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- Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
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Seitenzahl: 196
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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THE ART OF DIVINE CONTENTMENT
Thomas Watson
KYPROS PRESS
Thank you for reading. In the event that you appreciate this book, please consider sharing the good word(s) by leaving a review, or connect with the author.
This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.
All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2016 by Thomas Watson
Interior design by Pronoun
Distribution by Pronoun
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Art of Divine Contentment
Part 1
The Introduction to the Text.
The First Branch of the Text, the SCHOLAR, with the First Proposition.
The Second Branch of the Text.
The Lesson itself, with the Proposition.
The resolving of some questions.
Showing the nature of contentment.
Reasons pressing to holy contentment.
Use I. Showing how a Christian may make his life comfortable.
Use II. A check to the discontented Christian.
Use III. A persuasive to contentment.
Part 2
Divine MOTIVES to Contentment.
First Evil. The SORDIDNESS of it is unworthy of a Christian.
Second Evil. Consider the sinfulness of discontent; which appears in three things; the caUses, the accompaniments, the consequences of it.
Third Evil. Consider the foolishness of discontent.
Three Cautions
Showing how a Christian may know whether he has learned this Divine Art of Contentment
A Christian Directory, or RULES about Contentment.
Consolation to the Contented Christian.
THE ART OF DIVINE CONTENTMENT
PART 1
“I HAVE LEARNED TO BE content in whatever circumstances I am. I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:11-13
“Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward;” therefore we all need to learn the same lesson as Paul. “I have learned,” he said “in whatever state I am, therewith to be content,” Philippians 4:11. Believers, especially, wish to attain to a holy composure in their tribulations and under the stresses caused by our increasingly secular society.
THE INTRODUCTION TO THE TEXT.
THESE WORDS ARE BROUGHT IN to anticipate and prevent an objection. The apostle had, in the former verse, laid down many grave and heavenly exhortations: among the rest, “to be anxious for nothing.”
Not to exclude: 1. A prudential care; for, he who provides not for his own house, “has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” (1 Ti. 5:8)
Nor, 2. a religious care; for we must give all “diligence to make our calling and election sure.” (2 Pe. 1:10) But,
3. to exclude all anxious worry about the outcomes and events of things; “do not be anxious about your life—what you shall eat.” (Mat. 6:25) And in this sense it should be a Christian’s care not to be anxious. The in the Greek signifies “to cut the heart in pieces,” a soul-dividing worry; take heed of this. We are bid to “commit our way unto the Lord;” (Psalm 37:5) the Hebrew word is, “roll your way upon the Lord.” It is our work to cast away anxiety; (1 Pe 5:7) and it is God’s work to take care.
By our immoderate worry, we take his work out of his hand. Worry, when it is extreme, either distrustful or distracting, is very dishonorable to God; it takes away his providence, as if he sat in heaven and did not mind the things here below; like a man who makes a clock, and then leaves it to run by itself. Immoderate worry takes the heart off from better things; and usually while we are thinking how we shall live—we forget how to die. Worry is a spiritual canker which wastes and dispirits; we may sooner by our worry add a furlong to our grief than a cubit to our comfort. God does threaten it as a curse, “they shall eat their bread with worry.” (Ez. 12:1) Better to fast—than eat of that bread. “Be anxious for nothing.”
Now, lest any one should say, “Yes, Paul you preach that to us which you have scarce learned yourself; have you learned not to be anxious?” The apostle seemed tacitly to answer that, in the words of the text; “I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content,” a speech worthy to be engraved upon our hearts, and to be written in letters of gold upon the crowns and diadems of princes.
The text does branch itself into these two general parts.
I. The scholar, Paul; “I have learned.”
II. The lesson; “in every state to be content.”
THE FIRST BRANCH OF THE TEXT, THE SCHOLAR, WITH THE FIRST PROPOSITION.
I BEGIN WITH THE FIRST: The scholar, and his proficiency; “I have learned.” Out of which I shall observe two things by way of explanation.
1. The apostle does not say, “I have heard, that in every estate I should be content,” but, “I have learned.” Whence our first doctrine, that it is not enough for Christians to hear their duty—but they must learn their duty. It is one thing to hear and another thing to learn; as it is one thing to eat and another thing to cook. Paul was a practitioner. Christians hear much—but it is to be feared, learn little. There were four kinds of soils in the parable, (Lu. 8:5) and but one good ground. This is an emblem of this truth—many hearers—but few learners.
There are two things which keep us from learning.
1. SLIGHTING what we hear. Christ is the pearl of great price; when we disesteem this pearl, we shall never learn either its value, or its virtue. The gospel is a rare mystery. In one place, (Ac. 20:24) it is called “the gospel of grace;” in another, (1 Cor. 4:4) “the gospel of glory;” because in it, as in a transparent glass, the glory of God is resplendent. But he who has despises this mystery, will hardly ever learn to obey it. He who looks upon the things of heaven as unimportant things; and perhaps the driving of a trade, or carrying on some politic design to be of greater importance, this man is in the high road to damnation, and will hardly ever learn of things concerning his salvation. Who will learn that which he thinks is scarcely worth learning?
2. FORGETTING what we hear. If a scholar has his rules laid before him, and he forgets them as fast as he reads them, he will never learn. (Ja. 1:25) Aristotle calls the memory the scribe of the soul; and Bernard calls it the stomach of the soul, because it has a retentive faculty, and turns heavenly food into nutrition. We have great memories in other things, we remember that which is vain. Cyrus could remember the name of every soldier in his huge army. We remember injuries; his is to fill a precious cabinet of the mind, with dung. But as Hierom says, how soon do we forget the sacred truths of God!
We are apt to forget three things: our faults, our friends, our instructions. Many Christians are like sieves; put a sieve into the water, and it is full; but take it forth of the water, and all runs out. Just so, while they are hearing a sermon, they remember something: but like the sieve out of the water—as soon as they are gone out of the church, all is forgotten. “Let these sayings, (says Christ) sink down into your ears;” (Lu. 9:44) in the original it is, “put these sayings into your ears,” as a man that would hide the jewel from being stolen, locks it up safe in his chest. Let them sink in. The Word must not fall only as dew that wets the leaf—but as rain which soaks to the root of the tree, and makes it fructify. O, how often does Satan, that fowl of the air, pick up the good seed that is sown!
USE. Let me put you upon a serious trial. Some of you have heard much—you have lived forty, fifty, sixty years under the blessed trumpet of the gospel—what have you learned? You may have heard a thousand sermons, and yet not learned one. Search your consciences.
1. You have heard much against SIN. Are you hearers—or are you learners? How many sermons have you heard against covetousness, that it is the root, on which pride and idolatry grow? One calls it a metropolitan sin; it is a complex evil, it does twist a great many sins in with it. There is hardly any sin—but covetousness is a main ingredient of it. And yet are you like the two daughters of the horse-leech, which cries, “give! give!” How much have you heard against rash anger, that is a temporary insanity; that it rests in the bosom of fools. And upon the least occasion do your spirits begin to take fire? How much have you heard against swearing. It is Christ’s express mandate, “swear not at all.” (Mat. 5:34) This sin of all others may be termed the unfruitful work of darkness. It is neither sweetened with pleasure, nor enriched with profit—the usual colors with which Satan paints sin. While the swearer shoots his oaths, like flying arrows at God to pierce his glory—God shoots “a flying scroll” of curses against him. And do you make your tongue a racket by which you toss oaths as tennis balls? do you sport yourselves with oaths, as the Philistines did with Samson, which will at last pull the house down on you? Alas! how have they learned what sin is, who have not learned to leave sin! Does he know what a viper sin is—who will play with it?
2. You have heard much of CHRIST. Have you learned Christ? The Jews, as Jerome says, carried Christ in their Bibles—but not in their heart. The sound “went into all the earth; (Ro. 10:18) the prophets and apostles were as trumpets, whose sound went abroad into the world. Yet many thousands who heard the noise of these trumpets, had not learned Christ, “they have not all obeyed.” (Ro. 10:16)
(1.) A man may know much of Christ—and yet not learn Christ. The devils knew Christ. (Mat. 1:24)
(2.) A man may preach Christ, and yet not learn Christ—as Judas and the false apostles. (Ph. 4:15)
(3.) A man may profess Christ, and yet not learn Christ. There are many professors in the world, who Christ will profess against. (Mat. 7:22, 23)
Question. What it is then to learn Christ?
1. To learn Christ is to be made like Christ, to have the divine character of his holiness engraved upon our hearts. “We all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.” (2 Cor. 3:18) There is a metamorphosis made; a sinner, viewing Christ’s image in the looking-glass of the gospel, is transformed into that image. Never did any man look upon Christ with a spiritual eye—but he went away quite changed. A true saint is a divine landscape picture, where all the rare beauties of Christ are lively portrayed and drawn forth—he has the same spirit, the same judgment, the same will—with Jesus Christ.
2. To learn Christ, is to believe in him—"my Lord, and my God,” (John 20:28) when we do not only believe God—but in God, which is the actual application of Christ to ourselves, and as it were—the spreading of the sacred medicine of his blood upon our souls. You have heard much of Christ, and yet cannot with a humble adherence say, “my Jesus;” do not be offended if I tell you—the devil can say his creed as well as you!
3. To learn Christ, is to love Christ. When we have Bible-lives, our lives like rich diamonds cast a sparkling luster in the church of God, and are, in some sense, parallel with the life of Christ, as the transcript with the original. So much for the first notion of the word.
THE SECOND BRANCH OF THE TEXT.
THIS WORD, “I HAVE LEARNED,” is a word which imports difficulty. It shows how hard the apostle came by contentment of mind; it was not bred in nature. Paul did not come naturally by it—but he had learned it. It cost him many a prayer and tear, it was taught him by the Spirit. Whence our second doctrine—that good things are hard to come by. The business of true religion is not so easy as most imagine. “I have learned,” says Paul. Indeed—you need not teach a man to sin; this is natural, (Psalm 58:3) and therefore easy. It comes as water out of a spring. It is an easy thing to be wicked; hell will be taken without storm; but matters of piety must be learned. The trade of sin needs not to be learned—but the art of divine contentment is not achieved without holy industry. “I have learned.”
There are two pregnant reasons why there must be so much study and exertion:
1. Because spiritual things are AGAINST nature. Everything in piety is opposite to nature. There are two things in true religion, and both are against nature.
(1.) Matters of faith. As, for men to be justified by the righteousness of another, to become a fool that he may be wise, to save all by losing all—this is against nature.
(2.) Matters of practice. As, self-denial. As for a man to deny his own wisdom, and see himself blind. As to have his own will, and have it melted into the will of God. As to be plucking out the right eye, beheading and crucifying that sin which is the favorite, and lies nearest to the heart. As for a man to be dead to the world, and in the midst of need to abound. As for him to take up the cross, and follow Christ, not only in golden—but in bloody paths. As to embrace religion, when it is dressed in rags, and all the jewels of honor and preferment are pulled off. All this is against nature—and therefore must be learned.
Likewise with self-examination; for a man to take his heart, as a watch, all in pieces; to set up a spiritual inquisition, and traverse things in his own soul; to take David’s candle and lantern, (Psalm 119:105) and search for sin; nay, as judge, to pass the sentence upon himself! (2 Sa. 34:17) This is against nature, and will not easily be attained to without learning.
Likewise with self-reformation; to see a man, as Caleb, walking opposite to how he once walked, the current of his life altered, and running into the channel of piety—this is wholly against nature. When a stone ascends, it is not a natural motion—but a violent. Just so, the motion of the soul heaven-ward is a violent motion, it must be learned; flesh and blood is not skilled in these things; nature can no more cast out nature, than Satan can cast out Satan.
2. Because spiritual things are ABOVE nature. There are some things in the world that are hard to find out, which are not learned without study. What then are divine things, which are in sphere above the world, and beyond all human learning? Only God’s Spirit can light our candle here. The apostle calls these “the deep things of God.” The gospel is full of jewels—but they are locked up—away from sense and reason. The angels in heaven are searching into these sacred depths. (1 Pe. 22)
USE. Let us beg the Spirit of God to teach us. We must be “divinely taught.” God’s Spirit must must teach—or we cannot learn. “All your children shall be taught of the Lord”. (Is. 54:13) A man may read the figure on the dial—but he cannot tell how the day goes, unless the sun shines upon the dial. Just so, we may read the Bible over—but we can not learn effectually, until the Spirit of God shines into our hearts. (2 Cor. 4:6) O implore this blessed Spirit! “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit.” (Is. 48:17) Ministers may tell us our lesson, God alone can teach us.
We have lost both our hearing and sight, therefore are very unfit to learn. Ever since Eve listened to the serpent, we have been deaf; and since she looked on the tree of knowledge we have been blind. But when God comes to teach, he removes these impediments. (Is. 35:5)
We are naturally dead. (Ep. 2:1) Who can teach a dead man? Yet, behold, God undertakes to make dead men to understand mysteries! God is the grand teacher. This is the reason the preached Word works so differently upon men. There are two men in one pew—the one is wrought upon effectually by the Spirit; the other lies at the ordinances as a dead child at the breast, and gets no nourishment. What is the reason for this? Because the heavenly gale of the Spirit blows upon the one, and not upon the other. One has the anointing of God, which teaches him all things (1 John 2:27) the other has it not. God’s Spirit speaks sweetly—but irresistibly. In that heavenly doxology, none could sing the new song—but those who were sealed in their foreheads, (Re. 14:2) reprobates could not sing it. Those who are skillful in the mysteries of salvation, must have the seal of the Spirit upon them. Let us make this our prayer: “Lord, breathe your Spirit into your Word!” We have a promise, which may add wings to prayer; “if you then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Lu. 11:13) And thus much of the first part of the text, the scholar, which I intended only as a short summary.
THE LESSON ITSELF, WITH THE PROPOSITION.
I COME TO THE SECOND, which is the main thing—the lesson itself, “in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.” Here was a rare piece of learning indeed! The text has but few words in it; “in every state content:” but if that be true—that the most golden sentence is ever measured by brevity and suavity, then, this is a most accomplished speech. The text is like a precious jewel—little in quantity—but great in worth and value!
The main proposition I shall insist upon, is this—that a gracious spirit is a contented spirit. The doctrine of contentment is very superlative, and until we have learned this—we have not learned to be Christians.
1. It is a HARD lesson. The angels in heaven had not learned it; they were not contented. Though their estate was very glorious—yet they were still soaring aloft, and aimed at something higher; “the angels which kept not their first estate.” They kept not their estate, because they were not contented with their estate. Our first parents, clothed with the white robe of innocency in paradise, had not learned to be content; they had aspiring hearts, and would be crowned with the Deity, and “be as gods.” Though they had the choice of all the trees of the garden—yet none would content them but the tree of knowledge, which they supposed would have been as eye-salve to have made them omniscient. O then, if this lesson was so hard to learn in the original state of innocency, how hard shall we find it, who are clogged with corruption!
2. It is of UNIVERSAL extent, it concerns all people.
1. It concerns RICH men. One would think it needless to press those to contentment whom God has blessed with great estates—but rather persuade them to be humble and thankful; nay—but I say, be content. Rich men have their discontents as well as others! When they have a great estate—yet they are discontented that they have no more; they would make the hundred into a thousand. The drunkard—the more he drinks, the more he thirsts. Just so with covetousness. An earthly heart is like the grave, which is “never satisfied;” therefore I say to you, rich men—be content! Rich men are seldom content with their large estates; though they have estate enough, they have not honor enough; if their barns are full enough—yet their turrets are not high enough. They would be somebody in the world, as Theudas, “who boasted himself to be somebody.” (Ac. 5:36) They never go so cheerfully as when the wind of honor and applause fills their sails; if this wind is low—they are discontented.
One would think Haman had as much as his proud heart could desire; he was set above all the princes, advanced upon the pinnacle of honor, to be the second man in the kingdom; (Es. 3:1) yet in the midst of all his pomp, because Mordecai would not bow to him—he is discontented, and full of wrath, and there was no way to assuage this madness of revenge—but by spilling all the Jews’ blood. The itch of honor is seldom allayed, without blood. Therefore I say to you rich men—be content!
Rich men, if we may suppose them to be content with their honor and magnificent titles—yet they have not always contentment in their relations. She who lies in the bosom, may sometimes blow the coals; as Job’s wife, who would have him curse God himself; “curse God, and die!” Sometimes children cause discontent. How often is it seen that the mother’s milk, nourishes a viper! He who once sucked her breast, goes about to suck her blood! Parents often gather thorns from grapes, and thistles from figs. Children are sweet-briar; like the rose, which is a fragrant flower—but has its prickles. Our family comforts are not all pure wine—but mixed; they have in them more dregs than spirits. They are like that river which in the morning runs sweet—but in the evening runs bitter. We have no charter of exemption granted us in this life; therefore rich men had need be called upon to be content.
2. The doctrine of contentment concerns POOR men. You who suck so liberally from the breasts of providence—be content; it is an hard lesson, therefore it had need be learned very early. How hard is it when the livelihood is even gone, a great estate boiled away almost to nothing—then to be contented. The means of subsistence is in Scripture called our life, because it is the very sinews of life. The woman in the gospel spent “all her living upon the physicians;” (Lu. 8:43) in the Greek it is, she spent her whole life upon the physicians, because she spent her means by which she should live. It is hard to be content when poverty has clipped our wings! But, though hard, “contentment in poverty” is an excellent virtue.
