Jeremiah Burroughs :: Sermon Four

SERMON IV.

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

The Mystery of Contentment — Continued

In the last exercise we spoke of many 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 now open them a little more fully, and then proceed to a few more.

That’s the next then: A Christian heart has not only contentment in God, and certainly he who has God (he that has him that has all, he has 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’s 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 has 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’s another thing, that’s further, I say a godly man can make up whatever he wants without the creature, he can make it up in himself. In Proverbs 14:14, ‘A good man is satisfied in himself.’ As now, if he wants outward comforts, good cheer, feasting, a good conscience is a continual feast; he can make up the want of a feast by that peace he has in his own conscience. If he lacks melody abroad, he has a bird within him that sings the most melodious songs that are in the world, and the most delightful. And then does he want honor? He has his own conscience witnessing for him, that is as a thousand witnesses. The Scripture says in Luke 17:21: ‘Neither shall they say, lo here, or lo there, for behold the kingdom of God is within you.’ A Christian, then, whatever he lacks he can make it up, for he has 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, he contents himself with this: ‘I have a kingdom of mine own.’ Now here it’s said, the Kingdom of God is within a man; truly, upon this Scripture of the Kingdom of God being within, those that are learned look into the commentary on this Gospel that we have of a learned man, they shall find a very strange conceit that he has about this very text: he confesses indeed it is unutterable and so 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 says, that the soul goes into God and Christ that is within him. The soul’s going into God and Christ, and enjoying of that communion with God and Christ that is within itself, that’s Heaven to it, he says. He confesses he is not able to express himself, nor others cannot understand fully what he intends; but certainly for the present before death, there’s a Kingdom of God within the soul, such a manifestation of God in the soul, that is enough to content the heart of any godly man in the world, the Kingdom that he has now within him. He shall not stay until afterwards, until he goes to Heaven, but certainly there is a Heaven in the soul of a godly man, he has 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 a Heaven within the souls of the saints, that’s a certain truth; no soul shall ever come to Heaven, but that soul that has Heaven come to it first. When 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 which has it. That Heaven which is within the soul for the present is like the white stone and the new name, that none but those that have it can understand it. It’s a miserable condition, my brethren, to depend upon creatures altogether for our contentment. You know that 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 lies entire together, they have no body comes within them, but they have all within themselves: there lies their happiness. Whereas other, poorer people are glad to go from one market to another to provide them necessities, but yet great rich men they have sheep and bees, 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 has that within himself that may satisfy him more than all these. That place that we have in the first of James, seems to allude to that condition of men that have all their wealth within themselves. ‘But let patience have her perfect work that we may be perfect, and entire, wanting nothing’ (James 1:4). The word there used signifies to have the whole inheritance to ourselves, not a broken inheritance, but that where all lies within themselves, as a man that has not a piece of his estate here, and a piece there, but he has it all lie together. The heart being patient under afflictions finds itself to be in such an estate as this is, finds his whole inheritance to be together, and all entire within itself.

Now still to show this by further analogies: 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 house, a comfortable wife, and fine walks and gardens, and has all things at home that he could desire. Now this man cares not much for going abroad, other men are glad to go abroad to take the air, but he has a sweet air at home, and they are glad to go abroad to see friends, because they have complaints and rivalry at home. Many adverse husbands will give this reason, if his wife makes any moan, and complaint of his poor husbandry. They 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 unsavory, and smells poorly, they delight to go into the fresh air, but it is not so with many others that have these at home. Those that have no good cheer at home, they are glad to go abroad to friends, but those that have their tables furnished, they would as soon stay at home. So a carnal man he has but little contentment in his own spirit. It’s Augustine who says an ill conscience is like a scolding wife: a man that has an ill conscience he cares not to look into his own soul, but loves to be abroad, and look into other things, but never looks to himself, but one that has a good conscience he delights in looking into his own heart; he has a good conscience within him. And so a carnal heart, because there’s nothing but filthiness, a filthy stink in himself, nothing but vileness and baseness, within him; upon this it is that he seeks his contentment elsewhere.

As it is with a vessel that is full of liquor, if you strike it, it will make no great noise, but if it be empty then it makes a great noise, so it is with the heart, a heart that is full of grace and goodness within, such a one will bear a great many strokes, and never make any noise, but an empty heart, if that be struck, will make a noise. Those men and women that are so much complaining, and always whining, it is a sign that there’s an emptiness in their hearts. But if their hearts were filled with grace they would not make such an noise as now they do. As a man that has 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 has that within him that makes him find contentment. It is a saying of Seneca: ‘Indeed those things that I suffer will be incredibly heavy when I cannot bear myself.’ But now if I be no burden to myself, if I have all quiet within mine own heart, then I can bear anything. 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 ease their burden, but they have still their wickedness in the power of it, and so they are burdens to themselves. The bad tempers of men’s hearts are mighty burdens to them, but many times a godly man has enough within to content him. Virtue is content with itself, for to live well – it’s a saying of Cicero, and it’s 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 what that other man has, how happily and comfortably should I live.’ Oh, but if you best a Christian, whatever your condition be, yet you have enough within yourself. You will say, such and such men that has all things, they need not be beholding to anybody. You shall have many that will labor and take pains when they are young, that they might not be beholding to others; they love to live of themselves. Now a Christian may do so, not that he does not live upon God (I mean not so), but upon that which he has of God within himself: that he can live upon, although he does not enjoy the comforts that are without himself. That’s what 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 has supply of all his wants within himself. Here you may see that the spirit of a Christian is a precious spirit, a godly spirit is precious, why? Because it has 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 has made with him in Christ.

Secondly, from the particular promises that God has made with him in the covenant.

1. From the covenant in general. I’ll give you one Scripture for that, it’s very remarkable: ‘Although my house be not so with God, yet he has 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’ (2 Samuel 23:5). It’s 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 says, ‘Although I find not my house so, that is, so comfortably every way as I would, although it be not so, what has he to content his spirit?’ says he, ‘He has made with me an everlasting covenant,’ this is what helps all. Some men will say, I am not this and this with God, I do not find God come in so fully, or it’s 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 blessed with health as other men’s houses are; although my house be not so, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant. I am one yet in covenant with God, the Lord has 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 has swept away a great many of them, and the rest are left in sadness and mourning. We see there is no resting in the things of this world, yet the Lord has made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things. I find disorder in my heart, in my family; but the everlasting covenant, that’s ordered in all things; yea, and that’s sure.

Alas, there’s 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 has, who can be sure of his wealth? 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 says he, the covenant is sure. What I venture to sea that’s not sure, but here’s an assurance office indeed, here’s 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 itself, or be paid for it. In an insurance 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 has made with his people, it is God’s insurance office, and the saints in all their fears may and ought to go to the covenant to assure all things to them, to insure their wealth and insure their lives. You will say, how are they sure? Their lives and wealth 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, will you 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 which I have in the covenant, that’s my salvation, I look upon that as enough. Yes, and then further, ‘This is all my salvation, and all my desire’ – Why David is there not something else that you would have besides this covenant? No, says he, it is all involved in this. Now surely those men or women must need live contented lives that have all their desires. Now says the holy man here, this is all my desire, and though he make it not to grow. But for all this covenant perhaps you will not prosper in the world as other men do, true; but I am at a point for that. Though God does not make my house to grow, I have all my desires.

Thus you see how a godly heart finds contentment in the covenant. Many of you speak of the covenant of God, and of the covenant of grace, but have you found it so effectual to your souls? Have you sucked this sweetness from the covenant and content to your hearts in your sad conditions? It’s a special sign of the truth of grace in any soul, that when any affliction does befall him, in a kind of natural way he does soon repairs to the covenant. Just as a child, as soon as ever it is in danger, you shall not need to tell him and say, when you are in danger you must go to your father or mother, nature tells him so; so it is with a gracious heart: as soon as it is in any trouble or affliction there is a new nature that does carry him to the covenant, and there it finds ease and rest. If you find that your hearts do this work, to be running to the covenant, it is an excellent sign of the truth of grace: that’s for the general point.

2. But now for promises in the covenant of grace. A gracious heart looks upon every promise as coming from the root of the great covenant of grace in Christ. Other men look upon some particular promises, that God will help them in straits, and keep them and the like, but they look not upon the connection of such particular promises, to the root, the covenant of grace. Now, Christians do miss a great deal of comfort they might have, from the particular promises in the Gospel, if they’d look upon their connection to the root, the great covenant that God has made with them in Christ. Now I remember I spoke a little about that, that in outward promises in the time of the law, they might rest more upon them than we can in the time of the Gospel. I gave you the reason why, we that live in the time of the Gospel, cannot rest so fully, for a literal performance of outward promises that we meet with in the Old Testament, as they might in the time of the law. For there was a particular covenant, that God pleased to call a New covenant by way of distinction from the other covenant, that is made with us in Christ for eternal life. And so even the law was given to them in a more peculiar way for an external covenant of outward blessings in the land of Canaan, and so God did deal with them in a more external covenant than he does now with his people. Yet godliness, has the promise of this life, and that which is to come. We may make use of the promises for this life, but not so much to rest upon the literal performance of them as they might; but that God will make them good some way or other, in a spiritual way, if not in an outward way. We must lay no more upon outward promises than this, and therefore if we will lay more, we make the promise to bear more than it will bear out.

For to give some instances: to believe fully and confidently, that the plague shall not come near such a house, I say, it is to lay more upon such a promise than it will bear. I opened that promise in Psalm 91:10. Now if I had lived in the time of the law, perhaps I might have been somewhat more confident of the literal performance of the promise, than I can now in the time of the gospel. The promise now bears no more than this, that God has a special protection over his people, and that he will deliver them from the evil of such an affliction; and if he does bring such an affliction it is more than an ordinary providence, it is some particular providence that God has in it. I had thought to have given you many promises for the contentment of the heart in the time of affliction. Isaiah 43:2, ‘When thou passeth through the waters I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not over–flow you; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon you.’ Certainly, though this promise was made in the time of the law, yet it will be made good to all the saints now, one way or other, either in the letter or some other ways. For so we find it plainly, that promise that was made to Joshua, ‘I will not fail you nor forsake you’ (Joshua 1:5). It’s applied to the Christians in the time of the Gospel.

So here is the way of faith in bringing contentment by the promises: that all the promises that ever were made to our forefathers, from the beginning of the world, the saints of God have an interest in them, they are their inheritances, and so goes on from one generation to another. By that they come to have contentment, because they do inherit all the promises made in all the book of God. Hebrews 13:5 shows plainly, that it is our inheritance, and we do not inherit less now than they did in Joshua’s time, but we inherit more. For you shall find in that place of the Hebrews there is more said than is to Joshua. To Joshua God says, he will not leave him nor forsake him; but in that place in the Hebrews in the Greek there’s five negatives, I will not, not, not, not, not again. There is the elegance of it in the Greek. I say, there is five negatives in that little sentence; as if God should say, I will not leave you, no I will not, I will not, I will not, with such earnestness five times together. So, we have not only the same promises that they had, but we have them more enlarged and more full, though not so much in the literal sense, for that indeed is the least part of the promise. In Isaiah 54:17, there God made a promise: ‘That no weapon formed against his people should prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against them in judgment you shall condemn,’ and mark what follows, ‘This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me says the Lord.’ This is a good promise for a soldier, though still not to lay too much upon the literal sense. True, it holds forth this much, that God’s protection is in a particular manner over soldiers that are godly, ‘And every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn’– this is false witnesses too. Oh you, that your friends never left you anything, you will say, my friends died and left not me a great, but I thank God, God has provided for me. But though your father or mother died and left you no heritage, yet you have a heritage in the promise, ‘This is their heritage.’ So that there’s no godly man or woman, but is a great heir.

Therefore, when you look into the book of God and find any promise there, you may make that your own; just as an heir that resides over many fields and meadows, says he, ‘This meadow is my heritage, and this corn field is my heritage’; and then he sees a fair house, and says, ‘this fair house is my heritage’ And he looks upon them with another manner of eye than a stranger that shall ride over those fields. So a carnal heart reads the promises, and reads them but merely as stories, not that they have any great interest in them. But a godly man every time he reads the Scriptures (remember this note when you are reading the Scripture) and there meets with a promise, he ought to lay his hand upon it and say, ‘This is a part of my heritage, it’s mine, and I am to live upon it.’ This will make you to be contented; it’s a mysterious way of contentment. There’s many other promises that brings contentment (Psalm 34:10, 37:6; Isaiah 58:10). So much for the mystery of contentment by way of the covenant.

There is two or three things more that show how a godly man, has contentment in another way other than any carnal heart in the world has, it’s a mysterious way:

XIV. He Realizes the Things of Heaven

He has contentment by realizing the glorious things of heaven to him. He has the kingdom of Heaven as present, and the glory that is to come; by faith he makes it present. So, the martyrs, they had contentment in their sufferings, for said some of them, ‘Though we have but a hard breakfast, yet we shall have a good dinner, we shall soon be in heaven.’ ‘Do but shut your eyes,’ says one, ‘and you shall be in heaven soon.’ ‘We faint not,’ says the Apostle (2 Corinthians 4:16). Why? Because these light afflictions that are but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. They see heaven before them and that contents them. You mariners when you can see the haven before you, though you were mightily troubled before you could see any land, yet when you come near the shore and can see such a landmark, that contents you exceedingly. A godly man in the midst of the waves and storms that he meets with, he can see the glory of heaven before him and so contents himself. One drop of the sweetness of heaven is enough to take away all the sour and bitter of all the afflictions in the world. Indeed here we know that one drop of sourness, or one drop of gall will make bitter a great deal of honey. Put a spoonful of sugar into a cup of gall or wormwood, that will not sweeten it, but if you put a spoonful of gall into a cup of sugar it will embitter it. Now it’s otherwise in heaven: one drop of sweetness will sweeten a great deal of sourness of affliction, but a great deal of sourness and gall will not embitter a soul that sees the glory of Heaven that is to come. Now a carnal heart has no contentment but from what he sees before him in this world, but a godly heart has contentment from that which he sees laid up for him in the highest heavens.

XV. He Lets His Heart Out to God

The last thing that I would name is this, A godly man has contentment by opening and letting out of his heart to God. Other men or women they are discontented, but how do they help themselves? By complaints, by ill language. Someone crosses them, and they have no way to help themselves but by complaining and by bitter words, and so they ease themselves in that way when they are angry. But a godly man when he is cross, how does he ease himself? He is sensible of his ill–humor as well as you, and he goes to God in prayer, and there opens his heart to God, and lets out his sorrows and fears, and then can come away with a joyful countenance. Now do you find that you can come away from prayer and not look sad? As it’s said in 1 Samuel 1:18 of Hannah, that when she had been at prayer her countenance was no sadder, there she was comforted: this is the right way of contentment.

Thus we have done with the mystery of contentment. Now if you can but put these things together that we have spoken of, you may see fully what an art Christian contentment is.

Lessons Whereby Christ Teaches Contentment

You see contentment is not such a poor business as many make it. To say, ‘You must be content.’ Paul had need to learn it, and it is a great art and mystery of godliness to be contented in the way of a Christian, and it will appear yet further to be a mystery, when we come to the third head: and that’s to show what those lessons are that a gracious heart does learn when it learns to be contented. I have learned to be contented; what lessons have you learned? As now a scholar that has great learning and understanding in arts and sciences; how did he begin? He began, as we use to say, his ABC’s, and then afterwards he came to his Testament, and Bible, and inflection, and so to his grammar, and afterwards to his other books; so he learned one thing after another. So a Christian coming to contentment is as a scholar in Christ’s school, and there are many lessons to teach the soul to bring it to this learning; every godly man or woman is a scholar. It cannot be said of any Christian that he is illiterate, but he is literate, a learned man, a learned woman. Now the lessons that Christ teaches, to bring us to contentment, are these:

I. Self-Denial

The first great lesson is: The lesson of self–denial. Though it be a great lesson and hard. As you know a child at first taught, cries, ‘It’s hard’; It’s just that. I remember Bradford the martyr said, ‘Whoever has not learned the lesson of the cross, has not learned his ABC’s in Christianity.’ Here Christ begins with his scholars, and those in the lowest form must begin with this; if you mean to be Christian at all, you must buckle to this or you can never be Christians. There is not one who can be a scholar except he does learn his ABC’s, so you must learn the lesson of self–denial or you can never come to be a scholar in Christ’s school, to learn in this mystery of contentment. That’s the first lesson that Christ teaches any soul, self–denial, which brings contentment, that brings down and softens a man’s heart. You know a thing that’s soft, if you strike it, it makes no noise, but if you strike a hard thing it makes a noise; so the hearts of men that are full of themselves, and hardened with self–love, if they have any stroke they make a noise, but a self–denying Christian yields to God’s hand, and makes no noise. As when you strike a woolsack it makes no noise because it yields to the stroke; so a self–denying heart yields to the stroke and thereby comes to this contentment. Now in this lesson of self–denial there are many things, I will not enter into the doctrine of self–denial, but only show you how Christ teaches self–denial, and how that brings contentment.

1. 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 myself, now that man or woman which indeed knows that he or she is nothing, and has learned it thoroughly will be able to bear anything.’ The way to be able to bear anything, it is to know ourselves to be nothing in ourselves. God says to us, ‘Wilt thou set thine heart upon that which is nothing?’ (Proverbs 23:5) speaking of riches. Why, blessed God, do you not do so? You have set your 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’s God’s grace, free grace, and therefore it’s no great matter what I suffer for I am as nothing.

2. I deserve nothing. I am nothing, and I deserve nothing. Suppose I have not this and that which others have? I am sure I deserve nothing except it be Hell. You will answer any of your servants, who is not content: I marvel what you think you deserve? Or your children: do you deserve it that you are so eager to have it? You think to stop their mouths therefore, 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 anything, we might have some trouble of spirit, as a man that has deserved well of the state, or of his friends and he finds not an answerable encouragement, it troubles him mightily, but if he be conscious to himself that he has deserved nothing, he is content with a repulse.

3. I can do nothing. Christ says, ‘Without me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5). Why should I stand much upon it, to be troubled and discontented if I have not this and that, when the truth is I can do nothing? If you should come to one that is angry because he has not such food as he desires, and is discontented with it, you will answer him, ‘I marvel what you do, what use you are.’ Shall one that will sit still and be of no use, yet for all that he must have all the supply that possibly he can desire? Do but consider of what use you are in the world; if you consider what little need God has 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 does cut you short of such and such comforts, you will say, ‘Since I do but little, why should I have much’: this very thought will bring down a man’s spirit as much as anything.

4. So vile I am that I can receive no good neither of myself. I am not only an empty vessel, but a corrupt and unclean vessel that would spoil anything that comes into it. So are all our hearts: every one of our hearts is not only empty of good but are like a musty bottle that if any good liquor be poured into it, it spoils it.

5. If God does cleanse us in some measure, and does put into us some good liquor, some grace of his Spirit, yet in the fifth place: We can make use of nothing neither when we have it, if God does but withdraw himself. If God does but leave us one moment after he has bestowed us the greatest gifts, and whatever 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 if God does but leave us. Does God give us gifts and parts? Then let us fear and tremble least God should leave us to ourselves, for then how foully should we abuse those gifts and parts. You think other men and women have memories and gifts and parts and you would gladly have them – but suppose God should give you these, and there leave you, you would utterly spoil them.

6. We are worse than nothing. For by sin we come to be a great deal worse than nothing. Sin makes us more vile than anything, sin makes us contrary to all good. Now it’s a great deal worse to have a contrariety to all that is good, than merely 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 poison, and it is much for such as we are to be cut short of outward comforts?

7. If we perish there will 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 things together and then have Christ teach you self–denial. I may call these the several words in our lesson of self–denial. Christ teaches the soul this, so that, as in the presence of God on a real sight of itself 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. Consider Saul: There was a time, the Scripture says, 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 spoke 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 at this self–denying man or woman. There was never any denied himself so much as Jesus Christ did: he gave his cheeks to the afflictors, 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 denied 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 nearer we come to learn to deny ourselves as Christ did, the more contented shall we be, and by knowing much of our own vileness we come to learn to justify God. Whatever the Lord shall lay upon us, yet, righteous is the Lord, for he has to deal with a most wretched creature. A discontented heart is troubled because he has no more comfort, but a self–denying man rather wonders that he has so much as he has. Oh, says one, ‘I have but a little‘; ‘aye,’ says he that has learned this lesson of self–denial, ‘I rather wonder that God bestows upon me the liberty of breathing in the air, knowing how vile I am, and knowing how much sin the Lord does see in me.’ And that’s the way of contentment, by learning self–denial.

8. There is a further thing in self–denial which brings contentment: Because thereby the soul comes to rejoice and take satisfaction in all God’s ways; I beseech you observe this. If a man be selfish and have self–love prevail in his heart, those things that suits with his own ends he will be glad of them, but a godly man that has denied himself he will suit with and be glad of all things that shall suit with God’s ends. A gracious heart says, ‘God’s ends are my ends, and I have denied mine own ends,’ and so he comes to find contentment in all God’s ends and ways, and his comforts are multiplied, whereas the comforts of other men are single. It’s but very rare that God’s ways shall suit with a man’s particular end, but always God’s ways suit with his own ends. Now if you will only have contentment when God’s ways suits with your own ends, you can have it but now and then, but a self–denying man denies his own ends and only looks at the ends of God and therein is contented. When a man is selfish he cannot but have a great deal of trouble and vexation, for if I regard myself, my ends are so narrow that I shall have a hundred things come and jostle me, and I cannot have room in those narrow ends of my own. As you know in the city what a deal of stir there is in narrow streets, as Thames street being so narrow they jostle and wrangle and fight one with another because the place is so narrow, but now in the broad streets they can go quietly. So men that are selfish they meet and so jostle one with another; one man is for self in one thing, and another man is for self in another thing, and so they make a great deal of stir. But those whose hearts are enlarged, and make public things their ends, and can deny themselves, they can walk at breadth and never jostle one with another as the others do. The lesson of self–denial is the first lesson that Jesus Christ does teach men in the seeking of contentment.

II. The Vanity of the Creature

The vanity of the creature. That’s the second lesson in Christ’s school that he teaches those that he would make scholars in this art: the vanity of the creature, that whatever there is in the creature has an emptiness in it. ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,’ is the lesson that the wise men learned: the creature in itself can do us neither good nor hurt, but it is all but as wind. There is nothing in the creature that is suitable to a gracious heart to feed upon for the good and happiness of it. My brethren the reason why you have not contentment in the things of the world is not because you have not enough of them, that’s not the reason, but the reason is because they are not things proportionate to that immortal soul of yours that are capable of God himself. Many men think when they are troubled and have not contentment that it is because they have but a little in the world, and if they had more than they should be content. That is just as if a man is hungry, and so satisfy his craving stomach he should gape and hold open his mouth to take in the wind, and then should think the reason why he is not satisfied is because he has not enough of the wind. No, the reason is because the thing is not suitable to a craving stomach. Truly there is the same madness in the world; the wind that a man takes in by gaping will as soon satisfy a craving stomach which is ready to famish, as all the comforts in the world can satisfy a soul that knows what true happiness means. You would be happy, and you seek after such and such comforts in the creature. Well, have you got them, do you find your hearts satisfied as having that happiness that is suitable to you? No, no it is not here, but you think it is because you want such and such things. O poor deluded man, it is not because you have not enough of it, but because it is not the thing that is proportionate to the immortal soul that God has given you. ‘Why do you lay out your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not?’ (Isaiah 55:2). You are mad people, you seek to satisfy your stomachs with that which is not bread; you follow the wind, you will never have contentment. All creatures in the world say, contentment it not in us, riches says contentment is not in me, pleasure says contentment is not in me; if you look for contentment in the creature you will fail. No, contentment is higher. When you come into the school of Christ, Christ teaches you that there is a vanity in all things in the world, and the soul that, by coming into the school of Christ, by understanding the glorious mysteries of the Gospel, comes to see the vanity of all things in the world, that’s the soul that comes to true contentment. I could tell you of proverbs from heathens that shows the vanity all things in the world, and yet they did not learn the vanity of the creature in the right school. But now when a soul comes into the school of Jesus Christ, and there comes to see a vanity in all things in the world, then such a soul comes to have contentment. If you seek contentment elsewhere, you do like the unclean spirit, seek for rest but find none.

III. To Know the One Thing Needful

A third lesson that Christ teaches a Christian when he comes into his school is this, He teaches him to understand what that one thing is that is necessary, which he never came to understand before. You know what he said to Martha: ‘O Martha, thou cumberest thyself about many things, but there is one thing necessary.’ The soul before sought after this and the other thing, but now says the soul I see really that it is not necessary that I should be rich, but it is necessary that I should make up my peace with God; it is not necessary that I should live a pleasurable life in this world, but it is absolutely necessary that I should have pardon of my sin; it is not necessary that I should have honor and preferment, but it is necessary that I should have God to be my portion, and have my part in Jesus Christ; it is necessary that my soul should be saved in the day of Jesus Christ. The other things are pretty fine things indeed, and I should be glad if God would give them to me, a fine house, and income, and clothes, and promotion for my wife and children: these are comfortable things, but these are not the necessary things; I may have these and yet perish forever, but the other is absolutely necessary. No matter though I be poor, so be it I may have what is absolutely necessary: thus Christ instructs the soul. There’s many of you have had some thoughts about this, that it is indeed necessary for you to provide for your souls, but when you come into Christ’s school, there Christ causes the fear of eternity to fall upon you, and there he causes such a real sight of the great things of eternity and the absolute necessity of those things, that possesses your hearts with fear, and takes you off from all other things in the world. Now I should have shown you how this will bring contentment to the soul, when it comes to being instructed in what is absolutely necessary; but there is no time.