Jeremiah Burroughs :: Sermon Five

SERMON V

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

Lessons Whereby Christ Teaches Contentment — Continued

I mentioned three lessons the last time, that Christ teaches those scholars that comes into his school whereby they might come to get contentment.

First, The lesson of self–denial.

Secondly, The lesson of the vanity of the creature.

Thirdly: The right understanding of that one thing that is necessary. To expand on this one, and then to proceed to others. It is said of Pompey, that when he was to carry corn to Rome in time of dearth, he was in a great deal of danger by storms at sea, but he says, ‘We must go on, it is necessary that Rome should be relieved, but it is not necessary that we should live.’ So, it would he certain, when the soul is once taken up with the things that are of absolute necessity, it will not be much troubled about other things. What are the things that disquiet us here but some by–matters in this world? And it is because our hearts are not taken up with that one absolutely necessary thing. Who are the men that are most discontented, but idle persons, persons that have nothing to take up their minds? Every little thing disquiets and discontents them; but now a man that has business of great weight and consequence, if all things goes well with his great business which is in his head, he is not aware of meaner things in the family. But now a man that lies at home and has nothing to do, he finds fault with everything. So it is with the heart: when the heart of a man has nothing to do but to be busy about creature comforts, every little thing troubles him; but now, when the heart is taken up with the weighty things of eternity, with the great things of eternal life, the heart being taken up with them, these things that are here below that did disquiet it before, are things now of no consideration with him in comparison to the other – how things fall out here is not much regarded by him, if the one thing that is necessary is provided for.

IV. To Know One’s Relation to the World

The fourth lesson that the soul is instructed in to come to this knowledge in the art of contentment, is this: The soul comes to understand in what relation it stands to the world. By that I mean this, God comes to instruct the soul effectually through Christ by his Spirit, on what terms it lives here in the world, in what relation it is that it does stand. As therefore, while I live in the world my condition is to be but a pilgrim, a stranger, a traveler, and a soldier. Now the right understanding of this, and being taught this not only by rote, that I can speak the words over, but when I come indeed to have my soul possessed with the consideration of this truth, that God has set me in this world, not as in my home, but as a mere stranger and a pilgrim, that I am traveling here to another home, and that I am here a soldier in my warfare, it is a mighty help to contentment in whatever befalls one.

For instance, in all these conditions, when a man is at home, if things are not according to his desire he will be finding fault, and is not contented; but if a man travels abroad, perhaps he meets not with conveniences as he desires – the servants in the house are not at his beck, or are not so diligent as his own servants were, and his diet is not as at home, and his bed not as at home – yet this very thought may moderate a man’s spirit: I am a traveler, and I must not be finding fault, I am but in another man’s house, and it would be bad manners for one to find fault when he is abroad in another person’s family, though things be not so as in my own family. If a man meets with ill weather, he must be content; it is travelers’ fare, we say. Both fair weather and foul weather, this is the common travelers fare, and we must be content with it. But if a man were at home and it should drop down in his house, he would account it an ill thing, an affliction to him, and he cannot bear it; but when he is traveling abroad though he meet with rain and storms he is not so much troubled. When you are abroad at sea, though you have not those many things that you have at home, you are not troubled at it; you are contented. Why? You are abroad at sea. You are not troubled at storms that do arise, and though you have many things otherwise than you would have them at home, but still you are quieted with the fact that you are at sea. Mariners, when they are at sea, they care not what clothes they have then, though they be pitched and tarred, and but a clout about their necks, and any mean clothes. But they think when they come home: then they shall have their fine silk stockings, and brave suits, and laced bands and such things, and shall be very fin. So they are contented abroad, upon that thought that it shall be otherwise with them when they come home, and though they have nothing but salt meat, and a little hard fare, yet when they come to their houses then they shall have anything.

Thus it should be with us in this world, the truth is, we are all in this world but as seafaring men, tossed up and down on the waves of the sea of this world, and our haven is Heaven; here we are traveling, but our home it is another world, that long home. Indeed some men have better accommodations than others have in traveling, and it’s true, it’s a great mercy of God to us in England, in that we can travel with such delight and accommodations more than they can in other countries; and through God’s mercy we have as great accommodations in our traveling to Heaven in England as any place under Heaven. Though we do meet with travelers’ fare sometimes, yet it should not be grievous to us. The Scripture tells us plainly that we must behave ourselves here but as pilgrims and strangers: In 1 Peter 2:11, ‘Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.’ Consider what your condition is, you are pilgrims and strangers, do not think to satisfy yourselves here. A man when he comes into an inn, if there be a fair cupboard of plate he is not troubled that it is not his own, why? Because he is going away; so let us not be troubled when we see other men have great wealth, but we have not, why? We are going away into another country, you are lodging here but as it were for a night, if you should live an hundred years in comparison of eternity it is not so much as a night, it is but as you were traveling, and were come into an inn. And were not this a madness for a man to be discontent because he has not what he sees there, seeing it may be he is to go away again within half a quarter of an hour? So, you find it in David, this was the argument that brought off David’s heart from the things of this world, and set him upon other manner of things, Psalm 119:19, ‘I am a stranger in the earth, hide not your commandments from me.’ I am a stranger in the earth – what then? Then, Lord, let me have the knowledge of your commandments and it’s sufficiency. As for the things of the earth I stand not upon them whether I have much or little, but hide not your commandments from me, Lord, let me know the rule that I should guide my life by.

Again, we are not only travelers but soldiers: this is the condition of the life in which we are here in this world, and therefore, we are to behave ourselves accordingly. So, the Apostle makes use of this argument in writing to Timothy: ‘Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ’ (2 Timothy 2:3). The very thought of the condition of a man that is a soldier, does still his disquiet of heart. When he is abroad, he has not the accommodations in his quarters as he has in his own family. Perhaps a man that had his bed and curtains drawn about him, and all accommodations in his chamber, now perhaps sometimes he must be put to lie on straw, and he thinks to himself, I am a soldier and it is suitable to my condition. He must have his bed warmed at home, but he must lie abroad in the fields when he is a soldier, and the very thought of this condition in which he stands quiets him in all things. Yea, and he goes rejoicing, to think this is but suitable to my condition in which God has put me; so it should be with us in respect of this world. Now, would it not be an unseemly thing to see a soldier go whining up and down with his finger in his eye and complaining, that he has not hot meat every meal, and his bed warmed as he had at home.

Now Christians know that they are in their warfare, they are here in this world fighting and combating with the enemies of their souls and eternal condition, and they must be willing to endure hardness here. The right understanding of this, that God has put them into such a condition, it is that which will content them, especially when they consider that they are certain of the victory, and ere long they shall triumph with Jesus Christ; and then all their sorrows shall be done away, and their tears wiped from their eyes. A soldier is content to endure hardness though he knows not that he shall have the victory, but a Christian knows himself to be a soldier, and knows that he shall conquer and triumph with Jesus Christ to all eternity. And that’s the fourth lesson that Christ does teach the soul when he brings it into his school, to learn the art of contentment: he makes him understand thoroughly the relation in which he has placed him in, in this world.

V. Wherein the Good of the Creature Is

He teaches us wherein consists any good that is to be enjoyed in any creature in the world. It’s true, before it has been taught that there is a vanity in the creature, that is, take the creature considered in itself, but yet though there be a vanity in the creature in itself, in respect of satisfying the soul for its portion, yet there is some goodness in the creature, though there be a vanity there’s some desirableness. But wherein does this consist? It consists not in the nature of the creature itself, for that is nothing but vanity, but it consists in the reference it has to the first being of all things: this is a lesson that Christ teaches. If there be any good in wealth, or in any comforts in this world, it is not so much that it pleases my sense or that it is suitable to my body, but the reference it has to God, the first being, that by these creatures there should be somewhat of God’s goodness conveyed to me, and I may have a sanctified use of the creature to draw me nearer to God, and that I enjoy more of God, and be made more serviceable for the glory of God in the place where God has set me: here’s the good of the creature. Oh, were we but instructed in this lesson, did we but understand, and thoroughly believe this to be a truth. There is no creature in all the world that has any goodness in it any further then it has reference to the first infinite supreme good of all, that so far as I can enjoy God in it, so far it is good to me, and so far as I do not enjoy God in it, so far there is no goodness in any thing that I have in the creature. How easy were it then for one to be contented!

Therefore, suppose a man had a great wealth but a few years ago, and now it is all gone – I would but appeal to this man, when you had your wealth, wherein did you account the good of that wealth to consist? A carnal heart would say, anybody might know that: it brought me in so much a year, and that I could fare of the best, and be a man of repute in the place where I live, and men would regard what I said; I might be clothed as I would, and lay up portions for my children: in this consisted the good of my wealth. This man now never came into the school of Christ to know wherein the good of an estate did consist, no marvel if he be disquieted when he has lost his estate. But now a Christian that has been in the school of Christ, and has been instructed in the art of contentment, when such a one has a wealth, he thinks, in that I have a wealth above my brethren, in this consists the good of it to me, in that I have an opportunity to serve God the better, and I enjoy a great deal of God’s mercy to my soul conveyed to me through the creature, and hereby I am enabled to do a great deal of good, and therein I account the good of my wealth. Now God has taken this away from me, now if God will be pleased to make up the enjoyment of himself another way, that is, will call me to honor him by suffering, and if I may do God as much service now in my way of suffering, that is, to show forth the grace of his Spirit in the way of my suffering as I did in the way of prosperity, I have as much of God as I had before. If I may be led to God in my low condition, as much as I was in my prosperous condition, I have as much comfort and contentment as I had before.

Objection. But you will say, ‘It is true, If I could honor God in my low estate as much as in my prosperous estate then it were somewhat, but how can that be?’

Answer. You must know the special honor that God has from his creatures in this world, it is the manifestation of the graces of his Spirit. It’s true, God has a great deal of honor when a man is in a public place, and so he is able to do a great deal of good, to countenance godliness, and discountenance sin, but the main thing is in our showing forth the virtues of him that has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now if I can say that, through God’s mercy in my affliction I find the graces of God’s Spirit working as strongly in me as ever they did when I had my wealth, I am where I was; yea, I am fully in as good a condition, for I have that good now that I had in my prosperous estate. For I accounted the good of it but in my enjoyment of God, and honoring of God, and now God has blessed the want of it to stir up the graces of his Spirit in my soul. This is the work that now God calls me to, and I must account God is most honored when I do the work that he calls me to; he set me a work in my prosperous estate at that time, to honor him in that condition, and now he sets me a work at this time to honor him in this condition. Now God is most honored when I can turn from one condition to another, according as he calls me to it. Would you account yourselves to be honored by your servants, when you set them about a work that has some excellence, and they will go on and on, and you cannot get them off from it? Now let the work be never so good, yet if you will call them off to another work you do expect that they should manifest so much respect to you, as to be content to come off from that, though they be set about a meaner work, if it be more suitable to your ends. So you were in a prosperous estate, and there God called you to some service that you took some pleasure in; but suppose God said: ‘I will use you in a suffering condition, and I will have you honor me in that way.’ Now here’s the honoring of God that you can turn this way or that way, as God calls you to it. Therefore now you having learned this, that the good of the creature can sit in the enjoyment of God in it, and the honoring of God by it, you can be content, because you have the same good that you had before, and that’s the fifth lesson.

VI. The Knowledge of One’s Own Heart

The sixth lesson that Christ does teach the soul that he brings into this school, is this: He does instruct such a man or woman in the knowledge of their own hearts. You must learn this or you will never learn contentment. You must learn to know your own hearts well, to be good students of your own hearts, you cannot all be scholars in the arts and sciences of the world, but you may all be students in your own hearts. Many of you cannot read in the Book, but God expects that every day you should turn over a leaf in your own hearts. You will never come to get any skill in this mystery, except when you study the book of your own hearts. Mariners, they have their books that they study, those that will be good navigators; and scholars they have their books, those that study Logic, they have their books according to that; and those that would study Rhetoric and Philosophy have their books according to that; and those that study Divinity, they have their books whereby they come to be helped in the study of Divinity. But a Christian next to the Book of God is to look into the book of his own heart, and to read over that, and this will help you to contentment these three ways:

1. By the studying of your heart, you will come soon to discover wherein your discontent lies. When you are discontented you will find out the root of any discontentment if you study your heart well. Many men and women are discontented, and the truth is they know not why, they think this and the other thing is the cause. But a man or woman that knows their own heart, they will find out soon where the root of their discontent lies, that it lies in such a corruption, and disorder of the heart, that through God’s mercy I have found out. It is in this case as it is with a little child that is very forward in the house, if a stranger comes in he does not know what the matter is. Perhaps the stranger will give the child a rattle, or a nut, or such a thing to quiet it, but when the nurse comes she knows the temper and disposition of the child, and therefore knows best how to quiet it. So it is here, therefore for all the world, when we are strangers with our own hearts we are mightily discontented, and know not how to quiet ourselves, because we know not wherein the disquiet lies. And indeed when we are strangers to our own hearts we cannot tell how to quiet ourselves. But if we be very well versed in our own hearts, when anything falls out so as to disquiet us, we find out the cause of it, and so quickly come to be quiet. So, a man that has a watch, and he understands the use of every wheel and pin, if it goes amiss he will soon find out the cause of it. But one that has no skill in a watch, when it goes amiss he knows not what the matter is, and therefore cannot mend it. So indeed our hearts are as a watch, and there are many wheels, and windings and turnings there, and we should labor to know our hearts well, that when they are out of tune we may know what the matter is.

2. This knowledge of our hearts will help us to contentment, because by it we shall come to know what is most suitable to our condition. As therefore, a man that knows not his own heart he thinks not what need he has of affliction, and upon that he is disquieted; but that man or woman that has studied their own hearts, when God comes with afflictions upon them, they can say, ‘I would not for anything in the world have been without this affliction, God has so suited this affliction to my condition, and has come in such a way, that if this affliction had not come, I am afraid I should have fallen into sin.’ A poor country man that takes medicine, the medicine works, and he thinks it will kill him, because he knows not the ill humors that are in his body, and therefore he understands not how suitable the medicine is to him. But a physician takes a purge, and it makes him extremely sick: the physician says, ‘I like this the better, it does but work upon the humor that I know is the matter of my disease,’ and upon that such a man that has knowledge and understanding in his body, and the cause of his bad temper, he is not troubled or disquieted. So would we be if we did but know the disorders of our own hearts. Carnal men and women they know not their own spirits, and therefore they fling and vex upon every affliction that does befall them, they know not what disorders are in their hearts that may be healed by their afflictions, if it please God to give them a sanctified use of them.

3. By knowing their own hearts, they know what they are able to manage, and by this means they come to be content. The Lord perhaps takes away many comforts from them that they had before, or denies them some things that they hoped to have got. Now they by knowing their hearts know this, that they were not able to manage such wealth, and they were not able to manage such prosperity. God saw it, and, a poor soul says, ‘I am in some measure convinced by looking into my own heart that I was not able to manage such a condition.’ A man desires greedily to grasp more perhaps than he is able to manage, and so undoes himself. Countrymen do observe, that if they do over–stock their land it will quickly spoil them, and so a wise husbandman that knows how much his ground will bear he is not troubled that he has not so much stock as others, why? Because he knows he has not ground enough for so great a stock, and that quiets him. So many men and women that know not their own hearts, they would gladly have a prosperous estate as others have, but if they knew their own hearts they would know that they were not able to manage it.

If one of your little children of three or four years old should be crying for the coat of her sister that is twelve or twenty years old, and say, ‘Why may not I have a coat as long as my sister’s?’ If she had, it would soon trip up her heels, and break her face. But when the child comes to understanding, she is not discontented because her coat is not so long as her sister’s, but says, ‘My coat is fit for me,’ and therein takes content. So if we come to understanding in the school of Christ we will not cry, why have not I such an estate as others have? The Lord sees that I am not able to manage it, and I see it myself by the knowing of my own heart. You shall have children if they see but a knife, they will cry for it because they know not their strength and that they are not able to manage it, but you know they are not able to manage it, and therefore you will not give it them, and when they come to so much understanding as to know that they are not able to manage it, they will not cry for it. So we would not cry for such and such things if we knew that we were not able to manage them. When you vex and fret for what you have not, I may say to you as Christ says, ‘You know not of what spirits you are.’ It was a saying of Oecolampadius to Parillus, when they were speaking about his extreme poverty, ‘Not so poor, though I have been very poor, yet I would be poorer; I could be willing to be poorer than I am.’ For the truth is, the Lord knew what was more suitable to me, and I knew that my own heart was such, that a poor condition was more suitable to me than a rich. So certainly would we say, if we knew our own hearts, that such and such a condition is better for me than if it had been otherwise.

VII. To Know the Burden of a Prosperous Condition

The seventh lesson, Is the burden of a prosperous estate. Such a one that comes into Christ’s school to be instructed in this art never comes to attain to any great skill in this art until he comes to understand the burden that is in a prosperous condition.

Objection. You will say, ‘What burden is there in a prosperous condition?’

Answer. Yes, certainly a great burden, and there needs a great strength to bear it. As men had need of strong brains that can bear strong wine, so they had need of strong spirits that are able to bear prosperous conditions, and not to do themselves hurt. There’s a fourfold burden in a prosperous condition. Many men and women look at the shine and glittering of prosperity, but they think little of the burden, but there’s a fourfold burden.

1. There’s a burden of trouble. A rose has its prickles, and so the Scripture says that he that will be rich pierceth himself through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:10). If a man’s heart be set upon it, that he must be rich, and he will be rich, such a man will pierce himself through with many sorrows: he looks upon the delight and glory of riches that appears outwardly, but he considers not what piercing sorrows he may meet with in them. The consideration of the trouble in a prosperous condition, I have many times thought of, and I cannot tell by what comparison to express it better than by traveling in some champion country, where round about is very fair and sandy ground, and you see a town a great way off in a valley, and you think, Oh how bravely is that town seated; but when you come and ride into the town, you shall ride through a dirty lane and through a company of fearful dirty holes. You could not see the dirty lane and holes when you were two or three miles off. So sometimes we look upon the prosperity of men and think such a man lives bravely and comfortably, but if we did but know what troubles he meets with in his family, in his estate, in his dealings with men, we would not think his condition so happy. One may have a very fine new shoe, but nobody knows where it pinches him but he that has it on; so you think such and such men are happy, but they may have many troubles that you little think of.

2. There is a burden of danger in it. Men that are in a prosperous condition are in a great deal of danger. You see some times in the evening when you light up your candles, the moths and the gnats will be flying up and down in the candle, but they scorch their wings, and there they fall down dead. So there is a great deal of danger in a prosperous estate, those men that are set upon a pinnacle on high, these men they are in greater danger than other men are. Honey, we know, does invite bees and wasps to it, and so the sweet of prosperity does invite the Devil and temptation. Men that are in a prosperous estate are subject to many temptations that other men are not subject to. The Scripture calls the Devil Beelzebub, that is, the god of flies, and so Beelzebub come where the honey of prosperity is, they are in very great danger of temptations, those that are in a prosperous condition. The dangers of men that are in a prosperous estate that have more than others, should be considered of by those that are lower. Think to yourself: though they be above me, yet they are in more danger than I am. The tall trees are a great deal more shattered than low shrubs, so you know the ship that has all the sails up, the top sail and all in a storm, this is in more danger than that which has all the sails drawn in. And so men that have their top sail, and all up and brave, they are more like to be drowned, drowned in perdition, than other men are. Therefore you know what the Scripture says, how hard it is for rich men to go into the Kingdom of Heaven; such a text should make poor people to be contented with their estates.

We have a notable example for that in the children of Kohath: you shall find that they were in a more excellent estate than the other of the Levites, but they were in more danger than the other, and more trouble. First, that the children of Kohath were in a higher condition than of the Levites, that I’ll show you out of the fourth chapter of Numbers, there you shall find what their condition was, ‘This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation about the most holy things’ (4:4). Mark, the Levites were exercised about holy things, but the sons of Kohath, their service was about the most holy things of all. And you shall find in Joshua 21:10, that God did honor the sons of Kohath in a more special manner than he did honor the other Levites, which honor the children of Aaron had (being of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi), for theirs was the first lot, and they were preferred before the other families of Levi. Those that were employed in the most honorable employment, they had the most honorable lot, the first lot fell to them. Therefore you see God honored the children of the Kohathites. But other Levites say, ‘How God preferred this family before us?’ They were honored more than the others were. But now, mark their burden that comes in with their honor, and that I’ll show you out of two Scriptures. The first is, Numbers 7:6–9, ‘And Moses took the wagons, and the oxen, and gave them to the Levites. Two wagons and four oxen be gave to the sons of Gershom, according to their service, and four wagons and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari according to their service, under the hand of Ithamer the son of Aaron the Priest.’ But says he in the verse 9, ‘Unto the sons of Kohath he gave none, because the service of the sanctuary that belonged unto them, was, that they should bear upon their shoulders.’ Mark, the other Levites had oxen, and wagons given to them, to ease them of their service. But, he says, to the sons of Kohath he gave none, but they should bear their service upon their shoulders. That’s the reason why God was so displeased, because they wanted more ease in God’s service than God would have them, for whereas they should carry it upon their shoulders, they would carry it upon a cart. Mark here, you see the first burden that they had, beyond what the other Levites had. And those indeed that are in more honorable places than others, those that are under them think not of their burden that they are to carry upon their shoulders, when as others have means to ease them. Many times those that are employed in the ministry, or magistracy, that sit at the stern to order the great affairs of the commonwealth and state, you think they live bravely. They lie awake when you are asleep. If you knew the burden that lies upon their spirits, you would think that your labor and burden were very little in comparison of theirs.

There’s another burden of danger more than the rest, and that you shall find in Numbers 4:17: ‘And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites, but therefore do unto them that they may live and not die: When they approach unto the most holy things, Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint them every one to his service and to his burden; but they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die.’ Mark this text: the Lord says to Moses and Aaron, ‘Cut ye not off the tribe of the family of the Kohathites from among the Levites.’ Cut them not off, why? What had they done? Had they done anything amiss? No, they had not done anything that provoked God; but the meaning is this: take great care of the family of the Kohathites, to instruct them in their duty that they were to do, for, says God, they are in a great deal of danger, being to serve in the most holy things. If they should go in to see the holy things more than God would have them, it is as much as their lives are worth, and therefore if you should but neglect them, and not inform them thoroughly in their duty they would be undone. God says they are to administer in the most holy things, and if they should but dare to presume to do anything otherwise, than God would have them about those services, it would cost them their lives; and therefore be not you careless of them, for if you neglect them you will be a means of cutting them off. Thus, you see the danger that the family of the Kohathites were in; they were preferred before others, but they were in more danger. So, you think there are such men in a parish that bear the sway, and are employed in public service, and they carry all before them; but you consider not their danger. And so the ministers, they stand in the forefront of all the spite and malice of ungodly men. Indeed God employs them in honorable service, and that service that the angels would take delight in; but though the service be honorable, above the employment of other works, yet the burden of danger, that likewise is greater than the danger of men that are in an inferior condition. Now when the soul comes to get wisdom from Christ to think of the danger that it is in, then it will be content with that low estate in which it is. A poor man that is in a low condition, thinks, ‘I am low, and others are raised, but I know not what their burden is,’ and so, if he be rightly instructed in the school of Christ he comes to be contented.

3. In a prosperous estate there is the burden of duty. You look only at the sweet and comfort that they have, and the honor and respect that they have, that are in a prosperous condition. But you must consider of the duty that they owe to God: God requires more duty at their hands than at yours, you are ready to be discontented that you have not such parts and abilities as such have, but God requires more duty of them that have more parts. God requires more duty of those that have greater wealth than of you that have not such wealth. Oh, you would gladly have the honor, but can you carry the burden of the duty.

4. The last is: The burden of account in a prosperous estate. There is a great account that they are to give to God that enjoy great estates and a prosperous condition. Now, we are all stewards, and one is a steward to a meaner man, perhaps, but an ordinary knight, another is a steward to a nobleman, an earl– now the steward of the meaner man, he has not so much as the other has under his hand, now, shall he be discontented because there comes not so much under his hand as under the others? No, he thinks, I have less, and I am to give the less account. So your account in comparison of the minister’s and magistrate’s will be nothing: you are to give an account of your own souls, and so are they, you are to give an account for your own family, and so are they, but you are not to give account for congregations, and for towns, and cities, and countries. You think of princes and kings – Oh! what a glorious condition they are in. But what do you think of a king to give account for all the disorder and wickedness in a kingdom that he possibly might have prevented? What abundance of glory might a prince bring to God if so be that he bent his soul and all his thoughts to lift the name of God in a kingdom. Now, what God loses for want of this, that king, prince, or governor he must give an account for. There’s a saying of Chrysostom in that place of the Hebrews, where it’s said that men must give an account for their souls: he wonders that any men in public place can be saved, because their account is so great that they are to give. And I remember I have read a saying of Philip that was King of Spain: though the story said of him, that he had such a natural conscience, that he profess he would not do anything against his conscience, no not in secret for the gaining of the world, yet when this man was to die, ‘Oh’ said he, ‘that I had never been a king! Oh, that I had lived a solitary and private life all my days. Then should I have died a great deal more securely, I should with more confidence have gone before the throne of God to give my account. But here’s the fruit of my kingdom, that I had all the glory of it, it has made my account to be harder to give to God.’ Therefore he cries out when he was to die.

And therefore, you that live in private conditions remember this, if you come into Christ’s school, and be taught this lesson, you will be quiet in your afflictions, or private estate, in regard your account is not so great as others. It’s a saying I remember I have met with in Latimer’s sermons that he was wont to use: ‘The half is more than the whole.’ That is, when a man is in a mean condition, he is but half way towards the height of prosperity that others are in. Yet said he, this is safer though it be a meaner condition than others. Those that are in a high and prosperous condition are annexed to it, the burden of trouble, and of danger and of duty, and of account. And therefore you see how Christ trains up his scholars in his school, and though they be weak otherwise, yet by his Spirit he gives them wisdom to understand these aright.

VIII. A Great Evil to Be Given up to Our Own Heart’s Desire

Christ teaches them what a great and dreadful evil it is to be given up to one’s heart’s desires. The understanding of this lesson is: a most dreadful evil, one of the most hideous and fearful evils that can befall any man upon the face of the earth, for God to give him up to his heart’s desires. When the soul understands this once, and together with it, for it goes along together, that spiritual judgments are more fearful than any outward judgments in the world. The understanding of this will teach anyone to be content when God crosses them in their desires. You are crossed in your desires, now you are discontented and vexed and fretted about it; is that your only misery that you are crossed in your desires? No, no, you are infinitely mistaken, the greatest misery of all is for God to give you up to your heart’s lusts and desires, to give you up to your own counsels. So you have it in Psalm 81:11, 12: ‘But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me,’ – what then? – ‘So I gave them up unto their own heart’s lusts, and they walked in their own counsels.’ ‘Oh,’ says Bernard, ‘let me not have such a misery as that, for to give me what I would have, to give me my heart’s desires, it is one of the most hideous judgments in the world for a man to be given up to his heart’s desires.’

Indeed, in Scripture we have no certain, evident sign of a reprobate, we cannot say, except we knew a man had committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, that he is a reprobate. For we know not what God may work upon him, but the nearest of all and the blackest sign of a reprobate is this: for God to give up a man to his heart’s desires. All the pain of diseases, all the calamities that can be thought of in the world, are no judgments in comparison of this. For a man to be given up to his heart’s desires. Now when the soul comes to understand this, the soul then cries out, why am I so troubled that I have not my desires? There is nothing that God conveys his wrath more through than a prosperous condition. I remember I have read of a Jewish tradition and what they say of Uzziah: when God struck Uzziah with leprosy, they say that the beams of the sun darted upon the forehead of Uzziah, and he was struck with leprosy by the darting of the beams of the sun upon his forehead. The Scripture says, indeed, the priests looked upon him, but they say there was a particular light and beam of the sun upon the forehead that revealed the leprosy to the priests, and they say that was the way of conveying of it. Whether that was true or not, I am sure this is true, that the strong beams of the sun of prosperity upon many men makes them to be leprous. Would any poor man in the country have been discontented that he was not in Uzziah’s condition? He was a great king, aye, but there was the leprosy in his forehead, the poor man may say, Though I live meanly in the country yet I thank God my body is whole and sound. Would not any man rather have homespun and skins of beasts to clothe himself with, than to have satin and velvet that have the plague in it? The Lord conveys the plague of his curse through prosperity, as much as through anything in the world, and therefore the soul coming to understand this, this makes it to be quiet and content.

And then, spiritual judgments are the greatest judgments of all. The Lord lays such an affliction upon my outward wealth, but what if he had taken away my life? A man’s health is a greater mercy than his wealth, and you that are poor people should consider of that. Is the health of a man’s body better than his wealth? What is the health of a man’s soul? That’s a great deal better. The Lord has inflicted external judgements, but he has not inflicted spiritual judgments on you, he has not given you up to hardness of heart, and taken away the spirit of prayer from you in your afflicted estate. Oh, then, be of good comfort though there be outward afflictions upon you; yet your soul, your more excellent part is not afflicted. Now when the soul comes to understand this, that there lies the sore wrath of God, to be given up to a man’s desires, and for spiritual judgments to be upon a man: this quiets him, and contents him, though outward afflictions be on him. Perhaps one of a man’s children has the fit of an age, or the toothache, but perhaps his next neighbor has the plague, or all his children are dead of the plague. Now shall he be so discontented, because his children have the toothache when his neighbor’s children are dead? Now think therefore, Lord, you has laid an afflicted condition upon me, but, Lord, you have not given me the plague of a hard heart.

Now take these eight things before mentioned, and lay them together, and you may well apply that Scripture in the 29th of Isaiah [Isa 29:24], the last verse, where it says, ‘They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding; and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.’ Has there been any of you, as I fear many may be found, that have erred in spirit, even in regard of this truth that now we are preaching of, and many that have murmured? Oh, that this day you might come to understand, that Christ would bring you into his school, and search you understanding. ‘And they that murmured shall learn doctrine’: what doctrine shall they learn? These eight doctrines that I have opened to you. And if you will but thoroughly study these lessons that I have set before your eyes, it will be a particular help and means to cure your murmurings against and repining at the hand of God, and so you will come to learn Christian contentment. The Lord teach you thoroughly by his Spirit these lessons of contentment!