Jeremiah Burroughs :: Sermon Seven

SERMON VII

For I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content (Philippians 4:11).

The Excellency of Contentment — Continued

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.

VIII. It Is a Great Blessing of God upon the Soul

Contentment is a great blessing of God upon the soul. There is God’s blessing upon those that are content, the blessing of God is upon them, and their possessions, and upon all that they have. We read in Deuteronomy of the blessing of Judah, the principal tribe: ‘And he said, hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people, let his hands be sufficient for him, and be a help to him from his enemies. Let his hand be sufficient for him, that is, bring in a sufficiency of all good to him that he may have of his own: that’s the blessing of Judah. So when God gives you a sufficiency of your own, as every contented man has, there is the blessing of God upon you, the blessing of the principle tribe of Judah is upon you. It is the Lord that gives us all things to enjoy, we may have the thing and yet not enjoy it except God comes in with his blessing. Now whatever you have you enjoy it; many men have possessions and do not enjoy them. It’s the blessing of God that gives us all things to enjoy, and it is God that through his blessing, has fashioned your heart and made it suitable to your condition.

IX. A Contented Man May Expect Reward

Those that are content they may expect reward from God, that God shall give to them the good of all those things that they are contented to be without. This brings in abundance of good to a contented spirit. There is such and such a mercy that you think would be very comfortable to you if you had it, but can’t you bring your heart to submit to God in it? You shall have the blessing of the mercy one way or another; if you have not the thing itself, you shall have it made up one way or another; you shall have a bill of exchange to receive something 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 something instead of it. You shall have a reward to your soul for whatever good thing you are content to be without. You know what the Scripture says of active obedience: and the Lord does 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 who complain of weakness, you cannot do as others do, you cannot do as much service as others do – if your hearts be as upright with God, and would gladly 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 yourselves with this, that having to deal with God in the way of the covenant of grace, you shall have from God the reward of all you will do. As a wicked man shall have punishment for all the sin he would commit, so you shall have the reward for all the good you would do. Now may not we draw an argument from active obedience to passive: there is as good reason why you should expect that God will reward you for all that you are willing to suffer, as well as for all that you are willing to do. Now if you are willing to be without such a comfort and mercy when God sees it fit, you shall be no loser; certainly God will reward you either with the comfort or with what shall be as good to you as the comfort. Therefore consider, how many things have I that others want? Can I bring my heart into a quiet contented frame to want 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 you have all kind of riches.

X. By It the Soul Comes Nearest the Excellency of God

Tenthly and lastly: By contentment the soul comes to an excellency near to God himself, yea, the nearest that may be. For this word that is translated ‘content,’ it 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, and what is the great glory of God, but to be happy and self–sufficient in himself? Indeed he is said to be all–sufficient, but that’s only 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 you come near to this, you partake of the Divine nature, as by grace in general, so in a more peculiar manner by this grace of Christian contentment, for what’s the excellence 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 has enough in the want of all creatures and would not be more miserable than he is now. Suppose that God should keep you here, and all creatures that are here in this world were taken away, yet you still, having God to be your portion, would be as happy as you are now. Therefore contentment has a great deal of excellence in it.

The Evils of a Murmuring Spirit

Thus we have showed 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, only for contemplation, but it is an art of divinity, and therefore practical. You 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 does 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, that we should he humbled in our hearts for the want of this, that we have had so little of this grace in us. For there is no way to set upon any duty with profit, till the heart be humbled for the want of the performance of the duty before. Many men when they hear of a duty that they should perform, they will 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 has been far otherwise! Oh, how far have I been from this grace of contentment that has been opened to me? I have had a murmuring, a vexing and a fretting heart within me, every little cross has put me out of temper and out of frame! Oh, the boisterousness of my spirit, what a deal of evil does 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 to it:

First, I shall set before you, The evil of a murmuring spirit. There is more evil than you are aware of.

In the second place, I will show 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 has for this bad temper 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 currently: The great evil that there is in a murmuring discontented heart.

I. It Is an Argument of Much Corruption of the Soul

In the first place: This your murmuring and discontentedness it argues much corruption that is in the soul. As contentment argues much grace, and strong grace, and beautiful grace so, this argues much corruption, and strong corruption, and very vile corruptions in your heart. As it is in a man’s body, if a man’s 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 man’s body is very corrupt, his blood and his flesh is corrupt, that every scratch of a pin shall make it rankle. So it is in your spirit, if every little trouble and affliction shall make you discontented, and make you murmur, and even cause your spirit within you to rankle. Or as it is in a wound in a man’s body, the evil of a wound, it is not so much in the largeness of the wound, and 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 unskilled 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 surgeon comes and sees a great gash, he says, ‘This will be healed within a few days, but there’s a smaller wound and there’s an inflammation or a septic sore that is in it, and this will cost time,’ he says, ‘to cure.’ So that he does not lay balsam and healing salves upon it, but his great care is to get out the septic, or inflammation, so that the thing that must heal this wound it is some drink to purge. But the patient says, ‘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 infection, 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 humour, an inflammation in the heart, a murmuring spirit that is within you and that is the misery of your condition, and that must be purged out of you before you can be healed. Let God do with you what he will, till he purges out that fretting humor your wound will not be healed; a murmuring heart is a very sinful heart, so that when you are troubled for such an affliction, you hadn’t need turn your thoughts, rather to be troubled for the murmuring of your heart, for that’s the greatest trouble. There is an affliction upon you and that is grievous, but there is a murmuring heart within and 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 show more afterward that a murmuring spirit is the evil of the evil, and the misery of the misery.

II. It Is a Note of a Wicked Man

Secondly, the evil of murmuring is such that God when he would speak of wicked men, and describe them, and slew the brand of a wicked and ungodly man or woman, he instances in this sin in a more particular manner. I might name many Scriptures, but that Scripture in Jude is a most remarkable one. In the 14th verse [Jude 1:14-15], and so forward, there it is said, ‘That the Lord comes with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard sayings, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’ Mark here in this 15th verse [Jude 1:15], 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 sayings, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. This is in the general, but now he comes in to show who these are: ‘These are’ he says, ‘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 forefront of ungodly ones, it’s a most dreadful Scripture, that the Lord when he speaks of ungodly ones puts murmurers in the very forefront 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. It’s true there is no sin but some seeds and remainders of it are in those that are godly, but when they are under the power of this sin of murmuring, it does convince them to be ungodly, as well as if they were under the power of drunkenness, or whoredom, or any other sin. God will look upon you as ungodly for this sin as well as for any sin whatever. This one Scripture should make the heart shake at the thought of the sin of murmuring.

III. Murmuring is Accounted Rebellion

As it’s made a brand of ungodly men, so you shall find in Scripture that God accounts it rebellion. That is contrary to the worship that there was in contentedness. That’s worshiping of God, crouching to God and falling down before him, even as a dog that would crouch when you hold a staff over him; but a murmuring heart it’s a rebellious heart, and that you shall find, if you compare two Scriptures together: they are both in the book of Numbers. ‘But tomorrow,’ says Numbers 16:41, ‘all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord.’ They all murmured, now compare this with chapter 17 verse 10: ‘And the Lord said to Moses, Bring Aaron’s rod again, before the testimony to be kept for a token against the rebels.’ In the 16th chapter they murmured against Moses and Aaron, and in the 17th chapter bring the rod of Aaron again, before the testimony, for a token against the rebels. So to be a murmurer, and to be a rebel you see in Scripture phrase is all one; it is a rebellion against God. As it is the beginning of rebellion and sedition in a kingdom when the people are discontent, and when discontentment comes it grows to murmuring, and you can go into no house almost, but there is murmuring when men are discontent, so that within a little while it breaks forth into sedition or rebellion. Murmuring is but as the smoke of the fire, there is first a smoke and smother before the flame breaks forth, and so before open rebellion in a kingdom there is first a smoke of murmuring, and then it breaks forth into open rebellion. But because it has rebellion in the seeds of it, therefore it is accounted before the Lord to be rebellion. Will you be a rebel against God? When you feel your heart discontented and murmuring against the dispensations of God towards you, you should check your heart thus: Oh, you wretched heart! What will you be a rebel against God? Will you rise in a way of rebellion against the infinite God? Yet you have done so. Charge your heart with this sin of rebellion, you that are guilty of this sin of murmuring, you are this day by the Lord charged as being guilty of rebellion against him, and God expects that when you go home you should humble your souls before him for this sin, that you should charge your souls for being guilty of rebellion against God. Many of you may say, I never thought that I had been a rebel against God before, I thought that I had many infirmities, but now I see the Scripture speaks of sin in another manner than men do, the Scripture makes men, though but murmurers, to be rebels against God. Oh, this rebellious heart that I have against the Lord that has manifested itself in this way of murmuring against the Lord? That’s a third particular in the evil of discontentment.

IV. It Is Contrary to Grace, Especially in Conversion

A fourth particular in the evil of discontentment: It is a wickedness that is exceedingly contrary to grace, and especially contrary to the work of God, in bringing of the soul home to himself. I know no disorder more opposite and contrary to the work of God in conversion of a sinner, than this is.

Question. What’s the work of God when he brings a sinner home to himself?

Answer:

1. The usual way is for God to make the soul to see and be sensible of the dreadful evil that there is in sin, and the great breach that sin has made between God and it, for certainly Jesus Christ can never be known in his beauty and excellency until the soul know that. I do not speak what secret work of the Holy Ghost there may be in the soul, but before the soul can actually apply Jesus Christ to itself, it is impossible but it must come to know the evil of sin, and the excellency of Jesus Christ. There may be a seed of faith put into the soul, but the soul must first know Christ, and know sin, and be made sensible of it. Now how contrary is this sin of murmuring to any such work of God; has God made me see the dreadful evil of sin, and made my soul to be sensible of the evil of sin as the greatest burden? How can I then be so much troubled for every little affliction? Certainly if I saw what the evil of sin were, that sight would swallow up all other evils, and if I were burdened with the evil of sin, it would swallow up all other burdens. What am I now murmuring against God’s hand? Says such a soul, when as a while ago the Lord made me see myself to be a damned wretch, and apprehend it as a wonder that I am not in Hell?

2. Yea, it’s mighty contrary to the sight of the infinite excellency and glory of Jesus Christ, and of the things of the Gospel. What am I that soul that the Lord has discovered such infinite excellency of Jesus Christ to? And yet shall I think such a little affliction to be so grievous to me, when I have had the sight of such glory in Christ that is more worth than ten thousand worlds? For so will a true convert say: ‘Oh! The Lord at such a time has given me that sight of Christ that I would not be without for ten thousand worlds.’ But has God given you that, and will you be discontent for a trifle in comparison to that?

3. A third work when God brings the soul home to himself is, by taking the heart off from the creature, the disengaging the heart from all creature–comforts. That’s the third work ordinarily that the soul may perceive of itself. It’s true, God’s work may be altogether in the seeds in him, but in the several acting of the soul in turning to God it may perceive these things in it. The disengagement of the heart from the creature, that’s the calling of the soul from the world, ‘Whom the Lord has called the has justified.’ What’s the calling of the soul but this, the soul that was before seeking for contentment in the world, and cleaving to the creature, now the Lord calls the soul out of the world, and says: ‘Oh soul, your happiness is not here, your rest is not here, your happiness is else–where, and your heart must be loosened from all these things that are here below in the world.’ This is the work of God in the soul to disengage the heart from the creature, and how contrary is a murmuring heart to such a thing. A thing that is glued to another you cannot take off, but you must rend it; so it’s a sign your heart is glued to the world, that when God would take you off, your heart rends, if God by an affliction should come to take anything in the world from you, if you can part from it with ease without rending, it’s a sign then that your heart is not glued to the world.

4. A fourth work of God in the converting of a sinner, is this, The casting of 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 itself, rouses itself upon the infinite grace of God in Christ for all good; now have you done so? has God converted you, and drawn you to his Son to cast your soul upon him for all your good, and yet you discontented for the want of some little matter in a creature–comfort? are you he that has cast your soul upon Jesus Christ for all good? as he says in another case, Is this your faith?

5. The soul is subdued to God. 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 to 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 your turning to God the giving up of yourself to God in an everlasting covenant. As you take Christ, the head of the covenant to be yours, so you gives up yourself to Christ. In the work of conversion there is the resignation of the soul fully to God in an everlasting covenant to be his. Have you ever surrendered up yourself to God in an everlasting covenant? Then certainly your fretting, murmuring heart is mighty opposite to it, certainly you forget this covenant of yours, and the resignation of yourself–up to God. It would be of marvelous 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 Unseemly? 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 labor 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 merely at first, you must be in a way of conversion to God all the days of your life, and therefore Christ says to his disciples, ‘Except you be converted and become as little children?’ You be converted. Why, were they not converted before? Yes, they were converted, but they were still to continue the work of conversion all the days of their lives. What work of God there is at the first conversion it is to abide afterwards. Therefore, 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 anything else, but the sight and sense of sin it is to continue still, that is, you are still to be sensible of the burden of sin as it is against the holiness, and goodness, and mercy of God to you. The sight of the excellency of Jesus Christ is to continue and your calling out of the creature, and your casting of your soul upon Christ, and your receiving Christ as a King, still receive him day by day, and the subduing of your heart, and the surrendering of yourself–up to God in a way of covenant. Now if this were but daily continued there would be no space nor time for murmuring to work upon your heart: that’s the fourth point.

V. Murmuring Is below a Christian

The fifth thing in the evil of discontentment: Murmuring and discontentment is exceedingly below a Christian. Oh! It is too mean and base a disorder 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 in which you stand. With what relation? You will say.

First, the relation you stand in to God. Does not you call God your Father? And do not you stand in relation to him as a child? What? You murmur? In 2 Samuel 13:4, it’s a saying of Jonadab to Amnon: ‘Why art thou, being the king’s 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 pined away. Why? What’s the matter? You stand in this relation to the King and yet anything should trouble your heart, that’s his meaning; is there anything that should disquiet your heart, and yet stands in such a relation to the King, the King’s Son?

So I may say to a Christian: Are you the King’s son, the son, the daughter of the King of Heaven, and yet so disquieted and troubled, and vexed at every little thing that falls out? As if a King’s son should cry out, he is undone for losing a battle, what an unworthy thing were this:. So do you: you cry out as if you were undone, and yet a King’s son, you that stands in such relation to God, as to a father, you does dishonor your father in this; as if so be either he had not wisdom, or not power, or not mercy enough to provide for you.

Secondly, the relation that you stand in to Jesus Christ. You are the spouse of Christ. What! One married to Jesus Christ and yet troubled and discontented? Have you not enough in him? Does not Christ say to his spouse, as Elkanah said to Hannah: ‘Am not I better to you than ten sons?’ (1 Samuel 1:8) So does not Christ your husband say to you, ‘Am not I better to you than thousands of riches and comforts? Such comforts as you murmur for want of?’ Has not God given you his Son? And will he not with him give you all things? Has the love of God been to you to give you his Son in way of marriage? Why are you discontented and murmuring? Consider your relation to Jesus Christ, as you are a spouse and married to him: his person is yours, and so all the riches of Jesus Christ is yours, as the riches of a husband are his wife’s. Though there are some husbands so vile that the wives may be forced to sue for maintenance, certainly Jesus Christ will never deny maintenance to his spouse, it’s a dishonor for a husband to have the wife go whining up–and down. What, you are married with Christ and are his spouse, and will you murmur now, and be discontented in your spirit? You shall observe among those that are newly married, when there is discontent between the wife and the husband, their friends will shake their heads and say, ‘They do not meet with what they did expect; you see ever since they were married together how the man looks, and the woman looks, they are not so cheery as they used to be. Surely it is likely to prove an ill match.’ But it’s not so here, it shall not be so between you and Christ. Oh, Jesus Christ does not love to see his spouse to have a lowering countenance; no man loves to see discontentment in the face of his wife, surely Christ does not love to see discontentment in the face of his spouse.

Third, you stand in relation to Christ not only as a spouse, but as a member. You are bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh; and to have a member of Jesus Christ to be in such a condition, it’s exceeding unworthy.

Fourthly, he is your elder brother likewise, and so you are a co–heir with him.

Fifthly, the relation that you stand in to the Spirit of God. You are the temple of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost is your Comforter. It is he that is appointed to convey all comfort from the Father and the Son, to the souls of his people. And are you the temple of the Holy Ghost, and does he dwell in you, and yet for all that you murmur for every little matter?

Sixthly, the relation that you stands in to the angels. You are made one body with them, for so Christ has joined principalities and powers with his Church: they are ministering spirits for good to his people, to supply what they need, and you, and they are joined together, and Christ is the head of you and angels.

Lastly, the relation that you stand to the saints. You are of the same body with them, they and you make up but one mystical body with Jesus Christ, and if they be happy you must needs be happy. Oh, how beneath a Christian is a murmuring spirit if he considers his relations in which he stands.

2. A Christian should consider: That murmuring and discontentedness is below the high dignities that God has put upon him. Do but consider the high dignity that God has put upon you: the meanest Christian in the world is a lord of heaven and earth. He has made us kings to himself, kings to God, not kings to men to rule over them, and yet I say every Christian is lord of heaven and earth, yea of life and death. That is, as Christ he is Lord of all, so he has made those that are his members to be lords of all. ‘All are yours’ says the Apostle, ‘even life and death, everything is yours.’ It’s a very strange expression, that death should be theirs, death is yours, that is, you are as it were lords over it, you have that which shall make death to be your servant, your slave, even death itself, your greatest enemies are turned to be your slaves. Faith makes a Christian to be as lord over all, to be lifted up in excellency above all creatures that ever God made except the angels, yea, and in some respect above them.

I say the poorest Christian that lives is raised to an position above all the creatures in the world except angels, and above them in many respects too – and yet discontented. That you who were as a firebrand of hell, and might have been scorching and yelling and roaring there to all eternity, yet that God should raise you to have a higher excellence in you than there is in all the works of creation that ever he made except angels, and other Christians, that are in your condition. Yea, you are nearer the Divine nature than the angels, because your nature is joined in an hypostatical union to the Divine nature, and in that respect your nature is more honored than the nature of the angels. And the death of Christ is yours! He died for you and not for the angels, and therefore you are like to be raised above the angels in many respects. Yea, you that are in such a condition as this is, you that are set apart to the end that God might manifest to all eternity what the infinite power of a Deity is able to raise a creature too– for that’s the condition of a saint, a believer: his condition is such as he is set apart to the end that God might manifest to all eternity what his infinite power is able to do to make the creature happy.

Are you in such a condition? Oh! How low and beneath this condition is a murmuring and discontented heart for want of some outward comforts here in this world. How unseemly is it that you should be a slave to every cross, that every affliction shall be able to say to your soul, bow down to us. We accounted that a great slavery, when men would say to our souls, ‘Bow down,’ as the cruel prelates were wont to do, in imposing things upon men’s consciences: they did in effect say, ‘Let your consciences, your souls, bow down to us, that we may tread upon them.’ That is the greatest slavery in the world, that one man should say to another, ‘Let your consciences, your souls, bow down, that we may tread upon them’; but will you suffer every affliction to say, ‘Bow down that we may tread upon you?’ Truly it’s so, when your heart is overcome with murmuring and discontent; know that those afflictions which have caused you to murmur, have said to you, ‘Bow down that we may tread upon you.’ Nay, not afflictions, but the very Devil does prevail against you in this. Oh! How beneath is this to the happy estate that God has raised a Christian to! What! The son of a king, shall he have every base fellow to come and bid him bow down that he may tread upon his neck? Therefore do you in every affliction: the affliction, the cross, and trouble that does befall you, says ‘Bow down that we come and tread upon you.’

3. Murmuring is below the spirit of a Christian. Below his spirit, the spirit of every Christian should be like the spirit of his Father: every father loves to see his spirit in his child, loves to see his image, not the image of his body only, to say, here’s a child for all the world like the father, but he has the spirit of his father too. A father that is a man of spirit, loves to see his spirit in his child, rather than the feature of his body. Oh, the Lord that is 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 lion–like spirit; as Jesus Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah (so he is called) so we should manifest something of the lion–like spirit of Jesus Christ. He manifested his lion–like Spirit in passing through all afflictions and troubles whatever without any murmuring against God. When he came to drink that bitter cup, and even the dregs of it, he prayed indeed to God that if it were possible it might pass from him, but: ‘Not my will, but your will be done.’ As soon as ever he did mention the passing of the cup from him, though it was the most dreadful cup that ever was drunk since the world began, yet at the mentioning of it: ‘Not my will, but your will be done.’ Here Christ showed a lion–like spirit in going through all kind of afflictions whatever 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 accounted it very base. Plutarch does report of a certain people that did use to manifest their disdain to men that were overmuch dejected by any affliction, they did condemn them to this punishment: to wear women’s clothes all their days, or such a space of time at least they should go in woman’s clothes 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 unmanly spirit, to be overmuch dejected in afflictions? And shall not a Christian account it an unchristian-like spirit to be overmuch dejected by any affliction whatever? I remember another compare murmuring spirits to children, when they are weaning: what a deal of stir have you with your children when you wean them! How forward and vexing are they? So, when God would wean you from some outward comforts in this world, oh, how fretting and discontented are you! Children will not sleep themselves, nor 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.

4. It’s below the profession of a Christian. The profession of a Christian – what’s that? A Christian’s 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 satisfy himself in God. What! Is this your profession? And yet if you have not everything that you would have to murmur and be discontent. In that you deny your profession.

5. It is below that special grace of faith. Faith is what overcomes the world; it is what makes all the promises of God to be ours. Now when you take on the profession of religion, did God ever promise you that you should live at ease, and quiet, and have no trouble? I remember Augustine has such an expression: ‘What! Is this your faith? What did I ever promise you,’ he says, ‘that you should ever flourish in the world? Are you a Christian to that end? And is this your faith? I never made any such promise to you when you took upon you to be a Christian.’ Oh, it’s mighty contrary to your profession. You have never a promise for this, that you should not have such an affliction upon you. And a Christian should live by his faith. It is said that the just live by faith. Now, you should not look after any other life but the life that you have by faith. Now you have no ground for your faith, to believe that you should be delivered out of such an affliction, and then why should you 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 what God has made to be the object of his faith. The object of his faith is high enough to satisfy his soul, were it capable of a thousand times more than it is. Now if you may have the object of your faith full, you have enough to content your soul. And know that when you are discontented for want of such and such comforts, if you would but think this way: 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 help that Christians have, Christians have great help that may help them against murmuring. And it is against that which God expects from Christians. God he expects other manner of things from them than this. Yea, and it is below that God has for other Christians. These things I shall open at another time.