Sermon 2

_PHILIPPIANS. 4.11._For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

We have made entrance (you may remember) into the Argument of Christian Contentment. And have opened the words, and showed you what this Christian Contentation is; that it is, The inward, quiet, gracious frame of Spirit, freely submitting to, and taking Complacency in God's dispose in every condition. And therein came to this last thing, [In every condition] Now we shall a little enlarge that, and so proceed:

1 Submitting to God in whatever Affliction befalls us: for the kind.

2 For the time and continuance of the Affliction.

3 For the variety and changes of Affliction: Let them be what they will, yet there must be a submitting to God's dispose in every condition.

First for the kind, Many men and women will in the general say, that they must submit to God in affliction; I suppose now if you should come from one end of this Congregation to another, and speak to every soul thus; Would not you submit to God's dispose, in whatever condition he should dispose of you to; you would say, God forbid it should be otherwise, but we used to say, There is a great deal of deceit in generals. In general you would submit to anything: but what if it be in this and that particular, that is most cross to you? Then anything but that: we are usually apt to think that any condition is better than the condition that God doth dispose us to, now here is not Contentment; it should not be only to any condition in general, but for the kind of the affliction, if it be that which is most cross to you. God (it may be) strikes you in your Child, Oh if it had been in my Estate saith one, I should be content; perhaps he strikes you in your Match, Oh saith he I had rather have been struck in my health; and if he had struck you in your health, Oh then if it had been in my trading I would not have cared; but we must not be our own carvers, what particular afflictions God shall dispose us to, there must be Contentment in them.

Secondly, There must be a submission to God in every affliction, for the time and continuance of the affliction. It may be saith one I could submit and be content, but this affliction hath been upon me a long time, a quarter of a year, a year, several years, and I know not how to yield and submit to it, my patience is even worn and broke; yea it may be it is a spiritual affliction, you could submit to God you say in any outward affliction, but not in a soul-affliction, or if it were an affliction upon the soul, trouble upon the heart, if it were the withdrawing of God's face, yet if this had been but for a little time I could submit; but seeking of God so long a time and yet God doth not appear, Oh how shall I bear this! We must not be our own disposers for the time of deliverance no more than the kind and way of deliverance, and I will give you a Scripture or two about this; That we are to submit unto God for the time as well as the kind, in the latter end of the first Chapter of Ezekiel. When I saw it I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke, (the Prophet was cast down upon his face, but how long must he lie upon his face) And he said unto me, Son of man stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee, and the Spirit entered into me, when he spoke unto me and set me upon my feet. Ezekiel was cast down upon his face, and there he must lie till God bid him stand up, yea and not only so, but till God's Spirit came into him to enable him to stand up: So when God casts us down, we must be content to lie till God bid us stand up, and God's Spirit enter into us to enable us to stand up. So you know Noah he was put into the Ark, certainly he knew there was much affliction in the Ark, having all kind of creatures shut up with him for twelve months together, it was a mighty thing, yet God shutting him up (though the waters were assuaged) Noah was not to come out of the Ark till God bid him: So though we be shut up in great afflictions, and we may think there may be this and that and the other means to come out of that affliction, yet till God doth open the door we should be willing to stay; God hath put us in, and God is to bring us out: As we read in the Acts, of Paul, when they had shut him in Prison and would have sent for him out; Nay, saith Paul they shut us in, let them come and fetch us out: So in a holy gracious way should a soul say, Well, this affliction that I am brought into, it is by the hand of God, and I am content to be here till God brings me out himself. God doth require it at our hands, that we should not be willing to come out till he comes and fetches us out. In Joshua 4:10 you have a notable history there that may very well serve our purpose; we read of the Priests, that the Priests bear the Ark and stood in the midst of Jordan; you know when the children of Israel went into the Land of Canaan they went through the River of Jordan: Now the going through the river Jordan was a very dangerous thing, only God bade them to go, they might have been afraid that the water might have come in upon them: but mark, it is said, The Priest that bear the Ark stood in the midst of Jordan till every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua, and the people hasted and passed over: and it came to pass when all the people were clean passed over, that the Ark of the Lord passed over, and the Priests in the presence of the people. Now it was God's dispose that all the people should pass over first, that they should be safe upon the land; but the Priests they must stand still till all the people be passed over, and then they must have leave to go, but they must stay till God would have them go, stay in all that danger; for certainly in reason and sense there was a great deal of danger in staying: for the text saith, the people hasted over, but the Priests they must stay till the people be gone, stay till God calls them out from that place of danger; And so many times it doth prove that God is pleased to dispose of things so that the Ministers must stay longer in danger than the people, and Magistrates and those in public place, which should make people to be satisfied and contented with a lower condition that God hath put them into: Though your condition be low, yet you are not in that danger that those are in that are in a higher condition; God calls them in public place to stand longer in the gap and place of danger than other people, but we must be content to stay even in Jordan till the Lord shall be pleased to call us out.

And then for the variety of our condition, we must be content with the particular affliction, and the time and all the circumstances about the affliction; for sometimes the circumstances are greater afflictions than the afflictions themselves: And for the variety, if God will exercise us with various afflictions one after another: As that hath been very observable even of late, that many that have been plundered and come away, afterwards have fallen sick and died: They have fled for their lives and afterwards the plague hath come among them, and if not that affliction it may be some other affliction, it is very rare that one affliction comes alone, commonly afflictions are not single things but they come one upon the neck of another; it may be God strikes one in his estate, then in his body, then in his name, wife or child or dear friend, and so it comes in a various way it is the way of God ordinarily (you may find it by experience) that seldom one affliction comes alone, now this is hard when one affliction follows after another, when there is a variety of afflictions, when there is a mighty change in a condition, up and down, this way, and that way; there indeed is the trial of a Christian; there must be submission to God's dispose in them. I remember it is said even of Cato that was a Heathen, that no man saw him to be changed, though he lived in a time when the Commonwealth was so often changed, yet it is said of him, he was the same still though his condition was changed, and he ran through variety of conditions. Oh that it could be said so of many Christians, that though their conditions be changed yet that nobody could see them changed, they are the same. Look what gracious sweet and holy temper they were in before, that they are in still: thus we are to submit to the dispose of God in every condition.

Obj. But you will say, This that you speak of is good indeed if we could attain to it, but is it possible for one to attain to this?

Answer. It is if you get skill in the Art of it, you may attain to it, and it will prove to be no such difficult thing to you neither, if you understand but the mystery of it; as there's many things that men do in their callings, that if a country man comes and sees, he thinks it a mighty hard thing, and that he should never be able to do it, but that's because he understands not the art of it, there is a turning of the hand so as you may do it with ease. Now that's the business of this exercise, to open unto you the art and mystery of Contentment: What way a Christian comes to Contentment, there is a great Mystery and art in it, by that hath been opened to you there will appear some mystery and art, as that a man should be content with his affliction and yet thoroughly sensible of his affliction too, to be thoroughly sensible of an affliction, and to endeavor the removing of it by all lawful means, and yet to be content, there's a mystery in that, how to join these two together to be sensible of an affliction as much as that man or woman that is not content, I am sensible of it as fully as they, and I seek ways to be delivered from it as well as they, and yet still my heart abides content, this is I say a mystery that is very hard to be understood by a carnal heart; But grace doth teach such a mixture, doth teach us how to make a mixture of sorrow and a mixture of joy together; and that makes Contentment, the mingling of joy and sorrow, of gracious joy and gracious sorrow together, grace teaches us how to moderate and to order an affliction so as there shall be a sense of it, and yet for all that Contentment under it.

There are divers things further for the opening of the Mystery of Contentment

The First Thing therefore is this, To show that there is a great mystery in it. One that is contented in a Christian way it may be said of him that he is the most contented man in the world, and yet the most unsatisfied man in the world, these two together must needs be mysterious, I say a contented man as he is the most contented so he is the most unsatisfied of any man in the world. You never learned the mystery of contentment except it may be said of you that as you are the most contented man so you are the most unsatisfied man in the world.

You will say how is that? A man that has learned the art of Contentment is the most contented with any low condition that he has in the world, and yet he cannot be satisfied with the enjoyment of all the world, and yet he is contented if he has but a crust, but bread and water. That is, if God disposes of him for the things of the world to have but bread and water for his present condition, he can be satisfied with God's disposal in that. Yet if God should give unto him Kingdoms and Empires, all the world to rule, if He should give it him for his portion he would not be satisfied with that. Here is the mystery of it: though his heart be so enlarged as the enjoyment of all the world and ten thousand worlds cannot satisfy him for his portion; yet he has a heart quieted under God's disposal, if He gives him but bread and water. To join these two together, this must needs be a great art and mystery. Though he be contented with God in a little, yet those things that would content other men will not content him. The men of the world seek after estates, and think if they had thus much, and thus much, they would be content, they aim at no great matters; but if I had (perhaps some man thinks) but two or three hundred a year, then I should be well enough. If I had but a hundred a year, or a thousand a year (says another) then I should be satisfied. But says a gracious heart, If he had ten hundred thousand times so much a year, it would not satisfy him, if he had the quintessence of all the excellencies of all the creatures in the world, it could not satisfy him, and yet this man can sing, and be merry, and joyful when he has but a crust of bread and a little water in the world. Surely Religion is a great mystery, great is the mystery of godliness, not only in the Doctrinal part of it, but in the Practical part of it also. Godliness teaches us this mystery: Not to be satisfied with all the world for our portion, and yet to be content with the meanest condition in which we are. As Luther, when he had great gifts sent him from Dukes and Princes, he refused it, and said he, I did vehemently protest God should not put me off so; it is not that which will content me: A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage. Mark, here lies the Mystery of it, A little in the world will Content a Christian for his passage, but all the world and ten thousand times more will not Content a Christian for his portion. Now a carnal heart will be Content with these things of the world for his portion; and there is the difference between a Carnal heart and a Gracious heart. But says a gracious heart, Lord do with me what Thou wilt for my passage through this world, I will be content with that, but I cannot be content with all the world for my portion: so there is the mystery of true Contentment. A contented man though he be most contented with the least things in the world; yet he is the most unsatisfied man that lives in the world. That Soul that is capable of God, can be filled with nothing else but God; nothing but God can fill a soul that is capable of God. Though a gracious heart knows that it is capable of God, and was made for God; Carnal hearts think of no reference to God, but a gracious heart being enlarged to be capable of God, and enjoying somewhat of Him, nothing in the world can fill a gracious heart, it must be only God Himself. And therefore you shall observe, That let God give what He will to a gracious heart, a heart that is godly, except He gives Himself, it will not do; a godly heart will not only have the mercy, but the God of that mercy as well as itself, and then a little matter is enough in the world, so be it he has the God of that mercy he does enjoy. In Philippians 4:7, 9, I shall need go no further to show a notable Scripture for this. Compare verse 7 with verse 9. And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. The peace of God shall keep your hearts. Then in verse 9: Those things which you have both learned and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you, The peace of God shall keep you, and the God of peace shall be with you. This is that that I would observe from this Text, That the peace of God is not enough to a gracious heart except it may have the God of that peace. A carnal heart could be satisfied if he might but have outward peace, though it be not the peace of God; peace in the State and his trading would satisfy him. But mark how a Godly heart goes beyond a Carnal, all outward peace is not enough, but I must have the peace of God. But suppose you have the peace of God, Will not that quiet you? No, I must have the God of peace, as the peace of God so the God of peace, that is, I must enjoy that God that gives me the peace, I must have the cause as well as the effect; I must see from whence my peace comes, and enjoy the fountain of my peace, as well as the stream of my peace. And so in other mercies, have I health from God, I must have the God of my health to be my portion, or else I am not satisfied. It is not life, but the God of my life; it is not riches, but the God of those riches that I must have, the God of my preservation, as well as my preservation; a gracious heart is not satisfied without this, To have the God of the mercy, as well as the mercy. In Psalm 73:25: Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon the earth that I desire besides Thee. It is nothing in heaven or earth, can satisfy me, but Thyself; if God give you not only earth but heaven, that you should rule over Sun, Moon, and stars, and have the rule over the highest of the sons of men, it would not be enough to satisfy you, except you had God Himself. There lies the first mystery of Contentment; and truly a contented man, though he be the most contented man in the world, yet he is the most unsatisfied man in the world, that is, Those things that will satisfy the world, will not satisfy him.

Secondly, There is this Mystery in Christian Contentment. A Christian comes to Contentment, not so much by way of addition, as by way of Subtraction, that is his way of Contentment, and that is a way that the world has no skill in. I open it thus, Not so much by the adding to what he would have, or to what he has, not by adding more to his condition, but rather by subtracting of his desires, and so to make his desires and condition to be even and equal. A carnal heart knows no way to be Contented but this, I have such and such an estate, and if I had this added to it, and the other comfort added that now I have not, then I should be Contented. It may be I have lost my estate, if I could have but that given to me so as to make up my loss, then I should be a contented man. But now Contentment does not come in that way, it comes not in I say by the adding to what you want, but by the subtracting of your desires. It is all one to a Christian, either that I may get up unto what I would have, or get my desires down to what I have. Either that I may attain to what I do desire, or bring down my desires to what I have already attained; my estate is the same, for it is as suitable to me to bring my desire down to my condition, as it is to raise up my condition to my desire. Now I say a heart that has no grace, and is not instructed in this Mystery of Contentment, knows no way to get Contentment, but to have his estate raised up to his desires; but the other has another way to Contentment, that is, He can bring his desires down to his estate, and so he does attain to his Contentment. So the Lord fashions the hearts of the Children of men. Now if the heart of a man be fashioned to his condition, he may have as much contentment as if his condition be fashioned to his heart. Some men have a mighty large heart, but they have a strait condition, and they can never have Contentment when their hearts are big and their condition is little. But now though a man cannot bring his condition to be as big as his heart, yet if he can bring his heart to be as little as his condition, to bring them even, from thence is Contentment. The world is infinitely deceived in this, To think that Contentment lies in having more than they have. Here lies the bottom and root of all Contentment, when there is an evenness and proportion between our hearts and our conditions; and that is the reason that many that are godly men that are in a low condition live more sweet and comfortable lives than those that are richer. Contentment is not always clothed with silk, and purple, and velvets, but Contentment is sometimes in a russet sure, in a mean condition as well as in a higher. And many men that sometimes have had great estates, and God has brought them into a lower condition, they have had more Contentment in that condition than the other. Now how can that possibly be? Thus easily, For if you did but understand the root of Contentment, it consists in the suitableness and proportion of the spirit of a man to his estate, and the evenness, when one end is not longer and bigger than another. The heart is contented, there is comfort in that condition. Now let God give a man never so great riches, yet if the Lord gives him up to the pride of his heart, he will never be contented. But now, let God bring any one into a mean condition, and then let God but fashion and suit his heart to that condition and he will be content. As now in a man's going, Suppose a man had a mighty long leg, and his other leg were short, why though one of his legs be longer than ordinary yet he could not go so well as a man that has both his legs shorter than he. I compare a long leg, when one is longer than another, to a man that has a high condition, and is very rich, and a great man in the world, but he has a great proud heart too, and that is longer and larger than his condition. Now this man cannot but be troubled in his condition. Now another man that is in a mean condition, his condition is low, and his heart is low too; so that his heart and his condition is both even together, and this man goes on with more ease abundantly than the other does. So that now a gracious heart works after this manner, The Lord has been pleased to bring down my condition, now if the Lord bring down my heart and make it even with my condition, then I am well enough. And so when God brings down his condition, he does not so much labor to raise up his condition again as to bring down his heart to his condition. The Heathens themselves they had a little glimpse of this; they could say, That the best riches that is, it is the poverty of desires. That is a speech of a Heathen, that is, If a man or woman have their desires cut short, and have no large desires, that man and woman they are rich when they can bring their desires to be but low. So this is the Art of Contentment. Not to seek to add to our conditions, but to subtract from our desires. Another has this, The way to be rich, says he, it is not by increasing of wealth, but by diminishing of our desires. For certainly that man or woman is a rich man or woman that has their desires satisfied. Now a contented man has his desires satisfied, God satisfies his desires, that is, all considered, he is satisfied in his condition for the present to be the best condition, and so he comes to this Contentment by way of Subtraction, and not Addition.

The Third thing in the Art of Contentment is this, A Christian comes to Contentment, not so much by getting off his burden that is upon him, as by the adding another burden to him. This is a way that flesh and blood has little skill in. You will say how is this? In this manner, are you afflicted, and is there a great load and burden upon you by reason of your affliction? You think there is no way in the world to get Contentment, but, O that this burden were but off, O it is a heavy load, and few know what a burden I have! What do you think there is no way for the Contentment of your spirit but this getting off your burden? O you are deceived, the way of Contentment is to add another burden, that is, labor to load and burden your heart with your sin, and the heavier the burden of your sin is to your heart, the lighter will the burden of your affliction be to your soul, and so shall you come to be Content. If your burden were lightened that would content you, you think there is no way to lighten it but to get it off. But you are deceived, for if you can get your heart to be more burdened with your sin, you will be less burdened with your afflictions. You will say this is a strange way, for a man or woman to get ease to their condition, when they are burdened, to lay a greater burden upon them? You think there is no other way when you are afflicted, but to be jolly and merry, and get into company. Oh no, you are deceived, your burden will come again. Alas this is a poor way to get his spirit quieted, poor man, the burden will be upon him again. But if you would have your burden light, if you can get alone and examine your heart for your sin, and charge your soul with your sin. If your burden be in your estate, for the abuse of it, or if it be a burden upon your body, for the abuse of your health, and strength, and the abuse of any mercies that now the Lord has taken away from you, you have not honored God with those mercies that you have had, but you have walked wantonly and carelessly. And so fall a bemoaning your sin before the Lord, and you shall quickly find the burden of your affliction to be lighter than it was before. Do but try this piece of skill and art, to get your souls contented with any low condition that God puts you into. Many times in a family, when any affliction befalls them, Oh what a deal of discontentment is there between man and wife, if crossed in their estates at Land, or ill news from Sea, or those that they trusted are broke and the like, and perhaps somewhat in the family falls cross between man and wife, or in reference to the children or servants, and there is nothing but brabbling and discontent among them. Now they many times are burdened with their own discontent, and perhaps will say one to another, this life is very uncomfortable for us to live thus discontented so as we do. But have you ever tried this way, the husband and the wife? Have you ever got alone and said, Come, Oh let us go and humble our souls before God together, let us go into our chamber and humble our souls before God for our sin, whereby we have abused those mercies that God has taken away from us, and we have provoked God against us. Oh let us charge ourselves with our sin, and be humbled before the Lord together. Have you tried such a way as this is? Oh you would find the cloud would be taken away, and the Sun would shine in upon you, and you would have a great deal more Contentment than ever yet you had. If a man's estate be broken, either by plunderers, or any other way; now how shall this man have Contentment? How? By the breaking of his heart. God has broken your estate, Oh seek to him for the breaking of your heart likewise. Indeed a broken estate, and a whole heart, a hard heart, will not join together, there will be no Contentment. But a broken estate, and a broken heart, will so suit together, as there will be more Contentment than there was before. Add therefore to the breaking of your estate, the breaking of your heart what you can, and that is the way to be Contented in a Christian manner, which is the Third Mystery in Christian Contentment.

The fourth thing is this, It is not so much the removing of the affliction that is upon us, as the changing of the affliction, the Metamorphosing of the affliction, when it is quite turned and changed into another thing: I mean in regard of the use of it, though for the matter the affliction abide still. The way of Contentment to a carnal heart it is only the removing of the affliction, Oh that it may be gone. No but says a gracious heart, God hath taught me a way for Contentment though the affliction shall continue still for the matter of it. But there is a virtue of grace to turn this affliction into good; it takes away but only the sting and poison of it. As now, Suppose poverty, A man's estate is lost; well, is there no way to be contented till your estate be made up again? Till your poverty be removed? Yes, certainly Christianity would teach Contentment, though poverty continues yet it will teach you how to turn your poverty to spiritual riches; that you shall be poor still for your outward estate; but this shall be altered, whereas before it was once a natural evil to you, it comes now to be turned into a spiritual benefit to you; and so you come to be content. It is a speech of Ambrose, Even poverty it's self it is riches unto holy men: Godly men do make their poverty turn to be riches, they get more riches out of their poverty than ever they get out of their revenues, out of all their trading in this world they never had such incomes as they have had out of their poverty; this a carnal heart will think strange that a man shall make poverty to be the most gainful trade that ever he had in the world. I am persuaded that many Christians have found it so, that they have got more good by their poverty than ever they got by all their riches. You find it in Scripture, therefore think not this strange that I am speaking of. You do not find any one Godly man that came out of an affliction worse than when he came into it, though for a while he was shaken, yet at last he was better for an affliction. But a great many Godly men you find have been worse for their prosperity, scarce one Godly man that you read in Scripture of but was worse for prosperity (except Daniel and Nehemiah, I do not read of any hurt they got by their prosperity that they had) scarce (I think) is any one example of any Godly man, but was rather worse for his prosperity than better. So that you see it is no such strange thing, neither to one that is gracious that they shall get good by their affliction. Luther has such an expression in his Comment upon the fifth Chapter of the Galatians; in the 17th verse in his Comment upon that place says, A Christian becomes a mighty worker and a wonderful creator, that is (says he) to create out of heaviness joy, out of terror comfort, out of sin righteousness, out of death life, and brings light out of darkness. It was God's prerogative and great power, his creating power to command the light to shine out of darkness. Now a Christian is partaker of the divine nature, so the scripture says, Grace it is part of the Divine Nature, and being part of the Divine Nature it has an impression of God's Omnipotent power that is, to create light out of darkness, to bring good out of evil, now by this way a Christian comes to be content. God hath given a Christian such a virtue, as can turn affliction into mercies, can turn darkness into light; if a man had the power that Christ had when the water pots were filled, he could by a word turn the water into wine; if you that have nothing but water to drink, yet if you had a power to turn it into wine then you may be contented. Certainly a Christian has received this power from God, to work thus miraculously; it is the nature of grace to turn water into wine, that is, to turn the water of your affliction, into the wine of heavenly consolation. If you understand this in a carnal way, I know it will be ridiculous for a Minister to speak thus before you, and many carnal people are ready to make such expressions as these to be ridiculous, understanding them in a carnal way: Just as Nicodemus in the third of John, What can a man be born when he is old, can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? So when we speak of grace that it can turn water into wine, and turn poverty into riches, and make poverty a gainful trade, says a carnal heart, Let them have that trade if they will, and let them have water to drink, and see if they can turn it into wine. Oh take heed you speak not in a scornful way of the ways of God; grace has the power to turn afflictions into mercies. Two men shall have one affliction, and to one man it shall be as gall and wormwood, and it shall be wine, and honey, and delightfulness, and joy, and advantage, and riches, to another. This is the mystery of Contentment, not so much by removing the evil, as by Metamorphosing the evil by changing the evil into good.

The Fifth thing is this, A Christian comes to this Contentment by making up the wants of his condition, by the performance of the work of his condition. This is the way of Contentment. There is such a condition that I am in, many wants, I want this and the other comfort, well, how shall I come to be satisfied and content? A carnal heart thinks this, I must have my wants made up or else it is impossible that I should be content. No, but says a gracious heart, What is the duty of the condition God hath put me into? Indeed my condition is changed, I was not long since in a prosperous condition, but God hath changed my condition: the Lord hath called me no more Naomi, but Marah; Now what am I to do? What can I think now, are those duties that God requires of me in the condition that he hath now put me into? And let me put forth my strength, in the performance of the duties of my present condition. Others they spend their thoughts in those things that shall disturb and disquiet them, and so they grow more and more discontented; yea, but let me spend my thoughts in thinking what my duty is, what is the duty of my present condition which I am in. O says a man whose condition is changed and he has lost his estate, Had I but my estate as I had heretofore, how would I use it to his glory! But God hath made me to see that I did not honor him with my estate as I ought to have done: Oh had I it again, I would do better than ever I did! But this may be but a temptation, therefore you should rather think, What doth God require of me in the condition I am now brought into? And you should labor to bring your heart to quiet and Contentment, by setting your soul on work about the duties of your present condition. And the truth is, I know nothing more available for the quieting of a Christian Soul, and getting Contentment than this, The setting your heart on work about the duties of the very present condition that now you are in, and take heed of your thoughts about other conditions as a mere temptation. I cannot compare the folly of men and women that think to get Contentment with their musing about other conditions better than to the way of Children; perhaps they are gotten upon a hill, and they look a good way off and see another hill, and they think if they were on the top of that, then they were able to touch the clouds with their fingers; but when they are on the top of that hill; alas then they are as far from the clouds, as they were before. So it is with many that think, If they were in such a condition, then I should have Contentment; and perhaps they get into that condition, then they are as far from Contentment as before. But then they think if they were in another condition, they would be contented, and then when they have got into that condition, they are still as far from Contentment as before. No, no, let me consider what is the duty of my present condition, and content my heart with this, and say, Well, though I am in a low condition, yet I am serving the counsels of God in that condition wherein I am; it is the counsel of God that hath brought me into this condition that I am in, and I desire to serve the counsel of God in that condition. There is a notable Scripture concerning David, it is said of him, That he served his Generation, after David had served his Generation according to the will of God, then he slept. It is a Speech of Paul concerning him, in Acts 13:36. So it is in your books, After he had served his generation according to the will of God: But now the word that is translated will, it is the counsel of God, and so it may be translated as well, That after David in his generation had served God's counsel, then he fell asleep. We ordinarily take the words thus, That David served his generation; that is, He did the work of his generation, that is to serve a man's generation. But it is more plain, if you read it thus, After David in his generation had served the Counsel of God, then David fell asleep. O that should be the care of a Christian to serve out God's Counsels. What is the Counsel of God? The condition that I am in, God doth put me into it by his own Counsel, the Counsel of his own will; Now I must serve God's Counsel in my generation, look what is the Counsel of God in my condition, I must look to serve that; and so I shall have my heart quieted for the present, and shall live and die peaceably, and comfortably, if I be careful to serve God's Counsel.

A sixth thing in the mystery of Contentment is this, A gracious heart is contented by the melting of his will and desires into God's will and desires, by this means he gets Contentment; and this is a mystery to a carnal heart. It is not by having his own desires satisfied as before, but by melting his will and desires into God's will. So that he comes to have (in one sense) his desires satisfied though he has not the thing that before he did desire, yet he comes to be satisfied in this, because he makes his will to be all one with God's will. This is a little higher degree than submitting to the will of God. You all say, you should submit to God's will; but a Christian has gotten beyond this; that is, he can make God's will and his to be the same. So it is said of believers, that they are joined to the Lord, and are one spirit, that is, look what God's will is, I do not only see reason to submit to it, but God's will is my will. When the soul can make over (as it were) its will to God, it must needs then have Contentment. Others would fain get the thing they do desire, O but says a gracious heart, that that God would have, I would have too, I will not only yield to it, but I would have it too. A gracious heart has learned this art, not only to make the commanding will of God to be its own will, that is, what God commands me to do I will do it, but to make the providential will of God, and the operative will of God to be his will too. God commands this thing, which perhaps you that are Christians may have some skill in, but whatsoever God works, you must will as well as what God commands, you must make God's providential will, and his operative will, as well your will, as God's will, and so you must come to Contentment. Here a Christian makes over his will to God, and in making over his will to God, he has no other will but only God's. As suppose a man makes over his debt to another man, if that man that I owe the debt to, be satisfied and contented, I am satisfied because I have made it over to him, and I need not be discontented and say, my debt is not paid, and I am not satisfied, yes, you are satisfied, for he that you made over your debt to, he is satisfied. Just thus it is for all the world between God and a Christian, a Christian heart makes over his will to God, now then if God's will be satisfied, then I am satisfied, for I have then no will of mine own, it is melted into the will of God, for so that is the excellency of grace, grace does not only subject the will to God, but it does melt the will into God's will, so that they are now but one will. What a sweet satisfaction must the soul have then in this condition, when all is made over to God. You will say this is hard? I will express it a little more. A gracious heart must needs have satisfaction this way, because godliness does teach him this, to see that his good is more in God than in himself, the good of my life, and comforts, and my happiness, and my glory, and my riches is more in God than it is in myself; (that perhaps we may speak too further, when we come to the lessons that are to be learned.) But upon this it is, that a gracious heart has Contentment, he does melt his will into God's, for says he, if God have glory, I have glory, God's glory is my glory, and therefore God's will is mine, if God have riches, then I have riches, if God be magnified, then I am magnified, if God be satisfied, then I am satisfied, God's wisdom and holiness is mine, and therefore his will must needs be mine, and my will must needs be his. Here is the art of a Christian's Contentment, he melts his will into the will of God, and makes over his will to God, Oh Lord thou shalt choose our inheritance for us. Psalm 73.

The Seventh thing in the Art of Contentment is this, The Mystery consists not so much by bringing any thing without, to make my condition more comfortable, as to purge out something that is within. The men of the world now, when they would have Contentment, and want anything, Oh they must have somewhat from without to content them; but says a godly man, let me get something out that is in already, and then I shall come to Contentment. As suppose a man has an aguish humor that makes his drink taste bitter, now says he, You must put some sugar into my drink, and his wife puts in some, and yet the drink tastes bitter, Why? Because the bitterness comes from a bitter choleric humor within; but let the Physician come and give him a bitter potion to purge out the bitterness that is within, and then he can taste his drink well enough. Just thus it is with the men of the world, Oh such a condition is bitter, and if I could have such and such a mercy added, to this mercy, then it would be sweet; now if God should put a spoonful or two of sugar in, it would be bitter still. But the way to Contentment is to purge out your lusts and bitter humors. James 4:1. From whence are wars, and strifes, are they not from your lusts that are within you? They are not so much from things without, but from within; as sometimes I have said, it is not all the storms that are abroad that can make an earthquake, but the vapors that are got within: and so if those lusts that are within, in your heart, if they were got out, your condition would be a contented condition. These are the mysterious ways of godliness, that the men of the world never think of; when did you ever think of such a way as this is, for to go and purge out the distempers of your heart that are within? Here are Seven particulars now named, there were a great many more that I had thought of, and now without the understanding of these things, and the practice of them, you will never come to a true Contentation in your way, Oh you will be bunglers in this trade of Christianity; but the right perceiving of these things, will help you to be instructed in it as in a Mystery.

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

We have begun — as you may remember — the subject of Christian contentment. We opened the text and showed what Christian contentment is: the inward, quiet, gracious disposition of spirit that freely submits to and takes delight in God's ordering of every condition. In that description we came to the final element, 'in every condition.' We will now expand on that and move forward.

1. Submitting to God in whatever affliction comes — regarding its kind.

2. Regarding the time and duration of the affliction.

3. Regarding the variety and changes of affliction — whatever they may be, there must be submission to God's ordering in every condition.

First, regarding the kind of affliction. Many people will say in a general way that they must submit to God in affliction. If you were to go from one end of a congregation to the other and ask each person, 'Would you not submit to God's ordering, whatever condition He brought you into?' they would say, 'God forbid it should be otherwise.' But as the saying goes, there is great deception in generalities. In the abstract, you would submit to anything. But what about this or that specific trial — the one that crosses you most deeply? Then it is: 'Anything but that.' We are naturally prone to think that any condition is better than the one God has actually brought us into. That is not contentment. Contentment must extend not just to affliction in general, but to the specific kind — even the kind that is most painful to you. Perhaps God strikes you in your child. 'Oh,' says one, 'if it had been in my finances, I could be content.' Perhaps He strikes you in your marriage. 'Oh,' says another, 'I would rather have been struck in my health.' And if He had struck you in your health, you would say, 'If only it had been in my business, I would not have minded.' But we must not carve out for ourselves which particular afflictions God should bring upon us — we must be content in them as they actually come.

Second, we must submit to God in every affliction regarding its time and duration. Someone may say, 'I could submit and be content, but this affliction has been upon me for a long time — a quarter of a year, a year, several years — and my patience is worn out and broken.' Or perhaps it is a spiritual affliction. 'I could submit to any outward trial,' you say, 'but not to a trial of the soul — a troubled heart, the withdrawal of God's face. If it had only lasted a short time, I could submit. But I have been seeking God for so long, and He does not appear. How can I bear this?' We must not choose for ourselves when deliverance comes, any more than we choose the kind or manner of it. Here are one or two Scriptures to show that we must submit to God's timing just as much as to the kind of affliction. Consider the end of Ezekiel 1: 'When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of One speaking.' The prophet was cast down on his face — but how long must he lie there? 'And He said to me, \"Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.\" And the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me and set me on my feet.' Ezekiel was cast down on his face, and there he must lie until God told him to stand up — and not only that, but until God's Spirit entered him and enabled him to stand. So when God casts us down, we must be content to lie there until He bids us rise, and until His Spirit enters to enable us to rise. Consider Noah: he was put into the ark. He certainly knew there was much trial in being shut in with all kinds of creatures for twelve months together — that was a great hardship. Yet with God having shut him in, Noah was not to come out of the ark — even when the waters had subsided — until God told him to. So though we may be shut up in great afflictions and can think of various ways to get out, we should be willing to wait until God opens the door. God put us in, and God must bring us out. We read in Acts of Paul, who when he had been shut in prison and they wanted to send him out quietly, said: 'They shut us in themselves — let them come and bring us out themselves.' In the same spirit, a soul should say in a holy and gracious way: 'This affliction I am in came by the hand of God. I am content to remain here until God brings me out Himself.' God requires this of us — that we not be in a hurry to come out until He comes and brings us out. In Joshua 4:10 there is a striking account that serves our purpose well. The priests carrying the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan River. When the children of Israel crossed into Canaan, they passed through the Jordan, which was a frightening thing to do — but God had commanded it. Notice what the text says: 'The priests who carried the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua, and the people hurried and crossed over. And when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people.' God had ordered that all the people should cross first, safely reaching dry land. But the priests must stand still until all the people had passed over. They had to wait for permission to go — standing there in danger until God called them out. Surely there was great danger in staying, for the text says the people hurried across. But the priests had to wait until the people were safely gone — until God called them out of that dangerous place. It often proves to be the case that God orders things so that ministers and those in public office must remain in danger longer than ordinary people. This should lead people to be satisfied and content with the lower condition God has placed them in. Though your condition is low, you are not in the same danger as those in higher positions, whom God calls to stand longer in the gap and in the place of peril. We must be content to remain in our Jordan until the Lord is pleased to call us out.

Then there is the variety of our condition. We must be content with the particular affliction, with its timing, and with all the circumstances surrounding it — for sometimes the circumstances are more painful than the affliction itself. As for variety: if God sees fit to exercise us with one affliction after another, we must be content in that as well. This has been very observable even recently: many who have been stripped of their property and fled have afterward fallen sick and died. They escaped with their lives only to have plague come upon them — or if not plague, then some other trial. It is rare for one affliction to come alone. Afflictions commonly do not arrive one at a time but pile on top of one another. God may strike someone in his estate, then in his health, then in his reputation, then in his wife or child or dear friend — and so it comes in varied forms. This is the ordinary way of God — as experience will show — that seldom does one affliction come alone. This is hard: when one affliction follows after another, when there is variety, when there is a mighty change of conditions — up and down, this way and that. That is the true test of a Christian. There must be submission to God's ordering in all of it. It is said of Cato, a pagan, that no one ever saw him changed — though he lived in a time when the state was constantly changing, he remained the same throughout every variety of condition. Oh that it could be said of many Christians that though their conditions changed, no one could see them changed. The same gracious, sweet, and holy spirit they had before — that they still have. This is what it means to submit to God's ordering in every condition.

Objection: But what you are describing is fine if we could attain it — but is it possible?

Answer: If you gain skill in the art of it, you can attain it — and it will not prove so difficult either, once you understand the mystery. There are many things that craftsmen do in their trades that a person from the countryside would look at and think impossibly hard — but only because he does not understand the art. There is a certain turn of the hand that makes it easy. That is what this teaching is about: to open to you the art and mystery of contentment — the way a Christian actually comes to contentment. There is great mystery and art in it. From what has already been opened, you can begin to see some of that mystery — for example, that a person should be content with his affliction and yet thoroughly feel his affliction at the same time. To feel an affliction deeply, and to seek to remove it by every lawful means, and yet to remain content — there is a mystery in joining those two. To be as sensitive to the affliction as anyone who is not content, to seek deliverance just as earnestly as they do — and yet to have the heart remain at rest. That is a mystery that a worldly heart can barely grasp. But grace teaches such a combination — teaches us to mix grief and joy together, gracious sorrow and gracious joy blended. That combination is contentment: grace teaches us how to order an affliction so that there is both a real sense of it, and real contentment under it.

There are several further things to open in the mystery of contentment.

The first of these is to show that there is indeed a great mystery in contentment. A person who is content in the Christian way may be called both the most contented person in the world and the most unsatisfied person in the world — at the same time. Those two together must be mysterious. You have not truly learned the mystery of contentment unless it can be said of you that, while you are the most contented person, you are also the most unsatisfied.

How is that? you ask. A person who has learned the art of contentment is the most contented with whatever little they have in the world — and yet cannot be satisfied with the whole world as their portion. He can be content with a crust, with bread and water. That is: if God orders things so that bread and water is his condition for now, he is at peace with that. Yet if God were to give him kingdoms and empires — the entire world to rule — and offer it as his portion, he would not be satisfied by it. Here is the mystery: though his heart is so enlarged that all the world and ten thousand worlds could not satisfy it for a portion, yet he has a heart at peace under God's ordering, even if all he is given is bread and water. To hold these two together — that must be a great art and mystery. Though he is content with very little from God, the things that would satisfy other people will not satisfy him. People of the world pursue wealth and think, 'If I only had this much or that much, I would be content.' They do not set their sights very high: 'If I had just two or three hundred a year,' one thinks, 'I would be fine. If I had a hundred, or a thousand,' says another, 'I would be satisfied.' But a gracious heart says: if he had ten hundred thousand times that much a year, it would not satisfy him. If he had the finest excellence of every created thing in the world, it could not satisfy him. And yet this same person can sing and be cheerful and joyful with nothing but a crust of bread and a little water in the world. Surely Christianity is a great mystery — 'great is the mystery of godliness' — not only in its doctrinal part but in its practical part as well. Godliness teaches us this mystery: not to be satisfied with all the world as our portion, and yet to be content with the lowest condition we are in. When great gifts were sent to Luther from dukes and princes, he refused them and said, 'I strongly insist that God will not put me off with this. That is not what will content me.' A little in this world will content a Christian for his journey through it. Notice where the mystery lies: a little in the world will content a Christian for his passage, but all the world and ten thousand times more will not content a Christian for his portion. A worldly heart can be satisfied with the things of the world as his portion — and that is the difference between a worldly heart and a gracious heart. But a gracious heart says, 'Lord, do with me what You will for my journey through this world — I will be content with that. But I cannot be content with all the world as my portion.' There is the mystery of true contentment. A contented person, though most contented with the least things in the world, is the most unsatisfied person alive. A soul made capable of God can be filled with nothing but God. Nothing but God can fill a soul that is capable of God. A gracious heart knows it was made for God and is capable of God. Worldly hearts think of no such thing — but a gracious heart, enlarged to be capable of God and having tasted something of Him, finds that nothing in all the world can fill it. Only God Himself will do. And so you will observe: whatever God gives to a gracious and godly heart, unless He gives Himself, it will not be enough. A godly heart wants not only the mercy, but the God of that mercy — and then a little in the world is enough, as long as he has the God of the mercy he enjoys. Compare Philippians 4:7 with verse 9. Verse 7 says: 'And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.' The peace of God will guard your hearts. Then in verse 9: 'The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.' 'The peace of God will guard you, and the God of peace will be with you.' What I want to draw from this is: the peace of God is not enough for a gracious heart — it must also have the God of that peace. A worldly heart would be satisfied with outward peace, even if it is not the peace of God — peace in the land and in business would satisfy him. But a godly heart goes beyond this: all outward peace is not enough. I must have the peace of God. But suppose you have the peace of God — will that not settle you? No — I must have the God of peace. Not only the peace of God but the God of peace — that is, I must enjoy the very God who gives me the peace. I must have the cause as well as the effect; I must see where my peace comes from and enjoy the fountain of it, as well as the stream of it. So with other blessings: if I have health from God, I must have the God of my health as my portion — or I am not satisfied. It is not life I need most, but the God of my life. It is not riches, but the God of those riches. The God of my preservation, as well as my preservation itself. A gracious heart is not satisfied without this: to have the God of the mercy, as well as the mercy. Psalm 73:25: 'Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.' Nothing in heaven or on earth can satisfy me but You Yourself. If God were to give you not just the earth but heaven too, if you were to rule over sun, moon, and stars and over the greatest of men — it would not be enough unless you had God Himself. There lies the first mystery of contentment: a contented person, though the most contented in the world, is also the most unsatisfied — because the things that satisfy the world will not satisfy him.

Second, there is this mystery in Christian contentment: a Christian comes to contentment not so much by addition as by subtraction. That is his path to contentment, and it is a path the world has no skill in. Here is what I mean: the way to contentment is not so much by adding to what one has or wants, but by reducing one's desires — so that desires and condition come into proportion and balance. A worldly heart knows no way to be content except this: 'I have such-and-such an estate, and if I could just add this comfort and that one which I now lack, then I would be content. Perhaps I have lost my estate — if I could have it made up again, then I would be a contented man.' But contentment does not come that way. It comes not by adding to what you lack, but by reducing your desires. It is all the same to a Christian whether he rises up to what he desires, or brings his desires down to what he has. Either he attains what he desires, or he brings his desires down to what he has already. His condition is equally suited to him either way — for it is just as fitting to lower your desires to match your condition as it is to raise your condition to match your desires. A heart without grace knows no path to contentment except to have its circumstances raised up to its desires. But a gracious heart has another way: it can bring its desires down to its circumstances, and so attains contentment. This is how the Lord shapes the hearts of people. If the heart is fitted to the condition, a person may have as much contentment as if the condition were fitted to the heart. Some have a very large heart but a small condition, and they can never have contentment while their hearts are big and their circumstances are small. But though a person cannot make his circumstances as large as his heart, if he can bring his heart to be as small as his circumstances — bringing them even together — that is where contentment is found. The world is utterly deceived in thinking that contentment lies in having more than you have. The root of all contentment is this: an evenness and proportion between our hearts and our conditions. That is why many godly people in low conditions live sweeter and more comfortable lives than those who are wealthier. Contentment is not always dressed in silk and velvet — contentment sometimes wears plain clothes, in a humble condition as much as in a higher one. Many who once had great estates and whom God has brought into lower ones have found more contentment there than they did before. How can that possibly be? Simply this: if you understand the root of contentment, it consists in the fitting and proportion of a person's spirit to his circumstances — an evenness, when one end is not longer or larger than the other. When the heart is fitted to its condition, there is comfort in that condition. Now let God give a person great riches, but if He also gives him over to pride of heart, that person will never be contented. But let God bring someone into a humble condition and then fashion and fit his heart to that condition, and he will be content. Think of walking: suppose a man had one very long leg and one short leg. Even though one is longer than ordinary, he could not walk as well as a man whose legs are both shorter but equal. I compare the long leg — when one is longer than the other — to a person who has a high and prosperous condition but also an extremely proud heart that is larger than his condition. That man cannot help but be troubled. But another man in a humble condition has a low heart to match — his heart and his condition are even together — and this man walks through life with far greater ease. So a gracious heart works like this: 'The Lord has been pleased to lower my condition. If the Lord would now lower my heart and make it even with my condition, I will be well enough.' When God lowers his condition, a gracious person does not labor so much to raise his condition again as to bring his heart down to match it. Even the pagans had a glimpse of this. They could say that the best riches is poverty of desires — that is, if a person's desires are cut short and kept small, that person is rich. Another said: the way to be rich is not by increasing wealth, but by diminishing desires. The person whose desires are satisfied is truly rich. A contented person has desires that are satisfied — God satisfies his desires — so that, all things considered, he is at peace with his present condition as the best for him. He comes to contentment by subtraction, not addition.

The third thing in the art of contentment is this: a Christian comes to contentment not so much by removing the burden upon him as by adding another burden to him. That is a way that human nature has little skill in. How so? you ask. Consider: are you afflicted? Is there a heavy load upon you because of your affliction? You think there is no way to find contentment except for this burden to be lifted: 'Oh, it is such a heavy load — hardly anyone knows what a burden I carry!' Do you think there is no way for your spirit to find contentment except by getting rid of that burden? You are mistaken. The path to contentment is to add another burden — that is, labor to load and burden your heart with your sin. The heavier the burden of your sin becomes to your heart, the lighter the burden of your affliction will be to your soul, and so you will come to contentment. If your burden were lightened, that would satisfy you — and you think the only way to lighten it is to remove it entirely. But you are mistaken. If you can get your heart more burdened with your sin, you will be less burdened by your afflictions. You might say this is a strange way to find ease — when already burdened, to lay on a heavier load. When you are afflicted, you think the only remedy is to be cheerful and get out among company. Oh no — you are deceived. The burden will return. That is a poor way to quiet a troubled spirit. The burden will be back. But if you would have your burden feel lighter — get alone and examine your heart concerning your sin. Charge your own soul with its sin. If the burden is in your material loss, consider how you abused it. If it is in your body, consider how you abused your health and strength and the blessings God has now taken away. You have not honored God with those blessings as you should have — you have lived carelessly and without proper regard for God. Mourn over that sin before the Lord, and you will quickly find the burden of your affliction lighter than it was before. Try this piece of skill and art — to get your soul content in whatever low condition God has placed you. Many times in a family, when affliction strikes, how much discontentment rises up between husband and wife — whether the estate is hit at home, or bad news comes from sea, or someone they trusted fails them. Perhaps something goes wrong within the family — between husband and wife, or concerning the children or servants — and there is nothing but quarreling and discontent. They are often burdened by their own discontentment, and may say to each other, 'This life is very unhappy, living so discontented as we do.' But have you ever tried this approach — husband and wife together? Have you ever found a quiet moment and said, 'Come, let us go and humble ourselves before God together. Let us go into our room and humble ourselves before the Lord for our sins — for how we abused the blessings God has taken from us, and how we provoked God against us.' 'Let us charge ourselves with our sin and be humbled before the Lord together.' Have you ever tried that? You would find the cloud would lift, the sun would shine in upon you, and you would have far more contentment than ever before. If a man's estate has been broken — whether by plundering or any other means — how is he to find contentment? How? By the breaking of his heart. God has broken your estate. Seek Him for the breaking of your heart as well. A broken estate and a hard heart will not fit together — there will be no contentment. But a broken estate and a broken heart fit together well, and will produce more contentment than there was before. Therefore, to the breaking of your estate, add as much as you can the breaking of your heart — that is the way to be content in a Christian manner. That is the third mystery in Christian contentment.

The fourth thing is this: contentment comes not so much by removing the affliction as by transforming it — by a kind of metamorphosis of the affliction, where it is completely turned and changed into something else. I mean this in terms of its purpose and effect, even though the affliction itself may remain in substance. For a worldly heart, the only path to contentment is removing the affliction: 'Oh, if only it would be gone!' But a gracious heart says, 'God has taught me a way to contentment even while the affliction continues in substance.' Grace has the power to transform the affliction into something good — stripping it of its sting and poison. Consider poverty, for example. A man's estate is lost. Is there no way to be content until the estate is restored? Until the poverty is gone? Yes — Christianity teaches contentment even while poverty continues. It teaches you how to turn your poverty into spiritual riches. You may remain poor in outward circumstances, but this much changes: what was once a natural evil to you becomes a spiritual benefit. And so you come to contentment. Ambrose said it well: 'Even poverty itself is riches to holy men.' Godly people make their poverty turn into riches. They get more out of their poverty than they ever got from their revenues or all their trading in the world — greater income from their poverty than from anything else. A worldly heart will find that strange — that a man should make poverty the most profitable trade he ever had. But I am convinced that many Christians have found it so: that they have gotten more good from their poverty than they ever got from all their riches. You can find this in Scripture, so do not think it strange. You will not find a single godly person who came out of an affliction worse than when he went in. He may have been shaken for a time, but he was better for the affliction in the end. But many godly men have been worse for their prosperity. Hardly a godly man in all of Scripture was better for his prosperity than he was before it — with the exception of Daniel and Nehemiah, of whom I read no harm done by the prosperity they had. Apart from those, I can hardly find a single example of a godly man who was better for prosperity rather than worse. So it should not seem at all strange that a gracious person would gain good from affliction. Luther writes in his commentary on Galatians 5:17: 'A Christian becomes a mighty worker and a wonderful creator' — that is, he says, creating out of heaviness joy, out of terror comfort, out of sin righteousness, out of death life, and bringing light out of darkness. It was God's prerogative and great power — His creative power — to command light to shine out of darkness. Now a Christian is a partaker of the divine nature, as Scripture says. Grace is part of the divine nature, and bearing an imprint of God's almighty power, it can create light out of darkness — bring good out of evil. By this way a Christian comes to contentment. God has given a Christian such a grace that it can turn afflictions into blessings, darkness into light. If Christ could turn water into wine, one could live on water and still be content — because the power to turn it into wine is there. A Christian has received this power from God, to work in this miraculous way. It is the nature of grace to turn water into wine — to turn the water of your affliction into the wine of heavenly comfort. I know this sounds ridiculous if understood in a worldly way — and many worldly people are ready to mock such talk, as Nicodemus did in John 3: 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born?' So when we speak of grace turning water into wine, turning poverty into riches, making poverty a profitable trade, the worldly heart says: 'Let them have that trade, and let them have their water to drink — and let's see them turn it into wine.' Be careful that you do not speak scornfully of the ways of God. Grace has the power to turn afflictions into blessings. Two people may have the same affliction — and to one it is as bitter as gall and wormwood, while to the other it is as wine and honey, delightful, joyful, profitable, and enriching. That is the mystery of contentment: not so much removing the evil as transforming it — changing the evil into good.

The fifth thing is this: a Christian comes to contentment by making up for the lacks of his condition through carrying out the duties of his condition. That is the way of contentment. I am in a condition with many lacks — I lack this comfort and that one. How do I become satisfied and content? A worldly heart thinks: my lacks must be supplied, or it is impossible for me to be content. But a gracious heart asks: what is the duty of the condition God has placed me in? My condition has changed — not long ago I was in a prosperous condition, but God has changed it. The Lord has called me no longer Naomi but Mara. What am I to do now? What does God require of me in the condition He has put me in? And let me put my strength into doing the duties of my present condition. Others spend their thoughts on things that disturb and unsettle them, and so they grow more and more discontented. But let me instead spend my thoughts on asking what my duty is — what the duties of my present condition require. A man whose condition has changed and who has lost his estate says, 'If I only had my estate back, how I would use it for God's glory!' But God has shown me that I did not honor Him with my estate as I should have. 'Oh, if I had it again, I would do better than I did before!' But this may itself be a temptation — so you should instead ask: what does God require of me in the condition I am now in? Labor to bring your heart to quiet and contentment by setting your soul to work on the duties of your present condition. And truly, I know nothing more effective for quieting a Christian soul and gaining contentment than this: fixing your heart on the duties of the very condition you are in right now — and treating thoughts about other conditions as a mere temptation. The folly of those who think they will find contentment by dwelling on better conditions is like that of children on a hill who look far away and see another hill, and think, 'If I were on top of that hill, I could touch the clouds with my fingers.' But when they get to the top of that hill, they are no closer to the clouds than before. So it is with many who say, 'If I were in such-and-such a condition, I would have contentment.' Perhaps they reach that condition — and they are just as far from contentment as before. Then they think, 'If I were in yet another condition, I would be satisfied' — and when they get there, they are still just as far from contentment. No — consider what the duty of your present condition is, and settle your heart with this: 'Though I am in a low condition, I am serving God's purposes in the condition He has placed me in. It is God's purpose that has brought me here, and I desire to serve that purpose.' There is a notable Scripture about David: that he served his generation according to the will of God, and then he fell asleep — as Paul says of him in Acts 13:36. The word translated 'will' can also be translated 'counsel' — so it reads: 'After David in his generation had served the counsel of God, he fell asleep.' The common reading is that David served his generation — that is, he did the work of his generation. But it is even more clearly put this way: after David in his generation had served the counsel of God, David fell asleep. Let that be the care of a Christian: to serve out God's counsel. What is the counsel of God? The condition I am in — God brought me into it by His own counsel and the purpose of His will. Now I must serve God's counsel in my generation — see what God's counsel is for my condition and serve that. And so I will have a quiet heart for the present, and will live and die peacefully and comfortably, if I am careful to serve God's counsel.

A sixth thing in the mystery of contentment is this: a gracious heart comes to contentment by melting his will and desires into God's will and desires. By this means he finds contentment — and this is a mystery to a worldly heart. It does not come by having his own desires satisfied as before, but by melting his will into God's will. So he comes to have — in one sense — his desires satisfied. He does not have the thing he formerly desired, yet he is satisfied, because he has made his will one with God's will. This is a step higher than merely submitting to the will of God. Everyone says they should submit to God's will — but a Christian has gone further: he can make God's will and his own will the same. It is said of believers that they are joined to the Lord and are one spirit — that is, whatever God's will is, I do not merely see reason to submit to it; God's will is my will. When the soul can hand over its will to God, contentment must follow. Others want to get the thing they desire. But a gracious heart says, 'What God would have, I would have too — not only will I yield to it, I want it.' A gracious heart has learned not only to make God's commanding will its own — that is, what God commands I will do — but also to make God's providential will and ordering will its own too. God commands this thing, which you who are Christians may have some skill in submitting to. But whatever God works — not just what He commands — you must will it as well. You must make God's providential will and His ordering will as much your own will as you do His commandments. Here a Christian hands over his will to God — and in doing so, he has no other will but God's. Think of it this way: suppose a man assigns his debt to another. If the person to whom I owed the debt is now satisfied, then I am satisfied — because I have handed it over to him. I need not fret saying, 'My debt is not paid, I am not satisfied' — yes, I am satisfied, because the one I made the transfer to is satisfied. Just so between God and a Christian: a Christian hands over his will to God. If God's will is satisfied, then I am satisfied — because I no longer have a will of my own; it has been melted into the will of God. That is the excellence of grace: grace does not only subject the will to God, it melts the will into God's will, until they are one will. What sweet satisfaction the soul must then have, when everything is made over to God. You say this is difficult? Let me express it a little further. A gracious heart must find satisfaction in this way because godliness teaches it to see that its good is more in God than in itself. The good of my life, my comforts, my happiness, my glory, my riches — they are more in God than they are in me. We may speak more to this when we come to the lessons that must be learned. But on this basis a gracious heart finds contentment: it melts its will into God's. For it says: 'If God has glory, I have glory — God's glory is my glory. If God has riches, I have riches. If God is magnified, I am magnified. If God is satisfied, I am satisfied. God's wisdom and holiness are mine — and therefore His will must be mine, and my will must be His.' There is the art of Christian contentment: melting his will into the will of God and handing his will over to God. 'Lord, You shall choose our inheritance for us' (Psalm 47:4).

The seventh thing in the art of contentment is this: the mystery consists not so much in bringing something from outside to make my condition more comfortable, as in purging out something that is within. The men of the world, when they want contentment and feel some lack, always look to get something from outside to satisfy them. But a godly person says, 'Let me get out what is already inside, and then I will come to contentment.' Think of a person with a bitter humor in the stomach that makes every drink taste bitter. He says, 'Put some sugar in my drink' — and his wife puts some in — but it still tastes bitter. Why? Because the bitterness comes from a bitter humor within. But let the doctor give him a strong medicine to purge out that inner bitterness, and then he can taste his drink well enough. So it is with worldly people: 'This condition is bitter — if I could add such-and-such a blessing to what I have, it would be sweet.' But if God were to put in a spoonful or two of sugar, it would still taste bitter. The way to contentment is to purge out your lusts and bitter humors. James 4:1: 'What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is it not the source, your pleasures that wage war in your members?' The trouble comes not so much from things outside, but from within. As I have said before, it is not the storms out at sea that cause an earthquake — it is the vapors that have built up within the earth. So if those lusts within your heart were removed, your condition would be a contented condition. These are the mysterious ways of godliness that worldly people never think of. When did you ever think of this as a remedy: to go and purge out the disorders of your heart within? Seven particulars have now been named — there were many more I had considered. Without understanding and practicing these things, you will never come to true contentment. You will be clumsy and ineffective in the trade of Christianity. But a right understanding of these things will help you to be trained in it as in a mystery.