A30598:376
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
THE RARE JEWEL OF CHRISTIAN Contentment. › Sermon 9 › The Pleas of a discontented heart.
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 Pleas of a discontented heart.
In the first place, Saith one that is discontented, It is not discontentment, it is the sense of my condition, I hope you would have me sensible of my condition: perhaps when God takes away a friend or some other comfort they are inordinately sorrowful, and wringing their hands as if they were undone, and let any one but speak to them, (say they) Would you not have me sensible of my affliction? And thus many would hide their sinful murmuring under Gods hand with this pretence, that it is but sensibleness of their affliction.
In the first place, Saith one that is discontented, It is not discontentment, it is the sence of my condition, I hope you would have me sensible of my condition: perhaps when God takes away a friend or some other comfort they are inordinatly sorrowful, and wringing their hands as if they were undone, and let any one but speak to them, (say they) Would you not have me sensible of my affliction? And thus many would hide their sinful murmuring under Gods hand with this pretence, that it is but sensibleness of their affliction.
To that I answer, First, there is no sense of any affliction that will hinder the sense of Gods mercies, nay the more we are sensible of our afflictions if it be in a gracious manner, the more sensible we will be of Gods mercy, but thou art so sensible of thy affliction as it takes away the sense of all thy mercies; Oh this is sinful discontent, this is not to be sensible of thy condition as God would have thee, but it is to be sensible in a wicked way, you go beyond your bounds: By this rule you may come to know when your sorrows and troubles for your afflictions goes beyond the bounds, we may be sorrowful when God afflicts, but Oh! that I might know when my sorrow goes beyond the bounds of it; truly thou mayest know it by this, doth the sense of thy afflictions take away the sense of thy mercies? If it doth then it goes beyond the bounds.