A30598:93
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 For the time and continuance of the Affliction.
3 For the variety and changes of Affliction: Let them be what they will, yet there must be a submitting to Gods dispose in every condition.
First for the kind, Many men and women will in the general say, that they must submit to God in affliction; I suppose now if you should come from one end of this Congregation to another, and speak to every soul thus; Would not you submit to Gods dispose, in what ever condition he should dispose of you too; you would say, God forbid it should be otherwise, but we use to say, There is a great deal of deceit in generals. In general you would submit to any thing: but what if it be in this and that particular, that is most cross to you? Then any thing but that: we are usually apt to think that any condition is better ⟨p. 23⟩than the condition that God doth dispose us too, now here is not Contentment; it should not be only to any condition in general, but for the kind of the affliction, if it be that which is most cross to you. God (it may be) strikes you in your Child, Oh if it had been in my Estate saith one, I should be content; perhaps he strikes you in your Match, Oh saith he I had rather have been strucken in my health; and if he had struck you in your health, Oh then if it had been in my trading I would not have cared; but we must not be our own carvers, what particular afflictions God shall dispose us to, there must be Contentment in them.
First for the kind, Many men and women will in the general say, that they must submit to God in affliction; I suppose now if you should come from one end of this Congregation to another, and speak to every soul thus; Would not you submit to Gods dispose, in what ever condition he should dispose of you too; you would say, God forbid it should be otherwise, but we use to say, There is a great deal of deceit in generals. In general you would submit to any thing: but what if it be in this and that particular, that is most crosse to you? Then any thing but that: we are usually apt to think that any condition is better