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The rare jewel of Christian contentment Wherein is showedThe rare jewel of Christian contentment Wherein is shewed
The rare jewel of Christian contentment Wherein is showed; 1. What contentment is. 2. The holy art or mystery of it. 3. Several lessons that Christ teacheth, to work the heart to contentment. 4. The excellencies of it. 5. The evils of murmuring. 6. The aggravations of the sin of murmuring. By Jeremiah Burroughs. The first of the eleven volumes that are published by Thomas Goodwin, William Greenhil, Sydrach Simpson, Philip Nigh, William Bridge, John Yates, William Adderly.The rare jewel of Christian contentment Wherein is shewed; 1. What contentment is. 2. The holy art or mystery of it. 3. Several lessons that Christ teacheth, to work the heart to contentment. 4. The excellencies of it. 5. The evils of murmuring. 6. The aggravations of the sin of murmuring. By Jeremiah Burroughs. The first of the eleven volumes that are published by Thomas Goodwin, William Greenhil, Sydrach Sympson, Philip Nye, William Bridge, John Yates, William Adderly.
London: printed for Ben. Billingsley, 1666
THE RARE JEWEL OF CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT. › Sermon 5: SERMON, V. at Stepney. Aug. 24. 1645.
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.
And therefore you that live in private conditions remember this, If you come into Christ's School, and be taught this Lesson, you will be quiet in your afflictions, or private estate, in regard your account is not so great as others. Its a speech I remember I have met withal in Latimers Sermons that he was wont to use, That the half is more than the whole. That is, when a man is in a mean condition, he is but half way towards the height of prosperity that others are in: yet saith he, this is more safe though it be a meaner condition than others. Those that are in a high and prosperous condition, ⟨p. 91⟩there is annexed to it the burden of trouble, and of danger, and of duty, and of account. And thus you see how Christ trains up his Scholars in his School, and though they be weak otherwise, yet by his Spirit he gives them wisdom to understand these things a right.
The eight lesson is this, Christ teaches them what a great and dreadful evil it is to be given up to ones hearts desires. The understanding this Lesson that it is a most dreadful evil, one of the most hideous and fearful evils that can befall any man upon the face of the Earth, for God to give him up to his hearts desires: when the Soul understands this once, and together with it (for it goes along together) that spiritual Judgements are more fearful than any outward judgements in the world, the understanding of this, will teach any one to be content in Gods crossing of them in their desires. Thou art crossed in thy desires, now thou art discontented and vexed and fretted at it, Is that thy only Misery that thou art crossed in thy desires? No, no, thou art infinitely mistaken, the greatest misery of all is, for God to give thee up to thy hearts lusts and desires, to give thee up to thine own counsels: so you have it in Psal. 81.11, 12. But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me [what then?] So I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts, and they walked in their own counsels. Oh saith Bernard, Let me not have such a misery as that is, for to give me what I would have, to give me my hearts desires, it is one of the most hideous judgments in the world for a man to be given up to his hearts desires. We have not indeed in Scripture any certain evident sign of a Reprobate, we cannot say (except we knew a man had committed the sin against the Holy Ghost) that he is a Reprobate, for we know not what God may work upon him; but the nearest of all, & the blackest sign of a Reprobate is this, for God to give up a man to his hearts desires, all the pain of Diseases, all the calamities that can be thought of in the world, are no judgements in comparison of this, for a man to be given up to his hearts desires; now when the Soul comes to understand this, the Soul then cries out, Why am I so troubled that I have not my desires? There is nothing that God conveys his wrath more through than a prosperous Estate.