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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 8: SERMON, VIII. at Stepney. Sept. 21. 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.
1. By murmuring and discontent in your hearts, you come to lose a great deal of time; How many times do men and women when they are discontented let their thoughts run, and are musing and contriving through their present discontentedness; then let their discontented thoughts be working in them, for some hours together, and they spend their time in vain. When you are alone you should spend your time in holy meditation, but you are spending your time in discontented thoughts; you who complain that you cannot meditate, you cannot think on good things, but if you begin to think of them a little, presently your thoughts are off from them, but if you be discontented with any thing, then you can go alone. and muse and roll things up and down in your thoughts to feed a discontented humour: Oh labour to see this evil effect of murmuring, the losing of your time. 2. It doth unfit a man for duty: A man or woman that is in a contented frame, you may turn such a one to any thing at any time, he is fit for to go to God at any time; but when one is in a discontented condition, then a man or woman is exceeding ⟨p. 135⟩unfit for the service of God. And it causes many distractions in duty, it unfits for duty, and when you come to perform duties, Oh the distractions that are in your duties, when your spirits are discontented; when you hear of any ill news from Sea and cannot bear it, or of any ill from a friend, or any loss or cross, Oh what distractions do they cause in the performance of holy duties! When you should be enjoying communion with God, you are distracted in your thoughts about the cross that hath befallen you, whereas had you but a quiet spirit, though there should great crosses befall you, yet they would never hinder you in the performance of any duty. 3. Consider what wicked risings of heart, and resolutions of spirit there are many times in a discontented fit. In some discontented fits the heart rises against God, and against others, and sometimes hath even desperate resolutions what to do to help themselves. If the Lord should have suffered you to have done (sometimes in a discontented fit) what you had thought to do, what wonderful misery had you brought upon your selves:
1. By murmuring and discontent in your hearts, you come to lose a great deal of time; How many times do men and women when they are discontented let their thoughts run, and are musing and contriving through their present discontentedness; then let their discontented thoughts be working in them, for some hours together, and they spend their time in vain. When you are alone you should spend your time in holy meditation, but you are spending your time in discontented thoughts; you who complain that you cannot meditate, you cannot think on good things, but if you begin to think of them a little, presently your thoughts are off from them, but if you be discontented with any thing, then you can go alone. and muse and roll things up and down in your thoughts to feed a discontented humor: Oh labor to see this evil effect of murmuring, the losing of your time. 2. It doth unfit a man for duty: A man or woman that is in a contented frame, you may turn such a one to any thing at any time, he is fit for to go to God at any time; but when one is in a discontented condition, then a man or woman is exceeding