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…

And it may be God hath been merciful to thee in a wife, or in thy husband, set that against thy affliction, it may be God crosses thee in thy estate, but it may be he doth employ thee in his service, it may be thou art afflicted in some of thy friends, but thou hast other friends that are great mercies to thee, and therefore you should set one against the other, and it doth concern you so to do, for those mercies will be aggravations of your sins, and you had better make Gods mercies a means to lessen your sins, then to be the aggravation of your sins: If you make not the mercies of God to help you against your murmuring, you will make them to be aggravations of the sin of murmuring. I beseech you for this take but this one consideration further, and if you will but work it upon your hearts I hope you may find a great deal of power in it, you find afflictions, and your hearts are troubled and murmur, consider how Gods mercies doth aggravate this sin, thus. In the midst of our sins we do make account God should accept of our services, do but consider thus, if in the midst of our many sins we hope that God will accept of our poor services, why then should not we in the midst of our afflictions bless God for his many mercies? shall God be thus gracious to us that notwithstanding our many sins, yet he will not cast away our poor duties and services that we perform, then why should not we in the midst of our sufferings accept of what mercies we have, and not slight them and disregard them? If thou in the midst of Gods mercies shalt not be willing to bear afflictions that God lays upon thee, then it were just with God that in the midst of thy sins he should not regard any of thy duties, now i• there not as much power in thy manifold sins to cause God to reject thy duties and services, as there is power in afflictions (in the midst of many mercies) to take off thy heart from being affected with Gods mercies? And that's the fist aggravation of of the sin of murmuring to murmur in the midst of mercies.

And it may be God hath been mercifull to thee in a wife, or in thy husband, set that against thy affliction, it may be God crosses thee in thy estate, but it may be he doth imploy thee in his service, it may be thou art afflicted in some of thy friends, but thou hast other friends that are great mercies to thee, and therefore you should set one against the other, and it doth concerne you so to doe, for those mercies will be agravations of your sins, and you had better make Gods mercies a means to lessen your sins, then to be the agravation of your sins: If you make not the mercies of God to helpe you against your murmuring, you will make them to be agravations of the sinne of murmuring. I beseech you for this take but this one consideration further, and if you will but work it upon your hearts I hope you may find a great deal of power in it, you find afflictions, and your hearts are troubled and murmur, consider how Gods mercies doth agravate this sin, thus. In the midst of our sins we doe make account God should accept of our services, doe but consider thus, if in the midst of our many sinnes wee hope that God will accept of our poor services, why then should not we in the midst of our afflictions blesse God for his many mercies? shall God be thus gracious to us that notwithstanding our many sins, yet he will not cast away our poor duties and services that we perform, then why should not we in the midst of our sufferings accept of what mercies we have, and not slight them and disregard them? If thou in the midst of Gods mercies shalt not be willing to bear afflictions that God layes upon thee, then it were just with God that in the midst of thy sins he should not regard any of thy duties, now i there not as much power in thy manifould sins to cause God to reject thy duties and seivices, as there is power in afflictions (in the mid'st of many mercies) to take off thy heart from being affected with Gods mercies? And that's the fist aggravation of of the sinne of murmuring to murmur in the mid'st of mercies.