A30598:197
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.
Again, We are not only travellers but soldiers, this is the condition of the life in which we are here in this world: and therefore we are to behave our selves accordingly. So the Apostle makes use of this argument in writing unto Timothy, 2 Tim. 2.3. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The very thought of the condition of a man that is a soldier, doth still his disquiet of heart: when he is abroad, he hath not that accommodations in his quarters as he hath in his own family; perhaps a man that had his bed and curtains drawn about him, and all accommodations in his chamber; now perhaps sometimes he must be put to lie upon straw, and he thinketh with himself, I am a soldier and it is suitable to my condition: ⟨p. 79⟩he must have his bed warmed at home, but he must lie abroad in the fields when he is a soldier; and the very thought of this condition in which he stands quiets him in all things; yea and he goes rejoicing, to think this is but suitable to my condition in which God hath put me: so it should be with us in respect of this world. Now would it not be an unseemly thing to see a soldier go whining up and down with the finger in the eye and complaining, that he hath not hot meat every meal, and his bed warmed as he had at home. Now Christians they know that they are in their warfare, they are here in this world fighting and combating with the enemies of their souls and eternal condition, and they must be willing to endure hardness here. The right understanding of this, that God hath put them into such a condition, it is that that will content them, especially when they consider that they are certain of the victory, and that ere long they shall triumph with Jesus Christ, and then all their sorrows shall be done away, and their tears wiped from their eyes. A soldier is content to endure hardness though he knows not that he shall have the victory, but a Christian knows himself to be a soldier, and knows that he shall conquer and triumph with Jesus Christ to all eternity. And that's the fourth lesson that Christ doth teach the soul when he brings it into his School, to learn the Art of Contentment, he makes him understand throughly the relation in which he hath placed him in, in this world.
Again, We are not only travellers but souldiers, this is the condition of the life in which we are here in this world: and therefore we are to behave our selves accordingly. So the Apostle makes use of this argument in writing unto Timothy,