A30598:204
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.
2 This knowledge of our hearts will help us to Contentment because by this we shall come to know what is most suitable to our condition. As thus, a man that knows not his own heart he thinks not what need he hath of affliction, and upon that he is disquieted; but that man or woman that hath studied their own hearts, when God comes with afflictions upon them, they can say, I would not for any thing in the world have been without this affliction, God hath so suited this affliction to my condition, and hath come in such a way, that if this affliction had not come I am afraid I should have fallen into sin; a poor country man that takes Physic, the Physic works, and he thinks it will kill him, because he knows not the ill humours that are in his body, and therefore he understands not how suitable the Physic is to him; but a Physician takes a purge, and it makes him extremely sick, saith the Physician I like this the better, it doth but work upon the humour that I know is the matter of my disease, and upon that such a man that hath knowledge and understanding in his body, and the cause of his distemper, he is not troubled or disquieted: So would we be if we did but ⟨p. 84⟩know the distempers of our own hearts, carnal men and women they know not their own spirits, and therefore they fling and vex upon every affliction that doth befall them, they know not what distempers are in their hearts that may be healed by their afflictions, if it please God to give them a sanctified use of them.
2 This knowledge of our hearts wil help us to Contentment because by this we shall come to know what is most sutable to our condition. As thus, a man that knows not his own heart he thinks not what need he hath of affliction, and upon that he is disquieted; but that man or woman that hath studied their own hearts, when God comes with afflictions upon them, they can say, I would not for any thing in the world have been without this affliction, God hath so suted this affliction to my condition, and hath come in such a way, that if this affliction had not come I am affraid I should have fallen into sin; a poor country man that takes Phisick, the Phisick works, and he thinks it will kill him, because he knows not the ill humours that are in his body, and therefore he understands not how sutable the Physick is to him; but a Physitian takes a purge, and it makes him extreamly sick, saith the Physitian I like this the better, it doth but work upon the humour that I know is the matter of my disease, and upon that such a man that hath knowledge and understanding in his body, and the cause of his distemper, he is not troubled or disquieted: So would we be if we did but