FIFTH SEASON
HOW A CHRISTIAN MAY KEEP HIS
HEART FROM REPINING
“The fifth season to excite this diligence in keeping the heart, is the time of straits and outward pinching wants; although at such times we should complain to God, and not of God (the throne of grace being erected for a time of need, Heb. iv. 16) yet when the waters of relief run low, and wants begin to pinch hard, how prone are the best hearts to distrust the fountain! when the meal in the barrel and the oil in the cruse are almost spent, our faith and patience are almost spent too. Now it is difficult to keep down the proud and unbelieving heart in an holy quietude and sweet submission at the foot of God. It is an easy thing to talk of trusting God for daily bread, while we have a full barn or purse; but to say, as the prophet, Though the fig tree should not blossom, neither fruit be in the vine, &c. yet I will rejoice in the Lord, Hab. iii. 17. Surely this is not easy.” The fifth case therefore shall be this.
Case 5. How a Christian may keep his heart from distrusting God, or repining against him, when outward wants are either felt or feared.
This case deserves to be seriously pondered, and especially to be studied now, since it seems to be the design of providence to empty the people of God of their creature-fulness, and acquaint them with those straits which hitherto they have been altogether strangers to.
Now, to secure the heart from the before-mentioned dangers attending this condition, these following considerations, through the blessings of the spirit, may prove effectual. And the first is this,
Consideration 1. That if God reduce you to straits and necessities, yet he deals no otherwise therein with you, than he hath done with some of the choicest and holiest men that ever lived.
Your condition is not singular; though you have hitherto been strangers to wants, other saints have daily conversed and been familiarly acquainted with them. Hear what blessed Paul speaks, not of himself only, but in the names of other saints reduced to like exigencies. Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked and buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place, 1 Cor. iv. 11. To see such a man as Paul going up and down the world with a naked back, and empty belly, and not a house to put his head in, one that was so far above thee in grace and holiness, one that did more service for God in a day, than perhaps thou hast done in all thy days; and yet thou repine as if hardly dealt with! have you forgot what necessities and straits even a David hath suffered? How great were his straits and necessities? Give I pray thee (saith he to Nabal) whatsoever cometh to thy hand, to thy servants, and to thy son David, 1 Sam. xxv. 8. Renowned Musculus was forced to dig in the town ditch for a maintenance. Famous Ainsworth (as I have been credibly informed) was forced to sell the bed he lay on to buy bread. But why speak I of these? Behold a greater than any of them, even the Son of God, who is the heir of all things, and by whom the worlds were made, yet sometimes would have been glad of any thing, having nothing to eat, And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry; and seeing a fig-tree afar off, having leaves, he came if happily he might find [any thing] thereon. Mark xi. 12.
Well then, hereby God hath set no mark of hatred upon you, neither can you infer the want of love from want of bread.—When thy repining heart puts the question, was there ever any sorrow like unto mine? Ask these worthies, and they will tell thee, though they did not complain and fret as thou dost, yet they were driven to as great straits as thou art.
Consid. 2. If God leave you not in this necessitous condition without a promise, you have no reason to repine or despond under it.
That is a sad condition indeed, to which no promise belongs. I remember Mr. Calvin upon those words, Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, &c. Isa. ix. 1, solves the doubt in what sense the darkness of the captivity was not so great as the lesser incursions made by Tiglath Pileser. In the captivity the city was destroyed, and the temple burnt with fire, there was no comparison in the affliction; but yet the darkness should not be such, and the reason (saith he) is this, Hic certam permissionen esse additam, cum in prioribus nulla esset; i. e. there was a certain promise made to this, but none to the other.