A30598:52
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.
1 To a due sense of affliction. God doth give leave to his people to be sensible of what they suffer: Christ doth not say, Do not count that a cross which is a cross, but take up your cross daily. As it is in the body natural, if the body takes physic and is not able to bear it but presently vomits it up, or if it be not at all sensible, if it stir not the body; either of these ways the physic doth no good, but argues the body much distempered and will hardly be cured. So it is with the spirits of men under afflictions; if either they cannot bear Gods potions but cast them up again, or are not sensible of them, and their souls are no more stirred by them than the body is by a draught of small beer, it is a sad symptom that their souls are in a dangerous and almost incurable condition. So that this inward quietness is not in opposition to the sense of affliction: for indeed there were no true Contentment if you were not apprehensive and sensible of your afflictions when God is angry. It is not opposed.
1 To a due sense of affliction. God doth give leave to his people to be sensible of what they suffer: Christ doth not say, Do not count that a crosse which is a crosse, but take up your crosse daily. As it is in the body natural, if the body takes physick and is not able to bear it but presently vomits it up, or if it be not at all sensible, if it stir not the body; either of these waies the physick doth no good, but argues the body much distempered and will hardly be cured. So it is with the spirits of men under afflictions; if either they cannot bear Gods potions but cast them up again, or are not sensible of them, and their souls are no more stir'd by them than the body is by a draught of smal beer, it is a sad symptome that their souls are in a dangerous and almost incurable condition. So that this inward quietnesse is not in opposition to the sense of affliction: for indeed there were no true Contentment if you were not apprehensive and sensible of your afflictions when God is angry. It is not opposed.
2 To an orderly making our moan and complaint to God, and to our friends. Though a Christian ought to be quiet under Gods correcting hand, yet he may without any breach of Christian