Jeremiah Burroughs :: Sermon Ten

SERMON X.

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

The Excuses of a Discontented Heart — Continued

Now there are many excuses and reasonings that remain, for there’s a great deal of do with a discontented murmuring heart. And I remember I find that the same Hebrew word that signifies to lodge, to abide, signifies to murmur. They use one word for both, for murmuring is a disorder that does lodge in men, where it gets in once it lodges abides and continues, and therefore, that we may dislodge it and get it out, we will labor to show what are the further reasonings of a discontented heart.

IV. ‘I Am Troubled for Man’s Ill Dealing’

‘I thinks I could be content with God’s hand,’ said one, ‘so far as I see the hand of God in a thing I can be content. But when men deal so unreasonably and unjustly with me I know not how to bear it. I can bear it that I should be in God’s hands, but not in the hands of men. My friends or acquaintances when they deal so unrighteously with me, oh, this goes very hard with me, that I know not how to bear it from men.

For the taking away of this reasoning, first, though they be men that bring this cross on you, yet they are God’s instruments. God has a hand in it, and they can go no further then God would have them go. This was what quieted David when Shimei cursed him, he said, God has a hand in it, though Shimei be a base, wicked man, yet I look beyond him to God. So, is there any of your friends that deal injuriously with you, and cross with you? Look up to God, and see that man but as an instrument in God’s hands.

Secondly, if this be your trouble that men do so wrong you, you are rather to turn your hearts to pity them than to murmur or be discontented. For the truth is, if you be wronged by other men, you have the better of it, for it is better to bear wrong than to do wrong a great deal. If they wrong you, your heart cannot submit; you are in a better condition than they, because it’s better to bear than do wrong. I remember it is said of Socrates that, being very patient when wrong was done to him, they asked him how he came to be so. He said, ‘If I meet with a man in the street that is a diseased man, shall I be vexed and fretted with him because he is diseased? Those that wrong me I look upon them as diseased men and therefore pity them.

Thirdly, though you meet with hard dealings from men, yet you meet with nothing but kind good and righteous dealings from God. When you meet with unrighteous dealings from them, set one against the other. And that’s for the answer to the fourth excuse.

V. ‘I Never Expected This Affliction’

Oh, but that affliction that comes upon me is an affliction that I never looked for. I never thought to have met with such an affliction, and that is that I know not how to bear. That is that which makes my heart so anxious because it was altogether unlooked for and unexpected.

For the answer of this: first, it is your weakness and folly that you did not look for it and expect it. In Acts 20:22, 23, see what Saint Paul said concerning himself, ‘And now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, that bonds and afflictions abide me.’ It’s true, said he, I know not the particular affliction that may befall me, but this I know that the Spirit of God witnesses that bonds and afflictions shall abide me everywhere. I look for nothing else but bonds and afflictions wherever go. So a Christian should do: he should look for afflictions where soever he is, in all conditions he should look to meet with afflictions, and therefore if any affliction should befall him, though indeed he could not foresee the particular evil, yet he should think, this is no more than I looked for in general. Therefore no affliction should come unexpectedly to a Christian.

A second answer I would give is this: Is it unexpected? Then the less provision you made for it before it came, the more careful should you be to sanctify God’s name in it, now it is come. It is in this case of afflictions as in mercies, many times mercy comes unexpected, and that might be a third answer to you. Set one against the other. I have many mercies that I never looked for as well as afflictions that I never looked for; why should not one rejoice me as well as the other disturbs me? As it is in mercies, when they come unexpected, the less preparation there was in me for receiving mercy, the more need I have to be careful, now to give God the glory of the mercy, and to sanctify God’s name in the enjoyment of the mercy. Oh, so it should be with us now, we have had mercies this summer that we never expected and therefore we were not prepared for them; now we should be so much the more careful to give God the glory of them. So when afflictions come that we did not expect, then it seems we laid not in for them before hand, we had need be the more careful to sanctify God’s name in them. We should have spent some pains before to prepare for afflictions and we did not, then take so much the more pains to sanctify God in this affliction now. And that’s a fifth reasoning.

VI. ‘My Affliction Is Exceedingly Great’

‘Oh, but it is very great, my affliction is exceedingly great,’ said one, and ‘how ever you say, we must be contented, it’s true, you may say so who do not feel such great afflictions, but if you felt my affliction that I feel you would think it hard to bear and be content.’

To that I answer, let it be as great an affliction as it will, it is not so great as your sin. He has punished you less than your sins.

Secondly, it might have been a great deal more, you might have been in Hell. And it is, as I remember, Bernard’s saying, he said, ’It is an easier matter to be oppressed than perish.’ You might have been in Hell, and therefore the greatness of the thing should not make you murmur, grant it be great.

Thirdly, It may be it’s the greater because your heart does so murmur. Shackles upon a man’s legs, if his legs be sore it will pain him the more, if the shoulder be sore the burden is the greater. It is because your heart is so unsound that your affliction is great to you. And that’s the sixth reasoning.

VII. ‘My Affliction Is Greater Than Others’

But however you may lessen my affliction, yet I am sure it is far greater than the afflictions of others.

First, it may be it is your discontent that makes it greater, when indeed it is not so in itself.

Secondly, if it were greater than others’: why is your eye evil because the eye of God is good? Why should you be discontented the more because God is gracious to others?

Thirdly, is your affliction greater than others? Then in this you have an opportunity to honor God more than others. So, you should consider, does God afflict me more than other men? God gives me an opportunity in this to honor him in this affliction more than other men? To exercise more grace than other men. Let me labor to do it then.

Fourthly, if all afflictions were laid upon a heap together, this is an notable expression of Solon, that wise heathen, he said, ‘Suppose all the afflictions that are in the world were laid upon a heap, and every man should come and take a proportion of those afflictions, every one equally, there is scarce any man but would rather say, let me have the afflictions that I had before, or else he would be likely to come to a greater share, a greater affliction if so be he should equally share with all the world.’ Now for you that are poor, that are not in extremity of poverty, if all the riches in the world were laid together, and you should have an equal share, you would be poorer. But take all afflictions and sorrows whatever; if all the sorrows in the world were laid together in a heap, and you had but an equal share of them, your portion would be more rather than it is now for the present. And therefore do not complain that it is more than others,’ so as to murmur because of that.

VIII. ‘If The Affliction Were Any Other, I Could Be Content’

Another reasoning that murmuring hearts have is this: They think that if the affliction were any other than it is, then they would be more contented.

First, you must know that we are not to choose our own rod, that God shall beat us with.

Secondly, it may be if it were any other than it is, it were not so fit for you as this is. It may be, therefore, God chooses it because it is the most cross to you, as seeing it most suitable for purging out the humour that is in you. If a patient comes to take medicine and finds himself sick by it, shall he say, ‘Oh! If it were any other potion I could bear it?’ It may be, if it were any other than it is, it would not fit your disease, yea, if it did not work as it does it would not fit your disease. So, when you said of an affliction, if it were any other than it is you could bear it, but answer yourself with this: It may be, if it were any other than it is, it would not be fit for me. It would not get right to that sinful humour that there is in my soul, and therefore God sees this to be the fittest and the most suitable for me.

Thirdly, know that this is the excellency of grace in a Christian to be fitted for any condition; not only to say, if it were this or that, but if it be any. As now, a mariner if he has skill he would not say, ‘If it were any other wind but this, if the wind did blow in any point but this, I could tell how to manage my ship, I could show skill in other points but not in this.’ Would not mariners laugh at such a one? It would be a shame for him to say that he has skill in any other points but this. So it should be a shame for a Christian to say that he has skill in any other affliction but this. A Christian should be able to manage his ship if the wind blows any way; to guide his soul any way.

The fourth and last answer is this: know that the Lord has rewards and crowns for all graces, and for the honoring them in all conditions. It may be, in such a way as you think you could honor God, God has a crown for that; and God has another crown to set upon the heads of those that honor him in such a way as this. Yea, he has several sorts of crowns, as I may so say, in Heaven, and those crowns he must put upon somebody’s head, and therefore he exercises you in a variety of conditions, so that you might have the several rewards and crowns that God has to reward and crown those that are faithful in several conditions.

IX. ‘My Afflictions Make Me Unserviceable to God’

Oh, but the condition that God has put me in makes me to be unserviceable, and this troubles me. It’s true, if it were only an affliction and trouble to myself, it would not be so much, but I am put into such a condition by this affliction as I am unserviceable, and am likely to do God no further service. God puts me into a mean estate, and what good can I do? And how burdensome is my life to me because I can do no service for God! and this is grievous to me.

Indeed, if it is true that this is your great grief, it is a good sign. If you could say, as in the presence of God, ‘Above all afflictions here in this world to be laid aside and not to be employed in the service of God, I account that the greatest affliction.’ I had rather bear any trouble in the world so I might do more service, then to be freed from trouble and to be laid aside and do little service: can you say so? It is a good sign of grace for a man to account afflictions to be great because he can do the Lord but little service. Few men account that no affliction at all.

But yet there may be a temptation in this. To murmur at God’s disposal when your calling is low and mean and you can do little service. This is many times a temptation to those that are poor, those that are servants and those that are of weak parts and are pleased to work hard to provide bread for their families; it’s many times a grievous burden to them to think, such men the Lord uses in public service, and I live in an obscure way, and to what purpose is my life?

First, to help against this temptation that you may not murmur against this condition: Do but consider though your condition be low and mean, yet you are in the body, you are a member of the body though you best but a mean member, the toe and the finger has it’s use in the body, though it be not the eye, though it be not the head, or the heart yet it has it’s use in the body. And it is an excellent expression that I remember Augustine has about this, he said, ‘It is better to be the meanest member in the body, than to be the highest member and more excellent and cut off from the body, it is better to be a little sprig in the tree joined to the root, than to be an arm cut off from the root.’ Now other men that have but common gifts in the world, that are not members of Jesus Christ, indeed they seem to have more excellency than those that are godly, that are in a mean condition, mean parts, mean callings, but they are not of the body, they are not joined to the root, and therefore their condition is worse. As a great arm of a tree when it is cut off it has a great many leaves upon it, and it seems a great deal more glorious than those little sprigs that are upon the tree, but that little sprig is in a better condition, why? Because joined to the tree and has sap from the root and flourishes, but the other will wither and die within a while. So it is with the men of the world, they be but like great boughs cut off from the tree, though they have excellent parts, and have great wealth and pomp and glory in the world, they have no union with Jesus Christ, the root. But now others that live in a poor condition, a poor tradesman, a poor servant, a poor laboring–man that labors for his family every day, yet he being godly, he says, ‘Though I have but little for the present, little glory, little credit, little comfort yet I am joined to the body, and there I have supply and that will feed me with comfort, blessing, and mercy to all eternity.’ So all that are in a poor condition in this world, if they be godly, do but think of that; though you be mean yet you are in the body, and joined to the root, you are joined to the principal of comfort, good, blessing, and mercy that will hold out to eternity, when thousand of thousands of glorious pompous men in the world shall wither and perish everlastingly. And therefore be not troubled at your mean condition.

Secondly, though you have but a mean calling in this world, and so are not regarded as a man of use in the world, yet if you are a Christian, God has called you to a higher calling; your general calling it is a high calling, though your particular calling be but low and mean. And for that you have a place in the chapter before my text, Philippians 3:14, ‘I press towards the mark, says the Apostle, for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’ So that every Christian has a high calling of God in Christ Jesus: God has called him to the highest thing that he has called any creature to that he has made, the angels in heaven have not a higher calling than you have. You that perhaps spends your time in a poor business, in the meanest calling, if you best a dung–raker, to rake channels, or cleanse places of filth or any other thing in the world that is the meanest that can be conceived of, your general calling as a Christian does advance you higher than any particular calling can advance any man in the world. Others indeed that are called to manage the affairs of the state, they are in a high calling, or ministers they are in a high calling, but yours in some respect is higher. A poor servant that must be scraping all day about poor mean things, many times may have such a temptation as this is, ‘Oh, what a poor condition has God disposed me to! Will God have regard to such a one that is in such a poor low place as I am?’ Oh yes, Christ has regard to the meanest member; as a man has as true regard to the toe if it be in pain, and will tender that as truly and verily as any other member, so Christ has regard to his lowest and meanest ones.

Thirdly, you are in a high calling. Though your outward calling be low in respect of men, yet in respect of God you are in the same calling with the angels in Heaven, and in some degree called to that which is higher, for the Scripture says that the angels come to understand the mystery of the Gospel by the Church. You that are a Christian in that general calling of yours, you are joined with principalities and powers, and with angels, in the greatest work that God has called any creature to, and therefore let that comfort you in this.

Fourthly, your calling is low and mean; yet be not discontented with that, for you have a principle within you (if you are a godly man or woman) of grace that does raise your lowest actions to be higher in God’s esteem, than all the brave, glorious actions that are done in the world. The principle of faith does it: for any man or woman to go on in obedience to God in a way of faith in the calling that God has set them, I say, doing this through a principle of faith, it does raise this action, and makes it a more glorious action than all the glorious victories of Alexander and Caesar. All their triumphs and glorious pomp that they had in all their conquests; it was not so glorious as for you to do the lowest action out of faith. For, as Luther speaks of a poor milk–maid, and yet being a believer, and does it in faith, he compares that action to all the glorious actions of Caesar, and makes that a great deal more eminent and glorious in the eyes of God. Therefore faith raises your works that are but mean, raises them to be very glorious.

Yea, and the truth is, there is more obedience to submit to God in a low calling, than to submit to him in a higher calling, for it’s clear obedience, mere obedience that makes you go on in a low calling, but there may be much self–love that makes men go on in a higher calling, for there’s riches, credit and account in the world, and rewards comes in by that, which does not in the other. To go on quietly in a low calling is more obedience to God.

Fifthly, know further, in the last place, there is likely to be more reward. For the Lord when he comes to reward, he does not come to examine what the work has been that men and women have been exercised in, but what their faithfulness has been. ‘Well done good and faithful servant’ said the Lord, he does not say, ‘well done good servant for you have been faithful to me in public works, ruling cities and states, and affairs in kingdoms, and therefore you shall be rewarded,’ no, but ‘well done good and faithful servant.’ Now you may be faithful in little as well as others are in more, by going on and working your days labor, when your get but a couple of shillings to maintain your family, you may be as faithful in this as those are that rules a kingdom. Now God looks to a man’s faithfulness, and you may have as great a reward for your faithfulness that are a poor servant in the kitchen all the day, as another that sits upon the throne all day, and as great a crown of glory you may have at the day of judgement, as a king that sits upon the throne, that has ruled for God upon his throne. Yea, your faithfulness may be rewarded by God with as great glory, as a king that has swayed his scepter for God; because I say the Lord does not so much look at the work that is done, as at the faithfulness of our hearts in doing it, then why should not every one of us go on comfortably and cheerfully in our low condition, for why may not I be faithful as well as another? It’s true, I cannot come to be as rich a man and as honorable as others; but I may be as faithful as any other man: that every one of you may conclude with yourselves. What hinders you that are the poorest and meanest may be as faithful as the greatest? Yea, you may have as glorious a crown in heaven, and therefore go on comfortably and cheerfully in your way.

X. ‘My Condition Is Unsettled’

There’s another reasoning that some may have and that is this: Oh, I could bear much affliction in some other way, but this is very grievous to me, the unsettledness of my condition. Even though my condition were but low yet if it were in a settled way I could be content, but it is so inconstant, and so unsettled, that I can never know what to trust to, but am tossed up and down in the world in an unsettled condition, and this is hard to be content with.

Now to that I answer, first, that the Psalmist said, ‘That every man in his settled estate is vanity’ (Psalm 36:5). Your Bibles have it: ‘Every man at his best estate is vanity,’ the word is, ‘his settled estate.’ You think, if you were but settled, then you could be content, but the truth is, man in his settled estate is vanity.

Secondly, I answer this, that perhaps God sees it is better for you to live in a continual dependence upon him, and not to know what your condition shall be tomorrow, then for you to have a more settled condition in respect of the comforts of the creature. Do but remember that we spoke of before, that Christ does not teach you to pray, ‘Lord, give me enough that will serve me for two or three years,’ but, ‘This day our daily bread.’ To teach us we must live upon God in a dependent condition every day for daily bread. Here was the difference that is observable between the Land of Canaan and Egypt: the land of Canaan that depended upon God for the watering of it with showers from heaven, but Egypt had a constant way of watering the country, that did not so much depend upon heaven for water, but upon the river Nile, which did at some certain time overflow the country. And they knowing that the watering of their country did depend upon that river and not upon heaven they grew more proud. And therefore the Scripture, to express Pharaoh’s pride, brings him in saying, The river is mine: he could order the river as he pleased, for it was his. Canaan, which was a country which was to depend upon God, though they had rain at one time, yet they knew not whether they should have it at another time, and lived always in a dependence upon God not knowing what should become of them. Now God thought this to be a better land for his people than Egypt, and this is given as one reason among others for it, because the Lord looked upon this, as more suitable to the state of his people that were to live by faith, to be continually depending upon heaven, upon Himself, and not to have a constant settled way in the creature for their outward dependence. And we find it by experience, that when those that are godly live in the greatest dependence upon God, and have no settled income from the creature, they do exercise faith more, and are in a better condition for their souls than before. Oh, many times it falls out that the worse your outward estate is the better your soul is, and the better your outward estate is the worse your soul is.

We read in Ezra 4:13, the objection that the enemies had against the people of Israel’s building of the wall of the city: their writing to Artaxerxes against them, said, ‘Be it known unto the king, that if the city be built, and the walls set up again, then they will not pay toll, tribute, and custom, and so you shall damage the revenue of the kings.’ If the wall be built, they say, then they will refuse to pay toll, tribute and custom to the king. That is therefore, so long as they live in such a condition, where they have dependence fully upon the king, and lie at the king’s mercy. That is, they are in no city that has walls built, but the king may come upon them when he will, so long they will pay custom to the king, but if once they come to build a wall, and can defend themselves, and have not their dependence upon the king as before, then they will deny paying toll, tribute, and custom. So it is, therefore, for all the world between God and men’s souls, when a soul lives in way of mere dependence upon God, that sensibly he sees God has him at advantage every moment. Oh, then such a soul will pay toll and custom, that soul exercises faith, and begs every day his daily bread. But if God hedges that man about with an estate, with prosperity, perhaps he has an inheritance befallen him, perhaps he has a constant office that brings in so much yearly to him duly paid, this man is not so sensible now of his dependence upon God, he begins now to pay less toll and custom to God than before; God has less service from this man now than before. God sees it better for his people to live in a depending condition: we are very loath in respect of God to be dependent, we would be all independents this way, we would be of ourselves, and have no dependence upon the Lord, but God sees it better for us to live in a depending condition.

Further, this may be your comfort: though for outward things you are mightily unsettled, yet for the great things of your soul and eternal estate, there you are settled. There you have a settled way, a constant way of fetching supply: Of his fullness we receive grace for grace. You have their abundance of treasure to go to, and fetch all that you stand in need of. And observe it, that now your condition is more settled in the covenant of grace than it was in the covenant of works: in the covenant of works there God gave man a stock to trade with, but he put it in his own hand, so that he might trade, and get or lose; but now in the covenant of grace God makes sure, the stock is kept in the hand of Christ, and we must go to him for supply continually, for Christ keeps the stock. Perhaps we may trifle away somewhat in our trading, but God takes care that we shall never spend the stock. As a man when his son breaks, having squandered away his stock that he gave him before, afterwards he puts his stock into a friends hand, and says, ‘You shall keep the stock and it shall not be at his disposal.’ So we are in a more settled condition in respect of our eternal estate then Adam was in innocence. Therefore let that comfort us in all our unsettled conditions in the matters of the world.

XI. ‘I Have Been in a Better Condition’

But yet there’s another reasoning that many murmuring hearts think to feed their humour. They say, If I never had been in a better condition than I could bear this affliction, if God had always kept me in so low a condition I could be content. Oh, but there was a time that I prospered more, and I had things at more full hand, and therefore now it is harder to me to be brought low, as in these times. Perhaps a man that had five or six hundred a year, but now has had nothing for a great while, if that man had not been born to so much, or never had prospered in any higher degree than now he is in, this affliction would have been less. Perhaps he has some money and friends to live upon, but if he had never been in a better condition he would not have accounted it so great a matter to have been without it now. This many times is our greatest wound, that once we were in a better condition; and this is the most unreasonable thing for us to murmur upon this ground of any.

First, is your eye evil because God has been good to you heretofore? It’s a bad thing for us to have our eye evil because God is good to others, but to look upon our condition with an evil eye now, because God was once good to us; has God done you any wrong because he was formerly more good to you than he was to others?

Secondly, did you have more prosperity before, did God give you more prosperity? It was to prepare you for afflictions. We should look at all our outward prosperity as a preparation for afflictions. If you have done so, then it would not have been so difficult for you to have endured affliction now. When you had a great wealth, yet if you had made use of this mercy of God to prepare you for your afflicted estate, then the change of your estate would not be so grievous. That every Christian should say: ‘Have I an estate now? I should prepare for poverty. Have I health now? I should prepare for sickness. Have I liberty? Let me prepare myself for imprisonment? How do I know what God may call me to? Have I comfort and peace now in my conscience, does God shine upon me? While I have this let me prepare for God’s withdrawing from me. Am I delivered from temptations? Let me prepare now for the time of temptations.’ If you would do so, the change of your condition would not be so grievous to you. Mariners that are in a calm will prepare for storms; would they say, ‘If we never had calms we would bear storms, but now we have had calms so many years or weeks together, this is grievous?’ In your calm you are to prepare for storms, and the storm would be less. You should reason quite contrary and say, ‘Now I am in an afflicted condition, but blessed be God I was in a comfortable condition, and blessed be God that he was a forehand with me in the ways of his mercy’: this one consideration may help murmuring hearts. Do you murmur because once you were better? Know God was beforehand with you in the ways of mercy, you should rather think therefore: I have lived for these many years, forty years perhaps or more, in a comfortable condition, I have lived in health, and peace, and plenty; what though the remaining part of my time have some sorrow and affliction? The Lord has granted to me a comfortable sunshine all day long till towards evening, and what if at seven or eight a clock at night it begins to rain? Let me thank God I have had so fair weather all day. You that are going a voyage, if you have a comfortable wind, and very fair for many months together, what if you have a little storm when you are within sight of land, will you murmur and repine? Oh no, but rather blessed God that you have had such a comfortable voyage so long: Oh, this consideration would help us all.

If it were so that now God should say, ‘Well, you shall never see comfortable days again in outward things in this world,’ then, you have cause to fall down and bless God’s name that you have had so many comfortable days. Now you reason quite contrary, whereas you should bless God that you have had so much comfort, you make what you have had before to be an aggravation of your afflictions now, and so murmur and are discontented. That which God gave you before, upon what terms did you hold it? Did you hold it so as you have in your writings, To have and to hold forever? God gives no such thing, God gives to no man, I say, anything but grace to run upon that tenure. There’s no such thing in all God’s writings for any outward comforts, To have and to hold for you and your heirs. Indeed, for grace he does give it to yourselves, to have and to hold forever, though not for everyone that comes out of your loins to have and to hold forever; God does not give any outward thing so upon no such tenure as that. If God gives me an understanding of himself, and faith, and humility, and love, and patience, and such graces of his Spirit he gives me them forever. If he gives me himself and his Christ, and his promise, and his covenant, he gives me them forever. What am I therefore that the sun should always shine upon me, that I must have fair weather all my days? That which God gives to me he gave it to me as a pledge of his love, let me return it to him as a pledge of my obedience, there’s all the reason in the world for it, all that a godly man receives from God he receives it as a pledge of God’s love to him; therefore when he comes into an afflicted condition, God says, ‘Return to me as a pledge for your obedience what you had from me as a pledge of my love.’ We should cheerfully come to God and bless God that we have anything to render to him as a pledge of our obedience, and say, ‘Oh it is your love, O Lord, that has given us anything, that does enable us to render a pledge of our obedience to you.’ When God calls for your wealth or any comforts that you have, God calls for it as a pledge of your obedience to him.

XII. ‘I Am Crossed after Taking Great Pains’

Another reason of a murmuring heart is this: Oh, but after I have taken a great deal of pains for such a comfort, yet then I am denied it, after a great deal of labor and pains that I have taken now to be denied, oh, this goes very hard.

First I answer, the greater cross, the more obedience and submission.

Secondly, when you did take a great deal of pains, was it not with submission to God? Did you take pains with resolution, that you must have such a thing when you labor for it? Then know that you labor not as a Christian, but if you did labor and take pains, was it not with resignation to God? ‘Lord I am taking pains in the way of my calling, but with submission, I depend fully upon you for success and a blessing.’ And what was it that you did aim at in your labor? Was it not that you might walk with God in the place that God had set you? A Christian should do so in his outward calling: I am diligent in my outward calling, but it is, that I might obey God in it. It’s true, I do it that I might provide for my family, but the chief thing that I aim at is that I might yield obedience to God in the way that God has set me. Now if God calls you to another condition to obey him in, though it be by suffering, you will do it if your heart be right.

Thirdly, there will be the more testimony of your love to God, if so be you yield up yourself to God in what cost you dear. ‘Shall I offer that to God,’ said David, ‘that cost me nothing?’ Your outward comforts has cost you much, and you have taken much pains to obtain them, and now if you can submit to God in the want of them, I say, in this you love is more shown that you can offer to God what cost you dear. Now these are the principal reasoning of a discontented heart.

XIII. ‘My Disordered Heart Does Not Break Out’

There’s one excuse more that may be named, and that is this, some say, Though I confess my affliction is somewhat hard, and I feel some trouble within me, yet I thank God I break not out in discontented ways to the dishonor of God; I keep in, although I have much ado with my own heart.

Oh! Do not satisfy yourselves with that, for the disorders of your hearts, and their sinful workings are as words before God. ‘My soul be silent to God’: That we spoke of in the beginning of the opening of this Scripture, it is not enough for your tongue to be silent; but your soul must be silent, there may be a sullen discontentedness of heart as well as a discontentedness manifested in words: And if you do not mortify that inward sullenness, when you be afflicted a little more it will break forth at last.

And therefore the Lord, I hope, has met with the chief reasonings and excuses for our discontent in our conditions. I beseech you in the name of God consider these things, and because they do concern your own hearts, you may so much the better remember them. I had thought to have made a little entrance into the next head, and that is, some way of helping you to this grace of contentment. It is a most excellent grace, of admirable use as you have heard, and the contrary is very sinful and vile.