonor thy Father in this as if so be either he had not wisdome or not power or not mercy enough to provide for thee 2. The relation that thou standest in to Jesus Christ thou art the Spouse of Christ what one married to Jesus Christ and yet troubled and discontented Hast thou not enough in him doth not Christ say to his Spouse as Elkanah said to Hannah 1 Sam. 1.8 Am not I better to thee than ten sons So doth not Christ thy Husband say to thee Am not I better to thee than thousands of riches comforts such comforts as thou murmurest for want of hath not God given thee his Son and will he not with him give thee all things hath the love of God been to thee to give thee his Son in way of marriage why art thou discontented and murmuring consider thy relation to Jesus Christ as thou art a Spouse and married to him his Person is thine and so all the riches of Jesus Christ is thine as the riches of
strength from Christ Page 47 12 He makes up his wants in God Page 49 13 He fetches Contentment from the Covenant Page 53 Objection concerning the Plague Answered Page 54 SERMON IV. He supplieth wants by what he findes in himself Page 57 He fetches supply from the Covenant Page 61 1 In General ib. 2 From Particular promises Page 64 14 He reallizeth the things of Heaven Page 67 15 He letteth his heart out to God ibid. Lessons whereby Christ teacheth Contentment 1 Self denial Page 68 Whereby a Christian knows 1 That he is nothing Page 69 2 That he deserves nothing ib. 3 That he can do nothing Page 70 4 That he can receive no good of himself ib. 5 If God withdraw himself he can make use of nothing ib. 6 That he is worse than nothing Page 71 7 That there is no loss of him if he perish ib. 8 That he comes to rejoyce in Gods waies Page 72 2 Lesson To know the vanity of Creatures Page 73 3 Lesson To know that one thing necessary Page 74 SERMON V. 4 Lesson To know his relation in this world Page 76 5 Lesson Wherein the good of the Creature is Page 79 6 Lesson The knowledge of his own Heart Page 82 Which helps to Contentment 1 By discovering where discontent lies ib. 2 By knowing what is suitable to our condition Page 83 3 By this wee may know what wee are able to mannage Page 84 7 Lesson To know the burden of a prosperous estate Page 85 Which is fourfold 1 The burden of trouble ib. 2 The burden of danger Page 86 3 The burden of Duty Page 89 4 The burden of account ib. 8 Lesson A great evil to be given up to our own hearts desire Page 91 SERMON VI 9 Lesson The right knowledge of Gods providence Page 94 Wherein four things 1 The Universality of it ib. 2 The Efficacy of it Page 95 3 The Variety of it ib. 4 Gods particular dealing with his people Page 97 In three things 1 They are ordinarily in affliction Page 98 2 When he intends them greatest mercies hee brings them lowest ib. 3 How he works by contraries Page 99 The Excellency of Contentment 1 Excellency By it we give God his due worship Page 101 2 Excellency In it there is much exercise of grace Page 103 1 There is much strength of grace ib. 2 There is much beauty of grace Page 104 3 Excel The soul is fitted to receive mercy Page 106 4 Excel It is fitted to do service Page 107 5 Excel Contentment delivers from temptation Page 108 6 Excel It brings abundance of comfort Page 110 7 Excel It fetcheth in that which we possess not Page 111 In four Particulars SERMON VII 8 Excel Contentment a great blessing of God upon the soul Page 115 9 Excel A contented man may expect a reward Page 116 10 Excel By contentment the soul comes nearest the excellency of God himself Page 117 Use 1 To be humbled for want of Contentment Page 118 The Evils in a murmuring spirit 1 It is an argument of much Corruption in the soul Page 119 2 It is a note of a wicked man Page 120 3 Murmuring is accounted rebellion Page 121 4 It is exceeding contrary to grace in conversion Page 122 The works of God in Conversion 1 To make us sensible of the evil in sin Page 123 2 A sight of the Excellency of Christ ib. 3 Taking the heart from the Creature ib. 4 Casting the soul on Christ for all good Page 124 5 Subduing the soul to Christ as King ib. 6 Giving up the soul to God in Covenant Page 125 5 Evil Murmuring below a Christian Page 126 1 Below his Relation 1 To God as a Father ib. 2 To Christ as a Spouse ib. 3 To Christ as a Member Page 127 4 To Christ as a Co-heir ib. 5 To Gods Spirit as a Temple ib. 6 To Angels as one with them ib. 7 To Saints as of the same body ib. 2 Below his dignity Every Christian a King Page 128 3 It is below the Spirit of a Christian Page 129 4 Below the profession of a Christian Page 131 5 Below the grace of Faith ib. SERMON VIII 6 Below the helps of a Christian Page 132 7 Below the expectation of a Christian ib. 8 Below what other Christians have done Page 133 6 Evil By murmuring we undo our prayers ib. 7 Evil The effects of a murmuring heart 1 Loss of much time Page 134 2 Unfitness for Duty ib. 3 Wicked risings of heart Page 135 4 Unthankfulness ib. 5 Shifting Page 138 8 Evil Discontent a foolish sin ib. 1 It takes away the comfort of what we have ib 2 We cannot help our selves by it Page 139 3 It causeth foolish carriage to God man ib 4 It takes out the sweetness of mercies before they come ib. 5 It makes affliction worse Page 141 9 Evil It provokes the wrath of God ib. 10 Evil There is a curse upon it Page 146 11 Evil There is much of the Spirit of Satan in it Page 147 12 Evil It brings an absolute necessity of disquiet ib. 13 Evil God may justly withdraw his protection from such ib. Aggravations of the sin of Murmuring 1 Aggravation The greater the mercies the greater the sin of murmuring Page 150 SERMON IX 2 Aggrav When we murmur for small things Page 157 3 Aggrav When men of parts and abilities murmur Page 158 4 Aggrav The freeness of Gods mercy ib. 5 Aggrav Discontent for what we have Page 159 6 Aggrav When men are raised from a low condition ib. 7 Aggrav When men have been great sinners Page 160 8 Aggrav When those murmur that are but of little use in the world Page 161 9 Aggrav To murmur when God is about to humble us ib. 10 Aggrav When Gods hand is apparent in affliction Page 162 11 Aggrav To murmur under long affliction Page 163 Pleas of a discontented heart 1 Plea I am not sensible of my afflictions 1 Sense of affliction takes not away sense of mercies Page 165 2 It hinders not Duty ib 3 It will make us bless God for the mercies of others ib. 2 Plea My trouble is for my sins 1 It is not if you were not troubled for sin before Page 166 2 What the greatest care is to remove affliction ib. 3 If after affliction is removed sin trouble us ib. 4 If there be not care to avoid sin after Page 167 5 There is the more cause to accept of the punishment ib. 3 Plea God withdraws himself 1 We think God is departed when he doth but afflict Page 168 2 Disquiet is a sign and cause of Gods departure ib. 3 If God depart from us we should not from him Page 169 4 Plea I am troubled for mens ill dealing 1 Men are Gods Instruments Page 170 2 We should rather pitty them than murmur Page 171 3 We have righteous dealing with God ib. SERMON X. 5 Plea It is an affliction I looked not for 1 It
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 will deal so with them now and so that they shall have outward prosperity as they had then therefore that is 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 time 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 believe and that is given to be the cause why he was struck with dumbness But you will say now Hath Faith warrant to believe deliverance that it shall be fully delivered I dare not say so but it may act upon it to believe 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 hath made a promise to you he will not lose 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 ways are unsearchable and his judgments past finding out God reserves these three things in his hand still Object But you will say What good is there then in such a promise that God makes to his people Answ 1. That thou art under the protection of God more than others Obj. But what comfort is this if it doth befall me Answ Thou hast this comfort that the evil 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 childe 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 childe 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 befalls 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 examine 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 evil that the people of God they may come to quiet and content their hearts in this affliction I read in this Psalm that God hath made a promise to his people to deliver them from the plague and pestilence and yet I do 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 is taken away this promise tells me that if it doth befall me yet it is for some notable end and because God hath use of my life and intends to fetch about his glory some way that I know not of And if he will come in a fatherly way of chastisement yet I will be satisfied in the thing So a Christian heart by reasoning out of the Word comes to satisfie his soul in the middest of such a heavy hand of God and in such a distressed condition as that is Now carnal hearts they find not power in the VVord that healing vertue that there is in the Word to heal their distracted cares and the troubles of their spirits but now those that are godly when they come to hear the Word they find out that in the VVord there is a plaister to all their wounds and so they come to have ease and contentment in such conditions as are very grievous and miserable unto others But now for other particular promises and more generally for the Covenant of Grace how and in what mysterious way the Saints do work to fetch out Contentment and satisfaction to their souls we shall refer to the next time SERMON IV. at Stepney Aug. 17. 1645. PHIL. 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content IN the last exercise we spoke of divers things in the mystery of Contentment and in the close we spoke of two more but we could not have time to open either of them I shall open them a little more largely and then proceed to some few more and so to other things in the point That is the next thing A Christian heart hath not only contentment in God and certainly he that hath God must have all he that hath him that hath all he hath all But he is able to make up all his outward wants of Creature-comforts from what he finds in himself That may seem to be more strange It is true perhaps we may convince men though they do not feel by experience what it is to make up all in God yet we may convince them that if they have him that hath all things then they have all for there is such a fullness in God he being the infinite first Being of all things that may make up all their wants But here is another thing that is further I say A Godiy man can make up whatsoever he wants without the creature he can make it up in himself in Proverbs 14. vers 14. A good man is satisfied in himself
that hath been in the School of Christ and hath been instructed in the Art of contentment when such a one hath an estate he thinks in that I have an estate above my brethren in this consists the good of it to me in that I have an opportunity to serve God the better and I enjoy a great deal of Gods mercy to my Soul conveyed to me through the creature and hereby I am enabled to do a great deal of good and therein I account the good of my estate Now God hath taken this away from me now if God will be pleased to make up the enjoyment of himself another way that is will call me to honor him by suffering and if I may do God as much Service now in my way of suffering that is to shew forth the Grace of his Spirit in the way of my suffering as I did in the way of prosperity I have as much of God as I had before if I may be led to God in my low condition as much as I was in my prosperous condition I have as much Comfort and Contentment as I had before Object But you will say It s true If I could honor God in my low estate as much as in my prosperous estate then it were somwhat but how can that be Answ You must know the special honor that God hath from his Creatures in this world it is The manifestation of the Graces of his Spirit It 's true God hath a great deal of honor when a man is in a publike place and so he is able to do a great deal of good To countenance Godliness and discountenance Sin but the main thing is In our shewing forth the vertues of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light Now if I can say That through Gods mercy in my affliction I find the Graces of Gods Spirit working as strongly in me as ever they did when I had my estate I am where I was yea I am fully in as good a condition for I have that good now that I had in my prosperous estate for I accounted the good of it but in my enjoyment of God and honoring of God and now God hath blest the want of it to stir up the Graces of his Spirit in my Soul and this is the work that now God calls me to and I must account God is most honored when I do the work that he calls me to He sets me a work in my prosperous estate at that time to honor him in this condition and now he sets me awork at this time to honor him in this condition Now God is most honored when I can turn from one condition to another according as he calls me to it Would you account your selves to be honored by your servants when you set them about a work that hath some excellency and they will go on and on and you cannot get them off from it Now let the work be never so good yet if you will call them off to another work you do expect that they should manifest so much respect to you as to be content to come off from that though they be set about a meaner work if it be more sutable to your ends So you were in a prosperous estate and there God called you to some service that you took some pleasure in but suppose God saith I will use you in a suffering condition and I will have you honor me in that way now here 's the honoring of God that you can turn this way or that way as God calls you to it thus now you having learned this That the good of the Creature consists in the enjoyment of God in it and the honoring of God by it you can be content because you have the same good that you had before And that 's the Fifth Lesson The Sixth Lesson that Christ doth teach the soul that he brings into this School is this He doth instruct such a man or woman in the knowledge of their own hearts you must learn this or you will never learn Contentment you must learn to know your own hearts well to be good Students of your own hearts you cannot all be Scholars in the Arts and Sciences in the world but you may all be Students in your own hearts you cannot read in the book many of you but God expects that every day you should turn over a leaf in your own hearts you will never come to get any skill in this Mystery except you study the book of your own hearts Marriners they have their books that they study those that will be good Navigators and Scholars they have their books those that study Logick they have their books according to that and those that would study Rethorick and Philosophy have their books according to that and those that study Divinity they have their books whereby they come to be helped in the Study of Divinity but a Christian next to the Book of God is to look into the book of his own heart and to read over that and this will help you to Contentment these three ways 1. By the studying of thy heart thou wilt come presently to discover wherein thy discontent lies when thou art discontented thou wilt find out the root of any discontentment if thou doest study thy heart well many men and women they are discontented and the truth is they know not wherefore they think this and the other thing is the cause but a man or woman that knows their own heart they will find out presently where the root of their discontent lies that it lies in such a corruption and distemper of my heart that now through Gods mercy I have found out It is in this case as it is with a little childe that is very froward in the house if a stranger comes in he doth not know what the matter is perhaps the stranger will give the Childe a Rattle or a Nut or such a thing to quiet it but when the Nurse comes she knows the temper and disposition of the Childe and therefore knows best how to quiet it So it is here just thus for all the world when we are strangers with our own hearts we are mightily discontented and know not how to quiet our selves because we know not wherein the disquiet lieth And indeed when we are strangers to our own hearts we cannot tell how to quiet our selves but if we be very well versed in our own hearts when any thing falls out so as to disquiet us we find out the cause of it presently and so quickly come to be quiet So a man that hath a Watch and he understands the use of every wheel and pin if it goes amiss he will presently find out the cause of it but one that hath no skill in a Watch when it goes amiss he knows not what the matter is and therefore cannot mend it So indeed our hearts are as a Watch and there are many wheels and windings and
now when the Soul comes to understand this the Soul then cries out Why am I so troubled that I have not my desires There is nothing that God conveys his wrath more through than a prosperous Estate I remember I have read of a Jewish Tradition that they say of Uzziah when God struck Vzziah with a Leprosie they say that the beams of the Sun was darted upon the forehead of Vzziah and he was struck with a Leprosie with the darting of the beams of the Sun upon his forehead the Scripture saith Indeed the Priests looked upon him but they say there was a special light and beam of the Sun upon the forehead that did discover the Leprosie to the Priests and they say it was the way of conveying of it Whether that were true or no I am sure this is true that the strong beams of the Sun of prosperity upon many men makes them to be leprous Would any poor man in the Country have been discontented that he was not in Vzziahs condition He was a great King I but there was the Leprosie in his fore-head the poor man may say though I live meanly in the Country yet I thank God my body is whole and sound would not any man rather have russet and skins of beasts to cloath him with than to have sattin and velvet that should have the Plague in it The Lord conveyes the Plague of his curse through prosperity as much as through any thing in the world and therefore the soul coming to understand this this makes it to be quiet and content And then Spiritual Judgements are the greatest Judgements of all the Lord says such an Affliction upon my outward estate but what if he had taken away my life A mans health is a greater mercy than his estate and you that are poor people you should consider of that But is the health of a mans body better than his estate what is the health of a mans soul that 's a great deal better the Lord hath inflicted external judgements but he hath not inflicted spiritual Judgements upon thee he hath not given thee up to hardness of heart and taken away the spirit of prayer from thee in thine afflicted estate Oh then be of good comfort though there be outward afflictions upon thee yet thy soul thy more excellent part is not afflicted Now when the soul comes to understand this that here lies the sore wrath of God to be given up to a mans desires and for Spiritual Judgements to be upon a man this quiets him and contents him though outward afflictions be upon him perhaps one of a mans children hath the fit of an ague or the tooth-ach but perhaps his next neighbor hath the plague or all his children are dead of the plague now shall he be so discontented because his children have the tooth-ach when his neighbors children are dead Now think thus Lord thou hast laid an afflicted condition upon me but Lord thou hast not given me the plague of a hard heart Now take these eight things before mentioned and lay them together and you may well apply that Scripture in Isa 29. the last verse saith the text there They also that erred in Spirit shall come to understanding and they that murmured shall learn Doctrine Hath there been any of you as I fear many may be found that have erred in spirit even in regard of this truth that now we are preaching of and many that have murmured Oh that this day you might come to understand that Christ would bring you into his School and teach you understanding And they that murmured shall learn Doctrine what Doctrine shall they learn These eight Doctrines that I have opened to you And if you will but throughly study these lessons that I have set before your eyes It will be a special help and means to cure your murmuring against and repinings at the hand of God And so you will come to learn Christian Contentment The Lord teach you throughly by his Spirit these Lessons of Contentment SERMON VI. at Stepney Aug. 31. 1645. PHIL. 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I Shall only adde one Lesson more in learning of Contentment and then I shall come to the Fourth Head The Excellency of Contentment The Ninth and last Lesson that Christ teaches those that he doth instruct in this Art of Contentment It is the right knowledge of Gods Providence and therein are these four things 1. The Universality of Providence that the soul must be throughly instructed in to come to this Art to understand the Universality of Providence that is how the Providence of God goes through the whole world extends it self to every thing Not onely that God by his providence doth rule the world and govern all things in general but that it reaches to every particular not onely to Kingdoms to order the great affairs of Kingdoms but it reaches to every mans Family it reaches to every person in the Family it reaches to every condition yea to every passage to every thing that falls out concerning thee in every particular not one hair falls from thy head not a Sparrow to the ground without the providence of God There 's nothing befalls thee good or evil but there is a providence of the Infinite Eternal First-being in that thing and therein indeed is Gods Infiniteness that it reaches to the least things to the least worm that is under thy feet Then much more it reaches unto thee that art a rational Creature the Providence of God is more special towards rational Creatures than any others The understanding in a spiritual way the universality of providence in every particular passage from morning to night every day that there 's not any thing that doth befall thee but there 's a hand of God in it it is from God it is a mighty furtherance to Contentment Every man will grant the truth of the thing that it is so but as the Apostle saith in Heb. 11.3 By faith we understand that the worlds were made by faith we understand it why by faith we can understand by reason that no finite thing can be from it self And therefore that the world could not be of it self but we can understand it by saith in another manner than by reason So whatsoever we understand of God in way of providence yet when Christ doth take us into his School we come to understand it by faith in a better manner than we do by reason 2. The efficacy that there is in providence that is That the providence of God goes on in all things with strength and power and it is not to be altered by our power let us be discontented and vext and troubled and fret and rage yet we must not think to alter the course of providence by our discontent Some of Jobs friends said to him Shall the earth be forsaken for thee and shall the rock be removed out of his place Job
stands still before you and is contented without it and then you will give it him And truly so doth the Lord deal with us for our dealings with him are just as your froward Children are with you as soon as you would have a thing from God if you have it not you are disquieted presently and all in an uproar as it were in your spirits God intends mercy to you but saith God you shall not have it yet I will see you quiet first and then in the quietness of your hearts come to me and see what I will do with you I appeal to you you that are any ways acquainted with the ways of God Have you not found this to be the way of God towards you when you have been troubled for want perhaps of some Spiritual comfort and your hearts were vext at it you get nothing from God all this while but now if you have got your heart into a quiet frame and can say Well it 's fit the Lord should do with us poor Creatures what he will I am under his feet and am resolv'd to do what I can to honor him and let him do with me what he will I will seek him as long as I live I will be content with what God gives and whether he gives or no I will be content yea are you in this frame saith God now you shall have comfort now I will give you the mercy A prisoner must not think to get off his fetters by pulling and tearing he may gall his flesh and rend it to the very bone certainly he will be unfettered never the sooner but if he would have his fetters taken off he must quietly give up himself to some man to take them off If a beggar after he hath knockt once or twice at the door and you come not and thereupon he is vext and troubled and thinks much that you let him stand a little while without any thing you think that this beggar is not fit to receive an alms but if you hear two or three Beggars at your door and if you hear them out at your window say Let us be content to stay perhaps they are busie it is fit that we should stay it 's well if we have any thing at last we deserve nothing at all and therefore we may well wait a while you would then quickly send them an alms So God deals with the heart when it is in a disquiet way then God doth not give but when the heart lies down quietly under Gods hand then is the heart in a fit frame to receive mercy Your strength shall be to sit still saith God you shall not be delivered from Babylon but by your sitting still 2. As fit to receive mercy so fit to do service Oh! the quiet fruits of Righteousness the peaceable fruits of Righteousness they indeed do prosper and multiply most when they come to be peaceable fruits of Righteousness As the Philosophers say of every thing that moves nothing that moves but it moves upon something that is immoveable as a thing that moves upon the earth if the earth were not still it could not move Object The Ships move upon the Sea and that is not still Answ But the Seas they move upon that which is still and immoveable there is nothing moves but it hath something immoveable that doth uphold it the wheels in a Coach they move up and down but the Axle-tree that moves not up and down so it is with the heart of man As they say of the Heaven it moves up and down upon a Pole that is immoveable so it is in the heart of man if he will move to do service to God he must have a steady heart with him that must help him to move in the service of God those that have unsteady disquiet spirits that have no stedfastness at all in them they are not fit to do service for God but such as have stedfastness in their spirits they are men and women fit to do any service and that 's the reason that when the Lord hath any great work for any servants of his to do usually he doth first quiet their spirits he doth bring their spirits into a quiet sweet frame to be contented with any thing and then he sets them about imployment The fifth excellency is this Contentment it doth deliver us from abundance of temptations Oh the temptations that men of discontented spirits are subject to The Devil loves to fish in troubled waters That 's our proverb of men and women their disposition is to fish in troubled waters they say it is good fishing in troubled waters this is the maxim of the Devil he loves to fish in troubled waters where he sees the spirits of men and women troubled and vext there the Devil comes saith he there 's good fishing for me when he sees men and women go discontented up and down and he can get them alone then he comes with his temptations saith he Will you suffer such a thing take such a shifting indirect way do not you see how poor you are others are brave you know not what you shall do against winter to provide fewel and get bread for you and your children and so he tempts them to unlawful courses this is the special distemper that the Devil fastens upon when he brings men and women to give up their souls to him it is upon discontent That the ground of all those that have been witches and so have given up themselves to the Devil the rise of it hath been their discontent and therefore it is observable that those the Devil worketh upon to make them Witches usually they are old and melancholly people and women especially and those that are of the poorer sort that are discontent at home their Neighbours trouble them and vex them and their spirits are weak and they cannot bear it so upon that the Devil fastens his temptations and draws them to any thing if they be poor then he promiseth them money if they have revengeful spirits then he tells them that he will revenge them upon such and such persons now this quiets and contents them Oh! there 's matter of temptation for the Devil where he meets with a discontented spirit As Luther saith of God God doth not dwell in Babylon but in Salem Babylon signifies confusion and Salem signifies peace now God doth not dwell in spirits that are in a confusion but he dwells in peaceable and quiet spirits O if you would free your selves from temptations labour for Contentment It is the peace of God that guards the heart from temptation I remember I have read of one Marius Curio that when he had bribes sent him to tempt him to be unfaithful to his Country he was sitting at home at dinner with a dish of turnips and they came and promised him rewards saith he that man that can be content with this fare that I have will not be tempted with your rewards I thank God
of the duty before many men when they hear of a duty they should perform they will labor to perform it but first you must be humbled for the want of it therefore that 's the thing that I shall endeavor in the Application to get your hearts to be humbled for the want of this Grace Oh had I had this Grace of Contentment what a happy life I might have lived what abundance of honor I might have brought to the Name of God and how might I have honored my profession and what a deal of comfort might I have enjoyed but the Lord knows it hath been far otherwise Oh how far have I been from this grace of Contentment that hath been opened to me I have had a murmuring a vexing and fretting heart within me every little cross hath put me out of temper and out of frame Oh the boisterousness of my spirit what a deal of evil doth God see in my heart in the vexing and fretting of my heart and murmuring and repining of my spirit Oh that God would make you to see it Now to the end that you might be humbled for the want of this I shall endeavor in these particulars to speak unto it First I shall set before you The evil of a murmuring spirit there is more evil then you are aware of In the second place I will shew you some aggravations of this evil It 's evil in all but in some more than in others Thirdly I shall labor to take away the Pleas that any murmuring discontented heart hath for this distemper of his There 's these Three things in this Use of humiliation of the soul for the want of this Grace of Contentment For the first now at this time The great evil that there is in a murmuring discontented heart In the first place This thy murmuring and discontentedness it argues much corruption that is in the soul as Contentment argues much Grace and strong Grace and beautiful Grace so this argues much Corruption and strong Corruption and very vile Corruption in thy heart As it is in a mans body If a mans body be of that temper that every scratch of a pin makes his flesh to rankle and to be a sore you will say surely this mans body is very corrupt his blood and flesh is corrupt that every scratch of a pin shall make it ranckle so it is in thy spirit if every little trouble and affliction shall make thee discontented and make thee murmur and even cause thy spirit within thee to ranckle or as it is in a wound of a mans body the evil of a wound it is not so much in the largness of the wound and in the abundance of blood that comes out of the wound but in the inflammation that there is in it or in a fretting and corroding humor that is in the wound an unskilful man when he comes and sees a large wound in the flesh looks upon it as a dangerous wound And when he sees a great deal of blood gush out he thinks these are the evils of it but when a Chyrurgion comes and sees a great gash saith he this will be healed within a few days but there 's a less wound and there 's an inflammation or a fretting humor that is in it and this will cost time saith he to cure so that he doth not lay Balsom and healing Salves upon it but his great care is to get out the fretting humor or inflammation so that the thing that must heal this wound it is some drink to purge But saith the patient what good will this do to my wound You give me somewhat to drink and my wound is in my arm or in my leg what good will this do that I put in my stomach Yes it purges out the fretting humor or takes away the inflammation and till that be taken away the salves can do no good So it is just for all the world in the souls of men it may be there is some affliction upon them that I compare to the wound now they think that the greatness of the affliction is that which makes their condition most miserable Oh no there is a fretting humor an inflamation in the heart a murmuring spirit that is within thee and that is the misery of thy condition and that must be purged out of thee before thou canst be healed and let God do with thee what he will till he purges out that fretting humor thy wound will not be healed a murmuring heart is a very sinful heart so that when thou art troubled for such an affliction thou hadst need turn thy thoughts rather to be troubled for the murmuring of thy heart for that 's the greatest trouble there is an affliction upon thee and that is grievous but there is a murmuring heart within that 's more grievous Oh that we could but convince men and women that a murmuring spirit is a greater evil than any affliction let the affliction be what it will be We shall shew more afterward that a murmuring spirit is the evil of the evil and the misery of the misery Secondly The evil of murmuring is such that God when he would speak of wicked men and describe them and shew the brand of a wicked ungodly man or woman he instances in this sin in a more special manner I might name many Scriptures but that Scripture in Jude is a most remarkable one in the 14. verse and so forward there it is said That the Lord comes with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly finners have spoken against him Mark here in this 15. verse there is four times mentioned ungodly ones All that are ungodly among them all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him This is in the general But now he comes in the particular to shew who these are these are saith he Murmurers that 's the very first Would you know who are ungodly men that God when he comes with ten thousand of Angels shall come to punish for all their ungodly deeds that they do and those that speak ungodly things against them These ungodly ones are Murmurers Murmurers in the Scripture are put in the fore front of ungodly ones it s a most dreadful Scripture that the Lord when he speaks of ungodly ones puts Murmurers in the very fore front of all you had need look to your spirits you may see that this Murmuring which is the vice contrary to this Contentment is not so small a matter as you think you think you are not so ungodly as others because you do not swear and drink as others do but you may be ungodly in Murmuring its true there is no sin but some seeds and remainers of it are in those that are godly but
you to say they are nothing they are but common gifts and all is but in hypocrisie all counterfeit Oh! what an unthankful thing is this the Graces of Gods Spirit are nothing to a discontented heart that hath not all that it would have and so for outward blessings though God hath given you health of Body and strength and bath given you some competency for your family some way of lively-hood yet because you are disappointed in somewhat that you would have therefore all is nothing unto you Oh! what unthankfulness is here God expects that every day you should spend some time in blessing his Name for what mercy he hath granted unto you there 's not any one of you who are in the lowest condition but you have abundance of mercies to bless God for but discontentedness makes them nothing It s an excellent speech that I remember Luther hath saith he This is the Rhetorick of the Spirit of God its a very fine speech of his to extenuate evil things and to amplifie good things if there falls out a cross to make the cross to be but little but if there be a mercy to make the mercy to be great as thus If there be a cross if the Spirit of God prevails in the heart such a man or woman will wonder that it is no greater and will bless God that though there be such a cross yet that it is no more that 's the work of the Spirit of God and if there be a mercy wonders at Gods goodness that God granted so great a mercy The Spirit of God extenuates evils and crosses and doth magnifie and amplifie all mercies and makes all mercies seem to be great and all afflictions seem to be little But saith he the Devil goes quite contrary the Rhetorick of the Devil is quite otherwise he doth lessen Gods mercies and amplifie evil things as thus A godly man wonders at his cross that it is no more a wicked man wonders his cross is so much Oh saith he none was ever so afflicted as I am If there be a cross the Devil puts the soul upon musing on it and making it greater than it is and so it brings discontent And then on the other side if there be a mercy then its the Rhetorick of the Devil to lessen the mercy Indeed saith he the thing is a good thing but what is it It is no great matter and for all this I may be miserable Thus the Rhetorick of Satan doth lessen Gods mercies and doth encrease afflictions And for this I 'le give you a notable example that we have in Scripture it is the example of Korah Dathan and Abiram In Numb 16.12 13. And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eltab which said We will not come up Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a Land that floweth with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness except thou make thy self altogether a Prince over us Mark they slighted the Land that they were going into the Land of Canaan that was the Land that God promised them that should flow with milk and hony But mark here their discontentedness because they met with some troubles in the wilderness Oh it was to slay them they made their affliction in the wilderness to be greater than it was Oh it was to kill them though it were indeed to carry them to the Land of Canaan But now their deliverance from Egypt though it was a great mercy they made that mercy to be nothing for say they You have brought us out of a Land that floweth with milk and honey what land was that It was the land of Egypt the Land of their bondage but they call it a Land that flowed with milk and honey though it were the Land of their most cruel and unsupportable bondage whereas they should have blessed God as long as they had liv'd for Gods delivering them out of the Land of Egypt yet meeting with some cross they make their deliverance from Egypt no mercy no it was rather a misery to them Oh say they Egypt was a Land that flowed with milk and honey Oh what baseness is there in a discontented spirit a discontented spirit out of envy to Gods Grace will make mercies that are great to be little yea to be none at all Would one ever have thought that such a word should have come from the mouth of an Israelite that had been under bondage and cried under it and yet when they meet with a little cross in their way to say you have brought us out of the Land that floweth with milk and honey to say they were better before than now and yet before they could not be contented neither this is the usual unthankful expression of a discontented heart And it is so with us now when we meet with any cross in our estates and taxations and troubles especially if any among you have been where the enemy hath prevailed you are ready to say We had plenty before and we are now brought to a condition of hardship we were better before when we had the Prelates and others to domineer and so we indanger our selves to be brought into that bondage again Oh let us take heed of this of a discontented heart there is this woful cursed fruit of discontent to make men and women unthankful for all the mercies God hath granted to them and this is a sore and grievous evil And lastly There 's this evil effect in murmuring It causes shiftings of spirit they that murmur and are discontent are liable to temptations to shift for themselves in sinful and ungodly ways discontent is the ground of shitting courses and unlawful ways How many of you may have your consciences condemn you of this that you in the time of your afflictions have sought to shift for your selves by wayes that have been sinful against God and your discontent was the bottom and ground of it If you would avoid shiftings for your selves by wicked ways labor to mortifie this sin of discontent to mortifie it at the root The Eight evil that there is in murmuring and discontent is this There is a great deal of folly extream folly in a discontented heart it s a foolish sin I shall open the folly of it in many particulars 1. It takes away the present comfort of what you have because you have not somwhat that you would have What a foolish thing is this that because I have not what I would have I will not enjoy the comfort of what I have Do not you account this folly in your children you give them some victuals and they are not contented perhaps they say it s not enough they cry for more and if you do not presently give them more they will throw away that they have and though you account that folly in your Children yet you deal thus with God God gives you many mercies but you see others have more mercies than you
of Israel nothing would quiet them but they must have a King Samuel perswaded them to the contrary and told them what kind of King they should have and when they had a King in Hos 10.3 What shall a King do to us they were not contented when they had one So Rachel she must have children or else she died and when she had a little trouble she was discontented too so that we are neither well full nor fasting as we use to say The sixth aggravation of the sin of murmuring is this For those men and women to be discontent and murmur that God hath raised from mean and low estates and conditions This is a very great aggravation if thou be discontent now There was a time when thou wert low enough and perhaps when thou wert so low then thou did'st say O if God would deliver me from such an affliction or give me but a little more in my estate I should think my self in a good condition but if God by his providence doth raise thee thou art as greedy of more still as thou wert before and as much discontented as thou wert before this is an evil thing for people that had mean breeding and poor beginning for them to be so nice and dainty that nothing can please them whereas there was a time not long since that they were low and mean enough But it is very ordinary for those that are raised from a low and mean condition to be the more nice and dainty and more proud when they are raised than others that are of better breeding It s too much for a childe to be discontented in his fathers house but if a man hath taken a poor begger boy if you had taken such a one into your house that lay begging at your door and set him at your own table could you bear that such a one should complain that such a thing is not well drest or the like you could not bear it if your children should do it but you could bear it a great deal better with them than to hear such a one do it but thou art a poor beggar and God hath as it were taken thee into his great Family and if the Lord hath been pleased to raise thee higher that now thou hast a competency that thou mayest live as a man to be of use and service in the place where God hath set thee now wilt thou be discontent because thou hast not every thing that thou desirest we know the Prodigal when he came to imself Oh! saith he In my fathers house is bread enough He did not say there 's good chear enough and a great deal of dainties no he thought of nothing but bread there 's bread enough So its ordinary for men and women when they are in a low condition they think that if they may have bread any competency they will be contented and bless God but when they have their bread and things convenient they must have more or else they are not contented know that this is an exceeding great aggravation to thy discontentment when you are raised from a very low condition and yet you cannot be contented with what you have A seventh aggravation of this sin is this For them to be discontent that have been very great sinners and ungodly in their former time For men and women that have much guiltiness upon them the guilt of very many sins upon them that have provok'd God exceedingly against them and have brought themselves in a most dreadful manner under the sentence of Gods Justice and yet God being pleased to reprieve them for them to murmur and to be discontent with Gods administrations towards them this is exceeding evil Oh it were consideration enough to quiet any murmuring in our hearts to think thus We are but sinners why should not we be sufferers that are sinners But then consider we that are such great sinners guilty of such notorious sins that it is a wonder that we are out of Hell at this present yet for us to be discontent and murmur how exceedingly doth this encrease our sins Consider how we have crossed God in our sins then if God should cross us in the way of our sufferings should not 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 Eight Aggravation 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 will feed it well but if you have but little 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 serviceable to thee who art so little serviceable to God This one meditation would much help us to think I am discontent because such and such Creatures are not serviceable to me but why should I expect that they should be serviceable to me when I am not serviceable to God And that 's the Eight Aggravation A Ninth Aggravation of the sin of murmuring is this For us to be discontent at that time when God is to humble us It should be the care of a Christian to observe what are Gods ways 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 goodness and bless 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 God and have suitable workings unto the workings of God towards him Now then I am discontented and murmure 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 murmure and be discontented is to resist the Work of God God is doing thee good
if thou couldest see it now if he be pleased to sanctifie thy affliction to break that hard heart of thine and humble that proud spirit of thine it would be the greatest mercy that ever thou hadst in all thy life Now wilt thou yet stand out against God It s even as if thou shouldest say Well the Lord is about to break me and humble me but he shall not this is the language of thy murmuring and thy discontentedness though thou darest not say so but though thou sayest not so in words yet it is certainly the language of the temper of thy spirit Oh! consider what an aggravation this is I am discontented when God is about to work such a work upon me as is exceedingly for my good but yet I stand out against him and resist him That 's the Ninth Aggravation The tenth Aggravation of the sin of murmuring and discontent is this The more palpable and remarkable the hand of God appears to bring about an affliction the greater is the sin of murmuring and discontent under an affliction It 's a great evil at any time to murmure and be discontent but though it be a sin when I see but an ordinary providence working for me not to submit to that but when I see an extraordinary providence working that 's a greater sin that is when I see the Lord in some remarkable way working about such an affliction beyond what any could have thought of shall I resist such a remarkable hand of God shall I stand out against God when I see God express his will in such a remarkable manner that he would have me to be in such a condition Indeed before we see the Will of God apparent we may desire to avoid an affliction and may use means for it but now when we see God expressing his Will from Heaven in a manner beyond ordinary and more remarkable then certainly it is fit for us to fall down and submit to him and not to oppose when God comes with a mighty stream against us it 's our best way to fall down before him and not to resist for as 't is an argument of a mans disobedience when there is not only a Command against a sin but when God reveals his Command in a terrible way the more solemn the Command of God is the greater is the sin in breaking that Command so the more remarkable the hand of God is in bringing an affliction upon us the greater is the sin for us to murmure and be discontented Then God expects that we should fall down when he as it were speaks from Heaven to thee by name and saith Well I will have this spirit of thine down do not you see that my hand is stretched out my eyes are upon you my thoughts are upon you and I must have that proud spirit of thine down Oh then it 's fit for the creature to yield and submit unto him When you speak in an ordinary manner to your servants or Children you expect they should regard what you say but when you make them stand still by you and you speak to them in a more solemn way then if they should disregard what you say you are very impatient So certainly God cannot take it well when ever he doth appear from Heaven in such a remarkable way to bring an affliction if then we do not submit to him The Eleventh Aggravation of the sin of murmuring is this To be discontented though God hath been exercising of us long under afflictions yet still to remain discontented For a man or woman at first when an affliction befals them to have a murmuring heart then it 's an evil but to have a murmuring heart when God hath been a long time exercising them with afflictions it 's more evil Though an Heifer at first when the yoke is put upon him he wriggles up and down and will not be quiet but if after many moneths or years it shall not draw quietly the Husbandman would rather feed and fat and prepare it for the Butcher than be troubled any longer with it So though the Lord was content to pass by that discontented spirit of thine at first yet God having a long time kept the yoke upon thee thou hast been under his afflicting hand it may be divers years and yet thou remain discontent still it were just with God that he should bear thy murmuring no longer and that thy discontent under the affliction should be but a preparation to thy destruction So you see when a man or woman hath been long exercised with afflictions and yet are discontented that 's an aggravation of the sin Mark that text in Heb. 12.11 Now saith the Scripture No chastening for the present is joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby It 's true our afflictions are not joyous but grievous though at first when our affliction comes it is very grievous but yet saith the text afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those that are exercised thereby When thou hast been a long time in the School of afflictions thou art a very Dullard in Christs School if thou hast not learned this Contentment I have learned saith Saint Paul in every state therewith to be content Paul had learned this lesson quickly thou hast been a learning many years perhaps thou mayst say as Heman did That thou art afflicted from thy youth up in 88. Psal Oh it s a very evil thing if being exercised long with afflictions you are not yet contented The eye is as tender a part as any is in a mans body but yet the eye is able to continue in and bear a great deal of cold because it is more used to it so those that are used to afflictions those that God exercises much with afflictions though they have tender spirits otherwise yet they should have learned Contentedness by this time A new Cart may creek and make a noise but after the use of it a while it will not do so So when thou wert first a Christian and newly come into the work of Christ perhaps thou madest a noise and couldst not bear affliction but art thou an old Christian and yet wilt thou be a murmuring Christian Oh that 's a shame for any that are ancient professors that have been a long time in the School of Jesus Christ to have murmuring and discontented spirits And thus you have had Eleven Aggravations of this sin of murmuring and discontentment But now my Brethren because this discontented humour is a very tough humour and it is very hard to work upon there 's none that are discontented but will have something to say for their discontent I shall therefore desire to take away what every discontented heart hath to say for himself The PLEAS of a discontented Heart In the first place Saith one that is discontented It is not discontentment it is the sense of my condition I hope
THE RARE JEWEL OF CHRISTIAN Contentment Wherein is shewed 1. What CONTENTMENT is 2. The Holy Art or Mystery of it 3. Several Lessons that Christ Teacheth to work the Heart to Contentment The Excellencies of it 5. The Evils of Murmuring 6. The Aggravations of the sin of Murmuring By Jeremiah Burroughs The first of the Eleven Volumes that are Published by Thomas Goodwin William Greenhil Sydrach Sympson Philip Nye William Bridge John Yates William Adderly LONDON Printed for Ben. Billingsley at the Printing-Press in Cornhill over against Popes Head-Alley 1666. To the Reader THis worthy Man especially in his latter times was surrounded through Gods blessing on him with a very great confluence of what might give forth Contentment to a vast Spirit of his Rank and Calling He was enriched with a large measure of Abilities and Opportunities in serving his Lord to glorifie whom and do much good to others is the divine part of a man gracious which he was the highest and most solid Satisfaction and in many respects exceeds what personal Communion with God singlely considered brings in Besides he lived and died in a fulness of honour and esteem with the best of men of Saints Yea the worst of enemies Likewise of Estate and outward Comforts within his Sphaere and Rank all which might and did afford Contentment to what was outward in him In the midst of these his study was to finde out a more sublime way and hidden art of Self-sufficiency than was in the power of all things to contribute or teach Such a skill as did not only poise and compose his spirit in the present injoyment of all but might fortifie and furnish him with provision for the future against the loss of all in times wherein no man knoweth what evil will be in the earth This mark his first Lines shew hee shot at This Art some Philosophers of old pretended themselves Masters of and to instruct others in through the assistance of Natural and Moral Elements elevated to the utmost height their Principles could carry them but in vain Their Chymistry in this kinde being able to produce no more but a sullen obstinacy and obdurateness of minde The Natural Spirit of a Man feeling it self greater than all Creatures gathering up and consolidating it self into it self is able as Solomon saies to sustain its own and all other infirmities But that Autarchy this Author here presents is a Mystery which none of these Princes of the world know or the wisdome of Man teacheth but the Holy Ghost teacheth and which few but those that are perfect do attain Teaching the soul to deny it self into weakness emptiness in and to it self and all things else and thus dissolved to unite its self to Him who only hath blessedness and All-sufficiency with whom associated and made intimate it melts it self into all his Interests making them its own and thereby comes to have all that All-sufficiency of the High God to be its Self-sufficiency And then What state can that Soul bee in wherein it may not bee content seeing it hath God to bee the chiefest comfort in its best times and only comfort in its worst This though it be the inheritance of every Saint in the right and title to it yet the possession and injoyment of it depends upon an improvement of this inheritance and that upon a skill which is to be learned by experience and much exercise as Paul speaks I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be Content This peece of learning this serious spirited Man inured himself into and digging for it as Rubies as Solomons Scholler for Wisdome hath found it and hath hewn forth this JEWEL a Title given neither by Himself nor by Vs the Publishers to the Subject it self yet the Materials themselves deserving it out of the Rock and hath artificially cut it that the innate Rayes of this so glorious a Grace might shine forth to others And here it comes to be presented though set forth as the richest Jewels are often for a while in ruder metals until bargained but then are placed in tablets worthy of them The only seat this is ordained for is the precious Tablets of mens hearts in and from which alone the native lustre of will be made conspicuous Reader buy it set and wear it there and it shall as Solomon speaks Prov. 3.22 c. Be life unto thy soul and grace unto thy neck Thou shalt not be afraid when thou lyest down Yea thy sleep shall bee sweet unto thee for the Lord will be thy confidence Thomas Godwin Sydrach Sympson William Greenhil Philip Nye William Bridge John Yates William Adderly The CONTENTS SERMON I. THe Words opened Page 2 Doctrine To be well skil'd in the Mystery of Christian Contentment is the duty glory and excellency of a Christian Page 3 Christian Contentment described Page 4 1 It is Inward ibid. 2 It is quiet which is not opposed 1 To sense of affliction Page 5 2 To complaint to God or man ibid. 3 To lawful seeking of help Page 6 But it is opposed 1 To Murmuring ibid 2 To fretting and vexing ib. 3 To tumult of spirit ib. 4 To insettledness of spirit Page 7 5 To distracting cares and fears ibid. 6 To sinking discouragement ibid. 7 To sinful shifting Page 8 8 To rising of the Heart against God Page 9 3 It is a frame of spirit 1 It is spred through the whole Soul Page 10 2 It is a frame of soul Page 11 3 It is a habitual frame Page 13 4 It is a gracious frame opposed 1 To natural stilness ib. 2 To sturdy resolutions ib. 3 To strength of natural reason Page 14 5 It is a frame of spirit freely submitting 1 The heart is readily brought over Page 25 2 It is not by constraint Page 16 3 It is not out of stupidity Page 17 6 Freely submitting ib. 7 Taking Complacency in Gods dispose ib. 8 In Gods dispose Page 19 In every condition Page 20 SERMON II. We must submit to God in every affliction 1 For the kinde Page 22 2 For the time Page 23 3 For the variety Page 25 Contentment is a Mystery 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 Page 39 SERMON III 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 purchase of Christ ib. 5 It is an earnest of glory hereafter Page 43 9 A Christion sees Gods love in affliction Page 44 10 His afflictions sanctified in Christ Page 45 11 He fetches
quieting and comforting the hearts of Gods people under the troubles and changes they meet withall in these heart-shaking times And the Doctrinal conclusion is in brief this Doct. That to be well skil'd in the mystery of Christian Contentment is the Duty Glory and Excellency of a Christian This Evangelical truth is held forth sufficiently in Scripture yet take one or two parallel places more for the confirmation of it 1 Tim. 6.6 and 8. you have both the duty exprest and the glory thereof Having food and raiment saith verse 8. let us therewith be content there is the duty But godliness with Contentment is great gain verse 6. there is the glory and excellency of it as if godliness were not gain except there were Contentment withal The like exhortation you have in Heb. 13.5 Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have I do not find any Apostle or Writer of Scripture treat so much of the spiritual mystery of Contentment as this our Apostle hath done throughout his Epistles For the clear opening and proving of this practical conclusion I shall endeavour to demonstrate these four things First The nature of this Christian Contentment what it is Secondly The Art and Mystery of it Thirdly What those lessons are that must be learn'd to work the heart to contentment Fourthly Wherein the glorious excellencies of this grace doth principally consist Concerning the first take this description Christian Contentment is that sweet inward quiet gracious frame of spirit freely submitting to and taking complacency in Gods wise and fatherly dispose in every condition I shall break open this description for it is a box of precious Oyntment very comfortable and useful for troubled hearts in troubled times and conditions First Contentment I say is a sweet inward heart-thing it is a work of the spirit within doors It is not only a not-seeking help to our selves by outward violence or a forbearance of discontented murmuring expressions in froward words and carriages against God or others but it is the inward submission of the heart Psal 62.1 Truly my soul waiteth upon God and verse 5. My soul wait thou only upon God so it is in your Books but the words may be translated as rightly My soul be thou silent unto God Hold thy peace O my soul Not only the tongue must hold its peace but the soul must bee silent Many may sit down silently forbearing discontented expressions yet are inwardly swollen with discontentment now this manifesteth a perplexed distemper and a great frowardness in their hearts And God notwithstanding their outward silence hears the peevish fretting language of their souls The shooe may be smooth and neat without whilst the flesh is pinched within There may be much calmness and stilness outwardly and yet wonderful confusion bitterness disturbance and vexation within Some are so weak that they are not able to contain the disquietness of their own spirits but in words and behaviour discover what woful perturbations there are within their spirits being like the raging Sea casting forth nothing but mire and dirt being not only troublesome to themselves but to all those they live with Others there are who are able to keep in such distempers of heart as Judas did when hee betrayed Christ with a kiss but still they boyl inwardly and eat like a Canker As David speaks concerning some whose words are smoother than honey and butter and yet have war in their hearts and as hee saith in another place whilst I kept silence my bones waxed old so these whilst there is a serene calm upon their tongues have yet blustring storms in their spirits and whilst they keep silence their hearts are troubled and even worn away with anguish and vexation they have peace and quiet outwardly but war from the unruly and turbulet workings of their hearts that is within If the attainment to true Contentment were as easie as keeping quiet outwardly there need bee no great learning of it it might be had with less skill and strength than an Apostle had yea than an ordinary Christian hath or may have Therefore certainly there is a great deal more in it than can be attained by common gifts and ordinary power of reason which often bridles in nature It is a heart business Secondly It is the quiet of the heart All is sedate and still there and to understand this the better This quiet gracious frame of spirit It is not opposed 1 To a due sense of affliction God doth give leave to his people to be sensible of what they suffer Christ doth not say do not count that a cross which is a cross but take up your cross daily As it is in the body natural if the body takes Physick and is not able to bear it but presently vomits it up or if it be not at all sensible if it stir not the body either of those waies the Physick doth no good but argues the body much distempered and will hardly bee cured So it is with the spirits of men under afflictions if either they cannot bear Gods potions but cast them up again or are not sensible of them and their souls are no more stir'd by them than the body is by a draught of small beer it is a sad symptome that their souls are in a dangerous and almost incurable condition So that this inward quietness is not in opposition to the sense of affliction for indeed there were no true Contentment if you were not apprehensive and sensible of your afflictions when God is angry It is not opposed 2 To an orderly making our moan and complaint to God and to our friends Though a Christian ought to be quiet under Gods correcting hand yet he may without any breach of Christian contentment complain to God as one of the Antients saith though not with a tumultuous clamour and skreeking out in a perplexed passion yet in a quiet still submissive way hee may unbosome his heart unto God And likewise communicate his sad condition to his gracious friends shewing them how God hath dealt with him and how heavy the affliction is upon him that they may speak a word in due season to his wearied soul It is not opposed To all lawful seeking out for help unto another condition or simply endeavouring to be delivered out of the present affliction by the use of lawful means No I may say in provision for my deliverance and use Gods means waiting on him because I know not but that it may be his will to alter my condition and so far as hee leads me I may follow his providence it is but my duty God is thus far mercifully indulgent to our weakness and he will not take it ill at our hands if by earnest and importunate prayer we seek unto him for deliverance till we know his good pleasure therein And certainly thus seeking for help with such a submission and holy resignation of spirit to be delivered when God will
God himself especially such as together with their corruptions have much melancholly and the Devil working both upon the corruptions of their hearts and the melancholly 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 risings 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 description 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 Soul-business 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 judgment is satisfied so my thoughts are kept in order And then it comes to the Will My will yeelds 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 partial 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 for his life cannot rule his affections nor his thoughts cannot rule his thoughts nor his will nor the affections though the judgment 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 bless 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 my will and my affections me thinks I feel my heart heavy and sad and troubleed more than it should be and yet my Judgment is satisfied This seem'd to be the case of David Psal 42. Oh my soul why art thou disquieted David as far as his judgment went there was a contentedness that is His judgment was satisfied in the work of God upon him and he was troubled but he knew not wherefore Oh my soul why art thou thus cast 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 help of his countenance David had enough to quiet him and that that he had had prevailed with his judgment but after it had prevailed with his judgment he could not get it further He could not get this grace of Contentment to go through the whol frame of the soul There is a great deal of stir sometimes to get Contentment into their judgments that is to satisfie their judgments about their condition Come to many that the hand of God is upon perhaps in a grievous manner and seek to satisfie them and tel them that there is no such cause to be disquieted O not such cause saith the troubled spirit O then there is no cause that any should be disquieted there was never any such affliction as I have and a hundred things they have to put off what is said to them so as you cannot so much as get into their judgments to satisfie them but there is a great deal of hope of Contentment if once your judgments come to be satisfied that you can sit down and say in your judgments I see cause to be contented but though you have gotten thus far yet you may have much to do with your hearts afterward for there is such unruliness in our thoughts and affections that our judgments are not alwaies able to rule our thoughts and affections and that makes me to say that Contentment is an inward quiet gracious frame of spirit that is the whol soul Judgment Thoughts Will Affections and all are satisfied and quiet I suppose in the very opening this you begin to see it is a lesson that you had need learn and it is not a thing soon got if Contentment be such a thing as this is The second thing is this which is very observable That spiritual Contentment comes from the frame of the Soul A man or woman that is contented in a right way their contentment doth not so much come from outward arguments or any outward thing that helps them to be content as it doth from the disposition of their own hearts It is the disposition of their own hearts that causes this Contentment That brings forth this gracious Contentment rather than any external thing that doth it as thus I would open my self one that is disquieted suppose a childe or man or woman if you come and bring them some great matter to please them that perhaps will quiet them and they will be contented it is the thing you bring them that quiets them but it is not the disposition of their own spirits not from any good temper that there is in their own hearts but from some external thing that is brought them but when a Christian is contented in a right way the quiet doth come more from the inward temper and disposition of their own hearts than from any external arguments or possession of any thing in the world I would yet open
this further to you in this Similitude The being content upon some external thing it is like the warming of a mans cloaths by the fire but being content by the inward disposition of the soul it is like the warmth that a mans cloaths hath from the natural heat of his body A man that is of a healthfull body he puts on his cloaths and perhaps when he puts them on at the first in a cold morning he feels his cloaths cold but after he hath them on a little while they are warm why how come they warm they come not nigh the fire No but it came from the natural heat of his body Now a sickly man that hath his natural heat decayed if he put on his cloaths cold they will not be hot in a long time but he must have them warmed by the fire and then they will quickly be cold again So this will difference the Contentments of men There are some men now that are very gracious and when an affliction comes upon them indeed at first it seems to be a little cold but after it hath been on a while the very temper of their hearts being gracious it makes their affliction easie and makes them to be quiet under it and not to complain of any discontentment But now you shall have others that have an affliction upon them that have not this good temper in their hearts their afflictions are very cold upon them and grievous and it may be if you bring them some external arguments somwhat from without as the fire that warms the cloaths perhaps they will be quiet for a while but alas wanting a gracious disposition within in their own hearts that warmth will not hold long The warmth of a fire that is a Contentment that comes meerly from external arguments will not hold long but that holds that doth come from the gracious temper of the Spirit It is from the frame and the disposition of the spirit of a man or woman There 's the true Contentment But this we shall speak to further in the opening of the Mystery of Contentment The Third thing is this It is the frame of Spirit that shews the habitualness of this grace of Contentment Contentment is not meerly one act a flash in a good mood you shall have many men and women that take them in some good mood and they will be very quiet but this will not hold this is not a constant way there is not a constant tenour of their spirits to be holy and gracious under affliction But I say It is the quiet frame of spirit by that I mean The habitual disposition of their Souls that it is not only at this time and the other time when you take men and women in a good mood but it is the constant tenour and temper of the heart that is a Christian that hath learned this lesson of Contentment that in the constant tenour and temper of heart is contented and can carry its self quietly in a constant way or else it is worth nothing for there is no body that is so furious in their discontent but will be quiet in some good mood or other Now First it is a heart-business Secondly it is the heart quiet and then Thirdly it is the frame of the heart But Fourthly It is the gracious frame of the heart Indeed in Contentment there is a composition of all graces if the Contentment be Spiritual if it be truly Christian there is I say a composition of all Spiritual graces As it is in some Oyls there is a composition of a great many very precious Ingredients so in this grace of Contentment which we shall yet further speak of in the opening of the Excellency of it But now the gracious frame of Spirit is in opposition to Three things 1. First In opposition to the natural stilness that there is in many men and women There are some of such a natural constitution that makes them to be more still and more quiet than others others are of a violent and hot constitution and they are more impatient than others 2. Secondly In opposition to a sturdy resolution As some men through the strength of some sturdy resolution they have not seemed to be troubled let come what will come and so it may be through a sturdy resolution at some times they are not so much disquieted as others are Thirdly In way of distinction from the very strength of Reason though not sanctifyed the strength of natural reason may quiet the heart in some measure But now I say a gracious frame of spirit is not a meer stilness of body through a natural constitution and temper nor sturdiness of resolution nor meerly thorow the strength of reason You will say wherein is this graciousness of Contentment distinguisht from all these More of this will be spoken to when we shew the mystery of it and the lessons that are learned but now we may speak a little by way of distinction here as now from the natural stilness of mens spirits many men and women have such a natural stilness of spirit and constitution of body that you shal find them seldom disquieted But now mark these kind of people that are so they likewise are very dull of a dul spirit in any good thing they have no quickness nor liveliness of spirit in that which is good but now mark where Contentment of heart is gracious the heart is very quick lively in the service of God yea the more any gracious heart can bring its self to be in a contented disposition Oh the more fit it is for any service of God and is very active and lively in Gods service not dul in the service of God And as a Contented heart is very active and stirring in the work of God so he is very active and stirring in sanctifying Gods Name in the affliction that doth befal him The difference will appear very clear thus One that is of a still disposition he is not disquieted indeed as others neither hath he any activeness of spirit in sanctifying the Name of God in the affliction but now one that is content in a gracious way as he is not disquieted but keeps his heart quiet in respect to vexing and trouble so on the other side he is not dull nor heavy but is very active to sanctify Gods Name in the affliction that is upon him for it is not enough meerly not to murmur not to bee discontented and troubled but you must be active in the sanctifying Gods Name in the affliction And indeed this will distinguish it from the other from a sturdy resolution I will not be troubled but though you have a sturdy resolution that you will not be troubled is there a conscionableness in you to sanctify Gods Name in your affliction and doth it come from thence That is the main thing that brings the quiet of heart and helps against discontentedness in a gracious heart I say the desire and care
that thy soul hath to sanctify Gods Name in an affliction it is that that quiets the soul which doth not in the other Neither when it is meerly from reason As Socrates it is said of him though he were but an Heathen that whatever befel him he would never so much as change his countenance and he got this power over his spirit meerly by strength of reason and morality but now this gracious Contentment comes from principles beyond the strength of reason I cannot open that from whence it comes til we come to open the mystery of spiritual Contentment I will only give you this one note of difference between a man and a woman that is contented in a natural way and another that is contented in a spiritual way Those that are contented in a natural way they overcome themselves when outward afflictions do befal them they are contented yea and they are contented as well when they commit sin against God either when they have outward crosses or when God is dishonoured it is all one either when themselves are crost or when God is crost but now a gracious heart that is contented with its own affliction yet mightily rises when God is dishonoured The fift is Freely freely submitting to and taking complacency in Gods dispose it is a free work of the spirit now there are four things to be opened in this freedom of spirit First That the heart is readily brought over that which one doth freely there is no great stir to bring them to it there are many men and women when their afflictions are grievous upon them with much ado they are brought to be contented a great deal of stir there is to quiet their hearts when they are under affliction yet at last perhaps they are brought to it I but now this doth not come off freely if I desire a thing of another and I get it perhaps with much ado and a great deal of stir there is but here 's no freedom of spirit but when a man is free in a thing do but mention it and presently he comes off to it So if you have learned this art of Contentment you will not only be contented after a great deal of do to quiet your hearts but readily as soon as ever you do come to think that it is the hand of God your heart presently closeth Secondly freely That is not by constraint not patience by force as we use to say As many will say that you must be coment this is the hand of God and there is no help for it O! this is too low an expression for Christians yet when Christians come to visit one another they say Friend or Neighbor you must be content this is too low an expression for a Christian Must be content No readily and freely I will be content It is sutable to my heart to yeild to God and to be content I find it is a thing that comes off of it self that my soul will be content Oh you should answer your friends so that come and tell you you must be content nay I am willing to yeild to God and I am freely content that 's the Second And then a free act it comes after a rational way that 's freedom that is it doth not come through ignorance because I know no better condition or that I know not what my affliction is but it comes through a sanctified judgment for that is the reason that no Creature can do an act of freedom but the rational creature the liberty of action is only in rational creatures and it comes from hence for that 's only freedom and out of liberty that 's wrought in a rational way as a natural freedom is when I by my judgment see what is to be done understand the thing and then there is a closing with what I do understand in my judgement that is freely done but now if a man doth a thing and understands not what he doth he cannot be said to do it freely So if men are contented but it is because they understand not what their affliction is or because they understand no better this is not freely as for instance Suppose a Childe born in a Prison and never in all his life went out the Childe is contented Why Because he never knew better but this is no free act of Contentation But now for men and women that do know better that know that the condition in which they are in it is an afflicted condition and a sad condition and yet they can bring their hearts to a Contentation out of a sanctified judgment this is freedom Thirdly This freedom it is in opposition to stupidness for a man or woman may be contented meerly out of want of sense this is not free as a man in a dead palsie that doth not feel you nip his flesh he is not freely patient but if one should have his flesh nipt and feel it and yet for all that can be able to bridle himself and do it freely that is another matter So it is here many are contented meerly out of stupidness they have a dead palsie upon them but now a gracious heart hath sense enough and yet is contented and therefore is free Sixthly Freely submitting to and taking complacency in Gods dispose Submitting to Gods dispose What is that The word Submit it signifies nothing else but to send under as thus One that is discontented the heart will be unruly and would even get above God so far as discontentment prevailes but now Comes the grace of Contentment and sends it under to submit it is to send under a thing now when the soul comes to see the unruliness that there is in it here 's the hand of God that brings an affliction and my heart is troubled and discontented what saith the Soul Wilt thou be above God Is it not Gods hand and must thy will be regarded more than Gods O under under O thou soul get under keep under keep low keep under Gods feet thou art under Gods feet and keep under his feet keep under the Authority of God the Majestie of God the Soveraignty of God the Power that God hath over thee Keep under that is to submit then the Soul can submit to God when it can send it self under the Power and Authority and Soveraignty and Dominion that God hath over it that is the Sixth Particular Yea but that is not enough yet you have not got to this grace of Contentment except in the next place you take Seventhly Taking a complacency in Gods dispose That is thus I am well pleased in what God doth so far as I can see God in it though as I said I may be sensible of the affliction and may desire that God in his due time would take it off and use means to take it off yet I may be well pleased so farr as Gods hand is in it To be well pleased with Gods hand that is a higher degree than the other
filled with Grace they would not make such a noise as now they do As a man that hath his bones filled with Marrow and veins filled with good blood he complains not of cold as others do so a gracious heart having the Spirit of God within him and his heart filled with grace he hath that within him that makes him find Contentment It is a speech of Seneca Indeed those things that I suffer will be incredibly heavy when I cannot bear my self but now if I be no burden to my self if I have all quiet within mine own heart then I can bear any thing many men through their wickedness they have burdens without but the greatest burden is the wickedness of their own hearts they are not burdened with their sins in a godly way that would case their burden but they have still their wickedness in the power of it and so they are burdens to themselves The distempers of mens hearts are mighty burdens to them many times a godly man hath enough within to content him Vertue it is content with its self for to live well It is a speech of Cicero and it is in one of his Paradoxes It finds enough within its own sphere for the living happily but how few are acquainted with this Mystery Many think Oh if I had that that another man hath how happily and comfortably should I live Oh but if thou beest a Christian whatsoever thy condition be yet thou hast enough within thy self You will say such and such men that have all things they need not be beholding to any body you shall have many that will labor and take pains when they are young that they might not be beholding to others I love to live of my self now a Christian may do so not that he doth not live upon God I mean not so but upon that which he hath of God within himself that he can live upon although he doth not enjoy the comforts that are without himself that is it which I mean and those that are godly and keep close to God in their communion with him they understand what I mean by this that a Christian hath supply of all his wants within himself and here you may see that the spirit of a Christian is a precious spirit a godly spirit is precious why because it hath enough to make him happy within himself The next thing that the Mystery of Contentment consists in is this That a gracious heart fetches supply of all from the Covenant and so comes to have Contentment which is a dry thing to a carnal spirit Now there are two things here First he fetches Contentment from the covenant in general that is from the great covenant that God hath made with him in Christ Secondly From the particular promises that God hath made with him in the Covenant First From the Covenant in general I 'le give you one Scripture for that it is very remarkable in the 2 of Sam. 23. vers 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my Salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow It is a most admirable Scripture of David that yet had not the Covenant of Grace opened so fully as we have But yet mark what David saith Although I find not my house so that is so comfortably every way as I would although it be not so what hath he to content his spirit saith he He hath made with me an everlasting Covenant this is that that helps all I am not may some men say thus and thus with God I do not find God come in so fully or it is not with my house and family as I hoped it might be perhaps there is this or that affliction upon my house suppose you should have the Plague come into your house and your house is not safe and you have not that outward comfort in your house as formerly you had but can you read this Scripture and say Although my house be not so blest with health as other mens houses are although my house be not so yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant I am one yet in Covenant with God the Lord hath made with me an everlasting Covenant as for these things in this world I see they are but momentary they are not everlasting I see in a family when all was well but a week ago now all is down and the Plague hath swept away a great many of them and the rest are left in sadness and mourning we see there is no trusting in the things of this world yet the Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things I find disorder in my heart in my family but the everlasting Covenant that is ordered in all things yea and that is sure Alack there is no sureness here in these things I can be sure of nothing here especially in these times we know that a man can be sure of little that he hath who can be sure of his estate perhaps some of you here that have lived well and comfortably before and all was well about you and you thought your mountain was strong but you see within a day or two all taken away from you so that there is no sureness in the things of this world But saith he the Covenant is sure what I venture to the Sea that is not sure but here is an Assurance Office indeed here is a great Assurance Office for the Saints and they are not at charge but only the exercising of Grace for they may go to this Assurance Office to assure everything that they venture either to have the thing it self or be paid for it In an assurance Office you cannot be assured to have the very goods come in that you insured but if they be lost the Insurers do engage themselves to make it good to you And this Covenant of grace that God hath made with his people it is Gods Assurance Office and the Saints in all their fears may and ought to go to the Covenant to assure all things to them to assure their estates and assure their lives You will say How are they sure their lives and estates go as well as others But God engages himself to make up all And then mark what follows This is all my salvation Why David wilt thou not have salvation from thine Enemies and outward dangers from pestilence and plague The frame of his spirit is quieted as if he should say If that salvation comes well and good I shall praise God for it but that that I have in the Covenant that is my salvation I look upon that as enough Yea and then further This is all my salvation and all my desire VVhy David is there not somthing else that thou wouldst have besides this Covenant No saith he It is all involved in this Now surely those men or women must needs live
Christian yeilds to Gods hand and makes no noise as when you strike upon a Wool-sack it makes no noise because it yeilds to the stroke so a self-denying heart yeilds to the stroke and thereby comes to this contentment Now in this lesson of self-denial there are divers things I will not enter into the doctrine of self-denial but only shew you how Christ teaches self-denial and how that brings Contentment First Such a one learns to know that he is nothing he comes to this to be able to say Well I see I am nothing in my self now that man or woman which indeed knows that he or she is nothing and hath learned it throughly will be able to bear any thing The way to be able to bear any thing is to know our selves to be nothing in our selves Saith God to us Wilt thou set thine heart upon that which is nothing Prov. 23.5 speaking of riches why blessed God dost not thou do so thou hast set thy heart upon us and yet we are nothing God would not have us set our hearts upon riches because they are nothing and yet God is pleased to set his heart upon us and yet we are nothing that is Gods Grace free grace and therefore it is no great matter what I suffer for I am as nothing Secondly I deserve nothing I am nothing and I deserve nothing suppose I have not this and that that others have I am sure I deserve nothing except it be Hell you will answer any of your servants so that is not content I marvel what you deserve or your children Do you deserve it that you are so eager upon it you think to stop their mouths thus so we may easily stop our own mouths we deserve nothing and therefore why should we be impatient if we have not what we desire if we had deserved any thing we might have some trouble of spirit as a man that hath deserved well of the State or of his friends and he finds not answerable encouragement it troubles him mightily but if he be conscious to himself that he hath deserved nothing he is content with a repulse Thirdly I can do nothing Without me you can do nothing saith Christ Joh. 15.5 Why should I stand much upon it to be troubled and be discontented if I have not this or that when the truth is I can do nothing If you should come to one that is angry because he hath not such diet as he desires and is discontented with it you will answer him I marvel what you do what use are you of Shall one that will sit still and be of no use yet for all that he must have all his supply that possible he can desire Do but consider of what use you are in the world if you consider what little need God hath of you and what little use you are of you will not be much discontented If you have learned this lesson of self-denial though God doth cut me short of such and such comforts yet since that I do but little why should I have much This very thought will bring down a mans spirit as much as any thing Fourthly So vile I am that I can receive no good neither of my self I am not only an empty vessel but a corrupt and unclean vessel that would spoil any thing that comes into it So are all our hearts every one of our hearts is not onely empty of good but are like a musty vessel that if any good liquor be poured into it it spoils it Fifthly If God doth cleanse us in some measure and doth put into us some good liquor some Grace of his spirit yet We can make use of nothing neither can we have it if God doth but withdraw himself If God doth but leave us one moment after he hath bestowed upon us the greatest gifts and whatsoever abilities we can desire If God should say I will give you them now go and trade now I have given you these and these abilities we cannot stir one foot further neither if God doth but leave us Doth God give us gifts and parts Then let us fear and tremble lest God should leave us to our selves for then how foully should we abuse those gifts and parts You think other men and women have memory and gifts and parts and you would fain have them But suppose God should give you these and there leave you you would utterly spoil them Sixthly We are worse than nothing For by sin we come to be a great deal worse than nothing sin makes us more vile than nothing sin makes us contrary to all good now it is a great deal worse to have a contrariety to all that is good than meerly to have an emptiness of all that is good we are not empty pitchers in respect of good but we are like pitchers filled with poyson and is it much for such as we are to be cut short of outward comforts In the seventh place If we perish there will be no loss of us If God should annihilate me what loss would there be of me God can raise up another in my place to do him other manner of service than I have done Now put but these seven thing together and then hath Christ taught you self-denial I may call these the several words in our lesson of self-denial Christ reaches the soul this so that as in the presence of God upon a real sight of it self it can say Lord I am nothing Lord I deserve nothing Lord I can do nothing I can receive nothing I can make use of nothing I am worse than nothing and if I come to nothing and perish there will be no loss at all of me and therefore what great matter is it for me to be cut short here A man that is little in his own eyes such a man or woman will account every affliction to be little and every mercy to be great Saul There was a time the Scripture saith that he was little in his own eyes and then his afflictions were but little to him when some would not have had him to be King but spake contemptuously of him he held his peace but when Saul began to be big in his own eyes then the affliction began to be great upon him There was never any such contented man or woman as this self-denying man or woman There was never any denied himself so much as Jesus Christ did he gave his cheeks to the smiters he opened not his mouth he was as a lamb when he was led to the slaughter he made no noise in the street Oh he denyed himself above all and was willing to empty himself and so he was the most contented that ever any was in the world and the neerer we come to learn to deny our selves as Christ did the more contented shall we be and by knowing much of our own vileness we come to learn to justifie God whatever the Lord shall lay upon us yet righteous is the Lord for he
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 will 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 afraid I should have fallen into sin A poor ignorant man that takes Physick the Physick works and he thinks it will kill him because he knows not the ill humors that are in his body and therefore he understands not how sutable the Physick is to him but a Physician takes a Purge and it makes him extreamly sick saith the Physician I like this the better it doth but work upon the humor that I know is the cause of my disease and upon that such a man that hath knowledge and understanding of 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 mannage and by this meanes 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 manage such an estate and they were not able to manage such prosperity God saw it and saith a poor soul I am in some measure convinc'd by looking into mine own heart that I was not able to manage such a condition A man desires greedily to gripe more perhaps than he is able to manage and so undoes himself As Country men do observe that if they do 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 years old should be crying for the coat of her that is twelve or fourteen years 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 childe 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 sees 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 manage them when you vex and fret for what you have not I may say to you as Christ saith you know not of what Spirit you are of It was a speech of Oecolampadius to Parillus saith he when they were speaking about his extream poverty Not so poor though I have been very poor yet I would be poorer I could be willing to be poorer than I am for the truth is as if he should say the Lord knew that that was more sutable to me and I knew that my own heart was such that a poor condition was more sutable to me than a rich certainly would we say if we knew our own hearts that such and such a condition is better for me than if it had been otherwise The seventh Lesson Is the burden of a prosperous estate Such a one that comes into Christs School to be instructed in this Art never comes to attain to any great skill in this Art till he comes to understand the burden that is in a prosperous estate Object You will say What burden is there in a prosperous estate Answ Yes certainly a great burden and there needs a great strength to bear it as men had need have strong brains that can bear strong Wine so they had need of strong spirits that are able to bear prosperous conditions and not to do themselves hurt there 's a fourfold burden in a prosperous estate Many men and women look at the shine and glittering of prosperity but they little think of the burden but there 's a fourfold burden 1. There 's Aburden of trouble A Rose hath its prickles and so the Scripture saith That he that will be rich pierceth himself through with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6.10 If a mans heart be set upon it that he must be rich and he will be rich such a man will pierce himself through with many sorrows he looks upon the delight and glory of riches that appears outwardly but he considers not what piercing sorrows he may meet withall in them The consideration of the trouble in a prosperous condition I have divers times thought of and I cannot tell by what similitude to express it better than by travelling in some Champion Country where round about is very fair and sandy ground and you see there a Town a great way off in a bottom and you think O how bravely is that Town seated but when you come and ride into the Town you shall ride through a dirty lane and through acompany of fearful dirty holes and you could not see the dirty lane and holes when you were two or three miles off so sometimes we look upon the prosperity of men and think such a man lives bravely and comfortably but if we did but know what troubles he meets withal in his family in
revealed in his Word and we may there find he hath set it down to be his ordinary way even from the beginning of 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 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 and 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 cross 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 mercy 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 comfort have the greatest afflictions and sorrows now those that understand not Gods ways 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 Childe 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 Partridge in the mountains 1 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 evil 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 darkness 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 he every one doth not understand this this is the Art of Arts and the Science of Sciences the knowledge of knowledges to understand this that God doth use when he will bring life he doth use to bring it out of death he brings joy out of sorrow and he brings prosperity out of adversity yea and many times he brings Grace out of Sin that is makes use of sin to work furtherance of Grace it is the way of God to bring good out of evil not only to overcome the evil but to make the evil to work towards good here 's the way of God now when the soul comes to understand this it will take away our murmuring and bring Contentment into our spirits But I fear there are but few that understand it aright perhaps they read of such things and hear of such things in a Sermon but they are not by Jesus Christ instructed in this that this is the way of God To bring the greatest good out of the greatest evil Thus having dispatcht the Third Head the Lessons that we are to learn we come to the Fourth and that is The excellency of this Grace of Contentment And there is a great deal of excellency in Contentment that 's a kind of Lesson too for us to learn And this Head likewise will be somewhat long Saith the Apostle I have learned As if he should say Blessed be God for this Oh! it is a mercy of God to me that I have learned this Lesson I find so much good in this Contentment that I would not for a world but have it I have learned it saith he Now the very Heathens had a sight of a great Excellency that there is in Contentment I remember I have read of Antisthenes a Philosopher that desired of his Gods speaking after the Heathenish way nothing in this world to make his life happy but CONTENTMENT and if he might have any thing that he would desire to make his life happy he would ask of them That he might have the spirit of Socrates that he might have such a spirit as Socrates had to be able to bear any wrong any injuries that he met withal and to continue in a quiet temper of spirit whatsoever befell him for what was the temper of socrates whatever befell him he continued the same man whatever cross befell him no body could perceive any alteration of his spirit though never so great crosses did befall him This a Heathen did attain to by the strength of Nature and a common work of the spirit Now this Antisthenes saw such an excellency in this spirit As when God said to Solomon What shall I give thee he asked of God wisdom so saith he If the Gods should put it to me to know what I would have I should desire this thing that I might have the spirit of Socrates he
saw a great excellency that there was in this And certainly a Christian may see abundance of excellency in it I shall labor to set it out to you in this Sermon that you may be in love with this Grace of Contentment In the first place By Contentment we come to give God that Worship that is due to him See this opened at large in Gospel-Worship on Levit. 10.3 It is a special part of Divine Worship that we owe to God If we be content in a Christian way according as hath been opened to you I say it is a special part of the Divine Worship that the Creature ows to the infinite Creator in that I do render that respect that is due from me to the Creator The words that the Greeks have that signifies to Worship it is as much as to come and crouch before another as a Dog should come crouching unto you and be willing to lie down at your feet so the Creature in the apprehension of its own baseness and the infinite Excellency that there is in God above it when it comes to worship God it comes and crouches to this God and it lies down at the feet of God then doth the Creature worship God When you see a dog come crouching to you and you can make him with holding your hand over him to lie down at your feet then consider thus should you do before the Lord you should come crouching to him and lie down at his feet even upon your backs or bellies to lie down in the dust before him so as to be willing that he should do with you what he will as sometimes you may turn a dog this way and that way up and down with the hand and there he lies before you according to your shewing him with your hand So when the Creature shall come and lie down thus before the Lord then a Creature worships God doth render up that worship that is due to God Now in what disposition of heart do we thus crouch to God more then when we have this Contentation in all conditions that God disposeth us unto This is a crouching unto Gods dispose to be like the poor woman of Canaan when Christ said it is not fit to give Childrens meat to dogs but saith she the dogs have crums I am a dog I confess I but let me have but a crum And so when the soul shall be in such a disposition as to lie down and say Lord I am but as a dog yet let me have a crum then doth it highly honor God It may be some of you have not your table spread as others have but God gives you crums now saith the poor woman dogs have crums and when you can find your hearts thus subjecting unto God to be but as a dog and can be contented and bless God for any crum I say this is a great worship of God you worship God by this more than when you come to hear a Sermon or spend half an hour or an hour in prayer or when you come to receive a Sacrament These are the Acts of Gods Worship I but these are but external Acts of Worship to Hear and Pray and receive Sacraments But now this is the Soul-worship to subject it self thus to God You that often will worship God by Hearing and Praying and receiving Sacraments and yet afterwards will be froward and discontented know that God regards not that worship he will have the Soul-worship in this subjecting of the soul to God Observe it I beseech you in active Obedience there we worship God by doing that that pleases God but by passive Obedience we do as well worship God by being pleased with that which God doth Now when I perform a duty I worship God I do what pleases God why should I not as well worship God when I am pleased with what God doth As it was said of Christs obedience Christ was active in his passive Obedience and passive in his active obedience So the Saints they are passive in their active obedience they are first passive in their reception of Grace and then active And when they come to passive obedience they are active they put forth Grace in active obedience when they perform actions to God then saith the Soul Oh! that I could do that that pleases God when they come to suffer any cross On that what God doth might please me I labour to do what pleases God and I labour that what God doth shall please me here 's a Christian indeed that shall endeavor both these now this is but one side of a Christian to endeavor to do what pleases God but you must as well endeavor to be pleased with what God doth and so you shall come to be a compleat Christian when you can do both And that 's the first thing in the excellency of this Grace of Contentment The second thing in opening of this Excellency of Contentment is That in Contentment there is much exercise of Grace There is much strength of Grace yea there is much beauty of Grace in Contentment there is much exercise of Grace strength of Grace and beauty of Grace I put all these together 1. Much exercise of Grace There is a composition of Grace in Contentment there is faith and there is humility and love and there is patience and there is wisdom and there is hope all Graces almost are compounded it 's an oyl that hath the ingredients of all kind of graces and therefore though you cannot see the particular Grace yet in this oyl you have it all God sees the Graces of his Spirit exercised in a special manner and this pleases God at the heart to see the Graces of his Spirit exercised In some one action that you do you may exercise some one grace especially but now in Contentment you exercise a great many Graces at once 2. There is a great deal of strength of Grace in Contentment It argues a great deal of strength in the body the body to be able to endure hard weather and whatsoever falls out and yet not to be much altered by it so it argues strength of Grace to be content You that complain of weakness of memory and weakness of parts you cannot do what others do in other things but have you this gracious Heart-contentment that hath been opened to you I know that you have attained to strength of Grace in this when it is so spiritual as hath been opened to you in the explication of this point As it is with a mans brain if a man be distempered in his body and hath many obstructions in his body hath an ill stomach and his spleen and liver obstructed and yet for all this his brain is not distempered it is an argument of a great strength of brain and though there be many ill fumes that rise from his corrupt stomach yet still his brain is not distempered but he continues in the free exercise of the use of his reason and
I am content with this fare and as for rewards let them be offered to those that cannot be content to dine with a dish of turnips So the truth is we see it apparently that the reason why many do betray their trust as in the Parliament service and Kingdom is because they cannot be contented to be in a low condition Let a man be contented to be in a low condition and to go meanly cloathed if God sees it fit such a man is shot-free as I may so say from thousands of temptations of the Devil that do prevail against others to the damning of their souls Oh in such times as those are when men are in danger of the loss of their estates I say those men that have not got this grace are in a most lamentable condition they are in more danger for their souls than they are for their outward estates you think it is a sad thing to be in danger of your outward estates that you may lose all in a night but if you have not this contented spirit within you you are in more danger of the temptations of the Devil to be plundered that way of any good and to be led into sin Oh when men think thus they must live as brave as they were wont to do these men make themselves a prey to the Devil but such as can say let God do with me what he pleases I am content to submit to his hand in it the Devil will scarce meddle with such men It 's a notable speech of a Philosopher that lived upon mean fare and as he was eating herbs and roots saith one to him If you would but please Dyonisius you need not eat herbs and roots but he answered him thus If you would but be content with such mean fare you need not flatter Dyonisius So temptations will no more prevail upon a contented man than a dart that is thrown against a brasen wall That 's the fifth particular The sixth Excellency is The abundant comforts in a mans life that Contentment will bring Contentment will make mans life exceeding sweet and comfortable nothing more than the Grace of Contentment many ways I will shew how it brings in Comfort 1. As first What a man hath he hath it in a kind of Independent way not depending upon any creature for his comfort 2. A contented man whose estate is low if God raises his estate he hath the love of God in it and then it 's abundantly more sweet than if he had it and his heart not contented or if he had not the love of God in it for it may be God grants to a discontented man his desire but he cannot say it is from love if a man hath quieted his spirit first and then God grant him his desire he may have more comfort in it and more assurance that he hath the love of God in it 3. This Contentment is a comfort to a mans spirit in this That it doth keep in his comforts and keep out whatsoever may damp his comforts or put out the light of them I may compare this Grace of Contentment to a Mariners Lanthorn a Mariner when he is at sea let him have never so much provision in his Ship yet if he be thousands of leagues from land or in a rode that he shall not meet with a Ship in three or four months if he hath never a Lanthorn in his Ship nor nothing whereby he may keep a Candle light in a storm he will be in a sad condition he would give a great deal to have a Lanthorn or something that may serve instead of it When a storm comes in the night and he cannot have any light come above board but it is puft out presently his condition is very sad so many men can have light of comfort when there is no storm but let there come but any affliction any storm upon them their light is puft out presently and what shall they do now when the heart is furnished with this Grace of Contentment this Grace is as it were the Lanthorn and it keeps comfort in the spirit of a man light in the midst of a storm and tempest When you have a Lanthorn in the midst of a storm you can carry a light every where up and down the ship to the top of the Mast if you will and yet keep it light so the comfort of a Christian when it is enlivened with the Grace of Contentment it may be kept light whatever storms or tempests come yet he can keep light in his soul Oh! this helps thy comforts exceeding much Seventhly There is this excellency in Contentment that it fetches in the comfort of those things we have not really in possession and perhaps many that have not outward things have more comfort than those have that do enjoy them themselves As now a man by distilling herbs though he hath not the herbs themselves yet having the water that is distill'd out of them he may enjoy the benefit of the herbs So though a man hath not the real possession of such an outward estate an outward comfort yet he by the grace of Contentment may fetch it in to himself By the Art of Navigation we can fetch in the riches of the East and West-Indies to ourselves so by the Art of Contentment we may fetch in the comfort of any condition to our selves that is we may have that comfort by Contentment that we should have if we had the thing it self There is a notable story you have for this in Plutarch in the life of Pyrrhus one Sineus comes to him and would very fain have had him desist from the wars and not war with the Romans saith he to him May it please your Majesty it is reported that the Romans are very good men of War and if it please the gods we do overcome them what benefit shall we have of that victory Pyrrhus answered him we shall straight then conquer all the rest of Italy with ease saith Sineus indeed it is likely which your Grace speaketh but when we have won Italy will then our wars end If the gods were pleased Pyrrhus that the victory were atchieved the way were then broad open for us to attain great conquests for who would not afterwards go into Africk and so to Carthage But saith Sineus when we have all in our hands what shall we do in the end then Pyrrhus laughing told him again we will then be quiet and take our ease and make feasts every day and be as merry one with another as we can possible saith Sineus what letteth us now to be as quiet and merry together sith we enjoy that presently without further travel and trouble which we should go seek for abroad with such shedding of blood and so manifest danger cannot you fit down and be merry now so a man may think if I had such a thing then I would have another and if I had that then you would have more and what if
you got all you desire then you would be content why you may be content now without them Certainly our Contentment doth not consist in the getting of the thing we desire but in Gods fashioning our spirits to our conditions there 's some men that have not a foot of ground of their own yet will live better than other men that are heirs to a great deal of land I have known it in the Country sometimes that a man lives upon his own land and yet lives very poorly but you shall have another man that shall farm his land and yet by his good husbandry and by his care shall live better sometimes than he that hath the land of his own So a man by this Art of Contentment may live better without an estate than another man can of an estate Oh! it adds exceeding much to the comfort of a Christian and that I may shew it further there is more comfort in the Grace of contentment than there is in any possessions whatsoever a man hath more comfort in being content without a thing than he can have in the thing that he in a discontented way doth desire You think if I had such a thing then I should be content I say there is more good in Contentment than there is in the thing that you would fain have to cure your discontent and that I shall open in divers particulars As thus 1. I would fain have such a thing and then I could be content but if I had it then it were but the creature that did help to my Contentment but now it 's the Grace of God in my soul that makes me content and surely it is better to be content with the Grace of God in my soul than with the enjoying of an outward comfort 2. If I had such a thing indeed my estate might be better but my soul would not be better but by Contentment my soul is better that would not be bettered by an estate or lands or friends but Contentment makes my self to be better and therefore Contentment is a better portion than the thing is that I would fain have to be my portion 3. If I get Content by having my desire satisfied that 's but self-love but when I am Contented with the hand of God and am willing to be at his dispose that comes from my love to God in having my desire satisfied there I am contented through self-love but through the Grace of Contentment I come to be contented out of love to God and is it not better to be contented from a principle of love to God than from a principle of self-love 4. If I am contented because I have that that I have a desire to perhaps I am contented in that one particular but that one particular doth not furnish me with Contentment in another thing perhaps I may grow more dainty and nice and froward in other things if you give children what they would have in some things they grow so much the more coy and dainty and discontented if they have not other things that they would have but if I have once overcome my heart and am contentted through the Grace of God in my heart then this doth not content me onely in particular but in general whatsoever befalls me I am discontented and would fain have such a thing and afterwards I have it now doth this prepare me to be contented in other things No but when I have gotten this Grace of Contentment I am prepar'd to be contented in all conditions and thus you see that Contentment doth bring comfort to a mans life fills a mans life full of comfort in this world yea the truth is it is even Heaven upon Earth why what is Heaven but the rest and quiet of a mans spirit what 's the special thing that is in Heaven but rest and joy that makes the life of Heaven there 's rest and joy and satisfaction in God so it 's here in a contented spirit there 's rest and joy and satisfaction in God In Heaven there 's singing praises to God a contented heart is always praising and blessing God thou hast Heaven while thou art upon Earth when thou hast a contented spirit yea in some regards it's better than Heaven How is that you will say there 's some kind of honor 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 tryals 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 honor 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 midst of tryals and temptations and afflictions and troubles for this soul to go on praising and blessing and serving God I say it is an excellency that thou shalt not have in Heaven and God shall 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 shall please and do not think Oh that I were delivered from all these afflictions and troubles here in this world if thou wert then thou shouldest have more ease to thy self but here 's a way of honoring God and manifesting the excellency of Grace here when thou art in this conflict of temptation that God shall 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 Contentment 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 at Stepney Sept. 7. 1645. PHIL. 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content WE proceed now There are some two or three things more of the excellency of Contentment and then we are to proceed to Application of the Point The eight Excellency is Contentment is a great blessing of God upon the soul There is Gods blessing upon those that are content the blessing of God is upon them and their estates and upon all that they have We read in Deut. of the blessing of Judah the principle Tribe this is the blessing of Judah And he said hear Lord the voice of Judah and bring him unto his people let his hands be sufficient for him and be thou an help to him from his enemies Let his hand be sufficient for him that is bring in a sufficiency of all the good unto him that he may have of his own that 's the blessing of Judah So when God gives thee a sufficiency of thine own as every contented man hath there is the blessing of God upon thee the blessing of the principal Tribe of Judah is upon thee It is the Lord that gives us all things to enjoy we may have the thing and yet not enjoy it except God come in with his blessing now whatsoever thou hast thou dost enjoy it Many men have estates and do not enjoy them it 's the blessing of God that gives us all things to enjoy it is God that through his blessing hath fashioned thy heart and made it suitable to thy condition The ninth Excellency Those that are content they may expect reward from God that God shall give unto them the good of all those things that they are contented to be without and this brings in abundance of good to a contented spirit There is such and such a mercy that thou thinkest would be very comfortable unto thee if thou hadst it but canst thou bring thy heart to submit to God in it thou shalt have the blessing of the mercy one way or other if thou hast not the thing it self in re thou shalt have it made up one way or other thou shalt have a Bill of exchange to receive somewhat in lieu of it there is no comfort that any soul is content to be without but the Lord will give either the comfort or somewhat in stead of it Thou shalt have a reward to thy soul for what ever good thing thou art content to be without You know what the Scripture saith of active obedience and the Lord doth accept of his servants their will for the deed though we do not do a good thing yet if our hearts be upright to will to do it we shall have the blessing though we do not do the thing You that complain of weakness you cannot do as others do you cannot do as much service as others do if your hearts be upright with God and would fain do the same service that you see others do you would account it a great blessing of God upon you the greatest blessing in the world if you were able to do as others do now you may comfort your selves with this having to deal with God in the way of the Covenant of Grace you shall have from God the reward of all you would do as a wicked man shall have punishment for all the sin he would commit so thou shalt have the reward for all the good thou wouldst do Now may we not draw an argument from active obedience to passive There is as good reason why thou shouldst expect that God will reward thee for all thou art willing to suffer as well as for all that thou art willing to do now if thou beest willing to be without such a comfort and mercy when God sees it fit thou shalt be no looser Certainly God will reward thee either with the comfort or with that that shall be as good to thee as the comfort therefore consider how many things have I that others want and can I bring my heart into a quiet contented frame to want what others have I have the Blessing of all that they have and I shall either possess such things as others have or else God will make it up one way or other either here or hereafter in eternity to me Oh! what riches are here with Contentment thou hast all kind of riches Tenthly and lastly By Contentment the soul comes to an Excellency neer unto God himself yea the neerest that may be for this word that is Translated Content is a word that signifies a Self-sufficiency as I told you in the opening of the words A contented man is a self-sufficient man What is the great glory of God but to be happy and self-sufficient of himself Indeed he is said to be Al-sufficient but that 's but a further addition of the word All rather than of any matter for to be sufficient is All-sufficient Now is this the Glory of God to be Sufficient to have Sufficiency in Himself El-shaddai to be God having Sufficiency in himself Now thou comest neer to this thou partakest of the Divine Nature as by Grace in general so in a more peculiar manner by this Grace of Christian Contentment what 's the Excellency and Glory of God but this Suppose there were no creatures in the world and that all the creatures in the world were annihilated God would remain the same blessed God that he is now he would not be in a worse condition if all Creatures were gone neither would a contented heart if God should take away all creatures from him a contented heart hath enough in the want of all creatures and would not be more miserable than now he is Suppose that God should continue thee here and all creatures that are here in this world were taken away yet thou still having God to be thy portion wouldest be as happy as now thou art and therefore Contentation hath a great deal of Excellency in it Thus we have shewed in many particulars the Excellency of this Grace laboring to present the beauty of it before your souls that you may be in love with it Now my brethren what remains but the practice of this for this Art of Contentment it 's not a speculative thing onely for contemplation but it is an art of Divinity and therefore practical ye are now to labor to work upon your hearts that there may be this Grace in you that you may honor God and honor your profession with this Grace of Contentment for there is none doth more honor God and honor their profession than those that have this Grace of Contentment Now that we may fall upon the practice there is required First That we should be humbled in our hearts for the want of this that we have had so little of this Grace in us For there is no way to set upon any duty with profit till the heart be humbled for the want of the performance
our Father loves to see his spirit in us Great men love to see great spirits in their children and the great God loves to see a great spirit in his Children we are one Spirit with God and with Christ and one Spirit with the holy Ghost therefore we should have a spirit that might manifest the Glory of the Father Son and holy Ghost in our spirits that 's the spirit of a Christian indeed The spirit of a Christian should be a Lyon-like spirit as Jesus Christ is the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah so he is called so we should manifest somewhat of the Lyon-like Spirit of Jesus Christ he manifested his Lyon-like Spirit in passing through all afflictions and troubles whatsoever without any murmuring against God When he came to drink that bitter cup and even the dregs of it he prayed to God indeed that if it were possible it might pass from him but presently Not my will but thy will be done As soon as ever he did mention the passing of the cup from him though it were the most dreadful cup that ever was drunk since the world began yet at the mentioning of it not my will but thy will be done here Christ shewed a Lyon-like Spirit in going through all kind of afflictions whatsoever without any murmuring against God in them Now a murmuring spirit is a base dejected spirit cross and contrary to the Spirit of a Christian and it s very base I remember that the Heathens account it very base Plutarch doth report of a certain people that did use to manifest their disdain to men that were over-much dejected by any affliction they did condemn them to this punishment To wear womans cloathes all their dayes or such a space of time at least they should go in womens cloaths in token of shame and disgrace to them because they had such effeminate spirits they thought it against a manlike spirit and therefore seeing they did un-man themselves they should go as women Now shall they account it an unman-like spirit to be over-much dejected in affliction and shall not a Christian account it an unchristian-like spirit to be over-much dejected by any affliction whatsoever I remember another compares murmuring spirits to children when they are weaning What a deal of stir have you with your children when you wean them how froward and vexing are they So when God would wean thee from some outward comforts in this world Oh how fretting and discontented art thou Children will not sleep themselves not let their mothers sleep when they are weaning and so when God would wean us from the world and we fret vex and murmur this is a childish spirit Fourthly It s below the profession of a Christian The profession of a Christian what 's that A Christians profession is To be dead to the world and to be alive to God that 's his profession to have his life to be hid with Christ in God to satisfie himself in God What is this thy profession and yet if thou hast not every thing that thou wouldest have to murmur and be discontent thou dost in that even deny thy profession Fifthly It is below that special Grace of Faith Faith is that that doth overcome the world it is that that makes all the Promises of God to be ours Now when thou tookest upon thee the profession of Religion Did God ever promise thee that thou shouldest live at ease and quiet and have no trouble I remember Austin hath such an expression What is this my faith what did I ever promise thee saith he that thou shouldest ever flourish in the world art thou a Christian to that end and is this thy faith I never made any such promise to thee when thou tookest upon thee to be a Christian Oh its mighty contrary to thy profession thou hast never a promise for this that thou shouldest not have such an affliction upon thee And a Christian should live by his faith it is said that the just doth live by faith now thou shouldest not look after any other life but the life that thou hast by faith now thou hast no ground for thy faith to believe that thou shouldst be delivered out of such an affliction and then why shouldest thou account it such a great evil to be under such an affliction Certainly that good that we have in the ground for our faith it is enough to content our hearts here and to all eternity A Christian should be satisfied with that that God hath made to be the object of his faith the object of his faith is high enough to satisfie his soul were it capable of a thousand times more than it is Now if thou mayest have the object of thy faith full thou hast enough to content thy soul and know that when thou art discontented for want of such and such comforts if thou wouldest but think thus God did never promise me that I should have these comforts and at this time and in such a way as I would have but I am discontented because I have not these which God did never yet promise me and therefore I sin much against the Gospel and against the Grace of Faith There is yet another thing It s below the hopes of Christians Oh! the most glorious things that the Saints hope for And against the helps that Christians have Christians have great helps that may help them against murmuring And it is against that which God expects from Christians God expects other manner of things from them than this Yea and it is below that that God hath from other Christians These things I shall open at another time SERMON VIII at Stepney Sept. 21. 1645. PHIL. 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I Mentioned divers things the last day to set out the evil of discontent I shall name Two or Three more Sixthly It is below a Christian in this Because it s below those helps that a Christian hath more than others have they have the Promises to help them that others have not it s not so much to have a Nabal have his heart sink because he hath nothing but the Creature to uphold him but it s much for a Christian that hath Promises and Ordinances to uphold his spirit which others have not Seventhly It s below the expectation that God hath of Christians for God expects not onely that they should be patient in afflictions but that they should rejoyce and triumph in them now Christians when God expects this from you for you not so much as to have attained to contentedness under afflictions Oh this is beneathe the expectation of God from you Eighthly It is below that that God hath had from other Christians Others have not onely been contented with little crosses but they have triumphed under great afflictions they have suffered the spoiling of their goods with joy read but the latter part of the 11. of the Hebrews and you shall find what great things
God hath had from his people and therefore not to be content with smaller crosses this must needs be a great evil The Sixth evil that there is in a murmuring spirit is this By murmuring you undo your prayers for it is exceeding contrary to the prayers you make unto God When you come to prayer to God you acknowledge his Soveraignty over you you come there to profess your selves to be at Gods dispose what do you pray for except you acknowledg that you are at his dispose except you will stand as it were at his dispose never come to petition to him if you will come to petition to him and yet will be your own carver you go cross to your prayers to come as if you would beg your bread at your Fathers gates every day and yet you must do what you list this is the undoing of the prayers of a Christian I remember I have read of Latimer that speaking concerning Peter that he denied his Master saith he Peter forgot his pater-noster for that was Hallowed be thy Name and thy Kingdom come So we may say when you have murmuring and discontented hearts you forget your prayers you forget what you have prayed for for you must make the Lords Prayer to be as a pattern for your Prayers though you say not alwayes the same words what do you pray but give us this day our daily bread for that 's Christs intention that we should have that as a pattern and is a directory as it were how to make your prayers now God doth not teach any of you to pray Lord give us so much a yeer or let me have such kind of cloth and so many dishes at my table Christ doth not teach you to pray so but he teaches us to pray Lord give us our bread shewing that you should be content with a little What have you not bread to eat I hope there 's none of you here but have that Obj. But I do not know if I should die what should become of my Children Or if I have bread now I know not where I shall have it the next week or where I shall have provision for the Winter Answ Where did Christ teach us to pray Lord give us provision for so long a time no but if we have bread for this day Christ would have us content Therefore when we murmur because we have not so much variety as others have we do as it were forget out Pater-noster It s against our prayers we do not in our lives hold forth the acknowledgement of the Soveraignty of God over us as we seem to acknowledge in our prayers therefore when at any time you find your hearts murmuring then do but reflect upon your selves and think thus Is this according to my prayers wherein I held forth the Soveraign Power and Authority that God hath over me The seventh thing that I adde for the evil of discontentment is The woful effects that comes to a discontented heart from murmuring I 'le name you five There are five evil effects that comes from a murmuring spirit 1. By murmuring and discontent in your hearts you come to lose a great deal of time How many times do men and women when they are discontented let their thoughts run and are musing and contriving through their present discontentedness then let their discontented thoughts be working in them for some hours together and they spend their time in vain When you are alone you should spend your time in holy meditation but you are spending your time in discontented thoughts you who complain that you cannot meditate you cannot think on good things but if you begin to think of them a little presently your thoughts are off from them but if you be discontented with any thing then you can go alone and muse and roll things up and down in your thoughts to feed a discontented humor Oh labor to see this evil effect of murmuring the losing of your time 2. It doth unfit a man for duty A man or woman that is in a contented frame you may turn such a one to any thing at any time he is fit for to go to God at any time but when one is in a discontented condition then a man or woman is exceeding unfit for the service of God And it causes many distractions in duty it unfits for duty and when you come to perform duties Oh the distractions that are in your duties when your spirits are discontented when you hear of any ill news from Sea and cannot bear it or of any ill from a friend or any loss or cross Oh what distractions do they cause in the performance of holy duties When you should be enjoying communion with God you are distracted in your thoughts about the cross that hath befallen you whereas had you but a quiet spirit though there should great crosses befall you yet they would never hinder you in the performance of any duty 3. Consider what wicked risings of heart and resolutions of spirit there are many times in a discontented fit In some discontented fits the heart rises against God and against others and sometimes hath even desperate resolutions what to do to help themselves If the Lord should have suffered you to have done sometimes in a discontented fit what you had thought to do what wonderful misery had you brought upon your selves Oh it was a mercy of God that did stop you had not God stopt you but let you go on when you thought to help your selves this way and the other way Oh it had been ill with you do you but remember those risings of heart and wicked resolutions that somtimes you have had in a discontented mood and learn to be humbled upon that 4. Vnthankfulness that 's an evil and a wicked effect that comes from discontent Unthankfulness the Scripture doth rank among very great sins For men and women that are discontent though they injoy many mercies from God yet they are thankful for none of them for this is the vile nature of discontentment to lessen every mercy of God to make those mercies they have from God to be as nothing to them because they have not what they would have Sometimes it s so even in spiritual things if they have not all they would have the comforts that they would have then what they have is nothing to them do you think that God will take this well If you should give a friend a kinsman a purse of money to go and trade withall and he should come and say What do you give me they are but a few counters they will do me no good you cannot bear this at his hand if he should do so because he hath not so much money as he would So for you to be ready to say All that God hath given me is nothing worth will do me no good they are but counters though they are precious Graces of Gods spirit that are more worth than thousands of worlds yet for
and therefore you cry for more I but God gives you not what you would have and upon that you throw away what you have Is not this folly in your hearts It is unthankfulness 2. There 's a great deal of folly in discontentment for by all your discontent you cannot help your selves you cannot get any thing by it Who can by taking any carking care add one cubit to his stature or make one hair that is white to be black You may vex and trouble your selves but you can get nothing by it Do you think that the Lord will come in a way of mercy ever a whit the sooner because of the murmuring of your spirits Oh no but mercy will be rather deferred the longer for it though the Lord were before in a way of mercy yet this distemper of your hearts were enough to put him out of his course of mercy and though he had thoughts that you should have the thing before yet now you shall not have it If you had a mind to give such a thing to your child yet if you see him in a discontented fretting way you will not give it him and this is the very reason why there are so many mercies denied to you because of your discontentment you are discontented for want of them and therefore you have them not you do deprive your selves of the enjoyment of your own desires because of the discontent of your hearts because you have not your desires And is not this a foolish thing 3. There 's a great deal of folly in this There are many foolish carriages commonly that a discontented hear is guilty of They carry themselves foolishly towards God and towards men there are such expressions and such kind of behavior comes from them as makes their friends to be ashamed of them many times their carriages are so unseemly they are a shame to themselves and their friends 4. There is a great deal of folly in discontent and murmuring for it doth eat out the good and sweetness of a mercy before it comes If God should give a mercy that we are discontented for the want of yet the blessing of the mercy is as it were eaten out before we come to have it Discontent is like a worm that eats the meat out of the Nut and when the meat is eaten out of it then you shall have the shell If a childe should cry for a Nut that hath the meat eaten out or all worm-eaten what good would the child have by having the Nut so such an outward comfort you would fain have you are troubled for the want of it but the very trouble of your spirit is the worm that eats out the blessing of the mercy and then perhaps God gives it you but gives it you with a curse mixed with it that you were better not have it than have it That man or woman that is discontented for want of some good thing if God doth give that good thing to them before they be humbled for their discontent that did proceed from them such a man or woman can have no comfort of the mercy but it will be rather an evil than a good to them And therefore for my part if I should have a friend or brother or one that were as dear to me as my own soul that I should see discontented for the want of such a comfort I should rather pray Lord keep this thing from them till thou wilt be pleased to humble their hearts for their discontent let not them have the mercy till they come to be humbled for their discontent for the want of it for if they have it before that time they will have it without any blessing And therefore it should be your care when you finde your hearts discontented for want of anything to be humbled for it thinking thus with your selves Lord if that that I do so immoderately desire should come to me before I be humbled for my discontent for want of it I am certain I can have no comfort of it but I shall rather have it as an affliction to me Many things which you desire as your lives and think that you should be happy if you had them yet when they do come you find not such happiness in them but they prove to be the greatest crosses and afflictions to you that ever you had and upon this ground because your hearts were immoderately set upon them before you had them As it was with Rachel she must have children or else she died well saith God seeing you must you shall have them but though she had a childe she died according to what she said Give me children or else I die So in regard of any other outward comforts people may have the thing but often-times they have it so as it proves the heaviest cross to them that ever they had in all their lives such a childe as you were discontent for the want of it it may be it was sick and your hearts were out of temper for fear that you should lose it and God restores it but he restores it so as he makes it a cross to your hearts all the days of your lives One observes concerning Manna when the people were contented with their allowance that God allowed them then it was very good but when they would not be content with Gods allowance but would gather more then God would have them then saith the text there was worms in it So when we are content with our conditions and that which God disposes of us to be in there 's a blessing in it then its sweet to us but if we must needs have more and keep it longer than God would have us to have it then there will be worms in it and no good at all 5 There 's a great deal of folly in discontentedness for it makes our affliction a great deal worse than otherwise it would be it no way removes our affliction nay while they do continue they are a great deal the worse and heavier for a discontented heart is a proud heart and a proud heart will not pull down his sails when there comes a tempest and storm If a Martinet when a tempest and storm comes should be froward and would not pull down his sails but is discontented with the storm Is his condition the better because he is discontented and will not pull down his sails Will this help him Just so it is for all the world with a discontented heart a discontented heart is a proud heart and he out of his pride is troubled with his affliction and is not contented with Gods dispose and so he will not pull down his spirit at all and make it bow to God in this condition in which God hath brought him now is his condition the better because he will not pull down his spirit No certainly abundantly worse a thousand to one but the tempest and storm overwhelms his soul And thus you see what a great deal of folly
and see you in a murmuring discontented fit have cause to say Oh let us go and take the Censer let us go to prayer for we are afraid that wrath is gone out against this family against this person And it were a very good thing for thee that art a godly wise when you see your husband come home and fall to murmuring because things go not according to his desire to go to prayer and say Lord pardon the sin of my husband and so for the husband to go to God in prayer falling down and beseeching of him that wrath may not come out against his family for the murmuring of his wife And the truth is at this day there hath been at least lately as much murmuring in England as ever was and even in this very particular the plague is begun and this very judgement it doth come many times upon murmuring upon those that are so discontented in their families are always grumbling and murmuring at any thing that falls out amiss I say this text of Scripture in Numbers doth cleerly hold forth this That the Lord brings the Plague upon men for this sin of murmuring he doth it in Kingdoms and Families and upon particular persons Though we cannot always point out the particular sin that God brings this for yet this should be examined how far we are guilty of this sin of murmuring because the Scripture holds forth this so clearly that Moses when he did but hear that they murmured Do they murmur saith he Go forth quickly and seek to pacifie the anger of God For wrath is gone out and the plague is begun And 1 Cor. 10.10 there you have a notable example of Gods heavy displeasure against murmuring Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Take heed of murmuring as some of them did he speaks of the people of Israel in the wilderness but saith he what came of it They were destroyed of the destroyer Now the destroyer is thought to be the fiery Serpents that were sent among them They murmured and God sent fiery Serpents to sting them What do you think that such a cross and affliction doth sting you Perhaps such an affliction is upon you and it seems to be grievous for the present What do you murmur and repine God hath greater crosses to bring upon you Those people that murmur for the want of outward comforts for want of water sometimes and for the want of bread they murmur but the Lord sends fiery Serpents among them I may say to a murmuring heart Wo to thee that Strivest with thy Maker Wo to that man that woman that strives against their Maker What doest thou else but strive against thy Maker Thy Maker hath the absolute dispose of thee and wilt thou strive against thy Maker What doth this murmuring discontented heart of thine do otherwise but wrangle and contend and strive even with God himself Oh wo to him that strives against his Maker I may further say to thee as God speaks to Job Job 38.1.2 When Job was impatient Now God spake saith the text out of the whirlwind and said who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge So doest thou speak against Gods ways and his providences that hath fallen out concerning thy estate and outward comforts who is this who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge Where 's that man or woman whose hearts are so bold and impudent as dare speak against the administration of Gods providence The tenth Evil of murmuring and discontent is this There 's a great curse of God upon it so far as it doth prevail in one that is wicked it hath the curse of God upon it In Psal 59.15 see there what the curse of God is upon wicked and ungodly men Let them wander up and down for meat and grudge if they be not satisfied That is the imprecation and curse upon wicked and ungodly men that if they be not satisfied they shall grudge when thou art not satisfied in thy desires and findest thy heart grudging against God apply this Scripture What is the curse of the wicked upon me This is the curse that is threatned upon wicked and ungodly ones That they shall grudge if they be not satisfied And in Deut. 28.67 There it 's threatned as a curse of God upon men that they cannot be content with their present condition But they shall say in the morning would God it were even and at even would God it were morning and so they lie tossing up and down and cannot be content with any condition that they are in because of the sore afflictions that be upon them and therefore it is further threatned as a curse upon them in the 34. vers That they should be mad for the sight of their eyes which they should see This is but the extremity of their discontentedness that is They shall be so discontented as they shall be even mad Many men and women in discontented moods are mad kind of people and though you may please your selves in such a mad kind of behavior yet know that it is a curse of God upon men to be given up to a kind of madness for evils that they-suppose are upon them and that they fear In the 47. vers there is a notable expression for to shew the curse of God upon murmuring hearts the Lord threatning the curses that shall be upon them saith he verse 45 46 and 47. The Curso shall pursue thee and they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder and upon thy seed for ever Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things God here threatens to bring his curse so upon them as to make them a wonder and a sign to others Why because they have not served the Lord with joyfulness of heart that may be added to that of the wrath of God upon men therefore God would bring such a curse upon them as would make them a wonder to all that were about them Oh how far art thou then that hast a murmuring heart from serving the Lord with joyfulness The eleventh evil of discontent and murmuring is this There is much of the spirit of Satan in a murmuring spirit The Devil is the most discontented creature that is in the world He is the proudest creature that is and the discontentedst creature and the most dejected creature Now therefore so much discontentment as thou hast so much of the spirit of Satan thou hast It was the unclean spirit that went up and down and found no rest so when a man or womans spirit hath no rest it is a sign that it hath much of the unclean spirit of the spirit of Satan And thou shouldest think this with thy self Oh Lord what have I the spirit of Satan upon me It is Satan that is the most discontented spirit that is and Oh! how much
not conceive of them because you feel them not Answ Though I cannot know what your afflictions are yet I know what your mercies are and I know they are so great as I am sure there can be no affliction in this world so great as the mercies you have If it were but this mercy That you have this day of grace and salvation continued to you it s a greater mercy than any affliction set any affliction by this mercy and see which would weigh heaviest this is certainly greater than any affliction that you have the day of grace and salvation that you are not now in Hell this is a greater mercy that you have the sound of the Gospel yet in your ears that you have the use of your reason this is a greater mercy than your afflictions that you have the use of your limbs your senses that you have the health of your bodies health of body is a greater mercy than poverty is an affliction there is no man that is rich but if he be wise if he hath a sickly body he would part with all his riches that he might have his health therefore thy mercies are more than thy afflictions We find in Scripture how the holy Ghost doth aggravate the sin of discontent from the consideration of mercies you have a notable Scripture for it in the 16. of Numb 8. verse c. It s a speech of Moses to Korah and his company when they murmured And Moses said unto Korah Hear I pray you ye sons of Levi there 's somewhat that you are sons of Levy Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you neer to himself to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the Congregation to minister unto them Korah and his company were murmuring but mark how Moses aggravates this Seemeth it a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you neer to himself to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord c. You see 't is a great honor that God puts upon a man a great mercy that he doth bestow upon any man to separate him from others for himself to come neer to him to imploy him in the service of the Tabernacle to minister to the Congregation in holy things this is a great mercy and indeed it 's such a mercy as one would think there should be none that God bestows such a mercy upon that should have a murmuring heart for any affliction It s true many Ministers of God they meet with hard things that might discourage them and trouble and grieve their spirits but now this consideration that God is pleased to imploy them in such a service neer to himself that though they cannot do good to themselves yet they may do good to others this should quiet them And yet in vers 10. And he hath brought thee neer to him and all thy Brethren the sons of Levi with thee and seek ye the Priest hood also Have not you enough already but still you are discontented with what you have and must have more seck ye yet more Seek ye the Priesthood also for which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord And what is Aaron that ye murmur against him What hath God given you such things and yet will you be murmuring because you cannot have more Methinks that this place should keep Ministers from murmuring though they should meet with never such afflictions and crosses and unkind dealings from men yet still they should go on with hearts quieted and comforted in the work that God hath set them about and labour to countervail all their afflictions by being more abundant in the work of the Lord. That is the first text of Scripture that shews how the mercies we enjoy are Aggravations to the sin of murmuring And then a second Scripture is in the 2. of Job vers 10. A speech of Job to his wife what saith Job when his wife would have had him curse God and dye that was a degree beyond murmuring why saith he Thou speakest as one of the foolish women shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evil you see Job did help himself against all murmuring thoughts against the ways of God with this consideration That he had received so much good from the Lord what though we receive evil yet do not we receive good as well as evil let us set one against the other that 's the way we should go In the 17. of Ecclesiastes the 14. verse you have a notable Scripture there whereby you may see what course is to be taken when the heart rises in murmuring In the day of prosperity be joyful but in the day of Adversity consider what should they consider mark what follows God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him God also hath set the one over against the other that 's thus When thou art in prosperity then indeed every man can be joyful but what if afflictions befalls him what then then consider Consider what That God hath set one over against the other thou hast a great deal of affliction and thou hast had a great deal of prosperity thou hast many troubles and thou hast had many mercies make one column of mercies and one column of afflictions and write one against the other and see if God hath not fil'd one column as full as the other you look altogether upon your afflictions but look upon your mercies also for instance It may be God hath afflicted you in one childe but he hath been merciful to you in another childe set one against the other God afflicted David in Absalom but he was merciful to David in Solomon and therefore when David cryed our Oh Absalom my Son my Son If David had thought upon Solomon and cryed Oh Solomon my son my son it would have quieted him And it may be God hath been merciful to thee in a Wife or in thy Husband set that against thy affliction it may be God crosses thee in thy Estate but it may be he doth imploy thee in his Service it may be thou art afflicted in some of thy Friends but thou hast other Friends that are great mercies to thee and therefore you should set one against the other and it doth concern you so to do for those mercies will be aggravations of your sins and you had better make Gods mercies a means to lessen your sins than to be the aggravation of your sins If you make not the mercies of God to help you against your murmuring you will make them to be aggravations of the sin of murmuring I beseech you for this take but this one consideration further and if you will but work it upon your hearts I hope you may find a
to that I answer thus First it is a very evil thing for men and women upon their affliction to conclude that God is departed from them it may be when it comes to be examined there is no other reason why thou thinkest that God is withdrawn and departed but because he doth afflict thee now for thee to make such a conclusion that every time God lays an affliction upon thee he is departed this is a sinful distemper of thy heart and is very dishonorable to God and grievous to his Spirit In the 17. of Exod. 7. vers you may see how God was displeased there with such a kind of distemper as this is And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the chiding of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord saying Is the Lord amongst us or not Mark they did murmure because they were brought into afflictions but see what the text saith therefore the place was called Massah and Meribah because they tempted the Lord saying Is the Lord amongst us or not This was to tempt God Sometimes we are afraid God is departed from us and it is meerly because we are afflicted I beseech you observe that Scripture God calls it a tempting of him when he afflicts any for them to conclude and say that God is departed from them If a Childe should cry out of his Father and say that his father is turned to be an enemy to him because he doth correct him this would be taken ill I beseech you consider of this one place it may be of very great use to you that you may not be ready to think that God is departed because you are afflicted Secondly If God be departed the greatest sign of Gods departing is because you are so disquiet you make your disquiet to be the fruit of Gods departing and if it comes to be examined your disquiet is the cause of Gods departing from you if you could but cure your disquiet if you could but quiet your own hearts and get them into a better frame of contentedness under Gods hand in afflicting of you then you would find Gods presence with you Will you be thus disquiet till God comes again to you your disquiet drives him from you and you can never expect Gods coming to manifest himself comfortably to your souls till you have gotten your hearts quiet under your afflictions and therefore here you see how crosly you reason you reason I am disquiet because God is gone when the truth is God is gone because thou art disquiet reason but the other way Oh my disquiet hath driven God from me and therefore as ever I would have the presence of God to come again to me let my heart be quiet under the hand of God Thirdly Doest thou find God departing from thee in thine affliction Wilt thou therefore depart from God too Is this thy help Canst thou help thy self that way Because God is gone wilt thou go too Do I indeed feel God departing from me It may be it is so it may be God for thy tryal is departed a little from thee and is it so indeed What unwise course do I take I commit further sin and so I go further off from God what a case am I in God goes from me and I from God if the childe sees the mother going from it it 's not for the childe to say my mother is gone yonder and I will go the other way no but the childe goes crying after the Mother and so should the soul say I see the Lord is withdrawing his presence from me and now it is best for me to make after the Lord with all my might and I am sure this murmuring humor is not a making after God but by this I go further and further off from God and what a distance is there like to be between God and me within a little while These are some of the Reasonings and Pleas of a murmuring and discontented heart There are many others that we shall meet withall and endeavour to speak to your hearts in them that so this tough humor of discontent may as it were be cut with the Word and softened with the Word that so it may pass away for that 's the way of Physitians when they meet with a body that hath any tough humor then they give that that hath a piercing quality when there is a tough humor that stops the water that it cannot pass they give that that hath a piercing quality that may make passage for it and so thou hast need of such things that are piercing to make way through this tough humor that is in the spirits of men and women whereby they come to live very uncomfortably to themselves and others and very dishonourably unto God SERMON X. at Stepney Sept. 21. 1645. PHIL. 4.11 For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content NOW there are many Pleas and Reasonings yet remain for there 's a great deal of do with a discontented murmuring heart And I remember I find that the same Hebrew word that signifies to lodge to abide it signifies to murmure they use one word for both for murmuring is a distemper that doth lodge in men where it gets in once it lodgeth abideth and continueth and therefore that we may unlodge it and get it out we will labour to shew what are the further Reasonings of a discontented heart The Fourth PLEA Methinks I could be content with Gods hand saith one so far as I see the hand of God in a thing I can be content but when men deal so unreasonably and unjustly with me I know not how to bear that I can bear it that I should be in Gods hands but not in the hands of men my friends or acquaintance when they deal so unrighteously with me Oh this goes very hard unto me that I know not how to bear it from men For the taking away of this reasoning first Though they be men that bring this cross upon you yet they are Gods Instruments God hath a hand in it and they can go no further than God would have them go This was that that quieted David when Shimei curst him saith he God hath a hand in it though Shimei be a wicked vile man yet I look beyond him to God So Is there any of your friends that deal injuriously with you and cross with you look up to God and see that man but as an instrument in Gods hands Secondly If this be your trouble that men do so wrong you you are rather to turn your hearts to pity them than to murmure or be discontented for the truth is if you be wronged by other men you have the better of it For it is better to bear wrong than to do wrong a great deal If they wrong you if your heart can submit you are in a better condition than they because it 's better to suffer than do wrong I remember it is said
of Socrates that being very patient when wrong was done to him they asked him how he came to be so Saith he If I meet with a man in the street that is a diseased man shall I be vexed and fretted with him because he is diseased Those that wrong me I look upon them as diseased men and therefore pity them Thirdly Though you meet with hard dealings from men yet you meet with nothing but kind good and righteous dealing from God When you meet with unrighteous dealings from them set one against another And that 's for the Answer to the Fourth Plea The Fifth PLEA Oh! but that affliction that comes upon me is an affliction that I never lookt for I never thought to have met with such an affliction and that 's that I know not how to bear that 's that which makes my heart so disquiet because was altogether unlookt for and unexpected For Answer to this First It is thy weakness and folly that thou didst not look for it and expect it In Acts 20.22 23. see what Saint Paul saith concerning himself And now behold I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befal me there save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying That bonds and afflictions abide me It 's true saith he I know not the particular affliction that may befal me but this I know that the Spirit of God witnesseth That bonds and afflictions shall abide me every where I look for nothing else but bonds and afflictions wheresoever I go so a Christian should do he should look for afflictions wheresoever he is in all conditions he should look to meet with afflictions and therefore if any affliction should befall him though indeed he could not fore-see the particular evil yet he should think this is no more than I lookt for in the general Therefore no affliction should come unexpectedly to a Christian A second answer I shall give is this Is it unexpected then the less provision thou madest for it before it came the more careful shouldest thou be to sanctifie Gods Name in it now it is come It is in this case of afflictions as in mercies many times mercy comes unexpected and that might be a third Answer to you set one against the other I have many mercies that I never lookt for as well as afflictions that I never lookt for why should not one rejoyce me as well as the other disturb me As it is in mercies when they come unexpected the less preparation there was in me for receiving mercy the more need I have to be carefull now to give God the glory of the mercy and to sanctifie Gods Name in the enjoyment of the mercy Oh so it should be with us now we have had mercies this Summer that we never expected and therefore we were not prepared for them now we should be so much the more careful to give God the glory of them so when afflictions come that we did not expect then it seems we laid not in for them before-hand we had need be the more careful to sanctifie Gods Name in them we should have spent some pains before to prepare for afflictions and we did not then take so much the more pains to sanctifie God in this affliction now And that 's a fifth reasoning The Sixth PLEA Oh! but it is very great mine affliction it is exceeding great saith one and however you say we must be contented it 's true you may say so that feel not such great afflictions but if you felt my affliction that I feel you would think it hard to bear and be content To that I answer Let it be as great an affliction as it will it is not so great as thy sin He hath punished thee less than thy sins Secondly It might have been a great deal more thou mightest have been in Hell And it is as I remember Bernards speech saith he It is an eafier matter to be opprest than perish Thou mightest have been in Hell and therefore the greatness of the thing should not make thee murmure grant it be great Thirdly It may be 't is the greater because thy heart doth so murmure for shackles upon a mans legs if his legs be sore it will pain him the more if the shoulder be sore the burden is the greater It is because thy heart is so unsound that thy affliction is great unto thee and that is the sixth Reasoning The seventh PLEA But howsoever you may lessen my affliction yet I am sure it is far greater than the afflictions of others First It may be it is thy discontent that makes it greater when indeed it is not so in its self Secondly If it were greater than others why is thy eye evil because the eye of God is good why shouldest thou be discontented the more because God is gracious to others Thirdly Is thy affliction greater than others Then in this thou hast an opportunity to honor God more than others So thou shouldst consider Doth God afflict mee more than other men God gives me an opportunity in this to honor him in this affliction more than other men to exercise more grace than other men let me labour to do it then Fourthly If all afflictions were laid upon a heap together It 's a notable expression of Solon that wise Heathen saith he Suppose all the afflictions that are in the World were laid upon an heap and every man should come and take a proportion of those afflictions every one equally there is scarce any man but would rather say Let me have the afflictions that I had before or else he were like to come to a greater share a greater affliction if so be he should equally share with the whole world Now for you that are poor that are not in extremity of poverty if all the riches in the world were laid together and you should have an equal share you would be poorer but take all afflictions and sorrows whatsoever if all the sorrows in the world were laid together in a heap and you had but an equal share of them your portion would be rather more than it is now for the present and therefore do not complain that it is more than others so as to murmure because of that The Eighth PLEA Another Reasoning that murmuring hearts have is this why they think that if the affliction were any other than it is then they would be more contented First You must know that we are not to chuse our own rod that God shall beat us with Secondly It may be if it were any other than it is it were not so fit for thee as this is it may be therefore God chuses it because it is most cross to thee as seeing it most suitable for the purging out of that humour that is in thee If a Patient comes to take Physick and finds himself sick by it shall he say Oh! if it were any other potion I could bear it it may
120 Discouragement Disconragment opposed to Contentment Page 7 Discontent Discontent the reason of it Page 73 Discontent a sin of idle men Page 76 Discontent the root of it Page 82 Discontent how aggravated Page 153 Discontent Pleas for it Page 165 See Grace Shift Foolish Mercies Devil Disgrace Disgrace how sanctified Page 45 Dishonor A Christian discontented when God is dishonored Page 15 Dispose see Freely Disquiet Disquiet the cause of Gods departing Page 168 See Murmuring Duty Duty of a Christian in prosperity Page 89 What unfits for Duty Page 134 God accepts of weak Duty Page 156 Sense of affliction hinders not duty Page 165 E Efficacy Efficacy of Gods Providence Page 95 Ever God gives grace for ever Page 184 Evil. Evil of afflictions taken from Gods children Page 56 Excellency Excellency of God how we come near it Page 117 Excellency of God what ibid Expectation Expectation of a Christian Page 132 F Faith Ordinary works done in Faith precious Page 7 Murmuring below the grace of Faith Page 131 Exercise of Faith brings Contentment Page 198 See Affliction Mean Faithfulness God in rewarding looks to faith fulness Page 178 Father God the Father of a Christian Page 126 We should labor for the spirit of our Father Page 129 Feel What we feel to be preferred to others fancies Page 205 Fill see God Fit God knows what afflictions are fit Page 174 Grace makes fit for any condition ib. Foolish Discontent a foolish sin Page 138 139 Frame Contentment a frame of Spirit Page 2 Free Freely c. A Christian freely submits to God Page 15 Freedome what Page 16 God gives freely Page 41 Freeness of Gods mercies aggravates sin Page 158. Fretting Fretting 〈…〉 to quietness of spirit Page 6 G Glory What a Christian hash here is an earnest of Glory Page 43 Glory of God wherein it appears Page 105 Glory to be given to God in the enjoyment of Blessings Page 193 God To look up to God in all conditions Page 19 Nothing can fill the heart but God Page 28 Happiness of a Saint in God Page 38 Saints enjoy all in God Page 40 Outward comsorts taken away when they keep us from God Page 50 See Life Creature Excellency Walk Good 〈◊〉 of themselves unfit to receive good Page 70 We should not be discontent that God is good to others Page 173 God doth good to his by afflictions Page 193 See Sanctifie Christ Grace Grace much exercised in Contentment Page 103 Grace the strength of it ibid Grace better than the Creature Page 113 Discontent contrary to Grace Page 122 Grace should content us without the world Page 193 See Beauty Gracious Contentment a gracious frame of heart Page 13 Great Afflictions not so great as our sins Page 172 Afflictions greater for murmuring Page 173 Not to promise our selves great things Page 200 H. Habitual Contentment an habitual frame Page 13 To praise God for what be had Page 188 Heart Contentment quiets the heart Page 5 The heart to be let out to God Page 67 The knowledge of our own hearts Page 83 Benefits of knowing our own hears Page 84 A great evil to be given up to our own heart Page 90 Rising of the heart Page 135 Distemper of the heart how esteemed with God Page 18â— See Gracious Heaven Heaven in the Souls of the Saints here Page 56 Things of Heaven real to a Saint Page 67 Heaven what Page 11â— Contentment better than Heaven ib Help Help of a Christian what Page 13â— No Help by discontent Page 139 High see Calling Angels Honor What is the greatest Honor God hath of us in the world Page 81 Humble We should not murmure when God would humble us Page 161 see Contentment Idle see Discontent Joy Joy immoderate how known Page 20â— Injoy Godly men content with that they injoy Page 4 Good men injoy what they have Page 116 see God Inward Inward discontent Page 4 Inward concent ibid Judgment Many not content in their Judgment see Afflictions Page 11 K Kind To submit to afflictions of every king Page 22 King The soul subdued to Christ as King Page 124 Every Christian a King Page 128 L Life Life of a Saint where it is Page 56 Conversion a work all our life Page 125 Long Long afflictions not to be murmured at Page 163 Look Afflictions to be looked for Page 171 Care in afflictions not looked for Page 172 Loss No loss if we perish Page 71 Love Love of God in what a Christian hath Page 41 Love in afflictions to the godly Page 44 Love in a Christians eslate Page 110 Love to God a sign of it Page 113 Low Lowest God brings lowest when he intends the greatest mercies Page 98 Men raised from a low condition should not murmure Page 139 Obedience seen most in a low Calling Page 178 The soul oft best in a low outward estate Page 180 M Man Man Gods instrument in affliction Page 170 Mannage see Heart Mean Actions of a mean Christian accepted Page 178 Faith makes mean works glorious ib Mercy How the soul is sitted to receive mercy Page 206 Mercies lessened by discontent Page 135 Discontent deprives of Mercies Page 139 The greater Mercies the greater sin to murmure Page 150 Every man hath more mercies than afflictions Page 154 Greatness of Mercies should make us content Page 187 God is before hand with his Mercies to us Page 188 see Discontent Member Every Christian a Member of Christ Page 127 Mean Christians Members of Christs Body Page 176 Mystery Contentment a Mystery Page â—26 Mortified To get out hearts mortified to the world Page â—00 Murmuring Murmuring opposite to quietness of spirit Page 6 Murmuring the evil of it Page 119 Murmuring a note of a wicked man Page 1â—0 Murmuring bolow a Christian Page 120 Murmuring the effects of it Page 134 Murmuring breeds disquiet Page 147 Murmuring the way to relapse into it Page 150 Murmuring aggravations of it ib See Affection Rebellion Loss Child Curse Mercy â—â—â—all N Nature see Angels Necessary The knowledge of one thing necessary Page 74 Nothing How a Christian comes to know he is nothing Page 69 A Christian of himself can do nothing Page 70 Naturally we are worse than nothing Page 71 See Deserve Use O Obedience When God gives in love we should return in Obedience Page 184 The greater affliction the more Obedience ibid One All Gods works from eternity but One Page 96 P Pain Pain sanctified to a Christian how Page 46 Parts Discontent aggravated in men of parts Page 158 Passage see Portion People Gods dealing with his people Page 97 Three things in Gods way with his people Perfection see Uprightness Particular The Creatures particular comforts Page â—â—3 Pity Pity to men that deal ill with us Page 171 Plague Promises concerning the plague Page 54 55 56 Plea see Discontent Portion A Christian not content with little for his portion Page 28 Possess Men discontent for what they possess Page 159 Poverty Poverty sanctified by Christs
as now If he wants outward comforts good chear feasting a good Conscience is a continual feast he can make up the want of a feast by that peace he hath in his own Conscience if he wants melody abroad he hath a bird within him that sings the most meldious songs that are in the world and the most delightful And then Doth he want honor he hath his own Conscience witnessing for him that is as a thousand witnesses the Scripture saith in Luk. 17. verse 21. Neither shall they say Lo here or Lo there for behold the Kingdom of God is within you A Christian then whatsoever he wants he can make it up for he hath a Kingdom in himself the Kingdom of God is within him If one that is a King should meet with a great deal of trouble when he is abroad yet he contents himself with this I have a Kingdom of mine own now here it is said the Kingdom of God is within a man truly upon this Scripture of the Kingdom of God being within those that are learned if they would but look into that Comment upon the Gospel that we have of a learned man they shall find a very strange conceit that he hath about this very Text he confesses indeed it is inutterable and so indeed it is The Kingdom of God is within you he makes it that there is such a presence of God and Christ within the soul of a man that when the body dies he saith that the soul goes into God and Christ that is within him the Souls going into God and Christ and enjoying of that communion with God and Christ that is within its self that is Heaven to it saith he He confesses he is not able to expresse himself nor others cannot understand fully what he intends but certainly for the present before death there is a Kingdom of God within the soul such a manifestation of God in the soul that is enough to content the heart of a Godly man in the world the Kingdom to content hath now within him he shall not stay till afterwards till he goes to Heaven but certainly there is a Heaven in the soul of a Godly man he hath Heaven already Many times when you go to comfort your friends in their afflictions you will say Heaven will pay for all nay you may certainly find Heaven pays for all already there is Heaven within the souls of the Saints that is a certain truth no soul shall ever come to Heaven but that soul that hath Heaven come to it first VVhen you die you hope you shall go to Heaven But if you shall go to Heaven when you die Heaven will come to you before you die Now this is a great mystery to have the Kingdom of Heaven in the soul no man can know this but that soul that hath it that Heaven which is within the soul for the present I say it is like the white stone and the new name that none but those that have it can understand it It is a miserable condition my Brethren to depend upon creatures altogether for our Contentment you know rich men account it a great happiness if they need not go to buy things by the penny as others do they have all things for pleasure or profit upon their own ground and all their inheritance lyes entire together they have no body comes within them but they have all within themselves there lies their happiness whereas other poorer people are fain to go from one market to another to provide them necessaries but yet great rich men they have Sheep and Beeves Corn and Clothing and all things else of their own within themselves and herein they place their happiness But this is the happiness of a Christian that he hath that within himself that may satisfie him more than all these That place which we have in the first of James seems to allude to that condition of men that have all their estates within themselves James 1.4 But let patience have her perfect work that we may be perfect and entire wanting nothing the word there used signifies to have the whole inheritance to our selves not a broken inheritance but that where all lies within themselves as a man that hath not a piece of his estate here and a piece there but he hath it all lies together and the heart being patient under afflictions findes it self to be in such an estate as this is finds his whole inheritance to be together and all intire within its self And now still to shew this by further similitudes it is with him being filled with good things just like as it is with many a man that enjoys abundance of comforts at home at his own house God grants to him a convenient habitation a comfortable Yoke fellow and fine Walks and Gardens and hath all things at home that he could desire now this man cares not much for going abroad other men are fain to go abroad to take the air but he hath a sweet air at home and they are fain to go abroad to see friends because they have railings and contendings at home many ill husbands will give this reason if his wife make any moan and complaint of his ill husbandry of their bad husbandry and will make that their excuse to go abroad because they can never be quiet at home Now we account those men most happy that have all at home those that have close houses that are unsavoury and smells ill they delight to go into the fresh air but it is not so with many others that have those at home those that have no good clear at home they are fain to go abroad to friends but those that have their tables furnished they had as leive stay at home So a carnal man he hath but little Contentment in his own spirit it is Austines similitude saith he An ill conscience is like a scoulding Wife a man saith he that hath an ill conscience he cares not to look into his own soul but loves to be abroad and looks into other things but never looks to himself but one that hath a good conscience he delights in looking into his own heart he hath a good conscience within him And so a carnal heart because there is nothing but filthyness a filthy stink in himself nothing but vileness and baseness within him upon this it is that he seeks his Contentment elsewhere and as it is with a vessel that is full of Liquor if you strike upon it it will make no great noise but if it be empty then it makes a great noise So it is with the heart An heart that is full of grace and goodness within such a one will bear a great many stroakes and never make any noise but an empty heart if that be struck that will make a noise those men and women that are so much complaining and always whining it is a sign that there is an emptiness in their hearts but if their hearts were