A30598:335
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 There's a great deal of folly in discontentment, for by all your discontent you cannot help your selves, you cannot get any thing by it. Who can by taking any carking care add one cubit to his stature, or make one hair that is white to be black? You may vex and trouble your selves, but you can get nothing by it. Do you think that the Lord will come in a way of mercy ever a whit the sooner because of the murmuring of your spirits, Oh no, but mercy will be rather deferred the longer for it, though the Lord were before in a way of mercy, yet this distemper of your hearts were enough to put him out of his course of mercy, and though he had thoughts that you should have the thing before, yet now you shall not have it. If you had a mind to give such a thing to your child, yet if you see him in a discontented fretting way you will not give it him; and this is the very reason why there are so many mercies denied to you, because of your discontentment, you are discontented for want of them, and therefore you have them not, you do deprive your selves of the enjoyment of your own desires because of the discontentment of your hearts, because you have not your desires, and is not this a foolish thing?
2 There's a great deal of follie in discontentment, for by all your discontent you cannot help your selves, you cannot get anie thing by it. Who can by taking anie carking care adde one cubit to his stature, or make one hair that is white to be black? You may vex and trouble your selves, but you can get nothing by it. Do you think that the Lord will come in a way of mercie ever a whit the sooner because of the murmuring of your spirits, Oh no, but mercie will be rather deferred the longer for it, though the Lord were before in a way of mercie, yet this distemper of your hearts were enough to put him out of his course of mercie, and though he had thoughts that you should have the thing before, yet now you shall not have it. If you had a mind to give such a thing to your child, yet if you see him in a discontented fretting way you will not give it him; and this is the verie reason why there are so manie mercies denied to you, because of your discontentment, you are discontented for want of them, and therefore you have them not, you do deprive your selves of the enjoyment of your own desires because of the discontentment of your hearts, because you have not your desires, and is not this a foolish thing?