PHILIPPIANS. 4.11. For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
THE Mystery of Contentment will appear yet further. A gracious heart gets Contentment in a mysterious way, a way that the world is not aquainted with
Eightly, He lives upon the dew of Gods blessing. It’s the similitude of one Adrian Junius setting out a Contented man by a Grashopper, leaping and skipping up and down, that lives upon the dew, and he hath this motto, I am content with what I have, and hope for better. A grashopper doth not live upon the grass as other things do, you cannot know what it feeds upon, other things though as little as grashppers, yet feed upon seeds or little flies, and such things, but the grashopper, you know not what it feeds upon. So a Christian can get food that the world knows not of, in a secret way is a Christian fed by the dew of the blessing of God, a poor man or woman that hath but a little which hath grace, lives a more contented life than his rich neighbour that hath a great deal coming in, we find it so ordinarily, so that though they have but a little, yet they have a secret blessing of God going in it, that they are not able to expresse to any other man; if you would come to them and say; How comes it that you live so comfortably as you do? they are not able to tell you what they have, but they find there is a sweetnesse in what they do injoy, and they know this by experience that they never had such sweetnesse in former times, that though they had more plenty in former times than now they have, yet they know they had not such sweetnesse; but how this comes they cannot tell; and we may shew some particulars, even in that godly men do enjoy, that make their condition to be sweet.
As now, Take these four or five particulars that godly men finds Contentment in what he hath, though it be never so little.
1 Because in what he hath, he hath the love of God, he hath Gods love to him in what he hath: If a King should send a piece of meat from his own table, it is a great deal more comfortable to a Courrier than if he had twenty dishes at ordinary allowance, if the King send but any little thing and say, Go and carry this to such a man as a token of my love, Oh how delightful is that unto him? are your husbands at Sea and send you a token of their love, it is more than forty times so much that you have in your houses already: Every good thing the people of God do injoy, they injoy it in Gods love, as a token of Gods love, and coming from Gods eternal love unto them, and this must needs be very sweet unto them.
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What they have it is sanctified to them for good; Other men have what they injoy in a way of common providence, but the Saints in a special way; Others have what they have and there is all, they have meate, and drink, and houses, and cloaths, and money and that’s all. But a gracious heart finds contentment in this, I have it, and I have a sanctified use of it too; I find God going along with what I have to draw my heart neerer to him, and sanctifie my heart to him: If I find my heart drawn nearer to God by what I injoy; it’s more a great deal than if I have it without any sanctifying my heart by it; there’s a secret dew that goes along with it, there’s the dew of Gods love in it, and the dew of sanctification.
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A gracious heart what he hath he hath it upon free-cost, he is not like to be called to pay for what he hath: The difference between what a godly man hath; and a wicked man is in this: A godly man is as a child in an Inne; an In-keeper hath his child in his house, and the Father provides his dyet, and lodging, and what is fit for him; Now there comes a stranger, and the stranger hath dinner and supper provided, and lodging, but the stranger must pay for all; it may be the childs fare is meaner than the fare of the stranger, the stranger hath boyld, and rost and baked; but he must pay for it, there must come a reckoning for it. Just thus it is, many of Gods people have but mean fare; but God as a father provides it, and it is on free-cost, and they must not pay for what they have, it is paid for before; but the wicked in all their pomp, and pride, and bravery, they have what they call for, but there must come a reckoning for all, they must pay for all in the conclusion, and is it not better to have a little upon free cost, than to come to have all to pay for? Grace doth shew a man that what he hath, he hath it on free cost, from God as from a Father, and therefore must needs be very sweet.
Fourthly, A godly man may very well be content, though he hath but little, For what he hath he hath it by right of Jesus Christ, by the purchase of Jesus Christ, he hath a right to it, another manner of right to what he hath, than any wicked man can have to what he hath; a wicked man hath these outward things; I do not say they are usurpers of what they have, but they have a right to it, and that before God, but how? it is a right by meer donation, that is, God by his free bounty doth give it to them; but the right that the Saints have, it is a right of purchase, it is paid for, and it is their own, and they may in a holy manner, and holy way, challenge whatsoever they have need of. We cannot express the right of a holy man, the difference between his right, and the right of the wicked more fully than by this similitude; a Malefactor that is condemned to die, yet he hath by favour granted to him his supper provided over night, and you cannot say though the Malefactor hath forfeited all his right to all things, to every bit of bread, yet if he shall have a supper granted to him he doth not steal it, though all his right is forfeited by his fault, after he is once condemned he hath no right to any thing; so it is with the wicked, they have forfeited all their right to all comforts in this world, they are condemned by God as Malefactors and are going to execution; but if God will in his bounty give them something to preserve them here in the world, they cannot be said to be thieves or robbers: Now a man hath granted to him a supper over night before his execution, but is that like the supper that he was wont to have in his own house, when he eat his own bread, and had his wife and children about him? Oh a dish of green herbs at home would be a great deal better than any dainties in such a supper as that is; but now a child of God hath not a right meerly by donation, but what he hath it is his own through the purchase of Christ; every bit of bread that thou eatest, if thou beest a godly man or woman, Jesus Christ hath bought it for thee, thou goest to market and buyest thy meat and drink with thy money, but know that before thou hast bought it, or paid money, Christ hath bought it at the hand of God the Father with his blood, thou hast it at the hands of men for money, but Christ hath bought it at the hand of his Father by his blood: And certainly it is a great deal better and sweeter now though it be but a little·