Jeremiah Burroughs :: Sermon Six

SERMON VI.

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

Lessons Whereby Christ Teaches Contentment — Continued

I shall only add one lesson more in the learning of contentment, and then I shall come to the fourth head: the excellency of contentment.

IX. The Right Knowledge of God’s Providence

The ninth and last lesson that Christ teaches those that he does instruct in this art of contentment: It is the right knowledge of God’s providence, and therein are these four things.

1. The universality of providence, that the soul must be thoroughly 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 and extends itself to everything. Not only that God by his providence does rule the world, and governs all things in general, but that it reaches to every particular; not only to kingdoms, to order the great affairs of kingdoms, but it reaches to every man’s family; it reaches to every person in the family; it reaches to every condition; yea, to every passage, to everything that falls out concerning you in every particular, not one hair falls from your head, not a sparrow to the ground without the providence of God. There’s nothing befalls you good or evil, but there is a providence of the infinite eternal first Being in that thing; and therein indeed is God’s infiniteness, that it reaches to the least things, to the least worm that is under your feet. Then much more it reaches to you who are a rational creature, the providence of God is more particular 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 anything that does befall you but there’s a hand of God in it– this 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 says, in Hebrews 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 itself, and therefore that the world could not be of itself, but we can understand it by faith in another manner than by reason. So whatever we understand of God in way of providence, yet when Christ does 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 vexed and troubled, and fret and rage, yet we must not think to alter the course of providence by our discontent. Some of Job’s friends said to him, ‘Shall the earth be forsaken for thee, and shall the rock be removed out of his place?’ (Job 18:4). They saw him to be impatient. So I may say to every discontented, impatient heart: what, shall the providence of God change its course for you? Do you think it such a weak thing that because it does not please you it must alter its course? Be you content or not content, the providence of God will go on, it has an efficacy of power, of virtue, to carry all things before it. Can you make one hair black or white with all the stir that you keep? When you are in a ship at sea that has all her sails spread with a full gale of wind, and swiftly sailing, can you make it stand still with running up and down in the ship? No more can you make the providence of God to alter and change its course with your vexing and fretting; but it will go on with power, do what you can. Do but understand the power and efficacy of providence and it will be a mighty means for the helping to learn this lesson of contentment.

3. The infinite variety of the works of providence, and yet the order of things, one working towards another. There is infinite variety of the works of God in an ordinary providence, and yet all work in an ordinary way. We put these two together, for God in the way of his providence causes a thousand things, one to depend on another, there are infinite number of wheels, as I may say, in the works of providence; all the works that ever God did from all eternity or ever will do, put them all together, and all make up but one work, and they have been as several wheels that have had their orderly motion to attain the end that God from all eternity has appointed.

We, indeed, look at things by pieces, we look at one detail and do not consider the reference that one thing has to another, but God he looks at all things at once, and sees the reference that one thing has to another. As a child that looks upon a clock, looks first on one wheel, and then on another wheel: he does not look at them all together or the dependence that one has upon another; but the workman has his eyes on all together and sees the dependence of all, one upon another and the art there is in the dependence of one upon another: so it is in God’s providence. Now observe how this works to contentment: where there is such a passage of providence befalls me, that’s one wheel, and it may be if this wheel should be stop, there might a thousand other wheels come to be stop by this. As in a clock, stop but one wheel and you stop every wheel, because they have dependence one upon another. So when God has ordered a thing for the present to be this way and that, how do you know how many things do depend upon this thing? God may have some work that he must do twenty years hence that may depend upon this passage of providence that falls out this day or this week.

And here, by the way, we may see a great deal of evil there is in discontent, for you would have God’s providence altered in such and such a particular: indeed if it were only in that particular, and that had reference to nothing else it were not so much, but by your desire to have your will in such a particular, it may be you would cross God in a thousand things that he has to bring about, because it’s possible there may be a thousand things that depend upon that one thing that you would be pleased to have otherwise. Just as if a child should cry out and say, ‘Let that one wheel stop’; though he says but one wheel, yet if that stop, it is as much as if he should say they must all stop. So in providence: let but this one passage of providence stop– it is as much as if a thousand stopped. Let me therefore be quiet and content, for though I be cross in some, one particular, God attains his end; at least, his end may be furthered in a thousand things by this one thing that I am cross in. Therefore let a man consider, this is an act of providence, and how do I know what God is about to do, and how many things depend upon this providence? Now we are willing to suffer our friends will to be cross in one thing, so that our friend may attain to what he desires in a thousand things. If you have a love and friendship to God, be willing to be crossed in a few things, that the Lord may have his work go on in general, in a thousand other things. Now that’s the third thing to be understood in God’s providence, that Christ does teach those whom he teaches in the art of contentment.

4. Christ teaches them the knowledge of providence, that is, The knowledge of God’s usual way in his dealings with his people more particularly. The other is the knowledge of God in his providence in general. But the right understanding of the way of God in his providence towards his people and saints is a notable lesson to help us in the art of contentment. If we come once to know a man’s way and course we may better suit, and be contented to live with him, than before we come to know his way and course. As when a man comes to live in a society with men and women, it may be the men and women may be good, but till a man comes to know their way and course and disposition, many things may fall very cross, and we think they are very hard, but when we come to be acquainted with their way and spirit, then we can suit and cotton with them very well; and the reason of our trouble is, because we do not understand their way. So it is with you: those that are but as strangers to God, and do not understand the way of God, they are troubled with the providence of God, and they think them very strange and cannot tell what to make of them, because they understand not the ordinary course and way of God towards his people. Sometimes if a stranger comes into a family and sees such and such things done, he wonders what the matter is, but those that are acquainted with it, it troubles them not at all. So servants, when they first come together and know not one another, it may be they are forward and discontented, but when they come to be acquainted with one another’s ways, then they are more contented; just so it is when we come first to understand God’s ways.

Objection. But you will say, What do you understand by God’s ways?

Answer. By that I mean these three things. And when we come to know them we shall not wonder so much at the providence of God, but be quiet and contented with them.

1. The first thing is this, God’s ordinary course is, that his people in this world should be in an afflicted condition. God has revealed in his Word, and we may there find he has set 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 who do not understand this, they stand and wonder to hear of the people of God, that they are afflicted, and the enemies prosper in their way. For those that seek God in his way and seek for reformation, for them to be afflicted, and wounded and spoiled, and the enemies to prevail, they wonder at it; but now, one that is in the school of Christ is taught by Jesus Christ that God by his eternal counsels has set this to be his course and way, to bring up his people in this world in an afflicted condition. Therefore the Apostle says, ‘Account it not strange concerning the fiery trial’ (1 Peter 4:12). We are not therefore to be discontented with it, seeing God has set such a course and way, and we know such is the will of God that it should be so.

2. Usually when God intends the greatest mercy to any of his people, he does bring them into the lowest condition. God does seem to go quite cross and work in a contrary way: when he intends the greatest mercies to his people he does first usually bring them into very low conditions. If it be a bodily mercy, an outward mercy that he intends to bestow, he uses to bring them physically low, and outwardly low; if it be a mercy in their possessions that he intends to bestow, he brings them low in that and then raises them; and in their reputations, he brings them low there, and then raises them; and in their spirits God ordinarily bring their spirits low and then raises their spirits. Usually the people of God, before the greatest comforts, have the greatest afflictions and sorrows. Now those that understand not God’s ways they think that when God brings his people into sad conditions, that God leaves and forsakes them, and that God does intend no great matter of good to them. But now a child of God, that is instructed in this way of God, he is not troubled; ‘My condition is very low,’ he says, ‘this is God’s 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 (2 Samuel 26:20). God dealt this way with his Son: Christ himself went into glory by suffering (Hebrews 2:20); and if God deal so with his own Son, much more with his people. A little before break of day you shall observe it is darker than it was any time before, so God makes our conditions a little darker before the mercy comes. When God bestowed the last great mercy at Naseby we were in a very low condition; God knew what he had to do beforehand, he knew that his time was coming for great mercies: it is the way of God to do so. Be but instructed in this course and tract that God uses to walk in and that will greatly help us to contentment.

3. 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 God’s 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. I remember, Luther has a notable expression for this: he says, ‘It is the way of God: he does humble that he might exalt, he does kill that he might make alive, he does confound that he might glorify.’ This is the way of God, he says, but everyone does not understand this. This is the art of arts, and the science of sciences, the knowledge of knowledge, to understand this, that God does use when he will bring life, he does 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 the 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 such things in a sermon, but they are not instructed in this by Jesus Christ, that this is the way of God, to bring the greatest good out of the greatest evil.

The Excellency of Contentment

Now, having concluded the lessons that we are to learn, we come to the next section, 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 section likewise will be somewhat long.

The apostle says, ‘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,’ he says.

Now the very heathens had a sight of a great excellence that 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 anything 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 with, and to continue in a quiet temper of spirit whatever befell him; for that was the temper of Socrates: whatever befell him he continued the same man, whatever cross befell him nobody 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 excellence in this spirit. As when God said to Solomon:‘What shall I give thee?’ he asked of God’s wisdom, so he said: ‘If the gods should put it to me to know what I would have, I would desire this thing, that I might have the spirit of Socrates.’ He saw a great excellence there was in this; and certainly a Christian may see abundance of excellence in it. I shall labor to set it out to you in this chapter that you may be in love with this grace of contentment.

I. By It We Give God His Due Worship

In the first place: By contentment we come to give God that worship that is due to him. It is a particular part of divine worship that we owe to God, if we be content in a Christian way, as has been shown to you. I say it is a special part of the divine worship that the creature owes to the infinite Creator, in that I do tender that respect that is due from me to the Creator. The word that the Greeks have that signifies, ‘to worship’ is as much as to come and crouch before another, as a dog should come crouching to you, and be willing to lie down at your feet. So the creature in the apprehension of its own baseness, and the infinite excellence that 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 does 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, therefore should you do before the Lord: you should come crouching to him, and lie down at his feet, even on 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 or that way, up and down, with the hand, and there he lies before you, according to your showing him with your hand; so when the creature shall come and lie down thus before the Lord, then a creature worships God and does tender you worship that is due to God. Now in what disposition of heart do we therefore crouch to God more than when we have this contentment in all conditions that God disposes us to? This is a crouching to God’s authority, to be like the poor woman of Canaan, when Christ said, ‘It is not fit to give children’s meat to dogs,’ but she said, ‘The dogs have crumbs,’ I am a dog I confess, but let me have but a crumb. 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 crumb,’ then does it highly honor God. It may be some of you have not your table spread as others have, but God gives you crumbs; now, says the poor woman, dogs have crumbs, and when you can find your hearts subjecting to God, to be but as a dog, and can be contented and bless God for any crumb, 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 God’s worship, but these are but external acts of worship, to hear, and pray, and receive sacraments. But now this is the soul’s worship, to subject itself thus to God. You that often will worship God by hearing, and praying, and receiving sacraments, and yet afterwards will be forward and discontented, know that God regards not that worship, he will have the soul’s worship in this subjecting of the soul to God. Observe this, I beseech you: in active obedience we worship God by doing what pleases God, but by passive obedience we do as well worship God by being pleased with what God does. 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 does? As it was said of Christ’s obedience: Christ was active in his passive obedience, and passive in his active obedience; so the saints 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 says the soul: ‘Oh! That I could do what pleases God!’ When they come to suffer any cross: ‘Oh, that what God does might please me!’ I labor to do what pleases God, and I labor that what God does 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 does, and so you shall come to be a complete Christian when you can do both. And that’s the first thing in the excellency of this grace of contentment.

II. In It Is Much Exercise of Grace

The second thing in the opening of this excellency of contentment is: That in contentment there is much exercise of grace. There is much strength of grace, yea, there is much beauty of grace in contentment; there is much exercise of grace, strength of grace, and beauty of grace: I put all these together.

1. Much exercise of grace. There is a composition of grace in contentment: there is faith, and there is humility, and love, and there is patience, and there is wisdom, and there is hope; all graces almost are compounded. It’s an oil that has the ingredients of all kind of grace; and therefore, though you cannot see the particular grace, yet in this oil you have it all. God sees the graces of his Spirit exercised in a particular manner, and this pleases God at the heart to see the graces of his Spirit exercised. In one action that you do you may exercise 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 whatever comes, 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 has been explained to you? I know that you have attained to strength of grace in this, when it is so spiritual as has been shown to you in the explication of this point. As it is with a man’s brain, if a man be disordered in his body, and has many obstructions in his body, has an ill stomach, and his spleen and liver obstructed, and yet for all this his brain is not disordered, it is an argument of a great strength of brain; and though many ill fumes may arise from his corrupt stomach, yet still his brain is not disordered but he continues in the free exercise of the use of his reason and understanding. Every one may understand that this man has a very strong brain, that such things shall not upset him. If other people who have a weak brain, if they do not digest but one meal’s meat, the fumes that do arise from their stomachs, does disorder their brain and makes them unfit for everything, whereas you shall have others that have strong heads, and strong brains, though their stomachs be ill that they do not digest meat, yet still they have the free use of their brain: this, argues strength. So it is in a man’s spirit: you shall have many that have weak spirits, and if they have any ill fumes, if accidents befall them, you shall soon have them out of temper; but you shall have other men, that though things do fume up, yet still they keep in a steady–way, and have the use of reason and of their graces, and possess their souls with patience.

As I remember it’s reported of the eagle, it’s not like other fowls: other fowls when they are hungry make a noise; but the eagle is never heard to make an noise though it wants food. It is from the magnitude of his spirit that it will not make such complaints as other fowls will do when they want food, it is because it is above hunger, and above thirst. So it is argument of a gracious magnitude of spirit that whatever befalls it, yet it is not always whining and complaining as others are, but goes on still in its way and course, and blesses God, and keeps in a constant tenor whatever befalls it. Such things as causes others to be dejected and fretted and vexed, and takes away all the comfort of their lives, it makes no alteration at all in the spirits of these men and women. I say, this is a sign of a great deal of strength of grace.

3. It’s also an argument of a great deal of beauty of grace. There’s a saying of Seneca, a heathen, ‘When you go abroad into groves and woods, and there you see the tallness of the trees and their shadows, it strikes a kind of awful fear of a deity in you, and when you see the vast rivers and fountains, and deep waters that strikes a kind of fear of a God in you but,’ he said, ‘do you see a man that is quiet in tempests, and who lives happily in the midst of adversities, why do not you worship that man?’ He does think him a man even to be honored that shall be quiet and live a happy life though in the midst of adversities. The glory of God appears here more than in any of his works. There is no works that God has made–the Sun Moon and Stars and all the world–wherein so much of the glory of God does appear as in a man that lives quietly amid adversity. That was what convinced the king: when he saw the three children could walk in the midst of the fiery furnace and not be touched, the king was mightily convinced by this, that surely their God was a great God indeed, and that they were highly beloved of their God that could walk in the midst of the furnace and not be touched, whereas the others who came but to the mouth of the furnace were devoured. So when a Christian can walk in the midst of fiery trials, and not his garments singed, but have comfort and joy in the midst of all (as Paul in the stocks can sing which wrought upon the jailer) so it will convince men, when they see the power of grace in the midst of afflictions. When they can behave themselves in a gracious and holy manner in such afflictions as would make others to roar: Oh, it’s the glory of a Christian.

It is what is said to be the glory of Christ, (for so by interpreters it is thought to be meant of Christ) in Micah 5:5, the text says, ‘And this man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces.’ This man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land– for one to be in peace when there is no enemies it’s no great matter, but the text says, when the Assyrian shall come into our land, then this man shall be the peace. That is, when all shall be in an hubbub and uproar yet then this man shall be peace. That’s the trial of grace when you find Jesus Christ in your hearts to be peace when the Assyrian shall come into the land. You may think you find peace in Christ when you have no outward troubles, but is Christ your peace when the Assyrian comes into the land, when the enemy comes? Suppose you should hear the enemy come marching to the city and had taken the works, and were plundering, what would be your peace? Jesus Christ would be peace to the soul when the enemy comes into the city, and into your houses. If there be any of you that have been where the enemy has come, what has been the peace of your souls? What’s said of Christ may be applied to this grace of contentment: when the Assyrian, the plunderers, the enemies, when any affliction, trouble, distress does befall such a heart, then this grace of contentment brings peace to the soul; at that time brings peace to their soul when the Assyrian comes into the land. The grace of contentment it’s an excellent grace: there’s much beauty, much strength in it, there is a great deal of worth in this grace, and therefore be in love with it.

III. The Soul Is Fitted to Receive Mercy

The third thing in the excellency of contentment is this: By contentment the soul is fitted to receive mercy, and to do service. I’ve put those two together: contentment makes the soul fit to receive mercy, and to do service. No man or woman in the world is so fit to receive the grace of God, and to do the work of God as those that have contented spirits.

Those are fitted to receive mercy from the Lord that are contented. As now, if you would have a vessel to take in any liquor, you must hold the vessel still, if the vessel stir and shake up and down, you cannot power in anything, but you will bid, ‘Hold still’ that you may power it in and not lose any. So if we would be the vessels to receive God’s mercy, and would have the Lord power in his mercy to us, we must have quiet, still hearts. We must not have hearts hurrying up and down in trouble discontent and vexing, but we must have still and quiet hearts, if we would receive mercy from the Lord. If a child throws and flings up and down for a thing, you will not give it him then, when he cries so, but first you will have the child quiet. Though, perhaps, you do intend the child to have the thing he cries for, but you will not give it him until he is quiet, and comes and stands still before you, and is contented without it, and then you will give it him. And truly so does the Lord deal with us, for our dealings with him are just as your forward children’s are with you. As soon as you would have a thing from God, if you cannot have it you are disquieted and all in an uproar, as it were, in your spirits. God intends mercy to you, but says 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 way 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 vex at it, you get nothing from God all that while; but now if you have got your heart into a quiet frame, and can say, ‘Well, it’s fit the Lord should do with his poor creatures what he will, I am under his feet, and am resolved 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.’ ‘Are you in this frame’ says God, ‘now you shall have comfort, now I will give you the mercy.’

A prisoner must not think to get rid of his chains by pulling and tearing; he may gall his flesh and rend it to the very bone, certainly he will not be unfettered sooner. If he would have his chains taken off he must quietly give up himself to some man to take them off. If a beggar after he has knocked once or twice at the door and you come not, and thereupon he is vexed and troubled and thinks much that you let him stand a little while without anything, 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 of your window say, ‘Let us be content to stay, perhaps they are busy, it’s fit that we should stay, it’s well if we have anything 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 does not give; but when the heart lies down quietly under God’s hand, then is the heart in a fit frame to receive mercy. ‘Your strength shall be to sit still,’ says God, ‘you shall not be delivered from Babylon but by your sitting still.’

IV. It Is Fitted to Do Service

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 everything that moves, nothing moves but it moves upon something that is immovable. A thing that moves upon the earth, if the earth were not still it could not move.

Objection. The ships move upon the sea, and that is not still.

Answer. But the seas they move upon that which is still and immovable. Nothing moves but it has something immovable that does 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 a man. As they say of the Heaven, it moves up and down upon a pole that is immovable, so it is in the heart of a man: if he will move to do service to God he must have a steady heart within him. That must help him to move in the service of God, those that have unsteady, disquiet spirits that have no steadfastness at all in them, they are not fit to do service for God, but such as have steadfastness in their spirits they are men and women fit to do any service. That’s the reason that when the Lord has any great work for any servants of his to do, usually he does first quiet their spirits, he does bring their spirits into a quiet, sweet frame, to be contented with anything, and then he sets them about employment.

V. It Delivers from Temptations

Contentment it does 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 men and women troubled and vexed, there the Devil comes. He says, ‘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: ‘Will you suffer such a thing?’ he says, ‘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 fowl and get bread for you and your children,’ and so he tempts them to unlawful courses. This is the particular disorder that the Devil fastens upon, when he brings men and women to give up their souls to him: it is upon discontent, that’s the ground of all those that have been witches, and so have given up themselves to the Devil: the rise of it has been their discontent. Therefore it is observable that those the Devil works, to make them witches, usually they are old and melancholy people, and women especially, and those that are of the poorer sort, that are discontentment at home. Their neighbors 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 anything. If they be poor, then he promises 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 says of God, ‘God does not dwell in Babylon, but in Salem.’ Babylon signifies confusion, and Salem signifies peace; now God does not dwell in spirits that are in a confusion, but he dwells in peaceable and quiet spirits. Oh, if you would free yourselves from temptations, labor for contentment. It is the peace of God that guards the heart from temptation. I remember reading of one Marius Curio who he had bribes sent him, to tempt him to be unfaithful to his country. When he was sitting at home at dinner with a dish of turnips, and they came and promised him rewards: said he, ‘That man can be contented with this fare that I have will not be tempted with your rewards. I thank God I am content with this fare, and as for rewards let them be offered to those that cannot be content to dine with a dish of turnips.’

So the truth is, we see it apparently, that the reason why many do betray their trust, as in the Parliament service and Kingdom, because they cannot be contented to be in a low condition. Let a man be contented to be in a low condition, and to go meanly clothed if God sees it fit, such a man is shot–free, as I may so say, from thousands of temptations of the Devil, that do prevail against others to the damning of their souls. Oh, in such times as these are when men are in danger of the loss of their wealth, I say these 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 possessions. You think it is a sad thing to be in danger of your outward possessions 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 this way, they must live as brave as they were wont to do, these men make themselves a prey to the Devil, but for such as can say, ‘Let God do with me what he pleases, I am content to submit to his hand in it,’ the Devil will scarcely meddle with such men. It’s a notable saying of a philosopher who lived on mean fare: as he was eating herbs and roots, someone said to him, ‘If you would but please Dionysius, you need not eat herbs and roots’; but he answered him, ‘If you would but be content with such mean fare, you need not flatter Dionysius.’ Temptations will no more prevail upon a contented man, than a dart that is thrown against a brazen wall. That’s the fifth particular.

VI. It Brings Abundance of Comfort

The sixth excellency is, The abundant comforts in a man’s life that contentment will bring: contentment will make a man’s life exceeding sweet and comfortable, nothing more than the grace of contentment; many ways I will show how it brings in comfort.

1. As first, What a man has he has 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 has the love of God in it, and then it’s abundantly more sweet than if he had it and his heart not contented: for if he had not the love of God in it, for it may be God grants to a discontented man his desire, but he cannot say it is from love; if a man has quieted his spirit first, and then God grant him his desire, he may have more comfort in it, and more assurance that he has the love of God in it.

3. This contentment is a comfort to a man’s spirit in this, that it does keep in his comforts, and keeps out whatever may damp his comforts, or put out the light of them. I may compare this grace of contentment to a mariner’s lantern: a mariner when he is at sea, no matter how much provision is on his ship, yet if he be thousands of leagues from land, or in a route that he shall not meet with a ship in three or four months, if he has no lantern on his ship, nor anything whereby he can keep a candle alight in a storm. He will be in a sad condition, and he would give a great deal to have a lantern, 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 is put out soon, his condition is very sad. So, many men can have the light of comfort when there is no storm, but let there come but any affliction, any storm upon them their light is put out, and what shall they do now? When the heart is furnished with this grace of contentment, this grace is, as it were, the lantern, and it keeps comfort in the spirit of a man, light during a storm and tempest. When you have a lantern in the midst of a storm you can carry a light everywhere up and down the ship to the top of the mast if you will, and yet keep it alight; so the comfort of a Christian when it is enlivened with the grace of contentment, it may be kept alight whatever storms or tempests come, yet he can keep light in his soul. Oh, this helps your comforts exceeding much.

VII. It Fetches the Comfort of Things Not Possessed

There is this excellency in contentment, that it fetches in the comfort of those things we do not really possess. Perhaps many who have not outward things have more comfort than those have that do enjoy them themselves. As now, a man by distilling herbs, though he has not the herbs themselves, yet having the water that is distilled out of them, he may enjoy the benefit of the herbs. So though a man has not the real possession of such an outward wealth, 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 ourselves, that is, we may have that comfort by contentment, that we should have if we had the thing itself.

There is an notable story for this in Plutarch: In the life of Pyrrhus, one Sineus comes to him, and would very gladly have had him desist from the wars, and not war with the Romans. He said 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 then straight conquer all the rest of Italy with ease.’ Sineus said, ‘Indeed it is likely which your grace speaks, but when we have won Italy, will then our wars end?’ ‘If the gods were pleased,’ said Pyrrhus, ‘that the victory were achieved, the way would then be open for us to attain great conquests, for who would not afterwards go into Africa, and so to Carthage?’ ‘But’ said 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 with one another as we possibly can.’ Sineus said, ‘What prevents us now to be as quiet, and merry together, since we enjoy that without further travel and trouble which we should go seek for abroad, with such shedding of blood, and so manifest danger? Can you sit down and be merry now?’ So a man may think, if I had such a thing, then I would have another, and if I had that, then I should have more; and what if you had got all your desire? Then you would be content, why? You may be content now without them.

Certainly our contentment does not consist in the getting of the thing we desire, but in God’s 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 than he who has the land of his own. So a man by this art of contentment may live better without an estate than another man can with an estate. Oh, it adds exceedingly much to the comfort of a Christian.

That I may show it farther, there is more comfort even in grace of contentment than there is in any possessions; a man has more comfort in being content without a thing, than he can have in the thing that he in a discontented way does 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 gladly have to cure your discontent, and that I shall open in many particulars:

1. I would be pleased to have such a thing, and then I could be content; but if I had it, then it were but the creature that did help 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 enjoying of an outward comfort?

2. If I had such a thing, indeed my position might be better, but my soul would not be better, but by contentment my soul is better. That would not be bettered by wealth, or lands, or friends; but contentment makes myself to be better, and therefore contentment is a better portion than the thing is that I would gladly have as my portion.

3. If I become 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 authority, 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 what I desire, perhaps I am contented in that one particular, but that one particular does not furnish me with contentment in another thing; perhaps I may grow more dainty and nice, and forward in other things. If you give children what they would want in some things, they grow so much more coy and dainty, and discontented if they cannot have other things that they would want. But if I have once overcome my heart, and am contented through the grace of God in my heart, then this does not content me only in a particular, but in general, whatever befalls me. I am discontented, and would gladly have such a thing, and afterwards I have it: now does this prepare me to be contented in other things? No, but when I have gotten this grace of contentment, I am prepared to be contented in all conditions. Therefore you see that contentment does bring comfort to a man’s life, fills a man’s life full of comfort in this world; the truth is, it is even a Heaven on Earth. Why? What is Heaven, but the rest and quiet of a man’s 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. You have Heaven while you are on earth when you have 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 has in it, and some excellence that he has not in Heaven, and that’s this: In heaven there is no overcoming of temptations. They are not put to any trials by afflictions. There in Heaven they have exercise of grace, but they have nothing but encouragement to it, and indeed those that are there their grace is perfect, and in that they do excel us. But there is nothing to cross their grace, they have no trials at all to tempt them to do contrary; but now for a man or woman to be in the midst of afflictions, temptations and troubles, and yet to have grace exercised, and yet to be satisfied in God and Christ, and in the Word and promises in the midst of all they suffer: this may seem to be an honor that God has from us, that he has not from the angels and saints in Heaven. Is it so much for one that is in Heaven, that has nothing else but good from God, has 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 trials and temptations, and afflictions, and troubles? For this soul to go on praising and blessing, and serving God, I say, it is an excellence that you shall not have in Heaven, and God shall not have this kind of glory from you in Heaven. Therefore be contented, and prize this contentment, and be willing to live in this world as long as God shall please. Do not think, Oh, that I were delivered from all these afflictions and troubles herein this world! If you were, then you should have more ease to yourself, but this is a way of honoring God, and manifesting the excellence of grace here, when you are in this conflict of temptation, that God shall not have from you in Heaven.

Therefore be satisfied and quiet, be contented with your 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 your contentment, for that’s a rich portion that the Lord has granted to you. If the Lord should give to you thousands in this world, it would not be such a rich portion as this, that he has given you a contented spirit. Oh, go away and praise the name of God, and say, ‘Lord, it’s true that these comforts that others have I should be glad if I had them, but you have cut me short. But though I want these, yet you has given me that which is as good and better, you have given me a quiet, contented heart, to be willing to be at your disposal.’