Blogged Through Books - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

Blogged Through Books is a series that I hope to continue regularly. I will use posts from this blog that have already been produced for a particular book and will compile them all in one post. This will give the reader access to all of the content concerning particular books, as it appears on this blog, in one convenient location. In the near future I hope to write a post about the benefits of blogging through a book. The third post in the series has Jeremiah Burrough's classic The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment as its focus.

• Jeremiah Burroughs, Straight Shooter
• Shakespeare and Burroughs
• What is quietness of spirit opposed to?
• Satisfied, and yet not
• A Review of The Greener Grass Conspiracy
• The Dilemma of Duty
• The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment - Part 1 Summary
• The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment - Part 2 - Opening the Mystery
• The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment - Part 2 - The Dew of God's Blessing
• The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment - Part 2 - Conclusions
• The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment - Part 3 - How Christ Teaches Contentment
• The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment - Part 4 - The Excellence of Contentment
• The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment - Part 5 - The Evils of a Murmuring Spirit

This is a wonderful book that had a profound effect on me when I read it. I will definitely be reading this book again in the future as I find that I need its profound effect to affect me again!

Satisifed, and yet not

Jeremiah Burroughs in The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment:

You never learned the mystery of contentment unless it may be said of you that, just as you are the most contented man, so you are also the most unsatisfied man in the world. You will say, 'How is that?' A man who has learned the art of contentment is the most contented with any low condition that he has in the world, and yet he cannot be satisfied with the enjoyment of all the world.

One liners from Chapter 5

From chapter 5 of The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit (Burroughs, Jeremiah. The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit: Delivered in a Treatise on Numbers 14:24. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995. Print.):

He is worthy to receive the highest honor that any of His creatures can by any means give unto Him.

If we had a thousand souls, and they were all of ten thousand times larger extent than they are, yet there would be infinite reason that they should all, in their full latitude, extent, and strength, follow after our God, to honor, magnify and worship this God forever.

Consider that God might have had full glory in your destruction.

How much better is it for you that He should have the fullness of glory in His mercy to you than the fullness of it in His judgments on you?

There is a blessed connection between mercy and truth in the good that God's people enjoy.

God has a greater propriety in, and right to, whatever you are and have than you do; but God is pleased to let it be called yours that you may freely give it to Him.

The more increase there is of Christ's government in the soul, the more full it is and the more peace will be there.

The sweet and blessed comfort that fully following the Lord brings at death is enough to recompense all the trouble and hardship that we meet with in our way while we are following Him.

The grace of God's spirit oftentimes appears most, in the glory of it, when death approaches, because grace and glory are then about to meet.

The soul that followed God fully here, when it comes to depart out of the body only changes the place, not the company.

How full is the work of many men's spirits in their seeking after some poor, little, scant good in this world?

It was once a speech of Anslem: "If a man should serve God zealously here a thousand years, yet he would not thereby deservedly merit one half-day in heaven."

The knowledge of all truths concerning heaven and hell, or any other thing that can be known, can never raise, can never enlarge the hearts of men so after the Lord as the knowledge of God Himself.

Christians should, at the first entrance into God's ways, expect the utmost difficulties.

Fair flowers and stinking root!

Thus we see that men may have excellent gifts of morality, and yet all these are but flowers that grow on brambles, far different from those graces of this other spirit that we speak of which only grows upon the tree of life. As many a fair flower may grow out of a stinking root, so many sweet dispositions and fair actions may be where there is only the corrupt root of nature. It is true, learning and morality are lovely; they are great blessings of God. But there is a pearl of price which is beyond them all which the true wise merchant will labor to get and will be content to sell all to obtain, as in Matthew 13:45-46. And this pearl of great price comes to be so excellent above all that learning and morality or any common gifts can make it. (Burroughs, Jeremiah. The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit: Delivered in a Treatise on Numbers 14:24. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995. Print. 120)

To follow God fully!

Part II of The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit (Burroughs, Jeremiah. The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit: Delivered in a Treatise on Numbers 14:24. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995. Print.) is entitled A Gracious Spirit Follows God Fully. The first chapter of Part II carries the titles "What Is It For a Man to Follow God Fully". This was an excellent chapter, probably the chapter I enjoyed the most. There are numerous great quotes and excerpts throughout. The majority of the chapter focuses on the following statement: "What the soul that is willing to follow the Lord fully will do".

To examine just what it is that the fully-following soul will do, Burroughs gives us 10 descriptions:

1. It is willing to follow the Lord in difficult duties, when it must put the flesh to it, in duties that require pains and much labor, that cannot be done without some hard things attending on them.
2. Again, one who follows God fully will follow Him in discountenanced duty.
3. Yet further, one who is willing to follow God fully in all duties will follow Him in those where he sees no reason but the bare command of God.
4. Yet further, the soul that is willing to follow God in all duties will follow Him in commandments that are accounted little commandments.
5. Last, not to instance in any more particulars, the soul that follows God in all duties is willing to follow Him in duties wherein it must go alone.
6. To follow Christ is to go to Mount Calvary where He is to suffer as well as to that mount we read about in Isaiah 25:6 where the Lord makes His people "a feast of fat things, a feast of wines, a feast of fat things full of marrow."
7. To follow God is to follow Him only, so as to be willing to dedicate and devote whatever God lets us still enjoy to God alone.
8. The soul then follows God fully when it carries through the work it undertakes against all discouragements and hindrances.
9. One who follows God fully is willing to engage and bind himself to God by the most full and strong bonds and engagements that can be.
10. To follow God fully is t abide in all these constantly to the ends of our days.

Vile Conceits!

" ... what is more ordinary than to cast aspersions upon godliness, that it makes men to be dull, heavy, stupid fools, not fit for the great and high things of the world.

And therefore they labor to

stifle any beginnings of godliness in their children,

or anyone near them,

for fear it should hinder their parts and take away the quickness of their wits and bravery of their spirits. Unless you think that to be the only bravery of spirit;

to venture upon anything that may further your own ends;

not to fear sin,

nor the displeasure of an infinite God;

to let out your hearts to the utmost in satisfying your own desires;

to examine nothing by rule

but to do whatever is good in your own eyes;

to rejoice in the ways of sin and

to deceive yourself in the proud swellings of your own heart;

to be able to scorn at conscience, humiliation for sin, and strictness in God's ways as too mean a thing for men of such quality,

of such birth as you are,
of such estates,
hopes,
preferments,
and designs as you have ...

if this is the excellency of your spirits, then godliness refutes them indeed. Yea, it debases them as low as hell itself. It casts shame in the faces of, and breaks in pieces, such haughty, swollen spirits as these are. It brings them down to lie at God's feet as poor, contemptible creatures in their own eyes, loathing and abhorring themselves, as their is infinite cause they should ... " (Burroughs, Jeremiah. The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit: Delivered in a Treatise on Numbers 14:24. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995. Print. 70-71, emphasis and line breaks mine)

Quotes from The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit

These quotes come from chapter 3; A Discovery to the Men of the World, Whereby They May See that Their Spirits Are Not Like the Spirits of Godly Men. If that isn't a puritan chapter title, I don't know what is! This particular chapter can be found in The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit by Jeremiah Burroughs (Burroughs, Jeremiah. The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit: Delivered in a Treatise on Numbers 14:24. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995. Print.)

The point of this chapter is summed up succinctly in the chapter's opening sentence, "Hence, let the men of the world see there is a great difference between their spirits and the spirits of the godly." (57) From there, Burroughs continues to elaborate on the differences in their spirits.

Perhaps your lands, your houses may be worth something, but what are your hearts worth? They are worth nothing, full of chaff and dross. They are like children's pockets, full of stones and dirt, while the spirits of the godly are storehouses of the most choice and precious treasures. (58)

How many men or women have fair, comely bodies, a good complexion, and are beautifully dressed up, but within their spirits are most ugly and horrid, full of filth, full of venom and loathsome distemper? (58)

If the Lord should give men a view of the horrid deformity and filthiness of their spirits, it would amaze them and sink their hearts in woeful horror. (58)

If men's bodies were deformed, and ran with loathsome issues and putrefied sores, how dejected would they be in their own thoughts! But certainly this spirit defilement is worse. If men's bodies were so putrefied that they bred vermin continually, how grievous would it be to them? Their spirits have these loathsome diseases upon them by which they are infinitely more miserable. If they had such a distemper of body that their excrements came from them when they knew not of it, this would be accounted a grievous evil. But their spirits are so corrupt that much filth comes from them and they know not of it. Many of them are so deeply putrefied in their spirits that they usually swear and speak filthily and know not of it. (59)

Soul diseases, of all disease, are the greatest evils and usually prove deadly. Yea, the least spirit-corruption would certainly prove deadly were it not for the application of that blood that is more precious than ten thousand worlds. (59)

What's better than a good friend?

A good friend who buys you books!

As mentioned, I recently blogged a bit from a book that Chris, a fellow blogger on this site, bought me at T4G. But Chris isn't the only friend I have who buys me books. Nathaniel, who if memory serves me correctly used to post up on this site, also got me a book at T4G: The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit by Jeremiah Burroughs (Burroughs, Jeremiah. The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit: Delivered in a Treatise on Numbers 14:24. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995. Print.)

In the first chapter of this book by this well-known puritan, we are introduced to the following 'doctrine' which Burroughs will go on to explain and defend: It is the excellency of godly men to be men of other spirits, of choice spirits, differing from the common spirits of the world.

Burroughs uses the term "men of other spirits" because of the verse in Numbers that reads, "But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it." (Numbers 14:24)

Burroughs focuses on the 'otherness' of Caleb's spirit; what it was that made it different from those who brought back a negative report from the promised land.

Burroughs begins by differentiating the godly man's spirit from the spirit of the ungodly:

1. "First, this other spirit has other principles, a better principle than the principle of the world." (6)
2. "Second, this other spirit works by another rule." (8)
3. "Third, it is "another spirit," that is, employed about other things." (9)
4. "Fourth, this spirit is carried to other ends." (11)

Of these first four points, I found the fourth point most engaging. Here are a few quotes from that section.

At the highest point, the most excellent of the heathens, who had the most brave spirits the world had in their time, aimed no higher than to work according to reason, to satisfy the dictates of rational principles and a natural conscience. (11)

It is the glory of God to be the first cause and last end, and to work from Himself and for Himself. (11)

God has made the world so that He might have some creatures to make Him the highest and last end of all. (11)

Shakespeare and Burroughs

Having just finished studying Romeo & Juliet with my grade 10 English class, we were watching the Luhrmann video rendition of it [the one that stars DiCaprio]. One of the soliloquies reminded me of a book I read last year; The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs.

The soliloquy under consideration is spoken by Friar Laurence in Act III Scene iii. Romeo has just killed Juliet's cousin Tybalt. Realizing that he has further jeopardized their tenuous marriage, Romeo has a 'hissy fit' in Friar Laurence's cell and prepares to kill himself; or feigns doing so.

Friar Laurence, appalled by his actions, verbally accosts him:

Hold thy desperate hand:
Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art:
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast:
Unseemly woman in a seeming man!

After chastising the young Montague, Friar Laurence tries to help Romeo percieve his plight with a different perspective:

What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew'st Tybalt; there are thou happy too:
The law that threaten'd death becomes thy friend
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy:

He follows this perspective altering dialogue with the words that reminded me of Burrough's classic work on contentment:

A pack of blessings lights up upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench,
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.

Specifically, this reminded me of a point Burroughs makes while discussing what Christian contentment consisted of: "It is not so much the removing of the affliction that is upon us as the changing of the affliction, the metamorphosing of the affliction, so that it is quite turned and changed into something else."

Friar Laurence is trying not to remove Romeo's affliction, but rather he is trying to metamorphisize his affliction into something else. For the Christian, this is a task for grace, "There is a power of grace to turn this affliction into good; it takes away the sting and poison of it." Burroughs goes on to say,

Oh, take heed you do not speak in a scornful way of the ways of God; grace has the power to turn afflictions into mercies. Two men may have the same affliction; to one it shall be as gall and wormwood, yet it shall be wine and honey and delightfulness and joy and advantage and riches to the other. This is the mystery of contentment, not so much by removing the evil, as by metamorphosing the evil, by changing the evil into good.

Jeremiah Burroughs, Straight Shooter

Straight shooter: One who manifests honesty and directness.

Jeremiah Burroughs is a 'straight shooter'. He doesn't 'candy-coat' his words. He delivers the 'goods' without 'beating around the bush'.

Evidence of this can be seen in Part 7 of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. Part 7 looks at the excuses of a murmuring heart. Burroughs lists these excuses and then follows them up with some correction. His 'straight shooting' can be seen particularly when he speaks to the sixth excuse. The sixth excuse of a murmuring heart is:

'OH, BUT IT IS VERY GREAT, MY AFFLICTION IS EXCEEDING GREAT!'

Jeremiah doesn't 'pull any punches' in his response:

1. Let it be as great an affliction as it will, it is not as great as your sin. He has punished you less than your sins.

2. It might have been a great deal more, you might have been in Hell.

3. It may be it is the greater because your heart murmurs so.

So Jeremiah...tell us how you really feel.

To his third point Jeremiah makes a good argument:

Shackles upon a man's legs, if his legs are sore, will pain him more. If the shoulder is sore, the burden is the greater. It is because your heart is so unsound that your affliction is great to you.

This may seem like harsh council to some, but to me this is 'what the doctor ordered.' I really appreciate the style with which this Puritan writes: honest and forthright!

More on Murmuring

In Part 6 of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Jeremiah Burroughs goes on to explain the vileness of the sin of murmuring beyond what he had discussed previously. Here is a summary of "Aggravations of the Sin of Murmuring"

1. To murmur when we enjoy an abundance of mercy; the greater and the more abundant the mercy that we enjoy, the greater and viler is the sin of murmuring.
2. A second aggravation of the sin of murmuring is, when we murmur for small things.
3. For men of gifts and abilities to whom God has given wisdom, to be discontented and murmur, is more than if others do it.
4. The consideration of the freeness of all Gods’ mercies to us
5. For men and women to murmur and be discontented and impatient, when they have the things for the want of which they were discontented before.
6. For those men and women to be discontented and murmur whom God has raised from mean and low estates and positions.
7. For those to be discontented who have been very great sinners and ungodly in their former life.
8. For men who are of little use in the world to be discontented.
9. For us to be discontented at a time when God is about to humble us.
10. The more palpable and remarkable the hand of God appears to bring about an affliction, the greater is the sin of murmuring and discontent under an affliction.
11. To be discontented though God has been exercising us for a long time under afflictions, yet still to remain discontented.

Clearly, murmuring was a heinous sin in the author's eyes. I need to learn to abhor murmuring to the degree that he did for I see myself too often in the list above.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contenment - Part 5 - The Evils of a Murmuring Spirit

In The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Jeremiah Burroughs takes part 4 to explain the evils of a murmuring spirit. His eighth point in this persuasive argument about the evil of a murmuring spirit is as follows: THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF FOLLY, EXTREME FOLLY, IN A DISCONTENTED HEART; IT IS A FOOLISH SIN.

Burroughs enlightens the reader on the folly of murmuring with 5 sub-points, one of which I'd like to consider; Discontent and murmuring eats out the good and sweetness of a mercy before it comes. Here is the opening paragraph of his thoughts on murmuring removing the sweetness of mercy:

Discontent and murmuring eats out the good and sweetness of a mercy before it comes. It God should give a mercy for the want of which we are discontented, yet the blessing of the mercy is, as it were, eaten out before we come to have it. Discontent is like a worm that eats the meat out of the nut, and then when the meat is eaten out of it, you have the shell. If a child were to cry for a nut of which the meat has been eaten out, and is all worm-eaten, what good would the nut be to the child? So you would fain have a certain outward comfort and you are troubled for the want of it, but the very trouble of your spirits is the worm that eats the blessing out of the mercy.

I would like to twist the analogy of the worm and the nut just a bit in order to see the same point Burroughs makes using a true story my sister told me.


My sister and her family recently visited my father in northern Idaho. My father lives on a nice lakeside property which happens to contain a mini-orchard of different kinds of fruit trees. It so happened at the time of their visit that my dad's cherry trees were loaded with ripe, delicious cherries. Throughout the week my sister, her husband, and their 3 children enjoyed eating the sweet fruit.

Nearing the end of their visit, while enjoying some time on my dad's boat, they once again started in on a mound of cherries they had picked and brought for the trip. It so happened that my sister's husband broke open a cherry with his fingers instead of just popping it in his mouth. To his dismay, he could clearly see two small, white worms. After halting any further eating of cherries, he proceeded to examine 16 more cherries in similar fashion; he found 14 of them had worms. Needless to say, the cherries were no longer consumed and the thought of all the previous eating of the fruit brought an understandable amount of revulsion.

It is funny that when my sister's family where unaware of the worms they were more than happy and content with the delicious fruit. Nobody got sick from eating the worms and though I am no expert I'm guessing there would not be any serious consequences in eating them. They were 'CONTENT' with the provision when they were unaware of the worms. However, when they became aware of the worms 'DISCONTENT' entered the equation and the once enjoyable bounty was now understandably unworthy and unwanted.

That is what discontentment does. It ruins and undermines the mercy of God in our life. It takes something that was delicious and nutritious and morphs it into something that disgusts us. And though nobody could fault my sister and her family for rejecting the fruit after their discovery, I still think the story is a good example of why DISCONTENTMENT in general, and murmuring in particular, is a foolish endeavour.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contenment - Part 5 - The Evils of a Murmuring Spirit

Part 5 of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is entitled The Evils of a Murmuring Spirit. Burroughs explains what this part will be about:

Thus we have showed in many respects the excellence of this grace of contentment, laboring to present the beauty of it before your souls, that you may be in love with it. Now, my brethren, what remains but the practice of this? For this art of contentment is not a speculative thing, only for contemplation, but it is an art of divinity, and therefore practical...Now that we may come to grips with the practice, it is necessary that we should be humbled in our hearts because of our lack of contentment in the past. For there is no way to set about any duty that you should perform, you might labor to perform it, but first you must be humbled for the lack of it... Now to the end that you might be humbled for lack of it, I shall endeavor in these headlings to speak of it: First I shall set before you the evil of a murmuring spirit. There is more evil in it than you are aware of.

Burroughs goes through 13 points to humble the reader for their lack of contentment in the past. His fourth point was one that I found challenging me above the others. It reads "IT [a lack of contentment] IS A WICKEDNESS WHICH IS GREATLY CONTRARY TO GRACE, AND ESPECIALLY CONTRARY TO THE WORK OF GOD, IN BRINGING THE SOUL HOME TO HIMSELF."

Burroughs delivers his first argument for the point above:

The usual way is for God to make the soul to see, and be sensible of the dreadful evil that is in sin, and the great breach that sin has made between God and it, for, certainly, Jesus Christ can never be known in his beauty and excellence till the soul knows that. I do not say what secret work of the Holy Ghost there may be in the soul, but before the soul can actually apply Jesus Christ to itself, it is impossible but that it must come to know the evil of sin, and the excellence of Jesus Christ. A seed of faith may be put into the soul, but the soul must first know Christ, and know sin, and be made sensible of it. Now how contrary is this sin of murmuring to any such work of God! Has God made me see the dreadful evil of sin, and made my soul sensible of the evil of sin as the greatest burden? How can I be then so much troubled for every little affliction? Certainly, if I saw what the evil of sin was, that sight would swallow up all other evils, and if I were burdened with the evil of sin, it would swallow up all other burdens. What! am I now murmuring against God's hand? says such a soul, whereas a while ago the Lord made me see myself to be a damned wretch, and apprehend it as a wonder that I was not in Hell?

I have been challenged several times in the past few weeks about sin and the degree to which I hate it. I came across a quote by Thomas Goodwin on the blog Miscellanies which is as follows:

“Work in your hearts a hatred of sin… If a man had killed your friend, or father, or mother, how would you hate him! You would not endure the sight of him, but follow the law upon him. Send out the avenger of blood with a hue and cry after thy sin; bring it afore God’s judgment seat, arraign it, accuse it, spit on it, condemn it and thyself for it, have it to the cross, nail it there, if it cry I thirst, give it vinegar, stretch the body of sins upon his cross, stretch every vein of it, make the heart strings crack; and then when it hangs there, triumph over the dying of it, show it no pity, laugh at its destruction, say, Thou hast been a bloody sin to me and my husband, hang there and rot. And when thou art tempted to it [sin], and art very thirsty after the pleasure of it, say of that opportunity to enjoy it, It is the price of Christ’s blood, and pour it upon the ground. … Shall I live upon that which was Christ’s death? Shall I please myself in that which was his pain? Shall I be so dishonest, so unkind, as to enjoy the pleasure for which he endured the smart?” (Christ the Mediator in The Works of Thomas Goodwin 5:294)

It seems the Puritans believed strongly in learning to despise sin. They certainly understand that God has that perspective. I would do well to apply this to my life.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contenment - Part 4 - The Excellence of Contentment

This contentment is a comfort to a man's spirit in this, that it keeps in his comforts, and keeps out whatever may damp his comforts, or put out the light of them. I may compare this grace of contentment to a sailor's lantern: when a sailor is at sea, no matter how much provision he has in his ship, yet if he is thousands of leagues from land, or in a route where he will not meet with a ship for three or four months, he will be in a sad state if he has no lantern on his ship, nor anything by which to keep a candle alight in a storm. He would give a great deal to have a lantern, or something that might serve instead of one. When a storm comes in the night, and he can have no light above board, but it is puffed out at once, his state is very sad. So, many men have the light of comfort when there is no storm, but let any affliction come, any storm upon them, and their light is puffed out at once, and what can they do now? When the heart is furnished with this grace of contentment, this grace is, as it were, the lantern, and it keeps comfort in the spirit of a man, light in the midst of a storm and tempest. When you have a lantern in the midst of a storm you can carry light everywhere up and down the ship, to the top of the mast if you wish, and yet keep it alight; so when the comfort of a Christian is enlivened with the grace of contentment, it may be kept alight whatever storms or tempests come, still he can keep light in his soul. Oh this helps your comforts very much. (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, part4)

This quote is a great example of the paradox of contentment as Burroughs presents it: Comfort comes from contentment; contentment can never arise from comfort!

In this imagery Burroughs suggests that contentment is the only thing that can maintain our comfort through various circumstances. Without contentment, our comfort will not last.

This is in opposition to the current practices of our culture which says contentment can be achieved through the accumulating of comforts, creature comforts to be precise. But Burroughs is right. To what will those 'comforts' avail you should death or cancer or loss or grief or any other trial befall you. Your contentment will be gone if its foundation is those comforts.

But comfort that is generated by contentment is unshakable. If I am content in where God has placed me and in what God has given me I have eliminated my circumstances from the equation. Come hell and high water, I am content and comforted. Rain or shine, feast or famine, I will not have my comfort "puffed out". Contentment makes God the foundation upon which my comfort rests.

This is why "contentment has a great deal of excellence in it".

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contenment - Part 4 - The Excellence of Contentment

Jeremiah Burroughs often uses imagery in his writing. Many of these devices he uses are enjoyably elucidating. I have found these similes and metaphors and analogies beneficial and entertaining. I have pulled a few analogies of the contented person out of the first half of part 4.

Analogies of the contented person from part 4 of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.

A contented person is like:

A dog who lies at the feet of his master; this is worship of Christ

A strong body that can endure harsh weather

A strong mind which overcomes an ill body

The eagle who does not cry out for hunger or thirst

One who walks in a fiery furnace without being burned

A still vessel in which God can pour His mercy

One final analogy I would like to point out is one that concerns the discontented person. It can be seen in this excerpt:

Oh, the temptations that men of discontented spirits are subject to! The Devil loves to fish in troubled waters. That is our proverb about men and women, their disposition is to fish in troubled waters, they say it is good fishing in troubled waters. This is the maxim of the Devil, he loves to fish in troubled waters; where he sees the spirits of men and women troubled and vexed, there the Devil comes. He says, 'There is good fishing for me', when he sees men and women go up and down discontented, and he can get them alone, then he comes with his temptations: 'Will you suffer such a thing?' he says, 'take this shift, this indirect way, do you not see how poor you are, others are well off, you do not know what to do for the winter, to provide fuel and get bread for you and your children', and so he tempts them to unlawful courses.

Having fished quite a bit, particularly when I was younger, this analogy spoke to me. When I would head out on a lake to do some fishing with my brother, the condition we dreaded the most was complete calm. When there was no wind and the surface of the lake was like glass, we did not have high expectations for catching fish. The idea the Burroughs puts forth concerning a disturbed heart and its exposure to temptation is fascinating to the angler in me. Perhaps Satan dreads a calm heart the way my brother and I dreaded calm waters.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contenment - Part 3 - The Lessons That Christ Teaches

In the third part of Jeremiah Burroughs' book entitled The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, which is the current work being considered in Reading the Classics with Challies, the author explains what lessons the student of Christ will learn.

The lessons that Christ teaches are:
1. The lesson of self-denial.
2. The vanity of the creature.
3. A third lesson which Christ teaches a Christian when he comes into his school is this: he teaches him to understand what is the one thing that is necessary, which he never understood before.
4. The soul comes to understand in what relation it stands to the world.
5. Christ teaches us wherein consists any good that is to be enjoyed in any creature in the world.
6. Christ teaches the soul whom he brings into this school in the knowledge of their own hearts.
7. The seventh lesson by which Christ teaches contentment is the burden of a prosperous outward condition.
8. Christ teaches them what a great and dreadful evil it is to be given up to one's heart's desires.
9. The ninth and last lesson which Christ teaches those whom he instructs in this art of contentment is the right knowledge of God's providence.

This section is very practical and very convicting. Sometimes I wonder if I am nothing more than a big baby! I have not been a student of Christ like I need to be in the area of contentment.



The author uses the watch as a metaphor on two occasions. In point #6 as seen above, we see one of the things that Christ will teach us is the knowledge of our own heart. Burroughs gives 3 ways in which knowing your heart will help one arrive at contentment:

1. By studying your heart you will come soon to discover wherein your discontent lies.
2. This knowledge of our hearts will help us to contentment, because by it we shall come to know what best suits our condition.
3. By knowing their own hearts they know what they are able to manage, and by this means they come to be content.

In the first way of help we are given the first watch metaphor:

When a man has a watch, and understand the use of every wheel and pin, if it goes amiss he will soon find out the cause of it; but when someone has no skill in a watch, if it goes amiss he does not know what is the matter, and therefore cannot mend it. So indeed our hearts are as a watch, and there are many wheels and windings and turnings there, and we should labor to know our hearts well, that when they are out of tune, we may know what is the matter.

Knowing one's heart in detail will allow the Christian to know exactly what is impairing the heart in terms of discontentment. If we do not know our hearts, we may be upset and anxious and not know the cause of it. My eldest daughter gets very vexed when she encounters new things. We have discussed this tendency and she is learning to know her heart in this way. This helps her to deal with the lack of peace in a purposeful way instead of just fretting. She still cries in many of these situations, but she knows why she is crying and takes steps to work through it.

The second watch metaphor surfaces in the ninth lesson that Christ teaches which is "the right knowledge of God's providence." I have been learning and wrestling with doctrines related to God's sovereignty and providence. I'm sure I am going to profit from this struggle though I'm sure it is nowhere even close to being finished. However, Burroughs offers 4 things we need to understand in regards to the right knowledge of God's providence:

1. The universality of providence, wherein the soul must be thoroughly instructed in to come to this art of contentment.
2. The efficacy that is in providence.
3. The infinite variety of the works of providence, and yet the order of things, one working towards another.
4. Christ teaches them the knowledge of providence.

The metaphor we are looking for comes out in the third point.

There is an infinite variety of the works of God in an ordinary providence, and yet they all work in an orderly way...We, indeed, look at things by pieces, we look at one detail and do not consider the relation that one thing has to another, but God looks at all things at once, and sees the relation that one thing has to another. When a child looks at a clock, it looks first at one wheel, and then at another wheel: he does not look at them all together or the dependence that one has upon another; but the workman has his eyes on them all together and sees the dependence of all, one upon another: so it is in God's providence...Now notice how this works to contentment: when a certain passage of providence befalls me, that is one wheel, and it may be that if this wheel were stopped, a thousand other things might come to be stopped by this. In a clock, stop but one wheel and you stop every wheel, because they are dependant upon one another. So when God has ordered a thing for the present to be thus and thus, how do you know how many things depend upon this thing? God may have some work to do twenty years hence that depends on this passage of providence that falls out this day or this week.

When we fight against God's providence in a certain matter we are like an infant trying to remove a wheel from the inner workings of a clock; we have no idea of the consequences of such an action nor of the way and manner of clocks. How much more infinitely complex is God's ordering of everything which we call providence.

This was yet another excellent reading from The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I truly consider this a classic in Christian literature for it's applicability as well as for the truth it contains.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contenment - Part 3 - How Christ Teaches Contentment

Narcissistic is an adjective that is often used to describe our society. Narcissism is used to describe everything from self-conceit to a severe personality disorder. The name came from Greek mythology. Here is the Wikipedia entry under narcissism:

Narcissism describes the trait of excessive self-love based on self-image or ego.

The term is derived from the Greek mythology of Narcissus. Narcissus was a handsome Greek youth who rejected the desperate advances of the nymph Echo. As punishment, he was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus pined away and changed into a flower that bears his name, the narcissus.

Someone with the personality disorder would exhibit several of these traits:

• has a grandiose sense of self-importance
• is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
• believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people
  
• requires excessive admiration
• has a sense of entitlement
  
• is interpersonally exploitative
  
• lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
• is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
• shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

In part 3 of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment the author describes how Christ teaches contentment and it is a slap in the beautiful face of the narcissist. For Burroughs, every Christian must become a student: "So a Christian coming to contentment is as a scholar in Christ's school, and there are many lessons to teach the soul to bring it to this learning; every godly man or woman is a scholar." And it is the first lesson which Christ teaches his students that would cause the self-lover to pause from gazing at his own reflection; The Lesson of Self-Denial.

The Lesson of Self-Denial is summed up quite easily:

1. I am nothing.
2. I deserve nothing.
3. I can do nothing.
4. I am so vile that I cannot of myself receive any good.
5. With God's help I can do something but if he then withdraws I can do nothing.
6. I am worse than nothing.
7. If I perish it will be no loss.
8. If I desire God's ends than I desire something, but if I desire my ends I desire nothing.

This is hard tonic to take even from the humble among us, let alone the egotistical. Burroughs clarifies these thoughts with interesting examples and proofs. He shares Scriptures and quotes to give substance to his argument. However, I thought it fitting to leave all of us narcissism-bent creatures the shocking and jarring Lesson of Self-Denial without the sometimes soothing details. If Christian contentment is the aim then all narcissists should proceed at their own risk.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contenment - Part 2 - Conclusions

Along with others who have decided to participate in 'Reading the Classic with Challies', I have been reading The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs. Part 2 of the online book consists of the author "Opening the Mystery" of Christian contentment. You can see my other 2 post fron Part 2 here and here.

In this last post concerning Part 2, I'd like to comment on this quote:

As it is with a vessel that is full of liquor, if you strike it, it will make no great noise, but if it is empty then it makes a great noise; so it is with the heart, a heart that is full of grace and goodness within will bear a great many strokes, and never make any noise, but if an empty heart is struck it will make a noise. When some men and women are complaining so much, and always whining, it is a sign that there is an emptiness in their hearts. If their hearts were filled with grace they would not make such a noise.

If whining and complaining are signs of an empty heart than we have a lot of empty-hearted people in our society; we have a lot of empty-hearted believers in our churches.

Whining, by definition, is to " to complain or protest in a childish manner or about trivial thing". By its very nature, it is either immature or concerned about the unimportant. Whining, as far as I am concerned, is never acceptable. That is not to say that I don't whine; I do. But it is surely falls short of acceptable communicating strategies. Even for my children, whining is not the accepted means of dialoguing ones thoughts or feelings. With whining being about childish or trivial things, it seems evident that much about contentment is about being spiritually mature. Contentment also seems beyond the reach of those who are overly enamored with the trivial. Whining points to a lack of contentment which in turn points to a heart devoid or deprived of of grace.

Complaining seems to be a different sort of thing. I think that complaining is not always a negative thing. If complaining is "to express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment" then I think we need to look to the motivation of the complainer to ascertain its appropriateness. It is very difficult, nigh unto impossible, for a human to judge another's motives. Nevertheless, when someone's complaint is self-centered or for the purpose of self-promotion, it is surely an affront to God and an indication of a lack of grace. I do believe, however, that some complaining can be selfless. At least some instances of complaining could be seen that way given the way we use the term. Perhaps in the author's day complaining could not have a positive side. If we are complaining, or we are about to, we should weigh our own motives for doing so. More often than not I think complaints do come from selfish motives. And if it does come from those undesirable motives then Burroughs would tell us we are not content and thus our hearts need more of God's grace.

This quote is found the section of opening up the mystery of contentment in which Burroughs explains that a gracious heart gets contentment from the covenant God has made with us. When our heart is lacking grace, we need to think of the promises provided in God's covenant with us: grace, heaven, and God's promises. The Covenant of Grace will supply the grace we need to find contentment and refrain from whining and complaining. It sounds like the remedy for empty-heartedness is the same remedy for all of our ailments, character flaws, shortcomings, and sins; grace.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contenment - Part 2 - The Dew of God's Blessing

As I have already discussed in an earlier post, in Part 2 of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment Burroughs 'opens up' the mystery of Christian contentment. He lists 15 things that help to clarify and elucidate what contentment is:

1. The first thing is, to show that there is a great mystery in it.
2. A Christian comes to contentment, not so much by way of addition, as by way of subtraction.
3. A Christian comes to contentment, not so much by getting rid of the burden that is on him, as by adding another burden to himself.
4. It is not so much the removing of the affliction that is upon us as the changing of the affliction, the metamorphosing of the affliction, so that it is quite turned and changed into something else.
5. A Christian comes to this contentment not by making up the wants of his circumstances, but by the performance of the work of his circumstances.
6. A gracious heart is contented by the melting of his will and desires into God's will and desires; by this means he gets contentment.
7. The mystery consists not in bringing anything from outside to make my condition more comfortable, but in purging out something that is within.
8. He lives upon the dew of God's blessing.
9. Not only in good things does a Christian have the dew of God's blessing.
10. A godly man has contentment as a mystery, because he sees all his afflictions sanctified in Jesus Christ, sanctified in a mediator.
11. A gracious heart has contentment by getting strength from Jesus Christ; he is able to bear his burden by getting strength from someone else.
12. A godly heart enjoys much of god in everything he has, and knows how to make up all wants in God himself.
13. A gracious heart gets contentment from the covenant that God has made with him.
14. He has contentment by realizing the glorious things of heaven to him.
15. The last thing that I would mention is this, a godly man has contentment by opening and letting out his heart to God.

There is much wisdom in this list of points. I have found myself mulling over these points over the past 2 weeks and finding fresh insight in them. We see in point 11 that we do not find contentment by enduring and carrying burdens in our own strength; I say, the eleventh mystery in contentment is this: A gracious heart has contentment by getting strength from Jesus Christ; he is able to bear his burden by getting strength from someone else. Indeed, how many Christians would list the following verse as one of their favorites: I can do all things through him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).

It seems though, that Burroughs has considered the context of this verse. The two preceding verses are as follows: Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. (Philippians 4: 11-12)

Now I believe that Christ strengthens us in all we do, but Paul is considering this strengthening in light of being content in all situations. Whether in 'low' conditions or in 'abounding' conditions we can be content because we can do all things in Him who strengthens us. Interestingly, it may very well be that it is harder to find contentment in the false security and deceitful happiness of living im plenty! At least when we are in times of lack we realize we are not content. But in having much we are often deluded into believing there is contentment in 'things'. Take a look around you and ask yourself if those who have much are experiencing true contentment. I don't think so.

Burroughs continues his explanation of be strengthened by Christ: But a Christian finds satisfaction in every circumstance by getting strength from another, by going out of himself to Jesus Christ, by his faith acting upon Christ, and bringing the strength of Jesus Christ into his own soul, he is thereby enabled to bear whatever God lays on him, by the strength that he finds from Jesus Christ. Of his fullness do we receive grace for grace; there is strength in Christ not only to sanctify and save us, but strength to support us under all our burdens and afflictions, and Christ expects that when we are under any burden, we should act our faith upon him to draw virtue and strength from him. Faith is the great grace that is to be acted under afflictions. It is true that other graces should be acted, but the grace of faith draws strength from Christ, in looking on him who has the fullness of all strength conveyed into the hearts of all believers.

I often try to find strength in burden-bearing within myself. I make a seemingly valiant effort to shoulder the load that is placed upon me. And yet, I should go to Christ for strength. I am certain that God would have us do our part; show resolve and persevere. But we can 'act out faith upon' Christ and draw strength.

Burroughs sums up this point by encouraging the reader with the availability of God's strength in bearing affliction. He cites Colossians 1:11-12 which reads: May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

Burroughs suggests that this is what the world looks for in Christians; a mysterious contentment under all circumstances whci is nothing more than "Scripture made good in you".

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contenment - Part 2 - Opening the Mystery

In Part 2, Burroughs recognizes that though many would desire to be content, the desire itself does not make contentment any more real in experience. He writes "But you will object: What you speak of is very good, if we could attain to it; but is it possible for anyone to attain to this? It is possible if you get skill in the art of it; you may attain to it, and it will prove to be not such a difficult thing either, if you but understand the mystery of it."

For Burroughs, part of the 'skill' of attaining contentment is to understand the 'mystery' of it. He proceeds to explain, in 15 points, the mystery of contentment:

1. The first thing is, to show that there is a great mystery in it.
2. A Christian comes to contentment, not so much by way of addition, as by way of subtraction.
3. A Christian comes to contentment, not so much by getting rid of the burden that is on him, as by adding another burden to himself.
4. It is not so much the removing of the affliction that is upon us as the changing of the affliction, the metamorphosing of the affliction, so that it is quite turned and changed into something else.
5. A Christian comes to this contentment not by making up the wants of his circumstances, but by the performance of the work of his circumstances.
6. A gracious heart is contented by the melting of his will and desires into God's will and desires; by this means he gets contentment.
7. The mystery consists not in bringing anything from outside to make my condition more comfortable, but in purging out something that is within.
8. He lives upon the dew of God's blessing.
9. Not only in good things does a Christian have the dew of God's blessing.
10. A godly man has contentment as a mystery, because he sees all his afflictions sanctified in Jesus Christ, sanctified in a mediator.
11. A gracious heart has contentment by getting strength from Jesus Christ; he is able to bear his burden by getting strength from someone else.
12. A godly heart enjoys much of God in everything he has, and knows how to make up all wants in God himself.
13. A gracious heart gets contentment from the covenant that God has made with him.
14. He has contentment by realizing the glorious things of heaven to him.
15. The last thing that I would mention is this, a godly man has contentment by opening and letting out his heart to God.

Some of these suggestions may be unclear, but the author does an excellent job of 'fleshing them out' with explanations, Scripture references, examples and analogies.

Some of his suggestions are very practical. In particular, I would like to consider his fifth point which reads: A Christian comes to this contentment not by making up the wants of his circumstances, but by the performance of the work of his circumstances. This really is a gem. Instead of worrying, complaining, whining, fretting or performing any other non-profitable and possibly detrimental actions, Burroughs implores the reader to be proactive in seeking contentment.

Burroughs explains it as such: This is the way of contentment. There are these circumstances that I am in, with many wants: I want this and the other comfort-well, how shall I come to be satisfied and content? A carnal heart thinks, I must have my wants made up or else it is impossible that I should be content. But a gracious heart says, 'What is the duty of the circumstances God has put me into?’"

This practical application of Burroughs' 'opening of the mystery of contentment' is doubly profitable. Firstly, it is part of process to learning the art of contentment. Secondly, it will be of benefit that one is actually doing something instead of moping or stewing over his or her difficult circumstances. "Let me exert my strength to perform the duties of my present circumstances. Others spend their thoughts on things that disturb and disquiet them, and so they grow more and more discontented."

Burroughs finishes this point with an appeal to the sovereignty of God: "O that should be the care of a Christian, to serve out God's counsels. What is the counsel of God? The circumstances that I am in, God has put me into by his own counsel, the counsel of his own will. Now I must serve God's counsel in my generation; whatever is the counsel of God in my circumstances, I must be careful to serve that. So I shall have my heart quieted for the present, and shall live and die peaceably and comfortably, if I am careful to serve God's counsel."

This is solid instruction. I hope to be able to apply this practically to situations I face. Along with the authors other suggestions, I think this point will help us uncover the 'rare jewel' that is Christian contentment.