PHILIPPIANS. 4.11.1For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
WEE have made entrance (you may remember) into the Argument of Christian Contentment. And have opened the words, and shewed you what this Christian Contentation is; that it is, The inward, quiet, gracious frame of Spirit, freely submitting too, and taking Complacency in Gods dispose in every condition. And therein came to this last thing, [In every condition] Now we shall a little in large that, and so proceed:
1 Submitting to God in what ever 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 Gods 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 Gods dispose, in what ever condition he should dispose of you too; you would say, God forbid it should be otherwise, but we use to say, There is a great deal of deceit in generals. In general you would submit to any thing: but what if it be in this and that particular, that is most crosse to you? Then any thing but that: we are usually apt to think that any condition is better than the condition that God doth dispose us too, 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 crosse to you. God (it may be) striks you in your Child, Oh if it had been in my Estate saith one, I should be content; perhaps he striks you in your Match, Oh saith he I had rather have been strucken 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, divers years, and I know not how to yeild 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 Gods 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 1. Chap. of Ezek. When I saw it I fel upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake, (the Prophet was cast down upon his face, but how long must he lie upon his face) And he said vnto me, Son of man stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee, and the Spirit entered into me, when he spake 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 monthes together, it was a mighty thing, yet God shutting him up (though the waters were asswaged) Noah was not to come out of the Ark til 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 reade 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 Josh. 4.10. you have a notable history there that may very well serve our purpose; we reade of the Priests, that the Priests bear the Ark and stood in the middest 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 bad 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 middest 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 Gods dispose that all the people should passe 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 sence 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 til God cals 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 publike 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 cals them in publick 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.