What They Said

"Consider but that we have but a little time in this world.  If you are godly you will never suffer but in this world......These afflictions are but for a moment."

"The consideration of the abundance of mercies that God bestows and we enjoy.  It is a saying of Luther:  "The sea of God's mercies should swallow up all our particulate afflictions."  Name any particule affliction that is upon you:  There is a sea of mercy to swallow it up.  If you pour a pailful of water on the floor of your house, it makes a great show, but if you throw it into the sea, there is no sign of it."

"We should consider, in all out wants and inclinations to discontent, the greatness of the mercies that we have, and the meanness of the things we lack.  The things we lack, if we are godly, are things of very small moment in comparison to the things we have, and the things we have are things of very great moment."

"As contentment argues much grace, and strong grace, and beautiful grace, so murmuring argues much corruption, and strong corruption, and very vile corruptions in your heart."

"Contentment delivers us from an abundance of temptation.  Oh, the temptations that men of discontented spirits are subject to!  The Devil loves to fish in troubled waters."

"Contentment is freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God's disposal."

"If I become content by having my desire satisfied, that is only self-love, but when I am contented with the hand of God, and am willing to be at his disposal, that comes from from my love to God.  In having my desire satisfied, I am contented through self-love, but through the grace of contentment I come to be contented out of love to God, and is it not better to be contented out of love to God, than from a principle of self-love?"

In speaking of the excellence of contentment:

"1. By contentment we come to give God the worship that is due Him.  It is a special part of the devine worship that we owe to God, to be content in a Christian way, as has been shown to you.  I say it is a special part of the devine worship that the creature owes to the infinite Creator, in that I tender the respect that is due from me to the Creator.  The word the Greeks have that signifies 'to worship' is the same as to come and crouch before someone, as if a dog should come crouching to you. and be willing to lie down at your feet.  So the creature in apprehension of its own baseness, and the infinite excellence that is in God above it, when it comes to worship God, comes and crouches to this God, and lies down at the feet of God:  then the creature worships God. "

As next weeks quotes will all be coming from Jeremiah Burroughs' excellent book The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, one of my favorite books, I will be giving away two copies.

"What unthankfulness is it to forget our consolations, and to look upon matters of grievance; to think so much upon two or three crosses as to forget an hundred blessings."

"If God were not my friend, Satan would not be so much my enemy."

"Sins are like circles on the water when a stone is thrown into it; one produces another.  When anger was in Cain's heart, murder was not far off."

"Examination will help the Christian that has fallen and bruised himself to heal the wound whilst it is fresh, before it is festered."

" God can pick sense out of a confused prayer."

"Death is only a grim porter to let us into a stately palace."

"Be as much troubled by unjust praises, as by unjust slanders."

"God is the cause of causes."

"Other graces make us like Christ, faith makes us members of Christ."

"Where the unveiled glories of the Deity shall beat full upon us, and we for ever sun ourselves in the smiles of God."