Chapter 9: Use 2 — Reproof of Discontent
Use 2. Here is a just reproof to such as are discontented with their condition.
This disease is almost epidemical. Some are not content with their callings which God has set them in; they must be a step higher, from the shop to the pulpit; they would be in the temple of honor, before they are in the temple of virtue; who step into Moses' chair, without Aaron's bells and pomegranates; like apes, which do most show their deformity when they are climbing. Is it not enough that God has bestowed gifts upon men, in private to edify, that he has enriched them with many mercies; but, do they seek the priesthood also? What is this but discontent arising from high-flown pride? These do secretly tax the wisdom of God, that he has not screwed them up in their condition a peg higher. Tentat Superbia, ut frangat. Every man is complaining that his estate is no better, though he seldom complains that his heart is no better. Suae quemque conditionis poenitet: one man commends this kind of life, another commends that; one man thinks a country life best, another a city life, as the poet elegantly expresses it.
O fortunati mercatores, gravis annis
Miles ait, multo jam fractus membra labore;
Contra Mercator navim jactantibus austris,
Militia est potior, quid enim concurritur horae
Momento? cita mors venit, aut victoria laeta. Horat.
The [reconstructed: soldier] thinks it best to be a merchant, and the merchant to be a soldier. Men can be content to be anything but what God will have them. We may cry out with the same poet,
Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo quam sibi sortem
Seu ratio dederit, seu fors objecerit, illa
Contentus vivat? laudet diversa sequentes? Hor. 1. Satyr.
How is it that no man is contented? Very few Christians have learned Saint Paul's lesson; neither poor nor rich know how to be content, they can learn anything but this.
1. If men are poor, they learn to be, 1. Envious: they malign those that are above them. Another's prosperity is an eyesore; when God's candle shines upon their neighbor's tabernacle, this light offends them. In the midst of men can (in this sense) abound, namely in envy and malice: an envious eye is an evil eye. 2. They learn to be querulous, still complaining, as if God had dealt hardly with them; they are ever telling of their wants, they want this and that comfort; whereas their greatest want is a contented spirit. Those that are well enough content with their sins, yet are not content with their condition.
2. If men are rich, they learn to be covetous; thirsting insatiably after the world, and by any unjust means scraping it together; their right hand is full of bribes, as the Psalmist expresses it. Put a good cause in one scale, and a piece of gold in the other, and the gold weighs heaviest. There are (says Solomon) four things that say, It is not enough. I may add a fifth, namely the heart of a covetous man. So that neither poor nor rich know how to be content.
Never certainly since the creation did this sin of discontent reign, or rather rage, more than in our times; never was God more dishonored; you can hardly speak with any, but the passion of his tongue betrays the discontent of his heart: every one lisps out his trouble, and here even the stammering tongue speaks too freely and fluently.
If we have not what we desire, God shall not have a good look from us, but presently are sick of discontent, and ready to die out of a humor. If God will not give the people of Israel for their lusts, they bid him take their lives; they must have quails to their Manna. Ahab though a king, and one would think his crown lands had been sufficient for him, yet, is sullen, and discontented for want of Naboth's vineyard. Jonah though a good man and a prophet, yet ready to die in a pet, and because God killed his gourd, Kill me too, says he. Rachel, Give me children, or I die; she had many blessings, if she could have seen them, but wanted this of contentment. God will supply our wants, but must he [reconstructed: satisfy] our lusts too? Many are discontented for a very trifle; another has a better dress, a richer jewel, a newer fashion. Nero not content with his empire, was troubled that the musicians had more skill in playing than he: how fantastic are some, that pine away in discontent for the want of those things, which if they had, would but render them more ridiculous.
