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 aggravation of the sin of discontent & murmuring is this, For men & women to be discontent in the mid•st ⟨p. 152⟩of mercies, in enjoyment of abundance of mercies. To be discontent in any afflicted condition is sinful and evil, but to be discontent when we are in the middest of Gods mercies, when we are not able to count the mercies of God, yet after to be discontent because we have not all we would have, this is a greater evil. I only mentioned this the last day, that I might show to you what a great sin it is at such a time as this. The Lord this summer hath multiplied mercies one upon another, the Lord hath made this summer to be a continued miracle of mercy, never did a Kingdom enjoy (in so little space of time) such mercies one upon another: Now the public mercies of God should quiet our hearts and keep us from discontent, and the sin of discontent for private afflictions is exceedingly aggravated by the consideration of public mercies to the Land; when the Lord hath bin so merciful to the Land wilt thou be fretting and murmuring, because thou hast not in thy family all the Comforts that thou wouldest have? As it is a great aggravation of a mans evil for him to rejoice immoderately in his own private comforts when the Church is in affliction, when the public suffers grievous and hard troubles, if any man shall then rejoice and give liberty to himself, at that time to satisfy his f•esh to the uttermost in all outward comforts, this is a great Aggravation of his sin: So on the contrary for any man to be immoderately troubled for any private afflictions when it goes well with the public, with the Churches, this is a great Aggravation of his sin: It may be when the Church of God was lowest, & it went worst in other parts, yet thou didst abate nothing of the comforts of thy flesh, but gavest full liberty to satisfy thy flesh as formerly, know this was thy great sin, so on the other side when we have received such mercies in public, we should have all our private afflictions swallowed up in the public mercies: And we should think with our selves, though we be afflicted for our particular, yet blessed be God it goes well with the Church, and with the public, the consideration of that should mightily quiet our hearts in all our private discontents, and if it doth not so, know that our sin is much increased by the mercies of God that are abroad.

The first aggravation of the sin of discontent & murmuring is this, For men & women to be discontent in the midst