A30598:123
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
The rare jewel of Christian contentment wherein is showed, I. What contentment is, II. The holy art or mystery of it, III. Several lessons that Christ teacheth, to work the heart to contentment, IV. The excellencies of it, V. The evils of murmuring, VII. The aggravations of the sin of murmuring / by Jeremiah Burroughs.The rare jewel of Christian contentment wherein is shewed, I. What contentment is, II. The holy art or mystery of it, III. Several lessons that Christ teacheth, to work the heart to contentment, IV. The excellencies of it, V. The evils of murmuring, VII. The aggravations of the sin of murmuring / by Jeremiah Burroughs.
London: printed for Peter Cole, 1649
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
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 Courier 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 enjoy, they enjoy 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.
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.
2. What they have it is sanctified to them for good; Other men have what they enjoy in a way of common providence, but the Saints in a special way; Others have what they have and there is all, they have meat, and drink, and houses, and clothes, 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 nearer to him, and sanctify my heart to him: If I find my heart drawn