that makes the life of Heaven, there is reft, and joy, and fatisfaction in God: fo it is here in a contented fpirit, there is reft, and joy, and fatisfaction in God: In Heaven there is finging praifes to God; a contented heart is always praifing and bleffing God; thou haft Heaven while thou art upon earth, when thou haft a contented fpirit, yea, in fome regards it is better than Heaven. How is that you will fay? there is fome kind of honour that God hath in it, and some excellency that he hath not in Heaven, and that is this:

In Heaven there is no overcoming of temptations, they are not put to any trials by afflictions: there in Heaven they have exercife of grace, but they have nothing but encouragement to it, and indeed, thofe that are there, their grace is perfect, and in that they do excel us; but there is nothing to cross their grace, they have no trials at all to tempt them to do contrarie; but now for a man or woman to be in the midst of afflictions, temptations and troubles, and yet to have grace exercised, and yet to be fatif fied in God and Chrift, and in the word and promifes in the midft of all they fuffer, this may seem to be an honour that God hath from us, that he hath not from the Angels and Saints in Heaven. Is it fo much for one that is in Heaven that hath nothing else but good from God, hath nothing to try them, no temptations, is that fo much for them to be praifing and bleffing God, as for the poor foul that is in the mid'ft of tryals and temptations, and affliЯtions, and troubles? For this foul to go on praifing, and bleffing, and ferving God, (I fay it is an excellency that thou shalt not have in Heaven, and God fhall not have this kind of glory from thee in Heaven, and therefore be contented, and prize this Contentment, and be willing to live in this world as long as God fhall please, and do not think, Oh that I were delivered from all thefe afflictions and troubles here in this world! if thou wert then thou shouldest have more eafe to thy felf: but here's a way of honouring God, and ́manifefting the excellency of Grace here, when thou art in this conflict of temptation,that God fhall not have from thee in Heaven, and therefore be fatisfied and quiet, be contented with thy Contentment:I want fuch and fuch things that others have but bleffed be God I have a contented heart that others have not, then I fay be content with thy Contentment, for that's a rich portion that the Lord hath granted unto them, if the Lord fhould give unto thee thousands here in this world, it would not be fuch a rich portion as this, that he hath given thee a contented spirit: Oh go away and praise the Name of God, and fay, Lord, it's true, these and these comforts that others have, I fhould be glad if I had them, but thou haft cut me fhort, but though I want thefe, yet thou haft given me that that is as good and better, thou haft given me a quiet contented heart, to be willing to be at thy difpofe.

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Sermon VII.

PHILIPPIANS 4. II.

For I have learned in whatfoever ftate I am, therewith to be content.

proceed now. There are some two or three things more of the excellencie of Contentment, and then we are to proceed to Applica tion of the point.

The Eighth Excellencie is, Contentment is a great bleffing of God upon the foul. There is Gods bleffing upon thofe that are content, the bleffing of God is upon them, and their eftates, and upon all that they have. We read in Deuteronomie of the bleffing of Judah, the principal Tribe; this is the bleffing of Fudah, And be faid, Hear, Lord,the voice of Judah,and bring him unto his people, let his hands be fufficient for him, and be thou an help to him from his enemies. Let his hand be fufficient for him; that is, bring in a fufficiencie of all good unto him, that he may have of his own, that's the bleffing of Judah. So when God gives thee a fufficiencie of thine own, (as every contented man hath) there is the bleffing of God upon thee, the bleffing of the principal Tribe, of Judah, is upon thee. It is the Lord that gives us all things to enjoy, we may have the thing, and yet not enjoy it except God comes in with his bleffing,now whatsoever thou haft thou doeft enjoy it:Many men have eftates and do not enjoy them, it's the bleffing of God that gives us all things to enjoy, it is God that through his blefling, hath fashioned thy heart, and made it fuitable to thy condition.

The Ninth Excellencie, Thofe that are content, they may expect reward from God, that God fhall give unto them the good of all thofe things that they are contented to be without, and this brings in abundance of good to a contented fpirit; There is fuch and fuch a mercie that thou thinkeft would be very comfortable unto thee if thou hadft it, but canft thou bring thy heart to fubmit to God in it? thou shalt have the bleffing of the mercie one way or other; if thou haft not the thing it felf in re, thou fhalt have it made up one way or other, thou shalt have a Bill of exchange to receive fomewhat in lieu of it, there is no comfort that any foul is content to be without, but the Lord will give either the comfort or fomewhat inftead of it: Thou shalt have a reward to thy foul for what ever good thing thou art content to be without. You know what the Scripture faith of active obedience,and the Lord doth accept (of his fervants) their will for the deed, though we do not do a good thing, yet if our

hearts

hearts be upright, to will to do it,we shall have the bleffing,though we do not do the thing: You that complain of weakness, you cannot do as others do, you cannot do as much fervice as others do, if your hearts be as upright with God, and would fain do the same service that you fee others do; you would account it a great bleffing of God upon you, the greatest bleffing in the world, if you were able to do as others do: now you may comfort your felves with this, having to deal with God in the way of the Covenant of Grace, you shall have from God the reward of all you would do, as a wicked man fhall have punishment for all the fin he would commit, fo thou fhalt have the reward for all the good thou wouldst do. Now, may we not draw an argument from active obedience to paflive?There is as good reafon why thou shouldeft expect, that God will reward thee for all that thou art willing to fuffer,as well as for all that thou art willing to do; now if thou beeft willing to be without fuch a comfort and mercie, when God fees it fit, thou shalt be no lofer, certainly God will reward thee either with the comfort, or with that that fhall be as good to thee as the comfort; therefore confider, how many things have I that others want? and can I bring my heart into a quiet contented frame to want what others have? I have the blefuing of all that they have, and I fhall either poffefs fuch things as others have, or elfe God will make it up one way or other, either here, or hereafter in eternitie to me; Oh what riches are here! with Contentment thou haft all kind of riches.

Tenthly and laftly, By Contentment the Soul comes to an Excellencie near unto God himself, yea, the nearest that may be, for this word that is trrnflated Content, it is a word that fignifies a Self-fufficiencie (as I told you in the opening of the words.) A Contented man is a Self-fufficient man. What is the great Glory of God, but to be happie and self-sufficient in himself? Indeed he is faid to be All-fufficient, but that's but a further addition of the word All, rather than of any matter; for to be Sufficient, is All-fufficient: Now is this the Glory of God, to be Sufficient? to have Sufficiencie in himself, El Shaddai, to be God, having Sufficiencie in himself? Now thou comeft near to this, thou partakeft of the Divine Nature, as by Grace in general, fo in a more peculiar manner by this Grace of Chriftian Contentment, what's the Excellencie and Glorie of God bur this? Suppofe there were no Creatures in the world, and that all the Creatures in the world were annihilated, God would remain the fame bleffed God that he is now, he would not be in a worfe condition, if all Creatures were gone,neither would a contented heart,if God fhould take away all Creatures from him, a contented heart hath enough in the want of all Creatures, and would not be more miserable than now he is. Suppofe that God should continue thee here, and all Creatures that are here in this world were taken away, yet thou Aill (having God to be thy portion) wouldft be as happie as now thou art, and therefore Contentation hath a great deal of Excellencie in it.

Thus we have fhewed, in many particulars, the excellencie of this Grace, labouring to prefent the beautie of it before your fouls, that you may be in love with it.

Now my Brethren, what remains but the practice of this? for this Art of Con

Contentment is not a speculative thing, onely for contemplation, but it is an art of Divinitie, and therefore practical, ye are now to labour to work upon your hearts, that there may be this grace in you, that you may honour God, and honour your profeffion with this Grace of Contentment, for there is none doth more honour God, and honour their profeffion,than those that have this Grace of Contentment. Now that we may fall upon the practise, there is required,

First, That we should be humbled in our hearts for the want of this, that we have had fo little of this Grace in us. For there is no way to fet upon any dutie with profit, till the heart be humbled for the want of the performance of the dutie before; many men,when they hear of a dutie that they fhould perform, they will labour to perform it, but first thou must be humbled for the want of it, therefore that's the thing that I fhall endeavour in the Application, to get your hearts to be humbled for want of this Grace; O had I had this Grace of Contentment, what a happie life I might have lived! what abundance of honour I might have brought to the Name of God, and how might I have honoured my profeflion? and what a deal of comfort might I have enjoyed? but the Lord knows it hath been far otherwise, Oh how far have I been from this Grace of Contentment that hath been opened to me? I have had a murmuring, a vexing, and fretting heart within me, every little cross hath put me out of temper and out of frame, O the boifteroufnefs of my fpirit! what a deal of evil doth God fee in my heart,in the vexing and fretting of my heart,and murmuring and repining of my fpirit? O that God would make you to fee it: Now to the end that you might be humbled for the want of this, I shall endeavour in these particulars to speak unto it.

First, I fhall fet before you, The evil of a murmuring spirit, there is more evil than you are aware of.

In the fecond place, I will fhew you fome aggravations of this evil, It's evil in all, but in fome more than in others.

Thirdly, 1 fball labour to take away the Pleas that any murmuring discontented heart bath for this distemper of his.

There's thefe Three things in this Use of humiliation of the foul for the want of this Grace of Contentment.

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For the firft, now at this time. The great evil that there is in a murmuring difcontented heart.

In the first place, This thy murmuring and discontentedness, it argues much corruption that is in the Soul, as Contentment argues much Grace, and strong Grace, and beautifull Grace; fo this argues much Corruption, and strong Corruption, and very vile Corruptions in thy heart. As it is in a mans bodie, if a mans bodie be of that temper that every scratch of a pin makes his flesh to ran kle and to be a fore, you will fay, furely this mans bodie is very corrupt, his bloud and his flefh are corrupt, that every scratch of a pin fhall make it rankle, fo it is in thy fpirit, if every little trouble and affliction fhall make thee difcontented, and make thee murmur, and even cause thy spirit within thee to ranckle; or as it in is a wound in a mans bodie, the evil of a wound,it is not fo much in the largeness of the wound, and the abundance of bloud that comes

out

out of the wound,but in the inflammation that there is in it, or in a fretting & corroding humour that is in the wound; an unskilfull man when he comes and fees a large wound in the flesh,looks upon it as a dangerous wound, and when he fees a great deal of bloud gufh out, he thinks these are the evils of it, but when a Chirurgion comes and fees a great gash, faith he, this will be heal'd within a few dayes, but there is a lefs wound,and there is an inflammation,or a fretting humour that is in it, and this will coft time (faith he) to cure, so that he doth not lay Balfom and healing Salves upon it, but his great care is to get out the fretting humour, or inflammation,fo that the thing that must heal this wound it is some drink to purge; But (faith the patient) what good will this do to my wound? You give me fomewhat to drink, and my wound is in my arm, or in my leg, what good will this do that I put in my ftomach? Yes, it purges out the fretting humour, or takes away the inflammation, and till that be taken away,the Salves can do no good. So it is juft for all the World in the fouls of men, it may be there is fome affliction upon them that I compare to the wound,now they think that the greatness of the affliction is that which makes their condition moft miferable:Oh no, there is a fretting humour,an infimamation in the heart, a murmuring spirit that is within thee, and that is the miferie of thy condition, and that must be purged out of thee before thou canst be healed, and let God do with thee what he will, till he purges out that fretting humour, thy wound will not be healed; a murmuring heart is a very finfull heart, fo that when thou art troubled for fuch an affliction, thou hadst need turn thy thoughts, rather to be troubled for the murmuring of thy heart, for that is the greateft trouble; there is an affliction upon thee, and that is grievous, but there is a murmuring heart within,and that is more grievous. Oh! that we could but convince men and women that a murmuring fpirit is a greater evil than any affliction, let the affliction be what it will be. We fhall fhew more afterward that a murmuring spirit is the evil of the evil, and the miserie of the miferie.

Secondly, The evil of murmuring is fuch, that God when he would speak of wicked men, and defcribe them, and fhew the brand of a wicked and ungodly man or woman,he inftances in this fin in a more special manner: I might name many Scriptures, but that Scripture in Jude is a most remarkable one, in the 14. verf.and fo forward, there it is faid, That the Lord comes with ten thousands of his Saints, to execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard Speeches, which ungodly finners have spoken against him. Mark here in this 15. verfe, there is four times mentioned ungodly ones; All that are ungodly among them, all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard fpeeches, which ungodly finners have spoken against him: This is in the general. But now he comes in the particular to fhew who these are, thefe are (faith he) murmurers: that is the very firft. Would you know who are ungodly men, that God when he comes with ten thousand of Angels fhall come to punish for all their ungodly deeds that they do, and those that speak ungodly things against them? These ungodly ones are murmurers; murmurers in the Scripture are put in the fore-front of ungodly ones, it is a moft dread

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