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 Direction.

I beseech you observe this though you should forget many o∣thers. Make a good interpretation of Gods waies towards you, if there can be any good interpretation made of Gods waies to∣wards you, make it. Ye think it much if you have a friend that should alwaies make bad interpretations of your waies to∣wards him, you would take that ill: If you should converse with people that you cannot speak a word in their hearing but they are ready to make an ill interpretation of it, and take it in an ill sense, you would think their company to be very tedious to you; it is very tedious to the Spirit of God when we make such ill interpretations of his waies towards us. If God deals with us otherwise than we would have him, if there can be any sense worse than other made of it we will be sure to make it; as thus, when an affliction doth befal you, there may be many good senses made of Gods works towards you, you should think thus, it may be God intends only to try me by this, it may be God saw my heart too much set upon the Creature, and so intends to shew me what there is in my heart, it may be that God saw that if my estate did continue I should fall into sin, that the better my estate were the worse my soul would be, it may be God intended only to exercise some grace, it may be God intends to prepare me for some great work which he hath for me, thus you should reason.

But we on the contrary make bad interpretations of Gods thus dealing with us, and say, God doth not mean this, surely the Lord means by this to manifest his wrath and displeasure against me, and this is but a furtherance of further evils that he intends towards me: Just as they did in the wildernesse; God hath brought us hither to slay us. This is is the worst inter∣pretation that possibly you can make of Gods waies, Oh why will you make these worst interpretations when there may be better? In 1 Cor. 13.5. when the Scripture speaks of love (saith the text) Love thinketh no evil. Love is of that nature that if there may be ten interpretations made of a thing if nine of them be naught and one good, Love will take that which is good

and leave the other nine; and so though there might be ten in∣terpretations presented to thee concerning Gods waies towards thee, and if but one be good and nine naught, thou shouldest take that one that is good and leave the other nine. I beseech you consider, God doth not deal by you as you deal with him, should God make the worst interpretation of all your waies to∣wards him, as you do of his towards you it would be very ill with you, God is pleased to manifest his love thus to us, to make the best interpretations of what we do, and therefore it is, that God doth put a sense upon the actions of his people that one would think could hardly be, as thus, God is pleased to cal those perfect that have but any uprightnesse of heart in them, he accounteth them perfect, Be ye perfect as your heavenly father is perfect; uprightnesse in Gods sense is perfection. Now alas when we look into our own hearts we can scarce see any good at all there, and yet God is plesed to make such an interpre∣tation as to say, it is perfect: When we look into our own hearts we can see nothing but uncleannesse, God, he calls you his Saints, he calls the meanest Christian that hath the least grace under the greatest corruption, his Saint; you say, we can∣not be Saints here, but yet in Gods esteem we are Saints: You know the usual title the holy Ghost gives (in several of the E∣pistles) to those that had any grace, any uprightness, is, To the Saints in such a place; you see what an interpretation God puts upon them, they are Saints to him, and so I might name in di∣vers other particulars, God makes the best interpretation of things, if there be abundance of evil and a little good, God rather passes by the evil and takes notice of the good: That som∣times I have made use of, which is a very observable placs in Peter, concerning Sarah, Sarah had a speech to her husband in Genesis, 18.12. she called her husband lord, but there was but that one good word in an ill speech, it was an unbeleeving speech, but yet when the Apostle mentions that speech in 1 Pet. 3.6. the holy Ghost leaves all the ill, and commends her for calling her husband lord, for putting a reverend title upon her husband; thus how graciously doth God deal with us? If there be but one good word among a great many ill, what an interpretation God makes! so should we do, if there be but any

one good interpretation that we can make of a thing we should rather make use of the good one than of the ill; Oh my bre∣thren, (I would I could now speak only to such as are godly) retain good thoughts of God, take heed of judging God to be a hard master, make good interpretations of his waies, and that's a special means to help you to Contentment in all your courses.