Sermon 7

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

We proceed now. There are some two or three things more of the excellency of Contentment and then we are to proceed to Application of the point.

The Eighth excellency is, Contentment is a great blessing of God upon the Soul. There is God's blessing upon those that are content, the blessing of God is upon them, and their estates, and upon all that they have. We read in Deuteronomy of the blessing of Judah the principal Tribe; this is the blessing of Judah, And he said hear Lord the voice of Judah and bring him unto his people, let his hands be sufficient for him, and be thou an help to him from his enemies. Let his hand be sufficient for him, that is, bring in a sufficiency of all good unto him that he may have of his own, that's the blessing of Judah. So when God gives you a sufficiency of your own, (as every contented man has) there is the blessing of God upon you, the blessing of the principal Tribe of Judah is upon you. 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 blessing now whatsoever you have you do enjoy it: Many men have estates and do not enjoy them, it's the blessing of God that gives us all things to enjoy, it is God that through his blessing, has fashioned your heart and made it suitable to your condition.

The Ninth excellency, Those that are content they may expect reward from God, that God shall give unto them the good of all those things that they are contented to be without, and this brings in abundance of good to a contented spirit: There is such and such a mercy that you think would be very comfortable unto you if you had it, but can you bring your heart to submit to God in it? You shall have the blessing of the mercy one way or other; if you have not the thing itself in re; you shall have it made up one way or other, you shall have a bill of exchange to receive somewhat in lieu of it, there is no comfort that any soul is content to be without, but the Lord will give either the comfort or somewhat instead of it: You shall have a reward to your soul for whatever good thing you are content to be without. You know what the Scripture says of active obedience, and the Lord does accept (of his servants) their will for the deed, though we do not do a good thing, yet if our hearts be upright, to will to do it, we shall have the blessing though we do not do the thing: You that complain of weakness, you cannot do as others do, you cannot do as much service as others do, if your hearts be as upright with God, and would fain do the same service that you see others do, you would account it a great blessing of God upon you, the greatest blessing in the world if you were able to do as others do; now you may comfort yourselves 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 will do, as a wicked man shall have punishment for all the sin he would commit, so you shall have the reward for all the good you would do. Now may not we draw an argument from active obedience to passive; there is as good reason why you should expect that God will reward you for all that you are willing to suffer, as well as for all that you are willing to do, now if you are willing to be without such a comfort and mercy when God sees it fit, you shall be no loser, certainly God will reward you either with the comfort or with that that shall be as good to you as the comfort, therefore consider 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 blessing of all that they have, and I shall either possess such things as others have, or else God will make it up one way or other, either here, or hereafter in eternity to me; Oh what riches are here! With Contentment you have all kind of riches.

Tenthly and lastly, By contentation the soul comes to an excellency near to God himself, yea the nearest that may be, for this word that is translated Content, it is a word that signifies a Self-sufficiency, as I told you in the opening of the words. A contented man is a self-sufficient man, what is the great glory of God but to be happy and self-sufficient in himself? Indeed he is said to be All-sufficient, but that's but a further addition of the word All, rather than of any matter, for to be sufficient, is All-sufficient, now is this the glory of God to be Sufficient, to have sufficiency in himself, El-shaddai, to be God having sufficiency in himself? Now you come near to this, you partake of the Divine Nature, as by grace in general, so in a more peculiar manner by this grace of Christian Contentment, what's the excellency and glory of God but this? Suppose there were no creatures in the world, and that all the creatures in the world were annihilated, God would remain the same blessed God that he is now, he would not be in a worse condition if all creatures were gone, neither would a contented heart if God should take away all creatures from him, a contented heart has enough in the want of all creatures and would not be more miserable than now he is. Suppose that God should continue you here, and all creatures that are here in this world were taken away, yet you still (having God to be your portion) would be as happy as now you are, and therefore contentation has a great deal of excellency in it.

Thus we have showed in many particulars the excellency of this grace, laboring to present the beauty of it before your souls that you may be in love with it.

Now my brethren what remains but the practice of this, for this Art of Contentment it's not a Speculative thing, only for contemplation, but it is an art of Divinity, and therefore practical, ye are now to labor to work upon your hearts, that there may be this grace in you, that you may honor God and honor your profession with this grace of Contentment, for there is none does more honor God, and honor their profession than those that have this grace of Contentment. Now that we may fall upon the practice, there is required,

First, That we should be humbled in our hearts for the want of this, that we have had so little of this grace in us. For there is no way to set upon any duty with profit, till the heart be humbled for the want of the performance of the duty before; many men when they hear of a duty that they should perform, they will labor to perform it, but first you must be humbled for the want of it, therefore that's the thing that I shall endeavor in the Application, to get your hearts to be humbled for the want of this grace; Oh had I had this grace of Contentment, what a happy life I might have lived? What abundance of honor I might have brought to the Name of God? And how might I have honored my profession? And what a deal of comfort might I have enjoyed? But the Lord knows it has been far otherwise, Oh how far have I been from this grace of Contentment that has been opened to me? I have had a murmuring, a vexing and a fretting heart within me, every little cross has put me out of temper and out of frame, Oh the boisterousness of my spirit, what a deal of evil does God see in my heart, in the vexing and fretting of my heart, and murmuring and repining of my spirit? Oh that God would make you to see it: Now to the end that you might be humbled for the want of this, I shall endeavor in these particulars to speak unto it.

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

In the Second place, I will show you some aggravations of this evil, It's evil in all, but in some more than in others.

Thirdly, I shall labor to take away the pleas that any murmuring discontented heart has for this distemper of his.

There's these Three things in this use of humiliation of the Soul for the want of this grace of Contentment.

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

In the first place, This your murmuring and discontentedness it argues much corruption that is in the Soul, as Contentment argues much grace, and strong grace, and beautiful grace; so this argues much corruption, and strong corruption, and very vile corruptions in your heart. As it is in a man's body, if a man's body be of that temper that every scratch of a pin makes his flesh to rankle and to be a sore, you will say, surely this man's body is very corrupt, his blood and his flesh is corrupt, that every scratch of a pin shall make it rankle, so it is in your spirit; if every little trouble and affliction shall make you discontented, and make you murmur, and even cause your spirit within you to rankle, or as it is in a wound in a man's body, the evil of a wound, it is not so much in the largeness of the wound, and the abundance of blood that comes out of the wound, but in the inflammation that there is in it, or in a fretting and corroding humor that is in the wound; an unskillful man when he comes and sees a large wound in the flesh, looks upon it as a dangerous wound, and when he sees a great deal of blood gush out, he thinks these are the evils of it, but when a Surgeon comes and sees a great gash, says he, this will be healed within a few days, but there's a less wound and there's an inflammation or a fretting humor that is in it, and this will cost time (says he) to cure, so that he does not lay balsam and healing salves upon it, but his great care is to get out the fretting humor, or inflammation, so that the thing that must heal this wound it is some drink to purge; But (says the patient) what good will this do to my wound? You give me somewhat to drink, and my wound is in my arm, or in my leg, what good will this do that I put in my stomach? Yes it purges out the fretting humor, or takes away the inflammation, and till that be taken away the salves can do no good. So it is just for all the world in the souls of men, it may be there is some affliction upon them that I compare to the wound; now they think that the greatness of the affliction is that that makes their condition most miserable: Oh no, there is a fretting humor, an inflammation in the heart, a murmuring spirit that is within you and that is the misery of your condition, and that must be purged out of you before you can be healed, and let God do with you what he will, till he purges out that fretting humor your wound will not be healed; a murmuring heart is a very sinful heart, so that when you are troubled for such an affliction, you had need turn your thoughts, rather to be troubled for the murmuring of your heart, for that's the greatest trouble, there is an affliction upon you and that is grievous, but there is a murmuring heart within and that's more grievous. Oh that we could but convince men and women that a murmuring spirit is a greater evil than any affliction, let the affliction be what it will be. We shall show more afterward that a murmuring spirit is the evil of the evil, and the misery of the misery.

Secondly, The evil of murmuring is such, that God when he would speak of wicked men, and describe them, and show the brand of a wicked and ungodly man or woman, he instances in this sin in a more special manner: I might name many Scriptures, but that Scripture in Jude is a most remarkable one, in the 14th verse, and so forward, there it is said, That the Lord comes with ten thousands of his Saints, to execute judgment 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 sinners have spoken against him. Mark here in this 15th verse, 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 speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him: This is in the general. But now he comes in the particular to show who these are, these are (saith he) Murmurers: that is the very first. Would you know who are ungodly men, that God when he comes with ten thousand of Angels shall 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 forefront of ungodly ones, it is a most dreadful Scripture, that the Lord when he speaks of ungodly ones puts murmurers in the very forefront of all, you had need look to your spirits, you may see that this murmuring, which is the vice contrary to this Contentment is not so small a matter as you think. You think you are not so ungodly as others, because you do not swear and drink as others do, but you may be ungodly in murmuring, it is true there is no sin but some seeds and remainders of it are in those that are godly, but when they are under the power of this sin of murmuring, it doth convince them to be ungodly, as well as if they were under the power of drunkenness, or whoredom, or any other sin, God will look upon you as ungodly for this sin as well as for any sin whatsoever. This one Scripture should make the heart shake at the thought of the sin of murmuring.

Thirdly, As it is made a brand of ungodly men, so you shall find in Scripture that God accounts it rebellion, that is contrary to the worship that there was in contentedness: that is worshipping of God, crouching to God and falling down before him, even as a dog that would crouch when you hold a staff over him, but a murmuring heart it is a rebellious heart, and that you shall find if you compare two Scriptures together, they are both in the book of Numbers 16:41. But on the morrow (saith the text) all the congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. They all murmured, now compare this with the Chapter 17 and verse 10. And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aarons rod again, before the testimony to be kept for a token against the Rebels. In the 16th Chapter they murmured against Moses and Aaron, and in the 17th Chapter bring the rod of Aaron again, before the testimony, for a token against the Rebels. So that to be a murmurer, and to be a Rebel you see in Scripture phrase is all one, It is a rebellion against God: as it is the beginning of rebellion and sedition in a kingdom when the people are discontent, and when discontentment comes it grows to murmuring, and you can go into no house almost but there is murmuring when men are discontent, so that within a little while it breaks forth into sedition or rebellion. Murmuring it is but as the smoke of the fire, there is first a smoke and smother before the flame breaks forth, and so before open rebellion in a kingdom there is first a smoke of murmuring, and then it breaks forth into open rebellion; but because it hath rebellion in the seeds of it therefore it is accounted before the Lord to be rebellion. Wilt thou be a Rebel against God? When thou feelest thy heart discontented and murmuring against the dispensations of God towards thee, thou shouldest check thy heart thus, Oh thou wretched heart, what wilt thou be a Rebel against God? Wilt thou rise in a way of Rebellion against the infinite God? Yet thus thou hast done, charge thy heart with this sin of rebellion, you that are guilty of this sin of murmuring you are this day by the Lord charged as being guilty of Rebellion against him, and God expects that when you go home you should humble your souls before him for this sin, that you should charge your souls for being guilty of rebellion against God, many of you may say, I never thought that I had been a Rebel against God before, I thought that I had many infirmities, but now I see the Scripture speaks of sin in another manner than men do, the Scripture makes men (though but murmurers) to be Rebels against God, Oh this rebellious heart that I have against the Lord that hath manifested itself in this way of murmuring against the Lord? That is a Third particular in the evil of discontentment.

A Fourth particular in the evil of Discontentment, it is a wickedness that is exceeding contrary to Grace, and especially contrary to the work of God, in bringing of the soul home to himself; I know no distemper more opposite and contrary to the work of God in conversion of a sinner, than this is.

Question. What is the work of God when he brings a sinner home to himself?

Answer. The usual way is for God to make the soul to see and be sensible of the dreadful evil that there is in sin, and the great breach that sin hath made between God and it, for certainly Jesus Christ can never be known in his beauty and excellency till the soul know that. I do not speak what secret work of the Holy Ghost there may be in the soul, but before the soul can actually apply Jesus Christ to itself, it is impossible but it must come to know the evil of sin, and the excellency of Jesus Christ: there may be a seed of faith put into the soul, but the soul must first know Christ, and know sin, and be made sensible of it. Now how contrary is this sin of murmuring to any such work of God; hath God made me see the dreadful evil of sin, and made my soul to be sensible of the evil of sin as the greatest burden? How can I then be so much troubled for every little affliction? Certainly if I saw what the evil of sin were, that sight would swallow up all other evils, and if I were burdened with the evil of sin, it would swallow up all other burdens; what am I now murmuring against Gods hand (saith such a soul) when as a while ago the Lord made me see myself to be a damned wretch, and apprehend it as a wonder that I am not in Hell?

2. Yea, it is mighty contrary to the sight of the infinite excellency and glory of Jesus Christ, and of the things of the Gospel. What am I that soul that the Lord hath discovered such infinite excellency of Jesus Christ to? And yet shall I think such a little affliction to be so grievous to me, when I have had the sight of such glory in Christ that is more worth than ten thousand worlds? (For so will a true convert say) Oh! the Lord at such a time hath given me that sight of Christ that I would not be without for ten thousand thousand worlds; but hath God given thee that, and wilt thou be discontent for a trifle in comparison to that?

3. A Third work when God brings the soul home to himself it is, By taking the heart off from the Creature, the disengaging the heart from all Creature-comforts: that is the Third work ordinarily that the soul may perceive of itself. It is true, Gods work may be altogether in the seeds in him, but in the several actings of the soul in turning to God it may perceive these things in it; the disengagement of the heart from the creature, that is the calling off the soul from the world, Whom the Lord hath called he hath justified: what is the calling of the soul but this, the soul that was before seeking for Contentment in the world, and cleaving to the creature, now the Lord calls the soul out of the world, and saith, Oh soul, thy happiness is not here, thy rest is not here, thy happiness is elsewhere, and thy heart must be loosened from all these things that are here below in the world; and this is the work of God in the soul to disengage the heart from the creature, and how contrary is a murmuring heart to such a thing; a thing that is glued to another you cannot take off, but you must rend it, so it is a sign thy heart is glued to the world, that when God would take thee off, thy heart rends, if God by an affliction should come to take any thing in the world from thee, if thou canst part from it with ease without rending, it is a sign then that thy heart is not glued to the world.

4. A Fourth work of God in the converting of a sinner, is this, The casting of the soul upon Jesus Christ for all its good: I see Jesus Christ in the Gospel the Fountain of all good, and God out of free Grace tendering him to me for life, and for salvation, and now my soul casts itself, rolls itself upon the infinite Grace of God in Christ for all good; now hast thou done so? Hath God converted thee, and drawn thee to his Son to cast thy soul upon him for all thy good, and yet thou discontented for the want of some little matter in a creature-comfort? Art thou he that hath cast thy soul upon Jesus Christ for all good? As he saith in another case, Is this thy faith?

5. The Soul is subdued to God; and then it comes to receive Jesus Christ as a King, to rule, to order and dispose of him how he pleases, and so the heart is subdued unto God. Now how opposite is a murmuring discontented heart to a heart subdued to Jesus Christ as a King, and receiving him as a Lord to rule and dispose of him as he pleases.

6. There is in the work of your turning to God the giving up of yourself to God in an everlasting Covenant. As you take Christ the Head of the Covenant to be yours, so you give up yourself to Christ. In the work of Conversion there is the resignation of the Soul wholly to God in an everlasting Covenant to be his. Have you ever surrendered up yourself to God in an everlasting Covenant? Then certainly this your fretting, murmuring heart is mighty opposite to it, certainly you forget this Covenant of yours, and the Resignation of yourself up to God. It would be of marvelous help to you to humble your Souls when you are in a murmuring condition. If you could but obtain so much liberty of your own spirits as to look back to see what the work of God was in converting you, there is nothing would prevail more than to think of that. I am now in a murmuring discontented way, but how did I feel my soul working when God did turn my Soul to himself? Oh how opposite is this to that work, and how unseemly? Oh what shame and confusion would come upon the spirits of men and women, if they could but compare the work of corruption in their murmuring and discontent, with the work of God that was upon their Souls in conversion. Now we should labor to keep the work of God upon our Souls that was at our Conversion. For Conversion must not be only at one instant at first: men are deceived in this, if they think their Conversion is finished merely at first. You must be in a way of conversion to God all the days of your life, and therefore Christ says to his Disciples, except you be converted and become as little children: You be Converted, why, were they not converted before? Yes they were converted, but they were still to continue the work of Conversion all the days of their lives, and what work of God there is at the first Conversion it is to abide afterwards. As thus, always there must abide some sight and sense of sin, it may be not in the way which you had, which was rather a preparation than anything else, but the sight and sense of sin it is to continue still. That is, you are still to be sensible of the burden of sin as it is against the Holiness, and Goodness, and Mercy of God unto you, and the sight of the excellency of Jesus Christ is to continue, and your calling out of the Creature: and your casting of your Soul upon Christ, and your receiving Christ as a King, still receive him day by day, and the subduing of your heart, and the surrendering of yourself up to God in a way of Covenant. Now if this were but daily continued there would be no space nor time for murmuring to work upon your heart: that is the Fourth Particular.

The Fifth thing in the evil of discontentment, Murmuring and discontentment is exceedingly below a Christian. Oh! it is too mean and base a distemper for a Christian to give place to it. Now it is below a Christian in many respects.

1. How below the relation of a Christian? The relation in which you stand. With what relation (you will say)?

First, The relation you stand in to God: Do you not call God your father? And do you not stand in relation to him as a child? What? you murmur? In 2 Samuel 13:4 it is a speech of Jonadab to Amnon, Why are you, being the King's Son, lean from day to day, will you not tell me? and so he told him; (but that was for a wicked cause). He perceived that his spirit was troubled, for otherwise he was of a fat and plump temper of body, but because of trouble of spirit he was even pined away. Why? what is the matter? You that stand in this relation to the King and yet anything should trouble your heart, (that is his meaning) is there anything that should disquiet your heart, and yet stand in such a relation to the King, the King's Son? So I may say to a Christian, Are you the King's Son, the Son, the Daughter of the King of Heaven, and yet so disquieted and troubled, and vexed at every little thing that falls out? As if a King's Son should cry out, he is undone for losing a bauble, what an unworthy thing were this. So do you, you cry out as if you were undone, and yet a King's Son. You that stand in such relation to God, as unto a father, you do dishonor your father in this; as if either he had not wisdom, or not power, or not mercy enough to provide for you.

2. The relation that you stand in to Jesus Christ, you are the spouse of Christ: what! one married to Jesus Christ and yet troubled and discontented? Have you not enough in him? Does not Christ say to his spouse, as Elkanah said to Hannah, (1 Samuel 1:8) Am not I better to thee than ten sons? So does not Christ your husband say to you, Am not I better to you than thousands of riches and comforts? Such comforts as you murmur for want of. Has not God given you his Son? And will he not with him give you all things? Has the love of God been to you to give you his Son in way of marriage? Why are you discontented and murmuring? Consider your relation to Jesus Christ, as you are a spouse and married to him, his person is yours, and so all the riches of Jesus Christ is yours, as the riches of a husband are the wife's. And though there are some husbands so vile as the wives may be forced to sue for maintenance; certainly Jesus Christ will never deny maintenance to his spouse. It is a dishonor for a husband to have the wife go whining up and down. What, you are matched with Christ and are his spouse, and will you murmur now and be discontented in your spirit? You shall observe among those that are newly matched, when there is discontent between the wife and the husband, their friends will shake their heads and say, they do not meet with that that they did expect. You see ever since they were married together how the man looks, and the woman looks, they are not so cheerful as they were wont to be, surely (say they) it is like to prove an ill match. But it is not so here, it shall not be so between you and Christ. Oh Jesus Christ does not love to see his spouse to have a lowering countenance: no man loves to see discontentment in the face of his wife, surely Christ does not love to see discontentment in the face of his spouse.

3. You stand in relation to Christ not only as a spouse, but as a member, You are bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. And to have a member of Jesus Christ to be in such a condition, it is exceeding unworthy.

4. He is your Elder brother likewise, and so you are a Co-heir with him.

5. The relation that you stand in to the Spirit of God, you are the Temple of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost is your Comforter, it is he that is appointed to convey all comfort from the Father and the Son, to the Souls of his people. And are you the Temple of the Holy Ghost, and does he dwell in you, and yet for all that you murmur for every little matter.

6. The relation that you stand in to the Angels, you are made one body with them: for so Christ has joined principalities and powers with his Church, they are Ministering Spirits for good to his people, to supply what they need, and you, and they are joined together, and Christ is the head of you and Angels.

7. The relation that you stand in to the Saints, you are of the same body with them, they and you make up but one mystical body with Jesus Christ, and if they be happy you must needs be happy. Oh how beneath a Christian is a murmuring Spirit if he considers his relations in which he stands.

Secondly, A Christian should consider, That murmuring and discontentedness is below the high dignities that God has put upon him: Do but consider the high dignity that God has put upon you. The meanest Christian in the world is a lord of heaven and earth; he has made us Kings unto himself, Kings unto God, not Kings unto men to rule over them, and yet I say every Christian is lord of heaven and earth, yea of life and death. That is, as Christ he is Lord of all, so he has made those that are his members to be lords of all, all are yours says the Apostle, even life and death, everything is yours. It is a very strange expression that death should be theirs, death is yours, that is, you are as it were lords over it, you have that that shall make death to be your servant, your slave, even death itself, your greatest enemies are turned to be your slaves. Faith makes a Christian to be as lord over all, to be lifted up in excellency above all creatures that ever God made except the Angels, yea and in some respect above them. I say the poorest Christian that lives is raised to an estate above all the creatures in the world except Angels, yea and above them in diverse respects too, and yet discontented, that you who were as a firebrand of hell, and might have been scorching and yelling and roaring there to all eternity, yet that God should raise you to have a higher excellency in you than there is in all the works of creation that ever he made except Angels, and other Christians that are in your condition. Yea and you are nearer the Divine Nature than the Angels, because your nature is joined in a hypostatic union to the Divine Nature, and in that respect your nature is more honored than the nature of the Angels. And the death of Christ is yours, he died for you and not for the Angels, and therefore you are like to be raised above the Angels in diverse respects. Yea you that are in such an estate as this is, you that are set apart to the end that God might manifest to all eternity what the infinite power of a Deity is able to raise a creature to; for that is the condition of a Saint, a Believer, his condition is such as he is set apart to the end that God might manifest to all eternity what his infinite power is able to do to make the creature happy. Are you in such a condition? Oh! how low and beneath this condition is a murmuring and discontented heart for want of some outward comforts here in this world. How unseemly is it that you should be a slave to every cross, that every affliction shall be able to say to your soul, bow down to us. We accounted that a great slavery, when men would say to our souls, bow down. As the cruel Prelates were wont to do in imposing things upon men's consciences, they did in effect say, let your consciences, your souls bow down to us, that we may tread upon them. That is the greatest slavery in the world, that one man should say to another, let your consciences, your souls bow down that we may tread upon them. But will you suffer every affliction to say, bow down that we may tread upon you? Truly it is so, when your heart is overcome with murmuring and discontent: Know that those afflictions which have caused you to murmur, have said to you, bow down that we may tread upon you. Nay, not afflictions, but the very Devil does prevail against you in this. Oh! how beneath is this to the happy estate that God has raised a Christian unto! What! the son of a King, shall he have every base fellow to come and bid him bow down that he may tread upon his neck? Thus do you in every affliction: the affliction, the cross, and trouble that does befall you, says bow down that we come and tread upon you.

Thirdly, Murmuring it is below the Spirit of a Christian. Below his Spirit, the Spirit of every Christian should be like the Spirit of his Father. Every father loves to see his spirit in his child, loves to see his image, not the image of his body only, to say, Here is a child for all the world like the father, but he has the spirit of his father too. A father that is a man of spirit loves to see his spirit in his child, rather than the feature of his body. Oh, the Lord that is our Father loves to see His Spirit in us. Great men love to see great spirits in their children, and the great God loves to see a great Spirit in His Children. We are one Spirit with God, and with Christ, and one Spirit with the Holy Ghost; therefore we should have a Spirit that might manifest the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in our Spirits; that is the spirit of a Christian indeed. The spirit of a Christian should be a lion-like Spirit, as Jesus Christ is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, (so He is called) so we should manifest somewhat of the Lion-like Spirit of Jesus Christ. He manifested His Lion-like Spirit in passing through all afflictions and troubles whatsoever without any murmuring against God. When He came to drink that bitter cup, and even the dregs of it, He prayed to God (indeed) that if it were possible it might pass from Him, but presently, Not my will, but Thy will be done. As soon as ever He did mention the passing of the cup from Him, (though it were the most dreadful cup that ever was drunk since the world began, yet at the mentioning of it) Not my will, but Thy will be done. Here Christ showed a Lion-like Spirit in going through all kind of afflictions whatsoever without any murmuring against God in them. Now a murmuring spirit is a base dejected spirit, cross and contrary to the Spirit of a Christian, and it is very base. I remember that the Heathens accounted it very base. Plutarch does report of a certain people that did use to manifest their disdain to men that were overmuch dejected by any affliction, they did condemn them to this punishment: to wear women's clothes all their days, or such a space of time at least they should go in women's clothes in token of shame and disgrace to them because they had such effeminate spirits; they thought it against a manlike spirit, and therefore seeing they did unman themselves they should go as women. Now shall they account it an unmanlike spirit, to be overmuch dejected in afflictions; and shall not a Christian account it an unchristian-like spirit to be overmuch dejected by any affliction whatsoever? I remember another compares murmuring spirits to children when they are weaning. What a deal of stir have you with your children when you wean them, how froward and vexing are they? So when God would wean you from some outward comforts in this world, Oh how fretting and discontented are you! Children will not sleep themselves, nor let their mothers sleep when they are weaning; and so when God would wean us from the world, and we fret, vex, and murmur, this is a childish spirit.

Fourthly, It is below the profession of a Christian. The profession of a Christian, what is that? A Christian's profession is to be dead to the world, and to be alive to God; that is his profession, to have his life to be hid with Christ in God, to satisfy himself in God. What is this your profession? And yet if you have not everything that you would have, to murmur and be discontent, you do in that even deny your profession.

Fifthly, It is below that special Grace of faith. Faith is that which does overcome the world; it is that which makes all the promises of God to be ours. Now when you took upon you the profession of Religion, did God ever promise you that you should live at ease, and quiet, and have no trouble? I remember Austin has such an expression: What is this your faith? What did I ever promise you, (says he) that you should ever flourish in the world? Are you a Christian to that end? And is this your faith? I never made any such promise to you when you took upon you to be a Christian. Oh, it is mighty contrary to your profession; you have never a promise for this, that you should not have such an affliction upon you. And a Christian should live by his faith; it is said, that the just do live by faith. Now you should not look after any other life but the life that you have by faith. Now you have no ground for your faith, to believe that you should be delivered out of such an affliction; and then, why should you account it such a great evil to be under such an affliction? Certainly that good that we have in the ground for our faith, it is enough to content our hearts here, and to all eternity. A Christian should be satisfied with that which God has made to be the object of his faith; the object of his faith is high enough to satisfy his soul, were it capable of a thousand times more than it is. Now if you may have the object of your faith full, you have enough to content your soul. And know that when you are discontented for want of such and such comforts, if you would but think thus: God did never promise me that I should have these Comforts, and at this time, and in such a way as I would have, but I am discontented because I have not these which God did never yet promise me, and therefore I sin much against the Gospel, and against the grace of faith.

There is yet another thing, It is below the hopes of Christians: Oh! The most glorious things that the Saints hope for.

And against the helps that Christians have; Christians have great helps that may help them against murmuring.

And it is against that which God expects from Christians. God He expects other manner of things from them than this.

Yea, and it is below that which God has from other Christians. These things I shall open at another time.

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

We continue. There are two or three more excellencies of contentment to cover, and then we will move to the application of this teaching.

The eighth excellence is this: contentment is a great blessing of God upon the soul. God's blessing rests on those who are content — on their lives, their estates, and everything they have. In Deuteronomy we read the blessing pronounced over Judah, the principal tribe: "Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah and bring him to his people. Let his hands be sufficient for him, and be a help to him against his enemies." "Let his hands be sufficient for him" — that is, let him have a sufficiency of good from his own, that he may be provided for. That is the blessing of Judah. So when God gives you a sufficiency from what you have — as He does for every contented person — the blessing of the principal tribe of Judah rests on you. It is the Lord who gives us all things to enjoy — we may have a thing and yet not enjoy it unless God comes with His blessing. But whatever you have, you do enjoy it. Many people have estates and yet do not enjoy them. It is God's blessing that gives us all things to truly enjoy — it is God who, through His blessing, has shaped your heart to fit your condition.

The ninth excellence is this: those who are content may expect that God will give them the benefit of everything they are willing to go without. This brings enormous good to a contented spirit. If there is a mercy you think would be very comforting to you — but you can bring your heart to submit to God in not having it — you will receive the blessing of that mercy one way or another. If you do not have the thing itself, God will make it up to you somehow. He will give you something in place of it, as it were. There is no comfort that any soul is content to do without but that the Lord will give either that comfort or something equivalent. You will receive a reward for every good thing you are content to go without. You know what Scripture teaches about active obedience: the Lord accepts the willing heart even when the deed cannot be done. Though we may not accomplish a good thing, if our hearts are upright and truly desire to do it, we receive the blessing as if we had done it. You who complain of weakness — who cannot serve God as others do — if your hearts are just as sincere before God, and you genuinely desire to do what you see others doing, you would count it the greatest blessing in the world to be able to do it. Take comfort in this: dealing with God in the covenant of grace, you will receive from God the reward for all you would do, just as a wicked person will receive punishment for all the sin he would commit. So you will receive the reward for all the good you would do. Now, if this is true of active obedience, why not of passive obedience as well? There is just as good reason to expect that God will reward you for all you are willing to suffer as for all you are willing to do. If you are willing to go without a comfort when God sees fit, you will not be the loser. God will certainly reward you either with that comfort itself or with something equally good. Consider how many things you have that others lack — and then ask: can I bring my heart into a quiet, contented frame to do without what others have? If so, I have the benefit of everything they have. God will either give me those things as well, or make it up to me in another way — here in this life, or in eternity. What riches these are. With contentment, you have every kind of riches.

The tenth and final excellence is this: through contentment the soul attains an excellence that comes near to God Himself — as near as a creature can come. The word translated "content" signifies self-sufficiency, as I explained at the start. A contented person is, in a sense, self-sufficient. What is the great glory of God but that He is happy and self-sufficient in Himself? He is called All-sufficient — but the word "All" is really just an intensification: to be sufficient is to be all-sufficient. The glory of God is that He is El Shaddai — God who is sufficient in Himself. Through the grace of contentment, you come close to sharing in this divine nature. You partake of the divine nature through grace in general, but in a particularly vivid way through this grace of contentment. Suppose there were no creatures in the world — suppose every created thing were annihilated. God would remain the same blessed God He is now. He would not be in a worse condition for the loss of all creation. In the same way, a contented heart would not be more miserable even if God took away every creature from him. A contented heart has enough even in the absence of all created things. Suppose God kept you alive but took away every creature in this world. With God as your portion, you would be just as happy as you are now. That is how great an excellence contentment carries in it.

We have now laid out the excellence of this grace in many particulars, laboring to set its beauty before your souls so that you may fall in love with it.

What remains now but to practice it? The art of contentment is not a merely theoretical matter, something only for contemplation. It is a practical matter of godliness, and you must now work on your hearts to cultivate this grace — so that you may honor God and honor your Christian profession with it. No one honors God and honors their profession more than those who have this grace of contentment. To begin the practice, several things are required.

First, we must be humbled in our hearts for our lack of this grace — for having had so little of it in us. There is no way to pursue any duty with real profit until the heart has first been humbled for failing in that duty. Many people hear about a duty they should perform and immediately set about performing it — but first you must be humbled for the lack of it. That is what I will work toward in this application: bringing your hearts to genuine humility over the absence of this grace. "Oh, if I had had this grace of contentment, what a happy life I might have lived. What honor I might have brought to the name of God. How I might have honored my Christian profession. What comfort I might have enjoyed. But the Lord knows it has been far otherwise. How far I have been from this grace of contentment that has been set before me. I have had a murmuring, vexing, fretting heart — every little trial has thrown me off balance. What turbulence in my spirit. What evil God sees in my heart — in all the fretting, vexing, murmuring, and complaining." Oh, that God would bring you to see this. To help you be humbled for the lack of this grace, I will address several things.

First, I will set before you the evil of a murmuring spirit — there is more evil in it than you may realize.

Second, I will show some of the aggravating factors that make this evil worse — it is an evil in everyone, but more so in some than in others.

Third, I will address and remove the excuses that a murmuring, discontented heart offers for its disorder.

These are the three elements in this application of humbling the soul for its lack of the grace of contentment.

For the first, we turn to it now. Here is the great evil in a murmuring, discontented heart.

First, your murmuring and discontent reveal deep corruption in the soul. Just as contentment reveals much grace — strong grace, beautiful grace — so murmuring reveals much corruption, strong corruption, and very vile corruption in the heart. Think of a person whose body is so unhealthy that a mere pinprick makes the flesh fester and become infected. You would say: this person's body is clearly corrupt — his blood and flesh are so out of order that even the smallest scratch produces infection. The same is true in the spirit: if every small trouble and affliction makes you discontented, makes you murmur, and makes your spirit fester within you, that reveals corruption. Think also of how a wound in the body works: the evil of a wound is not mainly in its size or in how much blood it draws, but in the inflammation or the festering humor within it. An unskilled person looking at a large gash full of blood thinks that is the dangerous part. But a surgeon looks at that large wound and says: "This will heal in a few days." Then he looks at a smaller wound and says: "But this one has inflammation or a festering humor in it — this will take much longer to cure." His whole effort is not to apply ointments and healing salves, but to draw out the festering humor. The thing that will heal this wound, he says, is something taken internally to purge it out. "But," says the patient, "what good will drinking something do for my wound in my arm or leg?" "It purges out the festering humor and reduces the inflammation," the surgeon replies, "and until that is removed, the salves can do no good." So it is exactly with the souls of men and women. There may be some affliction on them — that is the wound. They think the size of the affliction is what makes their condition most miserable. But no — there is a festering humor, an inflammation in the heart, a murmuring spirit within — and that is the true misery of their condition. That must be purged out before healing can begin. Let God do what He will with you: until He purges out that festering spirit, your wound will not be healed. A murmuring heart is a very sinful heart. When you are troubled by some affliction, you would do better to turn your attention to being troubled by the murmuring of your heart — for that is the greater trouble. There is an affliction on you, and it is hard to bear — but there is a murmuring heart within you, and that is harder still. Oh, that we could convince people that a murmuring spirit is a greater evil than any affliction, whatever that affliction may be. We will show further on that a murmuring spirit is the evil of evils, the misery inside the misery.

Second, the evil of murmuring is such that when God speaks of wicked people and describes the mark of an ungodly man or woman, He singles out this sin in a particularly striking way. Many scriptures could be cited, but the passage in Jude is especially remarkable. Verses 14 and following say that "the Lord comes with tens of thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Notice that in verse 15, the word "ungodly" appears four times: all who are ungodly, all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken. That is the general description. But then, when he comes to identify who these people are in particular, the very first word he uses is: murmurers. Would you know who the ungodly are — those whom God will come with ten thousand angels to punish for all their ungodly deeds, those who have spoken ungodly things? They are murmurers. In Scripture, murmurers are placed at the very front of the category of the ungodly. This is a fearful passage of Scripture. When God describes the ungodly, He puts murmurers at the very front of the list. Guard your spirit carefully. You can see that murmuring — the vice directly opposite to contentment — is no small matter. You may think you are not as ungodly as others because you do not swear or drink as they do. But you may be ungodly through murmuring. It is true that seeds and remnants of every sin remain even in those who are godly. But when someone is under the power of this sin of murmuring, it marks them as ungodly just as surely as being under the power of drunkenness, sexual immorality, or any other sin. God will regard you as ungodly for this sin just as much as for any other. This one passage of Scripture ought to make the heart tremble at the thought of murmuring.

Third, as murmuring is marked as the trait of the ungodly, so Scripture shows that God counts it as rebellion. Just as contentment is worship — crouching before God, lying down at His feet — murmuring is rebellion. You can see this by comparing two passages in Numbers. Numbers 16:41 says: "But on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, 'You are the ones who have caused the death of the Lord's people.'" They all murmured. Now compare that with Numbers 17:10: "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony to be kept as a sign against the rebels.'" In chapter 16, they murmured against Moses and Aaron. In chapter 17, God calls them rebels. In Scripture's language, to be a murmurer and to be a rebel are the same thing. Murmuring is rebellion against God. Just as the beginning of rebellion in a kingdom starts with discontent — discontent grows into murmuring, and murmuring is found in nearly every house when people are discontented — so within a short time it breaks into open revolt. Murmuring is the smoke before the fire: first the smoke and smolder, then the flame of open rebellion. Because murmuring contains the seed of rebellion, God counts it as rebellion. Will you be a rebel against God? When you feel your heart discontented and murmuring against God's dealings with you, you should confront yourself: "You wretched heart — will you rebel against God? Will you rise up in rebellion against the infinite God? Yet that is what you have done." Charge your heart with this sin of rebellion. Those of you who are guilty of murmuring are today charged by God with rebellion against Him. God expects that when you go home, you will humble your souls before Him for this sin and charge yourselves with being rebels against God. Many of you may say: "I never thought of myself as a rebel against God before. I thought I had many weaknesses, but I did not see them as rebellion." But Scripture speaks of sin differently than we do. Scripture marks those who are merely murmurers as rebels against God. What a rebellious heart you have had against the Lord, which has shown itself in this murmuring against Him. That is the third aspect of the evil of discontent.

The fourth aspect of the evil of discontent is this: it is a wickedness that is directly and powerfully opposed to grace, and especially opposed to the work of God in bringing the soul home to Himself. I know of no disorder more contrary to the work of God in the conversion of a sinner than this one.

Question: What is the work of God when He brings a sinner home to Himself?

Answer: God's usual way is to make the soul see and feel the dreadful evil of sin, and the great breach that sin has made between God and the soul. Jesus Christ can never be known in His beauty and excellence until the soul understands that. I am not speaking about what the secret work of the Holy Spirit may be within the soul, but this much is clear: before the soul can actually lay hold of Jesus Christ, it must come to know the evil of sin and the excellence of Christ. There may be a seed of faith planted in the soul first, but the soul must come to know Christ, know sin, and feel its weight. Now, how utterly contrary to this work of God is the sin of murmuring. If God has made me see the dreadful evil of sin — if my soul has been made to feel sin as the greatest burden — how can I then be so troubled over every small affliction? If I truly saw what the evil of sin is, that sight would swallow up all other evils. If I were truly burdened by sin, that burden would swallow up every other burden. What am I doing, murmuring against God's hand, when not long ago the Lord made me see myself as a ruined wretch, and I counted it a wonder that I was not already in hell?

Second, murmuring is powerfully opposed to the sight of the infinite excellence and glory of Jesus Christ and of the things of the gospel. What — am I the soul to whom the Lord has revealed such infinite excellence in Jesus Christ? And shall I think some small affliction so grievous, when I have been given a sight of such glory in Christ — a glory worth more than ten thousand worlds? A true convert will say: "Oh, the Lord at such a time gave me a sight of Christ that I would not trade for ten thousand thousand worlds." But if God has given you that, will you be discontented over something trivial by comparison?

Third, a further work of God when He brings the soul home to Himself is the detaching of the heart from the creature — disengaging the heart from all creature-comforts. This is a work the soul can perceive in itself. God's work may at times be entirely below the surface in its beginnings, but in the soul's various acts of turning to God, these movements can be perceived. One of them is the disengagement of the heart from the creature — the calling of the soul away from the world. "Those whom the Lord has called, He has justified." (Romans 8:30). What is this calling of the soul? The soul that was previously seeking contentment in the world and clinging to created things hears the Lord calling it out of the world: "Soul, your happiness is not here. Your rest is not here. Your happiness is elsewhere, and your heart must be loosened from everything below." This disengaging of the heart from the creature is God's work in the soul. How contrary, then, is a murmuring heart to this work. When one thing is glued to another, you cannot separate them without tearing. So it is a sign that your heart is glued to the world when, if God tries to detach you from something, your heart tears at the separation. But if God takes something away through affliction and you can part with it easily and without tearing, that is a sign your heart is not glued to the world.

Fourth, another work of God in converting a sinner is the casting of the soul upon Jesus Christ for all its good. Seeing in the gospel that Jesus Christ is the fountain of all good, and that God in free grace offers Him to me for life and salvation, my soul casts itself — rolls itself — upon the infinite grace of God in Christ for everything I need. Now: has God converted you and drawn you to His Son to cast your soul upon Him for all your good? And yet you are discontented for lack of some small creature-comfort? Are you the one who has cast your soul upon Jesus Christ for all good? As someone once said in another context: is this your faith?

Fifth, the soul is subdued to God — and then it comes to receive Jesus Christ as King, to rule and order and dispose of it however He pleases. How opposite, then, is a murmuring, discontented heart to a heart that has been subdued to Jesus Christ as King — a heart that has received Him as Lord, willing for Him to rule and dispose of it as He sees fit.

Sixth, in the work of your turning to God there is the giving of yourself to God in an everlasting covenant. Just as you take Christ, the head of the covenant, to be yours, so you give yourself to Christ. In conversion, the soul surrenders itself wholly to God in an everlasting covenant — to belong to Him. Have you ever surrendered yourself to God in such a covenant? Then this fretting, murmuring heart of yours is powerfully opposed to it. You are forgetting your covenant and the surrender you made of yourself to God. It would be of tremendous help in humbling your soul when you are in a murmuring condition, if you could find enough freedom in your spirit to look back and see what God's work was in converting you. Nothing would prevail more than to think of that. "I am now murmuring and discontented — but how did my soul feel when God turned it to Himself? How completely opposite is this murmuring to that work. How unseemly it is." What shame and confusion would come over people's spirits if they could only compare the corrupting work of murmuring and discontent with the work of God in their souls at conversion. We should labor to keep alive the work God did in us at conversion. Conversion must not be thought of as a single, finished event. People are mistaken if they think conversion was completed in a single moment. You must be in a continual process of turning to God all the days of your life. Christ said to His disciples: "Unless you are converted and become like children" — but were they not already converted? Yes — and yet they were still to continue the work of conversion all their lives. Whatever God worked in the soul at first conversion is meant to continue afterward. There must always remain some sight and sense of sin — perhaps not in the same way as at first, which was more of a preparation, but the sight and sense of sin is to continue. That is, you are still to feel the weight of sin as something that opposes God's holiness, goodness, and mercy to you. The sight of the excellence of Jesus Christ is to continue. The calling of your heart out of the creature is to continue. The casting of your soul upon Christ is to continue. The receiving of Christ as King — receive Him daily. The subduing of your heart and the surrender of yourself to God in covenant — these are ongoing. If this were daily continued, there would be no room and no time for murmuring to take hold of your heart. That is the fourth aspect of the evil of discontent.

The fifth aspect of the evil of discontent is this: murmuring and discontent are exceedingly beneath a Christian. It is too low and base a disorder for a Christian to give in to. It is beneath a Christian in many respects.

First, how beneath a Christian it is in light of the relationships he stands in. What relationships do you mean, you ask?

First, consider your relationship to God. Do you not call God your Father? Do you not stand before Him as a child? And yet you murmur? In 2 Samuel 13:4, Jonadab says to Amnon: "Why are you, the king's son, so downcast morning after morning? Will you not tell me?" He could see that Amnon's spirit was troubled — otherwise he was healthy and well, but inner trouble had made him waste away. His point was: is there anything that could justify trouble in the heart of a king's son? In the same way, I would say to every Christian: are you a son or daughter of the King of heaven, and yet you are so unsettled, troubled, and vexed by every little thing that happens? Imagine a king's son weeping and crying that he is ruined over losing a toy — how unworthy that would be. Yet that is what you do: you cry out as though you are ruined, and yet you are a child of the King. You who stand in this relationship to God as a Father dishonor Him by your discontent, as though He lacked the wisdom, power, or mercy to provide for you.

Second, consider your relationship to Jesus Christ — you are His bride. One who is married to Jesus Christ, troubled and discontented? Do you not have enough in Him? Does not Christ say to His bride, as Elkanah said to Hannah, "Am I not better to you than ten sons?" (1 Samuel 1:8). Does not Christ your husband say to you: "Am I not better to you than all the riches and comforts you are longing for — all the things you murmur for lack of?" Has not God given you His Son? And will He not with Him freely give you all things? Has God's love extended to you so far as to give you His Son in a relationship as close as marriage? Why then are you discontented and murmuring? Consider your relationship to Jesus Christ as His bride: His person is yours, and therefore all the riches of Jesus Christ are yours — just as the wealth of a husband belongs to his wife. Some husbands are so careless that their wives must petition for provision; but Jesus Christ will never deny provision to His bride. It is a dishonor to a husband to have his wife going about in misery. You are matched with Christ and are His bride — will you murmur and be discontented? When a newly married couple shows discontent between them, their friends shake their heads and say: "It doesn't seem like they are finding what they hoped for. See how the man looks and how the woman looks since they were married — they are not as cheerful as they used to be. It looks like it may prove an unhappy match." But it is not so between you and Christ. Jesus Christ does not want to see His bride with a gloomy face. No husband wants to see discontent on his wife's face — and surely Christ does not want to see discontent on the face of His bride.

Third, you stand in relation to Christ not only as a bride, but as a member — you are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. For a member of Jesus Christ to be in such a condition of murmuring and discontent is utterly unworthy.

Fourth, Christ is also your elder brother, and you are a co-heir with Him.

Fifth, consider your relationship to the Spirit of God. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is your Comforter — the one appointed to convey all comfort from the Father and the Son to the souls of God's people. Are you the temple of the Holy Spirit, with Him dwelling in you — and yet you murmur over every small thing?

Sixth, consider your relationship to the angels. You are joined into one body with them. Christ has united principalities and powers with His church — they are ministering spirits sent to serve God's people and supply what they need. You and they are joined together, and Christ is the head of both you and the angels.

Seventh, consider your relationship to the saints. You are of the same body with them — they and you together form one mystical body with Jesus Christ. If they are blessed, you share in that blessing. How far beneath a Christian is a murmuring spirit, when he considers all the relationships in which he stands.

Second, a Christian should consider that murmuring and discontent are beneath the high dignity God has placed on him. Consider what high dignity God has given you. The most ordinary Christian in the world is a lord of heaven and earth. God has made us kings to Himself — not kings over other men to rule them, yet I say every Christian is lord of heaven and earth, even of life and death. Just as Christ is Lord of all, He has made those who are His members to be lords of all. "All things are yours," says the apostle — even life and death, everything belongs to you. It is a remarkable expression: death is yours — meaning you are, in a sense, master over it. You have that which makes even death your servant, your slave. Your greatest enemies have been turned into your servants. Faith raises a Christian to be, in a sense, lord over all — lifted in excellence above every creature God has ever made, except the angels; and in some respects above even them. I say the poorest Christian alive is raised to an estate above all creatures in the world except angels, and above them in certain respects as well. And yet you are discontented. You who were as a firebrand of hell, who might have been burning and crying out there for eternity — God has raised you to an excellence greater than anything else in all creation except angels and your fellow believers. Indeed, you are nearer to the divine nature than the angels, because your nature is joined to the divine nature in the person of Christ in a hypostatic union. In that respect your nature is honored more than the nature of the angels. The death of Christ is yours — He died for you, not for angels. Therefore you are destined to be raised above the angels in many respects. You are in such an estate that God has set you apart to demonstrate throughout all eternity what His infinite power is able to raise a creature to. That is the condition of a saint, a believer — set apart to show for all eternity what God's infinite power can do to make a creature happy. Are you in that condition? How low and beneath it is a murmuring, discontented heart fretting over the lack of some outward comfort in this world. How unfitting that you should be a slave to every trial — that every affliction can say to your soul, "Bow down to us." We rightly counted it a great outrage when men said to people's souls: "Bow down, that we may tread on you" — as cruel rulers once did when they imposed things on people's consciences, in effect demanding that their souls bow down and be trampled. That is the greatest slavery in the world — for one person to say to another: "Let your conscience, your soul, bow down that we may tread upon it." But will you let every affliction say that to you? That is exactly what happens when your heart is overcome with murmuring and discontent. Know this: every affliction that has caused you to murmur has said to you, "Bow down, that we may tread upon you." And it is not merely afflictions — the devil himself prevails against you in this. How utterly beneath the glorious estate God has raised a Christian to, to be like this. The son of a king — shall every low fellow come and tell him to bow down and be trampled? Yet that is what you do in every affliction: the trial, the cross, the trouble that comes your way says, "Bow down, that we may tread upon you."

Third, murmuring is beneath the spirit of a Christian. Every Christian's spirit should resemble the spirit of his Father. Every father loves to see his spirit reflected in his child — not just his physical features, though fathers delight in that too, but his spirit and character. A father of strong character loves to see that same strength in his child even more than his own physical likeness. The Lord who is our Father loves to see His Spirit in us. Great men love to see greatness of spirit in their children, and the great God loves to see a great spirit in His children. We are one spirit with God, with Christ, and with the Holy Spirit — and therefore our spirits should manifest the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The spirit of a Christian should be lion-like. As Jesus Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah, we should show something of that lion-like spirit of Christ. Christ showed His lion-like spirit by passing through every affliction and trouble without murmuring against God. When He came to drink that bitter cup — even the very dregs of it — He prayed that if it were possible, the cup might pass from Him. But immediately: "Not My will, but Yours be done." The moment He mentioned the possibility of the cup passing, despite it being the most dreadful cup ever drunk since the world began, it was: "Not My will, but Yours be done." This was Christ's lion-like spirit — passing through every kind of affliction without any murmuring against God. A murmuring spirit, by contrast, is a low, dejected spirit — directly opposed to and contrary to the spirit of a Christian. Even the pagans considered it shameful. Plutarch reports that a certain people, to show their contempt for those who were overly cast down by affliction, punished them by requiring them to wear women's clothing for a set time — as a mark of shame and disgrace, because they had shown such an unmanly spirit. They thought excessive dejection was incompatible with the character of a man, and since such people had unmanned themselves, they should dress accordingly. If even pagans counted it unmanly to be overly cast down by affliction, should not a Christian count it unchristian to be overly cast down by any affliction? Another writer compares murmuring spirits to children being weaned. What a commotion a weaned child makes — how fretful and difficult it becomes. So when God would wean you from some outward comfort in this world, how you fret and become discontented. Children will not sleep themselves, nor let their mothers sleep, when they are being weaned. When God would wean us from the world and we fret, vex, and murmur — that is a childish spirit.

Fourth, murmuring and discontent are beneath the Christian's profession. What is a Christian's profession? It is to be dead to the world and alive to God — to have one's life hidden with Christ in God, to find satisfaction in God. Is that your profession? Then to murmur and be discontented whenever you lack some earthly thing is, in effect, to deny your own profession.

Fifth, discontent is beneath the special grace of faith. Faith is what overcomes the world; it is what makes all God's promises ours. Now, when you took on the Christian profession, did God ever promise you a life of ease, comfort, and freedom from trouble? Augustine expressed this well: "What is this faith of yours? What did I ever promise you — that you should flourish in this world? Is that why you became a Christian? Is that your faith? I made no such promise to you when you took on the Christian name." It is deeply contrary to your profession. You have no promise that you should be free from such-and-such affliction. A Christian is to live by faith — "the righteous shall live by faith." You should not be looking for any other life than the life you have by faith. You have no grounds for faith that you will be delivered from this particular affliction. So why should you count it such a great evil to be under it? The good that we have as the object of our faith is enough to satisfy the heart here and through all eternity. A Christian ought to be satisfied with what God has made the object of his faith. That object is high enough to satisfy the soul, even if the soul were capable of a thousand times more than it is. If you may have the full object of your faith, you have enough to content your soul. So when you are discontented for lack of certain comforts, think: God never promised me these comforts — not at this time, not in the way I would have them. I am discontented over things God never promised me, and in this I sin greatly against the gospel and against the grace of faith.

There is yet more: discontent is also beneath the Christian's hope. The saints are waiting for the most glorious things imaginable.

And discontent works against the helps that Christians have — Christians have great resources available to them against murmuring.

And it is contrary to what God expects from Christians. God expects something very different from His people than this.

Indeed, it falls short even of what God receives from other Christians. These points I will open further at another time.