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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 6: SERMON, VI. at Stepney. Aug. 31. 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.
Certainly our Contentment doth not consist in the getting of the thing we desire, but in Gods fashioning our spirits to our conditions, there's some men that have not a foot of ground of their own, yet will live better than other men that are heirs to a great deal of land. I have known it in the Country sometimes, that a man lives upon his own land, and yet lives very poorly, but you shall have another man that shall farm his land, and yet by his good husbandry, and by his care, shall live better sometimes than he that hath the land of his own: So a man by this Art of Contentment may live better without an estate, than another man can of an estate: Oh! it adds exceeding much to the comfort of a Christian: and that I may show it further, there is more comfort in the Grace of contentment, than there is in any possessions whatsoever; a man hath more comfort in being content without a thing; than he can have in the thing, that he in a discontented way doth desire.
Certainly our Contentment doth not consist in the getting of the thing we desire, but in Gods fashioning our spirits to our conditions, there's some men that have not a foot of ground of their own, yet will live better than other men that are heirs to a great deal of land. I have known it in the Country sometimes, that a man lives upon his own land, and yet lives very poorly, but you shall have another man that shall farm his land, and yet by his good husbandry, and by his care, shall live better sometimes than he that hath the land of his own: So a man by this Art of Contentment may live better without an estate, than another man can of an estate: Oh! it adds exceeding much to the comfort of a Christian: and that I may shew it further, there is more comfort in the Grace of contentment, than there is in any possessions whatsoever; a man hath more comfort in being content without a thing; than he can have in the thing, that he in a discontented way doth desire.
You think if I had such a thing then I should be content. I say there is more good in Contentment, than there is in the thing that you would fain have to cure your discontent, and ⟨p. 113⟩that I shall open in divers particulars. As thus.