The rare jewel of Christian contentment wherein is shewed, I. What contentment is, II. The holy art or mystery of it, III. Several lessons that Christ teacheth, to work the heart to contentment, IV. The excellencies of it, V. The evils of murmuring, VII. The aggravations of the sin of murmuring / by Jeremiah Burroughs.

The Tenth Consideration.

Yea lastly, Consider all the experience that you have had of Gods doing good unto you in the want of many comforts. When God crosses you, have you never had experience of abun∣dance of good in afflictions, it's true, when a Minister only tels men that God will work good out of their afflictions, they hear them speak, and think they speak like good men, but they feel little or no good, they feel nothing but pain; but when we cannot only say to you that God hath said he will

work good out of your afflictions, but we can say to you, that you your selves have found it so by experience, that God hath made former afflictions to be great benefits to you, and that you would not have been without them, or without the good that came by them for a world; such experiences wil ex∣ceedingly quiet the heart and work it to contentment: therfore think thus with thy self, Lord, why may not this affliction work as great a good upon mee as afflictions have done hereto∣fore? Perhaps you may find many other considerations besides in your own meditations, these are the principal ones that I have thought upon: I'le one add one word more to this, of one that once was a great merchant and trades-man, and it happened one a time that he suffered ship-rack, and saith he, I never made a better voyage and sail'd better than at that time that I suffered ship-rack: this was a strangs speech (his name war Zeno) that he should never make a better voyage: it would be a strang parradox to you that are marriners, to say, that thats a good voyage when you suffer ship-rack: but he meant be∣cause he got so much good by it, God was pleased to blesse it so far to him that he gained so much unto his soul by it, so much soul-riches that he made account it was the best voyage that ever he had: and truly, sometimes it is so, yea, to you that are godly I make no question but you find it so, that your worst voyages have proved your best, when you have met with the greatest crosses in a voyage, God hath been pleased to turn them to a greater good to you in some other way. It is true, we may not desire crosses that they may be turned to other advan∣tages; but when God in his providence doth so order things, that you meet with ill voyages, you may expect that God will turn them to a greater good, and those that have been exercised in the waies of godlinesse any long time, I make no question but they have abundance of experiences that they have gain'd by them: You know sometimes it's better to be in a little ship, for they have advantage of greater ones in storms many times, in a storm a little ship can thrust into a shallow place and so be safe, but your great ships cannot, they must be abroad and tost up and down in the storm and tempest, and so many times split against the rocks. And so it may be God sees there is a

storme a coming, and if thou beest in thy great ship thou maist be split upon rocks and sands, God therefore doth put thee in∣to a lesser vessel that thou mayest be more safe. We wil lay aside the speaking of those considerations now, but I would not have you lay them aside and put them out of your thoughts, but labour (those especially that most concern you) to make use of them in the needful time, when you find any discontented∣nesse of spirit to arise in you.

But the main thing that I intended for this exercise, It is pro∣pounding directions what to do for the helping of our hearts to Contentment. For as for any further considerations we have prevented the speaking largly of them, because we have opened the most things in shewing what the lessons are that Christ teaches men, when he brings them into his School, to teach them this Art. I say there we have spoken of the special things that are most considerable for the helping of us to this grace of Contentment. Therefore now all that I shall further do about this point, shall be the giving of some directions what course to take that we may come to attain this grace of Con∣tentment.