Contentment Leading a Christian, Treatise 1 · Chapter 20
CHAP. XX. Of Means and Motives to work Contentment.
COutentment being so excellent and beneficiall a grace, as we have seene, it were good we laboured for it with all diligence. Whereunto the Meanes and Motives are of three sorts:
In respect of God.
In respect of our selves.
In respect of the Saints.
For the first of these.What in God may work us to Contentment. 1
1 Consider the affection of God, If thou beest as thou professest, Gods childe, he is thy father, and thou, if thou beest a good childe, wilt relye on him, and content thy selfe with his allowance. Every master of a family may dispose his goods as he pleaseth.
2 Consider his wisedome. The 2childe must thinke, that the Fathers discretion exceedeth his. And herein the Lord manifesteth his wisedome, in that he doth not alwayes actually bestow these outward things so largely on his children, as on others, because hee nurtereth them, and will have them wholly depend vponupon him.
And both these our Saviour (Mat. 6. 32.) coucheth together to worke contentment: your heavenly Father knoweth, what ye stand in need of. He that can give riches without contentment, knowes also to give contentment without riches. And cap. 7. 11. if ye which are evill, can give good things to your children, &c.
3 Consider his promise, that 3the righteous shall never bee forsaken, nor will hee ever faile or leave them: and if we feare God, no good thing shall bee wanting, Psal. 34. 9. And from hence, Heb. 13. 5. the Apostle perswades to be content with the things we have, because he hath said, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee.
Ob. But for all this I see I want many comforts, I feele such and such wants, &c.
Answ. Every thing good in it selfe is not good for thee. If this bee thy case, thou wantest not want and affliction, which now God seeth good for thee, and so shall be, if thou beest not more wanting to thy selfe then other things be. And the more thy crosses be, and the greater, the more & greater love by vertue of the promise is wrapped up in them.
4 Consider his powerfull providence: 4 Qui crea… te never a…, ordinare … non novit? Aug.who provides for sparrows, and hath care of beasts, fowles, flowers, and haires of the head; yea hee created light before Sunne, Moone, and starres: hee made grasse grow before raine or dew: hee can preserve Israehtes forty yeares in a bar ren wildernesse, can bring Mann… from the clouds, water from a rocke, yea without all these can preserve Moses and Elias forty dayes. What an unmovable foundation of godly Contentment is this?
5 Consider his rich supply. God hath given himselfe to thee to become 5thy portion: hee hath given his Sonne to thee, and for thee, and the holy Spirit, to seale up to thy heart this gift. Now if he give the greater, will hee deny the lesse? … he give his Christ, how will he not with him give all things also? Is Rom. 8. 32.the Lord my portion, and are not my lines fallen into a good ground? shall I beleeve him for salvation, and not for preservation? for eternall, and not for temporary life?
Next, if we looke at our selvts.What in our selves may make us cont…ted 1
1 All of us enjoy much more then wee can deserve: if we have bread and breath, this is forseited and lost; therefore wee must crave our daily bread: and wee must as well looke upon our receipts to be thankfull, as on our wants to rep…ne: and looke upon them behind us, as well as them before us.
2 If wee want outward things, it is very just upon us, because wee esteeme no more of inward graces and spirituall blessings; which are promised no farther then men seeke Gods Kingdome and righteousnesse. And whereas in innocency Gods blessings were united, since the fall they be so divided, as seldome doe spirituall and worldly things goe together. Iust also, because God seeth wee would abuse them, and would preferre them before spirituall things: & the better things are often brought into better request by want of the worse.
3 Such is the ripenesse of our 3sinnes, that it is Gods mercy wee are not consumed. His singular patience it is, to continue us in any being, whom hee might long since have cut off.
4 If we remember how little nature is contented with, and yet grace 4is contented with much lesse, because it perswades, That the Lord is a freegiver, and may doe with his owne as he will: That for preserving humane society it is fit some bee rich, some poore, some weake, and some strong; and thou hast deserved no better: That the world was made for the triall, proofe, and affliction of Gods children, their heaven and home and joy unmixt with sorrow reserved till hereafter; and if God cast thee down, to raise and exalt thee, hee dealeth no otherwise then with his deare Sonne, who by the Crosse must goe to the Crowne: That if he have need but of little, it is folly to heap up more; as a man in a journey, if one pot of water will serve him, it were madnesse to load himselfe with a barrell; if two hundred will serve him, it were folly to load himselfe with a thousand.
Lastly, if we looke at the Saints, we have a cloud of examples. Iacob, when Examples of holy mē perswade cōtentmēt.he went from his fathers house, vowed that if the Lord would give him but food and raiment, to returne back in safety, the Lord should bee his God, Gen. 28. 20. The Prophet Ieremy (chap. 45. 4.) rebuked Baruch Doest thou seek great things for thy selfe? seeke them not. And Paul adviseth, If we have food and raiment, let us be therewith content. And himselfe had learned to want and abound, and in all things to be content. Our Lord also teacheth us to pray but for daily bread.
And if thou judgest aright, thou Fortè in… pia …rudiet copi… corrumpet. Q…aeris tu copi…m corruptionis, cum necessaria fortasse sit in… pi… eruditionis. Aug.shalt see no lesse favour of God in withholding these things from thee, then in bestowing them. Thou thinkest, to rise in the world, were a fine thing; but it is not thy lot, because he seeth it might be thy fall in grace. Thou thinkest thou couldest use honours well: but he seeth it might make thee more proud and insolent. Thou thinkest thou couldest enjoy and tumble safely in carnall delights: but hee seeth this might make thee come short of the joyes of heaven. Oh but werst thou rich in goods, thou couldest doe much good: but he knowes this might make thee poore in goodnesse. Thou knowest not thine owne heart, were it proved with such things. Give him leave to carve for thee what he knoweth to be most safe and wholsome.
Object. If I thought God loved or respected mee, I could be the better content.
Answer. If thou beest a godly man, whom he can behold in Christs righteousnesse, be thy estate what it will, God must love his image on thee. If thou be the Lords gold, hee may try thee: but the Goldsmith loves his gold as well in the Furnace as in the treasury. It is for men to respect fine clothes and gay rings (as the Apostle Iames saith) and by them to set men higher or lower: but God highly esteemes of all, who are rich in faith, and heires of grace: let this be thy care, and all is well.