The rare jewel of Christian contentment. By Jeremiah Burroughs, preacher of the Gospel to…The rare jevvel of Christian contentment. By Jeremiah Burroughs, preacher of the Gospel to…

The First great lesson is, The lesson of self-denial, and though it be a great lesson and hard, as you know a Child at first cries it's hard. It's that that I remember Bradford the Martyr saith, Whosoever hath not learned the lesson of the cross, hath not learned his A B C in Christianity, here Christ begins with his scholars, yea those in the lowest form must begin with this; if you mean to be Christians at all, you must buckle to this or you can never ⟨p. 69⟩be Christians: There is none can be a Scholar except he doth learn his A B C, so thou must learn the lesson of self-denial or thou canst never come to be a Scholar in Christs School, to be learned in this mystery of Contentment: That's the first lesson that Christ teaches any soul; Oh self-denial that brings Contentment, that brings down and softens a mans heart; a thing (you know) that's soft if you strike upon it it makes no noise, but if you strike upon a hard thing it makes a noise, so the hearts of men that are full of themselves, and hardened with self-love, if they have any stroke they make a noise, but a self-denying Christian yields to Gods hand, and makes no noise; as when you strike upon a woolsack it makes no noise because it yields to the stroke. So a self-denying heart yields to the stroke and thereby comes to this Contentment. Now in this lesson of self-denial there are divers things, I will not enter into the doctrine of self-denial, but only show you how Christ teaches self-denial and how that brings Contentment.

The First great lesson is, The lesson of self-deniall, and though it be a great lesson and hard, as you know a Child at first cries it's hard. It's that that I remember Bradford the Martyr saith, Whosoever hath not learned the lesson of the crosse, hath not learned his A B C in Christianity, here Christ begins with his scholers, yea those in the lowest forme must begin with this; if you mean to be Christians at all, you must buckle to this or you can never ⟨p. 69⟩be Christians: There is none can be a Scholer except he doth learn his A B C, so thou must learn the lesson of self-deniall or thou canst never come to be a Scholer in Christs School, to be learned in this mystery of Contentment: That's the first lesson that Christ teaches any soul; Oh self-deniall that brings Contentment, that brings down and softens a mans heart; a thing (you know) that's soft if you strike upon it it makes no noise, but if you strike upon a hard thing it makes a noise, so the hearts of men that are full of themselves, and hardened with self-love, if they have any stroak they make a noise, but a selfdenying Christian yeilds to Gods hand, and makes no noise; as when you strike upon a woolsack it makes no noise because it yealds to the stroke. So a self-denying heart yeilds to the stroke and thereby comes to this Contentment. Now in this lesson of self-denial there are divers things, I will not enter into the doctrine of self-deniall, but only shew you how Christ teaches self-deniall and how that brings Contentment.