A30598:159
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.
the Kingdom of God is within you, he makes it that there is such a presence of God and Christ within the soul of a man, that when the body dies, he saith, that the soul goes into God and Christ that is within him, the souls going into God and Christ, and enjoying of that Communion with God and Christ that is within it's self, that's Heaven to it (saith he) he confesses he is not able to express himself, nor others cannot understand fully what he intends; but certainly for the present before death, there's a Kingdom of God within the soul, such a manifestation of God in the soul that is enough to Content the heart of any godly man in the world, the Kingdom that he hath now within him, he shall not stay till afterwards, till he goes to Heaven, but certainly there is a Heaven in the soul of a godly man, he hath Heaven already: many times when you go to comfort your friends in their afflictions, you will say ⟨p. 59⟩Heaven will pay for all; nay, you may certainly find Heaven pays for all already: there is a Heaven within the souls of the Saints, that's a certain truth, no soul shall ever come to heaven, but that Soul that hath Heaven come to it first. When you die you hope you shall go to Heaven: But if you shall go to Heaven when you die, Heaven will come to you before you die. Now this is a great Mystery to have the Kingdom of Heaven in the Soul, no man can know this but that Soul that hath it, that Heaven which is within the Soul for the present (I say) it is like the white stone and the new name, that none but those that have it can understand it: It's a miserable condition my brethren to depend upon creatures altogether for our Contentment, you know that rich men account it a great happiness, if they need not go to buy things by the penny as others do, they have all things for pleasure or profit upon their own ground; and all their inheritance lies entire together, they have no body comes within them, but they have all within themselves, there lies their happiness: Whereas other poorer people are fain to go from one Market to another to provide them necessaries, but yet great rich men they have sheep and beeves, corn and clothing, and all things else of their own within themselves, and herein they place their happiness: But this is the happiness of a Christian, that he hath that within himself that may satisfy him more than all these;
the Kingdom of God is within you, he makes it that there is such a presence of God and Christ within the soul of a man, that when the body dies, he saith, that the soul goes into God and Christ that is within him, the souls going into God and Christ, and enjoying of that Communion with God and Christ that is within it's self, that's Heaven to it (saith he) he confesses he is not able to expresse himself, nor others cannot understand fully what he intends; but certainly for the present before death, there's a Kingdom of God within the soul, such a manifestation of God in the soul that is enough to Content the heart of any godly man in the world, the Kingdom that he hath now within him, he shall not stay till afterwards, till he goes to Heaven, but certainly there is a Heaven in the soul of a godly man, he hath Heaven already: many times when you go to comfort your friends in their afflictions, you will say