A30598:506
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 11 › Direction 9: The Ninth Direction.
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 Ninth Direction.
Let not men and women pore too much upon their Afflictions, that is, busy their thoughts too much to look down into their Afflictions; you shall have many people that all their thoughts are taken up about what their crosses and afflictions are, they are altogether thinking and speaking of them, it's just with them as with a child that hath a sore about him, his finger is ⟨p. 202⟩always upon the sore; and so men and women their thoughts are always upon their afflictions, when they awake in the night their thoughts are upon their afflictions, and when they converse with others (nay it may be when they are praying to God) they are thinking of their afflictions. Oh! no marvel though you live a discontented life, if your thoughts be always poring upon such things, you should rather labour to have your thoughts upon those things that may comfort you: You shall have many that if you propound any rule to them to do them good, they take it well while they are with you, and thank you for it, but when they are gone they soon forget it. It is very observable of Jacob, that when his wife died in child-birth, his wife called the child Ben-oni, that is, a son of sorrows; now Jacob, he thought with himself, if I should call this child Ben-oni, every time that I name him it will put me in mind of the death of my dear wife, and of that affliction, and that will be a continued affliction to me, therefore I will not have my child have that name; and so the text saith, that Jacob called his name Benjamin, and that was, the son of my right hand: now this is to show us thus much, that when afflictions befalls us we should not give way to have our thoughts continually upon them, but rather upon those things that may stir up our thankfulness to God for mercies. It it the similitude of Basil, a learned man, faith he, It is in this case as it is with men and women that have sore eyes, now it's not fit for those to be always looking upon the fire, or upon the beams of the Sun; no (saith he) one that hath sore eyes must get things that are suitable to him, and such objects as are fit for one that hath such weak eyes, therefore they will get green colours, as that being a more easy colour and better for weak eyes, and they will hang green sarsenet before their eyes because it is more suitable to them: